The Involuntaries

& Why They Matter More Than Anything Else

Housekeeping

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Disclaimer:

This article and my work are directed towards people who practice cultivation deliberately.

My writing is primarily written to and for people who can take responsibility for their own life. People who work to help others - their students, clients, communities, etc. As such it may “skip over” very beginner level skills and ideas. You can search the vast archives of articles, YouTube videos, podcasts etc for more content that may help you if you are a beginner at managing internal phenomena/symptoms/pathologies. It’s my intent that by setting a higher standard your natural upright qi will follow and align to the standard! My work is for everyone, but not everyone is for my work. Thanks for practicing with me.

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Introduction to The Involuntaries

Today is an essay on The Involuntaries, sometimes called “The Three Involuntaries”. I have expanded them a bit, but you’ll see why as we go through this.

In Daoism/Daoist Hygiene we seek to regulate the Involuntaries.

Now, Regulation in Daoism may not be what regulation means in pop-instagram-psychology terms, so please investigate that in yourself as you go through this article. As in, why do you believe certain words mean certain things? Who/what determines the stories you implicitly “believe”?

In Daoism, regulation points to spontaneous adaptation in alignment with Nature, The Cycles of Time, and your current Context/Environment. This adaptation is first practiced, and then spontaneous, or at least that’s the intent. But Daoism doesn’t whine about how things are. If things don’t regulate spontaneously, we practice nudging, we change the overarching conditions little by little until symptoms subside (transform/change) or more overall vitality is expressed.

This nudging can be explained in many ways, because Daoism also doesn’t sweat the methodology. All methods may be useful, if the view is correct. And if the view isn’t correct, then any methods will ultimately reveal those aspects of wrong view.

Daoists aren’t necessarily chasing health & longevity as a means for salvation/ascension, but instead as a natural expression and celebration of what we are, which allows us to:

1. live out our allotted days (fate);

2. exhibit natural, unforced kindness and generosity;

3. and unfold our aspirations in accordance with Nature, Society and “spirit”.

So, as we work/play with the Involuntaries, we do so with a light-hearted and light-handed approach, which might include backing way way up to be able to introspect wisely, perceive the real reasons behind our actions, and be able to nudge the Will (Intent, Yi) towards what really matters.

The Involuntaries are both the Cause and Result of the practices. They exhibit and express the results of our total conduct, our total context, as well as perform the role of being the levers (leverage) by which we can act upon the state of our bodily world.

One can say they are both the actors and the stage. They are both the “Cause” and the “effect”, entwined.