Help me (and a few others) find peace

[Songtsan]

You have seen how upset people like me get at global politics, corruption, and related issues. You guys have seen others here in states of similar upset. Help convince us to follow the way, to go off into our own mountains and wildernesses, to complete ourselves like Lao Tzu did.

I will start by stating a few very common wisdoms, to save everyone time and get them out of the way:

1) While you can change others with great amounts of energy expenditure, I.e.  you try to rush in and force change, you can change yourself with next to no energy expenditure. 2) accomplish the greatest amount of change, with the least amount of effort. 3) Don't ruminate on the things you can't change (Serenity prayer)...that's all for now...riding the flow

[thelerner]

Going off into the mountains is such a harsh difficult existence with the danger of starvation, craziness, loneliness, disease and injury that if you need an outside force to convince you to do it.  You definitely should not. 

 

If the outside world isn't particularly attacking you now and your worried about it.  Changing your location change probably won't help?  Better to concentrate on your own life.   One's peace doesn't lie in location, it lies in wisdom focus, ie the Serenity Prayer you mentioned. 

 

We seem have a set point of anxiety.  Leave one environment or job for another and we keep that set point, and end up just as anxious, and alone in the mountains there's alot to be anxious and scared about.   

 

May I have the

Serenity-to accept the things I cannot Change

Courage-to change the things I can

Wisdom-to know the difference  and an

Escape Plan-for after I kick the bastards in the balls

 

 

later add> on the third hand, sometimes changing ones location can change a whole lot.  Sometimes we grow better in other places. 

Edited May 14, 2015 by thelerner

[Daeluin]

Accept. Trust.

Internally embody the change you wish to see, where-ever you may be.

Surrender desire and discover Peace.

Frugality, Compassion, Humility.

Balancing extremes leads to Harmony.

 

Don't think, just do.

It is the easiest thing in the world, yet people want to fight against it.

Accept. Trust.

 

 

My words are so easy to understand,
so easy to follow.

And yet nobody in the world
understands or follows them.

Words come from an ancestry
deeds from a mastery:
when these are unknown, so am I.

In my obscurity
is my value.
That's why the wise
wear their jade under common clothes.

 

daodejing 70 tl Ursula K Leguin

Edited May 13, 2015 by Daeluin

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

Going off into the mountains is such a harsh difficult existence with the danger of starvation, craziness, loneliness, disease and injury that if you need an outside force to convince you to do it.  You definitely should not. 

 

AS OPPOSED TO CIVIL SOCIETY?!?  WTF ARE YOU ON ABOUT?!?

 

I am worse for the wear for having NOT had the opportunities to learn to survive in teh wilderness.  im ready to flip my shit for good.

[Daeluin]

When all we look for is war, war is all we see and create.

When all we look for is peace...

 

 

And if you don't see it, look deeper.

Edited May 13, 2015 by Daeluin

[Songtsan]

I see going off into the mountains as partially metaphorical. I want to, and plan to, remove myself into the wilderness for some time- not to play at survalism or to test my mettle somehow, its just what I feel inclined to do. Loneliness isn't an issue, I always have the voices in my head to keep me company. I just have to earn money to do so, which I am already doing. I'll bring a satellite phone for emergencies, plenty of food and supplies, and just be. It will be for self development purposes, not to get away. In the meantime, I could always just avoid the internet and TV and live in a quiet neighborhood and find a bunch of tension release that way...

[Yasjua]

It's all good man. Human existence, particularly on the level of civilization, is inherently polarized due to the map-making consciousness named 'mind.' There don't appear to have been any particular mistakes on evolution's part in creating us five-digited humanoids. The human body is - and some disagree with me - 100% animal - the brain is literally, physically a conglomeration of biochemicals that formed out of stars that exploded billions and billions of years ago and through pressurization of atoms and physics established a higher order of consciousness through the sphere called Earth. Earth came to be this way through millenia of tragedy and miracle, chance and decision. Extinctions led to new life. Wars lead to higher civilizations. Nature kills. Violently, dramatically, the whole thing is happening according to laws. The apparent disorder caused by humankind is non-attributable to the phantom, the ghost-in-the-machine called Will or Me. The 100 billion 'things' work together at all times - we see this not only in Taoism but in modern science - billions of neurons, hundreds of millions of bacteria, immeasurable cells, the exchange of water within and without the body, the breathing of oxygen, the movement and evolution of genes all determine the Way and the movement of our species. They are the parameters and the expression of your existence. It is to the "Force" that drives and designs life that all of this disorder is mostly attributable to. That guy on the street holding a sign wanting money, addicted to drugs? He looks that way, but he's God. That lady whose uterus inflated to hold you and bring you into the world? Looks like mom, but it's God. That breeze on your face? God. That nuclear explosion in Japan? Just God. There is a singularity to all this, and an infinite multiplicity. To me, the Tao in human consciousness is simply the pinnacle of interpretation of knowledge. KNowledge changes, but if you understand the Tao everything, modern and old, naturally finds resonance with it, because there's nothing else out there. Should humans be killing each other? It's terribly sad. I grieve for the Palestinian children I see slaughtered on the streets, stripped from their homes. I grieve for victims of human violence. But - I see order in the big picture, which is where I keep my focus and my interest, and it makes me feel okay, and I feel at my best when I am not stuck in a state of anger and resistance.

[Silent Answers]

 

 

Have these evils not helped you to realise something? Is it not the fact that you face such corruption, that makes you want to change and grow to be better?

 

This is something I had heard before, but not really fully appreciated until recently. With good and evil essentially two ends of the same pendulum swing, the greater the swing in any one direction, an equal amount becomes available at the opposite end. They influence each other's power. At the same time, they are attracted to each other, and may eventually collide to birth something new, based on prior experience from the last turn. This happens on infinite scales, but can be seen throughout society.

 

So, basically it's another case of sit back and watch it, or get involved and try to pull it in the direction you prefer, holding it there for as long as you can....before you and your heirs lose their grip, allowing a swing in the opposite direction.

 

Interestingly, it's those that watch that are left to commentate on the results and lessons learned.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

When all we look for is war, war is all we see and create.

When all we look for is peace...

 

 

And if you don't see it, look deeper.

 

 

And if you look to the very infinite depths of eternity and still cannot find it, it means the time to wage war against all oppositions to peace has begun?

 

 

Im not sure it even exists as but a fleeting moment of ignorance.  

Ignorance is said to be bliss, but i find it to be downright disturbing and unaware.

[Songtsan]

Ignorance is at the root of fear, so yes it is disturbing....yet the path away from ignorance is also disturbing, as you know, because once one starts to become more aware, one gets mad at what is going on, both within and without....Enlightenment is a hard path to travel. There was mention of how good jellyfish must have it in another thread, just being...so you see that ignorance is both bliss and hell. This is in line with Samsara and Nirvana being one and the same....remember, it is your own mind fabrications, and all its' laws that make the world such a fucked up place for you. Your own rules about how things should be, your attachments both negative and positive, are creating the hell you experience. Only you can claim the responsibility for that. Everyone would like to be king of the world, but this is not, nor ever will be possible.  The trick is to know yourself, be at peace, and make changes to the world, and attain virtue, with the least amount of effort. All this ruminating you are doing is creating ill health in your body, causing overexpression of your organ functions. Unless you are actually able to do something to create the change you wish to see, stop killing yourself over it!

Edited May 14, 2015 by Songtsan

[RiverSnake]

Some time away from TTB in a quite room.....with an empty mind upon ones navel may be beneficial. Your activity on the forum does seem quite sporadic and monkey-mindish.

Edited May 14, 2015 by OldChi

[noonespecial]

 Don't ruminate on the things you can't change

 

You answered your own question.

 

Also you dont have to go to a mountain...lol...just throw the tv in the garbage, and show restraint on the web, no news sites, no conspiracy sites, etc. that shit is designed to drive you nuts and f@ck off your equilibirum.

[Songtsan]

Agreed!

[Daeluin]

War and Peace are a polarity.

This is why acceptance and trust lead to peace, while attachment to peace leads to war.

 

If you look everywhere for peace and do not find it, perhaps it is because you are holding a raised sword.

Let it go. It is not serving your quest.

 

Peace does not promise preservation of identify, of ego - does not promise vengeance or safety.

Peace comes to exist through relinquishment of attachment to such things - through the allowance of death and rebirth - through welcoming transformation.

[Songtsan]

Half the problem is that I was born with a warrior spirit. I delight in war. My cognitive dissonance lies there. I like both peace and war. That's why martial arts are heaven to me...I like to do my 'peaceful playful war dancing' yet there is a small part of me that would revel in slaying and destroying a worthy adversary. Honestly, I am not sure that I want to be emancipated from here yet...but, maybe I just need more sparring practice!

[Daeluin]

I can relate. I imagine many of us have been warriors many times. To me the key lies in fighting to not fight. Summoning the discipline to accept, have patience, to transform when I know it is time for things to change. To act and be instead of thinking and judging and second guessing. To shoot like an arrow instead of wavering in stagnation; but as a peaceful arrow, doing my best to follow where I am led and transform myself rather than presume upon my environment. Trusting my environment to do what it needs as I endeavor to improve and refine myself, and perhaps presenting an example to my environment. Trusting to my way as a peaceful warrior.

Great book by the way.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Daeluin

[Songtsan]

Well, if we really do come back again and again, then this world is essentially like some kind of 1st person video game. In that case, I see no reason not to go out and fight injustice, or to go out and do what thou wilst, even if it be injustice....in this case, all this dogma is just some kind of control system created by the elites, so that people won't wear their true hearts on their sleeves, and certain key players can maintain hegemony and build empires for their family line...

Edited May 15, 2015 by Songtsan