Taoist Alchemy, My personal journey with Taoist alchemy-comments welcome. Options

Enlightened Immortality

Taoists teach that we are not born immortal. Our souls are undifferentiated energy flowing from the source of all life everywhere sometimes called the Tao and returns undifferentiated after death to this original source. Our animating life energy is “borrowed” and it is not “us”. Much like we say that is my Bank because our money is there, but we do not own it. Likewise our minds are not immortal. They begin to form in the womb and only the strongest can endure after death, but even these only endure for a short time in their self created heavens and hells. Taoist alchemy teaches that immortality is something that must be achieved through the hard work of bringing into union the mind and the soul. It is the synthesis of the mind and soul that transforms the mortal physical body stage by stage into an immortal one.

Taoist Alchemy

Prerequisites: For the entire thirteen years you must abstain from meats, grains, sex, plus no losing your sexual essence in any either through self stimulation or dreams, and you must observe the continual practice of the ascending grades of meditation.

10 Months of deep breathing exercises and one pointed Dan Tien focusing meditation to transform sexual essence into Qi (internal energy) within the lower belly. Confirmatory signs: Begins with feeling the internal energy and controlling it with breath and intent to condense it into the bones and then lead it up the spine using the reverse flowing method into the head and to the pineal gland which produces a vision of blazing white light (achieved April 24th , 1994)

3 Years of eyes closed emptiness meditation transforming internal energy into internal power at the solar plexus. Confirmatory signs- Begins when a tiny spirit body comes from the belly and exits out of the forehead (achieved June 6th, 1994) that is the birth of the immortal child which then returns to the belly to be nurtured. Fifty days later after the birth of the baby shen a vision of the quintessence/original nature off all things is seen (achieved July 27th, 1994) and this achievement is the first stage of immortality according to Taoists. If all ends here you will be reborn after death to continue your practice with full knowledge of your past life. At the end of the three year period the tiny body once again exits the forehead this time weaker and somewhat wispy. (achieved June 6th, 1997).

9 Years of eyes open mindfulness meditation “being the calm center amidst the chaos of activity” which begins with the alchemical process rising into the center of the brain where it transforms the internal power into Void - Confirmatory signs- Red Sparks blazing before the inner vision means the activity has moved from the lower elixir field to the middle one and at the end of the spray of sparks is an amber glow like a burning ember (achieved December 25th 1997).

SPECULATION: Finally at the end of nine years the void body exits the top of the head and enters a world of pure being and endless light. Upon the return of this small body which has absorbed some of that endless light, it transmits that light to the physical body and it too will radiate light transforming it stage by stage into a body of pure energy.

That is perhaps one kind of Taoist Alchemy. The part about being a vegetarian and celebate are a bit too much for me personally. I follow a middle way of regular practice in which I don't eat a lot of meat, but I'm not a vegetarian. I'm not celebate, but in times between relationships, I turn the celebate state from a necessity into a virtue. It sounds as if you do Ironshirt or bone marrow cleansing and tendon changing exercises. Mantak Chia?

I am not a big fan of Mantak Chia. Your not alone with the no-sex thing. Most dont like it. Same with veggies.

I am not a big fan of Mantak Chia. Your not alone with the no-sex thing. Most dont like it. Same with veggies.

The practice of vegetarianism for spiritual gain never seems to come with a good explanation. Have you discovered it's validity independantly? I'd be very interested to hear about any revelation on the matter... I tried the vegetarian thing a little while ago in an effort to understand it's impact on the mind, body, and spirit... after three months all I could glean was that the meat of my body seemed to reject much of the nutrition I was getting, and many of my internal systems began malfunctioning regularly. Because of the physical obstacles, I was unable to gain the necessary experiences to understand the place of the vegetarian diet in energetic terms.

Energetically, it seems there are a seemingly finite number of 'archetypal templates' that most people's energetic body will conform to. It has made me wonder of that predisposition is a determining factor in wether or not a person can benefit from a vegetarian existence.

Of course, I have not Seen all the billions of people on earth, so my observations are limited.

peace

No, I havent. In fact I proved it wrong. But I am a traditionalist and I just want to pass it on like I received it. I am not physically immortal either so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

I think dietary restrictions are more about discipline than anything else. All the great religions with powerful mystics have them. Buddhists and Taoists with vegans, Judiasm with Kosher laws, Catholics with its rules of fasting and others.

I put dietary laws with other things like tithes and charity. I think it's just for disciplining the will.

I am not a big fan of Mantak Chia.

Why is that friend? I ask because it seems people either love him or hate him. The only reason I went ahead and got the book "Awaken Healing Energy through the Tao" written by him, was because the author Glenn Morris recommended it (Glenn Morris is, or at least was a student of Bunjinkan, and was recommended to me as one source of "No Bullshit Ninpo", besides of course, Hatsumi himself). I've found occasional practice of the Microcosmic Orbit helpful in certain areas, but hell, care to share?

And to keep this subject on topic, (at least partially, lol!) I feel along similiar lines as Vagrant Dreamer, in that being wholly vegetarian, for me, was unhealthy, and the only thing I got from it was feeling spacey all the time. It works for those it works for, that's cool, I just don't think it works for those brought up in a Western environement. Perhaps if one was raised in Asia one's body would be accustomed?

As for celebacy, the same deal, different strokes for different folks. Not "bad", just different....and doesn't work for me, at least pleaseantly, lol!

-F.F.

Enlightened Immortality

Taoists teach that we are not born immortal.

What Taoist teach is that we are not complete. Taoist do believe in spirits but these spirits have Yin bodies and does not have a complete body to become a hsien.

i tried being a vegitarian for a short while

it actually had no effect on me

i had much more energy when i didn't eat meat

i woke up refreshed and ready to go

the only side effect was temptation which i gave into very easily

but i wasn't even studying metaphysics at the time


i'm glad this topic was posted about the Tao

i got half way through and had to put it down because i became very lost!

now i'm starting to understand more of its concepts

about the nothing and the something

the giving and having nothing but having everything in its place (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)

I've noticed that since I've taken up Qigong, meat will give me headaches. Same with straight-up milk, though other dairy products aren't so bad. That's why I went vegetarian.

Your body knows what it wants to be fed. Why restrict it to the limitations of the mind with the strictures of a religious dogma?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/angel.gif)

Darin Hamel, For the past 2 years I have been studying and practicing Taoist Alchemy. I have several books by the following authors, Eva Wong, Thomas Cleary, Yang Jwing-Ming, Charles Luk, Larry Johnson, etc... They all present great information on Taoist Alchemy but they can sometimes be a bit cryptic. Personally I have made sitting Dan Tien Embryonic Breathing and Standing meditations as my primary practice. It would be nice to have manual describing the different stages and what one can expect to experience at each stage etc... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_bookread.gif) Have you come across such resource or close to one? Can you please share some of your sources(books, websites, forums, etc...) for knowledge on Taoist Alchemy? And please share which of these was most helpful to you on you journey. Thank you!

This post has been edited by NeiDan: Sep 15 2006, 08:58 PM

Darin Hamel, For the past 2 years I have been studying and practicing Taoist Alchemy. I have several books by the following authors, Eva Wong, Thomas Cleary, Yang Jwing-Ming, Charles Luk, Larry Johnson, etc... They all present great information on Taoist Alchemy but they can sometimes be a bit cryptic. Personally I have made sitting Dan Tien Embryonic Breathing and Standing meditations as my primary practice. It would be nice to have manual describing the different stages and what one can expect to experience at each stage etc... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_bookread.gif) Have you come across such resource or close to one? Can you please share some of your sources(books, websites, forums, etc...) for knowledge on Taoist Alchemy? And please share which of these was most helpful to you on you journey. Thank you!

For the first stage the book that helped me most was THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER. It has the reverse breathing practice and the confirmatory signs of what to look for. Kundalini books were also a huge help after the reverse breathing started to work. After you dan tien breath and your belly swells, gets hot and turns red (stop if it hurts) then the transformed chi moves up the spine and a lot of the kundalni info applies at that stage until the third eye opens briefly and you see the life animating principle within and unifying all things. Thats the end of stage one and books dont really discuss much after that. Charles Luk does and some of the mythic stories do, but like you said, CRYPTIC!

You do standing meditation?!? Nice to see there are some real men still out there.



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