Michael Sternbach

When practising Za-zen in the Sosen-ji in Kyoto, I found that sitting right next to the master was really helpful. I think it was due to my resonating with his aura - or maybe I just didn't want to look like an idiot.

You guys are WAY off topic.

Some of the better preserved frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia at Ferrara, Italy. Each of them is representing the correspondences of a star sign (here Cancer, Leo and Virgo) on the three levels of the world. On the bottom of each fresco we see mundane activities in the elemental world typically taking place while the Sun is in that sign; in the central band the iconography connected with the three decanes of the sign, signifying the celestial world; on top a Greek Deity corresponding with the sign (although not according to the Ptolemaic rulership system but to the peculiar correspondences in Manilius' Astronomica), belonging to the intellectual world. The decans are also part of Agrippa's system even though their imagery diverges from the one used in the Palazzo which is based on another important book of Magic, the famous Picatrix. The Palazzo is definitely worth seeing for anybody interested in classical Astrology or Magic, if you get the chance. I was there twice myself. For more: http://www.wga.hu/html_m/t/tura/schifano/

Hi DreamBliss, I'm not sure if you had a chance to read The Nature of Personal Reality yet. There, Seth explains that all those visualizations and affirmations won't work as long as they are counteracted by negative beliefs held on a deeper level. It is these beliefs that are keeping you down. And they will continue to do so until you have unearthed them and clearly understood them as being wrong. What are these beliefs that stand in your way? And what are the better alternatives for them? These are questions that, ultimately, only you can answer. All I can do is to try to provide you with a few hints based on some of your posts of yours, on this thread and others. Okay, so you say that you can't have confidence in your knowledge, creativity and intelligence because you haven't achieved much so far. But that is only your perspective right now, and frankly, it's quite biased. I think of you as someone who is strongly oriented inwards (not only your pen name is telling me this). You are evaluating yourself in terms of achievements in the outer world. True, individuals like you typically don't have an easy stand in a world that so much stresses external achievement. Yet, by the same token, they are in the unique position to provide so many who are feeling the lack that exists in this regard with insight and guidance. There is a contribution that only you, DreamBliss, can make, based on your individuality, your life experience, the way you communicate with others. I would know because you were able to help me answer a question about my life in a private conversation not long ago, in a way nobody else had been able to. You said, it's because of your personal experience. There you go, my friend! What you have experienced, you have experienced for a reason. In most fundamental terms, it's all about Consciousness exploring itself, in you and through you. You have an inclination to introspection and philosophical thinking, plus the ability to express yourself eloquently. You are meant to use all that to the full. Focus on what you already have, not on what you don't have yet. Make best of it. All that you desire can come to you, if you allow the energy that comes from Source to flow through you freely. Please carefully investigate your beliefs regarding money. You seem to hold a typical belief that - while it's okay to get paid for fixing somebody's sink - it's not okay to ask for money in return for helping them with issues of consciousness. Why is that so? We are living in a material world and need a fair amount of money just in order to live more or less comfortably on a daily base. If healers and teachers can't raise money in the course of using their abilities, then, in most cases, this limits their activities to something like a hobby. What a petty for all concerned! Don't get me wrong - sharing one's knowledge generously is a wonderful thing, whether it's about spiritual things or making pancake. But why does it have to be one or the other? It's indeed a good idea to offer plenty of interesting stuff for free, i.e. on a website. Folks who resonate with it and want more will then be happy to pay for (reasonably prized) books, DVDs, webinars (what have you) that you can offer at the same time. That's a win-win scenario. Yes, it takes courage and effort to move forward with one's talents. To be sure, any kind of change does - as we tend to cling to a familiar misery rather than to tread on unknown and uncharted territory. What if we run into difficulty? What if things don't work out the way we wish? Well, my take on this: From mistakes we can learn. We can reset our course any time, if need be. Believe in success, but don't make a "swim or drown" thing out of your endeavours. That is just another way to keep yourself away from taking action in the first place. Do your best but don't worry about the outcome. Right, there are the concerned family members fearing for your soul. That's a tricky one. Maybe you can communicate to them that you are looking at certain things differently, in terms they're able to understand? (The Bible is replete with esoteric stuff for people who have the eyes to see it.) Be that as it may, probably, it will be best to move out of your current place in the long run (not least in regard of a lady friend ). If the other members of your family truly care for you, they will appreciate to see you happy even if they don't fully understand all of your ways. Michael

Chapter 2 (James Legge translation) Principle for cultivation: Non-evaluation Seeing things in their suchness. The polarizing mind ever busy to attach labels to everything it perceives (within and without itself) keeps itself away from perceiving things simply the way they are. The wise knows, however, that ideas like "beautiful" and "ugly" are telling more about the beholding entity than about a thing as such. Cultivating non-evaluation leads to a number of useful traits such as: Avoiding to be led astray by outward appearances. Being more patient and understanding with ourselves and others. Being at peace and happy under circumstances a more judgemental person cannot cope with. (As in chapter 1, I skip over parts that I don't see as pertaining to cultivation directly.) Principle for cultivation: Non-action In most fundamental terms, this means that the ego is not trying to get a handle on something - which would tend to impede the natural flow of things. This kind of non-action can result in: Action that is spontaneous and in harmony with the Dao ("acting without acting"). Opting literally not to act but let a situation unfold and take its own course - thus allowing a situation to eventually find balance all by itself. Principle for cultivation: Silent instructing Avoiding long wound explanations and protractions. Conveying clarity of intent to others to a degree that little or no words are needed. This also brings to mind the typical Eastern way of teaching: The instructor simply demonstrates a certain thing, the student tries to imitate it to the best of their ability - over and over. I will treat the rest of chapter 2 later, due to its relative length.

At least according to the best authors on Manifestation (like Jane Roberts/Seth), the thing to understand is that we are all unconsciously magicians as we are creating our daily experiences based on our thoughts and emotions. This has nothing to do with psychokinetic powers etc. If you become aware of the contents of your mind and how they affect your life, and focus on those thoughts and emotions that will give you the results you desire, then you are turning into a conscious magician. The only difference between the average Joe and a magician is that the latter practices to powerfully project their true intentions.

Nothing, imo. Bear in mind that, while people in materially privileged countries are better off in many ways, there are plenty of individuals there, too, suffering from severe problems, be they financial or - VERY commonly - in terms of physical and psychological health. Many such individuals have indeed received help from using visualization and related teachings, there are innumerable cases. It is a very common objection to bring up people living in poor societies. If the premise that we all create our own realities were false, then those people would have little power to change their circumstances for the better. I believe they do have the potential. Quite another question is what the true prerequisites for happiness are. A study showed that people in Bangladesh are actually happier on the average than we are in our high-tech cultures - while we are communicating more with our cell-phones than with each other face to face, overworking while leaving our kids in daycare and indulging in unhealthy foods which turn as into replicas of Jabba the Hut. Now that's what WE are attracting... None of this is an excuse for neglecting the suffering of other beings, human or not, no matter where they live. All of Life is One and the suffering of one being is the suffering of all. Representatives of Manifestation often emphasize this in their writings. They also highlight the fact that by helping others you are helping yourself. The smile you give out returns to you.

The descent and ascent of the soul is a concept that goes back to Plato and to the Mithraic mysteries and later became a part of Hermetics and Neoplatonism. Among others, the Roman Macrobius explained it in his "Commentary on the Dream of Scipio" as the soul descending from the intersection of the Milky Way with the Zodiac. http://www.academia.edu/1536305/PLATOS_COSMIC_X_Heavenly_Gates_at_the_Celestial_Crossroads_Proceedings_of_SEAC_2012_Conference_Slovene_Anthropological_Society_Ljubljana_2013_" In Macrobius' description, prior to physical incarnation, the soul gradually acquires a "light body" along with human personality characteristics as it descends through the planetary spheres down to Earth. After a physical incarnation has ended, it ascends and sheds the different layers of this "light body" (which is synonymous with the astral vehicle) as it returns to the stellar/Divine world. I think that the shedding of the subtle body could be what is meant by the so-called "second death" - whereas the immortal essence, soul or monad goes on. A related belief is shared by various shamanistic cultures, where the ancestors are thought of as abiding in macrocosmic stellar regions whence they are able to bestow their beneficial influence on their living relatives via a good harvest etc. Interestingly, related concepts of the soul's astral sojourns can also be found in the works of modern metaphysicists like Edgar Cayce, Rudolf Steiner and E. H. Bailey. http://www.amazon.com/Prenatal-Epoch-E-H-Bailey/dp/1933303247/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418856361&sr=8-1&keywords=prenatal+epoch From my perspective, the question may really be how far that which we think of as our personality can follow on the soul's journey back to its source - which depends on how conscious the personality during its physical existence was or became of the extended landscape of its psyche and to what level the "light body" has been activated, respectively. Thus the endeavours to build up a "diamond body" in Tibetan Buddhism, or to construct "Solomon's Temple" internally in an Occidental esoteric tradition. Chinese Alchemists may employ methods of Qigong to this end which they also regard as a kind of immortality (albeit not physical).

So the fetch remains on Earth and/or in subterranean regions between incarnations while other parts of the subtle body ascend to the planets and stars (or to the multidimensional levels of existence represented by them) - in form of the Astroeides Ochema or "astral vehicle" (according to a Greek school of thought). So, many a ghost story could have been caused by a (frustrated?) fetch. The idea of the earth-bound spirit comes to mind. Spooky!

Can modern Chinese (other than specialists) still read the TTC in its original version? Or was it translated into modern language?

Oh, it is my understanding, too (just for mutual sanity check - unless we are both nuts). A practitioner of Rinzai Zen seeking "direct enlightenment" would typically agonize over an intellectually unsolvable riddle (koan) for months to unfurl those conditions. Note however that this involves a process, too, so to be honest, the "direct paths" are not that different from methods like Soto Zen which take a gradual development for granted (at least that's what the Zen monk I was meditating with in the late 80s told me). Rest assured, you are not the only one here who has a little past. Yes - in principle. However, you hear so many shocking stories about highly revered masters that you are better off being not too shockable. Right - the reality check. "New Age literature" gets quite a lot of bad press on TTB, especially from the (in some way) more traditionally minded cultivators here, even though (or because?) it emphasizes self-mastery using the environment as a mirror. Which makes cultivating something quite different from when it's done in the quiet, harmonious and safe seclusion of a monastery on a mountaintop. Yes, emotional constraints which can be lessened by methods of meditation and visualization and/or by using vibrational remedies such as the Bach Flower Remedies.

Exactly. Negative space is less than nothing, it's a void. In the analogy you found in your novel, it's the void that woman left in the man's life. Whereas non-existence would simply mean that the bitch had never been a part of his life in the first place. Talking about the level of physics again, negative space is linked with negative time (which flows from the future to the past), and with negative energy (which can be created by "quantum squeezing").

Yes, or within the time-frame of a few days at their peak. I literally experienced intense sensations of light and glamour a few times while feeling somehow ecstatic. As you say, there are long periods of a more or less steady process preceding those moments of Alchemical breakthroughs. So I would say that both Rinzai Zen und Soto Zen/Dao are partially right. However, it should be remembered that Rinzai practitioner agonizer over paradox, "unsolvable" koans for months, and be released by the sudden flash-lights of intuitive comprehension in-between. The way to the "highest" illumination is paved with a series of lesser experiences.

Ack - but a layman could be as far or even further cultivated as the revered Daoist priest in that temple. I wonder, does the Daoist "clergy" take that into account.

It would be advisable that, for the time being, you try to think of non-existence (or "zero existence") as something essentially different from negative existence. Steiner's concept of negative space gives as a clue here.

Oh boy, that looks like the "word" verses "one word" dichotomy from TTC, ch. 1 again, to me. I knew it! I knew it! <Bounces up and down on his chair,>

Chris, this would make a nice substitute for your Black Hole.

Avatamsaka Sutra, p. 980. According to this, true nonbeing is a state even beyond existence and non-existence, or the Wu chi that is beyond Yin and Yang, or the 0 between +1 and -1, the origin of all numbers. Thus, from another perspective, there could indeed be levels of non- or negative existence. The Kabbalah knows three: Ain, Ain soph and Ain soph aur (The Eternal Light). Thanks for the quote, Manitou.

I like the way you smile, Dragon! The process of enlightenment is a gradual process. Followers of Rinzai Zen might not agree with this, but I think that most Soto Zen practitioners as well as Daoists (Daoist Alchemists) generally would agree with me on this.

Is it, to your knowledge, particularly tied in with the physical body in some way, perhaps identifiable with its etheric matrix or etheric double? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit: See, I'm back on topic.

Existence and what you call non-existence are themselves another manifestation of Yang and Yin. However, regarding the latter, I would rather speak of negative existence than non-existence. Only 0 is truly nil. Thanks. I will look at it as soon as I have the time. Sorta busy writing posts at the moment.

It also resembles the "shadow" part of the Soul that goes to the Underworld after physical existence in Greek metaphysics.

Is that the reason why you have a Black Hole as your Avatar?

It can be. It can also be -1 and +1. Depends.

I still feel that the implication might be that the higher members of the religious organisation are the initiates elevated over the "profane" (being closer to Dao = being the "true person"). Probably every religion makes their human icons. No offence, but it is not inconceivable that as a member of Chinese you could be biased here. Perhaps you could elaborate a little on the meaning of the "true person"?