Taomeow

Brand new page today. Silk parchment, camel hair brush, invisible ink.

You are too kind. Of course I have 81 stories... but one of the problems with not being Laozi or at least a contemporary of his is, you have 881 stories (the modernity is way hectic...) and no idea which 81 to choose... E.g., here's an entry I made in my "invisible blog" just a few days ago (to be made visible after the Chinese New Year if the I Ching approves): This is the story of a Chinese American businessman who told me many secrets, of which his main personal one, normally closely guarded, concerns his ancestors. He comes from a family which, in the last several hundred years before the last Chinese emperor, was immensely powerful, stupendously wealthy, and commanded vast military and naval forces. "Why do you keep it secret?" I asked him. "Usually people brag of such things -- prominent ancestry, their great-grandfathers in history books, shaping the geopolitical map for the largest population on Earth for centuries to come... most people wouldn't know how to shut up if this was their family." "No, no, no," he recoiled in genuine horror, "I can't possibly brag of what isn't my doing, I can't be proud of it, I haven't contributed anything of any significance myself. What would my ancestors say if they knew that I didn't do anything that would make them proud and that I use their deeds to have something to brag about? They would be ashamed of me. Better keep my mouth shut." When he was ten, his father commissioned a portrait of him on horseback, as had long been the custom in the family. It is an oil painting of a Chinese boy dressed in British riding attire, sitting erectly and solemnly on a spirited Arabian horse, his features captured somewhat blurrily by the artist who was obviously much more taken with the horse than with the rider. The horse occupies the central and lofty spot in the painting, with his fluid, intelligent eyes making instant, and insolent, contact with yours -- while the rider is seen as though by someone seated below horse level so his whole figure seems to be receding into an upward perspective, into the sky. His face is expressionless. He seems empty like a little sage, but I know he is merely reserved and well-behaved. This is the story of a Chinese Buddhist-Taoist-Confucian-Western upbringing in the 20th century, in an aristocratic family, some of whose members escaped to Taiwan from revolutionary China while others, the ones who stayed behind, were captured, tortured, and executed. This is the story of the son of a selflessly devoted yet fiercely domineering mom, a lawyer who was also trained as a professional Chinese opera singer by a former opera star who became her nanny, and a charming, irresponsible, incorrigible playboy dad with American military and Chinese mafia clientele of his newly modest (and newly immodest) entertainment empire. Now someone should tell me where (if anywhere) I can/should/can't/shouldn't take this true story. I'm looking for ideas such as "blog it," "fictionalize it," "screenplay it," "forget it -- what can you possibly say on the subject that's new?" and so on. Today I felt as though I wanted to tell it, but it may all change tomorrow... So, what would you suggest I do with it?

He studied taoism in the Longmen Pai tradition (still does) and TCM and MA with two old masters, now deceased, since he was a teenager. He is located in Shaanxi province. He is about 40. He sees patients two days a week, early morning till late at night -- up to 120 on a busy day. On a typical weekend, big kahunas in Beijing fly him there for medical consultations. The rest of his time is dedicated to taoist cultivation, practice of MA, and studies of a wide range of subjects (his knowledge is encyclopedic). Such is the life of a modern young sage. His name, which was dragged to fame by journalists in the past, he tries to protect against this happening again in the future, so I'll have to respect his desire for obscurity.

Yeah, I may have... don't remember exactly... so for now, rather than more of my own story, I'd like to share the stories of two of my Chinese acquaintances discovering taoism... Both were "searching for something." Both started out discovering what one is most likely to find in CA when randomly looking eastward for answers -- Buddhism and Hinduism. One of them got into kundalini yoga, quite seriously, studying with a charismatic and accomplished lady. He may be the only person in the world who has horrible scars on his body from practicing yoga. Lost balance doing a headstand in his living-room, crashed into a glass coffee table, shattered it. When they were done pulling the glass out of his random body parts and stitching it all up, he decided that some higher power may be trying to tell him something... Switched to Mantak Chia... took it from there... The second one got infatuated with a particular guru based in India, to the extent that he decided he wanted to go see the wise man in person and beg him for some dispensations of wisdom, and maybe even become a disciple on location if the guru takes him. He flew to Calcutta, and the moment he got off the plane he knew something was wrong... The heat and humidity were oppressive, he felt like a fish out of water, confused and disoriented. With this feeling, he came to the guru and poured his heart out. The guru listened with great attention, nodding pensively and stroking his white beard (well, I'm making this part up, I don't know if he had a beard, but that's how I picture the scene in my mind's eye.) Then the guru got up and went somewhere inside the house, returning with a book, which he handed to my friend. 'Have you read this book?" he asked. "No, I haven't." "Well, you should. Take it to your hotel room and read it tonight. You don't have to give it back, it's my gift to you." My friend thanked the guru and took the book... the title of which sounded vaguely familiar to him... Tao Teh Ching! He read it that night, got "unconfused" on the spot, laughed all the way back to the airport the next day -- a Chinese going to India only to be told by a Hindu guru to read Laozi! -- but somehow there wasn't a shorter way for him than the bass-ackwards way... "If she does not laugh, she is not the tao..."

Not necessarily in so many words, more in "silent omissions." But sometimes... well, you would have to hear it to believe what a set of ceremonial "sound effects" (a bell, a drum, a rain stick, a rattle, a fan) can carry on their sound waves... And sometimes random people are used... e.g., I do a meditation where you have to go through seven cycles of repetition of a particular sequence, and sometimes I feel like cutting it short... say, I'm tired, and in the middle of it I'm thinking, how about I do just four cycles tonight, what's the big deal? And suddenly I hear a neighbor outside yell to someone: "No! Five to seven minimum!" Of course the neighbor doesn't know he got briefly employed to channel a deity... but I sigh and sit five cycles at least, not four, because I do. I know a "zone" where all you need to do is open yourself to input and if you're not smart enough to get it from "silent omissions," they'll spell it out for you, I'm not kidding!

Laozi came to me in a dream-vision and said, in Old Slavonic, "Some things yield to flowery speech and there's no harm in that, but other things, be silent about, for the supreme power gave us comprehension not toward many words but toward many silent omissions." I didn't know who he was and mistook him for the Protopope Avvacum, a 17th century Russian church reformer. What he said in Old Slavonic I later discovered to have been the opening of TTC (he had to resort to an obsolete language which I happen to understand so as to render the exact meaning of the obsolete Chinese usage, because the stylistic peculiarities of the original do not correspond precisely to those of modern Chinese, let alone any other modern language.) Now, whenever I invoke an immortal or a deity, the first thing they sometimes tell me is, "wait... aren't you that silly cow who thought Laozi was a Russian troublemaker, a guy with a horrible temper who denounced everybody and everything, from his church superiors to Siberian shamans?.. What a blunder!.." -- and then they usually laugh their heads off. It's not easy to get an immortal whose memory is infinite to forget a faux pas...

~~~~Moderator's warning~~~~ Belittling our members is against this forum's rules. You know this because we had this conversation before, more than once. Do take to heart.

The mystic, yes. Every shaman is, obviously, a mystic... No wait, not "obviously." Some don't even know what a mystic is -- if you are born with full access to the other side, you don't even know it's the "other" side, right? (I remember reading a Yanomame shaman's account of how he became a shaman. Well, he said, I was a little boy and one day everything started yelling at me. I would push a branch overhanging a path out of my way and the branch would yell at me, "hey, what's your problem? Why are you pushing me like that?" Or I would step on a stone and the stone would yell, "is that how you say hello to your elders, by stepping on their face? How rude!" So I finally got very upset and ran to my mom crying, "why are they all yelling at me, why can't they leave me alone?" And my mom looked at me with great sadness and said, "son, the spirits have decided your fate. You are going to be a shaman.") Sometimes I wonder if a mystic is someone whose mom told him or her "no one yelled at you, it's all your imagination" -- and the world went silent... and in this silence they can't stop searching for something they lost, they don't remember what, only know they lost something in the silence... lost someone's voice... How's that for the rationale behind all those mystical quietude practices?

I ate this. Peruvian ceviche. Assorted raw fish, chile, onions, lemon juice. Meow!

Yup. And for the mother of all things reptilian, naga, etc. -- this one: Written in 1926, and purportedly based on secret documents discovered in a temple in India fifty years earlier...

Thank you!

Laozi said, "Guan qi meow" -- "observe the wonder of tao." Didn't say anything about Elvis, of course, but the tao of meow is traditional. How about "The Tao of Physics?" Or "DNA and the I Ching?" Are these "American taoism?" I'd say they are (even though the second author is Chinese -- American educated) and I would submit the only legitimate (i.e. not guilty of cultural colonialism) place for American taoism is at the foot of Chinese taoism, bowing and learning. As a teacher-student relationship between an old sage and a young prodigy it works fine. In any other shape or form this relationship is dysfunctional. (As an important aside for anyone born or raised with a sense of entitlement to this attitude just on the merit of being an ethnic Chinese, without being a taoist in any traditional sense and without having traditional taoist transmission, schooling, training, hands-on practice, etc.: you are an American or otherwise Western taoist regardless of what you see in the mirror, and the same rule applies to you. By the same token, anyone who sees an American or otherwise Western face in the mirror but has been initiated and trained as a taoist with traditional taoist methods and internalized them to the point of being at home in the spiritual and cognitive paradigm of Chinese taoism is a Chinese taoist, though not a Chinese national.)

Right. Playful is a sign that something went right. Not to be confused with passive-aggressive smirking and snickering, which is a sign that something went massively wrong. In fact, I'm yet to meet a passive-aggressive, condescending, conceited, pompous, etc., taoist master. I've met playful, weird, irreverent, passionate, quiet... all different kinds, but they all had something in common. None suffered from an inferiority complex covered up by a superiority stance. Some were humble and some were arrogant. But the humble ones did not assume the "humbler than thou" pose, and the arrogant ones used their arrogance to help you rather than hurt you -- a high level skill, not to be attempted by dabblers under any circumstances. (It was demonstrated to me, e.g., by a very accomplished taoist master in China who is a TCM practitioner of the "national treasure" caliber. He treated me with some acupuncture, and he chose to throw the needles at me from across the room, like they do in all those cheesy dim mak movie scenes. He threw needles at my hands, head, and forehead. I was terrified more than I was impressed. I asked his English-speaking student why the doctor used this technique on me, what the medical reasons may have been. "No medical reasons -- he just likes to show off," was the response. "He could easily do it the ordinary way, but he's proud of his skill.")

Capoeira is sooo coool! That's all I have to say, Sun. Good luck with your practice!

"There's never a lack of Equatorial Africans adamant about teaching Tundra Innuits the proper way to stay warm in winter." -- Anon

I'll have to take your word for it. Never argue with things I can neither prove nor disprove. I have no "faith." Everything I know about Mother of the Universe comes from a real-life shamanic experience. It wasn't faith based, and it wasn't silent. As for grace, I am not sure I know what that is. Love that is timely, love without procrastination, love that does not keep the party in need of it in suspense -- is anybody coming for me, does anyone know I need them?.. Mommy?.. Daddy?.. If grace is no waiting time between needing someone big and powerful to take you in their arms and help, soothe, accept, approve, love, and someone actually doing that... well, then every little baby knows how little of that is available. So the baby whose mommy and daddy didn't show up when the need was urgent will later have to make up the kind of mommy and daddy who always do, always did, and always will, anytime now. That's faith...

Almighty lineage of Lilliputs of Belittlement! Nothing can stop your masters from spreading their glorious teachings. Here's how it works: you read some books, but are neither an initiate of any school, sect, lineage, practice, nor of any interest to any deities or immortals or teachers; yet you feel you need to establish your superior credentials, so you wait till someone who is a practitioner gets online; and then you bust them!!! Let's say they looked something up that they don't remember by heart. That's final verdict testifying to your superiority!!! Of course you yourself never go online for anything, because when you want to post something you didn't learn by heart, gods and immortals scurry to fetch the information for you, pushing and shoving, competing for your favor. I think we have a celebrated grandmaster of the lineage and a few devout disciples right here. What a great honor.

However, this one, even though it was copied by a Wiki author, did not originate there. I've seen (and posted, in another thread on this very forum) the same list earlier -- from a Chinese Quanzhen site that maintains an English translation. So, unless someone taking it to Wiki contaminated it by the act, stet.

There definitely is a Mother of the Universe, but you don't have to take my word for it -- I didn't know myself till She informed me. The advantage of the shamanic venue is the elimination of the middle man. Some middle men tell you there is and others say there isn't. The ones who say there isn't remind me of the continuous consumer gods scarcity in the old Soviet block economies, while the ones who continuously push consumer gods on the market, of the corporate-government merger of this-here economy.

Cool! Beat me to it, huh?

Who relies on tongue-in-cheek entries to determine what the poster is saying seriously? I have lineage taoist sources for information on taoist lineages. I don't even rely on "researchers," "scholars," "experts," whether accredited or self-proclaimed. Only on initiated and practicing taoists themselves. I am one of them. Ultimately I rely on me.

So, do you want to set Wikipedia straight then? I copied the list from their page. Your interpretation is one aspect of what a lineage is, it describes one feature it has. It is not wrong and it does not make what I was talking about wrong either -- to wit, the sequential transmisssion, lineage in the sense of counting generations of transmitters rather than lines of a poem.

Um... Wang Chongyang, one of the founders of Quanzhen, which is a major school of taoism, had seven disciples. Each disciple founded a separate lineage. Ma Yu (馬鈺) founded the Yuxian lineage (Meeting the Immortals) Tan Chuduan (譚處端) founded the Nanwu lineage (Southern Void) Liu Chuxuan (劉處玄) founded the Suishan lineage (Mount Sui) Qiu Chuji (丘處機) founded the Longmen lineage (Dragon Gate) Wang Chuyi (王處一) founded the Yushan lineage (Mount Yu) Hao Datong (郝大通) founded the Huashan lineage (Mount Hua) Sun Bu'er (孫不二) founded the Qingjing lineage (Clarity and Stillness) All of these belong to the Quanzhen school. Each of them is a separate lineage within the same school. Just one example of what I was talking about.

I just started, and started with the taoist section at that, which is in the middle. What disappointed me at first was that it is very short, and immediately I spotted some yin-yang confusion therein (though having one of the "Western experts" as its source... ) and thought, oh no, I should have stayed with Levenda's books on the subjects where he knows more than I do. (I believe he has a few that are a must read for anyone ISO un-brainwashing and a clearer picture of our world.) But then, within that short section, I found information that I was looking for high and low for a number of years -- well, not information as such, but a crucial clue to a bit of taoist knowledge for which I had no source and no explanation, only the practical applications which convinced me it's an important bit. So now, due to this one short section, I understand one important cosmic process that I didn't understand before. It was like an unexpected present. For the rest of it, I'll go back to the beginning now and report eventually on my impressions