rene

The Dao Bums
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Everything posted by rene

  1. The Chuang Tzu

    Here's an action you may want to take: Sit down for this news! I'm going to start reading ChuangTzu. I have the Feng/English translation of Inner Chapters. I'm sure there's a Chapter 1 thread here somewhere...lol... so I'll be doing a lot of bumping up - if that's okay? I figure with half a brain left it's the perfect time...
  2. (-:

    Nothing wrong with a healthy ego (-:
  3. (-:

    It can be, you betcha! Mostly for me it's a way to know someone actually read something I wrote. LOL Or to tell them, I read their words.
  4. (-:

    It does?? Ohhhh... well then yay! and oops... Guess I should apologize to quite a few of you for all the Notifications you got from me for really old stuff! LOLOL Thanks, Steve, most appreciated!
  5. (-:

    A quick question about this new interface ~ I like the multiple-choice 'responded' thing - but there are no longer 'notifications' that someone has clicked like or whatever on our posts. Correct? I ask because I've been reading some of the older threads, some from 2 months others from 8 months, and I've been clicking 'Yeah!!" and then it dawned on me the poster will never know...unless I quote and bump the thread back active...and I dunno about doing that...feels kinda like trying to swim in a river long past. So far I've resisted doing it, even in one thread from a few months ago where I really wanted to tell Starjumper how full of it I thought he was. All thoughts welcome.
  6. Following the Tao and flexibility

    Interesting thread. I go against the grain all the time while sanding wood. Tao flows in all directions at the same time; not possible to go 'against' the flow of tao. Very possible to go against what you think the flow of tao is, or want it to be, or think it should be.
  7. Following the Tao and flexibility

    Every action, and non-action, is one of equal creation and destruction. Such is the way of tao. (-: Now I'll go read the rest of the thread, lol
  8. "Spiritual Master" Bs

    They are as unboundaried; you are regardless of your non-claims; and yes, you are. (-:
  9. (-:

    You took the word "Maybe" out of my sentence. Please do not do that again. Thanks!
  10. (-:

    Thanks, dear friend. Its nice to be able to return.
  11. (-:

    Maybe I came back just to bite you again!!! Just kidding LimA, just kidding. Nice to see you and everyone (-:
  12. The Paradox of Feeling

    DDJ Fifty F/E Between birth and death, Three in ten are followers of life, Three in ten are followers of death, And men just passing from birth to death also number three in ten. Why is this so? Because they live their lives on the gross level. He who knows how to live can walk abroad Without fear of rhinoceros or tiger. He will not be wounded in battle. For in him rhinoceroses can find no place to thrust their horn, Tigers no place to use their claws, And weapons no place to pierce.. Why is this so? Because he has no place for death to enter. ****** Do you see the connection? This is not about being immortal; it's about how to live - in the manner you describe.
  13. (-:

    Hey hi! Great to see you (-:
  14. (-:

    The manifest one should have watched where it was going. LOLOL
  15. (-:

    no fixed path no fixed smiley =)
  16. (-:

    Thanks SJ & MH! Things have stabilized. It is enough. (-:
  17. (-:

    Thanks! I had some head injuries...but I'm afraid it didn't knock any sense into me! My six months offline were spent in peaceful meditation and physical labor, aka chores lol, here on the mountain where I now live full time; away from all society and embedded in the fullness of natural life. I feel well enough to venture back here to read and maybe type a little now and then, but only in the peaceful threads. Life is too short to not choose joy. (-:
  18. There is a great little book written by John Blofeld, who visited China in the 1930's and 40's - researching Buddhism - and Taoism. After commenting to a Taoist recluse in the White Cloud Monastery that "...of the many wise hermits encountered during my wanderings, the few who had betrayed signs of being, as I fancied, closest to illumination had almost all been Buddhist." - the recluse wondered if even one of them surpassed the Taoist recluse known as Tseng Lao-weng. Arrangements were made for Blofeld to meet Lao-weng, what follows is part of their conversation. *** "Venerable, it is just that, as most of my teachers are Buddhist, I am ignorant about what Taoists mean by such terms as wisdom and illumination, and about their methods of approaching the Tao." Lao-weng laughed. "How strange. Can there be two kinds of wisdom, two kinds of illumination, Taoist and Buddhist? Surely the experience of truth must be the same for all? As to approaching the Tao, be sure that demons and executioners, let alone Buddhists, are as close to it as can be. The one impossible thing is to get a finger's breadth away from it. Do you suppose that some people are nearer to it than others? Is a bird closer to the air than a tortoise or a cat? The Tao is closer to you than the nose on your face; it is only because you can tweak your nose that you think otherwise. Asking about our approach to the Tao is like asking a deep-sea fish how it approaches the water. It is just a matter of recognizing what has been inside, outside and all around from the first. Do you understand?" "Yes, I believe I do. Certainly my Buddhist teachers have taught me that there is no attaining liberation, but only attaining recognition of what one has always been from the first." "Excellent! Your teachers, then, are true sages. You are a worthy disciple, so why brave the bitter cold to visit an ordinary old fellow? You would have learnt as much at your own fireside." "Venerable, please dont laugh at me! I accept your teaching that true sages have but the one goal. Still, here in China, there are Buddhists and there are also Taoists. Manifestly they differ; since the goal is one, the distinction must lie in their methods of approach" "So you are hungry not for wisdom but for knowledge! What a pity! Wisdom is almost as satisfying as good millet-gruel, whereas knowledge has less body to it than tepid water poured over old tea-leaves; but if that is the fare you have come for, I can give you as much as your mistreated belly will hold. What sort of old tea-leaves do Buddhists use, I wonder! We Taoists use all sorts. Some swallow medicine-balls as big as pigeon's eggs or drink tonics by the jug, live upon unappetizing diets, take baths at intervals governed by esoteric numbers, breathe in and out like asthmatic dragons, or jump about like Manchu bannermen hardening themselves for battle - all this discomfort just for the sake of a few extra decades of life! And why? To gain more time to find what has never been lost! And what of those pious recluses who rattle mallets against wooden-fish drums from dusk to dawn, groaning out liturgies like cholera-patients excreting watery dung? They are penitents longing to rid themselves of a burden they never had. These people do everything imaginable, including swallowing pills made from the vital fluids secreted by the opposite sex and lighting fires in their bellies to make the alchemic cauldrons boil. I shall have to talk of such follies for hours, if you really want a full list of Taoist methods. These method-users resemble mountain streams a thousand leagues from the sea. Ah, how they chatter and gurgle, bubble and boil, rush and eddy, plunging over precipices in spectacular fashion! How angrily they pound against the boulders and suck down their prey in treacherous whirl-pools! But, as the streams broaden, they grow quieter and more purposeful. They become rivers - ah, how calm, how silent! How majestically they sweep towards their goal, giving no impression of swiftness and, as they near the ocean, seeming not to move at all! While noisy mountain streams are reminiscent of people chattering about the Tao and showing-off spectacular methods, rivers remind one of experienced men, taciturn, doing little, but doing it decisively; outwardly still, yet sweeping forward faster than you know. Your teachers have offered you wisdom; they why waste time acquiring knowledge? Methods! Approaches! Need the junk-master steering towards the sea, with the sails of his vessel billowing in the wind, bother his head about alternative modes of propulsion - oars, paddles, punt-poles, tow-ropes, engines and all the rest? Any sort of vessel, unless it founders or pitches you overboard, is good enough to take you to the one and only sea." The secret and the sublime: Taoist Mysteries and Magic ~ John Blofeld edit:typo recent edit: another typo
  19. The no-enlightenment thread

    In my thinking, our bodies have the skillsets to heal themselves IF we can keep ourselves out of the way. Second best - if we cant keep our minds from 'interfering' - is believing we are healed or being healed (the longer the queue the more that must mean it works!) This affinity (between our mind and body) only amplifies the efficacy of our naturally inherent healing mechanisms. IMO, of course.
  20. Mating and animals ...

    *********** This thread is temporarily locked for review. It wont take long, your patience is most appreciated! ***********
  21. Talk HRC

  22. Gospel of Thomas

    "Those who dream of the banquet, wake to lamentation and sorrow. Those who dream of lamentation and sorrow wake to join the hunt." ChuangTzu
  23. It's a bit borderline... but rhetorical & fits with the thread. Keep, edit or delete as you wish. Most here know, or can figure out quickly, your attacks are all about you - and not them at all. 🦉
  24. Similar to the exchanged greeting of Namaste.