Fa Xin

What a beautiful post Beverly! Thank you for sharing. 😊

Hello, Beverly, and welcome. Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. We look forward to accompanying you on some of the way that you still have to go. Please take the time to read the post pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum Terms and Rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Fa Xin and the TDB team Welcome Beverly, Should be good to go on our end. I hope you can join us soon! A very warm welcome, and enjoy! 😊 You are welcome to jump right in to the ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forum to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started. May you enjoy your time here. Fa Xin

I just don’t sleep.

Like you said, the intuition/inner knowing/feeling. Its not that we shut the mind off completely, the mind is a tool - just not our only tool. Your beginning to recognize and use a new way of being. Instead of being in the mind most of the time.

Yes, but the very thing your asking about is of the heart, not the mind, in my view.

I wouldn’t bother trying to understand it (although it’s tempting to try). Any mental concept would most likely get in the way, rather than help. Just let it be.

Agreed. The first big energetic opening can shift your perspective big time. And while it’s a major turning point, I also feel it’s where the “real work” begins. Like up to that point, your just trying to “get there”. And once your “there”, then you realize it’s about being here. And “here” has its own stuff you were never aware of before. 😄 Always new stuff that’s unfolding - it is never done.

Funny, someone mentioned the 27 Club yesterday, then this thread pops up. Saturn returns are interesting phenomena. I hit quite the rough patch/hard reset when I was 28.

Hello, Joe, and welcome. Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. We look forward to accompanying you on some of the way that you still have to go. Please take the time to read the post pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum Terms and Rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Fa Xin and the TDB team Welcome Joe, You'll find many people on here are on similar paths to you. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the forum. You are welcome to jump right in to the ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forum to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started. May you enjoy your time here. Fa Xin

Hello, Tai Chi Man, and welcome. Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. We look forward to accompanying you on some of the way that you still have to go. Please take the time to read the post pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum Terms and Rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Fa Xin and the TDB team Welcome Tai Chi Man, Sounds like 4 topics that are discussed a lot here. You'll fit right in. Enjoy! You are welcome to jump right in to the ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forum to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started. May you enjoy your time here. Fa Xin

Hello, Miguel, and welcome. Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. We look forward to accompanying you on some of the way that you still have to go. Please take the time to read the post pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum Terms and Rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Fa Xin and the TDB team Welcome Miguel, I've struggled with similar things in my past too. This forum did help, whether it was the practices or the people I met, it did help. Good luck to you and enjoy the forum. You are welcome to jump right in to the ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forum to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started. May you enjoy your time here. Fa Xin

Hello, Dim, and welcome. Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. We look forward to accompanying you on some of the way that you still have to go. Please take the time to read the post pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum Terms and Rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Fa Xin and the TDB team Welcome Dim, Yes, you can access the threads by signing up, which you have done. It should be available to you now. Enjoy You are welcome to jump right in to the ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forum to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started. May you enjoy your time here. Fa Xin

Who is “they”? I didn’t think Ramana had ties to Taoism/Buddhism.

111. Jesus said, "The heavens and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever is living from the living one will not see death." Does not Jesus say, "Those who have found themselves, of them the world is not worthy"?

True. People can claim whatever they want...they would only be doing themselves a disservice. And im not knocking the ascetic life. It’s just not for me. I can only speak from my own perspective.

Hello, Thrope , and welcome. Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. We look forward to accompanying you on some of the way that you still have to go. Please take the time to read the post pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum Terms and Rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Fa Xin and the TDB team Welcome Thrope, Welcome to the Bums! I prefer hot showers but that’s just me. Lots of Qigong info here. Enjoy. You are welcome to jump right in to the ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forum to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started. May you enjoy your time here. Fa Xin

Well what a happy post.

i don’t like the MCO. I had my former kung fu teacher show it to me, and it never felt quite right.

Good question! Guess it depends if you interpret the verses more literally or symbolically. I feel like a literal interpretation is more in line with a hardline Christian view. More focused on the external stuff and not so much the inner movement of the spirit. The Gnostic/Mystical interpretations usually seem more inwardly focused. More about if those possessions are attachments for you, rather than living some ascetic life. I suppose one can sell all their stuff, give the money to the poor, yet still live in spiritual bondage.

Thought I'd share someone else's views for a change. from "The Gnostic Gospel of St. Thomas" by Tau Malachi, pg. 337 (verse 110) "Renunciation of the world means very little to one who has had no success in the world and desires to escape living life on account of his or her perceived poverty, failings, and inadequacy, but renunciation on the basis of such self-consciousness and insecurity has little or no meaning and cannot lead to anything noble or good. In fact, much of what motivates renunciation of the world could easily be called cowardice! However, the authentic spiritual aspirant seeking to become a servant of the Lord and spiritual warrior is anything but a coward. Rather, the soul that seeks the mystical path must be strong, courageous, and driven to success, whether in mundane or supramundane pursuits. "I renounce the presidency of the United States of America in order to seek God for the sake of heaven!" How can I renounce what I do not have and never have had a real chance to obtain? Indeed, I can renounce nothing that I do not have in my own experience. Just the same, I must have a life to surrender to God. It is as though the Master is saying, "Get a life so that you have something to offer up to God." Let us consider more closely the meaning of renunciation. It does not mean that we avoid, abandon, escape or deny anything. It is not a self-denial of any sort, at least not of the kind that considers the denial of the enjoyment of life somehow more holy. No. Renunciation simply means letting go and no longer viewing things as one's own personal possessions. It means no longer grasping at whatever is renounced as a means of feeding and sustaining egotism. It is about renouncing the false claim of ownership over people, places and things-- and even more, renouncing ownership of subtle objects such as thoughts and feelings and so forth. In this sense, whatever we have is to be renounced, and what must be renounced is different for each individual. Everyone has different things in life to let go of and offer up. Interesting enough, such renunciation leads to greater enjoyment of everything in one's experience of life and increased freedom to be oneself. We may also speak of renunciation in terms of letting go of our limited world view, cherished beliefs, preconceptions, preconditions, and expectations, all the things that obstruct us from seeing reality or God as it is. Hence, renunciation is a term for the emptying of oneself so that one might be Spirit-filled. These are the two ways we understand renunciation in the teachings."

110. Jesus said, "Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world."

May I ask, do you have worries and anxieties during waking hours too?

Maybe your thinking about it too much.

Yes exactly!

I've been thinking about this subject since last night ... none of it is easy to describe but I'll give it a shot as I see it. Pure, unattached awareness would be closest to unconditional love, in my view. Awareness of when you look at someone, even if they are a total jerk ... you see them as a soul, for what they really are deep down, the same as ourselves; even a part of us. Sure you can have discernment for their personality or how they conduct themselves in this world - but the awareness goes deep enough that you also see past that. Kind of like seeing the good in everyone. It's not a puppy dog/rainbow thing, it is just clarity...