Apech

From earliest times:

They're not fascists.

Oops wrong thread.

That's very interesting. Thanks for posting it. I think I used to have a book by this guy - but I don't know what i did with it.

One interesting question about early societies (early by standard historical narrative) i.e. Sumer, Egypt, Indus Valley, Ancient China is that the divine beings were depicted quite often as human with animal heads, or other body parts, wings, tails and so on. Of course this goes way back - as cave painting show the same kind of iconography e.g. antlered man, lioness with human body and so on. So the question is why? Why is the divine seen in this way rather than the present rather abstract disembodied spirit and so on. What people in those days meant by 'gods' is quite different to today. And based more on 'seeing' than thought or abstract ideas. Shamans see these kinds of figures. How is it to be understood I wonder.

Some people have compared the 'handbags' to these carvings at Gobekli Tepe: but others have suggested that these are symbols for sunrise/sunset.

Souls. When does it end? What? Does infinity have a limitation?

I don't think Vajrayana texts should be shared - but then a lot of Lamas seem to write books on them which means they are widely known when in the past they would have been 'secret' - so who knows

Hi and welcome, I'll let people with more knowledge than me give you a detailed answer about the Dao and so on - or you could search the board, there's lots of threads on every subject. I think probably overall you're doing ok, physically and health wise - I wonder if you have looked at working on your emotions, not in an indulgent way but on the basis that emotions and energy are closely connected (or some might say the same thing). I'm not suggesting therapy or anything but just more observing of the cycles you go through and how you feel about things and yourself - try and tune that in with yoga and meditation perhaps - especially around the 11 -14 days thing (apart from hot chicks on the street ). I think you need quite a high level of harmony for celibacy and its hard to achieve - so don't feel down if you fail occasionally. Just look with interest to see what's going on. Just some thoughts. Good luck

Reminds me of my school days - but not that long ago.

Listen - how would you feel having provided last minute drinks for the wedding party, healed some sick people, a picnic for 5000 guests, said some nice stuff about the meek and then they nail you to a cross - and not even a thank you! Cheers dad! Who'd blame him if next time he just sticks to carpentry?

My brother is exploring our family tree and got back to about 1820 - turns out I have Scottish, Irish, English and quite possibly German Jewish ancestors on my mothers side.

People may mock but being Jesus is a very tough job, not everyone is cut out for it.

@Radix, You seem agreeably eclectic and widely read - but you seem to have some self doubt in terms of practice - it is perfectly possible to 'get somewhere' without formal teachings or transmission. The Golden Flower is nice because it has confirmatory signs and experiences - my only reservation is the translations which do not seem completely reliable. Luk is good too. If you are in a place where you cannot get transmission or instruction then maybe take it as a sign that the universe has confidence in you

I think you can be happy and poor (in the sense of having few possessions) but you only have to look around to see that most poor people are miserable. In fact most people rich and poor are miserable. TM said in the human world the Dao is destroyed (paraphrased) and I guess this is the cause. You can call it capitalism (boo hiss) if you want - but I think its really the human world. We conspire for misery in the pursuit of happiness - something like that. We make misery and turn the world to shit because we don't make in accordance with the Dao.

I follow Karma Kagyu - aligned to the Sharma Karmapa (not the other one ). Where do you live that Skype is banned - can't you use a VPN? or Tor? I go in Dharmawheel a little bit - I find it very conformist and conventional.

Welcome Tim - look forward to your contributions.

Whose pressure is it valving?

Well, we've gone from TM on on the destruction of the Tao to some (pointless) memes in the space of one page.

I'm curious - what are you going to do for the guru-yoga stage? Don't answer if you don't care to of course.

@Radix Your 'long essay' is very clear and I understand a bit better where you are coming from. I doubt very much that any ritual or ceremony such as ngondro will get you anywhere if it is indeed just a ritual. The irony is that that I 'belong' to a Buddhist group which stresses the orthodox - while I myself am congenitally unable to practice things by wrote and without putting in a lot of effort to understand what I am doing and why. Hence why I said I'm doing ngondro very slowly (currently in a stop phase ). I am also very divergent in my interests and often wander off on the byways to study other systems like Daoism and even Hermeticism and Ancient Egypt. So I wasn't trying to promote some kind of conformity or adherence to gatekeeping but rather perhaps for seeing those same things from your own point of view and getting value from them. I wish you well and urge you, as you seem already to do, to be true to your own values because in the end that is what counts.

Could this be translated for non-US members?