Everything

I think you guys are talking about becoming a person who is more effective at living a subtle life. Surely in that way you can become of higher character to that kind of lifestyle.

Wait, are you saying you actually found a faster way of developing high character then all the mature men out there, by the use of some special knowledge? Thats exactly what gang recruiters, soldier recruiters, corrupt organized religions, fake self-help programs with instant gratification goals have to promise. All suedo initiations. Perhaps I don't quite follow you. Are you a victim of one of those by any chance? There is no way of developing high character "faster" then other people, other then living more actively in the present moment.

Thanks for that link. "In the pursuit of the name men overthrow one another; wisdom becomes a weapon of contention. Both these things are instruments of evil, and should not be allowed to have free course in one's conduct." Those are interesting words to me. I've never heard of Chuang Tzu or James Legge who did the translation. I'm assuming Chuang Tzu wrote the original text? Always inspirational to see such paradoxical texts. Alot of fun to seek wisdom within these stories.

Hehe, hey there. We all know nothing is what its named. I'm not going to judge you, because that would emmediatly put a label on you, and I know you don't like. Thanks for heads up! Want my advice? Don't avoid labels all together. I can see your mysterious nature, you will one day teach without words. For now, just understand that words are just labels and symbols that are relative to each person. Just open your eyes to how everyone, including you, use those symbols/labels in your communication, just like you put labels on your self. You can only go uphill from there dude. Even Einstein used symbols and labels like "god" to define the concept of "everything." All symbols. Who know, you might be Einstein! If you want the best language, the most abstract, I must say it is mathematics. Hard to be misunderstood if you can speak mathematical, lol. Too bad no one speaks that language.

I voted for literati Taoist, never heard of these descriptions so far. Feels nice to have a tag finally. Before this I was just a human. Thanks for vote descriptions.

Are you saying you became more action prone and it got the better out of you? Only you said it like it is the best thing that happened to you on this planet, lol.

You mean that this way, your character grows even more then other people? How can that be, in what way.

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear of your suffering. May I add to my previous comment that making decisions in the past or future is another form of suffering? Stick to the present dear, if the time has come for you to focus it is now, more then ever. Focus on less limiting and more constructive believes. You will soon find the old emotions stamping your failures in your face to fade away. You're just having old habbits of negative thought, requires constant focus to change bad habbits. You're saying it like you can't do anything about it. If I ever had obstacles in my path, I would rather die trying then cry dieing. I'm not afraid of death or its pain. When my time has come, I do not even need to say goodbyes. Keep death in mind at all times, it is the way of the samurai. You should be alot more angry then you are right now.

The purpose of life is relative. You probably knew that already. How come you ask it anyways? It is the age of old question of value. What do I value. Some people can have similar values. For example I say: "The purpose of life is (can be found in) space, stars, physics." Because I somehow value that most of all in my life. We all follow the children of the great mother or Tao in the hopes of ever seeing the Tao itself. Einstein had the "theory of everything/god." He just had to find the truth of the beginning of all. Later we found out the big bang was not the beginning of time, so we will not find the answers for a long time to come, maybe even never. But just look at all the progress we have made because people like Einstein were in search for god. You say happiness? Well surely you can find the purpose of life in happiness! Why do you think people who are happy never ask "what is the purpose of life?" It is because happiness is one of the most common valued things on earth, among people, along with succes and freedom. If you ask what the definition of life itself is, that one is relative too. So we have two relative things in your question. Life and purpose of that relative life. How about "Life is a tragedy." How is that for a definition of life. All the people who suicided had a similar definition. How about "Life is wonderful!" Surely happy people who dance on tables out of excitement say that. But what is life really? Biologists say that life is "irritable." It makes choices. If one makes no choices he moves towards depression, death, etc. If one makes destructive choices in life, he will not move forward, but his character will atleast grow. He is now more alive. If one makes constructive decisions in life? He will see durable succes+happiness+freedom. The three most commonly valued things, and durably! He is also more on the living side. The more decisions you make, the more alive you are and the more you will grow character for moving towards a better life. So another way of asking the same question you just asked is: "What is the value of your decisions?" Thinking about what decisions you make, what they mean to you, where you're headed...

Wow... WOW.... Wait guys. I'm pretty new to Tao Te Ching, but does this actually mean that we have to arrest our own character growth? I read something like this in Tao Te Ching: "What is the difference between assent and denial? What is the difference between beautiful and ugly? What is the difference between fearsome and afraid? The people are merry as if at a magnificent party Or playing in the park at springtime, But I am tranquil and wandering, Like a newborn before it learns to smile, Alone, with no true home. The people have enough and to spare, Where I have nothing, And my heart is foolish, Muddled and cloudy. The people are bright and certain, Where I am dim and confused; The people are clever and wise, Where I am dull and ignorant; Aimless as a wave drifting over the sea, Attached to nothing. The people are busy with purpose, Where I am impractical and rough; I do not share the peoples' cares But I am fed at nature's breast." Fed at nature's breast. Value the nursing mother/tao. It sounds like the life of a cat on the streets. Why let life take its own course in such a radical way? I don't understand this way of life. It almost seems like the perfect description of "Lifeless" and "depressed" close to or similar to "death." What is the point of such a lifestyle? Woulden't it be more effective to simply take your own life instead? I don't understand the thought behind that. This is definitely the most paradoxical thing I've heard of, and this one doesn't make any sense at all.

Hey all, quick question on the view of Taoist about decisions. When we make decisions, we do it for the sake of living itself. Not making decisions one becomes depressed, storing their anger inside untill it becomes sadness. Taking away someones freedom of making decisions will do the same. However... I am kinda on the weird side of humanoids, lol. Passiveness is one of my characteristics or weakness one might say more often. As I look too much to my self and the way I treat my environment with the decisions I make in life, I tend to carry the weight of the entire world on my shoulder in immature victim thinking. My friend, on the other hand, tends to do the opposite of only getting the perspective of "how does the environment treat me" and his weakness is impuslive decisions and thus destructive. So for my life, decisions has mostly been either passive, destructive or constructive. How do you guys view all of this? Especially the part of passiveness being kinda "less alive" in some sense. You guys don't view the purpose of life as making decisions? Perhaps you can take it a step further and give consciousness to the rocks you walk upon. consciousness to the entire universe as one living organism. In some way it is making decisions, only too slow for us to perceive in a direct way. Perhaps the rock is part of something bigger, and this big thing is making the decisions. You guys believe that passiveness is actually no diffrent from decisiveness? That we're part of something bigger, fate perhaps. I am mostly passive, not out of the immature sense carrying the entire world on my shoulders when making decisions, no. I am passive to find meaning in my decisions. Sometimes I make alot of decisions, I feel alive, and even happy when I've been making good decisions for a while, everything lines up perfectly. But when I look up at night, at the stars, the entire universe, so big, I tend to feel so small and become passive, just enjoying what is witnessed. Feeling like that everything I decide is perfect, even if that decision is making no decisions. weird feeling huh?

Well well.. Hehe. I got some material for you that will make you more productive and succesful or solve every problem in a humans life for that matter. Wether you trust a stranger like me for his words? Thats entirely up to you. Give me a private message.

Tao te Ching surely is a book of wisdom. But it is also a book for the wisdom. This book is a piece of art, where wise people can go and inspire themselves, because it has been written by wise people, the target audience is not the unwise. There is a wrong assumption going on around the world! The assumption that all the wise books like the Bible, Koran, Tao te Ching brings wisdom to everyone! They are holy books, everyone should read them! Is that true? If that were true, woulden't it be great? So, what do you think? The radical terrorists surely call themselves muslims not because they like that name, but because they read the Koran alot! They are inspired by it. The piece of art that is written from the minds of intelligent people surely has got the right to be called holy. But just like all the kinds on music on earth, it requires practice just to learn how to listen to every kind of genre! What are the ideas behind every piece of text written within these ancient holy texts? Would you agree to give a child the Tao te Ching and trust in him to find the wisdom he needs within the written text that everyone calls holy? Would you trust in him the King temperament to be fully developed? Would you trust in him the responsible leadership of a great old wise man? Would you trust him your entire kingdom? The child, however intelligent born, will never find the wisdom purely out of a written text. Especially if it is so vaguely written and artistic like the Tao te Ching! It requires a great mind to extract wisdom, out of the old book, for use within the world of Today! Whenever that might be. Evil men, when trusted with a book like Tao te Ching, can easily inspire others to follow his lead when he CAN extract inspiration from such a book. He can create illusions, bending the written words to serve his own ego. Illusions where even the creator himself will start believing in. It has been done all over the world. Just like Tao te Ching teaches us not to follow the relativity of the world, but accepting it, I show you how Tao te Ching can bring us evil aswell as good. It is our perception that filters the truth. Infact, I am sad to say that I have used Tao te Ching in such a way, just to prove the fact to my self. It has served me well to inspire a more demonic nature in people that were already present. However, I'm not sure wether the energy of Tao te Ching delivered along with these words of wisdom will ultimately bring the good out of people naturally. I have yet to see... Perhaps the wisdom behind Tao Te Ching is beyond the powers of good and evil, life and death.

Clearly this is a brainwashing story. A story cannot explain a concept better then formulas and the rational mind. The monkey was destructive, towards himself. And that by many people is seen as "good" behaviour. Well, I certainly enjoy to watch those "good" people suffer, because they are so ignorant. Good is relative. My concept of good is superior, my perception is more advanced, thus I get more out of life. If you think "releasing a crocodile out of a net" is good? Clearly you are thinking like a child. The mature people know their boundaries well, and have experience in the world. The hero dies, the warrior lives. If you're in an airplane and your children are suffocating along with you, it is not good to put the mask on your children first and then on yourself. What good are you dead? You could have saved tens more people when alive! You come first in life. The fear of death in this story is also a bad sign, it doesn't bring good out of people but more evil then you can think of. Do you think Nazi's were not afraid? Why do you think Hitler came to power, because they were afraid of death. You can not make rational decisions if you are afraid and have any kind of emotional response uppon which you base your decisions. You will walk the path of suffering. Sorry if I have insulted you, it was not my intention to make it personal, but rather insult the story. The story irritates me, and I don't think it brings any "good" to this concept of good and evil xD Alot of destructive people (either towards them selves or others) are seen as "good" these days. But hey, I don't complain, it gives me more power when people stay so ignorant!

Well, I don't think anyone can explain such an abstract question easily, but my intuition tells me I know. I've known several people who form habbits of meditation whenever they are present minded. For example Tummo meditators who suddenly get an increased body temperature just by sitting down! Everything you have trained for occurs automaticly, because you've repeated it so many times. Many people go about not recognizing these kind of habbits. They can be so subtle. With you, probably the feeling of social or other emotional uncomforts may have led to many meditations in the past. These meditations have calmed you down, but now the normal reactions most people would have is no longer triggered in you perhaps? Maybe thats why you become sleepy instead of feeling more common emotional responses when your milion year old social insticts are triggered.

The 23th verse of Tao te Ching got me thinking about what Tao is and got writing food for thought here. The first paragraph talks about the nature of humans: "Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these (two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man!"Weakning hearts and strengthening bones. I wonder what this first paragraph's value is for the 2nd and 3th. I think it supports a world wherein everyone has diffrent believes, and we just cope with it by not making speeches, no commercials, no brain washing, just an understanding of the nature of our believes and how they work. Becoming a witness to these, and not act upon them. Not making wars because you think everything should be like that and not this. Discussing matters without judgement. Noticing that opposites depend on eachother. Making decisions based upon balance, how you treat everyone and how everyone treats you. In what way does this translate to politics? Give up your believes and choosing sides, your own nature is already good. The 2nd paragraph is where people related to the Tao is compared: "Therefore when one is making the Tao his business, those who are also pursuing it, agree with him in it, and those who are making the manifestation of its course their object agree with him in that; while even those who are failing in both these things agree with him where they fail."This is not only so for Tao, but also faith and believe. There was a saying: that two pillows with diffrent believes, the devil sleeps in between. OR something like that. When two people have the same believe, they agree with everything and can easily compare their lives and goals. The diffrent believes out there even exists among Atheists. Even people who call themselves non-believers, even they have some kind of believe. The 3th paragraph goes even deeper into all this: "Hence, those with whom he agrees as to the Tao have the happiness of attaining to it; those with whom he agrees as to its manifestation have the happiness of attaining to it; and those with whom he agrees in their failure have also the happiness of attaining (to the Tao). (But) when there is not faith sufficient (on his part), a want of faith (in him) ensues (on the part of the others)." The tao has many manifestations. As many as the minagination can think of. Your believe forms a map of your reality, a simplified map. A complex map is harder to use and read then a simple model of the world in the form of a simple map with roads and street names, etc. Like google earth satelite, versus map. Same with believes. Those who challenge your believes is a threat to your reality, the ground you stand upon, your everything. This is why people with diffrent believes cannot happily attain their goals together. This is why there are wars, and will allways be wars untill everyone has one believe alone. But... If you remove a believe, a lack of faith will make you feel confused and sad, and will even allow the forming of negative believes if not cautious. This is why EMDR techniques require professional counseling and trying to change someone believes aswell. It doesn't matter what the Tao is, or what your believes are. This is always true, it is our nature as described in this verse. A want of faith is everywhere these days, and many people take advantage of that. All the self-help industry who promise all kinds of impossible things, giving false hope to the faithless. Vietnam veterans, who had trauma's in vietnam, had their believes changed. They addepted to vietnam. This is a good thing, they could function better, and survive easier then newcomers. But when you go back home... You still have the old believe, the old reality of vietnam... You cannot function anymore in a normal civilization, you get knee reflexes when you hear airplaines, you take cover when there is no danger... This is a torment. But trying to change these deeply engrained believes is a torment aswell. You have to chainsaw the negative emotional energy away from the ideas. Cutting the trauma's. The Tao is an idea where upon positive emotional energy is superglued. The stronger ones faith, the more positive emotional energy upon his idea of the Tao. He can conquer the world and endure better then most. He will find motivation within and not without. But you can't just say to someone "Hey, no worry, be happy. We got the Tao" He will simply see the idea behind the believe, but not the emotion. This is why the wise don't speak, and those who speak are not wise. They cause conflict, wars... If you're trying out any new believe, never speak of it, even if it is the truth. Let everything unfold by itself and you will see people are soon taking over your newly acquired believe. "We are as we are by our selves!" And when the work is done, how no one can see... 'Tis this that makes the power not cease to be. I think inspiration and forming new believes or inspiring someone is a matter of art. You have to get all the positive energy related to some idea or concept. This is done with commercials, but they form limiting believes, even tho they are related to positive emotional energy. Like "buy more! More is happy!" They don't say "Please support our product, but be aware, if you buy too much you are contributing to the destruction of the Earth." One thing remains true, believes are dificult to speak of. I am stupid to do so. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment.

Hehe I understand where you're going with this. As I said, most of the harm in the world are not these kinds of harm. Heart disease, caused by self-destructive behaviour and commercial brainwashing, is now a more common death then starvation from sortage of food since 2000. I don't see many people die from accidents these days, I see more death's in wars, espcially the big wars of the past, the wars of today, the possible wars of tomorrow, all caused by men afflicted upon themselves. These kind of deaths, from a nature point of view, can be seen as nature balancing itself out. These days, we use the laws of nature to artificially increase our maximum population perhaps to the point where we will even take down the earth with us when we reach our maximum, because this time it is not a milion people... Unless we get infinite sun energy or something and don't nuke ourselves with that, lol. Taking away the fact that those believes you mentioned were religions and not believes, but I know what you mean. The cholera is also largely caused by a belief that we have to burry the dead together. The dead bodies, the soil and water, and thus spread the disease upon everyone in many regions on Earth. They had to get all these bodies digged out and removed. Would it have been better to burn them in the first place, or feed the dead to animals? Far fetched, but it still shows how strong our believes has impact on the decisions made by people. We don't make decisions only based on intellectual ground, but emotion aswell. while infact emotions are only indications of our personal needs and not for the benefit of the entire planet... I do agree that the moment of harm, when it has arrived, will be totally indifrent to your believes. You may change it, but it will have been too late... Direct harm can be prevented only best by the fight/flight reflexes of your body and mind. It shows that these are still usefull even today, because direct harm is something that will never completely go away. But I have to say again, fight/flight reflexes are also destroying many lifes.

There aren't many harmful things in life the days where we live in. Our beliefs are the cause of most of the harm. Most of the war. Most of the destruction on the planet. Most of the depressions and eating disorders, unhealthy behaviours, self-destructive behaviours. People make decisions based upon there own believes, without knowing so. They are asleep, and slowly turning the waking life into a nightmare. Why do we have these emotions and strong believes? Why do we need to be afraid of certain things? Is it a heritage that is no longer useful in our day and age? You could say so... Our Stress mechanism is no longer useful, because it activates harmful chemicals into the body that is no longer useful for survival. It changes brain chemistry in a way that makes us impulsive in order to make on the fly decisions. You get fight/flight reflexes while there is no danger! We no longer take a moment to become a witness to the believe systems in our life that limit us and harm us. These fight/flight reflexes, for survival, paradoxicly makes us do all kinds of suicidal stuff like overspent, over eat, over gamble, etc... The things that are there for our own survival are killing us! I must disagree with you. The harmful things in life always finds its way to those who have the wrong believes. Those who expect diffrent results when doing exactly the same... Everyday... This is insanity.

You can discuss the source of your loneliness all you want. These are all animal instincts. Reptilian instincts and they push us towards a more mature self. Replication value or social skills may lead to more sex, but that doesn't make it by any means the main goal. Sex is just a physical thing. It means you can attract. Secondly comes friendship, your emotional developement as a human being is important too. And commitment, the intellectual complementary bond. Sex sells, so that is what the media gives us, shows about naked women, sexy men, etc. Attraction takes over the mind, it brings the 2 milion year old self above. By not showing what is desirable, you will cause the hearts of people to remain undisturbed. This quote is not only so for Tao but also islam, who dress there women in a way as to not trigger male animal instincts. In the western culture, males are expected to keep cool when surrounded by naked beautiful women, so thats an option aswell. Same with dogs who get angry if you touched their food while they're eating, animal instinct, he can learn to control it. Same with people who have strict rules on eating table. One can get really irritated if his food gets taken away by someone else while he is eating and hungry. Also an instinct you can learn to control by focus, presence, simply logical thinking. In the islam I've heard some say that it is "Haraam" to touch the person/animal or his/her food while they're eating or drinking. These are all reptilian brain herritages, they cannot be changed. And this is the only part of the brain that is specific for both sexes. For example females and males have the similar mammal/emotional brains and intellectual brains or cortex, but they have diffrent reptilian/physical brains. Men are attracted mainly to beauty. Then comes women who raise their rank among other men (thats where cheerleading comes from), then a challenge coming from women in some sort. Women are attracted mainly to mystery. Secondly "alpha" or skills similar to maxium in gladiator of winning the crowd, and lastly I think accepting the challenge I guess. These are all things we have to live with, wether you like it or not. Believe me or not, some people hate it feel attracted to the opposite sex. lol

Hehe, no man this is just for kids who are insecure who have wild fantasies of going in there like some super hero and say something that will impress everyone and make them godlike sexy. And yeah you're right, unfortunately most people are insecure and childish, but hey, no one is perfect, even I were like that when I was a teenager. I actually did those stuff, attracted by pretending to be something else and in the end you end up with someone you don't even love, lol. That is love for beginners who have ego or identity issues and seek a mate who fills their emptiness. Just clear those out and go get some real love that adds to your already good life not ego issues. And also, you can practice on everyone, wether you feel attracted to them or not. Practice is just to make your life better, not to prove anything. It requires discipline and patience instead of pushing instant gratification buttons that simply don't exist. If you want to be more social and have a higher replication value you will have to practice with humans. If not? Then you will have to deal with you social instincts like feeling lonely and cope with them.

The economy is an old and broken gambling machine that will never get fixed and will never even become "good" function gambling machine even, haha I see 11:11 alot. So what? I don't get it. I go to the toilet everyday aswell. Perhaps there is some connection there? I'm just saying that those people who notice 11:11 alot and are freaked out about it, its not worth wasting your time on, this is just PROSPECTIVE MEMORY playing tricks on you. You can learn to set alarm ever 1 hour and exactly set it off 1 minute before it goes off or less while just going about doing everyday stuff, forgetting the alarm, if you train your prospective memorry alot. Most people don't even know they have a prospective memory, not aware of it. Lucid dreamers use prospective memory alot to become lucid right after they fall asleep (~90 minutes) which is called MILD. Your mind already has a clock. And if you're seeing 11:11 just everywhere it is because there is 11:11 everywhere, so chill out before you decide to write 11:11 all over the walls and hang your self in that room. THERE IS AIR EVERYWHERE OMG!!!!

Your problem is obvious an chemical unbalance in your body. Try to live balanced and wittness your emotions without judging, view them as a sign your well-being (anger) or confidence (anxiety). If you become angry, don't focus on bad thoughts, stay balanced present long enough and you will become more stable automaticly in the future without the focus even, it will become habitual. Go for jogging for example if you're angry, this way you get to be active plus built a healthier future. Eat healthy, and when you're hungry. If you're stressed, stay present and don't let your mind wander around in bad habitual thoughts. If you're afraid, just notice that most of the times the fear is coming from your habitual bad thinking as well that is causing this stress. Stay present again. If you feel real fear in the present, notice your low confidence, this is a sign to do some courage, do the right thing in that moment. Keep it up, becoming present minded and aware in your dreams is a sign of good progress, it means you've done your job all day long. You will take control of your life if you focus on your 5 senses to remind yourself to stay present and not dwell into waking nightmares. Your unbalanced past causes all kinds of chain reactions which leads to bad habbits that make no sense and will cause even more unbalance. That is the time become a witness to your emotions instead of victim and staying present long enough to break habbits and form new ones. Take it slow and easy, you have all the time in the world and everything is perfect in the end.

Organized religion is always corrupt, the god that can be spoken of is not yours or anyones god and is not even a god at all, but a word. The mysteries of your perceptions will never end. There will always be a mystery... There will always be something you do not understand, and this is good. Our journey is to keep opening new doors as we go about and live our lifes. And it takes courage to change your believes and open yourself as a child to a new world, become a butterfly once again. These are mystics of the world, the people who are not participating in believing but are believed IN by others! Or hated for that matter by brining about the chaos and confusion of their newly acquired insights of an unknown mystical world. Those who can gather courage and create a new world that requires new hopes are truely free and divine. They create their own heavens.

I know people who talk 2-3 hours or more on thei cellphone about every day. You will never see direct results from this unless you're talking about 20+ years and then some brain tumor but who knows what else on earth causes all the increase in cancer these days. Just try to live naturally and trust what earth has already provided for you. Personally, I hate phones, use them to the minimum if possible. I prefer face to face if it is someone important to me like a friend or family. Phones are just for exchanging quick information, not to make fun conversations and talking about how you're tieing your shoelaces... It can be very dangerous if you phone!!! While driving...