Jetsun

Is it his job? The Dalai Lama is the head of the Gelug sect which Sogyal Rinpoche isn't part of.

Maybe, it is a Zen Koan "Why did Bodhidharma leave for the east", in some circles Bodhidharma is meant to represent that which transcends all levels, ranks and stages Bodhidharma came from the west with a single word, “Mu!,” The nature of mind was his only kong fu, Trying to grasp Dharma by using written words, You’ll drain Poting Lake to make the ink, but it still will never do!

Yeah I agree, I think in particular there is great confusion about what enlightenment is. Personally what I perceived as the traditional view was that you cultivate for a certain time and then some time in the future, perhaps in many lifetimes, you might get enlightened, but I see now that that view is just another way to prevent awakening, something which would have to be let go of to have any sort of enlightening experience. It is only ever "now" where the separate self doesn't exist, not in the future, you could put it off for a long time but it is still about the now. What I also saw as the traditional view was that awakening or enlightenment was incredibly rare, perhaps that was once true, perhaps it used to be a lot more difficult to awaken than it is now I don't know, but after meeting some normal awakened people that belief had to go too, one works in a supermarket, one is a student, one is a healer, they are just regular people all of whom no longer perceive life from the perspective of separation (at least for significant proportions of their day) , so the reality was that awakening wasn't this big rare mystical thing, it was actually quite ordinary and far more common than I ever believed.

Awakening is available to anyone at any time, the reason being that it is what you really are, so no authority can decide who gets to be who they are and who doesn't, and it isn't a matter of earning it like many of us are conditioned to believe. You already are it. Many of our regular ego issues like lack of self worth or self esteem can create perceived blockages where we think that awakening is only for great rare individuals, but that is us projecting onto them as a means of maintaining our limited seperate self, another mechanism of veiling the truth of what we are from ourselves. Deferring our awakening to some other time in the future when we have achieved some level or state or earned enough karma is another way of veiling, which is why many spiritual methods can easily become ways of preventing awakening rather than moving towards it. One of the barriers may be all the beliefs and concepts we have around what awakening or enlightenment even means, I studied Buddhism quite intensely for a while and as a result had all these beliefs about what the path was about and where it was going, then my life experience started to contradict those beliefs, so all those ideas had to go.

Why did Bodhidharma leave for the east?

I have tried her method. I don't do it any more but it was an interesting thing to try for a while. I was single at the time and thought I would try it to try get a girlfriend and a few weeks later I was no longer single, was it because of the Now Healing? Who knows, I can't say for sure.

As Bruce Frantzis says if you have a liver you will sometimes get angry. Hatred though is usually when anger has been repressed or never been given allowance to exist. Anger can be a wonderful thing to cut through all the bulshit, also it can arise where there is a void of love to restore the situation. Anger generally gets a bad rep in the spiritual and religious circles but the ironic thing is that the more you deny it or try to get rid of it the stronger it will become in your life, which you could call a lesson from the Tao I suppose.

Do not seek the truth; only cease to cherish opinions. Seng-tsan

"Truth comes to an innocent mind as a blessing and a sacrament. Truth is a holy thing because it liberates thought from itself and illumines the human heart from the inside out." - Adyashanti

If you want a scientific approach to the Dharma look at the work the Dalai Lama and others are doing at places like the Mind and Life institute. Mingur Rinpoche in particular is going to great lengths to present it in a scientific way and the Dalai Lama is always referencing the latest neuroscience in the talks he gives. If you don't like the religious bit you can skip it these days quite easily.

I saw her interview on Batgap and somehow managed to get in an argument with one of her "followers" when I said that what she is saying is pretty basic Jungian psychology. I like and agree with a lot of what she says but it's hardly revolutionary. She does seem to attract a cult like following though and if you criticise her you get told that you "aren't ready" for her teaching, like they assume that everyone thinks the law of attraction is gospel.

Perhaps as an experiment or for fun. Some religious types might say it is so the cosmos or God can recognise and admire its own creation.

Yeah that is true it is based upon a computer program, but it opens up philosophical questions as it is presented in the film as a growth of love through relationship even though it is a computer. It's definitely worth watching. Even Alan Watts makes an appearance.

In terms of Scarlett Johansson becoming enlightened movies I much preferred the movie "Her" , there her enlightenment comes through a natural growth or expansion of the heart rather than increased brain capacity. It is strange how both movies came out so close to each other though with the same person becoming enlightened, very strange.

They create a conflict where I am drawn towards them but can't stand it too long before I feel that I want to escape. I wouldn't say I enjoy it but they feel more sane and real which is what causes the attraction.

The entire world is built upon lies, especially lies to ourselves. I think I have only met about 3-4 honest people in my entire life.

Not always ,most of the powerful beliefs are held in the unconscious as ultimate truths and thus stay as a force in peoples lives long after they have passed out of conscious awareness. Personaly I see clearly that the belief in original sin is still deeply embedded in the psyche of most of the Christian based countries, even in people who have never read the bible or been to church, many beliefs are passed down through the generations unconsciously until someone digs them up and examines if they are true or not.

One of the main restricting beliefs (which is being eroded more and more each year) is that awakening is only for rare individuals and great masters and not for an average guy like me. In reality awakening is for everyone right now, it is for the average Joe, it is only the belief that it is not that we are somehow inferior or unworthy of it which gets in the way, or that we have to earn it by earning enough brownie points like good boys and girls, or earn it through years of hard spiritual work.

I just wrote a long detailed reply to this but it somehow got lost, I guess for the best, but basically it is only modern interpretation which has skewed Gurdjieff's work into something intellectual, the exercises he prescribes in his books are all about sensing and feeling the body. Physical work was used to ground the body and the emotions were worked on through dances, music and group dynamics. But in my post I wasn't intending to come from a Gurdjieff perspective, the sense of separate "I" is something most genuine traditions discuss.

Interesting, I had mine removed and my cheeks balooned up like a hamster for a few weeks, I completely trusted it was the right thing to do but now I'm not so sure. I wonder why they are called "wisdom" , often these things are not by accident. Gurdjieff tells a story about one of his first spiritual experiences how as a child he had a wisdom tooth knocked out in a fight and he could see all seven rays of the ray of creation within it. I'm not sure exactly what this means but I was curious about what function they play ever since.

All the emotional dramas in our lives revolve around a central character of separate "I" , so if that character is seen through then the key stone of all the blockages and emotional issues is removed. That doesn't mean that all the issues and blockages immediately dissapear but it makes dealing with it all a lot easier. Unless the Taoist methods are getting to this root all the things which are cleared will grow back, or appear in another way, or they could even get worse. In some traditions they say that if you remove one demon seven more appear in its place , or like the Medusa cut off one head and many more grow in its place, until you use a mirror on it. Which is why many traditions go straight to the root.

That is the investigation Ramana Maharshi did which led to his awakening. Really death is nothing other than the present moment, so what will happen if you come in to the present moment? It's possible that the mind may convince the body that you might die as the false character (which is only found in the imagination of past or future) fights for its survival. The mind has the capacity to create a hell realm for you out of resisting the moment or it can submit and let go, each persons experience will be different. If you are blessed with genuine natural faith and trust it is likely to be an easier ride than the person who has a very tight traumatised ego.

Coming in to the body is crucial , it is easy for practice to become cerebral especially as our current culture is so cerebral already. Yet in my personal experience the popular Taoists methods out there aren't great at getting people into their emotions. Standing practices and such are good for grounding in physical sensation but that is still a different realm than the emotions , historically the Chinese are quite repressed on the emotional level despite their abundance of physical practices. Such practices can even be used as methods to repress the emotions. For example if you have a child who is emotionally upset what they need is love and a hug, but if what they receive is a diagnosis of lung imbalance and a course of accupuncture or standing exercises they aren't going to feel met or understood in any way resulting in repression. And most of our adult emotional issues are just like that little child. Personally I think modern psychotherapeutic methods are better in this realm than Taoist methods, at least that is my experience. Most emotional issues are created within the realm of relationship which is also where they need to find their healing. I sincerely tried a lot of Taoist methods for this issue myself and they didn't work, they have a good understanding of how and where the emotions show up in the body but their solutions aren't so great.

Conditioning can be cleared but its very difficult for us to do it ourselves because our minds spend most of our energy trying to reinforce our delusions and create our false reality, so when it comes down to it we don't really want to clear our conditioning because we become identified with it. Yet spiritual practice can be just another way we try to prop up our false identity so paradoxically stopping doing it could be a faster way to let it go, stop and be still and let everything be as it is and things return to their natural place and function. Doing something ourselves to get rid of conditioning can put you in a position of resistsnce against it which is the surest way to keep it alive.

Its a stage of growth all humans go through. When you are a baby or a young child you literally believe you are the centre of the universe, when you are hungry you get fed, when you cry you get comforted, other peoples needs are of no concern. If there is a trauma or that stage of growth is either denied (through neglect) or indulged (by spoiling them) by your carers then growth can be arrested at that stage so it continues to be a feature of adult life until healed or grown out of. So adult narcissists are still children on the emotional level.