Lost in Translation

Hi Lost in Translation, How about the Sun and Moon...? What about them? Are you implying that the sun is identical to yang and the moon is identical to yin?

This also explains how a single event can be both good and bad. Found a new horse? Good, maybe... Fell of the new horse and broke your leg? Bad, maybe... Weren't conscripted into the army because your leg was broke? Good, maybe... See what I just did? I tied the I Ching to Chuang Tzu. Ninja skills!

This means that yin and yang are adjectives, possibly adverbs, and not nouns. When we speak of "yin energy" for example this is not "energy of yin", but rather "energy with a yin quality". Frankly, this is revolutionary. It changes my entire outlook on the subject.

Ironically the video is from 1991 - but the song came out in 1981.

Does this not imply that yang and yin - in and of themselves - don't actually exist and are instead attributes which must be applied only to things?

I don't have yarrow stalks. I cut up barbecue skewers. I hope you enjoy interacting with the I Ching! Let us know what you figure out.

I suffered from depression for many years. It was terrible. It took all my will just to get up in the morning. Ultimately I broke the cycle when I found some of my old baby pictures. I hung them on the wall of my apartment where I would easily see them. Every day I imagined the kind of life that I would want that child to have. I imagined all the ways that I would want that child to be happy, to love and be loved. Every day I would remind myself that I was that child, and that I was the only person in the world who could grant my wish for that child to be happy. Over time I felt my anger towards myself softening. I felt my hatred of myself abating. How could I hold anger towards a child? How could I hate a child. especially when that child was me? Eventually my anger and hatred went away. I began to meditate in earnest. Life turned around. It was very soon after this that I met my wife. You never know what life holds for you. Be kind to yourself. Learn to see the child within and to care for that child. This helps, at least it helped me.

Three weeks later and the stupid cat acts like nothing ever happened! He has no clue how close he came to death. Now he's just sitting around, drinking cream, eating Chopped Grill (his fav!) and licking himself under a shade tree in the back yard. How does he do it? My wife said she saw an angel standing over him the night of his illness, right after we took him home. The angel was about eight feet tall and looked like a wicker & burlap Christmas tree ornament, complete with the little round wings. Whatever angel that was, God bless you for looking out for that lovingly annoying animal.

Be yourself. No one else can be you, and you can't be anyone else. People like being around people who are energy neutral. If you broadcast too much energy it will make people uncomfortable. If you draw too much energy from people it will likewise make them uncomfortable. Just be yourself, mind your own energy and people will naturally like you.

Well, I guess it's kinda sorta about that. In all seriousness I thought this thread was about coping with / getting over these emotions, not understanding the value of these emotions themselves. Although, now that you mention it - being mindful [Buddhist jab!] of these emotions and placing them in proper context gives negative emotions both meaning and helps one to cope with them.

This is a very good observation. It takes maturity to feel remorse. It takes wisdom to accept one's role as both victim and oppressor. This subject would make a good thread in its own right. Thank you for mentioning this.

Thank you. Such things are beyond our control. I, too, have experienced my own human frailty. I know what it is like to know what I should do yet lack the courage to do it. That is a difficult place to be. This is all part of living. God/Tao/Life/Whatever has a way of grinding away our pointy edges and humbling us. It's less painful to submit than resist, but we love to do it our own way. Yes, we do.

I learned long ago to know myself morally and to be true to my myself. I cannot say what I will know tomorrow. I cannot say who I will be tomorrow, and I certainly cannot say what I will do tomorrow. But, I know what I know today. I know who I am today, and I know what I do today. As long as my actions today adhere to my morality today then I never need to feel guilt, regret or shame. It's only when you do not know yourself, or you act in a way that you know is wrong that there is room for these emotions to enter.

I just love this painting by Eugene de Blaas!

I'd also ask "What is money?" Don't answer superficially. We know it's paper (technically cloth), issued by the government. But go deeper. What does this paper represent? Originally it represented gold or silver. Way back in the day you could exchange paper money for precious coins. That's been abolished and now money floats freely (fiat currency), but we'll set that aside. So money represents precious metals. Why so? Because precious metals are limited in quantity. And they are shiny. Why were precious metals used for money? Well, they are easier to carry than barter goods. Back in the days of barter (or modern day Venezuela) people had to trade stuff for stuff. It was tedious. If you had chickens and you wanted oil you needed to bring your chickens to a market and find the someone with oil. If that someone wanted beef then you had to first trade for beef before you could trade for oil. It was a mess. Why did people trade stuff for stuff? Because they had stuff and they needed stuff! Why did one person have chickens, another person beef, and yet another oil? Because each person worked in their own profession. Some raised chickens, others raised cattle, and others made oil. What am I getting at? Money is a symbolic medium. It is representative of work. The more valuable (i.e. needed by others) the work, the more money. Would it ever occur to anyone to ask whether a Taoist needed a chicken farm? No! But people ask whether a Taoist needs money. Ironically the two questions are fundamentally the same! There is no conflict between being a Taoist and raising chickens. Similarly there is no conflict between being a Taoist and being a lawyer, or between being a Taoist and running a business.

You live according to your means. If you have little money then you adjust your lifestyle. Maybe this means you have roommates. Maybe this means you move to a less expensive area. When I was just starting out in life I had no skills to earn money, at least not enough money to become independent. I chose to join the military. I indentured myself to the government for four years. During that time my liberty was severely curtailed, but in return I learned a skill, was provided with housing and food, and was able to travel the world. Being a Taoist means being able to recognize change and adapt to it instead of fighting it. Sometimes you need to make difficult choices.

A Taoist is like water - he flows naturally and does not resist even the lowest of places. To live in the world without money takes a lot of effort. The path of least resistance is to develop a skill of value and use that skill to provide for yourself.

What's the importance of health? What's the importance of happiness? What's the importance of food? What's the importance of shelter? What's the importance of freedom? Money is a means to an end, nothing more. It is a symbolic representation of value society places on your work. To say you don't need money is to say you don't need health, happiness, food, shelter or freedom. To say you don't need money is to say you don't need society to place value upon your work. People confuse greed and covetousness for means and value. You may not need excessive amounts of money (a subjective term) but you absolutely need money, and there is nothing wrong with pursuing and gaining wealth.

Here are some of my observations on the matter. They are not well thought through. From I Ching we learn that there are two primary forces, Heaven and Earth. Heaven is the creative force, Earth is the responsive force. Heaven is the realm of beginnings. Earth is the realm of manifestations. Thus change begins in Heaven and manifests itself on Earth. Change, while unmanifested in Heaven, is small. Change, while manifesting on Earth, is large. In TCM there is the concept of "Golden Time." This is essentially that period when illness is small and thus can be managed. This is akin to the change that is unmanifested in Heaven above. Once illness takes hold in the manifest world it becomes much more difficult to treat. This is akin to the change that is manifested on Earth. In Taoism there is the concept of Wu Wei - essentially thoughtless action. By thoughtless I don't mean rude or inconsiderate. Rather I mean natural, non-contrived, without motive or agenda. This is essentially action springing from the Creative, from Heaven. This form of action carries the greatest power since it derives from the ultimate source and flows naturally through its entire life cycle. It does not fight the change taking place. Rather, it is the change taking place. I hope this makes sense. I'll see if I can clean up these thoughts later.

That is an excellent idea. 👍

I just realized that some discussions have branch icons next to them, whereas others have a leaf and most have none - then it hit me: the icon means "unread post in topic", the branch means "you posted to this topic before" and the leaf means "you have not posted to this topic before". Wow, how useful!

I have felt this. There is a small temple in my area that contains thousands of sharira relics. The energy of room that contains them is fantastic. I would like to learn more about how sentient beings "can continue to cultivate in safety and under guidance and without falling back to samsara." Is this something you can explain further?

This is very interesting. Thank you. But if the Pure Lands are here and now, and not somewhere else, then how does that relate to Kuan Yin's promise to help those who pray to her to be reborn in the Pure Land?

That's good to know.