gnome

On Shaolin Temple's Official webstie (Shaolin.org.cn) this article is featured:

"Yi Jin Jing and Xi Sui Jing

Yi Jin Jing (Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic) and Xi Sui Jing (Tendon Transformation and Marrow-Purification Classic) the legendary Bodhidharma's timeless classics have been considered as Treasure Arts of Songshan Shaolin Temple.

1. Begin the regeneration of the Body [Chin.: Yìjīnjīng 易筋经]

Bodhidharma's Yi Jin Jing [Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic] is a relatively intense form of exercise that aims at strengthening the muscles and tendons, so promoting strength and flexibility, speed and stamina, balance and coordination of the body. These exercises are notable for being a key element of the physical conditioning used in Shaolin training.

The Yi Jin Jing taught the Shaolin Monks how to build their internal energy [Qi] to an abundant level and use it to improve health and change their physical bodies from weak to strong. After the Monks practiced the Yi Jin Jing exercises, they found that not only did they improve their health, but also they also greatly increased their strength.

When this training was integrated into the martial arts forms, it increased their martial techniques. This change marked one more step in the growth of the Shaolin Martial Arts.

Yi Jin Jing it is a mixture of Yoga and Kalaripayattu, an ancient Indian Martial Art from Kalari. Kalaripayattu philosophy is Dharma - Yuddha [War of Truth]. A Dharma - Yuddha begins only if the fighter touches his Masters right hand with his right hand and his opponent chest and hand. This move means that the fight can begin only through the mind and if only heart approved it. Maybe it is not a coincidence that one of the First Shaolin Martial arts named Xin Yi Quan [Heart through mind boxing].

The basis of these works, the physical drills, were called 18 Luohan Arts [Chin.: shíbā luóhàn shù十八罗汉术] and were incorporated into the Shaolin Qi Gong and martial arts [what became known as Shaolin Wu Gong] training of the times. Number of these physical drills tends to change, 18 should be the correct one [according to the 18 Luohans], but can vary from 10 to 24, to 30.

2. Begin the regeneration of the jing [Chin.: xǐsuǐjīng洗髓经]

Bodhidharma's Xi Sui Jing [Tendon-Transformation and Marrow-Purification] is one of the most revered internal Wugong exercises of the Shaolin Monastery. Practicing Bodhidharma's Xi Sui Jing cleanses and purifies not only the body but also the mind through the regulation and enhancement of the body's internal energy [Qi], blood, fluids, and nutrients.

The Xi Sui Jing taught the Shaolin Monks how to use their own Qi to clean their bone marrow and strengthen their immune system, as well as how to nourish and energize the brain, helping them to attain Buddhahood. Because the Xi Sui Jing was hard to understand and practice, the training methods were passed down secretly to only a very few disciples in each generation of Shaolin Monks.

Xi Sui Jing meaning can be inferred from Buddha's word.

"All life is endowed with the essence of Buddha. Bodily desires and emotions induce the folly of ignorance and attachment, the deception by the "three fires"(greed, anger and illusion), and other polluting ideas, thus precipitating the distinction between the suffering minds of ordinary people and those who have attained Buddhahood. To achieve the state of Buddhahood all righteous men and women must dispatch all illusions and attachments and the entire body must be thoroughly cleansed of obstructions and contaminates."

The practice of this technique not only makes it possible to reinforce the muscles, the ligaments and the bones, but it also makes it possible to purify the marrow, from where the origin of its name.

It exerts a real influence on the prevention and the improvement of chronic diseases such as the depression, gastritis acute or chronic, disease of the respiratory system or cardiovascular, weakness of the kidneys, pathology of the vertebrae, arthritis, impotence, etc. It is advised to practice it after having assimilated the "Yi Jin jing".

By Shaolin Master Shi Yan Zhuo

Head Master of the Greek Shaolin Temple Cultural Center"

 - Although I'm skeptic about the kalaripayatu connection, as it seems far fetched, the quote of Buddha did rung a bell to me, since whereas I can practice Yi Jin Jing without working much or anything in removing the "three fires", as the quote says, since YJJ is more physical than spiritual, Xi Sui Jing had a profound effect on me and I had to drop it. Either I wasn't ready energetically or the "three fires" really became like fire (since I couldn't overcome them at the time). That said, I wouldn't recommend Xi Sui Jing to a beginner obviously. Rather leave it for when if you ever reach like a spiritual strength pinnacle when you can remove all spiritual and phsyical obstacles or something, and sitck just to YJJ. After all, if Xi Sui Jing is really more of an advanced spiritual practice, related, as the article said, to Buddhahood, it is the same as saying that it's only for those that are fit on the path to Enlightenment and even Moksha, liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. If this is true, it is definitly not for the common person still dealing with its spiritual and phsysical weaknessess and with lots of material attachments. Sometimes we dive into something thinking it's no big deal, and that we know it all, and in turn it ends up owning you. That is why there are monks, and laymen, and I know that now.

On 20/04/2018 at 6:06 PM, ralis said:

 

No one existed 5000 years ago?

We're going in circles here, let me repeat myself:

- Genesis is a myth;

- Science can't explain everything. That's all.

12 hours ago, ralis said:

 

The Adam and Eve myth is just that, a myth. The earth is around 4.5 billion years old and the first human ancestors appeared circa 5-7 million years ago. 

No one said it wasn't a myth. Of course it is, even a layman can see it's a metaphor.

Science is based on theories though,.no one ever saw the world back 5000 years ago. It all hangs on a thread.

1 hour ago, Nungali said:

 

Adam and Eve were Jewish too  .

 

Yeah :-) technically only Abraham was the first 'hebrew'. Adam and Eve were the parents of all Mankind.

I agree that Daoism in the pursuit of pleasure draws closer to Epicurianism than it does to Hedonism. Even in Plato's books is repeatedly implied the pleasure drawn from a virtuous, spiritual oriented life (there pleasing the gods meant being in harmony with the Kosmos, not blind worship or fanaticism). Hedonism is just the pursuit of pleasure in material things, i.e., indulgence. This was all abhorred by Plato and his followers. In a way, he defined true Gnosis as we know it now, even before the gnostics and the term appeared. Gnothi Seauton, Know Thyself, the body (soma) is the grave (sema) of the spirit of which we partake with Zeus, for if He is the Artisan (Demiourgos) of the world, we are the artisans of our own life.

I don't know, at first sight it looks like a mess of different arts. Ninjutsu doesn't have katas AFAIC, and the soft arts seem also to be anti-katas, opposed to Karate. But then again Ninjutsu is a modern creation of glueing several ryuha together. It might had existed in the past like that, but no one knows for sure. Kuji-In, OTOH, is an ancient practice rooted on japanese buddhism. Maybe there's more to Matsuo than it seems, i would have to try it to find out. Meanwhile,

a little scepticism is good thing. There are many cults out there.

43 minutes ago, Stosh said:

I like to adapt to wind by becoming rigid and well defined, like an Oak tree.

Then the wind has to go around, like wind should. 

Good metaphor. Yes to meditate is to root like tree where thoughts pass like the wind, and spiritual cultivation also has to be firmly rooted and progress inwards and outwards like a tree, slow, firm and strong. The fluidity in daoism I guess it relates to abandon previous stages in preference of higher ones. A tree only appears to be static, but it's always growing.

10 hours ago, Nungali said:

 

Dear Mr Gnome ,

 

'Intuitions' work best in areas we are already expert in , thats been proven in studies .    The traditional shaman, who might have to 'intuit' things , like the amount of cull and preserve of the herd to last through winter depending on the type of winter ( not enough - starve, too  much - impact on next springs breeding stock )  , might seem like a ritual , magic, and 'communication with spirits' but he is actually going on all the specialist information logged into his unconscious and  combines that with the most recent observations of flora, fauna and weather patterns .

 

....   a bit like an engineer  looking with his eyes and ' No ... that isnt 3/100th of an inch, that 2/1000th of an inch .   Seems impossible and 'other worldly' to us .

 

I agree with your comments on  synchronicity   and   Gematria  .    What we have above is devolved from Gematria >  Hermetic 'Gematria'   >   numerology  >   New Age "spontaneous'  Gimatria .         

 

( A note; As Gnome pointed out re the traditional usages, this is important , any Gematric code is to help further  understand the system in which it is being used  ,  not to be applied  all over the place to everything.  For example, in some cases one has to learn, by heart. numerous hermetic correspondences ( which include Hermetic Gematric  values and associations ) to be able to take part in Lodge initiations, so as to understand the highly symbolic and visually demonstrated 'knowledge lecture'  of that degree .    Such knowledge often appears and is communicated in symbols ... to get that message across  ( eg, the Masonic Tracing Board ) . It isnt meant to apply outside that context .

 

Like many the overt claims of many 'conspiracy theorists'  these are exactly the sort of things people with  'unbalanced mental' issues do .  Now, I am not saying  everyone that does such things is mentally unstable , but we all know that when someone IS really mentally unstable ... they abound with conspiracy theories and 'out of context' associations .

 

 

Exactly my point. Gematria is used in those sepecific systems to help organize ideas by encoding them in texts or inscriptions, as was the case with greek gematria.

Shamanic intuitions relate the worldly phenomena to the spiritual reality or noumena. Seeing signs wherever you look is just the associative animal tendency in us, has no spiritual goal or spiritual orientation. The kingdom of heaven can only be found inside, as a guru once said...

On 30/12/2017 at 9:56 PM, 121 said:

Spiders with spider web

All around

Did you know that spiders in mythology represent creators and architects? Because they weave a chain of causes and effects like a spider and alsi because the web represents the matrix of world, in which causal center they reside. Or just It if you're monotheist. Nothing to do with shells. They create nothing.

Currently, this are the ones I have:

That looks more like bagua than anything else. Unless kung fu and tai jutsu have more in common than meets the eye...

But I find it useful and relaxing to do some qigong before mudras, to keep the qi flowing and awake, so you could do bagua circle then mudras for example.

I'm all for shamanic intuitions, but sinchronicity is revealed IMO through interaction of people, not through numbers or mathematical calculations. Gematria, the jewish one ('cause there's a greek one) is only meant to be applied to deciphering the Torah, like the greek one was only used in religious concepts, not else. Those jews who use gematria in/for material life are no better than conspiracy theorists. 

I was going to say that this should belong to The Rabbit Hole, since you mentioned it, but even Alice's hole is a spiritual, live one, full of symbols and ideas, whereas you're dwelling in a dead one of calculations.

There are different qi gong approaches, but one does not substitute the other. The hard qigong of hung gar is great, but afterwards I have to chill out with ba duan jin. Each have their specific purpose. But yeah, some are more internal than others. I guess that in feudal china there wasn't enough time to cultivate qi like in taiji and soft qigong, and there was also the preocupation with being phydically strong for battle, thus the shaolin focus on wai gongs and hard qigongs.

But YJJ is also special to me. It's a bit like yoga. When I don:t have the time to do a full forms workout, YJJ and/or yoga keeps the body fit externally snd internally. Even if bdj and yjj are more waigongs there is still a fraction of neigong to them.

Perhaps in the practice of mudras like Kuji In it's preferable to stand still because it starts a specific closed energetic circuit in the body that wouls be otherwise diminished if the energy had to go elsewhere like the legs for instance. It's my opinion but it seems logical that it should be done still, to have optimum results.

May I add something? That leads nowhere, but it's your choice. And you need to rest your head. This is not healthy.

I mentioned Mantra because of the context, but I prefer silent meditation. I'm not trained enough and chanting distracts me. I prefer no sound, no mind

Try is right, in Kabbala, Faith and Will are the same, basically the I Am consciousness, be it particular or more general, the essence of the soul.

42 minutes ago, Fa Xin said:

This tends to be my own personal outlook as of lately... that is, What is there to protect?

Yeah, even though Mantra means Mental Protection, perhaps the correct term is Enpowerment. I used to be obssessed too at some point with external evil, but as time went by, and thanks to some reading/qigong/mediation I realize that it's we who create it by ourselves, either by fistering our weaknesses, or by atracting evil due to our mental/emotional vibrations, so yeah, in the end it's not much about protection but enpowerment. If you're in a valley, no ritual will save you from a flood - you have to climb up the mountain and rise to the next level to be safe.

On 13/04/2017 at 1:38 AM, futuredaze said:

While it seems that a lot of shamanic traditions, and then even some religions like Taoism and Christianity, utilize this idea of "spiritual protection," Buddhism does not really talk much about it.

 

I am thinking of the time the Buddha mentioned that he just teaches "a handful of leaves" compared to the whole tree of leaves, the whole of his knowledge.  The Buddha only taught the most practical, most relevant "leaves" to his students.

 

For me, just observing any negative sensation in meditation ultimately dispels it.  I'm not sure how this works, to be honest.  I think that since we normally cling to, or run from, phenomena, experience, etc., that the stillness in meditation is something of a remedy for maladies (physical and spiritual alike).

This makes sense because the mind, awareness and spirit are often equated with light which dispels darkness. But how does this really work indeed? I guess one answer is that we can't emulate spiritual light if we are in a state of negativity - stress, frustration, hate, etc - and that in the opposite condition - in a state of peace, we can 'shine' unconsciously and effortlessly, and every negative entity, living or ghostly, just can't face us. It's like when we greet bad humours from others with unshaking confidence and peace and people just hide their faces and withdraw in shame (recognizing their negative state in contrast to ours) - it really feels like the triumph of light over darkness. But of course this is a severe contrast, like sun over dark, and it's painful for the person in need.  So the moon then is a metaphor for a weaker light and for a mote feminine, maternal, cimpassionate approach, one that will heal perhaps better than the other. After all the moon is also darkness, and is closer to it than the sun is.

14 hours ago, manitou said:

Gnome - what a wonderful dissertation by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche you found from 2015 that CT posted.  I had not remembered that one; or if I had I'd forgotten it.

 

This has always been a challenging thread in that duality is overridden by the unity, the non-differentiation of everything.  Yes, it is an extreme view on the body if looked at it in duality - in fact, it makes no sense at all.   The concept of even finding a permanent abode, if I'm reading you correctly, is the belief that there is a destination - like some sort of heaven or nirvana - that we would aspire to once we shed this conveyance we think we occupy.

 

I look at it this way, which may not be correct at all - but it's the aggregate of  many different paths  which  all seem to merge in  metaphysics.  We are all the One Consciousness, only one type of form that comprises the Consciousness of this universe and beyond.  All forms are part of the Consciousness - animate and inanimate things as well.  To the way I understand things, which tends to be a little on the scientific side, I look at the space contained in a single atom, and comparatively in a universe.  The amount of 'matter' which actually occupies that spinning atom is infinitesimal - and I'm guessing that when the Hadron Collider has finished breaking down the quarks and neutrinos as they smash together, it will be further found that there is no real matter at all.  It is Thought.  The only thing that gives them appearance of form is Motion, or the relative appearance thereof. If the atoms suddenly stopped spinning around the nucleus and all matter were left in a pile of dust. I'll bet there's nothing there at all.  We, aggregately, are the Consciousness experiencing itself.  LOL.  The real question is Why?  I recently listened to a Deepak Chopra CD, and his suggestion was that the Consciousness (or universe) wanted to just take a vacation and let someone else do it for a while.

 

And quite a fine job we're doing......

 

 

 

No, I meant vehicle of awareness. But heaven or hell are also states of counsciousness, so...

On 03/01/2015 at 2:26 AM, C T said:

HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche details here the process by which delusion arises, remains, is reinforced, and also, how it can be cut at the root. (courtesy of L. Thundrup)

 

 

"The most primary basis for clinging to the notion of self is the aggregate of form—that is, the body. When this body undergoes various experiences, we perceive some things as pleasant and desire them. Other things are perceived as unpleasant, and we want to get rid of them. This corresponds to the second aggregate, feeling. The third aggregate is discrimination. We start to discriminate between what is pleasant and what is unpleasant. The fourth aggregate is impulse. Once we have identified something as being pleasant, desire for it arises. At the same time, we want to get rid of whatever is unpleasant and try to accomplish this in various ways. What actually experiences the ensuing feelings of satisfaction or misery is consciousness, the fifth aggregate. Consciousness itself has five aspects, related to sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Prior to these five aspects and underlying them at all times, there is a basic, undetermined ground consciousness, which corresponds to a vague perception of the outer world and of existence, an awareness that “there is a world out there.”

 

 

It is to all these aggregates coming together that we attach the notion of a self. As a result the aggregates become intimately linked with suffering. However, when we try to investigate these different elements, one by one, they cannot withstand analysis. They have no shape, no color, no location. We cannot determine where they come from, where they remain, and where they go. In no way do they constitute autonomous entities.

 

 

In truth, the notion of self we attach to the aggregates is a mere mental fabrication, a label put on something that does not exist. People who wear tinted glasses or suffer from a visual impairment would see a white conch as yellow, even though the conch has never been anything but white. In the same way, our deluded minds attribute reality to something that is utterly non-existent.

 

This is what we call ignorance: not recognising the void nature of phenomena and assuming that phenomena possess the attribute of true existence although in fact they are devoid of it. With ignorance comes attachment to all that is pleasant to the ego as well as hatred and repulsion for all that is unpleasant. In that way the three poisons—ignorance, attachment, and hatred—come into being. Under the influence of these three poisons, the mind becomes like a servant running here and there. This is how the suffering of samsara is built up. It all derives from a lack of discernment and a distorted perception of the nature of phenomena.

 

 

Because of this distortion, some people perceive samsara as quite a happy place. They don’t realise that it is pervaded with suffering. They imagine that the body is something exceedingly beautiful and desirable. They don’t see that when investigated, it is found to be composed of rather foul substances. In this erroneous ways of seeing things, we take suffering for happiness and perceive the impermanent world as permanent. We thus labour under four main misconceptions: believing that phenomena are pure when they are not; misconstruing suffering for happiness; considering phenomena to be permanent when they are transitory; and imagining that there is a self abiding in the midst of all this, when there is none to be found.

 

 

These are the roots of afflictive mental states, the kleshas. To counteract them, we have to establish clearly the empty nature of the eight consciousnesses [the all-ground consciousness, the defiled mental consciousness, the mental cognition, and the five cognitions of sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch], the five aggregates [the physical and mental constituents of a sentient being: form, feeling, discrimination, impulse, and consciousness], the five elements [earth, air, water, fire, and space], and all phenomena, so that we correctly perceive their true nature, which is devoid of intrinsic existence.

 

 

There are different ways to come to such a conclusion and experience it directly. We may undertake a whole course of study, reflection, and meditation, which gives rise to a clear understanding of the relative and absolute truth. Or we may apprehend it directly through contemplative practice, and recognize through our own experience the dream-like nature of phenomena, which is the way of the yogis. These teachings help us to progress in both ways, through a logical investigation of mind and through experiencing and integrating the result of this investigation through meditation.

 

 

Let’s now examine this object. If we begin by examining a human body to which we are attached, we acknowledge that it is made up of the five aggregates (skandhas) of form, feeling, discrimination, impulse, and consciousness.

 

 

The first one, the aggregate of form, is the foundation for the other four, just as the earth is the supporting ground for all the mountains, forests, and lakes upon it. There are several aspects of this aggregate of form, but here we will investigate the one related to the human body.

 

 

It is because we cling to the entity of a body that even a tiny prick from a thorn makes us miserable. When there is warm sunshine outside, we feel comfortable and the body is pleased. We are constantly preoccupied with the comfort and attractiveness of our body and treat it like the most precious thing. Clinging to the body is the reason we experience such reactions to the pleasant and the unpleasant.

 

 

To eradicate this clinging, we have to examine what the body is really made of. Let’s imagine that like a surgeon, we cut a body open and separate all its major constituents—the blood, the flesh, the bones, the fat, the five main internal organs, the four limbs. If we consider these components separately, not a single one looks clean or pure. Taken one by one, each of the components does not seem at all appealing. The whole body is just a collection of rather disgusting parts, formed of the five elements. The flesh corresponds to the earth element, the blood and the other fluids correspond to the water element, the breath corresponds to the wind element, our body warmth corresponds to the fire element, and the cavities within the body correspond to the space element.

 

 

One of the main ways to decrease or eliminate our attachment to the body is to examine the various parts of the body one by one. When we conduct such an examination of a human body, where has the object of our attachment gone? What is left for us to be attached to? We should keep examining each part more and more minutely until we reach the point where we cannot find the object of our attachment. At that point, the attachment itself just vanishes.

 

 

Unavoidably we come to the conclusion that the body does not truly exist. We have then recognised the void nature of our body and of all forms. When this state of understanding is reached, we simply rest for a while in the equanimity of this recognition. When a thought arises within this state, we repeat the same investigation.

 

 

Once it has been fully grasped that this “body” is empty of true existence, we can easily understand that it is the same with our “name” and with the “mind” made up of the thoughts that go through our consciousness.

 

 

In investigating the nature of phenomena, there are Four Seals or main points we should understand: (1) All things are compounded; that is, they are an assemblage of multiple elements instead of being unitary entities. (2) They are therefore impermanent and (3) are linked with suffering. (4) They are devoid of self-identity.

 

 

As for impermanence, we have a very strong feeling that our body, our mind, our name, and our ego are all permanent. This leads to strong clinging. So to gain certainty in the realisation that all phenomena are utterly transitory is very important. It is like when a thief is unmasked and everyone learns his identity: he then becomes completely powerless to fool anyone, since all are aware of his mischievous nature. The thief can no longer harm anyone. In the same way, if we recognise that everything is impermanent—the universe as well as our thoughts—then naturally we will turn our backs on the objects of our grasping and embrace the dharma as the only thing that can really benefit us.

 

 

Regarding the truth of suffering, we need to recognise that suffering is the condition of all phenomena pertaining to relative truth. Whatever is linked to the five aggregates is intimately connected with suffering. This is because grasping at the aggregates leads to the arising of the five mental poisons (kleshas)— hatred, desire, delusion, pride, and jealousy—which themselves are the causes of nothing but suffering. Even though we may enjoy some kind of temporary happiness in samsara, close inspection reveals that we have often achieved this happiness at the expense of others, or even through harming others, by cheating, stealing, and the like. In behaving like this, although we experience a fleeting happiness, at the same time we are creating causes for our future misery. It is like eating plants that are tasty but poisonous. We may savor them for a few moments, but soon afterward we will die. It is the same for all enjoyments that are linked with negative actions. Once we realise this, we no longer take pleasure in samsaric life, and our desire for it is completely exhausted. This leads to a strong wish to renounce our attachment to worldly affairs and our addiction to the causes of suffering.

 

 

The final one of the four points is about the negative consequence of clinging to the self and the recognition that phenomena are devoid of self-identity. All of the first three points boil down to grasping at self, the main cause of suffering in samsara. Once we latch onto the concepts of “I” and “mine,” anything that seems to threaten that “self”—or an extension of it, such as friends and relatives—is identified as an “enemy.” This leads to craving, hatred, and lack of discernment, the basic causes of samsara.

 

How did this happen at all? It happened because of our mental process, the chain of thoughts. For instance, the thought comes to your mind, “I shall leave my retreat and go into town,” and you follow it. You go into town and perform all kinds of actions there, accumulating a great deal of karma. If, at the moment the thought first arose, it had occurred to you, “There is no point in going to town,” the sequence of thoughts would have been interrupted and all the impulses that followed would have never have occurred. Nothing will happen at all. The cause of delusion is the linking of thoughts, one thought leading to the other and forming a garland of thoughts. We need to free ourselves from these automatic processes.

 

 

This is the reason for these teachings, which are like a spinning wheel of lucid investigation of the nature of discursive thoughts and the ego. After paying attention to the teacher’s words, we should also put them into practice and investigate thoroughly our thoughts and our psychophysical aggregates, until we gain a true certainty about their nature.

 

 

Until now, we had the strong conviction that the self exists as a separate entity. With the help of these teachings, we can now achieve a strong and firm conviction that the ego has no true existence. This will lead to the gradual disappearance of afflictive emotions and thoughts.

 

 

In turn, this will lead to mastering the mind. In our ordinary condition, when a thought of hatred arises, we have no idea how to deal with it. We let that thought grow and become stronger. This could eventually lead us to seize a weapon and go to war. It all began with a thought, nothing more. Look at the succession of thoughts that lead to full-blown hatred: The past thoughts are dead and gone. The present thoughts will soon vanish. There is nothing graspable in either of them. So if we examine the thoughts in depth, we cannot find anything truly existing in them. Under scrutiny, they vanish like a big heap of grass set ablaze. Nothing will be left of it.

 

 

We really must verify for ourselves that whatever thought comes into our mind has never acquired any true existence: thoughts are never born, they never dwell as something truly existing, and they have nowhere to go when they disappear from our mind.

 

Unless we come to a clear understanding of this, why talk about things like the “primordial purity of the Great Perfection” or the “innate wisdom of the Mahamudra”? None of these will help, so long as we perceive phenomena in a deluded way.

 

 

We have spoken of the main ways in which we distort reality: by assuming that conditioned phenomena are endowed with true existence; that fleeting phenomena are permanent; that samsara is generally imbued with happiness despite the pervasiveness of suffering; and that there could ever be such a thing as an autonomous, truly existing self.

 

 

Now we have to replace these distorted perceptions with accurate ways of thinking. Instead of being convinced that there is a self-entity, we realise that self is a mere concept. We should get used to this and impress it on our minds. To achieve this, we must investigate with determined effort the nonexistence of the self until we have covered every aspect of the analysis. Then, like someone who has finally completed an exhausting journey after painstakingly walking over a long distance, we can completely relax in the natural, open state of mind. Without entertaining any thoughts, we simply rest in equanimity for a while.

 

 

After we have recovered our mental strength, thoughts will return. Instead of falling under their influence, apply the same investigation over again, and remain clearly mindful of the nonexistence of the self. This will result in a genuine and powerful realisation of the absence of a truly existing self.

 

 

There are two aspects of mindfulness: first, to remember what causes suffering and needs to be avoided, and what brings happiness and needs to be accomplished; and second, to be constantly vigilant lest we fall under the power of delusion. If we mechanically follow our wandering thoughts instead of remembering to investigate our mind, afflictive emotions such as craving and hatred will rise up strongly. Whenever these assail your mind, you should react just as if you had seen an enemy coming at you: Lift the weapon of mindfulness and resume your investigation of the mind.

 

 

Simply by turning on the light, you can instantly destroy the darkness. Likewise, even a rather simple analysis of ego-clinging and afflictive emotions can make them collapse. By suppression we may temporarily subdue our afflictive emotions, but only an investigation of their true nature will completely eradicate them.

 

 

 

The Measure of Progress

 

Once this is accomplished, a great happiness will settle in the mind. As soon as we notice deluded thoughts arising in relation to conditioned phenomena, generating the scorching heat of samsara, we will recognise the unsurpassable, supreme, unconditioned nature of nirvana, which bestows a cooling, pacifying shade.

 

 

Following our analysis, we should check whether or not the practice has taken birth within us. Having pursued this investigation over and over again, we naturally arrive at a genuine understanding that all our aggregates, like all phenomena, are molded by numberless fleeting causes and conditions. They are compounded things, so that if we take them apart there is nothing left such as a “body” or any of the other entities whose existence we are so convinced of. We will know without doubt that there are no permanent phenomena, since everything changes at every moment.

 

 

We will also know that all phenomena are linked with suffering, and that various ways of assuming the existence of a “self” are all groundless. Thus we will have thoroughly integrated these Four Seals of the Buddha’s teaching into our understanding. From then on, our mindfulness will come naturally and we won’t have to exert so much effort to maintain it. This achievement comes from the power of gaining confidence in the fact that phenomena are devoid of true, inherent existence. A great master once declared that the solidity of the phenomenal world will start to collapse even if one simply begins to doubt that phenomena truly exist and merely glimpses the fact that emptiness is the nature of all phenomena and appearances.

 

When we begin to win the struggle to free ourselves from the waves of afflictive emotions, the mind will become like a calm and vast lake. This peaceful state, the natural tranquility of mind, will lead to deep samadhi [concentration], which is the pacification of wandering, deluded thoughts."

It's a rather extreme view on the body, but everyone has their way of dealing  with it. For me it should suffice to know that the body dies and that we cannot cling to it forever, and have to eventually find a permanent abode in contrast to the temporary one that the body is.

I recall reading an excerpt of a chinese classic on the wu xing that at the time helped to understand the elements in the kabbalistic tree of life. i can't recall the author's name or the classic, but I hope someone recognizes it.

It goes something like this:

Thought should be deep like water (rather than superficial) (keter, chochma or chesed);

Undertstanding should be clear as fire (rather than obscuring as darkness). (Binah or gevurah);

Character (pointing to one's behaviour>goals>desires, selfish or altruistic>lower ego, the emotional triad of chesed-gevura-tiferet or just tiferet) should be straight like a straight tree (wood) (rather than crooked, like a crooked tree);

The analogy to Metal I don't recall what it was, but in Pythagora's system speech was equated with swords (words that hurt). (the lower sefirotic triad);

Lastly, the body (earth), like a dress, is to be worn and cast aside (this one blew me off, as it implies reincarnation and the ephemerality of material existence). (Malchut)

Hope someone can recognize this and tell who wrote it.

Why should it be a blind alley? Every religion or philosophy has something in common. The four heavenly kings of Vajrayana and other devas have an analog in chinese mythology, since either cultures, or any for that matter, always had those concepts, in one way or another. But you would have to be wise of both vajrayana and daoism to recognize the common points, and that is in itself burdening. If there was a daoist practice of kuji, it's lost, or we would had knowed it by now. Either way, like I said, chinese gods and indian devas are the same ones, we all aspire the same, only language and cultural expression is different. But do keep digging, I would love to know more details as well

I'm not an expert, but check the wikipedia page on Kuji-in, it provides some clues, although much is still obscure. Nonetheless, it seems clear that it's of Buddhist origin (Vajrayana), which originated in India and spread to China and Japan, mixing with Daoism and else.

Yes, thank you, I didn't write much or expanded on my self because typing on a cell phone takes a lot of time for me and I feel like I had writen a lot when in fact I didn't.

About me I was drawn more seriously to Buddhism and Daoism thanks to Qi Gong, and drawn to Qi Gong thanks to Gong Fu, but I don't have a physical support near me so I hope I can learn more here, which I know I will.

Myths though I don't see why you mentioned it, is because of jewish mythology? Chinese culture is not devoid of mythology either, nor any culture for that matter. Salt to preserve food and incense to disguise bad odors are their practical use. Their symbology in spirituality is therefore quite different than their practical use.

In fact, in talking about the symbology of salt, I think that sand could have the same use in ritual, since it recals of desert, where is hard to live or even lifeless. The idea is the same. Ice too. Fire as well. The 'matter' doesn't matter if they recall the same idea. 

Incense can therefore also symbolize the intention of the ritual and of the person, whether it's the performer's or another's. Prayer, that's it, incense is like a prayer.