rex

If someone's going to be a security guard they'll have to have a thick skin, be good at reading situtations and people and always expect the unexpected. Read stuff by peope who have been there and done that and have lived to tell the tale (Peyton Quinn, Rory Miller, Marc 'Animal' McYoung, Geoff Thompson etc.). Also they'll have to be prepared for a variety of situations. There's that maxim that goes something like - people don't rise to the occasion but sink to the level of their training. Edit: tpyos

How about a nice dictionaryish definition? "A basic definition of wisdom is the judicious application of knowledge." Apply according to level of discernment and capacity. In dzogchen wisdom is not only the application of knowledge but the knowlege itself.

I don't think you'll ever get a satisfactory intellectual answer from anyone, especially when reference is being made to the non-conceptual. For people who have some experience and recognition of what is being pointed to, a few ordinary words would suffice, but this is assuming of course that speaker and listener both have this.

Yascara raised some interesting questions here. Okay I'll bite : ) Isn't this 'Buddhism 101'? Buddha said that we are all dreamlike and life is illusory but there is the danger of confusing the insights of absolute truth and misapplying them to the relative world. Sure in theory on the absolute level a chair doesn't have any substance, but if this were so in our lived experience we would fall through it when trying to sit down. Similarly with mind states; they are experienced as real in our relative existance and have causative power as described in the Twelve Links of Interdependent Origin. Ignorance of our fundamental nature brings the principle of cause and effect into existance and sets the wheel of samsara turning. Edit: tpyos

... as the saying goes. How about a thread for just posting images that express and suggest? Here's one:

Apples, friends and computers are karmic vision, most likely the karmic vision of a human being.

May I ask why the automatic writing thread was locked? Isn't there usually a red Mod Squad Message or something stating the reason?

Thank you too! : )

This schedule is taken from here: http://yungdrung-rignga-ling.forums-free.com/sessions-during-the-day-and-the-night-t380.html 1) Early morning: At this time you need to remember the preliminaries and to try to go through them several times first. These are the preciousness of human life; impermanence; the power of karma; the suffering of all sentient beings; developing compassion; Bodhicitta; refuge; confession; Mandala Offering; guru yoga. After completing Guru Yoga, keep in continuous meditation with Trekchö. When you are almost ready to end the session, you can practise some Tummo for a while if you are already familiar with it. 2) Sunrise: Make offerings of sang and water at sunrise and do your usual daily practice and prayers. 3) When the sun shines: Practise Tögal with the sun. 4) Midday: Integrate your work with prostrations and normal practices for the benefit of others. 5) Afternoon: In the afternoon, practise sun or sky gazing, practising contemplation with Tögal. Night Sessions 1) At dusk: Meditate with Trekchö. If you have faith in a Yidam you can do that practice. 2) Evening: Make offerings to the Guardians, do Sur and then Chöd. 3) Midnight: At midnight one should integrate sleep with clear light practice.

As sunrise and sunsets vary according to longitude and latitude so similarly do moonrises and moonsets. A moonrise/moonset calculator can be used to determine full moon for your particular geographical location. E.g. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/moonrise.html

Posters playing with emotions by pretending to be what they're not or making offers they don't intend to honour? Read on: http://thetaobums.com/topic/2944-serious-offer/

It seems that affairs were a good deal more nuanced than a cursory look back through modern eyes would suggest. Thanks for pointing this out. Another reference - thanks! When connections like these are shown I'm always suprised at how small and interconnected certain fields of interest and disciplines are. Now I gather that Meric Casaubon wasn't at all complementary about Dee and Kelley's work but clearly this didn't stop the diaries from exerting their foundational influence. I wonder if this position was a bluff to protect the diaries? All that's required is establishing that they were antecedent to these philosophers and formed part of a body of knowledge that they would have drawn upon.

"What are the most dangerous books in the world? Some might nominate the founding texts of our major religions, which through misinterpretation and manipulation have led to the suffering of millions over the centuries. Others might point to defining modern political works such as Karl Marx's Das Kapital, Hitler's Mein Kampf, or Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. Fiction can also gravely offend public sensibilities, as we have seen in recent decades with book burnings of the Satanic Verses and Harry Potter novels. But for many down the millennia and across the globe no books have been more feared than grimoires: then again, no books have been more valued and revered." Owen Davies in the Intoduction to Grimoires: A History of Magic Books.

Apparently Ficino attempted to engage and influence the Roman Catholic Church of the time with the Prisca Theologia. This public access thesis may also be worth a look: Prisca Theologia and Human Nature: A Study of Marsilo Ficino's Ontology of the Soul

All sentient beings of the six realms have buddha nature.

Someone's beaten me to that thesis (can't read Latin so was never really in for the running). Just read Eric Purdue's introduction to his translation of Book One where he mentions that V.Perrone Compagni brought out a Latin critical edition of The Three Books in 1992 which notes many of Agrippa's primary sources. Purdue notes that the Three Books are constructed from passages and paraphrases of other books, though of course Agrippa was no mere compiler. Some of these other books included Marcilio Ficino's Opera Omnia, Pico Dell Miradola's Apologia and Oratio. Other souces mentioned in Eric Purdue's introduction are Fransicus Georgius' De Harmonia Mundi, Ficino's Three Books of Life and Platonic Theology. The introduction also goes on to say that many citations of Plato in The Three Books are taken directly from Ficino or Georgius. So it looks as if checking out Ficino and Plato would also help with understanding Agrippa.

Really? That may be when the Hermetica was translated but weren't the original texts written in the 2nd & 3rd centuries? But the translation is still over a century after Agrippa's work. However Ficino translated the Hermetica in 1471 though looking into the possible influences of this earlier translation with Agrippa is out of the scope of this thread and is probably more the domain of a research thesis.

Wouldn't a basic understanding/overview of Neo-Platonism and the Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus help too?

The individual and society.

How many people feel miserable and trapped by their lifestyles? How many people stay with people they can't stand? How many hours do people spend doing jobs they don't like for people they hate so they can have money they don't get to enjoy because they have to spend it on keeping everything they hate running smoothly? http://headforred.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-living-death.html

I'm well informed but not that well read! Have read that chapter from the Ainulindale and other selected chapters, but not from cover to cover. I've followed the path of least resistance and read the 'executive summary' of Tolkien in The Magical World of the Inklings.

Now that Tolkien is being brought in this answers the op's question. Going by Iluvatar's counterpoints to Melkor's harmonic dissonances in The Music of the Ainur, then yes there is an ever present landlord.

You just never know ... “Those who see this script will not experience the three lower realms and will be liberated from the fear of falling into the lower realms; will be purified of the five poisons and freed from the results of one’s karma; will be freed from the fear of remaining in samsara.” — Terton Migyur Dorje.

Just an idle observation but this series of statements seems significant. I wonder what methods are associated with each line? [later edit: the Jhanas?] Unlike initial application, sustained application and zest, it's interesting to see that pleasure and equanimity once applied, continue to be applied.