Jeff

Seems to be a very strong comment regarding institutional religion. Or in this case, it shows how Jesus felt about the Pharisees at the time.

Then he did not have any subconscious mind activity around it. So your view is that the body causes emotions, and if one had something like a heart imbalance it would cause fears and emotions around love? Not that it was simply an mental anxiety around love, that could then begin to affect the body?

Is not anger simply an autopilot response to some past memory or projected fear? Like if I get angry because someone tried to overcharge me for something at a store, is that not a "mental process" or mental response? The imbalance actually in the mind, even though aspects of it affect and spill over into the physical body?

Wouldnt it be fair to say that the conditioned responses do sort of spontaneously dismantle on their own as part of the natural process of residing (in Rigpa)?

I still don’t quite understand the difference. As an example, is the emotion of anger not simply just a mental process of getting angry? Are you separating them into conscious and subconconscious mental processes, and calling the subconscious emotions (because people are not consciously aware of the mental process of getting angry)? Thanks.

How is an emotional issue different from a mind issue?

And when you do, I good teacher/master will wack you in the head with a stick.

Intellectual understanding is meaningless, as the heart sutra is beyond the mind. One does not believe, more they know...

Nice thing in this case that Steve Is a very good leader to follow.

Very well said. Thank you.

In my view, the chapter is more about how things look very different from the view of the normal person as compared with to a "sage" or more advanced spiritual practioner. The wise student hears of the Tao and practises it diligently.The average student hears of the Tao and gives it thought now and again.The foolish student hears of the Tao and laughs aloud.If there were no laughter, the Tao would not be what it is. There is sort of a logical step-down from a wise student to a more average "foolish" student who doesn't really get it. Then the next part of the chapter is all about examples for an average person to help explain that it is not really what you would think... The bright path seems dim; Going forward seems like retreat; - Moving forward on the path is more like letting go than accomplishing something (like retreat) The easy way seems hard; The highest Virtue seems empty; - Seems hard because one must simply "reside" and not do something. And that is very quiet and empty mind. Great purity seems sullied; A wealth of Virtue seems inadequate; - It seems sullied because it never fights back, more like water. Virtue is not material, and many want more stuff. The strength of Virtue seems frail; Real Virtue seems unreal; - Being like water seems weak, but can break down the hardest rock. The perfect square has no corners; Great talents ripen late; - The mind is not bounded and there are no edges (or corners) to it. The powers (or great talents) come when the mind is not bounded. The highest notes are hard to hear; The greatest form has no shape. - The highest notes come from the realization of energy structures, they are like a high pitched tone in the mind. And these tones mean that your mind is starting to break down form into underlying energy. The Tao is hidden and without name. The Tao alone nourishes and brings everything to fulfillment. - The Tao is beyond mind. The Tao is the basis for all.

~~~ Split Topic ~~~ from here: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/46591-dao-and-brahman-they-are-non-different/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In his thesis, the author states that in Taoism the “One” emerges from the Void, and hence equates the Void as the Dao. This seems to be a pretty big departure from Taoism, and the teachings of the Tao Te Ching.

I am not a Buddhist, so it is probably not my place to define a Buddhist term, but as I stated earlier with the Norbu quote, void would be like an aspect (or subset) of emptiness. I simple differentiation would be that void is empty of all phenomena, while emptiness is both empty of and includes all phenomena. In meditation, void is like the space between two thoughts. Perfectly quiet mind.

December 18, 2017 by Glenn Roberts Jr., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory When scientists recorded a rippling in space-time, followed within two seconds by an associated burst of light observed by dozens of telescopes around the globe, they had witnessed, for the first time, the explosive collision and merger of two neutron stars. The intense cosmological event observed on Aug. 17 also had other reverberations here on Earth: It ruled out a class of dark energy theories that modify gravity, and challenged a large class of theories. https://m.phys.org/news/2017-12-star-mergers-gravity-dark-energy.html

Well said. Void, infinite potential and energy to manifest...

No, this just started as me saying that the Dao did not emerge from the void. My view is that the void is more like an aspect (or component) of the Dao. The void would be more like a “frozen” or empty One with no motion/energy in Daoist terms.

I don't understand the question. What do you mean by next step? Next step to what? I dont think it makes a lot of sense to try to directly compare the Dao and emptiness as they are completely different frameworks. But, I do agree as described earlier, there are many cross over points. Personally, I prefer the framework described in the TTC.

The problem is that the models are not stable with how much theoretical dark energy is out there, because to get the changing acceleration requires the dark energy amounts themselves to shift. Here is another recent article on the topic... Explaining the accelerating expansion of the universe without dark energy https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170330115254.htm Either way, we seem to be off topic, I apologize and will stop now...

Address what question? Maybe we just do not have agreement on the definition of void, but emptiness is not about "void-like" as you can see from the quote below... Listen, great being! I will teach you that, being my manifestation from the beginning, all phenomena are the pure dimension of emptiness. Chogyal Namkhai Norbu;Adriano Clemente. The Supreme Source: The Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde

The Void is not the same thing as the One. The void is an aspect of Emptiness. If you go back to my quote from chapter 25 of the TTC, you see... In the silence and the void, Standing alone and unchanging, Ever present and in motion. Perhaps it is the mother of ten thousand things. I do not know its name Call it Tao. Comparing it to the Dzogchen quote... In the Dzogchen teachings the primordial state of the base is not defined only as being void, but is explained as having three aspects or characteristics, called the "three primordial wisdoms": essence, nature, and energy You can sees a somewhat equivalent mapping of... In the silence and the void = Essence Standing alone and unchanging (self perfected) = Nature Ever present and in motion = Energy

With your Big Bang theory, how do you explain the fact that the rate of growth for the universe is accelerating, requiring ongoing and increasing energy into the system as opposed to a base "bang"?

In the Dzogchen teachings the primordial state of the base is not defined only as being void, but is explained as having three aspects or characteristics, called the "three primordial wisdoms": essence, nature, and energy. The essence is the void, the real condition of the individual and of all phenomena. This base is the condition of all individuals, viduals, whether they are aware of it or not, whether they are enlightened or in transmigration. It is said to be "pure from the beginning" (ka dag), because, like space, it is free of all impediments, and is the basis of all the manifestations in existence. -Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State.

Totally agree. The void is more like an aspect (or subset) of the Dao.

I don’t think you will find any modern day physicists that still believe in the Big Bang theory. Quantum physics ( and quantum reality) have pretty much killed off such beliefs. Here is a nice description if anyone is interested... https://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html Also, most modern physics believe that there are multiple concurrent universes, as it is the only way they can get any of the math to work correctly. Similarly, there is no text that states that the Dao emerged from the Void. The “One” emerged from the Dao, and the Dao does not equal the One. Also, you can find a similar concept in Buddhism where emptiness does not equal the Void either.

The Void is not equivalent to the Dao (just a component of it), as the Tao Te Ching clearly states... 25 Something mysteriously formed, Born before heaven and Earth. In the silence and the void, Standing alone and unchanging, Ever present and in motion. Perhaps it is the mother of ten thousand things. I do not know its name Call it Tao. For lack of a better word, I call it great. Being great, it flows I flows far away. Having gone far, it returns. Therefore, "Tao is great; Heaven is great; Earth is great; The king is also great." These are the four great powers of the universe, And the king is one of them. Man follows Earth. Earth follows heaven. Heaven follows the Tao. Tao follows what is natural. As you can see in the highlighted text, the Void is only one (of three major) aspects of the Dao. Or said another way, the Dao is not the space between two thoughts.