manitou

Personally, I think 'there' refers to knowing who you really are.

I think they can be, if they pimp a particular mindset. Any religious text, as I see it, that emphasizes that 'theirs is the only way' is by nature exclusionary and can't possibly be the Truth. I think the Truth must encompass everyone and everything for it to be True North. They can be a great conveyance, and I've read books of most all religions and philosophies, including Freemasonry - which will also get you 'there', but in an arduous fashion. There is one little book that absolutely set my previous concept of 'a God' on its head. It's The Impersonal Life, channeled by an anonymous person (later determined to be Joseph Benner, I believe he was a Jesuit priest). An odd title, not real understandable until one sees what he means. The words speak directly to your heart, and there is no doubt upon reading that the words ring true. The book was written long ago, in the early 1900's. The book is a small one, but the channelled words have an incredible amount of impact, I have bought this book over and over for different people over the years. In fact, I'm re-reading it again right now - I usually read it once a year or so. Since about 1982! One caveat. The book, in the first chapter, has a Christian feel to it - maybe because he's trying to bring Christians along further on their path, I don't know. But this is quickly eliminated by the second chapter or so. Another caveat - it's one of those great old books with kind of archaic and schmaltzy language. Stick with it anyway. This book laid out a non-dogmatic path that my particular soul took, because apparently it recognized the truth as spoken. It takes you to the place of the I Am, the place where all paths sooner or later turn to the metaphysical truths common to all spiritual paths. It is the path that takes you out of the vessel you came in on, if this is desirable to you. For me, it is the answer to everything.

velcro

The planets, including ours, are rotating. Without rotation, there would be no Time. Surely it does affect us, if you think about it. Actually, you don't even need to really think about it.

por favor?

Does scoffing render you incapable of driving? I can drive and scoff at the same time.

Bliss to me is the absence of negative thought. The absence of worry, the realization that it's Already Happened because linear time is an illusion. That takes a lot of the foreboding out of anything. I am in bliss every morning walking the pups, looking at the mountains, the sky. The head is turned off, the birdies are talked to. 'Now' is immediate and present. I think the most profound realization to have along these lines is to know that the person walking towards you is actually You. The way you feel inside, the emotions you may feel - any other person on earth has the same make-up prior to conditioning. Our eyes tear up when we are sad. We tremble when we are angry. Our heart swells when we love. The similarity of the physical emotional responses in everybody hit me like a ton of bricks one day. It showed me that we are all the Same Entity.

Scofflaw.

I find that staying in remembrance of All being One is extremely helpful. When the Nazarene said that 'whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me' says it all. Money, to me, is the most pointed way to prove this to one's self. Money, as I see it, is nothing more than stuck energy. It takes energy to make it, it takes energy to spend it. When it's sitting there in your wallet, it's stuck. How much is that little piece of paper really worth? 1/100th of a mill? The whole money thing is a mind construct, symbolized by a figure being printed on that worthless piece of paper. If you see others 'as yourself', the answers appear. The money is to be spent liberally for the betterment of all of the Whole. And when you start thinking that way, money will reappear in some fashion, often from out in left field. In my particular case, since I've been liberal with money, it truly is coming from left field. I recently took a nasty fall on the roads of the mobile home park, the roads in the back where I live are horrible. they photo this area for funding requests when they want to pave elsewhere in the park. When I found that out, the intentionality of leaving that area intact for photo purposes, I decided to take it further. I am now aligned with a law firm whose phone number is 88-SHARK, lol. I broke my elbow, but just barely. the osteo told me that if you've got to break anything in your body, the radial head of the ulna is the very best bone to break! My teeth almost went through my lip, but not quite. My nose was bloody, but not broken. The enormous bruise on my chin is now gone. the point is, that this 'almost' tragedy is turning into the possibility of truly having some funds with which to really make some changes. If it's a sizeable settlement or award, I will contact the city managers in this area and see if there isn't something we can do to help the homeless population. Maybe feeding stations or something, or chits for motels. I don't know, but I'm thinking. But it's not just money, it's everything. Everybody is You. And History and Future are happening Now, as someone said earlier.

papyrus

I'd say probably not, if you're referring to the same 'fear of death' that the human has. But it is very interesting to see a dog come up on a dead thing - their posture is so curious and yet hesitant. Like they almost recognize it but not quite.

You little dickens you.

It isn't a belief, helpfuldemon. It's what remains after everything else has been taken away. The past conditioning is a thing that must be dealt with if you seek ultimate clarity. It isn't so much that we're all stuffed into one, it's more like the intelligence that's contained in a developing embryo. When an embryo develops, each cell is identical to the last one that is produced. However, the thing that determines whether a cell is going to be part of an eyeball, or a fingernail, or a blood cell....is how they line up next to each other. That's where the Intelligence comes in. This intelligence is the intelligence of creation. It is built into the cells. They know their mission. So the intelligence I'm referring to is captured by the phrase 'the oak is in the acorn'. the template is there, the template is passed on over the generations. But the blueprint of the adult tree is contained within. How do those little cells know, when they're forming an infant finger, to line up 14,000 times for a pinkie, and then return. And then line up 16,000 times for the ring finger, then return. (No, I've not counted, it's an illustration). To honor the individual within us, as you suggest, is to reinforce the separation. We honor the individual body as a conveyance for this experience, but to honor the individual personality is to cling to patterns. Beloved patterns, but patterns nonetheless. If we honor our own accomplishments and dwell in them, this is doing nothing more than bolstering ego, which is a big pitfall. The conditioning must be removed.

One of our members, Ilumairen, gave me a woo-woo method for selling my house. She had me place acorns in the four main corners of the house. There was something else too, I can't remember. So I tried it. That night, there was a horrendous storm. The lightning took down a huge tree, and all of my electronic equipment took a dive. I had to buy new everything. I immediately removed the acorns. The house sold anyway

The exact number I think you're talking about is 99.9999999999999 (13 nines) to 1. Not much in there at all, but what's there is apparently spinning pretty fast

It probably would not be interpreted as spam on a Daoist website

It seems likely to me that the dark matter could be the Void. The original idea pushes out, once thought. The universe is still expanding as the thought expands. When reading something like the Avatamsaka Sutra or the Lotus Sutra, there is much mention of zillions of 'Buddha lands' which exist, but not on this plane, apparently. How could it possibly be, that there are so very many atomic combinations; our life, our galaxy operates on a particular formula. but who's to say there aren't other atomic combinations happening right now, even in this very spot? That 'matter' is composed of different ratios and therefore don't appear to exist on our plane?

It was just as good the second time

sandwich

It is mind boggling. This is why memories can be used and reversed in healing, because of the non-linearity. When done from that place and that mindset, it can happen if you find the right dynamic. And the right memory.

You're rife with raccoon vids. Anything on iguanas?

That is adorable! I love how the speaker became the raccoon. A oneness of sorts

I was married for 35 years to a murderous type, and a thief. He changed himself 180 degrees and died as the most wonderful man, a shaman in fact, that you could possibly know. When you're real young and treated real badly, there isn't much you can do to rebel against it. Most of the damage is done in the first 7 years or so. All I know is one thing. That we all boil down to the same thing on the inside; we are The Intelligence that has created all this, and continues creating. Our conditioning is the very thing that hides the Intelligence, and it's not until one removes their conditioning that the Intelligence can be found. It's found by peeling away the layers of conditioning. It must be a concerted effort to do this, it doesn't just happen. Whether the concerted effort is to dig and look for defects, or utilize a mantra or some other device that will diminish them. If a person just stays the same old person after horrible conditioning, I don't think there's a chance in hell for enlightenment.

Miffymog, this is the best collection of funny animal pictures I've ever seen. Adorable!! Thanks so much for posting.

When you refer to a murderous type, this is ignoring the fact that we are all the same entity. Funny thing is, if I had the same conditioning as the 'murderous type', I'd be a murderous type too.