Vmarco

I would call an empty mind an imbecile,...as an empty eye is blind,...and an empty ear is deaf. Forget the intellectual jargon on what is "empty",..simply realize the emptiness of the 6 senses. The Tao that is non-dual is not empty,...it is Still. Yin/yang are empty,...all energy is empty,...time is empty,...the Present is not empty. As for me,...I generally do not "think" of concepts,...it's a distraction, and delusional. Awareness of absolute bodhichitta, or awakened mind, through the clear recognition that everything one perceives is a dream, necessitates an understanding of the feminine aspect of nature. Such insight is beyond the cognizance of relative thinking, which arises soley through form. Form, by itself, has no perception of the field that holds it, as a particle is oblivious of its wave, or the Six Senses ignorance of stillness. Shantideva wrote, "The absolute is not within the reach of intellect, for the intellect is grounded in the relative." Society-at-large is unaware of nature's feminine characteristics because thinking accepts a fabricated feminine that sustains a strict patriarchal, form-based viewpoint. In other words, there are two feminine's - the feminine (yin) of nature, and the feminine (yin) of man. Both are empty,...but the latter oscures that fact. Fundamentally, there is no reality of things,...just as music does not exist outside of things. But there is Absolute Tao, the fulcrum upon which relative Tao effects its motion. It's all quite easy. Simply understand the nature of Light. http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/19803-what-is-light/

No,...as HH Dalai Lama has recently shown much support towards the Jonang, and as I've read many of his books, and have not here contradicted them, I'd suggest that a few others would concur with what I write. However, if none here concur, then none here are ready to understand Dependent Origination, nor help with the liberation of sentient beings. "The whole of the Bodhicharyvatara is geared toward prajna, the direct realization of emptiness, absolute bodhichitta, without which the true practice of compassion is impossible." And thus, very few compassionate beings traverse the Earth. V

"All the joy the world contains Has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself." Shantideva 8.129

Yes,..that would be ironic. Would have been wiser (relative wisdom) to present more evidence to back the claim. Oh,...but I've done that before on the subject. Yes,...Christians and Christian enablers love the idea of their Jesus and Buddha being brothers,..as hagar noted, "both tried to convey the same understanding of reality." That idea is ridiculous for anyone with basic understanding of the two paths. http://www.scribd.com/doc/17465265/A-Buddhist-Critique-of-Fundamentalist-Christianity

Oh,...in other words, this thread is not open to anyone who disagrees with you. "Man is to be known in three ways: As inferior, mediocre and excellent. He who by any means whatsoever Provides for the pleasures of Saṃsāra For himself alone, Is called an inferior man. He who turns his back to the pleasures of the world And abstains from evil deeds, But provides only for his own peace, Is called a mediocre man. He who seriously wants to dispel All the misery of others, Because in the stream of his own being he has understood the nature of misery, Is an excellent man. Standing in the boat of the human body, You should cross the great flood of misery. Since later this boat is difficult to get, Do not sleep now, you fool." Jewel Ornament of Liberation

Although Traditions, Lineages, Schools and subSchools discuss Emptiness from many intellectual viewpoints, few dialogue on Emptiness from Emptinesses point of view. Shantideva said: "Relative and absolute, These the two truths are declared to be. The absolute is not within the reach of intellect, For the intellect is grounded in the relative." Nearly all Traditions, Lineages, Schools and subSchools advocate an intellectual theory that if the relative is empty, then the absolute must be empty,...and thus why they will never realize Empty, even of the relative, and consequently, will never realize compassion. Keep in mind, the path to uncovering buddhic awareness is quite simple,...a Tathagata arises from a Bodhisattva,... a Bodhisattva arises from compassion,...without understanding emptiness, compassion is impossible. Allow me to rephrase that in words of Robert Thurman's (which is shared by HH Dalai Lama) "Buddhist teachings on compassion are grounded in the direct realization of Emptiness; without which, compassion is impossible." A good point of entry into the subject of Buddhist Emptiness is the Mountain Doctrine,...which focuses more on Empty being a relative phenomena,...which is to say, as Shakyamuni implied in the Mahaparanirvana, that not all is Empty. Interestingly, HH Dalai Lama has been embracing the Jonang insistance that there is a permanant noumenon,...which I call Undivided Light. To summarize,...there is no genuine compassion without understanding Emptiness,...all intellectualized constructs of compassion are meaningless beyond the relative. The relative does not exist. Without understanding Light, attempts to realize Emptiness are pretty much useless. Thus, without understanding Light, the realization of compassion is impossible. Did the Light of Asia understand Light? Certainly! And if physics was better understood in those days, he would have use such a topic. Actually, all you need to understand light is right within this forum: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/19803-what-is-light/ V

For those following this topic,...many of those revolting have been inspired by Peter Joseph. Check out minute 11:00 to the end (21:00),...quite brillant! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCWNgSa7GvA&feature=related

Any debate as to whether the Gospel of Mark could have even remotely been written before the Jewish Revolt of 70CE have been over for at least 40 years,...and I'd doubt that a single State University Religious Studies Department has said anything to the contrary since at least the Carter Administration.

Slander = to make a false spoken statement. The only slander I've seen here are from those against the truth of Christianity. With friends/mentors like that, you are in danger of never waking up. As mentioned above: Eckhart Tolle said "we need to draw our attention to what is false in us, for unless we learn to recognize the false as the false, there can be no lasting transformation, and you will always be drawn back into illusion, for that is how the false perpetuates itself"

Just goes to show that even an insane, deluded, theist like Mother Teresa can somehow channel a gem.

The Jehovah Witnesses do not count as legitimate scholars. The Gospel of Mark describes things that did not occur until after the Jewish Revolt (68-70CE),...so not a SINGLE scholar in the world would say it was written before that. However, there are absolutely no mention of the Gospel of Mark ANYWHERE before 95CE. You do not appear to understand the difference between a scholar and someone who deliberates on Christianity solely for display and devotion. V

No legitimate scholar would say, or could say, that the Gospels were written within 30-40 years of hanging of Jesus the Notzri in 28CE. The first Gospel, Mark, was written, after the Jewish Revolt of 68-70 CE, and appears nowhere before 95CE. The second Gospel was written in circa 102CE, while Luke came a few years after that. The last Gospel according to John was written after the Bar Cochba revolt in 135CE, but probably before 150CE. V

A Tantra Master said: "The very qualities of being a disciple are the qualities which are feminine -- receptivity, openness, trust, love, a deep surrender. And if a man becomes a disciple, he will automatically grow qualities which are female. There is nothing wrong in it. Qualities are qualities, and all beautiful qualities are feminine -- love and trust and compassion and gratitude and surrender. All beautiful qualities are feminine. It is not a question concerned with your sexuality; your being a male or female has many dimensions. One of the dimensions is that there are qualities intrinsic to females which make them easily disciples. There are men who have those qualities -- those qualities are not the monopoly of anybody. There are men who are more soft than any woman, more loving than any woman, more grateful than any woman -- but the qualities are feminine."