Sunya

That's your opinion. Frankly, and I'm sure many others agree with me here, I wish you would keep your opinions to yourself. This forum isn't your therapeutic playground where you can work out your issues by expressing all your projections onto others, so stop treating it like that. I rarely even go to this forum anymore because most threads are filled with your opinionated, argumentative, and bitter posts. You only post to tell people how wrong and stupid they are, so why bother? What benefit do you receive in coming here? It really seems like you have some issue with Vajrahridaya and maybe you should work that out in PMs and save the rest of us the time in scrolling down past your petty arguments. Jaro could you please just ignore him

http://www.fpmt.org/resources/jobs.php This organization is Tibetan Buddhist and has many centers all around the world. They currently have an opening for a cook in their retreat center in Spain at the moment. Are you open to going outside the US? I also see them looking for a cook in their Vermont center. Good luck to you

As much as I respect Chinese medicine..... c'mon. You just base all that information off of centuries old texts, not your actual experience. All the empirical evidence today, like all the vegans I've met who have tons of energy and are extremely healthy, show that the opposite is true. Raw diet seems to be quiet excellent for the body. It seems to me that there are two views on this subject. Those "diet experts" who are against a raw diet just rely on old information and have never tried it for themselves. Those who are for it have tried it and know the benefits first hand. In my view, it's dogma vs experience.

Could you be more specific about what you mean by old fashioned Western exercise?

Great talk by Stephen Wingate, someone I've never heard of before, about how our true nature is beyond thoughts, judgements, feelings, and any ideas about enlightenment or suffering that we may have. How to attain peace and freedom, one must completely go beyond any ideas of attaining anything at all. Sounds contradictory but this very moment is all that is. Where is there to go? What is there to become? Who is becoming? I found the talk inspiring and wanted to pass it on. http://www.blip.tv/file/2745396/

clubbels? whats that? Thanks for the responses guys.. I was just wondering because there was a promotion at a local gym if my whole family signed up and we got 15$ a month each. A really great deal, hard to pass up. I know this will prove very useful during the winter when I can no longer go on my long walks at night. I did a yoga class today.. my girlfriend kept telling me to go with her but I was scared because it's a very intense class. Wow does my body hurt. Now that's a workout! I used to care about body mass and would lift regularly.. but I could care less now. Only reason I want to go to the gym is because I need to get into shape for the Navy, if I get into my desired doctorate program. To pass physical entrance, I need to do 50+ push ups, 60+ sit ups, and run a 12 minute 1.5 mile run. Not too crazy but something to train for. Cardio seems to be helpful, but for what most of you guys have said, lifting weights isn't beneficial, at least not for our interests. I'll probably stick with cardio at the gym and maybe do abdominal exercises as well. Would you guys say that for doing a high number of push ups, I should just focus on body weight and not even bother with lifting weights? I'm not sure about the connection between high-repetition training and high-resistance low-repetition training. Well... now that I think about it, I might do some occasional lifting. I really miss doing deadlifts. Those are fun

http://zenmontpellier.voila.net/eng/lotus/lotuseng.html

I really like the traditional Indian stages of life. After you live a worldly life and raise a family, you can then go off and focus on Realizing. Though I do not plan on having kids. My view is that it is best to balance worldly life with spiritual life and then later focus heavily on spirituality once one is fully ready and the conditions are right. I know of several highly enlightened people who are businessmen, doctors, lawyers, etc. Daniel Ingram for instance attained deep realizations while in medical school. So it's certainly possible to do both, but many can't handle it, as Hundun mentioned. I'm really looking forward to retiring by the time I'm 50 and opening up a retreat center. Till then I hope to find a job where I can help others, face my fears, overcome barriers, and challenge myself. If there's anything I learned from Ken Wilber's research, it's that a healthy ego, a developed ego, is very conducive toward deep spiritual progress. I think that we in the West tend to push it to the extreme. Those in the East that yearned for fast realization were either hermits or monks. So they didn't have to deal with the crap that we do. So I think that the traditional Indian stages of life are very relevant today because many people do live to the age of retirement and can easily focus on spiritual insights then, hopefully having already laid down a solid foundation already. By that point, they should already have a healthy ego that can handle the catharsis, strange and weird phenomena, and ego dissolution. I think good advice to serious modern seekers is 'pace yourself.' We tend to hear about the end-result but very few people mention the actual path and how hard it can be.

Find out who you truly are first, the rest will take care of itself.

^ good advice on doing physical exercises. Tai chi or yoga would help you. I found the book Yantra Yoga to be very helpful in teaching how to do serious yoga that is meant to open up the channels. You can also find a yoga class near you.. make sure that the teacher knows about kundalini and energy and preferably has awakened themselves. Also it's important for you to learn to let go of negative emotions and start cultivating positive emotions. Help others, be happy, go through walks in nature. Learn to surrender to the feelings within and let go. Accept what is happening to you and don't be afraid. Consistent meditation is important also. There's really nothing 'you' should do. 'you' should get out of the way and learn to surrender. Do you have a spiritual advisor? I would really suggest you find someone to guide you through this and be there to answer any questions. I thought maybe you'd find some of these quotes interesting. They were written by someone named Jackson, he runs a yahoo group and teaches tantric and awareness teachings

Daniel Ingram does a great job of describing arhats, imo, on his site Interactive Buddha "Arahatship designates the perfection of mastery of training in Wisdom, the Third Training in Buddhism, with the other two trainings being Morality and Concentration. Saying one his an arahat is the same as saying that one has directly and completely realized the Truth of Things that is beyond conditions. Another way of saying it is that the process of falsely imputing a "self" from the sensations that make up the body, mind, and world has stopped because these sensations have been directly perceived as they are. Theravada Buddhism defines 5 basic stages of awakening, called the Four Paths and Buddhahood, with some subcategories noted on occasion. The Four Paths are increasingly complete perceptions of Ultimate Reality. The Four Paths are, in order of increasing understanding, and with Pali names in parenthesis: Stream Entry, a.k.a First Path (Sotapanna) Once Returner, a.k.a Second Path (Sakadagami) Never Returner, a.k.a Third Path (Anagami) Pick your favorite traslation as above, a.k.a Fourth Path (Arahat). Arahatship is also called the opening of the Wisdom Eye, as differentiated from the Dharma Eye which opens at stream entry. These are simply fine points that poetically restate what those realizations entail. There is a phenomena in which the Wisdom Eye may open, which qualifies one as an arahat, but then close again. These people are arahats, but they are a lesser subcategory of arahats. Full arahats have had the Wisdom Eye open and stay open, meaning that they have obtained the understandings listed below and those have not faded. Arahatship designates an understanding that has the following characteristics: The arahat has seen through the sense that there is a continuous, separate, or special controller, doer, observer, or centerpoint that is "who they are" in a very direct perceptual way that is not merely an intellectual or conceptual understanding. They know the sensations that seemed to imply these to be just more sensations arising and vanishing according to conditions as they always have been. This is not something they have to work to maintain, but instead is something that has stopped. The arahat knows in real time and directly what is meant by such phrases and concepts as: "in the thinking is only the thought, in the seeing is only the seen, etc." intrinsic luminosity the emptiness of phenomena that Nibbana is found in Samsara and a whole host of other poetic metaphors and attempts as description."

Maybe instead of being horrified you should have been more inquisitive... http://freeisraelnow.wordpress.com/2007/08/16/palestinian-fake-images-industry-fake-photo-video-industry-dont-ever-believe-their-images-pallywood/ Lots of faked videos showing "Israeli terrorism" -- though I am not saying that it's all green pastures and daisys over there. Ever wonder why these Arabs don't just move and go somewhere else if it's so bad? Like I mentioned earlier, the majority of Arabs immigrated there very recently so they are not native to the region. Why not just leave? Because they are brainwashed by leaders to stay there. These leaders don't give a shit about the people, they will use them by any means necessary to bring sympathy to the 'cause' -- Ever wonder why Egypt doesn't just accept their "Muslim brothers" in the Gaza strip and help them out? It's all politics. Muslims in Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, and other places will say Damn those jews look at what they are doing to our people! But are they helping their people? No. They need them in that position so that naive people like you feel sympathy for them and hatred for those bad Israelis trying to defend themselves.

And that's a bad thing? I don't see how. If there was one secular government then we wouldn't have territorial disputes or religious wars or even wars over resources. I admire their efforts, but I hope by that time the people on Earth, and especially those in power, are much more educated and spiritually evolved.

Interesting quotes from the Talmud. I didn't realize it was that screwed up, and am quite happy to learn that since I'm more and more disidentifying with Judaism given that I was raised with it. That still does not prove that Jews are terrible people. They don't go blowing themselves up nor do they aim to take over the world and convert everyone to their religion. I say let them keep their elitist club if they want and I see no reason why they should give up Israel given that they allow anyone to live there and worship freely. About your conspiracy theories, even if they are true I don't mind. A secular world order sounds great to me and I have nothing to fear since those ideals are very agreeable. The world will eventually need one secular government. Though I hardly believe that a social fraternity is actually where world leaders meet to discuss how they can take over the world.

Not really. Jews were legally buying up land there for years prior to the formation of Israel. And yes there was a huge immigration of Jews into the area...but it was the same for Arabs. The majority of "Palestinians" are Arabs who immigrated into the area in the 20s and 30s. It's not their land either, if you use that argument, since that land never belonged to Arabs. So I don't like that argument of who it belonged to since it doesn't really apply to either side. Both Jews and Muslims have lived in that area since Biblical times but that doesn't mean either one should 'own' the land. Unfortunately, since those peace-loving Arabs that you love to defend are actually quite backwards, are constantly fighting amongst themselves, and can barely keep a stable government, I'd much rather that the Jews control the area since they are actually progressive. They believe in democracy and human rights and all they want is peace. And please don't forget that nobody is stopping Muslims from praying in Jerusalem. They choose to live in the area. They could go live anywhere else. There is a whole gamut of Muslim countries to choose from.

Yeah that's exactly how I feel. Going against modern history is one thing, but if all you have as evidence are websites, unfindable sources, and unprovable theories then you are living in a fantasy. These people base their whole world-view on these wacky theories and most of these people eventually go off the deep end. Most 'illuminati' conspiracy theories get tied into this strange belief that reptilian aliens are actually controlling the world and that there is a huge cosmic battle of information between different alien races. Sounds like a great sci-fi movie.

Did your history paper go into how the whole war was orchestrated by the 'rich elite illuminati masons'? That's what I was responding to.

This is why I have no respect for you. I have no idea who you are, nor have I even seen your posts before, but since you buy into this crap I really gotta wonder where your common sense is. What's more important is where did you get YOUR history? Let me guess, you have secret documents that no real historians have? The thousands of historians who work in academia, who would shit on your "knowledge of history", are all actually paid by the secret elite? Islamic terrorism has existed since Mohammed. For someone claiming to know all the facts, you sure missed that one. He was a warlord and conquered many lands. Islam is based on imperialism and the Muslim utopia is a Muslim world. They see it as their duty to conquer all lands. They see the West as the devil because we are a secular society and because we are more successful than Muslim nations. This completely goes against their views of 'how things should be' because according to the Quran, Muslims are the best and their nations should be the most prosperous, which is not the case. Perhaps this is another area where you need to brush up on your history. Israelis are not stealing land. After the Ottomon empire fell, the land was owned by the British who attempted to let Jews and Muslims share the land, but that didn't work because Muslims rebelled and rioted. Jews won the land through war and let Muslims live there and worship as they wish, but terrorists continue to attack Israel because they do not want a Jewish presence in that land. They want it for themselves. The US supports Israel because militarily it is an ally in that region. The other countries there hate Western secular values and would go against the US in a second. Religiously, Christians would rather have the Jews own the land than the Muslims simply because Jews are much more progressive. Even though they all worship the same God, it is Islam that teaches its followers to be distrustful of Christians and Jews. It is written so in the Quran. So before you defend these backwards zealots, why don't you go read the Quran yourself and see what you're defending? Why don't you listen to the Muslim extremists and hear what they have to say?

blah blah blah, nice conspiracy theories. you would do much better by forming moral conclusions and arguing against killing through that route, then to spread those lies

I think it depends on how you look at it. Look at it this way: what is more selfish, to remove yourself from society or to sacrifice yourself by joining the military and defending society. The way I see it, if it wasn't for the military, we would not be able to live a pacifist life. Maybe for some, the best way that they can be bodhisattvas is to protect those who want to practice. Look at what happened with Tibet. If they could have defended themselves properly they would not have been taken over by the Chinese and expelled from their home country.

Like I mentiond earlier, I really think it's moreso what you actually do in the military. Some jobs aren't different at all from any 'regular' job, and many of these jobs would fall under 'right livelihood.' If you think that your day job should be spiritual somehow, then there truly aren't that many to choose from.

Do you support the death penalty? Let's say someone gets convicted of a really fucked up crime. Oh I don't know, raping and murdering a 12 year old boy. The evidence is conclusive. This person was assessed by psychologists and they conclude that there's just no way to re habituate him. He's just genetically disposed to pedofilia, violence, and anti-social behavior. What do we do? Do we put him in person and waste tax dollars keeping him alive? Or do we allow him to "take one for the team"? People die anyway, so why should I pay to keep a reject alive? I'd rather he die. Sorry. I don't think death is really that big of a deal. We have a collective fear of death and so we view killing as inherently wrong. I think that blatant and unjustified killing is wrong but some people just don't deserve to live. That's on a societal level, but when it comes to war, things change. Killing becomes justified simply because the enemy is wearing a different uniform. In my view, the justification is in self-defense and/or the protection of just values. Even if one side is the aggressor, their call to arms may be right. Many people are against the wars in Iraq/Afghani because the justification wasn't right, but in the end I think we were doing the right thing. Though there weren't WMDs in Iraq, it was a brutal dictatorship and the people were oppressed. The same in Afghani. I challenge any liberal to read personal accounts of life in those areas. Unfortunately though, we are seen as the aggressor and this hatred bleeds through to our values as well. But that can't be avoided. The world is growing up fast and the the backward countries are being forced to get with the program. The most threatening countries are poked first (Iraq, Afghani, North Korea, and Iran soon), but eventually there will be wars with the warlords in Africa. This is just inevitable and not a bad thing. Values are spread through wars.

How to listen to the inner amoeba nature? Would love to learn.. I feel hunger in my stomach as sensations of cramping/discomfort.. then the mind thinks of how to quell those sensations and desire kicks in. Didn't know there was a better way