Cleansox

Hi @charlesjorden This thread is already full with good advice, but hey, I will chip in anyway. I thought I would post from the perspective of western medicine, although you will see most is basically on repeat from prior posts. 1) Quit recreational drugs, and stay away from psychopharmaca. They are an obstacle in your path, if your path is to be able to regulate your emotions and other reactions in daily living. You have already wasted an important formative period in your life, so now is the time to get back on track. If you are in to computer games, I would advice taking a breake with them as well. At least all that are based on violence or competition, they wind up the brain which is against the purpose of healing the brain. 2) Get rythm in your life. Your body (including your brain) will heal faster if you have regular habits. Sleep (covered excellent in a post above) is important, as is eating regular and including a good breakfast. 3) Diet. Yes, I saw the Jing depletion issues above. That doesn't say a jing replenishing diet is your first focus, you might have to lay a foundation first. Since my dietary skills sucks, I would advice googling anti inflammatory diet, because thats where I would advice you to start. Actually, most things I mention here is part of an anti inflammatory regimen, for good reasons. 4) Exercise. This is important, because motor skills are fairly entwined with emotional regulatory skills. Walking is nice, if one take care to walk in a relaxed way. Learn to feel how walking feels, that is one useful way for working with dissociative issues. Add kettlebells. Basic kettlebells exercises are useful because you use the entire body, again, feel how the body feels while exercising. Don't overdo the sensing, soft focus works best. After you have done this for weeks, titrate in more social situations (Yeah, hard in the age of Covid, but small controlled doses of social life heals the brain as well). I can see the point of proper reverse breathing, it does very good things for the brain, I can also see that it comes in later in a rehabilitation. The same goes for the emotional regulatory skills that proper awareness training gives. Somatic experiencing and other methods can be useful, but there is a reason I mention them last in this post. The other stuff should be done first. As stated above, these things take time and effort. Don't expect short time results, it will take as long as it takes.

That was actually a question and not a hidden statement. I was considering reading it, but would prefer a recommended translation.

Did you notice the reference to the dragon and tiger? I read somewhere that the golden flower is mainly on the Xing level. Now, I haven't read it in decades and haven't studied it as a part of a formal practice at all, but if I could speculate a bit; could it be so that the text is more useful after a practitioner have some proficiency in the Ming practices? In my view, that might clarify things. Btw, is Clearys translation the best option in english?

Probably because of all that Dim Mak practice in the WTBA. Harmful for the mind, striking all those Gall Bladder points. 😁

Does that refer to the ability to store and emit true qi, or to the shift in position and function as Wang Mu describes when talking about the alchemical dantien? Or both?

One possible reaction when a human being believe he/she is hindered in the accomplishment of getting a reward?

Yes, these things happen. But why not start a new thread about that specific subject instead of trying to hijack this one? I'm sure someone might be interested in discussing whatever line of morality that was.

If you read that out of my posts, I suggest you should re-learn the english language. Communication is based on mutual understanding, and if you interpret words in that way you might end up in verbal conflicts on, lets say, forums like this. And that isn't really constructive.

https://images.app.goo.gl/F9vQRrhLsvudZXVC8

Yes, like avoiding the absolute thinking of religious fundamentalism. And not bringing that view in to a discussion about emotions.

Ah. Why do I feel that this is based on the worship of some nasty semitic god? I can almost hear "god wills it" screamed while some poor sods blood is gushing on the ground.

And yet, scholars tend to have an income, or are prowling for patronage. And I watched a podcast from Damo Mitchell, and lo, to see the entire one, there was payment involved. Thus, in some cases, the freebies are commercials.

Allowing complex things to be bunched together into principles is how the mind works. So, we can think "animal" instead of thinking of every species there is.

Or my 2 year old daughter...

So if one stand by and watch evil being done, and do nothing, is one than good?

Interesting view. "Whatever I do is good, and the one opposing that is evil." Wow.

I would say, from the ever developing area of psychology, that emotions are both top-down and bottom-up. So if we see emotions as motivational components, aiding behavioural decisons, they can both be based on motor responses that are faster that cognitive awareness, and on situational memories and previous experiences. And, just to complicate things, those two tend to mix in real life. And having one emotional state "active" will distort the interpretations of the incoming information. Nowadays, the distinction between body and mind is basically gone (for those that are updated). Even the distinction between western and chinese thought about emotional manifestations have blurred, for example there is hardly any differences between how Larre/Vallee puts things in The seven emotions compared to how movement analysis sees emotional states in human movement patterns. Just as every (well, most) therapist knows that if you release by talking, the body also releases, and vice versa.

Yes, and if one has a goal of self-development through the daoist arts, IMA is a useful tool.

If you go in to forums where mma people hang, many seems to have traditional martial arts background, and left... And with low level mma fighters as well.

I used to have a picture of one teacher from a branch of the method I practice, a teacher active in North America. He was surrounded by his six advanced students, one caucasian and five obviously descended from southeast asia. As I understood it, it didn't reflect the student body at large. It used to annoy me, and then I let it go. 😁

WTF? Are you saying that the jar in the cooler is just smelly and worthless? I have saved up for 60 days, going on a hundred. Even bought a three-footed cauldron, just like the book says. Cost me a bundle too.

None of the tests I mentioned are proof of enlightenment per se, I'm not sure what term to use, in the context of my training it would be a proof that one has developed ming and xing enough that all this non-dual experience is no longer just an experience, but actuality. (Just added some here, instead of making another post): Even buddhist systems, while having focus on Liberation as the Ultimate Goal, still have developed/incorporated power developing methods in their curriculum, most likely because someone found it useful. This can be seen in tibetan and chinese traditions, so insight and working with desire is not antithetical to working with power. Are there attachment issues with power? Most likely. Are there detachment issues with insight? Also most likely (there are clear records of that too). Chan Master Sheng Yen could be angered, so he writes himself, his enlightenment must have been incomplete then. On the other hand, meditate oneself to dissociation is really easy...

Yes. We have some, five of them that I are aware of, which I haven't come close to yet. I'm not sure it can be done by a householder, it requires more time per day. I am on the intermediate stage (and sort of surprised that I have managed to get that far), and the tests are all in the last stage of the practice. No pyrokinesis though, and I only know how one of them is supposed to look when you succeed. All five are external, while most things on my present level are internal experiences.

Or the bickering, and the competitive mind set?

900 000 by MPG? 😁