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Yes, let us celebrate as only the mystery schools of Alexandria knew how. Cucumber sandwiches cut into Gnostic triangles and served on the best china. With a pot of tea shared between us. Perhaps a few biscuits or scones with cream and jam. While we speak in Pythagorean verse and draw signs in the air with our forefingers. And curse the demiurge and the fallen star of Lucifer. Then summon a sweeter muse that arrives on a gentle breeze and shakes the hibiscus bloom.

Oh how I would of loved to have quiet intellectual conversations in kitchens while enjoying tea with homemade preserves! I was born in the wrong place and time. Instead, I´m sitting here by myself while people half a world away threaten to out me (inaccurately) as "liking Trump."

Happy 4rth. It it wasn't for our Founding Father's we'd be.. we'd be.. Canada!? which, imo, wouldn't be so bad. i was just hanging out in Vancouver, nice city. Chicago-ish but cleaner.

I may be bad at economy so it's a bit hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that to celebrate winning a war over 2% tax on tea, we pay a 7.75% sales tax on anything we might want to use for the celebration. Not to mention the rest of taxes on... um... on being alive -- also on being dead, since the 7.75% sales tax applies to coffins too.

https://youtu.be/irz-sAJtbEU?si=3BKXMcr03xGr-cI-

Seems to me like JK and JC had a similar relationship to their followers and a similar resistance to hierarchy. The rest was added later by people wanting to use their gifts to control others. In true spirit there can be no hierarchy.

I had a chance to spend some time visiting an intentional community based on Rudolph Steiner and theosophical principles. Very interesting and mostly self-sufficient community, particularly the elder care and biodynamic farming, but not quite my cup of tea. I think one of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s most insightful and valuable actions was rejecting the Theosophists’ mantle of world teacher and disbanding of the Order of the Star. This refusal to participate in the hierarchy prevented yet another cult of spiritual control and empowered the individual in all matters of spiritual investigation, perhaps the most important thing I gained from his teachings.

Politicians pat themselves on the back for all types of things that they don't actually accomplish. Last night, here, the launched fireworks by the people and not by the municipal folks, was the loudest I've ever heard. Now I know, why this place is called Boomland There remain pockets of free and brave folks in the USA.

I don't know what Montreal is up to these days, but a long time ago when I was there it looked like it was trying to strike a balance between New York and Paris -- the Paris part came from a homeless bum who asked me for a couple of dollars "for a cup of coffee." In French.

TDB synchronicity had me stumbling upon this thread immediately after stumbling across this gem from Rupert Spira…

Let's hope it does ! It should lead to understanding . And information plus understanding should lead to wisdom ; the right application of knowledge while understanding its results . IMO too . Eg. It still won't be apparent for many years to come ..... some have become aware , its starting to rear its ugly head now , but its probably too late to address it .... P L A S T I C S A classic example of human 'ingenuity' and 'advance' ; " Hey guys I just invented something that won't rust, won't degrade , will not shatter like glass or ceramic , hard to break down ... etc etc . " " That's cool ! What are you going to make out of it ?" " All sorts of disposable items ! cups, straws plates bags clothes ... you name it ! " - and there is the human 'intelligence problem' .

No I have not . I HAVE observed though a decline in what you were talking about previously , to which I answered the above ; " our species advancing. Not only in terms of technology but also in terms of society. " That's one example and the tip of the ice berg . There are many negatives which indicate society is 'diminishing ' , since you have switched to this word , lets look at its meaning 'cause to seem less impressive or valuable.' That is dependent on the observers value system ... in mine , its diminished . How fantastic ... a golden future awaits us then .... oh for joy for joy ... a brand new world where 7 year olds know about Bitcoin ! When I was 7 we played with frogs in a pond . Then we snuck under the railway tracks through a drain tunnel and found a creek that eventually went down to a bay . There was an old boatshed there and we climbed over the gate to get out on the wharf to see if we could see any fish. We could . But then this old guy turned up yelling at us and we couldn't run off as he blocked our exist , he was the owner . He realised we were just a couple of curious kids , we made friends , he let us use his wharf and got some fishing gear out the shed and showed us how to use it . he would tell us stories of how the mud used to be golden sand and sea turtles would come in there and breed and the end of the bay would be filled with baby turtles swimming around in the crystal clear water . he told us how before there no suburbs or streets or houses , just his place .... 'Old Fred ' ( Matson ) and he thought it might be nice to make it available for others pleasure as well ... so he made a garden ; That's one of a hundred stories I could tell and to think I missed out on Bitcoin ! That's true .... I didn't expect them to use phosphorous bombs on civilian settlements . Ah yes , the good ol' pre COVID days . Statistics show the 60s and the 70s had much less violent crimes and homicide ... ya know 'good citizens' like you could walk down the streets of Good Ol USA and feel a lot safer ! because there was much LESS murder and violence unless you were in Vietnam of course . You are either deliberately telling lies for some reason or are incredibly 'blinkered ' .

To all American Bums. 🇬🇧💂💂🇬🇧

a poet of sorts, cool.

Wouldn't this instead be indicative of a decaying society? Like, people are literally dying to enable CEOs and their ilk to line their pockets. It's bad enough that I consider anyone above a certain cut of wealth to be a mass murderer (due to their predatory tactics which result in millions of people dying due to a lack of food, shelter, or healthcare).

Agreed, but on the flip side, I'd say that it's very important for a martial artist to know when they've had this mercy given. One of the places I practice usually ends the night with a "playful" randoori, where we are explicitly told not to injure and to "gracefully lose". Basically, know when it's time to back off and don't injure or get injured. A running issue there is that people don't realize that something could have knocked out or killed them *because* of holding back... lots of shots to the neck, throat, back of the head, ears, etc. that people just disregard because they've never felt what it actually does when force it put into it.

Didn't Hollywood movies portraying Russians teach you anything? What critical thinking? All they do is plot world domination while raising their glasses of vodka and toasting each other invariably in Polish ("na zdrovie!"). As for drunken grilling accidents, that part is not very different except Russians prefer shashlik (shish kabob) to burgers when celebrating whatever. Critical thinking is for quiet conversations in the kitchen... the greatest school of thought it used to be. Mystery schools of Alexandria meet political dissidence over tea with homemade preserves and cigarette smoke. Don't know about now... that "social sciences" scene might be out of vogue by now.

Well, you already know how it is. The 4th is associated with fireworks, barbeque, parades, and beer. Drunken grilling accidents? Deeply American. Critical thinking? That´s more of a Russian thing.

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It is.

Ren Xue is the only complete system that I've encountered, apart from Quakerism. Peace ☮

The choice is yours, unless it's not. ✌🏻 Peace ☮

That's just pure ignorance. ☮

I hope you think of us . We have a fireworks day ! On Queens Birthday holiday ... oh wait ... KING"S Birthday now . But I don't think they changed the date . But they made them illegal , so now one has to go to a fireworks show on Charlie's birthday .... when ever that is , but it doesn't matter as its not on that date ... and F it ! it doesn't matter anyway to me ! Where is the fun if ya can;t blow up people's letterboxes one night a year ! So in good ol' Aussie common sense fashion we decided that people in Darwin ( Darwin ! of all places ! The home of the most troppo, drunk Australians on the planet ! ) fireworks ban is lifted on 'Cracker Night ' ( Queen's birthday holiday ) and everyday citizens can let em off , no need to go to a display . So of course .... we all go up there for it ! Weeeee ! Yahoo ! Comparison ... ' Darwin Stubbie ' - on the right , everyone else's Stubbie - on the left

He does have a 'way with words' .

Don't worry that it might not agree with your teachings .... because ... you do realize 'akashic records' is not a Hindu concept ? Its one of those theosophical postulations that are based on Vedantic terms , mostly - ākāśa आकाश - basically ' an ethereal fluid supposed to be pervading the cosmos' , the basis , essence and first element , then air , fire , water , earth . A type of 'aethyr' . IN modern language it could be called 'quintessence ' . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintessence_(physics) Blavatski introduced the idea by coupling 'akasa' with " "indestructible tablets of the astral light" . Then in 'Esoteric Buddhism' ( Sinnett 1883 ) - but that was citing Olcott's 'A Buddhist Catechism ' (1881) ; " "Buddha taught two things are eternal, viz, 'Akasa' and 'Nirvana': everything has come out of Akasa in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and, passes away. No thing ever comes out of nothing." Next Leadbeater had a go in developing the concept and ( even though nothing can come out of it ) decided a clairvoyant could bring information out of it, in 'Clairvoyance ' (1889) he came up with the 'Akashic records' concept claiming that not only could all past 'imprinted ' events be read out of it , including the ( then recently developed ) ideas about the 'history' of Atlantis but now the future could be seen in it as well ! ... up to the 28th century - in 'Man; Whence, How and Wither ' (1913) . Then Alice Bailey had a go at it in her 'The Light of the Soul '- on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Book 3 Union Achieved and its Results (1927): Now it gets even better ! " The akashic record is like an immense photographic film, registering all the desires and earth experiences of our planet. Those who perceive it will see pictured thereon: The life experiences of every human being since time began, The reactions to experience of the entire animal kingdom, The aggregation of the thought-forms of a karmic nature (based on desire) of every human unit throughout time. Only a trained occultist can distinguish between actual experience and those astral pictures created by imagination and keen desire.[8] " One wonders what 'trained Occultists ' they had in Theosophy ??? ( As there was no occult training in Theosophy ) . Then Steiner had a dip in using it to support all sorts of things in this 'system' by saying he saw it in those records . Then Cayce developed it further ..... Theosophical ! We had a few of them here too ... they didn't like historical analysis of things and factual observations and got annoyed at me like a lot of others do , for pointing them out . We even had some members offering an 'akashic record cleaning service .... ooops, I mean 'reading service ' . ( not a bad idea ..... my 'records' could do with some cleaning up ... anyone got an akashic rubber ? ) When we gonna get an akasic internet ?

I wouldn't accuse your friend of lying. He might have had an experience of that which he remembers vividly. I can remember my 18th birthday party, but it is ONLY a memory, not something I can see or experience now. This is the problem. As much as I love the idea, an Akashic records vault full of stories about he past and future violates everything that insight into emptiness/dao/Buddha nature clearly demonstrates about reality in this moment. Speaking solely for myself, I would only believe it if I saw it but it would have to violate everything I know about the ultimate qualities of reality, AND it would have to be something that was always available in this moment. It is instructive, by way of an example, to look at what some enlightened teachers say about their ultimate conclusions on past lives. This example comes most easily to mind, but my teacher and others I have chatted to about this topic say essentially the same thing: Experiences of past lives DO happen - but that doesn't mean they have any deeper reality than something you dream, or even something you did yesterday. Can you see your past life, or experience of the Akashic records in this moment? This is what matters. This is the litmus test for what is "real". Anything you are not experiencing in this this moment, where you are, is a story you are telling yourself. This is obvious where there is non-dual/unity understanding. Insight into the non-dual nature of reality is omnipresent - part of this moment of experiencing forever.

Yes, there was that two percent tax; then 3% set things right. It only took 3%

He very explicitly stated that he thinks the world has become more stupid since COVID and he is deliberately being stupid here to add to the 'stupid pool ' . I mean , that 'logic' is stupid in itself Complains about coffee being too sweet so ....

Its something I never understood . This race to 'crowd up' everything . It even happened on the commune . In the old days when we went from illegal to legal , we had to apply for 'multiple occupancy tenancy ' at the local council authority . One thing we had to do was make a development plan and show how where and how many house sites we were going to develop . Some members suggested crazy high numbers that seemed ridiculous to me . Why not just build blocks of flats and cover the land with development ? obviously they didn't want that , it would defeat the whole purpose of the enterprise . So they agreed with me that some type of limit must be put in place . Okay good , you agree on a limit . Now, why not make that limit a good limit that is healthy, sustainable , enjoyable ... etc . That got them thinking . Fortunately many decades later we still have pristine and natural land , animal reserves , river front riparian zone, a home for rare and endangered native animals , a festival site , and still have some house sites that have not been developed yet ! Why wanna cover everything with people ? A day at the beach ;

... and responding effectively to it . IMO a 'good martial artist ' is one who can deliver a good counter and technique and with skill and focus .... especially amidst the chaos of a bout or 'melee' can 'pull' it just in time so no serious injury or hurt has resulted , and the other or any judge or onlooker is able to be aware of that . of course, this is very specific to me as nearly all of my early bouts and comp where supposed to be done like that . Its an issue in MA .... how ya gonna do it ? I was in a group that used armor ... it was cumbersome and restrictive and also allowed the other to keep going when they should be knocked out ( of course, you can use armor and weapons in the traditional way and slog it out ) using focus and pulling punches and stopping techniques can work but if you do that a lot you might effect any real application . Slowing down a bit helps , especially if the other acts like they have been hit - how many times you seen a guy do a punch and he stands there erect still holding the fist and arm out while the other dances around him delivering a flurry of techniques ? Well, that ain't real either . Eg , in practice some one might throw a right cross, I'll slip to my right and intercept with a ( held back ) right spear knuckle strike into their LU9 ... then ..... do something else to follow up while they stand there . But if I really do it ... they ain't just standing there ... there is a reaction, their whole body shape and position will change - usually they immediately loose their center ... it rises , the shoulders hunch up, the face 'scrunches down' , the right fist retracts and is held in to the chest often by the other hand . So in practice focus misses out on a lot and also confuses 'application' . Another example is a combo in a pattern ... eye flick followed by elbow to the head .... nearly impossible to do so people have come up with weird and impractical stuff . Yet one time ... a weird accident , I have no idea what the guy was doing, he was supposedly a 3 degree black belt and an instructor . he knew what I was going to do and also I was going slow , I flicked my hand towards his eyeball slowly and he didn't even turn away or flinch ! It was a light 'brush' but he immediately put both hands up to his eyes and bent over in front of me exposing the back of his neck , all I had to do was drop my center into a low horse stance and drop my elbow down onto the back of his skull where the spine goes in . Which I didn't , of course , as I was too busy crouching over checking to see if he was ok . - apparently he didn't see it coming as he 'looked away' at the last minute ( training in the park by the river ... bikini girls ! ) DUDE ! 3rd Dan black belt ? That's what ya get for training inside a dojo or hall all your life ! Or you can use some techniques and ban others by rules - but that's also a restriction . You can try full delivery with some bans on some techniques as in MAA and the like , but same as above . Or you can go all out ..... and have a very short career and a very sore and painful old age !

...my friend has been to the akashic records. He says it's possible to relive any past event through his astral body... but he can't change what he did, it's like seeing it and experiencing it emotionally, but thats it. He has no reason to lie... so I presumably believe him. The astral realm is timeless...as in not bound time, so it makes sense that one could journey along the timeline of anything and everything if they wanted to. He also likes to say that every heartbeat we have - actually is a force that inscribes our lives onto the universal spectrum of causation... said another way - the akashic record is the record of everything caused by everything...its the causal sphere - that is everywhere. It interpenetrates everything as it is the cause of everything.

If I disagreed with you, would I be allowed to say so? In the US I am not permitted to loot your businesses, graffiti your garden walls or spit on your security guards, no matter how strong my feelings, but I can still say my piece. In this respect, the constitution still stands. But this post of mine, like yours before me, is current event talk, and the rules of this forum are stricter than the rules of the street. I am willing to stop. Are you?

Said the man from Mexico.

America is a vast patchwork of different cultures. We´re obscenely rich and heartbreakingly poor; rural gun-toting Texans and progressive rainbow flag-waving denizens of West Hollywood; black and brown and white like hulled rice. I can´t help but think, despite all the problems and fighting, that there´s something beautiful about the messy mix of it all. Happy 4th!

In case you might be interested, the last two sections of Tom Bisio's Daoist Meditation course ($150) are on Sleeping Meditation and Sleeping Gong. He also has a book ($20): Daoist Sleeping Meditation: Chen Tuan's Sleeping Gong. I think that master who pulls trucks with his balls (Master Tu maybe?) has an 8 Pieces of Brocade DVD that also has some information about sleeping qigong on it. I haven't seen it.

a whole lot of people turn to God as adults, and who never learned that from our parents. My parents taught me it was foolishness. But based solely on my own personal experience, learning, and self-development as an adult, i came to recognize God, and rejected the conditioning from my parents. There are many religious traditions and many "preachers and gurus" who teach that God is both transcendent ("out there") and also immanent ("in here"). That there is a spark of Divinity within each and every one of us. And that Divinity permeates all of creation. "There is no place where God is not." May each person follow the path which resonates with them, and allow others to do the same.

you tube indicates the video is: altered or synthetic conent

There are many accounts of time travel - indicating that there is some preservation of the past and some means for modification. The concept of the akashic records may therefore be rather too limited. Time travel technology came into the possession of different governments and organizations in the post-WW II era due to extraterrestrials conducting a ‘temporal war’ over Earth’s future timelines. This all began when the German Vril Society achieved breakthroughs in torsion field physics and antigravity technology in the 1920s, https://exopolitics.org/time-travel-temporal-ware-fare-and-humanities-future-a-second-look-part-1/ Andrew Basiago, J.D., is a licensed attorney with Washington State who claims to have participated in classified programs involving time travel and space time portals since 1967 when he was 6 years old. He was exposed into these programs by his father who worked for a major engineering corporation that was given the contracts to develop these exotic technologies — the Ralph M. Parsons company. https://getpodcast.com/podcast/exopolitics-today-with-dr-michael-salla/project-pegasus-and-time-travel-interview-with-andrew-basiago_189a867df8 The climax of this work was reached at Montauk Point in 1983. It was at that time that the Montauk Project effectively ripped open a hole in space-time to 1943. http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Montauk_04.pdf I am reminded of Shakespeare: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy After 4 centuries it is still true