JustARandomPanda

Can anyone tell me how the name Akshobhya is actually pronounced? I don't know how to read international symbols of pronunciation. I am guessing it sounds like Ak-sho-hai-ya although maybe the letter 'b' in there should be pronounced?

Sadhguru has a video on exactly this. Within a certain geographic latitude if one wakes around 3 am to 4 am naturally (without an alarm clock or other artificial means) one gains maximum benefit from any sadhana done at that time. If you don't naturally wake at this time it means you're a "Book Yogi" (Sadhguru's words, not mine) and sadhana at 3am forward won't gain you any benefit beyond what one naturally gains at other intervals such as sunrise, noon, sunset, etc. The fact you are naturally waking around this time suggests your guru lineage has planted a spiritual 'seed' of some kind in you and it's starting to sprout.

For those who want to know more about it. Check out my thread to a Cosmic Doctrine online study group.

Just as an example of how useful The Cosmic Doctrine can be Curious Readers should read the first chapter and it's discussion of how space begins moving in a circle for eons and eons of time prior to anything coming from it. Only later is a second ring - at a right angle from the first - begins moving counter to the first and it comes into being because the "nothing' at the perimeter of the first movement creates a kind of 'drag' on the first ring and the movement of both of these Rings (she calls them Ring-Cosmos and Ring-Chaos) creates the largest one - The Rings-Pass-Not. At this description I was reminded of how many Buddhist sutras talk about how the universe is filled with "buddhas" each with a gathering circle of mahasattvas and bodhisattvas on downward in a great-chain-of-being. In Fortune's day the word Cosmos was used for what Astronomers now typically call Galaxies although I think Fortune is using "Cosmos" in a more metaphorical sense, not a rigorously scientific one in Cosmic Doctrine. Anyway - It's a track-in-space and things in motion stay in motion until they either 1. hit something that blocks it completely or 2. create so much friction that the movement eventually dies. At the center is vortex of "nothing" (I understand science today hypothesizes many galaxies might have black holes at their center) but that 'nothing' allows movement. Angles and rays come from the primary vortex and each of these primaries set up secondary vortices and angles which in turn set up tertiary angles and vortices and so on. The topside of each vortex spins one way. The bottom side of each vortex spins the opposite. Each traveling across the primary rays that flow influences in and out. Each more complex than the prior. [So by now my mind is thinking 'meridians!' , 'chakras' and 'cosmic yantras!'] Each one replicates fractal-wise what the Triune Grand Cosmos movement-tracks-in-space are doing. [Yes, Cos.Doc. has a chapter on a grand Trinity that revolves from the central 'nothing' - so now my mind was fairly shouting, "Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva" and at another point I began picturing the Yin-Yang in 3D etc. etc etc.]. In fact as I read a later chapter I remember thinking "Holy Moly! These are the Gunas at a cosmic level that Advaita often talks about." Dear Curious Reader: After completely reading that first chapter go back and read any book on Meditation. Say a meditation book from someone like Master Nan Huai-Chin or maybe Vivekananda. See if The Cosmic Doctrine doesn't give a new appreciation or insight into the spiritual growth process. As I read Cos.Doc. I started to just sit in awe as the realization hit page after page of just how profound an achievement Agastyamuni's Tantric Hatha-Yoga system really is [the real one, not the watered-down version sold in western 'yoga' studios] because it takes what Cos. Doc. teaches and shows you how to apply it to 'create yourself' to be anything you want to be - both in the here and now and in future incarnations too - all by knowing inside your own body the things Cosmic Doctrine teaches. p.s. I now understand why Sadhguru said if you learn all the Hatha-Yoga poses but only master, truly master just one, Quote: "everything in here (points to the body) will be in alignment with everything out there (points skyward)."

I see similarities but YMMV.

Apologies for posting off-topic but...Marblehead died?!!! When was this?! Does anyone know how he went? Heart attack? Cancer? or just simply gone in his sleep one night?

Figured I'd split this off from the Real Magick posts and give it it's own thread. I am really hoping others will add to what I've written so far. I'll be busy transcribing some of the copious notes I've taken on Western Astrology eventually. I've even pondered if there is a way I could arrange my notes, exercises, etc in such a way that one could use them as a "learn-by-doing" home-study course for fellow curious TTBs. I've searched around on the web and everyone who teaches Western traditional astrology is asking for several hundred dollars to teach it . Unfortunately I don't have that kind of money so I'm having to go the DIY route. I will say this...western astrology has got to be one of the most mind-knumbingly complex subjects I've ever attempted to teach myself. I've had college courses that were many times easier than this. Sheesh... Oh yeah... Wait till I start posting notes (different thread) on how to do Western Geomancy (yeah...the western equivalent to Feng Shui). **************** NOW...ON to the Transferred Notes from the other thread: **************** This comes from some of my earliest notebooks while studying astrology, theurgy, etc. Note: It helps to temporarily set aside Chinese 5 element theory while learning this and try to learn this system on it's own terms without interference from other concepts or systems. *********** The following (If I recall correctly) was first proposed by Empedocles in the 5th century b.c.e and arranged in final form 150 years later by Aristotle. The Primary Qualities (The active pole) 1. Hot = Electric a. expansive b. centrifugal c. active d. subtle e. luminous f. radiant 2. Cold = Magnetic a. contractive b. centripetal c. static d. dark e. heavy f. dense Both of the above are the ACTIVE qualities This is the ENERGY pole The interplay of the 2 Active qualities gives rise to a new Pole. The Passive Quality Pole. These are: 3. Moist a. fluid b. cohesive c. molds easily d. adaptable e. generated primarily from Cold 4. Dry a. hardness b. resistence c. rigidity e. generated primarily from Hot The 2 Passive Qualities give rise to FORM This is the FORM pole *********************** The interplay of the 4 poles (2 active, 2 passive - that is, energy + form) give rise to the 4 elements Fire = Hot + Dry (non-molding) Water = Cold + Moist (molding) Air = Hot + Moist (molding) Earth = Cold + Dry (non-molding) In more modern terms we might say Fire = Temperature Water = Cohesion Earth = Solidity Air = Motion ***************** Properties of the Elements Fire a. masculine (yang) b. electric c. active Water a. feminine (yin) b. magnetic c. passive Air a. masculine (yang) b. electric c. active Earth a. feminine (yin) b. magnetic c. passive And finally: QUINTESSENCE 1. Quintessence is the common (transcendent) substrate or background/foundation (my note: non-dual unity?) of all the above four elements. Quintessence itself is not an element. Big note on the prior: The Elements are not "things" (except maybe nominally for language purposes). They are actually descriptions of the process of Change. That is...they are "phases" of change. Do not re-ify the elements. Hard to do (in my experience) so I find it helpful to remind myself constantly the Elements are describing phase changes, not "things" per say. ************** Believe it or not the above I just listed is one of the most important foundations for beginning to understand the logic that was behind Western Astrology (and still is to those willing to suspend modern scientistic materialistic beliefs) and why it was considered one of the classical Hermetic Arts (co-equal with Theurgy and Inner Alchemy). Hint to the above statement: "As above, so below".

Thought I would share the following from Chris Warnock's Astrology newsgroup. A rather interesting combo from what he says for talismans made on Valentine's Day 2020. Seems a LOT of planets are in detriment.

Short answer: Nothing, if that's what actually goads you and keeps goading you into daily practice. Daily, persistent cultivation practice will change you so there's no guarantee this will even be an issue by the time one dies. Longer answer: I tend to be a bit more forgiving these days of people's 'reasons' of 'why choose X over Y' - as long as they actually do practice. In actual terms I don't think you're looking to "Ascend" or you'd have put a loaded gun to your head and pulled the trigger by now instead of posting on a forum. That would guarantee ascension. I'm guessing you're like many spiritual seekers and wanting to bring the promised fruit of "ascension" into the here and now because the stereotype of ascension is that it's a paradise. Ditto with getting rid of desires of any kind since those are also said to be major hindrances to the fruit of ascension. Even if you have 'blips' of the fruit of Siddha mastery 1% of the time that doesn't help you for the other 99%. And that other 99% is where most people spend their lives. Now you have a clearer idea of what to take aim at to improve. So whatever reason you give yourself to keep practicing - as long as you practice to make that other 99% more steadily joyful - do that and don't worry about 'hindrances', 'ascension', 'siddhis', 'kundalini', etc.

Wanted to alert any interested DaoBums that John Michael Greer's latest weekly essay and where participants (along with JMG) can post about the latest chapter being discussed (at the time of this post) which is on Chapter 19 of the Revised Edition and Chapter 21 of the Millennial Edition. You can download a free pdf of The Cosmic Doctrine since it's now in the public domain. Each month I'll come back here and revise it to include the latest essay link. Each essay has quite lively participation with lots of back and forth discussion. Small note: JMG approves each post before it's allowed on the discussion. So if you participate and hit submit it will not just automatically show up. Usually later in the afternoon you'll start seeing posts show up and this will go on until the day before next week's topic goes up. Below are links to the chapter commentaries and study participants posts Chapter 1: The Dawn of Manifestation Chapter 2: The Forces of (Negative) Evil Chapter 3: The 12 Rays and the 7 Cosmic Planes Chapter 4: The Building of the Atom Chapter 5: Atomic Evolution Upon the Cosmic Planes Chapter 6: The Beginnings of a Solar System Chapter 7: The Evolution of a Solar System Chapter 8: The Evolution of a Great Entity Chapter 9: The Creation of a Universe Chapter 10: The Beginnings of Consciousness Chapter 11: The Evolution of Consciousness Chapter 12: The Beginnings of Mind Chapter 13: The Evolution of the Divine Sparks Chapter 14: The Evolution of a Planetary Spirit Chapter 15: Evolution of the Lords of Flame, Form and Mind Chapter 16: The Influences of the Lords of Flame, Form and Mind Chapter 17: The Lords of Mind as Initiators Chapter 18: Influences Acting Upon Human Evolution Chapter 19: The Logoidal Relationship to the Manifested Universe Chapter 20: Influences of the Manifested Universe - Part One Chapter 21: Influences of the Manifested Universe - Part Two

Does anyone know the title of the vid Dwai linked? If so I'd like to find it and listen to it.

Wow. Chanting Names is utterly amazing. I wish like crazy now I could go back in time and just do Name chanting when I first started to get serious. It blows all the other practices I've been doing all these years out of the water. And I first began around 2006. Joined DaoBums the next year. Nothing else - at least for me - has remotely come close to the power and speed of this practice. It's weird how I can 'feel' the 'me' disappearing (only to come roaring back as I type this but now that I've had a taste of what it's like I want more)! Does that make sense? Unfortunately it's rather difficult to use English without pronouns but the closest I can get would be 'the chanting is chanting itself'. That's the best description I can give of what it's like. Now my SF novel luvin no-self wonders what it's gonna be like when the experience of activity dissipates too. Then the Buddha says 'turn your awareness back on itself' - and see where that goes. I suspect it will be really freaky! This Name Chanting Nei-Gong that works on the alaya level as the starting point is amazing! At least for me it is lightening fast.

Going back through an old thread of mine. I've been pimping the following book lately but I think it's a very important Hermetic Tantric text and explains exactly why and how the above classification in Western Astrology evolved. Check out Dion Fortune's The Cosmic Doctrine. Read the first three chapters. Then go back to my opening post and re-read that post in light of just what the first three chapters of Ms. Fortune's book is saying. I'm beginning to think those canny old Greeks knew a thing or two about what Ms. Fortune's book talks about.

Woah! Well this is unexpected. Daobums has gone old-school? No Mods? When did that happen? January 1st? No Modding - that's the way it was in the early years. Having seen how it works with and without each have their pros and cons but I think the way it's done now - very limited mod power over one's own thread - seems to be a decent compromise between the two.

The Lerner...it sounds like your temple is more in line with what I was looking for. At least when it comes to actually putting the teachings into practice. And possibly more. I originally became interested when I stumbled across Dion Fortune's The Cosmic Doctrine. Upon reading it so much of what it says matches things I've heard Sadhguru and other Hindu or Buddhist teachers discuss I am now convinced it's a legitimate western(!) tantric text in it's own right. I was so surprised. Dion Fortune gifted something by a higher Plane being as if she were an Tibetan acolyte and the book was a Tibetan terma. (I think terma is the right word). Reading The Cosmic Doctrine gave me a deeper appreciation for Agastyamuni of all people! Now I see why Hatha Yoga is based on angles and poses and those angles and poses have deep cosmic law effects. I just never realized how deep until that Dion Fortune book. Agastyamuni based it on the principles The Cosmic Doctrine delves into at a deep level. Well that piqued my curiosity. If a 1920s rather dowdy British lady is getting tantric texts from higher plane beings - what else is out there I don't know about? Hence my interest sparked in Judaism. Especially Orthodox since the claim was that those were the guys who keep to the old ways and do it best. Don't have an Orthodox temple nearby so I checked out Youtube. There's some interesting stuff but the Orthodox stuff I've watched doesn't seem to delve in the Kaballah at all. Perhaps most Rabbinic Orthodox consider the Kaballah heretical? In any case Kaballah is never discussed in the many channels I've been watching. I've never been upset by what I'd found though until the other day's Tenak Talk session.

You know...I had not considered that but if the state of current Rabbinic Orthodox Judaism (the supposedly self-proclaimed 'real Jewish Jews') is being fairly represented by what's found on the many ROJ channels on Youtube I am not surprised so many have left their birth-religion. I don't know why I expected better from Judaism. The kind of ignorant attacks I saw against Yoga and the various Martial Arts...well I expect that from Islam and Christianity. Those two offshoots each have a well-deserved rep for being close-minded, angry and mis-characterization. I just thought Judaism - especially after all the hell it's been through in the past 100 years - would have learned a thing or two about the dangers of itself being that way. I was getting a bit angry but then the segment ranting about the various martial arts was so comical I started to laugh. The Martial Arts are riddled with "pagan idolatry" and "witchy woo" (Rabbi's words, not mine) - as is any kind of Yoga. Circumnabulating a stupa is idolatry but circumnabulating a representative of the Torah scriptures is not? Bowing to a photo of a Roshi (ie Rishi guru in Japanese) is idolatry but bowing to a photo of a Tzadik is not? Are there any Jews here reading this thread? I'd be very surprised if there are any Orthodox Jews reading this but surprises do happen sometimes. Assuming there is - what was (is?) your current experience of your 'native religion'? Is Idolatry still a "thing" of concern regularly taught or warned to the laity?

OMG! Leave it up to Sadhguru to pull a rabbit out of the hat to cheer people up from what is otherwise a sad or worrying topic! Fast forward to 4:20 and watch!

Is there anyone here whom can tell me the benefits of the shiva yantra? I'm sadly hard of hearing and have found the small handful of Youtube videos discussing it unusable because I can't make out what the person is saying. Even turning on Youtube's auto-subtitles did not help. And most Shiva Yantra youtube vids didn't offer that option anyway. So is there anyone here whom could share insights into some of it's benefits? About the only two things I did get from one of the Youtube vids is that it helps aiding one in overcoming unreasonable fear of death - useful since we're all going to die someday - and helps improve one's health.

I will have to see if I can find any of these more open-minded Kaballah rabbis. Sounds like they may actually have some real wisdom which is why they're hunting around for what other spiritual traditions say too. Oh...and the teaching about how idolatrous Yoga is on Tenak Talk (along with what was said about various Martial Arts) was just...SMH.

I guess this is what I've been encountering on Youtube of late. I became interested upon discovering the "Star of David" is actually found inside every human body and is composed of chi meridians meeting in triangles at the heart chakra if one fasts long enough for all the vayus to have time to converge there. I kept mentioning that in one of the orthodox Judaic youtube chat streams only to get strong push back from other participants - to put it charitably. Was particularly surprised Orthodox Rabbis did not seem to know about the existence of these chi channel pathways inside their own body even from an Oral Tradition standpoint.

Wanted to add I have discovered it's helpful to add a second or even third name to chant (or some other complimentary practice) because name chanting works at the alaya level for purification and advancement according to Master Nan Huai-Chin. Which I suppose is why for many people the results start showing up pretty fast. It will start bringing forward all the karmic seeds from alaya - both those the Name you're chanting is busy purifying and those that it doesn't. So my tactic was to notice what kind of thoughts were surfacing (without judgment) that I wanted to "improve" or turn around. Both the Buddha and Sadhguru say that what one thinks will be what one becomes in the future (whether this life or a future one). So my thoughts gave me a clue as to what needs most addressing because it's ripening along with the things Bei Shah Jei's Shakti is working on. I used this 5 Dhyani Buddhas document to help me figure out a second name to chant and the Tattva/Bhuta it addresses. I guess I'll let the cat out of the bag (crossing fingers this is not a dumb thing to admit online) I chose Ratnasambhava as my second name. I am not as far along as many other Dao Bum practitioners. I've never experienced Kundalini Awakening to give an example. So I'm very much a beginner if one wants to use Kundalini as a yardstick for progress. I noticed thoughts of "self-pride" were beginning to increase to a disturbingly noticeable degree after I began chanting Bei Shah Jei whereas before they were more rare. According to that webpage 'self-pride' is a sign that the earth element is particularly afflicted. From a chinese nei-gong standpoint it means the spleen is particularly afflicted as is one's sense of smell and one having skin problems (in my case having a hard time detecting odors, lots of allergies and dry, itchy skin) and is the result of excessive monkey-mind chattering and leads to soft, flabby muscles (aka poor muscle tone) all over the body. The last I got from another website and nearly fell out of my chair in shock because 'overly soft, flabby muscles' has indeed been a huge health problem all my life that even lifting weights has not been able to fully address! I had no idea afflicted earth/spleen has the knockon effect of such lack of muscle tone but apparently it does. Anyway, my typical practice to address self-pride or one-upsmanship vis-a-vis others was to use a Tibetan Buddhist practice of immediately using logic rationales (which are also thoughts) to demonstrate to myself how I'm NOT superior to other people - especially to people whom are so "worldling" or "muggle"-ish they disdain and discount any spiritual practice or teaching (*cough* my own family *cough* cough*). Chanting Bei Shah Jei is working very fast and its now letting me see I need much stronger medicine to address self-pride than the Tibetan practice I was using. I've been using some sort of self-deflating rationale work since I was a child but the Tibetan practice ramps that up. According to the 5 Dhyani Buddhas page and longer pdf lesson/essay Ratnasambhava is medicine for someone with a lot of self-pride and will crank up the purification process in that area into overdrive beyond even the Tibetan practice. It also just so happens that according to the Ksitigarbha sutra chanting his name grants (and I quote): So not only will his name energy help people in their current life with an afflicted earth element/spleen like me. You are also downloading the shakti energy that will let you have rebirths in a higher heaven where you can receive teachings from Buddhist or Hindu Deities as well!

I posted that exchange because I did not realize GRRM had such an extensive SF novel/novella backlog. Has anyone read any of these other Martin SF works (not Wildcards, not Dunk & Egg, not ASOIF). It certainly sounds like he's doing a whole Brandon Sanderson Cosmere-thing with his Thousand Worlds Universe. The whole Dragon-gene vs. Warg-gene thing reminds me of the Bene Geserit breeding program for the genetic Superbeing Kwisatz Haderach.

I haven't read the GoT series past book 3 as GRRM, Patrick Rothfuss and Robert Jordan all convinced me to never start a series until the author has completely finished their series. I have watched the TV show however up to season 6 via checking out the DVDs from the library (season 7 still has a monstrously long wait list). However I stumbled across the following thread on Youtube spurred by the GoT fandom's angry reactions to how the series has ended. I'm posting the long back-and-forth because it's changed what I think of the 3 books I've read so far and (if the guy who keeps making the points he does is right - the tv show has gone so off the rails from the books that it very long ago became something that is only distantly "inspired" by the books). I'll admit right now that if what this guy says it's a big spoiler for the end of the *novels* - not just the tv show. TV show GRRM outline for tv show + novel + published works history now makes me suspect GoT actually takes place in a Science Fiction future - *not* a Medieval Fantasy. Read the following posts I'm C&P-ing at one's own peril of potential novel spoilers: ********************************C&P follows***************************************** Anti-Federalist 1776 on the show and its trajectory: 1 day ago It was wrong from the beginning... people just didn't know it, a Fantasy series based upon Science Fiction novels from one of the most prominent bronze era SciFi writers could never end well. ***************** Anti-Federalist 1776 says: Because Jon isn't a Targaryen... he's a Stark & Dayne, possibly the true heir of Winterfell if Brandon & Ashara were married when he (Ned) was locked in the Black Cells. Dany Is Rheagar Targaryen & Lyanna Stark's daughter ... it's impossible for Dany to be the Mad King's daughter since she wouldn't have the right genetic legacy to telepathically nuture then hatch dragons eggs. *********************** jamesw6374 said: G RR Martin has frequently said that fans guessing this threw a massive spanner in the works for his entire saga. Hence why the 'king is the one with the best stories' and who knows the future and the past (author egotism?) Fan service would have had the hero Jon Snow defeating the 'the dark lord' character of the night king, winning the heart of the Queen and sitting on the Iron Throne Aragon-style. Never what GOT was about, Martin's subversion of fan expectations is actually secretly kind of brilliant. *********************** Anti-Federalist 1776 said: pathetic show watchers... Rhaegar+Lyanna Stark =Jon Snow was widely considered to be such an obvious red herring that only morons would believe it before the show came out. So no... it is IMPOSSIBLE for Dany to be Rheagar's sister AND be a Dragonhatcher, that's not how GRRM uses a simplified Mendelian genetic modeling in any of his published works. The whole point of Rheagar chasing Lyanna was to create Dany... to attempt to substitute the Stark telepathic Warging gene for the Targaryen telepathic Dragon gene. In so doing creating the first XX Dragonhatcher in well over a century. The Faith & Citadel spent centuries to eliminate that capacity from the Targaryen bloodline, though some of the Westrosi Houses managed to snag & preserve it. Which conversely is even how Rheagar carried it... from his Blackwood grandmother are the Targaryen Civil War had the dragonless genetic lineage take prominence & then no more Dragons were hatched again. ***************** Someone objects that the tv show establishes Jon as a Targyren + Stark ****************** Anti-Federalist 1776 said: nope... I don't care about the trash fanfic show that only morons would be entertained by, I checked out in season 4 because it was a disgrace. Though it would be horrific if Bran (the-3-Eyed-Raven) actually was crowned "King" since that means humanity lost & the Weirwoods won... they nuked themselves back into a literal Stone Age & plummeted into a millennia of post-apocalyptic interregnum in an effort to defeat the Weirwoods - the long fabled but never physically described Hrangain in the novels, that the Human Federal Empire destroyed itself fighting to achieve a pyrrhic victory against in the vast interstellar Double War. I was a GRRM fan before I picked up GoT when it was originally released in paperback... so my view on the story is vastly different than your show watching opinion. You see "magic"... I just see all the telepathic abilities from GRRM's previous works, I mean he has a whole Corpse Handler trilogy which has his most autobiographical character of Turtle being an uber powerful corpse handler. I mean even Bran's "time travel" is done the exact same as previous as GRRM published work, with the same reasoning on how it doesn't violate the Paradox Rule by it being a conciousness transfer not a physical transfer (which is still bullshit but at least makes the attempt at justification.) ******************** Anti-Federalist 1776 said: Ned+Ashara=Jon is just a shittier version of Brandon+Ashara=Jon... plus it has nothing to do with the way GRRM writes that involves cuckoldry & the "hero" being unloved. It also doesn't match up with the story in that Howland kept Ned busy during the Harrenhal tourney after bringing Ashara to Neds attention... then Ned also wouldn't have been around Ashara like Brandon was when he was locked up in the black cells & Ashara was one of the handmaidens of Princess Elia. Ashara "killed herself" when Ned brought Dawn back to the Daynes following the battle at the Tower of Joy... not 9 months after Ned was there. Jon is far too young to have been conceived at the tourney and there wasn't enough time after Ashara "suicide" to have conceived then gestated Jon following the return of Dawn. *************** Lily Connolly 23 hours ago said: @Anti-Federalist 1776 I read the books and what you just wrote is again incoherent nonsense. If you didn't watch the show after season 4 don't come here with your bs. Jon's parents aren't even confirmed in the books so that adds to how stupid your message was. *************** evbb 22 hours ago @Lily Connolly I don't know if he's right or not, but frankly, you're the one in the wrong here, lol. "Jon's parents aren't even confirmed in the books so that adds to how stupid your message was." That's exactly what he's saying, do you not understand that? ************** duprattcarol 20 hours ago Said: He would have never been able to ride a dragon, engage in that aerial fight with the night king, or even be spared by Drogon when the dragon Dany dead. ************ Anti-Federalist 1776 20 hours ago @Lily Connolly okay... you read the books with the preconceived notions of the show in your mind, I read the books with the vast majority of GRRM work already read in my mind. So when the "Red Comet" was introduced... I just automatically assumed that it was an Ecological Engineering Corps starship like from the novella Plague Star, which made ASOIAF set in the Thousand Worlds universe. So when the Others or Thoros reanimate the dead... I just automatically assume that they are telepathic corpse handlers like the Corpse Handler trilogy set in the Thousand Worlds. ******************* [randompanda note: has anyone else read Plague Star? Did that novella indeed establish that the ASOIAF planet is part of Martin's Thousand Worlds SF universe? ******************* Jose Ramirez 20 hours ago anti-federalist, they literally show us jon's parentage.... idk if ur trolling, or retarded... ************* Anti-Federalist 1776 19 hours ago @Jose Ramirez badly written tv-fanfiction doesn't qualify as canon... so the show counts for nothing even more so now that the show ends in worst possible way with humanity losing since a telepathic incorporated agent of the Weirwood Hivemind gets installed as King, which is the very worst possible outcome to me. ************ Jose Ramirez 19 hours ago antifederalist, i agree with u there, first thing i thought was "so 3 eyed ravens r gonna be the king from now on.." i mean right? bran is gonna see his own death, pass the ability onto whoever he deems worthy/capable, and it goes on and on... and probably back to family ruling, cuz being a warg is in the family...and bran plotted to be king this whole time.. didn't help anyone but himself that prick. ****************** Anti-Federalist 1776 18 hours ago @UCNhVx1crNX6COA0cMyDrTuw Jon is stabbed in the last book during a coup within the Nights Watch that wanted to remove him from being Lord Commander... he doesn't necessarily die, but Melisandre being there means that even if Jon does die than she can animate his corpse like Thoros did with Dondarren and now Lady Stoneheart. ****************** Eric Miller 19 hours ago (edited) @Anti-Federalist 1776 LOL this can't be true. R+L has to = J Now granted it was so heavily hinted at you could argue this was an obvious red herring. I didn't need to come to the interwebz to get that one he laid it on thick. But this would be the equivalent of hinting the butler did it then changing your mind as Martin said. Which is something he said he would not do. There may have been a time the Daynes were supposed to be more important in the story. But Martin seems to have cut them with the 5 year skip. ******************** Anti-Federalist 1776 18 hours ago @Eric Miller nope... that's not how GRRM handles Mendelian genetic modeling, which means that it would be impossible for Dany to be a XX telepathic genetic Dragonhatcher if Aerys was her father & Rhella her mother. The entire POINT of Rhaegar in fulfilling "prophecy" was to *recreate* the Dragonhatcher genetic confluence of double recessive telepathic genes... whether Rhaegar was aware of what he was doing or not in those terms. Just cause the people in the story have forgotten their own history of being part of the interstellar Federal Empire & nuking themselves back into a literal Stone Age during their war against the Hrangain (Weirwoods)... doesn't make their opinion valid, the Sandship in Dorne is still a crashed Federal starship regardless of what the current inhabitants of Dorne "think" it is. ********************* Eric Miller 18 hours ago (edited) @Anti-Federalist 1776 None of those things are confirmed What is a dragon hatcher? You're acting as tho he gives these detailed frameworks that don't exist. lol Guy couldn't even pace his story correctly With all the resurrection going on Jon has to come back. Plus why did we spend so much time foreshadowing his parentage if it didn't matter? So you could be right about some topic Martin never put in the books directly? lol *************************** Anti-Federalist 1776 18 hours ago @Eric Miller A. Know the logical framework that GRRM writes from. & B. - Do an autistic sperg analysis of the Targaryen bloodline, then match up when Dragons were hatched & who the eggs were around before hatching. So GRRM has technically provided the information... just without context and you have to reverse engineer the outline that he created when he was thinking all this up. It's why GRRM keeps pumping out all these "prequel" stories... cause he fully formulated the whole world that he then placed these characters in, which the story is developing around the characters. So while ASOIAF is an evolving character based storyline... the world and history they exist in is fully realized. ******************** Eric Miller 17 hours ago (edited) @Anti-Federalist 1776 He has made a giant mess. The concerns I posited are much more important than the geneology lining up. You could fix that up on top of the tree and say "oh really X was his great great grandpa" There done easy THe problems I presented cannot be solved so easily lol. Not saying there wasn't a time he set that up. But it's done now. If he finishes John coming back and he's not gonna be a Dayne cuz the Daynes were cut out of the fucking story ************* Anti-Federalist 1776 16 hours ago @Eric Miller how so...? Dorne in general is just about to fully enter the story when Arianna marries Aegon & call the totally intact banners which are waiting in the passes out of Dorne for her message. Personally... I think that the Septon with Aegon is Ashara, Dany stayed in Dorne for years after the baby swap happened until she was old enough to have memories of the "house with a red door" & "lemon trees" which don't grow in Bravos. So at some point Doran's involvement with Illyrio/Varys shipped Dany over to Essos that way she could be used as the pawn she was supposed to be as a Dragonhatcher to spend the time needed around the eggs until the sorcerers of Assahi could hatch them... then the Dragons could be given to Aegon along with the Golden Company for the conquest of Westros. Drogo fucked up that plan by dying before the khalassar could reach Asshai because he refused medical treatment, then Dany accidentally hatched the dragon eggs & burn Mizi who was the 2nd/3rd most knowledge person in the entire world on dragons with only her master Maester Marwyn being the foremost dragon expert in the world. I mean that fact that one of Maester Marywn primary disciples was in the absolute middle of nowhere with the Shepherd Men which just happened to be the path of khalassar which contained a Targaryen woman & 3 dragon eggs is beyond comprehension to the point of asinine to ascribe that chance/accident had anything to do with that. **************** Anti-Federalist 1776 15 hours ago @Eric Miller sidenote- that's not how even the very simplified Mendelian method of genetic lineage that GRRM uses... we already have the legacy & which dragon eggs hatched after being around which women, so we know where the recessive telepathic Dragon gene resides unlike the Starks' clearly dominant telepathic Warg gene that was given to them from Bael the Bard. ************************ Anti-Federalist 1776 15 hours ago @Jose Ramirez yep... the Weirwoods are the true enemy in ASOIAF, which is easy to figure out because telepathic Communal Hiveminds are ALWAYS :like literally every fucking time: the enemies of Individualistic humanity in all GRRM stories. So... Bran being an incorporated aspect to the Weirwood telepathic Hivemind Conciousness will end with the subversion of all humanity into being incorporated into the Weirwood telepathic Hivemind like what happened in the GRRM novella Bitterblooms. **************** Eric Miller 15 hours ago @Anti-Federalist 1776 The amount of assumptions in this one are just too many to start with. Martin has given you loose ends that can never be tied up or proven We're never gonna have time for a dany flash back that goes over where she was at as a baby. How is that gonna matter to the overall plot? WHy would Martin tie that in? You act like he's got 75 more years to live and 10 more books to write. . . . . Insanity ************** Anti-Federalist 1776 15 hours ago @Eric Miller i am using actual source material buttressed with GRRM's previous half century of writing themes & internal SciFi logical assertations... yet "im making it up" cause GRRM could possibly happen to change something in the your supposed future scenario??? Okay... ******************** Daniel Moir 15 hours ago Anti-Federalist 1776 Ned Stark would not have needed to hide the identity of his legitimate nephew born from his older brother and a woman who wasn’t sitting the throne. Ned’s honor wouldn’t have allowed him to claim a lordship that didn’t belong to him. The origin you spell out makes no sense, since Ned would have served as Lord Regent until Jon came of age. The only reason Jon’s linage would have needed to remains secret is either if he is Ned’s bastard, or R+L=J were true, and Jon poses a threat to the Baratheon claim. I also hate to break this to everyone, but GRRM has said the major beats of the story will remain the same. The journey getting from beat to beat might differ, but major plot points like this will remain the same. Your fan theory isn’t going to work in the books at all. ****************** Anti-Federalist 1776 15 hours ago @Daniel Moir So... Ned was just going to give away Winterfell to Brandon's son??? Which is what happens in your whole "there is no need to hide Jons lineage" premise... that is a very pressing reason for Ned to obfuscate Jons parentage, that you are bypassing like it is nothing. *********************** kabukiman69 11 hours ago seems like almost all of the story was ultimately for nothing to the story ******************* Anti-Federalist 1776 11 hours ago @kabukiman69 since the showrunners had absolutely no idea what the actual story was... then they were unable to actually show why Bran ending up as King is by far the worst possible outcome. THAT is the dire threat that they are facing... not the Others who are just genetically unstable telepathic humans, that the North stopped giving their bastards to 2 centuries ago when Good Queen Alsace ended the right of first night & closed down the Nightfort which had the Gods Gate in it. White Walker/Night King bullshit has nothing to do with the half century GRRM has been a novelist... that's some basic (((Hollywood))) storytelling, GRRM might be a leftwing hippy libtard but he still one of those (((people))) which his writing reflects. ********************* k4yser 8 hours ago @Anti-Federalist 1776 why could Jon mount a dragon? ********************* Blake Hunt 4 hours ago @k4yser You mean why could Jon mount a Dragon in the show? Because the show is not canon. Its fanservice. Alot of the ideas they implemented in the show was just because people online would want to see it. There is no reason to think Jon will ride a dragon in the books. ***************** Anti-Federalist 1776 7 hours ago @k4yser bringing up retarded show shit is invalid in discussing why the show is retarded & did retarded fanfiction things like using retarded Rheagar Targaryen + Lyanna Stark = Jon. Though it might be possible for Jon to "Nettle" a dragon like Quinton is trying to do with one of the two escaped dragons in Maureen that he let loose, since the whole point of Rheagar chasing Lyanna was to try to create Dany thus substituting the Stark telepathic Warging gene for the Targaryen telepathic Dragon gene. Note: (In the novels Nettle was a bastard who through feeding a constant stream of lambs was able to get a dragon to accept her back during the Targaryen civil war where there were a few unclaimed dragons living in Westros & a lordship was offered by both sides to anyone who could claim one. Nettle being an orphan girl on Dragonstone would be easy to suspect that she was a bastard bloodline having the Targaryen telepathic Dragon gene but it isn't even implied either way... making it possible that anyone could actually ride a dragon if they can buy the dragons loyalty with food, though that seems the more unlikely of the two possibilities.) ****************** Anti-Federalist 1776 @punker87 what "Theories" from outside the book universe am I mixing up? My whole premise is and always has been since about 100 pages into Game of Thrones when it was originally published in paperback +20 years ago... that ASOIAF was a Thousand Worlds series, when the "Red Comet" was introduced that I recognized as an Ecological Engineering Corps starship. So you have deny the Red Comet as a Ecological Engineering Corps starship from the novella Plauge Star, you have to deny that The Others & Thoros are telepathic Corpse Handlers from the Corpse Handler trilogy, you have to deny that the four limbed (not six limbed fantasy) dragons arent a gene engineered war animal that Tuf would created as part of the first Tuf Voyaging story, you have to deny the Sandship being described exactly like a Federal Empire starship, you have to deny that every "seat of power" in Westros is connected to deep subterranean levels that appear to be nuclear fallout shelters, you have to deny buildings like Storms End & the Citadel as being built by a very high technological society. ************* Anti-Federalist 1776 @Ryan Zibell GRRM has a +20 works involving exactly that exact premise... it's called The Thousand Worlds, I started reading GRRM with the Tuf Voyaging trilogy which is set in the Thousand Worlds universe. I then read all the other Thousand Worlds universe stories as well as most of the rest of GRRM writings before Game of Thrones was organized released in paperback. It's why I keep bringing up other books like Plague Star or Bitterblooms as well as the Tuf Voyaging trilogy & the Corpse Handler trilogy... these are all Thousand Worlds books that contain the exact same things as ASOIAF. Most of the interstellar Federal Empire fell into a deep interregnum following the pyrrhic victory in the Double War, after the Fydii got pulled down in their own two fronted interstellar war by the alien species to their galactic East & Humanity was able to beat the Hrangain back to their homeworld. The Children of the Forest would be the Weirwoods (Hrangain) telepathically controlled slave species that fought alongside the Hrangain... the Others are the genetically engineered humans from the war, which they are clearly genetically unstable. The whole North used to feed their bastards through the Godsgate for thousands & thousands of years until two centuries ago when Good Queen Alsace stopped it. So for millienia when the North was doing what Crastor did... there was peace but once the flow of new children stopped & never restarted, then now the Others have to invade but on a conquest for new genetic material not geographical territory otherwise they go extinct.

Gurdjieff's 4th Way is primarily based on Karma Yoga. There are 4 major categories of attaining to one's ultimate nature (Buddha Nature, True Self, No Self...whatever you want to call it.). Jnana Yoga - uses intellectual intelligence as a primary vehicle Bhakti Yoga - uses emotional intelligence as a primary vehicle Kriya Yoga - uses energies of the body as a primary vehicle (a lot of Qigong/Neigong is 3rd Way stuff) Karma Yoga - uses everyday life activities of everything your own daily life throws at you as a primary vehicle In truth everybody has a mix of all 4 but because people have different things they enjoy and prefer typically one of these 4 will be primary while the other 3 act as supports. Gurdjieff was always talking about how he was trying to teach people right in the midst of life's happenings with all the hustle bustle of daily modern lifestyles. That is absolutely a Karma Yoga way of reaching people. Or as Sri Aurobindo said - your life becomes your yoga. It has the benefit of allowing busy people to "do Yoga" even while on the job or performing for audiences, speaking, playing, etc. The bit about periodically suddenly flushing his disciple's Sanga's down the drain around him was one means of reminding everyone part of the inner growth any yoga is to not get too stuck or too comfortable/dependent upon things working out the way you prefer to keep your inner stability and joy going. As the student's Karma Yoga (4th Way) begins to take hold things like suddenly permanently losing your beloved Guru or Teacher and Sanga (as happened over and over with Gurdjieff's students) will knock you off balance and upset you less and less. Because in life...sometimes stuff you don't like happens anyway for reasons you don't understand even though you are a master at all the 4th way practices taught. A teacher may move on if he or she sees his/her sticking around is strengthening instability/dependency rather than the opposite. Or they may use it as a teaching method. Or both. Other Gurus have done similar things like this, not just Gurdjieff only. Advancing students will often grow to be very self-reliant and resilient to a point where a Guru/Teacher will only very occasionally pop up to help. Sometimes not at all. In other words...if something is working for that disciple, don't mess with it.

Can anyone tell me the exact Sutra or Sutras that Buddha gave of the 5 preliminaries before moving on to the 4 foundations of mindfulness?