doc benway

sniffing Valentines a risky proposition one just might get slapped!

@silent thunder So sorry to hear of your situation. My love and support go out to both you and your wife my friend. 🙏🏼 And I loved your parting shot! 🤣

Excellent idea but I don’t know the first thing about software engineering nor have the time or interest in learning. If you find or develop such a product, please let me know. If participants in this thread would like to continue a civil discussion about climate change and meteors and so forth, they are welcome to start another thread on the topic. This thread was intended to be about Buddhist aspects of a vegetarian diet.

Thanks for sharing this update @Geof Nanto. This is a fascinating tool and like any tool will have strengths and weaknesses. I applaud you on your selection of questions both in exploring neidan topics and in exploring the veracity and credibility of the answers provided. I sometimes feel like I’m living in a sci-fi novel but I’m probably just showing my age.

Enough bickering Time to let it go or I will close the thread Thank you

Everything you need to know about this powerful view and practice in 36 pages.

Cacao is often grown in volcanic soil which is extremely rich in heavy metals like cadmium, vanadium, and others. Years ago I began ingesting raw cacao as a source of minerals and for other purported health benefits. Upon doing some research, I learned that raw cacao must be ingested in moderation for just that reason. I was not aware, although it makes full sense, that processed forms of cacao like dark chocolate might require similar caution.

After conferring with the moderators and admin, discussion of Mo Pai and related styles and subjects is unwelcome at TheDaoBums. All decisions regarding what constitutes said discussion are at moderator discretion. We do this out of respect for the authentic Mo Pai lineage and masters, and for the health of our community and our members. We appreciate your compliance 🙏🏼

…And to think some neigong advocates bemoan imagery and visualization. Black liver and rabbit marrow indeed! 😉

That’s very clear! I have a better appreciation and understanding now. And I love the synchronicity that seems to touch me here and in spiritual matters in general. Rabbit marrow and black liver can be understood as representing pure and impure vision respectively, in dzogchen terms.

In the dzogchen tradition, the spiritual path is considered in terms of view, meditation, conduct, and fruition. I find this the most direct and practical approach to experience and practice wu wei. One rests the attention on the present moment. fully connected outside and in…. in an attitude of ting The view is open awareness without distraction or fabrication. Meditation is simply to remain in and return to the view continuously. Conduct becomes spontaneous, arising without effort or intention from the openness of the view and the inherent energy of immediate presence. Fruition is the expression of the view in manifest forms in all aspects of life - creativity, resourcefulness, awareness, stability, discernment, and so on.

For me, a pure land is what I experience when I have pure vision. If I am able to meet sounds, lights, and rays (all experiential phenomena) with a pure and perfect mind, I generate no karmic traces and occupy a pure land. All beings appear as deities and the surroundings as a perfected mandala. When I meet the world through samsaric vision, I experience the 6 realms and generate karma that keeps me on the wheel interminably. This teaching is from dzogchen. The pure land is here and now, always waiting patiently to be discovered in this very lifetime. It’s a very direct path. It’s a different teaching from Pure Land Buddhism itself.

Pallas' Cat

"Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilization take a walk in the woods, or a bath in the Sea. They shake off the fetters and allow nature to touch them. It can be done within or without. Walking in the woods, lying on the grass, taking a bath in the sea, are from the outside; entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams, is touching nature from the inside and this is the same thing things are put right again." Carl Jung Dream Analysis: Notes on a Lecture Given, 1928-1930

Sitting in a boring 0630 meeting on Zoom I was able to set it up. @Camellia, your chariot awaits.

Too true @Barnaby All too true One option here is to open a Personal Practice Forum where you can host discussions and have moderator level control over who participates and what is posted. If you are interested in that, let me know.

@wandelaar I really appreciate the clarity and precision of your posts. I’m sorry the Original Dao forum closed down but happy you found your way back here.

@Barnaby Another caveat I’ll mention. My teacher is vegetarian but cautions that we shouldn’t get too attached to anything, even abstinence. So when we have a tsok during retreats (ritual banquet), we are always offered a wide variety of food and drink, including some meat, cheese, and wine.

I try to do this when sourcing eggs as well. One issue in the US is that one really can’t believe what is claimed on packaging. There does not seem to be any oversight or accountability, just bribery…

I use a timer only if I need one, eg practicing before work or a meeting, etc. In the morning I can get a sense of the time from the local crows and the ambient light. I also have a pretty good feel for how long I’ve been sitting. I currently use the Insight Timer app but don’t like how commercial it’s become. The timer is nice with lots of flexibility but lately I just need a simple bell at the end. I may have to try the Plum Village app.

About 10 years ago my spouse and I made the decision to stop eating animals and birds. Our decision was based primarily on the horrific treatment of these creatures by our food industries. We recognize and acknowledge the fact that the seafood industry is also quite problematic and that our decision does not solve many problems. Some might call us hypocrites and of course industrial agriculture, even personal agriculture is not without a price. The important piece is that we both felt this to be an important change to make in our lives at the time and continue to honor it. I will occasionally eat animals or birds, a few times per year perhaps, and make an effort to be sure the meat is ethically sourced.

No, faqi can’t revert someone to a previous state. That would imply time reversal. That is not possible in our human condition. Healing may involve restoring balance, opening channels, neutralizing or releasing toxins, and so forth. It may help someone to become better adjusted or reconciled to the changes they’ve experienced. Your initial premise is mistaken, IMO, hence the conclusion has no basis.

Yes, I don’t claim what I wrote is the way things are but for me the other realms are imaginary, stories and threats, little more. When I can see and feel these things in my life and see it in others around me, then I can use the practices to work with them.

It’s the opposite for me, completely practical and experiential.

One way to make these concepts come alive for me is to look at each of these realms as existing in this moment in ways I have the potential to experience them in my life. If we read descriptions of these realms, we can look for ways they can relate to our lives. So when it is said that: I think of this in terms of my own direct experience. When I crave something, or feel a strong urge to do something, or if I am living with an addiction... I feel that I am abiding in a "hungry ghost realm." I am insatiable, I desire and no matter how much I try to satisfy that desire, I desire more or something else. This is pervasive in a highly materialistic society... When I am full of anger or I want to hurt someone in explicit or more subtle ways, I am occupying a "hell realm." When I'm feeling lazy and indulging myself, ignoring important things that need to get done, I am in a "god realm" and so on. This works for the six realms of existence. We can do something similar to have a closer relationship to other types of realms. I'm not saying this is a more correct interpretation but simply a way to connect our lives to the teachings more directly.