tommyprotramp

Dan is the Elixir and until you cultivate the Dan in your Tian you don't have a Dantian, but simply Tian - a Field. Tians are fields, alchemical spaces in the body which don't exist anatomically, they exist only in the meditation realm, when you visualise them. From eastern point of view what you visualise is as real as what you can touch. The aura/Qi field is a structured illusion which arises during your Qi Gazing. When can you be sure that you are actually perceiving Qi as a visual phenomena - the purple field around the body, and not some vision disruption? When what you see is synchronized with what you feel. To feel a Qi is easy, to see a Qi is the next step, and seeing Qi is synchronized with feeling Qi. Seeing Qi is the basis of observation part of Chinese medicine, you observe auric colors on the patient's face - 5 colors of Chinese medicine. Chakras... Did you heard about marmas? This is the Indian tradition of acupressure, acupuncture and dimmak. Marmas are used to do harm, and also to heal. They are part of Kalaripayattu and Ayurveda. The Indian sources provide some details about those vital points which you will not find in the Chinese sources. Acupoints located both on the back and on the front of the body on vertical axis or Ren/Du meridians, are points where Yin and Yang cross over, exactly like Ida and Pingala cross Shushumna in yogic/tantric charts. Pingala is solar = Yang, Ida is lunar = Yin. Shushumna = Taiji Pole = Chong Mai. Marma = Acupoint. Kundalini = Yuanqi. 5 Vayus = Wuqi - 5 Breaths: Inspiration / Intake - Prāṇa-vāyu - Feiqì (Lung) - Both govern breathing in and receiving life force. Elimination / Root Energy - Apāna-vāyu - Shènqì (Kidney) - Downward energy: excretion, sexuality, rooting. Digestion / Transformation - Samāna-vāyu - Piqì (Spleen) - Centering and transformation of energy/substance. Expression / Ascent - Udāna-vāyu - Xinqì (Heart) - Upward fire of speech, consciousness, spirit. Circulation / Integration - Vyāna-vāyu - Ganqì (Liver) - Expansion, coordination, energy distribution throughout the body. Chakra consists of the energy center located inside Shushumna/Taiji pole, Marma/Acupoint located on the back of the body and Kshetram located on the front of the body. Those Marmas/Acupoints/Kshetrams are connected directly to our 7 energy centers - Chakras. Mahamarma - Back Chakra - Inside Kshetram/Mahamarma - Front Lower Tian is where Jing/Ojas becomes a Qi/Prana. When it happens your Tian becomes a Dantian - The Elixir Field. Jing -> Qi is the first stage of forming your Elixir. In the Middle Tian you refine your Qi/Prana until it becomes the Shen/Tejas - at this stage your Middle Tian becomes a Middle Dantian. In the last stage of your Neidan/Alchemical work you refine your Shen/Tejas in the Upper Tian until it becomes one with the Xu - The Void. It happens thanks to Baihui or Sahasrara. Achieving this means that you formed your Elixir and became one with the Tao/Xu/Universe/God/Universal Consciousness. Now compare this process to the way of Yogis, how progressing through each Chakra transforms you, what changes it allows to happen or which changes it causes. Both Indian and Chinese methods have exactly the same goal, and are causing/allowing the same transformations/changes. The difference is a matter of different language and culture. China and India often exchanged ideas on "yoga", medicine, metaphysics. What got lost from Chinese medicine because of it getting banned by Chinese government for some time, you will find in India and Tibet. The 5 elements of Chinese medicine and the 5 elements of Ayurveda are both described in Yijing - The Book of Changes, the book which is a foundation of Chinese civilization, philosophy and science. Chinese 5 elements are Post-Heaven arrangement and 5 elements of Ayurveda are Pre-Heaven arrangement. When Yijing traveled to the West through Silk Road it pawed a way for many scientific developments. Yijing -> Leibniz's binary system. Yijing -> Niel Bohr's model of atom consisting of protons (yang) and electrons (yin). Didn't you see a Yinyang symbol on his coat of arms? Yijing -> Einstein's E=mc² - based on Yijing's idea of Yin eternally transforming into Yang, and Yang into Yin. E=mc² describes energy eternally transforming into matter, and matter into energy. This equation finally was used by Oppenheimer to build the atomic bomb. Yijing & DNA -> There are 64 hexagrams and 64 possible codons. And those codons have 64 possible types. DNA and Yijing use the same code to explain the rules of creating every organism in the universe. Coincidence? Tantra = method, the practice part of the system. So Neidan is one of Chinese Tantras on Chinese Yoga/Cultivation. Daoyin = Hathayoga. Qigong = Pranavidya - not only Pranayama. There are many different sects of Taoism and most scriptures aren't translated into English, what's worse those scriptures are written using metaphors / code. Only Taoists know how to decode those scriptures and use them as a guide during Neidan, these are not textbooks, only guides. The how-to you get from your master when he decides you are ready. What we get to read in English are only fragments. We don't get the full description of the system. What Mantak Chia writes in his books is his own version of "Taoism" - a modern system specially crafted for the western mind. What Nathan Brine wrote in his books is what he learned from his master. This is not a translation of actual Taoist scriptures. Nathan created Neidan textbooks based on what he learned, but how well it is represented, how authentic is it - that we can't verify. The sure thing is that he actually provides proper Taoist terms like Yinian which you wouldn't find in Mantak Chia's books or anywhere else before. Nathan wrote for us the first proper Neidan textbooks in English, but the quality of them we can only assess by ourselves through practicing meditations described in them.