The Tao

The Tao posted on GLP is not the real Tao.

So boners = death. Got it.

to become an observer of the mind, not the slave
revert all things

“When a bell is struck it rings, when a drum is beaten it resounds. This is because they are solid outside and empty within. It is because they have nothing inside that they are able to ring and resound.

What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of true emptiness and ineffable existence.

True emptiness is like the inner openness of a bell or a drum; ineffable existence is like the sounding of a bell or a drum when struck. If people can keep this true emptiness as their essence, and utilize this ineffable existence as their function, ever serene yet ever responsive, ever responsive yet ever serene, tranquil and unstirring yet sensitive and effective, sensitive and effective yet tranquil and unstirring, empty yet not empty, not empty yet empty, aware and efficient, lively and active, refining everything in the great furnace of Creation, then when the dirt is gone the mirror is clear, when the clouds disperse the moon appears; revealing the indestructible body of reality, they transcend yin and yang and Creation, and merge with the eternity of space.”
Liu Yiming

YAAWN!

That's the Tao of not caring.

Nice, that's also legitimate tao!

I could write a lot of shit
If I did I could write a book called
"The Horsecock princess"

I think most taoist-inclined people don’t pay enough attention to external Taoist alchemy: Weidan, the actual mixing of substances and minerals like cinnabar and lead, the creation of “elixers.” This was, in fact, some of the first inorganic chemistry in world history, dealing with a variety of metals and smelting, sublimation, cave rocks, etc.

Some of the results were clearly mind-altering (if generally unhealthy and often deadly). They gave rise to altered states of consciousness that dovetailed with the general Taoist ethos. Consider the so-called “cold food powder,” obviously a psychoactive:
(Long but instructive):
[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

Some quotes:

Sailey (1978:430) also says, "Having initially been used as a medicine to cure severe illnesses, its mind-expanding properties were apparently discovered and exploited during the mid-third century, which marked a high point in the development of all sorts of drugs and medicines made from organic and inorganic substances."

Ge, who praises many other drugs as integral to achieving xian immortality, only denounces this "powerful hallucinogenic" drug as contributing to the "decline of propriety and morality" and "disorder in society" (Sailey 1978:338).

The resulting fever required the wearing of thin, loose clothing. Skin lesions, among the many negative consequences of this drug (which may have contained arsenic), also dictated the necessity for loose clothing. For the same reason, close-fitting shoes or slippers that exacerbated the lesions could not be worn, and they were replaced by clogs. It is obvious that the use of five-mineral powder required a specific regimen, one clearly not appropriate for attendance at court. Strolling in clogs and drinking wine, the wide robe loosely belted—some men dressed and behaved this way because they took the powder. Others of their class, eschewing the powder, nevertheless adopted the lifestyle. It became, in short, the fashion. (1990:79–80)

Using the drug powders was associated with Chinese poetry. Huang Junjie and Erik Zürcher (1995:256) say that when the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove took wushisan, "they had to drink cold liquor and take walking excursions in order to avoid arsenic poisoning. Intoxicated enchantment with nature's beauty led to their writing poems on landscape, and thus they initiated the genre of 'Nature Poetry'."

The Three Kingdoms scholar and doctor Huangfu Mi (215–282) took this "ecstasy-inducing drug" (Declercq 1998:168) to recover from a stroke, but suffered and likely died from the deleterious side effects.


The French sinologist Paul Demiéville's (1986:829) described He Yan: "He was reckoned a paragon of beauty, elegance, and refinement, a floating flower (fou-hua) as his enemies used to say, or a dandy. He "loved Lao-Huang" and shone in "pure conversation." His lack of constraint brought down on him the ill-will of the orthodox traditionalists. He is even said to have brought into fashion a drug that brought on a state of ecstasy, and many of his friends and epigones were drug addicts."

Many other famous literati, such as the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, especially the musician Ruan Ji (210–263), the alchemist Ji Kang (223–262), and the calligrapher Wang Xizhi (c. 303–361), reportedly were enthusiastic users of the drug. "Like an indulgent lifestyle of alcoholic excesses, the use of this drug became the hallmark of the free thinkers of the age" (Englehardt 2008:473). Livia Kohn describes Ruan Ji's artistic expression,

His friends and fellow poets induced ecstatic experiences through music, wine, and drugs, especially the notorious Cold Food Powder which created psychedelic states and made the body feel very hot, causing people to take off their clothes and jump into pools. When back in their ordinary selves, they wrote poetry of freedom and escape, applying the Zhuangzi concept of free and easy wandering in the sense of getting away from it all and continuing the text's tradition in their desperate search for a better world within.

When we look inside with a clear, steady focus, the mind we see is transparent, spacious, and open. It feels like something’s there, but when we look for it, there’s no “thing” we can find. Our thoughts and emotions are vivid, yet we can’t put our hands on them. They melt away as soon as we notice them. Even sights and sounds, which seem to be real, distinct entities, evade our grasp when we search for their true identity. When we recognize the flowing, open, and spacious quality of all our experiences, even for a moment, that’s the emptiness side of the wisdom of emptiness.

When we look at our mind, however, we see that it’s not just spacious. There’s a luminous, clear, and creative energy that’s the source of our compassion and joy.

[link to www.USE_FULL_LINKwww.lionsroar.com (secure)]

[link to www.lionsroar.com (secure)]

The Tao-te Ching

By Lao-tzu


Chapter 1

1. The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name

tHE oLD tEACHING

The source of the ten thousand things

Reeading about Chang Tzu is fascinating. It's not incompatable with Christianity and is eminently wise.

Epic.

Back later.

Tao is real and unreal, both existent and non existent and yet none of these things and all of these things.

". . ."

[link to youtu.be (secure)]



We are all much more than we know. But we live by illusions and only see through our senses. So we cannot know how much we are. No one can know himself; therefore people will live behind many masks, and call themselves by many names. When all that matters is the effect we have on others. Thus, even a monster may want to be kind, friendly and gentle. And what is more friendly than a puppy dog


Perhaps all creatures are very much more than what they seem. The tree has its roots; the iceberg only shows its tip. So, while the meanest and unfortunate may live in misery here, they may be elsewhere in triumph, making the very stars


Last Edited by Xenophon on 07/26/2020 02:27 AM