Dr Wilson Yong?

[themjay]

Could anyone please be kind enough to comment on the legitimacy of Dr Wilson Yong, purveyor of

http://www.taoistsecret.com/

A daobums search reveals a couple of broadly positive comments over the years, but you can’t get more overt criticism than this site:

https://wilsonyongtaoism.wordpress.com/

Many thanks in advance

[Rocky Lionmouth]

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?”

[Leif]

5 hours ago, themjay said:

A daobums search reveals a couple of broadly positive comments over the years, but you can’t get more overt criticism than this site:

https://wilsonyongtaoism.wordpress.com/

 

No idea about the first site, but in my very humble >>opinion<<, that second site, "review site", is not quite independent, but the "Our circles" page clearly hints what is it all about ("business competition"). From the little I remember of writings of that other guy running websites in "our circle", I wouldn't be surprised if it was his own creation. 

Edited March 3, 2020 by Leif

[SirPalomides]

I wouldn't give the critical blog any credence- that person obviously has a grudge going well beyond any legitimate concerns. And it is not unusual for talismans to be sold by Daoist temples. That said the Taoistsecret website does have a pretty glossy, commercial flavor to it, centered around selling products and books. That makes me suspect the guy is looking to make money, at least as much as he is looking to enlighten . Also, based on the web-content, which is full of grammar errors and oddities (e.g. referring to Laozi and Zhuangzi as "fundamentalists") I can bet that the books he's selling are going to be a chore to read for English readers.

[themjay]

Thank you very much for sharing your opinions, very much appreciated.

[Iskote]

On 3/3/2020 at 5:49 AM, themjay said:

Could anyone please be kind enough to comment on the legitimacy of Dr Wilson Yong, purveyor of

http://www.taoistsecret.com/

A daobums search reveals a couple of broadly positive comments over the years, but you can’t get more overt criticism than this site:

https://wilsonyongtaoism.wordpress.com/

Many thanks in advance

 

 

Not sure if you are still around to see this reply, but here is what I know about Wilson Yong. 

 

I had some interaction with Wilson Yong through email a number of years ago. 

My impression was he was sincere about what he was teaching and offering, and his tradition, but

his type of lineage may not be for everyone. It involves the use of talismans and incantations

and ceremonies and that sort of thing. I don't know very much about his tradition beyond that,

but some might refer to it as 'folk Taoism', which is still practiced in places like Malaysia and Taiwan. 

 

The second webpage looks very similar to the kind of attacks against Wilson Yong that were being made by a person who once posted here at Dao Bums (Herman Mak, if I remember correctly, AKA 'Mak Jo Si', 'Mak Tin Si', etc.), who went by different self proclaimed 'Taoist' titles and names over the years, and who is a very troubled person, to say it as nicely as I can. I think Mak was banned from Dao Bums after only a short stint of posting here, to give you an idea about him. 

 

Mak declared himself and his partner to be 'high level Taoist masters' decreed by the 'highest

level Taoist gods' whom he claimed appeared before them and ordained them, and he started his own 'Taoist temple' and 'Taoist sect', etc., but I remember reading on his website a few years after that where he admitted that he made the whole divinely decreed Taoist master stuff up in conjunction with another person as a scam. His remorse didn't last long however. Several months later he took that webpage down and started a new website under a new name, and a new 'Taoist sect' with a new name, and changed his and his partner's titles and names a bit, but the same story again. He was supposedly ordained into a new 'Taoist sect' by 'highest level Taoist gods' again, and he carried on again as if nothing had happened previously. He used to go on and on about how his 'Taoist sect' was the only true and authentic form of Taoism out there. Ha ha. One of the things he did was use pellet guns on his 'Taoist alter' and similar instead of say ceremonial swords as his special 'Taoist tools' for doing 'exorcisms' and that sort of thing, for which he charged very large sums of money. I kid you not. For several years Mak posted all kinds of videos on Youtube where he was reviewing all kinds of pellet guns and demonstrating all kinds of martial arts forms where it was obvious he was just copying various forms from many different Chinese martial arts DVDs, or making up his own 'martial arts' sets. 

 

For some reason Mak went after Wilson Yong a number of years ago, and Mak was attacking Wilson Yong all over the net, and I believe Wilson Yong just kind of went low profile on the net at that point rather than trying to deal with a very troubled person. Wilson Yong's website also went dormant around the same time, I believe. It looks like he may have decided to stay low profile after what happened with Mak. Wilson Yong is a medical doctor, I believe, and he likely didn't have time to try to deal with Mak's antics on the net.  

 

I can't vouch for the authenticity of Wilson Yong's tradition, because I know little about it, but Mak is definitely a very troubled person from what I saw over a period of several years. I wouldn't normally say much of anything about things like this, but I felt I should give a warning about Mak for people who may not have heard of him before, and who don't know his history. 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Iskote

[SirPalomides]

Ah, the "Tin Yat Lineage" guy who charges $300 for a remote "ordination", I didn't realize that was his blog. That explains a lot.

[Iskote]

Yes, that is the guy.