Monday, August 16, 2004
The form of meditation I practice is, properly speaking, a formless form. There is a specific set of imagery but that is more the map to the party than the actual meditation--I suppose that any true meditation is like that. This one, Taiji Five-Element Qigong, is a Taoist form. The Taoist forms are differentiated from the Buddhist forms, philosophically speaking, in that Taoism regards all 'this' as something which has arisen from nothing and will return to nothing, and is actual while it is, while Buddhism regards all 'this' as illusion to be transcended. So the Taoist forms focus first on building up the body/unconscious, clearing it of all illness and knots (this is qi- and lower dan tien-focused) before moving to the challenges of enlightenment. This makes any true Taoist form a useful medical one.
While practicing, ideally, you should have no distracting thoughts. To accomplish this, there are two sets of suggestions, the "dos" and the "dont's."
The "don'ts" are:
Forget your illness
Forget your troubles
Forget where you are
Forget who you are
and the "dos" are:
Let kindness be the foundation (the image here is more like "root", actually)
Let acceptance/forgiveness/humbleness be the ('trunk/stem' or 'growth')
Let selflessness be the ('flowering').
Better to not be thinking enough to remember these when actually practicing, of course, but I've gotten the "don'ts" to a neat mnemonic
I am here, worried sick.
I am here, worried.
I am here.
I am.
.
that shows why the progression is as it is suggested. It also works with the Taoist precept of 'forget something every day.'
I really have no idea how to talk about this in this forum (blogworld), but I feel I have to, at least once. I've seen those who diligently apply themselves to this form heal themselves of diabetes, cancer, arthritis, hypertension. I've also seen two men heal themselves of supposedly-irreversible injuries sustained in bad car accidents. And a woman infertile for a decade who now has two children.
I know, I'm insanely gullible. That's fine, I just wanted to mention it. If you're curious, and/or understand yet the poverty of real efficacy our medical profession labors under, the link is on my link-roll to the left. I may bring it up once or twice more, of course, but only because I find the whole thing fascinating.
While practicing, ideally, you should have no distracting thoughts. To accomplish this, there are two sets of suggestions, the "dos" and the "dont's."
The "don'ts" are:
Forget your illness
Forget your troubles
Forget where you are
Forget who you are
and the "dos" are:
Let kindness be the foundation (the image here is more like "root", actually)
Let acceptance/forgiveness/humbleness be the ('trunk/stem' or 'growth')
Let selflessness be the ('flowering').
Better to not be thinking enough to remember these when actually practicing, of course, but I've gotten the "don'ts" to a neat mnemonic
I am here, worried sick.
I am here, worried.
I am here.
I am.
.
that shows why the progression is as it is suggested. It also works with the Taoist precept of 'forget something every day.'
I really have no idea how to talk about this in this forum (blogworld), but I feel I have to, at least once. I've seen those who diligently apply themselves to this form heal themselves of diabetes, cancer, arthritis, hypertension. I've also seen two men heal themselves of supposedly-irreversible injuries sustained in bad car accidents. And a woman infertile for a decade who now has two children.
I know, I'm insanely gullible. That's fine, I just wanted to mention it. If you're curious, and/or understand yet the poverty of real efficacy our medical profession labors under, the link is on my link-roll to the left. I may bring it up once or twice more, of course, but only because I find the whole thing fascinating.
