Buddha Zhen starts over on TAO #6 after killing a mosquito hawk with his Tao Te Ching notebook he reads from. In Daily Taoist 16 Buddha Z discusses the yin and yang of character: the positive and negative character. Can you face the truth and see how your negative and positive characters balance each other?
YouTube Transcript for video of the Daily Taoist 16.
Alright. I don’t know if I’ll post that last one if there was anything there.
Anyway, #6:
Distinguishing between opposites creates the illusory value of each one.
In other words, that’s creating prejudice.
Okay, so real quickly because we already covered this in case I post that last one.
How do you value or rate the strengths of your positive character?
Okay. The part of you that positive things presumably.
How do you value or rate the strengths of your negative character?
That part of you that is maybe self-destructive, angry, emotional, bitter… and something.
How does your positive character control your negative character?
Hopefully– I don’t know. Is the next question going to be the opposite? [laughs] Probably. So how does your positive character influence your negative character?
You know. If you’re emotional or anger. If you have anger issues. How do you– What is the positive– What is your way of dealing with it. Even if it’s not working well. What is it?
And how does your negative character control your positieve character? Maybe… that’s definitely the case with some people. I mean, somebody’s gonna be more one than the other. So is it gonna be negative or positive?
How can your positive character be better utilized?
Okay… not think about the negative. What about the positive? What can you do with that positive character? Just get more done. Or do something. What does it want to do? Okay.
How can your negative character be better utilized?
Now there you go. Now if you do have some sort of negative issues or qualities perhaps you can channel them into something. I don’t know. If you’re really angry you might get a job digging ditches and swinging a sledge hammer. [laughs] Might make you feel real good. I did that.
So anyway, how can your positive and negative characters be better balanced?
Okay. Now you can’t get anywhere until you admit the truth.
Mosquito hawk came in with Bear a minute ago. I got distracted. Pardon me. “Kill the spider.”
Okay so anyway that’s NUMBER 6. We made it. Two minutes! There’s a record.
Buddha Zhen reads TAO #6 of the TAO OF TAOISM – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life.
This Tao is still dealing with opposites and good and bad and right and wrong and up and down and prejudice.
This Daily Taoist episode is interrupted by a mosquito hawk that enters with his cat, Bear. Buddha Z ends abruptly to deal with this pest.
The transcript of this short episode is included below.
YouTube TRANSCRIPT of the DAILY TAOIST 15 reading of TAO #6
Hello. I’m back, and… we’re on page 15 of 62 or something? Yeah, 62. Yeah. Let’s get another one of these out.
Just want to blaze ahead here for some reason. I guess I just wanna– I’m excited about getting some of this stuff out.
Here we go. NUMBER 6:
Oh, remember? We didn’t summarize on the end of that last one. Remember we were talking about, “Describe your overall balance of opposites and some things?” And so remember then, we go back to the original Lao Tzu and in particular, the first line,
“THE VALUE OF OPPOSITES AMOUNTS TO NOTHING.”
Okay, so I said, “Don’t take it so literally. Try to look for the meaning: something more substantial in there.” Find a pearl of wisdom. Maybe Lao Tzu didn’t think of that. If you can find something even bigger and better… Like I said, “Like a mathematical equation.”
Here we go. NUMBER 6:
Distinguishing between opposites creates the illusory value of each one.
That’s what we’re doing in America right now. As we separate– As soon as we say one side is great, we’ve separated them more. You can’t– Anyway.
Distinguishing between opposites creates the illusory value of each one.
Or lack of value. Value isn’t always a plus. It can be a minus. So by distinguishing sometimes — it’s prejudice. You’re picking them out. You’re lowering the value. Trump purposely tries to do that. He actually tries to demean and devalue people. See. So at one time he might be pumping somebody up. But he spends as much time– If he does that he spends a lot of time cutting people down and trying to devalue them. So you shouldn’t do that. That’s wrong to pick those people out and make them special because that means your picking other people out and making them un-special.
So distinguishing between opposites creates the illusory value of each one.
Here we go.
How do you value or rate the strengths of your positive character?
Everybody thinks they have a positive character. Well they do. [laughs] Some of these positive characters seem very negative to me. But their negative character to me is a monster. So I guess it’s just a– You take the extremes and you move them on the scale. Right across the middle here is a content happy cow in the field. And down here is the angry badger type of thing. And then up here is the happy crane type of thing you know.
Well, the higher you get up here means the farther you fall when you get upset.
And the more you’re down here, then when something happens you get really excited, you see.
But if you just kind of stay here in the middle, “Oh, that was nice.” “Oh, that was kinda bad.” “Oh that was nice.”
But anyway, like I said, don’t try to separate the opposites. The more you do–the more, the more it goes wrong.
How do you value or rate the strengths of your negative character?
So that goes for you. How far off that middle do you go? How far are you willing to stretch the truth? How far do you go to keep the truth?
“Hello Bear.” He was outside. “Hello adventurer.”
Actually I kicked him outside. He hadn’t been out today so I like pushed him out the front door. So he’d go out there and do some–
Ooops! Somebody came in with you. Hold on. We’ve got some creature came in. I’ve got to deal with.
Buddha Zhen reads TAO #5 of TAO OF TAOISM he wrote for his Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan students in 1993 in his Shaolin Chi Mantis Traditional Buddhist Kung Fu and Taoist Tai Chi Chuan schools. This self-help book is revealing now the ‘dark side’ of Buddha Zhen as he answers the questions from his Tao of Taoism book with candor and honesty. He reveals more about his 5 SOUL THEORY or Five Souls of God book he wants to release when he can find a large book publisher brave enough to publish this revolutionary concept that every person contains four souls of five possible souls to choose from.
One of his revelations includes the fact that comedians are all WOMAN souls in their first top position. Also boxers may be WOMAN souls in the first position. Buddha Z is perplexed himself by the riddle of this truth or wisdom from the BOOK OF CHANGES or Tao Te Ching written by Lao Tzu over 2,200 years ago.
Below in this web post is the transcript from the video “DAILY TAOIST 14” reading Tao #5 of the Tao of Taoism written by Buddha Zhen Shen-lang / Richard Del Connor.
YouTube Transcript of TAO #5 in the video “DAILY TAOIST 14” read and performed by the author, Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang.
Ah man. I couldn’t get up. I looked ahead at the next one. It’s really got me excited.
Buddha Zhen here.
This is the TAO OF TAOISM written by me. And I’m on #5. And this one’s got me all– Look at me. I’m all excited.
#5: The value of opposites amounts to nothing.
That’s so cute. We’ll come back on that.
To separate, glorify or deny something in protection of its opposite creates a weakness by the loss. All things are of value despite our preference.
How that describes America’s situation so dramatically and I don’t wanna get carried away talking about it– But I’ve just got to show you that’s why- that America is in conflict because we are totally out of the Tao.
Okay, first of all: The value of opposites amounts to nothing. Now that’s a misleading statement but it’s actually 100% accurate. ‘Amounts’ means adds up. So one PLUS and one MINUS. You add them together equals zero. So NEGATIVE plus POSITIVE equals ZERO. That’s a beautiful thing.
Lao Tzu was intending to mean something. And I think we’re missing the boat by not delving into that further and further. But let’s just leave it at that for now.
But he’s saying you take a negative and a positive and you end up with nothing.
Now let’s look at a wife and a husband. And you end up with a nothing. Is it really a nothing? Or is it really a new something? See. You’ve got them put together here. It’s not this. And it’s maybe not this. But it’s this. So it’s nothing that existing previously. See. Maybe we got something shaved off in the original translation. So maybe… Anyway, let’s open our minds. I’m always looking for some way to make these things real.
Okay, and the next part is all of the chaos in America right now.
To separate, glorify– Remember that’s bad. When you’re separating something out, you better have a GOOD reason. Or you’re just capturing something.
Glorifying something is another way of capturing something. And saying, “You’re not good. But this is.” See. So this is– Gotta remember when you create a positive you create a negative.
Or deny something. So now we’re gonna deny– I don’t know how to put this in perspective yet. Deny something in protection of its’ opposite creates a weakness by the loss.
So if we’re saying this guy we’re gonna glorify, and we’re gonna give you something special. But we’re gonna deny you– Creates a weakness, by the loss. By the denial: That’s a weakness. That’s not a strength. When you raise this guy up and glorify him and say to him, “You’re not worthy.” That is not a good balance. That’s not a good plus or minus.
This one’s way off of balance. It’s gonna fall down. And this guy’s down, so far down here… he’s going to get buried. They’re both gonna, ‘boom.’ Bad situation.
So, one more time. Let’s read what I wrote on this. It’s interesting. I’ve got all kinds of things going through my head. Your perspective may be different.
The Value of Opposites
One more time. Lao Tzu says– I love this first line. It’s just cute, and clever. But I think it means so much more than any of us are probably grasping right off-hand.
The value of opposites amounts to nothing. To glorify, separate or deny something in protection of its opposite creates a weakness by the loss. All things are of value despite our preference.
Gotta remember that too: We always think in terms of ourselves. Everybody. It’s just the first way we think. Just gotta accept that so you can deal with it. Okay so you have to realize that we all have our preferences. If you can become more Zen and–
I look bald with this light shining here. And look at that bump on my head. Cover it in– Sheesh. I bumped myself pretty bad last night. [laughing] Oh I should say something, “Oh I was in a fight and somebody hit me with a…” Boom.
Okay… here we go… Okay. Here we go.
What is the opposite of you?
Well… Me, that’s just about everybody. So, that’s not you. That’s me.
So, what’s the opposite of you?
So, in other words, if you’re a good worker–then maybe a bad worker. If you’re an honest person–then a dishonest person. If you’re a happy person–then a sad person. Or maybe the other way around. Who’s the opposite of you? Let’s work with that.
Your Relationship with your Dark Side
Explain your character polarities. Good side / dark side.
That’s tricky here. You’re gonna have to like open up to the fact that–
Explain your character polarities. Your good side and your dark side.
Now I remember Oscar. If I can talk about him. He’s kind of a good example of somebody to talk about. He, when I met him– He always wore military fatigues. And he wanted to be a soldier. But he was not a WARRIOR. But he wanted to be a soldier. And he actually had a dark side. And he enjoyed playing the video games and stuff. He loved shooting and killing. He said the reason he wanted to be a soldier was: he actually wanted to–you know–shoot something. [LAUGHING] So anyway. You’ve just got to own up to it. And accept it. Even if you don’t like the way it sounds to you. I can’t even say it for other people. But anyway. You’ve got to own up to your own dark side. Umm, umm… Anyway–
Next one. How do you control your dark side?
Well let’s say you have a dark side. You think, “Gosh. I’d like to beat that person up.” Let’s deal with that instead of murder. Okay. You’ve got this desire to beat other people up. And I’ve known one person. Actually… a couple. I have two… people whose fathers were boxers. I’m not really a boxer. I teach martial arts but I don’t box. Who were boxers. Their parents were boxers. As a result, they beat and hit their kids. See, a boxer hits people. That’s just the way they communicate. So both cases, these boxer fathers hit their kids. And they didn’t, they didn’t think they were evil. Probably didn’t. Because they were just communicating with their kids the same with all their professional allies, and competitors or whatever. And you know, that’s just the way they communicate. So in both cases these kids had gotten pummeled by their parents. Or their fathers excessively.
I also know cases where women have been very sadistic and whipped and beat– and done terrible things to their kids too. So anyway, I’m not saying it’s all men. Don’t get me wrong here.
In fact, my theory is actually that anytime you do see a man who is being sadistic and mean like that– Like those boxers. Those boxers must have been WOMEN in the first position. And then a WARRIOR in the second position. That’s what Joe Rogan is. He’s a WOMAN in the first position, and a WARRIOR in the second. That way he can be mean and hurt people and have a sense of humor about it. That’s how you can do it. A WORKER can’t do that. A WORKER can’t have satisfaction about doing something wrong or breaking something, or hurting someone. Because that doesn’t get along well in the work place. You’ve gotta be more compassionate. So compassion ironically comes from the WORKER. Not the WOMAN. A WOMAN soul is the one without the compassion. They’re the ones that make comedians. All comedians are WOMEN souls in the first position. Every one of them as far as I can tell. Shocked me because I’d been studying them for two years.
It’s really obvious in some like Russel Brand. But, Seth Myers, Stephen Colbert, Joe Rogan– I mean a lot of it is just so obvious. And you talk to them about their neuroses and their emotions and their– I mean, it’s the WOMAN spirit. Not the female. They’re not female. They’re WOMAN souls. Okay. So anyway.
I found that a negative. It did make sense when you know that. It just makes sense. So you know this person needs a little more ethics and tends to beat people up because they’re going to enjoy it.
Okay. So here we go. Um, where were we?
What do you dislike the most in others? Okay. Now that’s an interesting question. So think about that. You should have some things pop into your head.
One more time: What do you dislike the most in others?
Okay, next: How do you control these dislikes in yourself.
I just kind of like jump several steps. And these things you dislike in other people are almost always going to be something you dislike in yourself.
Like in my case I would say, “Dishonesty.” I’m way into the truth. So the one thing I dislike the most in myself is dishonesty. And any time I’ve been dishonest it still haunts me. It’s something I can’t do. It’s like so, that’s what I dislike the most. It prevents me from doing it.
See? So when you understand these things: it’s not a negative, it’s a positive. Like, “Alright. I’ve got– I’ve got this bumper that’s gonna keep me away from lying. I shouldn’t get in a job where I have to lie. I can’t be a salesman. I could only sell something to someone I thought could afford it and it was the right time and the place and the thing for them and– I just can’t be a salesman. I’m too considerate.
So that’s why a salesman is good. You’ve got a WOMAN in the first position every time. A man, with a WOMAN in the first postion has a good chance of being a salesman.
Now a WORKER, like my dad– Actually, is my dad a WOMAN or a WORKER in the first position. He may be a WOMAN in the first position… but anyway, let’s keep going.
What are you Fighting For?
Let’s see. Where were we?
What are you fighting to control for the sake of some rule that is difficult to follow?
Ahhhh. This is a good one. Everybody’s gonna have different answers for this one. But here we go.
What are fighting to control for the sake of some rule that is difficult to follow?
Like maybe eating. It’s difficult for you follow that rule. I shouldn’t have given you any clues. It comes from you first.
Nature is seasons of opposites. Summer and Winter. Spring and Fall.
Nature is seasons of opposites. Winter has its time as does Summer. How are your opposites regulated, controlled, or allowed their own release?
Or as I’m saying, Nature has opposites. So I’m allowing you to like give yourself some leeway. How you do this or that– Or you want this–
So what are your opposites? Find your polarity. How far are you going from one extreme to the other so we can find out maybe what your happy medium is– and make it easier for you. Cuz you may have one thing pulling this way, and one thing pulling this way. But if we can find some way to satisfy both of them–then that’s good without maybe going all the way that way, or all the way that way. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t if the middle is always the best way.
Here we go. Describe your overall balance of opposites.
If you’re driving in your car you’re going, “What the heck is he talking about?”
Like what would be my opposites? My opposites would be my ability to just watching YouTube. And then I say, “Man, I’ve been sitting here for a little while. I didn’t move.” You know, I should be doing some Kung Fu or cleaning the kitchen. [laugh]
Okay. So that’s one opposite is I feel guilty for not doing that and the other opposite is I work as hard as I can. I’m doing these Kung Fu classes. Teaching and building and writing things and work on the websites… So ONE: I go from the opposite of working REALLY HARD too long to maybe relaxing too long. That’s my answer.
Okay. Let’s see. Nature is a season– Okay.
Describe your overall balance of weaknesses.
Um. Like I said, I’ve got a good balance. I’m putting my life together. I’m working out. Studying myself like under a microscope so I better be good.
Anyway. I think 12 minutes here. Thanks for hangin’ around. Hopefully this is interesting to listen to.
Daily Taoist 13 – TAO #4 about LIFESTYLE habits and routines
Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang “Spirit Wolf of Truth” reads TAO #4 of his book, TAO OF TAOISM – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life. Based upon the BOOK OF CHANGES or TAO TE CHING by Lao Tzu, Buddha Zhen elaborates and adds his own answers to the questions of his book. The Tao of Taoism was written by Buddha Zhen (born Richard Del Connor) for his Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan students in 1989 as THE TAO – COMING TO TERMS, and then rewritten again for his Kung Fu students as Tao Of Taoism – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life in 1992 and published in its current format in 2010.
The Tao of Taoism is a self-help book that breaks down each of the paragraphs of wisdom written by Lao Tzu over 2,200 years ago into questions with blank spaces for the students to fill-in with their own personal and unique answers. This enables students to reflect on the Taoist wisdom and integrate effectively into their personal existence. Buddha Zhen also says that it is beneficial to review the questions and update the answers every decade. Or take pride in how the previous answer is still benefiting their current life.
This TAO #4 and is an altered translation by Buddha Zhen according to his own views and perspectives of Lao Tzu’s original intentions or a completely modernized view that students can better relate to. Buddha Zhen has been teaching his Taoism since 1988 and “…viewing its affects on students.” He says he’s not interested in the spiritual foolishness that Americans keep adding to these philosophical phrases. BZ is only interested in how his students can integrate this knowledge into their modern materialistic lives.
In this episode of THE DAILY TAOIST 13, Buddha Zhen elaborates on his eating and sleeping habits. This video is the first video of which Buddha Zhen realizes he is not fooling around and rehearsing the reading of this book for an AUDIO-BOOK he has set up for in his bedroom-recording studio. The audiobook may not be recorded as soon as planned. In editing these 69 videos we’ve realized that we lack a computer capable of editing the professional recordings. This project will be delayed until Richard Del Connor and his SHAOLIN RECORDS production company can afford to purchase a new computer. Richard has been homeless for six years and dependent upon the computers of the public libraries in North Hollywood and Studio City since 2013. The borrowed 2013 PC computer used to create this blog cannot play the 1080p videos or ProTools recording software…
So for the next few months we will be releasing these DAILY TAOIST videos on YouTube and Patreon in hope of gaining sponsors or selling Kung Fu class videos we are editing on his newly acquired iPhone 11 Pro Max.
This is TAO #4 of the TAO OF TAOISM by Richard Del Connor / Buddha Zhen. This also the video: DAILY TAOIST 13. Their is a transcript of the video below. Incidently, view the CC Subtitles when viewing the videos. After completing all the video performances it became obvious that Buddha Zhen mumbles almost indistinctly while pondering these wisdoms.
TAO #4
Nature is a cosmic whirlpool of inexhaustible energy. Whether you splash, join or leave the whirlpool — the forces of Nature continue unchanged.
YouTube VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Alright. Let’s do one more. I’m not sure. I thought I was just gonna experiment. But now I’m kind of motivated to do the whole book. Kind of maybe the WARRIOR in me. But I feel like I’ve started something worthy of finishing. So anyway, let’s do one more.
This is NUMBER 4 on page 13. And Lao Tzu supposedly, according to me said:
Nature is a cosmic whirlpool of inexhaustible energy. Whether you splash, join or leave the whirlpool– the forces of Nature continue unchanged.
And when I use ‘Nature’ like that: in both cases I’m using a capital ‘N.’ I’m saying Nature is kind of like the Mother Nature, the spirit, the God, the identity. Which is just a romantic way of putting together the science, you know, the weather, the way of spinning of the thing, the rotating around of the earth. That’s not as pretty. Harder to put a word on that. All the physical, geophysical reality aspects of our existence. Mother Nature. Nature. Nature is an easy way to term it. And that’s all that “Tao” is. The ‘Tao’ is just a word. Remember, Tao is just a word that we decided could mean something which most people don’t understand still.
Okay. So, here we go. One minute: getting started. Here we go. I’m trying to figure out how to be more succinct. So I can be more professional on this. I’m going to in there and actually record it really nicely.
Okay. NUMBER 4. Let’s read that again. Nature is a cosmic whirlpool of inexhaustible energy. Yeah, that’s what Nature–just planets spinning around… That’s a lot of energy. Inexhaustible? Well I suppose they may stop and slow down–but that’s beyond our comprehension. Whether you splash, join or leave the whirlpool– So if you fly off the Earth– the forces of Nature continue unchanged.
Yeah. So if you leave the Earth, it won’t change.
Okay. So here we go. Let’s read the questions. I didn’t read ahead. I actually– I should’ve scanned ahead. See if there’s any I want to answer myself. I stumble along here. Then I want to take a break here. Yeah. Here we go.
How are you connected to the cosmic whirlpool?
Yeah, I’ve gotta talk. I’ve got some friends. And over the years I’ve been a Native American. Actually, like I said previously, I used to give back to– something to Grandfather. I probably shouldn’t talk in Lakota. I’ll mess up bad. You know when I was even having meals I would try to have a relationship. It’s like a karmic relationship. It’s almost like you want to think it’s a sentient being and that by scratching it, it’ll be nice to you and let you stay there. And so, I had that kind of relationship.
And then there’s another kind of relationship of that. Kind of creepy I think, that– Anyway– All the plants. All the plants have like a bioenergy. Put all the plants together and they kind of harmonize. They almost talk to each other. And in fact, I’m probably willing to say that they do talk to each other. But they have a certain energy feeling. Like radio waves. You just bear with my terminology. I’m just using words to convey a concept. So don’t hang me on any technicalities. Anyway, they’ve all got this magnetic energy frequencies, or whatever they communicate on. They’ve got that. Now the animals are different. And they don’t want to be in that frequency and listening to the plants. You know. So that’s a whole bunch of noise to them. So to them they’re in kind of a different frequency of awareness and involvement. So they sense each other and almost talk telepathically. And we’re part of that. We’re part of that animal frequency network that’s almost– you can almost tap into it. A lot of people like to think of it as a radio-wave consciousness. And I’ve got to tell you, if it does exist and you get tapped into it: it’s like “gahhhh.” Like a whole bunch of cows in a field. Who wants to tap into all that? All this, “Me,” “Me,” “My,” “My,” “Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi…” And all it is is animals, “I’m hungry,” “I want,” “I want,” “I want…”
So that’s why — getting connected into the cosmic whirlpool– Sorry. I had to throw that in. Four minutes! Sheesh.
Okay. Here we go.
How inexhaustible is your inner internal energy?
Well, I’ve definitely got a whole bunch more than anybody else.
What are your most energetic hours of the day?
Ah… See I’ve worked as a carpenter, graveyard shifts and everything. So I really do know what I prefer. And what I really prefer: my body’s natural rhythm with the Tao. Whatever it is as a creative person, energetic person, a working person… Whatever– Is I like I like to sleep from midnight to 8:00 A.M. You can kind of shift it an hour or two but that’s the basic layout of it. From midnight to 8 A.M I want to be asleep. Although now I have to get up at six in the morning… visit the latrine. Used to sleep through that, but that’s because I’m a senior. Anyway. Then I have to tell my cat, “Go back to bed.” Getting up too early.
Actually, I’m trying– I was trying to go to bed from 11:30 to 7:30. So my alarm’s going off at 7:30. Maybe I should move it 8:00. But 7:30 kind of worked for me because I had certain things I wanted to do by certain times of the day. Other obligations. And I was shooting classes with Oscar. And stuff like that. So 7:30– Actually, and then it was– My most energetic hours of the day are the reverse of that. So that’s everything that’s not that…
When would you like to have more energy?
Even late at night. Sometimes. I try not to drink coffee after 6:00 in the evening. Because that will get me through to midnight. And if I have much coffee at 8:00 or especially at 10:00 then it’ll be harder to get to sleep. And if I don’t get much sleep then I’m not as good the next day. So you don’t want to make mistakes. You know. You’ve gotta keep that rhythm. If you break the rhythm one day you can ruin several days.
Okay… When do you do your Tai Chi everyday?
Remember? I wrote this for my students.
Lately I’ve been doing it like super late. Because I work out in the day and stuff. It’s not really for me, or I do my classes and stuff. But then I didn’t do MY Tai Chi. So it usually ends being really late. When I’m really tired or something. It’s been kind of weird. Not weird. Yeah weird. Weird. When you’re really really tired and know…
Sometimes I come out there. Man, I can’t sleep. So I’ll do my Tai Chi. Then you realize how tired you are. “I’m really tired. I can go back to sleep.” But I don’t try to fool myself. So anyway, I’ll start doing my Tai Chi and go, “Oh Man I am really tired.” And then you’re doing it and just trying to make it to the end of the Form. And that’s a, a good experience. Because that’s what real battle is. Or anything in life is really. It never goes easy. It always gets harder as you go. So you have to build up that spirit of just accepting the fact it gets harder. And you do it.
Where are we?
How do you feel about practicing Kung Fu?
Oh God. Man. Talking about my classes. I’ve injuries. Two surgeries. I threw out my shoulder. I had back prob– And then I mean I had plantar fasciitis. I was going to a therapist. The last couple years have been horrible for a few years. Just horrible in terms of doing it. So for me this Kung Fu is like my comeback. I’m driven to rebuild myself. I mean to the Kung Fu I used to be. Because I’ve backed off and didn’t have much students the last couple years. And so I wasn’t doing as many classes… All at the same time. It just all snowballed into me doing the least amount of Kung Fu in my life.
At 66 years of age that wasn’t a good way to transition into seniorhood. It was like, “Let’s not do it…” I’d do 1/10th of as much exercise for a couple years. So now I’m 66 years old and I’m not at my spring chicken–you know, that I could be at right now. Where I was a few years ago would be great. More than that, five years ago and I’ve degraded much more than I should’ve. In fact I don’t think I should degrade at all. I want to go back to where I was five years ago.
So anyway, I’m doing my Kung Fu as a comeback. To me it’s that WARRIOR. It’s that drive to– And I really want to do it. Which is why it bugs me like I said when I get too busy and I’m trying to talk myself out of it. My little conflict.
Okay. Where are we?
Explain your eating schedule each day.
Ahh. I eat every few hours. You might learn a few things about this.
When I was homeless I was actually eating three eggs for breakfast every day. So, if you can get a dozen eggs that’d last me– because my ice would only last me two days usually so I’d get ice twice and then the next time I’d get ice I’d get some more eggs. But… I’d get up in the morning: I have breakfast. Okay? Feed my cat and have breakfast. So that was like 8:00. So I’d get up about 7:00, 7:30, so by 8:00 I’m having breakfast. Then 10:00 I usually have a snack. My cat’s been changing my schedule a little bit. It hasn’t been working for me. Because we just jumped into daily savings time and he doesn’t understand that. So, so even though it says 11:00; to him it’s 12:00. You know, I keep forgetting that. And I pissed him off. “11:00? No, no. Wait another hour.” He’ll come over and eat his dry food and go back and take a nap. And I’ll call him… And he won’t come out for lunch. “Rrrrr, Rrrrr, Rrrrr. You didn’t feed me when you should’ve then!” “It’s noon now.” But he doesn’t understand the jump ahead so I’ve been like changing my schedule just kinda for him. But reworking mine and skipping that morning break which I don’t really need. Now that I’m not working as a laborer anymore. So I’m like getting up at 8:00. Eating breakfast at 9:00. And then not eating anything until noon and I’ll feed him at like 11:00 and then I’ll have something at noon. And then I might have a snack at 3:00. I usually do but I get so busy working on the web I’ll sit down and it’s like four hours later, “Oh my goodness. I worked right through my 3:00 break.” That’s why I don’t like working on the computer. I just get too sucked into it. I’m not talking about Facebook. I’m talking about building these websites.
But anyway. So by lunch. Okay. So like breakfast I’ll usually have an egg or two. Maybe a meat. Apple or orange. And then a pancake or something, which I always put a lot of egg in. So… Or a cereal or something. But I always want a fruit, a meat, the eggs, and a starch. The dairy’s not as important to me. I don’t really focus on the dairy. But I’m trying to add a little bit. I like to have some cheese and stuff.
Okay. So anyway that’s my breakfast. Then at noon what I’m gonna have is basically the same kind of layout except I’ll usually add lettuce. Because I don’t like having lettuce for breakfast. So I’ll always try to have a salad for breakfast [lunch] and hopefully I’ll have a salad for dinner. So I’ll have two salads in that day. So then I’ll have a salad for my lunch. And lately what I’ve been doing is I get the bags of spinach lettuce. And then I wash it. And then I slice up an orange, or an apple, and then I throw that in there. Then I mix up some peanut butter with some water and salt and maybe some soy sauce. I make like a peanut butter sauce. Or I buy something from the store. And then I have a salad while I also have some sort of a meat. Could be a chicken or hamburger or fried egg or lately I got some baloney from the church. I’m so full of baloney. I’m serious. I’ve got like ten pounds of baloney. I’ve been eating a lot of baloney. Okay, so that’s my lunch.
Now I might have a snack in the afternoon because as a worker and as a person– you shouldn’t ever have… You can’t go six, or five hours is too long to go without eating. So all the way from noon until five and making my dinner at 6:00 is too much of a sugar lull. That 4:00 to 6:00 is not gonna be me at my best. I won’t be my smartest. I won’t be my most productive. So I try to have a 3:00 break. Which can be anything. Just a granola bar. Peanut butter sandwich. Maybe another salad. I like having just a salad and an apple, you know. Or an orange. I try to have a fruit or something. But make it something. A little snack. But not a meal. Not really a meal. And it doesn’t have to even have meat in it. But I’ve gotta have meat in the next one. I want protein three times a day.
So then I’ve got my supper about 5:00 to 6:00. And that’ll be anything. I look cooking chicken lately. And tacos and… I’ve been overcooking. I fried– I went through a container and a half of oil the first two months I moved here. Frying all kinds of stuff. Can’t do when you’re in your car. So I had a lot of fun cooking.
So I… kind of panicked. I got like a quart and a half of oil in less than two months. I said, “I’m backin’ off now.” I’ve used less than a half a thing in three months so now. So I’ve changed my cooking style. But I was really enjoying frying a lot of stuff for a while.
Okay. So you go through these things. That was my Tao. I had to work that out of my system. And get some stuff out. Frustration. Food frustration.
Where were we? Thirteen minutes and I’m not going to fast now. Okay. Where are we?
Explain your eating schedule. You got that? Oh! And you should have a snack after that. So at 6:00 and if I go to bed at midnight– then I can’t–I won’t at ten o’clock, at 12:00 I’m gonna finally break down and have something to eat and then I’m gonna go to bed with a full stomach and I’m gonna wake up in the morning with acid reflux. So you don’t want to eat within two hours of going to bed. So you should never eat after 10:00, basically if you’re going to bed at midnight. If you’re going to bed at 10:00 then you shouldn’t eat after 8:00. You’ve gotta have that two hour window for your food to get out of your stomach before you lay down. So if it sits in there all night IT ROTS. And that’s what acid reflux is. It’s as simple as that. The doctor’s not gonna tell you that. I don’t know why.
Doctors just give you pills. They could really help you a lot more than that if they really got smarter.
But like I said, they’re just WORKERS. They, they’re told what to say, and they say what they’re told to do. So that’s all what most doctors are. We expect– I expect too much out of a doctor.
Okay. Where were we? Oh yeah. So, acid reflux. I’m glad that I threw that in.
How do you wake up each morning and how quickly are you awake?
Ah, well gosh. I was in this parking lot sleeping for some months last year. And… I had to wake up and walk all the way across the parking lot to the latrine and get back. You know, you can’t be all, ‘ooooooohhh’, and walking out there. Just pointing out that sometimes you’ve just gotta wake up and be in action. Danger there.
I’ve never found– Actually, lately a couple times, in the house I have noticed I’m kinda draggin’ around. Not as perky as I would be if I was outside. So it’s a mental attitude. A decision. It’s a decision. And… you should just wake up. That’s it. Don’t convince yourself that you can’t do that. That’s it. You’ve just got to tell yourself that you can do it. It’s that easy. It’s a decision.
Your Daily Habits are your Daily Tao
Where are we?
Explain your morning habits before going to work or school.
Okay. So do you shower in the evening, or do you shower in the morning. Brush your teeth. What do you do? All that type of stuff. Floss.
Which direction, North, East, South, or West does your head point when you sleep each night?
Think of yourself as a compass needle with your head being the tip of the needle. Okay, so when you lay down at night if your head pointed directly North then you’re pointed to the North. Kay? When you’re pointed to the West, East, South. Okay? So that’s– Anyway. The point being is that’s the way you’re magnetically polarized when you sleep. And that’s real important. That’s how you sleep.
But anyway, Shifu sleeping suggestions. I don’t obviously get into that right now. That whole topic of Feng Shui. Read Feng Shui. Feng Shui will explain the whole thing. Everything that Feng Shui says is true. As far as I know. Put it this way: everything I’ve learned about Feng Shui made since. Proven itself in reality. But the trick is to really be able to see the truth of it. The Feng Shui. It’s not as easy as read it and see it. It’s an art in itself so it’s not that easy.
Okay. Where are we?
Explain your after-work or after-school habits.
What do you do in that window from 3:00 to 6:00? Like I said, you should probably have a break. Probably at 3:00 have a snack. So now you’re empowered for three hours of whatever you want to do.
So at 6:00, then you have your real dinner. Or 5:00 to 6:00. Start at 5:00 then it’s ready at 6:00. If you started at 5:00, served it at 5:30, you’ve still got to clean it up. So it’s still 6:00 no matter how you look at it.
Your Tao within the Cosmic Whirlpool
Okay, where were we?
How are you adding energy back into the cosmic whirlpool?
Aaaaahhh. That’s a little more spiritual. My Native American thing coming through.
How are you adding energy to the world?
In other words, what energy do you add?
What energy is Trump adding to the world? To the Tao of the universe? He’s gota megaphone see. Trump our President has this huge magaphone. It’s 2020 right now. So he has more of an effect than I do. If I yell and say anything more caustic than him: No effect. Nobody hears. He’s connected to the Tao in a different way than I am. He has an effect. And the energy he’s adding– Look what it is. It’s ugly. It’s ugly energy.
So make sure you choose your energy. Just all energy is not good. Qigong is ‘energy work.’ But it doesn’t mean good energy or bad energy work. We want to presume it’s good. But obviously its just working your energy. The trick is you’ve gotta have good energy to work.
In fact the Chinese have something that they used to refer to– I haven’t heard anybody refer to lately. I don’t hang out with that many Chinese people this century. But they call it ‘Qi Poisoning.’ And that’s where you’re basically circulating bad energy. And it just poisons you. You’re magnifying it. It’s like being Darth Vader and killing yourself with your negative energy. Okay?
How aware are you of all energy sources around you?
If you walked– If someone was to blindfold you and you walked under power lines–could you sense them? Don’t feel bad. You can go nuts. I got to a point where I could feel the wires in the walls. Sheesh. Gotta back off a little bit. Feeling it is not going to do you any good.
But… How much can you sense it? Can you sense different energies? Can you tell when you walk on different surfaces… You’re up in the air, not connected to the Earth?
Anyway, that’s it. That’s NUMBER 4. Let’s read NUMBER 4 [“Tao #4”] and see if I’ve led you to understand it better.
NUMBER 4 is: Nature is an inexhaustible whirlpool of cosmic energy. Whether you splash, join, or leave the whirlpool– the forces of Nature continue unchanged.
Now there are really two things. Let’s go back to that first one. I think that second one kind of covers it over.
Nature is a cosmic whirlpool of inexhaustible energy. Rember what I was saying, talking about getting up in the morning. That’s you and Naure. Does Nature have trouble getting up in the morning? No. Then you’re not in harmony with Nature. So the inexhaustible energy is Nature. You really want to tap into it. Really be in harmony with it. Get energized.
Buddha Z reads “Explanation” page of his book. It starts with an explanation of, “This ebook version of Tao of Taoism uses both “Tao”, which is Cantonese, and also, “Dao,” which is the current Mandarin Chinese language of China. They are the same word with the same meaning,” (“Tao and Dao”).
“Self-discovery is the last frontier for the smartest of men and women.. This book is a journey down your own very unique “Last Frontier.””
“How much time do you spend exploring your inner you?”
“Why are you you?”
“What makes you you?”
“I wrote this book for her [his daughter]. It’s called Act Zen to Be Zen.“
“It’s about Zen Buddhism teaching you how to find yourself–And then you can reshape yourself into other people.”
“Zen Buddhism is about understanding other people from as many perspectives as possible. And view yourself from as many perspectives as possible.”
Buddha Z talks about his poetry class in San Diego State University.
Buddha Zhen talks about how Lao Tzu may not be translated accurately by anyone because they may not understand the colloquial meanings of his statements 2,200 years ago.
Buddha Zhen also explains how only the disciples of Bodhidharma can perform the One-handed Bow of the Shaolin Temple because it signifies the relationship between the FIRST disciple of Bodhidharma and of those who continue this lineage of disciples of Buddhism to the first disciple, Hui Ke. If you aren’t ready to teach Shaolin Kung Fu or you don’t belong to a Shaolin master… you should not deceive people with this spiritual gesture.
Who is a Real Zen Buddhist?
“So what happened was–his Disciple Hui Ke–he tricked him. He tricked Bodhidharma to become the first Shaolin Disciple… He cut his arm. He went to his [Bodhidharma’s] cave and outside the cave he cut his arm and it bled into the snow. And he said, “Look, it’s raining red–in the snow. So Bodhidharm said, “Alright–you win.””
Buddha Z gets a little teary eyed. “So that’s what we’re doing. We’re honoring his sacrifice.” Buddha Z pauses. “I got a little choked up there.”
He continues, “I originally wrote this book for myself, then realized it was useful for other people. Then I rewrote it again when I created my Shaolin Chi Mantis schools in 1993 into a student manual for psychoanalyzing yourself, to help students develop a dialogue with their own inner minds.”
5 Soul Theory of Richard Del Connor
“It’s interesting I put that in the plural. It’s only in the last two years I discovered that we actually are four… souls is what I’m calling theem. Four different identities that all stack and work together.”
Buddha Z elaborates on his 5 SOUL THEORY. “You can only have four of them. Most people only have two.”
Buddha Zhen holds the book up to camera to show his Chinese ‘chop’ which is the red ‘dragon blood’ stamp on the page with his Chinese name. He explains which characters represent:
Zhen: family name = “Truth”
Shen: means “Spirit” or “Spiritual” but not ‘ghost’
Lang: “Wolf” (Master Chen explained to Richard Del Connor, “We don’t have Coyotes in China–only wolves.”)
Spirit Wolf of Truth = Buddha Z’s Buddhist name: Shen-Lang Zhen.
