Stewart

From Failure I learn to expertly fail.

Pedophilia.

"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment" - Rumi 13th century Persian poet.

Sadly, no.

Okay, I'm done. I am out of here. The level of bullshit here is drowning me. Ya'll need a check up from the neck up, as Kinky Friedman used to say. Anyway I shall run naked and screaming into that good night. Good day.

noun, plural ox·y·mo·ra [ok-si-mawr-uh, -mohr-uh] /ˌɒk sɪˈmɔr ə, -ˈmoʊr ə/, ox·y·mor·ons. Rhetoric. a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.” e.g. Military Intelligence.

no

I can have my fill of horse hockey?

I’m about ready to throw in the towel on the Tao. When I first came here (Dao Bums) I said I was looking for a purer form of the Tao. Something free of Buddhist teachings about Karma, Dharma, reincarnations, Suffering and the eight fold path. I also asked if someone could tell me what a Tao Sage was and if there were any still around that I could meet. Now I walked into this conversation knowing full well that I would encounter people trying to be clever, and others being true believers of their interpretation of the Tao trying to convince me that their way was THE way. But what I did not expect to find was nothing. There doesn’t seem to be any serious cannon beside the 81 verses. I find parts of the verses helpful, but they kind of echo ideas that I have already come across. I suppose my experience would be much more meaningful had I found a mentor. Forget a Sage, just a knowledgeable person. Recently I purchased a book call “Taoist Meditation” translated by Thomas Cleary and was disappointed at what I read. Example: Human life is the ultimate; when the ultimate goes into action it produces positive energy as fire. Fire is spirit. When the ultimate becomes quiescent it produces negative energy as water. Water is vitality. The fire of spirit and the water of vitality combine subtly and congeal between the two kidneys to constitute the root of original energy. You would have to search far and wide to find a bigger load of horse-pucky than that. That Gertrude Stein quote about Oakland CA, “there is no there there”, sums up my current experience with the Tao. but just maybe that is the point of the Tao.

Surely you jest. Well how about this one then. Verse 82. Ignore verses 1-81, pet your dog, and try to stay sober. My point being, we have no way of verifying what you are proposing is a true rendering of the verses higher than 81. Unless of course I have completely missed your point and am making an ass of myself here.

I am always suspicious of the word happy. You hear parents wanting only that their children be happy. And everybody seeks happiness as if they were junkies and happiness was their drug of choice. To me the end all, be all of life is not happiness, rather it is fulfillment. Instead of raising a generation of bliss-ninnies we would be better to raise a generation of doers. People who accomplish things and feel good about having done this. Otherwise, happiness is just a choice available at the Neurosurgery center.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner.

"Cheap spirituality" - I love that phrase. I put it up there with fake Asian sprituality, "Kung fooey".

Hooboy!!! what have I started here?

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. - Rumi