manitou

(Or Kindle, as the case may be). We had a good time with this when a wonderful entity named Songs of Distant Earth used to participate here. I still have a hole in my heart because he no longer does. But the thread was fun. The ones I've got lined up (or am reading all at the same time, actually) are: TROPIC OF CHAOS; Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (Christian Parenti) THE AVATAMSAKA SUTRA (Cleary translation) GREAT EMPIRES: Exploring the Power Civilizations that Changed Our World (A wonderful TIME publication that you can probably find next to the National Enquirer when you check out at the market) THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE RIDER WAITE TAROT (Fiebig & Borger)

Not sure I see IMHO as a politeness. Sounds more like bragging to me.

It strikes me as strange when someone uses IMHO in posts, or anywhere for that matter! If you've got to tell people you're humble, you're not.

That's a heart attack waiting for a place to happen! That is really dramatic, amazing impersonation of a spider.

Love and Light to you too, gentlewind. As you are in a state of heightened awareness, I know that you are seeing dynamics that others cannot. I wish you the very best as you go through this challenge. We'll see you on the other side...we are all kin here, and of one soul-spirit. Barbara Ortega

Interesting, that's very polite. Polite is nice, but polite isn't necessarily real. Polite is needed when the inside of us doesn't match the politeness on the outside. It's an effort. I think Kindness is something better to cultivate. It covers all the bases

Oh, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. Lighten up.

Thank you, darling. That is hysterical. I noticed that you didn't say humble.

Yeah. "Honestly..." (Why would anyone assume otherwise?, unless you know yourself to be a liar at times "With all due respect"....(you're a moron, and I don't agree with a thing you said) "Not to step on any toes..." (but I'm about to shove my opinion in here and shut this thing down)

Hi, An interesting topic! I have found myself wondering why the collective god inside all of us (in the form of extremely intelligent DNA) is having us create a machine that is capable of more advanced thinking than we're capable of. As to the rights of a robot, I haven't given that thought. I think that might be going too far, as claiming that a frozen fetus is a person is. That would be Infringe City to us humanoids. That slope is covered with mucous. But where does It want to go? Why is it having us do this? Your picture may say it all. Maybe Evolution is to inhabit a different world. We've kind of screwed this one up.

I grew up on Christianity. I took up with Eastern thought. I've read everything there is to read. I've come to one self-realized conclusion. That we, humans, ARE god. The intelligence that manifests our past, present, and future is contained in our DNA. That the same DNA, although different variations, is contained in all animal and plant life. And maybe rocks have consciousness. Water does. When a fetus is forming, all the cells that form are identical to one another. It's not until the cells line up next to each other that the determination is made whether the group of cells will be a fingernail, a blood cell, a hair cell, any kind. It's the intelligence of the DNA telling the cells of the fetus to go out on the little finger exactly 22,543 times before you gently turn around and come back. Personally, I FIND THAT ASTOUNDING!!! The incredible intelligence transmitted by the DNA of the mother and father to propogate the line. But, being in genealogy, I fully recognize that the further and further you go back on Ancestry, the more and more you run into the same people, or 'cousins', as we call each other. The trajectory of the 'lines' merging together toward the beginning shows me that, as it says in the DDJ, 'the function of the Dao is reversion'.

Constant fight between dark and light doesn't sound all that comfortable. But I get what you're saying, in a yin yang sense. Once the development of good character has been attained, there is a constant core inside that is your grounding. Stay to your core, they say. In this day and time, it seems particularly urgent. The way, the answers, are all inside us already. And the answers all err on the side of love and acceptance.

NN, I don't confer with entities, and you're probably not talking about me anyway. But I can share this wisdom with you; That the space from the tip of the monk's finger to the moon is all inner work. Perhaps you're overly familiar with this, and if so, I apologize. The inner work is to neutralize all the trigger points within you from childhood, from as far back as you can remember. Many childhood memories we harbor have rolled downhill for years and have contorted the lens of our vision. They have resulted in attitudes and actions that remain with us today. But these very attitudes are the things that prevent us from clarity. There is a quiet and silent space in you that has all the answers, but it can only be viewed from a place of clarity, that place that is unburdened by previous attitude and experience. The best place to start, is to figure out what part 'we' have played in whatever's going on in your life today, anything unpleasant. The trick is to find our own blame, to take responsibility for our actions, to stop blaming others for shortcomings in our lives. There is something so very powerful about the power of silence. Wu - wei said in a different way, maybe. There comes a point where the constant attainment of spiritual knowledge and reading does come to an end. That's well and good, but it won't get any of us what we want. We want answers. We want the truth. I, for one, have come to realize that it's all the very same thing under different names. And the way to discern the truth is to listen to the voice inside. The voice that can be heard once the inner distractions are removed. Entity? Maybe.

Fabulous picture!

It occurs to me that having known you for many years now, that your spiritual awareness is at your fingertips at all times. It is apparent that you've digested all the book-learnin' that's a part of all this, but that you've merged it in with your being and it lives totally within you. I love the reference to puberty, as that's exactly how it does seem to be! Things are given 'as needed', not piled up into a big stack of knowledge, which is of the ego, as you say. I guess I just want to say that I appreciate you, Nungers.

Evolutions have continued. I feel a different presence with your current you.

You're a guy, right?

Where does your knowledge stream come from? Is it from without, or is it opening the moon door from within?

I'm not a Daoist, but I fell in love with a book called The Wisdom of Ancient China at a yard sale, by Lin Yutang. When I got to the DDJ I was blown away by the counter-intuitiveness of the Way - how I had gotten myself so conditioned to push, push, make it happen. When that all came crashing down, I came out of the chute into this lovely pool of clear water. I couldn't be more fortunate. What I've found, after walking the path of sobriety for a lot of years and participating on this forum for a lot of years has tempered me, just like a rock in a tumbler. I was heavily Christian for many years, but was never quite able to grow to my full potential as long as I was in a structure of any sort. I've come to understand that it's all the very same thing. The interesting thing to me is regardless of whether you're born in Australia, China, or the U.S.. we are most likely going to either go along with the religion of our youths, or even become an atheist and refuse to buy into any of it. But there's still an 'It' that the atheist is rebelling against. That 'It' urge seems to be built right within us, even as those who do seemingly evil things all their life often reach out to something right before their heads get shoved into a toilet bowl. The Reflections of Marcus Aurelius is one of the more important works, IMO. I do need to know a lot more about him. Nature is It. You are It. When you enjoy Nature, it is It enjoying itself. It just wants to be noticed once in a while, according to Castaneda. It's all one whole big enchilada, and somehow walking our paths with love to everything and everyone around us is the key to a simple and beautiful existence. As someone wrote on my graffiti wall, "Cultivate Uncomplicated Awareness" When the self realization is attained, the need to see ourselves as separate from each other leaves. Giving things away gets a lot easier, giving money gets a lot easier. But it does take a lifetime and an open mind.

This is the dualistic way of looking at a god figure. That there is a god separate from yourself that's controlling things to some degree. Yes, Jesus is a wonderful model, I used to ask myself what he'd do, until I realized the unity of all thoughts and things. I've come to accept that 'god' is our communal consciousness, and that there is no judgment as to good and bad, only 'is'. Jesus can certainly be used. So can Buddha, Mohammed, etc. At the end of all the religious paths are the same thing; the void. The name that can't be named. There's only one truth that they all point to. That the god we've been looking for for so many years is hidden within our own bosoms - that it's not found on any path, per se.....but one must do the infernal internal work. Conquer ego so that perception isn't distorted by inner foibles that have been there since childhood. Nobody ever wants to do this. You're not alone. But what develops is a channel of sorts. It can be accessed upon demand, whenever needed. It reminds me of the sky door in Game of Thrones - once that door is opened, all sorts of misfortune falls out of it. But once emptied, it grants full access to some strange sort of knowledge, all situations viewable from above somehow. The process of inhabiting this new 'body' is not an instantaneous event. It takes some time to wear it evenly, and it's in your closet on any given day, if you are void of excessive ego (as I see it, all the ego we need is the ego that keeps us out of oncoming traffic). Situations will be no problem for you, because you and your core are in alignment, and you will always see the way of truth. You won't react at all to anything if you don't wish to - because your ego has been tamed, and you live in the fairly constant knowledge that the person you are irritated at is actually you, as we are all one - and that that very irritation is the first clue to discovering where the need for the irritation came from. Something to do with time, maybe? The quick flash of dad yelling at us to hurry up? If there is a childhood flash attached to any situation that's undesirable for us, that little childhood flash is the very thing that must be reversed. This is done by reenacting the memory, perhaps with a cast member like a 'dad' or 'mom' figure, and acting out the opposite reaction several times. This is a deep reversal of a dynamic that's been rolling downhill for years and years.

I've come to understand that meek in the 'meek shall inherit the earth' sense can only be one thing: humility. A conquered ego allows us to see things as they really are, as opposed to through our previous conditioning.

There is only one void, on this level at least. The concept of Dao is an intelligence which controls but doesn't care, lol. We are as ceremonial straw dogs to 'the Dao'. To me, that means it doesn't really matter to It who lives and who dies, where or when. Bringing it to the Old Testament, wasn'st there some sort of prohibition on saying the word 'God', or Ra, or Jehovah, or whatever they used? I understand that now. It's just like the Dao. The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. Probably the same state of awe with the origin of the concept of Jehovah. I don't think that it was a punishable offense for 'saying the name', but I'll bet the ancient Christians understood that there was just no one word for such magnificence.

I understand completely what you're saying, and I would guess that both women are the highest representation of what their religion would have us be. But what a difference between the two. Mary birthed a child, Kwan Yin was known for her giving heart and all-loving kindness. Personally, I'd vote for Kwan Yin if she was running.

I've probably been with 160 men in my life, on the police department. I'm quite serious, although the figure may be a bit high. Now, at an older age, I feel like my sexual self has been bludgeoned down somehow; that my capacity for human to human love has also been bludgeoned a bit. I no longer feel. I was with my husband for 30 years before I truly fell in love with him. It took my heart that long to really open up. Joe and I were blessed with tantric sex for about a week. From out of nowhere. We were both pretty evolved, spiritually. I can remember that that was the only time in my life that there was absolutely no limitation on the expression of sexual love. In my minds eye, as we made love, I saw two figures making love, but they were luminescent. That's exactly how it felt, and no movement was even required, strangely enough. What a golden place to be in - a place of all love, no judgment, light and warmth. I don't know how this relates to the conversation at hand, but I do believe that in my case, all the sexual activity was harmful. For guys, maybe it's not a big deal. But for women.....I think it is. Not because of a rightness or a wrongness, but because of the low esteem we hold ourselves in. And that takes a lifetime to change.

I love you, Mr. or Ms. Stirling. And you too, Forest of Emptiness. And Thrice Daily. (although I think that's a bit much. Mine is only onceth daily)