The Tao of Dying

[sree]

The reality will not change based on whether you feel that consciousness comes from the brain - that is just a feeling/belief.

 

On the contrary, reality does change based on what you see reality as because conciousness is what you are. If you see yourself as a human being, that's what you are. If you see yourself as a man (or a woman), that's what you are. If you see yourself as a person with a body and a brain with its own consciousness, then that's the reality.

 

Yes, you'll go out - and just like you go out when you sleep - you will go out consciously or unconsciously - it is your choice, chosen by your actions in life - ie whether you chose to master consciousness (which is a choice you've probably already made and cant remember)...

 

What do you mean by mastering the consciousness? What is your reality? Do you see the consciousness as something you can fiddle with? How do you master the sense of sight? Are you the seer of things and the toucher of things? Are you the listener who hear sounds? Are you the thinker who is figuring things out and making the choice to master its own reality?

 

What are you? Hold your head with both your hands and ask the question again.

[Wu Ming Jen]

What if we are waiting to be born and what we call life is death so we hang out and self create things for entertainment. We could have happy lives and sad lives and all these lives could be intersecting and influencing each other. Parts of one life becomes part of another. lives with infinite realness bouncing from one extreme to the other.

 

Then when the individual drop of water that has its own shape for just a moment and creates all these experiences crashes back into the sea again then we say this is life.

[DragonsNectar69k]

On the contrary, reality does change based on what you see reality as because conciousness is what you are. If you see yourself as a human being, that's what you are. If you see yourself as a man (or a woman), that's what you are. If you see yourself as a person with a body and a brain with its own consciousness, then that's the reality.

 

 

What do you mean by mastering the consciousness? What is your reality? Do you see the consciousness as something you can fiddle with? How do you master the sense of sight? Are you the seer of things and the toucher of things? Are you the listener who hear sounds? Are you the thinker who is figuring things out and making the choice to master its own reality?

 

What are you? Hold your head with both your hands and ask the question again.

 

Once again your simply projecting your own lack of answers and insecurities onto others. Your the one looking for answers, remember that. Only you can 'have' those answers, no one else mr. stocker investor.

[DragonsNectar69k]

Here is something that you may find enlightening, whether or not you do, is truly up to you...

 

Here is a picture of a goose... It seems to be dead right? But yet it still exists.... So what truly 'died' sree?

[三江源]

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Edited April 4, 2015 by 三江源

[hydrogen]

Yep, the youngsters become smarter and smarter.

[ChiDragon]

On the contrary, reality does change based on what you see reality as because conciousness is what you are. If you see yourself as a human being, that's what you are. If you see yourself as a man (or a woman), that's what you are. If you see yourself as a person with a body and a brain with its own consciousness, then that's the reality.

 

 

What do you mean by mastering the consciousness? What is your reality? Do you see the consciousness as something you can fiddle with? How do you master the sense of sight? Are you the seer of things and the toucher of things? Are you the listener who hear sounds? Are you the thinker who is figuring things out and making the choice to master its own reality?

 

What are you? Hold your head with both your hands and ask the question again.

 

sree...

I have another one for you to translate....!!!

 

雪山白鳳凰

[sree]

 

sree...

I have another one for you to translate....!!!

 

雪山白鳳凰

 

Snow mountain white phoenix?

 

What is the hidden Chinese secret, my friend?

[ChiDragon]

Snow mountain white phoenix?

 

What is the hidden Chinese secret, my friend?

 

 

What do see when a white phoenix is standing on top of a snow mountain......???

[sree]

I'm in Ohio, still more family farms than further west. Since you asked (sidetracking thread), yes idea of chemical fertilizers and weed killers bother me now,but average suburban community probably more toxic due to intense amounts of crap people put on their yards. As you can see from pic, the dandelions are allowed to live.

 

I have dandelions in my garden also. They are allowed to live only because I am too lazy to pluck them out.

 

If you are thinking of a hippie retirement farm, don't forget it takes work to tend the place. Once past 70, the body is undependable. Too much to do. What about a nice trailer? Do you have anything against living in a trailer park?

 

Safety is a consideration just like anywhere else, city dwellers dreaming of country life need to go talk to the neighbors and check out their surroundings. Most country people are not like characters in Deliverance, not many real mountain men left.

 

If you don't find the Tao of dying, old age woes are going to be a factor. Country people have a tougher time than city folks. I knew this lady in New York City. She was in her eighties and living by herself. There were delis and Korean markets right where she lived. Things were fine until she was 96 and started falling. It broke her heart to have to leave her bedsit to go to a nursing home a few blocks away. She died several months after that. Why does everybody accept such a fate as unavoidable?

[zanshin]

I have dandelions in my garden also. They are allowed to live only because I am too lazy to pluck them out.

 

If you are thinking of a hippie retirement farm, don't forget it takes work to tend the place. Once past 70, the body is undependable. Too much to do. What about a nice trailer? Do you have anything against living in a trailer park?

 

 

If you don't find the Tao of dying, old age woes are going to be a factor. Country people have a tougher time than city folks. I knew this lady in New York City. She was in her eighties and living by herself. There were delis and Korean markets right where she lived. Things were fine until she was 96 and started falling. It broke her heart to have to leave her bedsit to go to a nursing home a few blocks away. She died several months after that. Why does everybody accept such a fate as unavoidable?

I plan to retire around 50, so I hope to have at least couple decades without too much troubles. Sure am open to alternatives though, I know of one trailer park I would live in, it is gated, everyone keeps their place up well and they are all friends. I also have an adopted aunt who has a retirement condo I would live in, they seem to have lots of fun even with old age woes, she took a class there and learned to use the internet last year. My 70 year old father drives those tractors and still does lots of manual labor, although he is slowing down. I have a great-grandfather who died at 86 when he fell off the top rung of a ladder picking apples. We have Western studies that show even debilitated people in nursing homes can benefit from strength training, we know tai chi and qigong help balance. Okinawa has a culture where it is not unusual for 80 and 90 year olds to walk or ride their bicycles for miles. I don't know old age has to be miserable debilitated time, but we do seem to assume people past 70 can't do a lot of things. We still can't live for ever of course and I don't know how to make death peaceful and happy and pretty,so we need to find the Tao of dying.

[zanshin]

I think money has more to do with than most people would like to acknowledge. If the 96 year old NY lady could have hired home aides maybe she could have stayed in her apartment and felt safe and happy. My aunt's condo is quite pricey. The alternatives for elderly without funds or good health and mobility or good family support are pretty bleak.

[thelerner]

If you don't find the Tao of dying, old age woes are going to be a factor. Country people have a tougher time than city folks. I knew this lady in New York City. She was in her eighties and living by herself. There were delis and Korean markets right where she lived. Things were fine until she was 96 and started falling. It broke her heart to have to leave her bedsit to go to a nursing home a few blocks away. She died several months after that. Why does everybody accept such a fate as unavoidable?

 

Still fuzzy on your concept of Tao of Dying. Sometimes your writing seems to indicate you're looking for: The Way to Live, other times the way to suicide before infirmity, still others that you're looking for a formula for immortality or extra long life.

 

We accept the fate as unavoidable because we don't know anyone who's avoided it, short of legends. The solution may well be calm acceptance. Again, what is your hope?

[ChiDragon]

So far, I see that sree is not looking for anything nor hope for anything. He just put some white words on a piece of white paper..... Hopefully, we'll see something black and white pretty soon. Perhaps a black eagle standing on a top of snow mountain.

Edited May 10, 2013 by ChiDragon

[sree]

So far, I see that sree is not looking for anything nor hope for anything. He just put some white words on a piece of white paper..... Hopefully, we'll see something black and white pretty soon. Perhaps a black eagle standing on a top of snow mountain.

 

雪山白鳳凰 means Snow mountain white phoenix.

 

You have given me a tough riddle.

 

Snow is white, phoenix is also white. And white is the Chinese color of death. I have to think hard about what your riddle means. I googled and found this:

 

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+chinese+funeral&docid=4780067660824624&mid=7AE257D580E9BD6609EB7AE257D580E9BD6609EB&view=detail

[sree]

Still fuzzy on your concept of Tao of Dying. Sometimes your writing seems to indicate you're looking for: The Way to Live, other times the way to suicide before infirmity, still others that you're looking for a formula for immortality or extra long life.

 

I don't know what the Tao of dying is. Do you get it? I just know we can't go on dying off in a horrid fashion like US Army soldiers getting picked off by snipers in Kandahar. The bullet comes out of nowhere and takes off the side of your face. You run for your life and another slug takes you down and you can't feel anything from the waist down. In real life, you won't be that lucky. You won't have buddies carrrying you off away from the line of fire and getting flown off stateside to get patched up and given the best medical care. In real life, you are on your own, buddy.

 

It's ok, if you go off to sleep after a nice night out at the Bingo Hall and never wake up again. Chances are, it won't happen like that.

 

We accept the fate as unavoidable because we don't know anyone who's avoided it, short of legends. The solution may well be calm acceptance. Again, what is your hope?

 

I'm glad you are asking this question. As long as we keep looking for the Tao of dying, there is hope. Why accept a situation of torture and gruesome ending like prisoners of war? There's got to be a way out. And if we have to die trying, then what's wrong with Plan B to exit with dignity before you lose your hearing and your teeth fall out? Each has his own exit criteria. For me, if I can no longer run an 8-minute mile, it's time to go.

Edited May 10, 2013 by sree

[DragonsNectar69k]

I don't know what the Tao of dying is. Do you get it? I just know we can't go on dying off in a horrid fashion like US Army soldiers getting picked off by snipers in Kandahar. The bullet comes out of nowhere and takes off the side of your face. You run for your life and another slug takes you down and you can't feel anything from the waist down. In real life, you won't be that lucky. You won't have buddies carrrying you off away from the line of fire and getting flown off stateside to get patched up and given the best medical care. In real life, you are on your own, buddy.

 

It's ok, if you go off to sleep after a nice night out at the Bingo Hall and never wake up again. Chances are, it won't happen like that.

 

 

I'm glad you are asking this question. As long as we keep looking for the Tao of dying, there is hope. Why accept a situation of torture and gruesome ending like prisoners of war? There's got to be a way out. And if we have to die trying, then what's wrong with Plan B to exit with dignity before you lose your hearing and your teeth fall out? Each has his own exit criteria. For me, if I can no longer run an 8-minute mile, it's time to go.

 

Hahaha. So your stuck in your lower self and worried about survival. That is normal when your consciousness is lodged down there my friend.

[hydrogen]

"It is only by risking our persons from one hour to the next that we live at all. " William James.

 

Life is a gift. Be gracious. Accept the gift and enjoy it.

 

"There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lakc of faith in his true self" William James.

 

Sree, why do you under-estimate yourself? Billions of people with "lower intelligence" than you faced death without any complaints. Don't you trust yourself that you can handle any situation better than most?

[sree]

"It is only by risking our persons from one hour to the next that we live at all. " William James.

 

Life is a gift. Be gracious. Accept the gift and enjoy it.

 

That's the whole point! Life - this one and only life - is indeed wondrous. But just look at the way we are "enjoying" it. If we thought it was a gift, this whole planet won't be looking for the afterlife. You have money? No one can get through even one day without the need to spend money on rent and food even if you can walk to the store to get it. Are you on marijuana or what?

 

 

"There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lakc of faith in his true self" William James.

 

Sree, why do you under-estimate yourself? Billions of people with "lower intelligence" than you faced death without any complaints. Don't you trust yourself that you can handle any situation better than most?

 

 

Handle what? The fate of billions of people with lower intelligence without complaints? Sorry, man. I am not cut out to be a straw dog.

 

This wondrous life is created only by very few smart people who made it better for the billions with lower intelligence. Otherwise, all of us would still be living like apes in the forest. The first smart guy complained about eating raw meat and learned how to make fire. Now, billions with lower intelligence can look forward to barbecue parties on Memorial Day. Another smart guy complained about having to walk miles and miles to the next village and learned how to make the Boeing 747. Now, billions of bozos are strutting in airports flying from Chicago to Shanghai.

 

I am now complaining about living like billions of meek dumb schmucks resigned to heading for the ovens. I have a vision of a wondrous life of the 聖人 who knows the Tao of dying so that no one ever needs to die like a 芻狗.

Edited May 10, 2013 by sree

[hydrogen]

. The first smart guy complained about eating raw meat and learned how to make fire. Now, billions with lower intelligence can look forward to barbecue parties on Memorial Day. Another smart guy complained about having to walk miles and miles to the next village and learned how to make the Boeing 747. Now, billions of bozos are strutting in airports flying from Chicago to Shanghai.

 

One small correction. It takes more than one guy's idea to fly a Boening 747 on the sky. A simple piece of metal is the result of million people effort through generations.

 

I'm a lazy guy. I'd rather be high on weed and have a good BBQ with family and friend. You seem to want to be the smart guy who's building the best BBQ equipment.

 

When you figure out how to make death more enjoyable, please make it happen. I'm too lazy to know the details. I'd rather be in customer enjoying my meal in a restaraunt. And thanking the chef who's bursting his ass in the hot kitchen.

[sree]

Hahaha. So your stuck in your lower self and worried about survival. That is normal when your consciousness is lodged down there my friend.

 

 

Yes, I am worried about my personal survival. I have the means and financial freedom to live well for the rest of my life anywhere in this world. The Tao of dying is my search for immortality. This is why Plan B for making an exit is important. It is proof of the freedom from the fear of death.

 

The person is the consciousness that has possession of the body. The person who is selfish does not care for the body but cares only for its own survival at the expense of the well-being of the body. I am the person. You are right. I am stuck and worried about my survival. This worry will cause me to keep the body alive even though it is ailing the way a desperate rider keeps riding the sick horse until its last painful breath. A good horseman would get off the horse when it is time to do so. A good horseman would activate Plan B.

[sree]

One small correction. It takes more than one guy's idea to fly a Boening 747 on the sky. A simple piece of metal is the result of million people effort through generations.

 

It took millions of bozos to build the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China too. Bozos can do but cannot think. They are like the horses and mules pulling the wagons westward ho. Bozos are the sinners that Jesus came to save.

 

 

I'm a lazy guy. I'd rather be high on weed and have a good BBQ with family and friend. You seem to want to be the smart guy who's building the best BBQ equipment.

 

That's the general idea.

 

When you figure out how to make death more enjoyable, please make it happen. I'm too lazy to know the details. I'd rather be in customer enjoying my meal in a restaraunt. And thanking the chef who's bursting his ass in the hot kitchen.

 

The restaurant analogy is not quite right. You are not the customer and I am not the chef. You are the chicken and I am Colonel Sanders who gives meaning to your life.

Edited May 10, 2013 by sree

[sree]

I think money has more to do with than most people would like to acknowledge. If the 96 year old NY lady could have hired home aides maybe she could have stayed in her apartment and felt safe and happy. My aunt's condo is quite pricey. The alternatives for elderly without funds or good health and mobility or good family support are pretty bleak.

 

I am glad you are thinking straight. Just because we read the Tao Te Ching doesn't mean we have to be air-heads. We need to keep our feet on the ground. Spiritual types think money is evil and anyone who has anything to do with it is the devil.

 

We have created a complex world of which money is an integral part the way blood is part of the body. Farmers growing food from the earth have their harvests protected from the vagaries of the marketplace by selling their produce at fixed prices well before they plant their crops. Money enables us to live the way we do, and the bleakness of a life without money is not the fault of money.

 

Living a simple life does cut down the amount of money needed to get by. Checking out at 75 would really cut out the money worries.

[sree]

I plan to retire around 50, so I hope to have at least couple decades without too much troubles. Sure am open to alternatives though, I know of one trailer park I would live in, it is gated, everyone keeps their place up well and they are all friends. I also have an adopted aunt who has a retirement condo I would live in, they seem to have lots of fun even with old age woes, she took a class there and learned to use the internet last year. My 70 year old father drives those tractors and still does lots of manual labor, although he is slowing down. I have a great-grandfather who died at 86 when he fell off the top rung of a ladder picking apples. We have Western studies that show even debilitated people in nursing homes can benefit from strength training, we know tai chi and qigong help balance. Okinawa has a culture where it is not unusual for 80 and 90 year olds to walk or ride their bicycles for miles. I don't know old age has to be miserable debilitated time, but we do seem to assume people past 70 can't do a lot of things. We still can't live for ever of course and I don't know how to make death peaceful and happy and pretty,so we need to find the Tao of dying.

 

Now, you are talking. We need to have the option to check out without getting held hostage. I am not suggesting euthanasia and assisted suicide. Don't even think about killing off the body because it is not right. The Tao of dying has to be found while we still have a couple of decades to find it. The discovery begins the moment we embark on this expedition because it will fundamentally change the way we live thus kick-starting the Tao of living. Are we living right? We can only die right if we live right.

[hydrogen]

The restaurant analogy is not quite right. You are not the customer and I am not the chef. You are the chicken and I am Colonel Sanders who gives meaning to your life.

 

Watch your words please. “Was it the forgetfulness of old age or personal incapacity that made the man able to say please but not thank you?”

 

“When the healthy pursuit of self-interest and self-realization turns into self-absorption, other people can lose their intrinsic value in our eyes and become mere means to the fulfillment of our needs and desires.”