old3bob

Lets not forget the Soul of the Earth, or the Goddess of the Earth. If not for Her the earth and all of its lifeforms would not be nurtured or exist here. (these are far different orders of Beings than humans and they choose to reveal or not reveal themselves)

I also hate to break it to you and the historic Buddha, but in India (and in many other times and places) most people who have passed are burned in a funeral pyre until only traces of bones are left without all those morbid ponderings mentioned being necessary or of some kind of merit?

yea that is a step, btw. the historic Buddha did not speak much about contemplating on his kidney function or other such processes. Such things are meant to take of themselves without us having to concentrate much on them, and if concentrating on them in the wrong way people could really screw things up!

but mind is a servant that is not meant to be the master..."God" brings about mind but is not limited or circumscribed by it, for all of the mind (and mind's) or the vastness of mind is a still a thing. thinking we are essentially our minds and all of its potential complications is forgetting that we are Spirit...

mind is taken as identity via "my mind" but...

"Pantheism is usually defined as the identification of God with creation in such a way that the two are indistinguishable. Panentheism means that God is present in all creation by virtue of his omnipresence and omnipotence, sustaining every creature in being without being identified with any creature."

4. "The origin of the Yin-Yang symbol Despite its presence in everyday life, it is fair to say that only a few people know about the origin of the Yin-Yang symbol. Very often, even the most devoted practitioners have to pass on the question about its origin. Contrary to what one would expect, literature dealing with the origin of the Yin-Yang symbol is rare. Contemporary books and articles typically deal in detail with the philosophical facets of Yin and Yang, but do not address the origin of the Yin-Yang symbol. It turns out that the original Yin-Yang symbol is more complex than its modern representation as two semicircles suggests (Browne, 2007; Graf, 1994). The Yin-Yang symbol has its origin in the I-Ching; one of the oldest and most fundamental books in Chinese philosophy. The I-Ching, which is typically translated as “The Book of Changes”, deals with natural phenomena and their seasonal cycles. From the constant changes and transformations in nature, the I-Ching tries to derive the unchanging rules governing our cosmos and our very existence. The observation of celestial phenomena is therefore of central importance to the I-Ching (Hardaker, 2001). It is here, where one finds the roots of the Yin-Yang symbol (Tian & Tian, 2004). For example, by observing the shadow of the sun and recording the positions of the Big Dipper at night throughout the year, the ancient Chinese determined the four points of the compass: The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The direction of the shortest shadow measured on a given day reveals south (www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/yinyang.htm). At night, the Pole Star indicates North. 4.1 Shadow model The Yin-Yang symbol is tightly connected with the annual cycle of the earth around the sun, and the four seasons resulting from it. To investigate this cycle, the ancient Chinese used a pole that they put up orthogonally to the ground, as shown in Figure 4. With this setup, the Fig. 4. Shadow model. ancient Chinese were able to record precisely the positions of the sun’s shadow and divide the year into different sections. They found the length of a year to be about 365.25 day"

all mental concepts disappear before God, does anyone really want to go there?

and recall that the historic Buddha was also put to an absolute like test along with other tests on the way. Btw. no one knows how many potential students and masters have fallen and been turned to Adharmic ways while practicing various methods yet before and related to not passing certain tests...almost no one talks about those possibilities.

oops, right Apech, OP poster but still mixing OP topics?...if that is what you want to do Summer?

well Summer I suggest starting your own string for your pov on this this off the OP topic... btw and on a different scale and in a different context would you get heart surgery by a person that didn't at least pass his medical tests/exams and training? (thus a real MD)

One idea is one being put to an absolute test of good and evil before knowing absolute truth that is beyond good and evil, for who can be absolutely trusted unless put to an absolute test and then passes it? But what about most of humanity that doesn't often measure up well to an absolute type of test? Anyway besides there being a very great amount to consider in eastern religions in Christianity Jesus is the good Shepard while most of the rest of us are his "sheep" who are dealing with wolves but hopefully evolving sheep who will also become lions for and empowered by the Holy Spirit...I know that doesn't cover everything by a long shot but is a shot at it.

Wild Bison meat is said to be free of many of the contaminates/pathogens that can be found in much of the store bought Beef. (which comes from who knows where?!) But even bison meat sold in stores is not always of the best of quality which I can attest to, besides it high price. Also some other wild game like deer and elk sometimes get serious diseases which can kill them, (wasting disease for one) so a person is at great health risk if they are not sure about such things and eat wild game.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Om Namah Shivaya (Devanagari: ॐ नमः शिवाय; IAST: Oṃ Namaḥ Śivāya) is one of the most popular Hindu mantras and the most important mantra in Shaivism. Namah Shivaya means "O salutations to the auspicious one!", or "adoration to Lord Shiva". It is called Siva Panchakshara, or Shiva Panchakshara or simply Panchakshara meaning the "five-syllable" mantra (viz., excluding the Om) and is dedicated to Shiva. This Mantra appears as 'Na' 'Ma' 'Śi' 'Vā' and 'Ya' in the Shri Rudram Chamakam which is a part of the Krishna Yajurveda[1] and also in the Rudrashtadhyayi which is a part of the Shukla Yajurveda.

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(reposted) "This beautiful passage is from the beginning of the eighth chapter of Chandogya Upanishad. The meaning is quite clear. 8.1.1 This body is the city of Brahman. Within it is an abode in the shape of a lotus [i.e., the heart], and within that there is a small space. One must search within this space and earnestly desire to know what is there. 8.1.2 If the disciples ask, ‘This body is the city of Brahman; within it is an abode in the shape of a lotus [i.e., the heart], and within that there is a small space; what is it that one must search for within this space, and what should one earnestly desire to know?’—the teacher should reply: 8.1.3 [The teacher replies:] ‘The space in the heart is as big as the space outside. Heaven and earth are both within it, so also fire and air, the sun and the moon, lightning and the stars. Everything exists within that space in the embodied self—whatever it has or does not have’. 8.1.4 If the disciples ask the teacher, ‘If in this body [brahmapura] are all this, all things, and all desires, is there anything left behind when the body gets old or perishes?’— 8.1.5 —in reply the teacher will say: ‘The body may decay due to old age, but the space within [i.e., brahmapura] never decays. Nor does it perish with the death of the body. This is the real abode of Brahman. All our desires are concentrated in it. It is the Self—free from all sins as well as from old age, death, bereavement, hunger, and thirst. It is the cause of love of Truth and the cause of dedication to Truth. If a person strictly follows whatever the ruler of the country commands, he may then get as a reward some land, or even an estate’. 8.1.6 Everything perishes, whether it is something you have acquired through hard work in this world or it is a place in the other world which you have acquired through meritorious deeds. Those who leave this world without knowing the Self and the Truths which they should know are not free, no matter where they go. But those who leave this world after knowing the Self and the Truths which they should know are free, no matter where they are."

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Stirling, we are in the wrong string to continue with this unrelated subject, getting off subject for a couple of posts is not uncommon at the site but should not be continued by us unless the string is easy going and wide open to being morphed about going by its participants. Anyway I'll respond one more time to your Buddhist saying with another paraphrased Zen saying, "Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters." which I interpret to mean, the illusion is that there is illusion.

the ego is temporary thus not just an illusion because of that, in a different elemental context the same goes for all of creation, its maintenance, its destruction, which then starts all over again just as the 4 cycles of nature repeat. So we will never reconcile Buddhism's teachings of delusion and Hinduism and the Self, much less the orthodox Abrahamic religions. "Unity in diversity" sounds great but as long as the various scriptures of the major religions deny it then those that follow such scripture will never realize it.

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I'd say that as long as a very high percentage of beings still have bodies then they also still have some amount of ego used to interact with others in various realms, and if they still have some amount of ego then they still have some amount of gender framework that they grew up with, granted it may be very little but I don't see how it can be dismissed out of hand just because they are "enlightened" via most of their karma being balanced out and most of their ego being greatly diminished?