Here's a bit of trivia that may fit well in your Black Box, Trivia Box, Shoeshine Box (Warning: Includes Shinola), or Soap Box ...
Some of us make reference to Wu-wei, which is the Chinese version of Operating in the Will State - Fr Los 8=3 😮 😮 😮 makes snide references to woo-woo. What is this Wu stuff?
Chinese shamanism, alternatively called Wuism (Chinese: 巫教; pinyin: wū jiào; lit. 'wu religion, shamanism, witchcraft'; alternatively 巫觋宗教 wū xí zōngjiào), refers to the shamanic religious tradition of China.] Its features are especially connected to the ancient Neolithic cultures such as the Hongshan culture. Chinese shamanic traditions are intrinsic to Chinese folk religion.
The Chinese word wu 巫 "shaman, wizard", indicating a person who can mediate with the powers generating things (the etymological meaning of "spirit", "god", or nomen agentis, virtus, energeia), was first recorded during the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600-1046 BCE), when a wu could be either sex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_shamanism
I forsee enless insertions and various formulations of these phrases, terms, and words. Who would have thought that to "woo" a girl means casting a shamic spell. I like Wuism. It's si,ilar to the western arcane tradition.
Wu Master
There was a book I came across several decades ago (though never bought, unfortunately) about Daoist magick and magicians, written by a researcher who'd spent some time with one. It showed some remarkable similarities between Western magick and Chinese, certainly in the basic form and general feel, if not the details.
Instead of the hierarchies of spiritual beings you get to do stuff for you in Western magick, you have a sort of celestial bureaucracy that you petition. You have similar talismanic figures (they have a similar "electronic circuit with weird little images here and there" look about them). The rituals are kind of similar. Generally it all feels quite familiar.
Which says something - convergent evolution or something like that.
"electronic circuit with weird little images here and there"
Do you have a pictorial sample of such images?
Instead of the hierarchies of spiritual beings you get to do stuff for you in Western magick, you have a sort of celestial bureaucracy that you petition. You have similar talismanic figures (they have a similar "electronic circuit with weird little images here and there" look about them). The rituals are kind of similar. Generally it all feels quite familiar.
All very fair comparisons. I've also found that qigong practices work very well in conjunction with Hindu yoga.
Have you ever read Jan Fries's Living Midnight: Three Movements of the Tao?
No, but I've remembered the book I was thinking of: Teachings of Taoist Master Chuang by Michael Saso.
Have you ever read Jan Fries's Living Midnight: Three Movements of the Tao?
No, will look out for it!