Sir Darius the Clairvoyent

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Posts posted by Sir Darius the Clairvoyent

  1. Posted

    Just now, ChiDragon said:

    Yes, it is. We do have a clash of culture in TDB. People come to study Taoism but not accepting the idealism of Taoism.

    I am open minded. I just like to make up my own opinion as well. Dont expect me to take every word you say as gospel.

    • Thanks 1

  3. Posted

    3 minutes ago, Nungali said:

     

    My astrological makeup is strongly Cancerian and Neptunian , symbols of the feminine  and the mystical , also associated with Luna ; the occult, mystical, unconscious, etc .  That can easily go out of balance but fortunately I have a well placed Mercurial regulator  ( again 'androgynous' energy with Mercury  but from the male 'form' .

    Could you tell me a little about mercury energy, what it entails and where it comes from?

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Just now, ChiDragon said:

    Well, IMHO. It was a very hostile behavior just with a tap on the icon. It generates a hidden uncomfortable feeling between two members.

    Yeah maybe. Putting a led on your truth does as well, imo

    • Thanks 1

  5. Posted

    4 minutes ago, ChiDragon said:

    Now, a child becomes an adult. Unfortunately, perhaps it is a necessity to do some cultivation to subdue our childish behavior.

    I think this is a clash of culture. Here were i live, not being able to speak ones mind, be honest, protect people and fight back is considered weakness, not virtue. Isnt it curious that some philosopher dont want you to ve rebelious? A little too convenient?

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    9 minutes ago, ChiDragon said:


    Well, is there a need to show one's anger?

    When I was a child, my mother used to tell me that we have a troll in our stomach. When we ignore it, it grows and grows. But when you recognize it, it explodes. Sun (truth) turns the troll (chaos) to stone (kills it).

  7. Posted

    2 minutes ago, ChiDragon said:


    Yes, that is applied to the things, in general, with the yin-yang concept in Yijing. However, when it was applied to human behavior, it is about peace and harmony only. That is what Laozi advocates in the TTC.

    So where do you hide away your more animalistic tendencies?

    • Haha 1

  8. Posted

    4 minutes ago, ChiDragon said:


    Taoism is about peace and harmony. Whether someone likes it or not, just let it be without any adverse effect on either side of the party. Let nature take its course without interruption. 

    Is it also not about how light implies dark, and visa versa?

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    First of all, let me say that I know way to little about your philosophy/tradition/religion/system. I hope you'll forgive any potential misunderstanding of your faith. I find a lot of beauty and wisdom in your system. One thing I am a little uncertain about tho, is the focus on suffering, and all the energy that goes into avoiding it. That suffering is part of life is absolutely undeniable. However, I wonder, if this perspective possibly hinders your from experiencing all the beauty of life?

     

    Again, I might be totally misunderstanding your way of life, and would really appreciate if someone could clarify.

  14. Posted

    I made a post on politics in the byzantine empire on a history forum I am active on. Nobody seemed to care tho. The reason I found it so intriguing, is the obvious parallels to today. Nothing have changed, seemingly. It is based on the following article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blue-versus-green-rocking-the-byzantine-empire-113325928/. Either you can read that first hand, or you can take a look at my shortened version of it in the spoiler below.

     

    Spoiler

    (…)

    "Bread and circuses," the poet Juvenal wrote scathingly. "That's all the common people want." Food and entertainment.

    (…)

    By the sixth century A.D., after the western half of the empire fell, only two of these survived—the Greens had incorporated the Reds, and the Whites had been absorbed into the Blues. But the two remaining teams were wildly popular in the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire, which had its capital at Constantinople, and their supporters were as passionate as ever—so much so that they were frequently responsible for bloody riots.

    Exactly what the Blues and the Greens stood for remains a matter of dispute among historians. For a long time it was thought that the two groups gradually evolved into what were essentially early political parties, the Blues representing the ruling classes and standing for religious orthodoxy, and the Greens being the party of the people.

    (…)

    These two threads—the fast-growing importance of the circus factions and the ever-increasing burden of taxation—combined in 532. By this time, John of Cappadocia had introduced no fewer than 26 new taxes, many of which fell, for the first time, on Byzantium's wealthiest citizens. Their discontent sent shock waves through the imperial city, which were only magnified when Justinian reacted harshly to an outbreak of fighting between the Greens and the Blues at the races of January 10. Sensing the disorder had the potential to spread, and eschewing his allegiance to the Blues, the emperor sent in his troops. Seven of the ringleaders in the rioting were condemned to death.


    The men were taken out of the city a few days later to be hanged at Sycae, on the east side of the Bosphorus, but the executions were botched. Two of the seven survived when the scaffold broke; the mob that had assembled to watch the hangings cut them down and hustled them off to the security of a nearby church. The two men were, as it happened, a Blue and a Green, and thus the two factions found themselves, for once, united in a common cause. The next time the chariots raced in the Hippodrome, Blues and Greens alike called on Justinian to spare the lives of the condemned, who had been so plainly and so miraculously spared by God.

    (…)

    It was at this point that Theodora proved her mettle. Justinian, panicked, was all for fleeing the capital to seek the support of loyal army units. His empress refused to countenance so cowardly an act. "If you, my lord," she told him,
     

    wish to save your skin, you will have no difficulty in doing so. We are rich, there is the sea, there too are our ships. But consider first whether, when you reach safety, you will regret that you did not choose death in preference. As for me, I stand by the ancient saying: the purple is the noblest winding-sheet.


    (…)

    Shamed, Justinian determined to stay and fight. Both Belisarius and Narses were with him in the palace, and the two generals planned a counterstrike. The Blues and the Greens, still assembled in the Hippodrome, were to be locked into the arena. After that, loyal troops, most of them Thracians and Goths with no allegiance to either of the circus factions, could be sent in to cut them down.


    Imagine a force of heavily armed troops advancing on the crowds in the MetLife Stadium or Wembley and you'll have some idea of how things developed in the Hippodrome, a stadium with a capacity of about 150,000 that held tens of thousands of partisans of the Greens and Blues. While Belisarius' Goths hacked away with swords and spears, Narses and the men of the Imperial Bodyguard blocked the exits and prevented any of the panicking rioters from escaping. "Within a few minutes," John Julius Norwich writes in his history of Byzantium, "the angry shouts of the great amphitheater had given place to the cries and groans of wounded and dying men; soon these too grew quiet, until silence spread over the entire arena, its sand now sodden with the blood of the victims."

    (…)

    With the massacre complete, Justinian and Theodora had little trouble re-establishing control over their smoldering capital. The unfortunate Hypatius was executed; the rebels' property was confiscated, and John of Cappadocia was swiftly reinstalled to levy yet more burdensome taxes on the depopulated city.


    The Nika Riots marked the end of an era in which circus factions held some sway over the greatest empire west of China, and signaled the end of chariot racing as a mass spectator sport within Byzantium. Within a few years the great races and Green-Blue rivalries were memories.

    Cant help but see parallels to every society to know to man (in the west at least, a little ignorant on the rest of the world). Bread and circus is self evident. Two opposing parties (the right and the left) arguing passionatley and hatefully, thinking they are right and the other part evil. The two party system giving the illusion of a democracy. But when push comes to show, the man dressed in the finest, royal purple calls all the shots. 

     

     

    Also, I have read a little of Platos Republic. The segment on the noble lie gave me the creeps. I know he is an important character in many esoteric circles. Is it social engineering? Could anyone help shed some light on this?

     

  15. Posted

    15 hours ago, Nungali said:

     "ESSENTIALS OF METHOD

    I. Theology is immaterial; for both Buddha and St. Ignatius were Christs.

    II. Morality is immaterial; for both Socrates and Mohammed were Christs.

    III. Super-consciousness is a natural phenomenon; its conditions are therefore to be sought rather in the acts than the words of those who attain it.

    The essential acts are retirement and concentration — as taught by Yoga and Ceremonial Magic. "

    That paragraph has baffled me for a while. Finally it clicked.

  17. Posted

    28 minutes ago, old3bob said:

     

    "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", is straight forward and is related to karma, so what kind of karma would we want to come back on us!

    Sure, I am not talking about running around killing everyone and everything. I do not think that would happen even If we admitted good and evil is entirely a construct. I just have a problem with moralizing, and wonder if it is a tool of control. A way to pressure others to behave the way youd like them to behave and is good for you, but maybe not themself.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    As I see it, life is nothing but cause and effect, and therefore predeterment. In other words, you have no controll - what happens, happens. Why worry about things out of your controll? That just make your problems infinetly worse. I find the deterministic world view very liberating, and I feel way more self secure and less anxious after I have started thinking in these ways.

     

    Fortune favours the bold.

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    Tacitus, germania:

     

    The Germans do not think it in keeping with the divine majesty to confine gods within walls or to portray them in the likeness of any human countenance. Their holy places are woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to that hidden presence which is seen only by the eye of reverence. 

     

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    On 5.10.2024 at 7:53 PM, manitou said:

     

     

    There is only one void, on this level at least.  The concept of Dao is an intelligence which controls but doesn't care, lol.  We are as ceremonial straw dogs to 'the Dao'.  To me, that means it doesn't really matter to It who lives and who dies, where or when.  Bringing it to the Old Testament, wasn'st there some sort of prohibition on saying the word 'God', or Ra, or Jehovah, or whatever they used?  I understand that now.  It's just like the Dao.  The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao.  Probably the same state of awe with the origin of the concept of Jehovah.  I don't think that it was a punishable offense for 'saying the name', but I'll bet the ancient Christians understood that there was just no one word for such magnificence. 

    Indeed it does. One of the ten commandmeds reads: you shall not take the name of God your lord in vain. The one before that says you shall not make idols, so your interpertation seems valid. And the first one: you shall not have other gods before me. Ironically, the old hebrews seems to have been henothistic, and there are plentifull of examples of other gods being mentioned in the bible. But maybe we are witnessing the transformation and struggles of a people trough religious reforms?

     

    No offense daoist, but can the term dao be used in the way westerners often use nature? I have been reading Aurelius, and I find it very intruiging how he talks about the gods, uniervsal reason, nature and fate almost synomously.