User:Patchrobed Nun

Tue, Sep 26, 2006 From: WanderingDaoist@webtv.net (PatchRobe�Nun) WELCOME TO news:alt.discuss.clubs.public.religion.eastern.wanderingdaoist, A CYBER-MONASTERY, FOR SELF-REFINEMENT, AND STUDY OF THE GREAT DAO -- ITS NATURE AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS. Please sit down! Have a cup of this steaming and flavorful tea, and introduce yourself. I am your guide, a wandering Daoist whom many of you already know, as "sister", or as "Sarah", or as "Little RedHen". I had the unimaginable blessing of finding the great Dao -- or at least its name and its existence -- in 1967. � It was just during the still of the year, after Christmas and before New Year, and a dear friend had given me a copy of that thick book, The Columbia Encyclopedia -- which all today will recognize as Wikipedia, the gift of Columbia University to the world of random seekers. Delving into this, I found the entry titled "Taoism" (even then pronounced as if it were spelled "Daoism", (DAH oh ism, three syllables), and it was as if the sky were opened to reveal the universe. It was almost fifteen years later that -- out of no personal merit, but more probably to save me from hell -- I was permitted to assume the eternal identity of a nun, in Dao, and slowly my struggle toward self refinement began. That was February 2nd, 1982 -- 2/2/82, easy to remember! -- and continues today, as I near my 72nd birthday. From age 47 to 72, it seems like a minute and a half! The Great Dao is like love, like beauty, like fresh air, in that you can never quite get your finger on it, your mind around it, but you can recognize it and learn to live in it. But delusion is also readily available. The mystical experience is offen peddled by charlatans who will tell you, in essence, that "if it feels good, do it." But truth is available only to the earnest seeker who is willing and eager to work for it, rooting out all anger and all greed, becoming gradually brave, tolerant, respectful, and clean. I will provide numerous readings, and all may be discussed. I am so glad you have come.