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Taoism - What is it to you?
    #8900374 -

How would you define Taoism using your own interpretation?

What is it as a practice, attitude, and way of life?

To me, Taoism is about unlearning all that we have taken in from the outside, and using this as a learning tool to gain a non-conceptual knowledge/awareness/understanding of how life works.  I don't feel this knowledge can be gained any other way.  Conceptuality isn't simple at all compared to lack of engagement in conceptuality.  I believe deep happiness, newness, nowness and evolution of awareness comes through living a simple life.

How about you?

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deranger]
    #8900393 -

It is the undoing of hesitation.


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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deranger]
    #8900403 -

Taoism, to me, is the knowledge imparted by the Tao Te Ching.

This is an absolutely incredible book. It describes Life in perfectly poetic, but absolutely no uncertain terms. I haven't even finished reading it because I find myself forced to re-read every chapter I look at over and over again. There is so much meaning packed into this book it's outrageous.

I first realized this on acid, but I don't believe that detracts from the simple fact that the Tao Te Ching is a more perfect description of Life than anything I've ever seen. The first chapter alone plugs itself into so many aspects of my own life that it's incomprehensible. This Mr. Lao Tsu knew what the fuck he was talking about, that's all I can say.


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Enlil said:
You really are the worst kind of person.


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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: WordlessNature]
    #8900415 -

Love it...

There's so many possible interpretations and aspects of taoism... looking back at my interpretation, it lacks so much of what I actually wholly feel it to be.  Words really cant describe a feeling...

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: Sophistic Radiance]
    #8900422 -

There is no book that contains any greater truth than the Tao Te Ching, IMO.

I like to read it when I'm feeling mindful... there seems to be more receptivity of the messages it conveys.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deranger]
    #8900509 -

thanks for making me re-read this bomb :heart:


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                                                      psilohuasca is da wae
                                                                gnome sayin'?

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deranger]
    #8900565 -

The Tao Te Ching is wonderful. I remember reading it after a comedown of an intense trip. While I think the Tao Te Ching is limited to the intellectual spheres of understanding, it is truly a work of elegance. What is odd is how different this book is compared to the other Taoist canonical texts.


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As the life of a candle,
my wick will burn out.
But, the fire of my mind
shall beam into infinite.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: psyka]
    #8900665 -

Daoism is about yoga as based in secret tantric alchemical teachings of few remaining lineages detailing how to unite heaven and earth to create the golden elixer of immortality thus to get to the heaven of the thirty three.


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...or something






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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: eve69]
    #8900854 -

i would define taoism as an attempt at creating a self thats in harmony enough with nature to become immortal.


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You can check the last post in my journal for contact info.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: truekimbo2]
    #8900907 -

The art of remaning upright on a dowl.




--------------------
The Prophecy!

Learn To Code

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deranger]
    #8901062 -

Taoism to me is beyond definition

"the tao which can be talked is not the eternal tao"


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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: psyka]
    #8901555 -

Quote:
psyka said:While I think the Tao Te Ching is limited to the intellectual spheres of understanding, it is truly a work of elegance.


Indeed.  It's a truly beautiful book, and the poetry and wisdom contained within it can do wonders to soothe the cerebral cortex.

Unfortunately, it leaves our animal instincts and reptilian brain out to hang dry.  One cannot ultimately deny one's emotions and baser desires like the Tao Te Ching proposes without serious repercussions--that primal, violent, lustful animal side of you will inevitably break through.

The best practice is a combination of both.


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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deCypher]
    #8901617 -

i don't think animal instincts and reptilian brain outbursts are inevitable.

perhaps inevitable without training yourself, but not totally inevitable.


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You can check the last post in my journal for contact info.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: truekimbo2]
    #8901636 -

They're just as valid a part of your brain as your cerebral cortex--to put one before the other seems completely arbitrary.


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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deCypher]
    #8901687 -

Quote:
The best practice is a combination of both.


This exemplifies Taoism to me.  How can one act in accordance with nature without combining our animal side and our intellectual side?  The Taoist path is not one of renouncing our "darker" side, but of cultivating a cooperative relationship with reality.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: Veritas]
    #8901699 -

Agreed.  A lot of New-Agers and mystic hippies though tend to take Taoism for a denial of all emotions in favor of no-thought, no-mind.  Such emotions as hate, fear, love, jealousy, and other such natural instincts are seen as inferior to the calm tranquility of meditation, which IMO is unfairly holding up one's cerebral cortex as what makes us truly human, when in fact we require all parts of our brain/evolutional mind.


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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deCypher]
    #8901729 -

That is clearly a misunderstanding of the Taoist philosophy.  The only way to achieve inner peace is to fully accept the nature of reality, including one's own nature.  When one denies an aspect of reality, the resulting resistance builds up internal friction, resulting in extremes of emotion.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: Veritas]
    #8902456 -

learning and unlearning are both good, and equality of both is a nice balance imo.

though the tao, at its root, is not realized through conception.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: deranger]
    #8902598 -

cypher

i'm sorry i don't think thats true about aspects of the self and all that.

i think people act based on learning and programming.  i don't think there is an immutable true self, and i don't think that hate, fear, love, jealousy can't be un-hardwired.

as i understand it the taoists attempt to piece by piece replace old thoughts and emotions with skillfully created refinements, working to get everything ready to function as a single cohesive whole that can't be broken down into its constituents. i know there is supposed to be stuff after that but i haven't gotten that far.

during the process you have to leave certain feelings and thoughts behind, and you have to claim new sets of thoughts and feelings as parts of yourself...

i'm sorry i'm not explaining well what i mean.

if people's minds and hearts were made with tinker toys, a big part of taoism it changing your internal wiring, altering the structure of your tinker toys.  as i understand it its not so much about acceptance as in altering the shape of your tinkertoys into something that can last longer. 

you don't just look at this and say "oh well, time to learn to accept this for what it is"



you have to train hard and put alot of dedication to change that random pile that is the average human into this:


yielding is important, but expanding and extending yourself outwards to press back onto reality is also important


--------------------
You can check the last post in my journal for contact info.

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Re: Taoism - What is it to you? [Re: truekimbo2]
    #8902644 -

Quote:
i don't think that hate, fear, love, jealousy can't be un-hardwired.


Sorry, hardwired is hardwired.  I partially agree with you, in that I know from experience that one can learn to respond rather than react to one's hardwired emotional impulses.  However, this does not mean that you have changed the way in which our brain has evolved, nor that you have eliminated the possibility of experiencing the basic emotions which arise from the more-ancient portions of the human brain.

The part we can "tinker" with is the volume and sustain pedals, to use a piano metaphor.  Our new brain reacts or responds to the emotional impulses of our old brain, and may exaggerate these emotions so that they become more intense and/or longer-lasting.  Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy teaches us to explain events to ourselves in a manner which avoids both the volume and sustain pedals.  Meditation teaches us to focus our thoughts and calm our nervous system.  Both of these methods are crucial for maintaining equanimity when faced with the inner storm of ancient emotions.

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