kaaazuo

Why are you being so aggressive even when no attempt is made to attack you?

I don't know what I said that caused his outburst. You are right. Why did he give it such emotion? He was all over my ass, as he put it. I assumed that 58 years and three wives would have added up to a lot of grief if one was an American. So, naturally that would amount to a wasted life. Perhaps, that was a poor choice of word because it implied that I was being condescending and disdainful of a guy who screwed up three times in a row.

58 years of marital prison was a long sentence. You must have first gotten into "jail" in your early twenties when you were young and foolish; that means you finally broke free when you were at least 80 years old. No offense but would you say that was a wasted life?

Some get it in a flash, others take 50 years. The important thing is to get it. Better late than never. Welcome to the clan.

It's the same thing. Only the fool can perceive the sage, a picture of himself in finery.

I've been trying to spot your basket ever since I saw your flowers. Even loonies have their skill sets. Horticulture is therapy used in prisons, mental asylums and hospitals. It's for people who are not ready for the real world. And Florida is loved by Canadians in retirement, or gay. So, what is a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?

Self-respecting Taoists are people who won't go all the way. Half in half out. Neither here nor there. This is call hedging the bet. This way, you get the respectability accorded the Taoist. But you are smart enough not to be counted as a fool riding the buffalo.

Ok. I will practise mindfulness.

What's going to happen to my program when I get to your age and my biology starts changing? Will I have to cultivate sex in my head like you folks too?

Stimpy, how about a punch in the mouth to prove that you are the program and not a ball of thoughts?

Your title got me. Looks like I am the only one - you snagged - making a reply. Isn't sex a biological process like eating and defecating?

But the self is known. You are male, located in Romania and has a long list of interests. The self is the person. You know who you are and so do your family and friends not to mention all the other people you deal with outside that circle.

My body is the program? And the true self is the grogram? Then what do I call me (the guy inhabiting the program)?

The flowers may wither, but they continuously reborn to channel a timeless beauty that is more than words can say. I look forward to your tulips.

When I click on the thumbnail flower, it blooms into full size and floods my screen with chi magic! Yet, the Tao it speaks of is not the eternal Tao. How many megapixels will it take?

Which Chapters of the Tao Te Ching deal with the cultivation of the jing, the chi and the shen? No one is looking for happiness; it is misery that we all are trying to block out. If every desirable woman you meet wants to sleep with you, would you bother to learn chi magic? Chi magic alone will not stop premature aging caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. The body is vulnerable to disease and death. How is your diet? Are you on medication?

Hello, Sounds like you're just having fun with yourself. What has this to do with the Tao? I am new to the Tao Te Ching also. It's relationship to sexual indulgence is really far out. What has a Chinese book of wisdom got to do with fornication?

Hello, please to meet you all. My name is Kazuo Okada. I cannot use Kazuo because that name is taken so I am Kaaazuo. I am 28 and live in Singapore at the moment. I am taking some time off from work and travelling around in Asia. My country is Japan. I like to discuss with you all. My best wishes to everyone.

Was it Sun Wukong? Are you referring to Taoist Shamans and their Masters?

Let's stick with the human experience. What happens after that is pure speculation. Thus far, no spiritual beings have come before us to attest the veracity of your theory. So, what is your human experience like?

As spiritual beings, the wearers of corporeal overcoats, we are immortal? The guillotine was designed to make death swift and rip the corporeal overcoat off the spiritual being. However, observers at the scaffold noted the heads in the basket grimacing and active after the blade has fallen. The basket had to be changed every three months due to the victims biting desperately at its straw. Are you sure spirituality is not an escapist idea?

Exactly? So, we are not physical beings then? I thought you said we were and that there is a transition from the physical state to the spiritual.

Wait a minute. I'm losing you here. What do you mean by a physical being vs a spiritual being? I always thought that there is a divide between me - the spiritual being - and the physical body that I inhabit. It is as though a timeless me is tied to a dying corporeal organism the way a living ox is yoked to a dead cart. And the key to eternal life is finding a way to instantaneously break the link and die to the body before the body dies. You are saying something fundamentally different. You are talking about my transition from a physical entity to a spiritual one. It's like the metamorphorsis of a caterpilar into a butterfly. Is that right?

What I'm going through is coming to terms with being a loser and this forum feels just perfect for erasing self-doubts, guilt and a sense of worthlessness. This is a place - where insights are important and dreams are not - feels like home. I want to be like you guys. I want to have a better understanding of why it is not only ok to have no ambitious dreams but admirable to do nothing and everything is done. You are splitting hairs. I had a home. My mom never threw me out and yet my dad called me a bum. He never liked me getting into spiritual stuff instead of finance and engineering. "Do something useful with your goddam life!" he would say. My mom would pull me aside and say, "It's ok, son. The important thing is to succeed in whatever you want to do. Just don't be a loser." Also, you can be a dropout in anything and not just school. My uncle was referred to as a dropout when he quit his teaching job at MIT and went to India to be a monk. A dropout is anybody who gives up a conventionally productive life. I guess I am not just a loser but a dropout as well. Conventionally speaking, that is. This is where you come in to help me gain those insights and stop worrying about labels. I need to develop a new mind-set, remove the goal posts of conventional life. Drown out my dad's voice that is still ringing in my head. I need to reset my conscience and this is the place to do it. Take you for example. Never in a million years would my dad see himself as an immortal. He just doesn't have the imagination to go that far. Immortality is mind-blowing. I hope you are not just using the name for theatrical effect being a filmaking sci-fi buff and all that. I really think Jesus wasn't kidding when he talked about eternal life.

Insight into what? Are you fuzzy about something that folks here can help you figure out? You don't strike me as a guy who needs a hand from anyone on anything. Do you know the tailor who made Obama's costume? He's really good. The tailor, I mean. It's a pity it didn't come with superpowers like Iron Man's costume. I don't need a costume. Like I said, I'm just a dreamer which is another name for a loser. My mom once told me never to lose sight of the fact that I'm a loser as long as I don't realize my dreams. Insights don't count but dreams do. She said that if I ever stop feeling like a loser without achieving my dreams, then I have become a dropout. Hey Celestial, isn't a dropout a kind of a bum? You getting any insights here?