Daoism and Buddhism

I think it is important to understand ancient Chinese culture, basically they beleived the living and dead existed simultaneously, that illness was a curse of the ancestors, not treating living people correctly would cause their ancestors to punish you or not appeasing the dead could too. It was standard beleif each person would be alive in death.

Confucius and Lai Zi were in alignement, as Lao Zi described the natural way humans should act, Confuciust did to in a similiar way. It was not Confuciast who twisted the theory to abuse or control the masses, it was greedy power hungry leaders.

If you study the history of china there was a shift in which tradition an Emperor would like and they would use it to support their goals and desires. Lets not base a tradition on a twisted view by emperors.

If you study religous taoism, much more popular than alchemy, you may view it as a “nasty tool” too, but most dont use this view as representative of taoism.

Anyways, if you have not read some on the history of these tradtions you may find it interesting.

Hi,

I mentioned Confucism was in tune with tao. Confucuan lived in the warrring periods, civil war in china, one of its most brutal time frames. No order, chaos, murder, rape, etc.

Confucist saw a natural order the I Ching presented, he create guidance for a people in chaos, he uses the relationships inside hexagrams and applies them to life, he gave a philosophy for people to follow to be in harmony with each other. Lao Zi did not talk about alchemy in the way we do about White Clouds formulas, Tao Teh Ching is lots of life guidance for people, lots of do and donts. Its this life guidance that is a common thread, expressed in a different way.

Its my view confuciasm in its pure form is providing life advice for people, how to treat others. It seems common like common sense, but was not then.

Some taoist today beleive if we live a natural life just basic qi gong is enough alchemy, the other end is detailed step-by-step as taught by M. Chia and M. Winn, I think both methods are effective, often people dirft back and forth.

hope this addresses your question.

On confucism, why dont you read some books on it, I think the philosophy is clear.

For the alchemy, Im not referring to anything particular, just a more general observation of the way people approach alchemy. One thing though, in my experience complex people need complex systems, people with a simple, clear view use simple, direct methogds. Both are legimate.