greetings from sf

[Tokoyo Tama]

cat has my tongue... Hello all! Stumbled across this forum and felt it has a constructive and informed atmosphere that I could relate to. In brief I'm living in san francisco, though recently moved here from the northeast. Although the Tao Te Ching inspired me in high school, I am in short a neophyte to taoist practices. Presently reading 'healing light of the tao' by Mantak Chia, a key pillar in allowing me to be confident in the Tao as a fitting path for me. The Magus of Java is another book I have recently finished and was quite pleased to see the perspective of such a distinct and experienced practitioner, although I personally feel more drawn to heart centered or oriented practices. I hope to be connected with a teacher soon, and through a connection might be meeting a chi gong teacher who ostensibly is taking on no new students...we'll see where that goes! Essentially I'm making the transition from energy/spiritual theory to practice and consider taoist practices as an excellent foundation for moving forward on my path. Thank you for all the information I have gleaned from this sight already and for all the well intentioned work you all have put into this sight!

 

 

 

In case you've read a post of mine, or simply want to get a more detailed perspective on where I'm coming from, I figured I'd write some backround. This also gives me an opportunity to reflect on the path I've travelled to the now, so it is probably more than most have the time or reason to read. In high school I was agnostic but was deeply moved by the Tao Te Ching (penguins classic if I recall), so although I am new to the Tao, it feels like a re-acquaintance. A few years ago I began to see some cracks in my essentially materialist world views and have tried to self administer a crash course of sorts into all things spiritual. Theory has been my standby, with some generally unstructured and ever changing practices designed more to get a feel for what fits and what doesn't for me. The plan, in retrospect, seems to be to get a theoretical foundation so as to be able to discern wheat from chaff, and to then work on processing and putting into practice the 'wheat' I have perceived. Right now the Tao is looking rather nutritive, and the time seems ripe for harvesting. I have been expecting to carry on my fathers family tradition of artist via photography, but recently have come to realize there is at least as strong a pull from my mothers side to delve into the spiritual (her path being long and varied, the last decade being shamanism focused). I hope to unite these two drives and to bring forth fruits to help nourish and balance the world we live in.

 

Outside of Taoism, some areas in which I am moderately well informed are Buddhism, Shinto, laboratory parapsychology, Shamanism, western occultism, psychology, photography. Although I consider myself poorly informed I have an interest in Native American traditions, although the focus of my interest is the northeastern Abenaki tribe which was such an early conquest that detailed information or myth is difficult to come by.

 

Finally, three books I highly recommend and consider representative of my interests outside of Taoism:

Science and Human Transformation, by William Tiller

Mysticism, by Evelyn Underhill

Understanding Aboriginal Culture, by Cyril Havecker

 

I hope you found whatever information you needed from this post, and I thank you for your patience with this meandering post. I look forward to many dynamic and fruitful exchanges on this site.

 

Be well