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It is helpful to others-- many of whom may be reading anonymously!

Sorry but I don't follow what you are saying here. This is a nice, tidy, and convenient idiom but I don't think it means much really, at least not to me. Similar phrases are tossed around in the Buddhist world but it is important to have a very clear understanding of what it means. The Self doesn't need to show the Self or be shown the Self, it simply is as it is. Saying it shows something to someone is an exercise in projection and anthropomorphism, IMO. It is the human being, the practitioner, that is in the dark, does the work, has an enlightening experience, remembers that experience, names, describes, and discusses that experience. The human being continues to live in the context of that experience. Such an experience can be described as sacred, divine, and a blessing. We can even say the Self showed the Self to the practitioner, ... so what? Even the purest and most perfect experience of the Self, or the nature of mind, arises for a human being, or in some other type of being that a human being creates in their mind. The practitioner must take care not to conflate themselves with the perfect and pure mind, with the Self; it happens and can be a serious obstacle and perhaps contribute to the genesis of an abusive and self-righteous "guru." Yes, we as practitioners are a manifestation of the Self but always a manifestation, never the pure and perfect Self it-Self, at least not while in the form of a human being. Otherwise that is what we might call a Buddha, then we're back to the earlier question of how is that distinct fro Buddha-mind it-Self? Some perhaps come quite close. My teacher's teacher recently died at the age of 100. He was the closest thing to a living Buddha I've encountered and yet he was just a person, albeit a marvelous and generous person, having devoted his entire life to his people and his religion. The last thing he said to my teacher was 'Don't worry about me, I am inseparable from rang jung yeshe (self-arising wisdom).' And yet he was human and died, never declared himself enlightened or a Buddha, and always cautioned against conflating oneself as a practitioner with the nature of mind. Not sure my diatribe is of much value to you but it helps me to try and verbalize my experience and understanding, such as it is.

One step on the right shore is worth more than a thousand splashes elsewhere!

Seems like you are definitely over doing it, and/or mixing it with another practice, you might have a grounding problem. Just bend the bows for one session daily and temporarily stop doing all others until you normalise. Fp chi is very intense once it is activated and accumulates over time. Good luck, hope you recover soon.

… a good (person] reflects thus: “Lack of desire even for the attainment of the first meditation has been spoken of by [me]; for whatever (one) imagines it to be, it is otherwise” [Similarly for the second, third, and fourth initial meditative states, and for the attainments of the first four further meditative states]. (MN 113, tr. Pali Text Society vol III pp 92-94)

along with 'Then Jesus said to him, “Put the sword back into its place. All those who use the sword will die by the sword." ' (Matthew 26:52)

Some nice ‘direct action’ from Jesus clearing the Temple https://biblehub.com/text/john/2-15.htm

There are a lot of parallels, although your language is poetic and mine is based on neuroscience! In one of Dogen’s most famous essays, called “Genjo Koan”, he wrote: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. (“Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Kazuaki Tanahashi) Dogen said nothing here about sitting up straight or paying close attention to the breath. Instead, he asserted that “practice occurs” as a natural consequence of finding “your place where you are”. Dogen went on to say that the activity effected by practice is precisely “actualizing the fundamental point”, even though he never explained what the “fundamental point” was. Neuroscientists describe “your place where you are” as your “embodied self-location”: A key aspect of the bodily self is self-location, the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders (embodied self-location). (Journal of Neuroscience 26 May 2010, 30 (21) 7202-7214) Dogen’s “Genjo Koan” can be paraphrased in terms of “self-location”: When you find the “specific position in space” where you feel your bodily self to be, activity in the body begins to coordinate by virtue of that place. A relationship between the place of “embodied self-location” and activity in the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the point that is the “specific position in space” of embodied self-location is manifested in activity. ... Here’s Gautama’s description of the initial concentration: Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought directed and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. (SN 48.10, tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 174; parentheticals paraphrase original) The feelings of “zest” and “ease” are to be extended as a part of that concentration: … (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease. (AN 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19) Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that a sense of gravity accompanies the feelings of zest and ease as they are suffused throughout the body. In Gautama’s description of the first concentration, concentration begins when a person lays hold of “one-pointedness”, something Gautama also referred to as “one-pointedness of mind”. Translated into the language of the neurobiologists, concentration begins when consciousness is retained at the “specific position in space” of “embodied self-location”. The zest and ease of the initial concentration are a result of the effortlessness of the automatic activity initiated by gravity where one-pointedness of mind takes place. To drench the entire body with the feelings of zest and ease such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” ensures that the consciousness retained with “embodied self-location” can remain “one-pointed”, even as the “specific position” of “embodied self-location” shifts and moves. There can come a moment when the experience of consciousness retained with “embodied self-location” becomes the experience of “embodied self-location” retained with consciousness. Dogen continued his “Genjo Koan”: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (“Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Kazuaki Tanahashi) To paraphrase: “When you find your way at this moment”, a relationship between the freedom of consciousness and the automatic activity of the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the place of occurrence of consciousness in the moment is manifested as the activity of the body. “When you find your way at this moment”, the activity of the body in posture and in the movement of breath becomes solely by virtue of the singular location of consciousness. (“The Place Where You Stop and Rest”)

What I referred to as the god particle in my previous post, might perhaps be better referred to as ‘the elixir’ - “Golden Elixir is another name for one’s fundamental nature. There is no other Golden Elixir outside one's fundamental nature. All human beings have this Golden Elixir complete in themselves: it is entirely realized in everybody. It is neither more in a sage, nor less in an ordinary person. It is the seed of the Immortals and the Buddhas, the root of the worthies and the sages.” Liu Yiming (1734-1821)

Try this: ACTIVE LOVE — THE TOOLS

Here is some context from Got Questions.org "Matthew 10:34-36 describes Jesus telling the disciples that He came not to bring peace to the world, but a sword. Jesus’ sword was never a literal one. In fact, when Peter took up a sword to defend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus rebuked him and told him to put away his sword, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Why then, did Jesus say, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” What kind of sword did Jesus come to bring?" It separates and divides believers from non-believers. "A sword, a weapon which divides and severs. As a result of Jesus' visit to the earth, some children would be set against parents and a man’s enemies might be those within his own household. This is because many who choose to follow Jesus are hated by their family members. This may be part of the cost of discipleship, for love of family should not be greater than love for Jesus."

there was this thread

regarding bold above, since Buddhism embraces both karma and reincarnation, then there are repercussions and "justice." Even though we do not see how or when the justice is administered, the system assures us that it does occur. So that is a source of peace. Our focus though is NOT on the other person, it is on our own self, our own growth, our own development, our own peace of mind, health, and well-being.

With pleasure. In the prior week, we had the honour to be visited by another gem: HG Navina Nirada Prabhu. It truly is something about this people, something about them that is just... super human. Divine, almost. For instance, he refferenced thoughts I have had and topics of conversation Ive participated in very cleary, and said straight out that one can develop the posibility to read minds. During the lecture, he said that what got him curious about Krishna conciousness, was the teaching of "we are not our bodies." After that, he asked me for how long Ive been on a spiritual hourney counciously and than simply said "5" out of nowhere. I answered something about the lines of: "You mentioned five... thats about when the concious mind useally enters for most people, isnt it?" "exactly," he said, smiling. Quite relevant to the chat we had about the mind/intellect and so on in the "what actions brings us closer to the LIGHT," if you recall? At the end, I asked him for some advice. He simply said «follow your heart» ❤️‍🔥😁 I also asked one of the teacher who told me this, what he meant. Below are the exchange of texts. Me: I think you told me a few months ago go, that I would very soon leave my body, while remain as me in this universe. Did I understand you correctly? If so could, could you clarify what you meant by that? Prabhu: Did I? Point is our lives are very short and uncertain. Nobody knows when will be our last moment in this body. So if we want to stop this cycle of birth and death then, Always remember Krishna and Never forget Krishna. Me: But the way you said it, was as if I would leave my body but still be alive. Perhaps I’m mistaken. And yes, always remember Krishna. At times I get a little ashamed tho, to chant, when I feel like my behavior is to dishonorable to be contacting the deities. Prabhu: The soul never dies. The subtle body made of mind, intelligence and false ego carry the soul at the time of death to a new body based on what we are thinking at the last moment. He then immediatley sent me a video, where the speaker said that "these instructions you recieve at the time of initiation, you should be very carefull to follow these your whole life." The speaker continued to talk about, among other things, the importance to follow the rules of your ashram as well as spreading Krishna conciousness."

When people think about justice, then, they want revenge . If one don't get even with that person, the emotional pain won't go away. However, from a Taoist / Buddhist point of view, if one can just let it go and don't think about justice, then, the pain will go away. No matter what the situation is, one always keep one's poise and emotionless. Just treat like it is none of your business. One cannot change whatever had been happened already and can't do anything about it, then, just let it go. That is what cultivation of the mind was all about. Perhaps, this is not something that a normal person can handle. Peace!

With a house that is a regular pentagon (5 sided) it is possible to draw inside it a regular pentagram (5 lines). With a little stretch of the imagination, a pentagram has a head, two arms and two legs - like a person lying back with limbs out-stretched. In the legend I was taught by a German professor of dance, the house on chicken turned so the entrance not accessible until the person "said the words his/her mother taught". I once lived in the area of Scotland shown by the diagram as the conjunction of four ley lines. There were actually five that converged when we built a suitable five-sided building at the right place. If you are interested in the sacred places of France, the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail is a useful tour guide - although there are more relevant places than described in the book.

This intruiges me, although I struggle to comprehend it. I wonder, would you be willing to help me with a simplified.. version of your comment? The topic of lei lines came up just last week actually, in a convo. As my teacher and I are going to Italy in the near future, he mentioned a line going from stonehenge, trough a sacred place in France (forgot the name) and down to Italy (based on the map the line seems to go trough both Piedmonte and lombardy, trough Tuscany and Emilia romagna, before ending in... idk, Abruzzo Molisse? Edit: when I asked for clarification, it was mostly in regards to your first paragraph, but feel free to answer (or avoid answering all together) on whatever you wish

Sorry, I made a mistake. His last name is Yin(银), not Ying.

@cihan Thank you, I will give that a try!

@goretex Damo's safety mechanism around Dantian training, is through refining yin qualities, to tame yang energy from creating unstable pressures and manifestations. It is good fundamentals, true, but I don't think it is enough to restraint the unstable quality of dantian building. What that kind of power becomes, depends on your cultivation and character that has been established many many years prior, and lifetimes. And that kind of character building is not just yin energy. It is your habitual life conduct and health in the mind. The success of dantian work, is depending on things not just in this lifetime. With Mark's methods, although the development of energy is released into space outside the body, we need to remember the fundemental rule of existence. All experience cannot be outside of "mind". All experience is actually an "internal" experience with our 6 sense basis. So this is still a very real internal development, of the physical layer, to the other layers. It is VERY difficult to ignore your insecurities, obstacles, blockages, flaws, defilements with Mark's methods. Because you work on all the layers, the mind cannot run from itself with this kind of training. There is alot of obvious benefits to that. If you trained under older masters, and listen to their caution, they will share very similar stories of themselves, and of masters they know who train internal body methods, dantian work, dantian power. The stories are always the same. They die early, they go blind, they go crazy, their personalities, desires become aggressive, etc. And it is specifically tied to their type dantian sinking training. To contain Qi in ways the body and mind is unable to handle or tame. My master took up Buddhism to develop the insight to filter out and abandon unhealthy training methods. The old branches of yang taiji through yang jianhou's lineages, inclines more towards mark rasmus theories. Where dantian is not really focused that way. It is just an area that is recognized to have a bigger "space" for chi to collect. But collection is not what they do. Energy just flows through it and fills to whatever ratio is available, and flows on. The practice is to purify and stabilize the energies. And when one later is stable to a certain extent, it creates a natural momentum to transform to the next later, jing qi shen, wuji, akasha etc.

Besides the links above you can contact Robert Coons https://www.facebook.com/daoistmeditation and Oscar Idelji https://thenuwa.substack.com/p/the-essential-teachings-from-the.

thanks for the considerate feedback ;-)

Nor do I mean to imply that you did. As mentioned, I am expressing my ongoing process, for what it's worth. Some may be stimulated by or related to things you've said, some not. I actually use those at work but not sure what it means in this context. I think I can be somewhat concrete in how I interpret things, particularly though anonymous digital communication.

i like this. a lot.

We've progressed so far; human civilization: golden age to silver age to bronze age, iron age, fast forward on up to plastic age. Elon says, Grok reads minds. https://www.abebooks.com/PEASANTS-REVOLTING-WIZARD-Hart-Johnny-Parker/374584638/bd Summer in America, baseball season; the player's goal is to make it home. Winners and losers. Winners were able to make it home safely. Losers did not. Maybe bc they didn't have one to go to anymore. Largely, it isn't about mental disorders or addictions, it's about economic opportunities. After all, Baseball is big bizness. Good sports give a hand up to the downtrodden, they don't kick em while their down.

Today I sat in the middle of the afternoon, just my usual sloppy half-lotus. My practice seems to have circled back around to something like: There can… come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence. yet I am drawing on Gautama's description of mindfulness of the body: … Setting mindfulness in front of (oneself), (one) breathes in mindfully and mindfully breathes out. As (one) draws in a long breath (one) knows: A long breath I draw in. [As (one) breathes out a long breath (one) knows: I breathe out a long breath.] As (one) draws in a short breath (one) knows: A short breath I draw in. As (one) breathes out a short breath (one) knows: I breathe out a short breath. Thus (one) makes up (one’s) mind: I shall breathe in, feeling it go through the whole body. Feeling it go through the whole body I shall breath out. Calming down the bodily aggregate I shall breathe in. Calming down the bodily aggregate I shall breathe out. (SN 54.1, tr. Pali Text Society vol V pp 275-276; masculine pronouns replaced) I do so in the context of what I consider to be the actionable elements in the sixteen elements of the mindfulness that made up his way of living: 1) Relax the activity of the body, in inhalation and exhalation; 2) Find a feeling of ease and calm the senses connected with balance, in inhalation and exhalation; 3) Appreciate and detach from thought, in inhalation and exhalation; 4) Look to the free location of consciousness for the automatic activity of the body, in inhalation and exhalation. "Relax the activity of the body, in inhalation and exhalation" is my real-world application of "calming down the bodily aggregate I shall breathe in. Calming down the bodily aggregate I shall breathe out", "relax" instead of "calm" to differentiate the experience from "calming down the mental factors", which constitutes the eighth element of Gautama's way of living and really does involve calm. The key to continued mindfulness is the last element. The first three you could say are practices of "form is emptiness", and the last a practice of "emptiness is form". Another way to describe that last element: Translated into the language of the neurobiologists, concentration begins when consciousness is retained at the “specific position in space” of “embodied self-location”. ... There can come a moment when the experience of consciousness retained with “embodied self-location” becomes the experience of “embodied self-location” retained with consciousness. ("The Place Where You Stop and Rest") Gautama's description of that last: Again, a (person), putting away ease… enters and abides in the fourth musing; seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind. … just as a (person) might sit with (their) head swathed in a clean cloth; even so (one) sits suffusing (their) body with purity… (AN 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19) My explanation: The “purity” that suffuses the body is the pureness of the mind without any will or intention with regard to the body. I believe that activity of the body solely by virtue of the location of consciousness is what Shunryu Suzuki referred to as “just sitting”. “Doing something” with regard to the body or the breath, whether “known and deliberate” or “concealed from the consciousness by habit”, has ceased. ("The Place Where You Stop and Rest") "Unbounded awareness"--the first of the further concentrations is “the excellence of the heart’s release” through the extension of the mind of compassion through "the first quarter [of the world], likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth; just so above, below, across; [one] dwells having suffused the whole world everywhere, in every way, with a mind of compassion that is far-reaching, wide-spread, immeasurable, without enmity, without malevolence." That concentration Gautama said was "the infinity of ether".

people, paths, and religious traditions do not agree on what evil is, whether it exists, how to understand it, where it comes from, what causes it, or how to respond to it. none of those elements are universal.

yes I agree. regarding post from Steve, it is most definitely helpful. to many. Thank you for posting

Optometrist freaked out at me for using eye drops ; " Dont put that rubbish in your eyes , it's just water with ...... " some type of preservative or sterilizing agent ? .

Yes ..... Joy works down the street . Go and see her to get some happiness .

WHOSE core foundational and spiritual attitudes ? 'GET OUT ! Or I will whip you in the face ! "

My take is IF I were Buddha , I would bless them and say "may they " ( and depending on what 'type' of Buddha [ ] ) my word "may' would change the universe OR I am just being ineffectual and nicely retiring . If I were an ancient Egyptian ..... I would 'throw an ax into the face of evil ' . But for you Oldbob , might I suggest you bless them and hope for change .... but keep the ax close by .

You might want to check these two websites. Good luck。 https://www.facebook.com/yinxian.taiwan/ http://www.shien-dao.com.tw/main-hinet.html

Indeed. And so too it is in Christianity. And then again there’s, “not I came to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34) https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/10-34.htm

Indeed. It’s all about context always. The ‘may’ imo reflects, as you say, that then there would be no evil.

I rather like this (from Psychology Today): "But happiness is not joy because joy is not external, it can't be bought and it is not conditional on someone else's behavior. In fact, joy is not contingent on anything in order to exist. "

darkness does not extinguish darkness. it just adds more darkness to the world. each of us individually makes the choice what we broadcast. hate begets hate. is that what we want to propagate and promote and increase in this world?

one of the most powerful acts a person can do, is to bless everyone, including their enemies. what you "put out there" comes back to you. what you broadcast is delivered to you. so "be careful what you wish for"

Do you think that truly happy beings would commit evil acts?

Oh O ! (says everyone ) It became apparent some time back , my Khvarenah seems to be 'Story -teller ' . An important position in the tribe - before it all got ****ed up .

When I want a stressed human/animal to interact well with me, I give Light from my heart. When a friend is having trouble with a relationship/child I get them to do that too. Usually they immediately feel better about the difficult situation and can see the energy/behavior shift in the other.

For me it is not so neat and tidy a distinction, which is why I suggested the question is rhetorical. I appreciate those who offered their perspectives and respect the responses but, for me, the question goes deeper. When I think about a living Buddha, I am creating an idealistic conceptual construct based on stories, histories, drawings, and ideas. When we talk about Buddha-nature, we indulge in our ideas and concepts about that which is unimputable and ineffable. Comparing the two is at best a mental game like pinning an imaginary tail on an invisible donkey, at least that's how it feels to me. Since we are discussing Buddha and Buddha-nature, I'll quote the Heart Sutra - 'Form IS emptiness, emptiness IS form' There is no distinction, no boundary other than that created by our lack of knowing and clarity, in other words our ignorance. Therefore, where is the boundary between the manifest Buddha and the Buddha which is the basis of all manifestation? I treat the question more like a koan than a matter for intellectual solution. In the Bön tradition, the heart chakra is the home of the life force wind or lung which is said to have the form of a jewel radiating light in all directions and associated with the space element. Practices like tsa lung and trul khor are designed to clear blockages in this area (and others) and help to support the awakening of rigpa and samadhi. The first time I experienced samadhi, it was preceded by a distinct sensation of something rupturing or popping in the center of my heart, followed by an instantaneous opening into unbounded awareness which was utterly stable and clear, though lasted only about an hour. I then chased that feeling and experience for months before being able to fully let it go. It was quite the obstacle to my practice!

Yes. So it is not "God created" the universe past tense. It is "God creates" the universe present tense in every moment.

Field of gold and field of dreams From the mountains to the sea Do not grasp too tightly And obtain victory

The God Particle Within There is an idea in the spiritual traditions of the world that the divine is not separate, not distant, not a figure above, but a presence within. But what if this inner divinity is not only real, but also functional? What if it is not merely a state of mind, or emptiness, or spaciousness, or holiness, but part of our subtle architecture, a refined, intelligent essence working ceaselessly to restore wholeness? This deeper understanding shifts everything. It reframes the divine not as an object of worship, but as a mechanism of transformation, actively embedded in the very fabric of our inner being. Not metaphor. Not abstraction. But an actual medium: subtle, dynamic, and purifying. In this vision, the self is not merely a vessel for thought and experience. It is a structured field, layered, responsive, and capable of immense refinement. At the core of this field lies something subtle yet profoundly intelligent: a filtering presence that tries to separate what is real from what is reactive, what is timeless from what is temporary. It does not force, yet it governs. It does not shout, yet it clarifies. It acts like a crystalline thread, a current of luminous essence that brings truth wherever it flows. This essence is not born of effort. It cannot be constructed by the mind. It is never absent, merely covered over, almost silenced. But it can be uncovered, found beneath the sediment of old impressions. It is not ours to create, but ours to discover, when the more assertive aspects of the self begin to fall quiet and the deeper, subconscious forces awaken. What becomes clear is that this essence is not a static stillness or blank awareness. It is a responsive intelligence, one that gently and systematically purifies distortion. Like a clear stream flowing through a clouded vessel, it enacts transformation not through struggle, but through contact. Its very nature reveals and dissolves what is false. Its flow is the return to sanity. The mind may attempt to name this essence, to contain it within ideas. But I propose it is not an idea. It is a subtle reality, not merely an inner event or a shift, but the unveiling of what may be called the essence of God: a presence so innately pure and intelligent that its activation realigns the entire system of self around what is most real. It is the final key that unlocks the final process. For many, the longing for truth begins with a sense of absence, of something missing. But the God particle within is not technically missing. It is hidden. And it waits, not passively, but quietly, until the self becomes transparent enough to allow contact. What is required is not belief, not even faith, but recognition. The subtle pathways of the self must open, not to ideas, but to actual subtle function, until this ultimate presence is revealed and restored to its rightful place: to cleanse consciously, to filter, to complete the subtle body. In this view, the divine is not separate from the structure of self. It is its deepest layer, its most essential root. And it is useful, not because it offers escape, but because it offers ultimate purification and clarity. It does not require worship, only space. It does not demand sacrifice, only honesty. And it does not ask for distance, but intimacy. This is the inner essence that makes liberation possible, not as a singular event, but as a steady unfolding of what has always been within - not potential or emptiness but a specific causal essence, a liquid diamond consciousness, the God particle within.

It is the Fascia. There are specific exercises and methods to train it and apply it functionally. Connect all the muscles, bones, structure optimally. In TCM, neigong, it is called the "Jin mo" 筋膜 Qi flows well when the fascia is cultivated, connected, dynamic, alive, tuned well.

a while back there was something about certain eye drops causing some serious damage, don't remember the details.