Michael Sternbach
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Posts posted by Michael Sternbach
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Kama sutra
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23 hours ago, manitou said:Really interesting, Nungers.
If anyone knows what a torus is, I have one on the roof of my mouth. Plural is tori. I have wondered if this trait isn't somehow a remnant of a skull shaped a little differently. The torus is a unusual bone growth. I am fully prepared to accept the fact that I am most likely descended from a Neanderthal.
More likely from an Asian. Oral torus is found in a full 20 to 30 percent of humans, most of them being of Asian origin, though.
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2 hours ago, manitou said:I had a strange thing happen the other day. I went to see Reminiscences, with Hugh Jackman. I was in the back row with a big tub of popcorn. I do admit to taking a few puffs before I went into the theater.
The movie is crazy metaphysical. I thought it was a masterpiece, but I may be alone there. But the chairs in the theater are the wonderful recliner kind, so my feet were up in front of me. Every time someone said something in the movie that was metaphysically viable, or approached truth as I understand it, my feet would come off the chair and point at the screen and maintain an electrical connection until the person stopped talking.
It was a definite current.
Good shit, Maynard.
Another funny coincidence... My wife and I have just been watching "Chappie" on Netflix. We agreed that one of the main characters looked alot like Wolverine in some Marvel movies. As I couldn't remember the actor's name, I googled it and told her: "Right honey, that was Hugh Michael Jackman in both cases." That happened just last night!
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Referring to the OP, the way the serpent heads are shown from the side makes each of them resemble a single human eye.
The Hermes staff ending in a pair of eyes also seems in keeping with its attribution to the planets in their respective signs in the zodiac. On top of this scheme you find the Sun and the Moon, which are traditionally considered analogous to the eyes.
This is basically an abbreviated version of the latter from an alchemical book:
This view essentially regards the caduceus as a Hermetic equivalent to the shushumna, with ida and pingala being represented by the two serpents.
Now if the serpent heads are meant to represent eyes, then perhaps their "beards" should be seen in connection with a feature which the Eye of Horus is often depicted with.
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Easy peasy lemon squeezy
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Tortillas
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Well, I would say that we all are both deluded and enlightened to varying degrees...
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Kylie Minogue
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23 hours ago, Nungali said:...
Diary : " This morning I was whipping the dwarf in my underground prison, but my silver nose fell off,
Just to clarify... This part would be applicable to Tycho.
23 hours ago, Nungali said:just after that I debunked the geocentric universe , realised stars where distant suns with their own planets and that the Universe is infinite with no centre . "
Here you are taking about Bruno. Tycho's universe was still essentially geocentric. Bruno was indeed probably the only one in his day who realised that stars weren't holes in the outermost crystal sphere surrounding the Earth. The statement that the Universe is infinite without centre was an adapted version of something Nikolas of Cusa had written.
23 hours ago, Nungali said:( Its not THAT unusual , ack in the old days , you never knew what you where in for when attending dinner . One ( who was it now ? ) had a whole guest room rigged up . You would go to sleep when you stayed over , in a lovely room . But during the night it would slowly fill up with water , so you where awoken , floating around with the furniture .
- hilarious !
WTF ?
This reminded me of how I once entered my kitchen to find it filled with water at least up to my ankles!
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23 hours ago, Nungali said:He had a dwarf 'companion' . Apparently he would like him to jump out from under the dinner table and startle guests .
His observatory was even equipped with a prison, while his retinue is said to have included a pet dwarf. Yet despite all his shortcomings, he must rank with .
On February 17, 1600, after Bruno had endured a long imprisonment, ... even as a noseless noble (with a pet midget) and a German astrologer-mathematician ...
... you probably know he had a silver nose as well .
As a matter of fact, when I started reading your reply, it quickly occurred to me that you must be talking about Tycho Brahe.
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17 hours ago, Nungali said:Ya gotta luv a guy that keeps his pet dwarf under the table at dinner parties
Would you elaborate on this, please?
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3 hours ago, curiousbignose said:I've been intrigued by the buddhabrot fractal for some time. It had been called buddhabrot because it shows several features of historic Gautama Buddha depictions: The tikka, a topknot, ringlet hair and a meditation pose.
So cool!
3 hours ago, curiousbignose said:I've done a bit of qigong during lockdowns and have become even more intrigued by it. If you take a look at it, you will probably see why.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhabrot
High-res rendering: https://erleuchtet.org/2010/07/ridiculously-large-buddhabrot.html
The buddhabrot is the same as the well-known mandelbrot fractal, which sorts 2D starting coordinates c into escaping / not escaping a specific boundary on the complex plane (a 2D plane that has its own set of mathematical rules and is linked to various physical domains, e.g. quantum physics) during a long simple iteration.
The classic mandelbrot only shows the points that stay inside the set. For the buddhabrot, instead of showing points that stay inside the set, we look at where all the points that escape the set into infinity fly around. Simply said, the brighter a pixel on the buddhabrot fractal is, the more escaping points flew around there on their way to infinity.
The conception of infinity seems to be key here.
3 hours ago, curiousbignose said:What are your thoughts about it? What do you see when you look at it?
This:
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On 1.8.2021 at 1:33 AM, Nungali said:Howdy 'stranger'
Just chillin'.
On 1.8.2021 at 1:33 AM, Nungali said:Yes. And the 'alchemy' refereed to is a general term term that focuses on the alchemical stage of transformation . ... somewhat removed from the other stages of alchemy , which make the transformations possible .
However we can see the influence from hermetics in the idea of the 7 naffs , ie , the idea of incarnating down through the 7 spheres (of the planets ) and, in life on earth, navigating back up through them Insert other media by learning how to balance their energies (or transform each of the 'negative qualities' related to each sphere) as we 'rise towards heaven ' .
Well said.
The ascension through the spheres is not least a feature of Hermetic astral magic, e.g., in the view of Giordano Bruno.
And yes, Sufism was surely influenced by (Arabic) Hermetism, to some degree.
On 1.8.2021 at 1:33 AM, Nungali said:You can probably also detect
On 1.8.2021 at 1:50 AM, Nungali said:< sorry computer going haywire >
the similarities in each stage above with the relevant planetary attributions ( via kabbalistic attributions of planets to ToL ) ;
1st Naf , Earth / 'Kingdom' , Malkuth , material self . 5th is Tipharath . 6th Binah , which is 'the home ' of Buddhism , The Trance of Sorrow ( and its alleviations ) , of course it goes on from there .
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On 1.8.2021 at 1:56 AM, Nungali said:It takes effort to let go . Not as much effort as the 'original grasping' ..... but over time, we forget about that and it appears 'automatic / without effort ' .
Hmm yes, the way cleaning up takes effort.
Effortless action seems to be mostly something Daoism/Zen Buddhism focus on. Uncle Al refers to it (e.g., in the Book of Lies), but then, he was heavily influenced by Eastern philosophies. I am curious... Are you aware of this principle specifically in the context of Hermetic philosophy?
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4 hours ago, steve said:I would say it is more like taking whatever steps are necessary for the individual to determine which way the door swings before pushing too hard.
Or figuring out where to find the freaking door in the first place.
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3 minutes ago, Apech said:Actually that's an important question. It is important to apply effort, for instance in study and practice, but in the final analysis accomplishment comes from the Dharmakaya itself which is already perfected. So probably the short answer is yes - you have to apply effort to be effortless.
Isn't that like trying to push open a door that opens to the inside?
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Sum it up!
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14 minutes ago, Apech said:Yes I think this is the point - and also there are several 'lost in translation' difficulties.
I think that Rinpoche is using 'mind' to mean that which knows via subject object division - probably 'manas' or 'citta' - and is distinguishing this from wisdom 'prajna' which literally is 'para' - 'jnana' and in this case means 'beyond knowing'. It's not really what we would mean by wisdom in English which is more about accumulated learning - but more the direct awareness of non-dual reality ... which is beyond knowing. Where knowing means to recognise something.
You can have clarity of mind which would mean the unobstructed or defect free perception of a thing or an idea - which is still dualistic - there is still an observer and an observed. Or you can have Clarity where this dualistic distinction falls away leaving just the natural state.
Just to complicate some Mahamudra texts say that 'ordinary mind is enlightened mind' ... but this is a subtle teaching and what they don't mean is that just what you ordinarily perceive is buddha-nature or some such ... but they do mean that there is nothing to be added or taken away from Buddha-nature, it is complete and does not require effort to fabricate.
Does it require effort to become effortless?
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Guava juice
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14 hours ago, liberale.ironikerin said:Good day kind readers,
obviously I'm new here, with no spirtual or esoteric background or interests, but a fancy for philosophy. I live rather ascetic, no drugs!, there have hardly been lovers in my life, mostly unrequited love (and i like to be alone, too), been studying strictly for the past eight years and now am studying still while working, I was (and am usually) into sports, enjoy long walks in nature and am a rather shy person.
Almost one year ago, a series of interesting experiences began for me that is still changing my life. Although I'd say one shouldn't always seek explanations for wonders but simply cherish them while they last and although somewhere here in a thread from 2016 I found the quote that "answers end reality, questions keep it open" which made my day when I read it (couldn't figure out who the author was..?)
I still feel kind of overwhelmed and am looking for the way, which right now seems quite hidden in the nebula.
Therefore my question, with which I'd hope to break the ice...
is it possible to be in a tantric relationship without knowing for sure about it?
what are the guidelines there, apart from intuition and mutual respect?
(...)From what I understood about tantra or daoist practice with a partner, it is about honesty and trust, about letting the ego step aside (at least for awhile), about directing your deepest fears and managing them with grace. I view relationships as a learning process, as well as life itself.
(...)
Boundaries and the boundless, there seems to be a dichotomy?
Is there something like uncouncious tantra?
And when I say tantra, I know it's not exactly daoism, but daoist practice.
I'd be glad for some helpful insight of someone who'd been in the experience of a 'healthy' tantric partnership (...)
Thank you for reading this far.
(female, 28)
Hi liberale.ironikerin
And thank you for this beautiful introduction. As someone who has been around for awhile, I gladly welcome you to this colorful place.
Though I can't say with certainty if I was the author of the highlighted part of your quote, it could have been me, at any rate, as it reflects the 'open philosophy' that I advocated on this board for several years now.
I certainly sympathize with your quest for answers and the particular way you presented it. Further insight comes to those who admit how little they know and how much more there is to understand - especially about themselves!
Whereas those (men and women alike) who claim to know best about themselves have already reached a dead end in their spiritual journey.
That said, sure, be discerning when evaluating the suggestions you get on a board like this and accept only those that you resonate with on an internal level. Oh, and beware of adults offering candies! But hey, I am sure you heard that one before!
Regarding your question - judging from personal experience - it is certainly possible to be in all kinds of relationships with others on an etheric/astral level, including tantric/sexual ones.
How exactly would you define 'tantric' in this context, though?
And do you think that your partner may be aware of the interaction?
Best,
Michael
(male, 51)
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2 hours ago, Taomeow said:Alas, information about the kit distributed by Indian government was only partially correct: the incorrect part was that it was distributed "in India." Turns out it was distributed only in two states out of 28, Goa and Uttar Pradesh.
After 16 months of daily research (scientific journals in several languages, from hot preprints hours after first published to a couple decades back to recapture all relevant "what went before") I'd rather bail out of having a conversation about a Bloomberg article. I live in quiet desperation over almost every conversation I attempt these days as it is. If you need me to get quieter still, I'm quite willing to oblige.
Please don't! You are one of just a few voices of reason as regards this matter - on this forum as well as (relatively speaking) on a grand scale.
Once those who are still able to see things in proportion have given in to desperation and shut their mouth, the fear mongers and science despots are going to have their way.
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Batgirl
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simplify
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