EFreethought

You could request a PPD, and tell everyone that yours is not a "Personal Practice Discussion", but a "Perpetual Photo Discussion".

A bit OT: I think I read somewhere that in (at least some) Indian systems a lot of people have an easier time opening up the higher chakras (like the head) and a harder time near the bottom; some gurus have a hard time getting people to go bottom up because a lot of people want to go for the quick success.

The far right people are always losing their minds over something. It's like they want to be angry. Ah, to be back in the sweet, innocent days of Jade Helm.

Usually people refer to going off-topic as "derailing a thread" (like derailing a train), but "deranging" might be a more accurate phrase.

Welcome to the board. Just out of curiosity: Aside from the state government, what other industries/employers are there in Sacramento?

Just Asian squat? What about horse stance?

What if someone does not live on the ground floor?

Here are two comments on the /r/Buddhism subreddit about someone's experience with both a Theravada master and some Tibetan masters that you might find interesting. They mention being "downloaded" here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/6j7d2b/reflections_after_serving_3_months_at_a_vipassana/djcjgef/ and then in a reply they explain what they meant by that: https://old.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/6j7d2b/reflections_after_serving_3_months_at_a_vipassana/djcrc6o/ There was a post on this forum about a Westerner (John Blofeld, I think) meeting a Daoist master before WWII, and having a similar experience.

If I remember correctly, he did not promise an answer for $20. Just that he would "meditate" on it. Maybe you would get a magic 8 ball response like: "answer unclear".

Do people here think they are actually encountering aliens while asleep? Or just having dreams about alien-like beings? My dreams tend to be about realistic situations. I had a dream recently that I was offered a job, although none of the people I spoke to in the dream was anyone I recognized. I do not remember dreams too often. And I only remember a few small snippets of dreams when I wake up.

No need. I was not asking for a translation. I just thought that someone on the forum was translating something, and they were planning on releasing it, either online or for money. Searches for all forms of the word "translate" yields a lot of results on this forum.

Is anyone on this forum working on a translation of The Golden Flower? I know someone wrote they were working on translating something other than the DDJ. I think it was TGF, but I do not remember.

You know what some people say: BSD is for people who like to run Unix, and Linux is for people who hate Windows. Either is good for me. I run machines made by a company in Colorado named System76. I wanted to get something w/Linux pre-installed and support a Linux vendor if I could. I was not able to find a company selling a machine w/BSD installed.

Here are a couple of sites for your consideration: http://www.visiblemantra.org/index.html https://www.wildmind.org/mantras

I have a few questions about the Zhunti mantra: Isn't there a long form and a short form? I think Bodri wrote that you start with the long form, and after a certain number of repetitions you do the short form. Have you done enough to do the short form? If I remember correctly, the other karma mantra, Vajrasattva, also has a long and a short version. But I think for that one you can just go with the short version and skip the long version.