Allan Watts elucidate the Dao.
Category: Philosophy
Fifty
Between birth and death, Three in ten are followers of life, Three in ten are followers of death, And men just passing from birth to death also number three in ten. Why is this so? Because they live their lives on the gross level. He who knows how to live can walk abroad Without fear… Continue reading Fifty
Effective altruism
Peter Singer talks on TED about effective altruism
A benevolent and just ruler
A ruler exercising benevolence and justice will surely win the support and help of most people; if he fails to do so, the people will be absolved of all loyalty to him. Mecinus
Suchness
In Buddhism,the word “suchness” is used to mean “the essence or particular characteristics of a thing or a person, its true nature.” Each person has his or her suchness. If we want to live in peace and happiness with a person, we have to see the suchness of that person. Once we see it, we… Continue reading Suchness
Our Life Is a Work of Art
After a retreat in southern California, an artist asked me,“What is the way to look at a flower so that I can make the most of it for my art?” I said, “If you look in that way, you cannot be in touch with the flower. Abandon all your projects so you can be with… Continue reading Our Life Is a Work of Art
One heart
Can you polish your mysterious mirror And leave no blemish? Lao Tzu There is never been a single thing Then where is dust to cling? Huang Po Joining hands One heart. You and Me
Real Love
We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love. We must look deeply in order to… Continue reading Real Love
Mind does not know mind
Mind does not know mind; having a mind, one does not see mind. Producing thought is confusion; no thoughts is nirvana. The Buddhas attain liberation by way of mind; the mind, without defilement, is called pure: immaculate in all states of being, it does not take on form. Those who understand this attain the great… Continue reading Mind does not know mind
Critical Thinking
Zhuang Zi’s eight kinds of methods for health cultivation
Zhuang Zi is one of the prominent philosophers in the era of the Warring States. He has done much study about man’s spirit, integrity, nature-cultivation, heart-cultivation and advocated the nature-cultivation of unselfishness, few desires, quietness and transcendence. Unselfishness. In the opinion of Zhuang Zi, selfishness is the origin of all evils and diseases. One is… Continue reading Zhuang Zi’s eight kinds of methods for health cultivation
The Tao is near and yet people seek it far away
Those whose vital spirit is scattered outwardly and whose intellectual ruminations ramble inwardly cannot govern their bodies. When what the spirit employs is distant, then what it loses is nearby. So know the world without going out the door, know the weather without looking out the window; the further out it goes, the less knowledge… Continue reading The Tao is near and yet people seek it far away
The Three Precepts
1. Simplifying involvements 2. Not craving anything 3. Queiting the mind “If people can empty their minds and contrive nothing, it is not that they want the Way, but the Way spontaneously reverts to them”. Reference: Treatise on sitting forgetting from Taoist Meditation by Thomas Cleary p. 102
The wrong doings of others
When people see others doing wrong and conceive aversion and disdain, that is like grabbing the knife from someone about to kill himself and committing suicide with it your self. It is the other who is doing wrong, not compelling you; why take on others wrongs and make them into your own sickness? Reference: Treatise… Continue reading The wrong doings of others
Serendipity or even Inspiration
There are things one tries everything to gain, but endless efforts end up in vain; however, sometimes you obtain something without trying look for it – serendipity, or even inspiration. Feng Menglong Reference: Wisdom of the Ancients for Today Foreign Languages Press 2007 p. 120