Rocky Lionmouth

Yup!

I love the movies with Bak Mei! Even though he’s often a ruthless villain the character is hard to fathom, complex and awe inspiring in his skill. Hard to kill, always a step ahead. I still like Gordon Lius portrayal from Kill Bill. But then again i’m partial to Gordons movies in general White Lotus Clan is a pretty recurring antagonist in the shaolin movies, as is Wudang. Wu Tang Clan the rap group got their name as a group from the movies in part because they were badass and often portrayed as villains even though most of them studied Shaolin school techniques and teachings under Shi Yan Ming. I think daoists were fairly popular as villains back in the day of movies as they, iirc, were representatives of the suppressed reactionary culture of ye old days, and there was a strong popular support for Shaolin Temple and Chan Buddhism as they too were fairly out of favor. I think the party also had members who would endorse Shaolin as a positive, pro-people cultural icon that could also become popular worldwide. Lets not forget about Jackies recent portrayal as Lü Dongbin together with Jet as a silent Shaolin Warrior monk, Forbidden Kingdm i think? Not a very canon faithful Dongbin but still. I like the full uncut two-part Red Cliff mastodont movie, Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Cao Cao. Being a mediterranean descendant in the lands of Thule i had to take part of the Homeric tradition, part of me thinks the Battle of Red Cliff is way more epic than the Siege of Troy. The Odyssey is imo better than the Iliad.

I don’t want to be the guy who speaks ill of people i have no assessment of but i’d offer this as a comment from a nobody: ”Printed talismans for sale” alone makes me want to suggest caution. But then again my go to suggestion is usually somewhere along the lines of this: ”Well, be cautious and mind this thing and its opposite. In the end, who knows but those who go for a looksee? Did i say be cautious?”

Aha, cool, thanks! I’ll look into Balemm, sounds like an interesting figure. Yes, those that stand up to Gods usually pique my interest and fancy. Like good old Monkey AKA Sun Wu Kong, i like his voyage of defiance and reluctant atonement.

@mrpasserby Agreed, and good i didn’t dissappoint. Don’t be fooled by Lovecrafts solid mythos, it’s been expanded on and fleshed out by others. Lovecraft was at heart a troubled aristocrat who tried to express his fear and xenophobia, just like our contemporary fearmongers his metaphors and ideas were left very open to interpretation and adaptation. Lovecraft loved convoluted language, bragging and dragging fairly easy sentences out to unfathomable lenght. His pen did much to convey his own emotions regarding change and the unknown. For me reading his stuff its fairly easy to shift his semipolitical fiction of conservatism and dangers of exotic cultural influences to barescraped cosmic horror and a fascinating mythology, and i like the hopelessness of humanity set against the scale of cosmic events older than most can immagine, it seems fitting in who and what we are to the rest of it all. But you can also interpret it as an emotional foundation for right-wing populist bullshit to use as inspirational ideology and propaganda. He writes in a way that appeals to those who always seek to reinforce and justify their feelings of smallness, lonliness and isolation. It is also very comforting for depressed states and chronic anxiety, reading about terrors far beyond the scale of any human conception. He was alive during an ear of spiritualism and spiritism that still influences eurocentric terminology and ideas and a true fanboy of Edgar Allan Poe, his use of tropes and archetypes is masterful and it speaks in a way that makes it appear as based on legit occult knowledge and experience but was rather sourced from prejudice flourishing in well mannered, christian upper middle class. He was obsessed with bloodline, purity, haughty tradition and felt very alone in his intelligence, which by closer scrutiny was pretty exaggerated in his own perception. Nevertheless, he wrote some dope shit and seeded a whole universe of mystery and dangers, well worth reading as entertainment and distraction! In my humble opinion, of course!

I cant say i do know much about gates, keepers or travellers. From what i gather Khidr comes and goes as he pleases in service of Allah by his own heart. He seems to have to do with water and wandering, but i hadn’t reflected much about his relationship to gates. The only real gate-being i know of is Yog Sothot, who is the gate, commands the gate, lurks beyond the gate and is also the key to the gate. But thats Lovecraft lore which fascinates me somewhat, without any true spiritual connection for me. Balemm is new to me, is he derivative of Baal somehow? Sorry to dissappoint.

Ra, beloved Ra! If Thunder cuts through to the marrow yours is the sunlight gleaming at the tip of the arrow. Best question ever.

Thunder cuts to the marrow in fine style as always! I have those moments too, i often find myself dumbstruck by the lessons i recieve when i least expect them, to the point that the outer inner teacher could be said to ambush me and hit me with his singing bell cudgel. Is there even a difference between the outer and inner teacher? If yes, they often seem to be in cahoots.

Iron palm isn’t necessarily only external, as tai chi or the internal styles arent exclusively done with an untrained amd inexperienced body. Training Iron skills starts out external, especially hand techniques, because your body needs to understand what hitting, slapping and punching is and how you can do it. Directing your energy can have many meanings as has been said already and the physical action of directing kinetic energy is fundamental, if you want to have an iron palm its paramount to study slapping and hitting, how to do it, what it feels like, what the different sorts of sensations say, what separates the feeling of injury from experiencing discomfort. Directing your qi to your hand and then hard-punching a tree WILL HURT. Thats basic mechanical physics: Deliver a force to an object and that object will, to its best ability, respond with an equal force. The way i’ve worked with this sort of practice, very gently, under supervision from my first Sifu (now my elder brother) and later by Sifu who is GM of our style went roughly like this: Learning the proper relaxation, timing and power is step 1 (involved certain materials, a lot of burning sensations after slapping stuff and very little hard focused training), later comes step 2 which is honing the power and developing sung and cultivating empty focus, then applying breathing further and there you start to see energetic practice surface a little. Thus far its been years and the qi stuff is still just something periferal in this type of practice. Qi isnt suddenly having unnatural bodily abilities through breathing and sensation. And cultivating qi etc doesn’t suspend the laws of physics. I can slap a lightpost with a fairly short travel strike at chest level with enough power to make the top shake vigorously. I dont feel discomfort, sure my palm fizzes enough to make a grown man cry and hiss and if someone tries to high five me with a haymaker slap they do double over while i giggle, and im at amateur level. But nobody has taught me to fill my palm with qi. Qi must circulate, if it doesnt you get sick or hurt. Edit: i did three years bussing tables and sorting scalding hot dishes in a diner-pub, and i’ve kept the heat conditioning up a little and to this day my hands dont get any visible marks if i accidentally pour hot liquid on them. It stings yes but passes shortly. My fave thing about iron palm thus far is slapping lightposts to make them go ”pliinggg” with clear tone. Its a ridiculus skill, Iron Palm, butits fun. Re-edit: I sincerely DO NOT RECOMMEND training your hands with hot water or other scalding techniques. I’ve always had a tendency to suffer less from burns since i was 3, and there was no intention to condition or numb my hands, i just needed to deal quickly with impossbly hot glasses and plates, and after a while i noticed it sort of complemented iron palm. Dont hurt yourselves, i still worry about rheumatic troubles down the road.

Kylie Chan has written a battles and romance epic modern fantasy series about immortals, gods and demons, first book is called White Tiger. It might not be very strictly daoist but when i was reading it my interest for the religious side of daoism certainly grew.

I am feeling the love @Taomeow and @Rara, you know how much it is reciprocated right? Most definetly lots! Ra! Thank you, hugs and kisses to you! Rara is a pillar and a gentleman, he is real and has never written anything here i wasn’t spontaneously going ”word up” as i read it. The Duuuuuuude moments he speaks of are real, he’s my friend. Love his down to earth demeanor barely masking the power and virtue he carries. I saw good folks been mentioned early which is good, shoutouts because i cant help myself: Earl for doing this, you big cuddly bear you! Seattle185 because the ever reassuring presence keeps us on our toes. Seattle NEVER sleeps, always studies. Meows is one of the coolest people i know, wise and sharp, funny and true. Honest, compassionate and steadfast. Most likely to attain immortality sooner than most. Dont tell nobody but i harbor a crush for this cat. Who else can drop such amounts of knowledge smoothly seasoning with wit and sparkly eyes? Bright eyes, whiskers front, ears perked and tail straight, sometimes with a hook on the end because its a curious world and so much to investigate. Luke because he’s my man if not the man, like people say in movies about somebody who just is on point and solid, the full opposite of The Man who is the downpressor and protector of evil. If yall even knew what kind of strenght and resolve Luke has you’d be afk for a week just reeling. ILU because she’s Queen, nobody died and made her it, she just owned it from day one because its her nature to be and do so. Silent Thunder, my viking brother. You shine and we bask. Nintendao, i really really like you a lot! Even Apech is up in this, effortlessly cat, effortless! We aint talked much but i always smile when i see him up. If someone is feeling left out it’s just cause i’m dead tired and my ADHD is tugging at my focus, trust me whan i say none of you, dear friends, is forgotten. Onto tagging: I wish our buddy @soaring crane would pop up sometime again, i really miss reading him. On point, ever kind and humble, never afraid. @Brian because you know why and you know who he is. @Limahong because he is a kindhearted and loving guy, some of you cant grasp the size of this guys heart. He’s on sabbatical, i know but i’d feel like a complete ass if i didn’t ping him. You do you Bro, i’m working on that beautiful challenge you gave me, i just wanted to represent a little. @Walker because his feet never tire, nor his fingers and he seems to have the natural perseverance of a mountain and he’s got lots of heart and insight. Peace!

We’ll i’m prone to geeking out about these things.

Neither did i, sorry, i just jumped at the opportunity to talk about this very exciting subject 😁