I am talking about “how to read,” which might seems easy to everyone because you have all read books before. However, have you ever been taught how to read properly? Many websites will talk about strategies and techniques for reading, but I am talking about the action of reading. Do you read and try to think at the same time? Should you read aloud or inside? Should you read fast or slow? How to read, and why do we read? This is a good question, which led me to realize the urgency of this post for my disciples. Here we go; the wisdom of the Tao is here to shine its light on us again.

The Three Bodies

First, we need to understand the basics of our body as in the three bodies we have and their purposes. Let’s label them with the numbers; D1, D6, and D8. D for dimension.

The physical body that you can see is the D8 body, the physical body. It includes everything you can touch and the organs etc. This body is responsible for taking action and executing the task, but it doesn’t do any thinking and memorizing etc.

The soul body is not visible to your naked eye, but it overlays the physical body in another dimension which we call D6, the spiritual realm. The soul body has your soul energy, the power that drives your physical body. There are three types of energies in the soul; positive, negative and neutral. It helps us to have awareness, think and ponder information, and most importantly, to have the motivation to take action and control the physical body to move.

The magic body, or the preheaven body, which resides in the overlaying D1, is also not visible to your naked eye. This body is like an energy body or the “light body”; it has an egg-like structure, with the center “yolk” part being our heart. It feels! This body also keeps important things inside, such as our memory. It is like our hard drive; it stores things and is another “station” that contains all the critical elements we need.

The Flow

D1 goes to D6, D6 goes to D8, D8 goes to D1.

That means, when you use the physical body to read aloud, the sound is in d8. This sound absorbed will goes into your D1, into your heart. It is what is needed to plant down the seed into your “hard drive.”

If you want to learn something, you MUST read aloud first to plant the seed down. The problem with modern schools is that they never teach kids to read the whole book together, loudly. This is something Asian are good at because I grew up in Hong Kong under the Chinese style teachings. I remember we used to read books aloud in the classroom, and there was no way you would be kissing your pages quietly while the teacher was slacking off.

If you read inside, you are using your heart to speak. The heart speaks to the D6, the soul. That means you are pushing elements from the D1 body to the D6. When you read like that, the soul gets pushed and energized, and as a result, you will start to think and ponder the subject more. It helps to create visualization and imagination and promotes ideas and thoughts that will emerge quickly. It’s good if you are reading a novel because while reading like that, the words will help you create the movie in your mind, and you will enjoy the novel more.

Which is Right

Reading aloud or inside is okay; it depends on what you want to achieve and why you are reading. If you are reading to learn or study, you must read aloud to put that stuff into your memory bank. That goes to kids trying to memorize things from a textbook too. If you see them staring at the pages, that’s not studying. You must read the words aloud so your HEART can kick in and start memorizing things. Reading aloud is especially useful if the content is new to you. Don’t be shy!

If you are reading things to ponder or think about ideas, you can read silently because that will help you to push the soul to think. Reading and re-reading things, reviewing things, you can use this silently reading technique to help your soul bring out more creativity and ideas so you can have new ideas and insights when reading the same thing again.

In short, when you are learning something new, read it out loud. If you are forgetting things or want to memorize things, read aloud!  Studying, you must read aloud to get it planted into the heart!

Listening to other people reading the same thing to you could have a different effect. When you are reading, it’s your energy that is being absorbed into the heart. When other people are reading, their energy is pushing into your heart. It depends on what is the quality of their energy like. If the person reading is a bad person with bad virtue, your heart can be contaminated and polluted after listening to it. If the person is wise and nice, you could have a greater improvement by listening to their readings. A robot reading to you has no effect; it could be similar to reading to yourself but a bit weaker since it is not done with organic voices.

Therefore, if you are learning things from school, you might want to listen to the teacher’s reading because their energy will help you understand and “get” the subject better. This will only work if you also have faith in the teacher and want to learn. Those who attend class and want to leave as soon as possible don’t have any effect. The heart must want to intake first!

Taoist Reading

When you are reading my books, always try to read aloud first. After learning the subject, you can go for a silent reading session to bring out more juice from the same content.

Reading aloud doesn’t have to be super loud; just loud enough for yourself to hear is good enough. The pace should be moderate, so you don’t feel pushy and rushed; it should be calm and STEADY.

Chanting and spell books should be chanted aloud, not just in your heart. The more you chant the words aloud, the better it gets because you are planting the seed into your heart; it is the way to inherit the magical powers!

When reading aloud, DO NOT THINK!  If you want the heart to be open, then ACCEPT it. Listen to your voice; listen, don’t think. If thoughts come up, ignore them!  This is very important!

While the opposite goes for silent reading. When you are reading silently, start thinking and let your imagination goes wild. It’s fine!

When reading aloud, DO NOT THINK.

When reading silently, THINK MORE.

Clear?

How to put more feeling into your reading when reading aloud? When you STOP THINKING, then feelings are there. The more you repeat and try to get the melody and tune in, the more feeling you have for the content you read, even if it could be another language. Don’t feel what is on the surface; feel what it brings you to feel. When reading it, there will be felt when you have read it enough times to make it natural and when all your thoughts are pushed away. When the soul stops thinking and pondering, your heart will FEEL!

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