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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Chuang Tzu
#16072098 - 04/10/12 07:36 PM (11 years, 9 months ago) |
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Ginseng1
Elegant Universe



Registered: 09/02/04
Posts: 3,310
Last seen: 9 years, 4 months
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I didn't watch those videos yet.
But I love Chuang Tzu. I own Thomas Merton's 'The Way of Chuang Tzu'. It's some good shit.
Quote:
You train your eye and your vision lusts after color. You train your ear, and you long for delightful sound. You delight in doing good, and your natural kindness is blown out of shape. You delight in righteousness, and you become righteous beyond all reason. You overdo liturgy, and you turn into a ham actor. Overdo your love of music, and you play corn. Love of wisdom leads to wise contriving. Love of knowledge leads to faultfinding. If men would stay as they really are, taking or leaving these eight delights would make no difference. But if they will not rest in their right state, the eight delights develop like malignant tumors. The world falls into confusion. Since men honour these delights, and lust after them, the world has gone stone-blind. When the delight is over, they still will not let go of it....”
Quote:
“Love of colors bewilders the eye and it fails to see right. Love of harmonies bewitches the ear, and it loses its true hearing. Love of perfumes fills the head with dizziness. Love of flavors ruins the taste. Desires unsettle the heart until the original nature runs amok. These five are enemies of true life. Yet these are what men of discernment claim to live for. They are not what I live for. If this is life, then pigeons in a cage have found happiness”
-------------------- Flowing through beginningless time since time without beginning...
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Nice. 
We studied one page from that book (I believe it was that one) last sunday at dharma class.
Action and Non-Action
The non-action of the wise man is not inaction. It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything. The sage is quiet because he is not moved, not because he wills to be quiet. Still water is like glass. You can look in it and see the bristles on your chin. It is a perfect level; A carpenter could use it. If water is so clear, so level, how much more the spirit of man? The heart of the wise man is tranquil. It is the mirror of heaven and earth, the glass of everything. Emptiness, stillness, tranquility, tastelessness, silence, non-action: this is the level of heaven and earth. This is perfect Tao. Wise men find here their resting place. Resting, they are empty.
From emptiness comes the unconditioned. From this, the conditioned, the individual things. So from the sage's emptiness, stillness arises: From stillness, action. From action, attainment. From their stillness comes their non-action, which is also action and is, therefore, their attainment. For stillness is joy. Joy is free from care, fruitful in long years.
I think I'm going to buy this book off of amazon now...
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Ginseng1
Elegant Universe



Registered: 09/02/04
Posts: 3,310
Last seen: 9 years, 4 months
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You won't regret it. It's strange and organic, humorous and up-front.
Action and Non-Action was sweet to read.
I think it's about a good time to let go of the 8 delights..
-------------------- Flowing through beginningless time since time without beginning...
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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I just placed my order. Should be in my hands in a few days. 
Good luck with the letting go.
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Ginseng1
Elegant Universe



Registered: 09/02/04
Posts: 3,310
Last seen: 9 years, 4 months
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Thanks. There's an intriguing story in the book - I forget where it is and what its's called. If I find it I'll post it so we can take a look at it together.
Really though, I've just been childish lately - so it's not a matter of luck. It's a matter of choosing not to be stupid.
-------------------- Flowing through beginningless time since time without beginning...
Edited by Ginseng1 (04/10/12 10:28 PM)
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Sometimes it can be good to be a little childish. Children certainly seem with the Tao.
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LucidlooseY
zen warrior

Registered: 03/06/12
Posts: 39
Loc: new zealand
Last seen: 10 years, 11 months
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just finished watching the first part, very cool
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