thelerner

I disagree. Morality isn't what you 'feel' like. I taught my children the importance of saying 'Thank you' when someone does something for them. If they don't I will reprimand them in private (at least I did when they were younger). Children who aren't taught to say thank you and are allowed to do what they 'feel' often end up as spoiled brats. My kids heard many no's when they were young. They know punishment and discipline (though it hasn't been an issue the last few years), they give and expect respect. If I tell them to do something they don't want, they do it. And I give them the same courtesy. They know I'll stop what I'm doing to help them. It sounds old fashion but I take great pride in having obedient loving children.

He has a great spirit and easy smile. The story in the first video is very touching and a bit eerie.

I think Sinfest said it all with his evil laugh. I think adept is confusing the word should (or hopefully).. as in morals should come from the heart and life experiences with the word do. I don't think religion always equals morality, but neither does just listening to your often fickle heart. A foolish man will learn foolish things from his life experience. It popped up in another thread, but imo Conficius nailed it when he said children (people) need instructions on the right way to live. I don't think morality is instinctive, not always. Set down common sense rules of helping others and doing no harm. Share and show examples of kindness, charity and empathy and you don't need a lot of rules or sin structure.

If the calmness and spaciousness that meditation has doesn't enter into your 'everyday' life, then he's right. What good is it? But if it does then you're on to something.

Can't vouch for it but here is a link to several many texts, actually the site is quite a treasure trove of pdf writings if you go up a notch. http://golden-dawn.com/eu/displaycontent.aspx?pageid=244-qabalah-collection

Your last wish wasn't auto-corrupted (thus you survive the volcanic blast) but you find Costa Rica boring and buggy. I wish for a short unhappy life. later edit. Does it tempt fate to write such a wish?? Let's look at it. Unhappy. Maybe striving for happiness that creates our discord. End the search for happy. Eat to live, not for enjoyment result better health, money and time saved. Our search for happiness leads to how to increased distraction..TV, internet, movies.. Maybe the life well lived is in giving up the trivialities of commonly held happiness and aiming deeper. Short life. Old age is a bitch. And there is much wisdom in knowing just how short life is. We can pack in a lot of quality living if we had absolute certainty we would be dead next week, next week year, next decade.. maybe a short unhappy life isn't so bad after all, as long as its lived consciously and one is true to oneself.

Only a level 5.69 would say something like that.

Some of the best threads, particularly for learning and getting a sense of a system is can be found in the Personal Practice area. There are indepth journals of people who've done KAP, Stillness-Movement, Kunlun that give an excellent (but subjective) first hand information for what is possible to get out of these practices.

Life is but a Jenga of bricks

Hmnn, interesting, the article kinda jumps Godwins law on sentence 2 though. So Stoke is used to mean rules to prohibit showing human affection, particularly, public displays. Can't say the article affects my thinking either way. more on subject. Actually I think of the Likes question as a pretty minor matter. I don't mind which way it goes really. Though if you know you only have 3 or 4, you can use them judiciously

Uh, fewer is more special??? & my fear of popcorn ever since climbing into the popper at the theater. ?? <I don't think I read it> Here's a thought. There are times I'm sorry I'm limited to only giving things a single Like. This for instance by Seth Ananda: "Because some men want a society built on tolerance and justice and fairness, and burn with rage at the forces of injustice and suppression. We will not see our Brothers and Sisters humiliated and ground down just for being what they are. We will not stand by while they are allocated a 'second rate' slot within society. And we will not brook them being told that they can't spiritually progress because something is wrong with them, by people who have no idea if what they say is true or not..." I'd give it a months worth. Especially if I only had one 'Like' a day. P.S. Sorry if it feels like I'm beating a dead horse White Wolf, but Seth made a strong statement and it really resonates with me.

Some might argue, but I wouldn't. Shekinah is often used as a feminine side/spirit of God in main stream Judaism. Thus on happy occassions and seeing something new we say a prayer called The Shekinah. Its funny how in deepest meditation most mystical traditions have in common a 'Satori' moment with the realization that all is one. But as we move away from that we end splitting god into pieces. I don't know, maybe its a useful necessity.

For what its worth, I notice the Kindle e-version of his new book "Restoring Your Life Energy: Simple Chi Gung Practices to Reduce Stress and Enhance Well-Being" is around $8, half the price of print. If any Bum has a review I'd love to read it.

Imo they should be limited, otherwise as I Am said they'll be tossed around like popcorn, leading to cliques and clickish behavior. Where people pile on for or against others when an argument arises. It's ego gratifying to be 'liked' and that can be a bad thing. You write to an audience or crave attention instead of from the heart or gut. Three or Four 'Likes' a day seems plenty.

FWIW in hebrew the word ruach can mean breath, mind, spirit. Its the root word in BaRuach- blessing. Course in my biased estimation Jesus was a wise and wandering mystically bent rabbi whose life got caught up in various legends.

I think religion is a hard thing to avoid. Some hard core atheists seem pretty close to fundamentalists to me. And if you really succeed in spirituality, connect to something and want to share it with someone else, then whoops, you're on a path to a new religion. I get the feeling more then one major faith was started accidentally. The bad things about religion can just as easily be laid at the feet of nationalism. Religion has no monopoly on closed minded bigotry. I don't know if religious people are necessarily any better or moral then non believers, but they should be.

Its a really beautiful sight tonight, the full moon chasing down Jupiter.

Seems easy enough, I got here didn't I? Looking a little deeper people run the spectrum in morality so I doubt we were all saintly beings before and end up so corruptable now. Reincarnation is a funny thing, it may not work the way people assume. There's the Taoist theory of multiple souls that get scattered at death, some finding there way back to carnation..old souls, new souls.. Frankly no explanation can be totally convincing..though there may be some very deep experiences that prove it, but only to the individual who has it.

Adept wrote this: "I think Xunzi, the Confucian master, is correct when he posits that we (humans) are inherently evil, and need proper education and upbringing to behave properly." I..I don't know. I clearly agree with the second part, but think the first part is too harsh. We're not inherently evil. In every culture, family helps family, neighbor helps neighbor. Its just as we move away from a social circle we tend to grow increasingly callous and uncaring. Human nature, person to person seems to work out pretty well. But as numbers get bigger we create labels, divisions and fight for resources and over ridiculous ideas.

Thanks for sharing, I've always found Michael Winn to be a very knowledgeable writer and very good teacher. Now to upload it to my kindle app.

Hmnn, I never know if you're being sarcastic. Are you really fond of Dorian? If so get a room (that's sarcasm, and your incendiary writing style often begs for it). You inspire the homophobic label (& it may be unfair) because you talk about it as a Great Sin- in a topic about The Stomach(!?). You bring up Satan quite often, accuse others of being inspired by him and are amazed it gets turned around. You have a habit of taking threads off topic, usually into areas that end up seemingly exactly where you don't want them. This should be a good place for you. You're a fellow practitioner. People here are interested in Sufism and spirituality, but there's a wide spectrum here, and to tell you the truth it runs a bit to the liberal side, and within that tradition is great tolerance. If you have hot button issues, maybe you (& I)can stay away from them and concentrate on the good stuff here. Teaching and sharing. on the lighter side. & Gary J. Clyman, is actually the Greatest Neigong master in this planet called Earth. our galaxy. We can't be sure if he's better then other galaxies because it takes so much time for light to bounce between them. You know, one time Clyman and Chuck Norris got into a fight, so.. I'll tell it later, but it was epic. It's later.. so Clyman and Norris get into a fight..all I can tell ya is we're just lucky the world didn't split apart. I interviewed Norris afterwards, he said 'I'm just glad Clyman is no Bruce Lee.'

Unfortunately, cheetahs are not outrunning extinction. Their numbers have dwindled below 15,000 in Africa due to the shrinking of their habitat and scarcity of prey, the WCS says. In some parts, the populations of subspecies have fallen below 100, putting them among the most endangered cats. The cheetahs in the composite video -- a female -- ran 100 meters from a still start in 5.95 seconds, National Geographic notes. Bolt, the world's fastest human, won the London Olympics 100 meters in 9.63 seconds and owns the at 9.58 seconds (see video below). Either way, the cat leaves the athlete in the dust, as it's able to accelerate from 0 to 64 mph in 3 seconds, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

A bit. I like the serious nature of the Buddhist subforum, and I've hit the Hermetic one a few times since its creation.

You may want to think about joining an art like Ki-Aikido, no power blasts or telekinesis, but they work with the concept of Ki in self defense, breathing techniques, meditation and healing. A physical art (aikido, judo, tai chi) can be grounding and helps keep it real.

Its purity is questionable, but I like Abulafiah's (1240-1290) work as translated in Ecstatic Kabbalah by Rabbi David Cooper. Its not intellectual, its chanting, breath work, a system of sacred vowels. Not wholly different then Egyptian and Shinto practices. A great free practice is from Abardoncompanion.com. Rawn Clark's 'Magic of IHVH-ADNI' series of 8 lessons. It's kabbalah with a Hermetic Bardonian twist. A channeled work (thus not pure) that starts simple and gets very deep. He has later audio's that use it as a healing device. Much Kabbalic study is very intellectual with complex diagrams, lists and structures, both of the above are experiential without being new agey.