What is your purpose for your practice?

[Sleepy Bluejay]

Apparently, nobody believes that they can live for more than 100-200 years by practicing internal alchemy. They also do not believe that they can eventually jump over a house or split a mountain in half by practicing martial arts together with internal alchemy.

 

My questions are;

why do you/they practice internal alchemy?

What is your/their final purpose with doing so?

 

- A sleepy and curious bluejay

Edited October 25, 2023 by Sleepy Bluejay

[Partez]

I work as a hypnotis, hence I'm quite skeptical on the "Qi" that I feel, but I do feel it, and it feels nice.

 

As a way of doing self hypnosis I always attribute a healing, positive character to the sensational which works on the subconscious mind.

 

Of course, there's a part of me that holds out for the house jumping, and that "Qi" is something more tangible than just sensations created by my mind.

 

Worst case scenario tho, is I'm spending some time doing light mobility and stretching exercises as a moving meditation, with some positive, subconscious programming for self healing and energy every day.

[Taoist Texts]

1 hour ago, Sleepy Bluejay said:

My questions are;

why do you/they practice internal alchemy?

please understand that 'they' do not practice internal alchemy because 'they' did not obtain the whatever thing the alchemy is supposed to obtain. Its like asking why somebody plays a guitar when in fact he plays an air guitar. What they do is a bafflingly incorrect imitation.

 

And the answer is: because they are yearning for rejuvenation and health and other miracles which internal alchemy is supposed to provide. But they get bored pretty soon and hop on to the next seminar.

[ChiDragon]

3 hours ago, Sleepy Bluejay said:

why do you/they practice internal alchemy?

I have relatives that lived more than one hundred years old without practicing internal alchemy. Those who might not live that long would like to practice it. So, they might be able to live longer than normal. Practicing internal alchemy will provide a better health for the pactitioner. Indeed, it prolongs life. 

Edited October 25, 2023 by ChiDragon

[kakapo]

8 hours ago, Sleepy Bluejay said:

Apparently, nobody believes that they can live for more than 100-200 years by practicing internal alchemy. They also do not believe that they can eventually jump over a house or split a mountain in half by practicing martial arts together with internal alchemy.

 

My questions are;

why do you/they practice internal alchemy?

What is your/their final purpose with doing so?

 

- A sleepy and curious bluejay

 

An acorn sprouts, absorbs photons, absorbs water, absorbs CO2, absorbs minerals, and fuses these together, and uses the energy to grow into an oak tree.

 

For most people, their acorn's never sprout.

 

The goal of my practice is the same as an acorn.

 

[Giles]

3 hours ago, kakapo said:

 

An acorn sprouts, absorbs photons, absorbs water, absorbs CO2, absorbs minerals, and fuses these together, and uses the energy to grow into an oak tree.

 

For most people, their acorn's never sprout.

 

The goal of my practice is the same as an acorn.

 

 

The analogy is a straw man argument @kakapo.

 

[Neirong]

5 hours ago, kakapo said:

An acorn sprouts, absorbs photons, absorbs water, absorbs CO2, absorbs minerals, and fuses these together, and uses the energy to grow into an oak tree.

 

For most people, their acorn's never sprout.

 

The goal of my practice is the same as an acorn.

 

You are not an acorn.

[Sleepy Bluejay]

6 hours ago, kakapo said:

 

An acorn sprouts, absorbs photons, absorbs water, absorbs CO2, absorbs minerals, and fuses these together, and uses the energy to grow into an oak tree.

 

For most people, their acorn's never sprout.

 

The goal of my practice is the same as an acorn.

 

 

I can relate to this analogy!

I too sees the beginning of ones practice as a type of seed. In my case I use potato seed instead of acorn because a potato seed sprouts its roots, then later grows its potatoes (the roots of the plant to me symbolizes the meridians, while the potatoes symbolizes the dantians).

[silent thunder]

1 hour ago, Neirong said:

You are not an acorn.

And you are not a qualified observer.

[liminal_luke]

To be a better, cleaner, kinder, more capable version of myself.

[Dedicated]

For the experience 

[thelerner]

On the spectrum of things I can be doing, my practice seems least harmful  

 

When a Tai Chi player was asked why he did his practice, he stated- The birds like it.  

I've found that to be true.  

[Sahaja]

I enjoy the experience of the qi moving in me. I like the feeling something is being added in terms of knowledge and capability. I like that it is making me more accepting of what is being lost through time and decay. I like that there is mystery and unknown in it.  I like the juxtaposition that I can touch something that is profound to me that is not meaningful to others. I like that the qi showed up and showed me things before I had the story to explain it - and that it continues to do this.

[kakapo]

19 hours ago, Giles said:

 

The analogy is a straw man argument @kakapo.

 

 

Usually a straw man means that you are misrepresenting your opponents position. 

 

For example if I said that I think cars are good, and my opponent claimed I said that I wanted to accelerate global warming, that would be a straw man.

 

My position could be that hybrids are ok, but electric cards were best, but he created a misrepresentation of my argument so he could use it to discredit me. 

 

So I am not sure what you mean here, because I am not arguing with anyone, I just stated the purpose of my practice.

[Partez]

14 hours ago, thelerner said:

On the spectrum of things I can be doing, my practice seems least harmful

 

A Qi Gong practice taking some time away from relentlessly committing crime seems as good a reason as any to continue.

[thelerner]

On 10/26/2023 at 11:21 PM, Partez said:

 

A Qi Gong practice taking some time away from relentlessly committing crime seems as good a reason as any to continue.

and if ever caught and sentenced, the practice comes in even more handy 

[idquest]

On 25/10/2023 at 11:25 AM, Sleepy Bluejay said:

Apparently, nobody believes that they can live for more than 100-200 years by practicing internal alchemy. They also do not believe that they can eventually jump over a house or split a mountain in half by practicing martial arts together with internal alchemy.

 

My questions are;

why do you/they practice internal alchemy?

What is your/their final purpose with doing so?

 

- A sleepy and curious bluejay

 

Practice evolves, and the goals evolve as well. This is a moving target. This is why it is more important to do something than not to do and just try to understand what exactly to do.

[Nintendao]

On 10/25/2023 at 4:28 PM, Taoist Texts said:

please understand that 'they' do not practice internal alchemy because 'they' did not obtain the whatever thing the alchemy is supposed to obtain. Its like asking why somebody plays a guitar when in fact he plays an air guitar. What they do is a bafflingly incorrect imitation.

 

Air guitar  i love it.  Would you be willing to provide any examples of individuals, living or historic, who do/did the real deal? Also any elaboration of whatever thing the alchemy is supposed to obtain?

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Nintendao

[Partez]

40 minutes ago, Nintendao said:

Air guitar  i love it.  Would you be willing to provide any examples of individuals, living or historic, who do/did the real deal? Also any elaboration of whatever thing the alchemy is supposed to obtain?

 

Mentioning alchemy is actually quite appropriate, because medieval alchemy had a goal of finding the fountain of youth and creating gold, and while it didn't obtain those goals, the practice contributed to the scientific field.

 

In the same way I think, ancient Daoists set loft goals, and while the jury's still out on anyone obtaining those (much like the fabled philosopher's stone)

 

Through the practices they discovered something of value none the less.  I believe.

[Taoist Texts]

1 hour ago, Nintendao said:

Air guitar  i love it.  Would you be willing to provide any examples of individuals, living or historic, who do/did the real deal?

well one man's history is another man's fairy tale

The Five Southern Patriarchs

• Zhang Ziyang
• Shi Tai
• Xue Shi
• Chen Nan
• Bai Yuchan

The Seven Perfect Ones of the North

• Ma Yu
• Tan Chuduan
• Liu Chuxuan
• Qiu Chuji
• Wang Chuyi
• Hao Datong

2 hours ago, Nintendao said:

Also any elaboration of whatever thing the alchemy is supposed to obtain?

it is something called the elixir. There is no alchemy without the elixir.

https://en.daoinfo.org/wiki/Small_Reversion_Elixir

Someone who claims to practice alchemy or neidan yet who did not obtain the elixir is like a baker who did not bake a single loaf; or like a banker who never been to a bank. Such ppl are deluding themselves, they have no clue what they talk about. I never make fun of such ppl because they are in a sad place as it is.

However there are frauds who having no clue what the elixir is, let alone having made one, 'teach alchemy' for money, defrauding poor naives who crave youth, life, health. 'secrets', lineage. And that is amusing so i occasionally poke fun at the teachers - holding my nose because this type of fraud is just particularly sordid.

[Nintendao]

5 hours ago, Partez said:

Through the practices they discovered something of value none the less.  I believe.

 

Absolutely. 

 

In this day and age words like alchemy, cultivation, enlightenment, have been through so many adoptions and abstractions that without additional context or within a specific lineage, we may have to accept things as a spectrum of what they are even referring to. I definitely do not want to lead this thread into debate or critique though. There's more value in connecting and sharing personal motivations and expectations for our ... practices.

 

For me it probably all started with sheer admiration for and inspiration by characters like Kwai Chang Caine or Cord the Seeker are just the first to come to mind. Then we always left wondering, just what exactly the old blind guy was teaching those kids (beyond the obvious of how to whup ass). With the recent proliferation of xianxia manga I can only imagine what kind of ideas people might get into! With any luck and persistence, these pursuits often do mature into authentic endeavor, at the very least giving many years of increased health, capabilities, and discovery of deeper natures.

 

In other words I think fantasy can play a great role in motivation people to look for actual truths that are beyond the mundane. I'm sure there are some highly accomplished engineers that at some time daydreamed about being Ironman, or skilled acrobats that dress like Spiderman.

[kakapo]

On 10/26/2023 at 4:30 AM, Neirong said:

You are not an acorn.

 

It's an analogy, but the concept is very similar.