Apech

They then sent reprobates and criminals of disturbing aspect and possessing only the lowest cunning to live there for ever after.

I have referred your submission to the Amulet Review Board .

How unpopular would that make me?

Luke ... Luke ... I am shocked and ashamed that you of all people would think that THE AMULET can be earned so cheaply. I need more. For instance if you had revealed that when vacuum cleaning your apartment you had actually discovered an indigenous tribe living in a remote corner of your living room - that would have been the kind of exceptional claim which the panel might have considered Amuleting.

This I didn't know - thanks for the clarification. I'm sure many left the church because of it here too - the Pope has just visited this country and some people put up posters saying 4000+ people were abused by priests - so there is recognition and regret - the Bishop of Lisbon is resigning - not because he abused children but because he was ineffectual in dealing with it.

In part just to stay on my own message of Unpopular Opinions - I would say it doesn't matter diddly squat whether you and I agree they are wrongful actions. They happen and are allowed to happen (encouraged perhaps) by the almighty, which leaves some believers asking 'why oh Lord did you let this happen?' and others saying 'In your name oh Lord I did this thing'. If you mean that you and I, as fellow DaoBums and therefore men of integrity and virtue can agree - well sure, of course. If I can develop a little why I find these rules so odd and unrelatable. It seems to me that if you decide that there are a set of written rules which are basically what God wants ... and over time ... thousands of years in fact as with any legal system there are question for clarification and interpretation then those rules get tighter and tighter, simply because no one is going to say ... oh well good point forget about that one in that case. More and more restrictive over time. But with very little clarification on the why ... why can't I do this ... and so on. As a vaguely English person I found this kind of mind blowing. Although as I hinted at before - kind of impressive non the less. Well I was never going to be 'inner' I accept that. I live now in a Catholic country - having been born in a Protestant one - and I am learning to relate to the level of 'mystery' still preserved in Catholicism - particularly around the Virgin Mary. There's a lot of heart in it and an acceptance that there are 'things' beyond the mundane in the Saints and so on. Unpopular Opinion : I don't think the child sex scandals have hurt the Catholic church as much as its crazy attempt to update itself - and actually despite sadness for those who were abused I don't think this matters as much.

Yes history sucks. Everyone is violent. Even the Buddhists. In group preference is hard written into the human mind I think. War is normal, empires are normal. Sad but true. The contest remains as to who has the best formula for belief and living. As things are best assessed by results the winner is right. In fact might is right. But then maybe this is just how the Tao is destroyed in the human world.

Oh!

There is a special category event which you can enter. It is called most annoyingly insistent on getting an award person. It is a tough competition but you may wish to enter.

The amulet will be legal tender in both Antarctica and North Korea.

Yes of course it will be an amulet 🪬 which makes everyone instantly revolted by anything you say. The runner up will get two amulets.

who, why, what?

There was a time I agreed with this. But then 'my god-concept' says it's ok to drive a truck into some innocent people or strap a bomb to me in a crowd. Or my god concept says he gave us this land and we can steal it from those who live there - and shoot them if they object. Or my god-concept says I can invade Middle east countries and kill their leaders so they can have our special values. I was good friends with an Orthodox Jew some years ago and I have to admit while I kind of admire the Jews in a lot of ways, their obsession with laws and rigid interpretation of the rules for living made me wonder which part was 'spiritual' in any way. For instance don't push a baby in a pram on the sabbath because the wheels might cause ruts in muddy ground like ploughing (which would be classed as work) - also even weirder don't use the toilets in MacDonalds (even if you don't eat anything) because someone might see you coming out and think you had gone non-kosher. Without offence (even though this is unpopular opinions) the outlook of most that I knew was very materialistic and weirdly obsessed by gambling. In the end I couldn't make head or tail of what they thought they were getting out of it. Christianity is no better by the way - and certainly in the Anglican and other Protestant churches there is literally nothing spiritual that I can detect. Although I have to say that over the last few days the Pope held a youth congress in Lisbon which was attended by 1.5 million young people which is quite impressive. I don't know any other religious leader who could raise such a crowd. So maybe the Catholics got it right after all.

Castor and bollocks.

There is no debt only action and consequence. The idea of debt and payment comes from commerce. As karma includes intent the weight of karma varies with intent. Because of this through the blessings of a realized being karma can be removed. This is perhaps similar to Jesus dying to save everyone from their sins - although not precisely the same. From the perspective of pure perception there is no karma.

Nungali suffers shock after disagreeing with himself:

If you allow some relation between Shiva and Shakti then they cannot be ultimately divided.

I don't think the two can be equated since karma involves all action - good, bad, indifferent - as cause and effect. While a sin, as I understand it is specifically an act in contradiction to God's law/commandments. If original sin derives from the 'fall' i.e. Adam and Eve eating the prohibited apple and being thrown out of Eden - then I suppose you could argue that any baby born to a human after the fall has the mark of that act upon them and thus has this capacity to disobey God. Not being able to disobey God would make us like slaves or machines coded to behave ina certain way instead of free beings.

Yes. A beginner is someone at the start or opening of something. Such as the start of a race perhaps, on your marks, get set, go. As a sequence. Or someone who is first learning something like a set of procedures such as the rules of Chess - move a pawn two squares forward and so on (or perhaps advance a knight which can jump over other pieces.) A person who is learning this kind of thing would be called a beginner. Because they are at the beginning or start or opening. Dzogchen often translated as the Great perfection comprises teachings of the Nyingmapa (Red Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism or Lamaism as it is sometimes known. Also the Bon Po teach a similar system with the same name. These are said to be the ultimate teachings and are distinct to the other yanas or ways.

More detail? Dzogchen is definitely for beginners.

Dzogchen is for beginners.

Daniel and Luke have a spanking good time!

Good vid on DNA evidence:

But no traces of Australasian DNA in North American tribes …

But did they get to South America?