freeform

Regarding what else one can bring through from religious practice into cultivation... shrine work can be beneficial (as long as you don’t go too over the top)... but it may attract some ‘unwanted attention’ - so that’s worth being mindful of. But even just having a few statues of deities that interest you - pay your respects to the qualities they represent (rather than personify them and pray to them etc). You can pay your respect with bowing or prostrations and some incense. You empty yourself and demonstrate complete humility. And the quality of your chosen deity may resonate with a seed of it in yourself, giving it some power... For a cultivator this should only represent a very minor part of their practice though...

According to my teachers - definitely yarrow stalks. For two reasons - 1. sorting the stalks in a calm rhythmic way creates the right quality of mind. 2. Coins skew the distribution in some mathematical way that I don’t understand fully As to doing a post on Yi Jing - a few people are interested, so I’ll try to put one together when I have time. I’ll have to draw diagrams and all that jazz

It would take at least an hour for me to write that up... If there are a number of people really interested then I’ll make the effort. But I’m not interested in doing that just to change your mind about it.

I haven’t read through the whole description yet, but I think you may have missed a trick here. With any such piece of writing your aim is to intrigue the reader to read a little further. But here you’ve given away the main point of intrigue right at the start. I’d suggest building curiosity... set the scene and create intriguing questions in the readers mind rather than give intriguing answers... If they want the answer, they’ll just have to read your book

Well said.

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?

Yup. Yes exactly - understanding where you’re going and what you need to work on to reach where you’re going is key. There’s this notion that there’s some magical quality to a specific set. One year you try Pan Gu next year you try Fragrant Qi Gong then you go for Hunyuan - always hunting for that magical effect. In my experience, the reality is that the internal arts are like any other skilful endeavour - like for example playing the piano. There’s no magical tune that will impart the skill of piano playing to you. You’ll need to use several tunes... You'll need to practice simple scales and focus on particular elements until you have them down. You’ll need to find places where you’re weak and work on improving those... When you’re ready to move on, you need to do that... etc. And of course you’ll need a teacher (or several) that will point out your errors, suggest new approaches and tell you when you’re ready to move on and where your focus should be next. I should also say that not everyone needs to take these arts that seriously... sometimes you just want to be able to bang out a nice little tune on the piano that makes you feel good. Similarly some people find it relaxing and rewarding to just let go and wave their arms about - and that of course has its place too - nothing wrong with that. But I think there’s a huge deception going on (or maybe it’s just delusion) when people market their arm waving and imagination based practices as some kind of advanced spiritual practice that will bring you enlightenment and help you manifest that yacht too. ‘Stay away from those teachers young freeform :)’

‘Ignore teachers who use imagination!’ There is no magical practice set. The internal arts, like most other skilful endeavours, involves a progression. If you’re doing the same thing you were doing a year ago then you’re lost.

Spot on

LYM claimed that the most complete and simple map to the Neidan process is all written in The Journey To The West.

You’re going to get lots of advice from lots of people about many different practices - but in the end it comes down to focus, dedication, discipline and time put into practice. The reality is that spiritual practices aren't easy. There are no shortcuts. They’re full of pitfalls, deception and delusion. It all needs to be navigated carefully. It’s definitely harder than playing the guitar! To get anywhere you’ll need to find a proper teacher to start with and dedicate time each and every day - probably a lot more than 30 minutes to be honest. Both of these are pretty hard to do - let alone with a new baby (congratulations by the way!) Not only that, it sometimes takes years to get any big breakthroughs. And when I suggested exercise, it actually is a great start on the energetic arts - it’ll get you actually producing more energy, get you into your body and you'll experience some benefits rather quickly. It’s a good foundation to build on. You could probably combine it with gardening too Might seem boring but just like with anything - good sleep habits, physical exercise and a good diet are the only way to make good progress with the internal arts. That’s the base you build from. When these things are in place, something like developing awareness of your breath becomes much easier, less boring and more productive. You’re bound to find your way - your intention is there. Just take one thing at a time and develop discipline with the basics and you’ll see that you’re already on the path without having realised it