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Without rodeo, are the exercises here legit? And are they safe to use as it is or should people that do certain qigong styles avoid this?

Hello again everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day today. I wanted to ask around today to see if anyone had any favorite places, music/sounds, smells, techniques, etc. for meditating. More specifically I'd like recommendations for meditation that will help me build up humility, ridding myself of the illusion of control, and generally being still and thinking on the sections of the Tao Te Ching (as I've been going back over the audiobook to take notes). I'm sorry if this isn't the proper place to ask this question but I'm still finding my way around the forum and haven't interacted with many forums before this one. Have a great day everyone <3

I've been wanting to get deeper into Taoism as a philosophy for awhile. I started after seeing a video on characters in popular media that seem to fit with Taoist ideals (these characters include Uncle Iroh and Master Oogway for anyone curious). I've listened to the Tao Te Ching a few times on audiobook but I'm unsure where to go and what to do beyond that. I grew up as and am still a practicing and believing Christian and I found what I learned about Taoism to be fitting with what I think a "good christian" should believe and practice, on top of this what I've heard and tried to apply in my own life has been very helpful with my anxiety and depression. Due to these things I want to attain a deeper understanding of Taoism while being humble and respectful of the long history and deep culture at play. I've reached the part of the Dunning-Kreuger effect where I know that I don't know anything and I'm ready to learn from people who know more than me.

Hello this is my 1st topic yet after lurking for months lol. Anyways I have recently come across Mo Pai on the forums From what I heard everyone that practices It gets stage 4 cancer like the author of the english books why is that so? Also why do alot of u say it is the right path even so? Even so It seems so dangerous

Dear Moderators, I've made 3 posts, the first one was removed, the two following ones are still awaiting approval. It's been some time now. I still can't post on the forum (outside of welcome), nor can I change my profile pic. What is the approx. time before I can post, change my profile pic etc? Please help me out Thank you

Hi I was asking if someone know a source or something to start building the foundation I don't want any practice or foundation that just do the job I want almost perfect roots and foundation and yes u am serious about niedan and cultivation wish someone could help with that )))) a question how does people do those online chat healing or watch disciple s improvement and problem and guild em

Hi, first off I'm pretty new to practicing 7 months or so. My question is about how do you tell when the Lower Dantian is full and then what to do about it? I'm also going to include the sensation I had, as well as part of a extremely vivid dream where I also had the same sensation. Sadly this was months ago so perhaps my progress has gone backwards since then. I don't know why I didn't just come straight here.. So the feeling was of a pulsing/shaking sensation in my lower dantian area, kinda like a muscle spasm feeling. The dream I had was really cool and memorable. I had also read the Magus of Java twice so there was a John Chang like figure. Basically I was at some temple on a very small island surrounded by water somewhere in South East Asia and was sitting in a circle with several other students and they were doing a test to see if we were ready to advance. After awhile the master looked directly at me and put his palm up to his mouth and blew in my direction and all of a sudden that intense pulsing feeling happened in my Lower Dantian region. Afterward he walked over to me and said some joke to the rest of the guys about surfer's bodies and patted me in the stomach . Then I woke up. The guy who I had learned my basic movements from told me he wasn''t sure and that it probably just meant i actually had a LDT. Recently I opened up this thing from Dr. Yang and it described the exact feeling I had in regards to it being full but this was months after the feelings happened. And i haven't felt it since. https://ymaa.com/articles/2014/1/nei-dan-sitting-meditation Here's the quote from the end of the arcticle, "After you have practiced the abdominal exercises for about three to five weeks, you may feel your abdomen get warmer every time you practice. After continued practice, the abdomen will start to tremble and shake each time you start the fire. This means qi has accumulated at the lower dan tian and is about to overflow. At this time you should start to coordinate your breathing and abdominal movement with the movement of your huiyin (Co-1) (literally "meet the yin") cavity and perineum to lead the qi to the tailbone (weilu cavity)." Thanks so much for any advice!

Firstly, I asked my teacher about the Path. This: https://alohadharma.com/the-map/ I asked about this because I can relate to several stages of this at once. Not normal right? He said that link is incorrect and not to listen to it. Hmm So I recently read "A New Earth" by eckhart tolle... I had not planned to read it, well I had but not yet, I bought it ages ago, read half of Power of Now, thought it was a bit tripe, and packed it away. Somehow today ANE was lying around, I started reading it out of boredom and ended up 80 pages in (parenting advice - I am not a parent). I will complete it later. But what it did is properly explain the EGO. I thought I had a good idea of what the ego was but I was incorrect. I did not realise the ego can cause you to do negative things, to hurt yourself, so you can play a victim role. I naturally started labelling all of my thoughts, feelings and emotions and I have already influenced my life today in a good way. This kind of came naturally to me - but I just googled what I did and it is common - I don't know why I did it but I will keep doing it! So there is that. Anyone else label or note their thoughts, feelings and emotions? Does it help, long term? Now on to "enlightment" and my question.... Surely the path to enlightenment is the ego manifesting itself again? "Oooh look at me I am enlightnened... I'm better than you" kinda thing? So why would anyone want to be enlightened, if they are trying to put the ego in the background? Further more you are supposed to be the observer and observe the ego etc... but who observes the observer? Yeah I know it gets really confusing doesn't it? Do "enlightened" people walk around noting their emotions automatically? Or do they not have emotions? When enlightened people say all their anxiety left them when they reached enlightenment, what does this mean exactly? Thank you

If I want to add a saying, or a sentence to the bottom of each of my posts, how would I go about doing that? Could I ask you guys for help on that one? Thanks for your help! Peace, Differently Abled Daoist

Can you learn something from its opposite? Specifically can you learn how to love from knowing how to hate?

Edit: Obviously there is already a post about this (http://thetaobums.com/topic/31093-tao-bums-why-subscribe/). I don't know why I wasn't able to find it till now. Sorry for the spam. Is there a way to dellete this post by myself?

Been practicing daily self-cultivation for about 2 years now through my my Neigong practices and have found that personally in the realm of cultivation it is all that is really required. However as of late i have been proportioning a bit of my time in exploring the Western Tradition and working a bit with the Tree. I have noticed that in the Western Tradition there is a very large emphasis on Ritualistic Magic. For the practitioner does practicing this kind of Magic add another dimension to one's practice which self-cultivation does not? What's the point of doing Ritual Magic, i don't really understand what the point of this kind of practice is or what value it brings to one's esoteric practice? I assume people practice it for a genuine reason? Could someone perhaps enlighten me on the value of this practice?