Firedragon

Hi, Which of the Eight Immortals corresponds to each trigram? I´ve read that each inmortal correspond to a trigram, but I haven´t found to which one.

As the idea is repeated in the TTC, I thought that it is important and that there is a practice. Also, how can I be content in all things? And how I can have gratitude if I am not content? I guess that if I weaken the desires, I can be content, and if I am content I can have gratitude.

The Tao Te Ching says that we should be without desires to know the essence, and that the holy person weakens the desires. What methods do Taoists use to weaken the desires?

I wasn´t criticizing Christians, I was just talking about the idea of the afterlife that a Christian friend had. I think that her religion was relevant about the idea of the afterlife, if I hadn´t said what her religion was people would think "Is this a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, a New Age idea?" I don´t have any problem with Christianism. If I explained my ideas about Christianism and Jesus I would go off topic, although it touches the idea of reincarnation. Or maybe I should explain them not to keep people guessing, the moderator can move the post to wherever it should be. I think that Jesus was a man, and he was the reincarnation of king David. In Psalm 22 David prophetices that the crucifixion will happen to him, therefore, Jesus was David. In Jesus we see an impressive improvement compared to David, however he had to be betrayed and crucified because of his mistakes when he was David. And he was killed in a cross, which is the letter Tav, meaning that he was a tzaddik (a Jewish saint). He taught his disciples about the Kabbalah, which is why he talked to them about "the Kingdom" (Malkhut). And he tried to improve his society making people more interested in ethics and in improving themselves. Christians and I have different ideas about Jesus, but my ideas aren´t offensive.

There is some empirical proof of reincarnation because some people can remember actual events, places, etc. from a past life, however, what is it that reincarnates? What is the "I"? People usually think that there is a unity in their personality that they call "I", that is conscious and free and that they understand. However, if you have bad karma, you see people doing whatever it takes to obey what a higher power that rules karma has decided. They behave against their reason, instinct, the idea that they have about themselves...all to punish you, and they don´t know what they are doing. The "I" is an illusion! In addition, there doesn´t seem to be a continuity of memory from one life to the next. Most people don´t remember past lives at all, and most others don´t remember from birth, they only remember later in life. A new personality is created, and I guess that there isn´t continuity. The same happens with relationships: maybe you´ll meet the same person again, but if both of you don´t remember, you´ll create a new relationship. A Christian friend told me a similar thing about Heaven, she said that there wasn´t a continuity because there is nothing in Heaven that reminds you of this life. Is there an efficient way to remember, and to preserve your purpose, knowledge and relationships from one life to the next? I don´t mean spending eternity doing only meditation, because then you would live forever but you wouldn´t live anyway. In Taoism there are several ideas about the soul. There is the idea that we don´t have a soul and need to create one. There is the idea that we have many souls. And there is the idea that we have one soul. Which idea of the soul should I choose? It is quite confusing. Also, the embrio of immortality, is it I, or is it a different soul? And I don´t understand the creation of many souls in the last stage of inner alchemy, by doing that aren´t you splitting your consciousness, creating souls that are clones of you, but that have less energy and intelligence? Maybe it would be better to maintain a unity in your mind, personality and soul.

I mentioned Crowley and Carroll and now nobody replies my posts, and I think that I have to clear a possible misunderstanding. Maybe people think "He talks about the most evil man in the world! He must be evil too!" Crowley wasn´t evil. He wanted people to think that he was evil and accused himself of all kind of crimes that he obviously didn´t commit. Israel Regardie and Alan Bennett obviously thought the same thing about him, because they knew him well and otherwise they wouldn´t have been friends of Crowley. I don´t practice black magic. What I mean when I say that I believe in karma, is that I have had lots of problems in my life, almost since the day I was born. I had problems with different groups of people and individuals, at different stages in my life and in different countries, and doing different things. Eventually, I realized that it can´t be a coincidence. It must be a punishment for something that I did in a past life. Thus, I don´t do bad things because it is better both for other people and for myself. In addition, many people don´t like me, and the I Ching advises me to improve myself, and I´ll try to become a better person. If you have had problems with the OTO, the IOT or any other organization, you should know that I am not a member. I am not guilty directly or indirectly of any problem that you may have had. I have read Crowley and Carroll, but I haven´t joined any organization. I tried to join one, but I was rejected and they didn´t tell me why. And until I become more popular I won´t be able to join an organization: there would be more people opposing my joining that in favor of me. I don´t know what do they teach or how do their organizations work. As a result of this, I have some guesses, but I have only read the publicly available information. I have practiced Liber Resh on my own, developing it as I thought I should, and created problems related to the elements (the problems weren´t to me directly, were to other people), and then I changed the ritual thinking that it would be OK this time, but more problems happened, and now I don´t do any Thelemic practice. I also don´t practice the Goetia, because although it could be used for good purposes such as healing people, solving problems between people, or learning sciences, I have read that it can have a bad effect on the personality and I need an improvement of my personality, and because lots of ceremonial magicians say that the goetic spirits were quite nasty to them. Since I quit Liber Resh, I have done only Kabbalistic and Hindu stuff, and a little Golden Dawn stuff. I hope that now you have a better idea of who am I and what I do. Bye! Firedragon

Also, do you think that the letter aleph is a symbol similar to the Taijitu? It represents God (the 2 yods and the vav that torm it add up to 26, the same as the name Yahveh, and is also the first letter in the names Adonai and Eheie), and it has a ballance of left and right and of up and down. And in the Arch of the Alliance, which has the Tables of the Law inside, has the balance of masculine and femenine (it has one angel female and the other male).

Although Israel and China are very far away, I´ve noticed similar ideas in Taoism and Kabbalah. The name Yahveh (written yod he vav he), is the union of the masculine and the femenine because the letter yod and vav are masculine and the letter he is femenine. It is like the Taijitu, where the masculine and the femenine are in union, balance and harmony. The Tree of Life is also in balance, because half of the sephiroth are masculine and half are femenine. And God in Judaism isn´t just male, both genders were created at his/her image. However, talking about God as a man we don´t have to repeat his/her he/she all the time. There is a meditation where the meditator identifies as Pan Ku, and it is similar to visualizing the Tree of Life in the body and identifying with Adam Kadmon. In both traditions people have more than one soul. Both traditions have a divination method that at the same time is a teaching (the Tarot and the I Ching). In Kabbalah there is the belief in reincarnation. In Taoism too? In both traditions there is a belief in karma. In both traditions there are the four elements earth, air, water and fire (in Taoism, these elements are half of the Pa Kwua, the 8 trigrams, the air being heaven). What do you think about this?

I´m not sure where should I post this comment. In Chaoism and Thelema there are practices to change mental patterns, like metamorphosis (changing habits) in Liber MMM, or paradigm shifting in Chaoism (changing your worldview), or a practice that Crowley did to have one personality when he was wearing a ring in one hand, and another personality when he was wearing it in another. There are also Buddhist and Bon practices that can be used this way, such as Tibetan dream yoga and Chöd. Do Taoists use these practices? What practices do they use?

I think that "Nerve" is also Daoist. A sentence of the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching can be translated as "Therefore, always without desires or deep mental patterns to see its essence. Always with desires and deep mental patterns to see its appearance". In the movie, the game makes the characters act outside their limitations, changing their mental patterns, and the main character discovers herself as a result.

Hi Marblehead, I think that energy work in Asia has a Taoist origin. The three worms in the three tan tiens, which were symbolic of the defects of the personality that are an obstacle to spiritual progress, later became in yoga the three granthis and the snake kundalini, and the Buddhists took their energy model from the Hindus. It also passed to Egypt, where the kundalini in the third eye became he Ureus serpent in the forehead, and in Egypt it lost the Hindu meaning as well, and became a protection symbol for the pharaohs. The original Taoist energy system of the microcosmic orbit it became the ida, pingala and sushumna, and eventually only the Third Eye. Do Buddhist martial arts have a spiritual meaning, like for example Tai Chi? Or are they just a tool to focus and be physically fit?

Hi, I was reading the different meanings of the Chinese words of Chapter 1 (my edition has the meaning of the Chinese words butI don´t speak Chinese, please correct me if I have make a mistake because of my lack of knowledge of Chinese grammar), and I think that Lao Zi was talking about the esoteric and exoteric paths. He says that the esoteric goes deeper but requires being without desire or mental patterns (yü) and controlling your mind. It´s interesting that the Tao Te Ching begins like this: it gives a great importance to the mind and emotions, but Taoism is known for its energy practices and martial arts. Is Taoism very misunderstood? The Tao Te Ching has many possible translations, and many possible meanings. What meanings are correct? One? Several? All? Also, is secrecy considered useful in Taoist spirituality? If "The path that can be talked about is not the absolute path", maybe some things are supposed to be secret. Maybe it is like in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika? "A yogi desirous of success should keep the knowledge of Hatha Yoga secret; for it becomes potent by concealing, and impotent by exposing."

Hi, I am a beginner interested in improvement of my energy, mind and personality. I think that Taoist practices will help me with this. I am interested in chi cultivation, shen cultivation, development of the astral body, developing virtues, divination, programming the mind, inner alchemy, and magic. I am not sure that there is a religion that fits my way of thinking. Physics tell us that the world at the same time is an illusion and has physical rules, and life tells us that karma and reincarnation exist and that the ego is an illusion. And I have passed through Kabbalistic stages. In addition, the illusion that is the Universe must have a Creator, but with mystical experiences, people see deities from their own religions: for example, a Christian sees Jesus, and a Hindu sees Laxmi, so even mystical experience doesn´t give us certainty! There must be a truth about existence, but how to find it? What is this way of thinking? Hermeticism? Hinduism? Judaism? Bye! Firedragon