Valley Spirit Center, Red Bluff, California
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Ripening Peaches: Daoist Studies and Practices. Taoist scriptures, bibliography, Quanzhen Daoism, Neidan, gardening, tea, history, qigong/daoyin, readings, etc.
January 10, 2007
"The Way has its reality and its signs
but is without action or form.
You can hand it down but you cannot receive it,
you can ignore it but you cannot see it.
It is its own source, its own root.
Before heaven and earth existed it was there,
from the ancient times.
It gave spirituality to the spirits and to God,
it gave birth to heaven and to earth.
It exists beyond the highest point,
and yet you cannot call it lofty;
it exists beneath the limit of the six directions,
and yet you cannot call it deep.
It was born before heaven and earth,
and yet you cannot say it has been there for long,
it is earlier than the earliest time,
and yet you cannot call it old."
- The Crookbacked Woman and the Sage
Chuang Tzu, Translated by Burton Watson, 1964
Crone
Taoism
The Supreme Medicine has three
distinctions:
Ching [essence], Qi [vitality]. and Shen [spirit],
Which are elusive and obscure.
Keep to nonbeing, yet hold on to
being.
And perfection is yours in an instant.
When the distant winds blend together,
In one hundred days of spiritual work
And morning recitation to the Shang Ti,
Then in one year you will soar as an immortal.
The sages awaken through
self-cultivation;
Deep, profound, their practices require great effort.
Fulfilling vows illumines the Heavens.
Breathing nourishes youthfulness.
Departing from the Mysterious,
entering the Female,
It appears to have perished, yet appears to exist.
Unmovable, its origin is mysterious.
Each person has Ching.
The Shen unites with the Ching,
The Shen unites with the Qi,
The breath then unites with the true nature.
Before you have attained this true nature,
These terms appear to be fanciful exaggerations.
The Shen is capable of entering
stone;
The Shen is capable of physical flight.
Entering water it is not drowned;
Entering fire it is not burned.
The Shen depends on life form;
The Ching depends on sufficient Qi.
If these are neither depleted nor injured
The result will be youthfulness and longevity.
These three distinctions have one
principle,
Yet so subtle it cannot be heard.
Their meeting results in
existence,
Their parting results in nonexistence.
The seven apertures
interpenetrate
And each emits wisdom light.
The sacred sun and sacred moon
Illuminate the Golden Court.
One attainment is eternal attainment.
The body will naturally become
weightless.
When the supreme harmony is replete,
The bone fragments become like winter jade.
Acquiring the Elixir results in
immortality;
Not acquiring it results in extinction.
The Elixir is within yourself,
It is not white and not green.
Recite and hold ten thousand
times.
These are the subtle principles of self-illumination.
The Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Classic. The Taoist Guide to
Health, Longevity, and Immortality.
Translated with commentary by Stuart Alve Olson. Rochester,
Vermont, Inner Traditions, 2003.
"At the higher stages of energy continuation, one will find his
movements are now being
governed by the movement of his internal energy. This is the Qi of energy,
not breath,
to which I refer. There are essentially three basic ingredients for higher
accomplishment:
1. Mental tranquility and physical relaxation. 2. Application
of the integrated supple
strength of the whole body. 3. Continuity of the internal energy
without interruption
from movement to movement and moment to moment throughout the entire form."
- Wu, Ta-yeh, 1989
"The perfect man has no self;
the spiritual man has no achievement;
the sage has no name."
- Chauang Tzu
“Put everything into the initial connexion.
The posture thereafter must spring from that connexion.
The initial connexion has to be whole-hearted.
What happens thereafter must not be a distraction.
In other words, the heart keeps pumping out that connexion.
The technique is a whisper.
What is completed between you has the feeling of an entirety – of a being.
The responsibility is to be open.
The working of the mind is too slow to deal with real life.
To be sincere in this matter is not a question of thinking about it.
Sufficient practice must be undertaken so that basic body usage is not a
grinding problem.
It is impossible to describe how thorough going your dedication needs to be.
What bit of you has the wisdom to know what is unknowable?
There is no mind to deliberate or be backwards.
If there isn’t a feeling of coming home and finding a lively peace within then
you are missing the point.
If there is a way of life or living it has to be joining from the heart.
The eyes are so quick to translate your heart feelings.
The ground is a heart platform.
Although important the eyes have to take second place to the heart.
Be open to the connecting of your heart with the other person’s heart.
If the other person wants information about you let them open their heart.
Connecting is not a personal matter.
In any real interchange it is the Third Heart that counts.
Light and embracing, but embracing as a giving from the heart rather than
capturing.
And the inspiration of the Third Heart is nutrition for your becoming.
The spirit must be allowed freedom to dart about and tempt the heart at the
right moment.
To be a believer is to be a positive being – a believer is someone who is
becoming.
Becoming leaves no imprint.
Becoming swallows what is commonly known as destiny.
Spirit is the effervescence of real interest in something other than yourself.
The essence of true destiny is yielding.
The essence of yielding is softness.
The essence of softness is entering.
The essence of entering is welcoming openness.
The essence of openness is heart.”
- Grandmaster John Kells, British Tai Chi
Chuan Association
"Because self-actualizing people ordinarily do not have to abstract
need-
gratifying qualities nor see the person as a tool, it is much more possible
for them to take a non-valuing, non-judging, non-interfering, non-condemning
attitude towards others, a desirelessness, a 'choiceless awareness.'
" ...
This kind of detached, Taoist, passive, non-interfering awareness of all
the simultaneous existing aspects of the concrete, has much in common
with some descriptions of the aesthetic experience and of the mystic
experience."
- Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being, 1962, p. 38
"The focus of most religious Taoism is attaining immortality. This can have various
meanings: eternal life, longevity of life, or attainment of superhuman physical abilities.
Taoists have sought longevity by a variety of methods, such as:
* Focusing attention on the body through diet, exercises, and mindfulness
* Regulating the breath (ch'i), circulating its power deliberately to all parts of the body
* Harnessing sexual energy, especially by retaining semen and sending its power
throughout the body
* Exploring alchemy with the goal of finding the elixir of immortality
* Behaving in a moral way that is in harmony with the Tao
* Searching for the Isles of the Blessed, where the Immortals dwell and may be
persuaded to share their secrets of immortality."
-
Taoist Beliefs
"Do (Tao in Chinese), the way, is the
method, the teaching that enables you to
understand perfectly the nature
of your own mind and self. It is the way… that
leads you to discover
your own original nature, to awaken from the numbness
of the sleeping
ego (the little self, the limited "me") and accede to higher,
fuller
personhood.”
- Taisen Deshimaru
"Look, it cannot be
seen - it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot
be heard - it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be
held - it is intangible.
These three are
indefinable, they are one.
From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark:
Unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.
Form of the formless,
Image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.
Stand before it - there is no
beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the Tao, Move with the present.
Knowing the ancient beginning
is the essence of Tao."
- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
"Nuturing energy, forget words and guard it.
Conquer the mind, do nondoing.
In activity and quietude, know the source progenitor.
There is no thing; whom else do you seek?
Real constancy should respond to people;
In responding to people, it is essential not to get confused.
When you don't get confused, your nature is naturally stable;
When your nature is stable, energy naturally returns.
When energy returns, Elixir spontaneously crystallizes,
In the pot pairing water and fire.
Yin and yang arise, alternating over and over again,
Everywhere producing the sound of thunder.
White clouds assemble on the summit,
Sweet dew bathes the polar mountain.
Having drunk the wine of longevity,
You wander free; who can know you?
You sit and listen to the stringless tune,
You clearly understand the mechanism of creation.
The whole of these twenty verses
is a ladder straight to heaven."
-
Master Chang San-Feng,
100 Character Tablet, Translated by Thomas Cleary
Standing at the Mysterious Pass
Centered in the Eternal Now,
Balanced in Body and Open in Mind,
Rooted into the Sacred Space,
Motionless as the Golden Mountain,
Fingers around the Primeval Sphere.
Dragons and Tigers are still dreaming -
Ready for Rebirth.
I breathe in, the World Breathes Out.
The Gate of Space opens;
Heaven moves and Yang is born.
The hands move out, embracing the One.
The mind settles and is clear.
The Dragon Howls,
Ravens fill the Vast Cauldron,
Mind forms melt like mercury,
Spirit rises in the Clouds of Eternity.
Yin appears like the moon at dusk.
I breathe out, the World Breathes In.
The Doors of Emptiness close;
Earth quiets and Yin is born.
The hands move in, entering the One.
The body settles and becomes whole.
The Tiger Roars,
The Great Ox is nourished by the Valley Spirit,
Substances spark from flaming furnaces,
Essence roots in the Watery Flesh.
Yang appears like the sun at dawn.
Dragons and Tigers
Transformed within the Mysterious Pass -
Chanting and Purring.
Awakened,
Peaceful,
Free.
- Michael P. Garofalo,
Opening
at the Mysterious Pass
Red Bluff, Tehama
County, North Sacramento Valley, Northern California, U.S.A.
Close to the Cities of Chico, Orland, Corning, Los
Molinos, Cottonwood, Anderson, and Redding CA
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