Michael Sternbach

Here's the real issue. Better focus on learning how to express and assert yourself, than on anger "detox". There's a time for acceptance, and there's a time for holding your own. That's good to hear.

Well, it would mean quite a lot of extra work for the mods. Members would have to be manually checked for the last time they posted something. And Sean would have to weigh in too, I think.

Old3Bob, I didn't understand your "quotation" here, it only contained something I never wrote. And here you adressed me after you "quoted" yourself in an empty box?! 🤔

Not every part of the board can be accessed without subscription. This is probably one of the reasons why some people join without chiming in. I am here to share my knowledge and my views. And I appreciate everyone who cares to listen, or who wishes to follow the interesting discussions we are often having. It goes without saying that anyone is welcome to contribute. But if they choose to just read and reflect on what is being presented by themself, that's cool with me. I would not like to see anyone being chastised for their "laziness." Heck, I am far too much of a Daoist, and indeed a (space) punk, to support rules that aren't strictly necessary! And that's the spirit I wish for this forum to keep expressing.

It's a common phenomenon on Internet forums. TDB is a comparatively big one. And the bigger the forum, the more passive members you can expect. Direct contributors are always just the tip of the ice berg. But that doesn't mean that the part that remains below the surface has no function.

Hatsune Miku--the world's first and cutest holographic vocaloid--singing about exorcism, Zen, and Buddhist cosmology. (English subtitles are available.)

Instead of placing 0 on the one-dimensional number-line, try setting it at the centre of a series of concentric circles or of a spiral carrying either all positive integers or all negative integers. This should help you visualise all numbers emanating from the central zero to infinity in the first case, and converging towards it from infinity in the second case. This kind of model shows that, in either case, 0 and infinity can indeed be seen as two opposite poles. To me, numbers as understood in the numeric system are anything but boring, but come with all the archetypal attributes that numerology ascribes to them. In other words, those attributes translate directly to their behaviour as mathematical objects. I do believe that this kind of understanding is evident not least (LOL) in the way "shunya" means zero, whereas "shunyata" means "void" in the philosophical sense in ancient Sanskrit texts. You said yourself that "mathematics is philosophy" in another thread. I agree with that--these two fields of knowledge are, well, let's say, non-dual. 😁 Hmm. What kind of numbers does each of these two sets contain? Do they nullify each other?

Yeah, as I mentioned myself, the downward sword strike can be an effective move if set up properly, or as part of a combination from which it would flow naturally. We are doing this kind of thing all the time in kenpo: Move our arms in an unceasing series of parries and strikes where one technique leads to the next without any wasted motion. So we get to use all kinds of different trajectories and hand formations to connect to a variety of sensitive targets all over the body. And this principle is also applied to how we use our legs. (And yes, Filipino and Indonesian styles follow similar principles.) This is a far cry from the stop-and-go kind of action (involving mostly just straight punches, backfists, front and roundhouse kicks) typically seen in sport karate! However, it is quite in line with original Okinawan karate styles (that are sometimes called kempo as well, only the transcription to Western letters is slightly different--'m' in lieu of 'n'). The Hawaiian kenpo styles are actually linked to Choki Motobu, a renowned street fighter and advocate of karate as a combat art. He was a direct rival of Funakoshi; it doesn't take too much imagination to understand why the two masters didn't get on with each other too well! 😆 I actually believe that, while Okinawan karate was exported to the Japanese mainland to become a sport, via James Mitose it transgressed to Hawaii, retaining its martial essence. Surely that's a simplification, but an essential insight nonetheless in my view. Great idea, I like it! 🙂 Australia isn't exactly just around the corner from where I am located, but perhaps we could teach this as a webinar via a Zoom session together? 🤔

While that is in accordance with a widely held belief especially in the Tibetan tradition, there are Buddhist teachers that have a more complex--or holistic vision--of the Pure lands. Quoting Wikipedia: In Chinese Buddhism, the pure land was commonly seen as a transcendent realm beyond the three realms (the desire realm, form realm and formless realm) into which one can be reborn after death.[59] This view of the pure land as a place was defended by masters of Pure Land Buddhism like Shandao. However, another interpretation of a pure land is that it is non-dual with our world. The Vimalakīrti Sutra was widely cited by exponents of this non-dual view of the pure land, often called "mind-only" pure land (wéixīn jìngtǔ 唯心淨土). This was most commonly defended by masters of the Chan / Zen school.[60] In the Platform Sutra for example, Huineng states that only the deluded hope to be born in a faraway land in the west, while the wise who know their nature is empty seek the Pure Land by purifying their minds.[61] These two views of the pure land led to many debates in Chinese Buddhism.[62] In a similar fashion, according to the Huayan school patriarch Fazang, the ultimate view of the Buddha's Pure Land (derived from the Avatamsaka sutra) is that it is interfused with all worlds in the multiverse and indeed with all phenomena (dharmas).[63] This view of the Buddha's pure land is inconceivable and all pervasive. Since for Fazang, the entire Dharma realm is visible within each particle in the universe, the Pure Land is therefore contained in every phenomena and is non-dual with our world.[63] Later Chinese thinkers similarly attempted to synthesize the two ideas. Yúnqī Zhūhóng (1535–1615) saw the pure land as an actual place which is a useful upaya (skill means) created by the Buddha. Once beings reach this realm, they realize that it is just mind. Real sages can see that both ideas are interconnected and thus can affirm both without any conflict.[64] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_land Sounds awesome! Care to tell me more about it?

Dao is equivalent to the World Spirit in Western natural philosophy.

@DanielPlease note that CCC (see my previous post) also highlights the curious coincidence of infinity with zero which we recently talked about. We're not done yet with that discussion... More spiritual smoothie yet to follow as we try and smoothen things out! 😋

Hi Bathan, I feel you. I have been struggling with anger issues myself lately. The first step is not to deny or suppress these feelings. They're a natural reaction, in particular, when we feel at the mercy of circumstances that we can't control. It's important to identify the roots of your anger. Where does it originate? Once you have identified the cause of those feelings, see what can be done about it--even if that requires taking baby steps. True, not all circumstances can be changed right off the bat. But the question is always how we deal with them. At the very least, they provide us with an opportunity to grow in our patience, compassion, and wisdom! Additionally, I can recommend the following simple exercise to you: Sit quietly, breathe calmly and deeply, and find that place of tranquility inside you. Then, when the going gets tough, take a moment to remember that sense of peace you experienced. Once you're back in that zone, it will be so much easier to do whatever needs to be done. This sense... It is the awareness of your inner self -- your true indomitable Spirit that will forever prevail! Best wishes for your journey, Michael

Well, most cosmologists believe that the universe is roughly 14 billion years old today. If the model you refer to actually turns out to be the correct one, one full cycle of expansion and contraction takes considerably longer than that, though (thanks God!). However, while there is no universal agreement in cosmology (LOL), the idea that the current expansive phase will be followed by a contractive phase--ending, at least momentarily, in a so called Big Crunch--lost much popularity in more recent times: not only is there not the slightest indication of the expansion ever coming to a halt, on the contrary, it was found to be constantly accelerating. The reason for this is elusive, so the cosmologists wisely decided to attribute it to something they call Dark Energy. Now since we are not entirely sure how Dark Energy relates to equally mysterious Dark Matter, the last word on the matter may not have been spoken yet, but at the moment, it really seems like the universe (or whatever may be left of it in many billion years) is bound to expand in all eternity. Is there a way that the cyclic concept could be saved? Astonishingly, there is! For not long ago (well, at least in cosmic terms), Sir Roger Penrose (whose grasp of cosmic matters is so breathtakingly impressive that he needed to be knighted) came up with the idea that, although expansion indeed continues unlimitedly, once that all black holes would have evaporated, and all matter would have returned to the state of pure energy, something weird happens: space and time stretch out to infinity and eternity, respectively! Another way of expressing this is that, with all Swiss watchmakers and all other matter reverted to energy, there's simply no way of telling what bloody time it is, or (for that matter) to measure any distances. So you might as well say that our light-filled universe became both timeless and spaceless now. Hush! The mind of God! Paradoxically, this state of infinite expansion coincides with a state of infinite contraction by what may seem to be a mere mathematical trick, but actually has a profound meaning. 😮 Nope, there's no contractive phase ('Big Crunch') occurring in Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmology!!! Yes I know, that's a tough one to wrap your head around--trust me, I feel you! Let me tell you that even a costly documentary got that wrong as I sadly had to inform its makers in a comment posted just hours after its release. 🤭 So at one (eternal) moment you have infinite expansion, and at the "next" another singularity--nothing in between! Just BANG! And Brahman's game starts all over again...

Non-dual isn't the same as identical. The spiritual world is neither identical with the physical world, nor is it truly separate from the latter. If I find a better word than 'non-dual' for defining their relationship, I will let you know.

Yes. It has to do with multidimensional space and time, and what C.G. Jung called "psychoid space." No. It is effectively non-dual with the world of our daily experience. Basically yes. With its insistence on the phenomenal world being the result of interactions that are essentially devoid of any deeper reality, Buddhism seems to be at odds with the Platonist view of archetypal forms and determining principles existing on a level beyond the manifest universe. I don't believe that these views are actually irreconcilable with each other, thus I am searching for the philosophical "missing links." Also, Buddhism and other Eastern systems offer a variety of powerful methodologies to directly experience the numinous--something that is somewhat (though not entirely) lacking in the Platonist and Hermetic traditions, which are more intellectually oriented, overall.

That's a rather broad sweep you're making there! I love the Ancient Aliens series for the many weird observations and speculations it brings to attention. And I am quite familiar with David Icke, Alexander Collier, Tom Smith, Len Kasten, Erich von Däniken, and other proponents of "the extraterrestrial worldview," as you call it. They don't always agree with each other, but that's inconsequential to me. I don't take anyone's scheme at face value, but prefer to make my own critical reviews and distinctions. There's a sad tendency among conspiracists to uncritically accept "the (anyone's) extraterrestrial worldview" in a neat package with Hollow-Earth theory, Hollow-Moon theory, Flat-Earth theory, the moon landings being fake, and/or Trump being the saviour of humanity from the Illuminati, and what-have-you. In fact, some seem to be more than ready to accept any claims at all, as long as they are sufficiently at odds with mainstream thinking! 🙄 I see no evidence for any of the known religious founders to be of extraterrestrial origin. I find much wisdom and truth in the words of Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Laotzu, and others--they are representatives of human spiritual ingenuity to me. True, a number of religions have been misrepresented and used for political reasons, but this is generally not their founders' fault. On our expeditions into unfamiliar lands, we need to tread carefully. There's so much we don't know out there! Drawing from ancient mythology, modern mythology (the category which the aforesaid authors fall into), whistleblower reports, occult teachings, and not least my own dream/astral travel experiences, I develop my own take on humanity's past, present, and potential future involvement with extraterrestrial civilisations in my upcoming book trilogy Spacepunk. While nothing in it is implausible in my view, I am presenting it as science fiction, and for good reasons--and if any reader would see it as nothing more than an allegorical narrative, that's fine with me! 🙂

Beautiful! 👏

Not in my view. God (Brahman, Dao) is Infinity and Eternity themselves.

I mean, insofar many tomes of teachings have been added by the various Buddhist schools later. I simply noticed that you are referring a lot to the Pali canon--arguably the most original Buddhist texts. And since, on the other hand, you are a Soto Zen practitioner (a tradition known for its frugality), I wondered if you see the Pali canon as the essential text.

Never Say Never Again.

Zen says the very same thing. As do at least those Pure Land schools that maintain that the 'pure land' is non-dual with the world of our ordinary experience. That kind of view might help explain why Japanese Buddhist temples are frequently such cheerful places -- regardless of Shakyamuni's "life is suffering" statement. They radiate some kind of existential joy; something, by contrast, I never felt in a western church (although some of the latter are energetically interesting too).

That depends on your definition of 'original'. Many of the ju-jitsu, aiki-jitsu/daito-ryu, and Okinawan karate's tuite techniques were actually drawn from Chinese chin'na -- the grappling part of various kung fu styles. It goes without saying that the moves were adapted to fit into the respective styles. Thus, it is quite conceivable that part of a given repertoire was modified or specifically selected to align with the samurai's armed techniques. Regardless... At the time I was training aikido in Kyoto -- when I still knew much less about martial arts history than I do today --, I once happened to watch a Hongkong movie featuring a skillful chin'na practitioner. And I was really surprised to see him do a number of things that were so similar to what I was learning in the dojo! And that was not simply because "people everywhere have four limbs, and there are only so many ways that the human body can move"! To illustrate, in a certain Thai grappling art, I found plenty of unique techniques that I hadn't seen in any of the quite numerous systems that (for research purposes) I looked into. Yeah... Not all the fight scenes in the Star Wars movies are actually that hot.

Yes, the staff (both short and long version) is the only other weapon besides the sword that is regularly employed in aikido practice. Not sure if what you saw is included in this compilation, but anyway, it may be worth watching.