Apech

Hi and welcome, Your spelling is better than most on here by the way.

I agree with your approach - do techniques but don't rely on them. Approach them in a fairly light hearted way as - for instance - breathing properly will make you feel better if you can become relaxed and more centered. Don't be put off if it doesn't seem to work on a given day - just do something else and go back to it later. A.

Seth, Than story conjures up the most amazing images. So great that the dad supports his little boy. Surely this is what its all about - deal with the individual ... with love and not judgement. The rewards are enormous. I have no idea what the official Daoist view on homosexuality is but I know the traditional Buddhist view is not very right on. I think that any way that condemns some people for this kind of thing is probably culturally based (mostly medieval) and not at the heart of mysticism - which in its heart deals with the reality of individual consciousness and not through a set of rules or whatever. I'm not sure if it matters whether animals do it too. Even if they didn't would we be entitled to stand in judgement? A.

Sky rockets in flight Bits of satellites falling Its busy up there.

muddy footprint trail! He went that way for sure with his shoes on backwards!

Apologies for being a late arrival at the demon ball - I have only just discovered this thread. I became so engrossed in reading the various posts that I have missed a meeting I was supposed to attend ... and will have to apologize to them even more than I am doing to you. I am interested in concepts of hell (doesn't hell mean 'light'?) particularly because I think the Christian hell is a distorted version of what the ancient world would have understood to be dimension(s) of the created world accessible particularly after death. The Buddhist hells seem to be the kind of bottom end (and most unpleasant/painful) of the samsaric wheel and simply serve to illustrate how dangerous our projected state of being can become if we are locked into pride, greed and so on. In the Egyptian underworld (Dwat or duat) there is something called the 'lake of fire'. This lake has a dual function. It burns out impurities but it also has the power of renewal. It is nasty for the nasty but beneficial to the good. But the view, really, is functional. Judgement took place in the Judgement Hall by means of the Negative Confession (which I notice someone on here quoted in the Gossamer thread) - these were a mixture of moral statements (like - I haven't killed anyone) and statements about not breaching religious etiquette (like - I haven't looked at the sky while prostrating). Anyway - it seems that this 'hell'- space into which people enter on death has the property of reflecting back onto the individual their own character or state of being. In this life, in this world we have a kind of anchor in our body and have the protection of being involved in an apparently stable(?) outer world. But in the next we are directly subject to consequences of our actions and our nature. For me this gives some impetus to the idea that I should strive to improve myself! A.

where is my bus pass? just the ticket for travel! perhaps I'll walk home.

I love BSG!

Happy birthday from me too. A.

when I go nowhere I always have this question - have I arrived yet?

Hmmm how like a guru not to take his own vow.

Enough about taxes already. Can we just get back to helping each other? I think it is up to us individually. MTS charges what he charges and that's it - take it or leave it - draw your own conclusions and do what you want. I have taken the Yodisattva vow so I will say no more. Master Yoda that must be the first bad thing I've seen you say about anyone! Have you taken your own vow?

Easynow, Honestly you have obviously had a bad time. You need to give yourself the time and space to reclaim your energy. I feel that any complicated or 'powerful' practices at this time might be more confusing. I feel you should simplify - and try to avoid too much drug use and so on. If you have sorted the physical sexual problems then you just need to wait and give it time for the emotional stuff to sort itself out. Despite how it is presented to us its actually not easy to form satisfactory and harmonious sexual relations with other people. Most people have problems with this and you are not unique in that. I would still suggest you avoid any elaborate analysis of problems and work on grounding yourself and finding simple things you enjoy. If there's a Buddhist group near you you could go and do some shamata somewhere quiet and peaceful. Cheers. A. PS. nice vid/mantra to listen to: yUJucA-mrgE&feature=channel_page

Hi Jack, This place is safe enough and a good resource for learning about different practices and therapies and so on. But you need to make your mind up about what people say and what you are told because opinions differ and there is little/no moderation (thankfully) so everyone is free to express (and argue if they choose to). For what its worth - and its almost impossible to give proper advice because I don't know you or your circumstances - but I would suggest three things: 1) Try to regularize your outer life by having routines about sleeping and eating. Eat balanced meals at regular intervals, try to go to bed earlier and get up earlier and don't seek out overly stimulating situations. Become a little boring in other words. Cut out or reduce stimulants like tobacco, alcohol, drugs and coffee - don't give up at first just reduce as much as tolerable. 2) If you don't already practice - learn a simple settling meditation technique such as following the breath or just sitting formlessly - so you can learn to let your mind settle. Our minds get caught up and exhausted by the world and loose connection with our underlying nature (which is a source of renewal). Need to let thoughts, feelings and so on come and go to practice returning to base (so to speak). 3) Find something creative that you like doing and do it a bit more. Could be anything - like painting and playing music or just going for a walk in the country. I would suspect (although I don't know obviously) that your problems are not as difficult as you think and that with time you can gradually ease them. There's lots of people on here who are healers - try the Healing Circle or post specific questions on the discussion forum and you will find some well meaning and helpful replies. Best wishes. A.

Kill the inner foe Also watch the outer foe He's out to get you. (not that I'm paranoid)

Tune in to the healing circle. Give more details and there's plenty of advice from different posters on diet and remedies. A.

the scream of bag pipes swirling in the gusting wind stiff breeze lifts my kilt. (lucky I wore my thermals)

for seniors in love can act like juniors in fact - grow up! why should I?

Welcome back Ed. A.

into insight's gift comes a dead word unspoken autumn leaves in spring.

It claims a continuity with Christian thought as well. All the religions of the Book have this problem in that once you believe that the Bible is literally the word of God then it becomes carved in stone and cannot be reviewed or changed. Orthodox Jews have stricter and stricter interpretations of the divine law because of this.

I enjoyed his "Shamanistic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts" and think that he has made a contribution to moving academic opinion away from the old entrenched views (which he summarises well). And I agree with the phenomenological approach to the texts. I've done quite a bit of study of the Pyramid Texts of Unas and I think they are key. No one I have read has really got to the heart of them though. A.

Thanks Darin, I found that really interesting. What happened after this - did you manage to stabilze these experiences? A.

Pietro, My name is John but I am a borg (ha ha). I was teaching English this morning and I realised that I had an Iranian, an Iraqi, a Khurdish woman, someone from Eritrea and several others - nearly the whole of the axis of evil!!! They are so nice and well meaning that it is very hard for me to get any of the Muslim threat stuff. OK I disagree with a lot of their culture but it is not our role to lecture or disapprove. I think societies need to develop in their own ways. You can't go around the world imposing democracy for instance it has to grow from within. There is a theory about philosophy (possibly Marxist) which says that society throw up the philosophy that reflects it. So if there is a strong hierarchy in society then the philosophy is hierarchical and so on. So I would suggest that the stage at which Islamic thinking became in turned and conservative was when somehow the society had developed in this way. Whether this is to do with expansion as such I am not sure. The comparison with communism is not to say that Islam is in any way like communism in its approach or thinking, but just that Islam has replaced communism as the shiboleth of the West, the scary 'other' which threatens all that we stand for. This is the way that governments work. They control peoples minds by manipulating images of nasty foreigners - just as the Nazis did with the Jews and the idea of an international Jewish conspiracy and so on. That's not to say that there is no real threat from Al Quieda or whatever - but the way in which these organisations come into being and are allowed to flourish is significant. I agree that many communists are charming bespectacled intellectuals who want to change the world for the better. But I think if you had said that in the USA 1950 - 1990 you would have got shouted at in no uncertain terms. I assure you there are many Muslims who are equally charming. Sharia law seems to evoke some dismay in the West because of the 'barbaric' punishments - such as public flogging and the cutting off of hands. We just don't do that sort of thing - so we don't want them to either. But its not really that long ago that we did. And what were the most barbaric events of the 20 century? WW1 and WW2 presumably. We killed millions feuding over who ruled Europe - or in the case of the Japanese the Pacific basin. You just have to look at how the Japanese were portrayed after the war - as kind of alien crazy people capable of barbaric acts in concentration camps and so on. Now, on the other hand, they are colourful, funny, slightly eccentric but admirable people with their own special aesthetic.

Pietro, I would suspect, as you kind of suggest, that the slow down in Islamic culture, or change in mind set or whatever we might call it precipitated the popularity of the philosopher's thought, rather than the other way round. I think ideas take hold in societies where the right conditions exist. Somehow the Islamic culture which blossomed in that 800 - 1100 period ran out of steam and became inward looking and conservative. Luckily for us, what they had was passed on to the West. I understand from what you say that you think that there is something specific and threatening about Islam, over and above the kind of threat held by any orthodoxy - but maybe I am misreading you. OK Islam is at a particular stage in its development and exists in some of the most troubled places in the world - and is also promoted in a certain form by some very uneducated people (e.g. Taliban), so it is now highlighted in a way that Communism used to be ... that is as the main threat to freedom, liberality and our way of life. By thinking like this a kind of wall has been built up which informs foreign policy against any form of Islamic state (e.g. Iran). This makes them more militant, more confused because of the way in which the West cynically switches support e.g. to and from Saddam Hussein depending on what he was getting up to. In other words it is an unholy mess. And individuals like you and me, and the Muslim in the street are just left wondering what the hell's going on. We are all victims of this nonsense.