thelerner

There's an old Kabbalic vowel system I use, Abulafiah's. A, Aiee, is felt/referenced to the top of the head. E, Eeee, is throat area, that a pretty natural one to feel. Ahh, Haahhhh, is heart area, you see that in many systems of kotodama (sacred sound). O, Ohhhhw, is stomach area, Oooo is is even lower stomach. Shinto uses the same vowel system but is less body directed. I like the incorporation of consonants, eMm, aRr. One teacher said they should be focused inward, as if speaking to the back of the neck to fully appreciate there vibration.

Let me tuck this link to The Family here: http://www.greenliferetreats.com/index.htm "Welcome to The Farm Community The Farm is an intentional community of families and friends living on three square miles in southern middle Tennessee. We started The Farm in 1971 with the goal of establishing a strongly cohesive, outwardly-directed community. We want, by action and example, to have a positive effect on the world. Over the last 40+ years, The Farm has become well known for many things, from natural childbirth and midwifery to healthy diet and vegetarian cuisine, creative arts and alternative technologies to its partnerships and assistance to native cultures." There site shows off some green farming, housing and commune ideas. They also have very cheap seminars. Well worth visiting every now and then. They've thrived where many communes have failed. Perhaps there success lies in keeping a foot in an idealized world and foot in the real world. Comfortable with the Amish and corporations like REI. I'll have to put them on my bucket list. A 5 day summer retreat may be the perfect unplugged family vacation.

Good luck. Here's a possible short cut: The Farm, Lewis County, Tennessee In 1971, a group of 300 flower children and free-thinkers left San Francisco to blaze a trail out east, settling in rural Tennessee to become the founders of what is now America's oldest hippie commune. The Farm, located just outside Summertown, Tennessee, is still around to this day, and was the subject of the 2012 documentary "American Commune." Now composed of roughly 200 members, the vegetarian intentional community was founded on -- and still lives by -- their core values of nonviolence and respect for the environment.

This question came up in the lobby. Personally I like Minke DeVos guided meditation on her Tao Basics CD. I like Michael Winn's DVD (Fundamentals 2 I think, its been a while) on it, and he has seminars. Another good source is the KAP program where you take a course through skype. What books, video's and youtube sources out there seem good to you? I'd add a fully developed microcosmic orbit is more talked about then developed. Many stop at the level of sensation (I include myself at this low level), the full blown is akin, though not quite kundaliniesque. 2nd add, take it slow and grounded. If you're energy sensitive or over do it, you can get burned, but the orbit itself is considered safer then other kundalini routes.

Once I lose ten more pounds I'll be enlightened. Til then, smile and practice..

Answ. 1> Nah, you've got a good soul and care about people. 2> Personally I don't think we can gods, not here, not now. Thats like thinking we can have a billion billion dollars. Desire for something that imo is not possible is not the road to happiness. No flying, no billion or millions; good news- we don't need it. We have planes and credit cards. More importantly friends, family and tbs. 3>The secret is: they're not you. They have other wants, needs and interests. Once you find out about those, they're pretty simple to figure out. 4>Robert Moss didn't say, but who cares? We're not Moss'ians. In truth none of us 'Know', some assume with greater confidence then others. Moss assumes death will echo his deeper dream work moments, maybe, maybe not. I know one thing. We have here and now. And you my friend are singing the blues. If you want to snap out of it, find a way, work on it. Here's what I'd recommend. Take a news fast. We all need to every now and then. Note, that might include this site. Often the news is a concentration of everything bad in the world. The world won't end and it'll be like a shower for your soul. Focus on the Good happening around you. This will take some conscious practice. There's a child playing, a piece of nature, a blue sky, bright sun, a needed rain, your own health, the wonder of your incredible eyes.. Its out there, always. Learn to see it. Stop with judgements. For others and yourself. Its so ingrained its hard to stop, but Its major source for depression.

My kids know the big stuff. I'd have fun with them. Walk in nature, rides in a limo, good food, good conversation, try to keep it real. Let'em know my passwords and where stuff is at.

Thanks for that. Relax was a constant refrain from my old Aikido Sensei 'More relaxed, more relaxed'. Then I'd say 'I am relaxed, damnit'. And he'd walk away shaking his head. Only happened the first dozen years or so

I was just listening to Robert Moss's work and he had an interesting take on the power of our beliefs and the graciousness of the Universe. Maybe in the afterlife you get what you believe. Your being follows the mythos you've bought into.

don't understand that. So, ending rebirth means .. what to you? Maybe I'm phrasing it poorly. What happens if you don't have a rebirth?

Just so we're all on the same page. What does ending rebirth, mean to you? Poof, we're completely gone? Memory and soul? A simple complete off switch?

You do understand there's an explanation for that. Have you spent at least a few minutes trying to find out what experts beyond Rosie O'Donelle have said about it? Where some people stop thinking, others find experts, with names and degrees who spend time, look at blue prints, understand the physics and come up with answers. For example: (from Popular Mechanics) - http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/4213805 The unusual design of WTC7 is also crucial to the discussion, in that key columns supported extreme loads—as much as 2000 sq. ft. of floor area for each floor—as the building straddled an electrical substation. “What our preliminary analysis has shown is that if you take out just one column on one of the lower floors,” NIST lead investigator Shyam Sunder told Popular Mechanics, “it could cause a vertical progression of collapse so that the entire section comes down.” The tower wasn’t hit by a plane, but it was severely wounded by the collapse of the North Tower. Which is when the fires started. 2. The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center weren’t knocked down by planes—they both stood for more than a half-hour after the impacts. But the crashes destroyed support columns and ignited infernos that ultimately weakened—not melted—the steel structures until the towers could no longer support their own weights (NIST offers a primer here). Ms. O’Donnell fundamentally misstates the case with her use of the word “melted”: Evidence currently points to WTC7 also collapsing because fires weakened its ravaged steel structure. Tower 7 housed the city’s emergency command center, so there were a number of fuel tanks located throughout the building—including two 6000-gal. tanks in the basement that fed some generators in the building by pressurized lines. “Our working hypothesis is that this pressurized line was supplying fuel [to the fire] for a long period of time,” according to Sunder. Steel melts at about 2,750 degrees Fahrenheit—but it loses strength at temperatures as low as 400 F. When temperatures break 1000 degrees F, steel loses nearly 50 percent of its strength. It is unknown what temperatures were reached inside WTC7, but fires in the building raged for seven hours before the collapse. 3. Demolition experts tell Popular Mechanics that wiring a building the size of WTC7 for clandestine demolition would present insurmountable logistical challenges. That issue aside, there’s a clear-cut engineering explanation for why the building fell the way it did. Trusses on the fifth and seventh floors of the building were designed to transfer loads from one set of columns to another; with the south face heavily damaged, the other columns were likely overtaxed. In engineering terms, the “progressive collapse” began on the eastern side, when weakened columns failed from the damage and fire. The entire building fell in on itself as the slumping east side dragged down the west side in a diagonal pattern. Still, damage to the Verizon Building (see p. 21 of this report), directly west of WTC7, and to Fiterman Hall (see here) directly north, show that it was hardly an orderly collapse.

Sometimes you Save the World by saving yourself. Here is an interesting article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24240783 (From the BBC News) Here's an excerpt: "Giving it all up to be a Christmas Island 'beachcomber' By John Pickford Christmas Island The allure of a new and different life on a South Sea island has tempted many Europeans over the past two centuries. But these so-called "beachcombers" do make sacrifices in return for their life in the sun, away from the stress and strain of the big cities "Come in, come in!" It is a glorious welcome, considering Perry Langston is not expecting me. He stands outside his simple home and warmly shakes my hand. His house is near the lagoon, single storey, with a half-covered entrance yard and a corrugated tin roof. Perry first came to Christmas Island - an isolated coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific - in 1966, just a few years after the British stopped using it for nuclear tests, which makes him one of the island's most enduring residents. He is now 74, slightly stooping, spectacles on nose, with a sharp and intelligent face. He has a few front teeth missing - lack of access to dentists is a drawback of island life - and a completely unselfconscious smile. He introduces me to his silver-haired Micronesian wife. She exudes calm and grace. They have had seven children together. One son lives next door and grandchildren are nonchalantly passing in and out as we are talking. "Sit down, sit down," Perry says, beckoning to a battered armchair. There is a map of the Pacific and an old map of England - both much repaired - pinned to the wall. He shows me a photograph of the red-brick farmhouse in Warwickshire where he grew up and I think: "How far can a man travel in one lifetime?" But this journey happened without a plan. Perry trained as an agronomist and went out to the Solomon Islands in the twilight years of Empire to work in a technical capacity for a Catholic mission.After that, his whole life in the South Seas involved practical work - the sharp edge of development. He seemed to revel in his lack of material wealth. He quoted Gandhi to me: "Meet your needs and limit your wants." He may be poor by Western standards, but surrounded by his island neighbours and his grandchildren he will never fear a lonely old age. Twenty minutes away lives another "beachcomber" with a rather different lifestyle. Scotsman John Bryden runs a successful grocery and provisions store and has been on the island almost as long as Perry."

Does it boil down to: Would we do it again? If we were to die right now. Given a chance to choose non existence or another ride on this roller coaster we call life. Would we? Do we say 'Thank you sir, can I have another!' or burn out and fade away? Either way I think there's a Thank You that needs to be said, to something.

Sounds like a lot of work and worms for the Mods. Work of deleting posts. Worms of answering irate authors why post was deleted, then listening to counter arguments ...

I am not that advanced. Don't know if I want to be either .

For discipline and system for figuring things out, especially when asked on a Hermetic forum, I'll go with Franz Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics. For a thorough taste of the system go to abardoncompanion.com. You'll find exhaustive notes there as well as couple of excellent audio systems that run pretty deep. Its all free. Not fast, not all that easy, but good depth from a very respectable teacher. If you can connect to his Center of Stillness Meditation, you're well on your way.

I don't know. Further, what kind of answer would satisfy you? Mystical, such as God? Scientific, a singularity playing yoyo? Existential, nothing really exists!

I was thinking about a tonic in one of Daniel Reids books, The Tao of Health Sex & Longevity, I think. It was the mother of all herbal elixirs. 14 or 15 ingredients. Things like Two dried sea horses, one male one female, human placenta.. amongst other exotica. Long brewing time too. Yet even that is not a longevity serum. Just a potent vitality booster. Years ago I'd buy Dragon Brew, a potent tonic but alas taken off the market. I think if you dig deep (ie learn Chinese, spend 30 years infiltrating traditional and obscure Taoist alchemical groups) and find a long lost secret source, it'll probably be hoax..but you never know.

I haven't been listening to Ted's lately, but the article in the OP wasn't particularly persuasive to me. In any case there's so much breadth in scope of TED talks that you shouldn't dismiss all of them due to creeping 'Scientism'(? there word not mine) and a few GMO positive stories out of 100's of diverse subjects. I'm sure they get equal calls of slantism from the right wing.

bump. Just came across this thread and wondered if anyone had thoughts about it.

Some can, some Kant. Its perpetually amazing and ironic how philosophical discussions get heated and personal so fast. Here on the bums we've had many threads, particularly those on Compassion go down in flames into The Pit. Maybe its easier to take insults to your family, religion, country then when someone attacks your Truth.

Preaching to the choir. I've never had a good memory, though I've compensated with sharper deductive skills (maybe). Glenn Morris wrote (in Pathnotes..) that the advanced spiritual person doesn't have the memory for trivia that the average person does because they grok trivia when they see it, thus filing it appropriately away, whereas it sticks in the memory of others.

A good way, but not the only way. Some people, some masters, short circuit this. Observation -> Instinctive Doing. No middle man, hypothesis or conjecture. Maybe a level of mastery or damn good intuition is needed to get to this point, but its real and its there. I'd add it doesn't leave much of a trail for those who'd follow, but it is the path of mysticism.

In Off Topics I made a thread called Solar Energy. I meant to call it 'Saving The World'. Its in the Topic Tag. If its not too much effort can you rename the thread 'Saving the World & Solar Energy'. I'd like to have a thread collect some positive ideas for improving things. Thanks Michael