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I finally got accepted into my Vipassana retreat in early August!!! For those of you that don't know what Vipassana is it's basically an ancient Buddhist ritual where you meditate for ten or more hours a day, for ten days straight. I was just wondering if anyone in the forum has done this before or done anything similar so I know what to expect. Btw, I got the idea for this from an old post on Mantak Chia's stuff. The person reccomended this as a way to start a spiritual path.

Here is a cool BBC Documentary entitled "The Life of the Buddha"- [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFbjDcz_CbU[/media ]

The Aquarian Gospel- Jesus Christ's Lost Years in India and Tibet Uncanny similarities between the Teachings of Jesus Christ and the Teachings of the Buddha. Really they are not as geographically as far from each other as people often realize- Jesus in the Himalayas- The Aquarian Gospel- http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/agjc/index.htm The Aquarian Gospel based on Archaeological and Historical finds covers the "Lost Years" of Jesus Christ's life. The time from when he was 12-30 years old. The bible does not say anything about him or what he did during those years. Now modern Archaeologists are determining that Jesus went to the East during those years, to India and Tibet. He even had people coming to him from the east when he was born, the 3 wise men came a long ways to see him when he was born Hollywood takes action hero Jesus to India | World news | The Guardian From Elaine Paegels, academic and scholar- http://www.essene.com/EarlyChurch/OrthodoxFromGnostic/pagels.html How far and how deep does it actually go?- http://www.atlantisrising.com/backissues/issue3/ar3dsscroll.html

Nazareth- the town theology built Video about it- It would seem that recently here a debate has sprung up about whether Jesus was an historical person, and how much of his story is true and how much is made up. Here are some interesting links which talk about an interesting issue about Jesus. What if there was no Nazareth at that time, or, what if he wasn't really there? According to historical and archaeological evidence, it did not exist historically at the time period of Jesus or until after the 4th century. While human settlements have been found in the area dating back as far as 9000 years and hardcore "Christian" historians claim them as proof of Nazareth, nothing has been found to prove the existence of an actual city called Nazareth, or even a settlement called Nazareth, at the time of Jesus. No roads,villas, theatres, and especially noteworthy....no synagogues! Modern Scholarship has found many instances where the modern bible contains bad translations from the original greek texts. One example is the mistranslation "Jesus of Nazareth". This became mistranslated into being understood as Jesus coming from the town of "Nazareth". However, modern archaeology shows that no such town existed at that time. We now know the proper translatation was "Jesus the Nazarene", meaning Jesus the Essene. The Essenes were a third group of Monastic Jews who would live in Monasteries near the Dead Sea in Jesus' day, who's teachings were at odds with those of the Saducees and Pharisees in the Jerusalem Temple of the time.- Nazareth – The Town that Theology Built Textual Analysis- History- So to be sure, Jesus did exist as a real spiritual teacher. He was an Essene teacher. An Essene teacher who was to come out and teach a bit more publically to succeed and surpass Jon the Baptist who was also an Essene. Video clips about their beliefs and life- Jesus, Jon the Baptist, and their connections to the Essenes- Information and introduction- History page 1st Century Timeline (CE 1 to 100) The Essenes were known to dress in White robes. And yet at times wore regular clothes. Some sites with info about the Essenes The Order of Nazorean Essenes Dead Sea Scrolls, Essenes - Crystalinks http://www.edgarcayce.org/are/ancient_mysteries.aspx http://www.edgarcayceaustralia.com/soul07.html http://essenes.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=310&Itemid=690 The Essenes - The Essene New Testament - The Gospel of The Holy Twelve (12) - The Gospel Of Perfect Life Actual historical acount by a scholar from the time of the Essenes. It doesn't mean everything is exactly accurate, but these historians lived in the same time period http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/josephus-essenes.asp http://www.religiousstudies.uncc.edu/JDTAB...OR/DSSEssay.htm Some historical quotes- Also, what we know from the Dead Sea Scrolls- Jesus the Nazarene Jesus Christ Teacher of Righteousness Buddha Mudras & Hand Symbolism--the Power of Mudras Part 1: What Are Mudras? Real Taoists incorporate Mudra An article talking about those types of portraits a little bit- The Human Energy Field in Relation to Science, Consciousness, and Health