Questions regarding Damos books

[Lord Shiva]

Bbw

Edited October 12, 2023 by Lord Shiva

[silent thunder]

Only real way to know what you'd get from a book is to read it.  No one can tell you how it will impact you.

I find books are like meals, but for the mind.  I don't know how it's going to affect me til I've tried it.

 

I appreciate everything of Damo's I've encountered and got benefit from them all.  (haven't tried the white book yet).

 

As for Chia, his reputation here is one of wary cautiousness to outright disdain, mostly I expect because over the years there have been a plethora of folks who read his material (some of which is pretty advanced) put it into practice without a good guide or an established foundation with an in person teacher, they subsequently messed themselves up pretty deeply following Chia's descriptions.

 

They then came here, some in desperation and in bad shape seeking help.  So we've seen a fair amount of harm attributed to exposure to Chia.  I read two of Chia's books for theory.  His sharings left me neutral, but again... no way to know how anything will affect you.

 

Like I said, books are like meals for the mind and they cost about as much as a dinner out... so there's not much to lose in exploring.

[Lord Shiva]

1 hour ago, silent thunder said:

Only real way to know what you'd get from a book is to read it.  No one can tell you how it will impact you.

I find books are like meals, but for the mind.  I don't know how it's going to affect me til I've tried it.

 

I appreciate everything of Damo's I've encountered and got benefit from them all.  (haven't tried the white book yet).

 

As for Chia, his reputation here is one of wary cautiousness to outright disdain, mostly I expect because over the years there have been a plethora of folks who read his material (some of which is pretty advanced) put it into practice without a good guide or an established foundation with an in person teacher, they subsequently messed themselves up pretty deeply following Chia's descriptions.

 

They then came here, some in desperation and in bad shape seeking help.  So we've seen a fair amount of harm attributed to exposure to Chia.  I read two of Chia's books for theory.  His sharings left me neutral, but again... no way to know how anything will affect you.

 

Like I said, books are like meals for the mind and they cost about as much as a dinner out... so there's not much to lose in exploring.

Books are like meals that sometimes take 10+ hours to eat.

 

So that said if comphrensive was out when i bought art of change i wouldve probably went for that. But it wasnt. Ive also heard comprehensive has a fair bit of rambling in it per amazon reviews, and it is quite a bit bigger so i just wanted to know if i should just stick to art of change or pick that one up.

 

Also what are the dangers of the more advanced practices?? Chia also has a book which is like a guide to telling you which order to read his other books ( lol ) that information i feel should be free but whatever. Ive had some bad experiences of kundalini symptoms and getting my ass handed to me from goetic entities, but i am not really knowledged of what the dangers of advanced nei dan and chia practices conist of. So please shed some light so i can take precautions as i will probably never have a teacher.

[silent thunder]

6 hours ago, Lord Shiva said:

Books are like meals that sometimes take 10+ hours to eat.

A few hours with a good book is one of my most treasured passtimes.

What's a few hours investment into a process meant for a lifetime of discovery?

 

As to listing possible dangers... that would be a book by itself and an irresponsible one at that.  I won't begin to try and guess what may arise for you.  Particularly if you're kundalini active. In that case I'd be simplifying, not looking to add more.

 

Peace.

[Lord Shiva]

6 hours ago, silent thunder said:

Particularly if you're kundalini active. In that case I'd be simplifying, not looking to add more.

 

I'm not kundalini active but almost was before i stopped my sadhana, i was on the literal doorsteps.

 

Will probably mostly stick to damo, luk and jwing ming yang and others mostly.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Lord Shiva

[Chang dao ling]

17 hours ago, Lord Shiva said:

I'm not kundalini active but almost was before i stopped my sadhana, i was on the literal doorsteps.

 

Will probably mostly stick to damo, luk and jwing ming yang and others mostly.

I suggest you to stick with Damo

[idquest]

If you enjoy reading, just read all the books, they are all good - Damo, Chia, Brine/Wang Liping.

 

If you want to achieve something real, stop reading and start practising. Reading does not bring any benefits if your goal is to achieve something with dao or yoga.

[Chang dao ling]

5 hours ago, idquest said:

If you enjoy reading, just read all the books, they are all good - Damo, Chia, Brine/Wang Liping.

 

If you want to achieve something real, stop reading and start practising. Reading does not bring any benefits if your goal is to achieve something with dao or yoga.

I agree 💯. Which Qigong you practicing 

[refugeindharma]

Don't know how useful White Moon would be from a practice perspective as that's from what I understand building on after you have established the foundations from Comprehensive Guide.

 

The other Daoist Philosophy change book is a fair bit older and perhaps not up to scratch with Damo's views on practice these days (which is found in Comprehensive Guide)

 

Regular practice and an in-person teacher trumps trying to practice from a book (granted the teacher is any good and teaches genuine practices), but books are good for the theory and understanding.

 

Ideally aim to be a thinker and a doer, only thinking/philosophizing has its downsides as does solely doing... but if I were to ONLY pick one, I would almost side with just being a simple minded doer/practitioner 

[Lord Shiva]

8 hours ago, idquest said:

If you enjoy reading, just read all the books, they are all good - Damo, Chia, Brine/Wang Liping.

 

If you want to achieve something real, stop reading and start practising. Reading does not bring any benefits if your goal is to achieve something with dao or yoga.

Well obviously, im not reading all these books to not do the practices. 

[Lord Shiva]

I came to ask a question about which book is best. If the other is just a money grab. Im not interested in having people rip apart my sadhana, tell me not to read and just practice. Or to find a teacher.

 

I simply do not care.

 

Please answer the question at hand and leave all other useless commentary In the back seat.

 

Me writing a description of what i do was kind of just a introduction of sorts. I am not seeking guidance in any way really as of now. Just got a question about books... thats it. Thats all...

Edited October 8, 2023 by Lord Shiva

[Sahaja]

i think you can read Damo’s books in any order if you are just interested in theoretical information. However, I think these books would be most beneficial if they are read concurrently with doing the practices so that you can directly experience what they are talking about to see if it works for you. In Damo’s approach Neigong provides the foundation for Neidan (white moon) so neigong comes first.   In his approach  neigong is designed to give one very strong somatic experiences  of Yin and Yang qi while developing the physical and energetic layers of the  body to give one the discernment to access and the juice to later do the more subtle work with the layers of the mind.  It emphasizes the qualities of ting and song as the basis for many of the practices. Unlike like some forms of Tantra (and some of the other teachers mentioned above) , Damo’s approach specifically eschews sexually based practices and those reliant on intention (those directed by the mind with a strong agenda like using the imagination/visualization). It emphasizes putting the conditions in place that enable energetic processes to naturally arise, like the MCO, without being reliant on being governed or directed by the individual’s mind.  

 

[Taoist Texts]

46 minutes ago, Sahaja said:

However, I think these books would be most beneficial if they are read concurrently with doing the practices so that you can directly experience

i would be most curious to learn what exactly these books are beneficial for and what exactly was directly experienced?

[Sahaja]

Perhaps you should try it and see for yourself if it has any value for you. 

[Chang dao ling]

11 hours ago, Taoist Texts said:

i would be most curious to learn what exactly these books are beneficial for and what exactly was directly experienced?

 

11 hours ago, Taoist Texts said:

i would be most curious to learn what exactly these books are beneficial for and what exactly was directly experienced?

Benifits are health and spiritual development. In order to experience you need to do practice!

[Taoist Texts]

2 hours ago, Chang dao ling said:

Benifits are health and spiritual development. In order to experience you need to do practice!

Did you personally cure a specific disease by practicing with these books? If not then there are no health benefits

13 hours ago, Sahaja said:

Perhaps you should try it and see for yourself if it has any value for you. 

That was not the question. I am sorry you sounded so knowledgeable but turns out you are not. my mistake. 

 

[Apech]

7 hours ago, Taoist Texts said:

Did you personally cure a specific disease by practicing with these books? If not then there are no health benefits

That was not the question. I am sorry you sounded so knowledgeable but turns out you are not. my mistake. 

 

 

It is possible to improve health generally without curing specific diseases - any kind of exercise like for instance daily walks will do this.

[Sahaja]

Taoist texts - Actually, while I wasn’t looking for this nor is it the reason why I practice, ,  I did have a very specific visible  positive health outcome from standing many hours in wuji. It was not easy to do this because of the structural issues  in my leg (quite intense change process at times), but there was a visible improvement in its structure that put a smile on both my wife and my daughter’s faces when they saw it which, in turn, put a smile on my face.  My wife still periodically checks my leg to see if it’s changed back, she tells me it hasn’t. 
 

asking people why they do self cultivation is a pretty existential question. Most people don’t have any interest in these types of activities. others pursue them very strongly with a single mind but might be hard pressed to say specifically why they put so much effort into it. I think I have been in the latter group (self cultivation nerds?) since I was first exposed to Daoist, yogic and Buddhist texts when I was 13.  If pressed for an answer the best answer I can think of is to be to be better at living life and now that I am old to be better at managing the end of life. Hard things to put metrics on but perhaps putting a smile on my wife’s and my daughter’s faces is about as good a metric as any. 

 

[Taoist Texts]

2 hours ago, Apech said:

 

It is possible to improve health generally without curing specific diseases - any kind of exercise like for instance daily walks will do this.

Quote

 

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

health

/helTH/

noun

the state of being free from illness or injury.

 

if you are already healthy meaning not sick then your walks will improve your 'energy', immunity, joi de vivre, metabolism, well-being, fitness, strength - all kinds of thing ..but not health. health is a quantum state. either healthy (no specific  disease) or not healthy (specific  disease). Maybe walks can cure diseases, i have no issue with that.

 

55 minutes ago, Sahaja said:

I did have a very specific visible  positive health outcome from standing many hours in wuji.

excellent. now we are talking. from where did you first learn that exact practice?

[liminal_luke]

27 minutes ago, Taoist Texts said:

if you are already healthy meaning not sick then your walks will improve your 'energy', immunity, joi de vivre, metabolism, well-being, fitness, strength - all kinds of thing ..but not health. health is a quantum state. either healthy (no specific  disease) or not healthy (specific  disease). Maybe walks can cure diseases, i have no issue with that.

 

 

Do you really think that healthiness is binary -- yes or no?  Seems to me that there are all sorts of intermediary stages between glowing health and infirmity, and all of us are continually sliding up and down between many nuanced scales of physiological well being.  Take diabetes and pre-diabetes, for example.  Even short walks, when taken after a meal, can help reduce blood sugar spikes.  Will a daily after dinner walk for ten minutes cure diabetes?  Probably not.  But it might well be a significant part of a program that prevents future diabetic complications. No small beans that. 

[Apech]

42 minutes ago, Taoist Texts said:

if you are already healthy meaning not sick then your walks will improve your 'energy', immunity, joi de vivre, metabolism, well-being, fitness, strength - all kinds of thing ..but not health. health is a quantum state. either healthy (no specific  disease) or not healthy (specific  disease). Maybe walks can cure diseases, i have no issue with that.

 

excellent. now we are talking. from where did you first learn that exact practice?

Old English hælþ "wholeness, a being whole, sound or well," from Proto-Germanic *hailitho, from PIE *kailo- "whole, uninjured, of good omen" (source also of Old English hal "hale, whole;" Old Norse heill "healthy;" Old English halig, Old Norse helge "holy, sacred;" Old English hælan "to heal"). With Proto-Germanic abstract noun suffix *-itho (see -th (2)).
 

 

[Lord Shiva]

Popcorn

[Taoist Texts]

55 minutes ago, liminal_luke said:

Do you really think that healthiness is binary -- yes or no?   ... between many nuanced scales of physiological well being.

exactly right. health is binary. either a tooth aches or does not. either an insulin shot is required or is not. 

thats opposed to well-being which as you quite correctly noted is nuanced

52 minutes ago, Apech said:

Old English hælþ "wholeness, a being whole,

of course. either whole or not whole. binary.

 

why  this is important? because in order to get well we need to know if we are sick. yes or no.

[liminal_luke]

4 minutes ago, Taoist Texts said:

 either whole or not whole. binary.

 

why  this is important? because in order to get well we need to know if we are sick. yes or no.

 

I wanna live in your world.

[blue eyed snake]

17 minutes ago, Taoist Texts said:

because in order to get well we need to know if we are sick. yes or no.

 

o you sweet summerchild