YouTube Video TRANSCIPT: Daily Taoist 63 Tao #35 Take 2
Alright. I’m starting it over again because we took five minutes to wipe my cat’s butt. Yeah. But it was in that last video. We had a poo-poo break. And I raised kids. I wiped their butts for years every day all day long I was the only one wiping their butt for years. So butt wiping is very normal to me. In fact it’s one of those things you take seriously. It’s your job so you’ve really got to make sure you do it good and diaper rash is a nightmare. And she — my daughter had diaper rash two or three times. I’m not sure. Only a couple times. But we dealt with it. It was a nuisance. You’ve got to really work to prevent it. Once you get it — it’s horrible. So I just always worked hard to make sure she never got diaper rash. It means cleaning the diapers real real frequently.
Here we go.
Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang, former Mr. Mom. Reading from the DAO TE CHING. My version of it called the TAO OF TAOISM. I converted it and then I made all these questions and answers so you take the Lao Tzu thing and then you kind of figure out how to implement it. Because what good is wisdom unless you implement it. It’s not even wisdom. It’s just knowledge, or information. So the only time it becomes wisdom is when you use it.
Here we go. #35. The last one we’re gonna do here.
A person who is aware of ultimate realities
attracts the confidence of others
through security, contentment, and self-satisfaction.
And that’s where I fall short. Remember? That ultimate reality that I was telling you Mitch McConnell’s hijacked our– Yeah. The ultimate reality. When I had the ultimate– I didn’t have– I never ever had the ultimate reality. Even when I was the Mr. Mom, the mother was still paying some of the bills. She worked for Xerox. So even though she wasn’t with us, or staying with us, she would still pay the bills. The rent and give us grocery money. So I was still not the ultimate reality. I did not control the money. Because she controlled the money she thought she got last say and had more power over me than I had over her. And because that was her life– If it was the other way around. I’m sure she wouldn’t believe that. If I had the money, she wouldn’t have acquiesced to me having the control. But anyway. That’s the way she saw it. So that’s the way we worked with it. So I never had ultimate reality. This is the first time I’ve had my ultimate reality since I met her in 1989.
So since 1989, and it’s 2020. YIKES! I gave up my ultimate reality for thirty years. So I could kind of control my ultimate reality being homeless but that was a heck of a way to start having an ultimate reality. “Okay. We’re going to start your life from here. You get a car. And a cat. And that’s it. [laughs] That’s a bad start for an ultimate reality.
An ultimate reality like Mitch McConnell controls the Senate. He’s a millionaire. Or billionaire. And he’s got all these billionaires connected that he tells everybody, “Okay. I want you meet with him.” “And you’re gonna do this deal.” But he sets all the other Senators up with deals. So that they’re all doing illegal things. Every single one of those Republican Senators has taken lobby money from people they should’ve never taken it from and Mitch McConnell makes sure that they’re all in that web drinking that poison money. So that’s all they do is suck off that poison money and then they all have to play the same game. You know, they’re all in the same game getting that poison money. And they love it because there’s lots of it.
So anyway. But that’s the problem I guess. That’s why I can’t answer this question the way I did because I’ve never been able to provide that ultimate reality. To provide the ultimate reality you have to have enough money that people want to hang around you. You know, like somebody like Elon Musk. So what if he’s really smart? But he’s got a lot of money. So that’s why people like him. If he was just smart–nobody’d give a damn. [laughs] But if you’re smart and you’ve got money a lot of people care. In fact people don’t even care that he’s smart. In fact, people make fun of that or something. People don’t even appreciate it and respect it because they don’t know what being smart is. So, so most people think that, “Oh. It’s like having a third leg. Oh, you’ve got a third leg. Okay. Great.” You know so, “Glad I don’t have a third leg.” They don’t even–so they see it as a disadvantage.
Okay. Anyway… So I’ve never had the ultimate reality. That’s, that’s why I couldn’t answer this question. I was having trouble with these answers. So anyway. Now I’ve got the ultimate reality. But my ultimate reality is that I’m totally broke so nobody’s gonna come running to me… Watch what happens when I get a bunch of money. This is gonna be interesting. See, if my ultimate reality finally changes after thirty years of poverty: only because i have a whole bunch of money. That’s gonna be an interesting thing to see.
So. What about me gives people confidence in me? I mean my Kung Fu and my ability–my being smart and nice, happy. Those things have given people confidence in me. You know, so… A lot of my good qualities, my virtues: give people confidence in me. But not my finances, or my material life doesn’t interest most people. People are into bling. I got no bling.
What about you lessens people’s confidence in you?
Well, being homeless. Or poverty. That seems to shake everybody’s confidence right off the bat. [laughs] But YOU. I’m answering these questions too quickly. What about you lessens people’s confidence in you?
How could you gain more confidence from other people?
Alright?
When– How could I gain it? Here’s the irony for me. It’s like we were saying earlier. Is that I’ll gain– When other people like me. Then other people will like me. It’s like that decoy duck thing. Right now nobody likes me. So nobody likes me. But the moment a whole bunch of people like me–then a whole bunch more…It’s gotta be that like snowball thing. Hopefully. And uh- but yeah. I don’t have that snowball thing going yet.
Can you help me? If you get the snowball thing going. on these videos, The Daily Taoist. I’ll continue doing this. This’ll be fun.
But… When someone threatens you–what is your confidence?
Oooh. You answer that first.
If someone threatens you, what is your confidence?
I have two things. Number one, I talk my way out of most things. Okay. The second thing is I know that if I’m threatened… or if threatened: I’m not going to react. But the moment I think I might get killed: then I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff I could do and I hope I don’t do it. I just know that there’s something in there. It’s like having a knife in your pocket but you don’t want to use it. Because you don’t know where you’re gonna stab the person, but if you had to, you’re gonna pull it out. So I don’t want to ever use my self-defense. I don’t really think that way. I’ve always got other things. Talking and stuff. It’s never my first priority.
Where are we? So anyway. It gives me a little confidence. Knowing that knife is in my pocket makes me negotiate more because i don’t want to have to use my knife. So that makes me work harder to NOT get to my self-defense. Which is the opposite of the Karate people. Karate people go to class every time to beat people up and get beat up. So their first line of defense is to threaten and intimidate. So they don’t have the buffer zones that I do. For mree the fighting is way, way, way back there. For them it’s the first line of defense. They threaten. And intimidation. So I don’t agree with that.
Describe your fears of being mugged, robbed or molested.
Hey. I was just homeless for seven years. I was around all the muggers and molesters and robbers. [laughs] I was living with them. Living with them literally. I mean, in my room i had a guy who was in prison for murder mansalughter. A junkie over here. This guy, he was a drunk. But well he was a thief. He was definitely a thief. Anyway. So was that guy. This guy was a tweaker. The junkie was also a tweeker. And he was a dealer. That’s how he finally got kicked out of the place. He got caught dealing.
Anyway, um, So describe my fears. Not much. So like, they were my neighbors. It was… [laughs] I should have more fear.
What is your self-defense?
What’s YOUR self-defense. Everybody should have something. And don’t say, “That shotgun back in my closet.” [LAUGHS] Like I told you, mine’s talking. My being able to talk. And then there’s a few little tricks and things I know before I’d ever have to get to fighting I could do. In fact, even if I did get in a fight, a couple times I’ve disguised it. It wasn’t even a fight. Just a move here and there. Well, I’m not gonna get into that.
Where were we? Because we’re not half way through.
What in your home gives you security?
What in YOUR home gives YOU security?
Answer that in your own way.
What in your home gives you contentment?
So something in your home. What about the home? Gives you contentment? Your garage. I don’t know.
What gives you contentment?
What at out your represents your self-satisfaction?
I can finally make an answer: ME. Everything that I am and have is in this home. So this home is me. So this home is a place I can be me with me. And do things that are important to me.
Do you keep weapons readily positioned at home, and why?
Oh that’s a good question. And I was just asking myself this yesterday. I saw this video of people lining up at the gun store. Buying ammo and everything. I thought, “Wow.” If this does turn into an end of the world situation–youknow, and people are breaking into each others’ houses…for food and supplies and money and stuff… how do I defend my home? What’s my line of defense here. And so I started thinking. Do I put weapons around the place? Or whatever. And I was thinking last night if I was right here and somebody blew a hole in the door and came in… What would I do? The first thing. So I started playing out a few scenarios in my mind of what I would just take off the walls… and in that particular case I was standing over there and I picked up my monk spade and I said I’m just throwing it right through that opening… [BZ gets emotional] Dont’ wanna get into it. Yeah. Don’t attack me. Okay? I don’t want to hurt anybody. I really don’t. [pufffffff] Okay.
Um. Where were we?
What gives you contentment?
What satisfies your conscious self away from home?
What do you like when you’re away from home?
What satisfies you?
And what satisfies your subconscious when you’re away from home?
So when you’re away from home. That child in you misses your home. And the adult in you misses the home in two different ways.
You have two different relationships. I’m just trying to get you to identify with your home in a different way. You probably have whole different answers than me. Like I said. This is my whole little library. I live in my — in my stuff. you have your own perspective.
Okay. What about your home… Let’s see. Where were we? Ah. I’m just gonna read it because it’s here.
What backup weapon do you keep in your car? And why?
And I don’t encourage this. I don’t encourage this.
In fact, I’ve always had weapons in my car for practicing. But I never practiced much. I had a couple swords. But they’re not for self defense even. That’s just because I have to have a place to put them. And whenever I do somebody with a baseball bat in their car, or something like that: I think that person might be evil. So it actually makes me distrust people when I see a weapon in their car. So you should not have a weapon in your car. [swords have been removed from car] You shouldn’t have to think that way. And if you did have to have something in your car that you could do–in the front seat. I’d, to be honest with you, I’ve got a couple drum sticks. And threatening someone with a drumstick might almost seem funny. But If I hit you hard with the stick on your hands or knuckles or your head–poke your eye out… Definitely think that guy’s formidable. So maybe that’s it. You should just carry a pair of drumsticks. That’s what I’ve got in my front seat.
Okay. But they’re not there for weapons. What I’ve beat on… You can see all the worn-out cracks and everything on my dashboard where I beat on it.
How else have you planned for disaster, danger or self-defense?
Hey. We’re in a lockdown. We’re in a disaster situation. Like a war scenario. We’re all locked in our houses with whatever we’ve got. So the fact that i was slightly prepared and had canned food and dozen rolls of toilet paper was fortuitous. And normally, in a normal lifestyle. I’d normally have all kinds of stuff, a can of gasoline and life supplies. And we got into that in Utah. The Mormons want to be like the cockroaches and outlive everybody else. So they’re actually looking forward to the end of the world so the can emerge from their foxholes and bombshelters and take over the Earth. That’s one of their prophesies. So when I was there in Utah I learned all about how to– I really did. They taught me really well about how to provide for yourself. I feel like I saw videos. Yeah I did. I probably saw it on some television shows. Proably saw some television shows that– I’m remembering videos of it. Yeah, I’m very well educatied on how to have supplies for the Armegeddon.
They say keep three to six months which I don’t. I could last a month maybe. Maybe. I’m low on water. Water supply is something I didn’t plan for.
What gives you contentment as well as those around you?
Describe your self-contentment.
Without any weapons, what would be your first weapon?
With or without weapons, how do you negotiate out of a violent confrontation?
What do you say to someone who is threatening you?
What are intimidation or negotiation powers?
What are your other stragegies of non-violence?
How do you protect others?
Who do you protect?
What are your limits in protecting others?
That’s important. Even as a Freemason we’d have to say you’d only risk your life for another mason to a certain point. We’d actually draw the line even there.
What are your limits in protecting others?
How readily would you jump into a fight to protect a friend?
I’m a little too readily on that. I’m definitely the warrior. Done it many times. I’ve actually saved a few kids.
Here we go: How much abuse will you withstand or ignore before retaliating?
In other words, how much does someone have to rile you up enough to get a punch? What do they have to say? Is there some limit? If there is– you need to know what it is.
How can you avoid being threatened?
And I’ve almost made it here. Last one.
Explain our Shaolin Chi Mantis slogan: This is my school slogan. Invented back in 1992.
THE ULTIMATE SELF-DEFENSE is SELF-AWARENESS.
And I’m gonna leave you with that. That’s the end of the book.
The Ultimate self-defense is self-awareness.
And that’s what I teach. I’m Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang.
Go to www.ShaolinInteractive.com
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