SirPalomides
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Everything posted by SirPalomides
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I decided I should get into an easy, basic qigong routine and I downloaded Yang Jwing-Ming's 8 Pieces Brocade iPhone app, which at $10 seems like a really good deal. I'm going to watch all the lectures before I start doing it in earnest but it's pretty exciting.
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Butter tea and kumis are two weird central Asian drinks that I am eager to try.
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I think the Western way of drinking tea with milk and sugar has its own merits, but yes, the tea they are working with is not high quality and is not meant to be enjoyed that way. I like how Russians add jam to their tea.
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My (future) wife and I went to Huashan years ago. I don't remember the climb being that dangerous, so maybe we skipped some parts. A beautiful place regardless. I was particularly impressed by the men tasked with carrying supplies up the mountain every day- their legs were enormous.
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Combining Practices (Tai Chi-Zhang Zhuang-Fragrant Qigong): Good or bad idea?
SirPalomides replied to matrod's topic in General Discussion
Depends on what you’re watching. Star Trek is safe; Dora the Explora will definitely get you possessed.- 16 replies
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A fascinating article about attitudes toward the Yijing by Japanese Confucian, Shinto, and Confucian-Shinto intellectuals: https://www.biroco.com/yijing/The_I_Ching_in_the_Shinto_Thought_of_Tokugawa_Japan.pdf Some "orthodox" and some rather outlandish ones too, such as: Alas! When the realms of humans and gods began to separate, our god, Okuni-nushi-no-kami, also called the Holy Fu Hsi by the Chinese, went across the ocean to China and taught the foolish people about morality. The I Ching was made as a tool for this purpose.
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That's interesting. Was the fu meant to be contemplated or explained by a teacher, or was its mere presence enough? I am wondering also what relationship there is, if any, between fu and cosmological diagrams like Zhou Dunyi's Taijitu
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On a somewhat related note, I read some interesting things about traditional ways of making ancestral spirit tablets. According to some sources I read, one way was to consecrate a brush by having a descendent visualize the ancestors and think about their qualities, and then breathe into the brush. A professional calligrapher would be sought to write the names, or at least do the crucial last part, "dotting the zhu", referring to the bottom character 主 and the dot on top of it. This was said to complete the tablet and allow the spirit to take its seat there, so it had to be done right. Blood from the descendent was often used for this part. Then there are invocations one can use to encourage the spirits to accept the tablets as their seats.
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Yeah, most fu in Chinese culture are not up to such high standards.
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Let’s hope so or I’m screwed
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There is a book by an Orthodox Christian monk (Hieromonk Damascene) called Christ the Eternal Tao, which attempts to present the philosophy of Laozi as a precursor of Christianity. I'm not sure I would wholeheartedly recommend the book but it is an interesting and earnest attempt to engage with Chinese philosophy. The author is not entirely ignorant of Daoism and has had some talks with Daoist monks in China. Methodism is an interesting tradition- John Wesley was enthusiastic about Eastern Christian writers like Macarius and Ephraim the Syrian, who were not exactly popular with typical Protestants. This gave his spirituality a more mystical imprint. Wesley is an interesting figure in that he embodied both "high church" and "low church" tendencies. Another Anglican writer that I think everyone ought to read is Thomas Traherne, whose "Centuries of Meditations" is a world classic of spiritual/mystical literature.
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Crabs can be tricky too
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alright I’m confused... why is there a portrait of a Chinese Methodist in a Catholic school in Australia?
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Yeah, it is possible to get Wuyi tea without any connections, and not even at exorbitant prices, even though it might not be the highest, most coveted grade. Same with Pu erh- lots of good, affordable cakes out there, and, with my underdeveloped palate, I probably couldn't tell the difference.
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I might have posted this in another tea thread but it's pretty neat
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It seems such a false rumor would be very easy to disprove.
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For me, it is a matter of assuaging doubt. The speculated reason for his death (qi expended helping others) would, to me, be a perfectly acceptable explanation for someone with a powerful qigong practice to nevertheless pass away in his 60's.
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Is it possible that Tian Ruisheng’s relatively early death was because he exhausted his qi in healing so many other people? This is a speculation I read on a Chinese blog, and I wondered if this is considered a possibility in the qigong world.
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Spooky ghost discussion - experiences, theories and reasons
SirPalomides replied to Miroku's topic in The Rabbit Hole
A lot of American Pentecostalism, which claims to be channeling the Holy Spirit, does seem to be channeling … something else. An interesting thing to read about is the "spiritual church" movement of New Orleans- nominally protestant churches with strong influence from Catholicism, voodoo, and spiritualism. These churches seem to have largely faded away but it was an interesting phenomenon of the mid 20th century. -
That stuff is made with super concentrated black tea I believe
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I get unpleasantly jittery when I drink one cup of coffee but I have to chug a lot of tea to get the same effect.
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I don't know where you live but you can order tea online from a bunch of places. I've usually been getting my tea from adagio.com. Their jade oolong and jasmine yin hao are probably good beginner teas, very approachable IMO. Last month for the first time I ordered from Teasenz.com which ships directly from China, their package will be arriving any day now. I ordered their da hong pao oolong and a pu erh cake (I forgot which one).
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Spooky ghost discussion - experiences, theories and reasons
SirPalomides replied to Miroku's topic in The Rabbit Hole
I'm referring to the idea that paranormal activity is ghost-oriented in the west but has to do with deities in Asia. I would say ghosts are held to account for a huge proportion of paranormal activity, at least in Sinospheric cultures. Placating, helping, or exorcizing ghosts are a prominent feature in normal religious life. Of course there is not always a clear line between a ghost and a deity. Generally hostile or unhappy ghosts are designated as gui, whereas the spirits of ancestors who have been properly buried and venerated are shen, which is the same word used for gods and nature spirits. The Japanese kami uses the same Chinese character as shen and similarly encompasses both human spirits and gods. I think one difference between Chinese and Japanese deities is that the Chinese deities tend to have a stronger bureaucratic flavor- they are treated like officials overseeing such-and-such office in such-and-such department. I don't think Shinto has the same bureaucratic impulse but those more familiar with Shinto can correct me here. My family is mostly Chinese, so they mostly have Chinese customs, including ancestor worship, though there are Borneo indigenous in the family too. The latter are a mix of Catholic and animist- I don't know what degree of ancestor worship they practice. It probably depends on which part of Europe, and how far the Reformation changed people's mindsets. In places where there is prayer for the dead and patron saints are commonly venerated it's different. -
Spooky ghost discussion - experiences, theories and reasons
SirPalomides replied to Miroku's topic in The Rabbit Hole
Eh, this really isn't true. Spirits of dead humans are a major part of religion throughout East Asia at least. Pretty much all the earth deities (tudigong) in China are supposed to have been virtuous humans (though it is rare that anyone can identify exactly who). And propitiating ancestors is of course at the core of piety for most people. -
Spooky ghost discussion - experiences, theories and reasons
SirPalomides replied to Miroku's topic in The Rabbit Hole
Ghosts are a very big deal for my family in Malaysia. Accusations of witchcraft have caused major family rifts.
