Birch

Thank you Dalan for all of that! Time to start having fun I think the main concern I have (if any) is the effect (if any) on societies that any of these ideas will have. Especially the ones proned as counter-power moves to existing belief structures. I guess it depends on who the people that are leading these ideas are. A mushroom-inspired hippy dude, a cutey-pie neuroscientist ( ) or a blockbusting author? Maybe they should all just team up Oh, and Drew I saw a book in the store the other day called something like "For a Buddhist Revolution" and I thought wow, those guys are hiding their light under a bushel Well, except Vajra on here;-)

"'keep going'" Well, I think that there isn't really any other option. I can't revert to prior understandings of myself or other people. The latest really horrible experience I had with this was that "yep, it's all me, all that, and you can run, but you can't hide" and I was almost jumping out of my skin at that one. And then I remembered I could at least "switch it" to a nicer version of this perspective. I immediately felt better.

Interesting. This actually a good reason to practice, so I can understand Drew Drew, when you said "The heart chakra is the safe bet" why? And why and in what way would LDT (or LTT) practices be harmful to females? Some of the other female Tao stuff I read suggests that some "traditional" practices are indeed too "yang" for women to begin with. IME, I'd have to agree, it blasts the whole thing open and then I end up with badly patterned chi flow because I did it wrong and have to go see the acupuncturist and start drinking chlorophyll for some reason (one of those things I just spontaneously started doing.) So instead I do girly practice Actually, even the yoga is too heat producing right now. It rips you a 4-pack "Most people fall back into worldliness at this point because in the modern world the chi energy is in high demand -- so the chi is used for healing, telekinesis, etc. and therefore does not get properly transformed into shen enough to fully open the third eye." Yep, I'm not about to go hang out in a cave just for that. I have "worldly stuff" to do right now However, it was suggested to me that I ought to open my third eye, but the guy who suggested it actually showed me Anja chakra which isn't that at all. And I'm not so bad with it. Not great. Just not so bad Your average human level

So would this explain the blue electric Shakti stuff? Jing = biochemcial/hormonal Chi = bioelectric (or biophotons?) Shen = electromagnetic whatever?

I'm quite often an "asshat." Does that count? I think I may have managed to avoid buying the insurance policy, but the realm guard is one scary piece of work I wonder what Reich would have had her down as. Level 5 Boss is just horrible to look at. Can I have the old Earth back? I mean the one without all the floating plastic shit and such.

And we're not going to mention yellow hats and black hats either ? I came back to this thread to see what more people might have said about Mr Hotness Sam Harris. Oh, and to read a bit of banter, but the Buddhist stuff is bugging me. I guess what I want to see more of on this thread is the discussion of how people are going to go about setting up research methodologies to examine some of the claims made by various religions. Also speculation welcome on Mr Cutey-pie Harris' motivations. Because if I asked him, he apparently wouldn't respond.

"The fact of the matter is that if you wish for the non-dual understanding as an ongoing life experience" You know, I'm not so far away from that, I've visited a few times. I'll let things simmer if you don't mind. In fact I don't have a choice To be honest, I'm more interested in healthy eating, staying physically in shape, emotional balance, honing good communication skills, being kind but not a pushover. That sort of stuff.

"Holding onto limited perspectives of yourself and others and ideas of intrinsic ego separateness from others and the world in general will never be one of them. Well, this is where your mindstream and mine may not meet (like anti-matter ) - except in my perspective (thanks for hanging there for a while BTW) and it has little to do with grasping IME. I suggest you are interpreting what I am suggesting with a different view.

I'm tempted to bite but I won't Vajra, when you talk about the Westerners and these archetypes, could you give some examples? And slightly OT, how would a "mindstream" go about being one of these archetypes, sort of sounds like another value/judgment system to me (and I ought to enter a disclaimer here to indicate that a value/judgment system is not necessarily a bad thing) Or do they just "switch in" depending on something or other, like the student's egoic makeup for example? And why would a guru, which is by certain (I think yours too but I couldn't grasp whether that was what you meant?) definitions a mindstream himself take it upon himself to allow veneration if he were realized? I think it's a lot more to do with some of the cultural perspectives offered per earlier posts. I thought that it was insightful indeed. As far as my own veneration abilities are concerned, why venerate someone else's ego? Unless you are venerating your own perspective of them as part of yourself. And that sounds nice and existential. But I still wouldn't go for it. There are lots of ways to skin a cat.

Cool! Thanks Drew. This "might be" linked. http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Intelligence-Science-Human-Relationships/dp/0553803522

Yep, I got a hold of it yesterday There's a really interesting set of introductions. I wonder what people will make of them.

"Your bellybutton is not a dantian, your forehead is not a third eye and your butthole is not a chakra." THIS! Awesome, and correct. Thank you!

"Western mind is quite flawed in it's constant projection of flaws and lack of self investigation" I don't agree with this. I'm personally flawed but certainly have a decent level of self-investigation to count on. I'd tend more to say that Western traditions of insight such as critical thinking and contemplation have fallen out of favour. Why? I also don't believe in venerating anyone. Certainly I get impressed by people (as well as their abilities, talents, intelligence and heart) and any good teacher I have of anything deserves my respect. But that's all. As far as I can understand so far, the guru relationship is a way to "help" tear down one's egoic construction so that one may see what it is made of. Many techniques are used by "gurus" to do this including: - NLP /hypnosis - humiliation to induce suffering - physical deprivation - forced intimacy - ritual - symbolic manipulation Yet people reach stages of awakening and insight all the time without any recourse to guru, through simple living. In fact I'm tempted to suggest that recourse to guru is a sign of an ego that doesn't want to give it up. If it did, why would it take you there?

THIS! Cure: don't buy it

I guess I should go ask him. But if he's a good strategist, he won't be telling me.

Are we talking about consciouness or awareness? I thought we had the "consciousness" thing air-dried. I guess not.

http://integrallife.com/member/federico-parra/blog/world-not-dream THIS!

I dunno, I don't know which conspiracy to join I will now respond to the following accusations "Shape-shifting lizard new world order masonic alien" -Shape-shifting: trying to get better at it, but Adyashanti said my ego was doing it anyway so I guess that's good enough -lizard: that would be my "old brain" that digs sex, drugs and rock n roll. It's a real bitch, you don't want to mess with it - new world order: yes, i'm making up a new one in my head as we speak. in fact it's why I practice - masonic: they haven't asked me to join (yet) - alien: technically if I go anywhere in the world without being a citizen of the place I happen to be in I am one. I do that quite a lot. Often on vacation. The flying saucer comment followed my reading of a Buddhist prophecy about 2024 in a book by Gilles Van Grasdorff. There were also elephants mentioned. Note also visitors to my thread such as Machin Shin who are building space ports in the desert. I cannot account for their interest in such things. http://www.hermeticinstitute.org/docs/comingstorm3.pdf for other mentions of 2024 (or thereabouts). According to my Mayan birth chart I am in fact: "IX" - shaman belonging to white family. This would account for my spontaneous "white torquemaeda" disguise when I go full defense. My Bazi 4 pillars has me pegged as a yang water woman. This year I am supposed to behave like Heaven I have trouble relaxing, my family history is horrendous, I'm horribly curious by nature and to find out ways to improve my life I do weird stuff that not many people do. I think it makes me interesting and could get me laid by more interesting men (like Sam Harris). Edited to add outside reference to 2024.

http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/

"brushing aside any skepticism" I'm not sure if you meant that following what I asked Blasto but I actually DO want to know how someone knows it's their third eye. I get between eyebrow throbs with practice all the time and it's purely muscular. Otherwise, great advice.

"Reading and books alone will not do the job." Hear hear. Why? because you're the one reading. To learn more, read this: http://www.amazon.com/Proust-Squid-Story-Science-Reading/dp/0060186399 or listen to the teacher at www.chineseshamanism.com concerning "consciouness" - Apech said it the other day on here too.

"...look at it! It's a penis with propellers!" This is so funny! And it would be one funny looking penis Not everything that is aerodynamic has to be phallic. Cure: buy her a bunch of open flower-petaled jewelry at Tiffany's ;-) Back to topic. I looked at that "Quigley" video and it was hilarious. See the old folks in the home? Not really paying attention (or knitting or falling asleep during it?) It looked more like "performance art" to me than anything else. But I think his definition of "conspiracy" was excellent, as well as his explanation for why people would get involved in such. According to him, many have done so without direct knowledge of the organisation they are getting into. Ever been part of a club? A professional association or order? Even on TTB's it seems we look at certain teachers more than others because they're here. We take recommendations about products or techniques. I've bought, read or done a few things that have directly impacted my life, behavior and my health as a direct result of being on here. So is it then a conspiracy on the part of Sean and the moderators because of the ultimate goal of TTB's? I sometimes wonder if by not following certain paths (that perhaps lead to being part of such "conspiracies") that I have stolen the opportunity from myself to do anything about them. That's the main thing that annoys me about conspiracies, that I'm not part of the "right" one

How do you know it was your third eye?

Question: any ideas why Sam Harris (oh my love ) chose Buddhism as his example? As far as I've read/heard about him, he suggest himself he is a "strategist". Why didn't he choose Taoism?

That's because people make religion. Religion is what happens when your own connection is lost. Religion is when you give up your own uncertainty to someone else (or when they won't let you have it in the first place) Why give up your own uncertainty? Its yours for god's sake! Don't get me wrong, I love (mostly) everyone that has ever taught me anything. But in the end, who is the person doing these techniques? Who is the person meditating? Who is doing yoga? Who is doing qi-gong? It's still "you". You might end up different after cultivation but you're still "you" (whatever we care to define that as, and yes, your perception of yourself will change).