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Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
The Tao Te Ching is a means of hacking reality by use of paradox...— September 23, 2009 2:22 a.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
I am ignoring knowledge that I am ignoring knowledge, that I may cease to ignore knowledge...— September 23, 2009 2:17 a.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
The difficult is born in the easy. Everything is easy, remember that...— September 23, 2009 2:11 a.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
There is no organization, its just me... My seeking to bring the unconscious to conscious centers around emphasizing the true value of Tijuana, not as economic giant or anything, but as a center of freedom. Tijuana was built on the money of Americans fleeing the American kind of freedom, people trying to save you from yourself. The bumper stickers being affirmations to cause people to become aware of the freedom they have and give to their neighbors. Not to get them to do anything they don't already do, just be conscious of it. Thereby making it harder to remove...— September 22, 2009 11:04 p.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
The fact is that since it took in 1962, eleven hours for a message to get to either Washington DC or Havana from Moscow, Khrushchev had pre-authorized the commander of his troops (which we didn't know were there) that if Kennedy invaded Cuba to just start launching missiles at the US. Its a foregone conclusion that it would have snowballed from there. Being 57, I lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis. My mom was coming apart emotionally since my dad was on a business trip. We were literally one decision away from the end of man on earth... That you have trouble with someone having a sense of purpose, I can understand. One cultural weakness of America is that everyone is watching the country go down the drain and the most they can do is believe that one man that they support in an election is going to turn things around. But as the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been saying, with not a word from the American press, Obama is continuing the Bush policy on warrantless wiretaps and data mining. But as someone from Mother England once said, "Here comes the new boss, just like the old boss"...— September 22, 2009 8:58 p.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
SDaniels: American heritage has for the most part been forgotten. This is no more made plain than of the abandoning by the Bush Administration of philosophy of state by the likes of Abraham Lincoln, who said that no leader should ever be authorized to invade another nation purely on the speculation that the other nation will attack. If Lincoln has acted as Bush did, Fort Sumter would not have been the stress provoking situation it was for Lincoln, causing him to pass out at times. But it was important for Lincoln to maintain the high moral ground, to fulfill his inaugural promise to not be the aggressor. That we are talking here today is the direct result of John Kennedy taking such a stressful situation on his shoulders and not going with his counsel's advice to invade Cuba. Earth would still be glowing... So that is just one example for the many that America now has little in common with its heritage... The Tao Te Ching names something between an office and a calling, which is my handle, El Sabio, in English "The Sage". Theoretically, anyone can be a Sage, but few choose to be so. Am I qualified? Let's just say that you tend to hit what you aim at. Concerning duality, the Tao Te Ching says of the Sage: "Under Heaven, all can see beauty as beauty, only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good, only because there is evil. Being and non-being produce each other. The difficult is born in the easy. Long is defined by short, the high by the low. Before and after go along with each other. So the Sage lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity. The Sage can live without effort and teach without words, nurturing things without possessing them. He works, but not for rewards, he competes, but not for results. When the work is done, it is forgotten, that is why it lasts forever"... Tao Te Ching, verse 2 I refer to myself as a quantum mechanic. I am not limited to the abilities of my body, or my mind. My strength and abilities come from my connection to source. Its not so much from what I do, but what I do not do, intentionally don't do... "The Sage does not attempt anything very big and thus achieves greatness"... Tao Te Ching Gandhi, who was a Sage, used seemingly stupid little things to defeat the British. Make his own cloth, collect his own salt. My simple weapon is color and bumper stickers with positive memes...— September 22, 2009 8:23 p.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
SDaniels: America is, like Mother England, of low consciousness. This is typified by out of control fear, bootstrapped by the American press. I am not concerned so much about America, since according to the Tao Te Ching, it is about to cease to exist. I would like to help Mexico not be sucked down as the American ship of state sinks. When I say that Mexico or more specifically Tijuana do the things of the Tao unconsciously, it is my dharma to facilitate their doing those things with awareness, with consciousness. The city motto of Tijuana is: Aqui Empieza La Patria (Here Begins the Fatherland). I take that seriously. All cultures have strengths and weaknesses. Show me a man who doesn't believe so and I will show you a racist. The main weakness of America is that it believes that it should be able to live high on the hog on the rest of the world's dime. To take more than its share of natural resources. I will refrain from a rant on how corporations like Monsanto are trying to control the world by controlling food with GMO's. That is just one example from the myriad I could talk about. Mexico's future depends on Tijuana taking its city motto as its responsibility, to protect and identify with its rich culture before the corporate culture is full blown throughout the land. I place that responsibility at the feet of the artists of Tijuana, who seem to be more about looking north for inspiration than to its rich roots to the south...— September 22, 2009 7:18 p.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
SDaniels: The object of the game with the Tao Te Ching is to withdraw from identification with the realm of the particulars or as Lao Tsu called it, the realm of the 10,000 things. That identification be with the nameless part of the Tao, that in a sense, since that is where we are all going anyway in the event commonly known as death, that we have the option to go there without dying. We can inhabit the mystery that gives birth to all that exists. That it can flow through us, when identification with the ego is abandoned, for identification with the higher self, which is non-local in nature. The ego is a projection and only a tool, the ego being the thoughts and feelings. The ego thinks, "I am this body and I will die", the higher self understands that it is eternal and nothing can destroy it. This shift in consciousness causes not only you to change, but also causes reality to change, dramatically. It is in this consciousness that one becomes aware that there is no us/them duality, as well as a legion of other dualities one can think of. One ceases to see things as, for instance, good and evil. Those around you are seen as doing the best they can on their level of consciousness, not as good or bad. Yes, they may be doing things that are destructive to others, but it is understood that they are doing things destructive to themselves also. You understand that they will indeed learn, eventually. What will they learn? Not to identify with their ego, to identify with their higher self, which never ever worries or is in fear, but always in peace, joy, and love. A quantum physicist will tell you, that "the material world" is something like 99.999% empty space. Therefore the idea that reality is a solid environment is an illusion. Stephen Hawking said in his book, A Brief History of Time, that the only difference between what we would call energy and that we would call matter is that all particles of matter are energy particles that have a characteristic known as "double spin", which concept when explained smacks of the mystical. So the idea that there is a duality of spirit/matter is an illusion. There is no upper story and lower story, universal and particulars, it is all one.— September 22, 2009 6:53 p.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
rickeysays: I'm not say the same thing. Being a person who the last 20 years lived in the Artist Loft District of Downtown Los Angeles, I was never once approached by an undocumented Mexican and asked for spare change. But it did become boring to be asked by able bodied citizens of the US, who have a legal right to work, don't have to look over their shoulders to see if La Migra was coming, that these citizens were constantly asking for change. Mexicans in the US illegally are trabajadores, who didn't leave their hometowns and families to beg. Mexico, historically, has been open to immigrants. In example, the Moravian immigrants who came to Northern Mexico, bringing polka, which now is perhaps one of the styles most identified as being Mexican, known as Norteño, from which also was derived Banda. So folks who come to Mexico who want to truly participate in the culture are welcome. What I'm saying is that when Americans come with no intention of participating in the Mexican experiment, it is indeed a form of imperialism, transplanting culture into a walled community, where maybe the cleaning lady is a local. That causes greater poverty not only of the Mexicans, but also of the Americans, who are not understanding that they are in the midst of a much richer culture, a culture that is truly of the people and not corporate culture. So the Americans remain culturally bereft. The Americans role, for the most part in Mexico, is similar to that of the British in India, that of being above la gente sencilla. An article by Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz: http://pdbhoa.org/node/242— September 22, 2009 6:23 p.m.
Home Is Where Cheap Rent Is
You can not know it (the Tao), but you can be it, at ease in your own life. Discovering how things have always been, brings one into harmony with the Way... Tao Te Ching, verse 14 The Tao is the treasure house, the true nature, the secret source of everything. It is the treasure of the good man and the refuge of the bad. If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away, cast away his wickedness. Thus when a new leader is chosen, do not offer to help him with your wealth or your expertise. Help him to meditate on the principle, offer instead to teach him about the Tao. Why did the ancients make so much of the principle? Is it not because it is the source of what is good and the remedy for all evil? It is the most noble thing in the world... Tao Te Ching, verse 62 The thing about quantum mechanics, it has brought us full circle to the place that the universe is primarily seen as a mystery, again. But we can become conscious of the mystery, as such. We can be the mystery, embracing the wisdom of uncertainty. The possibility of an "enfolded" universe causes us to not view the "out there" with the mundane eye. But to view the mystery of the universe as being in yourself is not to turn it all into a pinche video game. It does however, bring us to the point of taking responsibility for the events in our life. The challenges that would have defeated us in the past, now stand only to reveal the miraculous... One thing that I appreciate about Tijuana is the freedom to express freely your faith. There is no better example of this, than the taxi driver who crosses himself with the money you have just given him or crosses himself as we drive past a cathedral or church. It is a private thing, this expression of faith, but so much so that no one is leaning on you to conduct your practice in secret. Nor when the taxi driver does that, there is no sense that he is evangelizing or trying to give the appearance of piety. He is just being who he is, and what you think about him and his practices is none of his business...— September 22, 2009 3:09 p.m.