Religion is the poison of Spirituality

[konchog uma]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa undivided light i am correct i am correct iamcorrectiamcorrectiaaaoigjsap....

 

system failure

[ShenLung]

Cat's "If I were to die tonight" refrain inspired me to spark up a new thread:)

 

New stuff from all, if you like, or not. marco can just cut and paste, since his is already out there.

[Marblehead]

suits me.

 

signal to noise ratio is low and dropping sir

 

the way he runs his mouth, i kind of figured he must be used to it by now

Fair responses. Hehehe.

[Apech]

So we conclude that religion is overall a damn fine thing. yes?

 

I'm just off to the Mosque for a Mass with the Rabbi.

 

I like to mix my poisons.

[Marblehead]

I thought that was pretty zen...much more zen than all this fear based dogma about belief systems being evil etc..jeezz

Hehehe. Discussing compassion in an aggressive manner.

[skydog]

Im compassionate, your not,

[skydog]

but if i ever do something considered uncompassionate I will justify it by saying I am somehow being compassionate

[Marblehead]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa undivided light i am correct i am correct iamcorrectiamcorrectiaaaoigjsap....

 

system failure

Digital overload.

 

I saw the light. Actually, Hank Williams sang that better than I have ever heard anyone else sing it.

[Vmarco]

 

 

I think Marco suggests we take a shower each time he posts a quote.

 

Even now.

 

Especially now.

 

Yes, a cold one.

 

 

Hey Cow,..you feeling a little warn, cozzy, and excited,...gee,..hope that shower was cold enough. I do love your thoughtful, Buddhist inspired posts however,...never once adding anything meaningful to the conversation,...nothing thought provoking,...no transformational triggers.

 

"For most, two people have been living in them all their life. One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating, neurotic – the other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of prajna they have only rarely heard or attended to..." Sogyal Rinpoche

Nevertheless,...experience, such as the many mindless posts on TTB, leads me to wonder if everyone actually has a spiritual being.

[Marblehead]

So we conclude that religion is overall a damn fine thing. yes?

 

I'm just off to the Mosque for a Mass with the Rabbi.

 

I like to mix my poisons.

Are you ready to bend over?

[skydog]

You know one of my biggest flaws I realise today is because of many hours of spiritual work I consider I know the best ways and unconsciously try to change others/family...even though sometimes it is very faint, I think of things like tv and adverts as poison, but my family would suggest Im insulting them and trying to change them, this is difficult because I dont want them to poison themselves in my eyes but I dont want to insult or try to change them... hmm

[Marblehead]

but if i ever do something considered uncompassionate I will justify it by saying I am somehow being compassionate

When I do something like that I apologize for being a hyupocrite.

[Marblehead]

... leads me to wonder if everyone actually has a spiritual being.

I'm not sure I have one. Can you tell me where I might look for it?

[skydog]

I was imitating someone on this thread..it didnt work out very well though...hmm

[Birch]

 

Damn -K-!!! You didn't try hard enough. Or maybe you tried too hard. Just freakin' be happy!

 

Well exactly! I've practised so much at being the way things are that now when I try to be otherwise it hurts, haha:-)

 

Several people in my family are atheists and some of them are true believers. I liked bubbles' post about different kinds of belief, but I think we tend to label that 'cognition' these days. Some of the guru types do that too. The Coran is stuffed with behavioural science.

 

Anyway, I'm off to post a vaguely amusing Fry and Laurie video about religion in my PPF. It's not 'very' funny. Don't watch it.

[Marblehead]

You know one of my biggest flaws I realise today is because of many hours of spiritual work I consider I know the best ways and unconsciously try to change others/family...even though sometimes it is very faint, I think of things like tv and adverts as poison, but my family would suggest Im insulting them and trying to change them, this is difficult because I dont want them to poison themselves in my eyes but I dont want to insult or try to change them... hmm

Yes, we spoke of this before. I understand your caring and wanting to do what you think is best for them. But where do we stop? Perhaps just say what we need to say and then let it go. Some of your family would likely suggest that all the time you spend on the computer is a waste of time.

 

In the tradition of Zoroasterianism God created man and gave him freedom of choice. Do you or I have the right to deny another their freedom of choice? Do we feel our preferences are more important than God's?

[Marblehead]

I was imitating someone on this thread..it didnt work out very well though...hmm

I tried figuring it out but couldn't get it.

[ShenLung]

I was imitating someone on this thread..it didnt work out very well though...hmm

 

"To be yourself is all that you can do" .. Audioslave (I believe )

If the principles that one chooses to live by suggest that one should attempt to help others, self-honesty requires one to at least make the attempt. That it may fail spectacularly is a given, because others will be who they are, too.

[Marblehead]

Anyway, I'm off to post a vaguely amusing Fry and Laurie video about religion in my PPF. It's not 'very' funny. Don't watch it.

Thanks for the warning.

[C T]

...no transformational triggers.

 

 

Count yourself lucky then.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

I would find it useful if the people that kept asking VMarco to return to the forum, stepped up and showed themselves and explained what it is that motivated them. Are they in this discussion, or to be found here discussing with VMarco?

 

 

Those of you whose request for VMarco's presence is being granted.. please step forward and provide some balance to the conversation.

 

bubbles is completely right afaic : quotations out of context are like statistics.. endlessly manipulatable and therefore to be taken with a huge pinch of salt. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing..

 

Hi. I love Vmarco. An unconditional love that i have learned to understand over the years. His posts are a two edged sword. be wary of the edge you may inadvertantly encouter when approaching without careful consideration taht while one side can cut foe, the otehr can cut self.

 

I THOUGHT.

 

I, personally, beleived that people visited TTB for insights, inspiration, philosophical sharing, discussion, and "discovery" for the lack of a better phrase.

 

I THOUGHT.

 

I, personally, beleived that it was best to keep an open mind and take the healthy fruits while avoiding the thorns and bristles.

 

 

 

YES. PERHAPS. IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE.

 

It is very indeed outright probable that the majority of people here are tired of Vmarco's thorns, bristles, edges, and defense mechanisms, like bright yellow and black striped red outlined dislike for certain subjects that aaaaaaarrrreee completely irrelevant regardless of how annoying; we must learn toaccept that some members, such as our famous Vmarco, are covered in more thorns than others, such as oldgreen for example.

 

But regardless of the niussance of thorns, pricked egoic fingers, and sore debate glands, Vmarco has dropped giant mounds of gold at our feet!!

 

In many of his seemingly abrasive and pious comments and contributions, we miss out on the genuine guidance he can offer because we dont like the rough texture he delivers it with.

 

 

 

Cat, i apologize that i truly Love every member here and would prefer we all continue contributing our thoughts, experiences, ideas, and opinions than any one disliked member be shunned, requested to leave, excluded, or "evicted" as i once was temporarily, in spite of my intentions being aimed toward goodness, that my abrasive angst got the best of me.

 

I can forgive any transgressions that any individual can ever deliver through word, text, speech, or verb. No matter how much i disagree with someone, i would never ask them to stop being themselves. Maybe i see something they seek and can nudge them in the right direction. but then again, maybe even so, it would be impossible for them to find, in spite of it being in front of them all along.

 

 

People are diverse, cant cherry pick 'em. So why not treat them with undivided and unconditional, free wide open agape Love. REAL Love, with the capital L and everything, the one that means you dont wish any ill will on even your worst enemy.

 

 

I prefer to think that i have no enemies, only individuals who disagree with me.

 

 

 

 

 

I request for the presence of every member who has something they feel the cause and sense to type and share. So long as there is no genuine harm done physically, spiritually, psychologically, or otherwise tangibly, i dont see what's so bad about Vmarco's opinions or ideas. Just cuz i like to argue with someone i disagree with does not mean i have any reason to dislike them.

 

 

In teh end of it all, no matter how anyone outside of yourself acts, it is you whose opinion defines how their actions affect you. big or small, catastrophic or inconsequential. it makes no difference what your or my opinion is, you cant "undo" reality.

[Aaron]

So the end of the world is tomorrow, with that in mind I'll tell you a little secret... I was enlightened. It happened about a year ago and I remember it quite clearly because it was not what I expected it to be. It occurred after having a discussion with several people about undivided light and emptiness etc. I had remembered that early in my meditation when I achieved a state of complete silence of the mind, oftentimes it would seem as if the world passed away and there was only light, it only lasted briefly, but it always seemed quite calming. I decided that I would try and achieve that state and maintain it, to see what it was in its entirety. I succeeded, in fact it wasn't hard at all, but the problem was that it caused my perception of the world to change to a point where I felt alien to everything that was around me. Underneath everything I could feel it, the emptiness, the light, whatever you choose to call it and it was always there, almost like a soft humming.

 

After achieving this state I began to look at people differently. I remember being at a soccer match with my family. I didn't want to go, in fact after having the experience I didn't want to be around anyone, it all seemed rather pointless, activities and such, but they pestered me and I went. Anyways, at this soccer match there was a point where I looked around and realized that everyone around me was not real, rather they were like ghosts, being caught up in some trauma they were unaware of they were haunting this place, going through the motions of living, not realizing that what they were doing wasn't real, that in reality they did not exist in this time and space, but rather were just phantasms, doing what they remembered doing. Underneath was that light, humming all around.

 

Perhaps it was that matrix moment, but several days later I understood that we aren't meant to dwell in emptiness, that even though what we perceive isn't real, that suffering causes much of our desires, sorrows, pain, and for lack of a better word, attachments, there is also love there. What I realized in that moment is that there is no difference between love and hate, they are both the same thing, but rather it's how we've been taught to see this that makes it so. I understood that even after understanding the nature of things, that didn't take away the fact that I was a part of both duality and non-duality, and knowing non-duality did not mean I was free from duality, but rather that I could see through it and understand what it was.

 

The world is like a hologram, it is visible, but never tangible to the spirit. If we are ghosts, we are not ghosts of the spirit, but ghosts of the material, and being ghosts of the material we are caught in the material world. Even seeing through it does not allow us to escape it.

 

And if the world is hologram, then what we can be sure of is that underneath that hologram there is only one thing that exists, It is this one thing that doesn't connect us all, but is us all. We are it. In fact there is no we, but only it. The we we perceive is unreal. But it is real, at least it exists. So seeing the illusion, having the chance to be done with it, I thought about it and came up with this...

 

 

The answer is not without, but within.

What is without is the source of all things,

but what is within is the source of you.

To understand what is without

without understanding what is within,

that is like emptying a vase

and not filling it again.

 

Fill the vase,

but leave space within,

for there will come a time when you are thirsty,

and if there is nothing to drink from

you will never be able to quench that thirst.

 

But do not fill the vase full,

for that means you have enough to fill your thirst.

Can you ever be sure when there is enough?

For your thirst today is not your thirst tomorrow.

 

In looking within find the stillness within,

for that is the stillness without too.

In that stillness there is peace and contentment,

but as for the stillness without,

there is no peace and contentment,

for there is no need for it there.

 

So long as you breathe

you can never know the breadth of what is without,

so do not look without for the answers,

but rather look within.

 

What you find without will bring you no solace,

the answer to the beginning is within,

for the beginning starts and ends with you.

 

That's all for now. I have to go to bed. Early day tomorrow.

 

Aaron

Edited December 21, 2012 by Aaron

[Birch]

I didn't ask him back but I read his posts. I do not, however, possess unconditional love for anything, this being (if this is to be believed, ha ha) because I have a point of view, ever-changing, multiple-depending-on-the-weather-and -what people say and how they say it and, perhaps, a point of view that may change to get closer to something honorable and truthful and intellectually-sound in due course.

 

I was not taught that way, as I mentioned elsewhere and I realise that that's not right. However, in the process (painful, it has to be said) of throwing off all that is not truthful and intellectually-sound, it can be difficult to discern what is an attack to one's self (and unhonorable, and dishonest, and intellectually-unsound) and what is an attack on one's point of view (if that is so dearly held as to become oneself).

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

Hey Cow,..you feeling a little warn, cozzy, and excited,...gee,..hope that shower was cold enough. I do love your thoughtful, Buddhist inspired posts however,...never once adding anything meaningful to the conversation,...nothing thought provoking,...no transformational triggers.

 

"For most, two people have been living in them all their life. One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating, neurotic – the other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of prajna they have only rarely heard or attended to..." Sogyal Rinpoche

Nevertheless,...experience, such as the many mindless posts on TTB, leads me to wonder if everyone actually has a spiritual being.

 

 

 

Our reality (or am I alone out here?) Is the center of infinity. infinity spans in infinite directions over infinite distances throughout infinite dimensions, and perception is at the center of it...

where else could it be? To be fully immersed in this "reality" we MUST be blinded from what lies beyond the infinite!

 

 

SO OBVIOUSLY, there is one of everything; a human without a heart, alive and kicking, venom for breath, and ice for a voice, all assortments of animals and human(oid) with and even without souls and/or spirits!

 

 

Why even bother waste time to think of the infinite combinations of infinite combinations?

 

 

It's physically infinity^infinity^infinity¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯(infinitely)

translation: infinity to the infiniteth power to the infiniteth power infinitely repeated.

 

 

AND after the maths are in, the players enter the experience generating AEIOU and viola, cant tell what's real and what's not, play around and learn how to interact with this world around us never knowing our true selves or weather or not we are real or they are real. just wandering throughout infinity until we stop and wonder about it.

 

 

 

Or at least that's how it is for me, jsut wondering about the truth of reality...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANYWAYS, point being: Why do you even care?

[三江源]

Cat, i apologize that i truly Love every member here and would prefer we all continue contributing our thoughts, experiences, ideas, and opinions than any one disliked member be shunned, requested to leave, excluded, or "evicted" as i once was temporarily, in spite of my intentions being aimed toward goodness, that my abrasive angst got the best of me.

 

 

I dont get at all why you are apologizing? And I dont get at all why you are apologizing to me.