doc benway

I haven't read it. Certainly there is a ritualistic component of Daoism that involves prayers and offerings to a multitude of gods. The concept of gods in Daoism is a bit different than the Western concept of God, however.

The beauty of compassion is it's independence of reward. This is the essence of the boy's act. And yet the story tells us that his act is rewarded with long life. I can't help but appreciate the irony.

That was a nice read and great photos. I used to hike and backpack a lot and climb a little when i was a lot younger. I'd have to train a bit before trying to tackle something like that. It's been mostly Taiji and meditation for the past several years.

I also have a scientific background (chemistry, medicine). One of the greatest things I recall was first reading Bell's inequality in a Scientific American issue in the 70's. More recently, string theory (although I'll admit i have to read pop versions like Brian Greene - I don't have the math background to really read string stuff). I do think there are marvelous discoveries that allow science to continually refine an approximation of reality but the image is NEVER the thing. The word, thought, and concept apple have no taste. The word knife cannot cut. The word God is not God, it's just a visual and auditory representation of a set of conditioned responses that allows us to think we know God (or apple or knife). If I know what a knife is, I can choose not to stick it in my eye but I can never cut anything with the word. Similarly, scientific representations of reality remain representations. The image is never reality. It may accurately represent reality to a certain degree but it is never the truth. Special and general relativity had people feeling the same way as did quantum theory in the early days. Even if string theory (or M theory or some other variant) results in a fully unified theory, it's still our finite capacity for thought representing reality in the form of an approximation. All science is based on thought. Thoughts represent knowledge - memory of experience, comparing of experiences, and the projection of past experience into the future. Thoughts are basically our internal experience of time. There is past (memory), future (projection of memory), and present - awareness. The big question, it seems to me, is - what is it that is independent of time, that is, eternal? The ever present NOW moment, not the moment an instant ago that is already memory. The moment NOW that is awareness, consciousness if you will (but by consciousness I don't mean the content of consciousness, I mean the experience of the present instant). Now is reality. Our thoughts always pull us away form that. There is something in the quality of experience, awareness, and being that transcends thought and time and therefore is outside the realm of science, IMO. I don't think I explain myself very well but I find it hard to put this in words. You can tell me why red is red and what makes it red but I will never understand red until I see it for myself. A blind person will never understand red. You can explain an orgasm to someone - every physiological and anatomical subtlety. You can write volumes about it and fill a library but unless you have one, you'll never have any idea of what the reality is. A moment of being has still never been captured in an equation. We may be able to discuss an approximate representation or image of reality but not it's essence. Daoism and Buddhism is based on experience, not image. When I first started to study Daoist meditation I asked my teacher what translation of the Dao De Jing I should read. He told me to read nothing, just to sit. An hour of Jing Zuo is worth a lifetime of reading in terms of understanding reality. Just my limited view.

I don't think this is a bad thing. If "I" understand, "I" am simply reinforcing the illusion of "I", am "I" not? Maybe the issue is the "starting over"... ? The search implies one who is searching.

Fantastic! I will visit there someday.

Gorgeous photo!!! Thanks for that. Where is that exactly?

Once the 'self' is removed, who is it that is left to understand Truth? For understanding to occur, there must be one who understands. Is understanding the objective? I think we must be very careful with words.

I would not support a ban. There are others who have used the forum for similar purposes who remain welcome. The ignore feature is a beautiful thing...

Ditto! Very nice - and the pocket version is great to carry anywhere. Thanks!

Thank you Todd - extremely well put. That really helps me.

Here's an interesting treatise I came across posted on another forum. Lot's of Qigong and medical practices, some martial stuff. Well worth some time to investigate. Enjoy! http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/kfu/index.htm

Your perspective helps me a lot in this stanza Mat. _/\_ I do believe that a consistent truth underlies all of the various perspective.

25. It. comes into being equipped with a form, and as long as it retains a form it endures. Having a form, it feeds and grows big. But if you investigate it this evil spirit, which has no form of its own, relinquishes its grip on form and takes to flight. I'll take a stab at this but I feel like my understanding of this stanza is very superficial. I interpret the first sentence as describing not only human life but all physical and material incarnations of "that" or maybe in this forum it would appropriate to label it "Dao." When the truth or essence of consciousness is sought, it is very ellusive. I'm in mind of the search for the "I" that Ramana was so fond of. But when we search, we can never find it. Perhaps because it is seraching for itself, like looking for your glasses because you forgot that you are wearing them. The frustration we feel from the endless search could be the reason to use the adjective "evil". Like I said, I'm not all that confident my explanation is terribly insightful here.

Shooting from the hip often misses the target and results in unwanted casualties. Hitting the target consistently requires skill and mindfulness, both qualities I find worthy of cultivating in my daily life. It is up to each of us to make that choice. My experience has been that most people have a finite capacity for forgiveness Warm regards,

Happy Birthday Ian! I hope you had a lovely day.

In a word, no. There are many threats to my life. What is security, after all? Is it anything more than an abstraction?

For those interested in the banking cabal, www.zeitgeistmovie.com is pretty cool - the last third is about financial conspiracy.

I am happy to see your apology and accept it gladly. It's good that we are passionate. It's also good when we recognize the value of civility, particularly in electronic communication where the normal social barriers are relaxed due to anonymity and physical separation. I personally never post anything emotional until I've waited a few minutes (or hours or days) and re-read my post a few times to make sure it's exactly how I want to represent myself to others. Best wishes

Qigong psychosis is a well recognised and not uncommon condition treated in the psychiatric circles. I've also heard of some pretty serious physical illness related to unsupervised Kundalini work. It does pay to take the stuff seriously.

I think Bill can be funny but tends to be a bit narrow minded and focused on his own political and personal agenda. I liked his HBO show for a while but much of it now just covers ground that's been beaten to death. That said, I will certainly check out his movie once it's on cable! In my view, all religion deserves to be scrutinized very seriously (I like that approach better than bashing). Little on earth does as much harm as religion (particularly the big boys) and yet we are very tolerant of it. This taboo nature of serious religious scrutiny leads to the next best alternative - bashing. For a less comedic treatment of the same material check out "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris.

In light of the quotations of Ramana and other comments, what about living a human life? There is a lot of discussion about abiding in the Self and what that entails and requires. Is that possible while attending one's profession and family, enjoying friends and relationships, developing physical skills and devoting oneself to hobbies and interests, and so forth? And if not, at what cost is all this? Why is it that we would need to sacrifice all of this? Will we not abide in the Self for all of eternity? In this brief human incarnation, is there a role to live the human illusion to the fullest?

Me too!!! It's not difficult to agree with your conclusion. I have a scientific/medical background so what I have struggled with has been the idea (more to the point, the reality) of separating the "I" from the brain. Very insightful and well said!! Much thanks for that. 24. This inert body does not say 'I'. Reality-Consciousness does not emerge. Between the two, and limited to the measure of the body, something emerges as 'I'. It is this that is known as Chit-jada-granthi (the knot between the Conscious and the inert), and also as bondage, soul, subtle-body, ego, samsara, mind, and so forth. I like the line "... and limited to the measure of the body." There is a brilliant book called The Body Has a Mind of It's Own which addresses the neural mapping that goes on between brain, body, and the immediate environment. I look at the "measure of the body" as being reflective of the fact that the chit-jada-granthi is the interface between our sensory apparatus and that which does not emerge. For any of you familiar with the work of UG Krishnamurti, the concept of "inert body" seems to describe the unfortunate state that he found himself in after his "calamity." Very interesting to compare the expressions of awakening among gurus. It seems to me that the state one finds oneself in after such an experience is reflective of the personality characteristics that existed before hand. Ramana, de Mello - very loving; Osho, Gurdjieff - opportunistic; J Krishnamurti - intellectual and analytical; Nisargadatta - pragmatic, no BS; UG Krishnamurti - depressive and pessimistic. But I digress...

Laughter is beautiful but there are occasional times when it can be hurtful as well. When those times occur, I try to be mindful of how others may be affected by my actions, even if I would think that I would be affected differently. After all, it's not for me to decide how another should feel in response to a given situation.