Ono

I bow to taoist....

taoist

ROTFLMAO ...

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There is no taoist

Ono

I see you're shy....so I'll start!

They know the world
without even going out the door.
They see the sky and it's pattern
without even looking out the window.
The further out it goes, the less knowledge is;
therefore sages know without going,
name without seeing, complete without striving.

taoist

Well, I guess it had to come eventually, though I've resisted talking about my religion anything other than indirectly here. (I'm gonna get you for this, Ono.)

The Tao Te Ching ... literally "Way Virtue Book" or more approximately "The Book of the Way and its Virtue" is better known to English-speaking peoples as "The Way of Life." The tao is the way; te is moral force, or even character; while a ching is a sacred book of knowledge. It consists of 81 (a mystical number) fairly short poems.

(Tao Te Ching should be pronounced "Dow duh jing" ... Taoism, "dowism," taoists, "dowists.")

Taoists see their lives as a path, the "virtuous way" which is discovered anew by the individual taoist. It is an outgrowth of the mysticism originating in what is now central China during the Shang dynasty which created the precursors of all modern Chinese characters.

With their fall under the Chou around 1100 B.C., the longest dynasty in Chinese history, this mystic tradition grew and took written form in a number of poems that survive today as the Tao Te Ching. This was a golden age for philosophy. The better known writers include Confucius, Mencius and Chuang Chu along with the writers of the Tao Te Ching, who, in keeping with the mystic tradition, are anonymous.

Lao Tzu (sometimes Lao Tsu or even Lao Tse), literally means "old man," an obvious pseudonym, as Lao, pronounced "low" as in allow, is not a Chinese family name, but an adjective. (Chinese names are given in the order family name, personal name.) Indeed, for a mystic author to use his name would be to violate principle. The mystic practices self-loss.

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There is no taoist

Ono

There, that wasn't so hard, was it!

taoist

Hey, I had to make sure of my sources. It's one thing to quote the ching, another to lay a framework. And I do recognize your quote, though it's differs a bit from the way I know it.

Poem 43


This should be read as the completion, the mystic concept of "reaching, return." The stretch of consciousness that comes from allowing motion to come of itself. Wei wu wei, "do not do," translated here as "does without doing," is a dynamic concept, and the key to Chinese mysticism.

It is similar, though by no means identical, to the message expressed in Matt. 6:26, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns ..." There are many notable similarities between taoism and early christianity, whose followers, I might note, called their religion "The Way."

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There is no taoist

2.718281...

That might explain why it fits so nicely with my view of the world.

Forget about it being a good read... it's good guidance.
I think I've recommended this book to everyone I know.

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Art (in fact) changes the world - not immolation...
What constitutes Hell?
#31: Failing to realize that blowing up your rivals doesn't solve the problem.

Ono

Tzu-chi said, "Their playing has myriad differences, and causes them to come from themselves. All partake on their own, but who is the motive force.

taoist

Originally posted by 2.718281...
In fairness, I should mention that it's not especially compatible with modern-day christianity, but then again, there are many things less edifying to read ...

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There is no taoist

taoist

Ono
This time you've got me. Who was Tzu-chi? I hear an echo of the tao in his words.

Of all the poems in the Tao Te Ching, the first is thought to be the oldest, and to me, the most profound. In meditation, it has given me the most profound of insights.

Poem 1

Each time I pronounce these words, I find new meaning, no matter how many times I have said them before.

As my faith is centered in the tao, the middle stanza centers this meditation. Reaching for meaning, striving for it, puts it out of reach.

I see in this the essential pairing between ultimate cause and proximate being. The one unreachable, the other unavoidable. In the unspannable void between them is "the gate to the root of the world."

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There is no taoist

2.718281...

I find it quite compatible, but I am one who includes, not excludes.


Oh dear. If you want more of this, I've got it. People are far more fascinated with pi lately though...

__________________
Art (in fact) changes the world - not immolation...
What constitutes Hell?
#31: Failing to realize that blowing up your rivals doesn't solve the problem.

Ono

taoist: Tzu chi.....if I'm correct is a principle of foundation started by female Master Cheng Yen.


http://www.tzuchi.org/global/about/founder/master.html

taoist

Thanks, Ono. I googled "tzu chi" but couldn't come up with that link. Pretty cool, sounds like.

So, to put a little more context on it, let me add that taoism was one of the two great philosophies that came out of the Chou empire, the other being Confucianism. Though each had an influence on the other, they approached matters in radically different ways.

Confucianism dealt with the randomness of life with a rigidly prescribed code of behavior governing every possible social interaction. But it left out spirituality entirely. It was the court philosophy. On the hand was taoism, generated by hairy reclusive mystics to be honest, but it found a place for spirituality in the common people and became the principal native religion of China. It is the exact antithesis of formality.

With the advent of the communist revolution in China, it was brutally suppressed but is presently making something of a comeback.

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There is no taoist

Ono

Taoism is a product of the Chinese civilisation. It must, therefore, be a source of the greatest regret to Taoists, that China as a modern nation state, under Communist leadership, has so seriously deviated from the Taoist values of individual freedom, toleration of diversity, non-imperialism, and peace.

http://eo.yifan.net/users/x/taoshan/Liberation.htm