When you were born...

[Jing Attiig]

When you were born you had no clothes, no food, no toys, no views, no opinions, no beliefs.

 

Then you were given food, which you used to survive, but you were not your food.

 

Then you were given clothes to protect and keep you warm, but you were not your clothes either.

 

Then, as you grew a little, you were given toys to play with, but you were certainly not your toys.

 

As you grew a little more you were given views, and opinions, and beliefs, but you were certainly not those either.

 

Now, when you outgrew your clothes, you got rid of them, and when you outgrew your toys, you got rid of them too.

 

Have you still got your views, your opinions, your beliefs?

 

Do you still think they are you?

 

Why have you held onto these things, and why do you think these things are you?

 

These things were given to you by external sources, family, society, education etc, and yet you hold onto them as if they were your very existence.

 

 

If i offer you some sweets, and you refuse them, i must keep them for myself, you have nothing to do with them.

 

It is no different with views, and opinions, and beliefs, but you held onto them in your early childhood, an act you have not yet ceased.

 

When you were born, did you have your body? Were you your body then, if so what are you now? It certainly looks like a different body. It certainly feels like a different body. Is it the same one?

 

Or were you that which was aware of your body, as you are aware of your thoughts?

 

Do you have your thoughts, are they you? Or are you that which is aware of your thoughts?

 

Are they even your thoughts?

 

You are the awareness that is aware of all these things. I am the awareness that is aware of all these things.

 

That which never changes, that which never dies, that which is always there.

 

That which is AWARE of ALL-THAT-THERE-IS.

 

You and I are ONE, that ONE which is TAO.

Edited August 17, 2008 by Jing Attiig

[Unconditioned]

Bravo, very well said!

[Z3N]

[sifu wolf]

[h.uriahr]

Very nice

[metzu]

When you were born you had no clothes, no food, no toys, no views, no opinions, no beliefs.

 

Then you were given food, which you used to survive, but you were not your food.

 

Then you were given clothes to protect and keep you warm, but you were not your clothes either.

 

Then, as you grew a little, you were given toys to play with, but you were certainly not your toys.

 

As you grew a little more you were given views, and opinions, and beliefs, but you were certainly not those either.

 

Now, when you outgrew your clothes, you got rid of them, and when you outgrew your toys, you got rid of them too.

 

Have you still got your views, your opinions, your beliefs?

 

Do you still think they are you?

 

Why have you held onto these things, and why do you think these things are you?

 

These things were given to you by external sources, family, society, education etc, and yet you hold onto them as if they were your very existence.

If i offer you some sweets, and you refuse them, i must keep them for myself, you have nothing to do with them.

 

It is no different with views, and opinions, and beliefs, but you held onto them in your early childhood, an act you have not yet ceased.

 

When you were born, did you have your body? Were you your body then, if so what are you now? It certainly looks like a different body. It certainly feels like a different body. Is it the same one?

 

Or were you that which was aware of your body, as you are aware of your thoughts?

 

Do you have your thoughts, are they you? Or are you that which is aware of your thoughts?

 

Are they even your thoughts?

 

You are the awareness that is aware of all these things. I am the awareness that is aware of all these things.

 

That which never changes, that which never dies, that which is always there.

 

That which is AWARE of ALL-THAT-THERE-IS.

 

You and I are ONE, that ONE which is TAO.

Brilliant, Jing Attig

Even so can anyone be more or less on the same pathway, isn't all of nature moved by Tao, and ultimately moving toward the Oneness we search, appearence say the world as we perceive it outside of ourselves is in utter chaos, and confusion, doesn't nature appear to us as same when a monsoon, or hurricane rampages its way through lives, are we better off for consciously searching for purpose and meaning, then they who appear not to be as we. Are all the practices we do to control and manipulate our thoughts,and feelings setting us truly free or are we actually the ones imprisoned by our ideas?

Chuang Tzu spoke of the illusion of a dream he had wondering was he a butterfly thinking he was a man or a man thinking he was a butterfly. Our universe is but a drop of water with us wandering aimlessly along our way, some of us with such grandiose ideas that we are there, we are it. We have finally reached our purpose our destination, and we have to communicate that to others, so we can all be in the same boat in this drop of water. So we talk ,we discuss, we search the what is called the ancient wisdoms, and from those ancient scripts,others will come along to express just how they see it themselves and write new books, the old books will be translated by so many others that soon the ancient wisdom isn't even wisdom any more. They are just words written in the wind

In this short period of time we are here in this form and shape we, here in the western world have thought we had true freedom, because we had most things needed to make ourselves comfortably numb. Certainly some of us rebelled against our upbringing ,our religions, our parents, everything because it didn't feel right to us personally. For some of us it took us far away from what others did ,thought and beleived, we actually became alliens in our own bodies. So we began our search, we became nomads traveling through every denomination of the religion we began with, still dissatisfied we took a chance and went to a different religion only to end up just as disenchanted, we moved on to another philopshy and another program that said...this is really the way.

For those of us who could not find satisfaction we eventually arrived at the door of Lao Tzu, so different from our western thinking, thrilled by the words we dug in, for me then came Chuang Tzu, at this point I stopped to return to my beginings The Christian Bible, with my new found freedom to inspect and explore, that which I had challanged , I finally asked the question, who really compiled these books, chose the books that would be acceptable and discarded those they found unfit. You see for most of my adult life I accepted blindly on faith they were the inspired words of god, even though I felt that no matter how hard I tried I had to fail and wind up in hell, so I kept digging and search. Well as it turns out some ruler took control of what they say jesus was about, and created a new religion, and it was he and a cohort Jerome who put there heads together and the bible as we see it in uncountable different versions has been destroying humankind ever since in the name of the god they created.

Having reached this conclusion and come back to Lao TZu and Chuang Tzu after reading and searching and turning their ideas all around and upside down, for years,I come to the same conclusion, I arrived at with the bible. In somewayThe government of China, or India, or Japan,created that which best full filled their own mission to control and manipulate their own people, to the western mind, the ideas are magnificent , so freeing up after being confined to a god who was going to judge and condemn his own creation, when I say it now it sounds ludicrious, that for 1700 years they have been able to control and manipulate with fear. Can it be any different in any of the other cultures, as the world gradually becomes capitalistic, which government will reach the pinnicale of deception and wind up being the world government.

So here I am and I have heard what you said Jing Attig, and it sounds awesome, we humans are great for performance and drama, look at jesus they gave him a script, all he had to do is follow what the prophets,(who by the way were all derelicts living isolated in caves, eating locust and wild honey,) said the messiah was going to do. When they created the bible they had it all their own way they could say anything they wanted 300 years after the supposed happening, if it ever happened at all, and they made him in to a god. And their god has been attempting to control and manipulate the world with war ever since. More of humankind has been destroyed by their creation then anyone in all of history. Now do you really think it would be any different

with any other religions the states adopt and promote.

So we talk about oneness, we are all one, and I honestly believe that is true only because of the concept of quantum and that we are all connected no matter whether we want to or not, we talk about dao, and argue back and forth or we discuss how we see it, or we ridicule one another because we think we know morethen the fool who just spilled his guts out, and my friend in the end it all winds up just entertainment, because we are so bored with our existence the way we created it that we just have to look for more and stir up more trouble.

I am not even going to try to edit this or read it over

Just going to hang it out there to dry.

Tell me my bullshit don't stink, and I'll tell you "come on let us all get honest"

joe

[DrumR]

All in all a very good post Jing Attiig.

The initial lead in and progression is most clear.

 

Now, when you outgrew your clothes, you got rid of them, and when you outgrew your toys, you got rid of them too.

 

Have you still got your views, your opinions, your beliefs?

 

Do you still think they are you?

Clarity is still high. Here is made a very good point. A point of reflection that opens up the possibility of a new beginning.

 

These things were given to you by external sources, family, society, education etc, and yet you hold onto them as if they were your very existence.

If i offer you some sweets, and you refuse them, i must keep them for myself, you have nothing to do with them.

 

It is no different with views, and opinions, and beliefs, but you held onto them in your early childhood, an act you have not yet ceased.

 

A bit of faltering but the progression still holds. Good follow up.

When you were born, did you have your body? Were you your body then, if so what are you now? It certainly looks like a different body. It certainly feels like a different body. Is it the same one?

 

Or were you that which was aware of your body, as you are aware of your thoughts?

 

Another good opening for introspection and the expansion of possibilities.

 

Do you have your thoughts, are they you? Or are you that which is aware of your thoughts?

 

Are they even your thoughts?

This is the "hook" that gets the fish!

 

You are the awareness that is aware of all these things. I am the awareness that is aware of all these things.

 

That which never changes, that which never dies, that which is always there.

 

That which is AWARE of ALL-THAT-THERE-IS.

 

You and I are ONE, that ONE which is TAO.

 

Grand! Now make a bow, and walk slowly off stage.