idquest

I don't know, and you don't know for sure. The highlighted part is your understanding and your opinion, but this is not truth. At least this is how I see things. As a minimum, Gods require worship in return, and possibly much more than worship if somebody wants to obtain something from Gods. Hence my initial question. The idea of gold, silver etc as a means of spiritual payment is just ridiculous, I can't understand why this keeps being brought up. As for beggars - I'd say that most people give them money/resources for getting psychological rewards in return, whatever they could be. The psychological rewards are very tangible, mind you.

Yes this idea has been around - that gods want people's prayer energy, and in return the gods might grant something in return. Remembering - this is the kind of energy that could be close to prayer energy.

IMO this is a weird self-rewarding scenario. A lot of people get high when they 'give'. Some people do give without any expectation and condition, but honestly - such people are rare. Same with domestic animals - most people enjoy being a 'master' of the animals, having power over them. Not all people, but I'd say a significant part of them, judging how people walk their dogs in the nearby park. Getting a 'high' from giving - something feels wrong about this one.

Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing.

Care to elaborate? This one is easy - this is just a fight for control and power It is strange that when talking about transactions, people think that transactions are limited to the monetary ones. Monetary transactions are the cheapest in value. I believe that most people pay their mothers back by being emotionally attached to them and in long term family relationship with them. Nobody here talks about dollar amounts, although some people could.

So God wants to have a relationship in exchange for service?

As a rule, when we ask for something, there is a price to pay. For example, asking for something from a devil usually involves a some kind of spiritual payment, like selling one's soul, as saints and christian scholars teach us (I could be wrong here, please correct me then). But is not the same transactional rule apply when followers ask for something from their deities, such as Jesus, Allah, Buddha, etc.? Do people accrue a 'spiritual credit card' liability when asking for things from their deities?

1) You might have misunderstood what I said. If somebody lives in China, one should be very mindful of general political environment there. It is not about personal preferences, it is general. 2) Why do you think that WLP has not be training a successor?

WLP had tentative plans on a retreat for foreigners in CHina this fall, but now the plans were cancelled. TBH, I think it is an external political environment to blame which is not very conducive to teaching foreigners in China.

IMO what you are looking for is how to master sung/song. Karma is a aggregation of things/energies that get in a way of getting sung/song. One can go deeper in the spirituality only with deep and specific release which is song/sung in daoist tradition. You don't remove karma, you shed it like small pieces of skin or hair while doing release/sung/song. Although in the beginning of the process, some people will need a set of precepts which basically means having an ethical approach to life (yama/niyama, commandments, and all that). Regarding maya - this is likely to be only a mental concept. Because I can't see how maya can get in the way of releasing other bodies than conceptual/mental. If/when one stops conceptualising, there will not be maya.