Gerard

I got two Bachelor degrees and all sorts of Diplomas, University level and non-University level. This was done before I started the spiritual path. Now, I regret having studied all that "bantha fodder" (using Star Wars terminology ). I wish I had the opportunity to study the way Wang Liping or Kwan Sai-Hung did.

In terms of Tao and the Dharma I am medium-educated and still a child meditator. I will continue this path until my physical body becomes red dust.

hey where are those rocks? I remember driving past some giant rocks, but they were smooth as skin and peach colored not far from a little place called Harmony in California..

I still regret not getting out of the car and climb them. Damn.

I used to live in that area, on the weekends away from my hometown, climbing them, sleeping outdoors with the sky-paved sky just above my head, breathing heaps of pure chi. Hmm...). It is called "La Pedriza" and it is in a mountain range located 1 hour drive north of Madrid, Spain.

One of Europe's power spots.

Hey, you guys have several prominent power spots in Cali as well:

1. Needles

2. Yosemite National Park

3. Joshua Tree National Park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tna7HQ-PExw...feature=related

4. Mt Shasta (this is one of the most prominent power spots on Earth)

You are very lucky by having that awesome mountain in your backyard.

Nothing in Australia, only two places are power spots:

1. Uluru.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u9xfe5IlkM

Another great power spot. Very Yang! Not good for me.

2. Mt Warning, Byron Bay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIYokvcYywY...feature=related

Also very Yang. Not good for me either

I came across this long statement about how our society really operates:

"The entire materialistic society to which we belong, is subconsciously suicidal. It does not represent Truth and is therefore not worthy of our lifelong devotion. Suicide in one form or another is the modern trend, and this is also true of almost all of the individuals who compose it. If you are ever in doubt about this, just consider the hopelessness and self-defeatism that is rampant in the public today. The reason for our self destruction is clear. Society is simply dead wrong in its goals and values. The feelings of "wrongness" which we experience at every stage of life in the modern world, are not a measure of our unworthiness or lack of intelligence. They are a measure of the wrongness and lacking of society itself. Social norms have failed to elevate the human condition, and are at this moment in fact, the primary obstacle to further human evolution.

It is common knowledge that humanity long ago, began making wrong and artificial decisions, with regard to the purpose of life. The true purpose of life is spiritual progress, not material acquisition without limits. We all know this at the cellular or "gut" level. The truth of social unnaturalness is felt at the level of the body, in every strained social interaction, and in our very souls. We simply do not have the time left as a species on this living planet, to continue on in a mode of denial, about the destructiveness of our way of living. Lifestyle is the only REAL indication of spiritual practice, as words are indeed cheap. The most impressive sounding speeches or eloquent poems will not save us from our own self-destruction.

We are committing suicide because of the pain of wrong living. Our wrong living stems from a basic misconception about what life is really about. It is not about unlimited or random self indulgence at the cost of all else. Life, and the evolutionary processes upon which it is based has its own governing rules, and these are known as natural laws. If we will not follow natural laws then we will all die, to put it bluntly. All the love and light slogans in the world will not change this outcome, if we do not change our values and the lifestyle which reflects them.

What is most called for today among all other spiritual qualities, is honesty. Our culture is immersed in a state of media-induced mass denial which borders on hysteria. Many of those involved in spiritual discussions are similarly denying our daily reality. In other words we are collectively denying the insanity of our participation, in a spirit-less materialistic lifestyle. Let's examine some of the beliefs of this consumerism we are immersed in:

1) The true purpose of education is not personal empowerment. The true purpose of education for our children, is very simply to program them for efficient workplace functioning. It also exists as a form of social indoctrination, one that directs itself to defeat all rebellion and unprofitable individualism. This programming starts at a very early age, when the 3-5 year old is subjected to "preschool", so as to get ahead. By "getting ahead" we mean of course that we are training our progeny to be ruthless competitors, in a money-grabbing world. We are in essence programming our own children to be the "gladiators of materialism": to fight for their social notoriety in the corporate arena, while a hysterical public cheers on. Education therefore exists for the primary purpose of making more money, not individual enlightenment. It exists to suppress creativity, and to enhance the blind following of senseless rules and regulations without question. Public school curricula work to undermine the natural freedom and intelligence of the human body-mind, so that the hours shown on the face of a clock become more important than the urges of life itself. In such a place joy is stamped out, and play is replaced by painful, meaningless, artificial disciplines. The school system itself also exists for the purpose of babysitting today's youth, which then enables the adult wage slave system to continue without distraction.

2) We are impressed by the belief that God will somehow, someday, take care of our problems as encapsulated by the phrase, let go, let God. This belief is taken to an extreme, and used as an excuse to not exercise personal responsibility. The mind is not developed, and is viewed instead as merely a passive vessel, into which "Divine influence" is poured, as defined by mainstream religious doctrines, (which includes New Age beliefs as well). "We must be sheep" we are told, rather than intelligent, autonomous beings. In this line of thinking, it is popular to assume that no matter what happens to ourselves or our world society, It is all part of the Divine Plan. For this reason we are excused from any personal responsibility for personal or world events, since God is assumed to be pulling all the strings of life, and we are merely "His" mindless puppets. The primary error in this belief is that autonomous human intelligence is exactly what is central to this "Divine Plan". It is our natural function to exercise the wisdom and intelligence of right decision-making, in order to learn the needed lessons of existence as souls in bodies. Thus, whether we live or die is a matter of our own self-imposed fitness for survival as a species, and not because of Divine proclamation.

3) That government is now privately owned, and serves special, (money) interests only. If you want to understand the essence behind ANY modern political event, all you need to remember is one single word: MONEY. For this reason government has become wholly corrupt. Democracy is no longer practiced, which implies that there is no such thing as the honestly expressed will of the people. In fact, there is no such thing as the will of the people at all for the most part, in the modern age. The public will is determined by media influence, and this is made possible by the years of childhood conditioning in the so-called educational system. Propaganda has replaced reality as the measure of common sense. This is why public opinion is no longer a trustworthy measure of reality, and neither is the media that controls it.

4) It is evident that Orthodox religion has lost its fundamental, spiritual meaning. It has instead become a socio-political vehicle for fear, suppression and mass mind control. Essential spiritual lessons have been dogmatically replaced by a concern for empty ritual, (such as the various Christmas and Easter traditions, whose origins are not even of Christian root). Truth has been lost by an insistence on the blind adherence to formality, social expectation and obligation, as well as hollow speech-making. Modern political and religious speeches bear an uncanny and increasing resemblance to one another.

5) That 99% of all social motivations in this culture are based upon money. All the good things in life are assumed to be found on supermarket shelves, and nowhere else. The dollar is God, and God is to be worshiped day and night for the rest of our lives, as the basis for every consideration. Our self worth is defined in the eyes of society in terms of job titles, resumes and income brackets. There is nothing that most people today will not do for money. Any heinous act is committed against nature, the body, the mind, the family and truth, all for the sake of a paycheck. Profit is considered the ideal excuse to commit any atrocity against humanity, including the exploitation of world resources, environmental health, the enslavement of the poor, mass imprisonment of domestic and foreign populations, the destruction of foreign governments and the starvation and induced, mass infection of various populations world-wide. Profits are considered more important than health, happiness, peace, justice, cooperation, wisdom, love, family, truth, clarity, spirit, nature and God.

6) That all self-worth and image is based on outward validity. Our training in materialism includes the belief that we should always put up a grand show for onlookers, even when we are alone, because we carry around the thought of what others might think at all times. This belief implies that if we are not approved of by others, than that automatically means we must be wrong, regardless of facts to the contrary. One such belief is that we should believe in our country for instance, regardless of what that country does or really stands for. We are taught that we are always accountable for our actions to the system, but that the system is never truly accountable to us for our blind, unquestioning support. We are raised to believe that the most important thing in life, (past making money) is the acceptance of ourselves by the crowd, (society). It does not matter in the slightest (in this hysterical belief system) what that crowd stands for, this consideration is viewed as irrelevant. What matters in today's world is not sanity but acceptance, not truth but the outward appearance of sincerity. This belief has progressed to such a point, that many people are no longer capable of discernment between what is true and what is false, because their entire lives have been lived to arbitrarily placate the status quo. They have been raised not only to tell lies for the sake of social acceptance, but to tell the very same lies that everyone else considers fashionable. To be politically correct is considered the act of the sane, well adjusted person, regardless of what that political scene may be supporting, including the bombing, poisoning or economic strangulation of other countries, for the sake of personal comfort. To fundamentally question society's basic beliefs however, is considered insane or "ill-adjusted" regardless of the logic, facts or alternatives used. Any life focus which is not about making money or cut-throat competitiveness/selfishness is considered either naive, crazy, irresponsible or simply outright prosecutable.

7) The view that social opinion is something we should sacrifice our own views for, regardless of what we have known or experienced. The reality is that the demonstrated precepts of society have nothing in common with so-called "family values" or spirituality of any kind, but only with material greed and egotistical, social approval. This fact is demonstrated by our grotesque degree of consumption at the cost of world resources, the degradation of foreign economies and people, and the poisoning of the environment itself. It is also manifest in the largest expenditure of money in the history of mankind, to support a so-called "defense" military budget, (in the United States). In reality this would be better referred to as an offense budget. This world offensive involves the aggressive political destabilization of all other countries and corporations in the world, and the creation of puppet governments/dictators who will do our regional bidding. This offense budget also exists as a form of threatening intimidation, so as to coerce the peoples of the world to bow to U.S. corporate whims. Such coercion also extends itself to a hugely bloated law enforcement and "legal" system, which jails far more of its own citizens than any other country in the world. We now live in a police-state, whose real purpose is to protect the personal interests of the wealthy, and to intimidate, or beat down by force of arms if necessary, any organized resistance or free will, that is contrary to the established aims of the corporate world.

8 ) That image is far more important than reality. We spend more time and money on cosmetic chemicals, make-up and surgery than we do on health foods. We spend far more effort cultivating a public personality than an inner reality and genuineness. It is also common practice to value the packaging of a product more than its real effectiveness or content. Facial expression is more important to us than honesty. Propaganda is more common than actuality. Taste is considered more important than ingredients, (even if these are deadly).

9) All things natural, including one's own body, are something to do battle with rather than understand. The natural is something to be controlled with an iron fist without end or mercy. Thus we spray pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and other poisons on our food, and everything in nature. The natural is something to be surgically altered, implanted with electronics, irradiated, sterilized, paved over, genetically engineered, cut down and used up, as a resource for human whims of any kind and purpose.

10) That symptoms are a more important consideration than cause. The addressing of causes and therefore cures, are deemed unprofitable. This is why cancer, AIDS, and a host of other diseases will never be cured, so long as materialistic values are in place. The result of medical remedies will remain far more horrible than what they are supposedly aiming to alleviate. This is also why our food, water and air will continue to be both inadvertently and intentionally poisoned, so that the public will remain in a perpetual state of disease, discomfort and delusion. Today's health care industry views disease as a given, normal standard, and health as an exception or unknown. Mental health has more to do with popping another Prozac, Valium, Riddelin or other mood altering drug, than with self knowledge and meditation. Physical health means obediently groveling before a doctor who knows less practical information about health, than any forest-dwelling, tribal shaman.

CONCLUSION:

There is nothing in society worth defending, maintaining or supporting. All areas of social thinking have become deluded, and are a reflection of both mass denial and mass insanity, in the most literal and wide-spread sense of those terms. Given this fact, the only sane course of action remaining is to remove oneself ideologically and socially from the status quo. Self sufficiency in all areas of life must become our real standard of living. It is unwise to believe anything you have been told about reality from the education, media, government, advertising or orthodox religious networks, as these teachings are either naive, delusional or intentionally disempowering.

Our society is composed of lies based upon lies, whose basic, fundamental intention originates from a desire for greedy social power, money, artificiality, egotism, control and mass suppression. Those who continue to believe in the suppositions of society, will forever suffer, while bringing ultimate destruction upon themselves and their children. True spiritual practice is not possible while simultaneously believing in, and living out, the lies of the modern age. To survive materialism with both health and sanity, it is necessary to rise above the common falsehoods and corruption which permeate every facet of modern living. For these reasons, we need far more than just love or nice words to lead intelligent, spiritual lives. We need also to exercise uncompromising clarity about how we are living our lives, and what kind of society we are supporting with our every daily decision."

Source: http://indiaculture.net/talk/messages/65/1...html?1094086103

Very well put.

There is no way we can stop this. Work on your own minds. Nirvana is the goal (or a higher and better rebirth for those who cannot attain it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbI5K0AzNHI

Edited: several typos in the original text.

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Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) free e-book:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ygqddwze2yc

TCM in general:

http://www.tcmworld.org/what_is_tcm/

http://tcm.health-info.org/

http://www.acuxo.com/

http://www.acupuncture.com.au/education/me.../meridians.html

http://www.yinyanghouse.com/theory/chinese...puncture_theory

http://www.acupuncture.com/index.html

http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/front/index.html

http://www.tiantianqigong.com/energetic.html

Common ailments and treatment:

http://www.tcmpage.com/expert_advice.html

Tongue diagnosis:

http://altmedicine.about.com/library/weekl...ueDiagnosis.htm

Herbs:

http://www.sacredlotus.com/index.cfm

Diet:

http://goto.bilkent.edu.tr/gunes/yinyangdiet.htm

Specialized forum:

http://gancao.net/

Good luck!

I am tired of winter, being cold and being cooped up. Since I probably can't pull off staying in bed for the next month- any practices or suggestions to feel a little more energy and motivation?

Chi Kung. Practice standing meditation-zhan zhuang. That will give you plenty of energy. Also eat heaps of warming foods: stews, stir-fries, hot chicken & vegetables soup, add chilli to your meals, natural peanut butter, etc.

Good luck!

Yup, but don't discount tamarind, either...

 

I don't know how it works, but studies have shown that it does:

Nice, heaps of it in Thailand, none of it here where I currently live, Brisbane, Australia. What a pity!

Tamarind juices are awesome.

Thanks for the heads up.

This whole slave planet is draining. I suggest you visit (or better, live if you can) places like this often to shake off rogue energy from your system:

However, Buddhists leave me irritated more often than not because these things are not explained very well. For example, you start with thinking "Why do we have an ego?" and every traditional Buddhist answer leaves you going "But why?" until finally you get "The ego does not exist". Suddenly you are stonewalled with generalization. It's a bit of a cop out, and I feel this has less to do with the way of the Buddha and more to do with the structure of the "ism". Keep trucking away and you'll end up with a much clearer version of things that are part Hindu, part Buddhist, part everything but also different from what is often taught in all those traditions.

This happens because you are solely relying in what you hear/read.

Have you ever practiced Buddhist meditation in a proper setting and following a technique, i.e. 2 month retreat following the Vipassana method?

When you finish come back here and let us know what you think about this issue.

Edited: Forgot to include the word "read."

.

.

I have edited my post.

mouse is correct

About what?

From my understanding Buddhists do not reject theory of the ego but rather acknowledges that ignorance forms the ego.

What Buddhism rejects is the notion of an immutable ego that remains as such in each and every lifetime.

If there is no ego, there is no more rebirth. The karma left continues to act on the body aggregates but do not touch the mind.

The mind and matter are the process resulting from the interaction of the five aggregates. Karma will determine your next life, as pure and simple as that.

 

So the statement you posed, "if there is no Atman for the Karma to follow, how is Karma carried over from past lives?" that in itself is flawed in that if there is the dissolution of ego then there is no rebirth. So no rebirth, no more karma to be acted on either the mind nor the body.

Let me clarify your answer:

if there is the dissolution of ego then there is no rebirth

The ego is dissolved after death because it is one of the five aggregates.

The state of "no rebirth" is only attained by someone who is fully enlightened (Arahant/Buddha). The rest of the beings will be reborn in an specific realm according to their karma. There are five levels:

1. Puthujjana or Ordinary people: trapped in the endless changes of Saṃsara. Most of humanity.

2. Sotappana or Stream-enterer: The stream-enterer is also said to have "opened the eye of the Dharma". A stream-enterer is guaranteed enlightenment after no more than seven successive rebirths, and possibly in fewer. The stream-enterer can also be sure that he will not be reborn in any of the unhappy states or rebirths (animal, preta, hell). He can only be reborn as a human being, or in a heaven.

3. Sakadagami or Once-returner: Will return to the human world only one more time, and will attain Nirvana in that life.

4. Anagami or Non-returner: Does not come back into human existence, or any lower world, after death. Instead, they are reborn in one of the worlds of the Rupadhatu called the Suddhavasa worlds, or "Pure Abodes", where he will attain Nirvaṇa. However, some of them are reborn a second time in a higher world of the Pure Abodes, but in no case are born into a lower state.

5. Arahant: a fully enlightened human being who has abandoned all fetters, and who upon decease (Parinirvana) will not be reborn in any world, having fully abandoned Samsara.

The fetters are the following:

1. Belief in an individual self (Sakkaya-diṭṭhi)

2. Doubt or uncertainty, especially about the teachings (Vicikiccha)

3. Attachment to rites and rituals (Silabbata-paramaso)

4. Sensual desire (Kamacchando)

5. Ill will (Vyapado)

6. Lust for material existence, lust for material rebirth (Ruparago)

7. Lust for immaterial existence (Aruparago)

8. Pride in self, conceit, arrogance (Mano)

9. Restlessness, distraction (Uddhaccan)

10. Ignorance (Avijja)

Anicca (impermanence) teaches us that all phenomena are subjected to change. Karma is balancing force of the Universe, when you alter the balance (action, speech or thought) you'll be "asked" to return it to how it was. It can happen in this life (desirable), the next one or several after (both being undesirable).

You are unhappy because you are clinging to phenomena using either of the 5 aggregates: Rupa (form), vedana (feeling), sanja (perception), sankhara (mental formation) and vinjana (consciousness).

Karma is carried over to the next life because you left behind an unresolved issue (good you go up the spiritual evolution ladder or bad you go down the spiritual evolution ladder).

Karma is carried over future lives the same way you bury a seed in the ground and over time it will grow as a tree which will eventually give you a fruit, i.e. banana. In other cases karma operates like this: you didn't sleep well last night (cause) and as a result you'll be tired the day after (effect).

These two videos summarise really well what this is all about:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0VrV0_wMEbM

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=a13Fo89idzo&...feature=related

Just watch and draw your own conclusions.

Thanks for linking this stuff in here which is followed by these two:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=qiK4bnusRJc&...feature=related

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ_dq7ivsN0&...feature=related

Very interesting series.

The Buddha died at the age of 80 after he ate a special delicacy, Sukaramaddava, literally translated as "soft pork". LOL!

It is not what you eat (as long as it is not a junk processed food typical of the modern society we all live in) but how you train your mind what it really matters.

I eat meat sometimes and love it.

.

I'm horses to both. All traditions have saints and super saints who have lived extreme lives both physically and spiritually. Few more then the Indian traditions which are extremely old and have produced extreme adherents to extreme practices.

 

If physical immortality is possible we should see some of them walking around. A couple of schools and yes that one village deep in the himalayans where happy go lucky white haired folks frolic all day. The evidence exists only in legend. Every religion has a legend of an immortal or near immortal, its human nature. Living past 120 simply isn't human nature, its not in our genes...

Well said. In fact Gautama Buddha died when he was 80 years old. What would be the purpose of living when one has achieved the highest level of spiritual enlightenment?

Answer: no to both.

Necessary for review?

What happened since then?

That place promotes Taoism but all I can see there is Shaolin Buddhist, hard stuff.

1. Five Family Fists

2. Internal Iron Palm

3. Long fist

I would highly recommend you following the Vipassana method. The Buddha attained enlightenment using this and of course other esoteric practices but in the end that was the key factor.

Walking sitting acknowledging, walking sitting acknowledging, walking sitting acknowledging...

That's how it works, simple yet VERY EFFECTIVE.

Good luck.

Global warming = Agni (fire) Yoga.

I already posted this in another thread.

Very old yogic teaching, well before the theosophists adopted it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni_Yoga

http://www.agniyoga.org/

Good luck to humanity. It needs it.

Hey there, fire horses are rare and brilliant creatures, i am lucky enough to have a sister who is a firehorse and some friends also, they seem to have insatiable energy and creativity, funnily enough i read somewhere that the Chinese considered fire horses bad luck for the family and tried to avoid having them? not sure if thats true or not, as for brisbane i grew up there, and at a certaint point just had to get the hell out of there and havent lived there since, mabey its just the hometown thing but it seemed to have this energy that made it dificult for people to progress, i still go back there now and see people doing the same thing they were doing ten years ago, back in the day when it was much more sleepy it was a good place to hang out and do nothing though, i have been enjoying the change of energy with the ox compared to the rat, i have moved back up to queensland in the last couple of years -sunshine coast and am hoping to start commuting to brisbane to train at a Cheng Ming school that i think is in salisbury anyways just wanted to say peace and that i know how bris bring you down james

You are so right!!!!!!!! I knew there was something wrong with this place. Did you know that Aboriginal people stayed out of this place? Never settled down. And Indigenous people are good at reading the environment and understanding about how Feng Shui really works.

Finally someone that understands this stuff. Brisbane river (Yin) and the Yang energy of the area itself plus the Yin energy coming from the ocean are mixed very poorly. They rise too much steam which creates a lot of stale and blocked energy. Humidity is unbearable. No wonder why school kids perform poorly, their spirits are more sensitive to rogue energy than adults. Living in Brisbane is not a good idea in the long run.

Have you moved down to Syd. or Melb.?

I am out of here once I finish my training.

Good luck and Happy Chinese New Year!!

Genuine question: what is it about Brisbane that you guys don't like?

It is quickly becoming a big city. Real State is insane (like the rest of the world's capital cities anyway), traffic is bad, poor road system, and not many jobs. I like it being laid back but it is quickly losing this character.

Anyway, this is way off-topic, lol!

Regards.

Well, if its any consolation the rich are getting poorer too

Yes by 2-3 million less, but they still got 20 million under the belt. Don't believe all the hype. It is just

I would replace the term "Religion" for "Hope" in the famous expression coined by Marx:

"Die Religion...ist das Opium des Volkes"

The banking system will never collapse by accident or by the mistakes of a few rogue bankers.

 

It's my opinion that mid 2009 will be when reality finally hits ground level, meaning inflation on a pretty strong scale. This will last for a couple of years while progressively getting worse. People will think housing has bottomed only to find out that it hasn't, and the bottom feeders will get shaken out in 2010. by 2011, life will not be easy for the average Westerner...

I am ready for the rock 'n' roll; ready to wander in the mountains of Asia with the minimum. I met recently a Western monk who is mentally and physically prepared for this new world order. He just left the UK to start a new life in Thailand carrying only his small backpack and a laptop (lol!).

Humanity is going to suffer a lot more. The times of breeding like rabbits and predating from Gaia are over:

http://math.berkeley.edu/~galen/popclk.html

What a joke:

6,726,158,405 the time I wrote this and COUNTING!

I sound negative but the only way we could fix this if suddenly all humans stop and start acting rationally.

Anyway it is an old teaching. Read this info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni_Yoga

Good luck everyone!