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How To Look At Life


Subdeacon Joe

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I’m trying SJ but it's not resolving.  Any clues?

 

I’m thinking its like this one but I cant make it work!

 

Or did I miss the point??

 

1D7D4EB4-7DBF-4844-8D44-08AFA046E69C.thumb.jpeg.68176188eeadb92927d25a32b5ef1f5f.jpeg

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       1 WITCH.  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. 
       2 WITCH.  Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd. 
       3 WITCH.  Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time! 
       1 WITCH.  Round about the caldron go; 
    In the poison'd entrails throw.— 
    Toad, that under cold stone, 
    Days and nights has thirty-one; 
    Swelter'd venom sleeping got, 
    Boil thou first i' the charmed pot! 
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble; 
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 
       2 WITCH.  Fillet of a fenny snake, 
    In the caldron boil and bake; 
    Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 
    Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, 
    Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, 
    Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— 
    For a charm of powerful trouble, 
    Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble; 
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 
       3 WITCH.  Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf; 
    Witches' mummy; maw and gulf 
    Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark; 
    Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark; 
    Liver of blaspheming Jew; 
    Gall of goat, and slips of yew 
    Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse; 
    Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips; 
    Finger of birth-strangled babe 
    Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,— 
    Make the gruel thick and slab: 
    Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, 
    For the ingrediants of our caldron. 
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble; 
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 
       2 WITCH.  Cool it with a baboon's blood, 
    Then the charm is firm and good.

 

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3 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

I’m trying SJ but it's not resolving.  Any clues?

 

I’m thinking its like this one but I cant make it work!

 

Or did I miss the point??

 

1D7D4EB4-7DBF-4844-8D44-08AFA046E69C.thumb.jpeg.68176188eeadb92927d25a32b5ef1f5f.jpeg

 

Nope.   Not even close. 

 

It's a drawing called The Vinegar Tasters and shows the difference between the major Chinese philosophers.   

 

"The three men are dipping their fingers in a vat of vinegar and tasting it; one man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a sweet expression. The three men are Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi, respectively. Each man's expression represents the predominant attitude of his philosophy: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally good in its natural state. Another interpretation of the painting is that, since the three men are gathered around one vat of vinegar, the "three teachings" are one."

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14 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:


A different version of The Vinegar Tasters:

 


1178265395_vinegartasters.thumb.jpg.6c08767072b1e7c73f5d031f048ad333.jpg
 

Polar bear in a snow storm waving a white flag...ah, I see the meaning. 

 

The polar bear represents “death”.

The flag is “surrender”.

The snow is “coolness and calmness”.

Together they are “irony”.

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Polar bear in a snow storm waving a white flag...ah, I see the meaning. 

 

The polar bear represents “death”.

The flag is “surrender”.

The snow is “coolness and calmness”.

Together they are “irony”.

 

 

 

 

 

Better now?

 

I really do dislike it when it shows right after I post it, but then no one else can see it.

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These guys had nothing better to do than sit around a vat of vinegar!!?? :lol:

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1 hour ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

Better now?

 

I really do dislike it when it shows right after I post it, but then no one else can see it.

Yes! Thank you. :D

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I was getting ready to say, it's "The Vinegar Tasters!"

 

It is supposed to be an allegory to represent three of the major Chinese philosophies, Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism:

 

https://www.taoism.net/sanctuary/books/vintaste.htm

Quote

We see three men standing around a vat of vinegar. Each has dipped his finger into the vinegar and has tasted it. The expression on each man's face shows his individual reaction. Since the painting is allegorical, we are to understand that these are no ordinary vinegar tasters, but are instead representatives of the "Three Teachings" of China, and that the vinegar they are sampling represents the Essence of Life. The three masters are K'ung Fu-tse (Confucius), Buddha, and Lao-tse, author of the oldest existing book of Taoism. The first has a sour look on his face, the second wears a bitter expression, but the third man is smiling.

To Kung Fu-tse (kung FOOdsuh), life seemed rather sour. He believed that the present was out step with the past, and that the government of man on earth was out of harmony with the Way of Heaven, the government of, the universe. Therefore, he emphasized reverence for the Ancestors, as well as for the ancient rituals and ceremonies in which the emperor, as the Son of Heaven, acted as intermediary between limitless heaven and limited earth. Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time. A saying was recorded about K'ung Fu-tse: "If the mat was not straight, the Master would not sit." This ought to give an indication of the extent to which things were carried out under Confucianism.

 

To Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering. The world was seen as a setter of traps, a generator of illusions, a revolving wheel of pain for all creatures. In order to find peace, the Buddhist considered it necessary to transcend "the world of dust" and reach Nirvana, literally a state of "no wind." Although the essentially optimistic attitude of the Chinese altered Buddhism considerably after it was brought in from its native India, the devout Buddhist often saw the way to Nirvana interrupted all the same by the bitter wind of everyday existence.

 

To Lao-tse (LAOdsuh), the harmony that naturally existed between heaven and earth from the very beginning could be found by anyone at any time, but not by following the rules of the Confucianists. As he stated in his Tao To Ching (DAO DEH JEENG), the "Tao Virtue Book," earth was in essence a reflection of heaven, run by the same laws - not by the laws of men. These laws affected not only the spinning of distant planets, but the activities of the birds in the forest and the fish in the sea. According to Lao-tse, the more man interfered with the natural balance produced and governed by the universal laws, the further away the harmony retreated into the distance. The more forcing, the more trouble. Whether heavy or fight, wet or dry, fast or slow, everything had its own nature already within it, which could not be violated without causing difficulties. When abstract and arbitrary rules were imposed from the outside, struggle was inevitable. Only then did life become sour.

 

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I was an engineer before I was a veterinarian.  My education was technical, not historical or philosophical.  No wonder I didn’t get it!!

 

(And to be honest, it doesn’t bother me that I didn’t get it.)

 

 

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1 hour ago, DocWard said:

I was getting ready to say, it's "The Vinegar Tasters!"

 

It is supposed to be an allegory to represent three of the major Chinese philosophies, Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism:

 

https://www.taoism.net/sanctuary/books/vintaste.htm

 

 

Thanks,  Doc.

 

One I read put it that the 3rd man was smiling because the Vinegar tasted exactly like vinegar was supposed to taste. 

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2 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Thanks,  Doc.

 

One I read put it that the 3rd man was smiling because the Vinegar tasted exactly like vinegar was supposed to taste. 

 

That would be a good way of putting it, but I think it does over-simplify just a little. It keys in on the harmony aspect of Daoist thought, but one really needs the perspective of their view of Confucianism and Buddhism to help flesh it out.

 

20 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

I was an engineer before I was a veterinarian.  My education was technical, not historical or philosophical.  No wonder I didn’t get it!!

 

(And to be honest, it doesn’t bother me that I didn’t get it.)

 

 

 

I learned about The Vinegar Tasters while I was still in college and just beginning to explore Daoism. As a student of eastern philosophy and religion, and, I suppose, as a Buddhist, it is one of those fascinating allegories that has stuck with me. As an aside, in glancing at the small bookshelf I have sitting on my desk I count seven books on Buddhism, Zen in particular, Daoism, meditation, and the like, with a number more to be found elsewhere. More than I have history books sitting on it. Granted, I have more history books total by a large margin, but you get the idea.  

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27 minutes ago, DocWard said:

That would be a good way of putting it, but I think it does over-simplify just a little. It keys in on the harmony aspect of Daoist thought, but one really needs the perspective of their view of Confucianism and Buddhism to help flesh it out.

 

Yep.  It was a simple, simplifed, thumbnail look at Taoism.  A quaint little book with the title, The Tao of Pooh. Nothing deep, but a gloss to introduce people to Taoist thought.  

 

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“...you'd be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are. We will let a selection from the writings of Chuang-tse illustrate: Hui-tse said to Chuang-tse, "I have a large tree which no carpenter can cut into lumber. Its branches and trunk are crooked and tough, covered with bumps and depressions. No builder would turn his head to look at it. Your teachings are the same - useless, without value. Therefore, no one pays attention to them."

...

"You complain that your tree is not valuable as lumber. But you could make use of the shade it provides, rest under its sheltering branches, and stroll beneath it, admiring its character and appearance. Since it would not be endangered by an axe, what could threaten its existence? It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do not use it in its proper way.” 
 Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

 

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2 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Yep.  It was a simple, simplifed, thumbnail look at Taoism.  A quaint little book with the title, The Tao of Pooh. Nothing deep, but a gloss to introduce people to Taoist thought.  

 

 

 

My first book on the subject!

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