oranssi

I wrote a book of aphorisms inspired by the Tao Te Ching, and it represents my spiritual journeys accumulated over several years. It addresses Taoist and Zen Buddhist principles of non-duality. The book portrays various stages, from the ego death to the return to everyday life. The texts are structured in aphorisms, small texts for deep reflection. I would like to share it with this community. You can get the Kindle version free. If you want to give feedback, please do. I hope you like it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FY2RBCG

Once I had a conversation with a work colleague. And it was an inspiration to make this cartoon animation. I wanted to make a scene similar to one that appears in the first 20 minutes of the movie Waking Life (Love it!). And also the animation style is inspired in that movie. Hope you like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Dd55N_mg0

Didn't know about that technique. Must be tiresome to do that kind of animation frame by frame from an actual film.

I love fractals. It is sacred geometry for me, there is some profound truth in fractals. Lois, do you use any software to do this? Keep it up

I have been working on my little game and remembered this discussion. So if it is OK, I would like to share the game and if you happen to play it, please give me your feedback on the worldview I'm trying to convey with this game. Hope you like the idea somehow... It is a simple fighting game but with some twists, which I got inspiration from my interpretations of the Dao. In a nutshell, it is about spirits of the natural elements that merge with each other. The gameplay might be confusing for some so better to try the tutorial first. The spirits don't die, they just change states. The game has explicit sex, so beware. If anyone would like a download link I can send it through private message.

I dabble in programming and game design as a hobby. So now I'm making a game that uses explicit sex (not sugar coating it) as a way to convey a certain idea. From my point of view, I feel like we live our daily lives separated. In simple terms, there is the observer and what is observed. In this elemental duality of the world that we perceive we try to more than understand what we see, to be that what we perceive, this being the ultimate form of understanding of reality. And for that to occur one has to somehow merge with reality (whatever that really means). To merge with everything, like in an orgy. Hence sexuality.And why coming up with sex in this context? And not say tao, nirvana, ego death, samadhi or simply love? Because by saying everything is love, is to most probably fail the intended message. People relate to love as only a positive thing. Therefore a way to bias the message, missing the duality altogether. On the other hand, sex comes from our most primitive form, hardwired biology we should not ignore, coming from the very fountain of the infinitesimal. Because saying "I f*ck you", has at the same time a derogatory meaning as well as a nice meaning. Hence the unifying of the perceived duality.By making a game where I present characters that are the forces of Nature anthropomorphized, I try to show this concept. Battling but making love, make love but battle. And from that struggle, the world we perceive comes to be.

Yes, Philosophy uses logic. What I wrote is not very logical

Talking about “simple” texts that can have profound unfoldings. My personal favorite is the very first chapter. The Dao that can be stated, is not the eternal Dao;The name that can be named, is not the eternal name.The nameless is the origin of the heaven and earth;The named is the mother of the myriad things.So,By constantly having no desire one views its wonders;By constantly having desire, one views its limits.These two have the same origin, but they differ in name;Both are called Mystery.One Mystery plus another Mystery, are the sources of all wonders.

An egoless Dao and not necessarily without ego.

What is a real fight? Is it for defense? Is it to kill? Is it against a MMA practitioner? Someone knowledgeable and experienced or someone not? Who wants to kill? Do I know if he or she wants to kill? What is the situation? Are they many or is it just me? Is it being healthy a real fight? Is it being happy a real fight? What is a real fight? Do I fight biting the neck? Or scratching the eyes? Do I fight with rules? Why would I fight with rules? Am I conditioned to use rules? Where does a real fight start? Does it start with the psyche and words? With the behavioral language and my own emotions? What is a real fight? Must it be a physical confrontation? Do I need physical confrontation? Does a real winner ever let that happen? If it does happen have I lost? If it does happen how do I act? Not fight, but act. What is a real fight, if not everything I do in my life? But I prefer not to say what is a real fight. Instead, I ask the questions and act upon the mystery. A real fight is a real act.

I will share but never explicit material... Sometimes I just get too entangled with all the technical aspects of the characters mechanics in the gameplay, programming it and looking for bugs, that I just forget the poetry that I don't want the game to miss. So any feedback and advice on that would be awesome.

A roadblock that I stumbled upon is that I don't want to be associated with lewd games that are plenty and in various genres but none where my game could identify itself, as there is no niche of what I want to do.

It is not easy to have an effective gameplay. So far there is no concrete storyline. It just follows a loose idea. "Nature spirits" join each other (sex is just a symbolism for this) to manifest the reality we perceive. For instance, a waterfall makes bubbles in the pond. Wind spirit and water spirit are having sex, hence the bubbles.

I might share a demo sometime when it isn't as buggy as it stands now

It is not easy to have that scene of love and tenderness to be recreated in visual arts or even using just the literary arts. I am not really talented in graphic illustration... but as of right now the game has a symbolism to "the two becoming one". It has to do more with the gameplay itself. There will be a level at the end, where the two characters by having sex, become more and more transparent until they disappear altogether, representing the eternal void of oneness. Although the game will be a fighting game, there is no "Congratulation You Win" or a "Game Over You Lose". Because every action is in the end only a path (is in truth only the choosing of being the active sex partner or the passive sex partner) to the same final resolution, the merging of the duality (male and female aspects of the world we perceive) into the one eternal mistery.

Personally, I sometimes watch conspiracy theorist not because I believe in them (I most of the time don't believe in me) but because it is good entertainment. A sci-fi movie can be cool but you know that the actors are acting, you know they know that they are in-front of a green screen. But hearing the likes of David Icke, they live so much their fantasies that it becomes real, his dedication, and passion on the themes is amusing and that is what I like. People being passionate about what they believe. In my opinion, people shouldn't focus too much on the content but between the lines.

Hi. Want to share this video. It's an intro opening cutscene for a game I'm making.

Do you improvise when practicing Qi Gong or even in Tai Chi Chuan (always attending of course, the essential core of the exercise)? Instead doing the traditional practice do you ajust what feels right to you?

Yes, that is how I define myself. I'm both at the same time, therefore I could as well be none. I don't believe in believe. That being said, I believe that we are all transparent to Nature which we humans make part of. All things known and unknown are plenty as they are, so much so that everyone is biased to conserve their own identity that is the manifestation of that which is stranger than we can suppose. But one thing I know for sure! I am an animal, I have the same necessities as other beings and there is the unfathomable mystery. And at this constant contradition lies the conservation of infinity. Besides that all is poetry, and I like poetry because knowledge without emotion (hence biased) is sterile and has no use.

Ahahah.. I laughed a lot! Your commentaries were so funny Thank you for that! Wow! This makes a very good aphorism!

All very good and nice replies. A pleasure to read them. Thank you! In my practice I use to improvise in two manners. One is when I try to adapt the moves for martial application but the most amazing manner is when I simply loose it when doing the form and I get in a certain "mood". I just let my body flow almost without control and it feels exhilarating sometimes even euphoric. I do this with variying speed, height of stance, different fa jing strikes, etc. I don't know if this happens with many others but what liminal_luke said ressonated with me on this.

I would say the original citation and the modified one leads to the same place, although different paths. edit: The modified one could be the interpretation of what surrounds me from my point of view as human being, that suffers and desires. The clinching of the ego makes sin real, like raindrops falling in the wrong pot. But by clinching to the ego I am not sincere, nor am I sincere if I refuse my ego. I would say, only by being infinitesimal, that is (what I would call) transparent.

Hello Limahong, my position is difficult to describe, but is very simple. It is so difficult to describe that it can only be lived 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. I am a self-taught enthusiast on philosophical daoism. 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. Since then there was always the elusive true truth, that I guess everyone tries to get in his / her own soulsearch. Of course I'm an enthusiast of the traditional martial arts (self-taught) and the like. But my curiousity took me to the inner confabulations of the mind. 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. 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. You see, I'm attempting in describing a fractal. That is what everything is, a fractal, until you reach the unfathomable mystery. 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. Well since I'm writing this... and this is the internets.. I am in a state of nirvana or samadhi. This is not only intelectually 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, Infinty, Paradox, Universe). 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?! 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. 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? 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.How can I attain illumination? Maybe no one told me it is supposed to be difficult (unfortunatly I never had the opportunity to have a teacher). 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.

Thank you for those valuable replies. I do improvise mostly because I feel like I can't help to do what my body wants at a certain situation. Might it be a lack of discipline?