Flannel <flannel at mindless.com> wrote in article
> >Although it was a joke and all it would be tantamount to agnostic
> >herecy to go after me for it. Hehe.
>> Darn the technicallities!!!!
Well the law is the law... hang on, I don't believe in the substance of any
law...
Oh jeez... <Okamura runs aways>
> <snip>
> >The second major book of Taoism, "The Chuang-tzu" (or Zhuang-zi) is my
> >favourite. It is genuinely poetic (with some of the more elaborate
> >metaphors I have ever seen) and much much longer than the TTC. I
> >enjoyed reading parts of it and realised that some of my attitudes
> >(esp. re: morality, illusion of reality, not take life too seriously
> >and accept nothing as written in stone etc.). I wrote an essay as part
> >of a course at Uni and basically aced it, which is good as it was
> >stuff I actually believed and all :)
> >
> >If you want a link, Okamura can provide. Here is probably one of the
> >cuter lines from it:
>> A link would be appreciated greatly.
I can as soon as I get home, but first I have to go to a job interview (for
a job flipping burgers nonetheless).
> >"Once upon a time, I, Zhuang Zhou, dreamt I was a butterfly,
> >fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a
> >butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly,
> >unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably
> >myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I
> >was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a
> >man."
>>> After a while, alot of stuff just starts blending together in my head
> and starts getting put in the wrong folders. I've seen that excerpt
> numerous times and have always associated it with Zen. It would never
> have occurred to me to associate it with taoism. Don't know why.
They are similar in many ways. Although I reckon Zen is dogmatic whereas
Taoism is more logical (I would say that now wouldn't I).
Okamura's special fact: Zen is the Japanese for of Ch'an Buddhism. They are
pretty much identical. However Ch'an Buddhism first developed in China
(after it arrived Buddhism arrived in China) discarding a lot of the
tradition of previous forms of Buddhism and introducing a distinct Chinese
element to it.
One of the chief influences is ta-da Taoism.
Zen/Ch'an has quite a few cool lines too.
> <snip>
>> >"...and Flannel, at the age of 80 after a long cosideration suddenly
> >came to the conclusion, 'I EXIST!!".
>> Flannel's famous last words, "Eureka!"
With his final thought he discovers irony, by losing his existence upon
finding it.
> <snip>
>> >What you should answer then is "I am a Gennuralistic". It eliminates
> >the chance of the less intelligent response and prevents
> >preconceptions.
>> That sounds very logical and effective. However, the problem is that
> I really, really, really enjoy saying, "I am an agnostic." I find the
> sound of it, aethestically (I know I mispelled that one very brutally)
> pleasing.
I used to butcher spelling agnsotic, I mean I always wrote that I was an
agnsotic... Darn did it again! Well things haven't changed much now have
they.
Okamura
