Daoisme

Well Ive read about the tibetan rites but to me its not enough. I think these can be a small piece of maintaining optimal energy and posture aspects in the body but to me diet is more important.  I think its possible to accomplish immortality through natural processes but with the right knowledge. And Im hoping to find others with similar interest and familiarity with the topic.

Do pine nuts have similar properties ?

Thanks for chiming in and saying hello. I wish I were a teamaster

 

Yes, puerh is a very special tea, but so is dancong also a great favourite of mine. There are pretty amazing offerings out there with a lot of complexity and subtlety but unfortunately I can't afford any of them at the moment. If you are interested I can provide a link from a HK based company.

 

A longevity tea for all Tao Bums and anyone else lucky to stumble upon this thread (it uses Chinese herbs and not camellia sinensis):

 

Polygonum multiflorum root (he shou wu). 9-30g

Ginseng root (ren shen) Alternatively <i>dang shen (codonopsis root)</i> which is cheaper version (the root belongs to the same family as ginseng) but amounts need to be more or less doubled to get the same effect as ginseng. 1-9 g (ren shen) & 6-14 g (dang shen)

Dioscorea rhizome/Chinese yam (shan yao). 9-30 g

Lycii/wolf/goji berries (gou qi zi). 5-18 g

Cooked Rehmannia root (shu di huang). 9-30 g

Reishi mushroom/ganoderma lucidorum (ling zhi). 3-15 g

Sichuan Lovage rhizome (chuan xiong). 3-10 g

 

The dosages are for decoction. Start with a lower dose and adjust accordingly. Only for practitioners who know their bodies and minds really well, if you are unsure check with a TCM doctor so they can adjust the quantities accordingly.

 

Best

Very interesting, those are known to be good herbals on their own , am just wondering are they all compatible together in a decoction, since that's a lot of different substances, will there be any deleterious interactions?

Is there a benefit of high mountain teas vs regular teas, just wondering what kind of difference it makes as I'm sure it does make a difference in the chemical composition to some degree.

Teachers are human beings too they need money, also information is valuable so it makes sense for them to charge. However just because you're paying for it doesn't make it good knowledge, and just because some knowledge is free it can still be very valuable to know.

I thought it was just called "Yellow emperor" because the chinese words for King=> Huang Di  

Huang is translated to yellow. But Huang Di is more accurately just meaning "Emperor" as opposed to yellow emperor. (chinese emperors are supposed to wear the color yellow like a yellow robe etc)

And also it's likely that the book Huang Di Nei Jing has parts of different emperors knowledge and not solely from one emperor. 

We are having a sacred-geometrical disagreement here.

 

Jing in its material form (which is only a fraction of its overall function, that of ontogenic memory) is more or less the DNA, the genome, and zygotes; DNA and the genes propagate in all directions (in accordance with the expansive yang aspect of jing), while zygotes behave according to their yin or yang nature (that is, the yin ones sit still and the yang ones flow upward -- conception is not possible any other way due to the peculiarities of female anatomy. That's why the spermatozoons have tails and use them too, very vigorously. The egg doesn't -- she doesn't need it, she's not going anywhere, she's sitting there waiting for the prince's kiss to wake up. )

 

However, taoist alchemy the real thing is not aimed at reversing the flow of material jing, and is not after pumping any of it toward the head. This, transmutation of jing to qi to shen, is an upward-directed process that IS the "flowing downstream" metaphorically but "flowing upstream" directionally, the actual geometry of the process is upward-bound, jing fizzles out into qi and qi into shen by the very process of living (or at least "civilized" living taoism was designed to correct) -- we use up the jing this way, we die. "The whisk still burns brightly when it has absorbed the last drop of the oil from the lamp, not knowing there's no more, not knowing it's dead."

 

The Western term that roughly catches this process of transformation of vital aliveness to some "higher" -- physically higher, in the head -- purposes and ideas and accomplishments is "sublimation." What do we "sublimate" when we write poetry, solve mathematical problems, or contemplate the mysteries of the universe? Our vital force. What do we turn it into when we do? Puff... into out-of-body stuff.

 

So, the goal of alchemy is bring it back INTO the body. No more puff. Gather shen and direct it down, to qi. Gather qi and direct it down, to jing. This is very uniquely taoist, by the way. Everybody else is pumping the head with what-not. Taoists are after a lighter head, taoists work on reversing the process of getting top heavy... This is done with ALL taoist practices, not just alchemy. E.g., taiji. Ever wondered why there isn't a single high level taiji master in existence who's bulked up the upper body and arms, and instead they all have the legs of a horse? Nah, you don't drag things up in taoism, they've been dragged way up by the whole process of un-taoing as it is... So, you don't want stuff to go FROM the kidneys INTO the heart-head (or, the way they put it in translations, heart-mind... Li, in other words.) No. You want to do the opposite. You want to drag the Li DOWN to meet Kan, not vice versa...

 

...well, at least at the stage of alchemy that will take a minimum of the first decade... what happens next is different, but the common mistake of starting at the "next" stage, taking an alchemical shortcut, is one hundred percent unproductive...

 I know this was a while ago ,  but I thought this was interesting...    Was well written  although I have a few questions and disagreements.   Hopefully we can discuss this more.

There are many agreements but I want to bring up a few points of debate.

First of all is it really fair to say that SHEN is downstream from QI?  (it does seem evident that jing is most upstream that I agree)

Second, you mention the yang aspect of jing as a moving force however there is also an issue here....

Yang Contracts (yang generates but is not expansive) (salt is very yang),  Yin expands (but doesn't generate).  This is one of the fundamentals of yin and yang.  I think a more accurate characterization of jing is that yang is the contractile element that maintains the yin moisture. Jing is a case of perfect yang and yin tightly wound together.    yang QI , that's the moving force.

Third also Id be interested in hearing about how alchemy and the different stages you mentioned at the end play together    And what you call "rowing backwards" is very interesting topic too whether relating to qigong or other alchemy related things, hopefully we can bounce ideas off each other relating to this

Supplementation is what you make of it. If used correctly in conjunction with a healthful diet/mindset it is can be something for which there is no supplement for.... as of present times

Also supplements can fall into different categories such as fixing a deficiency,  or something that boosts adaptive energy. So to say something dismissive of all supplements is a bit harsh

I think what you mentioned about breathing and herbs will have the effect of slowing the aging process as does many things.  It's might not stop aging but it will have some effect.

The passage about the Shendan and jinye (mercury and gold water) if understood literally then toxic, if not literally then very elusive. 

Also becoming an alchemist can mean relating to herbs too. In which case I would agree

Thank you for the warm welcome

Hello I'm here to learn more about and discuss about the many areas of Daoism