silent thunder

Pythagorus and the Music of the Spheres.

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

William Blake rather insistently arising in awareness... "As we are, so we see." "We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them." "The person who does not believe in miracles surely makes it certain that he or she will never take part in one." "Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so?"

A fascinating revealing of your perspesctive.

Exactly why my experience of suffering is now described as a crisis of percpetion. Suffering is experienced as separate from sensations. Without perceiving/storytelling a sensation into an intolerable aggregate of what is, the sensation remains, yet suffering ceases. Sensation occurs. Suffering arises aside from this and is experienced as generated in mind alone (with the caveat that body is also a layer of mind). Disclaimer: as always anything i say is a sharing as i experience it. Only sharing, not claiming a truth for others. Dismiss, disregard at will please.

If they are not in the public domain... then this is against forum rules to offer. edit to add: This material is, as i suspected, copyright protected, so sharing is a no no mate.

My question for a while has been "how do we know" anything? What in the realm of human knowledge posturing can be claimed with absolute certainty? Though this seems a bit semantically off-topic, forgive my rambling if bothersome and disregard.

I am skeptical of such claims to authority of ancient texts, claims of teachers. The source is always filtered from the source. And it's always filtered through a human talking, interpreting, and storytelling. I don't expect others to share this experience. It's relatively new to me as well (last 7 years or so) and though it's exceedingly welcome, it's disorienting and unpleasant at times. I see why certain teachers shy prospective students away, given my exprience of late, it's not for the faint. Thanks for sharing your take on it. While i can't find agreement with this appeal to authority, agreement is not required. Be well.

How did you/could you determine that it definitely was not an hallucination? Same question applies here. Curious from where you derive your authority and certainty at such a projective assumption of an 'either/or'? Perhaps it's been answered in the previous thread... and perhaps no answer is warranted. The statements prompted my usual questioning of sweeping certainties. It happens within my own mind many times a day of late. i used to experience such certainty and that has shifted rather radically, so i ask, because doubt is synonomous with process recently. Feel free to disregard.

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Ok so you've experienced pain without suffering then? i don't sense what you're driving at with this. Yes. If warranted.

Ack! That is ugly, i was unaware it was started on purpose. So short sighted, our seeming incessant nature to meddle and try to 'improve' so often does the opposite.

Of course. Not sure why you ask... no where did i imply humans are unnatural. You inferred that.

I have approached many injured animals and settled them with presence and intention, so they could be treated effectively.

Interesting to read recently that wildfires in areas outside human habitation can burn much further due to density of growth. Safe to say that ancient wildfires before cities, burned far vaster regions. There is a natural balance to all process. Nature wastes nothing. New growth will arise in the wake of the ash.

I used to agree with this... 15 years of chronic pain brought a realization that has endured. When one has a body, there will be discomfort, there may be pain. This does not mean i must suffer. Suffering is now experienced as a crisis of perception. It manifests internally generated and entirely optional, in my experience.

Nothing is lost, ever. All is fluid and shifting.

Synchronicity... such timing is no accident, it's resonant, serendipitous. Thank you for sharing my friend. So grateful for you. I've recently been engaging on another forum (scientific in focus) with some philosophers about the nature of sound, noise and music. 'All music is sound, but not all sound is music' is the topic. When is sound just sound, when is it noise and when does noise transition into music? What are the mechanics involved in that transition from sound (neutral) to noise (unpleasant) to music (enjoyable)? It's a fascinating exploration fueled by my experience of late. Leaf blowers, our neighbor's relentlessly barking dog, the demonically loud car that drives down our street daily... all these sounds that used to prompt flashes of anger, or dis=ease. Now flow through unnoticed, or seem as pleasant as music. As for the sense of the unmoving pivot of stillness... This one is more palpable for me. For several decades, back to my old martial arts days and my no gear, no self, free hand cliff climbing days this notion has been with me, that every motion arises from, pivots about and returns to... a point of stillness. Stillness is at the source of all. While embodying the stillness, it was not possible to fall, and thus even when hanging by a thumb lock 600 feet above the forest floor, no fear could manifest in the mindset of climbing. I was the still point, the cliff moved around me. There are times when that stillness is within my local awareness, other times, it seems without (in the case of the planet's motion, other people/critters yet the stillness is always present/unmoving despite awareness's shifts of perspective). The breath transfers ceaselessly and stillness (silence) remains anchored somehow. The unmoving point (even in motion). Placeless (in 3d) yet experiential. It seems paradox is built into the fabric of this one when i try to put it to words. It can be experienced internally, externally and yet even in external sensing, it's still everpresent an within in a manner of speaking. It's paradoxically all points at times and yet distinclty seemingly others or other places... yet always very intimate, always here and always unchanging. Without being 'owned' it yet is experienced as 'personal'. Well enough rambling. Suffice to say, your words are like a stone dropped in my awareness' pond. Instead of ripples, it left crystal images resonant with insights shared and realizations that resonate and harmonize. You are a gift.

Are you implying that you possess the faculties to discern that you claim others lack?

Bumping this to add another aspect of Aphantasia that applies to not being able to hear music in one's mind. My wife also revealed she never recalls hearing music in her mind. While I have music constantly arising spontaneously, like thoughts every day. I often wake to a song in mid-refrain. I can hear every instrument and can turn the 'volume' up or down. This audtory aphantasia reasons out because whenever she's trying to recall a song and I used to suggest, well just hum a bit of it... she struggles. Instead of being able to hum it, she searches for words to describe the song. When I suggest she sing it in her head and then hum it out loud, she gives me the tilted head look like... 'hear it in my head?' That does not happen for her. Turns out aphantasia applies to more than just sight. This all belies how vastly our inner landscapes and mind may differ from one other. My wife and I share incredible similarities and astounding differences. But I am still rather stunned that being able to see or hear in the mind's eye and ear is not foundational for all humans. How many other vast assumptions can we be making based on our own experiential processing? Now I'm curious about aphantasiatic scents... for some time, on and off the cusion I have begun to smell scents that no one around me can. I ask continually when a strong scent arises now, to see if my wife or son also smell it. Being curious if I was experiencing a symptom of a possible, brain tumor I explored this and after a scan no tumor was detected. But as clearly as I smell anything else, these 'phantom scents' arise occasionally and it seems to be internally generated, or sensed.

Yes Norbu said some words... What significance are words? Arent' they ambivelent and useless... simple pointers?

plenty of answers, just none you support. we all have differing paths mate.

What teaching could be more direct than to simply be what you are, now...

Words often seem like tiny things when trying to convey a sense of experiential processes unfolding through awareness. Particularly when so many words may have acquired many and subtle variations of meanings. Not to mention translational challenges. Seems auspicious to encounter the futility of words, sometimes in that gap of futility this one slips back into experiential presence, this breath now. Where no words arise or are required. Seems Auspicious to slide into natural presence, to simply be, whether wordless or wordy... There resonates of late, an abiding sense of dancing through answerlessness and it seems like home. Expansive, Clear, Gossamer, Luminous, Thundering Silence, Awareness. Many tiny words when attempting to describe such... dancing answerlessness. Many words... and so, a few more: Sonorous Silence. Answers arise and dissolve. Answerless Dancing.