Hey!
Thank you for the book recommendation. You just gave me my book to read for the day. I'll come back here once I've read it.
I'm very interested in going deeper into meditation, although I admit it is difficult for me to cognize what that actually means, despite my understanding that "samadhi" is a state of absorption that is the transcendence of the phenomenon of experiencer/experience ; subject/object ; knower/known - the sphere beyond the mind. But I'm always wondering if I know that merely by the testimony of those that have been there.
I meditate daily, and what I've learned
not to do is
try to quiet the mind, because all that will do is stir up the pool. But it seems incredibly difficult indeed to get there without seeking at the same you are seeking. It's as if there is nothing I can do at all.
I've recently read a couple of books on fasting, and I've just completed a five day water fast, during which time I had not a single (ok, maybe one or two - but they were like clouds that just drifted over quite easily) sexual thought or urge. I didn't even have erections, which was a first.
I can see now why fasting may go together with retention of jing.
Now that I've completed the fast, I feel more empowered, like I have a stronger determination simply
not to have sexual thoughts, or, supposing I see a fair woman, not to view her as an object of sexual lust, but simply as another quite ordinary human being. In my last post I mentioned I was on day 10 of continence. Well, I ended up making it to day 12 before things got frisky in my bathtub hahaha. But! I started again for the fourth or fifth time, and as I mentioned the fast, I'm now on day 7, the first 5 days of which I spent fasting.
To anyone wondering a helpful way to avoid predisposing your mind and body to sexual thoughts and urges respectively, I suggest you investigate fasting, because then you will begin to realize the enormous (in fact, inseparable) relation between diet and consciousness.
Skerlockian_Holmes,
Do you think the systems of the Tao (i.e. the channels you speak of clearing up) bear any relation to the systems of Indian thought (i.e. the chakras and the fire of kundalini rising, pacifying and powering up the energy nexi)?
I ask because I have been studying both systems of thought, and it seems so far to me that they are basically talking about the same thing, except these different schools use different symbolism for the same forces.
What I would like to see is a book that initiates a thorough comparative investigation between these two different systems (of the Taoists, and the Kundalini Yogis).
The common theme seems to be an extraordinary emphasis on the power of visualization, intention, and self-confidence.
What does everyone think about this?
Peace
Genesis is Now, the Mind is Incarnate.