XPost: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.philosophy.taoism, alt.philosophy.zen   
   From: wudao@wuji.net   
      
   Julian wrote:   
   > Tang wrote of immortality:   
   >>   
   >> ... ... ...  Don't laugh.   
   >   
   >I'm not laughing. I'm pretty sure I'd soon be bored   
   >to tears were there no death or sickness which,   
   >while gruesome, do add a certain urgency/spice/motivation   
   >to life.   
      
   The Chuang-tzu has a few passages that go on a bit about how.   
      
   " ... Therefore I say, the Perfect Man has no self;   
   the Holy Man has no merit; the Sage has no fame. ... "   
      
   ' ... Wang Ni replied, "The Perfect Man is godlike. Though the great   
   swamps blaze, they cannot burn him; though the great rivers freeze,   
   they cannot chill him; though swift lightning splits the hills and   
   howling gales shake the sea, they cannot frighten him. A man like this   
   rides the clouds and mist, straddles the sun and moon, and wanders   
   beyond the four seas. Even life and death have no effect on him, much   
   less the rules of profit and loss!" ... '   
      
   " ...  I'm going to try speaking some reckless words and I want you to   
   listen to them recklessly. How will that be? The sage leans on the sun   
   and moon, tucks the universe under his arm, merges himself with   
   things, leaves the confusion and muddle as it is, and looks on slaves   
   as exalted. Ordinary men strain and struggle; the sage is stupid and   
   blockish. He takes part in ten thousand ages and achieves simplicity   
   in oneness. For him, all the ten thousand things are what they are,   
   and thus they enfold each other. ... "   
      
   I find that without spice, some things are nice, and yet,   
   it can be even nicer when there is a some motivation motivating me.   
      
   What actually does motivate me varies.   
      
   Without any waves, a surf-board is of little use for surfing.   
   It might make a good enough table for a spell.   
   In which case it could be called that.   
      
   The folks who want to upload their memories   
   could be said to have yet to access the Akashic Record,   
   aka, the Book of Life, assuming such a skein exists in some   
   dimension yet to be proven by the folks who want to reinvent   
   the wheels of karma, reincarnation, and how to see   
   samsara and nirvana as being the same thing.   
      
   As the One who exists within each set of eyes and ears,   
   you already have forgotten much of what you were   
   when you faced the face you now have as you   
   are in your present form of being a being   
   that is other than Being as a whole.   
      
   When there is no sickness or death, it can be fine   
   simply to be, to exist, in the present for a spell.   
      
   The spell fades as the mornings mornings' dew.   
   As people enter and exit the stages of life's dreams   
   complete with all their dramas unfolding   
   they become involved for a spell.   
      
   Some of them evolve, flower, or mushroom   
   as the fields of consciousness are known to grow   
   individuals within their fields. Until they return.   
      
   - for another spell, folding and unfolding   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)