mattmiddleton

I've been drawn to a bit of the old upanishadic lore of late. It seems to me the Brahman is the Dao. Would someone like to compare and contrast? if you wanna? thx, matt

Hmmm, thats a new take on it - life. prana. not so much 'brahman' but life or the life force, that which is livinig behind the name and form.

from what i understand the Brahman is a universal presence which is the underlying essence of all things. It is difficult to fathom, and the quest of the 'nondualist' vedantins (advaita vedantins) is to realize or experience this brahman by first discovering their 'self' (atman) - something that is more profound than soul and mind and body - and realize that this atman is, in fact, Brahman. Daoist meditation and alchemy merges the body/mind/energy with Dao - so theres one similarity between the two concepts. Brahman is unlike Dao in so far as it does not move and is a eternal/static phenomenon. Dao moves, it is movement itself. Brahman is universal in 'size' - as is the Dao. Both Brahman and Dao are invisible and difficult to conceive of. brahman defined on wikipedia

shall do. gotta hit the sack now though. will write in the morn.....cheers!

May I ask how the response to this has been thus far? You full up? Is it still available? This would be a trip of a lifetime for me. Oh to win the lottery. And to be in Livia Kohns company,,wow,,,such a great writer and daoist scholar.

Can anyone tell me how much of a catastrophe the Cultural Revolution was to Daoism in China at the time, eg - the extent of lost texts and sacred places etc. And also how daosim has attempted to recover since then? It always saddens me to hear of such a rigorous sacking of a country's own culture..

thanks everyone for your input..as the last post mentioned, mysterious essence is eternal, a direct experience of dao is available to all with or without the help of idols and temples. but how sad it makes me to read of the killings of the mountain hermits. or am i fooled like the chap who said none of this happened? holocaust denial? ach i dunnow.

Hi, just wondering if anyone here can tell me a little about the key things that differentiate Wu style tai chi from Yang style, what its core concepts are, how the moves differ, how its intent / focus differs etc etc... i'm just curious as i'm about to start up with a wu teacher. Of course i could wait and find out but as I said a little overview would be appreciated here. thanks!

Hi there, does anyone have any tips for the standing meditation or zhan zhuang? what is a good amount of time to stand? thx. what should one focus on in the main as one stands?

my pleasure

on this thread: well...maybe the dao is a source. maybe it is also a way. maybe it is essentially monistic. From what i see, daoism is earthly, it lives and breaths in the real - it dosent actively transcend anything does it? Is the Dao real or not? Perhaps Vajrayana Buddhism transcends this 'field'. Maybe it really really does. Maybe it is just that little bit more sophisticated. Thats okay isnt it? Do you go give up your Daoism now? This 'source', as we define it we lose it, we find it we lose it, smaller and smaller, on and on and on infinitum - it certainly would be extemely difficult to reify. How large is this dao? this field? this oneness? don't the daoists just drift with the mystery of it? Do they reify it? Is that the aim of Daoism?

hey thanks alot you guys.!

Same here. Ticked all the boxes. Any Yichuan instructions online at all anyone?

Hmmmmm. I live in a fairly easy going part of the world - Dunedin, New Zealand - a small university town in the country's South Island. I am a recording artist/musician, run a web-site and sell my product online (in little sporadic bursts ) And no, this isnt an ad. It relates. Ha ha. Thus environmentally the conditions surrounding my life are very much more relaxed than say, a stock-broker's in Frankfurt. These conditions are a good compromise between the absolute hermit/mountain dwelling devotion of a chinese daoist monk in the 14th century and the ruthless hustle of late modern capitalism. I am blessed to have the time and space to at least attempt to live a daoist lifestyle whilst participating in a system i simply must play ball with. I have attempted to gradually reduce outlandish desires and their many variations from my everyday life - noting the cumulative stilling of my being with each new reduction. Being a musician i have been able to observe first hand the folly of excessive ambition. I have observed many artists approach insanity as they over-estimate the happiness desire and ambition can bring - beautiful, creative people ultimately depressed and their soul destroyed when the industry fails to provide for them. Actually - that was ME fifteen years ago (without the beautiful bit). It was these experiences that pointed to the wisdom of rejecting ambition - of yielding , of just being content with simple acheivements - financial or artistic or personal. Just living a quiet, (as 'uncool as it might seem to those crazy nihilists i know) simple, self-contained life - in tune with the seasons, yielding to and neutralizing situations and people that try to stir this up, yet, as Jacksquat mentioned, including others/society/community in your environment - yielding-to to while one participates-with. To live in the Way as a city dwelling westerner one needs first an income/roof over ones head. So, i suppose - do what you gotta do. In some countries - welfare is available, in others - you better flip burgers or something. But make sure you can pay the rent. (I often think back to the 19th century with its aristocratic rich kids spending their days drugging and invoking demons - lucky lucky them). Second, one needs to actively reject/neutralize the ubiquitous and mind-numbingly repetitive barrage of multi-media advertisments, to not buy into their messages, to not let them aggravate ones passions, to be courageous enough to be happy with what one has - in a word:voluntary simplicity (VERY subversive). Third, one needs to monitor and be mindful of oneself, ones mind, thoughts, emotions, habits - to gently keep oneself in check. Observe the interplay of yin and yang in the world. Observe it in oneself. Join a tai chi group - there you may meet others like you. One needs to know the skills of re-using and recycling. One might grow ones own food. As far as my 'success' with these methods is concerned - well - from when i discovered Daoism up to now, I have calmed down so much - my friends always tell me this ha ha, but of course i still have much to iron out. But i am only young and the path is lifelong. One must focus less on results and more on process - one of the main tenets of tai-chi. i think the thing may be to not actually give up ambition or effort . It is to make them real - aligned with nature - harmless and with longevity in mind. One will find oneself more and more at odds with the modern capitalist agenda. daoist quietism, self-containment and wholism is absolutly anathema to it. If you live in one of the northern hemispheres great cities, maybe you could consider moving to the country, or to new zealand. ha ha. So, for me, it took a brush with the madness of rock'n'roll and many horrible first hand experiences to teach me the futility of ambition. Ugly, plastic, unnatural human ambition.

Yep, this subject may be a little off topic and there are many forums out there for it ha ha! My question in the beginning, & sorry to jump on your thread there though old man contradiction, was if anyone knew of any reported opiate use amongst chinese daoists, or if it was totally shunned. But i doubt there wold be much info aside from personal/anecdotal evidence so ill leave it be..anyways, yeah, re alcohol - i think Chen Man Ching, the great taiji master who taught in the west in the 1960s/70s liked to have a shot or two of whiskey before he would emabrk on some calligraphy..and the great Tang poets would sing the virtues of wine many many times!

DC Lau's translation for its simplicity http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Penguin...s/dp/014044131X

yeah exactly, British borne opium craze slash wages.

I wont state here what i would 'say' - here's but a few loose thoughts i have. Yes, I think Daoism as a way-of-life and attitude must be applied to these times, and, in all honesty, simple living along Daoist lines (and buddhist - any quietist non-theistic philosophy etc) may very well be the only way to live in a post-oil future. So, perhaps, Lao Tzu's little tome (and the many, many other daoist texts) may hold the key to our longevity as a species..Maybe this very topical and urgent concept should be discussed in the conference. Maybe. And so, to speak to the heart of the west as it is now with all these future scenarios, perhaps daoism could be presented as a kind of non-threatening, non-theistic lifestyle with true world-altering power and enviro-political wisdom.. ?? Or, maybe we could get a famous rock-star or actor to say, 'im a daoist'. ha ha . sorry. enjoy the conference, wish i could come to it man

could anyone tell me about this tomes authorship and history please?

very interesting. Often, I have wondered about opium, and if, perhaps in light of the British borne craze of the 19th century, any Taoists ever succumbed to the drug. And whether its strange soothing effects ever, now this is just a curiosity, in the mind of a taoist, lent itself to the still , dead ashes quietism that taoist philosophy holds dear. Ive also wondered if there ever was a daoist branch that smoked it. of course, ive asked this very question on another taosim forum and they laughed me outta town because --opium is an 'external' influence and that it leads to a desire and craving for the external. Thoughts?

I had just typed this beautiful intoduction as to what it is about the Daoist way that gets me like no other, and i delete the page just as i start going on about why we should talk about it regardless of the 1st line of the Lao Tzu. Ironic. Anyway, i am a 33 year old male from New Zealand, i have been taken hook-line and sinker by Daoist thought for several years now. It all started with that fateful flick through a curious little paperback i found at a cafe one afternoon..since then no other religion or philosophy, with the exception of Zen Buddhism, has spoken so deeply and clearly to my heart. It is pure truth, deep, penetrating, real, quiet yet powerful, total acceptance and participation in the quantum universe, common sense, vacuous and impersonal, heaven and earth as-themselves, interchanging, forever moving - the dao is the thread through all. It is time, it is all life, it is slowness and speed, it is the few and the many. i have immersed myself in the literature, the huai nan tzu (syncretist work of about 200ad) a personal fave, but as you all know - words - well. .. they can only hint at the true tao. It must be experienced - it must be cultivated. I have just joined a local tai ji group - of the huang sheng shyang lineage...this craft requires such patience..but it is grounding because it can be applied over a lifetime (in fact i was said that to perfect the art you would need to live 300 years) ...so many years to get humbler...to slow down...to allow the chi to fill me...to experience and to be dao, perhaps. I'm also a recording artist and play in an experimental rock band ---a lifestyle which really goes against the dao i suppose with its stupid bolloxy youth worship and bombasticness etc. I try to find a balance. ha ha. But you know, late modern capitalism with that ole protestant work ethic and whatnot -taoism is such and antithesis to this ! It astounds me that it can be practised in this world - it's popularity must be an indication as to how unnatural it all is...as daoists we reject the way of material accumulation and lording it over nature..hence its popularity with the counterculture... in I'll shut up now. Thanks .