old3bob

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About old3bob

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  1. Some schools finalize with "sat-chit-ananda", an ocean of bliss and the 1st and purest of energy! And some finalize with the Self as being source of all Shakti (or "cosmic prana") and thus beyond all categories, even Satchitananda...(if you will such can be found pointed out in the Chandogya Upanishad and others. Btw, and while getting way ahead of the game, I've studied that basic yama, niyama and karma yoga must be fulfilled by us before any of that more advanced stuff will stick...
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    my goodness what big fangs it has!!
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    wow, black widow like rats! Speaking of black widows I imagine your spider version is bigger than those in the US? One day my daughter caught a huge black widow spider in a can and said to me, "hey dad what kind of spider is this?" when i saw it I freaked knowing that if she had been bitten it could be really bad!! Thankfully that didn't happen and the spider was released back into the brush. Another story was once shown on TV about a guy that suffered from a bite or his mate did and it was bad. After that he became a black widow spider killer, obsessively seeking them out and smashing them in the evenings for revenge. Kind of a creepy and risky endeavor to me... (who needs bad spider karma?!)
  4. quoted from: "Responding to Praise and Blame" by Vishvapani Sep 15, 2012 Buddha, Ethics, Featured (Btw, I'd say this is pretty universal for all ways, not just Buddhism) "...As anyone involved in teaching Buddhism in the West will know, the Buddhist view that anger should not be expressed raises understandable concerns among people encountering it for the first time. “Does that mean I must repress my experience? I’ve been a doormat all my life and I need to be assertive and express what I am feeling!” The answer is in the reason the Buddha gives for not getting defensive: ‘That would only be a hindrance to you.’ In other words, the emotional hooks that join us to emotions like anger also fasten us to painful and reactive ways of thinking and, in the end, these hurt us (to say nothing of the people with whom we are angry). Another version of the problem of denial affects more experienced practitioners, who can use this teaching to avoid saying difficult things. We may even hide our emotional responses from ourselves beneath a blanket of meditative calm so that we can preserve a sense of ourselves as ‘good Buddhists’. In fact, the Buddha’s stress is on being honest and truthful, and presumably this can include honesty about our feelings. But there is a world of difference between telling someone that you are feeling upset, and bawling them out! The Buddha is not saying that we should be entirely passive, and simply accept whatever is thrown at us. He suggests that that the monks should indeed respond to criticism, and he cites a case where the criticism is incorrect, saying that we should calmly offer a true account. To be fair, I think this needs to be supplemented by saying that when we believe a criticism to be true we should accept it and admit our faults. So there is a case for debate and disagreement among Buddhists and between Buddhists and followers of other beliefs, but the key is how you go about it. As one western Buddhist teacher puts it: ‘Better honest collision rather than dishonest collusion,’ but reasonable discussion is better than either..." This also brings to mind for me an extreme example, namely that Jesus did not go crazy when Judas betrayed him; with deep betrayal being about the hardest thing a human being can deal with and hopefully come out the other side in one piece without lasting damage.
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    will a cleaned up dead rat work as well? (the fat one that stole all of Maddie's cookies) Btw and FYI those rats down-under might be as big as a cat and a lot meaner....
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    nor btw is it titled Kundalini ponderings, but since we are mostly informal at the site some morphing on or to subjects is not uncommon among members. I'd also say that one could in an academic or general reference pointer like way mention various schools and its teachings but unless they had approval from a school/teacher to get into conveying certain details doing so would be un-kosher imo and in many others.
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    Friedrich Nietzsche the greater the knowledge the greater the responsibility not to error in relation to it... thus not an easy row to hoe but possible.
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    Borrowing broad concepts which originally and largely come from Hinduism's schools is one thing...but as far as assumptions (sounding like a dismissal?) per assumptions, well I'd caution about making them, being that certain schools and lineages have been practicing and developing associated yoga's for thousands of years which have fostered true and rare Kundalini masters and knowers of the Self which is beyond any form including the subtle body. (and I'm not guessing on that)
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    Btw, as far as I know to Saivites Shiva (or Siva) is Supreme Being or Brahman, with Brahman being beyond all categories which then comes into manifestation as first Shakti of the purest energy and the dance of that energy represented by Lord Nataraja, along with or through Lords Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Btw Saivites have several major schools or sects and they don't agree on everything although they do agree on a great many of things. I think most any discussion about Shiva should include such credit to & some basic info about Saivites... which one could then do their own verification and research on.
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    Hey Mark, To me reading through certain convoluted Buddhist texts is sometimes like trying to cut one's way through a dense jungle with a machete. Such may be clear as a bell to you and some others but I venture to say not all of us. On the other hand many of the short, simple but profound sayings of Zen, Taoism and parts of what Nagarjuna and the historic Buddha said are clear as a bell to me...go figure or maybe not. Btw, why some Buddhists reject "Buddha nature" is very telling to me...
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    and of course that is the Buddhist take that you forgot to mention nor applicable to the points i brought up...
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    true if you no longer have any karma, ego or identification as a human, astral or causal being to deal with, thus a tiny percentage.
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    well said but also and in the meantime someone has to feed the kids, pay the bills, do chores and work some kind of job... thus and only a tiny percentage of folks are or have become renunciates who maintain such a pure state, as for a householder with duties (who granted may sometimes visit such a state) who also try's to live a renunciate's life at the same time will incur bad karma for breaking householder Dharma ... many of the masters or advanced spiritual folks quoted at this site are renunciates in various ways along with their teachings related to that life, and do not have (or no longer have) spouses, kids, bills, 9-5 jobs, etc. that they have to deal with in the world.
  14. hesitate about following one's "still small voice" and be more or less lost.
  15. Is Buddhism a complete path?

    or it could be keeping quiet and listening in good faith for what higher forces may be saying...