XPost: alt.philosophy.taoism, alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.philosophy.zen   
   From: invalid@invalid.invalid   
      
   Tang Huyen  wrote:   
   > On 9/9/2016 6:36 AM, {:-]))) wrote:   
   >   
   >> If someone asserts, Tao is Wu, someone else may ask how that's known.   
   >> I might quote the TTC and suggest some passage or other.   
   >> Someone else may ignore that and dismiss it as not counting.   
   >   
   > Not counting is a big commonplace in theology,   
   > specially Islam, where Allah is beyond accounting.   
      
   That's part of the trick with Christianity, where God is beyond accounting,   
   and Jesus will forgive all your sins if you give him your soul as   
   bribe-money.  Maybe it's like the Swede who named God, the Pharoah asked if   
   he served Ra, and he said, "Jah."   
      
   >   
   > Less rarefied theory and practice in many religions   
   > take not counting as the gateway to salvation, or at   
   > least peace and tranquillity, as all offences are   
   > forgiven and let go of, and no longer accounted for,   
   > as if they had never occurred.   
      
   Try that with the judicial system near you and see how it works out.   
      
   > In less dense   
   > language, dropping is favoured and accumulation   
   > is no longer in fashion. Piling up is not recommended.   
      
   If you own shit, you have to carry it around with you.   
      
   > One empties one's mind of all grudges, all concepts   
   > and frameworks (all of which are results in various   
   > forms of accounting), and ultimately of one's self or   
   > "I", which is the biggest and baddest account of all.   
      
   You do at times take silliness to an extreme.   
      
   >   
   > If I may say so,   
      
   Quite silly in the extreme, for one so arrogant that he must on behalf of   
   others give himself permission to speak.   
      
   > Daoism and Buddhism are summed   
   > up in not counting. Stoicism famously advocates   
   > not counting when it says of God: "What kind of life   
   > will a wise man have if he is abandoned by his friends   
   > and hurled into prison or isolated in some foreign   
   > country or detained on a long voyage or cast out   
   > onto a desert shore?   
      
   Ask about a man's life then draw conclusions about his circumstances,   
   that's what schools seem to have been teaching, maybe it's the "new math"   
   approach.   
      
   > It will be like the life of Zeus, at   
   > the time when the world is dissolved and the gods   
   > have been blended together into one, when nature   
   > comes to a stop for a while; he reposes in himself   
   > given over to his thoughts.   
      
   Another day in paradise.   
      
   > The wise man's behaviour   
   > is just like this: he retires into himself, and is with   
   > himself."   
      
   And that's exactly why you post quotations instead of understandings.   
   Don't tell Kim that I said something sarcastic, oh please, anything but   
   that.   
      
   > A. A. Long and D. N. Sedley, The Hellenistic   
   > Philosophers, Cambridge: Cambridge University   
   > Press, 1987, I, 277, item O, from Seneca, Letter 9.16   
   > (SVF 2. 1065), text on II, 276: "qualis tamen futura   
   > est vita sapientis, si sine amicis relinquatur in   
   > custodiam coniectus vel in aliqua gente aliena   
   > destitutus vel in navigatione longa retentus aut in   
   > desertum litus eiectus? qualis est Iovis, cum resoluto   
   > mundo et dis in unum confusis paulisper cessante   
   > natura acquiescit sibi cogitationibus suis traditus.   
   > tale quiddam sapiens facit: in se reconditur, secum   
   > est."   
      
   Look at you, you've burned up those seconds forever, and to what end?   
      
   >   
   > Is it the case that the Stoic God (Zeus) just sits there   
   > and eats up all scenery like a bad and grumpy actor   
   > who has lost his plot? No, he represents symbolically   
   > the most blissful state of all sentient beings, in that   
   > he does not bother to take anything into account.   
      
   Gods and outlaws are free to do fuckever they choose, just like the people   
   who pretend that they don't.   
      
   > The wise man's behaviour is just like this: he retires   
   > into himself, and is with himself. He is the Ding an   
   > sich, or, as Brian says: "Singularity would come   
   > closest, in the sense of 'only this'." Wholly bald, with   
   > no frills. Full stop. Boom, that's all.   
   >   
   > Tang Huyen   
   >   
      
   Wholly bald is a gift I can only aspire to while cutting my hair.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)