Leaderboard

Have you read Crowley's 'poetic rendition' of that early translation ? A PARAPHRASE OF THE INSCRIPTIONS UPON THE OBVERSE OF THE STELE OF REVELLING Above, the gemmèd azure is The naked splendour of Nuit; She bends in ecstasy to kiss The secret ardours of Hadit. The wingèd globe, the starry blue Are mine, o Ankh-f-n-Khonsu. I am the Lord of Thebes, and I The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu; For me unveils the veiled sky, The self-slain Ankh-f-n-Khonsu Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet Thy presence, o Ra-Hoor-Khuit! Unity uttermost showed! I adore the might of Thy breath, Supreme and terrible God, Who makest the gods and death To tremble before Thee: — I, I adore thee! Appear on the throne of Ra! Open the ways of the Khu! Lighten the ways of the Ka! The ways of the Khabs run through To stir me or still me! Aum! let it kill me! * The Light is mine; its rays consume Me: I have made a secret door Into the House of Ra and Tum, Of Khephra, and of Ahathoor. I am thy Theban, o Mentu, The prophet Ankh-f-n-Khonsu! By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat: By wise Ta-nech I weave my spell. Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit! Bid me within thine House to dwell, O winged snake of light, Hadith! Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit! A PARAPHRASE OF THE HIEROGLYPHS OF THE 11 LINES UPON THE REVERSE OF THE STELE Saith of Mentu the truth-telling brother Who was master of Thebes from his birth: O heart of me, heart of my mother! O heart which I had upon earth! Stand not thou up against me as a witness! Oppose me not, judge, in my quest! Accuse me not now of unfitness Before the Great God, the dread Lord of the West! For I fastened the one to the other With a spell for their mystical girth, The earth and the wonderful West, When I flourished, o earth, on thy breast! The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu Saith with his voice of truth and calm: O thou that hast a single arm! O thou that glitterest in the moon! I weave thee in the spinning charm; I lure thee with the billowy tune. The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu Hath parted from the darkling crowds, Hath joined the dwellers of the light, Opening Duant, the star-abodes, Their keys receiving. The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu Hath made his passage into night, His pleasure on the earth to do Among the living. The bolded and italic part is the section used in the adoration . I find the 'Egyptian' incantation work as a type of 'kotodama' while the English helps with conceptual visualizations ... and with those both one might be able to imagine the effects of long term invocation 4 times a day . * a typo ; k .... f (oooops ! ... I you wouldnt be doing that 4 times a day long term ... you would only get 'one shot at it ' .

Most cultivation and martial systems have clear guidelines on standing pose. The duration could range from a few minutes to 6 hours. As to when a student should stand how much, there are endless possibilities for different schools. So perhaps Damo is not referring to this. I think Damo's target audience of his video is those who practise alone, without teacher or even practise ZZ (Jam Jong) only. These people would need a guideline on the duration and when to do what.

which only proves the point of the headline: I remember the early explorers of the land that was to become the USA reporting on what was to become the Hudson river -- they asserted you could cross that river stepping on salmon's backs.

Saw this, and it felt a bit like gatekeeping. It's the most powerful form of qigong out there, and is not locked behind an academy paywall and a guru-like teacher. I switched now to just standing and nothing else on energetics. 40mins in ball holding pose, as recommended in Marc Cohen's book Inside Zhan Zhuang. My body becomes more supple, looser as the time progresses, not harder or stiffer. An important part of that is body scanning and allowing knots of tension to release. There are experiences when tension and hardness suddenly dissolve, after which the body feels light and soft. I would advise trying it for yourself. If you feel stiffer and more stuck, as Damo intimates, then switch to wuji or moving forms. But don't take his word as gospel, without trying for yourself.

.

Google Veo 3 (AI video creation software) has been out around a week. Parodies, deep fakes and photoshop edits will eventually be hitting the internet hard. Making this thread to share those grand future expectations.

there’s lots to unpack in this - might start a thread on it - what do you think?

You say the whole process so well. As to the end of exercises Wuji, I would recommend to everyone if they are not already doing so. A few minutes (say 3) would be sufficient.

Sharing my experience which may differ from others - hope people find it useful. When I first learned static postures many years ago my martial arts instructor called them mental forms. There were many different ones, some quite complicated and challenging to hold for even a short time. I initially thought this term “mental form” meant just having enough mind to overcome the physical discomfort of holding the position to physically develop the body and develop power.. Later I realized in much longer stances& seats there is also a mental urge to stop from boredom and do something (anything) else that also was a challenge to overcome and was different than just overcoming the physical discomfort . Over many years I was exposed to static stance training from a number of teachers and systems in qi gong, martial arts and even in yoga. My understanding is that many systems have a “wuji” type stance (simple stance without much external complexity) to start the body change process. My understanding is that at a basic level what this entails is hanging flesh from the bones while using the mind to ting (listen) and song (release tension in the tissue & mind ) This involves essentially turning off tension/contraction in the large muscle groups as much as possible while maintaining the skeletal structure fully erect. This “relaxed’ stretching of the internal connective tissue from gravity has a different quality of development associated with it than normal external stretching or stressing muscle tissue through resistance. This can lead to the development/connection of the tissue lattice network of the internal “wetsuit” making energetic connections between parts of the body not normally connected possible (e.g hand/palm to lower abdomen, etc) My experience is this also can lead to internal energetic efficacy of hand mudras and various other hand positions as well. “Wuji” can be used as a stand alone position with the weight fully sunk to the feet to open yongquan and connect with the earth. Depending on how the foot is used, this opening can also develop the lower Dan tian and even commence its rotation. . This opening of the feet (yongquan, etc) can lead to the flow of energy/force up from the feet to shoulders and arms (or head). This energetic flow can expand and internally open the legs, kua, back, spine, shoulders and arms and is part of what makes the ZZ arm position magic work. “Wuji” is also used as a position to hold at the end of practice to allow the previous practice’s internal mechanisms to continue to work in the body. “Wuji” simple stance can work a bit like a blank sheet of paper that due to lack of much complex structure, while maintaining the relaxed internal connective tissue stretch, allows these internal processes to continue with little interference. Obviously “wuji” basic stance is used in conjunction with many, many other practices but in my understanding it is very important in the overall process of internal development. To balance this internal work it’s very important to also develop the external body (muscles, joints, bones etc) through more conventional exercise. I am sure other’s experience varies - just sharing my own.

In the old days, we didn't call standing pose as ZZ (stand like a piling) much, but more common as Jaat Ma which literally means tying or bounding the horse. This horse stance means 2 legs apart and slightly bent, as firm as a stake of a camp into the ground. I think there is a hidden meaning of using standing to tie your mind which is like a galloping horse.

I seem to have impression on his book, his Wuji is with arms in a certain position. Not sure I recall correctly or not.

Any system worth its salt has a wuji posture. Southern mantis for example uses wuji to teach inner sinking without external sinking.K atori shinto ryu does the same with their natural stance, as described by Sugino. A similar description is done by Tom Bisio too. Almost the same as explained in Sun family methods (tcc,xingyi,etc). Dan Harden teaches it as misogi model. Damo mitchell has wuji teachings too... It's more like if you are only doing stillness in your wuji, you never learned wuji.

That is a beautiful story which may hold true for my current situation.

無極(Wuji) is void to the extreme. Nothing should be performed but stillness. If a practitioner ask you to do this and that at a Wuji position, sorry to say! You are not at the state of Wuij.

He seems to have used Wallis Budge translations of names which are now non-standard. For instance Ra hoor Khuit would be Re - Horakhty etc. But I guess as you say he was reinterpretiing it into his own system (as with Hadit which is not an Egyptian term) - but all good with that. My old teacher (who actually met Crowley once) said he knew what he was doing (with a caveat that he indulged himself a little playing games with people). I had a look at the Stele of Revealing and its a nice find from the Late period and the owner of the stele was a Sem priest - so a magician basically. So nice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stele_of_Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu#/media/File:Stelae_of_Ankh-af-na-khonsu.jpg

those suckers were killing off a whole lot fish in the great lakes until someone painstakingly and finally found a substance that greatly reduced their numbers thus making area fishermen's jobs viable again!

That's why it's good to have friends in High Places. And I'd like to share a small snippet of a story that was passed along to me,,,, There was a guy in a seriously tough place and he called out (prayer) for help. A couple of weeks went by, his suffering deepened. Then, like a thunderbolt, he was delivered out and to safety. This guy, you'd think, woulda been, praising the being that arrived and turned the tide, but, instead, questioned why he (the guy) had to repeat the prayers so many times, weren't you listening? He asked in criticizing tone. We heard you the first time. It took us that long to battle through the evil. You know, the evil that thinks might is right

true because evil can not reach or corrupt it...but when it comes to the ten thousand watch out!

ok, and misinterpreted as you say and or imply is dangerous (for instance idealistic sheep among wolves) The golden "Lion of Judah" is definitely not a meek or weak sheep!

Edit: just for clarification, this is an extract from Inside Zhan Zhuang by Mark Cohen. Apologies to the author, but he's probably able to better express the point than me. On a personal level, I'm also opposed to black and white, absolutist positions on this subject. Maybe zhan zhuang is inappropriate for some beginners, and less so for others. Maybe wuji is better for some beginners, maybe less so for others. The importance is listening to your own body and responding appropriately. And always exercise critical thinking when it comes to Internet authorities.

As far as I understand, to get into Master Wang's retreat now, the process is as follows: You need to attend one of the basic seminars with one of his students, Nathan is one of them, and learn the basic skills there, mastering sitting for three hours. After that, they'll tell you where Master Wang's next retreat is. Master Wang no longer holds retreats for beginners, so there's no real public information. You need to keep in touch with someone who knows Master Wang personally, and then you can find out the next date. And most likely, there won't be any more public beginner retreats. Another option is to go to Dalian, where Master Wang lives, stay there for a while, and then you can attend a retreat; he regularly holds retreats there for advanced students.

Haha, the good old days for me was 60 years ago. I'll reserve my comments on your thoughts on ZZ. Peace!

This is how a beginner does. There is no such thing as not for beginners. Otherwise, where would a beginner start to do something.

ditto on the digestive problems; when we are younger our bodies are normally better able to compensate or recover from certain problems but as I get older the balance related to staying on keel is not so forgiving of unforced errors that I made or could get away with during younger years! btw, its common for college and some high school kids to really hammer their bodies with too much alcohol during parties, I did some of that but thankfully I survived the few times I over did it and then basically quit. (some time in my early 20's) I used to joke with the guys that they had to be in very good shape to knock the hell out of themselves with hard liquor and then be able to get back on their feet.

I quit wheat many years ago and haven't looked back. Before I quit I was itching all the time, now it's very rare. Just that would have been enough to quit wheat products, but lesser effect were that stomach problems became less common and inflammation reduced.