Why feel the need to practice

[宁]

Ok, let me take a shot at it... smile.gif

I may have mentioned in one or two other threads that the notion of freedom as we understand it, and Taoism, exclude each other.

It's not easy to understand that, and it's not hard, also.

 

To "merge" with the Tao, to "abide" by it's laws, means you disconnect from a set of laws (social and energetic thermodynamics), and re-connect to the laws of nature.

 

Which means you jump from one set of laws, with a predictible outcome - suffering, disease, aging, and death...

...To another set of laws, which you strife thru your lifestyle, to prove.

You are the proof:

no more illness,

no more mental and emotional chaos and suffering,

aging slowing down or even stopping,

and then the great leap into the unknown, as an immortal maybe?

 

Bruce Lee believed in no styles. For him, styles, schools, don't exist. Because men and women have only two arms and two legs. That's what he believed. Yet, he had to develop his school, his style, the style of no style, Jeet Kune Do.

Depending on the Time, and Space, there have been settled different types of algorythms, for the human being to connect to the Great Beyound. What makes them different is precisely the fact that they have been designed in different Times and in different Spaces.

 

It's like going on a trip: take your train, buy your tickets, jump in, enjoy the ride, and go all the way. If you'll jump from one train to another, where do you expect you'll end up?

 

 

 

Thank you for your time

 

L1

 

PS: I wrote the above message as an answer to another thread. I'm not putting this up just to show how smart I am, but there are in there some ideas that I really care about, and want to share, and maybe receive some feedback

 

Edited November 19, 2008 by Little1

[wudangquan]

I don't think that following the tao and comfort exclude each other.

 

I think that the thing which causes discomfort is attachment.

 

If you don't care much about money - it's not a big deal to go to sleep every night on a bed made out of 100 dollar bills.

 

Same with food, or clothes or cars or heat or electricity or your human body.

 

That's not to say that it's a cakewalk or something.

 

My (limited) experience has been one of stupid bumbling around, consciously trying to bear as much retribution as I am owed in this lifetime as I can, etc.

 

We've all got some serious debts to pay. . .

 

While the end goal is liberation and non-attached, non duality and non-resistance . . .

 

The reality in the here and now is you can choose to pay down the principle or the interest on your own karma, but you're gonna pay either way.

[宁]

We've all got some serious debts to pay. . .

 

While the end goal is liberation and non-attached, non duality and non-resistance . . .

 

The reality in the here and now is you can choose to pay down the principle or the interest on your own karma, but you're gonna pay either way.

 

I agree. Much of which I left unsaid is that I see learning about Tao as a way to pay and reduce debt.

There is much, I'll say.

[wudangquan]

The thing you said about jumping from one train to another was curious to me. What did you mean?

 

Is that a reference to system sufers?

 

Anyway - it reminded me of something about that. About trying to put parts from a computer into a tv and expecting it to work.

[宁]

The thing you said about jumping from one train to another was curious to me. What did you mean?

 

Is that a reference to system sufers?

 

Anyway - it reminded me of something about that. About trying to put parts from a computer into a tv and expecting it to work.

 

It is, it is. I don't know what to say. I look and marvel. I never thought joining or not joining a system was an act of mere human preference. It's more like marriage, birth, death... it has destiny in it.

Edited November 18, 2008 by Little1

[Unconditioned]

Strip away perceptions, labels, ideology, rules, systems devised, concepts of debt, etc. and what is left?

 

If we treat the problem the symptoms will also go away. If we treat the symptoms the problem does not go away.

 

There is nothing to obtain, no freedom, no enlightenment, these are all concepts. They are just a means to an end. We throw the match into the fire after we've ignited everything, we no longer need a raft to get to the other shore once we're there, etc.

 

So, in 'repaying karma debt', if that is our focus - that activity itself creates more karma. If our focus is one of removing what is false, one layer at a time, then when only the essence is left we are neither liberated or not liberated but we are what we truly are - and that cannot have a label, it cannot be expressed, it can only be experienced.

 

To me, this is good news. It is by no means easy and requires vigilance to constantly remove what is false but it will change us in such a way that we will be purity itself. When this happens, to others it will appear that we're working very hard and doing many things. From our own perspective, once we've attained, there is nothing but bliss, awareness, effortlessness.

 

So my whole point is that it's not a difficult task, it just takes a little effort to get the ball rolling then nature takes over.

 

Well, that's the way 'I' see it today anyway

[宁]

The thought of taking no sides, and being as balanced and unconditioned as it gets, it may be honorable.

 

But is it also fertile? Is it also efficient?

 

Not long ago, I used to criticize my teachers with the same ideas - not out loud, I didn't have the courage. Staying around them for a couple of years has shown, until now, the contrary: it does not matter how elegant and honorable the sollution is...

It either works, here and now, or not.

Of course, "working sollution" is also debatable.

 

I think you understand though.

 

L1

Edited November 18, 2008 by Little1

[wudangquan]

Paying back karma isn't the focus . . .

 

IMHO the focus should just be decreasing resistance.

 

But part of that is learning not to resist the pain that we have brought upon ourselves.

 

I mean to say that I feel this notion of living in "bliss" prior to consumation of cultivation leads backwards. It's sort of an evolutionary u-turn.

 

And I don't mean that you should look for or relish suffering.

 

The "Concept" of debt is a bit more than some kind of conditioned human idea, as well. I believe it's a natural fact.

 

Relishing it is a symptom of attachments.

 

Avoiding it leads to a prolonged path of re-birth.

 

It's just part of the equation, and all of the parts (Virtue, Debt, Energy, and Resistance to energy) act in a synchronous way.

 

Accepting it is with a smile, taking hardships as joys and caring less about your own vested interests or their loss- this is walking along the path of absolute non-resistance.

 

Or at least that's what I think. I could be completely off base.

[seadog]

Strip away perceptions, labels, ideology, rules, systems devised, concepts of debt, etc. and what is left?

 

If we treat the problem the symptoms will also go away. If we treat the symptoms the problem does not go away.

 

There is nothing to obtain, no freedom, no enlightenment, these are all concepts. They are just a means to an end. We throw the match into the fire after we've ignited everything, we no longer need a raft to get to the other shore once we're there, etc.

 

So, in 'repaying karma debt', if that is our focus - that activity itself creates more karma. If our focus is one of removing what is false, one layer at a time, then when only the essence is left we are neither liberated or not liberated but we are what we truly are - and that cannot have a label, it cannot be expressed, it can only be experienced.

 

To me, this is good news. It is by no means easy and requires vigilance to constantly remove what is false but it will change us in such a way that we will be purity itself. When this happens, to others it will appear that we're working very hard and doing many things. From our own perspective, once we've attained, there is nothing but bliss, awareness, effortlessness.

 

So my whole point is that it's not a difficult task, it just takes a little effort to get the ball rolling then nature takes over.

 

Well, that's the way 'I' see it today anyway

 

 

Well said.

Pure and total consciousness.

[宁]

For me, the power of the practice magnifies every time my trust in that particular practice becomes stronger.

And the trust becomes stronger only if it's confirmed by everyday use.

The wear and tear of everyday life is my test to my practice, for the moment.

If it passes the test, my trust in it becomes stronger, and the chi field that i work with, more... influential.

 

L1

[goldisheavy]

It's like going on a trip: take your train, buy your tickets, jump in, enjoy the ride, and go all the way. If you'll jump from one train to another, where do you expect you'll end up?

 

Well, considering that each train always ends up back at the train depot, if you keep sitting on the same train, you end up back where you started. So if you want to travel very far, you almost certainly have to hop from train to train, and at the end you have to completely hop off the train altogether.

[Spectrum]

yes I feel the kneed