Leaderboard

I mentioned some of the possible drawbacks of psychotherapy earlier so I should probably also mention what a wonderful, human thing it is to ask for help when we need it. Going to therapy can be a very wise way of asking for help.

I've learned from 2 different daoist traditions, one fulu one martial. They both advocate for standing from the very beginning. So yes, it absolutely is a beginning practice. The only people I see saying otherwise tend to be western.

Someone who's cultivated is knowledgeable or at least familiar with the arts, current events, history. He or she probably has traveled widely, or at least has read about other people and places. In other words, a cultivated person is a citizen of the world.

only crops need cultivation

I have seen them occasionally and wondered what they were ? I assumed a totem or ' standard ' of a Nome or God .

Welcome to TDB. Do you happen to know the Chinese characters for Xu Ming Gong?

only a dog has a master

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses. The main problem with therapy I see is that it can be the blind leading the blind. If the therapist is humble to their blindness, and helps the patient do the same, that seems spiritually safer. If not it seems dangerous.

Anywhere you were thinking of specifically?

I don't know. I do appreciate your perspectives and views, though. There are so many ways to approach living, and at least from my perspective, it does not really matter which approach one takes, so long as it is done with a kind and open heart. There are so many incredible people from all sorts of different traditions out there. I met the most wonderful fellow from kurdistan at a coffee shop today. He was a christian and would not stop talking about his love of god, and the kindness he sees in everyone he meets wherever he goes. It made my day. I dont think any one tradition can claim a monopoly on the answers to existential questions nor "enlightenment" in general. To me enlightenment is more like a sparkle that you can just see in peoples eyes when you speak with them. Ive come to realize that I don't really need to know the answers to existential or metaphysical questions to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. I just have to be. That's why I liked the video. I do find esoteric approaches and ideas interesting though, and sometimes try them out, hopefully with the same spirit of "just being". That is why I also like reading yours and others perspectives.

Yes it is called Imy-wt which can be translated as 'he who is in his wrappings' or 'one who is in his skin' - although the literal translation which I prefer is just 'in the skin' (imy means 'in, between' and wt means skin or wrappings.) It is also a title of Anubis and a symbol for mummification. It is a pole from which hangs an animal skin which has been stuffed. In my view it is the most important thing in the whole scene as it depicts how we are to view the body.

Thanks.

This link is dead, but I found a live site with copies. https://web.archive.org/web/20170517120411/http://www.taoistresource.net/doe_idx.htm

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.