To be honest, I never thought that anyone would be interested in how I got started on the Taoist path. It never seemed to be that interesting a process to me, but since I have had several queries by separate individuals asking about my own personal journey, please allow me to share my story with you, my precious fellow travelers. This was how I became a Taobabe. Let … Continue reading My First Step onto the Taoist Path
144 billion bottles of beer on the wall, 144 billion bottles of beer. Take one down and pass it around, one hundred forty-three billion nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall. I wonder how long it’s going to take to sing this song until we get to ‘one bottle of beer’. It’s an academic question, certainly, since … Continue reading 144 Billion Bottles of Beer on the Wall
Karma—the heart and soul of the idea of cause-and-effect in action—is also one of Taoism’s most basic tenets. There is no arguing its validity. Its footprint is seen in all aspects of physics and chemistry and mathematics. Newton’s third law eloquently states that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Of course, he is talking about gravity, but as the scientific community has been finding … Continue reading Karma Is so Passé
Suprahuman intelligence has from the beginning made use of three mediums of expression—men, animals, and plants, in each of which life pulsates in a different rhythm. Chance came to be utilized as a fourth medium; the very absence of an immediate meaning in chance permitted a deeper meaning to come to expression in it. The oracle was the outcome of this use of chance. The … Continue reading The Copper-Nickel Alloy Oracle
Yet another sojourn through space and time, into the vast distant reaches of the I Ching’s various interpretations and compilations. I finally got a chance to crack open the two-volume Chu-Dịch written by Phan Bội Châu, which means The I Ching, during the era of the Chu Dynasty (周朝) Chou Ch’ao. The two short words that make up the title of the book, Chu-Dịch, is deep … Continue reading Chu Dynasty I Ching
Per a request from a reader: After I posted an article which featured this song, I was asked to translate it, so I happily obliged. It also gives me the chance to tell you an ancient tale about Cô Đôi Thượng Ngàn. Cô Đôi Thượng Ngàn Ngọc Điện chốn kim môn cô ra vào Ngọc Điện chốn kim môn danh thơm ngoài cõi tiếng đồn trong í í … Continue reading Cô Đôi Thượng Ngàn
Vietnamese Women Rule. OK, so maybe not at this time, but in the past we did…kinda, sorta, in a way. Even as early as two-thousand years ago, we were a Matriarchal society. In my previous post on the Trưng sisters, I noted that not only were they twin queens of a huge geographic area, their generals were also women of great note. But they were hardly … Continue reading Ancient Việt: Matriarchy and the Female Lineage
