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

Ride

Every time Clair is a human she clammers to get as many people around her as possible, she asks for as much support as possible from parents, has many friends whom she exchanges compliments and reassurances with. She grips on to the seatbelt of life with grim hope each time she takes the ride. She depends greatly on material goods to distract her from the journey and even as uncool as she is at handling human existence, she always fears its end.

Each time Rob is a human he coolly and calmly walks his path. He cares less for the material things and he is less drawn to surround himself with people. He spends a fair amount of his time encouraging others to feel the wheels beneath them, enjoy the twists and turns of the ride of life. Often when Rob is human he spends time in contemplation of the magic of existence and nature for him is shear wonder to be within.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Music of Tea

I am sitting in near silence and all I can hear is my tea flask put put putting away a just-audible, somewhat random, song. It always does this, the slowly cooling tea must cause air to get slowly pulled in through the seal and the noise right now has me captivated. The way that the universe, left to its own devices, bubbles away, magic.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Comparison

In the Book of Chen Jen, the chapter about the fat bird, there is a comparisson on the wandering, ragged, poor sage and the sage in the palace who has ammassed wealth from his position.

In life we often compare one person to another or ourselves to another. You can't be anyone but you though!

An old Yogi once showed off how he could contort his body with such flexibility to rival any youngster and, what did this really prove? That he had still a firm hold of the false self. Comparison one to another displays that the person is still in the grips of the ego idea.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Advice

From a written piece by Doug Stanhope:

"I was once in my early years of comedy and semi-popular in the ranks of the open mics in Phoenix when a comic higher-up in the ranks - Joey Scazzola - caught me giving advice to a new guy.

He said "Never give anyone advice because you're only telling them how to be more like you." Every time I've erred and given someone advice, I remembered that.

If you want advice, you most likely just want someone to reassure you of what you already know. If they tell you otherwise, you'll either discount it or you'll take their advice and no longer be following the instincts that got you in this to begin with. So either way, you didn't need the advice."


The advice of Taoism is be yourself. Not another. The advice beyond Taoism is to forget the self altogether and be the universe acting, devoid of idea-self. Be, not try to be. And certainly not try to be someone else.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

whole becoming whole via intense separation.

First there is an unconscious separation of person and world.

Then the person is given the idea of an undivided whole, named Tao, Buddha mind, enlightenment or such a name.

This brings out the unconscious separation to a raging and full-blown conscious separation.

The idea of a complete perfection versus this separate self in a world.

This is the tool to awaken the person from their unconscious state.

When the conscious separation has become so intense, then the person is blown into the state of not-knowing, only-being.

As the ultimate state can not be known (as knowing is dual) - it can only BE.

~

Other such points are raised in the book The Person of Tao, see top right of this blog.



Disclaimer: Use coupon code BEACHREAD305 at checkout and receive 15% off The Person of Tao. Maximum savings with this promotion is $10. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. This great offer ends on August 15, 2010 at 11:59 PM so try not to procrastinate! While very unlikely we do reserve the right to change or revoke this offer at anytime, and of course we cannot offer this coupon where it is against the law to do so.
Copyright © 2002-2010 Lulu, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Son Rivers

The prolific Blogger and highly awake Son Rivers seems to produce very great blogs that generate strangely tiny followings. If you've not read his blogs then start here at sonrivers.blogspot.com/

very good stuff.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Nice to meat you

This is not a dirty joke:

A man a sheep and a bowl of fruit are sitting on a deserted island waiting for the boat that will arrive in the morning. The man and the sheep have an absolute riot, making each other laugh, telling stories, playing games and dancing too. As the night is set to draw in they make a fire. Come 7pm the man is hungry so he eats the sheep.

~

My wife and I went to a restaurant next to our house that appeared to offer some kind of hot-pot all-you-can-eat affair with masses of vegetables, mushrooms, meats and so on that could be mixed together. I'm vegetarian and my wife will only eat fish, no other meats. We went to be seated and we spoke to the friendly waiter about how we would just be eating from the veg selection and we checked with him that there would be sufficient choice there to get a good meal - it looked promising.

The waiter asked us to select from the "soups", the large boiling pots you have on your table that you mix your choice of ingredients into. We looked at the various choices of spicy, veggie, and so on and opted for a split pot of a watery and light veggie one side and a more spicy other side. The waiter said "ok so you are not strict vegetarian then as all our soups are lamb based" and we both used small sky-hooks to fetch our eyebrows back down from the ceiling.

My wife was able to negotiate actual veg soups in the end so that we could stay and try the food but it did take some doing to have the staff grasp the concept of no meat - no meat at all. As we ate, and it was very nice, I looked to other tables to see how we were supposed to eat the meal, what you dip where and which implements to use and when. In looking around I saw all of the people dropping large amounts of raw meats into their lamb based soups and I wondered if there really was any need to involve other beings in this meal at all.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The Book of Chen Jen Download


This is a rare and wonderful thing to find a new and quality book on the Taoist ways. The book is written in a way that it could be an old classic and it carries all of the references, philosophies and humour of great Taoism. If Chuang Tzu were to tell you a story rather than short passages then maybe the book of Chen Jen would be the result. The story is of two main wandering sages as they explore life, following their path, living the Tao.



The book is very generously offered here for free. Please do offer your support to the author if you can. Remember that a good book is hard to find and Scott is sharing his work for nothing more than a mouse click. If you are a publisher and you can help or if you are a happy reader who wishes to pat Scott on the back then his contact details are in the front page of the ebook.

Happy Reading

Many thanks to the Rambling Taoist for first bringing this book to our attention. It is with Scotts agreement that I now give you the chance of a free download.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

What's the dark matter?

The gravity model of space was built upon and investigated so much that they reached an "Oh Oo" moment where the gravity theory, one accepted as as real as can be, was suddenly massively flawed. "Ok" they thought we will get some super brains and super computers on the job and they came up with Dark Matter and Dark Energy. "Feweee" the gravity model was saved!

[Galaxies would simply slip apart and slow down if they did not add this dark theory onto the ailing gravity model]

But they can't find dark energy or dark matter in over 10 years of trying, they can only infer it. Infer that it exists because without it the gravity model fails - and we can't have that!

Gravity interacts over very small distances and is not too strong. Note how you can pick up your tea cup - see? You overcame gravity quite easily. On larger scales, such as a vast sun, big planets and so on then the weak gravity is bolstered up a bit and bodies can float around one another in the frictionless space. Oh Newton you made it all sound so easy :)

What the scientist really don't want is to ditch the gravity model and they will produce vast mathematical reasons why it must be real "it must be!" - They would hate to drop the theory as then all things, from the distance to the sun, the size of everything from planets, to systems, to stars in the night sky would all need recalculating - none of the ideas we have would be true any more - alph bla bla may not be that big or that far away, made of that, this big etc.. - scary for scientists - a nice blissful "ahhh" from those who see this all as our projection anyway. You see we apply qualities to the world, life and the universe from our minds and measuring this is farcical.

The strongest theories outside of the standard gravity model (held by all mainstream scientists) is that of the Electric Universe - The idea that the universe can be mapped out as interactions of electric plasmas is wonderful indeed - it says that the universe is like a giant mind and it proves all we see in space - it gets things right that the gravity model can't, it can predict correct outcomes of events that the gravity model needs addenda to account for. When NASA decided to blast a commet to see what it was made of the Electric Universe guys sniggered and told them. After the event NASA was dumfounded and wrote addendum to theories and gave lengthy explanations of odd results - The Electric Universe guys just sat back and allowed their predictions to stand - as they were spot on.

All you were told about science, physics and space is based on the gravity model and that is flawed to failure. Time to re-explore.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Wearable technology - welcome the new Luddite

Soon everyone with normal clothes will be termed a Luddite hehe, well we will wear that label with pride I think

The idea of wearable technology has been bubbling away for years and it is now ever closer. The idea of having your technology and disposable fashion intertwined is a marketing wet dream as the fashion victims will be trapped for a lifetime into the mill.

With technology on display in the same way as fashionable labels and items of clothing then suddenly your phone, music player or so on become all the more important. You have a crap phone now and you hide it in your pocket. Yet if you have a crap phone built into your jacket then all of your fashion victim peers will spot you a mile off.

Tied into this are the fact/problems that the same desire that causes someone to buy into this ego-dressup is the same desire that leads to someone mugging, robbing or murdering someone for this very attire. This desirability that leads to street muggings is also great for marketing as if your product is so desirable that someone is killed for it then you get front page free advertising for nothing in the headlines.

I comment on this only as I caught a glimpse of a headline over someones shoulder as they read the free paper on the train and what the article actually said I do not know. These were my thoughts on the matter. Safe to say I'll be with the Luddites with my jeans and t-shirt and not buying into this game.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

life after death

A guy at work who is reading my book asked me today if I believe in life after death. He can't have read far into the book yet and he seems to be sussing me out, trying to work out if I am a religious nut case or what the hell a Taoist/Vedantist/Zen/Atheist/normal bloke is.

So anyway, he asked "Do you believe in life after death?"

and I said flatly "no (laugh) .. I don't believe in life after death, reincarnation or anything related to this supposed me."

He said "What do you mean?"

I coughed a little to clear my throat for what may be a long winded path to nowhere and said "There is a universe or something, it has somehow come up with a me. This me has no life of its own, I have never done a thing, I was not born nor can I die. I just came about as one aspect of this universe thing."

(I knew I'd lost him at this point so I continued all the same)

"I can lay no independent claim to anything. Alone this body would quickly perish, this body is just some collection of ideas, this mind is nothing but ideas, remove the concepts and neither exist - their existing as separate things is itself an idea or concept, not real.

I can't live after death as I can't die as I am not born."

He walked away to do something else.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The Crux of Philosophy - This or That? Taoism

Mentioned in my previous ramble was the crux of philosophy and the two replies I received to the post illustrated this divide quite well.

I can simplistically divide philosophers into these two categories:

The Dos and the Don'ts;

Dos say that there was original sin, there is right and wrong, man makes error and there are fixes to this. (Confucius and his ideal gentleperson).

Don'ts say that "all is" and divisions are in the mind. They see that problems exist from mans' perspective but do not see they can change them. (Chuang Tzu dragging his tail in the mud).

~

As I took a walk this morning I considered a thought experiment where The Dos challenged the Don'ts and visa versa:

Dos attempt to fix the Don'ts: The Dos attempt to correct all that they say is wrong. They put forward ideas on correcting issues and also attempt to adjust the ways of the Don'ts. The Don'ts don't change so the Dos fail.

Dont's attempt to fix the Dos: The Don'ts explain how life 'just is' and that the only change you can make is the way you see it. That life can not be explained fully and right and wrong are not fixed. The Dos do not alter their position so prove the Don'ts right.

Again this is simplistic but I feel that it is the only outcome to this debate. As we can not control the flow of life then the Don'ts philosophy wins out. Man has attempted over and over to fix problems and the results are commonly more problems. I take wars, arguments, laws and structured ideas on "right behavior" to be examples of when man attempts to fix what he sees is wrong. The solutions then are as bad or worse than the initial issues they aimed to fix.

By contrast the Chuang Tzu by the lake, the Lau Tzu wandering off on his water buffalo, the hermits wandering the forest with nature, the person of Tao who steps away from ordered society, are right as they accept all as it is and see interaction as a catalyst to more problems and not as a cure.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

9/11 10 years on

It is not 10 years yet but nearly 9. Next year will mark this major anniversary of what must have been the biggest event of modern times, if not all times: September 11th 2001.

Some humans, for some gain, brought about an act of complete terror. In all likelihood, and I am yet to see how this can be denied, there was high level involvement in this act that lead to mass confusion, prior to the event, as it unfolded, after, long after and still now.

Why no military jets were scrambled, why the only 3 steel structured skyscrapers ever that have fallen to fire all fell on one day and why one of them was untouched and still fell (Building 7), why the mayor knew ahead of time that the towers would fall - how he knew (and there is a recording of him, prior to the falls saying he knew they would fall), why he left rescuers in there knowing this, why the BBC and CNN reported building 7 falling over 10 minutes before it fell (the building was in shot, on camera, fully upright when it was reported as collapsed and it collapsed after the announcement), why the owner of the complex said on the day, on camera, that he called for building 7 to be demolished, denied it ever since, how the planes and large parts of the steel structured building turned to dust but a passport of a hijacker landed on the street intact, how the buildings fell at near free-fall speed down through the path of most resistance, into their footprints, aka controlled demolition, unexplained explosions before, during and after, tons of steel turned to white dust when only thermite can cause this, superheated molten metal in the site for days after the event....

None of these details mesh with the official story that amongst other omissions mentions building 7 a total zero times.

This event still fascinates people and I mention it here for as little reason as that a natural curiosity has lead my wife to begin researching this event and asking me questions I can not answer.

"Why do none of these facts add up?."

It is sad to say that as the sea tries new creative ideas such as tsunami so too the human race tries new creative ideas such as mass manipulation of its own kind for gain. The universe is an infinitely creative being that manifests as infinitely wonderful and infinitely awful things - and this perspective, one way or the other, is good or bad only because of us. In a way we are the judge of God and not he of us. Now I don't believe in God one bit but I twist this Christian idea as it fits people's minds, our language and logic - Infinity (that is God here) is a magic show, and we (as separate spectators) are the audience. We are in the show and watching it, we judge it, not it us.

So we resolve to two positions - One we share as humans: That this is a terrible and incredibly difficult event to explain. The other that this is infinity demonstrating itself, so nothing we should worry about.

This perhaps draws us to the crux of philosophy. Where do we sit here?

1) All "Enlightened" sages, sadhus, gurus, hermits, muppets, men at pulpits, enigmas, and mushroom trippers will tell you that the universe is this one, this god, this fractal, this infinity, this thusness, and it is just the way it is - the mind is the problem.

2) All humans will say that acts such as 9/11 are awful.

By the above we may see that humans have minds and so the two positions mentioned do resolve to one answer - the issue, the cause of these events and the feeling of the outcome are matters of mind. Media manipulation (deliberate or not, caused, engineered or not) does demonstrate the power of altering perspective. Did a group of powerful people orchestrate this event to remove the powerful Bush family from office? Was the Bush family in on it for alternate gain? Was it a secret service operation for another gain? Was it 3 simultaneous engineering and architecture hiccups that lead to all the confusion? Was is .... ?

We don't know: Media manipulated the events, accidentally, deliberately or not, engineered or not, but the result was a world in confusion. The event did happen, it was universally seen as terrible but our man sitting in lotus position says it does not matter, it is in the mind.

As humans, as Confucius, as Buddha, as Lau Tzu we stand and say "What the fuck are you doing can you please just sit down and share a pot of tea?" and as the universe we form a new virus that lives off eyeballs.

Ha Ha, the universe is this display of creativity. It can be bloody awful and (most of the time) it is quite amazing. As a group of people somewhere in the world starve another group share a banquet and waste food. As one dolphin gets caught in a net and dies an excruciating death so another surfs a wave to paradise.

What the highest tellers of truth say is that it is not the show that we should pay attention to (which is naturally polar) but the awareness we have of anything that should be key. This root element to all events, awareness, is untouched by polarity as it is the sole immovable ground to all.

So the show is there if you want to watch it but the key to happiness is to see awareness itself as unchanging truth and the rest as a transient dance.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Hsin

Someone lent me the Confucius book and in there it says how hard it is to define "Hsin".

I think it is this:

You trust a man to close and bolt the door each night at 10pm.

One night an old woman is approaching the door and if the door is closed she will be left in the cold. So the door is kept open until one minute past.

This means that Hsin is: To be trustworthy but not to the point that the rule in case or the person who is Hsin can be manipulated for bad. Further that: The person is trustworthy but not so strict to the rule of trust that they lose their sense of benevolence.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao