freeform

Does science present a superior understanding of human behaviour than say Shakespeare? Does science have a ‘truer’ understanding of emotions than music? If so - why don’t we get rid of music and Shakespeare!? This search of ultimate truth is a hangover from Aristotelian logic and Christianity and it’s colouring our perception without you realising it. The Daoist view is that human kind can’t begin to fathom the full complexity of the ultimate truth... so there’s no point in trying to... but you can study its actions and you can certainly gain insight from it using tools such as your body, your consciousness and your intellect and the Yi Jing...

Actually I think you’d really like it. it is the ‘mathematical’ underpinning of Daoism. You don’t need to be doing divination or using it as an oracle. Its a theoretical model of the ‘movement’ and changes around every moment.

Actually I’d say Yi Jing study is a must if you really want to get into the mindset of Daoism.

Not sure it’s religious as such but... Yi Jing study.

You seem to have a strong interest in these sorts of things. In all honesty, the easiest and most foolproof way of attracting people (whether through respect or more ‘romantically’) is by becoming a useful person in society. It takes time and effort, yes. But if you build a skill that is of value to as many people as possible - you’ll be rewarded with well earned adoration and respect and often good money too. Try to sneakily manipulate them by some occult means and at best you’ll invest just as much time and effort but fail... and at worst succeed... attracting an unhinged stalker, accumulate a massive karmic burden... and at the same time realise that its not really what you wanted in the first place.

Most ghosts are self created

He offers a 200hr tai chi teacher training Cool outfit though

That was my first impression too

Well I’m not sure physics is that simple. You still need years of study to really understand E=mc2... And so it is with alchemy, it’s just that it’s a subject that’s been largely forgotten and diluted with misinformation and misunderstanding... couple that with the fact that it’s a much more subtle art than say physics... and that it was thought to impart great ‘power’ or at least could be misused and so it’s been obfuscated so as to only be useful for people already on the path... And the reality is that you must learn it from a teacher with the classical texts being an accompaniment to the direct transmission... I just think that many people go down this path without having laid the foundations (and had them verified and authenticated) in the first place... and so they get mired in stuff they don’t really understand and could never make real use of anyway.

My best guess is that you’ve encountered your Qi. It can happen when your meditative practice is based around either stillness or following the breath. If you follow your breath back to its source you’ll happen onto Qi. This isn’t the source yet - it’s a certain stage where you go past the manifestation of breath (physical breathing) to the underlying phenomenon of breath (the Qi) and then further to the source of breath. Where to go from here? Basically carry on I suggest not using an emotional/mental interpretation (so using sensory information - pressure, temperature, texture etc. - rather than thoughts/feelings like ‘bliss’ and ‘love’ etc ) - because that can lead you down the wrong track. If you’re interested in exploring the use of Qi for cultivation, then I’d suggest using Qigong as an added practice. But I’d suggest not focusing on these sensations during your sitting practice - as again you’re likely to go down the wrong track. And you’re clearly gaining some ground with your practice already

Its a good sign. See if you can discover the actual sensations - rather than the phenomenon... what I mean is something like ‘gentle expanding warmth’ is sensory, but ‘bliss’ might be the mental phenomenon that describes this sensation. A sensation is something that your skin might understand... a phenomenon is something only your mind would understand...

Xin Zhai (Heart-mind fasting) and Zuowang (sitting and forgetting) are the two fundamental ways of working with (stilling) the mind in the Daoist tradition. Unfortunately I don’t have any books to recommend on the subject. They’re both quite subtle and tricky practices to get right. someone else may have a recommended source for these practices. I personally feel that the Dao De Jing is a very good description of Xin Zhai... but it’s a little hard to really understand...

Well I think we're in complete agreement - and your point illustrates what I mean perfectly. You’re demonstrating great progress in your practice. You’re certainly not doing the same thing you were doing a year ago. Note that I didn’t say you should be changing your form... it normally takes decades to really master a classical practice. But you should be progressing in that form as you’ve illustrated beautifully But I see a lot of people just repeating some movements, thinking that the movements have some magical effect in and of themselves. And I’m trying not to name names, but there are very well known teachers perpetuating this notion. This error might have come from mixing ideas of ceremonial ritual with the Daoist internal arts (the familiar newage mishmash misappropriation of spiritual traditions). Ceremonial ritual and the internal arts are completely different. In the internal arts, the magic is not in the repeated movements - the magic is in how you use these movements to create change in yourself. And for that to happen, the focus and approach needs to be very different - much more aligned to how you’re describing your progress through your own practice. And yes - it takes time - a lot of time...

Agreed with the first part - but the highlighted part I don’t agree with. It depends on how you define meditation - nowadays its a catch-all term. But originally meditation was the practice of entering complete stillness. Music on the other hand is an expression of movement. Sometimes quite deep and profound movement - but not stillness - not meditation. And this relates back to the original post. The Dao De Jing, I believe, is a meditation manual... so not delighting in sensory pleasure (music, food etc) is used as a method to enter the profound states of inner stillness during retreat for example. So this doesn’t mean you have to avoid tasty food and music in daily life

How has it grown with you?