Atheism and Taoism

Are you speaking from experience? Or are these just ideas?

 

'Being' is an experience, but as one who follows the way, we should understand that experiences come and go, and it's not in keeping with tao to live in the past.

Is that what you mean?

 

Well.. I don't think Toaism is just about being in the present. Right?

 

Yes and no.

Taoism is everything and nothing, as demonstrated by the yin-yang symbol. Even nothing is something, and really, everything is nothing.

With that in mind, what can we really do, other than be in the moment??

 

Have the fluidity in mind to grasp the past (experience), present (action), and future (goal) simultaneously free from effort and meld them together to accomplish life. Certainly that's what the yin yan is all about?


I prefer the Zen attitude towards "trying", or "desire" as it's alternatively referred to. Slightly more complex than the Taoist view, but IMO that's just the reality of how things should be.

Consider the core of the mind to be a wagon, with will-power to be carried about in it. Push it to a place where there can be failure, and there will be failure. Push it to a place where there can be success, and there will be success. But whether there is success or failure, if one entrusts himself to the straightness of this wagon of the core of the mind, he will attain right-mindedness in either case. Severing oneself from desire and being like a rock or tree, nothing will ever be achieved. Not departing from desire, but realizing a desireless right-mindedness - this is the Way. - Takuan Soho

 

How things 'should' be? Really?
How things 'should' be, and how things 'are' are two incredibly different states - neither of which is either simple or complex. It's our level of being that determines the complexities of life...

Your belief either way will not effect tao..

 

And the void? Taoism can't be both, the yin and yang need to be different so. The void is something but it is nothingness.

 

Yeh I realized that typo after I clicked submit. Didn't feel like editing, but I see now that it was a mistake
"Slightly more complex than the Taoist view, but IMO that's just the reality of how things are."

Although the Tao is something precious and worth developing, I don't find it 100% compatible with my way of life, and often just plain restricting. Especially in the broader context of "progress and development".
Unfortunately I'm a biologist, so I see the world as chaos. By that I mean that I don't/can't see the world through absolutes (black and white) because quite simply there objective aren't any. So to limit myself to the "present" just won't cut it. Sometimes to think in/of the past is necessary, and likewise for planning for the future. The world and reality as a whole is just too variable to ascribe to a single manner of thinking, and therefore I adopt a more fluid and dynamic mental approach. There are times for mindfulness, Mushin, Zanshin, and Wu Wei, and then there are times to break away from them. That is my opinion, and I only claim that much.

The main reason I had to break away from pursuing complete minfullness was the realization that sometimes your hormones, or energy levels (as viewed through sleep and exercise), or working hours or tasks would force your mind out of mindfullness. And since I can't just casually walk out the lab for a nice walk in the park or take a nap (as part of Wu Wei), I had to apply a more pragmatic approach.

But the Tao is almost as perplexing and personal in definition then is that other Chinese idea from the same religion that starts with a "C" and shall not be named. So defining it is sort of pointless, as per the opening lines of the Tao Te Ching. So who knows, maybe this is "my Tao"; "Tao of Lad" as you will

Except my belief or disbelief in it will govern its presence or absence, at least in the context of this vessel.

 

Would you not agree that the very concept of "nothing" is by definition a "something".
Those would be the tiny dots of black and white in the opposing yin and yan surely?

I sincerely don't know, that's just the way I've always seen it.

 

Nothing and something must be different things. Yin and Yang and two different things... Thus saying something fills the nothing if crossing paths.

 

How can nothing be filled? If it can be filled it has an attribute, volume, therefore it's something rather than nothing.

 

False. Void (space) is nothingness but you can release O2 into it.

 

Not at all. Even empty space has quite a bit going on in there. All kinds of quantum deal-y bobs popping into and out of existence. You can measure it, interact with it, warp it. Empty space is certainly not 'nothing,' it is space.

 

I know a certain place between two ears that have a whole lot of nothing going on that desperately needs some filling. The process might take forever though man, if it's even possible.

 

It's empty, yet so dense. A curious paradox.

 

God of the Gaps good sir.

 

Different yet complimentary is the key - part of the one, or the Tao

 

Woah back up there. "Warp it"???

 

Sorry: are you referring to my words or a totally different sentence you created?
Btw did you answer me if your going to the map meet?

 

http://www.hawking.org.uk/space-and-time-warps.html

Yup.