Can the Tao be found in a 66 hours work week?

[silent thunder]

I recalled this Taoist saying Joh Lu Jow Lu.

Which translate to sitting on a deer looking for the deer, not knowing the deer has been carrying you on the back all the time.

This is akin to what I was talking about when I said, it's not possible to ever be separated from tao.

At no point, in anything we do, ever, are we separate, or isolated.  We are swimming in and manifesting tao with every breath, heartbeat, thought, struggle, nap, car ride, fight, love making session...

 

It's so common and familiar, ineffable, untouchable and yet permeates every aspect of everything we interact with and every sub atomic particle of our innermost vibrations. 

 

Relax, let go. 

Enjoy the ride, if you can.

[MooNiNite]

instead of working, the goal is to find your work. but that is usually done through working, so..right-o.

[MooNiNite]

"The one who works hard, lives long.

 

The one who follows Dao lives forever."

-Lao Tzu

 

 

Work to find your work, once found..follow your true work.... (soul-purpose)

 

Learn to live as a spirit while in human form...

[Rara]

Ha ha ha! Why in the hell should I be resentful to my wife , or anyone else for that matter?

She was my gf for 5-6 years and my wife and still my gf for the last 20++ years.

You not knowing me , (and not bothering to read my long written blogs which include my wife in addition to birdies and beasties) and instantly becoming a pseudo pyschologist that I am resentful to my wife and a guru/pundit/knowall as to where the Tao is not.

 

It is a standing joke with my wife , and my mum/father in law and her family that I making money for her future bf or toyboys.

So that is not just something I say here but about everywhere and when.

 

The butcher, oil seller and maker of wheels found the Tao.

Liu ChangSheng found the Tao while jollying himself in a brothel.

Hai Datong found the Tao by digging caves in mountain side for meditations. Not that he used those caves for meditations as everytime he finished one, someone came along and took his cave so he continued to dig and dig.

 

Chiu ChangChung found the Tao by being unpaid carrier of people to cross river on his back for years

 

But what am I to tell you as you are so discerning as to think Tao cannot be found where I am.

 

You recognise the Tao the moment the Tao is within sight of you?

From halfway across the world , you know that the Tao is not within my vicinity?

 

You suggesting to me and all here that you know where the Tao can be found?

Maybe instead of saying where the Tao is not to be found, you should spend your effort in hunting down the Tao and describing that to us all.

 

Try not to miss the dancing gorillas in your hunt for the Tao

 

 

Very well. If you wanted to get an opinion from somebody that knows you, why did you bother with your original post?

[shanlung]

Very well. If you wanted to get an opinion from somebody that knows you, why did you bother with your original post?

 

Why not?

 

I need your ok before I post rhetorics?

 

Idiotic Taoist

[shanlung]

Very well. If you wanted to get an opinion from somebody that knows you, why did you bother with your original post?

 

 

Why not?

 

I need your ok before I post rhetorics?

 

Idiotic Taoist

 

 

Also is it your normal practise to talk on things you do not know ?

Such as your infallible knowledge as to where the Tao is not to be found.

And that I am resentful on anything?

 

Excuse me if that is your normal habit to do that as I do believe

you got to do what you are used to doing and psychological impossible for you to do otherwise.

 

Taoistic Idiot

[Rara]

Why not?

 

I need your ok before I post rhetorics?

 

Idiotic Taoist

Suddenly, I remember you. You posted a thread years ago with pictures from Malaysian temples and how you identified how many people take Taoism too seriously.

 

Ok, back to your remark. No, not at all. But I don't see why you should be so abrupt towards me and expect that anyone here should know the details of your life and/or have read your blog. All I did was respond to a post of yours based on a question you asked.

 

Your OP included either a lot of jokes (this is your style?) or sarcasm...I don't know. But if you want to sit there and talk down to me on the basis that I haven't taken the time to know the context of your post then I guess there is no use in me carrying on with this discussion.

 

But you know, it seems in which case you have the answer you are looking for, so happy posting in future. I know for next time

[Rara]

Also is it your normal practise to talk on things you do not know ?

Such as your infallible knowledge as to where the Tao is not to be found.

And that I am resentful on anything?

 

Excuse me if that is your normal habit to do that as I do believe

you got to do what you are used to doing and psychological impossible for you to do otherwise.

 

Taoistic Idiot

Can I answer this with another question? Is it your practice to be condecending?

 

If whatever you read by me appeared "pseudo-psychologist", or "know it all" then I would have to say you are as mistaken as I was about your OP. Your question looked like you wanted advice, and I just gave my two cents based on the information you provided. If you have a problem with this then ok, clearly you don't need advice.

 

I don't have the answers, nor claim to. I'm just trying to learn and help along the way.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Rara

[Marblehead]

Nice to see this disagreement hasn't gotten too personal yet.

[shanlung]

Tao doesn't care about you.

 

 

Er.. I wrote   

 

Perhaps the Tao threw this path to me as the Tao knew I could not find the Tao in my retirement and can only be found in a 66 hour work week.

 

And not

 

Perhaps the Tao threw this path to me as the Tao knew I could not find the Tao in my retirement and can only be found in a 66 hour work week.

 

But do not let me stop you from reading what you wish to read as that is your right.

So that you can stand on soap box and claimed I believed the Tao cares for me and for me alone.

 

 

Suddenly, I remember you. You posted a thread years ago with pictures from Malaysian temples and how you identified how many people take Taoism too seriously.

 

 

 

If you recall my kind of writings, you recall that half the time I write tongue in cheek. The other half the time I write with foot in my mouth.

 

I probably poke more ridicule at myself than at the rest of you all collectively.

 

So relax and laugh.  At me even if you cannot laugh at yourself.

 

My wife has about twice the financial assets as me.  Which is why my dad/mum in law laughed when I said my money will go to fund her future boyfriends and toyboys in champagne and caviar.

 

My wife can fund anyone , inlcuding me, now in champagne and caviar.

 

Except I dislike bubbly other than in beers.

And I think caviar should remain as eggs in the sturgeons who should go and have more baby sturgeons instead of being ripped open to extract those damn eggs to be turned into caviar.

 

 

Taoistic Idiot who love bubbly beer and little baby sturgeons

[dust]

But do not let me stop you from reading what you wish to read as that is your right.

So that you can stand on soap box and claimed I believed the Tao cares for me and for me alone.

 

There's no way you could construe my short comment as standing on a soapbox. I was simply pointing out that the Tao isn't intentionally throwing you anywhere, for any reason. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you're 'supposed' to be doing anything in particular. You're 'supposed' to do whatever the fuck you want to do.

 

Looks like you're having a bad week. Taking everything badly and throwing out poorly aimed jibes at people who were only trying to offer help. You can ignore anything you don't find useful, you know.

 

I'll put it down to your 66-hour work week and suggest that no, you have not found Tao, and you probably won't with this attitude.

[shanlung]

There's no way you could construe my short comment as standing on a soapbox. I was simply pointing out that the Tao isn't intentionally throwing you anywhere, for any reason. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you're 'supposed' to be doing anything in particular. You're 'supposed' to do whatever the fuck you want to do.

 

Looks like you're having a bad week. Taking everything badly and throwing out poorly aimed jibes at people who were only trying to offer help. You can ignore anything you don't find useful, you know.

 

I'll put it down to your 66-hour work week and suggest that no, you have not found Tao, and you probably won't with this attitude.

 

*yawn*

 

You should work on your remedial Engleesh comprehension classes.

You been harping on the Tao caring for me and me alone in about 2 or 3 postings

 

 

Idiotic Taoist

Edited April 12, 2015 by shanlung

[dust]

Edited April 20, 2015 by dustybeijing

[Marblehead]

Maybe Tao cares about us all equally?

[Stosh]

The sun shines on both the wicked and the just.

[Marblehead]

The sun shines on both the wicked and the just.

But as it happens in life, the wicked steal much of what was offered to the just.

 

But we still have our inner light.

[Rara]

If you recall my kind of writings, you recall that half the time I write tongue in cheek. The other half the time I write with foot in my mouth.

 

I probably poke more ridicule at myself than at the rest of you all collectively.

 

So relax and laugh. At me even if you cannot laugh at yourself.

 

My wife has about twice the financial assets as me. Which is why my dad/mum in law laughed when I said my money will go to fund her future boyfriends and toyboys in champagne and caviar.

 

My wife can fund anyone , inlcuding me, now in champagne and caviar.

 

Except I dislike bubbly other than in beers.

And I think caviar should remain as eggs in the sturgeons who should go and have more baby sturgeons instead of being ripped open to extract those damn eggs to be turned into caviar.

 

 

Taoistic Idiot who love bubbly beer and little baby sturgeons

Not to worry...yes I recall now but it was ages ago for me...I meet so many people day in, day out. It was when you mentioned the birdie and then I looked closely at your avitar it clicked.

 

So yes, admittedly I failed to understand your post. I mistook you for a grumpy old guy, fairly new to the forum with an attitude problem and an agonising addiction to exhausting work haha

 

Glad that's cleared up now.

[Rara]

To be fair Shanlung, you do come across as a wee bit obnoxious. I have no problem with this though...I can accuse you of therefore not having Tao...just as much as you will say the same about some (or all?) of us.

 

It's all relative.

 

Can I ask then, what do you aim to get from your OP? I can only answer sincerely to say yes, you can find Tao in your 66 hour work week if you are working to mastery and doing it because it's "just what you do". This is how I understand Tao...following your calling, for lack of a better phrase.

 

Or are you more directing this rhetorically at the forum. Can WE find Tao in hour work weeks?

Edited April 13, 2015 by Rara

[Stosh]

But as it happens in life, the wicked steal much of what was offered to the just.

 

But we still have our inner light.

 

The tao of men is its own subset, different rules.

[flowconduit]

I would just quit working

[Michael Sternbach]

If you haven't lost the Dao in the first place, you will find it everywhere.

 

If you have lost it, you need to go back to the first place to find it again.

 

A stressful and hectic way of living is as detrimental to your Qi as an overly inactive lifestyle. The Dao will be found wherever there is balance between Yang and Yin.

[Silent Answers]

From another point of view, there is a poetic quality and reference to the OP.

 

Sometimes it's hard to hold back the advice assault

[Marblehead]

From another point of view, there is a poetic quality and reference to the OP.

 

Sometimes it's hard to hold back the advice assault

Yeah, most of us are willing to give advice whenever we have the opportunity; doesn't matter that we weren't asked for any nor that we possibly have no idea WTF we are talking about.

Edited May 8, 2015 by Marblehead

[shanlung]

Folks of the Tao,

 

Sorry if I do not answer individually as I am stealing a few moments at the office.

 

But a paradigm shift took place.  The posting I made yesterday in birdie and beastie forums is the catalyst.

 

Idiotic Taoist

 

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

 

Ivan

We were living in Hongkong in Saikung, a tiny fishing village in the New Territories in 1994. The apartment was tiny as were most of the apartments in Hongkong. However, the apartment opened onto a huge balcony as we were on the third floor and a seafood restuarant was below and their roof was our balcony. When apartments in Hongkong were priced as to whether you had a sea view or mountain view, when on the balcony we could look out onto a sea view or turn to the right and enjoyed the mountain view.

We then thought of having kitties. At that time, we were reading the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Where the two key characters were Miles , a clever manipulative guy who happened to be a runt caused by a poison gas attack on his mother when he was a fetus. He had a big handsome cousin called Ivan who was kind of stupid compared to Miles. We went to this guy who rescued 2 kittens from municipal bin. One was a runt who appeared to be intelligent and the other was a handsome tabby. So that was how Miles and Ivan came into our lives. Soon we found that Miles was the idiot and Ivan was the very clever one. They took over our balcony and then our apartment. They would explore by jumping out of the balcony and running about the roof and into places I could not imagine. One day I tossed Ivan over the balcony and told my wife he would jump back. He disappeared and a couple of hours to our shock, there was this meowing outside our door. Ivan somehow went around the apartment block, walked up a few flights of steps , and knew the door of the apartment to meow outside.

Ivan was a killer. He would chirped like a bird hidden behind the balcony and leap 2 meters up to catch birds on the wing. He left presents for me by my bed. The head, with 4 small paws and a tail in the proper position and something ickky between them. Excuse me if I did not describe that exactly as I looked away while cleaning up the mess. He might leave a bird or part of a bird. He would climb up and pretend to be stuck in the roof eaves meowing away pitifully to be rescued. When I got up to rescue him, he crawled backwards. I realised he was never stuck when meal time came and he jumped right out.

One morning, we woke up to hear a strange sound. We then traced that sound to a tiny baby bat which could not fly. We were sure that Ivan must have taken the mother bat. I felt sorry enough to rush out to buy a bird cage so the baby bat be kept safe until it could fly again.

I fed it with bananas.

One morning I woke up to see that the cage door was opened, without Batty inside. I thought that was the end, especially in the apartment with Ivan the killer cat and two feisty kittens that my wife adopted a few weeks ago.

Then I heard the squeaks and saw Batty hanging upside down from the edge of a suitcase. Batty was in between Ivan front paws. Ivan was positioning his body so the 2 kitties could not get to Batty to 'play'. I could hardly believed my eyes as now and then, Ivan turned and spit at the two kitties keeping them away. Ivan saw me playing enough with Batty to decide that Batty was family. And went on to protect her.

Batty was placed back into the cage again. Her flights at the beginning was weak and erratic. Batty seemed to like me and hang about me when I did my thing.

 

 

Her flight became more controlled and powerful.

 

 

In a few weeks time, Batty flew off my balcony. Never to return.

It struck me that Ivan knew who was family even if he was a killer.

That was the incident that prompted me to decide if Tinkerbell could live together with Halftail the Bimbo and Zorro the ferret in Taiwan.

And later decided that Dommie and Katie be introduced slowly to Riamfada.

Ivan was also kind of psychic. I reported that in

http://shanlung.com/ivan1.html

Miles was chased away by a vicious neighbourhood tom cat. I trapped that tom cat and released him in another village 20 km away who complained in the papers rock pythons were eating their dogs and cats. I did not like pythons to be hungry.

So that was why Ivan was with us and taken to Singapore where he lived with my mom in law periodically when we were living in Taiwan and other countries.

When he was with us and I in Singapore, you seen how I would cook and prepare his meals. You have seen the way I prepared the food for him, even better than what I prepared for myself or for my wife.

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung

We both love Ivan very very much.

Above is Ivan on my shoulder. That was during our return to Singapore in Oct 2004 after leaving Tinkerbell and Taiwan and fetching Ivan back from my mom in law. I thought he forgotten me but his leap up to my shoulder to curl himself around my neck showed me how much he love to have me back. That was the first time he did that to me.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife told me that Ivan might be getting blind, banging his way about and not noticing my wife waving her hands in front of him. She told me Ivan did not seem to be in discomfort and able to find his way to the food, his litter box and his favourite sofa chair that he taken over.

A few days ago, my wife told me Ivan seemed to be getting weaker and weaker.

Then two days ago, my wife said Ivan refused to eat even though my wife spooned the wet food to his mouth. And that he wedged himself into a tight space. I told my wife to carry him to the bedroom where he spend so much time with us.

This morning Riyadh time, and about noon Singapore time, Ivan was still alive. My wife did what I asked her to do. Scritch Ivan head and tell him that was from me and I love him very much.

She then went to work. I called her about noon my time when she was just getting back to the apartment. She told me that our Ivan was no more with us.

She told me a bit of her died. I felt a bit of me died too. They had been times I thought of leaving KSA and Ivan was part of the reason.

Even though I felt that was coming over the last few days, the ending was very painful to me. I am happy enough that Ivan was not in pain and was with my wife that he loved very much.

 

[Marblehead]

And so we must acknowledge; all things must pass.