Integrated

@Stosh Glad to see the "development" in this thread while I awaited my 10 post cooldown and went to work. Since you obviously have blown off steam and such, I assume that you have gotten whatever you had out of your system.

Mixing East and West is difficult, for obvious and not so obvious reasons. The culture clash is one of the more obvious ones, like different takes on respect, language and such. Less obvious is the clash of different level of psychological development in the collective unconscious of a culture. When two collective unconscious "minds" meet, the collective cultures will flourish, but the individuals caught in this interchange may very well be destroyed as a sacrifice to the exchange. Especially in the beginning, but it takes a very long time for it to be totally safe, especially the esoteric teachings. I got this idea from Jung btw, as he is one of the people's advice I've found useful for navigating this treacherous world. Here he comments on Kundalini Yoga: As we see Jung was of the opinion back then that just picking up and using foreign systems was a dangerous thing. Just like poison, granted, almost a century has passed since then, we have assimilated some of those things into our culture more, and hence they are not as poisonous as they where. But still I would heed his warning and think carefully about how to mix up the systems, you might pay dearly for it if you misstep. By adopting esoteric teachings we are more or less acting as a bridge between the two collective unconscious worlds. Any strain that bridge feels is transplanted through us. Hence if you don't take up a good position as part of that structure, you might just end up being crushed by the collective weight. Sure it is not as hard being part of that bridge now, especially when a lot of the bridge is complete, but still there are areas where, if you touch them, you quickly end up straining yourself beyond your capacity from the sher magnitude of being pulled in two directions at once, by two entities that can easily break you on their own, if they so wish. At least that is my interpretation aided by Jung, it is by no means the only one.

I'm unsure if I quite understand what you are trying to gleam from me with that question. Only dead men or people in hospital beds stay longer than their body can sustain them. As for names of people coming back, the threadstarter is a good example. If you had a deeper reason to ask please elaborate, maybe you see the void differently from me. Yeah sure, as Jung pointed out, if one is very low in unconsciousness, then a glimpse of something higher might be useful. But too much wisdom without real life experience to counter it, is something that can eat you alive.

Spoken like a true extrovert. So now that you have seized the power of definition and decided on a measuring bar that favours your way of heresy. And clearly won the pissing contest. Let us give you a gold-medal, parade you on a podium and move on.

When it comes to fighting it is never about the art itself, but always about the person. It would be like comparing poems from different languages, and if you found a horrible English poet, lay the blame on the english language itself and not the poet. And tribute maybe the German language itself if a German poet excelled. Yet when people turn to martial arts, such reasonable statements fades away. It has mostly to do with the group identity that people project onto their art. Just like when people are swept up in a patriotic fervour sometimes when their country goes to war, in the same way martial artists feel patriotism when "one of their own" goes into the ring. Gone are all logic and reason, all that is left is the honor of the ingroup. So it is mostly a psychological thing. As for MMA, (mixed martial arts), there is not the same indentification, as any style/system goes, as long as it is effective. Naturally such a person will have a great advantage against a purist, that have a bigger worry about the honor of the clan, than if his actual skills are enough to win the fight.

Taking a shortcut via drugs probably work, but you are forever dependent on them to get back there. Also as Jung pointed out, what do you do with it when you come back? His message was simply, "Beware of wisdom that is not earned!" This is expanded upon in this video:

Thanks for the welcome, I do get the feeling that this is the right forum for me. I would never inflict my heresy on anyone, unless they ask nicely first... Btw, how would I go about adding a signature? The function seems to elude me.

This thread brings to mind the passage about doing too much of anything leaves one damaged. Too much color leaves one blind. Too much sound leaves one deaf. Too much lying leaves ones inner compass disoriented. There is a price to pay for lying, just as there is a price to pay for eating candy. Hence if you feel the need to lie from time to time, then lie. Then watch as you gain moral weight, and accept that your own moral fitness is your own responsibility, and that you are the ultimate judge on how healthy you want your own morality to be. As you pointed out there are times when lying is basically good, because it is not the logical falsehood in the statement that is at stake, but your own moral compass that might forever be twisted in the wrong direction.

Thanks for the welcome guys. Yeah Fa Xin, from looking around, I can see that this site has potential for a person of my inclination. I havn't ever measured my heresy yet LOL! But I find that I often end up in as a fringe person with socially objectable views, even when I enter alternative circles. Yet there they pretend to accept me at least, because everyone is welcome, until one is not welcome... If I'm lucky I'm just ignored, often a secret inquisition is launched to drive my heresy out. Never admitted publicly of course, always driven into a corner where a convenient transgression is placed in my way. Sure some of this is projection, some of it even paranoia, but I hardly feel like I can be blamed for that given the general treatment I've gone trough on average. Not that this is a sob-story by any means, just trying to measure my hersy by some yardstick.