rideforever

Jesus said that when the bridegroom is with you you should celebrate, spend money, pour perfume, dance sing feast. And that the poor would always be with you. And that poverty is being poor in spirit. First be kind to yourself and your life. Don't shave your hair off.

These are all very good points of unintended consequences, and I personally feel that do-goodering is not very good, neither is the kind of masochistic "help without anyone knowing". These are both straying off the path. Life to live needs to pay a price you see. That's why nothing will ever be comfortable. Unless you are comfortable paying the price, you might feel worried about working hard but if you get in the groove suddenly you find yourself flying, you feel string, you feel like you contribute. So giving things to people .... does not help them get into a groove. Money just doesn't work. Although this world is so imperfect you have to consider each situation on its merits. Yesterday I was thinking about "feelings". And human feelings are imo a disaster, they are up and down and down and up. I just can't make them work. They are insane and painful, it just never stays in one place. So I was thinking that I prefer the idea of "alignment" with .... the source ? life ? energy ? That I can do, maybe. Just keep in that stream. But I can't live anymore trying to "feel good" or anything else like that, I feel it's very untrustworthy. Also on vegetarianism, vegetables also don't want to be eaten you know so .... this is an opportunity to think from a higher level. You cant say I am a vegetarian because I am nice, well the cabbages don't think so, they hate you. But what you can say is that .... for whatever I take, I pay it back. Then that can work, and you don't go in to debt. Then what you are saying is that I shall endeavour to use my gifts for good. The first thing God gave you was yourself. So make yourself a good one, that comes first, and that's the main job. So actually people who are happy with their lives are doing a good job. Those who are suffering badly and giving to charity, are perhaps misunderstanding something. Hopefully it is learning and we all get somewhere.

Human beings are very uninterested in spiritual realisation and they tend to join in (out of boredom or hidden malice) but change one thing about the practices so that they don't work. They would be shocked and terrified if it did work. And this changing on one thing after another continues until the tradition is completely destroyed ... and undifferentiable from the chaos of the world. Humans in general use their abilities to disorder anything that was ordered, to bring pain to anything that had given health, to bring what is unnatural to that which was natural. And in time everything that was good vanishes. Humans are masters of bringing grey to what was white and black, they are artists of corruption. Until another being arises who creates order in this world and it shines like a lighthouse for a few years before it attracts attention, and then the bricks of the lighthouse are once again pulled out one by one. Until there is nothing left, except glee. It is true that anyone who wants to find something will find it. Most do not find. Why do humans do this mess ? Because they are learning ? Because they are attracted to nourishment and by consuming it they destroy it ? Because they hate anything that reminds them of their pain ? Because they don't understand ?

He was probably very much loved at home. Then he was very sensitive and shocked by what he saw outside. Then he was very determined and spiritually inspired and worked long hours with the 2 ascetics and attained the 8th Jhana. Then he was very honest and said he still didn't feel free. Then he was pragmatic and tried to form a group with friends and had other experiences. Then he was trying once again to go through all his memories for anything that might help him when he recalled a state in childhood that was peaceful and began meditation using that state to examine it. Then he was very tired of his struggle and decided to make a last stand 35 days of meditation under a tree where he fought many adversaries (defilements), many which were cunning. Then he surrendered and something mystical occurred. Then everything changed.

Egoic people only ask question because they are bored, they sniff around but have no interest, and will never go anywhere. So what !

Sounds impressive doesn't it, very impressive, but what it actually means is that you cling in belief to something outside of you, and reject anything that might show you what you are. And you are very proud of doing so. The prognosis is not good.

In Jewish culture "child of a whore" might mean that you will be considered unclean. And possibly that you will no longer adhere to Jewish laws and mix with many, hugging the sick and so on. Jesus also says elsewhere that one need to love one's mother and father, meaning that being rooted in a good family connection and respecting one's parents is important for your integrity and capabilities that can be later turned to the path. However I believe that Jesus like many sages struggled to comprehend this world. Francis of Assisi did hug leppers and died from leprosy early in his life, so perhaps the Jewish laws of clenliness are important. Likewise Jesus comes from the Mosaic society so can it be rejected ? Like many sages he sees a future beyond all such earthly things and wishes to make a clean break, he is unable to really comprehend the relationship between the old world of men, and the world of the sage. So he preaches a clean break. However perhaps the tragedy is that .... there is actually a line from the old world to the new and the destruction of Mosaic society would destroy the entire project. Perhaps Jesus arising in Mosaic society is no mistake. At a certain point in your enlightenment you can convince yourself that the earth is no longer needed, but you would be in error to do so. Other sages I have seen, have also preached that humans should just wake up. And they preach like this, and it does not work. Such sages do not actually comprehend the mechanisms and means of the path. It is very difficult to become enlightened, but it is astoudingly difficult to understand how it happened if it does so. Most sages do not really understand what happened. Like Buddha who sat under a tree.

It is strange that you started this thread your heart is not in it. Perhaps what you are doing currently is the best thing for you right now.

Weren't they ? It is only this current generation that is destroying the soils that it feeds from. It is a kind of insanity. In previous times they were less dramatic as we are, but does that mean less intelligent ? One of which things ? What is it you are looking when you say the "foundation" things, and you say it cannot be thing in itself ? What does that mean ? If you cut up a cat into a million pieces, do you think you will know it better or are you just very insensitive to life ?

The greatest Western scientists Newton did more work on alchemy than on gravity. Perhaps it is uncomfortable to hear that; this fact has been buried for hundreds of years and only recently came to light. Do you know that Niels Bohr's first son was called Christian ? That Max Planck was Luteran, that Galileo was a devoted Catholic ? Do you know that Einstein Tesla and Turing all believed in a non-human centered intelligence and universal meaning ? Do you know what the word "Western" refers to ? What you seem to accept is not "Western" it is materialist. When the most important things in your life, identity consciousness love, are not materialistic, how intelligent is it to continue being materialist. Do you know that the constants used in "science" are not constant when measured experimentally, and that votes are taken in order to agree on values to be used in equations. Again it is uncomfortable. Do you know that for every scientific "theory" there are many other theories and that the "accepted" theory often changes ? Do you know that travel faster that light is not prohibited by an relativistic theories ? Do you know, or do you imagine you know ? Do you cling to something you imagine is solid ?

What is it you do - I am still trying to find a good mix of physical regimens ?

What is it that you do trust or consider objective ?

Ordinary / boring / common / uninspired

In the book Wuji and the Secret of Immortality the trigrams are laid out as a evolutionary sequence into creation, and then the author rearranges them as involutionarily sequence (back to the Source), then he relates the trigrams to the body and its functions, then he describes a practice with 5 steps to perform involution on oneself, framed within Wuji standing, in order to unite with the Source. I believe this practice to be accurate because I myself have been taught an almost identical practice by a Zen sage that I can attest to. So if you want to go from Trigrams to real practice I recommend that book.

Strange, I suppose this means that when you experience something, you reject it. That's quite strange. What is it you accept then ? The experts on TV ?

Come the spring I am slotting some real dancing in between my qigong in the park, I still live !

I also sit Zen style with eyes either open or half open, and sometimes eyes closed. Eyes open activates a more horizontal meditative absorption, eyes closed a vertical absorption (downwards). For some time I had the experience of images of people walking up to me and staring into my face. Meaning that as I was sitting in meditation I would have clear pictures of .... as if I was sitting in the market place and people walk up to me and crouch down and look into my face to see what or who i was. It perhaps is a memory of being a monk in previous times and having people sort of play around as I sit quietly. But I found it of no import. Also, I have found that if I am ill I don't have to get up out of bed to begin meditation practice, nor do I have to lie in a comfortable position, I can begin in any position in any level of discomfort and it is wise to do so because then you are immune to your surroundings or state of health. And so even If I really don't want to, I can just begin anyway.

I was watching an old WW2 movie the other day and war seems very interesting and full of life really. You get to walk around in big open spaces, bridges, fly in planes, it's all very important, people desperately need you to do this or that, you take your life in your hands. Contrast that to office job : morning, morning ... alright ... yeah not so bad ... weather's shit isn't it ... yeah. Only two weeks till Christmas ... Which one is closer to the soul ? Do we really get anything out of life, being so domesticated and passive ? Any other real alternatives out there ?

Yes I love such people also. I wish I had been as good as them, and perhaps one day shall be. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Regarding calmness : enter into the spirit of what I said there and we will not be far apart. Regarding Samurai : I have loved many aspects of the Japanese traditions but in the end perhaps they were cowards killing themselves to please the ceremonial crowd. There is a good film called Hari Kiri about this. Also turning oak trees into amputated playthings (bonzai) is not really very nice. And there is a bit too much sword fetish. Nevertheless the culture has developed quite a lot, which is worth something.

Koans involve a more flexible and sensitive spiritual intelligence, in traditions that try to solve them. Other traditions use them just to break the mind open which is a bit like Kundalini awakening, mindless. But the thing is who are you talking to in your 1 on 1 with the teacher ? Who is this teacher, is it Buddha or Bodhidharma ? No it's often just a bloke, can he even tell you if your answer is right or better or higher ? Maybe he only knows one answer and hits you on the head unless you say that one answer. There is a place for centres like that, but you are blessed if you find a teacher who is a better teacher-student-disciple.

I would be interested if anyone can actually explain what Radek Kolar is actually doing ? I have a Chen Zhenglei silk reeling DVD, which has very nice movements in it but he doesn't teach the fundamental principles, which is disappointing and in the Chen Xiaowang DVD pasted earlier neither although their movements are very nice. I think it is very good to have done Karate or something very direct like that, because its only that way that you will learn the meaning of power transmission through the body. If you don't really understand what power transmission is, why are you doing it ? And how can you self correct ? It feels sometimes that the less the students are taught, the more dependent they become, always been given an empty meal by the teacher to keep them coming back. There is much less mystery to Tai Chi then people might imagine. But it does take a long time for the body to retrain to a new movement dynamic, and to be sensitive to forces within them, and it just takes time and sensitivity. People's view of Tai Chi is either that there is an unknowable mystery (that saves them from making effort to understand the movement principles) or that there is a magic mysterious secret (that saves them from doing any long hard work). I noticed that Radek Kolar in his pushing hands with a junior student was using advanced techniques to defeat the junior student, and I have seen this kind of dishonesty in other martial clubs. Pushing hands, if you know a few tricks you can push people over, but it is not an honest approach, it is not an approach of learning or respect. Likewise the scene where the teacher holds the force of 10 students, whilst rooting within a horse stance or bow stance (the strongest stances). In fact pushing people over whilst standing in a strong stance and they are forcing against you .... is easy. Try pushing someone over when you are in no stance and they are not using force. That is much more difficult. These theatres are used again and again to attract students, but are meaningless. Another example of this is the koans in the Rinzai Zen tradition; koans require a sort of hidden code to decipher, a trick that you can learn. They are not honest tools of awakening, for the most part. And often bright students give better and higher answers, but are rejected ... only playing the koan game will elevate you in the Zen hierarchy mafia. It is better to sit quietly in Shinkantaza and avoid the many fools around.