rideforever

Maybe some people would like to form an experimental group to try and work out what this golden flower is about. In my opinion, apart from merging with the breath, the technique specifically mentions the eyes and the practice should be something like this : 1) push out with the eye energy into the world (to sort of set you up) ... light flows out 2) tilt head back and reverse-the-flow-of-the light, gently sucking the light in so that it 3) gently direct the light into the area of the mid-eyebrown point and behind, try to fill it up like an internal region of energy that is alive until you have like a "cave" there of energy 4) merge with that region of energy until identity is felt there 5) - merging with the breath has to be co-ordinated with this show before or after or during. This practice corresponds to what is written in Chapter 1 with the following notes; a. the author speculates on the correct location drawing from a previous treatise (Book of the Yellow Castle) .... however I believe the location to be the mid-eyebrow point rather than between the eyes, is better. b. the author also describes collecting thoughts together .... by which I take to mean .... notice that your thoughts arise in your forehead and collect them together at the point - presumably after you turn the light around and pull in the "visual energy" into the area c. the author indicates that this region becomes a new spiritual body / identity, the real heaven, and brings to discipline all the undisciplined parts of you d. I suggest that if you are able to feel the light flow "reversing" and aim it to the eyebrow centre, then after some time you will feel a presence there like a region of energy, then try to merge with it (use a little imagination eh) until you wake up there, it's like your identity open up there, or if you prefer like a new eye opens there, but's it's an awakened identity. - not sure about the breathing business that comes later - author says this practice is sufficient to fix everything, but the breathing - tantien practice relates it to the rest of Taoist practice

The instructions in this book are quite dumb and miserable like most on this planet. Most of the book is just empty words, talking very generally and sort of poetically an mystically about breath heart soul higher soul eyes belly sages mountains. FFS what is wrong with people on this planet. Here is a good instructions : sit down. Then it will not be misunderstood. I can only imagine that if 100 people read this book they will all practice completely differently. What are the ACTUAL instructions ? Unclear instructions come from unclear people. "Lower the eyelids and establish a point of reference" .... means what ? Point of reference on my ass ? Why do I need to lower my eyelids ? "This methods makes use of two lights .... eyes .... ears ... . sun ... moon" ....FFS. "A dung bettle rolls a pill of dung, from which life emerges, by the pure effort of concentration of spirit" .... er .... I thought we were merging with the breath here, or was that the Sun and Moon and what happened to the eyes ? "A hundred and thirty-seven years old!"

Well go and find out, otherwise you are not interested. Saying "I don't know" or "I can't" is victim-mind. Saying "I am not interested" or "I won't" is truth. Isn't it ? If someone asks you the capital of Uzbekistan, ... it's just a petty game for children, like Trivial Pursuit. Then you can say "I don't know ha ha ha". But I am not talking about petty games. Say someone asks you the capital of Uzbekistan, you don't know then he tells you the answer. So what. You forget in 2 minutes, nobody cares. These kinds of expressions like "I don't know" are for idiot games. Or from not telling someone that you don't give a sh** the capital of Uzbekistan and I'm busy. Asking someone whether the "know" or "don't know" is just posturing argumentation, trying to appear important. Life is about learning and exploring, people either are working with you on that .... or you should dump them and their words.

Only small problem is that this doesn't work. Other small problem is your approach is like this .... "God is an idiot, he did everything wrong by putting us here, I will fix it by killing myself". Hmmm nice solution. Ordinary people often think spiritual people are idiots. They could be right. Society employs anyone with a brain and motivation, and the rest are busy making religions. Everything that is here is supposed to be here, more or less. You are not put in a body for no reason. You do not have a mind for no reason. Also all these speculations that the author is making are rather vain. Standing back from life you try to make some grand sounding pronouncement on life. But that's not the way. The problem with renunciation / asceiticism is that if you have a box full of garbage and you empty the box, all you have is an empty box. Big deal. In fact the garbage is like the grain of sand in the oyster, it's also meant to be there. Renunciation has a place in the sense that the amount of contact with life needs to be moderated, especially at the beginning.

Escape velocity is high, and it is a velocity meaning it is constant, it's not a short term thing, a yearning must grow inside you. Andy Dufrain plods tirelessly along with his small rock hammer, in secret, but at the end he make a great leap. I would say that a series of leaps may be attempted, on top of the tireless plodding along and the surrender. In meditation it's important to intersperse periods of non-doing with any activity. 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off, 5 minutes subtle will, 5 minutes surrender.

Our trouble comes from having a violin.

You can't know you don't know, Not "knowing" is ... a meaningless expression. Say I want to overhaul my car's engine. Do I know that I don't know how to do it ? Maybe I am just too chicken to try. How can I know if I don't try ? Maybe i have done an overhaul before so I think I know, but maybe I would find problems I have never dealt with before. It's certainly not uplifting to know you don't know. That is just BS. This chapter is written in a particular style where categories are used to divide regions knowledge etc... which is not dynamic enough to represent life as we actually live it. What would be better is : To have a negative attitude to life is a sickness And there are those who are lost in this sickness But, I have a positive attitude to living because I wish to be To live is to learn I develop competence, because competence is love My competence is never complete On any project there will be new things, and I embrace them positively Life is about meeting new things with the fullness of my spirit I wish to be

No worries mate, self-observation, watching the mind thought breath and so on, initially gives you distance and space to ... create a foundation for work. But the goal is to become yourself. So you can't sit there forever and watch things, it's just to create a stable foundation for work .... then the work of becoming yourself must begin, like FaXin is talking about. (Shit, Sterling just scored for City. !!!!) Without a stable foundation for work all you have is the mess of the subconscious mind. When you do work one must always try to have stability or you become mixed with the mess of the mind.

Sounds good apart from the last bit about creating a 2nd alternative self - that is not healthy, it's the kind of thing LSD people do. Some other good exercises are in the following article, the early exercises are good, as are the I wish I can I am exercises at the end. https://www.endlesssearch.co.uk/exercises_sensing.htm

Shakyamuni Buddha like many teachers once he attained liberation was extremely happy and initially he taught that he was emptiness, nothing was real, nothing was to be done and so on, and this is what the heart sutra says. But the Lotus sutra is from later in his life, there is addresses a vast group of monks, bodhisattvas, and other realised entities. There he says that realised being come through diligent long-term practice to their tradition, and that they work patiently and tirelessly. So I see the heart sutra as being from somebody who has not matured in his understanding, but with a beautiful spirit seeks to say something beautiful which the heart sutra is. I believe that most teachers including Jesus, Osho, Krishnamurit, and many others, they go through the same phase of jubilation after liberation, but later as they mature they understand things better, for instance they start to understand that people are not "all free" and cannot "just wake up" and that they are not god. If you are going to treat it like a devotional path then I suggest that when you chant it you throw yourself into the Sun, and try to do long hours of it and believe in it. The development of a sincere intelligence, like the intelligence of a child or farmer, is one of the most critical factors. And you must use this intelligence on the path. If you try the devotional approach give it 100% commitment, and then after some time ask if it works. Buddha says that realised beings come through many paths but whichever path full long-term commitment was given. Although I am not a Buddhist scholar and find the material quite difficult to read because 90% of it is bragging about the million billion eons kalappas bodhisattvas .... and it is quite tiresome to extract his actual understanding and instructions. My understanding is Soto Zen is the best path that is generally available. Spiritual knowledge has to be conveyed slowly carefully by excellent teachers sitting very close to you. It is not easy to write anything useful on a forum. But, as Buddha says in the Lotus Sutra, faith is critically important, faith that you are Real. D.O and such philosophies come from a deep distrust of life, and wishing to be told that suicide intellectual or otherwise is just fine. It is not fine. You are real and part of a miracle that we call life. Living on the coarse culture of Earth we are prey to terrible darkness and harshness, it is a difficult world. Nevertheless you are Real, and can become a Buddha. One must try to become, to become, to become. When feeling the inner states, it can be of exceptional relief, and one might think that one is empty or has died or is God .... and that is okay, just continue and fall deeper into the mystery. Practice diligently with faith, and precision. Do not stop. What I have seen is that in many traditions people have a vision of not existing, and of course this becomes an excuse to not practice to not check to not use intelligence, after all what for if you are dead. Non-existence is the wrong word. We find an existence at a deeper level that takes over our being. Our old self fades away like a bad memory, and we emerge into the Light. For the first time we have a real existence on the light-soul-spirit. And Buddha says in the Lotus Sutra that ... "young" seekers need to be pressured and pushed into their practices because they do not really comprehend their suffering and danger. Probably when people read that they think .... "oh I am beyond that". But are you ? Maybe you still need pressure and pushing, maybe you should seek that out, maybe your should willingly look for a situation of pressure because maybe you don't really understand the danger either. And finally, in every sutra, Buddha says "and here is the final new and improved teaching". 5 years later he says the same thing in a new sutra, and again and again. This reminds me of software development where you make many versions of software; you learn quickly not to use names like "NEW". Because in 5 months time you will have yet another new version. It is better to use Version 2, Version 3, and so on. The Lotus Sutra is meant I believe for seekers who have gone deep into the path but need a wider more universal vision to free themselves more.

Are you are student of Dzogchen ? And what is your state of consciousness, what have you gained from your approach ? Does your mind talk like the mind of a normal human being ? Do you have permanent stable identity beyond the mind ?

Save yourself 10 years of taichi and do this. As the pelvis opens it also opens the dantien/ solar plexus / liver / spleen / and tops of legs. What you waiting for ?

In the past I would have said that mankind had been clever enough to make material comforts and then had nothing else to do, and entered an era of corruption. But is this true ? The same pattern seemed to be in the Fall of the Roman Empire, however their material possessions were far below ours, at least outwardly. And perhaps in the collapse of even more ancient civilizations they believed they had all material possessions - even though by today's standards they were very little. So what is the real reason for decay ? Is it that people start believing that they have everything they could ever want (even if those things are different in every era) .... and this belief leads them to not having anything to do ? Is it that if the material growth is too fast, then it is like a branch of tree that had grown too big for the root system, and collapses? They sort of overshoot their foundation. Is it that mankind cannot take the next step in evolution into the spiritual world ? Perhaps if we strip away these different cultures, strip them off outward material appearances, what we would find is the rise and fall of honour-spirit-self-contact ? And it is the rise and fall of that, that is the determining factor ? Or is it that mankind, being asleep, is at the mercy of unconscious cosmic forces and to comprehend the state of a culture we might just chart the position of the planets ? I am not sure.

This man seems to do a reasonable job at summarising the first 7 chapters. Unfortunately the Lotus Sutra is filled mostly with boasts about the million billion eons or the trillion beings the greatest of great bodhisattvas etc... all this boasting tells its own story. One of the things Buddha talks about in the parable of the burning house is that beings do not understand what fire is nor what their perishing is. He also says all Buddha's are the same, and that they pull themselves out of the mud through diligent practice over many many years in whichever tradition they have chosen, but that the ultimate vision must flower to be one path, presumably after some realisation has been achieved. So as far as practice instructions go, this is all I have found in the sutra, as well as the importance of faith and hope, there is a parable where Buddha says that human do not dare hope of the glory that is possible for them, to the extent that they have to be initially met with a miserable face, because misery is all they trust. Later the greater and then greater glory can be revealed.

Not really frustration, but my experience is that just do it and then you will know, even if you just "try" with a hand mirror or the bathroom mirror, then you know yourself. Otherwise it's always other people's words. But yes it is very good, very straightforward, and very powerful. You look at yourself. Who is looking, who is behind ?

The Lotus Sutra is quite amazing. The Buddha gives a radical new presentation of the spiritual path. At one point 5,000 monks and Bodhisattvas leave in disgust.

I used to make software for Casinos. The product designers would analyse the behaviour of gamblers, their drives, thoughts, types, and so on. The particular way they were addicted, their neuro-synaptic-stimulus-response pathways. People who talk about the stock market sound identical, the same addictive destructive carnal mentality. The universe will respond to your approach to life. Perhaps if you personally know a company and invest in it, it might be different. No charts, no analysis, just a personal or gut feeling, trust and commitment. Then it might be different. Does anyone do that anymore ?

You have cultivated many cunning daggers.

The funniest seen in all the Zatoichi movies :

No, because when he was young he made no effort and was not in the correct state. It was only after his long arduous journey. Perhaps you remember that the 4th Sight that Buddha saw was when he returned to the palace and the dancing girls put on their performance, but late in the night he saw them lying in a big drunken heap. They too had let go of their effort. Where they Buddhas. No. In the Lotus Sutra Buddha says that the Tathagattas all practised their skilful means diligent patiently and over long duration, and only then entered the correct state. Chapter 2 is on Skilful Means. Your ideas are not intelligent. How can he make an entire chapter on Skilful Means if there is nothing to do and nothing to realise ? Why does he spend a whole chapter talking about children in burning houses if there is nothing to do ? Why is there buddha-sangha-dharma is there is nothing to do ? Of course there is something to do, but that something to do is not a coarse idiot work of deranged humans. One must try to use more intelligent intelligence. To sit in meditation is to use will and intention, but it is subtle and good hearted. For those who .... lack spirit, it is comfort to talk about emptiness ... but what is empty of what. Ever thought of that ? If Buddha Nature is innate, then what is the need for Bodhisattva. And if it is innate then why not just wake everyone up now ? Of course it is not innate. It must be brought into existence through practice, that is why there is buddha teaching practice. It is brought into existence from the inside ... in that sense it is innate. The ego-deluded interpret every word "innate-emptiness-clarity" as an excuse to do nothing. In the Lotus Sutra Buddha talks a lot about faith, meaning you have hope that you can make it, and that you faith in your basic innocence ... in that sense it is innate. But still it requires great special diligent long-term effort to bring out the innateness. When he sat under that tree, he meditated for 35 days, he warred with the Demons of Mara, and faced the existential test of whether he was truly worthy and touched the Earth. Does that sound like he released all effort ? Well sort of, and sort of not.

The stock market is totally rigged. It just becomes another whole to suck your life force out of you and leave you as a soulless zombie. And what will you buy with your millions anyway ? How many years you have left - you want to spend them playing these games ? Do you hate the universe that much ? Why not invest in doing something that you like or that might be useful somewhere for some thing. Work done for its own sake, work done to keep you honest. Would that not be a better use of a life. How much poison do you think you can swallow before your heart dies ?

Wow, she is hot and so are her words.

Yes .... I watched quite a lot of her today, but does it go wrong .... are there things she doesn't understand ? I believe there are. One of the most damaging things occurring in the world today is the systematic perversion / corruption / distortion / twisting of the minds of ordinary people through the media. Big companies use sophisticated psychological techniques to twist your mind until you love what destroys you, and you hate what will help you. It is appalling. Rand does not have an answer for this. Neither does she have an answer for corporations (non-human legal persons) who are abstract entities designed to destroy. What she has is an appeal to truth, which is wonderful and following it can yield many benefits. But other things are occurring in this world