dwai

Spirituality should guide all our action in the transactional world. Whatever gets in the way of spiritual practice should be lower priority. IMHO being an activist can be detrimental to real spiritual work, unless one can do it with the equanimity of a Karma yogi. Most activists I’ve met are angry individuals — outraged at the injustices of the world. Not a good thing for spiritual work.

Friends, I found out last evening that @mjjbecker has passed away. I know he wasn’t active here in a while but he was one of the good ones. May he attain liberation/Dao/Nirvana.

Pertinent discussion vis-a-vis Deep sleep and Consciousness --

Not a thing. It is what makes things known 🤷‍♂️ It seems like it’s rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of what constitutes a “thing”.

The absence of objects doesn't mean the absence of consciousness. In deep sleep, there is the absence of objects, but consciousness exists as it is. For 'normal' people the consciousness in deep sleep is not apparent at all, so the assumption is that they are unconscious. Try this as an exercise -- put all your attention/focus waiting for the next thought to arise in your mind. Let me know what happens. In the Hindu tradition, we consider the mind (as I outlined in an earlier post) to be the one that coordinates with the five senses to experience "things". So, there are not really various types of consciousness per se, but the mind, using the sense organs to experience objects in different ways, the mind being reflected consciousness. Transmigration is a longer topic, which I don't have time to delve into at the present

In samādhi, there are no objects but Consciousness exists just fine without them. Also in the deep sleep state, there are no objects, yet consciousness exists just fine with them. Like I mentioned above, in the Hindu tradition, the mind is considered to be a subtle organ, made up of 4 components -- The mindstream (which is a field of objects) The ego -- that which identifies the "self" with identity the storehouse of impressions and memories The intellect This organ borrows the light of consciousness to illuminate objects. The Ego mistakenly ascribes the identity "I am the knower" to the mind. But the knower is actually Consciousness itself, which knows the state with objects or without the objects -- both of which are in the mind alone.

Yes for mind, incorrect to use consciousness Hindus consider the mind to be a subtle organ, which borrows the “light” of consciousness (like the moon borrows the light of the sun).

This is a big misconception. Consciousness is perfectly existent without any sensory inputs too.

Vis-a-vis Martial power, according to my Sifu, women are naturally more powerful than men in terms of subtle energetics (qi, jing, etc). If it takes a man 10 years to get really good at applying taiji power, a woman can attain the same level within 2 years (my observation). However, the problem is that there aren't many women who are interested in developing martial power and that in turn closes a few gates for them to enter this field of cultivation. One of the most powerful women I met was this 70 years old little lady, 110 lbs, barely 5 feet tall, a relative beginner in Taijiquan, and was able to toss us bigger and younger men around like ragdolls. She couldn't believe that she was doing it either, kept asking me if I'm "fake jumping". We figured out later that the (form of) taijiquan we practice calls for complete abandonment of strength (li). Being old, small, and weak in physical strength, my friend didn't have any tendency to use brute force at all. So she was easily able to adapt to the taijiquan way, and hence everything that most men will overtly or covertly disbelieve (and find it hard, if not impossible to let go of), she was naturally already there. My wife has dabbled in taijiquan, and she has natural abilities, but until recently had no interest in pursuing spiritual practices with any degree of persistence. It's interesting that as she is entering menopause, she seems to be drawn to the spiritual/energetic path more seriously. Of course, I might be making a wrong correlation...

This in not the case across the board. The Vedic period in India saw a lot of women Rishis (aka Rishika) who contributed to the Vedas — http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Women_as_Rishikas_in_the_Vedas

That is how I look at it as well. If you talk to higher level Buddhists, they will not deny the possibility that “atman” and “Buddha Nature/True Nature etc etc” are similar (if not outright accept that they are the same). There has always been a case in debates, of the “other” view being caricatured to a certain extent. Hindu scholars called Buddhism nihilistic. Buddhist scholars called Hindus ignorant. But if there is true cessation of suffering, it must go hand in hand with true awakening as well. And if there is true awakening, the differences fall away, and the underlying truth is what is perceived. (IMHO)

The Buddhist understanding of the Hindu perspective is often constructed using straws

this might help explain what Hindus really consider “Self” aka “Atman” — https://www.medhajournal.com/most-people-misunderstand-what-atman-means/ This might help with the comparison of the two views https://www.medhajournal.com/consciousness-according-to-zen-buddhism-and-how-it-relates-to-advaita-vedanta/

The above popped up in my morning perusals, so sharing

Yes, Rajiv has some good ideas in that book. What a great paradox, that seemingly an artificial limitation that veils our true nature via delusion, leads us down what seems like many years of spiritual pursuit, only for it to be realized that there was no delusion at all because that which we were seeking has already and always been "us".

There are no coincidences in the spiritual path

Ask and you shall receive @idquest

This video talk is excellent to outline two different ways of looking at the "delusion" and "enlightenment" relationship -- https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=246428883468739

The only way is to exchange views without being threatening. Usually people latch on to a specific position out of fear. In this case, the fear is of obsolescence. So discussing the topic of contention in a way to coax out the underlying fear complex would be valuable imho. Only thing is, are we able to stay patient and persevere without reacting in irritation or anger during the process?

Yes he has been teaching since the 1970s. Professionally. That means his students pay fees.

If you don't want to pay, sign up for his free Sunday lessons here -- https://mailchi.mp/d6094bf1f7b0/taichitao These are usually free live sessions which they sell later for $5 USD. They have to run their operations during the pandemic too.

I think meditation does tend to surface unresolved emotions etc. There are ways to deal with them, but it is best to try with the help of a good teacher. Also, gradual development of self-inquiry methods will help too -- check this link out for practical and simple methods via which self-inquiry can be practiced.

What I’ve been taught is that daoist goal is to reconnect with the Dao. We have within us a complete copy of the Dao. It is called our De. Daoists work on their body-mind, clearing layers of junk until they can access the de (which is buried under layers of acquired habits and mind). Once we reconnect with our De, it will let us “return to Dao”. Wrt the daoist treatment of desire — desire rises from the acquired mind, so is artificial. Real is Dao. So desire is released as part of the cleansing of the mind. I would recommend checking out these videos by Master Liao — https://www.taichitao.tv/programs/interview-tao-and-the-struggle-of-life?categoryId=44275 He will tell you like it is, without flowery words and elaborate jargon.

Some form of moving meditation is a good way relieve some of the meditation problems. I’d recommend learning/practicing taijiquan or similar art. Btw dealing with our inner demons is part of the meditation process. For me the problem presented itself in the nature of the contents of my mind. There was some nasty stuff in there — so I tortured myself with guilt, disgust, shame, and so on. Little by little it dawned on me that I was not the contents of the mind, and not the mind either. Those are just a result of the kind of diet it had consumed — all those nasty things were surfacing so I could let them go. This letting go part seems hard though. If we want to not have an upset stomach, we should look at what we eat. Similarly for the mind as well...

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