rene

Any excuse is better than none.

Oh that's good. Psycho-philosophers dont need faith: they already believe they know what the hell they're talkin about.

A "consensus agreement" might be about as valid as the blind men deciding which one of them is right about the elephant. Maybe when you get to China you can ask a Daoist.

Yep. That's called cherry-picking.

GIH - bang on. Top to bottom.

Marblehead, you needed a name for your philosophy - and you chose "Taoist", as have many others who embrace mostly the philosophical aspect. But "Taoism" formalized into much more than the concepts of LZ and ZZ, long before you picked up a copy of the TTC - so why not leave the "Taoist" label to those who practice the full aspect? If identifying with an "ism" is important for you, your ideas would fit naturally under the "Laoist" banner (Laoist = embraces the philosophy of LaoTzu) - where all the concerns over the religious, alchemical and immortal aspects of Taoism are left to others.

More Marblehead Taoism I see. The clear concepts in The Laozi were shrouded and twisted in the Inner Chapters by the (centuries later) disciples of ZZ who actually wrote them. But perhaps you are going to address this in your presentations, so I'll wait before commenting further.

You average 16 posts per day. I'm sure the chance will come.

Hi Tao99, Marblehead practices Marblehead Taoism. "Wu wei is not just "doing nothing", it means"non-contrived action" or action emptied of self-oriented scheming; action just following the natural flow (laws) of nature" is part of Laoist (Lao Tzu) ways.

Yes, I was trying to expand on it as Stigweard had requested. Actually, everything past the original words were extraneous, as I knew they would be. Some things must be experienced ourselves before someone else's descriptions or explanations can make sense. And thank you for saying you were going to say something.

Yoda/Kyle's father passed away a few days ago. Kyle's doing okay, and well in his new forum/home. Freeform would get my vote, based on the posts in the wu wei thread alone. Not sure that's doing freeform any favors, however. Been there, done that

excellent movie ~jk~ thanks for the links, watched it all

This news article might be of interest: US backs Universal Currency

PM sent.

Inspired = action with usual parameters out of the way. Mind-set seems to expand, making room for new possibilities, options; manifest feelings and sensations of flowing Qi and being 'in harmony with Tao'. Wu wei = action with all parameters out of the way. Mind is naturally unboundaried; no sense of 'in harmony' or 'out of harmony' - only of simultaneous motion and stillness.

Inspired = action with usual parameters out of the way Wu wei = action with all parameters out of the way Similar, but not the same, imo. *** p.s to freeform Yep.

well said wu wei is the natural spontaneous action arising from wu, wu being the emptiness that contains the fullness of infinite potential

set it down go chop wood go carry water see what happens

Good idea! Sometimes even though well intended, errors can be made. "When the spiritual teacher and his disciples began their evening meditation, the cat who lived in the monastery made such noise that it distracted them. So the teacher ordered that the cat be tied up during the evening practice. Years later, when the teacher died, the cat continued to be tied up during the meditation session. And when the cat eventually died, another cat was brought to the monastery and tied up. Centuries later, learned descendants of the spiritual teacher wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice." source of story

"findley, that's one reason why we dont attach to anything that comes up... it doesnt matter if it's 'real' or not.. it's all scenery.. when you find that as you arrive at a bus stop, your bus always appears, as you arrive at a cafe, a table always clears, and you feel serenely confident even though you are running late, that circumstances arrange themselves that you get there on time, animals come to you, and ... well you get the picture..you can guess you are somewhat in accord with the tao.." cat knows tao Edit to add: here's another version of that: when you find that as you arrive at a bus stop and discover you've just missed your bus, and while waiting for the next one a young child starts to run into the street next to you and you grab him pulling him out of the way; and when you find that as you later arrive at a cafe, the tables are all busy so while your waiting a long lost friend walks by and ... well you get the picture..you can guess, even though things didn't work out like you first planned, you are also somewhat in accord with the tao.

You mean the one Hogan did ? It's an excellent interpretation. I like that Hogan doesn't pretend that it's an accurate "translation" - but rather catches the essence of it all - and he did so rather well, imo - and the fact that it's on the Terebess site speaks volumes. From that link, you can back up to the index - to see which other TTC authors made that particular cut. Lots of other reference material on Terebess, for those interested. I enjoy the sections on tea.

Here are 100 renditions of Chapter 1 of the TTC. It's easy to spot those influenced by other paths. Along with Buddhists, Jesuits were early translators as well. Unless you read the original in Chinese - every translation you read is someone else's interpretation.

I agree with the O.P. If we start getting too many martial arts threads before you know it all the "here, stick this new toy up your ass" threads will get shoved deep - on the second page of topics. And we sure want to leave room for all the T v. B pissin contest threads. Oh wait, maybe that can be part of MA threads. Maybe they can spar with electra-glides or whatever the fuck they were shoved up. Now there's a good idea. One big thread; all welcome.