Birch

"ad hominem" as far as I understand it is a side argument based on something to refer to the 'messenger' and not 'the message'. I figured there was not much of that on here (given the work many are engaged in re lessening the 'messenger'). And if there is a bit of it left, tends be easily called upon, well, I saw as much. For quite a while. (Aren't TTB's practicing *something*?) I don't really know what to add, except maybe if you're happy with your ad hominem and anti-gay and all that, then what the fuck are you doing on a forum like this? I (me personally) don't consider it helpful to anything much. Maybe to my own practice of telling you to fuck off. Maybe.

One of the other reasons I hang at TTB's is that it's likely I'll come across stuff I probably wouldn't if I restricted myself to a specific circle. Or even (and this is bad) the Google filter. I don't want to get more involved in any 'spiritual' group than this (although I'm looking at some atheist/secular groups where I live) and while I see the formation of 'like-minded' groups an interesting development for a big forum, I dunno if that's not on it's way to being served by the several subsections. I think there might be some subsections missing, specifically Taoist ones (5E, Feng Shui, etc) but when I'm not on the TTB's I'm doing regular old things like meeting friends, working, reading, making food. I use the ignore list for people I know I don't want to read. I suppose that yes, a PPF mod could do stuff like create mini groups of people, might be worth it for the teaching aspect. That could be cool. TTB's could offer teachers who don't have the web-Fu a way to easily have a private/semi-private forum for their teaching.

Saw somewhere that Wicca also consider threefold consequences in return. In other words, even the smallest 'mote it be' could harbour a retro-whammy x3. Then there's that 'other people's free will' thing. And what if the 'love' spell you're up to is really about getting the love you never did from mom or dad, but you've decided that Annie Hall is going to be *the* person to do that for you and she 'mote' it be whether she wishes to or not? I'm starting to think that magic has a lot of use as an art of 'staging' these sorts of issues and relationships so they can be brought to light. Lots of use of things (very big planets with regal associations) that remind you how small your role might be but not to forget yourself in the picture either. -/-

I agree with this. I think what some pit contributors don't realise is that both their pit postings and their 'regular' board postings are both available to let people come to some kind of personal understanding of that poster overall. So not being 'modded' beyond the pit doesn't necessarily mean there's no awareness. This being said, there are a few people who don't seem to have noticed how much of their posting goes on in the pit. Those people get the ignore button from me more often than others and it's not simply because I don't agree with them.It's because I don't want to read through badly substantiated posts. Mine could probably do to be better upheld hmmm.

I dunno about the editing part. I'd leave the person to post whatever they post and deal with it as is. The editing part wouldn't sit well with me. However someone pointing out what's hateful or insulting about what I'm posting would.

I've found IME that talking (see my PPF on 'justification') generally leads nowhere. Consequences lead somewhere. One could definitely say to a poster who is actively putting the 'hate gays' stuff on here (for example), 'I understand this is your position but expressions of hate towards other groups of people are banned by TTB forum rules (I think this would come under them anyway) and if you persist in posting this stuff, you will receive a (whatever the sanction is). So it's not as if the person wouldn't be 'talked to'.

Most of this was a great post Mr MH, however the very last part isn't exactly IMO helpful as the people who express hatred for gay people or other people they have been taught to dislike tend to impose their dislike on them through active prejudice (e.g. workplace, social spheres etc) so while their opinions are wholly subjective, their actions and words are not. I think it's tricky to use the 'entirely subjective' card when that same subjectivity is to one set of people's benefit and others' detriment. To check whether this is the case, turn the tables on the 'subjective' qualities you're referring to and see how that works for you.

I did write 'American Buddhist' :-) I wouldn't know who to consider for Taoism, except maybe some people on here:-)

Is this one of those 'know them when you see them' things? I have a pretty clear vibe about the idea of an 'American Buddhist' (those would be the Ken Wilber(s), the 'Daniel Ingram(s), the other guy who talks about punk and Buddhism and whose name I can't remember). I'd throw Alan Watts in there - although I believe he leant more Tao than Buddhism - maybe the lack of austerity and the booze. But I don't know about 'American Buddhism' or 'American Taoism'. Could it be that practicing Taoism or Buddhism lessens cultural influences on a person (whether their nationality is here or there)?

I was thinking something like that. Anyone have a 'history 101' of this that would point to the way it happened? What about esoteric practices during all that 'mono-theistic' darkness. And not the 'history written by winners' stuff. Thanks!

Have a look a the Swiss model. It's pretty interesting.

No music for meditation. Music for pleasure:-) I'm trying to find 'new' stuff I really enjoy but finding that tough because there's something 'missing' - maybe it's a production thing or the devices I'm using to listen to it but it sounds like a bunch of frequencies have been lobbed off. The 'natural sounds' thing doesn't seem to work for me as the loops are repeated too fast so I can tell and it makes them feel artificial. If someone would go out and just record an entire soundscape for an hour, maybe that would feel better. Or maybe I should just buy a drum or something (not sure neighbours would be happy).

The first thing works pretty well I've found. Figure if I'm going to do practices that drag things up, then when I do it's counterproductive to re-repress them. ---opinion etc--

How did we move towards believing in an 'all-mighty creator' and a separate materialist world of his creation?

"You can't choose to just have Geb and be a materialist, and you can't chose to just live in your dreams and imagination and be a Nutist. All three = the real. If this distinction between them fails, then Nut merges with Geb and the Nun dissolves everything back into the void." What happened to change this?

Governance of what?

What he and she said:-)

http://www.yinyanghouse.com/conditions-treated/alternative-natural-options-for-deafness-hearing-loss

Screenplay. Definitely :-)

Er, wouldn't recommend this without careful tuning in to the other person. Otherwise creepness assured. Kthxbai

Thanks for your comments. I think there is a lot of that stuff you're talking about. People can really be harmed by it because it doesn't take them into account as individuals. Leaving aside the distasteful idea that other people are profiting from people's desire to heal etc. I could get into the 'therapy industry' on this as well. I've been looking at what these things like 'unconditional love' mean by definition, and what they mean to me by experience. The gap between those is often astounding. I reckon that's also a good exercise to do with oneself.

That's pretty much it. I guess you might say it was a 'realization' that I'm actually incarnated here, in this here body and there's no getting away from the fact. It doesn't feel (as) horrible today:-)

Check this out too http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Family-Systems-Therapy-Guilford/dp/1572302720/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360083810&sr=1-1&keywords=internal+family+systems+therapy+by+richard+schwartz Very close to what Seth is referring to. I tried the Seth version last night. After that I had a dream in which (literally) people were arriving in a boat and by car to come see me. I 'knew' it was because I was doing this stuff. So I did another session this morning. But I found I felt exhausted and had to sleep after it. So I wouldn't pick a day on which you don't have time to rest after.

No, I prefer not sharing more than I already did about my experience with this practice in this thread (likely on the previous page by now). Certainly I have had to deal with a lot of pain in my life. I'm not saying that with any further qualifications. I did think the way I said 'I've been in living here' sounded a bit strange after I wrote it:-) That's why I added the 'possessed' part. As a joke (and I was reading about being possessed by Kuan Yin yesterday, that's quite a practice too. Seth has a great post about Pan somewhere:-)) But I have felt that way before. Wanting to but not being able to leave this body. It's a pretty weird and horrible experience. As usual 'meditation brought it up':-)

Ah, you don't think I have tried it:-)? I've been 'living in here' quite some time. Perhaps I am possessed? Haha:-) I think Seth's explanation was the better 'solo-practice' version of it.