beancurdturtle

Watts is fun stuff. I started reading his stuff about 25 years ago. It is a good way to point out to those that don't realize it that there actually is a path. Anything that opens up thoughts to other possibilities and makes you laugh at the same time is welcomed. That's why I love Zhuangzi too.

Here are some thoughts on levitation... http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=3251

Then you need to find a Taoist Carl's Jr.

in sir mount. how did I get dragged into this?

Recently through the magic of peripheral vascular intervention surgery, it was confirmed that I had a 99% blockage in one coronary artery, a 70% blockage in another, and a 60% blockage in the third. There are only 3. The 99% blockage was fixed. The other 2 are left to ferment. Talk about "BOOM." Things are much more simple now.

Or most any other discussion. I honor and applaud your detachment. I have been amused myself. Ah! But there are those here who thrive on "my school is better than yours" uneupmanship. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Peace,

And they have no attachment to the ego trip or the label of "enlightened" or "master." I said it elsewhere... Anyone who claims to be a Master is fooling themselves. Anyone who believes the insistence of their disciples that they are a Master is fooled by their disciples. Anyone so easily fooled, is not enlightened. Hahaha! Perfect! I love you dude! BOOM

Taomeow, Sometimes your complexity is so simple. So today, I write a simple verse in appreciation. Agapē (haiku) she is like carborundum then she is like silk can you see that I love her

forgive?!?! How about I thank you instead. You started peeling back the non-essential. Time doesn't become compressed, instead all unnecessary filters are removed. Then we can pass a lot more bandwidth with less processing. Regardless; there is no such thing as "reality." There is what is, but none of us humans actually experiences it at a pure level. We have habits, faith, beliefs, practices, etc. that all shape our perception. The person who is most sure that they - through knowledge, practice, enlightenment, or what have you - perceive true reality, is the person with the strongest belief in their ability to perceive reality. And belief is not reality. Anyone who claims to be a Master is fooling themselves. Anyone who believes the insistence of their disciples that they are a Master is fooled by their disciples. The closer you get to practicing and believing nothing, and accepting everything - the nearer you are to experiencing reality. But as long as we are human, we will never know reality. Nothing more, nothing less.

So I gathered. Approaching the same point from different perspectives. Our perception of the point will resolve into different expressions. As long as we are both approaching a worthy point, it's all happy pancakes. Peace,

We have two different interpretations of "experiencing." You seem to be using the word in an active, purpose based sense. I mean "experiencing" in a passive way. As a floating leaf would experience the current of the river in which it floats. Or in a small celebration of your verse. "Experiencing" should be done as a seedling experiences earth, water, and sun.

I get you I think. The personal attachment is one's judgment or categorization of the thing. Where to my mind there is nothing personal about pure acceptance - it's just a knowing (maybe wisdom, but calling it wisdom is comparative in itself). The exercise is to - as you can - watch your thoughts. When you see them colored by personal attachment, judgment, or categorization - take a mental step back and approach the thought again from a place of innocence and maybe naivete. Believe it or not, we often have the time to do this. We are just too content to live within our habits. Try to experience instead of analyze.

But even discriminating what is a label and what is not is discrimination. Once you've labeled something as real it has been made unreal. Reality is what is beyond thought. The way to approach that is through acceptance.

Oh! You are too kind. Thank you for the good wishes.

You don't need to look for it "wherever" - it's already everywhere. Peace,

If Taoist, then, depending on your practice, you are most likely "pagan" as well. If you want the legal status, go to the courthouse some other time and do a civil ceremony alone. Then, you don't need anyone else's ritual or ceremony... Decide what you will promise to one another. Choose a place to gather with those people who are important to you. Make your promises. These are what is important. It's about you and your bride and the people that love you acknowledging a union. Dress it up with music, flowers, clothing, good food and drink, or whatever you and your bride think is appropriate. Bless you both,

Radiohead Tom Waits Traditional Irish Music

I'll tell a story from my summer, the end result being a feeling of thanks, acceptance, and a mellow peacefulness. An odd road to a bit of personal enlightenment I guess. I keep getting the same questions over and over from friends, family and co-workers, so I'll try to make this story short and tell everyone at once. I've been having chronic chest pain since July 2nd (basically all summer long). I was always tense in my back and shoulders, feeling grumpy, and I was always tired and falling asleep - even in the middle of the day sometimes. I was in the emergency room at the hospital in July. The doctors did all the tests including the stress test running on the treadmill. Everything said my heart was very healthy. There is one more test they could have done, a surgical procedure called an angiogram, but everything looked like I had a healthy heart. I also exercise and my diet is pretty good, so their was no urgency. The testing also showed my cholesterol is OK, but triglycerides (blood fat) are very high. I went on a zero fat diet for 5 weeks and lost 15 pounds. Unfortunately I lost muscle weight too because I can't work out. The triglycerides did not change so something, not diet, keeps my triglycerides extremely high. I'm on medication to deal with that. Two weeks ago I started getting the chest pain just sitting around. I pressed my doctor for an answer and he scheduled an angiogram for September 26, two days ago. This is where they put a thin noodle kinda thing in your artery in the leg, and put it all the way up to your heart. They can take videos of the blood flowing around the heart. They found I had one blockage in all three of the coronary arteries. One blockage was 99% - almost no blood was going to the right back portion of my heart. So my heart is very healthy, but it was suffocating. Through all the tests the doctors have said my heart muscle is in really great shape. My EKG shows that I had a minor "silent heart attack" with no permanent damage between August and two days ago. This plus the restricted blood flow is why I was getting chest pains just sitting. But the heart muscle is undamaged and still in great shape (thank goodness). The doctors opened the 99% blockage in one artery with the angiogram snake thing at my heart and put a stent (like a tiny spring steel cage) in the artery to keep it open. They will possibly do another angiogram in about 10 weeks to check and maybe open the other two less troublesome blockages. So now my heart is healthy, and it can breathe. I have to take medication for a while, and take it easy for only one week. Basically, with the blockages taken care of I'm perfectly fine. The doctors say I'll be in better heart health than I've been in a couple years and I should start exercising again soon. As for me, I have a lot of energy and feel great since yesterday afternoon. I'll be back at work on Monday, without falling asleep at my desk, haha. Based on the findings, I could have dropped dead any one of the many times I had chest pains walking the trash to the dumpster or taking a shower. So today I feel quite open, accepting, and not bothered by much anything. Interesting. Peace,

I do agree with both of you. And I will add that intellectual and/or philosophical conflict is greatly a matter of perception. We give the energy we want to to any words arriving from outside our heads. I know what's right for me - and am fascinated and sometimes amused by what is right for others. This, at least to me, doesn't mean that I or the other people in the discussion are right or wrong. Oneupsmanship is one of the values that can be given to some of the voices in this community (including mine on occasion), but again we take what we want from everything we observe. The objective as I see it is to observe, accept, understand, and stay engaged without prejudice (prejudice is different than difference of opinion). The closer we are to being integrated with the Tao, the easier this will be. So for VeeCee I would say, listen with an open mind and acceptance, and take what you find valuable to heart. Ignore the oneupsmanship and be educated and entertained as appropriate. This is a vibrant community with a lot of energy - not all of the energy will be right for you. Ignore the abstractions and look for the substance. Here's a translation of Chapter 25 of the Dao de Jing that seems appropriate here: Peace,

hi welcome

Transmission of the tao?

I'm afraid to ask. Transmission of what?

Then you are doing one or the other wrong. And it's hard to do marijuana wrong - meditation however, is easy to do wrong. Peace, Yes, I'm kidding about Thorazine being deeply meditative - it was a 90 Rolls Royce kind of comment. Marijuana, Thorazine (as an extreme example), et al, create altered mental states - meditation should be grounded in an un-altered state.