Shadao

I don't know if this is considered "TCM"(please correct me if wrong), but it wouldn't hurt to check the collection of books of Jerry Alan Johnson: Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy(I think there are 5 volumes)

And there are some books that I think might interest you...

I believe they exist, however I also believe that one's education(by their parents and society, as well as by experience/life) will dictate which is which.

For example, one that grew up seeing theft or violence being considered the "right way" to achieve something(which in this case wiould be either "to survive" or "to be the strongest")will not see doing these actions as "wrong".

Because even if others say "it is wrong", the other people lived a different life than this person so they have not lived through their eyes to be able to understand their POV...and neither has the person in relation to those that deem these actions/things wrong.

Reality has alot about one's perspective...

18 hours ago, freeform said:

Yeah… it’s a funny thing - but the esoteric view is that other people are also ‘yourself’. 

Isn't this view more of the so called "right hand path" though, rather than of all "esoteric world"?

11 hours ago, silent thunder said:

It was induced by a powerful dream and resulted in my awareness hovering over my sleeping body and watching it for a time.

Astral projection?This reminded me when I(years ago) somehow ended up sleeping in class and AP'd...I knew what it was when it happened(because back then I already searched such subjects) so I wasn't spooked(because I was no more than barely a teenager) but to this day I still do not know how it happened spontaneously...

Or is it something different from AP?

8 hours ago, freeform said:

well give some action sports a go maybe… some sky diving or paragliding or something

I'm not rich, the most I can do is probably parkour

And comedy isn't a strong point of mine, but I guess that acting with improvisation or doing a performance in a public space(I'm a performing arts student, so this isn't uncommon) can work in place of stand-up comedy.

1 hour ago, freeform said:

then a loved one gets a life threatening illness or is hurt or attacked or something, and we discover that there definitely is still preference and clinging after-all.

When I first mentioned "lack of fear of death" I mentioned only towards myself.

I still very much fear the death of those close to me, and this one I'm sure will be very hard to get over.

6 hours ago, freeform said:

Hopefully not in your average community centre mindfulness class though

 

Yeah I have no desire to go to one of those, but I also think there isn't one where I live either so...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

6 hours ago, freeform said:

when imminent death is very much a real thing right there about to take you - there’s something deeper and more fundamental than belief or thought that makes itself apparent

I'm between wanting to experience such, but at the same time, not...oh the dichotomy, or is it a paradox?...

6 hours ago, freeform said:

on a second close call

Now I wonder what kind of life you have to brush with death so frequently...

5 hours ago, dwai said:

No. If you truly have overcome fear of death, you also must have overcome the desire for this or that. 

But this would be according to Buddhist belief?

Also, I just want to make clear that I am not buddhist.

5 hours ago, dwai said:

Once you realize your True Nature, you will no longer fear (period), and neither will you cling to/run away from anything that arises in your experience

Not gonna lie, I did like this part.

5 hours ago, Vajra Fist said:

I believe its possible to experience overwhelming joy at the simple fact of being alive, and yet not have the clinging to that experience, or the fear of death

This was, more or less, what I was thinking when I wrote this post.

1 hour ago, Creation said:

No answer for you atm, but I wanted to mention the synchronicity of this post for me, thoughts like this have been prominent for me in the past day.

If I believed in signs I would say this is the universe trying to tell you something.

55 minutes ago, freeform said:

 

I think it’s healthy to test that once in a while

...Ok, time to go...

56 minutes ago, freeform said:

Maybe not by placing yourself in danger

...not.

To be fair though, what I believe I fear isn't much death, but suffering/feeling pain before/while dying...dieing...dying?

57 minutes ago, freeform said:

there are spiritual practices that feel like imminent annihilation is on the cards.

...could you mention the name of a few of them?

On 12/12/2021 at 3:04 PM, manitou said:

Of course I'm not a Freemason, I am merely a woman

To this day I still hate how many freemasons speak of freemasonry as a means to achieve self-realization, personal growth and such, and how this is something they wish of/for others, but still keep this archaic practice of prohibiting women of being freemasons themselves...so much for being an "enlightening group" huh?

I ask because I sometimes think of this, of my death(no, I am not depressive or anything, I am just really thinking of it from a logical perspective: that until someone figures out a way to be immortal physically, we all will die one day) and I tend to try to see "Death" not as this "end of all" nor as "something to be feared".

Yeah, the uncertainty of the unknown is scary, and no way in hell I want to suffer in any way before and/or during my physical death, but I think I learned to develop a mindset of not fearing death itself.

It kinda helps when you start to question reality, existence and consciousness and the lack of it all.

Still, is it possible to not fear death, and yet have a desire to not die?

I think the truly worst of death is that once your body dies, all possibilities of things you could do or be are just gone.

Sure you can "re-start" with a new life, but it is so wasteful to die young...

...I really don't know what to say if not ತ_ʖತ

On 21/11/2021 at 4:07 AM, Sahaja said:

shadow yoga

What's that?It's the first time I've heard this.

23 minutes ago, Master Logray said:

Irrespective of how Mr. Mak conveys his messages, it is better not to get associated with Thunder Magic for most people here.  If Neidan is secretive and short of info, Thunder Magic is totally obscure.   It cannot be learned by online nor in classes, the most traditional form of master/disciple relationship is at play.  It is also impossible to compare notes with other practitioners, nor assess how is one's progress.  When the teacher is no longer around, the student could be left alone to deal with the unkind spiritual world.  If a student is not from Chinese culture or Chinese religion, or doesn't know Chinese language, it could be very hard, not to mention they are not modern Mandarin.

So TL;DR: Don't go seek Thunder Magic if you aren't Chinese/of the Chinese culture...got it.

Good thing that I seem to prefer more the Korean energetic systems rather than Chinese ones(save for Neidan).

Thunder magic seems interesting but magic-wise I think I prefer Chaos magic.Not as limitating, plus I don't depend on the graces of a deity to be able to "have magic power".

23 minutes ago, Cleansox said:

overwhelmingly positive person

To be honest, I think this is why he gave me "used car salesman" vibes...it seemed "too try hard" y'know?

Anyone knows if this temple and it's people are legit?

From a layman's perspective they seem to be...even if giving off a bit of "used car salesman" vibes in some videos...

On one of their recent videos they "made it free" some scriptures and "books" but I don't know if their processes are legit or even if they should be ok to be attempted by beginners.

You can find the link to their pages with the "freebies" in this video:

On 15/02/2021 at 1:27 PM, Cleansox said:

Jerry Alan Johnson 

Daoist internal alchemy: Neigong & Weigong training. 

The secret teaching of esoteric daoist magic. 

 

Www.daoistmagic.com 

Finally got this book and wow...there is indeed alot to absorb in terms of knowledge and understanding.

Seems like the kind of book that you should either read tiny parts daily(like a snack) or take a week off to properly focus on it entirely.

15 minutes ago, Creation said:

I recently encountered a new-ager who though she was controlling the movemement of a pendulum with the energy of her heart chakra. 

I've seen many videos of people claiming to be able to do telekinesis...but here's the thing.All objects they tried to move were pieces of paper, very light stuff, or objects that while not as light as paper, were "mobile" due to their shape or you could see that were not stable enough and any force could make them fall/move.

If one tried to move a paperweight in the shape of a pyramid...then I would pay attention.But a piece of paper put on a needle?

On 03/11/2021 at 3:30 PM, forestofemptiness said:

Anyone doing any weird new age stuff? I decided to play around with OBE as an extension of lucid dreaming, and it has led me down some weird rabbit holes. 

I APd once when I was younger, but my interest has always been in telekinesis(mainly due to Superboy in comics that uses telekinesis to emulate many of Superman's powers).

I tried lucid dreaming but at most could only gain cognition in some dreams, enough to know I was in a dream but not enough to be able to willingly control it.

I don't know if anyone here knows of or even reads wuxia/xianxia novels/manhuas, but these stories usually tend to have "energy cultivation" as one of it's precepts and(usually more with xianxia but it can appear in some wuxia stories) through that one can literally rebuild their physical body in order for it to either become "above human" or "in harmony with the supernatural energies".Although the way they make it vary, some destroy their physical body and rebuild it exclusively with "solid energy" or "energies of nature", while others seem to "evolve from inside out" kind of like using alchemy to change lead to gold.

Considering this tends to appear quite regularly, I wonder if it is inspired by something either out of Daoism or Qi cultivation.Yes, I am not expecting someone here to tell "Oh yeah, you can definitely rebuild your body like that".

I want to know if there is a basis from where this was taken(probably out of context?) and used in such stories.

Is there something about "rebuilding the body" in either Daoist or Qi cultivation works?

1 hour ago, Vajra Fist said:

Think there's a danger of important things being lost in the process of dumbing down.

I think there is a difference, though, between "dumbing it down" and separating the spiritual from the practice

3 hours ago, dmattwads said:

 

When I was in acupuncture school many if not most of our text books came from China. China is a communist country and as such has made an intentional and systematic approach to removing all things spiritual from its content. There was very little "mystical" content in our text books. 

Yeah I got this point from seeing some of the discussions in this forum.

Personally I think I learn better through such a "pragmatic" system, but I also like the mystical aspect of it all(reason why I also started to learn about Daoism).I like how they thought and dealt with reality and "the self" in China, before Mao decided to destroy it all I mean...

antique

Started reading this book:

Chinese Qigong by The Publishing House of Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine

And am surprised to see how here they seem to write of Qigong as a scientific system and not so much focus on it in a spiritual(awakening/enlightment) kind of thing.Sometimes it even seems like they're being skeptical of Qigong itself(or at least, the Qigong that is linked to spirituality) and consider this more of an "alternative health system" of sorts.

For example, some of the chapters and sections:

Chapter One: General Survey

-Section Two: The theoretical basis of Qigong - Qigong and the Viscera

Chapter Two: Maneuvers of Qigong

-Section Two: Dynamic Qigong - Iron Crotch Qigong(not gonna lie...I laughed when I read that)

It is both strange and interesting seeing this kind of "pragmatic"(?) view of something that I'm just so used to seeing being constantly linked with Daoism and all the spirituality that comes with that.

Hello, I would like to change my username into Shadao(a pun of shadow+dao, because all I know of it so far is "nothing but a shadow" and shadows are the mix of light and darkness.A perfect description for one in-between like myself).

The more I see the level of discussions here, the more ignorant I feel.

But I also feel fascinated...it's weird.

5 hours ago, dwai said:

Or is it the perfect ego trip?  

It can be both or neither too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

1 hour ago, forestofemptiness said:

He also states that the spiritual embryo "is one of the final attainments of alchemical practice whereby your own consciousness has been nurtured to the point of being able to exist independently of the physical anchor of the body. This becomes the basis for spiritual immortality..."

Please enlighten me, does this means that you(as in the consciousness/ego reading this right now) still keeps being you or somehow it "breaks off" from the "you" as an independent being?

1 hour ago, freeform said:

At the later stages of immortality you are able to keep or create a physical body (or multiple physical forms) and discreate them at will… so you’re sort of physically immortal - but not bound to the earthly plane - you come and go according to your heavenly purpose. 

This seems the best outcome in my opinion.Freedom to come and go and interact with the physical plane if you want to.