Vmarco

Please show where the thread Vulture Peak was in violation of the Terms and Rules before being tossed into the Pit.

All activities in the universe arise from the need to understand the Tao. All motion in the universe arises from the perceived separation from the Stillness of the Tao, and desire to return,...which it (motion) can never do, because it is not of the Tao. We (the we that we really are) really do not live in time. Everything in time is impermanently in the past. Relatively speaking,...the we that people think they are,...are 186K mps slower than the Stillness of the Tao. If you ever want to understand the absolute truth,...there it is. "Contradictions in perspective among those Seeing the profound do not occur" Taranatha

Yes,...Vajrayana, or the Short Path,...would, IMO, be ineffective without the fundamentals of Theravada and Mahayana. I think Milarepa said that Buddhahood is not attainable if any of the three Wheels is lacking,...Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. I know a fellow who feels he already knows Theravada, and became attacted to Mahayana,...it felt right to him,...but Vajrayana is a complete turn off. Then you stay with Mahayana. There is not only nothing wrong with understanding where you are on the Path,...but it would be beneficial for Humanity if all people agreed,...instead of claiming that their way is the best way,...which changes the whole dynamics of society for the worse. From a Daoist point of view,...it should be clear that no one attached to the Abrahamic religions for their identity can enter Heart-consciousness,...and there is nothing wrong with that. But lets at least be honest about the facts. Lao Tzu said, "Do not go about worshipping deities and religious institutions as the source of the subtle truth. To do so is to place intermediaries between yourself and source, and to make yourself a beggar who looks outside for a treasure that is hidden inside his own breast. If you want to worship the Tao, first discover it in your own heart." While considering the above quote,...let's be clear,...honestly clear,...experience born of belief, can only be experienced through the condition of that belief. No one uncovers their heart through belief,...belief is a barrier built against the heart. No religion or set of beliefs can uncover Heart-consciousness. It is impossible! When one sincerely wants to uncover Heart-consciousness, they will surrender all beliefs.

It is nothing to worry about. I verifies the first Absolute Bodhicitta proverb (that is, saying that are designed to awaken bodhicitta), which is, "look at everything you perceive as a dream." How often do you look at things during a day? Whatever that amount, say the first Absolute Bodhicitta proverb for every look. LOL Whether Buddhism or Daoism,...that is the quickest way to the Dao. The Dao is in the Present,...if you want to understand the Dao, you must uncover the Present. There is no Present in time,...thus the Dao will never be understood within time. One cannot see things the way they are with that which arises from time. Everything that arises from time can only see the past. If you have no desire to be in the Present,...the real Present that is, not the perceived present,...then you are a Man #2 or less,...according to the Fourth Way, Fourth Stream, and various Short Path analogies. Nothing wrong with Man #2, or Man #1,...except that they see supernormal as abnormal. In the Valley of the Blind, the one-eyed man is treated for his illness. thelerner is one of their social workers.

Yep,...the Pit is my new home on TTB. You're welcome any time. Yes about Buddhism. Buddhism says,...Suffering is a consequence of the desire for things to be other than they are. All things observed through the 6 senses alone, are other than the way things are. I'm not saying that is true,...but it is the challenge for those seriously interested in the way things are. Buddhism ultimately says,...the way things are can only be observed in the Present. However,...even a little observation shows that there is no Present in time,...thus everything in time, is other than the way things are.

Yes,...I agree. #3 is only approached by way of a harmony of #1 and #2 The physical barycenter is often called the danjun point, which is located about nine centimeters below the navel. The danjun can be accessed through physical Ki practices, like thai chi. The mental barycenter, or balanced point of the upper three chakras, what Lao Tzu called Heaven Energy, is uncovered through truth realization. The third barycenter, or Harmonized Energy center, cannot be accessed separately, that is, without the Earth and Heaven barycenters,...because this center is a balance of Eart, Heaven and Heart. Imagine the Star of David,...on the deepest levels it represents the nature of phenomona,...how divided spectra crystallizes into form, and radiates back. The upper triangle alone is Fire/Yang, while the lower triangle is Water/Yin. This sort of makes egoic sense as we see Water as flowing downward and Fire rising upwards. However, by themselves they manifest nothing,...and keep in mind that they do not, and cannot exist apart. To exist, Fire and Water must be interconnected. This interconnection simulataneously manifests the upper triangle as Air/Yin, and the lower triangle as Earth/Yang. The 6 optic planes of these two triangles can be found in the recursive number 124857.....as shown on an enneagram. The barycenter of the lower triangle, the barycenter of the upper triangle, and the barycenter of the interlacing, are the points of Earth energy, Heaven energy, and Harmony energy that must be integrated to realize the Tao. In astrology, one's Part of Fortune or Joy, is the barycenter of the natives Sun, Moon, and Ascendent. In astronomy, the barycenter of most planets is within it's sphere; unlike Pluto, whose barycenter or point of balance is between itself and largest moon, Charon, which is actually not a moon, but a slightly smaller binary planet. In other words, although seemingly small, the electrodynamic field produced from the Pluto and Charon dance may very well be larger than that of most single planets. The Danjun/Dantien is synonymous with the barycenter of the lower 3 chakras, whose long wavelengths, low frequency colors are red, orange, and yellow. What Lao Tzu purportedly called Heaven energy is realized through the barycenter or balance point of the thyroid, pineal, and pituitary glands, or upper three chakras, whose short wavelengths, high frequency colors are blue, indigo, and violet.. The Heart Mind is unobscured through direct cognizance of the harmonic balanced interchange of Earth (Yang) and Yin (Heaven). An unfortunate problem today is that very few understand Yang/Yin or Who's Who in Duality; and thus the nature of form is misinterpreted. Most contemporary Taoist are attached to relative, human-centric notions about duality, instead of the absolute nature. Another way to consider it is by way of the 3 wheels of dharma. Theravada is as Man #1, and Mahayana #2. One does not by-pass those two, and become Vajrayana #3...the Short Path. All 3 are needed. Theravada is as grade school,...Mahayana as High school,...while Vajrayana is the University,...Man #4 has the diplomma. One does not begin with the University,...however,...Theravada and Mahayana could have been completed in previous work.

That is pure ad hominem. But the amazing thing, is that you haven't a clue of how much hate you spew. To Jeff. The comment about moderator was a side note as to why this is in the Pit,...like my other posts,...while posts on Buddhist Fascism and Buddhist terrorism flourish on the General Discussion board. If you don't like it,...if you feel that distracts from the thread,...that's fine. I feel I have been relegated to the Pit,...which is fine by me. Would be even better if trouble makers like thelerner, flofllil, etc,...would regegate themselves to the more mainstrean subjects on the General Discussion.

One Nation, One People doesn't apply to the USA. Christocrats cleverly removed the original national motto, E Pluribus Unum, “out of many, one,” which was coined by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, from U.S. currency and public places. These Christocrats successfully proselytize that the U.S. was founded as “One Nation under [their] God” and one nation under their religion. However, the historic truth is, according to people such Herman C. Weber, DD, an expert in religious censuses and statistics, that few early Americans were members of a Christian church. In the 1933 Yearbook of American Churches, for instance, it says that just 6.9% of U.S. citizens belonged to a church in 1800. By 1850, religious membership had risen to 15.5%. By 1900, Christians had doubled their percentage to 37%. However, not until 1942 did Christian affiliation exceed 50% of the U.S. population,...and McCarthyism, Moral Majority, and the Tea Party (all the exact same ilk) revised how America sees itself.

Timefulness,...you are fully blind to my posts,...how often do I need to repeat that I harbor no hate towards Muslims or Christians,...your own fear of seeing that everything you thought to meaningful, is actually meaningless, has you duped. It is your belief in moderatism and faith-based tolerantism that enables the hate in the world. I very much appreciate your point of view,...calling me hateful is akin to calling the Tea Party just, or a Bodhisattva compassionless,...an absolute oxymoron. Let me repeat,...saying VMarco is hateful for Muslims and Christians is an absolute oxymoron. And thus highlights your own ignorance. Although you will continue to cling to your obviously media-ted beliefs for your identity, discussions like these are helpful in shining light on the truer sources of hate in the world,...people like yourself,...through what the groupthink tells you is the best of intentions,...to make the inside of the box, fine and prissy,...a box where reason and enlightenment are seen as enemies to all within the box. Yes TimefulOne,...just as a Theist will kill the Truth, if Truth will Kill his Theism,...you attack any messenger whose message upsets your beliefs.

I didn't see a single referrance to fascism anywhere in that Western bias article. Of course,...if this thread said Muslim Fascism,...it would have been tossed into the pit,...or just deleted all together. Still I wonder,...when the problem gets reduced,...why are Westerners so upset that Myanmar Buddhists advocate not engaging in businesses with Muslims, and protect Myanmar from a real "Muslim threat" in their country. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-08/india/40442452_1_rohingya-muslims-sittwe-central-myanmar

Me neither,...the "Mecca" of Buddhism attacked with 9 bombs,...if someone even spit at Mecca, if would be a headline on the Western Media. I'd bet against these real terrorist making the cover of Time magazine.

Yes,...those are word for word the same sentiments of the neighbors of the brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon Read the Qu'ran,...and decide for yourself if Islam is violent,...against all who are not Muslim. My point,...people are not their beliefs,...although they believe they are. I love all people,...I loathe all beliefs.

Is Bodh Gaya, considered the most sacred site in Buddhism, an off-topic subject in either the General Discussion or Buddhist Discussion forums? I'm scheduled to be at Bodhgaya and Vulture Peak in 2 weeks. Didn't know it is a war zone of Muslim and Maoist terrorists. 　 "Bodh Gaya has been in the crosshairs of Pakistan-based terrorists, who want to avenge violence against Rohingya Muslims in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar." 　 http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Bihar/Terror-attack-rocks-Bihar-s-Bodh-Gaya-serial-blasts-at-Mahabodhi-temple/Article1-1088481.aspx Funny thing is,...the Muslims started the violence in Myanmar,...as per the now Off-Topic discussion Muslim Terrorism.

As I wrote in the Pit,...Consider this (everyone but Flolfolil, who is a conspiracy unto himself),...there are 2 General Discussions on Wirathu's Practice Of Terroist Buddhism,...although any mention is Muslim terrorism is met with complaints, threats, warnings, and as in Flolfolil's case,...hissy fits. However, I post a topic "Muslim Terrorism" in regards to the bombing of the most sacred site in Buddhism, and it is trashed to Off-Topic. Now that looks like a conspiracy. Can one imagine Buddhists bombing Mecca? To me, the bombing of Bodh Gaya is even worse. Will this terrorism make the cover of Time magazine,...like the Western fabrications of Myanmar Buddhists? Or does this terrorism even matter?

Yep,....propaganda,...no one does it better than America http://rense.com/general28/better.htm

"Truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." Max Planck Except for some groupthink changing event, Planck seems pretty much correct. The ideas that you ponder upon are not mainstream,...although some in the West appear to be embracing a path of minimalism. In the rest of the greater world, it seems like materialism is alive and growing exponentially. Much of what has been called Third World just began their materialist thirst. For those who haven't seen the world yet,...sorry,...it mostly looks like workaholic America these days,...with McDonalds and Subway on one corner, and Starbucks and Pizza Hut on the next,...with EVERYONE focused on their moble devices,...and how to get more money, to buy more. In the mid-size town I live, there are 2 new super malls going up (Maya Chiang Mai and Promenada),....and the existing malls near always full of shoppers. I like your idea above,...been doing it myself for many years. My motto is (although I didn't coin it),...relate with what will never leave you, and from which you can never leave. One drawback to the minimalist plan is job security. A sustainable 30k job is great in one's 20's,...but leaves little for investing, insurance, and incidentals (hey, did I just create a 3 i stategy?) For now, mortgage and utilities on a small condo may be under $1k monthly,...but condo fees will surely rise,...and if a problem occurs,...which they always do,...a special condo assessment could hit you for an additional $1-5K at anytime. I'd love to see a billion people embrace your plan,...not only would it help to sustain those wishing a minimal carbon footprint, by empowering political leaders to advocate such lifestyle,...but would truly bring more happiness, and greater spiritual understanding to the world through reduced attachment. Wishing you all the wishes you wish for.

If that were true, can you imagine the horror one who proselytizes Abrahamic belief systems will have to undergo,...I'd surely accept the karma of winning a millions hands of Texas Holdem, then turning a single person astray with Bible fiction. As for caterpillars (and other karma pushing entities),..."There are no butterfly experts among the caterpillars, despite innumerable claims to the contrary" Jed McKenna

I personally knew Sri Swami Satchidananda,...he would drive over to my garden occassionally to escape his devotees. We would discuss composting, guinea hens, ticks, and floating down the James River.

A caterpillar DOES NOT become a butterfly.

Look at a poker game as a Karmic Redistribution Activity,...casinos, as Karmic Redistribution Centers. Judgment is an ego construct,...a key fact of Buddhism is that no karma ultimately exists. This doesn't mean going around living falsely and without impeccableness,...those who realize that karma is an illusion, respond to the flow of life with compassion,...although caterpillars have not a clue what the compassion of a butterfly is,...regardless of all thecaterpillar experts on karma.

I fully understand,...believers put other believers on pedestals as having realized the great mystery, so to maintain the construct that belief will do great things. One acception to your heros may have been Teresa of Avila. I haven't met Teresa of Avila, so I really can't comment,...but I can say this,...no one has ever brought their conditions into the Unconditional. As such, I truly empathize with you Jesus delusion,...all I can say is, only truth can set you free. The prototype of a personified Christ was developed by Paul’s followers and aristocratic admirers from the Talmud stories of Yeshua Ben Stada, the locally notorious Yeshua [Jesus] the Notzri [Nazarite]. This Jesus, born in 7 BCE during a Jupiter–Saturn conjunction, had a stepfather known as Joseph and a mother named Mary. On the eve of Passover in 28 CE, he was convicted of sedition by Pontius Pilate and subsequently hanged. His hanging was not the planned means of death, but proceeded because those who were to stone him were late. Since the end of the day was near, which would have postponed his burial until after Passover, the soldiers allowed the alternative death by hanging. Following his death, his followers dubbed him the Passover Lamb. A Nazarite or Notzri, meaning consecrated, was a Jew who took the ascetic vow described in Numbers 6:1–21. Among famous Nazarites was James the Just, whom the Ebionites revered as the legitimate apostolic successor of the Nazarites. Jesus the Nazarite (not of Nazareth or Galilee) is probably the same Jesus whose sayings were collected by Didymos Judas Thomas in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas. This Gnostic or cardio-centric gospel of “secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke” appears to have been compiled in response to Paul’s new cerebro-centric religion. Both the Gospel of Thomas and the Epistles of Paul predate the canonical gospels by at least a generation. Neither the Gospel of Thomas nor the Q source contained a crucifixion, the concept of Jesus dying for the sins of others; a resurrection; or a personified Christ. Thus they conveyed nothing that would support the divinity of Jesus, which later became one of the core beliefs of the new Christianity. The story of present-day Christianity is part of a larger mythology. The evidence suggests that the actual principle of Christ grew out of Memphite philosophy—literally, the Krst, the anointed ones, like the Risen Horus/Apis. Then in the fifth century BCE, the word Christos, referring to an “awakened one,” crept into Greek subculture, and this word can be found in the works of classical writers, such as Aeschylus and Herodotus, the father of history. In the third century BCE, through Ptolemy Soter, a lover of all things Egyptian, a bearded, long-haired Greek image was merged with Egypt’s mystical Krst philosophy. This image, Sarapis, would become Christendom’s representative portrait of their Jesus/Yeshua. If there was an historical Jesus/Yeshua as presented in the gospels, he would have had short hair and a close-cut beard, as was the custom of the Jews and the command of Paul. For example, 1 Cor. 11:14 suggests that long hair brings shame to a man. More similar to the Sarapis model was the link that Jesus/Yeshua was a Nazarite, like the Old Testament Samson. Members of the religious sect of Nazarites were said not to cut their hair. In addition to their unkempt hair, the Nazarites also vowed to abstain from the manufacture or consumption of intoxicating beverages and from contact with the sick or corpses. Jesus/Yeshua being a Nazarite does not harmonize well with certain fabricated gospel tales, such as the ritual consumption of wine and the raising of the sick and dead, which were woven into the canonized version of the myth. This reminds me of the fanciful story of Mason Weems, invented after the death of George Washington, about George Washington and the cherry tree. Weems fabricated this story to broaden the character of America’s first president and to make him seem more appealing. V

I spent some time in London several weeks ago,...the saying there is "Mind the Gap" Must have heard that line a thousand times while there. Anyway, I sort of agree, enlightenment is a trap. Don't feel one could ever uncover it, if one is seeking it. However, for some, seeking it has surely led some to see the ridiculousness of seeking it,...and when that occurs, all the seeking, all the hopes, all the dreams, are let go. Can you imagine,...letting go of all hope? "the highest goal is being devoid of hope and fear" Tilopa.

Yes,...great mystics Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, or Hazrat Inayat Khan, and other sufi's. I recall someone here recently quoted Adyashanti as saying, "the mystical experience is the highest form of a "me" experience" Exactly correct. Mystics may be close to uncovering Heart Consciousness,...but then they get invested in their mystical experiences, and are really in no better shape than other fundamentalists. Pay close attention here Songtsan,...Experience born of belief, can only be experienced through the condition of that belief. Let's put it another way,...if you ever had a direct experience, you would not be part sufi. That does not imply that being part sufi is wrong,...the you that you think you are is where it believes it should be. However, no one who clings to beliefs for their identity, even if "part belief," as your "part sufi" belief, can enter Heart Consciousness. You cannot bring your conditions into the Unconditional. V

You really need to get past the sophomoric way you look at things. I've never said I wanted to kill Muslims or Christians. I'm saying that truth will obliterate Islam and Christianity. No matter how much you cling to your beliefs for your identity, you are not your beliefs.

Actually, all my posts are about uncovering the barriers built against the Heart. No Christian or Muslem have ever, or can ever uncovered their Heart,...it is impossible. Christianity, Islam, just as all beliefs, are barriers to Heart Consciousness. What you call hate,...that is, anything which threatens your belief system, is the love and compassion you obscure, to protect ego. This is why the Kalachakra says that a Holy War must take place against the unholy beliefs, like Abrahamic constructs which veil Heart Consciousness. As a person of compassion, I certainly empathize with your point of view. "Most men would kill the truth if truth would kill their religion." --Lemuel K. Washburn "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." Thomas Jefferson "What would be the need for faith if it stood to reason?" Joseph Campbell "I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race. I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam." - Gore Vidal Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters ...cannot be trusted in large ones either. ~Albert Einstein Where knowledge ends, religion begins.-Benjamin Disraeli "Faith" means the will to avoid knowing what is true. Friedrich Nietzsche "When people say 'I have faith', what they really mean is 'I don't want to know the truth'." Nietzsche "If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change" HH Dalai Lama