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Y'know, not that I have any real authority, but since my OP authority is being invoked, I'm gonna come out of the woodwork here and decree that AI slop is verboten.

I'd be all for being sent back to the stone age -- provided my own age would be prenatal, or to be precise, pre-conception. Once you're carried in the mother's womb and born and raised in the technology age, it's game over for the stone age adaptation purposes -- to the same, or greater, extent as being born and raised in the stone age is game over for your functionality in the technology age. If I were to choose a reincarnation plan though, I would definitely have my intent set tens of thousands of years back. I wonder if reincarnating back in time is possible. (Don't see why not -- some folks even retain vague impressions of technology from their previous incarnations into times that are "future" to their present ones. Some of those carriers of slightly under-erased memories of things-to-come become inventors and some write sci-fi, the rest just have strange dreams from time to time. I sometimes get future tech dreams -- I even thought of trying to patent some of the things I saw, but I'm too tech lazy. The ones I saw were very benign -- e.g. a far superior thingie as replacement for the cast they presently put on a broken limb, a large feather-weight umbrella that, when folded, can fit in your wallet... stuff like that.)

,,,,,,,,On Monday, when it was hard to access the site--labeled as software issues-- The days leading up to that, all the talk of giant solar flares that could knock out orbiting satellites, causing all kinds of problems to our tech, the phrase "sending us back to the stone age" was used. I noticed other websites were hobbled and thought ( hopefully) this is not software issues; it is solar flare mayhem (magic) Concerning the matchup between tech and solar flares, I was pulling for solar flares. Maybe, next time. Here we are, having resigned our agency to the Great Computer, The Machine,,, We shouldn't even think about it, just sit back eat bon bons and let AI do it all for us. What could possibly go wrong? In boxing terminology; tech has some technical skills, and a game plan. Brave Helios on the other hand, probably doesn't even have a game plan. What Brave Helios lacks with that, it makes up for with raw power. Boxer vs Puncher. If I'm in Brave Helios' corner, I'm saying this; ok, we didn't win that round. But tech must win every round. And all we need is one well placed left hook or a one-two combination and it's game over. Now go out this round and send that pretender back to the stone age.

Diabolus Ex Machina - by Amanda Guinzburg The above is a transcript of a GPT conversation. A writer asks GPT to read and offer advice about some essays, and GPT pretends to have read the pieces when it didn´t. Very strange.

So, GPT is just like me and many of my former classmates. Yes, Professor, we read the assignment.... And then we C&P something we found scanning the internet, re-wording it, presenting it as our authentic opinion.

The only way to find out is try. Just leave a few hours in between to be safe

Love is your natural relationship with existence when the limited self interest is put aside.

yeah, now its responding near instantly ! Whadidyoudo ?

Million, billion, trillion -- in many (most?) people's minds any which number with many zeroes is just "a lot." But there's lots and then there's other lots. Here's an interesting way to put them in perspective: A million seconds ago was May 23rd A billion seconds ago was 1993 A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 B.C. The US national debt is now rising by $1 trillion every 180 days.

Thank you!

Yesterday it was slow + Bad Gateway. Working fine now. Thank you.

* The topic seems to be spiraling down*

That's because AI cant taste it

if I borrow money from myself .... do I have debt or have I become wealthy ?

I don't know his work at all, but I've seen the structure of Time through ayahuasca-opened eyes. The "present" was like an observation point from which I could look at Time in all directions, the easiest was looking down onto the past. It was like a layered cake of winding rivers (or maybe of one river snaking this way and that way, its segments layered on top of each other), going all the way into deep infinity. The layers were see-through, so I could look down at the recent past, further down at the past that was more remote, etc.. Rivers were not just loopy but some loops did indeed cause Time to flow backward. I could focus on a particular section and "zoom in." It also appeared that I could dive anywhere into that river from my observation point -- but it was as scary as jumping from the edge of a cliff into an abyss, so I didn't. (I also didn't want to go UP but SHE dragged me there anyway and showed me the source of all that flow. This source I should liken perhaps to a dripping sink or some plumbing piping underneath it -- Time we experience and everything in it was apparently a side effect of operations of that "sink," That World -- a very incomprehensible place where you couldn't tell biology from technology, a bit like one of those Borg cubes and a lot like one of those Mesoamerican bas reliefs. SHE wanted to show and explain things to me but that place terrified me and I begged HER to get me outta there.)

if I remember correctly P.D. Ouspensky did a lot of pondering/theories along such lines of "going back", but I haven't studied those materials in like 40 years...

I usually prefer to read novels that take place in contemporary times, but a story featuring a reincarnated version of Taomeow with "under-erased memories" set in the Paleolithic era? I wouldn´t begin to guess even what genre such a work might belong in. The literary possibilities boggle.

Of course! I am still very curious about the system. Wish you all the best in your practice

Wow, thanks for this. I have been thinking about this for some time. This is good advice. I will look into the Awakening the Luminous Mind book. Also good advice to try to avoid too much analytical and technical thoughts on topics such as this, although my mind is greedy for them. Always searching for deep secrets and truths, meanwhile the plumbing on my water heater is spraying water all over the place! This reminded me of a thought I had the other day. People use the term "non-dual," but isn't that somewhat of misnomer, or at least a bad name. In using the modifier "non-" aren't we implicitly asserting the validity or reality of the non-thing, in this case dualism. Like dualism is something that has validity or something that must be rebutted. I am a non-Christian, a non-communist, a non-drinker, and a non-triangle. We posit a concept such as unbounded wholeness in terms as the opposite of "dualism", when it seems to me to be something much definite. Like saying a person is a non-fish.

@Taomeow I tend toward impressionist, post-impressionist, and maybe pre-raphaelite works? But I spent some time looking into Rene Magritte and other surrealist painters/paintings, and found some I quite like. I enjoy the dreamy, liminal space atmosphere in many of them. And the meta-layering-unity-duality and false appearances aspect is fascinating. Like "separating" a thing to show it's wholeness and interconnectedness, revealing nothing can truly be separated. I keep coming back to view La Reproduction Interdite. It's wonderful, thanks again for sharing it. Rene Magritte, The World of Images (1950) Rene Magritte, The Flash (1959) Rene Magritte, Architecture in the Moonlight (1956) Neil Simone, Unknown Neil Simone, Stemming the Tide Antonio Nunziante, Untitled (1956) Rebecca Chaperone, Present Company (2022) Rafal Oblinsky, Ophelia (2024) Welder Wings (Francisco Abril and Nuria Velasco), Unknown Owen Gent, Unknown Moonassi, Keep You Burning (2023)

This insightful video can give you a hint

does someone make golden threaded straight jackets...?

My own understanding of what Yuan Tze was conveying was slightly different @Vajra Fist. However, perhaps we can just agree to disagree? 😊

Its the biggest one in the world ! Typical Americans ! They have to have the biggest one of everything ! Its all those cars and farm machinery you got , plus electronics and agricultural products , from Japan ; the country you owe the most money to . Strange thing ;

'Spiritual and esoteric movements' yes . That might say more about those 'movements' than the founders . Initiatory fraternities / mystery schools ? At least not one of the main ones . It seems to have got stronger each successive new leader. Again , in the 'spiritual and esoteric' movements they might have or even seek 'followers' but not so in the groups I am talking about . neither do they require or want people to reproduce their own qualities , that would be 'against the grain' of the purpose ! The 'spiritual and esoteric' ' and similar under modern definition do seem to want to have this relationship of 'emulation' but in any mystery school 'emulation' should be taken from the central character (and sometimes others ) in the 'initiatory drama ' of the 'mystery' of that particular school . The 'spiritual and esoteric' , in this case , represents the person following the teachings of the 'Founder' the analogy with Christianity would be a person following Christ's teachings , in an initiatory school they should follow the teaching of the school embodied within the central character of the mystery , in an analogy with Christianity , then a person would study what technology Christ used to achieve his higher level of self realization and utilize that for their own self realization and become 'a Christ ' . Or a different analogy would be ; One can become an hermetic , like Rudolf Steiner was and study the processes he studied and do the initiations he did . Or one can learn from Steiner and become an Anthroposophist , but you will be following the system Steiner developed and his development , not your own development . There is some similarity though , after a certain level of initiation , one is supposed to have a realization/s that should be shared and go into the 'education pool ' , eg; 'The College of Hermetic Philosophers' . Some seem to want follow in others paths and some want to forge ahead making their own . What has caused the modern degradation of all this is people wanting to 'quantum jump ' ; thinking they have the knowledge and validity to 'wing it' from the beginning , without the training or ability . And there have always been people ready to cash in on that desire and offer all sorts of nonsense to the masses .

There was a few days of intense solar flare activity ; For a couple of nights Aurora Australis seen as far north as 32 deg. S

The first requirement is to be able to control and measure your own level of consciousness. This allows measurement of the level/plane of operation of the spirit with which you make contact. The second step is assessing the qualities of the spirit The third step is assessing the intent of the spirit Otherwise you are trusting to lack of adverse karma and presence of positive patrons There are many lesser spirits within the human format, that after death may appear to be the deceased persona There are many spirits that claim to be a deceased human in order to access the energy system of the grieving human

If you are interested in Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's teachings, his later works are far more accessible. Unbounded Wholeness is a bit technical and theoretical. He recommends other books first, such as Awakening the Luminous Mind. His teachings now are all about direct experience, he avoids theoretical discussions with students. I think it is a bit misleading to think of dependent arising as a chain of occurrences. Dependent arising is another way of referring to emptiness. When we carefully examine the nature of our mind and the nature of reality in our practice or in ontological debate, we find that nothing can be shown to definitively exist in isolation from all else, including our sense of self. People and things are empty in the sense that they don't have a defined "self" that is independent and separate from other things, other beings, and their environment, hence the label dependent arising, everything is interconnected, nothing exists in isolation. Not only have yogis realized this, scientific disciplines like physics, biology, psychology, sociology, etc... have made analogous discoveries and embraced the truth of it. Whether through an analytical or practical approach, if we genuinely realize the meaning of emptiness we find it is not at all vacant or missing anything whatsoever. It is not some dark, imaginary, cold void. This is an error often encountered when the analytical mind thinks it understands emptiness. When we are quiet inside, alert, and open, not distracted in our thoughts, not indulging sensory experience, or feelings; we are not unconscious and blind, there is a spontaneous presence, a sense of awareness is there, a vividness, a knowing. So what we refer to as emptiness is not some sense of absence, it is more a fullness, filled with unlimited potential for anything to arise. This is what "unbounded wholeness" refers to, sometimes referred to in Tibetan as thiglé nyagcig (literally single sphere), referring to the non-dual nature of being. So spontaneous presence and dependent arising are indeed complimentary. Perhaps it is more accurate to say they are different characteristics, or aspects of the nature of mind, which is not different from the nature of reality in these teachings. There is a wonderful teaching that is discussed in detail in Tenzin Rinpoche's book Awakening the Luminous Mind called the Five-fold Teaching of Dawa Gyaltsen. It is a simple, five line poem that describes the relationship between our experience and the fundamental nature of existence. Vision is Mind - all life experiences are a reflection of our mind. Mind is Empty - when we look for the mind we ultimately cannot find it as independently established. Emptiness is Clear Light - when we discover the meaning of emptiness, there is a spontaneous presence there, a knowing (rigpa). Clear Light is Union - when we recognize the clear light, we find it to be the union of emptiness (space) and spontaneous presence (awareness). Union is Great Bliss - when we discover and abide in that union, we discover the spontaneous arising of empathy, of compassion, of Bodhicitta, the awakened heart. If you read this far... thanks for listening to me chatter!

Aggressive spontaneous movements are usually because there are blockages within the human that a strong energy breaks through temporarily. The events are spectacular but largely indicate the problems of the humans. Still, if that is all the "spiritual" experience they have .....

Weds Jun 4, 5:14p ... seems to be zippy now. logging on, everything. *fingers*crossed*

Still glitching for me too. ☹️

I'm about to give up - too slow .

Bravo ! An insight that explains a LOT of the 'why' related to this subject matter . "We' are all 'in the same boat' after all . Trouble with 'normal consciousness' is it assumes one is the Captain, the First Mate, the Bosun , the Deck Hands, the Cabin Boy .... When you get back to 'Port' is the Captain the only one that disembarks ? Imagine if the crew knew that beforehand - I imagine they would be , at least, subversive . They might even want to take over control of the ship !

Painfully slow this morning. Definitively it's an ongoing problem.

I watched this documentary with interest. He describes a state of 'oneness' as enlightenment. It reminds me of a dharma talk by Guo Gu, heir of Chan master Shen Zhen. I can't find it now, but said he had a moment of acute oneness during a retreat, sparked by watching tree branch fall in the garden. When he presented his teacher with the tree branch, he was sorely rebuked. He came to realise that the state of oneness also needs to fall away for there to be true awakening. (Couldn't find the talk, included a snippet here) And the quote below from his book

Just the latest update: It is working perfectly fine right now. 7:40pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time).

Time to quote Mark Twain ; “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Maybe its because we went through decades of not having a plan, method or system and thinking just being positive would do the trick ? Old people are just young people that learnt stuff .

Thats curious ..... I don't ever remember anything ever being 'fixed for good ' ! Who claimed that ? Yesterday .... slow , but eventually it would follow commands . Today ? No trouble . Its probably just this system ... its old .... but I like it as many new forums and sites cant even read my old files or accept documents I try to post there , ( I think due to the 'updating' of new systems, yet no problem ever with that and DBs ) . Eg, I can put an old flash drive in my old computer and post the contents here . new computer cant even read the flash drive and I cant post to new sites on the old computer . I have the same issue if I go to the library and use their constantly 'updated' computers . It won't be long before that will spread to other systems ; you go to start your car " Sorry , so many new updates are available that your old car computer cannot deal with them anymore and has shut down its operational system ... you need to buy a new car . "

I'm stopping here. I think some of you have lost enough credibility as things stand. No need for you to post more causing yourselves to lose even more than you already have.

I have been to his workshops before. I can verify he uses more subtle frequencies of Qi to help attendees run energy a little stronger during workshops. But it is intentionally at the more subtle levels for workshops. There are people I trust who knows him personally, and have witnessed his skills. Like emitting qi in the quality similar to electricity, like the some other masters many of you have probably seen online. I hear he has improved a lot. He does not demonstrate these things publicly for obvious reasons. And I don't believe he ever will. So one will need to seek him out personally to find out in person. The answer to questions around his skill will end up "go find out yourself". It is by design, and will not really change anytime soon. People who know first hand will not share it in great detail, or any detail at all. But there is a clear pattern I think most people are starting to realize, that not many great students actually come out of the other end of the school/ system. If they did, we would be all interacting with them, attending their workshops. But instead it all keeps pointing back to Damo, which is odd after all these years. You see this odd pattern in a few schools. Which does not make sense. Because his knowledge is authentic. His training methods I have experienced is legitimate and effective. There is a missing piece to the puzzle; but have put it aside and will let things reveal itself on its own. But for good knowledge and insights, framework of internal work, and methods of training, damo and his books are valuable and answers many questions correctly 👍. Anyone who would like to learn fundamental theory of daoist arts, I will direct them to Damo's books.

Ah, and here it is — the inevitable derail into religious fluff. We were talking about a YouTube channel. A guy stopped uploading. Somehow that turned into Bible verses, Satan, and vague doomsday prophecies about “truth” and “science” — as if quoting scripture automatically elevates your opinion into objective reality. Let’s be real: conflating Jesus with “science and truth” is laughable. Science doesn’t require belief. It’s falsifiable, testable, and self-correcting. Religion is none of those things. So trying to frame it as if turning away from your particular belief system is turning away from “truth” is intellectually dishonest. This kind of post always reeks of projection. It’s never about truth. It’s about feeling superior — wrapping emotional bias in spiritual language and hoping no one calls it out. Newsflash: people can disagree with your worldview and not be “of Satan.” Not everyone who's tired of fairy tales is “running from truth.” Some of us just grew up. Let’s stay on topic. Damo didn’t get silenced. He just stopped uploading. No grand conspiracy. No cosmic battle between light and dark. Just a dude not posting videos.

TO be honest, my opinion and experience from years of practice is that the LDT development is overrated. If you are into MA, you just need to understand how psoas muscles and waist muscles work. If you are in spiritual development, you need to work on the internal tissues (neigong) and at the same time work on the qi field surrounding yourself. LDT is just a piece in a big puzzle. Of course one might place a lot of focus on the LDT development in their practice, but to what end? As always, all of this boils down to one's goals. My opinion of course.

J.R.R. Tolkien CAT The fat cat on the mat may seem to dream of nice mice that suffice for him, or cream; but he free, maybe, walks in thought unbowed, proud, where loud roared and fought his kin, lean and slim, or deep in den in the East feasted on beasts and tender men. The giant lion with iron claw in paw, and huge ruthless tooth in gory jaw; the pard dark-starred, fleet upon feet, that oft soft from aloft leaps upon his meat where woods loom in gloom — far now they be, fierce and free, and tamed is he; but fat cat on the mat kept as a pet he does not forget.

Just as Jesus was not a Christian, the Buddha was not a Buddhist. The Buddha was one amongst countless beings that have become realized , dropped their fetters, and seen through their mistaken belief systems. Is Zen Buddhism? I'm not sure why that would matter. It IS a vehicle for realization, but it is a VERY direct one that will not suit all students. Zen DOES throw you into the "deep end", but, really, there IS no deep end. Realization is actually a very simple affair - in one moment you believe that a particular set of bodily sensations represent some kind of reality as a separate person, and then, miraculously, in the next moment you don't. In this respect Zen is far simpler than most vehicles... that simplicity isn't a bug, it is a feature. Nothing is missing in Zen (though there could be more emphasis on compassion training, IMHO), it just may not be meant for you. If one is drawn to follow a particular set of teachings they should, absolutely. Does this mean that there is something wrong with those other paths? No, not really. Having no tradition or path at all awakens "beings" all the time.

Tall eucalyptus listening now quietly places me back in

Depends on what you borrow that money for... I suppose it can go either way, or even both ways. E.g. if I borrowed money from myself to invest in gold 30 years ago, it would have made me poor then but wealthy now. Conversely, if I borrowed money from myself to invest in Enron 30 years ago, it would have made me wealthy then but poor now. Our situation is different though -- American government borrows money from American me the taxpayer but owes it to American them -- the Federal Reserve (20%), government trust funds (25%), private domestic investors (25% -- banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, etc..) to a total of 70% of the $33 trillion dollar debt owed to them, not to me. The remaining 30% owed to foreign countries is obviously also not owed to me even though it's been taken from me.

What religious derail did you callout? There was nothing. "Bizarre assumptions"? Everything I said was falsifiable science which can be validated. But for some strange reason, you probably hate science being validated. You were deeply offended when I said the truth would eventually be known and everyone would know it. Maybe you can think about why that is.