Master Logray

Being spiritual would lessen the importance of the body and associated needs. Then sexual needs, gender change would not be that necessary comparing with general population.

你的post並沒有討論合宗明道集，而是研究作者。 爲何不直接討論大江西派呢？

I am dealing with translation and formating, some background first. Source, internet. "Zhuangzi": "Yan Hui said: The limbs are dropped, the intelligence is deposed, and the body is separated from the body to know. It is the same as Datong (great access). This is called sitting and forgetting." Those who sit and forget forget their bodies externally and forget their hearts internally. Datong, the great road of righteousness, can be combined with the great road if you can sit and forget. According to Taoist practice, we should forget to know and forget in advance. Tang Dynasty． Sima Chengzhen wrote a volume of the monograph "Zuowang Lun". If you want to cultivate the great road, you must first have no intention, so there is a saying that "no intention is the way." No mind means that there is no "shadow mind of six worldly conditions". If there is no mind, then the wonderful and true mind will manifest itself and take refuge in "the death of the heart and the resurrection of the spirit". This is how we begin to “be the same as Datong.” If you want to achieve without heart, you should forget your mind, that is, you will get rid of seeing, hearing, and awareness, and there will be no need for intelligent thinking. Zhuangzi's method of sitting and forgetting is not fully revealed in Zhuangzi's books, but "Zhuangzi. "Qiwu Lun" has already described the main end of it. The so-called sitting and forgetting has clearly pointed out that the posture is not standing or lying down, but sitting. This sitting posture is neither cross-legged nor flat, but "sitting with concealment".

For reading or practising?

It is not long ago there was a discussion that the forum lacks Taoist or cultivator posts. Then we have someone like this member who is very interested in such matters coming up. The result is not what most imagined. This world is interesting. It gives you what you want but in a way not expected.

My teacher said, prolonged meditation itself will change a person's character to be more mild, more understanding, more peaceful. May be he is not entirely correct.

WLP stands a lot? They are using standing as the base? not sitting? Standing cannot go deep enough and while it is useful to kick start as you say.

How so? Any more info?

Zen doesn't improve the body, so are some Taoist practices in the early stage. When your body ages, maintain a full lotus could be giving harmful effects. Not only the knee, but the lower back too. In Taoist training, the person will easily snap into place when the Chi comes. The problem is the long period before getting the real Chi. Damages could have been done. For older people especially who starts middle aged, it is better to take it easy, or even easier along the way. Anyhow your objective is on the mind, why struggle in pain for decades.

It doesn't matter if doing something has a zero chance of success, as long as it is not a all or nothing type. If one trains to be the richest man on earth, then even a 1/10000 success is quite a big sum of money. A 10% success rate will make most people envy.

Modern world, it is unavoidable. The initial step of concentrating on LDT has been a great hurdle for many people.

The common explanation is, when the LDT is full, it starts to flow down the channel and start orbiting on its own. Most teachers would tell you that. It is certainly true. But then why MCO is regarded as Yau Wei Gong (Doing Something) instead of Wu Wei Gong? If Chi can do everything by itself, safe and sound and smooth? Because the person has to concentrate on the LDT to gather and build up Chi, start the firing trigger, keep the Chi running along the proper channel (actually it is a trunk road with many junctions), don't omit sections (common), stopping in the journey (the 3 passes, the bathing points), determine when to go again or start its downward journey, adjust the speed etc. There is not much Wu Wei left, at most just don't force things. Given the involvement of the conscious mind, WuLiu MCO can hardly even be classified as meditation when this term generally refers stilling the mind and doing as little as possible. It is more similar to Qigong or even Hatha Yoga where a lot of interventions are needed.

There is a practice where the Chi is moving between LDT and MDT, similar to OP's thinking. It seems to be safer too. But I don't know how this practice fit in the grand scheme of Neidan.

I think the term "master" implies a certain preaching/teaching/writing. A solo cultivator (I don't mean anyone we know) does not count. Someone who knows the truth of the universe, unless he preaches/teach/write, he is a nobody (again no name implied) if he keeps everything to himself.

Yes, master = philosopher + special powers. If Jesus never demonstrated anything special, would Christianity even exist with his teachings alone?

I think so. A fake master is different from a fallen master.

Neigong and Qigong are "recent" terms. Neigong appeared in 1932, while Qigong was 1953 only. It is very interesting the term Neigong was coined by one of the greatest novelist in China, the Owner of the Returning Pearl Villa. He wrote at least 40 millions words from 1930 to 1960. His most famous novels were about Swords Immortals, with significant descriptions of Taoist/Buddhist/Evil cultivation practices. It is actually very good for cultivators to read his books apart from entertainment value. This term was further made popular by another Kung Fu novelist Jin Rong. He was the most famous one and his books are translated in different languages. Neigong is generally defined to be a supplementary strengthening system for external martial arts. Buddhist Shaolin boxing is regarded as External Martial Arts and Taoist Kung Fu as internal. As to Qigong, it was first used in 1953 in a Chi Kung Health Restoration institute. This term was then used by the government for all related activities. During those period, it was quite restrictively conceived as breathing exercises and exercises with managed breathing. It was only later when mind aspects are included. Qigong sometimes are defined to include Yoga, meditation, chanting, some Tibetan practices, Neidan etc. So it is quite generic that everything is Qigong. When someone asks me what do I exercise, it is simple to say QG which everyone thinks they understand. Nowadays people define both according to their own understandings or marketing considerations. Neigong still has a martial bias. But in most cases, Neigong can be treated same as Qigong as they are very similar in practice and frequently having the same exercises.

I remember reading about ghost/alien/fairy... and how to know if they are not dreams or hallucinations but sentient. You try to be interactive with them, ask them questions like about the news - may be politics, arithmetic, street names, how machines work and so on. If they can give you genuine answers - run.

I would say those traditions that talk only is more susceptible to having charlatans. It includes most like Hindu, Buddhist, Christianity, Islam. Their objectives are unclear e.g. enlightenment, faith; and having no measurable yardsticks. While Tibetan, Taoist alchemy and magical, Western magical, Hatha Yoga all involve some physical doings and expect results that are measurable and obtainable within a reasonable time frame. Let say you met a Yoga master who teaches you to bend, but you cannot do it. So this tradition is no use to you. If what you get is pain after pain, then it must be harmful. A spell not effective is known in a short time. For these traditions, it is not likely to have a totally fake master, but rather how good/bad are they. These are not free from charlatans, but it is easier to spot them and handle properly.

I have the impression that aside from a small minority of younger "spirituality loving people", the majority are so old that sex is no longer a big issue?

I thought that you refer to @Shadow_self.

We would better restrict definition meditation to higher end more elaborate systems. Meditation is a form of idleness or silence which all humanity observes. Repeated movements with a certain ways of breathing is again too simple to be developed everywhere over the ages. Most of the people pray and chant and sing in different religions. These are para-meditation practices. Even marathon runners get into trance. But we should not call them meditation as the major objective is not meditation itself. The desert people should have a better grasp as they had nothing to do in a desert and looking at the clear sky in the evenings - at least in the old days. But interestingly the areas around Himalayas seem to have a better touch and were able to organize these activities into complicated and vast systems. I only recently discover Zikr. It is so great.

If most of the Arabs, Persia, Muslim India have very limited meditational activities. Then South East Asia's meditation practices would be indigenous or imported from India/China/Tibet?

Area / location comes first. Muslim arises from desert people. They sure value connecting to others. In Asia where it is historically packed more than sardines, people value free space and less "connections". It is why meditation has been phenomenonal from India to Japan.

Dao De Jing Chapter 81 (the last chapter), ....善者不辯，辯者不善。知者不博，博者不知。 is quite applicable to this discussion. The English translation on Google. .... Good men do not argue. Those who argue are not good. Those who know are not learned. The learned do not know. This translation seems a bit off to me. My impression is that it means those know what is going on do not want to argue; those arguing don't know what is going on. Those who understands the Tao is not having a wide knowledge; those having a wide knowledge may not know the Tao (or other subjects). So I suppose someone fully absorbs this philosophy would refrain from arguing in forums. This is one of the reasons why there are so few discussion on Taoism, not only here. In real life, Taoist temples don't have sermons, regular or irregular. Priests don't talk to the masses like Abrahamic religions or even Buddhists. Back to religion, how do people keep life philosophy, divine teaching, cosmology, mystical lore, magical knowledge, ethics in tact for the future generations? There is no better ways than religion. The initial seed could have come from the divine or knowledge from commoner like Lao Zhi, it is the religion that merges all related into a system, and work it out in the real world, finally institutionalize it. Then Taoist religion is somewhat the son (or nephew) of Taoist Philosophy. The demarcation of philosophy and religion is for better understanding. But they are intrinsically linked. When a religion is going overseas, it is quite natural for the recipients to take the easier part - philosophy only. Who would want to remember those deities names in Indian or in Egyptian languages. Greek gods names are already long enough. And it won't offend their own religions if only philosophy is mentioned. Some places are quite sensitive too. Preaching can result in death penalty. So far I only saw a post about Rabbit God in this forum. It is a rare occurrence.