thetaoiseasy

In our tradition, we cannot physically restore a hand, turn water into wine, or cure a leper -- no matter if we are angry or have a clear mind. We do not have the ability. We value naturalness the most, which includes the entire spectrum of emotions, failings, successes and virtue. Our greatest miracle, and challenge, is to help a twisted psychology.

What's wrong with getting angry once in awhile? Maybe Jesus had a lot of sex with Mary, too. Jesus pooped, too, and needed to eat. All natural functions. Still can be a Son of God, or a human, or both, regardless.

Chi rises from the feet, to the navel, to the chest, to between the eyes, to between the eyebrows, then finally to the middle of the head. The middle of head is Tao, the center of our original being. If you have excess emotion, the chi gets stuck at the navel. If you have excess desire, it gets stuck at the chest. If you have excess rationality, it gets stuck between the eyes. If you have excess virtue, it gets stuck between the eyebrows. Speaking tends to stir all these centers excessively and blocks the rise of chi to Tao. This is the technical explanation. But here's the spirit of the situation. Cultivation engages the wordless sphere. By speaking excessively, you bring your cultivation down to the described and conceptual level. So unless you are truly stable in your achievement, you run the risk of losing your progress. That said, silence is also no guarantee for any development either, as one can easily brew emotion, desire, and strong thoughts in one's head.

Many words have been used to label the absolute state: Unity. Emptiness. Pure Yang. Oneness. Natural State. Formless. No-self. But in spiritual understanding, where 1+1=1, The opposite of pure yang is not pure yin. The opposite of emptiness is not fullness. The opposite of oneness is not division. The opposite of natural state is not the unnatural state. The opposite of the formless is not the formed. The opposite of no-self is not self. The absolute states have no opposite. How could they? The absolute states actually include the relative states! The names of the absolute states only appear to have opposite, because of the limitation of words. We reluctantly give the absolute states labels and descriptions for the sake of communication. But it should be for communication only. If one focuses on the verbal communication of these states, and not their understanding, we develop a sharp-tongue with witticisms fit for verbal sparring but do not develop understanding.

Jesus says: 12This is My commandment, that you love one another as I loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. He also said: 44 Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” That's what Jesus said it means to be a son of God. It is not a standard that I personally can live up to but I do admire it. If you aspire to choose to be a "God" under Jesus's standards, more power to you!

Okay. What does being financially unlimited mean to you? What does being relationship unlimited mean to you? What does being physically unlimited mean to you? This is different for everyone. Some people feel like a king on minimum wage, having a few close friends and family, with no serious health issues. That is very different than being warren buffet, a socialite, and running 100 marathons. Where do u lie on that spectrum?

You say you want a life of no limitations. No limitations. OK. That is a noble goal. There are 5 spheres of life. 1) Mental 2) Spiritual 3) Physical 4) Financial 5) Relationships. Priorities are important. In your heart of hearts, which sphere do you feel like you need to work on most? Which sphere is most important to you? They may not be the same, of course.

What's your question -- if you could write it in one sentence?

You say it doesn't make a difference whether you sit on the park bench for the next 30 years or enter the rat race. Then why write the OP? You would do whatever, with complete ease and without doubt.

In all traditions it is the same: teachers give the student a form, and it's up to the student to transcend the form and see the formless. This concept has been described in multiple ways. Becoming sick before being healed. Using poison to create medicine. Using the unreal to support the real. Using form to reach the formless. Using the low the support the high. Using effort to reach non-effort. Naturally, a discerning student will ask: Why would I want to get sick? Drink poison? Use the unreal? Use form? Use the low? Use effort? I'm not stupid. I want to get better, drink medicine, see the real, know the formless, and walk the highest path directly. Really, then, the question should be: Is it possible to use the relative to reach something that is absolute? On the same vein, is it possible to reach the absolute directly? If you look at the traditions, you will see that they all describe achievement in stages, which are comparable. In Buddhism, there are three realms: the realm of desire, of form, and then of formlessness. In Esoteric Buddhism, there is the realm of bliss, illumination, and then no-thought. In Taoism, there is jing, chi, shen. The final stages of formlessness, no-thought, and shen all refer to the Natural State, the absolute. So why the stages? Can I just jump to the realm of formlessness, no-thought, and shen directly? Why are these stupid monks chaining me to the lower realms of form and physical law? Do they just lack the methods? I would suggest that most cultivators in the past were not stupid, but highly motivated for achievement, and the hearts of the teachers are in the right place. I will admit that many teachers perhaps do not know why they are passing the form, but simply do so because of tradition and know what works. I won't suggest any of my own conclusions, but mention briefly in passing. One must see the emptiness and maintain the natural state at every level. The realm of desire and form, though crude and considered unimportant, must be emptied out. This is no different than saying that jing must be transformed to chi, before it it is to shen. By offering them forms, teachers offer the students an opportunity to thoroughly dissolve the false dichotomy between higher and lower practices and between the absolute and relative. Furthermore, the forms are vehicles for transmission, which is no small thing.

How much is a life worth to me? To save one's physical life, there can be a price. To save one's spiritual life, there is no price that can be set. And yet people who charge thousands to get a entity removed have put a price on the spiritual life of another. They will pay the the price for themselves later. If you think you are dealing with a spiritual issue and want answers, look for that which cannot be bought. Fresh air, clean water, some herbs, and sunlight -- these are a start. A mind that is heavily burdened by ideas of entities has already lost another priceless thing, their freedom. All beliefs are temporary. Some beliefs are helpful and supportive. Most are not.

Fighting demons and entities can become a hobby. A sense of purpose it bestows: For the inflicted, I am fighting for my life and purging myself of evil. For the healer, I am fighting for his life and serve as the voice of dharma/gospel/Tao. Psychologically, focusing on entities are a type of mental dissociation. We are all a mix of good and evil. When I say I have an entity, I separate the negative aspect of my being and treat it as something external. I ignore the internal evil to deal with the external evil that has invaded me. The fight between the heavens and earth will always ensue when the mind is not at peace. The unrest is surely time immemorial, but more common in people who are hyperreligious and undeveloped. Chuang Tzu once said, "Heaven and earth and I are One!" But who will listen to the indifferent sage? In unity there cannot be fight. 10000s of Ah Mi To Fu's chanted, 12,000 dollars paid, many healers visited, some lessons sure cost more than others. But we all learn so slowly, there is no one we can blame. It's not healthy for the living to think of entities. Leave that to the dead and dying. It's better to be normal and natural. We are all human beings with problems, None of us are special. These problems can be gently improved by normalcy and calmness of mind. With no exception, We are nourished by the sun, healthy gentle exercise, good water, and a healthy diet. Let the mind think of no abnormal thing. That is a source of true spiritual power.

I can't speak for Mo-Pai. But I can share another view. 1) Placing intent on the body is a means to generate energy, not to store. The body is a great generator of energy, and each location in the body generates a different type of energy. So you generate different types of energy by placing your intent on different locations of the body. 2) The purpose of placing the awareness at the heavenly heart is this. It is posited that the heavenly heart contains all the vibrations of the entire body, and by placing your awareness there, in effect you place your awareness at the LDT, MDT, and UDT all at the same time. This is what is hinted at in the TTC, when Lao Tzu speaks of mystery gate, the concept of wholeness, the One energy, and achieving everything by doing nothing. 3) There are two types of consciousness. The first is mind consciousness. This is related to intent, which allows you to place your awareness at certain points. This type of consciousness is easy to understand, because it is our everyday awareness. The second is pure and formless consciousness. What is this? This is energy itself. Energy is a type of consciousness, though this statement may confuse many people. At the early stages, one does not necessarily need to feel the energy to be in this type of consciousness, but one's understanding and experience of energetic consciousness can become highly robust, when the entire body's energy consolidates, crystallizes, and matches the vibration of the heavenly heart. 4) The mind is the fire of intent, and the body is water. There has to be engagement and interaction between the two. Learning how to mix water and fire is an analogy of unifying the mind and body, which is done by placing your intent on the body. That said, learning how to use mystical points to generate energy is a good way to start but it also not the end. At the same time, any meditation that does not have this starting point will have limited benefits, because it only engages in mind consciousness.

Immortal cultivation is not a set of practices where you say: " I'm doing X, Y, Z. I will fly away overnight!" There is nothing you can put your finger on and call immortal practices. Truly, if you are spiritually blocked, no practice or teacher will be able to help you. If you have clear vision, anything can help you achieve your high spiritual goal. The immortal pursuit is better described as a dynamic learning process. Living the Way, you live a little and learn a little. You make a few mistakes but learn from them. You experience new things daily and monthly, slowly unfolding the potential that mother nature has bestowed. In this discovery process, you begin to understand the laws of the universe. You will also understand the laws of your body, as they are the same. You can then manage yourself and your own health better. If anything, the immortal practice removes separation. It is not separate from longevity, nor is it separate from spiritual abilities. It focuses on the integration of your mind, body, and spirit, rather than splintering them. It embraces wholeness.

Sometimes apples go bad. If you say, "I am whole. I do not discriminate between good and bad. I am non-dualistic. I am one with the universe. I am you. You are me." That is okay. But you better not eat too many bad apples, or else you will go to the ER. Just because all things are part of the whole, it does not mean that individual things disappear. It is important to have healthy nourishment spiritually. This is not judgment of others, but common sense. It matters who you read and who you learn from. One may say, "I can separate good ideas from the person." That is not possible, because you cannot separate a person's chi from the person. A person's chi permeates everything he does, says, and writes.

This is a misunderstanding. The Yang Subtle body has nothing to preserving the self. In fact -- by definition -- the Yang subtle body is internal proof that one has shed the various components of self. These are the traditional steps of cultivation: 1) refine one's gross desires and emotions to physical energy (Jing) 2) refine one's mental confusion and conception to harmonious energy (Chi) 3) refine one's greed and sense of self to spiritual energy (Shen) 4) converge all three highly refined substances -- jing, chi, shen -- to unite with the Emptiness, forming the Subtle Yang Body. When desires, emotions, mental confusion, and the sense of self are refined to become the highest essence of life, what is left? What is left is merely the function of Tao, in which form and no-form express the same truth.

A cultivator can work with the source, or continue to feed its conceptualization. All buddhas, immortals, deities, gods, spirits -- they are only literary and cultural descriptions of a simple, natural reality of energy. Traditionally, this reality is grouped in terms of numbers: 0 - The Undefined Substance of Life, Hun Tun 1 - The True One, North Star 2 - The Duality of Yin and Yang, Sun and Moon 3 - The Three spheres of Heaven, Earth, and Man 4 - The Four groups of the Seven Stars in the 28 constellations 5- The Five Elements Know that the level of One is not as responsive to form, and the level of Zero is completely deaf to form. So if a cultivator wants to go deeper, he has to go about things differently than a traditional Daoist or Buddhist. As for light, Lu Dong Bin refers to internal light 內光, not external light 外光 -- he is referring to an awareness of energy. And so all things have light. There is the light of water. There is the light of mountains. There is the light of the sun. There is the light of trees. All of these sources of light converge as the One True Breath.

The body can support the body. The body can support the mind. The body can also support the spirit. Is there any purpose to maintaining a beautiful 200-year-old bag of bones and flesh for the sake of it? In the end, a healthy body provides an opportunity for one to fulfill one's interests. Herbs, supplements and superfoods will never enable one to reach the depth of spirit, however. Their energy mainly supports the body. To a spiritual cultivator, too much nutrition may even sometimes be seen as a burden in the long-term. The spirit level is much lighter than the body and mind. It reaches to the sun and stars.

Here are a few diagrams that illustrate the importance of the feminine principle. Maybe they convey ideas that are harder to speak about. 1. Tai Chi Chinese Character for Mother ------> Tai Chi 2. Hexagram for Peace & for Stagnation Peace In this hexagram, the earth trigram is on top as the first three broken lines. The heaven trigram is below as the bottom three straight lines. In other words, peace occurs when the the yang force takes the lower position to the yin force. Compare this to the Hexagram for Stagnation. In this hexagram, it is reversed. The yang force is on top as the three straight lines, moving upwards. The yin force is below as the three broken lines, moving downwards. When the yang force does not lower itself to the yin force, there is stagnation. 3. Internal alchemy is often compared to cooking -- conveyed by the image of a pot on the stove. This is also portrayed by the hexagram called Accomplishment. Note that the yang fire must be placed below the yin water for cooking to begin! 4. Lao Tzu said "Humans follow earth. Earth follows sky. Sky follows Tao." This is the natural order of life as the great sage envisioned it. As humans, we follow earth which is the receptive yin force. Is there anyway around it? TTC Chapter 28 知其雄，守其雌 Know the masculine principle; abide by the female principle.

The soul is a piece of a energy. It can contain ego. But it doesn't have to. People often speak of reincarnation. But what is the substance that is reincarnated? To a Taoist, the reincarnated substance is just soul energy still vibrating in the realm of yin and yang -- the sphere of the changing truth. The ultimate goal of Taoist practices is to reach the level of the unchanging truth -- that is, to merge one's soul energy with the Mother Universe. But people do not fly into the sky overnight -- there are no shortcuts. Truly, most cultivators are just at the very beginning stages of cultivation. And they may mistake an intellectual "all is empty" musing for real achievement, or gravitate towards a psychological approach. But that cannot begin to touch the spiritual heights our Taoist forefathers left us with. In their writings, they spoke of complete internal engineering of body, mind, and spirit. Truly, when the body is not transformed, one cannot even begin to speak of non-duality. It is a mere pipe-dream. So the body must be first transformed, until desire is refined to jing. The mind must also be transformed, until ego and mental confusion is refined to chi. The spirit must be transformed, until all sense of self is dissolved to light. This is energetic transformation wherein the light of our soul, becoming brighter and brighter with cultivation, pierces the darkness we have created for ourselves. The jing-chi-shen-Te-Tao model elucidates this point, but it confuses some people because of esoteric terminology. More plainly put, it describes a step-by-step jettisoning of all the trashes the soul has accumulated in this world. We cannot take any our conceptions, ideas, and beliefs with us. With refinement, the crude material of our body can be sublimated to pure light and higher spiritual energy. Our soul becomes lighter and lighter. After the cleansing process, our soul contains the essence of our life, our spiritual nature. Our spiritual nature is an energetic copy of the universal nature. Seeing this, what duality can still exist?

The MCO is natural in that: 1) When the sexual energy is full 2) When the mind functions in an organic and focused way, The energy will circulate in the MCO. If you do not have enough sexual energy, you are just pushing air -- you simply have nothing to work with or circulate. If your mind is scattered, the energy will move without direction or purpose. In either case, there is no benefit. And yet -- when we speak of successful cultivation -- there are unseen conditions that are way more important than those two conditions alone. Like: 1) the person who taught you the practice 2) the amount of chi development the cultivator was born with If the teacher is achieved, or if the cultivator was born with high spiritual potential, neither of the first two conditions need to be rigorously met. A talented student may sit for a few weeks and the MCO starts moving, even if she is not celibate. Likewise, a completely mediocre student guided under an cultivated teacher can open the MCO within months. So beyond talk of the efficacy of this or that method, there are a lot more than meets the eyes. Every practice has a major part, moderate part, and minor part. It is very easy to speak about the minor parts, because they are apparent and can be easily discussed. But if you can grasp what is most important -- dare I say, mystical?-- then all the minor conditions will assist, but are ultimately not necessary.

The MCO is a natural sublimation process in the body to recycle sexual energy. For the sake of teaching, teachers had to present the process to their students in a formalized way, and thus many different methods arose, dressed in various clothing. However, the natural process will always remain what it is. The benefits of the exercise -- health or enlightenment -- are predicated on how naturally one can conduct the MCO. Naturalness is the only standard. If it is natural, then it is alchemy. If one method is slightly more effective than another, it is only because it facilitates the natural sublimation process better. Guided meditation --SFQ style-- can be done both naturally and unnaturally, just as plain sitting meditation can be done both naturally and unnaturally. So success depends on how the exercises are performed by the student, not so much the exercises themselves. What is naturalness, though? For energetic circulation practices, it means guiding the energy without guiding the energy. It means using intention to reach non-intention. Put another way, the mind and energy must move together, without scatteredness, such that the experience of the energy and the experiencer are One. In daily life, our energy and minds are constantly moving in opposite directions. The more one speaks of this process, the more fanciful it seems. But it is not hard. It is achievable. It just takes some experience. Speaking is what makes it elusive. If the energy feels forced, or if the mind gets tight, the cultivator knows that he violated the principle of naturalness. Good luck!

A cultivator was a casual meditator. One quiet morning, she felt a light energy rising up her spine and then descending down the front of her body. "Whoah! Cool rise and fall! Cool cycles!" She proceeded to watch this interesting cyclical circulation in her morning meditations, day after day, year after year. One day, the energy suddenly crystallized in her head and no longer went down the front of the body. From that moment on, there was a piece of diamond energy in her head wherever she went. With that energy, she grew wise and understanding. She felt light and joyful and healthy. Naturally, many cultivators sought the great master to learn the Great Tao. The master instructed the students, "Sit and good things will happen!" His students say, "What will happen, master?" She says, "You'll see!" But the results were slow and non-fruitful. After a few months, the students became antsy. They started throwing tantrums. They starting asking many questions. Many students eventually left her. The master didn't know what to do. She did not say anything initially, because her opening occurred so naturally for her, and thought that it would occur naturally for her students. But the students were just so curious! In the end, she decided to share her personal experience to her students. She described the Ren and Du meridians. She explained how this pattern mirrored the rising and setting of the sun, as well as the evaporation and condensation cycle of water. She noted how the process was a natural recycling of sexual energy in the body. She noted that there were three energetic gates particularly difficult to pass through. The students got many ideas from their master's personal experience and proceeded to process this experience in myriad ways. Some students began visualizing the energy up the spine with assorted colors and imagery. Some students clenched the anus muscles and coordinated the movement with gentle breathing. Some students experimented with"qigong" that would seem to invoke the circulation naturally through physical movement. Some students even devised the art of dual cultivation, where a man would be the du mai and the female would be the ren mai. Some students just enjoyed the teacher's heartful sharing and continued to sit. These methods was not the teacher's intention, but the situation is what it is. The teacher had to say something to her students -- or all the students would have left! She decided to make most of the situation. She proceeded to carefully observe the students growth and took notes to see which methods were most effective. "Which method would enable the students to reach the height of her attainment? The results were mixed. Of the 1000 students she had, only 6 students had crystallized the energy like she did. Interestingly, the situation could not be attributed to the method, because one student of each method had attained it. It also could not be attributed to effort, because all the students were full time cultivators in a pressure cooker cultivation setting. The teacher proceeded to interview the six students to see what they had in common. After weeks of intensive questioning and discussion, the teacher was pooped and exhausted. She plopped onto her couch. She smiled and asked the piece of crystallized energy in her head, "What is the true Tao?" The crystallized energy hissed and glowed.

Everyone has a soul. The development of one's soul is defined by its energetic frequency. The universe has many energetic fields with different frequencies. Tao is the energetic field with the highest frequency. The purpose of Nei-dan is to raises one's soul energy to align with the vibration of the Tao. In the step-by-step refinement process, one surpasses the energetic limitations -- karmic nets, if you will -- of the body, mind, and the spirit. When one's soul vibrates at the same frequency of the Tao, then non-dual reality naturally becomes apparent to the cultivator. The reason is that Tao is the energetic frequency at which the non-dual reality can be experienced. When the body completely empties out, the energy dissolves into a white formlessness -- imageless, colorless, descriptionless, with no end or beginning. This personal experience is valuable. At that point, the non-dual truth is no longer intellectual or psychological to you. It is your realization.

1) If your mind is calm 2) If your spine is straight 3) and if you have built enough sexual energy, The waterwheel will turn by itself. Meaning, the lower energy will naturally rise up the the head through the spine, and you will feel light. This is natural sublimation. You do not need to do anything. If your mind forcefully tries to pump up the energy up to the head, you will only congest the head with coarse blood. The energy, all the while, is not engaged. There is absolutely no spiritual benefit, because you have only practiced at the physical level.