9thousandthings

Pain me once again will suffering end? All too soon my friend.

https://vimeo.com/47336949

While said unnamed person may have taken the idea from your source, it's not necessarily so. This is a common theme I've seen repeated from many.... Personally, I think on this a lot. I used to be what most would consider a very patient person. Having 2 young children has seemed to be calling this into question So, i spend a lot of time trying to breathe and respond, instead of reacting. Practices across styles seem to point to the importance of this, as well as focusing on opening up that space in order to choose to respond instead of react. A yoga teacher I sometimes frequent is fond of quoting Viktor E. Frankl while the sensation is building up in half-pigeon, or some other intense pose:

Or being eaten? Or eating? Do you prefer Either way, you win.

Yes it's obvious Stop looking and you will see the plum, not yet ripe

We were visited by a Baltimore Oriole yesterday. Flew right up to our newly blooming quince/crabapple tree (not sure which it is, kinda in-between). This tree sits right off our small back deck, and just a few feet from the kitchen window that's above the sink. Dish washing is bird watching. I've never seen one so close up before, such a beautiful fellow! Lots of Grackles too lately. They are really happy that I haven't mowed any lawn this spring yet, and spend their time hopping around in the tall grass that is almost over their heads now. When I lived in Austin, TX, folks down there thought of them almost as pests, like some folks do Pigeons. I always liked them. I think these ones had a nest in one of my neighbors tree. All this Bitterroot had strangled the row of pines between our yards and he cut down the dead ones recently. In one of them the Bitterroot had formed this massive, almost cave like, tangle in the top of the tree. I know some folks were using it for sure, and these Grackles seem a bit like they've been thrown out. Or maybe that's just me projecting

Was just reading up on this - the word is, the robot is based around a comic that the monk at this temple wrote. The first book being called "Troubles Are Self-Made". An English version may be in the works....would love to see the comic series (in any version)! Reminds me of that often quoted line from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: I'm pretty certain I've run into other robot monks in sci-fi over the years too.... Cool share, thanks! Edit: sorry to digress, my comments don't really have anything to add to the thread - I myself align more along the daoist lines, though I'm constantly inspired by Buddhist (especially zen) ideas and art.

choooooooooo!

And they confound most And they always burn the toast Those damn hungry ghosts

MUD (multi user dungeon)

Thank you for sharing! This is beautiful and moving. Even without 228 (and growing) pages of this thread, just watching this video alone would make me want to take up this practice!

This is beautiful. I thought I'd add the translated lyrics for those who don't follow the link through to You Tube: When winds breathed slowly and carried cotton blossom drifts floating from the willow strands, there in the fragrant willowshade, we rested in green depths. Sailing round faraway beaches, sailing as evening falls; in this total disorder of aimless sailing, where can I make land? I've met my share of mankind, but none are like the willows by that gate of departure. None remain. If trees had hearts like men do, they would not be so green with life. Night comes on, your high city disappears, There's only the tangle of endless mountains. Like Wei Lang, I've left you- But remember; this bracelet of jade; believe this promise that we've made When I left, you begged me "Soon return!" For fear we'd leave the red flowers loveless. And I didn't take your pair of scissors with me, but if I had, I still couldn't cut these thousand binding, silken threads of melancholy exile.

And old thread, but I happened to be thinking about this chapter tonight, and came upon this commentary in Red Pine's translation: "Ho-Shang Kung says: Ancient carts had thirty spokes in imitation of the lunar number."

This is something (one of many some things) I've been meaning to learn more about for years. I know there are plenty of resources about, and I know there are people in the area here (Southern Maine, USA) who are very knowledgable. I've just got to do it - thanks for the reminder!

Marker

Ha, yes! There are eagles and ravens around for sure. I haven't seen them around our neighborhood (yet), but they're in the area! The Ospreys tend to stick to just over the pond, but sometimes will do a flyover our house. This evening, just around dusk, my wife leapt out of the kitchen chair she was sitting in and yelled: "look! look! over there! what the hell was that!" I didn't get there in time. She said she was looking out into the back yard and saw what at first she thought was a seagull flying towards her, but then suddenly its head was huge, it was huge and it veered off out of sight. A big owl. Guessing since it was mostly white it was a Snowy Owl? I wish I saw it, lucky girl

( I copied this from a post I made on reddit's /r/taoism in case it looks familiar to you Also, since it was dealing with Instagram, and a project elsewhere, I wasn't sure I should put it in Textual Studies - besides it didn't seem quite a "Study" enough...more fun oriented...) Greetings Tao and Tea lovers (and anyone else interested)! I just wanted to invite any Tea lovers and Instagram users to this little enjoyment of the Tao Te Ching. It started with a user in the IG tea world, @augustmoontea, as she began posting the chapters with her daily tea photos. Each day, the next section with tea. I've joined in and posted a different translation, maybe a bit of commentary from other writers, or our own. We're on chapter 4 as of today, so still plenty of time to join in if you'd like. Add some commentary, or thoughts on existing posts. Or join in and post on your own page a different translation, version, interpretation, language, etc of that day's chapter with your Tea photo and tag it with #TeaWithLaoTzu and #TeaWithLaoTzuDay4 (where 4 is replaced by chapter / day). It's not the best platform (that's probably here) for discussion, but we're making do. It's more about the "spirit" of sharing... Anyhow, check it out if you like! https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/teawithlaotzu/ yours in the way, 9thousandthings

Old River, No, sorry, this specific thing lives only on Instagram - it sort of spontaneously began the other day between me and another user. I'm trying to invite others to take part - not sure how it could export to another platform...and I'm not too familiar with Tumbler... She's started with ch.1 on one of her tea photos, and the next day I saw ch. 2 and asked her if she planned on posting all 81, 1 each day...and she said yes. I thought of some of the threads here at Dao Bums in the Textual Studies section where folks shared their ideas on the sections. The timing was perfect - I had just gotten hold of several new versions myself, including Red Pine's with all the commentary. So, it seemed like a cool thing to attempt, despite the nature of the platform which is not very conducive to discussion. I'm actually pretty new to Instagram. I had grown bored with Facebook and its constant noise, and about the same time began drinking tea in earnest again (from a long hiatus). I was enjoying taking photos of my tea, at first to just help document all the new stuff I was trying (most of my tea drinking life I'd been a green tea guy), and then it kinda worked its way into part of my daily (or 2x daily) ritual. I stumbled on Instagram one day when reading a post on Steepster (what this place is to dao, that place is to tea), and really fell in love with the simple, clean, less busy, image focused nature of it. I opened an account began posting my tea photos....tea only. It's been great, there's quite the lovely tea community that has "found" each other through photos. You can check out my photos here ( I don't think you have to be registered to view pages) Anyhow, that's a long ramble to answer a short question! There's an older Tea Thread or 2 hanging around that I keep meaning to bump, but they're in the Healthy Bums section. I'd love to have one that's more general than that. While I'm not opposed to the healthy aspects of tea, it's not why I drink it - and with its rich history among daoist (and buddhist, and...) traditions I think it deserves a place beyond a "Health" section .... guess I'll have to go start one! Thanks for your comment! Oh and BTW, I've been checking out your beautiful version of the DDJ - it's wonderful...may I share sections of it online (in this Instagram idea for example) with others?

Where I'm at we have a lot of the usual suspects for Northern New England (USA). A pair of Morning Doves, a mated pair of Ducks that visit in the early morning for the cracked corn I put out. A pair of Cardinals...I love the female's dull green and red coloring! Robins, jays, chickadees, crows, grackles, house sparrows, etc. There's a Bluebird hanging out recently. I've seen redwing blackbirds, ospreys, seagulls, and other pond and ocean birds (live near both). A bright yellow bird that goes by so fast I can't tell what it is! I've been trying to pay more attention this Spring because my daughter is really into birds. This morning I saw a Northern (Common) Flicker for the first time. What a great looking fellow/a! I'm looking forward to its hopeful return, and whomever else visits....Not my picture, but the Flicker looked just like this:

Wow, beautiful!!

Yes indeed! Growing up, before I had heard squat about eastern thought / philosophy, I caught profound glimpses of the Tao from Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau, and company. I need to return to them someday soon, it's been a long time....

Haven't smoked tobacco in years and years, but I do have a fond memory of some very nice organic grown leaf that a friend used to buy from a farmer she new. It was very blonde and very tasty. I would roll my own in those days, so no filter. I had many a very lovely, satisfying, meditative, and enjoyable sessions with this tobacco. A book, a bench, maybe some coffee. The sunlight, the birds, the clouds. Inhale, exhale. The world went by. I have respect for those who respect the tobacco leaf. Or any other leaf for that matter. These days my leaf is steeped in water

april 25 This morning i drank tea with a trampoline, made breakfast for my children, and then got dressed. While my daughter finished her breakfast bread, we talked about cockroaches and why people didn't like them. I told her they clean themselves often like our cat. She told me that everyone is her Kindergarten class thought kissing was gross. I asked her if they could explain to her why? She decided that most people were silly and I agreed. It's been a good morning.

My feet must stay dry! But how, when water won't yield? I'll stand on my head...

Telling him it's safe the parent lies through a smile too soon truth revealed