Forward:
Hello. I've not posted here at all but I feel the need now to share what I have been studying with the Taoist community here on reddit. My primary reason for not sharing this was my concern that this knowledge would be either ignored or rejected by what I surmised to be essentially "sola scriptura" following Taoists. That is, Taoists who see Taoism mainly as a philosophy and not a religion. That is fine. I am not really concerned about being down voted. I am concerned that this information may fall on deaf ears. However, after seeing some of the posts by /u/jamesteaking and /u/CloudwalkingOwl, it seems that there are some on this sub who are more interested in Taoism as a religion or at least in the case of Mr. Coons, the traditions and practices of Internal Elixer Cultivation.
To express this, I will be drawing a lot of parallels between Taoist religion and Abrahamic faiths because most people are more familiar with Abrahamic religions and their theology. I find it very useful to do this. Now, on to the info.
Main text:
Recently I've been looking into more of the gods expressed in Taoism. One little piece I've fallen quite in love with is the Wufang Shangdi. According to Wikipedia, these gods are actually different manifestations of one supreme God who is the creator deity. One could liken this to Trinitarian ideas in Christianity (i.e The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit). This segment of the Taoist pantheon is also known as the five interchangeable faces. The interesting thing about these deities is that they are compatible with I Ching expressions of the five elements that are the sources of constant change. This makes sense as they are an expression of the Tao's constantly changing nature. Furthermore, they have cosmological metaphors in constellations. This is very similar to Jewish and Muslim ideas about the heavens.
The veneration of these gods has a rich and oft confusing history. I find it best to look at the older rituals and rites first because they are the precursor to how these deities came to be worshiped. In the time shortly after the reign of the Yellow Emperor, veneration and sacrifices were carried out to the Highest Deity, often on the sot where he was supposed to have done sacrifices. However, during the Han Dynasty, there was a debate that broke out between Confucians and some proto-Taoists. The Confucians wanted a more centralized worship while proto-Taoists encouraged the worship of local deities in *serv
... keep reading on reddit β‘
A plateau
I am reading Bart Ermanβs book, βHow Jesus became Godβ. It is interesting how it lays out many humans become defied both in life and after death. This is the case with Jesus. After reading I am convinced JS and his followers now and then believe he was some sort of deity.
This is further evidenced by the song βPraise to the Manβ. If you claim to see and speak with God, are you claiming to be on the level of God, a God?
Just a thought as to why JS and the Mormon prophets and cult leaders to follow feel they should be worshipped and as Oaks said never criticized.
I was wrapping up my night with some crucible, trying to round out my kill tracker in control when I got a party invite from the 4 stack on the other team. I was doing pretty decent that game, so I assumed they might be asking for a group up or just messing around.
To my surprise they immediately started swearing at me and accused me of cheating and using cronos. I was super confused, but once I joined back to my other party all I could do was laugh. At least I know I'm getting good enough for people to accuse me of cheating :)
I cannot believe they got away with making these characters so obviously broken. They are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, completely abominable in design. One character does everything for free because of her speed and the other does everything for free because of her kill power, and both have insane coverage.
I am also in genuine disbelief that I could actually beat the B button-married Pythra I was matched with today. Even when you win against these two, it's a relief. Fighting them, win or lose, is just a fucking chore. Fuck them, fuck the game they came from, and fuck Smash Brothers for selling itself out for advert characters as these two astonishingly vile fucks are so obviously meant to be.
I've always had a unique love for cards of any form since childhood, be it sending them handmade to loved ones afar or near, or still treasuring all of the letters andΒ cards I've received in return. I've held onto a habit of including a few postcards or greeting cards to all my Christmas packages every year and when I do so, I've wondered if anyoneΒ still appreciates cards or handwritten letters, or adore them like I do. I was under the impression they were looked upon as outdated and a bit cheesy even, until I found there are tons of people who still love cards like everyone here in this sub.
It was very lovely to read through each & every note, and fascinating to learn about people,Β their varied experiences, how the days went, random facts, and the personal messages plus random ones. Thank you to each one of you for sending these out with such adorable efforts. They all brought a huge smile onto my face and they will allΒ be treasured well. Had a lot of thoughts pass through as I read every one of them but I'll try to keep them short.
The highlight for me were the really cool and super pretty stamps on each mail. They were all beautiful ones. I collected stamps about 15 years ago, but dropped the hobby in later years, so it brought back a lot of nostalgia and the reasonsΒ I appreciated them a lot then. I enjoyed all the stickers and theΒ decorations very much!
Quite some mails have reached the location within a week or two of posting and the rest have taken pretty long. But the delivery has apparentlyΒ taken time, so apologiesΒ if the thank you has been delayed because of it. Surprisingly a few have even made it without complete details. I'm very glad they did make it eventually. :)
Once again, thank you to all of you who brought in some delightfulΒ mail cheer to me. Wishing you all crazy good days ahead! β‘
(Alphabetized for ease of reading.)
u/amad9705g | u/AppleCritter723 (Γ2) | u/austsianodel | u/baredoim (Γ2) | u/brifrischu | u/bluehairedqueer | u/CapnCobbler | u/catnatomy | u/ColorlessMurakami | u/ContessaLolaMontez (Γ3) | u/C0vidi0t19 | u/Daisy_787 | u/elmerek | u/FollowingTheBeat (Γ3) | u/germymany (Γ2) | u/invasivezim | u/Internet_Creep_SM (Γ10) | u/Intrepid_Researcher (Γ2) | u/isitlightagain | u/JschexxyOG | u/LaCuntessa (Γ5) | u/Maxmax09 | u/Mikepenpal6 | u/Nohumidity | u/ordinaryclover (Γ8)
