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Re: CHAT illuminati (was: Back again)

From:J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
Date:Friday, September 12, 2003, 15:31
In a message dated 2003:09:12 01:53:47 AM, elemtilas@YAHOO.COM writes:

>--- J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...> wrote: > >> I think that it's unfortunate that >> bamboogrove.com choose the words >> "hedonistic escape" ... that's not accurate >> from either a Taoist or a historical >> viewpoint. > >I should think not! I don't know much about >Taoism, but "hedonism" isn't what comes to mind.
Yepyep, hedonism is an extreme of selfish indulgence much like asceticism is its opposite, opposing ex- treme of self-mortification. Taoist - and Buddhists - ideally prefer whole- ness and balance.
>> Most of the Sages were either exiled >> or self-exiled... and, as >> Taoists, they took the attitude of "shit >> happens... might as well enjoy nature to >> the hilt out here in the backwaters since we >> have nothing better to do - Oh!, >> there's _nothing_ better than appreciating >> nature and the Music of Nature...ah, >> the usefulness of being supposedly useless... >> gotta write poems about all of >> this... play music on the _qin_/_ch'in_ [5 or 7 >> string fretless long-board >> zither] contemplatively imitatin' nature >> sounds... brew wine... etc." > >Sounds like a plan! :)
I prefer coffee or tea, but otherwise IMHO it would be really fantastic to hike, chat, picnic, play music, lounge around, nap, etc. amongst a rather sizable number of you on this list :) The more the merrier... just as long as ya peeps are capable of being better listeners & witty observers than Babelers ;) --- º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º º°`°º ø,¸~-> Hanuman Zhang, _Gomi no sensei_ [Master of junk] http://www.boheme-magazine.net "To live is to scrounge, taking what you can in order to survive. So, since living is scrounging, the result of our efforts is to amass a pile of rubbish." - Chuang Tzu/Zhuangzi, China, 4th Century BCE "The most beautiful order is a heap of sweepings piled up at random." - Heraclitus, Greece, 5th Century BCE "...So what is life for? Life is for beauty and substance and sound and colour; and even those are often forbidden by law [socio-cultural conventions]. . . . Why not be free and live your own life? Why follow other people's rules and live to please others?..." ~Lieh-Tzu/Liezi, Taoist Sage (c. 450- c. 375 BCE) Ars imitatur Naturam in sua operatione. [Latin > "Art is the imitation of Nature in her manner of operation."] "jinsei to iu mono wa, kichou na geijyutsu to ieru deshou" [Japanese > "one can probably say that 'life' is a precious artform"]