Bindi

Is this perspective the Buddhist influence on Daoism? The excerpt below seems to capture the spirit of this POV - [If you are] defiled by the smallest [concern about] annihilation or permanence, [then you] still lack affinity with all the Buddhas. [Due to their] overturned thinking ordinary people cling in delusion; [thus they] suffer from the defiling habits of the emotions and affections. Due simply to desires, the proliferation of emotions is excessive, [causing] the unceasing [re]birth of embryos, and eggs produced [in] dampness. [To] study the Tao, [you] must cause [yourself to be] fierce; A mind without emotions is as hard as iron. Excerpt from A Song on Meditative Concentration and Pointing out Illusion This has been the level I have been interested in. The KongFu of the mind-heart sounds good, I would like to know more about what you mean by this.

I'm not sure specifically where emotions are created, and I very much appreciate KuroShiro's contribution to answer your question from a Chinese medicine POV, but I am more certain that unexpressed emotions clog up the two lower dantians. I believe it is thought patterns only that clog up the upper dantian.

Is this your blog?

There are a lot of different 'achievements' depending on the path you take. Samadhi, awakened, enlightened, immortal... I think neither alchemy nor tantra would be possible if castrated, but I suspect with other paths it might not matter or maybe achievement might even be benefited by castration.

Good question Taken together the (emotional + mind) issue I see as a 'complex': In this perspective emotions affect the mind, and the result is a multitude of knots of (feelings+beliefs). How to untangle the knots is the puzzle, and the solution that has worked for me is to first attend to the emotions in the gut and the heart by using the minds logic and ability to analyse. But I am finding this usefulness of the mind breaks down for me as I now start to attend to the dysfunctional patterns of thought in my head/mind, and the solution that has been presented to me is to not engage the mind in clearing these patterns but to allow 'energy' to do it with no further input from myself. This is my solution to complete this process, to completely break down all complexes and conditioning, that doesn't accept it is an endless and unfinishable task.

I have come to the conclusion that mind can be used to help resolve emotional issues (ie. issues stored in the gut and heart), but not mind issues. When emotional issues are sufficiently resolved, the resulting energy is capable of resolving mental issues with no further attention from ourselves.

Wouldn't dismantling the conditioned responses be the necessary work?

I was curious what you meant exactly by this line from your earlier post "If we don't activate it, the Yushen(元神) can only do something in subconscious state." From the Chinese character it seems like you are using Yushen and YuanShen in the same way. Just to make sure, the YangShen then is equivalent to 'the pure yang', the 'yang lotus flower', the immortal spirit, the golden embryo, etc? And Yuan Shen is the energy that nurtures the YangShen, as well as finally clearing all negative thoughts and emotions and conditioning? Is it 'activated' Yuan Shen that circulates in the MCO?

Hi danteyun, thankyou for your recommendation, I haven't been able to get the translated book yet, but I've been busy and only had time to start trying to find a copy this morning. I found a brief summary in which the author of Zhong Lu Chuan Dao Ji refers to shen as the pure yang lotus flower that can finally free from the body, though the author of the summary notes that this is contradictory as the "Dan-sha should be the origin of the energy that could transform the body into the immortal state." Please could you explain Yushen briefly?

For a month or so I was very much 'in tune' and in the right place at the right time saying and doing exactly what was needed in relation to the people around me, but this state passed when certain specific circumstances changed. This was a time when I might have accepted that I really was responsible for everything, but I was also intuitively acting in the best interests of everyone at the time, including myself. The part missing for me in following the absolute responsibility theory without it being based on personal inner attainment is the intuitive ability to act in the best interests of everyone and myself. It's blind responsibility. I want to be led to the correct action, which happens with a strong connection to the subconscious/intuition, instead of just honing my ability to accept circumstances that I can't understand or control, and trusting that there is a reason, or conjuring a reason up. Say a lift is about to fail (or aeroplane, whatever), and without a strong connection to my subconscious intuition I could obliviously get on board and die with the other oblivious passengers, or I could find it impossible to get on that lift or plane, and recognise that I was fully responsible for not dying in that moment. In my perspective it is the intuition/subconscious connection that needs to be strengthened, not the blind ability to accept unconscious choices.

Is Shen the energy medium that allows the subconscious to be easily and clearly perceived by the conscious mind?

I can just see how this might be a useful philosophy to follow, though for myself I find it too broad right now, and unnecessarily challenging. I prefer to deal with dysfunction within myself as I come across it, and maybe when all of that is resolved I might understand the truth of ultimate responsibility, or maybe I will find another truth altogether.

Though I wouldn't have questioned statements like "all we can ever do is manage our own response as best we can" and "we can always try to make the best out of whatever circumstances we find ourselves in," I just didn't read your statement in this light. Taking 100% responsibility for everything that occurs in my life makes me think of taking 100% responsibility for any and all situations I'm part of occurring, responsibility for creating all experiences, maybe it does mean this still, or it doesn't?

Full responsibility for abuse suffered, for the devastation to self and family from war, for destruction of home and family from natural disasters?

More on the 'three brains' - how closely can this be related to the three dantians? Our findings indicate that there are three core prime functions for each of the three neural networks, or brains: GUT BRAIN PRIME FUNCTIONS Core Identity: A deep and visceral sense of core self, and determining at the deepest levels what is self versus not-self Self-Preservation: Protection of self, safety, boundaries, hungers, and aversions Mobilization: Motility, impulse for action, gutsy courage, and the will to act HEART BRAIN PRIME FUNCTIONS Emoting: Emotional processing (e.g., anger, grief, hatred, joy, happiness, etc.) Values: Processing what’s important to you and your priorities (and its relationship to the emotional strength of your aspirations, dreams, desires, etc.) Relational Affect: Your felt connection with others (e.g., feelings of love/hate/indifference, compassion/uncaring, like/dislike, etc.) HEAD BRAIN PRIME FUNCTIONS Cognitive Perception: Cognition, perception, pattern recognition, etc. Thinking: Reasoning, abstraction, analysis, synthesis, meta-cognition, etc. Making Meaning: Semantic processing, languaging, narrative, metaphor, etc. https://trainingmag.com/content/coaching-brains-our-head-heart-and-gut