manitou

3bob - did you write this, or is it a translation of a verse I'm not recognizing? It is beautiful. The last sentence about Death trying to take her and dying - to what does that pertain? It certainly feels true, but to what are you alluding? The resulting balance of the yin and yang?

Historic Buddha, Adam Kadmon, Hiram Abiff.

And then we find later that they weren't horrors at all. They are blessings, furthering us on our paths. It's all good.

It's all the same matter. And the underlying dynamic is mutual attraction, or love. Aligning ourselves with this dynamic only brings life to a sweet harmony. Is nature aware? Some would say so. Plants do awfully well if spoken to. Animals respond to love. where do we draw the line? Are rocks aware? Masters I have listened to would say yes. I do think there is a type of earth awareness, much more subtle. Someone earlier said we are earth's avatars. I think this is a masterful statement. Are the earths 'emotional dynamics' like ours? Does it get angry, does it love? Perhaps it's angry when it spews lava or loving when it rains in the desert. Our emotions of anger or fear generate from conditioning, but we are born with the capacity for the emotions - even if we're born in a vacuum and never have to feel anger or fear. Is it 'angrier' now that we have thoughtlessly raped and pillaged her? It seems that the earth is our template in so many ways. The earth is Nature, and our nature follows the Mother's nature. the earth is always exuding love - we just don't take the time to notice it. We become hardened to it, because of all the seemingly important things we think we have to do. But tapping into the Mother's dynamics is the trick, by removing our own conditionings.

This reminds me of the 'courage to have the heart of a child'. To not judge - to accept things and people just as they are. A child does this, until he unlearns it and the world teaches him judgment and negativity. When I was younger, I was always afraid of being thought of as naive, for some reason - probably because I skipped a grade in school and was always playing catch-up in my own mind, catching up with the kids in my class who were a year older. This took me down a nasty path starting in junior high school - but I was afraid that my classmates would think me too young and naive, so I took my actions to the opposite extreme. And fearful to cry, to let someone see my tenderness - which I certainly had but didn't want anyone to see. It seems to take a lifetime to sort this hardness of heart out. Courage indeed - and if it weren't for the ravages (and ultimate recovery from) alcoholism, I'd still be painfully pretending that I was big and strong. LOL. Being a cop didn't help any.

Tolle says an important thing about death - that the society which does not acknowledge death, the society that hides it - is a very shallow society indeed. Compare the traditional Japanese or Chinese culture to the American (and maybe European?) society and this can be seen as a truism. How very shallow we are, our emphasis on material accumulation and searching out quantity rather than quality. I have recently become more aware of death - perhaps because my mother is getting close - perhaps because I am getting older. In order to bring death close to home, I've recently been looking at my mother, spouse and my pets - knowing that one day these entities will pass. I've never really looked at it quite this imminently before....actually looking at someone somewhat healthy, and seeing him as though he is dying. This has made a difference to me - I can look, and feel the ache in my heart, as though they were already gone. An interesting exercise.

I think it would be interesting to see how the infusion of your knowledge of wu-wei has benefited you on the job? I no longer work, and never had the chance of utilizing my knowledge of Not-Doing in my work life. If you're a boss, do you allow the wu-wei to Be in the office? Are you being less controlling? Are you allowing your subordinates the freedom of their own expression, rather than expecting them to reflect your ideas only? If you're subordinate to a boss, do you 'let him or her be, without undercutting him with gossip?' It's so easy to gossip about the boss, especially if the boss is too - well - Bossy. But do you 'allow' his full nature to exist, in fact to embrace it without rebelling against it? If you're in sales, do you view your clients with love, putting first their needs? Or are you still too worried about your commission? Can you Not-Do in office situations where personal dynamics get crazy?

Woof! I've never seen this discussed on this forum before - maybe I've just not been on the right threads. It's as though the circle has completed itself and then goes further within. To accompany someone into their own hell - to understand their emotions, their pain, their fear - one has to have truly walked through their own hell. And once the Dao is found, the One, it's an amazing thing to be 'here and yet not here' in that situation. Our vision is clear because we are not buying into their fears. We can be helpful because our home base is Love - the most potent of all dynamics when used in the right way. We can go anywhere as long as we keep one foot on Home Base, our meditative contemplation. It's actually sort of practicing the Middle Way by bringing a spiritual balance to their situation. Going through death with someone is much the same. Here and there at the same time. This is rather hard to put into words.

Nicely said indeed.

I think this is the beauty of our forum. I do think the two come together after much time and practice. I fall into your first category of The Healed. And I did turn to religion after I first got sober 35 years ago. I had to re-immerse myself into Christianity, which I had walked away from in my drunkenness. I was a horrible Bible thumper for a few years, alienating every single person I ever knew, lol. Being banged up by life sort of thumped that out of me. And the 12 Steps were so incredibly important in my recovery, that when I got here - I was thumping the 12 steps because I saw them as a purgative for anyone that need purging of unwanted defects. I guess we all do that to some degree until we mellow a bit. But TDB's has shown me many different paths from which I have drawn. I love things Buddhist, I love things Hindu, I love things Daoist, I love things Metaphysical - and I enjoy things written by Jesuits, without the need to go through Jesus to find the One. This forum has been a huge factor in my own spiritual development, and triangulating all the various paths of wisdom has resulted in a patchwork quilt of my own making. I cannot tell you enough how very much I appreciate this forum and the loving people here who have been patient with me, as I try to pass on that patience to others who now Thump their own ideas over and over. If we see each other with the eyes of the One, there really is no need for dispute. We are all different facets of That Which Is, and if we are arguing with each other, we are merely defending that which we are unsure of. If we were Absolutely Sure of what we were saying, there would be no need to argue. The ego wouldn't be piqued at all, if the ego has been tamped. I think a path that doesn't address our personal egos isn't that functional a path at all. It results in head knowledge, not 'gnowledge' of the inner self. Gnowledge of the self is where it ultimately must come from - to find that commonality that we all share, the Oneness within us all.

LOL. You must be awfully good at what you do -

It always seems better when the author is anonymous. The book that changed my entire life was written by an anonymous author - The Impersonal Life - which is the best thing written I've ever seen for developing the I Am consciousness in a way where something was 'added to you', the understanding of what the I Am consciousness means. It seems like the I Am consciousness is normally found by subtracting things from yourself - our desire for more, our desire to be first in things, our desire to be right, our need to be selfish, etc - but The Impersonal Life approached it from a different angle. I recall being slightly disappointed when I learned the name of the author - Joseph Benner, a Jesuit I believe - the book is published both ways, both with him as author and Anonymously. Maybe it's the old axiom of 'familiarity breeding contempt', lol. We'd rather think the book is channeled without any entrance of the personality of the writer at all. Or at least that's my take on my own 'prejudice'. Which is dumb.

This one hits a woman hard, particularly if you have been an attractive woman all your life. I have had the good (or bad) fortune of being one, and for a long time the two tracks were separate. I was on the track of metaphysical realization, in addition to cultivating my inner self, kicked off by the Steps of Recovery 34 years ago. That process has always continued, it still prevails. But I have this huge turquoise jewelry collection. Big, wonderful, sometimes clunky chunks of turquoise and silver. I've always loved it, it's what I would collect on our camping travels in the U.S., when we were doing that. And I've always worn make-up, of course for the purpose of being more attractive. One day, about a year ago, I stopped wearing the jewelry. I don't know why, suddenly it stopped appealing to me - it seemed like a shallow attempt for attention, and I wondered why I did it. I stopped wearing make-up. This is something that I was initially fearful about - it had been a strong part of my (false) identity for a long time. Seems like a subtle change, but it's actually kind of huge. Funny, this path thing.

Thank you, my friend. Talk to you folks in a week when I get back from California. I don't think I'll be online.

Well, make this a triple post. Every time I hit the quote button (on your Primordial Wisdom post), the wrong picture pops up. I'm wondering about the blue one with the character on it. Well, now I'm listening to the other one. Wow. Thank you so much. I'll google around and see if I can find these. What a beautiful wash of refreshment both give to the heart. Thank you again _/\ _ P.S. I may have thanked you a little too soon. As you're no doubt aware of my computer skills, I cannot figure out how to turn off the second one, lol. I'm trying everything.....oh well, in about 40 minutes I'm going to be very wise.

Is that a CD? I must have it! (double post)

Well, it feels like primordial wisdom. It hits hard, if a heart is ready to receive.

Karl, this is getting ridiculous. You are a contrarian just for the sake of being a contrarian. You have an incredible left brain, it's extended way out there - you know about so many things. But this isn't awakening. It's just knowledge. The people that you continually argue with are people with third eyes. They're people who can triangulate, who have discovered the wisdom of their inner essence. You have yet to do this. And because you are so vocal, you are compromising the integrity of every TDB thread you're on, because they all turn out to be about you. ( I know you'll throw that one back at me, so please don't bother). Please consider opening your mind just a bit, and allowing the possibility that somebody else may be in possession of knowledge that you don't possess. You are casting out so hard that you're scaring the fish away.

This just knocks me out to look at it. Somehow it emanates all the way into the center of the heart. Instant peace. What does the character mean, Steve?

That you are your own master would be wonderful if it were true. But your need to 'be right' on every thread, to contend as you do, doesn't bear that out at all. the only thing that will remove this tendency is inner discovery. Start with the big ones. Most of us have the big ones of Arrogance and the Need to be Right, until we do something about it. Try to figure out where the need to be right all of the time started, and why your ego is so hung up on this. In my particular case it was being pushed by my folks to not only be the one in class with the right answer, but to be the First to have the answer! This is so contrary to the Sage - to the uncarved wood - to 'never be the First' - to the personality which no longer contains rough edges, which fits in seamlessly regardless of the situation because he is beyond judgment. Yes, I know your response. I am judging and I am projecting my own shortcoming onto you. Yes, this is true. But the difference is that I am in Awareness of my Arrogance, my Need to be Right. I do my best not to engage them, so they will shrivel and die. I've been at this for a long time. If given no food, they cannot live. Without our character deficiencies, clarity is possible. But not a moment sooner. You are loved here, and this is a great place to grow. It's like we're a huge cosmic lapidary. But please consider a little less contention on the threads so that the heavy presence is lessened a bit.

You're sure in the right place Cody, lol. A great big welcome to you.

When a dog barks at you, although he's only knee high to you, he doesn't look at your knees. He looks at your eyes. The web of awareness if astounding when you start thinking about it. Castaneda talks about this web quite a bit.

I'm not denying existence, I'm noticing the airy quality of it. Can you see it? Have you ever read the Daodejing and noticed that the function of the Dao is reversion? Reversion to itself, through the One to the void? I like aligning myself with the Dao, that's all. When we do that, there's no need for argument at all. Discussion and observation, yes. Argumentation, no. We are not separate from each other, we are the One Life that is manifesting on this planet, which is also part of the One Life. We need to build each other up, not tear each other down for egoic gratification. 'Look inwards and discover a point of contradiction within yourself', as Steve's quote above said. When someone has done this for a long time, searched their inner reactions and found the source for the unwanted reaction, then the love shines between the words because the ego has been tamped down and mastered. There is no ego that gets in the way between the people talking. There are those on this forum - CT, Steve, and others - you can see the love shining between their words because they've gone through the process of inner examination and continue to do so with every encounter. Maybe if you read some other masters you would get this concept more clearly?

That reminds me of a couple wonderful things. First of all, that we are 99.9% space - that only one tenth of a percent of our mass is what we would call 'solid', if you factor in the relative size of the atomic particles with the full active dimension of the atom. I think that's just incredible. It's like we're not even here at all. Nothing else is either. We're a bunch of hungry ghosts. The other wonderful thing is that the only thing that differentiates what determines whether a cell is going to be a bone cell, or a hair cell, or a skin cell, or any cell in the human body - is how it aligns at the time the fetus is formed! There is initially no difference between a bone cell or a blood cell - only the initial alignment of the cells in the womb. For some reason, these two things assure me of the illusory nature of life. In fact, because we are so un-dense in reality, who's to say there isn't another 'world full of people' taking up this very space at this very time? Only we just don't have the particular configuration of rods and cones to see that reality?