The ultimate unpopular opinions

[old3bob]

1 hour ago, Apech said:

I have stopped my thoughts.

 

 

 

that sounds like a thought....

[old3bob]

18 hours ago, old3bob said:

 

she said female cats are normally closer to Tao than often warring tom cats.

 

 

[Apech]

1 hour ago, old3bob said:

 

that sounds like a thought....

🏆

[Apech]

The results are in:

 

old3bob 1 Cobie 0

 

 

[old3bob]

 

didn't know this about black cats.  (sorry Apech, looks like your white fur dna could change for the better? )  We had a pure black cat for years, she was an excellent cat!

 

Edited October 21 by old3bob

[Nungali]

except you cant find them at night when they close their eyes 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Surya]

On 21.10.2025 at 11:21 PM, Nungali said:

except you cant find them at night when they close their eyes 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Surya]

On 21.10.2025 at 11:21 PM, Nungali said:

except you cant find them at night when they close their eyes 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/318qEXK

[Sanity Check]

[Nungali]

Bad tatts be cool - supposedly  .    A women I met had Sponge Bob tatts   ...... Sponge Bob  !   

 

[Mark Foote]

25 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 

Bad tatts be cool - supposedly  .    A women I met had Sponge Bob tatts   ...... Sponge Bob  !   

 

 

 

 

 

Screencap from “The Pink Purloiner” episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

[Cobie]

 

57 minutes ago, Mark Foote said:

 

They do nothing and yet there's nothing left undone.
無 為 而 無 不 為 (wu2 wei2 er2 wu2 bu4 wei2)  (DDJ ch. 48)

 

 

Edited Saturday at 10:35 PM by Cobie

[Nungali]

 

'' ...  So  then the  wife said ; 'What are you going to do today ?' 

I said ; 'Nothing.'

She said ; ' You did that yesterday .'

I said ; ' I ain't  finished yet .'  ''

[ChiDragon]

14 hours ago, Cobie said:

 

They do nothing and yet there's nothing left undone.
無 為 而 無 不 為 (wu2 wei2 er2 wu2 bu4 wei2)  (DDJ ch. 48)

 

 

Wu Wei is nothing that cannot be done.

[Cobie]

 

1 hour ago, ChiDragon said:

Wu Wei is nothing that cannot be done.

 

"Wu  Wei" is 'not stage-acting' i.e. be yourself. 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 02:24 PM by Cobie

[Mark Foote]

10 hours ago, ChiDragon said:

Wu Wei is nothing that cannot be done.
 

 

 

Don’t ever think that you can sit zazen! That’s a big mistake! Zazen sits zazen!

 

(Shunryu Suzuki, quoted by Blanche Hartman in the "Lou and Blanche Hartman" interview by David Chadwick, on cuke.com)
 

 

You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around.

(Kobun Chino Otogawa, at the close of of a lecture at the S. F. Zen Center, in the 1980's)

 

 

They do nothing and yet there's nothing left undone.

(translation of 無 為 而 無 不 為 [wu2 wei2 er2 wu2 bu4 wei2], by Cobie [DDJ ch. 48])

 

 

 

[Apech]

Thoughts are your friends.  They help you recognise, organise and understand both your internal world and the external world.  Without them you would be lost.  Thoughts are your ally, your companion, your way to wisdom.

 

If your thoughts are conflicted, chaotic, relentless, annoying, repetitive, banal, seemingly pointless.  Then it you that is imbalanced, conflicted, stupid or mixed up.  Find stillness and balance and your thoughts will be healed.  But do not criticise them or disown them because they are your friends.

 

Oh but, you say, reality is non-conceptual.  True.  Absolute reality is non-conceptual in that it cannot be grasped through concepts.  But then again is there anything that is not the Absolute?  If there is then it is not the real Absolute.  The Absolute is the ultimate subject of your thoughts, if those thoughts are taken to their ultimate conclusion.  To define the subject we use the often misunderstood formula:

 

S = S + P(n)

 

where S is the subject and P is the predicate of the subject (to the nth term).

 

Or in other words the Absolute = the Absolute plus everything.

 

Chew on that!

 

 

[old3bob]

 

hmm, then again thoughts can be like a viscous circle if one can never take a rest from them...we are not thoughts we are really more the energy flowing through thought forms that come and go...granted it is great to have things/thoughts controlled/organized as much as possible.

 

[Apech]

32 minutes ago, old3bob said:

 

hmm, then again thoughts can be like a viscous circle if one can never take a rest from them...we are not thoughts we are really more the energy flowing through thought forms that come and go...granted it is great to have things/thoughts controlled/organized as much as possible.

 

See my second paragraph 

[ChiDragon]

21 hours ago, Mark Foote said:

Don’t ever think that you can sit zazen! That’s a big mistake! Zazen sits zazen!

 

(Shunryu Suzuki, quoted by Blanche Hartman in the "Lou and Blanche Hartman" interview by David Chadwick, on cuke.com)
 

 

You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around.

What was your point? What do you want to say? "Zazen gets up and walks around?" I don't get it. Do you actually know what Zazen is all about?

I understand that Zazen is a sitting position in three lotus styles. Zazen is not a thing that walks around.  However, after the practice and getting up from the lotus position, it is hard to walk for awhile until the legs are returned to the normal walking condition. 
 

Edited Monday at 09:27 PM by ChiDragon

[Mark Foote]

1 hour ago, ChiDragon said:

What was your point? What do you want to say? "Zazen gets up and walks around?" I don't get it. Do you actually know what Zazen is all about?

I understand that Zazen is a sitting position in three lotus styles. Zazen is not a thing that walks around.  However, after the practice and getting up from the lotus position, it is hard to walk for awhile until the legs are returned to the normal walking condition. 
 

I don't sit lotus, bad enough for me getting up from a sloppy half-lotus!

 

Thanks for asking, about my point. The point is that it is possible to act without will, without willing action to take place. That is the action described as "wu wei", so far as I understand it. 

As Zen teacher Kobun Chino Otogawa said:

It’s impossible to teach the meaning of sitting. You won’t believe it. Not because I say something wrong, but until you experience it and confirm it by yourself, you cannot believe it.

(“Embracing Mind”, edited by Cosgrove & Hall, p 48)

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Wu wei (traditional Chinese: 無為; simplified Chinese: 无为; pinyin: wúwéi; Jyutping: mou4-wai4) is an ancient Chinese concept that literally means "actionlessness" or "motionlessness". 

 

The term is interpreted and translated in various ways as "actionlessness", "non-action", "inaction," "without action" or "effortless action", etc.

 

Wu wei is effortless by virtue of it being reflex or automatic activity, even though the individual is fully conscious of it taking place. 

 

 

[liminal_luke]

2 hours ago, ChiDragon said:

I understand that Zazen is a sitting position in three lotus styles. Zazen is not a thing that walks around.  However, after the practice and getting up from the lotus position, it is hard to walk for awhile until the legs are returned to the normal walking condition. 
 

 

In her youth, Zazen sometimes gets up and walks around.  By the time Zazen is in her 80s she still walks just fine, thank you; but, especially after prolonged sitting, she can be a bit wobbly for a few steps until she gets going.

Edited yesterday at 12:23 AM by liminal_luke

[Apech]

15 minutes ago, liminal_luke said:

 

In her youth, Zazen sometimes gets up and walks around.  By the time Zazen is in her 80s she still walks just fine, thank you; but, especially after prolonged sitting, she can be a bit wobbly for a few steps until she gets going.

And the Lord said : pick up your zafu and walk.

 

And she did walk and the people were amazed.

[Nungali]

9 hours ago, old3bob said:

 

hmm, then again thoughts can be like a viscous circle if one can never take a rest from them...we are not thoughts we are really more the energy flowing through thought forms that come and go...granted it is great to have things/thoughts controlled/organized as much as possible.

 

 

 

16. To obtain Magical Power, learn to control thought; admit only those ideas that are in harmony with the end desired, and not every stray and contradictory Idea that presents itself.

 

17. Fixed thought is a means to an end. Therefore pay attention to the power of silent thought and meditation. The material act is but the outward expression of thy thought, and therefore hath it been said that “the thought of foolishness is sin.” Thought is the commencement of action, and if a chance thought can produce much effect, what cannot fixed thought do?

[Taomeow]

Youtube fed a CIA guy into my feed (yum!) who studied assorted psychology disciplines toward, well, manipulation, interrogation, infiltration and whatever else they want psychology for at the agency.  So he said, based on what he asserts he learned from studies,  that we have an average of 65,000 thoughts on a daily basis, of which 48,000 are negative and self-defeating, and not only that but 90 to 95% of them are repetitive, thoughts we already had before, many times before, and in all likelihood will have them again tomorrow.

 

This I think (sic) is what cultivation systems that seem to advise fighting one's thoughts by various methods are up against, and I think (sic again) it may be a worthy albeit difficult pursuit.  Not to eradicate "all" thoughts but to get rid of that useless overload that consumes a ton of brainpower.  "When you eat a banana 60% of the calories go toward feeding your negativity."  What a thought!  I'm never eating bananas again!

 

I know three ways of turning off that loop of thoughts going nowhere.  Meditation, sleep, good audiobooks read by voices I like.  All three have elements of wuwei in them, though in different proportions.  (For me personally, audiobooks are more wuwei in my native tongue even though non-native poses no conscious difficulty -- but my unconscious is aware of an extra effort, and my consciousness is aware of that.  I can literally feel my brain using more calories from that banana.) 

 

I think periodic non-thinking times are beneficial...