Maddie

Well that part as a general rule I'm well aware of as I was a history major

Oh no I definitely think there is a perceiver as perception is the second skandha. If we keep going with the skandhas then after an act is perceived and then conceived then our volition often adds a judgment of what we think that act is, in this case either good or evil. Again as to whether or not there is something called "evil" depends on what you mean by the term. If you mean evil exits as a matter of perception and volition on the part of the observer then many versions and definitions of evil exist. If you are meaning a more objective standard of evil even this can still come down to perception and conception. To the cat the rat is evil for chewing a hole in the wall of its owners house. To the rat the cat is evil for trying to eat it. To the cat wanting to eat the rat is simply its nature, and to the rat chewing holes in the walls is simply its nature.

And everyone has a slightly different definition of what "evil" is, thus back to perception. I think free will exits in the universe, but that most people do not posses a completely free will until they reach enlightenment. I have a view for sure, but just how "independent" it is, is impossible to say as I am as of yet still not enlightened and therefore have not freed myself completely from delusion.

I had a LOT of heart stuff a few weeks ago. I'll try to pay more attention and see if I can localize this feeling as so far its felt very non-localized.

To have a perception of evil, there must first be a perceiver

I was just contemplating in another thread yesterday that in Buddhist cosmology the various god realms are described as being as far "above" the earth as the distances to the various planets. This caused me to ponder if there is "life" on the other planets, but just in a form that we can not realize. Could that possibly explain why the Romans associated various planets with various gods?

But the precept of not harming or killing others is as old as the Sangha. Deviation from that is the basis of my question in the first place.

I wonder how the energetic effect differs?

Yea but I always do lol.

Has anyone run into this? For the past couple months I've been meditating a lot and now it seems harder to meditate, as in I don't have the patience like I did and I'm not sure why?

From what I understand being human is one of the best positions to cultivate from because if your in a higher realm you feel so good you lack the motivation to cultivate, and if your in a lower realm you either lack the intelligence or are too distracted by suffering.

I'll just say here what I said on the post discussing progress for married people. It was for reasons like this and that, that monasteries were formed lol.

I think several of the latest posts show the reason for the existence of monasteries and monks. These things didn't just arbitrarily develop over the centuries lol. The fact that sex hinders spiritual development is why the celibate path is seen as the most efficacious route towards enlightenment. Is this to say that as a householder you can't make progress? no. But if the monastic life generally allows one to go further and faster, which is why it exists. From personal experience the results from celibacy and meditation are much more profound, and its not only the conservation of jing and qi that makes a difference, but also the mind is freed up from all of the additional distractions as well. Yea that's where I was going with that. You were of that opinion in the first place, and simply proselytized your own opinion lol, which is what most people do.. I don't know if its unpopular at all, actually it was my opinion that the other point of view was generally less popular. I don't think people enjoy thinking they can be affected by others to such a degree.

Ok so I think Shaolin is very cool, but I'm confused because the precepts of a Buddhist monk don't allow them to hurt anyone, so how did these warrior monks get around this? This topic has baffled me for sometime. It's even one of the reasons I got out of the Army. I was a Christian at the time and I felt that the teachings of Jesus precluded taking life.

Yea its good, and one of the main characters is a TCM guy (not shown in clip) so I'm like "right on" lol. It's on netflix btw

This scene out of Sorcerer and the White Snake illustrates very well the dynamic of qi draining. It's noteworthy that this came out of a country with a long history of cultivation tradition. He does his mantra to empty his mind when the females are trying to decovert his energy.

explain please!! lol I want to know.

Do you think its possible that since you were inclined to think this way anyhow this could have influenced your opinion? Actually I think the idea of having your qi drained by someone else is a rather disempowering perspective and thus quite the opposite of an ego boost, which is why I suspect its so unpopular to speak about.

That's of course assuming that the national debt it circumstantial as opposed to deliberate

Yea but I'm working on water now too for memory, willpower and also to help keeping the heart shen calm ;-)

i think that statistically considering how many star systems there are in the universe the odds of there being aliens out there are high. What I'm not sure about is what if any role they have in cooperating with the government (pretty unlikely I think). Buddhist cosmology seems to indicate that the multiple and various levels of high spiritual beings correspond roughly to the various distances of other planets in our solar system. If this is the case and the beings that inhabit these realms are made up of qi bodies as opposed to jing bodies like ours, then that might explain NASA's inability to detect them.

What I mean is that the notion of "evil" is the point of view of the person getting kicked from a subjective point of view, not that I'm saying there is any objective sense of good or evil in this example.

http://www.gifbin.com/f/986046

Well what ever that aspect of us is that wants notoriety and exhalation, the false sense of self? I'm not even sure what to call it.

No "evil" comes down to the interpretation of the clown's action by the person getting kicked