Would you be willing to give some details about what's going to be in your upcoming book on the Five Rites?
When I saw it mentioned in your last Ecosophia blog, I pre-ordered it immediately, which is something I rarely do! But I've been practicing the Five Rites for years, and often wondered what their origins were, having never been convinced by the story of their Tibetan provenance.
And yet... I am also a long-standing practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, and, if you squint your eyes, there is no denying the similarity of some of the Five Rites with cognate practices in the magical movements of "trul'khor" (Tibetan energy yoga). The Sixth Rite, in particular, is strikingly similar to a posture I learned in the context of Dzogchen training, where the aim is to short-circuit the thinking mind by holding an isometric pose (while retaining the breath) past the point of physical exhaustion.
My working hypothesis is that the human energy body, as with our physiological body, is almost identical, cross-culturally, and that collections of practices for cultivating this energy body are constantly being discovered, lost, and re-discovered, and were and are known to every human culture in history (including our own).
I also think that the cross-fertilisation of ideas and practices along the Silk Roads of Eurasia were more formative than we generally reckon, and that the influences did not always travel in one direction. Not everything is a ancient mystical secret from the mysterious East; there were influential teachings and practices that flowed from west to east as well.
Have I hit near the mark, or am I completely off-target?
I'll totally understand, by the way, if the answer is, "Have a bit of patience and read the book when it's published!" That's more than fair. And cultivating patience as a virtue is never not a work-on for me.
Anyway, very intrigued by what you have to say on this matter, either now or upon publication.
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branchandroot
The Five Rites
Date: 2023-07-24 08:49 am (UTC)Would you be willing to give some details about what's going to be in your upcoming book on the Five Rites?
When I saw it mentioned in your last Ecosophia blog, I pre-ordered it immediately, which is something I rarely do! But I've been practicing the Five Rites for years, and often wondered what their origins were, having never been convinced by the story of their Tibetan provenance.
And yet... I am also a long-standing practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, and, if you squint your eyes, there is no denying the similarity of some of the Five Rites with cognate practices in the magical movements of "trul'khor" (Tibetan energy yoga). The Sixth Rite, in particular, is strikingly similar to a posture I learned in the context of Dzogchen training, where the aim is to short-circuit the thinking mind by holding an isometric pose (while retaining the breath) past the point of physical exhaustion.
My working hypothesis is that the human energy body, as with our physiological body, is almost identical, cross-culturally, and that collections of practices for cultivating this energy body are constantly being discovered, lost, and re-discovered, and were and are known to every human culture in history (including our own).
I also think that the cross-fertilisation of ideas and practices along the Silk Roads of Eurasia were more formative than we generally reckon, and that the influences did not always travel in one direction. Not everything is a ancient mystical secret from the mysterious East; there were influential teachings and practices that flowed from west to east as well.
Have I hit near the mark, or am I completely off-target?
I'll totally understand, by the way, if the answer is, "Have a bit of patience and read the book when it's published!" That's more than fair. And cultivating patience as a virtue is never not a work-on for me.
Anyway, very intrigued by what you have to say on this matter, either now or upon publication.
Be well,
Seán