RobB

Hi Alex, Hello from Cambridge! Any news on the Seasonal Neigong book? Cheers Rob

May, or may not, be of interest to BKF afficionados... https://www.facebook.com/lineofintent/photos/a.360630964444212/985615958612373/

Eight Principles for Happiness is the most recent in the ‘Written Transmissions of Da Xuan Daoism’ penned by Serge Augier and published by Line of Intent, Alex Kozma’s imprint. It promises to set us on the path to happiness! Of the four books published so far, this one is the most clearly structured, with eight core chapters each containing eight exercises. The subjects will be familiar territory to many readers here: Alignment, Non-Resistance, Balance, and Natural Cycles being the first four. The content is where the particular flavour of Serge’s tradition emerges. Every lesson is couched in the language and environment of the everyday. Everything can be done by anyone - right now, tomorrow, or next week. The exercises, which range from the purely intellectual through to the directly physical, ask you to reconsider how you stand, how you see, and how you think. They offer practical challenges to the obstacles which we may believe lie between us and a more satisfying, happier, life. Conversational rather than a highly-structured esoteric exposition, the voice is recognisable to anyone who has heard Serge teach but, if you haven’t, it’s worth reading as a listener. In a recent episode of Alex’s Flying Monk video series, Serge noted that, coming from an oral tradition, he didn’t much enjoy writing books! An upshot of this is that this book, like the previous volumes in the series, benefits from multiple readings to allow the layers and links in the material to emerge. The Daxuan way seems to be to lead the student to the profound via the ordinary. You’ll finish the book both with practical ways of ‘kicking your tyres’ to see where your own personal situation could be improved and an understanding as to how these methods arise from Daoist principles. The final section ‘Dialogue with the Master’ is in Q&A format with Serge answering questions on Daoist standards including Life, Death, the Bagua and the Eight Immortals and more… Finally, you can tell that the publisher loves books! This is no print-on-demand conveyor-belt book and the materials used clearly reflect the publisher’s care over the content. Will it make you happier? Who knows – if you read it, and practise – it might! https://lineofintent.com/ Disclaimer: I have known Alex for several years and he’s asked me to post reviews from time to time and I’ve always failed to get it together. This time he didn’t ask me and here we are – maximum yin turning into yang perhaps 😊 I’m also in my first year as a distance student of Serge’s Daxuan tradition so think of that what you will. This book is chock-full of good stuff and Line of Intent books don’t hang around forever.

Interesting blog, thanks @Vajra Fist

You're the only people I know who are into this stuff. You're a bit odd, but I like you.

The Daoists I've come across haven't been vegetarian and haven't talked much about compassion either.

I was having a bit of a reorganise the other day and found an unopened jar of garlic cloves fermenting in honey (raw - I used to keep bees). They've been sitting in there since 2016 - I'm actually a bit scared to open it.

Can anyone join this argument ? Yes? Excellent. I'd just like to point out that, as a low-contributing freeloading lurker, I find the board now, under the tender care of the current Mod Team, to be a much nicer, more interesting, and infinitely more auspicious place to hang out than it has been for many years. Thank you all. May your orbits be ever clear and your chakras fruitfully aligned. Have a great weekend. Out. Edit: stupid punctuation.

View over a lake (no, I dont know why either, that was just my fisrt response...)

Thanks for the recommendation. Just popped over to Dharmawheel for a quick look. Holy Moley Buddhism is complicated!

So, Cthulhu is the Dao? Excellent!

Fixed that for you

We dont get told very much. Just get given exercises and told to go practice. I think it's to minimise potential for projection or unhelpful 'seeking'. There are things we're supposed to come across or discover for ourselves in our own way. The (very mundane) experiences I have had of physical connection or mental stillness etc have not necessarily been what I was expecting from that particular exercise or at that time but they all fit into the same general direction of development. Edit: Probably better to say that, as a beginner, I haven't been told very much. Maybe everyone else is being told everything and I'm just on the stupid track! There is a lot on the structure of the training and the qualities that we are seeking. But there is very little of: If you do A, you will feel B and this is because of C. Experiences can be fitted into the framework retrospectively but you're supposed to go out there and get those experiences first.

Celibacy to supernatural skills in ten posts. Classic Daobums.

Ah Ha! That's what you *want* us to think! :-) I sort of agree, in that I wouldn't dismiss something just because others described it as a conspiracy theory. Your list of military and corporate misadventures evidences that. However, when I use the term 'conspiracy theory' it tends to be aimed more towards those positions that start from a pre-supposed conspiracy and work downwards, fitting in evidence to suit as they go. Looking at evidence and building a pattern from that - that's just working things out.

My teacher has said that one of the first goals/achievements in Daoist practice is to be able to flow with the changes of the world- which I think chimes with much of what you say above.

Interesting - where are those from? I'll freely admit I know next to nothing about these things but they look more Confucian than Daoist to me. No 10 look more like a Bodhisattva-vow arrangement but then I dont know anything about Buddhism either :-)

I'm not aware of any Daoists precept against killing. I'm not sure I'm aware of any Daoist precepts now i think about it.

I am not sure that this is so different from 'rudderless' and 'nobody is in control'. It is interesting though. To what extent is the tao working it's incomprehensibly complex mechanisms - chaotic. Clearly there is no rudder (or tiller rather) to grasp nor any one individual directing the action but is it 'directionless'?

I like Alan Moore's take on conspiracy theories: “The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.”

I'm guessing ... The Grauniad - right?

Thanks @Gerard, I've been working on the jibengong of our school for a year - and continue to work on it. Squatting is, as you point out, excellent foundational work. I'm nearly there with the ATG squat!

From a beginners perspective, 8 arm shapes corresponding to the 8 trigrams are used for strength training and for finding lines of force through the body. This is the case in my current practice but has been also true with my previous teacher. These are practiced/investigated statically and circling. There may well be more (there usually is!) but that is where I am at the moment. I also haven't actually done a great deal of this practice as I'm currently focussed on circle walking without falling over! There is a host of stuff on https://jiulongbaguazhang.com/, some of which sort of corresponds to my understanding. It goes off into some very different areas than my practice though.

I've done bits and pieces of Tai Chi and Bagua over the years and have recently come back to Bagua practice for just this reason - TC is too bloody complicated. With Bagua I can focus on being terrible at a small number of motions. This means that once I have the external choreography down I can practice and practice on the internal details - round and round and round ...:-)