Alright. Well I talked to Bear. He said we’ve gotta keep going. We’re just gonna finish this last one. He’s not gonna get off my lap. He’s purring away here.
Alright. Let’s read those again. That’s a lot of information there. I kind of go slowly. I’ll pause after each sentence. Think of them.
Artificial natures equal artificial rules.
‘Natures’ can be like a ‘Tao’ is too. But I’m. I edited it in the lower case, so when I’m saying, “artificial natures,” I think I’m thinking of artificial ways of thinking and behaving and living. Lifestyles. Not Mother Nature, but our nature, individually.
Artificial natures of people equal artificial rules.
Alright. Here we go. Let’s blast through this page and then I can go hang out with my kitty cat.
“Okay? Does that sound good Bear? We’ll go hang out.”
What abstract realities are you involved in? Why, and how do they affect you?
Let’s ask that question again. I’m not going to elaborate. Hurry a little bit more.
What abstract realities are you involved in? Why, and how do they affect you?
Once again, Lao Tzu seems to be differing from Confucius. How can this be utilized WITH the concepts of Confucius?
Cuz remember, these abstract realities, natures and rules and things like being a government official… Having to wear a tie. And having to talk nicely… These are all artificial. These are enforced natures.
So Lao Tzu is maybe complaining about it and saying, “Ahhh. I’m done being a court official. And having to kiss that guy’s butt all the time.” So he didn’t like those artificial natures. So he’s right. Those are artificial and some of them were not nice and that’s why we’re asking, how many of them are you involved in. But that doesn’t mean that the concept of being nice, and wearing a tie, or being civil to people is bad. It might just be bad in a certain environment.
How are you living by rules that you plan to escape?
Read this again. How are you living by rules, you plan to escape?
Do you allow people to be corrupt? Relatives, employees, your friends?
Corruption is everywhere. All over the place. You see it all the time. You might even be participating. But anyway–What’s your influence? What do you do when you notice it? What do you say?
Do you allow people to be corrupt? Your relatives, employee or friends?
Are you 100% honest? [LAUGHS]
It’s tough. I’d like to think I am. I’m kinda– rather than be honest I kind of do what Jordan Peterson says, which is– I– I’m not like Pence. Our Vice President who’s a professional liar. He skirts around the issues so beautifully. He’s the most amazing liar. You want to learn how to lie? Watch Mike Pence. He does it with… such a poker face. He’s a professional. He’s one of the best– I mean there’s a lot of good liars in the Senate. There’s some amazingly good liars. But some of them don’t have to lie. They’re just corrupt. They say as little as possible. Probably the best for them. The more they talk the more you can see how dishonest they are. But Mike Pence: Oh my goodness!
[BLOWING NOISE] Hairs everywhere.
Anyway, that guy just lies through his– He’s amazing. I mea like nh, I kind of thought he was nice and I tried to like him but now that we’ve seen him in some controversies and cover-ups… Man, he is, like I said, He’s a really, really, really proficient liar.
And if he doesn’t it. I’ll talk to him face to face about it. We’ll talk. If he wants to talk to me and say–and prove that that he’s wrong. We’ll go over the videotapes and I’ll show you where he’s a liar.
Okay, here we go. Where were we. Let’s get out of this.
Do you work differently when your boss is watching?
Do you work differently when your boss is watching?
Last question: What does it take for you to do your best work?
What does it take for YOU to do your best work?
Hey, The Daily Taoist here. Richard Del Connor. Better known as Buddha Zhen. Or… I don’t know. Maybe I’m not better known by any name. [laughs]
But I’d like to be known by something. And I want it to be good. And I want it to be positive of an influence on the world.
Like telling people how to vote. That is so corrupt! No party should ever tell people how to vote. Everyone should be voting for the right person.
We shouldn’t be hiring people to play football with our governement. And our Constitution. That’s all theyre doing. They’re playing games. It’s team games. It’s team sports. They’re playing team sports with our democracy.
Duty / obligation equals unnnatural conduct.
Yes. But do it for the right reason. Maybe it is unnatural t owear a tie and be polite and sit there for a long time. And be quiet–because that’s your job.
Okay. Promises equal distrust.
And that’s what I tell my friends. In fact somebody asked me about a movie I’ve been trying to make for five years. Kung Fu Cowboy movie which I wrote. It got a first place in a contest at one of those film festivals. He was calling me saying, “Hey I still want to pert of your movie.
And I say, “Yeah. My word’s good. You’re in there.” And we wer talking and I said, “I don’t make promises because my word is a promise. If I had to make a promise that means my words’ no good. I don’t make a promise–I just keep my word
Okay. I’m blasting along. I’ve got two more to do. ‘d’ and ‘e.’ #18d and #18e. I’m on page 32. And then 33.
Okay, the TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE. Lao Tzu wrote the original. Buddha Zhen here. I wrote the — this weird variation of it, in which I use his quote and then we answer all these questions that integrate that wisdom into our life.
Here we go. #18d.
TAO #18d When oaths and promises are required of workers, government officials, and members: deceit and corruption are already out of control.
Oh my goodness! The first thing Trump did was a landmark. He was asking for people to kiss his ring and swear loyalty and things to him. And you see: deceipt and corruption were already out of control the moment he entered there. When he was trying to do that–it was already out of control. It’s not that we had to see it. That, that… WOW!
When oaths and promises are required of workers, government officials– (Remember, that’s what Trump did. He wanted oaths from government officials.) –and members: then deceit and corruption are are already out of control.
Wow. That’s beautiful Lao Tzu. 2,200 years ago, and he predicted what we are so stupid–we put in power. We put in power exactly what he said to never do.
Okay. Here we go.
What oaths and promises have you made or required of others?
One more time: What oaths and promises have you made or required of others?
Well I can tell you one oath. I have taken that many oaths, but I swore an oath. And I remember all my oaths. And I remember all my Freemason oaths. Any oath I’ve made is an important oath. Those are like, in threat of life and death. An oath is.
So anyway, one of the oaths I made was that I would never ever support the Communist Party. And I had to swear that oath in order to become a Union Carpenter back in 1972 I think. So back in 1972 when I was sworn into the Carpenter’s Brotherhood. It’s the Union. It’s called actually, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Joiners are the people who work in wood shops. So, when I joined them I had to swear not only an oath of allegiance–some sort of whatever it was… But the only thing that stood out to me was: I had to swear that I would never support or be a Communist.
Now I don’t like to make promises that I’m not gonna guarantee, but I just kind of went along with it. Because I’d been conditioned through the Cold War and everything to not be a Communist. But I still had to think twice. But what if I decide it’s a good idea or something. I swore an oath that I would never do that.
So that’s why it really kind of irritates me to see that we’ve elected a Communist into–as our President. Our President is doing everything that I was told that a Communist would do if they took power… or could influence our government. We never actually thought of a Communist actually running our country. We always thought that a Communist would just merely kind of influence our government. Influence it to be corrupt. Influence it to be just evil, deceitful, or do something bad.
So that’s what I was raised to think Communism was. It was somethiyng that was trying to influence our government to not work properly. Wow! And then we elect somebody in there whose–he’s the most incredible Communist we’ve ever had in our government. He has disrupted our government and caused it to not function and fired more people and created more vacancies in our government than Communists have ever ever been able to do since I was born. As far as I know. I’ve never seen anything close to this. He has caused more damage that the CoImmunists would have applauded than any other human that I know of.
Anyway, that’s kind of interesting.
So, where was I? I got distracted because that was so poignant.
When do you make agreements you do not intend to keep?
When do you make agreements you do not intend to keep?
When do you require agreements from others you don’t expect them to keep?
When do you reequire agreements from others that you don’t expect them to keep?
Now Bear, you’re making it hard to read here. You’re gonna get your butt in the picture. [laughs] Okay.
How do you know you can trust someone?
How do you know that you can trust someone?
Well somebody wanted my attention. Hello Bear. Hello my little buddy. If I raise you up, can I get your head in the camera a little? Okay. Hello my buddhy. Purring away here.
He needed my attention. I guess he thought I was giving you too much attention. Hello my little friend. Okay. I’ve gotta kind of scoot him aside so I can read the next one.
When you say, “I promise,” is that different from when you say, “I will.”
Or, “I will do that.” “I promise I will do that.” So, how are those different to you?
When is it okay to break a promise?
When is it okay to break a promise?
Remember, marriage is supposed to be a promise. People break marriages.
When is it okay to break a marriage promise?
Hairs all over the place. [blowing noises]
Do you obey your father?
Do you obey your father?
Bear, do you obey me?
I have to create– Remember I was talking about rules? And ways to influence him, so that he’ll… avoid danger or… I have to sometimes NOT let him do what he wants to do or he’ll get run over. So I have to stop him from doing things. Was that a cat fart?
Okay. Here we go.
Do you obey your mother?
Okay. There’s two questions there. Do you obey your father? Do you obey your mother?
Okay. So answer both those and compare those answers. Now there’s another question to ask: Why is there a difference if there is one?
Do you obey your big brother?
Now we’re getting into Confucius. Now according to Confucius you should obey you should obey your mother as you’d obey your father. And you’d obey your big brother as you’d obey your mother. See. It’s a kind of chain of command.
But your brother, your older brother actually represents your father.
And your mother’s job is to put your older brother in his position. So she wants to train him to be the father that you’ll always have. So if ‘gone, there’s still a father in the family and the kids will still look at him–up to him as the father. When there’s no longer a father, the older brother takes over.
Okay? That’s the Confucian system.
Do you obey your employer or your boss? (That’s a good question.)
Do you obey your employere or your boss?
If your boss says, “Go do that.” Do you obey him? If he says, Idon’t know, “Go get me a cup of coffee.” Whatever’s within your job description. But if he says something, do you obey him? If he tells you what to do– Do you obey him?
Do you obey your spouse?
So if you’re a husband or a wife– Do you obey your parnter?
Do you obey ourself?
When you make rules for yourself, or tell yourself you’re going to do something– Do you obey yourself?
Hello there Bear. My little love bug. Just down here in my lap. [whispers to cat] Kind of putting his head up where you can see it. Ears at least. Yeah. Hello my little buddy. Yeah, he really just wants my attention right now. I think everyday we spend some time and I cuddle with him and hug him and play with him a little bit. I think maybe we didn’t do as much today as we usually do.
So he just came in and demanded his love. I’ve gotta appreciate that.
So he’s right here in the middle of my notebook. He’s got those binder rings here. He sleeps in uncomfortable positions. Bear. Let me see if I can get you more comfortable.
See you guys. Daily Taoist out of here. This was, oh, this was the one that is very poignant. This represents thte failing in our government and our America. America. America needs to learn #18d by Lao Tzu.
Lao Tzu said, When oaths and promises are required of workers, government officials, and members: deceit and corruption are already out of control.
Alright. Daily Taoist here. I told you I was gonna try to finish these 18s, and I’m on #18c. And I’ve g5 mileote ined a ‘d’ and an ‘e’ to do. Let’s see if I can blast you.
I’m reading from my book, TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE based on Lao Tzu’s book, The DAO TE CHING.
Okay, let’s see. Where are we? We’re on #18c page 31 of my book. And I’m claiming Lao Tzu said,
Tao #18c When families are organized and maintained by following rules: Nature is ignored.
Ah darnit. This is where people put that battle between Confucius and Lao Tzu out there. Because this seems like its at all odds with him. Most of the translations were of course like this. But I’ve come to have a broad understanding and realize the two were completely in harmony.
Okay. Here we go. But it’s the same as like a speed limit. It’s obeying the speed limits on the freeway. You can say, “Well I don’t want a speed limit. I want to go 100 miles per hour.) Well, it doesn’t matter. You’ve got to realize that organization is important. Rules, and following and maintaining those rules is important. Okay? And that’s all that Confucius is saying is that rules are better than not having any rules.
And it’s saying that Nature is ignored. And that’s true. We’re ignoring Nature when we go 65 miles an hour. You should be walking. [laughs] You’re defying Nature in that car. But anyway the Nature of that car is to only go so fast. And the Nature of the turns is to only go so fast. And the Nature of the traffic is to not go too fast and run into the car in front of you. l
So there’s all these Natures. All these Taos going on all the time. So even when we can change and create a mechanical Nature we’re still creating a mechanical Tao. A new Nature withing the real big natural Tao. Building a city on this planet is an unnatural environment but it’s still connected to the Tao. And within the environment of the city there’s a different kind of Tao when you are in the city, and sleep in the forest as opposed to sleep between two buidlings. It’s a little different, I mean two trees and two buildings. There’s all– but anyway.
So.. this is not the battle between Confucianism and Taoism everybody makes it out to be. They are in harmony.
When families are organized and contained by following rules Nature is ignored. That’s not all true. Because Nature requires harmony. If you go to a pack of wolves there’s certain rules that they have to keep the cubs from wandering off and getting eaten by another animal. So all Nature has rules. And this translation needs– Well you can see how it misleads people.
We’ll say Nature is ignored. Okay, so in that sense we’ll say it’s kind of right. So, I’m not gonna have to rewrite this but– We’re saying we’re ignorning the Nature that says we’re supposed to be walking. We’re saying we’re in a car going 65 miles an hour. When you born I don’t think that was predicted. You know, saying oh this guy’s gonna be cruising at 65 miles an hour in a machine sometime. So anyway, you define Nature. That’s something you created and imposed on Nature.
So you’re ignoring Nature when you’re in that car. You’re ignoring the wind. You’re rolling up the windows so you don’t even feel the air that’s outside. You are ignoring Nature.
So in that sense you’re right. But it’s not saying that it’s a problem–it’s a bad thing…
Just remember that some people– Don’t react to this information. Try to figure out how to use it. See, that’s why I’m here. Okay? I’ll show you how to use it.
Here we go.
What rules were you raised by that seemed unfair but simplified your parent’s control?
I’ve been a parent. I know this. You made rules that the kids don’t like but it makes your life simpler. Like, keep them in the house. Don’t let them run out where you can’t see where they’re at. So you make all kinds of rules that keep life simpler for YOU. That the kids may not appreciate at all. [laughs]
What rules do you employ that simplify life?
That’s a bit general. I didn’t say whose. I guess I’m saying the whole life around you.
What rules do you employ that simplify life?
I know of one woman who liked to simplify her life by having the kids watch TV. So that’s how she simplified here life was by having the kids watch TV.
Although a contemporary of Confucius, why does it appear he conflicts [LAUGHS] just remember I was already talking about this with Confucius and Lao Tzu.
What does it take to keep a family organized?
Rules. You can’t do it without rules.
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t answer your questions.
What does it take to keep a family organized?
There’s all kinds of answers.
I said, “I’m sorry.” I’ll interject again.
When should parents get a divorce?
When should parents get a divorce?
I got scolded a year ago. Sommadebody actually doesn’t like me and got mad at me about that I’ve been divorced. A fellow Catholic. Weird. That anybody’d get mad at you for being divorced. But anyway, he was saying, “You should get back!” She’s already remarried somebody else.
The whole concept of getting ge a divorce. When SHOULD parents get a divorce?
What is an ideal family in your opinion?
What is an ideal– You should write that down on a piece of paper and say, “Oh, when I get up in the morning my family does this… My wife does this…My kids or dogs are…Maybe you family doesn’t have any– it’s all pets. I don’t know. But whour at is your ideal family? YOUR ideal family.
Not the one– well actually, if you start writing it–you’ll realize, “Hey, this is my parent’s idea of an ideal family. But I don’t know if I buy into this.”
That might be good for you to realize. So anyway, just write it douuu’ve bwn right now and see what it is. Okay? Because you might actually realize you’ve been fooling yourself.
What is an ideal family? (In your opinion.) I put that in parentheses. So I guess I was trying to lead you to your own answer.
What do you know about filial piety?
Huh? Americans don’t know anything about that. It’s so embarrassing how Americans… Filial piety is one of the most ikmportant things you can learn in family structure. That’ll answer one of your questions from earlier.
What do you know about filial piety?
Filial piety is the one thing in the Eurd aop– In the Asian cultures: has proven to provide success–and huge success. it’s the filial– Filial piety I think has created has created an amazing amount of success. Obviously, there’s a down side to it too
If you’re– When I was– Like I said, I’ve been buying Kung Fu weapons since the seventies in Chinatown. I got to know a lot of store owners. Really personal over the years going there on a regular basis. And their kids grew up. I watched their kids in the store. Then they grow up, go to college and then they leave. And, I haven’t seen them– well, ten years ago, the last times I was visiting there buying weapons with my students–I was talking to them and they were like–these people are old and older than me and, they’re retired and their kids don’t want to have anything to do with the stores. They’ve gone on to their own businesses or other careers… whatever it is. But by filial piety their kids would run that store and take it over but– See, that would be more like a prison to put them in that position to take over that store. And they don’t want to. “I want to go to college. I want to go to Europe.” Don’t want to run a Chinese merchandise store.
So filial piety can unfortunately go astray In my own kids. I was– I pushed that on my own kids. I wanted them to run the school but realized, No, this wasn’t right for them, to take over my Kung Fu school. But that’s the normal thing in Chinese and even the martial arts thing is: your kids grow up and take it over. KIn fact a lot of martial artists who’ve passed away, have died and they say, “Where are their kids? ” And they didn’t do their martial arts. Like Bruce Lee’s daughter never did any Kung Fu. And she’s running the orgainzation. And Parker. I think Ed Parker maybe. I think he’s very famous as a martial artist. But his kid didn’t graduate the system. So since then I think they’ve tried to beef him up so he could kind of keep that thing going to represent the lineage of these other people who followed him
There’s all these things about propping people up into that filial piety thing that didn’t even exist. So it’s kind of an interesting thing.
How would your family be structured the same as your parents’ family?
Oh I’m gonna hurry and see if I can make my ten minute mark.
How would your family be structured the same as your parent’s family?
In other words, are you following– And if your parents have a good family and it’s going good and you follow it–That’s great.
See, that’s the problem with President Trump. He followed into the soup but he wasn’t suited for it. He didn’t have the acumen, the talent, the ability, or the honesty to do real estate business. He’s a crook. He’s a liar and a cheat. That’s not the kind of person you want to do business when you’re doing real estate. Especially big money like that. Cheating people out of little money’s bad, horrible… But cheating people out of millions of– well, it’s the same thing.
Okay. Here we go. Describe someone’s family that you envy or respect.
There you go. So you can start over. Maybe you were born in the wrong family. “Oh, I wish I was born in that family.”
Look at that and structure that. Just decide what your reality–your Tao.
Remember? This is the TAO of TAOISM.
There’s always different realities. And none of them are wrong. Unless you’re in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the wrong Tao. They can’t be right.
That’s what your goal is: to make the RIGHT TAO.
Should a wife obey her husband?
There’s a question that will open up a lot of understandings for you because this is very important.
Should a wife obey her husband?
Remember I wrote this thirty years ago. Before i actually learned Confucianism and everything.
If you’re a Methodist, they took it out of the vows. A wife never says she will obey her husband.
Should a husband obey his wife?
I’m not sure what your other answer was but what’s your answer to this one?
Should a husband obey his wife?
Who should the children obey?
The mother? The father? Nobody?
Who should the children obey?
How do you teach children to be obedient?
Ooops. Ten minutes.
How do you teach children to be obedient?
Or do you? Should you? Some people think you shouldn’t.
So okay, there’s your questions.
And now let’s go back to the very beginning of it and see what Lao Tzu said. See if I kind of led you to integrate that into your life.
When families are organized and maintained by following rules. Nature is ignored.
Ah! Let’s look at that as a positive. If people’s Nature is to be selfish and greedy and do terrible things and run out in the street and get run over–
Then we want to basically ignore their Nature and say, “No. This is the new Tao and this is what you should do. Forget your Nature and your wants and your desires to fit into this Tao. Artificial Nature I’m creating– which is my Tao.”
Okay. So hey. There’s the positive of this. IS that sometimes you need to ignore Nature. You need to ignore your desire in order to get something accomplished correctly.
Hey, I said i was gonna sit down and run but it looks like I’m gonna do about five of these things in this sit down session here. Let’s see if I can finish my 18s. I’ve got five of these things.
#18b: When information becomes abstract, complicated, scientific, or too elaborate in becomes unnatural to understand, and leads to ignorance of the underlying truths.
Ouch. That was a big one.
Hey. Buddha Zhen, the Daily Taoist here. And we’re working in my book, the TAO OF TAOISM. And this is #18b. Now Lao Tzu supposedly wrote this. Let’s see if we can understand it. I paraphrased it and… I’ve got a lot of words in here.
When information becomes abstract– (Okay. Like “Make American Great.” That’s abstract. That means absolutely nothing.) –complicated– (Or complicated? How would you make something complicated? Oh, let’s make it like MC-squared. What?) –scientific– (I just said that. “Like it was 300 years ago on this particular date in this season…”) –or too elaborate– (See. I’m kind of one step ahead here. Okay like this-and-this-and-this…) –it becomes unnatural to understand.
Okay. So when information becomes abstract, complicated, scientific, or too elaborate: it becomes unnatural–to understand. And leads to ignorance of the underlying truths.
Oh man. Is that so true! You see, that’s the secret of our current political climate. The Republicans love this. They want the information to be abstract so that the underlying truths will support ignorance. In other words they don’t want you to know the truth. So this is– Look at this! This is actually– this is a little triumvirate of how to put this thing together.
When information becomes complicated, scientific, abstract, too elaborate it becomes unnatural to understand. So you have to FORM an understanding. They TELL YOU what the understanding is. That’s the trick: is they TELL YOU WHAT TO THINK. Here’s this information that doesn’t make sense. It means this: “Oh. Okay.”
Now they have basically used your ignorance to make you think in a way that actually has no reality. [laughs]
That’s cool. That’s the science of politics right there.
Are your rules and ethics understandable and simple? Explain them.
I gave you four lines to do it.
Are your rules and ethics understandable and simple? Remember, we were talking about that before. You have all these rules and ethics. You should be a little more familiar with who you are and what you are. So are they understandable to other people? Are they simple? Are they complicated? Explain them. Either way.
Which of your rules and ethics are not so simple or understandable by others?
Okay, so some of these things may be understandable to you, but how easy is it for other people to understand and appreciate them?
Like one of mine about writing music and poetry. People just grasp that. “What do you have to do that for?” “I don’t have to do that.” “I never want to do that.” “You have to do that? That’s ridiculous.” They don’t understand. It’s okay. So… I’ve just had to live my life with the fact that most people aren’t going to understand my ambitions, lifestyle… is important to me. And here I am 66 years old still–you know, kind of fighting with–even my family. Sorry. I just have to accept the fact that a lot of people are never going to understand me.
What is your purpose in life if there is an afterlife?
Oooh. Well my purpose in life is to — actually this is kind of an interesting thing: is to end all wars. There never needs to be another war on this planet. Ever. Wars are so ridiculous and stupid its amazing. Its amazing. There never needs to be a war. Ever. Ever again. If you think there is–then you’re the problem. You don’t need to have a war. Anything that a war can solve–can be solved without the war. There’s a way to do it without war. Okay. Anyway, that’s one of my purposes in life.
And one of my ways to do that– is actually: if I can make people smarter and happier I think that they’ll be able to understand that. Right now, the way it is: people are greedy and mean. Selfish and corrupt. So they think war is a cool thing. Wow. I talk to people. They believe in war. They support war. The think, “War has to exist. War needs to exist.”
Sheesh. I can’t even talk people out of it right now.
So that’s my goal to make people happier and smarter so they can go, “Oh yeah. You’re right. We don’t have to have a war.” “Yeah look. There’s no reason to have a war.”
Simple as that.
Okay. What is your purpose in life if there is NO AFTERLIFE or soul?
Same thing either way. I’m hoping my legacy will be to make people happier and smarter and healthier. AND HEALTHIER. Make people healthier they’ll live longer.
So what is my purpose in life if there is no— I guess it’s that same thing. Whether I have an afterlife or not– It’s not gonna affect what I’m leaving behind. So I’m willing to just leave it behind… And there we go. I’ll go on to my next thing.
But actually, if I am going to believe in an afterlife–I’ve got all kinds of religions. I’m a member of so many different religions and believe in all of them–One at a time. And seriously, I could spend one day in each religion. Be a lot of fun. Be a Catholic one day. Native American the next day. Taoist the next way-day. And a Buddhist the next day. And a Confucianist the next day. Then start– I could just have fun each day. And each one I’d… Okay.
But, which afterlife would I prefer?
Ahhhhhh. Now that’s an interesting question. I wouldnt-didn’t have this answer when I wrote this book thirty years ago. And… I’ve studied a lot more religions and books and I know a lot more about the afterlife. That’s why I’m not sure I’m coming back. I may want to mess around. If there is an afterlife: there’s a chance I can control my spirit. And I’m not sure why. Actually I might be… My friend who passed away last week gave me a clue as to how I can control myself in the afterlife. And in his case we were just starting to talk about it and he was kind of perturbed. He was helping me with my ‘5 Soul Concept.’ He had a WOMAN in the first position so he wasn’t real happy about that. But he couldn’t disavow it. [laughs] He was not real happy about that. But still, if he would’ve just hung in there… He could’ve accepted it. And dealt with it better. But we hadn’t quite gotten to that.
And that’s what I was trying to do, was help people. USE what they have to their best ability.
Let’s see. I got on that for some reason. Oh. And I was kind of starting to think maybe the reason I can control myself in the afterlife is because when I– if I did. IF I did get a vision of his after- of his final moment in the spirit– Separation between us and them… I tried to reach him. Or say, “Hello,” after I found out… Found out hours after so I don’t know. But in my mind, or in my imagination: I had a very bizarre image of him leaving our reality. Which gave me some clues as to how to control leaving this reality–if there is a spiritual world. And I saw something I’d never seen before. When I saw this. So like I said… Could’ve been my imagination. But it’s something I’ve never seen before, and I’ve imagined it since. Still– I’m stilltrying to grasp that or understand that image that I saw.
But it made me consider the possibility that it’s your merging– Remember I was talking about those 5 souls? If you can get those souls to connect better–then you have more control in the afterlife. But if they all just split apart– you don’t have as much control. And you’re just drawn off to those directions in the afterlife.
So that’s one of the things I’m studying now is, can I control the afterlife by keeping my souls together. Or at least two or three of them. Or something like that. Could that give me more power in the afterlife, as opposed to being just one WORKER soul or a WOMAN soul. If I’m a WOMAN-WORKER-WARRIOR soul. Or a MUSICIAN, MANAGER, WARRIOR… does that give me more power in the afterlife? If I can fuse those spirits in the afterlife. That’s what I’m working on.
Sorry if I freaked you out. But anyway. I’ve gotta start plugging that book. Because I’m gonna release it in the next year or two. So I’d like to get a little buzz going. Because it’s obviously gonna freak people out. Whether it’s true or not. It’s a different way to look at things. But its really made everything understandable.
Everything that I could not understand about my family, my kids, my ex-wives… When I look at it throught ‘5 Souls’ now I can– I can be at peace now. I can be a happy Taoist now that I understand that. It allows me to put everything into perspective.
Eight minutes here. Daily Taoist getting out of here.
Oh, did I read this at the end of it? What we were supposed to read? Yeah. I think we did. The underlying truths. And everything being abstact. And people can then control how you think. And lead you in ignorace even when you don’t know it.
Yeah, so…Watch out for slogans. I was anti-slogan for years. Then I came to realize we all think in slogans.
So how can I use slogans to be more positive.
You’ll see me use them to some extent. But I’m actually ANTI-slogan. And there’s a reason for that. I want to get out of here before the 10-minute mark.
The reason for not believing slogans is because they STOP your thinking.
In other words, as soon as I said, “Yeah. But that’s good enough.” Then the conversations ended.
So be careful. Slogans END CONVERSATIONS.
Or, “It’s better than that.” Something like that. Those are slogans. The end the conversation.
So be real careful. We all use them all the time.
I’ve been trying to get them out of my life because they end conversations and THEY END YOUR THINKING process.
The Daily taoist getting out of here saying, “My slogan is to end all slogans.”
Just use them appropriately and know when you’re using them.
Hey! Buddha Zhen, the Daily Taoist popping in here real quick and then I’m gonna run away.
This is #17 on page 28 of the TAO OF TAOISM written by me, based upon the Dao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. This is #18a. This one had so much to unpack in it–it’s #18. That I broke it down all the way to #18e. I had to break it into five sections to make sense of this thing.
So here’s what I say. This is #18 of– There’s 80 of them actually, and this book has forty of them. Then I was going to break it into two books, because this is a huge book.
Okay. #18a by Lao Tzu; paraphrased by THE Daily Taoist, Buddha Zhen here.
Tao #18a To deviate from Nature– (Anytime I say, “Nature,” I mean “The Tao.”) —To deviate from Nature is to create new rules that are unbalanced with Nature. Any rules or activities not in balance with Nature are evil and destructive.
Well, like dumping your chemicals into a river. We don’t want those chemicals over here so we’re saying dump them over there. Okay?
So that rule was not balanced with Nature. That unbalanced rule or activity that’s not in balance with Nature is like I said, evil and destructive.
There’s a real simple example.
Let me read it one more time and then I’ve only got two things to read here. This’ll be kind of a quick one.
What are your rules, ethics, morals, codes of conduct, or religious principles?
And then look. I gave you like five lines to answer that question. So that’s why this is important. That’s why I–Just unpacking that.
What are your rules? List them out. Seriously. Who are you? And what are your rules or ethics. Yeah, your morals. Your codes of conduct. Think about those.
Codes of Conduct of YOU
Codes of conduct. You’re probably not aware of it. But if you had to train someone to be you– Say, “Hey. Listen. I’m going to disappear for a month. I’m going to be gone for a month and I want you to take my place.”
And the guy goes, “Okay. What do I do?”
Well, you’ve gotta tell him. How hes’ gonna eat. When he’s gonna go places. And how he’s gonna talk to people. Who he likes. Who he doesn’t like.
Okay? So somebody’s gotta impersonate you. If you had to train someone to impersonate you– What would you tell him are you tell him are your rules, your ethics, your morals because maybe this person’s a liar, and doesn’t care, or he cusses… And you go, “No. No. No. I have a rule. I don’t cuss. Oh no. I don’t do that. I don’t touch people like that–” Or… I don’t… You’ve got rules and ethics. So anyway: what are your rules and ethics? You are obviously different from somebody else. And this how you define your separation from them. Okay?
So. You’ve got to think– If you’re driving forget it. Well, maybe think of it a little bit. I’ve got a big space here, so I’m gonna make this a short podcast. So you can just kind of concentrate on ur that. Think of all your rules and ethics, morals…
I have another book that I wrote for my daughter fifteen years ago when she thought she was gonna be an actress. It’s called, ACT ZEN. And it’s basically– Actually it’s based on my movie career. My training at UCLA being a director and how to create a character. And so what I did was I took that — and then I took everything I learned about Zen Buddhism and thought, “How do you take a person and shape their character with Zen Buddhism… And then as an actor make them fluid in that so they can create other people but then they can go back to being the person they wanted to be originally–that they’d already pre-designed. So that’s what ACT ZEN is.
I designed this so first of all you decide WHO your are. And then you can be somebody else. And then you can go back to being who your. I call that ACT ZEN, or ACTING ZEN, or Act Zen to Act Naturally. All these little slogans I made for it.
But it really works. Well, it’s just good for everybody. Because we’re always acting. When you go into a business and you’re going to be a salesman you have certain roles– An acting role that you have to do. And so you should know what that is. And then when you go home, you’re not gonna try to sell your kids and everybody like you do every day. You have a whole different attitude than how you play with your kids and how you treat somebody out on the parking lot trying to sell them a acar.
So you can Act Zen: is to be able to define who you are in your different roles.
So how are any of these rules that you are making are out of balance with Nature?
Some of these rules you’re living by, and codes of conduct might out of Nature… Out of contact… Maybe getting up in the morning. [laughs] That’s– Your nature says, “No. I’ve gotta sleep in until 10:00 every day. I just can’t go to sleep before two in the morning…” So maybe that’s your Nature.
I hope I’m not getting you in trouble. I don’t want to give you any bad ideas.
Anyway.
What is your Nature?
Whatever it is. Just say what it is. If that’s what it is– I accept it.
So then I have “My Suggestions.” and that’s it.
So let me read what Lao Tzu said. I should always try to remember to go back and wrap up at the end.
#18a in my book, the TAO OF TAOISM:
To deviate from Nature, or The Tao, is to create new rules that are unbalanced with the Tao. Or Mother Nature. Any rules or activities not in balance with The Tao, (Nature), are evil and destructive.
Tell me if I’m wrong. To be honest with you I’m looking at them from different perspectives. [laughs]
Alright. The Daily Taoist here, Buddha Zhen here. I’m thinking about this too. So let me think about it. You think about it…
Alright. Daily Taoist here. And I’m on NUMBER 17 and then I’m gonna cut it for today.
This is of my book, the TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR DAILY LIFE. In which Lao Tzu wrote a bunch of stuff in Chinese two thousand and some hundred years ago. And then a bunch of people translated it. And I thoug.ht some of the people didn’t really understand it As accurate as they may think they’re translating it, they may not– I don’t think they have quite the meaning. And then if you do have the meaning– How do you take that wonderful saying and implement it into your life? Like: “The most beautiful tree gets cut first.” Or “The strongest tree gets cut first.”
“Oh that makes sense.”
No. No. How do you get that into your daily life?
That’s why some people get fat and ugly. So they don’t get chopped down. They don’t want to be first chosen.
Or some people get extra dressed up and super fancy beca use they want to be first pick.
So you’ve gotta look at– There’s a Tao in everything.
So if you look at Taoism, then try to figure out how you’re– how that plays into your life, or your reality– Then it’s useful.
And that’s my goal: is to make it useful.
So we’re on NUMBER 17. On page 28 of my book, the Tao Of Taoism. T-A-O I’m spelling it, even though in Mandarin in China they say D-A-O. But to kind of compromise I’ve got, “Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your daily Life–to Improve Your Daily Life. I’ve got D-A-O in the subtitle. So it’s both. It’s actually D-A-O is more–the correct way now. T-A-O is the outdated way. But in America we don’t know better.
Here we go. NUMBER 17 page 28.
Tao #17 Employees / students must be as satisfied with their work as employers / teachers are with the results.
That’s an interesting harmony.
So the employees must be as satisfied with their work as their employers are with the results?
And the students should be satisfied with their work as the teachers are. With the results.
See that balance there? There’s a balance going on. A harmony.
So remember Taoism is about harmony, or finding disharmony. So you can go back to harmony. Because harmony always works better. You can use disharmony for certain purposes– like friction. Or like pain. Something you don’t want to really have.
Here we go.
Do you enjoy being productive? And how?
Do you enjoy being productive? And how?
Is your current job your career?
Explain how it is part of your path.
Remember, your path is your long-term–life plan. Or at least the next ten-year plan.
We should really plan our life in ten year chunks. By the time you get to the end of that ten years. What you wanted to do in 20 years, which is only ten years ahead–might be totally different. So ten years is a better way to plan. Think 20, 30, 40. Like me, fortunately I’ve done Kung Fu since 1980 and 2020. So forty years of Shaolin Kung Fu is kind of made me a healthier, happier guy than most people my age. So think ahead a little bit. Even then I wasn’t thinking ahead to that extent. I was really lucky. I was just thinking, “This is my path.” I put it in my path and it’s always felt right. So by being a Taoist. By being in harmony I knew I was making the right decisions and sure enough: I can say forty years later, “Yeah. I was making the right decison.” Made a lot of other right decisions too.
And I made wrong decisions. And I knew it. Not at the time. But I can tell you now I– anyway explain more later.
Here we go.
Do you enjoy satisfying your employers? And how?
When I say employers and going to mean teachers. Just interject teachers where I use employers. And if I say worker, it could be student.
Do you enjoy satisfying your employers? And how?
How are you maturing in your current job?
How are you maturing in your current job?
I don’t know how much i should be interjecting here. The “5 Souls Theory” has totally messed up my perspective of reality. Because I’ve come to realize that women– Remember my ‘5 Soul Concept?’ If you’ve been following along here. Hopefully you didn’t just jump in here at this point.
According to my ‘5 Soul Concept’ 80% of all people or more are just the WOMAN soul and the WORKER soul. You can kind of think of it as male, female. But they’re not distributed sexually. Where as a woman can be born with the WORKER soul in the first position and a WOMAN soul in the second. So in her case, she’s gonna be happier working than hanging out with the kids. Now another woman might be born with the WOMAN soul in the first position and WORKER soul here, and she’d be happy working in a day care center, working with kids. The other one wants a real job. Sorry. Not a real job but a normal job like you’d think of to make a lot of money. That doesn’t have anything to do with the family.
Now a man can be born with a WOMAN soul in the first position and a WORKER in the second. So the man who’s a WORKER soul– he’s never gonna be happy about his job. Always be complaining. So he should find the kind of job where nobody minds if he complains and he’s gonna happily complain for the rest of his life and get a paycheck. That’s fine. And he’s got a WORKER soul to keep him going. “Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah…”complaining, but goes to work. So that’s fine. Now what if it’s a WORKER soul, then a WOMAN soul. Well, in this case the WORKER’s not going to complain. He might have a little bit more ambition. Be able to go a little farther.
He cannot be a MANAGER though. This is what I didn’t know until just the last few years. I thought that a WORKER could just be educated and mental conditioned… trained into being a MANAGER. No. I’ve worked with all kinds of people in my nonprofit and come to realize that is not true. Some people, if they don’t have that– Even with the WORKER soul, they’re still a WORKER. And even if you give them a management position–they just want to be paid and go home. But not worry about the job. They don’t have the management attitude which is the owners–taking responsibility for like a child. Adopting the business. They still just want to work. Just a higher capacity. So that’s still a worker. Not a management pereson. They can be a foreman, but not a manager.
So when I look at these questions, I have a whole different perspective on them. So when you answer them, I have a different way of analyzing them. Let’s just go with this, because I wrote this–what, thirty years ago.
Here we go.
What jobs do you do that waste your time and talents?
So what jobs are you doing that–you’re just wasting your time? Or your talents?
Maybe there’s none.
What are your reasons for keeping the job that you do have?
So whatever job you have now–Why are you going to keep it? Why would you keep it rather than quit?
What are your reasons to quit the job you have?
So if you were to quit it– What would be your reasons?
Besides a job– How else could you earn a living?
Marry well. I’d recommend that. I came from a generation threw marriage out so that option wasn’t really conditioned into me. But when I was an artist, and even when I w weras a Freemason: a lot of the Freemasons said, “You just need to marry well.” They were trying to hook me up with some Freemason widows. [laughs] Freemasons all take care of their widows. If you’re a Freemason and you die: the Freemasons will always watch out for your ex-wife. Make sure she’s fed. They’ll check on her. They have weekly things. And they have annual things where they call in all the widows and give them a chance to socialize and maybe find a new husband or something. Things like that.
Anyway. That’s an old thing that goes back for thousands of years. And then the Freemasons kind of in 1717 kind of codified all this stuff. And made it a standardized process. All masons would be good to widows.
So just saying, marrying is a good–
Sorry. See. I said I’m said, “I’m sorry.” I’m gonna interrupt again.
Besides a job. How else could you earn a living?
If you could be paid to do anything that you want to do– What would you do?
I’ve got a bunch of answers for that. What’s your answer.
If you could be paid to do anything—
If I said, “I’ll pay you $200 a day. $300 as day.” That’s not a real lot of money. But maybe a lot more than you’re used to. More than I’m used to. If I could give you $300 a day to work for me for eight hours– What would you do? How would I get my money’s worth out of you?
Do you feel guilty when you don’t have a job?
So if you’re not working. Want to be working. But you can’t seem to be working. Do you feel guilty because you’re not working?
What talents do you possess or desire to develop which could possibly be profitable?
Remember I wrote this for my students. So in a way I’m trying to nurture and look for any artists out there.
I’ve since learned that I don’t want to push people into art. Not even my own kids. I pushed them to be artists but they weren’t artists.
It was good that they got that art training. I’m never going to regret giving it to them. But I didn’t realize that it wouldn’t stick. That was an interesting thing to learn.
But if some of your talents did stick– What are they?
What talents do you possess or desire to develop that could possibly be profitable?
And maybe you’re wrong. Go ahead and dream. Answer that question.
Hey. It’s been nine minutes. I’m going to get out of here before the ten minute mark.
See ya. Daily Taoist here. Buddha Zhen
Go to ShaolinInteractive.com and sign up for $998 I think. It’s actually cheaper than these guys sell computer courses for. $1,000 is their starting price.
So anyway, for a thousand bucks and you’re going to get one year of training. You send me videos and I– It’s going to be the next best thing to being with me. It might even be better than being with me. You get that video and you can do the class over and over… Rather than trying to remember what I taught you.
This one I’ve got right here today is– I’m not sure how much to say. But here we go.
Daily Taoist 27 is Buddha Zhen reading Tao #16 of the book Tao of Taoism based on the writings of Lao Tzu.
NUMBER 16 of Lao Tzu’s DAO TE CHING. And… we’re reading my book. My version of it called TAO OF TAOISM – USING THE DAO TE CHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE.
And so here we go. #16.
I’m Richard Del Connor. Buddha Zhen.
Oh yeah. I should be doing a commercial. Go to ShaolinInteractive.com and for a thousand bucks sign up for one whole belt rank. I don’t know how many videos per each one. A lot. 80 videos per each belt rank. So 80 videos and… We actually give you uniforms and all kinds of stuff under that price. So the actual cost of the class comes out to $5 a class I think. Something like that. [laughs] So that’s a good deal. Each video, they start at about 45 minutes and go up to like two hours so–
Let’s back to #16. This is a tough one. I was kind of perplexed. All these things I was thinking. Let’s get this out of my system. That’s why I’m here. Getting this book out of my system. I’m learning. I’m learning a lot with you. I wrote this book years ago. But the idea here is to learn how to use it to shape your life. Look. It’s all blanks. More blanks than words.
Here we go. NUMBER 16.
Being aware of the Nature of events– (Remember I use ‘Nature’ wherever you’d use ‘Tao.’ The Tao of events. The Nature. The Mother Nature of events.) –is to accept not only the completion of events, but also the declines of success.
Let’s finish this. This is one to unpack. There’s a lot here.
To be absorbed by achievements, or cling to rewards: is to decline with them.
That’s like– I dunno. Off the top of my head: a boat. If you built a boat. So to be absorbed by your achievements: “I built a boat. I want to tell everybody I built that boat.” Ten years later, “I built a boat…”
Okay. Maybe you even won an award in a race ten years ago. “I built a boat that won a race twenty years ago.”
…is to decline with them.
Well maybe that year that was great. The next year it’s like, “Yeah. That was last year. What are doing this year?” I’m talking about last year… “Two years ago…”
“Yeah, you already told us.”
Three years later: “Hey, I built that boat that won three years ago.”
Then, “Yeah, I know. You already told us.”
Then he’d meet somebody ten years later. “Hey I built a boat that won a race ten years ago.”
“Oh. Okay. Good.”
So once again you can kind of see the decline of appreciation of clinging to that event. And in the martial arts world I’ve been very impressed, or unimpressed… disappointed to see how people have clung to their rewards or their awards they received thirty, forty, fifty years ago. [laughs] What have they done since?
So, anyway… It’s kind of sad. You’ve gotta move on. Getting new awards. New rewards… like an actor. So what if you won an award in 1989. It’s 2020 now. What are you going to do now.
Well, you’re retired. Okay. That’s fine. Okay–if you’re not going to do anything– then that’s the time to look backwards.
But if you’re still moving forwards then let’s keep looking at you today and forwards… Okay?
Okay. So let’s read that one more time.
Being aware of the Nature of events is not only accept the completion of events– (Okay. Building the boat. And maybe winning a race.) –but also the declines of success.
Okay. To win is great. But if you’re not going to keep winning then– the new winners.
To be absorbed by achievements, or cling to rewards– (or awards– as I put it) –is to decline with them.
Even a reward. “Yeah, I made a thousand bucks off that–that race.”
Okay. Well what’s that worth now? …don’t get corny. [laughs] Alright? All the bucks is gone. You spent it.
Questions in the Tao of Taoism to be answered by THE READER.
So let’s go. Here we go real fast. It’s already been four minutes. I’m trying to figure out how long it takes to make this show. Because I’m going to record a real audiobook.
Do you appreciate a third place winning as much as a first place winning and why? Do you appreciate, a third place winning as much as a first place winning… and why?
Do you work harder to win something that you normally work at similar things? And why? Whoops. Let me read that again. Do you work harder to win something THAN you normally work at similar things? And why?
Oh okay. So you see if you want to WIN something–do you work harder at it than something else you do very similar?
But in order to WIN you work harder.
How quickly do move on to another goal when one goal is completed? How quickly do move on to another goal when one goal is completed?
How do you know when one goal is completed? How do you know when one goal is completed?
How do you decide–How do you decide what your next goal is? How do you decide what your next goal is?
How obligated do you feel about continuing what you’re already successful at? Remember I told you about people who ride that old success. How obligated do you feel aout continuing what you’ve already been successful at?
That was one of the things I was explaining in a previous podcast. I didn’t want to be successful at being a television repairman. Because that success was going to hold me back. Wouldn’t propel me forward. Not where I wanted to go.
How do you feel about other people. How do you feel about how people view you after winning or achieving something?
When you win or achieve something–like you run a race. And then you win. How do you think people look at you? And talk about you. And think about you.
Do you feel required to continue a success for family or friends.
So if you did win that race: then your family and friends are going to expect you keep winning it over and over… Right? How are you going to satisfy them? Whatever that that you’ve done successfully? Maybe it’s making a bunch of money in a business deal.
Must you display your trophies prominently? Do you feel compelled? Do you have all your stuff out?
I do have some of my stuff out, but it was kind of interesting as I was putting it out. I was kind of realizing how I was kind of saving certain things for when I was a senior and retired… Then I thought, “HEY. I’m a senior.” I’m not retired yet. [laughs] I’m 66 years old. I was planning on unpacking this stuff ten years ago because I thought I was gonna retire at 55. I thought that was going to be over the hill.
I’ve also some free website. A free–the first five classes. You can go to ShaolinKungFuBeginner.com and take those. And then retake them at ShaolinInterative.com Keep going for 190 videos.
Okay. So where are we?
And you only get like three a week. It’s gonna take you along time. Think of it as a lifestyle.
That my heater? I think I turned it down to 75. So it wouldn’t turn on.
Do you feel you must meet standards represented by your rewards or successes?
And how long do you discuss your winnings and achievements after they’ve occurred?
Remember we’re talking about how you deal with it and connect to the past. Okay?
What organizations are you a member of and why?
And I gave like four lines, so, I mean, you don’t have time to–maybe you’re driving or something… so don’t get in a car accident. Anyway. Think of the organizations you’re a member of and WHY are you a member of those organizations? A couple I’ve dropped out of over the years. Like SMPTE. Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers. Or “AND” Television Engineers. Motion Pictures and Television Enginners. Because when I went to UCLA and graduated I had to choose between television and motion pictures. There were two of them. Totally separate: video and film. Now they’ve kind of merged. [laughs] Everything’s digital now. But you had to go one way or the other. SMPTE. The Society of Motion Picture Television–Motion Picture AND Television Engineers. I used to be a member of them when I graduated UCLA–I was a part of that.
And I thought, “Well, I’m not really working in the industry any more.” 90s you know. And I had to pay annual dues. It was only like thirty bucks but when you really get poor that can seem like a lot of money.
Sorry. I digress. Where are we?
What organizations of–Okay. Which of these organizations no longer serve a useful purpose for you?
I just answered that one for me. You personally.
What organizations would serve you better–that you’re not a member of?
So rethink that. Things have changed. I do Kung Fu, so I’ve been looking for Kung Fu organizations to join.
And I found a few of them. But most Kung Fu people are kind of poor like me because they’re not putting out a lot of members. It takes a lot of money to run an organization. And throw those banquets–you gotta pay like fifty bucks and– fifty bucks for a dinner is a lot for me. And then you’ve gotta contribute to the organization so they can do some paperwork and letterhead. I don’t have any money to help them after that. So I don’t begrudge them for wanting membership fees and paying for these annual banquets. I’m just looking forward to being able to afford them. And then I was going to join some.
What achievements pertain to your new goals?
My new goals. Well if I was to say that goal of joining those organiztions and attending more of their events and tournaments. Then, just … yeah. The achievements I need are selling the classes and getting recognized as a COOL online Shaolin Kung Fu Kwoon. Which means school.
Lastly: What new goals would benefit from which new achievements to be attained? What new goals would benefit– So what of your new goals would benefit from these new achievements that you want to attain?
Summaries by Buddha Zhen
Gee that was a complicated question.
So in other words you’ve gotta look at that. You start thinking of the next one. You’ve gotta look at them snowballing. You finish one movie as an actor and you’ve gotta get started on the next one. You don’t just start talking to everybody about that movie you made ten years ago. Not talking about it. You’ve got to go on to the next goal.
So if you can you want to leverage each achievement to kind of springboard you into the next one.
So, “HEY this movie I’m in–is like this movie…” So you’re already pitching for your next movie before you even finish it. And then when its done, hopefully you did a good job and you want to hurry up and get a job while everybody’s excited about it. Because a year later, “You made that move a year ago. Do anything since then?”
So you want to kind of keep moving forward. There’s my suggestion. That’s how you want to be with the Tao. The Tao of an actor is actually to keep moving. Not just keep talking about that one movie you made. You know you just want to keep moving. No matter how good a movie you make or you get an Oscar–You can’t look at that as a peak. It’s just another movie. Going on down the line.. But you obviously leverage them. Use the Tao to play with them.
Here I go. The Daily Taoist, Buddha Zhen here. See ya on our next Daily Tao.
Hey by the way, I’m doing everything here for free. You should go to my ShaolinInteractive.com website. And sign up for my Kung Fu classes. Yeah. That’s my advertisement.
Okay. This is– I’m reading from the Dao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Written 2,000 or some years ago. 2,500 years ago. 2,200. And I made my own version of it called– you can see back here over my shoulder: The Tao of Taoism – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Daily Life.
Here we go. I’m on page 26 and this is NUMBER 15. Now in this case. What we’re talking about, he’s got — I’m looking at it. It says, FOUR LEVELS OF INFLUENCE. And there’s four numbers here and four things.
Number 1: These are “Four Levels of Influence.” Condemnation of Conduct.
In other words, “condemn.” We’re telling someone they’re doing something bad. That’s how you can influence somebody. That’s one. You condemn their conduct.
Number 2: Fear of punishment or denied rewards.
Now he’s saying, “If this is bad–This is gonna happen.”
Number 3: Motivate by loyalty, honor, self-interest, money, rewards and flattery.
That’s a positive, but you’re bribing.
First one is you condemn them. You make them feel bad.
The second one is you actually make them fear something that makes you disliked.
Third one is to be bribed.
And the fourth one is to influence without those being influenced being aware of it.
So, can you just communicate with people and get them to kind of go along with you without effort. So in that way, you’re influencing them without them realizing you are influencing them. So through slogans, and emotions, or– There’s lots of ways you can do that.
I’m watching our President do this– It’s amazing watching politics 2020. I never realized how corrupt and evil and whatever it is–and can so easily be. It’s going to be interesting to see how in the future people can use politics to create good things for the purpose of good. Because we’re really seeing it used for the powers of corruption. Those wheels in power could be changed to where corruption isn’t making all the final decisions. I’m in an interesting world. So the future has some interesting possibilities. See what happens.
So anyway, FOUR LEVELS OF INFLUENCE.
So regarding those now under your influence or that you influence: students, children, your employees: How do you use condemnation of conduct to influence and control them?
So how do you condemn. Like, make a rule: “No spitting on the sidewalk.” You’ve condemned it. How do you condemn their conduct?
Number 2 or next: How do you use fear of punishment or denied reward: “Spit on the sidewalk is a $50 fine.” Okay answer that. Take it up a notch.
How do you use fear of punishment or denied reward?
How do motivate by loyalty, honor, money, rewards and flattery?
Hey! Those who don’t spit on the sidewalk can join my special club and have free pizza. [laughs]
How do use motivate by loyalty, honor, money, rewards or flattery to get people to do what you want?
And fourth: How do you influence without those being influenced being aware of it? So how do you influence people without them being aware of it?
That’s more subtle. Like by good example. Nicest one is set a good example and that influences people’s behavior.
I’ve caused a lot of trouble over the years by picking up trash. When I’d walk my kids to school, I just couldn’t ignore it. So me and my kids started picking up the trash. When we moved to Tujunga there was a lot of trash. So little by little cars started honking at me. As they went by. They’d see what we were doing. And then next thing I know the neighbors of course are talking about it. The whole street all the way up to the school was not one single piece of trash. [laughs] And so we kind of got a reputation. I started to see other people do it.
Similar thing happened at an apartment complex where I was living. Most of the people there– The landlord was getting subsidized by the government for bringing people from South America and Central America. That type for some reason. That’s what he told me. In fact he said he’d previously been getting subsidies for another race, but I won’t get into that. He was just picking any way he could make a profit. So anyway, he had all these immigrants in this part of the building I moved into and, boy: I learned a lot about knife fighting and women fighting I saw. I saw more violent face shredding than I’d ever seen in my life during that time I lived there at the apartments.
Anyway, it turns out that in Central America one of the ways you lower a woman in marriage and families. Really the only business for a woman down there. If you can scar a woman and scratch her face, then not only do you win that fight– but now within the local pool of marriageable women–you’ve now become the better choice than the woman who’s got a scarred face. So I saw that. That was weird. I could have gone my whole life without imagining that kind of thing.
But anyway.
Which of these four techniques do you use most?
So of those four things, which do you use the most? Everybody has a tendency to use one more than the other. So which one of those?
Which of the four techniques are you best at?
Which obviously means you’ve used it the most too. So of all those four techniques–which are you best at? Bribing. Giving honor. Humiliating. Or punishing? Which are you best at?
And punishing can just be denying something too. Just not giving that something. Or not giving them your love. That’s punishment.
How can you improve your–
Oh, Which of these four techniques SHOULD you use more?
Which of these four techniques should you use more?
Maybe your life has changed. So reconsider. You’re dealing with a different type of people. Maybe they’re not kids–they’re adults. So you have to change you have to change your mode of operation here.
How can you improve your ability to motivate others?
Yeah, reconsider. Reconsider which modes to use. And use the right one. I’m not saying what’s right or wrong. I’m just saying, know what you’re doing and make sure you’re using the right one.
— Which of these techniques work best on YOU? And why?
Now there’s a very good question. Are you better if someone threatens you? If they flatter you? Or whether they punish you. Or you’re bribed. Which do you work best under.
What is the basis of your self-discipline and motivation?
So everyone has some amount of self-discipline and motivation. Some people have very little. Bu push youut still, what is the basis of it. How come you have whatever you have? What is it? What are you self-motivated to do? What can you push yourself to do. And if you can push yourself to do something, beyond just wanting to eat or take a shower when you start to smell– How do you do it on a regular basis.
How do you do something that’s disciplined, regulated?
And what is the basis of that training?
How can you be motivated without any external rewards?
So, in other words: what does it take for YOU to be motivated to do something?
If I want you to do something for me–wash my car. [laughs] How could I get you to do it? Without bribing you? How could I get you to do it without bribing you? Might be pretty hard but-
How willingly do you sacrifice your spare time for money? Spare time for money.
So that’s time you don’t have to work. So you’re working and maybe you’ve got extra time. You’re not married and you don’t have kids. You could watch football. Or maybe you could actually take on a part-time job.
So, how willingly do your sacrifice your spare time for money? That’s specific.
Next. Last one: What is the least amount per hour you’ll work for and why? That’s an interesting question of course.
What’s the least amount you’ll work for, per hour, and why that particular amount.
Okay. Daily Daoist here. And that was NUMBER 15: “4 Levels of Influence“
How are you influenced?
So this is yuour relationship with your Tao. The Tao. Remember the Tao includes people with jobs and stuff too. It’s part of the Nature you live in. If it’s a little unnatural it’s still part of your Tao. Your Nature you live in. So all those things affect you .
So your relationship with your job, your money, your work…
Anyway, if you’re HERE, you must be interested in understanding yourself.
Hey. Buddha Zhen back. I’m enjoying being THE DAILY TAOIST. This is totally cool. I’m pumping out a whole bunch of these– Here’s my author copy of this book, TAO OF TAOISM – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life. Written by Lao Tzu. I just took a bunch of translations of and said, “I don’t this guy’s got it… And I don’t think this guy’s got it…” Because I don’t translate Chinese. So I had to like take the translations, and what I knew of it, and from being part of the religion and the lifestyle for years and years. And try to see what makes sense. What was he really saying that I would say, “Harmonizes with the truth.” You know, the reality of using it in life.
I’ve been using Taoism since the eighties. Since… yeah… So if anybody could tell you what it is– [laughs] It should be somebody who’s been using it on a daily basis and teaching it to people. Inserting it in people and seeing how it affects them. Same with Buddhism. I called myself a “BUDDHIST SCIENTIST” for about twenty years. Because I considered myself, and all my students, and everything, were–I’m being facetious: I thought “lab rats” you know. But they’re– But they’re my test subjects in a way. They’re my children. And I’m constantly seeing the effects. I’m concerned. I don’t just throw stuff at them. “Hey, here’s some old wisdom.” SPLAT. “Here’s some more wisdom.” SPLAT. No, I like, look at it. Flavor it, and shape it. And say, “Okay. Can you understand that?” Then I come back, “How’s it working?” “How’d you like it?” “How’d it come out?” So anyway, I’ve kind of been able to see the effects of the Taoism and the Buddhism over the years. Confucianism too.
Actually no, the Confucianism– I wish. I didn’t start into that until about 2011. Sorry. Well I couldn’t tell you the affects of that. Because if I did I could’ve saved all kinds of marriages and businesses because that’s what that’s for. Marriages, businesses and politics. That’s what Confucius is for. Teaching. Oh that’s what I heard. I thought somebody was at my front door. Light’s falling down. And uh– I hope it’s going to stay there.
“Is that going to stay there Bear?” If that thing goes it’s gonna really pop. It’s a 150W bulb. Let me go and move it real quick.
“Bear. Why did that move?” It wants to keep moving. Alright.
Okay. So I’m back. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll edit that out. As much as I’m an iPhoneographer. I’m getting all the software in my phone and everything–I don’t know how to use it. I don’t know what I’m doing yet. But I’m figuring it out. You can actually go to my other channel: Richard Del Connor at YouTube: You can see music videos and things that I’m making. So I’m learning how to use a gimbal. I’m learning how to use my iPhone. I’m learning how to use LumaFusion. I’m shooting in Filmic Pro. And then I’m learning how to actually then– well, just getting it off my phone and then getting it onto a hard drive. And then backing it up is a lot of work. I’m just figuring this out. So anyway.
Here we go. The Daily Taoist.
And we’re on NUMBER 14. What’d I do? I took two minutes and forty-two seconds of your time just getting started here? Sorry about that.
Oh! By the way. Never say you’re sorry unless you’re gonna do it again.
That’s one my slogans. And here I am–an anti-slogan person. But that’s actually something that I want everybody to realize. Look! It’s 100% true.
Everybody I tell people they always come back and go, “Yeah, you’re right about that.”
Never say you’re “sorry” unless you’re gonna do it again.
And if anybody ever says they’re “sorry” you can expect them to do it again.
So don’t say you’re “sorry.”
You can say you won’t do it again though. That’s different.
Here we go. NUMBER 14.
Watch it. Check– Watch yourself. When you say you’re sorry for something. It’ll be something you’ve done before. You’ll catch yourself. I said, “I’m sorry,” for that. And I did it to that guy. You know he’s stubbing his toe or–whatever it is. But yeah. Watch.
So don’t say you’re “sorry” and you’ll stop making mistakes.
The Daily Taoist here. Confusing you. [laughs] The truth is cool.
NUMBER 14. This is written by Lao Tzu supposed– well, originally. And then translated by other people and then me–synthesized into this book to make it more useful. But Lao Tzu’s book, Dao Te Ching is being presented to you in my Tao of Taoism by me, Buddha Zhen. I’m actually Richard Del Connor. If you want to look at my license.
Here we go, NUMBER 14: Nature (and this is with a capital ‘N’ despite it being at the first–start of the paragraph). Nature cannot be measured or controlled. Yet, the operations of Nature (with a capital ‘N’) can be understood.
I’m using ‘Nature’ for ‘The Tao.’ Because there’s different versions. You could just call it, “The Tao.” I’m going to call “Nature” and “Tao” are the same thing. Okay?
Understanding the forces in motion creates an awareness of Nature. (The Tao).
This awareness comes from an inner harmony of each person that mirrors the outer workings of Nature.
Oops. Let’s read it. I’ve got to read it again.
So only by living naturally can one understand or be aware of Nature.
This is where people get all messed up. This is one of the ones that confuses people. They think they all the sudden have to become a plant to understand what a plant is. And you gotta act like a monkey to be a– to understand what a monkey is.
I’m not saying that but– He’s– Let’s just break it down real fast.
I really want to take the mumbo jumbo and the mystical godliness out of this. Cuz this is not a godly thing. Remember, this is science. This is science. It’s not God.
Here we go: Nature cannot be measured or controlled.
The Earth, its rotation, the seasons, the up and down things… The clouds. The moving. Whatever. Or gravity– Cannot be measure or controlled. That’s kind of what it’s saying. Everything. The reality– Okay? Nature… I’ve got that.
It’s beyond our control. We’re popped in here. Splat. We exist in it. I was comparing it to a big bowl of soup we’re in… we’re in the middle of you know. Moving around in this bowl of soup. We’re here for a little while and then we’re gone. The soup’s still here. Still going on. But we just come and go… within the soup. (Nature.)
Okay. So: Yet the = operations of Nature can be understood. So in other words they can’t really be measured or controlled because they change all the time. Even measuring what the temperature is on a certain day is going to be different that the next day. You can measure it, but you can’t really predict that it’s going to be the same. It’s always in flux, or– So anyway, that’s what we’re trying to say.
But you can understand it. You can understand it’s colder in the winter. You may not know exactly what temperature it is. You can’t measure it and predict in the next year in the same day it’s going to be the same temperature. And the same clouds… But you can understand in a broader sense. That’s what he’s trying to say.
Yet the operations of Nature– (The seasons and such. The day versus night.) –Can be understood.
Okay. So there’s our first two. The simple pragmatic science. Don’t get caught up in mystical mumbo jumbo again.
I don’t mind mystical mumbo jumbo. This isn’t the place for it. It’s not intended.
Ready?
Understanding the forces in motion creates an awareness of Nature.
Forces in motion: the seasons, the winds… The wind that comes before the storm. The kind of clouds that come to bring rain. The clouds that come that don’t bring rain. Understanding all these forces in motion. If you understand–you have an awareness of Nature. See? So you can start to understand–to recognize things. An awareness of Nature.
That’s good. So we’ve got the first three sentences. To be a scientist you’ve just gotta study things. Go take a meteorology class. One of my regrets: I never got one.
Here we go.
This awareness comes from an inner harmony of each person that mirrors the outer workings of Nature.
Aaaaaahhh. This is where it gets more complicated. And this is where people– If you’re really, like President Trump. He’s very out of harmony with Nature. I mean anybody I think–even his fans and supporters agree with that. This guy’s totally out of balance. [laughs] He’s miserable. He’s unhappy. He looks unhappy. He gives off negative energy. Hes an ugly creature. Anyway. Poor guy. You know, he’s just all messed up. His thinking’s wrong. He’s never gonna be happy because he’s working in a system that can never exist. His view of reality doesn’t exist. So he’s just all day long fighting to try to trick everybody to what reality is. And he’s not in any reality at all. He’s just living in this made up world in his brain that can never exist. Because even if it does it’s a crime and he’s gonna get in trouble. He’s gotta– Even if it exists he’s gotta get the money and run. [laughs] He never wants to be anywhere where he’s gonna be stuck. That’s his dilemma. He can never hold still. And if he does hold still he’s gonna get handcuffed. So he’s gotta keep moving. So that’s out of harmony with Nature.
Sorry to use him as a radical example. He just came to mind first. But he doesn’t understand the forces of Nature. He has no concern about Nature. He lives in his big city and…
Here we go.
Okay. So why’d I even point him out? Because his lack of awareness– he’s the opposite of what the next sentence is.
This awareness comes from an inner harmony.
Now, his inner harmony–
Of each person that mirrors the outer workings of Nature.
He does not mirror the outer workings of Nature. That’s why he makes people so unhappy. Nobody would want him for their babysitter. Nobody’d want him for their mother. He does not mirror Nature. If he does he mirrors the kind of Nature you shouldn’t be around like a crocodile. He’s just gonna eat you and drag you underwater. Doesn’t care. So anyway, maybe he does kind of mirror a part of Nature. Wow. Actually. Maybe Lao Tzu’s more right than I think. He’s saying even when you’r wrong–
This awareness–
Well he’s trying to talk in the positive. He’s saying that if you have an understanding that comes from your inner understanding which is in balance. Okay.
So what happens when you have an inner harmony that’s not in balance. That means you can never understand Nature. Or appreciate Nature. Never appreciate the other people in Nature. Keeps you completely separate from everyone. Because you have no balance that anyone should actually be attracted to. Which is the other problem. The people that are attracted to that imbalance are the people with the same imbalance. Kind of creates a– Yeah.
Okay. Now. So, last sentence: Only by living naturally. In other words, ‘naturally’ means in harmony with Nature. Not opposed to it. But comfortably living in harmony with it. Where there’s peace, accord and contentment… Can you understand or be aware of Nature.
See. That’s why he can’t be aware of it. He doesn’t have inner harmony. Doesn’t have that balance. He can’t sense it. He can’t feel it. It’s beyond him.
So I’m using him as an example. Hopefully he doesn’t represent you. Um, my family is…There’s all kinds of people like this. Let’s put it that way… that are not in balance with Nature.
And the ones that are in balance with Nature. That’s a step forward. But that doesn’t make you a complete person. That just means that you– at least physically can be a successful animal. So that’s all this is doing… is helping you to be a better animal…
Okay? That was NUMBER 14. What? I spent eleven minutes just explaining it? [laughs] I got carried away. That’s why I’m doing this. So I can get a lot of this out of my system. When I do the audiobook version of this I hope I won’t talk so much. The book’s gonna be too long for anyone to read or listen to.
Here we go.
But that’s why I like this as The Daily Taoist though. I was thinking of trying to keep this at five or six minutes. I’m already at eleven, thirty-three.
Let me just blast down. Let’s see how far we get. Maybe it’s gonna be a 20-minute thing today.
Ready? You on board? Because I’m gonna need a few minutes to unpack all this. There’s a bunch of questions here.
Explain your–
In fact, I’ll go fast. Because these are so vague and I’m not gonna elaborate on them. If I do it’ll take a long time. So let’s just see how fast I can go. It’s twelve minutes now. See how fast I can go.
Explain your understanding of Nature.
Explain your understanding of Nature.
Right now. I’ve changed. I was a Native American for some years. Following those traditions. I was a pipe carrier. Doing smudge… Anyway.
How do the forces of Nature influence your life?
They used to influence mine alot.
And again. I’m in a different situation now.
You. How do the forces of Nature influence your life?
Okay? Explain your inner harmony?
Remember that inner harmony we were talking. Here it says, “The awareness comes from an inner harmony of each person that mirrors the outer workings of Nature.”
So let’s look at your inner harmony and see how thatnat’s somehow a mirror of Nature.
So in other words if you live in a very cold igloo then you’re gonna mirror– your harmony of Nature is gonna be a little different than some guy one who lives next to the beach. So you’ll have a different inner harmony maybe. I don’t know. That would be intersting to find out. I’d like to talk to both you guys: Igloo and the guy on the beach. Compare your perspectives of reality.
Here we go.
Oh. How does your inner harmony mirror the forces of Nature?
See? Once agin. The igloo versus the beach. How are you mirroring Nature?
Once again: How does your inner harmony mirror the forces of Nature?
Explain how your life is natural.
So somebody in Arizona might have a different natural life than somebody in Washington state.
Explain how your life is natural.
Explain why your life is natural.
You know obviously like some people we know in presidential positions you can be very unnatural. So explain why you decided to make your life natural. How it came to be natural. Maybe somebody just trained you that way.
Explain how your life is mechanical or unnatural.
Ooh. Mechanical and unnatural. So you’re a machine. You’re doing something that’s contrary to Nature. But it’s your job. Maybe youre chopping down trees. That would be kind of unnatural.
Okay… What do you do out of obligation or necessity rather than by desire.
That’s probably 50% of the people on the planet there.
They just have a job. There just happy to get the paycheck. They don’t have any interst in that business or product line.
So what do you do out of obligation or necessity rather than by desire.
Own up to it. If you can’t be honest with yourself–You’ll never be smart.
Here we go: What do you do to satisfy others that does not satisfy you?
Ooh. That’s a good question. I’m quite the giver. But– Anyway.
One more time: What do you do to satisfy others that does not satisfy you?
What expectations of others are you currently satisfying?
Hey. Each of us is going to have a very different answer to that one.
What expectations of others are you currently satisfying?
How much time do you spend each day doing nothing?
Once again: How much time do you spend each day doing nothing?
If you had all the money you could need or spend–what would you do with your time?
If you had all the money you could need or spend–what would you do with your time?
Why aren’t you doing these things now anyway?
When I was homeless that was a question I was asking all the time.
Sorry to interject. See! I said I’m sorry. I’m gonna do it again. [laughs]
Why arent you doing these things now anyway?
Do you believe that to not work or to not have a job is wrong?
Do you beleive that to not work or to not have a job is wrong?
Do you believe that you should have children and a family?
Do you believe that you should have a children– have a children–a bunch– anyway. Have children and a family?
How many kids do you intend to have? And why?
How many kids do you intend to have? And why?
When you don’t have to go to work– there’s actually a typo here. Sheesh. Second one I’ve found. What time do you wake up and go to bed?
When you don’t have time to go to work–what time do you wake up and go to bed?
Interesting question.
How is this different than when you are working?
Okay. So when you don’t have a job. That’s why I didn’t– That’s why that was one of things I did.
So when you don’t have job–what time do you wake up and go to bed. Okay. So that changes your schedule. You don’t have to get up at any time.
How is this different than when you’re working?
So does it change? When you’re working in your normal occupation.
Welcome back to another episode of The Daily Taoist. Yeah. I like that. I just put that name on here. I decided, “Hey. These are so much fun… Maybe I should make a show out of this. The Daily Taoist.
Anyway, let’s go. Let’s continue on.
NUMBER 13 by Lao Tzu. But we’re working from my book. There’s a better picture of the cover back there. My book, The Tao of Taoism – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life. Otherwise, why use it all? Seriously. [laughs]
Okay. Here we go. I’m on page 24 and this is #13b of what Lao Tzu wrote. Now there’s 80 paragraphs. I’ve got 40 in this book. Okay, #13b is what I’m numbering this one.
Self-esteem is the appreciation of one’s own subconscious identity. This self-love creates a pride that is dependent upon the opinion of others.
Hmmm. Okay. Let’s read that again. Maybe break it down a little bit.
Self-esteem— (Confidence. What you think of yourself. Self-esteem is supposed to be a positive thing. Esteem.) —Is the appreciation of one’s own subconscious identity.
Ah. Subconscious. Most of the self-esteem we think of is things we consciously do in our life. But according to Lao Tzu, if I’m getting this right, he’s saying that your real self-esteem is what your subconscious really–appreciates. Okay. So. It’s not the way you act as an actor. An actor might enjoy playing murderers. Okay? And everybody knows this person as a murderer. That’s all they ever see is this guy shooting guns and killing people all the time. So is his self esteem to be appreciated as a murderer? He’s a great murderer. He murders people so good on camera. He looks so cool doing it. And everybody enjoys watching you kill people. So he’s a professional murderer? Well, is his self-esteem supposed to be based on that? His ability to murder? Okay?
Or is it still his own subconscious identity that hopefully is not a murderer. It’s his conscious identity that’s a murderer. He’s consciously out there killing people and getting paid for it. But his subconscious identity may have nothing to do with that at all. It may just be that he wants to be an actor. He wants to be loved and appreciated. Or he wants to be able to pull off some sort of impersonation. It impresses people and he feels proud of that.
So subconsciously he may have a totally different goal than going out there and being the best murderer on the planet–in the movies. [laughs] Just an example.
Here we go. Continuing.
The second sentence: This self-love. (Okay. Which in this case we’ll say is the love of being an actor. You know, being able to flexible at changing your identity to make other people happy. Kind of like wearing costumes.) This self-love creates a pride. (So you practice at it. You get good at it. You must’ve done it a whole bunch of times successfully. So now you can be proud of yourself. You have pride.) That is not dependent upon the opinion of others.
Ahhhh. I didn’t get that ‘NOT’ the last time quite as clearly. Okay. The idea here is you know that you’ve done a good job. In fact, maybe a whole bunch of other people know you did a good job. But right now, you’re in a movie and you do really crappy. And everybody thinks you’re a crappy actor. But you know you’re a good actor because you’ve done good before. You’re just maybe in a role you can’t fathom. You can’t understand this person. You can’t pull it off.
So you’re not a bad actor. You’re just in the wrong place. And so your self-esteem should pull you through that. Otherwise, if you didn’t believe in yourself–you’d be heartbroken and you’d give up acting and that’d be foolish because you’ve already proven you’re a great actor. You just made a mistake. Got the wrong role perhaps.
Okay? So anyway. I’ll read the whole thing again. And then we’ll blast down the page and see how towork it into our life.
Self-esteem is the appreciation of one’s own subconscious identity. This self-love creates a pride that is NOT dependent upon the opinion of others.
I like that.
Okay. NUMBER ONE: Are you angered by insults?
Okay. So I’ll read each question twice. And you read them. I’m not going to expand on this.
Okay. Here we go. Are you angered by insults?
Do you ever want revenge?
Do you ever want revenge?
What are kinds of revenge that you consider?
If you said you’ve never thought of being vengeful–you’re lying. [laughs] Even me. Nicest person on the planet. It’s not that the thoughts don’t go through my head. I just never get to where I’d think I’d ever even consider them being realistic. But the thoughts– You’ve got to acknoledge the thought going through your head.
Um. What are the kinds of revenge that you consider?
You know, if I was to vengeful, you know… My revenge is like saying, “Hey, I’m not gonna put you in my movie. [laughs] Ooops. I said it. See, but that’d be like– that would be to be– That would be vengeful.
I’d probably wouldn’t want to– Hopefully, without knowing they were unappreciative of me. Hopefully their talent wouldn’t have garnered them having that role anyway. Because I would not want to actually deny anyone a worthy thing just because of my personal attitude. So I do try to keep that in check. My prejudice. My attitude.
Even if I don’t like someone– Some of those people turned out be really good friends. Oh God. During the homeless life I avoided people for years. And then after a couple of years you start running into this person– I have a conversation. Aaaah. A couple of people turned out to be decent friends. I mean I got along with them real fine. It’s like, yeah. It’s not that I regretted avoiding them. But it didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought.
Okay. Anyway.
What are your identity weaknesses? Weight problems? Big Nose?
Seriously. I’ve got problems. Me, I’ve got a crooked nose. I got beat up when I was a teenager. Beat up really bad and they didn’t straighten my nose when they broke it. I’ll always have a crooked nose. For what that’s worth. [laughs] But I just accept it. In fact, sometimes when I’m shooting a bunch of videos I’ll actually take a minute and look at the lighting. And say, “Yeah–which angle do I look best at?” Cuz they’re totally different. Cuz it’s like bent this way. So maybe this way it looks smaller. And over here it looks bigger. Because of the way it’s bent. So anyway.
If I was a professional actor I’d have that memorized and probably always know how to always cheat the camera. But I’ll always still look. But I don’t think of it actually. But close–almost. Am I a professional actor?
What do you hide from people?
What do you hide from people?
What do you want to be that you doubt you will be?
Is that doubt based on your realistic understanding of yourself? Or is it based on the fact that other people couldn’t do it, or they doubted you. Or they couldn’t envision it and they just made you doubt it. Even though it could be real easy for you.
What do you want to be that you doubt you will be?
So put them all into that category and you can separate them out later.
When you lose or make a serious mistake do you scold yourself?
I’m gonna read that once again and then I’ve got to interject.
When you lose or make a serious mistake do you scold yourself?
Okay. I’ve got to give credit to somebody else. Dan Millman. I think that’s his name. Shout out! Great guy. Great author. Great books. I don’t know much about him personally but I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen and read. I’ve given away his books as presents and a couple of my students have been impressed by him and given books to my kids that were written by him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know he wrote that book.” You know. Anyway. Great guy. Dan Millman
But he’s the one who hammered this into me. It was one of his first–the WARRIOR ATHLETE maybe. That book. I got that when I was at UCLA. And he said something. He was an Olympic trainer. And he said something that’s always stuck with me. “Thank you Dan.”
He said– And I kind of already knew this. But it resonated and I want to give him credit for it. He said that when he was training people, if they got angry or you know mad at themselves for making a mistake– he would always say, “Don’t do that. Don’t do that.” And his philosophy was, and I agree with him 100%. I’ve been a physical trainer ever since. I just started teaching Kung Fu about that same time. So for what? 35 years I’ve been proving him right.
And he said that, “When you make a mistake and then you punish yourself–you’ve balanced the field.” You’ve evened everything out. Now nothing’s going to change. You’ll make the same mistake. You’ll punish yourself again. It’ll just be the same. That’s your balance.
He said, “Create an imbalance.” He said, “Make a mistake–Ah–But don’t punish yourself.” Now you’ve gotta figure out to fix it.
Okay. Next. Do you ever say–(and pardon me for cussing)–“Damn it.” Okay? I never say that. [laughs] I had to apologize before I even said it. But here we go again.
Do you ever say, “Dammit.”
I’m going to interject something. This is a little whacky. This is going a little far for most people but, I’m gonna throw it out there anyway. I think that when you use that– I take it very literally. I’m kind of like that. I’m not like that guy in –that Avengers movie where one of the heroes he’s all tattooed with red tattoos. And he takes everything really literally. They don’t give him good lines unfortunately. The people who write for him don’t really grasp his character completely. I do. I kind of like him. Anyway, when you say, “Damn it,” you’re damning it. You are sending it to Hell. You are saying, “You are damned to Hell.” And that’s what you’re saying every time you say, “Damn it.” You’re sending that thing to Hell–as if you had the power. But still, that means you have the will, the desire… do whatever it takes. “I’ll bribe someone… I’ll talk to the Devil… I’ll…” You’re doing evil. That’s very evil to damn something. To make it go to Hell. Not your job.
So sorry. [laughs] I’m totally against that expression.
Here we go. Next, last one for this page.
Do you ever call yourself names or say, “I’m so stupid.” Or, “I’m a klutz.” Or, “I’m clumsy…” Any of those negatives? Do you ever say things like that?
Go back to Dan Millman. Dan Millman’s going to be your guide on that one. Let him tell you what to do on that.
One more time: Do you ever call yourself names? Like say you’re stupid or any negative names.
Obviously, I think you can tell where I’m going. [laughs]
