manitou

Sounds wu-wei-ish

This is the actual fortune cookie from our dinner last night at a dive called the China Buffet. "Every person is the creation of himself, the image of his own thinking and believing" I thought that was rather profound for a piece of paper shoved into a cookie.

That's part of the illusion of existence,I guess. You're right - it seems to be built into our DNA that greater is better; yet I'll bet that if we all had an electron microscope and looked at the world of smallness, it would be equally as amazing as our world of largeness. You could throw time into this equation as well, realizing that time is an illusion; if time were removed, all things would be squished together as the One anyway, and large or small wouldn't make nary a difference at all.

We're an imperfect lot. Please just love us anyway.

Zero could be described as the latency of the Dao. One could be the first manifestation. Maybe quantification isn't the best means by which to measure the difference.

and a good one it was..

What a fascinating question! At least in my experience, it took the actual smoothing out of vices and quirks before I was able to grasp anything with an unwarped mind. But the path of alcoholism (and recovery) would necessitate this function, as was my case. The clearing-house had to take place first, but it was during this time of increasing my mental freedom that I started seriously to study all different traditions. Maybe someone else would answer the question exactly to the opposite. There is power, true power. And it's hard to put into words. Power over our own thoughts, power over our reactions to others. Power to change the manifestations of our lives. Power to see the world as we wish to see it, not merely in the 'taught' reaction we've learned from others. Someone thinks you're a jerk? Love 'em anyway. This is the power that can't quite be put into words, but it necessitates the overruling of one's own ego. And to learn to do that takes a long time of conscious effort. I don't think the descent of power is something that happens overnight, at least not in my case. It was more 'earned' (from alcohol recovery), and then at some point I was granted the gift of kundalini activity within me. Although this kundalini awakening happened as an automobile "accident', there was no accident to it at all. It was all in the scheme of things, as I look back over the years. To me, it seems to be a process that all works in concert.

Personally, I think the reason it appears from our point of view that the universe is expanding, is because man's awareness is expanding. It is our combined knowledge, inner and outer, that expands the envelope.

california weed, lol

The older I've gotten the more metaphysical I've gotten. To me, this is the One Mind, the Undercurrent of All, the Void, the Tao. This is what is is. This is what it all is, including us, our physical, mental, psychic, and emotional bodies. We are all part of the same One thing. Sometimes it's fun to think of each of us actually being tentacles on a huge giant squid, each of us thinking we're separate from each other. Little do we know we're all actually joined way back there at the head. We are It. It doesn't project from 'out there, onto us'. If we are all within the One, we therefore must be projecting From the Inside To the Outside. Matter only has intelligence in it when it is inhabited by mind; when the mind leaves, the matter returns to earth. We are the image of what we think. If we choose to look at the world as a miserable place, the world will be a miserable place. Even if you are living in the hills of Malibu. If we choose to look instead of the world as the Sage of the TTC would, we would learn that happiness is the product of learning to be happy with what we have, not wanting more and waiting for 'If only.....' I go along with the pushing the envelope metaphor. It occurred to me that the perfect metaphor for our human brain is the sun! It is the center of our consciousness, as the sun is the center of the consciousness of the universe. And what do we have inside the earth? Molten sun as well! There's just something about fire. But yes, I do Gnow that we are creating ourselves day by day; I do Gnow that your higher self and my higher self are one and the same, and I do Gnow that we are merely a reflection; that the matter that we have been taught to worship, regardless of the tradition, is illusion. I Gnow that each and every one of us has a metaphoric glowing ember within ourselves which corresponds with the sun, with the center of the earth. and it's up to each and every one of us to choose to either grow and release our stranglehold on the things and people in our lives, or to cling to all we hold dear and try desperately to keep things from changing. This is what don Juan Mateus would talk about, the luminous egg which modern man still possesses but it nearly gone and eaten away; that the luminous egg is seen only when one has the eye to see it, as though it takes an enlightened soul to recognize another enlightened soul. And love? How does this enter into our manifestation. Each and every day. With every conversation, if we are In Alignment and if we are In Consciousness as we go about the day. When love is the emotion that we convey, looking into the eyes of another is a spiritual experience; we know that we are looking into the eyes of the One. And with all levels of animal, plant, mineral consciousness as well.

Has anyone one else experienced repeated thumbs up on a particular post by a person named Adeline? To the point of 20, 25 in one day on the same post somehow - it registers up in the little notification box. Hitting on the name Adeline indicated I was not authorized to see the information, or something to that effect, can't remember exactly. Maybe there's a computer glitch in the TTB program or something? Or a spammer of sorts? The particular thread I had started that she is either over the moon about, or there's some spamming or phishing going on, was about the Washington Monument. Short and sweet thread. Has anyone else manifested this anomoly? Manitou

My police training kicked in and I had you as Perp #1

BTW, thanks for the meme definition. Kind of like the idea of a teddy bear and comfort?

The way I see it is a triangulation of sorts. We must find a 'tradition' or way of development of the soul. Some of us don't find it through the arts, sciences, or religion. There are those of us that are prodigal sons and found it by the path back to soul health. As to the meditations, this is the very thing that causes the triangulation. The deeper we are capable of delving into ourselves (not even with thought or questions we ask ourselves; merely the physical act of meditation and becoming capable of voiding the monkey mind at a more adept level) will create the realizations, the internal 'Aha's!' that need to be completed for understanding. All paths, eastern, western, or just the path of a rough life will get you to the same intersection, if they are followed out to their terminus. The terminus is the freedom to love each and every person on the face of the earth because we understand that that person is just the other side of Us.

Jeez, this happens to me all the time. You mean it's possible it's not upcoming dementia?

for the sake of continuing this conversation, could someone tell me what a meme is? I could look it up, but where's the fun in that?

I wonder if the same undercurrents aren't found in other tomes as well? Do you think it's specific to only the bible?

I see this intersection as a place without form. Even the taoist 'form', which is the least form of all, must be transcended. Once we reach the intersection we can readily reach down into any tradition and understand, once the 'language' is learned. It all goes to the same place. The One. The only religion that's wrong is the one that says everyone else is wrong. Christians are pretty good at that, but perhaps that is common in all isms. Funny you mention money. I read a book once that referred to money as 'stuck energy', and it seems to me that it nails it right on the head. If you think it through, that's all it is. 'Work' held in abeyance, in paper or coin form. Makes it a lot easier to spend, regarding it as merely stuck energy. But I've noticed that it also makes it easier to come by. What goes around comes around, and I'm guessing the same is true of money as well. Why hoard a bunch of stuck energy? I now know that within me, I manifest from the inside to the outside. I Am. So are You. We Are. The magnificent design and intelligence that rotates like clockwork is our higher self, and we share the same higher self. We all do. My path was not an ism at all. It was the onion peeling path which ultimately ends in Self-Realization. I fell in love with the TTC because it was unstructured, yet hit at the meat of what every other line of thought seemed to be trying to get to. My personal understanding is that one can be the most learned man in the world as to all the isms and precepts contained within; but without self-realization, it is still two dimensional and of the brain. The self realization turns it into 3 dimensions and knowledge resides in the heart....true understanding. It must be gained from experience, from the inner 'aha's!' which ultimately lead us to the place we're seeking.

It has a metaphysical bent. It is unstructured. It is the intersection where all lines of philosophical thought intersect, at the intersection of Agape Love and Love Your Brother As Yourself. I feel freer here.

amen on that article!! it makes total sense. I only know that with my own cannabis experiences the "3D-ness of thought becomes quite apparent; the triangulations are readily visible. I use it as a transport for ceremony on occasion; the time Joe and I had the incredible success with the kundalini coming up through the ground and zapping someone's breast cancer was done with the help of cannabis. Quite a mind expander, if used correctly. I like to smoke it and read Manley Hall or Blavatsky. Wow, lol.

Adept, you are the essence of what humility is about. Kudos to you.

Please understand that a 12 stepper, having peeled his onion for 31 years, has evolved into an awareness that has nothing to do with what his concept that he adopted at the beginning of his journey. My concept of the underlying intelligence has evolved over the 31 years, as yours has no doubt done as well. Your mention of 'consolation is not the right thing' only tells me you've never been to a recovery meeting.

You've mentioned this before, about the negativitism of the 12 steps. All I know is I would be dead were it not for them. Marco, I'm not sure you fully understand them. They start the peeling onion process, that's all. If one is persistent and sticks with it for years, ultimately you find the pony under the manure pile. And there would be what was hidden from me that I was always looking for. The steps are the reason I am here with you.

Manifestation is an inside job.

This rings home with me. When I first got sober 31 years ago, I had to come up with a 'god of my own understanding'. I certainly didn't have one, I had long since discarded Christianity. So the 'power greater than myself' that I could believe in was Gravity. That's what I used. Actually, my concept is not too awfully different 31 years later.