Friday, May 23, 2008

Energy

Today's question I got in a email:

I have a question about the energy generated from Taoist practices:
I'm a little reluctant about generating so much energy and what is considered dangerous.

Energy is such a confusing term, and used in so many ways. So lets back up and understand what is energy and the different ways we use it in Taoism.

First: Lets look at our nature :

We are physical: matter:
On the surface level people understand mass / matter of their physical form.

We are also energy: We literally are fire:
The body is the furnace, the fuel we burn is food: we are literally a living fire.

We are a process of reaction:
We breathe, to bring in oxygen to oxidize and stoke the fire.

So our very nature is a Yin / Yang mixture of Matter / Energy

Taoism practice considers the three aspects of this situation

Taoists take care of the body: the furnace to keep it clean and promote a even burn. If you burn too hot, you harm the furnace. Funny thing is Taoists, at times, are known to lessen our fire (our burn rate) on purpose to lengthen life and explore spiritual practices. Science has caught up to some degree and has shown how eating less can lengthen the life span. But this process of controlling the rate of burn within life, leads to many interesting Taoist practices. So this is one area of energy work in Taoist practice

Taoists take care in the food we eat. The quality of the fuel we burn makes a difference for both keeping our physical self in shape and access to cleaner energy to work with in our practices. This is very important for the more advance Taoist practices. However, eating well has an immediate impact of the quality of life even when not using it for purposes of focusing clarity into one's practices.

We take care in how we breathe. This is the key step, by controlling the breath, we control the very center of the process of generation of energy. The core of all energy practices are within the breath.

Qi-Gong practice often focuses on the breath and then upon shaping and keeping the body, the furnace, in optimal performance range. Much of the practice teaches a person how to reflect and keep track of their state of being to keep oneself in the form they desire for life.

Energy is a central aspect of our life. You cannot harm yourself if you practice energy work in a moderate rate, since energy is part of our very nature. You only harm yourself when pushing the limits. For going to the limit of any aspect of our life skews the balance of our nature. For instance eating only sugar: it burns too hot and corrupts the furnace (our body) by leaving its residue behind.

Now the original question touches many other aspects about energy I will have to also answer, but I will save that for a series of blog posts over the next week. However, it's important to understand : energy is a fundamental aspect of life. It isn't all crystal new age stuff. This is a fundamental part of our nature. To ignore the energy balance/aspects of one's life is to ignore half of our nature. This is why many in western culture are unbalanced in their life practice.

In this post I am describing energy using more western science aspects and terms on purpose since many of my readers are more based in the hard western style of facts. However, many other valid ways of understanding our energy and working with that energy exist. In fact western terminology and perception are pretty poor about working with energy since it approaches energy in terms of physical processes only. While Taoism understands energy from a physical aspect, it also works with energy on many other levels of practice and understanding.


more later


peace



all

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Peace

:)

just wishing a moment of peace for those passing on by.



me

Monday, May 19, 2008

Delusion and Reality

I was asked this question a month or two ago.

How do you tell delusion from reality

The first part of the answer is to answer what is delusion

Here is the definition (one of many)

Delusion is rooted within ego's belief thinking we are separate from the universe and then to "project" out a different world based solely upon our own image.

So delusion is the active projection of ego creating a false illusion of what reality is.

How to tell the difference.

1) I use my third eye, in other words when using the third eye: delusions have no substance: the third eye cannot see delusion. It "sees" potentials... which people often mistake for delusion.

I will have to define what the third eye is later, since so much confusion exists on the nature of the third eye. The answer will surprise many as it isn't as mystical as many make it, even if in effect it produces mystical experience. The third eye is a Meta-organ, your mind and senses working together to form a larger more "sensitive meta 6th sense" which can give us surprising insights and capabilities.

For those developing the third eye. Separating out the images of potential that the third eye overlays upon your natural 5 senses and the reality your senses show is a very confusing issue.

Here is the tricky part: since our third eye reuses and projects information upon our other senses. In this, nothing your third eye reveals is "real". However, It's not delusion, nor illusion: rather it's information and pattern overlay only: Representing the various potentials of the situation or object you are examining within your third eye.

As a result I apply the yin/yang of truth/falseness filters I teach students to use to navigate the information you receive. In other words: as a projection it's information to be used relative to the situation.

The third eye is a very real part of our nature. With the information you gain from the 3rd eye it's possible, to embrace, navigate and even shape what others would call reality.

What is important to grasp is :

Much of Taoist practice reverses the shaping that we do upon ourselves. We can start off as one shape, to let go of form, shedding aspects of our nature...

to then become whole and formless again.

To un-carved oneself.

This is the path of releasing ego.

The true potential of transformation is limitless by the very definition of transformation.This includes becoming the un-carved block of pure potential, of innocence again: if that is the transformation one wishes to fulfill.

The point becoming: Ultimately you can fully release into the empty state: the Formless state. We then use the third eye's information about the various overlays of possible shape , of our nature to then overlay our formless state with: to become that vision.

At that point it becomes possible to shape yourself.. or even reality relative to those forms and images your third eye reveal. In other words the third eye is revealing potentials and possibility... which you then as a Taoist can literally shape life towards.

So delusion is when you try to shape something relative to ego... which in fact is destructive and lessens your nature:

VS.

Reality being a spectrum of possibilities, which with your third eye, you can navigate between and experience, or by measuring completely cause to happen.


Later this month I will write up a post about the nature of the third eye.

Peace

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Understanding

Taoism views everyone as a Taoist, Each person has their own "way", Each person has a personal choice on how to live life.

Taoism as a practice falls into several categories (I am just using western terms now to keep things simple)

  1. Just living
  2. Actively seeking
  3. Letting go
  4. Transformation

Most people fall into the just living category and at each "level" Taoist practice offers different advice to movement of life.

The advice and the teachings in Taoism will always be relative to where you are in life.

So a person who is just living often leaves things alone: - to be as is - ; while a person seeking often stirs things up to find answers.

As a teacher I am careful when answering questions for this reason and vary my answers to each person to best fit to where they are. So when reading answers in my blog, my site, or in books like the Tao Te Ching: know the answers received are not static. That as you look at the materials you will see answers and ideas shift as you explore life.

Westerners want defined answers which are true at all angles: a Taoist instead views answers as shifting depending on the angle of life.

Now this is important for many reasons: however here is one consideration right now.

Often times when stuck trying to understand a Taoist answer or writing. Look at it not in terms of the answer you think it contains, instead look at the statement in terms of release.

An important Taoist key in translating various Taoist texts: Taoism is "rarely" ever about destination, so conversely never about direct answers. Taoism is about the way, a path, a journey itself. So most passages are the key -not to answers- but rather towards some form of release of assumptions, expectation, ego, etc anything that hold s a person down.

A key is about opening possibilities and not about what is actually in the locked box that the key opens.

This means when stuck a person is often looking at the Taoist passage or answer in older personal terms which they need to release in their life to move on. So when stuck, always look the element of release over a solid answer which helps you move on in your life.

peace

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Sorting Out Retreat Locations

Looks like we have sorted out movement details

We will be in Taos NM until end of July
Then in Minnesota for August
Then in Hilo Hawaii for the Fall.

When in the US Mainland it looks like we will rotate within a 400 mile circle about the Four Corners area.

I will update the retreat page in a few days to reflect this.

Peace

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Passings and Death

Three people we know passed away this week. I started to write this poem today as my thoughts came out to pay respect.


Death's Gate

No words cover the experience.
No time undoes the feeling.
In love having fullness.
Only to be left releasing:
A shovel, a handful of dirt and the hole left behind.

In love, in sharing: becoming angels.
Living itself: is the wing beat of being an angel.
Even when forced to face death
Coming down to find the ground.

No words fulfill this hole.
Not enough dirt hide the remains,
within the mind, memory and visions
which as if alive
continue to play out.

In peace
I wish you peace
to say in oneness
Death is a reflection
Looking back from the depths
towards the light
where we all are one.

This is truth
The reason no words work
in that Death is the merging,
Becoming alight
with the Tao.


May 2008
For Susan and Lynne

To my friends, I wish peace and love