Everything

Easy now. What good are the wise if they do not treat the bad as worthy students? What good is the bad if they do not respect you as a worthy teacher? Let us not delve into conflict when it is not called for, especially when both cannot see the benefit of agreement. You should not have accepted such gifts of insult in the first place, now the insult is yours to worry about. Practice agreement, shedding too much light you will hurt others and self. Refrain from judgement and you will receive more respect. We're all part of the same truth, let us find it together as a team.

Actually, you have a purpose and you learn from the experience on your journey towards that purpose. The purpose may be expressed diffrently for every individual, but you can abstract the general purpose of every human life into "achieving happiness, succes and freedom". Since those are the 3 most commonly valued things. When you look at the people who are content when they face death, often these people have taken a shot at their individual purpose in life and most often succeeded at it. For example, becoming an astronaut, meeting your admired hero's, putting a flag on the moon, having found alot of love, entertained huge crowds on big events, etc. Others have impossible purposes, like building a time machine. But a serious pursuit of such an individual purpose may still lead to durable happiness, succes and freedom and thus a content death in the end, regardless of wether or not the purpose is achieved. Your spirit does not care about such worldly matters.

I have seen how people's life been destroyed, just because they trusted that god would work everything out for them. They slowly watched their lifes pulled from under their very feet and trust a god that wasn't there for them. Perhaps it was a lesson, but these guys suicided. How can one have faith in so many empty promises religion holds? How can one have faith in that which is beyond the gate of experience and which he does not even understand in the first place? I don't understand this kind of faith. These faithful people describe their god as an old man with a staff who eats bread and drinks whine. So I have to agree with you. I know for a fact that the books don't bring any wisdom at all. The wise men bring wisdom trough the use of the books, but the wisdom comes from them selves and not the book itself. No matter how holy the book may be. The wisdom within the book is a projection of his own wisdom, thus these wise men go about teaching and believing in their own words when they say "this book hold the truth for everyone." They develope faith within the abstract poem like words written in the books, for it is an instrument to them. They use it to communicate their knowledge to others without the dangers of shedding light. The boundaries of the religious group protects the elder to savely speak transfer his wisdom, by giving credit to the almighty god, which is actually already within every man.

Interesting words there. A guy once told me: "The only think in which we have real freedom/control is the choice of what environment we put ourselves in..."

Hey, guys. Making this topic, because I've found out that during christmas hollidays and nearing new year, the happiness out there is extremely high. For some people this will mean that the contrast between their depression and the outside world is growing larger, and now suddenly all the depressed people come out of their shell to seek help or suicide. This year is no diffrent. Some people have even made suicidal plans for their birthday on januari or something similar. All the extreme emotions out there. Perhaps someone here would like to discuss this. Feel free to comment.

It is not fun to have family over at exactly one day of the holliday, you haven't seen a long time. Any tension between you guys will have to be solved on the day of the party, that is alot of pressure. It feels so relieving not to have to do that, simply joining known friends to celebrate the new year with a free mindset and relaxed. Family should try to get in touch outside hollidays first, then come together on the time of celebration. If it feels like an obligation then people will try and avoid it, because that is the opposite of what celebration should feel like. Spending time together 3/4 days before the celebration begins always sets a good vibe in my experience. Especially if you only see this family member few weeks a year only.

guys, I still don't understand this topic. 3bob saw jesus? What are you guys talking about. The 3d eye light darkness bla bla???? What use is your knowledge if you can't express it in words? And don't give me another poem for a response, just because you want to seem mysterious and wise and cool...

Lol. The dyslexic cow went oom! So I go: "MMMMOOOOOOooooo!!!"

The initiation into a mature life. You're like a butterfly just out of its cocoon. Into the world you go, "Get a job, have a wife, make a child, get a life" they say. You will want to have food/sex shelter. When you got those, you will go after wealth. When have that, you suddenly want power. When you have that, you will find yourself seeking knowledge. When you have that, your eyes will be opened to the infinity of all mysteries. What happens then? You will give up on your current reality and start seeking spirituality. That which is beyond the gates of experience. That is what I think of, when I hear someone say "Get a job, have a wife, make a child, get a life."

Hey guys, I'm making this topic, because I think it is important to understand how cultural differences can limit you in your social developement. I my self have witnessed this alot in my life and social circles. When I was a kid, I've always found the chinese ways to be extremely mysterious, as if alien in a way. They were those mysterious old wise men. When I looked at american movies, I often saw cool guys who were more masculine to the eye, because I grew up in a society where these kind of cultures were cool and valued more. I live in a pretty multi cultural society. So I've known alot of multi-cultural people, but... There is still a cultural background for each person, because their family might not be so multi-cultural. Now, I was hoping to find asian people here or perhaps someone who knows another person with a firm asian background. Perhaps in these forums we're more familiar with the cultural diffrence between asian and american cultures, since Tao Te Ching is essentially an asian text, not? Let me give an example: In asia I know that it might be considered rude when looking others in the eye or touching them, while in america that would be seen as a sign of low confidence. I'm not here to judge which way is better, because I haven't got a clue. But you're free to give a comment if you think you know the answer to that one. I'm simply interested in how this might work out for personal developement, since we should be able to cope with all cultures to prevent wars. Cultural wars are still the biggest threat on earth. And alot of the time when people can't hold eye contact while speaking or taking orders, it means they are not ready to jump in the fire for the right cause. This is known by leaders of firefighters. Not touching another person may also kill sexual attraction between those two people, ALOT! Physical escalation is one of keys to create sexual attraction between the partners. It seems very dull to take that away. Is it for the better or for worse to have such a cultural limitation? Dancing, physical games, physical teasing, all may seem innocent, but they provoke alot of sexual activity. This is why it may be positive to have little physical contact, unless you arive at one of the two extremes of fighting/surviving or loving/reproducing. I don't know which one is better.... What say does Tao Te Ching have in all of this?

I must admit, I'm spoiled in this way when seen from the perspective of the islam. I grew up with beautiful women wearing skirts, dancers showing their bodies move for money, etc. But I've also seen men do exactly the same thing for women. These days, more and more women are coming up and demanding males to be their sex toys. I have no understanding of how these laws of the sexes work exactly, it is so personal for each individual. I see an extreme growth in the sex industry, because sex sells the biggest of all. Wether it is parfume, cars, clothes, house hold items, games, movies, SEX SELLS. I have seen year by year how commercials use sex as its core for pursuasion that it is almost funny. Like those AXE deo commercials for men. Especially the japanase culture of sex is SO STRANGE!!!! They must have little feet, and be childish... Where are the mature women in japan? The first time I heard about it was from my friends on a younger age. They talked about anime porn and accused eachother of watching it, bla bla. I checked it out and these are cartoons but porn. So there are no limitations here, anything is possible. Wether it is monsters doing with girls, 2 little boys, violence and blood, rape, pedophiles, animals, brother sister, son mother. They create new sexual fantasies that are not possible to be realized in real life, so that the customers are forced in a way to buy more of their products to satisfie their newly acquired fantasies. They are moving away from reality and the real world. They forget how wonderful real love can be.

The borders/identity of a cell, person, family, group of people, company, country, continent, planet, sun-system, star-system, galaxy system, universe are all the same indeed. In a way that they all operate in a similar way, since we're all connected, we have this in relation to eachother. I love to see my self as a country with borders, trading psychological units of love intellect and freedom with the outside world.

I don´t feel like talking about this for too long. It is beter for every person to find his own freedom. Either suffer and change your ways or try many ways and suffer untill you find the best one for you. Freedom is both internal and external. We humans cannot control all from within. You can be kind to others all you want, this wont grant you the perfect freedom that is real. You´d be conscious enough not to hurt others, but blinded to how that same environment is taking away your freedom. This is wisdom. Someone in a prison can have great wisdom, and thus be granted the freedom by his emmediate surroundings more so than others. He is allowed to make more decisions, granted leadership, he has more right to excersize his power of free will than others. He gets to connect to his soul more often, trough the excersize of this free will. If you only look external for free will flaws will apear in the long turn aswell. Society will block you out, turn violent on you in the long term. You cannot just look externally for freedom. You will go trough many environments, grow a shrewdness like no one has on these forums, get alot of freedom, but become blinded to your inner mechanics. You will tend to lean too much toward to violent and destructive toward the environment. That same environment will eventually turn its back on you. I see it very often how people discuss topics like these from the viewpoint of two extremes and with disagreement at their cores. This leads nowhere, as both parties are correct in diffrent ways. Find the balance, please. Don't just get stuck up with your current views of reality, as if they are so valued! Even though knowledge is one of the last desires we will have, I must encourage you, still, to give up this desire to see the truth. Don't get over-educated, over confident or idealistic about your knowledge, always remain aware. Thats all I have to say for now.

Knowledge is free, and people fight to keep it that way. In our day and age, information has become a well used instrument of evil. There is so much knowledge to act upon, that everyone is occupied. I was born, and most of my energies were emmediatly directed towards gathering more knowledge. Going to school was not enough, they made me read books, many books. Soon I got addicted to knowledge, craved for more and more. Now I go trough life by knowing more and more, each day. I know so much that acting upon my knowledge seems pointless or requires extreme efforts to acomplish. I know so much, that I feel I can never conquer, ever again... I know so much that death would be a pleasure compared to my everyday failures. The follower of knowledge learns as much as he can every day; The follower of the Way forgets as much as he can every day. By attrition he reaches a state of inaction Wherein he does nothing, but nothing remains undone. To conquer the world, accomplish nothing; If you must accomplish something, The world remains beyond conquest. The ancients did not seek to rule people with knowledge, But to help them become natural. It is difficult for knowledgeable people to become natural; So to use law to control a nation weakens the nation, But to use nature to control a nation strengthens the nation. Discard the programs of nature, creating new rules based on knowledge alone. We have become robots who will soon bump into eachother and will keep doing so untill our laws have become one with nature. Our actions are based on knowledge and requires alot of force and energy. When nature is at the core of your actions, your actions flow naturaly, thus require less effort. This way even the weak can grow, by participating in more activity. The leaders can teach more effectively aswell.

I don't think you truely understand the meaning of this symbol, you seem a little over educated about the subject. Freedom is not some inner feeling you must create from within.

Thats a thought like any other. But I don't think when you tell people, who find them selves feeling stuck or not having much freedom, to realize they are free that they will suddenly become free aswell. It may seem like it for a short while, but the truth will ultimately triumph and open their eyes when they hit a huge wall with their limiting believe that is newly acquired. How would you go about solving that? I think we should rather ask how to become free from emprisonment rather then saying that free people realize that they are free... Sure that is one sign of freedom, but not a useful one to know.

Oh may gawd... I cannot belieeeehve IT! It is Captain Hindsight himself! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY_oKve-bH0 God bless you sir!

As I said, we don't live in these higher dimensions of time, it is not part of our reality. Not yet atleast. The existance of such dimensions does not make all the crap on youtube more credible. Don't give up so easily on your current perceptions of reality just because so many realities are possible. Just learn to stay open to better and more positive realities in life. Go out, experience life. You can't go wrong if you give youtube your dong. Fek them.

Let me translate that for people who do not understand: "Peanutbutter is not always the same. You can change its flavor. No matter what flavor peanutbutter you currently have, the flavor that you have created, it is perfect. All that exists is making peanutbutter. And because making peanutbutter is all that exists, there is no such thing as making peanutbutter, because there is no one to make peanutbutter for. (I am so lonely...)" :lol:

Cool stuff, I can relate to that. The thing about naming fathers I hae grokked for a while now. Calling your biological father by its name seems very disrespectful. But when it comes to your most valued father figures, it is strange to call them father... In turkey people call strangers "uncle" when they respect him. But then again, they truely respect all father figures. In the western culture, we may find some very mature inspiring father-figures and we don't even call those "uncle." Dr. Wayne Dyer is like the father no one had, for many people. They call him "the father of inspiration." Instead of "uncle." Actually, they call him Dr. Wayne Dyer and not even father. People in western cultures are so afraid of the father figure, they even discard them as violent often. They blame all the wars on them. People find it uncomfortable to be an father to someone, an older brother or uncle. Atleast this is seen more often in western cultures. While in other cultures, father figures are more important and more respected. In western cultures you do have gangs where people call eachother "bro" as in brother. This is also a sign of respect to the masculine, but in a more childish way and it clearly shows a lack of father figures. Something that must be adressed by Captain Hindsight! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY_oKve-bH0

What you had was a creative moment. Your hormones, whatever chemicals in your body, they all contributed to this happiness and creative moment. This kind of enlightment will be lost right few days after the moment. Infact, if you're enlightment it would make more sense to be tranquil, rather then happy. THIS IS NOT ENLIGHTENMENT. I don't even believe enlightenment exists, atleast not the kind you guys think exists.

This is true, if the person of cultural diffrence is not a potential friend. But a potential friend with cultural diffrences is very valuable in my eyes. I have not gave up on them in the past and the rewards were huge. I've had so much fun with these guys, just gotta learn to understand their culture. Ofcourse there are people in our lifes that require more effort on our parts to have a good healthy relationship with. Those would neither be good close friendship material without the cultural diffrences. Plus, the new friend just opened you to a whole new culture of friends. Some people still think that certain cultures are just better then others, like the culture of geeks/nerds versus the culture of soldiers/marines. The culture of nerds has got as many couragious action-prone people as soldiers got caring nurturers. You just have to find them. It can be hard to identify diffrent cultures quickly, but it pays to be discriminating when it comes to this. Perhaps this is where discrimination has been useful in our evolutionary past. PS thanks for the posts

Roof over your head. I don't understand this game. looking at the screen.

Burn poems to keep warm. The cold rewrites the poems. Burn wood to keep warm.

Are you saying you saw jesus and he said that there is an afterlife? He gave you courage when you were facing death? I had a similar experience when I saw Neo with my 1st and 2nd eye in matrix! What do you mean with the 3rd eye. I thought that was a meditation thing people do to dangerously alter unconscious chemical processes in the brain. I highly recommend not to do those energy meditation of 3th eye or something like that. Those unconscious mechanics in the brain are unconscious for a reason, like its complexity. When you start pooping out of your mouth, you can't blame your stomach for not doing what it was supose to do anymore. Know what I'm saying? You're exploiting your own body with the 3th eye.