picnic

Hello, I've written a few books on my way and the latest one is very short indeed but seems to fit all I have to say into it's few pages. I'd like to put it here for you Tao Bums to read for free. Please note that it is a copyrighted book with an ISBN so should not be copied or redistributed. Either read it here for free or find it for sale. Pop! Thanks! Here it is...... Pop! by SonBeam Pop! © Copyright Chris Wilshaw 2011. All rights reserved and all the standard notes that you may not copy the book in any part but contact me if you wish to: or ISBN: 978-1-4478-1955-4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pop! In the stream bubbles appear one new one a second and as we watch old ones pop every second, pop, pop, pop. These bubbles represent humans coming into the world by birth and leaving by death, each second is this swirl of bubbles, pop, pop, pop, pop, and one day that pop will be you! The thought of a death a second is not such a nice one as to dwell on it and so we do not, the thought though of the ongoing mass game of Russian Roulette where your number is guaranteed to come up at some unknown time should force a smart adjustment in perspective and awakening to the moment and living, now. You do not spend your time sitting mourning each and every pop, considered though the thought of your own popping may be of some concern. Will you pop out of the blue unprepared or will you feel your pop coming? Part of your concern over your pop is sadness and loss you'll leave behind in others. Each moment a pop, pop, pop, each moment people suffering that. Aren't you though, the stream? •••• The change of perspective, which is the ultimate Enlightenment, is when we realize fully that there is no separation whatsoever between you and the world. Looking out at the world you're really seeing inside your mind. Your happiness and health are a fine reference as to what you believe you are seeing. As nearly all people take themselves to be a separate autonomous entity in the world then they constantly suffer other people, situations, environments and the play on their minds. Minds, when observed, change and change and change, that's all they do and the average person who is lead by this never ending flux is in constant turmoil. Seeking happiness is not noticed to be the ultimate admission of sadness. Would a happy person seek happiness? No it would be the least of their concerns as they are happy so then the quest for happiness, the thought that it is just around the corner, to be brought about by that next purchase, change at work, relationship, this ongoing mind made play, is the sickness of humanity, almost epidemic and so common it is accepted as normality. Comparison of one life to another is the game of media and the pass time of most people. The majority of conversation is “And she, then he...” and most of what people read is “So'n'so did this then So'n'so did that...” The comparison is always delivered with the confounded expression of disbelief or of admiration or some qualifying point as to how good or bad this state or action is. Look at me now even stating how “The majority of people are one way or another...” in just the same way. I do though have a purpose here and that is to awaken the reader, who is in all likelihood under this very spell, and free them of their sickness. •••• All of the unrest in the universe is in fact on the minds of humans. The universe is truly in a state of ever peaceful perfection yet humans run around trying to make things better, missing quite apparently that it is imperfectable and imperfect solely due to perspective. The perspective of "me in the world" is practically unanimous yet it is quite an impossible reality. The truth of it really can not be said in words but should anyone take time to answer some questions themselves as to how this separation were the case then they will, with certainty, conclude that separation is simply a persistent illusion. Take some time to think where you’d be without: space, bacteria, earth, plants, air. Take a second to consider what you truly are: A body, a mind, skeleton in a bag of skin? Can you lift a finger, tap your foot, can you beat your heart, can you grow a nail? •••• Comparison one person to another, one life situation with another, one outcome or the other is an undivided oneness comparing one idea of itself to another idea. All possibility of an alternative to 'what is' is only the mind at play. Things can not be different, only interpretation can change. That is the mind at work and when you've seen how it works and seen that it will go on that way forever, you laugh at it, cast it aside and realize perfection. Knowledge is thought by many to be factual and immutably true. The real highest knowledge though is the recognition that knowledge is limited. Knowing that knowledge is limited you are less prone to be caught up in fads, phases and the words of gifted speakers. When people have something to sell, be that a concept, a product, political idea or a religion they will give you solid facts and a hard sell. With a clear and open 'maybe' mind though you'll keep things simple, you'll be wise to the fact that facts come and go, that what was as true as can be often comes to be proven false with time. Importantly you'll be happy with simplicity and so not seeking to buy your way to happiness. •••• Pop, pop, pop... this life we live seems to be within this thing called time. Have you ever though been in the past or the future? You've only ever been here and now, you've never been into the future and you're never going back. The only time humans go anywhere other than now is via the mind. The mind loves to play with future wishes and past what-if's. People spend far, far too much of their lives avoiding reality and dreaming of alternatives. Now though is all you've got and all you'll ever have. And now is bliss. Now is perfect because it is the only reality. Now contains no negativity whatsoever unless the mind is allowed to draw past or future ideas in to cloud it. The mind second guesses reality so often that it can occasionally guess close to right, enough that is that you let it rule, just in case. The mind is not able to alter the past, it can not predict or influence the future. If the mind could shape reality, then why are there poor and unhappy people everywhere? The mind is a trouble maker. Use it wisely, that is rarely. •••• What do others think of you? What do you think of them? Really? Does this alter? No one knows anyone else, no one knows you, not really. The opinion one person has of another is not valid and so then when you're held in high esteem, disliked, loved, feared, despised, depended on, or seen as an angel, all that is is a brief and fleeting opinion. You could easily be a bastard and a great person at exactly the same time. Riches and what most see as happiness are also fictitious and passing labels of no fixed quality. There is always this relative scale and as success instills the fear of failure, a loss opens up room for gain, these games play out. True happiness never alters though. True happiness is here and now, unencumbered by mind, labels and opinions of others are not present. Someone labelling you as successful is meaningless compared with true happiness in the here and now. •••• The one thing separating you from consistent bliss is your mind entering with its normal routine. “Oh yes well this is all well and good but in the real world things aren’t quite like this, I have a... and a... and there’s …....” And that is it, case proven to be true. The mind is, as you have just seen, the enemy here. The sickness seen to be normal human life, the one that fought our wars, built the bomb, argued with a prerecorded voice over the telephone, made jokes to cope, drugs to mask the pain and remedies to cure the side effects of the medicines is the problem. Drawing you from a perfect now into a world where things matter, what others do is important, that someone said something is reason to be stressed during a day off, that some action forced you to need to write a letter to voice your opinion, that someone is an evil idiot and so on and so on... •••• Can we agree that without the what-if’s, and the if-only’s that we’d be much much better off? I’m sure we can to a point but then the mind will sneak back in with some trick. “Oh but I love my partner and my hobbies and, you know, I just love to read a little news and follow some soap operas and, come on, I need to know how my friends are, my family, I have to get to work on time, pay my bills, remember my groceries...” There is not though an incompatibility here. I’m not saying that the mind is a problem and we must live without it, that would indeed be a little too radical a notion. I’m instead painting the picture so you can see clearly that there is a perfect now, other than for the workings of the mind. So then, you can live in a very happy state as, when sadness is seen, when desire comes along, you can recognize the workings of the mind and let it go. •••• I stated in a previous book that: “When desire opposes the situation then conflict appears” and this is almost all of what I have said in this book up until now in just one sentence. There is this reality, quite immovable, quite unchangeable, and it can be no other way. When the desirer, the mind, looks at this Now Reality and has another idea in mind, then there is conflict in its simple and naked form. Laid bare conflict is this simple situation, the mind, which is unreal, vs the undeniable reality of being. This is what I mean when I say that you can not alter the world, you can only alter your attitude towards it. Given a poor outlook things will come to frustrate you, once you’ve hit your nail with a hammer you’ll do it again, when you bite your cheek and get frustrated by it, crunch, you’ll do it again. With a fresh and positive outlook where you drop the moment as soon as it happens, you may well bite your cheek when chomping on some nice food but you’ll be so absorbed in the very next moment that you’re far more likely to have something beautiful fill your eye than something miserable. So I’m promoting positive thinking? No, I’m not. I’m promoting the only reality, positive being. I’d certainly go as far as to deny the existence of time and say that time is part of the mind made illusion but as time is so ingrained in people I may avoid that debate right now. I’ll remind and challenge you though: If you can do anything in the past or the future, then you win, if you can only ever operate in the now, then the case is mine and I need not argue to bolster my stance. As you can only operate in the now moment and the past and future are mind made then positive thinking is seen to be a waste of time and just the mind attempting to trick its way back into the driving seat. Positive being however is intensely powerful as now is always now. No need for wishes and regrets, here you are. •••• Your life is not short of days when you live forever in the now and life is never free of delight. Pop! is a book by SonBeam, AKA TaWan and WuWu. Under these 3 names have been the books: Waterfall Awake Nature A very early book full of ideas but suffering from the authors Dyslexia. That is That (by WuWu) The non-philosophy of WuWu. A direct and powerful medium length book in 3 distinct parts. Tao Stories (by WuWu) A short collection of nice simple stories of life in Tao The Person of Tao (by TaWan) Over 300 pages of short pointers to enlightenment Pop! (by SonBeam) The very short book you have just read

Thanks, I hope all who have read it have found enjoyment be that thorough recognition of a truth they are already living or because this helped in some way towards that.

Hello - I would like to draw your attention to Daily Cup of Tao A blog with a short new Tao related post every day. Thanks

I love the work of Wei Wu Wei and things have to be considered, he was having a conversation with himself and was going through a process. Through his books his ideas gradually clarify, in early books he is simply reading and interpreting masters and the later books he is becoming one himself. He does often get lost in the very language he is using, he was gifted in philosophy and language and so they became traps as well as gifts. You can just read and read and a picture is formed, you can not expect too much of a sequential coherence in such works that deal with ideas so deep that a suitable language does not exist for them. My favourite of his books is "Ask the Awakened" and you can get tasters of all his work here on bits and pieces ...

That is That by WuWu a free ebook on philosophy and spirituality ....

That is That by WuWu Free ebook ....

You can't be enlightened as when all is one then naturally there can be no other, especially no you. Trying to achieve oneness is like stepping forward to achieve standing still. Methods require doers so are dual. Personally I am married. Celibacy for me will be after my wife is dead and that will be the way of nature and therefore perfect. Enlightenment is not to be had but lived. You are never not in the moment, stay here now, where you always were, always are and you are much better off than thinking or planning or looking forward and back.

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this is my new blog, i post it here in offtopic, not that it is off topic but because I don't want to take up space in the main forum for promotion. http://taowow.blogspot.com hope you enjoy some of the thoughts there

Some people are on this forum a lot. The balance of TaiChi does not rule out communicating with fellow travellers, but while people are content to spend hours telling others how they should; think, masturbate, worship, understand, eat, drink, feel, maybe they are finding such disharmony in others because of a disharmony in themselves. A few posts a week, maybe more, maybe less, at no detriment to the time spent in the world outside and on practice. A person making good practice all week will post fewer, more wise, more useful posts than someone serving an addiction at the detriment of life. Maybe this observation started in me, well, perhaps, ...but I share it with you.

It was an interesting and valuable experiment. I know the forum is useful for spreading ideas and if someone asks a question it is nice to have people to answer it, but I needed a break from the computer.. My week away from the forum was nice i spent more time by the lake watching nature, more time meditating through daily life and re-clarified a lot of my thoughts. I also added to Tao Wow. Did I miss much while I was gone?

Elites, powerful people, will always try to hold on to power, this is true. But they are living in the world of cause and effect, they have more to lose and more to worry about that normal people. They try to strengthen their position by sucking people into their illusion. It is far from the path we walk. People on the path of Tao have nothing to fear from such materialists.

Hua Hu Ching Chapter Fifty-Seven "The universe is a vast net of energy rays. The primary ray is that which emanates from the Subtle Origin, and it is entirely positive, creative, and constructive. Each being, however, converts the energy of this primary ray into its own ray, and these lower rays can be either positive or negative, constructive or destructive. An individual who is not yet fully evolved can be adversely affected by negative energy rays in the net around him. For example, the combined influence of several negative rays might cause an undeveloped person to believe that his life is being controlled by an invisible, oppressive ruler. Such a misconception can be a significant barrier to enlightenment. To attain full evolution and the status of an integral being, you must be aware of this intricate net and its influences upon you. By integrating the positive, harmonious energy rays with the positive elements of your own being, and eliminating the subtle negative influences, you can enhance all aspects of your life. In order to eliminate the negative influences, simply ignore them. To integrate the positive influences, consciously reconnect yourself with the primary energy ray of the Subtle Origin by adopting the practices of the Integral Way. Then all the rays in the net around you will merge back into harmonious oneness." For this reason (In bold above.) I believe the majority of things about the Elites to be intended to prevent us finding enlightenment and keeping trapped in a 3D prison with TV and Coca Cola. We here are above all that. We know leaders and rulers will try to hold on to power, but we know that the power is limited to the world and NOTHING compared to Tao. Emperors knew this and leaders still do

There is no I to escape, that is the escape. The great mind is smart enough to know if it enjoys playing at being human or not, apparently it does, I mean it has to be said life is quite magical

ATS is disinfo, it is mason owned and controlled. Try and post there and see how long it takes for them to steer your conversation. read why here ..

This passed me by for years. Years of reading Tao books and it just appeared in front of me in a book shop, so now I reveal it to you if it has also passed you by. Hua Hu Ching read here It begins... "I reach the Integral Way of uniting with the great and mysterious Tao. My teachings are simple; if you try to make a religion or science of them, they will elude you. Profound yet plain, they contain the entire truth of the universe. Those who wish to know the whole truth take joy in doing the work and service that comes to them. Having completed it, they take joy in cleansing and feeding themselves. Having cared for others and for themselves, they then turn to the master for instruction. This simple path leads to peace, virtue, and abundance." Enjoy!

This passed me by for years. Years of reading Tao books and it just appeared in front of me in a book shop, so now I reveal it to you if it has also passed you by. Hua Hu Ching read here It begins... "I reach the Integral Way of uniting with the great and mysterious Tao. My teachings are simple; if you try to make a religion or science of them, they will elude you. Profound yet plain, they contain the entire truth of the universe. Those who wish to know the whole truth take joy in doing the work and service that comes to them. Having completed it, they take joy in cleansing and feeding themselves. Having cared for others and for themselves, they then turn to the master for instruction. This simple path leads to peace, virtue, and abundance." Enjoy!

Well I have trawled the depths off Yahoogle and not found any more free ones yet. The one you found at Amazon looks to be amongst the most common of book form along with the printed version of the one I posted by Walker. If I find another free copy I will be sure to post it as it is nice to have different versions of texts to compare and contrast.

Quite possible, I don't know. @Gossamer, are they all I-Ching links or did I miss a Hua Hu Ching link somewhere?

Once a monk approached Wu-ming and asked in all earnestness, "In the whole universe, what is it that is most wonderful?" Without hesitation Wu-ming stuck a cucumber before the monks face and exclaimed, "There is nothing more wonderful than this!" At that the monk crashed through the dualism of subject and object, "The whole universe is pickled cucumber; a pickled cucumber is the whole universe!" Wu-ming simply chuckled and said, "Stop talking nonsense. A cucumber is a cucumber; the whole universe is the whole universe. What could be more obvious?" The monk, penetrating the perfect phenomenal manifestation of Absolute Truth, clapped his hands and laughed, saying, "Throughout infinite space, everything is deliciously sour!" Great! thanks

I'm no historian, I'm interested in others views that have info here, but I would say that Tao pre-dates china and india. The Hindus also say that buddhism is an offshoot of hiduism so the Buddhists are probably used to it by now and surely they just laugh After all this is something outside of words that is being passed down, the names, as we know, are just names (see I just "stole" from the TTC to make my point he he he

Hi Anabhogya-Carya I know I sent you a web copy of the book by PM so you perhaps haven't read the forward to the book.. it is mentioned in the forward to the book that Emperors asked leaders of Taoism, Buddhism (and i guess Confucianism) to "fight it out" to win the favour of the emperor to become the main advisers. It says in the intro that Taoists used the Hua Hu Ching to display that Buddhism was, at best, just an aspect of the Tao. --- To you all.. It is a lovely book, i'm glad so many of you have found it and hope that it gains more attention from those who have not found it yet. Please Please advise me of any other classics I may have missed along the way. I am quite shocked it took so long for the Hua Hu Ching to reveal it self to me, but so glad it has made itself present in my life.

so use Windows for those apps that you can't yet get on Linux but for everything else Linux. and everyone else who just uses the computer for web, words, music, video and images Linux is wonderful. You don't have a virus checker on linux (if you do it wont find anything) non of that 2 hours a week maintaining your PC, never have to defrag, just use, enjoy. I dropped windows and have been fully Linux for well over a year. A great starter Linux (it all just works straight away from flash to video) is Linux Mint linuxmint website good advice mwight!

No. Mak can do the right thing because it is the right thing or he can suffer the repercussions in this or his next life. Good luck Gossamer! If it helps I have done my part in healing your problems

As much respect and disrespect people are giving to mak tin si and he is giving or not giving to others there is an underlying current of ego. Call me what you will. Say what you say, I have nothing for you to take from me. If you come to me in need I give because I can, there is no price on truth.