I don't read the books - but I do physical monastic exercises
I am interested in some things and not others
sometimes I join social groups about taoism on other websites -
but then I leave the group if I go somewhere like the Daobums forum -
because I don't want to be associated with taoism after visiting that forum or seeing people being cult followers of books
I watch a lot of videos about taoist magic from a taoist magic sect
I find it interesting
I don't find learning to play music interesting
I find Chinese medicine interesting
I am mainly interested in the martial arts sects
I was also a good christian - but I didn't want to be associated with christianity after being around the churches and rescue missions because there are a lot of evil people there - I also don't like reading the bible or people being cult followers of the book and preaching from it
then I was a good Buddhist and I didn't eat meat or kill spiders or mosquitos -
but then I started listening to buddhist monks preaching and reading Buddhist scriptures - and I didn't want to be associated with Buddhism after that
I have wanted to go to China to learn martial arts and Chinese medicine at some of the Wudang taoist temples
but then I see that part of your learning is playing music - which I don't want to do - and I see that you have to participate in religious dogma stuff and I'm not interested in going there anymore after that
so I wouldn't call myself a taoist - but I am interested in a lot of taoist stuff
and I do a lot of taoist stuff
I just don't do all taoist stuff
I'm more of a taoist than anything else probably - but also with some christianity and buddhism thrown in
but I'm not a christian - a buddhist - or a taoist - though I do seem to be on a taoist path
when I see a religion I can usually grasp the concept of being good and not evil -- but anything beyond that tends to just push me away from the religion
if I keep it simple and stay away from everyone else - it will work for me
one christian preacher said that the written word kills the faith -
I am usually creeped out by cults - I don't need all the dogma and politics - I just need to know that it's good and not evil and then I will be okay with it
once it gets complicated I won't be okay with it anymore - I will just get away from it
I am into tarot and Oracle cards --
I have an I Ching deck -- it's the tao Oracle but it's probably my least used deck -- I am going to put the cards in order and go through the 64 hexagrams and do the energy postures associated with the hexagrams as part of my monastic exercises
Right now I am only doing 17 energy postures - so I will take a break from that at some point and do 64 postures from the 64 hexagrams - that will take 64 days at two and a half hours per posture
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.actually it's more like 128 postures than 64
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k76FVp0udVs
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though I don't study the I Ching --I only do the physical part - I study something else
I could study the I Ching as well if I found it interesting enough - but at this point it would just interrupt what I'm already studying
Maybe some day I will study the I Ching - but not today - today I will do the physical exercises associated with the I Ching & study something different at the same time
a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that I hate reading -- I like audiobooks - but I hate to read
I don't like all audiobooks though -- it has to interest me
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