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Passions Are Your Sword Captain
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 Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:22 pm
The study of world history and social things around the world. I.E, religion, wars, etc.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:43 pm
Among the class listings for the semester: HIST 3003 - Chinese Taoist Texts in Modern Context (4.0 cr; fall) taught by Prof. Karl Volker A survey of Taoist literature in the context of Chinese history and modern day Western culture. required texts: Yin Chih Wen - The Tract of the Quiet Way http://www.terebess.hu/english/yichihwen.htmlLao Tzu - Tao Te Ching http://www.beatrice.com/TAO.html(this is a somewhat humorous translation that uses street lingo, but is fairly true to the original intent.) note: this class may count as either Philo or Hist credits Class meets for 3 hours of lecture every Monday.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 2:57 pm
James just sighed and he hoped to switch to this class instead of yet another advanced math one. He knocked on the door hoping the teacher was present. If not he would have to go back to math. What a pain this perdicament was he thought.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:02 pm
James kept knocking untill he figured the teacher was probably in the teachers dorm. He supposed he should head that way.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:37 pm
(OOC: hehe yep, you will catch him at the dorm. Good thinking) wink
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:50 am
Professor Volker entered Room 101 of the Liberal Arts Hall. Scanning the classroom, he saw that the seats were mostly empty. He noted wryly that it was usually the case in his classes. "The study of the past and the ideas of the ages holds the key to the present... and the future. But most do not seemed to be concerned about such things these days.", Karl told himself.
"Good morning, students!", he began, "I am professor Karl Volker and this is History 3003, Taoist Texts in Modern Context... we shall begin right away with a few questions that this course will help you attempt to answer." Karl made his way to the board and began to scrawl as he spoke. " One: What meaning, if any, does Taoism have in the 21st century.... Two: What does Taoism tell us regarding the nature of reality."
Karl hoped that his students would find some value in these texts they were going to study. He knew that in them was more than what appeared to the casual reader. In the back of his mind was part of the lecture to the class he did not utter: "Little do you students know that I will be introducing some of the long hidden alchemical and quantum secrets of the Universe. Yet, the key still eludes me to the greatest secret of all. It is almost within my grasp! Perhaps one of YOU will be the one to help me find it."
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:33 pm
James sat in the back of the glass and merely watched his teacher right obviously the teacher was dissapointed with the turn out. Personally James liked it more, almost any annoyance would not take this class. He looked at the texts he had to buy and merely shrugged they were big but in the end most big books only have a few importent interputations that controlled the entire book itself. James just sat back and let the teacher go on about what the class would be like. No need, for James though he already knew. James just sat back in thought about the parts of the text he had read so far, he was going to read alot of the text he figured soon enough.
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:50 pm
Karl continued on with the lecture: "...which is known as "Union of Human and Tao". This stage is the integration of all previous levels of consciousness into the experience of living simultaneously in the present moment in ALL dimensions. This includes physical linear time and the 11 total dimensions that quantum theorists have concluded exist."
He looked and James, then began, "So James, besides some form of personal harmony, which the Tao is certainly about, what other meanings do you think the Taoist alchemists may have found when in the Tao Te Ching it says:
'The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.'
Karl finished his question,"What might this mean in the 21st century search for answers about the Cosmos?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:10 pm
His mind reeled. Pondering the potentials of the Tao, the Way, had taken almost every waking moment of his life for the past 10 years. If it had once brought him peace, it now brought him the desire for new dimensions just out of reach. "Soon", Karl thought, "soon."
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:20 pm
In the modern translation you got for this class, James, how does it render the same passage?
'If you can talk about it,
it ain't Tao.
If it has a name,
it's just another thing.
Tao doesn't have a name.
Names are for ordinary things.'
"The Tao is all, yet it cannot be named, James. 'Ordinary' things have names. To know the name of something, its true name, is to have power over it. The alchemists realized this. This is the basis of what some have called 'magic'..."
Karl trailed off wanting to say so much more. He waited for what the student was thinking.
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:45 pm
James set there and stared at his teacher and simply said "For how can I answer a question for which you had just answered? There is no point. If you want me opinion on what the alchemist would not name I think it pointless. For all things can be either controlled or manipulated. Prehaps not as a whole but as a singular thing. As I said even magic as some people have titled it i'm sure can be controlled, we just have not found a way yet so we say things on the basis of our current knowledge. Yet, once we get control will we not name it off like any other object?" James said this to see what the teacher would reply, probably something disproving what he just said but, he had no problem with being proven wrong. He just likes to debate about things, it is a fun thing for him.
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 7:11 pm
"Yes, there is a conundrum ... once we grasp the reality and name it, it is not the Tao...but if we could become one with such essences, the Union of Human and Tao, then the duality of naming and not naming might be satisfied! To simultaneously know and not know, name and not name, control and be part of; perhaps this is the key. Just as subatomic particles are simultaneously at one point and many, what if there were a viable way to use our PERCEPTIONS to achieve what the Taoist alchemists thought possible? Could not space, time and matter and any dimension be 'controlled' without controlling?"
Karl wondered how James would react to such assertions and line of questioning. He smiled at James and then looked to the rest of the class. "Class is dismissed until next week. Please consider what has been said here and continue to read the Tao Te Ching." Karl then looked back at James and said, "You have a bright mind. Let it consider the possibilities we have spoken about today. Let me know what you think."
Professor Volker walked quickly out of the classroom; his eccentric mind abuzz with many lines of thought at once.
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:13 pm
James walked out and knew he had no answer to how his teacher had replied. For how could one answer such contradictions to everything. A very difficult task but one James figured he would find away around. There was no question that was unanswerable and James was going to make sure he could answer it with his own perceptions. He looked down at his tao books and realized he had not started to read them at all yet. He sighed, and brought them under his arm and decided to himself by whispering lowly "I suppose I should start reading this so I won't be caught so unawares."
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Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:35 pm
professor Volker punctually returns to the classroom a week later...
Scribbling on the board he says: "What strikes you about these statements attributed to Lao Tzu about Tao, the Way?" Karl then points to what he has written:
'You can't see Tao, but it's there.
Damned if I know where it came from.
It's just always been around.
Lao Tzu said Tao is like a bellows:
It's empty,
but it could help set the world on fire.'
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Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:10 pm
James was in class and already knew what both answers he would do. They were rather obvious, the first of course would be that the tao is something that has been created of what the means we do not know, and we cannot see it only try to understand it. Even then we have more questions then answers he thought, and that was his basic answers no matter how lame it really was. The second part was rather weird in james opinion. The tao was empty? He thought of that phrase and really did not get what it meant. The tao seemed to be filled with alot of information and way of life, and as for the last part of the stament it is a powerful force and could do harm or good he figured.
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