BigSkyDiamond

a. if the "respected" man took revenge for the public insult by killing her, then he is not a "respected" man. b. he could be giving the coffin to a poor family so as to "appear charitable." It could be one of the reasons he is described as "respected" because he publicly gives charity. c. if he were to give the coffin anonymously it would be a greater act of charity because then it is not to garner public accolades.

Since he was a "respected man," the coffin may have been sent to preserve the dignity of the poor man, and provide a respectful burial. It could show he does not hold a grudge regarding the insult.

Yes. Bingo.

A quality product is not "magic." it is a quality product.

again, what comes to mind reading the above is "smoke and mirrors." as in creating an illusion, which again speaks to deception. "when you engineer your image and age you will be perceived differently by customers." yeah, you will be perceived as dishonest and lacking integrity. can you use a bigger font please? thank you. i am not going to respond any more to posts in tiny font. that is my personal choice.

OK. Just curious. Sounds like it might be part of a business plan, or perhaps school paper.

Competence and merit in the area of marketing would be transparency with regards to the product; listening to and responding to cutomer questions, concerns and complaints; robust service recovery when there is a problem with the product; standing behind the product; demonstrating that the product is something you yourself use and recommend to your own family members; a customer service department that is accessible, courteous, and respectful; integrity and honesty in business practices with both internal and external customers; and first and foremost a decent product. When you use phrases like "omitting information" and "shaping how people perceive you" it raises the glaring red flag of what are they hiding, what are they mis-representing. It does not inspire trust. Rather it has the opposite effect.

No. It is not merit and it is not competence. it is illusion, dishonesty and deception. and it is not an art either. It raises the question though regarding intent and motivation. Why are you trying to elevate it using lofty terms such as "competence" "art" and "merit" ? More apt descriptors are "used car salesman" and "snake oil merchant."

Bold above raises the question of: Did you ever pay the friend back? Or take any other steps to make amends for that?

exactly. Deception and dishonesty are not "rooted in us." Whenever i hear "oh everybody does it" or "it's just part of being human" it is often times used as a justification to gloss over or dismiss or trivialize something they likely know is not OK.

No. Deception is not merit. so·cial en·gi·neer·ing noun (in the context of information security) the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes.

Be still and know that I AM God. ---Tehillim 46:11 The Hebrew word רָפָה "rapha" [the Psalms were written in Hebrew] can mean "be still" and it can also mean "cease striving" Other meanings are "be relaxed" and "heal" As in the archangel Raphael

pretends his absence but really omnipresent playing hide and seek

a. learning is itself a form of doing b. learning is more spinning in the mind c. practices are useful in cultivating stillness

another name used is Beingness. I like that also. it brings to mind the I AM. since "am" and "being" are both forms of the verb "be" Be still and know that I AM. ---Tehillim 46:11 Source is vast and contains all potential. It is not a one-trick pony. So as there are worlds of separation (the physical universes and everything in them) so too it follows there are expressions that are NOT encumbered or characterized by separation.

sometimes i think of it as a wellspring, an unending source that flows and the result is, well, everything. The Tao Te Ching also uses the imagery of water.

yes regarding "impermanence of all phenomena including ourselves" the human body, mind, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, emotions, personality, knowlwedge are all impermanent, yes. However the part of the human that is the Divine spark is NOT impermanent. It is permanent. It has no beginning and no end, always was, always will be. That is my understanding.

"awareness" and "pure awareness" aptly describe the feeling of alert presence. I have used those at times. However awareness too easily can be taken to mean perception. And at the level of pure presence, even perception falls away.

everything within the worlds of separation is inseparable from Source. however Source is far more than only the worlds of separation. Source expresses in ways other than just the worlds of separation. i don't use the word "emptiness" because it indicates absence, absent. Source is presence, present.

Humans have the pattern which delineates how non-physical infinite Source projects and interacts with finite physical worlds. The functionality is for us, not for Source. "This is the 'divine image' in which the human being is created. By knowing ourselves as human beings, therefore, we are able to discover the divine. And by understanding the divine, we are better able to heal and nurture the human being." The human soul yearns to reunite with its origin within Source. Do you ever feel that yearning? It feels like being homesick. (source article by Tzvi Freeman)

i agree that it is not accurate to say time stops. What is more accurate is to say the recognition that time does not exist. That it is an artifical construct. When we are able to drop into stillness, we come closer to experiencing at the level of Source or Beingness. At that level time does NOT exist. So we glimpse it, and the felt sense of that as a physical human is the sensation of time stopping. Just as all my incarnations (all my "past lives") are happening simultaneously and concurrently, so too (like you say for the 5 year old self) all moments in my own life are also happening concurrently. It's like writing a book. If i write into the book "five year old self is now happy" then i feel it because the me at all my ages are all within me now every moment. Even modern secular science in the here and now is beginning to recognize that time does not exist, that it is an artificial construct for convenience in navigating physical experience.

because that is the pattern or map in separation. whether it is at the level of town or planet or galaxy or cosmos. it is a map of our connection to Source. in other posts you have mentioned the view either from "top looking down" or "bottom looking up." the view can also be collapsed into concentric circles. from wherever we are in Separation (human body, or planet, or cosmos) we have the same relationship to Source. And as Source is within us, then we can picture "expanding" to contain all the universes.

Those are good questions. "What new faculties appear in the stillness?" At the inner level, listening, hearing, seeing, Inner knowing. Experience that time "stops." If by trans-human level, that is talking about enhanced abilities, or "supernatural" feats then yes people can access those. But they still remain in Separation even if they are say working in the non-physical planes or as a "light body" or as some other life form, or zipping around to other universes or working on a grander scale. Regarding Tree of Life, I do not know, but am interested to hear from anyone on that.

As pure potential, Source is free to wonder and daydream about anything. We do that ourselves in the creative process. We try this or that, and we see what works and what doesn't. Descending so deep into pysical matter that we forget who we are and what we are doesn't work. Doing that for thousands of lifetimes over and over also doesn't work, it is a dead end. Yes we have free will. And yes Source has free will and active intent. We can use that to stay in a repetitive cycle. Or we can use it to get out. it's like a really good computer game with a whole bunch of levels and challenges and treasures and skill sets. But at some point we realize OK, enough is enough, time to experience something else now. Something that is not Separation. Experience that is not bound by time or space or form. Because those are not the truth of who we are.

Yes our eternal Self shines through.