sean

And even our mind making distinctions is a part of this Great Perfection, not separate from it. And even what is truly truly evil and that we must always reject as such is part of this Great Perfection. And even this apparent sense of being lost and ignorant and in the dark, and having to seek a Truth we initially imagine is separate only to finally awaken to enlightenment, which is paradoxically a simple noticing of what was there all along, every step of this whole process is part of the Great Perfection. Kashmir Shaivism is very close to my heart. Sean

Yeah, I don't have a clue (obviously) ... I guess I look at Chia almost like the way I look at Sonnon. They are teaching really cool tricks but are not really awake to the fundamental truth of Being the way someone like a Master Nan, Sailor Bob, Yogani or an Adyashanti are. I hope this doesn't sound rude or overly judgemental, I'm just using my own intuitive discernment to select my primary teachers. BTW, Adyashanti is great IMO ... really down to Earth. Cam and I are going to his two day retreat in June. Sean

It's funny, I just had a conversation with Cam today about this very thing. I actually do believe this is the reality, and I think awakening or enlightenment is not really an attainment of perfection it's the self-realization of everpresent perfection. I have no choice (it appears) but to operate from my current state of ignorance, so for me the process is one of allowing skillful means, let's say, to release my doubts currently occluding (or at least apparently occluding) my awakeness. Something like that. Sean

Just added some teachers. Check it out!

So funny, I was going to start this same thread although without 1/10th of the amount of useful information. I just wanted to get out a disclaimer that even outside of raw or not raw, significantly altering one's diet is a rather powerful thing to do. Clearly it has a strong impact on the body, and the body has to do a lot of work to adjust. I have a lot of experience in the past working with people in another online community around big dietary changes (getting off all sugar, simple carbs, etc), and the things that surface are unbelievably dense driving some people to even seek out therapy and local, live support groups to help stabilize and integrate what comes up. Refined sugar in particular is basically a pain killer, and it's added to almost every processed food. Just cutting out simple sugars alone will cause a lot a lot of things under the surface to bubble up, old traumas that we've essentially been drugging ourselves numb to for decades. So, bottom line, like anything, let's remember to respect our bodies, go slower than our enthusiasm. I bring up the braces analogy in this context, it's like if you just start cranking braces full force on crooked teeth the first day you are just going to break all your teeth out and that's no good. I'm not saying be a wimp, push your limits, but then we your limits smack you down, acknowledge them and use something like Pietro's 70% rule. Don't train to failure, stay around 70% of your max. Ok, that's my rant. Sean

That is such a cool way to word that. It's like, allow stillness cultivation into the core of your practice and also allow whatever to arise to arise ... sometimes (like in Springtime ) what arises will be the juicy, alchemical, blending stuff, and other times just the simple "ordinary" living of life ... chopping wood, carrying water. Sometimes an odd blend of both. Chopping wood, carrying a steaming cauldron. Sean

Some go so far as to say that what is inside you is what is outside you, for instance, in the sense that the ego is not a separate little machine (as it often imagines), it actually is a complex relationship arising between "objects" both internal and external. I think Yoda should chime in on his Hicks stuff, because I believe he's gotten a lot of value out of actually practicing this position almost as a jnana yoga, cultivation the perspective that you literally create your entire experience down to the very last detail: "How you feel about another is exactly how they feel about you." Yoda, you around? Sean

Heh, well I think an even more ideal setup would be to let the "public" plug in their own rating for any teacher and then have some space to explain their reasoning. Because I think for some people it can get even more complicated than level of enlightenment vs. ability to explain, it's also their ethical development and maturity (ie: are they exploiting positions of power), the order in which they present concepts, even their personality, etc. So allow me to use this as an opportunity to plug the fabulous Tao Bums Review Board as having the potential to be this very resource. Sean

Lucid self, that is a great term. Did you make that up? It's exactly what I was getting at. Because the dream (that we currently call awake) is still there, but Now you are really awake in it.

Do you think Mantak Chia is enlightened? (Not baiting you, just curious). Sean

IMO the things you are saying are true in a sense, but there is another level that I hope you are not excluding by remaining merely grounded. From Heaven's perspective, ultimately everything we do is rooted in a desire, often a blind desire, to return to what you might say is the primordial source of Desire and also it's only true satisfaction; God or the Tao. If I were to say I have an "ultimate goal" it would be this, to awaken to the Truth of who or what I am. I imagine this Truth will include the reality that I am a highly imperfect human being, and, like you say, possessing a body quite possibly hardwired to prioritize physiological health/survival and reproduction above all else. But bodies and selves come and go. I'd like to know who or what remains. Sean

In the last month there have been almost a dozen new member registrations, all using email addresses at mail.ru, and all of these email addresses have failed to validate. If you are trying to create an account here using a valid email address from mail.ru and having trouble, please let me know. Sean

Here's mine today: 6oz water (soaked overnight with some Schizandra berries and He Sho Wu) 1 tbsp maca, 1 tbsp suma, 1 tbsp raw honey Handful of frozen blackberries Handful of broccolli A shot of carrot juice Pretty yummy. Sean

Damn, that is so cool. I would love to study there. And GrandTrinity, I think it's even cheaper than you are calculating. Those prices are Chinese Yuan. Single room tuition for 6 months is 5440 Chinese yuan which comes to around $680. Is that correct? Sean

GrandTrinity ... this is a deep, personal post man. I'm still digesting it. My Dad also appears to me and most of my family to have something like Bipolar disorder although he is not diagnosed. He self medicates most likely daily with marijuana and is highly resistant to doing anything whastoever to help himself. As he gets older he grows more and more destructive of himself and those around him, it's disturbing. I can't even talk to him anymore, it's just too distressing for me. I'm saying this because it seems like your Dad is coping with this disorder one thousand times better than my Dad, so you should be (and it seems like you already are) very proud of him. I certaintly don't feel like I am in any position to offer any specific suggestions on alternative medical treatment modalities for something like this, but I would say that, if he is truly truly open and motivated to heal this condition naturally, I believe it's possible he could get off meds and that bipolar could be a doorway into something new. I would add though that IMO he should definitely stay on meds and experiment with reducing meds very very gradually over time, preferably under good supervision, and paying careful attention to increased symptoms. I think this is a much much safer approach than just ditching meds and jumping into an alternative treatment. Too much stress all at once. Stabilize into a soild treatment plan, and wean off the meds slowly as the treatment starts to take effect is my opinion. One thing I have read is that Omega-3 supplementation is one of the few nutritional treatments to have been conclusively shown to have an impact on bipolar disorder ... obviously doesn't mean it's the only thing, but it's just something with some solid science behind it AFAIK. Also, I believe bipolar (as well as borderline, psychopathic, narcissistic, etc) symptoms can be caused by early trauma ... good trauma treatment methodology: http://www.traumahealing.com/ Sean

neimad, reminds me of Barbara Brennan's view of the chakras:

el_tortugo, it's great to see you posting again. Yeah, I like that old-school xerox style too, I think that's exactly what I'll do ... And yes I created the skull in my signature, thanks for the compliment ... I didn't paint it with traditional medium, I used Photoshop. I bumped into the image of a skull with a third eye hole online somewhere and just tweaked it, and added the sahasrara and ajna symbolism, played with the colors, etc. I'm going to print a few dozen stickers with the image, pm your address and I'll send you a few. The full image says "I AM" at the bottom. I thought it'd be cool to make a street meme out of it, ie: the andre the giant obey ... I imagine this as almost like a form of external, urban alchemy ... putting images that resonate spiritual consciousness into a landscape that is otherwise almost designed to exclude them. Sean

Karen, when you say awful, do you mean nutritionally, or just taste wise. I'm just curious because I found a rice bread that I actually like the taste of and now I'm wondering if it's got too much crap in it or something.

Not sure how many bums are near Colorado, but Jhananda is having a 6 day Jhana retreat May 23rd - 29th near Boulder. Could be interesting, Jhananda is a pretty intense meditator and has apparently navigated many of the Jhanas himself. http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/events/...etreat2006.html Sean

I rub the Almond Aura Glow (based on Cayce reading) on my skin after taking baths. uh, wait, did I say I was working on being more manly? Are you doing PNP? I did that for two years to the letter. Good experience.

Yes, it's a nice scent, do you like it? I wouldn't put it on myself because I am working on being more manly this year, heh, but it smells great on the Lezlizzle. She's all about roses, she loves rose ice cream too ... they sell it at Indian restaurants. Really strange, it tastes like you are eating a rose and fills up your sinuses with rose aroma.

You're a wild one neimad, I love it. Sean

This weekend I picked up the Weleda Citrus for myself and Lezlie grabbed the Weleda Wild Rose. Now she smells even more like a flower and I am giving off some serious grapefruit aroma. Sean

Yes, beer is the original source of water, right?