2/3 - [color="#0000FF"]the photos in 3/3 are all that's really important[/color]
(cont.)
3. This heathen mindset among the Daoists (even when they were writing in English too!) is the reason for their accuracy in understanding Hindus and the Hindu Gods (Hindu religion). They are naturally like this. [color="#0000FF"]So: when the Chinese heathens come to Hindu temples[/color] and also perform their heathen forms of worship for the Hindu Gods in order to show their respect (and at times it is more than respect, it is a true and sincere reverence; and more than this has existed in history), [color="#0000FF"]it is not because Hindu heathens got the Chinese heathens to do that.[/color] Hindus did nothing here except be their heathen selves, and only appear to have reciprocated with housing a GuanYin vigraham after several Chinese heathens had already started showing interest. [color="#0000FF"]Rather, this behaviour - that of Chinese (and Japanese and SE Asian) heathens' gravitation towards heathen Gods/heathenisms like their own - is due to a natural tendency among the Daoists etc (them being true heathens and all) and because they naturally like the Gods. Piety to all the [deserving] Gods is part of their nature.[/color]
This is all *very* different from the dabbling and encroachment which forms the totality of what the aliens can ever muster. By contrast, the Daoists etc are heathens of unbroken heathen lineage, not to mention unsubverted heathen perception. (Their warm interest is genuine, life-giving and welcome, like sunshine on a flower bed.) I think this would be comparable to how in GR antiquity, many non-GR heathens of the mediterranean/ME region got attached to the Olympic Gods, and how several non-GR Gods were worshipped by the Romans.
By heathen osmosis, Shintos also included Daoist and Hindu Gods (and even rituals to these Gods) in like manner since ancient times. E.g. Daoist Gods - and Longs etc - are part of the Shinto pantheon, because the Shintos know that the Daoist Gods are all real. Same reason behind why some SE Asian Daoists have long kept Hindu Gods in their temples to this day, in additional sannidhis alongside the main sannidhis housing the main (Daoist) Gods of the Temple.
There is another interesting thing to be observed among heathens, and though this is always an independent development in different heathen populations, it appears to frequently converge into becoming identical behaviour. Best illustrated with a concrete example. I'd noticed Shinto web sites explaining Shinto Gods, sacred sites and aspects of their religion by referring to similar instances among Hindus and what this means to Hindus ("how Hindu religion explains these things"). Clearly heathens all over find referencing each other (each others' religion and POV when it comes to religion) useful in "explaining", and as some sort of supporting "validation". <- That is, heathens choosing to make use of other heathenisms to explain their own heathenism to *aliens* (unheathens). The converse is the case also: heathens using their own religion to explain/teach about other heathenisms to people of their *own* heathen kind.
There is an identification going on, one that is innately-derived and not even dependent on awareness of any reciprocity.
4. Some further similarities with Hindus' own religion. These specifically show that Daoism is also a hyper-heathenism:
In Daoism, even among the *younger* generations, some are able to see their Gods. Among Hindus, I only know this to be the case with Hindoos somewhat older than myself. It seems to sadly be dying out among Hindus - for obvious reasons - but not so among Daoists (thank the Daoist Gods). Though many Hindus acquire the ability to see the Hindu Gods - through carrying out regular Ritual Practices to the Gods, but only when they have the Right View/Understanding of the Hindoo Gods, of course - some Hindus are actually born with this ..."ability". Further, some Hindus are born with certain other "special" [Hindoo] abilities, and again, others in time acquire such things, sometimes as side-effects. These are all matters that Hindus are likely to know about in their own religion, it's brought up as introduction to something far more interesting:
Some Daoists continue to be born with special abilities. The abilities they have is what is actually interesting, because I've not seen (quite) the *same* among Hindus. I've counted two such unique different abilities among the Expert Daoists (those who see the Daoist Gods): one old Daoist was born with "telepathy" [unidirectional, read-only; don't know the exact level of detail he perceives though] and the other with being able to see the future to some degree. Note that this last is different from the more familiar case, which is that among both Daoists and Hindus there exist those who are known to obtain information about the future from their Gods. Such Hindus and Daoists do not "prophesy" themselves - unlike the 2nd Daoist individual's case - but merely relay information that the Gods give them. And the "telepathic" ability of the first-mentioned Daoist is not the same as dooradRiShTi which occurs among Hindus, as far as my understanding goes.
Anyway, what all this ultimately shows is that, while the details may differ, the Daoists [etc?] are a heathen population of unbroken lineage just like the masses of Hindoos of Bharatam. I suspect it's the "unbroken heathen lineage/perception" bit that seems to cause the population itself to occasionally throw up such people with specifically heathenism-derived abilities.
(cont.)
3. This heathen mindset among the Daoists (even when they were writing in English too!) is the reason for their accuracy in understanding Hindus and the Hindu Gods (Hindu religion). They are naturally like this. [color="#0000FF"]So: when the Chinese heathens come to Hindu temples[/color] and also perform their heathen forms of worship for the Hindu Gods in order to show their respect (and at times it is more than respect, it is a true and sincere reverence; and more than this has existed in history), [color="#0000FF"]it is not because Hindu heathens got the Chinese heathens to do that.[/color] Hindus did nothing here except be their heathen selves, and only appear to have reciprocated with housing a GuanYin vigraham after several Chinese heathens had already started showing interest. [color="#0000FF"]Rather, this behaviour - that of Chinese (and Japanese and SE Asian) heathens' gravitation towards heathen Gods/heathenisms like their own - is due to a natural tendency among the Daoists etc (them being true heathens and all) and because they naturally like the Gods. Piety to all the [deserving] Gods is part of their nature.[/color]
This is all *very* different from the dabbling and encroachment which forms the totality of what the aliens can ever muster. By contrast, the Daoists etc are heathens of unbroken heathen lineage, not to mention unsubverted heathen perception. (Their warm interest is genuine, life-giving and welcome, like sunshine on a flower bed.) I think this would be comparable to how in GR antiquity, many non-GR heathens of the mediterranean/ME region got attached to the Olympic Gods, and how several non-GR Gods were worshipped by the Romans.
By heathen osmosis, Shintos also included Daoist and Hindu Gods (and even rituals to these Gods) in like manner since ancient times. E.g. Daoist Gods - and Longs etc - are part of the Shinto pantheon, because the Shintos know that the Daoist Gods are all real. Same reason behind why some SE Asian Daoists have long kept Hindu Gods in their temples to this day, in additional sannidhis alongside the main sannidhis housing the main (Daoist) Gods of the Temple.
There is another interesting thing to be observed among heathens, and though this is always an independent development in different heathen populations, it appears to frequently converge into becoming identical behaviour. Best illustrated with a concrete example. I'd noticed Shinto web sites explaining Shinto Gods, sacred sites and aspects of their religion by referring to similar instances among Hindus and what this means to Hindus ("how Hindu religion explains these things"). Clearly heathens all over find referencing each other (each others' religion and POV when it comes to religion) useful in "explaining", and as some sort of supporting "validation". <- That is, heathens choosing to make use of other heathenisms to explain their own heathenism to *aliens* (unheathens). The converse is the case also: heathens using their own religion to explain/teach about other heathenisms to people of their *own* heathen kind.
There is an identification going on, one that is innately-derived and not even dependent on awareness of any reciprocity.
4. Some further similarities with Hindus' own religion. These specifically show that Daoism is also a hyper-heathenism:
In Daoism, even among the *younger* generations, some are able to see their Gods. Among Hindus, I only know this to be the case with Hindoos somewhat older than myself. It seems to sadly be dying out among Hindus - for obvious reasons - but not so among Daoists (thank the Daoist Gods). Though many Hindus acquire the ability to see the Hindu Gods - through carrying out regular Ritual Practices to the Gods, but only when they have the Right View/Understanding of the Hindoo Gods, of course - some Hindus are actually born with this ..."ability". Further, some Hindus are born with certain other "special" [Hindoo] abilities, and again, others in time acquire such things, sometimes as side-effects. These are all matters that Hindus are likely to know about in their own religion, it's brought up as introduction to something far more interesting:
Some Daoists continue to be born with special abilities. The abilities they have is what is actually interesting, because I've not seen (quite) the *same* among Hindus. I've counted two such unique different abilities among the Expert Daoists (those who see the Daoist Gods): one old Daoist was born with "telepathy" [unidirectional, read-only; don't know the exact level of detail he perceives though] and the other with being able to see the future to some degree. Note that this last is different from the more familiar case, which is that among both Daoists and Hindus there exist those who are known to obtain information about the future from their Gods. Such Hindus and Daoists do not "prophesy" themselves - unlike the 2nd Daoist individual's case - but merely relay information that the Gods give them. And the "telepathic" ability of the first-mentioned Daoist is not the same as dooradRiShTi which occurs among Hindus, as far as my understanding goes.
Anyway, what all this ultimately shows is that, while the details may differ, the Daoists [etc?] are a heathen population of unbroken lineage just like the masses of Hindoos of Bharatam. I suspect it's the "unbroken heathen lineage/perception" bit that seems to cause the population itself to occasionally throw up such people with specifically heathenism-derived abilities.
Death to traitors.