doc benway

Why is that?

If you would like to see how personal takedowns are being defined here, search on Earl Grey’s content. He can’t help himself, it seems. It is pervasive. His time here is a masterclass... Maybe it’s just method acting, I don’t know... Both of welkin’s recent threads, Earl’s very recent, and hidden by him, takedown of someone asking simple questions in the Cultivator’s Club. Note to self - Maybe I’ll unhide that for educational purposes. If you can’t see the problem with Earl here for yourself my words won’t help. Maybe a little like the Trump problem in the US, some see him as a problem, some as a friend, some as a leader. No one can help the other to see a different possibility. Five mods agree it’s a problem for the forum. You can all blow it up or move on. I’m tired of discussing Earl. I really tried to understand him and I think I do, but his poor treatment of others, especially the vulnerable, is finished here. And shockingly, he’s got yet another chance... ttfn

sterile

I have locked the thread as it has been off topic far too long and I feel the mods need to discuss the direction to go. Let’s all take a step or two back regarding this discussion and give it space for a few breaths, please. Let’s rest our minds from this topic for a moment. Thank you for your patience.

labor

We have received a report about this thread and are currently reviewing whether any action is necessary. I caution everyone to watch the personal attacks and takedowns. I’ll ask one final time to return to the topic rather than the person posting it, please. The Mod Squad

Please return to and stay on topic. Thank you, Mod Squad

The dog had no teeth! Life is so full of surprises and yes, it certainly seems that you passed the test. Slipped right by the Eagle.

@Sketch Should be good to go. Find at end of PPD list. Can’t reorder on phone... will alphabetize when at laptop.

smooch

@CloudHands Sorry, no can do. Your name need to be a minimum of 3 characters.

I’m reading one of her books now. She was quite a character!

It’s related to the Nirmanakaya (Sanskrit) which is sprul-sku (pronounced ‘trul-ku) in Tibetan.

TDB is an enigma for me. And also very familiar and predictable. Essentially, it is me. Ideas and attitudes are thrown at me, or thrown at the ethers, and I take it in, I react, I process what I take in, maybe give something back. Or I put something out there, something comes back to me, and I react to that. Ultimately, it’s a way to look at myself in the mirror of all of you. It is quite interesting how much inertia it has for me. It’s palpable sometimes.

A thread devoted to sharing and discussion of music. Whatever you like, play, compose, listen to, whatever... In honor of coming Autumn, I made this recording of Qiu (Autumn). It’s a guitar piece from Si Ji (Four Seasons) by French composer Thierry Rougier. It’s written in shang mode, one of the classic Chinese folk music modes.

Bön teachings say the self-knowing is not thought, the equivalent to what you’re saying for me seems like path rigpa. Knowing that has not fully liberated all obscurations... and likely won’t until death for all but Buddha. We call it clarity, the clear aspect of emptiness. Bön defines that as clarity, a characteristic of the base. The closest we come to the base in life, according to the Bön ma gyud teachings is the clear light of sleep.

Returning to “taking emotion as the path,” I thought to share a current practice, a core practice from dzogchen teachings. I imagine others have ways of practicing with emotion. I wonder if anyone wants to share?

death

I'm referring more to the experience than the labels. Is knowing "I am" a thought?

Telling you who I am and knowing/recognizing who I am are two different things. Knowing and recognition may be possible without conceptualization. Of course it all depends on how we define our terms. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche recently offered a talk and guided meditation on the distinction between thought and non-conceptual awareness called Knowing vs Thinking: Direct Realization in Meditation. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but hope to do so today (I've got a rare day off work, YAY!)

Anything really but the question game up for me in the context of our discussion of emotion. Some seem to suggest that emotion arises from thought, others that thought comments on emotion. While we can certainly offer examples of each that seem plausible, I wonder if our answers go deep enough? Are you certain? When you first recognized/knew the deeper truth of who you are, was thought required or did it come after, offering its commentary?

A few rhetorical questions. I like questions more than answers lately. Is thought primary or secondary? Does thought create or comment? Is there a distinction between knowing and thinking?

Kodiak

Mingus