Master Logray

I think perpetual pain is badly wrong for that system, provided everything is the same i.e. if you have no pain, then go lower, pain comes back, get used to it, no pain, it is normal. If the person due to many reasons, cannot utilize this system, then it is better to adjust or even abandon it. How the leg comes into being discussed. ZZ is mainly for alignment or sinking Chi, sometimes for meditation. Leg strength can be trained in 1 month, and not necessarily by Taichi or ZZ. Body strength or even neck strength in ZZ does require more time.

That depends on which type of Buddhism is or which type of Taoism. Chinese Buddhism like Zen historically mixed with Taoism quite well . But it may not be true for other branches. Another viewpoint is the level. When it is more elementary more technical more restricted in scope, then one cannot assume mixing of practices is safe. It is even true for mixing different Taoist practices.

Saruman's corruption probably came from owning a property. His tower needs lots of resources to build and maintain. Other wizards like Gandalf lived poorly. Even the Rohan King didn't have a proper palace. Owning huge property is not good for maintaining spiritual development.

Illness is often a messenger for other illnesses.

As far as Chinese is concerned, high level cultivators, big religious figures, scholars, Chinese medicine doctors, qigong teachers, kung fu masters, even ZhengYi Taoist who do ceremonies and rituals, usually don't have the power, skill, knowledge and exposure to counter black magics. With luck they could solve some problems but not all, and not fully. Energy alone is not useful in many circumstances. Find the right person by trial and error perhaps. Another reason is the physical component. For example, in south west China and south east Asia, there is a kind of magic called Tame Head or Gong Tau. They have all the black magic stuff as in other parts of the world. But since these areas are tropical jungle and inhabitants are not primitive tribes, their in depth knowledge in plants, insects, animals and how these interact, are not surpassed and remain largely unknown. When these biological/physical components are applied in conjunction with normal black magic, it is unstoppable. In the old days, many Hong Kong men went to south east Asia, they frequently involved with local women. Normally it was just transaction and fake love. However sometimes both sides went deep and developed some genuine feelings in addition to attraction of money and outward appearance. Some women wanted to keep the men forever and used Gong Tau, with the help of magicians. The men was told they can go back to HK but had to return within one or 2 years, or cannot leave the country at all. If not, they would face horrible death. Sometimes the men, realizing their situation, would ask for help from HK's own Gong Tau Sifu or other Taoist sects priests to help. And there came the international magical war. There was a founder of most famous TV station in Chinese community in the world and he also being descendant of a powerful family in Singapore and HK, who said to have encountered this kind of unfortunate incident. He went back and developed sicknesses, both western and Chinese doctors could not do anything. During his autopsy, bugs were found climbing out from his body. Another version his body was full of Amoeba like organisms. It was almost a romantic tragedy, because some Gong Tau would exact a price on the requestor when attack is serious, it means both will die. If this was true, then the magic was potent because they have physical characteristics in addition to curses, deities help or symbolic magic. The victim is geo located - cannot leave a certain region taking into account the temperature and humidity. It also contains a timer, the disease would not blow up within a specified dormant period. Sometimes a grace period is allowed by ingesting additional substances, that means a suppressant or stimulating the immunity system temporarily. The lesson from then on would be never have feelings when visiting these countries for intimate company or pleasure, never visit the same establishment again and never the same woman, pay fully, beware of spiked drinks and food. Nowadays it is not heard of any more. Back to the Kurdistan situation, I think severing the delivery mechanism could help i.e. burn everything that taken out from Kurdistan, or sell them. If it is important, cleanse it with holy water or salt water, bring to churches, put it under the sun, buried in the ground or whatever popular in your countries. If it had been serious, cutting the hair or shaving the head might even help. Just in case there are some physical components embedded somewhere.

Dan Tian means a field which is for growing/building of elixir. A paddy field is used to grow rice. A vine field is for growing grapes. A construction site is for building a house. The meaning is on the "Site". It is not for storage of Chi, there are many words for storage, not need to use a "field". It is not an oil well, otherwise it would be called Dan Spring, Dan Well. The idea to build a Dantian is even more problematic when many Neidan and martial arts lineages place little importance on it. e.g. some schools' Dantian is at the back, outside of the body, near to the body, above the head etc. How to "build" in these locations? While many Kung Fu that stress mobility, agility, do not "sink Chi to Dantian" as it impair moving and particularly jumping ability.

Sorry, I mean would practising dark arts endanger the person from other humans like religious fanatics, especially Iraq and Yemen ?

Nuralshamal is multi racial. Does practice black magic in these countries bring great risks?

If eastern alchemy worked, there would not have been eastern internal alchemy.

What is the common geographical term for England, Scotland and Ireland together?

I do Swimming Dragon a bit. I used to find a video that says it solved a huge problem, but can't locate it. Nowadays I am a bit worried that the knees could face problem in side way motion. So just don't do it too much.

Black Magic: Peculiar things do exist. For normal people, it is better to follow the Confucian attitude - respect the ghosts and gods but keep a long distance. A Taiwan mystic has encountered a statue fallen from an abandoned temple. She set it up again but found something try to attach to her. Then she was angry and kicked it down slope. So even with "proper" religious setting, one should be careful. Karmic Debts: While other problems can be solved by ZhengYi magicians, Karmic Debt cannot. It could be an excuse when the Taoist cannot do anything. The normal solution is cultivation, following a proper Taoist/Buddhist religion, good deeds, good diet etc. Burning joss papers said to help too if it is not so serious. Local spirit kings: In Chinese community, every home or grave used to have a Shen of the Door, which is a red wood plate which says the dragon kings of 5 directions, Lords of the location, God of fortune. We could offer incenses and wine once a year, or even daily. It is mainly to avoid evil spirits coming in. They mainly act as a protection service. Conceal Blessings: It used to be common in Chinese traditions. You downplay everything, down dress. Spirits follow home: Going to casinos would said to dampen your 3 fires of powers. Going to hospitals/funerals would also be a problem. It is better to go to some noisy places, have food with others, get some sunshine, before directly go home. In short, similar to spy stuff.

Really? the English/Scottish/Irish got their Druids, pagans, witches and wicca. Nowadays they even have Harry Potter.

These inner martial arts seem to be flowing into Wudang instead of coming out from it. Taichi probably is the better example. Yet Wudang does have its own secretly guarded IMA like the Tai Yuet 5 Elements Boxing and another one the name I forgot. These were either developed or preserved by Wudang and have a deeper connection with Neidan than the Yang Taichi, which can be treated a form of Neigong/Qigong under some situations, but not Neidan. Whether these are related to ZSF is not known as he never mentioned anything about boxing.

I engaged their services e.g. like burning Joss papers to repay my cosmic debts, if any. Mantra not needed, but smoke is a problem.

Indeed. Scare them from doing wrong and do not come easily. It is just the MaoShan way is more potent than normal guideline type of warnings. The initiates are expected to have a serious oath and pick the "costs/requirements" from different bowls, under the witness of the grand master (a god or spirit). The oath is using the same magical mechanism and to be endorsed by the very deities they got the power from in the future. Therefore when one uses magic, it immediately trigger this embedded process. An example is paying taxi fare. Once you state the destination, the meter starts to count, even when it is stopped and not in motion. There is a saying that if the magician cannot pay, his family's fortune will be drawn to offset for him. This type of system is more than guidelines. Presume Jason Read has to go through this too. The above applies generally and when a magician does something more sinister, there will be additional costs. This is a bit harsh. Let say if I am mainly casting spell to repel mosquitos, the costs could be quite high.

Nowadays some Wudang schools say ZSF not only created TaiChi but also probably created XinYi and Bagua. So one can go to the many schools and learn Wudang Taichi, Wudang XinYi and Wudang Bagua.

You guys certain have experiences in a lot of traditions. However is there any costs in following such paths? e.g. MaoShan and related lineages have a rule. Whoever followed the path needs to choose one from the several : disabilities, loneliness, short lifespan, poverty. There are differences between sects, but roughly are these.

Statecraft is always more powerful than witchcraft.

Militarily speaking, defence cannot be forever. My place is still having a tradition of MaoShan, 6 Yam and other magical faction of Taoist or folk magic (Neidan is actually a small faction of Taoism). It is common to get professional help to ward off or capture ghosts, sometimes even for Christians. It could be free to USD100 or USD1000 for a home or 10 times more for famous magicians. But it is a different story if the other side is another magician. Both sides could be enemies forever and it is not worthwhile to help you with whatever sum you are going to pay. This kind of scenario (international warfare) happens and mainly involve magicians in South East Asia where even Buddhists are involved. The best place to get magicians or high standing monks would be Thailand. Taiwan has a sizable population. The real danger is not only they swindle money or their magic backfire, other than being defeated. Some of these "helps" could be as bad as your "enemy" and multiply your problems. Nuralshamal's situation is in his previous lengthy post. There could be more story than that since a simple envy would not call for a deadly magician to act. Let him tell you the details if he wants to.

The word Damo has any meaning somewhere?

Your recommendations make sense. But from your post in 2024, your own problem of flying objects and your girl friend's were different in nature. While your problem could be countered by normal religious or magical means, your girl friend's case was a magical warfare. Not many can handle or willing to be involved. Their tools could have been useful, but they lack the power or knowledge. Anyhow all magicians have specializations. From your experience, can I say that cross religion/territory magic/counter magic works? e.g. a Sufi solution vs a Hindu problem in Europe?

Energetic path is not pure energetic. It comprises training that polishes one's ego. But let say this part is omitted or ignored or not done properly, then the path boosts the ego and draws one into problems. Strengthening the ego has a lot of civilized consequences but don't forget internal martial arts and Neigong are meant for hand to hand combat. So if you are healthy and strong and skilled, would it be more likely to engage in fights? Is it more likely to defend the weak? or punish the bully? The best founding fathers of Xinyi had mentioned, after a stage, they just wanted to hit everything. It was a result of their training.

Sounds like someone is going over to the dark side. Is it destiny?

Nowadays many people learn something, amend it or revolutionize it, give it a new name and market as their own. So you if check up many "Kungs" have no history or their style are similar to existing ones. But it was not like that in the old days. A writer would ascribe his work was from a prominent historical figure or even from an immortal. No one believes the Yellow Emperor wrote the Yellow Emperor Classics. That was not even written during the supposedly time of the Yellow Emperor. It doesn't mean the writings have no value or are merely fakes. In fact many of them are invaluable. Then scholars and researchers would often critically examine the writing style, use of words, compare with formal history to guess who the real writer could have been. Apart from the reality, there is a spirit dimension. If ZSF came back in another age as an immortal or as a new born, was he the same person? To complicate the matters, the writings could have said to be transmitted from a visiting immortal or deceased person via medium ship. Many Taoist literature were from these channels.