Creation

Even as I accepted responsibility for my resentment of your advice, please do take this away from the discussion: People will respond sub-optimally to your attempts to help if you talk to from "outside" and "above", that is, like specimens you are observing and and mentally theorizing about, and dictating to them what they should do, respectively. If I had to guess, this is something you have done your entire life, and you you probably don't even notice that you are doing it or realize that it would be possible to do otherwise. So heads up.

First of all, it is not as simple as trying to help = good. Think about it. Have you never been put off by someone who wanted to help you? Perhaps because you didn't want or ask for their help. Perhaps because you didn't want to change your situation in the first place. Perhaps because the person trying to help you was clearly more interested in feeling good about them self than helping you. I'm sure there are plenty more reasons to feel put off by someone trying to help you. Second, I most certainly did not "present a problem" in the first post I made. If you go back and read, you'll see that I was merely telling a story about my life, and explicitly stated that I was confident that I was on the right track to heal. Despite this, you inferred that I was presenting a problem and needed your help, and this is precisely what put me off in this particular circumstance. Well, that and the feeling that it was presumptuous of you to dictate a diagnosis and prescription. Like "Who is this guy who has never had a personal conversation with me yet thinks he can just tell me 'it's all in your head; meditate and your problem will dissolve' just from reading one post?" Friendly advice would have gone over much better. I realize that from an "enlightened" perspective this is just my ego taking things personally (and I must point out that my ego was especially vulnerable because I was publicly sharing about such a painful and private issue). It was great practice for me to try to let go and not get so offended. I went back and read your posts and they didn't push my buttons anymore. But if you want to be a healer be advised that I am not the only person out their with a fragile ego, especially when talking about painful private issues.

I wrote out a long response explaining it, but it seems silly to post unless you really want to know.

Thank you, that means a lot to me. And I didn't even think you were hitting me me That last line is dead on, by the way.

You must have missed the implication that I was sarcastic, just that there was a sense in which I was not. I could tell you were treating me like a patient and I resented it. Hopefully I have made it clear now. The sense in which I was not sarcastic was that it gave me a chance to let go of that resentment.

A diagnosis and prescription. Wonderful, that is exactly what I needed. Actually, maybe there is a sense in which I am not being sarcastic... :ph34r:

I recalled an interesting description before by someone with very developed seeing abilities, and when I checked back it was in response to a query of yours. Perhaps you have forgotten? http://thetaobums.com/topic/24604-windows-to-the-soul/?p=356178 "The eyes are basically a passage in to the universe. On a strictly physical level, the pupil is a hole at the center of the eye that allows for the light of the earth to enter the retina. On a deeper, the hole of the pupil is actually a portal and its darkness is the space of the universe through which the light of celestial bodies can be seen and earthly (and remember earth is a celestial body too) lights can be transferred. When I look through that space and deep into the eyes or rather beyond the eyes, I can see the soul. The bones of the soul are actually planets. So when I see the arrangement of the planets I am able to see the structure of someone's soul or their 'constellation'- this includes the space they occupy in the universe, the composition of that space, their relationship to other souls and basically the physical anatomy of their soul. As romantic as it sounds, it is not symbolic, it is literal. Meaning, if you could see through that window, you would see the celestial world without having to get in a space ship. !"

With my history, I assume that there must be something creepy or off-putting about me and I feel pretty desperate for someone to give me some feedback on it what it is. Like "WHAT AM I DOING WRONG PLEASE TELL ME" So I'm quite sure that I would have taken it the same way in person. I imagine that some dating gurus would tell me that the only thing that is creepy and off putting about me is my belief that there is seeming creepy and off putting about me, as amplified by my desperation to know what it is and what to do about it. Which is a very spiritual idea, to come back to topic. It's just a mirage, an illusion, a shadow in the room at night that I mistake for a person.

Honestly, I think Buddhist harping on about how there is no "soul" can be confusing to spiritual seekers. The Buddha taught that there is no permanent unchanging essence, but that is not the only definition of soul. If you define "soul" to be the most subtle aspect of a "person", this does exist in Buddhism and is called alayavijnana. But it is not thought of as a permanent unchanging essence, and therefore does not contradict the teachings of the Buddha. Moreover, the Daoist idea of higher and lower souls use yet another definition of soul, as some kind of spiritual aspect of a person, but not necessarily the "highest", just a particular one, which is why in that system there is more than one soul.

Misunderstand? I understand perfectly well. I have plenty of women telling me exactly this. That's exactly the problem. It's always "just a friend", even as they complement me. But I must say I have never been preemptively friendzoned over the internet by someone living halfway around the world that I didn't even express the slightest sexual interest in. That is a new low for me. If you consider yourself my friend, please be honest with me: what was going through your head when you added that caveat and italicized it no less? Why did you not just compliment me? What reaction were you trying to prevent? Were you afraid that I would somehow become burdensome with unrequited affections you imagined me developing if you left me unchecked, like a stalker or something? Anyway, your advice to concentrate on potential for enjoyment rather than stagnation was very timely for me. Thank you for that.

I am hesitant to post this here, but maybe something interesting will come of it. I am 23, and I have never had a girlfriend or had sex. I used to think that girls didn't find me attractive. Well, when I started paying attention I realized that they in fact do find me attractive. Just yesterday I was walking by a group of girls I had never met and one says "Hey sexy" as I walk by. I regularly see girls checking me out of the corner of my eye. So that's a step in the right direction. But when I try to interact with people, I normally feel a flatness, a deadness, like "I don't care" "I'm not interested". But in the case I am interested, it somehow never gets past that initial attraction. Sometimes they flake, sometimes they put me in the friend zone, sometimes they move on to another guy when they realize I am not going to reciprocate. They certainly haven't done anything to pursue me, like some of the guys here who are uninterested but beating potential partners off with a stick, LOL, but I suppose that is understandable given how stagnant my emotional energy is. I have been been trying to find a more satisfying way of relating to people in general and women in particular for years now, with limited success. I have looked a lot a lot of dating and relating advice stuff, and learned a lot that will probably be useful at some point, but none of that material has done much to get me past the deep emotional and psychological blocks I have. Such as extreme feelings of isolation, rejection, unwantedness, unworthiness, high standards for and criticalness of potential partners, and intense fear of intimacy, physical or emotional. Mostly their philosophy for this type of stuff is hypnosis and affirmations, which really don't clear out the old gunk to make room for the new, and "clearing" techniques like EFT never worked for me either. The blocks around intimacy in particular hold me up from even taking a first step. Yesterday I tried gently and lovingly caressing my own skin, and I started screaming, then crying. That happens every time I try that. It's like I have all these clogged up emotions around not experiencing love and intimacy that I am unable to receive love and intimacy, even from myself. To be open to loving intimacy with a woman would mean opening up to all that pain with her. Which is terrifying. Because I know that is not something most women want, or could handle. There are a lot of absurd things in this world. Still, at this point I am quite confident that I am heading in the right direction with the work I am doing with myself. I can tell that the emotional baggage is being reduced and that it's just a matter of time and effort.

Thank you for understanding, cat.

You know cat, I profile you as someone who has never had any trouble attracting the members of the opposite sex that you desire, and those who you have been with as themselves not having any trouble attracting the members of the opposite sex that they desire. So my question is, do you know what it is like to be unable to attract the opposite sex, or have you been with a man who had trouble attracting women?

Find a guy who is solidly rooted in his masculinity. This is very rare these days. It certainly doesn't just mean he is alpha or successful or whatever by society's standards. Also, zanshin, it's nice to see a lady engaging with the fellas in this thread. Congratulations on your upcoming marriage.

Hi dmattwads, I am also exploring the ways my energy interacts with the energies of others, both physical and non-physical. Here are a couple of remarks from my perspective: 1. The mental framework you use to interpret your experience can become limiting. If someone has similar experiences as you and you adopt their framework, it is natural that you will continue to confirm their framework. But then whatever limitations that framework has become your limitations. 2. If it happens that interacting with others is draining to you and you don't want to become a hermit, a more efficient solution than trying to play tug of war with your energy all the time is to work on your boundaries.

Taomeow, Here is a piece that I found very mind opening. The author suggests applying a framework developed in Talmudic scholarship for authorship and attribution to Buddhist studies. Authors, plagiarists, or tradents? "Anyone who has read much Tibetan literature will be familiar with one of its most salient differences to our own modern conventions: the ubiquitous verbatim repetition of phrases, sections, literary structures, and even entire chapters, across many different texts. Such repetition is commonplace even where these many different texts are written by ostensibly different authors. Some modern scholars have rather condescendingly (and stupidly) characterised this as ‘plagiarism’. They have entirely missed the point. ... "Talmudic scholars no longer depend on the conventional modernist language of ‘authorship’ and ‘work’. Instead, they can speak of ‘tradents’, who ’re-anthologise’ existing ‘lemmata’ and ‘microforms’, sometimes anonymously, within the context of a culture of extraordinary textual memorisation and the ubiquitous synchronous interactions of written and oral modes of text."

Thanks White Wolf for posting this. It gave me the impetus I needed to give this type of thing a shot. I was especially excited about the daily support videos, thinking that that might motivate me to get through the rough patches. Well, I'm on day 8 and it has just started to get hard (LOL). The videos approach things entirely from the orgasm hangover/neurotransmitter viewpoint and seem to assume you have a sexual partner, so I'm finding they are not as motivating as I had hoped. They are saying it should be getting easier for me just when it is actually getting harder! I lapsed and pulled up some porn (I have all my usual porn sites blocked, but with google it is not hard to get around that), and just then my computer crashed! YES!! What was amazing was that even the briefest sight of a naked woman actually relived a great deal of the emotional discomfort I was feeling. But it was brief enough that it didn't trigger the "must fap now" impusle. OK, great, back on track. It seems like my personal difficulty is not orgasm hangover by a craving for the feminine or anything resembling the feminine. So this is going to be more like an AMP-style "No Woman Diet" challenge for me. The increased sexual energy in my system is pushing up against the loneliness and woundedness in my heart. Here's to strengthening and fulfilling my resolve to heal.

Where in the world did this $12,000 number come from? Last I checked, Sifu Jenny charges $200 per session, and has repeatedly stated that she did not charge money until her spirit guide instructed her to. Anyway, this is an quite an interesting thread for me personally.

Hi Drew. Other than the work of SY Lo and MW Ho on water clusters and collagen fibers that you referenced, there are a couple other lines of research into the biological basis of the meridian system that I have seen buzz about. If you haven't seen them before, I think you will be interested, especially in the second one. 1. Meridians as intersections of planes of fascia Langevin, H., Yandow, J. (2002). Relationship of acupuncture points and meridians to connective tissue planes http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=28247 2. Meridians related to primo-vessels aka Bonghan ducts These ducts are speculated to function as optical fibers for biophotons http://acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=31918 http://www.photonstimulator.com/Article%20Russian.htm

Hello all, Here is a great article on the development of the Mahayana, from it's beginnings as a stupendously difficult path for the very few, through the initial ideas regarding Buddhas presiding over other realms, to the version of Mahayana exemplified by the Pure Land and "One Vehicle" ideas taken as normative in China. The Indian Roots of Pure Land Buddhism: Insights from the Oldest Chinese Versions of the Larger Sukhavativyuha

It was a rhetorical question meant to illustrate my point.

It does indeed, perhaps because that is the kind of transmission he was thinking of when he wrote that post? The thing is, that's not the same thing as the kind of transmission YMWong was talking about. "Transmission" (in it's most general sense) is the sharing of information (in it's most general sense) directly through energy. Would you assume two books are about the same topic just because they are both written on paper? In this case the two books are connection to a specific lineage and direct induction into the natural state.

LOL indeed. Sometimes I am deliberately vague just to see what kind of responses I get, and then clarify afterwards. If I were to hazard a guess, the book is restricted because it consists of oral teachings that were only given to those with a personal connection to Rinpoche, and only ever written down for the benefit of those students that can't see him on a regular basis. There is definitely some logic in this, from my perspective. (Note that the quote you posted doesn't cover this case). But to those who have the ability to feel out the karmic repercussions of their actions, and from such a place are willing to take full responsibly for what they do, who can say "You must follow this rule"? Surely not me.

Given the bite I sensed in your post, I suspect you misinterpreted my intention in asking. My intention was not to accuse you of wrongdoing. Instead, I wondered if there was any issue with you ordering the book.

I replied to snowmonki via PM, but I thought this excerpt might be relevant to this thread: I would like to clarify, I didn't mean that I wasn't ready to learn from Michael, just that my system was not ready to hold all the qi Michael gave me. Upon thinking about it, I realized that this is probably how it is for everyone, but, as you said, people don't talk about it. Or they don't notice it in the first place. Its just that for me, practice becomes such a struggle so quickly. This is not something others have mentioned, in fact, it seems to me that "struggle" and "stillness movement" are not words that anyone else would think to associate. But in my world, the very fact of being here seems like a struggle, so it's really more about me than it is about stillness movement. I think Jetsun might relate to this. Hence my wanting to mention this to him so he would not think it would be otherwise, like I had hoped it would be.