Stories about Taoism in daily life

[freeform]

I had an interesting run-in with an aggressive drunk over the holiday period. What transpired surprised all of us involved.

 

I was with a few friends having a drink in a pub. In the doorway, as we were leaving to go for dinner, this big chap aggressively put his hand on my shoulder to stop me.

 

I turned around... everything went a little slow... I could feel adrenaline start to make its way through my system... He was saying stuff but I couldn’t really understand - it felt as if he was miles away.

 

The next moment I found myself zooming in really close and looking deeply into the man, completely focused and silent inside, and I could touch this deep sadness in him (on the surface he was red and very angry) - I felt a tinge of it, but it was quickly replaced by this sudden, warm expansion starting at the mingmen and moving through the centre out to the heart. It felt as if it worked itself through my whole body, relaxing all tension and subduing the adrenaline spike... eventually squeezing its way out through my pores. My body felt fat, swollen and wet. This process felt like an eternity... apparently was just a few seconds.

 

But what happened next surprised me even more.

 

I open my mouth and say “Don’t worry... she’ll be alright... I promise”. This wasn’t connected to a thought or an intention that I had - it just came out. As the guy hears this, he stops in his tracks, his face drops and goes pale. He mumbles something, drops to the floor and starts sobbing.

 

I go to pat him on the back, but as I touch him, all his muscles tense up and he lets out this pained gasp. A couple of men watching run over, I think they thought I was hurting him somehow... I let go and quickly leave with my friends.

 

My friends were all buzzing with an adrenaline afterglow, asking wtf just happened... they don’t know the extent of my practice, so rather than complicate matters I just said that he was very pissed and I just said it to confuse him so that we could get out. They were happy with that explanation.

[wandelaar]

@ freeform

 

Great example. A big part of Taoism in daily life - as I now see it - is about escaping inappropriate automatism's and seeing or feeling or just doing something unexpected (or paradoxical) that nevertheless proves perfectly fitting in the given situation.

[enuffing]

Hi!

 

This is my latest post about Chaos (混沌 hundun): https://enuffing.com/chaos/

 

I wanted to reach out again as I have added a subscribe button.

 

If anyone would like email updates for my posts, please leave your name and email!

 

enuffing

[Rocky Lionmouth]

@freeform wow, sounds like quite a night it turned out to be! Just love it when this sort of stuff happens, i’ve had a couple less dramatic ones and witnessed one similar thing a guy i had no idea was ”packing” sensitivity.

I can feel it when something is about to happen from the shift in energy/mood/smell and i can definetly tell when someone with some juice is involved, i feel something turn in me towards it like a compass needle. Weird.

 

I have a few of similar stories...

I remeber talking a 40 something oddball straight, he crashed an afterparty at my old place where i lived with my ex and was not doing much to brighten the mood. He was stone cold sober and brooding, an acquaintance of an acquaintance, i never got his name but he was an obvious loose cannon.

 

Something compelled me to talk to the man, i was going to throw him out when i approached him but i felt like a warm shower of a bubbly liquid, like fizzy water, running over me from head to toes, just faintly but it was there and i change my whole approach, within a minute he’s talking to me about his cocaine addiction, how he’s friends with a bunch of stick up kids half his age who run around with guns and make all sorts of messes and that he’s come to a point of considering suicide because he thinks his road is set too deep. All the while i’m listening and just ripping the guys excuses and negative outlook to pieces, not being kind either but having this fatherly warmth in my voice (where’d that come from?) and telling him he should pick up music, like just hitting keys and see what comes out.

Reading this guy beforehand i’d never approach him like that, he was armed and he was definetly carrying product, i think he’d plan to sell some powders at our place but he never got the chance to even float the idea.

He just looked at me dismantle every idea of helplessness he held on to and when i said ”sit down and hit some keys, improvise” he just went pale and asked how i knew he’d been trying to get back into music forever but he was terrified of what could happen, since he had nothing to loose now he was scared he’d get his hopes up.

I casually told him that was bullshit, that he was clinging to his fears as if they were reality and he just went silent, nodding. We sat like that in silence while everyone else seemed to just merry on about and not even noticing us.

He stood up, offered his hand and a long hug and said to me he was going home to fire up his keyboard, very seriously thanked me for letting him stay a while, waved goodbye to everyone with a big smile and just left.

 

This happened during a period of daily inward practice and i realized only after we’d been sitting right across from my altar to Guan Gong, he’d been staring at it on and off while talking to me. I dont think it was a coincidence.

 

Another time my ex walked in on a burglar who’d decided not to take anything except a minor amount of cash and a pocket knife (he returned both) when he entered that same room where the altar stood, he said he’d realized it would be so mean and callous to steal our computers because we used them for work (he hadn’t opened them) and he was crying while i scolded him and told him he was being reckless and an idiot, he could get hurt walking into peoples homes. He was on his knees begging for forgiveness and promised to tell all of his junkie friends to leave our courtyard alone (it was one of those summers when a lot of down and out folks were looking for stuff to pinch and sell, our yard was easily accessed and it had become a problem with these ”visitors” messing about) and i took his info from his ID (he actually handed it to me) as security. Then he left, thanking me and promising to make good on his word. Oddly enough, not a single incident happened the following years until i moved out after separating and took my altar with me. Nowadays it’s becoming a frequent spot for trespassing and disturbances again.

I cant say it’s this or that but i strongly believe the altar and my routine of practice in that period directly affected these incidents. It’s not like huge deals, no fireballs or telekinetic wizard fighting, but two different unrelated occasions with uninvited criminals that were deeply affected by being there and i remember acting spontaneously, not a premeditated word or action and it all just fell into place. To me it’s odd at least, but i don’t look gifted horses in their mouth with such things

Edited January 17, 2019 by Rocky Lionmouth