Unlocking Ancient Chinese Mysteries - Chapter 3

Continued from previous article:
http://hiddenknowledges.blogspot.hk/2015/12/unlocking-ancient-chinese-mysteries_31.html

To better illustrate what Taoist practice really about, we must refer to original literatures from Taoism.

However, much of early Chinese texts were written in a highly abstracted and classical languages, hence it is difficult even for today Chinese people to understand it. Not to mention the difficulty to translate it properly for Western countries to understand.

So thanks to Richard Wilhelm who did amazing works by translating this Taoist book to Western Countries.
"The Secret of Golden Flower"

Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_the_Golden_Flower

English version:
http://thesecretofthegoldenflower.com/

Let's us take a look what is inside this book:

This picture illustrated a Taoist master who is sitting on a meditation pose, and a baby depicted in the heart center of the master.

The top headline highlighted in green with #1 means "Baby Revealed Picture"

The right side text highlighted in red with #2 means "At this time, since internal alchemy has became mature, it must take care the baby like a caring mother"

The left side text highlighted in blue with #3 means "In future, it will sky fly to see the true self and meet God"

This picture looks like a man gave birth to a baby, and its descriptions aligned to that theme.

All these looks very weird? Isn't it?

But what if the "baby" inside the picture is just a metaphor that representing something intangible?

What if that author of this book wants to use this picture to tell us something?

In order to solve all these puzzle, the keyword is "Internal alchemy" (內丹) as depicted on right side text #2 in the picture.

Internal Alchemy is a central idea of Taoist practice, they have a series of routine to activate the vital energy force from Internal Alchemy to prolong life also create an immortal spiritual body that would survive after death.

However, this "Internal alchemy" is an intangible aspect in our body system, so the author draw a baby to represent this energy force within us.

(Now Obi Wan say: May the force be with you)

And my guess is that this energy force has a life of its own as well, and need to grow it with diligence.

In conclusion, Taoist discovered a range of routines to manipulate the energy within our body and that offer so many benefits to ourselves including prolong life, releasing mind's potential and ascended to higher self.

Unlocking Ancient Chinese Mysteries - Chapter 2

One of my favorite quote among classical literatures is the beginning line from "Tao Te Ching" 

"The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao"
http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm

And WHY is that?

My theory is our mind mainly use languages to construct our reality, hence the external reality (and internal too) we perceived is heavily limited by vocabulary we have.

That's probably why we have another famous quote today "The map is not the Territory"

For example, it is hard to explain clearly the idea of "IOS vs Andriod" to some people, because they just do not know about a range of computer jargon by experiencing the same reality like an IT worker.

So if we only label and speak the "Tao" by simply using a word of "Tao", then we will lost the whole idea of the "Tao".

Then WHAT is Tao really means?

This is probably the very same question as to ask "What is God?", "What is universe?"

According to Chinese concept, one way to define Tao is: The principle that governs the universe.

(And I can barely translate it that way....)

So often ancient china masters referred it as "No-named", because once you named it, it is not longer a "Tao".

Interesting huh? That idea of Tao present itself at metaphysical level, and that beyond the "map" from our human minds.

Also we are a class of life that born with a fundamental limitation in our cognitive abilities.

(Look outside, can you perceive the energy frequency of WiFi, electrical signals all around you right now?)

Therefore, one of the element from Taoist teaching is to abandon the thinking mind, and ONLY experience the deep silent.

But HOW to do that? What is the pathway if we follow the Taoist teaching? and What is the purpose of Taoist practice after all?

To be continue....

Unlocking Ancient Chinese Mysteries - Chapter 1

He [Heraclitus] is singularly Chinese in his philosophy and is the only Western man who has ever really compassed the East. If the Western world had followed his lead, we would all be Chinese in our viewpoint instead of Christian. ~Carl Jung




Ancient Chinese were so wise and one of the core idea in Chinese culture was "Qi" (氣) to be known as "energy force".


Much of the Chinese metaphysics practice rely heavily on the concept of "Qi", such as I-Ching, Tai Chi, Qi Kong, and even Chinese medicine.


Then next question is "What is Qi?", and perhaps it is even more important for us to as: "How do we formulate a specific description of Qi on today's language?", and "How do we look at our life when we evaluate the concept and theory of Qi?".


If we look up "Qi" of its "oracle bone script", then we will find the symbol below.

This symbol appears as "Three Horizontal Lines" just by how it looks, and the definition is "The third flow diffused between heaven and earth".


Ancient Chinese believed that the purpose of life is to connect oneself to the universe, and they have discovered "Qi" is everywhere around us, so through some regular practices of breathing exercise, body movement and meditation. One could absorb the "Qi" outside to gradually uplift their state of body, and eventually unleashing the wisdom in our mind.

Hello World!

I am someone who have extreme passion to pursue knowledge of our life and universe.

This blog is to share my discovery of some important knowledge I've found in my journey, may all of you found beauty on your inner self and live out the best of your life.