Cameron

The Dao Bums
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    3,996

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by Cameron

  1. Posted

    I could get weird about this stuff and say doing one's best is irrelevant, but from my small appreciation, that all by itself is karma in action.

    Sorry, i think it's too complicated for me. I don't think it precludes doing one's best. But do you have to know what that is before you do it?

     

    Exactly. What is doing ones best? A constant question to ask(or not).

     

    Perhaps you could say it is your karma not only what you do but what you think that is good.

     

    Hitler doing his best and Buddha doing his best are not the same thing exactly.

    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    I don't really see anything bad about selling a product that could help peoples sex life. I used to be really into Ron Teeguarden's Dragonherbs years ago which sells high quality Chinese formulas to nourish the 3 treasures jing, qi and shen.

     

    Plato's marketing is different then Teeguarden's, but that's fine. He is most likely going to attract a different client with that approach and my guess is that is what he wants anyway.

     

    It's not hurting anyone so not sure it could be considered anti-Buddhist. Perhaps not what a serious Buddhist or Taoist cultivator wants but the serious cultivator will already have deeply studied and gone into these things themselves. Verified for themself whether it is good for them or bad for them. And simply would be at the level to distinguish if it is helpful or not to their own practice and lifestlye.

  3. Posted

    When I met Sifu Jenny Lamb she said " I always try to do my best so I don't have any regrets."

     

     

    I have no idea if this relates to karma or not. But sort of answers the question from my feeling of things. What is doing ones best is an individual thing. Or perhaps from the awakened perspective might be how best one can serve. Or not. I don't know.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    It's interesting. I know both Michael and Plato personally. And I respect both. Years ago when these discussions actually happened I saw both sides as very relivent and each having some deep truth and virtue.

     

    And years later, I still feel the same way.

    • Like 1

  6. Posted · Edited by Cameron

    :lol:

     

    Adyashanti has a great way of explaining those who are seeking awakening I was listening to recently.

     

    In the beginning it's like your in a spaceship cruising through space and far away you can see a black hole. It looks very interesting and you want to check it out so you fly over. As you get closer and closer you start to hesitate. Well, that's interesting but think I'll put her in reverse now haha.

     

    Then you realize that you are in the pull of the black hole. You no longer want it. It doesn't care. It wants you :)

     

    As one of my teachers said to me "Your toast."

     

    Enjoy

    • Like 2

  20. Posted

    I am not Muslim but really enjoyed visiting a Mosque in Seoul last year. The beautiful architecture, the art and feeling of community and shared feeling of the divine.

     

    I get similar feeling when I visit the Buddhist and Taoist Temples in China. If you remove belief system and self centeredness from the equation what is left:beauty.

     

    A good friend of mine was suprised when I kneeled and bowed before the Buddha statue at Forbidden City. "You believe in the Chinese God?" She asked.

     

    But when I go to Church, Mosque or Temples I prefer not to ask for anything for myself. Not saying that is good or a higher form of prayer or anything. I just bow as a kind of practice of letting go. By the same token you could look at Jesus as a figure to be worshipped or an amazing expression of letting go.

  25. Posted

    I grew up around pretty religious people. Catholicsm on one side and Islam on the other.

     

    What I love about my Taoist teachers is that they go for "the direct experience". Which is something rarely spoken of in religion. Atleast from what I see from my family it's mostly about belief system. Having any sort of direct experience is sort of irrelevent to what you believe in.

     

    I have a hard time discounting all spirituality in religion as I think that there are many wonderful religious people. All I know is that approach didn't work for me personally..I needed direct experience!