Introductions And Context

Introductions and Context

I first read Lao Tzu’s Dao De Jing pretty soon after starting college. My mother bought me a beautiful hardbound copy of Dr. Ralph Alan Dale’s translation from Barnes & Noble and I finished it quickly within the month. My subsequent readings have been slower, more sporadic, and often in small selections. I think I was just a bit too young to really “get” anything out of the book when I started, and ended up with an admittedly superficial knowledge and understanding of how Daoism is supposed to work.

The other night, on a whim, I decided to pull out my old copy again and give it another one of my random readings, much like I would a book of poetry or an anthology of short stories. I wasn’t really intending to do much with it, to be perfectly honest. But as I read on, late into the night and early into the morning, something felt distinctly different. I felt like the intention behind the words was just a bit clearer, like I could see how it was supposed to work after all. It wasn’t any kind of Enlightenment, by any means; Lao Tzu is a notoriously difficult writer to understand. But you could say it was definitely some sort of start.

That’s what brings us to this blog. I want to use this as a place to discuss and exchange ideas about Daoism, what it’s about and how it works and whether it’s really worth it at all. It’s my own personal expression of the philosophy, to write and explore what the words mean, to put out my ideas and interpretations, then have them challenged and explored by others in turn. I browsed around Tumblr for a bit looking at the “daoism” and “taoism” tags, and I couldn’t really find the sort of interpretive dialogue I was looking for. I’d like for this blog to be a hub for that sort of thing.

Tumblr is also an interesting spot for experimenting with Daoist philosophy, as the Reblog tool seems to be a perfect mechanism for “teaching without teaching.” If I write something that resonates with you, please reblog it and share it with others and encourage them to do the same. It is my belief that this sort of behavior, by simply exploring the Dao on our own, while being watched and hopefully emulated by others, is way that we can both spread the principles of Daoism without actively campaigning to have it taught from every corner of the planet.

So what qualifies me to engage in this endeavor, exactly? Well, to be perfectly honest, absolutely nothing. I’m a mostly normal guy, with normal interests in films and music and art and such. I’m not a scholar and I’m not a monk by any stretch of the imagination. I’m definitely not the perfect Daoist. I’m just one person who is looking to explore the Path, and I have a lot of ideas I’d like to talk about. Hopefully by doing that exploring here, I’ll meet other like-minded individuals and we can all learn and grow together. This is, I believe, the main intention of the Dao.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. -Buddha

I don't always quote the Buddha, but when I do, it's for Daoist philosophy.

The Mystery of The Cross.

One of the greatest mysteries is what theosophists call “the mystery of the cross.” It refers to the conundrum the individual is faced with when he encounters Unity and attempts to ‘merge’ it, in essence, with duality. The horizontal arms of the cross represent dualistic thought and action, while the vertical beam represents Oneness.

This is very confusing to the individual because on one hand he realizes that everything is Unity, and yet there are opposites. Unity cannot be denied and opposites cannot be denied. This is what Alex Grey calls “Polar Unity”, the idea being that all opposites exist yet exist as a polarity that is unified.

The ‘Crucifixion’ of Jesus can be taken metaphorically as the slow painful death of the ego on the cross of opposites, the ultimate polarity being the pair of ‘Unity’ and ‘Duality.’ The torture described is their reconciliation.

Thoughts On Shyness

I think there's a reason people are so shy when they're young, but grow less so as they get older. Shyness itself is a lack of confidence, yes? The feeling of being lost, apprehensive because you cannot find your way. Maybe some of you already see where I'm going with this. I believe that as we find the Path, whenever or wherever it becomes known to us, our shyness will slowly dissipate, because we can gain confidence in what we know and what we want to do.

What is your experience with shyness? When do you feel the least shy?

PS: I think I'm going to start doing little mini-posts like this more often. At first I felt like I had a whole bunch of big explanatory posts to do first, and then start doing these more tangential posts after I'd laid the groundwork via the other stuff. But now I feel like maybe it would be better for me to just put these little "Thoughts" out there as they come to me, while simultaneously working on the bigger posts for later.

Your Group of IRL Friends is Like Your Group of TV Friends

Been thinking about television a bit lately (hard not to when you're browsing Tumblr), and I thought about how interesting it was that people put themselves and their group of friends under popular tropes. But real life doesn't really work like that (nor should good television, in my opinion). There isn't a McCoy or a Spock or a Kirk, you and your friends shouldn't fall neatly into the Five Man Band. People exist as they are, and it's not like there needs to be a "leader" among your circle. Just because you have the one friend who's into math doesn't make him the automatic "nerd" of the group, just because one friend is really into sports doesn't make him the automatic "jock" among you. People are complex and dynamic creatures, which makes labels so inappropriate to apply so often.

Accept your friends (and yourself) as you really are, and not as pre-defined roles from popular culture.