Davey Calico

In my experience of about a dozen years, the Daoist path has stuck with me as a method to transform/cultivate/raise the energy in the body. I find Daoism to be a more powerful path because it presents a very clear, scientific map of the inner landscape of the body. A map in which you are the scientist and the experiment and you observe the Placebo effect. In short, kundalini meditations and yoga (which I semi-regularly for about a decade) feel like shooting fire up my spine. It's powerful, although it feels undirected. I don't have any experience with TM, although I did a ten-day silent meditation retreat which was very powerful. However, it's difficult to cultivate the kind of energy at a vipassana retreat in a daily practice. Daoism led me to sexual cultivation, five-element theory, the three treasures, the microcosmic orbit, and the mixing of kan and li. Daoism feels like a path that builds a strong foundation for the energetic body to undergo the kind of energetic transformation that kundalini creates. As far as the difference between kundalini and the cultivation practice of the Dao, it seems like semantics between different cultures.

Long rambling response incoming: the short response is to follow the path that feels aligned with you. Your Dao is different from my Dao which is different from Damo's Dao. There's an old joke: how many Daoists does it take to change a light bulb? Thirteen. One to change the lightbulb and twelve to stand around and say that's not how my master taught me. The Dao that can be spoken is not the true Dao. Follow the path as it unfolds for you. Use your discretion to select people to learn from, although your relationship to doing the actual practices is the most important. For the record, my main teacher is Lee Holden. I chose Lee because he embodies the Dao in a way that I admire and feels right to me. Also for the record, there are some teachers whom I would not recommend. What I know about Damo Mitchell is that his books are very insightful, and have helped me greatly in my practice. He has a great (and free) youtube course for awakening the micro cosmic orbit, which I find very powerful. However, I often feel annoyed when I listen to his podcasts.

Yes we did it! Thanks guys

Hello, I'm trying to join thedaobums community, and learning how to post threads. I realize now I have to post in the welcome section first, but the site will only let me post here in Memorium. I have done qigong and neidan training with Lee Holden and Michael Winn, as well as studying Damo Mitchell's work. Please advise as to how I can become a contributing member of the community! Davey