Vmarco

Presence....likely the most important word to understand,...much more important than love, compassion, bliss, etc. For 40 years, come this December, I've been saying that no one will ever understand Who they are, until they realize When they are. Many texts speak of absolute presence,...like the prajnaparamita, and the Hua Hu Ching,...thus no one has to discover anything new. In Dec 1974, following an unplanned, preferenceless, complete surrender,...I realized that [there is no Present in time.] The Heart Sutra, Mahamudra, Hua Hu Ching, all backed it up,...texts that millions have read,...and yet, so few will even discuss the subject of Absolute Presence. Nearly everyone will talk about the relative presence,...the perceived now of sentient beings. But then, the perceived now feeds Thought, and the practice of ego enlightenment. 　 This years biggest spiritual fad seems to be "letting go of the Me." This was likely prompted by Adyashanti, who a few years ago said, "the mystical experience is the highest form of a "me" experience." 　 So the new "End of Me" fad is everywhere,...a new breed that claims to be in the Now,...embracing the perceived present of their sentience,...but somehow liberated from thought. 　 Guess no one told them,...as Avalokitesvara said, "As soon as one sense-organ returns to the source, All the six are liberated." In other words,...if they were really liberated from Thought, by consequence, they'd be liberated from the 5 they are hedonistically embracing. 　 Guess no one told them,...as Descartes realized, "All that I have tried to understand to the present time has been affected by my senses; now I know these senses are deceivers, and it is prudent to be distrustful after one has been deceived once." However,...if my own experience is any guide,...the only way to honestly realize the absolute Present, is to surrender all of one's conditions.

Of course, what the term is pointing to. For example, what does Buddha's Stillness point to? The Buddhists have a story about Shakyamuni Buddha and Angulimala, the wearer of a garland of fingers. Angulimala was a notorious bandit who cut off a finger from each of his victims and wore them all around his neck. Although there are several variations of the story, the punch line is nearly the same. One day, Buddha, the light of Asia, was walking calmly along a road in the Kingdom of Kosala, where Angulimala was seeking his next victim. Seeing Buddha, Angulimala ran up to bash him from behind, yet he could not get close enough, and the faster he went, the Awakened One seemed to go that much faster. Infuriated and bewildered at not being able to catch him, Angulimala shouted for Buddha to stop. The light of Asia replied, "But I’m standing still. If you desire to catch me, you too must be still." This is where oral traditions, especially Theravada ones, go off into different invented morals. The true pearl in the tale is that no matter how fast you move to catch light, light will always be 299,792 kilometers per second faster. Undivided light can only be caught through stillness. A Tathagata is one who simultaneous comes and goes, thus beyond coming and going. In the simpliest of terms, a Tathagata is onewho goes and comes, beyond going and coming, into complete going and coming. One who sees the reverse flow of forward moving things.

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The "me story" is who one thinks they are, not who one is. The "me" cannot see things as they are,...but only as the "me" seeing them. To paraphrase Buddha,...suffering is a consequence of the desire for things to be other than are. The "me" hears that, and thinks it must accept things as the "me" sees them,...but that is not what Buddha is saying. I see the statement "...and see if the love is shining between the words," as accurate, but problematic for the majority who are predisposed to various ideas about love. Sure,...their is religious love, "love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things", 1 Cor 13:7. Yet honesty shows that this in nothing but the submission, devotion, expectation and suffering to the conditions of their religions brewed beliefs. There is also Passionate or emotional love, biological love, chemical love, etc. Yet all of these are conditional. Unconditional love is different,....expose it,...and a faith-driven man will kill it,...least it kills his "me story." Genuine bodhisattvas are a good example of love. Their commitment is for the end of suffering, through the ONLY means to end suffering,...the liberation of sentient beings. That is to say,...the end of the attachment to human-ness,...the 6 senses. Pope Francis is nowhere close to enlightment. I'd give him at least a hundred more lifetimes,...within which time, there may not be time remaining for his enlightment. Many have a dishonest notion that everyone will eventually wake up,....yet, where do they get this notion? All anyone can honestly agree to, is that there is this life time, and in this life time, there is a possibility to awake,...that is,...escape the delusion of sentience. Some mystics, like GI Gurdjieff, said it is unlikely that 99.6% of humanity will never come close to waking up. As the leader of one of the most deluded, dogmatic, faith-based institutions on Earth, the likelihood of Pope Francis realizing any level of truth is millions of times more remote as winning the lottery. Nevertheless,...I certainly enjoy hearing of his stirring the pot,...out of his commitment to his faith,...not out of anything close to Unconditional Love. No faith anywhere, can enter the Unconditional. What could possibily be more ridiculous than an idea that the conditional (any belief system) could enter the Unconditional, and the Unconditional remaining Unconditional.

I have read an argument that Theresa of Avila broke through the hoax of religion and mysticism. Adyashanti said that "the mystical experience is the highest form of a "me" experience" It is said that when reading a religious book you can tell by the way the author expresses himself/herself if they've broken through, i.e., they realize the hoax but they're still promoting it. Some say that St. Theresa of Avila, who wrote a number of books, broke through to the full realization. It is said that she totally stopped reading religious literature. Her whole adult life was spent constantly reading and writing about the Lord. Suddenly, she completely stopped it. Did she realize her visions, her trances, everything was coming from her inner self. Her priest confessor, who had always heard her confessions, just could not get over why all of a sudden she stopped all religious reading...for that had been her passion in life. Once a person breaks through the hoax of theism to realize there is no higher authority looking out for you, you miss the relationship you thought you had with God. The thought that reality is all there is can seem cold. It takes away the mystery and love that communication with God provided. Reality seems very cold at first. So few finally break through to realize it's all a hoax. Many, many people live their whole life caught up living in a way they shouldn't be living, acting and doing things which go against themselves and their self interests. It is extremely difficult to make the breakthrough. It is said to have taken St. Theresa fourteen years. Keep in mind,…if Theresa of Avila broke through the hoax of beliefs,…she did not do it as a Christian mystic,…she did it by letting go of her Christian mystic “me story.”

Yes,...we like to believe that the religious hero's we were indoctrinated into were all "gnowing,"...even though the facts show otherwise. If we play pick-n-choose with theo-beliefs,...sure,...Jesus was a remarkable person,...if we look at all the facts,...Jesus' purpose to fulfill his God's law (Matt 5:17)....the laws of his clearly murderous, pro-slavery, vacillant, petty, racist, conditional God. And amazingly, a God who is so insecure, that it demands to be worshiped, obeyed and prayed to. There is much to be said about gnosis however. Gnosticism, the original form of Christianity, arose from a Greco-Egyptian philosophical fusion, as mentioned above. Gnosticism was an important part of the neo-Christian construct. Gnosis was not an outgrowth of neo-Christianity, as revisionists suggest. Today’s Christian persuasions are a product of Gnostic Christianity, not the other way around. We could say that Christianity was built on the DNA of Gnosticism. This neo-Christian fabrication from Gnosis and Krst, from gnowledge and the Anointed One, can also be substantiated through the Book of Enoch, from which over a hundred phrases were introduced into the New Testament. Enoch was written before 170 BCE, and several Aramaic copies were purportedly found among the Dead Sea fragments of the Gnostic gospels from Qumran. These Gnostics, from the time of the Julian clan of emperors, maintained that Christ was not a man in human form, as claimed in the gospels, but an individual goal of an initiate to realize a Christ Consciousness, the Logos. The Logos represents a mystical rebirth without sexual union, an awakening to a reality beyond duality, a palingenesis from the dream of perception. Duality is inherently a sexual reality, in which consciousness is fragmented. Christ Consciousness is an unfragmented consciousness, in which there is neither hope nor fear. The Jesus as defined in the gospels could not have been a Christ. Neither Paul nor his followers could grasp gnosis, that is, to gnow themselves through the heart of essence. Like many today, frozen in their conceptual experiences, Paul needed a more physical, hope-driven, fear-based path. The ignorant respond to hope and fear. Thus, from the expectations infused through the Pauline church, the concept of a personified Christ grew and entered the groupthink of the anti-Gnostic Paulines and those, like the Roman aristocrats, who wished to exploit it. Before 95 CE, when history suggests that Apollonius died and rose from the dead, there is no mention of a personified Christ or the four gospels. There is no known contemporary scriptural record of the life and times of Jesus/Yeshua. For neo-Christians, so fond of quoting Bible babble, what wasn’t said in the first century that which is curiously missing, is as interesting as the fabrications and contradictions of what was said then. For example, in the writings of Clement Romanus, the Pauline bishop of Rome circa 95 CE, there is not even a tinge of gospel references. Yet Luke 1:1–2 specifically implies that many eyewitness followers had already been writing. Adding to the intrigue, Clement, whom Tertullian and Jerome suggest was the direct successor of Peter, was also said to be a Flavian, that is, a relative of the men who were then the emperors of the Rome. Sciolistic Christians vaunt that the historian Josephus, in two remarks that have been taken out of context, verifies that Jesus/Yeshua existed. Today, however, even conservative scholars agree that those quotations from chapters 18 and 20 of the Jewish Antiquities, a history of the Jews, were later Christian interpolations. Such conclusions are consistent with Origen, an ante-Nicene father, who in the third century CE indicated that such a declaration from Josephus of a Jesus Christ did not exist in his copy of the Jewish Antiquities. Furthermore, no one else before the fourth century CE ever mentioned such an important reference from this often-cited source. Another claim by neo-Christians as to Jesus Christ’s historicity comes fromTacitus’ Annals 15.44, the comment of how Emperor Nero persecuted Christians after Rome’s fire of 64 CE was actually about Gnostic Christians, worshipers of Sarapis, not followers of Jesus or Paul. It was these Christians, the original Christians, whom the author of the second-century Gospel of Matthew called false Christians. Neo-Christians appropriated the name Christianity, as they lifted terms from most of the cultures that they absorbed. Note: That in his (circa 110 CE) letter to the Consul Servianus, Hadrian (71–138 CE), who was the governor of Syria under Trajan, called the Sarapian leaders “bishops of Christ.” Up until the beginning of the Second Century, the Egypto-Greek Sarapians, including those in Syria, called themselves Christians and bishops of Christ. There was no reason for Rome to kill the followers of Paul and the Gospels which arose from Mark.

True,...if you live in the Present, you will be at peace....however, if your present is the perceived present of sensual delusion, you're still in the past,...and the past the past. Just because you're a tenth of a second in the past, it is no different than an hour in the past. So,...tomorrow you are going to die. You are going to jump off a building to your death. Will you be aware of this death? Probably not,....because at the time you hit the sidewalk, your brain is still a tenth of a second or so behind it. So they say. If I was going to die tomorrow, I may double check the follow up instruction,...but would likely not tell anyone,...been through that before,...more than once,...too much drama. Even hearing of Tim Leary's celebratory death on film,....too much drama. I actually thought I was going to die 2 months ago,...had a serious surgery,...but that wasn't it,....it was a few hours after the surgery when I contracted pneumonia that I thought I was a goner, for the following three days. Really wasn't a big deal,...it wasn't my first time. Yeas ago I felt like getting involved in a hospice. My idea was, it would be a great opportunity to talk with people about to die,....I thought, what awesome honest conversations I could have. But not a single was interested in honesty,...spirituality,...etc.,...they all wanted to talk about their past, their memories,....their "me story." So I stopped doing that.

Yes,...speculation on anything is speculation. However, the two descriptions used above,...1. the Buddhist/Taoist view of enlightenment from its highly regarded practitioners,...and 2. New Age purveyors, especially those who pivot from the so-called non-duality belief system,...were not intended to about speculation, but rather if either of those views should hold any value for someone truly desirous to understand the nature of enlightenment,...or should one or both have an anvil tied around them, and be thrown into an abyss. For some other points. An enlightened person, if considering Buddha, Lao Tzu, Tilopa, Avalokitesvara, etc. (and the etc. most definitely does not imply Jesus, Mohammed, or any Abrahamic mystic), talked about the realization of the way things are coming from the Heart Mind,...not Head mind. Thus, those who know, surely do not gnow, according to prajnaparamita-like instructions. So,...the so-called enlightenment discussed in Buddhism and Taoism extends from heart gnowledge, not cerebral knowledge. Another important point about the Buddhist/Taoist view, as left by Buddha, Lao Tzu, Tilopa, Avalokitesvara, etc., is that enlightenment is synonymous with the present,...and the present can only be accessed through the heart,...which on a physical level is more likely talking about the thymus, and not the blood pump. In 5th century BCE Greece, by way of investigating the dead, the thymus was said to be the size of a grapefruit. Today, in our cerebral-centric culture, the thymus, which begins atrophying at the time children are beginning their indoctrination into the cerebral world, is about the size of a pea. When the Greeks spoke of the Higher Mind, they pointed to the chest and said thymos,...the thymos was the seat of gnowledge. Of course, as shown by Paul of Tarsus and Mohammed, gnowledge (Heart Mind) is a direct threat to the faith-based agendas of knowledge, or Head Mind. Over the portico of theTemple of Delphi it is written "Gnothi Seauton"....Gnow Thyself. But religion has altered this to say Know Thyself,...which is not the same. Knowledge comes from psyche, the Head Mind. Those who know, do not gnow. Gnowing is a feminine understanding; whereas knowing is contractually masculine. Wisdom is a masculine word, meaning an accumulation of knowledge. Bodhi and prajna are feminine words that have no use for knowledge. Another point. The cerebral notion that enlightenment cannot be describe is ridiculous. Sure, Lao Tzu may have began with the Tao that can be spoke is not the real Tao,...and then went on for the rest of his life discussing the Tao. Or Sakyamuni saying that he discovered something profound and luminous beyond all concepts. He tried to communicate that something with words, but few understood. Neither implied that it could not be communicated,...just that it was difficult to do so,...but can be communicated to a heart-centered person. A heart centered person can access the present. Enlightenment can be pointed to sentient, monkey minded folks,...although they will not fully understand until they let go of their monkey mind. I have seen no indication of any non-dual professing entity accessing the Present. The present that they speak of is the relative or perceived present constructed by Thought. Be in this perceived moment they say, and sense your surroundings. Smell the coffee. Be human. Lao Tzu calls such Thought control as Monkey Mind. "the ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle; totally fascinated by the realm of the senses....if anyone threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go." Lao Tzu So here's an absolute fact,...the senses,...and I'm speaking of all 6 senses,...CANNOT observe the Present,...it is impossible. And thus, people like Buddha, Lao Tzu, Tilopa, Avalokitesvara, etc., spoke of liberating the senses. Even early science recognize the lie of the senses, when Descartes said, “All that I have tried to understand to the present time has been affected by my senses; now I know these senses are deceivers, and it is prudent to be distrustful after one has been deceived once.” Yet, the non-duality folks continually insist that being in the sensual now is enlightenment. It just does not jive with the Buddhist/Taoist view. Of course,...I could buy into the sensual now version of enlightenment,...opiatized to the fragrances of momentary delusion,...such a life would be as blissful as that of a happy Christian clinging to her well underlined bible, or a mystic Muslims trance from spinning. But what would it be like to step out of the Monkey Mind? To truly behold the Present,...the absolute Present? What is it truly like to be unwoven from the delusions of separation? To have those experiences, according to Buddha, Lao Tzu, Tilopa, Avalokitesvara, etc., all one has to do is liberate (not embrace, as non-dualists do) the senses. And it's even easier than it sounds. Avalokitesvara said, “As soon as one sense-organ returns to the source, All the six are liberated."

I've posted many times that "the only compassion is that which destroys the illusion of separation"....and the response (in the General Forum) was one of hatred toward my post. Then today,...someone sent this Youtube: Off Topic is a better place for "truth talk". http://thetaobums.com/topic/30461-compassion-as-an-off-topic/?hl=vmarco#entry453308

If we look at a set of the various practices for the [thought based] activity of illumination beyond the status quo,...we could them models,...in this case, the version of a product (belief system)whose ideas promote a system of postulates, data, established opinion, inferences, or tradition that describe the past, present, or future state of something,...for example, there are 5 main models of Zen. Thus,...in this context, a set of all models would include the variant vehicles of religious systems. Any of those models, far too numerous to name, from the Amish, to the Zoroastrians, that advocate a tolerance of the interfaith movement,...that is, that one should be tolerant of all belief systems, even those that cause hideous harm, like those whose belief practices steps between a sentient being and there direct experience, should not be tolerated. Yes,...the Three as One is quite old, and bridges cultures where there should be none. For example,...in the Mayan Popal Vuh, god 7 has 3 aspects. Don't know why you brought up "the three in one." Try this one out: Where are the numbers 3, 6, 9 in the recursive pattern 142857 of the law of seven? The number 142857 is a cyclic integer whose digits are successive multiples or fractions of that number. 142857 × 1 = 142857 142857 × 2 = 285714 142857 × 3 = 428571 142857 × 4 = 571428 142857 × 5 = 714285 142857 × 6 = 857142 or: 1divide7 = 0. 142857142857… 2/7 = 0. 285714285714… 3/7 = 0. 428571428571… 4/7 = 0. 571428571428… 5/7 = 0. 714285714285… 6/7 = 0. 857142857142… Within the recursive pattern 142857 can be found how form comes from empty, and empty from form. However, it is unable to do this without the fulcrum (9), or the other two (3 and 6). What we are doing here is looking at the enneagram,...not a psychological tool or parlor game, but as the foundational mathematics underlying all phenomena.

Perhaps it's a matter of levels of models. Many Zen models (which in my opinion nurture a tradition of makyo) say we are everything else,...which is relatively correct. The false is pretty much the same as all other false. All phenomena is energy,...phenomena may appear different from the perception of an individualized phenomena, because of how the assembledge or vibration it is viewed, but is nevertheless, all just energy. The Bodhisattva model, focuses on the boundary, the Other,....eventually dissolving the boundary, which dissolves the center. The Dissolving the Center model,...aka, going within,...is a model, which from my perspective of history, has no example of the realization of absolute awakening. However,...if Zen resonates,...practice Zen. Saijojo, I believe, is the most efficient,..but least practiced by Westerners,...who generally prefer those Zen varieties that include interfaith ideas, to mix and match their judeao-Christian upbringing. Any model tolerant of interfaith, is a model that will never lead to the threshold of awakening. Those tolerant of interfaith (that is, those complicit in other's stepping between people and their direct experience) cannot access the Heart necessary to realize absolute compassion.

The original went something like: Gays are born gay; homophobia is taught.

There does appear to be shift from group or family religion, to individual religion. Thailand has the largest publically viewable transgender population,...including Toms (F2M) and what they prefer to be called sao praphet song or 2nd female (M2F). IMO, Thailand's Buddhism has played a large role in the popularity of people expressing the gender of their choice. Unlike Mahayana or Vajrayana Buddhism,...Thai Buddhism pivots on self liberation,...thus, an individualist approach, that has few counterparts in Abrahamic Western society. Interesting, the most gender open Country is Argentina. Don't know why. The Country with the most vaginoplasties? I'll give you 10 guesses. Iran. Seems Iran gives free sex change operations,...as homosexuality is punishable by death. Now keep in mind,...I would not use the term "sex change operation" for anywhere else. The proper term would be gender reassignment surgery. But Iranian gays are not looking for gender reassignment, but rather not to be killed.

Yes,...normal is likely a minority. From my earliest memories I drew in a third box and printed Other. Even here, like FB, and other social media,...the indoctrination is towards a binary gender culture. To paraphrase someone,...no one is taught to be a 3rd gender, nor born in a binary gender world. Keep in mind, that 3rd gender has a multitude of types, from transmen, transwomen, ambigender, androgynous, to a Bodhisattva (like Kuan Yin, who was born Avalokitesvara). Speaking of the latter,...According to prediction and metaphor, the future Buddha, Maitreya, will be a male born into a Red Hat family, and in one day, become a realized Buddha as a female; like the monk Avalokiteshvara became Kuan Yin. Doesn't matter how this transformation of Avalokiteshvara took place; and although many still view him as male, the natural qualities of a Bodhisattva are feminine. Some suggest that Maitreya will be the final incarnation of Kuan Yin. My personal observation is that women have too many masculine, contracting energy qualities. Certainly, Yang and Yin are of the samething,...but far too much focus in on the masculine,...for both men and women. Osho once mentioned that all spiritual qualities are feminine.

Of course. And then,...there's subject of "self,"....quite a biggie. It was the subject of Sakyamuni's last talk....the Mahaparanirvana Sutra. The Parsons folks seem to have opened the door of "no me,"...however, their nihilistic version is not the big picture so to say. In fact, by Parsons own admission, his "no me" is just another form of energy, focused in a non-contracting direction,...which is ridiculous,...for if they were focused in a non-contracting direction, they should see that there's more to the story, as Buddha and Lao Tzu implied. The Parsons folks certainly shifted direction,...but then apparently became enmeshed in a duality created so-called non-dual paradigm, which is incorrect. The destination of the magick bus should read: Further. Once more,...pay attention to this quote: "Contradictions in perspective among those Seeing the profound do not occur" Taranatha Until you prove Lao Tzu wrong, better make sure it does not contradict Lao Tzu.

Somewhat see your point,...however, what if there is no you,...what is this other half of nothing being perceived as something? Cannot agree more....to experience no boundary. That is summary of the Heart sutra. Buddha said that the most important thing is this: Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha! Regardless of the misinformation,...the correct interpretation is this: "To go, to come, beyond going and coming, into complete going and coming, where enlightenment is welcomed" In other words, to come back into yourself simultaneously as you go out,...the full understanding of the reverse flow of contracting energy. In the West, it is quite difficult to look at someone in the eyes,...in Thailand, everyone (except the Westerners) look,...and smile. It is one of the grandest "highs,"...to exchange smiles with nearly everyone you see. My little gimmick for the past 30 some years has been to greet every situation with an Absolute Bodhicitta aphorism,...such as, "look at everything you see as a dream"....or, there is no Present in time. In regards to the latter,...all perceived objects are in time, and thus, if I am seeing an object, I am not Present.

Thai's prefer 23k. From what I've noticed, they're easier on jewelry then Westerners. They remove with mindfulness at night, and wai it before putting back on in the morning: https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0SO8xXz9L1TDQ0AKntXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0YmdmMWFrBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDQ2OF8x?_adv_prop=image&fr=fp-yie10&va=thai+wai

I visited a few of his Youtubes. The things that people don't like are the best part,...No Me,...Compassion is a destroyer, etc. The problem is that he has not been liberated from his non-dual ideas.

It is so wonderful that this person has realized that she is no longer who she thought she was,...and for her (and Parsons) labeled it as liberation,...which sure,...at that level, one would believe that they are liberated from what they perceived themselves to have been before. When I use the term liberation however, it is synonymous with Avalokitesvara, who said, “As soon as one sense-organ returns to the source, All the six are liberated." Shurangama sutra So,...I could be a trapped female, who at 18 lands a great job, and moves out on my own,...celebrating my liberation. Or, realize that I am not the me that I thought I was,...another realization. However, the liberation that uncovers the realization of the Present,...and that is true enlightenment,...awareness of the Present,....is the term liberation as I use it. The dream, delusion, illusion, skandhas, 6 senses, etc., are all in the past. Time, energy, mass, matter,...are all in the past. Parsons speaks of energy, time, all things, etc,....these are all in the past. There is no perceived object in the phenomenal universe that is in the Present. There is no Present (instant, Now, etc) in time. The Present is beyond energy.

I'm sure he has a wonderful emotional center that people enjoy bathing in,...and I'm very pleased with the Gurdjieff, Osho, and neo-Advaita ideas that he has built upon. There is no evidence in his words however, that he has awakened to the reality of Wholeness, which he claims and speaks of,...and thus no need for me to sit in at one of his meetings,...which would only disturb his followers. I recall reading some his stuff about 10-15 years ago at Katz' Non-Duality.com. Considering what he said then, compared to today, I'd love to hear of him making a breakthrough in the next 10 years. He hasn't broke through yet,...but that is no reason not to listen to him,...or for people not to bath in his emotional presence. IMO, people need such teachers as Parsons. He's an Almost Awakened One,...like Adyashanti,...boi, Adya really evolved in the past 10 years. I hope Parsons (and Adya) doesn't become so vested in his teachings that they manifest a barrier to his awakening. My advice to Parsons. Let go of this "beloved" stuff, and ridiculousness of everything being part of what is. I'm amazed that he cannot seem to hear his own contradictions. Contrary to the beliefs of those who believe that wakefulness is an individual thing,...that individual ego's express their awakening in many different ways,...that one Awakened One's truth is different from Another's,...is not awakening. For example,...if Jesus was awakened, then there is no way that Lao Tzu and Buddha were awakened. I have not seen where Lao Tzu or Buddha contradicted each other,...or contradicted Avalokitesvara, Tilopa, etc,....but all contradict everything about the Abrahamic religions. Right now,...Parsons biggest barrier to waking up is his belief in the Jerry Katz Non-Dual paradigm. It comes out clearly in Parsons recent Youtubes. How attached is he to such beliefs for his identity I don't know. But if he continues doing these Meetings, he may be forced to confront them. So yes,....go to Parsons,...go to him often,...ask more questions,...it is good for humanity.

Frankly, from what I've read, Tolle is a reckless, unawake individual. The quote mentioned was not to discuss Tolle, but to bring up the quote in context with my post (not whatever context he had in mind writing it). Why he said what he did about the false, having obviously not experienced it himself, could be classed as a miracle. Again,...there is no way Tolle is awake,...he spews too much falsity as being true, to be even be close to an awakened state,....for example,...his belief in god. The Heart cannot be accessed through belief. Without access to the Heart of essence, awakening is futile. Contrary to your reasoning,...a truly awakened one does not contradict the truth. Sure,...woo-woo folks want awakening to resemble some belief they have,...(its like George Bush winning the election because he was someone that folks felt they could have a beer with)...a real awakened one would resemble something more akin to an assassin by the woo-woo's. "Contradictions in perspective among those Seeing the profound do not occur" Taranatha Both Tolle and Parsons contradict the prajnaparamita,...thus, one (Tolle and Parsons) or both are false. As I've yet uncovered anything in the Heart Sutra as false,...and Tolle and Parsons contradict it,...my guess would be that Tolle and Parsons are false,...although laced with much accuracy from the limited ideas Gurdjieff, Osho, and Neo-Advaita. As Jed McKenna said, "One millionth of 1% false is completely false" Which does not mean I give a hoot about Jed McKenna,...and although I feel he's further along unweaving the truth than either Tolle or Parsons,...he too, placed a flag in a place he found comfortable in duality, from which he pivots from. Finally,...back to this quote of yours...."The very first step - the gigantic step - is to Awaken" As I said,...that is not the "first step." There are steps. Steps for preparation. Awakening is about stepping into the unconditional,...which is like stepping into the speed of light. One does not step into the unconditional and lose their conditions,...the conditions (even the neurotic condition of "matching a perfect picture") must be dissolved beforehand,...just as time and energy dissolve stepping into the speed of light. You cannot bring time and energy with you. A condition cannot enter the unconditional, while the unconditional somehow remains unconditional even for a moment. Thus,...as I've mentioned before,...no theist, like Tolle or Parsons,...will ever realize awakening until they let go of their beliefs (conditions). Nevertheless,...as I've also mentioned,...these New Age purveyors are very refreshing in this deluded World.

Awareness of one's existence? LOL Sensations? LOL Thoughts? LOL surroundings? LOL Actually, no sentient being sees the World that surrounds them,...only the World that surrounded them. Even science admits that all sensations (the 5 Western senses) are liars. In the East, they consider all 6 senses. So,...that first definition of conscious is only saying that conscious is a belief in ignorance. I am ignorant, therefore I must be conscious. Conscious, which then is only available within delusion, exits for that delusion to sustain itself. In reality,...that is the reality of Taoists, Buddhists, and even less neurotic scientists, nothing exits, and by consequence, that which believes it exists in non-existence, does not exist. Or as Lao Tzu said,..."Recognize that everything you see and think (6 senses) is a falsehood, an illusion, a veil over the truth...the ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle; totally fascinated by the realm of the senses....if anyone threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go."

Depends on your customers size (height and weight) IMO. I'm 70" and have an emerald Buddha in a 1.5" 23k gold amulet. I prefer 23k Thai baht gold chains...as the clasp is at the pendent, not hidden at the back of the neck,...and seen by locals as more spiritual, then Western clasps. https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrTcX4qyLxTc2IARmqJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBsZ29xY3ZzBHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEc2xrA2J1dHRvbg--;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNjI4NTcEX3IDMgRiY2sDMjN0Z3NvNTlqdHQ1cyUyNmIlM0Q0JTI2ZCUzRC5ISTR6aEJwWUVKcXI4YU9nX3FNemJlQ0ZXaEMzck9vMUhWZWtnLS0lMjZzJTNEbzYlMjZpJTNEYmNUUVY4X3pDZ3ZuMUpRaHlTaUgEZnIDZnAteWllMTAEZ3ByaWQDRG9PUWNvV05SZ1czeDNTek50MzRQQQRtdGVzdGlkA251bGwEbl9zdWdnAzAEb3JpZ2luA2ltYWdlcy5zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDBHFzdHJsAzQyBHF1ZXJ5AzIzayBlbWVyYWxkIEJ1ZGRoYSBhbXVsZXQgd2l0aCB0aGFpIGNoYWluLgR0X3N0bXADMTQwNDg4MTAwOTUxMwR2dGVzdGlkA251bGw-?gprid=DoOQcoWNRgW3x3SzNt34PA&pvid=2JV9qjIwNi4h9hzBUz70vBE_MTgwLgAAAABVSjhs&p=23k+emerald+Buddha+amulet+with+thai+chain.&fr=fp-yie10&fr2=sb-top&ei=UTF-8&n=60&x=wrt

A bastard is a bastard...how can one be more of a bastard? Bastard is a good foundation to pivot upon,...no need to consider Heaven or Hell,...you get to Pass Go without a lifetime of neurosis. Deuteronomy 23:2....“No bastard shall enter the assembly of the Lord, not even to the tenth generation.” (“Non ingredietur mamzer hoc est de scorto natus in ecclesiam Domini usque ad decimam generationem.”). The newer translated versions of this law, which penalizes children for their parents’ indiscretions, smooth out the wording; for example, the New American Bible now says: “No child of an incestuous union,” an expedient shift in meaning, considering that finding a nonbastard child today is somewhat like seeing someone who doesn’t have a tattoo.

I just visited the Pit,...looked at the thread "Are men generally more conscious than women?"....and its LOCKED. Funny thing about that thread,...seems like everyone knew what the word "conscious" implies. As far as I know, science does not even have a definition for conscious. What is conscious? I assumed from the content of that thread, that most seemed to agree that conscious is something admirable. However,...is not conscious really sleep in the perceived wake state? Too bad the thread got LOCKED. Kind of wonder who doesn't want members discussing what conscious is?