JackSquat

My opinion, in a word: every system has its own special benefits and pitfalls. Sorcery can leave you trapped in a cage, detachment can be cold comfort, philosophy and ritual can be empty, and direct experience can mislead. Be wary of anyone who claims that any particular system is the best for everyone period. Keep right on forum hopping, and keep asking questions ! "Can you feel it, now that it has come That it's time to live in the scattered sun?" ~Jim Morrison

For the past few weeks I have had a little more free time than usual, and I have been wondering: what guides the Tao Bums besides Taoism? I myself have special places in my heart reserved for Castaneda and Nietzsche. Music also plays a vital role in my life. Tell me, which reflections of the Sun speak to you the loudest?

I think my favorite part is that at the end as he lies flattened beneath the tree, everybody just calmly walks away, like "Eh, oh well, that was a little disappointing. Where do you guys want to eat dinner?".

The Tao of the impeccable warrior ! I think you and I may be very much alike . If you don't mind me asking, could you be a little more specific on how the Spirits of Nature inspire your practice? I'm very curious -- nature is an important part of my practice too. I've been there, believe me; but nihilism is just plain no fun. Finally I decided that it was equally pointless to be entirely without inspiration and motivation, so I resolved to invent my own philosophy/religion/system. That was the moment my spirituality took on a life of its own, and since then, life has been getting steadily more interesting as I collect useful tidbits from everything I encounter . It began as nothing more than an exercise, a gesture; now I doubt I could stop it if I tried . Perhaps I am taking you more seriously than you intended, but walk your path, follow your heart, and don't lose yourself -- just remember (and I cannot stress this enough): "He who is not a bird should not build his nest over abysses." ~Nietzsche

Wow, lots of Jiddhu Krishnamurti fans it seems. Perhaps you should try a different translation As opposed to, say, the Apocrypha ? Actually, I thought the jury was still out on the Gospel of Thomas specifically. Just out of curiosity, do you have any references for articles etc.? Don't get me wrong, I can't blame them too much for rejecting a document that flies in the face of their accepted beliefs. Then again, there are probably Christians out there reading it as we speak, and really enjoying it; after all, I used to be one of them...long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away . Edit: grammar

I last got sick a month ago (sinus infection) but before that it had been over a year and a half; my wife and kid both caught strep throat and ended up in the doctor's office with high grade fevers and on antibiotics, and I just had a slightly sore throat for a few days. Considering I live in a very small house with a young child and I work in the school system I feel pretty good about that record . It routinely happens that my wife and child will get sick, but no matter how much I share drinks (or otherwise swap saliva with the missus ) I never catch whatever they have. I'm no healer like some of you, or even anything near that, but my wife is a little high strung and is only very slowly coming around to spiritual practices of any kind. Makes me wonder...

The next big thing in martial arts pay-per-view! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W1ym3yggR4...feature=related

I understand -- it doesn't seem like a contradiction to me at all . Ah, the Gnostic Gospels...very cool! I read this one years ago and it really blew me away. If only more Christians would read it perhaps this world would be a better place. Mat Black, I am familiar with none of those, and xuesheng, I have not heard the name of Anthony de Mello in a long time. Good, I was hoping someone would give me something to research . I love it! Keep them coming, everyone!

Taken from Sleep Paralysis or Demonic Possession thread: Can anyone identify this entity as something described in Taoist or other mythology, or otherwise having a name? Has anyone else perhaps had experience with it? I realize it's a shot in the dark, it's just that it occurs to me there may not be a better time or place to try and find out and I could use a little sanity check here since I'm pretty convinced it was an external entity. I think you nailed it. I think it's just that many people on this forum like to know why they are to believe something, not just what to believe, so any system of belief that is unfamiliar and different is bound to pass through a lot of, shall we say, "scrutiny". Moreover, I expect the teeth of the comb will be finer where the ideas are perceived to be somehow compulsory, superfluous, superstitious, or exclusive of other viewpoints. I wouldn't take it too personally, Mak Tin Si, although it doesn't seem like you are; I don't think there are many people on this forum who can honestly say they don't get chewed out at least every once in awhile . It's natural that conversation get heated every now and then, since after all, some of these questions are literally about life and death. Peace all

Sounds right to me. Could have happened to anyone; two strikes launch more or less simultaneously, the one that gets there first wins. It was probably almost a coincidence that the exchange happened to work out really well for Petruzelli; of course, if Kimbo had any kicks in his arsenal or was used to watching for them, he might not have gotten his punch jammed up or even tried to throw one from so far out. It looked kinda like he thought Petruzelli was going to put his knee back down, like it was a feint. A phenomenon my jiu jitsu teacher used to call "head hunting" . Not something you can count on if your opponent has any training whatsoever, of course. If you look at his hands, though, he was not protecting himself (aka "turtling up") whatsoever. That's more or less an instant TKO in MMA; reason being, you can get stunned without actually being unconscious, and after a few seconds walk around looking to the audience like you're just fine, but for those first few seconds especially you might as well be a zombie punching bag. If that was the case, if they had kept going the only thing that would have happened differently is that Kimbo would be even bloodier. My guess is that the ref was holding on to him and talking to him at the end there because he was still dazed (plus they said something about Kimbo trying to shoot at the ref to take him down -- HE THOUGHT HE WAS STILL IN THE FIGHT!) The ref gave him a couple of seconds to start protecting his head, but he probably called it when he saw blood over the eye and no turtling up. Looked like a good regulation call to me, but I could be wrong. Very cool, I hadn't actually seen the fight yet! Poor little Kimbo ... the plus side is that he probably made more money in ten seconds than most of us make in a month.

I'm 90% sure regular Hershey's cocoa powder is not raw.

I'm pretty sure it's capoeira. That dude is redonkulous! The control is amazing. Pretty sure you're right about that first clip being from Never Back Down though.

I'm not convinced there's much difference, actually.

I have experienced both sleep paralysis and what I consider to be one experience of demon possession. The sleep paralysis was connected to a phenomenon called "false awakening"; basically, I would dream that I woke up, go about my business, realize that I was still dreaming (a few times because I happened to glance at the bed and notice my sleeping body there), and have to wake up all over again -- very disorienting. Sometimes I would end up in an in between state where I could feel my body but was completely immobilized, while my mind was more or less awake and my eyes were either open or dreaming the room (both have happened); this was described to me as sleep paralysis. I never felt a "presence", and I always snapped out of it eventually, a little startled, but no other problems; as you said, no sweating, no panic, no chills, and I didn't see anything unusual. This was all before I heard about astral travel, of course . My experience with demon possession was years later, and quite different. I was taking a shower right after waking up, and as I stood there I half dozed off...out of nowhere, I began to see flashes of an alligator crawling towards me, accompanied by threatening bursts of oboe music ( ). I examined the threatening aspect of the vision to see why it bothered me. Suddenly, this became images of a naked, adult male figure falling repeatedly backwards into a pond, in which I was floating halfway between the bottom and the surface. I was interested, but otherwise unaffected at this point; it occasionally happens that I have "visions" of some human figure (sometimes male, sometimes female, sometimes a child ) doing some odd thing or other, and I assumed that the figure was my Other (unconscious shadow, more or less) as it often was. This time its body was built like a Greek god, its hair was chin length and shaggy and dark, and its face was vacant. As I paid more attention to it, it turned to look at me. When our eyes met, it occurred to me that the "water" was associated with my consciousness, and that by falling into it and catching my attention it had gained the ability to remain there for the moment. As we looked each other in the eye, I could feel us beginning to meld together... At this point I knew something was amiss. It did not feel right. It felt foreign, malicious, empty, possessive...I don't know how to really describe it but it was not what I expected. I was still standing with my eyes open, and I could move if I made an effort, but I had the distinct feeling of something sharing my body, like I had to overcome the volition of the foreign entity in order to move. It did not have complete control, but I could feel it pushing. Suddenly a voice in my head reminded me that no matter what energy was intruding, that my consciousness should be the "flagship", that if this energy was here I should find what was useful to me and make it mine, dispelling the rest (this is close to something I had been thinking about lately) and try be done with it. Summoning all of my strength, I probed with my awareness, and found a bubbling, flowing, pushing energy that seemed to have the power to travel and change things in surges and flows, subtly and by degrees, into something completely different. I realized that's what the demon was trying to do to me. When I found the entity's power, it seemed to come under control. I immediately reasserted myself and shook off the bad energy, retaining the memory and just a tiny bit of the entity's power. I felt drained, a little cold (even in the hot shower), and fragile, and I was shaking a little, but I was myself again and I had a new confidence. The flashes of the alligator came back, crawling away from me in reverse this time, no music, and faded away. It never came back. Thinking back on it later, I became convinced I was visited by a water demon. Scary stuff! What are your thoughts?

For what it's worth: I can state pretty confidently that I would not be here today, either on this forum or even alive, if it were not for pot and LSD, and to a lesser extent mushrooms, mescaline, and many other "drugs". They gave me a reason to believe in something larger than my inherited view of reality. Really I should say they forced me . LSD is generally not "fun" for me -- it doesn't make me feel "good" more than about half of the time. I do it (about once a year) because it takes me to a place where there are no longer any excuses, and NO HIDING. It is...tremendous...like a depth charge in my subconscious and a thunderclap in my brain that last for God knows how long, taking me places I never imagined existed . It is intensity itself, and it is not for everyone. Many things vanish when the chemical is gone, but many remain, and some return in a flash (read flashback , which is just conditional memory IMHO) when the moment is right. Some things are understood immediately, some much later, and some things are simply not meant to be understood. ROFL By the way the guy on the right is eyeballing it, either he's about to smoke it or he already has the munchies

My local herbalist sells raw cocoa beans. They taste VERY different than processed cocoa powder, almost like really cheap chocolate liquor. For what it's worth, when they turn beans into powder they take out basically all of the fat (cocoa butter -- great for your skin, bad for your arteries ), but then alter it *somehow* to make it taste less bitter and look the right color. I have made 3 or 4 orders with this site for various things; they always get me my order quickly, and they even throw in extra sometimes! No kidding, I got four times as much as what I paid for one time, and twice as much of something else the next time. http://www.shamansgarden.com/p-19-chocolat...acao-chips.aspx Edit: forgot link

Goldisheavy, I believe that you and I are arguing mainly over semantics and phrasing. As I read your posts, I find myself thinking "I understand why he says this" even as I think of why I disagree on some small point. No worries there . Tao99, I agree, we are going in circles. Also, I apologize, I should not have been so derisive; as you said, you did not intend the implications I got from reading your posts. You and I have very different ways of reading things and (I realize now) very different definitions for certain terms, and so I misinterpreted your language. I guess it all started sounding very familiar and I thought I knew what I was looking at . No hard feelings?

It's not that I don't understand your metaphor, it's just that I don't see how negativity doesn't count as smoke and legs too. I read your words and I remain unconvinced that you wish to see mine. What is negativity if it is not part of the Tao? If "yin and yang" and "the thousand things" do not encompass "positive and negative", then I am very confused. After all, inclusion does not indicate exclusivity. You misunderstand my intentions. I did not claim that negativity was my path, nor did I recommend it to anyone else, I just wanted to know why you believe as you do as opposed to how wrong you thought everyone else was. I guess I'm wasting my breath, though, if you have withdrawn from the debate already. Ah well, it was worth a try. I hope that as you follow your Tao that discovering that negativity and positivity are two sides of the same coin was not as painful as it was for me. Just like so-called "orthodox Christians" where I live, you seem to spew confrontational and derisive energy in the same breath as you preach about virtue. Since you are done talking, can you reread all of your posts on this thread and honestly think them to be free of negativity even as you tried to convince people that only positive things are real? It seems to me you said a lot of things out loud that could just as well been left unsaid. But then again, you don't have to be perfect just yet, do you? Sorry everyone, I really thought something productive might come of all this. Carry on!

Hallucinogens were used by nearly all peoples since the dawn of man as medicine and/or to experience the divine. They exist in practically every ecosystem. Shamanism (a nearly universal human phenomenon) is inextricably linked to the use of mind-altering substances to heal, gain power, contact the spirit world, and so on. The conception of things like cannabis, peyote, mushrooms, Ayahuasca, LSA, Salvia, etc. (the list goes on and on) as "drugs" is new and only serves to obfuscate their true nature and create curiosity in mainly the wrong individuals, although I admit cannabis is borderline . Ah well, c'est la vie . Awesome picture, btw! Edit: reassessed position on cannabis's "drug" status

I hate to say this, but even if a true Immortal deigned to write us right now on this thread, I don't think there would be anything that could be said that would convey the true extent of what that word means, and anything thing else is more or less just hearsay. It is my impression, though, that due to dogmatic/perceptual differences there are different conceptions of how one should go about reaching that state, and that different processes produce different types of Immortals, to put it all quite mechanically. Some will tell you that their own dogmatic conception of "Immortal" is the only true one, but I tend to think that they are all paths up the same mountain. In a nutshell . edit: wording

My impression is that many religions have been twisted to favor the positive as a way to preserve society. Just my thoughts, I have no way to back that up. If something exists and yet the Tao is not there, where is that thing? "The Tao is not apart from virtue" does not say to me "the whole Tao is comprised only of virtue"; to me it just says "virtue is a part of the Tao". Difference of interpretation I guess, or maybe there's something lost in the translation. The Tao is achieving harmony through the blending of yin and yang, not the exclusion of either -- just because the word harmony makes us feel good doesn't mean it's entirely positive. Think of it this way; chaos also represents potential, just as harmony also signifies an end. To call harmony "positive" and therefore chaos "negative" is not a complete picture. Besides, yin and yang are defining features of the ten thousand things, which came from the three, which came from the two, which came from the one, which came from the Tao; I read this and yin and yang sound very much like negativity and positivity, and it sounds very much like both came from the Tao and thus are part of it. What say you? (Thanks for humoring me, by the way ) I think what Stigweard meant was that the process of realizing that the water in the bucket is all flowing together IS the process of unifying the self; unfortunately, it is easier said than done, and human beings are not born complete. If there were no work to be done we would not be here. The way an immortal can think of himself is a goal that must be achieved by working through karma and blockages accumulated through many lifetimes, not just by sitting still and quieting yourself, although that is an important part.

I have a small confession to make . What I really meant by that was I never saw a reply from Mak Tin Si. I was trying to goad him into an actual debate (as opposed to listening to him preach) in part just to see if he would do it and he promptly disappeared from the thread. How about you, Tao99, are you up for it? I don't especially care that you have absolute faith in your particular brand of Taoism, I would just like to argue the point like adults. If you make no effort to convince me, how do you ever expect to get your point across? "The Tao is not apart from virtue (Teh) and virtue is not apart from the Tao. Those who would practice the Tao, must first bring about virtue. Liu I-Ming, Awakening to the Tao" Just because the Tao is not apart from virtue and is virtue doesn't mean that negativity is apart from the Tao and the Tao is not negativity. Why are they mutually exclusive? The Tao is beyond these concerns entirely, is it not? Edit: unclear wording, added quote

I am having a hard time understanding something: If good and evil are equally part of the Tao, and there is the capacity for evil as well as good in every human, then why shouldn't there be those whose purpose is to realize the Tao through darkness? Does not the tree of life grow downward with the same purpose as it grows upward? Is is a wishful fantasy to think that everything is all clean and neat and good where "true knowledge" reins? I was under the impression that there was no true difference between good and evil, that in order to be enlightened we have to accept the blackness within ourselves as well as the light, so wouldn't that mean that there are beings of all shades of dark and light who, by their own path through the mires of time and form, have reached completeness? The extreme would be something like the opposite of a buddha of love, taking rather than giving, creating negative things rather than positive, etc.. Is it simply that this is not a path for humans to take, or am I misrepresenting something? It seems to me like there is an imbalance here. I don't mean to be confrontational, I'm just trying to figure a few things out and I didn't get an answer when I asked these questions in another thread a few days ago .

I noticed your video just after I posted my last entry. Honestly, I would have thought that preparation would work. I don't know what to tell you except drink more faster or maybe try the shredded root next time. Keep in mind a cup of kava wears off within about two hours so if you're going to try to up the dosage you have to drink sort of quick.