Infinity

As true leader is perhaps someone who values their followers as much as they values themselves. ∞

Maybe you may like this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140430192745.htm ∞

Was talking to my wife last night and she had been talking to her friend who had been talking to her friend who said... At the foreign office (UK government department) one of the questions they ask at the interview stage for a job seekers is. "How did you come into the world?" In other words what was your birthing experience like? Obviously most people don't know and would rely on what they have been told but I thought it was quite an interesting question to ask for a government job as did my wife. Some think tank probably came up with it. Is it relevant / significant? What were yours? I think the Buddha stepped on lotus leaves or something? And the first Sai baba of Shirdi was abandoned in the woods but honey from a beehive dripped in his mouth and kept him alive or something? If you know of any others please share or correct my examples. Just recently, 4 months ago took delivery of my third (last) child myself, our baby girl. It all came on rather quickly and the midwife could not make it in time! :-) ∞

And if nature says eat a natural magic mushroom, what then? Shamans from all over the world have used natural drugs for a long long time and still do. What about if your ill but a drug can alter your body/mind for the better is that ok? A mind/body altering drug is a drug? I am not sure about absolutes, life is not rigid it's dynamic and everything has it's place. Not saying do or don't that's an individual choice just exploring your statement. ∞

I believe all his books are free to download. I have some of them but have only read bits as they are quite extensive and seeminly updated different versions and translations? His cultivation is for enlightenment and apparently as the story goes he became very popular very quickly and the government asked him to join 'the party' and he refused and so was blacklisted and his followers outlawed. One thing I found odd was that he believes as I seem to remember that ET lizards are taking over the planet and making it warmer for an invasion and that modern digital technology is their way of programming and disrupting humans way of life so they can do this, or somehting along these lines? Him a David Icke have the same views. Cannot remember where I read this now, I think in one of his PDF books? Who knows I don't, could be correct! I opted for SFQ! :-) ∞

Shrewd! Open them up or not as the case maybe? ∞

Powerful words. Thanks. I am that I am. :-) ∞

I would say there are many drugs which give many experiences and some can give a seeming escape (denial) from your problems and others can give you altered states which can open you up to new parts of yourself and new paths. With my experiences with LSD it seemed like an amplification of myself and I feel it taught me alot, I only ever did hallucinogens I never wanted pain relief only knowledge. Who knows another path may have taught me stuff too maybe more? Food are essentially drugs too, chemicals which effect our body/mind balance. But in the long run I agree with you and they are essentially pointless and any serious persuer of knowledge would see this too. If I had known more then things may have been different but where we are/were only gives us seemingly certain options. ∞

This is not my perspective but amember of TTB's, but imho a very very intersting one! Greatest respect to you Dawg! http://thetaobums.com/topic/30012-a-path-to-enlightenment/?hl=dawg ∞

I kind of subscibe to this idea. I feel we have moments, pointers or impermanent realisations that maybe get stronger and turn into full realisation which would be undeniable truth to us of our nature – conciosness / mind / energy. At the moment we are attempting to be this or that when really we are the contradictory unfathomable all. Have not read that specific Osho book but have read a few 'enlightened' peoples bios, 'the knee of listening' by Bubba Free John (adi Da) and 'The Play of Consiousness' by Muktananda's and others. In the 'the knee of listening' if i remember correct he says that enlightenment is our very nature and the only road there is to 'understand' we are already there. Maybe we have to turn all the stones over and look in all the corners for it until we give up and realise its just an idea and we are what we are and hey presto! ∞

Hi thelerner & ChiForce, This state just came about many times as I took LSD quite a bit in my youth aged 17-19 and then again briefly at about 23. Had lots of experiences of it. It would seem that everything was amplified and I became aware that 'I' was terribly confined by my thoughts my description and often I could not break free and have a 'bad' trip, lost in infinity I called it, going round and round in my mind over and over trapped in a mental prison (still am ha ha). Other times I would break out and 'pop up' into the place of knowing, beauty in the eternal perfect now. With this perception everything was super real and perfect but so real it was unreal. If I was in a room inside it would seem that there was nothing on the other side of the walls as if everything was kind of a holographic projection, just light. It just happened naturally (with the aid of LSD) when I ceased thinking. It was not just me either I used to trip regularly with two other people and they seemed to experience this too. One of them guessed cards over and over, and used to say were gods again. Can't remember everything that happened but it was all knowing and very natural in that place and it seemed I new everything but nothing needed to be known all was more than ok it was utterly perfect. Have no idea if enlightenment can be reached through drugs and am not claiming it can. It was just an experience I had, but I remember I just would realise oh I am here again and that would be it. And if I was not there would try sometimes to trigger it by mental saying I was here again, hard to describe. It lasted until the LSD wore off. ∞

My understanding on this is that enlightenment/ self realisation is our essential nature and can never be reached and is dependent on nothing but simply is the current case. And it is our will to be something else which prevents it (unlove). We cannot become ourself. Years ago when dropping LSD I used to enter this super conscious state where my head opened up and I new everything and nothing had to be done and everything was totally perfect, unfathomably perfect and beautiful. Well I began to notice a kind of method to get there. I would basically suddenly realise I was there. So when I was not I would try focus on realising I was there and some times I would flip into this state. It was a weird mental acrobatic performed while tripping. ∞

Hi oasisinthecity, I pretty new to cultivating myself and started by reading 'The Way of Energy: Mastering the Chinese Art of Internal Strength with Chi Kung Exercise' by Lam Kam Chuen and 'Awaken Healing Energy Through Tao' by Mantak Chia or his version of the MCO. I found Mantaks MCO to difficult as I had very little feeling of chi, MCO points and body awareness at that time. However I did get on with Lam Kam Chuen 'standing like a tree' (Zhan Zhaung) better and found this a good start. Searching TTB forums and reading threads I viewed some recommendations for Spring Forest Qi Gong which I have been doing for six months or so. This is a healing system and I feel its going to give me a firm foundation. :-) I now have pretty strong feelings of 'chi' in my hands, head etc and can feel it breathing through my body all over too. Chunyi Lin has his version of the MCO as well which I will be doing soon now I have the 'chi' awareness. Imho I feel it is good (possible essential) to build up this 'chi' awarreness before doing the more advanced MCO. I have been doing half an hour a day the following Spring Forest Qi Gong active exercises for 6 months odd with the odd little break and it feels good for me: Begining of the universe (Wuji) – Forming the Yin Yang – Moving of Yin Yang – Harvesting the Yin Yang Many of the active exercises are demonstrated on youtube or can be found in his 'Level 1 For Health Manual' which is available from his website. There are many others systems out there and many far far more experienced people on this forum than me and they I am sure can help as can searching this forum and looking at past threads. This is just my beginners view an hope this offers some help. All my best, ∞

To state the obvious China's output is bigger because China is bigger and the population / market is bigger and we have faster newer technologies which produce more. Its shocking but how can we stop one billion people from wanting 'a better life'? It's difficult to get one person to change let alone one billion. Until people FEEL the consequences of their actions they won't change or that is the way I see it. And when we all breath the smog and the flooding waters wash our door steps change will happen. I have a few kids and went to a kids party the other day and they all received a bag full of plastic shit that broke with five minutes and ended up in the bin. Imho the average person is a mindless sheep that does not think about what they are doing until they FEEL the pinch and unfortunately the media don't help but capatilise on it. I guess action will be done when it has to be, your post is an example of this, action perhaps beginning... ∞

Really nice. Love some off those heaven series too. Wow, great stuff, ∞

People are so focused on their own personal wants they don't see the bigger picture until that consequences threaten their life style or life and then they have to act. The Uk had its industrial revolution and it's smog and I guess China is having it's too. We all make mistakes and hopefully we all will see the error of our ways and stop buying and making all this shit that eventually ends up in land fill or furnaces. Good to advertise these things! Interesting times... "Be the change you want to see in the world" - Ghandi ∞

Amazing, thanks for that! ∞

Sorry this could be slightly off topic but it also may be of some relevance if your going on a big sailing trip... :-) I read something interesting the other day. The article was about people who survive many many days at sea on minimal provisions and by catching fish, birds and turtles etc... This survival expert says if your ever in that situation where food is very short the best thing to do is not eat for 48 hours and drink minimally as this causes the body to go into efficient mode where it uses lots less energy and thus when you do eat your provisions it will use them to better effect, handy to know! ∞

Hi Mike in my humble opinion we are all in a state of hypnosis currently. We describe the world to ourselves pretty much constantly with our internal chatter and so altering this trance to our advantage, to bring us more balance can only be a good thing as long as we have clear intentions and don't loose sight of our goal. However perhaps the right words are important? Robert Bruce in his book Astral Dynamics teaches visualisation techniques and makes quite an interesting point regarding it. He says (of the top of my head) that the word 'visualisation' can often be a hurdle to the process of visualisation as in makes it sound like it is purely a visual thing and he says if you have trouble maybe use the word 'imagination' which does not have the same single sensory connotations. Add to this what Waysun Liao says in his book 'Tao:The Way Of God'. He says that each sense distorts reality in differently amounts and thus the source of information you receive when examining your 'TE' has different degrees of distortion. He lists the senses in this ordered from most distorting to least distorting. Thinking (very distorted) Seeing Hearing Taste Smell Feeling Chi TE (no distortion) As you can see from his perspective 'seeing' is at the top and so very distorted and thus not involving the real person (Te) so maybe people should not try and 'visualise' but 'image' and 'feel' and they would have better results. My own feelings concur that feeling is much deeper and more involving and immersive. Chunyi Lin has 'passwords' which are basically in my understanding small hypnosis scripts. His passwords are like this 'all my channels are open open open' or 'I am in the universe and the universe is in me'. He's does stress that the most important thing is to go into 'emptiness' though. So in summary I think hypnosis can be of use because if your going to think its better to make a choice and make it constructive for you if you can, but the goal (my goal) is emptiness which is of course is very full! ∞

Very good point! My meaning was the letting go of our reason to question as opposed of our ability to question (intellect). ∞

Is someone who believes a lie a lier. In the most ruthless sense yes I suppose so. But in the context of a baby being given a false impression which it then moulds it's world with it seems maybe a little harsh, although in the cold light of day it's true. With our intellect/reason we speculate and dance around the waters edge, reasoning its possible colour, texture, depth and temperature and also the best way to enter, dive, jump, with or without a mantra, in full lotus, using a certain technique etc.. and the list is infinite. Sometimes slowly over many tens of years or even more but probably in an infinite universe eventually we dip our toe in the water and decide it's not for us maybe a little scary ...and then try again later... Ha ha ha. It's true we are wimps. Very conditioned cowards afraid of silence and our own shadow and it's ridiculous! The fact that I cannot dive into 'my' unconscious fully is because I am a coward no two ways about it. I am on some level afraid of the idea not being 'myself' or in reality being/feeling myself, it's unlove. This is my intellect talking! But can the intellect rationalise this fear and reduce it and slowly lower itself into the water and eventually reason that it's safe to go under and that it's ok to let go? In my understanding reasoning can never understand the infinite but it can understand itself and thus see its short comings and it's irrationality, and when reason sees that it's unreasonable it has to let go of itself and silence which is always there is then heard. I believe there is honest truth seeking reasoning (however blind and false) which is not dancing on the water edge for its own sake. We may be just avoiding the truth by reasoning but to begin with we think we don't know what the truth is, I know the 'think' word is the crux here. In the infinite I guess (and I am guessing) ALL must exist the true and the false. And I guess the truth and the truth and the... They say all rivers reach the ocean but some meander a little. My tea is now cold but my heart feels warm. Love to you all. ∞ Edited as nearly always for grandma and spelling

When you have chosen your prison your are not a prisoner and so there are no 'prison' doors to open..? ∞

I rationalised my dietary choices for many years and now I don't. My opinion now is eat what you feel but get in touch with what your feelings are so you can feel what you want to eat. However I do firmly believe that we should respect animals if we eat them both before and at death and maybe even after(see below)??? Saw a programme years ago on Papua New Guinea I think and a tribe there used to keep all the skulls of the animals they had killed in their hut lofts so their spirits would not seek revenge for being killed by them. ∞

Is it a destination? Is it somewhere you can get too? My understanding it is 'me' here and now. ∞

Thought this was apt, someone said 'You are only free when you choose your prison' ∞