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No... the thinker is the thought... more accurately, there is just the thought. But conventionally, this thought, this mind-stream, is different from that mind-stream. But that does not mean there are 'selves'. There are different mindstreams conventionally, but mindstream does not have a thinker. Just like there are different bodies, but it does not mean there is a soul apart from the body, which apparently you seem to agree earlier. Because I have woken up from a delusion without asserting something else. If I had established or asserted a new reality, it could be very well I have entered a new delusion, but I have not. I merely free myself from the views of 'is' or 'is not', but I do not assert a new reality (a new dream). I do not say Emptiness is real. Even emptiness is empty. Saying there is "no thinker" does not mean that there is a "no thinker". There is no "thinker", but also no "no thinker". I do not cling to views of existence, non-existence, emptiness, self, or no-self. The teaching of anatta and dependent origination and emptiness is like a fire that burns the stick, and in the end it disappears along with the stick, leaving.... nothing more or short of total freedom. Yet everything is still clearly vividly perceived - just nothing to cling to! When you have realized this, the teachings of emptiness by Buddha become completely clear to you... there will be no doubts. I am free from beliefs. The biggest and fundamental belief is 'is' and 'is not', of which I am freed. Because I do not hold on to views and beliefs. Nagarjuna says in Vigrahavyavartani (v. 29): . | I have no pratijna (= proposition, position) to defend. . ~ [Vg. 29. ~ If I would make any proposition whatever, then by that I would have a logical error; ~ But I do not make a proposition; therefore I am not in error.] . .............. A view is a fundamental belief one holds about reality. For example, "everything exists" (sarva asti) .... The root of both these mistaken positions is "is" and "is not" -- for example "I exist now, and I will continue to exist after death" or "I exist now but when I die I will cease to exist". ~ Loppon Namdrol At base, the main fetter of self-grasping is predicated upon naive reification of existence and non-existence. Dependent origination is what allows us to see into the non-arising nature of dependently originated phenomena, i.e. the self-nature of our aggregates. Thus, right view is the direct seeing, in meditative equipoise, of this this non-arising nature of all phenomena. As such, it is not a "view" in the sense that is something we hold as concept, it is rather a wisdom which "flows" into our post-equipoise and causes us to truly perceive the world in the following way in Nagarjuna's Bodhicittavivarana: "Form is similar to a foam, Feeling is like water bubbles, Ideation is equivalent with a mirage, Formations are similar with a banana tree, Consciousness is like an illusion." ... "In other words, right view is the beginning of the noble path. It is certainly the case that dependent origination is "correct view"; when one analyzes a bit deeper, one discovers that in the case "view" means being free from views. The teaching of dependent origination is what permits this freedom from views. The teaching of dependent origination is what permits this freedom from views." ~ Loppon Namdrol

That is correct,...for you, there is not yet any proof that what I've been pointing to is proof of anything. Quite bluntly, this is because you are not aware of a single truth. Once you become aware of a single truth, this conversation will shift exponentially. A truth is that which points to a non-condition, non-concept, to something, so to say, that never changes,...for example, that There is No Present in Time. Within my posts here is a consistant striving to use pointers. Hui Neng,...he became enlightened after hearing one sentence (of words)from a Master,..."Depending upon no-thing, you must find your own mind." That is a pointer to uncover barriers of seeing. My wish is to commune on levels beyond what many consider ineffible. There is nothing that is ineffible,...but to embrace that, means letting go of alot of beliefs. "Your own Mind" is not the thinking mind, the so-called mind of ego,...it is the Mind of Unborn Awareness. You do not lack this Unborn Awareness,...you do not lack anything,...it's merely obscured by an attachment to the senses and skandhas. There is no Present in time. The dream is fully within time,...there is no present in the dream. "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists." And yet, as Osho said "We condemn the real and we enforce the unreal, because the unreal is going to be helpful in an unreal society and the unreal is going to be convenient…A child is born in a society, and a society is already there with its fixed rules, regulations, behaviors and moralities which the child has to learn. When he/she will grow he/she will become false. Then children will be born to him/her, and he/she will help make them false, and this goes on and on." V

Have already discussed this. D.O. is a pointer to the realization of Shunyata and Maha as a natural state. The realization of Shunyata and Maha is completely non-conceptual. It is not a view, it is freedom from all views. Even those at "I AM" makes the statement. Even those at substantial non-duality makes the same statement. What you have to realize is that it is the realization of the twofold emptiness that liberates you from inherent view. When you are liberated from inherent view, you are free from the constructs/concepts of 'is' and 'is not' - and therefore being free from such constructs, you are left with the suchness of experience. But what is essential is the realization of the twofold emptiness. Because you can have non-dual experience and realization... you can have non-conceptual experiences, and talk about 'suchness'. Whether before realization, or after 'I AM', or after substantial non-duality... people all talk about Suchness and deem it as highest. But they are unable to overcome inherent views, and they had ample non-conceptual experiences but non-conceptual experiences does not liberate - only realization does. Anyway when you realize anatta one striking thing (like all previous realizations) is how free of constructs and conceptualization and direct it is - I mean what more direct can be 'in seeing just seen, in hearing just heard' etc. Anatta, emptiness, etc are non-conceptual realizations. There is no such thing as an anatta view or emptiness view. Maybe to the unenlightened, they understand it intellectually and hold them to be a view. When you realize it, they are not views at all... it is just a non-conceptual realization that causes you to drop all views, without leaving even a 'anatta/shunyata view'. Just like you wake up from a dream of chasing monsters means 'full stop'. Freedom. Awakeness. You don't create another dream of 'no chasing monsters'. All concepts - body, i am my body, i am my mind, i am ... All come down to a basic misperception of 'is' and 'is not' due to not comprehend the emptiness of self and objects. It is not the gross concepts 'I am so and so...' that is the problem - it is the underlying view and belief that 'I Am' is a truth. Buddha calls it 'the conceit of I Am'. Therefore it is a view, and from which stems other grosser conceptualizations and thoughts like 'I am such and such'... but when you cease conceptualizations, you realize and experience a bare naked fact of being and awareness to be the luminous essence of mind, you still do not overcome that view of 'I Am' - in fact that bare naked non-dual fact of presence and awareness is then quickly reified as the pure I AMness even without that thought of I AM, in other words we still cling to it as an independent and unchanging essence. People generally call this the 'I AM' prior to 'I am this and that' - the I AM prior to concepts. And those who realize this tend to treat this as ultimate, so they spend all their effort trying to abide as that non-conceptual, non-dual Self. There is realization and experience of the non-conceptual luminous essence, but not the empty nature. By not realizing anatta, i.e. in seeing just the seen, in hearing just the heard, we conceive of some independent, separate, unchanging self that is behind and perceiving things... some kind of independent agent. This view can only be dissolved by realization, no other ways. Those who have realization of luminosity will say this - even at I AM level, or substantial non-dual level, much less anatta insight. But they have not overcome inherent view so aren't liberated. You aren't being clear about what causes liberation... it is not as simple as being non-conceptual. If not, any people who realized I AM or even the ordinary mindfulness therapy teacher would have attained anuttarasamyaksambodhi. I can remember always talking about the non-conceptual truth of presence, ungraspable by any concepts or thoughts, 'suchness', when I first attained self-realization over a year ago. ...are not the problem. You aren't being honest if you say you don't make use concepts and thoughts in daily lives. At the same time it is possible not to confuse concepts and thoughts as simply useful and convenient tools, with actual experience. i.e. abstract concepts like 'nature', 'weather', 'wind' are useful for communication but there is no inherent nature-ness, weather-ness, wind-ness, car-ness, self-ness, etc. "Conceptual thoughts are in nature great awareness" - Milarepa Precisely. And you can only get entangled in concepts when you posit a truth or reality 'is' or 'is not' to those labels, concepts, conventions. Otherwise it is like useful conventions - weather, wind, river, but there is nothing to grasp - literally... then you can use concepts but not be 'used' by them. No, there is no eternal now. There is no now. There is no ground. There is literally nothing that abides. My blog name is a bad hippie nick created by a friend in 2004 in sgforums (actually he just called it that because he thought he sounded cool but he didn't know it has 'spiritual connotations'), which I then overtook his account along with the Buddhist forum shortly after. I kept that name elsewhere because people recognized that name. The Diamond Sutra says, “The past mind cannot be grasped; the present mind cannot be grasped; the future mind cannot be grasped.” Even without concepts, people still cling to an inherent Now-ness. Why? Attachments lie deeper than gross conceptualizations. Even though Now is just a belief, a thought, people generally don't recognize that. Just like 'Self', 'Awareness', etc. They see that Now, Self, Awareness are inherently existing and independent, whether we have thoughts or not. So they kept referring back to this sense of Now-ness, Self-ness, Aware-ness. They can get very grounded and very non-conceptual, but they are unable to overcome the view of inherency. Staying thoughtless, non-conceptual, and abiding in samadhi all day isn't going to help either. Some people can abide in non-dual, non-conceptual samadhi all day and still not realize and overcome the view of inherency. What is required for liberation is realization into the twofold emptiness. Bad bad hearer. Which is just a method. Satipatthana is a gradual method, albeit one that does lead to true experience and insight. JK talks about nondual experience but there is no clarity about realization of anatta in what he said there - though some of the stuff he said is quite good.

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I had a dream about just this the other day. Basically the message was that everyone who had ever done what I'd done on the 'path' I'd followed got the same result. Methinks this is why it's called 'lineage'. Still, it is pretty interesting, I think (oh rats, not supposed to that apparently )

Isn't the title of this thread rather strange? I can think of plenty of excellent reasons NOT to commit suicide!! And none of 'm are driven by those 3 yukky words. (not that your point was not clear, but the title just seems odd, is all) Never make feeble attempts to live your life according to other people's standards and expectations. Its going to be futile. Live according to your own standards. If you do not have one set up, then the usual alternative would be to hitch onto other people's, and what happens then is that they will swarm all over you, not with any malicious intent, because they think they are doing you a favor, and that is when all the conditions arise for you to get all messed up inside. There does not seem to be a third alternative, is there? Whenever we feel down in the dumps, its a harsh reminder that some of our priorities need immediate scrutiny and some radical changes made if necessary. An examined life is a life of virtue, as they say. Anyway, i really hope you can discover some up-beat reasons why life is precious and to be cherished. Maybe one good thing to do for those who really think their lives have become meaningless is to exchange their existence with one of those innumerable numbers of people in Somalia who are literally clinging desperately to life. This way, at least someone, just one even, out of the hundreds of thousands, who appreciates life gets a chance to realize their dream. I understand you may be hurting, but there are always choices available where you do not have to push yourself to the precipice in order to exercise them. Pray you will find a way thru'.

Surely,...understanding time is not required for anything,...anymore than understanding anything that is part of the illusion. I never said understanding time is important,...I said, There is no Present in Time,...which is more irrefutable than saying the Earth revolves the Sun. To critique your post further,...there is nothing to discover, only to uncover,...which I feel you could agree with. There is nothing to learn,...but to unlearn,...although a minimum of re-training is necessary to bridge the massive amounts of conditioning that cerebral-centric entities are weighed down by. Although "notions" are better than no notions, the realization of 'When' you are is not a concept. Shakyamuni himself did not breakthrough to Who he was, until he realized the Middle Way,...that is, When he is was. When you hear Middle Way, picture standing on the fulcrum of a see-saw. You are not who you think you are,...thinking can NEVER uncover who you are. The Heart-Mind can uncover it,...but first you need to uncover the Heart-Mind. No one, that I've ever heard of, who has a fully open Heart-Mind, is unaware of When they are,...again,...not the you that you think you are, but the you that you are. Just as "hope" can keep you from ever uncovering anything meaningful,....the attention or looking as to 'When' you are, can by itself, invite more and more of the Permanent Self into this dream, so that this dream of 3D reality is seen more and more lucidly. Recognition of Heart-Mind does indeed depend on realizing 'When' you are,...they are inseparatable. You are obviously having difficulty understanding that. The you that you think you are does want such a thing as accepting a non-condition (that is, When), for to see 'When' will kill the idea of the 'i Think.' The Heart-Mind isn't like inventing a god,...which humanity usually contrives to be like themselves, or some attributes to admire, from a cerebral-centric point of view. The Heart-Mind is about the Unconditional,...the conditions of the 'i Think' cannot enter. Wasn't it Voltaire that said, if cockroaches had a god, he'd be a big and powerful cockroach. You can fight my posts all you wish,...but that is not going to enable you to "put the 'i think' before the I Am, and let the you that you think you are into the Heart-Mind. The 'i Think' belongs to time, and can only witness time,...like the senses can only see movement. Understanding the "nature of thought and [sensory] experience" is as helpful as understanding time,...from an ego point of view. Realizing 'When" you are however, is as a quantum leap onto a wholly different dimension. From reading your posts, I'm quite confident you'll be noticing the When of you, pretty soon,...in this lifetime. V

Hey guys, its been a while since I have posted, so seeing this topic has really sparked a flame within. Old Green- I too have a very similar view on this topic. Since you are about to leave college I am guessing that you and I are close in age (I am 23). I started to become interested in buddhism/daoism when I was about 19; before that I considered myself to be "Christian", so one can only imagine the transformation of thought once I started learning of these taboo eastern philosophies. Anyways, around this time I started to get extremely impassioned for nature. I grew up spending a lot of time outdoors with my dad hiking, fishing, camping, etc., but just sort of drifted away from nature for a while in my teens. Once I moved out on my own, I started to camp and hike again pretty frequently, and just fell in love with the great outdoors once again. Somewhere during this period, I read the book "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer, and then later saw the movie with Emile Hirsche and Vince Vaughn. If you are not familiar with the story, it is about a guy named Christopher McCandless who is a free-spirited hippy type who invests much of his interests in the writings of the great Romantics, such as Thoreau, Emerson, Jack London, Lord Byron and the like. He graduates from a prestigious university and decides to sell all his things and abandon society. He travels around the U.s. with nothing but a few basic items in search for a greater purpose for being. His dream was to go to Alaska and live off of the land, and finally reaches his goal. He lives there in the wilderness for a time, but the great Wild turns out to be a far greater beast than he could tame, and he meets his demise by eating poisonous berries and starving to death.... Anyways, after this story had fully permeated my soul and mind, I wanted just what he wanted. This lust for freedom and my growing passion for nature and the Eastern arts completely possessed my thoughts for a time. I wanted to load up my pack and hike off into the woods to live and meditate. This dream lasted for a while and then just went kind of dormant as I was once again sucked into the perpetual motion of society. Well about a year later I lost a job, and found myself with a lot of free time. I thought I was gaining more knowledge about mediation, and thought that I was starting to crack some real spiritual truths. A friend contacted me and asked if I wanted to go camping at one of my old stomping grounds deep in the mountains. It was a place about 15 miles from the nearest town, and was the site of many youth camping trips with my father. I eagerly accepted and started packing up all the gear I had. When we arrived and set up camp, I had a strange feeling of just being "home", like this was the place I was supposed to be. We all camped for a couple of nights and then my friends decided they were ready to go. I thought about this for a while, and then with all the passion and intent that had been welling up inside of me, I told them to leave me.--- Now keep in mind that I had no money, a scarce amount of food and was in blackbear country.--- They argued with me for a time, but I persisted, and they turned and walked out of the vast summer forest. I had finally done what I had been intending to do for the past few years. Ok Ill make this story a bit shorter... So I stayed in the woods for three weeks. I rationed what food I had, and fished in the nearby stream when I ran out. I meditated, prayed, hiked, encountered numerous bears and foxes, climbed waterfalls... I was completely free for a time. But closer to the end of my stay, I started to come to the realization that I could not run from society forever and that no matter where I was I would never find fulfillment until I had come face to face with the false being within. No external circumstance could satisfy my hunger for a greater purpose. I realized that everything worthwhile was already inside of me. All the knowledge in the world and all the great mountains could never bring the wisdom and guidance that I desperately needed in my life at the time. So all that being said, I want to clarify that what I did was extremely irresponsible and very dangerous. I was young and immature and so were my decisions. I know that you are not speaking of this kind of excluded existence. I was just trying to put my silly experience into perspective. Chapter 47 of the Tao Te Ching kind of sums this up for me..."Without opening your door, you can know the whole world. Without looking out your window, you can understand the way of the Tao. The more knowledge you seek, the less you will understand. The master understands without leaving, sees clearly without looking, accomplishes much without doing anything." So loooooooong story short, I don't think it really matters where you are. I believe secluded locations can be very beneficial if your spirit is mature enough to embark on that kind of process. I still to this day travel to the mountains quite frequently to hike and meditate, but nature and the Universe taught me a valuable lesson, so I keep myself in check, no matter how inviting those hills look. So I hoped this helps to give a small perspective with my personal experience. Love and light, Matt

Yes of course it can be done ,sounds realistic enough and if that is what you are attracted to(making sure to understand the difference between attraction and escapisam is also important)- go for it. Everyone is uniqe with uniqe ability to learn and uniqe talents,threading their uniqe way. That is the beuty of existance . Living life according to ones own dreams and learning to dream counciously is a good skill which leaves no space for regrets. Try it you may like it or you may get bored very soon. Nature can be rough and unyielding and not very romantic. Feel deep inside of yourself and dont be scared to go forever opens you heart .We all live and learn. Life is actually not so serious .

The practice of 'looking for Who', is an admirable goal. The next step may be a doozy from your current point of view, however it must eventually come up before Who is uncovered. For example, every Buddha is a Tathagata,...and a Tathagata implies the realization of When. Imagine it's 1811,...you were born and raised on a farm near St Louis,...and decide to go to San Francisco. I meet you in Kansas, and tell you about the Rocky Mountains,...you could think I'm pulling your leg, or you could take note that this may be something to occur before you reach san Francisco.. I agree,..that the past has no existence except as it is recorded in the perceived present,...but the perceived present is in the past. Agsin,...the object-ive minded do not see the world that surrounds them, but only the one that surrounded them. What if, David Bohm, and other physicists aree correct,...that all matter is frozen or slowed down light. How would that affect the understanding of the vessel used in perceived existence, and the Five Skandhas which we are not? Who one is, cannot be accessed in time, which is part of the skandhas. Consider As Above, So Below. Look at a star at night (or in the daytime from a deep hole, like the Maya did),...the light you're seeing, depending on the distance, could be thousands of years in the past. Likewise, every object you see around you is in the past, albeit a shorter past,...but the past, nevertherless. This will become even more apparent when you start practicing the first Ultimate Bodhichitta,..."look at everything you perceive as a dream." Walter Russell wrote,..."Change is an illusion of the senses due to motion. There is no change whatsoever in the universe. There is only an illusion of change set up by the two interchanging lights (positive and negative) that divide and multiply within moving matter and mass. The senses are the audience for [divided] light's pulsations. The senses are a part of this illusion. Senses are electric. They belong to the universe of motion and do not respond to stillness. As motion itself is non-existent, so also are senses non-existent. The senses are but the imagined records of imagined motion, matter and change. The senses have no knowledge of what they sense. They merely record motion. The senses respond to motion in only one direction. They sense the forward flow of time but not its back-ward flow. If they could register both directions, they would become aware of the stillness of this zero universe of seeming motion." The awareness of the backward flow of forward moving things is the consciousness of a Tathagata. When our knowing exceeds our sensing, we will no longer be deceived by the illusions of our senses. V

liberation requires a quantum shift of perception. Because even if you have temporary experiences where the sense of self temporarily dissolves, as long as you still believe that the "self" is real, you will forever be back in the loop of seeing a self and trying to chase it away. Like being in a dream of monsters and trying hard to get rid of that monster in the dream not realizing it was all just a fictitious thought. In the same way, no-self does not point to an experience, does not point to temporary unitive experiences where the sense of self is temporarily forgotten (this is quite common). Rather it points to a fact about reality, and it is not a belief but it can be directly realized and verified: the fact of no self. Hearing, seeing, thinking, everything is not and cannot be denied... It is only that notion, sense of agent that must be investigated and seen through. I cannot stress how important that quantum shift of perception is... Otherwise no matter how you practice or attempt to let go of self, you can never realize that no self is already the natural state and already always so. That is, in seeing always just scenery without seer. In hearing always just sound no hearer... Etc. The view that posits "is" or "is not" with regards to a self, which means the view of inherent existence, is the cause behind all grasping. In order to treat our afflictions, we must treat it from the root - the conceit of "I am" as Buddha calls it. That conceit, that view must be thoroughly abandoned not by efforting but by realization. I have not long ago written something about the view: http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2011/07/view.html

I'm afraid Breivik's actions will realize his dream. More Fear, more distrust, more people afraid of "others". "there was no other way. He had tried all possible alternatives.He felt that his actions were gruesome, but necessary," from nobody would take any notice of me, to worldwide news Martin Bryant allegedly told a next door neighbour "I'll do something that will make everyone remember me." (Hopefully non Australians have already forgotten him ) But with a news media that just thrives on bad news and disaster, the "recognition" these people get is disgusting. What can a single person do? Solitary, isolated, and afraid. Except hide? But together... we can love, together... we can shine. Just as darkness is banished by light, hate is transformed through love.

For there to be a dream, there has to be a dreamer. Who is the dreamer? Everything that you write is a story with the assumption that there is a dreamer, someone to control the dream, a self which acts, creates, and actually has control. Who is infinite and without limits? Who is it that has woken up? These are serious questions. Please contemplate them and see what happens.

So it's all just a dream then... And then I would need to now "dream" in a more, pleasurable "enlightened" virtuous way since I now see myself as infinite and without limits? Like I'm now awoken from the nightmare now dreaming that I have a perfect healthy body healed of it's sicknesses, perfect harmonious relationships... a constant state of joy etc, my goal is now to realize and now BE this...?

Sorry. Well yeah, I know of many, but I haven't read them. I don't read much anymore, except blog boards. I just know they're out there, I've glanced over plenty at friends houses, and have had conversations, etc. I'm more of a digester... I have a hard time remembering specific pages, quotes and books. Except when it arises in my memory easily. I'm weird I guess... Namkhai Norbu has a Dream Yoga book, I purchased it though I haven't read it yet. You might try that! I've heard that it's good, LOL!

How very enigmatic! lol, I am sure there is stuff that is that you could comment on? What about In print Dream Yoga books?

Was the river Hao inside Chuang Zhu? I do know, that he had a butterfly dream, but ...

Bohr's Law does not imply that so-called observers and the observed need a human connection, as if humans effect things into perceived reality,...only cerebral-centric interpretations implied that. Buddhists and pre-Buddha Bonpa's questioned the validity of the brain thousands of years before today's mediocre quantuum physics. Even the Maya of Mespamerica, knew more about physics then today's Physicists,...for example, zero upsets the logic of today's physics, whereas the Maya understood zero spiritually. With the exception of a few physics like Hawkings and Hartle, most physicists are about as close to understanding the empirical world, as a monkey in the night squats scheming how to capture the moon. Steven Hawking and Jim Hartle, in their No-Boundary theory, said that since time loses characteristics that separate it from space, the concept of a beginning in time becomes meaningless. That is to say, there was no Big Bang, no singularity, no creation, no Creator, no beginning nor end, because there is no time. Duality's reality is not much different from the dream you had last night,...while in the dream, you believed the dream was real. informer asked,...."Is light and it's interactions objective or subjective?" That's object-ive, sciential thinking. Undivided Light does not "interact",...divided light, the illusion that is perceived to be projected within the holgraphic cube the cerebra-centric call reality, is viewed both object-ively and subject-ively by the same stuff that is the illusion. Scotty believes,..."Everything is occurring as this present moment, and I can easily think/look/experience anything in the "now"." This is irrefutably false,...unfortunately, when a falsity is told long enough it is veiwed as something other than being false,...like the millennia of people believing the Sun revolved around the Earth. Absolutely nothing that is detectable in the universe is, or has ever been, in the Present. You, cannot "think/look/experience anything in the "now",...totally impossible. Of course you can continue believing that lie,...but it will never make it true. As Eckhart Tolle said "we need to draw our attention to what is false in us, for unless we learn to recognize the false as the false, there can be no lasting transformation, and you will always be drawn back into illusion, for that is how the false perpetuates itself" V

Sure thing. I'll go along with this. --- "Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily-- Life is but a dream."

You slander name after name with not one single iota of proof to date. All you have provided are links and complaints that could have easily been forged or created from a single identity. You have accused so many different people now from elijah wilson/ kundalini/ lucas huang/ thetaobum/ (a very close friend who would never even dream of doing what you accused him of) carlo launer (another close friend and one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet) rashidismail and more It's a joke to be honest & why this cyber bullying has been tolerated on a spiritual forum so long is beyond me. All the while dragging the mopai name through the mud. You were even told to slow down from a respected mopai member not so long ago. Did you heed that advice? Your selfish actions speak a thousand words my friend.

A great book, along with "A Glimpse of Nothingness: Experiences in an American Zen Community". Anyone interested in Japanese monastic life, or dream of an American commune life, should give these a read. The author has a unique experience of both worlds, starting off his spiritual seeking by abandoning everything, and his European perspective on things makes for a poignant narrative.

Wu Wei Wu correctly said, there is no humility, only degress of pride. As far as beliving in oneself,...that is a for certain way to maintain a hollow heart. Songwriter Trent Reznor sings, Inside your heart, it is black, and its hollow, and its cold. . . . What if this whole crusade is a charade in the name of the holy and the divine. . . Are you brave enough to see . . . or so naive you keep holding on to what you want to believe? In another song, he sings, Are you sure what side youre on? . . . Feel the hollowness inside of your heart. . . . What if everything around you isnt quite as it seems. . . . What if all the world you think you know is an elaborate dream? . . . What if you could look right through the cracks? Would you find yourself afraid to see? Those are surely some upsetting lyrics for those in denial and without the courage to stand consciously in the presence of reality. Higher frequency has little to do with New Age crystals or stones,...or physical balance. Higher frequency implies clearing barriers to the light and love all people already are. Enlightenment isn't something to acquire or add,...it's about letting of ridiculousness of self-interests. Self-interest is a cancer cell. Anyway, it is obvious we are as about apart as a Christian and Buddhists. Liberal Christians often make statements like, 'deep down Buddhists are really searching for God', 'Buddhism is just a different expression of man's understanding of God', or 'Buddhists are Christians outside the church'. "Sadly, such statements are meaningless. Those kind of statements really show that Christians still wish to claim superiority for their own religion. They also show that the liberal Christian's supposed tolerance is dependent upon believing that Buddhism is just another form of Christianity. In short, it is based on a delusion. Liberal Christians will only be genuinely tolerant when they can admit that Buddhism is different from Christianity, very different, and be tolerant despite these differences." http://www.uq.net.au/slsoc/bsq/budchr0.htm#cont V

Well that was in the 90's Is it me or does it seem like the martial artist from the 90's and before trained harder than the new martial artists now? When I was a young man i trained from sun up till sun down. I sparred everyday twice a day then id train and then id go to class. My main rival and i sparred so much that even if you took 1 day off the basics it showed up in the match the next day. I remember i did this i spent the night before trying to get some new kick. For this action my footwork was so slow that i literally couldnt keep up with him. When he moved i could barley see him. At one point he was standing in front of me in a standard matched lead and then he was at my side and no longer in front of me( I didnt even see him move); at this point i stopped the match i knew his footwork was superior. I learned a good lesson from that about going off track from the basics. Now me and my former sparring partner are both middle aged and we just wonder as we watch the ufc in disgust these men are getting paid to train full time!!!! I should even be able to see them move(is how we felt). Our sparring got so good that it was on an instinct level. After sparring trying to remember what happened was like a dream you remember some parts but not all of it.

No. Rebirth doesn't matter. Nor does non-rebirth. There is no awareness, no rebirth, no wind. There is just hearing the bird, now. Not "hearing the bird, now." "Rebirth" is dead, "awareness" is dead, "wind" is dead. Typing fingers --emptiness is form. Minister Rikuko talked with Nansen. Rikuko said, "Dharma-teacher Jo said, 'Heaven and earth and I have one and the same root; all things and I are one single body.' How wonderful this is!" Nansen pointed at the flowers in the garden, called to Rikuko and said, "People of our time see these flowers as in a dream."

It could be argued that Shakyamuni was not self-lit,...considering the instruction from Sujata, which was needed for Siddhartha to unlearn the meditation techniques received by his Hindu teachers. According to Tilopa, a key to awakening in a single lifetime, is non-meditation. Basically, Short Path meditation is an activity that "tags" thoughts as thoughts so to gain access into thoughtlessness, which only occurs through effortlessness,...kind of like the "don't think of a pink elephant." To me, nothing is ineffible. Those who speak of things as being ineffible, are simply ignorant,...first, because they haven't uncovered the threshold, and two, apparently don't wish for others to uncover it. Maitreya, the Coming Buddha, born within a Red Hat family, is said to realize enlightenment (uncover her Light) in a single day. I generally agree with much of what you wrote. And no, I do not read Tibetan. However, I did translate Tilopa's Mahamudra about 30 years ago. The Ultimate Teaching - a translation by Vicente Marco 1.The Ultimate Teaching cannot be taught through the senses, however, by metamorphesizing a winged inner sense, metasensory Gnowing can reveal, this mystery to the Heart of our Essence. 2.Space is not understood, but merely perceived as That, which is filled and unfilled with form; the Ultimate Teaching is not dependent on object-ivity, the Whole can only be realized through Wholeness. 3.can a hole be defined by what's around it? that's not describing the hole; likewise, Wholeness is unrecognized outside itself, concepts and forms obscured through illusion. 4.to have a center there must be an edge, as the ambits dissolve, the center disperses with it; the here becomes meaningless without a there, then the truth of Mind is no longer unfamiliar. 5.what shape and colour is a banana? absorbing all spectral light and reflecting yellow doesn't make it yellow, while under a microscope, neither has it a shape, until we think one is there; the Mind's essence is beyond shape and form. 6.the predispositions of a thousand eons is incapable of concealing the Still HeartLight of Life; similiarly, the self-imposed cycle of suffering has no power to cloak the HeartLight of Mind's Essence. 7.there is no void nor vaccum in space, it is either defined or undefined; although the true essence of Mind is Light, that StillCauselessLight cannot be seen, only gnown. 8.the essence of Mind resembles space, in that it embraces all that is perceived; Rest, and Be a Silent Witness, for through Love's Stillness, all worlds dissolve. 9.look at the body/form through a microscope, the Mind which you do not see, transcends that Duality; Rest Effortlessly upon the hidden jewel that's you, Letting Go of object-iveness uncovers the Ultimate Teaching. 10.the HeartLight of the Ultimate Teaching cannot be revealed through New Age discourses or preceptual Scriptures, neither from the Mantravada, Paramitas or Tripitaka; the HeartLight of Mind is shrouded by concepts and whimsy's. 11.attachment to morals or immorals cloaks HeartLight's resplendence, yet by holding ones tongue still, the intellect quiets its fears and hopes; then the Causeless fulcrum is embraced, and the efforts of Duality's struggling seesaw vanish. 12.free from the bondage of beliefs, the fiction of discourse and Scripture become apparent; the Ultimate Teaching unbounds the bonds of self-repression, useless suffering and useless pleasure fad away, and the DiamondLight of the Ultimate Teaching glistens authentically. 13.ancestral fear driven zealots deride the Ultimate Teaching, theirs is a life not experienced directly, always viewed from a predisposed past and anticipatory future; Real Compassion and Teachers do not avoid, when either touches your Heart, ecstasy will unfurl. 14.Joy is realized only by Letting Go of the desire for Joy; desires arise from ordinary knowledge, they want for things which are not; In Reality, everything already is. 15.transcending the effects of Duality, all struggle ceases, the Still Nowness of Life reveals the HeartLight of Mind; embraced by zero, the origin of ecstasy where fear filled pasts and hope laden futures never existed. 16.Mind and Truth are synonymous to seek truth is to believe there is a lie; the intent of a path is to get, not to Let Go. 17.Enslaved to illusion and its transient conditions, Duality, is like a projection on a theaters screen; belief in the dream entanges the believer in a space-time construct, yet nature's melody does not exist outside of things. 18.renouncing all social and moral rules, liking nothing, hating nothing, and repiring in amoral innocense; aware of Effortlessness is the Sly Man's way to uncovering who we are; walking without footprints, the Ultimate Teaching is realized. 19.we divide life into self and not self, the here and there, subject and object; and then try to intregrate illusion with reality; Enlightenment is the awareness that there is no Duality. 20.Light is not seen, only the conditions which keep it obscure are seen; the Light at the Heart of Essence has no beginning nor end; zero dimension, razer of logic, is the Holder of the Whole, through Original Mind, the illusion of motion is evident. 21.Truth is not a path, but a Stillness, a passivity not realized through concepts; concepts are derived and inferred from perception, perception validates only illusion, not Truth. 22.there is nothing to discover, but only to uncover, positive and negative do not exist outside intellect; all situations are neutral and impersonal, in CauselessNowness the Ultimate Teaching becomes clear. 23.Perception sees itself as the center of the universe blindly seeking a complete unification with separation; identification with the universe is an attachment to the dream. 24.Divested cogitation can gaze upon the Original Thought, divesting useless suffering invites Peace, divesting useless happiness welcomes Love; fear clings to past as hope clings to future. 25.The nature of a river meanders, reposes, curves and winds, yet because Nowness is believed to be useless, predisposition demands that the current follow you, instead of you flow-ing with it, through that behavior, fulfillment remains elusive. 26.Triggering transformational experience is not difficult; Connected Breathing, when activated, can jump-start an atrophied thymus, Fixed Gazes, with auric vision, can open time to be seen as one, holding the tongue still, can bring Stillnes to thought. 27.Through unfeigned surrender, HeartLight itself, resplendently springs its metanoia; clear rapture coalesces from tranquility and insight, a continuum of awakenings dawn real Compassion, thus Birthing Human Beingness; Ascension is merely the Letting Go of the descension. 28.Then gaining long-life and eternal youth, waxing like the moon, Radiant and clear, with the strength of a lion, You will quickly gain mundane power and suprem enlightenment. May this Ultimate Teaching, Remain in the hearts of fortunate beings. V