Songtsan

I get cognitive dissonance even coming to this site. I have a bit of an addiction to internet forums. There are many good things about sites like these, but I am prone to excessiveness. Anything done in excess gets more negative as time goes on. Having an absolute attitude towards anything is often a symptom of poor judgment.

Such as Swami Muktananda, who when he was eighty years old, had a concubine from India who was only 16 years old, and who had drilled holes in certain walls so he could spy on the women changing in the shower. He also had some of his devotees give him oral sex as he was getting a massage. Also there is Adi Da - who's sexual misuse of power was legendary. Guru abuse is legendary, and is probably related to the fact that these gurus had achieved such high levels of dopamine, etc. in their brains from spiritual practice that they thought that whatever they did was divine because high dopamine levels can easily make one believe that whatever one does is right. Take it from one who knows from experience.

Also, it would generate extra bliss to imagine your ejaculate as being divine sperm related to amrita nectar which has divine qualities enabling it to penetrate/flow up into the uterus past the cervix and through the divine fallopian tubes into the divine ovaries and magically impregnating divine eggs. Use divine colors as well - gold, glowing white, etc. of your choice in order to divinize everything. Similarly, make the penis divine, a glowing rod, etc. Also make the bodies divine - everything glowing with divine light. This is all visualization intense work, the purpose being to produce as much ecstasy as possible. I think that when the cycle starts becoming automated, you could even fuse everything into a glowing column of light which is connected at the genitals, and reconnected up top either at the third eye, or at crown chakra. Use the Vajrasattva combo imagery to embellish.

I have similar issues...what I found was that the very lack of spontaneity I had created in my life was the cause of stagnation. You are not in accord with the Tao when you plan your entire day from start to finish every day. You must become wu wei - actionless action, directionless direction. There are always fun things to do when you are spontaneous. Also you shouldn't judge anything as bad. PC games can be just as enlightening when you enter them with awareness and intent to become super-conscious. The trick is not to fall into patterns - not to create patterns. This just creates a cubicle-ism. We don't live on an assembly line. As the Zen folk say: sleep when tired, eat when hungry. Not sleep at such-and-such a time, eat at such-and-such a time. Maintain full awareness, become a child of illusion, play every second of every day. Nothing you do should be work (even if it is), everything should occur in the spirit of divine play.

They say that vivid dreams can often be due to excessive serotonin levels. Serotonin is in fact a very similar chemical to many of the tryptamine hallucinogens. Also, they say that people who get depressed often often have vivid dreams, and they think that this is because they are burning through a lot of their serotonin at night while dreaming.

Also, they may be somewhat associated with deja vu experiences...there seems be some similarities at least.

I think that any object has an immediate emotional effect upon becoming percieved. For example, I am looking at my toothbrush right now as I am typing...there is a faint/subtle yet palpable feeling state associated with it which I believe to be associative in quality. It has something to do with it being a health object I think, and also something to do with it being a duty to brush my teeth every day, so it is a feeling of positive affect, coupled with a feeling of serious duty, which sometimes if I am in the 'wrong' mood, can be associated with unpleasantness. These associative mood states are often the tip of an iceburg, representing deeply held associative mind maps. The pleasure/pain duality is never absolute, in my opinion. I have debated this before on this site at some point. One can never be 100% in suffering state, or 100% in pleasure state, until one actually transcends dualities altogether. So no matter what there will always be a sliver of some enjoyment even in the harshest acts, or a sliver of some pain in the most hedonistic of acts. For the first case, a possible example is this: Someone comes up and slaps you in the face...to most people this would be unpleasant, but in some small sense, I think that it would create a feeling of surprised wake-up, perhaps even a subtle thrill at the unexpectedness of it. For the second case, lets say you are in the throes of orgasm...very pleasurable and in fact one of the top feelings for most people. Yet deep underneath will be a tiny bit of suffering in most people, namely the subconscious knowledge that this wonderful state will soon end. It all depends on the level of absorption of course. If one is truly one-pointed, then no duality will exist. Few reach this level however. I can say from personal experience that everything I have stated here is true. In a dualistic mind-state, one can never be 100% polarized in any one direction. Love/hate, pleasure/pain, good/bad...there will always be some of the other, even if it is 1%

that and its all a personal choice, as to whether or not to accept within oneself that something is wrong/right...also none of us choose 100% what we feel/think about something. We are programmed by our parents/peers/society to view things as right or wrong. Only a very enlightened person will be able to rid themselves of such conditioning. Or a sociopath simply won't give a damn what anyone else thinks.

It has to do with location...everyone has multiple animal signs...so your son is both a wood monkey and a metal monkey... I myself am Fire Dragon, Wood Tiger, Fire Snake, and Metal Monkey...there are also Yin/Yang polarities...I think my dragon and snake are Yang, my Tiger is Yin, and I don't remember the Monkey...

If I find myself shirking my duty, I say to myself "Never not do something out of laziness!" then i go do it. I also say: 'I am a master of my mind and my body'

I think yes, because clearing the channels frees trapped energy, which would mean that you have more energy for concentration - more power equals the ability to break through misconceptions and achieve gnosis.

Actually you can - I have done it before - love can mix with anything. I love sadness and I love hate. This is actually the way to transcend these emotions. Divinize everything (if you so choose). Be a divine hater. I've been doing it for years. Proof is in the pudding. Pain and exhaustion often are attached to emotional suffering - shrinking away, attachment/negative-attachment, etc. Emotions simply are - they can come from anything...values, pain, mundane experiences. Every moment of every day, everything thing we perceive is slightly touched with an emotion.

It isn't and can never be that simple. For example, in the Jain religion, it is considered wrong to kill any animal, even insects. Some of the practitioners actually wear these little face masks over their mouth nose so that they don't accidentally inhale an insect and create karma. They believe it is a sin - do you? Your wrong may be my right and vice versa. As Stosh indicated in the post above, there is no actual wrong/right within the Tao. It is in fact very complex.

I think sin is especially when we choose to do something which we know will make us feel guilty and we know other people in general will see as wrong. Does a sociopath sin? Supposedly they feel nothing wrong with even the darkest of deeds...surely they gain karma, but is sin something that is self-defined, or is sin something that is group defined? I am sure that there are some things that I am perfectly fine with, such as having same gender relations, that others would consider sin. To me that is not sin, but to others they are. Also, in times of war, the proscription against killing is removed in certain circumstances - it is now socially approved - group consensus says its no longer a sin.

You may forgive me if you like, and I will forgive you back...

It sounds logical...what I like is when you get those sudden memories out of nowhere that you haven't thought of for years, especially the ones from childhood...they really remind one of the way one used to see the world. These often come out during meditation I have noticed..might even have something to do with clearing the meridian channels.

That is why the runners high is so nice - you transcend the suffering - the body accepts it and turns it into bliss. There is a thing called 'flying' that happens to masochists in BDSM when they are getting whipped/caned/etc. Eventually the pain disappears and they go into a dissociated state that is almost like astral travel. I believe this is what happens in advanced meditation too, absorption style.

Actually I was reading a study in Psychology Today a while back, and they say that actually yes, memories are recreated every time they are recalled, on a physical level - the neurons becomes slightly restructured every time the memory matrix is accessed. So our memories actually change and evolve over time - becoming different than the real event. Fascinating!

divine! to some people the most mundane things can be spiritual - such as riding a motorcycle, or eating sushi. Personally, I aim to make everything spiritual, which for enlightened beings in the knowing, it always was/is...

Sometimes the intensity exists because you are focusing on the intensity of it...The pressure, etc. draws us in because it is novel, and this extra focus increases the intensity further....if you don't mind me asking, just what is your focus?

To measure is to compare, to compare is to label, to label is the same as judging, to judge is to define, to define is to create a mind fabrication, to fabricate with the mind is delusional. Mind fabrications are anti-reality. They are anti-Tao, anti-enlightenment. To say that anything is anything is to miss the mark. 'Sin' means 'to miss the mark.' We are all sinners!

true that...the 'what happens to your fist when you open your hand' is actually a Zen koan...it basically indicates that a 'fist' is actually a relationship, more than a separate thing.

Learn to love sadness and hate, learn to love suffering - become a masochist...then you will find bliss everywhere you are - because suffering is everwhere, every minute. I love to suffer! Somebody beat me now!

I am also a fan of Maxfield Parrish and Klimt...

If you are born in USA, then you are a metal monkey too - chinese astrology wise that is...all Americans are metal monkeys!