GrandmasterP

In the beginning all was formless and void there was nothing and 'God' said. "Let there be light." And there was light. There was still nothing. But you could see it a lot better. Then a six day creation ( round about 4004 BC) with Sunday off as a statutory rest day ( God being in the union and all). One the fifth day God ( a merry prankster) created the fossils and buried them at different depths in the earth. Just to wind up Richard Dawkins and his mates. And that's as good and valid a creation yarn as any of the others doing the rounds. The scientistic version starts out.... " In the beginning there was nothing. Then it exploded!" :-)

99.9% of 'Brits' not ' Bits'. The Bits know all about the Tao it's just that there aren't many Bits.

Cheers buddy. Just passin' thru. ;-)

I hibernate in winter. :-)

Daoism is popular now? When did that happen? Maybe I've been away from TTB longer than I imagined. When I was around more 99.9% of Bits had never heard of Taoism and of those who had few could pronounce it properly.

If you think it's bad on here try Dharma Wheel the main Mahayana forum. Man it is 'dog eat dog' over there. Trouble with Buddhism seems to be the number of 'warring' sects and traditions within it. Dharma Wheel posters are mainly western converts and, whilst converts to any faith path tend to be more zealous than those born into it; there's a real viciousness over there sometimes that you tend not to find here on TTB. Makes for a fun forum in one way but in another way it's a bit sad.

Thank you for sharing.

Some people just need to get out a bit more. :-)

Santa has elves comng out of his ears according to legend but the little chaps maybe go back a lot further than that. Leprachauns in Ireland for example, Cornish Piksies. Local boogie where we come from on the high lonely moors is the Boggart ( sort of Yeti meets Bigfoot) and is mentioned in ancient texts so it's not something the Coca Cola advertising department dreamt up like jolly old Santa In his red and white suit (he wore green in the old days and could do rather unspeakable things to those on his naughty list). So what elementals, bigfoots, faeries etc are there in your neck of the woods according to local lore and legend?

That 'sovereign God' when used by certain Christian groups is a bit too triumphalist for my taste. The Christian mystics though they seem to have the right idea for example.. "In this vision he showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, and it was round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought "What may this be?" And it was generally answered thus: "It is all that is made." I marvelled how it might last, for it seemed it might suddenly have sunk into nothing because of its littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: "It lasts and ever shall, because God loves it." -- Julian of Norwich

It's easy enough to ignore a poster by simply not reading what they post. Use the ignore button though and you can't ever see their posts. Maybe one day they'll post that piece of wisdom just right for you at that moment and if you have 'em on ignore you'll miss it. Unlikely for sure but stranger things have happened at sea. :-)

Russell Brand's bought and paid for. All these entertainers put on 'bread and circuses' for our entertainment. Full of sound and fury but signifying very little. A distraction perhaps?

I seldom vote but reserve my inalienable right as an Englishman to grumble. It's what we're 'for'. If we had more choice of candidate I'd maybe vote but usually they are all very similar. Dreadful people of the type that you'd cross the road to avoid. :-)

I've had an email from someone called Laotan offering me a $25 online, presumably; correspondence course in Taoism. My concern is twofold. 1 Laotan presents him/ herself as someone officially connected with TTB. 2 How has Laotan obtained my email address? Any advice appreciated. Best Regards to all. GMP

Just checked that. The only contact details on my Profile is our centre link. Not my email addy. The TTB techies are onto this I have sent the email to viator. Advice seems to be DO NOT click onto the link or reply direct any email from Laotan. Luckily I didn't do that.

Well that makes sense. Many thanks. I had forgotten that my email addy was on here. Will need to change that. Best Regards GMP

I posted this in General and then realised it had better been posted here. Feel free to delete the post in General.... Post reads.... I've had an email from someone called Laotan offering me a $25 online, presumably; correspondence course in Taoism. My concern is twofold. 1 Laotan presents him/ herself as someone officially connected with TTB. 2 How has Laotan obtained my email address? Any advice appreciated. Best Regards to all. GMP

Do many of us engage with government or the powers that be to the extent that we actually give a monkey's anyhoo? I never vote, pay my taxes because I have to, only read the funny section and TV listings in the one daily newspaper we get. Politics, for me; is something done by other people, rather odd people here in Blighty. Those are people from 'elsewhere'. Their doings simply do not impact on me and mine in any meaningful way.

Wow how exciting. I've left my password as it is for now. Tried to change it but it told me the one I chose was already in use which is spooky because it was a truly obscure password with numbers and all sorts in it. Hope everyone is well on TTB. Warmest best wishes to all. GMP

All pretty much the same on here then. :-)

Work does cut into hobbies for sure.

Good point, if you don't care about an issue strongly then you'll not adopt either a 'pro' or an 'anti' label. Those Xtians mostly, do care as do the atheists. Those guys kinda need each other. That's Sweet in a way.

This is a useful tool for (UK) bird identification. http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdidentifier/

You're on a boat, on a river, in a valley. Overhead between the cliffs you see a white horse jump the gap and then it's gone. Astonishing! But where has it gone? Why are you in the boat in the valley? Where are you going? You don't know; you never will know. That's life. That's it. The only thing for certain is you saw the horse for that brief second, and it changed the way you felt.

"Night poured over the desert. It came suddenly, in purple. In the clear air, the stars drilled down out of the sky, reminding any thoughtful watcher that it is in the deserts and high places that religions are generated. When men see nothing but bottomless infinity over their heads they have always had a driving and desperate urge to find someone to put in the way.” (Terry Pratchett)