YouTube Video TRANSCRIPT: Daily Taoist 64 AD: “Fill-in for Variety Shows”
Pardon my cat crunching over here.
Hey. Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang.
The Daily Taoist? I just thought of that as I was sitting down.
I came to realize that I’m kind of addicted to a lot of these daily comedians I look to provide me news. Believe it or not.
Anyway, they’re off the air right now because of this corona virus thing. And it’s kind of like a VOID. [LAUGHS] Which is kind of nice. Maybe a lot of people are getting a lot more done.
But at the same time: Is that something I should FILL-IN or maybe that’s something that I could provide a–like I said, “Fill-In?”
THE DAILY TAOIST. I’ve actually been pumping out a lots of these videos a day–half a dozen a day. So I could put them out five days a week or so if I really wanted to. I’ve gotten ahead a little bit.
Anyway, just considering that possibility. The Daily Taoist.
Alright. Back again. Daily Taoist here, Buddha Zhen. Reading from the TAO OF TAOISM written by me. Based on the DAO of Dao Te Ching or BOOK OF CHANGES by Lao Tzu, 2,200 years ago. I’m on page–well, not page but #33— actually “d” wasn’t it? This #33 has four parts to it. I broke it into four parts because it just had so much…
#33. We went from #33a and answered these questions. We went to #33b and asked these. “c” we just finished. [No. skipped accidentally] Now we’re on #33d. Let’s see what happens over here.
To create one’s own path in life is an external achievement beyond walking a path designed by other persons.
Period.
Read it again. And then you can say, “Hey! You’re the poster child for that one.”
To create one’s own path in life is an external achievement beyond walking a path designed by other persons.
As I’ve said in all these many stories: is that my parents have been trying to get me to walk their path. Walk that path. You know… They’ve just been– In fact I got disinherited because I wouldn’t walk their path. They said, “If you’re not going to walk this path then we’re gonna kick you out of the tribe and the herd and everything. You can’t come back.”
When you hear people say things like that, they’re just down there in the low I.Q. range.
Okay. Here we go. Explain how parents, teachers, friends, religion.. influenced your path as a child. Yeah. We all got that. You’ve– We’ve all been influenced in different ways. So you’ve got to get it out. Get it all out there so you can see what you kept and what you didn’t keep. There may be things thatthey said you should go back to. I’m not saying– Put it all out. I gave you two lines. I think you need like ten.
Explain your teenage path influences.
Who influenced you as a teenager?
As a teenager it definitely wasn’t my parents. Not at all. Uh… So… who influenced? Remember, I grew up in the sixties. So when I think of who influenced me, they’d be people like John Lennon, and… Jimi Hendrix, and for writers…interesting, Abbie Hoffman, STEAL THIS BOOK. Ginsberg was the popular poet, but I didn’t really relate to him. So, not everything that was going on at that time harmonized my Tao. There was a lot of creative stuff. That’s the beautiful thing. It was such a huge Renaissance. There were people being creative in ways that I didn’t even appreciate. But they were being creative. They were being artistic. They were being– I don’t want to say abnormal– but “not normal.”
Okay. #33d: Walking your own path. Deciding this unique way you’re going to live your life. Which caused me to get kicked out of my own family. Just because I tried to be an individual.
Explain your teenage path influences.
Well now explain your young adult path influences. So once you turn 20–
See, once I hit 20 I was a recording engineer working in a studio. And so there were certain people who influenced my life. Like that famous drummer, uh Cappice, uh What’s wrong with me? I want to say, Armen Cappice [Carmine Appice] but that’s not it. The drummer from Vanilla Fudge. He started this institute and I enrolled in it. I met him. And then later, one of his prize students [drum student] Richard Augustine, who actually used to go visit and live with him and trained with him. One of his disciples was my drummer on the Temptation record. He does the song, “Carol.” He does “Billy Boy” also on another song on a different album. But anyway, he was an influence. I give him credit for that. Uh…let’s see and I would have to see the… producer of The Beatles. He gets a lot of credit. Because I was trying understand what he did. He inspired me. I mean back: engineering. “What might he do?” I would listen with headphones. “What did he do?”
Okay… Which of these influences are still incorporated in your path? And how?
Well obviously, Martin. He’s still influencing me. And… I’d like to think I made him proud. But he had a lot more resources than I do. But I’ve made good– In fact, people have been impressed with what I’ve done with my resources. So yes.
Which influences should be incorporated more and how?
Well that’s it. I’ve been– I’ve gone through Plato. I spent like four or five years going back to Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. Read Marcus Aurelius maybe twice more. THE MEDITATIONS. Epictitus, I read him a couple of times. I’ve been going through all the philosophers in the last ten years trying to rebuild my life. It’s like gosh, after marriage, “What the heck am I going to do with myself?” This whole thing about being a steer in the herd is absurd for me. I had to reput… like: “BkBkBkBkBkBk” cram a bunch of information into me and see what I ended up.
So now I’m…trying to create the new me and go forward so: You’ll have to see what it is. I’m creating a brand new creature. I am a brand new creature. And I’m synthesizing myself very, very, um… I don’t know about systematically, but effectively and consistently so I’m kind of like cooking myself in my own shell. And I’m emerging right now.
So here we go.
Creating Your Path Requires Excluding People from your Life
Which influences should be excluded now from your path and why?
Like I said, that’s romance and love. Well I’ve got love. I’ve got my kitty. Chewing away. Oh.. but sex. Pursuit of sex and relationships like that. That’s definitely a waste of time for me now.
I’ve got lots of love songs. I’ve got hundreds of love songs so people might never know I don’t have a love life. I could just release one my songs and people’d go, “Man. This guy’s horny!” [LAUGHS] I wrote it 30 years ago.
How and why has your path become radically different from your influences?
Radically different? Well, who are my influences? Well, I look at my musical influences: Hendrix, um… Mick Abrahms, Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter. Those were some of my strongest influences as a guitar player.
[to cat] “Oh. Hi there buddy. Come on… Hello you.” He gave me that look.
What was the question. It had something to do with how have I become different from them? Well I decided that I exceeded them. I went, “WOW!” You know, Johnny Winter will always be the master just like my Kung Fu master Kam Yuen or Grandmaster Wong Jack Man. It doesn’t matter whether I ever was to try to think that I could beat them up. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter if they’re frail or had broken legs they’re my master and you can’t think things like that. But you can think of you’ve done something– you’ve improved on what they’ve done. And I know that I teach a lot better than any of my masters. Okay? So I’ve improved on them that way.
Now, as far as a guitar player, I found that it interesting. Because Rory Gallagher; I held him in high esteem as a singer-songwriter and a guitar player. And I love him. He was very instrumental– He was a strong influence on me in the beginning. I saw him like 7 times in concerts. I was just like inches away from him. Inches. And I was very inspired by him. And… but to realize that, “Wow,” you know my songwriting just went [truck noise] right past him. His songwriting became very shallow and narrow. And my guitar playing expanded in so many different directions. He is an AMAZING guitar player. He can do like a dozen things amazingly well. And of those I do maybe 8 of them [laughs] really well. But I’ve got another 8 that I do well. So I’ve done– So anyway I’m just impressed that I was able to do what he does. And then do other stuff… And like I said, my songwriting definitely went far beyond him. In fact I felt so bad for him. Because I think he’s so talented. And I look up to him. And I was thinking, “I wish he had my music.” If he would’ve recorded my songs he could’ve maybe been much more successful and had a much bigger audience. So I sometimes regret that I’m not famous because there’s a lot of people who are not taking advantage of what I have that would benefit their life. And make them better. My music… I’ve got great songs no one has ever heard. So people could make a lot of money off them if they had a way to put them in front of people. If they could make a recording of my song in a good way and then release it… People are gonna– I guarantee people are gonna like some of this music. Not because– They don’t even have to know it’s even me. Doesn’t matter who wrote it. There just good songs. But okay.
Uh… So let’s see. Which influences should be taken from my path? Did we get to that one? Um… “You really distracted me.” [to cat] You’re– Okay.
How and why has your path become radically different from your influences?
Well it became radically different because I had more information. People like Rory Gallagher: he got stuck into that routine of just touring every single year for years. And so– And that’s a job. You don’t have a life. You perform and you’re travelling and you don’t have that time to be alone and be in your… thinking zone. He’s travelling a lot. That’s very, very upsetting. People who tour will never talk very highly about touring. You’ll hear people say, “I don’t want to ever tour again.” It’s not the best way to live. A musician’s happier not touring. I have not toured to the point I don’t like touring. That’s because i’ve hardly toured at all.
So it’s kind of a good thing. I’ve never been burned out as an artist which is why I love playing. I’ve never played to the point where I– I’ve never played a song so much that I felt, “I DON’T WANNA PLAY THAT SONG AGAIN.” Except you’ll see one of the songs: It was just so emotional, it was so emotionally involving that I only played it a few times. The “Use Me” song. I actually start crying. If you see that video you might not be able to tell. Look really carefully when I go [cringes face] this is something… that… like… I’m really breaking down. Because this was the first day I was really being homeless and saying goodbye to my kids forever. [somehow I knew] Gone forever. That was the last day I ever– I visited them a few times after that. But that was the end. That was– That song “USE ME” [live video] was recorded on the last day I saw my kids. Anyway.
Sad song. I was like so sad when I wrote that. When I wrote it, but when I was siging it– I was sadder…
Okay. Here we go.
Where were we? Did I make it? Ten minutes.
Most People Should Follow the Path of their Parents/Friends
How and why has your path become similar to your influences?
Well it hasn’t become similar because I added so much spirituality and healthy living. See? All those people drink and they travel. They were doing drugs or drinking. So when they were spinning around in the hamster wheel. I was living my life and growing and explorying and going to UCLA. Being a photographer. Having kids. Developing Kung Fu schools. Going off and having a Hanblecia my Vision Quest on The Rosebud. Becoming a Pipe Carrier. Healing people for a few years. While they were just circling around doing tours and playing the same songs that they’d been playing for ten, twelve years.
Like this group Garbage. Which I really like on the first album. And I saw an interview again. And I was trying to figure them out. Put them in perspective. And their first album, “2.0” I think it was. It’s a great album. It’s a very, very good album. I’ve got it. I’ve got the CD. And it’s a good album but they haven’t been able to duplicate it. And I was trying to figure out why. And even she was saying that, “We’re happy what that album did for us.” And there’s a lot of clues if you can read between the lines and understand what people are saying. But yes, in other words, these are not real MUSICIANS. They were people who were playing music. And they may have been driven and they may have had some artist potential in them, in the lower qualities. Not in the first position though. I don’t know about any of them. Maybe the drummer. The drummer might have the MUSICIAN in the first position. But the other ones, you know I’m not so sure. Because they didn’t grow and expand. And so as a result they couldn’t grow as a group. But they were at that time able to take all their best qualities and everything that they had: mush it together and take all that stuff. That’s why most groups’ first record is the best. Because it’s got so much stuff crammed into it. Even if they’re not really MUSICIANS. It’s all that stuff that they did generate. You know, accidentally. As kind of pretending to be MUSICIANS they still created the stuff. And then when they jammed it together it was awesome. Now that album’s really good.
But where we? So, anyway I felt bad. And then she was talking about not having an ego and stuff like this, and being Scottish, and it’s like– “Awww” You’ve gotta have an ego to be an artist. That’s what an artist is. An artist lives for their ego. But then again you have to remember what the ego is. The ego is the expression of what’s inside of you. What most people think of the ego is a false pride. False pride is false pride. An ego is something different. But we’ll get to that later. But ego is a very good thing. Now what if you have somebody like Trump. He has false pride. He bolsters. He has this big huge ego based on lies, deception, bankruptcy, fraud… So yes, all that pride that he generates–that’s the evil. That ego that he has is evil. So that’s not real ego and its not real pride. It’s all just a bunch of fake news.
Alright. Buddha Zhen here with the real thing. The real news from 2,500 years ago. Bringing to you the freshest old news. Got, 2,500 years old. Gottem, the bones would even be be rotten by now. So anyway, bringing you Lao Tzu’s bones. [laughs]
Alright. So anyway that was kind of wrapping up the 33rd… I’m kind of a little distracted by my little buddy here. [Bear the cat] He’s taking a little bit of my energy and my love away. Sorry. You’re not getting me 100%. “Yes. I love you Bear.” But like I said, I relish my distractions. [talks to cat and laughs]
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.
Buddha Zhen reads TAO #6 of the TAO OF TAOISM – Using the Dao Te Ching to Improve Your Life.
This Tao is still dealing with opposites and good and bad and right and wrong and up and down and prejudice.
This Daily Taoist episode is interrupted by a mosquito hawk that enters with his cat, Bear. Buddha Z ends abruptly to deal with this pest.
The transcript of this short episode is included below.
YouTube TRANSCRIPT of the DAILY TAOIST 15 reading of TAO #6
Hello. I’m back, and… we’re on page 15 of 62 or something? Yeah, 62. Yeah. Let’s get another one of these out.
Just want to blaze ahead here for some reason. I guess I just wanna– I’m excited about getting some of this stuff out.
Here we go. NUMBER 6:
Oh, remember? We didn’t summarize on the end of that last one. Remember we were talking about, “Describe your overall balance of opposites and some things?” And so remember then, we go back to the original Lao Tzu and in particular, the first line,
“THE VALUE OF OPPOSITES AMOUNTS TO NOTHING.”
Okay, so I said, “Don’t take it so literally. Try to look for the meaning: something more substantial in there.” Find a pearl of wisdom. Maybe Lao Tzu didn’t think of that. If you can find something even bigger and better… Like I said, “Like a mathematical equation.”
Here we go. NUMBER 6:
Distinguishing between opposites creates the illusory value of each one.
That’s what we’re doing in America right now. As we separate– As soon as we say one side is great, we’ve separated them more. You can’t– Anyway.
Distinguishing between opposites creates the illusory value of each one.
Or lack of value. Value isn’t always a plus. It can be a minus. So by distinguishing sometimes — it’s prejudice. You’re picking them out. You’re lowering the value. Trump purposely tries to do that. He actually tries to demean and devalue people. See. So at one time he might be pumping somebody up. But he spends as much time– If he does that he spends a lot of time cutting people down and trying to devalue them. So you shouldn’t do that. That’s wrong to pick those people out and make them special because that means your picking other people out and making them un-special.
So distinguishing between opposites creates the illusory value of each one.
Here we go.
How do you value or rate the strengths of your positive character?
Everybody thinks they have a positive character. Well they do. [laughs] Some of these positive characters seem very negative to me. But their negative character to me is a monster. So I guess it’s just a– You take the extremes and you move them on the scale. Right across the middle here is a content happy cow in the field. And down here is the angry badger type of thing. And then up here is the happy crane type of thing you know.
Well, the higher you get up here means the farther you fall when you get upset.
And the more you’re down here, then when something happens you get really excited, you see.
But if you just kind of stay here in the middle, “Oh, that was nice.” “Oh, that was kinda bad.” “Oh that was nice.”
But anyway, like I said, don’t try to separate the opposites. The more you do–the more, the more it goes wrong.
How do you value or rate the strengths of your negative character?
So that goes for you. How far off that middle do you go? How far are you willing to stretch the truth? How far do you go to keep the truth?
“Hello Bear.” He was outside. “Hello adventurer.”
Actually I kicked him outside. He hadn’t been out today so I like pushed him out the front door. So he’d go out there and do some–
Ooops! Somebody came in with you. Hold on. We’ve got some creature came in. I’ve got to deal with.
Buddha Zhen reads TAO #5 of TAO OF TAOISM he wrote for his Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan students in 1993 in his Shaolin Chi Mantis Traditional Buddhist Kung Fu and Taoist Tai Chi Chuan schools. This self-help book is revealing now the ‘dark side’ of Buddha Zhen as he answers the questions from his Tao of Taoism book with candor and honesty. He reveals more about his 5 SOUL THEORY or Five Souls of God book he wants to release when he can find a large book publisher brave enough to publish this revolutionary concept that every person contains four souls of five possible souls to choose from.
One of his revelations includes the fact that comedians are all WOMAN souls in their first top position. Also boxers may be WOMAN souls in the first position. Buddha Z is perplexed himself by the riddle of this truth or wisdom from the BOOK OF CHANGES or Tao Te Ching written by Lao Tzu over 2,200 years ago.
Below in this web post is the transcript from the video “DAILY TAOIST 14” reading Tao #5 of the Tao of Taoism written by Buddha Zhen Shen-lang / Richard Del Connor.
YouTube Transcript of TAO #5 in the video “DAILY TAOIST 14” read and performed by the author, Buddha Zhen Shen-Lang.
Ah man. I couldn’t get up. I looked ahead at the next one. It’s really got me excited.
Buddha Zhen here.
This is the TAO OF TAOISM written by me. And I’m on #5. And this one’s got me all– Look at me. I’m all excited.
#5: The value of opposites amounts to nothing.
That’s so cute. We’ll come back on that.
To separate, glorify or deny something in protection of its opposite creates a weakness by the loss. All things are of value despite our preference.
How that describes America’s situation so dramatically and I don’t wanna get carried away talking about it– But I’ve just got to show you that’s why- that America is in conflict because we are totally out of the Tao.
Okay, first of all: The value of opposites amounts to nothing. Now that’s a misleading statement but it’s actually 100% accurate. ‘Amounts’ means adds up. So one PLUS and one MINUS. You add them together equals zero. So NEGATIVE plus POSITIVE equals ZERO. That’s a beautiful thing.
Lao Tzu was intending to mean something. And I think we’re missing the boat by not delving into that further and further. But let’s just leave it at that for now.
But he’s saying you take a negative and a positive and you end up with nothing.
Now let’s look at a wife and a husband. And you end up with a nothing. Is it really a nothing? Or is it really a new something? See. You’ve got them put together here. It’s not this. And it’s maybe not this. But it’s this. So it’s nothing that existing previously. See. Maybe we got something shaved off in the original translation. So maybe… Anyway, let’s open our minds. I’m always looking for some way to make these things real.
Okay, and the next part is all of the chaos in America right now.
To separate, glorify– Remember that’s bad. When you’re separating something out, you better have a GOOD reason. Or you’re just capturing something.
Glorifying something is another way of capturing something. And saying, “You’re not good. But this is.” See. So this is– Gotta remember when you create a positive you create a negative.
Or deny something. So now we’re gonna deny– I don’t know how to put this in perspective yet. Deny something in protection of its’ opposite creates a weakness by the loss.
So if we’re saying this guy we’re gonna glorify, and we’re gonna give you something special. But we’re gonna deny you– Creates a weakness, by the loss. By the denial: That’s a weakness. That’s not a strength. When you raise this guy up and glorify him and say to him, “You’re not worthy.” That is not a good balance. That’s not a good plus or minus.
This one’s way off of balance. It’s gonna fall down. And this guy’s down, so far down here… he’s going to get buried. They’re both gonna, ‘boom.’ Bad situation.
So, one more time. Let’s read what I wrote on this. It’s interesting. I’ve got all kinds of things going through my head. Your perspective may be different.
The Value of Opposites
One more time. Lao Tzu says– I love this first line. It’s just cute, and clever. But I think it means so much more than any of us are probably grasping right off-hand.
The value of opposites amounts to nothing. To glorify, separate or deny something in protection of its opposite creates a weakness by the loss. All things are of value despite our preference.
Gotta remember that too: We always think in terms of ourselves. Everybody. It’s just the first way we think. Just gotta accept that so you can deal with it. Okay so you have to realize that we all have our preferences. If you can become more Zen and–
I look bald with this light shining here. And look at that bump on my head. Cover it in– Sheesh. I bumped myself pretty bad last night. [laughing] Oh I should say something, “Oh I was in a fight and somebody hit me with a…” Boom.
Okay… here we go… Okay. Here we go.
What is the opposite of you?
Well… Me, that’s just about everybody. So, that’s not you. That’s me.
So, what’s the opposite of you?
So, in other words, if you’re a good worker–then maybe a bad worker. If you’re an honest person–then a dishonest person. If you’re a happy person–then a sad person. Or maybe the other way around. Who’s the opposite of you? Let’s work with that.
Your Relationship with your Dark Side
Explain your character polarities. Good side / dark side.
That’s tricky here. You’re gonna have to like open up to the fact that–
Explain your character polarities. Your good side and your dark side.
Now I remember Oscar. If I can talk about him. He’s kind of a good example of somebody to talk about. He, when I met him– He always wore military fatigues. And he wanted to be a soldier. But he was not a WARRIOR. But he wanted to be a soldier. And he actually had a dark side. And he enjoyed playing the video games and stuff. He loved shooting and killing. He said the reason he wanted to be a soldier was: he actually wanted to–you know–shoot something. [LAUGHING] So anyway. You’ve just got to own up to it. And accept it. Even if you don’t like the way it sounds to you. I can’t even say it for other people. But anyway. You’ve got to own up to your own dark side. Umm, umm… Anyway–
Next one. How do you control your dark side?
Well let’s say you have a dark side. You think, “Gosh. I’d like to beat that person up.” Let’s deal with that instead of murder. Okay. You’ve got this desire to beat other people up. And I’ve known one person. Actually… a couple. I have two… people whose fathers were boxers. I’m not really a boxer. I teach martial arts but I don’t box. Who were boxers. Their parents were boxers. As a result, they beat and hit their kids. See, a boxer hits people. That’s just the way they communicate. So both cases, these boxer fathers hit their kids. And they didn’t, they didn’t think they were evil. Probably didn’t. Because they were just communicating with their kids the same with all their professional allies, and competitors or whatever. And you know, that’s just the way they communicate. So in both cases these kids had gotten pummeled by their parents. Or their fathers excessively.
I also know cases where women have been very sadistic and whipped and beat– and done terrible things to their kids too. So anyway, I’m not saying it’s all men. Don’t get me wrong here.
In fact, my theory is actually that anytime you do see a man who is being sadistic and mean like that– Like those boxers. Those boxers must have been WOMEN in the first position. And then a WARRIOR in the second position. That’s what Joe Rogan is. He’s a WOMAN in the first position, and a WARRIOR in the second. That way he can be mean and hurt people and have a sense of humor about it. That’s how you can do it. A WORKER can’t do that. A WORKER can’t have satisfaction about doing something wrong or breaking something, or hurting someone. Because that doesn’t get along well in the work place. You’ve gotta be more compassionate. So compassion ironically comes from the WORKER. Not the WOMAN. A WOMAN soul is the one without the compassion. They’re the ones that make comedians. All comedians are WOMEN souls in the first position. Every one of them as far as I can tell. Shocked me because I’d been studying them for two years.
It’s really obvious in some like Russel Brand. But, Seth Myers, Stephen Colbert, Joe Rogan– I mean a lot of it is just so obvious. And you talk to them about their neuroses and their emotions and their– I mean, it’s the WOMAN spirit. Not the female. They’re not female. They’re WOMAN souls. Okay. So anyway.
I found that a negative. It did make sense when you know that. It just makes sense. So you know this person needs a little more ethics and tends to beat people up because they’re going to enjoy it.
Okay. So here we go. Um, where were we?
What do you dislike the most in others? Okay. Now that’s an interesting question. So think about that. You should have some things pop into your head.
One more time: What do you dislike the most in others?
Okay, next: How do you control these dislikes in yourself.
I just kind of like jump several steps. And these things you dislike in other people are almost always going to be something you dislike in yourself.
Like in my case I would say, “Dishonesty.” I’m way into the truth. So the one thing I dislike the most in myself is dishonesty. And any time I’ve been dishonest it still haunts me. It’s something I can’t do. It’s like so, that’s what I dislike the most. It prevents me from doing it.
See? So when you understand these things: it’s not a negative, it’s a positive. Like, “Alright. I’ve got– I’ve got this bumper that’s gonna keep me away from lying. I shouldn’t get in a job where I have to lie. I can’t be a salesman. I could only sell something to someone I thought could afford it and it was the right time and the place and the thing for them and– I just can’t be a salesman. I’m too considerate.
So that’s why a salesman is good. You’ve got a WOMAN in the first position every time. A man, with a WOMAN in the first postion has a good chance of being a salesman.
Now a WORKER, like my dad– Actually, is my dad a WOMAN or a WORKER in the first position. He may be a WOMAN in the first position… but anyway, let’s keep going.
What are you Fighting For?
Let’s see. Where were we?
What are you fighting to control for the sake of some rule that is difficult to follow?
Ahhhh. This is a good one. Everybody’s gonna have different answers for this one. But here we go.
What are fighting to control for the sake of some rule that is difficult to follow?
Like maybe eating. It’s difficult for you follow that rule. I shouldn’t have given you any clues. It comes from you first.
Nature is seasons of opposites. Summer and Winter. Spring and Fall.
Nature is seasons of opposites. Winter has its time as does Summer. How are your opposites regulated, controlled, or allowed their own release?
Or as I’m saying, Nature has opposites. So I’m allowing you to like give yourself some leeway. How you do this or that– Or you want this–
So what are your opposites? Find your polarity. How far are you going from one extreme to the other so we can find out maybe what your happy medium is– and make it easier for you. Cuz you may have one thing pulling this way, and one thing pulling this way. But if we can find some way to satisfy both of them–then that’s good without maybe going all the way that way, or all the way that way. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t if the middle is always the best way.
Here we go. Describe your overall balance of opposites.
If you’re driving in your car you’re going, “What the heck is he talking about?”
Like what would be my opposites? My opposites would be my ability to just watching YouTube. And then I say, “Man, I’ve been sitting here for a little while. I didn’t move.” You know, I should be doing some Kung Fu or cleaning the kitchen. [laugh]
Okay. So that’s one opposite is I feel guilty for not doing that and the other opposite is I work as hard as I can. I’m doing these Kung Fu classes. Teaching and building and writing things and work on the websites… So ONE: I go from the opposite of working REALLY HARD too long to maybe relaxing too long. That’s my answer.
Okay. Let’s see. Nature is a season– Okay.
Describe your overall balance of weaknesses.
Um. Like I said, I’ve got a good balance. I’m putting my life together. I’m working out. Studying myself like under a microscope so I better be good.
Anyway. I think 12 minutes here. Thanks for hangin’ around. Hopefully this is interesting to listen to.
“You’ve got the WORKER soul. You’ve got the WOMAN soul. That’s most everybody.”
Buddha Zhen jokes about red ink spots on his hands from his red pen. “I love these pens–but they leak really easily…”[Precise V5 Rolling Ball]
Buddha Z wiggles his pinky finger, “WORKER [soul].”
He wiggles his ring finger, “WOMAN [soul].”
He wiggles his middle finger, “WARRIOR [soul].”
He concludes, “W – W – W: Those three go down here at the bottom . You’ve got the 3-W’s: WOMAN, WORKER, WARRIOR. [SOULS will be capitalized from now on.]
“You can put them in any order, BZ continues. “Those three are the reproductive layer. Those are the ones that reproduce.”
“Up on top we have the rulers… I’m still figuring this out. This is a new concept. I just invented this theory a couple years ago.” [Current month is March 2020.]
“It’s been evolving through my poetry. I’m really excited to see my poetry evolve this awareness as I’m complaining about these things, and learning more until I finally figure it out… “Seeing how I got to here.”
Buddha Z holds up two fingers and grabs one.to wiggle. “The two on top. I gave you the MUSICIAN [soul]. The MUSICIAN is all creative thinkers. All the creative thinkers. People used to say, “These are people born with a ‘MUSE’… This is a special soul. The creative soul. I’m one of these people. Look at all my books. 150 books or something, maybe more. A couple thousand songs–all the things I create and do. I’m a creative person. That’s my soul. I can’t turn it off. It’s just who I am.”
Buddha Z laments about the years he was a laborer, not producing or utilizing his creativity. “It’s just a shame to be working full-time when I could be using my creativity. If I’m working I have to stop being creative.” BZ acts and pretends to be hammering nails. “Do that for a whole bunch of hours–my mind can’t be creative. If I start being creative I’ll hurt myself. Chop my finger off or something.
So you’ve gotta be careful. [Focused when working.] That’s why it’s not a good idea to put creative persons in those types of positions. Theyre suppossed to be creative. They’re the dreamers.
My family despises dreamers. In my family there are no artists. I’m the only one. The only one. So they despise me. They actually cannot understand me. Even after sixty years. I’m 66 years old and my parents still don’t accept the fact I’m a musician. They think it’s wrong. They think its a choice.”
Buddha Z points at the camera imitating his scolding parents and brothers, “You decided to do that just to piss us off!”
Buddha Z shrugs. “It’s not true but–” He smiles slightly, “Sheesh. How can a parent be pissed off their child has artistic talent? That’s terrible.”
“They just can’t understand.”
MANAGER and MUSICIAN Souls Are on the Top Row of 5 Souls
“So what’s the fifth one [soul]? We’ve got the three on the bottom and both the two on the top are M’s. So I use MUSICIAN because that covers all the creative people. And MANAGER [soul].”
“Now the MANAGER doesn’t have to be the scientist, or the guy who’s a MUSICIAN… or who’s good at math. That would be the MUSICIAN… The MANAGER is the one that goes for power. They’re not the one whose gonna want to stand in line and want to be on the assembly line. They want to own the company. They’re just not gonna be happy on the assembly line. You cannot bribe them into boredom like that. They just cannot do it. That’s the MANAGER.”
“Those two M’s on top: That’s what we got here in Washington, D.C. But now, we have a whole bunch of WOMEN who have a MANAGER power thing going… They have this emotional desire to be greedy and get what they need for their family. Because that’s normal. That’s the WOMAN’s job to collect everything.”
“The man [WORKER] goes off to work. But the WOMAN’s home all day. Kind of keeping everything intact. She’s not gonna sit there and watch the neighbors walk away with everything.”
Buddha Z pretends to be a WOMAN incorrectly, “”Oh you want the lawn mower? Take it. Okay. Go ahead and take our car.” No! She KEEPS everything intact.”
“The greed factor–“
“Sorry I said that so negatively. (Personal lperspective). But it’s just inherent. It’s the way it is. The greed factor is the WOMAN factor.”
WORKER Souls are the Working Class
“If the WORKER is greedy, “I want a raise! I want…” He’s gotta settle for what he’s got. He cannot be so greedy. I don’t know if they were created. Spiritually shave this of… and shave this… I don’t know. I’m still figuring out the dynamics of each one [soul].”
“On top you have the MANAGER and the MUSICIAN. So that’s what makes me kind of frustrated. I’m an ARTIST first.”
“In the first place I’m a MUSICIAN. Always been a MUSICIAN. I can’t stop being a MUSICIAN. I love being a MUSICIAN. If I could only do one thing and be happy–I’d be a MUSICIAN. I’m a MUSICIAN.”
“Next thing I am is a WARRIOR. I’m brave, fearless. I’m a hero. I like to help people. That’s where my compassion comes from. Weird. I thought It was a WOMAN thing. But it’s not. It’s a WARRIOR. That intention. I couldn’t figure it out. That drive.” Buddha Z gets teary eyed.
“I’m a hunter. I’m out there hunting rabbits at night. I’m out in the canyons by myself. it’s that WARRIOR thing… I don’t hunt anymore… No apologies… There’ve only been a couple times in my life I’ve killed an animal needlessly. And I bear that burden the rest of my life,” he says getting teary-eyed again.
“See. That’s the WARRIOR. The WARRIOR knows right from wrong. Youcan train him. Train him to know right from wrong. I was raised Christian so…, that’s my sense of right and wrong. I was a Catholic. That’s how I know right from wrong. That includes not killing needlessly. The Christians who do aren’t Christians.”
“Can you say them? The Three W’s on the bottom. WORKER, WOMAN and WARIOR. And then the two on top, MUSICAN and MANAGER.”
Buddha Z reads “Explanation” page of his book. It starts with an explanation of, “This ebook version of Tao of Taoism uses both “Tao”, which is Cantonese, and also, “Dao,” which is the current Mandarin Chinese language of China. They are the same word with the same meaning,” (“Tao and Dao”).
“Self-discovery is the last frontier for the smartest of men and women.. This book is a journey down your own very unique “Last Frontier.””
“How much time do you spend exploring your inner you?”
“Why are you you?”
“What makes you you?”
“I wrote this book for her [his daughter]. It’s called Act Zen to Be Zen.“
“It’s about Zen Buddhism teaching you how to find yourself–And then you can reshape yourself into other people.”
“Zen Buddhism is about understanding other people from as many perspectives as possible. And view yourself from as many perspectives as possible.”
Buddha Z talks about his poetry class in San Diego State University.
Buddha Zhen talks about how Lao Tzu may not be translated accurately by anyone because they may not understand the colloquial meanings of his statements 2,200 years ago.
Buddha Zhen also explains how only the disciples of Bodhidharma can perform the One-handed Bow of the Shaolin Temple because it signifies the relationship between the FIRST disciple of Bodhidharma and of those who continue this lineage of disciples of Buddhism to the first disciple, Hui Ke. If you aren’t ready to teach Shaolin Kung Fu or you don’t belong to a Shaolin master… you should not deceive people with this spiritual gesture.
Who is a Real Zen Buddhist?
“So what happened was–his Disciple Hui Ke–he tricked him. He tricked Bodhidharma to become the first Shaolin Disciple… He cut his arm. He went to his [Bodhidharma’s] cave and outside the cave he cut his arm and it bled into the snow. And he said, “Look, it’s raining red–in the snow. So Bodhidharm said, “Alright–you win.””
Buddha Z gets a little teary eyed. “So that’s what we’re doing. We’re honoring his sacrifice.” Buddha Z pauses. “I got a little choked up there.”
He continues, “I originally wrote this book for myself, then realized it was useful for other people. Then I rewrote it again when I created my Shaolin Chi Mantis schools in 1993 into a student manual for psychoanalyzing yourself, to help students develop a dialogue with their own inner minds.”
5 Soul Theory of Richard Del Connor
“It’s interesting I put that in the plural. It’s only in the last two years I discovered that we actually are four… souls is what I’m calling theem. Four different identities that all stack and work together.”
Buddha Z elaborates on his 5 SOUL THEORY. “You can only have four of them. Most people only have two.”
Buddha Zhen holds the book up to camera to show his Chinese ‘chop’ which is the red ‘dragon blood’ stamp on the page with his Chinese name. He explains which characters represent:
Zhen: family name = “Truth”
Shen: means “Spirit” or “Spiritual” but not ‘ghost’
Lang: “Wolf” (Master Chen explained to Richard Del Connor, “We don’t have Coyotes in China–only wolves.”)
Spirit Wolf of Truth = Buddha Z’s Buddhist name: Shen-Lang Zhen.
