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Post published by Contentful T

“You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise.”
― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

I find that Taoism is very much in line with the teachings of Buddha.

“The Taoists realized that no single concept or value could be considered absolute or superior. If being useful is beneficial, the being useless is also beneficial. The ease with which such opposites may change places is depicted in a Taoist story about a farmer whose horse ran away.

His neighbor commiserated only to be told, "Who knows what's good or bad?" It was true. The next day the horse returned, bringing with it a drove of wild horses it had befriended in its wanderings. The neighbor came over again, this time to congratulate the farmer on his windfall. He was met with the same observation: "Who knows what is good or bad?" True this time too; the next day the farmer's son tried to mount one of the wild horses and fell off, breaking his leg. Back came the neighbor, this time with more commiserations, only to encounter for the third time the same response, "Who knows what is good or bad?" And once again the farmer's point was well taken, for the following day soldiers came by commandeering for the army and because of his injury, the son was not drafted.

According to the Taoists, yang and yin, light and shadow, useful and useless are all different aspects of the whole, and the minute we choose one side and block out the other, we upset nature's balance. If we are to be whole and follow the way of nature, we must pursue the difficult process of embracing the opposites.”
― Connie Zweig, Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature

“Some people think they can find satisfaction in good food, fine clothes, lively music, and sexual pleasure. However, when they have all these things, they are not satisfied. They realize happiness is not simply having their material needs met. Thus, society has set up a system of rewards that go beyond material goods. These include titles, social recognition, status, and political power, all wrapped up in a package called self-fulfillment. Attracted by these prizes and goaded on by social pressure, people spend their short lives tiring body and mind to chase after these goals. Perhaps this gives them the feeling that they have achieved something in their lives, but in reality they have sacrificed a lot in life. They can no longer see, hear, act, feel, or think from their hearts. Everything they do is dictated by whether it can get them social gains. In the end, they've spent their lives following other people's demands and never lived a life of their own. How different is this from the life of a slave or a prisoner?”
― Liezi, Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living

My thoughts on the above is to not be attached to duality so much yet know what is right and wrong and will aid us on the Path, and to learn to let go and not give so much of a DAMN what others think. I mean constructive criticism is very conducive to improving oneself but I mean like in terms of being greedy for some kind of popularity or reputation.

Share your own below.
AmeVirupa and Deleted Account like this.
Vedas_fr more_vert
Vedas_fr
"You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise"
Do you reflect on the absolute stupidity of that statement?
Contentful T likes this.
Contentful T more_vert
Contentful T
No I don't do you Vedas? I didn't really reflect that deep other than ya we shouldn't judge and equality is universal in an ultimate sense?
Vedas_fr more_vert
Vedas_fr
i see this as a fake philosophy because it is literally impossible to apply. Bad things must be avoided as much as possible, and we must care about, otherwise our lives will become a living hell. This is a promise of a false detachment because you will always be affected by the reality around you. We need clean air to live, clean food, health, safe environments, justice etc... This is why i don't like buddhism as much as i used to.