Dusk

So today I got really stressed out because I thought I lost my iPod. I was both happy, because I felt I could really embrace my life without material things, and very frustrated because I only got my iPod around a month ago for my birthday. So I decided to work out and channel my frustration into motivation for weight lifting and running. This worked pretty well but I suppose I've been far too stressed because I tensed up a lot during it. Then afterwards I went to the bathroom and found out I had a hernia... My mom told me that's what it was and she's in the medical field, so I'm gonna need to get it checked out now. So moral of the story: I really feel like meditation should occur much more often in my life, hopefully daily. My lack of this vital time could very likely have led to this hernia because as my mother said it's caused by straining yourself and I probably could have been fine if I hadn't tensed up so much. This tensing was also clearly caused by my stress and my lack of meditation to fix it. I feel like other people should probably learn from this too because I know a lot of other health problems can be caused by stress and I hope that I personally can avoid issues like this in the future through meditation and practicing of the principles of the Tao Te Ching. Thought I'd share that with y'all. I hope someone finds it interesting or useful...

Today the funniest thing that happened to me was what my teacher said to me before English. She stopped me on my way in the door and said "I had a dream last night and you and your friends were in your corner during class. You were like the spokesperson and you stood up and said 'We're the corner that hates you Ms. B!'" lol, it would have been insulting if I hadn't know that she likes me and I'm generally a very nice person. Other than that the other thing would have had to been the video we watched in our medical class on taking temperature rectally. It was funny, because I didn't look at the screen when they were actually demonstrating it and I heard my classes complaints. Yeah, a pretty eventful day

Thanks for the welcomes Pilot and Rene! And thanks a lot for those pathways Balance.! I honestly had no idea there were pathways, I just kind of thought you kept attempting it until you really felt the teachings or something. I'm reading up on all of them now.

I don't agree that solitude is bad or it's the BEST THING EVER. It's kind of in between. Yes it's great for self discovery but if you spend too much time in solitude you won't be able to enjoy the life created by man. Man has made a lot of stuff and pretty much everything in the city is man-made. Clearly there is a lot to do in cities and even if you hate the city there are many other lifestyles outside of that to see and pursue. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is a lot of life to have through interaction with people. People are so diverse and varied there is a lot to learn and discover that you wouldn't see in solitude. And although I see the benefits of solitude for self discovery, I would also wonder if maybe you could learn more about yourself by traveling and meeting people, especially worldwide. But I'd still try solitude... just not for too long

Ok, so thanks for clarifying this everyone, I think I understand it somewhat now. And I may be missing the point entirely but I feel like what you're all saying is I can have opinions and I can take action but I can't judge or hold opinions when thinking of people, places or things. Sort of... it's along those lines anyway. If I'm totally wrong feel free to correct me, but thanks for the comments!

So one of the things I've interpreted from the Tao Teh Ching is opinions should be restrained. I don't know if this is right or not. I know that technically you can't have an opinion because that would only be an objective analysis of a situation. An objective analysis would create factions and I suppose fighting. EX:"When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created." Anyways, I'm confused in part by this and I wonder how things would be if I relinquish my opinions. I'm a vegetarian- possibly going on vegan- and I like animals a lot. I really don't believe in animal abuse and I feel like if I didn't have an opinion I would not be able to side with animal activists. I understand that taoism tells us that there is an opposite side to every situation and that neither is good or bad. So does that mean that I can't dislike animal abuse? I can see why other people wouldn't care for animals... and I know that I could forgive them because it's just the way they were raised, but I don't see how remaining inactive would end up helping the animals. Many laws and policies are changed through the work of stubborn animal activists like PETA members. Maybe if I considered it in relation to people. In the case of a serial killer, would it be bad to take a side against him/her and perform an arrest? So what are your interpretations on the use/disuse of opinions and taking sides on issues, as far as Tao perspective goes? I still don't quite understand how this works and I want to see what you guys think.

I only started looking into Taoism last week, but I'm really interested in starting to follow it. I've started reading the Tao Te Ching and I read some articles, watched some videos on it, and got this account. I'm still somewhat confused by some of the ideas but I'm starting to get it. I'd like to meet some people and maybe get some advice on starting out.