YMWong

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Posts posted by YMWong

  3. Posted

    This saying isnt from Yi Chuab but i guess all practice use this method in one way or another? I guess it also can be 6 heart breathing method in and out through these points? Possibly wuji standing Zhan Zhong?

     

    I really have no idea, sorry.

     

    I saw this reference in Xingyi and Yichan books only.

    I also just Googled the six heart sentence and it only sorts out Xingyi/Yiquan references so I'd tend to say that's a very specific and martial thing.

     

    YM

  4. Posted

    whats the summit heart and what does it do in regards to cultivation?

     

    thanks heaps

     

    This is actually from martial art practice and, at least for as much as I know, I haven't heard the same discussed in cultivation terms.

     

    As I don't practice Xingyi or Yiquan, from whence the saying comes, I cannot say for sure but I suppose the 'summit heart' is the top of the head.

     

    YM

  7. Posted

    anthropomorphous Heshouwu, what is that?

     

    A kind of chinese medicinal root (Radix Polygoni Multiflori) that may, like any other root, at times grow in the shape of a human body.

    That's one of the many common "fake" products sold nowadays in China and even the 'real' ones are simply standard roots with another shape, nothing medicinally special apart from its shape.

     

    http://images.google.com.hk/images?um=1&am...G=Search+Images

     

    69865_j_0011.jpg

     

    YM

  9. Posted

    Hey guys, is "The School of Seclusion" the only policy that the traditional daoists had?

     

    I might mess up a bit, but please allow me some reflections: I saw some the principles and the results of traditional daoism, and I saw some of the principles and results of non-traditional daoism. Both are attractive to people.

    From what I've seen until now, the traditional dao... seems to have too many strings attached...

    Many codes rules obligations...

    Is this true or just a false image?

     

    Any "Way" will have its adherents.

     

    In this world, there are places where people eat hamburger and others were they eat worms and spiders.

    If you ask both of them they will tell you their food is the best and the others are crazy.

    There is not, therefore, better or worse food: there is only the food you are accustomed to or that fits your needs.

     

    As for Daoism you are right, there are codes, rules and obligations.

     

    By the same token, to cook a good hamburger there are plenty of rules to follow.

     

    When one starts to learn ANYTHING there are always lots of rules to follow.

    We all have been to school and know what it means.

    Once you have reached maturity/success in your endevour some of the rules have become (good) habit and some of the other rules disappear.

     

    When you learn chinese calligraphy at the beginning the body is as stiff as it can be. You are asked to keep your back straight, your hand bent in an awkward way, you copy each and every classical style in a boring endless way.

     

    But once you have reached maturity and watch a great calligrapher it is a dance, the whole body moves and flexes and the characters are like a painting.

     

    YM

  10. Posted

    No they dont, othervise written talimans or magic books that you dont even need to read would not exsist. The role of written text is sorely misunderstood.

     

    You have taken the sentence out of context.

     

    The Three Threasures are Dao (the Universal Principle), the Master (who transmits the Principles) and the Scripture (which enunciates the Principles).

    "Written talisman and magic books" are not Scriptures (Jing) per se, although they might be part of some scriptures.

     

    YM

  11. Posted

    Good attitude!

     

    I've long held such a dream. Great schools like this have existed before but to my knowledge, never have many traditions gathered under one roof.

     

    Absolutely right.

     

    I think this 'dream' is a very nice one but one that can hardly materialize.

     

    I don't know much, if anything, about other traditions but in Daoism - in history as today in China - when two great masters from different lines meet they both humble each other and immediately the one *more developed* (for lack of a better term) is recognized by the other who becomes "the student".

    This is expressed in the Daodejing as the river always flowing toward the sea.

    Also just think about the encounter between Confucius and Laozi.

     

    When two students from different lines meet they mostly argue about who's school is better :)

     

    I think this depends on the fact that Daoism is very much a "personal" endevour, a solitary and personal path.

    The pratictioner is very much concerned in walking up his path of development and sees 'external' knowledge as a disturbance - very much like a student of medicine would not want to loose time talking scholastic/learning issues with a student of engineering.

     

    Historically speaking, in Daoism, the relationship is always very much a student/teacher and not a peer-peer one***. Cross pollination is fundamental to growth and this is very common in Daoism of course but that is done again by student/teacher relationship. A student of a certain line, going up his path, often seek assistance, guidance and new material from teachers of other lines - but always as a solitary and personal endevour.

     

    Maybe this is something 'western Daoism' can do better than Chinese Daoism ?

     

    YM

     

    *** peer-peer relationship is common with Shamanism in China

  12. Posted · Edited by YMWong

    -- or if you ever feel like asking me what I actually do, and how exactly? -- I will reconsider. Until then, I bid you a virtual farewell.

     

    The day I'll turn my attention from Daoism to the "Siberian-Mongolian-Manchu-shamanic/Maoshan/Tibetan Buddhist/Russian vorozhba traditions" you'll be the first I consider for informations.

     

    Thank you in any case and be well

     

    YM

  13. Posted

    I'm baffled by the way your reading comprehension skills work.

     

    While my comprehension skills might be poor, and holding a conversation in a second language might increase chances of misunderstanding, when one speaks and the other doesn't understand there is always the possibility for the speaker to have no been clear. N'est pas ?

     

     

    but at least can you take my word for my being a woman?

     

    Sure !

     

    And do you think I thought you were a Doctor, too ?

     

     

    :blink:

     

    YM

  14. Posted

    I have a few Chinese friends, and invariably, their lifestyles, even in this country, are markedly different from those of non-Chinese people around them.

     

    I am sure different countries have different habits. I have travelled quite a bit, although of course I cannot say I have seen it all, and have lived in various places including the USA (for a couple of years after I graduated).

     

    We spoke about changes that Daoism went by in its history and how those changes were all made by people INSIDE THE TRADITION. For a reason or another, be that historically or at times even political, somebody made some changes.

     

    But if, as an outsider, you think you can "take what fits you" from a Daoist Tradition and leave outside what does not then you are IMO well off-base. Even if you claim that what you take off is due to 'cultural or geographical' reasons which you cannot accept because "you were not born into a corresponding lifestyle".

     

    Let's say you want to become a Quanzhen Daoist (daoshi). One of the first requirements is full celibacy, even nocturnal emissions are strictly prohibited and must be controlled.

    But then maybe because you grew up in a country that allows it you want to keep your six wifes and continue your regular sex life.

     

    Or you want to become a Medical Doctor only studying the lower body anatomy since you have decided to later specialize in treating people's leg ?

     

    YM

  20. Posted

    However, to a teacher of the Badmaev lineage Maoshan is small fry, a fraction of what they've been up to. Physicians to tzars, teachers to Dalai Lamas. OK, now I've dropped the name. Let's see what you can do with it...

     

    I won't tell you what I'll do with that as I don't want you to get angry again :)

     

    Be well

     

    YM

  21. Posted

    Well, it will be some years before I have the necessary foundation to do a proper translation the actual Ling Bao Bi Fa text (which starts with Ren Xian Gong, the Human Immortal Methods). For now, I'm just translating the outline, from Yin Xian Fa through the Ling Bao Bi Fa, focusing on the Yin Xian Fa because that's where I and most of us here are at.

     

    You are doing a great service to all as the Lingbao is a central text to many transmissions including Longmen of course.

     

    If you read french there is a very early translation made by Farzeen Baldrian Hussein in 1984. I haven't touched the book in more than 20 years but as I recall, although there were a number of issue with the translation, it was altogether of great help for those unable to read the original version.

     

    Here is the Book Review originally written by Livia Kohn

     

    http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/public...fs/pdf/a547.pdf

     

    I am not sure if the book is still in print thou

     

    YM

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    I strongly believe you, Taomeow, because I believe you are a honest person.

    I read this in your words and feel this from what's behind.

     

    But the fact that you are honest and therefore telling me/us what you really believe do not make your words more 'true' or what you say more objective.

     

    If you say that you are linked to "Siberian-Mongolian-Manchu-shamanic/Maoshan/Tibetan Buddhist/Russian vorozhba" than I wish you all the best. What can I say.

    To me, from an evidently very uninformed perspective (at least on the siberiantibetanrussianetc.etc.), they are all hardly related. But if you say they are, because you were born in Russia and all the experience I am sure you had, there is not much a can reply to you.

     

    To me we are talking apples and oranges.

     

    It's hard for me to discuss about Maoshan with you if refuse what I say on the basis of having been in a orthodox church in Kiev when you were fifteen.

    Of course I am stretching the issue here but I hope you'll understand my line of reasoning.

     

    I have posted to you references to the claims, made by Max and Chris, to being part of Shangqing Pai Maoshan Daoism after you said the opposite.

    You haven't replied to that and now you pull up the siberianmongoliantibetan etc. story.

     

    To be in Maoshan Daoism one must have been accepted by a Maoshan teacher.

    If you ask a Doctor about his background, he will simply tell you he graduated from such and such University under certain teachers, submitted a thesis about something etc.

    In the same way, when a Daoist is asked or simply speaking among fellow pratictioners any Daoist would present his "credentials" and tell you the 'tan' (altar) he belongs to, the sect he was accepted by, the teacher he studied with, his daoist name according to the lineal poem of the sect etc.

    This is standard practice and good manner in all walk of life, including Daoism of course.

     

    Ask Max or Lum and see what they say.

     

    Honesty is a good thing, very good thing, but when it encounters dis-honesty it often looses.

     

    YM

  23. Posted · Edited by YMWong

    I come from Altai, not from Eva Wong and not from what I heard in the States. My link to Siberian-Mongolian-Manchu-shamanic/Maoshan/Tibetan Buddhist/Russian vorozhba traditions is a birthright.

     

    That's quite a bunch of heterogeneous stuff to be placed in the same pout-pourri ...

     

    :P

     

    YM

     

    EDIT: By the way, in case this wasn't clear, I actually believe anything you said

  24. Posted

    You are using a scholarly approach to attack Max by picking bits and pieces which you have garnered from various available media. I believe TaoMeow has a great deal more credibility talking about Maoshan on the basis of her significant experience. If you did some research into her older posts you would find allusions and indications about that experience and knowledge garnered from real world experience which grant her the credibility to talk about Maoshan from experience. Your attempt to denigrate what she knows of Maoshan from being taught compared to what you know from literature and pop culture is in this light silly.

     

    Your assumption I know about Maoshan from literature and pop culture is totally off-base.

    My first trip to Maoshan is dated, I think, 1984. My encounter with Maoshan Daoism much earlier in Taiwan.

    You have things, IMHO, completely upside down. TM's view of Maoshan is what she reads in books (Eva Wong and the likes) and what she hears in the States from people like Max (TM, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong - I have not been on this board long enough to know more about you).

     

    Apparently you have objected to the use of Maoshan in connection with his lineage. I believe this has been refuted by his actual stated lineage connections.

     

    This is far from being the case, from my point of view.

    Actual Mao Shan Daoism never existed in the Chinese community of Hawaii, which was composed of immigrants mainly from Guandong, the districts called Siyap, Zhongshan and Longdu. The Daoists, one named Wong and one named Li, were both local ritual masters from Longdu, mostly doing burials, and sometimes an adapted form of the Jiao, in which the freeing of souls (the Pudu) was the most important element.

     

    Take care

     

    YM

  25. Posted

    I got my new kitten three months ago[...]

     

    Nice story TM but let me ask you: if you were sick and needed a heart surgery would you care to know if the surgeon opening your chest is a guy who has spent at least 10 years on higher studies, has done further experience in a proper hospital and has all credentials to do the operation ?

     

    It is important, of course, that he is a GOOD doctor but that's only AFTER the above requirements are met.

     

    This of course does not rule out the possibility that one seriously interested in the medical field, having read lots of things and been involved in the field might know quite a bit about medicine.

    But, at least in my opinion, he is not a Medical Doctor and I would never-ever let him open my chest if I knew he did not get the proper (academic and experiential) training.

     

    Would you ?

     

    YM