Michael Sternbach

Chatty blue deer

Happy New Year! 😊

It's easy! You get better: They are good for you! 😊 You get worse/die: They are (were) not good for you!* 🙁 It's as simple as that, really. *At any rate, not good enough!

The full realization of yourself. If there's such a thing.

Right. And wrong. Happy New Year! Michael

Hi Seeking True, esoteric teachings are sometimes incomplete -- for a variety of reasons. And not all of them are of a mischievous nature. Yes, sometimes there is a limited amount of information offered just as a "teaser" ("come visit my $5000 seminar and we will teach you the rest"). Sometimes something is meant just for beginners -- to be supplemented with more advanced information at a later stage (either by the original teacher, another teacher or "your inner teacher"). Sometimes the author was themself unaware of what was missing. Sometimes some important information was lost in translation. There are many "sometimes", many possibilities... It may be hard to put a label on a given case. But he, why bother? Is the cup you mentioned half-empty or half-full to you? If you (as you say) can sense what is missing, or how a practice as handed down could yet be improved, why not simply fill in the gaps yourself? Alright, some may consider that kind of pragmatic attitude disrespectful to tradition. But like the Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa wrote, some 1600 years ago: पुराणमित्येव न साधु सर्वम् purāṇam ity eva na sādhu sarvam, 'Not everything is good simply because it is old.' Michael

Philosopher's Stone

Proserpina and Pluto

New Horizons

Ocean Form, I never stayed at a Buddhist monastery, but I meditated with the monks in a Zen temple in Kyoto back in the day. Before that, I once joined a sesshin with a Western Zen monk/teacher conducted in a hotel. It included several hours of zazen practice over a number of days. I know that some temples and monasteries in Japan offer lay/foreign practitioners the opportunity to join a sesshin as well. A Google search will bring up various options. However, it's quite possible that you could find something like that in your area too. Cheers Michael

Cow

In this podcast, Randall Carlson talks at length about the reasons why the Azores should not be disregarded as a possible location of Atlantis. It's true that, according to contemporary academic consensus, the Azores don't seem to have formed a coherent land mass of appropriate size within the timeframe in question. However, research conducted in the late 40's/early 50's repeatedly showed evidence for just that, including beach sand and the remains of surface zones organisms in core samples taken from the sea floor. Submergence of this large Atlantic isle could be explained as being due to both glacial isostatic adjustment and rise of sea level subsequent to the melting of zillion tons of ice at the end of the Ice Age. This screenshot from Randall's presentation indicates what the area may have looked like some 20.000 years ago.

Then Nungers would have spared me many head palms!

Atlantis is generally described as a prehistoric utopia, a world that had reached an advanced level of spiritual, scientific and technological achievement. However, at some stage things went south... The Atlanteans had become too proud of their achievements and, according to Plato, the Gods decided to punish them for their hybris and imperialistic behaviour by submerging the isle in the ocean. I think this could be likened to the initial stage of the Great Work of Alchemy, the so-called Nigredo, in which your starting matter undergoes dissolution and destruction, as it is being reduced to its First Matter (prima materia). The whole subsequent process aims at restoring and elevating this First Matter to its final perfection (ultima materia), a state in which it will even be able to transmute base metals into gold, heal any disease in living beings, and extend their life span indefinitely. If again we wish to draw an analogy to the story of Atlantis, we could consider the fact that the knowledge of the Atlanteans was never truly lost, but disseminated - in bits and pieces - throughout various cultures. At the proper time, its reassembly could indeed lay the foundation for a new perfected world, a Golden Age, for which the Philosopher's Stone could serve as an analogy. Atlantis is as much in our future as it is in our past.

Hi Shad For me, the question should be rephrased: "How do I live with my desires?" 🙀😅😉

Yes, they are fascinating creatures indeed. Just sad that learning about them inevitably involves cutting them open for those scientists interested in them. How about a news line: 'Octopusses peered into a scientist's brain - and were shocked at what they saw' - for a change.

I heard that proper sitting in zazen induces the microcosmic orbit automatically. From my personal experience, I can say that, many moons ago, when I started practising zazen, I experienced strong and exhilarating energetic effects that I didn't expect. As the few books on Zen I had read at the time emphasized sobriety and basically a 'common state of mind'. Rarely are altered states of consciousness during meditation discussed as such in Zen. But that doesn't mean they don't (or should not) occur. I found learning about them from non-related sources... enlightening. Concepts and emphasis may differ from one system to another. The psycho-physical system that individual practitioners are working with ever stays the same regardless. It took me some time to piece together a picture that would explain my internal experience more in depth. Today alchemy is definitely an important part of it, however. Some may object that concepts are not important in cultivation, that only experience matters. But we can't help reflecting on our experiences, and the conclusions we draw will colour our further experiences inevitably. So we better choose our concepts wisely. Zen practice and alchemy... Yes, they are clearly connected to each other in my book - as well as to many other things. And that's cool with me.

Owls

Twirlywoos

Hi Tristan, welcome to TDB. Great that you are seeking a path of self-cultivation at so early an age. When I was about your age, I started studying martial arts and Eastern philosophy (Zen, Daoism). But everybody is different... What are you feeling most attracted to?

Ah so desu ka? あ 粗 です 化

r

Squid 🦑

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