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

the lesson from broken ribs

What we, the police and I, should learn from my broken ribs is not: 'respect the law' but 'respect each other'

The law did nothing. Was not broken or upheld.

Had the police respected people more than the law then we'd all be better off.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Why try to describe the indescribable

For as long as we know, as the oldest known written work to us is on this subject also, man has attempted to explain the indescribable.

We do it today as keenly as ever, why?

I know my reason and I think it goes for many. You find something that resonates so deeply with you that you first try to explain it to yourself. The offshoot is that you want to share it with others. As a man who has opened the curtains to see spring time is likely to wish to rouse his family and neighbours to look out doors with him.

The problem is that this resonance rang from no particular source, it came from no book, from no retraceable action, from no stimulant but it rang, it rang with clarity and it was life altering.

With no place to point people to we try in as many ways as we can to clear the path, we try perhaps to cut the crap, condense, reword, clarify all that we find points but does not strike. And so we go on, attempting to describe the indescribable, just hoping that others can by chance open up to and feel it too.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Assaulted by the police - Follow up

I recently reported how I was assaulted by the police and now I have the follow up.

Of course this is just the mini drama of the self I call I and so not a scratch or blemish on the real.

Again, this is said without prejudice to the case and with paraphrasing......

My friend who had attempted to film the assault actually due to technoineptness took one still photo..



..I was keen today on meeting him as to what his side of the story was.

His reply is here in the closest I can to the way he said it.

"You were talking to the police and I didn't know why you'd done it and I approached you all to hear you talking about rights of the police and transit officers to see tickets. They asked you then to move on and stop wasting their time and you said 'OK' and went to move.

In a flash one took the lead and said 'we need to see your ticket' and he grabbed your arm, the other officer swooped in too. One placed a handcuff on the wrist of the arm they had caught hold of and you were noticeably shocked. As a pair they grappled and pulled and one swung his leg to take your legs from under you and you went to the floor."

He said further: "I didn't realize until I asked other people but they can not use cuffs unless they first place you under arrest and I think they had assumed by then you were a criminal and they'd find something on you. They had you on the ground and one was shouting all this stuff at you, the other emptied your pockets and your bag."

He retold the full story in a similar way to the way I remember it only from the altered perspective on being an onlooker.

After I had been let free I thought I had lost my phone but had been ordered off the premises so my friend returned to retrieve it.

On returning my friend gave the police far more of a challenging verbal to and fro than I had. Remember that I as a curious foreigner had asked the police what rights they had to see my train ticket, I had done this out of curiosity and with the childish naivety that they as public servants would like to help me by answering.

On the other hand friend who approached them after the event had an exchange more like this.

"He's lost his phone, where is it?"

"In his pocket mate go and tell him to look"

"What you did was well out of line. He didn't deserve that"

"Is the guy mentally retarded? What was he thinking talking to us?"

"Are you a doctor with the knowledge and know how to claim his state of mind?"

"He must be mad or schizophrenic to come up to us like that"

"The only schizophrenia I saw was from you two politely talking to him then in a flash jumping on him, cuffing him and abusing him. Sounds to me like you're the ones with the problems here."

"Look have you got a ticket mate?"

My friend took out his wallet, looked in side it and replied "Yes, thanks I have"

"Are you going to show it to us?"

"No, you asked if I had one and I do"

He actually said quite a lot more that I can't do him justice by typing closely enough to the way he said it so I'll leave it there.

It is apparent thought that his exchange was far more confrontational than my simple question I had posed which lead to my beating and being assaulted.

After my friend had finished telling me of that episode I had missed out on I said 'And now just imagine as a tourist I had simply been asking for directions, would I expect the same attack to be launched at me?'

He said well I don't think so but I can see your point, you were simply a man from out of town with a question on his mind. As I know you are not going to take action for now then I may take it upon myself to write a letter to the police as to how I fear for the safety of tourists in my country due to the outrageous behaviour of the police.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Why God is not Tao

from LinJi

Just This One-Mind
The Master told Prime Minister Pei, “Each being, whether a Buddha or an ordinary sentient being, is just this One-Mind, there is nothing else. Since beginningless time, this mind is neither created nor will it perish, it is neither blue nor yellow, having no forms or features, neither existing nor non-existing, neither new nor old, long nor short, large nor small; it transcends all limits, words, expressions, traces, marks and opposites. This very essence is it; as soon as thought arises it is not. Like the empty space, it has no boundaries and is immeasurable. This One-Mind alone is the Buddha."

You'll hear that of Tao, you'll hear it of Buddha Mind, You'll hear it of Brahman but not of God.

If anyone does describe God in that way then they are not using God in the modern vernacular and will likely qualify that point as they write.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

What good is God?

On Truth is Within there is a piece called "What use is God?"

I felt like commenting but then realized I had lost the email account I used for Wordpress logins. As I could not comment over there I'll make my point here.

To someone claiming God is real and that arguments against the existence of God are puerile I'd say this...

"Are you God?"

They'd answer "No".

I'd say "So then God does not exist"

As explanation I'd point out that if God was Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and so on, yet this person said they were not God, then case closed.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Physically assualted by the police

Last night I was assaulted by two police men and am now in a state where I can not move at all without pain. I'll keep the details scant in case I am able to have them held accountable for their actions and I do not wish a blog post to spoil any official statement I make on the case.

This story is told then without prejudice to the case.

For a few weeks now as we approach the train station together after work on Fridays a friend and I have enjoyed debating the power and roles of Transit Officers. These people wear a Police like uniform and enforce train tickets. We were quite certain that there was no law regarding train tickets and these people were not able to enforce a law even if there were one. I had stood on a couple of occasions asking these people, politely and inquisitively, what powers they had and how they were to enforce them. Last week even I had a very fun chat with two of them as I travelled on the train. Partly I was attempting to see if they believed they had actual power and the force of the law and partly I was trying to get their side of the story where they have a job as well liked as parking wardens and tax collectors. They were simple and friendly and really did not know much of the rules they were upholding or have any idea if there was a law or if they had the power to enforce it.

Last night as we approached the station our conversation naturally veered to the subject and, tickets in pockets, we walked through the open gates on to the platform area. Two police men were standing together and as their role is to 'Serve and Protect' and they are public servants I approached them to get perhaps a final clarification on our investigation.

"Yes" one said (quite aggressively as I look back on it but I was polite and smiling and continued without noticing the aggression.

"Hello" I said "I'm just curious as a man travelling what power anyone has to see my ticket"

...hey, sometimes I do stupid things...

One said "I have the force of the law, I can ask you to show your ticket"

"Is this some kind of statute?" I asked "as there is no common law regarding train tickets."

"It's the law mate now move on"

"Ok I was just curious"

"Right we need to see your ticket"

Holding food in one hand I said "it is in my pocket"

With barely a beat the two launched at me, wrestled me to the ground and thrust one hand cuff tightly around my right wrist. My food went one way, my glasses flew from my face and went another.

They pulled and tried hard to get my left arm into the cuffs. With some effort they cuffed my arms together behind my back and had me on the floor against a wall. My friend under much protest from the police retrieved my glasses grabbing them just before one tried to crush them under his foot.

I was quite taken aback and asked them to please loosen the right cuff as it had cut into my wrist causing pain. I also asked them to let me have my glasses as forcing me to deal with them whilst half blind was unfair. They denied both counts and picked me up only to throw me down again with force.

One rifled my pockets and bag. He pulled out a picture of my wife, copies of my books (0n such subjects as pacifism), a sandwich box, green tea bags, along with various random bits and bobs. During this time the other police man never stopped shouting obscenities and abuse at me. Amongst his rants were that I was mentally retarded, should be on medication, stupid, likely on drugs, had broken the law, was wasting his time, had broken the common law and should respect the law. He stated several times that he and his colleague had asked me a total of 9 times to show my ticket - Each time he said this I asked him to not lie to me.

The situation dragged on, I could barely see, was in pain from the manhandling, handcuffs and I noticed blood on my face through the corner of my eye. The situation only ended after they had called in my details and banned me from the train station for 24 hours. They demanded I left, uncuffed me and sent me away.

As I went to move and gather my belongings from all around the floor I noticed the extreme discomfort I was in. Not only sore spots, bruises, a swollen and cut wrist, I also had severe pain in my chest from what I later learned was the knees of one officer as he pinned me down. Right now I can lean to type but if I wanted to shift position even to move for my tea cup it would be a slow, considered and painful move. I did not sleep last night due to discomfort. I may need time off work.

I know I was stupid to approach these men now. I fully accept that.

If two everyday people had done this to me it would be assault, as it was two police men it is still assault.

As I was not arrested for any crime, I was carrying a valid ticket and so on I did not commit a crime or even an offence.

I am guilty it seems of asking a public servant a question he did not know the answer to.

Let that be a lesson to anyone. Be polite, carry a ticket and ask a question of a police man - this will get you physically assaulted.

"Serve and Protect" is their motto. Public service is their role. Physical and verbal abuse is their action.

Picture: For having a train ticket

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

now again

No one: 'it's now you see, always now, you'll never be anywhere else'

Some one: 'get a grip of course I can do things at other times than now. I'll have breakfast in the morning'

No one: 'you'll have breakfast when it is now, you can't eat it in the future'

Some one: 'so I'll eat it in a FUTURE now not THIS now'

No one: 'your point is simply proving the fallacy of language and not the quality of your argument. Try to come and speak to me when it is not now.'

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Walking to the place water goes

We were walking to the waterfall and as the path was unclear we wondered at times if we were going the right way. Of course, in the end we made it there.

Once there we watched water swirl and turn and at different paces take different paths over the top and down the fall. Sticks and leaves too took turns through currents, slow paths, swooping paths, a moment to spin in an idle current and then to accelerate over the edge and down.

Each going exactly the right way.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Welcome to Nonduality

This is a very good blog

Welcome to Nonduality

You'll notice there is no comment facility on the blog but the posts can stir you to wish to comment. All you can do then is keep the conversation to yourself and let the points made sink deeper.

And another here

Radiance of Being

Where Rodney will take comments and respond to emails.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

free Non Dual Tao book give away

I have been reading through the books I have written and decided that the book 'Tao Stories' is one that I'd like to give as a gift to anyone who asks.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

the cool gang

This group, that group, this country, style, team, belief, ideal, preference, political idea...

Opposing any group automatically places you in another group.

Why choose to be in any group that contains any less than Everyone?

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

the mind thinks it did it

The mind consigns an event obviously and provably after it happened. From decisions to actions to any act - it only thinks it did it.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

It Infinity You

Perhaps the best name in the modern vernacular is not; Tao, The Self, Brahman, God, Nature, I Don't Know, Buddha Mind, Suchness or any other, but

Infinity.

This word can speak to us all so much more clearly than any old terms and it can enlighten in an instant if its meaning is understood.

Infinity is not a number, it is a concept. Numbers, weights, distances, do not run to infinity, numbers are finite. Numbers are conceptual, have purpose, limit. Infinity is not "a very big number", it is that which can not be quantified, beyond measure.

If any one thing is infinite, then as this thing is beyond measure it can not be one of two, it must be all. If there is anything in your mind-map of life as we know it that you deem infinite then everything must be that infinity.

The infinity you have in your own cosmology, your way of mapping out what-is, is it, and, you're that. There can not be infinity and you. There can only be infinity, and, it is all, and - all is it - and,

You're it.

Infinite.



All else is mere abstraction.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao