Giles

Good luck with finding the answer to that question. Be sure to let me know if you succeed because I spent several years on it myself and, although it was a useful and interesting exercise and I met some fascinating people, I never succeeded in establishing a definitive answer.

Does it really matter? There are as many different versions of "Buddhism" nowadays as there are drops of water in the oceans because the Buddha decided that there should be no written recording made.

A "biggly secret" one... 🤣

Exactly. Whether or not the Abhidharma texts are an accurate representation of the Buddha's original teachings is highly debatable.

Just put him on ignore and move on unless of course: ❓️🤔

Not really. There's a distinct difference between Brahamic religions and Abrahamic religions and, sadly, I've just seen one of my current "teachers" tying themselves into knots by attempting to fit what seems to be an "unimputable" Self-realisation into an Abrahamic framework.

One of my current "teachers" was a kriyaban for about 15 years and his position on this aspect of walking the Path remains unchanged despite having moved on from teaching and practicing kriya yoga exclusively, which is one of several reasons that I really enjoy attending his satsangs.

QFT. ❤️

And, like Christianity, Buddhism aquires, rebrands and repackages other systems.

James MacRitchie's free Eight Extraordinary Meridians training program: https://www.globalqiproject.com/eight-extraordinary-meridians-training-program/ To the best of my knowledge and belief it's safe for beginners, as Jim's an extraordinarily decent and caring man who's been teaching this program for about three decades without any problems.

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The term psychotherapy can certainly applied very broadly and most people are even unable to distinguish between psychotherapy, psychology and psychiatry, let alone the different approaches that all get lumped together under the heading of psychotherapy. However, as that's also off-topic and as I'm hoping to get this thread back on track, I'm just acknowledging your post (which I missed at the time, possibly due to the somewhat frenetic off-topic energy), without rising to this particular bait.

...

And here he goes again with another ad hominem.

No idea. I've never conducted a survey myself, nor am I aware of any existing research addressing that question.

I don't recall asking you for any feedback whatsoever, my friend.

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iRest yoga nidra (+ polyvagal theory).

Indeed. And in many cases it's an unnecessary waste of time that could be put to better uses, such as going for a nice walk in the countryside.

Some of it certainly appears to have been public for many years. Some of it (perhaps even the majority of it) is, in fact, shrouded in institutionalised secrecy. A fact that's obvious from even a cursory examination of your own posts. This ad hominem speaks clearly not only to your own character but also to that of your teachers.

QFT. The fundamental problem with Mitchell isn't necessarily in the detail, the basic problem lies in the institutionalised secrecy, which means that nobody has any real idea about what they're getting into when they sign-up. There's even a possibility that Mitchell himself doesn't know where he's going to end up: Caveat emptor...

The thing about meditation is that if it's complicated, you're probably going down a dead-end track. If your practice is effective you'll discover that there's only one thing everywhere, that you're It and that the fabric of It is woven from pure Love. Another thing to consider is that nobody who is Self-realised will accept anything from you in exchange for helping you to find out who you really are. The Self-realised's material needs are met entirely by creation Itself. It really is that simple.

Upton's chief proponent on this thread has stated: Assuming that's true (and I've no reason to doubt his assertion), Upton is a cave dweller in her spare time. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "troglodyte" means "cave dweller". Hope that's cleared up this misunderstanding now?

That's certainly part of the tragedy of what I've seen.