MythVision Podcast

I was recently interviewed fam! Please go show her some love & subscribe.

7 hours ago | [YT] | 10

MythVision Podcast

You literally have to get the best translation of the latest book by Dr. Tim Whitmarsh! The Dionysiaca is available right now - amzn.to/4tUx5OT

Hopefully we can get an episode on MythVision with him about it at some point!

4 days ago | [YT] | 333

MythVision Podcast

Go show this guy ‪@timwhitakerspeaks‬ some love and shower his comments with love family!

1 week ago | [YT] | 43

MythVision Podcast

I promise you don't want to miss this recent release! The information is pure gold!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 20

MythVision Podcast

Sorry I had to reschedule today's livestream with ‪@History-Valley‬ because my neighbor died and the funeral is today. I hope everyone is creating something beautiful today.

Derek

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 234

MythVision Podcast

My friend Matt Baker ‪@UsefulCharts‬ just released a new video on Old Testament Textual Criticism, and it’s excellent.

It uses Stephen Nelson’s ‪@CrossBibleOfficial‬ “Timeline of the Bible” to walk through the Hebrew Bible section of the chart, including the relationship between the Masoretic Text and the Greek Septuagint.

If you’re interested in biblical history, textual transmission, or just clear visual explanations of complicated topics, don’t miss this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HprzQ...

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 123

MythVision Podcast

Just came in the mail! You really should read this friends! amzn.to/4vR7A33

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 187

MythVision Podcast

Check out Stephen Nelson’s new interview on Cross Bible with Dr. Willemijn Waal.

It just dropped today, and it explores whether the standard chronology of the Greek alphabet may wrong.

Make sure you're subscribed to ‪@CrossBibleOfficial‬ and go drop a like on the video:
https://youtu.be/dH0ntqIE8ew

1 month ago | [YT] | 53

MythVision Podcast

Must get books!

1 month ago | [YT] | 259

MythVision Podcast

I LASTED THREE DAYS ON BUDDHISM. THAT'S A PERSONAL RECORD AND I'M FURIOUS IT'S OVER.

Three days. Seventy-two hours. The longest I've held any religion in this entire series. Ryann was starting to relax. The kids stopped drawing me in costumes at school. Richard Miller texted "still Buddhist?" and when I said yes he said "impressive." That's the closest that man has come to saying he's proud of me.

Then I ruined it. Because of a river.

I was on the floor at 11pm, three days into Buddhism, doing nothing, thinking about nothing, when I remembered something Alan Watts said. "You can't grab a river." You can put your hand in it but the water you touch is already gone. You can't hold it. You can't own it. You just watch it go.

And I thought: that's not Buddhism. Buddhism says sit with the suffering and let go. But the river thing says don't even SIT. Don't try to let go. Don't try to NOT try. Just flow. Be the river.

That's Taoism.

Buddhism still requires you to DO something. Meditate. Follow the Eightfold Path. Practice mindfulness. There's a PROCESS. The Buddha gave you a program. Lao Tzu looked at the program and said "the program is the problem."

The Tao Te Ching. Eighty-one chapters. Most shorter than a tweet. First line: "The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao." If you can describe it, it's not it. If you can make a religion out of it, you already lost it.

I have spent two and a half weeks NAMING gods. DESCRIBING theologies. EXPLAINING traditions. And Lao Tzu opens his book by saying the thing you're looking for can't be named, described, or explained.

Wu wei. Non-action. Stop forcing things. Stop swimming upstream. Stop grabbing the river. Be water.

I didn't put on a costume. I didn't light incense. I didn't buy anything on Amazon. I went outside. Stood in the backyard. Looked at the sky. And did absolutely nothing. Less than Buddhist nothing. Taoist nothing. The nothing that doesn't even know it's nothing.

Ryann found me in the backyard at midnight. She said "what are you doing?" I said "nothing." She said "you said that three days ago with Buddhism." I said "Buddhist nothing is sitting on the floor trying to not think. This is not trying to not think. This is just standing here." She said "those sound like the same thing." I said "Buddhism is trying really hard to relax. Taoism is actually relaxing." She said "this is better. You look less like you're having a medical event." She said "how long are you going to stand here?" I said "wu wei means I'm not supposed to plan." She said "wu wei better mean you're coming inside before the sprinklers turn on."

The sprinklers came on at 12:30. I did not move. The Tao doesn't dodge sprinklers. The Tao gets wet.

I came inside soaking. Ryann had left a towel on the counter. No note. Just a towel. She knew I wouldn't move. She pre-deployed a towel. That is the most Taoist thing anyone in this house has ever done and she doesn't even know it.

I called Hugo Mendez. He said "what now?" I said "Taoism." Long pause. "I didn't predict this one. Tabor had indigenous traditions. Goodacre had atheism. I thought you'd stay Buddhist for a week." I said "I lasted three days." He said "three days longer than anything else. Progress is relative." I said "the Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. That means every religion I've been naming for two weeks was automatically not the thing I was looking for." He paused. Then he said "that's the most accidentally philosophical thing you've said this entire series and I'm not sure you understand why." I said "I don't." He said "I know. That's what makes it work."

Andrew Henry update: the thread didn't see this coming. Andrew texted: "Nobody had Taoism. The betting pool is in ruins. Tabor said 'I had indigenous traditions and I was wrong. The boy has gone east again.' Goodacre left the thread for twenty minutes and came back with 'I give up predicting him.' Richard Miller said 'at least he's reading primary sources now.'" That's the second time Miller has said something adjacent to a compliment. The wall grows.

I called Joseph A.P. Wilson. I said "Joe, Buddhism to Taoism." He said "you've moved from the Indian branch to the Chinese branch. The Buddha and Lao Tzu were roughly contemporary, sixth century BCE, possibly never knew of each other, arrived at remarkably similar conclusions from completely different starting points." I said "two guys on opposite sides of Asia both said stop trying so hard at the same time?" He said "roughly. And neither would be impressed by what you're doing with their teachings." I said "Joe, I stood in sprinklers." He said "that's not Taoism. That's stubbornness." I said "what's the difference?" He said "about two thousand years of Chinese philosophy."

Neal texted: "Taoism??" Then: "I don't have a video on this either." I said "BACK TO BACK RELIGIONS WHERE NEAL DOESN'T HAVE A VIDEO." He said "I'm writing two scripts simultaneously. Buddhism AND Taoism. You are COSTING me production time." I said "the Tao that can be scripted is not the eternal Tao, Neal." He said "I am going to block you."

Justin from Deconstruction Zone called sounding like a man who had been staring at a ceiling at 3am. He said "I just organized my entire bookshelf by Buddhist philosophy. I bought a meditation cushion. I downloaded THREE apps. And now you're telling me we're moving to TAOISM?" I said "the Tao Te Ching says stop trying." He said "I CAN'T STOP TRYING. TRYING IS ALL I KNOW HOW TO DO. I LEFT METHODISM BY TRYING HARDER THAN ANYONE HAS EVER TRIED TO LEAVE ANYTHING." Ten seconds of silence. Then: "I hate you. But I'm downloading the Tao Te Ching." He's in. He'll never admit it. But he's in.

Trent Horn update: thirteenth email. the.tao.has.no.inbox@gmail.com. "Trent, I said my last email was the last email. It wasn't. The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. Your theology that can be systematized is not the eternal theology. Also your lawyer's formal complaint only strengthened my attachment to emailing you, which means your lawyer is spiritually counterproductive." No response. The silence feels Taoist.

Wes Huff: still on read. Fourteen religions. Fifteen days. At this point Wes has maintained a silence so absolute, so cosmically committed, that I'm beginning to think HE is the enlightened one. The rest of us are out here chasing gods and arguing about manuscripts. Wes is just sitting there. Not responding. Not engaging. That's not ignoring me. That's wu wei. Wes Huff is the greatest accidental Taoist in Christian apologetics and he will never know it.

The channel is now MythFlow. First video: "The 2,500 Year Old Book That Made Every Other Religion Unnecessary." Second video: "I Stood in Sprinklers at Midnight for Lao Tzu and I'd Do It Again."

Ryann left a note: "Fourteen religions. Fifteen days. No costume. No incense. Just standing in the backyard getting hit by sprinklers at midnight. I left you a towel because I knew you wouldn't move. I don't know what wu wei is but if it means you stop buying costumes on Amazon I support it fully. PS: the water bill is going to be high this month. Enlightenment isn't free."

The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. The man who stood in sprinklers at midnight is not the eternal man. But he is dry now. And he has a towel. And that's enough.

1 month ago | [YT] | 669