The Tao

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

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

youTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 53 #31b

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

Alright. #31b

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

Here we go. #31b

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

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

He says,

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

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

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

So in other words–

Friendship is balanced by trust.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here we go. #31b

Describe how you trust people.

Describe HOW you trust people.

How did you develop this trust system?

How did you develop YOUR trust stystem?

How DON’T you trust people?

How don’t you trust people?

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

Okay. Here we go.

How did this DISTRUST develop?

How did you decide where to draw that line?

HOW did this distrust develop?

Describe your female nature.

Whether a man or woman. Everybody.

Some men are much more feminine than women.

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

But okay, here we go:

To who is your trust extended unconditionally now?

To WHO is your trust extended UNCONDITIONALLY now?

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

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

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

Where are we? Five minutes. Okay.

To who is your trust extended UNCONDITIONALLY now?

To who are you uncondiditional?

To whom is your trust extended with reservations now?

Certain things you trust entirely but other things…

WHAT do those you trust unconditionally OFFER YOU?

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

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

What do those you SLIGHTLY DISTRUST offer you?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So remember, friendship is a side by side relationship.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Produced by Richard Del Connor for Shaolin Records

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

Daily Taoist 1_51 – Buddha Zhen Reads TAO #30 Cruelty, Destruction, Arrogance are Evil Persons

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

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 51

My Tao was saying, “Let’s go take a break.”

Then my other Tao was saying, “Hey! Let’s keep going!”

So it’s like, alright… Let’s compromise. We’ll do one more and then we’ll take a break. [LAUGHS]

You’ve gotta work with yourself. You know you can’t just push yourself all the time. You’ve gotta–You’ve gotta find your own Yin and Yang. So here it is: I’m going to do this #30 and take a break.

#30 of the TAO OF TAOISM. Written by me, Buddha Zhen, Richard Del Connor, Zhen Shen-Lang. Based on the book by Lao Tzu which I call THE BOOK OF CHANGES. Okay? Dao Te Ching. The Book of Changes.

It’s about basically the book of all the– everything changes. The book–Or you could even call THE TAO nothing but “Changes.” Because THE TAO doesn’t exist. It’s just your way of trying to understand: what was–what is now–what it’s becoming… It’s just a constant flow of change. All reality is a constant flow of change.

Okay. Here we go. #30.

Cruelty, destruction, and arrogance
are unnatural evil forces.

Man! Should mail a copy of this to– Well, Trump’s not gonna– He doesn’t read. You see? That’s the problem. Trump could never do this book. Trump is never going to be a better person. He’s always going to be a terrible, terrible person. Because he’s not capable of reading this book. That’s a shame. Because I would like to at least improve him. It’s not like I want to– hurt him. He deserves to be hurt. He’s hurt lots of people. Even killed–anyway, inadvertently perhaps killed people. Yeah, what to do with that guy? Put him in prison. Make him read my book the rest of his life. Heck–

Okay, #30.

Cruelty, destruction, and arrogance are unnatural evil forces.

Remember, I define evil as anything that works against the good of the person. In other words, anything I don’t want you to do to me is evil. I don’t want you to take my car. That’s evil. I don’t want you to take my house. That’s evil. I don’t want you to shoot me. That’s evil. I don’t want to go without food. I don’t want you to take my food and make me hungry. That’d be evil. Anything that hurts me is evil. Anything that helps me is good. Hey, you’re gonna give me some more food. That’s nice. That’s a good thing to do. You’re gonna give me some more money. Hey, that’s a good thing. Gonna give me a better car. That’s a good thing to do. Thank you, I could use it. See? All these things are good.

See? You can see the difference between good and evil. One helps the person. And one hurts the person. So–

Do you enforce laws, rules, and punishments for disobeying those laws and rules you dislike?

Alright. Let’s read that again. I’ll read it maybe twice. Make sure we get it right.

Do you enforce laws– (Okay, so do you like a parent) –enforce laws rules and punishments for disobeying rules and laws you dislike?

Like what about smoking pot? Now what if a policeman smokes pot. They probably test him so much he couldn’t. Anyway, if he could, but he wanted to smoke pot, but he’s gotta arrest other people and put them in handcuffs for doing it. Even though it’s something he wants to do. See thats… So he’s enforcing a law that he dislikes.

Do you believe that when a person breaks a law they should “pay the consequences?”

Ah. Should people suffer? Should you make them atone for it. Okay? There’s a whole bunch of answers to that but I’m just looking for yours right now. I’m not sure if this is the place to go into all the psychology and everything of what’s going on here.

So let’s just go through this and I’ll try to influence you as little as possible. [LAUGHS] Because if you’re seductive [sadistic] evil qualities–You need to see them. You need to let them out. So I don’t mean to– I’ll probably. You’ll probably be hiding them, “Oh, I’m not gonna say that. He’s not gonna like–” So don’t write it for me. Write it for you. Write the truth in this book and then look at it, and then that’s the only way you can get better. You can’t hide from yourself. Well YOU CAN. In fact, that’s probably what you’ve been doing your whole life. Everybody who’s looking at this has probably hid from themselves to some extent.

Me? I mean, I wasn’t trying to. I was trying to be something I wasn’t. So I was trying to hide my artistic Nature. I was trying to be a Carpenter when I wanted to be a Musician. So I was kind of hiding a little bit.

So, yeah. We all do it in our own way. How do you– Okay.

Do you believe that a person who breaks a law should “pay the consequences?”

Do you believe the rule, “Spare the rod–and you’ll spoil the child?”

Do you believe in that rule? That it’s correct? Spare the rod and you’ll spoil the child?”

Do you believe that too much patience or affection will “spoil the child?”

So in other words, if you don’t punish them enough they’re not going to be good. And if you’re too good to them, they’re not gonna turn out good.

“Spoil the child.” Do you ever say, “spoil the child?” “You’re spoiling him.” Do you ever say that? Have you ever used the word, “spoil?” (In regards to other people.) Have you ever said it?

Can you kick or hurt a dog, cat or other small animal when they misbehave?

In other words, when they’ve done something bad. They’ve pee-ed on the floor. Or something that really just makes you mad. They’ve done it before. Do you kick them? Punish them?

Do you enjoy hunting animals?

I guess, “enjoy.” Now I used to– I’m a hunter. Was a hunter? I’ll always be a hunter. If I had to I’d be a hunter now. But if I don’t have to I don’t really want to. I’ve got other things more important. [LAUGHS]

But anyway, as a hunter do you ENJOY hunting animals?

Let me tell you, because you probably aren’t a hunter. There aren’t many hunters around. Last twenty years they’ve kind of disappeared. Everybody’s afraid of guns.

The point being: as a hunter I don’t enjoy killing animals. But I do enjoy hunting. So I don’t care if I ever even catch–if I’m successful. I always enjoyed every hunting expedition I’ve been on whether or not I bagged anything. Seriously. I’ve always enjoyed them equally. The one’s where we did actually kill something were actually more problematic and had more stuff. And you gotta gut ’em, and hang ’em, and bleed ’em and drag ’em back in the snow. It’s a lot of work actually killing an animal and bringing it back. So I wouldn’t call that more fun. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed that part. So I enjoy hunting, and maybe I enjoy hunting less [more] when I’m unsuccessful.

Do you enjoy killing people?

And then in parentheses I put, “in games.” [LAUGHS]

I remember this one little kid I was talking to and he was all proud of himself because he’d had 29,000 kills in one year. So in one year he was proud he had killed 29,000 individuals. Of course they were supposed to all be bad, but you know they were still ranging from probably elves, fairies and dwarves and demons and humans and soldiers and whatever. 29,000 people killed. Because you were aiming at them and trying to kill them. So that’s 29,000 to actually go, “I want you to die. Die. I want you to die. Die. Die.”

Even when I was hunting, I wasn’t really saying, “I want you to die.” It was more like a contest of trying to–of anyway… You’re just–

Okay. Where are we?

So, do you enjoy killing people? (In games.)

Low battery. Sheesh. I told you I’d have to take a break right after this.

Here we go.

Explain your viewpoint on guns.

I keep mentioning this. So lay out yours. Say it to yourself. What’s your viewpoint on guns. “They’re all evil…” Say whatever you believe. Okay?

Which sports do you enjoy? And why?

Everybody’s got certain sports. But why not the other ones? Why this one over that…? Think about it. Maybe you don’t even know. But think about it. Why didn’t you choose football instead of soccer? Why didn’t you choose badminton instead of tennis? Probably can’t find badminton on TV. [LAUGHS]

Alright. Here we go.

What should be done with homeless persons?

Oooh. Remember. I wrote this book back in the eighties. Rewrote it in the nineties. Last rewrite was ten years ago before I ever knew I was going to be a homeless person. Although I had lived out of my van a couple times in the eighties. I started my record company that way. I was a union carpenter working at the airport at LAX for a year and a half or something. And I lived out of my car. I got the job and realized it was one of those like long haul jobs and I was the Steward and so I was going to be one of the last people fired on the job. Which is kind of cool. Sometimes you’re just hired and you go for a couple of weeks. And then you’re gone. But in this case I was the Union Steward so that was a long term job. So I would just work. Go to my Kung Fu school. And then I’d go park at the beach. And do my Kung Fu and play music in my car or go to band rehearsal. That was in the mid-eightes. Mid-eighties.

Where were we? Yeah. Maybe 1982, ’84. It was before the ’84 Olympics. So it would have ben ’83 before the Olympics. Maybe I was working when it started. I’m not sure.

Explain your viewpoint on– Okay– Oh– Explain your viewpoint on guns.

Explain your viewpoint on gun laws.

Okay. So you said guns. Tell what you think on gun laws. I never thought this was going to be an issue. But it was a long long time ago I wrote this. Before this became this hotbed thing.

Explain your viewpoint on other weapons.

So me, I’d bring up nunchuks. You don’t even know what they are probably. They had a big heyday because of Bruce Lee. He made nunchuks famous. For like ten years every criminal and every person in the world carried nunchuks. And that’s why they had to make all these laws against nunchuks. It’s because of Bruce Lee. If he would’ve never made nunchuks famous they would have never had to make laws that they were illegal. So that’s the one thing he did. He made nunchuks famous. And now nunchuks are dead. Kung Fu is dead. Bruce Lee is dead.

What are your favorite wars and why?

Remember. A lot of people just love World War II things. I’ve actually got a World War 2 book. And as soon as I wrote it I get all this advice: “You’ve gotta put World War II on here. There’s all kinds of people–that’s all that they look for is World War II stories and World War this… So, yes…A lot of people have favorite wars. They just love to keep them alive in their minds and their worlds and their books and their videos. They… anyway–

So WHY do you like those wars?

Put the whole answer there. You might be surprised, or hopefully you might learn something about yourself.

What are your favorite violent movies? And why?

Violent movies… and why.

Me personlly, I have BOOM Desperado. Desperado One, the scene in the bar. Where his gun case opens real slowly and they can see– “I’m just looking for the man named, Bucho.” Anyway, that scene. That movie, Desperado., I love it. Very, very violent. Ugly sometimes. I’m not trying to be the total– Goody 2-Shoes. I’m just– Let’s all be honest. But I love that battle scene. That’s one of my favorites. I just watched it. I found it on YouTube. I saw it just recently. [LAUGHS] A month ago or something. I was like, “Yeah!” I had to play that scene. I just enjoyed it.

And okay. And that’s killing, horrible sadistic things.

Okay. Where were we? Where are we? Oh we’re over here on this page.

What are your favorite horror movies? Books? Or Stories?

So Horror movies, books and stories. What are your favorites? ‘kay?

I don’t even know if the “WHY” even matters because you wouldn’t want to say, “Well I like this movie where they cut up…” You don’t want to try to come up with a reason. So don’t try.

But maybe–I don’t know. Maybe if you could look at the influence why–or who got you to start looking at them or liking them. Look at maybe a few things like that. Okay?

If you were given a Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde potion– (Remember? You drink it and then you turn into your alter character? They used to call it the evil or whatever it is–that other ego–the animal ego or whatever. ) –What monster would you become?

So if you were this other monster–as opposed to the civilized animal: you know: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- Dr. Jekyll I guess was the nice guy. And then Mr. Hyde was the really evil… Anyway, what monster would you– Describe the evil you. What would be the evil you?

And describe your car, clothes, status and social image.

I was thinking of the evil one of you. But do both of them. Do your Dr. Jekyll images of you: how you’d dress. Your car clothes and status. How they’d be different. Dr. Jekyll would maybe drive a Ferrari. Maybe, or– You figure it out. Anyway. This is for you to look at yourself. That’s what this is for.

Alright. Buddh Zhen here in thirteen minutes and this is your Daily Tao #30 and we were talking:
Lao Tzu says,

Cruelty, destruction, and arrogance
are unnatural evil forces.

And that’s what I say to you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Produced by Richard Del Connor for Shaolin Records

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

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

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

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?

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

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

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 47

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

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

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

#27

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

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

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

Daily Taoist here. Let’s blast!

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

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

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

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

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

Alright. Here we go.

Are you generally satisfied with the work you do?

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

Are you generally satisfied with your work that you do?

Explain your work standards of excellence.

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

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

How do your standards relate to your goals?

So, your standards of excellence and your goals.

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

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

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

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

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

What are you artistic standards of excellence?

Artistic standards of excellence???

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

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

How do your work standards–

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

How do your work stands relate to your goals?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alright. Here we go.

Does it seem that life repeats its hardships?

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

Does life seem to repeat its hardships

Does it seem impossible to get ahead?

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

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

Where were we?

What slows down the progress of your dreams?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How do you enjoy helping other people do better?

Hey, my picture froze [camera image freezes].

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Taoist 46

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 46 Tao #25

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, #25.

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

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

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

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

I’m gonna read that one sentence again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your ideals.

We’ve got to be more idealistic.

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

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

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

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

What IDEALS are incorporated in this goal?

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

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

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

Next one is WINTER GOALS.

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

Okay? So what are your goals?

What are the IDEALS incorporated in those goals?

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

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

SPRING: Your Spring goals.

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

Then comes SUMMER.

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

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

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

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

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

How does this COMBINED RESULT fit on your path?

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

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

Hopefully you are on the right path.

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

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

Okay. So putting everything in perspective there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here we go.

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

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

As each goal is planned, initiated, incorporates ideals–

(That’s the part we need to work on.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nice people are in harmony with The Tao.

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

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

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

YouTube Video s eTRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 45

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

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

Tao #23

Actions equal your Nature.

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

Intelligent actions equal an intelligent Nature.

Did I write that to compliment myself? [LAUGHS]

The rewards of actions are Natural events.

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

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

Here we go.

Goals are attained through Natural behavior.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay. Here we go.

Describe your personality.

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

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

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

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

Describe your personality.

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

Describe your spiritual character.

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

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

Describe your student, employee attitudes and quality.

As a student and employee. As a subservient person.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Describe your leadership qualities and skills.

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

Okay. Here we go.

Describe your romantic relationship qualities. Okay?

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

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

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

Okay.

Describe your family attitudes.

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

Real quickly:

What are your insecurites?

What are your fears?

Explain your pride.

Do you make mistakes and why?

Do you trust other people most of the time?

How are you helping other people attain their goals?

And sum up your Nature.

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

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

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

Daily Taoist 44

YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 44

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

Alright. # 21.

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

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

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

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

Here we go. Okay. #21.

Describe these unseen forces as you know them.

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

Describe these unseen forces as you know them.

What is your soul?

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

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

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

Okay. Here we go.

Describe these unseen forces as you know them?

What is your soul– What is your life force?

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

So that’s how I feel and see it.

What happens to your body when you die?

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

What happens to your soul when you die?

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

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

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

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

Here we go.

What happens to your soul when you die?

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

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

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

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

Explain your concepts of reincarnation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Should you be buried or cremated? Explain.

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

Okay. Where were we?

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

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

So anyway.

What is the relationship between your God and Nature?

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

How do you utilize the forces of Nature within you?

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

How do you use the forces of nature around you?

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

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

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

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

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

Hey. How’d I do? 14:50? Outta here.

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

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

November 8, 2023 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

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 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?

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?

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.

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

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

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Produced by Richard Del Connor for Shaolin Records

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

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

October 18, 2023 / Daily Taoist, Tao of Taoism, Taoism / By Richard

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.

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

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

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

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