This is an open letter to you, Mister Thánh Gióng.
Yes YOU!
I am not sure where you are hiding and why you have been in hiding for so long, but we need you to come back out and help us with this situation that is starting to escalate out of our control. Vietnam is in big trouble, and we need your intervention.
This is an ancient struggle, one that has been orchestrated in times long ago and far away, and because it never got resolved properly, it’s reared its ugly head yet again. Since we are merely the latest incarnations to have to deal with this mess that’s been ongoing from time immemorial, we need for you to come back out from under the honeycomb depths, or somewhere in the galactic deep space, and kick some serious booty.
I know you took the time out of your busy schedule the last time we got into serious trouble to help us out (not to mention the Ha Long Bay intervention), and for that, I’m immensely grateful.
But dude…we need you again.
I am calling on you because you are one of the most revered figures in Viet history, and the people have put their faith in you.
In a time when poor Viet kids are hungry and lacking in all aspects of amenities, national resources were used lavishly to build HUGE friggin’ expensive effigies of you all over the place. There is even a national holiday to celebrate your intervention as a sign of good faith.
In short, you are one of our most beloved stewards, but man, you are falling asleep on the job. We need some divine intervention.
Like NOW!!!
Why am I calling you out on this, instead of the myriad of other famous figures in our history? The answer is simple.
You are, perhaps one of the few who are still alive.
According to the most recent mythological accounts, you never died. We know you took off on some type of a flying aircraft and was never seen again. That was an amazing feat back in those days, between 1718 and 1631 BC. But guess what…
That was fricking four-thousand years ago!
It’s not that big of a deal today. We humans fly around on our planes and whatnot, as a matter of course, in our daily lives. We’re not going to be shocked out of our depths to see you flying around on the craft of your choice. This time, I promise, you don’t have to disguise your weapon inside a bamboo rod. You can even use something more comfortable to ride on than that steel horse you rode back then. It couldn’t have been comfortable. I, for one, would love to see you emerge from one of those modular, triangular space crafts. It would make your job easier, methinks.
In fact, don’t you think it’s about time you shared some of your knowledge with us? We’re on the cusp of cracking all this open any way. Zero point energy, nanotechnology, genetic manipulation, time-stasis field–we’re all at the cusp of that event horizon where it’s within human grasp, and we’re talking single-digit years, not centuries (or even decades).
So, Mister Thánh Gióng. Please consider showing yourself again, and helping us out. Or at the very least, pull some internal hidden strings to right what’s gone horribly wrong.
The people will be eternally grateful, and we will build more effigies of you, I promise. This time though, your effigies will be more modern looking. You’ll get to wear hip clothes and wield a cool looking weapon instead of that dang blasted bamboo pole. You’ll be all over social media–Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, etc. You’d be a big hit!
You’ll be a modern-day idol, complete with your own retinue of adoring fans. The girls are gonna love you. So please. Pop back out into mainstream and make us proud. Thank you.
Taobabe
Taobabe 
Thanks Taobabe for letting us know this hero exists:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A1nh_Gi%C3%B3ng
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Taobabe,
As you say, maybe the gods teats are weary and sore, and they expect us to actually do something constructive with our new-found knowledge, besides using it only to make more money.
Unfortunately I’m an older dude and have watched many people aquire new and spectacularly powerful knowledge.
Very few of them seem to be inspired by it the way you are, to make it freely available, or use any of it to help our condititions improve.
Quite the contrary, many of them seem to use the knowledge to take advantage of the already struggling masses. Maybe the gods are folding their arms for awhile rightfully expecting us to do some of the dirty work? Atlas may not be shrugging, but he sure is taking a breather…
Allan
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Allan
I have no answer to this dilemma of unbridled greed, and I would love to be a positive influence for global dispersion of beneficial knowledge, but I don’t know how to do this. In fact, I know I was put on this Earth to do something, but for the life of me, I have no idea WHAT I’m supposed to do. I’ve only been able to observe what happens to us, and then write a few squalid commentaries on various, far-flung topics which, unfortunately, don’t seem to be able to do anything to benefit humankind.
Ergo the open letter to this dude, who everyone thinks is some kind of a god. Personally, methinks he’s either some normal Earthling time-traveler with a bunch of snazzy advanced technology, or someone from a different cosmo-zip-code who came to explore the world and just happened to get caught in the mess on the ground. But I don’t care who he is as long as he can come back with that flashy godlike powers and bedazzle humankind into a more enlightened state of being.
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Admitting you have no answer is the first step to finding the answer. Realizing what the Yijing teaches us first, that Change is the Way of the universe, and that wasting time resisting change is futile, is the Truth I find on this site…so far, you are doing a great job introducing the myriad options and viewpoints we can adopt to handle and actually embrace the escalating ‘Rate of Change’ steadily confronting us.
My advice to you is to maintain your course, ‘steady as she goes’!
P.S.: More problems with the fish, this time not in Vietnam:
http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/18/chile-red-tide/
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Hello again Taobabe,
Serious mataphysical question for you about the way you consult the I Ching.
I understand that using yarrow stalks skews the odds a bit while other methods give more ‘even’ probabilities.
What are your thoughts on the advantages / disadvantages of using skewed vs. balanced methods?
Intuitively I feel the balanced methods would be more compatible with the Taijitu symbology, but the “drawing straws” method seems more organic and provides for more gradually achieving the optimal state of contemplation, and is possibly more ancient.
Also, whether you vary your methods would be interesting to know, in addition to the reasons, if any.
Allan Collins
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In my very humble opinion (and I have thought about this to some extent), any method you choose will take you back to the source of knowledge and allow you to tap in, provided that you approach it with dignity, respect, and a certain knowledge that you are accessing your godhood.
Before I begin a I Ching reading, I usually do a little bit of meditation to get my brain into the receptive mode. Otherwise…my mind zips around and thinks of a million things, which would obfuscate and dissimulate the reading.
I wrote about it in one of my posts some years back.
https://taobabe.wordpress.com/copper-nickel-alloy-oracle/
Today, I use good ole’ US quarters for the consultation as I am too lazy to work the yarrow. 😀
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Also, thank you for your advice on the ‘steady as she goes’ comment. I think I need to address this in a future posting, as the ‘steady as she goes’ part is more important than what appears at first glance to be, non-action.
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Seems like both of us have roots that travel deeply into the water. Having liived in Boston (a seafaring town) nautical metaphors have always been able to quickly impart understanding. I believe “steady as she goes” originated in our submarine navy, where a crew would navigate visually blind using only sounds for echolocation. Or maybe it goes back further, sailing ships passing each other at night in a fog using bells, whistles and horns…or even further, when that one squiggly organism searched for the shortest route to the ovum that resulted in you and me.
The ocean is full of examples that prove it is often a fatal mistake to confuse non-action with no-action.
Sounds like an interesting post :-!
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I hear how real this is for you. It’s clear that you have brought your full head and heart to this point. I applaud the clarity of your perceptions. I acknowledge the anguish it brings.
I do not hear a challenge to the gods in what you shared. I hear more so a challenge to the god-makers. In invoking the memory of a great story of a great hero, you invoke the memory of the power to be the story that inspire heroes.
The speaker for the dead: A self-appointed calling to bear the last testament of the recent dead. [Ender’s Game Universe]
I believe in the power of the stories that survive the dead. The stories left behind to move us forward. I honor those who speak for the dead.
Be Well
Abel H.
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Hi Abel,
Thank you for your response. Indeed, it is to the god-makers that my message was meant for. In each of us, there is a direct communication line to the Tao, the Source, God, Krishna, (take your pick of the various myriad of names for the same entity). I am simply making a quick phone call. ‘Cause you know what they say about squeaky wheels.
I’m squeaking as loudly as I can.
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he’s holding a bamboo weapon?
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Wow! I did not even know that this Vietnamese hero existed. Thanks Tao Babe for teaching me so much about Vietnamese historical figures ❤
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Yes, wheels that have forgotten to turn tend to squeak when re-engaged. But that’s the mechanical part of the thing. The inner part of things anticipate the return to the function of its creation and sings. It always hurt (squeak) to behold our collective dysfunction. Mercifully, the songs the heart sing on the way home increase in beauty and light, layer after layer. Allow yourself the fuel/gift of joy.
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Mandy,
Sorry I missed your message, in all these other messages. Thank you for your interest in our people’s history. There is so much I still have to learn. 12 thousand years is a lot of history to have to try and piece together. 🙂
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Abel,
If we all squeak at the same time, the soundwave would reverberate throughout the universe and be soul piercingly deafening.
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taobabe,
I really like that image of ‘all squeaking at the same time”. Aligned with the quantum physical undercurrent flowing through many of your posts, it aroused the image of the ‘standing waves’ that exist between both mirrors of an energized LASER. Also appearing to be motionless, laser light makes repeated passes between the mirrors, accumulating power until reaching a threshold, then suddenly burst forth aligned, in step, coherent with incredible, pure power.
With the power of 10 billion butterfly sneezes we monkeys could conquer the wayward breezes:::
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Whats the name of the anime?
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