Alchemical Walrus

Years ago I was able to internalize the Daoist writings on the subject of death, especially Zhuangzi's writings on the topic. I don't mourn death as I once did, and I'm not particularly concerned with when it will fall upon myself. I think that this has probably removed a lot of stress that I'd otherwise might have had in my life. Although I don't often talk about my views on the subject of death. There's a subset of people who seem to take offense to the statement "I don't view death as a bad thing". I find it easier just to just not bring the topic up. Zhuangzi's skull pillow is my favorite writing about death. At least I think so. There's a lot of good ones.

Thanks!! That's by far my favorite interpretation of that passage that I've ever seen!! It's very much my cup of tea. One could even say I'm a bit of a tea addict.

Alláh-u-Abhá!! (or "Hello", but I didn't want to use the same word for greeting as everyone else ) I'm a member of the Bahá'í Faith with a background in Daoism, and who still possesses enduring love for Daoism and the Daoist writings. Currently I am engaged in a study of neidan and comparing and contrasting it to the alchemical traditions of the Hermetic, Christian, Muslim, and Bahá'í religions. I'm making a profile here as a part of that study, although I'm also interested of course in discussing the other aspects of Daoism.

I have three answers for the question of whether the Bahá'í can be considered Sufis: First a "yes", as many of our Scriptures draw from Sufi traditions. The Seven Valleys itself is a commentary on the Sufi Attar's work The Conference of the Birds. And so in that sense, my "scholarly side" says we could be considered Sufis. Then a "no". The Sufi definition of what makes a Sufi and a Sufi order is based on knowledge imparted from teacher-to-student in a teacher-student relationship chain from the Prophet Muhammad down to the individual Sufi. According to Sufi teachings, every Sufi trained in Sufism has learned from a teacher who learned from another teacher who learned from another (etc.) eventually with the knowledge originating from Muhammad. The Bahá'í Prophets, the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, were never formally trained in a Sufi order, their knowledge on Sufi-esque subjects arose spontaneously. And thus, my "technical side" says we cannot technically be Sufis because of the typical definition of a "Sufi" limits it the word to only those trained in a specific chain of teaching. Then a "yes" again, as one of the parts of Bahá'í doctrine is that there is only One Religion, and that everyone, no matter how varied their beliefs, is a part of that One Religion (including the atheists). In this sense my "mystical side" says yes, we could be considered "Sufi" or a part of any other religious group for that matter, as the "reality" is a unity. I apologize that I didn't really have a simple answer for an seemingly simple question.

Well I believe it's in the Daodejing, right?? "The Dao that's not Chinese is not the Eternal Dao" or something like that??

Looks like this is a good link: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16986 As a word of caution, as many prints of Seven Valleys do, the print I linked also includes the Four Valleys, which is a separate book about another spiritual process using four metaphorical "valleys" rather than seven. I've always thought it was a bit odd and confusing that publishers have often stuck two incredibly similar books together almost never providing the context, so just keep in mind that this ebook version I have linked is in fact two different books put together. I don't know why the publishers do this.

Most recent thing I've read of interest to a Daoist board would probably be this, from Institutiones Divinae by Lactantius, writing on the subject of Hermes Trismegastus, reading this: "Lest anyone should seek His name, he [Hermes] says that He is 'without a name,' since He does not need the proper signification of a name because of His very unity." which immediately reminds me of: "The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name." It's interesting to see very Daoist ideas popping up in Hermetic writings.

Sure if you want. The wikipedia statement you have there is essentially two different claims, so I'll take them one at a time: "essential worth of all religions", "unity and equality of all people" First, I don't see how the "essential worth of all religions" would inherently contradict the "envoys of God" idea so I assume you are mostly talking about the latter idea. If I am missing something in how you think those two things contradict, please point out what contradiction you see there. For "unity and equality of all people", this idea does not contradict for the following reasons: It is not talking about equity, but equality. It's not a statement that everyone is the same, but that everyone is granted equal potential. Unity is likewise a "Unity in Diversity", not a statement that everyone is the identical, but that everything is united nonetheless. The Bahá'í writings are clear that anyone has the potential to attain such a status as an "envoy" and have that kind of relationship with God, and one of Bahá'u'lláh's books, the Seven Valleys, is even an step-by-step explanation on how anyone can attain that state, in a process comparable to "recovering emptiness" in a Daoist sense. The short version is that it'd only be a contradiction if it included the assertion that it was impossible for anyone to do the same.

Ooo, it's great to learn there's someone with similar studies here!! I wonder, have you noticed the same sort of similarities between Daoist and Hermetic teachings that I have?? It almost seems like the tradition of alchemy and similar ideas spread along the Silk Road and became infused in all the religions that that trade route touched.

The books!! I mean once every single Daoist text in every single Daoist canon of every single Daoist school has been gathered together and virtualized, then perhaps there is no use to their existence. Until then, I think that preserving the texts is a valid reason for existing in and of itself. Daoist texts (outside of the well known, main texts) are so spread out among different schools and sects that there's probably a whole lot of obscure texts out there that we don't know about hidden among the canon of this-or-that-school.

Sure. Poetry follows the poet. The poet "follows the earth.Earth follows heaven.Heaven follows the Dao." (Daodejing 25) Thus I'd say a book about the Dao can be said to be a book about poetry.