Archnel

Lately I've been checking out many books from my school's library about Eastern philosophies, especially those of China. Taoism has always been the one that has clicked with me the most. It aligns with my beliefs, before and after its introduction in my life. However, in studying Chinese philosophy, there is one I've undoubtedly come across quite often: Confucianism. For me, personally, I've always felt it to be too restrictive and counterproductive for it to help in my life at all. However, there's been this book at the library I've been thinking about getting that is about Confucianism. I'm very reluctant to spend much time to read entire books on the subject, for the reasons stated above. However, surely there must be some merit to it and incorporating aspects of its beliefs into your life. So now I get to my question. Have any of you read much into Confucius, perhaps Analects or other writings on the matter? If so, have you found any of the information or practices useful in your life? What lessons have you learned from it? As well as, seeing how it seems completely contrary to Taoism, how would you possibly incorporate both into your daily life? I see that Chinese society has done this quite well, but I'm not sure how

Hello! I don't really know what to put here.. I'm kind of awkward at things, especially while introducing myself. I guess I'll just start with some background Throughout my life (which hasn't been very long) I've devoted a lot of time to reading into different Western and Modern philosophy. Philosophy has always been my favorite subject, along with Political Science, since I was young. It kind of upsets me that my schools have never offered a class on either of those subjects. It's led to me slacking off in school and focusing on the things that really matter to me. Some might say that it's ridiculous and sets a bad precedent for the future, to which they could be right. However, with the short time we have on this planet, if I were to die today, I'd like to feel that I lived to the fullest. Getting back on topic, I've spent a lot of time reading philosophy. Though no matter how much I tried, it wouldn't help with this feeling of depression and alienation from peers I've always felt. While looking into Heraclitus, my favorite philosopher, I came across an article equivocating him to a "Greek Taoist". I had heard the term before, but never knew much about it. Surely if it was similar to my favorite philosopher, it would be worth the time gaining information. So that led me to research it. It's been a while since then, but I had never really implemented its message into my life. Last weekend, I arrived at a dark point in my life. I won't get into the details of what happened, but it led me to seek out the wisdom of Taoism once again. And now here I am. I'm not sure if any of that really made any sense, but yeah, that's what I'm putting. Also I'm choosing to spell it "tao" as opposed to "dao" just because I think it looks cooler. Hope that doesn't bother anyone. I'm glad to join the forum, and I hope to learn more along side everyone here

Hope you find what you are searching for. Welcome to the site

I personally think dreams are a sort of "perception". Possibly not of any external reality, as I think you may be looking for with your question. But more of an internal reality. To me, they represent the sides of us that we can't conscious can't immediately perceive, down in our unconscious. They give insights into our deeper feelings, thoughts, motives, etc. They're just as a much a part of us as anything we know about ourselves, whether we like it or not

I really like the way in which you break down each individual point and comment on those. As well as the way you use green text as a way of selecting specific parts of the quote you're referring to and quoting. I think it makes for effective communication. I might "steal" it more often If I may ask a few questions. What particularly do you like about critical realism? And could you elaborate on what you mean by "an experiential philosophy"? I don't necessarily intend on dying today. I'm just saying that in this world, anything could happen. We as humans don't always have control over situations or the world, but at least we can control ourselves and the way we react in handle situations. With enough training, of course. I hope the future is brighter And I'd really like to get to know everyone here, as well. Thank you for your kind words and wisdom

Thank you. I've been much better lately. Everything has been seeming to fall into place. I can't wait to meet everyone in this community. From what I've read in other introductions, things can get pretty fun