Stosh

I know this would be an oddball choice, but , this particular bird has impressed me with its unflappable attitude , it glides effortlessly high above, or skimming the waves , it plunge dives for its meals , and spends most of its time at the beach. So a brown pelican seems like a good choice to me -if I can pick for the next go round.

Didn't you say ou procrastinate ? I am just picking something that I procrastinate about. But if you are really suffering from misplaced pride.. stop being silly and order out. ! Nobody really gives a c--- so you aren't impressing anyone anyway

I do the same sometimes , a thing I got from Wu wei , when I wish to get unstuck ,, is to consider all my motivations of equal importance , all my "druthers" equally valid. Why am I balking ? who cares , it is a good lesson gone bad , most likely. Is it really so important to not get the dishes washed? and so forth. Im tossing quite a lot at you fast , I know. dont sweat it.

Its your thread. But to address that post here anyway, Yeah there is wanting , but , it being your subjective state your wanting has a component of fungibility. This is one reason to be saying that something is illusion. One might say something like , where is your hunger located? Is your hunger visible ? are you hungry in sleep? How legit is your hunger , or does it have other components such as other desires and fears mixed up with it? Is it a 'good' or 'bad' thing to have needs and wants. They bring motivation do they not? and is not motivation a likeable thing? , or does it all boil down to unsatisfied desires? rather than a healthy motivation of living? Is satisfying these things the purpose of a life ? does it define- if a life is lived well ?

Expectation of regret.

Though I know what you mean .. I'd rather address it as follows ,, for now . No, we're just people trying as best we can, to live a decent life, in the best system we collectively could come up with. The labels that folks apply to us, or the ones we apply to ourselves, tend to make us presuppose that we are supposed to act a certain way , or have expectations that things are always going to be a certain way, that our situation is to run upstream and that it shouldnt be.. No one promised us a rose garden , The Learner had some humorous posts which present the picture better than I am doing , so I also point you to read that stuff , its pretty recent. Maybe search for "monkey mind" here.

What system is BS? (as you are seeing it to be) You may find the wikipedia article on 'Eudaimonia' interesting.

The spiritually conscious ones die before they die. Pffft ! haa ha ha ha (Consume alcohol so you too can die before you die , Its spiritual! ) ? ha ha ha ha (In fact this could be the technique: to listen hard when I explain the meaning of alcohol, and then never touch a drop again.) Oooh boy , you really need to learn more on the nature of these conditions. I dont doubt you mean well , or that you spend some considerable time in contemplation of mankinds ills with compassionate intent, but in that direction you are in need of some grounding influences. Discuss back and forth during the development of the ideas , and critically decide whether they hold water or not.

I like that much better , now I have something to consider. Thanks

Whether it is Lao or Gautama or Einstein, at the point where the comprehension ends there is also the place where a person can no longer be of service in his description.Intellectual honesty compels one to admit where he just doesn't know or has no words to describe.Whatevever it is that yall think or believe , communication isn't assisted if someone says words that don't have the definitions which concur with the sentiment one wihes to convey.I'm sure you've heard the phrase, baffle em with bullshit..but that is not what I think is going on, I am thiking that there are those that were confused, didn't understand what was being said. They didn't grok the quale of the fizzits.And the misunderstandings perpetuate.There is an end to what is knowable, there is an end to what is describableBut that which is knowable or describable or infer-able covers an awful lot. So what is it that you think Lao said but had no idea what he was talking about?My assumption is that any thing of the type is bad translation rather than nonsense in the mind of the writer.... besides , Lao may be a composite authority anyway.

Grok all you wish to CD , grokking is fine , but words are the tool here , and you personally seem to have a really passionate desire to see the right word connections used ( when it comes to Chinese texts ) , so similarly of mind , Im thinking your angle on grokking is out of place in this circumstance. Like yourself I personally am rather vexed at those who keep trying to redefine words into some other meaning and then getting jumbled up with the unintended meaning themselves ( or confusing others) Oh its the buddhist definition of the english word , or its the ancient chinese definition of the english word. Folks really should Pick the darn word that has the correct definition ! not choose some other word ,and redefine it. As in .. "The Void mentioned in the recent posts is different from the OP." "The expression of the word is beyond the comprehension of its linguistic definition." either it is or its not , I think its not ,I also think many have no idea what they are saying, or they are borrowing someone elses terminology or they hide behind the concept of things being inexplicable rather than fess up to a situation of ignorance (wherever it begins) and they really should consider what comprehensible people are saying,(to whatever extent that extends) or you end up with folks thinking they can actually walk through rocks, if they just meditate long enough , rather than accept that rocks are solids and obstructive , but you can go around, or over ,or under, or break them. remaining true to your nature.

The true spiritual teacher beats the criminal with his stick...beats also the Pharisaical law-abider. Or he embraces them both. Both are true ways and are in fact the same way. This is hard to understand. Even Jesus had to side with the criminal, so as to achieve greater rhetorical effect. No ,the leader who has spiritual insight, doesn't randomly beat people with sticks or get too cozy with his students . Its not hard to understand at all. he is dispassionate about circumstances which run counter to his personal goals or which entangle him in a web of dependencies.

You posted Wu is potential is Void; a formless function of Dao (the eternal process of awareness and arising). Then later "I did not equate awareness with Void. It looked like you did,, equate the word Void to 1 Wu , 2 potential , and 3 the process of awareness and arising Then you said later I described my idea on Void as Wu as Potential, which is not the 'modern usage.. absence of anything. As someone else said, I think it is wrong to view void that way." In speaking in modern english to a modern audience, and if your meaning is NOT Void but instead, POTENTIAL .. then everyone should stop using the word void if they mean potential, ( which I pretty much agree with you on ,, aside from the wording) the OP looks like it is the opinion of its originator that void is a sort of experiential nothingness. ( which I dont think of so much of and I cant tell if you agree or disagree with the experiential nothingness being potential or nothingness) noun: void;  a completely empty space. "the black void of space" synonyms: vacuum, emptiness, nothingness, nullity, blankness, vacuity; noun: potential; latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. Dao is not a thing which can manifest; it is but a process or a blueprint behind it all. " Umm again , not good choice of words if you mean something else because not manifest means that the thing - in this case Dao- is not made known , and if Dao, as you say ,is the blueprint behind things because 1 ) a thing manifest it is revealed betrayed exhibited present and Dao is revealed by its 'blueprint function OR (2 ) you wouldnt know anything about it ,,,,, unrevealed or not present, Dao is a big secret. verb verb: manifest; 1. display or show (a quality or feeling) by one's acts or appearance; demonstrate. "Ray manifested signs of severe depression" synonyms: display, show, exhibit, demonstrate, betray, present, reveal

Tao can be seen as ironic , and in that, it therefore is a reflection of humor the sentient may have.

If a person is coming to conclusions , it is the result of thinking ( maybe not done clearly ) whether or not they use the word ' thinking' or 'thought' Sweetness. verb gerund or present participle: bantering talk or exchange remarks in a good-humored teasing way.

Did you there Dawai, describe the (state of being aware) +( wu) manifest form = Dao ? Because equating awareness to what we in the modern world call 'the absence of anything', that is to say a 'void' renders Dao to be that which is manifest. ( zero plus X = X) or puts a divide between that which we are aware of apart from what actually exists, which we all agree on ,I believe, and so there is no need for fancier wording.

They somehow glue the seeds to a stick and put a wire cage around it so its harder for pigeons to get to , doves may be more likely to eat standing on a flat surface than hang and peck at an upright one. so you just dangle it from something. They make ones that hang free in the shape of a bell too , or you may be able to glom the seeds together with egg whites or peanut butter or suet or something else not toxic. I never fed the birds but you see small ones for caged birds anywhere.

Merganser ? Do they mess with those stuck together seed stick things in a cage? BTW You are welcome to come up any time you have the time. It's really not that far if you drive fast. Thats a nice offer I may take you up on , but Im still learning to be civilized company at the moment , so my next road trip is probably the everglades .

Its a stage.

Sand baths are ironic. I tried that and my mom swatted me on the butt and sent me inside to wash up..

The axes of an object XY and Z planes, relects the distribution of stuff relative to other stuff.Time is no dfferent it is also a dimension of dstribution of stuff relative to all other stuff. The pace at which things are moving is always relative to something else. Time is howevever not describing the presence of mass or the propagation of energy but rather it is the character of the situation which we call space. It is a stage which events happen on, and is shaped by that which happens on it , by mass directly and by massless energy indirectly. Since you asked ...

Wow that sounds like a terrific place. Were these the same NY lumber baron Huntingtons? Those japanese gardens are beautiful.You're lucky to live near a cultural center like that. Its something I miss .The closest to me is probably The world renowned Marble Gardens but even that is half a state away.

So , in real terms , what do you feel 'becoming one with god' is?

To be clear , I liked the post , and think it is on point not so much the piece. but it leaves me to wonder whether art has anywhere new to go. Beauty doesnt have to be the only meaning for art but including it perhaps gets a point across more effectively with a bit o honey on it.

Yeah , I dont hunt with a bow or gun , just a camera , I have no issue with it though, but I dont like the waste ,disrespect, wanton cruelty that sometimes happens. Canned hunts, shooting sparrows etc and the like. A redneck I know told his son, "If you shoot it , youre going to clean and eat it, so pick wisely"