Apech

If he said he liked Limburger cheese in general then he would probably mean that he liked most of the L. cheese he had eaten.

He's eaten most of it ... hence the need for exercise.

Hi seth, I'm going to try to answer your OP (rather than tell you you asked the wrong question!). I studied Buddhist philosophy about ten years ago and this is from memory and also I will just say how I understand it in my own terms (i.e simple English). The whole philosophical journey starts with asking whether or not anything exists which is fundamentally real in and of itself. In other words is there anything, object, idea or essence which does not depend on anything else to exist, is permanent and is wholly itself (i.e. has not parts). If there is - then it has a self. Its fairly easy to look round the observable world and see that there isn't anything like this. Just ask yourself about the objects in the room where you are sitting one by one, was it brought about by some process external to itself? will it last forever? is it made of parts? the answer to all three is always yes. So no ordinary objects have a 'self'. Having done this then turn the spotlight on the thoughts and ideas in your mind and you will similarly see that they arise dependent on causes, have a finite lifetime and can be broken down into parts - although it is slightly harder to see than with objects this is still the case. Lastly turn the spotlight on yourself. How did you arise? Will you live for ever? Do you have parts? And you will see just like everything else you have no self. In essence this is the Rantong view. Everything is empty of self. And that's it. Obviously it has huge ramifications but in itself it is as simple as that. Some people's reaction to this is to suggest either that as things appear to exist then there must be some eternal essence underpinning them - even though those things in themselves have no self - the essence does have a self. This is Eternalism. otherwise some people go the other way and say because nothing has a self then everything is meaningless and there is just a complete absence of anything. This is Nihilism. The Rantong view refutes both of these positions although it holds resolutely to the view of emptiness of self and refuses to accept the underlying essence of Eternalists or the complete absence of the Nihilists. The 'problem' arises then in examining what are viewed as the positive qualities of Buddhahood, or the enlightened mind. For instance the enlightened mind is compassionate. From where does compassion arise? Same for generosity, patience and so on. Where do these qualities come from? Is the compassion of the enlightened mind actually real? the Zhentong school would say yes. They would say that although the Rantong view is correct in that nothing has a self, in fact Buddha-nature is a real existent and the origin of the positive qualities of the enlightened mind and Buddhahood. In this case the Zhentong Buddhists say that everything is 'empty of other', that is empty of anything other than Buddha-nature itself. So Rantong = empty of self Zhentong = empty of other The Rantong Buddhist would say oh this is just reintroducing the self when we got rid of it. But the Zhentong Buddhists would say if you practice any kind of tantra then you are already implicitly accepting the Zhentong view (because of the yiddam). In the end these are philosophical views which are not the same as inner realization - following which there will be no conflict at all. This is my go at answering your questions. Hope it helps. I'm sure if I got something fundamentally wrong I will be corrected by our 'real' Buddhists.

They did before the state of Israel was created there are many testimonies to this effect that I have seen on TV documentaries about the history of the Middle East. But I have to say you are right to be cynical. As I say, I like to dream nice dreams.

Ah well, I still like to dream that some people somewhere can have different views and yet co-exist and inspire each other. Maybe not in ancient China, maybe only in the distant future. But I am dreamer.

Welcome to TTBs. A.

Hi Pritesh, Welcome .. look forward to your ideas! A.

Maybe one of the impressive things about Taoism and Buddhism is that in China they managed to co-exist and inspire each other. I'm not a scholar or Chinese history so I am sure someone can pop up and point out the times they fought each other - but in the end we have Chan and books like the Golden Flower which came out of the soup of Taoism and Buddhism.

Isn't a dichotomous a giant extinct amphibian? Some of them had two brains, one in their head and one in their tail. So the middle point access will be somewhere round their tummy button, I suppose.

Well thanks! Mods have limited access to the high level stuff though.

I am deleting 10/12 a day and I know Mal and others are too. We are being targeted at the moment and some of the forum tools to prevent this don't work as well as they should. Please be patient it tends to come in phases and should soon die down.

How many wives do you have? (and please no cheating by counting concubines).

I tried to read a Graham Hancock book once ...

The sphinx is constructed on what is probably a natural mound or outcrop of rock - one which was probably sacred fro a long time before dynastic Egypt - the rain erosion is not so strange.

Fascinating! Thanks.

Well you've started 73 topics so far and apart from one on Eminem being 'sick' they all seem to be more or less on the same theme. You can see that Ralis and Marblehead have great stamina in challenging your point of view but that's about the only positive conclusion one can make. I have defended your right to hold these ideas in the face of some hostility in the past but the reason they got moved to off topic was the endless repeating of similar themes. How about just one thread on this?

I4L, This is getting tiresome ... I know its off topic but how many threads like this are we going to get? A. (not as mod but just me)

Good point ... many of the threads on Taoist Discussion are about whatever comes into people's heads or catches their interest. There's always Off Topic of course but a lot of people don't seem to ever look there. I like the random nature of some of the threads and also the way the discussion ranges about ... one of the best things about TTBs. Maybe since the specialist sub-forums are based round texts like TTC we could have something on certain sutras and teachings ... e.g. Diamond Sutra, mind training, abhidharma ????? That could work I think but someone would have to organize it.

He got you there Marbles!

Since you ask I don't think the physical world is limited ... the limits are in our minds and expectations about what is possible.

Clearly its up to you how you approach this ... supposing you are going to study it all. If you are you need to start with why for instance three yang lines is sky/heaven i.e. what energy/power in nature it is an image of. Why lake? What is meant by lake ... what quality of lake is being alluded to ... etc. rather than assuming you already know what sky, lake , thunder and so on are. Its hard to explain but try to let the text speak to you without preconceptions. Your questions are good .. since you ask them you could get to an answer I think. Sorry if this sounds either vague or mysterious but its late here and I'm going to bed now ...

I don't pretend to understand the I Ching properly ... although I do consult it from time to time. To me it is interesting on all sorts of levels. If you accept that energy has a basic polarity (yin/Yang) ... then you can look at how complex levels of reality can develop from the interaction of this duality ... from the pairs, trigrams to the hexagrams ... most of the Taoist alchemical texts seem to draw on symbolism from the I Ching so if you are interested in cultivation then its probably a great help if not essential to have a basic knowledge of it. But I guess if you feel no connection to it ... then give it a miss ... there are other things to do.

Either 6000 or 60,000,000 depending on philosophy?