3bob

Dwai, I basically agree although some aspects are done alone yet with many.

Some interesting info on the symbol if you've never seen it: http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/yinyang.htm

"...our this-here reality is a side effect of operations of one of those, a trickle-down manifestation of its functions... the universe if full of weird stuff, ten thousand times weirder than anything humanly weird...) So, anyone says something condescending about vegetables, I just LOS... the silent counterpart of LOL." by Taomeow Indeed, pick up just about any issue of National Geographic and one can see pictures and descriptions of all sorts of interesting and different types of life forms...! then again in a basic sense all those would suffer in vain without the unchanging, simple beyond simple and beautiful beyond beautiful core of all things that is deeper than any level of mind creation or forms, yet is also the answer and rest that all forms seek in one way or another.

Agreed that "She" (as both cosmic and earthly matrix) is connected with no-thing but she can not cross all the way back over for if she did neither her nor her Ten Thousand children would be;(nor non-be) although after she gives countless eons of help and preparation to her wisest and older children they then may be chosen and ready to fully cross. Om

That was a most insightful and touching story about cucumbers,(!) although I don't fully agree with what sounds like your implied summation. For only a Sage masters throwing tendrils into no-thing, all else is under and or bound by the One to the Ten-thousand.

sounds rather grinchy

Dude, interesting spin-off/correlations but I'm just letting it be. Om

Hello Manitou, Glad you liked the partial picture (jpg) from several posts back. The complete form of it can be found with a search engine used for: Jean-Francois-Millet, Shepherdess-with-her-flock. (I'm not sure about copyrights related to the reposting of pictures from various sources... some put marks on their pictures and some don't?) Good day, Bob

That's funny. Btw, I have fallen off a horse before and it sure looked funny to my buddy when it happened! Anyway, the oops was for a possible avatar picture I posted that I thought Manitou might have some interest in but it came out so small that I posted the oops instead...

.oops

Btw, I think heavy duty arguments (some of which are in this string) are better off being left in the general forum where they can be beat to an death without their blood being spilled in a particular sub-forum where in general there is less violence and more harmony of views.

I wouldn't go so far as to use the term, "wholly alien" otherwise I think you've made a decent attempt above. Om

From Navajo Myths, Prayers and Songs... "In the house of long life there I wander, In the house of happiness there I wander. Beauty before me, with it I wander. Beauty behind me, with it I wander. Beauty below me, with it I wander. Beauty above me, with it I wander. Beauty all around me, wtih it I wander. In old age traveling, with it I wander. On the beautiful trail I am, with it I wander." Dawn Boy's song on entering White house

Nope, I'm not a disciple of any particular teacher or school at this point, but if I hear of the Truth being pointed to skillfully such as it is in the Mundaka Upanisad, in this video from a great Yogi, or in other ways I will try to share that resource via quotes or posts. Om

"The free movement of awareness" is free when that remains free from attachment, whether such is called awareness or consciousness... thus the rest of such text can be drastically mis-applied or mis-understood since the ceasing that is really meant is the ceasing of attachment - being that Truth is beyond any form of "ceasing" in its own nature. Another tangent: "to be or not to be" is a human idea and not a Tao idea or a possibility...

On the other hand, choosing a path and sticking to it does not mean that it or you are now being confined, for if sticking to such a path gives preparation for Spirit recognizing Spirit then the quintessentail Truth beyond yet within forms has been realized, and that is not-limiting in any way as Truth sees truths that are part of all paths.

Hello Manitou and others involved in this string, I believe there are some words which point the "way" based on understanding of same, for instance from chapter 42 of the TTC: "Tao gave birth to One, One gave birth to Two, Two gave birth to Three, Three gave birth to all myriad things..." To me this describes part of the flow of Tao resulting in all myriad things, yet if one does not at some point begin to regroup via forms of "will" or unification one remains identified with or stuck at the greatly permutated end of the flow known as "myriad things", a condition which can often feel like being a separate leaf tossed in the wind, which by the way is still lawful or "going with the flow" of Tao yet again such is at the widely diffused part of that flow; but there is another part of the flow which actually goes in reverse or against the permutated part which to me is described in the TTC as the "return" thus the myriad things return to the Three, the Three returns to the Two, the Two returns to the One, and the One returns to Tao, which brings completion and fulfillment to that whole process, a process I'd add that is not defined as illusion by the level of Truth also alluded to in Chapter 25 of the TTC: 25. "THERE was Something undefined and yet complete in itself, Born before Heaven-and-Earth. Silent and boundless, Standing alone without change, Yet pervading all without fail, It may be regarded as the Mother of the world. I do not know its name; I style it "Tao"; And, in the absence of a better word, call it "The Great." To be great is to go on, To go on is to be far, To be far is to return..." Om

I don't see a dividing line or zone somewhere between religion and philosophy as you apparently do per your earlier sentence of, "True, this concept is fine within religions but not within a philosophy". For me religion and philosophy have cross-over aspects that help one "walk the talk", ideally that is, by giving complimentary legs to same. For instance in the following excerpt from TTC Chapter 25 I see the cross-over aspects of both coming into play, namely faith inspired and supported by trust, and reason inspired and supported by laws. "Man follows the ways of the Earth, The Earth follows the way of Heaven, Heaven follows the ways of Tao, Tao follows its own ways". Btw, 'Worship' is a form of surrender, and granted "surrender" can have negative connotations, then again I don't see worship as it is being used in TCC Chapter 51 as having that negative, thus I can't make nor do I see single-sided generalizations regarding same as being conductive to reaching greater understanding. Lecture over.

Congrats, no major trouble making here thus the secret-service-moderators choose not to read every word you've ever posted for anti-website or anti-member attacks. There are forms of surrender that come into play whether related to philosophy or religion, for instance: those that did not surrender to greater possibilities in the story of Platos cave, thus they stopped at the point of their small will and remained in the dark cave - willfully so to speak.

Just come out with it MH, trouble you seldom make and we could probably withstand a little even if you did.