What is a monk?

What is a monk?

Historically and in our contemporary cultures, monks are warriors of spirit.

Most impressive and most fearful is the warrior monk. Capable of amazing stunts - flying through the air, summoning elemental forces, using the raw power of his body to channel energies that are not understood by the layperson.

What is qi? All cultures have their own words for it, and in each culture the meaning is slightly different, depending on cultural background, geological and sociological backgrounds and technological development.

What is immortality? What is spirit? What is emptiness?

The empty hand.

The ability of flight.

Levitation. Clairvoyance. Divination.

And through it all, in a common, everyday situation, the monk is a simple man with no worldly or secular ties. No burdens. Just a body in a robe. Perhaps he prostrates before statues, sits quietly with eyes closed for long periods of time. Burns incense and murmurs some incantations, chantings, or mantras in a strange tongue.

Samurai. Ninja. Paladin. All are monks who have taken up arms.

Yet, the greatest battle for such a warrior is not against an external enemy. This battle is against himself. Against something inside. What is it? What demon deep inside, what seed of darkness and evil? The greatest accomplishment along this path, along this way, is the purification of the spirit. This is the purification of the self. The result is to emerge into the ultimate divine palace of enlightenment.

This path is the way of peace, of understanding, of harmony. The monk treads a path of balance and harmony. It is the way of the Dao (Tao) and De (Te). The way of Yin and Yang. A way of opposition, but of an opposition that is forever changing, forever evolving, forever arising and diminishing, forever unified into a final and ultimate source of life and death.

To understand these forces, and then to utilize them to master the physical and spiritual forms and to gain full and complete insight into life as it is in this plane, in this realm of existence, in this dimension. This is a path of wisdom, a path of compassion, and a path of love. It is a path of ultimate truth.

May we walk it in peace and freedom.

The Dragon Point

The Dragon Point

In Taoist practice, a Dragon Point is a place in nature where two streams combine. Usually this exists in a valley, canyon or cleft high in mountainous terrain. Today's Taoist grotto-heavens, scattered across China, are mostly at these locations. It is said that these special places are charged with higher energy levels and serve as concentration points for Qi, the life breath - the energy of Tao. Naturally, areas where mountain spring-fed streams merge are surrounded by forests and vibrant wildlife. 

According to Taoist sages and texts, it is here that Qi from heaven meets streams of Qi from Earth, is mixed together, and generates strong currents of energy. Life as we know it is attracted to this energy. Taoists would seek to practice and work near these areas, in order to understand and study the force and flow of Qi directly. 

Sitting in meditation at a Dragon Point allows a practitioner of any religion, belief or spiritual following, or any lay or casual practitioner to tap into universal energy flows with ease. Here, attaining right concentration is simple. Breath comes naturally and easily. Finding the inner calm necessary to conduct inner alchemy work and experiment with the inner self comes without difficulty.

The purpose of this weblog is to act as a virtual Dragon Point, to allow readers to access, study and understand Taoist and Buddhist thought, psychology and practice and to apply it to their daily lives in order to heighten their levels of awareness, build personal power and enlighten their lives. 

Hands to palms.