Taboos

[Taomeow]

Been re-reading a book on shamanism and came across a story told by an Evenk shaman circa 1900 to a famous polar explorer. The story was a narrative of the shaman's whole life, beginning since before his birth (which was a stillbirth, reversed by complex magic of the then-shamanka, female shaman, of the tribe). Basically, the efficiency of the magic that was to keep the dead-at-birth boy alive depended on the observation of many intricate and difficult taboos imposed by the shamanka on the boy himself as he grew up, his family, and the whole tribe. There's a detailed account of their strict observance by everyone up until the boy's adulthood, even though many had to do with assorted prohibitions on food intake -- and this, among polar hunters (whose daily "bread," so to speak -- 95% of their food depended on a successful hunt for the most "uncooperative" large polar animals -- was extremely hard to get). Got me thinking... do any of us observe any taboos for any reasons? Taoism has many... does anyone pay attention?

[thelerner]

I have a slight taboo and admittedly stupid one about a subject mentioned earlier. Organ meat, livers brains hearts etc. They are power houses of enzymes and nutrients, but our 'advanced' white flour society has tabooed them. Even standard fares of my parents like tongue and oxtail soup seem wrong to me. Its a wide spread affluent misprogramming.

 

Here's an almost humourous one. In judiasm the G-d is sacred and not to be used or written lightly, so we'll often spell it G-d, or in hebrew Hashem (the name). I mostly use that abbrieviation myself unless I'm talking about other peoples concept of god. In which case I'll use a lower case. Again early programming showing subtle biases and prejudices.

 

Michael

[SifuPhil]

... Got me thinking... do any of us observe any taboos for any reasons? Taoism has many... does anyone pay attention?

One of the advantages of being a philosophical Taoist, as opposed to a religious one, is that there are FAR less taboos.

[sean]

I had to think about this for awhile. I think I have a taboo against the destruction of sacred items. I am very respectful with my thangka, my meditation cushions and blankets, my mala beads, etc. And I get annoyed when people treat belongings I have reserved for meditation carelessly -- or even just casually, like to just take my zafu and sit on it to watch TV. Wierd? And even though I don't consider myself Christian, it would also "feel taboo" for me to, ie: take a crucifix and smash it or something like that.

 

Then again, I just had a memory - the other day I was walking to work and thought about how fucked up it is that ancient Buddhist shrines have been destroyed lately in the Middle East. I found myself cringing at the thought of a beautiful old Buddha statue being smashed. But -- then I noticed the space between the pieces of stone, breaking apart -- and I laughed.

 

I think my taboos tend to disappear under scrutiny.

 

Sean

[Lozen]

I have quite a lot, actually. I've always wanted to get a tattoo but it's so extremely forbidden in Judaism that I don't think I'd ever get one. I also am super careful with prayer books, never letting them touch the ground or writing in them. I don't follow this all the time but it's one I'm quite aware of.

 

In the sweat lodge I try my hardest not to touch my skin when I'm sweating. I will use a scratch stick if I have one or just not touch my skin at all.

 

Also I only walk clockwise in ceremony...and this is one I had a hard time with at first because different ceremonies go counterclockwise... I decided I would walk counterclockwise if I knew what the reason was and if it was a good reason--but every single ceremony I've been to since I became aware of this, they will not tell you why they go counterclockwise--it's always a secret. There's other specific ceremonial ones I've been told--like not naming who a dancer is if you recognize him, stuff like that. Also I observe the taboo about not picking up artifacts.

[mYTHmAKER]

Never ever step on a crack if you know what's good for you.

Sometimes there is a fine line between taboo and superstition.

[wenwu]

I used to observe many taboos, mostly brought on by the society i was brought up in, over time i hav realised that these taboos were mainly control mechinisms brought about by strong roots western culture has in religion. since then i have been not shunning these Taboos but not as strct as i was about them

 

You have to accept that even if it is a taboo you don't hold, other people think differently and be offended by your actions, and rightly or wrongly you will be judged by everybody by you words and actions.

[QiDr]

Most of the taboos that surround practices are for the practitioner's protection. For those of you out there who do not have direct instruction, observing practice taboos can save your health, mental and physical. As I have opined, ad nauseum, this Qi Gong stuff is not passive or benign.

I have been out for a while, happy Pig year!

[KnightoftheBlackRose]

I have only one Taboo wich I have come face to face with as I have served in the military. This being that I harm no living creature unless my life or the lives of others is being threatened. I have never been in said situation but it was a constant thought when you have a weapon at your hand constantly. I often had to ask myself if I were put in a combat situation if I could pull the trigger as it is usually shoot first or be shot. I still wrestle with this thought to this day and have yet to come to a conclussion as you would never know if your life is truly in danger if the other person never has a chance to do so.

[forestofsouls]

I think any moral code is to some extent a taboo. As I undertsand it, the purpose of taboos is to limit or confine something to a particular space, quality, etc. Moral codes do this as well; by refraining from lying and so on, we purify ourselves.

[Spectrum]

Most of the taboos that surround practices are for the practitioner's protection. For those of you out there who do not have direct instruction, observing practice taboos can save your health, mental and physical. As I have opined, ad nauseum, this Qi Gong stuff is not passive or benign.

I have been out for a while, happy Pig year!

 

+1 for the Doc

[soaring crane]

Most of the taboos that surround practices are for the practitioner's protection. ...

I have been out for a while, happy Pig year!

 

Should we be incoporating "taboos" into our daily routines? I mean Qigong routines. That doesn't seem so healthy to me, but I'm not really clear on which taboos you're writing about. I'd like to know, though.

 

Actually, I'm having trouble coming to grips with the term "taboo". Part of my routine is specifically letting go of fears and concerns of ethics, morality and society in general. I'll fart if I have to fart during practice. I don't have a taboo against it.

 

But then I also have my opening and closing rituals. Hmm.. would it be taboo for me to finish a Qigong session without gathering around the waist and closing Dantian? I've only ever seen it from the energetic, maybe therapeutic side, but you got me thinking here now.

 

What if I associated the exhale with Yin? I feel weird just thinking about it. I pray for protection and guidance before I start paractice, but it's just routine. Is it also taboo... ?

 

Fwiw, till now I've generally associated taboo with spiritual work like exorcisms and harvest prayers. Things I've never been involved in. Avoiding certain foods before a specific ritual, for example. Or something along the lines of what Taomeow wrote in the first post.

 

Happy Pig Year, too! And this isn't just any Pig Year, it's a GOLDEN Pig year. Quite an honor for us.

Edited February 26, 2007 by soaring crane

[Yoda]

I try not to have sex with my sister too often.

[Spectrum]

That doesn't seem so healthy to me, but I'm not really clear on which taboos you're writing about. I'd like to know, though.

 

I think you're over-reacting a bit to that statement. I think he means simple things like not practicing to soon after eating, not practicing while drunk, not practicing certain things right after sex... seems like common sense training to me. You don't go dead lift 250lbs right after a 3 hour s3x-fest. You don't go run right after eating a large pepperoni pizza.

 

Honestly I would much rather talk about all the wonderful things we CAN do as chi gung pracitioners, and not how the practice gets in the way of "living". Kung Fu isn't about quantity, it's about quality.

 

Some type of moral or ethical code is intrinstic to all forms of chi gung, unless of course... <enter dark jedi music...>

 

Peace,

 

Spectrum

[林愛偉]

A taboo is a guideline only if it makes sense to the purpose of one's daily living and cultivation.

If it is harmful, don't entertain it. Others who do not know of certain things will not see the significance in

holding a guidelinefor certain practices.

Each higher level has a certain manner inwhich cultivation must go in a certain way. It is the technique of using limitation to erradicate all limitations. This is why one will need a teacher for cultivation. One can become brainwashed by their own guidelines if there is no one there to guide them, wether in physical body or not.

Morals keep the mind in the light of proper thinking. Proper thinking in terms of being a good person, selfless, compassionate, wise, patient, ...all these good mannerisms, and cultivation.

 

If one were to disregard any form of restraint, it would just be inconsiderate,and unwise to do so. Though there are situations, conditions, and places for all sorts of mannerisms...when one is there, one must be wise enough to know which manner to work with.

 

Cultivation, in any manner, should be on a foundation of Vows. Vows to oneself on their attaining the outcome, and assisting others to do the same. But following those vows are the most important. They are guidelines to keep the mind in a one pointedness of cultivation...which SHOULD be every moment...and not the intellectual kind of cultivation...of thinking and analyzing everything.

 

Intellectual cultivation is simply putting a head ontop of another head.

 

Use guidelines (whatever you wish to call them), show respect to what you cultivate and the objects you use, books you use, etc. But do not personally attach to them. Do not be moved by their destruction...for there is no production nor destruction.

 

 

Peace and Happiness,

Ai wei

Edited February 26, 2007 by 林愛偉

[QiDr]

There are a lot of very straight forward taboos to paractices like:

It is inadvisable to engage in practice when drunk or intoxicated,

within several hours of having sex,

when overly full of food,

when overly hungry,

during the mid-day (yang practices),

during mid-night (yin practices),

on solstices, new and full moons,

When recently angered,

close to hard, external martial arts practice,

when having emphasis on outcome of the practice.

The list can go on and on, The point is, if you are learning practices from a book or video and none of this sounds familiar, you might want to find sources that do list these, and other proscriptions.

[mYTHmAKER]

It is inadvisable to engage in practice when drunk or intoxicated,

within several hours of having sex,

when overly full of food,

when overly hungry,

during the mid-day (yang practices),

during mid-night (yin practices),

on solstices, new and full moons,

When recently angered,

close to hard, external martial arts practice,

when having emphasis on outcome of the practice.

 

You might add don't go swimming after eating a full meal.

I personally don't consider these taboos - I just wouldn't do them as they are harmful to me.

Wasting food is taboo to me.

[soaring crane]

 

You might add don't go swimming after eating a full meal.

I personally don't consider these taboos - I just wouldn't do them as they are harmful to me.

Wasting food is taboo to me.

 

I'm also of the same mind that these aren't "taboos", just sensible guidelines. Ok, the moon phases may head into the realm of taboo for some, but I'm pretty moon-sensitive and although I don't avoid Qigong on certain days I can still see a practical side to the argument.

 

Does a "taboo" have to have a sense of superstition before it becomes a taboo? Or, is one's man's sensible guideline another man's taboo?

[Taomeow]

I'm also of the same mind that these aren't "taboos", just sensible guidelines. Ok, the moon phases may head into the realm of taboo for some, but I'm pretty moon-sensitive and although I don't avoid Qigong on certain days I can still see a practical side to the argument.

 

Does a "taboo" have to have a sense of superstition before it becomes a taboo? Or, is one's man's sensible guideline another man's taboo?

 

People freely mistake superstitions based on nothing in particular for genuine taboos and vice versa, because to be confused is human. But genuine taboos are not based on superstitions at all, and neither are they rooted in common sense. They are rooted in magical and mystical/spiritual competence, and are actually axioms of science-by-other-means, the kind done the traditional sympathetic-magical/alchemical way. Here's a few examples:

 

the taoist prohibition on self-mutilation (this would include tattoos and Botox and Lasik and plastic surgeries, by the way). The reason for the taboo can be found in the taoist anatomy and physiology which includes the human body into the realm of spirit -- some of its shens dissipate after death but others don't, and the problem with these is that they carry the acquired (or lost) parts to other realms and other lifetimes, to any and all existences and non-existences that lie ahead. So interfering with the body in this manner is understood as interfering, quite tangibly, with the soul, and not just in this life but in the afterlife to come as well. So what might be mistaken for "moral judgement" or "common sense" regarding the reasons for this particular taboo is in reality the continuation of magical expertise, of the taboo's creators proficiency in the realm of the spirits.

 

The taboo on disturbing ancestral graves (a common one for all "uncivilized" peoples on earth) is of a similar origin -- to interfere with the resting-in-peace state and/or wholeness of the body's remains is understood as a blatant interference into the life of the soul that used to be attached to this body and, partially but inevitably, still IS! -- and is still connected to this dead person's living-today descendants -- in ways more mysterious but no less real than the way you are connected to your ancestors through your genes inherited from them.

 

Yin feng shui, e.g. (that has been practiced in China for at least a couple thousand years), i.e. feng shui for the graves (as opposed to yang feng shui for homes and businesses), has multiple taboos all of which effectively prohibit making the remains uncomfortable in any manner whatsoever. I've seen an opinion that the Han people who constitute the overwhelming majority in China, which makes them by far the most populous people on Earth today, used to be a tribe no different from numerous other tribes on the territory of ancient China in anything except their burial rituals, and that that's what has made the historic difference in their long-term fate. Their closest historic competitors used to hang their coffins in the hope of assuring the dead relative's ascending to heaven or something. The coffins were thus frequently disturbed by, e.g., adverse weather events and what-not. That people, once Han's powerful rival, is long gone and forgotten. A single taboo that was meticulously observed by a single tribe for a long enough time seems to have shaped the world as we know it...

[in2it2heal]

Hi. I'm new here. I hope it's okay to jump right in.

 

I have read what everyone posted, and taboo seems to come down to a hodgepodge of knowables, unknowables, superstition and faith.

 

For example, QiDr stated,

 

There are a lot of very straight forward taboos to paractices like:

It is inadvisable to engage in practice when drunk or intoxicated,

within several hours of having sex,

when overly full of food,

when overly hungry,

during the mid-day (yang practices),

during mid-night (yin practices),

on solstices, new and full moons,

When recently angered,

close to hard, external martial arts practice,

when having emphasis on outcome of the practice.

 

From my rudimentary knowledge, these taboos are common sense due to heightened and depleted energy and disciplinary issues. When I'm drunk and my inhibitions are down, I'll be more likely to go journeying where I don't belong and then who knows what I might bring into my energy field. It would also make it difficult to focus, in general.

 

I have worked with some spiritual healers who adhere to the philosophy that nothing "negative" can affect them or the "negative energies" don't exist. Then, I do healing work on them and I'm pulling all kinds of gook and blocks out of their energy fields because they have not adequately protected themselves. I think some of them adhere to that philosophy because the fear of dealing with negative energy would be too overwhelming for them to be able to do their positive healing work. I sometimes wonder if they would be more effective if they acknowledged the existence of the "negative" and embraced that they are powerful enough to repel it.

 

I think the word "taboo" can carry judgment with it. In Western society, "Taboo" sounds so forbidden and sexy. But really, some taboos are more like "common sense advice", while some other "taboos" seem to be based on faith/religion, such as how to treat statues, the body, nature, life, etc... In other words, "taboo" ends up being a very broad term with a great deal of meaning interwoven within it.

 

I used to be relatively careless with my "spiritual things". Healing stones, my body, rituals, etc...I take more care now, not because I feel something really bad will happen if I don't, but because by being caring with my things and my practice the sacred is brought to my every moment. Life is just more loving that way.