Hello bums. I just joined up today. I am friends with Yoda. Not the real one but the one in this group...although he may be the real one, I can't say for sure. It seems that every year at this time I start thinking about Tao and exploring it more. My father, who is into Eastern religions, got me a copy of the Tao Te Ching a few years ago and I have wandered through but never tried really hard to get into things. I've wanted to start Tai Chi for a couple of years and have never followed through. I'd like to learn to meditate, but haven't really tried. I am thinking that the reason I signed up for this forum is because I am now ready to start to pursue some of this.
I was raised an atheist, converted to Judaism and consider myself above all other belief systems an anthropologist. That means I am not particularly religious in any specific sense but am very open to spirituality and see spirituality as relative. I am an archaeologist and I study Native American cultures past and present. I feel like I've been tugged in the Tao direction for years and I just want to see what Tao holds for me.
I went to the font of all knowledge--Google--and found a Mandarin translator to help me create my user name. It is supposed to mean The Way of the Water. It is a play on Tao and my favorite Tao-inspired advice: Don't struggle against the waterfall, become the water.
This forum stuff is all new to me, so I'm likely to wander about quietly for a while before you hear a lot out of me.
