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Thread locked. I'm sorry but we no longer allow political subjects to be discussed here.

PEACE TO THE WORLD In the Way of the Ancients: if I want to bring peace to the world, then I first must order my own country; if I want to order my country, then I first must unify my own family; if I want to unify my family, then I first must heal myself; if I want to heal myself, then I first must mend my heart; if I want to mend my heart, then I first must sort my thoughts; if I want to sort my thoughts, then I first must gain awareness of them; gaining awareness lies in coming to terms with being a soul in an animal body. A soul in an animal body, come to terms with, only after that may awareness be gained; awareness gained, only after that may my thoughts be sorted; thoughts sorted, only after that may my heart be mended; heart mended, only after that may I be healed; myself healed, only after that may my family be unified; my family unified; only after that may my country be ordered; my country ordered, only after that may the world be set at peace. ~~~ (part of 大學 The Great Learning, c. 5th cent. B.C. Ancient China; pictures Public Domain Pictures, translation by me)

Just a thought experiment - who knows where it will go. If our species' superpower is creative imagination, and you were charged with the task of triggering an exponential increase in the collective imagination of the world, to imagine a better future for all, what would you do? What would your strategy be, your tactics, your daily choices? How do you imagine a positive future, or have we thrown in the towel? How do we resuscitate our imagination individually and collectively? I genuinely want to know your ideas because I'm constantly mulling over this issue. Thanks in advance.

This is an interesting topic and one that is very relevant to what I have been exploring in my life and practice right now. As much as it saddens me as a recovering chronic daydreamer who probably would not have made it in life without being able to spend most of my formative (and later) years lost to imagination, I think unchecked imagination is actually at the heart of a lot of personal and societal problems. Illusion is a huge problem, and our ability to imagine is at the root of illusion. Without an ability to imagine, you can't fall to illusion, it's just not possible. Now from a cultivation standpoint, looking at what you tend to dream and day dream about is an excellent window into the psyche and where you have unresolved issues. We often daydream for comfort / self-soothing so what we see is often a reflection of what we need or feel is missing. For example, all my daydreams involve me doing something "impressive" and always with other various other people real/imagined/from media that I respect present and helping. I still struggle with my ego, needing to be SEEN, and to be GREAT. It is helpful to know where my issues are, but those daydreams just soothe things I feel I lack, rather than dealing with the root of why I feel that way in the first place. I guess if I were charged with supercharging the collective imagination of the world I would wait for a time when society was less lost to illusion and better equipped to handle the responsibility of enhanced imagination. Don't get me wrong, I prize my imagination over almost everything, but I am also in the process of recognizing that to really move forward in my journey I probably have to let it go. And I don't say that lightly. In my life I spent time homeless living in a car that didn't run with literally not a single person who would even notice if I died, and would I go back to that in a heart beat vs giving up my imagination, my lifeline, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that it is also what is holding me back. And much to my fortune and dismay, the universe has assisted this process by making my imagination duller and less enticing, despite how desperate that still makes me feel. Oh well, one day I will get there. Hopefully someday I will find a healthy balance of creativity and reality. IMO our issue isn't creativity or lack of solutions/imagination, we already have the means and technology to end most of our problems, world hunger, stop climate change, build a society of equality and kindness, end most diseases - we just choose not to. At its root, for various reasons, we don't WANT to do the things it takes to fix our problems. I mean we can put a person on the moon and carry all the worlds knowledge in our pocket, and we yet can't figure out how to see people who look different than us truly as equals. I mean, guess there is no money in being kind, but geez. We say we need to care for the planet before it is too late, but then we build huge data centers and servers for crypto and AI that are quickly becoming the most resource draining and damaging activities over even manufacturing, oil production and shipping, and neither of those are necessary for our survival or ability to thrive as a species or as individuals. IMO we don't need more ideas or creativity, we need more authenticity, we need to be less caught up in illusion, we need to learn how to face and accept the hard things about ourselves and reality that we would rather destroy ourselves than admit exists. We need to let go of "needing" to be the best or most important, and instead make space for everyone else around us to be just as great. We need to recognize that we already have everything and we are squandering it by thinking we need more and more.

In my selfish world ... a little bit of old3bob in the morning helps me

Suggests ! ? Of course they are not going to teach us our full function ! Part of the reason you ... or at least I, incarnated was to fulfill the potential of our unseen boundaries . The big problem is either we have been tricked, deluded or insisted upon that boundary is small or , from ego, imagine it is larger than it is . Then something is wrong with her garden . I am surrounded by HUGE areas of forest that I never look it ... seems to be doing fine to me .... and was doing fine since Gondwanaland ... when no people were around to look at anything . The audacious self of the human ego of the human ego can be astounding ! Ask a dog about that

Most human attention is rather mixed with selfishness. So the first stage is for the spirit functioning through the human format to give attention to the functionality and alignment of the persona (mask). When the persona is clean and aligned with the local Cosmos, the spirit of the human can build right relationships with other humans and other life forms. At that stage the enlightened persona attracts greater beings and establishes partnerships that work within the Cosmos

I’m sure he means a lot to loads of people, and have made a real difference to others. In addition to this, he is also voicing his opinion, in this very thread.

you have to do it without attachment to outcome, ego, fear, desire. Has to be done without resistance and illusion, with pure all encompassing love and surrender. I'm still working on ironing out all the details. Though Cobie's quote is a good hint Gold to Cobie for that quote

Haven't been around for awhile. I thought this might be worth a look. The author hadn't been explored the last time I was here.

They should make chess pieces out of crackers wrapped in plastic. At the end of the match, he literally eats his opponents king. Much more impressive.

I respect that. I also respect the lineages which accept open challenges from anyone. But why fight at all. If anyone wants to prove they're tougher or better than me. I could invite them to work harder than I'm working and produce more than I'm producing. That seems like a good win/win format to settle disputes.

I think if we stand simply for the sake of standing, with no expectations or demands on ourselves, there is little risk of harm and it can be a wonderful practice, even for beginners. If we stand to reach some objective, with a certain set of expectations. that is when we tend to cause problems for ourselves. I find standing practice to be a great way to introduce people to meditation. It is less challenging in many ways than seated meditation and has additional physical benefits.

Of course but this a 'structural thing' and several other indicators like the Wiccan Charge old form being lifted from the Mass excerpts , especially in its older form , it got changed a bit more after Gardiner to make it less like Crowley's . Not that ot matters but one notices it when one has done both rites . Well, there is the early 'Magical Masons' influence as well and the guys that formed the O.T.O. pre Crowley had Indian and Sufi tantric influences and also ' Tantra on the Prairie' / 'Cowboy tantra ' early mid-west USA and .... damn forgot his name , an African American fellow someone Randolph or Thomas Johnson or ? ,,, urghhh Found it ! There are also other names mentioned in the aticle that can be tracked down elsewhere for their history ; Thomas Johnson: Platonism Meets Sex Magic on the Prairie https://newtopiamagazine.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/thomas-johnson-platonism-meets-sex-magic-on-the-prairie/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ODGE2f7gLQ No! None at all ! You must have missed the first post where I described a bit of process . In short , one thing that happened was a guy at the festival from OS started a fight . Old Uncle (not the one in the video ... he is senior ) was right on it and me and fire guardian were beside him either side . he got a talking to and was escorted to the circle where a deep process was gone through . I won;t recount it again here but what I noticed was the different way of doing things . he was immediately expelled by the organizer and told to leave at once . Uncle overruled that ... or just did it anyway because as he said ''That Man is sick and needs healing and he should not be just set loose on whoever else out there or he himself might get hurt or have an accident ( due to his state ) . The camp I used to go to further north that my friend ( a different language group / tribe ) is elder at and is site guardian for the nearby sacred sites (including initiation sites ) is 'grog-free' as a few places and some whole areas are . There are many levels of teaching and access , the higher ones are more restricted , stories and knowledge begin at a 'kindergarten level' those are fairly open ... the higher ones, the more 'cred' you would need . Also it helps to be ..... 'deadly '

Interesting conversation (I'm sure we've all discussed this many times on this board). FWIW, we should never do just standing. Standing should be complemented by moving. So in the context of Taijiquan, if we stand (beginners should not stand for more than 5-10 minutes and slowly build up standing time) - it builds power, we should also practice a moving form to circulate the power. If people only stand, they can end up damaging their kidneys or other health problems. Another thing about standing, imho, is that the mental state is very important - one must be "sung" in the mind as well as the body.

Edit: just for clarification, this is an extract from Inside Zhan Zhuang by Mark Cohen. Apologies to the author, but he's probably able to better express the point than me. On a personal level, I'm also opposed to black and white, absolutist positions on this subject. Maybe zhan zhuang is inappropriate for some beginners, and less so for others. Maybe wuji is better for some beginners, maybe less so for others. The importance is listening to your own body and responding appropriately. And always exercise critical thinking when it comes to Internet authorities.

oldie but a goodie.

A martial artist is an one person definition. The definition of martial arts practitioners is unanimous.