Limahong

Hi Marblehead, Thank you for being such a sport. You have considered yourself a Chuang Tzu humorist. I am not sure what Chuang Tzu humor is; but I like your personification of it. However there is a serious side to you too - I have read some of your thoughtful posts elsewhere. As a frontal interface for TDB, you have positioned yourself well in the realm of Taoism (philosophically). Keep it up. - LimA

Hi Marblehead, You also said - "I carry a tape measure around with me to check to see if others measure up to my expectations of them". When we put the two together, we are inclined to ask: (i) Your sole purpose when measuring is to touch? (ii) All your expectations are rooted in touching with measurement as a front? (iii) You "carry a tape measure around with me to check" - so you touch around the clock? (iv) What had you touched with permission? Mostly up to expectations? (v) What had you touched without permission? Any untoward repercussions? (vi) What is your favourite 'measurement'? (vii) Your "others" are specific - only in two-piece, right? (vii) You like "others" to measure you in return? - LimA

Hi solstice93, Below is your post - I will try and comment within the context of your thread thus: ============================================================== Hey Limahong, I agree, it is very much double edged. Like anything powerful it requires responsibility and accountability. Good - we are on the same page. What I meant by "improve the role I have in it" was that instead of consuming content that leaves me feeling drained and despondent, I hope to minimize my exposure to such content and replace it with things that seem richer to me, and more life affirming. Yes we must protect our minds against offensive exposure. Taming our minds, even without such an exposure, is no easy task. What if such an exposure takes centre-stage? Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO)? Studying the various practices that this site is devoted to, or even learning some simple exercises/stretches, seems like a much better use of time. Thanks to Marblehead and his partners in crime. Girls and boys - take a bow haha + hehe + happy When I say that the content makes me feel this way, it is under the admission that I am responsible for this reaction, and ideally in control of it. But nonetheless it is there. You come across as - transparent, responsible and accountable. Nice that our paths crossed. The content that currently proliferates the internet, whether it is clickbait news headlines, ephemeral idolization of overnight-celebrities, mindless memes and viral content, some of which is created for the sole purpose of expressing a nihilist or depressive sentiment, is more easily consumable than ever. Such adverse contents can create havoc on untamed minds. At my end, we have 'fake news' and the authorities are finding ways to bring such offenders to task legally. For example, I'll see that my friend or relative sent me something, and within one swipe I'm exposed to all these headlines that are created just to generate views from the general public, really mindless stuff. Again - GIGO? For someone like me who has ADD (whatever that means) it can be hard not to get caught in the trap of looking at the stuff I see - or it was tempting for a while, and admittedly I've spent hours of my life distracted by it. Whatever is ADD? Guess self discipline + a tamed mind = protection? I know it seems very simple to ignore, and it can be, but I also wonder about all the kids who come into this world thinking that THAT'S the stuff that really is important. When it comes to kids, it is tough. But let us start with ourselves first. Let us try and light up dark and hidden paths. OK? It's all so influential. I can even feel a tangible generation gap between myself and people two years younger, due to the differences in the technology we were brought up with. Friend - you are very insightful. Focus on such sights and reset what is right. So my goal in that post was to acknowledge that a large portion of that noise is very disagreeable to me, and there is great power in unplugging from it. It's an act that results in quieting the mind, like wiping off your lens to get a better view of the world. Wow: Power in unplugging Results in quieting Lens-like wiping You - a poet? One that is more aligned with your own purpose, and less distracted. From this place, you are able to create, and take full accountability for it. This place = TDB? TDB - take a bow (but of course) And it's an action that's not as simple as not looking at certain websites or apps, it involves developing a kind of force field of psychical power, to avoid being drained of energies. Like in meditation, cultivation, retention, ...? The same "headlines" I was talking about, if they don't catch your eye, they can still influence others into a state of being that can affect you, and them. Like in effluence, pollution, contamination, ...? I hope that answers your question. YES. If you wanted to know what I will contribute. PLEASE Personally, I can't tell you now, as it's less about telling and more about doing. NATO - no + no. GANOT - yes + yes. Thanks for your question and I'm interested in hearing if you have any thoughts on it, even if its a very brief post. Thanks for your answers and I'm interested in hearing if you have further thoughts on them, even if its a very brief post from you. Are you really 23/24 years old? TDB - here comes solstice93 Marblehead I am retiring. - LimA

Hi Stosh, I have come across ego and super-ego. Both aren't good - so no + no + no + no. I had denounced both long long time ago. Excuse me I have a date and have to go. - LimA

Hi solstice93, I was waiting for you to pick up the gauntlet. After some elongated silence from you, I told myself - give up; he is a typical NATO (no action, talk only). Then you appeared and I shouted GANOT! (got action, not only talk). Young chap - you have proven me wrong; I am most happy to be rightly wrong. It is close to dinner time at my end; will read your post in full later - had just a cursory scan. Good job. - LimA

Hi Marblehead, Back to your thoughts on "levels". I can think of "levels" as within myself on a comparative mode to gauge myself in relation to my own progress/digress. But I do not like to think comparatively of myself with others in terms of "levels". I am not comfortable with "levels" sandwiched between two persons because this may invite: (i) Vanity, pride, narcissism, self-importance, conceit, arrogance, egotism and/or big-headedness. (ii) Bitterness, resentment, unpleasantness, animosity, rancour, cynicism and/or scorn. (Spent the weekend at Thesaurus; just returned yesterday.) "Stop at philosophical"? I thought we start afresh with philosophical stance(s). Yes/no? - LimA

Hi oranssi, You pulled my left leg and I reversely pulled your right. You are infinite but I am definitely finite - every night. You are self-taught but I always ask - Where's God? So let us just laugh and laugh till we meet our Lord. - LimA

Hi Marblehead. Such a link has been suggested. - LimA

Hi Brian + liminal_luke, I searched in cyberspace for links between Leonard Cohen and Taoism. So far no direct hit. However there are suggestive links between the two. Prefer to give these suggestions a miss for now. On the other hand, there are direct associations between Cohen and Zen Buddhism. Ephrat Livni (an American artist, writer and lawyer who works internationally on large scale street art projects) had an article on such an association – published on November 12, 2016. It is titled – “Leonard Cohen’s tortured love affair with Zen Buddhism”; and here is an excerpt from it. “For three decades, the Jewish poet pop star studied Zen Buddhism. At 65, he finally saw small miracles. ‘There was just a certain sweetness to daily life that began asserting itself,’ Cohen told The Guardian in 2001 … In 1994, Cohen retired to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center in Los Angeles, California and was ordained as a monk in 1996. ‘I was interested in surrendering to that kind of routine…It is a great luxury not to have to think about what you are doing next,’ he explained … At the monastery, Cohen cooked, cleaned, and sat. Sitting meditation, known as Za-Zen, aims to tame monkey mind, frenetic thinking, by studying the self to forget the self. It worked for the songster. But it took three decades of instruction and the mellowing of old age to put the musician in a neutral, monkish state of mind. ‘When you stop thinking about yourself all the time, a certain sense of repose overtakes you,’ he said. ‘It happened to me by imperceptible degrees and I could not really believe it.’ … In the monastery, Cohen went by the name Jikan, meaning normal silence or ordinary silence. It’s a funny name for a man who spent his life filling silence with song, but perfectly in line with Zen’s preoccupation with plainness … Cohen did this. He spoke on NPR in October, explaining that he left the monastery after five years because it was still ‘Boogie Street,’ another place with no privacy and personal frictions. He took up music again. This year, Cohen came home spiritually. Just before his passage, at 82, he released the album – ‘You Want it Darker’ in which he reinterpreted the ‘Kaddish’, a Jewish prayer for the dead. The song ‘Hineni’ refers to the Torah, Abraham’s response when God asks that he sacrifice his son. To the bittersweet end, Cohen wrestled with religion, all while submitting, singing: 'A million candles burning for the help that never came. You want it darker. Hineni, hineni. I’m ready, my Lord.'" - LimA

Hi solstice93, To me the Internet is double edged - nurture/torture. Like your - "I'm hoping to improve the role I have in it". Any inkling? If so, can share a little? - LimA

Hi oranssi, The following is your post. I will try and respond categorically in blue. There goes: Hello Limahong, my position is difficult to describe, but is very simple. It is so difficult to describe that it can only be lived "Difficult" - yet "very simple" -- yet again "so difficult". "It can only be lived" - but of course. Just live on - the way you deem fit. I don't really know what to say to "justify" my stance.. But I can try a little, by exposing a bit of my past. No need to "justify" because it is your own life. "But I can try a little, by exposing a bit of my past" - thank you. I am a self-taught enthusiast on philosophical Daoism. "Self-taught" and "philosophical" - clean approach and self-cleansing. Self motivated. Some 20 years ago I first read about Tao te Ching and understood nothing. From then 'til now I might have read it dozens of times and I don't get the last chapters mostly because it has no interest for me. The first chapters are what it is all about, in my opinion, and that (I think) I get it. More about this later. The last ones I see it to be more about a kind of "derivative recommendations" of the mystery. Tenacious, transparent and self-defining. Since then there was always the elusive true truth, that I guess everyone tries to get in his / her own soul search. Yes it is true, very "elusive". To each - his/her own. Of course I'm an enthusiast of the traditional martial arts (self-taught) and the like. Again - self motivated. But my curiosity took me to the inner confabulations of the mind. Self motivation starts from within one's own self? Yes/no? I studied various types of meditations, one of which I am relatively successful and that is astral projections. After many adventuring in this astral "themepark" and because my mental mechanism was influenced by daoism philosophy, although I didn't understood completely, I came to understand it thru the practice of meditation. Self-taught, self-motivated, self-assessed, self-regulated, ... Very good way of finding yourself - very self-sufficient and not selfish with yourself. If I am grounded despite the constant contradictions? No problem. Or better, it is a problem, but it is not a problem being a problem. Very 'problematic' as in diplomatic. You see, I'm attempting in describing a fractal. That is what everything is, a fractal, until you reach the unfathomable mystery. Just check Wikipedia on "fractal". "In mathematics a fractal is an abstract object used to describe and simulate naturally occurring objects. Artificially created fractals commonly exhibit similar patterns at increasingly small scales". And this I realised could only be attained if I become mystery, and mystery only hold itself if there is paradox. So I am paradox, I am alpha and omega. Fractal => mystery => paradox => alpha and omega - can be equated with: oranssi => Taoism => paradoxes => yin and yang? Yes/no? Well since I'm writing this... and this is the internets.. I am in a state of nirvana or samadhi. O My God! Can I join you? Please. This is not only intellectually understood. Of course life gets me sometimes and I get sad, but I remind me (thru the aphorisms I write for myself) that the joke is on me by me (God, Infinity, Paradox, Universe). Self-joker? Sister (Bro') - you are a true self-survivor. God, Infinity, Paradox, Universe - please give way to oranssi. So in the end I realise that this all makes part of the same mystery, and so I accept because it's me. How can I not accept me?! Of course not! You must accept yourself - totally and selflessly (since God, Infinity, Paradox, Universe have already given way). There is no other way. Believe me - I am a mystery cracker and decoder. Don't make me sad - self-acceptance is everything. But it is not any kind of acceptance. It is not resigned. It is a desireful acceptance. It is one that makes me feel transparent. It couldn't be any different when it's supposed to hurt, the script says it hurts. But of course. You know better - no pain, no gain. I see the Universe / Infinity / Dao / Mystery / Nature as a Child that is playing with all its toys. When the Child picks me, the house and the car, am I the child or is the child me? Don't be silly. Of course you are the child the Child picks. Just be child-like (and not childish) and everything will be just fine. To be a paradox it has to be a make-believe, but it isn't any kind of make-believe. It is an unfeigned make-believe. You believe everything you make, right? So? So it is make-believe. I believe you will not make anything you don't believe, right? Of course I am right! Who wants to waste life and live wrong, right? How can I attain illumination? Sorry, I have not the faintest idea. Maybe Marblehead can help; he wonders a lot. But be wary; he can be weary at times. Maybe no one told me it is supposed to be difficult (unfortunately I never had the opportunity to have a teacher). Teacher? Come on - you are self-taught. Don't be selfish - leave the teachers to others. I hope people don't take serious what I have written, and I really really hope you got a laugh out of this, because this is the Cosmic Joke. I take you very seriously, yet I laugh. Why? You are infinite zero. It is now 4:10am at my end. Time for me to self-sleep. A Cosmic good night. - LimA

Apology.

Apology.

Hi solstice93, For a 23 years old to tap his mind and keyboard thus, our world will/can be in good hands - years on. Please be transparent, responsible and accountable in whatever you do. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! - LimA

Hi ilminal_luke, I see the word 'hexagram' in the above quotation. Was Cohen into I Ching? Was he a Taoist? - LimA

Hi liminal_luke, Let's introduced Leonard Cohen a little thus (Wikipedia) to those who had not heard of him: Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, poet, novelist, and painter. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships. Thank you for reintroducing me again to Cohen. I first came across him through his song Hallelujah. At the start, he strike me as pretty dark. But over the years, I begin to see hope in his works and beauty in his perspectives on the yin dimension. I have not come across his above poem till now - thanks to you. It is copied here with highlights - my own identifications with its contents: ========================================================================= Stories of the Street The stories of the street are mine, the Spanish voices laugh. The Cadillacs go creeping now through the night and the poison gas, And I lean from my window sill in this old hotel I chose, Yes one hand on my suicide, one hand on the rose. I know you've heard it's over now and war must surely come, The cities they are broke in half and the middle men are gone. But let me ask you one more time, O children of the dusk, All these hunters who are shrieking now oh do they speak for us? And where do all these highways go, now that we are free? Why are the armies marching still that were coming home to me? O lady with your legs so fine O stranger at your wheel, You are locked into your suffering and your pleasures are the seal. The age of lust is giving birth, and both the parents ask The nurse to tell them fairy tales on both sides of the glass. And now the infant with his cord is hauled in like a kite, And one eye filled with blueprints, one eye filled with night. O come with me my little one, we will find that farm And grow us grass and apples there and keep all the animals warm. And if by chance I wake at night and I ask you who I am, O take me to the slaughterhouse, I will wait there with the lamb. With one hand on the hexagram and one hand on the girl I balance on a wishing well that all men call the world. We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky, And lost among the subway crowds I try to catch your eye. Leonard Cohen =========================================================================== To me those highlighted pertain to the yin dimension; and those highlighted pertain to hope as in new beginnings. A good weekend. - LimA

Hi silent thunder, It appears that you are nicely settled as a balanced Taoist. You strike me as a positive person - simply, light-heartedly, ... as you tiptoe through the tulips - as reflected thus: "I seem to be made entirely of small things. while always part of something large. while I would rather remain silent or say something better than silence. I fail at this consistently. accidentally, gloriously... rarely silently though thunder like light persists the intention abides... idly persistent, despite beliefs oh look, it's raining" There are four pairs of dichotomies in the italicised. You seems to have internalised duality into your being. I too have a positive attitude re failures. I tried my best in my life processes. But when failure comes knocking, I learn and then move forward. I also like rain thus: (i) (ii) A great weekend. - LimA

Hi liminal_luke But pretty big between the ears. Yes/no? - LimA

Hi CityHermit! How have you been since last? - LimA

"Not one raindrop has ever fallen in the wrong spot... there are no accidents. Everything I Love and Everything I Despise manifest from the Same Source. No I'm not serious. I'm never serious. I am however, completely sincere. I don't believe everything I think. stop glorifying busy." ========================================================= Hi silent thunder, This thread is rooted in paradoxes. I have cited the above from you and have it looked at from its Taoist flip-side per some of its key words. There are two strikethrough. The ensuing outcome pertains to this: Some raindrops have fallen in the wrong spot... there are some accidents. Everything I Love and Everything I Despise manifest from Different Sources. Yes I'm not serious. I'm ever serious. I am however, incompletely sincere. I don't believe everything I think. Start glorifying idling. Any comment from the flip-side 'Taoistically'? - LimA

Hi Marbleheah, Not true - sometimes I decline backwards badly. Then I will make a big concerted effort to bounce forward - Void-wise. Good day - leaving the house now. - LimA

Hi WuDao I am also glad our paths crossed. But of course - to be a successful bum I must decline from the start at TDB. Such wisdom. - LimA

Hi WuDao, Now I am inclined to decline without drawing a line. All - your fault. Soon I will stand inline for social handouts - again your fault. - LimA

Good morning Marblehead, My "personal space" is more than physical. It moves in this direction - each step transcending its preceding: Physical => mental => social => philosophical => religious => spiritual => ... => "personal space" => ... => VOID. To cut to the chase - my "personal space" is my guarded mind. - LimA

WuDao - warm regards to you too. The juggling I have in mind has both of my feet firmly planted on the ground with 'horse' stance; and two balls always in the air. I believe that it qualifies for your "standing on both, same time, two places" because - (i) I am standing firmly on both my legs temporally. (ii) My right leg is positioned spatially differently from my left. My juggling is quite similar to your archery? Yes/no? Please say 'yes' and I will "move along". What are "droids"? Have noted your 1457 posts thus far; have you grown with TDB? I definitely have even though I am now here for only a short period. At TDB - I am a born again bum eating buns (from many recipes). - LimA