Maddie

Let's just take one, memories. People have false memories all the time, would a false memory be self? People forget things all the time too, does part of self disappear when memories are forgotten? Memories are unreliable as well. Ask any police officer about interviewing eye witnesses at an accident and how many different stories they get? Are incorrect memories self?

Actually all the things you listed were things that the Buddha said are not self. Memories, choices, thoughts, are within the domain of the Sankhara skanda, or volition Senses are a skanda as well.

The Buddha seemed to prefer to answer the question, what the soul is not.

Oh it's not even alluded to it's said blatantly in several suttas of the middle length discourses, but I can't remember the exact suttas off the top of my head. I'll try to find them later.

That was exactly my point lol. 🙂

I agree but this wasn't about Buddhism. The point of the post was to explore the aspect of human nature that tends to view somebody that disagrees with oneself as intrinsically wrong at best and evil at worst. But if I was going to use Buddhism specifically, I can say the Buddhist say the goal is nirvana and the Buddha said nothing about the Tao. The Taoists say no loud to said the goal was to obtain the Tao and said nothing about the word Nirvana. Then when you ask each group to define what is their end goal and it is and it is basically more or less the same then it can be seen that this isn't a matter of right or wrong but of definitions and perspective.

So basically just a curse.

You basically summed up my ex lol

It has been curious to me lately that the Vajrapani mantra has had the most effect being that its protective and clears negative energy, but I've had more than one person tell me that they have heard my ex "pray" for horrible things to happen to me, so basically formally cursing me.

Yes it seems to have very profound and immediate effects with me. Another one that affects me very very profoundly is the Zhunti mantra.

I've been doing a lot of experimentation with mantras this year since I stopped meditating (it was having too many adverse side effects). It seems lately I've been getting by far the most dramatic results from the Vajrapani mantra which I suppose would also qualify as a fiery type mantra.

Hmmmm 🤔 I think you might be technically correct about that.

There is a popular Catholic exorcist that can easily be found on YouTube named Father Rippenger that has at this point probably done around ten thousand exorcisms. Needless to say, he has a lot of experience and has seen a lot of things. He is also a very traditional Catholic and so is his theology. That being the case most of the conclusions he draws from his experience with exorcism, I do not agree with, yet his experiences are fascinating to listen to. The things he says he has witnessed first hand include people's appearances changing, speaking in other languages, levitation, supernatural knowledge, supernatural strength, ect. The thing that confuses me about him though is his theological interpretation. Basically, if you do this Catholic thing, then this happens, so a rather narrow and fundamental view of the world and spirituality. How to make sense of this? ***warning his talk is very traditional Catholic and I don't agree with the Theology, but I find the experience interesting.

I believe when they combine the theory of electricity and magnetism into the electromagnetic force they determined that the magnetic field consisted of photons.

Getting back to the theme of the OP I would say maybe the deeper inner truths are hidden but not by the teacher but by the student themselves due to their inability to comprehend. If one has ever tried to talk to the average materialist worlding about spiritual stuff and you can see that they have no idea what is being spoken about then this will be easily understandable.

I think balancing yin and yang are a step on the path back to Tao. I think the idea is to go towards the simplicity. So first he tried to consolidate the 10,000 things into the five elements and then the five elements into yin and yang and then to balance yin and yang into Tai chi, which is the one and then from there back to the Tao. It's kind of the same idea and Buddhism that you keep letting go and letting go until there's only Nirvana. That makes me wonder if that's what the Abrahamic God is getting at when he said no other gods no idols?

I think our scientific instruments are able to detect plasma but so far to my knowledge we've not developed any kind of instrument that can measure qi.

It's been a long time since working with deities was part of my practice but back in my Christian days I was just as disciplined if not more in that practice as I am now. I saw some pretty amazing things happen when I was a Christian and my two primary practices were Bible study and prayer. My praying wasn't just rattling off a wish list but it was contemplative and deep and could last hours sometimes and at that point the being that I was praying to would sometimes begin to answer back. With that preamble I would say the answer in regards to how to connect with a deity is sincerity, desire, a great deal time studying the scriptures related to it if there are any, and most importantly lots and lots of contemplative prayer directed at it. As far as profound outward manifestations and Powers I might have had more of that occur when I was a Christian than now.

Yes, but it's not easy. My focus in Acupuncture school was mental health.

I can't comment on that as I've never done mantras for that purpose.

From a TCM POV schizophrenia is treatable but it's not easy, and does not resolve quickly. It also takes a lot of treatments.

Yeah good point. I've often noticed the Jewish God of today does not at all seem like the one on the mountain with Moses with thunder and plagues and such. These days he seems more sophisticated. Like he started off Russel Crowe and evolved into Jeff Goldbloom?

I remember a long time ago watching an episode of Star Trek the original series where they come across Apollo but since almost no one believed in him or worshiped him anymore he faded out of existence.

Again very interesting, thank you. I would be interested to hear your take on demons and demonic possession?

Very interesting. In your opinion (since you say you met the Christian God) would you say the Christian God is synonymous with the Jewish God or not? What would you say the general feel of the Christian God was?