Fascinated by Taoism, slowly building discipline

[Marblehead]

10 hours ago, Limahong said:

Good morning Marblehead,

 

Don't quote me - I am just a wandering budding Taoist. No wonder you "wonder if I am seeing reality" because you misquoted.

 

Please just see whatever you are seeing.and keep it to yourself.

 

Pray don't  alter my current "version of it". I struggled very hard to be where I am now 'taoistically'. I don't want to be lost again.

 

So you wonder by yourself and I wander by myself.

 

At this moment there is no yin/yang marriage between wonder/wander, for me at least.

 

Goodbye ex-hero.

 

- LimA

 

 

 

Well, you did good.  You completely lost me with that post.  I will just let it go.

 

[Limahong]

On 4/10/2017 at 0:23 PM, samuel.savage said:

 

Humbly, I look for assistance!

 

Hi Samuel,

 

May I humbly asked if you have found the assistance you are looking for?

 

If not, what are you looking for actually/exactly?

 

If I go to the supermarket, I must know what I am looking for to make the trip there more worth the while.

 

- LimA

[Limahong]

Hi Marblehead,

 

Have you wondered, and still wondering, if samuel.savage has been humbly helped per whatever he is looking for?

 

I have started to wonder.

 

- LimA

[Marblehead]

2 hours ago, Limahong said:

Hi Marblehead,

 

Have you wondered, and still wondering, if samuel.savage has been humbly helped per whatever he is looking for?

 

I have started to wonder.

 

- LimA

I think there have been some wonderful efforts made to help Samuel along his journey.

 

In many cases what a new member needs more than anything else is for others to listen to them and at least acknowledge what they have said.  Suggestions and/or recommendations beyond that allows for the new member to feel more at home with us and thereby be more willing to ask their questions.

 

I think you are doing a great job at welcoming and trying to assist new member and others on the forum.  Please keep up the good work.

 

And don't be discouraged when you don't get recognition or thanks in return for your efforts.  Remember, we are supposed to be beyond praise and blame as much as possible.

 

Samuel will speak when he is ready.

 

[Limahong]

On 6/5/2017 at 7:19 AM, Marblehead said:

In many cases what a new member needs more than anything else is for others to listen to them and at least acknowledge what they have said.  Suggestions and/or recommendations beyond that allows for the new member to feel more at home with us and thereby be more willing to ask their questions.....Samuel will speak when he is ready.

 

 

Well said Marblehead.

 

I was just wondering if Samuel is still around, or if he has wandered away.

 

- LimA

[Marblehead]

Samuel was last online on 11 April.  

[Limahong]

Hi Marblehead,

 

Thank you.

 

Date of last posting is not a concern. What's more pertinent is if the originator is still around.

 

When I do a posting, I make it a point to go back to the initiating post once in a while. Don't want to go off-tangent.

 

But it will not make any sense to me if the originator is not present any more.

 

- LimA

 

[dawei]

23 hours ago, Limahong said:

Hi Marblehead,

 

Thank you.

 

Date of last posting is not a concern. What's more pertinent is if the originator is still around.

 

When I do a posting, I make it a point to go back to the initiating post once in a while. Don't want to go off-tangent.

 

But it will not make any sense to me if the originator is not present any more.

 

- LimA

 

 

What you are seeing, similar to teamdialetics, where that thread went to 3 pages without his return.. is that folks just don't come back.    I once did an analysis of how many members have less than 5 posts and the findings were shocking to me.   We implemented some changes over the last few years to try and encourage folks to stay but the fact is, that decision is theirs alone.

 

If the other thread went to 3 pages and I now split it off, then I would say there is no reason in this thread to worry about whether member is every coming back or not, as teamdialetics posted 1 time and never came back...   

 

In other words, carry on

[onelotus]

On 6/2/2017 at 1:25 PM, Limahong said:

When "what is" equals "reality", then:

(i) reality is non-dualistic

(ii) but thoughts on reality are dualistic.

 

Why is (ii) so?

 

Because thoughts on reality are coloured by:

(*) different situations

(**) different experiences of a situation

 

Yes/no to the above?

 

howdy, chiming in....  yes, thoughts are coloured... but because all the thoughts are projection, adornment of reality, they are not reality itself.  this doesnt mean one does not see reality but as soon as we project onto it or adorn it, it becomes a version of reality with a (proportionately?) distorted view.  

 

 

[Limahong]

Hi onelotus,

 

I understand where you are coming from; I agree that thoughts of/on REALITY are just projections of it.

 

No two moments of each of our life are the same, so no two thoughts of/on REALITY are the same?

 

But there are REAL objects that exist independently or our knowledge of their being. THEY are non-dualistic.

 

To OldSaint - "language always falls short when your trying to describe nondual things".

 

- LimA

[onelotus]

perhaps they, the "real" objects exist interdependently, lol...    

[Limahong]

Sure onelotus. The REAL objects do network among themselves (I humbly think so).

 

And we mortal beings follow suit.

 

Monkeys see, monkeys do.

 

- LimA

[Marblehead]

4 hours ago, onelotus said:

perhaps they, the "real" objects exist interdependently, lol...    

Funny.  Don't tell a Buddhist that.

 

[Limahong]

Hi Marblehead,

 

I am a budding Taoist/Buddhist philosophically.

 

What's wrong with onelotus telling me - "the 'real' objects exist interdependently"?

 

Are you trying to cause a drift between the two of us, so early in the morning?

 

It is 6:55am at my end.

 

- LimA

 

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2017 by Limahong
Correct typo error.

[Marblehead]

25 minutes ago, Limahong said:

 

What's wrong with onelotus telling me - "the 'real' objects exist interdependently"?

 

- LimA

 

That's more of an inside joke than anything else.  Many Buddhists cling tightly to the concept that nothing exists independently.  This hasn't been spoken to recently and this is likely why you missed the joke.

 

 

[Sudhamma]

Not quite right, Marblehaed, putting aside 'real objects' that exist because of pre-conditions, there is one that is non-created nor exist because of any pre-conditions that is Nibbana/Nirvana, the core of Buddhist belief. Nibbana is real enough for Buddhists. "Real objects" like our physical selves exist because of pre-conditions - parents, medical institutions, etc. A piece of furniture, is real enough but it can't exist without pre-conditions, wood, metals, wood-cutting machineries, the creativity of the furniture designer, and various interdependence of so many factors that bring about a piece of furniture. Even emotions or sentiments are dependent upon the existence of factors, before it can manifests and thus, impermanent. My apologies if this post is digressing from the OP. It is these pre-conditions of an object that also in its design the impermance of existence, the "real" object don't last over time. In one of the popular zen stories, the Zen-master asked his novice-monk whether he was real. The novice-monk immediately replied that the Zen-master was not real but only an illusion. The Zen-master took up his (sort of a large ruler) rod and gave a resounding wheck on the novice's shaven head, and asked, "Am I still an illusion?"

[Limahong]

Hi Marblehead,

 

I have come across monks/nuns who were deadpan when first introduced. But they let their  poker-faced veils down when friendship warmed.

 

They are hilarious with middle-path humour. Sometimes I can almost  see the glisten in their eyes when chanting and I walked by.

 

I like any good joke any time, 24/7.

 

- LimA

 

 

Edited June 9, 2017 by Limahong
Correct typo error.

[Marblehead]

8 hours ago, Sudhamma said:

Not quite right, Marblehaed, ...

Yeah, I know.  But then, I have never promised to be fair when talking about Buddhism or Buddhists. 

 

And really, I don't have sufficient knowledge to speak too much.  All I can say is that I tried learning about Buddhism but it just wasn't what I needed in my life.  For others it might be the best thing for their needs.

 

 

[Limahong]

Hi Marblehead,

 

There are significant philosophical common grounds shared by Taoism and Buddhism.

 

A rose by any other names is still a rose.

 

Let them bloom in your mindful garden.

 

- LimA

[Limahong]

On 6/8/2017 at 3:45 AM, dawei said:

There is no reason ... to worry about whether member is ever coming back or not ... In other words, carry on

 

Hi dawei

 

Will go with the flow wuwei-fully.

 

Unpolluted water flows forward.

 

- LimA

[Limahong]

18 hours ago, Sudhamma said:

Putting aside 'real objects' that exist because of pre-conditions, there is one that is non-created nor exist because of any pre-conditions that is Nibbana/Nirvana.

 

Hi Sudhamma,

 

Your PRE-CONDITIONS is quite encompassing. It is almost like starting a sentence with IF.

 

IF samuel.savage had not started this thread, we will not be where we are now.

 

IF Marblehead had not shared his inside joke with us outside, you would not  have bitten his bait.

 

IF you did not bite, then I will not bite sequentially thus.

 

IF the PRE-CONDITIONS are 'good', will my life be 'really good'?

 

Can we have any influence on PRE-CONDITIONS to make our lives better?

 

IF so, can you please share with us?

 

I cannot wait to re-PRE-CONDITION myself.

 

A great weekend.

 

- LimA

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sudhamma]

Hi Limahong, the Doctrine of Dependent Origination, Paticcasamupadda, is something like what you are asking. Yes, in a way you can "re-precondition" yourself for a better present and future life. In brief, the Buddhist Dictionary (by Ven. Nyanatiloka) explains it as "is the doctrine of the conditionality of all physical and psychical phenomena, a doctrine which, together with that of Impersonality (anatta), forms the indispensable condition for the real understanding and realization of the teaching of The Buddha. It shows the conditionality and dependent nature of the of the uninterrupted flux of manifold physical and psychical phenomena of existence conventionally called the Ego, or Man, or Animal, etc". 

6 hours ago, Limahong said:

IF the PRE-CONDITIONS are 'good', will my life be 'really good'?

The past karma pre-conditions the present life, yet the person has a choice in the present existence to take on a moral or immoral path which will alters those "pre-conditions". Nothing is fated.

 

Can we have any influence on PRE-CONDITIONS to make our lives better?

Yes, you have a choice to live a moral life which will alter one's inherited bad karma from past lives. The opposite is also true in that immoral or unwholesome actions will also alter one's good karma as well and change the course of the present and future lives.

 

 

 

[onelotus]

wow!!! was just writing on/reading the Great Discourse of Origination.... 12 Links and All... and pondering how selfishness and laziness keeps us swirling in what is not Nirvana, that is fabricated reality... including name, form, formlessness etc... labeling, craving grasping, potential existence and birth... etc.. Anybody got any ideas on how to break the chain of cyclic existence.. ?  

 

om  teehee

[Marblehead]

8 hours ago, onelotus said:

Anybody got any ideas on how to break the chain of cyclic existence.. ?  

 

om  teehee

A nine-pound hammer might do it.

 

[Limahong]

Hi Marblehead,

 

As a lotus, I believe onelotus will be too delicate to handle any hammer.

 

A nine pounder? Forget it.

 

Instead can onelotus use 'jing + qi + shen' to break the chain of cyclic existence.. ?

 

- LimA