Jetsun

I'm starting to think that suffering might be the greatest teacher, nothing tells you that you are doing something wrong or shows you that you have strayed too far from the Tao bettr than suffering

Have to agree, you have not spent a single second in her shoes bol why on earth do you think you know what's best for her? it's just arrogance in the extreme

Hi cat, the text I was reading is called "Machik's Complete Explanation" translated by Sarah Harding, although it is a bit too advanced for me it is very interesting in regard to the detail she provides about things like the death process and human development. In regards to the energy channels I had never heard them described in this way before : "In the most concise version [description of the energy currents in the breathing process] there are two: the energy current of afflictive emotion and the energy current of timeless wisdom. In one day, there are forty-two thousand movements of wisdom energy and forty-two thousand movements of afflictive energy. So in a single day there are eighty-four thousand alternating movements of gnosis and neurosis. Similarly in the night there are also eighty-four thousand alternating movements. So in a twenty-four hour period, the energy of wisdom moved eighty-four thousand times, but there is no sensation and it is difficult to be aware of it. Since beginningless cyclical existence the wisdom energy has not developed much strength through training, so it cannot manifest in the gaps of the energy of afflictive emotion." p.198 She goes into more detail, but to think that there are eighty-four thousand movements of wisdom energy in my body every single day and I am lucky to even become aware of one shows me how much I need to go practice.

That's the big question. Everything you open your heart to love will die, even our sun will die one day, so what's the point? I intuit that there is a point but I don't know for sure what it is.

They key in Chod is to feed the demons but you don't feed them what they want you feed them what they really need. If you feed them what they want on the surface you may just strengthen them but feeding what they need you can sever them at the root The book on Machig Labdron's teachings is fascinating, not just for her instruction on conquering demons but also for her incredibly detailed description of the energy channels as well as very accurate future predictions about the times were now in, she was clearly a very realised practitioner if not fully enlightened.

Within Chod there are numerous different categories of demons from psychological demons like alcoholism or fear to disembodied spirits within graveyards or spirits which cause disease and plague. You deal with them all the same way by offering yourself as food to them, so you don't fight your demons you feed them.

The founder of Buddhist Chod named Machig Labdron conquered water demons by completely offering her body to them as food, the demons were so touched that they agreed to serve her for the rest of her life so they were subdued and conquered. She was later recognised as one of the first Buddhist enlightened women in Tibet and in a very sceptical India. This is the method now used in Tibetan Chod to subdue demons and perform exorcisms, you completely offer your mind/body/essence as food to them without reservation.

Stonehenge is the more famous stone circle but it is closed off to the public most of the year, but less well known is the nearby stone circle of Averbury which you are free to sit in and meditate as much as you like They somehow moved those huge stones weighing many tonnes all the way from Wales thousands of years ago It's quite a powerful place to visit

Gods?

Does it benefit the person you are prostrating to though? maybe it inflates their ego and makes things harder for them so you do them no favours to bow down to them, history shows that there are plenty of guru's who get big heads who go onto abuse their power due to over inflated egos from being over worshipped.

You may need to get a sponsor if you aim to go into a long retreat, Tsultrin Allione wrote a book about her spiritual retreat in the Himalayas but you can't expect to just turn up and be taken care of, she had a sponsor who paid for food to be taken to her remote retreat in the mountains to keep her alive and there is always the possibility of starvation if the weather turns bad for too long, unless you plan to live off grass until your skin turns green like Milarepa. Although each has to work out what is appropriate for themselves at the stage where they are at, for someone with a stable mature ego a long retreat in the Himalayas might be what is required, but for others it might drive them insane. Tsultrin Allione is generally praised for her bravery in going on such a retreat but personally when I see videos of her I see a haunted woman and don't see the radiance in her face and spark in her eyes that I have noticed in some other Buddhists, so I think honesty about where you are at may be more important than some dramatic extreme measure like spending half your life alone in a cave.

Maybe you are nurturing yourself, often subconscious anxiety emerges in bed as your defences relax while you go to sleep so getting up to snack is a way of calming yourself.

Perhaps awareness leads to love. When you bring awareness to your patterns, to your contractions and your restrictions you can let go of them and then your heart shines through naturally in an uncontrived way.

I think the flood symbology is to do with the subconscious flooding the conscious mind, many initiatory rites and esoteric techniques from all sorts of traditions from around the world are designed to do this so it's no surprise it's a common theme; the flood is the beginning for all mystics and the catastrophe is the falling apart of the mental ego structures.

Finding the right place to study in the Himalaya's might be difficult these days, I have heard that many of the monastery's have become tourist destinations or have been polluted by government regulations and interference, but also some are being rebuilt in some areas. Bhutan is the last remaining Mahayana kingdom but tourists are regulated and generally western hippy type spiritual seekers aren't encouraged or allowed to enter. But it is said that Padmasambhava hid a great deal of teachings in the hills of Bhutan which will re-emerge at the right time in the future, Chogyam Trungpa apparently gained many of his realisations there before going to teach in the West when he was meditating at the Tigers Nest which was Padmasambhava's monastery. My parents recently returned from there and they said they went to a monastery where the monks are in seclusion for three years, three months and three days to meditate, in the dark the entire time so some ancient ancient places still survive if that sort of practice attracts you, getting a teacher to teach you and a visa for your time is another matter.

Catch 22 is another example of dark war comedy, I think the contrast between the horror and the comedy is what makes the impact of the horror so much more real for the reader/watcher which is why both Blackadder and Catch 22 are regarded as absolute classics in their field.

Watch Blackadder Goes Forth if you want to see a war comedy, it's about making fun of the insanity of war not making light of peoples sacrifices.

Catholic nun Therese Neumann apparently didn't eat or drink for large portions of her life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therese_Neumann "According to Paramahansa Yogananda, Therese Neumann said during his visit: "One of the reasons I am here on earth today is to prove that man can live by God's invisible light, and not by food only." Maybe you don't have to travel half the way across the world to find such people

Woah I bet that was surreal

When you have reached enlightenment I will trust your judgement on this matter, until then you are just wandering around in the dark and could be going in completely the wrong direction

I have heard said the middle way is the most harmonious, which seems to be the case in my life

Al-Qaeda in Pakistan who were supposedly in regular contact with Bin Laden believe he died recently as they have been blowing up loads of people in retaliation.

What does the American military do for the Dalai Lama? how do they bodyguard him?

My understanding is that the self can't be found but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, rather you just can't find it because you are it. So saying there is absolutely no self is an assumption while also saying there is a self is an assumption.

One approach I have been looking at separates compassion into Yin and Yang compassion, so Yin compassion is like your hearts desire to mother everything and comfort everything, while Yang compassion is more active or strong like you might feel when you see a small baby and you know if your heart you would do anything in the world to protect it from harm. So it could be that you sent her more yang compassion, which is a very powerful energy so it could shock I guess.