Author: myunfablife

HI - I'm Robb ( or Rob or Robin or Robbie depending on who in my family is talking to me ) I'm a 60 something gay guy living in Denver with my partner/husband Marck & our four MinPins - Roxie , Bandit , Red Baron ( R.B. ) and Taz. I'm a 3rd generation Colorado native with roots going back to Scandinavia and England with a little bit Crow Indian thrown in for good measure ( we think - although my maternal grandfather swore to this , it's never been proven ). I'm the oldest of 3 kids. One younger brother and an adopted younger sister. My entire family lives within in boarders of Colorado , which makes holidays very fun and sometimes eventful ( dittoheads vs Olbermann-ites ).

Daily Tao / 163 – Navigation

On By myunfablifeIn Daily Tao MeditationsLeave a comment

compass points

Do you know
Where you are
On your journey?

Tao’s movement has been compared to the flow of rivers. Its vastness has been compared to that of oceans. Some people are content to float here and there with the tide, but for others, such passivity is impossible. We have to navigate.

Like early explorers on the high seas, we know where we want to go. That’s when studying precedence is important. The wisdom of those who went before us is like a map. The truths regarding Tao are like the stars. We determine our goals, and we set out according to what we know and what we learn. The future is always uncertain; that is why it is important to objectively evaluate where we are on our spiritual path.

If you are confronted with a pivotal decision and cannot think of any other way to act, write down all the good things and all the bad things about a given situation. Also include how much more you want to do. See if staying your course will give you what you want. If not, change, no matter how deeply that will disrupt your routines. Some people never know where they are in life, and that is one of the biggest reasons that they are unhappy.

Navigation

Daily Tao / 162 – Accessibility

On By myunfablifeIn Daily Tao MeditationsLeave a comment

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As long as the sun rises
And your heart beats,
Tao is at hand.

People think that Tao can only be known through fairy-tale stories of old men in the mountains or obscure poetry about gods riding dragons. Others declare that elaborate ritual, frightening talismans, and mumblings from the depths of spirit possession are necessary for understanding. This is simply not true. Why put another’s experience before your own? Tao is in each of us. Admittedly, an individual’s common ignorance usually obscures awareness of Tao, but this does not mean that there is no Tao or that it is not important. Tao is there for us to experience any time that we can open ourselves to it.

Is the sun shining? Does night follow day? Is the sky blue? Do you have feeling? Then it is possible to know Tao directly and immediately. Don’t delay, don’t think yourself too insignificant. Feel for it. Right now. As long as you are alive, Tao is right at hand.

Book Review –

On By myunfablifeIn Books, My Rants and Ramblings, reviewsLeave a comment

Dan Brown – Inferno

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Dan Brown is always kind of fun to read. Like a cross between James Patterson and   a *Blank* -for-Dummies book. Short chapters that give you a Cliff Notes version course in the topic of the day.

I mean he always takes some (relatively) obscure cult and crosses it a fairly well-known Painter/Author/Whatever and 104 chapters later there you have it.

Inferno is no exception.  Take a little bit of Durante degli Alighieri, more commonly known as “Dante” ( of the high school AP English or College 101 lit staple Dante’s Inferno )  ,  add a bizarre ideology called the Transhumanist Movement, throw in a cross-Europe chase and possible case of amnesia for Brown’s antagonist/hero Robert Langdon, and you have a book that very rarely let’s up in the narrative. That is  until the last 3 or 4 chapters which are just the literary equivalent of the Scooby Gang’s ” Now we’ll tell you why Old Man Smithers did what ever he did”.

I did enjoy this outing much more than his last,  The Lost Symbol, and I’ll most likely pick up whatever book he puts out next. Who knows maybe a combo of Botticelli and fake moon landing conspiracy  …. ?

Daily Tao / 161 – Truth

On By myunfablifeIn Daily Tao MeditationsLeave a comment

truth on hands

 

There are three levels of truth :
Experience, reasoning, and knowing.
All other assertions should be rejected.

The first type of truth is experience. Once you have experienced something, you know it. No person can persuade you otherwise.

The second type is truth gained by reasoning. In this case, the truth cannot be immediately verified because the subject is too small (like atomic particles) or too large (like the movement of planets through time) or too abstract (like ideas). Something may be true, but its truth is borne out by analysis rather than physical testing.

Either of these two types of truths has a range of validity. They are relative. Therefore, though truths are superior to falsehood, opinions, beliefs, and superstition, they each have limits. There is a third type of truth that is different from these two.

This is a way of direct spiritual knowing. Wholly internal, this mode is the direct experiencing of truth through the opening of higher faculties. Meditation gives one perceptions of absolute certainty. There is no doubt or need of other investigations; this knowledge is beyond words, descriptions, and rationalization. In fact, one must be careful not to let the fruits of one’s meditations pass into the realm of rationalization. This will subject you to the relativity of external truths and ruin your confidence. To avoid doubts and conflicting opinions, followers of Tao keep their revelations secret. Then what is known directly is absolutely yours.

Summer Reading –

On By myunfablifeIn Books, My Rants and RamblingsLeave a comment

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It’s time to get my summer reading list going.  This summer I am going ( to try ) and (re)read the Song of Ice and Fire series.  I have already read A Game of Thrones , A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords, so those will be my re-reading to bet back into the series. I will then get to A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons…

Now I don’t read really fast, I tend to view reading like walking down a mountain path. I stop at a particularly nice flower ( sentence or even paragraph ) and read it two or even three times.  I have even been known to go back and read a really good chapter again; or I might get distracted and wander off the main path entirely and search out stuff related to what i’m reading.  Reading on an iPad makes this particular sojourn  even more easy and appealing since all I have to do is highlight something and voi-là I’m magically taken to what/where ever i was distracted by ….

So …. I will keep you apprised as to my progress as I venture back into the lands Westeros and all happiness and tumult that that can inspire ….

Daily Tao / 160 – Superstition

On By myunfablifeIn Daily Tao MeditationsLeave a comment

ghosts

The voices of ghosts are so familiar,
They whisper to me every day.
You, so young and rich,
Make assumptions with absolute assurance.
I vacillate between superstition and tradition.
You don’t need to question.

Tradition is the oral delivery of rites and customs from generation to generation. Superstition is belief inconsistent with what society generally considers true and rational. When tradition and superstition become bound together, it is a sign of trouble. For example, a woman was once taught not to wash her hair on anybody’s birthday. Whenever she protested this, the answer was “Don’t question!” Years later, she learned that in the old country, letting one’s hair down was a sign of mourning and thus inauspicious on a birthday. What was etiquette in one generation became superstition in another.

Those raised with traditions and superstitions are often torn between the extremes of biculturalism. Their inbred beliefs conflict with current knowledge and quickly changing culture, creating doubt and uncertainty.

There has to be informed revision to all tradition if it is not to degenerate into superstition. The true substance of any tradition will take new form without compromising its inherent character. If not, it will just become the outmoded beliefs of old people, and it will fade into ghostly whispers.