Tag: zen

Posted on

Tomes of Magick: Akashic Brotherhood

The Akashic Brotherhood has a storied history both in game and out of game. These experts in the Mind sphere were also inspired by the Hong Kong action films of the ‘70s through ‘90s and turn their bodies into Awakened weapons. Find out how this Tradition was brought to life in Tradition Book Akashic Brotherhood as Adam Simpson brings his expertise and Terry Robinson brings his ignorance to the question of “how do the Akashics line up with actual East Asian practices?” Adam also provides a reading list that the book didn’t, all the while Terry nods, faking like he knows what’s going on.

Show Notes

  • Zen kōans
  • Daoism
  • Akashic Brotherhood section on Anders Mage Page 2.0
  • Adam’s Reading List
    • Te-Tao Ching by Lao-Tau translated by Robert G. Henricks – The Modern Library 1993 ISBN 0-679-60060-4
      There are many translations available but this one makes use of more recent archaeological finds in the 1970s and has a nice commentary. A good place to get an overview of Akashic thinking. Please don’t confuse with the Taoist folk religions and Taoist magical traditions that came later.
    • Chuang Tzu The Inner Chapters translated by David Hinton – Counterpoint 1998 ISBN 1-887178-79-1
      A short book and rather cryptic. This is later Taoist thought than the book above. A great place to find odd quotes to put in the mouths of older Akashic NPCs.
    • The 3 Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment by Roshi Philip Kapleau – Anchor Books 1989 (1965) ISBN 0-385-26093-8
      As good a book as any to get an overview of Zen thought. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing you’ll still get some mileage out of the 10 Oxherding Pictures with Commentary at the back.
    • Orion by Masamune Shiro – Dark Horse Comics & Studio Proteus 1994 ISBN 1-56971-019-8
      Not really a good example of Akashic thought or practice but a great book for Mage and full of East Asian flavor. If you get inspired to create an alternate technomagick based on “psycho science” you wouldn’t be the first.

Executive Producers

Alexia • Aleksandra J • Alexander G • Alexander P • Ambiversion • Andrew E • Anders S • Andrew • Andrew E • Andrija J • Anon Ibid • Bdurfy • Benjamin B • Berto • Blaise H • Blake R • Bo • BoogersBoogersBoogersBoogersBoogersBoogers • Brad M • Brandon • Bryce Perry • Bubba, The Pale One • Buck Farmer • Chris B • Chris Z • Christopher P • Cinshadis • Connor G • Cromwell The Archaeologist • Curtis H • Dan Svensson • Daniel C • Daniel S • Darren H • David M • David R • DrawnCap • Dennis O • Derek S • Ean R • Eli l • Entropy_Prime • Eric S • Fragarach • Freddy • FriedrichOwl • Gabriel P • Garga L • George L • Gray -Trilug- H • Guy Conan S • GuyWithPuns • Henry Craft • HugoTheBogPerson • I Jaye S • Ian • Illara S • Ira Grace • Isabel CL • J Gatsby • Jason B • Jason D • Jason K • Jason V • Jason Vines • Jeffois • Jenna F • Jervis Johnson • jj225000 • John • John Hillerup • jj225000 • John Magnuson • John W • Jolyne A • Joshua Hillerup • Justin • Karl H • Kathleen H • Kevin F • Khris K • Larrendias D • Leroy B • Leslie W • Lexiconjurer • Lolzandstuff • Manel C • Maurice H • Matthew P • Melissa K • Michael C • Michael Parker • Mikael S • Morgan A • Nathan W • Nebero • Neil P • Nikita K • Oliver S • Patrick M • Patrick Mc • Paxcow • Pooka G • Rachel G • Ralf S • Regina O • Ren M • Ricardo • Richard “Bat” Brewster • Rob D • Rob H • Ruben J • Ryan H • Ryan K • Ryan S • Samuel T • sbloyd • Schnabeltierkrieger • Sean G • Sev Nessus • Simon S • SorcererSanguine • Sean Ryan K • St U • starfish • Stefan C • Steve Winyard • thatsrealneeto • Tyler • Tyler B • Vince H • Vincent • Walter • Warmstarter • William M • Wolf L • ZakRulz

Become a supporter of Mage: The Podcast.

Contact us at magethepodcast@gmail.com with feedback and comments, and please help extend the reach of the show by sharing it with friends.

Listen

Subscribe to Mage: The Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, TuneIn, and YouTube.

Join our Discord server.

Posted on

What do Zen masters and Virtual Adepts have in common?

What do Zen masters and Virtual Adepts have in common? Why, the koans, of course.

by Anders Sandberg

Once a student asked Moore: “If all objects we see are parts of the user interface, then why not regard their graphic representations as part of the model?”. Moore answered: “are their coordinates arbitrary?”. “Yes, of course”. “Then the model is arbitrary”. The student was enlightened.

A master once asked Moore: “What is between the one and the zero”. “Line noise”.

When a thunderstorm hit the system, several terminals broke down and had to be repaired. “This wouldn’t have happened if we had had a voltage surge protector”, one electrician pointed out. “Does the voltage surges need to be protected?” asked Moore. “No, the terminals”. “Well, protect the lightening instead, it is much more general”.

A student had created a clever pattern in Game of Life, and proudly showed it to Moore: “I can prove that it’s behaviour is undecidable, since it is equivalent to the Halting Problem”. Moore ripped out the power cord from the computer, and the pattern vanished. “It has halted” he said. The student was enlightened, but the pattern was lost.

“Why do we have to learn about electronics when we seek to become software engineers?” an impatient person complained. Moore overheard it and plunged a soldering iron into the complainer’s workstation: “So that the software has somewhere to live”.

One day a student asked Moore: “Does Marvin Minsky know what he is talking about? Is the mind really a society of independent agents?”. “Why did you ask?”. “Because if that is true, then there is no me”. “Is there a Minsky?”. The student was confused, and told Minsky about it; Minsky smiled and said: “No”.

When a virus attacked the system, Moore was unperturbed and didn’t try to remove it: “It is not proper to do it before observing the correct signs”. “What are they?” asked a fellow master. “To watch the network load grow, to sacrifice the root partition to nothingness and to see the users learn fear.”

“Is there anything other than information in your world?” an ironic philosophy graduate once asked Moore. “No. That question was never asked”.

A student was struggling with his project, but with no success. Finally Moore asked him what the problem was. He answered: “I try to make this distributed database automatically migrate to unused nodes, but my processes deadlock since they cannot synchronise over the net?”. “Are they all running in the same direction?”. “Yes, of course”. “Well, backtrack randomly in time then”. The student was enlightened, and the program ran.