Human beings cannot do whatever they want. If they really could do whatever they wanted, than anyone could do anything without having any negative consequences...
therefore, there must be some larger underlying force than the human being.
A problem doesn't happen because of truth. Truth is The Way life is, that which cannot be changed. When a person strays away from The Way a problem occurs. Everything a person does, whether it is donating a million dollars to charity or sneezing, affects the world around them. Even if the effect is really, really small there is still an effect. All living things have the mental ability to make choices, and based off of those choices each living thing can produce actions. Actions which will affect everything else. At every moment every being is doing something, even sitting still is doing something. So at every moment
every being is affecting every other being and even the environment around them. We cannot, however, know all the effects of our actions because we are only part of the whole. If we are only part of the whole, we also do not have the power to control the whole. We are not destined to rule all things, we are destined to live in harmony with them. Truth is to not rely on our own ego and intellect to make our choices, truth is to be in tune with the constant flow of effect that each being makes on another, and let that natural flow govern your actions. Truth is The Way. The Way is the flow of life. The way life works.
As people we constantly look down and outward for our important information. We strive to fill ourselves with facts and numbers so we can know our world, and hopefully control our situation. It is not our job to control our situation, it is our job to act in the best way possible based off of our situation. How does a person act in the best way possible? A person must empty themselves of all notions of intelligence first, to create space. This emptiness will bring you closer to the source of all truth, The Way. Don't let pride make you think that you can determine what is best for you, let your heart decide. We can agree that a person cannot control their heart, just like the world around them. Then there must be some connection between your heart and The Way. "Heart" is really only a name for the part of us that is connected with The Way. Why? Because does not lie, it isn't fair, but it isn't unfair. It does not change its ways because of information from a book or opinions of other people. The heart just is what it is, and stays that way regardless of how we argue with it, a person cannot argue intellectually with their heart, because they cannot argue with the truth. Simple truth. Often a person might say after an experience that they have had a "change in heart." But that's not very accurate. Their heart was always the same, but after the experience they were able to let go of their prejudgments and ideas about other people. What they really had was "a change in mind," or really "they lost their mind!" =]
Empty the mind and let your heart fill you with the truth.
This is peace; this is harmony; this is love...
and life is good.
authors note: Not to say that intelligence is all together useless, it is very useful. Think of intelligence as the one who sets the Goals and Objectives, but the heart as the one who makes the Vision. I realize a lot of what was said is disagreeable, my actual wish is not for people to agree with me, what i would really love is to hear your opinions and reactions!... thanks for reading.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
o_O
Deep.
Truth can be many things.
Sometimes truth can be an ideal, while at other times truth may be the consequence to our actions. Many times, Truth is simply the cold, hard facts (excuse me for the cliche) but at other times Truth might be that feeling, that emotion deep inside of you, begging to be heard.
Often, Truth is unattainable. I've heard many debates about what "Absolute Truth" really is, and whether it exists. Very thought-provoking.
On another note, I apologize for this question, and you don't have to answer it, but I was wondering if you are a Christian?
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw
Good Point, sorry, I guess it was incomplete thought. But I think that truth is about what is, and problem infers to a judgment on the situation. I meant to say that truth is more than good or bad, but yea, the cold hard facts. Whether the effects are pleasurable or not. Many times, in viewing things for what they are and accepting the situation, things naturally seem to be less "bad", despite requiring much work or energy.
I see truth as looking things the way they are, and accepting the fact that there is more than we know out there. Obviously since we can't understand everything, but by accepting that fact and observing things we do know of for what they are while in respect to the fact that there are more things that we do not know.
I am not Christian, but i have found many similar concepts shared between Taoism and Christianity. My most recent incident, which is more speculation than actual fact, but still ideas that are interesting is between The Bible's John 14:6 and the Tao Te Ching's Chapter 67:
"Jesus replied, 'I am The Way, The Truth, and The Light only through me can you come to my Father in Heaven.'" -John 14:6
So Jesus is the Way, truth, and life... and through him we go to heaven.
"I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
(The Way: living simply, not complicating your situation with judgment and preconceptions)
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
(The Truth: Accepting all things good and bad for what they are and let them be themselves)
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world."
(Life: well... being part of life, all living things.)
-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 67
It seems by just looking at these two that Jesus was like a personification of The Way in Taoism. since The Way is the way you live your life, and by following Jesus we learn The Way to live our lives.
But as for my religion. Religion is a set of practices, codes or rules organized around a common philosophy or respectively, a perspective of the world. Since each person has their unique experience, however small or large the difference, people will have an at least slightly different experience and therefore perspective of the world around them. The whole idea of paradigm (basically your outlook of the world based off of your experiences). So since we all have this slightly different philosophy from our unique experiences, it seems only right that our own rules or ways of living life should be unique to us and our experience. Since we make our own decisions, even if we decide to listen to someone else, our practices are based off of our own philosophy. Every person has their own philosophy. My philosophy is in my name i guess.
That's a very good quote. Um i'd like to respond to it, if i haven't written too much already. The only thing is that "progress" is in terms of the way the unreasonable man sees it, and it also has a positive connotations. So on the surface it implies that what the unreasonable man is doing, is doing good things. However, i think the underlying theme is that what we view as "progress" is actually something very unreasonable, which makes us unreasonable men because we still feel that this particular type of progress is good. Ironically the reasonable man in the beginning was the desirable trait, even though the whole quote seemed to mock him. Kind of lending to the theme, the description of the reasonable man was short and simple, while the unreasonable man had to be explained in a trivial way, which shows fault in the over-complication of his tryings.
Do you hold a religious affiliation? if so, or not! please share your perspective on some (or all) of these things. =]
Please use the reply button to maintain the flow of conversations. Thank you!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I am a Christian, so that's why I responded to the whole Way, Truth, Life thing =)
And, I never knew that about Taoism. Thanks for the enlightenment!
Also, I didn't mean to criticize or judge your post, if that was the way it came across. Your thoughts were just so deep that they invoked my response, and I felt like I should share it =)
I also believe that pure Truth is unattainable to humans. I believe that only God knows all absolute truth, and that God is the only one who could possible comprehend this knowledge. I do believe in a few absolute truths: that God created us (no matter how long it actually took), that God came to Earth in man's form, and that he subsequently took upon himself all of our imperfections and blemishes; our hates, our lusts, our pains, our evil. I believe that he made this ultimate sacrifice in our stead, and after doing so, miraculously rose from hell and lived in the world again. He then ascended, and sent his spirit throughout the world so that all might have access to this gift. Those are a few of the "Absolute Truths" that I subscribe to =)
On a less religious note, I also believe that many "Truths" that society puts in place are downright lies. One example from the scientific world (I promise that this one is a bit more original than "The world is flat") was the subject of magnetic levitation. This also kind of draws from the quote (which, by the way, is my signature ;-) ) in that at one point, it was thought impossible to levitate an object in air by use of magnetic forces alone. There was a specific theorem, established by one Samuel Earnshaw, that stated that it was impossible to levitate one magnet over another. The world accepted this as "truth." But then, a man named Roy Harrigan came along and did it. He actually was in complete ingorance of the "law" that it was impossible, and even though this theorem still stands today, Harrigan found a loophole, in the form of a rotating magnet (which undergoes precession - I didn't really understand all the physics behind it so I'll leave it at that). I guess my point is that "truth" isn't always so, at least in the scientific fields.
And as for the quote in my signature, what I take from it is a sense of motivation. The "reasonable" man here is simple, he takes what is given to him, and makes due with it, which is a desirable trait. He is reasonable in that he does not cause trouble, does not challenge anyone, and is generally a "respectable" man. The unreasonable man takes more towards another quote by Gearoge Bernard Shaw: "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." The unreasonable man sees his own circumstances, and decides that he will not simply take things as they are.
Thus, both men desire progress; the reasonable man desires progress in himself, while the unreasonable man desires progress in the world. Granted, this "progress" is more than often quite subjective, but both men desire it nonetheless. The unreasonable man thus works towards a progress that is viewed by the world, while the reasonable man works towards a progress seen only by God. As human beings, we must take from both.
Dag nabbit, sorry about the length =/
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw
I guess the biggest reason that I like this quote is that it gives me an excuse for being obnoxious XD
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw
messed up this comment... woops.
Definitely didn't take anything in offense...
Maybe i just like to answer seriously =P
if anything, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
besides...
tension between people is just another way of saying that we're stuck together =]
life is good
james.