re rfd misc taoism in article cup portal com thyagi cup portal com thyagi morgoth nagasiva writes i would like to add my support for a misc taoism discussion group i applaud the enthusiam shown by the person posting cup portal com thyagi cup portal com i read in alt magick but i differ with him her in believing that at least some minimal parameters should be agreed upon thyagi wrote i recommend that the depth of generality indeed of ambiguity in this newsgroup misc taoism be maximized calling the tradition old or new is rather unnecessary and only leads to foolish squabbles there is no doubt that nature is a splendid teacher whether she appears in the words spoken by a tree or by a stream a microbe or a star let us not limit misc taoism to philosophy but if we don t limit it to something the discussion degenerates into a big amorphous glob other questions thyagi proposes are what is this actual process of reality why is taoism based upon an assumption why does this assumption concern knowledge and what can be known what is the value of not knowing what is a tao what does it mean to be tao d it seems to me that these questions more properly fall into the category of general metaphysics i would prefer any misc taoism to deal more closely with topics and works more closely associated with at least semi orthodox taoism with established classic works definitely included and works like mantak chia s argued about i think neo taoism should be excluded or get its own group what i mean by this is humpty dumpty taoism in which taoism means whatever a poster says it means this alt taoism could also be a refuge for debates about what taoism really means or speculations on sexual alchemy etc e g from thyagi again taoism does what the hell it wants i tell you taoism doesn t exist taoism is no more real that tao decide now real or not real exist or not exist when shall we be certain kent gloomily predicts quoting from thyagi s article however most traffic in the group will likely concern the philosophical secular taoism averred by alan watts and niels bohr and yogic taoism as it pertains to medical sexual and martial techniques i think that discussions of this nature are not completely out of place what s happening is that that the term taoism is becoming completely polluted and trivialized like the words magic alchemy zen etc by writers appropriating the word to mean whatever they want this is seen by the spate of new age books entitled the tao of this that and everything else with respect to some exceptions like the books by jou tsung hwa any other comments ideas i look forward to seeing them on balance i say let misc taoism rip and let the chips fall where they may if it just gets filled up with college freshmen asking about the tao of sex then it will have been a failure and people will post to these groups just as they do now tim p scott sending from megatek corporation ext scranton rd san diego ca usa fax internet tims megatek com or uunet megatek tims
