Enlightenment Is An Exclusive Destination

[plebeian]

Enlightment is an exclusive destination and only someone who has a map can show you how to find it. It's not an obvious path. You need a guide, a teacher.

 

Some do try take a bullet train to get there... Take that train and you might not be prepared to comprehend what you see when you arrive, worse still you might not come back in tact.

Edited March 3, 2014 by plebeian

[Chang]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

 

You will now be able to post freely in the forum but before setting out on your journey may I guide you in the direction of the two posts pinned at the top of the Lobby and direct you towards the forum terms and rules http://thetaobums.com/topic/19575-forum-terms-rules/ This is all you need be aware of to prepare you to comprehend the smooth running of the Tao Bums.

 

Good luck and best wishes,

 

Chang

[plebeian]

The Awakening: Once you take the mental bath, things that were once hidden in plain view suddenly stand out like fireworks. How did I not see it before? The demonization of paganism, of ancient rituals, of witchcraft, of herbs, of non-ordained spiritual practices, by men themselves adorned in symbolic ceremonial colored robes, obscured by incense smoke and waiving their hands over wine and bread mystically turning each into blood and flesh. Did they repurpose sacred practice for their own devious purposes, then condemn their origins? A holy sacrament disguised in the illusion of instilling harmony among the people while metaphysically chaining their individual spirits to the vulgar needs of the congregation. My hearing suddenly tunes the groans and despair of the herd. I watch as they drink the blood and eat the flesh. They repeat the words, and chant in unisons something that sounds like...one of us, one of us, one of us. I stand in the sea of the disarmed and sedated and ask myself...is this the zombie apocalypse of which they jest? I look around. Is anyone else seeing this? Is this the inoculation that made all of what suffering I see around me today possible? It's not a joke. This is serious. No sudden moves. I remove myself from the line and tip-toe toward the door. I hope they don't notice.

[plebeian]

The Tao that can be told of

Is not the Absolute Tao:

The Names that can be given

Are not the Absolute Names

 

There is a mysterious force at work that we do not and cannot fully comprehend. To make a contemporary reference, Concrete Blonde sang about it in a song called "I Call it Love... "Some call it Allah, Some call it God, Some call it Buddha, I call it Love, Some call it power come from above, Some call it Jesus, I call it Love." Chinese mystics called it Tao. In the opening stanza to the Tao Te Ching Laotse acknowledges that "it" exists. We are human and limited. Our limitations dictate the Tao we can speak off is not the omnipresent Tao. Many of us have an innate desire to talk about it so we give it a name. In the West many of us call it God. The Chinese mystics called it Tao. If it makes you feel better, you can call it bologna sandwich, although if you choose to you might find it difficult to relate your ideas to others less familiar with your particular term for it. Besides bologna sandwich invokes a completely different image than God. We've already been trained to think that way. Words have power; they convey meaning and ideas and can invoke action. They are important. For our Western minds and for the purposes of this discussion let's just call it God. It’s a concept many of us already recognize.

 

Warning! You can't understand God. Stop trying. It frees up a lot of time to think about things much more pragmatic, like survival, adaptation, contentment, pleasure, enjoyment. You can observe it through its manifestations. Through observation you can try to adapt to it and emulate it in your character and your personal outlook on life. Align to it and things will be much easier for you. Adopt incongruent ideas, unnatural ones, and woe for you.

 

Warning! If someone claims to know God's desires and wants for us, that person is completely full of shit. They are trying to control you. They get pissed when you don't abide and they usually resort to force, just long enough for you to see things their way, then it's back to peace and love. To end with one more contemporary song quote by Roger Waters, "What God wants God gets God help us all, God wants peace, God wants war, God wants famine, God wants chain stores, God wants sedition, God wants sex, God wants freedom, God wants semtex." What God wants and what the people in power want ironically coincide. Could it be that what we've been taught to be God's will, is really just a lie created by those who want to enslave us? How else could you convince people to do some of the crazy things they do? Their method is usually to promise an esoteric reward in the undefined future for some sort of painful sacrifice today. Endure this suffering and you get 99 virgins in the afterlife. Ha Ha Ha Ha, yet millions of people believe that. Even more absurd is the a population that blindly accepts the idea of a virgin birth looks down upon the other population that believes in the 99 virgin atrocity award. Why do these myths always involved virgins anyway? In the end it always boils down to an argument, or even worse, an armed conflict, over whos made up ideas are better, the virgin birthers or virgin servants. Humans are unbelievably easy to manipulate with ideas. I am easily manipulated. I must embrace my limitations and understand how easily I can be convinced to follow a false reality. Be honest brutaly honest with yourself and don't believe your own bullshit.

Edited March 4, 2014 by plebeian

[plebeian]

 

Edited March 3, 2014 by plebeian

[Yascra]

Hello and welcome here

 

Don't worry to much about exclusivity, actually enlightenment is just the fundamental state in which you and everybody and everything has ever been. You just need to realize that. So it's really not such a complicated issue.

 

Have fun over here

[plebeian]

The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;

The Named is the Mother of All Things

 

This is Laotse's first inference to the principle of opposites. There are opposing forces working in harmony together. One force cannot exist without the other. They are interdependent, like two sides to the same coin. The interaction of these forces, Yin (the female) and Yang (the male), creates this infinite cycle of move, change, energy. The Nameless is the source. The Named is the manifestation. The source and its manifestations are the same. We spring from a source. We are a microcosm of it, unified with it at birth. Free will make is possible for us to become separated. That's a bitch and the bane of our existence. It is our suffering. Why is there free will? Who the hell knows? It's the card we are dealt so rather than wrestle with that unanswerable question, it's better to focus time learning how to deal with it.

 

At some point humanity grew confused and disconnected itself from nature. Since nature is in essence the same as the source, humanity disconnected itself from the source. Humanity ceased to see itself as a part of nature and came to view it as an enemy. Humanity declared war on nature and segmented reality into God, Nature and himself (Man). In man's struggle with nature, through his limited logical abilities, he deciphered that God was also outside of nature and was either on his side or was not in his struggle to conquer it. The determining factor of God's favor was whether things were going according to his personal desires. In essence man surmised God to be a divine accountant keeping karmic score of his good and bad deeds. Step out of line and you get hit with a flood or a thunderbolt. Stay in line and you avoid double digit declines in the stock market while others around you watch their portfolios crumble. It was a complicated task to keep track of who was good and bad so a few holy men appointed themselves as God's auditors. They existed to inform the rest of humanity that they were put in place to help God keep track of what was going on and they were delegated with the ability to instruct others on the benefits of virtue and the detriments of vice. Now imagine you were given this job. How would you deal with a wild bunch of idol worshiping fornicators stranded for 40 years in the desert? The fornicators are more interested in laying around, enjoying themselves and less interested in working in the hot sun all day. How would you get them in line? Perhaps stroll up a mountain, alone so there would be nobody to refute what you say, and concoct a story of a burning bush, a few tablets falling from the sky with some basic rules written on them. Would you then baffle that herd with a story so complex and mystical that they would dare not question it for fear of looking stupid. Tada...spiritual blindness, obedience, piety, work ethic, marriage, alimony. lawyers, plumbers, doctors, carpenters, teamwork, judges, priests and all the other things that make society function in an orderly way. Now you know the secret. Warning! Don’t lose sight of the whole and don't allow your personal preferences stand in the way of your ability to see reality clearly. Question the values of “good” and “bad” you’ve had indoctrinated into you since birth.

Edited March 20, 2014 by plebeian

[plebeian]

Therefore:

Oftentimes, one strips oneself of passion

In order to see the Secret of Life;

Oftentimes, one regards life with passion,

In order to see its manifest forms

 

In the stanza before this one Laotse sheds light on duality, Yin and Yang. In this stanza he tells us how to use the principle. Stripping oneself of passion is struggling to rise above our ill trained false individual biases. Let's face it, we've all been brain washed since birth by generations of people who were also brain washed. Where it all began I do not know but I do know in the present moment it has caused me to be confused. This confusion has obscured my spiritual vision, my third eye, and it keeps me from seeing true reality clearly. To perceive the Secret of Life I must open my third eye. I know of no other way to do that other than to be the student of a trained master, someone whose third eye was too open and someone who has been trained to help others to see things clearly for themselves.

 

We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. There is duality in us, Yin the Flesh and Yang the Spirit. We must learn how to harmonize that reality. We therefore can not live purely in the spiritual world and deny the flesh of that which it desires and needs. Learning how to differentiate desires and needs is a life long pursuit but we cannot completely sacrifice one over the other. There are traditions that attempt to ignore the physical reality because they think that they are above it. They are attempting to live in the spiritual plain while they are tethered to this physical one. You can see the ugly manifestations of their efforts; humans living like parasites, pedophilia, the list goes on and on.

 

To see reality clearly we must fight with our artificial biases. To live in the physical world we must understand how to operate according to the rules of this dimension. The Named rules of this dimension are governed by the Nameless source. They are in fact the same. We cannot understand Tao, God, but we can observe it through its manifestations. That calls into question, what is the nature of God? Well, I can tell you that all of what we call beautiful and all of what we call ugly emanate from it. There are not two separate forces doing battle here. That is the myth that is used to confuse and control the herd. Adults use the myth of Santa Clause to control and manipulate children. They tell them there is a mystical force watching their every move and they will either be rewarded or punished based upon what the all knowing eye sees. They tell the lie until children grow too old to believe it yet they themselves never grow too old to believe the lies that have been told to control them. Live a good life and you'll be rewarded in heaven. Shoulder this burden today and your sins will be forgiven. Humans are unbelievably easy to manipulate. I am a human being and I am easily deceived. I am warned! It’s up to me to do something about it.

 

The Tao Te Ching is sometimes referred to as the book of warnings. It was written in a dialect that only a few were able to understand. Its knowledge was not intended to be disseminated. Well, the knowledge was disseminated and there are elements that have abused the sacred knowledge and used it for purposes never intended. Only a few individual wills care about this at all. The others will remain blind and abused. That's just the way it is. Taoism is a philosophy and theology for the individual. Save yourself.

 

The two (the Secret and its manifestations)

Are (in their nature) the same;

They are given different names

When they become manifest.

 

They may both be called the Cosmic Mystery.

Edited March 20, 2014 by plebeian

[ralis]

Enlightenment is not exclusive to your or anyone's point of view. Your posts come off as being condescending, theistic and preachy.

[plebeian]

Said the Joker.

[ralis]

Said the Joker.

 

Like I have said in the past on this forum, the joker is an ancient archetype. Look it up for yourself.

[plebeian]

anyway, thanks for reading and commenting.

[Brian]

Said the Joker.

Says the guy standing in the lobby?

 

[plebeian]

blessed are the cheesemakers.

[Icedude]

I feel for you, man. The ability to reason is a treasure that I wouldn't want to part with. I'd probably end up just like you, resorting to scare tactics so that people will stay and listen to me, "warning" them so that they'll value me. I wish I could help you get your bearings, but I don't think I can. Maybe anti-psychotics would work for you.

[GrandmasterP]

Enlightment is an exclusive destination and only someone who has a map can show you how to find it. It's not an obvious path. You need a guide, a teacher.

 

Some do try take a bullet train to get there... Take that train and you might not be prepared to comprehend what you see when you arrive, worse still you might not come back in tact.

 

Thank you for sharing.

[plebeian]

The classic ad hominem. Primitive but very often effective.

[Icedude]

The classic ad hominem. Primitive but very often effective.

 

If you doubt me, you're free to explain how you would differ from a typical paranoid schizophrenic. I'm listening.

[plebeian]

One day as I was crouching in a horse stance, warming up for a Kung Fu class with the Master. Those moments before the physical classes began were some of the times when I had some of my deepest conversations with him. He instructed me again as he did at the beginning of every warm up, “Sink lower!” As I crouched down, from nowhere he said, “You know, to have a terminal disease can be a gift.” He often reflected on certain things for months and sometimes years then he’d blurt them out as though it was something spontaneous he has just decided to say, or he’d recall a conversation he’d had with his Master and he’d just decide to talk about it. He set aside a lot of his own time to do nothing but think.

 

Shocked at what he’d said, I replied, “What! How can a terminal disease be a gift?”

 

He explained, “Think about it, death is certain. We are all going to die. Think about the people who leave for work every day, never considering their own mortality, and they never come back home. Most people are so busy with the turmoil of their every day lives and planning for the future that they never take the time to appreciate what they already have. At least for the terminal person, when they learn they’re going to go much sooner than they expected, they’re given the opportunity to wake up and appreciate what they have now. The last days of their lives will probably me more fulfilling than the sum of the years they lived up to that point.”

 

A few years later I heard someone interviewing Warren Zevon on the radio. For those of you who don’t know, he was an American rock icon who was most popular in the 1970s. At the time of the interview he was dying of cancer. The interviewer asked him sort of insensitively, “What’s it like to know this is happening to you, to know you are dying?” Zevon’s reply was simple, “You know … now … doing something as simple as eating a sandwich brings me so much joy.”

 

Not many days go by now when I don't think about that conversations I had with the Master that day. With so much going on it’s hard to not take life for granted, but I do try to take at least a few minutes from every day to try to appreciate of what I have… my health, a few reliable friends, a supportive family and some occasional free time to enjoy all of it. At night I often hug my dog and thank him for never looking at me in a judgmental way. So why wait for horrifying news or even worse, why die suddenly without ever taking the time to learn how to, as Warren Zevon so eloquently put it, “enjoy eating a sandwich?”

 

My father passed away several months after I had that conversation with the Master. The last years of my Dad’s life, right up to his last day, were probably the most reflective and meaningful his family and friends got to spend with him. He too knew he was dying and like Zevon, he seemed to take much more joy in all of the simple things. He was 74 years old when he died. One day as he was fading away he said to my sister, “When I was a kid we had two cereals to choose from, Corn Flakes or Oatmeal. Now there are supermarket aisles full of hundreds of different kinds. Who the hell needs it? It’s all gotten so complicated. People have can no longer tell the difference between what they want and what they need.”

Edited March 22, 2014 by plebeian

[Icedude]

I stand corrected.

[C T]

One day as I was crouching in a horse stance, warming up for a Kung Fu class with the Master. Those moments before the physical classes began were some of the times when I had some of my deepest conversations with him. He instructed me again as he did at the beginning of every warm up, “Sink lower!” As I crouched down, from nowhere he said, “You know, to have a terminal disease can be a gift.” He often reflected on certain things for months and sometimes years then he’d blurt them out as though it was something spontaneous he has just decided to say, or he’d recall a conversation he’d had with his Master and he’d just decide to talk about it. He set aside a lot of his own time to do nothing by think.

 

Shocked at what he’d said, I replied, “What! How can a terminal disease be a gift?”

 

He explained, “Think about it, death is certain. We are all going to die. Think about the people who leave for work every day, never considering their own mortality, and they never come back home. Most people are so busy with the turmoil of their every day lives and planning for the future that they never take the time to appreciate what they already have. At least for the terminal person, when they learn they’re going to go much sooner than they expected, they’re given the opportunity to wake up and appreciate what they have now. The last days of their lives will probably me more fulfilling than the sum of the years they lived up to that point.”

 

A few years later I heard someone interviewing Warren Zevon on the radio. For those of you who don’t know, he was an American rock icon who was most popular in the 1970s. At the time of the interview he was dying of cancer. The interviewer asked, him sort of insensitively, “What’s it like to know this is happening to you, to know you are dying?” Zevon’s reply was simple, “You know … now … doing something as simple as eating a sandwich brings me so much joy.”

 

Not many days go by now when I think about that conversations I had with the Master that day. With so much going on it’s hard to not take life for granted but I do try to take at least a few minutes from every day to try to appreciate of what I have… my health, a few reliable friends, a supportive family and some occasional free time to enjoy all of it. At night I often hug my dog and thank him for never looking at me in a judgmental way. So why wait for horrifying news or even worse, why die suddenly without ever taking the time to learn how to, as Warren Zevon so eloquently put it, “enjoy eating a sandwich.”

 

My father passed away several months after I had that conversation with the Master. The last years of my Dad’s life, right up to his last day, were probably the most reflective and meaningful his family and friends got to spend with him. He too knew he was dying and like Zevon, he seemed to take much more joy in all of the simple things. He was 74 years old when he died. One day as he was fading away he said to my sister, “When I was a kid we had two cereals to choose from, Corn Flakes or Oatmeal. Now there are supermarket aisles full of hundreds of different kinds. Who the hell needs it? It’s all gotten so complicated. People have can no longer tell the difference between what they want and what they need.”

Brilliant! thank you for sharing!

[WHITEROOMENERGYMINE1]

 

Even more absurd is the a population that blindly accepts the idea of a virgin birth looks down upon the other population that believes in the 99 virgin atrocity award. Why do these myths always involved virgins anyway? In the end it always boils down to an argument, or even worse, an armed conflict, over whos made up ideas are better, the virgin birthers or virgin servants.

Keep droppin gems on em Plebian! These posts are some great stuff. Accurate cynical humor is hilarious, especially about abrahamic religions..

 

theNERD

[GrandmasterP]

Virgin on the ridiculous IMO.

[ralis]

Virgin on the ridiculous IMO.

 

Virgin? Verging is what you meant?

[GrandmasterP]

Close enough.

Round these parts there's only the latter anyhoo.