Apech

In part I think its a refutation of this tendency in Chinese thought : http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/school-names/ ... a refusal to enter into disputation over terms ....

Zen garden with Thai Buddha .... hmmm ... I wonder if they produce Golgotha Hill with Indonesian crucifix or similar.

Even Buddhists don't actually say enlightened ... they say awakened ... its just that western translators use the term. Just as they don't say meditate ... more like cultivate.

I'm sure we've done this before but it would be nice to know which translations of the I Ching (YiJing) people use: I use mainly: 1 ) the Richter translation I linked to above (its free ) 2 ) Wilhelm (of course) 3 ) Alfred Huang The Complete I Ching (its good on the Hex names ... but have to watch his trans. occasionally) 4) Richard John Lynn's The Classic of Changes (Wang Bi commentary which is good for the commentaries) and occasionally 5) Stephen Karcher Total I Ching ... shamanistic interpretation ... If I'm doing a 'serious' consultation I use Richter to start with and then fill in the gaps with the others. I use the Wang Bi approach that the text leads to the image(s) and the images lead to the 'idea' (or meaning and principle 'li') ... so basically you read the text - judgement and images and so on to get a sense of the images arising ... then once you have the images you forget the text ... then you use the images to lead you to the key ideas being expressed .... once you get that you forget the images ... then apply the key ideas to the situation in your question.

This is from the online clarity site I quoted above: http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/learn/consult/yarrow.php ...and most translations like Wilhelm and so on give instructions. I use kebab skewers with the points cut off and have used drinking straws cos I can't get milfoil/yarrow. Nothing wrong with coins by the way but using sticks is much slower and contemplative ...

Best viewed wearing sunglasses

the music was sheet? .. surely not that bad.

A rest is something to lean on.

but the dot that can be dotted is not the eternal dot.

I've heard he's hard to kill when he's out for justice but after this he'll be under siege.

Yep .. I like it ... two dots.

...oh and give us Brits back our colonies.

Dream yoga is a particularly powerful technique ...Dusum Khyenpa the 1st Karmapa (among others) attained realisation through it.

Nothing makes sense if you try to divide up history on the basis of race.

Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Algeria and so on are African. The Ancient Egyptian culture came from Saharan Africa. All humans came from Africa. Skin colour is an adaptation to levels of sunlight.

Ok. I'm not going to pretend I know what's going on in this one ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bUV2wdOfXk ... I'm thinking Marblehead as an expert in Eastern philosophy will explain.

So anyway ... what's that on her head ... oh never mind I just realised I don't care ....

Thanks ....BUT I have suddenly become all mellow .... hey ... hmmmm

I think probably all mental states (apart from enlightenment) are ignorant to some extent. But when dreaming and being bound up in emotional attachments you are more ignorant than when lucid and being able to see them for what they are. If in the day time you are completely absorbed in samsara in that you completely invest in your own appetite for gratification and attempts at personal security, then this is more ignorant than the examined life where you realise how caught up you are and perhaps gain some freedom from it. These a relative states compared to real liberation of course.

I don't think this thread is about you. I think its about all of us - having a conversation. If you want to start one just about you - well why not - but I don't think it would be as interesting as this one.

I'm only looking for clarification and you react as if its an attack. You are right actually because Huang says that he uses Lake by convention and actually it can mean watery ground ... even a rice field perhaps.

Don't quit but you have to expect questions and challenges.

To be perfectly honest I can't remember very much about your first post (we are on page 18 after all). You don't like jokes and this is to be a serious and deep topic, that is noted. The problem is that this is an open forum where we are all free to express ourselves within some rules about insults and so on (very light rules but rules all the same) and although you did start this thread, it is not actually your thread, in the same way as when people talk the person who started the conversation doesn't control what other people may say especially some time later. So this is a level playing field where all views hold equal weight. And while I don't actually hold the view that your diploma idea is in itself a joke, if I did, there would be nothing preventing me from saying so. That's just how it is here (which you may or may not already know). I hope you are not offended by me pointing this out.