GrandmasterP

Meditation is built around questions not 'finding answers'. You need belief or science if it's 'answers' you're seeking. There are no answers in, for or from meditation and eventually the questions disappear too, along with the enquirer. " What is this?" Is as good a place to begin as any other.

Dealing with written text as authoritative, almost 'scriptural'; is very occidental. Not all exports travel from East to West eh?

Like an egg?

We need two remotes for our TV. Seems excessive but it won't work otherwise. Modern life can be complicated. Computers now. They told us at work that when those came in we'd have a "paperless office" . That sure did not happen.

When the student is ready....

No need to curtsey, just throw money. :-) Teacher I respect says somewhere that some folks see just a smelly pile of manure whilst others see wonderful compost useful for growing fine new plants. It's the same stuff, just looked at in two different ways.

Empowered is maybe a slippery term. Bit like our powerful chums who set their students to shaking and such by a single touch. If you believe that the Pali or Sanskrit texts contain magic powers in and of themselves then that's fine. Likewise 'empowered' people, if one accepts them as such then of course empowered they are. Power is always given, never appropriated. There's room for us all here on TTB for sure.

The Earth from space images here..... https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+earth+from+space&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=9JRvU6r2IunF0QWgk4DQDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=644

Mooji was ranked ' One Star' on there a ways back. Try his real name. " Jobbing Guru" is a living guru who sells merchandise. Books, DVDs, teaching courses and such. Guru-ing being their 'job'. Also they tend to be one man bands. One guru, some disciples. Hope that helps.

I'm your biggest fan Ryan. Sent you a PM :-)

Crooked Cucumber's more a biography. Lectures I agree with you, very poor way of communicating information. Sermons are worse. Practice makes perfect.

Same here. I selectively read the newspaper and avoid TV news and politics. ( life's too short). I'm 62 and cannot remember a time when there wasn't some crisis or other either in progress or brewing nicely. Way I see it is that there's sod all I can do about any of it one way or the other. Apart from odd times when personally obliged to be involved in trouble spots I've avoided any involvement with them. No point stressing about the future nor fretting about the past. All any of us has is this eternal 'now'. That'll do for me.

Looks good. Nice and simple, less to go wrong.

Spot on MH. We take what comes then deal with it as best we can. IMO regular cultivation helps us deal with 'better' in good times and the bad times too. Somebody said... "In a crisis we do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training."

You just reminded me of an 'everlasting match' piece of kit that were issued with in army field rations. Those things were useless in the damp. Found these similar on eBay..... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/171242417279?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=t&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Osho's rated higher than Jesus over there. Osho would definitely giggle at that, so would Jesus, probably. I just posted that link as a I tend to do whenever jobbing gurus are mentioned.

"Enlightenment is a verb! It is not a fence one vaults over and can then operate on auto-pilot." (Peter Coyote, Zen priest and actor).

Trance isn't necessarily a healthy state to aspire to. Get consciousness sorted first I reckon and then see what happens next. Chemically induced trance states are best left to the encultured.

Guru ratings here.... http://www3.telus.net/public/sarlo/RatingsR.htm

There is no new thing under the sun..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers

Nice avatar student.

The Captain's been away. He was a regular, we had some good chats in there.

Aye, true words and wise Deci.... Our (unofficial) motto in the Society for Existential Analysis is... " Shit Happens. Live with it." http://www.existentialanalysis.org.uk/

David Chadwick's book 'Crooked Cucumber' is a good 'in' to S. Suzuki. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crooked-Cucumber-Teaching-Shunryu-Suzuki/dp/0767901053/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399812033&sr=1-1&keywords=crooked+cucumber Or these transcripts of Suzuki's teaching talks..... Zen Mind. Beginner's Mind... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shunryu-Suzuki/dp/1590308492/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399812139&sr=1-1&keywords=zen+mind+beginners+mind

Silent retreats can be useful. 9 days will generally do the trick.