konchog uma

you can't possibly prove to me that thats true. Where did you even hear that? that is, in and of itself, a condition. What are you talking about?! I don't think you even know. How do you know? You act like you know, but you don't offer any proof that you know any of that for sure. You aren't even a happy or fulfilled person, from what i gather, and you love to troll. Why should we take your word on anything? There could be pleasure heavens full of lust without attachment for all i know.. hahahah Like i said, the nature of unfettered consciousness is bliss, and your consciousness is obviously fettered, so how can we take your word on what the higher realms are like? I don't put as much stock in what you say as you do But seriously, i hope you find happiness, thats what actually matters. (Then maybe we can talk about something worth speculating on hahahhaha)

why do you ask?

to the awakened mind, there are no blessings or curses. There are only circumstances, and if it is the nature of ones circumstance to have a karmic attachment to a loved one, that is just their circumstance. Sounds like a rather blessed one to me, since most people aren't obsessed with oblivion and the void, but instead take part in the dance of life. Last time you decried love, i pointed out that it was an immeasurable, to which you said something completely cockeyed (about attachment) in reponse, at which point i just dropped the subject... but i will bring it up again, since love and attachment are two distinctly seperate things. Love is a wonderful and sublime state that avails itself to everyone who can open their heart to it. The nature of divinity is love; unconditional love, just as the nature of unfettered awareness is bliss itself. There is a wonderful, magical, and beautiful world unfolding itself for your immersion and enjoyment right this very moment if only you would realize that fact and put down your aversions and prejudices. Blessings to you. May you find happiness and the causes of happiness, and be liberated from suffering.

i think its generally agreed by buddhists and some others (shaivite?) that ones karma and samskaric accumulations have more to do with their trajectory from the moment of death than how one feels at that moment.

wonderful words, thanks for the reminder! @cam: taobums is not trying to be a sangha its just an internet forum. I think it functions best when addressed as such. Its a public place where anyone can come and say whatever they please. Glad you're back, i like your contributions (even the frustrated ones)

samboghakaya

joy and sorrow are natural expressions of the heart. The middle road is the road beyond attachment to joy and aversion to sorrow. Oblivion of the void is a stasis, a delusion. Nothing is static. Everything that exists vibrates, orbits, changes. The buddha didn't advocate a life without joy or sorrow. He advocated a life without attachment and aversion. Equinimity doesn't mean oblivion.

beautiful! thanks my girlfriend calls me her chickpea after the rumi poem. its a long one but i will post it here The Chickpea A chickpea in a pot leaps from the flame, out from the boiling water, Crying, "Why do you set fire to me? You chose me, bought me, brought me home for this?" The cook hits it with her spoon into the pot. "No! Boil nicely, don't jump away from the one who makes the fire. I don't boil you out of hatred. Through boiling you may grow flavorful, nourishing, and united with vital human spirit. I don't inflict this suffering out of spite. Once green and fresh, you drank rain in the garden; you drank for the sake of this fire. God's mercy precedes His wrath; by God's mercy the sick ones suffer. It has always been so; this is how God creates all that exists. Without pleasure, no creatures would come into being. Without creatures, what could the burning love of the Friend consume? Such sorrow may come that you might wish to be free of this life. yet the Grace of God will overtake His wrath, once you are washed clean in the river of suffering. Chickpea, you fed in the springtime; now pain has become your guest. Entertain him well, that he may return home grateful, and speak of your generosity to the King. Instead of your vision of good fortune, the One Who Bestows Favor may come to you; then all true blessings may be drawn to you. Just as Abraham commanded his son: 'Lay your head before my knife I see in a dream that I must sacrifice you,' lay your head before God's knife, that He may cut your throat like that of Ishmael. He may cut off your head, but only the one that is immune to death. Such submission is the fulfillment of God's purpose — seek this submission. Chickpea, continue to boil in suffering, so that no self may remain in you. Though once you laughed in the garden of earth, you now are the rose of the garden of spirit, you now are the eye of spirit. Once you are torn from the garden of water and earth, you may become food, and thereby enter the living world. Become nourishment, strength and thought! Once you were sap; now become a lion in the jungle! You were born from God's attributes; return eagerly to them. You came from the cloud and the sun and sky, then scattered and ascended to heaven. You came as rain and heat; you will return into the Divine attributes. You were part of the sun and the cloud and the stars. You became soul and action and speech and thoughts. Our victory after the checkmate of death gives truth to the words, 'Verily, in being slain there is life.' Action, speech and sincerity become food for angels; they climb this ladder to heaven. A morsel of food becomes food for humanity, rises from its inanimate state and obtains a soul. The caravan of spirit travels constantly between earth and heaven. Join it gladly and freely, not bitterly and full of hatred, like a thief. I speak bitter words to you so you may be washed clean of bitterness. The frozen grape thaws in the cold water and leaves its coldness and hardness behind. When you endure bitterness, your heart will fill with blood like the grape, and you will be freed from all bitterness. A dog not kept for hunting wears no collar; the raw and unboiled are nothing but insipid." The chickpea speaks, "If this is so, then help me to boil! By this boiling you elevate me. Hit me with the spoon; delight me! Like the elephant, strike me and brand my head, that I may not dream of the gardens of Hindustan. Let me gladly submit to this boiling that I may be embraced by the Beloved. Men and women, imagining themselves free, grow insolent and hostile, like the dreaming elephant. When the elephant dreams of Hindustan, he disobeys the driver and becomes vicious." The cook says, "I was once like you, part of the earth. I drank the fire of self-discipline, fasting and prayer, and became worthy and acceptable to God. I boiled long in the world of time, and long in the pot of this body. From these boilings I grew capable of strengthening the senses; I became animal spirit, and then became your teacher. While inanimate, I said to myself, 'You are running about in agitation so that you might be filled with knowledge and the qualities of spirit.' Now that I have become animal spirit, let me boil again and pass beyond that state." Pray unceasingly to God that you might not be misled by these words, and that you might arrive at your journey's end. For many have been misled by the Qur'an; by clinging to the rope of words, many have fallen into the well. The rope is faultless, O perverse ones — it is you who lack desire to reach the top.

LOL yup lol thats because homosexuals and lesbians are a minority, statistically speaking. And what humans do in a dark age doesn't interest me. Acceptance of all manifestations of the spectrum of human sexuality is a far more interesting topic. Anything to add on that note?

I think the right wing is basically at war with anyone who isn't a white christian american male, or the women who subserviantly gestate and birth their babies (godpleaseletitbeaboy) cept for the closeted ones! hahaaha it is a shame. the problem with the right wing is that people actually associate them with god and jesus and spiritual truth. HAHAHHAHAHA

nice! i am glad to hear that.. thanks i was having a hard time even thinking of a secular culture to be honest. I didn't know that sweden was so non-religious. I will see your OPs assertion inasmuch as abrahamic religions are dualistic and can be used to rally emotional support for war. But i still think most wars are a matter of resources and the urge to conquer based on xenophobia. Have you ever read guns germs and steel by jared diamond? I like that book, but i have never heard any critique of it one way or the other. He talks about war and colonialism and subjegation in depth, and never really mentions religions.

so many definitions of enlightenment... that might not be my truth but maybe it's his. I think we all have our own slice of the absolute's wisdom to share (at least in potentiality), and im glad you got to talk to someone transcendental. If understanding those ideas is important to you, you should read Nisargadatta's I Am That Some traditions believe that you can be liberated while in a human body... in sanskrit the word is Jivanmukta, one who is enlightened or fully awake while still alive. Some other traditions believe that we attain our liberation upon the moment of death when we are absorbed into "the light" or the kundalini of shakti herself, and the divine power unmakes us. Those traditions say that for an instant then we perceive "the truth" (right before we perceive nothing at all). Some traditions (like siddha yoga) say that both those ideas can be true. There are more ideas about enlightenment than we can shake a stick at. Its not what you are while alive that hinders enlightenment if you ask me, its attachment and aversion to that thing. What we really are is THAT, Shiva, Buddha, whateveryouwanttocallit... and our awareness of that can only be complete and unbroken if one has achieved the inner alchemy of self-illumination. So in other words, there is a path of self-acceptance which says to the ego: "you're okay with me. you're so okay, i will expand you until you fill all of creation, and i realize my self nature as that great Self which is the totality of everything, radiant and divine" as opposed to the path of self negation that the master you spoke with seems to offer. That path says to the ego "no i will shut you down, you stand in between my true nature and where i am now" you can see they are really two paths to the same place, to realizing the true nature of self (even if you call that true nature "not self" or no-self) but now i am definitely rambling and will cut this short

organic fruit and tea, usually pu-erh BEE-AY-EN-AY-EN-AY-ESS!! or mangoes or apples, pears, whatevers in season really, cant go wrong with delicious fruit then sometimes for second breakfast i will have granola and almond milk if i am powerfully hungry, like fruit just wont make me feel full or something but the word of this post is FRUIT

"i am not saying that religions are innocent." ever get the feeling youre not being listened to? religions are powerful and religious ideas can be used to stir adherents towards violence, especially when they believe their religion is being threatened. But that does not mean that people who adhere to religions are more violent. Look at Mao. He wanted religion eradicated from the Chinese vocabulary, so he declared war on taoists, buddhists, tibetans, anyone he felt represented religion... so obviously, non-religious people aren't immune to atrocity and acts of darkness. I feel like you are looking selectively at one aspect of religious life, the power of religion to stir up emotions, and the power of those emotions to dominate the groupthink. You seem to neglect to address the idea that religious people have done a lot of good things, or that very few groups in the world DONT adhere to some kind of religion or spiritual philosophy... so back to my suggestion that perhaps its just human nature to be subject to our dark emotions. The Hopi tribe is completely religious, absorbed to the last minute detail of their daily lives in love and devotion to the sacred spirits (kachinas) and to the creator, and they have never resorted to violent means except once in the 1700s when the Spanish tried to bring churchianity to them and convert them. Then they destroyed the mission. But they have a history of non-violence and peaceful lifestyle in spite of being deeply religious. Now i challenge you to name me a non-religious culture who has also this history of non-violence and peaceful lifestyle, without a connection to the divine and the spirits, please. if you can, awesome, i can't think of one, and if you can't please consider that most people form religions. Maybe that in and of itself is worth considering the worth and merit of. And most people at one point or another in their history become engaged in conflict. But those two facts alone simply do not prove a direct causal connection between the two phenomena. that is all.

it doesn't claim to solve or address the problem, although it does address the problem by suggesting that the problem might lie in human nature. hahaha you are criticizing me for not solving the problem of religious war with a single post.. get serious. i am not saying that religions are innocent. but it seems that you have already made up your mind what you think (so there goes the ability to be flexible in conversation). how do you place blame on a religion. a religion is a collection of ideas?! you can't place blame on an idea. you can place blame on a person. but the moment you say "religious people are more prone to war than non-religious people" i will ask you to prove it. thats all. the logic of A. people form religions B. people fight wars THEREFORE C. religions are the cause of wars has major holes in it. there may well be other factors at play that you are not considering.

i think atheists and agnostics have the same problems with aggressive tendencies. maybe the problem is with human nature and not with religion.

fun topic i tend to think of anarchy as working really well on a small scale, but not well on a large one. So local communities of people coming together would benefit the world, but large groups tend to run into the problem of who manages the group resources. Hence, government. Of course thats an oversimplification, but i would shudder to think of the world as an anarchic collective. That entails levels of awaked-ness and responsibility that i don't see people exhibiting right now. I think good government can do a lot to benefit humankind, or in other words, i don't think "gvmt = bad" de facto. In an age of darkness, the prevalent energies of the world will affect humans whether they are in heirarchical systems of government or anarchic collectives. As anyone can reason, there are more factors that go into how humans act than whether or not they live in anarchy or not. so in short, my answer is no.

what is a fantasy sword? hehehe

cool. i don't need to read it (in the same spirit as we don't need a study to tell us this) but im glad you posted it eat nourishing food!!@!

im with oildrops very likable fiction colorful and well written but nothing to base ones personal path on and think they are "a shaman" or something silly like that specks of wisdom (like the idea of the path with heart) but overall very very questionable when it comes to practical application. sitting in a box for years recapitulating your life for the eagle? don't recommend it.

its a movie site to promote a documentary about wandering wolf's message for the world at this time. It isn't a site of native elders. as far as i know there aren't any sites like that. and shift of the ages is looking for funding so thats probably why it rang false. The movie is completely public funded, with no major label support. So they are doing a fundraising campaign at all times... but it is legitimately the mayan message to the world at this time. go to "wandering wolf's messages" for the meat of that site. sorry, i should have said that. http://www.shiftoftheages.com/wandering_wolfs_message those vids are really where its at. Or just youtube "wandering wolf". Hes the grand mayan elder, and he's been talking to the public about the mayan calendar since 2007 so theres a body of authentic work that surrounds him. but everything else, including carl johan calleman and ian xel lundgold and a lot of great scholars is just outsider scholarship. None of those people can really claim to understand the calendar. So that is more what i meant to say. i was just trying to keep it brief. Thanks for pointing that out

do you know why not?

the long count doesnt measure the procession of the equinox. it is coincidental that the age of aquarius is happening at this time. the 5th sun and the end of the long count is said to have the potential to happen "with a bang" according to native calendar keepers. the last sun ended with a flood, and the one before it with an ice age, and before that the hopi talk about another cleansing at the end of an age called a "sun" so fin i think you're half right. and im not trying to bring anyone down, its just that the possibility of apocalypse is very real to hear the native elders talk about it. i recommend this site for learning about what the mayans are (finally) saying about the calendar http://www.shiftoftheages.com

yeah i said the mantra internally while doing the stomach pumping then i shook it out. i didnt feel anything until i shook it out, then i was flooded with bliss and strong good vibrations. wahiguru means "god" in its teacher aspect.. like giving praise to the teacher without which manifests as life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waheguru do you hold your nostrils closed when you chant? i found that almost necessary near the end.

thank you