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I like this video on the Don't Know Mind

Ok. I'm going to talk through this and the next two stages (from the papyrus of Khonshu-mes). Sorry about the title I couldn't think of anything better. It's from a papyrus written in the 21st Dyn. in Thebes for the priest Khonshu-mes. It is one of the so-called mythological papyri which were produced in this late period which consist of almost entirely illustrations with little or no text. We are starting in the West which means the body. With death and mummification. Sorry the pic is a bit blurred but I probs with the image capture and getting it big enough. I'll go through what it shows and try to explain what it means in subsequent posts. Questions welcome (but please try to stay on topic if at all possible).

I recently translated Liu Guizhen's first book on Qigong Therapy. Master Liu makes repeated reference to Xu Ming Gong as one of the interventions to be used to treat disease. Have any of you heard of this system before? I was able to secure a copy of the book (1987) and have translated it. It reads like a system of robust interventions. I have been unable to find anything else on this system or the authors. Any help would be appreciated. True Blue Rain

Just to clarify "don't know" mind: The perfection of the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the precepts, ad nauseum is prajnaparamita or "emptiness". "Don't know" mind is emptiness, resting in the absence of all beliefs, projections into the future, or stories of the past, and "self". It is the Tao, primordial being-ness. It does not rely on any practice methodology, religion, belief-system, philosophy or any kind of "doing" by a "self". This "being-ness" is how things actually are. It is simplicity itself. When the mind is still, look for any of these qualities and see that they only arise with the thinking mind as concepts. This is where our struggle with reality begins.

I’ve had one as long as I can remember (or since when I became aware of the sky connection). I just thought it was a function of the fontanelle sealing after birth. But turns out it isn’t. Maybe I was just dropped on my head as a baby 🤣

Does it matter? Guessing that with my abilities and knowledge that not much would change. So for me it wouldn't matter. However, what would knowledge of the atom matter? Well, atomic energy, a big bomb, ?? Guessing again that maybe true knowledge of the essence or soul might allow for other things to happen which may not be evident at the moment?? I remember a movies where the premise was that the whole world found out that reincarnation was absolutely true. The consequences of that was there was a jump in the number of suicides. If people didn't like their life then they would turn it in and go for a new one. I know it sounds silly. The consequences of knowledge and experience does matter?? Doesn't it? Note: Thank you for your kind words.

The phrase is "don't know". When ZM Seung Sahn came to the states, he didn't speak English. So, as he learned, what he taught was conveyed in a kind of choppy English. He often said that he didn't teach Zen, he taught "don't know". This give you an idea of how important he felt that teaching was. I tend to agree about it's similarity to wu wei, and the rest of what you wrote. See the parable of the arrow.

There’s a lot of wisdom in the body if only we learn to ‘listen’ to it.

Thank you for sharing. Was it or "Dont Know Mind" or "DoNo Mind" ? Seems like "dono mind" is similar to the Wu Wei concept? interested if anyone who watched the video agrees/disagrees. Does it matter what your essence is? If one were to discover and scientifically understand one's true essence, as some sort of magical spiritual object or otherwise, what would be gained? A tofu-stealing cat does not need to know it is a cat to be a cat. I think the point of the video was that by ceasing to seek answers to esoteric questions, one is free to be what one is. PS, I also very much appreciate your posts on this site, Tommy : )

I have no such bump. In the Tibetan practice of phowa, one trains to express one's consciousness through the central channel out the crown of the head. It's said that one sign of a successful practice is an opening developing at the crown leading to the central channel. At the end of a phowa retreat, the lama will stick a piece of kusha grass in that spot to make sure the practitioners have achieved success. I believe there is a comparable practice in Shaivism but not sure which particular branch. The mark of a successful Phowa is that after death, there is visible hair loss, a bump or some yellow liquid seeping around the vertex. These marks serve as proof of successful rebirth. If these symptoms are present, the subsequent guide for the practice of the intermediate state will no longer be needed. from Khenpo Tsultrim Lhodrö in The Handbook for Life's Journey

Ba hui opening?

I think Max Christensen mentioned some symbiotic alien entity there. I don't have any bumps in that location but I have a birthmark to the right of the fontanelle. I seem to recall Buddha did too (there's a tradition that maintains that a reincarnation is supposed to demonstrate 7 signs on the body, for starters, don't remember what the other ones are). We also share the date of birth. I don't know the significance of that for a taoist. Why?

So, basically: Getting a treatment one does not need, or getting a treatment not focused on ones needs, might be bad for you? Sounds like something relevant for any treatment, really.

could be many years of talk and who knows how many thousands of bucks in cost, along with having someone who may or may not be safe in digging around in our heads, is such natural?

A few potential pitfalls of psychotherapy... Individual psychotherapy can tend to decontextualize problems that are better seen through the lens of the larger society, rather than problems of an individual. Poverty, sexism, racism -- many of the difficulties people face are rooted in systemic, cultural issues. As individuals we have to figure out how to best deal within our individual circumstances and psychotherapy can help with that. But there´s so much we miss as a larger culture when these problems are stripped from their broader contexts. Individual psychotherapy can overemphasize personal happiness as the goal of life. I´m not sure that seeking happiness directly is the best way to find it. Often, happiness comes as a "side effect" of the other meaningful things we do in life. For some, building character and living a life of integrity according to one´s values is more important than happiness. Individual therapy -- and especially the culture around therapy -- can encourage an unhealthy preoccupation with the self. Everybody has a diagnosis, we´re all traumatized. While it can be useful to recognize our issues and confront life´s hardships, sometimes it really is better just to get on with things.

Useful to whom? It's certainly useful for therapists, often for their clients. I found psychotherapy to be very useful for me. I somewhat disagree with the statement that "self-cultivation of the mind can be considered as psychotherapy." Certainly cultivation of the mind can have benefits. In the right person with the right method and guidance, perhaps some mental dysfunction and illness can be improved but there is also risk of significant harm. Meaningful self-cultivation of the mind really needs to begin with a relatively healthy mind and ego as mentioned above. Cultivation methods can be destabilizing or counter-productive for someone who has a variety of mental issues such as poor reality testing, a fragile or poorly developed ego, repressed trauma, negative self-image, depressive tendency, personality disorders, and so forth. This can be the source of nihilistic crisis, aberrant energetics, depersonalization disorder, qi sickness, kundalini syndrome, psychotic break, even suicide. One of my favorite teachers, Anthony Demello, speaks to his experience of being both a psychotherapist and a spiritual guide for Catholic clergy in India. His message was, in part, that as a therapist his job was to ease pain and help create or restore a healthy sense of self. As a spiritual guide, his job was to push people to see the truth of their situation even when that truth was painful, challenging, or destabilizing. Ultimately his job as a spiritual guide was to break down the very sort of patterns that are often needed by people to maintain mental health in unhealthy situations and environments. As Jiddu Krishnamurti said, "it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Yes, I don't disagree entirely but there's more to the story. I think it's also possible for therapy, in the right person and setting, to support the development of natural intimacy and relational processing once obstructing, dysfunctional patterns and reactivity are identified and addressed. The existence of psychotherapy, like many medical/surgical treatments and diagnoses, certainly is in part a dystopian byproduct of dysfunctional modern society. Some of that may be related to transactional hyper-individualism but perhaps, in Asia, to hyper-collectivism and related manipulation and abuse.

I agree with what Luke said, it depends on the relationship between therapist and patient. A lot of traditional teachers have discovered that Western psychological treatments can be helpful to forming a healthy ego which, ironically, is often considered a prerequisite to transcending it. A lot of traditional teachings were developed in much different circumstances.

I personally do not know how the spirit would penetrate all existence since I have found no such thing in myself. Some have mentioned that they can travel thru the astral planes. Guessing that might have something to do with the spirit. For me, I do not have such experiences. And so, I do not see, feel, or grok that there is such a thing as spirit. This not to say there isn't a spirit. Just that for me, it doesn't exist. I live and breathe. Wake up in the morning, cook myself a meal, boil water for coffee. What life is, it is in front of me. When I read the saying before enlightenment, chop wood carry water. after enlightenment, chop wood carry water, the question arises what changed?.