My First Experience
Well, my quest in philosophy first began many years ago when I was a Chinese martial arts student. I practiced at the school pretty hard and every so often I would hang out at the books and supply store next door. Little by little, I explored and I happened to stumble upon a cool book A Guide To Spiritual Devlopment by Hui Ching or somewhere along those lines. It was about Taoism and it sorta blew my mind. I mean, I was a freshman in High school and I was able to start the path towards being virtuous and paying attention things others wouldn't such as being kind to pple, not making fun of pple, respecting others and yourself... and just having a very wholesome feeling other than the usual getting an "A" or playing sports or hanging out with frineds and watching movies. This would deem critical in my life b/c a year ago I was hit with a pretty emotional blow so I was able to find out first hand what spirituality and finding the meanign to life. There were other books that inspired me too in a philosophica way such as The Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee and The Way of the Wizard.. Deepok Chropra...so I thought those were pretty cool.. they all gave me a different point of view than ordinary life and that many lessons can be learned by just digging deeper in life... experiences that can give you profound joy'n life. Well, later I also stumbled upon two great books that changed my life... The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff... which explains the concepts of Taoism thru the cute characters of Winnie-the-Pooh... Pooh being the Tao, the uncarved block, innocent as a baby, attaining things without effort, and simply doing things that arise with the situation, and Piglet, the scared creature who overcomes his fears, Owl, the pompus intellectual who uses his knowledge to stay above pple rather than teach them or learn from them, Eeyore, the depressed sometimes condescending mule, and there's.. Tigger,the tiger who never knows his limit and always full of excitement yet never finishes tasks,Rabbit, the Bisy Backson,
who's always compulsively busy like Americans. :) Yep, Americans get caught up doing all these crazy tasks that they never enjoy the fruit of life. Yep yep... but Taoism really inspired my in a deep way.. the way that it says that we should see Things As They Are rather than tainted by our own personal perceptions, biases, and emotions...and try not to force things... ourselves, or the situation in a way that would ruin it or us if we simply did things that weren't correct for the time being, and to do that you have to be sensitive and try not to try too hard, like trying to run from your shadow (just stay still!) or try to clear murky muddly water (let it sink!) so Taoism concentrates on not-doing and to let things flow rather than try to think too hard and come up with clever solutions that don't fit the particular situation. Yep, that's what I'm all about, the Tao. The effortless way, innocent as a baby, uncarved block, a daily unlearning where Education is a daily learning process. The Tao you wanna strip away all your layers until you come back to who you truly are or were, the innocent and powerful baby you were born as, innocent, untainted by society and it's socializing process, and purely honest, seeing things anew rather than from rotted perceptions, powerful, and a real sense of energy, and wonder. Well, may add to this more. I'm tired.
