Daily Taoist 1_56 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO #32b Musicians should not be Soldiers, Fences create Chaos
YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 56 #32b.
Okay. I went and put some cold water on my face. Because I got all emotional in the last one. I read a book when I was a kid. I think 4th grade. Called FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON. And there is a great movie that really told the story well called, “Charlie.” Anyway, that’s always shook me up.
But you see, that’s part of my life problem, is all my life I’ve known that I was smarter than everybody else–but I always thought everybody could be like me. I just thought that I had some sort of extra kickstart, or good edge or–you know. I… But somehow I didn’t think of myself as different. I kept trying to blend with the common man.
Okay, yeah… I seem to have an edge on you– But… Let’s be friends. But no. There’s definitely something different about me. And now I’m 66 years old and I’m finally accepting that. But, I’ve been trying to be a common man who’s just smarter. A common man who is a good musician. A common man who did Kung Fu. I didn’t realize I was so different. That I was not the common man at all. Well, I don’t know about not at all. Definitely blended in for a– That’s because I put it in the fourth position down here. I put that WORKER in. So anyway–
#32b. This is me. The Daily Taoist here. Got you your Daily Taoism. I’m trying to figure out how this is going to work. If this doesn’t work. I’m not sure. But I’m gonna give you about forty or fifty of these things. And see if they take off. If people like them, I’d love to keep doing them. Because as you can see: this information is inspiring for me. And I wrote it to be inspiring for you. And if we have something that works… we have a Tao going here.
I’d be willing to support this Tao. But I can’t support a Tao that’s like a seed that’s not gonna ever grow. That’s a dead seed you know. And that’s part of Taoism–I don’t think it’s in this part. It might be in the next part. I don’t remember seeing this one. But there’s a few things about seeds, and planting, and growing that are really interesting in the second half. Which I used to think about in Utah.
When I moved to Utah it talked about don’t plant a seed in the sand. You know, you have to plant it where there’s going to be water, and dirt or whatever… The point is, when I moved to Utah I realized, “Well hold it. I think I’m planting my seed in the sand. This isn’t working. Nothing’s gonna grow here.” So my life in Utah: I had to like take my dreams and put them in a little box. Then raise my kids and. I did do my Kung Fu. I did all kinds of interesting stuff. It is interesting how I did do that, but I had to totally flip my life upside-down. And then… So–
Where were we? #32b. Let’s get on here. This is the TAO OF TAOISM by me. Talking about– and Bear came back. After I went he just wanted to get back on my lap again. [LAUGHS] Actually, he was in the chair. And I couldn’t get him out. So I picked him up. Well, he wanted to be here, so… Okay. [LAUGHS] “Hello Bear.”
Like I said, I decided to relish your distractions. It’s not like he distracts me a lot. You add it up and it’s maybe less than an hour a day. So– An hour a day of love. Maybe we should have like a 30-minute minimum of love every day. That you get from some source.
#32b.
All things and all–
But I was trying to say about the FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON, I always thought that everybody was the same. And that led me astray in trying to do business relationships, partner relationships, working with other musicians–not realizing that some people would never be a real musician. I could recognize the talent. I could realize this guy’s capable of doing what I want, you know, type of thing. But I didn’t realize there was a MUSICIAN soul. There’s an actual soul. You have to be born with it. If you don’t got–you don’t got it.
That doesn’t mean you can’t learn music. You can just be a person who learns to play music. That’s fine. And then you call yourself a musician. But a real MUSICIAN, he’s born that way. Got a certain drive to get that music out of him. It’s different. I–It’s probably impossible for you to understand unless you’re a MUSICIAN. [LAUGHS] Because my dad doesn’t even understand. I’ve been a MUSICIAN for 66 years and my family still does not accept it. They don’t see it. They don’t understand it. So if your own brothers, and sisters and parents can’t understand what a MUSICIAN is– Obviously: nobody can.
So that’s why us MUSICIANS, we’re all dead. We’re a rare breed now. We’ve been siphoned off or SENT TO WAR. Gotta remember, you send them off to war. Give us PTSD and we’re burned. We’re damaged. We’re damaged goods. All our philosophy and our music… And everything’s gonna have THAT in it. That’s good if you want to write war stories from a regretful position and have this kind of dark slant on it. Which has its point in life, but I think we should just eliminate the whole thing: the wars, the people with the PTSD and everything. I think its all a mistake.
The point is that sending– I think– This is a hypothesis of mine: (Remember, I’m new to this whole “5 SOUL THEORY.”) But if you take an artist like me, and send us over to war. And then we come back: All of THAT is in our brains for the rest of our life. For the rest of my life I remember everything. My kid, my childhood, my kids, my teenage years, all the different girls I’ve been with… I can remember little bits of all the different girls I’ve been with, and everything…You know. But to have THAT stuck in my brain. And remember, when I’ve talked to soldiers. Real soldiers. People who’ve been in real combat… They’ve got regret. We don’t like killing people. Doesn’t matter how much you pay us. We don’t like killing people. It’s a shame some people don’t realize that until it’s too late.
Okay. Here we go. All– #32b.
All things and all persons
must integrate freely with Nature and each other.
FREELY. Freely. That means you don’t have to worry about getting shot while you’re intermixing and going from one place to another. You need to intermix. So anything–you’re shooting somebody–you’re against The Tao right there. You’ve already broken this rule. All things and all persons must integrate freely. Shooting them for integrating–you’re–you’re– you’re evil. You are evil. Okay?
Boundaries, fences– These are things that Trump loves. Let’s see where this line goes. I didn’t read this ahead. I don’t know.
Boundaries, fences, and any lines drawn
that are meant to separate
one part of Nature from another
will only frustrate Nature’s activities
into a reactionary chaos
that is equal to
the amount of control imposed upon Nature.
That’s that Spock thing again. [Star Trek] Remember that balance that he mentioned about. Being right and wrong. But this is about Nature. The Nature now.
They’re saying– okay– So: The more you put fences and boundaries and separate Nature and its activities and everything like that– Umm –You’re frustrating Nature.
So the amount of effort you put into building these walls and everything is the amount that Nature resents you. So the bigger the walls, the thicker the walls, the higher the walls.. the more Nature dislikes you. That’s really what it’s saying. [LAUGHS] Okay.
Everybody should be able to move freely remember. Anytime you put a wall up you’re defeating Nature. The animals have to go over there for their food. You put a wall: “Hey! Where am I going for my food? The water’s over there.”
You know, the stream. Every wall affects Nature. The way the wind blows. Maybe those seeds needed to blow over here. Maybe the bees can’t fly high enough to get over the wall to fertilize those flowers. So… Anytime we interfere with Nature… we affect it. So maybe.. We’re never going to know all the affects. It’s impossible. Well I don’t know the affects of all the bugs and things. We impact Nature. Everything we do. Okay.
Explain your material possession quest. [LAUGHS]
Seriously. Explain your material possession quest.
Everybody’s gotta want something. If you’re an American you’re trained and ingrained and bred to buy. But what do you want to get?
Me? I want I want more music equipment. Photography equipment. I need storage. I need webspace. I need designers. I need researchers. Anyway. I would just do what I’m doing–professionally. That’s what my material possessions are going to– enable me to be more enabled.
Explain your power quest.
My power quest. My power would be of course to remain in control and move this forward. Like raising a kid. The power to raise a kid. You don’t just say, “I hope he lives.” No. You exercise a power to exert, to protect that child, and raise him up and influence him. Buy this, and take him this, and give him this. So you use your power to raise him.
So that’s whay my power is. I want to raise my companies and get everything done. I’ve done it to some kids. And I’ve done buildings. And I’ve built all kinds of things. I want to build this, this media empire that I’ve got. Because I want to make videos. I’m gonna make albums. I’m gonna make books. I’m gonna do curriculums. I’m gonna have Kung Fu programs. I’m gonna… You know. And.. so… and the internet. The web shows. The radio stations. That’s how… so anyway. That’s what– That’s me. And I’m doing it all myself right now. Everything I just mentioned I’m actually doing. I’d just do it bigger and better. If I had more money. And more POWER!!!
Okay. Here we go.
Explain how you protect your belongings and power.
Well I’ve been homeless for six years man. That’s been more difficult than I even want to even tell you about. So let’s just go on. How about YOU? You. How do you protect your possessions… your belongings? And protect your power? What do you do?
But my story’s in my books. Get my poetry books from the last few years. Stories about being homeless. That explains everything. That answers that question very very well. In fact, it’ll answer it for me too. I want to know what I did. I’m moving forward. I don’t like looking back. My looking back is not that motivating even, for me.
Going forward is kind of like swimming through the seaweed. You know. I don’t want to look to see how much seaweed I’ve swam through. I only want to look at what’s ahead and I want to see where the shore is. And I wanna just keep going.
Awwwch. Okay. This is like I said, setting you up. But it’s important. We all need to say this.
Explain your patriotism.
Explain your patriotism.
Explain your team spirit.
[to Bear the cat] “Alright. See ya later buddy.” Gotta get all the hair off. [huff huff] I eat so much hair. It’s on my pillow even. I… probably have more hairballs go through me than– Not as much as a cat. But close.
Here we go.
Explain your patriotism. Explain it.
Explain your team spirit.
Now that’s something that– I’ve really been surprised. Because I was raised in a world of sports. So a lot of you millennials may not even know what team spirit is. Well actually, everybody’s gotta know it to some extent. Your family’s a team. Every– There’s teams– A real team spirit is something you have to have a team for. You have to work together. You have to have a goal. You have to lose. You have to suffer. You have to pull each other through. You have to get there. And you have to get to the end–whatever that is. And boom. That… process of getting together, being together, working together, failing together–it can’t always go good. Succeeding, failing, and hurting and helping and then getting here. That– You have to go through that to know what team spirit is. Because you develop your team spirit by being able to do that again.
Once you’ve done it once. Then you know what team spirit is. And then you can do it better.
Nobody’s going to be good at what they’re ignorant at the first time going through. But you get through that: now you’re aware of what team spirit is. So you’ve got to do it again and get better at it. Now if other people get better at it and then you actually get a better team. See? Because you have to help the team be good. If you’re a crappy team member–you’re just making the rest of the team crappy. Because that’s your motivation: Is just be crappy. Because you’re crappy. [LAUGHS]
So you’ve gotta get better. So it’s an evolving process. So team spirit requires a whole bunch of those things. And you do that a few times as you’re growing up in school in baseball teams, football teams, or in my case I liked being in rock bands. You know, that’s a team spirit to be in that rock band.
But you have to develop it. You have to be in those team situations. And if you haven’t been in those situations that require team spirit you’re just ignorant. You know, you’re just a worker. You’re just somebody who’s been hiding in their house their whole life. And that’s a shame. You know… I’m SORRY –AAAHHH! I take that back. I’m gonna back pedal. I don’t shame people. And it’s only a shame to somebody… That’s a response. It’s not a shame. You are who you are. Remember? This is The Tao. And I cannot shame anybody for having a different TAO than me. Or even going against the Tao.
My goal is not to shame you. It’s to make you aware of it. So if you say, “Oh. Really? I was doing this when I should’ve been doing that? Well now I know.”
Okay? Now the shame is: you don’t want to actually improve your life. Or do the right thing at that point. I think is a little shameful. In terms of your reputation: you’re shaming yourself. But I’m not going to shame you. And I think shaming is wrong. Because remember? That’s punishing. That means you’re trying to apply punishment. They deserve the consequences. That’s what shaming is. It’s punishing. So that’s not my job. Even if it was my job: I wound’t take it. [LAUGHS] I don’t want that job. That’s the wrong job to have.
Okay. I like to make people better. And shaming doesn’t make people better. It doesn’t.
Okay. Where were we? How many minutes we got? THIRTEEN? I’ve gotta totally blast. There’s no way! No way I can get through this. Am I on the wrong thing? Oh good. I was on the wrong page. Okay. Here we go.
Explain your immigration concepts.
Hey remember? I wrote this back in–twenty thirty years ago. Immigration’s become a hot topic.
Explain your beliefs on foreign trade and free help, duties, customs, and labor laws.
Wow! I mean these are hot topics. I would never have guessed. I’m surprised I even mentioned them. But these things are good to know and think about.
Describe a world of no countries.
Read that one more time and I’ve gotta go.
Describe a world of NO COUNTRIES.
Alright. Buddha Zhen here. Actually in lockdown in California. In Lancaster, California. So–
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