Apech

No it is not!

Well exactly.

I detest the terms 'white privilege' and even more 'whiteness' - it's a disgusting and lazy way to slur and discount millions of individuals.

I just wanted to discuss burning off 'karma' and so on without hijacking the other thread. i think there's two levels to this. One is the adventitious material that collects to the subtle body in the same way as the physical body gets dirty. The Egyptians had a word for this which was 'dw'. It could be understood much in the same way as dust accumulates on your TV set because of the static electricity which the electronics generate. So the dust is there because of the TV set but not generated by it. This 'dw' was purified in two ways - first by water libations: - as you can see this is the idea of energy washing down from the crown (which is common to purification in many systems). The second is by burning out the 'dw' - which is the Eye of Horus as a flame burning out the impurities - in certain Egyptian lineages this was symbolised by the hypocephalus which was an inscribed paper disk placed behind the head: - incidentally one of these disks was mis-translated by Joseph Smith as an Abrahamic text when he set up Mormonism So - purification by water and then fire (which makes one think of Baptism). Now the Buddha said 'karma is intent' - which is significant because karma actually means literally 'action'. So apart from the 'dirt' which needs to be cleaned out there is also intent. the question is then - can another being (human or otherwise) redirect a person's intent and thus change their karma (in the sense of their life direction). ???????

Chatroom is indeed dead - I drop by most days and no one is home.

not as we know it

influenced by them I would say - but it is still our intent.

Sleep with your head to the North

By inner layer or intent I was thinking of redirecting (?) ming or jati - in other words your fate or destiny in some way. By analogy you are facing North - then you meet a teacher and somehow you are now facing South - you still have all the work to do but now you are the right direction. What do you think of this idea???

a rumour from Ground Control

Maybe Jeff will answer that

yes 'blown out' will refer to the idea that when the the three fires of ignorance, desire and hatred are exhausted - then again samsara collapses and nirvana is 'revealed' - thus the Buddha is described as being a burned out fire.

It means awakened to seeing reality as it is - enlightened in other words. This is yathabhutadarsana in Sanskrit - lit. 'seeing things the way they really are', which is sometimes used as an epithet of nirvana.

Well Buddha is the big white umbrella.

Interesting Dwai - of course a lot of 'cultural Buddhism' is vedic influenced the more i read of Hindu/Buddhist/Jain history I see more cousins than strangers (though families do fight of course :))

I've never said you can't energy share or whatever. Bypass karma hmmm that's actually a tricky one - you can certainly burn it off and you can alleviate the effects also I think - not sure about the 'bypass' part. If you can't help other beings you wouldn't be much of a Mahayana Buddhist would you

What are you talking about?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_of_merit

fair enough - but I'm not sure why you said this.

Usually to the refuge assembly which is the usual objects of refuge plus the lama, yidam and dharma protectors.

Thanks - being an extreme egotist I only read things where I was involved. I wasn't of the impression that we were discussing the possibility of 'merging' but just if it was safe/useful. And obviously if you think it may not be safe then that necessarily means you think it is possible. I don't think Buddhism would say it is not possible - but perhaps the models for what is actually happening may be different (as per the other thread). Merit is accumulated. But I don't see this as putting it in a piggy bank - actually more merit is accumulated by offering it up! But as I say I'll let CT respond.

Ok thanks - I'll let CT run with that.

I think we must have been having a completely different set of conversations. I don't know anything about this 'container' is that something CT mentioned?

'Ignoring knowledge is sickness.' It is not talking about coughs and colds. I'm very happy that you haven't had any by the way I am assuming you are saying you have found this gateway and thus are you claiming Buddhahood or the equivalent?