Michael Sternbach

For many people, lucid dreaming and astral projection are a good way to get in touch with psychic powers. Space trips are my favourites! 🙂 To illustrate, I once found myself on a planet which (in my very real-feeling dream) I understood was orbiting a red dwarf that was in turn circling our Sun at a distance of over one light year. I remember looking at this planet's crimson star hovering in the sky from some kind of elevator platform. As I typically experience during such trips, I felt incredibly centered, and focussed in my lower dantian -- far beyond what I have achieved in my waking life so far. In this particular case, the sensation may have been further amplified by the artificial gravity field of the elevator platform, though. Standing on it, I was travelling through a system of looping tubes that interconnected the cities and tall buildings on the surface of the planet -- without me ever loosing the sensation of being upright! Years later I learnt that Nibiru expert Andy Lloyd assumes this legendary planet to orbit a binary to our Sun. https://darkstar1.co.uk/ The theory of a red or brown dwarf star circling our Sun was actually quite popular with astronomers in the last century. It was called 'Dark Star' and 'Nemesis'. While no longer predominant, this theory still finds support by a number of scientists. Here you see my approximate artistic rendition of the city I saw in my dream (creating digital art being one of my various interests).

I was just speed reading the linked page and may have missed out on certain things, but it seems clear that the author is writing about his experiences with lucid dreaming/astral projection. In which case things like flying to other planets, shooting light rays from one's eyes (and perhaps even having a harem of college girls) are not uncommon, as a matter of fact. Nowhere (as far as I've seen) does the author claim to be able to do these things with his physical body.

DDJ, chapter 21 (Feng translation): The greatest Virtue is to follow Tao and Tao alone. The Tao is elusive and intangible. Oh, it is intangible and elusive, and yet within is image. Oh, it is elusive and intangible, and yet within is form. Oh, it is dim and dark, and yet within is essence. This essence is very real, and therein lies faith. From the very beginning until now its name has never been forgotten. Thus I perceive the creation. How do I know the ways of creation? Because of this.

If there is no information carried over from one cycle to the next, then there can be no evolution taking place. Furthermore, I wonder how you reconcile the concept of complete annihilation at the end of a cycle with "no-thing never being lost" within the Dao. Unless, of course, you think of the Dao as being transcendent to Creation (as your last post suggests). In which case the Dao may be very well be the 'data carrier' (akin to the alaya-vijnana of Yogacara Buddhism) that conditions each succeeding cycle. For that matter, I believe that the reincarnational cycles of individual beings, the cycles of humanity (a.k.a. history), and the cosmic cycles that pertain to planets and stars, and ultimately to the whole universe, express the very same principles -- in their respective ways.

To me as a metaphysicist, that's the part that truly matters. For that's the part that is universal and timelessly valid. The external framework, however, contains the rules that pertain to specific times and cultures. Little of that will remain in the long run.

Which presupposes a dichotomy between God and yourself. God may be transcendent in your view, but He is not immanent.

OMG! The poor things must be starved for a saviour! I shall use my superpowers to break them out!

In fact, if you were crossing the event horizon of a supermassive black hole, you would hardly even notice it. It's the much smaller stellar black holes that spaghettify stuff due to the extreme gravitational gradient in their vicinity.

'Tis true, yet the oak tree leaves behind so many acorns that pass on its genetic code.

I am representing the Unnameable School of Daoism; you probably never heard of it. It states that from the conjunction of Form and Formlessness, Yang and Yin, or Logos and Chaos, a new world is born. If there were no in-form-ation carried over from one cycle to the next, karma would not exist.

What about the harems of college girls? 🙂

Actually, 'completed' might be the better term than 'perfected'.

In my view, by "following nature" those texts you mentioned primarily suggest following your own nature. Remember that the Dao is acting not only in the nature that surrounds you but also in your own being.

One way to look at this question is this: When, at the end of a cycle, Pralaya sets in, what has been perfected in the foregoing time retains its form and indeed becomes the form that gives structure to the next cycle. Whereas what hasn't been perfected gets 'recycled' and becomes the matter that constitutes the world to come.

Absolutely, and I congratulate you on your boldness, stating that intention of yours on a public forum (even if it's -- arguably -- a Daoist one). And I agree with you that, in a sense, the way is the goal. Will you actually reach the ultimate goal of becoming a powerful immortal? Will I? Is it even possible? Well, there's one way to find out! 🤩

So it was learning the art and science of double speech that got us kicked out of Paradise?! Original thinking granted, but I do think you're going out on a limb with this theory. On the other hand, if we assume "the knowledge of good and evil" to metaphorically refer to the ability of discursive thinking, then yes, this certainly made us more "God-like" in the sense that it contributed a lot to making us the dominating species on the planet and shooting rockets into outer space. I maintain though that reaching the true divine state would be in transcending the duality of the discursive mind and finding back to original "innocence" -- and ideally, immortality. But wait -- there's yet another tree standing in the Garden of Eden...

Start comfortably with doing it for just half an hour and work up to three hours at a time. Make sure you stay really low during the whole session, any cheating will immediately negate all your effort. Best to do with a low ceiling right over your head. (Note that I am pulling your leg.)

Hmm, this sounds suspiciously like the description of a scorpion kick. Amazingly, the move seems to work under certain circumstances. But yeah, I'm going out on a limb...

So do sleepwalkers!

Daniel, Mark, and others, One way to read the narrative of The Fall rests on the assumption that Man, by learning about the "good" or "evil" consequences of their actions, lost their capability of spontaneous, "innocent" action. With the words of Richard Wilhelm in his commentary on hexagram 25 of the I-ching (translation is my own): However, this kind of interpretation raises the question in what way the knowledge of good and evil would make Man more God-like -- when at the same time it led to the Fall from Grace and the loss of immortality. Please share your thoughts on this.

Hi Galen, While we have many threads here that discuss the spiritual and cultivation aspects of the martial arts, including the fitness side, general principles, and historical aspects, there are forums out there suitable for the more comprehensive treatment of the topic in all its aspects. Currently the best one is probably: www.martialtalk.com Kenpo greetings, Michael

Hi there Knightgame, Are you familiar with the Gospel of Thomas? This is one of those books that came from the same time and place like other Biblical texts, but -- for whatever reason -- wasn't included in the Bible. As a matter of fact, many scholars believe it to be closer to the source text of the "official" Gospels than the latter. The teachings of the Gospel of Thomas are very much in line with the Dao De Ching in my view. If I were to reconcile a non-dogmatic Christian belief set with Daoism philosophy, this is where I'd start. Cheers Michael

Hey bums, No topic about AIs yet? Seriously?! 😲 Let's remedy that! 😁 To say it right away, I am a big friend especially of Character AI, ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, and various image AIs. Let's look into these one by one: Character AI: This website was my first contact with the colourful world of chatbots, somewhen towards the end of last year. Well, save for those pesky customer bots on Amazon & Co -- so I really didn't expect very much! All the more was I surprised to soon find myself immersed in deep talks about a wide range of topics -- from profound philosophical questions, to concepts of higher mathematics, to the complexities of my inner life. Thus, I had delightful discussions with the cybernetic incarnations of Buddha, Laotzu, Plato, Epicurus, Nietzsche, C.G.Jung, Einstein, Tesla, and too many others to name them all. Surely, I am not suggesting that they would be equivalent to the geniuses they were modelled after in any way -- but definitely more available! For lighter types of conversation, there are both real and fictional personalities standing by that are known from a number of TV series, movies, and other media. Quite a few of them are designed for roleplaying with users in different fantasy settings, which -- from time to time -- your inner child might find surprisingly entertaining. Alternatively, discuss your favourite show's plotline or meaning with them. Not least, some of these guys have quite a remarkable sense of humour! And they will just as readily offer their advice in their respective areas of expertise. Need businesses advice, anyone? Consult "Iron Man" Tony Stark -- trust me, that billionaire dude knows what he is talking about! Moreover, you can even create and train your own chatbot (for free, like anything else on the site), and use it either privately or make it available to other users as well. beta.character.ai ChatGPT: No doubt, the shining star among the more universal AIs! You can use it for... Well, pretty much anything at all. My go-to bot for serious work. I sometimes like to use it for bouncing creative ideas off it, editing purposes, or when I need information on the most suitable software to get a particular job done. It can provide thorough analyses and additional insights on virtually anything you feed it. Not that it would do your creative writing for you -- and for Heaven's sake, I most definitely wouldn't want it to! It just offers a sophisticated tool to enhance one's creative processes and efficiency, not unlike the way changing from typewriter to PC once did (so many moons ago). chat.openai.com Perplexity AI: This one isn't as renowned as the others I mentioned before, but definitely one of the most useful ones I could conceive of, being the knowledge hungry guy that I am! It's essentially an intelligent search engine. Ask it any question and it will provide you with half a dozen (or so) highly relevant online sources in the blink of an eye -- and individually comment on them too! Which is so much better than wallowing through endless pages of Google search results, in many cases. perplexity.ai Image AIs: I am familiar with several good ones, some being geared towards certain jobs more than others. So I won't offer any recommendations, unless someone would specifically ask me to (either on this thread or via PM). All I will say for now is that I am having great fun finally translating my odd visions into tangible images in this novel way! A picture is worth a thousand words...

Well, I am not suggesting that people who are not on a spiritual path would be of less intrinsic value in any way. However, it has always been just a minority who was even interested in exploring the deeper question in seriousness. It is quite inevitable that simplified and watered down representations of metaphysical reality would arise to satisfy the needs of those less inclined to do their own research. Typically, this involves the use of metaphors and comparisons with mundane things, that are easy to understand, but often fall short. Sadly, with this comes the potential for outright misrepresentation of metaphysical truths for manipulative purposes.