Podcasts about dao de jing

In part one of this two-part conversation, we walked along the edge of paradox where effort gives way to ease and the search itself becomes the obstacle. In this second part of my conversation with Zen teacher Henry Shukman, the way begins to reveal itself, not as something we grasp, but something we live. We talk about awakening, the collapse of separation, and what it means to encounter reality directly beyond language, beyond self. And we find ourselves circling the same mystery from different directions, Henry through the Zen path and his app The Way and me through a new project with Rebind, which is a new AI powered dialogue with the Tao Te Ching. Different forms, different longing to meet life more honestly, more fully and more whole.Discover a Deeper Path in Meditation – Looking for more than just another meditation app? The Way, created by Zen teacher Henry Shukman, offers a single, step-by-step journey designed to take you deeper—one session at a time. Get started today with 30 free sessions!The Tao Te Ching is one of those books I keep coming back to. Ancient wisdom, wrapped in poetry, that somehow feels more relevant every year. Like this line: “If you look to others for happiness, you will never be happy. If your well-being depends on money, you will never be content.“Simple. Clear. Actually useful.I've teamed up with Rebind.ai to create an interactive edition of the Tao—forty essential verses, translated into plain, everyday language, with space to reflect, explore, and ask questions. It's like having a conversation not just with the Tao, but with me too. If you're looking for more clarity, calm, or direction, check it out here.Key Takeaways:Exploration of meditation and mindfulness practices.Insights on the nature of thoughts and their observation during meditation.Importance of a structured approach to meditation.Personal experiences and reflections on meditation journeys.Discussion of the “inner radio” metaphor for understanding thoughts.Techniques for enhancing present-moment awareness through meditation.The significance of variety in meditation practices to cater to individual needs.The role of moderation and balance in personal growth, drawing from the Dao De Jing.The relationship between relative understanding and direct experience in Zen.The transformative potential of embracing uncertainty and interconnectedness in life.Henry Shukman is a poet, author, and meditation teacher who has guided thousands of students from around the world through mindfulness and awakening practices. A Zen master in the Sanbo Zen lineage and the spiritual director emeritus at Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Henry is a cofounder of The Way meditation app and founder of the Original Love meditation program and has taught meditation at Google and Harvard Business School. Connect with Henry Shukman: Website | InstagramIf you enjoyed this conversation with Henry Shukman, check out these other episodes:Embrace the Chaos: Finding Clarity Through Meditation with Henry Shukman (Part 1)How to Find and Follow a Healing Path with Henry ShukmanFor full show notes, click here!Connect with the show:Follow us on YouTube: @TheOneYouFeedPodSubscribe on Apple Podcasts or SpotifyFollow us on InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode we look at time and direction and the influence of geomancy--theories of Yin and Yang and a little bit of how people viewed the world through that lens.  For more, check out the blog page:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-127 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is episode 127: Time and Direction in Ancient Yamato   Officers of the court stood in the pavilion.  The soft trill of water could be heard trickling from one reservoir to the next.  They watched closely, as the figure of a court official, one hand out, pointing at a measuring stick, slowly rose along with the water.  Eventually, the figure's outstretched arm indicated a line with a single character next to it. On cue, one of the officials began to beat the large drum that was nearby.  The rhythm was slow, but deliberate, and the sound was loud, echoing out to the mountains and back, showering the nearby palaces in a layer of sound.  Across the palace, people briefly paused, took note of the number of strokes, and by that they knew the time of day.  Without giving it much more thought, they then went about their business.     This episode we find ourselves partway through the reign of Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou—his formal reign started in 668, but he had been pretty much running things since the death of Takara Hime in 661 and, arguably, for much longer than that.  668, however, saw Naka no Oe ascend the throne in his new palace of Otsu no Miya, officially making him the sovereign.  And although 645 is the year Naka no Oe and others had started the Taika Reforms, it's not wrong to say that  that 668 and the start of Naka no Oe's official reign, brief as it would be, that he finally had the ability to bring it all together and set it into stone. We've talked about many of these reforms before on the podcast, but a lot of them were associated with the continued push to incorporate continental concepts into Yamato society, covering everything from court ranks to how to organize agricultural production.  Of course, there was also Buddhism, which we've covered numerous times, but there were other concepts coming across as well, including ideas about history and writing, as well as ancient STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  This included architects, and new ways of constructing buildings.  And it also meant ways of seeing the world, including things like directions and time.  And this is what I want to focus on this episode, taking a break from the primary narrative to spend some time on what we might call Yamato concepts of science, especially how they thought about the structure of reality organization of time and the universe – their cosmology, as it were.  After all, to better understand the reasoning and motives of people, it is helpful to try and understand how they saw the world, not just for translation—understanding what it means when an entry says something like the “Hour of the Horse” on an “Elder Wood” day—but also for understanding how things actually worked in their eyes.  For instance, the idea of ”auspicious” and “inauspicious” times and directions is something that most listeners probably don't incorporate much into their daily lives, but the Chroniclers and the people of Yamato absolutely did, so understanding concepts like this can sometimes be the key to unlocking why historical people may have taken the actions that they did.  In particular, we'll talk about things like yin and yang, five elements, ten stems and twelve earthly branches, and what all this meant for the Yamato ideas of organizing time and space. A large part of Yamato cosmology is tied to something called Onmyoudou, literally the Way of Yin and Yang, which in the organization of the Ritsuryo state fell under a particular ministry, known as the Onmyo-ryo.  If you've heard of Onmyoudou before, you likely have heard about the “Onmyouji”, practitioners who studied the flow of yin and yang—and who could reportedly do miraculous things with that.  A 10th century Onmyoji, the famous Abe no Seimei, is perhaps the most well-known, with numerous stories about his exploits, which were then turned into a fantastical series of stories by the award-winning author, Baku Yumemakura.  Those were then turned into Manga, movies, and more.  Abe no Seimei is like Japan's Merlin, or Gandalf, at least in the stories. Back to the organization we mentioned, the Onmyou-ryou was responsible for Yin-Yang theory, or Onmyou-dou, which included divination, as well as astronomy, or Tenmon-dou, and calendar making, or reki-dou.  While some of this was based on straight up natural observances, a lot of it was explained through older concepts of Yin and Yang theory.  Today, you might encounter a lot of this in the theories around Feng Shui, and this can also be referred to as “geomancy”, or earth divination.   To give a broad overview of Onbmyoudou and its origins, it is part of a large corpus of concepts focused around a concept of energy known as qi or ki—which forms the basis for a lot of Chinese and Japanese cosmology, or their concept of how the world worked.  Much of this is tied up in concepts that are modernly broadly called “Daoist” or associated with so-called Daoist practices.  That term can be a bit misleading, as strictly speaking, Daoism refers to the teachings of the legendary philosopher Laozi, in his book, the Dao De Jing, as well as works attributed to later authors, like the Zhuangzi. There is some controversy as to when and to what extent this strict Daoism came to Japan.  However, in the broader sense, the category of “Daoist “ practices includes an entire panoply of various folk practices, including concepts of Yin and Yang – and in the archipelago, many of these concepts were imported with the various books that people had acquired on the mainland, even if they weren't strictly tied to Daoist religious practice.  For example, there were aspects that were borrowed by various Shinto shrines, and others formalized into ritual practices under the new government.  And of course many of these became linked to various Buddhist teachings and practices, as well.   But what did this actually look like in concept and practice for practitioners of Onmyoudo in Japan? Let's start with the idea of yin and yang.  One of the earliest references comes from the Zhou Yi, the Zhou Book of Changes, the core of what we also know as the Yijing, the Book of Changes.  Here we see the idea that the universe began with a single force that split into two, and those two forces make up all of creation in one way or another.  Yin and Yang, or In and You—or even Onmyou—refer to these forces, which are characterized as shadow and light, moon and sun, female and male, cold and hot, etc.  So these forces are opposites, but it should be noted that they are not necessarily good or evil.  After all, too cold is just as bad as too hot.  Likewise too much darkness is as blinding as too much light. As most people have seen, yin and yang are often depicted as a circle divided into two comma shapes, with a smaller circle in each.  One side is white with a black circle and the other is black with a white circle.  This is the “Tai Chi” diagram, but the diagram itself doesn't seem to have been depicted like this prior to the 11th century, at least that we are aware. But the concepts are much older.    Now if you've heard of the Yijing, where it came from is something of a mystery.  One theory is that it started as a written account of folk wisdom, and may have even given instructions for things like when to plant and when to harvest, based on changes in various heavenly phenomena.   But overall it is organized into 64 chapters, each associated with a particular hexagram.  Start with a line, that can either be a full line – representing yang – or a broken line representing yin.  Stack three of these on top of one another and you get a trigram.  If you chart out every single possible combination of yin and yang lines, you get 8 unique trigrams, sometimes referred to as the baqua.  Stack two trigrams atop one another and you get a hexagram, a combination of 6 lines that can have 8 by 8 or 64 unique variants.   It's theorized that the Yijing resulted from taking all of the collected sayings or aphorisms and bits of advice and cataloguing and dividing them into 64 chapters, each one associated with a given hexagram. Going further, each line of the hexagram is  associated with particular line in Yijing, and various meanings are ascribed to it and its association.  It's a complex and fascinating system and I don't have time to go into it fully, but I would note that this was used as a form of divination—yarrow stalks or other means of random lot drawing that gives you a binary outcome – zero or one, yin or yang – could be used to determine the six lines of any given hexagram.  This, in turn, would reference a chapter in the Yijing which was then interpreted as a sign as to how to read a given situation that you might find yourself in. What's really important to understanding the worldview of the time is this idea, represented by the hexagrams in the Yijing, that you can encompass everything about the universe by making and cataloging different amounts and arrangements of yin and yang. It's a science, as it were – a systematic approach to understanding the differences in the world by breaking it into component parts.    And if this seems preposterous, consider this:  today we understand that all things are made up of tiny atoms.  And these atoms are all made up of the same material—protons, neutrons, and electrons.  And yet, how those atomic particles combine create atoms with wildly different qualities.  And how those atoms then combine into molecules and so on and so forth describe how we explain everything around us.  So is it really so far-fetched? I'm not saying that we should suddenly start to figure out the measurements of yin and yang in everything, but if we want to understand how the people of the time saw their world, it may be helpful to hold an open mindand understand the assumptions that they were working from and where they came from.  As human beings, we naturally look for connections in the world around us, and this was no exception.  People would observe facts, know how that it worked, and often then would back into the reason for it.  This is a tale told across cultures, and we still see it, today.  At the same time, we've developed structured approaches to test out our theories, empirically. So for the moment, let's leave the trigrams and hexagrams, and talk about another idea that also gained traction as people were trying to figure out how the world worked.  This was the five elements theory also known as Wuxing, or Gogyou, in Japanese.  The five elements in this case are Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth.  Some may notice that these, along with the sun and the moon, are used in Japanese for the days of the week:  Nichi (sun), getsu (moon), ka (fire), sui (water), moku (wood), kin (metal), do (earth). Buddhists, by the way, also had an elemental system with only four elements,  Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, possibly connected with some Greek influence, and brought along with Buddhist practice.  For now, however, let's focus on the five elements. The idea in wuxing is similar to that of yin and yang in that everything in creation is made up of these five elements in some degree and configuration.  Furthermore, there are creation and destruction cycles.  So fire creates ash, or earth.  Earth gives birth to metal.  Metal creates water—look at a cold piece of metal in a warm environment and see how the water droplets form on it, and imagine what that looks like without understanding humidity and how there could be water vapor in the air.  And then water creates wood, or plants—any farmer could tell you that without water the plants die.  And wood is where we get fire from. Of course, the reverse cycle is the opposite.  Fire eats the wood.  Wood drinks up the water.  Water rusts metal.  Metal tools plough the earth. And Earth can be used to douse fire. Finally, there is another cycle of weakening. ,. Because fire heats and weakens metal, metal chops down wood, the trees roots break up rocks, the earth soaks up water, and water likewise puts out or weakens fire. So the theory went, if these elements make up all matter, these relationships continue on a more complex scale in everything.  So if something was thought to contain a lot of “fire” element, then it would be potentially helpful if you needed “Earth” but destructive or at least weakening to metal and wood.  Properly accounting for these elements was important to achieve the results you were looking for, whatever that may be.   These were the kinds of things that were incorporated into traditional medicine practices, but also applied to auguries or divination about things like where and how to build a building.  Even today, Shrines will sell calendars that help people know the prominence of certain elements, and some folk remedies may look to balance elements, much as medieval European medicine was often designed to balance the four humors that ancient physicians believed were present in the human body. The chart of these five elements and their relationships is something you may have seen.  It is a five pointed star, often inside of a circle.  Of course this is also similar to a western pentagram, though typically drawn with the point of the star up, but it has nothing to do with Christian values or Satan, or anything similar.  Rather, it is just a way to represent these five elements, and you'll see it frequently in reference to Onmyoudou. The elements were used to categorize many different areas into groupings of five.  This includes grouping the various directions into five directions.  Of course, you may be wondering about that, since most societies usually mark four cardinal directions, and in this case, they did the same, but added the fifth as “center”.  And so you get things like the north is water.  It is related to cool, or cold weather.  It is represented with the color black. To the south, opposite of the north, is fire.  It is hot, and the color is red.  Of course, this probably doesn't take a huge leap to see the connections they drew: since these civilizations are in the northern hemisphere, the farther north you go, the colder it gets, and the farther south you travel, the warmer it gets, generally speaking, at least until you reach the equator. Meanwhile, the west was related to metal, and the color white, while the east was related to woods and forests, and the color…. Blue.  Alright, that last one, in particular, probably doesn't make sense to a lot of us.  After all, we likely associate blue with water, and wood, or trees, would be associated with brown or, possibly, green.  Well, in this case, it goes beyond that.  The north is water, but it is also associated with darkness—shorter days in the winter, and things like that Sothe association of north with black makes sense, but many also look at the ocean and don't necessarily see it as “blue”, or dark or even black, like Homer's famous “wine-dark sea”. Furthermore, although they have a word for it (midori), “green” was not a primary color in Japan, instead  considered more of a shade of “aoi”, or blue.  Even today they refer to a “green” traffic light as an “aoi shingo, not “midori” shingo.  So if you asked someone in the Asuka period to describe the wooded hills and fields, they would have likely used “aoi”.  And of course, we are missing the fifth element.  In the center we have the element earth and the color yellow. A lot of these different concepts were brought together during the Han period, when they were trying to syncretize all of the various philosophies and attempts to describe the world and bring them all together into a single system.  This meant that the Yijing, the wuxing theory, and others were mixed together with various other philosophies and theories of how the world work.  Things like the Shanhaijing, the Classic of Mountain and Seas, along with stories about immortals, the Queen Mother of the West, and more were all rolled together, and basically assumed to be true.  This included various real-world observations.  Therefore, there were many attempts to try and reconcile these various theories together. One of the other concepts, which we've discussed before, was the system of ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches.  We've mentioned this before regarding the sexagenary style of counting the years, but we'll recap here.  The ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches are concepts that go back to at least the legendary Shang period, and even show up in various bronzes Andit wasn't until later that they would be associated with other ideas.  The ten heavenly stems were each associated with one of the five elements, with each element being represented by a greater and lesser, or elder and younger, stem.  And then each of the twelve earthly branches were associated with animals—what we often call the Chinese Zodiac. We talked about how this applied to the calendar, in that it was used to track years in 60 year cycles, but also it was used to track days of the year.  The twelve earthly branches were also used for earthly directions.  The first, the rat, was in the north, and the order continued clockwise to the east, the south, west and then back to the north.  Now this means that the four cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west—all match up nicely with one of the twelve earthly branches, but as for northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest?  Those were all combinations of two branches.  So, for instance, the northeast was a combination of the ox and the tiger, or ushi-tora. Speaking of eight directions, where have we also heard the number eight come up recently? That's right: the eight trigrams, or bagua.  So each one of those trigrams, each representing a different concept, got associated with a direction as well.  This makes it easier to see where practices of geomancy came from.   You had a system with complex, overlapping associations between concepts and the physical world, and in the Tang dynasty, they used all of this  to understand not only  how things had happened, but also how the world would be in the future—in other words, they tried to use it to make predictions.  Hence the “mancy”. In the Yamato state, all of this became an official part of the government under the Onmyoryou: a branch of the government whose job is to make observations and figure things out from there, for the good of the state and the people.  They made observations of the heavens to figure out how the calendar should be aligned—which months should come at what time, and when there should be “leap months”, or intercalary months, to keep various astronomical phenomena in the correct seasons, which were also further divided up into 24 periods.  They also kept track of the movement of bodies like the various planets, because those planets were also assigned values, and thought to affect the flow of energy within this framework.  And so comets, storms, eclipses, and more were all important because of the theory that everything in the heavens impacted and were reflections of how things were happening on the earth.  Similarly, these various discussions of white animals and other omens were likely captured and catalogued by these officials as well, attempting to figure out what they meant. All of this also influenced things like how palaces, buildings, and even capitals, would be built and laid out.  For the palace, it was important the the sovereign be in the north, looking south.  In fact, many maps would have south at the top because that is how a sovereign would be viewing it, were it stretched out before them.  And one would need to consider various features, including mountains and streams, as all of those things carried various meanings, but it wasn't as simple as just finding the one thing that could affect a person.  As they observed differences they would also have to catalogue what happened and try to determine what the cause could be, based on their understanding of the world.  And in the archipelago this would also include an understanding of Buddhist and local kami-based wisdom and knowledge as well. One of the things in the Chronicles that inspired this episode was something I actually mentioned last time,  a record from 666  talking about Chiyu, a Buddhist priest of the Yamato no Aya family, who presented a south-pointing chariot to the sovereign, Naka no Oe.  this appears to be the same Chiyu from a similar record in 658, which also refers to him building a south pointing chariot.  So did it take him eight years, or is he just now presenting it to the sovereign?  And what, exactly, is a south-pointing chariot? Well, as the name implies, a south-pointing chariot is a two-wheeled chariot that always points south.  More appropriately stated, it is a wheeled device with a figure on top, much like a weather vane, which always points south.  This is usually described as the figure of a person or an official pointing in the appropriate direction.  This was a mechanical, rather than a magnetic compass. As the chariot, or carriage, is wheeled around, the two wheels spin.  The wheels themselves are independently connected to a series of gears.  If the wheels spin at the same rate, then their movement cancels each other out.  However, if one wheel turns more than the other, then it will cause the figure on the top to rotate.  Of course, as the chariot turns to the right, the left wheel, traveling along the outer diameter, will travel farther than the right.  This will cause the figure to turn counter-clockwise to the left, but from an outside observer's perspective, it will continue to point in the same direction, even as the chariot itself turns.  Turning to the left would cause the opposite effect. Though it may have been used earlier, there appears to be reliable written evidence of a South Pointing chariot starting from the third century.  The first one was based on much earlier stories of a similar device, but it is unclear if it was a chariot, some other device, or even just a legend that was told as historical fact.  From the third century on the design appears to have been continuously improved upon. I should point out that all we have is descriptions—we don't have any actual south pointing chariots, let alone diagrams showing how the mechanisms worked.  There is the possibility that it used a kind of differential gear to work automatically, but we don't have any actual evidence.  There are other theories that it may have required some kind of manual switch, so that it would attach to one wheel or the other as needed.  That would require that the chariot be moving in either a straight direction or turning in one particular direction, which seems rather unwieldy. I noted some of the problems with this, and even moreso in a place like Japan, where 70% of the terrain is mountains.  Up and down hills, along paths that are likely anything but the smooth, paved surface we have for roads today—and even those have plenty of irregularities and potholes that could throw off any such device. And if you want to use it for any real distance, then you have to factor in other things, including the curvature of the earth.  After all, with the earth being a sphere, any chariot traveling due west to east or east to west, other than at the equator, would have one wheel traveling farther than the other one.  Granted, at the scale we are talking about, it probably is all but negligible, and the rough terrain and simple slippage of what were most likely wooden gears probably entered a lot more variability than the earth's curvature. One of the other issues is that the chariot only points “south” if you set it up to do so.   And if you know that, well, why do you need a south-pointing chariot?  Ultimately, it seems that this is more of a novelty item, good for impressing crowds and demonstrating some engineering principles, rather than an actual, useful invention.  After all, it was forgotten about and recreated multiple times, often centuries apart.  Had it been a truly useful invention, it probably would have been kept in constant use.  Meanwhile, I suspect that there were a fair number of farmers and others who knew that you could more easily and reliably use the sun and stars, as long as the weather was clear. There is also some evidence of an understanding of magnetic compasses since at least the 2nd Century BCE.  Early Han sources suggest that a spoon made of naturally magnetized ore could be placed on top of a polished bronze surface, and it would align itself north to south.  We don't have any actual surviving examples, however—there are later versions that you can find, where the plate is divided up into various directions, and then a magnetized “spoon” is placed on top, but nothing has actually come from Han tombs.  Furthermore, this seems to mostly be for geomantic purposes.  A more practical compass, with a magnetized needle, seems to have been developed by the 11th century, which could then be used for actual navigation. By the way, the “spoon” as a compass pointer may be in reference to the “Big Dipper” constellation, which was envisioned as a spoon, or ladle, in shape.  The seven stars were often used in geomancy, likely because of their importance, at least in the northern hemisphere, of pointing to the north.  So there's some thought that the “needles” of these early compasses weren't litterally  spoon shaped, but symbolically representive of the Big Dipper or the Northern Ladle.  Quick astronomy lesson, here.  If you are in the northern hemisphere, particularly from the 35th parallel to the north pole, you can see the seven stars that make up the constellation or asterism we know as the Big Dipper.   In English we sometimes also refer to this as Ursa Major, though technically the familiar seven stars are just a part of that larger constellation.  In Japan, the same constellation is often referred to as Hokuto Shichisei, the Seven Stars of the Northern Ladle.  It can be seen further south, but parts of it may dip below the horizon during the autumn season. It is important for several reasons.  One is that it is made up of particularly bright stars, which you can generally see even when other stars may not be visible.  Second, its distinctive shape lends itself to being easy to find in the sky.  And finally, if you draw a line between two of the stars at the end of the “cup” of the ladle, you can follow that line to find Polaris or hokkyokusei, the north star, which means you know which direction is north- and once  you know that, you can use it to figure out any other direction.  And Polaris is less than a degree off of true north, making it even more accurate than most magnets, as the magnetic pole can be quite different, depending on its current position, and magnetic north changes over time as the magnetic field around the earth fluctuates. That said, this was not necessarily the case in ancient times.  Four thousand years ago, the star closest to true north would have been the star Thuban, in the constellation Draco, a star that most of us probably haven't heard of.  Polaris, in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear, also known as the Little Dipper) apparently took over as the north star around 500 CE.  However, even before then, the mouth of the dipper could still be used to indicate north.  In fact, if you draw a line between two of the stars in the back of the constellation, then you also end up finding Thuban.  So even if the north star itself wasn't accurate, finding the dipper would still help you orient yourself, especially if you can find true north during the day and then compare that with the constellation at night. Which helps to understand why astronomy, or Tenmondou, was so important in the Onmyouryou.  Though it wasn't just a study of stars, but of the way of the heavens in general.  And the changes in the heavens, brings us to another important concept—the flow of energy across the seasons.  From the bright days of summer, filled with sunshine and yang energy, to the dark yin energy of winter's long, cold nights. It wasn't enough to just know what happened, and where, but when was also important. Obviously you need to know when to sow seeds, flood the fields, and harvest the rice.  Beyond that, though, you have other concepts, such as how the the day and hour of an event could be symbolically important. And of course, all of these had their own associations with various concepts of the flow of yin and yang energy. Now knowing the year, the month, and even the day is largely just a matter of counting.  But let's talk about something a little more tricky:  How do you know the hour? This brings us to the vignette at the top of the episode, about the clepsydra, or water clock, that Naka no Oe is said to have built. Now we talked about some of the fountains and similar things that have been discovered in the Asuka region back in episode 118.  One thing that they believe they also found evidence of is something called a water clock, which is, as its name suggests, a clock powered by water.  It is typically depicted as a series of three or more boxes or reservoirs that each hold an amount of water.  Water is placed in the top reservoir, and then a hole towards the bottom is unplugged and it is allowed to drain into the box beneath.  The hole is of a particular size, and thus the water flows at a constant rate, filling up the container below, which has a similar hole, etc. all the way to a reservoir at the very bottom.  The multiple boxes mean that the water level in the intermediate boxes stays relatively constant, resulting in relatively consistent pressure and flow rate.  The last reservoir has a measuring stick on a float, so that as the last box is filled with water, the measuring stick raises up.  Since it is rising at a constant rate, one can use that to tell how much time has passed, regardless of anything else.  Thus you can keep time even at night. There is a record of Naka no Oe making one in the fifth month of 660, and he would have another one built in 671, which we will discuss later.  It is interesting that both of these inventions appear twice in the narrative—once during the reign of Naka no Oe, aka Tenchi Tenno, and once during the previous reign, that of Takara Hime, aka Saimei Tenno.  In this case it is said that 671 is the first time that the water clock, or roukoku, was actually used. From what I can tell, there is nothing that definitively indicates that the Mizuochi site in Asuka was definitely the site of Naka no Oe's water clock.  There isn't much in the Chronicles telling us what it was like or where, exactly, it was built, and there wasn't anything found at the site naming it as the location of the roukoku.  However, the site is in a prominent enough place, with channels for water and a pavilion of some sort.  They definitely found evidence of pipes, remnants of lacquered wood, and reservoirs for water, among other things, that suggest something to do with moving water happened in this area.  So it seems a very strong choice, as it all fits with theoretical archeological reconstructions. A water clock like this is excellent for keeping accurate time at all hours of the day.  However, it does have a slight problem in that anyone without a clock is still going to have to use the sun and similar heavenly cues to know what time it is.  So how do you let them know?  Well, it turns out that the continent had an answer for that as well, and instituted various systems of drums and bells to let people know the hour.  In fact, some of these practices continued, in one form or another, right up to the modern day—with or without a water clock.  After all, the key was to give the community some sense of the passing of time, but I doubt anyone was using it to time things more precisely than a general idea of an hour—though they did have the concept of their own minutes and seconds.  Which brings us to just how they saw time back then. The system of time that the Chronicles seems to use also came over from the continent, where there appear to have been several different methods for telling time prior to accurate clocks.  And while there was an idea of dividing the entire day into twelve segments, the time as it was announced was not always consistent with those twelve segments, or hours.  Rather, time was based around the key parts of the day.  So, for instance there was sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight.  And while noon and midnight remain exactly twelve hours apart, sunrise and sunset change with the seasons.  So if you call out sunrise, and then divide the time between sunrise and noon into equal segments of time, the size of those time segments change with the seasons.  On top of that, because of the tilt of the earth and our slightly irregular orbit around the sun, the sun appears to “move” across the sky faster or slower throughout the year, with a difference of about 30 minutes total between the extremes.  This isn't going to affect most people's daily lives, but would have been noticeable to those taking accurate measurements. In ancient Han, this appears to have been common in cities and towns, with a watch that would call out as they progressed on their rounds at set points in the day and night, relying largely on heavenly cues—which I suspect did not lead to the most accurate timekeeping, but it was sufficient for what most people needed.  The telling of time in this manner was partly to help with keeping track of the time of day, but was just as much an announcement that the watch was on duty and a warning to would-be criminals. Now a water clock was an excellent device for keeping track of a standard, absolute time, such as it were, but it required constant maintenance.  If you already have a watch calling out the time, perhaps they can also keep the water clock properly set, but you did have to have someone constantly filling it up and draining it at known points of the day.  Plus there was the problem that you only knew the time if you could check it, and this wasn't like a clock tower or something similar. And so in 671 it appears that Nak no Oe instituted the continental idea of drums and bells to announce the time to the people—or at least to those at the court.  We don't have a record of exactly how they were, used, but we can infer from other sources on the continent, and what we do know that some tradition of announcing the time with drums and bells continued to be employed in Japan until the Meiji era, though perhaps not without interruption:  Temples and the like had bell or drum towers, and as the day progressed they would beat out the time.  It was not, however, telling time as we might think of it, with one stroke at the first hour, two on the second, etc..  In fact, in many ways they counted backwards, and they only counted 12 hours, not our modern 24.  By the Edo period it seems that it was common practice to toll the bells nine times at noon and at midnight.  From there, they would count down, with 8 bells at roughly 2 o'clock, 7 bells at 4 o'clock, and 6 bells at 6 o'clock.  That would be another issue.  From 6 o'clock, the number of bells that would be tolled continued to decrease, so that at 8 o'clock it would be 5 bells, then 4 bells at 10 o'clock.  It would then jump back up to 9 and start over again. Why these numbers were used for the different hours we are not entirely sure, and I have no idea if these numbers were the same ones used back in the 7th century—though it does seem to match similar continental traditions.  Even the hours themselves were known by the twelve signs that came to be associated with the zodiac:  the hour of the rat, the hour of the ox, the hour of the tiger, etc.  Midnight fell in the middle of the hour of the rat, and noon fell in the middle of the hour of the horse, with each hour being almost exactly 2 hours by modern reckoning. There were other systems in use as well.  One divided the entire day up by 100 and then each of those divisions by another 10.  The key was whether or not it was an absolute or relative measurement. Something like the roukoku would indicate an absolute measurement.  After all, the fall of water from one reservoir to another was not affected by the change in seasons—at least as long as the water didn't freeze.  The flow was constant, as was the measurement of time. For those using other forms of reckoning, such as celestial phenomena or even a sundial, things might be a bit less accurate.  This was especially true when using concepts like “sunrise” and “sunset”.  Still, through observing the changes over the year, people eventually figured out charts and rules to help reconcile absolute forms of measurement with solar time.  There were other methods for telling time, as well.  Perhaps one of the more pleasant was the use of incense sticks.  By the time of the Tang dynasty, incense in stick form was relatively common, and it had been noticed that sticks of incense could burn at a fixed rate.  This meant that you could use incense sticks like candles were used in Europe, counting down how far they had burned to tell what time it was.  If you were really fancy, you could make a single stick out of different types of incense, so that as it hit a new hour, the scent would change, alerting you to the time through your olfactory senses. Speaking of time, we are coming to the end of ours for this episode.  We do have some more information on this on our website, Sengokudaimyo.com, and we'll have links to those sections of the website accompanying our blog. Next episode we will focus more on the reign of Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou, from his seat at Otsu no Miya. Until then, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  

In this episode hosts Amy Christenson and Brian Bowen celebrate their return from a brief hiatus by sharing their personal top 10 book recommendations for personal development, health, and wellness.They explore various books ranging from ancient philosophies like the Dao De Jing to modern self-help classics by authors such as Brendan Burchard, Mel Robbins, and Jay Shetty. The episode covers topics like mindfulness, mental wellness, resilience, personal empowerment, and holistic health, ensuring there's something valuable for everyone. Tune in to get inspired and discover your next great read for 2025! 00:00 Welcome to All Things Good for You Podcast00:42 Catching Up After a Break01:25 Upcoming Workshops and Events02:09 Favorite Books for Growth and Inspiration04:21 Book Recommendations for 202505:42 Diving into Personal Transformation09:37 Exploring Emotional and Physical Healing31:13 The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins37:11 Introduction to Gut Health40:38 Exploring Whole Brain Living44:23 Empowerment and Boundaries45:44 Positive Intelligence and Mental Habits51:21 Liberated Love and Relationship Insights53:49 The Power of One More57:50 Quick Book Recommendations01:03:58 Women's Health and Empowerment01:07:07 Final Book Recommendations01:10:08 Conclusion and Podcast Teasers  Transformative Books for Personal Growth and Self-Discovery in 2025The pursuit of self-enhancement is infinite, and literature remains one of the most valuable resources in this path of personal discovery and enlightenment. If you're eager to delve into an enriching collection that encourages growth, self-awareness, and transformation, have a look at these 20 carefully curated books.These titles have been discussed in-depth on the All Things Good for You podcast, where hosts Amy Christensen and Brian Bowen share their insightful takes on ancient traditions and modern practices in health, wellness, and personal development. 1. **Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza**   Tune into the power of thought and intention to recreate the version of yourself that you desire by shifting cognitive patterns and habitual actions. 2. **The Molecule of More by Daniel Lieberman**   Explore how dopamine drives ambition, decision-making, and emotional fulfillment while providing insights into managing this neurotransmitter effectively. 3. **The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk**   This essential read examines the profound ways trauma affects the body and mind, offering a holistic approach to healing through various therapeutic methods.4. **Gut Feelings by Dr. Will Cole**   Functional medicine insights are provided in this guide that underscores the significance of gut health in overall emotional and physical well-being. 5. **Boundary Boss by Terri Cole**   Discover how to identify, establish, and maintain boundaries that protect your emotional and mental energy while enhancing relationships and personal growth.6. **The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins**   A simple yet powerful philosophy on acceptance and emotional freedom that involves letting others be themselves and allowing yourself the grace to find peace. 7. **Whole Brain Living by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor**   Explore the four distinct characters in our brain that influence our thinking and behaviors, through the lens of someone who experienced a life-changing stroke.8. **Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine**   Uncover ten mental saboteurs that create doubt and anxiety, and use the sage's powers to foster a positive, productive mindset. 9. **We Are the Human by Tracy Litt**   Receive nurturing insights on self-love and self-worth, empowering you to embrace your intrinsic awesomeness.10. **Liberated Love by Mark Groves and Kylie McBeath**   This book speaks to romantic and personal relationships, guiding you towards mastering your actions, feelings, and traumas for healthier interactions. 11. **Grit by Angela Duckworth**   Understand the power of perseverance and passion in achieving lifetime goals, moving beyond natural talents through hard work.12. **Upshift by Ben Rammel**   Turn pressure into performance through innovative turns in thinking and strategies when faced with life's challenges. 13. **The Dao De Jing by Lao Tzu**   Dive into timeless wisdom on balance, flow, and humility using nature as a metaphor for personal growth and harmony.14. **Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty**   Blend ancient philosophies with modern psychology to develop peace and purpose every day, inspired by the author's monastic experiences. 15. **The Motivation Manifesto by Brendon Burchard**   Reclaim your freedom with practical tools that enhance personal power and help overcome doubt, delay, and division.16. **The Power of One More by Ed Mylett**   Crystallize the concept of doing just one more to enhance your practice and performance in all areas of life.17. **Roar Revised by Dr. Stacey Sims**   A crucial guide focused on women's unique physiological and athletic health distinctions that defies the traditional male-centric studies.18. **The Well Lived Life by Dr. Gladys McGarey**   Celebrating a centenarian's journey in natural healing and holistic medicine with wisdom on living a connected and purposeful life.19. **Love Does by Bob Goff**   Explore profound life lessons on love as active and intentional, leading to a more purposeful life driven by curiosity and joy.20. **The Charge by Brendon Burchard**   Identify and harness the ten core human drives to unleash a more vibrant, charged life filled with purpose and enthusiasm.Explore these transformational reads and ignite a new chapter of growth and self-fulfillment for the upcoming year and beyond. Whether in personal pursuits or professional development, these books provide a spectrum of strategies and inspirations to elevate your journey.Embrace the ideas, learn, and persist—ready, set, go! All Things good For You

Science fiction and fantasy are full of wondrous libraries containing everything from powerful artifacts to some dang good reads. How does the idealized view of libraries in speculative fiction compare with the real-life libraries, which are under attack by would-be censors and culture warriors? Also, we talk to award-winning author Ken Liu about his brand new translation of the classic Daoist text, the Dao De Jing. Shownotes and more info at https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Since leaving the monastery a few years ago, I have become interested in how the ancient Zen teachers talked about the spiritual path. Language about the realizations that compose awakening are nested in the Zen chants that I would chant daily as a monastic, but we were so immersed in the continuous-ness of practice, that rarely would we stop and try to map out the territory. We were living it, who needed the borrowed words of those long dead to put a conceptual overlay onto something so fleeting as experience?My teacher Chozen was fond of saying that Zen was a practice without guardrails or measuring sticks—we stumble around in the dark. And somehow in this stumbling, in the dark terrain of life before concepts— our faith deepens and our sense of self loses its limiting bearings in exchange for an indescribable vastness that belongs to no-one. Zen teachers over the years have said of Zen that, “it is good for nothing”, or “a practice of non-attainment.”Others, including the early founders of the Soto school, described or attempted to show through poetry and image, some of the dynamics at play in this “good for nothing” journey of “non-attainment” and spiritual maturation.Two such teachers are Zen Masters Shitou and Dongshan Liangjie. Shitou's famous work The Sandokai or The Identity of Relative and Absolute is still chanted at Soto Zen Monasteries and Temples all over the world. And Dongshan's Precious Mirror Samadhi, which contains his teaching of the Five Ranks is similarly revered.There is a magic to language. A symbol is passed down for centuries, from spoken word, to ideogram, to letters and words in our own tongue, which become images again appearing in our imagination, references to a memory that we can almost taste.Words are sensual. We taste our words as we speak them. We feel their images and are invited into their song. Sentences are like spells. They captivate the heart. They have the power to render us transformed in this midst of their utterances. When used mindlessly words can kill the thing they are attempting to name. They can create landscapes of lies, delusive dreams that collectively capture our imaginations and send us spiraling further away from ourselves.Yet, words are also alive. Language lets us re-cast the spell on itself. A single word can be a deep medicine for the exiled heart. A point of connection—a way in.The theme of the absolute and the relative is a timeless dance of wholeness. What happens when we really venture to peer into Mind, inquire into the inner workings of our hearts, this experience we call my life?— well it's empty yet appearing, spacious yet seemingly tangible, here yet unfindable. What we call one, is also many—a relationship so intimately entwined, it can feel like a great wrong has been committed to even speak as if they were two separate and distinct experiences. And yet, we long to make meaning. To communicate the inner landscapes of the heart-mind. To celebrate the journey. We are map-makers of consciousness, knowing that as we chart the choppy, ever-changing waters of the heart, it's already shifting—there is nowhere where we truly stand besides the momentariness of standing right where we are.As I study the Sandokai and Dongshan's Five Ranks, I have come to appreciate the play of light and shadow or relative and absolute as a generous reminder once spoken by Master Ma, and later by my own teacher Hogen Roshi—”we can't fall out of the deep samadhi of the universe.” We are always on the path, and the path is always revealing a new face of this mystery.So let's explore one map of the great ocean of awareness and perhaps through these words and images we will recognize some of our own footsteps.The Light within the Dark (the Relative with the Absolute)Dongshan: The third watch of the night, before moonrise—don't be surprised if there's a meeting without recognition. One still harbors the elegance of former years.My meditation is so spacious, it reminds me of that time when…Dogen Zenji says, when the truth fills our body and mind, we realize that something is missing. As someone who spent a lot of days, months and years in zazen and retreat, a taste of spaciousness can trigger a longing for my time as a total beginner to practice, who just stumbled into this dark mystery of being and had no skin in the game, no vow, just a heart turned towards spaciousness.The Dao De Jing says, In the Dark, darken further…Have you ever meditated in the dark before moonrise? Have you ever let yourself let-go for a moment the ordinary distinctions of seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking? What kind of place is this? Does anyone remain?The Dark within the Light (The Absolute in the Relative)Dongshan: Having overslept, the elder woman encounters the ancient mirror. This is clearly meeting face-to-face, only then is it genuine. Don't lose your head by validating shadows.I love this concept called non-linear emergence. A recognition that being human is non-linear. Healing in non-linear. Awakening surely is non-linear. Because we are never outside of the mysterious grace of our awakened nature, sometimes a moment of clarity rises up in the midst of a seemingly ordinary moment or even what we might consider a moment so outside of our concept of practice. Like those days when we sleep in, or are hungover, or ate too much cake, or feel distracted, busy, on autopilot, lost, alone in our suffering, or pain.Then suddenly, there is an encounter—a stranger smiles, we notice the yellow of a sunflower, a piece of music grabs our attention, we look up at the sky—and something happens. We find ourselves gazing into the ancient mirror. A true encounter. Face-to-face—we glimpse, we remember our shared nature, we feel an enduring love and acceptance, we taste the light of being.Yes right here in the midst of the ordinary, in the midst of the colossal ways we harm each other, in the midst of all the injustices in our crazy-making world—there is love, there is peace. The sacred rises up and kisses us on the cheek. And we keep on living. We go to work, we meet with a friend, we use the toilet when we need to, we continue to heal, we face the innumerable challenges of living a human life.As one Zen master said, awakening is an accident, practice makes us accident prone.Just the Dark (Coming from within the Absolute)Dongshan: Within nothingness there is a road out of the dusts. Just avoid speaking the forbidden name of the emperor and you will surpass the worthies of ancient times, who cut off tongues.Rinzai says: sometimes I take away the person and the environmentAll reference points lostJust don't try to speak of itThough many people practice ZenFew have lost their MindCutting off tongues aside, let me ask— when your mind isn't reifying anything—where do you abide?Enter the dark cave of meditation, it's OK to not-know who you are.One Zen student said when asked, what happens when you think about the one who thinks—I find that there is nothing there at all.Just the Light (Mutual Integration / From within the Relative)Dongshan: No need to dodge when blades are crossed. The skillful one is like a lotus in the fire. Surely you possess the aspiration to soar to the heavens.In the midst of our work, our relationships, our confusion, our intellectual pursuits—the dharma is here. We don't need to look for peak experiences or make wonderment happen. Every meeting is genuine. The dharma is us. Our vow, our heart's aspiration, the bodhisattva dwells in this very ordinary, cryptic, heart-wrenching human realm.Let yourself be a lotus in the fire.Aspire to see your life as a lotus blooming in the midst of all these flames.Light and Dark Together (Arriving at Concurrence)Dongshan: Everyone longs to leave the mundane stream, still you return to sit in the charcoal heap. Zen celebrates such a complete shedding. Is such a place possible? To no longer long for some peak experience, some validation from the universe that you are OK, that all is sacred. Faith can permeate one's being so completely that the world of oneness and the world of diversity are so intertwined that it no longer makes sense to make distinctions. The tradition also celebrates responsiveness. Born from practice-realization we respond to the complexities of our lives. We walk freely through the other ranks, as we live our lives of practice. Most great Zen and Buddhist teachers continued to sit retreats and had a daily practice throughout their lives.Whether the charcoal heap is your zafu or this burning world of change and pain or the complete combustion of being so fully here for those you love + the work you do—you continue to sit in it, with it, with all beings.Thank you for your practice, thank you for living the life you have as genuinely as you do. As we walk the circle of the way, never falling out of the deep samadhi of the universe, we encounter these different expressions of the great heart of being. You might describe them differently, if you bother describing them at all. Perhaps you too are a mapmaker, a spell-caster, one haunted by a call to make meaning and embody love in our sometimes chilling yet beautiful world.In the dharma talk, I offer some other reflections on this topic—as it pertains to the practice of Ango. A time in the Zen Community of Oregon's annual practice cycle that we dedicate to intensifying practice with the support of Sangha.…I'm Amy Kisei. I am a Zen Buddhist Teacher, Spiritual Counselor, budding Astrologer and Artist. In my Spiritual Counseling Practice, I practice at the confluence of spirituality and psychology, integrating mind, body and spirit. I am trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Dream Work, Hakomi (Somatic Therapy) and Mindful Eating. Below are some of my current offerings.Monday Night Meditation + DharmaEvery Monday 6P PT / 9P ETJoin me on zoom for 40 minutes of meditation and a dharma talk. We are currently exploring a text called The Eight Realizations of Great Beings, which gives us an opportunity to practice inquiry and embodying love as we discover our Awakened Nature together.This event is hosted by the Zen Community of Oregon. All are welcome to join. Drop in any time.Zoom Link for Monday NightBeyond Mindfulness: Deepening Your Meditation Practice Class SeriesStarts today! This workshop style course is designed to provide a map of the meditation path as well as:* Introduce you to the five main styles of meditation (calm-abiding, concentration, heart-based practices, inquiry and open-awareness)* Help you understand the intention of each method and how to practice it* Help you understand how the various methods and techniques fit together and support each other* Provide a fun, non-judgmental learning environment where you can try things out, ask questions and explore* Give you the opportunity to work with a teacher with an extensive background in various meditation techniquesSky + RoseWhat is it? An experiment in the impossible task of excluding nothing and loving everything. An alchemy of play, presence and wandering into the shadows, you could say.Sky & Rose is a practice container that will:* Center group parts work practices to explore the fluidity, span and dream of who we are - somebody, nobody, everybody. You will be invited to express yourself vocally and physically, engage your imagination and play outside habituation.* Do interpersonal and group meditation practices of seeing, being and awakening.* Directly explore emotional embodiment & shadow work* Include Beauty, Art & Wonderment as core practice elements Through rituals of imagination, meditation technologies and co-created fields of intentional play, we can slip out, for a time, of confining identities defined by our histories, culture and comfort.Delivered by these practices, we can begin to inhabit perspectives and modes of being that stretch our sense of the possible and refresh our sense of the everyday. You might find yourself wearing Luminosities face or inhabiting Laughter's chest. Together we might try out Venus's view of the very life we live or we might make space to feel Chaos's dance and shake off some rigidity.All of these are just examples of where our wondering and feeling into places of vitality and expansion may take us.We will rebel against the quotidian and respect ourselves too much to only have crumbs of the sacred!It was also be a time to work together with the challenges to living heart forward with sanity and presence within this hyper-fractured funhouse/madhouse world.Sky and Rose is a place for Jogen and i to invite you into practices and explorations of 'soul work' that are not part of the Buddhist tradition but that have nonetheless been sources of growth and joy for us. Our influences in this include Paratheatre, IFS and Voice Dialogue, Hakomi, Process Work, Butoh, Jungian dream work and more.We initiate Sky & Rose as an experiment in embracing Spirit and Soul simultaneously, together imagining and practicing interpersonal liberation, playfulness and spaciousness in this time of deep adaptation.Meets monthly on Sundays from 10:30A PT - 12:30P PT / 1:30P ET - 3:30P ETJoin us for our Opening Ritual + Practice exploringThe Ritual of LiminalitySunday October 27I currently live in Columbus, Ohio with my partner Patrick Kennyo Dunn, we facilitate an in-person meditation gathering every Wednesday from 7P - 8:30P at ILLIO in Clintonville through Mud Lotus Sangha. If you happen to be in Columbus, feel free to stop by. We have weekly meditation gatherings, and are offering a day of meditation in October. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amykisei.substack.com/subscribe

We are emerging from the monthly return of the moon's dark face—where from earth's perspective the sun and moon appear to kiss, an aspect that astrologers refer to as a conjunction. In the Zen tradition, the moon cycles served as markers for the calendar year—with the new and full moons being opportunities for ritual and ceremony around atonement and renewal of vows.In my own life and practice, I have been contemplating the mystery of being, what is often unseen or unacknowledged in the ways we normally move through space and relate to others and the world. In celebration of this New Moon and the Great Mystery, I offer a reflection on the following koan, Zhaozhou's Deeply Secret Mind.Hidden Lamp: Zhaozhou's Deeply Secret MindA nun asked Master Zhaozhou: What is the deeply secret mind?Zhaozhou squeezed her handThe nun responded Do you still have this?Zhaozhou replied: You are the one who has thisI was reflecting the other day about why I started practicing Zen. In my home sangha, the Zen Community of Oregon, we have been having conversations about paths of practice. So, I invite you to reflect as well. Why did you start practicing meditation? And if you practice in a particular tradition, why that tradition?In my own reflection, it seems like Zen chose me. Someone gave me a Zen book and it resonated, then the meditation group I sat with in college was Zen, then my partner in college took me with him to a Zen Temple—at that point I didn't really think about the other meditation traditions and if one would have been a better fit. I just followed the path that was opening itself up before me.When I entered a Zen Monastery for my first retreat, I was greeted by an ambiance that felt ancient. The dark zendo, the temple bells, physical mudras that evoked stillness, gratitude and wonder as the monastery building played with the natural world in a way that the two felt indistinguishable. Though my thoughts frequently played the worries and dreams of this particular person, I had a sense that these stories weren't the whole of who I was. The ancient timeless peace of the monastery was my heart too.It was here that I felt, perhaps for the first time in my adult life, Zhaozhou's hand reaching out and squeezing mine—the monastery + zen forms provided the physical invitation into this open secret.Another way this koan is translated is: The nun asks, What is the inner-most heart?We say Zen is transmitted heart to heart, mind to mind. A few weeks ago I was at Great Vow for a weeklong silent meditation retreat called Grasses and Trees Sesshin. The retreat takes place completely outdoors, we practice with the grounds and forest, the trees, leaves, meadows, birds and bats. During our sharing circle on the last day, someone shared a story of sitting with a spider, and feeling the spider extend one of its legs, as the person held out a hand.Others spoke of touching the earth, a rock, a tree —palm to palm, hand to heart, eyeball to eyeball, soma to soma.When we spend a week, or a day or years or even minutes sitting with another being in silence, in openness, in presence—we know each other in a way that words can't even begin to explain.Think of all the hands you have held over the years. The hands you have squeezed. What was being communicated? What were you sharing? What state of Mind? What quality of Heart?All the time we are holding hands with this sacred life.Tooth brush hands, tea cup hands, peach + apple hands, dirt hands, human hands, dog hands.Sometimes maybe we are saying, I love you, I'm scared, hold me, other times especially with the seeming objects of our lives, it might feel more transactional, or maybe we fail to notice this ordinary intimacy.Chozen Roshi would invite us to take up the practice of Loving Hands. A way of really attending to all the beings, all the life energy that moves through our hands in a given day. How many hand squeezes are we giving and receiving? How many moments of intimacy kiss our lips, and pass us by?Patrick and I have been doing some teaching with a local sangha called Mud Lotus Sangha here in Columbus, OH, and sometimes the question comes up—what is Zen good for?Or another way a similar sentiment arises for folks who have been practicing for a while is, I know what Zen is good for. It helps me feel calm, or less anxious, or more connected.We have the habit of relating to this practice as another thing that we can measure—whether it is working for me, or not. Whether I am getting what I want from this, or not.This koan is reminding us that Zen or our spiritual lives don't work that way. Even sitting meditation doesn't work that way.When we try to measure our spiritual practice, we overlook the mystery—we violate the deeply secret transmissions, we forget about our inner-most heart.Many of you have heard me use the teaching tool of inner, outer and secret. Let's go into that a little bit more in relationship to the practice of Zen, or spiritual practice more generally.So, we have the physical things that we do, maybe that is meditating daily, or once a week, maybe that is doing bowing practice, or chanting or walking meditation, precepts study or some other practice. This is the outer form of the practice. It is important in that it gives us a form, a temenos, a sacred vessel and structure to our practice. This form is helpful. It reminds us that we are practicing. It gives our bodies and minds something to do, to settle into, to trust. This allows practice to deepen and open.Then we have what we are doing with our minds / attention. I call this the inner dimension. This starts with intention, and then the method—how we are actually meeting the changing experiences on an inner level. This could include practicing acceptance, loving kindness or compassion for ourselves, or learning to relate to thoughts as another sense happening. Or beginning to look into the nature of our experience (we call this inquiry). What is the source of thoughts, what are emotions made of? How long does any experience last? All these practices compose the inner dimension—what we are doing with our attention moment to moment.The secret dimension is all that can not be said, what we don't have names for. The physicist David Bohm said that if we used the analogy of the ocean to describe what we know and don't know about the universe, what we know would be comparable to the foam that rests on the surface of the ocean. What we don't know—is the rest of the ocean.The opening lines to the Dao De Jing say it this way:The dao that can be named is not the eternal dao.And so Zhaozhou gives our hands a squeeze. And it's not about the hand or the squeeze per se, but the intimacy. The connection. Not the words intimacy or connection, but the direct, living intimacy. The dissolving of self and other. Releasing the world from our concepts about it. It's the heart at home with itself. The great mystery of being and non-being—simultaneously. I think you know what I am trying to say. There are times in our practice, in our life as practice where we hear the words behind the words. We hear the secret language of a chant, dharma talk, gesture, sound and part of us understands. Chozen Roshi would invite us to listen to the birds so closely, that we could almost understand what they were saying. I think a similar kind of listening emerges in Zen, we hear and learn to speak the language behind the words and forms, the secret language of true intimacy.So we practice Zen in all its forms, we set intentions and put into practice the teachings that help us cultivate mental stability, equanimity, ease, loving kindness, compassion, gratitude, joy.And at times we are touched by the mystery. The great love of being. We sense our shared nature, and the wisdom, openness and clarity of the heart as our own nature. And then, without us even noticing it secret language emerges from our own lips.…. This dharma talk was shared live during the Monday Night Dharma event through the Zen Community of Oregon.I'm Amy Kisei. I am a Zen Buddhist Teacher, Spiritual Counselor, budding Astrologer and Artist. In my Spiritual Counseling Practice, I practice at the confluence of spirituality and psychology, integrating mind, body and spirit. I am trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Dream Work, Hakomi (Somatic Therapy) and Mindful Eating.I have a few new client openings this Fall if you are interested in exploring Spiritual Counseling with me. Spiritual Counseling can help you:* Companion Grief + Loss* Clarify Life Purpose* Healing Relational Conflict + Inner Conflict* Work with Shadow Material* Heal your relationship with Eating, Food or Body Image* Spiritual Emergence* Integrate Psychedelic or Mystical Experiences* Move Through Creative Blocks, Career Impasses and BurnoutI also lead a weekly online meditation group through the Zen Community of Oregon and am leading a class series on the Zen Bodhisattva Precepts this Fall. Also if you are interested in workshopping your meditation practice join me in collaboration with Pause Meditation for a 5-week online class series called Beyond Mindfulness. More information can be found below.Monday Night Meditation + DharmaEvery Monday 6P PT / 9P ETJoin me on zoom for 40 minutes of meditation and a dharma talk. We are currently exploring the freedom, spontaneity and love of our original nature through the teachings of the Zen koan tradition. Koans invite us into the mythos of practice awakening, gifting us with the ordinary images of our lives, they help awaken us to the wonder, intimacy and compassion of life as it is!All are welcome to join. Drop in any time.Zoom Link for Monday NightLiving the Questions: 16 Bodhisattva Precepts Class SeriesBe patient with all that is unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers, which can not be given to you, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. And perhaps you will then gradually…find yourself living the answer. — RilkeFar from being a set of rules or doctrine that we must follow, the Bodhisattva precepts act as koans, inquiries that we are empowered to take into our life. They ask us to consider, what does love look like in this situation? In this relationship, how do I work with my anger? Who is it who wants to gossip, or inflate one's self? How can I show up authentically in the world?With the final five grave precepts, pure precepts and refuges as our guide we will explore the heart of what it means for each one of us to live a life of integrity and love. We will explore how each precept touches the personal, interpersonal, global and secret dimensions of our living.Beyond Mindfulness: Deepening Your Meditation Practice Class SeriesThis workshop style course is designed to provide a map of the meditation path as well as:* Introduce you to the five main styles of meditation (calm-abiding, concentration, heart-based practices, inquiry and open-awareness)* Help you understand the intention of each method and how to practice it* Help you understand how the various methods and techniques fit together and support each other* Provide a fun, non-judgmental learning environment where you can try things out, ask questions and explore* Give you the opportunity to work with a teacher with an extensive background in various meditation techniquesI currently live in Columbus, Ohio with my partner Patrick Kennyo Dunn, we facilitate an in-person meditation gathering every Wednesday from 7P - 8:30P at ILLIO in Clintonville through Mud Lotus Sangha. If you happen to be in Columbus, feel free to stop by. We have weekly meditation gatherings, and are offering a day of meditation in October. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amykisei.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Ken Liu, translator of Laozi's Dao De Jing. About Laozi's Dao De Jing: Laozi's Dao De Jing was written around 400 BC by a compassionate soul in a world torn by hatred and ambition, dominated by those that yearned for apocalyptic confrontations and prized ideology over experience. By speaking […] The post Episode 634-With Ken Liu appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

Rachael dives into what she spent (and made) on her Kickstarter, and then has an amazing conversation with Ken Liu on world building and the Dao De Jing! Ken Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, he wrote the Dandelion Dynasty, a silkpunk epic fantasy series (starting with The Grace of Kings), as well as short story collections The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He also penned the Star Wars novel The Legends of Luke Skywalker. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. Liu frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.Laozi's Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time - https://amzn.to/3XR8UEK

We've already heard about Confucianism, The Hundred Schools, and the Yi Jing. In this episode, we look at Daoism. The life of Lao Tzu (Laozi) will be introduced along with the book he probably never wrote but which is ascribed to him anyway. This is the Tao Te Ching or Dao De Jing. Laozi was quite a character and by telling his story, it will give you the fundamentals to explore on your own what this philosophic thought is all about. We'll look at the Daoist concept of Wu Wei 无为 and the art of quiescence. We'll close with one of the earliest and greatest interpreters of the Daodejing, Wang Bi. In the History of Chinese Philosophy Part 13, we'll start looking at Zhuangzi and his classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've already heard about Confucianism, The Hundred Schools, and the Yi Jing. In this episode, we look at Daoism. The life of Lao Tzu (Laozi) will be introduced along with the book he probably never wrote but which is ascribed to him anyway. This is the Tao Te Ching or Dao De Jing. Laozi was quite a character and by telling his story, it will give you the fundamentals to explore on your own what this philosophic thought is all about. We'll look at the Daoist concept of Wu Wei 无为 and the art of quiescence. We'll close with one of the earliest and greatest interpreters of the Daodejing, Wang Bi. In the History of Chinese Philosophy Part 13, we'll start looking at Zhuangzi and his classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've already heard about Confucianism, The Hundred Schools, and the Yi Jing. In this episode, we look at Daoism. The life of Lao Tzu (Laozi) will be introduced along with the book he probably never wrote but which is ascribed to him anyway. This is the Tao Te Ching or Dao De Jing. Laozi was quite a character and by telling his story, it will give you the fundamentals to explore on your own what this philosophic thought is all about. We'll look at the Daoist concept of Wu Wei 无为 and the art of quiescence. We'll close with one of the earliest and greatest interpreters of the Daodejing, Wang Bi. In the History of Chinese Philosophy Part 13, we'll start looking at Zhuangzi and his classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've already heard about Confucianism, The Hundred Schools, and the Yi Jing. In this episode, we look at Daoism. The life of Lao Tzu (Laozi) will be introduced along with the book he probably never wrote but which is ascribed to him anyway. This is the Tao Te Ching or Dao De Jing. Laozi was quite a character and by telling his story, it will give you the fundamentals to explore on your own what this philosophic thought is all about. We'll look at the Daoist concept of Wu Wei 无为 and the art of quiescence. We'll close with one of the earliest and greatest interpreters of the Daodejing, Wang Bi. In the History of Chinese Philosophy Part 13, we'll start looking at Zhuangzi and his classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During this conversation, Greg Ripley and I delve into how spirituality, especially Taoism, can inform and enrich our lives, guiding us toward a more harmonious relationship with ourselves and the world around us. A central tenet of Greg's philosophy draws from Taoism's teachings on acceptance and living in the present. He emphasizes the power of recognizing and allowing life to unfold in its own time, resisting the urge to fight against reality. This approach not only reduces personal suffering but also opens up a path to clearer vision and meaningful action. His insights touch on the practical applications of these principles, offering listeners tangible ways to integrate them into daily life. Greg's latest book, "100 Remedies of the Tao: Spiritual Wisdom for Interesting Times”, seeks to distill these ancient teachings into accessible, practical wisdom for modern seekers. Through this work, Greg aims to bridge the gap between spiritual tradition and the demands of our fast-paced, often disconnected world. 

The Tao Te Ching, Daodejing, Dao De Jing, or Daode jing, also simply referred to as the Laozi, is a Chinese classic text. According to tradition, it was written around 6th century BC by the sage Laozi, a record-keeper at the Zhou dynasty court, by whose name the text is known in China. The text's...

Change happens through time, it unfolds within the rhythmic inhale and exhale, it expresses through lunar and solar cycles, it follows the arc of development, fruition, and decline. There are recognizable pathways and markers that arise within what is mostly a non-linear experience of life.Daniel Atchison-Nevel used to skip school and hang out at the library where he found himself in the company of old Russian Jewish mystics, their stories and tattered copies of the Dao De Jing. Not a bad place to begin, if your destiny holds the potential to include the practice of Chinese medicine.Listen into this discussion of how undifferentiated wholeness ratchets down into the world of yin and yang, the constant interplay of fate and destiny, the vital importance of of being able to recognize the impulse towards healing within dysfunction, and how the most profound learning he received on the Extraordinary Vessels came from a man with whom he shared no common language.

Fairview Community Church's Sunday worship service on March 17, 2024.   Dao De Jing, Chapter 11 Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub; It is the center hole that makes it useful. Shape clay into a vessel; It is the space within that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows for a room; It is the holes which make it useful. Therefore profit comes from what is there; Usefulness from what is not there. Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English   Sermon on the Daoist Perspective by Rev. Keith Clark-Hoyos: "Heaven, Man, and Earth"      

Apologies for any degradation of the sound quality.  This was recorded while we were traveling, and the room setup was not ideal, so if sounds like I'm in a cave, you know why ;) This episode we head over to the continent to kick off the Tang dynasty.  The Tang dynasty was extremely influential on Yamato and later Japan, as well as the rest of East Asia.  And so we'll take a look at how it got its start and how it expanded along the silk road, while at the same time talking about the literally cutthroat politics of the period.  Especially in the royal house.  Nobody fights like family. For more information, check out the podcast webpage:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-104   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is episode 104: A Bloody Start to a Golden Age It was early in the morning on the fourth day of the sixth month of the ninth year of Wu De.    Brothers Li Jiancheng, Crown Prince, and his younger brother, Li Yuanji, were more than a bit annoyed--Their brother had apparently slandered them to their father, the Emperor, claiming that they had had illicit relationships with his concubines.  Although the accusations were false, they still had to come to the palace to clear their names.  So they left the crown prince's residence at the Eastern Palace and were traveling on horseback with a retinue of men through the private, forested royal park north of the city towards the Xuanwu Gate—the northern gate to the palace and to the great city of Chang'an. As they approached Linhu Hall, they noticed something was afoot: there were soldiers in the park, headed their way. It was immediately apparent that the accusations had been a ruse, and their brother meant for more than just to tarnish their honor.  As they fled eastward, back towards the Eastern palace, their brother, Li Shimin, came galloping towards them and called out to them.  Li Yuanji tried to draw his bow, but couldn't get to it in time, and Li Shimin shot and killed Li Jiancheng, their older brother and the crown prince. Li Yuanji himself fell from his horse as he dodged arrows from the attacking troops, but Li Shimin also became entangled in the brush of the park and had to dismount.  Li Yuanji ran up to his brother and tried to strangle him with his bow string, but soon he was chased off by reinforcements.  Li Yuanji fled on foot to Wude Hall, where he was finally caught and struck down with arrows.  Li Shimin's forces struck off the heads of the two murdered princes, and took them to the Xuanwu gate, where opposing forces were still fighting.  Seeing the heads of the two princes, it was clear that Li Shimin's ambush was victorious, and the princes' forces quickly dispersed. Three days later, the victorious Li Shimin was instated as the new crown prince.  Two months later, his father, Li Yuan, known to history as emperor Tang Gaozu, abdicated in favor of his son, who came to power as Emperor Taizong.  This was the start of the Zhenguan era, which would come to be seen as a golden age in the history of the various Chinese empires. --------------- Alright, so as may be apparent, we are deviating a bit from our discussion of Yamato to look at some of the events on the continent.  This is because the rise of the Tang dynasty would have an incredible impact on the Japanese archipelago.  For one, it was the alliance between the Tang and Silla that would eventually mean the removal of Yamato and its allies from the Korean peninsula.  In addition, however, the Tang dynasty's access to the silk road and its grandiose government would become an exemplar for Yamato and many other polities who wished to demonstrate their political and cultural sophistication.  Many of the laws and even court dress would mimic that of the Tang court—with a local flare, of course.  In addition, the Tang dynasty brought a relative stability to the continent that would last for over two hundred years.  Of course, none of that was known at the outset, and like many previous kingdoms, the Tang dynasty was born out of bloodshed. We've mentioned several times how the Sui Dynasty was growing increasingly unpopular in the late 6th and early 7th centuries.  Wars continued to cost money and lives, as did the giant public works projects of the periods - though the Grand Canal would be one of the greatest constructions of any age, uniting the Yangzi and Yellow River basins in myriad ways, powering the regions' economies for centuries to come. Into this Sui period came a man of the Li family named Yuan.  We mentioned him back in episode 102, but I figured he could do with a little more backstory.  Li Yuan's family originated in the frontier regions.  Official biographies had connected him to the founder of the Western Liang dynasty, and his family had served in various roles as the different northern kingdoms rose and fell.  The Li family had been providing military service since the time of Yuan's great-grandfather, and Li Yuan himself had been serving since the early 600s.  He was made a general and placed in charge of the Dongguang pass  in the Taihang mountains.  There, he largely stayed out of the limelight.  At one point, he was summoned to the palace and rather than going he feigned illness, instead. You see, around this time there was a prophecy flying around that someone with the surname of Li would try to take the throne from Sui Emperor, Emperor Yang, so it may have been in Li Yuan's best interest to avoid the court and anything that could draw Emperor Yang's suspicions.  He continued to do everything in his power to make himself seem unthreatening, even as rebellions were breaking out across the Empire. In 614, the Sui army was defeated by Goguryeo, and the Sui court was plagued by numerous uprisings.  Li Yuan may have sat it out if it weren't for his son, Li Shimin.  Like many youthful individuals, Li Shimin was less than invested in the current administration.  He and several of his close acquaintances began to scheme behind his father's back, with plans to join the other uprisings and hope to take a piece of the pie.  Eventually, they blackmailed Li Yuan into marching on the capital of Daxingcheng in 617, threatening to expose several illicit relationships from his time at the court—relationships that would have surely put him at odds with the Emperor.  At the same time, Emperor Yang had fled to the southern capital along the banks of the Yangzi River, but his son and heir, Yang You, was still in the capital.  Li Yuan marched on imperial city of Daxingcheng, near the ancient capital of Chang'an, claiming that he was coming to protect the young heir. Taking control of the capital city put Li Yuan at odds with imperial forces, who did not necessarily accept Li Yuan's altruistic claims.  Li Yuan and his sons, including Li Shimin and Li Jiangcheng, were drawn into fighting.  Even Li Yuan's daughter, Pingyang, the wife of general Chai Shao, contributed to the war effort.  She personally raised an army and led it into battle, becoming the first female general of what would be known as the Tang dynasty. In 618, Emperor Yang of Sui was assassinated by another general, Yuwen Huaji, and the throne passed to his son, Yang You, known as Emperor Gong of Sui.  However, Li Yuan pressured the newly made Emperor Gong to yield the throne to him.  Since Li Yuan had inherited the title “Duke of Tang” from his paternal line, he used that as the name of his new dynasty, and became known as Tang Gaozu—the High Founder of Tang. It wasn't enough to simply take the throne, though.  There were still many other warlords looking to take his place.  After all, unification had only come about some thirty or forty years prior.  Up to that point, there had been numerous, often competing kingdoms, especially in the north.  It was quite possible that the Sui dynasty was just a fluke, and most people no doubt expected the empire to fall once more into chaos. Still, although he definitely had to back it up with military might, often led by his sons and close confidants, Li Yuan went about the process of enacting his sovereignty.  This included various state rituals, as well as a reform of the administration.  For one thing, they renamed the capital.  Daxingcheng had been built nearby the ancient capital of Chang'an, and so they renamed Daxingcheng to the ancient name of Chang'an. In addition, he sought out various supernatural portents.  He also enjoyed the support of various Daoists, who believed that the founder of Daoism, Laozi, was from the Li family.  There was a belief at the time that a messianic ruler from the Li family would bring about the Daoist millennium.  And to better understand that, it may be useful to understand a little bit about Daoism. Daoism, first and foremost, is one of the more well known religions to come out of China, and often is found side by side what would seem to be its polar opposite, Confucianism.  However, the two have more in common than one might at first assume. The believed founder of Daoism is known as Laozi, though some later sources, including the Qin dynasty “Records of the Grand Historian”, by Sima Chen, would claim for him the name Li Er.  Laozi was said to have been a scholar who abandoned the world, and as he was leaving the empire for parts unknown, an astute guard recognized him and requested that before he left that he write down his accumulated wisdom before he would let the old sage leave.  That became the work known as the Dao De Jing, or the Classic of the Way and Virtue. The opening of the Dao De Jing is rather famous: Dao ke Dao, feichang Dao. Or, according to one translation:  The Dao that can be known is not the eternal Dao. However, no English translation truly does the original justice. Traditionally, Laozi is said to have been a contemporary of Confucius, and some of the earliest writings on him, in the Warring States period writings of Zhuangzi, often show Confucius in awe of Laozi.  That said, most tend to agree that Laozi himself likely never existed, and that the Dao De Jing was assembled over the years from various poems and sayings that fit with the general theme of formlessness and a general concept of following the Way, a rather ill defined concept of natural order, one which humans are constantly pushing against, often to our detriment. Truth is that both Confucius and Laozi—or whomever compiled the Dao De Jing—wrote about a thing called the “Dao” or “Way”.  Confucius was often talking about the “Way of Heaven”, describing an ordered universe where balance was kept by everyone remaining in their proper place, creating a series of rules around strict, hierarchical relationships, such as those between a father and son, or the ruler and subject.  According to Confucian thought, as long as things on Earth were properly ordered, that order would be reflected in the Heavens, and all of creation would be ordered as well. In Daoism, it is much less about attempting to order the universe, but rather about giving in to your natural place in the universe.  This is a much simplified version of both religions, but in general, where Confucianism tended to see serving at court as a virtue, Daoism tended to reject official life.  For many court officials, they would embrace Confucian ideals in their official lives, but often seek out Daoist pleasures in their free time. Religious Daoism, where it became more than simply a philosophical ideal, appears to have coalesced around the Han dynasty.  There are Daoist temples, though in this instance it is often intertwined with many other Sinitic philosophies and beliefs.  Thus things like the Queen Mother of the West and the Peaches of Immortality could be included in Daoist practice.  Things like the Yijing, the Book of Changes, and various divination methods could also be included. In many cases, “Daoist” seems to be used less to refer to a strict adherent to the philosophy of the supposed Laozi, and more as a general catchall for various folk beliefs.  Thus many people see the images of the Queen Mother of the West on Han Dynasty mirrors imported to Japan as evidence of a Daoist influence on the archipelago, while others note the lack of the further panoply of religious accoutrements that we would expect if it was truly a “Daoist” influence, and not just a few folk beliefs that made their way across the straits. However, by the time that Li Yuan was coming to the throne there was a thriving Daoist community in the Sui and burgeoning Tang dynasties, and if they believed that Li Yuan was an incarnation of Laozi—or at least a messianic descendant—who was he to dissuade them of such a notion? Li Yuan reached back into the past in other ways as well.  For one, he would reinstitute the Northern Wei “equal-field” system of state granted land, along with a system of prefectures and districts to help administer it.  This was largely an effort to help fill up the coffers, which had been emptied by the Sui and constant warfare, while also emphasizing state ownership of land, with individuals being mere tenants.  It also helped bring back into cultivation lands that had long lain fallow, often due to the constant fighting of the previous centuries. In 621, Li Yuan ordered the minting of new copper coins to help stabilize the currency.  Later Sui currency had been devalued by numerous forgeries as well as official debasement—mixing in less valuable metals to make the coins, while attempting to maintain the same denominations as before.  These new coins were meant to restore faith in the currency, but shortages would continue to plague the dynasty throughout its history, leading to the use of cloth as a common medium of exchange and tax payment, something that was also common on the archipelago, along with other goods, in lieu of rice or money. By 624, Li Yuan also announced a new legal code based on the old Han era code, although this was quickly expanded, since the needs of the code from the 3rd century Now initially, for all of their claims to the entire geographic area of the Sui dynasty, the newly established Tang dynasty really only had effective control over a small are of Guanzhou—the area around Chang'an itself.  Li Yuan hadn't been the only one to rise up, and just because he had declared himself the new emperor didn't mean that the other warlords were just giving up.  It wasn't like they had reached the end of a football match and everyone was now just going to go home. And so he and his sons found themselves campaigning for at least the next five years, and that was against the active threats.  Plenty of local elites, especially along the Yellow River basin, simply opted to hole up in their fortified settlements.  After all, they had no guarantees that this new Tang dynasty would last longer than any of the others in the past several centuries.  Often these local elites came under nominal vassalage of the Tang—and probably any other warlord that showed up—but in reality, based on how we see the Tang administration at work, it seems they were primarily left to their own devices, at least early on.  After all, Li Yuan and his sons had plenty of active threats to worry about. And it was definitely his sons who bore the brunt of the work.  Li Jiancheng, the eldest son, who would eventually be named Crown Prince, and Li Shimin each took charge of various troops against  the threats to the new Tang empire.  And they were, for the most part, successful.  They eventually brought a majority of the former Sui territory under their control, such that by 623 internal resistance had begun to wane, and by 624 the situation was largely under control. At least internally.  To the north and west there was another threat:  The khaganate of the Göktürks. Now for many people, if you hear “Turks” you might immediately think of the Ottomans in the region of modern Turkiye.  However, that is not where the Turkish people originated from.  In fact, the first mention of Turkic people appears to be out of the Altai mountains, in modern Mongolia, from around 545.  They appear to have been a nomadic group, as were many of the people of the steppes of central Eurasia.  By 551, only a short time after they were first documented by outside groups, they had established the Göktürk, or Celestial Turk, Khaganate, based in the Mongolian plateau.  From there they expanded in the 6th century, at one point spanning from the Byzantine and Sassanid Persian empires in the west all the way to the kingdoms and empires of the Yellow River basin in the east. Many of the ethnic Han kingdoms that clashed with the Göktürks instituted practices of basically paying them off to prevent raids and invasions of their territory.  Shortly after the founding of the Sui dynasty, the Turkic Khaganate split in two, after the death of the khagan, and so the Sui and Tang were actually dealing with what we know as the Eastern Turkic Khaganate.  They were known to the ethnic Han people as the Thuk-kyat people, a term that today is often transcribed as Tujue, due to the shift in Sinic pronunciation over time.  “Tujue” is often how you'll see it rendered in sources referencing Chinese documents. The Eastern Turkic Khaganate remained an issue for the Sui and Tang dynasties.  Initially, when the uprisings against the Sui began, the Göktürks actually pulled back for a bit, hoping to allow the internal conflicts to weaken their eastern neighbors, but as they saw the direction things were taking, with the Tang dynasty solidifying their power, they began to launch invasions and harass the border, forcing the Tang dynasty to send troops.  Initially Li Yuan attempted to by off the Eastern Turks, as previous dynasties had done, but while they were happy to take his money, the invasions did not stop. Eventually, things got so bad—and the internal conflicts were in a stable enough state—that Li Yuan, decided to send a force against them.  A fairly straightforward decision, supposedly, except, well… Throughout all of this conflict, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin had been building up their own influence.  Li Jiancheng, as the eldest son of Li Yuan, was the Crown Prince, but Li Shimin had built up his own power and influence, to the point that Li Jiancheng and his other brother, Li Yuanji, were starting to look at how they could take care of him before he got so powerful and popular that Li Yuan was tempted to make him Crown Prince instead of Jiancheng.  At one point, Li Yuanji proposed inviting Li Shimin over and just having him killed, but Li Jiancheng balked at such direct and obvious fratricide. Instead, Li Jiancheng reportedly pushed his younger brother into positions that would possibly get him killed, but Li Shimin continued to succeed, thwarting his brother's plans and growing his own fame and power in the process. Finally, Li Jiancheng decided to take a different approach, and he suggested to his father that the army to defend the empire against the Turks should be led by none other than Li Yuanji.  This would mean moving a large portion of the army out from under Li Shimin's command to his brother, Li Yuanji, who would also accrue much of the fame and respect if he proved successful.  This was a huge blow to Li Shimin, who had heard rumors that his brothers were out to get him. Before setting out on such a campaign, it would have been expected that Li Shimin and his other brothers turn out to wish Li Yuanji success in his campaign.  That would have put Li Shimin in an extremely vulnerable position, where he could be arrested or even killed, without the usual protection of his own forces.  And so Li Shimin decided to be proactive. Before the campaign could set out, Li Shimin submitted accusations against Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji that they were having illicit relations with the concubines of their father, the emperor.  This got Li Yuan's attention, and he called both of his sons back to the palace to investigate what was going on.  This is what led to that fateful incident known as the Xuanwu Gate Incident.  Unbeknownst to Li Yuan or his other sons, Li Shimin had forces loyal to him take over the Xuanwu gate the night before Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji were to have their audience.  Ideally, at least from Li Shimin's position, they would have both been assassinated at Xuanwu gate, but as I noted at the start of the episode, things did not go exactly to plan.   There were several moments where a single stray arrow could have completely changed the course of things, but in the end, Li Shimin was triumphant. As the fighting was going on, Li Yuan heard the commotion.  Apparently he had been out in a boat on the lake in the palace enclosure—and yes, you heard that right, the palace included a lake, or at least a very large pond, such that the emperor could partake in a lazy morning upon the water.  When he heard the commotion, he guessed that the tensions between his sons must be at the heart of it, and even surmised that Li Shimin was likely behind it.  He got to shore and surrounded himself with courtiers, including known comrades and acquaintances of his son, Li Shimin. Eventually, a representative of Li Shimin arrived, and he told the court that Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji had risen up in rebellion, but that Li Shimin had had them both put to death.  With Li Shimin's troops literally at the gates of the palace, and Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji not exactly able to defend themselves, the accusation stood.  Several days later, no doubt under pressure from Li Shimin, Emperor Tang Gaozu, aka Li Yuan, officially made Li Shimin the Crown Prince.  Two months later, he abdicated in favor of Li Shimin, who came to power as Tang Taizong in 626 CE.  Li Yuan himself took on the title of Retired Emperor, and continued to live life in the palace, but with a much reduced impact on the political affairs of the empire. Li Shimin himself took the reins of power immediately, and set about cementing his rule in several different ways.  First off, to offset his particularly unfilial method of coming to the throne, Li Shimin engaged in performative Confucian virtue signaling.  He played the part of the dutiful son, at least in public, providing for his retired father and attempting to act the part of the sage ruler.  This was somewhat impeded by the cold relationship he and his father appear to have maintained after that point—apparently killing your siblings and forcing your father to abdicate are not exactly the kinds of bonding experiences that bring a father and son closer together.  Still, that was mostly kept in the confines of the private areas of the palace.  Publicly, he gathered accomplished military and civilian officials, and made sure to seek out their opinion.  The era of emperor Tang Taizong is known as the Zhenguan era, lasting from roughly 627 to 649, and it was considered to be synonymous with good governance by later historians and philosophers.  Granted, most of the examples of good governance only lasted long enough for Li Shimin to establish himself in his position as emperor.  Once he had solidified his power, and felt secure in his position, his rule changed to a more traditional and authoritarian model. Regarding the threat of invasion from the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Li Shimin met the Turks at the Wei River, where he accused them of invading Tang territory and demanded restitution.  The Turks were impressed enough by his forces that they agreed to settle, offering thousands of horses and other goods, but Li Shimin declined their attempts to make it good.  Eventually, Li Shimin supported some of the more disaffected members of the Turkic Khaganate in a coup, and by 630 the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and their gateway to the Silk Road was under Tang dynasty control.  The Turks granted Li Shimin the title of Heavenly Khagan, placing him over both the Tang dynasty and the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. He then went about resettling surrendered Eastern Turks while sending agents to foment rebellions and civil wars in the Western Turkic Khaganate, which controlled the area from Yumenguan, the Jade Gate, west of Dunhuang, all the way to Sassanid Persia.  Dunhuang is an oasis city at the western end of the Gansu corridor, and the Jade Gate was considered to be the entry way to the Western Regions. As Emperor Taizong, Li Shimin placed a puppet Khagan on the throne of the Western Turkic Khaganate in 642, and then sent numerous campaigns against the Western Turks in a series of wars against those who hadn't simply given in to his will—first against the kingdom of Gaochang, a city cut from the rock of a giant plateau, and then on to the cities Karashr—known today by the Chinese name of Yanqi—and on to Kuqa.  The campaigns would outlive Emperor Taizong himself, and the khaganate was completely annexed by 657, giving the Tang dynasty complete mastery over at least one part of the silk road out to Sassanid Persia and the west. This would be huge, not only for the Tang dynasty, but for all of the cultures on the far eastern end of that silk road.  There would be an increase in material and cultural items that traversed the routes.  Chinese court dress even came to incorporate Turkic and Sogdian dress and clothing styles, which would eventually make their way to the Japanese archipelago, where they would take the tailored, round-necked collar designs for their own, eventually changing them, by the late Heian era, into their own distinctive garments. It also opened a route to India for those Buddhist scholars who wished to go and study at the source, such as it was.  As for Emperor Taizong, by the 630s, with his title as Heavenly Khagan, Li Shimin seems to have stopped worrying about performative Confucian virtues.  He took more direct control, and more often would quarrel with his ministers on various issues.  In 637 he also reworked the Tang legal code, further refining the law. At the same time, there were family matters he also had to attend to.  It seems like father, like son—while Li Shimin's eldest son, Li Chengqian was the Crown Prince, Shimin appeared to favor another son, Li Tai.  As such, these two brothers became bitter rivals.  Li Chengqian started to worry about his position as Crown Prince, and he consulted with some of his close advisors and confidants.  Their solution was not to take his brother out of the picture, but rather to take his own father out of the picture.  And so Li Chengqian reportedly entertained the idea of overthrowing his father, Emperor Taizong, at least as a thought experiment. And really, at this point, I have some suspicions that Li Shimin might very well have been a bit of an absentee father, because does Chengqian even know whom he is talking about trying to coup? Sure enough, Li Shimin learned about his sons extracurricular activities in 643 and he was less than happy with all of this.  Li Chengqian's defense, appears to have been that they only discussed it, they never went through with anything.  As such, some of Chengqian's conspirators were put to death, but Chengqian himself was simply reduced in rank to commoner status, stripped of his titles.  When he died a few years later, though, Li Shimin had him buried as a Duke, and a later emperor would even posthumously restore his rank as an imperial prince. Of course, the question came up as to just what to do about the Crown Prince.  Li Tai seemed the obvious choice, as he had clearly impressed his father with his apparent talent and skill.  However, it was pointed out that Li Tai's competition with his brother is what had led to Chengqian's fear and thoughts of rebellion in the first place.  He hadn't exactly been the model of filial virtue. In fact, if he hadn't been scheming, none of this would have taken place.  And so it was decided to pass him over and to create Li Zhi, a younger brother, as Crown Prince.  Li Tai himself was demoted, though only down to a minor princely state, and exiled from Chang'an, making it extremely difficult for him to influence politics.  Records of the time suggest this was an extremely difficult decision by his father, but one that he considered necessary for the responsible administration of government. All of this was taking place in the early 640s, but it wasn't the only thing that Li Shimin had on his mind.  With the Turkic threat being handled in the west, the emperor let his ambitions get the better of him, and he turned his eyes towards Goguryeo, to his northeast.  Previously, Emperor Yang of Sui had failed in his campaigns against Goguryeo, and that was one of the things that had led to the popular uprisings and rebellion that had taken down the dynasty.  Now, Emperor Taizong seemed determined to succeed where the prior dynasty failed. And so the Tang dynasty allied with the kingdom of Silla, hoping to force Goguryeo into a war on two fronts.  Silla was already expanding on the Korean peninsula, and a natural ally for the Tang dynasty.  Furthermore, they were far enough away that they weren't an immediate threat if they decided to go back on their part of the deal. Unfortunately for the Tang, these campaigns in 645 were not exactly a cake walk, and they handed Li Shimin his first defeat since the attempts to unify everyone under the Tang dynasty.  Not exactly a great look.  Relations with Goguryeo were normalized for a brief time, but then Emperor Taizong decided to give it another try.  They started gathering ships and men for another invasion, no doubt having played out why they had lost the previous go round and hoping that it would be better in round two. The invasions, however, would come to naught.  As it was being prepared, Tang Taizong grew ill.  He called off the invasion, and then, in 649, he passed away.  His youngest son, the Crown Prince Li Zhi, came to the throne as Emperor Gaozong.  The reign of him and his wife, Empress Wu Zetian, would have an enormous impact on the rest of the 7th century. Through all of this fighting, bloodshed, and politics, this set the stage for the future of the Tang dynasty, which would once again place the area of modern China in the center of what many considered to be the civilized world.  Besides being a center for Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist religion, Chang'an became an extremely cosmopolitan city, with Sogdian and Turkic traders visiting the markets and establishing themselves in the city.  Many foreign families would adapt over time, integrating into the culture of their new home. These foreigners brought other ideas with them as well.  Zoroastrianism, a Persian religion, may have come eastward much earlier, but in the 6th and 7th centuries, both Manichaeism and Christianity—at least an eastern version of Christianity—had made inroads into the capital of Chang'an.  Manichaeism would have its ups and downs, especially in conflict with Buddhism.  Christianity, on the other hand, was not necessarily the Christianity of Rome, but typically connected with the Syriac church that existed in the Persian empire, where it was a decidedly minority religion.  Later proponents of Rome and the Latin rite would connect it with the supposed heresies of Nestorius, referring to the Church of the East as Nestorian Christianity, but this is not a term they would have used for themselves.  These religions kept some of their traditions, but also incorporated some aspects of the culture of their new home, such as the use of rice in place of bread in some rituals. This was an exciting time, and the court at Chang'an was fascinated with various customs of the Western Regions.  Music, clothing, and even pasttimes were influenced by contact with the western lands.  This would, in time, be passed on even to the archipelago.  For instance, the pipa was an instrument that had origins in the Western regions.  It is found in the area of modern China in at least the Northern Wei dynasty, but no doubt it grew more popular over time.  A version of this same instrument traveled west to Persia, where it became the oud, and further on to Europe, where it became the famous lute.  In the archipelago, the pipa became the Biwa, and while we can never be one hundred percent certain about early music, we have instructions from the Tang dynasty on music for the pipa, and Tang dynasty and early music, along with music from Goguryeo, came over to the Japanese courts in the form of gagaku, traditional Japanese court music, in the early 8th century. Moving forward in our story about the Japanese archipelago, we are going to see more and more about the kentoushi, the Japanese embassies to the Tang dynasty, and just what they would bring back.  At the same time, we will also see the reaction of the court to the alliance between the Tang and Yamato's largest competitor on the Korean peninsula, Silla.  That alliance, which outlived emperor Taizong and even the king of Silla, would dramatically shift the balance of power on the peninsula and in all of northeast Asia. But we need to get there, first.  For now, let's move our gaze back across the waters to the archipelago, where Prince Tamura was about to take the throne, later becoming known as Jomei Tennou.  Of course, he was dealing with his own politics, especially regarding the Soga house and the powerful hold they had over government.  Next episode we will get back to just what was happening over there. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for her work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

Claralynn Nunamaker grew up in Chicago. She first encountered Chinese philosophy when at university and particularly resonated with the Dao De Jing. She studied Chinese and spent some time in China before moving to moving to Ukiah, California, home of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas Chan Buddhist monastery. It's there that she became a practising Buddhist. Soon she became involved in the Theravada Forest sangha in northern California and her interest moved her to learn the Pali language in order to read the early Buddhist sutras in their original language. Over the years she has extensively studied and taught Marshall Rosenberg's system of non-violent communication, which she sees as the embodied practice of right speech. Today she aligns with early Buddhist teachings and is deeply influenced by Ayya Khema and her main teacher, Leigh Brasington. Claralynn serves as Director for the Scottish charity Friends of Early Buddhist Teachings and chair of Sakyadhita UK. Her website is crnunamaker.com.In this interview, Claralynn insightfully explains the practice of non-violent communication (NVC) and its foundation in the universal attitudes of kindness, compassion, and empathy. Her view is that NVC gives us the tools to transform the aspiration of right speech into reality through clear learnable techniques and principles. Something we all need I'd say! The concept of a troublesome buddha finds its equivalent in the ‘enemy image' in NVC. Through various personal examples, she explores the power of avoiding falling into the trap of simply describing the enemy image (ahh wasn't that a big scary dog?) - thus giving it power - to identifying and describing our feelings and needs (I can see you're scared and want to feel safe). This shift into connecting to the need that's not being met, she says, allows us to draw alongside the difficult people we meet and see their Buddha nature.Support the showThis podcast is sponsored by Zen Minded – an online lifestyle store offering you the very best of Japanese craft, incense & other Zen-inspired home-goods. Check it out at www.zenminded.ukWe're also sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers convenient and affordable therapy online, helping match you with the right therapist from their network. They've extended an offer of 10% off your first month of therapy if you sign up via https://betterhelp.com/zenatthesharpendIf you liked this podcast, consider: Sharing it via social media Signing up to my email list www.markwestmoquette.co.uk

In this episode of Tea Soup, Derek talks about the 10 million train trips per day during China's Spring Festival, the curious mythology surrounding the Dai Minority Water Splashing Festival, and his pilgrimage to the world's oldest tea tree (2,700 years old!). He mentions Joseph Campbell's book “The Hero With a Thousand Faces: The Cosmogonic Cycle”, Mercia Eliade's Book “The Sacred and the Profane”, Laozi's “Dao De Jing”, and Zhuangzi's “Zhuangzi”. It is a surprisingly philosophical introspective episode that takes place between sourcing Lincang Puer and his trip down south to Xishuang Banna. As always, if you enjoy the podcast, feel free to show your support by buying tea at onerivertea.com or teaware at taoteaware.com. Thanks so much for your listening support!

Send us a Text Message.Xiaoyao confronts a crucial episode of blanked out memory, in which Shijie provides a detailed examination of chapter two of the Dao De Jing, and Xiaoyao meets the mysterious Master Gu Yan.  Cook explains what he meant by "meat buns for the mind," and the fat monk uses sweet black sesame soup to restore Xiaoyao's experience.SHOW NOTES:Xiaoyao Xingzhe, the self-styled carefree pilgrim, has lived and worked all over the world, having crossed the Gobi in a decrepit jeep, lived with a solitary monk in the mountains of Korea, dined with the family of the last emperor of China, and helped police with their enquiries in Amarillo, Texas.FAN MAIL is. a new feature now available to leave feedback on episodes, love or hate them. Look for the button in the top ribbon when you click on “Episodes.”Visit the Fat Monk Website: https://thefatmonk.net/for pdfs of all recorded chapters and a few more, as well as other bits of interest on Daoism, Buddhism and Neidan, with an emphasis (but not a limitation) on pre-twentieth century authors such as Huang Yuanji and Li Daochun.If you would like to support the production costs of this podcast, you may do so at Ko-fi. Check out the wonderful Flora Carbo and her music:https://floracarbo.com/

An exploration of the first rubric of the Dao de Jing

In this episode, we explore the role of dialectics in understanding existence, inspired by the Dao De Jing and the life of Gao Yaojie. We examine the character '则' (zé) from Laozi's era, its significance in conveying dialectical ideas, and its modern-day implications. Delving into Laozi's teachings, such as "bending to remain unbroken," we draw parallels with other philosophical traditions and offer insights into applying these ancient concepts in today's world.

Bringing a much needed calming zen influence to the Vayse Institute of Over Thinking and Catastrophic Worry, Hine and Buckley welcome therapist and former Tibetan Buddhist monk, Roger Jayamanne to the podcast. Roger leads Hine and Buckley through a quest which is thousands of years and many life cycles old as they discuss his life within the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and what it actually teaches: was the Buddha a real person? Is life just sorrow and suffering? What is the Tao?... and he divulges some of the weirder, reality-defying experiences he has had on his travels including mind reading, a monk's arm stretching to six feet long and a lama summoning a parliament of owls as a spiritual escort to Edinburgh Airport... (recorded 13 November 2023) Thanks to Roger for putting up with our frenzied anxiety and thanks as always to Keith for the show notes. 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Tao (Dao) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao) Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching) Tao: The Great Mother - tao-mother.org (http://tao-mother.org/) Sunyata - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81) Dharma and the Tao: how Buddhism and Daoism have influenced each other - BuddhaWeekly.com (https://buddhaweekly.com/dharma-and-the-tao-how-buddhism-and-daoism-have-influenced-each-other-why-zen-and-taoism-can-be-compliementary/) Taoism (Daoism) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism) Mahayana - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana) Catholic Church: Doctrine - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church#Doctrine) Judeo-Christian - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Christian) Karma in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Buddhism) Conceptions of god - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptions_of_God) Psychedelic drug - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_drug) Heaven - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven) Enlightenment in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_in_Buddhism) Buddhism and the simulation hypothesis Reality in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_in_Buddhism) Simulation hypothesis - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis) Quantum mechanics - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics) Overview of Divisions of Phenomena - StudyBuddhism.com (https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/abhidharma-tenet-systems/types-of-phenomena/overview-of-divisions-of-phenomena) The Tao of Physics (book) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Physics) Maya (religion, “illusion”) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(religion)) The world could be an illusion or simulation - TheArchitect.global (https://www.thearchitect.global/eastern-religions-and-simulation-theory-part-2-the-world-could-be-an-illusion/) Thought experiment - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment) Minecraft - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft) Śūnyatā (emptiness) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81) Mahayana - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana) The Ten Levels of the Bodhisattva - BuddhaJourney.net (https://buddhajourney.net/the-ten-levels-of-the-bodhisattva/) The Matrix - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix) The Matrix: Neo sees the code (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pYyzolIN3I) Siddhi - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi) Kirtan (musically recited story in Indian traditions) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtan) Khenpo - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khenpo) Maras - tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com (http://tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Four_maras) Barn Owl - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_owl) Himalayas - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayas) How to start with Buddhism and meditation How to practice Buddhism - OneMindDharma.com (https://oneminddharma.com/how-to-practice-buddhism/) Letting Go: Understanding Attachment from a Buddhist Perspective - 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Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Mind%2C_Beginner's_Mind) Not Always So: Practising the True Spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki, Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/238843.Not_Always_So) Shunryū Suzuki, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunry%C5%AB_Suzuki) The Master and His Emissary - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary) Siddhartha (novel) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_(novel)) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse - Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52036.Siddhartha) The Sun of Wisdom: Teachings on the Noble Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1362979.The_Sun_of_Wisdom) Buckley's closing question Dalai Lama - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama) Bartleby (1970 film) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartleby_(1970_film)) Bartleby (1970) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrREmd4ds_w) My Dinner with Andre (1981 film) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Dinner_with_Andre) My Dinner with Andre (1981) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4lvOjiHFw0) Ghostbusters (1984 film) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters) Ghostbusters (1984) | Official Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQAljlSmjC8) Vayse Online Vayse website (https://www.vayse.co.uk/) Vayse on Twitter (https://twitter.com/vayseesyav) Vayse on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/vayseesyav/) Music From Vayse - Volume 1 by Polypores (https://vayse.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-vayse-volume-1) Vayse on Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/vayse) Vayse email: vayseinfo@gmail.com Special Guest: Roger Jayamanne.

In this profound episode, we delve into the essence of Dao De Jing's Chapter 21, exploring the elusive and mysterious nature of the Dao. Ian shares a personal experience of awakening to deep compassion, illustrating how understanding the intangibility of Dao leads to a profound realization of the insignificance of self and the importance of kindness. As we navigate the paradoxes of life and the Tao's intangible yet real presence, Ian offers wisdom on finding peace and balance by accepting emptiness, challenging societal biases towards materialism, and embracing the inherent order within the chaos of the universe.

Send us a Text Message.While sparring with Xiaoyao, the Daoist demonstrates the real application of the fabled “paralysis points” used in martial arts. As Xiaoyao recovers, the fat monk teaches him a Qi Gong practice from Chen village used to drum up the qi before a session of Taichi practice.Later they discuss savouring the Dao De Jing character by character to learn how to slowly extract the wisdom embedded in the multiple meanings each chapter contains.Finally the fat monk shows how “wordless teaching” can be employed through manipulating items in the environment.SHOW NOTES:Xiaoyao Xingzhe, the self-styled carefree pilgrim, has lived and worked all over the world, having crossed the Gobi in a decrepit jeep, lived with a solitary monk in the mountains of Korea, dined with the family of the last emperor of China, and helped police with their enquiries in Amarillo, Texas.FAN MAIL is. a new feature now available to leave feedback on episodes, love or hate them. Look for the button in the top ribbon when you click on “Episodes.”Visit the Fat Monk Website: https://thefatmonk.net/for pdfs of all recorded chapters and a few more, as well as other bits of interest on Daoism, Buddhism and Neidan, with an emphasis (but not a limitation) on pre-twentieth century authors such as Huang Yuanji and Li Daochun.If you would like to support the production costs of this podcast, you may do so at Ko-fi. Check out the wonderful Flora Carbo and her music:https://floracarbo.com/

I circle around the concept of the Dao a lot on social media, but I've never pinned down exactly what my relationship to Dao is and how significantly this connection has impacted my life and the lives of my clients. So I'm going to do my best here. I'm going to try to explain the unexplainable. On this episode, we delve into the intricacies of the spiritual practice of aligning with Dao, a subtractive journey that peels back layers of conditioning to reveal our true selves. We take a strong stance against the manipulation of spirituality often seen in modern times, as we navigate towards authenticity and self-awareness.This episode features the voice of BAM Community Member, Camden Torres. Camden's Dao is 'sensual', a word that encapsulates a plethora of emotions and experiences - the wild, the exploration, the creation, the mystery, and the awakening. Together, we explore the power of the Dao as a guide to make everyday decisions that align us closer to our authentic selves. We demonstrate the transformative power of being in touch with our senses, embracing discomfort, and unraveling the mysteries of life.Being a spiritual business mentor is not just about guiding others; it's about embodying the words that resonate with our souls. Today, we explore the transformative potential of embodying the Dao and how this practice radiates out into our lives, relationships, businesses, and communities. As we reach the end of our discussion, I invite you to explore Business Alchemist Mentorship, a 9-month journey towards cultivating a business that is driven by your Dao . Resources:My favorite translation of the Dao De Jing by C.C. Tsai (it's a comic book!)To learn more about the Dao, check out the archives:Ep. 94. DAO: Naming the Un-nameableCamden Lenore Torres is mama, a wife, an artist, a mystic and a seer. Her medicine is ancestral and earth based. She supports mothers and women (cis & trans) as they journey through the many initiations of Motherhood, Loss, and Rebirth. She facilitates her work through rites of passage journeys, ceremonies, platicas (heart to heart conversations), movement, and mentorship. Connect with Camden: Instagram Kat HoSoo Lee is a trauma-informed Spiritual Business Mentor and host of The Rooted Business Podcast. She uses the tools of somatic and emotional alchemy to guide soulful entrepreneurs to approach their business as a spiritual practice. This allows them to cultivate businesses that are rooted in conscious values, ethical marketing and purposeful service.Connect with Kat: Book a Free Connection Call Business Alchemist Mentorship Instagram This podcast is made possible with sound production by Andre Lagace.Original music by Mayan Kites

Our guest this week is a man of multiple dimensions. First off, Ron Brent is a friend of Duff and Joey. He lives just down the road in Woodstock. But let's back up about fifty years. In the 1970s, Ron was living in California, surfing, doing yoga, and meditating. The next thing he knew, he was in Ganeshpuri India, where, for 12 years, 1982-1994, he managed one of the country's largest yoga and meditation training facilities. During that time, he helped establish the PRASAD project, a rural development program bringing literacy, safe drinking water, economic development, and eye camps for cataract surgery to villagers living in the vicinity of Ganeshpuri. After returning to the US, he spent nine years on the global board of directors of PRASAD. He's currently on the Board of Directors for PRASAD's Children's Dental Health Program. But that's not all. Ron was co-founder of Asia Arts and Culture, a former company dedicated to bridging the cultural divide between China and the West. Wapner and Brent Books, the publishing arm of Asia Arts & Culture, recently published Laozi's Dao De Jing, translated by Yang Peng, a visiting scholar at Harvard. Ron served as Yang Peng's editor. He has produced documentary films shot in India, Nepal, Tibet, Turkey, and Egypt. Among his current projects: the development of the Shaolin Zen Center of New York, a retreat site for the teaching of Shaolin Culture (meditation and Kung Fu) as well as the production of a documentary film on the development and spread of Chan Buddhism.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ideas Matter discusses its first non-Western text: the Dao De Jing by Lao Tzu. Daoism is one of the three major religions/philosophies in China, alongside Confucianism and Buddhism. Unlike most other cultures however, these religions are not mutually exclusive. Confucianism is deeply informed by Daoist cosmology, which was in turn informed by the introduction of Buddhism into China from India. The result is a fascinatingly rich and complicated philosophical school of thought with huge contemporary resonance. In this episode we primarily discuss the ideas of 'the Way' (Dao 道) and 'effortless action' (Wu Wei 无为). Please remember to rate the show so that more people can discover Ideas Matter. Stay updated by following the show on Instagram @ideasmatterpod or reach out via email: ideasmatterpod@gmail.com

(specifically the Dao De Jing)

Concluding our discussion of the Daodejing with guest Theo Brooks. We cover some more ambiguous cosmological passages and return to political philosophy.  Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors: Get 3 months VPN free at ExpressVPN.com/pel. Check out the Hermitix podcast at hermitix.net.

For our second full discussion on the Daodejing by Laozi, we talk about the actions and attitudes that characterize the Daoist sage. With Theo Brooks. Topics include being virtuous vs. just following rules, Daoist tranquility, achieving without trying too hard, and more. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion including a new Nightcap discussion about philosophy as self-help.  Sponsors: Get 60% off and free shipping for organic meal delivery at greenchef.com/pel60 (use code pel60). Check out The Adam Ferrara Podcast. Get your streaming or in-person ticket to our April 15 live show at partiallyexaminedlife.com/live.

Continuing on the central Daoist text with guest Theodore Brooks. We explore practical vs. metaphysical interpretations of the Dao, the relation of things to their opposites, emptiness, and "straw dogs." Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsors: Check out the Continuing the Conversation web series by St. John's College at sjc.edu. Subscribe to the Brain in a Vat podcast.

On the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) by Laozi (ca. 500 BCE), with guest Theodore Brooks. We talk about the wildly different, interpretive translations of this foundational Daoist (Taoist) text, its political views, and what the Dao might actually be. Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion. Sponsor: Check out the Continuing the Conversation web series by St. John's College at sjc.edu. Buy tickets to attend or live-stream our discussion of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov in NYC on April 15.

Mark, Wes, and Seth anticipate our Dao De Jing and Dostoevsky recordings and talk about Russian literature. In the full episode, we also talk about covering Hebrew ethics, and, of course, Chat f-ing GPT. If you're not hearing the full version of this part of the discussion, sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.  

Twitter - https://twitter.com/CritoGlaucon How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world - Anne Frank We venture into the world of Stoicism in this first episode of four in a mini-Stoicism series. We begin with the story of Zeno of Citium, one of the first Stoics. We then touch on Chrysippus and his many contributions, before discussing Epictetus' Enchiridion at length. The Stoic handbook, like the Dhammapada or Dao De Jing, begin to form a new way of looking at things. A perspective that proponents of Stoicism have developed to live more in accordance with the present moment. Some of today's topics include free will, the opinions of others, worldly pleasures, and temperance. From here, we will begin discussing Seneca, his life, and his works, as well as with Marcus Aurelius. As we go into Roman Stoicism, the foundation remains the same, but the application varies slightly and it becomes a more refined and adopted philosophy, and shows appreciation and traces to its Greek roots throughout. Always feel free to let us know what you think, or if you have any episode requests. We would love to hear from you in the comments or on Twitter! Thank you for listening and as always we'll see you next time as we search for truth on the road that never ends!

Get the full text, audiobook, infographic and animated book summary on StoryShots: https://www.getstoryshots.comOrder the full book here or get the audiobook for free to learn the juicy details.StoryShots Summary and Review of Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi - Lao Tse)IntroductionDo you wish you were better at dealing with the obstacles and frustrations of life? Do you long to find that healthy balance between productive work and self-care for your well-being? Help may be at hand from the ancient Chinese teachings in the Tao Te Ching.Promising to teach us how to use integrity, here we have 81 chapters of claimed wisdom on navigating life. To fully understand the main takeaways from the Tao Te Ching, we need to read with an open mind. The book has been translated into many languages, but the original text is hard to translate word by word. It has been highly influential and could teach us a lot about living well.Key lessons we can take from Tao Te Ching include how to respond constructively to our faults and mistakes, how to cope with obstacles in our way, and how to use competition with others as an opportunity for fruitful interactions that benefit everyone involved. Lao Tzu promises to teach us the art of living well, sharing his ideal of how a ‘master' of life should think and behave. He uses the term 'master' in its masculine form, but the teachings apply to everyone, male or female. Here are the most significant takeaways from Tao Te Ching. Tag us on social media and let us know which ones you agree or disagree with.The History of Lao TzuLao Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer, most noted for writing the Tao Te Ching. Lao Tzu founded Taoism, a life philosophy that advocates humility and religious piety. Despite his role in Chinese beliefs, Lao Tzu remains a vague historical being. There is very limited information on his existence.Lao Tzu was given the name Laozi, meaning the wise one or 'old, venerable master'. The wisdom is well represented in his work, the Tao Te Ching. Written over two thousand years ago, it is a guide that remains relevant for all of us in our journeys of self-discovery. Lao introduced simple concepts as the greatest treasures in life.StoryShot #1: We Can Apply the Principles of Simplicity, Patience, and Compassion in Our LivesLife can be complicated, but simplicity, patience, and compassion allow us to reset our distracted minds. Simplicity, patience, and compassion encourage us to do the following:Be patient with others and the environmentBe compassionate to ourselvesFeel empowered to maneuver all life hurdles with easeStoryShot #2: The Concept of Tao Is Our Guide‘Tao' translates as the channel, path, or way and also represents a system of morality. Tao represents both the source of all things and their ideal state. Lao Tzu claims that because we have free will, we can easily deviate from this natural way of being, but we can also return to that state of harmony again. A master insists on the virtue and power of attunement with the Tao and strives to live in line with nature.“The Tao produces (all things) and nourishes them; it producesthem and does not claim...

In this episode, Jun recounts her journey from growing up in China and learning Chinese medicine, to moving to the USA to study anthropology, to arriving here at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Jun starts the conversation by reciting Lao Tsu's poetry from the Dao De Jing, and continues to share her holistic approaches to wellbeing through the Chinese wisdom traditions. Jun discusses the fundamental interconnection of Chinese medicine and Daoist philosophy, and the practices of inner alchemy and cultivating Qi, highlighting her special connection to the music of the guqin, the ancient Chinese stringed instrument. Dr. Jun Wang, Research Fellow and core faculty of East-West Psychology Department at CIIS, holds a Bachelor of Chinese Medicine from the Capital University of Medical Science, Beijing, and a PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Wang came to CIIS following several years as a licensed acupuncturist in the state of North Carolina and core faculty member at the Integrative Medical Program, School of Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill, and later at the Institute for Holistic Health Studies at San Francisco State University. Formerly Director of the Doctorate in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM) program of ACTCM at CIIS and president of the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences in Oakland, California, Dr. Wang has authored and co-authored a number of journal articles and books, including Cultivating Qi: An Introduction to Chinese Body-Mind Energetics(North Atlantic, 2011), and a book chapter, "Chinese Medicine: Health and Balance for the Whole Person" in Science and Religion: One World, Many Possibilities (Routledge, 2014). Dr. Wang's teaching and research interests include multidisciplinary research on traditional Chinese medicine; East Asian philosophies and psychology; Chinese body-mind energetic healing systems. She is the co-Chair of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) Research Group (since 2015), conducting several Asian community-based collaborative health research projects. Connect with EWP: Website Youtube Facebook Hosted by Stephen Julich (EWP adjunct faculty, program manager) and Jonathan Kay (PhD student, EWP assistant) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this episode, Jun recounts her journey from growing up in China and learning Chinese medicine, to moving to the USA to study anthropology, to arriving here at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Jun starts the conversation by reciting Lao Tsu's poetry from the Dao De Jing, and continues to share her holistic approaches to wellbeing through the Chinese wisdom traditions. Jun discusses the fundamental interconnection of Chinese medicine and Daoist philosophy, and the practices of inner alchemy and cultivating Qi, highlighting her special connection to the music of the guqin, the ancient Chinese stringed instrument. Dr. Jun Wang, Research Fellow and core faculty of East-West Psychology Department at CIIS, holds a Bachelor of Chinese Medicine from the Capital University of Medical Science, Beijing, and a PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Wang came to CIIS following several years as a licensed acupuncturist in the state of North Carolina and core faculty member at the Integrative Medical Program, School of Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill, and later at the Institute for Holistic Health Studies at San Francisco State University. Formerly Director of the Doctorate in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM) program of ACTCM at CIIS and president of the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences in Oakland, California, Dr. Wang has authored and co-authored a number of journal articles and books, including Cultivating Qi: An Introduction to Chinese Body-Mind Energetics(North Atlantic, 2011), and a book chapter, "Chinese Medicine: Health and Balance for the Whole Person" in Science and Religion: One World, Many Possibilities (Routledge, 2014). Dr. Wang's teaching and research interests include multidisciplinary research on traditional Chinese medicine; East Asian philosophies and psychology; Chinese body-mind energetic healing systems. She is the co-Chair of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) Research Group (since 2015), conducting several Asian community-based collaborative health research projects. Connect with EWP: Website Youtube Facebook Hosted by Stephen Julich (EWP adjunct faculty, program manager) and Jonathan Kay (PhD student, EWP assistant) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Jun recounts her journey from growing up in China and learning Chinese medicine, to moving to the USA to study anthropology, to arriving here at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Jun starts the conversation by reciting Lao Tsu's poetry from the Dao De Jing, and continues to share her holistic approaches to wellbeing through the Chinese wisdom traditions. Jun discusses the fundamental interconnection of Chinese medicine and Daoist philosophy, and the practices of inner alchemy and cultivating Qi, highlighting her special connection to the music of the guqin, the ancient Chinese stringed instrument. Dr. Jun Wang, Research Fellow and core faculty of East-West Psychology Department at CIIS, holds a Bachelor of Chinese Medicine from the Capital University of Medical Science, Beijing, and a PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Wang came to CIIS following several years as a licensed acupuncturist in the state of North Carolina and core faculty member at the Integrative Medical Program, School of Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill, and later at the Institute for Holistic Health Studies at San Francisco State University. Formerly Director of the Doctorate in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM) program of ACTCM at CIIS and president of the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences in Oakland, California, Dr. Wang has authored and co-authored a number of journal articles and books, including Cultivating Qi: An Introduction to Chinese Body-Mind Energetics(North Atlantic, 2011), and a book chapter, "Chinese Medicine: Health and Balance for the Whole Person" in Science and Religion: One World, Many Possibilities (Routledge, 2014). Dr. Wang's teaching and research interests include multidisciplinary research on traditional Chinese medicine; East Asian philosophies and psychology; Chinese body-mind energetic healing systems. She is the co-Chair of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) Research Group (since 2015), conducting several Asian community-based collaborative health research projects. Connect with EWP: Website Youtube Facebook Hosted by Stephen Julich (EWP adjunct faculty, program manager) and Jonathan Kay (PhD student, EWP assistant) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

I share a Dao De Jing moment story. Have you ever danced with the Dao? What is it like to host a dragon? Where do troubles come from? Does your body symbolize something else?

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else – Arthur Schopenhauer In this episode we discuss Lao Zi, an ancient Chinese philosopher, and the Dao De Jing, a combined literary work of 5,000 characters comprising 81 chapters or poems. We also note the meaning within the naming of “Dao De Jing,” as well as possible origins of the book. Our discussion looks at five chapters within the Dao De Jing and demonstrates their applicability today and their instructiveness for tomorrow. Topics covered include environmentalism, virtue, universal values, the search for the Dao, and the interesting similarities Daoist thought has with Socratic and Platonic thought. As you will notice, the Dao De Jing is a book of complex simplicity and a work that forces introspection, reflection, and pursuit of the Dao. We hope you enjoy this discussion and that it inspires you to look at this influential and accessible text. Our next episodes will also begin to take a deeper look at Eastern Philosophy before moving into Renaissance thinking and more modern Philosophical ideas and works. Always feel free to let us know what you think, or if you have any episode requests. We would love to hear from you in the comments! Thank you for listening and as always we'll see you next time as we search for truth on the road that never ends!

Today I welcome philosopher and teacher Keith Maggie Brown. Keith “Maggie” Brown is a Denton-based poet-philosopher, spiritual counselor, and mind-walker. Besides their academic co-publications and intermittent podcasting, Maggie creates aphorisms to encourage their friends on the way to self-actualization. They have directed a few conferences at the University of North Texas in Denton since 1998: the North Texas Heidegger Symposium; Process Studies in Pedagogy; and the UNT Comics, Graphic Novel, and Serial Arts Studies Workshop. Besides being a lifetime member of the Karl Jaspers Society of North America, they also are a member in good standing with other philosophy groups like the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy as well as the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences.  Along with mentoring youth who want to practice philosophizing as a way of life, Maggie works to make ancient texts more accessible for 21st-century readers. Among his collaborations are a translation of the Dao De Jing with Prof. LU Wenlong of Dalian University and Greek Natural Philosophy: The Presocratics and Their Importance for Environmental Philosophy with Profs. J. Baird Callicott and John van Buren.   After completing their M.A. in Philosphy (2016), they now are close to completing their dissertation for the Ph.D. at UNT-Denton: “Untying the [K]nots that Bind: Existential Elucidation and the Transgressive Life.” Maggie's work focuses on queering academic research and weirding professional philosophy. 

Today I welcome philosopher and teacher Keith Maggie Brown. Keith “Maggie” Brown is a Denton-based poet-philosopher, spiritual counselor, and mind-walker. Besides their academic co-publications and intermittent podcasting, Maggie creates aphorisms to encourage their friends on the way to self-actualization. They have directed a few conferences at the University of North Texas in Denton since 1998: the North Texas Heidegger Symposium; Process Studies in Pedagogy; and the UNT Comics, Graphic Novel, and Serial Arts Studies Workshop. Besides being a lifetime member of the Karl Jaspers Society of North America, they also are a member in good standing with other philosophy groups like the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy as well as the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences.  Along with mentoring youth who want to practice philosophizing as a way of life, Maggie works to make ancient texts more accessible for 21st-century readers. Among his collaborations are a translation of the Dao De Jing with Prof. LU Wenlong of Dalian University and Greek Natural Philosophy: The Presocratics and Their Importance for Environmental Philosophy with Profs. J. Baird Callicott and John van Buren.   After completing their M.A. in Philosphy (2016), they now are close to completing their dissertation for the Ph.D. at UNT-Denton: “Untying the [K]nots that Bind: Existential Elucidation and the Transgressive Life.” Maggie's work focuses on queering academic research and weirding professional philosophy. 

If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul, and get to know a man, don't bother analyzing his ways of being silent or of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas. You will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man – Fyodor Dostoevsky In this episode we discuss Plato's Phaedo, one of his most notable works. In this episode, we lay out the four arguments Socrates puts forth before he dies. The first is the Cyclical Argument, then the Theory of Recollection Argument, then the Affinity Argument, and finally the Argument from Form of Life. We also describe, as it is presented in the book, Socrates in his final moments. We assess the strength and weaknesses of these arguments and examine them for additional context and value that could shed more light on the truth. We also address the soul and afterlife generally. This is an introduction to our next episode which re-examines an Eastern Philosophical text, the Dao De Jing. Also importantly, this episode will conclude, for a while, our episodes focused on Plato and Socrates. We will return to them in the future, but for now, we want to take their ideas and examine their evolution and applicability over time. Always feel free to let us know what you think, or if you have any episode requests. We would love to hear from you! Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time as we search for truth on the road that never ends!

Meditations on chapter 7 of the Dao De Jing: completing the self by being no-self.

This was very enlightening. John Ford and I were able to talk about the Dao De Jing and bring forth some of its principles. In the context of social polarization John was able to note the continued opportunity for us to see Wuji in the face of division. It was great to bring this idea to the listenership and I hope to present more episodes like this in the future. I will share some great links to find more of John's work. I highly recommend the empathy set!! https://www.empathyset.com https://www.johnford.com

Hophan and Mir discuss their weekly happenings and news along with Tuan's reaction to watching Minari. Book Recs: A Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins, Dao De Jing by Laozi (+ bonus recs in the episode) Movie Rec: The Mitchells vs. The Machines Let us know what topics you want us to cover you can email us @ teacheravenuepod@gmail.com, you can also follow us on Instagram @teacheravenuepod Articles/Resources- https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/india-posts-record-daily-rise-covid-19-cases-401993-2021-05-01/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CON0prdh7VW/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/teacheravenuepod/support