Boerewors

My question to you is, why are you living in a capitalist country, if socialism and communism is superior? I'd say your actions contradict your ideals. You may perceive it as rude, but at the same time, to live in a capitalist society screaming about how unjust it is, and sitting in a first-world Western country, is a paradox. And as such, I cannot take any "leftist" or commie seriously when their actions contradict their claims, it's a form of hypocrisy, or cowardice. If capitalism was worse than communism, you wouldn't be living in a capitalist society, people from socialist or communist societies would not be trying to get into Western capitalist societies. You can claim differently all you want, but your actions are what I trust, not your words, typed from a capitalist country. I'm from South Africa. I'd like you to come live here, or some other non-capitalist society, and then compare. You see, it's easy to think it works when you don't understand how unions can ruin a country. All of our SOEs, State-owned Enterprises, have been neglected, and run into the ground. Let's take Eskom as an example, our power utility, which employs over 20000 more people than it should, and the CEOs all get massive sign-on and leaving bonuses. There's a thing called load shedding in my country, rolling blackouts, and it can never be fixed for a number of reasons; 1) Unions have too much power, and the ANC won't fire the 20000+ that are nothing but leeches, because they'll lose those 20000+ votes. 2) The people in townships, which are like favelas, don't pay for water or electricity, and owe the municipalities billions, billions every year. Will they be forced to pay? They can't because nobody wants to invest here to create jobs due to the power of unions, corruption, and racist policies. Will they be cut off? No. Instead, we have rolling blackouts, depending on the stage (from 2 hours a day to 12), for both those who pay and those who don't and it'll get even worse. So can you imagine paying a massive amount for your utilities, and then being cut off from it because others don't? It's shit. Zimbabwe, is a great example of what's going to become of South Africa soon.

Yes liminal_luke, everybody isn't a bootlicker, and some people actually live in communist or socialist countries. I just think it's ironic that you're all from capitalist countries in general. Put your money where your mouth is.

The only problem I have with "leftists", is that your ideals tend to extend as far as your nose. You believe in ideals you never put into practice. You might be the owner of this forum, but that doesn't mean living in a first world country and being a hippy doesn't make you a hypocrite. Why don't you come live in some "leftist" country in Africa for a while, if you can live here for 30 years I can respect your opinion, until then your ideals stems from ignorance, and you're too much of a coward to actually live in a communist or socialist country. Your interaction with other cultures as a tourist and as an expat is much different. Cuba and Venezuela are also waiting for you "Comrade", so is Zimbabwe and South Africa.

I liked and thanked all those that gave me good advice, so I fail to see why you had to phrase it that way. What I don't appreciate is petulant children like your friends Earl Grey and Freeform, maybe you respect them for some reason, but maybe I believe respect is earned. Acting like an asshole doesn't equate to earning my respect. Have a pleasant day.

Excellent advice, maybe your friends should learn from it too, they are after all, the ones disrupting the thread, not me. Have a pleasant day.

Right now you're the undesirable troll that is unwanted in this thread though, so ironic you'd call another that. I guess your fragile ego must've been bruised. Maybe your master will give you a nice pat on the head today, and then you'll feel much better. Also, the fact that people from different ideological perspectives are able to find similar ground is not necessarily a bad thing. To me what we perceive as objective reality, is that small percentage of our subjective realities that overlap with one another. So I don't mind people with different opinions as long as they don't impose them upon me. Have a pleasant day man.

Can you tell me what you mean by fire method? I've heard of water methods like Kunlun, but don't necessarily understand why it's called water or fire methods. Also, could you point me in the right direction to check this method out myself? My apologies for the belated reply.

I really appreciate your advice, I do think it's what I needed to know from one who has walked this road before. I hope to be able to put into practice what you suggest diligently, and will take to mind the philosophical advice given, it's pure gold. I wish you a pleasant night my friend, and will look forward to reading more of you.

You haven't demonstrated any skill, and taking you at your word would be the mark of a fool. You and your pal's little power trip was an indication of the subconscious realization that you're way off where you claim to be. Why are you even wasting our time with this thread if you're so superior? Maybe because you neglect your practice and are all mouth? Hmmm... Seems likely. Don't care what that hypothetical teacher might think anyway. Once again, a great indication of what an obedient person you are. Just because you seek validation from others, don't think it's the same for me. Perhaps, but then again I'm not claiming to be some advanced student, who's wasting his time on a forum trying to convince people he can shoot laser beams from his eyes because he has some kind of "skills". Says the guy on his power trip trying to convince me that his way of thought is superior to all others. Okay dude, keep contradicting yourself. It's pretty much implied when keyboard-Daoists proceed to want to force their dogma on you, which indirectly implies that all other forms of high magic / internal alchemy is invalid. Ditto.

Judging by their behavior I'm not interested in exploring their avenues, so I guess the feeling is mutual. I don't like narrow-mindedness, and as such we'd be a bad fit. And in my short time here I have unfortunately been greeted with so many armchair masters that I can easily see why people like Damo Mitchell, JAJ, and Thunder Wizard left this forum. If they were so proficient they wouldn't need to boast, it's a subconscious tell that they realize they're full of shit. I did start out with respect, they continued to impose dogma upon me, so I'd say if I tell somebody I don't like something, and they continue with it, and I react in an unpleasant way towards them, they were asking for it. I made it clear that I'm into a syncretic stuff.

This is the type of constructive advice I appreciate, thank you very much John. I will take heed of your generous advice, and do some soul searching to understand what the core of my path will be, then build everything else around it in time. Have a pleasant day.

It's easy to see who the big mouths are as opposed to the real journeymen, I guess I can be grateful for that. I do appreciate his advice.

I guess the last quote is an example of me being naive and self-entitled huh? Or is it simply that you neglected to read anything I typed, and resorted to jumping to the conclusion that I must be some arrogant, self-entitled fool, who thinks I'll be an immortal in a couple of days, despite the fact that I mentioned that I intend to accomplish it in a number of decades. Maybe you got offended because your friend was called out for his rude and repugnant behavior, but guess what, that's not my problem. If his attitude is a result of his work under his current master, I suppose it's a negative reflection upon his master's ability to proper instill manners, which in turn reflects badly upon his master. Not an avenue worth investigating in my opinion. I'm well aware of how obedient and orthodox most Daoists are, and also how arrogant. I guess you probably think immortality is only achievable through Daoist methods, well it's not. I'm interested in approaching it from the Hermetic perspective as well as Daoism, I could approach it from a Shamanistic, Hindu, Buddhist, or Heathen esoteric perspective as well. Nobody was being rude to you initially, your friend was rude and was called out on it, now you're upset too, judging by the fact that you've neglected to properly read much of anything I typed. I guess that precludes you and Earl Grey since you're both lacking in both manners and grace. Carry on. And just so you know, I've already mentioned other avenues, so it didn't just pop into my head once I read a book on Daoism. Get over yourself.

I have nothing to apologize for, nor am I desperate enough to beg anyone for anything. I accept the gracious advice from those who are more well-tempered and articulate than yourself without problem, so the problem in my opinion lies with your attitude and not mine. I will henceforth try to avoid as much interaction with you as possible, because you have proven to be a crude, impolite, and obnoxious fellow. Have a pleasant day.

I thank you for your advice, and I do intend to gradually accomplish my goals over three or four decades of dedicated practice. I will be cautious of the eureka moments as you have advised, and will try to be cautious in my endeavors. I thank you for your kind advice. I have one question though, what is yinde?

I never claimed to be perfectly mature or pleasant, though I have tried, maybe not successfully, to be thus regardless of your previous attempts to belittle my chosen path. Teachers like who then? And from my understanding there are different types of Neidan, some I've never heard of, some becoming Immortal, others kind of like Buddhist stuff in ceasing to exist. I'm interested in the Immortal one, and if you have any advice regarding it, I would be very happy if you would share it with me, and will investigate whether what they charge will be worth it for me. The thing is though, since I'm only starting out with Daoist stuff beyond Zhan Zhuang, should I really be getting into Neidan this soon?

Hi, this guy was only used as an example of somebody who is extremely passionate about a certain aspect of Daoism, which is weather magic. He was a good example I thought because he is self-taught, from the manuals of Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson. I have learned from the constructive comments, like not mixing teachers due to qi deviation, so I'm currently deciding who it'll be. I do lean towards Jerry Alan Johnson, and have all of his books, most of his qigong forms can also be learned on youtube from his students. I also have Damo Mitchell's books, and his books seem more beginner friendly, but not as deep, he also has his own streaming video courses for help with form. So it'll be between those two, but am leaning towards JAJ, because I myself am very interested in the magical aspects of his work too. I'm primarily interested in Neidan for the chance to become an Immortal. If I understand correctly, JAJ and Damo both work with the golden fetus, this is one school of thought regarding immortality that I'm very interested in, though I do confess I know very little about it right now, and even less about all the other kinds.

I've been lurking around here for about a year and a half. I've joined the forum, because I'm about to get more serious about my alchemical practice. I'm a Western occultist, I've only recently returned to it, been meditating, visualizing, and training the senses daily for the last 7 months. I'm 29 now, when I was 19 I initially started with practice, but became complacent, and lost interest because I guess I wasn't mentally mature enough at the time. I'm looking to get deeper in Daoism, I have read a few books, as well as owning a bunch of NeiGong books, namely the Kunlun system, and A Comprehensive Guide to Daoist Neigong, and Taoist Yoga. I currently do Zhan Zhuang in the Wuji posture for 10 - 20 minutes a day, after my 30 minutes of stillness meditation, and sense development exercises, I find it very grounding. I'm primarily looking to just learn from you guys as I go. I haven't seriously started with dynamic kinds of QiGong, but am now ready, and have the time, to do so. The styles I'm considering starting with are from either Zhongxian Wu ( I have his Cosmic Tiger QiGong, as well as the Microcosmic Orbit one), or Damo Mitchell's stuff from his Comprehensive NeiGong book. I'm kind of leaning towards Zhongxian Wu's books, because there is guy in the Netherlands who is a lineage disciple of his, that I would like to train with in the future. I'm a white South African, and plan on permanently immigrating to the Netherlands in a year and a half, or two years at most. I have not touched the Kunlun book due to the warning of mixing it with "fire" practices which I assume is willful. I also don't have access to Red Phoenix or Red Dragon, and am not planning on going to the US anytime soon. Have a pleasant evening.

Yes, we know you're angry. I hope you feel better soon.

I was not aware you were the one true master of Daoism, the one authority of some Way that is uniform and is the same for everybody. You have deviated from the subject and reacted rather rudely and obnoxiously and I request that you look to yourself before lecturing others because your behavior has been unbecoming of one who would seek to instruct others. I probably won't. But thank you for projecting your bias perception of everyone with a different perspective upon me. What an enlightened and delightful fellow you are. Joke's on you, I'm not on reddit. You're also pretending that everybody has access to the same resources you do. I don't have Daoist masters where I live. I guess I should sit in some corner and wait a few hundred years before one shows up to instruct me, even though he's likely not an immortal himself, unlike the many spirits in the Cosmos whom I may one day be able to learn from with enough luck. Please don't force your dogma on me, I made it clear I don't adhere to your orthodoxy, and if I did I would go to China to become an ordained priest. But let's pretend you know everything, that's probably why you've reacted in such a respectful manner, right?

Not very open-minded or respectful of people with different experiences than yours I see. Have a pleasant evening.

If what you suggest is I stick with the teachings of a single Daoist teacher, I will heed your advice and pick between the works of Jerry Alan Johnson and Damo Mitchell since they have comprehensive details about Neidan. This advice is extremely appreciated and I thank you for it.

I don't mean to come across as disrespectful, but I'm not one for dogma, so here goes: I actually know many others that practice in such a self-directed way, and they tend to do fine. I understand that some aspects of Daoism are very orthodox and dogmatic, so I understand what you are saying, but choose to respectfully disagree. You're also assuming that I can't learn from benevolent spirits. The post you linked is indeed interesting, however, as previously stated I know many others who are doing just fine doing this kind of thing, they've been doing this for decades and are in excellent spiritual, mental, and physical health. These types of people work with all kinds of spirits, and while I'm still a novice myself, I have successfully evoked and invoked multiple times. I'm not mentally unstable or anything. But I do thank you for the concern. As I stated in my intro, I'm a Western magician, and I believe syncretism with Daoism to be perfectly natural. If the day comes when I complain about qi deviation, you may point your fingers, say I told you so and laugh, but until then I will respectfully have to refrain from following a single path, because that is not for me. Thank you for your answer though, I hope I have not come across as disrespectful.

I live in the non-gated suburbs of South Africa, and even in the gated suburbs, that does not occur, so unfortunately there isn't anything like that here. If you look up our crime rates it's beneath only Brazil and Venezuela, but in reality, most people don't even report crimes here, so it's much worse, and statistics are generally off. I understand this sentiment, but in reality, Daoism on it's own, doesn't appeal to me that much, this is why it took so long for me to get into it. Daoism viewed from a pagan and Pythagorean-Orphic lens does. So to me, the works of Thunder Wizard will probably be inspiring because from what I understand, he took what one current lacked, namely the energetic practices and Neidan, from another, breaking away the cultural and dogmatic attachments, and added it to another, completing it. This is the type of thing I'm into, so I will be mixing currents a great deal. I understand why people would advise otherwise, and that it is dangerous. But to me it is essential to create my own way mixing what I deem necessary as time goes on. I'm an omnitrist, so I believe that the Gods and Daimons of say, Hellenic mythology, are related to the Celestials and Thunder gods of Daoism. So to me investigating something from many angles makes much more sense. Here's an interesting video, that mentions exchange of Deities between the Hellenes and China, skip to 58 minutes -

It's ironic that you mention this, because I have three of his books, namely the Way of Power, Everyday Chi Kung, and Walking Chi Kung. And I actually use his method of standing instead of Damo Mitchells, because I find it works better on the knees, and the "sitting back" part from Damo Mitchell's book doesn't work well for me. Damo Mitchell's advice on the Yong Quan and feet were quite good though, so I used that, but instead of shifting my weight forward, I spread my toes out and push them into the floor, I can feel the "bubbling", more like burning, in my feet when I do this. Thanks for your advice. Have a good day man.