Hello!!

[SteamingTea]

Greetings everyone!

Not really sure what to introduce about myself, so I shall just share my experience of Daoism so far;

My grandfather's family originated (apparently) in Sichuan province in China, and apparently they passed down some martial arts to him, and him to me (I have since gained some experience in Shaolin martial arts, and have been able to draw pretty close similarities between certain forms and the forms I was taught as a kid, so my time at the very least was not wasted XD). As part of this passing down, I was of course taught basic qigong and neigong, and despite my father's insistence on Christianity or my mother's on atheism, I was told I should at least look into daoism when I'm older. After his passing, I continued my practice, I ended up reading the daodejing a short time after I entered secondary education, though I didn't decide to look any further into it until I had entered university, but I did my best to understand and follow the contents of the book, and I did (arrogantly, in hindsight) proclaim myself as a Daoist. After I began university, I started doing a little more reading; zhuangzi, huangdi's inner, liezi, etc., and I began to realize that I had just kept progressing myself from the foundations I was taught, and that my practices now were different to anything I could compare myself to. Since then (about 2-3 years ago) I have been doing my best to comb through as many resources I could find to identify what I've actually done to myself, and whether it's ok that I did that to myself. For the safety of everyone, I will not be sharing any details about my practices until I know that they are not permanently harmful, and I will do my best not to speak on a topic until such a time that I know how to do so, and I understand where I actually stand. 

 

I really do apologize for the vagueness, I'd simply prefer not to make a claim I don't understand. 

 

As to why I joined this forum; I have been looking for a place where people discuss Daoism in detail in English, and this seems like quite a good option for that.

 

I hope we get along :))

 

P.S. I'm moderately well read on hermeticism, psychology and western philosophy, as well as on topics of "magic" if whoever is reading this believes in such a thing

Just sharing the above so my personality isn't TOO confusing if it comes across in my posts.

[Trunk]

@SteamingTea,

Welcome!

- Trunk