suninmyeyes

No. Even fake neutrality is natural, but when I said to make neutral more natural - in this context it meant - less forced , more relaxed, definetley not contrived and certanly flowing . Havent employed clear language prehapes. Have fun or shall I say have neutral time being neutral.

Yeah I agree with this. This is important. So even if we get imposibble and unpleasent - it is still natural (but necesarily pleasent) . As it is natural that we may come to realise what hurts us and others and try to improve. I think it has to with understanding of ones own emotinal make up. What is unecessary weight is a guilt and often looks very unnatrual. Guilt is not sheek or stylish at all.

I agree with you here on cultivating these . But am genuinley curious what do you mean that people remain away from their natural state? How can someone be away from natural whatever s/he may be like? Is natural state something to be obtained for you/ or in Daoisam/ or practise you do (this is due to my lack of knowledge of Daoisam prehapes).

Really interesting to read de paradise, enjoyed it. I have been thinking along similar lines myself , including thoughts on the internet . Internet is like a sort of our collective subconciouss blueprint. Sharing on spiritual topics and expiriences is agreeable super important , it spreads fast and globally. This stuff is not to be overlooked. Every internet community builds something. Spiritual communities build they own web in ether, weave their own light patterns , we can link up to other communities like this(web sites) and people and spread. This holds a serious potential of balancing up the world. It is not a magic pill however but a process.

What value judgments Marbs are you talking of specificaly here? Is there any room for change, moving on , adoptability or? Just curious to hear your answer about this.

How about thinking that there could be an error imposed on neutrality than? You see if in this case neytrality needs to be more natural, otherwise it is some sort of contraction - a fake neutrality.

Learning to juggle work and spiritual practise made (forced) me that way. Although I know of daoism only what I read from the bums.

OK try and live a neutral life constantly and see how you feel about it long term. Seriously . I know that I went through a phase years ago where I thought that I should be neutral and have blossomed into a real stupid ass. I still am a stupid ass sometimes, just less often nowdays. (If someone needs how to be stupid ass tutorials do let me know.) Neutral is good if one is diplomat by profession or in certain circumstances. Otherwise it is easy to become like a very dry stick that breaks easily. However acting instead of reacting , being aware/switched on inwardley while going about daily life brings much needed restorative freshness. As mentioned in previous post: Being inwardly detached, fresh and comfortable and not being blown away by every little psychic wind is important.

Hello Informer, I would say that it is most important to be natural and not neutral. As neutral is not always what the situation may call for and therefore can be inaproriate. Appropriate could mean many things for many people in various circumstances. Yet it is important to consider what is appropriate on the larger scale as well(immediate circumstances or socially). The trick of the game seems to be being inwardly unmoved and outwardly behaving apropraitley as the situation arises - Sometimes it is appropriate to cry with a friend, sometimes to scorn a child becouse she may fall down the stairs, sometimes show anger towards the partner as otherwise they just wouldnt get a message well enough , sometimes not react becouse if we do we may piss that person off in that particular situation , sometimes laugh with a complete starnger becouse of no particular reason..and so on. Being inwardly detached, fresh and comfortable and not being blown away by every little psychic wind is important. Opening our being wide inwardly to accomodate everything : hurricanes , wars , laughter, annoying bosses, bycicle thieves and flat tyres, a women clipping her nails on the bus sitting next to me the other day, loved ones, spring in the air, rapists and murderers, saints, social injustice ...etc. But act appropriatley .Keeping in mind that although everyone has an equally important role to play in life be it a hero or a villan it does not mean that if someone slaps our cheek that we shouldnt slap back or run away according to situation and personal agenda. That is knowing for me.

I like this Xie Jia. Underlined is definetly my way of doiing stuff too.

ANIMAL ABUSE . This type of training of elephants and other animals should be forbidden forever. I just saw few seconds of it and dont want even to watch the whole of it. I prefer to get out in the park and watch the wind in the trees, clouds drifting, squirells running around and smelling the wet earth for my entertaiment. Living conditions of these creatures are horrible and nothing like their natural habitat.

Hi, What do you mean about ancient daoists? Why would they go to forest knowing that there are other great folk out there? Forest/nature is such a fantastic teacher , but who really wants to go to her and become her friend? There is not necesarilly a factor of lonliness in spending time alone in nature. I would encourage anyone to go and do it. If lonliness does crops up ,its good time to meet it. Allow 'your' boundaries to be pushed and see what happens. For any spiritual breakthrough boundarise have to be pushed ,our being remolded . Not being in control can feel so liberating. Not talking for days is another great way getting connected to the enviroment . Extreme mesaures can also = harmony depending on when and what circumstances. Living harmoniously does not mean same for everyone. It depends on persons background and caracther. For someone it may mean undertaking hard core nature trips ,while for another it may mean learning to go to work everyday , rent a flat ,have a family or something totally else..etc. I do agree that if one is to undertake extensive period of spiritual practise and devote time soleley to that purpose - it is better to have a certain level of 'comfort'. Not worry about the food and shelter too much and devote time to meditation. If a person would like to be on their own than finding/buliding a shelter, bringing staple (rice etc)and means for cooking it up or decide to fast - few hours away from a village is perfect becouse it is easy to replenish rice/lentils..and at the same time far enough not to see people for days(months?).

I dont believe you.

JZ, it sounds like a very difficult times. Wish you best!

I dont think it is possible to have an animal survival instinct and it not being connected to the fear of dying. It is all part of our being . Everything is interconnected . We are going to have to disagree on that. I am not sure what happened but it seems judging from your post there is some 'she'trying to ruin your life , something serious. Prehapes I am misreading. Anyaway nice to meet a fellow veggie cycling lover on the bums(I am not a professional cyclist either, just an everyday one). @CT 'I know what awaits me immediately after death.... half glass of orange juice, cup of strong coffee, 2 toasts, marmalade, and some cheddar cheese - every Sunday morning, a little bonus of some scrambled eggs. This is always what i think about first thing upon stirring. In my quest for Equanimity, life cannot get any simpler.. ' I wonder if you will want have Sunday everyday when you die and have a little bonus of scarambled eggs and create an egg heaven?

In Bosnia there is still importance payed to the art of expression and disscusion and what they sort of call 'the art of speech' even in random converstaions, an art Bosnians are so fine at. It is a pleasure to listen to those brilliant storytellers. Also they talk to each other freely just about anywhere regardless if they ever met before or not. Much importance is payed to discussing everything - so that this becomes art and phylosophy at once in a way.

This reminded me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katha_Upanishad Katha Upanishad. A beutiful conversation that is taking place between a boy Nachiketa and the Lord of death Yama . @Jeremiah I wonder if a desire to live is a sort of fear of the death and if fear is our defense mechanisam , a precious tool that humanity forgot to listen to. Having been very close to death myself the gross fear of death seems to have gone, which in turn allows life to be lived with a wider potential. This is truly very liberating , allowing for the boudaries to be pushed , reshaped, erased. Many 'what ifs 'dissapeared allowing lifes fullnes to flow more freely. However being a cyclist like you I must admit getting chemicals pumping the other day when a car suddenly took turn few centimeters infront of me. My natural defence mechanisam kicked in and there was a moment of fear, which turned into anger and I swore at the driver really badly. So it seems that having sense of fear is very healthy and useful - it is a defense mechanisam. It defends life and makes us look left and right at on the road ,as well as it makes us eat healthy food and not shoes and bricks for example, makes us wear warm coat in the winter etc. All that needs to be done is explore it , hear its meaning ,take it for what it is and not blow it out of proportion or overly enjoy.If one does overenjoy fear, which is quite common and tempting due to prevalent mental and emotional climate these days in many ways - it is bound to bring unsatisfaction sooner or later. edit:just read Jeremiahs post again and noticed that he says about being ready to die is different to being scared which I missed first time around .It is late and I cant explain it any further coherently but it makes sense to me why I write this. Good night, dont let the bed bugs bite.

Cheers for the link Vmarco, looks as if could be an intersting documentary.

Nice topic Seth. Remeber reading the book about old skool Orthodox Christian family living for 50(?) years in wilderness in Siberian taiga. The book is called 'Lost in Taiga' http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P28aAAAAYAAJ&q=lost+in+taiga&dq=lost+in+taiga&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xVM1T-ikGYbB0QXVxLmZAg&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA A very interesting document of such an unusual way of living. Their main food was pine milk (water and pine nuts paste) and pine nuts, plus some other stuff. I reccomend the book although it is a bit slow in parts , but at the same it is a incredible testament of very unique lifestyle. Met a hermit once who was eating only raw food, he would know all the plants growing around. He ate a lot of roots,I suppose becouse there wasnt much else at that time of the year on high altidude. He lived like this for a long while. A lot of hermits take kilos and kilos of some sort of staple like rice and lentils into their retereat in the forest, together with a little camping stove and live like this devoting time to their spiritual practise. It would be interesting to hear some tips from anyone on hermiting or what they found particulary useful whilst spending time in nature. Any tips from personal expirienece from anyone on dealing with wild animals? Bears for example?

Hey, just felt to comment on something that caught my attention. 'that stuff'you mention is only our fuller potential and a wider being that we may have been unaware of previously. I am sure some may disagree here. Otherise enjoying to read the updates.

I have heard that Arabic language has a high vibration too. Supossedly it came as a knowledge in deep meditation. I dont know Snaskrit so I cant comment from the personal perspective. However it does make a lot of sense from a point of view of inner sounds in meditative expirience.

That was interseting to hear. I so agree with the right incantations (again unless there is massive devotion towards diety which has incredible potential),otherwise it is waste of time. A sadhu minding his gurus ashram next door to where I spent a couple of months at friends hermitage was doing his sadhana which included his guru mantra and not sure if he did anything else (IMO he must have been in one way or another). Anyway they came over one day to ask the hermitess I stayed with for help as the sadhu went blind (!) during sadhana. His guru returned in few days time and helped him to gain his vision back after period of some days. We suspect that it was either some wierd combo of sadhana or something not done in a proper way. Or what my friend reckons that he might have been doing datura , as many sadhus do in Himalayas. Dont know why would that get him blind though personally.

Is it The Secret Life of Plants? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8kO5AF-lj4

Yes.

You should thank yourself too . Becaming an empty vessel for this to happen, becouse Gabriel Cousens most probably was not aware of you yet you were able to recievewhat he radiets. As traditionally it is done through look, mantra or touch, with both student and teacher aware of each other .