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Meaning is an imputation devised by the thinking mind. It belongs to "YOU". Buddhism (like all other traditions) is a vehicle to realize something BEYOND conceptualization and the thinking mind. The vehicles themselves are empty of meaning, and ultimately NOT the realization. Some quotations might be fun! Realization only comes from EXPERIENTIAL gnosis. No amount of intellectual fabrication can get you there. Stop where you are. Allow the mind to be come still - here and now is where understanding happens.

Exactly, this is freedom.

The act of observation causing the Universe to behave in a different manner : .

For a long long time. So yeah, a little bird chirped to me there is talk about TDB having a core of an older crowd. I chirped back to that little bird, stick around, you ain't seen nothing yet. Daoist Longevity Practices is definitely a thing. I'm sure talk will get around to Li Ching-Yuen. Let's start the thread by looking at DVD That's right Dick van Dyke looks at his 100 years, and he provides so many examples, lessons, thoughts, on longevity. If we imagine someone to have a positive outlook, ability to brighten up other's day, Relaxed physicality, ( if you need to see what song/sung looks like, look no further) Staying active, still goes to gym three times a week, to avoid stiffening up. And a sense of humor and a warm caring heart. This is how one gets Longevity. Yes, he is rich and that helps I'm sure. But being rich is not what defines him.

You got rogered ?

The beir or 'lion bed ' . What is the significance of the lion here ? [ I have one on my small back verandah / landing ; I had a statue of Anubis with hands extended over a mummy lying on a bier with a big lions head on one end . It got moved around ( after sitting on the table on my GFs side of the bed - she was working as a mortician then ) the mummy was a separate piece and ended up ??? The rest ended up outside near the bench I sit on to have my morning coffee fix . Out in the garden I saw a bush turkey come in and start digging up a new plant , I hoiked a stick at it , hit a tree, bounced off , got Anubis, knocked off an arm and one ear . So now this lion bier just sits there like a little table on the bench ]

And correct mental attitude for sword work

Oh no... the baby and the bath water?!?! I must have stepped in it again. I assure you that what I am saying belongs here, and I am sorry if I have disturbed you. The topic of this thread is a Zen expression, "don't know mind", that is a conceptual description of the mind clear, still, and ready for anything, arrived at by allow the mind to come to a stop. It isn't a practice, concept, or religious belief (a baby in the bath water) it is precisely the lack of ANY effort or contrivance of the mind. It is mind "as it is", arrived at by allowing to come to a stop of its own accord. It is simply being enlightened mind in this moment. It is dropping process, technique and maps completely and finding enlightenment in this moment, if only temporarily. This is the essence of Zen. This is the concept of the "Gateless Gate", the title of a famous collection of koans, and subject of many spiritual quotes. The lesson of them is that true understanding or enlightenment is not a destination to be reached by passing through a physical or mental barrier, but an experience that transcends thought, "self", religion, practices, and fabrication. The title is a paradox: a gate that is no gate at all. A gate that you desperately wish to pass through, but can realize that you have always been inside of. It is a metaphor that appears again and again in non-dual traditions.

To the left of the Imy-wt symbol is the mummy on a bier or lion bed being attended to by Anubis. At the head of the bed is Nephthys and at the foot Isis. They are both touching a 'shen' symbol. Below the bed are four canopic jars and then to the left of this are the four sons of Horus which protect those jars. Isis and Nephthys are here representing something specific which can be shown by a quote from the Pyramid Texts: “Isis ascends with the day / is in the light, Nephthys descends with the night / is in the darkness.” So they represent two phases of a circulation. Up into the light (Isis) and down into the dark (Nephthys). The shen symbol confirms this as its meaning is 'to encircle' and has the extended meaning of 'all that is encircled by the sun' i.e. everything and forever i.e. eternity. It was this symbol which was slightly amended to form the cartouche which framed the king's names - and indicated the king was an eternal (non ordinary) being.

A map to where? Does anyone really need a map to here?

Absolutely. Our story about the world (our karma) changes how we see it. The world, for example, is a fundamentally different place to a true optimist. Try this: In the morning, put a genuine smile on your face and walk through the world with that smile, greeting people with it, and allowing it to warm your view of the world. Ask yourself at the end of the day how it was. How deep is your "purity"? How deep is your set of beliefs, attachments, aversions, and story about the reality of how things are? No. It is seeing the world with something LESS. Done correctly it is seeing the world without your story about it. It is being in alignment with what is happening, and therefore ends our struggle (a better definition of "suffering").

Yes a fetish as in a cult object of Anubis. In the funerary cult they used deities and symbols in a special way - all relating to the immortality project (you might call it) (as we mentioned in the Stele thread.). So here I believe it has a specific meaning - while elsewhere it might be used as a general cult object relating to Anubis and so on. When we get to the goddesses Isis and Nephthys you might see this clearly - that while say Isis has a whole form of worship of her own and all sorts of attributes etc. here she is used specifically for a 'technical' reason as part of the funerary process of transformation into an akh and/or 'living after death'.

I mentioned some of the possible drawbacks of psychotherapy earlier so I should probably also mention what a wonderful, human thing it is to ask for help when we need it. Going to therapy can be a very wise way of asking for help.

Thank you for sharing. Was it or "Dont Know Mind" or "DoNo Mind" ? Seems like "dono mind" is similar to the Wu Wei concept? interested if anyone who watched the video agrees/disagrees. Does it matter what your essence is? If one were to discover and scientifically understand one's true essence, as some sort of magical spiritual object or otherwise, what would be gained? A tofu-stealing cat does not need to know it is a cat to be a cat. I think the point of the video was that by ceasing to seek answers to esoteric questions, one is free to be what one is. PS, I also very much appreciate your posts on this site, Tommy : )