ZenStatic

Oh, you found a cure for autism? Well come on then, share it with the rest of the world!!! Oh, and don't forget to shove those ear plugs up your disrespectful ass too.

"No talismans, no rituals, no sorcery, blah blah." So how exactly do you plan to do internal alchemy? Qi gong and the like are very much a ritual action. The gathering in and moving of qi would also nicely fit into the realm of sorcery. But, the most telling thing you say is this "in my mind". I guess it is a good thing that your mind doesn't dictate actual reality. Have fun in your own dimension.

Lustbader is great!! Wish he would have kept writing down that line, but he got the Bourne books.

So basically, you are saying that because he has first hand knowledge about this, and doesn't say what agrees with what you think, he is a racist? Way to go off the deep end buddy.

Well, I have been looking around at the Kava, and it seems there is a multitude of prices and places to get it. How can I find a place where I know for sure I am getting the "good stuff"?

Well put xuesheng. The reason I personally didn't answer this question before, was to give it some major though. And really, I still have no answer. Do I know exactly what Taoism is? No. But, I do know some things that it is not. It is not just reading a few books and trying to talk in paradoxes. It's not taking a few pieces of what you have heard, and combining it with another religion for your own personal Taoism. Let me go deeper into that before I get lynched. The Tao, is part of everything. Plants, animals, people, stars, qi, etc. On this I think we can all agree. But Taoism, is something different. I think of it like this. The goals of the Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Muslims are all the same. Get to heaven, and not go to hell. Now, I am not saying you have to be one of those to try for that goal. But, just because you strive for that, does not make you a Jew, Catholic, Evangelical, or Muslim. And it doesn't give you the right to call yourself one either. Now, the vast majority of us on this board, strive to come into harmony with the Tao. Just because that is our goal, doesn't make us a Taoist. We may be a student of the Tao, study it, and cultivate to get closer to it; but by choosing to ignore other things that have always been connected to Taoism, rather negates our right to call ourselves a Taoist. Myself, I am as syncretic as they come; I just call myself a Seeker, and leave it at that. I'm sure many will disagree with what I have said here, and if you do, I ask you to stop and think for a moment. Is it because I am wrong, or because it goes against what you think of yourself?

See, what I find interesting, is that you guys are proponents of no kinds of worship, etc; but you do exactly that with LaoTzu and the TTC. You are using the TTC exactly as a Christian would use his bible.

Forgive me if I break this down too much, and if so please correct me, I'm just trying to figure this out in terminology that makes more sense to me. So basically, when you create these seals they are sort of infused with the energy of your lineage, and then when you stamp a Fu, along with the consecration, it is essentially activating the spell put onto the Fu?

No, you make a horrible correlation there. It is more along the lines of comparing gnosticism with christianity. Because it takes parts of xtianity that it likes, and leaves other parts and combines everything with other beliefs. And what traditions have so much in common that you are talking about? Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, New Age, what? Because they are all quite different, if you look at the whole, not just the little parts you want. But no matter if you like it or not, when you mix and match, it does indeed lessen what you may choose to call it. If I take 1 cup of orange kool aid, and a half cup each of lime, fruit punch, and grape, I can't really call it orange kool aid anymore, can I? It is still kool aid, which is akin to spirituality, but its not orange, which would be taoism. People can call things anything they want; that just doesn't change reality.

Interesting. The only thing I am wondering is why does it look like it was printed on, not hand done? Or is it just a weird play on vision because of the picture?

Well, if most of us are honest, we don't practice taoism. We practice a syncretic mixture of the things that resonate with us throughout many different traditions. So he really does have a point with that.

I'm sorry if it seemed as though I was coming off wanting to know how to do them. I was thinking more along of the lines of problems of mine that they could help

Well, what kinds of things would these be used for? It's easy for me to understand the reasoning behind the ritualistic parts of it, but unless I missed something, you didn't really go into their usage.

Curious to see the answers.

If that is going to consistently be your attitude, why don't you just do the majority of us a favor, and go now? Your type of close minded, superiority complex bullshit is the reason a lot of people turn away from lots of things to do with spirituality. You talk shit about someone you don't know, bash a sect you have no real knowledge of, then proceed to tell everyone that you are the on that knows what is right. As they say, the proof is in the pudding. 1 person is sharing knowledge, the other is mouthing off about how the other is a liar and he just "knows" it, even though he has no real knowledge in the area. Hopefully you can see the point.

Rasayana, that site you linked to mentioned this as a form of weight loss as well? I just can't imagine it would be a good idea to try to lose weight this way.

So now you have some kind of mystical power to know when people are or are not speaking from the heart? You're more full of shit than you can ever make this guy look.

If she gets sober, or anything else, just to keep you, then she will fail. She has to want to actually better herself for herself, rather than someone else. She may just need to hit her bottom yet to really want to change.

Because this IS a taoist forum, and its a taoist topic. Things should be segregated to as not offend your sensibilities?

And the truth comes shining through. YOU don't like the knowledge he is trying to share, because YOU think that ritual, spells, etc is bullshit. YOU think you know more, so YOU are going to try and tear this man down for it. All in all, thats pretty damn pathetic. You're not him, you haven't ever done any of the things he speaks of, and you have no real experiential idea as to anything he has tried to share. Instead, from a close minded position, you attack and go way out of bounds. Your acting worse than the strawman you just created out of your opinion of him.

What rock did you pull that from under? I don't know where you got that idea from.

How do you know he is not sharing form the heart? People raised in religious taoism aren't honest then I guess you are saying? Or what exactly is your point? Plain and simple, there is no need to be an asshole, especially to someone new to the forums. There is a such thing called constructive criticism.

I have no idea how to respond to this. I haven't yet seen anyone here say that they have finally become one with the tao, so I would figure it is pretty common sense. How so? Either you believe you mold yourself to the tao, or you believe the tao should mold itself to you. Pretty simple.

Who said anything about keeping purity? No matter if you care or not, it is a fact that the taoism you claim to follow, is but 1 part of what is out there. Your comprehension skills just leave me in awe. Your personal attacks, are just expected. Savages act savagely. Listen, I'm not the guys defender. I agree he came off as arrogant. Personally, I just glossed over it becuase I am somewhat used to having to deal with attitudes like that. My issue was with the fact that, rather than someone just mention that he was coming off that way, which he may not have realized since english is obviously not his first language, people flipped out and started being utter assholes. As far as I know, the goal is for people to learn from each other, not drive someone off right away because you don't like his style.

Heh, what you said made me think of something I have heard before. "If you don't believe you have the best teacher in the world, then you need a new teacher."