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I haven't seen this one before .... and never noticed a discussion here on it . Eg Ch 1 If you can talk about it, it ain’t Tao. If it has a name, it’s just another thing. Tao doesn’t have a name. Names are for ordinary things. Stop wanting stuff; it keeps you from seeing what’s real. When you want stuff, all you see are things. Those two sentences mean the same thing. Figure them out, and you’ve got it made.

I appreciate @bradley's weird thought... mine is similar. Karma to me is simply the causal connection between actions and outcomes. I once had a deep insight into karma in my own life and experience that informed my understanding of the concept. I could see very deeply and clearly how every action and interaction throughout my life have come together to bring me to precisely where I am at that very moment. I could see how different choices on my part, or that of others, and my situation would be completely different. I could see the pattern of cause and effect extending back before my birth and beyond my death. I could see the web of interaction extending out in all directions, across vast distances without boundary. Most of all I could see the sheer scale and complexity of this intricate web of activity and how this makes it so difficult to always appreciate the direct connection between a given action and its effects. Dharma has many meanings in a variety of religions and contexts. It can mean something that is firm and stable, suggesting a foundational or organizing principle or law of existence. It can refer to the way we, as individuals, relate to the world and to others and varies at different stages of life. It is often used to refer to the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni. For me, the most meaningful and useful interpretation relates more to the truth or the absolute nature of being. In the tradition I practice, the ground of being is considered the source of all teachings and all possible manifestations; so that coming into relationship with this fundamental experience of our nature opens us to our full potential as human beings.

After a year, it seems like your problems are ongoing, and none of the suggestions here are likely to work. I'm going to lock this thread and just suggest that you lean on proven, practical Western medicine for your issues, first and foremost. Go to a general practitioner and seek a counselor to talk about these issues and they might be able to help diagnose your issues and get you back on track. Thanks to all of the concerned Bums who have chimed in. _/\_ - Stirling (Mod)

What a pity. I used to know how to preserve fish with just salt and sunlight -- no pepper was used but a whole lot of salt. This fish was a special kind of treat, you only ate it with beer, not as a meal but as a side snack. It was chewy and could get hard like wood if you overdried it, but nobody minded, it was a beer-side classic and surely beat chips hands down.

one of my distant relatives made pork jerky or bacon like strips from wild pigs which I tried one time but he put so much salt and pepper into it that I could hardly eat it, thus it was a little meat with your main course of salt and pepper!

A strange and dangerous Russian just delivered some food to my home. He owns a fishing boat. He fishes, and then he sells his catch to the Russian, Ukrainian, etc. local community, some of it freshly caught (not frozen) and some of it smoked. He does the smoking (cold and hot) himself too. His prices are very competitive and he charges nothing for delivery. He also makes some foods at home that only Russians and Ukrainians eat (and can't live without), and delivers those too. The ordering process is a mess, timing of arrival more on the "whatever" side, I wound up buying something I didn't order and not getting what I did order. Doesn't matter, it's all delicious and either can't be bought elsewhere, would take me hours of work if I were to make it myself, or very competitively priced. Dangerous because I am inclined to buy more for his trouble than I was planning on, strange because nothing about the operation is business-like, it's so informal and haphazard -- yet convenient and delicious. I remember things being done this way, old country old school... Now it's almost exotic.

The more of it I read, the more I enjoy it . Chapter 42 starts out with some cosmic mumbo-jumbo about Tao making one, one making two, two making three, and three making everything else. I don’t know what it means, and, frankly, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

@Nungali "Don't spend too much time thinking about stupid shit." (DDJ ch. 20 à la Ron Hogan https://terebess.hu/english/tao/ron.html#Kap20 ) "Chinese … I can't read or speak it myself”. (Ron Hogan, Terebess DDJ intro)

my weird thought. karma is basically like time. its the force connecting one state of being in one moment to the next. maybe then karma is basically the force of gravity per relativity... just weird thought i had.

'Tao effect' ?

Except Tao 'doesnt act ' TTC 25 : ... I don’t know what else to call itso I’ll call it Tao.What’s it like?I can tell you this much: it’s great. ... '' - Hogan translation.

Group karma seems to follow lines of least resistance - like electricity. Further, the karma implicit in pre-used substance alters the human user. How many intelligences used the oxygen that you are now using in your body?

I should preface, I'm no expert or academic. I grew up Christian. I grew up poor. Most importantly, I grew up a poor Christian. I turned away from faith, because I demanded so much in terms of knowledge to fix my mistakes and find some avenger for my tribulations. But since I turned 30, I decided that I can't continue like this. My life felt like a grotesque sludge that encased me, and above me, in a blackened mirror sustained on the ceiling, I saw what I was and what I was becoming. Cynical. Miserable. Angry. Hateful. So long, I've been lost. And lost, I think, is an odd way to describe it. I had no path. To be lost, is to have a destination. And there was nothing I was moving towards. And then, recently, I discovered the Tao De Ching. I just finished it, and have found two translations of the Secrets of the Golden Flower to next read. This has... Changed my life. I don't feel lost anymore, because I realise I'm not pursuing anything. For so long I've had the GPS open, wondering why it wasn't showing me the best route, and yet I had no destination in mind in the first place. For so long I've wanted out. Out of the present. Out of the past. Yet I seldom considered tomorrow anything but a lamentable fact. And now I see that tomorrow is a blessing and I'm lucky that I have yet another day to try and understand the Dao. The quiet is no longer overbearing. My racing mind is no longer a curse. I have read a hundred books with 100,000 words laid out, all that say nothing. Yet the Tao Te Ching, with 1/20th the words of even a single one of those pieces has my eyes opened. I just wanted to thank this subreddit. I found it today, but I'm just glad there are others out there. The world feels so much more gentle.

Breatharianism is absolutely not even remotely related to fasting, and is a dangerous, cult-like pursuit. I recommend removing this thread.

just picked this up.

Inedia (Latin for 'fasting') or breatharianism (/brɛˈθɛəriənɪzəm/ breth-AIR-ee-ən-iz-əm) is the claimed ability for a person to live without consuming food, and in some cases water. It is a pseudoscientific practice, and several adherents of these practices have died from starvation or dehydration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inedia Are there any practicing masters of breatharianism alive today? If I wanted to learn these techniques are there good books or resources available?