is it possible to hurt yourself by meditating?

[ralis]

I would like to add to this thread about the ungrounded religious followers in my town. I know any number of Hindu, Advaita and Buddhist adherents that are unable to cope with life work and family. There seems to be a weak and ungrounded constitution among many of these followers.

[Vajrahridaya]

 

In terms of the happy blissed out Tibetan citizen living prior to the cultural revolution, I believe that is an illusion. Life was hard living at an average elevation of 12,000 feet, with short growing seasons, short life spans, disease and no knowledge of sanitation. If as you claim, that Buddhism has absolute knowledge of the workings of the cosmos, then knowledge of bacteria and disease would be second hand.

 

Of course you would have all these thoughts ralis, it's reflective of your lack of real investigation transcending your own upbringing.

 

I've read plenty of autobiographies from various Tibetans, both Vajra Masters and common folk. They say something different from your Western minded projections, which you are welcome to by the way. Yes, life was hard... but their depth of faith and practice made them softer.

 

While you seem harder due to the way you seem to live from your Western construction. This is merely my assumption based upon what I've seen of you here.

 

I'll live more from my right side of the brain, balancing with the left and you can try to do the opposite as that's your prerogative.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Vajrahridaya

[Vajrahridaya]

In your view, dissolving and deconstructing are the same. The process leading to the rainbow body is both dissolving and deconstructing. Why? The component parts of the body have been transformed to light and only the hair and nails are left. The structure of the body is gone. Therefor, deconstructed.

 

No, the philosophy is deconstructing, but the experience is dissolving and illuminating through relaxing into the radiance of the elements, and not just physical relaxation either but psychological all through the layers of personal consciousness.

[ralis]

Of course you would have all these thoughts ralis, it's reflective of your lack of real investigation transcending your own upbringing.

 

 

The whole right left brain idea is bogus. I use my whole brain. BTW, you know nothing of my upbringing!

 

I have a friend who is Tibetan and he loathes the Tibetan way of life. That is why he lives here!

 

Romanticizing a third world culture is seeing through rose colored glasses.

Edited January 10, 2011 by ralis

[Sunya]

The whole right left brain idea is bogus. I use my whole brain.

 

Quite true. If you only lived in your left brain then you wouldn't be able to move the left side of the body, which would be quite a shame.

[Vajrahridaya]

The whole right left brain idea is bogus. I use my whole brain. BTW, you know nothing of my upbringing!

 

Of course you use your whole brain. The metaphor is merely referencing the association of logic vs. intuition, of which the two should be in balance. I was mostly saying that your heart doesn't seem very open at all. I was trying to be nice about it though.

 

I don't know about your upbringing, just what you bring up in here which must reflect something of your conditioning.

 

I have a friend who is Tibetan and he loathes the Tibetan way of life. That is why he lives here!

 

Oh sure! There are plenty of individuals from any walks of life with individual opinions about things. Does he have an avid interest in Tibetan Buddhism, it's goals, and practices?

 

Romanticizing a third world culture is seeing through rose colored glasses.

 

You are free to eat the fruit of your perspective and I'll eat mine. Your take on Tibet as a "third world culture" from your chair sitting in a world filled with obesity, depression and suicide, where we spend most of our taxes on weaponry and personal money on pleasure seeking is quite reflective of your state of mind. Thank you for that clarity. I'm very glad I don't know you in person.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Vajrahridaya

[Vajrahridaya]

Quite true. If you only lived in your left brain then you wouldn't be able to move the left side of the body, which would be quite a shame.

 

That's left moves the right and right the left.

[Sunya]

That's left moves the right and right the left.

 

I know. If you lived in your left then you would only be moving your right side and not the left.

[Sunya]

 

Second, your projections are funny! Like a child grasping at a toy placed on a shelf too high above his head, unable to reach it and play with it, he tells stories to himself about what it might be like and in his innocent naiveté, believes these self made stories to be true.

 

 

 

Could you please stop doing that? Your god karma is coming out. Not very helpful if you want others to you openly

Edited January 10, 2011 by Sunya

[Kali Yuga]

Of course you would have all these thoughts ralis, it's reflective of your lack of real investigation transcending your own upbringing.

 

I've read plenty of autobiographies from various Tibetans, both Vajra Masters and common folk. They say something different from your Western minded projections, which you are welcome to by the way. Yes, life was hard... but their depth of faith and practice made them softer.

 

I'll live more from my right side of the brain, balancing with the left and you can try to do the opposite as that's your prerogative.

God I love you Vajra.

 

All your arguments fantasize everything Tibetan and vajrayana to the point where it is the answer to EVERYTHING. . and belittling everything western as well, flawed. you're throwing out the baby with the bathwater. and i would bet my bottom dollar you have a posting addiction as well, because you break up what could easily be a single post into five or six.. I've never seen anyone multipost that much anywhere in times so short as yours. which would be a good indicator of a fragile ego, and a self identification with the words you say - the need to be right and lack of strength to be wrong. That is the lacking of the very first realization on the spiritual path - that you are not the mind. There is nothing to prove.

 

I don't post that much but I've read a lot of your posts. The normal conversation goes on until someone disagrees with you, and what do you do afterwards? you claim it is only because "they have not investigated the nature of their mind, their faulty" worldview. you are intellectually belittling people all the time, and put anything tibetan on a pedestal. I'm even surprised people tolerate it.

 

Honestly, we do appreciate your knowledge on tibetan and buddhist philosophy. you would be the guy I would ask if I wanted to learn anything about that.

 

However, i am quite sure you have a deep clinging issue.. which is why you feel the need to so vehemently defend what isn't being the issue at hand, and have to make sure that everybody knows that we all are deluded - and that only your version of what buddhism is is the real stuff. in short you are a buddhist nerd without the emotional maturity that it takes to be a real buddhist. you remind me of drewhempel.

 

But oh wait! What is that you say vaj? I'm wrong? and why? because its my worldview! its my mind! i can't escape! only by doing what you do can we be free! yadda yadda etc. we've all heard it before.

 

If you were a true teacher you would level with other people in order to guide their experience; work with their heart. but all you seem to do is rant. you can't expect people to take you seriously if all you do is dance around their arguments and tell them that they're wrong because their heads aren't working properly.

 

You said you became humble but that doesn't demonstrate proper humility. compassion, interpersonal understanding, and loving kindness are the things you have to work on if you want to practice what you preach. The buddha surely had an awesome consciousness, but remember that his forte was his love, his understanding of the human heart, and his inclination to help others. Don't accuse me of not being those things either because I make no claims here. I'm not one who's claiming to have experienced major buddha insights here.

 

I'll leave you to get back to doing what you do best. have fun.

[ralis]

 

 

 

 

 

You are free to eat the fruit of your perspective and I'll eat mine. Your take on Tibet as a "third world culture" from your chair sitting in a world filled with obesity, depression and suicide, where we spend most of our taxes on weaponry and personal money on pleasure seeking is quite reflective of your state of mind. Thank you for that clarity. I'm very glad I don't know you in person.

 

I am not going to teach you about classification of cultures. Go to the library and find a Sociology 101 or Anthropology 101 text. That is what I am referring to which is not a personal opinion.

Edited January 10, 2011 by ralis

[Sunya]

ralis, did you know that in China they treated and prevented the h1n1 virus with TCM and herbs? I wouldn't call out traditional medicine as backwards in anyway. Properly integrated with modern medicine, it can be very useful.

[Vajrahridaya]

God I love you Vajra.

 

All your arguments fantasize everything Tibetan and vajrayana to the point where it is the answer to EVERYTHING. . and belittling everything western as well, flawed.

 

That's not my perspective! I think there are soooo many positive things about Western society. When I say ralis is Western, I mean overly so, in that sense that he is flawed in his judgement of less materialistically developed countries that are more spiritually developed. The West is far more materialistically developed in both positive and negative ways, and I think the East needs to be balanced by it as the West needs Eastern spirituality to balance it out, kind of like the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

 

you're throwing out the baby with the bathwater. and i would bet my bottom dollar you have a posting addiction as well, because you break up what could easily be a single post into five or six.. I've never seen anyone multipost that much anywhere in times so short as yours. which would be a good indicator of a fragile ego, and a self identification with the words you say - the need to be right and lack of strength to be wrong. That is the lacking of the very first realization on the spiritual path - that you are not the mind. There is nothing to prove.

 

I multi-task on the computer. So, actually... you can project your Freudian ideas all over me if you want, but you really don't know the nuances of my home situation or my time. Plus yes, at times I post something, then I think of something that is clarifying. If that's a fragile ego to you... so be it!! I'm fragile and breakable, bendable and burnable. I am just a Buddhist, not a Buddha.

 

I don't post that much but I've read a lot of your posts. The normal conversation goes on until someone disagrees with you, and what do you do afterwards? you claim it is only because "they have not investigated the nature of their mind, their faulty" worldview. you are intellectually belittling people all the time, and put anything tibetan on a pedestal. I'm even surprised people tolerate it.

 

Actually, there have been many mistakes in Tibetan culture, as well as over argumentation, segregation and I could go on and on about the negative things that have happened culturally in Tibet over it's centuries. I just don't focus on the problems, even though I know they were there and focus on what is good for me and what I feel society in general could benefit from. Vajrayana should be preserved and Tibet preserved it during a time when it virtually disappeared in India. I'm not trying to preserve the mistakes the masses made, anywhere.

 

 

But oh wait! What is that you say vaj? I'm wrong? and why? because its my worldview! its my mind! i can't escape! only by doing what you do can we be free! yadda yadda etc. we've all heard it before.

 

Well sure you've heard it, but...

 

It could just be your limited perspective.

 

 

I'll leave you to get back to doing what you do best. have fun.

 

Thanks!

Edited January 10, 2011 by Vajrahridaya

[ralis]

ralis, did you know that in China they treated and prevented the h1n1 virus with TCM and herbs? I wouldn't call out traditional medicine as backwards in anyway. Properly integrated with modern medicine, it can be very useful.

 

I have no doubt about TCM if properly practiced. I have had great results from Chinese medicine. However, I don't think Tibetan medicine will revolutionize medicine here as Vajraji wants to believe.

[Vajrahridaya]

I am not going to teach you about classification of cultures. Go to the library and find a Sociology 101 or Anthropology 101 text. That is what I am referring to which is not a personal opinion.

 

Exactly my point. This is your conditioning. All this popularly excepted BS passed on as objective fact in school after school, with no heart opened insight or intuition to balance it out. Just cold, hard, linear and materialistic thinking.

 

boring.

[Vajrahridaya]

ralis, did you know that in China they treated and prevented the h1n1 virus with TCM and herbs? I wouldn't call out traditional medicine as backwards in anyway. Properly integrated with modern medicine, it can be very useful.

 

I agree. There are documented cases of cancer being eradicated or highly abated by traditional medicine and methods from China, Tibet or Native Americans, using Herbs and energy manipulation methods. As well as other things like Aids were abated through these traditional techniques where Western medicine failed these people, Eastern medicine did not.

 

They should really join forces! But, Western medications are too high of a profit for our corporate run and enslaved country and political system.

 

Tibet also used to do surgery as a regular practice, even brain and heart surgery with regular success. But, one mistake was made many centuries ago on a princess or queen or someone of that sort who died, and it was outlawed across Tibet by the rulers of the time. I think this was sometime before the advent of Buddhism in Tibet. I read it in an Autobiography by a Tibetan Doctor of Medicine as the surgery is documented but the methods outlawed.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Vajrahridaya

[Vajrahridaya]

I have no doubt about TCM if properly practiced. I have had great results from Chinese medicine. However, I don't think Tibetan medicine will revolutionize medicine here as Vajraji wants to believe.

 

You obviously know very little about it.

 

Tibet had a center and even a University where they studied the medicine practices from great ancient doctors of TCM, Ayurveda, and middle eastern forms of traditional medicine as well, incorporating all of this information into it's own many, many centuries ago. I forgot the name of the university in Tibetan, but it translated as "World of Medicine" I think. But, they have categorized thousands upon thousands of diseases with variations and their traditional cures through traditional means with variations depending upon climate, time of year, body types, pulse types... etc.

[ralis]

That's not my perspective! I think there are soooo many positive things about Western society. When I say ralis is Western, I mean overly so, in that sense that he is flawed in his judgement of less materialistically developed countries that are more spiritually developed. The West is far more materialistically developed in both positive and negative ways, and I think the East needs to be balanced by it as the West needs Eastern spirituality to balance it out, kind of like the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

 

 

 

 

I am overly Western and have flawed judgments of the so called high spiritual cultures because of the fact there are material differences with developed countries? Have you traveled to India and seen the reality of misplaced spiritual development? What is sacrificed for that lofty ideal? Poverty and disease permeate India as well as other countries in Southeast Asia.

 

You just can't resist the attacks on others that question your self righteous world view!

 

Exactly, how do you know if Tibet is more spiritually advanced? Are you using a scale of spiritual development? Perhaps 1-10? I believe you are being too emotional and defensive.

[ralis]

You obviously know very little about it.

 

Tibet had a center and even a University where they studied the medicine practices from great ancient doctors of TCM, Ayurveda, and middle eastern forms of traditional medicine as well, incorporating all of this information into it's own many, many centuries ago. I forgot the name of the university in Tibetan, but it translated as "World of Medicine" I think. But, they have categorized thousands upon thousands of diseases with variations and their traditional cures through traditional means with variations depending upon climate, time of year, body types, pulse types... etc.

 

Why don't you just move to Tibet and preach from the top of Everest for all to hear!

[Vajrahridaya]

Exactly, how do you know if Tibet is more spiritually advanced? Are you using a scale of spiritual development? Perhaps 1-10? I believe you are being too emotional and defensive.

 

Ok, have it your way.

 

I know what I know...

 

I think what you focus on out there, and how you interpret things as the information comes in through your senses is reflective of what you know about yourself from within.

[Vajrahridaya]

Why don't you just move to Tibet and preach from the top of Everest for all to hear!

 

Yes, that'd be great! But, alas, it's Communist China now and not really Tibet anymore...

[Vajrahridaya]

What is sacrificed for that lofty ideal?

 

What is sacrificed for the ideal and focus on material gain?

[ralis]

Ok, have it your way.

 

I know what I know...

 

I think what you focus on out there, and how you interpret things as the information comes in through your senses is reflective of what you know about yourself from within.

 

I read what your friend Sunya wrote in an earlier post. I agree with what he said. You are incorrigible!

[Vajrahridaya]

I read what your friend Sunya wrote in an earlier post. I agree with what he said. You are incorrigible!

 

Nice to meet your mirror from the other direction? Hi ralis.

[ralis]

What is sacrificed for the ideal and focus on material gain?

 

I am referring to taking care of basic human needs. Food, shelter, medicine etc. Stop twisting my statements.