ChiForce

Hahahah...Joseph Cambell and Carl Jung... My 2 favorite authors. I am always grateful that I have discovered Carl Jung in my journey, that was before the internet became big. The odds and the co-incidence of it all. What a ride..... I laugh at all of my nemesis

Hmmm...ever try to workout or doing exercise outside, like cycling??? Try it. Try to do something not involving with your creativity. Kundalini energy is ruthless when it rises. It will get stuck at various chakras points if you have issues you haven't resolved. Try to ground yourself by thinking and feeling like the mother earth. Don't fantasize crazy ideas that may crash on you later. You need to figure out at which points the Kundalini is getting stuck. That my help you to understand your own inner emotional issues.

I actually dream of having sex with Kali...hahaha... I kid you not. Before that, I didn't know who was Kali. It changed my behaviors a bit after finding out what she represents. I am sure she loves me very much. Her appearance would always signal certain death and rebirth situation.

My favorite is Kali and Shiva...

Do Taoists talk about love in the Christian sense? Maybe compassion and to see the inner true essence.

I don't know, that because I received my path from my dream. I had a dream of seeing myself as one of the 3 brothers during the Han dynasty (the clothing gave away). Me or the character did some acrobatic moves similar to the movements of the the microcosmic orbit. I woke up and my kundalini energy began to rise. The rest was history. I live in America. I don't visit any Taoist temples. I am not affiliated with any religious schools. I have no teachers. Yeah, the path to the Tao came to me in my dream. http://thetaobums.com/topic/27489-new-here-tooand-have-many-questions/ I may have shorthanded my life a bit. Growing up in America as a Chinese American immigrant, I have internalized many of the racial and cultural racism histories. I was deeply moved by the injustice of the past maybe because I felt a lot of injustice growing up in Hong Kong. As an immigrant, I have my own cultural issues too. So, in my early childhood I was bombarded with all skandha of forms. You can't give get more skandha of forms in anywhere else but in America. Racial heritage and culture are defined by the color of your skin. You have the whole history to work it. I was slowly exhausting the skandha of forms until I was dealing with my own childhood, around 18 at that time.

Well, this is an interesting thread. I guess we are all different. I just can't see how the use of the crystals with different colors can activate your chakras or various energy points. Strangely, I can complete the microcosmic orbit but the color of the light is always white/bluish. Also, even with my first kundalini energy rising when I was 18, the color was also white/blueish.

Not a big fan of the Greek philosophy. Let alone Christianity. I don't know, I think there is something lacking with the traditional Greek philosophy...the spiritual sense. Of course, look at the Euro crisis, Greece, and Cyprus. I mean, shouldn't one's nation be a testament to the success of the culture and philosophy?

Are you asking what is art? There are 2 ways to look at it. You can view art or the creative process as a form of mastery of techniques. The other thing is that you can view it as an expression of your own subjectivity. I am a photographer, a side job I do. A lot of times, I do my photography with the a combination of the 2 I mentioned above. Since the technique in photography isn't that complicated, I focus more on the subjectivity side of my creative process.

Heheheeh...very interesting...

I also want to point out that, based on my own experiences, you can learn the way of the Tao without being physically taught of the ways. It can come to you through your dreams. As long as you live a righteous life and follows the 4 noble truths and the eightfold paths, the way to the Tao would appear before you. Keeps on exhausting the Skandha of forms until you are no longer giving meanings to forms and appearances. Since Tao is universal, it can reach to anyone in anywhere if it chooses to.

Hahahah...racist???? Tao does not care. One needs enough merits to be taught of the way of the Tao and enlightenment. To be taught either by a master or enlightenment being transmitted through the mind. There is no points to throw a tantrum on the issue of race because the Tao does not care. If you are Chinese, you do have the advantage of sharing the same cultural experiences with many of the Taoist sages. I would also be weary about the term Western or Christian. Christianity was forced and imposed on Europe. Europeans, depending on which part Europe you are from, do have their own pagan identities. And obviously, I do dream about the Norse Gods and particularly fond of the Nibelungenlied.

No, it is not a too high of the standard. It is what would happen when you have achieved some sorts of high degree of cultivation. You can see your typical, mundane relation to be a waste of time. As soon as you can see how it will unfold, you know the those relationship isn't right for you. You are not interested in them. That's how I feel most of the times. Seriously, if you are on the path to enlightenment and to Tao, you won't find excuses for yourself to get laid. Now, one shouldn't compare the social situation of the ancients to the today. Today, our society is more freer. So, men and women can be free to pursue the cultivation process without needing to fulfill some social roles they are given by the world they are living in. Also, the idea of love is much different coming from a highly cultivated person than someone who is still trapped in the skandha of forms.

I thought I do an update on my reading. So far, reading the Working Towards Enlightenment first, the first 50 pages. It is very understandable. He is basically saying that one has to walk the path in order to derive the wisdom and knowledge of the scriptures. Just memorizing and knowing the scriptures won't lead to enlightenment. Then, he went on to talk about the skandha of forms. If you close your eyes and meditating and not seeing lights at all, you are still trapped in the skandha of forms. Then, he went on talking about the skandha of conception which is like the dream and reality are the same but you don't know why they are so.

The Tao is universal. It needs not to appeal to anything. I am a Chinese American and spent 10 years of my childhood growing up in Hong Kong. I can tell you that Chinese people do not worship Taoism. Taoist themes are generally experienced in movies and TV shows. It is always about defeating some evil spirits or on a quest to acquire some ancient secrets to give you super human powers. I think only some people from the West or if your family linkage related to the various Taoist schools are really taking Taoism seriously. And the idea of immortality and to have one consciousness suspended in time, or in the Mind Ground, after your death.....is or can be racially linked. That is, the Taoist sage who passed away aeons ago can pass on their enlightened consciousness on to you because of the racial and cultural linkages. I am just talking about my experiences. If there are non-Chinese having Chinese visions or dreams, it is possible that the Tao linkage can be passed on to non-Chinese.

I just want to add few things here. I think in the real world, these couples are rare. I mean that during one's cultivation process, you would discover your past life or any point of your past lives. Somehow, you may become attracted to someone else other than your current partner. The chance that your current partner is also your soul mate from your previous life is really, really rare. I also believe that the love you had with your previous life partner is far stronger. I am still single but I know my past life and I always have dreams about this old lady. I think she was my partner in my previous life. In my previous life or the previous life seems to be exerting enough karmic force in my current time, I was a soldier and died very young. I am a romantic too but in a Wagnerian, tragic sense. So, I don't expect to be an easy ride at all.....

Here is a good book on the Kundalini energy rising. Most of the accounts are same as my experience. Sudden and without prior knowledge and conceptualization. That's why the experience itself can change one's life forever. In the worst case, you go crazy literally. Playing with the Kudalini energy is like playing with fire, literally. Fortunately, the energy do not get summoned just because you want to. http://www.amazon.com/Kundalini-Rising-Exploring-Energy-Awakening/dp/1458746909/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364173850&sr=8-1&keywords=kundalini+rising

Have you experienced the Kundalini energy rising? I did when I was 18. It crawls on your spinal cord like a serpent unwrapped and all the way to your crown and third eye. It is a fire burning sensation. You would be sweating and that's how hot it gets. Extreme light intensity on your forehead, your third eye. The light intensity is so intense that you can see this point of light when your eyes are open. No, I didn't have any idea what I was going through, nor knew about what is Kundalini energy. There is no theory. There is no conception. Kundalini energy is just energy, like Chi. That's it. It can be bad or good for you depending on your moral constitutions as well as your merits. Have fun experimenting....and you are giving your ego too much credits here. It messes you and you mess with them???? Hehehehe

Well, here is a question for you.... If the Kundalini energy is an entity (good or evil), at what points of this passage it would manifest itself to you as a voice? Yes, passage. The energy has to travel through your chakras or energy points. It can get stuck before it can reach to your head and to your third eye. Or it may never reach that high if your vision is obstructed. The voice you are hearing...you sure they aren't from the lower region of the spirit world???? The proper way to deal with these distractions, as it has been said all the times, is to practice grounding. Don't get your ego inflated. Finally, tests and experiments? Do you like to be a lab mouse for testing? If not, why would you subject a spirit to the same cruelty, if you have even managed to contact the spirits. Well, I don't see this to be going well though.....

What is the form realm? I know that all three realms are part of the cycles of birth and rebirth (Samara). Does it mean that we are all started or initially born ( in this life) in the realm of desires? Through meditations and merits accumulated, we can be reborn in the form realm? Then, being reborn in the formless realm? In the same life time too? Are these realms the result of various state of Samadhi too?

Is called guerrilla warfare...yeah, the loving Japanese army decided to "leave" China one day. Hehhehehehe..... Oh, the more educated, the more wealthy Chinese elites ended up siding with the Kuomintang during the early part of the Chinese revolution. They wanted to implement the West and American style of democracy. With the absence of the middle class during the 1920s, it wasn't going to happen. They were later driven out to Taiwan. If you want to know about the Chinese revolution and the history, go read "In Search for Modern China" by Jonathan Spence.

At least he drove out the Japanese and united the country under this leadership, with over 1 billions of Chinese peasants....

Sigh, is a bit complicated than that. I am a Chinese American. The circumstances how my family immigrated to America was embarrassing. My grandparents on my father side decided to marry their daughter off to America so that they (including my family) can immigrate to America. Their daughter didn't have a chance to fall in love and to choose a man she wanted to be with. The worst part was that they left to America when I was not even 1 year old. So, they have been planning this for who knew how long. My family knew one day I would leave Hong Kong. That was why I had a very screwed up childhood growing up in Hong Kong since they never bother to invest their child's future. I am telling you this. My grandparents on my father side represents the worst part of the Chinese culture. Greed. Close minded superstitions. Paranoid. Materialistic. Very status oriented. They are everything that I was not and am not and didn't become. I am probably the only person in my whole extended family to experience the Chi energy or Kundalini energy rising when I was 18 years of age. No small feat. Traditional Chinese culture is an oppressive society. If you are poor, a peasant, not from a well known family, you are more likely to be treated very badly. On the other hand, with Chinese philosophy and medicine, that should be preserved. But the stratification of a society based on Confucianism? Yeah, you are talking about another revolution....

Oh, I am a cyclist and used to race bikes too. Thinking about racing this year after 5 years+ not racing. I can easily ride for 4 hours with over 3k feet climbing, over 70 miles. I used to train 9 hours a week over 150 miles.

Thanks. Got them. Yeah, I would want a hard copy later when the price is cheaper...After all, I am sure I would need to read them few times to digest the content fully....