manitou

and I think the process of strengthening your intuition/subconscious connection usually involves removing something inside us. Maybe it's not quite like flexing a muscle, but after the personality adjustment has been made, repetition makes it part of us. As to the blaming of someone who rear ends us, I think it's a Practice to embrace the 'is-ness' of the occurrence. What sometimes occurs to me is What would have happened if I hadn't been rear-ended by that texter? Might something more horrible have happened down the road? Did that actually save me from something? Who's to say? It's just a way of staying comfortable with uncomfortable situations, and realizing that if you were in that guy's shoes with that guy's conditioning, you too would probably have been texting at that moment. Doesn't mean he shouldn't get a ticket....

speaking just for myself (and I am admittedly way out there) I will often ask myself "why am I manifesting this?" and it helps uncover things within myself that can be worked on. How did I participate in or contribute to this problem? As to forgiving everyone else for being jerks not in control of themselves, I have to (sometimes belatedly) remember that they too are a strand of 'The Intelligence', and that this is all happening within the design of the puzzle. Yes, to me it's an attitude, but an attitude that dictates my further actions. It actually breeds compassion. If I go around thinking that things are arbitrarily happening to me from out of the blue, it's easy to become a victim in my mind. To me, it's a very helpful attitude in becoming a better person. The only commitment to action that I can see is the willingness to question my part in the whole, and to follow up with the appropriate actions.

LOL. Thank "you" for your response. "I" would like to agree with your statement about responsibility not taking the meaning of being "in charge". To take responsibility for one's life is to take responsibility for one's thoughts, words, actions. There's nothing about taking charge that I can see there. But the result is that we are no longer victims, even if we are in an auto accident or our spouse dies. When Silent Thunder was relating his astounding experience in the hospital, it very much reminded me of something that Eckhart Tolle says, and how his ego left his body at a time when there was so much pain and fear in him that he just couldn't take it any more. He just woke up one morning and it was all gone. The same sort of assurance came over him that came over Silent Thunder. It's as though he enlightened in a new way, due to the fact that he had somehow gotten underneath his ego to his essence with pain and fear as a catalyst.

I think both. I think the One Life that we all are, we are all of the same essence. All seemingly material objects, including us, are really the One Space. Space with Intent. I think that space is the other side of the coin of time, and that somehow all this is playing out in the bat of an eye, only it seems like it's happening one thing after the other. I think that we, communally as the One Life, are creating the disturbances that are occurring on the face of the earth. I think that we, communally, are The Creator; and as such every rock,, tree, situation, person are all of the same essence. And it is all working in concert, even if we can't see the blueprint. I think that I am You. The only thing that separates us is the lens of our upbringing, the ideas of our parents, our teachers, our society's customs. But underlying the strainer of experience is the One Essence. The Dao, or God, or whatever one is conditioned to call The Intelligence. But Intelligence there is. I think we are the universe experiencing itself. I think that what is seemingly good often turns into something seemingly bad, and vice versa. This is why judgments are useless. I think this is a network of consciousness- the pupils of your eyes recognize The Essence in the pupils of my eyes - and of dogs, and birds, and all other living things. The web is complete, and the Intelligence within is the same Essence that knows what every manifestation needs for completion, and that it draws to us the very circumstances that challenge us and change us to conform to its Intent. I think the Intent is perfection and love, but it seems like the world is exactly the opposite right now. But these are necessary evils created for the purposes of developing other traits we need for Essential Expression. I think that what makes up the bulk of an atom is space. The actual 'matter' is so miniscule that there really is no matter at all, just the illusion of matter due to the speed at which the particles spin around the atom. It seems solid, but it's not. With complete breakdown of the nature of matter, I think that the bottom line is that it is Thought. So - to answer your question, yes, I do think we create the situations we encounter, even if it's the death of another person we are experiencing. Somehow, as it is all happening Now, there is a working intelligence at work to achieve its purpose. We don't intentionally create them, but these are subconscious pieces of the puzzle, on both an individual and a world-communal level. The timing is always perfect to achieve its ends. Actually, timing isn't the right choice of words. It's already happened. We're just playing catch-up, because there really is no past or future. I went to a zoo once and there was an eyepiece that you could look through and see how a bat sees. In a bat's world, everything is neon green. The bat is limited in his perceptions. How limited are we in our perceptions? Could there not be other worlds here and now, but only on different sensory frequencies, such as the difference between us and the bat? Could these be the Buddha-lands of the sutras?

Some might say that the answers are always within ourselves, and it's only a matter of weeding out all the unnecessary opinions and judgments from ourselves that we get down to our true self. Your changing circumstances only temporarily set you back on your heel, time for your true self to recognize and adapt to the changes. Love will always be the deciding factor, regardless of what form love chooses to take. Sometimes it's just kindness. Sometimes it's just knowing that the other person is not going to change and to adapt ourselves accordingly. Sometimes it's not saying the first thing that comes to mind. Love takes many forms.

The Dao that can be spoken of is not the Dao. Liminal Luke, I'm with you. I've never read anything on the Bums so real as the words of Silent Thunder on this thread. I feel horrible because I've been gone from the forum much and involved in my own life changes. I had no idea that Silent Thunder was having such a close call and life change of his own. But what an incredible flower has bloomed. It is brilliant, it dazzles me. Silent Thunder, you have been a good friend to me during my horrible time - and I just had no idea of your problems. I feel like apologizing, but I know that your spirit needs no apology. It just knows.

There's a way of looking at accepting responsibility that involves the fact that we actually manifest that which comes our way. If one takes into consideration the communal nature of our 'selves' (not really separate at all) and also takes into consideration the fact that linear time is all our linear minds are capable of, it's all actually happening Now, not really in a linear fashion. The deed has already been done. In some sort of synchronistic fashion, all dynamics are happening Here and Now, and the thing that determines what we 'manifest' are the very things that our essence needs for further development.

Yeah, you've got to be quick with them. they get into arguments pretty easily and then they split up immediately....

sense actualized; life takes joy in every breath, realizing itself

on sun and moon disks hidden secrets dwell, to be known by just a few

The beak would be a dead giveaway.

Check out male Indigo bunting. The range is right. The male is all blue, but may have a thicker bill than the bluebird.

Maybe a juvenile Eastern?

According to your picture, it was a mountain bluebird? a little out of its range??

I'll bet he was checking out your beard for possible nesting material...

Really excellent post, Steve! ((consider the book ordered))

(double post)

LOL. I couldn't understand a word of that. Is that good or bad?

Hi Mindtooloud - My husband just died 6 months ago of a stroke (brought on by blockages in his legs leading to an operation which brought on a brain bleed and stroke during an operative procedure). He had been a smoker for maybe 63 years. He had been getting lung xrays the past years, as he was such a long term smoker. His lungs were surprisingly fine. He turned to vaping 2 years before his death, and was successful in giving up the smokes. During one of the sonograms, or MRI'S, or Xrays they were doing on him toward the end, one of his doctors saw that there had been many changes in his lungs (since he had given up smoking) since his previous xray. And indeed, about a month prior to his death he had been coughing up a little blood. There is no doubt in my mind that had Joe not died from the stroke, we'd be dealing with lung cancer now (the doc indicated this to me as well). I sometimes wonder if cancer cells (which may lie dormant in a long time smoker due to all the nicotine and tars in the lungs) are free to metastasize once the lungs have been cleared. This is just a hunch on my part, I could so easily be wrong. Don't know if this is helpful or not. While he was vaping, his cigarette hack disappeared, which was a good thing. But I just wonder in his particular case (because he smoked for so many years) if the vaping was somehow a bad decision for him in that so many changes were visible at the end. He never felt 'quite right' about the vaping thing either. The very best to you and your health -

Gnome - what a wonderful dissertation by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche you found from 2015 that CT posted. I had not remembered that one; or if I had I'd forgotten it. This has always been a challenging thread in that duality is overridden by the unity, the non-differentiation of everything. Yes, it is an extreme view on the body if looked at it in duality - in fact, it makes no sense at all. The concept of even finding a permanent abode, if I'm reading you correctly, is the belief that there is a destination - like some sort of heaven or nirvana - that we would aspire to once we shed this conveyance we think we occupy. I look at it this way, which may not be correct at all - but it's the aggregate of many different paths which all seem to merge in metaphysics. We are all the One Consciousness, only one type of form that comprises the Consciousness of this universe and beyond. All forms are part of the Consciousness - animate and inanimate things as well. To the way I understand things, which tends to be a little on the scientific side, I look at the space contained in a single atom, and comparatively in a universe. The amount of 'matter' which actually occupies that spinning atom is infinitesimal - and I'm guessing that when the Hadron Collider has finished breaking down the quarks and neutrinos as they smash together, it will be further found that there is no real matter at all. It is Thought. The only thing that gives them appearance of form is Motion, or the relative appearance thereof. If the atoms suddenly stopped spinning around the nucleus and all matter were left in a pile of dust. I'll bet there's nothing there at all. We, aggregately, are the Consciousness experiencing itself. LOL. The real question is Why? I recently listened to a Deepak Chopra CD, and his suggestion was that the Consciousness (or universe) wanted to just take a vacation and let someone else do it for a while. And quite a fine job we're doing......

Okay, I get it now. New format again. There's a difference between 'responded' and 'commented'. I thought The Lerner and Silent Thunder actually posted something. But it was just a thumbs up. Maybe we're still in business?

Is anybody else not able to read The Lerner and Silent Thunder's further comments? Are we stuck on page 48 or is it just my computer?

I think that was brilliant, Silent Thunder. The fall from grace being the loss of the blissful unified awareness descending into form. I too was brought up Lutheran, although not charismatic. After a certain age I felt that the 10 commandments were redundant, that any person should have that goodness in their hearts already.

Aaah. I just thought of something else, which relates to cold's comment. Regarding the above video and the original question from CT re: 'could this be the garden of eden as described in the bible?', my answer would be Yes. (I didn't watch the second half of the video yet so maybe the Rinpoche addresses this very thing). In the bible, the fall from 'eden' created the desire for knowledge of good and evil. This would be the beginning of mental clutter, the ability to think and judge. To meditate is to rid one's self of the mental clutter - at the very least, not to let one's life be dictated to by the mindless chatter - the "story" which includes the remorse of yesterday and the fear of tomorrow (neither of which actually exist). The analogy is certainly there, addressing CT's original question. and the answer is reflected in cold's observation. Perhaps the garden of eden, the pure intent, is the ability to see and live in the beauty of the Now. Nirvana.

I hadn't watched this until just now, and it reminds me of something that I recently observed. (For those who didn't watch it, at one point he refers to calmness of the mind through meditation carrying over to everyday life, and how the mind no longer seeks external stimuli - like going places, amusement, etc - for fulfillment.) Rather, it find fulfillment in noticing the world in a different way. I walk the dogs daily in a beautiful park. There is a nice canopy of trees, mainly oaks, over in one section. It's my favorite place to walk the dogs. There is a huge vine that I have noticed for months which grows out of the earth right next to one old grandfather oak, and it winds its way up the trunk. A few days ago, I stood and actually studied that vine. It has a brain, no doubt. It is very thick at the bottom and maintains a lot of thickness all the way up. At one point, it leaves the tree and meanders out into the air, starting a downward turn as gravity would override its desire to get up to the sun (although canopied) due to its thickness. However, after going down for 5 or 6 feet, it suddenly makes a severe U-turn and goes straight up into the air, straight as an arrow. It somehow knows that there is a big oak branch about 30 feet up there that will catch it, and it can wind around the tree up there. Then, it defies gravity again, going over to a different section, does some winding, and then reaches over to the next tree and does the same. I've been trying to figure this out, and it boggles my mind. I've wondered if it doesn't actually start growing as a projection of the tree from the upper branches, then actually grow down, and plant itself into the earth and thicken, making it appear that it started from the ground up. But it still doesn't explain the U-turns in the several places, in either scenario, as the vine is so heavy - much like a thin tree branch. I've pointed this out to several people and we all just stand there with our mouths agape and marvel at the intelligence built into nature.