BananaMonkey
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Everything posted by BananaMonkey
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Is there ever an end of individual consciousness?
BananaMonkey replied to DeadDragon's topic in General Discussion
In my understanding, the whole concept of time as being linear is an illusion.Even in modern physics that notion is getting more and more common these days. There's loads of scientific experiments on this. You can read more about then in The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot and in The Source Field Investigations by David Wilcock. Both absolute page-turners and great for broadening one's horizon. From my spiritual point of view, time only exists on this level of reality to enable us to experience things one after the other. This seems to be a kind of catalyst for the evolution of the soul. Once you imagine living in a reality without time, where everything happens in one limitless moment, you simply couldn't encounter certain obstacles and difficulties that make you go beyond yourself. To me, this seems to be a crucial element of spiritual development. -
Hail all masters and students of classical/literary Chinese! I'm in the process of translating a 13th century Zhuangzi commentary and need help with a few sentences. What I'm currently working on is a treatise on the famous butterfly dream and the problematic passage runs thusly: 認周以為非蝶，是未能忘我也。 執蝶以為非周，未能忘物也。 I'm confused about who's the subject here and what 認 and 執 refer to: 周/蝶 or the fact that they don't think they are 周/蝶? Any help is greatly appreciated! Peace out!
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Need help with a 13th century Zhuangzi commentary
BananaMonkey replied to BananaMonkey's topic in 道家学说
Yesterday I talked to my professor (I study Sinology, his specialty is Chinese languange and literature with a keen interest in Daoism and Buddhism) about this. His explanation was pretty much what exorcist_1699 suggested, so the trophy goes to him Anyway, thanks for all the contributions! -
Man, this sounds epic! What kind of meditation leads you to this experience? Do you also have physical sensations in your Third Eye area? Do you see people's auras when not meditating or other "supernatural" things? In Daoism, the Third Eye is associated with the third Dantian/Tan t'ien. There are three Dantian in the body and they are energy centers responsible for sublimation of the Three Treasures Jing, Qi/Chi and Shen. The first Dantian is located slightly below the navel and refines Jing, the vital essence of your body/your sexual energy into Qi. The second is behind the solar plexus and refines Qi, the energy of breath/life force into Shen, the mind/consciousness/spirit energy. The third is behind the forehead and is responsible for "refining Shen and reverting into Emptiness", i.e. reconnection with the Cosmos. As far as I know (mostly booksmart on this, tbh), if your have strong sensations in the third eye area during meditation, it should be a sign of having opened it to a certain extent. In general, that is a good sign, because in most people these days, the Third Eye is completely shut and they are cut off from their intuition/connection with the Universe. Also, the physical organ most strongly associated with the third eye, the pineal gland, is calcified to the extent of being a chunk of calcified material and thus obviously useless in its present state. So you at least are somewhat ahead of the vast majority of people in this respect
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Hey all, I'm interested in Chinese vids of qualified people like masters or scholars talking about Daoism. Since I also practice Chan/Zen, I watched a few vids by the eminent Taiwanese monk Sheng Yen 聖嚴. They were very helpful and are great to learn buddhist terminology in modern Chinese. So that's kind of what I'm looking for. Peace! http://www.youtube.com/user/shengyenfilm
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Hope this clarifies my maybe slightly ambiguous wording
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If I may suggest: Just watch a few videos with an open mind and see if the information makes any sense to you. If it does, who cares if Darryl Anka is channeling a being that many consider an "alien"?
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Resources: Books, Links, Articles, Movies, etc.
BananaMonkey replied to admin's topic in Group Studies
There is a great youtube channel of Alan Watts lectures (audio only), it also features a lot of material on Daoism. I usually download them using the firefox add-on youtube mp3 podcaster and listen to them on my mp3 playerhttp://www.youtube.com/user/AlanWattsLectures And the website of publisher Golden Elixir press offers some free materials on academic studies of Daoism: http://www.goldenelixir.com/index.html The British website Tao Directory has loads of information and free articles by well-known authors and masters such as Dan Reid, Michael Winn and many others http://www.taodirectory.co.uk/ -
New recruit to the Nei Kung teachings/training. Eager to learn but need Legitimate guidence
BananaMonkey replied to 1TRUECHISEEKER's topic in Welcome
Welcome to the fray As a general introduction to many aspects and practices of Daoism, I highly recommend The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity by Daniel Reid. He holds a BA in East Asian studies and an MA in Chinese Language and Civilization and has been living in Taiwan and Mainland China for decades. The book will provide you with a good overview of the basics of nutrition, sexual practices, breath work, meditation (the last three being parts of neigong) and a load of helpful information and practical advice on all kinds of health and lifestyle questions. -
Dammit, I need to stop thinking of naughty stuff when I read harmless forum posts on politics... But you have to admit that the wording "our British cucumbers" is somewhat peculiar, isn't it? If I'd say the same thing in German ("Finger weg von unseren deutschen Gurken!") people would find it comical, too. On topic: Since we're discussing the channel Bashar next door, this video fits nicely: You are your government! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkgF6L5MzlQ
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Bashar is the new Laozi.
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So true, the audience often bursts into laughter at the live sessions. I really want to attend one (or twelve) of these when I get the chance! It's incredible how simple and elegant many things are in his words, when it would take a top scientist ages to explain to same thing and it's still only a partial explanations plus usually not the least bit funny. I guess profound comedians are hard to find and funny philosophers probably even more so.
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Yep, that should be it!
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Need help with a 13th century Zhuangzi commentary
BananaMonkey replied to BananaMonkey's topic in 道家学说
Thanks! I was aware of his name being Zhuang Zhou (independently of wether or not this person actually wrote the Zhuangzi) and that 蝶 means butterfly, though My problem is getting the grammar, so if you could explain how you came to your translation of the sentences, that would be greatly appreciated! Peace! -
If I'm not mixing things up, the first video gentlewind posted contains some info on this. In a nutshell, the entity Bashar is supposed to be a future incarnation of Darryl Ankar, so there is a special bond between them. Ankar also agreed to channel Bashar before he incarnated. Then, sometime in the 80s, Ankar had a UFO sighting which triggered the "contact". This type of arrangement/agreement made between incarnations is a common theme in many spiritual books/teachings. Hope this helps.
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I study sinology and use a Zhuangzi translation by Victor H. Mair along with the original for reference purposes. That's also the version my professor (an expert on Daoism) recommended. It also has a well-researched and very hepful introduction. Mair also wrote an acclaimed Dao De Jing translation, which I haven't read yet, but since I can attest to the quality of his work on Zhuangzi, his Dao De Jing work should be excellent, too. As to his qualification, he's professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Peace!
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Yay! I've been following Bashar for about two years now and am constantly amazed by his insight, sense of humour, and elegance of the message. Actually, I considered starting a thread about him myself Here's another one I like about the Three Aspects of You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR7HEGojnlk Has anyone paid for and watched the longer videos on bashar.org? I considered doing it but would like some more info first.
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Hey all, this is a bit of an introduction of myself as a new member here. To start with some tangible info, I was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1988 and that's where I currently live as well. I've been studying Sinology at the University of Hamburg for almost four years and I spend half a year in Kunming, China as a part of my studies. Before that, I've been to China twice and spend about eight months there altogether. Currently I'm writing my BA thesis on a 13th century Zhuangzi commentary and eating a lot of bananas. During the course of my studies I started to develop an interest in Daoist philosophy and practices after having been very keen on spirituality, meditation, healthy living etc. for quite a few years. I've been vegetarian for five and vegan for three years now and consume about 70% raw foods. For a few months I've been somewhat consistently practising Zen and doing Daoist breath work. After finishing my studies in Hamburg I'll probably return to Asia for a few months and explore Taiwan and Japan, where I haven't been yet. I feel drawn to becoming an author since I enjoy writing and this seems to a lifestyle that can involve a lot of flexibility, freedom, opportunities for travel etc. My motivation for joining this forum is obviously discussing Daoism and exchanging tips and info on practical things to do, learn, share etc. I expect this to be fun and am looking forward to connecting with kindred spirits! Peace out! BananaMonkey
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Yep, it does make sense, thanks for elaborating. Actually I recently had a few experiences myself where I was f.e. discussing nutrition with friends and realized that I sometimes said things "just to be right" and not for the sake of mutual evolution (for lack of a better term). In general I feel like I am already moving in the very direction you pointed out, maybe because I've been practising Zen for a while and have become more aware of my thoughts, words and actions. Good luck letting go of these nasty opinions, everybody
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LOL that made me laugh heartily Thanks and welcome, fellow newcomer!
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Yeah, makes me wonder how WittgenTzu came to these realisations. And how do you avoid having opinions, Apech? Having them seems like a very basic human characteristic, because we always want to now if something is "on our side" or not. What you say does make a lot of sense, though. Once people overcome the need to be right, they surely have risen above their ego to a certain extent.
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Well, sometimes I feel like throwing up on the system, but I've come to the realization that it's all just a reflection of our current human condition evolving and my own in particular. So it's kind of what HarmoniousUniverse and Stosh said. On the other hand, the OP may not exactly be serious about this post
