Are you a Taoists ???

Post Reply New Topic

A good warrior is not bellicose,
A good fighter does not anger,
A good conqueror does not contest his enemy,
One who is good at using others puts himself below them.
This is called "integrity without competition,"
This is called "using others,"
This is called "parity with heaven,"
--the pinnacle of the ancients.

I think it somewhat strange that Taoism is considered a religion.
It is mostly a philosophy, and I follow it as such.

Honor and dishonor are like warnings - Tao Te Ching
Pride goeth before a fall - Bible
When I think of a verse from one, a verse from the other often comes to mind.

Some Eastern Religions seem almost atheistic (in the sense that they don't or don't appear to worship a god). They need not be like the Judeo-Christian religions to be considered as such in my view.

I'm rather attracted to the Yin and yang. I may be using it incorrectly, but I use as a visual aid when explaining my interpretation of good and evil. After I explain that I believe the two are completely subjective in my view, I say that I believe that every good person has a bit of evil them and every bad person has some good in them and I use the symbol to illustrate my conception. I'm a visual thinker and thus, a symbol like that is very useful for me. To further illustrate my point, I say that Hitler is generally considered evil, but he loved children and German Shepherds - love isn't synomonis (sp?) with evil. While JFK, a man I believe to be generally good, was a womaniser (that's what I've heard at least) - dominating over women isn't synomonis (sp?) with good.

That's about as far into Taoism that I get. I wouldn't mind reading more about it though. Just for interest’s sake.

Yeah, there's good and bad in everything.

Your avatar really cracks me up.

I'm not quite sure how to take that.

Hitler loved children? He certainly didn't love Jewish children. Or disabled children. If Asperger's was being diagnosed back then, he probably would have gassed us, too.
The strangest Hitler fact I know is that his favorite movie was "The Wizard of Oz".

Q, don't take it personally. Is that you though? And are you in a production of "Alice in Wonderland?" I ask because you look like the king of hearts.

And Rynessa, strangely enough, I heard that Adolf was a closet case. His marriage to Eva Braun was nothing more of a sham, and he had to pull the trigger on her or he would of lost a profound ton of respect to so many of the xenophobic germans who loved him.

Gosh, could you imagine Hitler in his bunker with a girtle on, dressed up like Judy Garland, singing "We're off to see the Wizard." He probably had a perfect mock of ToTo as well.

Ohhh. Lol. My Av isn't me. It's the Character Q (John DeLancie) from Star Trek. I rather like how he questions humanity. Roddenberry didn't call his character Q without a reason methinks.

I've only heard that Hitler liked children, and I of course mean 'Aryan' children. There's no way he would have liked any Jew, child or not. I'm not trying to present him as good, just not entirely evil. Absolutes aren't generally realistic in my view.

Nice thread Averick,

I thought finding I was AS was finding out who I was

I thought finding the dao was like finding my way home

but finding this thread means I got company along the way

Who is puffed up cannot stand,
Who is self-absorbed has no distinction,
Who is self-revealing does not shine,
Who is self-assertive has no merit,
Who is self-praising does not last long.

As for the Way, we may say these are
"excess provisions and extra baggage."
Creation abhors such extravagances.

Therefore,
One who aspires to the Way,
does not abide in them.

If you open yourself to loss,
you are at one with loss
and you can accept it completely.

Exactly.

See, this is why I made this thread!!

In my soul searching, I identified with Taoism for a while, before I found other schools of thought. I have adapted alot of Taoist ideals into my current philosophy. I'm now a neutral monist and a pantheist, with some Taoist, Zen Buddhist, and even a couple small Christian influences (these arise from the mythological stories of the man Jesus who may or may not have existed.), among others.

I didn't as much find daoism as it found me,
I first read the tao of pooh and then steven mitchells tao de jing,
it has helped me so much,
it is so forgiving and places no "rules" on me,
I find I want to follow the way because it's beneficial and works,
rather than because I "should" like many religions,
although I see it as a cure for dogma not just another one.

never heard of it, any links?