Nolipslameirrelevance

Then there's "The Bamboo Curtain" with Benny Hill... I think the music makes it.

Ive just received the book, and haven't had time to practise yet, but a couple of questions occur to me. On p.47, Christensen suggests use of a practice chair, which "...should be cut down in height to a measurement that places your hips slightly higher than your knees when sitting on the edge." I don't know about you, but I'm fairly average-to-tall in height, and find that my hips are about level with the tops of my knees in standard chairs anyway: to raise the hips higher would mean raising the chair, not lowering it. Is Christensen assuming all his readers are dwarves, or am I missing something? Also, an hour seems a very long time to hold a stance: in the Yang style Qigung classes I go to at the moment, we hold our standard postures for about 3 minutes each: it wouldn't surprise me if peculiar things would start to happen were I to hold any one of them for an hour!

Jesus' teachings/Christianity are developments of Judaism. At Judaism's esoteric core is the Kabbalah: there is a Christian Kabbalah, and I think it is fair to say that the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) makes a lot more sense in the light of the Kabbalah. The Kabbalah has many points of correspondence with Taoism, as delineated by Aleister Crowley and Eric Stephen Yudelove (whose Tao and the Tree of Life I can thoroughly recommend). Although many people have tried to find them, there is no clear evidence of the two systems having any historical roots, so I think the similarities are due to "convergent evolution" and to their both telling similar truths about the same Universe. So at their esoteric hearts, I reckon, Christ's teachings and Taoism are probably very intimately related.

I've seen the voluminous PEAT E-book: an enthusiatic friend of mine gave it to another friend who gave it as a "gift" to me when I showed a passing interest in it... a bulging folder full of looseleaf printouts. I think the latter friend was glad to be rid of it. I'm afraid I wasn't impressed: it seemed to consist of speculation based upon wild speculation based upon uncritical speculation based upon KINESIOLOGY which is, without doubt, a pseudoscience. Someone seems to have had a lot of time on their hands for unverified "research" with a distinct lack of intellectual rigour and a "more is more" rather than a "less is more" mentality... it seemed to me a veritable marathon of self-delusion. I'm sorry I can't be more positive because my first friend is a very nice man and I don't like to hurt people's feelings...

Don't be cheeky!

Archaic17, are you, by any chance, like me, from the UK? It's just that the term "bum" has a different meaning in the US. In the US, it means a tramp or hobo, whereas in the UK it means the human gluteus maximus or posterior! I think its American equivalent would be "tushy". There was a 1933 Al Jolson musical film called Hallelujah I'm a Bum! that was corrected to Hallelujah I'm a Tramp! for its transition across the pond.

Hello there! I live only half-an-hours' drive from St. Albans.... at Houghton Regis near Dunstable!our kind greeti In the early 70s I lived in Welwyn Garden City, and we often went on shopping excursions to St. Albans... (I still do) thanks for your kind greeting!

Hi, Eric I have a copy of "Tao and the Tree of Life" and am working through the exercises at the back, so it is nice to have the opportunity to correspond. Dare I say it sounds as if you may be "the same yet different", to quote the book? One thing I'd like to ask is, are you aware of Austin Osman Spare? He was an erstwhile pupil of Crowley's who was very much influenced by Taoism as well as the Kabbalah, and his philosophy does seem to be a syncretism of the two. As I practice Chi Gung and Inner Alchemy, I keep coming across concepts that seem to echo themes in Spare's complex writings. For example, the "inner smile" seems related to the "sensation of smiling" aimed at in the Death Posture, especially as his drawings to accompany it include a face that has slipped down to chest level, corresponding to the Thymus Gland. His breathing "until the sensation comes and goes in gusts" sounds like Bellows Breathing. After the meditations and exercises in my Tai Chi class, we focus on the "chi" sensations in our hands- could this be what Spare meant by "projecting the consciousness into the hand"? Would there have been writings on taoist yoga available to Spare at the time (the Book of Pleasure was published in 1913) or could he have learnt techniques from a Chinese immigrant in the Chinese community then centred in Limehouse? Would welcome your thoughts.

Hello to everyone here. I'd like to introduce myself by saying I'm a lab technician by day, a hypnotherapist by night. I've "tried on" a number of different religions and philosophies, and Taoism seems to me one of the most sensible I've come across. I'm particularly interested in syncretism between the Tao and the Qabala, having arrived at Taoism partly through the writings of Austin Osman Spare and Aleister Crowley. As an hypnotherapist, am also interested in connections between Taoism and modern psychologies, eg NLP. And of course the application of it all to everyday life...