Everyone post some favorite quotes!

[Peregrino]

[Pietro]

I don't remember where is it from... but it sounded about:

 

Then I started practicing Taoism,

and after 2 years I became an immortal.

I shall not bore you with the details.

[sean]

Again I break, my need dissolving my pride

Again I spill, my hurt streaming, streaming wide

Again I die, letting all the goodbyes tear open my sky

Again I whisper and again I roar

Swimming through the dreamy door

And again I join what's above with what's below

And again I recognize the One behind the show

 

Again I fall, chained to my lies

Again I rise, filled with blazing night and newborn cries

Again I pump up my will, gunning for the Holy Thrill

Again I wake, letting go of both hope and despair

No longer seeking something else to wear

And again I join what's above with what's below

And again I recognize the One appearing as the show

 

Again I reach through the darkness shining wild

Again I rock in the cradle of Eternity's child

Again I die, releasing all that I took to be mine

Again I howl, prowling through forests of palm and pine

One hand on a spear, the other on my fear

And again I join what's above with what's below

And again I recognize the One behind the show

 

Again I gaze from one eye, my broken body aglow

Again I drop my sword, watching my blood cut rivers in the snow

Again I beat a sweating drum, urging you to leave your mind

Again I disappear without leaving anything behind

And again I join what's above with what's below

And again I recognize the One appearing as the show

 

Again I smile, touching what's always touched me

Again I dance in the fire, burning free

Again I remember to embrace my wounds

Again I rebuild the temple, rising from my ruins

And again I join what's above with what's below

And again I recognize the One behind the show

 

Again I break and taste the final goodbye

Again I ride a wave of everlasting sky

Again I fall and forget the Sacred Call

And again I remember and again I include it all

And again here we are, in the flesh yet unborn

Lovers with both the calm and the storm

And again I join what's above with what's below

And again I recognize the One beyond the show

 

Robert Masters

[cloud recluse]

'My body is like a phantom,like bubbles on a stream.My mind looking into itself is as formless as empty space,yet somewhere within sounds are perceived.Who is hearing?"-Bassui,'Sermon on One-Mind'.

[minimoke]

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.

- Richard M. Nixon

[el_tortugo]

No, not spoon-bending or horoscopy, not the Golden Dawn or make-believe shamanism, astral projection or the Satanic Mass--if it's mumbo jumbo you want go for the real stuff, banking, politics, social science--not that weak blavatskian crap.

-Hakim Bey

[ToP-fan]

"Don't give me that.....you snotty faced heap of parrot droppings........shut your festering gobutet.......Your type really makes me puke.....You vacuous, coffee nosed,...........malodorous pervert!!!" Monty Python " I am gross and perverted...I'm obsessed and deranged...........I have existed for years but very little has changed.........I'm the tool of the government and industry too......for I am destined to rule and regulate you........I may be vile and pernicious but you can't look away........I make you think I'm delicious with the stuff that I say.............I'm the best you can get,..........have you guessed me yet?.................I'm the slime oozing out of your tv set." Frank Zappa

[el_tortugo]

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.

- Richard M. Nixon

 

 

Upon being shown the Great Wall of China, Nixon said, "This is, indeed, a great wall."

 

 

This is a Great Wall and only a great people with a great past could have a great wall and such a great people with such a great wall will surely have a great future.

 

--Richard M.Nixon

[neimad]

When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the warriors of the Rainbow -- Old Native American Prophecy

 

 

wow... just came across this quote today. so in line with what i have been thinking for some time now.

 

it's tribal time.... you can call me "green monkey, warrior of the rainbow"

[Peregrino]

One way to measure progress is to notice how you respond to meanness. Do you get upset with inconsiderate people, or simply process and respond to what they do simply as neutral data? For example, someone takes a swing at your head, you duck, perhaps punch and attack them, perhaps retreat, but all without angrily thinking "what an @#%$!" (And of course most "punches" are verbal attacks).

--Raymond Sigrist

 

OK, here's another:

 

If you find yourself stagnating at some point in the future I recommend something that is not found in the classical texts of daoism: petitioning. This means petitioning a force that supposedly lies outside (or inside) your normal self. This could be visualized as a god, or could simply be characterized as your inner-most being. For some strange reason this practice is very effective, even for those of us who don't believe such forces exists. The practice probably sets in motion some kind of neurological dynamic that keys into the behavior of the natural world. Another way of saying it is that prayer works even if there are no gods to hear the prayers. (Not that I know whether or not such things exist.)

-Raymond Sigrist

 

I just can't get enough of this guy! I only "know" him via the web (his own website, plus his posts at other Taoist sites), but he is currently writing a book on "apophatic mysticism" I can't wait to read! So, if you're lurking here Raymond, best of luck, godspeed, and may the Tao be with you!

 

--Peregrino

[minimoke]

Every noble work is at first impossible.

-- Thomas Carlyle 1795 - 1881

[JesusHeist]

as the shadow follows the body, as we think so we become.

-Buddha

 

The heavens, the earth and I

are of the same root.

The ten thousand things and I

are of the same substance.

-Zen Master Sojo

 

The secret of power is this:

you know how dumb the average guy is.

Mathmatically, by definition, half of them

are even dumber than that.

-Robert Anton Wilson

[minimoke]

Upon being shown the Great Wall of China, Nixon said, "This is, indeed, a great wall."

 

 

 

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

Richard M. Nixon

[GrandTrinity]

Oh, Ive seen fire and Ive seen rain

Ive seen sunny days that I thought would never end

[Uncle Fester]

...

Edited September 20, 2021 by darebak

[sean]

"myriad lives like blades of grass

yet to be realized, bow as they pass

 

they are cold,

still,

waiting in the ether,

to form,

feel,

kill,

propagate,

only to die

 

dissolve

magically,

absurdly,

they'll end,

leave,

dissipate,

coldly

and strangely

return"

 

--- The Shins, "Those to Come"

[GrandTrinity]

vanillaklein: yo

vanillaklein: gonna go eat some cheese yo

White111Cloud: i8 yo

[Scott Knowles]

I like to collect one liners from many sources, some Tao-related, but many just interesting. They're at http://www.wsrphoto.com/quotes.html. Thanks to those posted here, I may transcribe some.

 

--Scott--

[Wayfarer64]

[bronzebow]

"Surely getting kicked in the nuts doesn't hurt that much." - my ex gf.

[michaeld]

[buffalotao]

[Mitochondriac]

"he not busy being born is busy dying" --Bob Dylan

[fatherpaul]

"be what you is, not what you is not,

for those who is what they is,

is the happiest lot."

 

mr. wizard to tutor the turtle

in a 1970's kids cartoon.

( i dont know which one!, look it up!)

[sean]

Endless invention, endless experiment,

Brings knowledge of motion, not of stillness;

Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;

Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.

All our knowledge brings us nearer to ignorance,

All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,

But nearness to death no nearer to God.

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries

Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

-- T. S. Eliot