manitou

Just for a moment assuming that this thread is a microcosm to the macrocosm of the bellows of the Dao, I wonder when the out-breath will begin. Seems like it's already started.

I haven't read the whole thread. My thoughts: Evolution, as we've spoken of it here, is a linear concept. And the universe keeps expanding in a linear fashion, according to our measurements and observations. Such is our mind set up. The Hadron collider has proven that when atoms smash, some of the quarks and neutrinos actually travel into the past! What this suggests to me is that it is all Here and Now. Evolution has already happened and we're playing catch-up. The 3 times, Past, Present, Future are superimposed over each other, only our minds are set up linearly and we can't grasp it. The more nuanced our instruments for measurement are, the more we find out that there's no 'there there'. It seems to be heading in the direction of It's All Thought anyway. The illusion. The maya. We are stardust, made out of everything else in the universe. Everything Is, we share the same properties. We, us, are each other. This thing inside us, this soul, this warm presence that lives within, is the same thing in me as it is in you. The manifestation of consciousness. (Was it Nungali?) who suggested that Mars would be getting bigger? I wonder, should this occur, if this would create the same reaction as the 5 Element theory, as when one element gets out of whack by expanding or contracting, that the tensive ones in opposition will be directly affected? And the one being nurtured? And the nurturing element? The I Am consciousness. The realization that we are indeed, the thinking part of the cosmos (although we don't hold a candle to the Intelligent Design that underlies everything - or as the Algonquins would say, the 'manitou'.) Removal of personality dross is the key to the I Am consciousness, as any 33rd degree Freemason will tell you. Or perhaps any Rinpoche. Isn't it likely that there are other 'thinking and rationing components' in other points in the cosmos? Of course. For what purpose? This is the real question for me. There is a line in a Rumi poem that says something like 'The ocean begs the pearl to open its shell'. Whatever this thing is is screaming for consciousness of a different sort than it has now. It is screaming to manifest consciousness in a way that it isn't now. The real Us is the pearl, the shell is our outer acquired self, the ocean is the Oneness in which we are all a part, but are not in awareness of it. We think we are separate. We can't believe our eyes.

The Dao is great, lol.

Hi Mayur - So nice to have you here. I'm going through exactly what you're going through too. Only I'm trying to cut loose of 30 years of taking Prozac for ptsd, decided I've had enough of it and I'm going to cut it loose no matter what and let the real human being emerge. What a challenge. My thread is in the Personal Practice Forum (something about the Real Human Being, I can't remember the exact name of it). You're sure welcome to dump any frustrations there as you walk your path. I sure have been. Enjoy your time here! You'll love this community. Manitou

Hello new friend - welcome, and do enjoy your time here. Don't be shy.

I love the people participating in this thread. Like CT's 'finds', this thread is a latent jewel. I just came into it a bit late in the game and don't want to shake up a dynamic. So I'll just continue being me.

thanks, mostly-empty. I will wait and be more patient, that I have decided. But when it gets to the point of no return, I have to even-Steven my own soul on this. Luckily, I view money as nothing more than stuck energy. There's always more where that came from when we keep it cycling. Paying back would be most important for my soul - I wouldn't feel right without it if I didn't. And that's what important to me - not the money. I'll know before too long about all this. I'll give it maybe another month. Who knows? Maybe the veteran's organization had to raise some sort of fundraiser for the particular trike that Jaiden wanted. I just don't know all the players here. And on the other hand, I don't want to step in and facilitate the whole thing. That's just beyond my scope, as I see it - and yet it would be so very easy for me to do so. But Mom has to take some action here, not just slouch around, refuse to take her meds, and let life pass her by, letting everyone else do for her. I don't want to put pressure on her with all her health concerns - but no doubt my conversation with her mother got back to her. I'll probably hear from her as soon as she has something new to report.

Sometimes i feel like I share too many of them on this thread - that my thoughts are a distraction from the beautiful jewels that you find to share with us. i've noticed that there's not a lot of back and forth here - and I worry that I've changed the dynamic a bit. Please let me know if this is the case. I will sit quietly in class, I promise. but I'm just so glad you're doing this. The fact that you said this to me makes me wonder. Kind of like....when did you stop beating your wife? I hate to see the jewels brought down into the mundane by the chatter of someone who doesn't understand any of this. But open for learning I am. This is actually the only thread I'm participating on for the most part, other than my PPF. If I'm wrong or if I'm being overly sensitive (I am cutting loose of the Prozac, as you probably know) - this is certainly a possibility. Please feel free to PM me to discuss further, CT - so this thread doesn't become about 'me'. I love you, my guru! You are, you know. Barb

What I see in the video is the tendency of low entropy conditions to become high entropy conditions over a matter of time - high entropy defined as high because the matter within form can be rearranged and still retain its shape. Low entropy, on the other hand, is ordered (the sand castle), and the probability of the universe to plop down a fully formed sand castle is theoretically possible, but highly improbable. Am I getting this right so far? Yes, the tendency would always be for something to disintegrate from form to formless over a period of time. Which brings us to the wheel, which appears to be a time machine of sorts, as per the following paragraph I found on one website about this: "The Kalachakra perfected universe or Buddha land is intended to provide the ideal symbolic environmental matrix, built from transcendent wisdom's five jewel-coloured, laserlike energies from which universal compassion can most effectively reach out to all sentient beings to nudge their histories in the direction of evolutionary progress toward complete enlightenment. As its name indicates, it is a Time Machine - the Sanskrit chakra, "Wheel" is used by extension to mean "machine" - not in the science-fiction sense that it travels through time, but in the special sense that it is the artistic creation with which universal compassion turns time into a machine to produce the enlightenment of all sentient beings." So is this saying that time is truly linear because of the wheel of time that it takes to produce an enlightened being? Or is it possible that because it's a matrix, as indicated above, that time is not restricted to one direction? Doesn't the Hadron collider experiment indicate that there is another dimension at play here that our minds cannot comprehend, that movement toward yesterday is indeed a fact? I'm not sure I'm seeing the true relation between the video and the Kalachakra Mandala as it pertains to the sandcastle revealing the end of all things - unless he's talking about the inevitable dissolution from high entropy to low entropy phenomena. I am delighted to have read this information for two reasons. First of all, it gives me a greater understanding of Buddha-lands, which I am always wondering about since reading about them in the Lotus and Flower Adornment Sutras. But more importantly, it tells me why CT dwells in a raindrop. (As per Wikipedia): "Kalachakra practice - to visualize the complete mandala, including hundreds of deities in perfect detail of the size of a small drop during the Generation stage of practice to achieve a very high level of concentration. Essence indeed, CT. (P.S I have no idea what I am talking about here. Reader beware )

Such a nice place.

This feels so important. I remember back when the Dao Bums were undifferentiated - when threads were just threads and we were all bouncing off each other like rocks in a lapidary - I could never understand what the Buddhists were talking about here. What the heck are they all suffering about, I would think? I tended to think of suffering as having an ingrown toenail and wincing with each step, or maybe having a thorn in a sock and being too lazy to take your shoe off and remove it. But now, after learning so much from people on this forum (once I finally decided to start learning and stop talking so much) I realize that I suffer every day. Perhaps suffering is just the lack of love, of the inner light. Perhaps suffering is getting real caught up in what appears to be happening in front of us - getting caught up in angst, in sadness, in anger. With me, it's just hovering tension. A constant tightness of the muscles, tightness in the shoulders, in the jaw. Just hovering anxiety. For what, I don't know. But I cease suffering momentarily when I consciously relax it all, I realize that Flower Glow of the Sutras resides within me, and that life is like the shadow; it Is, and it Is Not. I cease suffering when I remember that we are 99.999% not there at all, that the atomic weight of the atom is minuscule compared to its outer perimeter of gyration. And probably when our measuring instruments get more refined, we will be able to measure that there is nothing there at all. I cease suffering when I remember that the eyes of 'god' are all around me - in every eye's pupil, whether that pupil is that of a human being, a cat, or an insect. Or a bear in the woods. What's to suffer about? It's all 'god'. For lack of a better term. I cease suffering when I remember that the Hadron Collider has now discovered that particles not only collide and make their separate paths into the here and now, but into the past! it's mind boggling. But it reminds me that past, present, and future are all superimposed over each other, and that this has already all played out, and that we're just playing catch-up. Wow. You Buddhists are awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hi SamW89 - Identity Crisis 'R Us. I currently have a thread going about In Search of the True Human Being, or something like that, in the Personal Practice Forum. When you get around to finding that section, please feel free to jump in. We're all mirrors of each other, and for one to help themselves in their crisis is to help everyone. Love to you, and do enjoy your time here. Manitou

Hi Matrix-Pills - Isn't the TTC da bomb, lol? I originally found it at a yard sale (where most books that change your life are found). I've discovered much essence in triangulating many different translations and letting it all settle in. So glad you found your way to us. I just know anyone who is that enthralled with the TTC will have more than your share of wisdom to share with us. Manitou

Hi Shiva33 - go glad you've decided to jump right in. It's a pleasure to have you here. Hope to see you on the threads. Manitou

Hi Cbaraona - delighted to have you here. this is a great forum, glad you found it. So many ideas bouncing off each other. Do enjoy your time here. I have. It has greatly aided my journey to the real human being. Manitou

May 2 update. I'm feeling a little angst because I'm back in Ohio and it's still a work in progress, according to Jaiden's grandmother, whom i spoke with yesterday. I was hoping to be able to provide some results by this time. She confirmed that she send the check off two and a half weeks ago (the approx. $1350 that had been raised and put on the GoFundMe page), and that the veteran's group were kicking in with the rest. As mentioned above, the measurements have been done and sent. One of the problems here is that his mom, Theresa, has quite a bipolar problem and some days she can make it in to work, some days she can't. I'm surprised she still has a job at the local Schezuan restaurant (or however it's spelled). So this bicycle's wheels are moving rather slowly. I'm hoping to know something more soon, and I'll post it here. If, for some reason, I find out that this isn't going to happen, each and every one of you will be repaid out of my account. I told this to Jaiden's granny yesterday, that I would be doing this if for some reason the bike wasn't going to happen. I know it's not a scam. It's just that we don't have real strong players in the game. Someone could easily drop the ball. Now I feel better, just saying that.

(As you can see, my legendary technical skills have once more come to the fore...)

Not that he needs the stroke - he doesn't - but please let him know that his ripples extend worldwide, on our physical plane, via the Bums. He already knows they extend universally.

I love your teacher. I wonder if he realizes just how far his ripples extend? Thank you for that, Steve. Cherish the experience. that is wonderful, I shall wear that one always from this day forward. Edit: And this day backward.

I just figured this out. The theory of relativity. RE: Post #2, Compassion. This brings to my mind Mother Theresa. I read once (and I don't know if the author knew what they were talking about) that Mother Theresa, for all she did, never experienced the joinder with 'God', that she was seeking. That this was a source of angst for her, a hovering heart pain that was always present. Her compassion was wonderful and certainly needed in Calcutta - but perhaps she was as this post describes - not the compassion done from the true essence of the void nature of self, but rather with an intent to get closer to her god. She could be seen as an example of an Extreme as notated in the first post. RE: Post #3, distinguishing the world of form from the absolute. I think we are having this physical experience to shed it - it would be like hating the car that took you to the bodhi tree.

Kindred spirits, Steve and Brian...

Releasing all the subtle grasping at those habitual guard rails - how very imminent this is for me at this time. All I've ever wanted is freedom. My whole life. Just freedom. And the prisons we build are just humongous. Right now I feel like I'm in a thick jungle with a machete. Nice to know there's a name for it - a spiritual warrior. Sounds so much like don Juan Mateus talking to Castaneda.

Another interesting thing to do is to focus on the space midpoint between an object and you. That's a bit of a challenge as well.

An astounding 14 minutes. Conceptual designation - sounds closely related to Intent, but includes and encompasses the 3 times.