Apech

No actually it wouldn't. Or at least it shouldn't. Atheists would see it as a chance to argue logically against his point of view. What would lead to banning would be genuine trolling - that is deliberately taking antagonistic views to cause trouble and disruption and ad hominem attacks.

forgive my ignorance - what is the relevance of Rainbow Body to no-mind in Zen being stuck in emptiness?

Actually I think this is an error that Zen is prone to rather than being an exact equation.

You were almost silent

Ok forgetting the yogic flying incident for a moment - I think sometimes the issue with the dzogchen/mahamudra view or approach (and I include mahamudra because I know more about it) is that it sometimes sounds like 'no-thought' Zen. I suspect that the sudden Zen approach is an infiltration from Daoism. There was a significant debate in Tibet which is usually portrayed as a debate about 'sudden versus gradualist' approaches for Tibetan Buddhism, which the Ch'an (Zen) side lost. But I suspect this debate was really about 'are we aligning our Buddhism to India or to China'. And was in fact more of a political debate than people realise. A lot is spoken about the influence of Buddhism on Daoist schools (like Complete Reality) but not much about the impact of Daoism on Buddhism. (sorry if this is a bit garbled - slightly rushed for time). For those who think there was no Ch'an in Tibet this is a good book on the subject http://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Zen-Discovering-Lost-Tradition/dp/1559394463/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451818607&sr=8-1&keywords=Tibetan+Zen

and another

Hi ... my thread is back with a couple of interesting vids ...

Any chance for getting back on topic - I'm all for witty repartee but just putting each other down ... meh.

The emptiness - luminosity is mind in its basic being Luminosity - emptiness is awareness when this is pointed out They fuse in the depths of the uncontrived mind you're home free in the native state I do not go checking on meditation to see if mine is good and yours is bad This mind that's not tampered with, left uncontrived is when feeling good feels just right Milarepa

I do not go checking on views to find out if my own is high and others' are low This mind that's not tampered with, left uncontrived is when feeling good feels just right Milarepa

If you see me in the ocean just wave.

So many systems to dispute but our lives are short.

Buddhism uses the term yoga for certain methods and practices. It is not necessarily the same interpretation as Patanjali.

Everyone joyful and full of hope ... looking forward in sober reflection towards the coming year. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-new-years-eve-pictures-10673770

Yes they are the somber and reflective minority - the rest of us go really crazy.

I googled it and got this :

and another

completely totally amazing ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1idrV4XExv4 ... quite heavily symbolic what with the star, the angel and the candles/lights and so on ... is she trying to tell us it's going to get a whole lot darker next year?

and small? Write that book. and large? Create a journal. Medium? Ghost-write.

An elevated dialogue

Sign on the door: MEN. Who may wish to be engaged But are still vacant.

No you are right I was being flippant. You could say all mystery is around death either eastern or western will confirm.

I hope I haven't used the computer analogy because I think it is inherently false - or at least inherently so limited as to be dull and redundant. After all we invented computers during WWII to do dull repetitive calculations and now they have become something like a super advanced telephone and an enormous reference library. All of this is necessarily limited to be lesser than whatever we are and can be. As to what reincarnates ... this is not a Daoist question is it? It's not a Buddhist question either since rebirth doesn't require a 'thing' to reincarnate. But if you hold in the reality of subtle levels of being then there's no problem in continuity during and post death of physical body ... but it is as you say unproductive to speculate ... just have to wait and see

I think the use of 'consciousness' (vijnana) as a skandha relates specifically to the condition for subject object duality. While the Mind of Cittamatra (Mind-only) schools of Buddhism including Ch'an / Zen is more like a field of sentience or even 'mind-stuff' which is the original meaning of citta in Samkhya and Yoga philosophy - a medium which can take up and discharge form (as with thoughts arising and falling away for instance - but applied to apparent objective reality also). I think the idea that jing-qi-shen is a spectrum and not three entirely separate things is commonly mentioned. Rather like ice - water-steam ... phases of manifestation of a single 'substance'. Given that, it seems an inescapable conclusion that qi cannot be viewed as something entirely distinct from sentience or awareness, by which I mean if qi transforms to shen in the MDT as described in internal alchemy then the spirit must be somehow latent in qi or even the shen seen as a specific rarified form of qi. Generally speaking I find the most successful writings on these topics tend not to translate terms like qi but allow the reader to gain understanding through use of the term in context.