Alchemical Taoism --- website of great value

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Bruno Loff, modified 11 Years ago at 1/15/13 11:26 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 1/15/13 10:21 AM

Alchemical Taoism --- website of great value

Posts: 1097 Join Date: 8/30/09 Recent Posts
This is a post about

AlchemicalTaoism.com,

which a pretty humble-looking website by a guy called Keith Franzen. The page is currently "on sabbatical," and I'm not sure what that means but I hope it means Keith will soon return with more material. To actually read the contents of the website prior to this sabbatical leave, you can use the internet archive:

Alchemical Taoism, Internet Archive, as in May 9, 2012.

I have stumbled across this website almost three years ago while looking for effective grounding practices. I ended up doing The three amigos of rooting, and found the practice incredibly effective at managing and toning down the excessive, mind-blowing levels of energy that I was going through at the time (which at first felt like lovemaking with the entire universe, and then developed into something more akin to being raped by the entire universe; later I was told that excessive energy is a frequent occurrence during 1st path).

Funnily enough, after having used the practice and after it working so well, I soon forgot about alchemicaltaoism.com and did mostly other things. I was a fool not to have explored the material any further; probably I was tricked by the apparent simplicity, rough layout, and uninspiring style of presentation.

But actually I should have recognized the kind of depth that can only come through serious long-term practice by an able individual. I nowadays consider it to be the best pragmatical-dharma resource I know of that addresses energy cultivation practices (which are sometimes hardcore, but seldom pragmatic and almost-never dogma-free). The website is just an amalgamation of different stuff, it is not very well organized and is not uniformly presented (sometimes the material presented is just a copy-paste of discussions from online forums!), and yet I am starting to have the impression that it is a bit like a sweet potato: simple and ugly-looking but with a very sweet, nutritious core.

Check it out now!

Alchemical Taoism, Internet Archive, as in May 9, 2012.

It will take years to explore everything (and maybe I won't), but I might append a description of some of the practices and how they are working for me.
Jason , modified 11 Years ago at 1/15/13 12:30 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 1/15/13 12:30 PM

RE: Alchemical Taoism --- website of great value

Posts: 342 Join Date: 8/9/11 Recent Posts
I nowadays consider it to be the best pragmatical-dharma resource I know of that addresses energy cultivation practices (which are sometimes hardcore, but seldom pragmatic and almost-never dogma-free).


Yes!! The mushroom factor of taoism/qigong/etc. is much worse than in Buddhism. Thanks for this resource. I'm looking forward to perusing it.
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PP, modified 11 Years ago at 1/16/13 1:41 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 1/15/13 2:25 PM

RE: Alchemical Taoism --- website of great value

Posts: 376 Join Date: 3/21/12 Recent Posts
Probably, Mantak Chia books series was for westerners taoists 20 years ago what Daniel's MTCB for westerners buddhist is today. It was an eyes opener and drove many people to start practicing instead of philosophizing. But unlike Daniel, the public opinion was that Mantak Chia hadn't fully developed himself what he actually was teaching, but merely was a compiler and promoter of taoist practices. The site AlchemicalTaoism.com was an effort of people trying to help those that had problems with these stuff. It's excellent material, probably the best you can find for free.

But let me say that IMHO (and others too), Taoist practices is not for begginers, as you are dealing with very heavy energy. I like to think that is material to be tackled only after hitting 1st or 2nd Path, as you may have more tools to work with, plus your concentration is much stronger (yet you know how to relax deeply). Of course, for pre-SE a light qigong and Zhan Zhuang practice helps to build up a deeper mind-body connection. Also, there's a "Water Tradition" promoted by Bruce Kumar Frantzis that is much softer than the "Fire Tradition" of Mantak Chia. For begginers is much like vipassana but actively breaking the tension spot / blockage through visualization (ice to water to gas). That far, I found it very similar to Bhante Vimalaramsi teachings. But afterwards it focuses in developing the "Eight Bodies" with its distinct vibrational levels of energy (much like chakras).

EDIT: some grammar mistakes corrected

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