shanlung

Komjathy can write whatever he choses to write. I find it amusing when he claimed infallibility and being the self anointed Pope of Komjathy brand of Taoism. On the basis that he got some PhD or string of titles. Not even a full professorship as a few months ago, we even got a full professor casting pearls and assoc professorships here. And do one need PhD for something which is not going to be any intellectual pursuit? Where the more one analyse, the more one must remove the interconnections and to focus on what? Where for all I know, it is the interconnections that make the whole which matter, and not the just heart with no body and no soul and no nothing. Because someone with a PhD think that is so. In which case why not read the works of someone who were there with Taoist Masters in China and walked with them and talked with them to get an inkling of what is being those cryptic writings? Such as John Blofeld who was doing that in 1930s in China taking the pain to read and know Chinese and walking and living in Taoist Monasteries? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Blofeld Or you just prefer to throw away the baby and look for treasure in the bath waters of Komjathy who knew all to be known of those cyptic writings? Who got a PhD whereas John did not. Then do so Never mind me Just a stupid Idiotic Taoist

I must have missed the fun he was having in one of my periodic bout of absence. Good to know he is still a mundane on this planet and contactable by email and not by Ouija board, or by the IChing. I never know if I am a Religious Taoist and I dare not say I am Religious as I know of folks a lot more religious than me. I hesitate to say if I am Philosophical Taoist as I can just barely spell philosophical and besides, using multi sounding words isn't my cup of tea. An Idiot is about all I can manage here and elsewhere. Besides, experts are about a dime a dozen, and that, I can leave to my betters. Idiot on the Path

I do not understand above. Did he go to a better world and now having discourse with LaoTse and ChuangTze and Jade Emperor even? Or he just left the forum, and of course , went on to a better world as well. Idiotic Taoist

The truth with you as the bearer of the only truth? All others are deluded and need to gather the pearls you are casting left and right and all over? We seen bearers of truth and only the truth time and time again until it gets really boring if not confusing. And for some strange reasons, all those love to have titles of PhD and professorship as if the more titles they can hang on themselves, the more truth they can expound. And adding chinese characters making their claims more authentic Give me a break! Idiotic Taoist

I got off the back of that ox in the island of Penang. My report of my search for that place where I can contemplate my navel and the fluff in it. Penang and Langkawi http://shanlung.livejournal.com/142681.html The Idiot wandering in search of the Path

You all heard of SunTsu Bin Fa or the Art of War. There was this Taoist recluse Zhuge Liang, who was SunTzu Bin Fa personified. Or the Art of War carried out and applied by a Taoist Sage. The little I wrote of him might amuse you and be the catalyst for you to read a lot more of him 36 Stratagems// blah blah blah // blah blah blah http://shanlung.livejournal.com/135845.html Idiotic Taoist

Folks, You can see for yourself knowing Chinese language can be so irrelevant when true knowledge and understanding do not underlie the words. In fact knowing the Chinese language made it so much worse and laughable. Which turned well meaning words into utter garbage. Politeness should meant garbage should not be presented to us all here as if we are a bunch of idiots. Steve is more than right. I am out of this thread. Internet wifi in my hotel is wonky and works about 10 minutes or so in the hour In which case I should make better use of my time than to come into this thread. Idiotic Taoist

I actually have far better things to do then to go back and edit what I wrote. Which was almost not written but by the of chance of a hit on my pages because someone in the world was searching for Tseng Lao Weng with Google. From idle curiosity I click on his search and gotten that thread started by Rene that I then went into and saw those words of Taoist Sage Tseng. I used to do Kundalini Yoga, and was initiated by an Indian Swami into Raja Yoga, So I did a fair bit of chakra. And also was taught by a Taoist master in moving my chi along the RenMai and DuMai and DanTian breathing. At the end of the day, did that work? or was it my imagination tuned to those sayings just running wild. Maybe in my case yes, and in your case, who knows. All sorts of things do happen about in the world. And then I came onto Blofeld as I definately had that book and I quoted from that book before. I must have read Tseng and no longer wish to be like his asthmatic dragon. I know with ignore, I do not see anymore what I do not wish to see as I seen enough. Except the title was very telling. Which perhaps I should just ignore Then I recalled this saying from Cussler Dark Watch which went I remembered my father's words later when Mom finally stopped sobbing. "Juan," he said, "no matter what anyone tells you, there is evil in this world. And all it takes for it to triumph is for good people to do nothing: So perhaps I should have done nothing and walked on by . Which was kind of difficult when I saw what Tseng said which refreshed my memories of my chi running here and there and everywhere. Except I never would have proclaimed that the the ultimate Method of Breathing. And made it stick because I know Chinese. So if I had not read Cussler, (still reading that now) and not read Rene's little essay, I would not have been in this thread. I would not have mod having a friendly chat with me even if he agreed Tseng Lao Weng was a wise Taoist sage. I agreed to the wisdom of the mod, which resulted in my self editting. to make hopefully everyone happy. After all, I am on yet another of my journey to find a place to retire in. And the ox dropped me 3 days ago in Penang, Malaysia en route to Langkawi. And I do have better things to do then to go and edit a post of mine here. Idiotic Taoist

(editted away the offending first para) But this thread reminded me of Tseng Lao Weng talking of breathe in and out like asthmatic dragons in searching for the Tao. http://thetaobums.com/topic/16408-is-your-method-really-working/ Taoistic Idiot

I love it when Tseng went on to say breathe in and out like asthmatic dragons among other things that only he would say. "So you are hungry not for wisdom but for knowledge! What a pity! Wisdom is almost as satisfying as good millet-gruel, whereas knowledge has less body to it than tepid water poured over old tea-leaves; but if that is the fare you have come for, I can give you as much as your mistreated belly will hold. What sort of old tea-leaves do Buddhists use, I wonder! We Taoists use all sorts. Some swallow medicine-balls as big as pigeon's eggs or drink tonics by the jug, live upon unappetizing diets, take baths at intervals governed by esoteric numbers, breathe in and out like asthmatic dragons, or jump about like Manchu bannermen hardening themselves for battle - all this discomfort just for the sake of a few extra decades of life! And why? To gain more time to find what has never been lost! And what of those pious recluses who rattle mallets against wooden-fish drums from dusk to dawn, groaning out liturgies like cholera-patients excreting watery dung? They are penitents longing to rid themselves of a burden they never had. These people do everything imaginable, including swallowing pills made from the vital fluids secreted by the opposite sex and lighting fires in their bellies to make the alchemic cauldrons boil. I shall have to talk of such follies for hours, if you really want a full list of Taoist methods. These method-users resemble mountain streams a thousand leagues from the sea. Ah, how they chatter and gurgle, bubble and boil, rush and eddy, plunging over precipices in spectacular fashion! How angrily they pound against the boulders and suck down their prey in treacherous whirl-pools! But, as the streams broaden, they grow quieter and more purposeful. They become rivers - ah, how calm, how silent! How majestically they sweep towards their goal, giving no impression of swiftness and, as they near the ocean, seeming not to move at all! While noisy mountain streams are reminiscent of people chattering about the Tao and showing-off spectacular methods, rivers remind one of experienced men, taciturn, doing little, but doing it decisively; outwardly still, yet sweeping forward faster than you know. Your teachers have offered you wisdom; they why waste time acquiring knowledge? Methods! Approaches! Need the junk-master steering towards the sea, with the sales of his vessel billowing in the wind, bother his head about alternative modes of propulsion - oars, paddles, punt-poles, tow-ropes, engines and all the rest? Any sort of vessel, unless it founders or pitches you overboard, is good enough to take you to the one and only sea." The secret and the sublime: Taoist Mysteries and Magic ~ John Blofeld Idiot on the Path

Ha ha ha! I came across this when a Google search for Tseng Lao Weng highlighted this thread as well as what I wrote. Idle curiosity made me click on this. I thought I should kick this up to the front so that those who talked so earnestly on one form and the other, on philosophical or religious form, and their meditations and running chi about their Ren Mai and Tu mai and all sorts of wondrous things might be able to read what Tseng got to say of all that. Much like what I said of different Paths, and that perhaps Paths do not even matter, or if there were no Paths. Perhaps I subconsciously plagiarised from Tseng as I certainly read Blofeld even if that was a long time ago. Taoistic Idiot

I wrote a couple times or more that Taoism is the Zen in Zen Buddhism. There was this wuxia movie 40 years ago that was like a whirlwind in the impact that caused in the martial arts movies. The really great martial arts movies such as 'Crouching tiger leaping dragon' since then confessed to using elements from this particular movie into their own movies. Not just martial arts, but its directing and the beauty was such that it earned Cannes festival top awards, and one of the best martial arts movie even until now. And its titled in Chinese was Hsia Nui or Warrior Woman. The English title was even more appropriate and will grap your attention A Touch of Zen If ever I am asked for a Taoist movie, this is it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Touch_of_Zen Idiotic Taoist editted 30 minutes later to include this very fascinating critic/commentary for the above Touch of Zen movie http://www.reverseshot.com/article/touch_of_zen

Only if the cucumber is pickled.

I just finished reading a very interesting article in BBC. That was not on the Tao, or even close to it. It was on how one man could have shortened the was in Vietnam. If he was listened to. But as often in the real world, he was not. Read of that hereViewpoint: Could one man have shortened the Vietnam War? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23037957 And in that context, what about us who often read what we want to read and not what was written. That include myself naturally. So do spare me from all the talk of reading and thinking and analysing. Which consisted more of cuting and shaping the square peg so that can fit into the round hole or is it the other way around. Idiotic Taoist

Very nice! A more scholarly erudition then what I wrote before of this road (or Path) Helps if you accept the road you are on might be the destination, and not just the road to the destination. And at the very end, what the road was might not even matter. Or even if there was a road Idiot on the Path

The problem is while the guide is not lost (and never lost), people here do not know where that guide is. Towel is very important to the scheme of things and to life. Allow me to quote from Douglas Adams A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost." What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.) [3] —Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Idiot on the Path

Tell me when the guide is found. I will be there. I will bring my own towel. Idiotic Taoist

I like to tell folks who have no idea what is Taoism but have heard of Zen Buddhism is that the Zen in Zen Buddhism is Taoism. Perhaps the New Age books contributed to the current mess of what Taoism is as one and all wannabe authors jumped on the bandwagon of Taoism books copying and plagiarising from their betters and end up bastardizing the Tao until Lao Tse will not have know it himself if he is to read and know of the Tao via the profusion of English books on that subject. I suggest you should go for older books. Where Taoist Masters and Hermits truly existed in the past. Unless you are good with Ouija boards and can call the spirits of those Masters up, you perhaps can read of their thoughts via people who actually studied with the Masters and talked to them. One such person is John Blofeld. I cannot recommend him strongly enough. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Blofeld It is also easier for you to read in English than to try to read in Chinese. If I can try to give you a fragment of what Taoism is, and using the words of John Blofeld when he spoke to those Masters Sorry that I am answering with this with part of an old letter I wrote. I do hope the words of Taoist Master Tseng Lao Weng can answer a bit of your question. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------­---- I have mourned that many of my books stayed back in my home town while I was wandering ,working and staying elsewhere. But a selection of John Blofeld's books followed me. I thought I quote one of my favorite portion from his book 'Taoism, The Secret and Sublime' which may help others understand and decide for themselves if Taoism is a philosophy or a religion. I myself, never did feel that either path is important. He was talking to this Taoist Master Tseng Lao Weng. (now using also his format and capitalizations..) -------------------------------------------------------- Having heard from me of Sir Edwin Arnold's lovely expression for entering Nirvana, 'the dew-drop slips into the shining sea', he exclaimed with delight, but added: 'And yet it does not capture the whole. Since the Tao is all and nothing lies outside it, since its multiplicity and unity are identical, when a finite being sheds the illusion of separate existence, he is not lost in the Tao. By casting off his imaginary limitations, he becomes immeasurable. Plunge the finite into the infinite and, though only one remains, the finite, far from being diminished, takes on the stature of infinity. Such perception will bring you face to face with the true secret cherished by all the accomplished sages. The mind of one who returns to the Source thereby BECOMES the Source. Your own mind is DESTINED TO BECOME THE UNIVERSE ITSELF!' Taoistic Idiot

You need to be very good to know where is the Path that you know you are further from the Path should you take one route and more on the Path when another route is taken. It is like the Tao that you think is the Tao is not the Tao The Name you think is the Name is not the name. And yet you know the Path to tell one deviate from the Path. All I can say is that the more one uses the rational mind, the chances that person will be further from the Path. You have a better chance of knowing the face you have before your father had the lust in his heart and your mom the gleam in her eye and the sound of one hand clapping than to know the Path intellectually. And if so, you must be of astounding intellect to decide traditions and rituals bring you further form the path. The last I saw that was from an entity masquerading as Professor Emeratus in Taoism casting associate fellowships left and scholarship right and knew all to be known of the unknowable. And another entity decided all the Taoist Master and Hermits who went Mastering and Hermitting the last 4 thousand years got it all wrong and Taoism was stagnant until he came alone here with his thesis of what is the core and principle of Taoism. But do not let me hold you back from making that heroic attempt. If your mind is Irrational, you chances of understanding the Path might well be a lot better. Either way, I wish you all the success in your endeavour. Idiot on the Path

Try to think less and then it will become more clear to you Idiotic Taoist

Rara, People can be as serious as they might want to. I was very serious before, but a lot more relaxed about stuff nowadays. Changes will be best if that came from within and not from without. My report Tinkerbell2013 http://shanlung.livejournal.com/142489.html With videos of chantings in Taoist temples. Thanks to you all, I noticed a lot more stuff which I used to take for granted before. I could not find folks I used to know well in taijichuan. I think my Masters gone on to better world as they were very old when I got to know them in 1990s. Idiotic Taoist

Helps if you accept the road you are on might be the destination, and not just the road to the destination. And at the very end, what the road was might not even matter. Or even if there was a road Idiotic Taoist

When you stated 2000 to 3000 years of the TAO gone by in stagnation until you wrote your masterpiece, that did not seem like you took other views very much . The Taoist Masters in the last 2 thousand years in Hui Shan, ChingCheng Shan and Wudang Shan and their findings had been all dismissed by you as meaningless stagnant works. Taoist hermits went hermitting all in vain as they did not have your insights and wasted their time and the times of their disciples and myriad lineages. The wanting to combine insights of many to have many views aka the 5 blind men and elephant is not even valid as that is at best a simplistic fable. Can we tell if the blind man was indeed touching on a part of the elephant in the first place? The man might not even be near the elephant and is it by loudness of the view that his hand is on the elephant? By declaring he is a professor and can award scholarship and assoc professorship and that intellectually he /she is strong that therefore he/she is actually touching that elephant? Collective knowledge is a myth. Forget about Tao and talk of a simpler thing like playing chess. A Grandmaster can take on 200 normal players and beat the shit out of everyone of them simultaneously. That Grandmaster can allow those 200 players to consult with each other and beat the shit out of them at the same time. 200 X 0 is zero. Look at the talk of taijichuan here. Do you think 20 contributers in a thread meant the thread is closer to taijichuan? Or more hot air and fantasy and just plain nonsence are now part of that mythical elephant? All of them thinking they got part of the elephant even if they do not even know what is Tinjing, Dongjing. Other than waving of hands and legs slowly and thinking of love and universe that they are doing taiji? Reading books, even good books and seeing videos meant they know? That lineages will be more than enough to impress if they have no clue of the jing? That knowing Chinese and throwing chinese words meant they know jing and chi and stuff? Or you think the TAO is a lot more simple than taijichuan and jing to have the principles and logic so nicely laid out in diagrams and words? I can only admit my mind is nowhere the level of yours. I wish you happiness and success in your search. I just want to eat when hungry, and drink when thirsty and remain a lowly idiot and leave my betters to professorships and chairships. I think the world is big enough for all to go their own way in peace. Idiot on the Path

When the Tao that you think is the Tao, IS NOT the Tao. And when even the Name that you think is the Name, IS NOT the Name. My hat off to you to be able to get beyond that most fundamental restrictions to go and formulate the very principle and the Logic of Tao Philosophy. Logic is a nested series of lenses that focus on whatever facet or view chosen. In that focusing, the interconnections will be lost as that is the very principle of focusing. And for all I know, Tao is nothing, but a web of connections , and without those connections, there might not be Tao in the first place. But then, being an idiot, I know I miss so many things that I am sure you be delighted to point out the errors of my ways. Idiotic Taoist

Go and be happy. I will remain happy by throwing you into my ignore bin and not seeing anymore of your views. You should do the same to me too. That way you be happy too not having to see anymore of my replies to you and you can remain blissfully happy with your precious lineages. And you can flog your purity to one and all to your heart content. And may they all bow down to you and your all-conquering impeccable lineage(s) Idiotic Taoist