Apech

"People turn to Spirit when their foundations are shaking, only to discover that it is Spirit that is shaking them." Anon.

Not all Islam or Muslims are like this. There is a lot of genuine spirituality in Islam e.g. Sufis and so on. There are different paths and as someone reminded me on here recently it doesn't do to mix them. But it is overtly political and controlling to define another's religion as wrong or evil. Individuals relate well despite differences, for instance Jews and Muslims lived side by side in Palestine before the creation of Israel. But as soon as governments and fundamentalist ideologies get involved things fall apart and the shooting starts. One of the most interesting things about fundamentalist Christianity is how many things they hate. A religion founded on 'love thy neighbour, love they enemy' becomes 'hate gays, hate muslims'. How does that happen? Don't they read the New testament? The same is true for Wahadi Islam.

These accounts seem from what I have read of them to deal with people who have undertaken 'powerful' practices without having understood what they are doing or what was happening. Moving energy/chi in your body and so on can produce quite dramatic results including the ones that they mention. In fact these stories are probably very good illustrations of why you shouldn't have 'power' as the goal without understanding and compassion. I wonder why their teachers didn't help them? Is it possible that they too were subject to the same forced approach. We all seek effective techniques and practices and I quite agree that there is no point messing around. But all practice has to be approached at a level and speed which is assimilable to the individual. Good teachers understand this. Obviously it is in the interest of mainstream religion whether Christian, Islamic or other to demonize anything which is not within their control and leads to individual empowerment (in the true sense) and realization. So I think both the initial teachers and the 'exorcisers' are at fault and left some very confused individuals.

Wool is so itchy! Note to self - new underwear in silk tomorrow.

looks more like Herring than it looks like a shark's fin breakfast is circling.

Scary things in jars! Is that a pickled gherkin? Or something far worse?

"This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Time to wash the sheets That stain looks like Africa The mark of darkness. (Errrr! )

Just to add to this thread on the neck and so on. The attached image is of the serpent Neheb-kau feeding the person and restoring his (sexual) energy. This serpent was benign being associated with the flood of the Nile and was said to cure snake bites. His power was derived from his swallowing seven cobras which are related to the neck and probably stood for the cervical nerves which govern the upper body. This image was also shown on what is known as the hypocephalus a circular text placed behind the head of certain mummies. This was all about the Eye of Horus appearing as a flame which burn out impurities. There is an obvious correlation to Kundalini and so on and the use of energy. I would still like to know if anyone knows of a relationship between the neck and the seven stars/ or even the seven chakras etc.

The word doubt comes from words meaning 'to be of two minds'. If you are in a state of doubt then you have two opposing ideas in your mind with which you have established a certain attachment/indentification. This might be your spirituality versus scepticism for instance. Analysis through comparison of ideas is healthy while being passively confused by opposing and unexamined concepts is unhelpful. So I would suggest that when you have doubts about your practice then you test them as actively as you can, when you find you are passively engaged in practice you challenge this also to see if it is working. This will put you into an active stance instead of a passive one. In real spiritual work confidence is gained by a pragmatic testing of what you do to see the results. For instance you meditate and notice that you feel a little different afterwards - this proves that there is some effect. Step by step you test things to build more and more confidence. The same goes with establishing a relationship with a teacher - you test it at first (in a friendly way) until you feel that your pupil/teacher relationship is one in which practice and results can mature properly. If you are working alone then you have to do the same with your practice. Give it time but test it, without urgency, is it working? If not are you doing it right and so on.

Here is my answer: Through his experience, the sage becomes aware that all things change, and that he who seems to lead, might also, in another situation, follow. So he does nothing; he neither leads nor follows. That which he does is neither big nor small; without intent, it is neither difficult, nor done with ease. His task completed, he then lets go of it; seeking no credit, he cannot be discredited. Thus, his teaching lasts for ever, and he is held in high esteem. When the consistency of the Tao is known, the mind is receptive to its states of change. It is natural for things to change, sometimes being ahead, sometimes behind. That which once seemed full, may later empty seem, yet still be unexhausted. That which once seemed straight may seem twisted when seen once more; intelligence can seem stupid, and eloquence seem awkward; movement may overcome the cold, and stillness, heat, but stillness in movement is the way of the Tao. From The Tao Te Ching A Translation by Stan Rosenthal No idea how to vote - everything changes/nothing changes ... you decide.

would make a nice drum if I could, would keep it real not using cymbals.

flow fast between us like a charismatic sun for we are planets.

Where is Way's house then?

Forget the housework and keep your shoes on.

Those are absolutely stunning photos. Thanks for letting us see.

I'm looking for some authentic information on the assemblage point as per Castenada's books. Is there a Daoist equivalent in the sense of a point for gathering lines of attention which can be shifted and so on. Is it the middle Dan tien? Any links to Toltec shamanism on this? Thnx.

Trunk, Glad we agree - more or less. Collapsing spheres? Perhaps I meant the distinction between them ceases to be relevant (or something). i.e. think, feel, will becomes 'be'.

Hi Yoda, A short version of my thinking about Egypt/assemblage point. The Book of the Dead describes two cycles. The first cycle is about seeing, understanding and absorbing the experience of the nature of reality. The second is about 'becoming' it. Near the beginning of the second cycle is a series of Chapters or Spells dealing with what are called 'transformations'. These start with Ch. 76 " Spell for being transformed into any shape one may wish to take." This is followed by a series of being transformed into various forms such as a gold falcon, a divine falcon ... a lotus, a swallow and so on. The word used for transformation is 'kheperu' a word derived from the verb 'kheper' which means 'come into being', 'change', 'occur or happen' and 'bring about' and so on. This creative transformational process is personified in the god Khepera, the scarab beetle of the morning sun. Interestingly this word is also used when talking about the heart - a sacred scarab was placed on the chest of the mummy to protect the heart, and in Ch. 30b of the BoD. it says "O my heart of my mother, O my heart of my mother, O my heart of my changing forms (kheperu)." So there is a clear link between the heart and this transformational process of changing forms. This reminded me of the Castaneda books where Don Juan changes into a crow and CC into a cayote. I recalled that this was explained in later books as being about a shift in the assemblage point ... e.g. from the strands of awareness of a human to those of a crow. I saw a connection. To the Egyptian the heart was the centre of the mind, will and character. It was involved in a transformational process at a key stage in the BoD reminiscent of shamanistic shape shifting. From this I began to wonder if I cold see anything similar in Daoism. So far the results are inconclusive but I still have hope Thnx to everyone for listening and responding. And hope there is more to be said on this important subject. Hi Cheya, No I don't know that book but I have the Art of Dreaming which I will look up. Thanks.

OK - its does say "This essay is a current work-in-progress; it'll be filling out over several weeks." - so I was encouraging you to do this, but anyway: "Find the still place in the deep-center of each of the three centers (power, love, wisdom). Align those still places. That alignment opens the central vessel." What I take from this is that each of the Tan Diens (power - lower, heart - love, upper-wisdom) has at its heart a still centre through which they are linked. This link is the central channel or middle pillar - working with this is about working directly with reality (that is the union of emptiness and appearance, voidity and luminosity or however you express it.) Working in this way means resting in the 'now' in what the Egyptians called 'hotep' (sorry but I don't know the term from other systems). In a way you could say the three centres collapse into each other (this is a way of talking of course). "Find the light in the deep-center of each of the three centers. Allow each center's light to transform and absorb its own surrounding substance and energies into its deep-center, promoting each center's stability as itself." The light in each centre is the resident awareness (or primary awareness) which is an attribute of absolute power (reality), naturally arising from its presence, unconstructed and pure. Each centre has around it resonating energies, physical, emotional and so on which constitiute the kind of energy fabric of the being. The centre's light self-emanating absorbs, or rather acknowledges these as children of its own light and therefore links and binds them into a coherent structure which is able to establish its own stability - that is it becomes a kind of self harmonizing whole. More later.

I just googled Taisha Abelar and it said on Wiki: "Taisha Abelar, born Maryann Simko, is an American author and anthropologist who was a close associate of Carlos Castaneda. She disappeared shortly after Castaneda's death in 1998." Is there any explanation as to where she has been for the last 10 years?

Explains why my hair keeps standing on end.

I read Amy Wallace's book and found it very gossipy and a little bit spiteful. To be honest an ex-lover is never going to be a big fan. It seems to me that CC was surrounded by scary women at the end of this life and I have seen on youtube an interview with the three cagoules (or whatever they call themselves) and I find transegrity (?) completely unconvincing. Too tense, too overtly dramatic and would not stand up against any half decent Qi Gong practice. For me CC's books are very inspiring and no 'fraud' could do that, in that way. They are full of powerful ideas which stand up to my scrutiny (and I am very hard to please!). I don't think he was a genius - I think he encountered one or possibly more than one genuine practitioners and enough rubbed off on him to write the books - but when left to his own devices it all went pear shaped - which is basically what the books describe as the 'three pronged nagual'. So in that sense I would take the books at face value - up to and not including 'Magical Passes'.

You are right they don't overlap and I am not trying to mix systems - I am completely against that idea. That is my main criticism of most people who write about Egypt and you will see from what I have written on here that I keep within the Egyptian system when talking about it. BUT you can gain understanding in one system which helps in the other. Also when dealing with fundamentals such as voidity and so on these are in all systems. Every system is developed in a certain time, place, terrain and from a particular history of experience which makes it unique in that expression BUT because it is dealing with underlying reality if properly understood reveals the same nature of reality and so on. It appears that the assemblage point is a useful principle in the work that I am doing so I want to compare and contrast how other systems talk about it. I would be very surprised if there is nothing in Daoism which deals with this - but maybe I'm wrong. Trunk, I like this: core centre care to expand on it as promised