wandelaar

We cannot do completely without politics. I am a member of a political party myself. But that doesn't mean that it's a good thing when most of the time and energy on a Taoist and Spiritual forum like The Dao Bums goes into political discussions. There is a time and place in life for both spirituality and politics, but on this forum politics shouldn't trump spirituality (pun intended).

What is this? A method for fooling the ignorant, or a method for fooling oneself because sub specie aeternitatis it doesn't matter what happens? The problem with this is that we don't live forever so that it does matter to us what happens in our finite life's. How does this "dual procession" work in actual practice?

I can read German only with great difficulty. Maybe there is a summery, review or article about that book in English?

What I like about the approach of Slingerland is that he tries to explain wu wei in terms of western psychology. I have also ordered his book on this: https://books.google.nl/books?id=sTG0AAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

I hope so.

My favorite Robin Trower piece:

About the author:

I am looking for ways to apply Taoism in daily life and to understand why and how it works.

Did some more searching on the internet, but can't find anything more about the books or the author. No reviews or comments, and no previews. The books could be interesting, but without more information it's hard to tell...

Noncommutative? Where did I hear that before?

Very good!

If we have a - b = c than a = c + b. So a - b is the solution c of the equation a = c + b. If we have a/b = c than a = c*b. So a/b is the solution c of the equation a = c*b . Now there is a problem in the case that a=b=0 because than all numbers c are a solution of the equation a = c*b. That's why 0/0 is better left undefined.

Found it! Thanks!!

I have successfully created a stream without the Off Grid section, but what is the result of setting it as my default stream? I still have to navigate to it by way of: Activity > My Activity Streams > Without Off Grid (as I call it)

Done! Trump has left the building! So if I understand correctly the new situation should than be that on visiting The Dao Bums one chooses: Activity > My Activity Streams > Unread Content

Welcome! Some fresh input. Just what we need! And of course putting our philosophy into practice.

You may have your fun, but I will not bite.

A superior man can keep his cool whatever the circumstances. Mere mortals have (in some measure) to arrange for the circumstances to promote their cultivation. As I said there are plenty of possibilities to discuss politics on the internet outside of The Dao Bums, but apart from the The Dao Bums there are very few possibilities on the internet to seriously discuss Taoism. If you consider it a good thing to lower The Dao Bums to the level of the sewer by promoting the participation in and visibility of political discussions on Trump with the accompanying emotional uproar and fallacious reasoning that goes with it, than I can only hope that you won't succeed.

Yes - that's my main problem, the large amount of posts on contemporary politics (and particularly concerning Trump) that show up in 'Activity' give the impression that this forum actually is mainly about politics no matter what the name and structure of the site might suggest. This might scare away new members and make old members reconsider whether this is still the appropriate community for studying and developing Taoism and spirituality. I have no problem with Bums leaving the main room so to speak to discuss Trump in some back chamber. As long as it remains a side-issue it's OK. There are more than enough opportunities on the internet to discuss politics, so it need not even become more than a side-issue. However there is only one The Dao Bums and it would be a pity when it would lose it's main focus and value just because of the political upheaval around Trump.

Yes - that's the usual way to avoid the issue by redefining enlightenment so as to exclude the ugly cases. I rather look the beast in the eye and acknowledge that cases of abuse also happen in the context of eastern religions. In fact everywhere where there is a hierarchy and a closed group structure we see the same thing happening, whether it is in churches, sects, the army, fraternities, show business, sports, private companies, etc. But I am not going to waste my time on debating the issue. It's clear for all who want to see it, and those who think their very special branch of religion or activity is immune to the problem will always find ways to close their eyes to the problem.

My information comes from following the news. But on the internet I found this article: https://info-buddhism.com/Abuse_and_Buddhism-Behind_the_Smiling_Facade-Anna_Sawerthal.html I haven't read it from start to finish (because I already know about it), but the article looks OK to get an impression of what I am talking about.

We also watched it in the Netherlands, and the single was one of the first I bought.

I agree with that, but would that approach guarantee that we would always stay out of trouble? Can a mere mortal be like that?

So the following part actually describes an ideal that is beyond the reach of mere mortals?