Apech

Pot noodles

Freud eggs

Excellent point, thanks.

originally it meant trembling in the presence of God's spirit.

Yes they are karmically imprinted records of unresolved fearful situations.

Which of your organs are juicy?

There are of course various types of fear - including the 'fear of God' - which are all as far as I can tell (stand to be corrected) all a kind of energetic boundary phenomena. By this I mean whatever the frightening thing or situation is - it is pushing one's being beyond previously established comfortable limits of activity. Crossing lines or boundaries is a risky business - classically this would be fear of the unknown since every 'island' of the known is surrounded by a sea of unknown activity/potential. Fear of God is exactly this because God being infinite and perfect, He transcends all limits and through life pushes us towards identity with His unlimited power and away from our cowering ego selves. For non-theists substitute your own terms. As a non-theist myself I have already done this. Other fears such as the fear of a wild animal or fear of attack and so on - are mini-versions of this, as the situation presented is pushing us beyond our familiar modes of action into the unknown i.e. how does one deal with a Tiger? and so on. Just my thoughts of course.

Sad old day.

I tease to please.

https://www.amazon.com/CIVILIZED-SHAMANS-Societies-Smithsonian-Ethnographic/dp/1560986204 The book is a bit hard to get hold of - I got an ex-library copy in the end. I don't know if it can answer your questions and its academic in its approach although its author is a Dzongcheni.

I've pondered this myself and I don't think political power can be the answer (as you made the point about China and India). There does seem to be something about the further East you go the more 'inner' the approach - which is weird because East - West is a convention based on the earth spinning and not a polar distinction like North/South. Symbolically however east = orient = origin = place of arising (sun) while West means outer, more embodied, physical etc. So maybe this has something to do with it????

First thing is don't be embarrassed, while there are many techniques and mechanisms to meditation it is more of an art than a science. You can lead yourself to recognising where your mind is at and not where you think it should be at. You have conceptualised what should be happening - feeling a space and so on - probably because you have read or heard that this is what is 'supposed' to happen. This actually as much as anything is conditioning your experience. Fair enough you have something you want to achieve, I'm not saying this is wrong, just that you should treat meditation as more of an exploration of mind and its potential than some kind of method towards a pre-defined end. By 'mind' I mean the whole of your being or even 'being' as such. Actually your description means that you are already observing what is happening ... being overpowered by huge thoughts and so on, this is normal, as distinct to the abstract hypothetical versions you may read about. If your emotions get more intense on observation then that means you are investing in them in some way. If I feel sad for instance and I focus hard on the sadness it does intensify - it kind of draws me into deeper sadness. There are two ways of dealing with this - one is to use the emotion as a trigger to see what images and triggering memories it evokes, trace it back to its cause which is a karmic imprint in your mind and allow it to dissipate (the energy of it should re-integrate into your being). The other is to just note it and let it be. The second relies on using breath or some other focus to settle your mind - what Buddhists call shamatha (calm abiding) - this should be on-conceptual, no idea of 'observing' just sitting quietly and relaxed. If you are worried about your brain go and see a doctor for a scan or whatever. But I think you may be trying too hard - and again you have picked up certain concepts like 'watch the watcher' which are actually, in my view, far from helpful. In fact I would say, given the amount of time you have already spent meditating you are beyond this beginnery stuff that is spouted regularly by so called experts. Be particularly aware of the so called 'mindfulness movement' which is full of spectacular nonsense. Meditation only works as part of a 'path' - which means you have also to attend to conduct (which includes your life generally) and understanding (which means your level of understanding of 'things' especially your own body/mind). It's very difficult I know, because in a way we have to be our own shepherd or therapist. If you try to use meditation alone you are trying to move a mountain with just a small pickaxe if you see what I mean - the condition of subtle body and mind will continually push you back to habitual patterned behaviour. But the more you understand how this works, can adjust your own life towards greater consistency and integration - then sitting mediation can spearhead your self-investigation with some chance to feel better about yourself.

Just for anyone interested in orthodox Christian Symbolism:

Are you familiar with Jonathan Pageau on youtube - he's good on icon symbology.

Ok the guys been a monk - I looked him up - and is quite famous - so no disrespect - but what he writes is kinda strange.

There are a lot of very well qualified people who write mish-mash like this - sometimes it's quite astounding.

You are not me, I'm fairly certain.

"Let me marry my mum" ... hmmmm.

Two planets are lined up making a slightly brighter star than normal and ... oh yes the second coming