At all costs, the Christian must convince the heathen and the
atheist that God exists, in order to save his soul. At all costs,
the atheist must convince the Christian that the belief in God is
but a childish and primitive superstition, doing enormous harm to
the cause of true social progress. And so they battle and storm and
bang away at each other. Meanwhile the Taoist Sage sits quietly by
the stream, perhaps with a book of poems, a cup of wine, and some
painting materials, enjoying the Tao to his hearts content, without
ever worrying whether or not the Tao exists. The Sage has no need to
affirm the Tao; he is far too busy enjoying it!-From The Tao is Silent
I begin 2016 with a new book, the Tao is Silent by Raymond M. Smullyan. When I opened it, it showed the above snippet from the book and it fits how I feel. While I am Atheist, I’m beginning to wonder if there is a better way… Can’t we all live in unity?
Probably not! There will always be people who think their belief or worldview is the correct one. I’ll do my best to write about people living in harmony and, uh, telling you my worldview is the correct one… 🙂
Until we can live in unity, I will be the one who sits quietly, with a book of poems, and even though I no longer drink wine and am not an accomplished painter, I will definitely enjoy the world and everything nature has to offer.
Now that I have a good knowledge on Buddhism, I am going to move my focus to learning a different World Religion/World View in Taoism. I will likely start posting my thoughts on it in future blogs.
Happy New Year Everyone!
Story4today 
Yes you are right people wont agree to each other ever. But they dont have to. Why dont we practice our own religions or faiths silently without trying to bring whole mankind to agreement? In my point of view appreciating diversity is better than bringing uniformity.
Harmonizing through unity rather than uniformity is what we all need. Plus keep on disagreeing because thats what make us humans otherwise we will end up beings ants and someone will crush us under its feet!
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I really like this post thank you. I know you are on a Taoist journey and are no longer Buddhist but I wanted to share a related thought to your entry. For me Buddhism is like getting up every morning and painting my reality a little more beautiful every day. I am also not an accomplished painter, but I recognize that the problem is not outside its inside.
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Thank you. I’m still following Buddhism and practicing but definately want to expand my knowledge into the Tao. And you are spot on that the problem is not outside, it is inside. For me, Buddhism is a daily reminder that I can be the person I wish to be.
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yeah man thats cool, be the person you want to be. Every day a little bit better.
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