silent thunder

well... they are certainly out there, or in here... er... I've run into them often enough we'll say.

in my experience the two things that are beyond compare: 1 a real, live, in person teacher who you resonate with. 2 practicing every day at the same time, with a clear, open heart.

To make any assessment or statement of worth about a topic or idea... one must be a qualified observer. Otherwise, it's just a rather mindless spouting of opinions based on preconceived notions or worse, outright projection and this undermines any credibility from said source, rendering it, in my perception, invalid and useless.

You disrespect your master every time you mouth off and disrespect any and all other paths or schools that you don't understand and have never had one experience with mate.

well good... that's all cleared up now. phew. finally got the real word from the master on what's what... I'm convinced. is there an echo in here?

the truth is murdered everyday by clowns, thieves and bucket-heads... fortunately, the Truth is immortal... to Ken... I can't point out the forest for you bud, but... it's near the trees.

+1 on not desiring to convert anyone to anything...

Robert Anton Wilson and his concept of reality tunnels is fascinating. By age seven (roughly), our world view has been solidified by the stories and actions of our parents, reinforced by our cultural dogma. Once this tunnel has been created, it is rarely ever changed. We will perceive everything in our world through this tunnel. Anything that we encounter after this that contradicts our view of reality is either attacked or ignored outright. Anything that supports our tunnel is held up for all to see as 'proof' we are right. All perception is based on gambles... we operate on two false premises. A: that we perceive the world accurately B: that we interpret what we perceive correctly What I perceive is reality... this is naive realism Most are never even aware, that they are making interpretations at all, so remain unaware of the process. This can be observed again and again in any discussion between a theist and an atheist here on the board. I get a lot of mileage from e-prime language adjustments. Our thinking so shapes our experience of reality and words are the basis of most thought, through thought-forms/word/symbols and our very personal definitions of them, we define our world based on our tunnel and anything outside this tunnel becomes 'crazy or stupid or both'. Fascinating stuff... If I had a time machine, I'd roll a couple of big fatties, grab a few bottles of wine and head straight for RAW's house... followed quickly by a stop at Alan Watt's place. here's a quick 7 minutes of RAW discussing this...

“If the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on.” McKennahttp://www.samharris.org/blog/item/drugs-and-the-meaning-of-life So many aspects of life can open up our consciousness and give a glimpse beyond our tunnels. The most effective I've experienced is breath work.

I find the analogy of looking up at skyscrapers and judging their height to be near perfect. Perspective is perception is reality... relatively speaking

Well, it's a public forum and his words don't reflect those of someone just trying to enjoy his path, He's publicly pissing on pretty much everyone he comes in contact with who offers anything other than complete obedience to his self claimed mastery... action-reaction it's pretty predictable and natural

lol I read sceptic as scepdick... it's early... but I'm laughing

I don't cultivate to arrive or get somewhere. I cultivate to be now... these days, seems like anything and/or nothing can be used in that

I've done a few Japanese style sets. I love Japanese architecture and their use of wood, their techniques. When I retire, one of my hobbies will be Japanese Joinery, puzzle boxes and such... no metal fasteners, all interlocking and self setting. No rush, just sitting in my shop tinkering and sipping tea and watching the world spin.

Everyone is strange... I've never met a normal person. The only ones who appear normal to me are the ones I don't know well enough yet...

So glad I posted this... you've all just added some outstanding candy for me to go pick out at my favorite used book store.

I wish I'd come across him 24 years ago! Man I could have skipped some serious self induced bullshit...

Or it gets turned flipped 90 degrees and we drop out into.... As to the drugs getting in the way, that really doesn't fit with my experience. It does depend on the affects of said plants, substances. However, I think we have far too limited a list of what drugs are... I am finding it harder to discern anything that affects me (body mind and emotions), as not a drug. The 'highest' and most intense body high I've ever experienced, was during and after pranayama breathing. It was way beyond any of my LSD or Mescaline experiences. It was about on par with my experience of psilocybins. For me, the crux is not in the substances, nor the thoughts, but in my reaction to the affect life has on me, based on my reality tunnel (perception), to use RAW's and my attachment or aversion to that which I consider beneficial, or harmful. Some things we consider harmful and beneficial because of results in cause and effect that we can repeat and observe. I reach into fire and owie. Others, have no apparent of observable affect of harm or benefit, yet I am prone to placing a value judgment on it, based on what I consider normal because of where I was born and how I was raised... this is the area I find so fascinating and where I think RAW is at his best in describing the benefits of using e-prime in our writing and speech.

Thanks for bringing up Leary... He actually came up with the tunnel analogy first, RAW adopted it and ran far and wide to good effect. I was just wondering who it was that inspired RAW and bam, you come through! Thanks!

I may have found an exit to my birth tunnel around the age of 13-15, coinciding with reading the bible for myself and realizing there was some serious dissonance going on in my perception of reality, reality itself and what I'd been sold by culture and family. More realistically, I didn't undergo any real change, I just realized that my tunnel had been different from my parents' and that of my culture all along and I was just playing along before that...

My experience really resonates with this... to it I would add, practicing a small amount every day at the same time, bears high yield.

Recently (the last few years) two things keep popping up on my thought pond regularly, usually after a bit of mental stillness. wherever I rage, there I find me wherever I am not permitted to laugh, there is my work The second one comes up for me a lot more and seems directly related to my active and oft-restated intention to not take the world personally. This practice started eight years ago with the birth of my son. This intense hate/vitriol/condemnation of anything labeled New Age is telling. For me again, I can't conceive of a path that is separate from source. If some folks want to engage in things that to me seem frivolous and silly... why do I care? We all do many things that are frivolous and seem silly to someone. From where I watch... the definition of New Age is so vague. It's more like a label for anything that I deem unimportant. Truth is found everywhere, especially in untruth, for in perception and realization of untruth, Truth shines even brighter. Who cares if a rich lady wants to spend her money on feel good seminars? Who cares if some guy wants to spend his money at the roulette tables? Why should it bother me that someone walks around spouting things I consider nonsense? None of these things are harming me in any way. More often now, these events that used to make me angry, cause me to start laughing. This is evidence of my greatest work in this life. Transmuting anger into laughter. I strive to not take it personally when I see others living life so oddly different from me. It allows me to laugh so much more and rage less often. The only time this really breaks down is when someone is actively harming another. In the end, all paths lead to source. Who am I to say who follows what, wrongly and to bad ends?

I want to know if the virgins are male or female... it doesn't seem to specify and that will have great effect on the outcome of my enjoyment of blowing myself up in the glory of fulfilling some book's claims...

both, stretch, then flex breath through all of it.