dwai

That doesn’t really answer the question. HOW do you know? You’re saying, you know because you know. 😁 I’m not defending anything. I just find your dismissive attitude perplexing. Unless of course you’re here to troll. Okay, take it up with the creator of the video.

😁 how do you know that? Have you seen all Kalaripayattu fighters go up against all karateka? Have you seen one? Have you seen enough to statistically surmise this? TBH I don’t particularly care for what you have to say on this subject, but I’m in a playful mood right now Meanwhile, I’m enjoying watching this video. Boys and girls, Seth is a good karateka. Be like Seth.

Why does the subject have to be dependent on the manifestation? Subject is independent, can and does exist perfectly well without manifestation. As far as the terminology used is concerned, wrt. subject-object relationship, it can be misidentified as "dependently originated"...but that is not really the case from an empirical perspective. To use a limited analogy -- does the movie screen depend on the movie playing on it? Why can it not? Neither space, nor time actually exist -- they appear (manifest) and disappear (unmanifest) within Awareness itself. Atman is certainly not the "not-self", it is the Self What is it's essence? It is Being itself.

Nice. So have I -- https://www.medhajournal.com/most-people-misunderstand-what-atman-means/

what technique will you use if someone comes at you with a knife? Those idiots are no taiji masters. These are just huge publicity gimmicks. Talking about mentality, let me paint this picture for you. Recently, there were border clashes between the Chinese army and Indian army in the Himalayas (last summer). Because they were asked to keep the action below firearm-level, the Chinese army sent soldiers with spiked clubs, etc (real primitive stuff). They thought they were superior, more in number, from a richer, more powerful (on paper) military, better facilities, etc. They probably thought it was going to be a “walk in the park”. Sadly, 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the fracas, and some accounts say about 100+ Chinese soldiers were killed. An Indian special forces unit joined the fray, and unleashed such a brutal counterattack to the Chinese provocation that just one soldier took 15-16 Chinese soldiers with him, necks snapped, etc. The Chinese soldiers didn’t know what hit them. Do you know why? Because they’d never seen real combat before, whereas the Indian soldiers have been fighting terrorists non-stop since the 1980s, has unfortunately had to fight at least 3 full fledged wars with Pakistan, Maoist insurgents, mujahideens etc. Thats why Israeli armed forces, US armed forces too are lethal — they have field experience. It’s a sad fact, but nothing hardens a warrior more than war. Right after that incident, someone leaked a video of a bus full of Chinese soldiers wailing and sobbing on their way to deployment on the western front. Ha! I’d like to see someone try. I mean a real fight, no rules — a soldier will rip the boxer apart. *yawn!* Watch this for some real wisdom on fighting --

when I was in college, there were no McDojos in India( almost 30 years back). We trained hard, 3-4 hrs (every training session) of hard conditioning, cardio, full contact sparring without any protective gear (not even groin cups). I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve got kicked on the face, punched etc during sparring. I’d walk 4 km to the stadium where we trained. And walk back. Reach there at 3, back home around 7:30 pm. 3-4 times a week. No, he was a legit karateka, but like most people from a cultured background, he didn’t know what it was to really fight brutes and thugs. It takes a different mentality - one my other friends was a bouncer — he could brawl in his sleep. Another guy had some gang affiliation but he wasn’t that close. He lived in violence — but a super nice guy. Sure, if they train that way. My Sifu has sent many a comer to the hospital in the 70s using taijiquan. He was a fighter back then. I know kalari guys who are super tough too. However, in a civilized society, violence should not be a choice. One can practice martial arts for the artistic joy, self-discovery and expression. It builds character, fortitude and discipline. The MA prepares us for reach challenges in real life, not just fighting in cages or in the streets. That is more important to me than fighting efficacy.

If I had a dollar for every time an ‘expert’ comments on which martial art is “effective” and which is not....🙄 My sifu says, if you want to fight, practice fighting, not martial arts Martial Arts is for something else, though you can use it to fight, if you practice fighting with it. Funny story — when I was in college, there was a big fight between two political factions. One friend, a 6’2” 200 lb karate black belt (3rd Dan I believe) decided to take some street fighters (from the opposing faction) on. He kicked a few guys, they fell a few feet away, promptly got up and came at him again. Soon, 6-7 guys jumped on him — all he could do is protect his vitals and get the crap beat out of him. Another friend, was an unassuming guy, learned to fight from Thai laborers since when he was kid in the Andaman Islands. He got into a fight with some thugs from a local slum, beat the living daylights out of them. They ran for reinforcements. He kicked their asses too. He was half the karate guy’s size. He told me, he could do that because he grew up fighting - he was a fighter.

Ramana Maharshi would often say, "Summa iru" (or Be Quiet, or Just Be). This is a meditation to be tried out. I think the Daoist version of this is called zuowang. Just sitting in silence, resting in one's own nature --- not doing anything. Thoughts?

As must no-self threads

No, what is it?

I think this is a very important point. But there is also the case of missing the proverbial moon for the finger pointing It is only an issue when it needs to be articulated, imho. That's why the sages say, its best to not talk about it. But we can't *not talk* P.S. You know what's weird -- I don't have any memory of having typed all those exhausting lines of thought, though I remember doing something at that time (maybe it is some form of dementia...though I prefer to think of it as a side-effect of letting go and simplifying my life)

Ah! That old ox, beaten, but still not quite done I'd be happy to contend that The Self is not a thing and leave it at that. What's important is -- does your (and it's not directed toward anyone in particular) practice alleviate your suffering?

I think experiences vary culturally too. I ought not to generalize, but for the pre-urban asian societies, the physical part seemed to be more a means for procreation, than bonding per se. I could be wrong about it though...I'm basing it on what I've seen/experienced of course.

Maybe a problem of definition on my part. I always considered lust to be the out-of-control aspect of that desire for connection and creation. The creation aspect is a biological/evolutionary imperative. When only driven by that, the frequency of "desire" will progressively wane as people age (from every day in one's prime to once every other week or month even as they age). The connection aspect usually starts with the physical act and then blossoms into a deeper friendship and companionship in a healthy relationship. I've seen this desire to possess also very much active in women as well. Only that sometimes it manifests as something else (and sometimes not).

Lust is a direct result of the ego and its need to possess whatever it desires. I see that as the primary motive force behind lust -- though the trigger indeed is sexual desire. Similarly, all the possessive urges of the human-animal are based on the ego.

Well said! I like to give this analogy — if you find people who are lost and dying of thirst in a desert, and you have water with you, will you check to see if they are “qualified” to give them water?

This might give a map of the alaya model and the Vedantic model — https://www.medhajournal.com/consciousness-according-to-zen-buddhism-and-how-it-relates-to-advaita-vedanta/

I like the alaya model better than skandhas too. This is imho/imhu (caveat emptor)... There are four levels of knowledge/“speech” (vać) — parā, pashyanti, madhyama and vaikhari (higher to lower). At the highest level, parā is Self - knowledge itself, unarticulated, inexpressible in a dualistic mode. At the causal layer, it becomes pashyanti - unarticulated but appears as motifs, archetypes, deities and their powers. At the astral layer, they are ideas and intention, still unarticulated. At the physical layer, they are vocalized speech, etc. Mantras are meant to take us from vaikhari to parā, from the dual to non-dual. Mantras gain their power and efficacy depending on how they are practiced.

Just takes someone to explain things right

Ah, I see. Okay, thanks for explaining the process. The way I approach this is, the recognition of samskaras/vasanas (in the Vedantic parlance, these exist in seed form in the causal body/layer) -- and letting them rise and dissipate (without attaching) during meditation will make them lose their impetus. It takes time, and they rise over and over again, with progressively lower intensity. If Karmic effects were to be likened to money, then these exist in 3 forms. One is the money in our wallet, the other is the money in the bank, and the third is the money we will earn. The "money in the wallet" type is our active karmic effects, associated with this birth - activated with this body-mind. The "money in the bank" is that which is in reserve, and will activate in subsequent births, and the "money we earn" is on the basis of actions we take in this lifetime. Meditation will only deal with the "money in the wallet" kind of karma. In order to be 'free', we have to eliminate the 'money in the bank' kind of karma, and stop karma altogether. The fastest/surest way, is to realize our True Nature (we Hindus call it our True Self, Buddhists call it Buddha Nature, etc). For that, we have to undertake Self-inquiry type of practice. We have realize our True Nature and become karmically bankrupt.

What is the association of karma with meditation and mantras? In case these questions seem annoying, I don't mean it to be so. It's a genuine question, if you'd like to humor me

How do you work on karma?

That could be due to karmic influences -- latent patterns (samskaras/vasanas) arising, thereby attracting those kinds of thoughts. BTW, this could be an additional point to those that @steve already made in his comment.

Would you agree that a part of the reason why this can be challenging is that the mind tends to gravitate towards complex activities and tasks?