Lao Tzu

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Daily Taoist 1_59-Reads TAO #33D – Creating Path in Life DESIGNED by Self, Not Others.

May 16, 2024 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 59 #33d

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]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Produced by Richard Del Connor for Shaolin Records

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

Daily Taoist 1_58 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO #33b about Self-Awareness and the Subconscious Mind #2

May 9, 2024 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 58 #33b

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

Facebook of Bu ddha Zhen

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

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

Produced by Richard Del Connor for Shaolin Records

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

Daily Taoist 1_53 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO #31b – Our Left Side is Yang, Friendship Balanced by Trust

April 4, 2024 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

youTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 53 #31b

Hey. Hello there. The Daily Taoist here. Here to bring you some more things to hopefully help. Well they’re definitely gonna help you. Even if you don’t think they are. Once you’ve kind of got a good idea. Sometimes you’ve just got to find the time to understand it. And then you’ve got to find another time to implement it. And then you’ve got to find another time to say, “Yeah. That was a good idea because it’s gonna work.” If it doesn’t work you then you’ll be saying, “Ah… That good idea was a bad idea.” [LAUGHS]

Alright. #31b

Daily Taoist Buddha Zhen here. Richard Del Connor. And we’re reading from my book, the TAO OF TAOISM based on Lao Tzu’s book, THE BOOK OF CHANGES. Or Dao Te Ching.

Here we go. #31b

The left side of our body is a Yin female polarity.

This is China. We’re in China 2,000 years ago in China. So these are all things that made a lot of sense to them. And still do. But anyway, that’s 2,000 years ago.

He says,

The left side of our body
is a Yin female polarity
that will only extend itself in friendship
when we trust one another.

So it’s saying this arm over here is — doesn’t always trust you. So the right one…

By offering our left Yin side in friendship we stand alongside the right Yang side of our friend.

So in other words–

Friendship is balanced by trust.

Okay? So in other words really what it’s saying is you’re side by side. As long as you’re facing someone and you’re shaking right hands: Now you’re kind of opposing. You’re both kind of equal. Now, the moment you offer your left hand. See that shifts you over. They put out their right hand and I put out my left, I put over here and I’m facing. So that puts you now side by side.

So the right and so in other words the positive negative Yin Yang…

It’s a very clever little way of kind of– kind of shows something and expounds some other deeper things which I don’t think I really want to get into. Because we’re– But anyway.

The Yin-Yang concepts and female and the– and the hesitation, the trust and the everything–

This is an interesting point: There’s a whole bunch going on. All this is 31b, 31c. I broke it down because there’s so much information in this #31. And I broke it down into these three things.

But this whole thing about the Yin side. The trust. The positive-negative. And being side by side. That means you’re friends. As long as you’re facing each other, you’re not friends. You can be total enemies. When you’re side by side, you’re friends. You have to trust that person. If this person wants to kill you, that’s not the best place to put them. [LAUGHS] You want to have them in front of you where you can see what they’re doing. Wouldn’t want to put them right behind you either.

Okay? See? So anyway, you get the concept.

Here we go. #31b

Describe how you trust people.

Describe HOW you trust people.

How did you develop this trust system?

How did you develop YOUR trust stystem?

How DON’T you trust people?

How don’t you trust people?

There’s certain things you just don’t trust. Everybody draws lines.

Okay. Here we go.

How did this DISTRUST develop?

How did you decide where to draw that line?

HOW did this distrust develop?

Describe your female nature.

Whether a man or woman. Everybody.

Some men are much more feminine than women.

The 5 SOUL THEORY kind of all the sudden illuminates them.

But okay, here we go:

To who is your trust extended unconditionally now?

To WHO is your trust extended UNCONDITIONALLY now?

And I don’t know if I should say anything about this now, but I was actually raised on the wrong interpretation I was raised, “Men had CONDITIONAL love,” and “Women had UNCONDITIONAL love.” And it’s COMPLETELY THE OPPOSITE. 100% of the time. Completely the opposite. A woman will only love you when she’s got what she wants and everything’s alright otherwise NO. Totally conditional.

A man, he’s gonna keep loving you no matter what. He’s gonna go to his job and he’s gonna be consistent. He’s the one who’s patterned. The same with his job. He’s content, conditioned. He’s got a mind that has the ability to go to the same place for thirty years and work. Which means he can be with the same woman and go to the same home and work for thirty years too.

So a man has the unconditional ability built into him much more than a woman does. And I was raised, like I said, to believe just the opposite of that. Totally screwed me up. It messed me up. Because I honestly believed that women had unconditional love. So I expected that. I never found it. So I could’ve saved myself a lot of trouble if I wasn’t pursuing a lie.

Where are we? Five minutes. Okay.

To who is your trust extended UNCONDITIONALLY now?

To who are you uncondiditional?

To whom is your trust extended with reservations now?

Certain things you trust entirely but other things…

WHAT do those you trust unconditionally OFFER YOU?

I’ll read it again. What do those you trust UNCONDITIONALLY offer you?

So by trusting them, what does that give you access to?

What do those you SLIGHTLY DISTRUST offer you?

So those you have reservations about–you trust them a little bit–maybe not much but–

But actually, if you only slightly distrust them — that means you mostly trust them. So you mostly trust them, but you slightly distrust them. So, what are you getting from them?

Okay, then I’ve got my suggestions here. Hey only six minutes! That was a good one.

So yes, this goes to the Yin Yang concepts which I’m totally like rethinking and throwing out. And the– and the Chinese they have this belief that this is the Yin side and Yang side. Which is true if you’re right handed. It’s stronger than this side. It does create a Yin and a Yang.

I just realized in Kung Fu training if I make people think that way they’re gonna think this is stronger than this and they become kind of like wieghted over here.

I kind of wiped out that in all my Kung Fu training. We don’t use the Yin Yang. I say, “Move the energy both ways.” It can come in the Yin and go out the Yin. I do everything both ways. We do our exercises, we do our punching–try to do everything even. Most all the Kung Fu is right-handed. It’s like 70-80% right-handed. You know it’s not a complete exact balance of left and right kicks.

So I’ve created extra drills to bring up the left side of the body. So.. anyway, like I’m saying, I have agreements and disputes with the Yin Yang concept. And that’s the Tao. We can find out realistically how to put it. Now don’t impose certain concepts unnaturally onto Nature. [LAUGHS] You know, sometimes– Okay.

But there you go. That was #31b. of the TAO OF TAOISM. Read to you–in fact I’ve got time to read it one more time. Let’s read it one more time.

The left side of our body is a Yin female polarity
that will only extend itself in friendship
when we trust another.

So it’s saying, unless she trusts you–you’re not going to get anything.

By offering our left Yin side in friendship
we stand alongside
the right Yang side of our friend.
Friendship is balanced by trust.

So remember, friendship is a side by side relationship.

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Daily Taoist 1_52 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO #31a – Love of Weapons are Vile Lusting for Death

March 28, 2024 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

YouTube Video TRANSCIPTION: Daily Taoist 52

Alright. Hey, I’m back.

This is great stuff to talk about. I’m just wondering how much to say sometimes.

But here we are. The Daily Taoist back. Buddha Zhen here. And we’re reading from my TAO OF TAOISM. How to improve your life using the DAO TE CHING. The BOOK OF CHANGES by Lao Tzu about 2,200 years ago.

Anyway, we’re on #31a. And #31a of the Tao of Taoism, my interpretation of the Dao Te Ching.

Now I love Confucianism. Now you’ve gotta remember I’ve gone from being a Hippie– I’m still a hippie. An enlightened hippy.

Us hippies were just kids. Kids rebelling against our parents. Yeah. [LAUGHS] We were a bunch of kids rebelling against our parents. But we were doing it with art. We were looking at a lot of things we disagreed with. And I still disagree with. We had some great core values to being a hippie. In terms of wanting to do music and stop the war. The free love thing got a little out of control. But it was about marriage. Because marriage was required–and all this type stuff. And for women who had sex before marriage–they were “ruined.” They were like soiled goods. So they were lowered in society so we needed to kind of change the way society thought. So that’s what the hippies did. We changed all that. Before that, a woman couldn’t have sex before marriage or she was called all kinds of things forever.

Obviously, that’s not the case anymore. So we changed that.

So anyway, “Thank you hippies!”

But anyway, as a hippy I’ve come to realize that a lot of the structure and the rules… We burned down the R.O.T.C. buildings because that was basically where they were trying to sign up kids to go kill them over in Vietnam. And I totally agree with that and the fact that we pushed so hard. I mean we shouldn’t have to push so hard. And you push hard like that and then you should get a response. The response we got from our government was horrible.

You’d think that if you had a revolution and you revolt, then the government should go, “Oh. These people have something important to say.” No. The louder you scream about things being wrong the more the government is often times going to turn around and actually look at you as being a foreign enemy and start killing and shooting your kids. Just because you’re making too much noise. That’s what they did.

Kent State Murder Day is coming up and–I started that last year. I got booked for that accidentally and then realized what it was and made that the focus of my whole show. And every year I’d like to do a show. And this year, I’ll try to do an online show. I mean, I’ve got to plan it. I… think.. I would… I feel kind of obligated to.

So anyway. Getting back to this. I’m a hippy, but I’m an enlightened hippy. I see things from a bigger picture than I did when I was a kid.

So here we go. #31a.

The celebration of victory and love of weapons– ‘kay.

The celebration of victory and the love of weapons–

(tanks, rockets, stealth bombers)

–are vile lusting for death.

Is it “A vile lusting for death?” or is it just, “vile lusting for death?”

So in other words, every one of those things you’re saying is beautiful–was designed to kill people.

That’s it. Not even for hunting. Not even for animals. Not where you could actually use the carcass of whatever you kill. No. It’s to obliterate. It’s just destruction. The buildings. Not like, “Oh let’s just kill the people, and not hurt the buildings…” No. It’s destruction. Totally. So as we worship these things we’re worshipping total destruction. So that’s why “VILE LUSTING FOR DEATH.”

“Those people gotta die!” You can’t just take away their buildings and bodies and not have them die. That’s why death is so important.

So when you celebrate victory and the love of weapons you’re celebrating your desire to kill something. Wow!

Let’s– one more sentence. This is Lao Tzu. This is why him and Confucius may not have gotten along. They SAY they didn’t. But that’s because most people can’t harmonize these things. But you can. You can totally. I’m totally into Lao Tzu, I’m a hunter and totally into Confucianism. You can balance all these things. If you can get the proper perspective and proper intentions.

Military parades are funeral processions in advance.

This is written by Lao Tzu. Remember? Over two thousand years ago. The Emperor would have little parades you know. All his soldiers and their weapons…

Military parades are funeral processions in advance.

In other words whenever you put those things out there, it’s always because you’re showing, “Hey! This is what we’re going to use to kill some people with.” And everybody goes [gasp and clapping]. “Oh great! I can’t wait for you to dispose of them.” And in people’s backyards–you know, and kill them.

But that’s what we do. That’s what the world is. And that’s what the government tells all the people. To all the people it’s like a football team. “Yeah! I’m rooting for that team.” Even though that team’s carrying a nuclear bomb–they’re going to blow it up and kill you in the arena. “It’s my team though! And…” It’s just stupid.

Anyway. Like I said, we’re all cattle and so the cattle are excited by these parades. “Oh yeah! Let’s go kill some people!” “Who we gonna kill?” “Uh– We’ll find somebody.” [SIGH]

Okay. Let’s go down this page. Ready?

What sports do you enjoy most and why?

How do you celebrate victory?

How do YOU celebrate victory?

How do you feel or disregard the loser?

If you’ve ever played any game there’s always a loser. From soccer to chess.

How do you feel or disregard the loser?

Interesting. If I was to reword that– I don’t know. I haven’t read down this whole page.

How do you feel or disregard yourself?

If you were the loser– that would be an important question to ask here.

How much effort is expended to befriend the loser after the competition?

So after the competition you’ve won, how much effort do you spend to be friends with the person you just conquered? (Won, defeated… whatever.)

Explain the importance of winning.

Remember, these are your words. Don’t try to answer the question the way that I want or your teachers taught, or your parents taught… Well, it might be what your parents taught, but anyway these are hopefully– These are supposedly your words. So make them your words. This whole thing. Okay? That’s important.

If you put other people’s words in you’re just fooling yourself, lying to yourself, cheating, creating a false image. Looking in a mirror that’s not reflecting your true image back. You’re lying to yourself. You’re cheating. You’re hiding… Okay… You’re a normal person.

But hopefully, by reading this book you’re going to able to not be a normal person. You can stop hiding from yourself. Start seeing the truth.

How–okay. What do you do with your winnings and trophies?

Okay, so if you’re in a competition: and you win something, and you get a trophy or whatever: What do you do with it? Where are they? All your winnings and trophies. What have you done. Explain your thing in your life. Where are they?

Do you celebrate with liquor? And what else?

Do you take time off after a contest and rest from training?

Shifu suggestions:

That last one was a setup too. It was to see if actually, when you have a contest, if it’s unnatural. You were having to push yourself into an unnatural reality. Compete. Because in our Kung Fu school our goal is to just always have you ready to compete all the time. Anytime. That’s it.

Explain your interest in weapons.

Can you guys see my weapons?

I don’t know if this may really jack off–make the camera go wonky, but let me see– I’ll try to move the whole stand. If we move down here and we turn–There’s a couple. There’s some more. Whoops. See that wall down there. There’s swords down below. See some whip chains, rope darts and meteor hammers. Way down there towards the end near the top there’s a couple of tiger hook swords, and there’s a whole bunch of swords there. Oh, at the very end looking at us down there is some certificates and flags of mine.

As you can see, there’s some weapons on the wall. And if you come over here there’s actually another weapon over here. Yeah, a couple. In fact way on the very top of this thing, which you can’t see, if you were to go up here, across here hanging… Is one of my first staffs I ever got. And I’ve got it in a black sash. Make it kind of sacred or whatever. Didn’t like people to touch it. It’s weird because it’s slick. It looks like it’s varnished but it’s all my sweat and oil that’s like built this varnish onto it. So I don’t like people to touch it. I pick it up– and pick it up it’s like glass. It’s amazing.

But that’s what happens when you use these staffs for a long time. They become a personal thing. Because you wear them down and they actually–I’ll show you later. But yeah, that’s the Chinese style. We’re much different.

When I was in Utah and the’d never even seen them, the Karate guys. Quite a few of them bought them from me. Because I was buying them for my students because I teach staff. In fact, a couple of them wanted me to teach a staff class at their school. But I just couldn’t coordinate between all my classes and Mr. Mom and everything else I was doing. I couldn’t fit it in. But I did work out the program to do it. I came real close.

But yeah, they were amazed at those staffs. They thought they were–the whole concept–because mostly you get a piece of wood, it’s a dowel. Just a little spinter from a big tree. But this is the whole tree. When you look at my staffs there. The whole tree and the branches come out all the sides. It’s really amazing. It’s called White Waxwood. Look it up on the internet.

Here we go. How many minutes we got. Ten? Let’s finish this thing. How we doing.

Explain your interest in weapons.

Oh, that’s what I did.

How do these weapons portray you?

Well for me they represent all the different things I was exploring. Exploring the body and possibilities. So these weapons–I don’t think there’s anything else you can do.

How do these weapons portray you?

They portray me because all of these weapons require mastery and a certain kind of focus. Like musical instruments, each one requires a certain kind of relationship. You have to understand that in its own terms. In an intimate way. Each of these weapons. That kind of represents how I am. I tend to be very intimate in each of my projects. And each of my weapons. And each of my musical instruments. So I get a relationship with it. So that I’m not forcing it to just do what I want it to do–I’m figuring out how to — from what its Tao is, its’ Nature — how I can extract of harmonize with it. To create this other third thing. The instrument plus me creates the third thing.

Okay. How do you feel when using your weapons?

I get out here at night when its all dark . I need more room. And I’d just spin them around a little more. The chains kind of rattle a lot. [LAUGHS] In the dark’s cool too. Just come out here in the dark. It’s two in the morning. “Can’t sleep.” [swish swish] Alright. Then I go back to bed.

Okay. Explain how you imagine using these weapons?

That was a long time ago. But that’s gory. That’s why I enjoy playing with them so much now. That’s because I’ve gotten past that. But no, you’ve got to imagine lopping off arms and legs and stabbing… You’ve got to go through that phase. You have to learn the weapon. What they were designed for. And then I can play with them and use imaginary monsters…

But yeah, you’ve got to get past that gory stuff. I had nightmares for a few years. That was back in the mid-eighties. But I did. I’d have nightmares about them–actually using these weapons. Hurting, killing people. Death. So I had to get past that. Now I realize how dangerous they are. Like shooting a gun. You’ve got to realize this gun can shoot somebody. You’ve gotta, you’ve gottta accept that fact. You cannot like say, “Oh that’s not gonna hurt somebody because I’m not gonna touch it.” The moment you touch it–it can kill somebody. You’ve gotta come to grips with that. And then you’ve got to decide never to do it. See? So you’ve gotta go past that part. You know, I think that’s the problem with a lot of young people. They haven’t gotten past that. They haven’t learned the weapon. They haven’t learned to shoot it. They haven’t felt the power of the weapon. And then the respect for the weapon. It’s kind of got to go in that order.

A motorcycle. Well the first thing you’ve got to do is learn how to drive it without killing yourself. Then you get cocky on it. Then you’ve gotta get past cocky and get safe. And that’s the same with a gun. Just like a motorcycle. It’s got those LEVELS OF LEARNING. That’s what I call them. And I do. I teach the “8 LEVELS OF LEARNING.” And that does it.

Okay. Here we go.Are we going to finish? I’ve got thirteen minutes. I’ve got a make it in fifteen.

Explain how you imagine using these weapons.

I already did.

Explain your peer group and circle of friends.

Wooow. I’m not sure…Well, because we’re talking about celebrations. So your peer group are all the people you celebrate with. And do things together.

Explain your peer group and circle of friends and then think of them in terms of military and processions and I don’t know. Plug them into this. You’re in the army, those are your fellow soldiers. If you’re not in the army they’re still your fellow warriors and citizens who believe in war and see the parade and think of bombing people.

Describe any membership requirements and dress codes you enjoy.

This is where people say Confucius and Lao Tzu– Lao Tzu says kind of like a hippie, “I don’t want to dress in all these things…” But if you’re in the court and you’ve got to do this. And you’ve got people coming from other countries–you’ve gotta impress them. You can’t go in there in a T-shirt. You know, you’ve got to look like–anyway.

So there’s a harmony. There’s a natural Tao to being in government. Different than when you’re working in the field. You wouldn’t wear a tuxedo when you’re out there working in the rice paddies. So you’ve gotta harmonize with each of these situations. And that’s what people got confused with when they read this stuff.

Oh, real fast: Explain your loyalties.

And like we said earlier, when Trump asked for loyalties in the government–that meant that they were already corrupt. Because no government would ever give loyalties to its ruler when he asked for it. So that means that all those people who bowed to him were already the people who were corrupt. So everyone who liked Trump in the beginning–that’s your swamp. Those are the people you’ve got to get rid of if you ever want to end the war.

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

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Daily Taoist 1_47 – Buddha Zhen Explains TAO #27 Friends, Love, Family and Path of Success with Tao

February 21, 2024 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 47

Alright. I’m gonna do one for of these before I take a break and have lunch… Get these done.

I need to get all these done right now and then I’ll be able to release them on a regular basis. But I’ve gotta. Unfortunately, I got messed up and backed up and coverered up one of my classes. I lost a class. I can fix my mistakes. But I made a mistake. i can fix it and know what to do. And I’m gonna fix it by finishing this project: I’m gonna go all the way to the end of the book.

So if you’re here. Feel good that I’m going to go all the way to the end. [laughs] Here we go.

#27

Proper performance of any task
is obvious by the lack of need to repeat the task.

See? And that’s why me as a musician I always try to record it–I mean I could sloppily record and then say, “I’ll fix it up some day.” But that’ll never happen. Especially for me. So I’ve got to make everything good the first time. Leave it and then know it’s good. Same with my books. And there might be a typo or something in it. But I get them as good as I can. Feel good about it, and then I’ve gotta move on. I’ve actually found I think three typos in this book already. “AHHHH.” [LAUGHS]

Okay. Here we go #27: Yeah, this is a good one. Proper performance– (They’re all good. Learn every one of these here because they’re worthy of consideration.) [sigh]

Daily Taoist here. Let’s blast!

Proper performance of any task
is obvious by the lack of need to repeat the task.
Each person’s methods are recognized by the balanced observer to be correct and efficient
in terms of the path or way of the individual.

Ooh. There’s a few cool words in there. Alright. So… You ready? Last sentence.

An unbalanced person can learn
from the successes of balanced persons.
And a balanced person can learn
from the mistakes of an unbalanced person.

Yeah. That’s kind of my friend Oscar. He tried so hard to help me. But he was out of balance–and it was just nice to have a friend. A friend is someone– My definition of a friend is: someone who is trying to improve your life.

My definition of love: is somehe sone who is working to improve your life. Love and friendship. Almost the same. Love just seems a little more committed. Friend’s just one step away. But that’s it. If they’re not trying to improve your life they’re not your friend. You’ve got lots of acquaintances. You can know a thousand people who think you’re wonderful. Say nice things. they’ll take you out to dinner. Send you Christmas presents. They’re not your friend and they’re not your lovers. Or someone that loves you. If they loved you they’d make sure that something improves in your life. They could not leave you just like that. Like a field. Like a plantation. If you love those plants, you’re not gonna just say, “Oh they look nice.” And then come back a year later. You have to water them and take care of them. Love requires effort. That used to be one of my slogans. It’s in a couple of poems I’ve written. I’m trying to teach people that LOVE is not a word. In fact that’s tht name of the poem I think, “Love Is Not A Word.” Love is effort. If somebody’s not putting effort into making your life better–then they’re not giving you any love. And they do not love you.

Alright. Here we go.

Are you generally satisfied with the work you do?

Yeah. Oh, I’m sorry. I’m not supposed to answer for you. [laughs]

Are you generally satisfied with your work that you do?

Explain your work standards of excellence.

Ah. You see now, that’s what defines sometimes– That’s why it’s so important to differentiate between the WOMAN soul and the WORKER soul. The WORKER soul is willing to accept whatever you say are the terms of excellence. But a WOMAN’s only going to agree to what she’s gonna agree to and that’s it. You can’t force her to agree to something she doesn’t want to agree to. A WORKER will agree to whatever you say. Whatever your terms are. Okay? Your standards of excellence.

You want that shiny? He’ll make it shiny. A WOMAN soul’s gonna say, “Ah that’s shiny enough.” Okay.

How do your standards relate to your goals?

So, your standards of excellence and your goals.

If people judge you by your work–what is their judgement of you?

So when people see you. Let’s say you’re a cashier, in the store. And they see you. What’s their judgement of you as a worker? And, as a person? I

If people judge you by your work–what is their judgement of you?

What do they think of you based on the way you handle the cash register?

There’s a wide variety of people there, in terms of… Check that out. Rate people. Judge them. Then try to figure what the quality of their life is. And what they’re like when they’re not working. Based on what they’re like when they’re working.

What are you artistic standards of excellence?

Artistic standards of excellence???

I think I’m trying too hard for you guys. Well, remember I wrote this for my Kung Fu students. So yes, they’re supposed to have artistic standards of excellence. They’re doing Kung Fu. I forgot. [LAUGHS] This was actually written remember for my Kung Fu students. So when i wrote this I was writing for a certain type of audience. Not everybody. This probably doesn’t interest most people. Most people don’t care about their standards of excellence. I thisepnk right there I just [SNIP SNIP] I just separated off about 50% of the planet. 50% of the planet does not operate on standards of excellence. It’s just meeting your standards enough to get paid and that’s it.

They don’t operate under any particular standards other than whatever it takes to get paid. Okay? So that’s half the population. So that’s why this book probably only has a limited audience. Okay.

How do your work standards–

WELL ACTUALLY I WANT EVERYBODY TO READ IT THOUGH. Remember, if I’m gonna stop wars–I’ll make some other books that are easier. I have hope for them. You tell me hard this book is.

How do your work stands relate to your goals?

So in other words, you’ve got these standards of excellence and how does that relate to any of your other goals?

Obviously, they should all tie together. That’s what we’re working to: is to tie all this together. But sometimes we’re fractionalized. Sometimes you just know how to be a good student and you don’t know how to be a good worker–that doesn’t make sense. They’re both the same. So we’ve got to make everything fit together–and then you’re in harmony and then you can be as successful as you can be.

How do you determine the quality of your work? In other words, usually your parents–or your father determines your standards of quality. In the Confucian family the Father tells the Mother that these are his rules. And then the Mother exacts those rules and plays the rule. So the Mother is the enforcer and the Dad is the legislator. He’s like the Senator: he makes the rules. And then Mom, she is the school teacher who teaches the kids and like I said… it’s that triumvirate, that pyramid.

Let’s see. How reluctant are you to repeat a job if it’s okay–not great.

Boy, that’s one I bump into every day. So many times. So many times I hit that… and sometimes I just have to say: And there’s a slogan I use. And I still use it. Still echoes in my head. Maybe it will help you. “A JOB WORTH DOING ONCE IS WORTH DOING TWICE.” That echoes in my head… so many times. I’ll look at it and go, “Oh…. If it’s worth doing once–I’ll do it twice.” In fact that happened with my bed. When I got it out and I was trying to find a leak. My airbed. And I couldn’t. And I put it in there and it still leaked… And it’s like, “AHHHHHH.” I wanted to pretend it’s okay, but it wasn’t. There was still a leak. So I thought, “It’s worth doing twice.”

So I took all the covers off, took out here in the living room. Soaked it down where I had more room to work around it. Found two more holes. [LAUGHS] But there’s still another hole. I’ve gotta do it again.

Alright. Here we go.

Does it seem that life repeats its hardships?

Is that a perspective? I’ll have to evaluate the question more.

Does life seem to repeat its hardships

Does it seem impossible to get ahead?

Whew! Living on the street for six years… it almost seemed impossible… but look. I’m here. But I had to develop an alternate strategy. Couldn’t figure out how to make money. Couldn’t do it through fundraisers. And I couldn’t do it through family. I couldn’t do it through friends. I couldn’t do it through selling books. I couldn’t do it through selling Kung Fu classes. I couldn’t do it through selling music. I couldn’t do it through performing. I couldn’t–I mean I tried everything I could to make some money but I couldn’t do it.

And so finally I had to play the system. I had to play the long game and I had to get Section 8. And I was hospitalized. And I did that. I was in Martin Luther King for six months. And then I was in a homeless shelter for a year. Man, I had to play a long game to end up in this situation where I’m settled. This is not the way I wanted to do it though. I tried to just make money. My thing. But I had to form an alternate strategy and play the system.

Where were we?

What slows down the progress of your dreams?

Not having family support. No money. If I had money I might–I’d-I’d… SHEESH! [LAUGHS] I’m like thirty years behind in all my projects. Because I don’t have enough money to finish them and do everything I want with the projects I started thirty years ago. I’d just reach a dead-end because I couldn’t put any money into them.

But yeah. So money is my big impediment. I don’t have family. Family won’t give me money. No friends. No sales. No fans. No customers. [SIGH] That’s why I say. I don’t know if I want to come back to this world for another life. This is just too frustrating. It’s just not really– I could’ve accomplished so much more.

I’m actually– Should I tell you? Ah, Ill tell you. What the heck. I’ve actually–the Vedic Scriptures— I kind of got goose bumps the other day when I realized I’d already figured out the answer to my problems. In the Vedic Scriptures they talk about different Heavens. Different afterlifes. Different worlds your soul can live on. And I think that’s what it is–I just got on the wrong planet. I’m on the cow planet. And I’ve really got to find an art planet. Find a place where there’s creative thinkers, and artistic thinkers, and scientists. And that’s the planet I need to be on.. This is a terrible planet to be on if you’re an artist. Absolutely the worst planet to be on. Your own family! I’m disowned and disinherited by my own mother because I’m an artist. So you don’t want to be on this planet. Earth is a horrible planet to be on.

So if I am gonna have another life–and I don’t want to just give up–Maybe I should just be a ghost forever. Maybe that’d be more fun. If I am gonna be alive again it’s gonna have to be on another planet. Because this planet sucks! It really sucks.

Okay. Where are we? And that’s fine. You know. All the cows are as happy as they can be. [LAUGHS] And I’m not trying to say, “Ah you cows! It’s your fault!” No. It’s my fault. I came here and decided to live with a bunch of cows. That was MY mistake.

Okay. But I’m learning. I’m getting smarter. I’m getting smarter see? I’m getting my new strategy. My next strategy is: get a better planet to live on.

Do you really seek advice, or prefer to do it yourself?

I’M ALWAYS LOOKING FOR ADVICE! Like Oscar. He couldn’t even give me good advice. But I was still asking questions. We would argue. But even when he was giving me bad advice– I could at least–like–argue with him. It was good–that way I was kinda still figure out what the advice was. Poor Oscar. He tried so hard to help me. But he couldn’t. He was–just not equipped. [LAUGHS] He didn’t have what he needed to help me. And I think that broke his heart when he realized that.

He was always my friend to the end though. Yeah, I’ve gotta give him that. He was my friend.

How do you enjoy helping other people do better?

Hey, my picture froze [camera image freezes].

Alright. It looks like we’re jammed up. Ooop my picture froze. I’m gonna have to quit. Maybe I ran out of memory.

Do you enjoy reading autobiographies of successful persons and do you enjoy reading ‘how-to’ books?

The counter’s rolling. I’m gonna quit here. And this was #27 of the TAO OF TAOISM, which says,

The proper performance of any task
is obvious by the lack of need to repeat the task.

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

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Daily Taoist 1_46 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO #25 Strategy Harmonizing Nature’s Patterns into Goals

February 14, 2024 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

Daily Taoist 46

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 46 Tao #25

Alright. Welcome back to the Daily Tao. Buddha Zhen here. And I’m on TAO NUMBER 25. And this is a big one.

And… I also… I think I improved my lighting. I did add something up there. Washed my face. Pinched a little bit. Hopefully it doesn’t look like I got stung by a bee. [LAUGHS] And combed my hair. So, anyway… Those are my efforts– In other words… Remember we talked about the self-discipline? That’s my self-discipline is that little extra effort to look nice and everything. A lot of people just spend all their time looking nice. But they’re not doing anything for themselves on the inside. But, you know, I need to spend a little more work on the outside.

I’m not faulting anybody. We’ve just got to see where our balance is and see if we want to shift it.

Okay, if I was an actor I’d need to spend a lot more time on the outside than the inside.

Okay. Here we go. Each per– Well, that’s what I’m trying to change. I’m trying to help actors be a lot more that tools.

Okay, #25.

Each person can exemplify
the ultimate powers of Nature
by intelligent and natural actions.

That’s only the first sentence. There’s a whole bunch. Let’s read that one sentence again because that’s important. So in other words that’s saying if you’re smart and natural, that’s better than being stupid and unnatural. Right? Why when I say things like that do I picture Mr. Trump?

Each person can exemplify the ultimate powers of Nature by intelligent and natural actions.

As each goal is planned, initiated, incorporates ideals, and is completed: so are the seasons of life imitated.

I’m gonna read that one sentence again.

As each goal is planned, initiated, incorporates ideals, and is completed: — (That’s the four seasons there.) —so are the seasons of life imitated.

Intelligent goals must be natural and within Nature’s patterns so that the ultimate powers can be utilized and harmonized with. Not opposed. In this way goals that are also Nature’s goals are natural goals that enhance life.

Wow! There’s a lot there but, kind of simple thoancugh. It’s basically saying that you can develop your life to have goals, processes, and beginnings and endings that… kind of flow like Nature. And you and yourself are a natural Nature. You have your own Tao. The Tao has its Tao. And now your Tao and the Bigger Tao are in harmony with each other. And so now you’re kind of–It’s kind of like swimming. Swimming in water. Okay?

So, here we go. Real fast. This is two pages long so let’s see what i can do. Um, this has got a lot of blanks to fill-in so this may go really fast.

List your current goals in terms of the four seasons of Nature.

So first of all, come up with all your goals. Now figure out how they fit into the seasons of Nature. Which ones–you know… Where are they at? Are they at their Autumn? Are they dying? Are they old, and something you did ten years ago? Or is it the winter: Is it something you’re planning but it’s not ready because you don’t have resources like the sunlight? Is it the spring? Where now you’ve got everything together and you’re really putting all your effort into making it happen? Or is it the summer when everything’s flowing along and you’re starting to pump the product out and building the business? See?

So you’ve got these seasons you can work with.

So you want to take your goals and then start looking at them in terms of how they fit into a seasonal structure.

So let me go along. Because, like I said, I broke this down into the four seasons. And then I gave you some kind of clues for the four seasons to help you understand them a little better.

So in this case, AUTUMN. So I’m summarizing this because remember our goal is to figure out how to make this work for us. In our lives. So that’s why I’m kind of superimposing these human concepts on this book.

AUTUMN: Clean up and prepare for the future, fertilize and planning.

Okay. So once again. The… goals that are at this stage of the operation. Which are your AUTUMN GOALS. You’re cleaning them up. You’re preparing them for the future. You’re fertilizing them. Maybe… they’re like I said, might be dead stuff. So you’ve gotta fertilize them. And you’re in your planning phase.

Okay. So you’re in kind of a [SCRUNCH] mulch situation.

Okay. So what are the goals? You list them out. And then you put down–you’ve got a column to put down these goals.

The IDEALS that are incorporated. So if one of your goals has the of maybe pleasing your wife. That’s the whole reason you’re doing it.

Maybe another one is because it satisfies this long term thing you wanted to do since you were a little kid.

Maybe this other one is because you’ve–you’re doing it for somebody else. And when you’re done they’re gonna pay you a whole bunch of money. [LAUGHS]

Your ideals.

We’ve got to be more idealistic.

As one of your ideals–how does it satisfy your ideals… Your Nature… as far as being a better person?

“Well this is going to improve my ability to do this. Or maybe it’s gonna make me understand this better.”

I don’t know. Try to put some ideals in there. I’ll have to think about that more myself.

Okay. And then it’s got two other columns. So you’ve got the goal.

What IDEALS are incorporated in this goal?

Like for me it might be philosophy, or Buddhism, or something like that. You might have something specific in there.

Now, then there’s two more lines. The first– It says, “FIRST STEP.” In other words, what’s your next step? What’s the thing you’ve gotta do? And what’s your OVERALL STRATEGY? Gave you a teeny little line to do it. But what’s your Strategy? “Oh, I’m gonna do this and then… (your Strategy)… then I’ll do this and this.

Okay. You’ve got four goals and you do all that.

Next one is WINTER GOALS.

This is where you’re organizing and PROTECTING. And you’re establishing TERRITORIES and BOUNDARIES. In the case of a farmer you’d be laying out your fields and this is where you’d be deciding where to put the crops and everything. So you’re establishing– you’re building the future. You’re building the house. You’re gonna build a business. The first thing you’ve got to build is build the building.

Okay? So what are your goals?

What are the IDEALS incorporated in those goals?

The ideals. Once again we can expand on this. I’ll give that more thought too.

And the our FIRST STEP in your STRATEGY. So each of these goals: SEE what the next big steps are. I not only made you just put it out there: I made you think, “What should I really be– Where am I GOING NEXT?” Okay?

SPRING: Your Spring goals.

This is where you’re planting the seeds. And you’re beginning to work on your project on a daily basis. You’re out there tending the field. You’re watering and you’re pulling the weeds. Now you’re working specifically. If you’re like me as a musician this is where you’re recording in the studio. Editing and overdubbing, mixing… and all this type stuff. So this would be the Spring. This is the Springtime. The CREATION of the product.

Then comes SUMMER.

That’s when you harvest and sell. You complete your projects and you end the work. In the case of the record you package it up and sell it up BOOM and start the advertising and go on tour or go to thenext record. So in your case, if you’ve got your IDEALS, your FIRST STEP, and your STRATEGY… But your SUMMER? What things are you finishing right now? What’s this thing you’ve been working on? The car in your garage you’ve been working on. So it’s done… That’s done… You’re in your SUMMER. Okay?

So here’s some questions to ask to illuminate all of this stuff. But this is for you. I want you to make this work for you. You lay out your goals. You kind of try to figure this out. You sort it out and in the process you’re going to learn something. You’re gonna see something. Or… You can’t know everything. [LAUGHS] Or you wouldn’t be here. [LAUGHS] You’re gonna lay it out. See if you can’t learn something from your own stuff. Okay. Here’s what–

How do all your goals fit together and what is their combined result?

What’s an overall perspective if Iwas to look and this and say, “Okay. What does it look like this guy’s trying to do?”

How does this combined result of your goals fit on YOUR PATH?

How does this COMBINED RESULT fit on your path?

How to define your path. I don’t think we’ve talked about that enough.

But anyway YOUR PATH and that’s gonna change and should always change. But from where you can see it right now, this section of your path: Where you are you going.

Hopefully you are on the right path.

Which goals do not really fit on your life path? And why?

It’s not like you have time for everything, but you better come up with a better excuse than that. Because everybody has a limited amount of time. So you’ve gotta figure out what–Why is that not deserved? (For you to put time into it?)

Okay. So putting everything in perspective there.

Lastly: List your methods and techniques for planning the strategies of each goal listed above.

Ahh. So if you do look at all those things–How do you determine–What’s your strategy for getting anything done? Okay? Alright! Probably didn’t say anything. Probably didn’t think of anything. Probably when, “I dunno.”

But you’ve got to get a list. Get a list. Get a “TO DO LIST” for every single project you’re doing.

So if your project is to…even mow the lawn once a week on Saturday: Put up a list on the month whatever– and– You can do this so many different ways… But anyway you’ve got your Saturday mowing list. Well, I wouldn’t make a list just for my mowing, but on the calendar–You just go ahead and on every–All through your calendar you WRITE, “MOW THE LAWN.” on every Saturday of your calendar. And then as you come to that you say, “Ah, yeah, I’ve gotta mow the lawn today.” (or the next day — before…) You say, “Oh yeah, I’m gonna mow the lawn tomorrow.” You see? So that helps you get it done.

So there’s all kinds of methods and techniques you you use to make your strategies happen. Planning and “To Do Lists,” “Goal Lists,” updating your “Weekly List,” calendars… These are all important things.

So just look at life as one of those things you’re going to always kind of– you’re revitalizing. Well that’s why we’re here. We’re looking at it from lots of different ways. Okay?

Here we go. Did I make it? Eleven minutes….

Okay. Tao of Taoism. I’ve got time to read the beginning again. This is a tough one. A big one.

This is #25 of TAO OF TAOISM. Actually, my verson of it. The Tao of Taoism.

Here we go.

Each person can exemplify
the ultimate powers of Nature
by intelligent and natural actions.

(I’d sure lie to think Nature is intelligent and natural.) [LAUGHS]

As each goal is planned, initiated, incorporates ideals–

(That’s the part we need to work on.)

–and is completed: so are the seasons of life imitated.

Intelligent goals must be natural
and within Nature’s patterns
so that the ultimate powers
can be utilized and harmonized with.
Not opposed.

In this way: goals that are also Nature’s goals–

(You know Nature might want you to have that farm. Saying, “Yeah. Go ahead and have that farm and feed all those people. That’s a good idea!)

–This way, goals that are also Nature’s goals are natural goals that enhance life.

Yeah! So let’s all enhance life. Let’s all be individuals, personally driven. Have our own ambitions. Have our own desires, our own likes, our own wants. But still all harmonize and work together.

Alright. Buddha Zhen here, saying the world can be a nice place. Just need to have nice people in it.

Nice people are in harmony with The Tao.

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

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

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

Daily Taoist 1_45 – Buddha Zhen Explores TAO #23 WHAT You Do is WHO You Are and WHERE You’re Going

February 7, 2024 / 5 Soul Theory, Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

YouTube Video s eTRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 45

Oh yeah. My formatting. I’m realizing what I want to do is read THE TAO at the end of it as well. So when we’re done at the end, I’m usually in a hurry, I’ll try to read THE TAO again so we can kind of see where we were coming from.

The last one was harmonizing our desires with Nature. And our own inner Nature.

Tao #23

Actions equal your Nature.

I’ve got a song about this. But let’s just read on.

Intelligent actions equal an intelligent Nature.

Did I write that to compliment myself? [LAUGHS]

The rewards of actions are Natural events.

Rewards of actions… Ahhhh. See…. BING. A little light bulb went off. Because I’m looking for rewards… finance… sell… sales or something. But I can’t find that Natural event. That’s why I’m saying, “Do I get out of Patreon?” I was hoping Patreon would be a Natural event. That would help me market and find people who would appreciate and support me. But it was not the Natural event I guess I’m looking for. I don’t know. I’m lost. I’m lost on this planet. That’s why I don’t want to come back. There’s not a Natural event for me as an artist. Or a creative thinker… Or a philosopher… I can’t find the Natural events for me to tap into. To get sustanence or provide nourishment for other people. I can’t tap into that. I’m just like a lone wolf out here all by myself with nobody to talk to.

So the Natural events for me to grow and share with you– I haven’t figured that out yet. That’s why I’m trying YouTube and my websites. Is that my Natural event?

Here we go.

Goals are attained through Natural behavior.

Well, I don’t force myself to do this. In fact actually I have to force myself NOT to do stuff… to be a creative person. Because I’ve got so much other stuff to do.

So my Natural behavior though is to always tend back to creating the art and spending less time doing the other things I might want to do.

Trusting Nature, The Tao, is trusting one’s own actions.

Yes, I’ve come to harmonize with the fact I’m a creative person. I accept the fact that I have these needs and desires and abilities that need to be–just utilized. Just be who I am. So I’ve known that ever since I was a teenager. And that nobody else can see it. That’s–I could never figure that out. So hurtful… that people couldn’t see my Nature. Which I’ve had ever since I was a teenager.

My own mother, she sent me a card. Might have had a check in it. I’ve gotten two checks from my mom in the last two years. I think my relatives pressured her because they know I’ve been kicked out and my mother didn’t give me anything. She’s a millionaire. And I’m homeless. Anyway, so… but one of those things she gave me–she gave me a card. There was two. I kept them both. They’re very very confusing. I showed them to my friends and my friends went, “Wow. That’s weird.” But one of the card… well– [LAUGHS] It says, “I hope you find your dreams.”

It’s like, I found my dreams FIFTY YEARS AGO. I’ve just been playing with them and working and creating them ever since. But because my mother never saw it as a money pot–in other words, the dream is always at the other end of the rainbow. And when you actually find your rainbow that’s your dream it always comes with the pot of gold. See? So my mom married her, my evil stepfather who passed away last year and left me nothing so I could stay homeless. He was evil. [LAUGHS] he was a horrible person. That was my stepfather. Anyway he– I don’t really want to got there. But I had a reason for going here. But um… Yes, so anyway.

Where were we. Anyway. She said– She couldn’t– “I hope you find your dream.” I found my dreams, but my parents refused to accept that you’re allowed to have dreams. You’re not allowed– They call me “A Dreamer.” And they think it’s wrong to be a dreamer. It’s a sin to be a dreamer. In fact that’s one of the reasons my mom disowned me. She said I’m “A Dreamer.” That wouldn’t work. “Just get a job like everybody else.” She thinks it’s wrong to support dreamers. So she took me out of her “WILL” so she wouldn’t support a dreamer. That was her motivation.

Okay. Here we go.

Describe your personality.

Well, I’d like you to describe it. [LAUGHS] It’s changed though. I wasn’t so comical. You look at pictures of me as a kid. I was like this robot I was like Data [from Star Trek]. No emotion. No smile. I look at those pictures like– That’s why I’d like for some people to tell me what I was like. I had my own perspective. I was just being me. But when I look at those pictures I think, “Man, that’s a pretty–” I don’t know. I wasn’t sour but, I definitely wasn’t as jovial as happy as I was– as now. So my personality has changed you know to what it is now. And having kids made me able to just make a mockery of myself. Once you have kids, you lose all your ego. Your self-esteem. [LAUGHS] No, not all of it. You know, you…basically… you have to just– When you become a Mr. Mom. You have to get down into that world.

Which is also what destroyed my reputation with my kids, in terms of Taoism [Confucianism]. Which is okay, but in Taoism [Confucianism] the father is ‘grave’ at home. I was like, “What?” That was one of my favorite translations of that. But it always bothered me the most. So it took me fifteen years–or ten years to figure it out. Father is ‘grave’ at home. “What?” “What is that supposed to mean?” Well, what it means is when Father goes home and he starts playing with the kids–they’re never going to take him seriously. He’s just like the neighbor father. He’s like the other kid. Or he’s like mom. Or he’s like big brother. He’s not special anymore. So when the Father comes home–what they mean by ‘grave’ is he’s always acting like he’s in a funeral. He has his whole other world of friends, socializing, and business, and partying. He doesn’t take the kids. So he’s got a whole other social world. So when he comes home to his children–in Confucian society he’s a King. And his children treat him with respect. Sure he can go play. But he plays seriously. He’s a teacher. You treat this person like a college professor.

See, I didn’t have that with my kids. So my kids will never have that kind of respect for me. They see me as just the daycare worker. [LAUGHS]

Okay. Where were we? It’s six minutes. Let’s see:

Describe your personality.

You describe yours. Describe mine while you’re at it. I’d love to hear what you say.

Describe your spiritual character.

Oh man, has that changed over the years too. Remember? I was a Catholic. And I was an Atheist. And then I became a Buddhist. And then I became a Native American Pipe Carrier. Then I became a Taoist. And then, oh yeah, I studied the Muslim religion. I won’t call myself a Muslim but I’ve read their Quoran twice… And I was friends. They used to always invite me the Temple. I’ve hung out with Muslims. But I decided I didn’t want to join. I’m trying not be part– Even the Chan Buddhists, there’s a couple of sects of Zen Buddhism that have tried to claim me. And it’s like, “No, no, no, no, no. I’ll just go ahead and be independent.”

Nobody’s really helping me get to where I am and nobody’s network has really got what I need to go forward. I’m just better… being who I am and carving my path. It’s all coming together. My Tao is coming together. Creating my Nature. I’m creating my environment–my world.

Describe your student, employee attitudes and quality.

As a student and employee. As a subservient person.

I am so obedient. I am just digustingly obedient. I shouldn’t say it like that because it’s my success. If you hire me you get the best. You get the best worker. If I’m not the best worker I’d be shocked. I’m always in the top 10% or less. I mean I always want to be a good worker. My upbringing. That’s the one thing my parents taught me is how to be a great slave. I come from the Pennsylvania Dutch and they believe in the work ethic. “You work hard. Serve God.” To serve God. I mean, that’s how they drill it into you. You’re serving God by slaving. [LAUGHS] So I come from that. So I’m a great slave. And I work very very hard all day long and I don’t complain. And I worker harder– In fact, most people say, “Slow down. You’re making us look bad.” You know. So… And as astudent–

“Hello Buddy” [to cat] “Wanna come up here?”

As a student I also– I am a very very good student. Always at the top of the class. The teacher’s pet . When I was at UCLA I was hired by several of my teachers. My teachers hired me and I went out in commercials and music videos. I was such a good student they could tell I was a good worker. And… in one of my– in fact the reason I got on Cinesong, I was hired for Cinesong was I — Kevin Dole. Where are you Kevin Dole? I love you. You’re a great guy. I worked for you for a couple years. For a year anyway. One of my students, fellow students at UCLA had to go to a doctor appointment. She goes, “I’ve gotta work on a music video tomorrow for REO Speedwagon.” She goes, “If you’ll take my place on the video–I still want to take the paycheck but you’ll get the experience of working on a music video if you’ll work for free.” “Okay. I’ll do that.”

On that REO Speedwagon video, it was the first one they did. Can’t think of the name of it but I can picture it though. And in fact I even saw it on YouTube this year. But anyway, that music video. In fact, I think I looked up all of them I did last year. Buy anyway, the… I did so well– Ane one of the things I did, being a guy. Anyway, being a worker as opposed to a woman is that I kept sweeping and cleaning… and I kept asking them if the wanted coffee. And they ended up hiring me and working there for a year or so. And they told me later. They said that the reason they hired me was because I was just so unoffended to just go get a cup of coffee and do mundane things that evidently other people would go, “Tsk… Really? You want me to do that?” [LAUGHS] I was like, “Sure! You want a cup of coffee?” So that kind of enthusiasm got me that job and got me to make all kinds of commercials. And from there, we were working at Apogee. And Apogee saw me and they liked me and they said, “Hey. We’ll hire you too. We like you. You’re a good worker.” I was a Production Assistant on all kinds of movies and lie, “Spaceballs” “The Unholy”… all these movies and i was just working in the production. I was a Production Assistant. So I’m not even in the movie credits. I didn’t care. I was a student at UCLA. I was actually going to night school and doing these music videos… Like I said I met her at night school.

So.. but, by being a great employee–that actually changed my life.

Where are we? My cat’s right in the middle of my book. “Hi buddy.” [to cat] “I can’t see the page because you’re on my work.”

Here we go. Let me move it over a little bit. “Let’s share this book with me?”

Describe your leadership qualities and skills.

Ah. Now that’s very important. Now remember, most people are WOMEN – WORKERS. They’re employees. And an employee is not a leader. He’s a follower. So you’ve gotta remember 80% of our population is followers. Okay? But! Half of those people have to leaders to lead the other followers. So we’ve gotta train the followers to be leaders. Okay so…just letting you know you may not have the–you may not realize the whole picdture here.

Okay. Here we go.

Describe your romantic relationship qualities. Okay?

I don’t know what I have now. I mean I want to be romantic. I remember during the seventies or in the eighties if I went three weeks without sex it was like, “Wow! There’s something wrong with me. What’s wrong with me?” And then I remember when started to become more relationship oriented in the eighties, I thought to myself, “Wow! I haven’t been in a relationship for three months.” I remember those two things happening once. So I was in so many relationships and things. But I was in them for the wrong reason. I was in the relationship for the sake of being in a relationship.I wasn’t in the relationship because it was going to benefit my future, my career, of all these things. I wasn’t opportunistic and greedy as I should’ve. As a rseesult i had great sex, and love and whatever… but who cares? It’s all gone now. If I could do it over I would rather have chose more wisely. [laughs] Rather than– I’d arather go for quality than quantity. I didn’t get the quality.

So my relationship qualities were then were just– I was a stud. I mean, I could score really easy. And I’m not saying that to be macho or anything. It was just– It’s a shame. It was kind of a shame. It got too easy. And a lot of girls would like hit on meand say, “You wanna have sex?” And say, “Well okay.” [laughs] It was a different world back then. One night stands were a normal thing.

Okay. Where were we. Not for me. I still always at my most rambunctious I was still looking for a relationship. Always. I can definitely say that. I was always looking for a relationship.

Okay.

Describe your family attitudes.

Ah. I had incredible family attitudes for a while. I thought I came from a better family than I did. When I tried to create my family. I was trying to create a little entertainment complex. You know. So, I was totally wrong. I was totally screwed up. My family concepts. Hopefully yours are better.

Real quickly:

What are your insecurites?

What are your fears?

Explain your pride.

Do you make mistakes and why?

Do you trust other people most of the time?

How are you helping other people attain their goals?

And sum up your Nature.

And lastly, people in the homeless industry do not help people get out of it. They don’t help them with goals. Nobody helps people with goals. That’s the most important thing we have to do in the world. That’s what I’m trying to do is: I’m trying to help you have goals and attain them. That’s really really important.

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

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Daily Taoist 1_44 – Buddha Z Reads TAO#21 of Tao of Taoism – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Life

January 31, 2024 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

Daily Taoist 44

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 44

Oh, by the way, on that marriage thing. I wish I’d known a lot of this. I come from what SHOULD HAVE been a traditional family. They’re just Republicans. And there’s no tradition in Republicans at all. Greed. Power. Republicans: that’s why they have to cling to religion. Otherwise they’d have no structure and no spiritual basis whatsoever. They just use religion as a stick. They’re not really into it. They just use it as a stick, so it looks like they’re good people. It’s a ruse. R-U-S-E… I think. I’ve never written that word.

Alright. # 21.

The unseen forces of Nature are known to all who feel them within their own self.

Okay. That’s just kind of a nice little thing about being natural and feeling Nature.

The unseen forces of Nature– (with a capital ‘N’) –are known to all– (Remember he says, “The Tao.” And sometimes I use “Nature” instead of “The Tao.”) –The unseen forces of The Tao are known to all who feel them within their own self.

I feel The Tao. I feel Nature. I’m a little more comfortable saying, “Nature,” than thinking of “The Tao” running around.

Here we go. Okay. #21.

Describe these unseen forces as you know them.

What lurks inside your wallet– I mean, your body. [laughs]

Describe these unseen forces as you know them.

What is your soul?

Ah. You know me. If you would’ve asked me five years ago, I would have said we have two souls. We have our soul and we have the Supersoul. The soul of God. So when we die they split. One goes back to God and one has maybe some identity to it. So that was my concept up to a few years ago. In the last few years I’ve come to realize that, Ahh, maybe there still is this Supersoul, but this one over here is actually four souls stuck together. See? Oh that’s interesting. Because that still makes up five doesn’t it? Remember, I told you there’s five souls.

But I still think this one. I don’t know how this– I haven’t actually questioned this, so I don’t know how to fit in this fifth soul. But there are five souls and we have four. Maybe that is why we only have four. Because the fifth one is this one taking that place.

I only figured that out while I was talking to you.

Okay. Here we go.

Describe these unseen forces as you know them?

What is your soul– What is your life force?

Well I describe that as Chi. And I use the Tai Chi and the Qigong and everything to find it and move it around. I CAN FEEL IT. It’s kind of like buzzing. It’s kind of like a balloon. A soft balloon, and I can push it on myself. Or think of it as a big foam ball. A big foam ball. I can take that big foam ball and I can push it. And I can feel the foam as I push closer I can feel it more.

So that’s how I feel and see it.

What happens to your body when you die?

Wow. Well your body–I guess you just rot. So… there’s not big deal there. Although, a lot of people cremate. BUt the difference between cremation and burying–I’m not sure. Because I’m still, even as a physicist, I’m not totally under this “Matter is never destroyed.” You know, when you’re cremated. What’s the difference between cremating and going into the earth? I still haven’t resolved some of those issues. So I’m not the person to give you answers. I’ve got questions on that. [laughs]

What happens to your soul when you die?

This is interesting. Remember I told you that story. I think it was in August. Two Augusts ago when one of my best friends and mentor. That was my Taoist mentor, Ru Zhing Shi died and passed away in Vegas. But I didn’t know it until like a week later. Somebody called me up and said, “Ru Zhing Shi is dead.” “Wow. When’d he die?” And they said it was like that Sunday. And I thought, that Sunday I had a conversation with him in my brain. Well I thought it was me. I go through conversations and things. Scenarios in books and stuff… So I tend to– If God’s talking to me, I probably thought it was me inventing a screenplay. [laughs] So anyway. I had this conversation with Steve. And he asked me a couple questions about this and that, and I said. I actually said some harsh words to him. I’m not gonna tell you what I said. I wouldn’t take them back. I meant every word, every syllable of it. I told him some things that were true. And I actually told him what his Buddhis master told me.

So anyway. It was kinda weird. It was weird. But the point is I had this little conversation in my head. I didn’t think anything of it. And then a week later I find out, “Oh he died right then.” “What!?” So I don’t know. Did I have a conversation with my Taoist master. He really believed in the afterlife and was kind of into ghosts so I wouldn’t put it past him.

So… the other experience I had was just recently when my best friend died. And I searched around for him to see, “Okay Oscar? You got a message for me?” He died at like five in the morning and I didn’t find out until about eleven. So I was fishing around trying to find out if there was any message or anything he’d left for me. So I meditated for a while and I got one image. I did get something. If it was Oscar its gonna haunt me the rest of my life. I can see it right now. Darn tootin’ clear. But I got this image. And it was all black and there were four squares and they were fading back… and they were like little white rectangles. This is weird. Because you remember that see the light thing…When I had a reincarnation experience, several years ago, the light was the key. Like one of those rectangles… You could see the light and you’d pass through the rectangle. That would put you back into reality. And so anyway, that was the only thing I knew about the rectangles. But I didn’t see it as an outline this time as much as a window and I could see through it. But in this case, maybe because they were farther away– I saw it as the white windows and then one of them–Oscar was stuck in it. But the weird thing was–three of them were horizontal but the one he was stuck in was kind of vertical. Like our vertical format. Anyway, I’ll leave it at that for now.

So I don’t know about this thing. These are the images I’ve got. I work with them. I think about them… And they inspire me to live my life and be a better person. I’m here trying to help you be smarter. [laughs]

Here we go.

What happens to your soul when you die?

I do not know. But I will tell you this: When I was on the–When I did my Hanblechia, my Vision Quest on the Pineridge Reservation with the Lakota Sioux, back in the nineties: I had some experiences on the mountain, my Vision Quest and in the sweat lodge with the Chief, Richard Sparrow Eagle. A whole bunch of visions. A whole bunch of visions. And during that time Richard approached me, “I’ve been told you’re trying to go somewhere you’re not supposed to go.” [laughs] I was banging around in the spirit world. “I’ve been told you need to stay put.” That was like a weird thing you know that… I, I couldn’t take his advice. And so… I think he knew it. Yeah. He was told to tell me this or something. Anyway, uh… I had some amazing experiences… and stories about them– I wrote them down.The point being is– when I did that– I took off. And I almost died I think. I might have gotten stuck. I actually… I found this vortex of souls. I found all these souls that were all kind of merging from all over. I don’t know if there’s other planets or what the deal is… But anyway, all these souls were merging and I was getting kind of like a tractor-beam and getting sucked into this thing. And so he had to pull me back. And it was a very interesting story. I got pulled back by a bug. A bug had to attack me to bring me back from there. Yeah, that was a very interesting experience.

Let’s get back to this thing. Eight minutes.

NUMBER 21.
The unseen forces of Nature
are known to all who feel them within their own self.

Well I gotta tell you… The unseen forces of Nature.

Explain your concepts of reincarnation.

Mine change every few years. So, WHAT’S YOURS?

What lives have you already lived? Pretend if you don’t believe.

In other words, do you think you’ve had other lives?

I do. In fact it turns out I’ve had several that I can remember quite clearly now. Because I went back there a couple times.

And let’s see:
What will your next life be? Pretend if you don’t believe.

So let’s say you don’t. Maybe you’re going to Heaven. Or you’re going to Hell. Maybe you’re going to Limbo. I don’t know. Whatever your concept is. Just, you put it down. We’re probably ALL wrong. So there’s not a right answer. [laughs] But what’s your answer. That’s all.

Should you be buried or cremated? Explain.

Remember? I can’t–I don’t have an answer for this one, een myself. Well I’ve decided for myslelf. I take that back. For me I’ve got a whole different thing. I’m hoping that people are going to actually see me as some kind of guru. Some sort of a person who’s got wisdom that other gnerations go, “Oh, that guy was so smart… or So cool… or something. Or creative. I’ll inspire artists or musicians or poets. And they’ll want to somehow feel like, “Oh well, this is all I’ve got…” If I could have a kind of monument to myself. A monument? Have a burial ground. The way I picture it is: I would have like a little area about half the size of my living room here. I’m here, and I want hedges all the way around, so people could sit here in privacy. People are going around the cemetary… You’d still have some privacy. You’ve gota private little bak yard that people could sit on some stone things. ANd I could be there. And maybe they could read or talk aabout my books or something right there. Over my dead body. [laughs] Never thought I’d be happy to say that.

Okay. Where were we?

What will you leave behind to show you were here for the benefit of mankind?

For most people that’s just reproducing and having children– so do a good job youknow. With those children. I took great pride in my children for a long time and felt like they represented me. Which was — wrong. [laughs] Because I thought they represent me as an artist. Then I found out, “Hey. My kids arent’ artists. Uh-oh.

So anyway.

What is the relationship between your God and Nature?

Well that was an intersting question. I’d love to hear some of thos answers. Differrent religions have different relationships with Nature. Anyway. Just put it on paper and look at it. I don’t know what the answer is there.

How do you utilize the forces of Nature within you?

How aware are you? If you’re an athlete or something like that then obviously you definitelyknow your inner Nature and forces.

How do you use the forces of nature around you?

Okay, and that’s important. And I’m creating my own little Nature. My own little world. My little studio environmentof studios and backdrops and lights. So I’m crating my own little world.My own little Heaven here. My own little Nature. But I’m having to use electricity and all these things that are acutually part of the real Nature.

How do you relate to the forces of Nature in other persons?

I used to a lot. Back when I was into the Native American thing–people would bring me tobacco and I would heal them and do all kinds of things. But this century, now that I’ve gotten away from my kids–I’m trying to separate more from Nature. I’m going back to being more mentally oriented. Spiritually oriented, as opposed to physically grounded, Earth oriented like an animal. I’m kinda like raising up from the Earth and trying to be– trying to be less grounded? I do my Kung Fu. I’ve got a Yin Yang. I guess the Yin and the yang is I do my Kung Fu and everything so I’m very grounded with the Earth and my body and physics and everything. And then I’m spending the other half of my life Trying to be spiritual, intellectual andcreative, and musical?

Okay. So in terms of relating to the forces in other persons–what I was getting at is I used to be a healer. It was very distracting because I could feel other people’s forces. It was kinda like being able to tune into their television station brain–I’d get images and stuff. Random. Not necessarily what they were thinking. Something that was maybe stuck in their thoughts. Something that imposed itself, like a stress. Something theyd do really bad to their shoulder. “AHHH–I got hit with a baseball.” “AHHH– I got hit with a baseball. “AHHH–I got hit with a baseball.” And then when I’d kind of see the person, I kind of see this person and some sort of baseball thing. Like a white ball and a flash.. I’d see these kind of like… [huff] So that’s why I don’t like being in touch with people. It’s just too confusing. I

I could tell you that one story. I did– There’s a few I’m real proud of. I did really heal some people really well. In ways that without me maybe wouldn’t have happened. But one of the ladies, but maybe would’ve happened without me. She was my therapist. I had a foot injury. The broken foot. No, it was something else. But anyway I was in for therapy, physical therapy and she said she had these problems. At the time I was still doing a lot of the healing. So I said, “Well, if you want I could give you a n energy reading. See if I notice anything.” She went, “Sure.” We were close enough. Because i don’t like doing it–especially to girls you know. But i don’t touch them. I just have my hand near. But I’d go down her back and I found a– I told her, “I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t know what I’m telling you but i’ll tell you what I saw.” I said, “I was coming down and I found this one spot that seemed cold and black to me. And that’s all I can tell you. And it seems to me it was right there.” I could just, I could feel this one black spot. In other words I could feel her Tao, her energy, but I could also feel this one spot that was not right. But later in the therapy, I of course went for more sessions and she said: She said, “I went in for an MRI and they found a tumor or cyst on my ovary or something, exactly where you pointed.” I don’t know if I helped lead her to that or not but I was glad she told me. But she was really appreciative. She was like, “Oh that was so helpful! I’m so thankful to you!” I might have led her–like I said, I don’t know how much credit to take– but we HAVE THAT ABILITY is what I’m saying. To read energy. This is not a special ability of mine. It’s just an ability you can have too when you get really good at feeling energy. You can feel good, or different, or bad… You can just feel the difference.

Hey. How’d I do? 14:50? Outta here.

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

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

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

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