konchog uma

the natural state is almost universally experienced as expansive, spacious, even blissful, without grasping or fixation, just resting in the nature of what is, as it is. so the practical application is one of peace and being without the usual illusions like that we are seperate from all else, or (building on that) somehow more important lol. even that we matter at all. on the contrary, i find it very pacifying to realize that i don't matter one bit and that when i am gone life will go on as it has gone on for eternity already. so anyway, stuff like that, happiness and peace. compassion comes with the dropping of the illusion of seperation, all the virtues and blisses of attainment that inspire us to practice at all just arise naturally when one abides in the natural state.

natural state is there before needing to define anything to look for. definitions and looking aren't the way to the natural state. its called natural because its just the state of your mind, before you elaborate on that by trying to define it, so its kind of an experiential thing for me, moreso than something i would like to share any quotes or philosophy about.

Gorgeous

For example you can use *open bracket* then IMG then *closed bracket* with no spaces before that link, and then the same with /IMG after it to embed that picture in your post In the same format zhongyongdaoist used it would look like ([)img]http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1291131680_two-thumbs-up.jpg[/img] Which comes out in a post like this (when used w/out parenthesis)

I just got a copy of Clear Mirror.

Its not actually suffering in another's stead, but its a great practice. I do it all the time and there is no suffering on my part. On the contrary it generates compassion and kindness, which feel great.

please stop.

haha padmasambhava called the Tibetans "red faced demons" in Yeshe Tsogyal's account of his life.. maybe he was racist too!! i guess team india wins

it's just a haircut said the executioner axe in hand, smiling

there's only one way to settle this... a cricket match!

thanks for the clarification. After revisiting the matter more deeply, i have to say i stand corrected. much appreciated. seems that i was under the impression of a common myth. Reincarnation is found in the books of the Kaballah and generally accepted by hasidic Jews, and there are numerous resources about gilgul / gilgulim from wikipedia to online jewish libraries. So i still think that even though i had my precise facts wrong, the point that i bring up stands. i appreciate the correction though.

"Everything you Love and Everything you Hate, come from the Same Source." good quote

come, infinity! take a form and dance with us at the charnel grounds

nonono there is no biblical reincarnation. Thats my point. It is taught in Jewish religion and mysticism (gilgulim) and was accepted by Christianity until the ecumenical council at Nicea in 325AD. At that point, they (bishops, cardinals, etc) changed the doctrine to suit their needs, and the bible accordingly reflects this. So there is no real scripture claim, while if you look up gilgulim you will find that it is part of Jewish thought, a "cycling of souls", a lack of eternalism and doctrine of cyclical change instead. Thanks for looking into it tho.

It isn't. I agree wholeheartedly with those who say that the reality or fictitious nature of Christ is a pointless question to address at all. However the articles mentioned, much like a search for gilgulim, will bring up interesting facts that as rational people it is in our interest to entertain with an openminded attitude of inquisitiveness and humility. To dismiss them because they don't accord with one's faith is simply ignorant (literal meaning, an attitude of ignoring) and fundamentalist. I asked not because I wanted to create a standoff, but because you don't seem like an ignorant fundamentalist, and i was interested in opening a dialogue on those issues. I personally don't think the bible is a valid evidence for the argument for Christ, and anyone who does start to study the facts surrounding Christianity will likely soon conclude that something very different from the consensus church story was happening. So there are big questions like that. I know that people who pray in full belief to Christ can heal illnesses and have miraculous happenings, but I am not convinced that that is not the power of the mind. Healing illnesses and miraculous happenings occur in Buddhism too, where there is no emphasis on that sort of Deity or its manifestations, just the power of the awakened mind. If there is really nothing to offer except faith, and no article will even suffice as worthwhile to support the point, we can drop the subject. I don't want to pester people about their religions.. I just have a lot of questions that i don't ask ordinary Christians.

in my tradition we are taught to evaluate things critically and not take anything on blind faith, but only after evaluating it and holding it up to the light of logic, reason, and the greater good. Christianity hasn't withstood the test yet. But if that's your answer, maybe someone else could explain those things to us.

I"m afraid that you would have to prove that the bible is the unedited word of God, and that God is infallible, and neither are really possible to do. Its possible to have faith in that, because we can't prove it, but it's not possible to prove it, hence the rub with science and the scientific method. I am not bringing it up to slam Christianity or your own experience, unlike many non-theists, i think religion has the potential to help people and that mystical experiences of a religious nature can happen and are valid. I'm curious do you have anything to offer that isn't personal opinion or based on faith. Its interesting because the whole power of the church and Christianity definitely came from somewhere... but there is the matter of the mithra/horus/krishna/dionysus similarity pointed out in the film zeitgeist and elsewhere.. and there is the matter of the political and vested interests of the Church and the mistranslations of the bible into the common versions now, like king james, and worse, obvious to any scholars of greek or aramaic, as well as editing out of certain select books, and also the discrepancies between the Jewish mysticism that Jesus would likely have been practicing and the modern take on it (for example YHWH was not masculine, and not anthropomorphized, and not considered a god or even God then, as far as i understand). So there is a lot to be questioned if this is the infallible work of some ultimate and supreme Deity and we are to accept it as such on blind faith. Its convenient to think that if i agree to the party line and invite this character into my heart and become "saved" from further inquiry, that i will live in heaven forever. But Christianity accepted reincarnation until the council of Nicea in the 4th century. (does that mean that Christ taught reincarnation? google "gilgulim") So these bishops and cardinals have been about altering the word of "God" (in quotes because so many different words and names get translated as "God" in the modern bible) for almost 1700 years... you can change a lot in that time. Anyway, if you or anyone else can address any of that factually or even scientifically, without faith or circular logic (the bible says god is perfect and god wrote the bible so it must be true, etc) that would be really interesting.

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I've read that before, no time to do it again at present tho, and no comments except to say thank for posting

lol when i got here, people immediately mocked me for being Buddhist... that has diminshed, but i have to say that when i arrived at TTB i had a strong interest in daoism, but now its not as strong, while my dharma studies and activities have increased tenfold. To be fair i will say that my present decrease of interest in daoism is largely due to realizing that worthwhile lineage teachers are extraordinarily rare, and without one, i can't really do what i would like to do with it. I don't try to learn advanced yogas and alchemies from books lol. To be honest though, the same lack of interest is largely due to the incredible displays which are regularly seen here on TTB. I hardly post anymore except to sharpen my haiku skills. To be sure, most of the heart-open people here are quiet and don't post often. The empty pail makes the loudest noise.

Burn their uniform And sterile dogma in the spontaneous flame

i love cemeteries, but have had some strange encounters. Mary Anne Wynkowski, who is a regular guest of George Noory on Coast to Coast AM and has demonstrated psychic proficiency and ability to communicate with the ghost realm in telephone encounters with callers-in to the show, says that graveyards are no more or less populated with spirits than your average main street or the deep woods. She says that most spirits just wander aimlessly and are more attracted to things that they had attachment to in life, like locations or people, than they are to their own graves or the graveyard. I don't personally get a lot of psychic activity in cemeteries, and I have reason to believe that she can actually see ghosts as plainly as day. So that's my 2c. On the other hand, I think perhaps other kinds of spirits like graveyards because they are serene and peaceful and "twilight" places having a foot in each world of life and death so are powerful in that way. I have had encounters with something or other in cemeteries, and personally love to walk in them, in daytime or night, but always carry a respect for the sanctity of them, and try to offer what i can to the spirits that are there, even if that just means picking up litter and doing things like that that they can't do. I just received chod empowerment 2 weeks ago, and am not practicing at night, or in graveyards, for the time being. I had some freaky encounters surrounding it already, so am sticking to daytime practice in consecrated spaces. I do think meditating in a cemetery might be great, but i suggest stopping to still your mind and ask the spirit of the place or the resident spirits there if they mind, and then waiting for some kind of answer (when in doubt, don't do it), and sticking to practices which are in keeping with the place, pacifying (and pacified) practices, nothing wrathful or powerful. so thats 4 cents. or more.

call me up anytime like collection agencies never too early

lets laugh a little to start, then deep belly laughs uproarious joy