From Newsgroup: alt.philosophy.taoism


I watched an episode of rCLMadam SecretaryrCY.

The secretaryrCOs husband is a former fighter pilot, CIA operative and religious studies professor. The secretary, his wife, is the secretary of state to a democratic president. In spite of being allegedly liberal, they sound more like rCLheadlines ripped from the Trump administrationrCY. The show first aired 2015, and thus scripted before Trump announced his
candidacy.

This episode titled rCLgift HorserCY aired in January 2017. Trump had been elected, but not inaugurated. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6351982

The president on the show, Dalton, is about to be inaugurated, and his administration receives gifts as is the custom

The title of the episode is a reference to the horse gifted by the
Mongolian government.

Given the secretaryrCOs husbandrCOs job, it is a given we would have an episode about Tao/Dao at some point.

In this episode, the secretaryrCOs husband, Henry, is enlisted by the administration to convince Warren Lee, a big donor and big privacy advocate
to do something the administration wants.

Henry tells one of the bureaucrats that Lee is a rCLdiligent practitioner of DaoismrCaAs diligent as one can be given that it is about effortless actionrCY

(Here is me typing with one finger, practicing effortless action).

He admits it is a rCLtheological paradoxrCY.

When we meet Lee, he is surrounded by all sorts of seemingly Asian
artifacts. (Set sort of looks like interior of a restaurant in any
Chinatown. Very kitschy).

Lee says he is a student of all religions.

Henry says he feels the sentiment of the Tao Te Ching is reflected in the parables of the gospels but the dao language is more poetic.

Lee has devised some sort of technology for cell phones. Henry comes
pleading for government back door access, for the greater good. Greater
good > privacy.

Lee refuses HenryrCOs request and suggests he practice some of the tenets
that dao has taught them and rCLlet go of your longingrCY.
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From Newsgroup: alt.philosophy.taoism


marika posted:

I watched an episode of rCLMadam SecretaryrCY.

Ads for it appeared yet I haven't watched any.

The secretaryrCOs husband is a former fighter pilot, CIA operative and religious studies professor.

Sounds like an interesting character.

...
Given the secretaryrCOs husbandrCOs job, it is a given we would have an episode
about Tao/Dao at some point. ...

Religious studies was an area which seemed
as if it might hold answers to my quest, long ago.
The mountains of material loomed to a point.

During the daze, there appeared to be more
like one peak which many mystics experienced.

Henry tells one of the bureaucrats that Lee is a rCLdiligent practitioner of DaoismrCaAs diligent as one can be given that it is about effortless actionrCY

(Here is me typing with one finger, practicing effortless action).

He admits it is a rCLtheological paradoxrCY. ...

Ostensibly perhaps. And yet, practice
until perfection is attained or obtained
may be involved as one evolves and is then
eventually able to be spontaneous and without
any thought given to action.

Keys may be found on a piano, or a board full
when typing. The fingers know and sometimes they
type what wasn't intended. At first, they are all
thumbs so to speak metaphorically.

Not every piano is as grand as a baby.
Some are upright and stand against a wall.
In the past there were players which played
without any people sitting on a bench.

Pondering theology, Daojia could be a school
of a sort that was invented to remove much.
The historians at the time decided what.
Later, the Daojiao canon grew immense.

Without any god nor gods, Dao
could be followed as a path.

Henry might have said it was a philosophical
paradox. How to be without effort when trying
to be without effort, naturally.

Pay attention to when not paying attention.

"... let go ..."

Be still and know.
Allow the mud to settle.
Breathing arrives in mind.

Forgetting occurs.
On their own, things emerge.
Nouns, given parts of speech.

Do without doing.

DDJ 80 suggests having tech
and not using it. To imagine
having a phone that's tapped
and leaving it off. Unplugged.

Outside, leaves fall in autumn.
Floating down from above, they
don't miss not being a part of
the tree they once were.

Some land in a stream of thought.
A few reach an ocean and wave.
They leave me here, as a reverb.

- Thanks! aye. Cheers!
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