Songtsan

I want to try - I might save up like $5000 and go, and slowly let myself become less and less of a man, and more of a God...I would just bank a return trip flight and after a while, when I was comfortable - just trust in the universe and let go of all possessions and just be without thought or intention. It would be like a form of suicide. I could try it here too I guess - I just don't want to end up in jail again for any weird reason...but then again - its an act of surrendering, so I would have to let go of that aversion. I think they would treat me better in India if I decided to 'take off my clothes' so to speak. I think of the naked sadhus wandering over there - such freedom, they just let their bodies do yoga spontaneously all day/night long. Yoga meaning union, they unionize with their bodies natural functions, and just be! So interesting - and stress free I bet.

so you think the mind is aware? What if I surgically removed all but the most necessary parts of your brain? You would have no executive function, no memory, just pure afferent or sensory input. Where did mind go? Did you lose awareness? Nope...

"Hell is repetition, repetition, repetition." - from some movie I watched once. It's a fact of life that things will repeat in cycles, although we all know that nothing truly ever happens twice, as it is the mind which classifies and compares. The aversion to redundancy is what drives us onwards to refine in many respects, yet it also holds us back at the same time, as we look at things which we 'think happened before,' which they didn't in truth, and dismiss them as 'redundant' and possibly irritating, or whatnot. Remember the story of the monk who said that watching the breath was boring, and so his teacher pushes his head down into some water until he nearly drowns, and then when he comes up, his teacher says, "Is watching the breath boring now?" - It is like this. It is our tendency to gloss over things, to group things, to ignore the subtlety of things which makes things 'become redundant' - because we think we know something about them, when we don't in fact. The 'judging apparatus' - that 'thing' which labels, is the finder of redundancy. It is this very aversion to the labeled 'redundant event' which holds us back not only from completion, but even from simple enjoyment of the moment. The bottom line is: If you think you know something, someone, somewhere, somehow, or anything, you don't. If you think you have done 'this' before, seen 'this' before, or heard 'this,' you haven't. If you think something is redundant, it means you are stagnating in mind hells. All this is axiomatic, yet we all fall prey to this illness when we think we know 'anything about anything.' The desire for novelty is actually hardwired into us as a species. It is the tendency of our physiology to attenuate incoming signals that seem the same, so that novel stimuli can be better filtered to watch for new opportunities or threats. Going into new situations can spark new life. Trying new hobbies is often exciting. What is the secret to those who have learned to love a certain repetitive act? It is forgetting that they have done it before.

I know - perhaps redundancy is when you try to fake the funk? When you try to recreate old ecstasies through the same route, as if you were executing a function? I never liked the fake it til you make it path. I think that things must be built upon in a sincere manner - in this way, there is no redundancy, even though you appear to do the same thing as before. Natural livity. Natural expression. This is how the taint of redundancy views is bypassed. Non doing certainly sees no redundancy.

so deep that it put you to sleep?

I find that although sometimes I am trapped by my own perception of redundancy, that it is merely a temporary state. Sometimes I just can't get into a song I have listened to a thousand times, and then one day, I listen to it, and I am transported to ecstasy again. Haven't quite figured out all the ins and outs of that yet.

If I decide to do it and succeed, then there is no more 'I' that has succeeded! lol success would equal dissolution. I might try, but that would be years down the road. I am way too attached to my ego, and yet, I know deep down that entering this would be way more intoxicating than any ego-driven path I could accomplish.

Yes. No. Is it selfish for a baby to cry because its hungry and wants milk? Yes, because it is desire, not need based...it doesn't need to live after all. Maybe you were born here because of desires. Maybe if you had no desire you wouldn't need to materialize on this plane. If that is the case, then I say you should have your desires met, so that you can learn to transcend them and not want them anymore. One who has had all desires met and subsequently freed themselves of said desires is usually considered a realized being. One can take a short cut and sublimate desires, or the scenic route and experience the desires directly. Either way, the end result is transcendence. If you consider it your duty to transcend your lower nature, then by meeting desires, you are acting in accord with this wish. Gluttony however, being stuck in circular desire seeking and consumption, can be seen as an illness, if it is stagnant and involves no evolving. I don't see this happening in you, but who am I to say. At the end of the day, 'selfishness' is a label, a mind fabricated concept. It doesn't exist absolutely, only relatively. It is true, yet not true. There is only suchness, and no 'person' exists. So who is there to be selfish?

For now, but I sense that this is short-term. Besides, a 'God owned and operated' individual can take care of themselves anywhere, I think, because God is flexible. I doubt that they would appear the same way here as they do in India...God has unlimited faces and styles... I have often wondered this: What if I just stopped producing any actions - just allowed myself to drop ALL actions. I know that there would be someone or something that would keep moving and doing - as this already happens. I generally spend at least an hour in total every day watching this other do things with the architecture that I call my body mind. I could increase this by simply not doing anything myself for as often as I could 'remember not to do.'

What are the physiological side effects of fear? Tension, catecholamines, all kinds of stuff.. Google: 'physiological effects of fear on the body' and you will see why I believe that it will result in an untimely demise if it is constant. I speak from the point of view of one who has a tendency towards hypochondria, paranoia, hyper-ruminative excess, etc. These are probably over-expressions of functions. Since I am of this nature, I intend to approach fearlessness. Not in a bravado way - trying to be some kind of bad ass - just in a heart warrior way - the way of non attachment. I value the fear response for what it is. I seek to curtail the echo that exists because of the mind's tendency to hold onto and repeat sensations and events over and over. So perhaps I should clarify between the physiological event (a protective one), and the mental/ruminative one (a self-destructive one). "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." -from Dune The initial response is what it is: NOT to be labeled by 'those who know' - fear is the mind's continuation of the initial response - which can be labeled as mind wishes, it is the circular, repetitive resistance to reality - i.e. "This is going to happen...oh no!" OR " This could happen! It might happen" OR "What if this happens!?" - this is what brings us to an early death. I could always summarize by saying that it is the fabrications of the mind that cause suffering... That is a direct and utter cure for all ills. What I am doing here is micro-focusing on a particular area of the death cycle...that which is fear based.. I won't have to do kind of stuff when I directly end mind fabrications... this is a mind fabricated tool to deal with mind fabricated illness. It generates the release from the killing effects of fear, by over-riding the fear function...it is 'replacement therapy.' Yet it is still a fabrication and thus contrary to the Way, which involves non-fabrication. It's not ideal.

What's even funnier is this: I took my bike (stolen fair and square ) and put it on the other side of my friends fence, because the tire was bent and I didn't feel like carrying the thing all the way home because my leg was injured. Someone stole it that same night....lol.... I hear this! Works on plants too...ever read 'The Secret Life of Plants'? This makes perfect sense to me...there is a whole 'nother reality of communication through intention out there....could be a fun game to practice at with certain individuals who were sensitive.. Have a sensitive individual stand blindfolded while someone else intends to touch a certain part of their body silently....if they are sensitive enough, and the other person's intention can be sufficiently mobilized, they should immediately feel where the touch will come in at, as that persons energy body indicates their intended move. This must be why those with true gongfu can react so spontaneously without thought, they are so linked with that level of sensitivity, which requires one to be empty minded, that they can flow into the right forms simply by remaining open to the subtle changes in the others intention. It is not through the 5 senses I don't think...

I guess the reason I posted my initial post in this thread was that I experienced a full MCO, paired with the dropping of the amrita nectar, not by my own effort, but via my Kundalini Shakti, who said: "To prove a point!" and this was in response to my own doubt that MCO was even real. So there are beings or 'processes' from other sources than the physical which assist us. In Kriya yoga, otherwise known as the Yoga of Action, these things happen spontaneously. The correlations between wu wei and kriya is interesting. All 'neat' and 'valuable' spiritual experiences can happen simply through surrender to a higher source, which has many names.

I think it does, and because of this: We are not wholly separate, just the illusion of such. So we all get dragged along in the currents of the many, which is eventual refinement. Now there may seem to be backstepping, or unrefinement...but this is temporary in the long run, where the tendency is forward progress. I am saying this from my studies of Vedanta to a great degree. They mention the end of the Kali yuga, levels of ignorance and spiritual distance being stripped away. I also have studied evolutionary psychology to some degree and see similar trends. However, there is entropy to deal with, spiritual and otherwise... Doesn't it seem like the world is becoming more enlightened when you take a broad historical view? Honestly, I really would like to study history more. It does seem that we are becoming less ignorant as a whole. As ignorance is the root cause of suffering and distance from unity, I hesitantly conjecture that enlightenment for the whole species is relatively close...including even other species of beings...

I am talking about the God-intoxicated, those who have no ego left out of sheer relinquishment of it. One couldn't even say that they abandon anything but the ego...I mainly hear about this in India.

Stick to the topic? sorry! I would say that nothing is generated ('generate' meaning to cause to come about) out of nowhere - everything is co-created, co-originated...so thoughts are a result of an end chain of causation, which is cyclical and circular change of energy/matter processes. I don't think mind is capable of awareness - that is the job of the seer. The seer is not mind, instead beyond it and not part of causation, but merely wrapped up in it temporarily...

WTF!?

Perhaps this is something that happens when it is time? When the person has earned their immortality? Perhaps there are no methods that will achieve, other than being ready? Do you think that only you shape yourself? Someone else shapes you too. This is why it is a great gift and one can relax. There is a need to re-invent the wheel each time. Practice unity in diversity. Methodless method. No place to go but now. Don't seek teachers, unless the teachers seek you. Can't fake the funk.

They say that dogs instinctively understand exactly what their minders mean...I believe this... I have another dog/bicycle/weapon story: When I was ~16 I was riding a stolen bicycle down a dark street and a loose dog started chasing me and snarling, I was so worried about the dog that I wasn't watching where I was going and crashed into a telephone pole, wrecking my bike and injuring myself. The dog continued to harass me, and I went over and picked up a piece of wood I saw on the ground and was angrily preparing to beat the shit out of it. It stayed farther and farther away because it could sense the energy of my intent and we eventually parted ways....I am not sure what that dog had against me, but I have various theories.... The best and worst weapon one can carry is hatred and malevolence. This manifested wish will lead one not only to destroy others, but also oneself. A person who carries hatred and malevolence as their shield can be sensed from a mile away. I know this because I myself have embodied this. Of course I have met others who carry the same burden. It is a viable energy which can literally cause someone to shake with fear. This is why in MMA/boxing matches, etc. there is the eye staring game..if one can successfully send the virulent energy towards the victim, it can create all kinds of disruption in the hardware. This is why when I fight, I take a relaxed gaze, allowing nothing to enter...almost as if I am ignoring my opponent. I do not practice the sending of negative Shakti, because it is of the Evil Eye. Not my path, but it is a weapon that one can carry.

Feeling is as feeling does though...is this why we are experiencing things dualistically (most of us that is)? We have mind/body splits. Mind is seeing the reflection of reality, yet is also part of it. The mirror that is dust proof suggests unity. So then this is Buddha mind, which was always under the dust. The dust acts as a filter, blocking out or skewing the true light of reality. What is then perceived is a shadow realm, a dream world. And yet! Regardless of how incorrect my perceptions of reality are, they are still neat and enjoyable. I would tend towards believing that as mind approaches clear seeing, Samsara turns into Nirvana. Samsara/Nirvana both composed of the same essence, yet it is an issue of polarity and spinning. Change the spin, and then you win! But! Let us not be attached to bliss. For attachment is a cross to bear, which drives one in ways that, while fair (or foul), might create a disharmonious body state of seeking, hunger, grasping, which shortens the life span by degrees. Seeking ease is a dis-ease. Mind is the culprit of all these things...so I say that mind is the grasper - its tentacles reaching forward and backwards for the root of its misery - ignorance.... As ignorance is the root of suffering, and mind's job is to destroy ignorance, it is both our savior and our harbinger of sorrows, for in these paths we tread, hither and wither are we led towards completion through using the very tool which causes us much angst. The beauty of it all is that suffering is also bliss, simply flipped.

We were just talking about the relationships between emotions and feelings today in a class I was taking. Emotion is the physiological experience, accompanied by various body effects, and feeling is the awareness of said emotion. The feeling is the knowing of it, and then mind takes that knowing and classifies it. This is the not really knowing, but symbolic representation of the knowing. In order to stay in the state of true and direct knowing, mind must be silent, otherwise one is simply knowing mind, not reality. EDIT: Makes me think that emotion corresponds to LDT, feeling to MDT, and cognition to UDT. Models models everywhere, and not a direct knowing of reality to drink. Yet we are directly knowing mind (I think?). Mind is a reality, yet not the external one (dualistically speaking)..

here's a better one There goes a buttered bun dripping sugar coated yum!

This makes me think of whips and their advantage. They could be disguised as belts or necklaces...

That would be an interesting thread - describe times where one was not aware of reality and almost got hurt because of it. Example: One time, cycling home from work on my 'usual path,' I cycle by a car with the rear passenger window open. As I pass by, a mean vicious snarling dog sticks his head out and startles the fradoodles out of me..I almost crashed my bike, because I was in a mind world. If I had been on the brink I would have barely blinked a lash of an eye. How is that for a Dharma Bell? EDIT: relationship to thread topic...I got so mad because I almost wiped out on my bike, that I wished that I had had some pepper spray on me...I think the association memory of carrying weapons and the need to be more aware confluenced me here...anyways, a few days later I went out and bought some pepper spray....

I want to get some studded leather arm braces made...one could block a baseball bat with the right set.

All beings exist in all locations, in all times, experiencing all things at once. So I've heard at least Yet we also have the nodal experience, which is what we are mostly aware of....yet one can be aware of anything one desires, if one applies oneself.