Nihro

I was thinking that it might be nice to try meditating with some Chinese music and incense in the background. Does anybody have some suggestions as to a few good bands or CDs to meditate to? I still plan on meditating in silence and whatnot but figure this could be fun to try.

I don't know that someone should try to change the world. Man today is a person living in a sea of billions. Instead of trying to hold onto and shift towards the impossible wouldn't it be better to just focus on what you currently have and move outward from there naturally? I think it's probably just better to become secure in yourself and good natured towards those around you. Nobody can help everyone and nothing is totally complete in the world of man as we are eternally imperfect. Big ideas of changing everything are just idealistic reflections of a perfect solution for an imperfect people. Just do you and do you well enough to the point where others are impacted by your positive actions and focus on that. If enough people did this we probably would "change the world" though nobody would realize it until years after the impact had been felt.

Wow thanks for all of the recommendations. I agree silence is usually better I just felt like trying something new. I figure it's good to break the routine up every once in awhile.

Hello, I've been reading up and studying Taoism for a few months now and have been enjoying it greatly. Philosophical Taoism provides me with many aspects of my own life, which I had been aware of some time but had yet to find names for, and setting these concepts in place has done wonders for lifting some unnecessary weights off of my shoulders. Recently I've been trying to read and understand more portions of Alchemical Taoism along with versions of the more Religious side and I seem to have hit a barrier. I have a hard time buying into these aspects as, to me (and I realize very well that I am speaking out of ignorance at this point), they remind me of Christianity and the more intangible seemingly man-made myths about religious life. I realize that this may be just my own bias towards function or simplicity, but focusing on the idea of Gods and Immortality and evil spirits just seems like a bit of a distraction from reality. I have been able to incorporate, although roughly, some of the internal aspects regarding my own meditation but sometimes I feel as if I'm living more in my imagination and getting away from my true core. The teachings of philosophical Taoism along with some readings on Zen Buddhism have gone a long way towards getting rid of some neurotic tendencies and the shift has been very noticeable. I feel much more at peace lately in all regards, and socially I have never been better. As I have said I'm new to these matters and realize that much of what I have written may just be my own ignorance. Could anybody help me out with a book or two to get me started or some guidance as I continue my study. Assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks Jetsun I'll check him out when I get the chance.

Thanks for the tip, I'm somewhat new to the forums and don't really hop on too often. Usually I just do my own thing anyway think I'll just stick with the philosophical school for now. Maybe one day life will bring me back towards the religious forms maybe not, either way the Tao is pretty rad in my book.

Thanks for the book recommendation anamatva. Regarding your post though Kali, I don't have any problem at all regarding religious teaching I just have a hard time accepting and internalizing things which can't be proven. I do find it interesting to have conversations with people of a religious nature and am not an atheist I'm just firmly in the camp of "I don't know, knowing is largely impossible, and I'll just be the best person I can until the day which I find out." I think more than likely all "religions" are probably partially right and partially wrong I just can't get into the idea that there is only one way. I enjoy philosophical Taoism because it is how I naturally think and I believe the principals and teachings contained within it are of the utmost relevance towards living a good and harmonious life for yourself and those who surround you. I have and will always continue to experience things which I cannot explain. However, I don't think these things are capable for men to entirely understand at the end of the day and am somewhat of the opinion that attempting to explain them in mortal terms takes away from the true nature which exists in their inherent vagueness. I think that more than likely there are things in this world which will never be explained and attempting to do so draws the energy away from the person who attempts it. I've never heard of John Chang before though I'll check him out before replying further. Scratch that actually I remember hearing about him around 2005 at my old Karate Dojo.

Maybe what you view as the world living a lie is really just our world living some form of truth that words cannot justifiably represent. I've found it personally best to just take things for face value and work with what you have. Honesty can never be a burden it just is what it is: honesty. Here's a link to one of my favorite poems called "Fear of the Inexplicable" by Rainer Maria Rilke. http://www.stanford.edu/~rty/poems/rmrpoems.html His end line in particular is one of my favorites. "...perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps something terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us." Everybody has hardships and often we allow them to corrupt our initial view of the world. It is only when we take our hardships at face value and meet them without fear that we are able to transcend our initial view of them. They are after all, just things. Living a lie might sound easier but at the end of the day all you're left with is a paper tiger with no substance and you've discarded your own true essence. If we are to take these trials at face value and work within their own boundaries then sooner or later we can view them for what they really are: aspects of our life which will eventually make us into who we are meant to be. I wonder more about your first line, is truth personal? Surely truth is just truth as the name implies. Truth has as many shades and possibilities as anything else in life but there is nothing inherently bad or damaging about accepting what is there. To me, truth is best met with honesty and is instantly discarded the moment a better truth shows itself. However, even once this past "truth" has been discarded what is there is still truth. Everything is in essence stagnant while it evolves within the boundaries of our own perception.

That's sort of what I felt like meditating while thinking about the principals of meditating. Felt like going away from the point which is just ... whatever the point is. I guess I'll just go back to what I was doing before, you can't force understanding anyway.

I understand that there's a lesson to the material regardless and respect the material for what I think it might convey. I suppose I'm just considering dropping this area of Taoism for now and going back into the Philosophical side which I've come to live my life by. It just seems strange to me that there would be two aspects of something such as Taoism which seem so greatly distanced from each other. I understand that this statement may seem strange considering the topic we are discussing uses the Yin-Yang as its representation and that the mere reflection itself comes entirely from my own Western ideology but I'm just trying to understand. I would rather have some developed understanding of this subject matter before I make up my mind further I suppose.

I've just started my official Taoist journey recently and as of late I've been reading books about society comparing them to Taoist values. Most specifically I've been reading the Songs of Ice and Fire series. I ask you all, what would a Taoist city look like? How would the infrastructure be, how would the people treat each other and how would they live amongst themselves and other non Taoists? What structures would we create, what bridges would we make, and how would social problems be solved? Would we live in simple huts devoid of technology creating what only the land could provide, or would our Taoist society naturally progress towards technological and inventive gains? Harmony is the root of true living in as much as I have learned but this idea seems difficult to propagate on a large macro scale. So what do you think a truly spiritual Taoist society would look like?

Hello all, I have just recently become interested in learning more about Taoism due to my kung fu training and love for philosophy. I was hoping someone could possibly direct me towards some readings and maybe provide a little guidance as to the wheres and hows of beginning this exploration. I understand life in and of itself is an exploration of self and motivation and I have learned much along my way yet I am still young and inexperienced and am unsure where to begin. Any help would be greatly appreciated and questions are of course welcome. Thanks.

Unfortunately I can't afford to do something like that right now, I'm on my summer break from GMU going into my senior year and money's tight at the moment. Had to drop martial arts for the summer and move back home until next semester so I've been practicing on my own hitting the heavy bag and sparring with friends in between form practices and so on. Thankfully I have more than enough time to read though so cracking through some material should be fun. How does one go about locating a teacher anyway?

Cowtow: I still have an appetite for Buddhism but I think I'll focus on this for now, not trying to bite off too much at once. I will definitely check those authors out once I've absorbed a bit of the basic though thanks for the recommendations. To be fair when I was reading about Buddhism I was getting heavily into Nietzsche and it may have colored things incorrectly for me. I just don't believe that focusing constantly on the idea of struggle is healthy though I have experience more than my fair share of that aspect of life and am somewhat lucky in that regard. Twinner: I've never really read much about Zen, I've read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a few times but that's about as deep as my education goes. Do you have a specific Zen book in mind? I believe I read a little of Alan Watts in my religion class during sophomore year of college though I don't think we went too deep into the study as the teacher was more interested in focusing on Christianity. My friend lent me an old copy of the Tao Te Ching translated by Raymond Blakney so I'm about to begin reading that first. Admittedly my studies in philosophy have been largely western based thus far and I suppose I've neglected the eastern side except for obvious texts like "The Art of War" and The Book of Five Rings. Most of my eastern philosophy comes from practicing martial arts and that focus has been more external hard arts such as kung fu and karate and less on the internal arts, I've recently added Tai Chi to my practices though so that should be interesting.

Thanks much for the suggestions. I suppose internal work is my goal, most of my life has been traumatic and somewhat complicated so I've been seeking simplicity and spontaneity in the recent years. I'm beginning to thoroughly believe that our world and the people inside of it are largely dependent upon our own consciousness and the bridge between internal and external action. When I was younger I had lost faith in humanity for a bit but I made some good friends who helped me learn that at best most people begin as blank pages and the rest is defined through right action and motivation. I've been contemplating this idea for the past few years trying to find a balance between optimism and pessimism or realism versus idealism and that's what ultimately lead me towards Taoism, I read some Buddhist authors but found it to be too pessimistic and struggle focused. I have seen struggle and that has enveloped most of my life but I have learned that building an ideology around darkness kills creation and there runs a risk of becoming enveloped in your own thought processes causing our own natural energies to hit a stand still. That's what happened to me anyway. I made the conscious decision to maintain positivity through honorable actions and helping others, and once that decision became more engrained within my own subconscious I noticed a great shift both in my own personal opportunities and the opportunities of the lives which we all touch through human interaction. I'm starting to believe that there may not be any concrete truths in life, rather this world exists as a means of creation and creation is dependent on many variables but the most important variable is simple: you get what you give. Sorry for the long winded reply to a simple question, I'm trying to develop the instinctual drive of jumping into life head first. Of course this a difficult task.

Hi, I don't really know how to start a thread regarding religious inspiration but my life has been somewhat abnormal and I suppose that the path through our collective knowledge is best based upon personal and communal motivation. Please excuse me somewhat if this thread sounds as if I am complaining, this is not my intention as I truly one-hundred percent believe that mistakes are only made if you truly believe that who you are now at this very moment is lacking and you fail to learn from your past. For myself I do not believe this to be the case. This is my contemplation on struggle met with the philosophy which has marked me towards a path of enlightenment. Long story shortened, at the age of twelve I found that my 8 year old sister had been sexually abused by a close friend of the family. There were years where I no longer knew whether to trust my mother or father, and I ended up choosing the easier path. My parents divorced and I chose to live with my father who seemed kinder than my hard-lined mother. During these years my mother became an alcoholic and my father became more beholden towards his bipolar nature eventually becoming paranoid and secretive, it was during this time that he began exploring relations with other men which finally led him towards an affair with the man who had hurt my younger sister. I do not know how long this affair lasted nor do I understand the extent of it, what I do know is that my father was writing this man for upwards of four years and visiting him in prison on an average of 3 times a month. Still, knowing this I stayed with my father. It was my opinion at the time that a man must not shy away from the hard truths of life and in order to get past our own problems we must first understand the roots of human motivation. I was 16? During this time I was training to become an opera singer, and some strange path set me towards forgoing that option in favor of a calling of the law. I am in college training to ultimately become an attorney. I stayed with my father for two more years after finding my own hard truth that my father would never understand that his actions were wrong or illogical. At a young age I took it upon myself to save my family, and my father, and ultimately I learned about the subtle distinctions sustained through fruitless combat. This endeavor was not left wanting though, eventually I made some great friends who helped to reaffirm my faith in humanity and through the years I have become strong once again. Not strong in the manipulative hard callous way which I found myself in during my younger years, rather I have found...peace. During my tumultuous years I found that two things could focus my mind: music and combat. I found karate and jujitsu very focusing but eventually had stop my martial practices in favor of music. This year I started training again in Tien Shan Pai and Chin Na and the effects were equally as focusing. Learning about Chinese martial arts set me upon the path of further exploration of Eastern philosophy. I have read a bit about Buddhism but it seemed to negative. I believe that life is what we make of it and focusing on the struggle too much is really to ignore that which makes our own reality beautiful. Personally I have seen the negative sides of life and they have driven me more towards the idea that life exists as a balance between dark and light, neither being better than the other. Rather I believe that our two sides are simply that: sides. I have read of many philosophers and the more I read and the more fluid my thoughts and actions become the more I believe that this life is based less on harsh realism and more upon the perceptions which we believe in. Everything in and of itself is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe the world to be dark and sad you will find darkness and sadness, if you believe the world to be light and happy you will find good people and fun stories. Our lives all exist where we choose to look yet when one understands this to be true he must accept that others are not quite ready for this realization. Some struggle needlessly. It is understanding which a man must work towards, not the will to fight or the will of emotional realization. So is this Taoism? What is Taoism and what should I read to find it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Taoism to me is understanding that when a drunk person picks a fight with you it is easier and better to ignore the personal affront in favor of the realization that some are too far driven in the path of destruction and the realization that you can hurt someone does not make that action right or correct. Better to see that man for the fragile realization than give power towards your own anger. Fire burns first then it creates, I'd rather create now for there are plenty who would destroy. Anyway, I am new to the idea of Taoism. I would greatly appreciate some recommendations in the form of readings or exercises so that I may delve more deeply in this idea of self. Thanks much, John