silent thunder

So much care and compassion has been exhibited in this thread. That accomplished practitioners spend their time and energy to help in conversations of this ilk, to help others, inspires me. It shows great love and care for others. I'm inspired by the energy spent by those attempting to bring clarity here. *bow* I am not harboring this compassion myself presently, but feel compelled to echo only my previous notion. The health of the tree is known in its fruit. I walk around the MPie groves I encounter. Just walk on by... there is no fruit there that I require.

It's jarring to consider how much and quickly things can change. Consider these pictures of young Afghany women studying at University in the 1950's and 60's.

all perception is based on gambles... ~Husserl Naive Realism has been refuted by Sages for ~2500 years. yet, PT Barnum observed something as well.

sit. become quiet. seal the body. consider the moon. when it rises at its zenith when it sets when it opposes if you are quiet enough, she will tell you herself. she's the teacher.

Herons are incredible! They seem to me the epitome of grace, precision and focus. Their movements seem effortless, wu wei... totally focused while completely unhindered. Just incredible.

he's a keeper... nice one Jose!

unfettered

take care what you eat. and greater care what you think. thinking colors all.

letting go letting go seems a natural springboard or more accurately... a vortex when i release i fall into awareness into mystery and it's effortless... or no effort is involved, other than release relaxation seems a prerequisite seems ironic too as to get to this point it seems much effort was involved in building to this point hmm, did the effort create the foundation? or was effort all along, creating a fog that hid from my awareness my innate connection that is never apart either way, it matters little to think on it or to reason why, or how release into awareness it's like letting go of the stones in the basket when enough stones are released the balloon rises effortlessly

fast food for the soul and slow food for the body who is being fed?

swivel

the way a question is framed, often seems to dictate the sphere and potential of the answers found... as such... I find no purchase in my experience to the question, nor any of it's possible answers. but I found it interesting to ponder nontheless. thanks

Potent conversation. I've never understood, or embraced the villification of ego. That kind of self abuse runs counter to my nature. To me there is no ego as a thing, ego to me, is an intent of inner movement... toward or away from conditions i am attracted to, or repelled by. My ego, along with my monkey mind, have a useful purpose. Excellent servants, bad masters. But rather than wage war on it to create balance, my take is of engaging in a dance and healthy nurturing... in order to embrace the flow of life as a whole and cultivate full balance and affect a full natural healthy life experience. The all too common blaspheming, abusive attitude and denigration of the ego gets no traction in my life. Nor do I resonate with, or tolerate well the sense of loathing and rejection of the body that is so readily and often fiercely embraced among spiritual institutions and many individuals. The body to me, is as spiritual as the forest, as the light, as the shadow... as the breath. To me. Hating and abusing the ego is as hurtfully useless to me as lighting part of my self on fire in an attempt to warm up on a cold night. It seems a trait imbued in a people saturated in obsession with identifying and separating parts, coupled with violent, warlike tendencies born of fear and a desire to control.

free?

Yup and it was a game changer. I had become lucid in a dreamonce , where I was grappling with a green skinned demon who had entered my home with a sword, to kill my wife and I. The demon had the appearance of a young man who we were putting up in our home at the time. The dream was set in the room I was sleeping in. As I ended the fight, with the blade in the heart of this demon, the dream froze the moment the sword reached its heart and I woke up, opening my eyes in the 'real world'. With my waking eyes, I was looking at my frozen dream self and the demon standing in the room with me. I then realized I was in sleep paralysis and there was this incredibly menacing presence of a shadowy female... something that was so close to my left cheek, I could feel her. She emanated hate, malice and ugly desire. I could make no sound other than tiny whimpers, in spite of my intent to scream and wake the entire building. When I finally managed to flex my right pinky finger, the paralysis broke, the dream ended and the vision faded, the presence dissolved and I got up rather shakily.

On the subtle level: Lost my desire to punish others or seek revenge for slights. In hand with this was a steady dissolving of old mental matrixes of resentment. Lost my ability to maintain inertia in meddling in other's business and changing the world. Lost my interest in altering other people's minds or their interpretation of reality. Decreased emotional oscillation. Contentment as a natural default state. The default experience of pure, blissful contentment of simply being, just breathing and being where i am. emptiness, silence and white light experiences. On the physical level: Wholeness in my physical form. My left ankle (and all old nagging, residual, reoccuring injuries) has fully healed, (after 10-12 years of pain, two reconstruction surgeries, and nearly amputating the foot). Regained the ability to walk without a cane and run without fear, play with my son, swim in the ocean, to move with strength and flexibility without having to compensate for pain and fear... and in the last month have started playing some of my old hard martial forms. Dropped 25 lbs (and kept it off for six years now), lowered blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol without prescription meds.

O

This Is It: Alan Watts

Sarasota Florida? My Dad had a place there, the last few years he was still using his body.

I recall it struck me back in college that to many in the galaxy, Luke would have been a terrorist. I really remember genuinely upsetting a buddy back in college who was a hardcore fan, when I explained this to him over pints; that from the perspective of the son of the Heating/Air Conditioning Installation and Repair Man, who died on the Death Star when Luke blew it up... to that boy... Luke was a murdering terrorist, because his Dad was the most wonderful, hard working, loving, kind and humorous man in the galaxy... and Luke blew him up. perspective is my ally and my ally is perspective. no wait.

I seem to be a field of awareness. Within this field there seems another field, more dense... and within this, yet more dense yet, an experience of this 'thing' my parents told me it was 'me... my body'. But all I feel comfortable saying is that I seem to be a field of awareness.

Hi Edward M. Your question reminds me of something I encountered recently that really surprised me. My wife, does not visualize... at all, like ever. It stunned me as one of the things I've sought in my practice is a break from the constant visualizations that can be very distracting. She sees nothing in dreams, she feels them. She has a very clear inner sense of how a place is in dreams, but unlike me, who sees a particular room and the color of the flowers and the furniture, she feels the room, has a sense of the room she is in, but does not see anything. She feels it. She experiences the room without visualizing it. When you dream about a place. Do you see it in detail? Or is it more of a sense, or feel of a place...