manitou

How did you know it was a gua sha stone? Is it thin and round? i've never heard of this before - fascinating! Thanks for posting the video, Taishistudent

I see what you're saying 3bob. Term it the unknowable vs. the knowable, the manifest vs. the unmanifest, perhaps All Is One is way too simplistic. The best part of all of this is the latency we don't know about.

I think cousin marriages have been around since the beginning of mankind. obviously. No opinion one way or the other here.

As above, so below. I'm not sure how that fits in here but it came to mind as I was reading everyone's posts. Although it is all One, there appear to be different 'levels' of activity; one level in our consciousness (our own universe); another level in our communal universe. When these things align and cause synchronicity, I think we can be assured that we are in Awareness of the here and now and living within it. Stuff like that happens constantly if we're aware. One day I was in my mom's assisted living apartment, and the word 'Barbara' (my name) flashed across the screen - several other names did as well, it was a commercial for something. At that very moment a nurse came in, surprised to see me, and said 'Barbara!' At the same moment that the name was on the screen. Like, what are the odds? But I just look at that as confirmation that I'm in the right place, spiritually and mentally.

I spent most of my life with a high irritation level, no patience. Once I came into spiritual understanding of the Oneness of everything, it then became possible to look at the world as everyone being equal. We are all It. Plus, it occurred to me that maybe the reason you're stuck in traffic (which makes us so angry, or standing in a long line) is because it's supposed to be that way; maybe you're supposed to leave that location at just the right time so you don't get into an accident that you might have gotten into had you had your way andnot had to wait. As I think about it, why do we get so irritated when our defenses are down when the rest of the world doesn't keep up with our agenda? My god, don't they realize how important I am? Don't they realize that my time is so much more important than their time? That's always what it seems to get down to......ego, actually. When we look at the movement of the people on the earth as a type of Oneness, then everyone is doing their own thing just at the right time and the right way.

Interesting topic, 3bob. I happen to be reading the works of Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science) and the Power of Mind, Mind over Matter, Mind being everything - it so easily fits into either the pantheism or the panentheism concepts. All is One. It's all the same thing, as I see it. Just all different spokes of the wheel going in toward the hub.

Yeeeeehaw!!!!

I noticed the same thing yesterday. The gravity was horrific and the earth sucked more than usual.....I was dropping stuff all day

Agreed.

Interesting post. Diogenes' response can be taken two ways when he tapped Plato's head. He might have been making a joke. Or...he could have realized that the emptiness truly was in Plato's head because Plato was capable of seeing the idea of the cup. As it says in (some translations of) the DDJ, 'the utility of the cup is in its emptiness'. So is our utility our emptiness. Emptiness of thought, without judgment, without criticism, without attachment. Perhaps Diogenes was paying Plato a supreme compliment.

I think that to untangle ourselves is our purpose. How many lifetimes that takes? Who knows? I think that the purpose, whatever that is, is uncovered rather than discovered. Once we are capable of tapping into the flow of the Tao by developing the straightness of character (not referring to "being good" here) life starts to unfold for us in a different way. In any event, it is when we develop the ability to tap into the underlying current of the Tao that we find that life sort of leads us around where it wants us.. And I think it's a question of timing too - the timing in one's life has to be appropriate. I'm not sure that one who is pushing advancement in money or prestige, if it's that time of his life, is going to understand all aspects of the Tao - not until the time is right and the perceived needs have lessened. I think it's incumbent upon us to do the footwork first; to do the work to straighten our character, to lose the attachments we need to lose to be in the state of Oneness.

I smoked some awfully good weed and then did a meditation - got way too far out. My personality disintegrated, I could 'see' it; I was out there in the blackness, part of the Whole (no indivuation) but realized, as you did, that I WAS ALL ALONE. There was nothing else out there. The intense feeling of aloneness was something I'd not experienced before, not like that. It was really terrifying. When I was able to get back, my words and thoughts wouldn't sync up, it was like the words came out before the thoughts, actually backwards. I told this to a shamanic friend of mine - he experienced the very same thing but actually felt his nose puncture through a type of membrane onto 'the other side' or some other dimension.

I dont think Schroedinger would argue with that. But what I do think that says is that we are somehow sitting at the intersection of time and space. A particle takes up no time. A wave takes up time. Somehow this is how the illusion of linearity is constructed, don't you think?

We too are goldfish in water; we don't know it, just like they don't know it. The 'water' we breathe in is at a much smaller density, but a colloid it is just the same. As the Tao is One, so We are One. The undercurrent or form or tendency seems to be what you would call Love, Mutual Attraction, Animal Magnetism, any myriad of descriptions of the same thing. This is why we, as seekers of truth, must take the high road in all our daily decisions to the best of our ability; because it taps into the undercurrent, the manitou of this illusion we call life. I so agree with the Master who was speaking to Mr. Blofield when he said 'This faculty of being one and many simultaneeously is a mystery that can be apprehended but not explained'. This is what keeps these forums alive! The sense that we communally seem to get closer and closer putting words to what is unexplainable. It's as though we KNOW it's there; all of mankind is born with the KNOWING that it's there; even avowed atheists must KNOW there's something living within that they deny is there. It is Love, that's all. And we must all love each other because we are One. We are the tentacles on the giant squid who don't realize they're actually attached to each other. We are all the same creature; and it spans time and space. It spans good and bad, all the polar opposite illusions that mankind creates to fit within the confines of our linear minds. I will gladly check out Mr. Blofield's work! I can't get enough of any of this, and I don't care from where I get it. I'm currently reading the works of Mary Baker Eddy, of all things; but how beautifully metaphysical she was! I suspect there's an awful lot of stuff to be gleaned from her writings regarding the mindsets of the healer and the healee, a subject very close to my heart.

And that reminds me of how matter, in its smallest form, is both a particle and a wave. Mindblowing in anyone's world.

Hi Flowing Hands - glad you are here now. Wonderfully interesting points you made. I came to my understanding (from a left brain perspective) from reading repeatedly the translations of 5 people. Yutang, English, Mitchell, can't remember the other two. I've not yet read your translation, but it is on my to-do list real soon. So my left brain did the triangulation (40 years a detective brain) and my understanding of the DDJ is an overlay of what I believed I found to be as the essences of the work. (My 'understanding' comes from self-realization, separate from the above). It is the combination of the I Am consciousness combined with my love of the DDJ colors my perspective; combined with my sense of shamanism and the understanding of manitou, or the 'spirit that underlies everything' in the understanding of the ancients. I have a tendency to believe that a study of comparative 'religions' or philosophies will yield a blend of essence as well. There is also the fact too that the Truth either resonates or it doesn't. It seems to me that Daoism (the philosophy, not the practice) lies the very closest to the inner ring of Truth, right before all is lost in the black hole. There seem to be no words beyond what we find on this forum; perhaps because Daoism comes closest to expressing the unexpressible than any other Way. On a personal note, I apologize to you, Flowing Hands, for any unkind remark(s) I may have made to you when you first appeared on TTB's. Instead, I see now only my own ego doing a little death rattle of its own. Every post you've made on this forum has met the test of resonance to me, and it's a pleasure to communicate with you. So - getting to your point about the Dao being lost when the concept of 'God' arises. How true this must be! When the concept of any God arises, this indicates a dualism. Us and Him. The Dao eschews this, which is why I loved the tome the first time I read it. Manitou

Beautiful post, Shanlung... 'Your mind is destined to become the universe itself'. How incredibly put. Take a look at this one sentence though. Maybe you can help me see the connection. Since the Tao is all and nothing lies outside it, since its multiplicity and unity are identical, when a finite being sheds the illusion of separate existence, he is NOT lost in the Tao...." Can you help me figure this out? I would think it would be exactly the opposite!

If you refer back to the TTC, the best leader is the one that people don't realize is there. This particular world leader works quietly; he absolutely predicts the actions of those opposing him. He does by Not Doing. If you are capable of very distant eyes, you can see the dynamics. If you are familiar with The Art of War, which is sort of the TTC on steroids as far as I can see - this particular world leader knows how to do it down to his bones.

You're probably right. But on the other hand, the Tao that wasn't laughed at wouldnt be the Tao.

ISFJ 78% introvert 1% sensing 25% feeling 1% judging How strange. Mother Teresa, Agatha Christie, Frederic Chopin. That's weird because I have been a detective for 40 years (Agatha Christie) and a pianist since I was 6 (Chopin).

I know, that was sneaky of me But just think about it. What if my vision was right? Wouldn't that be the most pertinent topic in the world for TTB's to discuss? If there were actually a world leader who was proficient in wu-wei?

Maybe it's like looking at the light of a star from millions of years ago.

I don't know about the second coming of anybody, but I do see that Mr. obama has been working wu-wei on national and world affairs since he came into office.

We have one of those ultraviolet germ-zappers because our water is so lousy. Now that they're fracking everywhere around here, it's anybody's guess what kind of chemicals and waste will end up in our watershed. These turkeys are getting fined (already!) for dumping their toxic waste into the big rivers - Ohio and the other one I cant spell in Pittsburgh. As to Prozac. Wow. I've been taking it for over 25 years and I tried to get off of it last winter. I ultimately couldn't do it. If anyone here remembers how crazy my life became after a month of no Prozac - I just couldn't take it. It turned my life upside down. I'm back on the stuff and I feel okay again. But that is some serious stuff - particularly long term.

I see the TTC as something that needs to be triangulated, period. The essence cannot be obtained from any one translation. The translation of the document is totally dependent on whether the translator is an enlightened one or not. The translation is contingent on the depth of understanding of the Chinese characters, and then also contingent on the proficiency of the translator with the English language. That's why there are so many variables upon interpretation. I'm sure there are many of us that can say that with each reading of another translation, new aspects are seen and realized. We can only see through the eyes of our own experience, and we can only translate through the eyes and realization of our own experience. (I am not a translator but sense that this is true). When all the translations are placed in a fanlike position, it is the overlay of the commonalities that is the essence. This is also true of comparative religion. As far as I'm concerned, it all leads to the One.. Happy Valentine's day. Would someone please be my Valentine?