What do you think about Taoism.

@Stan
Have a look at what this woman (who had a suicide NDE) has to say, Stan, it's very interesting. Would she go and sit listening to Spira droning on ? Don't think so.

Ironically Tim, I think that she and Rupert would probably have a lot in common that they could talk about.

I don’t necessarily take on board everything Spira says, in fact he repeats himself a lot in this video, but I suppose it’s a meditation, after all. Some other videos, I totally dismiss. Acceptance, which I think this video is about, at least for me, is definitely something that I find important and relate with. I see a lot of people staying bogged down mentally by refusing to let go of things. They remain in a dark mist, preferring to stay the victim instead of moving forward. Of course there are many situations where this isn’t appropriate, I know of lots when it is.

I have found saying yes when I might very well have said no has been hugely beneficial. I know this has helped me. For example:

I have accepted not being able to fly. This was my source of income as well as a lifelong passion.
I have accepted not being able to play the bass. A BIG deal!
I have accepted that I’m now a disabled person, moving around is now more like walking in syrup, it’s a pain at times.

I might have fought against all these things and more, I feel grateful that I didn’t resist - I said yes. I somehow knew that resisting wasn’t a choice I should make.

So I take something positive from the video while you don’t. That’s ok, but its maybe a lesson that we shouldn’t really diss someone because we can’t appreciate them or dislike them. I’ve done the same, more often than I like to admit.

There’s a lot I’d like to ask Spira, because that way I’d get to know if he maybe is a narcissist, or even a psychopath, as Max has suggested may be possible. It would be interesting if I came to a similar conclusion, I’d have to accept that a psychopath might be able to teach us things we probably wouldn’t expect them to know.

It’s strange that I’m so blasé about a ‘guru’ with money - an English one at that? I have questioned this area about him and Eckhart Tolle before, but it seems that thorn has been totally removed. Can I really be a working class Scot?





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Yay, I’m not the most cynical any longer!!!! 

Hey Steve,

Can I just take this opportunity to tell you that I find you to be delightfuly amusing and a most beautiful human being?

And I mean that!!

Cheers

Hey Steve,

Can I just take this opportunity to tell you that I find you to be delightfuly amusing and a most beautiful human being?

And I mean that!!

Cheers

Thank You Manjit.
I’m very flattered and humbled by your praise and I only hope I can come some way to living up to it.

I have accepted not being able to fly. This was my source of income as well as a lifelong passion.
I have accepted not being able to play the bass. A BIG deal!
I have accepted that I’m now a disabled person, moving around is now more like walking in syrup, it’s a pain at times.

I think you've coped very well, Stan ! That deserves great credit. What you're saying here, though is that you've learnt to accept what fate has dealt you which is not the same as saying yes to everything.

For what it's worth, I don't think Spira actually meant people to take it literally. But I don't think you need Spira or anybody else to guide you.

I think you've coped very well, Stan ! That deserves great credit. What you're saying here, though is that you've learnt to accept what fate has dealt you which is not the same as saying yes to everything.

For what it's worth, I don't think Spira actually meant people to take it literally. But I don't think you need Spira or anybody else to guide you.

There’s no difference. 

Choosing to say yes to what fate has dealt us is precisely what I take from Spira. The difficulty comes when we just can’t. Thankfully I haven’t been dealt a hand that bad. If we’re somehow able to say yes or accept whatever happens, what he’s maybe saying is that the blue sky can no longer be obscured by clouds. Have you actually listened to the video?

He hasn’t guided me, but my experience has taught me that there’s deep truth in some of his teachings.

I can take each truth and park them separately for now. I think they’re very capable of standing alone.

I think he’s very possibly talking divine truth in one sentence but bull in the next. Maybe we simply take our own lessons from what is being said, what isn’t meant for us sounding like gobbledegook! 

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference." Reinhold Niebuhr

There’s no difference. 

Sorry Stan but that's a load of catering sausages. I agree with what Max has said and I'm leaving it there

Near 2 month i read alot about lao tzu taoism, i love the ideals about the philosophy of Tao. What do you think about it.
( I want to write more but my english really bad so i just write it short.

I first encountered Taoism as a young teen when I was visiting with my parents and grandmother in her living room... the PBS channel happened to be on TV and there was a Taoist teacher on there dressed in plain earthy robes and preaching to an auditorium some of the Taoist principles.

I listened to the Taoist preacher with great interest because this was a "pagan" religion and therefore it must be leading people astray somehow (I grew up in a very fundamentalist Christian home) and yet everything the Taoist man said seemed to match up perfectly with what I'd learned of Jesus and it sounded just exactly like what Jesus might say. I was enjoying the wonderfully wise sayings for a while until my dad had a sudden angry outburst at the TV and exclaimed, "He's going to hell and everyone in that room too!" and then changed the channel to something more holy like Fox News or something...

A few years later when I was 17 or 18 I bought the book, The Tao of Pooh, which used Winnie the Pooh and the characters therein to explain Toaism... I thought it was a great book and it taught me a few things (like Wu Wei and the principle of effortless action) that stick with me to this day.

Later on I read some proverbs of Lao Tzu and thought they were great as well.

I would agree with some posters in this thread that Taoism as I understand it would lead one to be more passive and less ambitious... perhaps to an unhealthy degree. But those of us Westerners with the over-stressed goal-oriented personalities can probably stand to benefit from it.

The Tao is a large historical subject with many roots in the early history of China, going back in time as long as 24 or 25 centuries.  Many ancient scholars addressed and opined on its place in Chinese culture. 

Some of these roots are efforts to observe and to be in harmony with natural processes.  It this context the symbol of yin / yang stands out to me.  It has "reach" in understanding natural phenomena, as much as a modern physics equation.  (IMHO)

 The principle, dating from the 3rd century BCE or even earlier, is a fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy and culture in general. The two opposites of Yin and Yang attract and complement each other and, as their symbol illustrates, each side has at its core an element of the other (represented by the small dots). Neither pole is superior to the other and, as an increase in one brings a corresponding decrease in the other, a correct balance between the two poles must be reached in order to achieve harmony. 

https://www.ancient.eu/Yin_and_Yang/

I first encountered Taoism as a young teen when I was visiting with my parents and grandmother in her living room... the PBS channel happened to be on TV and there was a Taoist teacher on there dressed in plain earthy robes and preaching to an auditorium some of the Taoist principles.

I listened to the Taoist preacher with great interest because this was a "pagan" religion and therefore it must be leading people astray somehow (I grew up in a very fundamentalist Christian home) and yet everything the Taoist man said seemed to match up perfectly with what I'd learned of Jesus and it sounded just exactly like what Jesus might say. I was enjoying the wonderfully wise sayings for a while until my dad had a sudden angry outburst at the TV and exclaimed, "He's going to hell and everyone in that room too!" and then changed the channel to something more holy like Fox News or something...

A few years later when I was 17 or 18 I bought the book, The Tao of Pooh, which used Winnie the Pooh and the characters therein to explain Toaism... I thought it was a great book and it taught me a few things (like Wu Wei and the principle of effortless action) that stick with me to this day.

Later on I read some proverbs of Lao Tzu and thought they were great as well.

I would agree with some posters in this thread that Taoism as I understand it would lead one to be more passive and less ambitious... perhaps to an unhealthy degree. But those of us Westerners with the over-stressed goal-oriented personalities can probably stand to benefit from it.

 I life in a buddhist family but they belive more in a god that been effected by vietnamse old religion that start from china so i know a little about Tao then i just read some novel about, back there i dont know anything :l then i read some western philosophy and turn myself in to some kind of big stress, then i turn back to easter read about taoism and find peace in there. :l My nature is non-ambitious. So im ok with it.