The Mysterious Female of Taoist Spiritual Alchemy

[deci belle]

I thought I might post this again (if I hadn't already) for those whose interest might be suitably inclined.

This short treatise brings to light a profound key to taoist alchemic spiritual practice mentioned in their ancient esoteric manuals as well as in Laotze’s Tao de Ching, which touches on various points of commonly accessed tenets of Chan (Zen) buddhism, Quantzhen (Complete Reality) taoism and Toltec (Nagual) shamanism. Some aspects of the description are in ancient taoist prose, which cannot be avoided, simply because the knowledge is embedded. Whatever insight transmitted throughout the ages by virtue of the knowledge itself has never implied any kind of rational meaning in any philosophical or intellectual sense; yet who hasn't heard the term knowledge is power? This selfsame Power, therefore, is the very nature of awake.

For those who have not yet seen to refine vitality into energy; refine energy into spirit; refine spirit into openness, and then to go through the double pass and subsequently empty out clear open insight, there may still be doubts as to where to find the mysterious pass spoken of in the ancient classics of the various authentic schools of spiritual alchemy.

Vaguely in the space where thought and desire coalesce in one’s innermost being, is an aperture, a nexus of cosmic proportion, that, without having form of itself, rests in perpetuity in precedence over Creation. This recondite aspect of Mind is accessible to humanity by virtue of its essential nature. Uncreated, comprising one’s real body of awareness, yet having no inside or outside, the very homeland of nothing whatsoever has been identified by ancient taoists as the aperture of the Valley Spirit; the abode of the Mysterious Female. This “homeland of nothing whatsoever” not a thing. It cannot be discovered by focusing one’s awareness on any part of the physical body. Yet it is only by virtue of having a body that one’s innate potential is accessible to consciousness. The subtle spiritual operation therein is one's innate inconceivability. When potential arises, it can be recognized by subtle awareness accessed by prior gradual clarification of habit energy.

Before a single thought, there is balance; yet afterwards, when one's feelings are not yet aroused, therein is harmony. It is possible to spend one’s days resting here in the highest good while in the midst of ordinary situations, able to adapt to all manner of conditional ramifications without going along with the creative’s karmic momentum (habit energy).

An alchemic classic states that the “aperture” is between the heart and genitals~ this refers to intellectual and emotional consciousness, the matrix and operational seat of conditioned self-consciousness. Self-conscious psychological awareness is self-reifying consciousness symptomatic of chronic psychosis through instinctual and conditioned pattern-awareness by the psychological apparatus of the being that is going to die in the guise of the personality. Authentic gradual self-refinement results in the dissolution of that which constitutes habit energy's perpetuation of the mistaken upholding of the personality as the true self. Arriving at the ultimate breakthrough revealing the essence of one's real nature, and after the maturation and stabilization of real experience, the personality can forthrightly assume its function in assisting the intent of one's inherent enlightening function. The psychological apparatus of the being that is going to die and the enlightening activity of all prior illuminates are not different. The purpose of the two things (functions) is one, which does not rely on reason or talking.

In refining vitality into energy, feelings are forgotten. Refining energy into spirit, thoughts are forgotten. The spirit is the house of fire and water, the medicines. Spirit is the will. Joining the two medicines, the elixir is formed, and the mysterious pass appears within nothing whatsoever. It’s not a matter of doing (energy work); arriving at the pivot of awareness, the incipience of reality, is as easy as turning over your hand. After all, it’s already your own mind right now.

When the elixir is refined in the mysterious pass it turns into the gold pill, symbolic of nonpsychological awareness, forever incorruptible. It's not that it is just now incorruptible, it is that in seeing your own mind right now as it really is, you see perpetual incorruptibility is the unborn basis, being your own nature. Realization is just the prior knowledge of open selflessness. Once you see it, set right away to refine it.

After the embryonic immortal is formed, one must seal it and incubate it until the accomplishment is solidified. Then it is possible to set up the cauldron and furnace once again, in order to initiate advanced operation. When one surpasses this, even one’s use of inner vision is left behind.

As one succeeds in avoiding damage to the refined elixir by maintaining strictness in incubating the embryo, an immortal takes its place in terms of one’s inherent spiritual enlightening function in the midst of everyday ordinary situations unbeknownst to anyone. When one can then sublimate oneself physically and spiritually, one then steps over eternity, shatters space and becomes the same as the tao in reality, able to accept the world in its totality and work directly with its essence without intermediary; unitary sameness comprising karma and enlightenment as one’s spiritual basis. Buddhism calls this Suchness;  the taoist term is Complete Reality. The names refer to that which is neither ordinary nor holy; neither karmic nor absolute in nature. Just this is one's own mind right now, before the first thought.

Then it is possible to follow in the steps of prior illuminates to fully access non-resistant open clarity expressing the Virtue of the Receptive. Such virtue is non-resistant as is in terms of knowledge, nonpsychologically aware. There's nothing to know. Awake, one adapts as is to what is without arrangements.

The mysterious pass, existing even now before all time, is the aperture of nonorigination— the Causless gives birth to ordinary people and immortals alike. In this regard it is not limited to the absolute, but is the perennial gateway of potential aware energy in the living minds and bodies of all beings individually. Using this mysterious pass unconsciously is the norm for ordinary people. Continuous as such, self-refinement is the endless task of seeing the Mysterious Pass for oneself and learning to use its potential without limit in accordance with the timing and guidance of situational karmic evolution. This is how one dispenses with reliance on one's own power. The spiritual power of situationally expressed potential is inherent in the situation itself, not dependent on things, self or other.

For those who have refined the elixir of immortality by penetrating the mysterious pass, it is possible to actualize non-doing and develop the response-body. One learns to use this aperture of nonoriginated potential to match reality in everyday ordinary affairs. If one knows this aperture yet cannot use it— it is the same as not knowing. Wu-wei is not a state of self-psychological differentiation as opposed to delusional conditionality— it is a spiritual function of crucial importance in the lives of ignoramuses and potential illuminates alike, transcending discriminatory psychologies. 

Called non-doing, wu-wei is Great Sameness in action. Unborn and undying movement and stillness without having fallen into the sphere of the creative is by virtue of one’s own selfless awareness. It’s not the person. Seeing reality is selflessly aware knowledge of situational potential. Immediate non-discursive knowledge is what is referred to as seeing. Actualizing potential in response to situations is the work of spiritual adepts. As one experiences functionally non-reifying awareness in the midst of situational evolution, its (situational) potential is perceived naturally. Therefore authentic practice is such that it is imperative that you work on this basis of truly seeing reality as is, by not acting on its potential in terms of the creative; only in terms of its essence. Don't throw this (potential) away once you get it (by acting on it). All that is necessary is for one to see it.  In seeing, all spiritual principle is attained. Taoism says, "the mechanism is in the eyes." Do you believe seeing is accomplished with the physical eyes? Knowledge is immediate; not requiring deliberation. Do you believe seeing depends on the senses or the organ? Also, authentic practice has nothing to do with quiet sitting meditation. Formal meditation is meant to help those with psychological blockage gain insight into recognizing reality. Formalities are remedial, reformative. Authentic practice is reality itself: reality has no pattern.

Observing the stillness of psychological (conditioned) consciousness temporarily void of its habitual patterns and mistaking this psychological state for the shining mind is the number one sickness of beginners— no matter how many decades they have been seduced by the cushion.

Mistaking the human mentality for the shining mind is the number one sickness of beginners engaged in exercising formal sitting meditation.

Observing where thoughts originate and feelings secrete is getting close to the immaterial aperture with no location (Mysterious Female). It is not the body; it is only accessed by virtue of having a body. It is the critical juncture where all the elements combine to form the “completely real human being with no status.” By seeing this aperture, it is possible to arrive at a body outside the body. 

People have mistakenly come to believe that “human being” is a noun, a self-referential identity, whereas in reality, it is the innate spiritual capacity of true Complete Reality by which the totality of one’s inherent potential is only rarely fulfilled by those with the audacity to realize the will to actualize enlightenment universally by gradually dispensing with habitually self-reifying psychological pattern-consciousness.

Quote

Reality has no pattern.

 

 

ed note: fix double-space between 3rd and 4th paragraphs; add a few lines to paragraph 8

Edited July 14, 2020 by deci belle

[Awayfarer]

"Ask at the site of meditation,

How it is that even endless exercise

Often leads only to empty old age!

Polishing bricks to make a  mirror,

Hoarding snow to use as foodstuff--

How many young persons are thus deceived?

A feather swallows the ocean?

A mustard seed contains the Sumeru?

The Golden Dhuta is gently smiling.

Enlightened, one transcends the ten stages and three vehicles.

The sluggards must join the four creatures and six ways.

Who has heard below the Thoughtless Cliff,

Beneath the Shadowless Tree,

The cuckoo's one call greeting the dawn of spring?

Perilous are the roads at Ts'ao-ch'i.,

And dense are the clouds on Chiu-ling.

Here the voice of any acquaintance is mute.

The Waterfall of ten thousand feet.

The spreading fivefold leaf of the lotus.

The incense-draped curtain hanging in an old temple.

In that hour,

Once you penetrate to the origin,

You'll see the three jewels and the Dragon King." (The Journey to The West, Ch.8, Vol I, ISBN: 0-226-97150-3 )

Edited August 14, 2020 by Awayfarer
Added "The" to "The Journey to The West"; added ISNB# and Vol. for specificity

[deci belle]

Congratulations on your first post and thank you for your excellent content, Awayfarer!

Please leave a short note with the ISBN number for the other readers— a good 90% of which are not registered members of this forum.

Perhaps we can talk some more, some day❤︎!!

 

 

ed note: soften up my response a bit…

Edited August 14, 2020 by deci belle

[Awayfarer]

Deci-

I appreciate your response and will add the ISBN.

And I must thank you for the excellent content you have generated. I found you at Daobums and followed you here. Your words cut deep, intention fulfilled. 

I, also, am a fan of Cleary's translations and the two of you have been extraordinary for me. I am just starting to learn about the Five Elements and their functions and I would be very grateful if you could provide a compass; your maps has been most illuminating. I am a weak and scattered student but enjoy the way.

[deci belle]

Thomas Cleary was definitely on a role for a good while; wasn't he "set up" splendidly to take full advantage of the source-work that was subsequently made available for us??!!! Motherlode, indeed.

I too would like to know the ISBN of your volume of choice, Awayfarer— the emphasis of many versions of this ancient text are not worth wading through!

Yes, I certainly have been a proponent of slicing deeply— if not all the way through, and, of course, that has actually been an issue with many, unfortunately, as you must have already surmised from your prior experience perusing the Daobums site. There are a few "meditation" experts in high places on this forum as well that I seem to have "set off" in terms of situational potential~ c'est la vie. And though who can't blame them, I also don't regret an aspect of unflinching rapport. Perhaps I can revive an old tune another way, if only to find out how high the note of antiquity resonates, now that a few years has elapsed. The lady's lucky, I must say.

If you would like to, please PM me about those seemingly technical aspects of study in terms of the particular emphasis of Five Elements teaching, and try to touch on your practice in terms of its possible application in your situational milieu. That might be good for starters.

For myself, only much later did I begin to see its analysis (in terms of situational contexts) to be a device for the purposes of an ever-widening complex of juggling (on multifarious levels) to maintain and build upon that which becomes an abstraction-in-suspension; in itself, an alchemic device of purification.

If there is a particular aspect of the excerpt you quoted above that might have a poignant resonance with you at this time, please elucidate on that, if you will— either by PM or on this thread. If not, that's ok too.

[Awayfarer]

Thank you for another wonderful response. Cleary was indeed "set-up" splendidly. A view from a "platform" can often be useful. Foyan and Hui-Neng were also of great use to me.

Your cuts are truly deep, but the reifying mechanics of capitalism are strong.

You ask if there is a particular passage in this poem that resonates with me at this moment and I leave you with this:

"Perilous are the roads at Ts'ao-ch'i.,

And dense are the clouds on Chiu-ling.

Here the voice of any acquaintance is mute."

 

I also leave you with some of my own nonsense:

Philosophers fool,

Fools philosophize.

Look inside, 

Live outside.

Throw away your dollars,

Hold on to your pennies;

Ignore the words,

They change.

[deci belle]

You make me laugh …and the phrase ending in "mute" also stood out for me specifically, the first time I read your quote.

Good eye, Awayfarer!

Quote

 

"Perilous are the roads at Ts'ao-ch'i.,

And dense are the clouds on Chiu-ling.

Here the voice of any acquaintance is mute."

 

Any acquaintance is already one (or no) mind, since before time. How familiar can that be~ and surely nothing whatsoever is fitting to be saying so. As for the roads to T'sao-chi or the clouds on Chiu-ling? Who knew?

hhahahahahahaaa!!!

 

 

ed note: add "(or no)" in 1st sentence

Edited August 17, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

Awayfarer prompted this part of my response in a PM~ I hope it's ok that I publish an excerpt here:

Perhaps the benefit of The Secret of the Golden Flower, translated by Thomas Cleary and published by HarperSanFrancisco (ISBN: 0-06-250193-3) is that it is a transcendent teaching based on "turning the light around." One works directly with essence with no intermediary. This is stated clearly in the introduction of Cleary's translation. It has nothing to do with energy work, per se, though it is possible to apply it in terms of energetics. Countless others have sought to do so, but doing so is not the purpose of the teaching. Why waste it on the dregs when using it appropriately will allow one to "ascend to heaven in broad daylight."

Turning the light around is a matter of recognizing nonpsychological awareness and using conscious awareness to attend to it. This means using one's attention to observe non-discursive awareness. The nonpsychological is what the Complete Reality school calls real knowledge. Turning the light around is "using yin to nurture yang." Conscious knowledge is yin, and real knowledge is yang.

Rank formal sitting meditation, comparable with strict energy work, are both temporary (provisional) derivative teachings parlayed into useful methodologies spun off the kind of transcendent teaching espoused by the various Chan (Zen) buddhist and Quanzhen (Complete Reality) taoist schools for those as yet unready to delve into "the center of the compass." Of course, neither buddhism nor taoism are source elements, nor are they the only authentic teaching traditions to make such derivative methodologies useful to those on the gradual path preceding the sudden. In the aftermath of the sudden, all teachings are unitary, yet still natural expressions of time and place adapting enlightenment to conditions.

So here's where the terminology of alchemy starts getting screwy. It's because real knowledge, yang, is Water (yang surrounded by yin ☵). Conscious knowledge is yin, Fire (yin inside yang ☲). Get ready: yin/fire ☲ is originally body of heaven, now with the heart of earth; yang/water ☵ is originally earth, injected with the heart of heaven. These relationships giving clues to their true nature should get you up to speed coming to terms with the organization of the Elements, both in forward (conditioned) and in reverse (absolute) analysis.

Note that the accomplishment of reversing the organization of elements is the same in terms of reversing the light. It's the same light (or elements), yet in reversing them from the conditioned norm, transcendence is the norm.

Going along with creation, one is bound by karma. In reverse, its transcendence is the use of karmic energy to access real (uncreated) potential, to match creation, whereby one functions transcendentally in the midst of delusion on delusion's terms.

It's seeing through phenomena without denying its characteristics; it's activating the mind without dwelling on its contents.

So the basic organizational topology for spiritual study using the trigrams for taoist alchemy is: heaven ☰ is the cauldron; earth ☷ is the furnace; fire ☲ and water ☵ are the medicines to be joined to make the restored elixir. When the medicines of Fire ☲, and Water ☵, are subsequently refined and naturally fuse, they are said to revert to the inherent celestial (Heaven ☰) function lost through the elemental procession of conditioned habit energy.

This means that the restoration of the elixir of immortality is so because fire and water (real and conscious knowledge) are actually now (and primordially) the same, in terms of unified awareness. In terms of delusion, they are said to be re-joined in the process of spiritual alchemy. It's not that they are originally separate or even separate at this moment. This illustration of spiritual alchemy mirrors the Judeo-Christian tenet of something needing to be "fixed", or found after having been "lost" in the distant past— only it's right now where it has never needed fixing. Be here now works wonders, in the final analysis.

It is simply a matter of seeing the true habitually or the false habitually. Seeing is itself the key— not what. Delusion or Complete Reality is in the eye of the beholder— not the beheld. It's not "out there." The light is one. Go along in duality and you're lost; go in reverse, see unity, and you're done. Actually, delusion and reality look the same, in terms of the relative— because they are the same, so they're both false. In terms of the Absolute, neither exist, so they are both true, and thus the same in that regard as well.

Adapting enlightenment to conditions is not a shallow relativism equivocating passivity with dereliction. Seeing sameness within differentiation; Suchness, or Complete Reality, or by any other name is the working definition of the Supreme Vehicle of buddhas and tathagatas, wizards, saints, sages and all prior illuminates. Who said it was so easy?

Joining the two things (in terms of psychological and nonpsychological capacities) is the work of spiritual alchemy. Remember always that they are actually and essentially the same. It's just that habit energy, by virtue of the psychological apparatus, has conditionally obscured their unity of function.

In terms of one's enlightening potential, the work of self-refinement is to bring real knowledge to the fore of one's conscious awareness (knowledge) and reverse one's habitual emphasis of attention from the psychological to the nonpsychological. That's "turning the light around." Any other usage of the term is erroneous application of authentic transcendent teaching.

 

 

ed note: add "Delusion or", in the 2nd sentence of the 11th paragraph

Edited August 17, 2020 by deci belle

[Awayfarer]

17 hours ago, deci belle said:

You make me laugh …and the phrase ending in "mute" also stood out for me specifically, the first time I read your quote.

Good eye, Awayfarer!

Any acquaintance is already one (or no) mind, since before time. How familiar can that be~ and surely nothing whatsoever is fitting to be saying so. As for the roads to T'sao-chi or the clouds on Chiu-ling? Who knew?

hhahahahahahaaa!!!

 

 

ed note: add "(or no)" in 1st sentence

I often play the fool,

It is yet another tool.

Laughter soothes the soul,

As this life takes its toll.

Morning or night, early and late,

Moment, by moment, I create.

[deci belle]

Awayfarer wrote:

I have been practicing turning the light around throughout the day in real life situations. When you said above: "Going along with creation, one is bound by karma. In reverse, its transcendence is the use of karmic energy to access real (uncreated) potential, to match creation, whereby one functions transcendentally in the midst of delusion on delusion's terms." - Is this the same as "changing Change"? And the same as turning the light around?

I really like your question, Awayfarer.

Leaving "changing Change" aside for the moment, yes, it is all "turning the light around", as described in Thomas Cleary's translation of The Secret of the Golden Flower.

The light is the same going along with creation or in going in reverse. Likewise, essence is karmic energy in terms of going along with the Creative as well as comprising potential when going in reverse, by "shining the light on its source". Wherever one shines the light by one's deluded or enlightening perspective, is the determining factor whether potential is "gathered" for the immortal elixir or lost by delusional perpetuation of the karmic matrix of all time.

They are the same. Those who understand this, see this, and operate transcendentally by this are said to express the Virtue of Receptivity and know the nature of Suchness. Taoism refers to the knowledge and nature of innate being as Complete Reality. This is because knowledge of Complete Reality and being completely real oneself is identical. Knowledge is itself being. Suchness and Complete Reality refer to the same aspect of functional enlightening being. Just the world itself is it. Karma is itself the ground of enlightening being in terms of seeing essence (by having reversed the effect of conditioned awareness from the psychological momentum of habit energy to the point of perpetual upwelling of potential where one rests in the highest good). The term "seeing essence" used here is not a reference to sudden enlightenment, rather it denotes seeing complete reality as such.

Seeing complete reality as such is impersonal accord in reality. Selflessness as such, is neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong, neither self or other nor before or after. Enlightening accord within reality is the nature of selflessness, no different than the nature of awareness being selfless. Selflessness just is. It has nothing to do with arbitrary moral injunctions to guilt-trip yourself and others with. It's just your nature. Selflessness is the impersonal nature of reality. It's you! Your identity is as absolutely and selflessly aware as anything else. You are not the person, you are its aware quality. There is no thing. There are no explanations, only vague descriptions. It is beyond words. You are an inconceivable being.

I say that delusion and reality look the same in everyday ordinary situations because it's true. Reality doesn't look any different than delusion. They really are the same. The point of real illumination is oneself alone whether one goes along or turns the light around. This point of illumination where essence either congeals as energy or remains unborn as potential is called the Mysterious Pass. It is none other than one's own mind right now. Neither ordinary nor holy, all wonders arise from this. It is possible to use the Mysterious Pass and its Valley Spirit inexhaustibly. The Tao te Ching says as much in chapters 4, 5 and 6 right off the top of my head. Laotse's document is a glossary and a codebook for immortalists.

"Going along" is using the psychological apparatus habitually unawares. Appropriate application of conscious psychological awareness according to the time is not different than resting in the highest good in that the mind of Tao is none other than the human mentality void of unconscious habit energy in terms of unconsciously following psychological momentum of karmic self and other. The same can be said of having activated one's enlightening function by turning the light around, in that one can be said to "unconsciously follow the laws of god."

Quote

"Going along with creation, one is bound by karma. In reverse, its transcendence is the use of karmic energy to access real (uncreated) potential, to match creation, whereby one functions transcendentally in the midst of delusion on delusion's terms."

This all means that adepts use karma to access potential, in that one is said to "pick out the real from within the false." But I have already described the fact that the two are the same essence without beginning. It's just a manner of speaking to help people avoid the mistake of grasping the one and rejecting the other. This refers to those who may be obstructed by provisional, reformative teachings by mistakenly clinging to ideas of renunciation and denial. Not that those with heavy karmic bonds haven't benefitted by such temporary remedies.

When one sees potential in the midst of delusion, in terms of critical junctures of time and place set up by karma, deliberate action is eons away, as one does not rely on one's own power to respond to situations. One just knows to pass through as such. The situational aspect denotes a relativity to time, timing and audacity. Enlightening activity is not relative to conventions of avoidance strategies. One just passes through directly, sharing oneself with open hands. It's the darnedest thing. It sounds just like poofs !  hahahhahahhaa!!

 

 

ed note: add 6th paragraph

Edited September 2, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

Awayfarer wrote:

Quote

You again have given me much to think about. I have to ask how can anything be truly spontaneous? Momentum is everywhere. It is, as you say, inconceivable. Letting go of conceiving seems key.

I will get to true spontaneity at some point, but to respond to what you said at the end of your post most definitely…

Yes!! Failing to conceive is absolutely key. Taoism calls it "forgetting thoughts and feelings, preserving the fundamental." Buddhism calls this liberation.

The punchline of the famous dialog between the Emperor of China and Bodhidharma is when the emperor (finally) asks, "Who is talking to me?" "Don't know.", is Bodhidharma's reply.

The Emperor asked who, in terms of self and other. Bodhidharma's reply was likewise twofold, in terms of the personal, relative perspective, as well as in terms of absolute nature. In terms of the relative "who", Bodhidarma's response was a stern, but veiled rebuke face to face with the Emperor of China: he said, "Don't know.", as in don't conceive who in terms of self and other, when the context is enlightenment. Why? Because Enlightenment is already your own (impersonal selfless) mind right now. Bodhidharma might as well have responded to the Emperor's question (of who?), by saying, "Who wants to know.", which might be fine in some instances, but not this one. Or, in other words, "Do you know your own mind?" In certain contexts that might be taken to mean, "Are you crazy?" —Which is precisely what one does NOT say to an Emperor anywhere on this planet. But such a remark is as perfectly apropos in that conversation of long ago as it is in referencing the conditioned human mental processes today, because conditioned thought patterning (psychological momentum reifying the false identity of the conditioned personality of the being that is going to die) is the working definition of mental illness: mental dis-ease.

That's why Buddhism's definition of liberation as being free of conceiving (thoughts) is the nature of enlightenment itself, as well as the personal power to avail oneself of the capacity to do so and be such a one to have impersonally ascertained experience oneself as the knowledge of pure awareness: the knowledge of no thing. There is no thing. There is nothing to know: don't know!, he said. Bodhidharma told the Emperor of China to "Stop it!" Bodhidharma left the Emperor immediately. Smart man.

So the nature of enlightenment is what bodhidharma was referring to as well. In the context of his response to the Emperor, he said, "Don't know." He was speaking for himself as well, and in this aspect his response was again twofold in expressing both the absolute within the conditional as well as the absolute in itself. "Don't know" in terms of the absolute within the conditional is bodhidharma admitting that there is no such one to know nor is there such a one knowing (who). In terms of the Absolute exclusive of the conditional, his response is the open expression of enlightening accord in Reality, such that there is no who to speak of and no who speaking (to the Emperor). Bodhidharma didn't say "I don't know." He simply said, "Don't know."

Such a terse and unspeakably brilliant response to anyone, much less while being on the spot with the Emperor of China who perhaps was the most powerful person on the planet at that time, could not have been planned. This case in point is a fortuitous example of blatant spontaneous subtle spiritual adaption getting one's ass out of a dilemma of monumental proportions. Yet not getting executed was not Bodhidharma's motive. Enlightened response has no motive. The Emperor was pissed— his was not a trick question. The Emperor simply didn't understand what Bodhidharma was talking about (and he knew as much). But what the Emperor didn't know was that Bodhidharma was giving the interview. Bodhidharma had called on the Emperor to ascertain his spiritual evolvement to see if sponsorship of authentic teaching in China 2000 years ago was possible. Who knew? The Emperor wasn't, so the Emperor didn't, so mr B. Dharma had to get the hell out of Dodge and made haste in a southerly direction for quite some time. Good thing too.

At the time, Taoism had been established in China for millennia (since before China had been a glimmer in any emperors' eye), but Bodhidharma's high-altitude Kashmiri brand of Mind Only buddhism was just what effective (or not) taoist teaching and its esoteric/elitist traditions needed: a fire under its butt. By 1100~1300 AD, the Quantzhen (taoist) tradition had not only incorporated buddhist methods effectively, it was openly espousing the validity of the three main Chinese spiritual traditions of the era (buddhism, taoism and Confucianism) as direct expressions of the Source of all religion: which had long been expressed (by taoism) as Tao, or the Way; the way which cannot be named.

Transcendent teaching is not religion, nor does it characterize itself in terms of a perpetuation of any specific teaching tradition. The source being none other than anyone's and everyone's true identity: impersonal, sellflessly awake, uncreated. In terms of transcendent teaching being the source of religion, the fact is that Mind is itself the true progenitor of enlightening being and its practical expression coming from within the karmic matrix of the Creative, in that there are no two minds: Mind is one.

 

 

ed note: add "The punchline…" to 3rd paragraph; add the word "not" in 1st sentence of 8th paragraph

Edited September 6, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

Awayfarer commented above:

Quote

Momentum is everywhere. It is, as you say, inconceivable.

Momentum is due to mental conception, I did not say momentum is inconceivable. That which is conceivable is anything and everything that can be named. Eternity is conceivable in that it is another name for the endless multiplicity of creation and its multifarious incremental processes.

The opening chapter of the Tao te Ching states that the (true) Way cannot be named. I have to admit that it does say such an unnamable way is eternal, but that is a translation issue. In technical terms, I say the eternal is relative to karma, existence, creation and its incremental aspect, whereas the inconceivable (Way) is Unborn, uncreated aware nonbeing; that is, the source of the essence of (potential) reality before it has fallen into the Creative. Uncreated cannot be a thing, and since the Creative aspect is attributable to its inconceivable nature, the existence of existence is spoken of by authentic teaching as essentially illusion. In terms of alchemic practice, one is cautioned to only work with what is unseen and to not work with what can be seen. This means spiritual transformation is accomplished by working with essence (the unborn) directly. If one works with energy (created), one will necessarily end up with accomplishment relative to the creative.

The analogous phrase is: as above, so below.

The inconceivable is unknowable (in terms of rational mentation). In terms of nonpsychological awareness, the inconceivable can be seen, in that knowledge is immediate. Thought processes relative to the personality are not applicable, therefore such knowledge is not relative to the person.

That's why I say enlightening activity isn't the person— in addition, the working definition of enlightening response is that which is carried out in the midst of ordinary affairs without relying on one's own power. That's what makes such response a matter of spiritual adaption.

Open clarity is the nature of the human mentality when its habit energy ceases. When habit energy comprising the human mentality ceases all at once, mind is as it was of yore: open, clear, untrammeled, sensitive, effective, un-perturbable. There are no two minds.

The inconceivable is your own unborn mind right now in that it is not within the realm of rationalism. It is your own mind right now void of psychological patterning and self-reifying thoughts; in other words, it is void of habit energy. This is the meaning of the phrase, Mind is one. Conditioning is what one aims to get rid of in the endless process of self refinement. What is refined? The errant human mentality.

When patterning is eradicated, the capacity of rationalism is left intact— only the habitual use of rational self-reifying pattern-awareness is absent. So the activation of one's innate enlightening being is the correlative absence of reliance on the personality's false identity. Without that crutch, ego is no longer needlessly active and nonpsychological awareness is ably sufficient to adapt spiritually (nonpsychologically) to conditional situations inconceivably, with the aid of the objective impersonal mode of rationalism. This is the meaning of spiritual adaption, in terms of self-refining activity: one's enlightening function is by virtue of spiritual and physical sublimation; the gradual process of going through endless situational transformations, whereby one enters the Tao in reality. This is not a reference to sudden enlightenment.

So there is no intrinsic meaning to reality, conditioned or otherwise. It is what it is, and no one knows why. Either one gradually builds upon conditioned qualities, or one gradually builds upon enlightening qualities. Entering the mystery of mysteries is the option for those with the audacity and the will to discover human beings' innate enlightening function through the long process of self-refinement. Spiritual alchemy is the taoist name for a tradition effecting a range of teaching devices describing various aspects of the specific process in terms of phenomenal and inconceivable elements. The process itself is natural. No one invented it. Reality's innate enlightening quality is evidence of our inconceivable nature. Prior illuminates of all traditions have left the secret behind for those with the wherewithal to approach and apply the source of enlightenment in the midst of delusion by virtue of delusion due to the fact that our true identity being pure awareness is unified selfless consciousness.

How wonderful is that!

 

 

ed note: add 2nd and 3rd paragraph; typo 2nd paragraph

Edited September 8, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

Here is a recent PM relative to this thread:

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I hope it is not a last note, as I enjoy your words. That said, you have given me a lifetime of words to contemplate, so if it is, I wish you well on your way. I do have some questions scattered below, if you would indulge.

I have a better understanding now of ego consciousness, the role of the personality, and selflessness. I wonder if you are/were one of Carlos Casteneda's "Witches"?

My understanding of your writing and my other readings is that the personality is a karmic result/function of the unknown/other/reality. The personality forms to help the mind-body survive/flourish in its immediate surroundings, but it is a limit. Removing the limit brings us closer to reality and gives us access to the limitless. Remove the personality and expand reality. How does one "seal unrefined potential in the aftermath of the critical juncture wherein the killing energy arose and one stopped advancing and immediately withdrew the potential?"

You mention entering the mystery of mysteries - are we not all already here? Are not those who enter merely those who accept the unknown/other? I look at the landscape around me and I see those who claim to know, know little. It is just as the DDJ says. Are not most wisdom traditions different vehicles to get to this view? First you see the mountain, then you don't, then you do.

You mentioned that "Once, many years ago, before I experienced sudden realization, I knew I would have to act. The knowledge itself is power, is potential. I waited a whole calendar year to step into the dragon's lair (actually a tiger's lair, in this instance), to exact the requirement of matching creation with potential— that's how long the situation's karmic process took to shape up the exact moment to pass through the trigger-point that was set up by Power." Please tell me a bit more about the tiger's lair and your entry.

Lastly, I am curious about The Magician and The World together with the KIng of Swords - what is its meaning? 

Much thanks.

 

haha~ hi mr "A"! I considered perhaps just for this thread, but who knows…

Oh no~ zoze witches muzz be muuuch older than moi (I presume) heehee!! I'm certainly not La Catalina (from Carlos' first book). But then that witch wasn't ever indicated subsequently as being one of the Nagual's group (to my knowledge), as she was described as being perhaps one of Carlos' first "worthy opponents"— he had been "killing time" when he was attacked by her~ warriors don't have time— much less have any time to kill.

As for the personality being a karmic result/function of the unknown/other/reality: it is karmic, and can be termed "other" in certain technical treatments, but is not strictly unknowable. In Don Juan Matus' parlance, everything that can be named is representable as being "on the table" and is therefore comprising the Tonal. The Tonal is all that which can comprise the rational description of anything by virtue of talking and reason— even in terms of describing the Nagual. The Nagual is the unknowable unnameable and completely surrounds the table and its contents (if a dualistic description temporarily suffices). The unnameable can be seen as such, in terms of true reality being unified selfless awareness. That's how one comes to see complete reality and its workings in terms of potential, not to mention the Absolute, in terms of knowledge of nonorigination.

The personality is the valid but abused "false identity." Its use is universally habitual, therefore its abuse obscures its innate valid function. It is valid in that its original function/purpose is to assist the enlightening function in terms of facilitating ordinary spiritually transcendent operation in the course of everyday ordinary situations. Both the rational and the enlightening capacities of the being that is going to die are functions— not things. It's not the Way's fault that 100% of the human population isn't availing itself of innate spiritual functionality while abusing its rational aspect by a cloying habituation to reason and talking.

I liked the rest of your analysis in that paragraph, mr A.

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How does one "seal unrefined potential in the aftermath of the critical juncture wherein the killing energy arose and one stopped advancing and immediately withdrew the potential?"

Ceasing mental postures in the aftermath of such critical junctures is essential to sealing the unrefined potential away void of intellectualism. Entertaining mental postures is perpetuating the human mentality. Put another way, mental rumination in the aftermath of situational transformation is using concentration to produce insight and then failing to withdraw the fire. This is what people do all the time. It is possible for anyone to NOT-DO this as well. One needn't be a wizard. Failing to withdraw the fire destroys the foregone accomplishment of non-doing. Insight is fire; concentration is water: a balance of the two (8 ounces apiece in alchemic terms) is the unrefined elixir. Failing to withdraw the fire is turning non-being into being after already stealing non-being (potential) from the karmic matrix. That's like stealing defeat from the jaws of victory. So it won't do to turn essence back into (conditioned) accomplishment by ignorant malignance through habituation to leaking mental rumination!!

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Bodhidharma said,"Don't know."

A significant part of the maturation process in the aftermath of sealing away the medicines is in using lead (or rather in not using lead). Chang Po-tuan's alchemic tomes elucidate this. One uses lead to balance mercury, but after mercury and lead have produced the reverted elixir, one must draw off the lead and get rid of it. After subduing yin (false fire of the temperament) with lead (real knowledge/metal in water), one then gets rid of the lead (by withdrawing the fire of true insight and sealing its potential in the empty immaterial vessel of no-mind). That is, using nonpsychological awareness to seal potential away without letting so much as a spark of further use of insight leak out. The Tao te Ching says to "hide the light."

In passing through situational karma according to the time, other is as selfless as one's own enlightening potential— maintaining that much is up to oneself alone. Having recognized and taken advantage of the conditional set-up of other, in terms of "host and guest" and having stolen the situational potential, one ceases further objectification of other (which was made possible by their conditioned situational doing). Then, one uses the non-thinking nonpsychological awareness to seal it away securely for all time (as in there is no before or after). There is no thing. What happened? Who knows? No one knows. Forget words and guard it. That's right out of the Yin Convergence Classic.

As for "Host and Guest", I have written extensively on this subject on the Daobums forum. It is a taoist concept as used here, but there are significant parallels used in buddhist praxis as well. Look in deci belle's "topics" to find that.

Yes, we are already the mystery. But until and unless one actually sees it for oneself, faith (acceptance) and intellectual understanding in terms of the description of the secret of complete reality, garners no participation and fruition in its power and subsequent transcendence. Until one gains mastery of the 3rd and 4th hexagrams (Difficulty and Darkness), one has no real perspective into the workings of Celestial design. It is actually necessary to master seeing potential and then ascertaining the timing of advancing the fire in real situations before one can gauge correct mastery in the timing of withdrawing the fire during the critical juncture when "one's life (literally potential), hangs in the balance" and one steals and hides the balance of the elixir in the wordless darkness of innocence.

The Science of Life is seeing potential and effectively absorbing it by Real Knowledge. The Science of Essence is the effective clarification of Conscious Knowledge. Each aspect of self-refinement enhances the efficacious function of the other. In one such analytical pairing, one uses yang to purify yin while one uses yin to nurture yang. There are other such pairings relative to various aspects of self-refining activity to be studied in the overall praxis of Complete Reality Taoism.

In Dogen's commentaries, he has said that before one knows, mountains are mountains. Then, when one enters the preliminary graces of the mystery through no fault (credit) of our own, other than by such conditions meeting in mutual accord, mountains begin to cease being mountains to the degree we cease conditional (habitual) use of mountains as conditional mountains. When we further ascertain absolute reality and realize there is absolutely nothing whatsoever constituting the realization body, the response body, or the transformation body, then we can naturally be free (liberated) and return from the heights, then through subsequent refinement eliminating the traces of enlightenment, mountains become mountains again. In terms of eliminating the traces of enlightenment, this parallels the aforementioned aspect of "getting rid of lead (real knowledge)." So getting rid of lead is carried out in the aftermath of both created karmic cycles as well as in experiencing the subsumption of the Great Cycle of the Macrocosm. Ultimately, as buddha said, "nothing whatsoever is gained from complete perfect enlightenment." If anything at all is gained, then it is not complete perfect enlightenment.

All authentic teaching is based on the fact that delusion and enlightenment are selfless. All other teachings are provisional. Until one passes through the fire of realization void of self and then oversees the maturation of that experience in the aftermath of absolute Causelessness by forgetting all traces of enlightenment, one is not completely free of the extremes of either delusion or enlightenment. Spiritual adaption uses both delusion and enlightenment fluidly to function subtly in terms of Complete Reality or Suchness. This is called availing oneself of the Supreme Vehicle of Tathagatas, the Middle Way of Buddhas, the sublime path of saints, sages, wizards and all prior illuminates.

As for the Lair of Tigers and Dragons: this is a euphemism for the critical juncture of any situation's yin convergence, expressed by the 23rd Hexagram, Stripping Away. It's neither good nor bad~ it just is. And what it is, is when "ones life hangs in the balance." If it weren't for the process of the killing energy, there would be no self-refinement. Such a time and place is perpetually activating and de-activating universally in all times and places. In terms of movement and stillness, there is no such place (thing), ultimately; just as there has, in terms of sudden enlightenment, never been such a buddha (in terms of "thing"). Buddha is not "thing", it just means the manifest quality of "awake." Adepts see the critical juncture in terms of the arising of the killing energy of yin at the moment yang begins to wane because they see potential. Such potential has no thing relative to it that exists, per se, beyond its ephemeral conditionality dependent on the situation itself— yet one can avail oneself of its nonoriginative power simply by seeing it as such. In the aftermath of such experience, one dares not act in terms of its timing, as it is solitary knowledge. It is for your eyes only. Only you know. No one else knows. If one is successful in sealing it away void of intellectualism, one eventually "collects" a grain of the refined elixir, that's all. It's cumulative over one's lifetime— no different than karma.

In terms of karma, one accumulates debt (bondage to the creative). The payback for enlightening activity is personal power to see unfathomable entry into the inconceivable mysteries of the Way of nonorigination.

As for the Magician and the World together with the King of Swords~ without looking up any kind of referential Tarot card analysis: the two major-arcana cards (Magician and World) together might denote conjuring the immaterially beatific, (or overseeing a refinement in terms of the highest good). The King of Swords is the highest incremental state of the Sword's aspect in the minor arcana, which is Air, or the Space/Mental/Aware aspect. So the situation I alluded to in casting the Tarot (which is potentially lying fallow at the moment) is thusly potentiated as a process of refinement in the spiritual realm~ but then we knew that~ heehee!

 

 

ed note: add "(to my knowledge)" in the 1st paragraph of my response; italicize "Yin Convergence Classic in paragraph 8; typo in editorial notes~ haha!!

Edited September 10, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

With the assistance of Awayfarer (a windfall of sorts, from my perspective), some preliminary aspects of Taoist alchemy have been broached.

Perhaps I should segue into the topic of the Mysterious Female and the Valley Spirit.

The Tao te Ching is perhaps the only book in which most readers will have ever read the words Mysterious Female and Valley Spirit  in print. The terms represent that which is of monumental significance in the capacities and expression of enlightening being by adepts of spiritual alchemy.

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In chapter 6 of Thomas Cleary's translation, the line reads, "The valley spirit not dying is called the mysterious female." Red Pine translates the same line as "The valley spirit that doesn't die we call the dark womb."

Those who know the valley spirit by having penetrated the immaterial aperture of the mysterious female have no need of specific sexual identities in terms of the personality (self and other). The aperture of the mysterious female is immaterial; it has no location. Penetrating this, one sees the valley spirit in its singularity; a legacy void of substance and boundary. The Tao te Ching calls it gossamer, as such, continually, on the brink of existence.

How does one describe that which has no location? The puzzle is without remainder, yet is only entertained by the doubts of the human mentality.

The valley spirit is where potential is activated; where change originates. The mysterious female (in terms of the name) is metaphoric. Mystery is movement: yang. Female is stillness: yin. Being neither yin nor yang, standing in equipoise ready by the gate and door of the Mysterious Female, observe life and death (in terms of situational evolution). This is knowing the pivot of change. So it is not only in mystical experience. When one can be still, one can witness return in everyday ordinary cycles of yin and yang. This is seeing the arising of potential. Seeing, in either case, doesn't use the senses, organs, or intellectual functions of the person. Seeing this is immediate impersonal knowledge. No one knows.

When one sees the Mysterious Female, one attains the power of the unchanging or causeless Center. Therefore, one observing the pivot of stillness and movement is not subject to changing Change. This is because the Mysterious Female is the locus of change where the physical and psychological elements do not adhere. It is where change originates, so this is where adepts await the time to steal potential at its upwelling incipient source. The saying goes, "Refine the self and await the time." By effective self-refinement, one is naturally situated to take over creation and steal its potential. Remember, this aperture is neither an aperture nor does it have a location. The Mysterious Female is real. It is the site of all wonders.

When you actually see the the Mysterious Female and attain the pivot of creation, you attain it forever. When you stand ready by the gate and door of the aperture of the Mysterious Female, and see worldly elements being pulled through the inconceivable aperture by the self-centered gravity of collectively ignorant momenta, and see its projection by that karmic inertial momentum dissolve into space, it's kind of sad, in a way. But you're not~ hahahahhaaa❤!!

The task is the "door". The gate is the opening and closing of the Mysterious Female.

In terms of the task of self-refining adaption to conditions, The Art of War states that victory is up to the enemy and that one must choose the ground of death in order to live. Self-refinement is like finding the place of victory, and awaiting the enemy to fulfill its fate. You don't know what that is, but you know where it will be when you see it. The analogy is imperfect, in terms of positing "enemy" as the conditional asset of the natural arising of killing energy, because there is no punitive or prejudicial relationship to be had in adapting to others' conditioned self-serving intents and purposes in this context. It is another reference to the device of "Host and Guest" mentioned previously. It is one's bid with Power by virtue of enlightening subtle adaption to creation.

Adepts have the knowledge of the gate and door of the Mysterious Female and await the inevitable's  arrival. The pivot of awareness is where one awaits inevitability at the gate and door of the Mysterious Female at the time of the Yin Convergence, when yang culminates and the killing energy of yin arises. This is the inevitable. Like clockwork, as you wait at the "gate" at the right time, you show the inevitable the "door". When you show it the door, it dissolves, as it were, and the aperture revolves; opening and closing. "One yang, one yin; one opening, one closing: therein is change."

This is the fate of the changeable. "Showing it the door" is not going along with it. Karma dissolves and you somehow stand aloof with potential intact. This is inconceivable accord in reality. It's just the way it is, and no one knows why.

Here are two terms not customarily used: inner and outer Mysterious Female.

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The outer Mysterious Female refers to the balanced combination of flexibility and firmness, considered necessary to achievement of a harmonious personality.

The inner Mysterious Female is ordinarily considered identical to the "valley spirit", which stands for open awareness, the image of the "valley" representing openness, the image of "spirit" representing awareness.

This from Thomas Cleary's notes to his translation of ancient alchemic poems of female adepts in Immortal Sisters — Secret Teachings of Taoist Women. 1989, North Atlantic Books

 

 

 

ed note: change sexual identity to sexual identities, and add next two sentences in 5th paragraph; change 2nd sentence in paragraph 7; add to 8th paragraph; typo in 9th; change "aspect" to "asset", add "…in adapting to others' conditioned self-serving intents and purposes…" in 10th; collapse bottom quote window; italicize "Immortal Sisters…" in last sentence

Edited September 12, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

In terms of situational evolution, you know how it is— you just find yourself situated, as it is. There's nothing special in that regard. It's natural.

When you find the road naturally empty, creation acts in concert. Settling into situations, one simply waits to find out what happened. The practice of finding out what happened in the end is the unbending intent of subtle awareness pervading thoroughgoing open clarity of impersonal observation. One simply shares oneself openly in selfless adaption. Waiting in stillness, one observes Return. Ordinarily, people forget what they're doing, and begin going along unawares. The 16th chapter of the Tao te Chings says:

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Attain the climax of emptiness, preserve utmost quiet, as myriad things act in concert, I thereby observe Return.

"East Mountain walking on water" is indicating that "neither yin nor yang" is impersonal function within movement and stillness. So simply waiting for something to happen isn't a matter of passive stillness while opportunistically awaiting inevitability's fulfillment (or else assuming personal ascendancy over others in moving along towards somewhere more important). This neither movement nor stillness is the living bestowal of one's inherent potential in the midst of affairs.

This waiting is uncontrived, sincerely open vulnerability. Enlightening being isn't passive. It isn't a matter of acting either. Some people throw around the term wu wei as if it is some other thing. Such subtle radiating presence IS you.

Wu wei is East Mountain walks on water. But adepts aren't metaphors, so they swim in Suchness. Wu wei isn't a thing, nor is it an event. It is a reference to the essential character of one's function of enlightening being. This is not some other reality. It is the aware totality of oneself, unborn; in perpetuity before the first thought. It is spontaneous selfless response: adapting in full knowledge of potential by not conceiving complacent opportunism in everyday ordinary situations. This virtue is a direct result and further development of not following personal dialog unawares (talking to yourself).

Unconscious mental rumination is the habitual cultivation of delusion in terms of selfish karmic psychological momentum. Carrying out one's unbending intent of subtle 24/7 observation of mind is the cultivation of enlightening qualities. This is practical application of authentic teaching in terms of establishing the foundation of enlightening practice. All self-refining activity entering into inconceivability develops from this foundation, as well as advanced practice employing use of the Mysterious Female.

As mentioned in the previous post, watching over the task and function of the aperture of the Mysterious Female, one witnesses changes. In recognizing changes, one does not go along with creation. So selfless adaption isn't a matter of accommodating phenomena, it is directly responding to the time by virtue of seeing potential. 

Creation is already one's self, but response to other is why the term sameness within difference is spoken of in terms of Suchness. The buddhist term, sameness within difference, is an analytical reference warming up to the real deal in the teaching of Suchness.

Karma needs time, so adepts excel in waiting. Don Juan Matus said that warriors have only two advantages over ordinary people in their affair with Power: will and patience. Enlightening beings respond to the time and so they naturally absorb potential from within the conditioned. The temporal is inherently absolute, so in responding to the time, enlightening beings respond to situations effectively by an abstraction of perceptivity in that they see through phenomena without denying its characteristics to aid nonpsychological evolution without going along with created cycles of karmic momentum.

Seeing this is the functioning of Suchness as it is. Those partaking of ineffable reality do so by virtue of seeing alone.

So in partaking of reality, real humans go in reverse, opposite the flow of creation. This is all there is to turning the light around spoken of in The Secret of the Golden Flower.

This is the meaning of the saying, "It is as easy as turning over your hand".

 

 

ed note: typo in line one; add quote after 2nd paragraph; change 4th paragraph; add to 6th

Edited September 13, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

There is something I would like to add that I constantly state regarding turning around the light and enlightening activity specifically.

It should be obvious that the matter of one's subtle operation of the firing process spoken of in the alchemical classics has nothing to do with sudden realization. I say this over and over to make sure no one is confused. It is not only because there are those who are born knowing; whose experience of the sudden is immediately followed without years of struggle in its aftermath in emptying out openness before setting up the furnace and cauldron for advance practice. It is because we are already enlightened and have the full capacity of buddhas that selfless adaption to temporal circumstances is as natural as is. Enlightening practice is not a matter of necessarily having to fix something first— it's just how you do it. The function is innate, though some may need to invest years or even lifetimes refining the self. Nevertheless, self-refinement and that which potentiates subtle enlightening function are not different!

So I want to stress that the subtle operation of freeing potential in the midst of ordinary affairs just is. This is Suchness in action. Sudden realization is just some harmonic resonance of one's self having reached a point of critical mass in terms of potential— which is why it is said that the object of alchemic refinement is in gathering it (potential). But it isn't really gathered, it's simply a matter of seeing it and NOT using it.

Verily, sudden enlightenment is nothing more than a one-time spontaneous flash of cosmic proportions symptomatic of thoroughgoing foregone enlightening activity. So if you aren't willing to chew on an iron spike even when you're utterly stymied and are beside yourself suffering simultaneously with a severely terminal illness on death's doorstep, don't bother sitting around in anticipation wondering if you were born knowing. Why? Because there is absolutely nothing to know, first and foremost, and second, unless one has the mettle to rustle up the audacity to charge invincibly with single-mindedness into an army of ten thousand warriors~ you just don't have what it takes to realize the totality of your self.

The significance of seeing the totality of yourself isn't a matter of intimate experience with the absolute, it is directly seeing reality as it is right now in everyday ordinary situations. Please don't imagine that it looks any different. I say, "Different than what? There is no other time or place. Temporal conditions are nothing less than inherent potential itself. Don't you have to wonder? I did.

People just don't want to give up their lives ("…to enter heaven", paraphrasing Jesus).

I only speak directly to those who have.

 

S'body wrote (quoting me):

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Time is the harbinger of karmic evolution. When one can recognize the malleability and manipulability of time, there are compression, elongation and hiddeness. The point of passing is profound.

 Thank you for the "time" information. It's very helpful. Is "passing through" permanent? Because I think I was there a couple of times. I couldn't stay for I didn't have the wisdom to operate or the virtue to be safe.

 

Ok, that sounds like a meditative state— and I don't blame you if that was the case! Otherwise, passing through is up to your fluidity in terms of seeing (absorbing) potential. This depends on the situation itself, so it happens over and over according to the timing of each and every (created) situational cycle. Certainly, some critical junctures are more critical than others, be that in terms of the absolute or within the context of created cycles, but the context of of passing through in terms of mutual response by the subtle operation of enlightening activity is based on one's quality of stillness in subtle observation (we're calling that waiting), then finally spontaneously releasing according to the potential dictated by the situation itself.

The waiting is more or less perpetual, the critical junctures are momentary; what defines the turn of each time is sometimes just witnessing it, other times it requires a response in conventional or inconceivable terms. It doesn't really matter, as the process is as selflessly traversed as it is endlessly accrued. Sometimes one must go into the dragon's lair~ where the balance of success and failure is acute. But one knows the time of potential's spontaneous appearance must be met impersonally without anticipation, bias or inclination— and only then it is up to oneself alone when and how to release the creative's potential by acts of selfless mutual response in mundane and transmundane affairs.

The rule is "in endless transformations one plants lotuses in fire". In responding to situations, each situation's cycle runs its course. There are cycles within cycles. Without hurrying or lagging, one watches single-mindedly at the gate and door of the Mysterious Female where change evolves incipiently. It is like a cat attentively watching a mouse-hole, or a tiger assessing an entire valley for the sign of a deer entering it. The analogy stops there, because potential isn't a thing. It's not people, per se, but rather vaguely the the naturally occurring karmic context of our relationships. Who knew.

If one is truly, fearlessly vulnerable to real potential in this context, one cannot fail to recognize, and "grab" in each spontaneous mutual response, the "cubic centimeter of chance" as it appears and succeed in the timing of one's affair with power. Even so, as one becomes adept at recognizing the timing, one never knows what is going to pop out of the hat!

The key is to rely on the spiritual power of one's clear essence unified in the inherent potential of the situation to guide oneself in terms of the Virtue of the Receptive. Relying on one's own power is tantamount to error and, to be sure, if that is the case, one actually has absolutely no business in this affair whatsoever, as illustrated in the I Ching by the third line of the seventh hexagram, The Army.

 

 

ed note: add to 1st paragraph's last line; add last line in 2nd paragraph; add last line of 4th; add ("…to enter heaven", paraphrasing Jesus) in 6th

Edited September 17, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

From a PM:

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The door of mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth. Continuously there as such, use of it is unforced.

Lao Tzu

 

So, in Lao-Tzu's saying what does the word FEMALE signify?”

As a teaching aid, for yourself (for myself, when it is an obscure passage) and for other readers, when referring to passages such as the one above from the 6th chapter of the Tao te Ching, do remember to mention where you found it!

I will just say three things for now about the Mysterious Female:

1. I have a thread by that title on this forum.

2. Creation, the absolute, and all one's awareness faculties (both psychological and nonpsychological being fully actualized at this point of living breath of nonoriginated potential) do not adhere in the Mysterious Female's perpetually incipient upwelling.

3. The name "mysterious" represents inconceivable movement and "female" represents inconceivable stillness.

The Mysterious Female is not a thing, yet therein is a point of abstraction. Therein is inconceivable substance and function. The Mysterious Female is the door to all wonders. "Female" implies openness. One penetrates the openness of the Mysterious Female oneself by one's own sincere openness. Therefore open sincerity is the single most important attribute one can bring to one's spiritual endeavor. Open sincerity is one's inherent bright virtue implied by hiding one's light through the innocent and natural human expression of humility. Why? Because knowledge of the nature of the Mysterious Female is itself dark. Darkness, is the name of the fourth hexagram (also known as Innocence) found in the I Ching (Book of Changes).

The I Ching is really a prehistoric sourcebook pre-dating the 5000 year recorded history of China; it is a glossary of types of time, and a code-book for wizards, saints, sages and buddhas. The hexagrams were only derived by Fu Hsi at the dawn of China's cultural roots. The order of the I Ching hexagrams, and their lines were only set up as we have come to know them at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, roughly 1100 BCE.

The material I have just noted is simply stated in the Tao te Ching and further elucidated in the alchemic scriptures such as the Book of Balance and Harmony that you are studying. I understand that you are only seeking to clarify terms you are unsure about, but there is no way to get to the bottom of these terms as they are references to the inconceivable nature of awareness; your own spiritual (nonoriginated) true identity.

As long as you apply yourself diligently with openness and sincerity both during and after reading the words, and furthermore, without activating undue intellectualism, the real will gradually and subtly come to your aid. It is not a matter of "understanding", unless such understanding is inconceivable understanding, and such understanding is wordless; that is, beyond the ken of rational faculties. So if you sense that it is you (the person) who is "understanding", that isn't it. The conundrum is that Inconceivability isn't relative to the person, yet it isn't other than the person either.

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“Heaven being the primordial ultimate awareness, when it mates with Earth, forms Water, which is a representation of ultimate awareness emanating the fundamental vitality into the earthly plane.”

Here again, please refer to the book and page(s) when presenting the material you want help with.

I don't have to refer to any documents to respond here because this quote is the basic alchemic model of primordial deconstruction entering the creative using the symbology of the I Ching trigrams. Earth does the same (using this model) to mate with Heaven to produce Fire. The symbology is only an aid to illustrate the concepts of the primordially derivative nature of alchemic Fire and Water, being the medicines used in the spiritual alchemy teaching of Complete Reality taoism.

Such symbology, in general terms, is a device used in order to talk about alchemic principles used in various aspects of self-refining process. They are only teaching aids for the perceptive student. It is up to the student to discover the reality behind the words. The devices of the various authentic schools of true teaching have all been left behind by prior illuminates to keep the knowledge alive.

In this type of study, one must always look to taking the image of the symbol and moving it beyond the zero-point of what is implied by the textual context. When one has gained a modicum of personal accord in terms of experience and application afforded by one's own resonant symbiotic (karmic/absolute) accord in reality, then questions and responses can move beyond the literal and theoretic. Just be aware of this as you study. Make notes of your questions and search out references in the documents themselves. That way you can refer to your own experience by way of the technical terms, as I do in describing the application of enlightening activity using the terms of taoism, buddhism, and Nahual shamanism. 

I encourage you to assuage your doubts, and I don't blame you for asking, but it is absolutely necessary for you to submerge yourself in the material without having the benefit of intellectual crutches. Why? Reality is itself the realm of no thing, whereas the psychological apparatus of the being that is going to die is a tool. As such, the rational faculties are simply the wrong tool to use in penetrating the mysteries of the essence of perceptive awareness (the spiritual). Spiritual alchemy is like studying for a pilot's license. Only as you yourself eventually begin to hover in stillness without psychological mentally conceptual support, can you begin to see the real on its terms and accord with it fluidly without relying on self-reifying deliberations.

As is relevant in all of this material, its beneficial effect actualized simply enough by absorbing the relational attributes comprising the symbology without employing intellectualized meaning per se, is the best way to further your familiarity with the effect of the teachings' purpose which is already embedded. This means that all authentic teaching is itself talismanic, in that it is to be used as a gauge to assess the relativity of one's own spiritual accord in reality, since the entire field of endeavor is none other than your own mind right now.

Be patient. Just remember that I am no smarter nor more clever that you yourself, yet I have never had even one person to ask myself— then as now. Most real taoist monks and nuns in traditional Chinese cultural settings (in China) even now DO NOT KNOW THAT THIS SUBJECT MATTER IS EVEN A TOPIC. Such is its rarity to even hear of in any context outside of the heavily veiled written ancient scriptural documents of the classic Quanzhen (Complete Reality) taoist canon. It's hard at first, but strive to trust yourself in looking back on the essential guidance I have given you in our initial dialog. Refer to these first talks regularly. There is much information to be gleaned. Hard-copy the long PM thread and study it for years, if it comes to that. Ultimately, you will eventually have distilled it down to a few essential points. Give this time— at least 3~5 years for the formative aspect of coming to terms with the technical symbology (if that's your thing).

In the olden days, even rote meditation (silent sitting) practice, which was only allowed under strict supervision by experienced teachers, was never entered into by students until after years of disciplined theoretic study of the ancient classics of buddhism and taoism.

In closing, open sincerity is the basis of true wonder. True wonder has no knowledge or reference; only by such accord in reality is the real to be seen as one's Unborn Mind. This does not require study, per se, being one's own mind, yet rushing ahead without proper discipline and insight only serves to "muddy the waters." Furthermore, the power of insight is only as effective as one's naturally developed ability to apply it in everyday ordinary situations. You are very young. I am glad you are applying your energy to this for now. I expect your interest to taper off before possibly once again resuming this range of study as you gain experience and maturity in the coming years.

Spiritual study is itself the mind of true wonder. As above so below; in working with essence, one arrives as essence.

I know I haven't really helped you, but this is the way it is. This is why it is said: see essence on your own, then seek a teacher ❤︎

 

 

ed  note: add "and" in 2nd paragraph; add "The I Ching is… …roughly 1100 BCE" in 4th; typo, 5th; add "…is itself talismanic, in that it is to be used as a gauge to assess the…" 12th paragraph

Edited November 8, 2020 by deci belle

[deci belle]

Again quoting the line from the 6th chapter of Lao Tzu's Tao te Ching: 

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The door of mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth. Continuously there as such, use of it is unforced.

In terms of awareness being the nature of human being, the door of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth because the two things (the heaven and the earth of people's substantial and functional being) bifurcate at the aperture of the mysterious female. This aperture has no location, yet people can avail themselves of its properties by seeing the point where the physical, psychological and nonpsychological elements of the being that is going to die do not adhere, by a long process of spiritually refining abstraction. It is a long process which gradually obviates the person's habitual psychological patterns and tendencies allowing that which is the point of incipience of one's Celestial nature to shine unobscured by habit energies.

"Continuously there as such, use of it is unforced." After all, it is one's own mind right now. Immediate acquiescence in its enlightening qualities is simply the aspect of one's own inconceivable nature operating without resistance in the midst of everyday ordinary delusional existence. In other words, one does not do this. How is that? Such a one is expressive of inherent unity being the nature of creation (karmic evolution) whether one knows it or not. If one is ignorant of one's inconceivable nature, well, then it follows that such a one would not be able to use it without force. Isn't effort (force) the way of ordinary existence by the "sweat of one's brow?" This is due to relying on one's own power by being unaware of the celestial nature of one's inherent being. So, in using it by force or without force, it is the same root. So the immaterial aperture of the mysterious female is actually common knowledge even by the ignorant. Yet the ignorant only see the earth and do not see the heaven therein. Therefore, only availing themselves of the (psychological) creative aspect of karmic rounds of birth and death and leaving out the primordial (nonpsychological), the complete reality of natural unity is separate by virtue of people's quality of awareness alone.

Quote

Therefore, only availing themselves of the (psychological) creative aspect of karmic rounds of birth and death and leaving out the primordial (nonpsychological), the complete reality of natural unity is separate by virtue of people's quality of awareness alone.

The root of heaven and earth of humanity is not only the nature of karmic existence by ignorance, it is the nature of enlightenment. Continuously there as such, use of it is unforced. That is to say, since it is already completely manifest as one's own mind right now, there is no manipulation relative to perceptive attributes nor is reifying discriminatory consciousness relative to self and other active. This is the meaning of "…its use is not forced." Naturally, all things are just as they are in terms of the real by one's immediate knowledge void of habitual intellectual (rational) self-referencing. Just this itself constitutes enlightening activity. As such, enlightening qualities referenced by the term mysterious female, are naturally without bias nor inclination relative to the person— again, being the very working definition of enlightening activity. This is the meaning of "it is not done by the person", in that "the person" (in terms of the spiritual adept) is indicative of the "inert" agent facilitating one's inherent enlightening function. How is that any different than "use of it is unforced?" One simply sees through phenomena without denying their characteristics and employs Mind without dwelling on its contents. This is the natural activation and function of one's inherently selfless Dharma-eye. In all authentic teaching, the term selfless has no moral value. It simply references the fact that selfless response isn't relative to motivation by virtue of the person (ego-consciousness). Enlightening activity is a nonpsychological operation relative to the very potential inherent in all situations in which one finds oneself. The meaning of "use of it is unforced" and "not relying on one's own power" is one.

 

 

ed note: add "aspect" in 2nd line of 2nd paragraph; modify last line of penultimate paragraph; add bulk of last paragraph

Edited November 11, 2020 by deci belle