Hardship

[voidisyinyang]

Ah so the blood as red dragon is the source of negative or female yin chi and the white as semen tiger is the source for positive yang chi vitality.

 

I never understood before the difference between yang and yin chi energy!

 

this is the secret of the generative forces of all things in heaven and earth. If they copulate in harmony -- the sun and moon (heart and lower abdomen) then ...

 

actually there is too much hardship on thetaobums. I can read the energy here and so it goes against my practice too much -- I have to constantly reverse the energy to correct it. haha.

 

This book "Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality" really contains the best teachings to reveal the true practice to create the chi energy.

[Evre]

Wow thanks everyone. I mean EVERYONE, there were pages of replies. Too many people to thank. I was in a bit of an existential crisis. So you all helped very much, and I'm glad to have a more clear view on reality.

[Evre]

I hope to understand, someday, all the meanings that were conveyed. But I suppose that will require that I dwindle here a little longer and listen.

[Aetherous]

Ah so the blood as red dragon is the source of negative or female yin chi and the white as semen tiger is the source for positive yang chi vitality.

 

Interesting concept, although it's not accurate. I wish you would stop knowingly misleading people here.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I think hardships also show us how closely related our thoughts and feelings are to manifestations, reminding people to stay mindful of the fact that our lives start in the heart-mind and change from the heart-mind. Like if you allow a small child to play at the edge of the ocean, you might think you are doing it a favour by allowing it to do whatever it thinks it wants, but really you're letting it think it is safe to do so which will not help, even though the child might not understand the lesson for a while.

 

So we still get chastised by higher powers or forces, imo, to direct us deeper to the source of our activity and events in our lives. It can be inhumanly harsh, even making others suffer sometimes, but I think harmony is the lesson. When we are in disharmony with higher powers and forces, they correct us, like we learn to sail with waves or we get capsized. It seems like a mostly automatic process and merciful from time to time.

[Sahaj Nath]

[SpinningDjinn]

indeed.

 

it's a quote that i have really found to be true in my own tumultuous life. and it's a truth that later enabled me to fully appreciate this next quote:

 

"There is no security or safety in spiritual growth. That can only be found in the experience of God. Ironically, all the things we hold onto--the things we believe we need in order to live in safety and security--are exactly what keep us separate from God."

 

--Swami Kecharanatha

 

I wonder if that quote is intended to include the assumption of a god?

[Sahaj Nath]

I wonder if that quote is intended to include the assumption of a god?

 

 

"a" god? no.

 

the quote is from a Swami of Kashmir Shaivism. GOD as sigularity cannot be seen or related to as an object, but language is imperfect. it's more a term of convenience in this context.

 

otherwise, it just gets too easy to get lost in semantic debates and then the message gets lost. Nathaji is a public servant; he avoids that kind of hair splitting whenever possible. the statement was not intended to establish esoteric theory; it was merely an eloquent reminder of the importance of letting go.

[mYTHmAKER]

 

"a" god? no.

 

the quote is from a Swami of Kashmir Shaivism. GOD as sigularity cannot be seen or related to as an object, but language is imperfect. it's more a term of convenience in this context.

 

otherwise, it just gets too easy to get lost in semantic debates and then the message gets lost. Nathaji is a public servant; he avoids that kind of hair splitting whenever possible. the statement was not intended to establish esoteric theory; it was merely an eloquent reminder of the importance of letting go.

 

More like the experience of That as in Thou art That

[voidisyinyang]

http://www.care2.com/causes/cruise-ships-win-anti-environment-award-for-2011.html

NABU notes in particular that there is money for every sort of convenience and luxury for guests on board, but no investment has been made in switching cruise ships from heavy fuel oil or outfitting the ships with particle filters, to reduce the pollution emission rates. Also according to NABU,

 

the 15 largest cruise ships emit as much sulfur dioxide pollution annually as all 760 million cars in the world.

 

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/cruise-ships-win-anti-environment-award-for-2011.html#ixzz1idBCqn9L

 

Ah the hardship -- my mom is on a cruise ship right now and checks her email on the ship so I sent her the above. haha.

[gendao]

there is no conceivable way that some hardships could be a gift.

 

Examples:

 

1. Stroke leads to paralysis severely restricting the experience of life

2. Accident leads to death with no benefit to the victim

3. Child dies at birth... need I say more?

No conceivable way?

 

What if our souls live on after death and reincarnate numerous times? Wouldn't that be a complete game-changer, then?

 

Destiny of Souls purports just that and effectively answers the age-old question of, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"

 

The short answer is that more "advanced" or "ambitious" souls tend to choose more challenging lives, may have more karma to "work off" and can also underestimate the amount of their soul's energy they need in their life "missions."

 

 

 

A lot of "New Age" books are lightweight and fluffy, but this one is at least somewhat pseudoscientific. It's based on a hypnotherapist's own case studies corroborating the superconscious memories of countless patients. It interestingly answers a LOT of big life questions (although of course it can't really "scientifically" be proved true or not).

Edited January 6, 2012 by vortex

[Birch]

Right. So all the really advanced people are getting shat on by the kindergarteners? And they're letting themselves get shat on?

[gendao]

Right. So all the really advanced people are getting shat on by the kindergarteners? And they're letting themselves get shat on?

Compare it to a n00b struggling with level 1 of a video game vs an expert gamer choosing to play level 72..

 

Similarly, your soul chooses its next life. Which is not to say everything goes exactly as planned or hoped - people often do not accomplish what they had sought out to and must repeat lessons. However, there is fortunately a restart button for that.

 

Life in this bigger picture is fair and voluntary, believe it or not..

Edited January 6, 2012 by vortex

[voidisyinyang]

No conceivable way?

 

What if our souls live on after death and reincarnate numerous times? Wouldn't that be a complete game-changer, then?

 

Destiny of Souls purports just that and effectively answers the age-old question of, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"

 

The short answer is that more "advanced" or "ambitious" souls tend to choose more challenging lives, may have more karma to "work off" and can also underestimate the amount of their soul's energy they need in their life "missions."

 

 

 

A lot of "New Age" books are lightweight and fluffy, but this one is at least somewhat pseudoscientific. It's based on a hypnotherapist's own case studies corroborating the superconscious memories of countless patients. It interestingly answers a LOT of big life questions (although of course it can't really "scientifically" be proved true or not).

 

 

Vortex -- on the whole reincarnation deal -- O.K. there's been life on Earth for billions of years. humans represent like the last half of a minute of life on earth if the timespan was one hour for all of the time of life on earth. Humans are just a tiny fragment of time for life on Earth.

 

So let's consider reincarnation considering the big picture of life on earth -- humans -- half a minute. The rest of life - 59 minutes and 30 seconds.

 

O.K. so bacteria -- well give that say 50 minutes of life on Earth. Seriously I'm just guessing here -- but even just 450 million years ago the biggest life form was not a plant but a fungus -- a mushroom.

 

O.K. so 280 million years ago the dominant life form on earth was the Gorgon -- a reptile that was like a mammal needing lots of oxygen and it was big like a dog.

 

Wham -- Permian extinction.

 

Life restarts aka mass reincarnation.

 

Evolution. "progress?"

 

Dinosaurs - the smartest one was the troodon -- biggest brained dino -- about as big as a human -- on two legs.

 

Wham. K/T boundary kicks in. global extinction.

 

The little shrew mammal survives in the trees.

 

60 million years later that little tree shrew now is primate mammals as well.

 

The inner ear of the primate used to be the jaw bone of the tree shrew.

 

O.K. so that's "progress" right? I mean spiritually? Voila -- finally we get some humans on the scene around 1 million years ago.

 

It's only been a few billion years of life on earth. haha.

 

O.K. but wait with the modern humans starting 10,000 years ago suddenly all the other life on earth is dying.

 

Oh no - it's another global extinction crisis just like when the Gorgons went extinct 280 million years ago and when the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago.

 

Only now it's the humans and the humans are taking down the rest of life with them.

 

Oh but wait - -humans are different -- they are "spiritually evolved" (i.e. progress). -- humans don't have a population explosion, reach ecological carrying capacity, hit overlimit and their population crashes - like every other life form on the planet.

 

No humans "reincarnate" and progess spiritually. haha.

 

I smell snake oil here - -yeah Ramana Maharshi said this about spiritual evolution:

 

There is no evolution.

 

That's a direct quote.

 

So maybe part of us goes into a rock and gets stuck there -- I read a Buddhist book that described this. Imagine being reincarnated into a rock.

 

I've read that when people crap when they die then their spirit goes out their ass and presto -- gone to hell? Bodri says how most people die like that -- the spirit going out the ass. the Tibetans state that which end of the body determines heaven or hell - just read the book of the dead for the details. The book "Taoist Yoga" states to not take a crap if you're going to leak chi out the backside. haha.

 

It's the chi energy that powers the spirit after death. So if we don't build up chi energy to power the light spirit then we turn into ghosts. I have seen ghosts. I think they have emotional blockages holding them to Earth. So too much corporeal soul energy maybe? Or call it the etheric body sticking to their astral body?

 

Yeah I've read in Master Nan, Huai-chin that if a person is good and religious -- moral -- then they do go to heaven. For example when I found my dad's dead body last spring and he was all blue -- suddenly my heart got filled with love. This surprised me since it was the most love I had ever felt with my dad before. But I knew that he must be in a better place than he was in his body.

 

Also the show on CIA-cable -- "I Survived: Beyond and Back" - is very amazing for the spirit OBE NDE stories of people who clinically died and came back. Going to heaven or going to hell! Then if they do go to hell they come back completely transformed -- and become good people for their "second" life. Truly amazing. Also people who go to heaven come back transformed to be even more spiritual people.

 

So Ramana Maharshi said that his cow become completely enlightened -- fully realized! He sent the cow special shakti energy to the heart as it was dying. Just like he did for his mom when she died -- so both the cow and the mom did not have to reincarnate as they had finally achieved "eternal liberation."

 

Ramana Maharshi called that "cutting the knot" of the heart. But then Bodri and Master Nan, Huai-chin claim that unless the body is transformed if you do just mind yoga then when the body is sick like it was for Ramana Maharshi that means when you die your brain does not have the chi energy to maintain awareness -- so the awareness falls back into nothingness of impersonal consciousness.

 

In Mahayana Buddhism unless the person maintains awareness of the impersonal consciousness then they are not truly enlightened but this is not the case for advaita vedanta.

 

I, myself, side with Advaita Vedanta. Chunyi Lin says there is no "center" to the universe and that everything is constantly transforming and so there will always be reincarnation or rebirth if people want to call it that. It seems like parts of us stick around the grave or where we die as the etheric or corporeal soul and other parts go into a dream like astral realm that is more real than Earth. Be it heaven or hell. Then some of us go back to Earth...but maybe not as humans.

 

As far as life on other planets I've read some claiming you can reincarnate on other planets -- I think yogananda stated this. Personally I'm not a big believer in advanced life on other planets. Which is a wild thing not to believe because the universe is so infinitely infinite. but science has shown that planet EArth is also incredibly rare in how life evolved here and how much time it took for "advanced" life to evolve. That it's almost like the universe evolved over billions of years just for life on Earth to evolve, etc. I mean science still seems to put Earth in the center of the universe even though cosmos-wise we are less than dust mites.

 

Planet earth is just a speck of dust on the cosmic scheme of things. haha.

 

So how about this -- no evolution. No reincarnation. That's what Ramana Maharshi says. No individual spirit. Impersonal consciousness is the real reality -- eternally "evolving" to create energy and matter and space and time -- a process of infinite love and light and also infinite destruction and darkness. But nevertheless it's possible for the human to unite with the love and light part of this process -- even if it is on an individual subjective level.

Edited January 6, 2012 by fulllotus

[Birch]

Compare it to a n00b struggling with level 1 of a video game vs an expert gamer choosing to play level 72..

 

Similarly, your soul chooses its next life. Which is not to say everything goes exactly as planned or hoped - people often do not accomplish what they had sought out to and must repeat lessons. However, there is fortunately a restart button for that.

 

Life in this bigger picture is fair and voluntary, believe it or not..

Afraid I'm going to have to call BS on this one. Life is not "fair". The story you're telling is a thinly veiled justification for amoral human injustice. Mostly social. That the myths live on in video games is not proof. Just another medium for the latest expression of what you're supposed to believe. Now, this being said, I do think there is something "non material" in the mechanisms of "descent". I include "resolution" of past deeds by ancestors in future generations, but there has to be direct lineage. None of this "I decided to fly off and choose a body to reincarnate into" that's "possession" and it's what some practitioners are attempting to do...but that's a) my opinion and doesn't line up with some other stuff I've been thinking about or some other research into when exactly things like DNA get "fixed" (it doesn't, the old DNA as blueprint idea is out - DNA as mobile crystalline structure is in:-))