What do you think about Taoism.

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Yes, I can sort of see why you think that way. I would like to spend a day or two in his company to be better able to judge Max.

Even if he’s say 80% a bullshitter, I feel that of the 20% sense that he talks, 1% of it is very useful. Imo. 

I think he’s interesting and shouldn’t be dismissed that easily. Then again, I also think Andrew Wakefield is innocent!  Big Grin
Oh my God, I hate all this.   Surprise
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(2019-06-17, 01:49 PM)Stan Woolley Wrote: Yes, you have to have a lot of spare time to watch videos like this, as well as talking slowly, there are often very long gaps when he says nothing.

I don’t know if I agree about the motivation. Surely if everyone could achieve this state it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it would mean a big change of worldview for most people to do so. I think there are lots of examples that I can think of where achieving this would harm no one, and benefit individuals greatly.I take the bits I like, discard the bits I don’t.

Yes, lotus-eaters - boooring! Is there evidence of a sense of humour in Taoist writings, as there is in NDEs? No one wants a boring life.

Well, I once went as far as to buy a book about Chuang Tzu - who was the one who famously said he didn't know whether he was a butterfly dreaming he was a man or vice versa. [The Book of Chuang Tzu, translated by Martin Palmer with Elizabeth Breuilly (1996).]

When offered a civil service job, he is said to have replied:
"Go away! Don't mess with me! I would rather enjoy myself in the mud than be a slave to the ruler of some kingdom. I shall never accept such an office, and so I shall remain free to do as I will."

So he sounded like a good bloke who at least had a healthy disrespect for authority, and probably a sense of humour to. But after reading part of it I got put off by the passivist aspect I mentioned before.
(2019-06-17, 02:01 PM)Raimo Wrote: As a spiritual personalist I have a problem with any philosophy that advocates becoming one with god, dao, brahman or source etc. I strongly oppose all such philosophies.

Nevertheless, I agree with some beliefs of Taoism. I believe that conciousness in its highest state is formless and I don't believe in any anthropomorphic gods.

From another perspective ~ I believe that we're already one with the Source, making the above redundant and pointless. We are manifestations of the Source's infinite creativeness.

Tillich's Ground of Being resonates with me, with Brahman being the ultimate conception of this.

I see a lot of similarities between Brahman, the Kaballah's Ain Soph, the Hermetic The All, and the Tao. Their individual concepts feel, overall, extremely similar to me, despite having different parent cultures.
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
~ Carl Jung


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I think to a large extent these things are personal, it isn't easy to communicate things from one to another. I remember when I was at school, one of my physics teachers, in my opinion, struggled because he didn't really understand the subject himself. So he taught us to pass the exams, rather than teaching us physics.

When it comes to matters of spirituality it seems certain that various revelations and insights get distorted on their way down the ages. And that distortion in my view isn't merely a matter of the passage of time. It starts with an individual person, at a specific moment, not really grasping an idea presented by someone else. There is no particular fault or blame there, it's just that each of us is different. Mostly I think we understand things in stages, moving on to a next step when we are ready. And that process needn't be hurried, this isn't a race or a competition.

What this amounts to, in my case, is placing emphasis on direct personal experience, not some great revelation, but experience of ordinary existence, and gleaning what I can from it. Anything else, the wisdom shared by those who seek to guide us, those are a bit like a map or a visitors guide, they may tell us what to look for, but they can't see it on our behalf.
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(2019-06-17, 02:01 PM)Raimo Wrote: As a spiritual personalist I have a problem with any philosophy that advocates becoming one with god, dao, brahman or source etc. I strongly oppose all such philosophies.

Nevertheless, I agree with some beliefs of Taoism. I believe that conciousness in its highest state is formless and I don't believe in any anthropomorphic gods.

Are we gods?
(2019-06-17, 10:52 AM)Chris Wrote: I did some reading about Taoism a while ago, but got put off because it seemed to be a very passive philosophy, accepting without complaint whatever the world had to offer. I prefer Herman Melville's "If man will strike, strike through the mask!"

 It not like we not do anything but we dont put to much in it, we have limit and put too much just gain more pain. We are nature and all we do is just a part of it even how we strike we still in it everything is nature so actully we just doing nothing Big Grin and that the fun part even what we do we could not change everything learn to deal with it there will be no much pain as it was.
 But meh i think i have problem with my philosophy, im edit like 3-4 time and it still have problem.
(This post was last modified: 2019-06-17, 05:47 PM by Vy Chấn Hải.)
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