Das Taoteking in seiner epigrammatischen Kürze ist als Weisheitsbuch beinahe ebenso unerschöpflich wie das TAO , der SINN, von dem es handelt. Die starke und unmittelbare Wirkung, die es auch heute, nahezu dreitausend Jahre nach seiner Entstehung, noch auf uns hat, beruht darauf, daß Laotse seinen Erkenntnissen in ganz elementaren, ja fast archetypischen Bildern Ausdruck gibt. Dennoch verhilft uns eine genauere Kenntnis des kulturellen Hintergrundes, auf dem es entstand und wirkte, zu einem vertieften Verständnis dieses Werkes. Laotse, der berühmteste Philosoph des Taoismus, lebte im 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Über sein Leben ist wenig bekannt. Der Legende nach kam es einmal zu einem Zusammentreffen mit seinem kongenialen Zeitgenossen Kungtse (Konfuzius). Laotse stammte aus dem Dorf Hu-hsien in Ch'u, der heutigen Provinz Honan und war Archivar am Hof des Königs von Chou, bevor er sich nach Westen zurückzog. Hier verlieren sich seine Spuren.
hans-wolfgang - am Mittwoch, 19. Dezember 2007, 02:41
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Im Jahr 1612 fand im Haus des protestantischen Geistlichen Francis Perrault in Mascon, Frankreich, ein typisches Poltergeistauftreten statt. Es fing im September 1612 mit unerklärlichen Klopfgeräuschen an. Nach und nach öffneten und schlossen sich Türen von selbst, die Klopfgeräusche wurden immer intensiver. Später bewegten sich im Haus befindliche Gegenstände wie von Geisterhand geführt, Stühle wurden ohne ersichtliche Einwirkung mit lauten Geräuschen verschoben. Perrault vernahm zunächst unklare Stimmen, welche jedoch mit der Zeit immer deutlicher zu verstehen waren. Für Perrault stand fest, das der Teufel persönlich sich in seinem Haus eingenistet hatte. Über mehrere Wochen tauchten diese Phänomene jeden Tag vor allem in den Abendstunden auf. Selbst seine Gäste, darunter auch Ärzte und weitere angesehene Persönlichkeiten, vernahmen diese Spukerscheinungen. Der königliche Notar und Prokurator, Francois Tornus, prüfte ob es sich hierbei um eine teuflische Begegnung handeln konnte, indem er von außen in das Haus hineinpfiff. Es dauerte gar nicht lange und es schallte der selbe schrille Pfiff wieder hinaus, gefolgt von einem Stein, welcher direkt auf ihn zuflog. Daraufhin warf er auch einen nahen Stein ins Haus, welcher ebenfalls zurückkam. Zu seiner Überraschung war der zurückkehrende Stein warm, so das man zu der Ansicht kam, das dieser Stein direkt aus der Hölle kam, wo er sich aufheizte. Sogar der bekannte Physiker und Chemikant Robert Boyle kam zu dem Schluß, das die Ereignisse im Haus des Geistlichen unerklärbarer Natur seien. Nach einiger Zeit nahm die Intensität der Phänomene wieder ab, bis sie schließlich ganz zur Ruhe kamen.
Dieser Fall beschreibt ein typisches Poltergeistphänomen, wobei beträchtlicher Lärm und Schaden verursacht wurde. In der Regel nennt man Poltergeistphänomene Personengebunden, da Sie meist in Verbindung mit einer Person (der sogenannten "Fokusperson") auftreten. Man vermutete bei diesem Fall, dass die Ereignisse in Zusammenhang mit einer Dienstmagd des Geistlichen standen, welche sich während der Vorfälle in der Nähe des Hauses aufhielt. Dies ist jedoch nicht genauer protokolliert. Poltergeister treten im Gegensatz zu einem Spuk in der Regel nur zeitlich begrenzt auf, was ebenfalls auf einen Poltergeist deutet. Weitere Vorkommnisse aus diesem Haus sind nicht bekannt.
Dieser Fall beschreibt ein typisches Poltergeistphänomen, wobei beträchtlicher Lärm und Schaden verursacht wurde. In der Regel nennt man Poltergeistphänomene Personengebunden, da Sie meist in Verbindung mit einer Person (der sogenannten "Fokusperson") auftreten. Man vermutete bei diesem Fall, dass die Ereignisse in Zusammenhang mit einer Dienstmagd des Geistlichen standen, welche sich während der Vorfälle in der Nähe des Hauses aufhielt. Dies ist jedoch nicht genauer protokolliert. Poltergeister treten im Gegensatz zu einem Spuk in der Regel nur zeitlich begrenzt auf, was ebenfalls auf einen Poltergeist deutet. Weitere Vorkommnisse aus diesem Haus sind nicht bekannt.
hans-wolfgang - am Sonntag, 16. September 2007, 22:48
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Do you follow it? First you make a condition. You say, "Unless I get this woman I am not going to be happy. I can be happy only with this woman." Now you start striving to get this woman. The more difficult it is the more you become enthusiastic, feverish. The more difficult it is the more you are challenged. The more difficult it is the more you put all your being at stake; you are ready to gamble. And of course more hope arises and more desire to possess the woman. It is so hard, it is so difficult. It must be something great, that's why it is so hard, that's why it is so difficult. You chase and chase and chase and one day you get the woman. The day you get the woman the condition is removed: "If I get the woman then I will be happy." You had put that condition in the first place. Now you get the woman, you feel relief. Now there is no more chasing, you have arrived, the result is in your hands, you feel good -- good because of the relief.
One day Mulla Nasruddin was walking, swearing and in great pain. A friend asked him, "What is the matter? Is your stomach aching or do you have a headache or something? What is the matter? You look in such agony." He said, "Nothing. The shoes that I am wearing are too small." "But then why are you wearing them?" He said, "This is the only relief that I get at the end of the day -- when I take my shoes off. God, it is such... then I enjoy. But this is the only joy I have, so I cannot drop these shoes. They are one size too small. It is really hell, but in the evening it gives heaven. When I go home and I take my shoes off and I fall on my sofa, I say I have arrived. It's so beautiful!"
That's what you are doing. You create pain, you create anguish, chasing, fever, and then one day you come home and take the shoes off and you say, "Great, this is great. So I have arrived!" But how long can it last? The relief lasts only a few moments. Then again you are hankering. Now this woman is useless because you have got her. You cannot make a condition again. You can never say again, "If I get this woman I will be happy," because she is already with you. Now you start looking around at somebody else's woman, "If I get that woman..." Now you know one trick -- that first you have to put a condition on your happiness, then you have to follow the condition desperately, then one day relief comes. Now this is futile. A man of understanding will see that there is no need to put any condition, you can be unconditionally happy. Why go on walking in small shoes and suffer just to get relief in the end? Why not have the relief all the time? But then you will not feel it, that is the problem. To feel it you need contrast. You will be happy but you will not feel it.
One day Mulla Nasruddin was walking, swearing and in great pain. A friend asked him, "What is the matter? Is your stomach aching or do you have a headache or something? What is the matter? You look in such agony." He said, "Nothing. The shoes that I am wearing are too small." "But then why are you wearing them?" He said, "This is the only relief that I get at the end of the day -- when I take my shoes off. God, it is such... then I enjoy. But this is the only joy I have, so I cannot drop these shoes. They are one size too small. It is really hell, but in the evening it gives heaven. When I go home and I take my shoes off and I fall on my sofa, I say I have arrived. It's so beautiful!"
That's what you are doing. You create pain, you create anguish, chasing, fever, and then one day you come home and take the shoes off and you say, "Great, this is great. So I have arrived!" But how long can it last? The relief lasts only a few moments. Then again you are hankering. Now this woman is useless because you have got her. You cannot make a condition again. You can never say again, "If I get this woman I will be happy," because she is already with you. Now you start looking around at somebody else's woman, "If I get that woman..." Now you know one trick -- that first you have to put a condition on your happiness, then you have to follow the condition desperately, then one day relief comes. Now this is futile. A man of understanding will see that there is no need to put any condition, you can be unconditionally happy. Why go on walking in small shoes and suffer just to get relief in the end? Why not have the relief all the time? But then you will not feel it, that is the problem. To feel it you need contrast. You will be happy but you will not feel it.
hans-wolfgang - am Samstag, 9. Dezember 2006, 15:06
A man went to see his psychiatrist and said that every night he was visited by a ten-foot monster with two heads. And he was suffering tremendously, sleep was not possible, he was becoming more and more miserable and any day he could collapse. He had even thought about committing suicide. 'Well, I think I might be able to cure you,' said the psychiatrist, ‘but I am afraid it will be a lengthy process and it will cost you about three hundred dollars.' 'Three hundred dollars?' said the man. ‘Forget it! I will just go home and make friends with it.'
That's how to be intelligent is so difficult and it costs so much. You have to put at stake whatsoever you have. It is a cross. In fact, you have to die to be intelligent because only when you are reborn will you be intelligent, not before it. And the cross has to be carried on one's own shoulders; nobody else can carry your cross. You will have to carry your cross to your own Golgotha, there is no other way. Many times you will stumble on the road; many times you will be so tired and exhausted that you will have to rest. Many times you will think that people who have never desired intelligence, awareness, are blessed. ‘What have I chosen?' Many times doubt and suspicion will arise in your mind: 'Is there any goal or am I simply carrying a cross and wasting my life?' Many times you would like to go back to the world, many will be the temptations. But if you can stick to it, if you can remain on the path against all odds, one day intelligence flowers. It is almost like a seed: the seed cannot know what is going to happen, the seed has never known the flower. And the seed cannot even believe that he has the potentiality to become a beautiful flower. Long is the journey, and it is always safer not to go on that journey because unknown is the path, nothing is guaranteed. Nothing can be guaranteed. Thousand and one are the hazards of the journey, many are the pitfalls -- and the seed is secure, hidden inside a hard core. But the seed tries, it makes an effort, it drops the hard shell which is its security, it starts moving. Immediately the fight starts: the struggle with the soil, with the stones, with the rocks. And the seed was very hard and the sprout will be very, very soft and dangers will be many. There was no danger for the seed, the seed could have survived for millennia, but for the sprout many are the dangers. But the sprout starts: towards the unknown, towards the sun, towards the source of light, not knowing where, not knowing why. Great is the cross to be carried but a dream possesses the seed and the seed moves. One day.... And there is much competition: other trees are there, other plants are there, and he has to cross all of them because only then will the sun and the sky be available. And then, no one knows. But one day it flowers, it happens.
That's how to be intelligent is so difficult and it costs so much. You have to put at stake whatsoever you have. It is a cross. In fact, you have to die to be intelligent because only when you are reborn will you be intelligent, not before it. And the cross has to be carried on one's own shoulders; nobody else can carry your cross. You will have to carry your cross to your own Golgotha, there is no other way. Many times you will stumble on the road; many times you will be so tired and exhausted that you will have to rest. Many times you will think that people who have never desired intelligence, awareness, are blessed. ‘What have I chosen?' Many times doubt and suspicion will arise in your mind: 'Is there any goal or am I simply carrying a cross and wasting my life?' Many times you would like to go back to the world, many will be the temptations. But if you can stick to it, if you can remain on the path against all odds, one day intelligence flowers. It is almost like a seed: the seed cannot know what is going to happen, the seed has never known the flower. And the seed cannot even believe that he has the potentiality to become a beautiful flower. Long is the journey, and it is always safer not to go on that journey because unknown is the path, nothing is guaranteed. Nothing can be guaranteed. Thousand and one are the hazards of the journey, many are the pitfalls -- and the seed is secure, hidden inside a hard core. But the seed tries, it makes an effort, it drops the hard shell which is its security, it starts moving. Immediately the fight starts: the struggle with the soil, with the stones, with the rocks. And the seed was very hard and the sprout will be very, very soft and dangers will be many. There was no danger for the seed, the seed could have survived for millennia, but for the sprout many are the dangers. But the sprout starts: towards the unknown, towards the sun, towards the source of light, not knowing where, not knowing why. Great is the cross to be carried but a dream possesses the seed and the seed moves. One day.... And there is much competition: other trees are there, other plants are there, and he has to cross all of them because only then will the sun and the sky be available. And then, no one knows. But one day it flowers, it happens.
hans-wolfgang - am Donnerstag, 7. Dezember 2006, 23:59
Everybody lives in hell and dreams of heaven. That dream helps you to live in hell. That dream makes it comfortable to live in hell. That dream becomes like a buffer, a shock-absorber, so that the pain is not too much. That dream functions as a tranquilliser. It helps you -- you can tolerate the pain because you know that tomorrow there will be happiness. You can hope. Heaven is nothing but hope -- and hell is reality.
These are the two ordinary states of the human mind -- both go on changing; nothing is ultimate about them.
The third state is bliss. The first is hell; the second is heaven. In India they have a special name -- which cannot be translated -- for the third. They call it moksha, nirvana.
In the western religions there are only two things talked about -- hell and heaven. That's why Christianity, Judaism, Islam, are poor in a way. They miss the ultimate.
There is a state of your consciousness where pleasure disappears, pain disappears... where nothing -- no excitement -- exists... neither pain nor pleasure... just pure awareness and tremendous peace. That state is called bliss, anand -- and that is the goal. That is your destiny, and unless you attain it, nothing is attained. You can attain the whole world and you can possess the whole world, and nothing is possessed. You will always remain in a limbo -- never certain where you are -- and you will remain unaware of your being.
So let it be a conscious effort. Pain has to be dropped -- so has pleasure. If you hanker for pleasure, pain will never be dropped -- they go together. They are two aspects of the same coin. If you hanker for pleasure you will remain in pain. Sometimes, rarely, you will have a glimpse of pleasure and again you will be thrown in pain.
Don't hanker for pleasure because it creates only pain and nothing else. Don't desire happiness because it creates only unhappiness and nothing else. Don't desire success because it brings only failure and nothing else.
Once you have seen this game -- that success brings failure and pleasure brings pain in its wake -- you start on a totally different journey. Now you want to be just yourself -- neither in pain nor in pleasure.
That's what Taoism is all about: an effort to drop pain and pleasure, the conflict and the duality, and to go deeper into oneself... just to be there without any desire for anything. In that moment of no-desire, the ultimate happens.
These are the two ordinary states of the human mind -- both go on changing; nothing is ultimate about them.
The third state is bliss. The first is hell; the second is heaven. In India they have a special name -- which cannot be translated -- for the third. They call it moksha, nirvana.
In the western religions there are only two things talked about -- hell and heaven. That's why Christianity, Judaism, Islam, are poor in a way. They miss the ultimate.
There is a state of your consciousness where pleasure disappears, pain disappears... where nothing -- no excitement -- exists... neither pain nor pleasure... just pure awareness and tremendous peace. That state is called bliss, anand -- and that is the goal. That is your destiny, and unless you attain it, nothing is attained. You can attain the whole world and you can possess the whole world, and nothing is possessed. You will always remain in a limbo -- never certain where you are -- and you will remain unaware of your being.
So let it be a conscious effort. Pain has to be dropped -- so has pleasure. If you hanker for pleasure, pain will never be dropped -- they go together. They are two aspects of the same coin. If you hanker for pleasure you will remain in pain. Sometimes, rarely, you will have a glimpse of pleasure and again you will be thrown in pain.
Don't hanker for pleasure because it creates only pain and nothing else. Don't desire happiness because it creates only unhappiness and nothing else. Don't desire success because it brings only failure and nothing else.
Once you have seen this game -- that success brings failure and pleasure brings pain in its wake -- you start on a totally different journey. Now you want to be just yourself -- neither in pain nor in pleasure.
That's what Taoism is all about: an effort to drop pain and pleasure, the conflict and the duality, and to go deeper into oneself... just to be there without any desire for anything. In that moment of no-desire, the ultimate happens.
hans-wolfgang - am Sonntag, 1. Oktober 2006, 22:51
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