Jetsun

I consider a Yidam different from a subtle being or spirit. For example the beings who transmit channelled texts or people like Basher are clearly a different order of being from a visualised Yidam because for them to communicate as they do they need to have a localised intelligence and sense of seperation. So I consider a Yidam as something else entirely.

I have read most of his books, can't remember most of the detail though. Hope that helps

I went to this exhibition the other day, it is excellent and much bigger than I thought. At the end they have reproduced the upper sacred chamber which contains all the secret teachings, but because they have lights behind the murals you can see them in far more detail. They have illustrative drawings of teachings of 6 yogas, Dzogchen, Togal Visions, etc, I liked all the medical drawings and drawings of the energy anatomy. Only on for another month till 28 Feb

So this is the only forum where you can't dictate to others what they post? How long has it been like that? maybe we should all just start posting threads here instead then

I'm pretty certain we (ie US and Europe) are meddling in Ukraine too. If Russia started trying to influence states bordering our countries I doubt we would be very happy about it and I doubt we would just sit around at let it happen.

To put into context when the Soviet Union broke up the resources of the state including most of its oil and gas were basically seized by gangsters, whose main objective wasn't to help out any of the population with their wealth but to enrich themselves. Putin has actually done quite a good job at getting them in line and forcing them to pay tax which they were barely doing before he was in power. If he wasn't the ruthless strong man then the oil barons would have disposed of him by now putting in some stooge they can control. Also Russia is basically being pressurised from all sides, they have a right to prevent outside interference and meddling from foreign powers. They are basically just trying to preserve their own sovereignty and dignity in most of what they do, yet the western media are trying to paint him as some kind of Hitler type figure. When you hear him talk he usually makes far more sense than most of our leaders and comes across as completely sane and rational especially around Syria.

That is also pretty much how it it usually described in the bible. For example when Jesus was baptised by John the spirit "descended" down into him. It is also described in many other Christian texts as the descent of love, descent of the dove. The descending movement of spirit is a different movement to the upward movement of Kundalini. You could reduce it down that it is all one spirit but the two movements have different effects on the human psyche and nervous system. The Christian focus is more on the downward movement although some Orthodox monks have suggested that the practice of the Jesus Prayer can lead to the stimulation of Kundalini type phenomena.

Yeah, unfortunately I don't see a single political figure who is the least bit inspiring or even semi competent at the moment, in the US the candidates for your next election have to be the worst selection of candidates in the entire history of your country, surely you can do better than that? while over here the politicians are like a bunch of clones without a single ounce of charisma or backbone amongst them, all fawning to not offend anyone. The only people who seem to have any coherent sense of how to go forward are the people of Iceland.

No doubt it is the big corporations which benefit most from this mass migration, even in the last 10 years I have seen a big decline in the standard businesses are treating their employees, at least in sectors like retail, and if there is a big pool of cheap labour then workers rights can continue to be eroded while those at the top increase their profits. Also at least in the South East of the UK ,where most the migrants trying to get in want to locate to, there simply isn't enough room or resources for millions of extra people, there isn't the schools or hospitals or houses, yet I am sure the big corporations would like to pack everyone in if they could, or turn the whole country like areas of London where you jam in thirty people to a house. The worrying thing is that most people seem to think that the current UK government are against mass immigration but the reality is they are really on the side of the big corporations and the statistics suggest that immigration has gone up under their watch while projecting the image that they are tough on it.

All the European governments would have to do is go after the people smugglers, it wouldn't be difficult to find out who they are and arrest them, or you could easily get the SAS to take them out rather than run around Syria. But they governments don't do anything, which has to be a deliberate policy as far as I can see.

Very interesting. Fairy tales and myths are often archetypal, which is why they are universally popular throughout time. The irony being that if something is archetypal in a sense it is more real than than most other "real" written word and story we usually encounter even if it is a complete myth and involves dragons and ogres.

Good question, probably not as much as it thinks it does.

It's basically a koan, so if it brings the mind to hopelessness then it's doing a good job

I kind of understand where you are coming from, but to withdraw from the world is also a decision with Karmic consequences. It sounds like you are still very identified with all the content of the world though, freedom comes from discovering the illusory and empty nature of it all and from discovering that there is no self involved, and if there is no self there is nobody to blame. In a sense you have opened the front door, but you still haven't opened the back door so it all can pass through you without getting stuck.

The German Interior Ministry has stated that 18 of the 29 men arrested so far are asylum seekers, 14 recently arrived from Syria. It is also now reported that a similar bout of mass sexual assault was conducted in Helsinki by asylum seekers. It is time to wake up, the vast majority of refugees entering Europe are men, the UN says there are twice as many men travelling than women but some estimate it is up to 70% male migration. How is that going to work? mass bundles of horny sexually frustrated men turning up on your door step is going to cause a few issues.

In that place of non-separation if it is empty of self what is it that acts to try help "another"?

Personally I don't think you will ever find a more ideal Guru than Amma, she pretty much devotes every breath to help humanity and you don't necessarily have to enter into a relationship with her in the traditional way, in realty she never asks anything of you and only gives. Most of the accusations mentioned in the link above against her have been debunked but there is one lady who accuses her of abuse in a book, I personally doubt it's authenticity and most of those others mentioned in the book don't corroborate but I accept that it is possible that it is true. I agree though that it is important to see the humanity in all and accept human failings.

Thank god for social media or this would never have seen the light of day. There are many people sticking their heads in the sand, covering their eyes and pretending that there isn't a problem, but trying to deny that the story even existed just feeds the far right as their interpretation fills the vacuum. Even if the perpetrators were not recent refugees it still directly relates to the issue of mass immigration into Europe of people from patriarchal societies who treat women as second class citizens and have no sense of belonging so don't respect the law. Some of the people arrested from similar incidents have said that they didn't even realise it was illegal to sexually assault women like that. According to Taoist theory if you swing from the extreme right to being too liberal you are bound to swing back to the opposite again, it is just the law of nature. So Germany may need to reflect on its extreme liberalism around these issues if they want to avert further problems.

http://letterstothemother.com/examma/ "Dear All, Some years ago, I made a long list of allegations about Amma and her ashram on the Ex Amma forum. Over time, I have come to realize that these allegations were not based in fact but were really projections of my own inner negativities. At that time, I also misrepresented facts and altered the record to justify my leaving. I have gone through a long process of introspection, and I feel it is important for me to set the record straight. I apologize for writing so much here. Back then, I wrote a lot of untruths and misinterpretations. Now I feel it is important for me to address them individually....." Not all allegations are true, especially with Guru's, as it is their job to bring your Kleshas to the surface and if you aren't ready to face them then you disown them by reflecting them back onto the Guru as the cause. But it is pretty much impossible to find anyone without any criticism at all, even the Dalai Lama has a bunch of angry Scottish people screaming at him that he is a liar every time he comes to Europe.

From the perspective that everything is of Buddha nature then where is suffering found? Happiness is utterly pure and suffering is utterly pure. In the ultimate space of Kuntuzangpo, there are no differences between happiness and suffering, just as there are no differences between inside and outside. - Penetrating Wisdom - Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

I'm not specifically coming from a Buddhist understanding, i'm not purposely trying to anyway. But no-self is a pretty common teaching in Buddhism and the perspective that there isn't suffering is valid from a certain perspective, so I don't see any contradiction with Buddhist teachings in what I said.

For something to die it has to exist in the first place, which is one of the tricks of this human game: trying to change/improve/get rid of something which doesn't even exist. But ego is a tricky word, even the fully enlightened ones had some kind of individual psyche after enlightenment, Jesus was a very different character to Buddha for example, so I think some kind of ego comes along with being in the human body, but it doesn't mean you have to be fully identified with and attached to it.

I guess it is possible to have a non human Guru, for example Jigmey Lingpa who is revered as one of the most important Tibetan Dzogchen masters received his transmissions and teachings in visions and dreams, but for most of us that leaves the strong possibility that we are deluding ourselves, or being deluded by some kind of higher dimension spirit or entity. In Tibetan medicine there are all sorts of ranks of spirits, very few of which are qualified to teach and influence us but many may try to do so. At lease with a human Guru we can hold them to human standards to some extent.

Ken Wilber models this in his lines of development theory, that you can be advanced in one line such as spiritual realisation but not advanced in another such as emotional maturity. I'm not so sure I buy into that model completely though as I can't see how there isn't overlap. Also Wiber's judgement on these things isn't always so great, he promoted Da Free John who has been accused of all sorts of abuse. Then he promoted Andrew Cohen who he said was a perfect example of modern evolutionary enlightenment, but unfortunately Andrew recently wrote a big letter about how he was taking time out from being a Guru because he realised he was using it as a means of avoidance and wasn't mature enough to be one. Then he promoted Genzo Merzel who was supposedly bringing about a new Buddhist turning, then it came out that he was sleeping with his students behind his wifes back. There are very few Guru's who aren't dodgy to be honest a large proportion of them get entangled sexually with students, like Sai Baba who could perform miracles but was exposed as liking to touch the genitals of his male students.