Apech

You call it a contract ... everyone else sees it as a no insult rule with a couple of other things tagged on. I think despite criticisms that this board gets the moderation that the TBs community wants. Quite a few people want none at all. In fact at one time were you not one of them? Some people want more strict rules about content but the rest of us, and I include myself just want some light touch modding that prevents long boring ranting disputes, flame wars and a lot of swearing. That fosters an atmosphere of respect. Surely you can see how difficult it is for the mod team to step into the area of content moderation ... i.e. censorship ... preventing certain ideas from being expressed. Where would that stop? Do you want your views on practice to be controlled? So it can only happen in extremis in my view.

The point(s) being made in that book I quoted above in reply to Alwayson are these: 1) the schisms which occurred in 'early' Buddhist schools were about divergence in monastic rules. 2) when Chinese monks visited India at this time and commented on monastic life they remarked that different monks of the same monastic rule would be practicing Hinayana and Mahayana side by side with tolerance. 3) it seemed that the minority Mahayana view at that time in ancient India was regarded as a slightly eccentric but harmless variant ... i.e. there was no major schism. 4) the difference between Hinayana and Mahayana is seen as one of motivation i.e. seeking to liberate self or seeking to liberate self and all sentient beings and not rules and so on. 5) given 4) it is perfectly possible and likely to have occurred that there could be Thervadans which hold a Mahayana view (though it would be discouraged by those institutions. 6) since the difference between Mahayana and Hinayana has nothing to do with vinaya rules which were the basis of schism it is highly unlikely that the Mahayana grew out of one of the schools that divided off. It is more likely that individuals in all schools held the Mahayana view but that it grew in popularity over time in certain places because of the changing social and political climate - to compare see the book Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement which makes a similar case for the growth of tantric Buddhism - to become a majority view in the North and a minority view in the South. 7) that the comparison made between the Hinayana and Mahayana and say Protestant and Catholic Christianity is false and unhelpful in properly understanding the history of Buddhism. There you have it.

Maybe he wants to be inPhyn8?

Isn't there a Wicca thing ..."if it harm none so mote it be" ... I think harmlessness is a good rule ... while not avoiding karma exactly it at least sets a better tone to the proceedings.

This time of day I like to read a little Blake ... and I hit upon this memorable fantasy: "So the Angel said: thy phantasy has imposed upon me & thou oughtest to be ashamed. I answer'd: we impose on one another, & it is but lost time to converse with you whose works are only Analytics. Opposition is true Friendship."

"Buddhist Thought" chapter 3 page 74. ISBN 978-0-415-57179-1

It might be pretty basic BUT the point I was making is that this account is now disputed by some experts in the field of Buddhist studies ... OK?

He said "Mahasamghika, or “Great Community,” was the predecessor of the Mahayana tradition" this was what I was disputing ... or rather authors I have read have disputed.

"Do what you will ...but pay the price" was the way one of my teachers adapted the famous Crowley motto. I think it is important to recognise that karma or action-reaction works on all levels and is liable to come round and bite your backside. the only non-karma generating action would be to act through grace (or wu wei or buddha-activity). Otherwise if you do magic then you will experience repercussions. Its part of learning to do this.

I have read that there is little evidence for this as the Mahayana split is not about vinaya disputes but about a different way in which Buddhahood is conceived.

cool breeze from still lake trigrams form a hexagram sage says wear warm clothes.

Of course its possible but it exists as a mod facility so sometimes its used. I don't think it should ever be permanent but it is up to the mod team to decide on a case by case basis. I understand now that I am no longer a mod that the sudden disappearance of content can be disconcerting ... if you are a mod you can still see it pinked out ... so the effect is more like highlighting ... and I think maybe there is a case for for a general explanation as to when this might happen and why. Timescales can be difficult especially now as the mod team is so small (3) i think you need about 5/6 active mods to get reasonable coverage otherwise long delays will occur.

Sean is against editing so we didn't do it as mods. We asked the poster to change it and if they did that was fine if they didn't then a suspension ... and the post if extreme might be hidden but usually left with a comment. Sometimes moved to the Pit. for most things - because most TBs are decent people I didn't mind putting it in the Pit. But of course if its in the Pit its still on the board ... still part of TBs ... so I had a real problem with racist material which I thought should be deleted entirely ... and I see no difference between discriminating against people for race or sexuality. But the content I'm talking about here would be hate attacks and not just religious/political views because at heart I believe in freedom of expression ... I defend peoples right to post even if I violently disagree with what they are saying.

I agree with 90% of what you are saying ... especially that its the members not the mods who are soul of the board. I think there are some issues where hatred is expressed ... like racism and homophobia where I think it is right to make a stand. I would accept that there are people whose sincerely held belief system makes them not able to accept being gay as ok ... but really its the hatred that needs to be addressed. You might I suppose hate what someone does but you should not hate the person.

Well you may be right but if you have a thread which is deliberately hijacked then going to the mods or reporting is a reasonable thing to do ... to do this is not a personal weakness but a legitimate way of using the rules of the board. After all if you report it does not mean the mods have to act on it ... it is then up to them to judge the situation which is what they are there for.

Hiding posts/threads is usually a temporary measure pending final action. if for instance the mod team are discussing what to do.

yes the Ptolemys ruled Egypt in the late period and the most famous was Cleopatra. Also they were invaded by the Persians and Assyrians and of course the Romans. The idea of making god equivalences was Greek - they liked to do this so the Hermes=Thoth thing is theirs and not the Egyptians idea. However I don't suppose they had a problem with it. they did import some gods again int he late period but mostly it was export ... particularly Isis who became a universal mother goddess through the Roman world and together with Serapis was the last of a pagan gods before the onset of Christianity. During the first few centuries AD there was a kind of multi-cultural melting pot in Alexandria, the city founded by Alexander the Great in northern Egypt. It had a famous library which was later bruned down by the Christian mob. here is where the Egyptian priest, Greek neo-platonists and jewish Kabbalists intermingled and this is where Hermeticism and the writings of Hermes Tresmegistus first appeared.

Oh so all these discussions are a game or competition to you ... is that right ... very interesting. I think you have to bear in mind that a lot of people come here to discuss and learn from each other and are interested in the subject matter. Give it a thought.

For a long time the knowledge of Egyptian gods was limited to the Greek writers like Plutarch who recorded their myths. This is where for instance Mozart got Isis and Osiris from for the Magic Flute (he was a Freemason). Then after Champollion decifered the hieroglyphs a lot was published and it opened up a lot of knowledge. One Egyptologist called Wallis Budge was curator of the British Museum and published a lot of texts ... his stuff is still available in books and on the internet as it is out of copyright. Occult groups picked up on this newly discovered knowledge and used his books to recreate rituals and so on. Unfortunately Budge was not a very good Egyptologist and made a lot of mistakes. If you mention his name to a modern Egyptologist they usually sneer or laugh .. but one of the reasons Egypt is so popular is because of him, something those others forget. You will, however still find a lot of his mistranslations in use ... for instance he called Atum - Tmu for some reason. More importantly there are certain groups of gods (called Enneads - which means group of nine - even though sometimes there are more than this number) the main one being the Heliopolitan Ennead. These are the gods feature in the creation myth focused round Atum-Ra. Shu, Nut and Geb and three of them. These together with certain key deities such as Horus, Anubis, Maat, Thoth and so on form perhaps the main gods. But you must remember Egyptian culture lasted intact for 3000 years and although the central themes remained the same the style and emphasis changed. Also each major centre had its own version of the creation and the Ennead or in the case of Hermopolis the Ogdoad (group of eight).

If that's against the 1st amendment then so is advertising and political publicity.

What?

Thanks so much for all your help.

that's a massive question to which the answer is all of them if properly understood. I know that sounds like dodging giving an answer but what I think I need to do is build up to those kinds of questions as we go so to speak ... perhaps if I talk about the various entities of a person and how they interact ... also the relation of parts of the body it might start to make sense.

You are a god among TaoBums ... but no it still makes my CPU go to max temp and fan whirr like a hairdryer ... what a shame

Thanks! memory Fox is nto available for Osx snow leopard ... I wonder if there's analternative ... but have got others and am trying Firefox again... thanks so much for the advice.