Apech

You're going to call me picky here but if your education was convent school it was catholic and not puritanical (which is hard line protestant) - there is a difference I think. I like the pain/pleasure thing - that's very non-dual

classical arboretum

Voodoo deities/spirits.

I started a thread a while back in which I tried to explore the idea that there is no singular type of 'thought' but that this word is used to cover a number of different activities/functions. I think it is possible to have a purely objective, cold, functional thought - for instance if you think about some mechanical process but generally thoughts carry some emotional charge with them - for instance we like or dislike to a certain extent, sometimes strongly, sometimes weakly, the subject matter of our thought. I think the point is that our mind/body/spirit is a continuum, 'it' , viewed as an 'it' or 'we' viewed as ourselves has continuous motion which is actually continuous emotional content. This continuum precipitates body but then body stores content. When we experience something it triggers all resonate stored content and the levels of 'charge' in that content vary from person to person, generating a variety of subjective experience and response. 'The path' means the way in which we as beings seek on the one hand self-knowledge and on the other hand perpetuation of existence (immortality). The ground for understanding and for liberating ourselves from degenerative processes is in the emotional field. So in this sense emotions are the path.

Wine for the circumcised:

I think that one of the proofs of 'emotions are the path' is that the path is difficult. It is difficult, it is not easy. If one were to say for instance that the path was a system - a mechanical method - of say repeated ritual action, then it might be long, if a very large number of repetitions are stipulated but it would not be hard. If one were to say that it was a matter of grasping certain concepts - and this alone would bring 'enlightenment' then again there might be a degree of intellectual effort required - but in the end it would be both simple and guaranteed. The path engages all of you, all your being, which includes most importantly your emotions and if you find yourself put off downcast, over-faced by the task, frustrated by lack of progress - these are all emotional states. So even though you might argue that your True Self lies beyond all this, it is still the case that the task in hand is to address your present condition. Your present condition being one that exists as a consequence of your being alive, of having a body, of living a life in the 'real' world. In fact you could argue that the task in hand is to align your actual self with your true self. By True Self I mean your essential being which arises directly from the power that makes it all, luminous, knowing and loving. By your actual self I mean the complete assembly of the sum of mental, emotional and physical conditions which form the being you possess day to day. If my words seem inexact it is because I am trying to avoid the technical language of any system (Buddhism, Daoism or whatever).

Tropical limits

Equinoxal events

I think an argument could be made for a different timeline.

I think our intellect or rationality are the tools we use to define terms. I find that discussions on here go much better if we first say what we means in clear terms, by the words we are using. So I started by looking for a derivation of the word 'emotion'. Because this is the subject doesn't mean we are limited to speaking emotionally about it. It's not a straying from the path, in fact it's a necessary first step toward any kind clarity.

Christmas presents

Sore point

oh, go on!

dualist

circumcision

A lot of meditation instruction tells you to still or even stop thoughts – and holds up as a goal the idea of being thoughtless or at least non-conceptual. And yet trying to stop thoughts has been described as like trying to dam up a river using water. It doesn't work so why even try? OK, to sit for while you have to be able to settle physically and mentally. Letting go of a stream of distracting thoughts is essential – but beyond that, if you are practicing does it matter if you are thinking? For a start, the word 'thought' is very bland. There is a huge spectrum of energy intensity, from raging anger, say, to an abstract formulation. Are these the same thing? Then we can also distinguish between object orientated thoughts – which are in essence like commands – and, imaginative thoughts, like dreams or visions – are they the same thing? What about pure-perception into the nature of our mind, a realisation of whatever kind, is this the same as object related thoughts or creative imagery? We have at least three types of cognition and therefore thought going on in our minds simultaneously, and with varying levels of energy. And if we are not trying to put a stop to this continuous process, then what are we trying to do?

Being better:

Is love a choice with you?

@manitou absolutely loving your replies by the way. Love - yes. Is it an emotion tho'? Not saying it's not. Just asking. Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds ... and all that. An ever fixed mark. etc. etc. Someone much cleverer than me pointed out - reverse the letters E-V-O-L (ve) ... is it something like wanting to be better and make those around you better as well. God's law written in our hearts. Or to be a bit Don Juan - the predilection of power - ??????

I'd invite Isaac Newton and say 'oops sorry I dropped your apple'.

Northrop Frye - my man! yes, yes yes.

I found this old thread about frogs and snakes which has some nice pictures: and I thought I'd use it as a jumping off point. I can mostly talk about Egyptian snakes and serpents - because that's what I know a little about - but also we could cover the Nagas from Indian mythology and I'm not sure what Daoism has in the way serpents. Then we have the old favourite of kundalini serpent power. Just to kick off from the 'snakes and frogs' thread I should mention the Egyptian Ogdoad. These are eight deities which represent primordial chaos - they are four pairs male and female of frogs and water snakes. Their names mean 'wateriness', 'darkness', 'infinity' and 'hiddenness' and they were worshiped in Khemenu (City of the Eight) which the Greeks called Hermopolis. the word for infinite or chaos was often represented by a tadpole - you can imagine a pool full of squirming tadpoles. Because they are amphibians they live on the edge between water and dry land - in fact they metamorphose from one to the other - so you can see the idea of something which originally belongs in the primordial water (soup) and emerges onto dry land as suggesting how things are energised by the infinite to create life.