• What is this elusive "thing" called chi? What is li?  What is spirit? Good questions! Maybe it is more realistic to ask, "What are some of its properties and characteristics?".

   

• Within this website we will consider Chi to be the first three levels of the spirit the kinsatic, emotional and mental including the chakras and conduits.  Though, as usual, authorities are authoritatively different.  But I choose to associate this word Chi with spirit that is more closely tied to the physical body.  The next major level is called the astral or li.  At this general level the spirit flows between people and is not necessarily so close formed to the physical.  The next level is called the celestial or causal.

   

• If you watched Deep Space Nine you are familiar with Odo, the changeling, a shapeshifter able to shift into other forms. When I think of the levels of spirit closer to the material, I think of that character. But when trying to find words to communicate, Greek mythology and the shapeshifter god Proteus comes to mind. Chi/Li is protean (not protein), but the shifting has consequences. I have tried to distill this into some basic "laws".  Examples will come later in the some dynamics segments and a general overview is in the yin/yang section.

  First Law. Internal Symmetry.  For every development in a person's spirit there is an equal and opposite development. This is not exactly what it seems like on the surface.

  Second Law. External Symmetry. This is best described by the unlegalistic laws stated by Jesus as "You are judged as you judge", "You are forgiven as you forgive". He may have gone on to say "Your weaknesses will be dealt with as you deal with other's weaknesses", "You are expected to work to discover your own hypocrisy as hard as you expect others to do the same", "You are expected to change as fast as you expect others to change", "You are allowed to question and expect evidence as you would have others question and expect evidence from you", "You should reward other people's efforts as you would have your own efforts rewarded". Obviously there are an infinite number of examples. You could also call this the hypocrisy law.

  I've been unsure about how and where to do this in this web, but I want to take a minute to make some side comments about Jesus.  Most people have their own views on exactly who Jesus was/is and what his time spent on earth and after actually accomplishes for the rest of us.  I obviously have my own, hopefully at least not entirely misguided, views and ideas.  But, in general I want to point out that I have found his reported statements about the natures of such things as the universe, justice, forgiveness and on and on to have been utterly assisting in developing my understanding and capabilities.  I consider it very important for everyone else's best interest that they also investigate his reported sayings and insights and do with them as they will.  As usual, I believe that the more adamant the authority on such issues the more necessarily evident the evidence for such authority must be.

  Third Law.  Specificity Emanates from Oneness.  Well, this is a start at saying something I see as important.  I am not even going to try and get anywhere near as mystical as I probably shouldn't be too cowardly to attempt.  But, since I am trying to keep my efforts as open to the most common evidentiary forms of experience I will use examples.  For example, when assisting with healings, if one works on the surface there are a much greater multitude of significant issues to deal with.  If one can start the healing from the deepest levels where significant relevant damage has occurred then these more multitudinous issues can be almost always dismissed.

  Fourth Law. The Spirit Just Keeps on Pouring. As difficult as this may sometimes seem to believe, at some interior levels the flow is almost inundating. Unfortunately, we can twist ourselves up and block it out quite effectively. Without this "An eye for an eye leaves us all blind" would be even more devastatingly true. This is the Great/Holy Spirit working into the lower levels to improve the basic nature of the dynamics.

   

• It seems in many ways the refreshing boost of spirit that we get at the beginning of each lifetime with a new body is a "tabula rasa". But it is quickly influenced by the corporeal body, the mother's spirit, the environment and from deeper levels by spirit from previous lives.

   

• It seems that we retain the most of the etheric, astral and spiritual levels from lifetime to lifetime. New things are added and incorporated. Some things are worked out.

   

• In the future I want to integrate some sort of elemental metaphysics into this web site. Daoist metaphysics, or an Aristotilean type of metaphysics differentiate things based on five and four elements respectively. Much more will be said about this in other sections. From what I have seen, Daoists differentiate five elements in the spirit, Earth, Wood, Water, Metal and Fire. An Aristotilean view would have four elements, Earth, Wind/Air, Fire and Water. There are definitely other oriental systems as well as systems from other cultures that are elementally based.  My sense is that when someone strives to get these elements to work together and develop mastery of the elements, and/or develop effective dynamics and opens to the influence of the Spirit of truth and caring and whatever, everything is brought to higher levels of pouvoir-faire.

Operating on the Next Level.  For an example of how something can be taken to a better level, think of self defense. Let's assume someone else becomes very jealous of you and tries to punish you for one of your relationships or what you have developed. Let's also assume the situation is too vague or expensive for external authorities to get involved even though you are almost completely in the right.

You might not have any capacity to protect yourself other than to pay for someone else to do your dirty work and you may hire them to take this other person out. This response is likely an overreaction.

Or maybe, from struggling with yourself and the influence of the Great/Holy Spirit you have developed your own abilities to defend yourself. Unfortunately, maybe you still overreact.

From struggling with yourself and the influence of the Great/Holy Spirit you may be able to be more appropriate to the situation. Maybe you still must pay someone else to help you, but you find someone who takes a more appropriate approach.

From struggling with yourself even more and the influence of the Great/Holy Spirit you may be able to go directly after this person's jealousy in the realm of the spirit and chi and reflect it directly back to them so that they can see it will hurt them as much as they wanted to hurt you unless they let go of it.

With the Spirit there are also many other possible solutions. There are also many other examples.

This also represents my view that we sometimes need to wrestle with ourselves and the Great/Holy Spirit to improve ourselves and get the Spirit more involved in the affairs of the world rather than for us to run away from the world. But again, who ultimately knows what is the "correct" approach. I take some consolation from the fact that over time I have been able to interest the Great/Holy Spirit in becoming more involved and if S/He didn't want to there wouldn't be a damn thing I could do about it.

You Can't Always Get What You Want.  For example, think about a human race for speed, running on a track.  Let's assume there is a totally random selection of 5 people in the race all about the same age.  Regardless of the abilities of these racers, assuming the distance is something they will finish and barring ties, there will be a winner, runner up and so on.  There will also be a person that crosses the finish line in last place.

This is part of the basic nature of this universe.

Even if one or some of these individuals is able to actively improve their performance through some sort of spiritually oriented means, while placements may change, the fundamental results of having "winners" and "losers" will not.  This is due to an imposition of a set of values onto this universe.

People competing for finite resources or certain sorts of ordering of results will also result in similar sorts of "rankings" how ever rank they may actually be.

For the moment, let's assume that at least a few of the people randomly chosen for these races are praying to get their desired results and personal rewards.  What do they tell themselves and maybe others if they win?  What do they tell themselves and maybe others if they lose?  What do they tell themselves and maybe others if they sustain a debilitating injury?  What do they say to their God(s) in each of these instances?

I have so much I can say about these sorts of races and competitions for material gains in preclusion of others I'm not sure where to start, finish or say in between.

If someone values their self in large part based on "winning" in such arenas how vulnerable is their self esteem?  Really?  What "if" they age and decline?  What if they discover their successes were primarily due to lack of better competition?  How do they deal with this better competition when they eventually face it, assuming they can't  suppress it adequately or don't suppress it?

How realistic is it for someone to attribute their successes for their limited self to a God that most claim cares for at least some if not almost all others?

One of my fundamental understandings of the basic uses of the Great/Holy or whatever Spirit is that it really is not amenable to such machinations and manipulations.  If we desire to use the Spirit in such ways it really ain't going to be coming to fruition in these sorts of selfishist ways.

In addition, if one loves/esteems one's self due to such limited contests, one's self love/esteem is almost totally vulnerable.  If one love's oneself due to efforts such as trying to do unto others as one would have done unto one's self then we all have an infinite number of ways to enhance self love/esteem that can never be taken away.

I really think that people who claim to have self esteem but yet aren't making strong efforts to really perceive everything in themselves aren't really telling much truth.  It also seems to be all but explicitly contradictory to their claims of having self esteem.  How can someone who isn't constantly trying to see themselves as clearly and truly as they can really going to be able to esteem themselves?

When trying to do things such as assist others in healing I feel that I am trying to involve this Great/Holy Spirit in ways that improve the lives of others as well as for myself.  I do believe I deserve some sort of financial gains for these efforts, particularly so that I can live in this universe with its limitations.

I sincerely doubt that anyone can really use this Great/Holy Spirit in so so many of the ways it is represented by so so many.