Gunther

I know exactly what you mean. What I'm saying is, you are painting legs onto a snake, there is no need , it's just a mind game we are so fond of playing 😀

Just reading that again. It doesn't make sense for a simpleton like me. You don't plant another seed. You seen through that mind game. Finished with that enlightenment nonsense. You don't need it. The Buddha is dead. Long live the Buddha😀

Same difference methinks How do you get caught in a web? How do things turn into mechanical habits? If I'm sad for a reason I'll get soon over it. If I don't know why I'm sad, I'm just sad to be sad. You can't get rid of something that doesn't exist

It's become habitual, they don't have to remember why they are sad. Very sad

Like I said, all this are beautiful metaphors and myths, including reincarnation IMHO, until I find concrete evidence to the contrary. As actual facts they are oxymorons. If the individual mind and all inherent tendencies are dissolved in the universal conciousness, who or what can incarnate and have a will? Of course Padmasambava or Amithaba are just names for the Buddha mind, Brahman, Shiva,Tao, kingdom of heaven,, the absolute, the pure land itself. Naturally they are present everywhere at all times and incarnate every moment everywhere

Thanx, very interesting. But suppose you managed as in the quote above, you would find yourself(without yourself) in silent bliss, infinite luminous emptiness, and all those concepts you speak of are gone. So call it shiva or Brahman or whatever, if now if you want some Tao above or beyond that can only be an idea, concept, believe, movement within that infinity. If you know what I mean

The mind is not just empty but luminous, aware of itself. Only awareness seems to be the essence of all traditions, religions, doctrines. All the rest is secondary. Maybe a bit simplistic, minimalistic but so far I found no evidence to suggest otherwise

But what exactly is rational. Like if somebody insults you therefore you get angry. Cause and effect. That could be called rational thinking. Yet, you could also say because there was anger in you it caused you to be insulted. That is valid thinking. We know if there is no potential for anger there is simply no insult possible. It would give rise to compassion. (Which also has to be there in the first place).so there is no cause and effect Surely that's not irrational?

I would agree with you and the Buddha in that. Things aren't mysteriously buried in darkness but rather suppressed(which takes great effort) and or projected unto others. The analytical methods are mostly just listening and encouraging to let suppressed aspects of the personality rise up into the field of awareness. As they are seen they are known. Sure mostly they are immediately suppressed/projected again and people carry on as before, like you said, knowing but not acting remedially. Same way, people might gather around a Zen master like Bankei, he tells them right now your ordinary mind is the Buddha mind. They feel it there and then, but soon after they go home and beat their wife, so to speak. But I do like the concept of a collective unconscious (C.G. Jung)it's content would be intellectually unknowable and can only be grasped intuitively (like past lives??) It does explain a lot, I don't see a major contradiction with Buddhism or Vedanta

In my internal dictionary that means: To be afraid for absolutely no apparent reason. Debilitating for sure. The causes being deeply buried in the suppressed unconscious mind

Please take me out of this pain I've had enough of that strain Yet whatever I do Seems to be but in vain But at last now I see That I don't want to be free That I am loving that pain 'cause without pain there's no " me"

The opposite is actually true. The desire for liberation is the desperate clinging on to desire as a last resort. Without desire and suffering the notion of separate self/ego can't exist for long. It will fight to survive and the desire to have no desire is a clever strategy. In reality once you understand the futility of desire that's it, finished. Once you've suffered enough, well, never more than enough they say😀it's optional. Of course you can still ponder impermanence

Yeah, no desire doesn't mean stay in bed for the rest of your life😀😀

Yes, a funny one Like the desire to have no desire The fear of being afraid Goes over my head a bit, which is easy😀

Yep, the latter is called spirit(uality)

We all have moments of relaxation when we are content and happy as we are for no particular reason. If you then follow the mind unawares it soon takes you into all kind of daydreams, ideas, thoughts, plans, and before you know it your natural state is obscured. You feel bored or whatever, and now you feel you have to go out and buy a drink to regain that happiness. So one needs to be aware how the conditioned mind fabricates all kind of needs and desires and leads you down the garden path again😀😀

No desire means no desire. You mean the desire to have no desire Which would be the ultimate desire. The only way to deal with it IMHO is to accept it, be aware of it, and it will pass. Keeping in mind, one needs the conviction/realisation that you are already in the natural desireless happy state, and any form of desire is a distraction/fiction of the restless ambitious mind. In other words your natural state (happy, desireless) is obscured by the desire for objects outside of you. Those objects are desired to be desireless only, not as things in themselves(impermanent) Which is obviously self defeating. It is too simple to understand for most

Maybe a sniper?😀😀😀

Just to say hi. Was looking for some reference about the breathless state, stumbled about this forum, and read a brilliant account of it. (It's dated 2012) anyway, looks like a nice forum, so looking forward . Peace

Old hobo at the end of the line (20 years in India and Nepal). Been there, done it, seen it all, but as you can tell got no t-shirt to prove it.😀 Now pushing 62 I hope some Taoist here will provide me with a shot of magic potion (nectar of immortality) Anyway, that's enough of introduction methinks. Thanks for having me. Peace

walking on a wet drizzly morning the heavy fog of social conditioning covers the desert of logic and reason there, in the confused distance of fear lonely shadows jumping to conclusions.

Or the friendly smile Greeting the Buddha within Mind is the pure land

That would be racist😀I 'm just a bum living in a van