YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 64 AD: ‘Fill-in for Variety Shows”
Pardon my cat crunching over here.
Hey. Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang.
The Daily Taoist? I just thought of that as I was sitting down.
I came to realize that I’m kind of addicted to a lot of these daily comedians I look to provide me news. Believe it or not.
Anyway, they’re off the air right now because of this corona virus thing. And it’s kind of like a VOID. [laughs] Which is kind of nice. Maybe a lot of people are getting a lot more done.
But at the same time: Is that something I should FILL-IN or maybe that’s something that I could provide a–like I said, “Fill-In?”
THE DAILY TAOIST. I’ve actually been pumping out a lots of these videos a day–half a dozen a day. So I could put them out five days a week or so if I really wanted to. I’ve gotten ahead a little bit.
Anyway, just considering that possibility. The Daily Taoist.
YouTube Video TRANSCIPT: Daily Taoist 63 Tao #35 Take 2
Alright. I’m starting it over again because we took five minutes to wipe my cat’s butt. Yeah. But it was in that last video. We had a poo-poo break. And I raised kids. I wiped their butts for years every day all day long I was the only one wiping their butt for years. So butt wiping is very normal to me. In fact it’s one of those things you take seriously. It’s your job so you’ve really got to make sure you do it good and diaper rash is a nightmare. And she — my daughter had diaper rash two or three times. I’m not sure. Only a couple times. But we dealt with it. It was a nuisance. You’ve got to really work to prevent it. Once you get it — it’s horrible. So I just always worked hard to make sure she never got diaper rash. It means cleaning the diapers real real frequently.
Here we go.
Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang, former Mr. Mom. Reading from the DAO TE CHING. My version of it called the TAO OF TAOISM. I converted it and then I made all these questions and answers so you take the Lao Tzu thing and then you kind of figure out how to implement it. Because what good is wisdom unless you implement it. It’s not even wisdom. It’s just knowledge, or information. So the only time it becomes wisdom is when you use it.
Here we go. #35. The last one we’re gonna do here.
A person who is aware of ultimate realities attracts the confidence of others through security, contentment, and self-satisfaction.
And that’s where I fall short. Remember? That ultimate reality that I was telling you Mitch McConnell’s hijacked our– Yeah. The ultimate reality. When I had the ultimate– I didn’t have– I never ever had the ultimate reality. Even when I was the Mr. Mom, the mother was still paying some of the bills. She worked for Xerox. So even though she wasn’t with us, or staying with us, she would still pay the bills. The rent and give us grocery money. So I was still not the ultimate reality. I did not control the money. Because she controlled the money she thought she got last say and had more power over me than I had over her. And because that was her life– If it was the other way around. I’m sure she wouldn’t believe that. If I had the money, she wouldn’t have acquiesced to me having the control. But anyway. That’s the way she saw it. So that’s the way we worked with it. So I never had ultimate reality. This is the first time I’ve had my ultimate reality since I met her in 1989.
So since 1989, and it’s 2020. YIKES! I gave up my ultimate reality for thirty years. So I could kind of control my ultimate reality being homeless but that was a heck of a way to start having an ultimate reality. “Okay. We’re going to start your life from here. You get a car. And a cat. And that’s it. [laughs] That’s a bad start for an ultimate reality.
An ultimate reality like Mitch McConnell controls the Senate. He’s a millionaire. Or billionaire. And he’s got all these billionaires connected that he tells everybody, “Okay. I want you meet with him.” “And you’re gonna do this deal.” But he sets all the other Senators up with deals. So that they’re all doing illegal things. Every single one of those Republican Senators has taken lobby money from people they should’ve never taken it from and Mitch McConnell makes sure that they’re all in that web drinking that poison money. So that’s all they do is suck off that poison money and then they all have to play the same game. You know, they’re all in the same game getting that poison money. And they love it because there’s lots of it.
So anyway. But that’s the problem I guess. That’s why I can’t answer this question the way I did because I’ve never been able to provide that ultimate reality. To provide the ultimate reality you have to have enough money that people want to hang around you. You know, like somebody like Elon Musk. So what if he’s really smart? But he’s got a lot of money. So that’s why people like him. If he was just smart–nobody’d give a damn. [laughs] But if you’re smart and you’ve got money a lot of people care. In fact people don’t even care that he’s smart. In fact, people make fun of that or something. People don’t even appreciate it and respect it because they don’t know what being smart is. So, so most people think that, “Oh. It’s like having a third leg. Oh, you’ve got a third leg. Okay. Great.” You know so, “Glad I don’t have a third leg.” They don’t even–so they see it as a disadvantage.
Okay. Anyway… So I’ve never had the ultimate reality. That’s, that’s why I couldn’t answer this question. I was having trouble with these answers. So anyway. Now I’ve got the ultimate reality. But my ultimate reality is that I’m totally broke so nobody’s gonna come running to me… Watch what happens when I get a bunch of money. This is gonna be interesting. See, if my ultimate reality finally changes after thirty years of poverty: only because i have a whole bunch of money. That’s gonna be an interesting thing to see.
So. What about me gives people confidence in me? I mean my Kung Fu and my ability–my being smart and nice, happy. Those things have given people confidence in me. You know, so… A lot of my good qualities, my virtues: give people confidence in me. But not my finances, or my material life doesn’t interest most people. People are into bling. I got no bling.
What about you lessens people’s confidence in you?
Well, being homeless. Or poverty. That seems to shake everybody’s confidence right off the bat. [laughs] But YOU. I’m answering these questions too quickly. What about you lessens people’s confidence in you?
How could you gain more confidence from other people?
Alright?
When– How could I gain it? Here’s the irony for me. It’s like we were saying earlier. Is that I’ll gain– When other people like me. Then other people will like me. It’s like that decoy duck thing. Right now nobody likes me. So nobody likes me. But the moment a whole bunch of people like me–then a whole bunch more…It’s gotta be that like snowball thing. Hopefully. And uh- but yeah. I don’t have that snowball thing going yet.
Can you help me? If you get the snowball thing going. on these videos, The Daily Taoist. I’ll continue doing this. This’ll be fun.
But… When someone threatens you–what is your confidence?
Oooh. You answer that first.
If someone threatens you, what is your confidence?
I have two things. Number one, I talk my way out of most things. Okay. The second thing is I know that if I’m threatened… or if threatened: I’m not going to react. But the moment I think I might get killed: then I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff I could do and I hope I don’t do it. I just know that there’s something in there. It’s like having a knife in your pocket but you don’t want to use it. Because you don’t know where you’re gonna stab the person, but if you had to, you’re gonna pull it out. So I don’t want to ever use my self-defense. I don’t really think that way. I’ve always got other things. Talking and stuff. It’s never my first priority.
Where are we? So anyway. It gives me a little confidence. Knowing that knife is in my pocket makes me negotiate more because i don’t want to have to use my knife. So that makes me work harder to NOT get to my self-defense. Which is the opposite of the Karate people. Karate people go to class every time to beat people up and get beat up. So their first line of defense is to threaten and intimidate. So they don’t have the buffer zones that I do. For mree the fighting is way, way, way back there. For them it’s the first line of defense. They threaten. And intimidation. So I don’t agree with that.
Describe your fears of being mugged, robbed or molested.
Hey. I was just homeless for seven years. I was around all the muggers and molesters and robbers. [laughs] I was living with them. Living with them literally. I mean, in my room i had a guy who was in prison for murder mansalughter. A junkie over here. This guy, he was a drunk. But well he was a thief. He was definitely a thief. Anyway. So was that guy. This guy was a tweaker. The junkie was also a tweeker. And he was a dealer. That’s how he finally got kicked out of the place. He got caught dealing.
Anyway, um, So describe my fears. Not much. So like, they were my neighbors. It was… [laughs] I should have more fear.
What is your self-defense?
What’s YOUR self-defense. Everybody should have something. And don’t say, “That shotgun back in my closet.” [LAUGHS] Like I told you, mine’s talking. My being able to talk. And then there’s a few little tricks and things I know before I’d ever have to get to fighting I could do. In fact, even if I did get in a fight, a couple times I’ve disguised it. It wasn’t even a fight. Just a move here and there. Well, I’m not gonna get into that.
Where were we? Because we’re not half way through.
What in your home gives you security?
What in YOUR home gives YOU security?
Answer that in your own way.
What in your home gives you contentment?
So something in your home. What about the home? Gives you contentment? Your garage. I don’t know.
What gives you contentment?
What at out your represents your self-satisfaction?
I can finally make an answer: ME. Everything that I am and have is in this home. So this home is me. So this home is a place I can be me with me. And do things that are important to me.
Do you keep weapons readily positioned at home, and why?
Oh that’s a good question. And I was just asking myself this yesterday. I saw this video of people lining up at the gun store. Buying ammo and everything. I thought, “Wow.” If this does turn into an end of the world situation–youknow, and people are breaking into each others’ houses…for food and supplies and money and stuff… how do I defend my home? What’s my line of defense here. And so I started thinking. Do I put weapons around the place? Or whatever. And I was thinking last night if I was right here and somebody blew a hole in the door and came in… What would I do? The first thing. So I started playing out a few scenarios in my mind of what I would just take off the walls… and in that particular case I was standing over there and I picked up my monk spade and I said I’m just throwing it right through that opening… [BZ gets emotional] Dont’ wanna get into it. Yeah. Don’t attack me. Okay? I don’t want to hurt anybody. I really don’t. [pufffffff] Okay.
Um. Where were we?
What gives you contentment?
What satisfies your conscious self away from home?
What do you like when you’re away from home?
What satisfies you?
And what satisfies your subconscious when you’re away from home?
So when you’re away from home. That child in you misses your home. And the adult in you misses the home in two different ways.
You have two different relationships. I’m just trying to get you to identify with your home in a different way. You probably have whole different answers than me. Like I said. This is my whole little library. I live in my — in my stuff. you have your own perspective.
Okay. What about your home… Let’s see. Where were we? Ah. I’m just gonna read it because it’s here.
What backup weapon do you keep in your car? And why?
And I don’t encourage this. I don’t encourage this.
In fact, I’ve always had weapons in my car for practicing. But I never practiced much. I had a couple swords. But they’re not for self defense even. That’s just because I have to have a place to put them. And whenever I do somebody with a baseball bat in their car, or something like that: I think that person might be evil. So it actually makes me distrust people when I see a weapon in their car. So you should not have a weapon in your car. [swords have been removed from car] You shouldn’t have to think that way. And if you did have to have something in your car that you could do–in the front seat. I’d, to be honest with you, I’ve got a couple drum sticks. And threatening someone with a drumstick might almost seem funny. But If I hit you hard with the stick on your hands or knuckles or your head–poke your eye out… Definitely think that guy’s formidable. So maybe that’s it. You should just carry a pair of drumsticks. That’s what I’ve got in my front seat.
Okay. But they’re not there for weapons. What I’ve beat on… You can see all the worn-out cracks and everything on my dashboard where I beat on it.
How else have you planned for disaster, danger or self-defense?
Hey. We’re in a lockdown. We’re in a disaster situation. Like a war scenario. We’re all locked in our houses with whatever we’ve got. So the fact that i was slightly prepared and had canned food and dozen rolls of toilet paper was fortuitous. And normally, in a normal lifestyle. I’d normally have all kinds of stuff, a can of gasoline and life supplies. And we got into that in Utah. The Mormons want to be like the cockroaches and outlive everybody else. So they’re actually looking forward to the end of the world so the can emerge from their foxholes and bombshelters and take over the Earth. That’s one of their prophesies. So when I was there in Utah I learned all about how to– I really did. They taught me really well about how to provide for yourself. I feel like I saw videos. Yeah I did. I probably saw it on some television shows. Proably saw some television shows that– I’m remembering videos of it. Yeah, I’m very well educatied on how to have supplies for the Armegeddon.
They say keep three to six months which I don’t. I could last a month maybe. Maybe. I’m low on water. Water supply is something I didn’t plan for.
What gives you contentment as well as those around you?
Describe your self-contentment.
Without any weapons, what would be your first weapon?
With or without weapons, how do you negotiate out of a violent confrontation?
What do you say to someone who is threatening you?
What are intimidation or negotiation powers?
What are your other stragegies of non-violence?
How do you protect others?
Who do you protect?
What are your limits in protecting others?
That’s important. Even as a Freemason we’d have to say you’d only risk your life for another mason to a certain point. We’d actually draw the line even there.
What are your limits in protecting others?
How readily would you jump into a fight to protect a friend?
I’m a little too readily on that. I’m definitely the warrior. Done it many times. I’ve actually saved a few kids.
Here we go: How much abuse will you withstand or ignore before retaliating?
In other words, how much does someone have to rile you up enough to get a punch? What do they have to say? Is there some limit? If there is– you need to know what it is.
How can you avoid being threatened?
And I’ve almost made it here. Last one.
Explain our Shaolin Chi Mantis slogan: This is my school slogan. Invented back in 1992.
THE ULTIMATE SELF-DEFENSE is SELF-AWARENESS.
And I’m gonna leave you with that. That’s the end of the book.
The Ultimate self-defense is self-awareness.
And that’s what I teach. I’m Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang.
YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 62 — Tao #35
Alright. We’re getting closer to the end of the book. Remember, if this works– Remember? I had to angle down for my kitty cat being here. Reposition this any better?
You need to SHARE this and make this some sort of success for me. Otherwise, why would I continue it? But I’ve got a whole bunch of them here. I was thinking about it when I was just in the restroom thinking, “What happens if I pass away and I don’t post for a couple years? Is Instagram gonna [SNIP] my account? And all this stuff that I’m hoping to enlighten the future and the world with–is it going to just evaporate and disappear?” POP. One day it’s here and the next day it’s gone? I don’t know. I’m a strategist but I don’t know the answer to that strategy. I’d like to think part of my strategy was to put it here and then hopefully it would enlighten some people but I’m actually hoping that maybe it might garner some sort of an interest and a following. So I’m fishing. I’m fishing to see if this gonna– this thing’s gonna promote my future. Or is it just a distraction?
But it’s a great distraction. I’ve learned a lot from just helping you and hopefully by being here it’ll help you. And if they’ll leave it here after I die. You know. If they’ll actually let this be here. In a hundred years somebody’ll stumble on this go, “Wow! There’s some good information in here. I feel a lot better and I can fix a few problems.” You know, that’d be beneficial. But i don’t know. I don’t know if Instagram’s gonna leave this here.
Let’s…help me anyway… figure out the future of this. What’s going on with the Daily Taoist? I’m the Daily Taoist. And my cat seems to be wanting to go up there onto the counter for some reason. I don’t usually let him up on the sink. And he shouldn’t be allowed on the sink. But the fact he wants to go up there’s got my interest.
[to cat] “Why do you want to get up there little buddy?” I’m trying to understand his Tao. His Nature. “What is it you want? What time is it?” Maybe he wants something to eat. Let me finish. I’m gonna take a break when I’m done.” I think I’m. How many more do I have to do? I’m on #35. WHAT?! This can’t be the last one! I’ve been blasting. I didn’t realize it. Two pages long and then I could show you the BIBLIOGRAPHY if I have time. Whole bunch of ads. Sheesh. It’s insulting how many ads. I mean it’s kind of gross how many ads i put in here. I think. I think. But I was working– I was fishing hard. I was trying hard. I was reaching our for some sort of sales. In fact, one of my items, my– all my CafePress has been stolen. I tried. I went online. I saw one of my shirts. And I clicked on it. Somebody else is selling my shirt. I’ve been ripped off. My artwork’s been stolen. People are printing shirts with my praying mantis on it. So anyway. I’m getting ripped off.
These are things I need to take under control. And control would give me some–
Anyway. Here we go.
#35. Let’s wrap this up. This is our– maybe our last one if I can do one and a half pages. And in less than fifteen minutes.
Richard Del Connor. Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang. Author of the TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE. The original book is called the BOOK OF CHANGES or DAO TE CHING written by Lao Tzu 2,500 years ago. At least 2,200 years ago.
Here we go. #35. And there’s 80 of them, but this is the last one in this book.
A person who is aware of ultimate realities attracts the confidence of others through security, contentment, and self-satisfaction.
I’m going to read that again and this is a quandary of mine. This qauestion here is the one I’ve been asking myself over and over again the last few months I’ve been living here.
Hey. My cat’s gonna do something. I may have to take a break here.
[to cat] Is this a wee-wee or a poo-poo buddhy? .
I think I’m gonna take a break. He is– When he has a poo-poo now. I wipe his butt every time. So… um…
[to cat] “Hello there little buddy. Is this a poo-poo? Let me get a tissue here. Hi buds.” I thought of this earlier. Never seen it probably on film before. A guy wiping a cat’s butt? If I can get it on camera here. “You get it buddy? Alright buddy. Come here. I’ll get it. Okay. Come here. Come here Bud. Alright.”
He’s burrying it. Now he’s calling me. That’s how he calls me. “Okay. I’ll come clean it up. Alright. I got it.” He’s scratching the outside. “Yes. Yes.” He’s scratching the outside rim. “Come here Buddy. Come here Buddy. I’ll wipe you now. Here’s a tissue. Good boy. Yes you are. Good boy. Come here. A little more. Thank you. Alright? I didn’t really need to clean your butt in the camera… But… Here we go.”
Alright? So there you go. That’s it. [LAUGHS] [HAND WASHING] They say you’re supposed to wash your hands long enough for a song. Don’t know if I’ll do that. In a situation like this I use soap and water. And do a good job. The other day i went to wipe his butt and I didn’t end up wiping it. And I washed up real quick, and I thought to myself, “Oh! I’ll bet if somebody saw that video they’ll think I didn’t wash my hands good. [LAUGHS]
Alright. We’re at five minutes and we haven’t even started? And we had to do a page and a half–Maybe we should just start this one over. “Bear. Were you a total distraction for this? I think you just knocked out most of my time here.”
Alright. We’ll make that the BEAR BUTT BREAK I guess. And we’ll start that one over again.
[LAUGHS] I was gonna take a break and go to the bathroom, but I looked ahead and want the next one. We’ll finish #34 ‘a’ and ‘b’ — this is ‘b.’
Buddha Zhen here reading from the TAO OF TAOISM written by me. Based on the Dao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, the BOOK OF CHANGES.
I’m on #34b. I started to get up and I looked at this, and I go, “Oh my goodness!”
It says,
Truth is recognized by a pure heart, not anxious eyes and convincing words.
Truth, and my name’s Truth. I saw that and thought, “Awwww.”
Truth is recognized by a pure heart–
“Pure heart.” Now how do we define that? Well, in my case I’m altruistic. I’m a creative person. I like to make people happy. I make things. I help people. I heal people. I try to gtive good advice. I raised my kids. You know, so I’ve got– I think that’s kind of a pure heart thing.
Um– Impure hpeeart would be somebody who wants to do malevolent things, and terrible things, and hurt people, and kill people, and poison people, and make people’s reputations worse. I guess. I’m just guessing. Fortunately, that’s not me.
Okay. Why do people ever disbelieve you?
I don’t think– I have such a great reputation–I don’t think people do disbelieve me. I think that’s why when i say really whacky things like my “5 SOULS THEORY” they kind of like get — They kind of get– They don’t want to just– They know that — I don’t know. That they buy– Anyway, yeah. I think I’ve got a high believability index despite the fact I’m giving you radical stuff you don’t believe.
Why do you ever disbelieve other persons?nk
Usually because i can tell they’re just spouting other people’s rhetoric you know. They’re not really thinking. They’re not telling me something that they know. They’re telling me something that they heard. And people who just pass things on like that–like birds you know. They hear something and say the same… I don’t know. They’re dogs barking. That’s what most people are. They’re just dogs barking. Dogs bark. And they bark. And they start barking… It’s–
How do you recognize the truth?
I have trouble with that. Because I think that everybody’s as honest as me. I don’t have this thing for seeing– And this thing about looking off to the side, and this stuff. I’ve watched all the– And I’ve watched all the FBI things. There’s a whole bunch of videos you can watch about these FBI interrogators and the talk about how to tell when people are telling the truth. And they totally dispel that ‘looking off to the side’ because I know I do that all the time. When I’m thinking, I’ll look off and go, “Well, what was that?” And it’s just to kind of distract me because if I look right at you–then I’m thinking about you. But sometimes I want to just be able to think off, instead of closing my eyes — I look off. And so that–I’m really glad to hear them dispel that myth. Because you know, I do that all the time.
So let’s see. How do you know when people are telling the truth?
I don’t know. They just–like I said, you can tell–when they’re saying something someone else said. You know, like when someone says some religious rhetoric and it sounds like something they read off a pamphlet. They don’t really know that. They’re just repeating some words.
How do you convince people of a lie told by another person?
I don’t. I can’t. It’s against my Nature to pass on a lie. I can’t do it. It would-It would-it would be not me. I’d never be able to say, “I’m me,” anymore.
How do you change your voice, or expressions to convince other peole of the truth?
[LAUGHS] I get excited. You know, so I think maybe the truth kinda gets me excited. So maybe that’s an indicator. It’s not like I get excited to tell a lie. So my excitement might be an indicator.
How often and why do you say, “trust me,”?
Aaaahh. YOU, as a person. How often do YOU say, “Trust me,”?
I was looking ahead to see if I say it.
Another thing you might say is, “I promise.” If you say, “I promise,” or “trust me,” then you’re a liar. I know. I know. Don’t feel bad. You know, you improve! Okay? Stop saying– So you’ve been a liar. Okay, you’re a liar. You’ve lied more than you needed to. You’ve lied. You thought you needed to all the time. Okay. So you’ve lied. You needed to lie. Let’s see if we can figure out how to change your Tao to where you always tell the truth and you never ever have to lie again.
And you can say things to bother people and piss people off or whatever. But at least you tell the truth. Yeah.
Bear’s going, “Are you done?”
Alright. So let’s see. So if you say, “trust me,” and “I promise,” you’re a liar. So don’t say those two things. Don’t ever say, “trust me,” and don’t ever say, “I promise.” That means that all the rest of the time you’re lieing. So…
Were your parents trustworthy and why do you think so?
How did your parents influence your concept of trust?
Well, fortunately they didn’t. They didn’t. My parents are like I said, they’re greedy selfish Republicans. They don’t trust anybody except their accountants WHO RUN OFF WITH THEIR MONEY. This guy ran off with what? Half a million, or a million bucks of my mom’s. I mean they trust people who are criminals. So… They trust anybody who basically is like Trump. Will promise them something. “Oooh. I’ll make you some money.” “Really? Okay. Okay.” [sigh]
Remember evil just requires ignorance and desire. So I guess that’s why I have evil parents. [LAUGHS] Okay.
How easy and how often do you–
Whoops. I’m on the right page? Umm. Yeah. Well, there’s a whole bunch of stuff. But okay. Let’s see–
Have you ever lied to your lovers?
Okay. Have you?
How much have you lied to your firends?
You know. I’m sure you did it for a good reason. How many times? In the last five years? Ten years? How many lies have you told? You know–just to make things go easier. Just little lies.
How much have you lied to your parents? And why?
[SIGH] I deceived my parents. I don’t know about lieing to them. Because lieing has always been a tough thing for me. Well, I told some lies in my time. Especially when I was a little kid. I can remember. So that’s why I stopped doing it. You tell some lies… Maybe you forget you lied. Maybe that’s why some people keep lieing. Yeah. [LAUGHS] Remember when you told a lie. Think and not do it again. At least it does for me. Um… anyway… lied to your parents… I deceived them. I did certain things. But they wouldn’t want to know the truth. I think that’s what the problem is. My parents never asked for the truth because– maybe because I might have lied. But also, they just didn’t want to know.
When I was arrested and exiled from the United States in 1970 on drug charges–I was kicked out of the country. Um… literally exiled. I wanted to tell my parents about it. My dad didn’t want to know about it. My mom didnt– I was… willing to tell them what was going on. They said, “No.” And then when I came back and you know I’d been..human trafficked. I mean, I was 16 years old and sold to a couple… Anyway… um… Anyway, bad things– to people– It didn’t turn out so bad. People tried to make bad things… well… [SIGH] Anyway, I was part of human trafficking and as a result when I came back I tried to ts watll my parents about it. My dad said, “It’s water under the bridge.” He didn’t want to hear about it. My mom says– She said it a different way. I can remember. We were standing on the front porch of the house I grew up in. “I don’t want to hear about it.” Those were her exact words. “I don’t want to hear about it.”
Okay. Let’s see. So yeah. I never had to lie to my parents because they never wanted to know the truth.
So how easy and often do you tell the truth, even when it gets you in trouble?
I’ve stayed out of trouble by lieing. Couple times. But that was during the drug days. When I was a teenager. I had drugs. A policeman. I lied to the policeman a couple of times.
When is it okay to lie?
Well, when I lied to those policemen, I don’t know that the truth would have done me any– I think the truth would’ve worked against me. Because the laws were not fair at that time. There was a law that was unfair. It was like saying–if it was illegal to be Jewish and I would’ve told the truth and said<Yes,” I was Jewish you know I would’ve been imprisoned. So instead of saying, “yeah I know it’s illegal to be ‘whatever this is’ I lied and said, “I’m not that.” Even though i was. So, I told a couple little lies like that. I don’t feel good about it. But it was because the law. If it wasn’t for the law, I wouldn’t have lied. I haven’t had to lie since. I don’t tell lies since then. It’s even legal to smoke pot so I don’t have to lie about that. But I still keep it under wraps so nobody knows. [laughs] Because as a teacher, and stuff like that I had to have a reputation that’s good. But anyway–
Where are we right now? 8 minutes.
So, How much have you lied?
We’re wrapping that up.
How easy– How easy and often do you tell the truth even when it gets you trouble.
And when is it okay to lie?
Well this is a troubling question for me. Because Buddha and Lao Tzu answered that question about lieing. Even Buddha said it’s okay to lie if your intentions are pure. [LAUGHS] What? He gives the expression of– Do I have time here? Uh, I was going to go to the bathroom so I’m actually in a hurry to get out of here anyway.
But Buddha tells the story of the burning house. And there’s a girl. A little girl on the second floor. And the house is on fire. If he tells her– She doesn’t know it yet, because the back of the house is on fire. But he’s gotta get her out of the house. And so their down, down on the street and they’re saying, “We need you to come down here the house is on fire!” “OOOOOOOOhhhhOOOOOOhhh…” She’ll panic. She’ll get all scared. You know, she might not want to come down the stairs. So… Buddha says, tell her a lie. Tell her that you’ve got this special painted pony they just delivered and is waiting for her to have a ride. “Come on down and get a free fide on this little pony.” So in other words, liell to the little girl to trick her to come down on the pony… to save her life. That story has bothered me my whole life. I’m still coming to terms with it.
But now we go to Socarates. Socrates says it’s important for politicians to lie. He said a politician shouldn’t let the other– But that’s because they’re all combative. Because they’re all trying to kill each other. If they weren’t trying to kill each other, maybe they could tell the truth. But you don’t tell them what all your stockpile is. You don’t tell them all your secret weapons. You always lie. You say, “Oh we only have ten atomic bombs.” Or you know, 2,040 atomic bombs. What do we have? 10,000 or something? But anyway, politicians lie. And Socrates and Plato kind of supported that a little bit. The book, REPUBLIC, which I’ve read a couple of times. Most of it. 98% of it, I totally agree with. But there were a few things in there i still have trouble with.
But this is it. That truth thing. Is I don’t think– I think the politicians– I think that maybe we should look at it a different way. If a politician is in a situation where he has to tell a lie to do something good, then the Tao is wrong. [house is on fire] The Nature is. That’s what we’re talking about: The Tao. So the Tao of politics is wrong. When lieing works to make– works within politics… Then the politics is poisoned. How about that? We need a poli– a politics and a politial world where people can always tell the truth. Even two leaders going to war. “Ah… I’ve only got 2,000 nuclear warheads. I know you’ve got 10,000. I know you can kill me. But I’m still gonna go to war.” You know, 2,000… it only takes one you know, but… That’s… Why does… Lieing doesn’t need to be a part of this. It’s evil and terrible and horrible no matter how honest you make it. So… I don’t know how to make that into a reasonable scenario for you.
But the point is, I think that everybody should just tell the truth and everything will come out better. Because the war’s gonna be over and then you’ve gotta be friends. And you find out, “OH. You LIED to me. You lied about THIS. Well if you LIED about THAT then…” You see? So, once you’ve told a lie, you can only expect more lies. And so I think the truth is really going to be the secret to world peace. When people can tell the truth… Like Mitch McConnell lied… Mike Pence! These guys! Cruz! Um… they LIE!!! They lie so good! Well not good. I think I’ve said it before: they lie so SMOOTHLY. [LAUGHS] Efficiently. They’re efficient liars. Our politics is SO CORRUPT. So horrible. But anyway, that’s why– That’s why lieing works. Because there’s liars. So lieing is the modus opperandi in our current government. Because they’re liars. Now if we could get a bunch of honest people in there–Then the liars would stand out. And they wouldn’t fit. “You were LIEING ABOUT that thing last week! Why don’t you just go to the other room while we talk business because we don’t need your B.S. in this…” you know. So we’ve got to get all the liars out of the government. All the liars. Anyone who’s lied. And then: go and take them– Find them real easy. “Boing-boing-boing-boing…” Liar, liar, liar, liar… Every one of them fired. Just like Trump said, “You’re fired!” Every single one of those guys. Maybe make it easier. Say THREE LIES. If we can find three lies that they’ve told: That they knew were lies: OUT! Without any question. No comeback. No rhetort. No nothing. If we can find them telling three lies to the public they should be out of the government. And there should be no retaliation. No retaliation. Don’t have to go to jail maybe. They may have committed other crimes…But if we can find three lies that any plitician has told to the public they should be fired immediately.
Hey. Buddha Zhen may be helping politics.
Where are we? We’re at 13 minutes. Do I finish this?
How easy to lie. Lie. Lieing is important. Important to get rid of. Stamp out lieing. We’ve got to stamp out murder. We’ve got to stamp out killing. Abuse. Rape. There’s lots of evil things going on. And lieing is one of these things. And lieing is usually accompanied with all those horrible things like rape and murder and stuff. It always goes with them. It doesn’t go with making the world a better place. People who are telling lies aren’t usually making the world a better place. So if we can get all the lies out of our government we’ll get the evil out. That was something I just said real quickly, but there may be some truth to that.
I’m really determined. I want to get these done tonight. I’ve got about five more or so. I don’t know that I should ask Bear’s permisssion. But he’s repositioning. I was on this page. I guess he knows I’m going to work over here so he’s kind of moving over here. [LAUGHS]
This is #34a I’m Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang. Zhen Shen-Lang by the way translates as Spirit Wolf of Truth. Truth being my last name. So yeah. I’m kind of obliged to give you the truth. It’s my name.
Okay. So this is #34a of the TAO OF TAOISM based on the BOOK OF CHANGES by Lao Tzu.
And so #34a says:
Ultimate reality–
(I’ve got hairs all of the place. In your own ears.)
Ultimate reality does not compete for recognition. Though other realitites may shout their identities, eventually all perspectives will merge into the ultimate reality.
Okay. I don’t think i want to get too carried away with the spiritual implications here. But let’s stick with the material world. The real world. Ultimate reality does not compete for recognition. Ultimate reality does not compete for recognition.
In other words… Okay. So let say– So let’s take the Congress [Senate] Okay. The Congress of the United States. What do we got? Like a hundred guys there? Well 105 or 110.Any way I’ve got a hundred. So those guys. Okay? So their ultimate reality is they’re not there to compete for recognition. That’s not the job that they’re in. Their ultimate reality is to work as a team to get something done. Now unfortunately, obviously when things go wrong, we’ll notice that people are competing for recognition, and doing things– So they’re jamming up the ultimate reality. They’re ruining, they are destroying The Tao. They’re going against Nature.
Though other realities may shout their identities–
You know, like Cruz, and some of these guys. Gosh, they’re amazing! Amazing!
Eventually, all perpectives will merge into the ultimate reality.
So a lot of these guys– Well actually, this… has several things to say. This is actually not all good. This is not all good. This is actually saying– Because the ultimate reality of The Senate is that Mitch McConnell is the ultimate reality. He has decided this is the ultimate reality: “We’re not gonna let the President appoint any Justices or Supreme Court things… We’re gonna jam up the government. So HE decided what the ultimate reality was going to be for The Senate. Not the Constitution. Not the people of this country. Not just the general whatever it is of our government that’s supposed to always just outlive us. No. He decided. He decided I don’t care what the people want. I don’t care what the President wants. I don’t care what the government wants. THIS is the ultimate reality of The Senate. And… Mitch McConnell has hijacked our country for thirty years or something. I’m not an expert. I haven’t been paying attention to politics. But now that I am I’m amazed at how much YOU GUYS– “You Guys.” Anybody. Any of you who’ve paid attention to politics– How much you’ve really screwed up this country. This country is like totally screwed up by you. You guys. I’d…well, I’ll take responsibility for being ignorant and not being a part of it and even voting for Reagan once. So, I mean… I’m an idiot. But I’m getting smarter. I’m actually much, much smarter now. I would not make so many mistakes. Now that I know what’s going on better. I could be a much better voter now.
So let’s read this again.
Ultimate reality does not compete for recognition.
See. And he’s not actually competing for recognition either. See, that actually supports this concept. He [Mitch McConnell] is the ultimate reality. But he’s not even competing. There’s no competition. He’s just there. That makes him the ultimate reality. Wow! I’ve just learned something. So the ultimate reality: you can find because they’re no longer competing. See? He’s not competing. He’s totally in control. So he’s the ultimate reality. Kind of like Trump. There’s nobody competing against Trump. He’s totally in control. He is the ultimate reality. Okay? And he’s trying to get recognition. So he’s totally like the opposite. Mitch McConnell is like the QUIET EVIL. And this guy’s the LOUD EVIL. These guys are the Yin and Yang of evil. The QUIET EVIL that’s been working behind the scenes and causing all these problems. But you don’t know it. Can’t see him. And then Trump who’s out here doing all this evil RIGHT IN YOUR FACE. But this guy down here’s supporting him. See? This guy can’t get away with it without this guy. If this guy [McConnell] was right here saying, “No you can’t do that.” You know. It wouldn’t work. But no this guy’s back here saying, “You can do it.” [McConnell] “Go ahead. Go ahead and do it. I’ve got all these guys lined up. We’re gonna profit from this stupid stuff you’re doing.”
Okay. Here we go. #34a
Are you shy or bold and why?
Shy or bold. Okay? One or the other. You’re either shy or bold. Do you go introduce yourself? Or do you wait for other people to introduce themselves? Those are the two people– You have to choose from one of those two.
Are you reserved or outspoken? And why?
The ‘WHY’s’ important. I don’t have time for it because I can’t hear it. Okay, but get this book and write your ‘WHY.’ That’s very important.
Are you reserved or outspoken?
In other words, “It’s none of my business.” You hold your thing.
Or are you outspoken: “I think people should know about that!” Are you the person who lets people know what your think they should know?
Or do you hold it back? “It’s none of my business.”
If you ever say, “It’s none of my business,” then you know which one you are.
Okay.
Is your appearance subtle or bold? And why?
See, mine’s changed. I told you: I used to be a hippie. And I was doing it to make a statement. I don’t belong to this… I belong to the counterculture. I’m not part of this culture and I’m against these values. And I’m making a statement. I’m not making that statement anymore.
Um… Do you ever argue? And why?
Arguing. Yeah–that’s a good question. We’ll get into that another time. But are you versus discussion, versus debating. But arguing is where you’re basically where you’re just–there’s never a solution. And arguing never wins. If you do win it’s because the other person gave up. Or you forced them to shut up. Or you said– anyway– Arguing always ends up in a false ending.
How do you know when to stop arguing?
There you go. See? It’s never gonna end. You can argue forever. And you can stop anytime. Same place.
But anyway. How do you know when to stop arguing?
Are you competitive or passive?
What about Bear? He’s not competitive. He’s actually passive. Now if I had another pet he’d have to be competitive. And that would throw out our harmony entirely. That’s why you should never have more than one pet. You should only have one pet. That way he’s part of the family. If he’s not–he’s just another rodent that you’re feeding. He’s a lower animal. And they’ll know that because they have to deal with each other. Dealing with your as totally separate reality. But if you take the other animals out of the picture and they only relate to you– You elevate their consciousness. So that’s why this guy’s consciousness is elevated. He knows he’s a cat. There’s no question about that. And he knows the other cats. But his relationship with me is something he can’t have with anybody else. He crawls and gets in my underarm. And talks to me and stuff. We have a special relationship, and it’s a– Anyway.
Seriously. I honestly believe — in fact I’ve heard that from people too, who get two cats. “The cats just play with each other. They won’t do this… and they won’t give me any attention.” Yes. Of course. They’re going to play with each other first. You know… So– Anyway. Learn from other people’s mistakes.
Here we go. Next one.
Are you competitive or passive?
Why is winning important to you?
Everybody should want to win. But why is it important TO YOU? What does winning mean? Define it. That’s very important.
Uh… Do you prefer to talk or listen? And why?
Talk, or listen, and why? You’ve got to do all three. You’ve got to prefer one or the other. You either talk more or listen more. Okay? Some people don’t do either. They don’t talk. They don’t listen. They’re really a mushroom.
Okay. Here we go.
Do you usually try to win or compromise?
Ah… Get your own answer.
But my answer is unfortunately compromising. Now I actually– Well, that’s not entirely true. You see I actually– Bear — I can actually, because I’m a strategist, I kind of like intermix them. I’ve learned how to compromise now to win later. You know… And I don’t know about win now to compromise later. That doesn’t seem likey a— a useful thing. [laughs] But it could be. I can actually see how that could possibly be. But no. I’ve mostly been compromising as part of my winning strategy. And that’s not good. I should’ve been– even as a — even in my failed marriage I should’ve pushed harder to be me instead of compromising as much as I did. But I did. I compromised. I went for the easy soft road. I could’ve divorced. Run off with the kid. So there’s lots of things I could’ve done. And maybe should’ve done. You know, to be more successful. Maybe, the kids would be more happy. And the exwife might be more happy. So i’m not even saying I made the right choice. But the choice I did make was to play the long game. Compromise. Be in there as long as I could. I never paid child support. And I was there with my son, helping him graduate high school when he turned eighteen. He would not have graduated high school without my help. So I was right there. Right to the very end. And then they’re gone.
I played the long game. My goal was to raise my kids. So even when it totally turned bad… I spent the last five years really being unappreciated and insulted. And cussed at by my own kids. But I hung in there just because that was the plan i made and I stuck it out. So arguably it wasn’t necessarily the right way to do it but it is the way I did do it. I’m here– So there we are. I made my choices and now I’m going to live by them.
So… And I’m happy. Like i said, I’m very, very happy. So everything’s gonna work out fine.
Where are we? And I’m hoping my kids will get whatever they want in life. Because it’s obviously not what I’m offereing. So whatever they need, they need to find somewhere else. Because they know what I’ve got and they don’t want to come back for any of what I’ve got. So appreciate that. Although it’s alway gonna hurt my feelings because I always wanted them to be with me.
Where are we?
Um….oh… Are you jealous?
That’s a very important question. Everybody could say we have felt jealousy. But are you a jealous person? And we can probably define that somehow. I didn’t think this through ahead of time. But I could think of ways in girls I used to find that–And I used to realize that any girl who’s jealous–you can’t trust. And I would… the more a girl is jealous–the more there’s something you can’t trust. That’s a real imbalance. But I shouldn’t have given you any clues.
Explain your possessiveness of loved ones.
Possessiveness of loved ones. You’ve gotta explain it. In other words, if you love someone… We all have certain possessions or restrictions. Or we think we are behooven to each other. So explain your concepts. Because if you’re gonna have a mate you might want to make sure she has the same concepts. Because you might find you have two different concepts of what marriage and the vows mean.
How much freedom to do you allow your mates? And why?
So are they allowed to have sex with other people? If they did, would you forgive them? Is it okay? Do you breakup? Or get back together? Tell me what’s in your wallet?
How quickly can you understand the perspectives of others?
You make think you do. But think about it. Ask other people if they think you “GET” what they’re saying?
How does this influence your motives or goals?
In other words, if you do understand their perspectives, does that change yours at all?
How much do you enjoy compromising?
Remember that? Once you know what they want– You can’t compromise until you know what somebody else wants. So, most people might think they compromise. But maybe you don’t. You’re just giving in to something to make it easier. You’re not really compromising. How do you know that? Answer the questions here.
How do you feel about accepting the blame for other people’s mistakes?
I have a certain pride in that actually. It’s kind of a shame. I don’t shame anybody. I don’t like to use that word, “shame.” But yeah, I… In my life I have a kind of honor code, street code. Or the police think certain things– Well, I wouldn’t turn people in. Or I took responsibility. Or if I had something, and it was somebody else’s… it doesn’t matter. I didn’t– I never ever turned anybody else in. So anyway, that means something to me. That’s my “street cred”– My “Street Cred” as I think they call it. My street credibility. I’ve never narced on anybody.They use to call people, “a narc” because of “Narcotics Officer.”
Okay. Are you a good negotiator in tough arguments?
Maybe. Maybe. I look for different answers. I get people to pursue different paths of inquiry. So maybe that helps come to a better answer or just an answer they would have never come to on their own… arguing. So I have some ability. As a mediator and a negotiator.
And are you capable of being unemotional? Ant any time? No matter what?
Yeah. But it does seem practical. You’ve got to learn how to shut it off. We all have emotions. So I get emotional. But I can shut them off. I’m real good at it now.
But some people can’t. People literally can’t. Some people say, “I’ve gotta take a break.” “I’ve gotta do something because I’m having an emotional…” “I can’t control my emotions!” It’s pretty pathetic but people believe that’s acceptible. And like I said, if you’re in that lower part of the herd you know… emotions become logic. Then people start saying they think with their gut. I mean they just start saying things that are totally illogical or stupid. And they’re using them as their reasoning.
So… when you start mixing down there at the bottom… it gets pretty muddy.
Okay. So, what upsets you most?
Think about that for a minute before i say what I say.
What upsets YOU most?
Okay. Hopefully you got your answer out there. Because what upsets you most is often what upsets you most that you do yourself. In other words something that would bother you the most if you did it. Like for me: lieing. It would bother me so much if I lied. I’ve told a couple lies and they haunt me forever. So when other people lie it really really bothers me. But I’m very gullible because I never lie. So I always want to think everybody’s telling the truth. But lies get in. But I don’t like them. So when they lie– “POOF” The person’s out. [laughs] I’m very very much into the truth. If you lie to me– If you don’t want to be my friend just tell me a– Don’t tell me lie. Just don’t talk to me. People don’t want to be my friend? But an’t be my friend if they lie.
Gotta get out of here before that fifteen minutes.
Alright. Back again. Daily Taoist here, Buddha Zhen. Reading from the TAO OF TAOISM written by me. Based on the DAO of Dao Te Ching or BOOK OF CHANGES by Lao Tzu, 2,200 years ago. I’m on page–well, not page but #33— actually “d” wasn’t it? This #33 has four parts to it. I broke it into four parts because it just had so much…
#33. We went from #33a and answered these questions. We went to #33b and asked these. “c” we just finished. [No. skipped accidentally] Now we’re on #33d. Let’s see what happens over here.
To create one’s own path in life is an external achievement beyond walking a path designed by other persons.
Period.
Read it again. And then you can say, “Hey! You’re the poster child for that one.”
To create one’s own path in life is an external achievement beyond walking a path designed by other persons.
As I’ve said in all these many stories: is that my parents have been trying to get me to walk their path. Walk that path. You know… They’ve just been– In fact I got disinherited because I wouldn’t walk their path. They said, “If you’re not going to walk this path then we’re gonna kick you out of the tribe and the herd and everything. You can’t come back.”
When you hear people say things like that, they’re just down there in the low I.Q. range.
Okay. Here we go. Explain how parents, teachers, friends, religion.. influenced your path as a child. Yeah. We all got that. You’ve– We’ve all been influenced in different ways. So you’ve got to get it out. Get it all out there so you can see what you kept and what you didn’t keep. There may be things thatthey said you should go back to. I’m not saying– Put it all out. I gave you two lines. I think you need like ten.
Explain your teenage path influences.
Who influenced you as a teenager?
As a teenager it definitely wasn’t my parents. Not at all. Uh… So… who influenced? Remember, I grew up in the sixties. So when I think of who influenced me, they’d be people like John Lennon, and… Jimi Hendrix, and for writers…interesting, Abbie Hoffman, STEAL THIS BOOK. Ginsberg was the popular poet, but I didn’t really relate to him. So, not everything that was going on at that time harmonized my Tao. There was a lot of creative stuff. That’s the beautiful thing. It was such a huge Renaissance. There were people being creative in ways that I didn’t even appreciate. But they were being creative. They were being artistic. They were being– I don’t want to say abnormal– but “not normal.”
Okay. #33d: Walking your own path. Deciding this unique way you’re going to live your life. Which caused me to get kicked out of my own family. Just because I tried to be an individual.
Explain your teenage path influences.
Well now explain your young adult path influences. So once you turn 20–
See, once I hit 20 I was a recording engineer working in a studio. And so there were certain people who influenced my life. Like that famous drummer, uh Cappice, uh What’s wrong with me? I want to say, Armen Cappice [Carmine Appice] but that’s not it. The drummer from Vanilla Fudge. He started this institute and I enrolled in it. I met him. And then later, one of his prize students [drum student] Richard Augustine, who actually used to go visit and live with him and trained with him. One of his disciples was my drummer on the Temptation record. He does the song, “Carol.” He does “Billy Boy” also on another song on a different album. But anyway, he was an influence. I give him credit for that. Uh…let’s see and I would have to see the… producer of The Beatles. He gets a lot of credit. Because I was trying understand what he did. He inspired me. I mean back: engineering. “What might he do?” I would listen with headphones. “What did he do?”
Okay… Which of these influences are still incorporated in your path? And how?
Well obviously, Martin. He’s still influencing me. And… I’d like to think I made him proud. But he had a lot more resources than I do. But I’ve made good– In fact, people have been impressed with what I’ve done with my resources. So yes.
Which influences should be incorporated more and how?
Well that’s it. I’ve been– I’ve gone through Plato. I spent like four or five years going back to Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. Read Marcus Aurelius maybe twice more. THE MEDITATIONS. Epictitus, I read him a couple of times. I’ve been going through all the philosophers in the last ten years trying to rebuild my life. It’s like gosh, after marriage, “What the heck am I going to do with myself?” This whole thing about being a steer in the herd is absurd for me. I had to reput… like: “BkBkBkBkBkBk” cram a bunch of information into me and see what I ended up.
So now I’m…trying to create the new me and go forward so: You’ll have to see what it is. I’m creating a brand new creature. I am a brand new creature. And I’m synthesizing myself very, very, um… I don’t know about systematically, but effectively and consistently so I’m kind of like cooking myself in my own shell. And I’m emerging right now.
So here we go.
Creating Your Path Requires Excluding People from your Life
Which influences should be excluded now from your path and why?
Like I said, that’s romance and love. Well I’ve got love. I’ve got my kitty. Chewing away. Oh.. but sex. Pursuit of sex and relationships like that. That’s definitely a waste of time for me now.
I’ve got lots of love songs. I’ve got hundreds of love songs so people might never know I don’t have a love life. I could just release one my songs and people’d go, “Man. This guy’s horny!” [LAUGHS] I wrote it 30 years ago.
How and why has your path become radically different from your influences?
Radically different? Well, who are my influences? Well, I look at my musical influences: Hendrix, um… Mick Abrahms, Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter. Those were some of my strongest influences as a guitar player.
[to cat] “Oh. Hi there buddy. Come on… Hello you.” He gave me that look.
What was the question. It had something to do with how have I become different from them? Well I decided that I exceeded them. I went, “WOW!” You know, Johnny Winter will always be the master just like my Kung Fu master Kam Yuen or Grandmaster Wong Jack Man. It doesn’t matter whether I ever was to try to think that I could beat them up. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter if they’re frail or had broken legs they’re my master and you can’t think things like that. But you can think of you’ve done something– you’ve improved on what they’ve done. And I know that I teach a lot better than any of my masters. Okay? So I’ve improved on them that way.
Now, as far as a guitar player, I found that it interesting. Because Rory Gallagher; I held him in high esteem as a singer-songwriter and a guitar player. And I love him. He was very instrumental– He was a strong influence on me in the beginning. I saw him like 7 times in concerts. I was just like inches away from him. Inches. And I was very inspired by him. And… but to realize that, “Wow,” you know my songwriting just went [truck noise] right past him. His songwriting became very shallow and narrow. And my guitar playing expanded in so many different directions. He is an AMAZING guitar player. He can do like a dozen things amazingly well. And of those I do maybe 8 of them [laughs] really well. But I’ve got another 8 that I do well. So I’ve done– So anyway I’m just impressed that I was able to do what he does. And then do other stuff… And like I said, my songwriting definitely went far beyond him. In fact I felt so bad for him. Because I think he’s so talented. And I look up to him. And I was thinking, “I wish he had my music.” If he would’ve recorded my songs he could’ve maybe been much more successful and had a much bigger audience. So I sometimes regret that I’m not famous because there’s a lot of people who are not taking advantage of what I have that would benefit their life. And make them better. My music… I’ve got great songs no one has ever heard. So people could make a lot of money off them if they had a way to put them in front of people. If they could make a recording of my song in a good way and then release it… People are gonna– I guarantee people are gonna like some of this music. Not because– They don’t even have to know it’s even me. Doesn’t matter who wrote it. There just good songs. But okay.
Uh… So let’s see. Which influences should be taken from my path? Did we get to that one? Um… “You really distracted me.” [to cat] You’re– Okay.
How and why has your path become radically different from your influences?
Well it became radically different because I had more information. People like Rory Gallagher: he got stuck into that routine of just touring every single year for years. And so– And that’s a job. You don’t have a life. You perform and you’re travelling and you don’t have that time to be alone and be in your… thinking zone. He’s travelling a lot. That’s very, very upsetting. People who tour will never talk very highly about touring. You’ll hear people say, “I don’t want to ever tour again.” It’s not the best way to live. A musician’s happier not touring. I have not toured to the point I don’t like touring. That’s because i’ve hardly toured at all.
So it’s kind of a good thing. I’ve never been burned out as an artist which is why I love playing. I’ve never played to the point where I– I’ve never played a song so much that I felt, “I DON’T WANNA PLAY THAT SONG AGAIN.” Except you’ll see one of the songs: It was just so emotional, it was so emotionally involving that I only played it a few times. The “Use Me” song. I actually start crying. If you see that video you might not be able to tell. Look really carefully when I go [cringes face] this is something… that… like… I’m really breaking down. Because this was the first day I was really being homeless and saying goodbye to my kids forever. [somehow I knew] Gone forever. That was the last day I ever– I visited them a few times after that. But that was the end. That was– That song “USE ME” [live video] was recorded on the last day I saw my kids. Anyway.
Sad song. I was like so sad when I wrote that. When I wrote it, but when I was siging it– I was sadder…
Okay. Here we go.
Where were we? Did I make it? Ten minutes.
Most People Should Follow the Path of their Parents/Friends
How and why has your path become similar to your influences?
Well it hasn’t become similar because I added so much spirituality and healthy living. See? All those people drink and they travel. They were doing drugs or drinking. So when they were spinning around in the hamster wheel. I was living my life and growing and explorying and going to UCLA. Being a photographer. Having kids. Developing Kung Fu schools. Going off and having a Hanblecia my Vision Quest on The Rosebud. Becoming a Pipe Carrier. Healing people for a few years. While they were just circling around doing tours and playing the same songs that they’d been playing for ten, twelve years.
Like this group Garbage. Which I really like on the first album. And I saw an interview again. And I was trying to figure them out. Put them in perspective. And their first album, “2.0” I think it was. It’s a great album. It’s a very, very good album. I’ve got it. I’ve got the CD. And it’s a good album but they haven’t been able to duplicate it. And I was trying to figure out why. And even she was saying that, “We’re happy what that album did for us.” And there’s a lot of clues if you can read between the lines and understand what people are saying. But yes, in other words, these are not real MUSICIANS. They were people who were playing music. And they may have been driven and they may have had some artist potential in them, in the lower qualities. Not in the first position though. I don’t know about any of them. Maybe the drummer. The drummer might have the MUSICIAN in the first position. But the other ones, you know I’m not so sure. Because they didn’t grow and expand. And so as a result they couldn’t grow as a group. But they were at that time able to take all their best qualities and everything that they had: mush it together and take all that stuff. That’s why most groups’ first record is the best. Because it’s got so much stuff crammed into it. Even if they’re not really MUSICIANS. It’s all that stuff that they did generate. You know, accidentally. As kind of pretending to be MUSICIANS they still created the stuff. And then when they jammed it together it was awesome. Now that album’s really good.
But where we? So, anyway I felt bad. And then she was talking about not having an ego and stuff like this, and being Scottish, and it’s like– “Awww” You’ve gotta have an ego to be an artist. That’s what an artist is. An artist lives for their ego. But then again you have to remember what the ego is. The ego is the expression of what’s inside of you. What most people think of the ego is a false pride. False pride is false pride. An ego is something different. But we’ll get to that later. But ego is a very good thing. Now what if you have somebody like Trump. He has false pride. He bolsters. He has this big huge ego based on lies, deception, bankruptcy, fraud… So yes, all that pride that he generates–that’s the evil. That ego that he has is evil. So that’s not real ego and its not real pride. It’s all just a bunch of fake news.
Alright. Buddha Zhen here with the real thing. The real news from 2,500 years ago. Bringing to you the freshest old news. Got, 2,500 years old. Gottem, the bones would even be be rotten by now. So anyway, bringing you Lao Tzu’s bones. [laughs]
Alright. So anyway that was kind of wrapping up the 33rd… I’m kind of a little distracted by my little buddy here. [Bear the cat] He’s taking a little bit of my energy and my love away. Sorry. You’re not getting me 100%. “Yes. I love you Bear.” But like I said, I relish my distractions. [talks to cat and laughs]
Alright. I’m back. And this is 33. And 33 has been broken up into an a-b-c-d… A-B-C-D. Four pieces. Four pages of questions just on one thing from Lao Tzu. For one little paragraph. One of his 80 wisdoms. Okay, so #33a was about understanding yourself and other people. That takes a lot of work.
#33b:
It requires more strength to master one’s own will than to control someone else’s.
Hey, The Daily Taoist here, Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang reading from the TAO OF TAOISM.
And yes, I’m on #33b of the 40 ones we’re gonna read here. About 40 of them I wrote in the Tao Of Taoism.
And #33b is talking about obviously,
It requires more strength to master one’s own will than to control someone else’s.
25% is– I can give a great example of that. When I come out here sometimes at night and I want a late night snack. And I have to use my self- My… will. To not do it. And I’ve been faring good. For a while I wasn’t. I was only about a 25% success. [LAUGHS] Now I’m at a 75% success. And the 25% I sometimes–isn’t even a mistake. I’ll realize, well if I’m going to eat now I’ll just stay up for another hour or two and I’m not going to go right to bed. So I kind of rationalize it slightly. Which has actually worked out really good because I’ve gotten some really good late night work done lately. So I think that snack really empowered me. I was both really hungry and tired. So anyway, But normally… But then once again I’m rationalizing. But being able to control myself and stop myself from that is harder than it would be for me to say, “You’re not allowed to do that.” And send my kid back to bed.
So it’s easy to enforce someone else and control someone else than actually control yourself. That to me is a good example of that.
Okay. So. Let’s see. In fact it says right now, Explain this. That’s the first one and I just explained it. So that’s my explanation of it. You explain it.
It requires more strength to master one’s own will than to control someone else’s.
Now you put it in your context. You talk about something that’s difficult for you to do than how it would be easier to do it for someone else. Okay?
How do you control other people? And why?
How do you control other people? And why?
That’s an interesting question. There’s so many infinite answers…. But maybe you control them as a business manager.
Or why are you controlling them? “Because someone told you to?” Why did you actually choose that job to be? Keep asking the WHYs… Keep asking well why’d you do that? Well WHY did you become a manager? Why’d you do that? Why do you? Why’d you go to school to become a manager? Why’d you know going to school to be a manager–? Keep those WHYS going.
I used to get in trouble. When I was a kid. Because the cows. The common man hates the “Why?” Because it makes you have to think.
So c’mon. Warm up that engine and start moving it. Get the WHYs going. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why————– [LAUGHS] It’s an engine. Okay?
Less Control = More Control?
How could you get just as much by controlling less?
How could you get just as much OR MORE by controlling less?
Now this is something I wish I’d mastered better as a parent. I was so busy doing so many things. If I could’ve just been a full-time parent without trying to run a Kung Fu school, write my books, record albums and even have a wife relationship. If I could’ve taken several of those things out of the mix I could’ve done a little better… at controlling my life. But, okay.
How do you control other people?
How could you get just as much by controlling less?
Now that’s what I was getting at. Is with my kids: is that sometimes it’s just easier to control… by like, “Don’t do that.” Or better– but control for me was not just trying to draw limits. I was trying to train my kids to do things. Teach them more. So that’s what I was really to get at when I saw that , “controlling less.” I… kept such an eye and I was so much there that I– as a teacher: I really should’ve given my kids, students, my kids as students: more of their own time to explore the lessons. That’s why the people I– to an extent–it drove people nuts.
I’d send my daughter off to the canyon by herself. “Oh you can go hike. Just come back in two hours.” You know. I’d be nervous for two hours. But still– I gave her adventure time. You’ve gotta give– You have to let them out of your control to a certain extent so they can develop certain abilities. And I wish I’d done it more. I wish I’d had even less control over my kids. Because I was there so much. All day long, 24/7. You know, raising my kids. So it would’ve been nice if I’d been there less. Even being the great father. They never saw me as the father. I was always the daycare worker. And Shifu. That was the only time I could be father. In fact, my daughter I remember…Anyway.
Here we go.
How could you get as much by controlling less?
If you set all those you control free–which would return and why?
Back to my kids. If I set my kids free–why would they return?
Well, they wouldn’t return for the music. They wouldn’t return for the Kung Fu. They wouldn’t return to be creative writers. They wouldn’t return because they wanted to help me with my television shows. Or be actors, or even in production, because i had them on the cameras at the cable TV show. And they’d be shooting cameras and helping me out and stuff too.
So they had opportunities to see if they had attitudes or acumen for any of these things.
So they wouldn’t come back to me for that. They wouldn’t come back to me for the singing and the music. I said that maybe already. So the only reason my kids would ever come back to me is for food and shelter. So that’s why we had a great relationship for fifteen years is because I supplied them food and shelter.
But the moment I didn’t supply them food and shelter anymore–I never saw them again.
Controlling the Subconscious Mind is Negotiation
How do you control your subconscious mind?
I told you… I… have a relationship with mine. I have a friendship. It’s like, “What do you want to do?” [LAUGHS] Well, how about you? Are you aware of your subconscious mind? Are you aware of the that: when you watch a scary movie it’s your subconscious mind watching it. Then you get scared and your conscious mind goes, “It’s just a movie.” Yeah, that’s one of the separations of the conscious and the Subconscious.
The subconsious believes everything. My subconscious, because like I said, I’m so empowered: I’m very very gullible. You know I’m– And I like to think that I’m always in an environment where I can trust information. And certain people have said things to me over the years that were wrong. Gosh. Just poisoned my mind. Because I’m gullible I believed it. You know I honest believed their B.S.
I think some of them even said some B.S. they thought was so B.S. that they thought I wouldn’t believe it. But I’m so gullible, I believed it. Then I find out later it’s untrue. And it kind of harmed my — a few perspectives I had in the meantime.
So yeah. Even smart people are gullible. We believe stuff. It’s my subconscious, so– [sigh]
Where we at now? Six minutes. Okay.
How could we get just as much by controlling less.
If you set them free — how do you control…?
What happens without these controls? If you don’t control your subconscious mind?
Well, like I said, I’m learning a lot since I wrote this book. Maybe 60 or 80% of the people in this world don’t control their subconscious mind. I don’t know. This is something I don’t really know.
So I’m not gonna tell you what’s going on there. I just know that when I get students. You know. I get them to have a nice relationship. Because your subscious mind is required to be a Kung Fu master. You cannot be a– You cannot do Kung Fu without your subconscious becoming a part of it. And so that relationship between your subconscious and conscious gets really powerful if you continue with the Kung Fu. Because they’re both empowered. And they both become very powerful. And they realize what they can do with exercise, practice, focus, learning, information. So the subconscious and the conscious just…when you become a kung Fu master–it’s like you get kind of– You go through a cocky period. [LAUGHS] Like that motorcycle.
Okay. Where were we.
Controlling the Conscious Mind is Self-Control
How do you control your conscious mind?
So your conscious mind. See? Now that’s a problem.
I’ve got a– I know somebody who’s got a, I think– I would call it a severe mental problem. Because his relationship with his subconscious mind and his conscious mind is horrible. His subconscious mind rules the show. So people think he’s retarded when he talks like a child. And he says really childish baby things. That’s because he let’s his subconscious talk. The subconscious mind is supposed to tell the conscious mind what to say. Or the subconscious mind is supposed to actually know what you– Tell you — I know you feel that way.
Let’s put it this way. The conscious mind is always supposed to communicate. You never let the subconscious mind communicate directly with other people. But this guy does. And that’s what makes him seem like he’s retarded. This thing comes out and really starts saying stupid childish things… And then you have to talk to him as if he’s a child. That’s a weird case but it really illuminated to me– I’d never seen that–so dramatically. Or at least been aware of that so dramatically until recently. Anyway. [SIGH]
What is Motivation Beyond Biological Needs?
Explain your self-motivation.
Explain YOUR self-motivation.
Let’s leave it at that. And that’s a very important question. And that’s a very important answer.
You put that down. And don’t say anything you’re supposed to, or anything rehearsed, memorized.
Explain YOUR self-motivation.
I’m gonna leave it at that.
How do you motivate yourself when you don’t want to do something?
I think I gave an example of that recently a minute ago.
That’s when you DON’T want to do something: How do you motivate yourself?
We all have to trick ourselves, talk ourselves into or… I’ve got all kinds of– actually things that I do.
What do you do?
Okay? What’s in your subconscious?
Okay. Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang. We’re breaking down #33b. That’s a tough one.
That’s talking about mastering your own will and controlling other people.
The first part was understanding yourself and understanding other people.
The third part is going to be about self-contentment. Opinions and… this is going to be interesting.
It looks like it’s going to add chaos to it.
Alright. Getting out of here. The Daily Taoist Buddha Zhen here. Reading from the TAO OF TAOISM.
That was #33b of what I’m saying is the Dao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. My interpretation.
Alright. This next one is something that obviously I have addressed in many other books and circumstances. I guess this is one of Lao Tzu’s pull-outs. One of his little quotes that gets out there alot. Or versions of this– excuse me.
The… Daily Taoist here. Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang reading from the Dao Te– Well, my book about the Tao of Taoism, based on the Dao Te Ching And kind of how I rewrote it so that you could improve your life. It’s got all these fill-in blanks there– See. So I’ve got questions to fill-in the blanks.
Alright. So let’s see. We’re on #33a. And this like I said is a very common thing you’ve heard. Probably, hopefully many times.
It requires more wisdom to understand one’s self, than to learn about other people.
I’ll read it again.
It requires more wisdom to understand one’s self, than to learn about other people.
And that’s– Even if that sounded reasonable, you’ve got to really buy into this because this is so important. Most people are only satisfied learning about other people. The movie star: “Oh, he does this… Oh, he’s got a mansion… He does this…” And then they think of him in that dreamy role that they imagine him. The fake role. And so, people are in these fake realities. I don’t want to use the word, “fake.” “False?” Umm, “Imaginary.” Fantasy realities.
And… we all are. We all imagine the world in our construct. We all… That’s what makes us human. And brings us up a little farther than the animals is our creativity. That’s why the actual creative spirit is a whole different thing in itself. That’s what has taken me 66 years to realize. Is that, gosh, i’ve got it. And most people don’t. I didn’t know that. I actually thought that everybody could do it.
But here we go. #33a.
It requires more wisdom to understand one’s self–
Now the word wisdom is different than knowledge. You see, to learn about other people is knowledge. When you watch a TV show or read a book, that’s knowledge. Knowledge is information. But wisdom is the ability to take some of that knowledge that maybe you learned about the other people and then use that to understand yourself. See yourself. To understand why you’re doing something. That maybe you wouldn’t have otherwise– you would have taken for granted, or not noticed, or been aware of.
So awareness can only result from wisdom, and evaluation, and you looking at yourself… But the one thing this doesn’t get — which is I think an important part of this whole paragraph here or concept is that you can never understand yourself UNTIL you start understanding other people. But you’re gonna be different. And I’ve always looked at it that way and as a result I kind of messed myself up. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a person who could see his reflection in other people. But most of the time, by studying other people you’ll start seeing reflections of yourself. As a result of that you can start to figure out who you are based on WHO you ARE NOT.
And so, that give and take… That Yin and Yang of information creates a knowledge of information.
Now the wisdom, as it says, is to UNDERSTAND one’s self. Not just even see it–but to understand to see. If you see that, “Oh. Well my parents made me think that, you know, if I do this I’ll go to Hell.” Then, that’s the knowledge. But what’s the WISDOM to understand yourself? The wisdom is to realize, “Okay. Well–” The wisdom is: Is, “My parents told me this, and I believed it– But do my parents really know it. Is it–?” You know, you start evaluating all the information until in the end you have a real wisdom. It is a knowledge that is more realistic and tested and is applicable and useful and integrated. Wisdom I think is something that is used–utilized to make you smarter.
Okay. Or you could just ignore it you see. And not have the wisdom. Not have the knowledge. And just do what you think. And believe what you think. And let it go. And that’s fine. And that’s the normal man. Remember that 40% of the people? Who Trump can get to believe anything? They’re ready to believe anything.
So you know, you’re so– You are very– You probably are not one of those people. Because they’re probably not attracted to this tape. “Be doing… TAOISM? AGGHH.” They run away from new information. So that 40% are people who DON’T WANT TO LEARN. They’re too busy. They’re too tired. “That’s not interesting… Arr-arr-arr-arr-arr…” So you know they stay…
That’s fine. I accept who they are. Like I accept my cat. He’s an idiot!. [LAUGHS] I try to teach him to talk sometimes and do stuff. Which is kind of fun. And then he surprises me. Like I brought him chicken. Now he’s started saying, “CHIIIII-KKKKKENNNN!!!” Oh man! Now he’s saying, “chicken,” and I don’t have any. [LAUGHS] So… the frustration of shedding a little too much wisdom on a dumb animal… I’m not sure. But anyway, my cat can say, “chicken,’ now. It’s driving me nuts because i don’t have any.
Okay. Where are we? Oh… this is a fun one. #32a.
So we’re learning that you have to understand other people to look at yourself. And this is what Zen Buddhism is. The whole thing about Zen Buddhism is to look at yourself from different angles. What do you look like from the side? What do you look like from behind? What do you look like FROM THE TOP? And underneath. If you can see yourself from more angles you have more Zen. Okay… How do people see me financially? Or romantically? Or age wise. Or health wise. Start looking at all these perspectives and you put them together and now you have more of a Zen awareness.
What are we for minutes? Okay. Five minutes. I’m gonna blast here.
#32a
How easily can you know other people?
Most people: “Oh. It’s none of my business.” If you say, “It’s none of my business.” Then you’re ignorant. Then you’re living in a world of ignorance. You’re purposely BLOCKING new information. So don’t say that anymore, “It’s none of my business.” Everything’s your business. Okay.
Explain your TECHNIQUES of how you get to know other people.
How well do you understand your opposite sex?
Okay? How well do you understand them? Understand them? Remember? That’s better– That’s different than just, “Oh I know they’re du-du-du-du-du…” clinical… and that’s information, knowledge… but understanding is wisdom. Remember.
What DON’T you understand about the opposite sex?
Summarize your family traits.
Family traits– Now you see– my family traits are– I would say, “They’re greedy. They’re Republicans who don’t believe in dreamers or artists and they would rather see me be homeless and prove they are right that I should have a job–
Rather than support me as an artist.” Those are my family traits. How about you? What do you have for family? What’s in your family tree? [laughs] That’s a question probably none of us want to answer.
Explain how much you know about your Shifu.
Hey! Remember? I told you I wrote this for my Kung Fu students. How much do they know about me? At this point, obviously you have– But who know? But anyway, I do want my students to know me as accurately or as much as they possibly can. I’ve come to realize that people will never understand me. When I was a kid they called me, “Brain.” So they were so mean to me. And now I–sympathize– I realize, gosh… I should have been separated from them. You know, I needed to be in a different program. My parents wouldn’t let me go to MENSA. They forbid it. My mom said, “They’re just gonna make… You’re just gonna make bombs!” Which I would’ve. [LAUGHS] I was really into making bombs when I was in elementary school. I’d make rockets and all kinds of stuff. I was researching how to burn different chemicals to get different colors when the explosions happen… and stuff. That’s where I was at the point where I burned a– I didn’t burn down our balcony, but I set off a rocket blast. The rocket blast blew a big hole on the big… straight… It was cool man! It was awesome. And anyway I created a rocket blast that burned a big hole in our aluminum patio. If it would’ve been a house, it might’ve burned the house down. [LAUGHS] That was the end of my chemistry. I Ahh man…” I was only like ten years old. Eight, nine years old. But that was the end of my chemistry at home. I went on to biology and started dissecting animals… But let’s not get into that.
Anyway. Where are we?
Explain how much you know about your Shifu.
See my students are going, “AHHHH???” I didn’t know that about you.
What are your Shifu’s goals?
Please. You should know my goals. I’m striving very hard to accomplish certain things. So you should try to know my goals. My goal right now is to be a successful YouTuber. So that’s good enough for you right now. HELP ME! If you like me. Help me. Support me. Um, I don’t know about donate… BUY MY STUFF! Buy some of my books. Buy THIS BOOK! [LAUGHS] Buy that book. That’s a great start.
Okay. Where are we?
How are you benefitting your Shifu?
“Oh. You bought my book!” Yeah.
How are you frustrating or not supporting your Shifu?
Wow. I’m really hammering them right here. This is… Okay.
And then it says, Shifu suggestions: “Buy my book.” [LAUGHS] I’m serious. That’s what I put on this page. I didn’t put the, “buy the book,” But these questions. I really did put these… I’m kind of like going, “Ohhh.” This is some pushy marketing.
Okay. How much do you know of your mate? Or best friend?
My last best friend was Oscar. Remember I told you. The last five years. We were… People would call him my, “Sidekick.” Yeah. He was my best friend. So I got to know him really well. Really well. Learned a lot. Disagreed with him incredibly. Learned a lot about the way he was raised. His parents were raised. About the way he raised his kid for awhile. It was very very interesting. That’s great information. But I wouldn’t have ever learned any of that if I wouldn’t have been his friend. And during the last five years if I would have done exactly the same things but not have him as my friend– I don’t think I would’ve had as in depth of experience or had anyone’s life experiences permeate my mind like that. Because I wouldn’t have had the inquiry or the reason to be as in depth conversation. So without him in my life the last five years I would not have had that interpersonal relationship. He was–
Like right now, I’m not going to replace him. I’ve got my cat so– I’m alone! for awhile. I’m not sure who my next best friend’s gonna be. I may not have a human friend for a year or two. We’ll see. I’m right now in a Section 8 complex. All the people around me are homeless who were able to get Section 8 funding. So these are the same people that were in the Shelter with me.
There was a couple people I tried to help. And there was a couple people I would be willing to help. There were a couple people who I thought had talent. They obviously had a certain value… But anyway.
Where were we. Ten minutes! Okay. Let’s finish this page.
Uh… How much do you know about your mate or best friend?
I’m serious. Get to know everything about them. Their parents… That’s why… If you are a REAL friend… You’re gonna know about their parent’s life. You’re gonna know their parents… Otherwise, you’re not really their friend. [LAUGHS] You’re an acquaintance.
How are you benefiting your mate?
How are you benefiting your mate?
If you’re not, your mate chose very unwisely.
How are you disappointing your mate?
Well that’s gonna happen. Expectations. Remember, that’s why people say, “Buddhists don’t have expectations.”
YES we have expectations. But whenever we have a disappointment it was based on an expectation.
So, how are you disappointing your mate?
Well that’s happening. What are the expectations that aren’t satisfied? That’s what you’ve gotta work out. Maybe they’re unreasonable. Or maybe you didn’t know what they were expecting. Or, you know, maybe you can negotiate.
Here we go. What does your mate think of you?
That’s without asking your mate. [LAUGHS]
Then the next line is your mate’s suggestions.
So you’re supposed to write what you think, then let them read it. You let them add something to it. That’s very very very important.
Okay. What are your subconscious goals?
Subconscious goals. Remember your conscious goals are the ones you talk about and everything. Your subconscious goals are the ones you might even be hiding from yourself. “What I really really want is to live in Hawaii…” But you just blow it off. We’re calling that the subconscious goal. The one you think is just too unrealistic. Or the one where you think you’re going to marry a rich woman. “That’s what I’d really like but…” That’s what I should’ve done. I should’ve set my sights on a rich woman. When I was working as a stagehand– Whenever I was working in like Beverly Hills and these different events and all these rich women were there… They’d look at me and “Ahhh” you know… We could have the electricity–but I was a stagehand. I’d have to meet them under a different context. I would have to meet them on their level and they could’ve considered me and I could’ve married a rich woman. But that would’ve worked out better. Um, at least in some ways. But then again…
We could talk a lot about marriage. Great topic.
Where are we? 12 minutes. I wanna finish this page.
What are your subconscious goals?
How are you benefiting your subconscious?
Now remember that subconscious goal that wants all those little things. It wants the ice cream you know. How are you actually being nice to it? Remember I told you awhile ago. I forget what it was, but i told you I had my subconscious one. I wanted to do this. I was relaxed at work or whatever. Find the balance. Don’t just totally frustrate it. “NAWW. I’m not gonna relax today.” No. Find a little time to relax. Satisfy your subconscious. Unless it’s unhealthy: but if you’ve got, “I want some heroin.” [laughs] your subconscious goal. That’s why you want a healthy balance. Our Tao is to form this balance. You’ve got to be healthy. If you– You’ve got to want your subconscious to want healthy things. That’s why if you do my Kung Fu you’ll want healthy things. Because you’re not gonna want something that makes your Kung Fu harder. So your subconscious is gonna, “I don’t want that. That’s gonna make it harder to do my Kung Fu.” So you’re not gonna want to drink. You’re not gonna want to do booze. You’re not gonna want to smoke. That’s how I’ve cured every drug addiction that I’ve cured in the last thirty years. “Cured?” I can’t say that legally. I’ve helped people overcome their drug addictions permanently I think in most cases by just merely giving them a healthy lifestyle that their drug addiction won’t fit into. That’s all I do. All I do. I won’t even tell them their drug is bad. I won’t even say, “heroin is bad.” But I’ll say, “let’s not do it.”[laughs] “Let me help you get through this.”You know.
Where are we? Thirteen, fourteen minutes.
So how are you benefiting your subconscious and how are you disappointing your subconscious? Are there certain things it wants that you’re just really not being fair and reasonable– Some people are very mean to themselves. Very very mean to themselves. Seriously. That’s probably because their parents were mean to them. Sometimes we imprint that and we take over: then we’re mean to ourselves. When I was in the Shelter I’d hear these people — whipping — mentally you know saying, “Oh You… You’re a scum.. You’re a..” talking to themselves. Repeating what their parents were saying. Horrible. Horrible. I don’t even want to try and remember. But they would say these things their parents would say to them.
Oh, you poor thing… that anyone said those things… I’m not sure they were their parents…
How can all differences between subconscious and your conscious mind be resolved?
First of all, figure out what they are. Deal with them. Recognize them. Get them out. And then throw them away. Don’t say them anymore.
Getting now to Daoist [#32a]:
It requires more wisdom to understand one’s self, than to learn about other people.
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–
I just sat down and Bear [the cat] is trying to settle in here. “Hello Bear.”
I don’t know. Should I lower the camera so he’s more in view? “Hi Bear.” [Instagram video includes Bear in vertical format]
He’s trying to figure a way to get more comfortable. He sits on the binder rings. I’m trying to position him around them. He just wants to be where he knows he’s in my way. I’m just glad to get his attention. And I’ve come to realize that anything that could be called a distraction or annoyance is actually probably him expressing his love.
I need to take advantage of his being annoying and distracting. And appreciate those moments. So when he’s actually got the gumption to bother me–it may not be convenient. But, it’s one of those times when he’s really, willing to express some love or whatever. Whatever he needs.
You have to kind of remember, The Tao does not conform to your wallet–I mean–“to your wallet?” Well not that either. –your watch. The Tao has a balance and it’s always fluctuating. Right now it’s “Bear Time.” [laughs]
Anyway. But it’s also “You Time.” I’m trying to do these things.
Boy, this book is so enlightening. I… I’m so impressed with it. It doesn’t matter whether I wrote it or not. I think it’s just really– It gives me pause for a thing– There’s so many things that I’m thinking… I want to tell ya. And… anyway. So much I could say… to add to all this.
Anyway. We’re on #32a. “Right Bear? Is that right Bear? I’m gonna scratch that spot… I know your spots. Yeah I do…”
Actually, I’ve come to find that I thought he liked everything scratched but I’ve actually come to realize he likes being rubbed. He wants something gentler. He doesn’t always want my fingernails. [talking to cat]
So little things. Trying to figure out what he likes. [laughs] As to what I think he likes. They can be very different.
Okay. #32a
We’re reading the TAO OF TAOISM by me, Buddha Zhen. Zhen Shen-Lang. Richard Del Connor. And it’s based upon the BOOK OF CHANGES by Lao Tzu and the DAO TE CHING. And I use the word “Nature” for “Tao.” It just makes more sense and expresses the exact same thing. And the whole idea is to put it in words that YOU can understand. If you can’t make sense of this then it doesn’t matter what I call it. I could call it “The Gooba-Gooba.” You know, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t relate to that word–then we can’t communicate effectively.
But “Nature.” Everybody in America relates to “Mother Nature.” So that’s “The Tao.” [The Dao]
I’m supplanting or utilizing that term to basically represent The Nature. So everything that Lao Tzu says about The Tao being infinite means Nature is infinite. Okay.
So here we go.
And what does he say in #32a? He says,
“The simple powers of Nature are invisible, yet omnipotent. Nature will always have the last word–eventually.”
[LAUGHS]
Well, unfortunately, when Lao Tzu wrote that he wasn’t aware of radiation. I mean actually, Nature will have the last word. It will just be millions of years from now and the radioactivity will be gone. So Nature will actually still have the last word in that sense. But, he wasn’t really thinking humans could do as much damage as they can now.
Still. Even if we do. Even if we do make this place radioactive… Eventually, millions of years from now… you know… it won’t be radioactive. Who knows what will happen? [LAUGHS] “Gyahh.” Millions of years. Anyway…
How do you interpret the “simple powers of Nature?”
That’s the phrase: “Simple Powers of Nature.”
How do you interpret that? What does that mean to you?
And, are Nature’s powers really invisible?
Are Nature’s powers really invisible?
Invisible. What powers do we got here. What are Nature’s powers?
…And then, How can these invisible powers be utilized?
Okay. So what’s one of these invisible powers?
Well, Nature has the power of making things colder. At night when it gets darker it gets colder. And when the sun comes out it gets warmer. So these are invisible powers. We don’t see the oven. We don’t see the hair dryer pointed at the Earth. So these are invisible powers we could say.
So how could we–what’d I say? How could we utilize?
Well, utilize or adapted to at night we know that when we go to bed and you might feel great. But by morning you’re gonna need a couple blankets on you. Or you’re gonna wake up in the middle of night: cold. Boy, I’ve done that a bunch of times. Very alarming you know. Wake up fearing hypothermia. Trying to–and you’re shaking…trying to put on more things and pile on more things on top of you. Only happened a few–well…maybe it happened a lot of times. I actually don’t want to remember. Yeah. I know what it’s like to be real cold. Real–I mean–real cold and nothing you can do about it except pile stuff on you because you’re in a car and outside it’s colder. [LAUGHS] You’ve got some heat on the inside but it’s still too cold. Anyway.
How can these invisible powers be avoided?
Hey-hey. From what I was talking about: a house.
Okay, but I shouldn’t be leading you because you might have really interesting answers. And I may be leading you to much into reality. You may have some other really cool things to say.
Get this book! Do it on your own. [www.BuddhaKungFu.com/books] And you can have more time and do it.
Let’s see. What do you think will happen to Nature by mankind’s mistakes?
[LAUGHS] I already mentioned something. But seriously. You know, you should mention something. You’ve gotta show that you’re not totally ignorant here. If the whole world’s ignorant… That means… Yes, well actually, half the world’s ignorant.
Remember, the COMMON MAN is 60 to 80% of all people. You know, it’s just a breeder and a worker. That’s it. And that’s what we are. We’re a bunch of breeders and workers. This whole planet’s 80% breeders and workers. And then the other 20% are something else. A whole different thing. My spirit– My spiritual theory illuminates this quite extensively.
But… in terms of the common man– We’re just doing a thing– What is this? March 23 or something– We’re in this Corona Virus lockdown and they just did a study and they found out that 40% of all Republicans still think the Corona Virus is not a big issue. And it’s just going to go away in the Spring… in the heat. Like Trump told them. 76% of all Democrats think it’s a pandemic. So you see that 40% of all the Republicans, which is half of all the Republicans– So that’s about 25% of all people. 25% of all these people are actually so dumb that they will be misled by a liar and a cheater. And even though he is a liar and cheater they will still be misled by him. That’s how– I’m sorry I used the word, “dumb,” well…
If you’re smart you know– Well, a few people have called me, “smart,” and used it as an insult. “Ah–you’re so smart… you’re such a genius…” [LAUGHS] I’m serious. People have said that. Oscar even hurt my feelings a couple times because he was having so much trouble understanding my stuff he goes, “Well, you’ve gotta understand: you’re a genius! And you can understand that!” It took me back a few times. He was like–
Because I really think people can understand what I understand. I know that sometimes I go a little far, but I really think that most of what I say is understandable. And when people can’t keep up with me or understand it: I’m kind of like, a little surprised. You know, it’s like, well, don’t you wanna understand? Or can’t–
It’s hard for me to believe that people CANNOT understand. But I think that’s an understanding I need to develop. Because as I said, 25% of the people on this planet, half the Trump supporters are actually so dumb that they believe him when he’s lying. And they believe dumb things that he says, as a dumb liar. So they’re all dumb. And… we just need to recognize that. You know, if you’re a certain intellectual level, you know, you need to know that you’re at that level so you won’t be so fooled. These people that are dumb need to know that, “Hey, I know I’m not very smart so let me evaluate–let me talk to my friend. I’ve got a smart friend.”
Every dumb person needs a smart friend. I hope it’s gonna cure that. “THAT’S A GREAT IDEA” [BZ gets teary eyed] Every single dumb person out there needs to find a smart friend. [BZ is all choked up] It’s the only way out. So– [sniff] Wow! [BZ crying on camera and during typing now] I’ve always had a sympathy when I was kid. I read the book, CHARLIE — FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON, the book. [sniffle] Great book! Tore me apart. Still does. LOOK! [crying] Find a smart friend.
… let’s just finish this. Real quickly. [emotional]
What do think will happen to Nature by mankind’s mistakes?
I told you. The way it’s going. Or we’re going to obliterate this planet. It’s ridiculous but it’s so easy. We can do it with just a couple of buttons. We go boom-boom-boom-boom-boom… World’s gone. For 25 million years… gone. One boom. Pop… gone. Radiation. It doesn’t even matter where they hit the planet. They’ll pollute the atmosphere and pollute the whole world. [sniffle]
Describe the Earth in 100 years. 500 years. 1,000 years. 10,000 years.
I’m out of here. Bye. I’ve gotta go. [BZ still choked up]
But seriously. You dumb people: “I love you. I still want to help you. It doesn’t matter if you’re my kids or whatever. You’re humans. I like animals.”
This guy’s an idiot. [talking to Bear the cat] This– “Bear, you are so dumb. You are so dumb. You really are. But I love you. I love you to death. I really do. So, being dumb doesn’t mean that you can’t be loved… in my heart you’re a person.”
