Vmarco

Although I'm not an academic, nor anywhere near the caliber of holder-of-knowledge like yourself, for me, exist comes from sistere or to stand alone. Thus for me, as a serious student of Taoism (but not anywhere near your level) nothing exists in the phenomenal universe,...not even the universe-at-large. Of course to me, your highly tauted Taoist knowledge reminds me of PJ Merola talking about credentialed people like yourself during min 11:00 through 17:43,...especially min 17:10 - 17:43 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCWNgSa7GvA Your "i think" can never, nor will ever, unravel truth. You would be happier purchasing one of Twinner's cerebral-fleshlights. V

Silence is Complicity,..not Love.

LOL "consumed by hatred????" Oh my,...Harmonious Emptiness,...this expression of yours is just an emotional charge you are holding, and the consumption is all yours. For me, hate does not exist,...never did. LOL. What is helpful is the honesty that sees "thinking" for what it is,...an accumulation of 6 sense delusions. Healthy is being free of beliefs,...which dissolves emotional charges, like the ones you cling to for your identity. It is so misguided to view the intolerance of things that step between sentient beings and their direct experience, as some sort of being "consumed by hatred." However, I do understand that believers are very fearful of anything that challenges their beliefs,...to them it feels like a life and death struggle,...and it is,...the life or death of their belief. V

1. Was Lao Tzu, Hui Neng, Saraha, or even Paul Brunton sages? They were all listed above. reportedly scolded his monks for spending too much time sitting in meditation....He said that meditation is unnecessary, and warned that such practice can easily become a narcotic. 2. Let's be anal,...what is "exist"....it means to Stand Alone. What Stands Alone? Let's say you're sleeping,...in the dream the dreamer is thinking. Does that mean the dreamer exists? What's the difference between a dream while sleeping, and dream of being awake? Who is doing the dreaming? The Thinker? LOL Lao Tzu said, "Recognize that eveything you see and think is a falsehood, an illusion, a veil over the truth." So,...is "thinking" true? It is actually quite simple to prove that thinking is always false. Just try to think in the present,...it cannot be be done,...never, ever. LOL Thinking is always false,...so then how does "i think" therefore I Am? No authority is needed except you. Not the you that you "think" you are, but the you that you are. Stop making it complicated,...it's not. V

Ah,...sounds alittle like Dolana saying, "you're getting to lazy to suffer." As for pursuing the Tao,...depends on how serious is your pursuit. As soon as you burn with desire to pursue the Tao without hesitation, the universe begins to rearrange itself to accommodate that picture of reality. The universe has no choice but to reflect back to you the vibration you give off. If desire to pursue the Tao like that, look for all you can to assist in quieting your thoughts. Do some Just Because Club activities,...don't think about them,...don't analyze them,...just do them,...for example:

How do you have an open, honest, serious discussion on how can we strive to understand our connection with each other, while forbidding to include the millions of vicious dogs (owned by fear-based people needing protection), who daily terrorize the very Others that are connected to the root of love?

Hui Neng reportedly scolded his monks for spending too much time sitting in meditation....He said that meditation is unnecessary, and warned that such practice can easily become a narcotic. Paul Brunton said, "The Long Path devotee is concerned with learning how to concentrate his thoughts in the practice of meditation, and later even with meditation itself, to some degree, so far as it is an activity among ideas and images. The Short Path devotee is not. He is concerned with direct union with the Overself." Refuge in sahaja, which is not preoccuppied with meditation or yoga techniques, is a permanent and effortless state of realization.

Ah,...if you had any grasp of Lao Tzu or Buddha, you would understand that neither was a philosopher. Of course philosophers love Cogito ergo sum,...for Lao Tzu and Buddha, I can feel them shaking their with a smile,...smiling at how the ignorant put the I am before the i think. But then, that is the nature of ignorance. V

Soulestrial would be the better Taoist followup,...sort of bringing the useless childish (almost bullyish) play on words back to something more profound. V

From my observations, most abandon their Spiritual Journey before the age of three, when the 6 senses, led by ego, take over the Journey for its own useless delight. I'll let you in on a little open secret,...the 6 senses cannot experience what surrounds them, only what surrounded them. In other words, they do not experience directly, but are merely absorbed with imagined experiences born from the conditions of their beliefs. An Open Mind implies a mind free of beliefs. A mind free of beliefs is uninterested in the imaginary journeys of the 6 senses. V

Yes, of course. I should be a slower, more meticulous typer,...as many here may not understand the meant content through such an error.

No,...I have no desire for philosophy,...the love of wisdom,...that is, wisdom as in an accumulation of knowledge. I walked away from philosophy in the mid-80's, following a private dinner with the Dept Heads of two US University's. After dinner we were to play a few rounds of pinochle,...they spend nearly two hours philosophizing on the rules,...not unlike the useless circular arguments of several here on TTB. Of course we are media-ted to put philosophers on pedestals,...but can anyone name a single philosopher who "awakened" or understood the Tao? Philosophy, by the very definition of the word, has no interest in reality,...only wisdom. Wisdom literary means: knowledge accumulated through philosophic, (and since Descartes) scientific learning. No one desireous to understand truth could possibly maintain an interest in philosophy. V

No,...what you've noticed is something very different,...but won't or can't admit it.

Unfortunately for you,...you failed to see that A Seeker set the tone of the discussion: Fundamentally, it's great to hear that you (anamatva) found an excuse to no longer read my posts. It says volumns about you,...just as Rainbowvein's last ad hominem. To spew is to discharge accumulated knowledge in an attempt to guard one's closed-mindedness (in this case A Seekers post-modern views) by manifesting a phantom tag-along with a common quote, in order to make one's delusion more palatable. If say, Marblehead post the exact same statement, it would have been responded to in a different way,...because Marblehead's approach is much different than A Seekers casual, post-modern, sciential views. V

Thanks for that admission. I have no agenda to convert anyone,...I am soley here to improve my writing art. V

Ah! So you discovered a fleshlight for you brain? But is that really satisfying,...or just temporary bliss.

Sure, there are illusions and delusions, but also perceptions. The Lojong say, view everything you perceive as a dream. While I lived in Virginia, I noticed that during sunsets I could see translucent faeries around wild Lady Slipper and Jack-in-the-Pulpit flowers. So from deep in the woods I took samples of these flowers and transplanted them in a magical-like area closer to the house. In the early evening I would sit on a rough wood bench placed nearby and watch the faeries. But within a week, I witnessed a pair of deer browsing through the woods,...and being raised on bambie propaganda, I watched them with pleasure. However, as these deer approached the flowers and faeries, to my utter shock, the deer began eating the faeries. It was devastating! I never seen anything so horrably destructive as these deer eating faeries. I blew my hiking whistle, which hopefully gave the faery killing deer indigestion as they fled. The point being, that no honarable Taoist would possibly own a deer. V