Stigweard

Bumping this up seeing that the polls are working again.

Here we see your Buddhist distaste for the here and now coming in. You guys are so unhappy with your lot and so desperate to "get the flock out of here". You really do miss out on the living now which is where Tao is. Speaking personally, the only thing I am trying to "escape" is the limitations of a fixed view of the world so that I can be truly "here". We may improve our view of the world by adopting a better ideology or philosophy, but that is still just another fixation. What Laozi is truly offering is a way to simply see and engage life as it is in it's totality. No escaping, no conceptualizing, no transcending, just life ... just Tao. Whoa up there Mr Vaj ... ain't nobody here trying to say Tao is some sort of "collective and personal unconscious" but you. Tao is just the way, method, process, principle of Universal manifestation ... nice and simple. You keep trying to pin down Tao by adding your concepts to it for the purpose arguing against it. But every time you do it's no longer Tao and you end up just arguing with your own reifications, all the while propounding that "This is what Taoists believe". Now don't get me wrong, some most certainly do, but if you spent some quality time with the original text of Laozi you would realize that 'he' most certainly did not.

And this comment proves without a shadow of a doubt that you belligerently choose to ignore everything anyone ever says to you, making any inter-faith discussion with you an almost pointless exercise.

Sometimes you make the most succinct and personable posts. Thank you

Thank you for posting this GIH ... very interesting. I attended the international conference sponsored by Zhu Tieyu and my eyes were certainly opened to the whirlwind of confusing influences at play in modern Taoism. It will be very interesting how Taoism navigates it's way in this environment.

OK let's keep the discussion pointing in a direction First let us reemphasize that a Warrior is not necessarily a fighter or a soldier, i.e. someone whose main focus is the engagement of violent, physical conflict whether armed or unarmed. Let us, for the purpose of this discussion, say that a true Warrior is someone who has honed their being to the finest state of human impeccability. And, as I said in my earlier post: The true Warrior has only one concern ... freedom. And they will struggle until their dying breath for it's attainment. But freedom for what and from what? A Warrior's life is an incessant battle for self-sovereignty, self-independence, and the freedom of awareness. They fight for the freedom to stand as the being of their own choosing and to view the world with an unfettered awareness. They fight for the freedom of being a whole being; to fulfill the absolute potential of the human experience and engage the entire spectrum of possible human awareness. And in that battle they have only one real adversary: the snares, chains and locked cages of social conditioning. The parental voices, the manipulations of siblings and friends, the contrivances of teachers and those who assume authority, and the mind-numbing intestinal gurgling of the very culture in which we live. All of these forces weave a harpy-song of "false self" around us; an illusion that distorts and separates us from who we are, making us believe these thoughts are our own, that they are who we are, and forces us to subscribe to a false view the world. So let's journey together for awhile on the Warrior's Path. As I said above, the Warrior recognizes that the only true adversary is sum contents of their own social conditioning, and the disentanglement of these shackles is the pathway to a Warrior's freedom. When we examine carefully the conglomerate mess of our own individual social conditioning we realize that it's all based on descriptions and explanations, all of which make up our individual view of the world. And so one of the first steps a Warrior must make is to take inventory of the words and descriptions they use and acknowledge that these descriptions are not really who they are nor how the world really is. But the Warrior needs an edge in the fight for their freedom. The drug-like myopia of social conditioning dulls the senses and imposes an almost semi-comatosed reality. Most people in our society could certainly be classified as the "living dead". And it is in fact death that the Warrior embraces as the hot coal in the forge that quickens their spirit. For the reality is that death could take each and every one of us in this very moment. Death is the ultimate leveller of people -- it regards everyone equally and will take the rich just as quickly and as heartlessly as it takes the poor. The Warrior embraces death as their teacher and so, almost as a mantra, the Warrior asks of themselves, "Death could take me this moment -- in this moment am I living to the fullest? Am I being impeccable?" Impeccability to a Warrior means that they are acting to the best of their knowledge and power. To do anything else is to die with regret and regret has no place on the Warrior's Path.

Correction ... is making the journey ... I am not "there" yet. I still struggle every day with the causes of my own inertia. Thanks though.

Sorry matey, but that's hilarious: "I want to know the secrets of magic ... but as long as those secrets aren't a profound universal truth!" Priceless Obviously you may have read each post but you didn't properly regard the implications. I will repost my first response to you. It is a clear recipe for the achievement of your goals. I am going to ask you a very straight forward question ... are you practicing? In other words are you actually engaging in Taoist practices like qigong, neidan, etc ?? Are you doing it regularly, like at least 3 times a week? Here is the truth of qigong that Ya Mu was trying to get across ... it is the crucible of the magic you are looking for. I know of no other practice that so effectively builds power and trains intent like qigong. You have my best answer ... do what you want with it.

Tough love time... I have heard it said that someone could hear the most profound truth in the Universe, but if they don't have the personal power to recognize it then it will pass them by. Your disregard for the incredible wisdom shared with you here SZ makes me think that you are more in love with the "idea" of having powers than having the required commitment and backbone to actually do what it takes to make any progress. What would be your impression of someone who asked for directions to the mountain-top only for them to fob off the instructions of seasoned climbers saying that they themselves, who had never climbed past base-camp, knew better??? Do you really want to know the answer? Or do you find your sense of importance by indulging in incessant questions? I've met people like that; people who think they are all so spiritually advanced because they can prattle on with mystical questions. Are you one of them? Here's one final crumb and then I am done: Dion Fortune, one of the most famous of European occultists, said of magic: "Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will."

In my mind at least, I draw a distinction between a fighter or soldier and a Warrior. Though being a fighter or soldier can certainly be a pathway to becoming a Warrior, they certainly aren't the only pathways. To me the true Warrior has only one concern ... freedom. And they will struggle until their dying breath for it's attainment. But freedom for what and from what? A Warrior's life is an incessant battle for self-sovereignty, self-independence, and the freedom of awareness. They fight for the freedom to stand as the being of their own choosing and to view the world with an unfettered awareness. They fight for the freedom of being a whole being; to fulfill the absolute potential of the human experience and engage the entire spectrum of possible human awareness. And in that battle they have only one real adversary: the snares, chains and locked cages of social conditioning. The parental voices, the manipulations of siblings and friends, the contrivances of teachers and those who assume authority, and the mind-numbing intestinal gurgling of the very culture in which we live. All of these forces weave a harpy-song of "false self" around us; an illusion that distorts and separates us from who we are, making us believe these thoughts are our own, that they are who we are, and forces us to subscribe to a false view the world.

Heya WallaMike, sorry for only seeing your request now. What I do is bounce the character through several websites: YellowBridge Chinese-English Talking Dictionary Etymology nciku - Online English Chinese Dictionary, Learn Chinese Mandarin Online Learn Chinese Characters Chineselanguage.org Laozi Daodejing Siegelschrift - Sealscript 老子 道德經 篆書 - Laotse Taoteking I look for consensus between them but pay very close attention to the pictographic meanings from the Seal Script. Then I fill out my translation template: Character: Pinyin: Pictograph: Definition: I find most translators will take the root pictographic meaning and interpret it according to their view of the world. I find it useful to dig into a character myself to find my own translation.

I think the term you are looking for is "self-importance". Of course be a synergistic effect. I will reemphasize that my "magic endeavors", in accordance to my posts above, are more about the "Great Work" of transforming meteria prima into Jindan, Golden Elixir. I have heard it said that magic effects are less important then the becoming of the magician.

LOL ... Yay!! You do know you are gunna hog the rep votes Reputation tallies can be found on individual's profile page

Some of you folks may have known I am a pro magician. Thought it was time to share. Excuse the "mad-ass" intro ... I made this for a local radio duo called The Benchwarmers and so styled it to their style of presenting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-i2hyAI7eE

OK ... here's the thing tho, referring back to my earlier post, you need both power and intent to create any magical effect. So, if you want to be a sorcerer and do really cool stuff, where are you going to get your power from? You would want some kind of 'super power', am I right in saying so? Hermeticists and Taoists came to the same conclusion and spent generations of empirical research and experimentation developing systems to achieve such a super power. The Hermeticists arrived at the Philosopher's Stone whilst the Taoists discovered 金丹 Jindan. Both refer to their discoveries as a super powered elixir, both use uncannily similar descriptives (both say its color is "red gold" and both attribute it to immortality), and both lay down an almost identical method of it's achievement. It is because of this that I suggest that the Philosopher's Stone of Hermetics and the Golden Elixir of Taoism are precisely one and the same. You want magic? That's exactly what Jindan offers. From the Daozang: "With it [Jindan] you can enter the densest stone and soar freely in the ethereal sky. Water cannot drown you and fire cannot burn you." Here's another thing. Most of us would be familiar with Monkey Magic ... King Monkey Equal of Heaven ... right? He was the famous character Sun Wukong in "The Journey to the West". Were you aware of the fact that all the feats of Sun Wukong were regarded as benchmarks for the aspiring Taoist immortal? All the transformations and cool stuff Monkey did where signs of progression for the adept. Remember the scene where he stole the "Immortal Pill" from the mountain sage? Well guess what? The immortal pill of Sun Wukong is Jindan, The Golden Elixir! So basically Taoists are saying that if you want to do all the cool magical stuff of Sun Wukong you have to achieve Jindan and the way to 'get' Jindan is through the Taoist practices of Neidan, Neigong, etc. Is that magic enough for you?

As a performing magician I would say the "First Rule of Wizardry" holds true: People will believe any lie. Either because they desperately want it to be true. Or because they are afraid it is true.

One form of Taoist magic, Fu Jyeo 符咒, is similar in principle and is subject to the same misinterpretations and misappropriations as all forms of magic. Magic is based on the premise that power plus the sustained alignment of intent creates an outcome. In order to sustain intent and to generate power "tools" were introduced -- spoken and written words, symbols, physical components, physical actions/practices etc. However it all comes back to the underlying formula: Power + Intent = Outcome How to generate power: Dissolving unnecessary investments of energy into artificial personality constructs which both frees up energy and stops leakages. Vitalizing and nourishing Jing, Qi, and Shen through traditional Taoist practices like Qigong, Neidan etc. "Summoning" energy of natural energy sources (sun, moon, stars, earth, etc.) and deities through pray, ritual, offerings How to sustain intent: Articulating an intent through a written word. Interesting that the art of stringing together letters (originally magic symbols to signify spheres or phases of energy exactly like the I Ching) is called "spelling" Using physical components (i.e. crystals, herbs, charms etc.) to be anchors of intent Performing rituals that achieve the purpose of focusing intent Most people fail in magic, regardless of which tradition, because they either can't generate energy or can't sustain intent or both.

Paul, Mal made the right decision to suspend you for 2-days and it's a decision all moderators agree with and support. As such you won't be getting an apology ... period. You were handing out insults and that is a violation of our Moderation Guidelines. And yes my friend it is very much a case of "take it or leave it".