T_Clark

I remember the 1976 Olympics and Bruce Jenner's performance. That has always represented the best of what athletics can be to me. I always looked up t...

Ah, yes. New Yorker cartoons. It's like Playboy. I buy it for the articles.

That's exactly right, except you left out "suck it up."

To me, this is clearly at least partly true.

This is a really good post. Well thought out, well expressed, and well.... right. Mostly. "Suck it up" is important. It's a big part of what it means ...

If I experience that person without words or judgement and then act on that without forethought or intention; maybe putting my arms around them, sitti...

I have no interest in refuting Lao Tzu's vision of reality. I've never said it was untrue and I've acknowledged how valuable it is for me. It is my fu...

One thing I see more and more as I get older is that everything has happened before. The biggest storm, the worst president, the end of western civili...

You and I think about this differently.

If I experience that person without words or judgement and then act on that without forethought or intention, maybe put my arms around them, that is m...

I agree with you that the TTC is about the experience, not the words. You say there is not gap, but for me there is. I have a sense for the experience...

I do believe it is not correct, but I don't think now is the time to get into it. I'm not prepared. Let me do some reading and maybe we can come back ...

Lao Tzu is a bit ambiguous about that. He says different things in different verses. Yin and yang are only mentioned once in the Tao Te Ching, in Vers...

I agree with this. As I've mentioned before, I am not at all clear what takes place "in the gap between the Tao 10,000 things" or how wu wei works. So...

There is a vast amount of information in my head that I never learned in a formal way. We are constantly experiencing the world and trying to figure o...

I was in a Tao Te Ching reading group and one of the members was a Tai Chi instructor. He had insights in to the TTC that were very helpful. It is my ...

Don't worry, I found a free download. I'm interested in this question for two reasons - 1) I have spent a lot of time thinking and writing here about ...

Does this use words, even ones you only speak to yourself? For me, understanding means words. This sounds like what I call "rational thought" in the l...

We interact in the world of the 10,000 things. I'm ok with this, but I don't see the relevance to our discussion. Are you talking about wu wei and how...

I looked up "Fundamental Wisdom of the middle Way" on Wikipedia. It looks interesting, so I put it on my list of books to read. Some of the quotations...

Your bitter contempt for people other than yourself tells us more about you and your ideas than your words.

Launched in 1977. Isn't that the coolest thing you've ever heard of?

Welcome. I recommend you look for the threads and posts from @"schopenhauer1". He is a good source for arguments in favor of antinatalism.

I disagree. We clearly have different understandings of what "metaphysical" means. You say "Lao Tsu's description is rigorous and demonstrably true in...

I think this is a good way of putting it.

Agreed. Given my tendency to say "Xing without Xing" in just about every response, it would be unreasonable for me to argue with you when you talk abo...

It is one way of seeing reality. It includes everything, anything, so it is complete. The words may seem contradictory, but the vision and the path ar...

Third option - This is my way of thinking about it. Others see it differently. 3. The Ground of Being, the Tao, was there before humans existed. Befor...

Is there any way to determine, at least in principle, whether or not we live in an illusion as opposed to what you call "reality?" If not, then there ...

I think if you'll read Verse 82, which is left out of all but one version of the TTC, things will be clearer. It's known as Lao Tzu's lost verse: Hey ...

This thread has gone for a month and almost 700 posts. I think we're doing pretty well. There has been a lot of frustration about differences in under...

Yes, although there's a lot more going on than that in the Tao Te Ching. Getting "lost in the expression" has consequences in our lives.

I disagree. I think the fact that you don't know how to remove memories or even if it can be done or what would happen if you did undermines your argu...

This is my understanding. Other's disagree. You're exactly right. The opening lines of the Tao Te Ching are: The Tao that can be spoken is not the ete...

I understand what you're talking about, but I disagree with what you're saying. If by destroying memory you mean removing all changes to the brain tha...

This doesn't seem obvious to me. How do you know? I don't have any belief in an afterlife, but the idea does not seem ridiculous to me. I think this i...

I disagree. For me, objective reality is a thing. It exists and can be named. It's like an apple or an electron. Ok with me. Before you lecture me abo...

As am I. As are you. It's not that gaining knowledge is not THE way, it's not A way. You can't follow the Tao by gaining knowledge. Gaining knowledge ...

I think it's even more than that. I've found that I don't even know what I believe until I've put it in "definite, actionable form," or at least in wo...

I hear QAnon is recruiting.

I don't want to shock you, but I am imperfect in this regard. Like you, I am mostly responsive rather than aggressive. Mostly, but not completely. I'v...

"Know" does not mean to be absolutely certain. It means to believe with adequate justification. By that standard I know lots of things. The sun will c...

It's no more logical than a punch in the nose.

There is rational discussion, where the goal is to find the truth, and there is rhetoric, where the goal is to convince, i.e. to win the argument. Ins...

"Verisimilitude" - highbrow or middlebrow? I'd say highbrow. For me, there is no worse insult than "middlebrow." Wayne Dyer, Malcolm Gladwell, most of...

I've been thinking about starting a discussion about how ad hominem arguments are different from insults. They are, but I sometimes have trouble decid...

To be a nitpicker, that isn't really a story, it's a description. Also - it does have a structure. It's is linear and chronological. It follows the ru...

No to frustrate you, but the Tao has no rationality either. Forgive me for this, but I'm serious - the Tao that can be rationalized is not the eternal...

Getting behind again. I hope I haven't responded to this before. If I have, I at least hope I'm not inconsistent. Without getting back into the whole ...

I agree that there is no logic to the TTC or the Tao. Others posting on this thread disagree. And yet, here we all, or most of us, are - trying to und...