Nintendao

Alchemists be like:

Hey now that's pretty good! It's like i always say: if you need to get potty-trained, would you rather find someone who can pick you up and put you on the throne, or hand you a book about how digestion works? Likewise if you like to drive cars, put your foot on the pedal and turn the wheel. Don't talk about pistons and crankshafts and fossil fuel distillation. Then someone who only ever owned an electric car comes along and says "why are y'all talking about fossils? That has absolutely nothing do with cars. Then goes on to talk about lithium ions and three phase induction motors.

Yup the truly oldschool can still receive the goods directly from the gods. And yes caring for ones ancestors can be a big part of that. Why do you think Lao Tsu's whole deal was about growing the dé? It wasn't until around a thousand years ago when TCM became advanced to where scholars cross-referenced the Yijing with the Zangfu (not entirely unlike something the AI might pull..) and discovered a way to survive sneaking into the Forbidden Kingdom. Dragons are even older than all that. When you're a dragon, all you really need is breathe

True story but in neidan "deviation" refers to qi sickness not just style variations. Basically people do the practice wrong or too aggressively and get injured or go insane.

Anyway 😇 since this is meant to be a thread about practice, not theory, guess what is also a fantastic combination of body and mind (or even energy and spirit.) One that too often gets disregarded these days. Chanting the scriptures Rhythmic singing naturally creates its own kind of breathing exercise, and sound vibrations have known uses for cleansing and alignment. As well memorizing and contemplating the subject matter, has benefits for the mind in both an obvious and mysterious capacity. https://archive.org/details/wudang-mountain-daoist-temple-chanting-morning-evening-liturgy

Nah man i genuinely wondered what it said! Google and Bing were giving me some subtle yet significant differences, and my own scrutinization was turning up even deeper.

Finally someone has mentioned xing. Or is that ming. I always mix them up. A slightly less obscure translation might be disposition 性, and direction 命.

could you spare an example?

@ChiDragon, what would you say is the meaning of this line from the 悟真篇 Wuzhenpian? 人人盡有長生藥，自是愚迷枉擺拋。

Life, Death, is like that why collect if not to give when ripe, the fruit falls

careful.. 養生 Yǎngshēng is for fitness and nutrition. The yangshenggong mentioned is various life-prolonging exercise. 陽神 Yángshén is part of the mobilized light body, e.g. what someone might see floating above your head after you've practiced for ten thousand hours.

As long as the scan is taking into account which direction attention is moving. Either pooling (☵ 坎) or dispersing (☲ 離). What the training does is to be able to discern the difference, as well as develop a propensity toward pooling. The timer and journal are also important.

Set a timer for two minutes. Close your eyes and observe your internal environment with as many of your senses as you can. Just look and be attentive. Train your energy to pool inwards instead of disperse outwards. The outside can wait. The timer will let you know when to wrap up. Practice at least once every day. Increase the amount of time when you want to. Keep track of your progress on any kind of calendar or journal that suits you. That's it. That's the practice. But Nintendao, all you've described is a most basic form of meditation. Don't you have to kan li your yuan qi to xing ming the xuan guan? Yes. Yes you do.

I'm not entirely sure what i meant 😅 I was typing while half asleep and then went and dreamed about sharpening a pencil. One of those old fashioned crank sharpeners from school, with the toothy cylinders on either side of the blade that grind up the shavings.

wow, good job! now, are you ready to get to work?