The Three Treasures

The first of the Three Treasures is ci (Chinese: 慈; pinyin: cí; Wade–Giles: tz'u; literally: "compassion, tenderness, love, mercy, kindness, gentleness, benevolence"), which is also a Classical Chinese term for "mother" (with "tender love, nurturing " semantic associations). Tao Te Ching chapters 18 and 19 parallel ci ("parental love") with xiao (孝 "filial love; filial piety"). Wing-tsit Chan (1963:219) believes "the first is the most important" of the Three Treasures, and compares ci with Confucianist ren (仁 "humaneness; benevolence"), which the Tao Te Ching (e.g., chapters 5 and 38) mocks.

The second is jian (Chinese: 儉; pinyin: jiǎn; Wade–Giles: chien; literally: "frugality, moderation, economy, restraint, be sparing"), a practice that the Tao Te Ching (e.g., chapter 59) praises. Ellen M. Chen (1989:209) believes jian is "organically connected" with the Taoist metaphor pu (樸 "uncarved wood; simplicity"), and "stands for the economy of nature that does not waste anything. When applied to the moral life it stands for the simplicity of desire."

The third treasure is a six-character phrase instead of a single word: Bugan wei tianxia xian 不敢為天下先 "not dare to be first/ahead in the world". Chen notes that

The third treasure, daring not be at the world's front, is the Taoist way to avoid premature death. To be at the world's front is to expose oneself, to render oneself vulnerable to the world's destructive forces, while to remain behind and to be humble is to allow oneself time to fully ripen and bear fruit. This is a treasure whose secret spring is the fear of losing one's life before one's time. This fear of death, out of a love for life, is indeed the key to Taoist wisdom. (1989:209)

In the Mawangdui Silk Texts version of the Tao Te Ching, this traditional "Three Treasures" chapter 67 is chapter 32, following the traditional last chapter (81, 31). Based upon this early silk manuscript, Robert G. Henricks (1989:160) concludes that "Chapters 67, 68, and 69 should be read together as a unit." Besides some graphic variants and phonetic loan characters, like ci (兹 "mat, this") for ci (慈 "compassion, love", clarified with the "heart radical" 心), the most significant difference with the received text is the addition of heng (恆, "constantly, always") with "I constantly have three …" (我恆有三) instead of "I have three …" (我有三).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Treasures_(Taoism)

will be quite mafan if a person has no son ...

Good thing your uncle can find a teacher to teach him 鬼仙 even after passing away so long.

By the way, is Buddha indian nepalese or Chinese nepalese?

How would we interprete this:

The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and
unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and
unchanging name.


First reading and even subsequent readings make no sense. Does it mean that we can never understand the Tao?

Which one is your buddy?

Wow, how did he make to flames leap up?

Was he channeling the 8 Immortals?

And it looks like something from a Hong Kong movie. Very good!




This post has been edited by conxtion: Jun 20 2018, 02:57 AM

Yes, I think many cases are purely medical, but people want to blame spiritual influence.

Seems to be true, "God" powers only work within their own believers. "God" seems to be powerless when need to cross to other religions.

As previous medium, have you ever channeled the 8 Immortals before?

Among Taoist gods and deities, who is the most helpful to humans, in your opinion?


This post has been edited by conxtion: Jun 23 2018, 04:47 AM

Umm .. yes, perhaps Einstein was an accidental Taoist, but more probably is because Taoism is a logical and scientific Way.

Interesting! What authority do you quote for this comment?

Wow!

How about you? Your dad taught you?

Yup, I don't agree with this part of the Tao Te Ching either. Sounds like communism. It would prevent progression and innovative thinking.

Anyone has other explanation to this?

Insightful thoughts.

Basically, to use our mind and brain to the fullest extent to get understanding, and not to just take things at "face value" but indeed to "read between the lines".

Found this website on Taoist Black Magic, it there actually such a thing?

http://taoist-sorcery-master.blogspot.com/...u-what-one.html

Used to hear the word Gong Tau years ago.

Ya, heard that in the past, Mao Shan sect Taoists are strong especially at darker type of Taoist magic. Not sure if they are still as strong, or even stronger nowadays.

Seems there are two opposites of Mao Shan Taoist priests - the "good" ones who go around catching ghosts and evil spirits, and the "bad" ones who cast black and evil spells. But much of what we know about them come from Hong Kong movies (hahaha) so you can judge how accurate this info is (or isn't).

http://taoist-sorcery.blogspot.com/2012/06...-shan-sect.html

Wow, good to hear that you survived the experience. The lesson learnt here is that when shielding someone, the sifu must know where the attacking force may be deflected to, and take proper defensive measures too.

Saw this interesting Taoist exorcist series posted by user Super Kumantong / SGGhostbuster in YouTube. It's a series of 17 videos, called "降头 (Gong Tau) Is Real and Deadly"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jFQj5vYqfY...jQkXcLZiC_NMCWK

This post has been edited by conxtion: Jul 26 2018, 10:51 PM

Extracted from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangu

"The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was Xu Zheng during the Three Kingdoms period. Recently his name was found in a tomb dated 194 AD.

"In the beginning, there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. This chaos coalesced into a cosmic egg for about 18,000 years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of Yin and Yang became balanced, and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. Pangu is usually depicted as a primitive, hairy giant who has horns on his head and wears fur. Pangu began creating the world: he separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. With each day, the sky grew ten feet (3 meters) higher, the Earth ten feet thicker, and Pangu ten feet taller. This task took yet another 18,000 years. In some versions of the story, Pangu is aided in this task by the four most prominent beasts, namely the Turtle, the Qilin, the Phoenix, and the Dragon.

"After the 18,000 years had elapsed, Pangu died. His breath became the wind, mist and clouds; his voice, thunder; his left eye, the sun; his right eye, the moon; his head, the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood, rivers; his muscles, fertile land; his facial hair, the stars and Milky Way; his fur, bushes and forests; his bones, valuable minerals; his bone marrow, sacred diamonds; his sweat, rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became animals. "

An acquaintance of mine, who has since passed away, testifies that Pangu is real, but not all that is attributed to Him is true, of course.

This post has been edited by conxtion: Aug 3 2018, 07:58 PM

I saw a Phor Thor event in Petaling Street area today too. Sorry, didn't take any photos.