tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5842932455093396534.post7736467858041913339..comments2023-10-11T05:53:28.724-06:00Comments on Diary of a Daoist Hermit: Making a HomunculusThe Cloudwalking Owlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12753861683491740903noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5842932455093396534.post-45085093232556395312010-01-23T09:32:54.116-06:002010-01-23T09:32:54.116-06:00Martin:
Well, it would make sense that a Japanese...Martin:<br /><br />Well, it would make sense that a Japanese art who's name translates as "the Dao of Chi" would have resonances with Neidan or internal alchemy. I do agree that there are commonalities between people's experiences---I just think that communication is exceptionally difficult. <br /><br />With regard to Descartes, I wonder if someone who had been blind from birth would posit that the soul resides in the hands? That is, did Descartes posit the soul in the pineal gland because that is the focal point of our eyesight? <br /><br />This isn't a trivial issue. I've done a lot of experimental meditation. One practice I did for a while was to focus my hearing the way we focus our eyes. I found that with practice I could sweep around me with my consciousness of hearing. I read somewhere about a child who was blind from birth and he had learned how to echo-locate like a bat and used this to navigate around his surroundings. <br /><br />Another practice I learned was a very strange experience of splitting my consciousness into two parts---so there were two "me"s, one looking out my left eye and one looking out the right. (One of the differences I noticed between the White Cloud Temple chart that I have and the one I posted on the blog is that mine has the eyes described as one a full moon and the other as a waning crescent. The one on the blog just has two circles.) <br /><br />It is darned difficult to explain things like the above to someone that you have a deep, long term relationship with in a religious institution. In fact, unless someone is also intensely following a program of internal alchemy it's been my experience that people will simply misunderstand what you are saying. That's why I think so many Daoist literature is evocative instead of phenomenological in nature. People just gave up trying to explain what they were doing and became content with simply pointing a finger at the moon.<br /><br />I can understand this point of view. A large part of the reason why I'm a hermit is because I find that almost no one I meet is interested in this sort of thing. Those that say they are, are not willing to put the effort into learning that would be necessary to enter into a real dialectic with me. <br /><br />So, in a way, this blog is like that stele that some Daoist carved in the 19th century.The Cloudwalking Owlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12753861683491740903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5842932455093396534.post-78057938530343327312010-01-23T04:57:17.825-06:002010-01-23T04:57:17.825-06:00Hello agan - this was very interesting - I'd h...Hello agan - this was very interesting - I'd heard about internal alchemy. I used to practice Ki Aikido (not a Taoist martial art, but not wholly incompatible), and that involves a certain amounto of "experimenting with the way ... consciousness interacts with the body". It seems to me though, contrary to what you suggest, that people who do even a small amount of this, do seem to come up with quite similar things.<br /><br />Funny you should mention Descartes ... as you know he located his homunculus, the soul, in the pineal gland, behind the eyes in the centre of the head. With a quite small imaginative effort you can 'locate' yourself there - it does sort of feel, like *something*, a real thing. 'Behind the eyes in the centre of the head' is the position of one of the chakras isn't it? I'm not suggesting that chakras are "real" in the same sense as kidneys and livers, (that mistake would be a route to dangerous nonsense), but I do think they might be part of a good description of the subjective experience of human physicality. (I think the technical term in western philsophy would be a "phenomenological" description). A universal description as well - if someone like Descarte could stumble on part of it.<br /><br />Another western example, where again you have this description of the experience of physicality, but combined with an attempt to change that experience of your body, might be the Alexander Technique. I'll admit I never took to it, (possibly because what I'd learned from aikido was more useful, or better articulated, or otherwise more suitable for what I needed), but it has a lot of currency in the perfoming arts.<br /><br />I am of course, quite happy to admit I don't know what I'm talking about.Martinnoreply@blogger.com