stirling

Where did you come by the name of your Holy Guardian Angel? Have you tried summoning your Holy Guardian Angel?

...just a note to say that while there are 4 admins and we are fairly responsive, when it comes to the operational "guts" of the board, we don't have any agency for the most part. This is likely the purview of the owner, who has other life priorities at this point.

We are still investigating, but the current consensus is that it has never worked very well. This may be normal behavior. If we get any further I’ll post to this thread.

Follow that path to the end and see what is there. That's just silly. Why would anyone (including me) do that? I am merely suggesting that if you aren't finding what you are looking for here, broaden your scope. I am here because I did just that, and still keep a hand in on a variety of Buddhist boards, Magick boards, and others that suit my interests as they arise.

Welcome to the board. I am sorry to say that discussion of Mo Pai was banned here many years ago. Having said that, topics on other Daoist schools and practices are plentiful. I hope you find something useful here.

You keep asking the same questions on the same board that represents non-dual viewpoints. It isn't a surprise that the answers come back in the same vein. Why not see if there are other boards you could add to your rotation that might be more in line with your belief system? I'm actually with you on this one. Theories and beliefs are just noise. What you can actually EXPERIENCE is what matters. What if what you eventually experience doesn't jibe with your hard fought for beliefs about how it is supposed to be that you have cobbled together? If you really want something novel, may I suggest reading Michael Singer's "Untethered Soul". I actually have ALL of my new students read it for the reason that presents and excellent system for releasing karma. Everything you could need is actually in it.

They aren't different. The Ten Thousand things (Form) arise and pass from emptiness:

In Buddhism karma is a relative teaching. It is YOUR story about your "self" and the world. The world appears as it does because of the story we tell about it. Without that story the world is a very different place. That purity of the "buddha-field" is enlightened mind, clear and still. We can get glimpses of this with an introduction to the "nature of mind", or "emptiness" with a teacher, or even on our own when the mind is still in meditation.

Agreed. The "Absolute" is only a pointer to a no-self/no-time/no-space construct that is omnipresent and unchanging. It is worth looking at how things are when the mind is still. The moment thoughts prevail a cloak goes over the mind, and the "Absolute" is obscured. The longer you can rest your mind in the stillness of the "Absolute" the deeper your appreciation of it gets. Yes! Just like the concept of the "Absolute", what we map is our story about how things are, not the deeper reality. Yes, what is pointed to by the concept "Absolute" is real, but thinking about how it must be obscures its nature. Bailey is pointing to it here, and tells you the mechanism of its obscuration: ...just as Seng T'san does here: Not at all. It is because we have identified with our thoughts, imagining that they are "I", instead of the clean, clear, empty awareness that is always below them. It is actually a very simple misconception. Examine this for yourself. What meaning exists when the mind is still and silent? This is DIRECTLY where to look.

My experience is that the stories we tell about the world are ultimately unsatisfactory because we know deep down that they are flawed for a reason we can't quite put a finger on. This was true for me, anyway. That reason is the Absolute. The story can be anything you want it to be, full of drama, purpose, and destiny, as long as you can let go of it being any kind of real, cohesive cosmology. If you are happy, that is sufficient. ...sorry, I couldn't resist.

Using your link - Bailey talks about the absolute reality on the first page... which is where it belongs, IMHO. The absolute isn't some crazy OTHER place or time in the universe, is it always RIGHT here, right now. Where you are, what is happening is reality. Full realization is seeing this absolute reality in this moment, all of the time. This is what enlightenment is. Enlightenment is what you are: You are not a person having an experience of awareness, you are awareness having the experience of a person. Notice how she says, "three aspects are to be conceived". The moment conception happens one is in la la land simply making things up. Right above that she says that Absolute is beyond the range of human thought and expression. I find that very interesting. She should have stopped there, I think. If you want to create a phenomenal (illusory) universe, the natural place to begin is with an "I". Most of the time, when your mind creates an illusory phenomenal universe this is where it starts. I starts like this: "I am late to my appointment". In the moment that you and the late appointment are created, so are "self" and "other", calendars, months, all cycles, time, space, lateness, earliness, etc. etc., in short, ALL dualities. The cascade happens a different way every time, though always beginning with self/other. It is easy to experiment with this. Learn to meditate until you are able to sit for short period of time with the mind still. Allow a thought to arise and watch as the thinking mind kicks in... the illusory story of reality is restored. It sounds a little crazy, but you do it over and over again every day.

Adapting your chosen non-dual spiritual system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pralaya#Atyantikapralaya Liberation, in this sense, is from all arisings and passings, from all dualities, and from the "I" that experiences them. That INCLUDES all of the previous "pralayas" and "periodic universes and existences, or it wouldn't be liberation. This is enlightenment. There is ultimately no "source" as a separate thing, no development, no human, no journey, no processes. As the Buddha says: When, when you mind is still, or when you think about it or read a book? I am familiar with the author, having read some Crowley and Golden Dawn stuff years ago, but not this book. Sounds interesting, but, like you, I'm more convinced by what I see.

Existence, as a term, implies something that has a reality of its own, which would be beyond the parameters of the Absolute. How could there be preconditions where the field of awareness and all of phantom separate objects in it have always already been enlightened? If someone had managed to create a solid set of preconditions for passing from duality to non-duality, wouldn't it have happened thousands of years ago? There IS value in reading the accounts of those that have done it, but that doesn't mean it will happen that way for "you". Every spiritual teaching takes a limited set of parameters and suggests you attempt to manipulate them in a way conducive to awakening. There IS some seeming consensus on which are the most important, but it is much tangled in language and practices. Ultimately what is being pointed to - what is trying to be realized - doesn't belong to any language or practice, and can't be realized by acting on a limited set of parameters. Here is my attempt at a simplified, but still corrupted-by-language description: What is needed is really a simple shift of perspective, noticing that the assumption that we are a "self" operating in a sea of separate things is illusory, created by constantly reinforcing a false belief. If you stop reinforcing the false belief it eventually collapses, since it has no reality beyond one's belief in it. The steps you list COULD be factors for someone, or not at all (to the degree that you deeply believe in "cosmic intent", and "light-body/aura") they reinforce a belief in one's separateness. Stages of enlightenment? There is only one realization. That realization doesn't change, but how deep it is, and what that means does. Just my opinion.

Me too. Absolutely. There is nothing logical about enlightenment, it is always here, always now, with no-one to enlighten. 30 or 40 minutes of resting the mind in its own nature a day, with some pointing would probably be fine. That is what I would suggest. It IS the middle way, after all.

Boing boom tschak!

Ah... because you have used your clever thinking mind to come up with a conceptual answer, OR because you have the experience that is being pointed to? These are two different things, and only one of them is the "answer".

Waffle.

Mystics have experiential knowledge of enlightenment. The value of the mystic is that they SEE enlightenment in this moment without "self", time, or space and can tell you what that looks like, and what it means. Their experience is direct and experiential, existing without doubt, and their teaching is the same pointing precisely to what enlightenment is, not to what a tradition things you should "do". Monastics and traditions want to codify enlightenment into a to-do list, or map, without realizing that it is impossible. They pointlessly argue dharma amongst themselves, clinging to rites, practices and rituals, but can't really come to any conclusion. No two "people" have ever realized the nature of reality in the same way, doing only one practice, or "everyone" would. What Bodhidharma is teaching from his example is simply "seek stillness"... and "do it a lot". This really is the simplicity of the path offered by Zen, or Dzogchen, or by most true mystics. I wouldn't discount Bodhidharma's other written teachings, however... for example his version of the precepts: Do you see how conceptualization of separateness is a road to endarkenment? Look carefully. What is the difference between the relative and the absolute? Compare the standard precepts with these. Anyone who TRULY understands these precepts shine with the light of the absolute.

Things are always changing... it is a thing of great comfort if you see it with a depth of understanding. What appears to be of benefit today, or what we thought we wanted, can be a terrible curse tomorrow - we all have that experience. What doesn't change is the stillness, the unity, the "emptiness" that all change arises from. Learning to SEE that stillness, that wholeness, in any moment you are in and realize that IT is what you are, not the pageant of changing phenomena, is the spiritual path in most Eastern religions.

A friendly warning: This thread has been redirected once already... that is the soft option. Please keep it in the box, and don't make work for the Admins here. No politically charged rhetoric. Thank you.

Excelsior!

Thank you. 🙏 I love when that happens! Absolutely agreed. A further refinement - fear and expectation eventually never arise where action arises out of Prajna (Wisdom) - or "Right Action".

People are unkind out of fear. Those with no fear are never unkind. If someone is unkind to you, realizing that their actions are based in fear can be fuel for compassion. This doesn't mean that you have to take the punishment that someone metes out, but it might mean that you gain deeper insight into the nature of struggle/suffering by understanding their actions. You can still be kind when telling someone that what they are doing isn't going to be appropriate with you in the mix. Being firm with someone who is being abusive, done from compassion, IS a kindness.

I can get behind that, though I would't use the word dharma for it. I just call that reality. Reality is what there is - it is what is happening in this moment. We all have our story about reality and our "self', but that isn't reality. That story is our karma. Resistance to reality causes struggle/suffering. Acceptance of reality as it is and without mental resistance is equanimity, or "being in the Tao". That doesn't mean you can't have an intention for how things might be next, or act in this moment in movement toward that intention.

_/\_ Thanks for that, friend. I'll check it out.