manitou

It's like it says somewhere in the TTC - the good man becomes the teacher for the bad(?); the bad man becomes the teacher for the good. Or words to that effect. I think Life is the Master itself. Each and every day, every situation. Are we acting or reacting? Could it be said more kindly? Are we refraining from judgment, knowing that each and every person we meet is the other half of us? Are we taking things personally, or dwelling in self pity or victimization? Are we harboring hatred or resentment? Are we keeping score on anyone or in a relationship? There's a million ways we can sabotage all the good training and reading. It's by tracking our own selves that we gain the 3 dimensionality that we're seeking. We tap into a type of cosmic alignment and it promotes our cosmic vision.

I don't think it matters that much, actually. If the words of anyone are the true Tao, they will resonate.

Sometimes I think the word we're looking for to see what existed prior to the One is....latency. The Oak is in the Acorn.

Google results: This is given from the POV of the Aro lineage within Tibetan Buddhism. It is from the point of view of Dzogchen, characterized by uncommon simplicty. It taes as a basis our own intrinsic enlightened nature as the basis of practice, i.e. all beings are always already enlightened. It merely boils down to either dualistic or non-dual as a way of perceiving everything. Sem de refers to the preparation of the mind done by meditation, resulting in non-duality. Long de (the Series of space) - concerned primarily with the experience of the energetic body - promotes physical exercises to experience unusual phenomena. Men-ngag-de is the secret oral tradition handed down; this is the approach we're dealing with here.

Paraphrasing page 3, prior to the beginning of the outline: I like the way he consistently refers to the Timeless Principle; it's easy to forget that the Tao crosses the limits of time, and by referring to it as the timeless principle, it's a constant reminder. He refers to the 5 kinds of degeneration that modern day man is subject to, thereby making it so that those seeking omniscience are 'numerous as daytime stars'. Funny, it never occurred to me to phrase it in that term: that I am seeking omniscience. I guess I am. I don't know how he categorizes the 5 kinds of degeneration, maybe you do? (I glanced through the intro again to see if they're listed there but didn't see it) In his view (pg 3) when someone comes to the conclusion that their own minds are empty (passive consciousness), this is nothing more than a state of conceptualization. they remain in this state 'with nothing whatsoever to do and so are propelled toward rebirth among the gods of the desire and form realms, but this does not bring them even a hair's breadth closer to the path of omniscience'. I'm not sure what a state of conceptualization is, and how it differs from real thinking, or having one's own 'original' thoughts (although none actually are!) I think maybe he's just referring to the ability to actually 'think' and not to 'parrot'? what thinkest thou? At the end of pg 5, he mentions 3 categories found in the approach of natural Great Perfection (or as Jesus would have said, 'Be Ye Therefore Perfect'): The Category of Mind, the Category of Expanse, and the Category of Direct Tranmission. This text is termed the secret Category of Direct Transmission. I assume he's referring to the fact that he interacted with these immortals through his own contact, his own dreams or visions, and he essentially got this information from the horse's mouth. I think I'll do a quick google on the Category of Mind (sem-dhe) and the Category of Expanse (long-dhe) to put them in a little better context to see how this triangulates with the Category of Direct Transmission (man-ngag-dhe). I'm not seeing the triangle yet.

I guess you can see it wherever you want to see it...

Just using the concept of the Integral Way is very telling in itself. This would be another description of The Middle Way, the golden mean - finding balance in all things seen and unseen. One dynamic of The Way in and of itself is not complete - it must be aligned with acceptance of All That Is, combined with the understanding that we, too, are That. As The Way has no rules per se, it would be akin to hearding cats to try and compress it into a specific religion. Specific 'religious' practices may aid one to the experiences required for understanding, but religion in and of itself is not the end result. the end result is to master this thing we call Life - to find the most pragmatic way of merging physical phenomena with the dynamics of the rules of spirit, those dynamics we know are there. What a simple and wonderful concept: to take joy in doing the work and service that comes to us. this thought alone should take much anxiety out of our lives. It is saying, that in essence, there is nothing for us to "do".....we need be concerned only for that which is coming down the pike. the years of fine-tuning that we do within our own characters is one of the integral components that makes this all work - if we are not being led by ego (if we've done our homework and tamed it so that we can see clearly), our lives and our attitudes become aligned with what's going on around us; because at some point, we realize that we are the Tao. As above, so below. This is why the Tao (and the fruits of our previous self-purging actions) manifests even within the minutae of our daily lives - like the concept of micro / macro, our bodies being the physical manifestation, on a micro level, of that great macro entity of the universe and the totality of the Tao. At some point, if we are impeccable with our thoughts and actions, Life becomes the Master. Every single person is our teacher, as they are a reflection of ourselves. We get to the point where we are no longer at the mercy of our monkey-minds; we become the master of what we wish our attitudes to be because we've tamed our thinking mechanism. It's for this reason that 'this simple path leads to peace, virtue, and abundance.' Although the concept of 'abundance' means something different to me now than it did some years back.

I'd add too that the closest aspect to 'god' in the TTC is more the acknowledgment of The Void - not to be seen as a creature outside of ourselves that's calling the shots, as you have in many religions. It approaches more the 'nature of matter' reality that the Buddhists would be concerned with - trying to align ourselves with the underlying dynamics of this great colloid that we are a part of. One of our TaoBums members likes to say it's the space between the thoughts, this mixture of inner and outer dynamics which are, in the end, all connected.

The funny thing about moments of lucidity like that are that the impressions stay with you, the details do not - or at least that's been my experience. I was driving through the desert one day and instantaneously I saw all things connected with lines. The clouds were attached to the trees with lines, the trees with the houses, the houses with the animals - everything was connected. I'll never forget that, and for an instant I got to 'see' how everything fit together, exactly. Then, once the moment had passed, the impression remained but I couldn't remember how it all fit together - the nuts and bolts had gone. I was doing a reread of the Nag Hammadi gospels last night - they're so very much more interesting than the watered-down stuff that was allowed into the New Testament. Jesus kept telling his apostles to "Wake up!" but only one or two actually got the awareness of the connection, the Oneness, their actual spiritual divinity. I always like it when you mention the space between thoughts. That's a great metaphor - it can be seen as a great colloid in which is contained all else; the background for the illusions and dreams. Like a grand hologram that appears, disappears, appears.....the space between thoughts is the screen for the movie. I just got a mental picture. Imagine yourself suspended above the ocean, looking down at it. It's nighttime. Imagine that you can see all the beautiful stars and planets reflected all around you on the surface of the ocean. You want to get closer, it's so magnificent. You only see the stars, you don't know it's only a reflection. You ask to be lowered, closer, closer - to get closer to the beautiful array of stars. Suddenly, oh so rudely, your nose pokes into the cold wet ocean. Damn! It's only water! I'll go on to Part Two: Revealing the Meaning of the Main Text as the purpose of the Understanding later in the afternoon, or maybe tomorrow. Unless you can get to it first? (Reaching a decision through view...)

Oh yes - the mystic wings are a different story altogether! Writings reflecting the shamanic view of the Essenes, for example - and I'm currently doing a re-read of the Nag Hammadi Gospels and the mysticism in there is wonderful. Plus the emphasis on knowing yourself as god, per se.

There is no god because god is all there is.

Perhaps you're right about all this. I don't understand your language because I haven't read your book, that is true. And I probably am delusional and remain in continual delusion because I am a long pather. It's entirely possible. Just seems like yours is not a joyous proposition. And way too many words....as us old alkies say as we sit around those dusty rooms balancing a cup of coffee on our knees: "You just don't have what I want." See you elsewhere, Manitou

I guess I missed that part, about this thread being a list of works. Sorry, lol.... Hey, HE, you'll be old and confused yourself one day.

Hi lerner - I just noticed your signature, where you're 'getting closer to fine without going too crazy' - how succinctly put! If you remember, don Juan used to say that a shaman walks a very narrow line between sanity and insanity. Boy, do I ever relate to that. How many of us here can say the same? We pick ourselves clean with the inner work, at the same time we're extending our left brain out with Learning from others. What a tightrope to walk! How often I feel on the very edge of sanity - but for some reason, this seems to be my comfort zone these days. Of course, the only thing that makes me say that is my apparent comparison to others that I assume are 'normal', whatever that means. I remain incredulous that the Christian faith, which is a remnant within me, has no real vehicle for getting to 'Know Thyself', as Jesus is reputed to have said. Without Knowing thyself, all of this stuff is just left brained puff; it's getting the outer knowledge without actually putting the garment on. It's by being impeccable with ourself and getting to Know Ourself that our outer garment can be shed and the real garment put on. I understand that Catholicism has the 'confession' aspect to it, but does it ever go any further than just the confession? Is there a method for further delving into self so that this loop of error can be eliminated? If there is, I haven't heard of it. The inner work seem to be the thing that promotes 'realization'. Realization seems to be something that is an internal dynamic, not gained from the outside, but from the inner wisdom. When our inner experiences align with a pure truth, this realization process can be felt as an Aha! So that's what that means! It's an inner 'proof' to ourselves that confirms perhaps something we've read or studied. It's a physical connection to the truth that can be sensed, and it's often accompanied by a small laugh because it's so obvious after it's been realized, you can't believe you didn't see it before. Like...duh.

[2:14] The Master said: “The noble man is all-embracing and not partial. The inferior man is partial and not all-embracing.” This seems to go directly to judgment. The inferior man judges what he considers to be good or bad and only embraces that which he considers to be good. But he is cutting off part of himself. By failing to embrace other people and ideas, he is self-limiting. Maybe the word 'love' can be substituted for embracing. The noble man (or sage) would see something of value in every human being and knows how to utilize these tendencies in wu-wei. there is nothing wasted. He is capable of this because he has tamed his ego; his ego no longer rides on a particular point of view being 'right'.

What a beautiful song and a beautiful soul, 3bob...

Not following you here. Years of attentive and intentive observation is the Short Path? The 12 steps took about 2 weeks, and then you continue working one of the steps ad infinitum. I'm not sure your path is shorter......it is certainly headier.

Damn. I like the way you think. the action comes to us. The decisions come to us. The decision is always the highest road. Otherwise, just watch it unfold.

The trapping that VMarco's post refers to sounds like it's identical to don Juan's 'tracking'. It seems to be a phenomena of the moment; as though this is the attitude we should adapt at this moment and carry it forward from this point on. But by going through the motions of looking to our past behavior is a real shortcut. Please recall that in the Castaneda books, don Juan had Carlos do a 'recapitulation of his life'. I never understood why Castaneda didn't go more into detail on this point in his books; but if you look carefully you can see it mentioned several times over a several-book period of time. It took Carlos years to recapitulate his life, according to him. Don Juan had him do essentially the same thing that the 12 steps of recovery do - look for your past screw-ups, make the apologies necessary, try to clean up your life so that the inner dynamics are no longer contorted by hate, resentment, selfishness. To answer a previous question on this thread, this process can be done voluntarily or involuntarily. It doesn't have to be a big metaphysical head trip. An easy way is to list all the character defects you can think of, and then assume that you have all of them. Then it's just a question of discovering to what degree they are there. Or....google a copy of the 12 steps to recovery, modify mention of the word 'God' to whatever makes you comfortable, and substitute the word 'life' for 'alcohol'. In other words, "I'm powerless over life, and my life is unmanageable" (this wouldn't be true to the same degree as one just coming off an alcohol or drug addiction, but you get the idea). After that first step, the other 11 complete the process. That particular process is tried and true and has worked for countless people to change their lives completely. It certainly did mine. But there's lots of ways to start the digging. It's just that that one is already set up.

Where's the fun in that? The wu-wei is the pony at the bottom.

This is the essence of a truly recovering person.

Some threads here talk of Knowing, but a type of knowing that can't be put into words. I just finished a book where a guy named Lester Levinson talks much of 'proofs'; the kind of proofs we get internally when our conscious experience aligns directly with some spiritual concept. Although I read the Castaneda books years ago, I still find myself suddenly realizing 'Oh! That's what don Juan really meant!' when an inner experience of mine aligns with what I read then. These could also be described as the 'Aha's' of getting to know ourselves, if the inner journey has begun. Today I'm reading Buddahood Without Meditation and a paragraph jumped out at me that corresponds with the above. "At first, you develop comprehension by relying on training. Later, you develop deeper understanding by eliciting personal experience through examination and investigation. But the situation is such that mere comprehension and understanding of this kind will not bring freedom. By analogy, even though you have food, you will not be satiated if you do not eat it.' It must be taken into our bodies, eaten. We align our actions with our thoughts. We have to walk like we talk at some point. It occured to me that this might be the very process that creates the sense of Knowing that can't really be explained.

I could be dead wrong here, but it does seem to me that what I have read of Confucius doesn't seem to get into the mindset of wu-wei; it does seem to be more behavior-oriented. One of the focuses of the TTC is 'between ugh and aah, how much difference is there?', which says to me that everything is seen in relation to everything else. There is no good or bad - if you ask a soccer mom what she considers evil, she'll say the dope dealer standing on the corner. If you ask the dope dealer what is evil, he'll answer 'the son of a bitch who ripped me off last night'. Is there a right or wrong? It's all just relative to something else. Perhaps I haven't read enough of Confucius to see the wu-wei in it yet. (I am perusing the Confucius thread and commenting, although nobody else seems to be interested - there is some great stuff in there). I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I haven't noticed Confucius talking about Not-Doing yet. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

don Juan would not refer to it as Love, he referred to it as the path with heart.

2:12] The Master said: “The noble man is not a utensil.” [Comment] The noble man is not a technician, to be used by others to do a single job. On another level, his mind is not narrowly oriented by a specific task. The junzi thinks broadly and does not limit himself quickly into a certain world-view, and cannot easily be used as a cog in someone else's machine. This seems to go to the fact that the noble man is not afraid to think outside the box, nor to amend his outlook. His ego is not riding on the fact that his opinion must be right, as he has virtually formed no opinion. This is optimal, but how hard is this to do? It's not that we don't have the means to practice...especially in this day and age. We have access to world news and events 24/7 now - how very easy it is to sit back on the couch and label lawmakers, for example, as a bunch of idiots; particularly those who muck up any progress by forming blocs. But the other side of the coin is that this activity, this calling out of another individual (even on TV) as something totally different than us, is doing us nothing but harm. It reinforces the illusion that we are separate from each other; it makes us seem elevated and makes our egos feel elevated if we can put someone else down. As a personal way of tracking myself (Castaneda's method) I've been paying attention to my thoughts while watching Mitch McConnell or John Boehner doing what they do best.....and it's more telling how much personal work I have to do, because my thoughts immediately go into the gutter and blood shoots out of my eyes when I see either one of them gumming up the works. Back to the drawing boards.... The noble man is not a utensil because he can't be 'used' by another without his consent. His thoughts are based in What Is, and there is no need to buy into someone else's agenda. He is completely his own man.