Taomeow

Destiny awaits. Come, dear boy. Have a cigar. Which one's pink? Bernie.

Gopi Krishna's books.

"Until the ice cracks," I whispered to the Snow Queen. "Until then, sister."

Whose tears give birth to successful rock bands, those want to rule the world, dude

Connected to all by chains, shackles, superstrings, freedom trudges on.

Thoughts can weigh you down, and thongs can give you wedgies, but they can't stop you.

The indifferent fat white cat sat on a mat contemplating zen

Definitely the I Ching. And since the founder of taoism, to taoists, is Fuxi, and not Laozi by any stretch of imagination (although laoists might be upset by the news), and since Fuxi created the Eight Trigrams which the I Ching is based on, and since the defining nonverbal diagrams expressing taoist cosmology, philosophy, science and religion in one fell swoop, Hetu and Luoshu, have been worked into the fabric of the I Ching (one way to view it is as merely a text adding verbal explanations to a system that was complete and fully operational thousands of years earlier), and since the I Ching was the first book to be canonized into religious taoism and is without doubt accepted by all schools and sects of taoism, I don't see why it need be doubted, except for the fact that in the West (and among heavily westernized Chinese) the TTC was popularized far more widely and is easier to misunderstand. FB is swarming with "quotes from Laozi," 90% of them fake and most of the rest mistranslated -- but not from the I Ching, and that's quite telling in and of itself. It is not as user-friendly... but taoism is not about that. It's not a catering service to the seeker of "philosophy light," decaffeinated... contrary to a suddenly popular belief. So losing the cozy pre-tamed idea of what taoism "is because ought to be" to the actual reality of TTC being "one of its pillars" but not the turtle holding the universe on its back (that turtle is the one on whose back the Luoshu was inscribed ) is one of those instances where the taoist admonition to "invest in loss" may indeed pay off.

Or, in simpler terms, you "thought to yourself" (right before posting what you thought for public enjoyment) that you're a good boy and I'm a bad girl. That's fine by me, but please don't sign my posts for me if you can help it, I already have a signature.

The reed and willow sing, "Verde que te quiero." Sing, "Verde viento."

Ruthless and returned, the demons incorporate. Corporations rule.

They came and are gone. Light a moxa stick... inhale... burning steppe... they're back...

Like river water, total recall floods my mind. Genghis and his horde.

"When a man no longer has any conception of excellence above his own, his way is done, he his dead."

Two reasons, Michael -- 64 is a yin number, and I have been hearing a distinctly female voice when talking to the I Ching for many years. There's no "person" there, but the 'friend and mentor" I hear is female. I don't know about others -- they may "hear" a male voice, or a voice without a gender-specific timbre, or none at all.

I always ask the I Ching about such matters. If you have a trustworthy oracle, ask him or her. Random people just share random opinions. Ditto random books. You might choose to go with the answer you want to hear, but there's no guarantee it's the right answer. So, I propose finding a method that answers your questions accurately and testing it on something karmically neutral first for a while before moving on to questions about serious matters. Not so much "propose" as just share my own approach. The I Ching is very conservative in this respect -- she does not disapprove or approve of "all" magical interventions, it's not an "all or nothing" situation, but she may disapprove of an intervention because, e.g., the timing is bad (she knows everything about Time), or for any number of reasons she sees and you don't. There's auspicious and inauspicious days and hours, not just situations, and she may tell you "not now" and leave it at that -- in which case so should you, and later inquire again. She knows of the possible consequences, whether positive or negative or downright devastating for your "bigger picture," that you have no way of accessing and evaluating. She does. If you are going to cultivate a relationship with an oracle, she will share this inside information with you.

Immortality! Breathe through my heels, my heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, spleen!

Ah, yes, I've been there. Unfortunately, they appointed Communist party members to serve as taoist monks when they decided to "revive" taoism that was utterly destroyed there during the Cultural Revolution. Gave them a crash course in ritual, and functionaries of the party were hired to head these establishments. Which may explain some of the things we don't see eye to eye on methinks. Don't quite see how I'm responsible for "newcomer's corner is not the place to pursue this," given that I merely answered the question to the best of my ability and you intervened to argue against my opinion, but I'll be happy to bow out at this point, with best regards.

Thank you for your take, Yueya. I remember, a few years ago, going to the trouble of debunking Komjathy, whose article about Western "misconceptions" regarding daoism offered his own misconceptions instead, but I don't remember the details. Suffice it to say that I do not have much use for "researchers of taoism" who are not taoists. In reality, the TTC is not "the most influential text," it is merely a text that all taoist schools more or less accept. "More or less" is significant here, since some view this work as profoundly religious, Laozi as the personification of tao who gives birth to himself as his own mother, and deify him -- Lord Laozi he is to them -- while others see this book as a manual for the ruler, for the powerful, a work primarily political -- and still others notice that it follows the Yuandao text very closely (sometimes verbatim) and still others focus on its cultivational code, from martial to alchemical instructions, and so on. The scientific aspects -- the cosmogony described in it -- is likewise not accepted by all schools (however, personally, I happen to consider it absolutely accurate, but it is based on earlier, nonverbal taoist documents, the Hetu and Luoshu, and merely follows the taoist tradition rather than creates or defines it.) In general, one often hears in the West opinions about taoism that are actually better defined as Laoism. Komjathy follows this trend. Zhuangzi, to an even greater extent, is a favorite with Western "researchers" and "philosophical taoists," but neither the source of taoist scriptures nor an authority viewed by "all" taoist schools as definitive. Zhuangzi is, rather, a beloved source, a storyteller whose ideas made it into folk interpretations of taoism and found a home in the hearts of people, but a religious authority he has never been. My 2 yuan.

The Taoist Canon, Daozang (Tao Tsang), consists of 1,400 volumes at the latest count (not counting the Supplements). If you want scriptures, you would have to join a particular school or sect, since their teachings sometimes overlap only slightly, and sometimes, not at all. "Generic taoism" is popular in the West but never existed in China. However, the most influential texts that were accepted by all taoist schools and had a profound impact on the whole cultural landscape (and in many cases shaped it) included in the Canon are not scriptures, they are professional literature on particular specific subjects -- books on medicine (beginning with The Yellow Emperor's Classic), feng shui, assorted arts executed the taoist way (from painting and calligraphy to magnificent treatises on culinary, tea, and "diagnosing" the meaning of comets based on their presentation), astronomy and astrology, internal alchemy, demonology, bedchamber arts, divination, biographies of taoist immortals, and so on. The first text to have been included in the Canon was the I Ching. For scriptures, you may need to be more specific and decide which school or sect to join before tackling them. The choice in our time and in our circumstances may be dictated by availability, but taoism has never been "readily available to the masses" -- at least the kind of taoism that involves scriptures. A few have been translated and you can read them, but without using them the way they were intended to be used, i.e. in conjunction with practices of a particular school, I'm not sure they are all that useful. However, here's a partial list in case you want to browse: http://www.taoistresource.net/doe_idx.htm

All things come to pass, but plastic bags they say are indestructible.

I agree, Sebastian.

*Reciprocated.*

Thank you, Silent Thunder. And from one hawk medicine recipient to another, greetings! I have had a connection with this magnificent teacher for the longest time too. Real life, one or two show up for my taiji practice on a regular basis... I don't take it as a compliment, rather the opposite... they scream at me too... I know what it's about.

Some minds are like cats though... they only need to be provided with a litter box and they don't need to be trained at all -- they just know what to do. The simplest yet very efficient technique I know... well, OK, if we go with animal metaphors, it matters what kind of animal you choose as metaphor for your mind... if you think of it (or it thinks of itself, or picks it up from the environment, whichever you prefer) as a "monkey in a cage," it will most obediently behave like a restless monkey. If you think of it as a puppy in need of training... it will chew up your mental furniture and demand constant attention and yelp at every noise. So.... with this in mind, try thinking of your mind as a cat and your thoughts as mice. Is the cat afraid of mice? No. Are mice afraid of the cat? They better be. I put my mind by the mouse hole whence thoughts-mice might emerge, and she waits for them -- patiently, with unwavering focus. Come, mice, come! I need a snack! A mouse-thought shows up from the hole, the mind pounces on it instantly, and the thought-mouse either runs away, disappears back into the hole, or gets devoured. The cat does not lose focus. She waits for the next mouse. ALL the mice know now that the cat is watching and never loses focus and waits for them! Fewer and fewer dare emerge from the mouse hole. Until there's none. I think a very common mistake of the beginner who wants to quiet her mind is to assume some sort of position of opposition to her own thoughts. They are intruders, they are not wanted and yet they come, "they are not mine" and so on. This makes matters more difficult since you effectively split into the "good you" who successfully avoids thoughts vs the "bad non-me" who you are trying to bargain with, suppress, ignore, disown, kick out, silence, train, you name it. The conflict keeps matters interesting in your mind -- and keeps it occupied with them. Whereas the cat-mind watching for mice-thoughts is not concerned in the least that mice are "intrusive" or "not mine" or "not me." All she cares about is catching them and eating them. She wants them to come. But she wants them to come only because she wants to eat them, no other relationship is being created between the cat-mind and the mice-thoughts. THIS attitude scares the thoughts away better than any other. ...and it helps if you have ever seen the unwavering focus of the actual cat at the actual mouse hole, as I have. Nothing compares. The cat never wanders, never gets distracted -- never. And the mouse dares not emerge -- or else gets pounced on immediately.