Head = Hat-rack?

When I was a kid and did some dumb thing without thinking, my dad would say, "Use your head for something besides a hat-rack!"

It's said that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. In other words: by being sweet, nice, and agreeable you will attract more fans than if you're a jerk. The inference I see is that being a jerk about something (e.g. Westboro Baptist Church protests) would drive folks away, maybe to a choice that they had not considered before. Fundamentalist Christians basically drove me to find an alternative to Christian/Jewish/Muslim religions and that's how I ended up discovering I was a Taoist.

So here's today's question for those who want to use their hat-racks... if you wanted to promote Taoism would you be smarter to be nice about it, or would Taoism get more positive consideration if we pretended to hate those wimpy nature-loving Taoists and bashed Lao Tzu at every opportunity?

Life is Perfect (it continues)

About four years ago I had an epiphany: Life is perfect. (ت)

Works every time. Without fail. Cause and effect, action/reaction, yin and yang. It's not always easy, fun, pleasant, or what you want to happen but it is always perfect in its execution. Always.

Every time I detect the perfection I have to smile (that's why I smile so much). (ت)

It's a fact!

Recently in an on-line discussion I was involved in one of the participants stated a relatively well-known and accepted fact. One of the other participants said "That's your opinion, and I'm entitled to mine."

No, it's a FACT and just because you don't know it, doesn't mean your argument has any validity. There are not always two sides to an argument.

You're protesting in the wrong place!

To me, protesting in front of banks or on Wall Street is like protesting in front of the rat's nest.

Protest where it can influence a lawmaker, that's where the power is. In D.C., at your state capital, in the voting booth, in e-mails to your congressional reps. I've done it, they respond. Not always the way I'd like, but...

My 2 cents.

Walruses and Carpenters

In Napolean Hill's Think and Grow Rich (written in 1937), he refers to the denizens of Wall Street not as Bulls and Bears, but as "Walruses and Carpenters"... referring to Lewis Carroll's poem about a walrus and a carpenter that trick dozens of oysters to join them on the beach, where they eat every last one.

In light of the current "Occupy Wall Street" situation I thought that was an interesting insight. You may return to your lives now. Thank you.

God Wants You to Kill

Having read and re-read the Bible in my search for enlightenment, I am amazed by the rationalizations for violence in the name of God. Gotama Siddhartha said the only thing you should kill is your anger.

I'm thankful that I found the way of Tao.

Bad Taoist

I'm not a very good Taoist.

The first rule of being a Taoist: Don't talk about being a Taoist. Okay, maybe not the first rule, but it's certainly up there. We're supposed to be humble and quiet about our philosophy. Says so in the Tao Te Ching.

It's sort of like being a born-again Christian, I'm so happy that I finally found a philosophy that lines up with my values that I have to tell everyone about it. I even have a website: You Might Be A Taoist that has lines like, "If you describe yourself as spiritual but not religious... you might be a Taoist". And I hope one day to turn it into a little book, like "Chicken Soup for the Soul".

See? Not being quiet about it. In fact, sometimes I'm quite militant about it when Christians try to pummel me with scripture. I whack them back with peaceful Taoist thoughts.

If Taoists believed in hell, I'd probably have to go there.