Taoism

Daily Taoist 1_49 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO#28 Virtues Determine Rewards of Path to Goals

/ 5 Soul Theory, Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 49

Man! This is a great book! That’s what I like about– Oftentimes I’m writing books, I’m writing for myself. And then I just make them so they’ll work for other people. A lot of these books like this one– This one was written 100% for me in the beginning. Then whe I formed my Kung Fu school I said, “Well, let’s change this over for my students.” And then about ten years ago I thought, “Well, maybe let’s see if I can change it over for the world.” And so, yeah. So you’re getting a kind of presentation of it. And then I’m gonna go in and record the audio book. So I recommend you go get the audio book. It’ll be recorded nicer, and you can listen to it. It o there wa pwon’t be so distracting. And hopefully I won’t ramble so much. [laughs] I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Alright. Let’s see. Okay, and by the way: the last question– I hurried off on the last video. Was, Do you enjoy reading how-to books? This is a how-to book: How-to put yourself together.

And by the way, I think I mentioned there was a pausing in on one of the videos. Maybe it was the last one and it kind of shut down. I think– did I do it? I think I did. You go into your SETTINGS and you put it on AIRPLANE MODE. Okay? So now you won’t get phone calls and stuff that actually shut down my recording program. But the program sends NOTICES. So I’ve told most of my programs, “DON’T SEND ME NOTICES.” My bank apps and all these different apps. I turned all the notices off on almost every single one. With a couple exceptions, including my phone which tells me when there’s something on my calendars or something. So the only way I can shut that down is tell them, “I’m asleep.” I still have to go into NIGHT MODE. So that’s AIRPLANE MODE plus NIGHT MODE and I think I can shoot without interruption. And I think that’s why it jammed up: I was getting a couple of notices. From the SETTINGS of my phone.

Okay. So here we go. #28 of the DAO TE CHING, or my version of it. The TAO OF TAOISM by me, Buddha Zhen. And this is THE DAILY TAOIST coming to you. And if this HAPPENS I’d love to be The Daily Taoist man. It’d be good for me. I’m enjoying this– maybe more than you are. [LAUGHS] It’s something that I would enjoy doing for ME. Let alone for you. Because I can’t really afford to be doing things for other people that aren’t of any benefit to what I’ve got to do now. I’ve got to focus my life. Remember? We’ve been talking about that in previous lessons. And that’s what I’m doing. I’m deciding who I am. What I am. What I’ve got to do. What’s important to me. And, kind of putting my life back in a new focus. In a new path.

# 28:
Life’s lessons are learned
by aggressive awareness that watches patiently.

Wow. How much of that’s me? And how much of that’s Lao Tzu? I don’t know right off hand. [LAUGHS] That’s a great line. It sounds like ME a lot. But remember this is Lao Tzu and my interpretation. So I definitely flavored this.

But here we go.

Life’s lessons are learned
by aggressive awareness that watches patiently.

There’s a bunch of noise going on out there. Sorry about that. Sounds like the trash can.

Wholesome values create pathways to goals
as rewards unfold naturally
according to the virtues of the person
who also realizes that the path rewards
are not the goals.

WOW! This is great stuff! This is great stuff. We should all review this on a monthly basis. Read this book every month.

Life’s lessons are learned by aggressive awareness that watches patiently.

Say, that’s very good. And most people don’t pay attention. I mean, tell me the colors of the houses down your street when you walk to the bus stop or whatever. What are the colors? Pay attention! But in order to really pay attention that means you’ve gotta aggressively pay attention. Okay? Look at that. “Hey, I didn’t even know that house had a white porch,” you know. And then there’s a grey house, you know… You’ll start to notice.

It takes awareness. It takes an effort. Cows, no matter if they’re all looking at the same thing… They ain’t seein’ nothin’. [LAUGHS] Their–their heads just pointed that way. So that’s how most people are. Their head’s just pointed a certain direction. They don’t see nothin.’ THEY DON’T SEE NOTHIN’. What am I? Talking very educated.

Now. Let me read it one more time and we’ll continue.

Wholesome values create pathways to goals.–

(I like that. There’s always a path to the goal but let’s do it with wholesome values.)

–As rewards unfold naturally–

(In other words, you’re gonna get some rewards as you’re headed towards your goal.)

–according to the virtues of the person–

(Okay, so your values now are going to determine the rewards that are going to happen along your path. Like Trump’s rewards are scorn and scandal. And he’s gonna be– I mean, to be honest with you he’s gonna try to pardon himself. But he needs to go to court and go to jail for all of the stuff he’s done as Presideent. I’m serious. He should go to jail. Yeah. We’ve gotta. We’ve gotta let people know in the future that they can’t just hijack our government and get away with it. He needs to go to jail. But anyway, those are his rewards that should unfold naturally.)

–according to the virtues of the person–

(His virtues are very very illegal.)

–who also realizes that the path rewards are not the goals. —

(And he realizes that these– Well actually, that’s one of the reasons he’s so screwed up. He thinks that all these rewards that he’s getting: these payolas and everything… He thinks these are his goals. That’s why he’s gonna pay the price for that. His goal should’ve just been: to be a good President. Do the best for our country and all this. But no. He’s just picking all the fruit off the tree. And it’s like, “We want you to help us run this farm.” And he says, “Oh sure!” And then he goes in and slaughters all the animals… and eats all the stuff… He’s just making a mess of the whole place. He’s not taking care of it. He’s not making it better than when he got there. He’s just pillaging. So that’s our President: pillaging our country. Pillaging our democracy.)

Okay. Here we go. What time is it? Five minutes? Okay. I’ve got a fifteen minute limit to get this on IGTV.

How much effort do you put into learning something new every day? [LAUGHS]

Every day! What do you put into learning something new? It’s so frustrating.

I’ve got a friend I’m trying to get to work with — I don’t want to say names, but a fellow producer. I’m just trying to get him to work on one of movie projects. “I don’t have time. I can’t even put in an hour a week.” You know, he’s just– So anyway, he doesn’t learn anything new every day. I’ve known him for quite a few years, I couldn’t tell you what he’s learned. I couldn’t tell you what he’s learned in the last few years. Nothing as far as I can tell.

But anyway–

Describe your patience.

Describe your impatience.

How much does it bother you when people are late?

How much does it bother you when people are late?

Are you good at ‘killing time’ — when you have to wait?

Are you good at killing time when you have to wait?

How do you do it? So what are the ways you do kill time if you have to? See what… anyway–

Do you squeeze Kung Fu– (Remember I told you I wrote this for my students.) –Do you squeeze Kung Fu practice in when unexpected gaps appear in your day?

When I was in Salt Lake City I was going to mix down, well I did. I paid a mastering engineer. I had to get it mastered so I could make a CD. And then I didn’t have enough money to make CDs. It was two or three years later I ended up getting a CD made. Sheesh. Being poor sucks!

Being poor has always hindered the production of my life and my ability to even help my family.

But as far as my stepfather was concerned: That’s okay. He didn’t care how much my family or me suffers or that I’m homeless. He’s just my FATHER.

I’ve got to go to a different planet. This planet sucks! Sorry I said that. This is a horrible planet to live on. [LAUGHS] Unless you want to be a cow. If you like working it’s a great planet. It’s a slave planet. If you want to just work and get paid–this is where you go. The planet to come and have a job.

Alright. Where were we?

Um, How much does it bother you– Oh, anyway. When I was waiting, the guy was almost an hour late. But when I was waiting for him I was doing all my Kung Fu practice. It was a morning thing. So he was supposed to be there like 9:30 or 10:00… He got there at like 11:30. I forget but he was an hour, almost an hour late. And I don’t even care what his excuse was. But the point is that while I was waiting I was doing all my Kung Fu workouts. So by the time he got there, I’d done them all. I’d done my Tantuis, some stretching and all that stuff so I was like, “Yeah. I got my daily workout routine totally done.” And I went in there and mastered in the studio.

So in a way, his being late–If he would’ve been on time, I wouldn’t have done that. I wouldn’t have got that workout in before the session. But having got the workout in I was in I was even– in my prime.

So you can make the day better by taking advantage of other people’s mistakes. Work with the Tao. Don’t fight against it.

Anyway. But anyway, there’s lots of advice I could give you. But it’s not gonna do any good if you don’t have that Nature. We’ve got to build in your Nature. Otherwise my advice isn’t going to fit into your Nature.

So let’s just figure out who you are. Don’t worry about what I’m telling you is good advice. Just figure out who you are and then you can figure how to take the advice that you like, and make yourself a person who can actually utilize that advice. Okay?

So, do you squeeze Kung Fu practice in when unexpected gaps appear in your day?

Summarize your values.

That’s all it says. They’re very vague questions to me but anyway:

Summarize your values.

We all have a value system. “Yeah. I go to work and I get paid. And I expect my wife to be there and kids to be clean…” You’ve got a value system. Or I expect to be treated well at work. And have a safe place. I need a parking spot. What are your values?

Who influenced your values and how did they devleop?

So if you’re back to the worker thing and you want to work, you want to have a place for your car and stuff… Are you imitating the role model of your dad or your mom? It’s one of those types of relationships and scenarios that your trying to fit into it. And feel omfortable… taking over that cog in the wheel.

Remember, I’m not making value judgments. I mean, you can probably tell that I don’t ascribe to some of these things…

Here we go. Fast. These are not– My value is to make you happy. Don’t try to be an artist like me. And I shouldn’t try to be a worker like you. See? We’ve just gotta play in our– We’ve got to find our Tao. Our Natures.

How many of your values were developed by you as opposed to the ones your parents may have taught you?

And remember that later– like fifteen years later, 20 years later I wrote the ACT ZEN book. Act Zen to Be Zen. And that’s based a lot on this book, and Buddhism, and a lot on my UCLA script writing classes. I learned about character development. So I put all that together: that’s ACT ZEN. Great book. Great book. Another one of those books you’d like to read at least once a year.

How many of your values are your parents and your religion’s teachings?

So look at– Where are your values coming from? Okay. So you said a minute ago that you have values: “I will not lie. I will not cheat. I will not steal. I will not kill.” Not everybody makes that value. Hopefully you do. Put that value down on–If you can write down, “I do not– I will not kill.” Really. I’d like to see you write that down.

Let’s see. So how many of your values are from your parents? And how many are from your religion?

Kind of separate them out and know where you’re coming from. And then you can say, “Oh what about all these other values I’ve got?”

Well, where’d those come from?

Kind of put yourself together. That ‘s what ACT ZEN does. It figures out where you learned everything. And where everything you do came from.

As an actor you need to know all your motivations. We’re not going into the spiritual thing. I didn’t even mention the spiritual thing back then. I’m just looking at your psychology of how you react and act. Which is mostly programmed, environmental.

But as we of course have always noticed whenever we do character program. A lot of people seem to be born in with certain traits. And now my SOUL THEORY explains them.

Here we go.

Despite all your values, how do you determine right from wrong?

You’ve got all these values working for you , but what do you really– How do you choose right from wrong?

“Well, it’s whether I like it or not.” “Smells good or it doesn’t smell good.”

What is it? How do you determine it?

What’s my time. Twelve minutes. Okay.

Explain the– It says, Oh–

List your virtues.

How are you a virtuous person? How are you a role model? How are you better than average?

How are you virtuous? How are you better than the average person?

Got any virtues? Hope so.

Explain the significance of money to you.

Okay? How significant? My relatives all call it, “My money.” “That’s my money.” “I don’t want the government taking it.” “Less government is less money…” They’ve got all these weird perspectives. Their money. Their money. They’ve all been bankrupt with their money. They’ve taken their money and they’ve all been bankrupt. All my relatives, they’ve all gone through at least one bankruptcy. I think every single one of them. They’re all Republican. It’s a normal thing I think.

Gotta hurry up. Thirteen minutes.

Explain the significance of money to you.

Like I said, my parents they get theirs. My mom said she’s gonna die with it. Remember I told you, my step father died and won’t give any. My mom says they’re taking it to the grave. They don’t think it’s right to even give it to me when they’re dead. I have no idea what he did with all his money. He’s a millionaire. Well he probably gave everything to her. But it, yeah. So I guess she’s got everything. So she’s a double millionaire.

But anyway, she said when she dies I’m not gonna get any. My parents! Like I said, I’ve got to find a better planet. I’ve gotta find a planet with good parents on it.

What rewards have come to you recently?

And be thankful. We’ve gotta be thankful. Because I actually did get a few rewards from my parents. Even my horrible realtives. They actually bailed me out a couple of times. One of my cousins without– I told him I’d make it a donation to Tai Chi Youth, but it was really to me. He gave me a thousand bucks. And without that I couldn’t have been able to rent the truck and everything to escape. I would’ve been stuck in Vegas even longer. So I give thanks to my cousin for that. One of my brothers gave me his old car when he replaced it. So I do get little things. And I do remember every one of these little things… I appreciate them. But overall… you know…

I’ve gotta hurry real fast.

What rewards have come to you recently?

What rewards are near?

What rewards do you have coming up here?

What goals were completed recently of yours?

And what goals are near?

Real fast.

So remember these rewards and goals may tie together and that’s what we’re kind of looking for.

I’ve gotta hurry and end this here.

But look at your goals and then look at the rewards you’re getting and try to figure out the relation and put your virtues–look at the whole thing and see if Lao Tzu is right.

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Tao of Taoism — Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life by Buddha Zhen (Richard Del Connor)
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Daily Taoist 1_46 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO #25 Strategy Harmonizing Nature’s Patterns into Goals

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By
Daily Taoist 46

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 46 Tao #25

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, #25.

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

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

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

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

I’m gonna read that one sentence again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your ideals.

We’ve got to be more idealistic.

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

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

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

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

What IDEALS are incorporated in this goal?

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

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

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

Next one is WINTER GOALS.

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

Okay? So what are your goals?

What are the IDEALS incorporated in those goals?

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

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

SPRING: Your Spring goals.

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

Then comes SUMMER.

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

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

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

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

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

How does this COMBINED RESULT fit on your path?

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

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

Hopefully you are on the right path.

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

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

Okay. So putting everything in perspective there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here we go.

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

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

As each goal is planned, initiated, incorporates ideals–

(That’s the part we need to work on.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nice people are in harmony with The Tao.

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Daily Taoist 1_32 – Buddha Zhen Discusses TAO #18d of Political Corruption, Trump and Republicans

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By

YouTube TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 32:

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.

Daily Taoist here.

=============================================

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

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Daily Taoist 1_29 – Buddha Zhen Explains TAO #18a Using his Act Zen Concepts to Live-Act Naturally

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By

YouTube TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 29

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…

See you tomorrow.

=================================================

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

BOOKS by Buddha Zhen

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

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Daily Taoist 1_27 – Buddha Zhen Discusess TAO #16 about Success, Goals, Self-Promotion and Ego

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By

YouTube Video TRANSCIPT: Daily Taoist 27

This is a– Daily Taoist here. Hello everybody.

This one I’ve got right here today is– I’m not sure how much to say. But here we go.

Daily Taoist 27 is Buddha Zhen reading Tao #16 of the book Tao of Taoism based on the writings of Lao Tzu.

NUMBER 16 of Lao Tzu’s DAO TE CHING. And… we’re reading my book. My version of it called TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE.

And so here we go. #16.

I’m Richard Del Connor. Buddha Zhen.

Oh yeah. I should be doing a commercial. Go to ShaolinInteractive.com and for a thousand bucks sign up for one whole belt rank. I don’t know how many videos per each one. A lot. 80 videos per each belt rank. So 80 videos and… We actually give you uniforms and all kinds of stuff under that price. So the actual cost of the class comes out to $5 a class I think. Something like that. [laughs] So that’s a good deal. Each video, they start at about 45 minutes and go up to like two hours so–

But anyway. ShaolinInteractive.com My commercial. Alright. Buddha Zhen here.

Let’s back to #16. This is a tough one. I was kind of perplexed. All these things I was thinking. Let’s get this out of my system. That’s why I’m here. Getting this book out of my system. I’m learning. I’m learning a lot with you. I wrote this book years ago. But the idea here is to learn how to use it to shape your life. Look. It’s all blanks. More blanks than words.

Here we go. NUMBER 16.

Being aware of the Nature of events–
(Remember I use ‘Nature’ wherever you’d use ‘Tao.’ The Tao of events. The Nature. The Mother Nature of events.)
–is to accept not only the completion of events,
but also the declines of success.

Let’s finish this. This is one to unpack. There’s a lot here.

To be absorbed by achievements, or cling to rewards: is to decline with them.

That’s like– I dunno. Off the top of my head: a boat. If you built a boat. So to be absorbed by your achievements: “I built a boat. I want to tell everybody I built that boat.” Ten years later, “I built a boat…”

Okay. Maybe you even won an award in a race ten years ago. “I built a boat that won a race twenty years ago.”

…is to decline with them.

Well maybe that year that was great. The next year it’s like, “Yeah. That was last year. What are doing this year?” I’m talking about last year… “Two years ago…”

“Yeah, you already told us.”

Three years later: “Hey, I built that boat that won three years ago.”

Then, “Yeah, I know. You already told us.”

Then he’d meet somebody ten years later. “Hey I built a boat that won a race ten years ago.”

“Oh. Okay. Good.”

So once again you can kind of see the decline of appreciation of clinging to that event. And in the martial arts world I’ve been very impressed, or unimpressed… disappointed to see how people have clung to their rewards or their awards they received thirty, forty, fifty years ago. [laughs] What have they done since?

So, anyway… It’s kind of sad. You’ve gotta move on. Getting new awards. New rewards… like an actor. So what if you won an award in 1989. It’s 2020 now. What are you going to do now.

Well, you’re retired. Okay. That’s fine. Okay–if you’re not going to do anything– then that’s the time to look backwards.

But if you’re still moving forwards then let’s keep looking at you today and forwards… Okay?

Okay. So let’s read that one more time.

Being aware of the Nature of events is not only accept the completion of events–
(Okay. Building the boat. And maybe winning a race.)
–but also the declines of success.

Okay. To win is great. But if you’re not going to keep winning then– the new winners.

To be absorbed by achievements, or cling to rewards– (or awards– as I put it) –is to decline with them.

Even a reward. “Yeah, I made a thousand bucks off that–that race.”

Okay. Well what’s that worth now? …don’t get corny. [laughs] Alright? All the bucks is gone. You spent it.

Questions in the Tao of Taoism to be answered by THE READER.

So let’s go. Here we go real fast. It’s already been four minutes. I’m trying to figure out how long it takes to make this show. Because I’m going to record a real audiobook.

Do you appreciate a third place winning as much as a first place winning and why?
Do you appreciate, a third place winning as much as a first place winning… and why?

Do you work harder to win something that you normally work at similar things? And why?
Whoops. Let me read that again.
Do you work harder to win something THAN you normally work at similar things? And why?

Oh okay. So you see if you want to WIN something–do you work harder at it than something else you do very similar?

But in order to WIN you work harder.

How quickly do move on to another goal when one goal is completed?
How quickly do move on to another goal when one goal is completed?

How do you know when one goal is completed?
How do you know when one goal is completed?

How do you decide–How do you decide what your next goal is?
How do you decide what your next goal is?

How obligated do you feel about continuing what you’re already successful at?
Remember I told you about people who ride that old success.
How obligated do you feel aout continuing what you’ve already been successful at?

That was one of the things I was explaining in a previous podcast. I didn’t want to be successful at being a television repairman. Because that success was going to hold me back. Wouldn’t propel me forward. Not where I wanted to go.

How do you feel about other people. How do you feel about how people view you after winning or achieving something?

When you win or achieve something–like you run a race. And then you win. How do you think people look at you? And talk about you. And think about you.

Do you feel required to continue a success for family or friends.

So if you did win that race: then your family and friends are going to expect you keep winning it over and over… Right? How are you going to satisfy them? Whatever that that you’ve done successfully? Maybe it’s making a bunch of money in a business deal.

Must you display your trophies prominently?
Do you feel compelled? Do you have all your stuff out?

I do have some of my stuff out, but it was kind of interesting as I was putting it out. I was kind of realizing how I was kind of saving certain things for when I was a senior and retired… Then I thought, “HEY. I’m a senior.” I’m not retired yet. [laughs] I’m 66 years old. I was planning on unpacking this stuff ten years ago because I thought I was gonna retire at 55. I thought that was going to be over the hill.

Here I am 66 years old starting a Kung Fu program. ShaolinInterative.com

I’ve also some free website. A free–the first five classes. You can go to ShaolinKungFuBeginner.com and take those. And then retake them at ShaolinInterative.com Keep going for 190 videos.

Okay. So where are we?

And you only get like three a week. It’s gonna take you along time. Think of it as a lifestyle.

That my heater? I think I turned it down to 75. So it wouldn’t turn on.

Do you feel you must meet standards represented by your rewards or successes?

And how long do you discuss your winnings and achievements after they’ve occurred?

Remember we’re talking about how you deal with it and connect to the past. Okay?

What organizations are you a member of and why?

And I gave like four lines, so, I mean, you don’t have time to–maybe you’re driving or something… so don’t get in a car accident. Anyway. Think of the organizations you’re a member of and WHY are you a member of those organizations? A couple I’ve dropped out of over the years. Like SMPTE. Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers. Or “AND” Television Engineers. Motion Pictures and Television Enginners. Because when I went to UCLA and graduated I had to choose between television and motion pictures. There were two of them. Totally separate: video and film. Now they’ve kind of merged. [laughs] Everything’s digital now. But you had to go one way or the other. SMPTE. The Society of Motion Picture Television–Motion Picture AND Television Engineers. I used to be a member of them when I graduated UCLA–I was a part of that.

And I thought, “Well, I’m not really working in the industry any more.” 90s you know. And I had to pay annual dues. It was only like thirty bucks but when you really get poor that can seem like a lot of money.

Sorry. I digress. Where are we?

What organizations of–Okay. Which of these organizations no longer serve a useful purpose for you?

I just answered that one for me. You personally.

What organizations would serve you better–that you’re not a member of?

So rethink that. Things have changed. I do Kung Fu, so I’ve been looking for Kung Fu organizations to join.

And I found a few of them. But most Kung Fu people are kind of poor like me because they’re not putting out a lot of members. It takes a lot of money to run an organization. And throw those banquets–you gotta pay like fifty bucks and– fifty bucks for a dinner is a lot for me. And then you’ve gotta contribute to the organization so they can do some paperwork and letterhead. I don’t have any money to help them after that. So I don’t begrudge them for wanting membership fees and paying for these annual banquets. I’m just looking forward to being able to afford them. And then I was going to join some.

What achievements pertain to your new goals?

My new goals. Well if I was to say that goal of joining those organiztions and attending more of their events and tournaments. Then, just … yeah. The achievements I need are selling the classes and getting recognized as a COOL online Shaolin Kung Fu Kwoon. Which means school.

Lastly: What new goals would benefit from which new achievements to be attained?
What new goals would benefit– So what of your new goals would benefit from these new achievements that you want to attain?

Summaries by Buddha Zhen

Gee that was a complicated question.

So in other words you’ve gotta look at that. You start thinking of the next one. You’ve gotta look at them snowballing. You finish one movie as an actor and you’ve gotta get started on the next one. You don’t just start talking to everybody about that movie you made ten years ago. Not talking about it. You’ve got to go on to the next goal.

So if you can you want to leverage each achievement to kind of springboard you into the next one.

So, “HEY this movie I’m in–is like this movie…” So you’re already pitching for your next movie before you even finish it. And then when its done, hopefully you did a good job and you want to hurry up and get a job while everybody’s excited about it. Because a year later, “You made that move a year ago. Do anything since then?”

So you want to kind of keep moving forward. There’s my suggestion. That’s how you want to be with the Tao. The Tao of an actor is actually to keep moving. Not just keep talking about that one movie you made. You know you just want to keep moving. No matter how good a movie you make or you get an Oscar–You can’t look at that as a peak. It’s just another movie. Going on down the line.. But you obviously leverage them. Use the Tao to play with them.

Here I go. The Daily Taoist, Buddha Zhen here. See ya on our next Daily Tao.

==============================================

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

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

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Produced by Richard Del Connor for Shaolin Records

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Daily Taoist 1_26 – Buddha Zhen Studies TAO#15 Four Levels of Influence and Tao of Corruption

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By
https://youtu.be/HeKMSjAvAhQ

Hey. Daily Taoist here. Buddha Zhen.

Hey by the way, I’m doing everything here for free. You should go to my ShaolinInteractive.com website. And sign up for my Kung Fu classes. Yeah. That’s my advertisement.

Okay. This is– I’m reading from the Dao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Written 2,000 or some years ago. 2,500 years ago. 2,200. And I made my own version of it called– you can see back here over my shoulder: The Tao of Taoism – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Daily Life.

Here we go. I’m on page 26 and this is NUMBER 15. Now in this case. What we’re talking about, he’s got — I’m looking at it. It says, FOUR LEVELS OF INFLUENCE. And there’s four numbers here and four things.

Number 1: These are “Four Levels of Influence.” Condemnation of Conduct.

In other words, “condemn.” We’re telling someone they’re doing something bad. That’s how you can influence somebody. That’s one. You condemn their conduct.

Number 2: Fear of punishment or denied rewards.

Now he’s saying, “If this is bad–This is gonna happen.”

Number 3: Motivate by loyalty, honor, self-interest, money, rewards and flattery.

That’s a positive, but you’re bribing.

First one is you condemn them. You make them feel bad.

The second one is you actually make them fear something that makes you disliked.

Third one is to be bribed.

And the fourth one is to influence without those being influenced being aware of it.

So, can you just communicate with people and get them to kind of go along with you without effort. So in that way, you’re influencing them without them realizing you are influencing them. So through slogans, and emotions, or– There’s lots of ways you can do that.

I’m watching our President do this– It’s amazing watching politics 2020. I never realized how corrupt and evil and whatever it is–and can so easily be. It’s going to be interesting to see how in the future people can use politics to create good things for the purpose of good. Because we’re really seeing it used for the powers of corruption. Those wheels in power could be changed to where corruption isn’t making all the final decisions. I’m in an interesting world. So the future has some interesting possibilities. See what happens.

So anyway, FOUR LEVELS OF INFLUENCE.

So regarding those now under your influence or that you influence: students, children, your employees: How do you use condemnation of conduct to influence and control them?

So how do you condemn. Like, make a rule: “No spitting on the sidewalk.” You’ve condemned it. How do you condemn their conduct?

Number 2 or next: How do you use fear of punishment or denied reward: “Spit on the sidewalk is a $50 fine.” Okay answer that. Take it up a notch.

How do you use fear of punishment or denied reward?

How do motivate by loyalty, honor, money, rewards and flattery?

Hey! Those who don’t spit on the sidewalk can join my special club and have free pizza. [laughs]

How do use motivate by loyalty, honor, money, rewards or flattery to get people to do what you want?

And fourth: How do you influence without those being influenced being aware of it? So how do you influence people without them being aware of it?

That’s more subtle. Like by good example. Nicest one is set a good example and that influences people’s behavior.

I’ve caused a lot of trouble over the years by picking up trash. When I’d walk my kids to school, I just couldn’t ignore it. So me and my kids started picking up the trash. When we moved to Tujunga there was a lot of trash. So little by little cars started honking at me. As they went by. They’d see what we were doing. And then next thing I know the neighbors of course are talking about it. The whole street all the way up to the school was not one single piece of trash. [laughs] And so we kind of got a reputation. I started to see other people do it.

Similar thing happened at an apartment complex where I was living. Most of the people there– The landlord was getting subsidized by the government for bringing people from South America and Central America. That type for some reason. That’s what he told me. In fact he said he’d previously been getting subsidies for another race, but I won’t get into that. He was just picking any way he could make a profit. So anyway, he had all these immigrants in this part of the building I moved into and, boy: I learned a lot about knife fighting and women fighting I saw. I saw more violent face shredding than I’d ever seen in my life during that time I lived there at the apartments.

Anyway, it turns out that in Central America one of the ways you lower a woman in marriage and families. Really the only business for a woman down there. If you can scar a woman and scratch her face, then not only do you win that fight– but now within the local pool of marriageable women–you’ve now become the better choice than the woman who’s got a scarred face. So I saw that. That was weird. I could have gone my whole life without imagining that kind of thing.

But anyway.

Which of these four techniques do you use most?

So of those four things, which do you use the most? Everybody has a tendency to use one more than the other. So which one of those?

Which of the four techniques are you best at?

Which obviously means you’ve used it the most too. So of all those four techniques–which are you best at? Bribing. Giving honor. Humiliating. Or punishing? Which are you best at?

And punishing can just be denying something too. Just not giving that something. Or not giving them your love. That’s punishment.

How can you improve your–

Oh, Which of these four techniques SHOULD you use more?

Which of these four techniques should you use more?

Maybe your life has changed. So reconsider. You’re dealing with a different type of people. Maybe they’re not kids–they’re adults. So you have to change you have to change your mode of operation here.

How can you improve your ability to motivate others?

Yeah, reconsider. Reconsider which modes to use. And use the right one. I’m not saying what’s right or wrong. I’m just saying, know what you’re doing and make sure you’re using the right one.

— Which of these techniques work best on YOU? And why?

Now there’s a very good question. Are you better if someone threatens you? If they flatter you? Or whether they punish you. Or you’re bribed. Which do you work best under.

What is the basis of your self-discipline and motivation?

So everyone has some amount of self-discipline and motivation. Some people have very little. Bu push youut still, what is the basis of it. How come you have whatever you have? What is it? What are you self-motivated to do? What can you push yourself to do. And if you can push yourself to do something, beyond just wanting to eat or take a shower when you start to smell– How do you do it on a regular basis.

How do you do something that’s disciplined, regulated?

And what is the basis of that training?

How can you be motivated without any external rewards?

So, in other words: what does it take for YOU to be motivated to do something?

If I want you to do something for me–wash my car. [laughs] How could I get you to do it? Without bribing you? How could I get you to do it without bribing you? Might be pretty hard but-

How willingly do you sacrifice your spare time for money? Spare time for money.

So that’s time you don’t have to work. So you’re working and maybe you’ve got extra time. You’re not married and you don’t have kids. You could watch football. Or maybe you could actually take on a part-time job.

So, how willingly do your sacrifice your spare time for money? That’s specific.

Next. Last one: What is the least amount per hour you’ll work for and why? That’s an interesting question of course.

What’s the least amount you’ll work for, per hour, and why that particular amount.

Okay. Daily Daoist here. And that was NUMBER 15: “4 Levels of Influence“

How are you influenced?

So this is yuour relationship with your Tao. The Tao. Remember the Tao includes people with jobs and stuff too. It’s part of the Nature you live in. If it’s a little unnatural it’s still part of your Tao. Your Nature you live in. So all those things affect you .

So your relationship with your job, your money, your work…

Anyway, if you’re HERE, you must be interested in understanding yourself.

The Daily Taoist out.

Daily Taoist 1_25 – Buddha Zhen Explains TAO #14 Tao of Taoism – Using the Dao Te Ching for Actors

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT Daily Taoist 25

Hey. Buddha Zhen back. I’m enjoying being THE DAILY TAOIST. This is totally cool. I’m pumping out a whole bunch of these– Here’s my author copy of this book, TAO OF TAOISM – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life. Written by Lao Tzu. I just took a bunch of translations of and said, “I don’t this guy’s got it… And I don’t think this guy’s got it…” Because I don’t translate Chinese. So I had to like take the translations, and what I knew of it, and from being part of the religion and the lifestyle for years and years. And try to see what makes sense. What was he really saying that I would say, “Harmonizes with the truth.” You know, the reality of using it in life.

I’ve been using Taoism since the eighties. Since… yeah… So if anybody could tell you what it is– [laughs] It should be somebody who’s been using it on a daily basis and teaching it to people. Inserting it in people and seeing how it affects them. Same with Buddhism. I called myself a “BUDDHIST SCIENTIST” for about twenty years. Because I considered myself, and all my students, and everything, were–I’m being facetious: I thought “lab rats” you know. But they’re– But they’re my test subjects in a way. They’re my children. And I’m constantly seeing the effects. I’m concerned. I don’t just throw stuff at them. “Hey, here’s some old wisdom.” SPLAT. “Here’s some more wisdom.” SPLAT. No, I like, look at it. Flavor it, and shape it. And say, “Okay. Can you understand that?” Then I come back, “How’s it working?” “How’d you like it?” “How’d it come out?” So anyway, I’ve kind of been able to see the effects of the Taoism and the Buddhism over the years. Confucianism too.

Actually no, the Confucianism– I wish. I didn’t start into that until about 2011. Sorry. Well I couldn’t tell you the affects of that. Because if I did I could’ve saved all kinds of marriages and businesses because that’s what that’s for. Marriages, businesses and politics. That’s what Confucius is for. Teaching. Oh that’s what I heard. I thought somebody was at my front door. Light’s falling down. And uh– I hope it’s going to stay there.

“Is that going to stay there Bear?” If that thing goes it’s gonna really pop. It’s a 150W bulb. Let me go and move it real quick.

Anyway, Daily Taoist here. No– I’m just– “Hang on…”

“Bear. Why did that move?” It wants to keep moving. Alright.

Okay. So I’m back. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll edit that out. As much as I’m an iPhoneographer. I’m getting all the software in my phone and everything–I don’t know how to use it. I don’t know what I’m doing yet. But I’m figuring it out. You can actually go to my other channel: Richard Del Connor at YouTube: You can see music videos and things that I’m making. So I’m learning how to use a gimbal. I’m learning how to use my iPhone. I’m learning how to use LumaFusion. I’m shooting in Filmic Pro. And then I’m learning how to actually then– well, just getting it off my phone and then getting it onto a hard drive. And then backing it up is a lot of work. I’m just figuring this out. So anyway.

Here we go. The Daily Taoist.

And we’re on NUMBER 14. What’d I do? I took two minutes and forty-two seconds of your time just getting started here? Sorry about that.

Oh! By the way. Never say you’re sorry unless you’re gonna do it again.

That’s one my slogans. And here I am–an anti-slogan person. But that’s actually something that I want everybody to realize. Look! It’s 100% true.

Everybody I tell people they always come back and go, “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

Never say you’re “sorry” unless you’re gonna do it again.

And if anybody ever says they’re “sorry” you can expect them to do it again.

So don’t say you’re “sorry.”

You can say you won’t do it again though. That’s different.

Here we go. NUMBER 14.

Watch it. Check– Watch yourself. When you say you’re sorry for something. It’ll be something you’ve done before. You’ll catch yourself. I said, “I’m sorry,” for that. And I did it to that guy. You know he’s stubbing his toe or–whatever it is. But yeah. Watch.

So don’t say you’re “sorry” and you’ll stop making mistakes.

The Daily Taoist here. Confusing you. [laughs] The truth is cool.

NUMBER 14. This is written by Lao Tzu supposed– well, originally. And then translated by other people and then me–synthesized into this book to make it more useful. But Lao Tzu’s book, Dao Te Ching is being presented to you in my Tao of Taoism by me, Buddha Zhen. I’m actually Richard Del Connor. If you want to look at my license.

Here we go, NUMBER 14:
Nature (and this is with a capital ‘N’ despite it being at the first–start of the paragraph).
Nature cannot be measured or controlled.
Yet, the operations of Nature (with a capital ‘N’) can be understood.

I’m using ‘Nature’ for ‘The Tao.’ Because there’s different versions. You could just call it, “The Tao.” I’m going to call “Nature” and “Tao” are the same thing. Okay?

Understanding the forces in motion creates an awareness of Nature. (The Tao).

This awareness comes from an inner harmony of each person that mirrors the outer workings of Nature.

Oops. Let’s read it. I’ve got to read it again.

So only by living naturally can one understand or be aware of Nature.

This is where people get all messed up. This is one of the ones that confuses people. They think they all the sudden have to become a plant to understand what a plant is. And you gotta act like a monkey to be a– to understand what a monkey is.

I’m not saying that but– He’s– Let’s just break it down real fast.

I really want to take the mumbo jumbo and the mystical godliness out of this. Cuz this is not a godly thing. Remember, this is science. This is science. It’s not God.

Here we go: Nature cannot be measured or controlled.

The Earth, its rotation, the seasons, the up and down things… The clouds. The moving. Whatever. Or gravity– Cannot be measure or controlled. That’s kind of what it’s saying. Everything. The reality– Okay? Nature… I’ve got that.

It’s beyond our control. We’re popped in here. Splat. We exist in it. I was comparing it to a big bowl of soup we’re in… we’re in the middle of you know. Moving around in this bowl of soup. We’re here for a little while and then we’re gone. The soup’s still here. Still going on. But we just come and go… within the soup. (Nature.)

Okay. So: Yet the = operations of Nature can be understood. So in other words they can’t really be measured or controlled because they change all the time. Even measuring what the temperature is on a certain day is going to be different that the next day. You can measure it, but you can’t really predict that it’s going to be the same. It’s always in flux, or– So anyway, that’s what we’re trying to say.

But you can understand it. You can understand it’s colder in the winter. You may not know exactly what temperature it is. You can’t measure it and predict in the next year in the same day it’s going to be the same temperature. And the same clouds… But you can understand in a broader sense. That’s what he’s trying to say.

Yet the operations of Nature– (The seasons and such. The day versus night.) –Can be understood.

Okay. So there’s our first two. The simple pragmatic science. Don’t get caught up in mystical mumbo jumbo again.

I don’t mind mystical mumbo jumbo. This isn’t the place for it. It’s not intended.

Ready?

Understanding the forces in motion creates an awareness of Nature.

Forces in motion: the seasons, the winds… The wind that comes before the storm. The kind of clouds that come to bring rain. The clouds that come that don’t bring rain. Understanding all these forces in motion. If you understand–you have an awareness of Nature. See? So you can start to understand–to recognize things. An awareness of Nature.

That’s good. So we’ve got the first three sentences. To be a scientist you’ve just gotta study things. Go take a meteorology class. One of my regrets: I never got one.

Here we go.

This awareness comes from an inner harmony of each person that mirrors the outer workings of Nature.

Aaaaaahhh. This is where it gets more complicated. And this is where people– If you’re really, like President Trump. He’s very out of harmony with Nature. I mean anybody I think–even his fans and supporters agree with that. This guy’s totally out of balance. [laughs] He’s miserable. He’s unhappy. He looks unhappy. He gives off negative energy. Hes an ugly creature. Anyway. Poor guy. You know, he’s just all messed up. His thinking’s wrong. He’s never gonna be happy because he’s working in a system that can never exist. His view of reality doesn’t exist. So he’s just all day long fighting to try to trick everybody to what reality is. And he’s not in any reality at all. He’s just living in this made up world in his brain that can never exist. Because even if it does it’s a crime and he’s gonna get in trouble. He’s gotta– Even if it exists he’s gotta get the money and run. [laughs] He never wants to be anywhere where he’s gonna be stuck. That’s his dilemma. He can never hold still. And if he does hold still he’s gonna get handcuffed. So he’s gotta keep moving. So that’s out of harmony with Nature.

Sorry to use him as a radical example. He just came to mind first. But he doesn’t understand the forces of Nature. He has no concern about Nature. He lives in his big city and…

Here we go.

Okay. So why’d I even point him out? Because his lack of awareness– he’s the opposite of what the next sentence is.

This awareness comes from an inner harmony.

Now, his inner harmony–

Of each person that mirrors the outer workings of Nature.

He does not mirror the outer workings of Nature. That’s why he makes people so unhappy. Nobody would want him for their babysitter. Nobody’d want him for their mother. He does not mirror Nature. If he does he mirrors the kind of Nature you shouldn’t be around like a crocodile. He’s just gonna eat you and drag you underwater. Doesn’t care. So anyway, maybe he does kind of mirror a part of Nature. Wow. Actually. Maybe Lao Tzu’s more right than I think. He’s saying even when you’r wrong–

This awareness–

Well he’s trying to talk in the positive. He’s saying that if you have an understanding that comes from your inner understanding which is in balance. Okay.

So what happens when you have an inner harmony that’s not in balance. That means you can never understand Nature. Or appreciate Nature. Never appreciate the other people in Nature. Keeps you completely separate from everyone. Because you have no balance that anyone should actually be attracted to. Which is the other problem. The people that are attracted to that imbalance are the people with the same imbalance. Kind of creates a– Yeah.

Okay. Now. So, last sentence: Only by living naturally. In other words, ‘naturally’ means in harmony with Nature. Not opposed to it. But comfortably living in harmony with it. Where there’s peace, accord and contentment… Can you understand or be aware of Nature.

See. That’s why he can’t be aware of it. He doesn’t have inner harmony. Doesn’t have that balance. He can’t sense it. He can’t feel it. It’s beyond him.

So I’m using him as an example. Hopefully he doesn’t represent you. Um, my family is…There’s all kinds of people like this. Let’s put it that way… that are not in balance with Nature.

And the ones that are in balance with Nature. That’s a step forward. But that doesn’t make you a complete person. That just means that you– at least physically can be a successful animal. So that’s all this is doing… is helping you to be a better animal…

Okay? That was NUMBER 14. What? I spent eleven minutes just explaining it? [laughs] I got carried away. That’s why I’m doing this. So I can get a lot of this out of my system. When I do the audiobook version of this I hope I won’t talk so much. The book’s gonna be too long for anyone to read or listen to.

Here we go.

But that’s why I like this as The Daily Taoist though. I was thinking of trying to keep this at five or six minutes. I’m already at eleven, thirty-three.

Let me just blast down. Let’s see how far we get. Maybe it’s gonna be a 20-minute thing today.

Ready? You on board? Because I’m gonna need a few minutes to unpack all this. There’s a bunch of questions here.

Explain your–

In fact, I’ll go fast. Because these are so vague and I’m not gonna elaborate on them. If I do it’ll take a long time. So let’s just see how fast I can go. It’s twelve minutes now. See how fast I can go.

Explain your understanding of Nature.

Explain your understanding of Nature.

Right now. I’ve changed. I was a Native American for some years. Following those traditions. I was a pipe carrier. Doing smudge… Anyway.

How do the forces of Nature influence your life?

They used to influence mine alot.

And again. I’m in a different situation now.

You. How do the forces of Nature influence your life?

Okay? Explain your inner harmony?

Remember that inner harmony we were talking. Here it says, “The awareness comes from an inner harmony of each person that mirrors the outer workings of Nature.”

So let’s look at your inner harmony and see how thatnat’s somehow a mirror of Nature.

So in other words if you live in a very cold igloo then you’re gonna mirror– your harmony of Nature is gonna be a little different than some guy one who lives next to the beach. So you’ll have a different inner harmony maybe. I don’t know. That would be intersting to find out. I’d like to talk to both you guys: Igloo and the guy on the beach. Compare your perspectives of reality.

Here we go.

Oh. How does your inner harmony mirror the forces of Nature?

See? Once agin. The igloo versus the beach. How are you mirroring Nature?

Once again: How does your inner harmony mirror the forces of Nature?

Explain how your life is natural.

So somebody in Arizona might have a different natural life than somebody in Washington state.

Explain how your life is natural.

Explain why your life is natural.

You know obviously like some people we know in presidential positions you can be very unnatural. So explain why you decided to make your life natural. How it came to be natural. Maybe somebody just trained you that way.

Explain how your life is mechanical or unnatural.

Ooh. Mechanical and unnatural. So you’re a machine. You’re doing something that’s contrary to Nature. But it’s your job. Maybe youre chopping down trees. That would be kind of unnatural.

Okay… What do you do out of obligation or necessity rather than by desire.

That’s probably 50% of the people on the planet there.

They just have a job. There just happy to get the paycheck. They don’t have any interst in that business or product line.

So what do you do out of obligation or necessity rather than by desire.

Own up to it. If you can’t be honest with yourself–You’ll never be smart.

Here we go: What do you do to satisfy others that does not satisfy you?

Ooh. That’s a good question. I’m quite the giver. But– Anyway.

One more time: What do you do to satisfy others that does not satisfy you?

What expectations of others are you currently satisfying?

Hey. Each of us is going to have a very different answer to that one.

What expectations of others are you currently satisfying?

How much time do you spend each day doing nothing?

Once again: How much time do you spend each day doing nothing?

If you had all the money you could need or spend–what would you do with your time?

If you had all the money you could need or spend–what would you do with your time?

Why aren’t you doing these things now anyway?

When I was homeless that was a question I was asking all the time.

Sorry to interject. See! I said I’m sorry. I’m gonna do it again. [laughs]

Why arent you doing these things now anyway?

Do you believe that to not work or to not have a job is wrong?

Do you beleive that to not work or to not have a job is wrong?

Do you believe that you should have children and a family?

Do you believe that you should have a children– have a children–a bunch– anyway. Have children and a family?

How many kids do you intend to have? And why?

How many kids do you intend to have? And why?

When you don’t have to go to work– there’s actually a typo here. Sheesh. Second one I’ve found. What time do you wake up and go to bed?

When you don’t have time to go to work–what time do you wake up and go to bed?

Interesting question.

How is this different than when you are working?

Okay. So when you don’t have a job. That’s why I didn’t– That’s why that was one of things I did.

So when you don’t have job–what time do you wake up and go to bed. Okay. So that changes your schedule. You don’t have to get up at any time.

How is this different than when you’re working?

So does it change? When you’re working in your normal occupation.

Okay. So there’s NUMBER 14.

And in 17-minutes.

Daily Taoist out of here.

Daily Taoist 1_22 – Buddha Zhen Illuminates TAO #11 the Yin / Yang of Nature from Tao of Taoism book

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By

YouTube Transcript for VIDEO: Daily Taoist 22:

Alright. When I started that last one I said I’d do these two. Let’s finish this one. I don’t know if I’ll do any more today. If the background changes, that means it’s another day. Let’s see. Actually, this thing doesn’t move behind me.

NUMBER 11:
The incorporation of opposites creates usable efforts.
Walls have doors. Containers are hollow.
And success requires expense.

This is cool. That yin and yang. Giving and taking. And things flowing and spinning.

Here we go.

Again. NUMBER 11: of the Tao Te Ching.

The incorporation of opposites.

Incorporating. That means utilizing them.

Creates usable efforts.

Magnetism. Chi.

Walls have doors. Containers are hollow.

Ying and yang again.

And success requires expense.

Always at least in time and effort. Which has a value in money.

Okay. So here we go. Ahhhhh. I’m probably not gonna talk much. There’s too much to talk about. And like I said, I’d have to hit this with different angles depending on which business of mine we’re talking about.

Here we go.

What opposites within you are utilized for your efficiency?

What opposites within you are utilized for your efficiency?

What opposites of others are utilized for your work?

What opposites of others are utilized for your work?

I don’t know if you got that. What opposites of others. Other people have opposites too, remember. They have a yin and a yang. Happy and a sad.

And so sometimes if you can play one, offer a carrot to make the other one–you can get them of course to move. With a carrot. Anyway.

What persons that are opposite of you do you harmonize with?

That are opposite of you. Like, way different, but you harmonize with them. And why? I’m not saying you’re going to get the right answer but give it a try.

How are opposites used in your career?

How are opposites used in your career?

I’m thinking of a bunch of answers. I don’t know if I want to misguide you. You might be inspired to come up with something interesting. So, I’ll try to say as little as possible.

How do you treat persons that you don’t like?

How do you treat persons that you don’t like?

How do you control those aspects of yourself that slow you down?

How do you control those aspects of yourself that slow you down?

How do you utilize the night as opposed to the daytime?

How do you use the night time as opposed to the daytime?

How do you utilize yin yang energies in your Tai Chi Chuan practice?

That’s kind of cool. That’s a lot of fun.

How do you utilize yin yang energies in your Tai Chi Chuan practice?

Well, you wouldn’t know that but a lot of it’s yin and yang. As I was explaining in yesterday’s class… it was today’s class. It was this morning. I was explaining how this is the only Kung Fu I know that you can use with breathing. We do the whole thing, “Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.” See. So they’re kind of yin and yang see. “Inhale–” That’s a yin and then yang. Boom. Exhale you know.

These are positive / negatives in the Tai Chi form.

Here we go.

How can opposites be more useful in your career?

How can opposites be more useful in your career?

How can opposites be more useful in your homelife?

These are cool questions.

How can opposites be more useful in your homelife?

They could also be turning light switches on and off couldn’t they?

How can opposites be more useful in your lovelife?

How can opposites be more useful in your lovelife?

How can your emotions be better controlled by reversing them?

That’s not a good one for me. [laughs] Well, actually it shouldn’t make that much difference. I try to keep my polarity at zero. So you reverse them it doesn’t make that big a difference. Sorry. I wasn’t supposed to talk was I?

Here we go. So… The question was, How can your emotions be better controlled by reversing them?

How easily can you change your emotions?

How easily can you change your emotions?

How quickly can you stop being mad?

How quickly can you stop being mad?

How quickly can you stop being sad?

I will say something there.

Back in the eighties, because I’ve been thinking about this the last few days because I lost my best friend on Friday. Really sad. I shed some tears. But I didn’t sob. Kind of realizing today, my mourning period’s still not really over…. Lost a good, good friend. But anyway, but there still is something. I’m sensitized. The um… When I was in the eighties I had a lot of emotional breakups. I remember, but anyway, I can’t tell a lot of the details. I had a lot of girlfriends. Lots of breakups. Lots of emotions. Lots of relationships. Lots of falling in love. Lots of falling out of love. And somewhere in that mix: And I can’t– I have no specific memories– I remember being sad a couple times. In my life. Actually maybe I went back even farther when I was a teenager, But anyway, I can remember at some point, a couple points–maybe two, three at the most: when I was sobbing so much that i could tell the crying was making the crying more powerful. The sadder I got… the sadder I got.

It was like wohhh… In fact I remember in the eighties. in the mid eighties I developed a hypothesis when i was in UCLA. It had something to do with ions in the universe. It’s like a ‘like’ attracts ‘like.’ In other words, if you get that negative energy going–they’re just there, and they cling to you. And make you feel like you’re weighted down. And they’re sticking to you. Other people might say they were ghosts and spirits or whatever. But the point is that it attracts more. It doesn’t make you feel better. In other words, you feel like you want to get that sadness out of you–but you start to realize, “Hey. It’s starting to generate itself and I can’t control it. What the heck’s going on here?” You don’t want to do it. It’s pointless to do something that’s self-destructive. And that’s what it is. It’s like a feedback loop.

Sorry. Told you I wasn’t gonna but I thought that was kind of interesting because I was noticing that: during all this sadness that I have felt, I didn’t get close to that desperate loss. I mean close. But I did get to that point where I could’ve gone further at least once. I got really sad. It hit me. I just let it hit me. I thought, “okay, I’m fortunately alone” [laughs] So I allowed myself to be sad for a minute, and let it go. That was it. The worst one. The worst one. I let it happen. But I didn’t just dwell on it go, “Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh.” I’d just kind of agree with it. Just let it happen. It was kind of like a burp. I didn’t want to keep like burping. I just let it out.

Here we go. I wasn’t gonna talk. Remember?

How easily can you change your emotions?

How quickly can you stop being sad?

That was the question: How quickly can you stop being sad?

How much time of each day are you having– and in capital letters: FUN? F-U-N. Fun.

How much time of each day are you having fun?

Look at the smile on my face. I’m having fun right now. Yep. This is fun to me.

Last question: What inhibits your having fun?

For me it’s been a house. Not having an iphone. Not having a computer. Not having a place for Bear.

That’s what’s been inhibiting me. I’m having fun now.

I always have fun, no matter what. If I could have more money I could even have more fun. Expand our fun-ness. Buy him some more food.

————————————————————————————–

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Daily Taoist 1_16 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO #6 PART 2 of Tao of Taoism self-help inspired by Lao Tzu

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By

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.

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Buddha Z BOOKS Publisher: Shaolin Communications

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Daily Taoist 1_15 – Buddha Zhen Reads Tao #6 PART 1 of Tao of Taoism based upon Dao Te Ching

/ Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By

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.

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BOOKS by Buddha Z:


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Buddha Kung Fu

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Rich Connor Singing Webmaster
Rich Connor Singing Webmaster of Shaolin Digital

OFFICIAL Artist Website: Shaolin Records: Buddha Z

www.BuddhaZ.com

Buddha Z BOOKS Publisher: Shaolin Communications

http://www.ShaolinCommunications.com

Buddha Z RECORD Label: Shaolin Records

www.ShaolinRecords.com

Buddha Z KUNG FU School: Shaolin Chi Mantis

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Shaolin Chi Mantis ONLINE KWOON

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