konchog uma

right, there's not a self but there is.

well its not so much that it is or isn't prevented. Its an aspect of self. During the life of a person, the formless soul acts as a spark of inspiration to action, a magnet for events to happen to one, or for people to be drawn to one, and above all else, the Will To Live. So while a person is alive, it is considered very much a part of the self. I think the main distinction to make is that it is not the self that people naturally identify with.. most people identify with their mind and personalities, their energies, their physical bodies, etc. Those are all part of the self too, inasmuch as the self is an aggregate. But the only part of the self that survives all the bardos of death and the unmaking of that aggregate is the soul, according to the Himalayan mystics. If you mean to ask why people don't identify with this part of themselves more in life, i think its because it takes a very subtle perception to turn away from the world of forms and ideas and visible phenomena, even to be conscious of a formless and immortal aspect of oneself takes very subtle perception. So its probably because its not obvious, to understate the issue. But much of the work of Buddhism (show me the face you had before you were born) and Daoism, among other paths, is designed to awaken just this perception. So what prevents it from being the self is on one hand nothing, it is already the self at its deep core, and on the other hand, conditioned perception, which tells us nothing by observation of forms about this so-called soul.

According to Tibetan mysticism it is the formless soul. in life it acts as a "will to live" and a catalyst for action (hence karma of past lives) but after death the tibetans, who have a science of these things born of direct experience, observe that the aggregate self passes through bardos as it is stripped of elements of self according to their density. The more dense elements go first, and finally the spirit and mind are stripped and the formless soul, one with the all, rests in oblivion until gradually it is ready to inhabit a body again, at which time it does so, merging with the physical embryo of whatever-it-is that explanation is paraphrased from the Tibetan Book of the Dead and from Alexandra David-Neel's Magic and Mystery in Tibet, neither of which i have in front of me right now. So perhaps someone could add or clarify, since that was a very short explanation. I tend to accept it because of the experience of their lamas and tulkus, passing consciously through death and bearing proof as a child on the other side.

well i hate to discourage you but the pharmaceutical industry as a whole has done so much harm with their greedy profiteering that i have to say NAY good sir. It is so hard to find a balance between good money and good ethics. Good luck!

saying that reality is an illusion isn't saying that it doesn't exist. It is saying that it is like a dream or a hologram or, well, an illusion. it exists, just not in the way that it appears to exist.

its 99% emptiness generating the illusion of solidity. its actually one thing experiencing itself subjectively as us and the web of life. there is very little about reality that isn't illusory, even outright illusion, in some major way. just don't get lost in the reality of nonreality and forsake your illusory responsibilities.

looks interesting, thanks for the link. I signed up to receive it monthly

well chidragon i think that the stories aren't to be taken as literal accounts... Chuang Tzu wasnt a stenographer he was a philosopher, so there is a degree of leeway that he is afforded as such. Leeway to create. I am saying that i think Confucius deserved the treatment he got by all accounts i have read thats all. I am also saying don't take these stories literally as history, they are metaphor.

yeah i totally agree with all of that!

lovely news audiohealing!! really awesome

The Mayans have been talking to outsiders about their calendar since 2007. Don't put stock in the musings of "mayan experts", there are really just authentic Mayan elders like Don Alejandro Perez and Hunbatz Men who are both calendar keepers, and there are scholars, who truly still don't have the first clue. There are people that have studied the mayan culture but they don't know about the calendar. Its a lot deeper than the end of the 5000 year cycle. That is one cycle of nine to end on 12.21.12. It is the national cycle, as you can see from this description Arguelles is considered somewhat of a buffoon, yes, and the Mayans don't predict that the "world will end" in the sense that time will stop and we will be plunged into the darkness of the void, no. But nobody except Maya understand that calendar, so skip the BS musings of scholars and intellectuals, and read the works of the living maya. Don Alejandro has created video messages for the world regarding the actual Mayan understanding of these times. Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj AKA Wandering Wolf, head of Mayan Council - video messages http://www.shiftoftheages.com/wandering_wolfs_message there is more information on that webpage than in a thousand scholarly journals about 2012 hype. for the record, the Mayan long count predicts the dawning of a "new age" and they didn't make any prophesies about it that survived the Spanish conquest except one single written one, that Bolon Yokte would appear to the world as fully dressed in his finest regalia. Bolon Yokte was the mayan shiva, a god of destruction and recreation. So if these scholars had the imagination to speak in metaphor, they would clearly see that the mayans predicted a destruction and recreation, or emergence into a "new sun" or age presided over by new energies than the last one. Don't believe the hype. Get information about the Maya from the Maya not from western scholars. amazon.com search results for Hunbatz Men, mayan elder and daykeeper http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hunbatz+men&x=0&y=0

right Marblehead! That last bit says it nicely. Confucius by all accounts was very smart but hadn't realized his natural virtue yet, all his virtue was the product of ritual and was more contrived. So it served it purpose with the people, creating a Chinese culture that they could grasp and share with each other, since at the time china was so huge it was like having 2 or 3 different countries. So Confucius gave them homogenous identity as a Chinese people, with the proper songs for each season and so forth, but unfortunately he did not seem to have realized the higher truths, such as the ones that interested master Lao and master Chuang. To answer ChiDragon's question, I think it does reflect directly on Confucius himself, and while the daoists were obviously prejudiced and kinda grumpy about the influence Confucius had, they did know better than us about him. But everything I have read about Confucius says he was a real anal guy, kinda OCD and just set in his ways.

That reeks of church propaganda. Personally, I don't trust anything evangelical christians say. I have never heard of a NDE like that either. Very suspicious. I think its church lies constructed especially for buddhists. sheesh if you look at the essene order or kabalistic philosophy, its got more in common with esoteric buddhism than it does with modern christianity.

MountainRoseHerbs.com curried sweet potato soup.pdf i skipped the second pureeing, and kept it chunky with onions and garlic. I like it better that way. just made some tonight, doubled the recipe, and it filled a big pot. SOOO good i had to share. baking the sweet potatoes takes about 45min during which time you can prep the other ingredients and spices, the whole thing start to finish takes about an hour and a half, which is why i doubled the recipe, cause if im gonna spend that long on something i am going to have leftovers all week. I'm all about slow foods, but i'm also all about simple. But enough about me, how about you? Aren't you hungry for some awesome soup?! got this recipe out of MountainRoseHerbs.com catalogue btw.

well that was completely delicious!! but it had to cook for 2 hours because the meat was still pink. So if you see a winter squash and you wanna stuff it, cook the meat first. Also add some moisture like the juice from sauteing the meat, or some broth, just a spoonful or two per squash, but it would have helped. thanks everyone for your info and suggestions, i'm really digging eating seasonally and locally.. @thelerner: halarious about your kids taste in ramen.. yours sounds delicious!

404 message on that link thanks for the info too! i dont pay much attention to ORAC cause i fast regularly to keep the free radicals at bay. Cool to learn!

in response to the OP, i favor combining the two. I wouldn't want to be without a teacher (or teachers) but i wouldn't want to depend on them for all my knowledge either. I like books, and have practiced successfully from books, but i always check with my teacher to make sure what i am feeling and practicing is something they recommend or agree with.

1. first of all, meditation can affect the health in positive ways. 1a. it depends on what kind of meditation you are doing. Bone breathing increases marrow and red/white blood cell production for example. Big health boost. 2. mantra is superior to what? and for what? those are subjective statements. If you want to realize a thoughtless state, i don't recommend mantra. making blanket statements about how superior or inferior things are is a good way to get yourself stuck in a logic pothole. Things aren't that easy. I could say to you "combining stillness meditation with movement meditation is the superior way to go" but i wouldn't cause i don't think that way. Each person needs what they need, and they are usually drawn to it, so there is no "superior technique" just because it works that way for you. just a reminder

Yan Lei's dvd's are like that. Short on verbals, but his form is awesome. I practice shaolin Muscle Tendon Change from his dvds. He even demonstrates hitting with a steel brush, but doesn't give any information on what its for. Its part of the bone marrow training in Dr Yang Jwing-Ming's Qigong: Secret of Youth and in that book he gives a good description of what it does and how to train in it. For those that haven't read it, it stimulates the fascia to "stand up" which allows the practitioner to pack it with qi. So it trains the layer of soft tissue between the muscles and skin to conduct qi (since fascia isnt very conductive it needs a good beating to get the picture!) for use with iron shirt, or golden bell, etc.

i am certainly glad to get away from what a loser confucius was, and back to daoist sageliness. I like the idea of being nourished by heaven and having no need for things like knowledge and convention. Sort of an "in the world but not of it" kind of idea, except instead of being spaced out, its like the sage has gone beyond the world into non-duality or the clarity of transcendence or something similar. I like that Chuang doesn't really say what is the cause of the insight, he just talks about how it manifests. And i love the line about forgetting what isnt ordinarily forgotten!! Ahh i had started to miss the Chuang Tzu that i could relate to (as evidenced by my tardiness in posting the Mair for 5,D)... so nice to read something refreshing and excellent

from "Wandering on the Way: Taoist Tales and Parables" -by Victor Mair Lipless Clubfoot Scattered offered his counsels to Duke Ling of Wey. The duke was so pleased with him that he looked upon people whose bodies were whole as having spindly shins. Jar Goiter offered his counsels to Duke Huan of Ch'i. The duke was so pleased with him that he looked upon people whose bodies were whole as having scraggy necks. Thus, when one's integrity is outstanding, the physical form will be forgotten. If people do not forget what they usually forget, but instead forget what they usually do not forget, that may be called true forgetting . Therefore, the sage has a place where he wanders, and considers knowledge as a curse, convention as glue, virtue as a social grace, and craft as commerce. The sage hatches no schemes, so what use has he for knowledge? He does no splitting, so what use has he for glue? He has no deficiency, so what use has he for virtue? He does no peddling, so what use has he for commerce? These four are the gruel of heaven. The gruel of heaven is sustenance from heaven. Since he receives sustenance from heaven, what use has he for man? He has a human form, but is without human emotions. Because he has a human form, he groups together with other men . Because he is without human emotions, "right" and "wrong" have no effect upon him. How insignificant and small is that part of him which belongs to humanity! How grand and great is his singular identification with heaven!

you're most welcome bro. I like Damo's humility too, he doesn't try to say anything he shouldn't, very professional.. high integrity. I think he's an awesome writer.

awesome!! thanks for the info also, you can triple or quadruple the garlic if you want (duh) in a double recipe i used about 15-20 cloves and it didn't even taste "garlicky" it was just really good. im trying my hand with kabocha squash tonight, stuffed it with ground lamb, toasted pine nuts, mint, garlic, onions, and a little raisins. No recipe for that one, just winging it. Never worked with the kabocha before, its got a really sweet smell. I just cut a whole in the top, scooped out the seeds, and scooped in the stuffing mix. We'll see what happens in an hour :D