dwai

Taijiquan - moving meditation. Daoist cultivation practice. Martial art. It depends on how good the training is and as mentioned in the OP video, is a means to an end. The end is not martial prowess but is total harmony with Dao.

Per Kashmir shaivism yes. If you consider from Tamil shaiva siddhanta tradition, Shiva is always separate and supreme from the individual devotee.

Anatta is what Vedanta refers to as jiva. It is not the True Self. The practice is very simple. Ask yourself "who am I?" And then use your mind to trace back to the source from where both the question and the answer arise.

The Upanishads are also a part of the Vedas. Atman is present in every text associated with the Upanishads. Don't fall for the western influenced chronology that people ascribe to the Upanishads. The primary ones predate the Buddha by a good 1500 years!

She is saying the right things...seems to have the experience

interesting...of course I don't know the history of this particular teacher. But I've had one teacher who taught pretty *hardcore* tantric yoga and claimed that he was in direct communion with Siddha Bogarnath. That didn't diminish the power of what he was teaching...I'm just saying we should keep an open mind.

Strange...I came across the Shiva Sutras somewhere yesterday...perhaps in my dream...not sure. The thing with Sutras is that we don't need much commentary if the translation is good...and this is a good translation. Thanks for sharing...

You can't go to being objective in a field that is entirely subjective imho. You have to trust your intuition and ability to discern between desirable and undesirable without going through the rational process. After a point, the spiritual world is beyond rationality.

Having spent considerable amount of time with two very serious practitioners of Kriya Yoga recently (Babaji's tradition), both of whom I have known since for a good part of 30 years (younger one is only 28 and I have changed his diapers when he was a baby); and having spoken with their Guru (who lives in a little temple in the Himalayan foothills in Uttarakhand, India) I am pretty sure that Babaji's Kriya Yoga is a gentle and powerful practice. I'm sure those who have practiced genuine spiritual traditions for a reasonably long period of time can recognize the spark of Sattva (cultivated with sadhana) in others (there is a glow, a certain type of vibration that emanates from such people). In the presence of such people our own spiritual energies resonate and expand. That is the way to know for sure. Irrespective of what words come out of their mouths...

Well said. Though temperamentally they are not that dissimilar...crazy, fun and loving creatures

It's a golden retriever

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/the-illusion-of-reality/479559/ Excellent read. Only problem is in the hypothesis that many consciousnesses merge into one. It's quite the opposite IMHO.

and associated text/translation -- http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mand/Mandukya_Upanishad.pdf

Not squeezing but lightly contracting

Problem with this position is of perspective. Outside in (objective). But it really a case of inside out (subjective).

The entropy/chaos is increasing, not so much that "energy is pouring in from somewhere"

That is an appearance (many into one). It is really just not-many.

My friend showed me this documentary last evening - called "Order and Disorder". It tracks the evolution of modern physics from Thermodynamics to Quantum Physics and how the truth of the universe is contained within. It started with an observation "Energy moves from Hot to Cold". BBC Order And Disorder Episode 1 Energy At the crux of it though, if the universe originated from "nothing" into something and is furthermore heading towards becoming nothing again (dying), by applying the laws of thermodynamics, we can never say the universe has no choice but to be resurrected again. It is a cyclical process...creation and destruction. But that which is constant is the first impetus - what we consider "nothing". It stays the same (Energy can neither be created nor destroyed). It is the non-different from consciousness and is outside the framework of opposite polarity (hot and cold, etc). The opposite polarity is just an appearance that produces the illusion of movement. That One neither moves, nor stays still. Or in other words...Shiva and Shakti are non-different. Har Har Mahadev!

Beautifully articulated!!

Take a look at this video -- https://youtu.be/qFy4puJPJZA?t=313

All speakers that I've spoken with have some nervousness before public speaking. For me, thinking for a moment how the audience are just like me, helps avoid paranoid thoughts about what they might be thinking of me. If you know your subject, there should be no reason to feel tentative about it. If you are asked a question you don't know, just admit it...there's no shame in it.

One type of "intimidating" I've experienced is the inadvertent kind. The person is as gentle as they come, yet you push hands with them and their presence drains you of your confidence and they can literally toss you around like a ragdoll! After that kind of intimidating, other kinds seem benign. I remember once running into the CTO of my company (a decade ago), in the elevator. He was with some of his direct reports. Here I was, pretty low in the pecking order, saw him, felt a rush of weakness come over me (totally irrational). But I dug deep in that split second, and looked at him objectively - an old man with same anatomical limitations as any other person on the street. All intimidation just disappeared like a gust of air. I smiled at him, said "hey! How're you doing...some small talk and walked out of the elevator on my floor"... I could tell he was puzzled because I think he cultivated the airs of a menacing figure and thought thatit didn't have any effect on me...

You can use a combination of left and right hand counting by digits and finger tips to get to a hundred count. Then start again. Left hand thumb starts at the left ring finger second digit and descends to pinky last digit and upward - in a counter clockwise direction to a count of 10, ending in the last digit of the index finger. Right hand thumb starts on right ring finger second digit and descends down and to pinky lowest digit, moving in clockwise direction, for a count of ten, ending in last digit of the right index finger. Left count increments by one with each cycle of 10 count in the right hand. When the left hand has counted 10, a total of hundred count is done. This is how we are taught to count when we are given the upanayanam (sacred thread and initiation into the Gayatri mantra).

We can't think of Dao in dualistic terms. Dao is one though the 10,000 things rise from and fall back into it. It is beyond concepts of light and dark. But in my experience there is pure white light (which is lightless) that is visible to the inner eye. That light is not Dao though, it is spiritual energy (Shen). It then needs to be cultivated into emptiness.

once the Ego is either completely subdued, or better still, eliminated - the "will or resolve" you refer to won't be in play anymore (and realistically that resolve is a weak thing). It will just be happenings, as they are meant to happen. Actions will be without volition of an ego-self, as the ego-self itself won't exist anymore. Living in the moment, imho doesn't mean accepting death. It means there is no before or after. Just that every moment is that one moment. So in a way, birth or death won't have any relevance or meaning anymore.