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I try to approach this like silent thunder. When I encounter someone I find to be stuck, opinionated, fixed, unwilling to see an alternative perspective, I do my best to see how I may seem just like that to others, given any particular context or set of circumstances. Whatever view I hold, no matter how convinced I am of its veracity, is limited and relative. When I can see this directly, my irritation, frustration, or impatience towards the other person dissolves and some degree of understanding and compassion remain. Trying to see the other’s point of view, no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched, teaches me far more than simply dismissing them as fools and idiots. The US political landscape has helped me enormously in this regard. That said, it has also taught me to take the approach of not engaging, debating, or arguing, unless I am willing to pay the price. And to be clear, this is my intention, not something I have yet mastered.

No one is an absolute fool really. Everyone is at varying levels of knowing. So “foolishness” or “intelligence” is a relative thing. It also varies from day to day. For example, on some days I feel really smart and others I feel really foolish. The feeling foolish bit usually goes hand in hand with whether I ended up succumbing to the propensity to do something compulsive. We can be compassionate towards someone who knows less. My teachers always did/do that with me.

I use humor playfulness and absurdity to get a feel for the level of absolute certainty exhibited. Absolute certainty for me is a barometer for foolishness. They seem to have a direct proportional relationship... as one rises, so does the other. Then I remember that all of this is my own interpretations about them made by my mind, out of the partial information received from my senses, which reminds me that this renders almost all input utterly self projected assumptions based on subconscious behavioral conditioning models... then I throw the entire thing out and go about my day.

Practice with trees is a big part of many northern Daoist lineages including Longmen. It’s a good practice. You don’t want to give much direction to the Qi with the mind. Obviously things will move much more powerfully once you’ve built the foundation. But the idea is to connect with the tree and then let it lead... sometimes it will give you ‘energy’ (particularly at night) and a lot of the time it will take your pathogenic Qi and transform it... But there’s not much for you to do other than engage your ‘insides’ and then create the connection - the tree will do the rest... Once the foundations are mostly built, this is not a subtle experience in the least!

Sure ok. I won’t lecture you about needing to find teachers. I also began my journey adamant that I don’t need or want a teacher - and I did manage to make some progress without. So yes it’s possible. (But then I found lots of teachers 😄) If your aim in the internal arts is beyond the basic de-stress and relax thing, then you need to start with reasonably good health - both physical and mental... If these are not generally fine, then you need to fix them - the internal arts at this level won’t heal you in that way... Once your health is reasonably fine, the main premise is don’t trust your mind As you probably know, we need to work with your Qi and the channels of the body. But the way we get to them is through focus on the body first - you don't start out trying to feel your your Qi or direct it with your mind. This mental control of Qi creates all the dangers - Qi reversals, heat in the head, poison fire tainting heart, steaming bones etc etc... One of my teachers in Malaysia specialised in treating people with Qigong sickness - it’s quite common when not following a proper method. The first step is to prepare your body... this means 1) loosen tension, 2) increase flexibility, 3) build strength... This involves stretching and mobility exercises and a lot of bodyweight strength training - focusing particularly on legs and core - nothing extreme like muscle ups or heavy weights though, as this will slow your progress in Qigong. The second step (and this is generally done concurrently) is to start to get into your ‘inner body’... This is basically accessing the various tissues that we’re not used to using - the little stabilising muscles, the deep core muscles, the sinews and tendons and the fascia matrix. You do this by standing (a lot) and repeating the foundational Qi Gong movements of your system (a lot)... And developing Sung (active release) and Ting (inner listening). At first you’ll get hints that there’s something more than the basic muscles we all know about - you’ll feel aches and pains in places you’ve never felt before, you’ll feel weird stretchy connections between parts of your body that you’ve never felt before etc. It takes a long time (3 to 5 years), but eventually your entire body will feel connected. It feels like your insides are all rubbery and connected in stretched way - a slight change in pressure of your foot will send your arms up... a slight stretch in your palm will be felt throughout your body. It feels like wearing one of those wetsuits... but interweaved through your muscles under your skin. When you have this sort of body, you’ll get into your standing posture and it will feel like sitting into a nice stretchy hammock or trampoline - quite comfortable... When you do your moving forms, it’s not the ordinary muscles that move you, but these stretchy connections. Often it feels as if the movements are happening by themselves. Ever do this thing as a kid - where you stand with your arms by your sides and your friend holds them there as you try to push out... then your friend suddenly lets go, and your arms just lift and float up by themselves... all your Qigong movements will start to feel like that. (This is just a stage, you actually need to relax and drop more weight into this floating - then things start getting painful - but that’s some way off!) This is ‘the Qigong body’... this is the foundation you need to move on to anything else. But why? Your standing and moving practices will have connected your body in a very particular way. The Qi of your body run through these tissues. It means that you’ve built the physical riverbed of your channels for the Qi to move through in a particular way. Now you don’t need to direct Qi with your mind - because its path and direction is already physically built into your body... it will naturally flow where it needs to without any mental effort. Remember - we can’t trust the mind Another aspect... if you think of an old style lightbulb, the light is created by running electricity through a metal filament... when you build this body, you’re actually building thicker, denser filaments through your body - meaning you can transmit a far greater current. If the filament is too thin or the current too strong - what happens? The filament pops and the light goes out As well as this you’ll need to build your Dantien (this starts concurrently to building the body)... this creates the vessel or container for generating, holding and moving very strong currents of Qi. And that’s basically the foundation - although obviously there’s a lot more - like harmonising your organs, clearing out blockages, sinking Qi etc etc. To summarise - 1) open and strengthen your body physically 2) find your ‘internal body’ 3) build a fully connected, elastic Qigong body 4) build a Dantien. So bearing in mind that this is missing a ton of stuff, and written very crudely... but I hope it helps to explain what authentic Qigong does to set up the foundations for further development like actually going through the Jing-Qi-Shen conversion process and so on. Happy to answer questions.

I am sorry, but no on such rites. Most of such connections are subconscious and things like cord cutting are not really cutting a connection, but more like trying to build a mental wall around it. Such things usually become very unstable and breakdown. It is always hard, but the most powerful technique is simply forgiving yourself and the other person. Give it time and let it go.

Safety and Efficiency? Daoist path? If you have no teachers, where is "Daoist path" coming from? Books? Those are written by teachers. Why would someone want no teacher but want to know? Is that how people are on the Algebra path? The surgeon path? Pilot? $4000 seminars - how do people without any teacher know if they are ripped off? Every day, people are happy, not knowing. There is no real "safety" if you don't really know what you are studying. There is no real "efficiency" either. Any traditional Gongfu school is a decent place to actually start. -VonKrankenhaus

Just connect to the tree. You don’t actually absorb energy from the tree (if anything it usually ‘absorbs’ energy ‘from’ you)... just harmonise with the quality of the tree... It will help to ‘tune’ your own energy to a certain quality. Different trees will have different qualities. You generally can’t go wrong with a nice straight pine tree. Some individual trees won’t like you and ‘push’ you away 😄

No apologies needed mate, I delete and edit routinely to accomodate my inner space's needs. And while I don't have many answers these days, in their place there's empathy, love and plenty of time to listen. Peace.

Exactly! The moment we label someone or something a certain way, we essentially give up the opportunity to learn anything from them. My experience is quite in line with your “sacred clown” analogy. Often the truth is so simple that we can’t even imagine it as being the truth. Our minds are evolutionarily oriented towards doing, and dissecting concepts and ideas. I used to laugh at the idea of “new agers” making “high sounding statements”, can’t remember how many times I rolled my eyes at the statement “you are already enlightened” in the past 😂 But it turns out the joke was really on me, because the very things I thought were impossibilities, were proven to be correct and all my complex ideas and theories about how things should be became ridiculously convoluted and complex. It seems we tend to correlate complexity with intelligence. Yet in nature we find the simplest things to be the most resilient and durable. Didn’t Lao-Tzu say “my words seem simple, but most laugh at me and call me a fool”?

Socrates said something along the lines of wisdom being knowing that you don't know many things. So I think it follows that as we become more and more wise, we can end up feeling more and more foolish about ourselves. Regarding others - the more foolish, the more dangerous they can be. So, it's wise to know who they are and not be destroyed by them. Some quick insights into a fool versus a wise person, in light of the tarot, for fun...not all there is to be said about it, and it may contradict some other interpretations of it... The fool turns away from the light. His head is high, assured of what he thinks is his wisdom (which is in fact just cleverness and stupidity), unaware of the truth. He isn't careful to support himself with his staff, so his footing on the ground of reality is unstable due to his own lack of precaution. His focus is on the external appearances of things, rather than the true reality of things, given his clothing. The dangerous nature of his foolishness is represented by the fact that he's about to walk off of the cliff. Not only is he about to become dangerous to himself, but the most loyal "man's best friend", who looks up to him, is about to go off the cliff as well - showing what happens to someone that's a good friend to others, who underestimates the dangerous nature of the fool. The white rose has a fragrance, which the fool has just smelled, representing "the finer things in life"...the fool thinks it's better to appease themselves with delights, than to truly be wise which is often the opposite of delightful. The hermit, or wise person, holds fast to the light. They have become aware of the darkness in the world, so in a sense, life isn't as bright and cheerful as it once when they were an ignorant fool. They have an aged appearance compared to the youthful fool, which means they've lived through things and learned. Their clothing isn't indicative of being focused on false appearances. With their staff, they support their footing in life, and instead of being about to walk off of a cliff, they have mastered the earth (become aware of reality) and stand safely upon the ground...which might even be the peak of a mountain, further indicating their mastery of reality, through being aware of truth. His head is low, knowing the cold and dark truth, as well as recognizing his own inadequacies fully, as opposed to being overconfident...in addition, the head bowed in prayer represents the inner light of wisdom and compassion, which he shines out into the world.

Let it happen naturally. Try to accept it, rather than run from the connection. We all go thru crappy breakups and it would be wonderful to just forget about the people. But there’s important lessons to learn, and stuff to heal that comes with it. There’s no easy fix, unfortunately. Most energetic links are kept alive through our own thoughts/habits/inner stuff... so short of learning and healing through it, anything else would be a temporary fix.

"If you want to be a more spiritual person, you don't achieve that by doing MORE of whatever activity you consider spiritual. If you want to be more spiritual, expand the definition of what you call spiritual, to include more of the activities you do in a day." -Wu De (Global tea hut)

Hello, I have been trying during my mid-twenties to my almost fourties (I'll be 38 next week!) some eastern / shamanic practices. From all insight gained, I am in the process of doing some changes in my life right now as well as in the process of finding a way for deepening. I have had some experiences I wish to share with you in order to put them in a context, but this I suppose should go in another forum, General Discussion I guess. Thanks for this space seito

" Hey guys! What's this button for ? "

Hey! And I meant "Plum Ditch", not "Plum Valley" Yes, I've been up the mountain once and seen Nanyan Palace (I especially love the Dragon Incense - How on earth did they build that?!) Purple Heaven, Carefree Valley (with all the Monkeys) and Taizi Po. We only get Mondays off so I hope to go again next Monday to see Golden Palace and back to Nanyan again, because it was very cloudy and misty last week. I would like to see some more views if the weather will be clearer. Still, it was very cool looking around with all the clouds and mist. Life at Dragongate is nice with a good community. Training is tough though, my legs have struggled and I've even pulled a muscle in my left calf. 5am start with a 9pm finish, it isn't what I expected at all. BUT, I should have learnt all of the Taiji 32 Form before I have left and a qigong sequence. Being here, in answer to the OP, no, I don't think being a Taoist is for the well off. In fact, my stay here is very cheap and I am fed 3 meals a day. I believe the school (and all others in Wudangshan) have all lost popularity over the years, yet they make do with what they have. They look after about 20 kids here, like a boarding school, and they have some incredible skills. It's difficult to keep up with their energy but they are keeping me going. They're fantastic people, and very courteous

I've told this story elsewhere here, I am sure, but I'll post it again. My Taiji master, an acupuncturist, asked me to fill in to his first day of Taiji class at a TCM school. So I first engaged in conversation to ask their motivation and desires and future goals, etc. But the telling part was most of them just finished the Qigong 'requirement' but most said they felt no energy and hopped around like animals and don't see WTF it was all about. I asked them if there was a large tree outside and they said a few. So I said we would go 'hug a tree' to understand. There were about 10 of us and we circled the tree. I told them to breath a few times slowly and deep... like their mind was not there except their heart knew the universe was there... and then asked them to put their hands upwards and continue the slow breathing in the way I said... and said, feel the tree... note the feeling. We did that for about 5-10 seconds and then stepped 3 feet to the right. We repeated till everyone had gone around the tree. I asked them. What part of the tree most talked to them. 100% of them said the same spot. And they described their palms as flowing with energy...

Chances are when your outside around trees you absorb their energy.... but it is very subtle and hard to feel. I would point to the way you feel after being outside for a period of time. Some would say it’s the fresh air or the sunlight. I would say it’s all of these things, including the trees. Just being outside and open to the landscape, you will already be connecting in some way. Just takes practice to feel it.

Hi Welkin... So I think we need to talk about ‘dabbling’. You’ve talked about Mo pai breathing, kundalini yoga, flying Phoenix, heavy weight training, Damo Mitchell’s stuff, Hermetics etc. You’re going to need to focus on one thing. It is not the case that doing mo pai breathing while practicing flying Phoenix and doing Hermetics training will give you some extraordinary results. In fact it’s the very opposite. I realise it’s exciting to have all these possibilities in front of you. I’m not saying you shouldn’t explore them, but to actually get anywhere you will need to pick one path and stick to it. The best way to explore is to actually meet people practicing these systems. You’ll get a very good vibe of what each school is like by meeting students and teachers. You can work out which ones seem more compatible and who would you rather turn out like (the nature of this sort of training is that you’ll start to harmonise with the teacher and general ‘personality’ of the school) You can’t combine these things - it just doesn’t work like that... it’s like getting all excited that you got into aeronautical engineering so you put a helicopter blade, a hot air balloon and some rocket boosters on a passenger plane... I’d suggest just make a habit of training something physical every day. Do some basic sitting practice like following your breath (not breath control like you talked about - you will end up hurting yourself). And then explore, talk to people (not just on forums) and see what path you’d like to follow. Once you’ve got a disciplined daily routine (this can be hard to establish) then it will be easy to plug in a more ‘internal’ practice in that time slot.

I am still in the process of trusting my cynicism as accurate and accepting the speed with which I can often detect a hopeless case, a fool, someone who has a strong resistance to new insights and learning, who may not think what he says. I like to look at people's motivations, so that is what I usually see very early on, sometimes after one comment, sometimes after one sentence, sometimes after a couple of words. I came upon this picture and it expressed exactly that lesson in its most refined form - instant recognition, maximum avoidance of energy leeching: One of my teachers conveyed a lesson I still have trouble with due to its extremism, or maybe it was because he had so much energy that it was OK, or maybe he had it because he followed the rule: Send 10% energy out, keep 90% in. I guess the key understanding that helps to follow that rule is that the energy you keep in does not (have to) / should not just sit idly there.

Sit comfortably in a nice chair or recliner and try to jump, with your mind/awareness, to a position where you are looking at your body from the front, then jump to the left side and look at yourself, then jump to the right and look, then to the ceiling and look.

My teacher said that seminars are an absolute waste, and he was right as far as chi kung was concerned. For martial artists with previous experience going to a seminar by a teacher who is upline from their lineage, or one that is similar, can be a good help but it can never replace regular practice sessions with an adept or master.

Astral projection is a valuable tool to develop in some traditions because it can open a whole lot of doors, but don't start a "crash" course without a teacher perhaps. Some traditions don't think much of the astral and might see it as a lower dimension full of distractions. I believe there are different levels of density within the astral. Building foundations with regular meditation are considered important, so that you don't get stuck in some level..

This resonated strongly with me.....society has truly lost its way My own interest in the topic stems from awakening to the true nature of reality...and to experience it as it truly is....not to be tricked into the the traps of the five senses, and transform oneself to become the pinnacle of potentiality....I'm fascinated by siddhi, both in understanding their emergence and nature from an investigative perspective...but quite honestly...I don't think seeking them out is a good idea..if they come OK, if not, fantastic too..its merely a side effect of the process On that point, at a group level I believe people fall into two distinct categories...those who seek the process and those who seek the product....imo the latter is at a severe disadvantage before they ever begin....the pursuit of power often ends badly, whereas the pursuit of knowledge rarely does, and power often accompanies it as a bonus

Thanks to all who posted here, its made me feel a lot better. Have many out of the ordinary experiences at the moment, and because its all very new and uncharted territory, I'm still getting to grips with handling it well. Many thanks for all your kind and meaning full words. Peace to you all,

There are people here who care about you and consider you to be their friend. If you do not want to share publicly, reach out privately or talk to someone in your daily life. Keeping everything all bottled up is sometimes not a good thing. You are in my thoughts.

"Want to meditate with me???" *eyes wide and staring*

That is similar to the teachings I received on the subject " " Yet, oh aspirant, let thy victories bring thee not Vanity, for with increase of Knowledge should come increase of Wisdom. He who knoweth little, thinketh he knoweth much; but he who knoweth much hath learned his own ignorance. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool, than of him. " In my experience, the more I learn and know, throws up even more questions about what I dont know ! " ... Carlo Cipolla ( 'The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity' ) defines stupidity as ; " A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses. " While an intelligent person finds solutions that cause gain to others AND themselves at the same time . Carlo warns us hiw dangerous stupid people are ; " It is not difficult to understand how social, political and institutional power enhances the damaging potential of a stupid person. But one still has to explain and understand what essentially it is that makes a stupid person dangerous to other people - in other words what constitutes the power of stupidity. " Essentially stupid people are dangerous and damaging because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand unreasonable behaviour. An intelligent person may understand the logic of a bandit. The bandit's actions follow a pattern of rationality: nasty rationality, if you like, but still rationality. The bandit wants a plus on his account. Since he is not intelligent enough to devise ways of obtaining the plus as well as providing you with a plus, he will produce his plus by causing a minus to appear on your account. All this is bad, but it is rational and if you are rational you can predict it. You can foresee a bandit's actions, his nasty manoeuvres and ugly aspirations and often can build up your defenses. " http://harmful.cat-v.org/people/basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/ Hmmm . Perhaps that is the 'reversed' Fool .... not the better side of the energy. When not averse, I see the Fool as more than what the external world may see of him; He is Lao Tsu, at times : Khidr at others (in his 'trickster' role ) and most definitely, Nasrudin ! The Missed Appointment A philosopher made an appointment with Nasrudin to have a scholarly discussion. When the day came, the philosopher dropped by Nasrudin's house as planned. However, Nasrudin wasn't home. The philosopher angrily took his pencil out of his pocket, wrote "Asshole" on Nasrudin's door, and then left Nasrudin finally came home later and saw this. He quickly realized that he had missed his appointment, and he darted off to the philosopher's house. "Forgive my error," Nasrudin told the philosopher when he got there. "I totally forgot about our appointment today. But when I got home and saw that you had written your name on my door, I came here as fast as I could."

One solution might be to give up expecting anything in our interactions with others. IF we don’t have any expectations, we won’t suffer the effect of disappointments. I know it’s easier said than done. But that is a maxim that was articulated to me by a very wise person many years ago, and I found it to be proven right many times over.

You need Sterny ! Have you seen his threads here on Atlantis ? I can help you unravel the Shambala mystery if you like. On the physical plane that is. I can show some very old history on it, how it developed a root philosophy that penetrated into all mainstream western religions, teachings associated with it and the general area ( Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring - Tagzig ; modern day Tajikistan - western lands of wisdom , while in the 'west' wisdom is said to have come from the east. ) And it will also include the unveiling of a lost civilisation. I'm not talking fantasy here ... I can back it up with science history and archaeology . To actually find its location (Kalapa), within that area would then be up to you. Let me know if interested and I (or you could ) start a new thread on Shambhala ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Edit: OOps, that was two different subjects that I ran together - stayed awake all night last night.

In one of my older articles, I had discussed the topic of the four levels/categories of knowledge. https://www.medhajournal.com/close-encounters-of-the-fourth-kind/ and also presented a model that maps Zen and Advaita Vedanta alonf those lines. https://www.medhajournal.com/consciousness-according-to-zen-buddhism-and-how-it-relates-to-advaita-vedanta/ Also there was an associated TDB post around the topic — The four levels of knowledge, map to the four levels in which awareness seems to exist (waking/dreaming/deep sleep and Turiya). They also map to the “four bodies” ie physical, subtle, causal and nondual. The following should apply for spiritual as well as creative works — I posit that written words (or typed for that matter) fall under the category of knowledge that maps to the subtle body. In other words, the written word rises from the astral plane. In my experience I found that “reading” seems to work at the astral level as well. These are “closer” to nondual silence than the spoken words are. That is the reason why ideas as presented in books etc take on a far more powerful force than when spoken. There are exceptions of course. For instance in ancient times, the words were spoken words, but empowered by masters who operated from the causal and/or nondual levels. Just some preliminary thoughts. Please avoid tangential ramblings in your responses.

Intuition is direct knowing it comes to you in a flash and does not require prior expertise with any subject. Inference is very much like the example of the nurse and the medical diagnosis. Nurses are medical professionals and exposure to that field day in and day out leads to medical knowledge. While it can be intuition because intuition knows no boundaries the chances of inference or minds workings below the nurses awareness is more likely or perhaps even a blending of the two. Here is a story from when I was 19 back in 1988. My friends and I were going to rent a house. The real estate agent showed us the property and the Alarm went off. She said oh no we had better go the police are going to show up and I don’t know the code! We will have to come back later once I get back to the office and call the owner for the code. (1988 very few cell phones) I was in the Paravastha of Kriya the after effect of stillness, silence, spaciousness from earlier practice that day. All of a sudden I knew I knew the code so I walked over the the key pad and simply punched in the codes and disarmed the system. Everyone stared at me a bit spooked like they had just seen a man fly, something the rational mind must reject just occurred. The flumuxed real estate agent exclaimed how did you do that? I just grinned and said oh it just felt right. This my friend is intuition. The how is not difficult become still, become quiet inside, become spacious. If you are receptive you can receive.

I'm still holding to the both/and position - a ruler/sage has to know themselves in order to know other people. For instance a subjugated person does not have a full, replete, naturally born and complete heart/mind. The people are not free from emotions. So I conclude that the Neiye is talking about genuine benefit to all from following a natural way and so on.

In no-time no-space - Awareness can be in varying degrees of time and space - it is no longer one or the other. Patience and Compassion are not taught - in the receding of resistance this unfolds. Grace will emerge as willfulness no longer deflects it. The deep resonance of Mantra and Mandala - the Logos unfolds - the Gods come forth - intelligent Objectless emotion - Devotion. In no-time no-space Patience and Compassion are without constraint. In deep grace and devotion the expanse resonates through the subtle bodies of which there are many. Devotion is not too some thing or some one - it is residence of Presence in Creation - dancing in archetype - becoming archetype. Devotion may be localized and constricted and identified and personified - but underneath it is resonance with that far beyond the localizations. It is beyond beliefs. True Devotion settles within - in Grace it comes - unfolds. It finds abidance and gives comfort in the vast ever changing stillness. (Perhaps this was an example of tangential ramblings - it’s what the finger pecked out)

Note: 氣 - Qi 天 - Heaven / Sky 德 - De 安 - calm, peace 意 - intent 智 - wisdom Section 2 Linnell: 是 故 民 氣 Thus the Qi of the citizens : 杲 乎 Is it bright? 如 登 於 天 As though ascending to heaven. 杳 乎 Is it dark and quiet? 如 入 於 淵 As though entering into an abyss. 綽 乎 Is it wide and spacious? 如 在 於 海 As though residing in the ocean. 卒 乎 Is it closeA? 如 在 於 己 As though residing in oneself. 是 故 此 氣 也 Thus this Qi – 不 可 止 以 力 Can not be brought to rest by using force, 而 可 安 以 德 But can be calmed by using De. 不 可 呼 以 聲 Can not be summoned by using your voice, 而 可 迎 以 意 But can be made welcome by using your intent. 敬 守 勿 失 When you can respectfully* maintain it, and never lose it, 是 謂 成 德 This is called developed De. 德 成 而 智 出 When De develops, and wisdom* arises, 萬 物 果 得 The bounty of the ten thousand creatures is attained. Eno: This qi is So bright! As though climbing to heaven. So dark! As though entering the abyss. So broad! As though permeating the sea. So compact! As though residing within oneself. This qi Cannot be detained through physical force, but may be brought to rest by force of virtue. It may not be summoned by means of sound, but may be received through one’s thoughts. To guard it alertly without fail, this is called perfect virtue. When virtue is perfected wisdom emerges and all the things of the world are grasped. Roth: 1. Therefore this vital energy is: 2. Bright! – as if ascending from the heavens; 3. Dark! – as if entering an abyss; 4. Vast! – as if dwelling in an ocean; 5. Lofty! – as if dwelling on a mountain peak. 6. Therefore this vital energy 7. Cannot be halted by force, 8. Yet can be secured by inner power [Te]. 9. Cannot be summoned by speech, 10. Yet can be welcomed by awareness. 11. Reverently hold onto it and do not lose it: 12. This is called "developing inner power." 13. When inner power develops and wisdom emerges, 14. The myriad things will, to the last one, be grasped. Shazi Daoren: Therefore, regarding 'Energy', it is: Bright! As if ascending the sky; Dark! As if entering into the abyss; Disperse! As if existing in the ocean; Present! As if existing in the self. Therefore this Energy: cannot be stopped by force, yet can be pacified by Virtue, cannot be spoken by voice, yet can be embraced by the mind. Reverently nurture it and do not let it go: this is called 'developing Virtue'. When Virtue develops and wisdom emerges, the myriad things will all be attained. Yueya: Thus we may describe this qi — Bright! — as if ascending to the heavens; Dark! — as if entering an abyss; Vast! — as if dwelling in an ocean; Lofty! — as if residing on a mountain peak. Therefore this qi— Cannot be controlled by force, Yet can be stabilized through inner power (de). Cannot be summoned by speech， Yet can be welcomed through awareness. Reverently guard it and do not lose it: This is called “developing inner power.” When inner power develops and wisdom emerges, The bounty of ten thousand things will be realized.

It is interesting to note: In many years of speaking to students and others in conversation regarding the importance of the Basic's - and just how primary and fundamental and incredible the basic's are - NOT ONE person has ever asked something like "you stress the importance and comprehensive nature of the Basic's pretty frequently - can you expound on what you mean and include in the Basic's - i think most of us are incline to assume we understand what the basics are but you seem to include much more" Please note - NOT ONE What is most important about this fact is that it illustrates just how much we do not wish to open our opinions and boxed in notions to elaborations that effect our own inertia's - AND the idea that Basic's take about one class to get a full understanding of.

Just what I was saying ! Then again, it appears this is a request for 'travel purposes' only ... so not much point in 'visiting yourself' (Thats the thing about travel , no matter where you go ..... you just cant seem to get away from yourself .)

read the books mate. read the books.

Yes, please reach out if you need. My door is always open - as are most people’s here.

Start here: Confucius (/kənˈfjuːʃəs/ kən-FEW-shəs;[1] 551–479 BC) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Zhou dynasty. The philosophy of Confucius, also known as Confucianism, emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. Etc. -VonKrankenhaus

Can you get a PhD in that? I'm pretty sure it's a BS.

Oh no ..... us magicians dont have human teachers ! You would not get very far with human teachers . NO WAY you can learn stuff like that ' from books ' . It is a curious video title though .... 'entities' .... ?

I think this guy may be on to something

Guanzi, or Guan Zhong (管仲) is generally considered a legalist but the core 'cultivation' texts as daoist. This is at a time when no allegiances were formed nor such labels existed. So it is not uncommon to find such diversity among works. Taken as a whole, the work has been called the 'earliest masterpiece on political economy'; taken in some parts, as containing the earliest cultivation technique. Elsewhere I gave a link to a paper on “Tong guo shen” 通 國身 TGS (“Linking the State and the Body”) where it states: This seems but an expansion of Guanzi's other cultivation section, Xin Shu, a summary of Neiye on some level: 心安, 是國安也。心治, 是國治也. “His mind being at peace, his country is also at peace. His mind being well regulated, his country is also well regulated.” Also of note in the Xin Shu: 心之在體，君之位也. In the body, the [heart]mind holds the position of the prince. This might help understand why medical daoist theory says the heart is the [army] general; or as Xunzi said, “master of the five sense organs”. In some ancient texts that follow the Guanzi formula, Xunzi also talks that we store memories... which means emptying the storage is emptiness. Thus, to 'accumulate' jing one engages in emptiness (not seeking to accumulate jing as a focus). The TGS calls it JingQi, thus no differentiation between Jing and Qi. In others, Jing is settled in order to have the Qi and blood in harmony so that body/self is at ease/rest/calm. For this reason, rest (an 安) was considered Jing (tranquility) 安：靜也 in the ancient dictionary and may be a pointer to wu-wei concept. What might be pondered: 1. Self-regulation = State-regulation 2. Jing is the essential aspect for Qi and blood to be in harmony. There is no more transformational thought of Jing to Qi than there is of Jing to Blood. Jing seems to stand on its own, yet almost synonymous with Qi. 3. Is Jing (精), vital essence, the key to Jing (靜), tranquility , wu-wei ? 4. Jing is not to be grasped or sought, thus one cannot 'store' it or try to do so as that would go against its own nature. Being non-active, non-purposeful, non-attentive state, Jing becomes aware as just Qi: JingQi Of course I pulled in other texts to understand and suggest some things as looking at it in isolation is not always going to show the history or understanding, but I also don't want to impose too much outside thought to the text itself. So I let these ideas sit.

That’s good I think as long as students know what they’re getting into - specifically the risks of following a diy system - then I have nothing against it. In the past, alchemical substances were given to prisoners to check for safety So who knows, maybe if I was a prisoner in medieval China I might have signed up myself

WMJ, where did you go? I am at Dragongate now! Plum Valley.... One week in, three to go

That's incredible footage People freak out if they see 1 orb....here's SOTG swimming in a damn ocean of them Also OP Hes legitimate, I've seen similar (Not the exact same) to his techniques in very expensive neigong, neidan and magick books..these are basic techniques in his system, whereas they would be seen as more advanced in others...hes also streamlined them and stripped down a lot of the "mystique" I know damo mitchell doesnt teach students alchemy for years, yet SOTG basically starts the "firing process" immediately...go figure Also all of his students report the same experiences.....so objective results do happen, and the logs kind of speak for themselves really

disenfranchised?

Not about revealing or doing. Just says: 5. When flowing amid the heavens and the earth 6. We call it ghostly and numinous. 7. When stored within the chests of human beings, 8. We call them sages. It is about Qi. If you look at large polarities, like between Heaven and Earth, those causing weather, etc - hard to see full spectrum of event. Inside people, same phenomena is going on - movement and Qi - and this we can understand. And by understanding in ourselves what we are aware of, we are understanding the larger outside that we are maybe not. This isn't cultivated. Just describe. Not talking about cultivating at this point. It is simply pointed out - "realized", etc. Nothing in text shown so far is about cultivating or you doing anything. Text isn't a cultivation techniques manual to begin with. It is something else. -VonKrankenhaus