Spiritual experience in a nutshell

[Protector]

One day doing the same thing, be it school or just work, stops being important and it flies out of perspective. Entertainment that was taking up all the free time stops working.

 

The mind starts asking bigger questions that are outside the perspective of a small human creature. Why am I here? What's this crap? What's that crap?

Search for answers takes one on a spiritual journey.

 

The journey takes one to a spiritual forum.

 

Upon asking the questions, be redirected to a book like Tao Te Ching, some sutra, or something by an old guy. Meditation is recommended but not explained. Some motivational words said one is being left to figure out everything else on itself.

 

Join a discussion somewhere in the main forums.

 

Lots of bragging about a great nei gong system. Ask about it and get redirected to an awesome master a continent away. Keep listening to only bragging until the master is found.

 

Since limited knowledge of the bragged about nei gong system doesn't solve every problem ever, ask about life.

Get help answering smaller questions: Smaller question turn the discussion into one about food and diet that doesn't end. Get suited with the most perfect and awesome diet from the local hippies; Answer to another question becomes a book recommendation. Discussion ensues about the author being a fraud or not; Be convinced that qi gong and meditation is the answer to every life's problem.

 

Start practicing self taught philosophy and exercises. Be told online that everything is wrong. Someone mentions an all knowing master that might or might not exist. Be advised to start a search for him.

Have an eye out for him while trying to figure out things for oneself.

 

Carry one for a long while until what is said by oneself has confidence.

 

Be completely integrated in the community and take time from the day to be a part of it. Help new members figure things out when they join. There isn't much infighting in recent times. Instead of searching for new things, make your philosophy a part of everyone else's lives. Forget about the questions asked in the beginning. Make the community replace the TV and work.

 

Brace yourself for the next time it stops being important.

 

 

[Protector]

Horse stance realization comes later and is different for everyone

[adept]

What about prunes ?

[Protector]

Prunes is when one day you make a thread where you say that you're didn't find what you were looking for when joined a forum and now you have to go. Years later you are completely back into a normal people's lifestyle and you remember that there was a place where everyone was talking differently and so you come back looking for it. Be the forum itself gone or not, you join a forum again with an intention to try again or to regain that feeling that you're doing something important but you're just back into that loop of looking for something and never finding it.

 

Fool me once, shame on you

Fool me twice, I'll just meditate under a tree and maybe as I sit here long enough, enlightenment will eventually be walking by and when it sees me it will be like, "Damn, I knew I was forgetting something."

 

 

 

[Celestial]

No one knows anything.

 

That's the summary of my thoughts regarding the members on this forum. Perhaps in the future that will change.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Celestial

[i am]

These are big ideas we on this site are concerned with...the best we can hope for is that people who have been at it longer and/or more in depth will give us some pointers. So yeah, I'll degree nobody really knows anything. But some know MORE. More than me, anyways.

 

I'd like to think that if any member happened to reach enlightenment, they'd come back here and post about it...but I sort of doubt it.

 

What this site does for me is show me I'm not the only one out there who isn't satisfied with grow up go to school get a job get married have kids retire then die out on my yacht. I'm not in a particularly culturally diverse area of the country...

 

Anyways, this place provides a good community and exposure to ideas.

 

I find that with most places like this, you get a TON of beginners. They have all sorts of questions and are excited to find a place. Then when they really get a practice going and figure some stuff out, they fade away a bit, maybe for years. If we're lucky, when they're really accomplished, they remember this place and decide to come back and see what's up, and do some teaching.

[Protector]

I guess my biggest problem with it is that it's mostly beginners, while I want to be overwhelmed by masters

 

[i am]

Yep, wouldn't that be nice...

[i am]

If any of these "systems" really produce results, and there are enough people willing to put in the time, maybe the tao bums will have a giant community of masters in a couple decades...

 

You'll be telling the beginners about the good old days when you didn't have all these great teachers...

[Protector]

Nah, I bet a lot of people even here have huge results from their practices, but they can't relate it to the real world so they could talk like a master over a forum

[Cat Pillar]

If any of these "systems" really produce results, and there are enough people willing to put in the time, maybe the tao bums will have a giant community of masters in a couple decades...

 

You'll be telling the beginners about the good old days when you didn't have all these great teachers...

 

We can talk of all the times we had to type uphill both ways...in the snow.

[Birch]

Yacht. If you stare at this word long enough something will happen.

 

I'm sure my practices have helped IRL. And I've been in touch with real masters here. And there's very little risk of cult mentality:-)

[Celestial]

These are big ideas we on this site are concerned with...the best we can hope for is that people who have been at it longer and/or more in depth will give us some pointers. So yeah, I'll degree nobody really knows anything. But some know MORE. More than me, anyways.

 

I'd like to think that if any member happened to reach enlightenment, they'd come back here and post about it...but I sort of doubt it.

 

What this site does for me is show me I'm not the only one out there who isn't satisfied with grow up go to school get a job get married have kids retire then die out on my yacht. I'm not in a particularly culturally diverse area of the country...

 

Anyways, this place provides a good community and exposure to ideas.

 

I find that with most places like this, you get a TON of beginners. They have all sorts of questions and are excited to find a place. Then when they really get a practice going and figure some stuff out, they fade away a bit, maybe for years. If we're lucky, when they're really accomplished, they remember this place and decide to come back and see what's up, and do some teaching.

 

There are very few members on here that can guide others down a proper path. Very few. I was a little harsh in my comment. My apologies.

 

It's tough to weed through what's authentic and what's pure fluff when everybody is Mo Pai fighting, and Gary J. Clyman disciples are fast as LIGHTNING™.

[i am]

[Protector]

*sigh* I guess you guys still have me

[i am]

Sinfest-

Thankfully, yes.

 

rainbowvien, I hear you.

[Vmarco]

Meditation is recommended but not explained.

[/media]

 

 

Meditation may best be explained by way of non-meditation,...the neti-neti approach. Non-meditation is a topic that will surely upset millions who have vested meaning, money, and measure, sitting on a cushion. Millions believe that meditation is the path to happiness, compassion, god realization, and enlightenment. Surely, meditation has provided solace to many, but solace is a temporary thing.

 

Lao Tzu purportedly said, "Do you think you can clear your mind by sitting constantly in silent meditation? This makes your mind narrow, not clear."

 

Who is honestly aware of anyone realizing happiness, compassion or enlightenment through meditation? (see the disscusion "Compassion?"). Before anyone gets too upset, the topic here is "Awareness of Non-meditation," that is, to simply be aware that meditation may merely be a stepping stone, not the goal.

 

Hui Neng reportedly scolded his monks for spending too much time sitting in meditation....He said that meditation is unnecessary, and warned that such practice can easily become a narcotic. Many Western meditators are so intoxicated by their practice that they see themselves as superior to those who don't formally meditate, like drug addicts see themselves as better than non-users.

 

Few people seem to realize that Buddha did not uncover enlightenment through meditation,...he realized enlightenment when he ceased meditating. Meditation nearly killed him. Historically, Sakyamuni was near dead from meditation, more bone than skin, when a young girl named Sujata (likely a dakini) offered him some food (perhaps rice cooked in milk). Some say an appreciation filled him from this meal, and as he recovered his physical strength, through the state of appreciation, he realized the Dependent Origination from which suffering arises.

 

The American Esther Hicks said, "We teach meditation, or quieting the mind, because it is really easier to teach you to have no thoughts, than to teach you to have pure, positive thought. We would rather you be in a state of appreciation, than in a state of meditation, because in appreciation you are a vibrational match to your [Higher Self]."

 

The State of Appreciation; that is threshold to enlightenment, not meditation. Wei Wu Wei said, "The practice of meditation is represented by the three monkeys, who cover their eyes, ears and mouths so as to avoid the phenomenal world. The practice of non-meditation is ceasing to be the see-er, hearer or speaker while eyes, ears and mouths are fulfilling their function in daily life."

 

Meditation is in the head. Jigme Lingpa said, "The state of non-meditation is born in the heart...." Those familiar with the Short Path of Dzogchen have likely heard of non-meditation,... resting in the evenness of being, that is beyond hope and fear. Meditation belongs to of the world of hope and fear.

 

Is there a more dishonest, perniciousness word than hope? hope n. from ME. hopa, an expectation. 1. expectation of something desired; anticipation of some future event. 2. a guess or belief. 3. that which gives hope; a substance or object hoped for; an expected payoff.

 

No matter what level we wish to view it from, hope is false. Hope is an anticipation of the future; thus it must arise from a predisposition, a belief, and attachment to the past. Hope implies lack,...how else could we possibly define it? Hope is for something we think we don't possess. How could hope ever be expressed through an Open-Mind or Open-Heart ? The belief of hope is a barrier that obscures the present.

 

In all samadhis (or states within the 6 consciousness' that preceed enlightenment) except sahaja, the practioner or yogi continues to go and come.

 

Lao Tzu said, "the Tao doesn't come and go."

 

Buddha said, "the Tathagata does not come and go."

 

Refuge in sahaja (or Short Path), which is not preoccuppied with meditation or yoga techniques, is a permanent and effortless state of realization.

 

Kagyu, the fourth stream of mastery, says, "In a state of non-meditation, you attain [the vividness beyond concept, imagination, and projection]. As Beate Stolte said, "to place yourself in unfabricated present awareness." Of course it is difficult for someone blissed out on opium

 

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!.. "To go, to come, beyond going and coming, into complete going and coming, where enlightenment is welcomed"

 

"...no belief is true; gurus, meditation, and spiritual teachings are all gentle deceptions meant to soothe the inner coward, not forge the inner hero." Jed McKenna

 

In other words,..as Jed McKenna correctly said, "99.9% of the World's so-called wisdom, East and West (including meditation), for the purposes of awakening, is about as useful as a glass of warm spit with a hair in it."

Edited December 5, 2012 by Vmarco

[hydrogen]

haha, it was funny.

 

Actually, sinfest, I remember you wrote something about pattern, which was very insightful. I think you're on to something if you can figure it out. I found similar pattern repeat it self in everything. I just can't put my finger on it.

 

Thanks for the laugh.

Edited December 5, 2012 by hydrogen

[Vmarco]

haha, it was funny.

 

Actually, OP, I remember you wrote something about pattern, which was very insightful. I think you're on to something if you can figure it out. I found similar pattern repeat it self in everything. I just can't put my finger on it.

 

Thanks for the laugh.

 

Who is OP? What was funny? What patterns are you talking about? What is repeating itself in everything? Were you responding to the right thread?

[hydrogen]

Who is OP? What was funny? What patterns are you talking about? What is repeating itself in everything? Were you responding to the right thread?

 

I wish I could figure out the pattern

 

I meant the original post was funny. In the spirit the original poster, we should side track this thread to Jed McKenna.

 

I don't know if he's enlighted or not. Actually that's not the point. I watched a few of his youtube. He has not idea about meditation. For example "stop bullshiting yourself go take acid". I just don't get his point.

 

WTF is his problem? If someone wants to get high through meditaion, so what? It's better than taking acid. People are free to do whatever they want so long they don't hurt others. Either Jed McKenna doesn't know much about meditation or he thinks only his way of meditation is correct.

[Protector]

The forum often end it's discussions with referring to some master

Since you will still have to talk to a master when you meet him, I wonder what he would say on a forum

 

 

Probably gonna yell until his face gets red, yup probably

[Boy]

...

Edited December 13, 2012 by Boy

[Jetsun]

Many of the people here think they are masters already, if you read old posts from years ago its exactly the same, lots of different names all talking like they think they are masters. The worst is when you talk about kundalini, you get dozens of "experts" coming out of the woodwork.

[Gerard]

.

Edited September 13, 2013 by Gerard

[Protector]

Is it time to pin this thread yet?

Somewhere in the Lobby, for all the new members to decide to stay or not

Edited December 5, 2012 by Sinfest 2: Judgement Day