Greg Corrects and Clarifies Himself

From: Greg Stafford <greg_at_glorantha.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 08:25:46 -0800


All,

A couple of corrections and clarifications.

>From: "Greg Stafford" <greg_at_glorantha.com>

>>- likewise, where does Tibettan mysticism and
>>related practices,
>>which certainly seems much closer to mysticism
>than
>>any other sort of
>>magic, but in which the manifestation of mystic
>>powers is not considered failure?
>
>Actually, if you mean the common and practical bo
>practices, this is animism. It is more like magical
>practices than most forms of Buddhism.

In my above statement I want to make it clear that I'm talking about the "book of the dead" type of Tibetian practices. Red hat, bo, and generally lamistic practices.

>>- and perhaps where do esoteric alchemical
>>practices fit?
>
>For instance, taoist alchemy? It is clearly a
>sorcery tye of pracice, not mystical at all.

To clarify, anyone who is trying to make a "pill of immortality" through the taoist practices that I am familiar with is using sorcery.

>Manifest mysticism was based on tantric principles,
>which still may have some reality in Glorantha, but
>in most cases actually result in some form of other
>magical manifestation.

Tantric practices ought to be looked at in and of themselves. Buddhism and Hinduism both adapted tantric practices as well, as have many modern forms of spiritual practice.

>The martial arts are generally based upon control
>of chi, as has been pointed out. If you use it then
>the chi manifests in some form, either matrial of
>immaterial, and thus is not mysticism.

Note that this control of chi is VERY similiar to the control of kundalini practices that are central to tantra.

>>What about the bodhisattvas?
>
>Theraveda "mysticism" isn't mystical at all. Sorry.
>I've said that alrady.

Of course, there I mean mahayana, not theraveda.

This is a good place to clarify something furthermore: If your practice uses any of the intermediary forms to reach mysticism, then it's not a real mystical practice as I have defined it.

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