Bindi

Tulpas may be equated with the neidan ‘spirit child’ that is formed, which must be nurtured within and not let out until fully matured. Honestly, I think some ancient Chinese person did exactly this, and the echoes of it were captured in some of the oldest Chinese texts. I agree it has to be done in the right way, by going through the shadows and the world of darkness, knowing the white but keeping to the black, not seeking power, merely seeking emotional reintegration in the dark places until the light returns. When the motivation becomes muddied, maybe this is when the problems start.

I agree with Jung that “the sense of feeling... has become atrophied in our contemporary culture because of the massive emphasis on thinking“, and I have thought about this quite a lot over time, and have come up with a theory to account for it. To my mind thinking may have started to become dominant when we began to communicate in complex sentences, thinking looks to me like a ‘superpower’, and so much has been accomplished because of it. But then the imbalance set in as emotions couldn’t accomplish all that thinking could accomplish and were accorded a second place. The cultural atrophying of the sense of feeling is noticed by some individuals, maybe even many, but only some individuals choose to actively fight against the lack of that flow, and they are the ones who are prepared to open themselves up to their vast store of unfelt emotions within. The question for me though is what might re-establishing emotional flow alongside our mental superpower look like? To my mind if speech caused us to evolve mentally, then there must be a counterbalancing evolution possible for the humble feeling. Once the normal atrophied sense of feeling is restored, what emotional superpower might then be realised?

Thanks for posting this ^ Cleansox. The author of your quote (Saso?) takes a liberty in translating the ‘four’ as four directions and organs, and then go on to list five organs and directions. I think this text needs more and better translators, that’s the only way out for non-Chinese interested in it.

You referred to this line: The four interests me, Huang sees four as referring to the four directions, Archangelis and Lanying add the word rivers to make it four rivers to fit with their concept of the sea of origin. The original line is: 明 堂 四 達 法 海 源， Bright Hall four to reach law sea origin [Ming Tang] I’d love to know how else this line could be translated, including the word law, which neither translator seems to have taken on board. My best understanding might be “From the Bright Hall [Mingtang] Four reach the source of the law.” Where have all our Chinese translators gone? @Taoist Texts, @dawei?

SOL means? Going on what I think it means maybe we are SOL, humanity is in a pretty bad way. If the microcosm reflects the microcosm and vice versa, our unintegrated or dispersed psyche might then reflect our unintegrated or dispersed spirit. However, I do recognise a part of myself that has knowledge of the spirit’s blueprint, and without that underlying knowledge we would indeed have no hope. So I’d like to say my soul has this knowledge, but I could as easily say my higher consciousness has this knowledge, or my Higher Self etc. I agree we’d really need to agree on what terms mean before being able to discuss them. I was also thinking that Christianity believes in being born with original sin, so there is a precedent for this sort of idea, that there is something fundamentally amiss on a spiritual level at birth.

“Understand your own essence and harmonise Yin and Yang, like thunder and lightning, the two are mystically bound. Between the East point on the right and the West Point on the left is my room.” “Observe all from heaven and earth, to generate virgin new self-existence.” “Surrender concept of oneself to ancient Yin to re-establish own image.” ”Connect to your mysterious force from above, and let the clear spirit cross in.” From here. My name is Bindi and I am a Daoist.

I hear what you’re saying, but I’m going to revert to my earlier notion, that the Spirit within us is torn apart, and does actually have to be put back together by ourselves, this small self, and this small self does have to understand the nature of reality to do it - and when it is reassembled the Spirit within can indeed share gifts from itself with us. This just feels more like my lived reality to me, I believe I could find support for my perspective in the neidan texts I prefer than in Buddhist or Vedic texts which posit your perspective.

Can’t Spirit present itself to me in a form that can be assimilated, so that it can cross over into me?

From the external Yellow Court text When the Jade pearl is solidified, it will be refined endlessly in what I can only imagine is the circulation of kundalini. If you don’t believe that this Jade pearl can exist in the first place, this sentence will be meaningless to you of course, and different people will interpret it differently, but I have first hand experience of this pearl in its two earlier forms as found in the lower dantians and I trust that this third form, the Jade form, can be generated and it makes sense that it will be continually refined. Maybe this is introducing something too obscure, but it does underscore the point that this stuff is complicated, and I see no reason to limit my opinion to consensual wisdom

FWIW as I don’t actually know, but I reckon kundalini would remain relevant, coursing through the system endlessly. From what I’ve read, and please correct me if I’m wrong, Tibetan Buddhism’s belief is that Kundalini burns through something and then disappears.

In the end, I imagine if the energetic matrix is operating properly, the higher consciousness stream would become embodied and a natural integrated part of the entire body-mind system, no purposeful meditation to enter that stream would be needed? This is the point at which I feel kundalini would be relevant, again not something I know about yet. Kundalini activation before this point is what most people experience and refer to.

Yes, the energetic matrix is the vessel, that was what I was meaning, but I see this matrix as very complex and exact, which seems to be in opposition to most posters. To me it is a whole lot more than just open the central channel, though this is part of it, and I’m pretty sure I differ in my ideas of how to open the central channel - for me it’s work on the two side channels and through each of the chakras that leads to the central channel opening. I probably also differ in my ideas of the nature of the True Self, I don’t even really know what I think about it yet because I haven’t had first hand experience of an operational True Self yet, I’m still working on the matrix If the matrix is not fully developed, can this True Self or True nature be partially expressed, or not at all, is it all or nothing??

I like this, a matrix can be developed, or even is needed to be developed, to realise Self. In neidan, a True Man (sic) or True Self is realised and nurtured, via an energetic matrix that is carefully constructed. The nature of this True Self may be compatible with the concept of Buddha nature.

What does ‘achieved Nei Dan’ mean?

A return to youthfulness is referred to in the classics, have you noticed this physically?