Is it the duty of a Taoist to protect Nature?

[Golden Dragon Shining]

Was this directed at me? "This idea that humanity stands alone as being destructive and bad, is basically a form of self loathing."

I never blamed humanity, I am very much against self loathing, I did say "I lay blame entirely on the religions of Abraham.  Deserts on multiple levels seem to follow these religions."

In order to solve problems we have to first see them, then act. This is basically my solution...

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 80

A small country has fewer people.
Though there are machines that can work ten to a hundred times faster
     than man, they are not needed.
The people take death seriously and do not travel far.
Though they have boats and carriages, no on uses them.
Though they have armor and weapons, no one displays them.
Men return to the knotting of rope in place of writing.
Their food is plain and good, their clothes fine but simple,
     their homes secure;
They are happy in their ways.
Though they live within sight of their neighbors,
And crowing cocks and barking dogs are heard across the way,
Yet they leave each other in peace while they grow old and die.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Sionnach

[Stosh]

Not in particular. At the time I was keying on dustys last lines.

[dust]

But good point in the majority/minority thing. But I guess there's another angle: how much do I really know about the environment being sat behind a computer screen?

 

As much as we know about anything, I guess..

 

For all my experience tells me -- second hand experience, seeing photos/video online -- ISIS is just a group of weird blokes who like driving tanks, wearing black, and making death threats. I haven't seen the extent of power they're said to hold, how cruel they are, I haven't been to the region to see how far it goes... but I also don't think it's a big conspiracy (not that you're saying the environmental stuff is a conspiracy -- but some people are..)

 

Occasionally, I've thought about it in terms of where I live. First-hand experience of waste, energy use, etc.

 

- look at my home, and how much I throw away, and how much energy I use each day, etc;

- and then look along my street, and how much is being wasted, and how much land is needed to produce animals and other food just for these few hundred people, and how many trees have been cut down just for the paper and palm oil and farmland etc, and from how many countries it's come from and how far it's travelled, and how much energy everyone is using, etc;

- and then look at the whole city, and multiply the street by thousands;

- and then look at the country, and multiply the city by thousands;

- and then look at the world, and multiply the country by a lot more.

 

And if every city in the world was like this one (a relatively green place), that'd be bad enough (just in terms of the human population)... but lots of cities are way worse than this one...

[Rara]

As much as we know about anything, I guess..

 

For all my experience tells me -- second hand experience, seeing photos/video online -- ISIS is just a group of weird blokes who like driving tanks, wearing black, and making death threats. I haven't seen the extent of power they're said to hold, how cruel they are, I haven't been to the region to see how far it goes... but I also don't think it's a big conspiracy (not that you're saying the environmental stuff is a conspiracy -- but some people are..)

 

Occasionally, I've thought about it in terms of where I live. First-hand experience of waste, energy use, etc.

 

- look at my home, and how much I throw away, and how much energy I use each day, etc;

- and then look along my street, and how much is being wasted, and how much land is needed to produce animals and other food just for these few hundred people, and how many trees have been cut down just for the paper and palm oil and farmland etc, and from how many countries it's come from and how far it's travelled, and how much energy everyone is using, etc;

- and then look at the whole city, and multiply the street by thousands;

- and then look at the country, and multiply the city by thousands;

- and then look at the world, and multiply the country by a lot more.

 

And if every city in the world was like this one (a relatively green place), that'd be bad enough (just in terms of the human population)... but lots of cities are way worse than this one...

Very true. And the fact that people who claim to know so much (conspiracy theorists OR people that just read a lot of news) are always battling more to gave their voice heard more than anything.

 

For example, two extremes:

 

Climate change being a massive problem and we face extinction in the next 50 years Vs It's all a big conspiracy and not actually happening.

 

If I had to pick a side, I still couldn't because quite frankly, I don't know anything for sure. If I read a lot of media that convinced me that climate change was a big problem that would wipe us out in 50 years, and kept feeding myself this, wanting to believe it, then I would. Then I'd become an activist in a way...or at least preach my arse off all over the internet.

 

Meanwhile, I don't know for sure. But it doesn't really put me out to turn lights off when I'm not in the room, only use my car for necessary journeys and use the recycling bin etc.

 

Then I walk down my local high street late a night to see all the shops lit up. Whether this is as damaging as we could imagine, that's a maybe. But when I did a bit of work with an environmental campaign group (government funded - I have a right mix of work clients!) they would campaign to "regular people" because it's more effective. More people listen and apply where corporations kind of get a free pass to waste a bit more because it's a lot more manageable for them. The rest of us can make up the shortfall, which I don't really have a problem with as like I say, it's not too much effort.

 

If high street shops can be lit up at night, if I just need to do my bit and the world will still be fine, then no problemo.

 

The governments aren't panicking just yet. And I'd like to think that they have enough expert advisors on hand that are telling them where the threshold actually is.

[dust]

If I had to pick a side, I still couldn't because quite frankly, I don't know anything for sure. If I read a lot of media that convinced me that climate change was a big problem that would wipe us out in 50 years, and kept feeding myself this, wanting to believe it, then I would. Then I'd become an activist in a way...or at least preach my arse off all over the internet.

 

I don't know about the extinction timeline, but it's pretty apparent to me that anthropogenic climate change is a problem. And even if we can't see this from our daily lives and a little common sense, 97% of actively publishing climate scientists agree... according to NASA! The ones who put humans on the moon! They know a thing or 2 about a thing or 2!

 

And while the idea of human extinction (and general extinction) saddens me, it's the stuff happening right now that bothers me the most. The ways in which we are currently harming ourselves and each other and billions/trillions of other animals, making life more painful and less healthy for ourselves, etc. So I preach a little over the internet, and also in person to anyone who is willing to have a conversation about it!

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I don't know for sure. But it doesn't really put me out to turn lights off when I'm not in the room, only use my car for necessary journeys and use the recycling bin etc.

 

Exactly.

 

 

Then I walk down my local high street late a night to see all the shops lit up. Whether this is as damaging as we could imagine, that's a maybe. But when I did a bit of work with an environmental campaign group (government funded - I have a right mix of work clients!) they would campaign to "regular people" because it's more effective. More people listen and apply where corporations kind of get a free pass to waste a bit more because it's a lot more manageable for them. The rest of us can make up the shortfall, which I don't really have a problem with as like I say, it's not too much effort.

 

Yeah.

 

I don't know how it works everywhere, but as I understand it, while recycling collection is free for homes, companies have to pay for commercial recycling (and many don't want to) -- which means a lot of shit is still going into the landfills which doesn't need to be.

 

But also, we are all responsible for what corporations do. We can't lay sole blame on faceless entities -- really, we are them. Public corporations account for nearly 67% of VAT/PAYE-based enterprises in the UK, which means a lot of people work for them and/or rely on them and/or pay them for things.

 

And businesses respond to consumer demand, which means if we all decided to support 'ethical' businesses, 'unethical' ones would start to fail or change. But most people don't. Even perfect little me. (sarcasm!). I just bought a can of Diet Coke!

 

The governments aren't panicking just yet. And I'd like to think that they have enough expert advisors on hand that are telling them where the threshold actually is.

 

Many governments are doing their best to agree to reduce climate change, and some to actually reduce it... but they're also having to appease all the citizens who wouldn't vote for them if they were actually to say "Look, guys, shit is fucked up, and we all need to stop doing most of the shit we're doing or our grandchildren will grow up only knowing the colour grey."

 

I voted Green last election not because I agree with everything the party would do, or because I think they'd run an effective government, but because being 'green' is the single most important thing any of us can be doing!

[Jim D.]

Back on point: If a Daoist is a fundamentalist, he might say to himself it is what it is, and go back to meditating.

[vonkrankenhaus]

Many people are doing what they've been told to about conserving, for example, electricity.

 

They shut things off when not using, etc.

 

They purchase mercury-laced lightbulbs that turn their home into a toxic waste dump if they break, and that emit "dirty electricity" when they run.

 

But residential and commercial use of electricity is something like 8% - 15% of total electric power use.

 

By far, the most electricity is being used to produce aluminum for industry.

 

Are they interested in stopping or conserving?

 

No, not really.

 

They are apparently just spraying tons and tons of the stuff out of airplanes onto the people who are trying to conserve in their electrical usage.

 

 

 

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[Jim D.]

I see my neighbors putting stuff out at the curb for recycling. It is amazing how much stuff can be used and discarded in a week. I think that I may be one of few that will stop while I am walking my dog, and pick up a piece of paper, or a plastic container and make sure it gets back into the recycling bin in front of someones house, or mine. The gardeners will just run over these items with their machines. I have suggested to the Home Owners Association to employ their maintenance crews to Police the grounds for disgarded paper and plastic items. No response.

 

So, I do my part to keep Earth free of debris.

 

There is a Buddhist Temple near me. I have never noticed the Abbot or her disciples out there working on the grounds. But yet, the grounds are manicured. Lots of property there...wooded area and open field in front of the Temple.

 

Maybe it is not a requirement to walk the talk.

[Rara]

 

I don't know about the extinction timeline, but it's pretty apparent to me that anthropogenic climate change is a problem. And even if we can't see this from our daily lives and a little common sense, 97% of actively publishing climate scientists agree... according to NASA! The ones who put humans on the moon! They know a thing or 2 about a thing or 2!

 

And while the idea of human extinction (and general extinction) saddens me, it's the stuff happening right now that bothers me the most. The ways in which we are currently harming ourselves and each other and billions/trillions of other animals, making life more painful and less healthy for ourselves, etc. So I preach a little over the internet, and also in person to anyone who is willing to have a conversation about it!

 

 

 

 

Exactly.

 

 

 

Yeah.

 

I don't know how it works everywhere, but as I understand it, while recycling collection is free for homes, companies have to pay for commercial recycling (and many don't want to) -- which means a lot of shit is still going into the landfills which doesn't need to be.

 

But also, we are all responsible for what corporations do. We can't lay sole blame on faceless entities -- really, we are them. Public corporations account for nearly 67% of VAT/PAYE-based enterprises in the UK, which means a lot of people work for them and/or rely on them and/or pay them for things.

 

And businesses respond to consumer demand, which means if we all decided to support 'ethical' businesses, 'unethical' ones would start to fail or change. But most people don't. Even perfect little me. (sarcasm!). I just bought a can of Diet Coke!

 

 

Many governments are doing their best to agree to reduce climate change, and some to actually reduce it... but they're also having to appease all the citizens who wouldn't vote for them if they were actually to say "Look, guys, shit is fucked up, and we all need to stop doing most of the shit we're doing or our grandchildren will grow up only knowing the colour grey."

 

I voted Green last election not because I agree with everything the party would do, or because I think they'd run an effective government, but because being 'green' is the single most important thing any of us can be doing!

Very balanced and a good read. Thank you.

 

Can't argue with NASA (Except conspiracy theorists who claim there was no moon landing. And apparently the earth is flat now)

 

See, how are humans ever going to agree?

 

And I too like my Diet Coke hehe.

 

But in summary of the question of this thread, and you may not agree as you seem to have maybe a hint of "Captain Planet" about you but it is not a Taoist duty to protect nature...a Taoist wouldn't consciously harm nature anyway.

 

I would say lead by example...

 

...and I understand that the Tao will have its Way, and we will pull together some how, some way, should we need to take extra measures to save man and animal kind from extinction.

 

The dinosaurs probably thought that too but hey ho.

[Daeluin]

What is protecting nature? What is nature?

 

There is a daoist saying, do nothing and let everything be done.

 

To me, this means to set one's intention upon the heart and balance of all things, to hold to unity, and make all decisions based on this. Further, avoid the making of contrived decisions. Just allow life to present choices, and follow in the direction that leads closer to the heart, closer to harmony, closer to the unity of all things.

 

Yesterday a housemate asked me if her costume for a laser-tag party looked OK. Wow, a costumed laser party, how great! But I didn't once think it'd be nice to go to it, I just flowed with the moment. I don't have FB or anything like that; I just trust the universe to send me where I need to be. That night there were a whole bunch of old bananas for sale in the co-op on discount, so I bought them knowing our house likes to freeze them, and I peeled and froze them all that night.

 

Today I got my work done, and then a visitor showed up at our house. We were both like "hey I know you!" and she invited me to the laser tag party and asked if I could bring ice-cream. I asked if vegan ice cream would be OK and she said sure and I food-processed some banana-avocado-almondmilk-cocopowder-sugar-cinnamon and it was done.

 

It all just fell into place without my contriving our desiring for anything. The more I cultivate myself the more this type of easy harmonizing occurs. Is nurturing harmony in all things not also nurturing nature? Is being full of judgment about right and wrong decisions not nurturing conflict and thus creating separation within nature? We all emerge from different perspectives, how can there be any absolute right or wrongs except those from our own perspectives? All humans have a large impact upon non-human ecosystems. How do I know which ones my nurturance of will lead to the greater destruction or healing of this nature? To me it is as simple as setting my intention to include the harmony of all, not just human things, and taking step after step toward closer flow with dao.

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

So obviously because Daoism happened in an era before ecological activism was a thing, there are no Daoist texts about saving the environment.  One thing is for sure though, the Daoist use of things is thrifty, which is written right into Dao De Jing, Wu Zhen Pian, and almost every other Daoist text that advises people not to be greedy.

If you always think there is a surplus, there will actually be a deficit.  If you always act as though there is a deficit, you are more likely to always have enough.   Knowing how much is enough is a great way to protect the natural environment around us.

[Geof Nanto]

I was a city dweller for the first half of my life. Then in 1994 I undertook a solo year long journey into some of the remote wilderness places of Central Australia and the Kimberley region.  I camped for weeks at a time in remote places of powerful presence. My clumsy words (below) could never do justice to the great transformative power of immersion in nature. I say experience it yourself while it still can be found – for some of us, it is our greatest teacher.  On my return I packed up my belongings and moved permanently away from the city. I acquired some forested semi-wilderness acres and have cared for it as a wilderness sanctuary for the last 20 years. Or, more correctly, the land has helped heal me.

 

Emptiness

When the thought-train that binds loosens its grip

When stillness comes

When the inside merges outside

Mind expands into the universe

 

What fear it brings to feel what's human slipping away

And a primal vastness

Without time or boundaries

Glimpsed in its majesty

Brings such joy to being alive

 

 

Dust to dazzling

Splendours from the Dreamtime

Nurtured and strengthened for thousands of years

By the ones we've shamed as stone-age primitives

 

Us 'white-fellas" come along

Blind and hungry, eating up

Always wanting more

 

Our Earth our mother we give no thought

only our own pleasures, never ending

Relieving our discomfort

By taking, taking, taking, from you

 

You tolerate us, though we harm you

We are your children

Silly destructive children

Needy lost children

Children of science

Bringers of sickness

Dealers in death

Edited July 20, 2016 by Yueya

[Kar3n]

In my humble opinion, Taoist or not, it is the duty of every human being to preserve whatever they can. I and my family spend a lot of time out doors, we come upon places that have been littered and abused, we clean it up.

 

It should not take spirituality or some sort of awakening to keep all that is precious that our earth gives us clean and pure.

[Jim D.]

Not taking care of this Earth is like feeding out of code milk to your child, and then tossing the empty carton into  their crib, expecting them to recycle it.

[Golden Dragon Shining]

"There is a daoist saying, do nothing and let everything be done."

If I wanted to rule the world it would make things a lot easier with people having this idea.

Do nothing, keep paying your taxes

  Edited July 21, 2016 by Sionnach

[Daeluin]

So obviously because Daoism happened in an era before ecological activism was a thing, there are no Daoist texts about saving the environment. 

 

I like how Daoism is ever absorbing the beliefs of the time. It doesn't stick to its own dogma and resist outside beliefs, but rather shows how those beliefs are also connected to dao.

 

Like with Confucianism and the idea of filial piety. It is important that we respect the delicate bonds between our relationships. We don't necessarily need to follow them to the letter described by confucian texts, but we can easily see that following the principle of those texts helps us all to nurture each other.

 

Two thousand years ago it may not have seemed important to protect nature, but today we can easily see how this idea of filial piety is in principle about nurturing the whole web of life, not just the human web of life. Today we understand how delicate ecosystems are and how the loss of a single, seemingly insignificant species can have a catastrophic impact upon the entire support system. Today we recognize that these ecosystems are in quite the delicate balance, something that took a long time for nature to refine.

 

It is a blessing to be here on this planet, so thriving with life. The diversity of life on this planet is what allows us so much possibility. Life is a blending of spirit and matter, and we have yet to find other planets where it thrives like it does here. Nurturing the harmony and refining the balance is something humans are able to take a very direct part of, yet it is difficult for us to recognize this when we are blinded by self-serving agendas.

 

"There is a daoist saying, do nothing and let everything be done."

 

If I wanted to rule the world it would make things a lot easier with people having this idea.

 

Do nothing, keep paying your taxes

 

Indeed, I wonder what would happen if everyone stopped paying their taxes? Would that be better for the environment? Change to government will come too as we nurture it in a harmonious direction, one of rule more by principle rather than law. But this takes time. Destroying what we don't like does not mean what we like is going to replace it. More often there is a regression.

 

Paying taxes is not a very big burden. In humility and frugality we are able to survive on very little, and taxes are very little. It is greed that comes with a bigger price tag. Do we really need everything we want?

[dust]

But in summary of the question of this thread, and you may not agree as you seem to have maybe a hint of "Captain Planet" about you but it is not a Taoist duty to protect nature...a Taoist wouldn't consciously harm nature anyway.

 

Captain Planet was the shit!

 

No, a Taoist won't generally do harm to nature on any large scale, and there's nothing in the Laozi or Zhuangzi about 'protecting' nature, and Zhuangzi even probably would laugh at me and tell me to take things as they come, Heaven, Earth, and I were produced together, and all things and I are one, etc.

 

I haven't read most of the Daoist canon but I'd imagine there's nothing in there about 'protecting' nature.

 

But 2000 years ago Taoists weren't worrying about anthropogenic climate change at least partly because the very concept would have been inconceivable. I don't believe anyone in the world at that time would have have the idea that eventually our technology would become so powerful and we would populate so much that we'd have the power to obliterate most life on the planet. Nobody at that time even knew what was on the other side of the planet...

 

We must allow that nature is harsh and that every living thing dies, but we might also allow that, if the ideal is Free and Easy Wandering, Daoists and Christians alike have a duty to say "Please stop pouring shit into the ocean," or whatever...

 

edit: just noticed that Daeluin and sillybear said pretty much the same thing. Ah well.

Edited July 21, 2016 by dustybeijing

[Daeluin]

Speaking out is not always necessary either.

 

By being the change we want to be, by living life so that our actions are nurturing nature rather than contributing to its destruction, we draw others in our wake naturally, without telling them what they should do.

[dust]

Speaking out is not always necessary either.

 

By being the change we want to be, by living life so that our actions are nurturing nature rather than contributing to its destruction, we draw others in our wake naturally, without telling them what they should do.

 

I'd like to believe that, but... it is, to me at least, evidently not the case at this point.

 

Most people have little idea of the extent of the damage we're all doing. The only way a large enough number of people are ever going to learn a thing they don't want to learn is when those who see its importance stand up and talk about it.

 

I'm convinced of certain things now that I had no idea about a year ago. I would still be in the dark if certain people hadn't made their voices heard.

Edited July 21, 2016 by dustybeijing

[Jim D.]

We were born on to this Planet. It is a good idea not crap on the place where you live, at least where you are standing. If someone were to ask me what I am, I couldn't truthgully tell them. I am just me living here and in the last phase of my life. I have taken out the garbage, flush the toilet, eat food, breathed in air, let out air, gotten older looking, and the Earth is still here, and will be here in the future, maybe a little different, but not much different. In the final analysis,  if we manage to kill ourselves off, there won't be the question of:

 

Who should pick up what!

[Daeluin]

I'd like to believe that, but... it is, to me at least, evidently not the case at this point.

 

Most people have little idea of the extent of the damage we're all doing. The only way a large enough number of people are ever going to learn a thing they don't want to learn is when those who see its importance stand up and talk about it.

 

I'm convinced of certain things now that I had no idea about a year ago. I would still be in the dark if certain people hadn't made their voices heard.

 

 

I hear this, and I feel this is a common conclusion to come to.

 

I am trying to keep reminding myself that what humanity has done in the course of 2 thousand years, and especially in the past 200, marks a very short time frame. If humans are unable to correct their unsustainable patterns, they will just as quickly disappear.

 

From the perspective that these things will take care of themselves, our personal role should just be a matter of karmic balance. Are we contributing more to harmony than we have to destruction?

 

And if we try to change others, are we doing it in such a way as to promote harmony, or in such a way that awakens negativity and conflict in people? If we are telling others what they are doing is wrong, will they also take the perspective of looking externally and judging right from wrong?

 

Personally I feel that the world is overwhelmed with external judgments, and this is part of the destructive forces at work. I feel that we need more acceptance, more trust, so that we may awaken and return to more flow and navigation from the heart rather than the intellect. The mentalization of spiritual energy is a large factor in the destruction of the environment. Ley lines that connect nodes of converging qi in the environment are closed off and sometimes dead because human activity siphons away these natural flows, stagnating and dampening the spiritual cleansing functions of our planet. More people need to awaken to spiritual dynamics, and then there will be much natural clarity on how we are contributing to the destruction of naturalness.

 

So of course there are many perspectives. I like to remind myself of the principle that opposing something often tends to maintain it. To grow beyond this paradox requires going beyond the horizontal dynamic and evolving in a more vertical sense. Zhuangzi says we can only ever know ourselves from the inside out, and all else from the outside in, and uses this argument to demonstrate the futility of external jugments and agendas. We can only really know what is right or wrong for us, and working towards our own spiritual maturity helps us to continuously become more aware of what we don't know we don't know.

 

If everyone around you is sad, does becoming sad at their sadness make them happy?

If you are able to absorb their sadness and transform it into happiness within you, does that happiness not then tug upon their sadness?

 

 

A good healer sees a sick person and focuses in that direction to heal them.

A great healer radiates healing in all directions unconditionally, simply by maintaining their high level of refined personal integrity.

[Daeluin]

17

 

The greatest type of ruler is one of whose existence

the people are hardly aware.

Next best is a leader who is loved and praised.

Next comes the one who is feared.

The worst is the one who is despised.

When a leader doesn’t trust the people,

they will become untrustworthy.

The best leader speaks little.

He never speaks carelessly.

He works without self interest

and leaves no trace.

When the work is accomplished,

the people say: “Amazing:

we did it all by ourselves.”

 

57

 

The more regulations there are, 
The poorer people become. 
The more people own lethal weapons, 
The more darkened are the country and clans. 
The more clever the people are, 
The more extraordinary actions they take. 
The more picky the laws are, 
The more thieves and gangsters there are. 
Therefore the sages say: 
"I do not force my way and the people transform themselves. 
I enjoy my serenity and the people correct themselves. 
I do not interfere and the people enrich themselves. 
I have no desires
And the people find their original mind.

 

 

 

 

Some of this might seem like wishful thinking, but I feel it is describing the higher application of spiritual principles. The more regulations and restrictions and cleverness there is, the more the people work against each other, and thereby against the environment, against naturalness, in increasingly extreme ways. The more trust and acceptance there is, the more we approach everything being naturally self-so.

 

We can see that the approach to this is not immediate, but comes over time, with gradual progress. Certainly there are actions that may be very effective and more directly taken, in such a way as allows others to want to change their ways from the inside out rather than thinking they are being forced to change from the outside in.

[Jim D.]

Here is a challenge to all the Doa Bums who check our Forums. Can we have a show of hands of those that are taking care of the environment and how so? In other words, who is walking the talk?

 

I will start:

 

1. If there is a thread in the carpet, I will pick it up and put it in the garbage
2. If I find plastic, or cardboard, or discarded plastic bottles, I will pick it up and recycle it.
3. I recycle the plastic wine bag with the spout on it (box wine). I will rinse out the plastic bag and use siscors to cut of the spout to recycle that.
4. Cigarette butts are thrown in a "butt can" and then thrown in the plastic garbage bag for garbage day.
5. I will take off the hindges on a discarded door, put the door in the garbage, and recycle the hindges

[Daeluin]

1. I live in 100sq foot room I built myself somewhat from lumber found in a dumpster from a nearby very large apartment construction site. The property is part of an old house a dear friend of mine purchased, which I've been helping to renovate. It's taken a lot of work over the past 2 years but feels really good to be in now. Instead of dry-wall we used something called re-wall that is a similar, perhaps more structural product made from recycled tetra-packs (think milk-cartons). All of the paint and such was sourced so that it does not give off fumes and a lot of effort was made to properly insulate the house to avoid wasted power generation to compensate for leaks. All in all 100 sq feet is great for me, given that I have access to facilities in the main house. It is private and has enough room for me to meditate and do martial arts (there are some built-in shelves along the walls but the floor is clear and open). I am currently working on building a fence around it using locust posts from dead trees we cut down on our property and bamboo I found on craigslist on someone's property where it had frozen some winter and needed someone to cut it down and take it away.
2. The above allows us to live a more community-centric lifestyle. Other outdwellings could be built to easily add members onto our community. We all put in money towards shared groceries, which drastically lowers our food costs, and we cook at least 2 meals a week as a group together, which prevents waste, saves on utilities, etc, etc. We make an effort to check various dumpsters to prevent food waste. If you are not aware, there is a lot of wasted food in the west, often because of expense/liability reasons. It is more expensive to make sure the food goes to someone hungry while following regulations than it is to simply throw it away. Bakery dumpsters very commonly have plastic bags full of clean, 2-4 day old bread in their dumpsters. There is a discount food store nearby that commonly throws away large batches of expire hummus, orange juice, feta cheese, yogurt, well you name it... often because the expiration date has been reached. It is very important to exercise proper judgment when deciding whether food in a dumpster is safe to eat. Is it clean? Does it smell OK? Is the expiration date within reason? How long was it exposed to heat? Is the seal broken? And of course washing it after you get it home, and freezing things if you get too many of them. Common sense. When we aren't dumpstering we like purchasing local organic food - food that didn't harm the earth with pesticides or travel from other countries to get to us... though that's kinda hard to do living in the US. We're blessed to live in an area where there is considerable momentum towards supporting local farmers. We're also working on gardening on our land and building a greenhouse, and will probably implement a greywater system at some point down the road, as well as invest in some form of solar/wind power as that becomes more viable for us. We also compost all of our food waste and recycle, of course. Our trash is usually a 20th of our recycling, sometimes because we are recycling a lot of containers from food found in the dumpster, so in a sense recycling and composting other people's waste for them too! Makes it a lot easier since we are sharing these responsibilities.
3. We don't use AC, but try to utilize proper use of windows to keep the house cool in the summer, warm in the winter, though we do use heat.
4. We are investigating setting up an out-door kitchen with things like a solar stove, or maybe using a cooler with towels to keep hot food slow-cooking without electricity. Often things like this are more difficult because they require a change in our accustomed behavior than they are actually difficult to implement.
5. We've used composting toilets here before and are investigating doing so more. This is one of those things that needs to be done right, as proper sanitation is very important. But done right, there is much less stress put on the environment at no cost to cleanliness. The guys in the house frequently (and discretely) urinate outside to save water.
6. I don't turn lights on just to see where I'm walking. I like the challenge of trying to feel my way around without my eyes, it helps me hone my non-visual senses better at the same time saves on electricity.
7. I stopped driving my car about a year ago. I live close enough to most everything I need to walk, and can bike to things further away. When I need to go to the hardware store for random building materials I'll take the bus. Feels a little funny carrying a couple cans of paint or a 16 pound pike post-hole bar on the bus but whatever.
8. Whatever nature I am surrounded by I try to offer proper respect and awareness of. I listen to the birds, watch the wind play through the trees. The other night I woke up at 3am and was doing qigong when an opossum wandered by, startling us both in the dark. It climbed up a tree that left it with nowhere to go and we were both left in this awkward silence. I made myself relax and backed away and returned to doing qigong, and it, feeling that my attention wasn't upon it any more backed down from the tree and wandered away into the night.
9. I take bugs out when they get trapped inside.
10. I like to watch the moon and the sun, the clouds and the stars whenever I can remind myself to get away from the computer. I feel that connecting awareness to nature is a part of integrating in nature. If the natural flows around us aren't second nature to us, how are we going to make proper decisions about protecting nature? It is bad enough most of us seal ourselves off in homes rather than being a part of the whole real world around us.
11. I pretty much only buy clothes from thrift stores, and don't have many of them. I don't have a lot of stuff in general. Sometimes a pair of pants I like, or my backpack gets a hole in it and I sew a patch on or fix a zipper rather than throwing it out. In general I don't like the idea of planned obsolescence and research the things I purchase so I know they'll be with me for a long time to come without ending up in a landfill somewhere.  In a way this gives my clothes more character and sentimentality. I chose them to last, and so they wear well, and a patch here and there just adds to their value as far as I am concerned.
12. One of my biggest challenges, is working to avoid eating more than I need, and consuming things that buffer me from deeper awareness of my environment. Recently I've discovered that the body creates phlegm when it is fed more of something than it can easily process, and phlegm acts like an enegetic buffer. Many of these things are very common in the western diet: coffee, sugar, eggs, dairy, processed foods, alcohol. It is difficult, but I am beginning to recognize how I tend to want to run away towards these things, for they help me buffer myself from being more clearly in the moment, being responsible for who I am. But I'm tired of running away, why do I need to buffer myself from who I really am?
13. Finally I am working on my spiritual development so that I may better nurture and support the world I live in. The more I progress along this route the healthier and stronger I become, having more energy to nurture the things I care about and needing less support from the mainstream paradigms.

 

The above didn't happen over night, but step by step over many years, making choices that led here naturally. There is no right or wrong path or lifestyle - it is just about responding with integrity to what is right in front of us in the present moment.

[Rara]

Captain Planet was the shit!

 

No, a Taoist won't generally do harm to nature on any large scale, and there's nothing in the Laozi or Zhuangzi about 'protecting' nature, and Zhuangzi even probably would laugh at me and tell me to take things as they come, Heaven, Earth, and I were produced together, and all things and I are one, etc.

 

I haven't read most of the Daoist canon but I'd imagine there's nothing in there about 'protecting' nature.

 

But 2000 years ago Taoists weren't worrying about anthropogenic climate change at least partly because the very concept would have been inconceivable. I don't believe anyone in the world at that time would have have the idea that eventually our technology would become so powerful and we would populate so much that we'd have the power to obliterate most life on the planet. Nobody at that time even knew what was on the other side of the planet...

 

We must allow that nature is harsh and that every living thing dies, but we might also allow that, if the ideal is Free and Easy Wandering, Daoists and Christians alike have a duty to say "Please stop pouring shit into the ocean," or whatever...

 

edit: just noticed that Daeluin and sillybear said pretty much the same thing. Ah well.

Yes but Dealuin and sillybear are on the same page still so we could be on our way to a consensus

 

And right about LZ and Zhuangzi, the general base which I like to refer to. This way we can avoid distorting our opinions with the complexity of building on top of ideas. Whenever something arises, something comes along to counter it. This is a rule for all things, and I suppose, the law of yin and yang.

 

The books don't tell you what you should do, but both LZ and Zhuangzu agree on the fact that we use resources...just in a conservative and sensible manner.

 

If one is a genuine Taoist, they would do the same.

 

They would also say, "you are what you are". And if you are one to go and protect nature, so be it! And good for you

Edited July 21, 2016 by Rara