mrtiger

Check out in our time friend. You might learn something...

This forum is a discussion on the way. If it was called witchcraft 101 I wouldn't be busting your balls. If you post grandiose claims on here, expect to be challenged. I'm not trying to be unkind and it's nothing personal. It's in the spirit of Chan. I'm suggesting you learn some of the real history about King Arthur to give balance. I think you find the following podcasts illuminating The Fisher King http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008p0nv and Merlin http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9j2

I get the impression you're trying to communicate something very clever. Sadly it is lost on a simple person like me. Furthermore your point is also lost among bad grammar and unusual punctuation. So you "like the backstory". How jolly that must be for you. I sugest you let go of these delusions and come to the center.

I've nothing against myths per se. Take the Greek myths. I'm open to idea that these describe real events tens of thousands of years ago. Or maybe they're just myths. We'll never know. With Arthur on the other hand we can clearly trace the fiction and how it's evolved. To be clear I'm talking specifically about King Arthur and the grandiose claims made about him in this thread. If you look at how the fiction developed over the last 1000 years it just reflects the imagination of the middle ages/Georgians/ Victorians. I find it difficult for the op to get away with such hogwash. Firstly Great Britain wasn't united till the 1700s. Bang goes your British sovereign. Secondly castle building only arrived in the UK with the Normans around 1006 so the fantasy of a king with knights in chain mail living in a stone castle is ridiculous. In fact the history of Saxon kings is pretty good and there in no reference to Arthur. I've nothing against myth but when people start revering an invented fiction it's plain ridiculous. You might as well base you rituals on The Lord of the Rings.

Whilst it's not unreasonable to consider the Dao De Ching's appeal to the educated classes, I think two important questions precede and perhaps nullify this line of thought. 1. Did Lao Tzu actually exist? There is no written account of him till 100bc, several hundred years after his death. If we can't even be sure about who wrote it, then we can only ever guess as to why they wrote it and for whom. 2. Is the Dao De Ching one book or several? As parts of the dao are often found in isolation and missing the rest of the text, it's thought that the book is simply a compilation. In which case it may have multiple authors with varying aims.

Neither friend. I 'do not' understand and you have made no attempt to explain this. Why don't you give it a try? King Arthur is a fictional story. My question is why do you gourge yourself with these fantasies? If you're going to make such grandiose claims such as 'King Arthur - Daoist, Alchemist & Bender' please don't be surprised when someone challenges you.

You're putting words in my mouth. This is plain and simple - wake up and let go of the fairy tales...

That's all very well but it doesn't really answer the question. Maybe King Arthur existed, maybe aliens built the pyramids and maybe we are all descended from Atlantis. But then again maybe not. We'll never know. The point is, you're just dealing in fictions and it's taking you away from the path. By giving these things so much weight surely it's just distracting you from the big questions and of course your practice.

I want to know how helpful you think this actually is? King Arthur is clearly a fictional character. Whilst I admit it's interesting to ponder who, where and why, surely it doesn't have any more merit than watching and pondering the latest soap opera.

This sounds really interesting. Where would you suggest one starts with Magik?

Discussing this bullshit - truly I am far from Dao. Next time I will try not to engage in such delusions. Slowly I am learning...

OK you totally missed my point about genius. Would suggest you re-read. P.s. I think their music was very much of a time. I.e early 90s grunge. It hardly transcends time and space.

This is incredible

Thanks for the reply Stillness. I really like the look of Liu Hung Chieh's books, I've added them to my wish list. Whilst I'm sure Mantak Chia is a nice guy, I don't have much confidence in Taoist Secrets of Love. Partly because it's badly written with many grammatical errors but also because some of the information just seems counter intuitive to me. Just the fact that he advises against sitting in lotus position just doesn't really align with where I am.

Rock music in the 80s was also guilty of this fetish of excess before hip-hop with songs like Girls, Girls Girls by Motley Crue. That whole era seemed to exude this idea that it was good to have lots of shiny flashy things and to have more money than everyone else. Hip-hop was more about having fun in the 80s, the money came later. As for singing about what's around you and what's real. Well hip-hop does this too so it's unfair to single it out. It's often regarded as modern folk music. Documenting what's around us and what's real is surely part of what an artist/journalist does. I think the problem comes when we focus too strongly on the negative. Even in the most degraded project, there must be love and laughter. Mostly though I think modern music is just about artists and record labels creating these myths so everyone else can pour over them, write books about them and find something to occupy their mind. (I've read somewhere that we do this so we don't have to think about the big questions in life). But you have to be really careful about these myths. If you're giving out points for negativity in music having drastic consequences in the the world then surely classical composer Richard Wagner must score pretty highly. The pseudo-myths he embedded in many of his operas encouraged German nationalism and his strong anti-semetic views inspired a certain Adolf Hitler. It's estimated that six million Jews died in concentration camps in the second worlds war. To think that opera (arguably the movie blockbusters of its day) played a very important role in that is a lesson we have failed to learn.

Does anger fix the problem? Surely it just makes it worse. I'd say this is the great message of the dao. If we fight fire with fire we will have an even bigger problem. But if we can use water to overcome then we can deal with the problem. I think Gandhi is a great example of this. He defeated the British Empire without violence, without weapons and without an army. Sure it took longer but the soft eventually overcame the hard. I'm not really sure what you mean by energy evolution either?

I agree with most of what you say until you get to "sad song you may suddenly feel less lonely and isolated" I actually think music heightens the emotional state, so a sad song will make you feel sad, an a mellow song will make you feel relaxed etc. There have been studies that show people listening to fast music will drive quicker for example. A lot of people I know strongly disagree with the idea that violent movies influence people's behaviour but the connection seems blatantly obvious to me. I mean just look at the recent Colorado shootings. Or the countless copycat shootings that seem to explode in the US every so often. It's people reflecting back the violent movies and 24 hour rolling news. That's why we have to be really careful about the media we consume but more importantly what we create. I think this is something important for everyone now, not just music or movie producers but making sure the stuff we share on social media is not overtly negative or violent.

Since the Renaissance we've loved to put our artists on a pedestal and regarded them as geniuses. In Greek and Roman times artist were regarded as simple craftsmen and the idea of a genius was of a sprit working through them. I'm a musician and all the best stuff I've ever done just comes so easily, it's like I am channelling some entity. If I try and be clever it doesn't work. I think that music is all around us and we just need to pull it down. I'd draw a distinction though between the music that can calm and help heal between the one that is destructive and another which is a distraction. A lot of 21st Century culture falls into the later. I also think this is true of religious texts. Ultimately we need to leave them behind. @de_paradise / @rainbowvein Of course there was an energy created by the Beatles and Nirvana. And I'm sure that like a fine wine it can be enjoyable. But I don't see how it helps us on the path.

You seem a bit disgruntled by my reply which is perfectly understandable. I'm not sure what kind of response you want to this post? If you just want someone to agree then maybe post it in a Nirvana forum. If you want some honesty then welcome! The reality is: 1) Nirvana were another band who copied those who went before them. " Kurt Cobain acknowledged the debt his band Nirvana owed the Pixies, and stated that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was his attempt to "rip off the Pixies" 2) Sadly Kurt Cobain was a heroin addict who committed suicide by shooting himself. Now if you want to find some great truth in Nirvana's music I'm sure you can - just as you can find it in a dog turd on a sidewalk.

I sometimes think people just see what they want to see. Nirvana weren't unique. Lots of bands came from small beginnings. I think his death just created a myth around them. I doubt they'd be viewed with the same reverence if he were still alive. Personally The Pixies, from who Nirvana took a lot (in particular Smells Like Teen Spirit) were really invented this sounds. I liked Nevermind at the time, but listening back to it, it sounds very commercial and over produced. As for the dancing. I'd say again, it's hardly like Nirvana invented this. I often find rock concerts often have a egotistical passive aggressive edge to them as opposed to the club scene in the 90s which really was peace and love (all be it aided by MDMA) So I don't want to poo poo Nirvana or you, but I just think it's a bit fanciful to think of them as being much more than an average rock band. In many way's you're just reflecting back what is important to you in your life.

That's really interesting. I'd never heard of the source being in Italy before. The British version of King Arthur is nothing more than a fairy tale I'm afraid.

Hey Terry, Thanks very much for the detailed reply. I like the look of the routine you set out here, I'll have to give this one a try. How do you time your routines? Do you just approximate? Let me briefly tell you how Flying Phoenix has already helped me. The first thing to go was smoking. I've smoked on and off for years but after practising FP it became really unpleasant and I just began to feel ill if I even thought about putting a cigarette in my mouth. Secondly it's been great for weight loss. I've been a few stone overweight for a few years and tried all the typical things to shift it - intensive gym sessions, cycling 100 miles a week and even ran the London Marathon. All of these only had very minor gains in terms of weight loss. With the FP practice I've just felt less hungry and have been able to regulate my meals a lot better and have actually begun to appreciate the energy that comes with a little emptiness in the belly. The weight is just falling off. As time goes on the internal benefits are slowly and subtly working. My mind feels more gathered. I feel like I've developed more patience with people and have been able to work on humility better. Still, there is a long way to go! So now I'm in a position where I'm doing one hour of the standing meditations for from disc one plus I've just added Wind Through Treetops. I programmed an audio track to gently chime every 10 minutes so I get a nice even spread. I'll keep adding the others slowly as I learn them. Then I do approx 1 hour of the seated meditations on disc 2. I don't have an audio track to time these but as they're mostly repetitions it usually comes to about and hour. My evening session is just empty mind meditation on a Zafu. Usually two 20 min sessions with a 5 min break inbetween. I come from a Japanese Zen background. Although I recently been reading some of the pre-zen writings on this such as The Secret of the Golden flower to open it up a bit. I respect Japanese Zen a lot but it can be a bit rigid. I also might do a bit of FP homework, run through the DVDs check I'm doing things right or learn the next position. So that's my current practice and I'd love to add something at lunch time. In my job I'm largely sedentary so I make sure I get out on my bike and swim regularly too. I've tried other types of Qigong such as Eight Brocades but they're all a bit disappointing compared to Flying Phoenix. I'd love to do something that was still internal so to speak but perhaps tapped in to a different kind of energy as I'm happy with doing FP in the morning. I love the look of the Bat Dim Gum exercises on your youtube channel. Will you ever produce an instructional Bat Dim Gum DVD? Lastly I'll be really interested to read the Flying Phoenix book. One thing that I think would be really useful would be a detailed reading list. I'm particularly interested in the Western systems you've mentioned on this thread but have no idea where to start as there is so much hokum out there. One of the best books I read in recent years was The Heart of Stillness by David Cooper. Not only is it a great book but he has a recommended reading list at the back with books from lots of different traditions, Christian, Muslim, Zen etc. It's essentially that reading list that has brought me here today. Gosh that's a long post, apologies! Mr T

The whole skeptic debate runs very deep. Highly recommend a book called Randi's Prize which deals with the psychology behind it. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1848764944

OK great. That's easy. Not sure what that had to do with my original comment though.

Of course there is some dogma in Tao, but like I said there isn't much in comparison to other religions. Not sure why you've gone to such lengths to prove the dogma in Tao when I've already recognised it exists. As for the science, people teach acupuncture in Universities without the Daoist/magical element already. I get the impression that you think you've discovered some incredible truth. But I'm finding it very difficult to see what that is. Succinctly, what is your point?