Before Names: Gate of the Great Truth

We desire to understand the world by giving names to the things we see, but these things are only the effects of something subtle. When we see beyond the desire to use names, we can sense the nameless cause of these effects. The cause and the effects are aspects of the same, one thing.They are both mysterious and profound. At their most mysterious and profound point lies the "Gate of the Great Truth".

                 ---Lao Tzu

Vagabond: Musashi

Yeah, Musashi. In another life.

Valentine's Day...Deal With It!

Yeah. Valentine's Day. Made up, marketing, bull----- holiday. A chance for Stover's Candies and Rose Farmers to &*^% you up the &*(%. But so what? If she (or he) is worth it...do something nice! You should do something nice everyday anyway. You don't. You know it. So today...buy some freakin Stover's heart-crap-chocolates, 2 dozen roses and get some. She (or he) deserves your freakin attention, she or he puts up with you the other 364 days of the year. Deal with it!

xoxo
CAP

Buggs in the Machine

"Hair like this makes me look at what others call weality and wonder if they are a part of ours or if we are a part of theirs; celluloid extras in their cartoon dweam. These woots are so existential, doc."

--Buggs Bunny to "Monster" during a permamamnent.

Tao Sam'ich

While others are discussing the Superbowl today. I found myself in need of a more spiritual tack. Modern football gives my mouth a bit of a melange taste. I miss Randy White. So here's some Tao. Good luck. From the book: The Religions of the East by Edward Rice. Two excerpts without interpretation. I figured you needed to work for it a bit (and we all know I don't know what the hell I am talking about, anyway). And the final quote, which I put in the middle, is right from the big cheese: Lao Tzu. I put it in the center because it is the meat in my life's sam'ich. (Well that and my wife and my Zen pickles.) (Okay just added a bit more meat to the sam'ich...so shoot me. It's now a Tao Italian Combo....read on).

1. On an excursion to Red Lake and the K'un-lun mountains, the Emperor lost his black pearl while gazing south to the place from which he had come and to which he would return. He asked Wisdom to find it, without success. And then in turn, he asked Keen Vision and Skilled Debater, neither of whom could find the pearl. Then the Yellow Ancestor requested Nothing (literally, Nothing-seeming) to search, and Nothing found it. "Strange indeed," said the Ancestor, "that Nothing was able to find it.

2. “He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.”

2.5 The Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.
If kings and lords observed this,
The ten thousand things would develop naturally.
If they still desired to act,
They would return to the simplicity of formless substance.
Without form there is no desire.
Without desire there is tranquillity.
In this way all things would be at peace.

3. The philosophers confused themselves about joy and anger, deceived themselves about stupidity and wisdom, criticized themselves about good and evil, and maligned themselves about falsehood and truth, the world began to decline. Excellence in all it's grandeur lost it's equality, and life itself slipped away. The world grew fond of know-how, and the people sought to exhaust it. Axes and saws served as laws, plumb lines determined death, awls and chisels formed judgements. The world went straight to pieces.

(Lao Tzu would have liked the simplicity and naturalness of flippin' tires...him and that Babe-the Blue-Ox he rode. Takes a Strongman to ride an ox, man.)

Heroes, True Heroes (Tales of Shu-Shu and Shi-Shi)

I was speaking with my student and friend, Ezra in class about the question I wanted to ask President Obama, and he too said with a start: "Yeah...who are our American Heroes now?" This discussion, as do all one's of importance, got me reading some of my favorite books in search of...insight, inspiration what have you and I stumbled across this in "Hey I'm Eating That!" by Shu-Shu and Shi-Shi: the fat bodhisattva and his giant husky friend from ancient China:

Shi-Shi to Shu-Shu after Shu-Shu saved a wine merchant's shipment from floating away downstream...but then demanded it as a reward in return for his good deed.

"Listen up, fat man! Heroes, true heroes, are supposed to be the-the-the helping hand you never know is there. They-they sacrifice with no (sniff) expectation of reciprocation, no robes with their picture, no scroll deals, no warm fuzzy glow. (sniff-sniff) True heroes usually die poor and alone but don't care because their cause was their reward...and...are you listening to me? (sniff-sniff-sniff) What the hell is burning?"

"Yeah, yeah, t-shirt and three picture deal. I'm in...just hold that thought, mutt. --Hey! I'll put that fire out for you dumpling maker...if you'll give me the cart in return!"

"Whut the--? Are those matches behind your back? Get back here, blimpy!"

Forget the Guy with the Afro...(Bob Ross)

The Question I Asked President Obama on Yahoo Answers

Here is what I submitted to ask President Obama on Yahoo Answers:

"As a boy growing up in the 70's and 80's, most of us wanted to be Thurman Munson or Roger Staubach; american atheletes who still just played for the love of the game--but all of us, even if secretly, even the girls, dreamed of becoming our best of the best--we all wanted to be NASA astronauts and take to the stars. Now, skip ahead to 2012 when most professional athelets only play for a bigger check, and all of us expected to be living on the moon, even mars, and clearly we are not... My question Mr. President is: with the heart-breaking loss of the shuttle program and no clear replacement in site, who is left for our children to aspire to as 21st century citizens of the United States? Who will now fire the furnace of their imagination and give them reasons to soar? All they are left with is: make money or else you will be part of the 99%. So, President Obama, who are our American heroes now?"