u/CloudwalkingOwl

I've read Tolstoy's War and Peace many times. And each time I do, I find new things to think about. He had a wide life experience and I think he had learned many things. He wasn't perfect or even perfected. But I do think he had a wisdom that many people lack.

One thing I noticed in his novel was the way people under a great deal of stress tend to consciously distract themselves in order to do what they have to do. A veteran cavalry officer focuses his attention on the beauty of the apple flowers in an orchard they are riding through on the way to battle. Marshall Kutuzov reads novels to pass the time while waiting for a horrendous battle that he knows will kill huge numbers of his people.

I also remember reading a book by Phillip Kapleau (I know, Zen not Daoist---but sorta in same vein) where he talks about a woman who was dying of some disease looking at new dresses in the newspaper when she had a relatively good day.

Tolstoy also talks about a parable of a man rushing across the step to get away from a wolf, only to fall over a cliff. He manages to grab a sapling to keep from falling. He looks down and sees a tiger waiting for him at the base of the cliff. Above him the wolf is waiting. But to his left he sees a strawberry plant. He reaches out and grabs one of the berries. Nothing ever tasted so sweet!

I mention the above because they all seem to be talking about being able to survive life without going mad by learning how to distract yourself from the horror all around you. Some people see the examples I've given as being how frivolous we all are. They say we do things like sitting and forgetting meditation so we can stop being like this and instead focus on 'important stuff'.

But could meditation instead be partially about understanding the way we get through life by distraction and learning how to consciously use it instead of it using us? The old sweat soldier knows if he thinks about the battle he'll go crazy--so he focuses on the apple blossoms. Marshal Kutuzov knows he is sending thousands of people to horrible deaths, but if he thinks about it, it will incapacitate him--so he digs up the latest French novel and reads it. The woman laying in her hospital bed knows she'll never wear one of the latest dresses--but it distracts her and gives her a few minutes of peace before she enters the last stage of suffering before death.

Howdy:

Does anyone know when the big tent veggie stand on on Tecumseh between Windsor and McDougal is open? I was there once a while back and it was open. Since then, I've gone twice on weekdays plus today (Saturday) and it was closed. I couldn't find a sign or anything that said when it was open. I tend to go in the morning as I don't drive and it is so dang hot lately in the afternoon. I thought for sure it would be open after 10:00am on a Sat--but nope, still closed.

I'm trying once again to share an article with the Taoism subreddit that I believe has a lot to do with what it means to live a Daoist life. I start out by offering two short reviews of contemporary movies, but I do end up bringing in Zhuangzi. The movie reviews are an attempt to show my understanding using contemporary examples instead of just quotes from an ancient text. Just to prevent at least some people being upset, here's part of where I end up.

>What is it we do when we read books of wisdom and meditate? We are trying to deepen and expand our theoretical understanding of the world around us. We are fighting against the illusions that bind us to the here and now. We start out in life like the Wolverine---believing that we can live forever and if we get hurt, healing will come fast. But learning from others teaches us that this isn’t the case, we do get old and die. Not only this, but the people we love suffer and die too. And that hurts, a lot.

>Daoism offers to help people with this problem through many different mechanisms.

>For one thing, it offers us stories that help us understand the most practical, best way to navigate life. Consider the story from both Zhuangzi and Liezi where Confucius meets an elderly man who has learned to swim across raging cataracts by only swimming a few strokes when the river is pushing him where he wants to go and not fighting when it pulls him away. This is how one survives in a chaotic, violent world according to Daoist wisdom.

>It also helps us by offering us practices like “holding onto the One” that teach us to not get too caught up in the moment-by-moment activity around us. Instead, we learn to remind ourselves that we need to always try to understand the Dao (or “One”) and how it is operating both in the processes that govern our mental activity and the world around us. If we are able to do this, for example, sometimes we are able to remember that the other person we are dealing with may be being grumpy towards us not because they hate us, but rather because they may be sick, worried about a loved one, etc. We might also remember that giving that person a smile, or asking a personal question that shows you care, etc, may totally transform your interaction into something more useful and pleasant.

>It also helps us by reminding us to remember “the big picture” when we feel especially sad, angry, or, perplexed. When Zhangzi’s wife dies, for example, he is very sad. But when he realizes that she herself has ceased to feel any pain at all, and has instead merely returned to the undifferentiated Dao that she emerged from when she was born, he can understands that he is really sad for himself because he knows he will miss her. And at that point, he can choose to dwell on missing her, or, simply move on in life and find someone else to love. Much pain is caused by delusion, and the cure for delusion is a better understanding of how things really are.

>In a very real sense, studying Daoism is like when Louise starts having those memories of her child. I am not the old man swimming in the cataract or Zhuangzi banging on a pot and singing after the death of his wife. But those events are the memories of men who have died long, long ago in a distant land. And by integrating their insights and experiences into my life, I am just like Louise having memories of the death of a child she hasn’t had yet. I know that I too will find myself beset by awful, painful problems---just like swimming the cataract. And I too will find myself deeply hurt by the pain or even death of a loved one.

If anyone would like to read the entire article, I'm adding the URL in a comment. Unfortunately, Reddit won't allow me to pin it to the top, so you'll have to look for it. If you do want to look at it, I've removed the tracking info from URL to preserve your privacy. In addition, if the first window that pops up asks you to subscribe--you don't have to. All you need to do is click on the 'no thanks' prompt and you will go straight to the article.

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According to your understanding of Daoism, do you want to become a wise person? I'm not talking about book learning, I mean whatever you think 'wisdom' might mean. Do we read Daoist texts in order to learn---or is it something else?

I jointed the NDP to support Avi Lewis and his idea of rebuilding the New Democratic Party into something that is more like the old CCF. Since then, I've been profoundly disappointed by the fact that all I ever hear from the party are appeals to donate money. I gave a lot to his campaign, so please leave me alone. I'm retired, have a disabled wife, and I'm not made of money.

What I would like to do is get involved in the local EDA. Yet mostly what I hear from them is crickets. I left the party years ago because of this sort of behaviour. I thought Lewis was supposed to change things. I live in Windsor Ontario---are there any party EDAs that are actually trying to do some grassroots mobilization, consciousness-raising, etc? Or was the Lewis campaign yet another 'bait and switch'?

I practice Daoism as a hermit, which means I have no connection to my temple anymore. But I am trying to learn what I can from the tradition. And in my lineage one of the three core texts it suggests people study is the Confucian Filial Piety Classic. I've tried to work through some aspects of both benevolence and being filial using both examples from the past and today. In particular, I suggest that part of the appeal of neo-fascism is it creates a sort of pseudo national filial feeling among its supporters. In contrast, I think the neo-liberalism discards whatever filial elements existed in the older social democratic consensus that existed before--which created hordes of alienated people who cling onto the alt-right messaging.

If any of you are interested, I wouldn't mind if people could point out to me if they think I've understood what benevolence and being filial really mean.

I hope people don't mind me just popping up and asking a question like this, as I haven't been following the discussion on this subreddit. I try to ration how much time I put into social media--and I already put far too much energy into the Taoism subreddit. :-(

Anyway, if anyone is interested, I've added a link in the comments. (I find posts get auto-tossed if I put links in posts.) Don't get put off by the first page asking you to subscribe. Just click on the line under the request that says something like "not now" or "no thanks".

https://preview.redd.it/kuixugokhzdh1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ab4abc3d96542b77cc32f7c80e819287bfaa471

I just had a post taken down by the 'moderators'. I'm not sure if it was a human being or an bot, but either way I thought I'd ask a question of the people on this subreddit about how they define 'Daoism'.

I was initiated into an actual lineage of Daoists at a Temple. And part of that lineage's core involves studying three books. One of them is Confucian: The Filial Piety Classic. The post I put forward was about filial piety and how I think it's core teachings are just as important today as they were thousands of years ago.

Now pay attention. These issues are absolutely core to the largest school of Daoism in China. How is it, therefore, that my post was pulled because one of the moderators said it had nothing to do with Daoism. That's just demonstrably not true. What criteria are they using to pull stuff off the subreddit?

Could someone explain to me why this post wasn't considered 'Daoist enough'? Is it just that the moderators think I'm just making this stuff up? That I'm a jerk and I need to be silenced? What is it?

I noticed someone complain about my self-promotion. Yeah, I do that. It's the only way to build a readership. No-one who writes publishes stuff without wanting someone to read them. If I'm wrong about stuff, talk to me about it. I want to learn as much as anyone else. But if I'm not wrong, why do the moderators keep tossing my stuff into the crapper?

I just posted yet another part of my discussion of Mencius. In this one I talk about how I understand benevolence and filial piety--and what these ideas have to say about the rise of neo-fascism.

Because the auto-moderator just kicks off posts with links, I'm going to post the link in the first comment. Unfortunately, Reddit doesn't allow someone posting something to pin the first comment--so you may have to look around to find it.

I really like discussions as long as they civil and based on something like evidence and reasoned arguments.

Please share if you think it would be of interest in some other subreddits, discussion groups, etc. It really helps me build my 'brand'.

https://preview.redd.it/bz3sbgmzysdh1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b429e7f8749ef9bd278d5b9f8083ab1b5f86b4b0

A while back I got panicked and asked a question on this subreddit. It was about a collection agency that started trying to contact me about a situation I had with a tradesman. I got a lot of consolation out of the response I heard, but I think I need more advice now.

First, the situation.

Over two years ago I had a problem with sewage coming up out of the floor drains in my basement. I thought it would be a plug so I called a plumbing company I'd used for years. I explained the situation and the guy got to work. No contract, no estimate, no attempt to explain things.

He took my toilet off it's connection and ran a power snake down it. I had other things to do. Then nothing happened, and then his boss showed up. No one talked to me. Then I heard that the snake was caught in the drain. Then people disappeared. No one would talk to me. I called the office. No one would get back to me. Days went by, people would show up. Nothing would happen. No one would talk to me. People showed up and put a clean-out in a main stack. Nothing happened. I was told we were waiting for the city to find where the sewer line was. I was told we were waiting for the gas company to find the pipe. I was told the excavation company wasn't able to dig. I looked out the door and saw a guy with dowsing rods walking the property.

A hole got dug--in the wrong place. Lots of hours with two guys in a van sitting in it doing??

No one would talk to me. No one would talk to the other owner of the house. (It was a top-down duplex owned tenancy-in-common.)

One Saturday night sewer gas was absolutely belching out of the still-open toilet connect and the floor drain. I called the plumber and someone came out and plugged the holes (why weren't they plugged before?

The end result was my wife and I using a bucket for at least three weeks, maybe more. They finally dug a new hole, found the pipe, and got their power snake out of the drain. The asked me if I wanted to fill up the hole but I had a frozen shoulder at that point and I couldn't. It wasn't a huge job anyway---when I was their age it would have taken an hour or so.

After this, they left and said that they had pushed their camera through the plug and the drain should work now.

But it didn't. The problem came back. I asked another plumber from a different company to come out and he looked around and I asked him about the city. He wasn't very supportive, but said I could try. I called the city and they said they'd look into it. It turned out that on city property a contractor had horizontally drilled through the sewer line and the city would fix it and get the contractor to pay for fixing the entire problem. Which they did.

Somewhere in this mess I got a bill from the first plumbers for $7000 for 'labour'. No details, no nothing. There is a program at my city to reimburse people in situations like mine but they wouldn't accept such a vague invoice. I called the plumbers over and over again, even go an assurance twice that a more detailed invoice would come. But it never did. I even sent a registered letter to them to make sure I had proof they'd received it.

Crickets.

All I ever got was another email asking me to pay $7000.

I found out later on that one of the owners had died in the middle of this. So I sent them a condolence card, even. But we never got a more detailed invoice, so I couldn't apply for the reimbursement from the city.

Life goes on. I sold my house and moved into another city. The statute of limitation is long past. So is the ability to put a lien on my house. But they got a collection agency calling me now. What should I do?

When I first asked about the statute of limitations on debts, I was hallucinating with anxiety. So when someone said the statute was real, I didn't think about the bit he added which said 'I wouldn't just ignore them'. My anxiety level is lower now, what do people think I should do? I can't help but think it was wild incompetence on their part that they never suggested I contact the city, refused to give me a detailed invoice, and never used their trade insurance to pay for the stuck tool.

Should I try to talk to the collection agency and try to explain? Or should I just accept they are Dicks and try to wait them out? (I looked them up on line and they have a terrible rating with Better Business.)

I just published an article on my blog where I discuss a passage from the Zhuangzi about a key part of Liezi's realization as a man of Dao. I'm not going to post a link on this post, because it appears that the automoderation on Reddit is deleting posts with links. Instead, I'm going to post the link on a comment. Here's the promotional image:

https://preview.redd.it/hkg4oajbbe1h1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6cfb4a362d00315762db30a26d32bf5d31521c3