thelerner

I find that question often posed by missionaries as bait. When I collected pamphlets I'd find it in about a third of them. There's a wonderful wicked supposition added that THEY KNOW, what will happen and poor little you doesn't, but WAIT, because they know THE TRUTH, they can save you. Meh... If they're floating in the air or showing off there super powers maybe I'd listen if I had time, but generally I have better things to do and tend to stay and away from missionary types. edit> If the hidden assumption is the Askers know the real truth. What is their end game exactly? In some Christianity its we're in G-ds loving hands, though 'Loving' G-d has set a system where people are tortured through out eternity. Yet what is the end game of the proposed enlightenment system? What exactly happens to the Enlightened once earth is destroyed by the meteors, aliens or whatnot. What are they up to for the next couple months, next couple thousand years? I assume, if you're honest, the answer is no freakin clue, its speculation and spit balling. Course no one said theology had to provide happy endings. Who knows.. maybe folding back into universal consciousness is better then keeping a tiny dated speck of personality for eternity. Or could be the materialists are right and when the brain stops, its game over and all theisms and theories are just mankinds imaginings to combat the fear of death. On the other hand if there was an impending apocalypse in 2 weeks, I would put even greater priority on hanging out w/ those I love, my family and friends. Chill enjoy life. I'd meditate some. Maybe even dabble in substances. I don't think I'd strive too much to solve the mystery of life, rather I'd strive to appreciate and enjoy it. And when death comes, I hope to meet it as I have in some of my dream work. Face down the fear, relax and accept it, remember what's been good and compose my soul for what may be next. On the third hand, in the face of a predicted apocalypse I'd probably keep most of my assets in reserve too. In my lifetime I've heard many a prediction of apocalypse and seen the sad and slightly humorous aftermath of those who bought in and suffered the slings and arrows of nothing much happening.

I've enjoyed his book. I didn't realize how young he is, or maybe I should say looks. I imagined him as much older. The forms look nice and flowing. Unless you have quite a solid background I'd imagine they'd be hard to learn from a DVD, I could be wrong about that. GreytoWhite, how much prior practice do you think a person needs to learn competently from the DVDs?

In the movie Pleasantville, at the end the main character spouts out some simple but deep wisdom. His mother complains that life 'isn't working out the way its suppose to be.' He says back with a smile 'It's not suppose to "be" any way'. The tao of Relationships is often about dropping the suppose to's and enjoying the way it is.

Interesting. That's one of those mirror facilities. Cool, but there are pictures of unlucky birds going down in flame from above'em. Even there in comparison they do less bird damage then convention power plants. Though when they 'get' a bird it is spectacular. Someone pointed out if we could put a windmill behind it the birds would cooked, chopped and ready for the table!

Still, life is best as a total participant sport. Trying things that seem stupid and ridiculous. Seeing if you like them. I think if your friend jumps off a cliff, so should you. As long as there's water underneath. Which reminds of some cliff jumping I did in Elmira Canada. Good times, good times. * note: the importance of the modifier: As long as there's water underneath

Nice link. Very generous of B. Alan Wallace to provide the public with so much information from his seminar. There 40 separate long lectures with chants and meditations there. Info from link: B. Alan Wallace 21 Aug 2014 – 16 Oct 2014 Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand This eight-week retreat will focus on three of the six transitional processes, namely: the Transitional Process of Living, with teachings on śamatha and vipaśyanā, the Transitional Process of Dreaming, with teachings on dream yoga, and the Transitional Process of Meditation with teachings on Dzogchen meditation. All these teachings will be based on the text The Profound Dharma of The Natural Emergence of the Peaceful and Wrathful from Enlightened Awareness Stage of Completion Instructions on the Six Transitional Processes, an “earth terma” of teachings by Padmasambhava, revealed by Karma Lingpa in the fourteen century. The English translation of this text has been published under the title Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, with commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche and translated by B. Alan Wallace.

Hmnn, back to the OP. This is the Saving the World and Solar Energy thread. Save the philosophies for other threads and the long dark nights of winter. Nothing wrong with a bit of straying, but please don't let off topic comments gather too much momentum.

Many lines of Taoism and meditation traditions have a practice of 'sealing the senses'. One interesting approach is in the work of Rawn Clark (Western Hermetic tradition). He has a free mp3 guided meditation called CSM, Center of Stillness Meditation (at abardoncompanion.com ). It has you displace; separating yourself from the 5 senses as well as thought and emotion. You visualize them as containers separate from your self. It allows dispassionate awareness. Its not an easy meditation to 'get' but its worthwhile to try a few times to see if you can experience a little of it. Its probably not a path to the heart though. For me its a deep stoicism. I generally stay away from absolutes or being at a saintly level, its too much, too philosophical, not me. A path to the heart I like is Glenn Morris's Secret Smile technique. One part where you imagine a time of that brought on great feeling of love, lose the memory but keep the feeling/emotion and circulate it through the body. <It also involves the same circulation with relaxation, confidence, humor and sexuality).

My wife will do more, because she's a doer. Its her natural state. See problem, fix it, do it. My natural state is one at rest. Until I'm acted on by a greater force or my conscience. I chauffeur the kids, I clean up after dinner, I'll get the groceries, do the odd jobs around the house. Today she was tired, so I bought dinner and cleaned up afterwards. Whereas 9 times out of 10, she makes a wonderful homemade meal and I'll clean up. She definitely does more work then I, but again, its her way. I respect it, and thank her, and if and when she needs me, I'm there.

One hopes there is life on other planets, but these re-creation shows that dramatize events and re-create them with actors and video effects probably do a disservice. They end up one sided and telling lies of omission. The government is a couple 100,000 people (in some ways). I wonder if the wide spread meme that all governments would immediately throw resources into a vast cover up of any related UFO evidence is outdated. A little like the Da Vinci code plot where The Church kills dozens ruthlessly to keep the information that Jesus had kids secret. Yet the reality is people really don't care. I think solid information that UFO's are real wouldn't really change things a whole lot. Especially if it was simply fly by stuff. Even if it was communication it'd be big news but not necessarily world changing unless something world changing was due to come out of it.

I like Gabrielle Roth's Wave and Sweat your Prayers practice. More free style dancing qi gong. Very liberating. She teaches you to dance and let go. To work within the natural recurring rhythms of nature. You can fast forward this to 2:00 to get to the lesson part.

Walk into a Zendo or anyplace where an experienced group meditates. Silence your mind and watch them. How do they sit? Who has a posture both still and alive? Can you see differences? Are some more steady? Look at the faces? In some can you see the cloud of a thought passing through it, where others stay perfectly calm? In Japanese there is the word Wah. A word for the air around a person/meditator. The experienced radiate a silent peace. Most are just sitting, they'll rock, there faces will slightly contort, no particular feeling comes from them. How they settle down to sit, how they get up. What is there composure afterwards? All these things make up the experienced meditator. Master is a loaded word, but as people progress over years of meditating and have good teachers who guide them, you can see it.

Interesting. I imagine this as eyes half open and focused, or a sort of defocused on the tip of the nose. With the 'mind feeling' out there, instead of internal. Often the practice of staring at the tip of the nose is overlooked, but its in a few traditions, on a physical basis I theorize it balances the brain. Japanese sources consider the practice a step towards enlightenment. Thus pictures of saints and warriors are sometimes shown cross eyed. The practice feels like its aimed at the head's 'crystal cave' or pituitary stimulation, yet it's considered a channel albeit an acorn shaped one. Very interesting. What else is in the book?

To be considered useless takes consistency, dedication and willingness to break several hundred dollars worth of home appliances. The washing machine and dish washer are easy. To destroy an oven requires disabling several smoke alarms and daring edgemenship between melting down the unit and blowing up the house. But once a certain core incompetency is established you're pretty much home (work) free. mostly kidding. To add positively to the conversation I'll say in Taoism the (seemingly) useless survives. The gnarled tree is not the one cut down. The sage who talks and publishes little can go on with his research and learning without interruption.

As a husband and sometime taoist I've tried to cultivate my uselessness in the face of many honeydo lists and requests.

I've never heard of it, and I'm a Chicagoan. I'll have to check it out.

If Star Wars taught us anything, its that the Sith (& cults) deal with absolutes. The more black and white a group paints the world, the more cult like it may be. Course in many ways the Jedi were a cult, extremely controlling, indoctrinating members when they're very young, forbidding its inherents to marry. Hmnn, that didn't work out well for them.

In Chicago we're lucky. We have the Full Moon meditation at the IMU, and the Full Moon Fire Jam at Lake Michigan (near Foster beach). I hit the Fire Jam on Monday. Big crowd, dozens of fire dancers, doing there thing 5 at a time within a cordoned off area. Lots of classic flaming poi as well as staff, hula hoop and fan dances. Saw a flaming double whip for the first time, very visual.

I'm getting back into putting a thin slice of lime into my tea. Even nicer when its got a little sugar on it. When I'm good I'll slice one up sprinkle a bit of sugar on both sides and keep it in my freezer. A slice goes on the bottom of every glass. Pretty to look at and it gives a brightness to the flavor. cools it down a bit too which I prefer.

My generic advice is when things get strange in a negative kind of way, back off energy practices. They tend to amplify things. You've dipped into esoteric waters, the kunlun, crystals, spirits etc., its not giving you a positive experience, Maybe go 'Normal' for a while. Drop the practices, drop the discussions of spirits, entities and curses. Work on your material life, jobs, relations, hobbies etc. Concentrate on making 'the real' better. We increase what we give our attention too. Wait until things have cooled down and leveled off, a few months, even a year or so, then if you want get back into the esoteric. It'll still be there, but you'll approach it with better balance. Now, its an area of your life that seems its doing more harm then good. Perhaps give it up for a while and see if things improve.

In college I read the book Cults of Unreason, a fascinating book on the cult phenomena. Including a great expose on Scientology. A book 30 years later is Life 102, What to do when your guru sues you. Great book by the author of Life 101 series. It shows how an intelligent guy and smart people can get sucked into cult life. The very thought you're too smart for such a thing actually makes you vulnerable. Which leads to something I read recently. That high IQ people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theory then average ones. Not because conspiracy theories are true, but because they can be masters of rationalization.

or in a more humorous way: though Wolverine probably was born with claws though Are we really pulling out the 'I'm right, because I'm so smart, argument?' Asunthatneverrests's opinion is important and meaningful because he's a long time practitioner of Dzoghen. Imo in a real discussion such a person's opinion can't be intelligently dismissed. You may not agree with it, but its important to listen to people with a vast amount of experience. I tend to give them more credence then nonpracticing theoreticians. I also wonder.. is rainbow body really the goal of Dzoghen? Is it about gaining a rare super power? Or gaining wisdom, truths that allows you to live a better life?

Just curious. On the board I see tarot, astrology and Iching being used to answer questions here. I rarely use divination, tending to see its value more as a Rorschach test then future sight. As such I prefer the symbolic nature of most systems which give me food for thought. What system do you use? How do you recommend its use? Lastly how has it helped you?

There are churches near me. Don't know much about them, but I assume they're full of good people. They have nice architecture, nice lawns, seeing them I don't feel any dread or antipathy. (matter of fact I went to a Greek Orthodox one today for Greekfest, ate souvlaki, drank Greek tea, listened to Greek music. Had a nice time w/ nice people) Clothing choices, well I'm a Burner, I applaud the colorful and unusual. I see alot of smiles. Maybe its because I look for them, maybe because I smile at others and they smile back. for all my hopes and cheerleading, alternate energy stocks are treacherous, best invested in as a momentum trader rather then long term investor. FWIW I like natural gas and liquid natural gas companies for long term investing, particularly those with excellent dividends.

I don't know. That brings to mine this: Quoteth Einstein “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”