apparently, clinging to something too tightly is a guaranteed way to attract the return...

I can relate.
Thank you for the reply.

Funny...I have read a lot about taoism and "studied" it, mostly through the Dao de Jing and Zhuangzi. I have dabbled in all kinds of commentaries (lots!), but the DdJ and Zhuangzi I read with more sincerity. I really try to apply or at least see taoist principles in my daily life. It's a philosophy/life path that makes most sense to me. It has proven itself to be true 100% of the time in my life. Still, I don't call myself a taoist. Even if I'm talking with people about religion, spirituality, etc. I don't mention taoism or that I "practice" it.

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All of them start on that tao road yet many are not conscious of their stepping off taoist road to investigate sites along the road.
We begin the taoist road in the womb and as we go forward in time we step off to this side or that side of the road of tao.
Just as some say the poor is always with, so is the taoist road.

Oooh, me me me!!! :smile:

The Tao is the only religious text that appeals to me. The very first verse sums up my whole attitude to spirituality - we can't know the nature of the eternal uncreated; we can only view aspects of it through the cloudy lens of the 10,000 things. I think if everyone started with this basic assumption then a whole lot of people's spiritual journeys would be far more centered on the search for truth and wisdom rather than the seeking of novel experiences or the acquisition of powers.

With his initial assumption from verse 1, Lao Tzu then goes on to concisely describe the few immutable truths that we can discern about the world, without adding a single concept of his own devising. No other text is so perfectly concise and rings so perfectly true. I feel like when I really understand the Tao, I will understand all that there is to be understood.

Unfortunately, others then appropriated the Taoist banner and added lots of novel concepts of their own devising, none of which I have yet found any use for, and which seem to contradict the central simplicity of the Tao. Humans can't resist complicating things or making up stories. If you accidentally lock a man in a room for 5 minutes, by the time you let him out he'll have invented an entire philosophical narrative about why he was locked there, who the mysterious man with the key is, and what untold wonders lie beyond the closed door. :biggrin:

even in such a simple book there is a lot to learn....
I only recently figured out about the 'five flavors' lol!

Same here! I searched many years for 'answers' .... finding Taoism made me stop searching :smile:

You have some very interesting insights that involve probably all belief systems.

I didn't know there was a Taoist Road on SF or elsewhere. I wonder how many Taoists are traveling on Taoist Roads, and how many Taoist's just are.

I don't read the books - but I do physical monastic exercises

I am interested in some things and not others
sometimes I join social groups about taoism on other websites -
but then I leave the group if I go somewhere like the Daobums forum -
because I don't want to be associated with taoism after visiting that forum or seeing people being cult followers of books

I watch a lot of videos about taoist magic from a taoist magic sect
I find it interesting

I don't find learning to play music interesting

I find Chinese medicine interesting

I am mainly interested in the martial arts sects

I was also a good christian - but I didn't want to be associated with christianity after being around the churches and rescue missions because there are a lot of evil people there - I also don't like reading the bible or people being cult followers of the book and preaching from it

then I was a good Buddhist and I didn't eat meat or kill spiders or mosquitos -
but then I started listening to buddhist monks preaching and reading Buddhist scriptures - and I didn't want to be associated with Buddhism after that

I have wanted to go to China to learn martial arts and Chinese medicine at some of the Wudang taoist temples

but then I see that part of your learning is playing music - which I don't want to do - and I see that you have to participate in religious dogma stuff and I'm not interested in going there anymore after that

so I wouldn't call myself a taoist - but I am interested in a lot of taoist stuff
and I do a lot of taoist stuff

I just don't do all taoist stuff

I'm more of a taoist than anything else probably - but also with some christianity and buddhism thrown in

but I'm not a christian - a buddhist - or a taoist - though I do seem to be on a taoist path

when I see a religion I can usually grasp the concept of being good and not evil -- but anything beyond that tends to just push me away from the religion

if I keep it simple and stay away from everyone else - it will work for me

one christian preacher said that the written word kills the faith -

I am usually creeped out by cults - I don't need all the dogma and politics - I just need to know that it's good and not evil and then I will be okay with it

once it gets complicated I won't be okay with it anymore - I will just get away from it

I am into tarot and Oracle cards --

I have an I Ching deck -- it's the tao Oracle but it's probably my least used deck -- I am going to put the cards in order and go through the 64 hexagrams and do the energy postures associated with the hexagrams as part of my monastic exercises

Right now I am only doing 17 energy postures - so I will take a break from that at some point and do 64 postures from the 64 hexagrams - that will take 64 days at two and a half hours per posture
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.actually it's more like 128 postures than 64
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k76FVp0udVs
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though I don't study the I Ching --I only do the physical part - I study something else
I could study the I Ching as well if I found it interesting enough - but at this point it would just interrupt what I'm already studying
Maybe some day I will study the I Ching - but not today - today I will do the physical exercises associated with the I Ching & study something different at the same time
a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that I hate reading -- I like audiobooks - but I hate to read
I don't like all audiobooks though -- it has to interest me
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