Apech

@Nungali I've looked at some of those papers/articles you linked to. What strikes me is how similar this kind of analysis is to early 20th Egyptology - where everything was reduced to socio-cultural or political symbolism. For instance the great Kurt Sethe was convinced that the Pyramid Texts related to tribal struggles for kingship in the Old Kingdom and so on. No-one as far as I know thinks this way any more - as the Egyptologists in those days even went as far as to say that the Egyptians had no spiritual life and were all practicality and down to earth - even when Classical literature says the complete opposite. So for instance, when looking at the totemic symbols for different tribal groups - or hunter groups - no thought is given to the idea that these are shamanic tutelary spirits. That the coming together of certain spirits (with astral associations) may have special significance. In other words they look at the world as if magic doesn't exists. As DBs we should be sceptical of this, I think. The thing about the zodiac signs is not that precisely the same stars were always selected for each grouping - but that the groupings were used to divide the visible sky into twelve parts (arcs) - which has both symbolic and practical purposes. I don't have any trouble thinking that more or less the same approach has been used by mankind way back into the mesolithic - and so the same/or broadly similar star patterns would be used to plot out the night sky.

I've taken cognac several times in large doses - seemed to work, then I wasn't ill till the next morning.

They might be - but then you would have to examine why those animals were chosen and what they actually signify.

@Nungali I'm not here to defend Sweatman's position - he has a youtube channel with a lot of videos and book to do that. I posted his video because I found it interesting - that doesn't mean I agree with everything he says. That's it. You could email him direct if you want to question his theories. https://www.eng.ed.ac.uk/about/people/dr-martin-sweatman/

From your link: 1. There still is quite a significant probability that the older circular enclosures of Göbekli Tepe’s Layer III actually were subterranean buildings – possibly even covered by roof constructions. This then somehow would limit their usability as actual observatories a bit. As I said above he is not saying they are observatories - but this argument could be made about the Denderah ceiling or cave paintings - or indeed anything like a planetarium - all indoors and not with visible sky - so I call this argument amateurish. 2. Even if we assume that the night sky 12,000 years ago looked exactly like today’s, the question at hand would be whether a prehistoric hunter really would have put together the very same asterisms and constellations we recognise today (most of them going back to ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek scholars and descriptions)? He's not assuming it looked identical he uses star map software which shows the night sky as it was on selected date e.g. 10,000 BC or whatever - another amateurish argument. The constellations are almost self selecting especially if used for solstice/equinox mapping - names and animal symbols will change and in fact Sweatman does this - but the basic star patterns remain substantially the same. 3. Contrary to the article’s premise the unearthed features at Göbekli Tepe are not shrouded in mystery. Published over the last years and decades, there is ample scientific literature available which unfortunately did not find its way into the study. The specific animals depicted in each enclosure’s iconography for instance seems to follow a certain intention, emphasizing different species in different enclosures. A purely substitutional interpretation ignores these more subtle but significant details. This also can be demonstrated for instance with the headless man on the shaft of Pillar 43, interpreted as symbol of death and mass extinction in the paper – however silently omitting the emphasised phallus in the same depiction which somehow contradicts the lifeless notion and implies a much more complex narrative behind these reliefs. There are even more reliefs on both narrow sides of P43 which went conpletely uncommented here. I agree with this comment - the headless man with erect phallus seems to echo cave paintings and I am almost certain if it is an asterism it is Orion - not as Sweatman gives it. I agree he should have considered and addressed the research of others but he has jumped in with his own hypothesis - which must be rather annoying. However that's no reason to reject everything he says - this would repeat his own mistake. 4. It also seems a bit arbitrary to base this interpretation (and all its consequences as described in the paper) on what seems to be some randomly selected pillars and their iconography (the interpretation thus not covering “much of the symbolism of Göbekli Tepe” as stated in the paper, but merely the tip of that iceberg). In the meantime more than 60 monumental T-pillars could have been unearthed in the older Layer III – many of these showing similar reliefs of animals and abstract symbols, a few even as complex as Pillar 43 (like Pillar 56 or Pillar 66 in enclosure H, for example). And it does not end there: the same iconography is prominently known also from other find groups like stone vessels, shaft straighteners, and plaquettes – not only from Göbekli Tepe, but a variety of contemporary sites in the wider vicinity. I'm not sure this is reasonable - the symbolism on Pillar 43 is what it is - regardless of what else is there. They are doing to Sweatman what they do to others - that is more of a discounting exercise than a refutation. If they are the experts they could provide the counter interpretation.

I don't think you could have a national strategy in a country the size of the USA without building in local flexible approaches. The conditions in different localities vary a lot e.g. urban to rural and also lifestyles which depend on tradition (extended families and so on). So in the end even if you have a national strategy it would have to allow the states to adopt their own specific responses. NB. even the WHO is not advocating large lockdowns now.

I am not a particular adherent of Sweatman and I do think he makes some mistakes. But I like his analytic and statistical approach and that he is at least a 'proper' scientist. He has done a very long series reviewing every published paper on the Younger Dryas impact theory which although very dry are worth watching. Most of the criticisms you linked to are very amateurish - for instance saying the GT monuments were probably roofed so no good as an observatory - he doesn't claim they were observatories. If you take his basic claim that much of neolithic art is related to the stars I think that has some merit - or at least consideration.

You need to watch his other vids to get his whole theory - this vid is really just an addendum.

Who doesn't love a bit of Gobekli Tepe:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8866713/Hunter-Bidens-ex-business-partner-says-Joe-Biden-talked-son-deal-Chinese-firm.html?ito=link_share_article-factbox

Now let's follow the science (as the current phrase goes):

This expression 'emotions are the path' comes from Mahamudra Buddhism (possibly Dzogchen also) but I don't want to come at it particularly from a Buddhist perspective. But that's where it comes from - so I thought I would establish that. What does it mean? What is emotion? The word emotion comes from 'ex' meaning 'out' and 'motion' which itself comes from a PIE root *meue which itself means to 'push away'. So overall it has the sense of pushing away. So even though you can think of enjoyable emotions like joy for instance, there is still an underlying sense of pushing away or being pushed away. So emotions have their base in duality and separation - whether pleasurable or painful. Sometimes emotions are described as 'conflicting' or 'conflicted' which implies a push/pull in the motion. Motion itself is simply the expression of energy. So there is energy being discharged within ourselves which leads to separation of one feeling from another, or you could say separation between our sense of ourselves and our moods or actions. The conflict being that we think of being a certain kind of person and then act differently because of conflicting emotions. This can cause more problems with identity later when we try to justify to ourselves how we acted and so on. So you can see a grand mess evolves. When faced with this there are probably three stages of response. Firstly trying to stop or control the emotion. Then wanting to transform them into something better. Then lastly waking up to precisely what is going on and why. The first two are ok and natural but not really much use. It's the last one where emotions become the path. This does not mean that your individual feelings are particularly important. They are just patterns of movement of energy. So for instance, you might feel particularly angry about something and want to express it. But that is missing the point. If you are just indulging in the strength of yur feelings you aren't learning anything - even if there might be some temporary feeling of liberation. It is in the emotional field where this 'pushing away' is occurring which is blocking your ability to see your true nature, duality is being generated through it. One reason for cultivation is to create a unified and coherent being - one pointed focus - which can form the basis. On different levels and different ways conflicting emotional states are being generated - for instance by holding together essentially contradictory ideas about ourselves and the nature of reality. Unfortunately for most of us we have a huge baggage of emotional content and experiences to work through. It can seem overfacing. But nevertheless this is the work. Just some thoughts (for you all to pick holes in ).

It stretches credulity a little to think that Hunter B. put two laptops in for repair which had both incriminating emails and compromising pics on them - but it's not impossible I suppose. What is def true is that he worked for the Ukrainian energy company while Biden was VP and was paid an enormous salary ... for what? if it was not for access. Either way I think Biden and Trump inhabit the same swamp ... and again I would suggest double your practice and pray for peace ... 'cos it might be helpful in the end.

Suddenly it all clicks into place.

I like it

Good question. Well it was the OP of the thread so in a way I am just trying to keep on topic. But obviously there's more to it than that. My father is a scientist/mathematician and I was brought up with a strong emphasis on being rational - in fact I am fairly sure he would not even admit to emotions being a real concern. Which used to piss me off but now I find amusing. His hard rationality probably pushed me, when I was a teenager, to seeking a mystical/meditation path which I saw then very much as a path of seeing. What I mean is I was convinced there was more than ordinary objective reality and wanted a find a way to open up a world behind the everyday world. This was probably due mostly to experiences I had as a child with changes in states of consciousness. After some time practicing and through experiences I realised that what was key was energy - mostly energy in the body of the K type - and experienced some kind of awakening. This changed my view of things but it was quite unbalanced and lead to a number of problems I had to work through. Quite a number of years later I realised that my inability to make progress was because I was still clinging to the path of seeing and the path of body energy (if you can call it that). I realised after some examination that every position that people take up, even my fathers extreme rationalism, are emotionally based. That 'seeing' and 'energy' although valid are incomplete and that the path can be best expressed as emotion. By this I don't mean we have to be emotional - in fact this can be a big pit fall of self indulgence - I mean that we have to perceive that the 'terrain' we travel through is an emotional one. Systems for practice as formal presentations of the way can seem to squeeze the emotion out of the path - or demote emotion to disturbances or 'poisons' for example - but this in itself is an emotional position towards emotions itself, if you see what I mean. Without wishing to desiccate the word if we take emotion to mean a motion in life-force (if I am allowed that New Agey expression) it is something real, dynamic, present and alive, which is why tantra pictures it as female, attractive, threatening, amazing, inspiring and terrifying. This is not all I could say but perhaps explains my interest in the subject.

Ok but is she actually likeable?

Do you actually like Kamala Harris? She seems quite unlikable to me. But what do I know.

@Yueya thank you for that, it was quite beautiful, even though I'm not sure I understand it all - due to my limited grasp of some things. @Bindi, @dwai, @freeform - and anyone else - I think we lack a common agreed set of terms for some of the 'things' we are dealing with here. I have tried to stick to normal English and not go off into Buddhist tantra or Egyptian mysticism or other systems because sometimes technical language can help and sometimes it can obscure. I am not saying this to discourage you from posting as you will because I am enjoying reading it all and hope you will all continue but perhaps we need to accept among us as a group that there will be problems when mixing say, yoga terms with Daoist alchemy. If we accept first that we are all speaking from our own experience and expressing something valid in our own sense then we can look more for common ground and affirmation - and move forward that way. I have been thinking, in terms of emotion as the path, how Buddhism and some other systems characterise emotions as poisons or delusion or confusion etc. It is as if they are saying we need to get rid of them - and then we will get to some pure state. This to me is very dualistic. It is valid to a certain extent for a person who is in regular emotional turmoil to think about purging anger and passion and so on - because they feel sick with it all. And beyond that someone might look at their emotions and say I will transform them into something higher. But I think 'emotions are the path' is saying something even more profound than that and something more real and human too. What it is saying I can't at the moment access in words that make a whole lot of sense. So I'm going to leave it there for now and wait for a more inspired moment.

I get the impression that Hillary was very unpopular and everyone assumed she would win easily - both of which cause apathy in Dem voters. This time neither of those things is the case. It does look like Biden will win quite easily. I think people think this will be some kind of reset - back to normal ... but I really doubt that. It's such a shame that you don't have an inspiring young candidate which could give everyone some hope. But still I hope America will regroup and find its self confidence again. The world needs it.

Good bluff when we all know you are a shy Trump voter

The two goals do appear contradictory - but I think they are actually complementary - or even sometimes sequential. Without wishing to be boring about Ancient Egypt they had two goals - one of witnessing (the sunrise) and the other of becoming an 'effective being' = an immortal spirit. Generally speaking they are presented as being sequential - i.e. first witness and then become. But in actuality the path is always some becoming and some seeing, followed by some seeing and some becoming if you see what I mean. Or you could say you can't become without some degree of insight and can't have true insight without some transformation. In terms of blockages I think you could say there are two main types. One is a restriction or opposition to flow and the other is clouds of confusion. Blocks of energy and blocks of insight. I would, in terms of Dan Tiens and wotnot place them either in the Dan Tien or at the intersections. So for instance the energy blocks (restrictions) are at base of spine, solar plexus, and throat/neck. While the clouds (or even storms) are located in the centre of the Dan Tiens i.e. belly, heart, head ... and if you add another cloud above the head you get your seven obstacles. Each of the blocks requires a different strategy/approach to over come - and one big mistake everyone makes is to try to apply the same remedies to all. For instance dealing with the base of spine is quite different to easing the neck. This is more or less how I experience it from energy work meditation but I am no expert in the intricacies of the Nei Dan process. I think that looking at this technically is important - but often what is overlooked is that it is all emotional energy.

That time in the Middle Ages when you realised that dragons are real and your wife is unfaithful ...

Read the thread.