manitou

I'd love to see the day when we're not separated by borders at all and are all just Citizens of the World.

It makes sense to me that meditation would have an affect on the aging process for the following reason: that when we're in meditation, we 'stop time' if we are meditating in a state of thought-lessness. If we spend a lot of time in meditation, I would think the effects would be greater, proportionately. If we've stopped time, perhaps our body ages accordingly; i.e. 'no passage of time would involve no aging at the time'. Perhaps, because of the necessity for deep relaxation, it allows our cells to return to a type of default mode while in meditation, and restores them to some degree. At least, this "feels right" to me,

totally excellent posts, Daeluin. You seem to have an excellent grasp of merging our Higher Self with the mundane. And it's easy to see that you've done much work to diminish ego, as your viewpoint involves this sidestepping of ego. The normal thing folks do, before finding their Higher Self, is to just run from the problem and hope it goes away, not realizing that they contain the dynamic within themselves that keeps creating the same problem in different forms. The Sage, as you say, would take the 'opportunity' to work this out throughout the situation. I'd handle it with 'not-doing', and tracking my own actions. Rara - if both folks want to see the relationship improve, sure - some talking is wonderful. But if the one (say, person B is only interested in being the focus of A's attention, for example, and has the attitude of a selfish child most of the time - then no amount of yelling is going to change person B. Person A, by yelling, is only solidifying his own dynamic of buying into this type of codependent behavior. One choice Person A has is to either accept the fact that person B is not going to change (by person A's efforts - it must only be done at person B's efforts) and change himself to remain in the situation (which involves a lot of loss of ego, obviously). Person A as a Sage would see this as an opportunity for his own growth. By 'not-doing' in this situation, this is what I have had to do for 30 years. Let Person B be Person B, and realize that I am there by my own choice. This is to take full responsibility for our lives - to realize the part we actually play in all this. It causes and enables a type of transcension where we realize that Person B actually has no responsibility in Person A's happiness. That's Person A's business and, and until Person A finds a way to make himself whole, he'll keep looking for wholeness in persons who have Person B's dynamic. the results will repeat over and over until the dynamic is seen for what it is; a replay of our inner bathtub ring of comfort (if we were abused, etc., this "feeling" is our comfort zone in some strange way. If we choose the 'not doing' way, it is a constant inner discipline to transcend the negative dynamics. But 30 years later, it's finally come around to an equal and enjoyable relationship. But this is only because I've changed myself, and because I stopped hollering at Joe and expect him to be something other than he was, it freed Joe from the co-dependent dynamic as well. He followed suit and changed himself and got serious about doing the inner work. This was not at my behest. It has been a very long lesson for both of us. but extremely well worth it. Some would say "This means you're a doormat to person B". We're only a doormat when we repeat the behavior over and over. It takes supreme suppression of ego to transcend this behavior by acceptance. Our ego takes a beating. But, sooner or later, this produces clarity.

I think that our different lives manifest outwards differently. If we are in a position where we need to pay rent, etc. - then of course this is part of our plan - to be a paid teacher. And maybe at a later point in our life we'll be in a different financial position. Personally, I'm getting along pretty well on my pension, so I don't need to charge. Then, it's just the fun of seeing what life brings down the pike and reacting with love to each circumstance the best we can. In my case, that does involve facilitating others to heal - but it's a real LUXURY not to have to charge for it. But having to charge doesn't lessen the love needed for the healings - I would think particularly in BKA's case, who has a beautiful way of using love in everything she does. But all we can do is tread water where we happen to be. And that should be Here Now - not worrying about whether we have to charge for our services or not. If we have to, we have to. If our intent is to "get rich" off these services and our intent is to accumulate wealth - then obviously the teacher has a few things to learn for themselves. But that is not BKA....

I like that. "prayer at its best". Yes, it seems to be an intent thing. The Mary Baker Eddy school of healing seems to bear this out as well....that the practitioner also gets the benefit of the healing. I've used her methods for some time (without the uber-dependence on going through Jesus), but her method of getting to the 'truth' of the problem and helping that person to realize his truth so that the manifested malady goes away. Can't say I've ever noticed a big 'healing' within myself when I'm working on another - but I'm actually pretty spectacularly healthy at my advanced age, so maybe it all just happens unnoticed when there is no specific thing to cure.

Isn't self honesty a wonderful passageway to Vision? Prayer for change? I wouldn't know who to pray to, lol. But Castaneda's idea of 'setting your intent' seems to be the same thing to me. But, maybe prayer is right after all....in the sense that we are consciously communing with our higher selves.

Amen about 21 times over on this statement. This is the very thing that keeps us seeking out the same type of person, whether we want to or not. Even if the other person appears exactly 'opposite' to the last one you left, sooner or later the offending dynamic will appear. An inside job, it is. The type of person we're attracted to is the other half of our inner entanglements. If we keep leaving and jumping from one to another to find the "right person", we're doing it wrong. At some point, we need to realize that it's not always Them. It's Us. When we 'become the person' we want to be with, we will attract the right person to be with. Sticking it out with our entangled-other gives us a real opportunity to see ourselves and make the necessary modifications, if we become able to step out and look. I have personally taken this route for 30 years with the same fellow and although it was all forked up for some years, it's gotten Golden now. Developing Te (virtue) is what is developed during this process. Or we can choose to jump around and play musical chairs. Either way is fine, but developing the Te of one's self by discovering one's own entanglements is what it's all about, IMO.

Hope you're up for a challenge

Yes, but getting married doesn't promote tantric sex, lol.

I found this paperback Little Blue Book in an antique shop: Voltaire and the French Enlightenment, from 1924. Really interesting reading. I'd love to share a paragraph that was written by Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) who was a close associate of Diderot and, I'm guessing, Voltaire. "If we go back to the beginning," says Holbach, "we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them and that custom respects and tyranny supports them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests." And then Denis Diderot says (1713-;1784): "Belief in God, said Diderot, is bound up with submission to autocracy; the two rise and fall together; and men will never be free till the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." The earth will come into its own only when heaven is destroyed. Materialism may be an over-simplification of the world - all matter is probably instinct with life, and it is impossible to reduce the unity of consciousness to matter and motion; but materialism is a good weapon against the Church, and must be used till a better one is found. Meanwhile one must spread knowledge and encourage industry; industry will make for peace, and knowledge will make a new and natural morality." A lot of comment on here. First of all, I love the statement that fear and ignorance created the gods. I've come to the conclusion that the One Thing, the one reason, man created gods to worship, is fear. Fear of.....failure to exist? Probably, but the fears of those Christians here in Ohio is a constant fear of going to hell. And sometimes I wonder if the fear doesn't stem from something even simpler: fear of fire? Isn't that what hell's supposed to be like? And the idea that "weakness worships them" I find very appealing. Weakness would have us remain as a small child to a strong father; hoping beyond hope that he will take care of things for us; a dual notion, for sure. It comes to mind that when somebody says 'Do you believe in God?', there's similarity in tenor to 'Do you believe in Santa?' I've always felt that way, even before my own ideas about this developed. I like the proximity of materialism to the unity of consciousness, albeit a different mindset. To fully grasp the non-specific-ness of materialism - to know that all material in the world/universe is one and the same and it is only the vibratory collection of material already present is actually a very comforting thought to me - and a constant reminder that Mind is All, and matter responds to Mind. The unity of consciousness he speaks about is everybody's own individual journey and, as he says, 'it is impossible to reduce the unity of consciousness to matter and motion' - we're all on our own on this one, and certainly it is found in the inner journey; the Proof of Knowledge lies within. I'm not sure at all about his last sentences about encouraging industry, which would make for peace. From where I sit, it seems like it's the opposite. Maybe someone else can cogitate on this one.....

I think the absolute winner is Richard Nixon's.

And once this is digested, we truly sense that All Things, past, present, and future (in our linear way of looking at things) are Here Now. We are Here Now. Those who have lived and died are Here Now. Those who are not yet born are Here Now. Quite a mindbender - but once this is internalized within us - this enables Seeing because Time is removed from the equation and the direction and purpose of the event or dynamic can be clearly seen without the distortion of Time. The beginning, the middle, and the end can be superimposed over each other, and from that the True Purpose of the event or dynamic can be determined.

Totally wonderful post, Mark! I think it's more than alright to return to not knowing, and this does require mastery over ego. Fear of not-knowing implies that we are fearful that we may be seen as not having 'all the answers', and this offends our ego at a very base level. To truly be able to perform wu-wei, the Sage must have returned to total teachability and freedom from preconception and opinion.

I think I met them at a truck stop...

I'm going to transcend my own words here, as I discovered the error. Seeing through the eyes of Love or Compassion is still in the duality - although the highest place within the duality. To truly get into the One is to see through the eyes of High Indifference....the Witness state, where we 'witness our own life as though standing aside from ourself' - to see ourselves as we truly are. And to have the ability to witness life in a transcendent state.

I'm not either, I've just read so many metaphysical books that refer to christ consciousness that I realize it as a mindset. I really wasn't referring to it as Jesus' last name or anything. Sorry for the confusion. Nope. I certainly don't want to draw Marbles' criticism. Not me,

I so sympathize with your predicament! I'll bet 10 different people would have 10 different answers on what to do. I guess, all we can do is give our own perspective; in the end, this new Consciousness is an individualized path, on which can be borrowed words from masters of all traditions to fashion a garment tailored specifically to your individual understanding. Your martial arts path will build singularity of purpose and increase your focus; the discipline of anything like that is a necessary component which will blend together as you develop further into Consciousness. As for Consciousness, at some point you will probably mentally transcend the path that you are choosing, although it's part of the Whole. My personal 'discipline' has been working the steps of recovery because I'm a recovering alcoholic. It's not martial arts (I wish it had been!) but it seemed to have worked because it led me into myself. That seems to be the key, in my thinking. To develop the consciousness, as you have seen, is something separate yet somehow attached to the discipline. To attain any sort of clarity in consciousness, we must remove the dross of our acquired personality (that which we have grown up with, the 'error-thinking' of seeing things in duality.) This is a very refined and subtle thing that must be tweaked (well, in my case I was such a mess that it was more like reconstruction than tweaking). It has to do with changing our personal polarity from negative to positive, to see the world as One through the eyes of Love or Compassion. So, my personal recommendation to you, in addition to what you're already doing, is look at what has manifested in your life. You have been the Creator of this. Look at your relationships, etc - all the relationships and conditions that surround you at the present time. Then, perhaps in meditation (although I used a paper and pen for this) try and step outside of yourself and see the actual part you played, without covering up for yourself or making excuses to place the blame on others. Realize that this is your particular 'acquired personality defect'. Then, set your intent on changing the offending dynamic any time it rears its head in your life. Don't be afraid to swallow your pride because sometimes this will place you in a position of seeing where you've been wrong - and once you discover what you have been doing wrong (defining the defect of character), then work on changing the dynamic. And don't be afraid to APOLOGIZE when you've done wrong, even if this crushes your ego momentarily. What we're looking to change is becoming an outer-directed person (thinking of others) as opposed to someone whose main goal is to attain and accumulate for ones self, an inner-directed person. And you'll find that the most painful ego-crushings are the ones that are the true walls that need broken down. Your Intent to develop this Consciousness has already been set into motion. Now Trust that your inner 'guidance system' (don't forget, you and It are One - it's like you're 'god trying to figure itself out in this physical manifestation) will attract to you exactly what you need next. Really. Hope this helps - and I'm sure others will post their suggestions, hopefully. Kind of hard to put into words....

Same thing, as I see it...I think you could probably say Buddha consciousness as well.

This is wonderful. When you stepped out of yourself and saw yourself for what you are, that is the Witness state, or at least a part of it. I've also read of it as a 'Christ consciousness' To be able to see ourselves, but without attaching a value judgment onto it; not to let it rattle us because we can suddenly see how very selfish, for example, we've been over the years. It is what it is, and it's our choice as to what to do about it, if anything. The anger issues certainly would have gotten in the way of clarity, as ego is at the bottom of it. In recovery programs, it's vital to take a "fearless and thorough moral inventory", which gives us the place to start to remove the contortions within. Fearless is the key word; we have to get past the place where we're 'afraid' to see ourselves as we really are. You're right. It is entertaining once we've admitted that we're imperfect beings because of our default settings (due to early input). Once done, you're laid out there open, transparent because you have no fear of judgment. It's the beginning of Liberation as I see it.

This is quite a thought. The blinking eyelids being as the old frames of a movie - making the illusion of the movie perfect. Wow. Funny - I was staring at my new kitten the other day and realized that her eyes didn't blink. It had never occurred to me that cats don't have the same type of eyelids that we do. So maybe the blinking eyelid thing does have something to do with linear time, as your post seems to infer. I always assumed that the blinking eyelids were for the purpose of just keeping the eyes moisturized - but maybe there's more to it than that...that it has something to do with the illusive time-bubble we're in. although Owls blink their eyes, don't they?

Horus - No - it happens when I'm touching someone else - it also gives a feeling of being connected 'as one being' - like there's no separation. it also happens if I'm just alone and, say, reading a book and happen to place my hand on my stomach or a thigh - then the energy seems to triangulate through the dantien, to the spot I'm touching. It is very dynamic right now. it sort of feels like I've turned into a warm bag of Pepsi.

It seems like it can be turned on at will. If i think in my mind 'I love you, I love you' toward another - even if it's someone I don't know - it starts the current.

I've noticed in the past 3 months or so a very strange feeling in the dantien area behind the bellybutton. I wouldn't call it 'shaking', but more of a small vibration. It's accompanied, when it's there, with a sense that all my organs have melted together. All in all it is a nice, warm feeling of well being. it always happens when I either touch another person (especially if I have a 'healing intent' on the touch) or especially if I hold a young animal - like a kitten or puppy. They just put off so much energy it makes my dantien tingle - it feels like a current of sorts going through. Energy balancing 'feels' right to me, UTI. I PM'd Ya Mu about this very thing a couple weeks ago; as the feeling is getting stronger. He says he's feeling a goodly kick-up of the energy too, and that we are not alone. Seems to be kicking up in sensitive people more often, according to him. I can't help but wonder about cosmic alignments and wonder if there's a magnetic connection.

So I take it that somehow it's the full accumulation of goals scored that is considered to advance to the next level?

Thank you darling, lol. You're one of the good ones...