For every act of evil, there is an act of beauty. You Can't Change the World, Only Your Attitude Towards It.

What is Really Good?

If you have not visited What is Really Good before, then do.

Son Rivers has a number of blogs, these are two very nice ones Tao Lite and Awakurious

Rizal Affif provides more insightful spiritual postings at the Soul Sanctuary

For ramblings and many great Taoist resources you need to visit the Rambling Taoist

For you Zen Mind and how to defend your coffee from a brain freeze zombi The Broken Bokken

For all your green Tea and Buddhist quote needs Wabi Sabi Tea House

Masses of free Buddhist and spiritual stuff is linked to from Buddha torrents

As if the world needed another Yogi, read 1yogi2many

A nice collection of quotes and thoughts A far Distant Howl

The Septic Pen of Sachin Modeel

Karmyn Ayn has a few blogs and here are her poems

For general life goings on and all about the dog, read Fay's blog

Funny relief from spiritual garbage with MonkMojo

And to keep you abreast of the world as you get lost up your own spiritual back alley Atlantean Conspiracy

~~

If you would like to be linked to you can ask, if I missed you, sorry, I'll add you when I next see you post.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

New Tao Te Ching Explained

I began this blog a year ago by posting a "poem" on Tao. Over the last year I have posted on various subjects related to Tao, Zen and Vedanta plus science, days in the park and more. Many were my own findings, many were other peoples that rang true to me or wanted expansion or clarification.

What I am doing now, one year after the birth of the blog TAO WOW, is closing it, I will start a new blog and carry on there. For now I wish to do a running commentary on my first post 'New Tao Te Ching'

It is outside of knowing,
and is simply right there;
so obvious it is,
too simple to bear.


The Truth can not be known by intellect or reason. It is simply 'that which is', in your empty hand, in the freshness of air, in life. This fact is so simple that it proves hard to grasp. Many philosophies and explanations become so entangled in attempting explanation that they cause more problems than they fix.

Know by not knowing, Wu know,
See by not seeing, Wu see;
Only in admitting knowing is dual,
can you be without trying to be.


"Wu" or "Mu" is the Chinese word of negation, emptiness, absence, non. To truly know, you need to be absent of what we deem to be knowing. With knowing we have a knower and this is a duality impossible to escape by effort. It is really when you stop trying, sit by a lake, take 5 and chill, that truth just appears. As soon as you grasp it, it is gone.

It is all that is and is not,
no concept or attempt to be got;
We can only grasp nothing is there,
as a clock can not tick on a tock.


To instill a kind of Zen Koan dysfunction of rational in the readers mind and to make the previous point more so, I point out how two sides of a duality are nothing alone. This is an extension of the point made in the previous verse but with a goal to snap the neck of the reasoning mind.

Right there when you are within,
unapparent when you try to hold on;
Do not let another attempt to explain,
their moving lips are admission its gone.


As said, knowing is not possible but the truth occurs when you are 'not looking'. Further if you try to hold on to the truth it disappears just at the very moment that the "holder" appears and turns the experience from bliss to dualism.
Further if someone attempts explanation, guru, book, any other person, (me), it should be apparent that they have already attempted to 'hold on', so what they attempt to pass on is dirt.

Though we are part of Tao,
we can act as the worst kind of fake;
Seeing your breath does not help the wind,
let a swamp in your mind be a lake.


Even though we are this very thing we seek, we always tend to act as "Bob" or "Janet". We act the fake, we act as one separate to the world and so form the separation that we then have so much effort in shaking.
If we allow ourselves to realize how 'life just happens' and 'the fake' is done and not doing, then we can, rather than live in a cloud of illusion, live in bliss.

Our viewpoints are relative see?
Tao has no intention just play;
Extremes in our mind are waves on the lake,
and just our nature sway.


This magic of life is not the dualist idea we alone apply to it, it is a majestic show that we are, and are part of. This is incredible, and no moment should be anything but bliss in light of that truth. Pointing how our ideas are mere ripples, and nature herself acts with waves of harmony, the poem asks you to sway (your body) to feel how nature works.

Should you be high or low,
you will always remain in Tao;
There is no need to hold on either way,
as if going up hill and not down.


Life as we know it is dualistic and involves these complementary good-bad, high-low ideas. No one should ever hold on to either of these aspects as one will build ego and the other depression. Instead see the flow and accept it. Accept that good times can't last and neither too will the bad. Ideally though, escape the dualism entirely by seeing how it is an idea only.

Where there is nothing in mind,
the greatest power is there to see;
Where we find nothing we are truly at one,
one and nothing have equality.


This emptiness that is so disliked by Western people and by eduction "hey stop daydreaming" is actually where we find that truth emanates from in those times of no effort. This emptiness, nothingness, is exactly the same as oneness.

Like a ripe fruit decays,
to continue new life;
We see a seed is not birth,
and no one ever really dies.


Absent of the idea of separateness then there is only this show a-happening. It changes and nothing that has ever been will ever not be. Separate ideas of tree, fruit of the tree; Person, child of the person; are mind shapes taken as concrete, but no boundary truly exists. Nature herself, the true self, the one, alters - takes new form: like smoke swirling around or clouds in the sky, even like the "water cycle" she just changes.

Here we sit with not one idea,
no-thought and your life are one kind;
The solid reality that you can touch,
is one with the ungraspable mind.


Back to the emptiness that is truth we often get tied to the idea that it is something separate to the life we see through our eyes, but they are the same. The ungraspable mind is form and form is mind. Void is form is void. The world seen is the projection and experience and the body of the true self, and that is all you are, and have ever been.

Nothing has to go,
just give everything up;
Bound to nothing,
you have a full cup.


The apparent contradiction here is clearly apparent truth to those who see the unity. Once you are free of bondage, self-other, like-dislike, have-have not, then you are full to burst, lacking nothing.

To have destination,
makes the journey too tough;
Be going nowhere,
here is more than enough.


This is looking at the spiritual journey as it is natural to assume that there is one, there is somewhere to go, something to achieve, and there is not. As if you "do" anything you reaffirm the idea of separateness. Simply sit. "Why seek happiness, when that clearly defines sadness; breathe deep and sit, for this is it!" (a line that did not go in the poem, but is in my note pad).

Free people require no leader,
and Tao has nothing to lose;
A leader makes fear to interfere with here,
people you know what to choose.


Leaders as we know, leaders of men, countries, marketing people who lead the minds of shoppers, anyone taking this position at all, they make fear, and they make people feel inadequate. They amplify the very same false self that is the barrier to enlightenment. Tao and no good teacher will do this, they will teach the opposite and the perfection of who you truly are. Nothing to make, nothing to lose.

Now just simplify your mind and self,
that's all there is so just sit;
Be balance and unknowing flow,
Natures truth is here that's it.


There you go, I won't explain that final verse.

Read the full poem here.

~~~

Thanks to all the visitors to TAO WOW, see you on the new blog 'Daily Cup of Tao'.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

And then there was one..

What is to be done? Reality is One only. How can It be realised? Realisation is thus an illusion. Practice seems to be necessary. Who is to practise? Looking for the doer, the act and the accessories disappear.

Moreover, if Realisation is not present here and now, how can It, newly got, be of any use? What is permanent must be eternally present. Can it be newly got and be permanent also?

Realise what is present here and now. The sages did so before and still do that only. Hence they say that it looks as if newly got. Once veiled by ignorance and later revealed, Reality looks as if newly realised.

But it is not new.

~Sri Ramana Maharshi (expounding what many have said but few can hear)

~~

Anyone interested in direct and pure teachings should also read the Hua Hu Ching.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

WOW

Not sure if this will make sense, but I don't often let that stop me writing.

Meditation: As I allowed that in my vision to remain (eyes open) I also allowed that in my mind to stay also. There was a persistent tune and some thoughts in my mind and the room and items in my vision. I just focused on nothing until a spot of clarity emerged from no sense perception but from somewhere other. At this time I took to only concentrating on that and the field of vision, humming and thoughts stopped.

Focusing solely on that, I remained still to allow that and that focusing to merge. I remained for, from looking at the clock now, over 20 minutes.

I realized clearly that there is no effort in killing ego and no one to do it. No action as once merged with the subtlety of the oneness all such ideas of ego, self, I and so on were naturally absent. My mind occasionally attempted to reemerge and this was beneficial, to my ego at least, as I was able to map out some of the experience.

This merged point is blissful, it is absent of any forms or thoughts, it is ever present and the subtle root to all.

I mapped out how 'I' 'time' and 'mind' are born. From the subtle emptiness there is born a sense of I (dimension 1, the 1st dimension is I), held, this I forms dimension 2, time. Dimensions 3 and 4 seem to occur simultaneously as mind and this the 4 dimensions of I, time, Mind(2) which give space-time: Mind is born of a subtle nothing, that as it has no qualities, can give birth to all.

Past this point reality as we know it quickly takes form and that was the final move back to me here now typing - but I did not allow that to happen until just now, I instead stayed with just this subtle point for some time, just observing how the 1, 2, 3 and 4 build out from this 0.

Remaining with the subtle point 0 I knew bliss and that it would be perfect to stay, but I also saw how that moving to a lower vibration, a lower state of awareness - being human - would reoccur and was great fun and pleasurable thing to be and experience. Bliss is ever present but this lower state of worldliness is a unique and worthy manifestation.

It must now be the case of recognizing the subtle also as the root to the world seen, and experience it as the source to everything, so that there can always be one eye on the ground as I float a foot above on my balloon.

~~

Old recognition newly recognized.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Another one down

I have a very close family of Mum Dad Sister and Me. I also hold my Grandma dearly as I am one of the few people who actually like hearing the same stories over and over just so I can smile at how details change on each retelling.

Apart from that, while I have cousins, uncles and aunts there is an exponential drop off in closeness. My grandad on my mums side had 12 bothers and sisters and in recent years they have slowly popped off like the slowest game of 12 pin bowling ever to be played.

I have only been tested by the death of a close one twice, both grandads so I am yet to know if I am as wise as I think when it comes to death. So far deaths have been quite unimpressive things and I have always tended to have philosophical or far removed responses to them and not heart wrench or pain.

Oh my dog died, that was sad, but I seem to be over it as I only just remembered now.

My ways to see death were normally of the "return to the source" "They had a good life" "They were happy to go" sort of responses, fairly unemotional. The idea of someone returning to the source or so on seemed quite valid to me but I guess my ideas are adapting.

I now see how the body returns to source, we see dead people everywhere, -I see dead people- I really do, there, there, over there, just there, Ok, it looks like air, trees, rocks and other people but that is it, our own bodies recycle quite often too but we the life source keep the skin bag animated as it changes size, gets spots, wrinkles and finally withers away. The body reconfigures often and does eventually return to source.

We though are the animating life source to that which is born, lives and dies off. And that life source is more what people morn the loss of. People miss characteristics of the deceased, they miss the form of the body, but what they really miss is the life. The characteristics live on in peoples memories, the body lives on as a new form but the life source?

The life source does not die and is not unique to anyone. It just gives up on animating particular lumps of flesh when they wear out, get squashed or maimed or die of boredom in front of life depleting TV in retirement homes. There is only one source to all of these bodies, it has all these bodies and it can not die.

So no one was born or died, the life source took on a new body, the common method by when mother divides into herself and a mini-me, and then it goes on animating this new form along with the old and it casts off that which is old or broken. Quite brutally in one way but majestically and wonderfully in another.

~~

I often notice a certain Synchronicity in the subject of people's posts and here is a very nice post from Rizal Affif at the Soul Sanctuary.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

If you had free will..

..and by that I mean the ability to change history, have future plans go just the way you want... Then life would be so so deeply deeply dull.

For free will there must be an entity to have that will and there must be time over which this will is intended to occur. If one factor in your equation is false or guessed then the possibility of an exact answer is none. And, in this equation of entity, time and will, there is not one with reality.



Depending on your age you may well have played a computer game that was too hard, maybe even just Sudoku or a Crossword.. The challenge of each level gave great and increasing reward but the current one is too tough - so you type in a "cheat code" and now you have the ability to get the special item that gets you out of the level or complete the game.

The game is ruined at this point. You'll cheat again, and again, you'll finish the game and have no real reward from it.

The very same variety and spice to life that is loved is the same thing with a different name as the unexpected mishaps. 'I did it' has the same root as 'I failed'.

If the universe gave itself get out clauses, cheat codes, special cases and so on it would have finished itself off by now. The universe is instead a real daring player, it will give rise to infinity knowing that it must live out that infinity to the fullest, it will give rise to all from that which kills it to that which produces a magic show so incredible that it is all worth while. If it had designs they would fail and more so they would fail to bring about true wonder. Whether there have been a million universes come and go or we are at mark 1 the case is the same, it plays the big game to the fullest, no cheating.

In it for the dance and not the end.

So just go with it.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

you again?

If I can see form. I must have none.

If I can see space be it tiny be it huge but always it be something, then I must have none.

If I can sense movement, I must be still.

If I know stillness and I know light speed. I must truly be absent of either.

I can only be that with no qualities to be able to see that with any.

I must be, for want of a better word, a singularity.

~~

Now one with their mind as a guide will argue how something with form can witness something else with form, and in the mind this is true, yet the mind is the seer of form and mind has none. I am going as far as I can to escape "reason" as to know the potential and limits of the mind is to have no mind. Mind can not fully see itself.

~~

For there to be present, here now, I must be forever absent.

Being forever absent I am unchanging.

Unchanging and absent I give rise to all and am, the only witness.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

On Guard

Meditating:
If it moves, it is the mind.
If it talks it is the ego.

So don't listen to that and don't be caught by the other.

What though is the stillness by which there is movement?

Who is the witness?

 

 

 

That I Am.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The one thing we all agree on is That I Am. There maybe a trillion paths to truth, each must take their own, but on arriving, each must see: That I Am and That I is just One.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Om Symbol



This is Om.

This is the slightly stylized version of Om from the top of the blog. Om is made of 5 parts.

The left side is made of two parts the top and bottom curves. These represent two states of being. To the right is a 3rd state of being.

These are your wake, sleep and dream states.

Up top we have a dot and this is the Brahman, the ultimate self and root to all of this. Below the dot is a curve. This curve is Maya and the illusory nature of Maya is why we see the dot manifest as the 3 states of being. 

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

I see I

The cat or dog is given a mirror and they become fascinated by the reflection, scratching at the mirror, jumping around, running to the back of the mirror, seeing nothing they return to the front, nudge it, on and on..

So it is also with the person when they first see the world.

With time they may realize the world is a reflection of themselves and smile.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Satsang

We all go around and read each others blogs and if you hit a blog containing wisdom then that is Satsang, (being in the presence of the wise) Here are two:

iyogi2many

Self-Knowledge

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

I really get the idea there is no space

I really get the idea there is no space and further that there is only a singularity (to use the scientific name but probably not its definition).

There is a no-space, no-form, no-dimensional, non-zero, non... a neti neti.. basically a singularity and that is it - apart from the ability of this singularity to give rise to consciousness and contain information. The consciousness then maps out the information in such a way as it projects worlds as if real, it projects separate selves into these worlds, as if real. It projects through mind, ideas of people, worlds, space, but non of that is real in an substantial way.

We are all projections of the singularity and the reasons that neither science nor religion will ever explain the ultimate is that they explain only a projection, one that is made only of mind and not the source, the singularity, the formless, neti neti.

So what we see is a world and selves experiencing it, but what is really the case is a no-space, no-form singularity.

This rules out any creation, ideas of infinite size and any ideas of an old universe as all those are mind shapes cast about from the projection itself.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Meditating life

You may not know that one of the jobs I do is to ride 150kilos of Pedapod laden with normally two overweight tourists around the hilly city I live in. A Pedapod is a modern day Rickshaw that looks cool but is basically an overweight 3 wheeled bicycle able to carry passengers. At least though it is a positive environmental statement.

Riding this bike with a heavy load, in truth even when empty, is tough going but I, as ever, turn it to a spiritual and enjoyable task. I realized today the mechanics of how I get by so well. I do not use my mind. I've done this all along but today registered as viewer how I as rider work. I realized that Mind can not help with pushing, with energy, with stamina and it is at best a hindrance, so I turn it off or leave it to tasks of taking in the view, humming, mantra or stillness. I am then free to meditate and leave the legs to do their work uninterrupted. -- This way I get my heavy passengers, the heavy bike, and myself up the hills without really noticing.

I do this a lot with many tasks but just noticed myself doing it today on the Pedapod too. We can really enjoy life when we leave the bits to all do what they are best at and turn the mind off.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

How the world is

Video link1
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This man, David Icke, has been, is and will continue to be, the one person who can strap together so called Conspiracy, who runs the world, to a solid spiritual foundation based on the 'One Consciousness' of which we are. He is able to explain, with very well researched information, how the world is manipulated and to tie together all those things we know are wrong with the world to a very well planned agenda in action.

As we collectively awaken, we are able with each step, to see how the manipulators have been able for so long to control humanity with very simple methods.

Spiritual awakening tied to a well and broadly educated mind are the weapons we have to break free of who knows how many years of oppression.

Time to break free.

If you are waking up then get the info that you won't get from TV.

Oh, and sell the TV too, buy some green tea.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Don't kill yourself

Not much here is meant literally as one thing I say a lot is how words fail at truth but can be used to point.

Do you carry an old haunting memory, a real cringer than pops up from childhood days or some embarrassing act? Does it pop up and have you wince? What I aim by the next story is to demonstrate why you should throw it out.

 

One person is lead to kill and they act and move on, take nothing with them from the deed and continue as if nothing had happened.

Another person kills out of anger and is caught, tried and jailed. Each hour of each day in prison they curse the policeman, the judge, the jury, themselves, the family of the dead. Come the day they are released, they are still a murderer.


 

Take the story to point to how people punish themselves and not a literal story about killing. If you can empty to the act you did so long ago, it was probably not murder, then you can empty of the past and be full of now.

An act is only carried with you if you carry it.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

In is Out

"What grieves ideal people is not what is just being done, but what comes from within, for they observe what it will lead to." Wen Tzu

Wow, nice words!

What grieves us when we look out on life is that all of this stupidity came from within, it is all born of Idea. All of the error in the world comes from the concept of I. What begins as a goal for the selfish fake self results in the world that the self then sees.

We are fully capable of seeing and realizing what being hooked up on false inner ideas leads to. Is it not time that we just had bliss within and with full knowledge that we ultimately make the world around us? All the people chasing Fruit for I just live out Karma for All.

They dream of money and so spend their life chasing money. Would the true self be so selfish?

Let's all act for all and all benefit. Be the ultimate truth and stop pretending to be Dave (especially if you are a girl as Dave is quite unsuitable, if you take nothing else from this post then note that).

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Kill Buddha

Is it best to see Buddha as a concept than as a person? If you follow the line of thought on this blog then yes. Any idea of this being a person or something to personally live up to is anti the idea of, and a barrier to, the absolute.

Buddha as a person invokes some need in people to admire, look up to, hold in reverence and these are not useful states to be in. Instead seeing Buddha as yet another name for the ultimate along with Tao, Brahman, true self, then it and the associated teachings are more useful and powerful.

Buddha then is the concept passed down the ages but at some unfortunate time it was personified and dirtied by this Christ/Guru tendency.

For me Buddha is more a word to be mentally read as Tao or Brahman and not associated with a person.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Free spiritual beings

If you have a birth certificate you don't have to pay for anything, ever, it is just a scam. All you do is *sign* for any goods or service and the company/shop can take your signature and claim the debt payable from *your* government and treasury. Don't pay for anything.

Also do not go to court. A court asks for YOUR NAME (capitalized is a corporation) and as you are only the representative (called 'Your Name') of that company so you have no obligation to show. They already have YOUR NAME in court on a piece of paper, they can do all they like to that as it is a corporation, but not you!!

Spiritual Economics Now

You don't have to pay with money only sign that you accept the companies debt should be paid off. Only make note to supply a form along side the signature that makes clear your intentions. To find out more of what form and the full process, visit the above link.

An interview is available here

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6

 

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Alan Watts discusses the truth of who you really are

Buddha torrents does it again with this Alan Watts talk.

It is another recording of Alan Watts and his ability to be entertaining and clear in making digestible the ideas of Eastern Philosophy to a Western audience.

He covers mainly here the idea of how we are not just the skin bag and the minimal acts that you "do" but in truth you are the whole.


 

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

It really is that simple

The ultimate truth is seen in the blink of an eye - and lost when given a moments thought.

 

 

 

 

 

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

There is good reason it does not make sense

Nothing exists.

I go to the shops and buy a bottle of milk.

Nothing exists.

Tom and Jerry was a funny cartoon.

Nothing exists.

Let's meet in the park at 3pm.

~~~

Seen from the perspective where only truth exists then nothing exists, even something called truth. This is the core message, 'The Tao that can be told is not the Tao'. Relatively speaking, in the world of our minds, everything exists. Even dreams can have a lasting impact as if they existed "I dreamed you had died, oh I'm so happy to see you".

In the world of mind everything exists, yet in relative mind world we are told that all exists only due to and alongside the existence of an opposite, which in truth is an inseparable complementary: Good-Bad, Happy-Sad, Love-Hate, Empty-Full, High-Low, ... None can exist alone, so none have a reality in themselves, only in the world of relative mind.

I feel like I am talking in baby language here but when I take steps from the playpark to the grownup level of "ok phsyconaughts, on with the 3rd eye shades let's see where we can go here" I feel I meet resistance or lose the message.

There is though good reason why none of it makes sense and why the basic concepts sound simple. A number of gifted writers, only a few in the history of books that made it down to us here, were able to write concise, pointed, direct statements true to the ultimate nature of the Universe. True as can be but not so deep as to lose meaning. Much of the rest comes off as psycobabble and is cast off.

The analogies for that above problem are ones like "A book on sex vs sex", or the same for chocolate, or a certain painting, view, experience. Words don't cut it and even if they did they have so much room for interpretation. We think in the language available to us and our language simply has no ability to explain the ultimate truth of it all. When we try to explain anything over some basic concepts it becomes "Ok, I'm not getting anywhere explaining chocolate, lets try explaining milk, sugar and cocoa and the concept of mixing and heating..." and then asking the listener to now form the same image in mind as you have - yet you know what you're aiming at and they don't.

To then move on to the taste of chocolate, still in words is madness. Further still with the truth of the awakened view as the message you aim at passing on you are in the ridiculous position of explaining something free of duality by explaining to a fake entity how to experience something non-dual - experience and experiencer of whom the complementary pair are the truth and the dualism that is their manifestation is the very barrier to that truth.

So many guides chose nonsense, jokes, silence, tests, pointing and more indirect methods and these are perfect but they grate with the person who considers themselves a rational thinker. They argue how by this being irrational it can not be worth their valuable time. And with every ego affirming statement they make they reinforce the very walls you aim to break down.

"This understanding has never been easy in any civilisation; probably in no other has it been so difficult or rare, surrounded as we are from birth by people so firmly convinced of the reality of their individual entity. ...

Even an intellectual understanding of the inexistence of our 'selves' is a rare and bitter attainment which few even attempt. And that is only the elimination round which qualifies us for access to Reality."
www

Reality is exactly this. This now.

Conceptualised, rationalised, materialised, quantified, qualified, given projections into time, reason, depth, breadth, it is not.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Unity of truths simplified, sagehood for all who can 'not do'

"There are no such states as before and after enlightenment." - The Buddha.

There is nothing to be achieved and there is no one to achieve it.

There is no one to be awakened.

Being is an idea through time. Move your hand and that motion is an idea of the senses and not real. Your moving hand is Maya (illusion) and your hand is made of Prakti (The substance of illusion). We only see Maya and not truth as that which is registered by our senses is compared to memory, and memory is not real. So real + fake can not = real. The flow of light to retina and that seen is REAL - BUT as soon as consigned is Maya. Consigning involves comparing the direct input of the senses to a memory or idea, and memories are at best imperfect registration of a past happening. Not real in themselves.

Meditation is a way of pretending to be in the Enlightened state (and rarely the pretending is near close for most who try). However one who has the truth may spontaneously meditate, as they may also spontaneously burp, whistle, drum, chew a leaf or speak. As they with true knowledge do not do.

Can one who is pretending to do what they believe to be sitting ZaZen achieve enlightenment? No. As someone who is pretending to drop a cup can not break it. Also the act, the action, has a doer and a doer is not awake to truth, so a doer of meditation is removed from the access of truth by their doing.

Where Karma means action, Phalum means the fruit of action. So 'doing for Phalum involves Karma' which also translates as 'doing for the Fruit is Action'.

No fruit, no karma. Karma is escaped by simply not desiring reward for action. That easy. No 7 lifetimes, no working off bad debt, no crashing your car because you pointed and starred at someone with a wart on their nose, or any such silly games. Karma no longer exists when the fruit is not desired. Detachment is gained.

Detachment via this method and Non-Doing via the one previously are the unification of Hinduism's, Buddhism's and Taoism's highest principals in one swoop.

Not seeking enlightenment is enlightenment BUT!! There is much more to it than that. The one must also be absolutely free on the seeking of anything or the doing of any acts. Life very much should go on, be deeply pleasurable and wonderful - but have no doer. Only detached spectator who is here only for the ride and not for the fruit.

This is a sage and that sage knows that the time they live within and the motions seen within that are nothing but a show, reflections shimmering off the lake of truth.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

To prove I is a phantom

From my investigations and some texts I have come across (most comedically the work of George Cockroft AKA Luke Rhinehart AKA The Dice Man) it is seen that this notion of self, the driver to the life you live, is never the same one twice.

We connect a thread through I-holes (pun useful and intended) of needles and link all of the I's we ever were together forming the wormlike thread through the 4th, time, dimension of space-time.

I ego is a backseat driver who is a product of events and is made, for good reason, to take blame or reward and add sense of continuity to the events unfolding. Ego is a perfectly valid and useful tool in this role, but does not drive.

The Bhagvad Gita says to "Work without lust of result", to operate without being attached to the fruit of the action is the Gita's way of saying "don't let ego run the show" and it suggests this as, while ego loves reward, it also suffers failure, and so the size of ego defines how high the rollercoaster will go, and so how low it will fall. Some Ego's buzz off the challenge of riding a big rollercoaster and this is great within their period of success. Ego is useful and entirely essential to all beings, the sense of I-ness is the basis for relationships and much of living.

What we have brought about though in the modern world, and this surely existed in truth for thousands of years, is a society that reaffirms the reality of the ego to the point that most people believe themselves to be the I, and that I has a body, and that I has a bank account, house, car, iPod, internet account...

But these I's are after effects, the show happens and the I is produced as required to attach to thoughts and actions. But it is a unique I each time, not real and not lasting, we link them all together and call them the ongoing us. The I who blew out the candles on their birthday cake aged 5 is not you now and the I now, is not you who woke up this morning, but the continuity is from memory.

With no memory we would be in an extended empty state. Life would go on a continuum of change and no I would exist. Instead though Now happens, a memory is brought up, and the two compared - so is born dualism, and I is produced to link the moment to the now.

Again thoroughly useful, but not real in the sense of everlasting. What can be made can never not exist, what does not exist can never exist, but falling in a hard to define area is the I who does not exist, so can not ever exist, but seems to exist, so goes on seeming to exist.

It is never though the same I twice, you can investigate this, and once proven it is a powerful experience.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Wei Wu Wei - again.

The action of the Tao is not action at all, nothing does it. It does by not doing. The supreme way of the Sage or person of Tao is also said to be that of Wu Wei, or Wei Wu Wei [Wei - action, Wu - non, Wei - action].

And it came up again with me today as it does on various occasions that we can't do anything anyway, any attempt is a vain gesture - as there is no possible doer of the act.

The doer is a manifestation that arises after the event and is called I or Ego. I is the root of the thought that arises also after the event. Our senses can not see the 'right now' as they take time to process that which at best comes to us at the speed of light. The senses take the signal, process, the I thought is born and to it is attached the idea that it was the doer of the event that it just bore witness to.

Event > birth of the I witness > processing > attachment of I witness to processed event > idea that I was the doer of the event.

End of post.








~~~~~~~~
A note:

We are so used on the whole to attaching our every action to the I Ego that we don't explore this situation.

My recent post that was asking if I was enlightened was a big fall on my part as I allowed the ego to write a big long post on if it were enlightened or not. I have written many times before how there is no I to be enlightened, I is an Idea, and have posted numerous times on the being no real doer, and that Ego and I are the smoke after the fire. The whole post was an error and thankfully balance appears to have been regained.

Wei Wu Wei, the universe does by not doing, and I do not do a thing.

If I asks again whether it is enlightened I will slap it harder than before, and if I miss the beat, please on behalf of the universe slap me out of it.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

In two sips

I absentmindedly, while reading, took a sip of Tea, then another, then put it down, pushed up my glasses on my nose and continued from the exact part of the sentence I was reading as if nothing had happened.

The 2nd sip was the clincher, Who decided one was not enough? It was not ego who was simply the viewer, the result of the consigning and collection of events and who would normally take the glory. Maybe the sense organs relayed to somewhere else that sip one was not enough liquid volume, but the liquid was cool enough to catch a 2nd sip of before the muscle tendencies put the cup down as a result of the nerve tendencies to protect the mouth from the increase in heat.

All in all it was a very complex thing to happen autonomously and I did not forget to beat my heart or forget to keep gravity at 9.8m/s or forget to have all electrons repel at the normal rate. The result of the complexity was manifested to viewer as man sips tea twice while reading and adjusts glasses. To me it was I had a sip of tea. Who was the I there?

Was it the same I who was flying this morning in his dream? The same I who can fly in dreamtime, the same I who walked me to work as I took in the view of the trees, the same I who took in the view of the trees? All these I's are moments where the overall operation is taken to be the action of the star of the show Mr Ego yet he did not do one of these events.

The star of the show just rolls into set where the huge film crew have set the stage, the effects team have all their parts in place and timed to perfection, the co stars don't miss a beat - and the star takes all the credit.

The ego then is nothing more than yet another part of the show. The show is life and I'm as much a part as the rain. There is no I here. The I is a ghost, a shadow of the true action.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Average

Rather than try to say what Enlightenment is, how abut what it is not: Enter Ms Average.

  • Not sure if God exists, not religious but if pushed would guess it existed. 
  • Fear of death. 
  • Fear of what others think of them. 
  • Belief in some strange things on a just in case basis. Like won't book into room No. 13. 
  • Think that they are subject to luck. 
  • Believe the news on TV or at least say it is mainly right. 
  • Feel the world is made of stuff that is fully explained by science. 
  • or Feel the universe is the direct action of a god who can think, judge and communicate on the human level. 
  • Think there is such a thing as Al Quaida. 
  • Feel their opinion counts in politics and voting. 
  • Feel war is sometimes just. 
  • Consider themselves to have a place in a hierarchy above animals. 
  • Believe they have a solid reality and they came onto Earth. 
  • Think that there are people who know better than them and so should have a role in saying how they should live.
  • Feel rules have substance. 
  • Would tell the Police, a security guard or warden, when asked, their name on the grounds that they had to. 
  • Know their bank to have their money in it and not differentiate between themselves as infinity, themselves as a free human and themselves as corporation. 
  • See nature as something apart from them.
  • Do not know how food relates to mental awareness or how a McBurger or a bowl of dahl can lead to different thought patterns or moods later in the day depending which was eaten. 
  • Feel that emotions have a reality. 
  • Someone dead and gone watches over them. 

I could go on but no one will read it.

Not all the points are spiritual in nature but point to the world of illusion that is accepted by many as real, so therefore the answers would be telling of the state of the individuals awareness.

While not all yes/no in nature, a more spiritually developed person would give answers demonstrating a higher understanding.

~~~

NOTE: To follow such important info as who rules you and so on make sure you become a follower of The Atlantean Conspiracy blog.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Spread the love

Two guys in Sydney Australia stand by the Queen Victoria statue in a very busy part of the city and at very busy times of the day. They have a speaker and an iPod, they play very loud, a little distorted, catchy, pumping house music - and dance like they are the happiest people on earth.

It looks to most like idiocy, but it puts smiles on the faces of many people who are trudging from work, coffee in hand and frown on face. Frown swapped for a smile by the craziness of two guys and their dancing.

I chatted to them and they have been doing it for 3 years, make next to 0 from their collection hat, have occasional though rare hassle from the wardens but they just do it. They do it to spread happiness.

~~~

Yesterday their spot was taken by a lady selling raffle tickets. She stood along side an open topped sports car, a professional looking stand and various signs saying the prizes; The car itself, a $4,000 shopping spree, $10,000 cash, $2,000 cash, and so on. The goal was to give money to kids with cancer. Do you know where I'm going here? I'm on shaky ground. The tickets were sold to people's fear and greed. A large chunk of the donation to cancer would be used up by the prizes themselves.

By contrast to this there is one old lady who collects for kids everyday, and she is active in helping them on a one to one basis. Her collection jar is small and never half full of change. Had she a sports car on offer maybe then the kids she collected for would matter more to those donators but as it is the kids she collects for are not as special as the ones who have a car on offer.

~~

In the UK we have Charlie and Danny who hug the police and spread messages such as their chief slogan "Everything is ok" and they vocalize issues on megaphones to the passing public on the streets of London. "You don't need to buy happiness, you are a special person already, you are infinite love, please do not feel the need to buy from these greedy, fear selling, corporations" - or in a more satirical way - "This is a message from your government, please do not forget to take your flu vaccination, it is important that you do what you're told and do not think for yourselves, go ahead, take the vaccine and be on your way".

Now that is real activism, I suggested to the guys in Sydney about the Everything is OK sign but they seemed to not get the point. The message is strong though, a positive protest;

Police: "What are you protesting about?"
Danny: "We're not, we're just saying everything is ok - do you want a hug?"

I'm making a sign and I'm going dancing.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Automatic reincarnation

To wish for life after death in heaven is to say that life now is incomplete and lacking. It is also incredibly egotistical in nature as an idea.

To wish for reincarnation as a human, other life form, or into higher realm is also very egotistical and fails to grasp the ultimate.

Taoists instead say there was Tao, there is life, I am now experiencing that in all of its wonder, but I am still in the Tao and when I end I will return to it.

See how easy this is? You don't need to be good or shake off old karma or anything else, you just go back from where you came. You welcome death as a person after a hard day at work welcomes sleep.

For those needing the idea that bad people get punished, I suggest they work on their outlook a little or a lot.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Mind-Mind Map




Brahman, Tao, Ultimate, Self, True I, Nature even, whatever the name you want to give for the infinite unknowable is the large purple ring that also by it's nature gives rise to and includes all sub-sectors.

From the ultimate is the Grand Mind (large pale blue circle) and we operate as functions of that mind, we are like active memories and synapses, signals that move within the grand mind.

Our Ego, our I-ness, our sense of self and individuality is the smallest dot (4 shown) and each form their own mini mind (4 pinkish circles surrounding the 4 small egos). Our I and our body arise simultaneously so we have a hard job shaking one without shaking attachment to both. Our mini mind is a function of the ego and idea of self so all operations of the mini mind arise from and reinforce the notion of I. And we say stuff in the mini mind is real.

~~~

You can see how we can share common thoughts and experience as we are part of the Collective Consciousness, the Grand Mind.

You can also see how our own minds are unique to us but contained within, so we have many thoughts and experiences that are part of the grand mind but we can not convey easily to others. So we have languages. And we have confusions.

Our mini mind can never know the whole except by dissolution. Any action of the mini mind reinforces the false. Dissolving the mini mind comes with investigation as to who it is and this comes after quietude achieved by meditation. First, calm the mind, then inquire as to who it is, to then find with practice that it is but a function, an idea of its own, and nothing of reality.

Escaping the I, the ego and the mini mind to enter the grand mind and see Tao is a role for the True I and this does not have language as - it has no one to converse with, it is, so truth is of no benefit to the ego and is impossible to convey in words or otherwise.

As the Ultimate is ever present it must be said that not-knowing it (living in the mini-mind) however grand it seems, is ignorance. As the grand mind and Tao are ever present we are always there but shielded by ego and I and all the mini mind creates to smokescreen the ultimate. Absent of the mini mind is permanent and bliss but (and it sounds strange in words) will be lost with reentry to the mini mind.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

A Far Distant Howl

I just found this blog, it's full of nice stuff.

A Far Distant Howl

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

That's Tao, spelled D-A-O

An ebook on Daoism, Which is just like Taoism but spelled a little more like it sounds*.

"Unlike the great Western religions, Daoism has no one God or even a founding prophet. One of its central beliefs is that each person must follow his or her own path"

Get it here. (buddhisttorrents)
Direct link to book here

 

 

~~
* To D or to T?
It is neither. It sounds like a soft t or a slightly short d. A mixture of both, it is a Chinese letter that we can't say.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Activism against activists

Well the peaceful sit down had to be disturbed at some point, my wife sent me out to the bank. Outside the bank were two well dressed guys, one Indian and one Chinese, holding pamphlets.

They addressed me and through the thick accents I got the gist that they wanted my money to feed poor kids around the world. Nice idea.

I said it was a nice gesture but not going to fix anything and they replied how it was surely best to do something and that the head in the sand approach would not solve anything.

I asked them why in the case of Africa, a country well able to grow food for its people, were people hungry? They agreed with my suggestion that a government buying arms and oppressing the people surely did not help. I asked them if they ever considered by feeding the poor of that land if they were not in fact facilitating the government in their poor behaviour. They opened to the idea but moved as if to reply. I went on that in India they have satellites in space, send rockets at however many million dollars, billions of rupees, into orbit, and are not putting rice in people's bowls. I said India by example creates so much milk, so much butter, ghee, that they throw it away, millions of gallons of milk go into the river, mountains of ghee are made and they will not give this to the people for fear of upsetting the economy.

The Chinese guy said 'China also', and the Indian guy nodded throughout my whole remark. The Indian one said how it was nice to meet someone who thought.

I then said it was admirable what they do, it is surely good but the issue lies with the heat source and not with wetting the flame. I have no ultimate solution to that, I respect their work but have a larger picture in mind.

And, I do not know the solution.

And I do admire charitable efforts.

But I feel it wrong that the average man is left in a perpetual loop of fixing what the rich and powerful incite. I do not feel it the role of the elite to fix the issues. I feel it is the role of humanity to grow up and not feel they need an elite to rule them.

Surely if we did not foolishly hand power up and away from ourselves then this oppression would not exist and so not need solving.

It is the fault of humanity that they look out not in for rule and guidance.

~~~

Only someone unable to trust themself would then say that they could not trust other people to rule themselves. This position is then made to look doubly as poor as they then, on the strength of their own mistrust and extended mistrust of others, vote in a government so far removed from them as to be impossible to control or hold to account.

The initial mistrust of self and the resulting situation of looking out for answers, sets the position of control so far removed that it is a negative asset. It also in twisted irony puts the control of one in the hands of another. "I can't trust myself or others so I put all decisions in my life in the hands of others" - You have to admit it does not sound smart.

~~

So my solution is rather than the treadmill of handing away power and then constantly working to chase the fallout, we do not hand away power. We then have nothing to fix. Too idealistic?

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

A journey to peace

Today is a fine day, sunny, warm, clear, fresh. I put one job aside in favour of another and the 2nd fell through leaving me nothing to do. The big book shop did not have Wen Tzu, the specialist bookshop did not have Wen Tzu, no second hand bookshop had Wen Tzu. I came home with an idea in mind to spend the day somewhere peaceful.

I have options; The sea, a cliff or beach, one of many parks, by the lake, in woodland, in an open grass area, in the roof garden on top of the building, in the Chinese ornamental gardens. I could get to any of these by bicycle and even the journey would be pleasurable.

I chose instead to make some tea, sit back, and just enjoy nothing.

Having been enjoying nothing for a while now I just thought I'd mention it here. I'll now make more tea and get back to nothing.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Wittypedia Entries for Thought and Mind

This is how Wittypedia lists Thought and Mind

The Mind
Think of a number between 1 and 10 - chances are you just used your mind.
But as well as being an amazingly good random number generator the mind also has many other uses.

Philosophers are famous for using their minds to solve man's greatest riddles such as; what? and; why haven't I got more arms... that'd be useful?, to which they would generally reply with a shrug - which proves how useless minds are for this sort of thing.

Most people simply use their minds to get out of bed and make tea and then disengage them as soon as they get to work - although other, more practical, people use them to prop open doors and hold down wayward pieces of paper.

Some claim to use the power of the mind to bend metal, which is actually true as they have to use their minds to make their fingers grip it before moving in a downward motion guaranteed to alter its shape.

The use of mind altering drugs is increasingly common, with the most famous instance being a man from Slough in the UK who altered his into a small dog called Steve for two weeks in 1997.




Thought
Thought or thinking is a mental process, like totally mental man, wiiikid. It allows us to react to the world generaly completely inappropriately and stress about stuff and get things wrong almost as consistently as blue is blue. So to deal with the world effectively according to our goals, plans, ends and desires we should not think, play golf or listen to Celine Dion. Words referring to anything are just concepts and the link between one persons definition and another is nothing more than coincidence. You only converse to bring someone round to your way of thinking and they are only your friend if it works.

Thinking involves inventing methods of manipulation to use on both information and people. As when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, reason and make decisions we are being very selfish. Any idea that thinking is a higher cognitive function is egotistical and completely normal.

Thought was invented by accident, the brain, a simple sense organ has the job of monitoring all other sense organs right down the spine and to the extremities, even extending outside of the body to the world of concept mentioned before, is just a tool who on doing this job, suddenly one day (perhaps a Tuesday) became self aware. Ever since then its been bashing on about how it knows best. It doesn't - so go and get drunk, you and it will never have been happier.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

A four line poem for instant enlightenment

 
 
I mind my world
You mind yours
With no mind






~~~
My original idea was to do a 149 page book called 150 pages to Enlightenment. I was to lazy so stumped for the 4 line poem above.

~~
Stupid idea :D

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

My philosophy in 3

What is life all about?
When right it is magic - It is always right and always magic.
If it feels wrong, get right.
Right is not: brought about, bought, found, achieved - It is the natural state and those not feeling that are out of balance.


Explaining the mystery
Because it IS and because it can, it does.
because it could; it manifested as experiencer and experience.
Refer to the above: This is magic!
Nothing we can perceive is not us, nothing is not it. Separations are for the benefit of experience and not in themselves real.
We are all it, of it, and it is all. We're it!
Mistakes are always rooted in the notion of "I" and they fail to account for the all. Wallowing in self, not seeing the whole; are false cut-off states and result in suffering. You can trace all problems to the idea of I. As I is an idea, only existing for the experience, suffering is not real.
There was no beginning to all of this. There is no end. It just is. Time is not real.
Death is also impossible.


Getting by
The one before division is the spiritual heart to all of this.
See everyone as their spiritual heart and not any other characteristic.
All other characteristics are circumstance, explainable and resolvable to that.
There is only one spiritual heart and we all have it within us. Within us all it is truly the same one heart. This heart is in all things and we also live within it. Shared and held by all living things, there is only one.
Work with goal and you reap good and bad. Operate as part of the whole, seeing only as a removed spectator, and bliss is constant.
Desire and always be in need. Simplify and draw infinite reward.
Good follows bad, and these are only ideas - it is always good.
Breathe.

~~~

Well that is the basics of all I've ever said I think. I think most who follow this blog feel the same or very similar.

To read the posts I feel most paint this in detail read these.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Hitting people with it

I know full well why they have a stick to hit students with in Zen now.

Please if you are fed up with all the 'I' stuff you have to excuse me I'm not even half way through the 750page book I'm reading and over and over again we have the enquirer asking/saying;

"I do not see it"

and I just want to get the keisaku and slap them with it myself.

'I can never see it' I want to say to the person in the book. 'I has already stepped up and claimed to be you and I is the whole blockage to you seeing I'. Now, admittedly using "I" for both the I of the person and the I of the ultimate is a little confusing a least so let's say it again this way: "I is the blockage to you seeing Tao".

As the person relates to I as them, they instantly set up everything else as 'not-them' - and so you see the issue, a trap never to be resolved.

Thwack!!

Am. Amness. Am. Am. Thus. Am. Aaaaaaaam.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

What are you not?

Why seek Tao?

You feel something missing

What in that case is Tao?

It is all you are not

So I ..?

You are all that is not Tao

But Tao is all?

Tao is all

So Tao is me?

Tao is you

So I am Tao?

You are Tao

I no longer need to seek Tao!!

Good, as you have talent for this, can you please find my slippers.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Where you are relates to your mind

A. A person sitting by the lake alone.

B. A young teen in a mall.

A. Has few thoughts in their mind and at peace.

B. Has many thoughts on their mind that flit and change frequently.

A. A bird passes by and attention is held briefly.

B. High frequency of flashing, bright lights, loud music, commotion, many people vie for attention.

Put A. in situation B. and they are very out of place. The same for B.

In fact if B. Showed up to the mall and no one was there they would be unhappy. If A. went to the park to find it full thriving with people they would be unhappy. Both A. and B. chose locations related to their mindset. Oh, Oh, Oh, you're unimpressed with this finding? Sounds obvious does it? Sure.

Yet how often people crave one thing and live daily in another. Crave the ocean and live in the city, crave a walk by the lake as they drive on the motorway. A simple point when made but so few live by it. Always an excuse.

~~~

Those who live alone should have less thoughts. Those who choose simple foods should want for less in general. Those who don't crave for possessions should be more consistently happy. Those who love from the heart more likely to have long relationships.

Those who mix with many people have more on their mind. Those who love exotic flavours eat more meals that displease them. Those who crave material possessions are more constantly in need. Those who love flesh will never find lasting companionship.

Again so simple it need hardly be said but I see craving in everyone's eyes and peace in so few. I see a toothless old man as happy as can be, and in the same view a teenager with all the possessions you can imagine, but missing a smile.

~~~

Want for nothing, it is all yours. Desire nothing and you're at peace. Or is this the other way around? I'm not so sure, but the fact remains, simple, solid; yet lived by so few.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Om harmony, Breath and Air

Pull a fish from the water and and it no longer feels quite itself anymore. Take the air from a person and they become quite agitated. Not long after either act, if the medium is not replaced, the entity will die.

It is possible to consider air as the a fluid that we move within and depend upon, few may doubt it. Health is certainly increased when by the sea or on a mountain top where the air is much purer than you are used to. Many religious traditions refer to the breath of life, holy spirit or other name that given a little open investigation could in most cases be referring to air and not anything more than that.

Breathing is an in-out-in-out harmonious motion. Well balanced in's and out's are most useful. Long deep breaths are more calming and if you notice when stressed your breath will always also be out of harmony. "Relax, breathe" you'll hear people say and "Breathe" is really the key there as once the breath is controlled the person will be calm. It is impossible to be breathing correctly and be stressed, not possible for long at least, the breath will always attune you back with the flow.

When relaxed the breath is right. When breath is right we are relaxed. Life also consists of many more harmonious acts that when out of tune signal problems and when in tune give rise to pleasure.

When we pass light into a prism it divides to its colour components. That original light is also from a previous breakdown and each new colour can also be broken further. You could imagine one very powerful, very slow pulse at the root of the universe or self that broken and filtered a trillion times forms the on-offs we perceive through our limited senses. All you see out and about is frequencies, waves bouncing around. That is also all you hear, touch even, taste and smell. On-offs of stuff in harmony or not.

One bad singer in group of many is quite audible. One tap on the triangle when a big band is in full flow and you'll hear it. A tiny mosquito bite on your whole body and you'll smack yourself. A tiny crack in a vast piece of rock under pressure and crunch it will shatter. On the level of the rock the harmony is deep within a crystal like structure, all parts very much in place and in tune, one steps out of line and the whole ensemble will crescendo.

Your life then is obviously best when harmony exists. The harmony of the breath of life; in with the goodness and out with the impure. Change is good when it fits the music but is unwelcome when a duff note or jarring chord is played when you were enjoying the tune. Relationships work well with two people who are two prongs of a tuning fork or two forks who ring to an agreeable harmony. Food, recreation, exercise, intellectual endeavours, spiritual practice, music and breathing, there is little here where the harmony is not a fitting example.

Harmony is a powerful model as we can relate to disharmony and aspire to harmony. It also gives a fitting model where we can imagine how things will integrate into our lives and a useful tool in locating the root causes of ailments. The model also aiding in getting us over bad situations as we can see how the disharmony has upset the ambiance but know that it will die down. You don't hit the cymbal or drum to stop it you keep at the bass line or harp strings, focusing on that which is right, and the grating noise dies down naturally.

Om.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Listening to the Beatles, spiritual practice

If my dad had any other taste in music I could have been suing him for abuse but luckily it was mainly Dylan, Neil Young and other greats and then about 90% of all other time that music was being played it was the Beatles. I heard a lot of Beatles. Hum a tune and I can tell you the next song on the album that would follow the one you hum.

Within the lyrics of the Beatles was plenty of rubbish along with much that meant little but accompaniment to melody, along side all of this there were also some great great lines. Harrison was perhaps the most Spiritual, Lennon the most visionary and McCartney was no slouch. Even Ringo in his limited writings came out with some winners.

I can't think of them all now but will rattle off a few:

Here there and everywhere - McCartney

I am he as you are me as ... - Lennon

within you and without you - Harrison

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

New spiritual language

The new greeting when meeting is "I" - meaning "Hello my infinite self" and also recognition of the I in you and the I in them being one and the same.

The ultimate shall be called "I" as there is no difference between I and I.

The root of ego shall be called "I" as it likes the name.

Mind shall be called "I-mind" or "I-thought" and shall not be given much credence.

Feelings or references of individual self shall be called "I-self" or "I" for short.

An object, say computer, shall be called "computer" and we will adopt all other nouns from the well known and popular English language.

Ownership of objects will not carry the same weight as in English though and computer will be know to be owned by I.

"I, Can I borrow I computer?"

"I, sure, it belongs to I." 

"I, ok, I just wanted to blog on I blog about a new language. I return to I after."

"I it's ok, I can keep it." 


Divisions and relative concepts shall always be given the prefix "f'n" (fake notion).

"Where shall we meet?"

"Hmm, how about in the park near the f'n-large I-duck pond at f'n-one o'clock?"

"Are we f'n-expecting f'n-good f'n-weather?"

"yes, same f'n-weather all f'n-week"

"I f'n-see you there about f'n-one then." 


You can tell this is already quite similar to the spoken language of now but unifies swearing and removes the need for f'n spiritual inquest by f'n just calling everything f'n one from the f'n outset.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Hinduism vs Taoism

Not a serious investigation, you may not do well to quote this in school.

Hinduism has a f a n t a s t i c language for the inquiry into self.

Taoism doesn't really bother.

Hinduism can give you (at least) 5 names for versions of the self, 5 names for the name of God, 5 names for types of breathing, 5 names for ways to sit, 5 names for ways to lay your hand...

Taoism, ..doesn't really bother.

Hindus have Brahman, Brahma, Siva, Vishnu, and and endless list of other gods..

Taosim has none. But does have terms; Tao, Te, Yin Yang, Tai Chi, Gua and some others.

Given a multitude of Gods in Hinduism they are all aspects of the ultimate, Brahman.

Taoism has the above terms which all resolve to Tao.

Tao and Brahman are incredibly similar conceptually in that they are out of the bounds of reason, knowing, duality and so on. They are effectively the same thing and for me are absolutely the same, but Tao is easier to type.

The Hindus have their way, the Chinese another.

~~~

When it comes down to it, it must be said that Taoism is a lot more direct. Given the Tao Te Ching a person will have a pretty good idea of what is meant. Given a Hindu text, will probably be more than impressed by the poetic and wonderful stories but will likely, especially if not Indian, be a left a few dhal short of a curry.

While more straightforward though, the Tao is quite well complimented by the Indian wisdom. We all know of Zen and its predecessor Chan is just that; Hinduism, boiled down to Buddhism and boiled in a bag with Taoism. Taoism is straightforward and direct but the Hindus spiritual vocabulary is very useful for people to describe what they feel and explain unique concepts.

I for one thoroughly enjoy the Indian ideas on the self and inquiry. I like some stories but not so many. I find their vocabulary, although I surely butcher it, very useful. I find what many of their thinkers say very beneficial and consider it to be pointing right at truth.

Taoism though, as you'll get from the blog title is my root. Simple and clear pointing.

If you're not bowled over by that analysis then re read the disclaimer at top.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Can not be burned by fire

Why can't the person of Tao be burned by fire? How are they free from death?

The person of Tao is not attached to the body or forms and is beyond the universe in scope. Life and death are the coming and going of forms and their body is yet another of these. For this body to occur the mother divided herself and any new body is a continuation of the long line of 'human being' which is itself part of an ongoing line of life, this has no real death just reconfiguration. Mother becomes mother becomes son becomes father becomes daughter becomes mother. Each mother like a point where a branch divides and each father like where a branch grows seed.

There have never been two Oak trees, one tree is a continuation of the other. The labels of new sapling and old dead tree miss how one became the other in cycle, never ceasing.

That which is living, when recognized, removes death and renames it. Beyond even that which seems to be living is a place where words become faded in use and function. Beyond that is Tao.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

On Suffering

Suffering is a mind state and is induced upon others by those who operate from the mind or ego. Suffering is ended by re-merging with the Tao and this comes in 3 ways. In wake, in sleep in death. Sleep is the most simple and we do it daily, wake is most beneficial as it can be used to help others, death is inevitable. It definitely being preferential to live absent of suffering than to hold out for death. But either way the cycle lives on.

Any re-merging is cyclic but separation and non-separation are in the mind. Separating and re-merging, or feeling in constant separation, are Samsara. Realizing non-separation is Nirvana. Yet Nirvana and Samsara are one and only given label and existence by the mind.

Slay mind, slay body, slay
The external: matter goes.
Then space remains; renew the pains!
Up! Front the final foes!

Slay space; then Naught abides.
Hold on thine holy hand!
When Naught gives back before the attack,
Serene thy Silence stand!


Ch'ing-ching Ching

This theatrical poem speaks of the act as if a battle. Yet no one is there to have the battle. Any battle with mind can be won with non-interaction. Ego and mind play their game and self simply has to hold true and they will give up.

You are deep asleep, then mind (little mind) comes on and gives rise to the ego. Ego will begin to paint pictures and play its game of shapes and forms. These are dreams. At a time you awaken when mind and ego are already in full flow. Ego paints the world for you and taints it to any presets the mind has. Bad morning or "oh so good to be alive" came from the presets mind had sitting in potential.

Meditation the night before, a particularly good sleep, absence of major mind issues or other factors can give you a nice start to the day but this day is owned by mind and ego. The practice now is to always uncover the true self before they get carried away.

Suffering is for those who allow the ego and mind to rule. Grand suffering of nations is because they allowed a leader to take guide of a ship, a ship of mind captained by a big ego.

The fear and limitations carried by ego make for a ship you would be best not sailing on.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

I-I

Anyone who is interested, please try the following meditation and report back in the comments section.

It is a method in another Sri Ramana Maharshi book I just dipped into.

You simply sit and repeat I I I (with attention inwards and repetition internally also), perhaps in time with your heart or at any similar comfortable pace.

I found this quite amazing having never done it before. The ego it seems LOVES to say I and so is completely transfixed by the process. All you are left with it seems is the watcher, the consciousness of the event, at peace.

Lovely.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Ask the Yogi

Will I find Enlightenment through Yoga?

Yes, if it is under your toes.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Reflections

Solala Towler is responsible for a very nice and fairly modern Taoist story. In the Kings castle, Confucians and Taoists are placed either side of a grand hallway which is separated by a curtain. Both are set the task of impressing the King by displaying their knowledge. The Confucians set out with earnest to paint their wall with the most delightful picture ever to be seen. The Taoists get drunk and rub their wall with dry cloths.

Come the day the King, who was aware of all the work the Confucians had done to impress him, stood and admired their painting. It was great indeed. As if to shame the lazy, drunk, Taoists he withdrew the curtain that separated the two parties. What blew the King and the Confucians mind was amid the mess of rags, empty bottles and drunken Taoists was a perfect, yet more perfect, shining 3D rendering of the Confucians painting, yet with more depth and clarity. One Taoist hiccuped, "Wu Wei", farted, fell over and passed out.

(Solala didn't write it quite that way)

The mind is a reflection of the true self but is tainted. The lake reflects the passing clouds and forgets them instantly. Emptiness is fullness. Simple truths sound stupid.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

    

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

What is Mind What is self?

Someone asked "What is Mind What is self?" and the reply was an action. The master leaned forward slightly and knocked twice on the floor. "tap tap".

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Atman is fake too, and Tao is on rocky ground

I think the Buddha beat me to this one by a few years but this idea of Atman, the recognition of the root of life in all of us (or however you wish to translate this concept) is not real.

This quote also reinforces the point and I hope I do not take it out of context as my source is not great: (on the necessity of finding Atman)

"Without contacting the entity that is imputed, You will not apprehend the absence of that entity"
Bodhicaryāvatāra

I like that, quite a lot, and will take it to mean what I want it to mean as if it does not I will restate it now in my own words.

You must inquire wholly to each idea to be able to convince yourself without doubt that it is absent of reality.

Having worked on the reality of God, The Ego, the Self, I, Consciousness, and so on to the point of certainty that none either exist, have reality, or even the possibility of a reality, then this concept of Atman had to be next. Now, there are serious get-out clauses for Atman as so many definitions exist that it can be like catching a wet bar of soap - but it has no reality. Mainly for it being something we can know it has to fail the reality test. I don't want to thrash out the details but as something known it becomes unreal.

The only thing that can have reality is not a thing. So, what should be said is that no thing can have reality. Only Tao, with the risk of blemishing the only word I have left, can have reality as by definition it is that which can not be named (although it has name) and falls squarely outside the bounds of definition, duality and so on.

Importantly, and if I post anymore I am simply going to have to post blank pages, Tao can not be known as knower would make for duality and delimit Tao to thing. OK, this is very well stated in the first verse of the Tao Te Ching but we all fall into the trap of talking about it.

As Tao can not be known then it fits the statement of Bodhicaryāvatāra in that it proves its non absence.

I have to leave this open here and there is a gaping hole that someone can poke a small whale through but language simply ceases to be of any use here.

Back to the meditation cushion for me.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Violent Religion

(This post just flopped off my fingers so it must have a reason to be)

Taoism, Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism (certain areas), and probably other examples fit this post.

Some people obviously resist elements of these teachings that are violent and/or are so direct as to penetrate to the true being. Wei Wu Wei said something like "For truth to hit home it must penetrate like an arrow, and that is likely to hurt".

The Tao Te Ching and other such works pull no punches. They do not invite the reader to lands of angels playing harps or ways to achieve financial or popular gain but unremittingly sledgehammer the reader over the head with reminders of how simplicity is both the way and the objective of this method. "Nature is cruel at times and treats things impartially, so too is the sage who treats people impartially". Most would read this and perhaps say 'ah, ok, the sage treats all people the same no matter who they are' and this is true, but it also means that the sage will also directly tell you if you are being a fool or out of tune with the way. Taoism also accepts angry outbursts, acts of violence and weapons as life. Again referencing nature the Taoist would state that nature is not always at rest and can produce storms; animals have claws and teeth, and we have our own teeth, fists and nails - weapons are but an extension of these. They then remind us how, while outbursts may come, they must also disappear as quickly as the sun floods back over the land after the storm cloud passes, and there should be no residue or wave carried from the event. Act, move on.

Zen masters will hit students with a stick. If the master did not hit them then students may demand a new master as they expect to be hit. Zen masters will shout at students to wake them from slumber and Zen as practiced by the Samurai, the martial artist, the Shaolin Monk is used to justify and give a law to acts of fighting to the death. (Although the Zen is predominantly included to focus the mind here, and sorry if I tainted your art with my shoddy knowledge).

This violence is external and outward but is reflected also in the inward teachings. Yogis and other elements of the Hindu system will starve the body and force lines of inquiry so deep and so solid as to shatter the supposed self. This is also echoed in Zen and Buddhism as direct and forceful methods to the core of our being. Methods to expose the truth can not be softly softly all the time if they are to bear fruit with all practitioners.

It is the case with many people who wish to discover the truth that they will solidly refuse to cast off previous beliefs. Taoism and the others also tell you to unlearn all that you have come with before attempting to learn afresh otherwise the person will taint the new ideas with the old and will be unable and unwilling to go with new lines of thought. We see this with some initiations where masters leave the prospective student out in the cold, give them hard tasks and menial work to test resolve. These stories come to us from Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism.

When I say to a Christian friend that there is "Simply no room for God" they end the conversation. When I ask someone to put aside learning and text book replies they will lose footing and speak of this conversation now having no room for reason. When I say that the truth is out of the bounds of reason they accuse me of faith in the unprovable. When I say that there is no room for faith as who is it with faith and what is there to have faith in, they demand themselves to have reality and for this line of conversation to be called void as it now enters the metaphysical and can not be proved one way or the other.

These are all defense mechanisms employed to reinforce the fake I. Tools of the ego which will do anything to hold on to reality.

Unwilling to let go of the side of the pool they can never float and this makes further exploration, as the above is only initiation, impossible. To ask them to meditate and surrender to what they find they will get no further than closing their eyes. They will reason every point with preset ideas and never leave the fake self. The ego is a very cunning and very persistent beast that will pretend to be the self. You will hear voices of how the goal has been met but this is really the ego still present and faking it. Ego too will expect reward from inquiry and will be hard to shove when it realizes that the goal is its own end.

This is what these methods must have an impartial, cruel, violent and direct nature that exposes the weaknesses and pokes at them. While someone can relate the philosophies to daily existence it takes true power to truly know the self.

"Mastery of others takes power, Mastery of the self......"

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The true I is the one allowing this dance yet taking no part in it.

Enter the state of the uncarved block...........

~~~

What draws me from this state back to the objective world? It is apparently a loss of center that gives birth to things.

I can then though reenter the state.

Who is entering and reentering the state? The state, the objects and the enterer and exiter must all be elements of the true I. The action and the acted are this substrate stillness/flatness that permeates - that flatness is indescribable as description kills it and delimits it to thing.

The true I is the one allowing this dance yet taking no part in it. Can have no name and can not be described.

So I will look a fool to those who ask for reason, and like a dumb person who can see a brick flying towards their head can only point, dance and hope they notice.

~~~

What is the point? The point is that with this at my core I can experience rain, sun, life, death and now as wonder.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Tao of little i Big I

If life were lived predominantly by people who recognized the true self then there would be neither government or need for it. If there had ever been a time in history where this were the case then we would not know, they'd leave no trace. In a time where people retained a true center for all of their days there would be no money, no hierarchy and not even the notion of suffering. - paraphrased from many Taoist texts.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Sri Ramana Maharshi is no more

I have read enough Maharshi for now. It will be more useful to allow the concepts to play out than keep reading reiterations of similar points, and I will possibly return to the books another time.

The core part of his inquiry is this question "who is I?" and to draw all other questions also to this fundamental issue.

The question "Can I be enlightened?" would be answered by him; "Who is this I to be enlightened?" - always drawing to the root issue.

Further to this central point is the reminder that this true I that is to be "achieved" is very much not something to be achieved at all.. As, again, Who is it to be achieved by? and further, if it were something that could be achieved then it could also be lost. The wisdom arising from this is that it is instead 'ever present' and it is then rather a matter of casting off that which keeps the person from it, uncovering that which is already present and always was.

Maharshi uses the word 'God' in a few ways. The Hindus have a fantastic language for this inquiry:

Brahman is the supreme, unknowable god

Ishwara is a personal god, very much like the Christian god but rather than just one and wars over who that is, they call any god that you relate to on a personal level Ishwara.

Atman is the god in us all, the true self, it is exactly the same as Brahman except that we can know Atman but never know Brahman.

And the list goes on..

Maharshi then will use the word God quite often and for my own benefit, as I feel the word god to be both tainted and vague, I use 'Tao' for the ultimate; and 'Real I' for Atman, Tao or Brahman (interchangeably). I will also use the term 'little I' or a similar phrase when referring to the I we most often think is us and refer to when talking English.

While Maharshi was a dedicated monk in these matters from a very early age and reached a point of recognized Enlightenment and sagehood he was able to remind interested people how this act of uncovering the true self is just as well carried out in the "real world" - That one can be married, have a job, operate in the world of objects, yet still work towards and meet the real I. Also in doing this the person could then continue in the world of objects as a sage.

This wisdom is echoed in other Hindu texts and very much so in Taoism. In fact very very much so in Taoism that seems more able to hold to the root of the world without getting lost in spiritual nonsense.

This is the path I recognize as most suitable to myself. I do not wish to lock myself away in a monastery as to be honest I would consider it a cop out. I am very taken by the idea, and I feel I see it in action, that we can alter the shape of the world we see to be real by working to uncover the true I.

Concepts such as "The Secret" are very much reaffirmations of the false little mini ego I and reach for transient goals. The result of genuine sagehood is instead to operate in the world as a human detached form the false I. Instead then, with recognition of the true I, the sage actually perceives a different world. Not one of strain but one of perfection.

The world seen is a reflection of the I who looks upon it. One seeking for the ego sees one kind of world, one seeking for the little I sees another, one living wholly from the true I is effectively, in the Kingdom of God, In Heaven, and to avoid such tainted language - A real person of Tao.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

ADDITION 1

Thanks Eric The Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi are very nice at times. I will keep adding to this post rather than make numerous posts on it. I also have 2 more of his books to follow this one.

On Life being illusion and killing animals...

"To whom is illusion? Find that out! In fact everyone is a “killer of the Self” (atmahan) every moment of his life."


That is so brilliant!, the concept being that all the time you operate as "I" you have the true self chained up in a dungeon beneath your house. Acting as "I" you smother the true self.

"For a realised being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment."

Powerful and brilliant stuff!

I'll add to this post in drabs..




ADDITION 2

Inferred not directly quoted: (meaning I'm reading a whole load of his words and creating a paragraph)

The I can only be that beyond sleep and wake, life and death, beginning and end. The I must be before consciousness or unconsciousness, before universe, before all that can be consigned and before consignee, before before, after after, beyond so far as to be eternally present, etc etc.. you get the point.



ADDITION 3

Inferred not directly quoted:

The world seems like this when you are awake, it seems another way when you are asleep, both are correct in that level of awareness, this world where we are awake is no more real than the world seen when asleep. The same information through different levels of awareness is rendered differently.

So too the drug states. None are more or less. None are reality. Reality transcends them all.



ADDITION 4

Paraphrasing a lot to save posting huge chunks of text:

The world and all manifestations are changing so have no reality. Illusion if you will. Moving beyond what you deem to be I, what you deem to be world, what you deem to be infinite, you reach truth, the ever present, unchanging -- Then seeing all that you had previously discounted (as unreal) you see it now as part of this one true self, and so real.

Then nowhere you look can be not Tao.

Also told by the Mountains, not mountains, mountains story of Buddhism.



ADDITION 5

Paraphrasing again:

Truth must be ever present so can not be obtained. That which can be obtained is of no use as it can also be lost.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Seeing the Pole star in the Southern sky

I'm not sure who I stole this line from..

Zen is: "Seeing the Pole star in the Southern sky"

This is one of those phrases that not too often comes up in Zen; One with absolute simplicity, clarity, and pointing to Tao like an arrow stuck out of its forehead.

This concept is absolutely the message to be learned to enter Samadhi and once developed can lead to yet further inroads. Without understanding of this then you couldn't feel if you punched your own nose.

What it says should be clear but in its simplest form is the idea of everything being a relationship to what it is not.

People unfamiliar with these basic concepts will reply with very worldly statements.

Given the question "What is more important; the air in your lungs or all the rest?" - a very worldly response proves a failure of seeing this core truth of "Seeing the Pole star in the Southern sky". 

1) "That in my lungs as without it I'd die" - Worldly, simple, straightforward.

2) "All the rest, I've used this bit" (exhales) - Worldly, cunning, witty, open.

3) "They are the same ocean and I can not separate them" - Metaphysical, open, recognizes truth.

4) "[  ]" (saying nothing, smiling from the small of the back to the crown of the head) - Realized.

5) "Let's eat!" (grins, pulls you up off your chair and slaps your back) - Probably the Buddha.

This recognition is expected for Zen study as how can a person see to the truth in any Koan or passage without this core realization? They can not. There is no structure to Zen, you can not read a text book 12 times and you know it. You'll be dumber than the book itself.

With this basic premise (realized) the person is then able to see many more truths in statements that would pass others by. This is not an attempt at an "in-crowd" mentality by Zen but a very valid and powerful method for getting more from the written word than can be achieved through literal methods.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The impossibility of resolving the duality is the magic

The impossible trap.

Languages carry the trap, but how could they not? Who would invent a language if they were not first under the impression that there were others to converse with?

Yin Yang

Brilliantly we have this concept of the Tai Chi, where the dual ideas are brought back to unity by the logic that everything must carry an anti, and for that pair to demonstrate completion and harmony.

Magic

The magic then is for us, who for the majority of life exist in time and space, to see unity and harmony in all we do. This actual act is magical.

Infinite regression powers true being.

As we can not meet an end to any negation we are left with some factor that is always beyond explanation. We can feel this but not convey it. The very act of conveying it instantly taints our gift to others with the ripe smell of fresh manure.

You can't discount other as who then is doing the discounting? Any acceptance of other is reaffirmation of self. Accepting all as one, who accepts it? Who is writing and who is reading? Should the one true self spend time trying to inform the one true self that it is the one true self?

No, the one true self simply manifests as an ocean and opens itself to rivers. The one true self describes harmony by being in harmony. The one true self describes peace by being at peace.

Negate negate negate, to prove nothing is but a relationship to what it is not.

Searching for truth is instant failure as it sets up seeker and falsehood. The basic premise of chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching. We won't do well if we can't get past chapter 2!

Yet the act of failure is quite magical. The part where brain and intellect cancel themselves out of the equation; blow up, cease, explode - boom - and with all negated, and no functioning reason left, we are still left with the mystery. This mystery can't be much else than the Tao itself.

..and as long as there is someone alive to witness the magic of all that they are not, then there is a show here and front row tickets are for the taking of anyone with eyes wide enough to absorb and an intellect wise enough to shut the fuck up.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao