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In one of the books about Mo Pai i have read that there are supposed to be 72 000 veils between man and god, can someone tell me more about this?

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Sounds like a reference to the yogic belief, that there are 72000 nadis, or energy channels in the subtle body ;major and minor ones.

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Tao Te Ching

 

More often translated as the 10,000 things, but I like the German "10,000 Wesen" better, and so translate that to English. And Wesen = entity :)

 

It's a representative number meant to refer to the manifest world. My point was that the 72,000 is also not meant literally. 72 comes up frequently. There was a pretty in-depth discussion about it in the MP thread.

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Journey to the West:

 

"When Wukong heard this his hairs stood on end, and, kowtowing reverently, he said, "I beg the master to be merciful and impart to me the method to avoid the three calamities. To the very end, I shall never forget your gracious favor."

 

... ... ...

 

"Very well, then," Said the Patriarch, "What method of escape would you like to learn? There is the Art of the Heavenly Ladle, which numbers thirty-six transformations, and there is the Art of the Earthly Multitude, which numbers seventy-two transformations." Wukong said, "Your pupil is always eager to catch more fishes....."

 

To bad Wukong seems to have indeed forgotten his Patriarch's gracious favor in favor of catching more fishes.

 

I wonder if 72 is more of an earthly number across the board... and 36 more heavenly? I'm curious to see how this story continues to unfold... still very early. All this heavenly preference seems unbalanced - in a very subtle context. Anyway....

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IMO they are both balanced numbers. 72 = 9 x 8 (3 x 3 x 2 x 2 x 2), and 36 = 9 x 4 (3 x 3 x 2 x 2)

According to Yi Jing interpretation 3 is Yang and 2 is Yin.

9 is Yang, 4 or 8 is Yin.

7 + 2 = 9 = 3 + 6 the sum is Yang too.

72 + 36 = 108 = 9 x 12 = 3 x 3 x 3 x 2 x 2 another complete number which means the perfect balance between Yin and Yang.

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