Orion

I never said that I deny physical existence. Re-read what I wrote. It also doesn't mean that you don't ascribe value to things. Likewise, it doesn't mean that you do ascribe value to things. All that awakeness means is that you are the clear, non-identifying witness to whatever is happening. If ego has dissolved forever, great. If there are still egos popping up, great. Either way, being the witness never changes. If ego was to ascribe values then it will do so, in the presence of the witness. The human condition doesn't end just because you awaken. People misunderstand this because they think awakening means transcendence. You don't actually go anywhere. Nothing changes apart from the unveiling of true identity, which was always there. Nothing is gained. In fact, the term "awakening" is kind of misleading, if we want to get semantic about it. It implies that a dormant part of you becomes conscious or realized, when actually the entire process is about letting go. That's why trying to awaken is kind of contradictory. You already are awake, right now, and whatever transitory states, stories, or narratives you're identifying with as real are the reasons for not simply living as the witness (a witness that you always are, regardless). If I had to pick an analogy, I like the classic ocean and the waves theory. The waves are egoic fluctuations and temporary states, whereas the ocean beneath is the unchanging witness. In my case, all the waves went away for a time due to suffering and intense illness. There simply wasn't any energy to engage in identity consciousness, so the truth of its holographic nature became crystal clear. Now, regardless if ego arises or not, I am that witness. So the question is... if you identify as the waves, does that mean you're no longer the ocean? Of course not. It just means you're the ocean that's observing an attached consciousness to the waves, but you're always the ocean. Awakeness means you always come from the oceanic perspective. Some claim it means that the waves cease forever and you are just the ocean. I still notice egoic states coming and going but somehow the witness never stops seeing it. And in being the witness, it often causes egos to continually disappear. All it takes it realizing that, "Hey, I'm not that, I'm not anything", and poof, they're gone. It's part of the duality that comes with awakeness. Everything has a simultaneous real/unreal quality about it. Nobody is in here doing anything, yet things are seemingly happening. It all arises and dissolves without any input from a self though, is the point. I still eat, breathe, shit, fart, laugh, cry, get angry, etc. As the witness, it's clear that you're not responsible for the arising and dissolving of these things. And it never ends. All these things just arise from the One which I don't care to try and understand or claim victory over because this moment is all that's happening and there are no other requirements. Awakeness doesn't mean the end of form, it means the end of self in form. From my casual observations of humanity, it seems that most people aren't getting it because they are afraid to die, but what they don't realize is that their causal identity isn't real in the first place.

The chakras are part of an energy state, and they can all take place in the presence of egoic and mental functions. The energy body is beyond ego and will be there whether you are sinking into present awareness or not. There are people with all their chakras open who don't even know it, because they're still functioning on an ego level. I'm not convinced by the Vedic assertions that kundalini = enlightenment. I was having kundalini as a teenager when I still identified as "me", with all the trimmings. Present awareness is never gone, it only has the illusion of separation layered over it. Hence why you can have kundalini, and an accompanying ego to take credit for it. "Yay! I did this!" Oh really? The brightest, most gold auras I've ever seen have been from practitioners who "step out" during their practice and let their Divine connection guide the operation. Some of them have this talent innately and don't know they're doing it, while for others it is cultivated. The awake ones can operate this way even outside of their targeted spirit work. On the other hand, I met a lawyer once who had a super gold aura, and admitted he had private spiritual practices... he was a very compassionate person. At the time he had cancer and ended up dying. I didn't see indications that he was awake, yet he had this immensely divine energy about him. On a spirit level he was obviously doing amazing things. Of course, I'm judging this all based on how he spoke to me. You can't really tell what's going on inside of a person. Their outer visage could be quite mundane but their private consciousness could be doing some crazy stuff. Think of it this way. A lot of people have a meditation practice where they sit and experience emptiness or connection, or kundalini, or whatever. Then they get up and go about their day to day lives. But it's a false separation because the meditation never ends. If ego re-engages then you're just doing the ego meditation. Or the worry meditation. Or whatever million things the mind comes up with. Most people wake up in the morning from their sleep meditation, and immediately start doing the "me" meditation, ostensibly until the end of their day when they go back to sleeping again. The crown chakra doesn't necessary indicate an awakened person, but access to an additional layer of one's own energy body. The energy body can be directing the physical, mental, and emotional bodies, and ego may or may not be aware of it. It doesn't really matter either way because the functions are still happening. Reality is what it is, etc. Being awakened just means that you are in alignment with these processes, sans the imaginary middle man, it doesn't mean that your awakening is a product of them, per se. However, I do believe the crown contains information and spiritual access which may point the ego toward its own redundancy. On the other hand, people who are ungrounded will lack useful insight even if the crown is open, because there will be no earthly realm to connect it all to practical understanding. If you don't feel awakening in your physical body, then the process isn't complete. That's why I don't get why people are so hung up over the crown. There are lots of people walking around - Vata types - with upper chakras that are innately more open, yet their lower chakras are so under-developed that they are still floating around blithely. To put this another way... awakening means you realize there are no levels. There are no chakras, there's no spiritual ladder, no up or down. No going anywhere. It's all just happening right now. It's all One Thing. Yet seemingly there is substance, chakras, and other levels... or whatever else is happening, precipitating out of this oneness experience. Oneness is capable of producing anything. If you're trying to reach enlightenment by opening your crown -- where is it that you think you're going? Do you think you're actually responsible for what's happening here? Awakening isn't light or dark. It's completely empty and devoid of all meaning. It's not non-existence, it just renders everything liberated and pointless, including you. At first it can be traumatic because you don't quite get it, but then when you realize there's nothing to actually get or achieve, you have a hearty laugh. Welcome to freedom, you're totally fucked

They're just words. Placeholders for an experience that cannot be defined semantically, to be honest. You could also call it oneness, true nature, emptiness, god, infinity, the universe, the divine.

It depends on the person and their spontaneous route to awakening. Being in the presence of an awakened person, and their teachings, can definitely incite awakening and give you something to shoot for. So can reading books. For me it didn't work that way. I read books and listened to gurus for years, and maybe they helped plant the seed, I don't know; but it was ultimately the intense events in my own life which triggered it. It happened at a time when I wasn't receiving spiritual teachings or hanging around high level people. In fact, it happened in the most down and out place imaginable. There's no right or wrong way. You can follow prescriptions if you want. Free will means an unlimited exploration of different potentials. It's just not possible to predict if and when it will happen.

It's better to ask... what is let go of or dissolves which makes innate awakeness apparent? Put another way: you're already living your enlightened life, right now. What makes you not see it?

We all have an inner guru who's capable of helping us to achieve. Sometimes the guru is reflected in a live teacher, sometimes it's in a book or writing, sometimes it's from a completely unexpected source. Figure out what your goal is. Be genuine and authentic with yourself about that goal -- it doesn't matter what other people think about it. If you're earnest in approaching that goal, then you will discover the proper methods. I don't think anyone can make a standard rule that live teachers are the best. Sometimes they are, and sometimes they are horrible. I've met people who spent years receiving teachings from someone, only to find out they were ripped off, short changed, or the teachings were watered down. On the other hand, good teachers, when discovered, are awesome! I'm just saying... maybe try not to be so attached to how the learning plays out? If you let go, you might end up being surprised.

Look beneath the heart ache, the sorrow, the grief, and the longing. What do you find there? Be honest. Look beneath it. Stillness is already happening. There's nothing you have to cultivate or suppress in order to become still. While the entire charade and act of trying to locate stillness is taking place, Stillness is watching the whole drama unfold. You are Stillness, right now.

When people experience boundless freedom and liberation, how do they feel? How they treat others? Try to imagine someone who has no attachments, or who takes nothing personally. Someone who is totally awake and are basically divine will in action. That person would be in love. Loving kindness is a discipline for trying to achieve awakeness. Once awake, loving kindness comes naturally because you become 100% unburdened from the million and one identity crises and responsibilities that an attached consciousness experiences.

I don't have a problem with referring to myself as awakened... it's not an egoistic remark, just a comment on my nature. I awakened through intense pain and suffering. A lot of people in new age circles talk about ego death or seek it, I've noticed, but they aren't yet aware that they are ego seeking its own suicide. Perhaps they are ego realizing that its own faux existence is causing suffering, and there is a more subtle vehicle directing them to their demise. They don't realize how painful that final letting go will be, where their own redundancy is realized. Ego death is a painful, painful, horrid process. It means the death of everything you've believed in, your family and friends, your society, your identity and entire world concept. When someone is ripe and experiences the level of torment I have in recent years, they either dissociate, become schizophrenic, or awaken. The psyche simply cannot handle it so it buckles -- or at least that's how it happened for me. The ego experiences such torment that it implodes in on itself, and you are only left with a basement-level stillness, or present awareness. I can't claim that everyone's experience of awakening is the same, and I've heard many stories about it over the years. I believe that in the context of suffering, all of these potential states are normal and natural, but awakening happens more rarely because there needs to be a predisposition. It's true that this discussion is little more than verbal masturbation. Once you put awakening into words, the essence is already lost. What I wish to convey though is that it's an embodied experience which you feel on all levels. It's not an intellectual exercise -- mind doesn't get it. There are too many people in the world who are extremely adept at communicating the values, conditions, and aspects of awakening - that if they could just come up with a more clever wording to describe it, then they'll achieve it - but they themselves are not awakened. Such is Maya. The transient requirement that an awakened person must be in this embodied state 24/7 and immune to the throes of life, is non-sensical. Whatever's happening, is happening. It's pure non-attachment. If you're trying to be an embodied awakeness, then you're already identifying with an ego level process again. The truth is that there is no trying. If right now you feel depressed as shit, then 'trying' to 'get back to' another state is attachment. Awakening means you are the non-attached witness to all that happens, even if you're being tortured to death. It makes no difference. There's no "you" in it, and you have no control. All of reality is just doing itself, and it never ends. You don't end because you never began. The event of 'trying' to achieve awakeness is already taking place in the presence of awakeness. You are awakeness reading the Buddha's account on how to awaken, or typing on the computer, or yelling at a telemarketer on the phone. I have to come back to the adage that if you have an earnest desire to awaken and to know the truth, then it will eventually happen. It's all just emptiness doing itself anyway. If you can't figure it out, then don't worry about it... you're just a part of emptiness that thinks it's a "me". No big deal. Perhaps this earnestness creates the predisposition, or maybe a predisposition creates the earnestness -- I don't know. What I do know is that it's spontaneous. And yes it's true, it's not always permanent. This year I went through the most intense shit imaginable and somehow this time it stuck. There were a few years ago when I was sitting at a coffee shop watching the rain fall down, and something about the way everything outside was positioned really hit me. It felt like a "whoosh", right in my heart. It suddenly became clear just what it is I'm living in, if there's any "I" taking place at all. In that moment, ego becomes aware of its own redundancy, before disappearing. Eventually it returns, and you watch it, as the witness. You realize that it's just a component of the animal body... its survival mind. It has nothing to do with awakeness. You watch ego arise and dissolve all the time. You watch the ticker tape of mind go by. It's only when you identify with them that you forget you're awake. It's the difference between someone who wears a costume and knows their true identity, and someone who becomes the costume. I've lived in a Buddhist monastery and received a lot of the teachings on awakening. I do not agree that it's the end of suffering. I find that I'm still just as prone to suffering, anger, hatred, etc... as I ever was; which is to say, the egoic and emotional bodies are capable of all kinds of absurdity. I often watch them with amusement, thinking, "Wow, my mind is really vulgar today. Interesting!" The only difference now is that I am constantly aware of the temporal nature of these experiences, through the witness or present awareness. There's no "me" in it. It's just what's happening. I don't know how else to explain it. It's not the loss of identity, but the realization of true identity. In other words, the full spectrum of human experience still happens, the difference is that it constantly sublimates into a oneness consciousness that is neither here nor there. No matter how much joy or sorrow is experienced, there is an eventual drawing back to centre, based on true identity. I don't think you can look to books to define the experience or point the way to it. There's no formula, though they do make for interesting case studies I suppose. It's like broken telephone. The writings are sifted through centuries of filters, from original experiencers. Though who am I to say. Awakened people come in all shapes and sizes. I don't know how it works, and that's the honest truth. It just happens, and I had nothing to do with it. All I can say is that you know it when you see it, because it's a truth that's been with you all along. No matter how long you've been deluded into not noticing it, you'll recognize it when you see it. It can't be explained, and if you get it, no explanation is needed. Also, no book necessary. And if you become deluded again, there's nothing wrong with that either. It's all just what's happening. The religious books that try to convey these experiences, I am wary of them. They are allegories for something that happens without pre-determined templates. I mean, do what you feel is right. If the earnestness is there you'll eventually break through, but it's definitely not a destination. It never ends. Was awakening worth it? Can't say one way or the other. It's just what happened, and continues to happen. I can't take responsibility for it happening. It does contain limitless freedom, and it means being a permanent free fall through the unknown. It also means a fire that will consume you without end. Awakeness won't allow anything else to exist but it.

Like you said, you are "it" at all times, so what's the point in trying to be it. The only difference between someone who lives a diverse life with the full spectrum of emotions and mental occurrences who is awakened and someone with all that and isn't, is the awareness that they're not the story they're living. That they're not the one doing it. That there is no control and it's all just arising and dissolving. I understand what you mean by intellectual vs. embodied experience. That part makes sense. But that the embodied experience mitigates suffering, I'm not sure I agree. Awakened people still suffer, enlightened people still suffer, the only difference is that they sink into the suffering via awareness that they are not the suffering, that it's just happening without a story behind it. There is no identifying ego layer, or if there is, there's a focus on the subtle awareness that the ego is not really happening either. I think we're saying the same thing, it's just semantics at this point.

Where does the requirement that it has to be at all times arise from? Parsing it into intellectual or embodied is not relevant to the question. You already are that, at all times. Please restate your question?

I'm not talking about Pacifism or abdication of personal sovereignty.

You can't parse "awakening". It's all awakeness. This is awakeness typing on a computer, or eating a meal, or sitting in silence. This is awakeness having kundalini, or meditating. You're already it, the only difference is whether you're trying to attain what you already are, or you're just sitting with it. The descriptions of people wanting to sit endlessly in silence are accurate of people who are new to the experience. We don't need to qualify it as anything, whether enlightenment or otherwise. It just is. The transition from sitting in silence to returning to the world of action seems separated from the outside looking in, but it's not. You just come to understand that the experience never leaves, no matter what is happening or not happening.

It doesn't mean do nothing, just like nothingness doesn't mean non-existence. It means coming from a place of emptiness, an acknowledgment that there's no "you" doing it, just the Dao. You could be the busiest business person on earth and you'd still just be the Dao in action, though you might have way more ego layers to contend with. Practicing Daoism doesn't mean abandonment. It means sinking into true nature and being that nature (which you already have been this whole time) in whatever it is you do or don't do. There's no "trying" to be passive in Daoism, it's already there, happening as Stillness which observes all action and inaction. That's the irony... it paradoxically does not require you to do anything to get it. And your mind will never get it.

Heart governs the spirit and the blood, so they're all interconnected. I've often wondered if blood donors and their recipients become connected, even if only for a short time. I received blood transfusions this summer and I got some strong psychic impressions from each bag.

What the animal body desires to do for survival is not the same as the ego that desires to be enlightened, or peaceful, or whatever. An ego that is trying to "get to stillness" is merely a layer on top of Stillness. I capitalize it because Stillness is always there, even when you're in a raging traffic jam on the highway. Stillness never leaves. If you're trying to be still, then you're just Stillness watching yourself trying to achieve stillness. Animals are perfect examples of this. They don't concern themselves with past or present, or what happens when they die, or being enough, or "how do I get to peace" or "stillness". They just are. What you don't realize is that you're no different than that animal, you just have an ego layer that is trying to do things. You're always doing stuff as that present awareness, but most people have the added meditation of "I am this", or "I'm doing it". It's just a narrative on top of total nothingness. There's no you doing anything.

At the ultimate level, morality is non-sense. Anything that's happening is just what's happening. It's not about free will or determinism. It means there's no you in what's happening, even if you are seemingly making a choice about it. As far as I can tell, spiritually moral structures exist to try and guide the person toward the ultimate, which is, of course, already present at all times. But they tend to get too wrapped up in control and abdication of present awareness. In the end though, anything that causes you to point back toward ego, is a myth... including morals. They're just false narratives. There's nothing for karma or virtue to attach to. Nothing really matters. It's all just the one, doing itself. That's why I say that trying is the root of all suffering. What are you trying to do? Where do you think you're going? There's nowhere to go, there's no spiritual ladder, there's no "over there". It's all happening right now, in this moment. This is your enlightened life and it doesn't get any better than this. You're totally fucked... welcome to freedom. And the best part is, it's the DOING that makes you oblivious to it. Paradoxically, it requires you to do nothing to get it. And even if you do get it, it doesn't mean the end of suffering. It just means you relax into the suffering, because you're not the one doing it. It's happening all on its own. I don't know how else to explain it.

Re: main topic, no I don't believe so. The Dao, which is unnameable and unknowable, is at the center of the philosophy. Though with Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism, they acknowledge that this unknowable emptiness rests at the upper levels of achievement within the religion. The problem I have with Buddhism is that it's very apparent that there's nothing in here for karma to attach to, so what's the point of accumulating merit over a non-existent karma? It seems like a lot of work to ultimately prop up an ego that's not supposed to exist in the final stage. Buddhism is an excellent psychological system for people who are still on the ego path. I ultimately had to say, "It's all empty. I love you. Goodbye!" to Buddhism years ago because of this. Daoism hints more at the ultimate inward and outward emptiness, without the frills that Buddhism tends to go for. It's all just the Dao doing itself. The Dao and the 10,000 things seemingly co-exist but it's all just the Dao. There's no "you" in here to speak of, you're not in control because no one is at the steering wheel. Sinking into the Way and watching the grand masterpiece unfold without any help from "anyone" is kind of the point. Buddhism gets this, but then adds unnecessarily layers like karma. There ultimately is no karma. How can there be when there's no "you" except that which you've created and identified with?

The root of all suffering is trying. You can compartmentalize the problem all you want and identify it as mind, an emotional problem, whatever... but it's all part of the One. It's all just arising and dissolving and there's no "you" in any of it. Nothing you've ever done has been wrong. Nothing you've done has ever been right either. There's no "you" doing any of it. Anything could happen in a minute, in a week, in a year... anything *could* arise or dissolve. You're not in control of any of it... there's no you involved. It's the trying, the grasping, the need to do that creates the problem. Trying to avoid suffering causes suffering, just like trying to be happy causes suffering. You don't have control over what happens next, not really. You just think you do, because you think you're a "you". Right now is as good as it gets. There's no time or place that will make it any different. This moment is your enlightened life. And even if you awaken to that, it doesn't mean the end of suffering. It just means the ability to relax into it, because it's not your fault that it's happening. It's just happening! It's kind of like how a rock climber looks for little rests while climbing the wall. They're ultimately climbing for no apparent reason, but even en route in their arduous, meaningless task they can find rest in the midst of it. That's kind of what suffering becomes... just another thing that arises and dissolves, and you find micro-rests in the experience by knowing it's all just happening without a "you" to speak of. And it's not a psychological thing, you feel it in your body. And you can't always be in that state because, as already mentioned, you're not in control of what happens next, because it has nothing to do with you, even if it seems like it does. Wouldn't it be great if we could feel that peace all the time? If you're attached to always feeling that peace, then guess what, you're going to suffer! Enlightenment is meaningless and hopeless. You're totally fucked. Welcome to freedom.

I've made the tincture myself after wildcrafting the pollen. It's a great adaptogen but you don't necessarily want to boost your testosterone levels. I found pine pollen too stimulating and I had to take a break after only a few days. It's definitely a powerful medicine though.

The problem isn't capitalism, it's corporate consumer capitalism and globalism. Capitalism and especially merchant capitalism worked quite well until we decided to mass produce everything with planned obsolescence. If we made things to last, everyone could at some point afford them and constant replacement would not be necessary. We could then focus our collective will on other things, whether we remain capitalist or become more socialist. It would mean less people tied to usury and slavery in order to keep buying crap that's trashing the planet, and more people focused on bettering their human core and their contribution to the world. And anyway, any system that does not factor the natural environment into its input costs is blindly corrupt and not worth the morals it was built upon. So far it seems like both socialism and capitalism have failed miserably at this, in the versions we have seen.

The "whole world" is something really impossible to fathom. It can't be more than something for you to project onto. I remember when I lived in China, the news stories were different, the concept of "what was happening in the world" was different. I hardly heard about North America at all. In some of the other countries I visited, things seemed peaceful by comparison... maybe because the media had less influence there, I don't know. When I came back to Canada I noticed a lot more fear consciousness. I think that's where the hate comes from, ultimately. People aren't born hating, they are born waiting to be nourished by love and guidance because that's what they just came from. To really, truly understand a thing is to love it. I'm sorry but I just can't see it any other way. Hatred, ignorance and fear are all on the same axis. The "whole world" is where you are right now, in this very moment... your surroundings and your inner relationship. Something I learned in my travels which I will never allow myself to forget is that there are a million good and a million bad things happening in the world every day, simultaneously. My boss and I were talking about that today... how we chose careers that were perhaps not very prestigious or high paying but we decided to nurture the good instead of worry about the apocalypse. There is no endgame.

The chakras don't spin in the traditional 3D sense, but in the 5D sense. They look more like particle clouds than solid objects, occupying several planes and radiating out in multiple directions, according to which chakra you're referring to. They roughly occupy a spherical domain (or container, if you will) on the level beyond the weiqi field, with varying levels of complexity depending on which chakra it is, how advanced the person is (whether by birth or by their spiritual practice), and how active or open the chakra is at any given moment. Regardless of which direction the person's chakra is moving in, the particles of it should be uniform. In pathology some pieces will move in opposing directions or some pieces will be stationery or absent. There may also be additional "energies" or influences within the chakra that are more or less invasive influences that require expelling or dissolving. The main 7 chakras have the capacity to open and close at any given time, but are not necessarily completely formed yet according to the person's evolution, so there may be pieces missing or unformed. Imagine a pie chart with a piece missing, but more in a spherical domain... it would look more like that. The transpersonal chakras (beyond the primary 7) have a greater tendency to appear this way in those predisposed to developing them. The colours are also not uniform and colour correspondences to chakras are usually inaccurate, at least in a global way. Yes, the heart is generally pink or green, the root generally, red, the crown generally purple, but depending on how the chakras communicate with one another you can have any chakra's colour present in any other chakra (i.e. purple in the root, red in the crown, etc.). And the culmination of all those colours forms the over all diversity of the aura. I know this because I see these things when I do healings on people and it's been a novel study of mine for several years now. I have not found that the way books describe these phenomena to be accurate at all, and I've only found validation of my observations through the rare human beings who also see these things.

I have had the physical frisson of kundalini ever since I was a child, but only as an adult has that sensation turned into a complete alteration of consciousness resulting in a different state of reality. The only advice I can really give is that if you are (1) sufficiently grounded and (2) sufficiently open-hearted, then (3) the kundalini awakening will feel more like a natural process than a fearful letting go. IMO the fear means that there's not enough of a heart focus involved. I've never had a kundalini experience that felt scary or wrong, just intense.

Considering the modern lifestyle and the state of food, I'm not sure that the bigu lifestyle in of itself guarantees anything anymore. Unless you have the economic luxury of less work, and access to pure food, I'm not sure it works in an equivalent way to ancient times. Still worth pursuing though, IMO... especially no grains. I've gone through periods where my body was so clean from diet and lifestyle that I only slept a few hours a night. I did notice though that there were still periods during the day where my consciousness naturally slowed down and I would go into a pseudo-sleep kind of state for a while. Then I would return to normal some time later. Meditation can help with that too.