thelerner

It'd be nice to have a astronomer explain the picture and say exactly it's showing and what the actual scale is. Often beautiful astronomical pictures are colored in or showing aspects not in our visual field.

I'm in Chicago. Looks like most of the teaching is done on the East coast. I'll keep an eye out for any Midwest seminars. It'd be worthwhile to brush up on it.

I think a quiet mind is the target to shoot for. With some positivity mixed in because I think that just to stay even in this world. I think a 'Let the universe decide' attitude helps. Also the Trust in Allah, but tie up the camels, viewpoint.

How do you live life differently if you believe in predestination? Do you give up the concept of control more? If no matter what you do, something is predestined to happen, do you plan less and care about the future less? Since its going to happen no matter what you do. If thats the case is it good or bad? Personally I don't believe in predestination. I think our actions lead us/tilt us towards an unwritten destiny.

This picture (I'm pretty sure) is a model. If they had a working house making printer you think they'd have a picture of it. I wonder to what extend its 'real', useable and making actual houses. I've been reading about 'printing' organs, but again, I'm not sure its ready for prime time or just for show. I hope its coming. A friend of mine just bought a cheap 3D printer, just $550(!?), but its come in pieces and we'll see if he can put it together. My kids high school has an expensive one, but its still painfully slow, so each kid in the class can use it once in the entire semester. Still I remember my grammar schools first computer. A terminal w/ a printer. In high school it was a terminal with keyboard and it took punch cards, hundreds to make even rudimentary programs. Times and tech change, often with breath taking speed.

So its impossible for a religious person to be good according to that definition? Are you throwing all moral teaching out because its teaching? Seems silly, in my opinion. I think Taoism is filled with dharmic talks course I see dharma lectures as including moral instructions, philosophy and life lessons. I'd agree moral teachings have to go beyond a list of do's and don'ts but that's what good dharma/heart/moral traditions do. Crazy things come up in life and its good to get advice from past sages. Should everyone who listens to past wisdom be labeled a dog? Sounds more like egotism the taoism. Taoism has a different take on Good, but it includes dharmic talks on morality and Te, different flavor but really the same thing. To say otherwise would be to throw out 1/4 of the Tao Te Ching. Lastly I'd rather have some asshole not steal, rape and kill because he's 'told' not to by a religion then to steal, rape and kill because he considers himself a free agent doing what feels. Doubtlessly its better to not do wrong because of an internalized understanding. I don't think we're necessarily born with it. Getting there often comes from repeated listening/discussion from the wise, such as dharmic/moral/heart talks.

Only the good die young

There have been times during practice I've lost my libido. It was kind of a nice liberating change of pace. Its winter, a time for holding in and rest. I'd give it a month or two before worrying about it, especially since you've seen a doctor and there's nothing physical. Your body might be doing just what its supposed to. <edit 2 years, from listening to a biaural tape?? I can't help but think there is a factor we're missing here. Be it psychological of physical. Going to a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor might give some insight.

I think hanging out with the looters bought me some time !

I survived 1 year.

There is enough need in the world; for food, understanding, simple kindness that I don't care if its done for the sake of accumulating merit points or to soothe a spaghetti god. Its great when its done with a pure unselfish heart but its more important that it gets done. Just because there's need. Personally I believe there are many benefits of karma yoga. It improves character, lessens the ego, strengthens the community but most importantly it (should) help others. Theorists can point to situations where such action does harm, all I can say in such situations find a better way to help 'smarter'.

Cool stuff and very martial. I've done some 5 Animal Frolics chi gung (HealingTao version). There are a couple versions of it out there. Its done slower and nowhere near as martial. Its a health practice, like a bear which connects to the kidneys etc., I notice both forms have stork, but it didn't look like the frolics version except for the very beginning. The video looked very kung fu ish to me.

The courtyard they charged into was empty, save for a single person. An older woman, in simple dress with regal bearing held up her hand and faced them. The leader charged up "We will take everything" he told her emphasizing his words by putting his spear tip close to her throat. "That is the purpose of our city" she with a calm that took him by surprise. She brushed the spear away and walked towards the other mounted rogues. The group was scared but not of her. They gazed at the walls of courtyard expecting a launch of arrows or sudden attack. Meantime the woman walked to the blanket that held the old mans corpse. "Thank you for returning our brother to us" she told them and stretched out her hand out to the body. To the brigands shock the old mans head shook and he took her hand and got up, a corpse no more. Together they walked across the courtyard to a large double door. None of the gang dared follow. One of the brigands, the youngest one, noticed the gate was still open a smidgeon, there was enough room for him to sneak through. As he dismounted and headed moved quietly toward the gate the old man and woman made it the double doors on the other side and turned to face the gang. The old man let out a whistle and a large wolf came through the gateway into the courtyard, the young brigand falling backwards in surprise. The wolf ran through the group, joined the old man and woman. The old man turned and entered the doorway with the wolf. The woman waited a second or two as if expecting the leader or someone to say something. They did not. She followed the man and wolf in, and the doors closed with a loud slam. <next person to carry on story... >

On one hand there is the belief that we would live life better if we interpreted the happenings of our life as though they were in a dream. In this way, if you'd dreampt it, where there is no science, just the subconscious at play. What would it, that dream of a broken broken jar mean to you? What symbolisms might you attach to the elements involved? Hot water, emptiness, container, glass, your actions? On the third hand, while the above is valid and useful and I'll use 'life as dream' at times to understand my reactions. Generally I prescribe to a tic toc world where we don't create our reality only our interpretations. Reality is a name given cards we're dealt, and simple physics mean boiling water cracks glass.

Thank you. I'm not familiar with Lao Jun but a practice without a strong dharma/heart/moral tradition is like a stool missing a leg.

Guess you're an electronic Prisoner here .

How to heal a cold with Tao... Well.. I put my index and middle finger together. Point them at my nose and Say loudly with authority "The power of Tao compels you" 18 times in a row. I find this practice moves people far away from me so I don't get their germs. The crazy thing is I do have a stuffy nose and for some inexplicable reason I did this (not 18x though) and it did seem clear my nostril!?

I've think when young its not so bad to look around, shop around.. get experience but inevitably you have to marry one, and can still flirt with others. Sometimes one will give you deeper insights into another. Wait.. were we talking woman or practice?

Kinda humorous but he destroyed lives. He inspired true believers who sold all there stuff, many giving it to him, to finance an end of world billboard blitz. They lost there last dollar and looked like chumps doing it. A couple days ago I was wading through some dark apocalyptic sites they were amazingly active. The letter writers underneath had an aggressive hostile hope that things would soon be horrible, they wanted it. Even though they might burn in the process, they seemed to cheer on a coming civil war or world war iii. They reinforced each others ideas of how it would happen and all the shit in the world and how the Sheeple didn't see it. The thing is, they may be half right, but they're only looking at half the picture. Any good trend is ignored. Any improvement is negligible. Everything dark is exaggerated, anyone who lacks there view is vilified. Its the same recipe used in racism. And we're all guilty at times of prejudice, its seductive, ego enhancing.. the Other is bad.. so we must be .. good. I think it has be fought against. You have to train yourself to actively look for the good, lest you fall into depression, anger or hopelessness. Thats not being Pollyannish, its trying to keep balance against a darkness within the human condition.

The person who can legally change a teams make up thus chance to win is the owner. The coaches necessarily kowtow to them. They can pay the big bucks to get great talent or let a team rot. I felt after the Bulls won a few titles the owners were very happy to see the big stars leave and suddenly exorbitant salaries ended up in there pockets. Or they might tweak a team's make up to get public funding for a new stadium. Or maybe I'm just thinking of the plot from the movie 'Major League'. Paradoxically I don't believe in luck, yet find myself very lucky. I remember in one charity lottery I told my wife I don't want to win the first prize, I want the second one. And I got it. I tend to win more then I lose and generally stay away from games of chance. I see most gambling as movement along a downward flowing sine wave. Thus there's a little bit of skill, but mostly its knowing when to stop when you're ahead and that usually early on in the game. We need to beware of fooling ourselves and remember in poker the mathematician tends to clean out the optimist.

I was the its cold outside thread, and some people mentioned where they lived. One members talked about the Appalachian Highlands. That sounds really cool. I'd love to hear more about it. Other members live in some interesting locations. It'd be interesting to hear about those too. I'm in Chicago. Its a nice city, great lake front for walks and biking, world class museums and galleries. Excellent food culture too, though it lacks the food cart tradition of other comparable cities. I'm hoping people will talk about whats great in there neck of the woods. Cause its a big world and we just don't see enough of it and when we do, we often miss out on quiet gems.

Everyone occasionally has nightmares and some people have them quite often. Often its simply human anxiety coming up in subconscious. Saying one 'dreampt of the 2011 Tsunami in Japan years before it occurred in 1993. I had no time marker clues then, or did not interpret any ones that were there correctly.' Means nothing. I have no doubt everyone who lives in Japan has dreampt of tsunamis and has woken up in dread. That because Tsunami's happen to Japan. They happen and they kill people. I'm sure if she'd come up with lots of 2's in her 1993 dream it'd be easy to come up with a huge number of 2's for the Japanese Tsunami event, literally dozens of 2's all over the place because its an easy trick to pull off. Thousands of things happen and you can pin 2's on dozens of them. I wouldn't make to make life changing decisions based on her 'feelings' and visions. But would you? In 2022, will you be changing the way you live because of her writings? Will you or anyone stay away from all beaches in Europe at 2:00 because of her prediction and how important 2:22 is to her? Strangely we had a thread about people always noticing there clock at 1:11 here. We put values on things and once we name a coincidence they tend to pop up constantly in our life. (I find old pennies, just found a 1929 in change!) I tend to think much of that is they always did we're just noticing it now. We see what we look for and our subconscious can be more aware then our active minds. Or in the case of noticing 1:11, we have a pretty good internal clock, that we mostly ignore. Once we key into it, we have control, even subconsciously.

Back to the original OP, I think that Zoroaster didn't create Judeo Christian belief, but probably influenced it. Ofcourse Judaism predates Zoroastrian by hundreds of years, so its hard to say which influenced which with certainty. As per the last paragraph. Here: (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15283-zoroastrianism) Resemblances Between Zoroastrianism and Judaism <thus Christianity & Islam>. The points of resemblance between Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and hence also between the former and Christianity, are many and striking. Ahuramazda, the supreme lord of Iran, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal, endowed with creative power, which he exercises especially through the medium of his Spenta Mainyu ("Holy Spirit"), and governing the universe through the instrumentality of angels and archangels, presents the nearest parallel to Yhwh that is found in antiquity... Zoroastrianism and Judaism present a number of resemblances to each other in their general systems of angelology and demonology... There are striking parallels between the two faiths and Christianity in their eschatological teachings—the doctrines of a regenerate world, a perfect kingdom, the coming of a Messiah, the resurrection of the dead, and the life everlasting. Both Zoroastrianism and Judaism are revealed religions: in the one Ahuramazda imparts his revelation and pronounces his commandments to Zarathustra on "the Mountain of the Two Holy Communing Ones"; in the other Yhwh holds a similar communion with Moses on Sinai. The Magian laws of purification, moreover, more particularly those practised to remove pollution incurred through contact with dead or unclean matter, are given in the Avestan Vendïdād quite as elaborately as in the Levitical code, with which the Zoroastrian book has been compared (see Avesta). The two religions agree in certain respects with regard to their cosmological ideas. The six days of Creation in Genesis find a parallel in the six periods of Creation described in the Zoroastrian scriptures. Mankind, according to each religion, is descended from a single couple, and Mashya (man) and Mashyana are the Iranian Adam (man) and Eve. In the Bible a deluge destroys all people except a single righteous individual and his family; in the Avesta a winter depopulates the earth except in the Vara ("enclosure") of the blessed Yima. In each case the earth is peopled anew with the best two of every kind, and is afterward divided into three realms. The three sons of Yima's successor Thraetaona, named Erij (Avesta, "Airya"), Selm (Avesta, "Sairima"), and Tur (Avesta, "Tura"), are the inheritors in the Persian account; Shem, Ham, and Japheth, in the Semiticstory. Likenesses in minor matters, in certain details of ceremony and ritual, ideas of uncleanness, and the like, are to be noted, as well as parallels between Zoroaster and Moses as sacred lawgivers; and many of these resemblances are treated in the works referred to at the end of this article. Causes of Analogies Uncertain. It is difficult to account for these analogies. It is known, of course, as a historic fact that the Jews and the Persians came in contact with each other at an early period in antiquity and remained in more or less close relation throughout their history (see Avesta; Media; Persia). Most scholars, Jewish as well as non-Jewish, are of the opinion that Judaism was strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism in views relating to angelology and demonology, and probably also in the doctrine of the resurrection, as well as in eschatological ideas in general, and also that the monotheistic conception of Yhwh may have been quickened and strengthened by being opposed to the dualism or quasi-monotheism of the Persians. But, on the other hand, the late James Darmesteter advocated exactly the opposite view, maintaining that early Persian thought was strongly influenced by Jewish ideas. He insisted that the Avesta, as we have it, is of late origin and is much tinctured by foreign elements, especially those derived from Judaism, and also those taken from Neoplatonism through the writings of Philo Judæus. These views, put forward shortly before the French scholar's death in 1894, have been violently combated by specialists since that time, and can not be said to have met with decided favor on any side. At the present time it is impossible to settle the question; the truth lies probably somewhere between the radical extremes.

If you dig a little deeper, you'll find not 4 false flags, but thousands of them. Thousands of times people have predicted this is the end. I think every generation has had people saying they've read the signs, The End Is Near. In my short life there have been dozens and they've had there share of true believing followers. Its not uncommon, quite the opposite. Frankly I think Satan is a mythological figure. So claiming he did or Santa Claus (actually a mythologized figure) Easter bunny is the same to me as claiming Satan did it. In my opinion people are not so saintly that they need a supernatural being to make them do evil things. Plain old greed and selfishness work just fine. Even fundamentally, who gave you this information? God, one of his angels or did you figure it out by yourself or through a book like Revelations? In general I thought Islam was against such prophecies as haraam. Also, lets discuss your views. World ending in 20 to 25 years or Day or Resurrection? What does Day or R mean to you? Everyone in heaven at the same time or back to life or only those who follow your religion back to life? Last question. How does thinking (and preaching) the world is going to end affect your life? Do you not make any long term plans, like marriage or children because you know they'll face the end of the world in as few as 20 years?

You want some semi crazy unusual practices. I'll point you towards Rawn Clark's work at abardoncompanion.com. He's got a couple of free audio programs. Most are magic/hermetic influenced. Because you mentioned Zhan Zhuang, he has a practice called the Archaeous. Its a series of lessons on a hermetic element practice. I like to do them standing, they're just 15 minutes long, but you need to spend some time 'mastering each one before moving on. Being elemental they're simple, but run deep. You start at a physical level and explore other aspects of being. Good stuff.