Shroom Cat

I speak/write a bit of Mandarin and been in China for a whole month working for pandas in Bifengxia, so I've had immersion experience of the language (and a bit of culture). I was wondering if anyone else would be willing to learn Mandarin with me, and we can sort of "immerse" each other as much as we can in Mandarin conversations My goal is to learn Mandarin to better understand cultural contexts, mingle with people of China, Taiwan, and parts of Singapore, and finally--to enjoy the Tao Te Ching in it's original language (sans Classical Chinese). Your goals may be similiar or completely different, I'm just looking for someone to grow our language skills with (我说点点普通话，我要一人话普通话也谁)

It's distressing. The anxiety, the feeling of loneliness and the fear of never becoming spiritually enlightened (not the same as the Enlightment, just a better sense of self is what I mean here). Is anyone else in my same spot? I've been trying to follow my path but I'm just so lost and lately I've "lost touch" of my spirituality and it's been highly distressing and anxiety-inducing. I feel I need a guru or teacher of sometime to help give me a little push towards the right direction but Taoism is so personal and non-conventional (which is good!) that it's so easy to get lost in. I don't even know where to start anymore, even with the I Ching and Tao Te Ching. I just don't think I'll ever be where everyone else is here. /vent, I guess?

You've received some quality help here, but I'd like to throw in some two cents too that worked for me: For letting go, I literally let my mind flood itself with whatever it is it wishes. I don't worry about focusing on letting go or even focusing on anything in general. I view my thoughts as constant, just like a river. You cannot stop a flowing river and your mind is one, so instead of worrying about that just let it be. Eventually, your mind will exhaust itself and you'll finally get to let go.

First of all, thank you EVERYONE who replied. I got a lot more than I expected, but I promise I've read each and every reply Second, my spiritual practices are currently limited. I meditate (as much as my condition can allow me uninterrupted) and participate in Tai Chi. A lot of my 'practices' are just application of Taoism in my daily life and verses from the Tao Te Ching. I let things be as much as I can and I treat every walks of life with respect and equal importance (including plants and insects). So I suppose the third practice could be the application, if you consider that a practice. Another thing I REALLY want to do and am going to do once I have the money is to build an altar for Laozi and that'll help keep me grounded and focus on what matters/serves as a reminder to frequently meditate and do my spiritual obligations. A lot of these questions flood my mind on the daily, and I realize I should just let them go, but it's harder for me than the average person (again due to some... 'unconventional' condition that I'm too paranoid to post publicly, but if anyone here is interested for details please feel free to PM me and you'll understand why). That doesn't mean I can't overcome this condition and be spiritually sound, it's just an extra step I need to take that others may not is all. Also thank you all again for the help and any recommendations that some of you had (especially the Mooji's lectures, I'm going to look into that)

Hello fellow Daoists, I'm a 20 year old {transgender} male who has been following The Way for three years now on my own. However, I've lost touched with my spirituality ever since I've experienced hardships--but I'm back and ready to become more attuned with my spiritual self and relearn the meanings of the Dao and internalize Lao Tzu's teachings in the Tao Te Ching. I've decided to join this forum to communicate with other Daoists, learn from the community (and hopefully give back somehow). I've been struggling to find a Daoist temple in the United States, although I have been to one in China. This disheartened me because I really want to meet other Daoists and talk about our beliefs. I'm kinda new to I guess the 'structured' side of things, as I feel like I'm not a 'true' Daoist because I was never really guided by a spiritual guru or anything--but I do wish to learn The Way properly and meet new people! I look forward to talking with some of you and I hope I'm welcomed here! ~ The Cat

Thank you very much! I feel good about this forum already 8D