dwai

Actually you haven't quite understood what Buddha taught...so you are trapped within your own "categorical framework". No language can describe the Non-Dual experience...so by creating so much jargon about something that cannot be possibly described, Buddhism can be confusing to the novice. This is not a very complex subject really...being Non-Dual. It is the non-selves who make such a mess of it, thinking they can evangelize, preach, teach Dharma. Dharma is simply being The Non-Dual Consciousness...and nothing else matters! You see, Buddhism started off as a Non-philosophy, in that The Buddha taught the practical path to be free of dukkha. Then after he passed away, his followers started intellectualizing what he had tried to show. It happens differently in different systems...in case of the Abrahamics, with dogmatic adherence to allegorical texts (scriptures) and in case of Buddhism via extreme attachment to not being attached, to not-being-ness. Those who know don't tell...those who tell don't know... In reality, Buddhism, Advaita, Taoism all are different fingers pointing towards the same moon. I see many others have started seeing that for a fact since our last interaction... Best, Dwai

Well said...but you must be aware that dogmatists are invariably shackled in the chains of their belief system...so for them, their world view (however narrow it might be) is absolute. In order to have a wider world-view, the world-view itself has to be eliminated. How? By remaining always aware of the fact that in the face of Absolute Truth (as a noumenal experience), no world-view has any absolute relevance. Each world-view has it's own place and things that work within it and things that don't...but they are of practical importance only (Samvritti or Vyavaharika Satya). The Absolute (Paramarthika) is that Noumenal experience that can only be realized but not spoken!

It is going to be hard to create "control groups" out of one person. The Scientific Method calls for objectivity and most of what passes of as "Scientific evidence" in such cases are only statistical probabilities that phenomenon being studied is a valid one (as in not tampered with). How about you telling us exactly how a "double blind study" can be performed on a subject such as Prahlad Jani and then see how it would be different from how the studies are being performed in India? I don't know about the Scientific community in China, but those in India are very very smart, given that more than 40% of scientists in the West are from India.

I agree. He has dedicated his life to the IMA, so why should we not pay to learn from him? Would those who complain about the fees rather stay on under his tutelage and do all the chores he asked you to do (in the traditional student-teacher model) instead? Like doing his laundry, his dishes, cook for him, clean his house, etc?

Hi Stig, Is Wu Wei about not giving a shit or about letting Tao do what it has to do and we just roll along, because Tao knows best? Good and Bad are relative terms and are necessarily dependent on each other (sheesh....these Buddha bums I tellya!) Someone had once asked me if there is such as thing as "Pure Evil" (or Pure Bad) and Pure Good. I said there is no such thing because qualities and quantities are defined by our categorical frameworks (social fabric, ethics, morals, etc). But I think there are some values (virtues if you may) which transcend these frameworks...and we know it intuitively...so we must choose these values/options/choices when they appear. That will lead to Wu Wei...being guided by deep intuitive knowledge....towards that wholeness you mention... Best, Dwai

always is always on... don't waste your breath...there is an old saying in hindi: "adhjal gaghari chalkat jaaye" (the half-empty vessel makes a lot of splashing sounds)...he will come around when he grows up.

In line with, and as a more grounding understanding of Madhyamika, I came across this quote from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: "Knowing I am nothing is absolute Wisdom and Knowing that I am everything is absolute Love, and my life moves between these two..." Obviously, Nisargadatta-ji was well aware of the two perspectives to interpreting the Advaita experience.

*bump* thought it's relevant to the Advaita Buddhism discussion currently underway

It isn't. That is the point of Lao Tzu saying "The Tao that can be named is not the real Tao". What he is trying to tell you is the same thing Buddha was trying to say by not talking about a "self" or "an absolute truth" or when Shankara says "Brahman is Silence". What each of these masters are trying to convey is -- that which is called Tao or Shunyata/Tathagata Garbha or Brahman cannot be intellectualized, rationalized, understood using the faculties of the six sense organs (or their proxies, meaning instrumentation) (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, touch or mind). To realize Tao (or Brahman or Shunyata), is to access it directly (prajna), by bypassing the phenomenal faculties. Everything that one does till the point when Non-duality is realized is irrelevant after the experience happens! To cross the river you have to take a raft, but once you reach the other side, you have to get off the raft. Taoism, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta are all simply rafts and in their true spirit, they want the seeker to abandon the raft after the other side is reached. So, a seeker has to always keep that in mind when acting according to the teachings, so that he/she can be non-attached, thus doing action without doing, being Wei Wu Wei or doing Nishkaama Karma (or action without the "fruits" of karma)

Isn't it funny that we came a full circle. Of course they lead to the same truth... ekam sat vipraha bahuda vadanti was told by the vedic rishis > 5000 years ago but you want to know something interesting? nah...I won't say...wait and see!

too much chaos is not good for stillness... Meditation is to bring about stillness...which is the opposite of what Heavy Metal is all about. Things/factors that affect me in my practice because of which I don't listen to much music are: 1) if music is aggressive, it increases heat in the body and thereby agitating the mind. 2) if there is a specific riff or piece of music that gets "into" my ear, then it keeps playing over and over, and distracts during meditation (for instance, the song titled "Home" in Dream Theater's Scenes from a Memory -- Metropolis II album) I like this better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxyaWdBphls&feature=related

Scientific studies in India happen per standards of Scientific Inquiry...not Western Standards. In fact, even in the West, Scientific studies happen per Scientific Method and not a "Western Standard".

But almost everything he says can be verified experientially...simply by following what he or other teachers of his lineage teach. Added the following: THE 7 LEVELS TO MASTERY OF TAI CHI This is a pretty good summary of what Temple Style Tai Chi entails...

Master Waysun Liao's Temple Style Tai Chi works on Golden Bell training. The explanation my teacher (master liao's student) gave me is this: With Golden Bell, the Qi is focused to a point and in a martial arts application, the point of contact gets neutralized and reversed by developing the ability to focus the Qi down to that point.

I haven't learnt this from anyone...only by reading and re-reading BKF's books and what SF Jane shared here... From what I have understood of this topic, both inner as well as outer dissolving can be used to fix physical problems. Outer dissolving dissipates the blockages out of the body while inner dissolving implodes the energy (of the blockage) into the inner space, and what results is emptiness (or Pure Objectless Consciousness). Also, Outer dissolving is predominantly used for physical and energetic issues while inner dissolving can be used for physical, energetic, psychic, emotional issues. Outer dissolving involves breathing into a blockage and then waiting for it to dissolve (Ice to Water) and then evaporate outward, through your aura (Water to Gas) Inner Dissolving involves focusing your intent/attention to the blockage and waiting for it to dissolve (Ice to Water), to evaporate and then this transforms into emptiness (by imploding into the inner space, as opposed to taking the way out). Given the nature of emotional, psychological and psychic blockages (mainly Thought-based), they are more likely candidates for inner dissolving. Also, dissolving can be done standing, sitting or laying down.

The question is "Why do I feel the way I do?" One reason I can think of is that your Egoic self is feeling threatened and will do everything possible to dissuade you from continuing on your "I am" meditation. BTW, have you tried the "I am Not" meditation? Instead of holding on "I am", as yourself continuously, "Who am I?" and the answers will come as "I am not this...I am not that"...

Just finished watching a loooong debate between Sam harris + Michael Shermer vs Deepak Chopra and another lady (no sexist innuendo pls, I have simply forgotten her name). Both Harris and Shermer came across as down and right rigid Sciencopaths (for lack of a better word) and their argumentation for the primacy of matter would not hold water in a proper philosophical debate with experts of Eastern Philosophy, especially those with an Advaita Vedanta or Madhyamika background. Chopra is somewhat Advaitin or Madhyamika, but is neither in totality. And he was too much of an aggressor/victim to be an effective debater.

It is a lot of guesswork on part of the Eurocentric Philologists and Indologists who had an agenda...that was complete and unequivocal subjugation of Indians. The insidious nature of subversion and opression (both physical and intellectual) by the Europeans on India and other such "colonies" is mind-boggling (and not very well understood by the modern Westerner). There is no or very little ambiguity when looking at the internal evidence of the texts and works of traditional scholars themselves (such as Aryabhatta, Sayanacharya, Badarayana, Bhaskaracharya, etc). The debate between myself and Always and Haji was typical of a struggle to claim "antiquity" for one's system/tradition. This is an (in)security thing and I have seen Buddhists often feel this way, for they are afraid of being "subsumed" by Hinduism. So, being "older" gives the religion a greater claim to survival, since the "Other" never really existed, or was a young upstart. Of course, one could turn it around and say that the converse could be true as well...the answer to that is, it could be, but is not.

Just because an Eliot Deutsch says it doesn't make it true. It be better to trust the internal records and traditional chronologies than Max Muller-influenced Eurocentric timelines (which invariably every western academic is guilty of) Also, just because you claim Eliot Deutsch has said so, doesn't necessarily make it true. I have seen enough selective cognition of convenience from you to suspect that you are not entirely honest when you debate.

Exactly! Scientific Method has not changed much in the years following Newton. If you have time, read this critique of Scientific Method i had written a few years back... The Battle Between Science and Yoga My understanding of this matter is that Jing is externalized/transformed Chi. And the 8 powers can be externally projected using Fa Jing. Jing is just a generic term, in actuality the Fa "Jing" can be Fa Lu, Fa Peng, etc. It seems like (from reading his books) BKF is very proficient in this. What that Master was trying to show a skeptical student is that there IS no parlor trick in using the powers and has nothing to do with things like biomechanical alignments or other such things... What I'm trying to suggest is that it is not worth our while to try and prove anything to a skeptic. They will never believe it. Most skeptics I know are too committed to their "skepticism" to allow anything to change their minds. Read the Swami Rama chapter I posted a link to from the Menninger Institute's Beyond Biofeedback book by Elmer and Alyce Greene.

I have been introspecting...and speculating...and I find a very striking phenomenon being repeated everywhere I turn. We, as humans have the penchant for polarity. We cannot find rest and peace in One pole. That is why we are in search for an "Other" who is the anti-thesis of what we identify with (or who we think we are). It is as if our identity is shaped not by us ourselves, but in contrast with/in opposition to something or someone else. Without the Other, the "Us" don't exist. Why can't we as practitioners of esoteric disciplines, rest in the knowledge and experience of our personal practice? Why do we have to disrespect and put down those who seem different from us? Why do we spend so much time and energy building up these gigantic structures and then building up these gigantic antitheses to the structures we build and then defending one and tearing apart the other? What is our Identity? Why can't we be at peace in the present moment, accepting it for what it is...the only thing that matters?

I am not sure if you guys had gone through this: Beyond Biofeedback Swami Rama