Michael Sternbach

Yes, it is an interesting consideration that everything that we have ever been aware of existed in our field of consciousness in the first place. Whereas we are taught to distrust our perception and base our understanding of things on the assumption that there is an objective reality 'out there' which our subjective existence wholly depends on. In my observation, the subjective perspective is typical of artists, the objective one of academics. Sometimes to the degree that they have little appreciation of the opposing view. It can be problematic when the limitations of each perspective aren't understood. In actuality, both are needed and have value to them. It's just another yin/yang deal.

I think that 'boundedness' and 'liberty' are speaking to states that we can only move towards or away from, while, in actuality, we keep experiencing a mixture of both (one that we may or may not feel comfortable with). Agreed. And there are changes that are welcome and that we consciously initiate ourselves.

That's a non sequitur. The fact that consciousness is primarily experienced via the brain while you are a physically manifested being doesn't imply that this is all there is to it (you). And it has been shown that even during narcosis some kind of awareness remains.

Well said. Besides assuming yourself to be "already liberated", you might as well say you are already "enlightened", "empowered", etc. on some level. This will set a process in motion removing the internal obstacles and gradually manifesting these states in your life. Self-acceptance is key. In order to manifest the best you can be, you need to believe in yourself.

Here is another, more detailed article about the implications of this neutron star merger observation: https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.06168v2 Quoting the abstract: In other words, the observation actually lends evidence to the existence of dark matter! Bottom line: There are different theories regarding the nature of Dark Matter and the observed acceleration of cosmic expansion respectively, some being refuted in the light of new evidence (which is just the normal process of science), but few contemporary cosmologists (and none of the ones you quoted) question the reality of the Big Bang as such. BTW, I used to be a sceptic myself for several years, but I eventually decided that it is the explanation that makes most sense. Especially with the more recent modifications suggested by Roger Penrose (one of the original advocates of the Big Bang) and in terms of the metaphysical philosophies that emphasize the cyclic nature of all phenomena (such as Hinduism, Daoism and Hermetism). But I keep myself open to any arguments in favour of a yet more reasonable explanation of how the universe came into existence. Just I haven't seen any so far.

Well, we can expand our awareness, yet we must always start from and return to our individual self.

There is a strange notion in certain spiritual circles that it is possible to simply flush negative psychological patterns out of the system by an infusion of shen, light, or whatever you call it. Well, I beg to differ. To resolve mind issues, mind must be applied. Past hurts need to be faced and put into perspective eventually. Inner conflicts must be solved, and divergent aspects of self reconciled. All of which requires some sort of conscious effort. I agree that the presence of shen (to use the OP's terminology) will greatly facilitate the process. By the same token, any progress made resolving inner blockades will open up the channels more to its flow. Different methods of meditation may prove useful accumulating this subtle energy. It is also possible to use external agents that are naturally imbued with it. Minerals and plants carry many different variations thereof. They are often made into 'alchemical' preparations to further unfold those subtle properties. Those can be applied very specifically to the many kinds of inner issues, facilitating the process of working with and through them as they help you reconnect to your own shen, triggering needed insights and decisions. There are a number of different systems of so-called vibrational remedies. One that I am particularly familiar with (actually, that I have been educated in) has become known as Bach Flower Therapy. I have used those remedies many times in conjunction with psycho-spiritual counselling.

Yes, it's a good article. Alan Watts (whom I read alot in earlier days) was also ceaselessly highlighting the "we are already liberated" idea. It's an important (quite comforting) realization that this is true in regards to our innermost being. It might well be a mile stone. Probably most seekers have them at some stage. But does this alone turn them into fully enlightened and liberated individuals? I'm afraid, no. Not until the totality of the body-mind has been brought in tune with this already liberated innermost being. Conflicts must be faced and resolved in the light of wisdom. Traumas must be overcome. Layer upon layer need to be worked through. Which is generally a long (but worthwhile) journey.

Hah! Try to think of Dark Energy as negative energy; while the pull of gravity is a positive force that by itself would lead to a gradual deceleration and even potential reversal of cosmic expansion, Dark Energy acts in the way of anti-gravity, thus overcoming that pull and naturally causing constant acceleration. Yes, there are many attempts at alternative explanations by small teams of researchers. It is possible that one or the other will eventually be found to be superior to what current mainstream cosmology has to offer, however, what you have presented thus far can hardly be said to be the cutting edge of research (as suggested by one of your previous posts). I am not sure that we are really off topic. To get somewhere with bigger-than-life questions like the one posed by Dwai, many paths should be pursued. And what seems to be a wrong track can turn out to be a circuitous route taking us right back to where we started from - but enriched by the vistas we have come to experience on the way. And now that I'm thinking about it: Aren't Dark Energy and Light Energy a perfect expression of Yin and Yang? Nothing less than the the binary action of the Dao, in other words.

Okay, please give me your definition of "void" as opposed to "emptiness".

Hi Bindi What I am missing on your list of mind approaches is using insight to dissolve negative thought patterns. Chronic negative thought patterns are indeed at odds with your highest good, out of line with your highest potential self, 'wrong' insofar they are not (or no longer) adequate at the state of sophistication that you are naturally aspiring to in accordance with your ongoing spiritual evolution, although they may have served a purpose at one time. Yet in their wrongness, they hint at the very lessons to be learned in order to bring more of your true self into manifestation. Sitting with your emotions is a good place to start, and doing so in an introspective manner should lead you on to the thoughts and beliefs underlying them. For in general, your emotions will be following your thoughts, they are not independent forces willy-nilly messing with your mind, although they may very well appear to be until you dig up those subconscious mental patterns that are bringing them forth. So there is a progression from emotion to thought to intuitive insight (wisdom) here, and it is especially at latter stage that the transformative power of shen comes into play. Make no mistake, this is not an easy game; our habitual ways of thinking or mental patterns are expressing our beliefs, those programs that have been ingrained and built upon from our early childhood on. We tend to be blind in regards to those beliefs and simply take them as statements about reality. They filter our perception and therefore they seem to be constantly confirmed by our experiences. There are reasons for that. Even less than adequate beliefs will to some degree be 'write-protected', simply because our mind can't do without that kind of steadfastness in its interpretation of its experiences. So yes, it often takes effort to question our beliefs and transform them in the alchemical fire of wisdom, yet doing so is crucial to gradually overcoming the state of delusion that we dwell upon (as the spiritual masters constantly remind us) and entering a more enlightened way of thinking, feeling - and being.

The acceleration of the expansion is generally attributed to what is called Dark Energy in modern cosmology. There are some different (or maybe not so different, after all) ideas about what the nature of this Dark Energy is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy In my view, it has to do with the aether that permeates space according to all traditional metaphysical doctrines.

So much for the void... But what about it being different from emptiness in Buddhism? In what way does your quote address that question?

While there have always been some alternative theories around, the Big Bang is in fact still the most widely accepted model in modern cosmology. By far! It is somewhat of a generic theory that encompasses a number of variations, one of the latest being Roger Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC). Despite its intimidatingly technical name, this is actually a metaphysically fascinating model - especially from a Hindu perspective! I have already written several posts about it on TDB over the years, but I will briefly summarize it here again as it ties in rather nicely with Dwai's topic. In a nutshell, CCC states that the universe goes through countless incarnations, each starting with another singularity and Big Bang. From there, the universe keeps expanding for something like googol years, strongly reminiscent of the incredibly long time span given as the lifetime of the universe in Hindu cosmology. Eventually, all matter will have decayed and transformed into electromagnetic energy - light, essentially. (Yes, it all goes light, Jeff! - For third-party readers: That's an inside joke. ) Now something truly mind boggling happens: Time and space cease to exist! More precisely, they both stretch into infinity and contract to a single point. - Note that this is different from Big Crunch theory: The universe doesn't first expand and then reverse its expansion for another zillion of years here until it lumps together in another ball of matter. Rather, it reaches both kinds of infinity - the infinitely big and the infintely small - "simultaneously"! Even though the math is rigorous, this is a truly metaphysical concept, IMO: An infinite moment of Divine consciousness. And you guessed it, it is this newly formed spaceless and timeless singularity - emerging from the infinitely expanded, light-filled previous universe - that 'bangs' and gives birth to a whole new cosmos. What is passed on from the former one are some gravity waves that "inform" and structure the developing new world - call this karma, if you will! Well, when I heard Penrose present his CCC some six years ago on a physics congress, I seized one of the microphones that were offered to the audience in excitement and brought up the parallels to Hindu cosmology which immediately caught the eye. The reply was that such parallels to religion are outside the scope of science... But at least, they gave me permission to draw them! Are you talking about Everett's multiple-worlds theory? That is just one of a variety of possible interpretations of quantum mechanics, the others including the Copenhagen interpretation, the De Broglie-Bohm (pilot wave) interpretation and quantum decoherence theories. The idea that there a(n infinite?) number of universes has actually been around for uite awhile, not least, it plays a roll in M theory (which is basically an extension of string theory). While not proven or generally accepted, the idea that we live in a multiverse quite appeals to me. It necessitates an extension of our idea of Dao (or God) though. Which Buddhist text differentiates between emptiness and the Void? Any quotes you can share?

My view on this is essentially Platonic: Before the Universe popped into manifestation, there was already its "blueprint" laid out. (Though the term "before" may be a bit misleading, since time itself seems to have come into existence with the Big Bang - but you get the idea.) So all those laws of nature and constants required to make the thing work were already in place there on the spiritual/archetypical plane. And even this mathematical framework was not necessarily the deliberate act of a Creator God, but rather the natural unfoldment of what was inherent to the cosmic Zero (wuji) which is the source of all. I think the DDJ supports this perspective: "The form of great virtue is something that only the Tao can follow. The Tao as a "thing" is vague and obscure. How obscure! How vague! Yet in it there is form. How vague! How obscure! But in it there are things. How deep! How dark! In it there is an essence. The essence is so real--therein is belief. Since before time and space were, the Tao IS. It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see."- Translated by Rivenrock, Chapter 21

So I take it what you guys are talking about is prajna, indeed commonly translated as "wisdom", although it has a specialized significance, referring to intuitive insight into the nature of reality - more of a state of mind, actually. In this state, reality is indeed seen as essentially "non-dualistic", which, as an aside, literally translates into advaita in Sanskrit, a term central to Hindu philosophy.* Coming back to Buddhism, nirvana itself could be defined as non-dualistic perception of reality (as opposed to Samsara), at least the way the term is understood in Zen (the one type of Buddhism that I am most familiar with). Which brings to mind an interesting discussion some of us here had a while back which might be worth taking another look at in light of the current topic: However, I was using "wisdom" in its common meaning when I mentioned it above, as conceptual insight into particular topics. As such it is bound to thought and viable only in specific contexts. So all of us are right, after all. At once, this clarification of terminology by itself might shed some further light on the topic of this thread. *Quoting from the Wikipedia article on Advaita Vedanta: Stephen Phillips, a professor of philosophy and Asian studies, translates the Advaita containing verse excerpt in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, as follows: सलिले एकस् द्रष्टा अद्वैतस् भवति एष ब्रह्मलोकस् सम्राट् ति ह एनम् उवाच अनुशशास याज्ञवल्क्यस् एषा अस्य परमा गतिस् एषास्य परमा सम्पद्, An ocean, a single seer without duality becomes he whose world is Brahman, O King, Yajnavalkya instructed This is his supreme way. This is his supreme achievement.

Hope that this will cheer you up...

According to Boll's theory, the parallels indeed suggest some kind of historical relation.

The natural model for this may well have been the (generally) twelve conjunctions formed by the Sun and the Moon during the course of a year. This also lies at the origin of the twelve months. But this division is also linked to the esoterically foundational numbers 3 and 4, and combinatorics based on them, to be sure. This pertains to the unfoldment of mandala structures. Ancient archetypical systems in general correspond with that kind of 'sacred geometry'.

...and pound on your chest.

🙉

Right there with you. I am also thinking of the I-Ching here, whose phrases are applicable to all kinds of different situations for the same reason. I have actually heard of a method of divination based on the Dao-De-Ching as well. While I have no experience with that system per se, I used to sometimes open the DDC at a random page and was frequently amazed how it seemed to speak to and advise me on my current situation.

Hi gorillabreath Welcome to TDB! We may have some topics to talk about... I am practicing the Old Yang form and other aspects of Taiji occasionally, and I let this "inform" my Kenpo Karate, which is my primary martial art. In regards to the latter, I visited the LA area last year, meeting two of my instructors. A lot of martial arts and spiritual stuff going on there... I fell in love with SoCal and can't wait to go back one day soon. About Dave Asprey, I can't really say anything, as I have never heard about the dude before. However, he sounds like a modern eclecticist with a method of his own making to me, which may be why he doesn't mention his masters/lineage, which would be more in keeping with traditional thinking. That wouldn't automatically be a red flag for me. Creating a new method from a variety of influences can result in something useful, and being the 600th successor of an illuminated master who used to ride on a mastodon in time immemorial doesn't ensure that you actually have so much of value to share. What a "huckster's patter profile" is, I have no idea, but hey, I'm no native English speaker... As for the third reason why you think the dude is "definitely suspicious", charging 300 bucks a month... Well, it depends on what exactly he offers in return! How long are the videos and PDFs? That is, how much effort goes into making them? How often do you get the opportunity to talk to him on the phone, and how long is a session? Especially the latter sounds like a fairly personal and potentially worthwhile interaction to me. I can't help being surprised sometimes how much people are ready to pay for all kinds of services, from plumbers to dinners, however, when it comes to spiritual/therapeutic offers, they become strangely closefisted. And I don't mean this personally, it's just a general observation. Again, welcome to the forum!

A positive number multiplied by a positive number equals a positive number still...

The DDJ could be about writing poetry. It could be about running a business too. Or about martial arts. Or about cooking noodles...