dwai

On 10/30/2025 at 1:45 PM, Taomeow said:

 

That's exactly what I thought too.  

Nigella sativa is the way to go for me. We use it a lot in our cooking…

19 hours ago, Taomeow said:

Why? 

I’ve had one as long as I can remember (or since when I became aware of the sky connection). I just thought it was a function of the fontanelle sealing after birth. But turns out it isn’t. Maybe I was just dropped on my head as a baby 🤣

Curious if any have a small bump (about the size of a pimple) on their crown point (where the fontanelle would have been as babies). If so, has it always been there (or how long as you have been aware of it)?

I find that often we obsess with the “why” and “how” instead of letting the process unfold. Nothing wrong in that,  but often the why and how will become apparent when the process is complete. No wiser words can be said about this than what has already been shared by forest and Steve. 

10 hours ago, Forestgreen said:

I believe that when we understand a method, we understand the principle behind. Working with the principle ( mechanism), methods can be simplified. 

I also do not believe that we can start from the principle, years of teaching at uni has taught me that an absolute majority of people need methods first.

Yes of course, most people need to start with a method. But many methods are not necessary, and a lot of folks I’ve seen tend to get caught up in acquiring methods.
 

One good method/system is sufficient to understand, but most don’t have the patience to stick with one. It’s better to dig one deep well instead of a thousand shallow ones  

1 hour ago, forestofclarity said:

 

I would add that I am not clear on how efficient a system can be. Damo has a lot of stuff in his system, probably in part so that it can have broad appeal since differing people start with differing capacities. 

 

I've been thinking about the Secret of the Golden Flower again lately, and it is essentially once practice with multiple steps that seems to capture the key points of neidan and Chan as reflected in classical teachings. Now people will say, yes, but you need the lineage keys to unlock the secret. Now I've seen some examples of people explaining the secret, and they essentially flip what appears to be the literal meaning on its head so it means something else entirely. So sometimes, lineage may mean "complexify," which is exactly in accordance with moving away from the Dao and deeper into creation.  And when things are systematized, the more that is lost (DDJ 38). 

Indeed. The more methods we acquire, the further we go from the Truth. Then again, no matter how many people and times it has been said, we each can only comprehend what our current level of clarity allows. 

Deepest condolences 🙏🏾

1 hour ago, dwai said:

We Taoists use all sorts.  Some swallow medicine-balls as big as pigeon's eggs or drink tonics by the jugful, live upon unappetizing diets, take baths at intervals goverened by esoteric numbers, breathe in and out like asthmatic dragons, or jump about like Manchu bannermen hardening themselves for battle -- all this discomfort just for a few extra decades of life!  And why?  To gain more time to find what has never been lost!

This is the most poignant to me. The truth is always present, right under our noses, yet we don't see it because we are looking for the wrong things. 

It’s a good idea to keep coming back to this 

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Borrowed from a friend on another website, a little excerpt of what Enlightenment in the Daoist Tradition entails....a conversation between Tseng Lao-weng and John Blofeld:

Tseng Lao-weng:  'Your going to such trouble to visit me is flattering.  How may I best be of service to you?'
'You mean, why have I come, Venerable?  I have been longing to meet you ever since I heard our mutual friend describe you as an illumined sage.'
Tseng Lao-weng sighed and answered resignedly: 'Why to people talk so?  Such words are tedious.  You will find no sages here, just this old fellow and four or five other very ordinary men who are students of the Way.  It must be dissappointing for you.'
'Do not blame Yang Tao-shih, Venerable.  He wished only to make me see for myself that Buddhists do not have a monopoly of wisdom.'
'And does seeing an old man distinguished by nothing more than an unusually bushy beard convince you that they do not?'
What could I say that would not sound like flattery, which he obviously disliked?  "Venerable, it is just that, as most of my teachers are Buddhist, I am ignorant about what Taoists mean by such terms as wisdom and illumination, and about their methods of approaching the Tao.'
He laughed.  'How strange.  Can there be two kinds of wisdom, two kinds of illumination, Taoist and Buddhist?  Surely the experience of truth must be the same for all?  As to approaching the Tao, be sure that demons and executioners, let alone Buddhists, are as close to it as can be.  The one impossible thing is to get a finger's breadth away from it.  Do you suppose that some people -- this old fellow, for example -- are nearer to it than others?  Is a bird closer to the air than a tortoise or a cat?  The Tao is closer to you than the nose on your face; it is ony because you can tweak your nose that you think otherwise.  Asking about our approach to the Tao is like asking a deep-see fish how it approaches the water.  It is just a matter of recognizing what has been inside, outside and all around from the first.  Do you understand?'
'Yes I believe I do.  Certainly my Buddhist teachers have taught me that there is no attaining liberation, but only attaining recognition of what has always been from the first.'
'Excellent, excellent!  Your teachers, then, are true sages.  You are a worthy disciple, so why brave the bitter cold to visit an ordinary old fellow?  You would have learnt as much at your own fireside.'  (His harping so much on his being just an ordinary fellow was not due to exaggerated modesty, being a play on the words of which his title, Lao-weng, was composed.)
'Venerable, please don't laugh at me!  I accept your teaching that true sages have but the one goal.  Still, here in China, there are Buddhists and there are also Taoists.  Manifestly they differ; since the goal is one, the distinction must lie in their methods of approach.'
'So you are hungry not for wisdom but for knowledge!  What a pity!  Wisdom is almost as satisfying as good millet-gruel, whereas knowledge has less body to it than tepid water poured over old tea-leaves;  but if that is the fare you have come for, I can give you as much as your mistreated belly will hold.  What sort of old tea-leaves do Buddhists use, I wonder!  We Taoists use all sorts.  Some swallow medicine-balls as big as pigeon's eggs or drink tonics by the jugful, live upon unappetizing diets, take baths at intervals goverened by esoteric numbers, breathe in and out like asthmatic dragons, or jump about like Manchu bannermen hardening themselves for battle -- all this discomfort just for a few extra decades of life!  And why?  To gain more time to find what has never been lost!
And what of those pious recluses who rattle mattets against wooden-fish drums from dusk to dawn, groaning out liturgies like cholera-patients excreting watery dung?  They are penitents longing to rid themselves of a burden they never had.  These people do everything imaginable, including swallowing pills made from the vital fluids secreted by the opposide sex and lighting fires in their bellies to make the alchemic cauldrons boil -- everything, everything except -- sit still and look within.  I shall have to talk of such follies for hours, if you really want a full list of Taoist methods.  These method-users resemble mountain streams a thousand leagues from the sea.  Ah, how they chatter and gurgle, bubble and boil, rush and eddy, plunging over precipices in spectacular fashion!  How angrily they pound against the boulders and suck down their prey in treacherous whirl-pools!  But, as the streams broaden, they grow quieter and more purposeful.  They become rivers -- ah, how calm, how silent!  How majestically they sweep towards their goal, giving no impression of swiftness and, as they near the ocean, seeming not to move at all!  While noisy mountain streams are reminiscent of people chattering about the Tao and showing-off spectacular methods, rivers remind one of experienced men, taciturn, doing little, but doing it decisively; outwardly still, yet sweeping forward faster than you know.  Your teachers have offered you wisdom; then why waste time acquiring knowledge?  Methods!  Approaches!  Need the junk-master steering towards the sea, with the sails of his vessel billowing in the wind, bother his head about alternative modes of propulsion -- oars, paddles, punt-poles, tow-ropes, engines and all the rest?  Any sort of vessel, unless it founders or pitches you overboard, is good enough to take you to the one and only sea.  Now do you understand?'
Indeed I did, though not with a direct understanding firmly rooted in intuitive experience that matched his own; but I pretended to be at a loss, hoping his voice, never far from laughter, would go on and on and on; for, just as his mind when lost in the bliss of meditation had communicated a measure of its joy (on my arrival), so now it was emanating a warmth, a jollity that made me want to laugh, to sing, to dance, to shout aloud that everything is forever as it should be, provided we now and then remember to rub our eyes.
...
Tseng Lao-weng's talk of rivers flowing into the ocean had put me in mind of Sir Edwin Arnold's lovely expression of the mystery of Nirvana, 'the dew-drop slips into the shining sea', which I had long accepted as a poetical description of that moment when the seeming-individual, at last free from the shackles of the ego, merges with the Tao -- the Void.  This I knew to be an intensely blissful experience, but it was Tseng Lao-weng who now revealed its shining splendour in terms that made my heart leap.  Afterwords I wondered whether Sir Edwin Arnold himself had realized the full purport of his words.  At a certain moment in our conversation when Tseng Lao-weng paused expectantly, I translated the beautiful line for him and was rewarded by a smile of pleasure and surprise.  Eyes glowing, he replied:
'My countrymen are wrong to speak of the Western Ocean People as barbarians.  Your poet's simile is penetrating -- exalted!  And yet it does not capture the whole; for, when a lesser body of water enters a greater, though the two are henceforth inseperable, the smaller constitutes but a fragment of the whole.  But consider the Tao, which transcends both finite and infinite.  Since the Tao is All and nothing lies outside it, since its multiplicity and unity are identical, when a finite being sheds the illusion of separate existence, he is not lost in the Tao like a dew-drop merging with the sea; by casting off his imaginary limitations, he becomes immeasurable.  No longer bound by the worldly categories, 'part' and 'whole', he discoveres that he is coextensive with the Tao.  Plunge the finite into the infinite and, though only one remains, the finite, far from being diminished, takes on the stature of infinity.  Mere logicians would find fault with this, but if you perceive the hidden meaning you will laugh at their childish cavils.  Such perception will bring you face to face with the true secret cherished by all accomplished sages -- glorious, dazzling, vast, hardly conceivable!  The mind of one who Returns to the Source thereby becomes the Source.  Your own mind, for example, is destined to become the universe itself!'

2 hours ago, Antares said:

I see now. AFTER 6 months taiji stance can be used as static posture, but not from the start

Standing without preparing the body will lead to pain and stress (for most people). I remember that with my first teacher, our sessions would be 2 hours long - first single form warm-ups, then standing meditations (prayer hands set, etc.). Now and then, there would be folks interested in learning who would try the class out. I remember one guy who claimed to have been doing tai chi and qigong for decades - he said he could handle the standing. After about 30 minutes, we heard a thud...the poor man had fallen because he was forcing himself to stand, despite my teacher having told him to move around or sit down if the standing was too much. Unfortunately he never came back to the class  

4 hours ago, Antares said:

I know that smth similar to ZZ is in Temple Style neigong but it is called "Taiji Stance" there. And it is not static, but can be seen as static one if smb watches you. And it is done no longer than 10 minutes. (May be somebody does it for longer period of time, I dunno)

In Yiquan there is similar one as well and it is done as combo - you stand still lets say for 5 minutes and then you should do micro-movements in "taiji stance", and I dont think in the beginning they do it longer than 10-20 minutes on the chest level.

 

I’ve not come across any rule that prevents us from working on the MDT in temple style. The taiji stance is not the same as the prayer hands form that we use in temple style for MDT work. 

Also the same posture can be practiced in different ways depending on what the purpose is. 

For beginners (ie someone who has had 4-6 months of form practice) the static posture is used to learn how to sink qi to the LDT. Then it can be used to MDT and UDT.  

11 minutes ago, steve said:

 

I think if we stand simply for the sake of standing, with no expectations or demands on ourselves

 

That is a wonderful gateway to meditation. 

On 10/3/2025 at 7:19 PM, steve said:

On 10/3/2025 at 7:19 PM, steve said:

 

If you get good at this, I suggest practicing in a small room with a mattress against one wall.

My sifu used to have reinforced walls in his academy  

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If you get displaced by a healthy fajin, a brick wall just won't do...

 

It depends on the type of fajin being applied. 

The below is a video of my sifu showing some fajin (8:09 onwards) --

Here's another one -

On 10/2/2025 at 6:48 PM, Krenx said:

 

This is good push hands, Jin refinement, good fajin practice. 

 

You notice the effects of the Jin happens mostly in the one getting issued, not the one expressing the jin. 

 

If you do fajin, and the Jin ends up affecting your own body in large or forceful movements more then the opponent, then it is a sign the  force has been largely not transmitted into the opponent. 

 

The goal is to issue jin, and the opponent is displaced and moved significantly more then your movement. And that difference in who moves, and who remain still, increases relative to your skill. 

 

All the classics, teachings you hear, the expected results points to this gradual quality.

Hey! These guys look familiar

Why...that's my buddy, his son and me

Interesting conversation (I'm sure we've all discussed this many times on this board). FWIW, we should never do just standing. Standing should be complemented by moving. So in the context of Taijiquan, if we stand (beginners should not stand for more than 5-10 minutes and slowly build up standing time) - it builds power, we should also practice a moving form to circulate the power.  If people only stand, they can end up damaging their kidneys or other health problems. Another thing about standing, imho, is that the mental state is very important - one must be "sung" in the mind as well as the body. 

18 hours ago, Mark Foote said:

I guess the assumption is that whether we suffer in samsara or experience freedom from suffering in nirvana, it's really the same thing because "the Absolute is always present"? 

It means that (imho) once the absolute is realized, then suffering, pain, pleasure etc are no longer experienced through the mind of the limited entity (self). But it requires realization proper,  not an intellectual understanding. 

2 hours ago, BigSkyDiamond said:

 

yes, the Absolute is always present.  However the Absolute has very different attributes and characteristics than that which is bound by time space form.

 

There is nothing apart from the absolute. What you see bound by time and space are just appearances 

3 hours ago, stirling said:

3 hours ago, stirling said:

 

It takes BOTH for emptiness to be visible. You can only ever see the Relative world. If you are enlightened, you can see that emptiness is there as well.

They are not distinct from each other

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Where can you see the Absolute otherwise?

Everywhere

In Advaita Vedanta, this "Samsara is Nirvana, Nirvana is Samsara" is presented as follows -

Asti, Bhati, Priyam, Nama and Rupa. 

Asti - Being

Bhati - Shining

Priyam - Love

Nama - Name

Rupa - Form

While ordinarily we only see Nama and Rupa, the wise also see the Asti, Bhati and Priyam aspect of phenomena. If we stick with only names and forms, there is impermanence. Once we see the Absolute Consciousness shining forth as Existence (Being), Consciousness (Shining) and Bliss (Love) through that impermance, we see the Absolute is always present. 

19 hours ago, Annnon said:

 

Hi, can you please give more detail on this?

What bad could happen if someone start chanting a mantra and then suddenly stop?

Nothing bad unless you’ve taken what is called a “sankalpa”. Sankalpa is a promise between yourself and a deity (for instance, with Lord Shiva) to perform certain practices/ritual for a certain period of time. Depending on the deity and the type of practice (tantric ones are both potent and dangerous at the same time), stopping your practice is not a good idea. But if it’s just your own personal practice, there is no harm in stopping. Only that usually when we undertake a spiritual practice it is especially normal to encounter difficulties (consider it as being tested) - those who can persevere will grow, those who don’t will not (or not as much). 

Having no "horse in this race", I would say, I find Damo's online persona a bit off-putting. I think he and his mate Adam do posture a bit to provoke reactions

As far as abilities go, I would agree with @forestofclarity that he probably focuses more on "power" than wisdom. Personally, fwiw, I know a few teachers who are far more humble and capable than both of them, but they are young (relatively speaking), and therefore have opportunity to grow (especially in the wisdom department). I also like Mark Rasmus a lot more than either of those worthies, simply because he is matter of fact and direct, and comes across as being a lot more genuine. 

Ditto on the fog (I saw this on a regular basis during early days after getting initiated by my teacher), and the torroid (during practice, especially circulating the energy) 

This is what it sort of looked like 

20 minutes ago, Gerard said:

So, no practice in Chicago's snowfields?

Not in the snow  

Was in the park yesterday morning, doing dao gong and Tai chi with my friends. We’ve been practicing at this specific park for close to 10 years now, normally from late spring through fall, as winters in Chicago are brutal. 
 

As we were doing the meditation, I started to see what seemed like cobwebs of white light all over, all around us. It is interesting it was visible with both eyes open and closed.

Very interesting phenomenon, thought I’d drop this pebble in the proverbial pond and see what happens

Combining Mudras with specific pranayama works very effectively. What I learnt in Tamil Siddhar Yoga practice was a sequence of chin mudra --> chinmaya mudra --> aadi mudra --> merudanda mudra in combination with specific pranayama - very effectively raises the kundalini in the sushumna while also balancing the ida-pingala nadis. Very powerful stuff, but requires patience and preparation of the spinal column (both physical and energetic) for it to work.