FreeMasons and Kung Fu

[Serpent]

Are any members of this board FreeMasons? What can you tell us about FreeMasonry?

In a blatantly transparent attempt to keep this thread on-topic and off the deletion list (Kung lek, take you finger AWAY from that button!) How does FreeMasonry compliment/clash with your MA practice?

[Mr Punch]

I could tell you.

But then we'd have to kill you.

[scotty1]

I don't get the whole Freemasons thing.

What I imagine and what is the truth are probably different.

[Royal Dragon]

I was told the Shaolin Monks were Free Masons by a Kung Fu teacher in the Chicago area once.

Other than that, aren't those guys the local 102 brick laying union?

[cagey_vet]

you may be surprised...
do a search on google.

[David Jamieson]

actually...

Most cities that have a china town have a chinese freemasons building and organization, to which it is common for a kung fu school to be attached to or affiliated with.

It is also common for Kuo Min Tang (Chinese Nationalist organization) offices to have a Kung Fu school attached.

Not to mention pretty much any chinese cultural association.

Martial arts are an important part of Chinese society as a whole and are kept and propogated through many other organizations connected with culture and business or academia of the chinese paradigm.

peace

[TenTigers]

I have been a Mason for over ten years. Basically, it is a fraternal organization based on solid values such as honesty, morality, brotherhood, helping your fellow man, charity-kind of like the concepts of Mo-Duk and Sik-Jo. Nothing like the bad rep the Christian fundmentalists try to pin on us.

[Royal Dragon]

Every time I have spoken with a Mason (4 times total) they went on and on about world domination nonsense.

[Serpent]

So TenTigers, what are the requirements to become a Mason? What beliefs or position do you have to have? And what do you do actively about charity and helping others and all that? Tell us all you can/feel like...

[David Jamieson]

Serpent -

I come from a long line of folks who all belong(ed) to the scottish rite.

To the best of my knowledge, the only key thing you must embrace to become a member of the rite is to have a belief in a higher power than yourself (read:GOD). Beyond that, there are levels of initiation and knowledge that are similar across all masonic organizations.

peace

[guohuen]

The idea of using the tools of masonry to explain spiritual principals appeals to me greatly. Analogy is one of my favorite learning tools.

[Royal Dragon]

How does that fit in?

[David Jamieson]

The whole world domination thing in regards to any of these lodges that preserves knowledge of the ages is propogated by your run of the mill conspiracy theorist types.

However... Knowledge is power

peace

[Cody]

Did some surfing. Both my parents were part of the Masonic Order. I had the opportunity to join as a child, but did not.

There are some firm requirements, which I will list below. (Some lodges have additional ones).
Joining Freemasonry
1. Being a man, freeborn, of good repute and well-recommended;
2. A belief in a Supreme Being;
3. Ability to support one's self and family;
4. Of lawful age; and
5. Come to Freemasonry of their "own free will and accord".
for further explanation of above, consult
http://www.masonicinfo.com/member.htm

My feelings. If this were for fellowship and doing good, why all the secret rituals? That's a rhetorical question. Unfortunately, I did not take my mom's ritual book when she died. However, I do remember occasionally hearing her rehearse her lines. Names and language sounded Biblical (Old or New Testament?). It's not a religious organization (for any one religion), yet it demands that one be a believer. In it's history, I am wondering if there was a particular religion in mind or favored above others, and whether the acceptance of others was a later development (when?).

I think that there are a lot of demands, which might seem okay and be okay in certain contexts if not taken to extremes (i.e., patriotism). When I perused part of the website of a Skokie, ILL lodge, they quoted form When is a man a Mason?, written by the Reverend Joseph Fort Newton:
"When he has kept faith with himself, with his fellowman, and with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song - glad to live, but not afraid to die!"
This goes beyond the simplicity of charitability and good fellowship. An atheist can't be a Mason. Sorry, doesn't feel right to me. I know, every club has a right to its own rules. That is so.

So, while I think that Masonry might offer a good outlet to believers who want to join an organization and do good in the world, I feel there might be another side to this too, and the possibility of other aims which might not be universally present in all Masonic lodges.
Because of the ritualism, the secrecy, bringing children into the fold (The International Order of the Rainbow for Girls), there is room for a cult-like definition.
I haven't researched this, but have read that the history of Masonry links up with the Illuminati. There seems to be a history of religious strife and some themes of domination in the background, which require time to get to the bottom of. It gets too muddy for me to investigate without serious concentration which I must devote to other things.

I had no idea that there was Freemasonry in China.

Cody

[guohuen]

I could be stepping in it here but I understand the whole idea of secrecy, ie. using analogy to explain spiritual principles was to circumvent the churches ban on lay people reading scripture.