Jetsun

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Everything posted by Jetsun

  1. Enlightenment as I understand it

    This whole seeing the opposite of everything is a bit like the approach of Byron Katie, by doing her method you see that with all of the thoughts you have the opposite of them is also equally as true, her approach is a bit more rooted in life though as it is based around questioning the thoughts around others that are being triggered in you by your day to day life. Doing that consistently is good for the mind and for deprogramming conditioning like you say, can help you see things more clearly, yet that still isn't the same thing as self realisation as it doesn't directly address that which all the the mind made dualities arise within, perhaps it helps clear the way though which is good.
  2. This video pretty much sums up modern day politics, its calculated confusion and in Russia they even admit it which adds to the confusion, and in that climate some people are getting away with whatever they want. I'm surprised they were allowed to show this on the BBC.
  3. How to spot a good therapist

    There is a good school of psychotherapy called Core Process Psychotherapy, which combines modern psychotherapy with Buddhist psychology and some body work. I can recommended it personally.
  4. Yes A few psychopaths don't represent every immigrant in every situation, there isn't even any evidence they were immigrants. You are trying to make bizarre confused points once again.
  5. It's not been confirmed where they come from, but from witness accounts they spoke perfect French, so if they were not born in France they spent a large proportion of their lives there. Many of these modern terrorists grow up the counties they attack, like the 77 London bombers and the killers of Lee Rigby. I don't think it is a case of misunderstanding some poor downtrodden people, many of these people are given lives of comparative luxury by the countries which they go on to attack. But I understand the message, the gunmen are microcosms of god and part of us, so wanting them to suffer is not a healthy place for us to be in, I would rather have compassion for them then hate them. Yet when I see the video on YouTube how easily they executed the wounded police man on the street who was pleading for mercy without a moments hesitation then something primal arises in me and I can't deny that I would like them to suffer and die.
  6. The concept of free speech is basically a product of the European Enlightenment which was hard won over a long period of time, to give it up is basically to accept going back to the dark ages, so I think it is an important foundation of a decent society. Also I don't think its true if an Arabic magazine mocked Jesus people would be up in arms, I don't think most people would care, Christianity and Jesus have been freely mocked for generations, have you not seen Monty Python?
  7. Modern day politics "Oh dear"

    Yeah, like they say in the video it is hard to discern the real truth these days, all the conspiracy theories add to the confusion. It is clear that those in charge like the conspiracy theorists and probably even encourage them. Swamp people with conflicting truths and narratives and they give up trying to work out what is really going on.
  8. Modern day politics "Oh dear"

    If someone stole thousands of pounds from you, your family and all of your friends you would probably go to great lengths to do something about it, but if that is the truth about quantitative easing then that is what has actually happened to all of us in the UK and in other countries who have taken similar steps. And we were told that it was good for us that we had our own currency, it saved us and was a wonderful thing so the Bank of England could take steps like quantitative easing to help the economy through the bad times, they basically convinced us that their theft was for our own benefit, and we believed them.
  9. In the end the ego won't destroy itself, if it ever felt that you were close to its demise it will do all it can to distract you or convince you that you need it or rather that you are it, or that you need to do something urgent first, or that you aren't worthy, it will actively work against your growth and prevent your spiritual development. Which is why few people wake up or develop. All you can do is with awareness recognise that this is happening, then if there is enough awareness you wont fall for its manipulation and tricks, you can even bring compassion to it as once it served your survival. Then ultimately you only move beyond it because the truth is that you aren't it, there is something eternally present even when the ego isn't there, but the ego will try to convince you that that isn't the truth and that you will die without it. So if you keep going back to the truth of the eternal aspect of your being again and again then in the end the ego has to admit the truth and surrender its complete claim over your identity when it has no more cards to play, or some other influence may come in more powerful than the ego to push you over the cliff.
  10. Analysis of Loving-kindness practice

    I read about the life of the Dzogchen master Adeu Rinpoche in his book "Freedom in Bondage" http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Bondage-Adeu-Rinpoche/dp/9627341665/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420482584&sr=8-1&keywords=adeu+rinpoche and he says he practiced giving and taking of compassion in the regular well known way for most of the early part of his life, which helped him greatly during his imprisonment in the Chinese concentration camp, but during his imprisonment he met another great Buddhist master who explained the practice in a "non-dual" way, which completely transformed the practice into something far more powerful. So the practice may have depth beyond the surface appearance.
  11. Taoist meditation and Zen meditation

    Most of the Taoist methods out there have been heavily influenced by Buddhism, or so Nan Huai Chin says and he seems to be a respected scholar on the subject. There was a big cross pollination of religions when Buddhism entered China so what was Taoism and what was Buddhism became blurred, then the Chinese Chan Buddhism spread over to Japan and became Zen, so there is bound to be some Taoist influence on Zen practice because of where Zen originated from. That said whether there is a difference depends on what sort of Taoist meditation you are talking about, there are probably hundreds of different sorts. The most common ones usually involve some sort of focus on the lower naval area in mediation, whereas Zazen doesn't involve focus on any specific area of the body. Zen methods generally go directly to the non-conceptual, whereas Taoist tend to involve circulation of energy or trying to manipulate reality to some end. Taoist methods are usually trying to change something like increase internal energy or improve health, whereas Zen is about becoming conscious of what already is and what you really are without trying to change it.
  12. Primordial Spirit: Heart or Head?

    It is not in the heart rather the heart is an access point or gateway. As far as I know there are two main ways traditions go about it, they raise the energy up so it ends up going out above the crown chakra into emptiness, like in kundalini type yoga traditions, or you go in, through and behind the heart, which is the way the traditions I practice go about it. Perhaps there are other gateways but I am not aware of them and I am not aware of the head or third eye being a gateway, rather it is an area of extra sensory perception. As mentioned Ramana Maharshi said you can track the sense of identity energetically and it goes to the heart, but it doesn't stop there, you have to keep on going until you get to where the wave can merge into the ocean. But you wont find a location there, rather it is a dissolving of identity barriers so you can become aware that everything is primordial spirit, you find it everywhere you look.
  13. Heal depressive (sexual) energy - Howto?

    Talk to someone else about it, or write letters and then burn them, or write songs or poetry to get it out. I'm not sure what ejaculation is going to do except temporarily release sexual tension, it doesn't really have much to do with getting over emotional hurt or problems... unless you are moving on to ejaculate with someone else.
  14. a little dark: How have the masters die?

    Some of them seem to get cancer like Ramana,Nisargadatta Maharaj, Shunryu Suzuki. Chogyam Trungpa had liver failure of some sort. The Zen master Kobun Chino Otogawa drowned trying to save his daughter who also drowned. IMO what's more important than longevity is the awareness that you could die at any moment, then you can handle it when it comes rather than it being a big shock which you resist.
  15. Doing things to get in the body may help, like basic exercise. I found a woman named Judith Blackstone has some interesting teachings around this, if you are stuck in the transcendent aspect of yourself she says it is like only living in the top part of your body and even looking at the world through the top 1/3 of your eyes, she teaches some interesting meditations where you look at the world through different areas of your eyes to compare the difference and meditations around bringing the transparent space aspect of your being down into different parts of your body.
  16. But you didn't have the "correct conceptual understanding" of emptiness, all you had was a general concept, right? all those concepts are are sign posts pointing you in a general direction. The ironic thing about this is that emptiness will only be realised with any sort of stability when the mind realises, or submits, or gives up trying to fit emptiness into concepts. That is the whole point, it is the one thing the mind cant dominate or control or put in a nice neat box.
  17. To say you need the correct conceptual understanding of emptiness to realise emptiness is like saying you need the correct conceptual understanding of oranges to know what eating an orange is like. All this Buddhist stuff is just maps, don't you see? the map is never the territory, they are completely different realms. Maps can help you get by, help you get to where you want to, but having a first class map of Paris and reading a thousand of the finest books about it is still not going to compare to the experience of going there and living there, getting a feel for the place.
  18. Demographic Warfare

    I don't know why you are being so reductionistic, are you a mouthpiece for the Communist Party or something? History and just basic life shows that everything changes and everything dies, including all cultures. How that change comes about determines to what degree there is great pain and suffering involved or whether it is a graceful death. Natural immigration is more on the graceful side of death, or more likely to result in something new being born, whereas forceful imposed immigration is more on the violent side and unlikely to result in anything except pain. Natural immigration can even enhance cultures, where I live in the UK our culture has been enriched by immigration over the years, it actually can bring in a freshness and dynamism which keeps things from stagnating.
  19. Demographic Warfare

    I don't particularly like the Israeli policies either to be honest, but in Israel the Palestinian birth rate is higher than the Jewish Israeli so eventually it may even become an Arab majority state one day if things continue, so I would say the comparison to Tibet isn't very accurate. Proof in Tibet is hard to find because not many people are allowed to go there to check, certainly you will come up against the Chinese propaganda machine if you start trying to get to the facts.
  20. Demographic Warfare

    Sure there are other issues in the world, nobody is doubting that, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be outraged at the Tibetan one. But 134 people all committing suicide in such a way in protest is pretty much unheard of, it only took one person to self immolate to spark off the Arab spring, yet it is barely even reported in the news. There has always been migration of people throughout the whole of history, but it usually happens in a natural gradual way, whereas in Tibet it was a calculated intended policy to rapidly force migrate people, which is a policy against the rules laid out by the United Nations. The immigration into the US isn't such a policy so no I wouldn't say it is comparable.
  21. Demographic Warfare

    134 people in Tibet have self immolated in protest of Chinese rule , the latest one was last Tuesday. 134!!!! yet you don't hear much about it in the press. But now the Chinese Han are a majority in Tibet there is no way it can go back to being a separate country, so it is now an issue that most governments are trying to ignore. While in the past governments welcomed the Dalai Lama recently South Africa refused to give him a visa and the Pope refused to meet him to avoid antagonising the Chinese, so politically he has become a nuisance as they all scrabble for Chinese investment and most leaders will probably be relived when he dies. Basically the world has turned its back on the Tibetan people and extermination of its culture is now pretty much inevitable
  22. In my opinion nearly all traditions are already dead. Some threads survive by being dynamic, it is only through being dynamic and changing that anything can live. Most of them were created for people who lived completely different sorts of lives with completely different belief systems than what most of us live today. People who work with their hands and work the land all day every day are going to be grounded in a completely different aspect of their being than people who spend a good proportion of the day up in their mind or staring at computer screens.
  23. Good question! Trying to make surrender happen won't help, I guess all there is for us to do is to be with and accept whatever is happening, let everything be as it is including our own struggle and confusion with life.
  24. If it is an institutional problem and he is aware of it I hope he would speak out, in terms of actual cases though I am not aware of anybody in Tibetan Buddhism who has been convicted of sexual abuse, there are likely to be individual cases of abuse I am sure but I am not aware of an institutional issue comparable of say what has gone on in the Catholic Church. Also the Tantric aspect in Tibetan Buddhism makes it more complicated, many masters historically had multiple lovers who were also students, for example Trungpa Rinpoche openly had many lovers who all knew about each other. In such situations it is easy for people to be hurt and try to get revenge when the intent was never to be abusive.