Michael Sternbach

Darkness is the absence of light.

Repeated boast

Song

Alchemy, both Occidental and Oriental (Chinese), revolves around the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. This, in simplest terms, is matter evolved to its highest possible state, in which it actually transcends its original physicality. It then becomes a carrier and agent of hyperdimensional or subtle forces, expressed on the level of physical existence. Now the Philosopher's Stone has certain analogies, in keeping with the Principle of Correspondence. One Alchemist of yore advised his followers: "Turn yourselves into living Philosopher's Stones!" Arguably that's the real aim of all Alchemy: The transformation of its practitioner. And that transformation goes beyond the psyche and includes the physical body that, imbued by spirit, now takes on various extraordinary traits and abilities. These can include levitation, teleportation, invisibility, instant self-healing, rejuvenation, longevity, immortality etc. In the West as well as in the East, there have always been both Alchemists that performed the Great Work in the external environment of their laboratory, and others that, while adopting the same terminology, used the latter to refer to the internal processes which they - primarily or exclusively - laid their focus on. While this is quite evident if we look at Chinese Alchemy with its division into Waidan and Neidan, it holds true for Western Alchemy as well. There is indeed also an Occidental tradition of spiritual or 'speculative' Alchemy. Contrary to an opinion popular with a certain type of contemporary Alchemy aficionado, the latter is NOT a pipe dream of 19th century occultists or even Jungian psychologists! Long before them, there were e.g. Zosimos of Panopolis (Hellenistic Egypt), Ibn Umail (Arabic Middle Ages), as well as Jakob Boehme, Michael Maier and Thomas Vaughn (European Renaissance), all of whom need to be regarded as representing the internal branch of the Royal Art. Nor is the opposite view sustainable that all Alchemists were just talking symbolically when they were describing physical substances and processes. In many cases, the Great Work was seen as something taking place in both the external and the internal world simultaneously, interlinked by what C.G. Jung calls synchronicity. It should also be understood that all Alchemists - ancient and modern - work within a cosmological framework that can be described as Hermetic in the Occident and as Daoist in the Orient. This provides the foundation for all alchemical labour, even where the latter isn't aiming at the Philosopher's Stone or universal medicine, but at 'particulars' or Spagyric remedies with a more limited scope of healing power on physical and psychological levels, but manufactured and working in analogous ways. Now the aforesaid essentially also applies to less known forms of Alchemy, e.g. to its Indian variation, but the foregoing should be sufficient to illustrate my view. So, to answer the OP's question, while 'energy work' plays a significant role in Alchemy, the reverse is not true: Not all 'energy work' is aptly called 'alchemical' - unless, of course, you broaden the original meaning of the term so much that you deprive it of essentially all its original meaning. Hope this helps.

Another way of saying that we are living in an awesome, magnificent Universe (if only we were aware of it).

Economical

Terminator

Chameleon

I have heard plenty of rants about external styles by practitioners of internal ones, not least by Erle Montaigue whom I respect greatly in most regards, however, the more deeply I look into these matters, the more moot I find the criticism. The technical differences between the two camps are not as great as they may seem at first glance. They share pretty much a common base, and even some of the more subtle aspects of the internal arts can be found in the external ones as well, although only at advanced levels. I have no regrets having started out with Shotokan Karate myself so many years ago. Even though I have moved on from there, I feel it gave me a solid foundation to build upon, now that I started exploring Taiji, making me a well rounded martial artist. But your mileage may differ.

Traditions and masters that have preserved the 'inner teachings' are rare and far between, IME. What generally happens is that people get interested in martial arts and start practising at 'Bob's Dojo' just down the street. Then, some exceptional ones later seek to transform their art by going back to its roots and reintroducing stuff that has been lost in the past, drawing from extant information, that sometimes indeed has been preserved better in other styles than their 'mother art'. Eventually, they introduce their fellow practitioners to those more sophisticated concepts, such as Rick Hotton exemplifies. I think that's laudable.

Your comments are fair enough, and I agree that the internal arts' methods of power generation are more sophisticated, yet it is rare to see a practitioner of the latter with techniques as powerful as Rick Hotton's. And if you indeed come across a very powerful one, he may well have started out in a 'hard' style, like Erle Montaigue who had a background in Karate.

Bluenose

Shirley

I meant that there can be no real liberation without facing and working through your issues. In contrast to using Buddhism and Buddhist meditation as a form of escapism, as some are prone to do. Maybe I should have phrased it differently though.

Ballroom

My view on what Laotzu meant is that the path can't be defined once and for all, because it is the path to yourself, which you must travel in your own way. There is no way to map it out in advance; it may take awkward turns and be full of surprises (you know, dragons and unicorns showing up, etc. ). Because what you are heading to is the realization of your own unique individuality (a.k.a. your natural, spontaneous self, liberated from sociocultural conditioning that is inhibiting it), the path that leads there is of necessity a unique and individual one as well. However, there are certain general principles and approaches that will be applicable in this or that situation, and those can indeed be spoken about. But you are quite right, above all, Laotzu is guiding us to seek our answers within rather than unduly relying on external sources of information, such as so-called authorities.

ACT (Action Counters Terror) https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ACT

Good question! But then, why did Laotzu, after saying that, go on writing a whole book about the Dao? You mean the path to realizing the path can be spoken of?

Welcome to TDB!

Exactly right. A lot of people are afraid of their emotions. When in truth there is nothing inside us that we should be afraid of. By projecting our difficult emotions out of ourselves and onto external entities (either 'demons' or people), we may feel some temporary relieve, but we won't be getting anywhere in the long run. In fact, we are creating blockades in ourselves that will impede the free flow of our vital energy and likely have further psychological and/or physical ramifications. Much better to go the other way. Taking a little time to relax... Then, in a protected inner space, allowing ourselves to fully experience that fear, anger, guilt... Whatever it is that is holding us prisoner. Loving acceptance is key. When we start relaxing in the presence of the emotion, we know we are getting somewhere. Actually, it's easy. We have each of our emotions for a reason, but it doesn't need to be the final word. Accepting and fully experiencing a "negative" emotion will sometimes be all it takes to make it dissipate. At other times, we need to dig deeper. With our emotions, there will invariably be certain thoughts associated. Becoming aware of those thoughts will reveal the beliefs that they are based on - beliefs that we hold about ourselves and about our world. We will recognize those that are less than beneficial to us and/or our environment - be they overly restrictive, one-sided, unloving towards ourselves or others, etc. And we will be able to let them go or modify them in the light of our understanding. Right away, or when we are ready. Becoming the masters of our own mind. This alone is the liberation that the practitioners of Buddhism and other spiritual traditions are seeking.

The edge of America

I concur that the differentiation into hard and soft martial arts becomes irrelevant at a certain stage of sophistication. For instance, Japanese Shotokan Karate is generally regarded as one of the hardest styles there are, however, what Rick Hotton teaches in the following video has much in common with skillful application of "soft" styles like Taiji and Aikido.

Nice arming, just not too suitable for concealed carry. Thus (at least in most countries) not practical for civilian self-defence, I am afraid. Where even holding a short knife with the blade forward and exposed could get you charged with "brandishing a weapon", "being the aggressor", "making the fight happen", etc. (Remember that political leaders are rarely interested in citizens taking measures to protect themselves from crime.) So if you find yourself in a situation in which your life may be on the line, and you therefore decide that the use of a knife may be appropriate, it's a good idea to hold it along - and covered by - your forearm. So basically noone can see it or claim you were threatening anybody with it. If needed then, this will give you the element of surprise. If not needed, all the better - it can be put away or further concealed without anybody ever learning that you were armed. But of course, this strategy requires that, in your training, you focus on techniques based on a reverse knife grip. This is not to say that none of the material you presented in this thread could be useful.

Of course, the principles I was talking about in above post are not limited to cases of drug addiction in a narrower sense in their application. The addiction could be to anything at all, including "attachments" in general, as the term is used in Buddhist parlance. It would still be much better to gently guide the sufferer or seeker to self-discovery rather than trying to change their inclinations in a forceful manner, as concepts like "cutting through fixation" and "tough love" suggest.

Personally, I look at a forum as a treasure trove of information. It saddens me to come across a thread that has been "vandalized" by a later deletion of many of its posts, almost rendering it unreadable in some cases. Even more if it's one that I personally contributed to. That's one of the reasons why I usually quote posts that I am replying to. However, I understand that some look at this from a different perspective. Hope you will be back one day, OF. Best wishes Michael