sean

Sounds like a good strategy. (PS - Cameron, I had to edit the topic title, for some reason it was causing "page not found" errors).

I think it was Eckhart Tolle, right, who said that men's biggest obstacle is their intellect and women's their emotions. From a Deida perspective everyone has a masculine and feminine essence, and in most but not all men it is more natural for it to be polarized in the masculine and in most but not all women it is more natural for them to be polarized in the feminine. I like Deida's distinctions about the masculine's ultimate impulse is for freedom, whereas the feminine's is for love. Both have their sticking points. Each impulse has varying degrees of health/neurosis on the relative but are essentially One in the absolute. Sean

Ahhh, that is so brilliant! I never heard this before, it really resonates. It's sooo simple - and yet within that there is difficult and easy. This brings more clarity to what I was trying to articulate about being drawn without effort into stillness -- I doubt our experience is much different -- I can still look at my meditation area with loathing. And there is often really incredibly pain and suffering that comes up. I am not just sitting around all blissed out. Life/practice can be very difficult. But in some strange way it's unspeakably simple. "Now - the secret of infinity" -- thanks for the recommend. I've wondered where to start with Barry. I like what little I've heard. Maybe I will buy this for myself for Christmas. BTW, off topic I guess, but I dusted off CFQ again last month and have been exploring this a little further. Really beautiful practice. It has to be some kind of cosmic joke. "Waking up from the story" is also a story. There is much humility found through this insight IMO. The ego is swallowed. Great story too with the cow. I often watch my cats in wonder, seeing glimpses of what I imagine is some sort of dawning recognition. Hehheh. I joke with Lezlie that sometimes I think they are moments away from becoming self-conscious. Namaste, Sean

I have noticed this as well and it reminds me of something one of my teachers Liu Ming taught me. I'll paraphrase what I got from his lesson. Basically it was that there is another dynamic that is very important. From the tantien down there is a feeling of rooting, of being stabilized and even gently pulled downward. Then from the tantien up there is a feeling of everything floating, even a gentle pull upwards. He actually specifically told me not to focus on this stacking quality, but instead to allow this soft pulling apart to happen instead. I've experimented with it and it took some getting used to, as I'd intuitively been doing more of the "stack approach" for years. Now when I am meditating, when my mind shifts to my alignment I still remember his advice and let myself feel into his suggestion. No big result to report from doing this, it's a subtle thing ... just an interesting detail I learned I thought I'd share. Sean

Yes SeanD, I agree to keep it civil. Let's all just relax the ego stuff, myself included, and agree to show the utmost respect for each other. Forums are notoriously goofy like this because it's so easy to take things in ways that they weren't intended. So far I feel this forum has been blessed with a pretty impeccable track record of respecting different viewpoints. I want to continue holding this intention as a group. This is a beautiful little sangha we are cultivating here, let's keep it up! Namaste, Sean

In Buddhist terms, I think Adyashanti is using words as skillful means (upaya). It's just a teaching strategy. It's that simple. Despite coming from a Zen background, his terminology has become enriched with the branch of Hindu philosophy called Advaita Vedanta. If you are ever bored look up Adi Shankara. There is a pretty deep history of Buddhists and Vedantists debating. Some historians credit Shankara for driving Buddhism out of India by continuously demolishing Buddhists in debates. (I am not saying this to argue, I honestly don't care one way or the other). Personally I find Adyashanti's teachings to be the most profound pointers to a direct experience of what lies beyond the mind that I've encountered. I don't know how else to put it. Ultimately I really have no idea if he is enlightened, if I am awakening or if my experiences are anything more than pleasant endorphins being released in my brain from listening to him. Neither does anyone else. And that is part of his point. There is this huge void beneath all of our thoughts and beliefs and feelings and perceptions that we have about how things are. It's very strange if you stop for a minute and wonder if maybe you really have no clue how this all works. When you are stuck in the mind, it's so incredibly easy to just poo poo this as a beginner step or to think that this is really basic and you already understand that. "Oh yeah, that, I've read that a million times." I've poo'd poo'd it for years. But when it opens up, and the mind stops, there is just no more question. There is just no question at all. How could I ever explain no-thought with thought? But it all becomes so incredibly clear. Except it doesn't feel like it became clear. It feels like What Always Already Is and Always Was clear. You see because if you take the Buddha's words at face value, if you take them literally, the self is just an illusion. So if the self is an illusion, it was never in the way of anything. This is what is seen. And then when this Always Already Is is not grasped for, which is an interesting struggle to watch play out because there is so much pleasure accompanying this opening, so it's turned into another "high" to try to get and sustain, which is just another way to imagine an illusion is in the the way of anything ... but to let go of grasping even this, then there is a soaking of your entire experience in That. There is something happening here, perhaps from exposure to Adyshanti, perhaps I am being exposed to Adyashanti because there is something happening here. I cannot really explain. It's almost like nothing is happening. But it's an incredible nothing. An opening, a silence between thoughts. There is so much space it's overwhelming. It's ironic to me, all this talk of hard work and discipline I am hearing. Maybe this hard work is around the corner. I am not afraid. I am committed to Reality. And hard work is easy. I am probably a workaholic in fact. But around this awakening, which is really not a separate thing actually, my experience is different. I am meditating 3-5 hours a day now, and I shit you not, there is only a tiny trace of effort. In fact, I think it would be physically difficult for me to resist and if I didn't have to go to work 8 hours a day, I think I would be meditating 5-8 hours a day. I am just naturally pulled into sitting in stillness, in silence. And yet there is little force, less struggle for an idea of what I imagine (but have never seen or experienced) enlightenment to be. How is that different from a holding onto a lie? A part of me sometimes wants to say "Yeah, just listen to Adyashanti, and you will see". But I really have no clue at all if that is true so I really don't recommend anyone except for what you are truly drawn to. I am more eclectic and tolerant and feel that I have many different teachers, probably some of which that would not even get along. There are different kinds of minds, different kinds of personalities. I have preferences. And judgments. I think there are better or worse pointers to Truth. But we are all drawn to teachings because they resonate with us on some deeper level. Not because we've sat there and weighed out every single logical fact to make a decision. Anyway, I am probably rambling. Good night, Sean

SeanD, honestly, I am not worked up in the least bit, nor had I even considered banning you. Is this something you are interested in? You are really transparent, I wish you knew. The problems people are having with you here, and I doubt it's just here you have these issues, don't really have anything to do with intellectual spiritual disagreements. There are thousands of posts on here amongst dozens and dozens of people, many with vastly different viewpoints, and nearly all of them civilly presenting their understanding of issues, listening carefully to other sides, being respectful, basically utilizing common sense social skills that we all learned in kindergarten. Something to think about. Anyway, I think we should move away from the personal pokes and prods and character analysis. It was amusing but really nonstandard for the forum here. Normally I keep a pretty tight ship with the "no personal insult" policy so let's stick to it for real now. Warmly, Sean

I think we have another Healing Tao casualty on the loose folks. And I think I should change this thread title to "There is no lack of ego here". Sean

Smile. One of the most dedicated meditators on the forum. Completely ignores the ego dramas and grasping at straws in other threads to respond promptly with ordinary advice to an ordinary question. Sean

This coming from a guy in an ethnocentric fundamentalist cult who has faith in outrageous things he's never seen himself. Sean

SeanD, What the hell are you talking about man!? Do you even fucking know? Hahhah! Just joking. Sorry, I couldn't resist. That is a strange approach you have to a debate, I'll have to remember this one. Reminds me of this South Park epsiode where an urban gang war is about to go down, and I think it was Cartman who stands in between to the two gangs and he is trying to reason with them in all these different ways that aren't working, the gang is getting closer and closer to each other. Finally he goes "Guys! Come on!". And everyone is just instantly stopped in their tracks, confused, knife in one hand, the other hand scratching their head, going "... Wow ... yeah guys, I think he is right. He has a great point there. I mean -- Come on." The whole war is diffused by a completely meaningless remark that doesn't address any of the issues. Anyway, I think The Tao Bums should start giving out awards, and I think you should get the "snarky Tao Bums know-it-all award". I always thought our first run in with an approach like yours would be through a born again Christian type stumbling onto the forum, irking everyone to convert with that southern density and insistence on literal scriptural understanding you just gotta love. I can't help but find immense humor in the fact that it ended up being a fundamentalist Taoist such as yourself. I didn't even know such a thing was possible. With tongue in cheek, Sean

Here's an article on various stretches you can do to make the transition into lotus easier, for anyone drawn to this asana: How to Grow a Lotus?. Sean

Via Wellness Associates Liedloff spent several years with the people of the Yequana and Sanema tribes of South America. They were the happiest people she had ever seen. The children never fought, were never punished, and obeyed happily and instantly. Her western perceptions of human nature totally demolished, she emerged with a radical understanding of our deepest needs and potentialities for wellbeing--and of the means through which we may begin to heal ourselves and save our children. Most crucial is the cognition that the way we treat our very young is a primary cause of the alienation, neuroses, and unhappiness that is normative in the civilized worlds. The infant's early experiences influence all that he becomes. The growth of independence and emotional maturity spring largely from the in-arms phase of life outside of the womb, i.e., the phase prior to the commencement of crawling. In "continuum-correct" cultures, the infant's experiences correspond to his and his mother's ancient expectations. Mother and child remain in close contact from the moment he emerges from the womb. The umbilical cord is not cut until it ceases to pulsate. The infant is given the breast. This is the moment of "imprinting." Geared into "the sequence of hormonally triggered events at birth," it must take place right away. The urge is immediate, and, Liedloff asserts, its satisfaction an essential prerequisite to the smooth succession of stimuli and responses that follow as mother and baby begin their life together. The infant seldom has any need to signal by crying, or do anything but suckle when the impulse arises. At night, mother sleeps beside him. The infant is taken everywhere, always in-arms, and is there in the midst of an active person's life. He enjoys occasional direct attention, but his main business is to absorb all the actions, interactions, and surroundings of his caretaker. This information prepares him to take his place among his people. <snip> The keystone upon which the tribal child's development depends is the assumption that he is innately social in his motives; his persona is respected as good. There is no concept of a "bad" child. This assumption is "at direct odds with the nearly universal civilized belief that a child's impulses need to be curbed in order to make him social." Furthermore, in these societies, respect is accorded each individual as his own proprietor. Liedloff found that no orders are given a child that run counter to his own inclinations as to how to play, what to eat, when to sleep etc.; but when his help is required he is expected to comply immediately. Social animal that he is, he does as he is expected without hesitation and to the best of his ability. Praise, virtually absent in these cultures, wreaks havoc in ours. "Oh what a good girl!" implies sociability is unexpected, uncharacteristic, and unusual--and a child does what he perceives is expected of him, rather than what he is told to do. Read more ... Interesting article. Very supportive of Yoda and Neimads approach to children discussed in What would you teach to the kids and which I initially argued with ... you know, since I have so much direct experience with raising kids. Sean

It has nothing to do with belief, Sean. It's what is present regardless of beliefs. A noticing of this presence may draw one to become a spiritual renunciate, but becoming a monk is not a guarantee of anything. Because no one is there to notice the noticing. There is no self in control of wether to notice presence or not. Deepening just happens. There is no self that deepens. The ego can just as easily spend 10 years on spiritual quest as it can on building a business or creating a family. In fact, in some ways it may even be easier to hide an aloof, detached, angry, aggressively seeking ego away in a cave than amongst society where there are constant demands for you to give back, and so much more room for getting knocked on your ass, embarrassed, hit in the face with bottles -- btw where were you with your "hands in front of your face" advice last month man, I needed you! There is only one truth, expressed in infinite ways. It's the ego that places monks and sifus and gurus on pedestals. Being drawn to a time of solitude and silence is more about a return to what is natural and ordinary for you than being "the best spiritual guy ev3r!!! -- way better than those stupid lost capitalist douche bags in that coffee shop back there, that's for sure". It's all one, including the infinite ways in which things are unique. All of the distinctions, good, bad, medicine, cocaine and health food as you say, these distinctions are also part of the one. The one is not a gross sloppy grey soup at the midpoint of two extremes. The one is dynamic and filled to the brim with Everything. Talking about Truth is pretty wild, you are right. I try to have a good time failing. I choose my words as pointers to silence. My own silence and anyone else who is reading my words. I know I fail a lot on my end, instead stirring more confusion and grasping in my own mind, so I can only imagine the kind of pure torture I put people reading my posts through. Sometimes though there is a real stopping here. My words seem to cancel themselves out, or maybe my mind just gets frustrated and gives up, and there is Silence, even amongst words. Perhaps, like you say, literal silence is best sometimes. I've been thinking of making a transition to poetry but I think I am pretty bad at it. But there is less room for argument and I prefer to meditate than debate these days. Peace, Sean

Darebak, seandenty, the way we frame enlightenment, at least on the surface, appears very different, so I'm not sure we'll find the satisfaction of agreement here. It doesn't really matter though. Darabek, yes, anything can be grasped at as a mental category, including what I am writing about and including by my own mind. I almost want to say especially spiritual jargon. That's why I say, don't listen to me, trust yourself. What is most important to you. I know enlightenment is present because there is access in any moment. It is not complicated or hidden at all. It's all one. Nothing is separate. Sometimes enlightenment is obscured. Sometimes it is revealed. How and Why are a mystery. When there is a deeper and deeper noticing of this presence, an evolution in manifestation occurs. The mind can be changed, the heart can be changed, the body can be changed, etc. And perhaps it really does lead to a kind of immortal supermen with incredible powers. And perhaps the Chinese culture really does have beings that have stopped turning away from enlightenment for so long they have been transformed in ways we can only imagine. I hope you have found the most powerful, enlightened teachers on this planet. I wish that for everyone. There is a part of me that can see how a continuous noticing of That, without anymore running, can cause radical change. Steps. Layers. Deepenings. Mystical insights. Powers. Openings. Flowerings. Stages. One of the most powerful experiences that I read about, and am drawn to, is the description of how the belief in a separate ego is finally incapable of being held. It just breaks for good. A sense of self remains, but it's seen through like a story, or a movie on television. You realize you are sitting on the couch. But there is another part of me, thought to call it a part seems horrible inaccurate. And this part is pure spaciousness in which there is a silent insight that even so-called "spiritual evolution" through higher and higher "levels" of attainment is just another story. It's not "unreal" in the sense that is can be poo poo'd, but in the clarity of Oneness, ultimately there is no "deeper understanding". Manifestation is polarized. Joy cannot be sustained indefinitely because it is defined by the absense of joy. So you can fly. So you can do incredibly martial arts. So you've healed your body completely. So you have learned to penetrate the deepest regions of consciousness. This is all wonderful, to be celebrated ... it's the fullness, the love, the dance of creation. It's inseparable from the One as well, and yet there is always stillness. In the drunkest evil uncultivated bastard there is That. Can you access the space in which everything is Ok now? Perfect and One as it is? Already always? It's easy to write it off ... "oh that's just the first step in my three dozen formula enlightenment to-list my master has given me". Yet it's the ground in which this whole drama unfolds. Sean

Wayfarer, Sean, thank you for your comments. Sean, again, I know that China has a very unique culture and people. If you are drawn to a study and immersion in this, that is truly wonderful. I am too. I would like to learn Chinese and spend a few years in China someday. My only real point here is simply that grasping a "Chinese mind" is impossible and, more importantly, not a requirement for "attaining" Tao. Tao is not Chinese. (It's also not not Chinese. Etc.) It's a pretty mundane and obvious point actually, considering there are fully enlightened teachers from every continent, all speaking their own languages, all with their own cultural idiosyncracies. Regards, Sean

I'd never seen or even heard Eckhart Tolle before. I read "Power of Now" many years ago when it first came out and it really moved me and opened me up on the path. It was through his book actually that I began exploring the Advaitic stream and found some of my dearest teachers: Ramana, Gangaji, Papaji, Wilber, and Adyashanti. There is something really beautiful and powerful that comes through his presence, I wasn't expecting this, I was very touched watching this video. Thanks for posting. Sean

Beautiful. Thanks for posting. I had no idea Adya clips were on YouTube. Good to know.

I have been meditating a lot lately and finding myself spontaneously getting into lotus position for periods of time. I can only handle full lotus for about forty minutes before the pain makes me fear I may be hurting myself. But this time is extending a few minutes here and there. Full lotus really does have a distinct energy to it that pulls my mind into deep silence. I can imagine how opening oneself up to being capable of sitting in full lotus without back support for extended periods of time ... well I think the process of finding comfort and peace with this position would require a real stripping away of held tensions in my body and mental resistance to the moment. Anyone watch that video rex posted of the guy jumping up into lotus position in the air, and landing in it? Pretty cool! Sean

Wow, cool video. Thanks for sharing. Despite the warnings, that leaping up into lotus is something I'm going to have to try. Sean

I could write for days on this topic. I'm more drawn to meditate in my free time though so I'll have to condense my thoughts as best as possible. Please understand that my point is not that differences between cultures do not exist. Everyone at times notices and perhaps more importantly, feels differences between themselves and people from other cultures. But thoughts and feelings arising naturally in response to the alchemy of a moment is a whole different ballgame than creating a new mental category "Chinese mind", much less taking it seriously and attempting to operate with it. Let's take a close look at the good QiDr's example of a Chinese child, adopted at infancy and raised by American parents. Let's say the child is male for simplicity in my story here. Ok, so the boy's parents have begun reporting an observation that "Chinese characteristics" not explicitly taught by the parents are emerging. Setting aside for a moment the deep problem of defining "Chinese characteristics", let's proceed. First, we are immediately confronted with the fact that race is little more than a fuzzy, social classification strategy based on superficial visual characteristics that are the result of only about .01% of our genetic makeup (and that can shift easily, ie: in response to weather). The genetic difference between two Chinese individuals is just as likely to be significantly greater than the difference between someone Chinese, and an individual of a different race. (Let that sink in for a moment, because it really instantly dissolves many innacurate assumptions people seem to have about what genetic ethnicity means.) Now we are clear that the "Chinese thoughts and behaviors" we witness in the child are not physically measurable. They are 99.99% unrelated to the genetic makeup of this boy's body. So what does that leave us with in our search for the root of this child's "Chinese behavior"? Culture and ancestral qi. Ok, well, cultural influence can be almost entirely ruled out. Or can it? We assume the child is disconnected from his birth family and from an immersion in Chinese culture. Yet we might speculate that having a Chinese body in a largely Caucasian country might naturally lead to certain differences in attention. The child spends a moment longer staring a a page in a magazine advertising a new theatrical Chinese play premiering downtown. He is fascinated with the face of a Chinese boy in the poster. He doesn't see boys like this in his neighborhood. He feels like he is looking into a mirror. "Who am I? Am I different from those around me? Am I more like this child?" The boy takes the time to study the Chinese characters and the beatiful, subtle, artwork in the advertisement. Is there a transmission in moments like these? Most likely something unique is stirred. But we are left with perhaps the most powerful influence. "Collective karma", or in more Taoist terms, ancestral qi. Ancestral qi is essentially the last 150 years or so of your ancestor's spirits hanging out with you, guiding your destiny, whispering in your ear, sometimes sitting in your body, stirring your emotions, influencing food preferences, etc.. This is where the rich potential for a Chinese influence on a child otherwise disconnected from Chinese culture becomes very clear. Our boy is being directly influenced by the last few generations of his family ghosts. Simple. Really, all three of these influences, genes, culture, ancestors, are on a continuum without firm division. There is not a hard distinction between physical and nonphysical, just a gradient of density. The distinction is made in modern science by a reference to what is measurable. What is reasonably measurable is, in one sense, the only phenomenon the mind is capable of grasping and making use of. "Chinese mind" is a mind's attempt at a useable mental category. But is "Chinese mind" measurable at all, even relatively for a specific purpose? Well now we have returned to the original, deeper problem of actually defining "Chinese characteristics". Genes are easily measurable. Minds are not. In fact, a mind has yet to even be located by the measurable sciences. Cognitive researchers are left to taking polls and interpreting statistics from subjective interviews over the course of decades just to formally identify a single, and yet still highly questionable, distinction in human psychology. Richard Nisbett's research that Sean Denty posted a blurb from, and with which I am familiar, is an example of these kinds of attempts. If you have read Nisbett, you know what he has found is that East Asian individuals exposed to living in America for less than a single generation will score almost identically to a native born American on his various "East West" tests. So where did the "Chinese mind" he has found go? Or was there never a Chinese mind? Just Awareness effortlessly wearing the empty robes of Chinese cultural conditioning. Robes that flap in the wind, are torn by the rain, mended by silence, and tugged at by old ghosts. Robes that are no closer to or further from untouched Awareness than any other robe in manifestation. I have two final things to say about cultural differences in regard to this thread: 1) I wish anyone the best of luck who is interested in trying to locate and/or translate your observations into accurate or even partially reliable mental distinctions between you and someone from another culture. If this is something you are drawn to, you have quite an interesting project on your hands. I hope you have a clear felt-sense of what the purpose of your project is as well. 2) If your purpose turns out to be another self-improvement project for a self that doesn't exist via adding new distinctions in order that you may more "purely" embody your own concept of what that cultural difference means to your own satisfaction so as to feel more capable of accurately studying the historically recorded perceptions accumulated by another culture all in order to one day "learn" to stop ignoring the Enlightenment that is already in this very moment ... Well, all of this sounds like more convoluted horizontal movements of the seeking, dualistic mind to me. Which is really just fine. That is what the mind does. Any mind. My mind. Chinese or American or Indian or Persian minds. "Oh, enlightenment is not here, it must over there. Yes, they must have it." Perhaps the mind ultimately has to completely wear itself out before it gives up and allows what is beyond itself to be revealed. And what better project for that than an impossible and futile one. At the moment I am more interested in That which transcends speculation on empty distinctions that have no permanance. Where is the Tao unscathed by form, Now? The Tao that is only lost when we take the horizontal strivings of the mind seriously, and the thought that we've lost something that must be found arises and dazzles the One child-like Awareness. The Tao that is already Awake and already what is aware of the words on this screen, yet is often covered by thoughts such as "I can't be awake. I still get angry. I am still sad at times. I make unvirtuous decisions. I am a mess. I am out of control. I need something else. I am in pain. I need money. I need to read this new special book. I need a secret practice. I need an ultra elite lineage teacher. I need to go there, or there. Anywhere but here!" As if The One is separate and somehow more or less than your ups and downs. As if the infinite Tao is so separate and bound by manifestation that it is limited to only express It Self through a particular cultural mind form, having specific kinds of experiences, in a specific language, in specific terminology. As if the Tao is in any way separate from the simple, ordinary clarity of this very moment. "Yeah right Sean, snap out of it man. That is way too simple." Precisely why it's so easily ignored. It is what is always already present. Don't listen to me. Trust your intuition. Follow your bliss. Be well. Sean

Hey Gabe. I live in Oakland too. I think I've seen you around, your face in your avatar looks really familiar. Sean

But my point is, thought has very little to do with the collective actions and destiny of a society and even less to do with enlightenment. Thoughts just come. Typically in the aftermath of action. There is no thinker. Decisions are just made. Preferences come and go. Societies rise and fall. What does thought have to do with any of it? What does thought have to do with the primal pull of sex, of reproduction, of birth of love and hate and war and death? Thoughts are just insignificant details. Ghosts. Philosophies are crystallized conversations that arise in the aftermath of the perception of what is. Yes, and another culture's concepts will not change this. This is my experience. There is just awakeness. There is no one that awakens. There is just ordinary awareness that is present. It can be present timelessly because it has no qualities that I can describe. There is a sense of sitting in a chair and typing. There is a sense of emotion. There are thoughts. There are sounds. There is the image of words appearing on the screen. There is a sense of a self. Of a "Sean"; memories, tendencies. And there is a spaciousness, the clearest stillness, just soaking everything. There is a felt sense that there is no one home. No one here to awaken. There is the feeling of This Is It. There is still a lot of gripping, grasping. There is gripping and grasping at the graping to stop gripping and grasping which is a knotted mess. Sometimes the entire mess gets dropped for a moment. This feels very nice. It feels so nice there is gripping and grasping soon afterward. Still there is spaciousness. It's not special. It confers no talents or advantages, in fact it removes things and makes the me feel stupid and anxious and embarrassed sometimes. There is a sentimental sadness in knowing that the ego will never succeed. I am involved in a gigantic failure that just keeps getting worse and I have no idea where I am going. Trading one culture for another. Re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It's all in good fun. Warmly, Sean

I think his point is much more sophisticated than just a foggy deference to relativism. Honestly, to say "logic and critical thinking were born in Greece" reminds me of the exact sort of condescending 19th century Judeo-christian critique of the "Chinese mind" discussed in this article. As if entire Chinese culture has been sitting in lotus position speaking only in funny paradoxical riddles for thousands of years while "the West" was using formal syllogisms to make every day decisions. Heh. Because we all know how logical and rational the history of Western civilization has been. "Rational" is like "evil" and "beauty", it's such a loaded term. The history of Chinese philosophy is as rich and varied a tapestry as Western philosophy. Eastern and Western philosophers approached the same human and existential questions and many ended up saying strikingly similar things. Skim some Aristotle. Then read up on Mohism and the Logicians. Kick back with some Plotinus and Spinoza. Then flip through Laotzu and Chuang Tzu. Afterwards ask yourself if the "Chinese mind" is really so foreign and convoluted. There are cultural differences, sure. But are they so vast we need to postulate and attempt to defend our belief in a whole new category of mind, people or culture? Seems like just a new clever way of reinforcing separation; of keeping the lines in the sand. And it smacks to me of the embarrasingly common trap of the Western seeker fetishizing Eastern culture. None of this has anything to do with authentic spirituality IMO. In fact it appears to be a form of resistance in nearly the opposite direction. Concepts are just funny powerless little clouds. Arising. Typically puffed up. Often twisting on themselves. Thinking themselves into mistaken identities. Throwing fits of thunderstorms. All the while there is the One Clear Awareness behind (and also as) the eyes of every man and woman, every tree, bird, rock, computer monitor ... all of the ten thousand things, all of manifestation. To think we need more knowledge, more understanding before Awakening is just another powerless thought. What is always already present regardless of wether we are rich, poor, sad, happy, insightful, stupid, up, down, born with a "Caucasian mind" or a "Chinese mind"? Sean

Yeah Lozen, that is the first thing I thought of when I saw his photos. Wow, he looks really hot.