The Observer

Lol. Maybe, maybe! Never thought about it myself really. I wouldn't take it that far now For example, I'm feeling a lot of pain in my noggin right now lol. Does the pain bother me? Hell yeah!

In all honesty, I think this one of the many things I'm working through right now...I can be very apathetic at times.

You need not be a warrior, in the service of a government that doesn't live by it's own moral standards. Live and raise kids, be the warrior you were meant to be protecting a family. The true warrior uses his sword of wisdom to cut through his own self-created trappings to find that which is primordial and everlasting. However maybe I have wasted words. All knowledge is self knowledge.

Marble, Gold's post (great, great post btw Goldisheavy) ties in well with that other thread about the TTC I posted in. Let us not be fettered to static belief systems, lest the ever flowing Dao sweep us away with it.

To paraphrase a quote from Zen Buddhism "Once you've crossed to the other side of the ocean, there's no need to drag the boat with you across land." (I butchered it I think ). Books of wisdom, words and concepts are vehicles for insight but in of themselves empty, to be discarded when the time is ripe. If we remain tied down to concepts we lose spontaneity and hence forth, connection to the Dao/reality.

The truth tends to be the same and universal, it just filters through different people's understanding in different manners. So the truth comes out in various shades and colors depending on who's explaining the concept. Reality is a watery thing.

Not really. If you notice over time even the names of famous men are slowly forgotten over the course of history.

Overall I agree with Nebulous. All the love and respect in the world to gay/lesbians/bisexuals/transexuals (as well as the whole world!), but it does seem to me like a sign of disharmony in the way of things. Of course you mention this at a college campus or any establishment institution and you are instantly demonized as a homophobe.

Granted certain situations require one to act in ways that may seem "mean". But then again when I refer to love it is not always the soft, smooshy sort of love we've been trained to accept as the only love that exists. Love can be stern and hard, but the intention is always to help! It's also about behaving in a way were you seek a friend in everyone instead of acting for ego's benefit (aka going into tunnel vision survival mode) will place you in happier situations than the reverse.

Return hate with love. This is the essence of real alchemy.

Today I was driving and normally I hate the ambient noise of the busy streets, but today I felt with it. I loved hearing cars screech to a halt and the general chaos. I think this is what you mean. I love when I enter meditation and come away with a new appetite for life, like I've found new eyes. It makes me happy

Speaking from real experience, just project loving kindness towards them and they will cease to bother you!

Very beautiful article. However I think a lot of people lose these ideas because they are associated with the caste system of India. I guess a lot of this mystic knowledge was co-opted into a system of slavery.

So lucid dreaming can directly lead into an OBE/Astral Projection if you so desire?

Agreed! It's all a matter of perspective but more or less the Many are only a reflection of the One. Agreed. I think it's funny, however, that scientists took so long to realize what many people have been saying forever and that they needed to invent a whole technical vocabulary as well as various mathematical systems in order to express this realization; and even then the Big Bang Theory is still inadequate to truly describe it all (IMO). Western society tries to define existence; impossible, the Mystery cannot be placed in a box! It can only be experienced from an intuitive, right-brain perspective! Agreed. But even nothingness is all encompassing everything if you catch my drift!

Thank you for the detailed reply! Question: When I first began meditating I had an experience while I was doing some OM chanting (with Tibetan Buddhist chants playing on a CD as well) and I felt a deep, calm, serene joy; one that made me smile for no particular reason . What do you interpret this as?

In reply to the original post, I think our current plane of reality is "real" in the relative sense (ie you, aka the average person, cannot walk through walls or materialize objects from thin air) but in the absolute sense (viewed from the perspective of non duality) it is not real, a dream if you will; if all things are one why do we perceive things as separate and many? Why is it that scientists can not pin down the smallest unit of existence, the quantum (er, I maybe fudged up on the details here, but you get the point)? Why is it that every time we think we've found an answer, it slips through our fingers or morphs into something of a different nature? I guess it's more a matter of our minds being conditioned to believe in a certain reality with set rules and boundaries (waking consciousness). Theoretically, as unfortunately I've never seen it entirely for myself, if we shift our identity from the individual to our intrinsic Godhead/Buddha-nature/Superconciousness whatever so does our perception and relation to reality. This would explain the miracle healings and different feats such as bi-location we hear of from holy men across the globe etc... Unraveling reality appears to be unlearning everything you were ever taught.

I'm seeing him later when he comes to Miami lol. Should be interesting.

Could have to do with a massive shift in consciousness some people say is coming. Has to do with 2012 and the Age of Aquarius. I myself don't know, but I like to think in terms of this instead of some silly apocalypse...were will that get us ? Oh as an aside who/what groups have been saying the time is right? Sounds interesting!

I've come across a few of the closing techniques before in different Taichi videos amongst other things. As for me, I didn't use them the first day or 2, but I realized that it was important to center my qi and I used a few methods such as palms over belly, the light massaging of the legs and the arm to shoulder movements. The issue for me was getting feedback on whether what I was doing was even correct lol!

When opening and closing should I rotate the palms over the dantian or just place them over the area with no movement as you say?

I see. Just reading that made me feel infinitesimally small lol. But I guess I have to get there for myself to see what it's like! I've often wondered however, does enlightenment really have to be sought out for or does it happen naturally after living and experiencing many, many lives?

Thanks for the reply Dawg! So there is nothing above or beyond this state of nonduality? Or do we simply not know? Oh and thank you for the link! Ill make sure to read it through Cowtao!

Still hurts if I kneel or squat down, but for the most part it feels like the more I use it the less pain I feel. Oh and as an aside, my right hand got intensely warm during standing meditation last night; what does that mean?

They way I've always understood it was that classical Buddhism views even the heavenly planes and hellish planes (as well as our waking reality) as other forms of samsara/illusory realities and that the goal was to transcend these in favor of absolute reality/nirvana. That in of itself makes Buddhism seem to me like a very high level spiritual path as compared to other more theistic practices. It chooses not to acknowledge any kind of God and declares that we are responsible for our own actions and their results; in other words no Freudian "Big Daddy Complex" were we beg God for mercy or forgiveness, or place our baggage on His shoulders, only that we acknowledge ourselves as being in oneness/Buddhahood. I only seem confused by the Buddhist concept of Nirvana...is it annihilation of ourselves, the epitome of advancement or is it another completely different reality with its own rules (nonduality for instance?) and "levels" where spiritual advancement continues onward?