Apech

I'd like to agree ... but have no idea what you are talking about.

Hi, What this lady Caroline Dekker appears to be doing is using the energy of particular Egyptian temple sites to energize and harmonize the chakras. This in itself seems valid (provided it works). What was confusing me was some of the choices of sites and also the description of the deities and so on. For instance Kom Ombo ... the main deity associated with this town is Set .. he was known as Nubty or 'the Ombite'. But the temple which she is referring to built by Thut 3 I think has Horus the Elder and Sobek the crocodile god. In certain periods it was considered incorrect to name Set directly ... although in the earliest time this was not the case when Horus and Set were seen as equal if opposing forces (bit like yin/yang). BTW I think the lower Tantien is the 2nd chakra not the 1st. Suggest you contact her and ask more questions about what she does (if there's a contact on that site) ... I googled her name and found a blog also.

The term caveman i.e. literally person living in a cave could be applied to both neanderthal and homo sapiens. So I think the idea that we are not descended from people who might have lived in caves is erroneous. Neanderthal are thought to be an off shoot of human evolution and not our direct ancestors. For a time humans lived side by side with neanderthals in Europe and it may be that we did play a part in their eventual extinction (there are various theories about this). The last known neanderthal remains are on the rock of Gibraltar (south Spain). The skull with the 'bullet hole' - who knows? But shot with a bullet 38,000 years ago ... no I don't think so.

OK found it through google My link

Link will not work for me. The list of chakras and temple sites seems a little confused to me - where does this information come from?

No I did it over a period of time not in one sitting. I am a weak poor fool and also I don't walk around naked ... well only in my bathroom ... obviously I wish to discourage jealousy in others ... or something ....

I believe the sadhanas say this ... if you do this then you will achieve this. OK I think its a mixture mostly in that Lamas do not stress this kind of thing. Just to be clear I respect Buddhism greatly ... I was just pointing out what I perceive as a weakness which is tendency to think in this way ... I wasn't repudiating the power of dharma or vajrayana in saying this.

I have tried it. Maybe not well enough ???? but I have. When you walked around naked did they see the point? Were you making a big point or a small one ?(ha ha). Yes, crazy wisdom ok ... but that's more to do with what I'm saying ... there is no formula for that I think ....

Well, yes in a way they did and if you read Vaj above somewhere he seems to affirm that some practices are taught in this way.

The ancient texts have to be read properly to be understood - which is something Egyptologists or archeologists struggle to do because they have no basis or experience (inperience) of meditiation or energy working. But if you use a phenomenological approach - that is let the text 'speak' to you then you can with a lot of work get understanding. But the point is that this understanding would be a cultural norm in ancient times but has now been lost to us because of (at least ) 2000 years of interference from Judeo-Christian (and to a certain extent Greek thought). The Egyptian system had a clearly understood goal of becoming '3kh' ... although that would take a lot of explaining nowadays. I don't bother with kabbalah or Crowley much although have read a bot of both. If the question is - was there a properly mapped out system for liberation before Buddhism the answer is yes (IMO) but if the question is 'is there an extant system which pre-dates Buddhism?' well probably no ... have we discounted yoga schools ???not sure(?). My other point is that maps, mandalas and world views (e.g. shamanic) are good and valid ... but formulaic methods don't and can't work. For instance some Buddhists schools will tell you that if you sit in this posture and chant this mantra 100,000 times etc you will automatically become enlightened (or at least gain some level of liberation). This in my view is pure b/s. Codes for life can be helpful of course. You don't walk down the high street naked (well you might Vaj I'm not sure ) you wear clothes which make you accepted and acceptable to people ... this is in my view the status of right living and so on ... its a good code for life which keeps you sufficiently balanced that you can get on with practice without a lot of hoohaa going on in your life ... same with gathering merit which gives you a chance of what Gampopa calls 'leisure and endowment' ... so that you can practice in peace.

Well I was thinking 'ex' means 'out' and so experience means tested in the outer world - so if you test it in the inner world its got to be an inperience. Just a thought.

Any formula or method can only produce a set of effects which depend on the steps of the method. Shamanism is of course a term which has been applied in a modern way so we need to be careful about that. Someone mentioned Egypt where they mapped out the path with extreme accuracy and precision (for instance in the Amduat). So I am not against maps at all. Obviously as we have discussed many times before the Buddhist view critiques any other view which seems to have an underlying real cause or essence. This, as I see it, is a way of avoiding clinging to that cause and avoiding dualistic thinking i.e. IT and me. However the real root of this and the only reason it has any bite at all as a way of thinking is the face-to-face reality of the real (if you forgive this phrase) which is based on inner realisation or experience (perhaps inperience would be a better word).

You have to post in the lobby before anything else. And ... welcome

Standing still for what seemed an eternity

The world view of Shamanism is a cosmology. In some ways I think it is the failing of Buddhism in that it offers up a formula for liberation. I suspect that ultimately any such formula does not work ... its about praxis as Shaktmama says ... about your own experience and the wisdom it imparts to you ... you cannot formulate three steps to heaven despite Eddie Cochran et al. Sorry I think I was answering Vaj and not you Shaktimama ... ( ).

Just got back from a weeks break myself. Funny thing is I really missed being on here! Who needs family when you have TTBs all over the place? Have a good break Marbles hope you enjoy yourself. A.

I think that the ideas and techniques of Taoism were first developed when we were hunter/gatherers and that what we now tend to call shamanism was the universal way in which man related to spirit. People then as now would only value these things if they were actually useful in some way. For instance if they made the hunt better or the knowledge of edible plants and their habitats made gathering easier. This would be based on a sensitivity or oneness with nature and its ways. In hunter/gatherer communities only about 30% of time is spent either hunting or gathering which leaves plenty of time for creativity and so on - but because these people do not live in settlements (or not all the year anyway) the kind of developments which we call civilization could not develop - this has led to the misapprehension that these early people were not cultured, knowlegable or sophisticated. When man started to live in fixed communities and used farming to supply their food there was a 'sudden' emergence of many of the things we see today ... even mass production of bread and beer in the Nile valley for instance and of course things like writing and architecture. Clearly at this time the kind of wisdom and knowledge which people would value changed. To cultivate plants for food is risky business and the life cycles of the plants and the effects of the seasons have to be properly understood. No longer can you just up and move on if there are bad times. At this time life ironically became more of a struggle, risk of famine arose because of heavy dependence on the weather conditions. Whole civilizations collapsed or changed radically when volcanoes, tsunamis and so on upset the natural rhythm which arable food production relies on. Life expectancy dropped and infectious diseases emerged. So value was placed on health and cultivation. The sages changed their emphasis to reflect the world in which they lived. At both times they could live in accordance with the Tao and cultivate Te - the way it was expressed changed, that's all.

Thank you for taking the time to comment Marblehead.

Would it be nice? Its not meant for entertainment you know.

I think you may have misunderstood the moderation rules. The relevant ones are no racism and no insults. We do not judge whether people are bad or not - that's impossible on here and is a common mistake among some posters who start attacking the person as if they know them, rather than the ideas. This is when they fall foul of moderation because they usually, through frustration or whatever start to give out insults. A good example is where you at the beginning of this post - where you decided to reply to Steve (and not to me for some reason) by saying stop being a baby. How do you know he is being a baby? - maybe he's just exercising free will in deciding not to engage with you anymore. As far as I know moderation actions are made for either blazingly obvious reasons or are explained. So no problem there at all. The Mod Team are discussing if there is a need to take action - not sure how long this will take given different time zones etc. Apech for Mod Team

*** Moderator Message *** Well I guess I should respond directly to this appeal. I'm sorry that this discussion has come to this as I was enjoying reading it. I felt that people were actually putting energy into debate rather than insult. I assume the problem is the phrase "crazy, disgusting Jews in Israel" and is this statement either an insult or a form of racism. I had taken it to be an anti-Zionist sentiment on behalf of GiH or perhaps a criticism of their policy/activity of taking land off the Palestinians, erecting defensive (?) walls round Jerusalem and so on. As they are included with our ex-friend/fiend Mr. Bin Laden I think it is the extremist fundamentalist outlook which GiH is against and that he is not being antisemitic. Obviously I don't know if I am right about this unless GiH himself would like to clarify what he meant. Since I think an antisemitic comment would not be acceptable and we would have to moderate it - I am appealing to GiH to clear this issue up. Then I hope you will both be able to continue your illuminating discussion on peer review and challenges within science and religion. I will wait a short while, as there are time differences (I am in Europe) before doing anything else. Thanks. **** Apech for Mod Team ****

As in: - "I came out here to forget." - "Forget what?" - "I can't remember ...." PS. I wish I could forget more sometimes .....

Only sometimes? Well that's a start. I don't think of myself when moderating. I remember a long PM exchange with you where all I was asking you to do was stop saying 'fuck you' to everyone. You refused. There is an insult policy. Its not hard to understand really. If you insult people you may get suspended ... that's it ... nothing else.

There is very little permanent banning mostly only suspensions of varying times - which means people come back automatically at the the end of the period. 99.9% of banning is spammers - which unless you want to read through endless movie downloads, porn and payday loans is necessary. The other 0.1% are people who deliberately are trolling or perhaps multi-posting under different screen names in order to distort conversations or to influence others to come to an opinion about something which is to their advantage in some way - as with political spin doctoring - or something similar and have usually been through a few suspensions first before the whole thing becomes a time wasting exercise. The no insult policy is the main ground for any action and I think the conversation here reflects well what Sean wanted from that. To me its about cultivating good conversation - and I think that is Taoist.

A lot goes on behind the scenes and we discuss each case before action - unless its spam or whatever. No one likes suspending or banning people ... and it does get a bit dull when certain people are not around ..but that's the way it is. if you can think of way to make it clearer what's ok and what's not then that would help.