exorcist_1699

Dantian is different from the acupuncture point . The acupuncture points are always there as important , existing energy concentrated points on the meridians even you do not apply your mind to it or just in sleep . For example, one of the most common used acupuncture points is on the Large Intestine Channel: LI4, Hegu( '合谷') , in between your thumb and index finger, where you can sense it by pressing and holding it for 2~3 minutes , then you sense some flow of energy along your forearm . Dantian is something different; if you do not apply a mind , some intention on it , qi will not arise from it to show its existence , let alone rising from the bottom of our body to your head . First you mobilize it by slightly apply your mind to the lower , middle or upper dantian ( apply a mind to the UD , its strength is difficult to grasp , don't careless try ! ) , then later for initializing higher quality of qi, you apply no-mind to one of them , or just "apply " no-mind to nowhere ..

Both qi gong and TCM herbs use the same stuff to sustain and nourish us : jing and qi . The only difference is by ways of different media . While TCM makes use of jing and qi in treated herbs , minerals ,inserts ..etc that we eat , stick or steam the body, smell into our nose ...etc , gi-gong practitioners use mind , intention, focus or just no-mind or no-intention to initialize , first qi inside our bodies , later qi outside of our bodies , to do the same job . Some TCM herbs , same as qi-gong , do replenish our kidney -yin as qi-gong does .

Maybe you can see this : https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/40698-jing-of-tranquility-清淨經/

Yeah , for both Taoist and Buddhist practice ,things like avoid nocturnal emission of jing , not drink cold or icy water or abstain from getting angry with trivial matters are all important . But the reasons why those prohibitions are significant Buddhists never state it clearly . It is in Taoist jing-qi-shen or TCM's context that they are fully explained .

Buddhists do not talk about jing and qi , which does not imply that they are not the source of the human spirit . Quite the contrary , with the identification of them , it lets us solve many problems in our practice much easier.

Jing and shen are closely related . Deterioration of your jing will definitely weaken your mental ability . Any mental activities, whether it be calculating your monthly expense , playing online games overnight , try consolidating an emptied mind for hours ..etc all lessen your spiritual power, then drain your essence . People may not sense it in a short period of time or in their youth , but in the long run, in their old age it can be sensed clearly . Most old people lose their creativity ( delicacy and creativity of spirit comes from jing ) in jobs or no longer be capable of learning new things are also proofs of this . Lack of jing definitely will lead to a dull mind , in fact, various layers of emptiness , that kind of delicacy , can not be sensed by old guys , which sadly makes them doubt the truth of Taoist or Buddhist truth . So, unless they can do their emptied-Mind job well that enables them to tap energy from that emptiness continuously, hardly can they maintain that level of spiritual competence in their old age.

Likely what we come across in modern society are Zen or Meditation classes, vulgarized forms of the original preaching , mainly tailored made for office ladies or business men to kill off their spare time or to make their mind peaceful . Hardly can we meet sharp and penetrating , on some occasions even bloody, say chop off an apostle's thumb or cut a poor cat into halves , ways of forcing people into confronting what the Buddha Mind is . The aspiration to grasp the reality of the cosmos is lost, and replaced by those mediocre tastes of a modern citizen.

In fact, sitting there straight , try consolidating an emptied Mind or singing the name of Buddha , all these activities drain our jing and shen day after day . So, unless the shen and jing we get daily from the emptied Mind overtakes the shen and jing we lose every day, never can we attain everlasting life. Besides , even we can get an not so bad emptied Mind in our youth , we likely will loss it in our old age . Another important thing is how to assure that the emptied Mind we get is something yang, not any unproductive , forcibly formed, looks seemingly emptied Mind , some kind of pseudo Enlightenment ? One of the proofs is whether there is sex pleasure in that mindless status, the other one is whether there is embryonic breathing ...; these are Taoist criteria to check Buddhist claim of achievement . Generally speaking , Taoists know Buddhist way better than Buddhists' understanding of the Taoist jing-qi-shen framework .

Both Buddhism and Taoism emphasize the importance of the emptied Mind, in fact , it is the core of both systems. The main difference is that Taoism knows well that to attain such an emptied Mind directly from people's existing status ( entangled in a weak physical body with various stresses and drives ; dominated by an overwhelming analytic mind..etc) is nearly impossible . So better adopt an indirect way of initializing qi from jing first , then from qi lets people grasp what an emptied Mind ( shen ) is . Besides, once qi is initialized and upgraded , lets it settle the fluctuating minds is more easier than asking the minds to settle/ empty itself as qi and mind gets yang and yin attract-to-each-other relationship in between . However, any good way can be vulgarized , not because Taoist is inferior to the Buddhist , but because some not so clever people incline to make thing superficial so that they can grasp it . Remember that any attachment to qi , to some glow, even to emptiness itself will block you from advancing . Building a boat to cross a river, but then you have to abandon it, is the metaphor always quoted so as to remind people of not being entangled by any attachment ; it is true even you have just attained a great , laborious achievement one second ago .

" Beings would visit me and I would have spiritual conversations with them. Sometimes some would come to challenge me, but I seemed to know inherently how to deal with those challenges..." It seems inappropriate to respond..

I think real Buddhist masters know the importance of physical health as well , maybe sometime they look ignoring it is because Taoists talk too much about jing and qi ? Taoist view of Zen's way is : It starts straight by cultivating Shen at the top level and in one stroke also solves the middle ( qi) and bottom ( jing ) levels issues. It is just a concentrated , non-gradual way to doing jing => qi => shen in reverse order , which likely be possible only for gifted people . That means if you do your emptied-Mind well, you simultaneously can get a diamond -like body in both physical and spiritual senses . However, if you seemingly do your Emptied- mind stuff well , say attaining some kind of foretelling ability or capable of driving out some spirit , yet still get a weak , sick or aging body, then definitely you are only polishing some type of yin-qi or yin-mind . And, polishing a yin-typed of mind well is nothing or not much worthy of boasting of .

About the no-way is the best way stuff, people may wonder how it be possible . Assume that you are a native speaker of English, do you pay attention to any grammatical rules when you speak English ? You just speak it out straight from your mouth those words ..If you have any attention to those rules, never can you speak it so fluently . So, our mind does have a special ability to squeeze a bundle of rules to no-rule , and makes it work . Similarly in the world of qi or Buddhist practice. At high level, you just start with no-way ; if you pay attention to stuff like how to control your breathing, whether your qi being circulated correctly or how to get rid of those fluctuating ideas ( the harder you try, the more they pop -up )..then hardly can you upgrade your practice for those attachments always entangle you ; A no-way emptied Mind is what you need for your practice ; in fact, high-quality qi ( pre-heavenly qi ) arisen only after your capable of consolidating such a Mind .

The reason why we have to do Micro Cosmic Circulation is that the qi accumulated at the lower dantian ( fire nourished from water ) , if not rising up to the head , will very likely changed back into the form of jing and released , downwards outside of our body no matter how hard we try . It is only after having it risen to and entered the head, the upper dantian, having an intercourse with stuff there , now called Yuan Jing (元精) , hardly can the sublimation of qi be secured and locked. No Western theory ever discovered this mechanism , nor the Indian system points it out ( If I am wrong, please tell me ). It is therefore no strange that most other celibacy theories is either superficial or doomed to fail in vain . The reasons are 1) No other cultures, except the Taoist , discovers and identify qi , its varied , changing forms and movements , so clearly . 2) Compared to initializing qi, Yuan ing (strangely from top) is much more difficult to meet or nourish . (參同契: " 元精渺難睹 ") . The Buddhist system uses other mechanism to solve it even without mentioning jing and qi, but it doesn't mean jing and qi not the underlying , important factors affecting the process .

Different systems get different emphasizes and criteria to judge their own effectiveness . Qi and Jing are mainly for Daoism , not for the Buddhist cultivation . Likely the Buddhists , especially those followers of Zen's , will condemn Taoist putting emphasize on jing and qi as some kinds of attachment , barriers to attaining the Enlightenment. Light, its size and brightness, should be the main criteria for the Buddhist system as it starts straight from the emptied mind stuff, with exception if you follow the Esoteric or Pure Land school . In fact, asking silly question like "Who am I " , singing the name of the Buddha and paying attention to some kind of glow are all varied kinds of attachment that should be condemned . The best way is no way , the best path is no path , it is true if you get the mind to handle that kind of paradox .

" I got into some parallel universe and have no more afflictions or attachments, or even base desires. " The cleanest way likely be Zen's as it does it in an one-stroke, no-step and no-form way . Otherwise, likely most people in the end fall back to their original state. Besides, aging in the long run secretly makes people mediocre regardless of whatever great spiritual experience they ever came across.