/jp/ - Otaku Culture

[Anonymous No.]

Do you ever think about the afterlife and the tao?
How often do you study the classics, or read them just for pleasure?

I am so frustrated, totally alone in my belief of the tao. None of my friends know what I'm talking about when I mention the classics, even less when I mention a reference to a poem or a quote from the old teachers.
None of my friends are believers in the tao. Is this what western society has become?

I guess this is as deep as the rap game gets.

[Anonymous No.]

You don't actually follow the tao, you are just one of the countless internet taoist posers.

[Anonymous No.]

>friends
I don't know that feel bro

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979219
Well, for one, I am not one of those western new age hippies.
I didn't know taoism had a large online following?

"Those who know don't speak, those who speak don't know."
LaoZi

[Anonymous No.]

jokes on you, I'm one with the aether

[Anonymous No.]

become a wu-tang

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979243
Personally, my heart and soul belongs to the godess Mazu, while my mind and reasoning belongs to the old teachers Confucius and LaoZi.

[Anonymous No.]

confucius is a fagit

[Anonymous No.]

i can't belive people still buy this "afterlife" bullshit.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979268
>i can't belive
there's yo problem

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979268
atheism was a mechanism invented by the zog to keep the foolish masses cynical and passive
good job goy

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979268
Well, Anonymous, how would you explain your beliefs?
I am genuinly interested in your view of what happens during and after death.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979268
EMPIRICISM AND CRITICAL THINKING DID NOT EXIST UNTIL RECENTLY AND OF THE MILLIONS OF INTELLIGENT, LEARNED MEN WHO HAVE BELIEVED IN SOME SORT OF AFTERLIFE OVER THE PAST HOWEVER MANY MILLENNIA, THEY WERE ALL COMPLETELY WRONG AND IDIOTS WHO DIDN'T REALIZE RELIGION WAS A LIE. BUT YOU, A RANDOM TEENAGER ON THE INTERNET, HAVE FINALLY CRACKED IT. AFTER ALL, IT'S JUST A FALLACY TO SAY THAT LOTS OF PEOPLE BELIEVING IN SOMETHING SOMEHOW GIVES IT MERIT OR LADY GAGA WOULD BE TOLERABLE. NO SIR, ALL THOSE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WERE JUST IDIOTS TO WHOM IT NEVER OCCURRED THAT THEY COULD BE BEING LED ON, AND THEY WERE HAPPY TO ACCEPT SUCH A SILLY NOTION AS AN AFTERLIFE WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT.

IT'S OVER EVERYONE. >>8979268 HAS SOLVED THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND METAPHYSICAL DEBATE.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979218
>>8979266
Bless your souls. May happiness come to you, and fill your whole mind and heart with joy. 天啊, give these people strength to carry on.

[Anonymous No.]

have you ever met a god before

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979287
During? If you are lucky you won't have the time to feel a thing. If you aren't, well it will fucking hurt I tell you.

After?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.

[Anonymous No.]

You remind me that I have no fucking idea about Taoism. Buddhism and Shinto, a bit. But my knowledge about Taoism is zero.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979311
You ARE a god, dummy.

[Anonymous No.]

As a christian, I feel compelled to inform you all that you believe in a false god.

[Anonymous No.]

I started reading the Tao Teh Ching this week. I'm enjoying it a lot.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979257
>None of my friends are believers in the tao. Is this what western society has become?
Chinese philosophy has never been part of Western culture, so your question is pretty stupid
>while my mind and reasoning belongs to the old teachers Confucius and LaoZi.

Bromanskidude, the Taoists mocked the HELL out of Confucius.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979311
I have only spoken to one directly through a medium, since they live in the spirit world.
It went something along the lines of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwmZAC7_bSY

I will pray for you next time if you want.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979287
what after? there is no conscience "after"

>>8979289
it was quite simple. thank you

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979326
Well, if you know Shinto, it's very similar, especially the gods and temples. A lot of it is actually purely stolen from Taoism. Stolen is not the correct word, but it migrated from ancient China to Japan, and it's kind of like the old Abraham religion that turned into Judaism, then Christianity and Islam. Shinto is like Christianity to Tao, the name itself comes from the chinese "shen dao". Buddhism in the thought is very similar as well, some mahayana buddhists pray to Tao gods as well, and some taoists also pray to buddha, as there is no reason not to. Many taoists also study buddhas teachings.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979334
Surely, it depends on what school of taoism you belong to. I have never met a taoist who mocked Confucius.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979356
Isn't shinto a religion native from japan, from the animistic folk that lived there in ancient times? Was it really brought from China?

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979356
道 is not a taoist invention. It simply means The Way. The 道 in 神道 has nothing to do with taoism.
Get out of here.

>>8979367
Go read Zhuangzi then.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979371
>>8979372
Ever heard of a book called the I Ching? Many of Shinto's core concepts are taken from that book.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979371
I don't want to talk for Shinto, but you are right in that it's a japanese religion, but it's base can be traced back to chinese folk religion, which later merged into taoism.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979372
Is he dreaming of the butterfly, or is the butterfly dreaming of him? Am I posting on /jp/, or is /jp/ posting on me?

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979371
It's Daoism mixed with native Japanese religion, like how Christianity is Judaism mixed with some Neoplatoism

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979397
So you know texts/quotes from the Zhuangzi, then you should also know that it likes to poke fun with Confucius. It’s a book full of sarcasm and mockery.
>The biggest bandit of all is you!

That’s why it was pretty marginalised in the Han, the dynasty where Confucianism became the most dominant philosophy.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979424
So can I assume that Koshinto is just the native japanese faith without the Taoist influence, or it's influenced by it too?

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979439
yup.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979426
The Zhuangzi is only a book, neither the Zhuangzi or the Dao de jing should be read like a bible. The true tao lies in the tradition still practiced today, there is no need to learn the scriptures unless you want to or you want to be a scholar. Learn by doing, not by reading. The books are just for pleasure and insight to how we can interpret the way, not a giant collection of rules.

Are you of chinese ethnicity, if I may ask?

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979455
>not a giant collection of rules.
Isn't that what confucianism is, by the way?

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979465
But we are discussing tao here. Confucianism may live side by side with religion, or may as well be interpreted as a religion on it's own (especially among intellectuals in modern day China), either way your comment is not relevant.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979455
Good work bringing up something unrelated. I was just saying that it was pretty funny that you said you live by Confucius and Laozi. Because Confucius has nothing to do with Taoism.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979468
I'm just asking.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979465
Haha, no. You might be thinking of Legalism or Neo-Confucianism. Confucius himself always stressed the importance of love.

Kind of like a Chinese Jesus, I guess.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979481
Chinese Jesus was Mozi, not Confucius.
Mohist universal love is a lot closer to Jesus than Confucius' hierarchic love is.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979471
>Because Confucius has nothing to do with Taoism.
You should have told me this was the point of your argument earlier, as I do not believe he is part of taoism like LaoZi is. I simply enjoy his wisdom and aspire to have at least 1/10 of the wisdom he had. But I do pray to him once in a while in taoist temples for good grades and good luck with my studies, like I said I haven't met a single taoist that mocks his teachings.

[Anonymous No.]

terrible thread.
OP is a faggot

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979490
You're not wrong, but Confucius whose teachings ultimately went on to shape an entire continent and become the dominant philosophy there. That's why I thought it suitable to compare him with Jesus.

[Anonymous No.]

>tao
>afterlinfe
My brain is full of fuck

>>8979471
>Confucius has nothing to do with Taoism
You mean because they were always competing for court influence. Like republicans and democrats, Taoists were like deregulate everything and things will work out in accordance to the Tao. Confucians were like intervene everywhere, because the good ruler has these moral responsibilities.

>I don't want to talk for Shinto, but you are right in that it's a japanese religion, but it's base can be traced back to chinese folk religion, which later merged into taoism.
Formalized Shinto is based on Taoist texts, but not Taoism. It is like if someone gave you some parts of the bible and you drew your own conclusions from it. Onmyodo was considered Shinto related, but not entirely Shinto for a while, until exorcists and stuff got integrated into more formalized shrines, once Buddhism brought organized religion.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979524
I’m a bit confused. I associate “you mean because…” with sarcastic replies, but I can’t really find a major contradiction between my posts and your post.

Sorry, please explain to me, this nerd can’t follow.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979524
>if someone gave you some parts of the bible and you drew your own conclusions from it
Another poster already compared the origins of Shinto to the origins of Christianity or Islam. Same deal with both: based on same texts, different interpretations. Just as Christianity and Islam both have their roots in Judaism, Shinto has its roots in Taoism. What's unclear about this argument?

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979578
Well, that’s wrong. Shintoism is influenced by it but it’s not where its roots are.
And claiming the 道 in 神道 as an argument for it was silly as 道 is not exclusive to Taoism at all.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979596
Yeah, on second thought, "roots" isn't the best way to put it. Regardless, there's little doubt that there is a lot of Taoist influence there.
>Early-Tokugawa Confucians tried to link Shinto with China by pinpointing its Chinese origins. The Hirata school of the kokugaku movement responded by initiating a project to "Japanize" the I Ching, a book that was a major influence on Shinto, by claiming it was of Japanese origin. The project was completed with Aizawa Seishisai emptying the I Ching of its Chinese content. (Source: Wikipedia)

I wonder what a non-Chinese I Ching looks like.

And yes, I completely agree that the 道-神道 argument is completely retarded.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979734
>And yes, I completely agree that the 道-神道 argument is completely retarded.
There was never such an argument in this thread, only a mention that the word Shinto originates from chinese.

[Y10NRDY !kxh.1oTAkU No.]

>Do you ever think about the afterlife

Yeah. I can't help but not. As a solitary individual, I contemplate dying alone and what, if anything comes next.

>and the tao?

No. Everyone I've ever met into so-called "eastern philosophies" was a fucking flake so I auto-associate rambling esoteria like the tao with them.

That's probably foolish of me.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979734
I agree with that, great!
Now it’s time to end my day with some eroge.

>>8979767
Well, I interpret
>Shinto is like Christianity to Tao, the name itself comes from the chinese "shen dao".
As a supportive argument, not a sidenote mentioning, which would be a bit weird.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979767
You might be right, but the way the poster mentioned it right after saying something like "a lot of stuff in Shinto was stolen from Taoism" would lead some to believe it was used as an argument.

[Anonymous No.]

ano kimochi when I was really into this shit as a high-schooler but now that I'm not underage banned I hardly even remember it and don't practice meditation.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8979783
Depends what you mean with flake.
I am 89 kg 187 cm 6% bodyfat and don't take shit from no one, and I'm down with the tao. But I agree, there are many new agers who not only misunderstand buddhism/taoism/hinduism/whatever they're into, but also ruin it and only choosing what they want to believe in.

[Anonymous No.]

Why would you need an afterlife when we're all one with the universe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXmz605GAnc

[Anonymous No.]

I can't believe some people on /jp/ are actually taoists. I thought I was the only one who believed in the path.

[Anonymous No.]

>>8980205
But that's not the real me out there, I need to return to Neptune.
The howling winds are calling.

[Anonymous No.]

Any other taoists on here? Or shintoists?

[Anonymous No.]

I'm a muslim so I'm waiting to enjoy my paradise where I can get anything I want.