Tao99

The Dao Bums
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    633

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Tao99

  2. Posted · Edited by Tao99

    That's because he was asking a question about Taoism, specifically chapter 48 of TTC. That's about as specifically Taoist a question as it gets. The OP:

     

    Hey, all! I am kinda new to Tao, or noob, whatever you might call it. I would like to ask something about the 48th verse, where I'm kinda stuck. Perhaps you guys can correct me on my learning of Tao.

     

    What I read (I don't know if this translation is correct or not):

    Learning consist of daily accumulating.

    The practice of the Tao consist of daily diminishing;

    decreasing and deacreasing, untill doing nothing.

    When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

     

    True mastery can be gained

    by letting things go their own way.

    It cannot be gained by interfering.

    _______

     

    So thats the 48th verse I read. What is meant by "True mastery" ? And how can fulfillment be reached by doing nothing? I thought being passive will do the opposite... I'm confused about this whole verse. Actually in all of my thinking about the Tao, because these teachings seems wise and paradoxical, but I cannot seem to relate it to anything else in the world.

     

     

    Feel free to comment on any of my words here. Thanks

     

     

    And you brought up Sri Nisargadatta, who is not a Taoist and is from another school:

     

    Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (birth name: Maruti Shivrampant Kambli) (April 17, 1897[1] – September 8, 1981) was an Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher of Advaita (Nondualism), and a Guru, belonging to the Inchgiri branch of the Navnath Sampradaya.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj

     

     

    So you did hijack an obviously Taoist thread with another school's point of view. Thus the moderator was correct. BTW Taoist doctrine disagrees with a lot of your quote.

     

    back to topic (I hope) ...

  3. Posted · Edited by Tao99

    You have yet to contribute something I haven't heard before so what is your excuse for your post just now?

     

    Sounds to me this says in the thread, not in a post to you. You are now just trying to be insulting with your

     

    "You haven't added anything but a pile of pathetic pseudointellectual bullshit".

     

    That's not debating a point with counter evidence. That's just spitting out an insult.

     

     

    right back at ya

  4. Posted · Edited by Tao99

    Try telling this to Tao99, not me. He's the one jumping to all kinds of incorrect conclusions. If you guys don't know who he is, why would you automatically assume he is a Buddhist? Ever hear of google?

     

    Did I make multiple postings in an attempt to hijack this thread? No.

    Is Sri Nisargadatta a Buddhist? No.

    Did he mention anything about Buddha or Buddhism? No.

     

    Not to mention I know slightly more than nothing about Buddhism and have little, if any, interest in it.

     

    I don't appreciate your condescending tone, Taomeow. Tao99 was clearly the aggressor.

     

    Excuse me for trying to help the OP out. We can't have any of that around here.

     

    Are you being serious? The only point is it wasn't Taoist as is this thread. So it's highjacking a Taoist thread off to another school. And it's confusing because it doesn't disclaim that it is a whole new subject, not Taoism. That's dishonest. It makes no difference if it was buddha, hundu, sufi, or whatever.

  5. Posted

    You have yet to contribute something I haven't heard before so what is your excuse for your post just now?

     

    I was talking to OP. Who cares if you heard it before or not? Is it all about you? Are you the arbiter of what can or should be said here? Christ.

  6. Posted · Edited by Tao99

    Dear Everything,

     

    Welcome to TBB. May I make a suggestion? Do not look at chapter 48 as an exercise in mental gymnastics or philosophy. I am sorry if that basically means ignore or tunnel vision past what everyone else is telling you about what it means. But consider chapter 48 as kind of codified set of instructions, which I will now comment on.

    Learning consist of daily accumulating.

     

    Every day we go through life sensing, seeing, hearing, smelling and learning trivia. We read books and articles. We gain experiences. We socialize and learn new things and think about them. These thoughts on these transient things adds to the volume of 'stuff' and 'noise' in your mind that is essentially pure thought and contemplation. It is the firing of your frontal lobe neurons as you cogitate the meaning of life and what you absorb. In this way, you are always, always accumulating unless you do something very very deliberate about it.

     

     

    The practice of the Tao consist of daily diminishing;

     

    If we do not allow ourselves to be distracted by the dialogue and data-stream in our minds,, if we do not allow the mind to jump incessantly from one chain of associations to another, we can begin to simply stop the additive process of constant 'thinking' and 'knowing' about more and more things.

     

    In terms of practice, it can simply mean doing some meditation instead of watching the news. Going for a Zen walk instead of blogging or reading Fark or zoning out on your Wii.

     

    Decreasing and decreasing, until doing nothing.

     

    This simply is the next logical step. You literally put the brakes on your life, suspend 'trying to have a life' and replacing it with simply 'Being'. It directly means doing prolonged sitting meditation and reaching the event horizon in your mind where, you've stopped adding to what you 'know' and are simply seeing what 'is' floating around inside you.

     

    When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

     

    This simply means that when the mind is still, it has no desire to jump around. It simply is. It also can refer to being on vacation, literally from life. Being a bum. Having no responsibilities, no commitments, no politics, no socializing, just being content being by yourself in the woods communing with the chi of the sky and earth and trees. In means sidestepping the rat race of consumerism and seeing that it IS a rat race that keeps people from self-actualization.

     

    True mastery can be gained

     

    True mastery is what obviously? Self mastery. It's repeated again and again in TTC. Know thyself and know the ways of the world. It means mastery of our inner world. A respite from unrelenting mental dialogue, personal demons, and inner emotional, moral, or existential conflicts

     

    by letting things go their own way.

     

    It means stop being a control freak, relax, let go, and be. It is a direct reference to doing some sitting time in the woods or on a mountaintop and letting the Emperors and Masters of the Universe do their thing, while you remain unattached. In the Water Method branch that also means dissolving through the first four Bodies of Being.

     

    It cannot be gained by interfering.

     

    Stop trying to make sense of life. Stop relying on selective thinking. Stop trying to control life. Stop trying to find meaning in life. Stop endlessly analyzing everything that happens around you. Relax, surrender, allow and it will unfold on its own, whether its inner peace or spiritual realizations or the events of life itself.

     

    Interference means also, that if you are projecting thoughts and cogitating, you are getting in your own way and you are not meditating or on the path to stillness, because stillness is what happens when you stop making and start allowing. It blossoms. It grows like a bacterial culture and reaches a flash point and starts transforming your inner landscape. Stop asking other people about how the mind works or relying on their books or or philosophies to jade you. Go in and find out conclusively for yourself

     

    I do not consider myself a Tao scholar. I am way behind on the Canon. I wouldn't begin to comment on I Ching and do not have Pietro's familiarity with it. I don't pretend to be able to comment on the entirety of the Tao Te Ching. I don't study it. I really don't. I just browse it periodically and realize the chapters are talking about the stuff I find comes up in practice. My thoughts are from a sit and mediate point of view, not philosophy or idealogical. All the best in your practice.

     

     

     

    While you were wasting time reading this verse and wondering what it really means you could have been sitting, meditating in the woods, letting go and finding True (self) Mastery, ontologically, for yourself.

  8. Posted · Edited by Tao99

    Sri Nisargadatta a Buddhist? :lol: hahahahahaha

     

    Spare me your ignorance about Taoism and all things spiritual. A "busybody"? Are you even being serious? :lol::lol:

     

    The problem of the Emperor busy-body is one of the most elementary points of Lao Tzu. EVERYBODY KNOWS AT LEAST THAT. hahahahahahahah

     

    Spare me your ignorance about Taoism and all things spiritual. Are you even being serious?

    :lol: :lol:

     

    G

  9. Posted · Edited by Tao99

    Sri Nisargadatta a Buddhist? :lol: hahahahahaha

     

    Spare me your ignorance about Taoism and all things spiritual. A "busybody"? Are you even being serious? :lol::lol:

    Who cares. You missed the point. He isn't Taoist and his quote is pure ignorance from Taoist point of view. So spare me your ignorance, and keep your off topic ignorance somewhere else and not on a Taoist thread. Every line in your quote is opposed by Taoism. hahahahahahahahah

     

     

    Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (birth name: Maruti Shivrampant Kambli) (April 17, 1897[1] – September 8, 1981) was an Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher of Advaita (Nondualism), and a Guru, belonging to the Inchgiri branch of the Navnath Sampradaya.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj

  10. Posted · Edited by Tao99

    "If you seek reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking and feeling. Even the idea of being man or woman, or even human, should be discarded. The ocean of life contains all, not only humans. So, first of all, abandon all self-identification, stop thinking of yourself as such-and-such, so-and-so, this or that. Abandon all self-concern, worry not about your welfare, material or spiritual, abandon every desire, gross or subtle, stop thinking of achievement of any kind. You are complete here and now, you need absolutely nothing."

     

    Sri Nisargadatta

     

    This is what's meant by "decreasing". Think of the uncarved block.

     

    He (Sri) is not a Taoist. What he says is not Taoist at all. Plus, he is promoting no-self doctrine, the exact opposite of the Shen (spirit) doctrine of Taoism. This is a blatant attempt to high jack an obviously Taoist discussion thread with underhanded, on-the-sly Buddhist doctrine that only confuses guests and members looking for Tao info.

     

    You should have started your own Buddhist thread or even better you should have your own Buddhist sub-forum. But please stop highjacking Taoist threads and ruining them.

  11. Posted · Edited by Tao99

    TTC 48 translator W.T. Chan

     

    48.1 The pursuit of learning is to increase day after day. The pursuit of Tao is to decrease day after day.

     

    48.2 It is to decrease and further decrease until one reaches the point of taking no action. No action is undertaken, And yet nothing is left undone. An empire is often brought to order by having no activity.

     

    48.3 If one (likes to) undertake activity, he is not qualified to govern the empire.

  12. Posted

    Ah, Tzu and Tao, two of my favorite topics. My favorite translator is Wing Tsit Chan. But I also compare him with many other translaters, including

     

    Beck Lindauer

    Blackney LinYutang

    Bynner Mabry

    Byrn McDonald

    Chan Merel

    Cleary Mitchell

    Crowley Muller

    Feng-English Red Pine

    Ganson Rosenthal

    Gibbs Ta Kao

    Hansen Walker

    Headless Wayism

    Kiyoashi Wieger

    LaFargue Legge

     

    They all can be found at http://www.wayist.org/ttc%20compared/index.htm

     

    This way an English speaker gets a better idea of the differing possibilities as well as similarities.

     

     

    TTC 13 (trans W.T. Chan)

    13.1 Be apprehensive when receiving favour or disgrace. Regard great trouble as seriously as you regard your body.

     

    13.2 What is meant by being apprehensive when receiving favour or disgrace? Favour is considered inferior. Be apprehensive when you receive them and also be apprehensive when you lose them. This is what is meant by being apprehensive when receiving favour or disgrace.

     

    13.3 What does it mean to regard great trouble as seriously as you regard your body? The reason why I have great trouble is that I have a body (and am attached to it). If I have no body, What trouble could I have?

     

    13.4 Therefore he who values the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire. He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire.