Mike Rambling

Bwahahahahaa! Good one, Turtle!

Tom, Welcome from a fellow newbie. There are many translations of the Tao Te Ching. In my humble opinion, the most readable is Stan Rosenthal's translation. It has more of the translator's own words in it than most versions, but this makes it far easier to read. If you're looking for a good place to start, this worked very nicely for me. Cheers.

Turtle, my understanding is like this: A living thing is anything capable of reproduction with variations introduced by natural selection. A conscious being is a living thing that is aware of its own existence. Further: A human is a living thing that is of the species Homo sapiens. A person is a human who is also a conscious being. These lead to some interesting (and perhaps specious) conclusions: In your normal state you are both human and a person. Someone in an irreversible coma is still human but is no longer a person. A foetus (never having had consciousness), is human but not a person. These distinctions may allow us to assign different levels of rights to living things, conscious beings, humans and persons.

You're very welcome. Thank you for the question. Strange that you should mention that now. I had a moment this morning when I arrived at a client's office and they'd messed up all the arrangements that I'd been expecting. I know that a few years ago I would have become stressed out and waspish with the people I was dealing with. It began to happen to me this morning, but I spotted it and realised that the real problem was my own attitude. I consciously thought about Taoism and being like water: flowing around my obstacles. We adapted and the day went smoothly. I'm proud of myself. I like that feeling. I'm growing.

Write it down by hand ... That's a very helpful recommendation. I think that it echoes the old advice that the best way to learn something is to try to teach it to someone else. Starting a blog about Taoism was an attempt to follow just that advice. By forcing myself to talk about these matters and engage with others, I force myself to decide what I believe and to discover what I do (and don't) understand. Peace. Turtle: I've just realised that I have no idea what my rules are. Wow. I really have to rectify this. Thank you.

Greetings, fellow newbie. Dive in. The locals don't appear to bite.

For what it's worth, I have two complementary outlooks on life: * Science answers my questions about how? and why?. * Ethics answers more abstract questions such as should I?. You'll note that I've labelled my second category ethics, not religion. Some people derive their ethical beliefs from religious frameworks, others from non-theistic frameworks such as philosophical Taoism. For me, religion isn't part of my daily experience. (And, frankly, I don't feel the lack.) My beliefs in science and ethics are separate but they also inform each other. Some of the scientific areas that interest me (for example genetics) inform my opinions about ethical matters such as cloning. Conversely, my ethical beliefs influence how I feel about certain types of scientific research; for example, the testing of products on animals. Peace.

Thanks, Michael. I'm looking forward to learning from the people here.

Ahem. Best not to say that to an Aussie. It means something quite different down under.

Beancurdturtle, greetings from a new member. Your quote from chapter 49 of the Tao Te Ching is lovely. Can you tell us please which translation it's from. Many thanks in advance.

Post #3 in this lengthy topic included a version of this lovely (but depressing) saying: Only after the last tree has been cut down Only after the last river has been poisoned Only after the last fish has been caught Then will you find that money cannot be eaten. Inspired by it, I did a little digging and found that it's called the "Cree Prophecy". I've linked to Wikipedia's discussion of the subject.

Greetings all, I've just discovered the site and am looking forward to browsing and taking part. Why am I here? Well, I'm trying my best to embrace simplicity and Taoism and through them to find greater happiness. And ya know what? It's working! Cheers, Mike Rambling http://www.RamblingIdeas.com