Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Lineages

Lineage historian Will Durant noticed that “civilizations don’t die, they migrate.” This migration based on a symbolic mind transmission from one person to another communicates the inspiration of one person’s wisdom and insight to others. And counter to this are the lineages of confusion, fixed mind, and superstition. We can see all of history as the interplay between these two powerful influences: belief and superstition on one side; openness and doubt on the other.

There seems to be a micro/macro similarity between cultural influence on a large scale and personal karma on an individual one. In the same way that a culture influences people to think and act in specific ways, the personal influences of our biology and life experiences compress us into narrow streams of thought and action. Configured in unique combinations, these powerful pressures funnel us into narrow and often harmful choices. Another way of thinking about these most often determining factors in our lives is the idea of lineage.

Our lineages here celebrate and promote the non-thought, creative, and beyond-belief influences in our various cultures, religions, political and philosophical movements.

“Eternal truths survive the shock of empires, outlive the struggles of rival creeds, and witness the decay of successive religions.” ― Henry Thomas Buckle (1821-1862)

"a celestial city, a special Country of the Mind, wherein a 1000 saints, statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing." — Will Durant (1885–1981)

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Comments (2)

  1. Shan Dao
    Shan Dao 5 years ago
    "If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life."—Will Durant
  2. Shan Dao
    Shan Dao 3 years ago
    "The lineage is an example of successive people surrendering to themselves and beginning to find the expression of the guru in themselves."-- Chogyam Trungpa, 'Cynicism and Warmth'