thelerner

Alright I'll try. An environmental scientist, global warming skeptic, hooker, priest and rabbi walk into a bar during the Ming Dynasty. The bartender says 'What'll you have?' The environmental scientist says 'Bourbon, plenty of ice' The skeptic says 'Whisky, neat' The two get into a fight and the priest, rabbi and hooker leave for a quieter place. WHAT? too realistic? I can do better. The hooker says to the Believing scientist: 'What's your favorite position?' He says 'Missionary and I like to be on top.' Next she asks the Skeptic. He points to the scientist and says 'He's lying' and they get into another fight.

There's so much poetry in there I could see a special Poems subform. Then I'd be able to argue against it in a Tighten up the Format section .

more silliness on my part.

Keep a look out for opportunity but don't forget to grow and thrive where you are. Develop a practice so that your worthy when the time comes. Keep asking questions, make connections, read books from authors who've traveled the road you want to go on. I highly recommend the book 'The Gods Drink Whiskey', about an American Professor of Buddism who travels to Cambodia to teach there. Don't let the tittle throw you, the writing and insights are brilliant. 'Iron and Silk' is also good, but from a more martial arts viewpoint of an American in China and its getting a bit dated and China is changing so quickly. He doesn't post here often lately but Cameron has been quite a world traveler. You can PM him and if he looks in might be able to give hints on teaching and learning in China.

LOL

Hmnn, I'm not a big fan of missionaries. Usual reasons, I'm sure some are genuinely caring, but others seem to look at people as score cards and there's an innate and unearned sense of superiority to them.

If you could find good spring mountain water you <& Taomeow> are way ahead of us. When I did water therapy I'd fill a small pitcher with filtered tap water over night. That took care of the chlorine, but not fluoride. I've heard different things about distilled water. It tends to shoot right through you, which can be good or bad. I certainly don't think using it a few times for a flush is bad, but you might want to do research before using it every time. Too much of a good thing..maybe. I think I read at least one tradition recommended adding a few grains of rice to remineralize it a bit for longer time use.

Seems to me different Buddhists traditions have pointed in several directions. It may be with different groups monks vs lay people Buddha taught different things or at least from different angles on them. What impresses me is when people back up their arguments with the sutra they're derived from.

just silly

I tend to think the worst trick people pull on themselves is that evil comes from an outside source. Outsourcing evil gives them scapegoats and easy answers to complex questions. When bad things happen no need to go further then 'the devil did it'. Each side labels the other 'the devil' or devil's side, and analysis can end there. No need to figure out causes, motives, history or anything. Solutions are easy, just point to the other side and get rid of the devil, then everything will work out fine. No, and in societies more backwards then ours this poisonous belief leads neighbor to kill neighbor because they suffered bad luck or a disease. I think it comes from a hubris we're so important that some super powerful supernatural being wants us to do petty stupid self interested thing. And I think they'd have better things to do with there time. And we don't need it, we do stupid petty self serving things all by our lone somes. The alien angle: man these guys are patient. If you're super advanced do you really need 60, 70, 80 years to slowly develop your world domination plan, even if is super subtle. Don't they watch TV or see movies in their space ships? Hollywood's taught us even a slow reptile shouldn't take more then a year or two to lay foundations for world conquest.

The ugly truth: But Love them anyway. Plus there horns make a good aphrodisiac. <Oh shut up. is there no end to your depravity?>

Reminds me of a great old martial art classic, The Zen Way to the Martial Arts, by Zen master Taisen Deshimaru, lots of great samurai cat stories. Here is a classic one from the book: Two hundred years ago in Japan, before the Meiji storation, there was a kendo master named Shoken, whose home was infested by a huge rat. This is a different cat-and-rat story, and it is called "The cats' martial arts assembly." Every night this big rat came to Shoken's house and kept him awake. He had to do his sleeping by day. He consulted a friend of his who kept cats, a sort of cat trainer. Shoken said, "Lend me your best cat." The cat trainer lent him an alley cat, extremely quick and adept at rat-catching, with stout claws and farspringing muscles. But when he came face to face with the rat in the room, the rat stood his ground and the cat had to turn tail and run. There was decidedly something very special about that rat. Shoken then borrowed a second cat, a ginger one, with a terrific ki and an aggressive personality. This second cat stood his ground, so it and the rat fought; but the rat got the best of it and the cat beat a hasty retreat. A third cat was procured and pitted against the rat-- this one was black and white--but it could no more overcome the rat than the other two. Shoken then borrowed yet another cat, the fourth; it was black, and old, and not stupid, but not so strong as the alley cat or the ginger cat. It walked into the room. The rat stared at it awhile, then moved forward. The black cat sat down, very collected, and remained utterly motionless. A tiny doubt flitted through the rat. He edged a little closer and a little closer; he was just a little bit afraid. Suddenly the cat caught him by the neck and killed him and dragged him away. Then Shoken went to see his cat-training friend and said to him, "How many times have I chased that rat with my wooden sword, but instead of my hitting him he would scratch me; why was your black cat able to get the best of him?" The friend said, "What we should do is call a meeting and ask the cats themselves. You're a kendo master, so you ask the questions; I'm pretty certain they understand all about martial arts." So there was an assembly of cats, presided over by the black cat which was the oldest of them all. The alley cat took the floor and said, "I am very strong." The black cat asked, "Then why didn't you win?" The alley cat answered, "Really, I am very strong; I know hundreds of different techniques for catching rats. My claws are stout and my muscles far-springing. But that rat was no ordinary rat." The black cat said, "So your strength and your techniques aren't equal to those of the rat. Maybe you do have a lot of muscles and a lot of wasa, but skill alone was not enough. No way!" Then the ginger cat spoke: "I am enormously strong, I am constantly exercising my ki and my breathing through zazen. I live on vegetables and rice soup and that's why I have so much energy. But I too was unable to overcome that rat. Why?" The old black cat answered, "Your activity and energy are great indeed, but that rat was beyond your energy; you are weaker than that big rat. If you are attached to your ki, proud of it, it becomes like so much flab. Your ki is just a sudden surge, it cannot last, and all that is left is a furious cat. Your ki could be compared to water pouring from a faucet; but that of the rat is like a great geyser. That's why the rat is stronger than you. Even if you have a strong ki, in reality it is weak because you have too much confidence in yourself." Next came the turn of the black-and-white cat, which had also been defeated. He was not so very strong, but he was intelligent. He had satori, he had finished with wasa and spent all his time practicing zazen. But he was not mushotoku (that is, without any goal or desire for profit), and so he too had to run for his life. The black cat told him, "You're extremely intelligent, and strong, too. But you couldn't beat the rat because you had an object, so the rat's intuition was more effective than yours. The instant you walked into the room it understood your attitude and state of mind, and that's why you could not overcome it. You were unable to harmonize your strength, your technique, and your active consciousness; they remained separate instead of blending into one. "Whereas I, in a single moment, used all three faculties unconsciously, naturally and automatically, and that is how I was able to kill the rat. "But I know a cat, in a village not far from here, that is even stronger than I am. He is very, very old and his whiskers are all gray. I met him once, and there's certainly nothing strong-looking about him! He sleeps all day. He never eats meat or even fish, nothing but ge7lmai (rice soup), although sometimes he does take a drop of sake. And he has never caught a single rat because they're all scared to death of him and scatter like leaves in the wind. They keep so far away that he has never had a chance to catch even one. One day he went into a house that was positively overrun with rats; well, every rat decamped on the instant and went to live in some other house. He could chase them away in his sleep. This old graybeard cat really is mysterious and impressive. You must become like him: beyond posture, beyond breathing, beyond consciousness." For Shoken, the kendo master, this was a great lesson. In zazen, you are already beyond posture, beyond breathing, beyond consciousness.

Yawnn, get back on subject ace. My earlier point is by having 7 sub forums, and 6 pinned topics on top hurts the flow of discussion because it only leaves 18 spots on the front page of General Discussion. While I applaud people who dig up old old discussions and keep good topics alive and its good to know we can see all the new hits, still we probably lose something when discussion are flushed too quickly. If an immature criminal like myself can see that, others could too .

Sad, but from what I've seen many Chinese tend to be poly-religious, Christian, Buddhist & bit Taoist!?

beginning of silliness.

G-MasterP "Have you ever come across a vampire/lizard type of person in real life? Were they born or made that way do you think? As a workplace union rep I reluctantly have to spend some of my work time alongside vampire/lizard types. We call them managers. That sort gravitate to jobs where they might find a chance suck the life out of others." Well the relationship between a Union Rep like yourself and management is a strained often combative one. Having dealt with the Teamsters as a business owner my thoughts were similar but on the side of the fence. Still, I think outside the roles, people aren't removing rubber faces and are indeed sapiens much like ourselves, but when on the clock, its back to the fight. Tthe best show their humanity within the confines and know the best deal is the one that benefits both parties long term. Best and Long Term being very loaded concepts.

The mods erase most of it. It helps to hit the Report button on the bottom of messages to let them know. Its not an instantaneous deletion either. As NAJA pointed out, damn bots, once they have your address they idiotically keep sending. Seems like its been confined to the Confucius & Greeting subforums or has it been spreading?

And yet I live

Sometimes. Course then I couldn't be as flippant and semi-obnoxious at times. I just deleted a long well thought out post consisting of the argument-I understand your point, mine is I'd break your nose and blacken your eyes if you said that to me in public. Thus proving I lack the even keeled temperament a moderator needs.

Colorado Sage- book in the holster and guitar on his back or is that the Colorado Sage kid <watched too many Westerns lately>

Get too far outside a person's norm and they tend to try to counter balance you. You don't have to accept there outlook, but sometimes you have to tone down your expression in order to not trigger there counter mechanism. Two pieces of good news in this: You don't have to stop being who you are; just tone it down infront of some people. Two, with repeated contact you can bring people's norms up, get them used to higher happier energy, but it takes time. Positivity and optimism are better then the norm. Also no one likes to be told what to do, don't convert or preach, just be a positive living example, and be open enough to reflect your environment without overly compromising your core. I'd add, shooting for love is a hard target. Acceptance and understanding are easier to hit and still worth while. Love takes time and like sticks much rubbing together before it ignites; for friends as well as lovers.

We can have faith or not, but to know God may take silence and grace.

We have many talented people here. For goodness sakes Sean is a designer of many things. Would it make sense to create a line of Tao Bumware? I kinda liked the cool original logo of simple lines. The present one ain't bad either, but lacks bum-ness. First what do the top dogs think? Second, have an open contest for designs? Third someone incharge of where to place the items. I think this is relatively easy, on the net there are places you place your designs and they do it all. Thoughts??

Not bad, its the design from the web page, but fashion wise, the graphic falls in an awkward area. And its a little long and flat for a logo. Can we do better for a T-shirt logo and what not?

Beautiful. So thats the remote cabin. How rural is it?