wuliheron

Although I like a lot of Bill's humor, some of it is rather extreme for my taste. I find it humorous that Christianity is the dominent religion in the so-called free world where he has the freedom to say whatever he wants about the subject. A study done recently showed that the more capitalistic and classist the society the more Christian it is. I can't help but wonder just how much money Bill is worth today.

Sorry, my mistake. Next time maybe you will make that more clear for the rest of us poor slobs.

Confucianism emphasises society, Buddhism emphasises intellect, and Taoism emphasises nature. Being only human we all have aspects of each.

Philosophical Taoism presents a good example of how Taoism can be considered more of a way of life than anything else. It does not posses an explicit epistomology or metaphysics as do conventional philosophies and religions. In other words, Taoism can be more of a label we apply to a rather anarchistic way of life. In fact, it is said that in China today you can still come across the occational person obviously meditating in the wilderness but, if you ask them if they are Zen or Taoist, they are likely to chase you away yelling, "No! I'm just me! Go away!" Nor is it important that people who practice a Taoist lifestyle know that they are considered Taoist by others, and until recently religious Taoists did not have missionaries. The lifestyle supported by Taoism emphasises simplicity, spontaneity, and acceptance.

This line of reasoning tends to remind me of the Disney film, "The Lion King". At one point in the movie the lion king says he does not care about what happened in the past. In response a shaman ape hits him over the head with a stick. When the lion king asks why he did that the ape responds, "Who cares, it is in the past!" You might find the work of Antonio Demasio interesting. Demasio is a neurologist who specializes in working with people who have lost the ability to emote. Without emotions these people function to a great extent like computers, garbage-in garbage-out. They can understand things intellectually, but they have no meaning for them. One woman would not get out of bed unless someone suggested it, and a man he worked with would do anything anyone suggested. Another man literally could not decide whether or not to tie his shoes. Of course, this does not answer the BIG question of whether or not we ultimately have free will, but I often find it more helpful to start small and work my way up. Quite frequently I find that once I know the little answers the big ones just don't seem so important anymore.

Which brings up the question again as to what exactly s/he was hearing and feeling.

That background whine in your head is often not just in your head. It can be feedback in the ears that, for some people, is so loud others can hear it in a quiet room. Your brain compares an electrical signal it generates against incoming electrical impulses from the ear. It uses the differential between the two to generate a quick and accurate representation of the sound. It may be that in meditating you have changed your brainwaves enough to silence this oscilator signal. The inner ear can be damaged by loud noises. High frequency noises cause instant permanent damage while low frequency ones take a few days. If the damage is severe enough it causes tinitis, a permanent ringing in the ears that can become so bad it drives people nuts. If you work around loud machinery wear hearing protection and, whatever you do, turn down the stereo.

Unfortunately each new astronomy headline contradicts the last one.

This is a paraphrase of R. W. Emerson: "Virtue is its own reward, to have a friend you must first be a friend."

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleD...?sku=0345444191 In recent decades anthropologists have unearthed the oldest known version of the Tao Te Ching called the "Bamboo Text." By merely replacing one character that repeats throughout the text with a different character the epistomology of the text is changed from the familiar implicit (ie- mystical) to an explicit one. This trend towards a more explicit epistomology can apparently be clearly seen when looking back through all of the older interpretations. It therefore represents a newly rediscovered type of Taoism I call "Pragmatic Taoism" to distinguish it from the other types made famous by Huston Smith. Huston Smith first distinguished between four catagories of Taoism he called religious, esoteric, energetic, and philosophical. Religious Taoism is self-explanatory and esoteric Taoists are exclusively interested in Taoist practices. Energetic Taoism has the metaphysical maxim: Change is the only constant. For them everything is made of "pure" energy (whatever that is!) Philosophical Taoism is more a form of mysticism or psychology by western standards. Pragmatic Taoism is my own interpretation of the "Bamboo Text", which is the only known version of the "Tao Te Ching" to have an explicit epistomology. Still, being Taoism, this epistomology is introspective and focuses on attitude and affect as much as behavior. Chuang Tzu is once said to have declared that Taoism has no metaphysics, and this is certainly a valid interpretation of both philosophical and pragmatic Taoism. In fact, the two are so closely related I wonder exactly what the major distinctions might be. Any conversation on the subject would be welcome.

Great website! Thanks.

Thank you very much gossamer, Those are all very interesting looking books. By any chance can you summarize Wang's interpretation of quantum mechanics? I am on a fixed income and have already studied the metaphysical implications of QM extensively.

I keep coming across people recommending eating large amounts of garlic. The problem with eating large amounts of natural antibiotics is that they also kill the bacteria in your gut that you need to digest food. The result is stomach ache for a few days where the food in your stomach feels like rocks. To avoid this, eat a spoonful of acedophilous (good bacteria) if you must eat so much garlic or whatever.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guid...3490&sr=1-1 I've only glanced at this book, just enough to get the ghist of it which is similar to Philosophical Taoism and Zen. At one time there were six thousand distinct sects of Taoism and over the eons it has been mixed with many other schools of thought. "The Tao of Pooh" has probably sold more copies than any other English language book on the subject, but English speaking Taoists today have a wonderful selection of books on the subject to choose from. Just search out the subject at amazon or borders and look at the ratings people have given. To answer some of your questions, Taoism is widely considered to be by far the most feminine the world's major schools of thought. It emphasises simplicity, spontaneity, and acceptance. I would recommend that you look online for copies of "Tao Te Ching", "I-Ching", "Chaung Tzu", and "Art of War". The last time I checked there were something like eighty different English language translations of the "Tao Te Ching" alone, and many say that a thorough knowledge of at least ten versions is required to fully understand the original Chinese. The Daoism Depot at edepot.com is a great source. As for what the Tao is.... Though it has no name, I call it Tao, Though it has no limit, I call it limitless Lao Tzu

I would suggest that words only have demonstrable meaning according to their function in a given context. In other words, taking snippets from here, there, and everywhere without reference to their context does not clarify the author's intended meaning (if any!)

Sounds like a virus. There are a few things you can take right when you first feel the virus hitting you that will shorten it's stay, but otherwise all you can do is treat the symptoms. I recommend zinc lozenges for the sore throat. If you nose gets plugged or runs take Zicam, it is another homeopathic remedy with zinc. The bacteria that viruses produce cannot reproduce in zinc. Unfortunately they are both relatively expensive, but I expecially recommend the Zicam because it stops the little buggers before they can drip down into your lungs. You also don't have to worry about any possible side effects with other medication you might be taking.

Yes these are not masters but merely simple scholars. They claim it is not they who changed the words of the text, instead, it is just what the anthropologists unearthed. However it is true that ancient Chinese is notoriously difficult to translate. I would compare their translation to the difference between the Greek Bible and the modern King James version. William Tinsdale was the scholar who gave the modern English language Bible its wonderful earthy language. His work has often been compared to William Shakespeare and his influence on modern English is just as widespread today. Personally, I don't know if the work of these men is authentic or not, nor does it matter to me. What matters to me is that a new way to appreciate the Tao has become available. Many paths, one mountain.

I find that our first guesses as to why we do the things we do are usually correct.

Hello everyone, It has been many years since I have posted to a Taoist message board, but I suppose some of you might recognize my email address. If you do, please feel free to say Hi. For those of you who don't know me, I am a Taoist living in the state of Virginia in the US. I am particularly interested in modern physics, philosophy, and alternative lifestyles.

Six degrees of freedom, six handshakes from anyone on the planet. I wonder how many people that visit this site are within an easy drive of each other.

Procrastination is just one kind of internal struggle out of countless types. I'm reminded of an ancient african way of catching monkeys. While a monkey is watching you take a stick and drill a hole in a termite mound. Then you place something inside the hole and go hide. The monkey's curiosity gets the better of him and he reaches inside the hole to grab whatever it is you put in there. Unfortunately for the monkey the hole is not big enough for him to pull out both his fist and the object. Instead of letting go of the object and running away, he allows himself to be captured. A common Asian metaphor for the human psyche is that of a cyclone. Around the calm center fly our beliefs colliding with each other in utter chaos and endless circles. Like the monkey all we need do is let go, but we have more often than not convinced ourselves that it is either impossible or somehow worse to let go.

Humor is widely considered the most difficult of the performing arts and the most difficult to define. However, one thing just about everyone agrees on is that humor involves an element of surprise in the form of a punchline. Each moment of existence is subtly novel, unique.a Therefore you could say that each moment of life is a punchline, but a subtle one. Instead of a belly laugh, it inspires a more serene smile.

Lao Tzu wrote: Habits are the end of honesty and compassion, The beginning of confusion, Belief is a colorful hope or fear, The beginning of folly. Fear can be a natural reaction to the world around us, or it can be a reaction to our beliefs (ie- habitual ways of thinking) about the world. Meditation can help to clear the mind of beliefs and, therefore, fears. We can also examine our beliefs about our fears by asking ourselves questions about what frightens us. There are perhaps an infinite number of ways of dealing with our fears, but all we ever have to do is let go of them.