Today is the #Buddhism / #Daoism Ghost/Ullambana festival in #Taiwan. #OTD, we put out offerings for the wandering ghosts and our ancestors. Variations of the festival origin exist, but at its core is a story about Maugdalyayana saving his mother from a hunger ghost status. This is one of the earliest memories I had about ghosts. The mother was eventually saved, but the imagery and the metaphor of her distress stay with me since. #mythology #folklore

Today is the #Buddhism / #Daoism Ghost/Ullambana festival in #Taiwan. #OTD, we put out offerings for the wandering ghosts and our ancestors. Variations of the festival origin exist, but at its core is a story about Maugdalyayana saving his mother from a hunger ghost status. This is one of the earliest memories I had about ghosts. The mother was eventually saved, but the imagery and the metaphor of her distress stay with me since. #mythology #folklore

Another striking similarity is between what I was writing about regarding the butterfly story in the Zhuangzi and this passage from "Beyond Nature and Culture" by anthropologist Philippe Descola:

https://freeanduneasy.blog/humanity-as-a-condition/

#Daoism #Taoism #Zhuangzi #Anthropology

Though I can’t access the experience of mushroom selfhood or butterfly selfhood—I can’t know what it’s like to be those people—there is some relationship between the mushroom and me, the butterfly and me, some common rouser or piper that pipes 'puhpowee' in the night and creates the conditions for all of our selves to emerge, however different they are from each other.

https://freeanduneasy.blog/we-are-the-morning-mushrooms/

#BraidingSweetgrass #Zhuangzi #Identity #Self #RobinWallKimmerer #IndigenousKnowledge #Daoism #Taoism

4/ It took me a long time to finish it, and it is quite long, but I hope it captures my thought process, or the connection I see between these two texts and why it matters.

https://freeanduneasy.blog/we-are-the-morning-mushrooms/

#WritingCommunity #Zhuangzi #Daoism #Taoism #BraidingSweetgrass #Mushrooms #Butterfly #Mushtadon #Fungi #Fungiverse #Self #Identity @writingcommunity

I know this is the *ideal* time to post a nearly 4000 word blog post on selfhood, identity, fungi, and butterflies. Who doesn't want to spend their Friday night reading long personal musings about Daoism and indigenous knowledge???

https://freeanduneasy.blog/we-are-the-morning-mushrooms/

@writingcommunity #WritingCommunity #Daoism #Taoism #Zhuangzi #BraidingSweetgrass #IndigenousKnowledge

Two articles on contemporary #Daoism by Zhu Yiwen.

Post-COVID, China’s Taoist Temples Are Still Finding Their Way: https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1012413

Checking in on Taoism Abroad: https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1013312

Also for those interested there is a free #webinar about #Daoism and the climate crisis that you can sign up for here (not through Emergence):
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtdO6qrzMtEtEbnHSL1g1ypQvqVTVgy17k#/registration

“There are these five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained. Which five?
“‘I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging.’
“‘I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness’.…
“‘I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death’….

Continue 1/2

#zen #zhuangzi #Daoism #sutta #Dharma

Shamefully sharing my latest blog post again, this time with fewer typos.

A long post on the struggle to find my way in a world I wasn't prepared for, and the challenges of making and keeping relationships while caring for another.

https://freeanduneasy.blog/becoming-friends-with-the-depths/

@writingcommunity #WritingCommunity #caregiving #disability #Daoism #Zhuangzi

If you're looking for a 3000 word personal reflection on the #Zhuangzi and how it relates to my own struggle to make and keep close relationships while being a #caregiver to my disabled brother, then I have just the thing for you:

https://freeanduneasy.blog/becoming-friends-with-the-depths/

#Disability #Daoism #LongRead #WritingCommunity #Blogging

(Bonus quote by @TaoJiang)

The Universal Nature of Energy Fields
When we think of energy work and energy fields, we often think about the chakras and energy centers. The chakras as we know them were developed in the middle ages by the tantric branch of yoga as it developed and transformed from more of a spiritual transformation and liberation to a physical one. However, while the
https://eponaenergy.chickenyogi.com/the-universal-nature-of-energy-fields/
#chakras #CelticChakras #chakras #Daoism #DaoistEnergyFields

In #Taoism, and other eastern religions, Qigong can bring many physical and mental benefits.

The Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Benefits of Practicing Qigong for a Year by Elin Dieme

https://thetaoist.online/the-physical-mental-and-spiritual-benefits-of-practicing-qigong-for-a-year-7bf25acdc9f2

#medium #taoism #daoism #qigong #qi #practice #health

From chapter 6 of the #Zhuangzi:

"What makes my life good is what makes my death good; that I consider my life good is what makes me consider my death good."

#quote #daoism #taoism #death

My hair is thinning.

Even though there are many other signs that I'm aging, that was the one that was the hardest to accept.

So here's a reflection on aging from a Daoist perspective:

https://freeanduneasy.blog/what-makes-my-life-good/

@writingcommunity #WritingCommunity #Daoism #Taoism @taoism #Aging

"You think you do right to hide little things in big ones, and yet they get away from you. But if you were to hide the world in the world, so that nothing could get away, this would be the final reality of the constancy of things." (chapter 6 #zhuangzi Watson trans.)

@zhuangzi @taoism #daoism #taoismo

"You hide your boat in the ravine and your fish net in the swamp and tell yourself that they will be safe. But in the middle of the night a strong man shoulders them and carries them off, and in your stupidity you don't know why it happened."

@zhuangzi @taoism #zhuangzi #taoism #daoism

1/ "The Great Clod burdens me with form, labors me with life, eases me in old age, and rests me in death. So if I think well of my life, for the same reason I must think well of my death."

#zhuangzi @zhuangzi @taoism #taoism #daoism

3
I was feeling disappointed by the tone of chapter 36 of the Daodejing. A common way of translating (and the one I first read) is "In order to contract, it is necessary to first expand." which was criticised by Confucians as being a sneaky way to get what you want. But also, it doesn't ring entirely effective.

But then I found the translation in the photo which could be read as a criticism of conscious effort (intention), no?

#daoism #laozi #wangbi #philosophy

2
Is this a plausible translation?

#daoism #laozi #wangbi #philosophy