Tuesday, November 23, 2010

 

All the Way to Tao

(3)
Sipping on beer #8 at 1731 - oops, gotta watch the news... sipping on beer #9 at 1759 now. I think we're done with tonight's political issues for the moment, so I will digress to some unfinished business: authors who influenced me. In no particular order they are:
----------
John C. Lilly, M.D. Simulations of God (The Science of Belief). This is a paperback from the '70s. I must have bought this book at a gathering of book sellers. Interesting. I don't remember it, but I am sure I read at least most of it. Recommended.
----------
Alan Watts: The Book: (On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are). I read every word of it, and loved it but don't remember it! Reading the description just now I can say that Alan Watts knew (Hindu) stuff that Jill Boulte Taylor discovered during her stroke and wrote about in her book, My Stroke of Insight. This suggests that much of ancient Eastern Religion was inspired by recovering 'stroke victims' and much other religion was inspired by 'brain events' induced by various 'entheogenic drugs.' Recommended.
----------
Robert S. DeRopp: The Master Game (Pathways to Higher Consciousness Beyond the Drug Experience). I loved this book and remember every word of it! (Figuratively speaking.) I read it mostly in DeCovend Park on tree-shaded summer afternoons, while peeing quietly in my pants. Highly recommended. There is a written notation by me on the first page (otherwise blank) under the seller's price of '$7.00' which reads: 'Bought at the Paris-on the Platte 5-17-87 at the chess tournament.' (Graffiti on the POTP bathroom read, 'Your Being thunders so loudly that I can't hear what you are saying.'
----------
Thomas Merton: The way of Chuang Tzu. Glorious book! Written by a Catholic priest who studied Eastern Religion. I circled 'The True Man' on page 50. Here is the first verse:

What is meant by a "true man"?
The true men of old were not afraid
When they stood alone in their views.
No great exploits. No plans.
If they failed, no sorrow.
No self-congratulation in success.
They scaled clifts, never dizzy,
Plunged in water, never wet,
Walked through fire and were not burnt.
Thus their knowlege reached all the way
To Tao.
Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?