Limahong Posted June 17, 2017 2 hours ago, Limahong said: With one hand on the hexagram and one hand on the girl I balance on a wishing well that all men call the world. Hi ilminal_luke, I see the word 'hexagram' in the above quotation. Was Cohen into I Ching? Was he a Taoist? - LimA Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted June 18, 2017 (edited) Apology. Edited June 18, 2017 by Limahong I deleted the repeated post. Don't know what's going on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted June 18, 2017 (edited) Apology. Edited June 18, 2017 by Limahong I deleted the repeated post. Don't know what's going on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted June 18, 2017 (edited) Hi oranssi, The following is your post. I will try and respond categorically in blue. There goes: Hello Limahong, my position is difficult to describe, but is very simple. It is so difficult to describe that it can only be lived "Difficult" - yet "very simple" -- yet again "so difficult". "It can only be lived" - but of course. Just live on - the way you deem fit. I don't really know what to say to "justify" my stance.. But I can try a little, by exposing a bit of my past. No need to "justify" because it is your own life. "But I can try a little, by exposing a bit of my past" - thank you. I am a self-taught enthusiast on philosophical Daoism. "Self-taught" and "philosophical" - clean approach and self-cleansing. Self motivated. Some 20 years ago I first read about Tao te Ching and understood nothing. From then 'til now I might have read it dozens of times and I don't get the last chapters mostly because it has no interest for me. The first chapters are what it is all about, in my opinion, and that (I think) I get it. More about this later. The last ones I see it to be more about a kind of "derivative recommendations" of the mystery. Tenacious, transparent and self-defining. Since then there was always the elusive true truth, that I guess everyone tries to get in his / her own soul search. Yes it is true, very "elusive". To each - his/her own. Of course I'm an enthusiast of the traditional martial arts (self-taught) and the like. Again - self motivated. But my curiosity took me to the inner confabulations of the mind. Self motivation starts from within one's own self? Yes/no? I studied various types of meditations, one of which I am relatively successful and that is astral projections. After many adventuring in this astral "themepark" and because my mental mechanism was influenced by daoism philosophy, although I didn't understood completely, I came to understand it thru the practice of meditation. Self-taught, self-motivated, self-assessed, self-regulated, ... Very good way of finding yourself - very self-sufficient and not selfish with yourself. If I am grounded despite the constant contradictions? No problem. Or better, it is a problem, but it is not a problem being a problem. Very 'problematic' as in diplomatic. You see, I'm attempting in describing a fractal. That is what everything is, a fractal, until you reach the unfathomable mystery. Just check Wikipedia on "fractal". "In mathematics a fractal is an abstract object used to describe and simulate naturally occurring objects. Artificially created fractals commonly exhibit similar patterns at increasingly small scales". And this I realised could only be attained if I become mystery, and mystery only hold itself if there is paradox. So I am paradox, I am alpha and omega. Fractal => mystery => paradox => alpha and omega - can be equated with: oranssi => Taoism => paradoxes => yin and yang? Yes/no? Well since I'm writing this... and this is the internets.. I am in a state of nirvana or samadhi. O My God! Can I join you? Please. This is not only intellectually understood. Of course life gets me sometimes and I get sad, but I remind me (thru the aphorisms I write for myself) that the joke is on me by me (God, Infinity, Paradox, Universe). Self-joker? Sister (Bro') - you are a true self-survivor. God, Infinity, Paradox, Universe - please give way to oranssi. So in the end I realise that this all makes part of the same mystery, and so I accept because it's me. How can I not accept me?! Of course not! You must accept yourself - totally and selflessly (since God, Infinity, Paradox, Universe have already given way). There is no other way. Believe me - I am a mystery cracker and decoder. Don't make me sad - self-acceptance is everything. But it is not any kind of acceptance. It is not resigned. It is a desireful acceptance. It is one that makes me feel transparent. It couldn't be any different when it's supposed to hurt, the script says it hurts. But of course. You know better - no pain, no gain. I see the Universe / Infinity / Dao / Mystery / Nature as a Child that is playing with all its toys. When the Child picks me, the house and the car, am I the child or is the child me? Don't be silly. Of course you are the child the Child picks. Just be child-like (and not childish) and everything will be just fine. To be a paradox it has to be a make-believe, but it isn't any kind of make-believe. It is an unfeigned make-believe. You believe everything you make, right? So? So it is make-believe. I believe you will not make anything you don't believe, right? Of course I am right! Who wants to waste life and live wrong, right? How can I attain illumination? Sorry, I have not the faintest idea. Maybe Marblehead can help; he wonders a lot. But be wary; he can be weary at times. Maybe no one told me it is supposed to be difficult (unfortunately I never had the opportunity to have a teacher). Teacher? Come on - you are self-taught. Don't be selfish - leave the teachers to others. I hope people don't take serious what I have written, and I really really hope you got a laugh out of this, because this is the Cosmic Joke. I take you very seriously, yet I laugh. Why? You are infinite zero. It is now 4:10am at my end. Time for me to self-sleep. A Cosmic good night. - LimA Edited June 18, 2017 by Limahong Correct typo error 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
liminal_luke Posted June 18, 2017 22 hours ago, Limahong said: Hi ilminal_luke, I see the word 'hexagram' in the above quotation. Was Cohen into I Ching? Was he a Taoist? - LimA Hi Limahong, I don`t know if Cohen was a taoist, although I assume "hexagram" is a reference to the I Ching. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brian Posted June 18, 2017 I would suggest that the hexagram is probably the regular geometric shape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagram 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted June 19, 2017 (edited) Hi Brian + liminal_luke, I searched in cyberspace for links between Leonard Cohen and Taoism. So far no direct hit. However there are suggestive links between the two. Prefer to give these suggestions a miss for now. On the other hand, there are direct associations between Cohen and Zen Buddhism. Ephrat Livni (an American artist, writer and lawyer who works internationally on large scale street art projects) had an article on such an association – published on November 12, 2016. It is titled – “Leonard Cohen’s tortured love affair with Zen Buddhism”; and here is an excerpt from it. “For three decades, the Jewish poet pop star studied Zen Buddhism. At 65, he finally saw small miracles. ‘There was just a certain sweetness to daily life that began asserting itself,’ Cohen told The Guardian in 2001 … In 1994, Cohen retired to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center in Los Angeles, California and was ordained as a monk in 1996. ‘I was interested in surrendering to that kind of routine…It is a great luxury not to have to think about what you are doing next,’ he explained … At the monastery, Cohen cooked, cleaned, and sat. Sitting meditation, known as Za-Zen, aims to tame monkey mind, frenetic thinking, by studying the self to forget the self. It worked for the songster. But it took three decades of instruction and the mellowing of old age to put the musician in a neutral, monkish state of mind. ‘When you stop thinking about yourself all the time, a certain sense of repose overtakes you,’ he said. ‘It happened to me by imperceptible degrees and I could not really believe it.’ … In the monastery, Cohen went by the name Jikan, meaning normal silence or ordinary silence. It’s a funny name for a man who spent his life filling silence with song, but perfectly in line with Zen’s preoccupation with plainness … Cohen did this. He spoke on NPR in October, explaining that he left the monastery after five years because it was still ‘Boogie Street,’ another place with no privacy and personal frictions. He took up music again. This year, Cohen came home spiritually. Just before his passage, at 82, he released the album – ‘You Want it Darker’ in which he reinterpreted the ‘Kaddish’, a Jewish prayer for the dead. The song ‘Hineni’ refers to the Torah, Abraham’s response when God asks that he sacrifice his son. To the bittersweet end, Cohen wrestled with religion, all while submitting, singing: 'A million candles burning for the help that never came. You want it darker. Hineni, hineni. I’m ready, my Lord.'" - LimA Edited June 19, 2017 by Limahong Correct typo error. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted June 19, 2017 Leonard was Jewish from beginning to end. However, his alignment with Zen can present a link to Daoism. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted June 19, 2017 Hi Marblehead. Such a link has been suggested. - LimA 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oranssi Posted June 19, 2017 Ahahah.. I laughed a lot! Your commentaries were so funny Thank you for that! 21 hours ago, Limahong said: You believe everything you make, right? So? So it is make-believe. Wow! This makes a very good aphorism! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted June 19, 2017 (edited) Hi oranssi, You pulled my left leg and I reversely pulled your right. You are infinite but I am definitely finite - every night. You are self-taught but I always ask - Where's God? So let us just laugh and laugh till we meet our Lord. - LimA Edited June 19, 2017 by Limahong Correct typo error. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
