Apech

Welcome Joseph.

14 minutes ago, ChiDragon said:

 

No, I don't. Do you?

āma ahaṃ kaomi. 

1 hour ago, ChiDragon said:

https://youtube.com/shorts/5x0-zwHWO0c?si=rsdf-zEz3yacOg1f

Do you even speak Magadhi Prakrit?

29 minutes ago, Unseen_Abilities said:

Could we arrange a complete ‘wipe out’ of my account here and all the content I ever wrote? 
 

Not happy with Spirit anymore…

 

I might be doing you a favour, which I don’t mean as a threat…

 

I mean I’ll talk about conspiracy stuff and expose the LIES, etc etc (I would really just prefer all of my old stuff was GONE after I had a terrible ‘journey’ etc..!) but I AM harmless enough.

 

You’d just be doing me a favour.:)

 

Peace

Hi,

We don't really do that.  I see you have deleted all the posts that I can see easily (which go back to 2016).  Otherwise we don't delete old content.  Also with your account - just log out and don't enegage if you don't want to.

A.

*** Thread to remain locked.  Please could members avoid discussions like this in future.  Sharing private messages or conversations is not encouraged.  Posts will remain hidden. ***

1 hour ago, Haribol said:

Well, the «lawful» and «peaceful» are the ones poisoning our food, trafficking kids and sacrificing a couple of millions in Ukraine so.. f them. It is not the law that keeps me from robbing my neighbors. I think communities are able to govern themselves if they are given a sense of ownership, which we are not, because the lawful people in Davos or Brussels or wherever the f tell us they need to protect us from ourself.

No politics!  Stop it or thread will be locked.

12 hours ago, Lairg said:

 

There are much more efficient processes:

- forgiveness of self and others,

- being open hearted,

- intending right relationship and

- petitioning the Lords of Karma

are often sufficient.

Good to know you know better than Marpa.

Um cavalo com um casaco?

While I realise that this thread might be cathartic or therapeutic for some of the posters on here, for most of us it just serves as a warning not to have anything to do with anyone involved.  I think it might be worth while thinking about what exactly the purpose of all this bickering online is.  
 

As a moderator I am considering locking the thread as I don’t want the board consumed by this dispute.

A.

8 hours ago, Forestgreen said:

And it is entirely possible to have the same realization with energy work, why so one-sided?.

And it is possible to do a lot of work and not having a realization about reality, but having other experiences that a tradition values and call spiritual. 

It is even possible that, lets say a theravada buddhist, doesn't call it energywork but still practice it, because nomenclature differs between traditions and there is more to it than breathing methods and pushing energy into the head. 

Just imagine the possibilities😁

 

I feel that you are playing with words. If you do not think that practice causes realization, why did you spend so much time practicing? Why do you mention that people with a few months of practice might get short spiritual experiences, instead of saying "I watched football with the gang last saturday, and darn if we all didn't have a glimpse of reality"?

I think it is a matter of which order you do things in and what emphasis is given.  For instance in Karma Pakshi’s three/ four Kaya approach you could argue that the dharmakaya is xing- like while the sambhoga Kaya is tsa- lung related.  I have even heard it explained that lojong can be understood as energy work broadly - although I don’t think they would ever actually say that in so many words.

14 minutes ago, Antares said:

If you mean this one https://yang-sheng.com/?p=859

I would say his hands position is wrong. As for seated practices I wrote about it here many times.

 

what’s wrong with his hand positions?

How do we define evil?

32 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 

Okay then ... as long as you are sure about the source  ( not just the brand - even some good brands got done over bad sources  ) ; 

 

 Investigations, notably one by the New York Attorney General in 2015, found that about 4 out of 5 products tested from major US retailers did not contain the herbs specified on their labels.

 

But maybe where you are they have THR  (  products with a "Traditional Herbal Registration"  label ) ?

https://www.arkopharma.com/pt-PT/plants/curcuma

that’s the stuff

6 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

 

 

 

Seems to me that Steve´s view of seeing the qualities attributed to Gods and Goddesses as human is useful in a practice context.  Such an understanding helps to avoid the error of projecting out our negative (and positive) qualities.  By keeping the focus on a human level, we´re able to work with the qualities as they show up in our lives -- everything is within our "locus of control."  A great advantage of TRW´s teaching, in my limited experience, is that the practices are always brought to bear on particular lived contexts.  So practical!  

Well I agree on keeping things real so to speak.  And I'm not advocating an away with the fairies view on entities.  It (the idea they are real) does not fit the modern mind set though - so we seek rationalistic arguments about non-human entities.  Something that has probably been accepted as true for hundreds of thousands of years by humans (I would suggest).  But perhaps its worth considering that they, the gods, demi-gods, spirits and so on are each in their own realm where the rules of their realm apply.   It's all about perception and we see with human eyes - so we imagine things as if they humanish.

6 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

And yet I´ll admit...the ghostbuster in me likes to imagine a world inhabited by a plethora of not-entirely-human spirits, some benevolent, others not so much.  Is this actually the case?  Sadly, my limited powers of perception prevent me from saying for sure.  But the idea of such beings adds an aura of numinous mystery that appeals.  

Yes the numinous mystery is real.  IMO.  I would not have said this a decade (maybe) ago.  But there is always something unsatisfactory about 'archetypes' and psychological thought-forms etc to me.  It's weak really.  For instance the idea of sub-conscious is in itself poor - it should be super-conscious ... a field of super-conscious possibilities.  And just part of the banality which science or scientism gives to our lives.

6 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

Ultimately, of course, the point is to collapse the illusory sense of separation between world and self.  It´s often said that the "separate self" does not exist, and I suppose this goes for the self of Gods and Goddesses too.  If Gods and Goddesses do exist then, at least on some level: they are us and we, them.  All this is above my paygrade, but you know how it is with Bums like me -- we love to talk.

You've got a point there.  If everything is empty - then everything is possible (?).

39 minutes ago, old3bob said:

 

I did not listen to the whole thing and did not need to with its typical hell metal like vibe.   (the piper will collect on those enthralled to variations of same)  I partly fell for some lower astral crap like that back in the 60's the 70's when I was a kid.

Obviously I am still a kid.

@kakapo I like that song 

Just now, kakapo said:

 

I tried to post as a video, but it wouldn't work for some reason so I had to do a link. 

cos it’s in a playlist - if you open it as a separate vid the link will post

2 hours ago, ChiDragon said:

 

He is correct. All the new books of the TTC are printed that way nowadays in China. Why are you still so stubborn? If you want to study TTC, please learn it right!

Tetchy much?

5 minutes ago, Sheepdog said:

 

This suggests turmeric is likely beneficial for you. 🙂 Stiffness likely means blood and/or Qi stagnation and turmeric is a  anti-stagnation herb, so it's good for such cases. 

 

Before, when you wrote "inflammation", I was afraid you might be trying to treat a "hot" type joint inflammation with turmeric, which would be problematic. 

 

 

It's not toxic. I was worried about something else - the thermal nature, hot vs cold axis. Some people have too much heat in their bodies, some have too much cold. Also different body parts can have their own thermal situations - somebody can have too much cold in one part of body, too much hot in another part of body. 

 

Some herbs are warming, some are cooling (and some are thermally neutral). One should use warm herbs to counter cold, cold herbs to counter heat. If it's the other way around, the herbs become harmful - not because they're toxic, but because it's heating what's already too hot or cooling something that's already too cold. 

 

This also applies to common kitchen items. For example garlic is hot and is harmful for people who have too much heat in their bodies. Milk is cold and is harmful for people who have cold.

 

If you have stiffness and back pain from aging, then turmeric is likely beneficial for you, but also not a very effective treatment.

 

I can't prescribe you anything, this is not a prescription, but if I were you, I would take interest in, research these two herbs:

 

- Du Huo (Radix Angelicae Pubescentis)

- Xu Duan (Radix Dipsaci)

 

Du Huo clears joints, Xu Duan repairs them. Both herbs are especially targeted for lower back. 

 

These two greatly helped with my mother's lower back pain, but of course different people have different situations and results can vary. 

 

BTW I don't know what is the availability of Chinese herbs in your country. Initially I was worried they would be hard to get or expensive here in Poland, but it turned out there are multiple local online shops which deliver them without problems and at reasonable price. 

Thanks that’s very helpful.  There’s a woman in the next village who does acupuncture and sells some herbs - I’ll see if she has got these.

6 hours ago, Nungali said:

 

I like to use the fresh root , grated into all types of mixtures , especially curries .

 

You can be assured  of 100% using the root , especially if you grow it yourself  

 

Powdered turmeric can contain harmful additives like lead chromate, Sudan dyes, and Metanil Yellow to enhance color, as well as cheap fillers like starch or other plant powders (like Curcuma zedoaria) to increase weight and profit, posing serious health risks like lead poisoning and potential cancer from illegal dyes. Always look for trusted brands or organic labels to avoid these dangerous adulterants, as contamination with heavy metals or toxic dyes is a known issue

I take capsules which apart from powdered turmeric and pepper the only additive is acacia gum and 100% vegetable cellulose.

3 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

The point Deng Ming-Dao was making and I agree with is, anyone who claims a better understanding of DDJ solely on the merit of being fluent in Chinese, or being a respected Sinologist, or even a lineage taoist, is ultimately in the same boat as a native English speaker dealing with Beowulf, only a bigger one.  I.e. knowing the modern version of the  language, by itself, or knowing the culture and traditions, or their development through the ages, is still nowhere near enough to make claims about presenting "the correct version." 

 

Even the meaning of the very first line, which became a meme of sorts, is the product of interpretations rather than of Laozi's calligraphy brush -- which produced only this opening: "Tao can be told, tao is not eternal."  So one has to superimpose the kind of grammar (absent from the original) that will allow to ascribe to Laozi a statement that not only was never made by him but is the opposite of what he actually wrote verbatim.  And then just repeat it for two and a half thousand years.  That beats Lewis Carrol's "what I tell you three times is true" with a vengeance.  

 

But what if we don't do that?  What if we take those words for face value instead?  Then this line can be read as, say, the opening manifesto of a writer who asserts his right to write about tao.  Tao can be told.  I, Laozi, can tell you about it.  I can tell about it here and now.  I am not an eternal being, and so I'm not tackling an eternal subject -- just the here-and-now tao which is what I can tell you about.  How's that?

      

I’m interested in the word for eternal which is chang isn’t it?  Does it have other meanings?  Or nuanced meanings?

29 minutes ago, zerostao said:

 

Do you think there is rampant evil afoot in our world?

An evil foot? Where? (Looks wildly about in terror).

1 hour ago, steve said:

 

Yeah, I've probably got it all wrong.

Peace

Don't give up so easily : )

1 hour ago, Sheepdog said:

 

I would say "couple months" is a very long time for "some mild positive" effects. It's quite likely that turmeric is doing (almost) nothing at all or is even harming you and you're simply experiencing slow natural healing, not positive effect of the herb.

 

Generally don't listen to people who are saying things like "turmeric is good for inflammation". Such people are incompetent and dangerous to others (and even to themselves). Turmeric is a warm herb and it can be harmful for inflammation if the inflammation has hot nature.

 

It can be beneficial for inflammation if the cause is blood stagnation or Qi stagnation, wind, cold, damp. But it's biggest specialty is blood stagnation. 

 

Unfortunately, very often somebody has good effects with a certain herb in a specific situation to which the herb is suited, but starts to recommend the herb for a wide category like "inflammation" or "joint pain" - which includes situations to which the herb is NOT suited! 

 

Could you say which joints and muscles are affected?

 

Are the joints swollen, or maybe there is redness around them? Do they feel hot or cold?

 

Are the joints stiff? (Maybe just stiff in the morning?) Or maybe the limb feels bit numb?

 

Does the pain increase or decrease in response to warmth or cold? Or maybe in reaction to wet, rainy weather?  

 

Does the pain feel heavy or does it feel sharp, like stabbing with a sharp needle or knife?

 

Is the pain constant or maybe pulsating or changing, "jumping" from one joint to another?

 

Are you as the whole person more sensitive to hot or cold? (Which you find more tiring and unpleasant.)

 

Thanks for your reply.

My issues are just general stiffness and some back pain which is mostly ageing related.  I did not mean to suggest that it took two months to have an effect but that I noticed the effect for the two months.  It is not dramatic but still noticeable.  As turmeric is a herb used in food I think it unlikely that it is toxic - and I am not taking a particularly high dose.  So I feel it has had an overall positive effect especially as it has reduced the frequency with which I have taken other meds over the period.

But I am open to your views as you may have more knowledge than me.

19 hours ago, steve said:

 

Just like the gods and goddesses, I see these more as convenient anthropomorphic representations of human qualities and characteristics and of unexplainable natural phenomena. Some positive (gods and goddesses) and some negative (demons). I’m not afraid to use the terms but I think they are less necessary and less meaningful in the context of modern knowledge. 

@steve that's interesting but I believe you may have made some category errors.  Some representations are anthropomorphic but that does not mean that the thing being represented is 'human' (depending on what human means I suppose).  There are entities at all levels of reality but we see them through human eyes and with human minds.  Also natural phenomena are not 'unexplainable' but may be 'unexplained' in some cases.  I suspect you think that the world populated by non-human entities is a fantasy of primitive thought because it does not equate to your scientific preconceptions.  Actually it is the more normal view and truer for that.  Given the practice which I know you follow you might want to revisit how you are conceptualising all this.

Peace.

A.