Geof Nanto

I totally agree with you about the importance of myth. Jung writes extensively on it and one of his key projects was to bring back to life the stagnant Christian myth which has become moribund through the rigid dogma of the church. My own personal myth is something slowly being revealed to me. I too was brought up in an atheistic household and have only come to appreciate the richness of religion because of its relevance to my own inner experience. But I’ll say no more now on this topic of vital importance to me other than, for me, the channel that allows heartfelt contact in the sense you’re referring to as prayer, is what Daoists call xuanpin. I plan on slowly adding more content to the topic I’ve started by that name in the Daoist section. So far, when posting material there, I've felt like I'm being at my most authentic.

This post of yours has stayed in the back of my mind for two main reasons, namely your use of the term ‘spiritual certainties’, and your comment on the concealed dualism of Christian monotheism. I’ve heard said that almost everyone comes to religion looking for the certainty it brings, and only a tiny few come looking for deeper truths. Jung has given me certainty of a special kind; the knowledge that working with uncertainty is intrinsic to the path of finding wholeness. What he's given me is a conceptual framework that embraces uncertainty and gives tools to navigate my way through it. To gain an overview of Jung’s complex insights and the terminology he uses to describe them, such as ‘the unconscious’, ‘archetypes’, ‘individuation’ etc, a person needs to read his works. And, of course, no need to do this unless one feels drawn to him. He develops his themes over the course of many decades and makes no attempt to simplify or systemise because, as he himself expressed it: “The language I speak must be ambiguous, must have two meanings, in order to do justice to the dual aspect of our psychic nature. I strive quite consciously and deliberately for ambiguity of expression, because it is superior to unequivocalness and reflects the nature of life. My whole temperament inclines me to be very unequivocal indeed. That is not difficult, but it would be at the cost of truth. I purposely allow all the overtones and undertones to be heard, partly because they are there anyway, and partly because they give a fuller picture of reality. Unequivocalness makes sense only in establishing facts but not in interpreting them; for ‘meaning’ is not a tautology but always includes more in itself than the concrete object of which it is predicated. “ He conceived of our psyche (mind in the greater sense) as a system of energy flows and for energy to flow there needs to be polarity. Thus, like Daoism, he focused on gaining insight into the polar opposites that energise our psyche. And these polar opposites form the bedrock of our mostly unconscious psyche and must be felt and embraced with insight to find wholeness; the Self. “The unconscious is not just evil by nature, it is also the source of the highest good: not only dark but also light, not only bestial, semihuman, and demonic but superhuman, spiritual, and, in the classical sense of the word, ‘divine’.” Compare this to what he says about God: All opposites are of God, therefore man must bend to this burden; and in so doing he finds that God in his 'oppositeness' has taken possession of him, incarnated himself in him. He becomes a vessel filled with divine conflict. We rightly associate the idea of suffering with a state in which the opposites violently collide with one another, and we hesitate to describe such a painful experience as being ‘redeemed'. Yet it cannot be denied that the great symbol of the Christian faith, the Cross, upon which hangs the suffering figure of the Redeemer, has been emphatically held up before the eyes of Christians for nearly two thousand years. This picture is completed by the two thieves, one of whom goes down to hell, the other into paradise. One could hardly imagine a better representation of the ‘oppositeness’ of the central Christian symbol. Why this inevitable product of Christian psychology should signify redemption is difficult to see, except that the conscious recognition of the opposites, painful though it may be at the moment, does bring with it a definite feeling of deliverance. It is on the one hand a deliverance from the distressing state of dull and helpless unconsciousness, and on the other hand a growing awareness of God's oppositeness, in which man can participate if he does not shrink from being wounded by the dividing sword which is Christ. Only through the most extreme and most menacing conflict does the Christian experience deliverance into divinity, always provided that he does not break, but accepts the burden of being marked out by God. In this way alone can the imago Dei realize itself in him, and God become man.

Some travelling musicians are in the process of making a video of how the community where I live is recovering from the massive November 2019 forest fire. Here’s the preview clip they’ve made about their project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kxt2cczgWY Watching it brought tears to my eyes. People here have lost so much yet our sense of community remains strong. I wrote this post earlier on this thread in the immediate aftermath of the fire. At that stage I wasn’t aware of the full extent of property loss in the area. The devastation was much worse than I realised then; I even understated the number of houses lost along the road I live on. A good many of the houses destroyed had been lovingly built by their owners over many years and were like works of art.

I've edited it out with a comment that hopefully allows the conversation to flow okay without altering any subsequent posts.

If you care to read my original post on this topic you will see I greatly admire feral cats. But I’m also fully aware of the damage they do to native wildlife. That’s a dilemma I live with as someone who maintains my land as a wildlife sanctuary. Feral cats have again become wildlife. Stunningly so. And I admire all wildlife. My other focus in posting here is on the psychology of people’s reaction to cats, especial hatred. That video gives some insight into this. No way is this a straightforward, black and white subject. However, if Taomeow would like me to take down that video I will do so as I consider it her right to make this request because she is the person who started this topic. I consider all topic starters have a right to make such a request for the removal of content which they consider inappropriate to the spirit of their topic. (I also feel each individual member has the right to either comply or not with such requests,)

The title photo gives a good idea. I posted it because it’s important for me to acknowledge that this is going on in Australia. Yet I can neither condemn or condone it. I understand the reasons the feral cat cull is part of Australian conservation policy. As the video makes clear, Australia’s native wildlife have no defences against a predator as smart as a cat. And it’s estimated there’s between 2 and 6 million of them. For people like myself who live in areas where wildlife is abundant, killing is not something remote like it is for many city people. People on the land have to deal with it all the time. But I wouldn’t like to have people like those hunters featured in the video for neighbours, especially not the old guy whose house is decorated with cat skins. He even wears cat skin clothes. Hunting cats for him seemingly has a far deeper significance than merely dealing with the native wildlife predation problem. A perverse form of love? I explored such psychology a little in a previous post, as did you and Luke with your insightful replies. “Cats are just about the closest thing most people can observe in their lives to nature wild and free. The yearning for the impossible, and moreover unidentifiable -- because nothing in their experience has taught them to consciously articulate those amorphous dissatisfactions -- can manifest as defensive rejection of whoever has what they need but can't have.” Note, the old guy has the cats in a form over which he has total control, namely dead as cat skin clothes and a house full of cat skins. He even makes them into what for him are artworks. But overall, Australia is a relatively peaceful and compassionate country. At this time and continuously there are people all over the world who have been deemed feral and are likewise hunted out and eliminated. Muslims especially. And the USA is the world’s most powerful predator in this regard. That too is important to acknowledge.

Video removed for the reasons Taomeow outlines here.

Agreed. The Yijing has consistently given me wise guidance over the decades of my inner cultivation. I have no doubts from my experience with it that far more is involved than activation of my own intuition. However, I'm content to leave what's behind it as a mystery.

Yes, for me too. The best insight I’ve gained into this is from Carl Jung with his concept of the anima – the feminine soul of a hetero-spiritual man. (Conversely, a hetero-spiritual woman has a masculine soul which he called her animus.) These are archetypal forces and hence can never be known because they are the living ‘building blocks’ of our psyche. We can only feel their effects acting from within ourselves. And for me, that anima effect has been the most powerful driving force in my life – and far and away the most meaningful one too. When the anima is projected outwards onto a woman, then ‘she’ entangles us in the world of illusion. (And, of course, also makes it impossible to see the woman as the person she is.) Yet for me, and for most people who are destined to walk this path, that’s the only way forward; obsessive love the only way to connect with this vital source of life and wholeness, our soul. Here’s a heartfelt lament of where projecting the anima outwards can lead: Townes Van Zandt - Rex's Blues Ride the blue wind high and free She'll lead you down through misery Leave you low, come time to go Alone and low as low can be And if I had a nickel, I'd find a game If I won a dollar, I'd make it rain If it rained an ocean, I'd drink it dry And lay me down dissatisfied It's legs to walk and thoughts to fly Eyes to laugh and lips to cry A restless tongue to classify All born to grow and grown to die So tell my baby I said so long Tell my mother I did no wrong Tell my brother to watch his own Tell my friends to mourn me none Chained upon the face of time Feeling full of foolish rhyme There ain't no dark till something shines I'm bound to leave this dark behind Ride the blue wind high and free She'll lead you down through misery Leave you low, come time to go Alone and low as low can be That’s ‘her’ power; can lead to suicide. But, for me, Jung’s and Daoist alchemical insights have shown me the way forward; of how the manifestation of this archetypal force can be transmuted into my inner guide. Projected outwards the anima is ultimately destructive; found inwardly she becomes the only true guide into the beautiful and savage world of the divine: Ride the wild wind high and free She'll lead you out of misery Easy to understand in theory; a long yet deeply meaningful struggle for me to begin to actualise as real inner experience.

Losing my friend Jim still feels very raw to me. Left to my own intention, I would have been content to have that post of mine about his death hidden amongst the wild cats rather than highlighted as a separate topic. However, I do appreciate that such people deserve wider acknowledgement and I may (or may not) have more to say about that at a later date. For now though, I’ll leave the topic with you. That sounds exactly like Jim.

What sort of books do you think cats would like to read? How about this one: "The Cat is a Romanian fairy tale of some complexity and great charm. It is the story of a princess who at the age of 17 is bewitched – turned into a cat. She must remain in that form until an emperor's son will come and cut off her head. Eventually a simple-minded emperor's son, searching the earth for fine linen, finds her and accomplishes the task. How and why this happens is patiently dissected by von Franz with her characteristic erudition and earthy humour. One by one Dr. von Franz unravels the symbolic threads in this story, from enchantment to beating, the ringing of bells, golden apples, somersaults, witches, etc., and, throughout, the great themes of redemption and the union of opposites, always relating them to both individual and collective psychology. This is Marie-Louise von Franz at her very best, theoretically lucid, sharply insightful and grounded in lived experience." I read this book some time ago. Here’s an extract: I don't know how cats would react to having so much mythology projected onto them. With indifference I suspect.

I laughed out loud when I read that. Thanks. It’s been a heavy few weeks here where I live. A good friend of mine took his own life a few weeks ago. We held a commemorative service for him in our community hall yesterday. He lost everything that he'd built up over the last 40 years of living here during the massive 2019 fire and felt too old at 70 to start again. And his health wasn't good. Although I've felt deeply saddened, I know he was always a person who chose his own path in life. He thought about his options carefully and he decided he could no longer live the active lifestyle he wanted on the land he loved. He was someone who was connected to his land with his heart, belly and bones. Yet because of a complex set of reasons that involved the betrayal of his trust in an old friend, he was being forced off his land. He chose to die there rather than to leave. That's him and his cabin. As you can see, he's become part of the land. The property he lived on was over 2000 acres, mostly forested. I felt a heart connection with him, because, like me, his natural temperament was to live a semi-reclusive lifestyle. He built up a small timber mill over the years and he supplied beautifully sawn hardwood to local owner builders for minimal cost. He worked entirely by himself and was extremely conservation minded with his tree felling. All the building work I've done here has been with his timber. He would only supply timber to people he respected and delivered it exactly according to his own timetable. That might be in a week or it could be several months. But when he delivered it he would stay and help with any building work that needed an extra pair of hands. He was never in a rush and was the least materialistic person I’ve ever met. No way could you buy his services with money. He chose who and when he’d supply. And although he milled timber and helped many people built substantial houses, he himself was totally satisfied with his small cabin.

I read this article a while back about the backlash against a botched attempt at the culling of a cat colony in a regional city several hundred kilometres from where I live. While the deliberate killing of any animal provokes strong emotional responses in many people, with cats that seems more so. They seem to inspire either extreme love or extreme hatred. Dogs for instance inspire great love but rarely, if ever, hatred (although fear of dogs is not uncommon.) In the forested area where I live there are some feral cats. I don’t think there are many and, in any case, they know how to keep themselves invisible. In the 20 plus years I’ve lived here I’ve only rarely seen them, and usually only brief glimpses because they turn tail and disappear into the undergrowth the instant they see me. However, once when I was sitting in total stillness in the forest, one made its way slowly to within a few metres of where I was sitting. It didn’t sense me and I marvelled at the rare privilege of observing it up close. A cat out hunting for prey in the wild is a magnificent sight to watch. I felt mesmerised by how it moved, it’s whole being alive with contained power. They are superb animals, graceful, silent, and totally at one with their forest environment. Yet many of the conservationists here have what seems like a phobic aversion to them. Rationally they frame arguments around the amount of native wildlife one cat will kill each day. And there’s truth in this. (I maintain my land as a wildlife refuge so I’m well aware of these arguments.) Yet their strongly emotional response speaks of something far deeper stirring within their psyche. Such emotion is totally absent when talking about the problem of other feral animals that kill native animals, such as dogs or pigs, for instance. What’s behind this deep aversion to cats? I have some ideas but am interested in other people’s insights.

For anyone with an interest in the formative history of neidan and Chinese Buddhism, I highly recommend this well researched and very readable essay by Kevin Buckelew. Until I read it, I had no idea of the Buddhist antecedents for cultivation realities I thought were unique to both Chinese and Western alchemy. Here’s the opening paragraph: From the fifth century through the present day, Chinese Buddhists have discussed the need for aspirants seeking liberation to “nurture the embryo of sagehood” (yang shengtai 養聖胎). On its surface, this understudied but widespread trope might seem puzzling: Buddhist liberation is typically understood to be a matter of enlightenment, not embodiment. Fetal gestation, moreover, is cast in many Buddhist scriptures as emblematizing bondage to cyclical rebirth. So what are we to make of this expression? Is it just a metaphor? https://www.kevinbuckelew.info/s/Buckelew-Pregnant-Metaphor.pdf The essay also has a comprehensive section titled, The Embryo of Sagehood in Daoist Inner Alchemy. While the focus of some of the author’s conclusions is very different from mine as a practitioner, the research is excellent. I especially liked reading the abundant quotations from early Chinese practitioners. I found plenty of insights that parallel and hence reinforce and expand my own.

I agree with that about rationality and Jung definitely would too. His project was to boost conscious understanding of our human psyche through rational science to give us insight into our hidden selves so that our sense of self as individuals could withstand an encounter with what he calls the unconscious. He uses the term ‘unconscious’ to get away from language loaded with Christian baggage such as ‘Godhead.’ Another term for it could be ‘Dao’, Sunyata’, or the Divine. But whatever it is, it’s vast and powerfully alive with content foreign to our ego-bound rational selves, and hence dangerous territory for an unprepared human psyche. It is infinitely greater than we humans and stands in opposition to the contemporary image of ourselves as rational beings fully in charge of our own destiny. That’s why culturally we’ve gone to so much trouble to suppress it. Yet that’s the world spiritual practice must open us to. And that's the way he saw to heal the split within our psyche and regain wholeness. One of Jung’s points is that the spiritual practices of the East were developed by people whose psyche was still intimately connected with the world of the gods, of magic and superstition. Hence their practices didn’t need to develop these attributes but rather refine the real from the illusion. Whereas we contemporary people need practices to reconnect us with a genuine, felt connection with the Divine. Hence, he considers Eastern practices that tell people to cut off these connections because they are illusions are like poison for contemporary people who have only shadowy, suppressed inklings of these non-rational realties in the first place and would nothing better like to be told they don’t exist.

Jung wrote at length about this split in the psyche between the East and West, or, more correctly the split rationality and the dominance of science had introduced into our western psyche that had not occurred in the East. Because of it, he was adamant that Westerner’s should not practice Eastern arts such as Indian or Chinese yoga. This was despite his great admiration for the fruits of Eastern spirituality. I get the impression you are also coming to some similar realisations about a fundamental problem with contemporary spirituality; a problem that’s increasingly worldwide as the world becomes more and more homogenous. Jung has written many words on the subject. Here’s an essay of his titled Yoga and the West which he wrote in 1936. It's taken me decades of practice to feel within myself exactly what he's getting at and how fundamentally important it is. Although some of it may read as dated, the crux of it is more relevant than ever.

A poem, xuanpin born, by William Butler Yeats: THE SONG OF THE WANDERING AENGUS I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout. When I had laid it on the floor I went to blow the fire aflame, But something rustled on the floor, And someone called me by my name: It had become a glimmering girl With apple blossom in her hair Who called me by my name and ran And faded through the brightening air. Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun. (Aengus, an Eros, is the god of love and beauty from the Celtic mythology of Ireland and Scotland.)

Thanks for the replies @Creationand @Wilhelm. Daoist lineages are only something peripheral to my interest so I don’t want to get bogged down on that complex topic. Nor do I have any problems with Damo Mitchell. From what I know of him, he is an awesome teacher. And if you guys are happy with him, I say stick with him. And if someone else prefers a different teaching, I say stay with that and don’t be concerned with disputation (except if a person wishes to increase their knowledge through research during the debate, hone their disputation skills, or gain a glimpse of aspects of their own hidden shadow by noting what emotions are stirred up. All of which, to my mind, are legitimate aspects of xing practice when undertaken with an attitude of learning. I personally have benefited from all these in this brief engagement with the topic. ) I get the impression that Damo has developed his own approach based on his thorough grounding in a number of different traditional practices. I like that. I’d call his school syncretic and in that he continues the way Daoism has evolved over the last two millennia. He is very much a part of ongoing Daoist syncretism. From the Encyclopedia of Taoism: To say Damo’s lineage connections are Longman (Dragon Gate) paints a very broad canvas. There’s an excellent essay on the Longman lineage available as a free pdf download on the Golden Elixir website. Here’s an extract from the conclusion (my bold): As we have seen, the Longmen lineage enjoyed a time of great development since Wang Changyue, in the early Qing period, transmitted the precepts and gathered followers at the Baiyun guan in Beijing, and then in Nanjing, Hangzhou, Huzhou, and Mount Wudang. The time of greatest flourishing occurred between the mid-17th and the early 19th centuries. This period saw the multiplication of Longmen branches, many of which have continued to be transmitted until the present day. For this reason, Longmen was the most prosperous Taoist lineage in the last part of premodern China, and almost came to represent the whole of Quanzhen. Its prominence is comparable to the prominence of the Linji School among the five schools of Chan Buddhism. This is why a saying goes, “Linji and Longmen have divided the world between themselves” In addition to inheriting the doctrines of its mother lineage, Quanzhen, the Longmen lineage is also widely known for its Neidan (Internal Alchemy) teachings. Among its disciples we find many famous authors of Neidan works, including Wu Shouyang, Xie Ningsu Liu Huayang, the above-mentioned Liu Yiming, and Min Yide. Their works on Neidan follow the earlier texts but also expand upon them, and compared to them are clearer and more detailed. Unlike early Quanzhen, whose center was in the North, the center of the Longmen transmission was Jiangnan [broadly, the present-day provinces of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang.], and thus Longmen could not avoid receiving the influence of Zhengyi (Correct Unity), the typical form of Daoism in the South. In fact, we can see a trend towards the merging of Longmen and Zhengyi….. With this long post and associated linked articles I'm very happy to bow out of this discussion.

Outside of all the disputation here, I can’t understand why you all seem to agree that Damo’s teaching is Northern School. I’m not a student of his, but from his writing and videos he’s all about starting with qi work and that’s ming practice. Freeform too has mentioned on more than one occasion that his practice centres on qi cultivation. That’s obvious from his posts. This is Nanzong (Southern Lineage) stuff. As has been mentioned, Nanzong’s doctrines are traditionally summed up in the phrase xianming houxing (“first vital force then inner nature”). Whereas the Northern Lineage (Beizong) begins with meditation and claims that ming will be reinforced naturally. That’s definitely not Damo or freeform. Sure, from what they write, they both understand the importance of cultivating both ming and xing (xingming shuangxiu, or "conjoined cultivation of xing and ming") but most definitely do not start with xing. (There’s a comprehensive article by Fabrizio Pregadio on the Goldern Elixir website titled, The Northern and Southern Lineages of Neidan. ) Am I missing something here? I’m genuinely interested to know why you don’t see these practices as ming first. I’ve always taken that they are as an unquestioned given.

I’d like to hear more of your story if you care to share it.

Thanks for all the mushroom info. I found goldtop photos on the web like the ones you’ve shown, but also ones like mine. That’s why I thought I’d check. That road looks well and truly blocked. At least it seems there's access some way around for the tanker to get in. I thought you might have to get food supplies delivered by helicopter for a while. Being cut off like that from your normal town trips must be starting to feel a bit tedious now the novelty of the situation has worn off, especially while not having web or phone reception. What’s happened with that? I can’t imagine the phone tower was flood affected. And they normally fix them pronto.

Yeah, I got the impression you were speaking from local hands-on experience. I live on the southern fringe of the Northern Rivers region. My land fronts the Nymboida River about 5km from the tiny village of Nymboida. I also got the impression from the wording on your post that you no longer live there, and, going on the times of your posts, maybe not even in in Australia?

Thanks for all the feedback. Those mushrooms have gone now, dissolved back into the earth. The heavy rain finished them off. But they’ll be back. And I accept Dhammabum's confident assertion that they are definitely not goldtops. @Taomeow I'll watch that video later. There's often mushrooms springing up here after rain and I've wondered if any of them are OK to eat as normal food but as yet I have tried none of them due to my ignorance of ID methods. Nungali seems to have disappeared again too. I suspect from his OP that he’s engaging in some serious partying. That’s not for me. I’ve used various drugs when I was younger including acid. That period culminated in a massive heroin habit and with my life in shambles; homeless, near death. That was a long time ago now and I haven’t used any type of drug or alcohol since 1985. However, I have no regrets about that period of my life. In retrospect, I can see how I needed these extreme drug psychic experiences, including intense suffering, to break through my conditioning and give me deeper insight into the nature of reality. Even during the early stages of my addiction, I had belief in myself as a competent person in charge of my destiny. I was a total non-believer then, an atheist, a rational materialist. I also suspect from how the chain of events that led me to heroin fell into place so smoothly, that Spirit guided me onto that path as the most effective way for Spirit to break through my shields of conditioning and self-belief. It came about of itself following from my initial conscious motive to follow whatever gave me pleasure and to keep doing it until I no longer gained pleasure from it. In other words, to actively follow my heart, to follow what I desired until I no longer desired it. However, I found out with painful certainty that addiction is a powerful beast, far more powerful than my will. Now, after decades of new learning and inner work, I’m very content with my life here where nature is still strong. I spend most of my days on landcare and maintenance work around my place. It's 75 acres, mostly forested but with several acres of sparsely treed grassland that I maintain around my house and studio. There’s always plenty to do and I find the contact with nature very grounding. I use it as a counterpoint to my interaction on Dao Bums – one as important as the other. A typical day for me sees me outside doing stuff and regularly coming inside and checking out activity on this forum. I read much more than I post, often without logging in. This forum has helped me enormously with my inner cultivation over the years of my membership. Although community is strong in the area where I live and I have neighbours I know I can call on for help if I need to, it’s only here that people discuss what’s most important in my life. It’s early morning now, a beautiful, mild, sunny autumn day, and I’m about to go outside and chainsaw up some large branches that have fallen down near my studio. It's located about 200 metres from my house. I’ll then gather them into a pile for burning.

I’m OK. We missed the worst of it here. I was flooded in for several days but can get into town now if I want to. However, I have plenty of food and have no need to go anywhere. I like it when the road is blocked. Instead of the three or four cars passing my place on a normal day, there is no traffic at all. And I'm used to being flooded in. I sent you an email over a week ago with photos attached saying: “A number of these mushrooms of a variety I haven't had here before have sprouted on my place during this wet spell. I wondered if they are goldtops? I've never used mushrooms and I'm not about to start now, but I am curious to know. I hope you're coping OK with this extended wet period; judging from the weather radar, even wetter for you than for me here.” Having received no answer to my email, and your absence from posting here made me wonder if you were OK. I’m relieved that you are.

I wrote something relevant to this discussion in a post on a previous topic and Nungali wrote an insightful commentary on it: The term ‘shen ming’ has many associations in Daoism. The usage that most interests me is Shen Ming as bright spirits. These sun-like ‘shining ones’, mentioned in the mythologies of many cultures, have what seems to we humans as infinite compassion and wisdom. They can be felt ‘inside’ but have an objective existence of their own and live in realms of subtler energies. Beginning with the Neiye, various Daoist writings suggests they will come to us if we cleanse our heart-minds. Perhaps this is true. I’d say it’s a mystery why they make themselves known to some people but not others. The Shen Ming choose, not us. They are definitely not at our beck and call. The Shen Ming do not want us to worship them, nor do they want dependence. They reveal glimpses of themselves only to show their existence. They may give us guidance when absolutely necessary but mostly leave us to find our own way. It’s like they’re there but always just out of reach. Hence, their presence feels like it’s always receding. What the Shen Ming want is for people who are on this path of shen ming realisation is for each of us to cultivate ourselves so that the seed of our own unique Shen Ming will find suitable nourishment to germinate and grow within us. That germinated seed is known as the Golden Embryo or Golden Elixir. Once grown to maturity our Shen Ming can leave the womb of our body and exist independently in the realm where other Shen Ming live. I suspect this happens at the time of bodily death for those rare few who succeed with such profound cultivation. But our embryonic Shen Ming can only grow to maturity in so much as we are able to nourish it with the pure essence of the wisdom (xing) we’ve gained through a thorough engagement with life. Without this hard-won wisdom essence – a wisdom that’s been emptied of ego and desire; this profound compassion born of a lifetime’s struggle – we would have nothing to offer the realm of the Shen Ming. Working with qi alone can never give us this but it can give us a solid basis (ming) from which to proceed in our engagement with life.