Approaches to Cultivation

[dmattwads]

My general understanding of Buddhism is that typically one focuses on cultivating the mind and it is assumed as a given that the energy will follow suite. 

    What I want to know if I am understanding correctly (or not) is if the concept in Taoism in general is to cultivate the energy and then let it affect the mind? 

[Cleansox]

I would say that you cultivate both, perhaps with more emphasis on the energetic aspects but you also still the mind and look at your behaviour at large (see for example the 49 barriers). 

[exorcist_1699]

People who follow the Buddhist way must know the Taoist framework of jing-qi-shen otherwise they very likely will fall into the trap of ignoring the importance of  body energy;  people who follow Taoist way must know Zen's criticisms about  attachments to  ideas, forms and  statuses  otherwise they definitely will be entangled by those tricks of  MCO or visualization , not capable of achieving anything  great .

 

Edited Friday at 05:56 AM by exorcist_1699

[RiverSnake]

Lot of different approaches: Energy, Mind, Emotion, Body Postures/Mudra

 

Taoist practices tend to focus on energy cultivation.....though i am hesitant to make that a rule of thumb as what we experience as Westerners in terms of Taoist practices is limited....same thing likely applies to Buddhism and it's various sects. 

[exorcist_1699]

There are  two things , as preconditions , you need to have in order to attain an eternal life or  something  spiritually great  :

 

1) You are capable of initializing qi  . Unable to get such an ability   beforehand   means  you get no criteria to measuring how good or how high a level  your spiritual practice  is or will be  . Note that  praying , visualization  or how well you imagine things  , is some kind of subjective  experience or creation ,   hardly be  any kind  of   criterion  to judge itself  , and is  unmatched to a criterion like qi so  reliable . The subtlety of qi strangely  corresponds to different layers of emptiness or your emptied Mind. 

 

2) You somehow know what a genuine emptied Mind look likes . In capable of  tasting some flavor of it  will either make  you  mistake those talks in Buddhist Sutra  as philosophical stuff  ,  or   make you  ignore  what Taoist emphasize on some spiritual presuppositions before  doing your MCO .  What always happen  are  that those keys and terms are written there clearly for  you  , yet  you wholly overlook them . 

Edited 21 hours ago by exorcist_1699

[Indiken]

3 hours ago, exorcist_1699 said:

1) You are capable of initializing qi  . Unable to get such an ability   beforehand   means  you get no criteria to measuring how good or how high a level  your spiritual practice  is or will be  . Note that  praying , visualization  or how well you imagine things  , is some kind of subjective  experience or creation ,   hardly be  any kind  of   criterion  to judge itself  , and is  unmatched to a criterion like qi so  reliable . The subtlety of qi strangely  corresponds to different layers of emptiness or your emptied Mind. 

 

Does qi has to be felt? If so, what is the feeling like?

I think I felt qi. There was "qi" rising from dantian to lungs rythmically. This was inner breathing. Is this the right way to feel qi? 

I had the same feeling couple of days ago, yet could not keep handle of it. I think because I could not keep concentration stable.

 

Edited 17 hours ago by Indiken