Jetsun

Until I see some sort of proof the Dalai Lama has been out of line anywhere I will continue to believe Twinner is actually trolling on this particular point which does his overall aim more harm than good. All we have so far is one obscure quote from a book which from what I can see may not even suggest the things Twinner thinks they do. If you look at the history of Tibetan monasticism at one point in time sexual misconduct was rampant in the name of tantra until Jey Tsongchapa reformed the monasteries and implemented a much stricter sexual code, which is the same lineage followed by the Dalai lamas to this day. Only a few weeks ago there was a scandal in an American retreat centre where someone died and it turned out that the head Lama had been derobed as a monk and ejected from his order by the Dalai Lama for teaching Tantra with a consential female partner, so I see no evidence any sort of misconduct is ignored or brushed under the carpet like what happened in the Catholic Church. Also most of his monasteries are now under Chinese control and supervision, plus he is only one of many senior Lamas in Buddhism he isn't in charge of every lineage or order, so to say he is responsible for every slight misconduct in any monastery which has some sort of link to Tibet is to deny the reality of the situation. This is a serious subject so there needs to be more interest in the truth rather than sensationalism and people's own personal crusades or it just does more harm than good, I have no particular personal interest in defending Buddhist monasticism but I like to defend the Dalai Lama from slander as I believe he is a genuine Bodhisattva, but I won't do it blindly with complete devotion I am open to being proved incorrect about him, but so far that sort of evidence hasn't been shown in this thread so it does the cause of truth no good to talk like it has.

To be fair to Tulku the conquering of your bodies base desires is the first step in many different paths, which is what the alchemical images of fighting the dragon are all about, you have to conquer the dragon and put a lead on it or it will conquer you. Many Taoist paths also take quite a strict approach to this, I was just reading about the Taoists of Wudang mountain who train in an almost Spartan like way at the beginning. Plus the link between food and sexual desire is one not that many seem to understand, Nan Huai Chin talks about this in his book "Tao and Longevity" how rich foods and sauces and sweeteners are one of the main stimulants for sexual drives so if you are trying to retain your energy it is easier with a very basic bland diet, but not many seem to talk about this link when discussing retention. But what needs to be understood is that if you start to deny your body all your bodies desires will be enflamed further which is what you want as it makes them more conscious, but then they have to be observed with non judgemental objective awareness because it is only through awareness of them without giving in or repressing them that you can conquer them, its not through aggressively trying to destroy them.

I think on the wider scale the Tao brings Yin and Yang into balance, but in the human body this is not something which seems to just happen hence the need for alchemical techniques (or something has happened to humanity which stops this from happening naturally). For example in European alchemy there are descriptions of marrying the King and Queen or uniting the Sun and Moon internally which leads to the next stage of alchemical progress, but this marriage doesn't just happen something else has to come in to allow it or make it happen, we have to bring in another force.

Thanks for the info, I have been trying it out and it feels good and I am going to try to continue to practice it for a few weeks to see how it goes, if you made a separate post more people would probably read it so that would be good. I would be interested in the similar exercise you mentioned Nan Huai Chin does too as he is a guy who seems to really know what he is doing.

I dont think you have read the op either as it is essentially claiming the Dalai Lama excuses molestation while all your links and posts had nothing to do with that. All we have is Twinners own interpretation of a quote which may be a wrong interpretation, or it may be out of context, or it may be translated or interpreted incorrectly; then from this one quote suddenly abuse in all Buddhist monasteries are worse than the Catholic Church which is sensationalist to say the least seeing as the Pope himself had to come out and apologise for the systematic abuse and coverups in his Church as it got so bad.

I doubt anyone will deny such abuse goes on in Buddhism but the nature of the abuse in the Catholic church was that it was systematic and often covered up internally often at very high levels in the Church, some priests would get caught and just get transferred where they would abuse again. Twinner isnt just saying abuse goes on he is somehw implicating the Dalai Lama is involved which is a different claim which needs more backing up.

Considering there is a new scandal in the Catholic church almost every week it is a pretty extraordinary claim that what goes on in Buddhism is worse , you need evidence or at least provide links or it just looks like politically motivated malicious slander

Smug dog and sad dog

Are there instructions anywhere in English for this practice of boosting kidney health?

The meaning of life I never knew Monty Python had knowledge of the Fourth Way

The curious thing is that many of our own agendas are hidden from ourselves yet clearly obvious to many of the people we interact with, so even if people here do have a hidden agenda they are probably not aware of it themselves even if it is plainly obvious to others.

A while ago I was trying to do some Tibetan purification mantras on a deities and I felt like I tapped into some sort of ancient energy or feeling, it didn't feel right for me to go there at that time and it felt intimidating so I stopped doing it. It could be that it was my own fear that stopped me but it could also be that it felt alien because it wasn't an appropriate path for me to follow because I am not Tibetan, I have no Buddhists in my ancestors so it could be that that sort of practice simply isn't suitable because it is not my path. I have heard said that for the best chances of success in your spiritual path you need to align with your ancestor spirits otherwise you may get lost.

If you go to war with something inside of you that means you are always feeding it attention by battling it, and if something is fed attention it grows , so being obsessed with sex and being obsessed with getting rid of sex will both keep you trapped in the cycle as either way you feed it energy.

You can build up your rage and channel it like this dude But you still wont be as strong as someone trained by the God of Wushu and his mate Whitebeard

Some people enjoy the drama of conflict and spitting at each other, you have to be careful not to get sucked into their world unless you want to get covered in crap..

I don't really agree with spitting back as a first resort, you can use anger to calmly but firmly set boundaries by verbally explaining how a persons behaviour isn't acceptable to you, and then if they continue you can spit back with a clear conscience. Nobody has a right to give you ego shocks if they are not your teacher and you haven't asked for them, for a start unless they are an enlightened master themselves they wouldn't possibly know how to do such things with any sort of skill.

it Or anger may give you the energy and power to deal with a situation, you can have anger in your awareness without it completely controlling you. You don't have to give way to anger you can use it, for if it exists it must have a purpose yet religions try to get people to disown it altogether which is just another way of controlling people and taking away their power.

Would a genuine Taoist set out to have any pets at all? Seems a bit unnatural to cage a wild animal and bend them against their nature. Many people have dogs because they find them easier and better company than humans so rather than humble their ego a bit and work at learning to love their fellow humans they distort the nature of animals and cut off their genitals to provide themselves loyal company which doesn't answer back and forgives you when you act like an idiot. Seems a bit of a contradiction to spend your life trying to remove your own conditioning to align yourself with your own nature while conditioning an animal to go against theirs.

I spent most my life sucking it up and not getting angry and in the end it made me ill. I think anger is something generally misunderstood by many because of religious conditioning people think anger will send you to hell or give you a lifetime of bad karma, but clean anger can be used to bring back love into a situation and empower you to bring back balance and truth, and often underlying anger is pain so if you deny the anger you may never get to and heal the pain underneath. My personal opinion is that a lot of people need better boundaries and better separation from others more than they need oneness and unification.

Is not what?

Are you not a human being? I agree we are all pretending but I am pretty sure I am a human being

Are you drunk?

It's funny how you quote Gurdjieff then bash Christianity Vmarco because he himself said that he was teaching esoteric inner Christianity from the Desert Fathers, which is a path based on "resplendent love". Despite travelling to Tibet and training with high Lama's he said that among all of the ancient religious teachings "none had so many good regulations for ordinary everyday life" as original Christianity so he wasn't a Red Hat Buddhist at all, he begins his foundation book Beelzebubs Tales with the prayer "In the name of the Father and of the Son and in the name of Holy Ghost Amen" for example. Many of the teachings which Gurdjieff taught which he believed can create the foundation for outer considering didn't come from Buddhism at all but rather from the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, read the teachings on the Watchman from Christian Orthodox texts like the Philokalia and it is clear that the source of many of his teachings on self observation and self remembering which is required for genuine outer considering come from Orthodox Christianity.