Cameron

It's Ken Cohen-not William. I agree it is a great practice.

Buddabubba, Your on the right track. This is all mostly the confusion of using language and talking to others over the internet. It's all mostly what language you like to use. For example, I prefer to say the ego is seen through or recognized for what it is-illusion-then to say it(or thoughts about it) are stopped. But that's all minor stuff. At heart I think what your saying is the same thing.

This thread is causing my mouth to water...tea..tea..

Seven Cups in Tuscon is really good. The place I bought tea in the Bay Area last year was Imperial Tea Court looked like a really good selection.

The Honda Hydrogen fuel cell. Burns completely clean emitting only water vapor into the enviornment. And looks like what a car for "the future" is supposed to look like. link

It says on the Honda site it's going into production in 2008. I don't think Honda would put that on the website if it wasn't going to happen. I guess we will just have to wait to see what happens.

Yeah, I bought the same tea for Lezlie and Sean last time I saw them..I think Lezlie likes it also. I mostly drink Lung Ching Dragonwell and a strawberry cream green tea but like Jasmine Phoenix Pearls once in awhile.

Welcome..fun screen name.

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Really good one. link

I have intentionally started standing only 5 days a week-basically taking weekends off-if that makes you feel any better

Reminds me of what one of my teachers said, "I lost my face". Awakened people have lost there face..or something..hehe.

Very nice. Thanks for your feedback and presence here. Am sure we will have many more questions come up!

Aiwei, Just to throw this out there..this may not be the appropriate thread to even talk about this but it seems different threads are touching on the same topics now. Where do you think all of this confusion began? I mean..we say things like karma..and each so called being has alot of karma they have to work through to become enlightened. But why all this confusion in the first place? Where did it all go wrong? I asked one of my teachers about this yesterday and he seems to always point back to the reality and that there is no problem. Everything is just the way it is and can be no different. From that perspective SELF goes into trance/confusion/ego/seperation almost for the purpouse of entertainment only to finally realize it's all a game and everything was ok all along. But why do you think this original impulse to go into confusion/ego and leave(seemingly) the awakened state? I mean let's face it most of the world LOVES the conditoning of ego and seperation. If you just look at what is we actively create on a daily basis new and interesting ways for us to think we are seperate from one another. Not to mention new forms of violence and sickness to prevent seeing clearly. But do you have any insight into the orignal conditioning for this? I mean, one of my non dual teachers basically says it's seeing that there is something wrong with so called ego that is the problem. Things are the way they are?

Aiwei, You seem to constantly be pointing back to the teaching of no self. In my understanding this recognition or awareness of no-self is the fountain from which truth and wisdom flows. Is this correct?

I asked Nirmala about this(I think?) today and here is what came up regarding the do good deeds question. Also..this is my take on that line of thought at this time. Your true nature is boundless,endless,unsurpassable,unending,unimaginable,unbelievable merit. It's like..if you took all of the good merit in all the universes it doesn't come close to your true nature. Your true nature..your SELF..is the source and destination of all of this. It is beyond words and concepts but the awakened ones sometimes are drawn to talk about it. What seems to be the manifestation of this boundless ocean of compassion and love of the awakened ones coming from realizing there true nature is this thing called love. This thing called love, or compassion, seems to be how ones who awaken to there true nature move in the world. Taoists talk about it like water. Water is humble, it moves to the lowest level, it flows effortlessly. So..let's say the awakened being is like water. He or she(or it?) flows effortlessly providing love and support to sentient beings. They move to wherever they are drawn to help sentient beings wake up to there true nature. So..what I asked this teacher today..is about love. It seems to love is sometimes easy, sometimes hard. But it also seems beings who are awake love everything. They love things they don't like as much as things they do like. They have this equal compassion for all. We who arent awake. Or let's say not fully awake.We think we aren't there yet. We still have preferences. We still make-or have the illusion that we make-choices. I like that, I don't like that. She's nice, he's annoying, etc etc. So by practicing doing good deeds..we begin to try to copy what the awakened ones do. I don't know if that's good or bad. It's a practice. I think of it like using training wheels on a bicycle before we can just ride the bike. Maybe you haven't realized that you and the universe are one but by selflessly giving, or helping someone else. Or loving things that you might not even think to love. It's like begining to practice what your true nature is like before you have actually woken up to it. Don't get me wrong. Ime for people(myself included) waking up in this lifetime and getting to the really good stuff. I say when your awake you do what your natural self says to do. You are "one" and this oneness informs all your actions in life becasue you have so deeply realized it it could be no other way. But for practical purpouses, most of us aren't there yet..so there are these precepts and teachings that say "do no harm", "practice compassion", etc. But those are training wheels. Wake up to your true nature first and that's all just what is. Who cares if your karma is good or bad? Wake up and you see your an illusion! From another persective being too focused on doing good deeds may help to enforce the illusion of seperate self. It's a subtle issue. I say who cares. Time is limited put as much effort as you can to awakening. Then you can figure out in future lifetimes(if they exist) about what constitiutes good or bad karma Should this discussion still be on "The Secret" thread?

Excuse me sir!!Your great,round bowling ball shaped head full of questions!!

Who knows. If I have to guess if Abraham thinks he(it!?) is Abraham it's not the same stuff as what the awakened ones talk about. I say you just sit with Adyashanti when he visits you in a couple months and don't worry your little head about it.

hehe..Adyashanti I think summed it up best when he said if Ime going to be around ego's I would much rather be around positive ego's. I like that. If your going to have an ego and don't care about enlightenment I say atleast have a positive one. BTW your avatar is pretty cool. I need a cool av like that.

I take that back..the Secret is ok but awakening to your true nature is better. So..my stand..awakening to your true nature would be better than what the Secret talks about..but there is nothing really wrong with what the Secret talks about..unless your interested in awakening then it's mostly crap. But it's pretty good as far as crap goes if your not interested in awakening..or something...

Wonderful.."nowness parent"..I love it! Yes, I have a slew of nowness parents now and am grateful. If your really drawn to Adya we should all get together one year in Bay Area to do an intensive or retreat with him. I know Sean would be down if he has time. I actually haven't gotten that much positive feedback about Adya here besides a couple people so I'll keep any experience I have with him in my journal discussion. Though my main advaita teachers here are Jeannie Zandi and Nirmala who are also great.

Yes. The NOW is both wonderful and scary. Living in the now is another matter. For me, a teacher(s)are absolutely essential to open up to this new way of living. Like a new born baby in a new scary/wonderful world. There is still a constant grasping of ego to go into mind/illusion and stay away from this. But I think mind/ego even realizes resistence is futile at this point.

Ok..cool..I don't plan on posting too much more of Adya but this one spoke to alot of what we have been talking about on other threads. All of these teachers try to point us back to our natural state. Which in itself is hard to talk about. What is natural for you? For me? For anyone? Connecting to nature..following nature..flowing with our true nature rather than opposing our true nature..this seems to be what is getting pointed to. There are lots of "storms" that arise in this process. Lots of not being ok with what is. That needs to be seen through also. Ime not sure how that will be accomplished. That not knowing is I think central to all of this. If I am not in control then I basically live every day not knowing. Especially if you can come to this immediete experience of the NOW. It just erases all this grasping and holding on to identity and ego. It's way beyond concepts. The challenge in embodiment is most people arent living in the NOW. The NOW scares the shit out of most people. So we need to plan and come with our strategies. I am just at the beggining stages of investigating this. I have tried to not follow this path a couple times only to return. It seems to be the natural flow of my life now to investigate this deeply. But also in a balanced way. I live in the world..I have goals..I have strategies to "win".

MUyLIYVrd5U EtF_Ud2M0HU

TTT...(To the top) "The Niz" was/is one of the heavyweights of the Advaita scene.