Ep251: Taoist Inner Alchemy - Mattias Daly 2

In this episode I am once again joined by Mattias Daly, Taoist practitioner and translator of ‘Taoist Inner Alchemy’, published by Shambala.
Mattias recounts the unusual circumstances that saw him travel to a remote monastery to meet Abbess Liu Yuanhui, under whom he would begin intensive training in meditation.
Mattias discusses Taoist meditation and its relationship to magical powers, psychic abilities, and other unusual meditation experiences.
Mattias then pulls back the veil to reveal the history and evolution of Taoist inner alchemy, referencing classical texts to contextualise and explain the Golden Elixir, differing ideas of the goal of alchemy, and the various ways in which the practice was undertaken.
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Link in bio.
Also available on TH-cam, iTunes, & Spotify - search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
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Topics include:
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Meeting Abbess Liu Yuanhui
03:23 - Recruited to rescue a wealthy son
08:10 - Miraculous cure through Buddhist ritual
11:38 - First visit to Abbess Liu’s monastery
13:05 - Initial intensive training with Abbess Liu
16:19 - Attachment to unusual meditation experiences
19:05 - Siddhi and magical power in Taoism
24:00 - Influence of Kung Fu novels
26:06 - Ge Guolong’s commentary Huang Yuanji’s The Oral Record of the Hall of Joyous Teaching
30:30 - History and evolution of Taoist inner alchemy
34:58 - Sexual interpretations of Taoist inner alchemy
36:30 - Disagreement about the goal of inner alchemy
39:29 - What about physical immortality?
42:08 - Mechanism of alchemy
45:43 - The Nameless Master and physical secretions
48:26 - Text alteration and philological considerations
52:02 - Achieving the Goku moment
52:53 - Why close reading of classical texts is a necessity for practitioners
56:34 - How to read early texts
58:24 - Is facility in Classical Chinese necessary?
01:00:50 - What is the Golden Elixir?
01:03:48 - Mattias shares some of his translations about Golden Elixir
01:06:07 - Decoding alchemical symbols and metaphors
01:10:08 - Confusion about sex
01:12:09 - How to go about practicing?
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Watch the previous episode with Mattias Daly:
- www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep...
To find our more about Mattias Daly, visit:
- www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f...
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For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- www.guruviking.com
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Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James

[@markallanneuhaus]

i thoroughly enjoyed listening to mattias daly as he struggles to translate the meaning of the dao into words comprehensible. thank you for giving us the opportunity to learn from this genius of translation. 🙏❤‍🔥🙏

[@PhoenixDarshan]

Fantastic interview with so much insight.

[@saraswati999]

What an incredible person this young man thank you for brining this guest here again 😊

[@julianbruce6504]

Wonderful advice about reading texts with an ungrasping mind.

[@trump9075]

Lmao daoism is perhaps the most perplexing eastern tradition out of all. Everyone seems to have very specific thoughts that intentionally contradict everyone else's and on top of that have the necessary "netowork" to support their opinions.
Yet everyone is somewhat walled off from each other, in an alternative version of China. So many different, contradicting experiences...
Still, appreciate bringing more and more daoists on the podcast. This was certainly an interesting interview!

[@sethschmucker4238]

Guru viking makes me want to go on an adventure. Just get up and go. A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.

[@Michael_Charles_Gross]

It's a dangerous business going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

[@PhoenixDarshan]

Interestingly, it correctly says the journey of a thousand li starts with what is under your foot.

[@PhoenixDarshan]

Lv Dongbin's 100 -character tablet is a phenomenal source of cultivation.

[@user-fx5uo7uz7p]

Absolutely fantastic makes a change from the usual Internet fayre. Definitely a fan more intelligent than usual. I highly recommend very worthwhile listening. Big up guru vikings

[@user-cg2uu3nq9g]

Thanks for a great conversation. I was interested by the comments on siddhis, which Mattias is, quite reasonably, sceptical about: would what he effectively identifies as long-distance healing not constitute a siddhi?

[@swdragonmntn7848]

The ones that have siddhis probably don't feel compelled to go on youtube.

[@AgeofColossus]

Very good intonation for a non-native speaker, Mattias. Wondering if you can link me to the text Awakening to Reality either in Chinese or English?

[@twojadrogadao]

There are a few quite different English translations (my favourite being Fabrizio Pregadio's one) but a good start would be to check the "Wuzhen Pian" entry on Wikipedia

[@AgeofColossus]

@@twojadrogadao Got it, thank you!

[@Buddhism4Happiness]

Cool. Is it really live, or prerecorded?

[@zelareka]

can you faqi or not, can your master faqi or not

[@JeffMcDuffie72MeridianGate]

Yes specific powers can be cultivated with certain techniques. Any technique that directly fully awakens kundalini up at manipura chakra which is the yin yang fusion is what causes that arising of powers.

[@jplmedley]

a statement like this has really no power, by itself, in a youtube statement, it's just another statement of belief. Though, if you can perform specific powers, reach out to Guru Viking and have him interview you as you demonstrate. That would be something worth exploring.

[@JeffMcDuffie72MeridianGate]

@@jplmedley stay under that rock