Limahong

Hi Cedar Tree, I take it to mean that you are requesting for an encore of 'Stranger on the Shore'. Why encore? Because - and Taoistically (rightly/wrongly), here it comes: - LimA

Hi Zenmode, Is it because you perceived Sublimation as the stranger on the shore? If so, enjoy him thus: - LimA

Hi Creighton, Ordinary = life. - Anand

Hi Creighton, Moment as in the present right now This moment... this is it Holy Cow All there is and all there ever is... And it is all of it - trust me it's IT. IT = MOMENT Treasure IT. - Anand

Hi abadahorn, The two shine in your post. You are coming forth as a fighter. Keep it up with self healing till some help comes along. Have patience, it is a virtue. Use your mind to circumvent physical limitations. March on, as I had said somewhere before, to the beats of your heart and the silence in your mind. - LimA

Hi Cedar Tree, Anything positive for abdahorn to move forward is a great welcome. - LimA

Hi abdahorn, Don't go down deeper from where you are now. When we are desperate, we may take slippery paths. For the moment, keep a clear mind and be kind to yourself. Wait for a kind soul to come along. Actually with a clear mind, you can be your own teacher too. Learn to ask yourself simple questions that you can attempt at answering yourself. You are very young - appreciate the gift of Life. LEARN, LEARN, LEARN ... Blessings from the Divine - LimA

Hi Creighton, You are blessed to have a son who gives joy with his "simple presence". You have touched on the true essence of Junior's very being. Is he a chip of the old block? "Seem"? It is real - you want me to pinch you at your bodily most sensitive? As a guy, I sure know where. "Beyond reason" - you are the reason. "Sharing" - is a 2-way street. Thank you. - Anand

Hi silent thunder, A 1000 apologies Sir! Much love to you Dad! Sir you look endearingly charming. Can I pinch your cheeks? Promise - I will not pinch them off your face. Your Son sure looks a fine lad. Is he a strong/silent thinker? Thank you for the photo. Please be forgiving. - LimA

Hi silent thunder, Are you Ms/Mr? Much love too - Babe? Good night. - LimA

Hi abdahorn, Please develop the wisdom to buy/not buy anything/everything you are reading at this forum per what you need/don't need respectively. First and foremost know yourself - kindly and lovingly. It is passed midnight at my end - time for me to put my head on my pillow. Good night. - LimA

Hi abdahorn, Again apology - I am in no position to answer your question. i know just a little - minimum knowledge spells big trouble. Again can someone else please help? With your openness, I would like believe that help may be on the way. Meanwhile be kind to yourself. Love Vasil. - LimA

Hi abdahorn, A mind/body harmony is essential for a good life. Celibacy? Do you know what it entails? Apology - I cannot help beyond these questions. Can someone else who can help - please extend a hand? Thank you. - LimA

Hi Sub, Sure glad to see you in my notification. Very very happy to note that you are very very good. You have started the ball rolling; and it is still rolling towards - freedom. Good job Bro. - LimA

Hi abdahorn, Sorry to hear of your condition. Use your mind to find ease within your body. Meditate on this progression: Disease => dls ease => Ease. Enjoy sunshine and rain. Look often at the Moon and find peace. All the best! - LimA

MOMENTS

Hi silent thunder, IT = MOMENT? I am glad to have joined TDB. Have met some of you who helped me to sort out my thinking and add new perspectives to my life. You are one of them. Thank you. - LimA

Hi silent thunder, On Descartes' dualism, which do you think is more important - body or mind? If you think it is the mind - why? - LimA

Hi silent thunder, I personally believe that there is a good alignment between the two modes of dualism. My sentiments are reflected thus: Paraphrased from: LeJavier @ Reddit TAOISM You'll have to forgive the philosophizing, which I'm pretty sure is frowned upon by most Taoists as being pointless and distracting. But we might as well have some kind of discussion going on in a discussion board. Physicalism, or materialism, is the philosophical idea that everything that exists is whatever's physical or material - the stuff in the universe is all there is. Our consciousness is an illusion, all our emotions and brain patterns are neural patterns, and so on. This is the strictly scientific view. Dualism is the idea that there is something "else" that exists "outside" the material. The particulars vary from there - reincarnation, life after death, living souls; there are many flavors. This is generally considered a "religious" or "spiritual" perspective. It would seem that these ideas are mutually exclusive - it must be one or the other, it can't be both. Either everything is material, or everything isn't material. Western society's seeming obsession with the battle between the two has been raging since Ancient Greece. But one of Taoism's great themes is the unity of all things. It's not alone among the eastern philosophies for a sort of monist worldview, but in Taoism I've found it best expressed - all things are all things, and therefore are one and the same. (I'll assume I'm preaching to the choir on this point, which is of course the most difficult to get across to most people, but hopefully won't be an issue here. Feel free, by the way, to disagree and posit a better wording or perspective.) The key is that Taoists wouldn't recognize a difference between the spiritual and the material. These are two labels slapped on different "parts" of the Tao. Since existence, to a Taoist, is essentially experiential, what's important isn't distinguishing between materials and non-materials, but recognizing all things as part of your experience, and therefore part of everything. Any other way is as pointless as identifying an "absolute east". Of course, this doesn't mean science or religion are wrong. A scientist is only using a certain tool set to achieve his goals. But the deepest questions of life can never be answered by him, and even the answers he does have are approximate. The priest does the same - he answers other questions, but never with perfect accuracy, and always with a strong bias towards what worked for him. Only the Tao unifies all, is blind to bias, and transcends perspective. Any opposition to the above account of Taoist dualism as having a fitting alignment with Descartes' dualism? - LimA

Hi silent thunder, In this post, I like to share Rene Descartes' Cartesian dualism thus: QUESTION: What is Cartesian dualism?ANSWER: From - AllAboutGOD.comDualism is an ancient concept that was deeply rooted in Greek thought. However, long before that, the ancient scriptures taught that mankind was made in God’s image and that Adam needed the spirit breathed into him before becoming a living soul. Almost 2000 years after Plato and Aristotle reasoned that the human mind or soul could not be identified with the physical body, Rene Descartes reinforced this concept and gave it a name, dualism. The word “Cartesius” is simply the Latin form of the name Descartes. Consequently, Cartesian dualism is simply Descartes concept of dualism. Descartes’ famous saying epitomizes the dualism concept. He said, “cogito ergo sum,” “I reflect therefore I am.” Descartes held that the immaterial mind and the material body are two completely different types of substances and that they interact with each other. He reasoned that the body could be divided up by removing a leg or arm, but the mind or soul were indivisible. This concept is difficult to accept for those with a secular humanist, materialist, and evolutionist worldview because accepting it is accepting super-naturalism. Consequently, Bible believers accept dualism and people with the opposite worldview find themselves obligated to reject it. A rejection of Cartesian Dualism: Yours and others' thoughts on - Cartesian dualism versus Taoist dualism. Please share. - LimA

Hi silent thunder, Ignorance and/or arrogance of youth. Wisdom of age. Examples of extreme unnatural over very natural please. Thank you. Poor thing. Sorry I first read it as autopsy. For you to ponder? Now you respond better? Good correspondences? Less despondent?... No + no => insight => awareness? But according to Rene Descartes - ‘I Think Therefore I Am’. So sometimes you are unbelievable - to yourself and others? - LimA

I should amend this one... I'm rarely serious, not never serious. Seems in the West we have supplanted the words sincere and serious. For me, there are very very few things we need to be serious about... but it is almost never possible for me to be insincere. This is a tricky bit and can easily drop into semantics. But for me, intention is key to the mix and too often, in my upbringing in particular, seriousness was a panacea to connote sincerity when often, it turned out, there was no sincerity and the seriousness was a mask to cover ulterior motives. So I rarely am serious... but can't recall the last time i found it ok, or palatable to be insincere. I find levity and laughter to be paramount in my process of late, which is all about being aware... acknowledging conditions of life as they are, doing what I can, or not, as is my nature... and then utterly releasing what transpires to live in the moment as fully as I am able. Hi silent thunder, I believe many will join me in thanking you for sharing the above with us. You are serious and sincere. There is no semantics. You are you, and you are living in the moment the best you can. You are the moment? Thank you. - LimA

Tao works for me often, but not always. Source is source, and that term is more neutral to me, so I like it right now. But I do find whatever name I try and use, it never seems to encompass and adequately express the experiences I'm trying to convey and share with the words... but I try anyway ... So if the things I love, flowers and the things I don't like... dog shit, come from the same source... then the difference in my experience of them probably lies in my awareness... in my mind. I love this insight because it reminds me my responsibility in all my interactions, thoughts and judgements. Hi silent thunder. Yes source is source. Tao is a 'label, tag, ticket, brand ...' - for communal identification, alignment and dialogue? Does each of us identifies with one's own individual source?. Why? Because of "my responsibility" in relation to "my interactions, thoughts and judgements"? - LimA

Good morning silent thunder, I can accept your thoughts on 'death' as the other end of the natural continuum from 'birth' as expressed and highlighted in cyan. But your - "Sometimes to me, it seems too soon, or too violent, but this is my own baggage" - is not just your own baggage but mine too; plus many others, especially those in India. What have I in mind when it comes to the baggage? WATER an accrual of raindrops. WATER when it is unpremeditated, unintended, accidental ... in terms of untimely/unnatural deaths thus: "Not one raindrop has ever fallen in the wrong spot... there are no accidents"? - LimA

Hi silent thunder, Granted - rain falls as Nature intends it to fall. But men/women have confused rain to fall otherwise, What with - deforestation, river damming, genetic modification, pollution .... So will this still hold - "Not one raindrop has ever fallen in the wrong spot... there are no accidents"? Case in point - floods, droughts ... Again granted - rain falls naturally unbiased "without distinction" But when rain falls unnaturally, who suffer the most? The rich and powerful? My take - no. The marginalised that live off the land - had suffered, is suffering and will suffer more? My assertion - YES. Your thoughts please. - LimA