Lucky7Strikes

Stillness is that which is without a center, for movement arises with the grasping of an element in relative to its background. But that is not your experience of stillness. Don't take metaphors too literally. I don't think you understood what I meant when I said stillness can be a cage. You toss around Clarity, Life, Stillness (which you have yet to define except a meditative state of observation, which is why I mentioned the use of druge. Do you see what I meant?) stuck to boundaries of meaning. Meet meaning with meaning, and meaning will cease. By the way, if the way I write annoys you, I am writing like this on purpose. .

This is only when one gives value to light and darkness. When both are let go, light arises and dissolves on its own accord as with darkness. It's the alchemy that ends alchemy, unless you want to keep playing with mixing things here and there.

Truth is not a story. It is reality. You can go smoke weed if you want to still the mind. Take a downer, or better yet, take some pills and go to sleep. The conceptual guides reality. Not the other way around. Insight frees you. But ultimately, the story is the reality. Don't cage youself in stillness, believing it is Clarity or whatever. Meet stillness with stillness, thought with thought, light with light. .

So when I asked what I am, You said Life. And when I ask what Life is, You say it is the result of me. And that again, I am Life.

Life? What is that? Here you are? Seek into where that "I" arises! That is the Middle Way. It is not I, it is not you. The deeper you question, the ground loses its center. Everything returns to uncertainty, the spontaneity = "?" Stilling the mind simply shifts consciousness. Like moving from one seat to another. Then back to where you started. From sleep to awakening, nothing changes. Clarity...tell me what this "I" is. Life? What is "Life"? Energy? And where is this from? The Tao? And will you call it the Mystery? Clarity? .

At a certain stage, pain is simultaneously liberated upon its rising. Bliss and pain arise together, and both are transcended.

And where are you? Show me who you are! Who are you? Everything is fleeting like a dream! And one realizes nothing has arisen in the first place. All a play of the void, a figment of imagination. There is no you, there is no I, there is no nothingness, nor there is no beingness, nor is there both. BAHAHAHHAHA!

@ Marble We've gone down this road before. . @ Athanor What if, there is no you? Why can't you find it?

Well, if there is no you. Who is there to exercise free will?

The question is more of identity than about free will. Who am I?

Daoist philosophy is filled with references to fulfilling one's destiny. It is a reoccuring concept in Chinese literature.

Go get a life!! If you can!!

Yup. It's better than playing poker.

You don't. Do you? Where are you?

There is no such thing as a "cause."

There is no Moon. Only Moon"ness".

Your concepts do influence how you observe and so what you observe. Concepts are to be met with concepts. Movement with movement.

Existence can be said to have come about only when there is a conscious cognition of it. Yet there are points when consciousness ends and there is nothing. And this nothing is only known through the latter arising of being which perceives that past "nothing." Being and non-being are always relative. When one is, then there is that which is not. Condition of being, as I see it, can be your current body for example. You see yourself within the body experiencing something outside the body. The beingness is the body. The non-being, that which you are not, is seen as outside the body. Of course these are all wrong discrimination, even the discrimination of being and non-being is ignorance. When I say balance of being and non-being, it is when the boundaries of both concepts disappear and one resides the the Middle Way, which is that there is no basis of assertion of either being or non-being. Most of what I write is based on my own inquiry, and I do use a lot of Buddhist ideals. So I may easily be wrong tomorrow, these are just insights I happen to agree with at the moment.

I'm speakin on anatta, you are speaking about grammar. oh well.

No. One is done with attachment to a doer. The other is a process of undoing, a selfless manifestation.

Yup. That ability does come when you've "cleaned your slate." But they do so fully aware that their choices will inevitably create further Karmic imprints. Hence it is a conscious sacrifice they make. Truly amazing.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, But the "real" condition, imo, is the duality of being and non-being by which existence arises. The false belief of "I" arises when a certain condition of being is seen as an inherent subject, such as the body, mind, and form, and the balance between being and non-being is lost. The grasping of a separate entity as one who performs actions spontaneously creates a counter effect, a reaction, from the non-being, the "other." This is where conflicts arise, a "me" vs. the "other" syndrome. Both being and non-being should be seen as empty and non-inherent (Ha! Those clever Buddhists!) and the Tao is immediately harmonized on its own accord, but the past Karmic seeds must play out, as balance must be restored. But this is not to say that conscious practice is counter effective. Most practices, of the mind and body, are there to precisely "undo" the graspings of the mind and body. The contemplation of dependent origination is to cut all attachments of the mind and energetic practices alike are there to disentangle the physical form to its purist state. There's a Zen saying that goes "meet light with light, and darkness with dakrness, and water with water." This is why it's crucial to not become attached to any of these practices or new states of being, then it is really counter effective as you are recreating new Karmic tendencies which can be more detrimental than before. So in my opinion, energetic practices should always go with non-dual insight practice.

Choices being made and making choices are two different things.

Yes, not even Spring Forest Qigong.