The Sacred Chao Te Ching

[Cramulus]

I get that masturbation = wasted energy


but if you had fun wasting energy, isn't that okay?


I may be being too literal about that metaphor. It just seems a little bit off to me, because masturbation in itself doesn't sound like something we're against.

[LMNO]

To be quite honest, playing little mental games inside your own head isn't really something we're "against", either.

I can have a great time constructing a self-contained reality inside my cell.

[Cramulus]

re: 78


in the tao te ching, chapter 78 is about the weak overcoming the strong. The flexible overcoming the rigid. And the symbol of this is water - the weakest, most malleable thing in the world, the only thing which can wear down rocks and mountains without any effort at all.

so...

suggested revision for 78---------------------------


It is said that the weak will overcome the strong.
This is true of laughter.
Laughter cannot win wars, but it can win hearts.
It can soften the rigid.
It can unite, it can multiply, it can do long division.
It can thaw the heart's armor of ice.
It can even pull the cloth right off the table while the plates and utensils remain motionless.

[LMNO]

Hey, that's a good one.  Get it up there!

[Cramulus]

I said upthread that there's 10-15 stanzas which need attention

I don't think that's true at all. I think we probably only need to do 2 or 3 more and we're done with the "second pass" (as we call it in publishing).

[Telarus]

Chapter 79 updated and edited:


The Illuminati and the Discordians have reconciled many times.
But some-one always remains attached to their own butt-hurt.
If you do not shit your hate, you will die.
Who can live, retaining a colon full of hate?
And the Sacred Chao wobbles again, as the monkeys howl and fling their poop.
To guard against this, the Wise Spag remembers always
His own obligations to the LULZ, without expecting repayment or reward.
Dancing at the heart of Chaos, Eris plays no favorites.
The LULZ flows as a torrent, but the Wise Spag surfs upon it
Her glorious laughter are his Hodge and his Podge, his vehicle and his prize.

[Cramulus]

interesting take

To me, 78 and 79 go hand in hand --
78 in the Tao Te Ching is about the weak overcoming the strong, water, and the mystical feminine. So we made the CTC#78 about laughter.

This segues into 79, which talks about recognizing that people are monkeys, and that very often, the monkey nature wins out. Sometimes it's better not to be a passive giggling ninny. I like your 79, but I worry that we snipped some good discussion about the monkey nature.



posted side by side for posterity:

If you do not shit your hate, you will die.
Who can live, retaining a colon full of hate?
Therefore the monkeys howl, and fling their poop.
Are you surprised the wise spags are monkeys?
They do not deny how they were born,
nor their contradictory nature.
To deny all the elements that make us human
is worse than an impacted bowel.
The people are all monkeys,
but the wise spag admits it.

Chapter 79 updated and edited:

The Illuminati and the Discordians have reconciled many times.
But some-one always remains attached to their own butt-hurt.
If you do not shit your hate, you will die.
Who can live, retaining a colon full of hate?
And the Sacred Chao wobbles again, as the monkeys howl and fling their poop.
To guard against this, the Wise Spag remembers always
His own obligations to the LULZ, without expecting repayment or reward.
Dancing at the heart of Chaos, Eris plays no favorites.
The LULZ flows as a torrent, but the Wise Spag surfs upon it
Her glorious laughter are his Hodge and his Podge, his vehicle and his prize.

I like the line about laughter being both a vehicle and a prize.
I miss the bit about how even the wise are shit flinging monkeys.

Curiously enough, I'm not sure if we've used the words Hodge or Podge anywhere in this doc. and the illuminatti - I don't think we've used them yet either, so that's an image we'll have to expand a bit, as it's unclear on its own.

[Requia ☣]

I wrote my own take on chapter 79:

If you do not shit your hate, you will die.
Who can live, retaining a colon full of hate?
Therefore the monkeys howl, and fling their poop.
The wise spags admit they are monkeys.
And the wise spags fling poop as they will.
The unwise spags deny they are monkeys.
And the monkeys fling poop as they will.

I'm not sure I like the use of the word 'lulz', it associates us with the whole internet troll thing (which we are, but thats not what this is about).

hodge and podge and the Discordian/Illuminati bit I'm not sure about as well, but more because it introduces new memes at the tail end of the work, that the reader might not be familiar with.

[NotPublished]

I thought I'd give it a shot, Heres my chapter 79

When the Spag and the Hag fued
Why hold onto hate?
The spag may not care
But the Hag will try to smite.

Therefore, Eris leaves her mark
She will claim the Hag as her own
The Wise Spag has already moved on
But the Hag fumes on.

Eris favours the nature of the Spag.
They were victims of indigestion, you know

[Cramulus]

note for later:

I feel that 71 still needs something, not sure what



and 81 needs a rewrite too

[Kai]

Your avatar comes to mind...

I'm gonna try rigging up something a bit cleaner than that.

Edit: How about this? Fuck the earlier one, this one is more the idea you had.



http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e168/ZLB/ChaoTeChing1.jpg

[Telarus]

interesting take

To me, 78 and 79 go hand in hand --
78 in the Tao Te Ching is about the weak overcoming the strong, water, and the mystical feminine. So we made the CTC#78 about laughter.

This segues into 79, which talks about recognizing that people are monkeys, and that very often, the monkey nature wins out. Sometimes it's better not to be a passive giggling ninny. I like your 79, but I worry that we snipped some good discussion about the monkey nature.



posted side by side for posterity:

If you do not shit your hate, you will die.
Who can live, retaining a colon full of hate?
Therefore the monkeys howl, and fling their poop.
Are you surprised the wise spags are monkeys?
They do not deny how they were born,
nor their contradictory nature.
To deny all the elements that make us human
is worse than an impacted bowel.
The people are all monkeys,
but the wise spag admits it.

Chapter 79 updated and edited:

The Illuminati and the Discordians have reconciled many times.
But some-one always remains attached to their own butt-hurt.
If you do not shit your hate, you will die.
Who can live, retaining a colon full of hate?
And the Sacred Chao wobbles again, as the monkeys howl and fling their poop.
To guard against this, the Wise Spag remembers always
His own obligations to the LULZ, without expecting repayment or reward.
Dancing at the heart of Chaos, Eris plays no favorites.
The LULZ flows as a torrent, but the Wise Spag surfs upon it
Her glorious laughter are his Hodge and his Podge, his vehicle and his prize.

I like the line about laughter being both a vehicle and a prize.
I miss the bit about how even the wise are shit flinging monkeys.

Curiously enough, I'm not sure if we've used the words Hodge or Podge anywhere in this doc. and the illuminatti - I don't think we've used them yet either, so that's an image we'll have to expand a bit, as it's unclear on its own.

I'm not tied to those memes, so we can go back to the 'monkeys' imagery. The key points of this verse in all the translations I looked at before writing my version seemed to be that expecting or demanding others to fulfill their obligations throws you out of a Tao-mind. Be worried about your own shit while at the same time realizing that other people are domesticated monkeys, so don't expect them _not_ to act like it.

Do this, and the Tao offers/becomes it's own reward.

[phi]

A brilliant project! I will see what I can throw at it.

[Requia ☣]

I'm gonna take a crack at 71 and 81

What exactly do you think they need?

[Cramulus]

what do you think they need?