silent thunder
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Everything posted by silent thunder
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For me, one of the reasons I was drawn to Taoism was my observations of nature and the cyclical nature of existence. Returning to the root is the ultimate in recycling. For me, at this point, it resolves down to awareness of source.
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The idea of living in this body, with this personality... forever? Yuck. No thanks. No way. I think there's only so much to be gleaned from the meat bag experience. Granted, it's a reeeeeally fun and amazing meat bag... but... still...
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nice... I like it. be the light, or be the mirror reflecting it.
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Are dreams tinting your waking life?
silent thunder replied to Owledge's topic in General Discussion
In memory, all experiences settle into an equilibrium for me. Some are remembered consciously and mundanely, most not, they just fade. Some are so vivid, exacting in detail and intense that I expect they will remain vivid as long as I have magnetism of mind. Of those that are remembered, they all have an equality of value. With a strong memory recalled vividly and in detail, it doesn't matter if it took place in the dream state or waking, nor if it took place 41 years ago, (I'm 45 currently) or yesterday. It also isn't that important to me if it took place in the 'real' world, or the dream state. If it impacts my consciousness, it has value in memory for me. The way I respond when lucid in dreams is the same mechanism I respond to stimuli in the waking state. When in the dream state, the experience is as real as anything I've ever experienced 'out here'. It is only when I wake up that I was conditioned to disregard the dream stimuli as not valuable, because 'it wasn't real'. To that I must loudly proclaim BULLSHIT. Not out of any malice, just that this is sincerely not the case for me. Stimuli are stimuli. This started at a very young age (four) and as I've grown, has instilled in me a deep, steadily growing and unshakable sense that one day, I will become lucid in the waking state, the same way I do in the dream state, nightly. If an experience has the resonant impact on my consciousness of being stored and recalled in detail as memory, then it stands more or less on equal footing in my memory with all other experiences of a similar intensity and impact. It matters not to me much any more what the 'source' of that experiential memory is... waking or dreaming. What matters to me is what is revealed in the experience about my consciousness and my true nature. Both the real and the dream serve to illuminate my nature by my reaction to the conditions present to my awareness. In short, dreams and waking state to me, are on equal footing as I experience them as memory. -
and... whoosh. huh?
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What are some beliefs you hold that hold you back?
silent thunder replied to Yasjua's topic in General Discussion
Two things I've incorporated in recent years that rung my bell nicely when I first heard them... Don't believe everything you think. and I don't care what you think about me... I don't think about you at all. -
your link just takes me to the youtube home page... maybe try the link again
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lol I read it as inherent mysticism...
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Meditation or adrenaline pepper spray?
silent thunder replied to mewtwo's topic in General Discussion
pain is a level of sensation, deemed unacceptable -
holy crap, I hope Youtube isn't immortal...
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I've traveled most of the US by car and the ratio of good to bad encounters is astronomically in favor of the good. I mean, for thousands and thousands of encounters, there are a handful of negative. I'd have to scrape hard to find even ten. (edit to add: this is increased in magnitudes for the seven years I lived in NYC and the fourteen I've spent in LA...) This goes for anywhere I've visited. I think the problem is that the tiny percentage of the population that makes the vast majority of the trouble, gets so much attention, precisely because it's so rare, it stands out. That, and we seem to love to obsess on negative spectacle as a species. It's one of the most common addictions in modern humans, we just don't recognize it as such because you can't get fat or drunk off of it... but its influence is intense. On any given, mundane/boring day, there are literally thousands and thousands of small events that go completely unnoticed. Near misses, almost dropped somethings, nearly clipped a car but both stopped in time. These are so common, they are most entirely forgotten and disregarded as 'normal'. But recently for me, there is nothing normal about a completely boring, average day. They are bliss and amazing. It's those rare occasions where we stub the toe, or don't catch the falling cup that stand out, because they are so rare and because we like to share, nasty, scary or sinister stories. We love the reaction it gets...
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That reminds me of being surprised by some of Willie Nelson's early work... He sounded nothing like the artist I know, he didn't look like him either. Back then, before coming into himself, he was parroting the 30's and 40's sound and had the clean cut, short republican hair cut... All the really influential artists, eventually find their unique voice, or they don't become great, they have their dance and fade away.
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cresting waves, settle in balance effortlessly and unavoidably
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Tai Chi, The Pyramid View of the Body, and grounding
silent thunder replied to ChiDragon's topic in Daoist Discussion
Interesting. My visual of it is currently that of a pillar that starts about a hand length above my head, ending about the same length below the feet, it runs through the core of my being. There is a pyramid like this one, except that it's point starts at the top of the pole and it's three sided. This pyramid represents the grounding Earth/Yin side of the energy body. There is another, inverted pyramid, forming the sacred geometric star tetrahedron. This three sided pyramid, whose downward point ends at the other side of the pole, accounts for Heaven/Yang energy. The merging zone becomes Human energy and pulses in a field that radiates outward in the form of a toroidal sphere as far out, or as close in, as my awareness... -
This is the first election I didn't participate in at all. I have found, on all other occasions, at least one reason to go to the polls. this time. nada...
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Those are incredible mate... thanks for sharing.
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One of the reasons I wanted to live on the West Coast is the sunsets. They are simply amazing every day. However, when I started rising before dawn and began to regularly catch the sunrises, particularly from December through February, I am frequently staggered into silence. Incredible wispy, long drawn out cirrus clouds in a staggering variety of lavenders, pinks and pale blues, strewn across the sky in a sparkling maze as the rising sun, lights them from below...
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Everyone post some favorite quotes!
silent thunder replied to GrandTrinity's topic in General Discussion
“One Buddhist monk leaned over to another and quietly asked, “Are you not thinking what I’m not thinking?”” ~ unknown -
Everyone post some favorite quotes!
silent thunder replied to GrandTrinity's topic in General Discussion
"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden...But though an old man, I am but a young gardener." ~ Jefferson -
Andrew Bacevich agrees with you. He's written several books on the topic of American Imperialism and he's got a pretty good seat from which to present it, having been a Colonel in Vietnam. He's a professor at Brown University teaching international diplomacy and history I believe. http://www.amazon.com/The-Limits-Power-American-Exceptionalism/dp/0805090169 I found his books disturbingly frank in their clarity and piercing observations. Reagan was staggeringly powerful for a President, seems to me anyway. The ramifications of deregulation are still reverberating in our economy. Scarier though even than Reagan is after that, when the GOP turned to the religious right to bolster their ranks after the popularity of Clinton, which has now become a very unfortunate marriage as their party transforms into a pseudo-theocracy through the influence of religious extremism.
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Why is it, when we destroy something made by man it's called vandalism? When we destroy Nature, that's called progress...
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What are some beliefs you hold that hold you back?
silent thunder replied to Yasjua's topic in General Discussion
Recently I'm of a mind that any belief is like a link in a chain enslaving the awareness of the one holding onto it. -
I agree. While my question has little real value, it's still a fun bone to chew. If I don't exist, does the floor? I'm working from the premise that, if I exist, that is dependent upon the complete conditions of the universe to bring humans about, since there is a seemingly identifiable me, I am one of the essential expressions of humanness and it was inevitable that I would exist, based on the conditions of the universe. Without the conditions which give rise to marblehead or me, do floors exist? Meh, I'll stop taking us off topic, that just triggered a bit of curiosity in me over the co-dependent nature of interconnectedness. Floors certainly do exist, perceptionally to me and many others anyway.
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If I were there then yes, I'd say that definitely yes, I'd feel the floor and it would be hard to me, based on my experience. But what if I weren't there? Is there a floor, if there is no me? (that's not a buddhist slanted question, just a raw query based on my reaction). I love these kinds of conversations, they never get tiring for me. I just love having these things to chew on.
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My question would be, would the floor exist if you didn't? which then makes me have to wonder about and solidify my definition of 'exist'...
