adept

As I understand it there are two dangers these days, one is to be a bad person, the second is to hold negative thoughts about Dafa. Please avoid both of them and you will do fine.

More fundamentalist fear-mongering preaching.

What about the dangers of walking in front of a bus or of living in an area where radiation levels are rocketing ?

These are real dangers.

The end of the world is nigh !.

The first question answers the next 10.

 

It is simple for those who don't pick and choose; simpler when we don't get pre-occupied by the extraneous.

 

Keep things as simple as they need to be. Don't add layers and fill your mind with unnecessary thoughts. IMO better a taoist bum, then a taoist scholar.

Or a Ch'an bum

In the words of the profound Ch'an text the Hsin Hsin Ming :

'The Great Way is not difficult

for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent

everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction, however

and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth

then hold no opinions for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike

is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood

the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.'

These could easily be the words of a Taoist sage. The similarities are startling.

I wasn't so enthusiastic about my visit to the relic tour.

By stating that this qigong is 7000 years old makes gullible westerners sit up and take notice.

Wow, this must be the most ancient, ultimate qigong of all. :lol:

Sounds like another marketing ploy by silk pyjama'd chinese business people to rip off unsuspecting folk.

The latest craze in finding the oldest form of qigong.

The funny thing is, people actually fall for the spin.

I felt compelled to address what I thought was a major mischaracterization of Buddhism

I know exactly where you're coming from. I have dealt with my issues regarding this also and now I see the path clearly.

Thanks to everyone for all your words of support. And the pics Gerard !

We're slowly but surely coming to terms with our grief and moving forward.

I have definitely changed quite a bit in the last week. Sometimes a tragedy can be a catalyst for personal growth.

The path is now clear to me and I know what I need to do.

Time to push on with my cultivation.

true enlightenment has nothing to do with opening one's heart or cultivating loving kindness..

 

true enlightenment has everything about cutting your mind to ribbons into the primordial awareness..

 

for those who think that true spirituality is all about cultivating love and kindness and nothing else, sorry to say this but you guys have wasted your time and energies on the wrong path

This is only your opinion.

Do you have the right to judge what path folks take ?

We are all different and all have our own way of dealing with these issues.

Your view of enlightenment is a universe away from mine. That does not make me right or wrong.

Show a little respect for all the masters, sages and ordinary laypeople who have cultivated these 'wrong paths' successfully for thousands of years.

If no one had cultivated these qualities we wouldn't have the wonderful poetry, paintings, sculptures, gardens, temples, mountain retreats, etc, etc, that obviously come from an enlightened mind.

That was a good one! Did you read the testimonials?

I did read them and although they sound remarkable, it could also just be 'guru marketing'.

Thanks Otis and Blasto and Mythmaker.

Terrible news Blasto. My thoughts to all concerned.

Actually 365 Tao is about the only book that has any value to me.

DMD has a wonderful way of expressing the Tao in a day to day living style, that no other author has come close to.

We're lucky in that we have two wonderful children, but that doesn't soften the blow.

Over the years I've accumulated waaaay too much written material on Taoism and Buddhism.

I've got hundreds of PDF's on my hard drive, books, magazines, cd's, vids, mp3's.

And where has it got me ?

Absolutely nowhere. I'm probably more mixed up now than when I first started my search for the answers to life's big questions.

This week I was forced to face life head on, where all the teachings of the long gone masters and sages had no impact or relevance to me whatsoever.

My wife had a miscarriage. It has been a terribly upsetting week for us and our family. Something that has changed me forever.

My heart goes out to anyone who has to experience this awful tragedy.

I started to question and re-examine everything I've read and learned.

I read some of my older posts on the forums and the replies I've given to others when I came across this post by Kali Yuga.

Something clicked straight away.

I really need to 'burn all my holy books' once and for all. Not literally of course. I'll give them away or sell them on.

I need to strike out on my own and forge ahead on my own path, and not rely on the words and teachings of others.

Back to basics. The simple things.

Qigong, Zhan Zhuang and Meditation. No books, no scriptures, no talks, no videos.

I need to find myself. Not another's interpretation of it.

I was 29. That would have been 1998.

Personally I would go straight to Chuang Tzu.

Very much overlooked on these forums in favour of the TTC which is more conservative and closer to Confucianism in my opinion.

The Chuang Tzu is more laid back and natural in it's approach. Quintessential wu wei.

For an easier ride however 365 Tao is great for daily contemplations.

Me, I am only interested in helping myself achieve enlightenment. Then once I achieve the powers which come along with enlightenment, then I will think about helping other people.

 

If you cannot even help yourself achieve enlightenment or even curb your own desires, what right do you have to help others?

What 'powers' come with enlightenment ?

What is enlightenment ?

Who or what becomes enlightened ?

How can you help yourself to achieve enlightenment ? That means there is a you and also a yourself.

Go deeper, much deeper.

Well the two films that made me cry were The Pianist and Schindler's List.

The utter disregard for the life of another is really disturbing in these two holocaust films.

The Creator, The Dao and the higher forces of the Universe (whatever you call it) created this game-system where we are the players.

Who created the creator ?

This post grabbed my attention and was thought provoking because it does not quite fit with my concept of enlightenment. I have heard the phrase before and after enlightenment "chop wood and carry water". However, I have always viewed enlightenment as a call to service (like Jesus or like buddha). If there are no fruits of enlightenment, if life just carries on the same after as before, if it does not benefit humanity in any way, then why pursue it? Couldn't all those hours spent in meditation be better spent in activities to benefit the planet or other sensient beings?

 

Would you mind providing a further explanation as to the meaning of your post?

Hi ejr.

I'm not sure if my words are going to be adequate in describing this but I'll have a go.

Mindfulness of each and every moment as it happens, without the mind drifting off.

A very hard thing to keep up at all times, and years of regular meditation will certainly help with this.

Enlightenment, awakening or whatever you want to call it is not some state that once you get there, you live like this the rest of your life. You will still have all your fears, worries, anger, greed, desire etc etc. It's just that you will deal with every situation in a different way than before. You will not become attached to the working of your mind because now you will see everything as change.

Temporary, transient, in a constant state of flux. From the destruction and creation of stars and galaxies, to every thought pattern that your mind produces.

Yes, life does just carry on the same as before and will continue to do so. Only you will look at it from another angle.

Nothing to pursue, it's already there before you. It just needs uncovering. The more you chase after IT, the further away IT will be.

When it's uncovered people find their own way of expressing it.

Look at the ancient Chinese landscape paintings and poems. Or the Zen gardens of Japan. Absolutely wonderful expressions of enlightenment.

As I've stated somewhere before, the great mystery is that there is no mystery.

because even though I never became enlightened from reading the Tao Teh Ching,

 

in a fit of disgust I gave up on enlightenment,

 

where did my enlightenment come from and if it didn't come from "God" then where did it come from.

 

 

Good post, but I have some questions for you.

1. What is enlightenment ?

2. Who is it that becomes enlightened ?

What you imply is a duality. That there is a seeker, and that which is sought.

There is no difference between samsara and nirvana.

Enlightenment is found everywhere in the most ordinary, normal mundane activities. Not as a separate blissful mind-blowing superstate, free of all worries.

Today was a day of enlightenment for me:

I meditated

I emptied the cat litter

I practiced qigong

I took a shit

I scolded my children

I had a walk in the woods on my own

I drank coffee

I recited the nembutsu

I pruned the trees in my garden

I chatted with the neighbours

Best wishes

My argument is that by being a process it becomes a thing....

 

.... To go one step further, if it is a process, something drives that process

By being a process, no ONE thing drives it. It is the culmination of countless 'things'. A state of constant flux.

I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that Tao is exactly the same as conditioned arising in Buddhism.

The great mystery is that there is NO great mystery.

Many sincere thanks for your thoughts.

 

For anyone who would like a bit more on this Buddhist “non-existence” idea, I offer this brief and entirely inadequate little bit of info:

 

Buddhism grew out of Vedanta - or rather out of the Buddha's dissatisfaction with the priest's exclusive practices of the time in India. Advaita Vedanta is a later non-dual evolution of Vedanta. Buddha's teachings eventually trickled into China as primarily Mahayana Buddhism. They gained broad interest when Bodhidharma (possibly a mythical figure) brought both a martial arts form (he was a warrior prince from India) and highly evolved Buddhist meditation methods to China in about 500 CE. He became the first patriarch of Zen - at Shaolin. He has only one inheritor of the lineage bowl and robe but from there Chan Buddhism took off quite fast as it adapted to and merged with existing Taoist philosophy. This became Chan or a little later "Zen" in Japan. In some circles, Chan/Zen is an absolute heresy and is not even considered proper Buddhism.

 

The original or Theravada Buddhists thought that one is responsible for ones own cessation of suffering (enlightenment) and for that one only. As the Mahayana got going it was recognized that the reality of enlightenment is not a personal thing at all. It also recognized that there is no difference or division between some enlightened world and this very one. Only the knowing it is so, that there is no difference, is the difference. This is an awakening which does not rest on the idea that life is an illusion to be seen through and which must be then totally discarded. Mahayana sees that This Is It. Just as it is. Mahayana finds that it is both the emptiness of all the form of life and the fullness of the forms of life, taken together, that actually describes awakening fully. THIS IS IT, AS IT IS and it is incredibly so. The Buddha said that it is like a dream, a phantom, lightening bolt and a bubble in the stream. And there is naught else! Nothing any more or less sacred or important or discoverable than what is right here right now! END OF SEARCH.

 

There are several Mahayana sutras which are important to Chan Buddhists because they describe this in a kind of detail not readily found in the somewhat more symbolic language of the Tao-Te Ching. The understanding is present in the TTC but I find that the Taoists who intuitively understand this are somewhat less able to express it as so. (it's just my experience...) And also, many Buddhists are too often drowning in emptiness - thinking that every thing is empty, end of story, get over it. It is just not so when understood in the Mahayana. The Buddha himself warned about this - as nihilism. In this is way it is called the middle way between the extremes of nothingness and something-ness. It all looks the same – its just all in the understanding of what one is “looking at” and who is doing the looking . AS the Zen people say; "Nothing Hidden"

 

Here's a few zen sayings which point to the truth of the Mahayana in which emptiness depends on form which depends on emptiness. A Taoist understanding if ever there was one! To stay with emptiness alone is no less dissatisfying than to stick with form alone. In learning this as a practice, the first thing is to try to see through form and understand why. When done, emptiness is recognized, and maybe, even the sense of a self that has found it may be disintegrating somewhat.....but don't stop there. An amazing realization is in ready to be uncovered – right in one's own pocket - or backyard - or the supermarket.....

 

---These quotes describe some understanding as the two come back together as the All That Is.

 

“First there are mountains and rivers

then there are no mountains and rivers

then there mountains and rivers again.”

~Zen saying

 

“If you understand, things are just as they are.

If you do not understand, things are just as they are.”

~Zen saying

 

---On the practice of getting rid of something - such as form (the world) - which would employ the pursuit of something such as “emptiness”:

 

"Make no effort to work or to renounce: all effort is bondage."

~Ramana Maharshi

 

"If you seek the truth in some special way, you will gain a path. This is to lose the truth which is hidden in the path. If you seek truth without any special way of seeking, it is found as it really is.... and it is life itself.

~Meister Eckhart

 

“Truth is a pathless land”.

~J Krishnamurti

 

“Inside every human being there is an authentic person that has no position, rank, standing or path.”

~Chan Mster Linji

 

So none of this leaves any place to stand or to hang on to – including non-existence. “ The Tao that can be spoken (or practiced) is not the Tao.” The Tao is not emptiness or non existence either

 

This leaves what the original Chan masters sometimes offered as HuaTou dialogue as a method for understanding. Such dialogue is not complete without the acknowledgment of What Is also in the perceptions of consciousness, as form, as intrinsic complete IS-ness. This is “suchness” or “thussnes”. In Buddhism this understanding is outlined in the Mahayana Diamond Sutra and others.

 

The Mahayana Buddhist vow is to “Save all sentient beings.” Obviously impossible. An yet there is a way to recognize what this means. It might be expressed as:

 

If you do understand, then saving all sentient beings is impossible.

If you don't understand, then saving all sentient beings is impossible.

 

So...what is understood? It's not nearly so simple as just abiding in emptiness and, at the same time, is even easier and much more 'complete' that that.

 

To take a stand in either emptiness or in form is to ascribe to a religion, path, a place to stand from which to make religious pronouncements of doctrine. To make the claim that Buddhism is a religion is to make a religious claim based in an unconscious religion - a common mistake.

 

And yes I am sure there are much better ways of expressing this. If you know, then please point the way!

 

Best wishes.

 

Edited

 

I just read some of the BKF interview and I was reminded of something that relates to this idea of the desirability of 'no place to stand'. My own satisfaction with Buddhist practice and study has been in the exposure of the trance like hypnosis we all are floating in until we wake up to it. Personally, I think it is absolutely important to recognize what that trance is and how it is induced - self or otherwise. (For a good look at transparently induced trance induction, check out Effie Chow videos on Youtube. She could teach Bandler and Grinder a thing or two. ) It is not always necessarily a bad thing, but one should have the choice. Constantly feeling compelled to choose one or another stance or ideology or philosophy - including 'Buddhism', because it is thought to be better than the previous one, is a never ending proposition and is actually like a ball and chain. No clue at all where he gets the idea that Buddhists are less interested in living the here and now. Maybe I just didn't understand what he said.

 

Also was mildly amused at BKF's assessment of the lack of naturalness and humor in Buddhism. I'll grant him his experience, and Tentai is sometimes rather sternly serious, and yet the funniest most irreverent people I know are Zen priests, Buddhists in general and the very funniest is a Tendai monk. So sad this has been his experience with Buddhism because it certainly is not mine. I cannot compare to Taoist priests and even if I could, well, that would just be choosing a place to stand for a comparison that makes for more attachment or aversion. Respectfully.....

Awesome !

One of the best posts I've ever read here on TaoBums.

These 2 books may well interest you.

There are too many stories to dismiss.

This is always what I've thought.

A fascinating subject.

Many thanks to the OP for bringing it up.

Isn't there a new Kunlun book due out ?

Anyone know of this ?

Or does anyone have the 2nd book for sale ?