I was going to post some deep thoughts on the discussion board, but it said I had to post here first. So, without further ado, here is my obligatory hello post.
Hello.
And now for my deep thoughts...
I've been practicing buddhism (sitting off and on, studying, thinking a lot about not thinking) for several years. There's this struggle that goes on between the desire/expectation/shoulda-coulda-woulda (call it, clinging) and letting go of it. It's hard sometimes for me to tell whether the clinging is the suffering or the struggle to let it go is suffering, or both. In other words, was I suffering less when I was totally ignorant of the fact that my mind was consumed with clinging, both subtle and gross? Perhaps the suffering just changed to be more lucid, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I read a while back that some highly accomplished monk said something like (forgive my awful memory), "arahats still suffer, they just know that they're suffering, they understand its cause completely, and they don't cling to suffering or non-suffering". I'm not going anywhere special with this... its just what I was thinking about when I clicked "New Post".
I've always thought of taoism (which is what eventually led me to buddhism back in college) sort of like an old man laughing at you in the woods. Here I am, all caught up in my clinging, and he's laughing at me. Always makes me grin and realize how silly I'm being. That feels like very temporary relief, but perhaps I shouldn't cling to the relief. Going in circles.
That said... aside from reading a a bunch of books on it several years ago, I don't know much about taoism. So I was intrigued to find this forum. Do you "practice" taoism, and if so, how? If there's a good primer thread or post on this site, gimme the link. I'm sure the western interpretation of taoism has matured and developed since I last looked into it. I'm going to bed now.
