Taoist and Buddhist Tweets 55

Ta-Wan

To know anything, even truth,

maybe especially truth,

is false.

As knowledge requires knower.

Truth can only be,

and not be known.

You can check out Ta-Wan's other musings here.

Bit by Bit - Chapter 20, Part 10

Trey Smith

Pei-kung She was collecting taxes for Duke Ling of Wei in order to make a set of bells. He built a platform outside the gate of the outer wall, and in the space of three months the bells were completed, both the upper and lower tiers. Prince Ch'ing-chi, observing this, asked, "What art is it you wield?"

Pei-kung She replied, "In the midst of Unity, how should I venture to `wield' anything? I have heard it said, When carving and polishing are done, then return to plainness. Dull, I am without understanding; placid, I dawdle and drift. Mysteriously, wonderfully, I bid farewell to what goes, I greet what comes; for what comes cannot be denied, and what goes cannot be detained. I follow the rude and violent, trail after the meek and bending, letting each come to its own end. So I can collect taxes from morning to night and meet not the slightest rebuff. How much more would this be true, then, of a man who had hold of the Great Road?"
~ Burton Watson translation ~

"What art is it you wield?" The answer is different for each of us!

Each one of us is good at something. This something might be nuclear physics, law, cooking, poetry, juggling chainsaws or smiling. The artistry comes when we no longer need to concentrate on concentrating on that which we are focused on.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

And Here We Are Again

Trey Smith

Remember when the US attacked Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)...only they didn't really have them? UN inspectors simply couldn't find what US leaders declared was, at the time, incontrovertible evidence. It came out later that these same US leaders knew that Iraq didn't possess WMDs; it was just a manufactured excuse to do what they wanted to do anyway.

Today, the US is beating similar war drums again. This time around we're being told that there is strong evidence that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons against their own people. As it currently stands, there is no incontrovertible proof a) there was a chemical attack in Syria and b) who might be responsible for it, if it did occur.

Yesterday, UN inspectors attempted to visit the sites of the supposed occurrence of chemical weapons usage. They visited the first site, but could not visit the others because they came under heavy sniper fire.

Now, why would they come under sniper fire? There are two very plausible explanations. First, the sniper fire could have come from elements of the Syrian government forces because they wanted to prevent the UN inspectors from discovering that chemical weapons had, indeed, been used. But there is another scenario that is just as likely: The sniper fire came from rebel forces because they want to prevent UN inspectors from discovering that there is no evidence of a chemical attack.

Look, I have no idea which scenario is the correct one, but I lean toward the latter. I lean this way simply because we know that US leaders have a propensity for using trumped up rationale to enter into war. When the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor back in 1898 from unknown causes, this event was used as justification to commence the Spanish-American War. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident? A very distorted description of it was utilized as a pretense to escalate the use of American forces in Vietnam. And then, of course, we have the more recent example of Iraq.

It just seems to me that the US has an itchy trigger finger! With the "war" in Afghanistan supposedly winding down, the military-industrial complex needs a new target. The best way to justify our humungous defense budget is to be engaged in a war...somewhere. Since, lately, war means attacking Muslims, Syria will do!

And there is another reason a "war" in Syria is so needed right now. The US brass needs to find something to divert attention away from the NSA scandal. A war would certainly do the trick!!

I Ching: Hexagram 53 - The Image

On the mountain, a tree:
The image of DEVELOPMENT.
Thus the superior man abides in dignity and virtue,
In order to improve the mores.

The tree on the mountain is visible from afar, and its development influences the landscape of the entire region. It does not shoot up like a swamp plant; its growth proceeds gradually. Thus also the work of influencing people can be only gradual. No sudden influence or awakening is of lasting effect. Progress must be quite gradual, and in order to obtain such progress in public opinion and in the mores of the people, it is necessary for the personality to acquire influence and weight. This comes about through careful and constant work on one’s own moral development.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

A Conversion Experience I

Scott Bradley

I return to the second to last story in the 7th chapter of the Zhuangzi outside of the context of the previous series on that chapter. This is the story of how Liezi realized that his fascination with the spiritual powers of a shaman was indicative of his failure to grasp the core message of his master, Huzi. It is also perhaps the closest thing we have to an actual conversion experience in the Inner Chapters.

Liezi's response to his realization that "he had not yet learned anything" was to return to his home from which he did not emerge for three years and where he cooked for his wife and fed his pigs as if they were honored guests. Those of us with wives and pigs need not follow his example to the letter (though in the case of the wives it might be appreciated); the point is that his normal way of understanding what it means to be a person in the world was turned on its head. We might ask whether it even matters what caused this experience; the point is to be shaken loose from the box in which we have put ourselves. Or we might ask whether it matters what was the outward expression of this shaking loose. It is the shaking loose that matters.

From a Daoist perspective, there is one important aspect of this experience that is of paramount importance, however; and this is that we are not shaken from one box into another, from one narrowly grasped ideology to another, or from one belief to another. We might as well stay in the one we are already in if that's all this conversion experience amounts too. What Liezi realized was that he was able to convert from the teachings of his master to those of a shaman with relative ease because it was a belief system that he was after all along. And why was that? We wish to moor ourselves to some idea firm and sure, anything that relieves our fear of drift and doubt. But it is just this to which Zhuangzi points as a source of possible freedom, release from the need for fixed answers and into the experience of primal trust while in a world of flux.

Hopefully, you have already asked how this is not just another belief system. It most certainly can be. But then, if experienced, might it not also be somehow transcended as such? It’s not really a question as to whether it is a belief system, but of how we hold it, of whether it is grasped as a self-contained box.

Perhaps Zhuangzi never really envisioned complete freedom from a system of belief. The important thing is to always be aware that that box in which one presently dwells is just one box among infinite others. There is freedom in this, too. This is what the term "critical zero" means for me; zeroing out the ideas to which one is attached so as to realize their relative nature. This not only helps to liberate us, but also to allow us to allow others to have their own.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

DN - U.S. Student Loan Bubble Saddles a Generation With Debt and Threatens the Economy 1/2

I Ching: Hexagram 53 - The Judgment

DEVELOPMENT. The maiden
Is given in marriage.
Good fortune.
Perseverance furthers.

The development of events that leads to a girl’s following a man to his home proceeds slowly. The various formalities must be disposed of before the marriage takes place. This principle of gradual development can be applied to other situations as well; it is always applicable where it is a matter of correct relationships of co–operation, as for instance in the appointment of an official. The development must be allowed to take its proper course. Hasty action would not be wise. This is also true, finally, of any effort to exert influence on others, for here too the essential factor is a correct way of development through cultivation of one’s own personality. No influence such as that exerted by agitators has a lasting effect.

Within the personality too, development must follow the same course if lasting results are to be achieved. Gentleness that is adaptable, but at the same time penetrating, is the outer form that should proceed from inner calm.

The very gradualness of the development makes it necessary to have perseverance, for perseverance alone prevents slow progress from dwindling to nothing.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Maybe, Just Maybe

Trey Smith

I must tell you that Della's and my search for a new place to call home has been anxiety-provoking and immensely frustrating. Each time it looks like we're making headway, something pops up and the potential new landing spot evaporates before our eyes! Within the past two weeks or so, two prominent locations that appeared to be right up our alley turned into dead ends.

Back in early June, we thought we were headed about 45 minutes north to Westport. They had an opening and we were at the top of the waiting list. We filled out all the requisite forms and submitted all the documentation requested, but there was one hangup after another. Every time we would clear one hurdle, they would announce a new one! In a week or so, we would clear that one, only to be told yet another new obstacle lay between us and securing the apartment.

After going back and forth with the Westport people for 11 weeks, we learned two weeks ago that we had finally been approved. We scheduled an appointment to go sign papers as well as to pay the deposit and first month's rent. I happened to ask the apartment manager the amount of the deposit and rent. He replied that it would be $550 for each. It was then that I realized that they had completely miscalculated our monthly income!

I had him read me their figuring and I quickly pointed out that they had several numbers wrong. Well, even though we had turned in documentation that showed the accurate figures, we were told that we would need to turn in this information a second time and in a different format. Not only that, but we were given less than 24-hours to do it! Since the documentation would have to come from the Social Security Administration, I told them that it would take, at the very minimum, two days.

Their response? Even though this involved THEIR mistake, not ours, we were told that we would be skipped over on the waiting list and, once the information was verified, we would be in line for the NEXT apartment to come open!

After jumping through so many hoops for 2 1/2 months -- submitting and resubmitting all sorts of documentation -- it was galling that we were being skipped over because they can't add properly! We both said, "Screw this!" We marked Westport off our list.

At about this same time, an apartment came open in Winlock (about one hour east of South Bend). Were we interested? Yes, Della replied. Well then, could you come for an interview in less than two days at 10:00 a.m.? Unfortunately, Della had a medical appointment scheduled for that day. So, she asked if we could come over any other day of that week. NO! Even though we again were at the top of the list, we could only do our interview at one specific time...or we would be removed from the waiting list altogether. So, Winlock came and went.

The one place to date in which we haven't been dicked around is the Dune Grass Apartments in Ocean Shores (about 1.5 hours north of here). Unlike in Westport, the decision was made quickly and we have been granted provisional approval. We have an appointment on Wednesday and, unless a problem arises due to some of our updated information, it is looking more and more like we will be able to sign the lease by the first or second week of September. (We have our fingers crossed, but due to all the crud we've been through so far, we won't take it as a given until we sign on the dotted line.)

I've stated this before, but I am absolutely amazed that we remain here in our soon-to-be foreclosed on home. In January, I thought I would be joining Della shortly in the Columbia River Gorge where she was serving in AmeriCorps. After she was released from the hospital on April 1, we were hopeful that we would find a suitable apartment by mid-June, at the latest. Yet, here we are in late August and we're still in South Bend (in our house that we don't really want to leave anyway).

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - What Did You Learn In School Today?

Performed by Tom Paxton

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that Washington never told a lie

I learned that soldiers seldom die

I learned that everybody's free

And that's what the teacher said to me

And that's what I learned in school today,

that's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

I learned the policemen are my friends

I learned that justice never ends

I learned that murderers pay for their crimes,

Even if we make a mistake sometimes

And that's what I learned in school today,

That's what I learned in school

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that war is not so bad

I learned about the great once we had had

We fought in Germany and in France

And some day I might get my chance.

And that's what I learned in school today,

That's what I learned in school

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

I learned our government must be strong

It's always right and never wrong!

Our leaders are the finest men

And we elect them again and again

And that's what I learned in school today,

That's what I learned in school

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

Taoist and Buddhist Tweets 54

Ta-Wan

I am complete without ideas.

Ideas break me into many.

You can check out Ta-Wan's other musings here.

Bit by Bit - Chapter 20, Part 9

Trey Smith

"If a man, having lashed two hulls together, is crossing a river, and an empty boat happens along and bumps into him, no matter how hot-tempered the man may be, he will not get angry. But if there should be someone in the other boat, then he will shout out to haul this way or veer that. If his first shout is unheeded, he will shout again, and if that is not heard, he will shout a third time, this time with a torrent of curses following. In the first instance, he wasn't angry; now in the second he is. Earlier he faced emptiness, now he faces occupancy. If a man could succeed in making himself empty, and in that way wander through the world, then who could do him harm?"
~ Burton Watson translation ~

In the meditative state, there is no anger or joy. Both of these emotions are controllers -- they bar the way to free and easy wandering.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

My Preoccupation with the NSA Revelations

Trey Smith

I've been writing an awful lot about the NSA revelations in the past few weeks. For me, this is the most important scandal in recent memory. It strikes at the heart of freedom and democracy. It certainly goes against the basic precepts of philosophical Taoism.

While I am concerned with how this recently confirmed information impacts the basic fabric of society, these revelations may hit me harder than most. As someone who suffers from Schizotypal Personality Disorder, I already battle a degree of delusions and paranoia anyway. Now that I've learned that most of my phone calls and online activity are being tracked and/or monitored, it's made me even more paranoid than usual!

Look at it this way. I naturally tend to be suspicious of people and their motives. I go through periods in which I feel I'm being watched. In the past, I've been able to have a rational conversation with myself and point out that it's probably not true; it's just one of my run-of-the-mill delusions.

Now, however, I realize it may not be a delusion after all. Maybe people genuinely are watching me!

While it still may be paranoid to think that someone somewhere is keeping tabs on my every move -- not that I do much of anything anymore -- we now know that there ARE people tasked with keeping an eye out for dissidents and, if you read my posts, it is abundantly clear that I AM a dissident! I am a very low-level (not widely read) dissident, but these days we can never know how low the threshold is.

Not that this paranoia will stop me from writing the sort of things I write, but I do know my anxiety levels have been much higher lately. I'm going to see my counselor this afternoon and you can be sure my renewed paranoia will be the focus of our discussion.

But it still begs the question: If most of us are being surveilled to one degree or another, is it really paranoia to know this is happening?

I Ching: Hexagram 53 (Chien)

above SUN THE GENTLE, WIND, WOOD
below KêN KEEPING STILL, MOUNTAIN

This hexagram is made up of Sun (wood, penetration) above, i.e., without, and Kên (mountain, stillness) below, i.e., within. A tree on a mountain develops slowly according to the law of its being and consequently stands firmly rooted. This gives the idea of a development that proceeds gradually, step by step. The attributes of the trigrams also point to this: within is tranquility, which guards against precipitate actions, and without is penetration, which makes development and progress possible.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

To Be or Not To Be: Is Not the Question

Scott Bradley

I have long argued that the 33rd and final chapter of the Zhuangzi is the work of a syncretist Confucian. This seems so abundantly clear to me, a non-scholar, that I am always amazed when I read actual scholars who suggest otherwise. But though I cannot remember where I have read the case for a Confucian author for this chapter, I am sure I must have done so. In any event, something I recently read in Brook Ziporyn's Ironies of Oneness and Difference provided one more demonstration of this probability. This question is important because we rely so heavily on this chapter for an understanding of many of the more obscure proto-Daoists that without understanding its Confucian spin we might easily misunderstand their contributions.

Ziporyn's point, made only in passing, is that the Confucian criticism of Daoism as having over-emphasized Non-Being at the expense of Being is based on a misreading of the Daodejing. He suggests (if I understand him correctly) that Laozi actually presents Being and Non-Being as mutually dependent concepts that give rise to each other just as does every conceptual set of paired opposites. These are intended as conceptual tools, not definitive statements about reality.

The author of the 33rd chapter thus misrepresents Laozi when he says of him and Guan Yin: "They founded their way on the constancy of Nonbeing and centered it on the supreme Oneness." What this betrays is a failure to understand that philosophical Daoism eschews any definitive metaphysics; the author has defaulted to the seemingly insurmountable human propensity to fill the void with something, even if it is with 'the Void'. In the end, there is no difference between Being and Non-Being; in either case it's still a something.

At this point we might correctly ask 'So what?'; for my part, at least, these subtle nuances of philosophical perspective are important only to the extent that they help or hinder the realization of a transcendent experience. The point is to experience freedom, not to have the "correct" understanding of apparent reality. However, the absence of any and all 'answers' or conceptual foci is so pivotal to Zhuangzi's way that to follow this path back into explanations of 'the way things really are' is to subvert it.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

TYT - Obama DOJ Wants Immunity For War Criminals

I Ching: Hexagram 52 - The Lines, Part 6

Nine at the top means:
Noblehearted keeping still.
Good fortune.

This marks the consummation of the effort to attain tranquility. One is at rest, not merely in a small, circumscribed way in regard to matters of detail, but one has also a general resignation in regard to life as a whole, and this confers peace and good fortune in relation to every individual matter.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Some "End"!

Trey Smith

The tough economy has pushed the average U.S. household income down even further than it was when the Great Recession ended, according to a recent report.

American households are earning 4.4 percent less, when adjusted for inflation, than they were when the economic recovery began four years ago, according to a report by Sentier Research.

In June, the median income clocked in at $52,098, down from the $54,478 earned in June 2009. That drop is even more drastic when compared against the average income of $55,480 that households earned in December 2007, when the recession began.
~ from Household Income Has Fallen 4.4% Since Recession's End, Report Finds by Shan Li ~

This percentage doesn't represent some strange anomaly. More than anything else, it merely underscores the economic focus of the political elite. When we were told that the latest recession had come to an end, all that meant is that profits on Wall Street were starting to go up again. As long as Wall street is in good shape, that's all that is worthy of anyone's attention.

Yes, the recession in terms of Main Street has not ended. In fact, it is deepening. But that's neither here nor there. It doesn't factor into any of the equations that matter.

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - Rich Man's World (1%)

Performed by Immortal Technique

Quote from 1976 film "Network"

Arthur Jensen:

You get up, and howl, about America and democracy.

There is no America, there is no democracy, we no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies.

The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the, immutable by-laws of business.

The world, is a business.

And I have chosen, you, to preach this evangel.

For all my free market, health care-robbin', stock-stealin', retirement fund fuckin'-with niggas.

Fuck you little credit card-scammin', jewelry-stealin', crack-sellin', liquor store-robbin' motherfuckers.

(It's a rich man's world) Hahahahaha.

Shout-out to the homies, Carnegie, O.G. Willie Randolph Hearst, Farouk, Rockefeller - the real Rockefeller, my main bitch Leona, pour out a little Louis the 13th, Scott Rothstein, Jack Abramoff, hold ya head.

My Rothschild niggas, let's get this money!

I spend my day pimpin' America overseas

Pensions for the workers, nigga please

Embezzlement etiquette, private settlement

I'm better with confederate rhetoric

From my mansion in Connecticut

Foreclose, evict hoes out of tenement

I twist words like a speech impediment

I hope you got good credit bitch

If not better get a new job with benefits

While I play golf with niggas I get cheddar with

New money buys brand new carats

My old money bought your great grandparents

You got grills in ya mouth I ain't mad at ya

I own every gold mine in South Africa

Thanks baby you made me a billion

Plus I own a building, for each one of my children's children

That's the shit, snort coke in the whip

Miss U.S.A. suckin' my dick, yeah what

Fuck the law 'cause real jail is for suckas

I go to country club prison you dumb motherfuckers

(It's a rich man's world) I am the 1%, fucking bitch!

You know my C.E.O. corporate steez, please

Overthrow governments overseas in a breeze

Politicians in my pockets for a few hundred G's

So if I'm ever in court, my assets'll never freeze

I got a job and house and a bank account

When I'm out I doubt that's somethin' you could say

And if not then I'll fake death like Kenneth Lay

Make money every day the world burns on its axis

While y'all strugglin' to pay taxes

I'm gettin' my money the fastest

Memos and faxes, shredded up documents

Slush funds through the corrupt continents

But they don't want me indicted

'Cause they don't want my dirty laundry aired when I fight it

Don't get my lawyers excited

'Cause what good is a law if you can't rewrite it

I got C.I.A. traitors, dictators, so fuck y'all whistle-blowers and haters

(It's a rich man's world) Shiiiiit

I'll invest money from Al-Qaeda

In the bank now then let the widows go to later

Capitalism's who I pray to, fuck the state of the world

Money talks so what the fuck I need to say to your girl

(I don't pay 'em to fuck, I pay 'em to leave!)

You know my C.E.O. corporate steez, greed

I treat countries like the I.M.F., down on your knees

Real gangsters run the world, fuck what you believe

I'll cut down a forest while y'all nigga's burnin' some trees

I'll get your family murdered for a couple of G's

'Cause your workin' class money ain't fuckin' with me

You think rappers are rich 'cause of songs you heard

My labels made some money, and haven't rapped a fuckin' word

Yacht in the ocean coastin' with the sails out

Hey America, thanks for the bailouts

I made off like the Banco Ambrosiano

Got away scot-free like Il Vaticano

Activists act a bitch get mad at me

'Cause of my tax free charity

80% to the staff and company

And 20% to the homeless and hungry

The country gotta pay the Fed Reserve

Kick back to the banksters, haven't you learned

You protest cops who patrols on the street

But I bought city hall so I own the police

Email, Facebook, and the shit you tweet

All the phone companies, so I heard you speakin'

My suggestion is, your correction

No elections, sex with no affection

No invention would benefit the world of man

Will exist till I got the money in my hand

World bank, interest rate, damn rape on the spot

But I'm a gangster you gon' take my money like it or not, nigga

(It's a rich man's world) I got your country in my pocket, motherfucker!

You know my C.E.O. Masonic steez, cheese

Only little people pay all these taxes and fees

Since you were born we controlled what you watch and you read

And pretty soon were gonna, own the fuckin' air that you breathe

I take what I want, fucker, I don't have to say please

I'll convince you that it's good for you, take it and leave

You think Presidents are the face of a nation

I put 'em all where they are, end of the conversation

Ha ha

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

Taoist and Buddhist Tweets 53

Ta-Wan

Practice is perfection.

As truth is non-dual;

You can only BE it,

...not have it.

You can check out Ta-Wan's other musings here.

Bit by Bit - Chapter 20, Part 8

Trey Smith

"He who possesses men will know hardship; he who is possessed by men will know care. Therefore Yao neither possessed men nor allowed himself to be possessed by them. So I ask you to rid yourself of hardship, to cast off your cares, and to wander alone with the Way to the Land of Great Silence.
~ Burton Watson translation ~

The worries of social relationships are some of the baggage we must leave at the door. To enter into the meditative state, we can't be weighed down or filled up.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.