2023

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Daily Taoist 1_32 – Buddha Zhen Discusses TAO #18d of Political Corruption, Trump and Republicans

November 8, 2023 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

YouTube TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 32:

Okay. I’m blasting along. I’ve got two more to do. ‘d’ and ‘e.’ #18d and #18e. I’m on page 32. And then 33.

Okay, the TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE. Lao Tzu wrote the original. Buddha Zhen here. I wrote the — this weird variation of it, in which I use his quote and then we answer all these questions that integrate that wisdom into our life.

Here we go. #18d.

TAO #18d
When oaths and promises are required of workers,
government officials, and members: deceit and corruption are already out of control.

Oh my goodness! The first thing Trump did was a landmark. He was asking for people to kiss his ring and swear loyalty and things to him. And you see: deceipt and corruption were already out of control the moment he entered there. When he was trying to do that–it was already out of control. It’s not that we had to see it. That, that… WOW!

When oaths and promises are required of workers, government officials– (Remember, that’s what Trump did. He wanted oaths from government officials.) –and members: then deceit and corruption are are already out of control.

Wow. That’s beautiful Lao Tzu. 2,200 years ago, and he predicted what we are so stupid–we put in power. We put in power exactly what he said to never do.

Okay. Here we go.

What oaths and promises have you made or required of others?

One more time: What oaths and promises have you made or required of others?

Well I can tell you one oath. I have taken that many oaths, but I swore an oath. And I remember all my oaths. And I remember all my Freemason oaths. Any oath I’ve made is an important oath. Those are like, in threat of life and death. An oath is.

So anyway, one of the oaths I made was that I would never ever support the Communist Party. And I had to swear that oath in order to become a Union Carpenter back in 1972 I think. So back in 1972 when I was sworn into the Carpenter’s Brotherhood. It’s the Union. It’s called actually, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Joiners are the people who work in wood shops. So, when I joined them I had to swear not only an oath of allegiance–some sort of whatever it was… But the only thing that stood out to me was: I had to swear that I would never support or be a Communist.

Now I don’t like to make promises that I’m not gonna guarantee, but I just kind of went along with it. Because I’d been conditioned through the Cold War and everything to not be a Communist. But I still had to think twice. But what if I decide it’s a good idea or something. I swore an oath that I would never do that.

So that’s why it really kind of irritates me to see that we’ve elected a Communist into–as our President. Our President is doing everything that I was told that a Communist would do if they took power… or could influence our government. We never actually thought of a Communist actually running our country. We always thought that a Communist would just merely kind of influence our government. Influence it to be corrupt. Influence it to be just evil, deceitful, or do something bad.

So that’s what I was raised to think Communism was. It was somethiyng that was trying to influence our government to not work properly. Wow! And then we elect somebody in there whose–he’s the most incredible Communist we’ve ever had in our government. He has disrupted our government and caused it to not function and fired more people and created more vacancies in our government than Communists have ever ever been able to do since I was born. As far as I know. I’ve never seen anything close to this. He has caused more damage that the CoImmunists would have applauded than any other human that I know of.

Anyway, that’s kind of interesting.

So, where was I? I got distracted because that was so poignant.

When do you make agreements you do not intend to keep?

When do you require agreements from others you don’t expect them to keep?

When do you reequire agreements from others that you don’t expect them to keep?

Now Bear, you’re making it hard to read here. You’re gonna get your butt in the picture. [laughs] Okay.

How do you know you can trust someone?

How do you know that you can trust someone?

Well somebody wanted my attention. Hello Bear. Hello my little buddy. If I raise you up, can I get your head in the camera a little? Okay. Hello my buddhy. Purring away here.

He needed my attention. I guess he thought I was giving you too much attention. Hello my little friend. Okay. I’ve gotta kind of scoot him aside so I can read the next one.

When you say, “I promise,” is that different from when you say, “I will.”

Or, “I will do that.” “I promise I will do that.” So, how are those different to you?

When is it okay to break a promise?

Remember, marriage is supposed to be a promise. People break marriages.

When is it okay to break a marriage promise?

Hairs all over the place. [blowing noises]

Do you obey your father?

Bear, do you obey me?

I have to create– Remember I was talking about rules? And ways to influence him, so that he’ll… avoid danger or… I have to sometimes NOT let him do what he wants to do or he’ll get run over. So I have to stop him from doing things. Was that a cat fart?

Okay. Here we go.

Do you obey your mother?

Okay. There’s two questions there. Do you obey your father? Do you obey your mother?

Okay. So answer both those and compare those answers. Now there’s another question to ask: Why is there a difference if there is one?

Do you obey your big brother?

Now we’re getting into Confucius. Now according to Confucius you should obey you should obey your mother as you’d obey your father. And you’d obey your big brother as you’d obey your mother. See. It’s a kind of chain of command.

But your brother, your older brother actually represents your father.

And your mother’s job is to put your older brother in his position. So she wants to train him to be the father that you’ll always have. So if ‘gone, there’s still a father in the family and the kids will still look at him–up to him as the father. When there’s no longer a father, the older brother takes over.

Okay? That’s the Confucian system.

Do you obey your employer or your boss? (That’s a good question.)

Do you obey your employere or your boss?

If your boss says, “Go do that.” Do you obey him? If he says, Idon’t know, “Go get me a cup of coffee.” Whatever’s within your job description. But if he says something, do you obey him? If he tells you what to do– Do you obey him?

Do you obey your spouse?

So if you’re a husband or a wife– Do you obey your parnter?

Do you obey ourself?

When you make rules for yourself, or tell yourself you’re going to do something– Do you obey yourself?

Hello there Bear. My little love bug. Just down here in my lap. [whispers to cat] Kind of putting his head up where you can see it. Ears at least. Yeah. Hello my little buddy. Yeah, he really just wants my attention right now. I think everyday we spend some time and I cuddle with him and hug him and play with him a little bit. I think maybe we didn’t do as much today as we usually do.

So he just came in and demanded his love. I’ve gotta appreciate that.

So he’s right here in the middle of my notebook. He’s got those binder rings here. He sleeps in uncomfortable positions. Bear. Let me see if I can get you more comfortable.

See you guys. Daily Taoist out of here. This was, oh, this was the one that is very poignant. This represents thte failing in our government and our America. America. America needs to learn #18d by Lao Tzu.

Lao Tzu said,
When oaths and promises are required of workers, government officials, and members:
deceit and corruption are already out of control.

Daily Taoist here.

=============================================

Tao of Taoism — Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life by Buddha Zhen (Richard Del Connor)

AUDIOBOOKS and PAPERBACKS and Kindle eBOOKS by Buddha Zhen from Amazon .com

Buddha Z Official Blog (Heavy Metal “Buddhist Rapper,” Buddhist Poet, Shaolin Flutist)

Buddha Zhen (Shifu Zhen Shen-Lang: Zen Kung Fu Master and Chinese Music Composer)

Shaolin Chi Mantis traditional Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan classes

YouTube Channel of Shaolin Chi Mantis Traditional Buddhist Kung Fu (“Daily Taoist” EPISODES)

Produced by Richard Del Connor for Shaolin Records

Music and excerpts used by permission of Shaolin Records, Shaolin Communications, and licensed by Shaolin Music. ASCAP

Daily 1_31 – Buddha Zhen Discusses TAO #18c about Rules, Nature and Obedience to Society

November 1, 2023 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

Alright. Daily Taoist here. I told you I was gonna try to finish these 18s, and I’m on #18c. And I’ve g5 mileote ined a ‘d’ and an ‘e’ to do. Let’s see if I can blast you.

I’m reading from my book, TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE based on Lao Tzu’s book, The DAO TE CHING.

Okay, let’s see. Where are we? We’re on #18c page 31 of my book.
And I’m claiming Lao Tzu said,

Tao #18c
When families are organized and maintained by following rules:
Nature is ignored.

Ah darnit. This is where people put that battle between Confucius and Lao Tzu out there. Because this seems like its at all odds with him. Most of the translations were of course like this. But I’ve come to have a broad understanding and realize the two were completely in harmony.

Okay. Here we go. But it’s the same as like a speed limit. It’s obeying the speed limits on the freeway. You can say, “Well I don’t want a speed limit. I want to go 100 miles per hour.) Well, it doesn’t matter. You’ve got to realize that organization is important. Rules, and following and maintaining those rules is important. Okay? And that’s all that Confucius is saying is that rules are better than not having any rules.

And it’s saying that Nature is ignored. And that’s true. We’re ignoring Nature when we go 65 miles an hour. You should be walking. [laughs] You’re defying Nature in that car. But anyway the Nature of that car is to only go so fast. And the Nature of the turns is to only go so fast. And the Nature of the traffic is to not go too fast and run into the car in front of you. l

So there’s all these Natures. All these Taos going on all the time. So even when we can change and create a mechanical Nature we’re still creating a mechanical Tao. A new Nature withing the real big natural Tao. Building a city on this planet is an unnatural environment but it’s still connected to the Tao. And within the environment of the city there’s a different kind of Tao when you are in the city, and sleep in the forest as opposed to sleep between two buidlings. It’s a little different, I mean two trees and two buildings. There’s all– but anyway.

So.. this is not the battle between Confucianism and Taoism everybody makes it out to be. They are in harmony.

When families are organized and contained by following rules Nature is ignored. That’s not all true. Because Nature requires harmony. If you go to a pack of wolves there’s certain rules that they have to keep the cubs from wandering off and getting eaten by another animal. So all Nature has rules. And this translation needs– Well you can see how it misleads people.

We’ll say Nature is ignored. Okay, so in that sense we’ll say it’s kind of right. So, I’m not gonna have to rewrite this but– We’re saying we’re ignorning the Nature that says we’re supposed to be walking. We’re saying we’re in a car going 65 miles an hour. When you born I don’t think that was predicted. You know, saying oh this guy’s gonna be cruising at 65 miles an hour in a machine sometime. So anyway, you define Nature. That’s something you created and imposed on Nature.

So you’re ignoring Nature when you’re in that car. You’re ignoring the wind. You’re rolling up the windows so you don’t even feel the air that’s outside. You are ignoring Nature.

So in that sense you’re right. But it’s not saying that it’s a problem–it’s a bad thing…

Just remember that some people– Don’t react to this information. Try to figure out how to use it. See, that’s why I’m here. Okay? I’ll show you how to use it.

Here we go.

What rules were you raised by that seemed unfair but simplified your parent’s control?

I’ve been a parent. I know this. You made rules that the kids don’t like but it makes your life simpler. Like, keep them in the house. Don’t let them run out where you can’t see where they’re at. So you make all kinds of rules that keep life simpler for YOU. That the kids may not appreciate at all. [laughs]

What rules do you employ that simplify life?

That’s a bit general. I didn’t say whose. I guess I’m saying the whole life around you.

What rules do you employ that simplify life?

I know of one woman who liked to simplify her life by having the kids watch TV. So that’s how she simplified here life was by having the kids watch TV.

Although a contemporary of Confucius, why does it appear he conflicts [LAUGHS] just remember I was already talking about this with Confucius and Lao Tzu.

What does it take to keep a family organized?

Rules. You can’t do it without rules.

I’m sorry. I shouldn’t answer your questions.

What does it take to keep a family organized?

There’s all kinds of answers.

I said, “I’m sorry.” I’ll interject again.

When should parents get a divorce?

I got scolded a year ago. Sommadebody actually doesn’t like me and got mad at me about that I’ve been divorced. A fellow Catholic. Weird. That anybody’d get mad at you for being divorced. But anyway, he was saying, “You should get back!” She’s already remarried somebody else.

The whole concept of getting ge a divorce. When SHOULD parents get a divorce?

What is an ideal family in your opinion?

What is an ideal– You should write that down on a piece of paper and say, “Oh, when I get up in the morning my family does this… My wife does this…My kids or dogs are…Maybe you family doesn’t have any– it’s all pets. I don’t know. But whour at is your ideal family? YOUR ideal family.

Not the one– well actually, if you start writing it–you’ll realize, “Hey, this is my parent’s idea of an ideal family. But I don’t know if I buy into this.”

That might be good for you to realize. So anyway, just write it douuu’ve bwn right now and see what it is. Okay? Because you might actually realize you’ve been fooling yourself.

What is an ideal family? (In your opinion.) I put that in parentheses. So I guess I was trying to lead you to your own answer.

What do you know about filial piety?

Huh? Americans don’t know anything about that. It’s so embarrassing how Americans… Filial piety is one of the most ikmportant things you can learn in family structure. That’ll answer one of your questions from earlier.

What do you know about filial piety?

Filial piety is the one thing in the Eurd aop– In the Asian cultures: has proven to provide success–and huge success. it’s the filial– Filial piety I think has created has created an amazing amount of success. Obviously, there’s a down side to it too

If you’re– When I was– Like I said, I’ve been buying Kung Fu weapons since the seventies in Chinatown. I got to know a lot of store owners. Really personal over the years going there on a regular basis. And their kids grew up. I watched their kids in the store. Then they grow up, go to college and then they leave. And, I haven’t seen them– well, ten years ago, the last times I was visiting there buying weapons with my students–I was talking to them and they were like–these people are old and older than me and, they’re retired and their kids don’t want to have anything to do with the stores. They’ve gone on to their own businesses or other careers… whatever it is. But by filial piety their kids would run that store and take it over but– See, that would be more like a prison to put them in that position to take over that store. And they don’t want to. “I want to go to college. I want to go to Europe.” Don’t want to run a Chinese merchandise store.

So filial piety can unfortunately go astray In my own kids. I was– I pushed that on my own kids. I wanted them to run the school but realized, No, this wasn’t right for them, to take over my Kung Fu school. But that’s the normal thing in Chinese and even the martial arts thing is: your kids grow up and take it over. KIn fact a lot of martial artists who’ve passed away, have died and they say, “Where are their kids? ” And they didn’t do their martial arts. Like Bruce Lee’s daughter never did any Kung Fu. And she’s running the orgainzation. And Parker. I think Ed Parker maybe. I think he’s very famous as a martial artist. But his kid didn’t graduate the system. So since then I think they’ve tried to beef him up so he could kind of keep that thing going to represent the lineage of these other people who followed him

There’s all these things about propping people up into that filial piety thing that didn’t even exist. So it’s kind of an interesting thing.

How would your family be structured the same as your parents’ family?

Oh I’m gonna hurry and see if I can make my ten minute mark.

How would your family be structured the same as your parent’s family?

In other words, are you following– And if your parents have a good family and it’s going good and you follow it–That’s great.

See, that’s the problem with President Trump. He followed into the soup but he wasn’t suited for it. He didn’t have the acumen, the talent, the ability, or the honesty to do real estate business. He’s a crook. He’s a liar and a cheat. That’s not the kind of person you want to do business when you’re doing real estate. Especially big money like that. Cheating people out of little money’s bad, horrible… But cheating people out of millions of– well, it’s the same thing.

Okay. Here we go. Describe someone’s family that you envy or respect.

There you go. So you can start over. Maybe you were born in the wrong family. “Oh, I wish I was born in that family.”

Look at that and structure that. Just decide what your reality–your Tao.

Remember? This is the TAO of TAOISM.

There’s always different realities. And none of them are wrong. Unless you’re in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the wrong Tao. They can’t be right.

That’s what your goal is: to make the RIGHT TAO.

Should a wife obey her husband?

There’s a question that will open up a lot of understandings for you because this is very important.

Should a wife obey her husband?

Remember I wrote this thirty years ago. Before i actually learned Confucianism and everything.

If you’re a Methodist, they took it out of the vows. A wife never says she will obey her husband.

Should a husband obey his wife?

I’m not sure what your other answer was but what’s your answer to this one?

Should a husband obey his wife?

Who should the children obey?

The mother? The father? Nobody?

Who should the children obey?

How do you teach children to be obedient?

Ooops. Ten minutes.

How do you teach children to be obedient?

Or do you? Should you? Some people think you shouldn’t.

So okay, there’s your questions.

And now let’s go back to the very beginning of it and see what Lao Tzu said. See if I kind of led you to integrate that into your life.

When families are organized and maintained by following rules. Nature is ignored.

Ah! Let’s look at that as a positive. If people’s Nature is to be selfish and greedy and do terrible things and run out in the street and get run over–

Then we want to basically ignore their Nature and say, “No. This is the new Tao and this is what you should do. Forget your Nature and your wants and your desires to fit into this Tao. Artificial Nature I’m creating– which is my Tao.”

Okay. So hey. There’s the positive of this. IS that sometimes you need to ignore Nature. You need to ignore your desire in order to get something accomplished correctly.

Daily Taoist outta here. In 10:59.

Whoops. I missed the button.

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Tao of Taoism — Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life by Buddha Zhen (Richard Del Connor)

AUDIOBOOKS and PAPERBACKS and Kindle eBOOKS by Buddha Zhen from Amazon .com

Buddha Z Official Blog (Heavy Metal “Buddhist Rapper,” Buddhist Poet, Shaolin Flutist)

Buddha Zhen (Shifu Zhen Shen-Lang: Zen Kung Fu Master and Chinese Music Composer)

Shaolin Chi Mantis traditional Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan classes

YouTube Channel of Shaolin Chi Mantis Traditional Buddhist Kung Fu (“Daily Taoist” EPISODES)

Produced by Richard Del Connor for Shaolin Records

Music and excerpts used by permission of Shaolin Records, Shaolin Communications, and licensed by Shaolin Music. ASCAP

Daily Taoist 1_30 – Buddha Zhen Explains #18b which Republicans Use to Confuse Ignorant Americans

October 25, 2023 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

YouTube Video TRANSCIPT Daily Taoist 30

Hey, I said i was gonna sit down and run but it looks like I’m gonna do about five of these things in this sit down session here. Let’s see if I can finish my 18s. I’ve got five of these things.

#18b: When information becomes abstract, complicated, scientific, or too elaborate in becomes unnatural to understand, and leads to ignorance of the underlying truths.

Ouch. That was a big one.

Hey. Buddha Zhen, the Daily Taoist here. And we’re working in my book, the TAO OF TAOISM. And this is #18b. Now Lao Tzu supposedly wrote this. Let’s see if we can understand it. I paraphrased it and… I’ve got a lot of words in here.

When information becomes abstract– (Okay. Like “Make American Great.” That’s abstract. That means absolutely nothing.) –complicated– (Or complicated? How would you make something complicated? Oh, let’s make it like MC-squared. What?) –scientific– (I just said that. “Like it was 300 years ago on this particular date in this season…”) –or too elaborate– (See. I’m kind of one step ahead here. Okay like this-and-this-and-this…) –it becomes unnatural to understand.

Okay. So when information becomes abstract, complicated, scientific, or too elaborate: it becomes unnatural–to understand. And leads to ignorance of the underlying truths.

Oh man. Is that so true! You see, that’s the secret of our current political climate. The Republicans love this. They want the information to be abstract so that the underlying truths will support ignorance. In other words they don’t want you to know the truth. So this is– Look at this! This is actually– this is a little triumvirate of how to put this thing together.

When information becomes complicated, scientific, abstract, too elaborate it becomes unnatural to understand. So you have to FORM an understanding. They TELL YOU what the understanding is. That’s the trick: is they TELL YOU WHAT TO THINK. Here’s this information that doesn’t make sense. It means this: “Oh. Okay.”

Now they have basically used your ignorance to make you think in a way that actually has no reality. [laughs]

That’s cool. That’s the science of politics right there.

Are your rules and ethics understandable and simple? Explain them.

I gave you four lines to do it.

Are your rules and ethics understandable and simple? Remember, we were talking about that before. You have all these rules and ethics. You should be a little more familiar with who you are and what you are. So are they understandable to other people? Are they simple? Are they complicated? Explain them. Either way.

Which of your rules and ethics are not so simple or understandable by others?

Okay, so some of these things may be understandable to you, but how easy is it for other people to understand and appreciate them?

Like one of mine about writing music and poetry. People just grasp that. “What do you have to do that for?” “I don’t have to do that.” “I never want to do that.” “You have to do that? That’s ridiculous.” They don’t understand. It’s okay. So… I’ve just had to live my life with the fact that most people aren’t going to understand my ambitions, lifestyle… is important to me. And here I am 66 years old still–you know, kind of fighting with–even my family. Sorry. I just have to accept the fact that a lot of people are never going to understand me.

What is your purpose in life if there is an afterlife?

Oooh. Well my purpose in life is to — actually this is kind of an interesting thing: is to end all wars. There never needs to be another war on this planet. Ever. Wars are so ridiculous and stupid its amazing. Its amazing. There never needs to be a war. Ever. Ever again. If you think there is–then you’re the problem. You don’t need to have a war. Anything that a war can solve–can be solved without the war. There’s a way to do it without war. Okay. Anyway, that’s one of my purposes in life.

And one of my ways to do that– is actually: if I can make people smarter and happier I think that they’ll be able to understand that. Right now, the way it is: people are greedy and mean. Selfish and corrupt. So they think war is a cool thing. Wow. I talk to people. They believe in war. They support war. The think, “War has to exist. War needs to exist.”

Sheesh. I can’t even talk people out of it right now.

So that’s my goal to make people happier and smarter so they can go, “Oh yeah. You’re right. We don’t have to have a war.” “Yeah look. There’s no reason to have a war.”

Simple as that.

Okay. What is your purpose in life if there is NO AFTERLIFE or soul?

Same thing either way. I’m hoping my legacy will be to make people happier and smarter and healthier. AND HEALTHIER. Make people healthier they’ll live longer.

So what is my purpose in life if there is no— I guess it’s that same thing. Whether I have an afterlife or not– It’s not gonna affect what I’m leaving behind. So I’m willing to just leave it behind… And there we go. I’ll go on to my next thing.

But actually, if I am going to believe in an afterlife–I’ve got all kinds of religions. I’m a member of so many different religions and believe in all of them–One at a time. And seriously, I could spend one day in each religion. Be a lot of fun. Be a Catholic one day. Native American the next day. Taoist the next way-day. And a Buddhist the next day. And a Confucianist the next day. Then start– I could just have fun each day. And each one I’d… Okay.

But, which afterlife would I prefer?

Ahhhhhh. Now that’s an interesting question. I wouldnt-didn’t have this answer when I wrote this book thirty years ago. And… I’ve studied a lot more religions and books and I know a lot more about the afterlife. That’s why I’m not sure I’m coming back. I may want to mess around. If there is an afterlife: there’s a chance I can control my spirit. And I’m not sure why. Actually I might be… My friend who passed away last week gave me a clue as to how I can control myself in the afterlife. And in his case we were just starting to talk about it and he was kind of perturbed. He was helping me with my ‘5 Soul Concept.’ He had a WOMAN in the first position so he wasn’t real happy about that. But he couldn’t disavow it. [laughs] He was not real happy about that. But still, if he would’ve just hung in there… He could’ve accepted it. And dealt with it better. But we hadn’t quite gotten to that.

And that’s what I was trying to do, was help people. USE what they have to their best ability.

Let’s see. I got on that for some reason. Oh. And I was kind of starting to think maybe the reason I can control myself in the afterlife is because when I– if I did. IF I did get a vision of his after- of his final moment in the spirit– Separation between us and them… I tried to reach him. Or say, “Hello,” after I found out… Found out hours after so I don’t know. But in my mind, or in my imagination: I had a very bizarre image of him leaving our reality. Which gave me some clues as to how to control leaving this reality–if there is a spiritual world. And I saw something I’d never seen before. When I saw this. So like I said… Could’ve been my imagination. But it’s something I’ve never seen before, and I’ve imagined it since. Still– I’m stilltrying to grasp that or understand that image that I saw.

But it made me consider the possibility that it’s your merging– Remember I was talking about those 5 souls? If you can get those souls to connect better–then you have more control in the afterlife. But if they all just split apart– you don’t have as much control. And you’re just drawn off to those directions in the afterlife.

So that’s one of the things I’m studying now is, can I control the afterlife by keeping my souls together. Or at least two or three of them. Or something like that. Could that give me more power in the afterlife, as opposed to being just one WORKER soul or a WOMAN soul. If I’m a WOMAN-WORKER-WARRIOR soul. Or a MUSICIAN, MANAGER, WARRIOR… does that give me more power in the afterlife? If I can fuse those spirits in the afterlife. That’s what I’m working on.

Sorry if I freaked you out. But anyway. I’ve gotta start plugging that book. Because I’m gonna release it in the next year or two. So I’d like to get a little buzz going. Because it’s obviously gonna freak people out. Whether it’s true or not. It’s a different way to look at things. But its really made everything understandable.

Everything that I could not understand about my family, my kids, my ex-wives… When I look at it throught ‘5 Souls’ now I can– I can be at peace now. I can be a happy Taoist now that I understand that. It allows me to put everything into perspective.

Eight minutes here. Daily Taoist getting out of here.

Oh, did I read this at the end of it? What we were supposed to read? Yeah. I think we did. The underlying truths. And everything being abstact. And people can then control how you think. And lead you in ignorace even when you don’t know it.

Yeah, so…Watch out for slogans. I was anti-slogan for years. Then I came to realize we all think in slogans.

So how can I use slogans to be more positive.

You’ll see me use them to some extent. But I’m actually ANTI-slogan. And there’s a reason for that. I want to get out of here before the 10-minute mark.

The reason for not believing slogans is because they STOP your thinking.

In other words, as soon as I said, “Yeah. But that’s good enough.” Then the conversations ended.

So be careful. Slogans END CONVERSATIONS.

Or, “It’s better than that.” Something like that. Those are slogans. The end the conversation.

So be real careful. We all use them all the time.

I’ve been trying to get them out of my life because they end conversations and THEY END YOUR THINKING process.

The Daily taoist getting out of here saying, “My slogan is to end all slogans.”

Just use them appropriately and know when you’re using them.

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Tao of Taoism — Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life by Buddha Zhen (Richard Del Connor)

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Daily Taoist 1_29 – Buddha Zhen Explains TAO #18a Using his Act Zen Concepts to Live-Act Naturally

October 18, 2023 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

YouTube TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 29

Hey! Buddha Zhen, the Daily Taoist popping in here real quick and then I’m gonna run away.

This is #17 on page 28 of the TAO OF TAOISM written by me, based upon the Dao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. This is #18a. This one had so much to unpack in it–it’s #18. That I broke it down all the way to #18e. I had to break it into five sections to make sense of this thing.

So here’s what I say. This is #18 of– There’s 80 of them actually, and this book has forty of them. Then I was going to break it into two books, because this is a huge book.

Okay. #18a by Lao Tzu; paraphrased by THE Daily Taoist, Buddha Zhen here.

Tao #18a
To deviate from Nature–
(Anytime I say, “Nature,” I mean “The Tao.”)
—To deviate from Nature is to create new rules that are unbalanced with Nature.
Any rules or activities not in balance with Nature are evil and destructive.

Well, like dumping your chemicals into a river. We don’t want those chemicals over here so we’re saying dump them over there. Okay?

So that rule was not balanced with Nature. That unbalanced rule or activity that’s not in balance with Nature is like I said, evil and destructive.

There’s a real simple example.

Let me read it one more time and then I’ve only got two things to read here. This’ll be kind of a quick one.

What are your rules, ethics, morals, codes of conduct, or religious principles?

And then look. I gave you like five lines to answer that question. So that’s why this is important. That’s why I–Just unpacking that.

What are your rules? List them out. Seriously. Who are you? And what are your rules or ethics. Yeah, your morals. Your codes of conduct. Think about those.

Codes of Conduct of YOU

Codes of conduct. You’re probably not aware of it. But if you had to train someone to be you– Say, “Hey. Listen. I’m going to disappear for a month. I’m going to be gone for a month and I want you to take my place.”

And the guy goes, “Okay. What do I do?”

Well, you’ve gotta tell him. How hes’ gonna eat. When he’s gonna go places. And how he’s gonna talk to people. Who he likes. Who he doesn’t like.

Okay? So somebody’s gotta impersonate you. If you had to train someone to impersonate you– What would you tell him are you tell him are your rules, your ethics, your morals because maybe this person’s a liar, and doesn’t care, or he cusses… And you go, “No. No. No. I have a rule. I don’t cuss. Oh no. I don’t do that. I don’t touch people like that–” Or… I don’t… You’ve got rules and ethics. So anyway: what are your rules and ethics? You are obviously different from somebody else. And this how you define your separation from them. Okay?

So. You’ve got to think– If you’re driving forget it. Well, maybe think of it a little bit. I’ve got a big space here, so I’m gonna make this a short podcast. So you can just kind of concentrate on ur that. Think of all your rules and ethics, morals…

I have another book that I wrote for my daughter fifteen years ago when she thought she was gonna be an actress. It’s called, ACT ZEN. And it’s basically– Actually it’s based on my movie career. My training at UCLA being a director and how to create a character. And so what I did was I took that — and then I took everything I learned about Zen Buddhism and thought, “How do you take a person and shape their character with Zen Buddhism… And then as an actor make them fluid in that so they can create other people but then they can go back to being the person they wanted to be originally–that they’d already pre-designed. So that’s what ACT ZEN is.

I designed this so first of all you decide WHO your are. And then you can be somebody else. And then you can go back to being who your. I call that ACT ZEN, or ACTING ZEN, or Act Zen to Act Naturally. All these little slogans I made for it.

But it really works. Well, it’s just good for everybody. Because we’re always acting. When you go into a business and you’re going to be a salesman you have certain roles– An acting role that you have to do. And so you should know what that is. And then when you go home, you’re not gonna try to sell your kids and everybody like you do every day. You have a whole different attitude than how you play with your kids and how you treat somebody out on the parking lot trying to sell them a acar.

So you can Act Zen: is to be able to define who you are in your different roles.

So how are any of these rules that you are making are out of balance with Nature?

Some of these rules you’re living by, and codes of conduct might out of Nature… Out of contact… Maybe getting up in the morning. [laughs] That’s– Your nature says, “No. I’ve gotta sleep in until 10:00 every day. I just can’t go to sleep before two in the morning…” So maybe that’s your Nature.

I hope I’m not getting you in trouble. I don’t want to give you any bad ideas.

Anyway.

What is your Nature?

Whatever it is. Just say what it is. If that’s what it is– I accept it.

So then I have “My Suggestions.” and that’s it.

So let me read what Lao Tzu said. I should always try to remember to go back and wrap up at the end.

#18a in my book, the TAO OF TAOISM:

To deviate from Nature, or The Tao, is to create new rules that are unbalanced with the Tao. Or Mother Nature. Any rules or activities not in balance with The Tao, (Nature), are evil and destructive.

Tell me if I’m wrong. To be honest with you I’m looking at them from different perspectives. [laughs]

Alright. The Daily Taoist here, Buddha Zhen here. I’m thinking about this too. So let me think about it. You think about it…

See you tomorrow.

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Tao of Taoism — Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life by Buddha Zhen (Richard Del Connor)

AUDIOBOOKS and PAPERBACKS and Kindle eBOOKS by Buddha Zhen from Amazon .com

Buddha Z Official Blog (Heavy Metal “Buddhist Rapper,” Buddhist Poet, Shaolin Flutist)

Buddha Zhen (Shifu Zhen Shen-Lang: Zen Kung Fu Master and Chinese Music Composer)