Jetsun

Lots of people seem to meet Jesus when they drink Ayahuasca for some reason. The psychologist Gabor Mate is one of those but the interesting thing about his experience is that he is Jewish.

I have heard that when people win a lot of money from something like the lottery often friends and family turn on you if they need something or they feel you owe them something or are jealous. You get bombarded with letters and calls from all sorts of people asking for help and distant relatives and old friends emerge from the woodwork being all chummy to you, which makes it difficult to know who to trust and who is really on your side and a genuine friend. Money is essentially a root chakra issue which means its all about survival so for many people who have issues there or a weak root it its more important than morality, friendship, integrity etc and would sell their mothers soul to get it because it is perceived that they need to get it or die. So if you do win the lottery keep it secret and don't act flash or you will most likely pull those with a weak root into your life.

There are a lot of thoughts and beliefs around money which you want to not become dominated by, so I guess the more money you have the stronger those thoughts and beliefs might get activated, so as long as you have awareness and consciousness around it then it should be ok with becoming rich. The problem with most people they have very little concsciousness or awareness. One principle which is still very strong in Islam but was eradicated by the Templars in Christianity is the issue around debt and interest, because if you are hoarding anything and taking more than you are due then that is breaking a spiritual principle that energy should flow and not stagnate in one place. This was supposedly one of the keys of power the Templars learned off the Jews at the Temple of Solomon which meant they could funnel wealth and power into their hands, but both the Templars and Jews had their own catastrophe which may or may not be related, its touchy ground to talk about. So I think if you are making lots of money and allowing it to flow and giving it to charities and funding other projects then you are staying in harmony and it won't be harmful, but if you are hoarding it and getting others in your debt just to make profit for profits sake then it may have a negative consequence.

I don't understand how you would rest in knowledge. Rest is prior to knowledge.

That's strange, I was thinking about posting about that exact green man and doing post on Rosslyn Chapel just now , it is such a fascinating place with so much to talk about . The thing about that Green man there is that it is so prominent and looks positively vicious and dangerous whereas in a lot of other churches they seem to have hidden it away a bit more and made it look a lot friendlier. The story about that pillar is fascinating too, but probably for another thread.

It's often described as resting in the natural state, which may help at least to highlight things you shouldn't do if you would like to stabilise it, because all that energy manipulation and generating love and compassion and battling your negative thoughts and doing the downward facing dog while reciting the thousand names of Vishnu is not resting. We probably want it to be more complicated than it actually is.

The scary thing is understanding this but not feeling able to get out of it

A great deal of the churches around my area of the country were built on top of Celtic places of power, you can tell because the Yew trees are still there which are usually older than the churches, so if you want to pay full respect then acknowledge the Yew tree as well as the church altar. Some of them tried to bind the old powers as they often have a carving to the Green Man inside somewhere to honour the nature spirits of the place.

I heard Napolean's French army used it for target practice

Heart fire maybe

Not in any formal way, just being in his silence was his introduction and main teaching

Ramana focuses more on the "I" thought rather than analysing the different parts like Candrakirti. But I am not talking only about the way Ramana did. I am surprised you are so down on enquiry though when Dzogchen texts like "The Flight of the Garuda" are full of it: First, what is the origin of this mind? Is it a function of external phenomena- mountains, rocks, water, trees and celestial breezes_ or is it independent of them? Asking yourself where the mind comes from, investigate this possibility thoroughly. Alternatively, consider whether or not the mind originates from the reproductive fluids of our parents. If so, enquire into the process by which it emerges. Continue this enquiry until it is exhausted and you admit the mind has no origin. Then secondly, answer the question "Where is the mind now?" Is it in the upper or lower part of your body, in your sense organs, in your lungs or your heart? If it lodges in your heart, in what part of the heart? What is its colour and shape? Thoroughly investigate the present location of the mind and its characteristics until you are certain that they are not to be found. Finally, examine the movement of the mind. When it moves, does it pass through the organs of the senses? In its momentary embrace of external objects, is there physical contact? Is it only a mental function, or are both body and mind involved together? Investigate the process of perception. At the time of death, what occurs to the mind? How does it leave the body? where does it exist? Consider these questions and all their ramifications in detail. Persevere in your careful enquiry, examining the mind until you reach a positive conclusion that it is empty, pure and utterly inexpressible, that it is a non entity and free of birth and death, coming and going -p86 Flight of the Garuda

It's not natural or even possible to purge yourself of that desire, unless you become a eunuch

Sounds more like one hand slapping One story I liked about Koans is that every day a Zen master would point at a painting he had on the wall of a circular swish of paint and ask his student what it was, the student would try to answer in all sorts of ways by saying things like it is his own mind or light bouncing off canvas but the master would always shake his head, then one day when asked the student suddenly started running around in circles, and the master nodded his head.

Not really, its about asking a question without assuming you already know the answer. One of the main issues about the about the egoic state of consciousness is that it thinks it already knows, knows almost everything, but when you do a bit of enquiry you see that most of what it knows is assumptions. Unless you question you will never see unless life gives you a direct shock which contradicts your beliefs, but I understand it probably isn't a popular exercise because it means seeing that you don't know and are wrong about a lot of things, and most of us will do anything to avoid that.

We fixate on our thoughts, or another way of looking at it is we get hypnotised by them, they put us in a trance state. Whatever the thoughts arise in is always still and at peace, which is why it doesn't really matter if your thoughts are still or not. Of course many people in the spiritual arena will tell you otherwise.

What does mind arise within?

Blazing Splendor is a really interesting book

If you don't love Satan then your love is incomplete and not infinite, not absolute Bodhicitta. Ever heard the saying "what resists persists"?, saying go away to Satan is one of the best ways to keep its influence in your life

They usually occur after something has happened, so there is always the possibility that the thought is untrue because things might have changed

I don't mean that I was giving official pointing out instructions with what I wrote, that can only be done in person with a teacher. The next best thing would be to watch a video of a teacher and pay attention to the silence. I'm not even really looking for the "I" any more as I have seen searching for it is an action which takes you away from it, at least that is the perception. The inquiry can be a way to bring you back out of the conceptual though when old habits are asserting themselves.

I didn't see the point in furthering the discussion with the dynamic you were trying to create and with the assumptions you were making In reality it is incredibly simple, the ground of being is right here, all we have to do is be it, just be. When you do the enquiry "who am I?" the answer is presented to you instantly in a gap of open awareness of not knowing which is beyond all conceptual ideas. The issue isn't that it is difficult to find, it is that it is too easy, too quick, too simple that we miss it until someone points it out to us.

It is crazy that our current science has only investigated about 1% of the properties of the medicinal plants of the Amazon, yet they look for all their answers from synthetic medicines made in a lab. It is a very nice film, thanks. Those Shaman are the real deal, many of the other similar films focus on the Ayahuasca and all the Shaman does is administer that, but these Shaman also use the Aya to help them to identify which of the other plants are going to be beneficial for the individual health conditions so they are the real Amazonian healers, and the results speak for themselves

None, but ten years of studying and trying healing methods myself has shown me time and time again that those who promise one off miracle healings don't deliver on what they promise. So whenever I see anyone saying one session with me will cure a life time of problems I say don't waste your money.

Just some sort of energy, I wouldn't worry about classifying it. Spring Forest Qigong I would recommend, probably more than Reiki as the Reiki can move energy and channel it but it's not so good on the blockages whereas Spring Forest moves you into the emptiness where blockages are let go. I wouldn't recommend the Emotional Lyposuction personally.