Apech

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This is the great mystery of human vision: Vivid pictures of the world appear before our mind’s eye, yet the brain’s visual system receives very little information from the world itself. Much of what we “see” we conjure in our heads.

“A lot of the things you think you see you’re actually making up,” said Lai-Sang Young, a mathematician at New York University. “You don’t actually see them.”

Yet the brain must be doing a pretty good job of inventing the visual world, since we don’t routinely bump into doors. Unfortunately, studying anatomy alone doesn’t reveal how the brain makes these images up any more than staring at a car engine would allow you to decipher the laws of thermodynamics.

New research suggests mathematics is the key. For the past few years, Young has been engaged in an unlikely collaboration with her NYU colleagues Robert Shapley, a neuroscientist, and Logan Chariker, a mathematician. They’re creating a single mathematical model that unites years of biological experiments and explains how the brain produces elaborate visual reproductions of the world based on scant visual information.

 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-mathematical-model-unlocks-the-secrets-of-vision-20190821/

19 hours ago, Nungali said:

Aside from the fact that Crowley himself went to  great lengths to  try and clear up this VERY common confusion between 'True Will' and 'want' . The same as a few posters here also pointed out the difference .  And numerous  informed and practised commentary all over the internet  ( I mean things like thelemic sites  ... not lame arse Christian 'everything not us is Satan sites ')  .

 

I also note ( which adds to your confusion about this ) you are using definitons of 'Will'   ,  not  'True Will' .   For a better understanding see :   (personal )  ' Khvarenah ' .

 

http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/overview/index.htm#khvarenah

Purity of heart is to will one thing.

                                                      Soren Keirkegaard.

Cab I have access to the Men forum.  Thanks.

19 hours ago, Earl Grey said:

 

Are you volunteering, good sir?

My days of sniffing turtles are long gone.

14 hours ago, Earl Grey said:

 

Turtles also breathe through their anus.

That would be more interesting if they breathed through someone else's anus.

2 hours ago, sean said:

I removed the link in the header but the Slack group still exists. I've also been considering shuttering the Slack chat though. Would that devastate anyone?

 

Sean

 

If you could keep it going I would appreciate it.  Not many use it right now but it used to be quite lively.

Seems to have gone.  Has it?

From earliest times:

3 minutes ago, ilumairen said:

 

Oops.. here, enjoy some kitties..

They're not fascists.

Oops wrong thread.

That's very interesting.  Thanks for posting it.

I think I used to have a book by this guy - but I don't know what i did with it.

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Sogyal Rinpoche, a charismatic Tibetan Buddhist teacher and best-selling author who abruptly retired after several of his students accused him of multiple acts of sexual, physical and emotional abuse, died on Aug. 28 in a hospital in Thailand. He was in his early 70s.

The cause was a pulmonary embolism, his care team announced. He had received a diagnosis of colon cancer in September 2017.

Two months earlier, his reputation as a popular teacher of Buddhism and longtime friend of the Dalai Lama’s unraveled when eight students wrote a damning, heart-rending letter that outlined allegations of years of abuse by Sogyal Rinpoche against them.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/01/obituaries/sogyal-rinpoche-dies.html

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A British charity founded by a disgraced Buddhist guru, who died last week after he was accused of sexual misconduct towards some of his followers, faces further controversy after it emerged that one of its trustees was found responsible for covering up abuse.

Patrick Gaffney was a trustee of the Rigpa Fellowship, which was founded by the Tibetan guru Sogyal Rinpoche, who died aged 72 in Thailand on Wednesday after going into hiding following the claims.

Weeks before Rinpoche’s death, Gaffney – the guru’s right-hand man who co-edited his bestselling The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying – was banned by a watchdog from working with charities for eight years.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/02/trustee-uk-charity-covered-up-abuse-buddhist-guru-rigpa-fellowship

One interesting question about early societies (early by standard historical narrative) i.e. Sumer, Egypt, Indus Valley, Ancient China is that the divine beings were depicted quite often as human with animal heads, or other body parts, wings, tails and so on.  Of course this goes way back - as cave painting show the same kind of iconography e.g. antlered man, lioness with human body and so on.  So the question is why?  Why is the divine seen in this way rather than the present rather abstract disembodied spirit and so on.

What people in those days meant by 'gods' is quite different to today.  And based more on 'seeing' than thought or abstract ideas.  Shamans see these kinds of figures.  How is it to be understood I wonder.

Some people have compared the 'handbags' to these carvings at Gobekli Tepe:

but others have suggested that these are symbols for sunrise/sunset.

3 hours ago, Earl Grey said:

 

Karma bit their ass,

dogma still eats the people’s

souls. When does it end?

Souls. When does it end?

What?  Does infinity have

a limitation?

On 8/25/2019 at 5:02 PM, steve said:

That never crossed my mind!

 

My question was more about sharing brief excerpts from such restricted materials.

I'm guessing the answer is 'when in doubt, don't.'

I don't think Vajrayana texts should be shared - but then a lot of Lamas seem to write books on them which means they are widely known when in the past they would have been 'secret' - so who knows

I think part of the problem may be that if you click 'unread posts' you just see a list and its not always immediately clear if its in a special part of the board or just in general or whatever - that's how I ended up here - certainly didn't want to barge in on a conversation to which I was not invited.  I would prefer to live in a world where men only/women only sections were not necessary - but we live in a real world so ...

9 hours ago, Raúl said:

Hi. I came to this forum randomly, I found a link to it in the forum of No Fap. I was in that forum because, after retaining my energies (no ejaculation) for 11 days, I had a nocturnal emissions. This happened before the two concerts I had as a guitarrist. You can imagine, no energy=bad concert=anxiety.

 

To this day, the most days I have been without ejaculating have been 2 weeks, and I know perfectly week what path should I take and what sacrifices I must do. Right now I live a very healthy life, stretching every day, physical exercices, rich and balanced diet, no drugs, reading good material, no excessive cell phone use... No videogames, porn, pointless entertainment in general. I am very focused on my musical career and my talents. But my problem is with sexual energy. 

 

I am a rare being, and I have the combination of very good genetic material and levels of energy + problematic childhood full of depression, conflicts, early addiction to porn, and drugs. Everything has passed now, I'm fine and certain, and in fact the only consequences I have (even if I will forever live the consequences of my acts) it's nocturnal emissions. I obviously no longer masturbate, and please if you think masturbation is healthy and there is nothing wrong with it don't even bother posting. I am in the need of support from people really experienced in the path to real life.

Not that you have to help me or something, but I'd appreciate and I'll share what I have in return.

 

I have some questions:

What is dao? I have seen various disciplines in this forum, which one do you recommend me?

I have always studied about different materials, everything that is usefull, from zen to Buddhism to biomolecular biology, but I never sticked to one.

 

What can you suggest me to stop nocturnal emissions every 11-14 days? I understand that if I have been addicted to porn since I was a child and it is what I have fed, that simple fact that I even have a chance to recover is miraculous in itself, but I am bothered by it. Specially because I am a musician, because I still young (22) and I want to remain happy to share that with the world.

I no longer feed any fantasy, or have the desire to masturbate or watch anything, I do yoga daily and I started doing a special stretchment for the kidneys yesterday to see if that helps

Also, I have noticed recently that when I walk on the street I have this subliminal thing in me which looks at the corner of my eye and thinks... Is that a how chick? I think that this might be feeding the nocturnal emissions, even if I no longer masturbate or conciously have fantasies or desires. 

 

I don't know if this forum is the place to seek this kind of help, but if not just, hi! I'll be around here to see what is shared and what I can learn from all of you.

 

 

Hi and welcome,

I'll let people with more knowledge than me give you a detailed answer about the Dao and so on - or you could search the board, there's lots of threads on every subject.  I think probably overall you're doing ok, physically and health wise - I wonder if you have looked at working on your emotions, not in an indulgent way but on the basis that emotions and energy are closely connected (or some might say the same thing).  I'm not suggesting therapy or anything but just more observing of the cycles you go through and how you feel about things and yourself - try and tune that in with yoga and meditation perhaps - especially around the 11 -14 days thing (apart from hot chicks on the street  ).  I think you need quite a high level of harmony for celibacy and its hard to achieve - so don't feel down if you fail occasionally.  Just look with interest to see what's going on.

Just some thoughts.

Good luck

23 minutes ago, liminal_luke said:

 

There´s a lot for me to consider in the above.  When presented with a piece of information online, I tend to come at it hard.  Is it correct?  If not, how can I point out the error in a forceful way and prove my point.  i want people to read my posts and say "Wow, Luke really show´d him."  While I´ve seen plenty of women take this same approach, it´s arguably a more male thing.

 

I´m no expert on Yin-Yang dynamics but it seems to me that the Dao loves curves.  There are no straight lines in the yin-yang symbol.  The Dao comes at things in a subtle indirect way, in a way that doesn´t "close off openness."  Seems to me this is also the way of Nature.  Is it also the way of Women? I don´t presume to know but I´m asking myself the question.

 

As it happens I agree with some of what Desmonddf says about gender and expertise.  A man can be an expert on female physiology.  He will never know about menstruation in the intimate, experiential way that a woman does but he can study and learn what there is to know in a technical, academic sense.  A man can become an acupuncturist and specialize in women´s fertility, for instance.  

 

In the end though, what does it matter what we know?  Knowledge counts for little unless it can be shared in a way that people can take in.  The idea of communication is relational.  There are at minimum two people involed and the relationship between them needs to be acknowledged and respected.  This relational acknowledgement is often what is missing in straight-line go-for-the-jugular posting.  It doesn´t matter how right I am if my approach is to play war games rather than have a conversation.

You really show'd us -

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"a man can finger his own ass all his life" 

Another fine quote.

I can't take this conversation very seriously because a) the OP subject is gone and b ) it's all too defensive/aggressive.

If a) was not true we could ask a series of questions:

What were the circumstances of the production of the drawing/diagram?

What was it expressing?

How does the pattern it expresses compare to the actual experience of female cultivators?

Is there anything we can learn from comparing or contrasting it with other ideas and expressions?

... and so on.

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"Vaginal mucus analysis is fascinating"

Quote of the thread if not the whole board

1 hour ago, Taomeow said:

Four thousand years ago, students practiced writing by copying various exercises.  Some of the writings they left behind give us a glimpse into the life of a Mesopotamian student.  

 

“I went in and sat down, and the teacher read my tablet. He said: "There is something missing here."
And beat me with a cane.
One of the overseers said: “Why do you open your mouth without permission?”
And beat me with a cane.
And the one who monitors compliance with the rules said: “Why did you get up without permission?”
And beat me with a cane.
The gatekeeper said: “Why are you going out without permission?”
And beat me with a cane.
A Sumerian teacher said, “Why do you speak Akkadian?”
And beat me with a cane.
Teacher told me: “You have bad handwriting.”
And beat me with a cane. "

Reminds me of my school days - but not that long ago.