Is God Bored Watching Us Live Our Perfect Lives?

[wuliheron]

Soon there will be pills that will let us unleash 8000 gods within us. And the power will be unlimited!

The power is called "Chi" and according to legends if you cultivate enough power you become immortal and even capable of flying. The earliest legends of enlightened beings say they couldn't be killed in battle, they were too spontaneous, and they had the most serene smile on their face as the chopped your head off. Not a sadistic smile, just someone totally at peace with what they had to do in the moment. Think David Carradine's "Kung Fu" and you get the idea. Masters of disguise these people are said to still wander among us to this day.

 

[Willowz]

The power is called "Chi" and according to legends if you cultivate enough power you become immortal and even capable of flying. The earliest legends of enlightened beings say they couldn't be killed in battle, they were too spontaneous, and they had the most serene smile on their face as the chopped your head off. Not a sadistic smile, just someone totally at peace with what they had to do in the moment. Think David Carradine's "Kung Fu" and you get the idea. Masters of disguise these people are said to still wander among us to this day.

Scary stuff... I think I'll stick with Watts sensible serenity.

 

[wuliheron]

Scary stuff... I think I'll stick with Watts sensible serenity.

Yeah, Star Wars is often used as an example of Taoism too. However, Forest Gump and Peter Sellers' "Being There" are even more classic examples. The idea is that it isn't really your power, but the power of the universe flowing through you and surrender/acceptance is the only way to keep it flowing.

 

[Willowz]

Yeah, Star Wars is often used as an example of Taoism too. However, Forest Gump and Peter Sellers' "Being There" are even more classic examples. The idea is that it isn't really your power, but the power of the universe flowing through you and surrender/acceptance is the only way to keep it flowing.

That seems like trivialising it a bit? How should a westerner understand Taoism or whatnot?

 

[wuliheron]

That seems like trivialising it a bit? How should a westerner understand Taoism or whatnot?

Unlike a lot of western religions and philosophies Taoists love to make fun of themselves, so trivializing Taoism is perfectly acceptable. They especially appreciate a very subtle tongue in cheek sense of humor that offends no one and can be easy is miss altogether. They can even view everything as having a humorous side include God, religious dogma, or a physics textbook.

That's actually a good example of how Asian philosophies tend to differ in general. They stress attitude and affect as much as logic, metaphysics, and epistemology. Hence the emphasis on meditation where the idea is to clear your mind and become more spontaneous. To many westerners they resemble psychologies more then philosophies or religions, but they really are at heart philosophies and religions. Just very different ones in ways that are hard to explain because the differences are as much emotional as rational and to a Taoist the idea of having one without the other is a contradiction.