taijilee

Beautiful thread! Much Love to all of you! Here's my take. Preferences come and go. You(the True You) is constant. These preferences arise and subside like the rest of the illusion. Chap 55 of the Tao Te Ching mentions that everything that grows strong then gets old(everything that changes)is contrary to the Tao. These are just images that we interpret as reality. Preferences are part of the illusion, because there is no individual you that can prefer. You are the space in which preferences seem to occur. And yet, preferences aren't actually there, for Tao has no preferences and all there is, is Tao. To the "outside world" it will seem like you had a preference for such and such, and some of these "preferences" will seem to be compassionate, while others may not seem compassionate at all, however, it will just be you getting out of the way of You.

good stuff. time to chop wood, carry water again

Actually this is not the work of derek lin. I happen to hold him in high regards as he actually knows ancient chinese, and took great care to use the correct and accurate translations. Dereks version is as follows: Heaven and Earth are impartial (1) And regard myriad things as straw dogs The sages are impartial And regard people as straw dogs(2) The space between Heaven and Earth Is it not like a bellows? Empty, and yet never exhausted It moves, and produces more Too many words hasten failure(3) Cannot compare to keeping quiet(4) In his commentary on this chapter he writes: (1) The original chinese characters bu ren are often mistranslated as "ruthless" or "without compassion." This produces statements at odds with reality, because real-life sages are compassionate individuals- hardly ruthless. The true meaning of bu ren is that the Tao does not play favorites. The rain waters weeds and orchids equally; the sun shines on everyone with the same brightness and warmth despite variations in individual merits. The sage, in emulating the Tao, also regards everyone in the same egalitarian light-none higher and none lower. (2) Straw dogs are literally small dog figurines made from straw. They were used in ancient times for rituals, and then discarded after use. It is a striking metaphor when we consider how we are similiar to the straw dogs. we are here to go through the ritual called life; when the ritual is done there is no further use for the physical body, so it is discarded. (3) "Too many words" here means too much bureaucracy, or too many rules and regulations. (4) I have translated the last character, zhong, as "quiet." This can be confusing even to native Chinese speakers. According to the dictionary it means "middle" or "center." Thus, one may assume the last line has to do with centering oneself or holding on to the principle of moderation. This is probably not correct, because the previous line is not about the danger of extremes. The real menaing of zhong, in ancient times and in this particular context, is silence. When we see how the maddening "noise" of complex bureaucracy and too many laws hasten failure, we would naturally want to reach for its opposite-the quietness of simplicity.

indeed it is a weakness, and that weakness comes in the form of the ego.

Nothing carries importance until one places importance on it. I would give a quote from the tao te ching here but if you are doubting everything, chances are you doubt the validity of that too. instead I'm gonna leave you with this story I got from taoism.net I knew a zen master. I asked him about life. He said, "Life is empty and meaningless." I said, "That can't be so!" He said, "And it doesn't mean anything that it doesn't mean anything." And I still said, "No!" Then he said, "And that gives you the freedom to make it up to mean whatever you want it to." And I said, "Ahh!"

here's a lil something that has helped me whenever i allow something to make me mad.....Instead of getting upset about it, ponder as to why you've allowed this to anger you. secondly, if you see something to complain about, then by knowing what is wrong you can fix it.

I second Mal's reply

practice these three treasures: compassion moderation humility

Hello all, I'm pretty new to taoism, and have glanced over this forum from time to time, and am ready to be apart of it. Through the taoist teachings I've learned in martial arts I've learned alot about life in general and it ultimately led to where I am today. I love it and am looking forward to learning more and more.