Cobie

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What a wonderful post. Yes. Me too.

In my PPD, in each thread, above the first post it says ‘Moderation Actions’. When I click on that, one of the options is ‘lock’. That closes the thread for replies by other people. (And then’ Moderation Actions’ has the ‘unlock’ option.) Unfortunately, in my PPD, I cannot hide/remove individual posts. I can only ‘hide’ the whole thread. Then start a new thread. I sometimes copy the posts I want to keep to a new thread and abandon the old thread.

@BigSkyDiamond On reflection, I should have qualified my answers. Always better to write ‘imo’ than ‘no, that’s wrong’. My apologies.

I agree.

Yes. Also there is also a natural development in understanding in living religions. I have no interest in further later Daoism, which often has different ideas. Anyone can pick and chose what to take an interest in, what to believe in.

That’s a very poignant example. I would love to hear what the original opening verse is. Maybe better in a separate thread though, in the Abrahamic subforum.

My only interest is the Laozi nearest to the time of writing, and all my answers are based in that. I have no interest in the living religion Daoism.

Anyone can believe what they like.

自然 is not defined apophatic neither. Unknowable is unknowable. Nothing can be said about it. Everyone can make up their own ideas about it.

No. The One (= Dao) is unborn.

not “different”; wrong. See 太一 生水 (tai4 yi1 sheng1 shui3) Great One gave birth to water Characters and translations at: https://www.tao-te-king.org/taiyi_shengshui.htm

No, it does not. It says 道 生 一 (dao4 sheng1 yi1) ‘Dao is One’.

Non-duality is 無極 (wu2 ji2) Wuji; no divide. Duality is 太極 (tai4 ji2) Taiji; big divide. ‘One’ is 道 (dao4) Dao. Beginning with the DDJ, in early Daoism, ‘One’ 一 (yi1), is a synonym for Dao. The Absolute is 自然 (zi4 ran2) Ziran; unknowable

imo: beware, a lot of 'magicians' are at worst con-artists or at best deluded. imo: not really. It’s just a funny little (ususally) guy that put on funny clothes and is waving his hands in the air. The only power comes from one’s belief in it. So it’s very important to chose wisely what to believe in. Ususally ‘magicians’ lack what I would call ‘morality’ and therefore are imo best avoided. Sound idea, so do I.

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imo: although integration is the goal, people and whole cultures tend to shift from one pole to another over time. Chinese characters sometimes show this movement. E. g. 意 (yi4) meaning oldest glyph (Bronze inscription): later (Han period) it became: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%84%8F

[no AI] The Dao Bums by a toxic online influencer: The name of The Dao Bums forum originates from the fact that some there are capable of being so far stuck up their own arses that it creates a virtual dark room for them to meditate in.

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yes e.g. a mystery, eternal, omnipresent

I agree.

Yeah, that so did not help. [真人 (zhen1 ren2) true man (Daoist ideal man)] long since, far away Righto, now he’s calling mum a memory droid.

I never understand him Was this about golf?

Yes definitely; imo that’s what it’s all about, to “connect with my soul”.