JustARandomPanda

OMG. I just went through some of this thread again. I've been laughing my ass off! :lol: Ah! I love it when humor breaks out at TB.

Moved to Vedanta forum as it seems appropriate here.

Yep. Same with me. I got all the poisons, fetters, etc.

My answer now is "I don't know."

Wow. What a blast from the past! I managed to get that book. Thanks!

Moved this to the Buddhist forum since this is where this topic belongs. Here's a link to the Mahaparinirvana Sutra for reference.

I was under the impression this was a Wrong View in Buddhism! Is this incorrect?

Actually this is in accord with what I currently understand of the Buddha. I am not a Master Sutra/Sutta scholar but of the ones I've read he repeatedly mentions that his students must get past conditions if they are to be liberated. Conditions only lead to...more conditions. Hence the getting clear of the skandas. Even to the point one finally gets clear of the alaya-vinyana. In fact...as I recall...the Buddha was reluctant at first to teach anything at all about the Alaya-vinyana for fear his students would mistakenly cling to it (aka think they had gotten clear of it - which I read as code for the words 'let go of' - when he knew they really hadn't). It was only many years later when they'd matured from the practices he taught that he saw they were ready for him to teach about it.

I would be interested GiH! I've actually mulled over the idea of trying to get my library to try to get that book. I've heard a lot of people recommend it.

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing that Leon. I wanted to add this resource that Lurkers or Registered Taobums may find useful. It's YourBrainOnPorn.com There's a lot of evidence starting to build up that excessive viewing of porn induces chemical changes within men's brains that can lead to erectile dysfunction. The following set of YouTube videos goes into detail about this. The website also has a self-help program that helps men regain natural, healthy function again. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=ro2ysOhlXMs The above continue on for another 3 - 6 vids But I also wanted to share their other series of vids: again 1 - 6 http://www.youtube.c...h?v=nOsF81sC4vo p.s. Just wanted to say I personally have no problem with anyone watching porn. I simply share this in case there are men out there who might be dealing with this problem but were not aware this could be a potential cause for it. It's something worth looking into at the very least if one is experiencing it and their program might help (which I think is free if I recall correctly).

Wow! This happens to me too! I think I read somewhere once a year or two ago from Ralis on this. He said if you practice this long enough eventually you become aware what's in your subconscious.

I have actually walked around for one day off and on doing exactly as VMarco often posts - consider everything like it's an honest-to-god dream. After a while...well...it's kinda weird. I started to wonder..."I wonder if what VMarco says is really true? Good Lord...I'm just a dream?! Does that mean if I 'treat everything as a dream' long enough the Dream will 'pop'? What happens if it does?" Man..it gets pretty weird thinking that cause after a while I kinda fell into a state where I was just watching *everything* I thought and did with the curious attitude of 'I wonder what's gonna be my next thought?" and "I wonder what I'm gonna do next?" It *was* interesting to test VMarco's advice out as an actual daily 'awareness' exercise.

Stop! Stop! You guys are killing me! :lol: OMG I've been laughing my butt off over this thread.

Wow. Just saw this. I thought it was really bad in the U.S. Seems Europe is about to make the same mistake the U.S. did in 1913. The European Stabilization Mechanism, Or How Goldman Sachs Captured Europe Sigh... http://www.youtube.c...h?v=EPcWHBPYOSU To my European Brothers and Sisters. Rise up! Defend yourselves. Don't make the same mistake we did.

LMFOA!! I still agree with myself! :lol:

The Million Dollar James Randi prize was retired as of late 2010. It no longer stands. That's true of most things in life. I agree skepticism - real skepticism can be helpful - especially if one applies it nonpartially and is willing to seriously investigate one's own beliefs as much as others but that's not what I find among most "Skeptics" these days. They're modern day Crusaders for the Right View of Scientistic Materialism. Chris Hedges writes about these guys and he gave a short talk about it

I confess I am completely confused about this. To me...consciousness *is* awareness. Like the two are synonyms. I'm aware..i.e. conscious. But I gather that what I call consciousness and what Buddhism calls consciousness are two different things. So can someone explain to me precisely what is the difference and how that difference manifests during: 1. waking life 2. sleep 3. coma 4. meditation A bit of background... I practice meditation everyday. Mostly shamatha but occasionally I dip my toe into 'watching my thoughts' - which is really rather hard at this stage as I still have monkey-mind. But sometimes I do it anyway. I have zero 'meditational realizations' so my confusion comes from having to rely on other people's descriptions and/or experiences. Maybe I'd be less confused if I had my own but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. Oh well...maybe someday it will. I sure hope so.

Huh? Uh... what are you doing posting on a message board if your point is that one needs to choose to "proceed" rather than "discuss"? Everyone here actually DOES do meditation and mindfulness practices. I don't think anyone in this thread yet has posted, "hey..I like WORDS rather than practicing". You're painting a false dichotomy here in this next sentence: Humans do both and both can lead to greater understanding or equally BOTH can still result in just spinning wheels to be spinning wheels. See Twinner's thread on We All Have Issues for someone who's done 20 years of meditation (including leading classes on it) and he essentially says it's all been for what...nothing of lasting value he can perceive in making one a better human over those who don't practice. If words are so useless to gaining understanding the U.S. can save the nation a ton of money and dissolve all K-12 schools and Universities and just have everyone be apprentices to assorted corporations instead (learn by doing - aka proceeding vs. words)...

Yes! I agree! This is one of the things that has long puzzled me about so-called 'Skeptics'. Like the ones who populate James Randi's forums or Richard Dawkins groupies. They aren't true skeptics because they're soooo invested in defending their Scientistic-Materialist PoV as the only one that's Rational and REAL (aka "Right View" view) in accord with The Way the Universe Is.

This almost sounds like it's saying Rigpa is just all these endlessly arising aggregates are aware there's just endlessly arising aggregates and nothing more, nothing less - PERIOD - End of Story. It's all aggregates just minus the whole 'clinging' business. (and therein lies the whole rationale of the saying, "Samsara is Nirvana when Rightly Seen". Well...that puts it in 'dualistic terms' but language kind of forces me to posit it that way. It makes it seem like there's still some sort of separate consciousness or awareness that suddenly wakes up and realizes it's own aggregate-y-ness when that's not really what I'm saying. It's just that aggregates are 'just that' and nothing more (the nothing more part being *very important*)...the "wanting more aggregates" will have finally terminated (for lack of a better way to put it)..Meanwhile..other aggregates continue on their merry way...as they always have..and always will... and for some weird reason that I do not understand that leads to... Nirvana so I guess there's nothing "enjoying" Nirvana except just a bunch of aggregates ( !!) P.S. Ah yes...I think I understand some things better now. It's kind of like sifting flour for a recipe. Sift out the 'wanting more aggregates' and the rest of the issue kinda takes care of itself by default. Now...my next question is... Is Nirvana the exact same thing as Lack of Suffering and Clinging? Or is there something even more subtle about Nirvana than mere Lack of Suffering and Extinguishment of Clinging?

Hmm.. It was my understanding this was THE constant source of disagreement between you and Xabir and Vajrahidaya. They said your interpretation goes against what the Buddha himself taught (with Xabir doing his usual lengthy cut and paste of Buddhist Suttas/Sutras) and that your PoV (posited above) ultimately was not disputing with either of them but rather was disputing with the Buddha.

Yes, that's how I define consciousness too (obviously I learned it from modern biology/neurology, etc) but is this how Buddhism defines consciousness too? I always thought Buddhism teaches that Awareness must break through Consciousness (one of the skandas - albeit I'm being a parrot here as I have zero first hand experience of wtf a 'skanda' is). I ask Buddhism - How can Awareness break through *itself* (assuming Awareness and Consciousness are identical)? Or is this a mistaken understanding? If it is mistaken - show me where my error (and that of modern biology/neurology since that's where I learned this viewpoint - ie awareness and consciousness are different words for the exact same thing) has got it wrong.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Fl07UfRkPas

Just to add to the thread I recommend this other recent thread as an extension of this one.