exorcist_1699

It is called "Eight touch/feelings " (八觸) in Taoist/Buddhist terms , meaning that there are eight different feelings ( in fact, likely more than eight ) that people may feel at the initial stage of their practice: heavy, light , itching, moving, warm, cool, felt of being blocked..etc. Qi runs through different parts of our body gives rise to different feelings , it is especially true when it passes through those sicken parts; also different qualities of qi give us different feelings, for instance, higher quality of qi usually gives us a lighter feeling , lower quality of qi gives us a feeling of dull and heaviness ; higher quality of qi lets us feel it moving in a smooth and subtle way while lower quality qi gives us a feeling that it moves like muddy water..;

Whether there are classes of ways , some superb, some inferior , in Taoist cultivation is a controversial issue, however, because of its importance, we can't ignore it . In reality , there are different classes of ways in Taoist practice . Roughly speaking , we can divide them into low, middle and top classes . The criterion start from where and how we can initialize qi , what quality of it and how it is accumulated, up to whether we can upgrade it to Shen and the ways how we well tune their relation..etc. Low class of ways (下品) : these ways , more precisely speaking are methods ( 術 ) that look trivial ; those you can easily come across in books, megazine or online ; methods such as counting numbers to settle your mind, paying attention to your breathing , massaging certain acupoints or singing spells ..etc all belong to this category. Many of them can be classified as methods of medical qigong . Middle class of ways (中品): ways that ask you to pay attention to your lower dantian , focus your mind on upper dantian , visualize something, or absorb sun's yang from outside ..etc all belong to this category. Although these ways are not that bad and always effective to certain extent , the strength of how hard you use your mind is always the problem of them . For example , too strong a focus on the upper dantian can lead to high blood pressure ,and , an inappropriate use of mind on lower dantian can give rise to repeated nocturnal leakage of jing..etc. Top class of ways (上品) : these ways are always difficult to follow at initial stage , and their benefits emerge only after your having practiced them for years . They are those ways tell you to start by paying attention to the emptiness outside of your body ( i.e. the way of the West School ), or by focusing your mind on nowhere , or by visualizing something then nullifying its content..etc. They are the ways having a unique character that leads you to genuine forever youth, yet seldom can you come across them in your lifetime.

' Nowhere ' , in fact, can't be focused ; telling people to do the impossible job is to help them dissolving their minds, getting rid of the mentioned shackles and limits.

Yeah. To replace the existing mind by another mind , in whatever forms it might be , so as to attain high quality qi , is futile . All minds are the enemies of the primordial qi .

"Focusing your mind on nowhere " , the top way I mentioned , can be a starting point of practicing Wu wei ...

I mentioned that whether a way can initialize qi , and what quality of it being initialized , is one of the criteria to judge how good that way is . Counting numbers ,or counting whatever people like, can't help us initialize qi, the best it can do is to help us settling our fluctuated mind, so it is a method of low class. Although many people can initialize qi by focusing their mind on some place of their bodies , only few can initialize it by placing their mind in nowhere. Having our mind situated in nowhere and sustains it , such a capacity can lead us to shaking off those invisible shackles and limits , appear in varied categories and forms: social (e.g. saying that women can't become immortals ) , cultural (e.g. saying that aging is predetermined and natural ; even science can be a trap ) , spatial( e.g. perception of a boundary between our selves and the outside world) and time-related ( e.g. illusory perception of an existence of arrow of time : past, now and future...; bullshit people about living in the present moment..etc ) that we bear , which sadly are unknown to most of us . With a Mind of such achievement , we can enter the primordial dimension straight , and grasp the high-quality , primordial qi ( 先天氣 ) easier . In this sense, undoubtedly it is a top way.

At first look , it seems reasonable to argue that at different stages, people need different ways , and it is something natural . Some methods or ways , for example, visualization or focusing-your-mind-on-somewhere way, may do their jobs not bad at the beginning , yet you have to get rid of them quickly at later stage or on upper level,otherwise you may likely be trapped . Because in most cases, people can't change their habit or can't get such an insight , they just keep doing what they find effective before....they can't understand that what made them succeed or advance , can now become some kind of blockade , obstructing them from proceeding further. For example, as your practice proceeds, more and more jing and qi is accumulated in your body,and up to certain point , any leakage of it , even happened once for whatever negligence you make ,will become something fatal ; a continuous nocturnal leakage of jing for many nights, for example , is unmatched to such a leakage . As it becomes a life and death issue , and, a focus-to-something mind or a mind of visualization is no longer capable of giving you leverage to control such scenario, then a much greater Mind is asked to step in... So, different from the see-what-happen-and-change way , we can adopt another approach, ie, right from the very beginning we make use of a way/Mind capable of uplifting us to the highest level , despite the fact that it might look difficult to grasp ..

In most cases, no problem. I always try drinking different herbs / different combinations of herbs in order to test how true about them are written in the books . And I still survive here to talk with you guys . The key is you know the herbs well ; another key is the dose you drink : most herbs under 3 grams for adults are always no big problem..

Assume you now can initialize some qi, then the next thing you need to look into is its quality Low-quality qi is dull, like dirty water, and has low healing power .As the quality of it becomes better and better, you will sense lighter and more delicate stuff inside it. You likely also sense sex pleasure, warmth, even glow arise..(provided that they are not outcomes of your visualisation; please notice that visualisation is a two-edged sword, it may be good for you at initial stage to get something quick and something look effective , yet the extra use of your mind power ,its disadvantages are always more than its benefits). High-quality qi definitely can cure diseases ,even serious ones, and reverse ageing , not to speak of stopping it. High-quality qi likely is associated to an emptied Mind with sufficient qi and Jing embedded in it . In fact, as the qi you sense becomes more and more subtle and delicate , you comprehend more and more about its Shen ( spiritual ) aspect. And if you are a person who favours philosophical Taoism, then you may find that you now get more sympathy towards the "Religious Taoism"...

In fact, in Buddhism ,Daoism and Confucianism , although not exactly in the same sense, all have their respective implicit and explicit aspects/schools : In Buddhism we have exoteric Buddhism (顯教)such as the Pure Land school and esoteric Buddhism ; in Daoism we have medical qigong and philosophical Daoism as explicit , public aspects and its alchemy as secret side; in Confucianism , of course, the Confucian political theory and virtues as something explicit , and what we have been discussing here,or what hidden in Yi Jing, as its implicit aspects...

Thank you for reading my post .

Daozang (道蔵), the collection of nearly all Chinese Taoist writings, is a strange cultural achievement ; it is something wonderful , something unique for most of its content are about those principles , things and practical steps that if people read, believe and follow , they will be granted the special privileges , different from their fellows, to live in this world endlessly , not just in spiritual sense , but also in physical sense. However, for those Western readers who are interested in what the Chinese Taoism really says in its 2500-year history, Daozang is something , even by just scanning the titles of those works , too huge to start . Fortunatey , the fact is , only small part of it is worthy of intensive reading . Yet the problem is still there , even the so-called 'small part' is , still a huge volume too big to digest , not to mention the reality that no more than 1% of them are translated into English. I will select and translate some of them, and post here , hoping that some other people will follow. Based on my previous trial in initializing discussion on women alchemy on this forum , I tell myself that I should not expect too much...anyway, who know what will happen in the future as more and more people know the Chinese language ? Due to the lack of time and capability , I can only try those short , yet widely recognised as important ones , to start .

Thanks. In fact, part of the reasons that I do it is to practice my classical Chinese- to-English translation skills , not for kindness , you overestimate me

Most people follow the ways of visualization ( visualize a qi-ball, some form of light or others )or concentration ( focus on their dantian , breathing or places where their illness arise..) , but there are some other ways which make you leap from the jing , qi stage to Shen stage easier ,one of them I call it 'Consolidation' ('凝神') or more precisely 'Consolidating to Oneness' ('守一') Many people understand what Taoist jing- to- qi transformation means, however, when talking about qi's jump to Shen , not too many people know what it is or how ; it is mainly due to the influence of their dissipated senses and daily fluctuating minds , so consolidating them into a spiritual Oneness is always important ; maybe you can view it as an initial step of entering the gateway of a much deeper , bigger spiritual world. It is even said that : " Capable of consolidating a spiritual Oneness means all our troubles and sufferings will be gone" ('守得一, 萬事畢') . But how ? the answer is you do it by forgetting or ignoring ; or doing it by not -doing; it is in this process, you start to understand the ' skill' of ' Wuwei'... Remember that famous formula : "Forget the form/body to nourish qi , forget qi to nourish Shen , forget Shen to nourish Emptiness"

The cruel fact that I hesitate to tell is that : Out of 1000 intellectuals who practice Zen , likely 999 of them fall into the trap of pseudo -void , some kind of unproductive mental status that they are unaware of , not for a while, but for a whole life ; so whenever we talk about Zen, we should be carefeful . From Taoist point of view, it is only after our having succeeded in mobilizing qi, should we taste the flavor of Zen . Since most Taoist /qigong practitioners don't know how to apply their minds to get high-quality qi, the introduction of Zen at that stage is always helpful , even crucial, for Zen is always excellent in ' analyzing' , griping and making use of our mindstream , intervals between the appearance of one idea and its disappearance, or of exploring different depths of the no-mind.. etc , all are important to the refinery of our jing and qi . As a Taoist saying tells us : " 身心無為, 神氣自然有為" " It is only when our body and mind do nothing and expect nothing , do Shen and qi naturally fulfill their jobs for us " In a word, how to apply a mindless Mind to our jing and qi is always the key .

Yeah, people know that they can burn jing and qi to refine the Dan of immortality ('不死丹'), yet seldom do they know that they can also add anxiety, fear , jealousy ..etc as fuel into oven.

Living a life of celibacy is far from , or has nothing to do with , making you into an immortal of any kind ; it is even far from giving you a healthy life if you can't ' sublimate' that accumulated jing into qi , or directly into shen ; in fact , celibacy can be worse than a life with marriage. People always mix up many things : For example , a life of celibacy doesn't necessarily means a life without jing leakage ; Nocturnal leakage has to be taken into account. Even if it happens once a month, it is no different from having jing leaked in sex intercourse. Having any jing leakage , even once in many months , means your effort towards physical immortality is doomed. Second, jing leakage is in fact expressed in varied forms that sometimes you miss to calculate them ; Note that the energy that makes us continue to live is in fact an integration of three levels of things: jing, qi and shen , with jing at the base to build up the whole . Although leakage of jing is , to men, most clearly felt ( not sure what feeling it is for women ) and time-consuming to recover , leakage at other level can be closely harmful : At qi level : For example, you move heavy objects for a whole day , and feel tired ( Roughly speaking, it is leakage from the middle part of our body) At shen level : For example, doing lengthy mathematical calculations or playing online games for hours ( Leakage at the upper part of our body) So, whatever leakage we get from these levels : jing, qi or shen, deterioration of jing ( qi and shen are just different forms of its expressions) definitely will lead us to death . Other status such as too much worrying , serious fear or jealous of other people's fame or fortune..etc can be harmful. This is why physical immortality is so difficult to achieve, and tuning our mind is more fundamental than tuning our life or circumstances.

If you want to achieve something great , then celibacy is definitely needed ; it is 100% sure, no unrealistic expectation here. To those married but resolute guys ,the best strategy that they can adopt is : Squeeze your sex life and make it as few as possible , and then up until 55, for example, after your having fulfilled your earthly responsibility and want to start that new great journey, you still find yourself having enough jing and qi retained for it .

It is said that Taoist alchemy can be summarized into just one simple sentence : "凝神入氣穴" " Consolidate your mind and put it into the hole where qi arises ". A consolidated Mind means a mind without fluctuations and diffusions, one that is totally different from our daily mind. Of course, ' the hole where qi arises' is the place that we call it " Dantian" ; however, that many people think of a place similar to some kind of acupuncture point where if we insert needle into, massage it or focus our mind on , then qi arises... is unfortunately different from Taoist alchemical view of It. Taoist definition of 'Dan' is pre-heavenly qi , a ' medicine' that gives us both physical and spiritual eternal life ; so the only place that can be called Dantian is where the pre-heavenly qi arises ; the places where ordinary / post- heavenly qi arise or flow are called acupuncture points or meridians.. And there is no Dantian , or at least it doesn't appear , before our having attained that consolidated , persistent mindless Mind . In fact, the presuppposition of what Dantian we will get, where it is .. is quite pointless , such a presupposition conversely blocks that ' hole of qi' from appearing . Keen readers here should have noticed that any presupposition is the blockade of mindlessness. Because Zen is especially good at disentangling us from those invisible spiritual frameworks, so Taoists like Zen : Any shackle puts on qi should be smashed ; if qi is accumulated, freed and becomes more delicate, then the rise of an powerful Shen is inevitable . In Taoist alchemy, the concept of pre-heavenly qi is so crucial that if we can't grasp it, all magics of Taoism becomes groundless .

The term 'Upper Dantian ' is , of course, head or brain related ; however , it doesn't necessarily mean that if you start from there, you get a shortcut for achieving anything great especially quickly . Most Taoist qigong schools advise people to start from the 'Lower Dantian' , schools that start from the ' Upper Dantian ' belong , in fact, to the minority . As the ' Lower Dantian ' is the so-called ' source of qi ' , it is easier to get some effect or feeling by just focusing your attention on it . On the other hand, focusing attention on the 'Upper Dantian' , a place where some 'masters' claim to be at the inner depth between your eyes, neither gives you a feeling of qi nor help you nourish an enlightened Mind easier ; quite the contrary , it likely gives you a headache or a high blood pressure. The cause of such a mistake is that people are always misled by the Western brain science , which preaches that some part of our brain is special for some function ,even having some extraordinary ability , and make a wrong comparison that Taoist quest for ' Shen' is same as the Western one. In fact, in order to achieve some higher level of spirit, we need something very different from just ' paying attention to ' , ' focusing on' or visualizing . Nor the ability to do lengthy reasoning and different levels of abstractions are what we need here . How to apply our mind is more important than where to apply it . Strangely , it is the 'skill ' of applying it to nowhere , even not applying it at all , is what we need to learn about . A no-mind is still a mind , maybe a much greater Mind; a way of doing nothing , being applied to nowhere can still be a way , maybe a much greater Way (法本法無法, 無法法亦法) . If asked about what in Western sciences we can find things related to or close to the Taoist concept of 'Shen' , the only area I can think of is Modern Cosmology, definitely not the part called ' Brain Science'.

It is easy for people to understand mind power , however, for most of them , to understand no-mind power is another story . Zen's ways of preaching itself , although split in many styles and forms, are always proved to be useless for most people ; the appearance of Zen sickness is nearly something destined on the first day when Zen emerged for the human mind is not designed to grasp thing devoid of any characteristics, layers , aspects ... Zen is too ' arrogant' to talk about concepts such as jing and qi, yet to any serious and smart person , an inquiry into how Taoist alchemy views Zen's ways is definitely beneficial . Buddhism is the top achievement of the Indian culture, Taoism , to me , is the utmost that the Chinese can accomplish , the intercourse of these two great cultures gives rise to Zen , a spiritual system that no wise person can afford to ignore .

Xing gong (' 性功') , efforts and ways to attaining our true spiritual nature , is a unique Taoist alchemical term that people seldom find it in other disciplines or religions .Because it involves things like no-mind and primordial qi , it always gives people an impression of being unreal , something too abstract to grasp. This is especially true when Xing gong is compared with Ming gong ('命功') , ways that teach us those physical steps , styles and postures of how to practice , how to cure disease..etc. To many people, Xing gong is something beyond their reach , maybe even something useless. In fact, Taoist Xing gong, to me , has the following implications : 1) While Ming gong , in alchemical context, is forbidden to elaborate , talking about Taoist Xing gong is said to be harmless even if we go into detail ; there is no worry of any misfortune or spell cast on us from the Heaven. 2) Different from Ming gong's reliance on what our sifu or teacher told us beforehand , Xing gong requests us to understand those things we experience at varied stages of our practice on our own, as an old saying tells us: "性由自悟, 命假師傳" ( " While Xing gong is self-enlightened, Ming gong ,especially those alchemy related, likely come from your sifu." ) 3) The success of Xing gong is always said to be a natural outcome of the accumulation of our jing and qi , no more should be added. Taoist alchemy practitioners therefore can put less effort , or no effort , into the final stage of attaining Shen as what the 《 Huang Ting Jing》has told them : '仙人道士非有神, 積精累氣以成真' ( ' The immortals are people of no divinity ,the secret of their accomplishment is just a result of having enough jing and qi accumulated ' ) On the other hand, without the help from jing and qi, the Buddhist followers likely find themselves situated in a less favorable situation for achieving what they expect , regardless of the fact that their masters speak of spirit-related stuff in ways usually better than the Taoists' . 4) There is , in fact , an argument about whether we should explore Xing gong first , or we should dive into Ming gong first . Although Xing gong is frightening and most people avoid entering it ,there are unexpected rewards of doing it first : - Whenever we get breakthrough in Xing gong , we leap forward much faster than people who follow the do-Ming gong-first way. It , therefore , can be viewed as some kind of shortcut for our cultivation. - The deeper we understand the Xing aspect of our practice , the less we will be liable to committing mistakes in Ming gong ( ie, there will be less physical troubles arising ) or the stronger we will become in evading those physical or spiritual pitfalls. -( This one likely can only be understood by the TCM students) Generally speaking, when people get a cold, they are not suggested to drink Ginseng soup because if they nourish their sick bodies at that moment , they will also enhance the external evils ,pushing them deep inside , and aggravate their illness ; it is only after having the cold/disease ousted from their bodies , should they start drinking nutritious things . Similarly , without having our Xing uplifted first, the more jing and qi we accumulate , the worse physical and spiritual troubles we will come across..

We know that both Taoism and Buddhism talk about emptied mind or no mind, but how Taoist Xing gong differentiates from the Buddhist and others' ? Doing meditation doesn't necessarily mean you are practicing Xing gong ; from the point of view of Taoist alchemy , some kind of meditation that only gives people a peaceful mind or a feeling of unifying themselves with the universe..etc . , strictly speaking , can't be classified as Xing gong. Of course, such kind of mental preparation , for example , to settle a mind and make it calm , is always useful , but it is things too common in all spiritual practices that doesn't tell the uniqueness of Taoism . I have to say that to initialize high quality qi , not ordinary one ( for you can use Taiji or other medical qigong measures to initialize it ) , is the reason why we need Xing gong. Another one of Taoist Xing gong's characteristics is its emphasis on the importance of maintaining a 'crystallized ' state of Oneness as some kind of transition ; as a famous saying tells us: " 守得一, 萬事畢 " (' Once Oneness is attained , all sufferings leave us no trace ') To condense your mind into a state of Oneness and sustain it for a period of time is not easy ,you may experience a series of steps / periods as follows : First , paying attention to your breathing/dantian/somewhere/nowhere => then, forgetting /ignoring/ emptying such an attention so as to => Condensing it into a state of Oneness => Sustaining this state of Oneness by further forgetting/ignoring/emptying it => ...until a mindless Mind comes upon you ... Of course, a mindless Mind can't be a mind, or more precisely speaking , can't be a human mind ; and , so immense and powerful it is, can't originate from our brain , but something from the outside , from the Cosmos which Taoists always call it : ' 天心' ( the ' Cosmos Mind' )

Since both opendao and 松永道 mentioned about the dual cultivation issue, I would like to talk about it first. The general principle is that Taoists should cultivate both Xing gong and Ming gong , but it doesn't necessarily imply that we have to do them simultaneously without the need to consider the sequence of them . For example , a guy in his sixties who can't sit there straight for over 15 minutes without falling into some kind of drowsing , or he can't have a hard-on even thinking of women's bodies or lingerie, then in that case likely we should suggest him to do Ming gong with some body movements first. It is only after his situation improved , should we advise him to do some Xing gong. The reason is simple , it is useless , for example, to ask an always sleepy mind to explore the Xing gong. On the other hand, a young guy in his early 20s who always has strong sex drive that he can't suppress it by playing lot of sports or taking icy baths, and he is a quite quiet and smart guy, then likely we will suggest him to do Xing gong more intensively , with Ming gong as supplementary .

Yeah , Ming gong =minggong; To any serious Taoist practitioner, Xing gong is something you can't escape from . To evade doing it , you just postpone a crucial issue that you have to deal with , which may not be advantageous to your cultivation . For example, regarding nocturnal leakage of jing , a troublesome issue that many guys are annoyed : To people who are good at Xing gong, it is something easy to solve . However, to people who are not good at it , then they will incline to solve it by those physical ways : not to read pornographic stuff ,better wearing loose clothing , drink as little wine as possible...etc ., which can be somewhat effective , but unlikely be radical .