Taoist Philosophy

[Marblehead]

[Hyrdo]

Just wanted to let you know im glad you post these, I cant say much about this one tho cuzz i personally didnt get much out of this particular one. What are these from anyway?

[C T]

The marks of great Character

Follow alone from the Tao.

(Character, or Virtue, Te, is the power of Tao; Tao embodied.)

 

The true conqueror is he who is not conquered by the multitude of the small. Achieving the great victory belongs to the Sage alone. The mind is this conqueror, but only the mind of the wise man.

 

(The parable is left incomplete but, continuing the line of thinking, it is evident that the wind, which is air, envies the eye, and finally the mind, which can travel across the centuries of time and leap across the continents of space in the flash of a second and is formless itself, travels even faster than light illustrating the truth that the formless is the most efficient of all.)

Thank you for a very good post MH!

 

"Within that Mind which is Formless, all activities are displayed, and all phenomena appear and disappear

like a dream, yet man chooses to see all things as having formation, as if real! How marvelous is that!

If the Mind is formless, how are things that are perceived by this same Mind appear to exist as if they are

solid and graspable? It is precisely because the Mind is formless that things appear to be solid and graspable,

for it is only the Mind that is Empty that all forms are held, and yet, simultaneously, like an empty cinema

screen, nothing is held. All forms are therefore viewed as insubstantial, projected from nowhere but the Mind,

and return, empty, to nowhere but the Mind, including that which we call the Self."

 

A reflection from the Heart Sutra:

 

"Here, Sariputra, form is emptiness, and in the very emptiness, there is form. Emptiness does not differ from

form, and form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is with form, there is emptiness, and whatever is

with emptiness, there is form - the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness.

 

Here, Sariputra, all arisings are marked with emptiness; they are neither formed nor unformed, not defiled

or immaculate, not deficient or complete."

 

Just some passing thoughts on Formlessness that came up when i read this post.

 

All the best!

[Marblehead]

 

Just some passing thoughts on Formlessness that came up when i read this post.

 

All the best!

 

Hi CowTao,

 

Yes, I think that anyone who has a Buddhist background would be inspired to have similar thoughts.

 

As I have mentioned before, there are a lot of similarities between Taoism and Buddhism. But we use different words and this ofttimes causes confusion and misunderstandings.

 

Peace & Love!

[Marblehead]

Just wanted to let you know im glad you post these, I cant say much about this one tho cuzz i personally didnt get much out of this particular one. What are these from anyway?

 

Hi Hydro,

 

These "Chapters" I am presenting is a collection I created many years ago. Each "Chapter" starts our with something from some translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching followed by supporting comments from some translation of Chuang Tzu.

 

Of the "Chapters" I doubt that there are more than 10 words that are my own. I tried very hard to not skew the work that others had done.

 

I am glad you are enjoying them.

 

This "Chapter" regards the 'character' of man and that true Virtue flows from Tao. There are many twists with the supporting sections but I will just let you play with the thoughts on your own. Hehehe.

 

Peace & Love!