Someone once described stories as “equipment for living.” Quality fiction does fit that definition and, of course, so does the right non fiction. The modern Taoist quotes presented here are almost the illustration of this definition. They are like a set of tools, deceptively simple in appearance, but made of an adamantine metal that grows stronger and sharper with long use.
The following quotes come from Back to Beginnings, Reflections on
the Tao by Huanchu Daoren, translated by Thomas Cleary.
They were written around 1600 by a retired Chinese Scholar,
Hong Yingming, whose Taoist name, Huanchu Daoren, means “A
Wayfarer Back to Beginnings.” In it can be seen a form of lay
Taoism dating many centuries further back into history, in which
the historical and sociological insights of pristine Confucianism
are combined with the advanced educational and psychological
know ledges and methodologies of Buddhism and Taoism.
Nothing is really known of Huanchu Daoren, except that he
wrote these meditations on the Tao which were originally entitled,
“Vegetable Root Talks.” He identifies himself as a Confucian,
which means that he is a layman; his Taoist epithet, “Back to
Beginnings,” says in calendrical symbolism that he has passed the
age of sixty, has retired from public affairs, and has started a
new cycle of life.
I have been collecting quotations for a
long time. Aphoristic quotations are sometimes the most efficient
and entertaining expression of universal truths. For this reason
one can often find quotes from very divergent sources and times that
say almost the same thing in almost the same words. Sometimes they
may have influenced each other, but often they have been
independently influenced by universal truth. Everyone’s’ ego tends
to create narrow tunnel views of things, especially things that
frustrate us and arouse fear and desire. The right quotations at
the right time can be like diamond bullets that blast holes in those
tunnels and make us aware of much larger vistas.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but in my heart I know that the Bush administration must in some way be responsible for how bad the new Matrix movie is.
I am presently in a phase of reading some of the classics of
American self motivational literature. Although I continue to be
highly critical of this material if used or presented as a
comprehensive psychology, I am also gaining a new appreciation of its value and American character.
The following quote collection has been culled from the Casteneda books and represents a distillation of Don Juan’s philosophy of the warrior. Regardless of what you may think of the literal veracity of these books(they have been pretty successfully debunked as truthful encounters), they were for many in our culture, including me, the first encounter with the philosophy of the warrior. Don Juan’s teachings about the Warrior stance have the perfection of a Samurai sword or arrows shot by a master Zen archer. Their concise, penetrating power is unequaled, and they pierce ego illusions like diamond bullets. Taken together they amount to a Toltec Warrior Manifesto. Someone once defined stories as “equipment for living.” Don Juan’s warrior teachings are also equipment for living, something never to leave behind, like a blade of impervious metal, a powerful ally to accompany you into any sort of wilderness.
