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

To cure a weakling child

Karma (More correctly Phala as Karma is action and Phala is the fruit)
Reigns for the childish ego who wishes to do bad.

Reincarnation
A blanket for the childish ego which fears the end of false identity.

Ishvara
Any personal god such as God, Infinite Energy, or any other name given to an ultimate but especially one looked towards for support is parent or guardian for the weakling ego.

GuRu
Meaning DarkLight, the person to guide you from darkness to light, or any other middle man such as vicar, rabbi, spiritual leader is the ego admitting it is small but also stating that it one day wishes that, with help, it shall be proved valid.

Mantra
Any personal mantra from "Om" to "All is good" is a weak clinging of the ego to some false positive.

Satsang
The company of wise people is a weak ego looking for someone it deems better to pat them on the head and say "it's ok, you're ok".

Meditation
An ego entering a state it wishes to maintain during all acts. The ego refuses to accept change and flow as it is too fragile so pines for a place with no movement.

Religion
The childish ego wishing to realign with that which it was never separate.

Yoga
The childish ego wishing to yoke or rejoin with that to which it was never separate.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Doership

Conversations when you see all as one and your friend does not lead down all sorts of common avenues.

Doership is one key point and when you ask them are they really the autonomous entity they believe themselves to be then, of course, they believe it and have no reason to deny it.

They may say "Look, I can raise my hand or not." or other common examples of their being the driver of their independent body.

I ask them "Can you do both? Can you do that again but do the opposite?" and they say of course and offer both moves to me.

They miss the exactness of the act though as the 'hand up' was then and the 'hand down' a different then. They can not act the hand up and the hand down at the exact same time, go and alter the position of "what was". They can not "choose" to do both so is there really a choice or an alternative? Could it not be that the up happened and the down happened and it could never have ever been different?

To illustrate their choice they say, "Look now it is up and now it is down." Do they understand now though?

I challenge them to raise their hand any other time than now.

"Ok" they say "I'll raise my hand in 3 seconds time.

And they raise it to prove their point. But they do it NOW.

I say can you really raise it three seconds from now? and they say of course, they just did.

Language as they are using it seems so sly and what I say seems so weak to them. Language and the meaning of what they say is their winning the argument and it is also the barrier to them seeing the subtlety of what they are arguing against.

Language so easily has us saying that the hand was up and then down and now this and will be that. Observe it as the now it always is though. Think through the situation without any theoretical times. See it only now. It is a waving in mind and in reality it is simply what is.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The Enlightened one

It is a sorry thing that people seek enlightenment and that some people are titled as Enlightened.

All you can possibly be is 'One who is pretending to be unenlightened' as if you were not pretending such then you would see that all is enlightenment and this is not a title for a person or a any thing which is other than something else.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Advaita Tao

Advaita, All that can be, and yet, what every I can not see.

Unless you have directly burned through and detached from I-in-the-world then you’ll find this next statement seems to be conceptual, far fetched, meaningless nonsense.

'I can not die, I have lived every life, I have been the environment in which that life was lived and I have been that living natural world.'

You are nothing but what I am also, except for group reinforced mistaken identity.

A clothes line is no longer a clothes line when the string is cut. 48 strings and a stick are 48 strings and a stick but using one string to tie 47 to the stick it is a mop. One piece of string and a stick could be a fishing pole, bow, whip, or a way to hang a basket. A heap of sheet metal and rivets could be made to float you over the ocean. The arrangement of parts calls for a name. Disassembled or reassembled the name must be changed.

No matter your view or understanding of science, even if you deem it fanciful guesswork or if you are sold down the line as to how it holds the answer to every question, then either way or any other way you say: “The universe is made of parts”. The arrangement of parts would have you say that you are you and a tree is a tree. Why not indeed? This forms a very practical situation.

Given your own version of science the universe will be constructed of anything from the five elements to the 7 flavours of Quark or some other similar or far fetched theory. Analyzing these parts then you or the scientists you depend upon will find parts, they will do this ad infinitum but convinced at each step they have reached the indivisible atom. Of course the atom was only literally atomic, indivisible, until it was divided. Then the mop became a stick and String Theory.

Science aims to prove and some people agree without looking that there will eventually be a true atom, a point where division is impossible. How their logic allows for this I have no idea as 1) If unsplittable, then what is it made from? 2) Where is it? ‘Where’ is very important a question when you are looking at ‘what’ as the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ seem to be two things and thus disproving that the ‘what’ is elementary. This is saying nothing even of what is observing the what.

Besides the actual searching and various descriptions we have come up with for ‘what stuff is made of’ the generally held idea is that arrangements of this ‘what’ goes to make the independent separate entities, person and tree.

You will be in one of many schools of thought then but clustered into one of only two groups; They who see that one elementary part arranged in various ways forms the world described by language, and They who see that language induces the very idea that there must be some base part.

Those who say that the universe is merely arrangements of one core part -must- now see that there is no true division one thing to another, and those who see that language infers parts from what is truly One, have already seen this. A consensus.

Now that all parties hold a similar consensus, that the universe is One but for labels, then we have what Advaita says. One, not Two. Tao.

The Two that is so strongly denied by Advaita is rendered in so many ways from Me and You, to Friend and Foe, Life and Death, Good and Bad, Heaven and Hell, God and Devil, object and subject, thing and observer, to any duality and any entry into the world of conceptual thought and labels, life as we “know” it.

Advaita is not though to deny life as we know it, but to affirm it, just as it IS and not as it seems to be.

When you can exist with a consistent background of peace, you can see all life as is, living forever deathless, then you are being what you truly are.

When you question or compare this to that, affirm or deny, seek, think, then you are pretending to be a conceptual part 'I-separate'.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Alternative to Tea and very healthy

This is a great alternative to tea and very healthy. It came to light from an email that did the rounds but even that is only echoing ancient knowledge of the medicinal qualities of plants.

Boil some water and let it cool off a little, until you guess it has dropped from boiling point (100C) down to about 80C. Stir in quarter of a teaspoon of cinnamon powder and then half a spoon of honey. You can increase on these amounts when you understand how strong each flavour is on your palate.

It makes for a fine caffeine free drink and the medicinal qualities are quite special. Along with the calming effect it brings about, the cinnamon and honey both have individual qualities plus even more qualities that emerge when the pair are mixed. Do take care not to use water that is too hot as you will negate several of these qualities by scalding the ingredients.

Have a little web search to find the medicinal qualities, they range from the incidental to the major.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

New Book: "Pop!"

Introduction: Buy The Book

In the stream bubbles appear one new one a second and as we watch old ones pop every second, pop, pop, pop. These bubbles represent humans coming into the world by birth and leaving by death, each second is this swirl of bubbles, pop, pop, pop, pop, and one day that pop will be you!

The thought of a death a second is not such a nice one as to dwell on it and so we do not, the thought though of the ongoing mass game of Russian Roulette where your number is guaranteed to come up at some unknown time should force a smart adjustment in perspective and awakening to the moment and living, now.

You do not spend your time sitting mourning each and every pop, considered though the thought of your own popping may be of some concern. Will you pop out of the blue unprepared or will you feel your pop coming? Part of your concern over your pop is sadness and loss you'll leave behind in others.

Each moment a pop, pop, pop, each moment people suffering that. Aren't you though, the stream?

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

My noble truths

Ooooommmmmm.....

1) The highest knowledge is the recognition that knowledge is limited.

2) The only thing you can change about the world is your attitude towards it.

3) All attempts to change the external world are like shadows playing catch. Look to the source, not to the projection.

4) All external fixes eventually become sources of sorrow.

5) One thing will not change, the truth which can not be said. All things in the material world will pass.

6) Good and bad will last as long as the mind is allowed to govern.

7) Infinity is such that all states will exist at all times. Never expect perfection in the external. Find it only at the root.

8) Bliss is not wanting to change a thing, the recognition that perfection remains eternally unchanging.

9) That which changes is mind. The source of sorrow is mind. Doing to fix the world is action brought about by inner imbalance.

10) It is those who attempt to alter the world who mess it up. Those who accept the world live in awe and wonder.

11) Think you've got the world worked out and it will surprise you.

12) The only benefit of analysis is to finally realize that analysis must cease to allow truth to emerge.

13) There is no external source to worship, there is nothing to become - All Is.

14) Being itself is wonder beyond any measure of pleasure.

15) Be effortless.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

All is Tao

It's all Tao.

There is nothing new here, nothing that is not Tao.

There is always perfection.

And only the mind is the creator of good and bad, right and wrong.

Exercising the mind, even in analyzing this Oneness is a trap.

Accepting the perfection of One Tao and All That Is,

Forgetting the mind.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao