YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 62 — Tao #35
Alright. We’re getting closer to the end of the book. Remember, if this works– Remember? I had to angle down for my kitty cat being here. Reposition this any better?
You need to SHARE this and make this some sort of success for me. Otherwise, why would I continue it? But I’ve got a whole bunch of them here. I was thinking about it when I was just in the restroom thinking, “What happens if I pass away and I don’t post for a couple years? Is Instagram gonna [SNIP] my account? And all this stuff that I’m hoping to enlighten the future and the world with–is it going to just evaporate and disappear?” POP. One day it’s here and the next day it’s gone? I don’t know. I’m a strategist but I don’t know the answer to that strategy. I’d like to think part of my strategy was to put it here and then hopefully it would enlighten some people but I’m actually hoping that maybe it might garner some sort of an interest and a following. So I’m fishing. I’m fishing to see if this gonna– this thing’s gonna promote my future. Or is it just a distraction?
But it’s a great distraction. I’ve learned a lot from just helping you and hopefully by being here it’ll help you. And if they’ll leave it here after I die. You know. If they’ll actually let this be here. In a hundred years somebody’ll stumble on this go, “Wow! There’s some good information in here. I feel a lot better and I can fix a few problems.” You know, that’d be beneficial. But i don’t know. I don’t know if Instagram’s gonna leave this here.
Let’s…help me anyway… figure out the future of this. What’s going on with the Daily Taoist? I’m the Daily Taoist. And my cat seems to be wanting to go up there onto the counter for some reason. I don’t usually let him up on the sink. And he shouldn’t be allowed on the sink. But the fact he wants to go up there’s got my interest.
[to cat] “Why do you want to get up there little buddy?” I’m trying to understand his Tao. His Nature. “What is it you want? What time is it?” Maybe he wants something to eat. Let me finish. I’m gonna take a break when I’m done.” I think I’m. How many more do I have to do? I’m on #35. WHAT?! This can’t be the last one! I’ve been blasting. I didn’t realize it. Two pages long and then I could show you the BIBLIOGRAPHY if I have time. Whole bunch of ads. Sheesh. It’s insulting how many ads. I mean it’s kind of gross how many ads i put in here. I think. I think. But I was working– I was fishing hard. I was trying hard. I was reaching our for some sort of sales. In fact, one of my items, my– all my CafePress has been stolen. I tried. I went online. I saw one of my shirts. And I clicked on it. Somebody else is selling my shirt. I’ve been ripped off. My artwork’s been stolen. People are printing shirts with my praying mantis on it. So anyway. I’m getting ripped off.
These are things I need to take under control. And control would give me some–
Anyway. Here we go.
#35. Let’s wrap this up. This is our– maybe our last one if I can do one and a half pages. And in less than fifteen minutes.
Richard Del Connor. Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang. Author of the TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE. The original book is called the BOOK OF CHANGES or DAO TE CHING written by Lao Tzu 2,500 years ago. At least 2,200 years ago.
Here we go. #35. And there’s 80 of them, but this is the last one in this book.
A person who is aware of ultimate realities attracts the confidence of others through security, contentment, and self-satisfaction.
I’m going to read that again and this is a quandary of mine. This qauestion here is the one I’ve been asking myself over and over again the last few months I’ve been living here.
Hey. My cat’s gonna do something. I may have to take a break here.
[to cat] Is this a wee-wee or a poo-poo buddhy? .
I think I’m gonna take a break. He is– When he has a poo-poo now. I wipe his butt every time. So… um…
[to cat] “Hello there little buddy. Is this a poo-poo? Let me get a tissue here. Hi buds.” I thought of this earlier. Never seen it probably on film before. A guy wiping a cat’s butt? If I can get it on camera here. “You get it buddy? Alright buddy. Come here. I’ll get it. Okay. Come here. Come here Bud. Alright.”
He’s burrying it. Now he’s calling me. That’s how he calls me. “Okay. I’ll come clean it up. Alright. I got it.” He’s scratching the outside. “Yes. Yes.” He’s scratching the outside rim. “Come here Buddy. Come here Buddy. I’ll wipe you now. Here’s a tissue. Good boy. Yes you are. Good boy. Come here. A little more. Thank you. Alright? I didn’t really need to clean your butt in the camera… But… Here we go.”
Alright? So there you go. That’s it. [LAUGHS] [HAND WASHING] They say you’re supposed to wash your hands long enough for a song. Don’t know if I’ll do that. In a situation like this I use soap and water. And do a good job. The other day i went to wipe his butt and I didn’t end up wiping it. And I washed up real quick, and I thought to myself, “Oh! I’ll bet if somebody saw that video they’ll think I didn’t wash my hands good. [LAUGHS]
Alright. We’re at five minutes and we haven’t even started? And we had to do a page and a half–Maybe we should just start this one over. “Bear. Were you a total distraction for this? I think you just knocked out most of my time here.”
Alright. We’ll make that the BEAR BUTT BREAK I guess. And we’ll start that one over again.
I’m really determined. I want to get these done tonight. I’ve got about five more or so. I don’t know that I should ask Bear’s permisssion. But he’s repositioning. I was on this page. I guess he knows I’m going to work over here so he’s kind of moving over here. [LAUGHS]
This is #34a I’m Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang. Zhen Shen-Lang by the way translates as Spirit Wolf of Truth. Truth being my last name. So yeah. I’m kind of obliged to give you the truth. It’s my name.
Okay. So this is #34a of the TAO OF TAOISM based on the BOOK OF CHANGES by Lao Tzu.
And so #34a says:
Ultimate reality–
(I’ve got hairs all of the place. In your own ears.)
Ultimate reality does not compete for recognition. Though other realitites may shout their identities, eventually all perspectives will merge into the ultimate reality.
Okay. I don’t think i want to get too carried away with the spiritual implications here. But let’s stick with the material world. The real world. Ultimate reality does not compete for recognition. Ultimate reality does not compete for recognition.
In other words… Okay. So let say– So let’s take the Congress [Senate] Okay. The Congress of the United States. What do we got? Like a hundred guys there? Well 105 or 110.Any way I’ve got a hundred. So those guys. Okay? So their ultimate reality is they’re not there to compete for recognition. That’s not the job that they’re in. Their ultimate reality is to work as a team to get something done. Now unfortunately, obviously when things go wrong, we’ll notice that people are competing for recognition, and doing things– So they’re jamming up the ultimate reality. They’re ruining, they are destroying The Tao. They’re going against Nature.
Though other realities may shout their identities–
You know, like Cruz, and some of these guys. Gosh, they’re amazing! Amazing!
Eventually, all perpectives will merge into the ultimate reality.
So a lot of these guys– Well actually, this… has several things to say. This is actually not all good. This is not all good. This is actually saying– Because the ultimate reality of The Senate is that Mitch McConnell is the ultimate reality. He has decided this is the ultimate reality: “We’re not gonna let the President appoint any Justices or Supreme Court things… We’re gonna jam up the government. So HE decided what the ultimate reality was going to be for The Senate. Not the Constitution. Not the people of this country. Not just the general whatever it is of our government that’s supposed to always just outlive us. No. He decided. He decided I don’t care what the people want. I don’t care what the President wants. I don’t care what the government wants. THIS is the ultimate reality of The Senate. And… Mitch McConnell has hijacked our country for thirty years or something. I’m not an expert. I haven’t been paying attention to politics. But now that I am I’m amazed at how much YOU GUYS– “You Guys.” Anybody. Any of you who’ve paid attention to politics– How much you’ve really screwed up this country. This country is like totally screwed up by you. You guys. I’d…well, I’ll take responsibility for being ignorant and not being a part of it and even voting for Reagan once. So, I mean… I’m an idiot. But I’m getting smarter. I’m actually much, much smarter now. I would not make so many mistakes. Now that I know what’s going on better. I could be a much better voter now.
So let’s read this again.
Ultimate reality does not compete for recognition.
See. And he’s not actually competing for recognition either. See, that actually supports this concept. He [Mitch McConnell] is the ultimate reality. But he’s not even competing. There’s no competition. He’s just there. That makes him the ultimate reality. Wow! I’ve just learned something. So the ultimate reality: you can find because they’re no longer competing. See? He’s not competing. He’s totally in control. So he’s the ultimate reality. Kind of like Trump. There’s nobody competing against Trump. He’s totally in control. He is the ultimate reality. Okay? And he’s trying to get recognition. So he’s totally like the opposite. Mitch McConnell is like the QUIET EVIL. And this guy’s the LOUD EVIL. These guys are the Yin and Yang of evil. The QUIET EVIL that’s been working behind the scenes and causing all these problems. But you don’t know it. Can’t see him. And then Trump who’s out here doing all this evil RIGHT IN YOUR FACE. But this guy down here’s supporting him. See? This guy can’t get away with it without this guy. If this guy [McConnell] was right here saying, “No you can’t do that.” You know. It wouldn’t work. But no this guy’s back here saying, “You can do it.” [McConnell] “Go ahead. Go ahead and do it. I’ve got all these guys lined up. We’re gonna profit from this stupid stuff you’re doing.”
Okay. Here we go. #34a
Are you shy or bold and why?
Shy or bold. Okay? One or the other. You’re either shy or bold. Do you go introduce yourself? Or do you wait for other people to introduce themselves? Those are the two people– You have to choose from one of those two.
Are you reserved or outspoken? And why?
The ‘WHY’s’ important. I don’t have time for it because I can’t hear it. Okay, but get this book and write your ‘WHY.’ That’s very important.
Are you reserved or outspoken?
In other words, “It’s none of my business.” You hold your thing.
Or are you outspoken: “I think people should know about that!” Are you the person who lets people know what your think they should know?
Or do you hold it back? “It’s none of my business.”
If you ever say, “It’s none of my business,” then you know which one you are.
Okay.
Is your appearance subtle or bold? And why?
See, mine’s changed. I told you: I used to be a hippie. And I was doing it to make a statement. I don’t belong to this… I belong to the counterculture. I’m not part of this culture and I’m against these values. And I’m making a statement. I’m not making that statement anymore.
Um… Do you ever argue? And why?
Arguing. Yeah–that’s a good question. We’ll get into that another time. But are you versus discussion, versus debating. But arguing is where you’re basically where you’re just–there’s never a solution. And arguing never wins. If you do win it’s because the other person gave up. Or you forced them to shut up. Or you said– anyway– Arguing always ends up in a false ending.
How do you know when to stop arguing?
There you go. See? It’s never gonna end. You can argue forever. And you can stop anytime. Same place.
But anyway. How do you know when to stop arguing?
Are you competitive or passive?
What about Bear? He’s not competitive. He’s actually passive. Now if I had another pet he’d have to be competitive. And that would throw out our harmony entirely. That’s why you should never have more than one pet. You should only have one pet. That way he’s part of the family. If he’s not–he’s just another rodent that you’re feeding. He’s a lower animal. And they’ll know that because they have to deal with each other. Dealing with your as totally separate reality. But if you take the other animals out of the picture and they only relate to you– You elevate their consciousness. So that’s why this guy’s consciousness is elevated. He knows he’s a cat. There’s no question about that. And he knows the other cats. But his relationship with me is something he can’t have with anybody else. He crawls and gets in my underarm. And talks to me and stuff. We have a special relationship, and it’s a– Anyway.
Seriously. I honestly believe — in fact I’ve heard that from people too, who get two cats. “The cats just play with each other. They won’t do this… and they won’t give me any attention.” Yes. Of course. They’re going to play with each other first. You know… So– Anyway. Learn from other people’s mistakes.
Here we go. Next one.
Are you competitive or passive?
Why is winning important to you?
Everybody should want to win. But why is it important TO YOU? What does winning mean? Define it. That’s very important.
Uh… Do you prefer to talk or listen? And why?
Talk, or listen, and why? You’ve got to do all three. You’ve got to prefer one or the other. You either talk more or listen more. Okay? Some people don’t do either. They don’t talk. They don’t listen. They’re really a mushroom.
Okay. Here we go.
Do you usually try to win or compromise?
Ah… Get your own answer.
But my answer is unfortunately compromising. Now I actually– Well, that’s not entirely true. You see I actually– Bear — I can actually, because I’m a strategist, I kind of like intermix them. I’ve learned how to compromise now to win later. You know… And I don’t know about win now to compromise later. That doesn’t seem likey a— a useful thing. [laughs] But it could be. I can actually see how that could possibly be. But no. I’ve mostly been compromising as part of my winning strategy. And that’s not good. I should’ve been– even as a — even in my failed marriage I should’ve pushed harder to be me instead of compromising as much as I did. But I did. I compromised. I went for the easy soft road. I could’ve divorced. Run off with the kid. So there’s lots of things I could’ve done. And maybe should’ve done. You know, to be more successful. Maybe, the kids would be more happy. And the exwife might be more happy. So i’m not even saying I made the right choice. But the choice I did make was to play the long game. Compromise. Be in there as long as I could. I never paid child support. And I was there with my son, helping him graduate high school when he turned eighteen. He would not have graduated high school without my help. So I was right there. Right to the very end. And then they’re gone.
I played the long game. My goal was to raise my kids. So even when it totally turned bad… I spent the last five years really being unappreciated and insulted. And cussed at by my own kids. But I hung in there just because that was the plan i made and I stuck it out. So arguably it wasn’t necessarily the right way to do it but it is the way I did do it. I’m here– So there we are. I made my choices and now I’m going to live by them.
So… And I’m happy. Like i said, I’m very, very happy. So everything’s gonna work out fine.
Where are we? And I’m hoping my kids will get whatever they want in life. Because it’s obviously not what I’m offereing. So whatever they need, they need to find somewhere else. Because they know what I’ve got and they don’t want to come back for any of what I’ve got. So appreciate that. Although it’s alway gonna hurt my feelings because I always wanted them to be with me.
Where are we?
Um….oh… Are you jealous?
That’s a very important question. Everybody could say we have felt jealousy. But are you a jealous person? And we can probably define that somehow. I didn’t think this through ahead of time. But I could think of ways in girls I used to find that–And I used to realize that any girl who’s jealous–you can’t trust. And I would… the more a girl is jealous–the more there’s something you can’t trust. That’s a real imbalance. But I shouldn’t have given you any clues.
Explain your possessiveness of loved ones.
Possessiveness of loved ones. You’ve gotta explain it. In other words, if you love someone… We all have certain possessions or restrictions. Or we think we are behooven to each other. So explain your concepts. Because if you’re gonna have a mate you might want to make sure she has the same concepts. Because you might find you have two different concepts of what marriage and the vows mean.
How much freedom to do you allow your mates? And why?
So are they allowed to have sex with other people? If they did, would you forgive them? Is it okay? Do you breakup? Or get back together? Tell me what’s in your wallet?
How quickly can you understand the perspectives of others?
You make think you do. But think about it. Ask other people if they think you “GET” what they’re saying?
How does this influence your motives or goals?
In other words, if you do understand their perspectives, does that change yours at all?
How much do you enjoy compromising?
Remember that? Once you know what they want– You can’t compromise until you know what somebody else wants. So, most people might think they compromise. But maybe you don’t. You’re just giving in to something to make it easier. You’re not really compromising. How do you know that? Answer the questions here.
How do you feel about accepting the blame for other people’s mistakes?
I have a certain pride in that actually. It’s kind of a shame. I don’t shame anybody. I don’t like to use that word, “shame.” But yeah, I… In my life I have a kind of honor code, street code. Or the police think certain things– Well, I wouldn’t turn people in. Or I took responsibility. Or if I had something, and it was somebody else’s… it doesn’t matter. I didn’t– I never ever turned anybody else in. So anyway, that means something to me. That’s my “street cred”– My “Street Cred” as I think they call it. My street credibility. I’ve never narced on anybody.They use to call people, “a narc” because of “Narcotics Officer.”
Okay. Are you a good negotiator in tough arguments?
Maybe. Maybe. I look for different answers. I get people to pursue different paths of inquiry. So maybe that helps come to a better answer or just an answer they would have never come to on their own… arguing. So I have some ability. As a mediator and a negotiator.
And are you capable of being unemotional? Ant any time? No matter what?
Yeah. But it does seem practical. You’ve got to learn how to shut it off. We all have emotions. So I get emotional. But I can shut them off. I’m real good at it now.
But some people can’t. People literally can’t. Some people say, “I’ve gotta take a break.” “I’ve gotta do something because I’m having an emotional…” “I can’t control my emotions!” It’s pretty pathetic but people believe that’s acceptible. And like I said, if you’re in that lower part of the herd you know… emotions become logic. Then people start saying they think with their gut. I mean they just start saying things that are totally illogical or stupid. And they’re using them as their reasoning.
So… when you start mixing down there at the bottom… it gets pretty muddy.
Okay. So, what upsets you most?
Think about that for a minute before i say what I say.
What upsets YOU most?
Okay. Hopefully you got your answer out there. Because what upsets you most is often what upsets you most that you do yourself. In other words something that would bother you the most if you did it. Like for me: lieing. It would bother me so much if I lied. I’ve told a couple lies and they haunt me forever. So when other people lie it really really bothers me. But I’m very gullible because I never lie. So I always want to think everybody’s telling the truth. But lies get in. But I don’t like them. So when they lie– “POOF” The person’s out. [laughs] I’m very very much into the truth. If you lie to me– If you don’t want to be my friend just tell me a– Don’t tell me lie. Just don’t talk to me. People don’t want to be my friend? But an’t be my friend if they lie.
Gotta get out of here before that fifteen minutes.
Alright. Back again. Daily Taoist here, Buddha Zhen. Reading from the TAO OF TAOISM written by me. Based on the DAO of Dao Te Ching or BOOK OF CHANGES by Lao Tzu, 2,200 years ago. I’m on page–well, not page but #33— actually “d” wasn’t it? This #33 has four parts to it. I broke it into four parts because it just had so much…
#33. We went from #33a and answered these questions. We went to #33b and asked these. “c” we just finished. [No. skipped accidentally] Now we’re on #33d. Let’s see what happens over here.
To create one’s own path in life is an external achievement beyond walking a path designed by other persons.
Period.
Read it again. And then you can say, “Hey! You’re the poster child for that one.”
To create one’s own path in life is an external achievement beyond walking a path designed by other persons.
As I’ve said in all these many stories: is that my parents have been trying to get me to walk their path. Walk that path. You know… They’ve just been– In fact I got disinherited because I wouldn’t walk their path. They said, “If you’re not going to walk this path then we’re gonna kick you out of the tribe and the herd and everything. You can’t come back.”
When you hear people say things like that, they’re just down there in the low I.Q. range.
Okay. Here we go. Explain how parents, teachers, friends, religion.. influenced your path as a child. Yeah. We all got that. You’ve– We’ve all been influenced in different ways. So you’ve got to get it out. Get it all out there so you can see what you kept and what you didn’t keep. There may be things thatthey said you should go back to. I’m not saying– Put it all out. I gave you two lines. I think you need like ten.
Explain your teenage path influences.
Who influenced you as a teenager?
As a teenager it definitely wasn’t my parents. Not at all. Uh… So… who influenced? Remember, I grew up in the sixties. So when I think of who influenced me, they’d be people like John Lennon, and… Jimi Hendrix, and for writers…interesting, Abbie Hoffman, STEAL THIS BOOK. Ginsberg was the popular poet, but I didn’t really relate to him. So, not everything that was going on at that time harmonized my Tao. There was a lot of creative stuff. That’s the beautiful thing. It was such a huge Renaissance. There were people being creative in ways that I didn’t even appreciate. But they were being creative. They were being artistic. They were being– I don’t want to say abnormal– but “not normal.”
Okay. #33d: Walking your own path. Deciding this unique way you’re going to live your life. Which caused me to get kicked out of my own family. Just because I tried to be an individual.
Explain your teenage path influences.
Well now explain your young adult path influences. So once you turn 20–
See, once I hit 20 I was a recording engineer working in a studio. And so there were certain people who influenced my life. Like that famous drummer, uh Cappice, uh What’s wrong with me? I want to say, Armen Cappice [Carmine Appice] but that’s not it. The drummer from Vanilla Fudge. He started this institute and I enrolled in it. I met him. And then later, one of his prize students [drum student] Richard Augustine, who actually used to go visit and live with him and trained with him. One of his disciples was my drummer on the Temptation record. He does the song, “Carol.” He does “Billy Boy” also on another song on a different album. But anyway, he was an influence. I give him credit for that. Uh…let’s see and I would have to see the… producer of The Beatles. He gets a lot of credit. Because I was trying understand what he did. He inspired me. I mean back: engineering. “What might he do?” I would listen with headphones. “What did he do?”
Okay… Which of these influences are still incorporated in your path? And how?
Well obviously, Martin. He’s still influencing me. And… I’d like to think I made him proud. But he had a lot more resources than I do. But I’ve made good– In fact, people have been impressed with what I’ve done with my resources. So yes.
Which influences should be incorporated more and how?
Well that’s it. I’ve been– I’ve gone through Plato. I spent like four or five years going back to Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. Read Marcus Aurelius maybe twice more. THE MEDITATIONS. Epictitus, I read him a couple of times. I’ve been going through all the philosophers in the last ten years trying to rebuild my life. It’s like gosh, after marriage, “What the heck am I going to do with myself?” This whole thing about being a steer in the herd is absurd for me. I had to reput… like: “BkBkBkBkBkBk” cram a bunch of information into me and see what I ended up.
So now I’m…trying to create the new me and go forward so: You’ll have to see what it is. I’m creating a brand new creature. I am a brand new creature. And I’m synthesizing myself very, very, um… I don’t know about systematically, but effectively and consistently so I’m kind of like cooking myself in my own shell. And I’m emerging right now.
So here we go.
Creating Your Path Requires Excluding People from your Life
Which influences should be excluded now from your path and why?
Like I said, that’s romance and love. Well I’ve got love. I’ve got my kitty. Chewing away. Oh.. but sex. Pursuit of sex and relationships like that. That’s definitely a waste of time for me now.
I’ve got lots of love songs. I’ve got hundreds of love songs so people might never know I don’t have a love life. I could just release one my songs and people’d go, “Man. This guy’s horny!” [LAUGHS] I wrote it 30 years ago.
How and why has your path become radically different from your influences?
Radically different? Well, who are my influences? Well, I look at my musical influences: Hendrix, um… Mick Abrahms, Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter. Those were some of my strongest influences as a guitar player.
[to cat] “Oh. Hi there buddy. Come on… Hello you.” He gave me that look.
What was the question. It had something to do with how have I become different from them? Well I decided that I exceeded them. I went, “WOW!” You know, Johnny Winter will always be the master just like my Kung Fu master Kam Yuen or Grandmaster Wong Jack Man. It doesn’t matter whether I ever was to try to think that I could beat them up. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter if they’re frail or had broken legs they’re my master and you can’t think things like that. But you can think of you’ve done something– you’ve improved on what they’ve done. And I know that I teach a lot better than any of my masters. Okay? So I’ve improved on them that way.
Now, as far as a guitar player, I found that it interesting. Because Rory Gallagher; I held him in high esteem as a singer-songwriter and a guitar player. And I love him. He was very instrumental– He was a strong influence on me in the beginning. I saw him like 7 times in concerts. I was just like inches away from him. Inches. And I was very inspired by him. And… but to realize that, “Wow,” you know my songwriting just went [truck noise] right past him. His songwriting became very shallow and narrow. And my guitar playing expanded in so many different directions. He is an AMAZING guitar player. He can do like a dozen things amazingly well. And of those I do maybe 8 of them [laughs] really well. But I’ve got another 8 that I do well. So I’ve done– So anyway I’m just impressed that I was able to do what he does. And then do other stuff… And like I said, my songwriting definitely went far beyond him. In fact I felt so bad for him. Because I think he’s so talented. And I look up to him. And I was thinking, “I wish he had my music.” If he would’ve recorded my songs he could’ve maybe been much more successful and had a much bigger audience. So I sometimes regret that I’m not famous because there’s a lot of people who are not taking advantage of what I have that would benefit their life. And make them better. My music… I’ve got great songs no one has ever heard. So people could make a lot of money off them if they had a way to put them in front of people. If they could make a recording of my song in a good way and then release it… People are gonna– I guarantee people are gonna like some of this music. Not because– They don’t even have to know it’s even me. Doesn’t matter who wrote it. There just good songs. But okay.
Uh… So let’s see. Which influences should be taken from my path? Did we get to that one? Um… “You really distracted me.” [to cat] You’re– Okay.
How and why has your path become radically different from your influences?
Well it became radically different because I had more information. People like Rory Gallagher: he got stuck into that routine of just touring every single year for years. And so– And that’s a job. You don’t have a life. You perform and you’re travelling and you don’t have that time to be alone and be in your… thinking zone. He’s travelling a lot. That’s very, very upsetting. People who tour will never talk very highly about touring. You’ll hear people say, “I don’t want to ever tour again.” It’s not the best way to live. A musician’s happier not touring. I have not toured to the point I don’t like touring. That’s because i’ve hardly toured at all.
So it’s kind of a good thing. I’ve never been burned out as an artist which is why I love playing. I’ve never played to the point where I– I’ve never played a song so much that I felt, “I DON’T WANNA PLAY THAT SONG AGAIN.” Except you’ll see one of the songs: It was just so emotional, it was so emotionally involving that I only played it a few times. The “Use Me” song. I actually start crying. If you see that video you might not be able to tell. Look really carefully when I go [cringes face] this is something… that… like… I’m really breaking down. Because this was the first day I was really being homeless and saying goodbye to my kids forever. [somehow I knew] Gone forever. That was the last day I ever– I visited them a few times after that. But that was the end. That was– That song “USE ME” [live video] was recorded on the last day I saw my kids. Anyway.
Sad song. I was like so sad when I wrote that. When I wrote it, but when I was siging it– I was sadder…
Okay. Here we go.
Where were we? Did I make it? Ten minutes.
Most People Should Follow the Path of their Parents/Friends
How and why has your path become similar to your influences?
Well it hasn’t become similar because I added so much spirituality and healthy living. See? All those people drink and they travel. They were doing drugs or drinking. So when they were spinning around in the hamster wheel. I was living my life and growing and explorying and going to UCLA. Being a photographer. Having kids. Developing Kung Fu schools. Going off and having a Hanblecia my Vision Quest on The Rosebud. Becoming a Pipe Carrier. Healing people for a few years. While they were just circling around doing tours and playing the same songs that they’d been playing for ten, twelve years.
Like this group Garbage. Which I really like on the first album. And I saw an interview again. And I was trying to figure them out. Put them in perspective. And their first album, “2.0” I think it was. It’s a great album. It’s a very, very good album. I’ve got it. I’ve got the CD. And it’s a good album but they haven’t been able to duplicate it. And I was trying to figure out why. And even she was saying that, “We’re happy what that album did for us.” And there’s a lot of clues if you can read between the lines and understand what people are saying. But yes, in other words, these are not real MUSICIANS. They were people who were playing music. And they may have been driven and they may have had some artist potential in them, in the lower qualities. Not in the first position though. I don’t know about any of them. Maybe the drummer. The drummer might have the MUSICIAN in the first position. But the other ones, you know I’m not so sure. Because they didn’t grow and expand. And so as a result they couldn’t grow as a group. But they were at that time able to take all their best qualities and everything that they had: mush it together and take all that stuff. That’s why most groups’ first record is the best. Because it’s got so much stuff crammed into it. Even if they’re not really MUSICIANS. It’s all that stuff that they did generate. You know, accidentally. As kind of pretending to be MUSICIANS they still created the stuff. And then when they jammed it together it was awesome. Now that album’s really good.
But where we? So, anyway I felt bad. And then she was talking about not having an ego and stuff like this, and being Scottish, and it’s like– “Awww” You’ve gotta have an ego to be an artist. That’s what an artist is. An artist lives for their ego. But then again you have to remember what the ego is. The ego is the expression of what’s inside of you. What most people think of the ego is a false pride. False pride is false pride. An ego is something different. But we’ll get to that later. But ego is a very good thing. Now what if you have somebody like Trump. He has false pride. He bolsters. He has this big huge ego based on lies, deception, bankruptcy, fraud… So yes, all that pride that he generates–that’s the evil. That ego that he has is evil. So that’s not real ego and its not real pride. It’s all just a bunch of fake news.
Alright. Buddha Zhen here with the real thing. The real news from 2,500 years ago. Bringing to you the freshest old news. Got, 2,500 years old. Gottem, the bones would even be be rotten by now. So anyway, bringing you Lao Tzu’s bones. [laughs]
Alright. So anyway that was kind of wrapping up the 33rd… I’m kind of a little distracted by my little buddy here. [Bear the cat] He’s taking a little bit of my energy and my love away. Sorry. You’re not getting me 100%. “Yes. I love you Bear.” But like I said, I relish my distractions. [talks to cat and laughs]
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.
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.
Then my other Tao was saying, “Hey! Let’s keep going!”
So it’s like, alright… Let’s compromise. We’ll do one more and then we’ll take a break. [LAUGHS]
You’ve gotta work with yourself. You know you can’t just push yourself all the time. You’ve gotta–You’ve gotta find your own Yin and Yang. So here it is: I’m going to do this #30 and take a break.
#30 of the TAO OF TAOISM. Written by me, Buddha Zhen, Richard Del Connor, Zhen Shen-Lang. Based on the book by Lao Tzu which I call THE BOOK OF CHANGES. Okay? Dao Te Ching. The Book of Changes.
It’s about basically the book of all the– everything changes. The book–Or you could even call THE TAO nothing but “Changes.” Because THE TAO doesn’t exist. It’s just your way of trying to understand: what was–what is now–what it’s becoming… It’s just a constant flow of change. All reality is a constant flow of change.
Okay. Here we go. #30.
Cruelty, destruction, and arrogance are unnatural evil forces.
Man! Should mail a copy of this to– Well, Trump’s not gonna– He doesn’t read. You see? That’s the problem. Trump could never do this book. Trump is never going to be a better person. He’s always going to be a terrible, terrible person. Because he’s not capable of reading this book. That’s a shame. Because I would like to at least improve him. It’s not like I want to– hurt him. He deserves to be hurt. He’s hurt lots of people. Even killed–anyway, inadvertently perhaps killed people. Yeah, what to do with that guy? Put him in prison. Make him read my book the rest of his life. Heck–
Okay, #30.
Cruelty, destruction, and arrogance are unnatural evil forces.
Remember, I define evil as anything that works against the good of the person. In other words, anything I don’t want you to do to me is evil. I don’t want you to take my car. That’s evil. I don’t want you to take my house. That’s evil. I don’t want you to shoot me. That’s evil. I don’t want to go without food. I don’t want you to take my food and make me hungry. That’d be evil. Anything that hurts me is evil. Anything that helps me is good. Hey, you’re gonna give me some more food. That’s nice. That’s a good thing to do. You’re gonna give me some more money. Hey, that’s a good thing. Gonna give me a better car. That’s a good thing to do. Thank you, I could use it. See? All these things are good.
See? You can see the difference between good and evil. One helps the person. And one hurts the person. So–
Do you enforce laws, rules, and punishments for disobeying those laws and rules you dislike?
Alright. Let’s read that again. I’ll read it maybe twice. Make sure we get it right.
Do you enforce laws– (Okay, so do you like a parent) –enforce laws rules and punishments for disobeying rules and laws you dislike?
Like what about smoking pot? Now what if a policeman smokes pot. They probably test him so much he couldn’t. Anyway, if he could, but he wanted to smoke pot, but he’s gotta arrest other people and put them in handcuffs for doing it. Even though it’s something he wants to do. See thats… So he’s enforcing a law that he dislikes.
Do you believe that when a person breaks a law they should “pay the consequences?”
Ah. Should people suffer? Should you make them atone for it. Okay? There’s a whole bunch of answers to that but I’m just looking for yours right now. I’m not sure if this is the place to go into all the psychology and everything of what’s going on here.
So let’s just go through this and I’ll try to influence you as little as possible. [LAUGHS] Because if you’re seductive [sadistic] evil qualities–You need to see them. You need to let them out. So I don’t mean to– I’ll probably. You’ll probably be hiding them, “Oh, I’m not gonna say that. He’s not gonna like–” So don’t write it for me. Write it for you. Write the truth in this book and then look at it, and then that’s the only way you can get better. You can’t hide from yourself. Well YOU CAN. In fact, that’s probably what you’ve been doing your whole life. Everybody who’s looking at this has probably hid from themselves to some extent.
Me? I mean, I wasn’t trying to. I was trying to be something I wasn’t. So I was trying to hide my artistic Nature. I was trying to be a Carpenter when I wanted to be a Musician. So I was kind of hiding a little bit.
So, yeah. We all do it in our own way. How do you– Okay.
Do you believe that a person who breaks a law should “pay the consequences?”
Do you believe the rule, “Spare the rod–and you’ll spoil the child?”
Do you believe in that rule? That it’s correct? Spare the rod and you’ll spoil the child?”
Do you believe that too much patience or affection will “spoil the child?”
So in other words, if you don’t punish them enough they’re not going to be good. And if you’re too good to them, they’re not gonna turn out good.
“Spoil the child.” Do you ever say, “spoil the child?” “You’re spoiling him.” Do you ever say that? Have you ever used the word, “spoil?” (In regards to other people.) Have you ever said it?
Can you kick or hurt a dog, cat or other small animal when they misbehave?
In other words, when they’ve done something bad. They’ve pee-ed on the floor. Or something that really just makes you mad. They’ve done it before. Do you kick them? Punish them?
Do you enjoy hunting animals?
I guess, “enjoy.” Now I used to– I’m a hunter. Was a hunter? I’ll always be a hunter. If I had to I’d be a hunter now. But if I don’t have to I don’t really want to. I’ve got other things more important. [LAUGHS]
But anyway, as a hunter do you ENJOY hunting animals?
Let me tell you, because you probably aren’t a hunter. There aren’t many hunters around. Last twenty years they’ve kind of disappeared. Everybody’s afraid of guns.
The point being: as a hunter I don’t enjoy killing animals. But I do enjoy hunting. So I don’t care if I ever even catch–if I’m successful. I always enjoyed every hunting expedition I’ve been on whether or not I bagged anything. Seriously. I’ve always enjoyed them equally. The one’s where we did actually kill something were actually more problematic and had more stuff. And you gotta gut ’em, and hang ’em, and bleed ’em and drag ’em back in the snow. It’s a lot of work actually killing an animal and bringing it back. So I wouldn’t call that more fun. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed that part. So I enjoy hunting, and maybe I enjoy hunting less [more] when I’m unsuccessful.
Do you enjoy killing people?
And then in parentheses I put, “in games.” [LAUGHS]
I remember this one little kid I was talking to and he was all proud of himself because he’d had 29,000 kills in one year. So in one year he was proud he had killed 29,000 individuals. Of course they were supposed to all be bad, but you know they were still ranging from probably elves, fairies and dwarves and demons and humans and soldiers and whatever. 29,000 people killed. Because you were aiming at them and trying to kill them. So that’s 29,000 to actually go, “I want you to die. Die. I want you to die. Die. Die.”
Even when I was hunting, I wasn’t really saying, “I want you to die.” It was more like a contest of trying to–of anyway… You’re just–
Okay. Where are we?
So, do you enjoy killing people? (In games.)
Low battery. Sheesh. I told you I’d have to take a break right after this.
Here we go.
Explain your viewpoint on guns.
I keep mentioning this. So lay out yours. Say it to yourself. What’s your viewpoint on guns. “They’re all evil…” Say whatever you believe. Okay?
Which sports do you enjoy? And why?
Which sports do you enjoy? And why?
Everybody’s got certain sports. But why not the other ones? Why this one over that…? Think about it. Maybe you don’t even know. But think about it. Why didn’t you choose football instead of soccer? Why didn’t you choose badminton instead of tennis? Probably can’t find badminton on TV. [LAUGHS]
Alright. Here we go.
What should be done with homeless persons?
Oooh. Remember. I wrote this book back in the eighties. Rewrote it in the nineties. Last rewrite was ten years ago before I ever knew I was going to be a homeless person. Although I had lived out of my van a couple times in the eighties. I started my record company that way. I was a union carpenter working at the airport at LAX for a year and a half or something. And I lived out of my car. I got the job and realized it was one of those like long haul jobs and I was the Steward and so I was going to be one of the last people fired on the job. Which is kind of cool. Sometimes you’re just hired and you go for a couple of weeks. And then you’re gone. But in this case I was the Union Steward so that was a long term job. So I would just work. Go to my Kung Fu school. And then I’d go park at the beach. And do my Kung Fu and play music in my car or go to band rehearsal. That was in the mid-eightes. Mid-eighties.
Where were we? Yeah. Maybe 1982, ’84. It was before the ’84 Olympics. So it would have ben ’83 before the Olympics. Maybe I was working when it started. I’m not sure.
Explain your viewpoint on– Okay– Oh– Explain your viewpoint on guns.
Explain your viewpoint on gun laws.
Okay. So you said guns. Tell what you think on gun laws. I never thought this was going to be an issue. But it was a long long time ago I wrote this. Before this became this hotbed thing.
Explain your viewpoint on other weapons.
So me, I’d bring up nunchuks. You don’t even know what they are probably. They had a big heyday because of Bruce Lee. He made nunchuks famous. For like ten years every criminal and every person in the world carried nunchuks. And that’s why they had to make all these laws against nunchuks. It’s because of Bruce Lee. If he would’ve never made nunchuks famous they would have never had to make laws that they were illegal. So that’s the one thing he did. He made nunchuks famous. And now nunchuks are dead. Kung Fu is dead. Bruce Lee is dead.
What are your favorite wars and why?
What are your favorite wars and why?
Remember. A lot of people just love World War II things. I’ve actually got a World War 2 book. And as soon as I wrote it I get all this advice: “You’ve gotta put World War II on here. There’s all kinds of people–that’s all that they look for is World War II stories and World War this… So, yes…A lot of people have favorite wars. They just love to keep them alive in their minds and their worlds and their books and their videos. They… anyway–
So WHY do you like those wars?
Put the whole answer there. You might be surprised, or hopefully you might learn something about yourself.
What are your favorite violent movies? And why?
Violent movies… and why.
Me personlly, I have BOOM Desperado. Desperado One, the scene in the bar. Where his gun case opens real slowly and they can see– “I’m just looking for the man named, Bucho.” Anyway, that scene. That movie, Desperado., I love it. Very, very violent. Ugly sometimes. I’m not trying to be the total– Goody 2-Shoes. I’m just– Let’s all be honest. But I love that battle scene. That’s one of my favorites. I just watched it. I found it on YouTube. I saw it just recently. [LAUGHS] A month ago or something. I was like, “Yeah!” I had to play that scene. I just enjoyed it.
And okay. And that’s killing, horrible sadistic things.
Okay. Where were we? Where are we? Oh we’re over here on this page.
What are your favorite horror movies? Books? Or Stories?
So Horror movies, books and stories. What are your favorites? ‘kay?
I don’t even know if the “WHY” even matters because you wouldn’t want to say, “Well I like this movie where they cut up…” You don’t want to try to come up with a reason. So don’t try.
But maybe–I don’t know. Maybe if you could look at the influence why–or who got you to start looking at them or liking them. Look at maybe a few things like that. Okay?
If you were given a Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde potion– (Remember? You drink it and then you turn into your alter character? They used to call it the evil or whatever it is–that other ego–the animal ego or whatever. ) –What monster would you become?
So if you were this other monster–as opposed to the civilized animal: you know: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- Dr. Jekyll I guess was the nice guy. And then Mr. Hyde was the really evil… Anyway, what monster would you– Describe the evil you. What would be the evil you?
And describe your car, clothes, status and social image.
I was thinking of the evil one of you. But do both of them. Do your Dr. Jekyll images of you: how you’d dress. Your car clothes and status. How they’d be different. Dr. Jekyll would maybe drive a Ferrari. Maybe, or– You figure it out. Anyway. This is for you to look at yourself. That’s what this is for.
Alright. Buddh Zhen here in thirteen minutes and this is your Daily Tao #30 and we were talking: Lao Tzu says,
Cruelty, destruction, and arrogance are unnatural evil forces.
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.
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.
I’m a musician so of course I see this one very clearly. But this goes back to something in the translations. I’m not sure what to call them in this current world. In this century. But some people when they translate Lao Tzu: he refers to the “Goody Goodies” or the “Goody Two Shoes.” These are the people who feel good when they can take a rule and then hit somebody with it like a baseball bat and make them bleed. “Well it’s legal. This is the law. You broke the law and now I’m gonna use the law to hurt you.” [evil snicker] And they feel good about it. ua
Those are– They’re actually evil people. But they think they’re good people. That’s the irony. They think they’re the best people in the world but they’re actually very evil.
So we have to go to Buddha for understanding here. And this is one thing– I only rediscovered this a few years ago actually. That guy’s so enlightening!
Buddha said there’s only two things to create an evil person: ignorance and desire.
What? Just two things? Two things and that person is an evil person. Yes. That’s it. All you need is desire and ignorance.
Okay. All you can say is, “I’ll give you a hundred bucks.”
“Oh, I want that hundred bucks.”
“But you have to go over there and kick that dog.”
“Oh. Alright then. I guess it’ll be okay.” He’s ignorant. He goes, “Well I guess you’re not a bad man.” So he kicks the dog. Get’s a hundred bucks. He’s done something evil. It’s that easy. [laughs]
So that’s all evil is. If ignorance: somebody doing something they shouldn’t do if they were smarter–and not kick the dog. Which is dumb. You just don’t do it for a thousand dollars. Don’t do it for a million dollars. Don’t kick the dog. But unfortunately, evil is, “Well, I’m not evil for a hundred. But for a thousand dollars I’ll be evil.”
Evil is evil. All it takes is ignorance and desire. [laughs] It’s terrible. It’s terrible. Ever since I’ve known that I’ve realized, Man! How much evil is in the world. Most people are committing all kinds of little evil acts. So then at some point you create a big evil act and somebody catches you, “You’re evil!” “No I’m not. I’ve never done big evil. Just little evil…” And they don’t think they’re evil. They can’t see it.
So unfortunately the whole world has become blind to the fact we might be doing little evil things. Poisoning a little river. “Oh, It’s just a little bit of poison in the river. It’s not gonna hurt anybody.” That’s ignorance. And the desire was to get rid of it. So out of our ignorance and desires we are evil.
So watch yourself. We’re evil all the time. We justify it.
So back that. So those are the “Goody 2-Shoes.” There’s a lot of those in government. They love to get into government where they can use the government to hurt people. And say, “It’s legal. It’s legal you know. He stepped on that line. And the law says, you step on that line and I can… hit you with a baseball bat. Okay? So he stepped on that line. It’s legal. It’s the law. So.” WHAM. They go and they love to hit people. Anyway these sadistic people are running our government. There’s a lot of evil, evil, evil people who enjoy being evil–running our government. Like Mitch McConnell. He LOVES to jam up the government. For forty years he takes the greatest pride in hurting our country. But he’s getting paid for it. He’s ignorant. He thinks he’s doing something good because somebody’s paying him big money and other people are agreeing with him. So he thinks it’s okay. He’s ignorant. Ignorant–he really is. He’s got that desire for the money and the power. So you put those two together and you have one of the most evil persons in the entire planet running our country.
So anyway, let’s get back to this real quick. And see, I’ll come back to that.
Those are the “goody-goodies.” The people who think they’re the best people in the world and they’re actually doing the most evil in the world. Starting wars and– “We did this war for your own good.”
Okay. #19b.
Tao #19b Avoid adherence or blind observance of the “letter of the laws.”
The “letter of the laws” was in quotation marks. That’s an important thing. Like I was saying, “He stepped on the line.”
Well maybe he tripped. Extenuating circumstances. But this person doesn’t care. They’re only interested in the “letter of the law.” Not the ‘reality of the law.’ You know, maybe he wasn’t going to step on that line. Maybe like I said, he tripped. Or maybe he would’ve stepped on somebody’s foot, so he stepped over their foot so he wouldn’t hurt them, and he did that. And now he’s gonna get punished.
See… if you… “So you still stepped on the line! I’m gonna hit you with this bat.” WHACK. WHACK. WHACK. That’s adhering to the letter of the law. And that’s where our whole world has gone screwy. Because of people trying to hurt people. You know, because they can legally do it.
So I call “The nature of the rule…” The “Nature of the Rule” is if you step on that line–I’m gonna have to make it again. It’s made out of chalk. We’re playing a sport and I’m just getting ready to play so “Don’t step on that line” because then I’m gonna have to back and the chalk roller and make it all nice… We’re playing baseball here.” Or something like that.
You see, so the “letter of the law” is “DON’T STEP ON THAT LINE” before the game because then it’s gonna look ugly and people are gonna show up and somebody’s gonna have to come out and fix it. Okay? So that’s the letter of the law: “Don’t step on the lines before the game.” The chalk lines on the baseball field. But the NATURE of it is because it’ll look good and if somebody trips or falls that doesn’t mean they have to go to jail. You know, you’ve got to fix it. And hopefully that person won’t do it again. Maybe they knew they weren’t supposed to do it. They don’t need to be punished, you know, for stepping on it. And… You get the point–you get the concept. And if you’re smart enough to be listening to me–hopefully you understand what I’m saying. If you’re not smart enough to understand what I’m saying then I lost you a long time ago. I’m not that far here…
Here we go.
Like a musician, do you think about the notes, or do not think about the notes, play the song.
You see, that was a tricky thing last night. I didn’t know what key I was in when I was writing that song. I could hear it in my head. And then I was… I was playing my bass. Doing it like a guitar… And I come back to this thing… “What was that rhythm?” You know, I had to find it. And it wasn’t a matter of seeing it or reading it… it was like, “What was the way I played it?” And then BOOM I’d feel it. “Ah. There it is.” And that was the riff. I was playing THE SONG. Not the notes. I could know what was right. And then when I was playing the chords it was, “No… It’s supposed to go down there. That wasn’t quite right.” And I’m screwing around, “What was it?” And then I’d have to find it. Look for that thing that felt right.
Sometimes I have to explore. Literally have to explore and try, “No let’s go to this…” “THERE we go.” [bass impersonation] And then it felt like it with the progression. Worked for what I was trying to accomplish.
Okay. Here we go. So let’s read the whole thing again.
Lao Tzu says,
Avoid adherence or blind observance to the “letter of the laws.” And be always aware of the Nature of the rule. Like a musician do not think about the notes. Play the song.
Alright. So let’s see what I have to inspire you on that. That message that to me means a heck of a lot. [LAUGHS] That’s like one of my– Just like a Motto of my life.
Are you a stickler for details and fine print?
Are you one of those baseball hitters?
What laws do you obey so efficiently that you don’t evaluate all information before deciding what’s right or wrong?
And we do that with our kids, as parents you know. They do something. They break the rules–maybe for a good reason. They break the rules and our first reaction is [growl growl]. [LAUGHS] Maybe there’s a good explanation. Anyway, as a parent listen… and look for the real truth. Don’t just always make–
It simplifies our lives to have rules, and say, “You stay here in this area. You stay here in this area.” It just simplifies it. As a parent I know what it’s like to make rules. But at the same time don’t make so many that– anyway. That’s probably coming up in another one.
Like a soldier or a policeman are you bound to serve laws whether you agree with them or not?
Which laws do your enforce?
Like… now. Our politics… we have terrible laws. Make illegal things we…
Which laws do you enforce you don’t obey.
In other words what laws do you make other people do that you don’t obey?
Especially when you have kids. You make them obey laws that you don’t obey.
So–but you should be able to answer that.
Do you get mad when someone lies to you? Why?
There’s a lot to unpack buried in that which we can’t unpack right now. But that’s very important.
Can you trust someone who has cheated? Why?
I’ll read each question twice.
Do you trust someone who has cheated you? Why?
Do you feel guilt, shame, or frustration when you break a self-imposed rule?
Oooh. That you made yourself.
Do you feel guilt, shame, or frustration when you break a self-imposed rule?
Next, last one: Do you rely on rules to keep you in line?
Like Alcoholics Anonymous? Or religion? Family? Employers? The military? The police? Explain.
One more time: Do you rely on rules to keep you inline?
Alcoholics Anonymous, religion, family, emploers , the military, or police? Explain.
Now yeah. Remember I told you. Yes. I rely on lot you ts of– I don’t know if I’d even call them rules. Like I told you yesterday. I’m making these structures and when I go to a website. What are the rules? What am I going to do when I get there? Okay? Which websites am I going to get and ignore all the rest? Prioritizing. Trying to find a list so I can go down the list and– “Ah. Done.”
That’s it. Because I’ve got so many thousands of things to do. I can never define that. So I’m trying to make things so I can tell when I’ve actually gotten something done. Or at least the most important things. a least
That was #19b of the TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE. That’s what we’re using. We’er going to improve our life with all of this.
So anyway, Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang here. Glad to have you along. And yeah, keep thinking. And if you’re thinking then you’re learning. And even if you’re disagreeing with me–at least I got you thinking. It’s okay. You can disagree.
Okay. I’m blasting along. I’ve got two more to do. ‘d’ and ‘e.’ #18d and #18e. I’m on page 32. And then 33.
Okay, the TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE. Lao Tzu wrote the original. Buddha Zhen here. I wrote the — this weird variation of it, in which I use his quote and then we answer all these questions that integrate that wisdom into our life.
Here we go. #18d.
TAO #18d When oaths and promises are required of workers, government officials, and members: deceit and corruption are already out of control.
Oh my goodness! The first thing Trump did was a landmark. He was asking for people to kiss his ring and swear loyalty and things to him. And you see: deceipt and corruption were already out of control the moment he entered there. When he was trying to do that–it was already out of control. It’s not that we had to see it. That, that… WOW!
When oaths and promises are required of workers, government officials– (Remember, that’s what Trump did. He wanted oaths from government officials.) –and members: then deceit and corruption are are already out of control.
Wow. That’s beautiful Lao Tzu. 2,200 years ago, and he predicted what we are so stupid–we put in power. We put in power exactly what he said to never do.
Okay. Here we go.
What oaths and promises have you made or required of others?
One more time: What oaths and promises have you made or required of others?
Well I can tell you one oath. I have taken that many oaths, but I swore an oath. And I remember all my oaths. And I remember all my Freemason oaths. Any oath I’ve made is an important oath. Those are like, in threat of life and death. An oath is.
So anyway, one of the oaths I made was that I would never ever support the Communist Party. And I had to swear that oath in order to become a Union Carpenter back in 1972 I think. So back in 1972 when I was sworn into the Carpenter’s Brotherhood. It’s the Union. It’s called actually, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Joiners are the people who work in wood shops. So, when I joined them I had to swear not only an oath of allegiance–some sort of whatever it was… But the only thing that stood out to me was: I had to swear that I would never support or be a Communist.
Now I don’t like to make promises that I’m not gonna guarantee, but I just kind of went along with it. Because I’d been conditioned through the Cold War and everything to not be a Communist. But I still had to think twice. But what if I decide it’s a good idea or something. I swore an oath that I would never do that.
So that’s why it really kind of irritates me to see that we’ve elected a Communist into–as our President. Our President is doing everything that I was told that a Communist would do if they took power… or could influence our government. We never actually thought of a Communist actually running our country. We always thought that a Communist would just merely kind of influence our government. Influence it to be corrupt. Influence it to be just evil, deceitful, or do something bad.
So that’s what I was raised to think Communism was. It was somethiyng that was trying to influence our government to not work properly. Wow! And then we elect somebody in there whose–he’s the most incredible Communist we’ve ever had in our government. He has disrupted our government and caused it to not function and fired more people and created more vacancies in our government than Communists have ever ever been able to do since I was born. As far as I know. I’ve never seen anything close to this. He has caused more damage that the CoImmunists would have applauded than any other human that I know of.
Anyway, that’s kind of interesting.
So, where was I? I got distracted because that was so poignant.
When do you make agreements you do not intend to keep?
When do you make agreements you do not intend to keep?
When do you require agreements from others you don’t expect them to keep?
When do you reequire agreements from others that you don’t expect them to keep?
Now Bear, you’re making it hard to read here. You’re gonna get your butt in the picture. [laughs] Okay.
How do you know you can trust someone?
How do you know that you can trust someone?
Well somebody wanted my attention. Hello Bear. Hello my little buddy. If I raise you up, can I get your head in the camera a little? Okay. Hello my buddhy. Purring away here.
He needed my attention. I guess he thought I was giving you too much attention. Hello my little friend. Okay. I’ve gotta kind of scoot him aside so I can read the next one.
When you say, “I promise,” is that different from when you say, “I will.”
Or, “I will do that.” “I promise I will do that.” So, how are those different to you?
When is it okay to break a promise?
When is it okay to break a promise?
Remember, marriage is supposed to be a promise. People break marriages.
When is it okay to break a marriage promise?
Hairs all over the place. [blowing noises]
Do you obey your father?
Do you obey your father?
Bear, do you obey me?
I have to create– Remember I was talking about rules? And ways to influence him, so that he’ll… avoid danger or… I have to sometimes NOT let him do what he wants to do or he’ll get run over. So I have to stop him from doing things. Was that a cat fart?
Okay. Here we go.
Do you obey your mother?
Okay. There’s two questions there. Do you obey your father? Do you obey your mother?
Okay. So answer both those and compare those answers. Now there’s another question to ask: Why is there a difference if there is one?
Do you obey your big brother?
Now we’re getting into Confucius. Now according to Confucius you should obey you should obey your mother as you’d obey your father. And you’d obey your big brother as you’d obey your mother. See. It’s a kind of chain of command.
But your brother, your older brother actually represents your father.
And your mother’s job is to put your older brother in his position. So she wants to train him to be the father that you’ll always have. So if ‘gone, there’s still a father in the family and the kids will still look at him–up to him as the father. When there’s no longer a father, the older brother takes over.
Okay? That’s the Confucian system.
Do you obey your employer or your boss? (That’s a good question.)
Do you obey your employere or your boss?
If your boss says, “Go do that.” Do you obey him? If he says, Idon’t know, “Go get me a cup of coffee.” Whatever’s within your job description. But if he says something, do you obey him? If he tells you what to do– Do you obey him?
Do you obey your spouse?
So if you’re a husband or a wife– Do you obey your parnter?
Do you obey ourself?
When you make rules for yourself, or tell yourself you’re going to do something– Do you obey yourself?
Hello there Bear. My little love bug. Just down here in my lap. [whispers to cat] Kind of putting his head up where you can see it. Ears at least. Yeah. Hello my little buddy. Yeah, he really just wants my attention right now. I think everyday we spend some time and I cuddle with him and hug him and play with him a little bit. I think maybe we didn’t do as much today as we usually do.
So he just came in and demanded his love. I’ve gotta appreciate that.
So he’s right here in the middle of my notebook. He’s got those binder rings here. He sleeps in uncomfortable positions. Bear. Let me see if I can get you more comfortable.
See you guys. Daily Taoist out of here. This was, oh, this was the one that is very poignant. This represents thte failing in our government and our America. America. America needs to learn #18d by Lao Tzu.
Lao Tzu said, When oaths and promises are required of workers, government officials, and members: deceit and corruption are already out of control.
Hey! Buddha Zhen, the Daily Taoist popping in here real quick and then I’m gonna run away.
This is #17 on page 28 of the TAO OF TAOISM written by me, based upon the Dao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. This is #18a. This one had so much to unpack in it–it’s #18. That I broke it down all the way to #18e. I had to break it into five sections to make sense of this thing.
So here’s what I say. This is #18 of– There’s 80 of them actually, and this book has forty of them. Then I was going to break it into two books, because this is a huge book.
Okay. #18a by Lao Tzu; paraphrased by THE Daily Taoist, Buddha Zhen here.
Tao #18a To deviate from Nature– (Anytime I say, “Nature,” I mean “The Tao.”) —To deviate from Nature is to create new rules that are unbalanced with Nature. Any rules or activities not in balance with Nature are evil and destructive.
Well, like dumping your chemicals into a river. We don’t want those chemicals over here so we’re saying dump them over there. Okay?
So that rule was not balanced with Nature. That unbalanced rule or activity that’s not in balance with Nature is like I said, evil and destructive.
There’s a real simple example.
Let me read it one more time and then I’ve only got two things to read here. This’ll be kind of a quick one.
What are your rules, ethics, morals, codes of conduct, or religious principles?
And then look. I gave you like five lines to answer that question. So that’s why this is important. That’s why I–Just unpacking that.
What are your rules? List them out. Seriously. Who are you? And what are your rules or ethics. Yeah, your morals. Your codes of conduct. Think about those.
Codes of Conduct of YOU
Codes of conduct. You’re probably not aware of it. But if you had to train someone to be you– Say, “Hey. Listen. I’m going to disappear for a month. I’m going to be gone for a month and I want you to take my place.”
And the guy goes, “Okay. What do I do?”
Well, you’ve gotta tell him. How hes’ gonna eat. When he’s gonna go places. And how he’s gonna talk to people. Who he likes. Who he doesn’t like.
Okay? So somebody’s gotta impersonate you. If you had to train someone to impersonate you– What would you tell him are you tell him are your rules, your ethics, your morals because maybe this person’s a liar, and doesn’t care, or he cusses… And you go, “No. No. No. I have a rule. I don’t cuss. Oh no. I don’t do that. I don’t touch people like that–” Or… I don’t… You’ve got rules and ethics. So anyway: what are your rules and ethics? You are obviously different from somebody else. And this how you define your separation from them. Okay?
So. You’ve got to think– If you’re driving forget it. Well, maybe think of it a little bit. I’ve got a big space here, so I’m gonna make this a short podcast. So you can just kind of concentrate on ur that. Think of all your rules and ethics, morals…
I have another book that I wrote for my daughter fifteen years ago when she thought she was gonna be an actress. It’s called, ACT ZEN. And it’s basically– Actually it’s based on my movie career. My training at UCLA being a director and how to create a character. And so what I did was I took that — and then I took everything I learned about Zen Buddhism and thought, “How do you take a person and shape their character with Zen Buddhism… And then as an actor make them fluid in that so they can create other people but then they can go back to being the person they wanted to be originally–that they’d already pre-designed. So that’s what ACT ZEN is.
I designed this so first of all you decide WHO your are. And then you can be somebody else. And then you can go back to being who your. I call that ACT ZEN, or ACTING ZEN, or Act Zen to Act Naturally. All these little slogans I made for it.
But it really works. Well, it’s just good for everybody. Because we’re always acting. When you go into a business and you’re going to be a salesman you have certain roles– An acting role that you have to do. And so you should know what that is. And then when you go home, you’re not gonna try to sell your kids and everybody like you do every day. You have a whole different attitude than how you play with your kids and how you treat somebody out on the parking lot trying to sell them a acar.
So you can Act Zen: is to be able to define who you are in your different roles.
So how are any of these rules that you are making are out of balance with Nature?
Some of these rules you’re living by, and codes of conduct might out of Nature… Out of contact… Maybe getting up in the morning. [laughs] That’s– Your nature says, “No. I’ve gotta sleep in until 10:00 every day. I just can’t go to sleep before two in the morning…” So maybe that’s your Nature.
I hope I’m not getting you in trouble. I don’t want to give you any bad ideas.
Anyway.
What is your Nature?
Whatever it is. Just say what it is. If that’s what it is– I accept it.
So then I have “My Suggestions.” and that’s it.
So let me read what Lao Tzu said. I should always try to remember to go back and wrap up at the end.
#18a in my book, the TAO OF TAOISM:
To deviate from Nature, or The Tao, is to create new rules that are unbalanced with the Tao. Or Mother Nature. Any rules or activities not in balance with The Tao, (Nature), are evil and destructive.
Tell me if I’m wrong. To be honest with you I’m looking at them from different perspectives. [laughs]
Alright. The Daily Taoist here, Buddha Zhen here. I’m thinking about this too. So let me think about it. You think about it…
