manitou

Just out of curiosity, does the Yogic tradition end up at the place of the Sun, Osiris? Is Shiva a metaphor for the sun? It seems that all traditions end up / start there, with the constellations revealing exactly what the sun is doing at any place in time, from the perspective of the ancient farmers of the Nile delta. Aries, for example, (the ram, but previously interpreted as a lamb), as at the time of the rising of Aires and subsequently Taurus, (bull or ox) both of these symbolized the time when tilling and planting was to be done. This was also the time when lambs gave birth to their young, the vernal equinox. A wonderfully happy time of year for the delta dwellers. All symbols of the zodiac were in relation to what the sun was doing and in what constellation it was rising. The fear of winter (little sun, shorter days, no crops) was kicked off by the sun rising in Cancer (crab), so symbolized because the crab retreats into his shell, symbolizing the shortening of the days; things only got worse from there. When the sun rose in virgo (virgin) pouring water out of an urn, designated the overflowing of the Nile every year. I often wonder if the reversion of the Tao is no more than the reversion of our attention being drawn back to the sun, the object of worship of the ancients. Especially since the yin and yang (black and white) is also personified in the ancient sun and moon (Osiris and Isis). The sun was the aggressive male, emitting its rays upon which life depended; the moon, on the other hand, received the rays and reflected them down to earth, a passive quality but one which affects everything having to do with water and who knows what else. Traveler, have you traced Shiva back at all? There must be commonality at the beginning.

Yes, well said. And it feels as though there is a 'chemicalization' of some sort that has taken place, within my heart and my mind. It's all so simple now, once it's in place. So simple and yet so hidden. This is where Mary Baker Eddy has become so useful to me, although I do have to sidestep the occasional traditional Christian references - although there aren't really that many. When we can See the truth of what life dynamic caused the malady or the situation, and the person can be brought to understand it, the malady or situation need not repeat itself. Once the young boy has regained full use of his body, I will need to talk to him, somehow, to let him know that in the future he needs to deal with his dad from a perspective of love and compassion (there is alcoholism there) and not reacting out of paralyzing fear. Otherwise he may run the risk of creating or manifesting another 'paralyzing' situation.

Beautiful message, Traveler. The difference between my mindset of 5 years ago and my mindset today is that Love your Brother as Yourself is a thought that remains in my mind, like a glowing ember. It embraces all. I don't know how this categorizes me. It just Is.

I agree, for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction. And WE are the manifester. Once this is realized, the manifestations change drastically, people are seen as more beautiful, we stop looking for the bad or ignoble. We are mirrors of each other, and we see what we 'want' to see, only what we are capable of seeing depending on our own development. You are so right - it is an honor to have the opportunity. I do my own form of shamanic qigong as well, and mine goes directly to the manifestation of any individual at any point in time. To have the ability to See what the problem is - so nobly narrated by Mary Baker Eddy, Helena Blavatsky, any Science of Mind literature. I'm currently working with a patient who is a young boy, about 17 - I don't know him, but he is the nephew of a friend of mine, living in a different state. He 'manifested' a horrible motocross accident because he was "paralyzed with fear" of his father, who forced him to enter the race to begin with. I could See that, once I heard a little of the background of the situation. His paralyzing fear led to physical paralysis in the form of quadriplegia, which he has had for some months. His friend (my lady friend), myself, and my other half did a shamanic ceremony where we physically brought the ethereal into the physical in the form of an electric lamp, drawing the energy down from the upper globe on the lamp (his mind was still very awake, although unable to move anything else). We used rice to move the energy down the lamp, as rice has silicon in it and is a conductor of electricity. At the moment when my friend 'felt' the love in her heart for him, I had her switch the lower globe on. Sure enough, several days later the young man received electricity into his upper body. I don't know whether the bottom half has followed suit yet, but I suspect that it has. When I was recently in California this last week, I performed a little ceremony for him while I was in the hotel room, imagining that he was probably, at that moment, doing pull-ups on a bar above his bed. I imagined him losing his grip on that bar, landing on the bed rather hard and jarring things loose. At the moment I did that, I felt kundalini energy in my legs, an unusual phenomenon. So I'm hoping for the best. And we know this is an illusion! It's all here now, past, present, future. What works for me is to realize that every human being, every animal all have one very specific in common: the black spots in our eyes. Awareness, the web of awareness that keeps all this afloat. Seeing from person to person, from animal to animal, from person to animal. So in essence, it's easier to remember that we're ALL 'god', or the supreme principal, or the Tao. It's much easier to keep hooked into our upper awareness if we can just remember that if it's got black spots in its eye - you're looking at the Manifester. Works for me, and I can stay in upper awareness almost all of the time now, after practicing this over a lengthy period of time. I believe Enlightenment to be just the beginning. Once it is attained, it must be walked. In order for it to be walked, we must not respond out of excess ego in any situation. We must be Aware that we are all One and act out of love, kindness, and balance. Riding the ox requires supreme balance, methinks. I believe Enlightenment to be the same as Self-Realization. Once we realize we are enlightened, we are enlightened. But the realization is an inner gulp of awareness, not an outer book we read or path we walk. The inner is the light that lights the path, that joins our experience in a compassionate manner with the experience of others and allows us to feel compassion for anyone or anything, regardless of how wretched. It also removes fear, as we are in awareness of the Oneness of all and the illusion of separateness. Once realized, what's to fear? The illusion is seen for what it is. Please comment! I love talking to you.

Hello my fellow Ohian! (I'm in East Liverpool, the place of the Point of Beginning for the surveying of the Louisiana Purchase lands, the survey beginning around 1788!) I'm not sure what the 8 energy rays refers to - I'm currently reading Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike (Freemasonry, all 33 degrees) and it's incredibly symbolic and deep about the different numbers and their supernatural character. Eight was a revered number, as was three, seven, twelve. I seem to recall that it is tied up with infinity (ergo the infinity symbol), which would coincide with the integral path the master refers to. Integral not only in the sense of the chakras and the planets aligning in number and in character (and the 'soul' actually going back through the planets at the time of death until its ultimate reunification with the sun); but integral in the sense of the elevation of man through the 32 degrees of attainment (more accurately, elimination of defects!), resulting in the being-ness of the 33rd degree. Integral in the sense of 'As above, so below' and knowing that if we flow with nature at a very deep level we are in total balance and harmony with What Is. Can we remain in the feeling of the balance of the Tao without purging our innards? Personally, I don't think so. I believe this to be a lifelong work, resulting in (as close as we can get to) total alignment with the Tao. Please clarify what you are referring to when you say energy work? Are you referring to the inner orbits of meditation and awareness? To me, energy work is somewhat different, and it results in healing if you can find the reason for the malady. Although the macro/microcosmic alignment is a wonderful meditation, I think it's temporary if we just go back to being the same maladjusted person we were without removing the selfishness, the prejudice, the hatred, the jealousy, the pride, the separation from the One. The ultimate energy work IMO is to be consciously aligned At All Times with the I Am consciousness, as the Master above is no doubt referring to. Easier said than done,

I saw this tonight in a notebook I was writing in. I don't recall when I wrote this down or where I got it from. Maybe TTB's. Please forgive me if this has been discussed previously. This is a bit of a mind boggler, if you ask me. I think I can see what it's getting at, but I'd love to hear any one else's comments The Sage goes to a motel. He finds a spider with her babies in the shower. He is arachnophobic through no fault of his own, as when he was young someone put a spider down his shirt. He certainly doesn't want to kill the spider, but he also wants to sleep without fear. If he calls Maintenance, Would the Sage be arachnophobic?

I usually pay cash inside. This was the first time Ever I had used an ATM at the pump - won't make that mistake again. The only reason I did it was because I was in a lot of pain. I think I sprained my crotch at my last belly dancing lesson, lol. Marbles is right - I have no reason to be there at the age of 66. But there I am.

The fact that the lien is done without the consent of the buyer doesn't bother you?

I would've gone for the Cajun Two-Step but I have too many teeth. Actually, in this little one-horse Appalachian town, belly dancing was all they were teaching, or I would've gone for something else. I'm a bit on the memory impaired side, so trying to remember the sequence of the moves in the dance is very challenging and lights up the brainal batteries. Brian - you seem to know a bit about the transaction thing. Do you think there is any chance that there is a financial collusion between the banks and oil companies on these type of holds? That they're somehow sharing the profits, if there are any - even in the smallest fee or 'interest' on the lien? My old detective brain just smells a rat here somewhere, that's all. Or, I could just be old and paranoid.

The Sage would want to be notified up front that this was going on with his account. (S)he would want to read a sign at the pumps saying so so she would not overextend herself later in the month. If she were a living-close-to-the-earth sage.

It may be only on Visa cards, I don't know if MasterCard is doing it or not. I don't think they do it on credit card purchases. Yes, this is the first time I've ever used an ATM at a pump. Don't know why I even did it that day, my back may have been hurting too much to walk inside. These belly dancing lessons nearly have me up in traction.

I agree with you, Marbles. Apparently they're ALL doing it, have been since about 2011. If there is collusion between the banks and gas companies, any splitting of bounced check fees (if people let their balances get down there and end up bouncing checks because of the $125 hold) I think it would be covered by RICOH. My letter suggests this possibility, plus asks whether there is any chance that the $125 is actually transferred, even for a moment, resulting in even a penny's interest per transaction. This smacks of organized crime to me. Yes, I can write a decent letter. Why don't you have a go of it, try paying at the pump with your ATM, and then check your account online the next day? My guess is that it will show a hold of $125.00, but only if you pay at the pump with the ATM. Some of the gas stations even have a policy of running the card TWICE on the pump transactions - once for the actual gas charge and once again for the $125 hold. If you check it online, it is said it started because of high gas prices and the loss they sustained from drive-offs; started with a $1.00 fee so they could get in and make sure you had enough money in your checking acct. to pay for the purchase, but it's gotten totally out of hand. Apparently gas stations are not the only entities that do this. The articles I read infer that other entities that are paid up front (before the actual amount of the purchase is known) this is done as well. I think they're called ADF holds (advance fee or something like that). It is awful, and the little guy is just getting trampled. Let me know if you try it.

Hey Steve. Yes, you are late to the party. Will you stay and help me pick up the bottles and cigarette butts? I think your response is stellar. I happen to be reading the degrees of the Scottish Rites by Albert Pike right now - each of the 32 degrees (I think the 33rd is pure attainment, in which case there is no further achievement to be had) represents a defect of our own character, whether it be fear, jealousy, judgment, etc. The Scottish rites are all about getting through the defects so that our inner lenses will no longer be warped, so that we can see clearly. Yes, certainly this does take effort, and people do it all the time - don't tell a 33rd degree that he has done nothing - he has worked on his inner responses for years. I do it, you do it, others on TTB's do it. The individual feelings and responses are fully examined from both an emotional and an intellectual level. We must determine the source of those feelings, find out where the reaction started, when the snowball started rolling down the hill. And the longer the snowball rolls, the bigger and more dense it gets. There are those who live their whole lives unexamined. As they say, is the unexamined life worth living? Even the fellow from Nazareth said to Be Ye Therefore Perfect. This is attainable, but this is also where the ox comes in - this place of perfection that our soul longs to dwell within - and yet it doesn't seem to be within our reach to remain there 100% of the time. The best we can do is try and remain on the ox the very best we can - to regain our balance when we feel ourselves slipping off into the old reactions. I got angry today for the first time in an awfully long time. It was when I learned that the local gas station had put a hold on $125 of the money in my account to cover a $23.00 purchase of gas. I just happened to do some online banking and noticed the charge pending. This infuriated me, I went down to the bank to see if I could stop payment, etc. I was told that "all the oil companies do this now if you use an ATM at the pump". I couldn't believe how angry I was, to think that the banks were making out with all the later bounced check charges on those who maintain a low bank account. The anger got in front of me. When I realized how caught up in this I was, I laughed at myself. After all, it's only 'stuck energy', but it was one of those 'principal of the thing' moments that just sent me over the moon. I got it out of my system by writing a letter to the Ohio Attorney General, and cc'ing Eric Holder and the Better Business Bureau - and of course the local gas station. How quickly the ire can come up, just when we think we're sailing along just fine. But if we are people of spirit we must try - it's the difference between being a hobbyist or being a quester. Both are just fine, it's just our inner configurations that are different - for some reason the only important thing to me anymore is the quest, and it involves examining our reactions. Maybe because so much of my life has been darkness...

The best threads have a nice quiet death...

The funniest thing I ever saw was when Joe and I went through Searchlight, near Vegas. He had never gambled before. He put a quarter into a machine, got three back, and looked at amazement at me and everyone else in the row. His exact words: "How do they stay in business???" He soon found out.

I am merely dating myself. With your mention of danke schon, I thought you might be singing in Vegas.

Wayne, is that you?? Friend, your understanding is so deep... So normal people see the horse, not the unicorn. In order for her to convey the unicorn to people, she has to present it as a horse, hiding the horn. Are you sure Schmendrick could see the unicorn?. If he ended up in Hagard's Court 'to entertain him', seems like he was still putting on a show, not of the Real. I'm not at all familiar with this story, so perhaps there's much I can't see yet.

Weisenheimer. "I can never regret I can feel sorrow But it's not the same thing". To regret would be to assume that we had some degree of control over the situation and we were the cause. We are not the cause, it was preordained in the sense that it is all happening Here and Now. Riding the ox is a good metaphor here. Our job is to keep our balance, that's all. We think that we are The Thinker and The Causer, but in reality we are not. We are just here for the ride and to see through the illusion of physicality. To merge with each other and our seeming circumstances. Yes, I agree that the real magic is "to allow", the essence of wu-wei. To allow, to accept, to love. To Be the change we wish to see happen. Are you standing in a parking lot where there's a bit of trash on the ground? Do you look at the trash with disdain and think the store should do a better job of cleaning it up? Or do you bend over and pick up a little trash and walk to the trash can? Which one is bending the light? The judgment or the action? We are all sorcerers, if we but knew it. It's just a question of getting ego and judgment out of the way. To See with long eyes what the true dynamic is, not merely judge what's in front of our face. I don't think Mommy Fortuna had luck at all. I think she attracted the unicorn because of her pure essence and being. I don't think the unicorn landed on a particular number on the roulette wheel, willy nilly. It was the law of attraction that brought the unicorn to her. This is manifesting, as I see it. To attract to us the beautiful, the artful, the profound. The sage will turn it around and send it back out. To let it happen, not judge anything, just let it Be. To deal with everything As It Is, to love everything for what it is, not what we think it should be. It is only then that the magic happens. To bring ourselves to the point where ego doesn't stand in the way of the flow of wu-wei. To feel love for all without exception.

What a wonderful response, Mr. Foote! Not one of us rocket scientists came up with that simple answer. yes, we have had lots of talk lately, Friend - and I have enjoyed every word of our conversations. You bring up avatars in computer games. How interesting. It's like games started out 'reactive', like the pong game, pinball games, etc. Now they have evolved into the point where you are creating your game as you go along, changing the dynamic of the game, bending the light intentionally - like the gamers (reactors) have become the creators through evolution. What an interesting take on the current state of human affairs. The ability to create one's fate. A friend of mine teaches classes in 'Manifesting' over at a local college, and she doesn't have a clue as to what this means. She thinks 'manifesting' and 'manipulation' are synonyms. Unfortunately, she doesn't see that one has to clarify one's inner self prior to having the ability to manifest one's own world. It is very easy to 'read' the current state of another's consciousness, just by looking at their manifestations. I've tried with futility to explain this phenomena to her, but she always manages to fall back on her Roman-Catholic-ness and feel that she's coming from a point of view superior to everyone else's. A lovely lady, but locked in a cage of the makings of her own ego. No, the Machete Man would not have been met. But staying out of the jungle is not an option.

I think this is the part in the DDJ where the Sage can see the problem on the horizon and cuts it off at its source, nips it in the bud. This is to bend the light, seems to me.

Thanks, Friend. I would have done a Wiki thing on this too, but you never know how enlightened the writer of the article is. I do know the depth of your understanding, however; have seen it for some time, so my preference was to hear your take on it. My comment on 'either a sage or a fool' is that we're all in the process of Sageness, whether in this incarnation or one in the seeming future. We Are, but aren't aware of it. This is what awareness is all about. We become Enlightened when we realize that we are enlightened, an inner Knowing that supercedes anything we read in books or learn from Masters. Yes, the way can be revealed to us through transmission, but the journey must come from within. It is at this point where the Master has no choice but to point at the moon. He can take the student no further; the inner journey must be taken. I do agree with the Stoics too, in the sense that the Sage is protected from any harm that fate places in front of him. The DDJ does make reference to that as well. It is because the Sage is in complete harmony with all around him. Even feces is a thing of beauty when regarded in the larger picture, a by product of that which has passed through us to enable our physical experience on this planet, or seemingly so, although illusory. I think this is one big classroom, the ultimate diploma being to return to the Void and see that we are all a part of each other. To love our brother as ourselves, even if our brother is coming at us with a machete from the other side of the planet. Even from him, there is nothing to fear if we take it one moment at a time and stay in Awareness of who we Are. Nice metaphor. Perhaps this is another way of saying that there is much inner work that must be done. No, the vulture is not born in the sky, you're right.

How incredibly wonderful! The utility of the vessel is in its emptiness. The not-doing. Like a turkey vulture who doesn't need to flap his wings; he merely rides the energy that exists, the thermals. And yet he can see all. He is also a totem animal for Enlightenment, one of the components being to do without doing. No man is wasted, the Sage knows how to utilize the talents of all men, to bend the light and use the energy that already exists to effect an intended change. Wu-wei.

Friend, what is your definition of a Stoic Sage? I've never heard that expression before.

I just see the Sage as an enlightened one, that's all. The fear I'm speaking of is the fear of death, the fear from which all other fears spring if you trace them inward far enough. Perhaps I am a robot. I don't think there's such thing as evil, merely lack of light. The 'evil' concept is a bit dual for me. If we Gnow that of which we are a part, the stream of energy that has always been aware, is aware now, and will always be aware, what is there to fear? Marbles, I'm thinking we should just get a room.

Actually, I think we do manifest our mothers and our fathers. Don't forget that our thinking is linear just because our brains are of a linear construct. It's all happening Here and Now. It's just an illusion that one moment comes before another, that our ancestors are in the past and our descendants are in the future. This is highly metaphysical, I know, and you wont agree with that at all. Have you seen a lot of children come out of the womb with a fearful posture? Is an infant fearful until he is taught to be? I don't think so, I think this is the Original State we strive to return to if we are seekers. What is the action of the Dao? It is reversion, no? Reversion to what? The void. Can we revert to the void unless we have gone back through the One? I don't think so. So we must go backward through the 10,000 things, back to the 3, back through the 2, back through the One. The void can be experienced through meditation, in my experience. But it is a momentary delight; staying close to the void is possible by dwelling in the One as much as one can mindfully do. Return to the void is an experiential journey, an inner journey of inner realization, not outer knowledge. The two must be combined, IMO. One can follow a series of 'Aha's!' down to the pony under the manure pile. And this is only possible if, as you say, the goal is to find peace with your inner self. The fears must be removed for the illusion that they are. Yours sounds like a type of middle way, which is a wonderful place to be. You are a good man, you have a good life. But I don't expect to see Marbles at the next meeting of the Order of the Quest. I don't think we'll ever agree, all of us Bums, on what constitutes a Sage. There are multitudinous levels of thinking here. Our starting points are all different.