Apech

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Posts posted by Apech

  1. Posted

    8 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

     

    Didn't know that, but then, I never made it through that book.  I've lowered my criteria ever since audiobooks became prominent, having listened to more trash since 2020 than I've ever read in all of my previous life (a great tool for when you are too lazy or too tired to meditate but want your own mind to shut up and take a nap), but Dan Brown never made it through my remaining trash filters.  I lowered the bar enough for The Game of Thrones etc., but the buck has to stop somewhere. 


    Dan Brown is completely awful - almost unreadably absurd.

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  3. Posted

    1 hour ago, Taomeow said:

     

    In terms of Google alternatives, there aren't many and they aren't perfect and are more or less going down the same path, though not all have arrived yet.  I used to go to DuckDuckGo but it's turned into something nearly indistinguishable from Google.   You can still fish out some useful stuff from MetaGer.  Even ChatGPT can deliver if you are sly enough in the way you formulate your inquiry -- e.g. instead of "alternative treatments for _XYZ_" ask it "what debunked alternative treatments for _XYX_ can you find?"  Other than that, it's still good old books, and original scientific articles, and a closer look at who paid for them, and independent journalists, and throwing your net far and wide, and knowing other languages...  what not.  

     

    E.g. on the subject of Christianity, the book that I found pretty educational once upon a time was "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln.  First published in England in the 1980s I think.  The idea someone mentioned here that Mary was the original Jesus probably comes from that book, which was impressively researched as I recall...  though I'm no historian (especially of Christianity) and wouldn't place any bets.  


    It was that book that Dan Brown ripped off in The Da Vinci Code.

     

     

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  4. Posted

    1 hour ago, Taoist Texts said:

    Yes it is absolutely. What else could be the goal? Of course there are gradations like a better rebirth on earth, a rebirth on a heaven, a final rebirth in the pure land paradise (which is the final nirvana). But they all hinge on constructing a soul, which is like a boat, can fish by the shore, can cross the Atlantic.

    All and every type. We (the buddhists hehe) are really closing ranks on that point;). Do you know a specific type of buddhist which has something else for an end goal?

    cool. if so let me bask in satisfaction of having answered it above and repeating it here: yes the goal is the same.


    Well it is said that the goal of Theravada is becoming an Arhat and the goal of Mahayana Buddhism is to become a Buddha.  And in the case of Vajrayana to become a Buddha in one life time.

     

    As far as I know the only one of these which has an alchemical process is Vajrayana.

     

     

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  5. Posted

    5 minutes ago, Taoist Texts said:

    yes, myself and the OP, tell us how that works, we beseech you


    I see , thank you.  You have changed your original reply which makes your question clearer.  Is the creation of an immortal soul a goal of Buddhism?  If so what type of Buddhism since it is not really a monolith? 
     

    The Buddhas solution to dukkha is the eightfold path which includes right concentration.  And some would say that this is about realizing the non-self and that this brings liberation.

     

    it is not particularly my view though . 
     

     

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  11. Posted

    5 hours ago, Taoist Texts said:

    oh it is par for the course.

    This is a simple cosmological myth whereas Horus is the god of light, sun, moon, yang and Seth is the god of storms, deserts, yin. All the mutual exchange of semen and body parts are just an interplay of energy between the yin and yang. Eventually they reconcile to rule together over Egypt. The end. 

    The two gods are often represented in the construct known as the sma-ta-wy - in which the sedge and papyrus, symbols of the reconciled gods, are entwined and knotted about the windpipe and lungs that symbolize the united Egypt.


    ‘simple’ when you leave out a lot.  But basically correct.

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  14. Posted

    9 minutes ago, Nungali said:

     

    Of course , comparing things to what the Egyptians did gives them normalcy     :)

     

    " Here you go  .... eat this lettuce . . . .   I just jacked off on it .... well, actually, my mum did it for me . 

    ....    and now it will make him have my baby  ..... mwa ha ha haaarrr  /"

     

      Hide contents

    Now afterward, (at) evening time, bed was prepared for them, and they both lay down. But during the night, Seth caused his phallus to become stiff and inserted it between Horus’s thighs. Then Horus placed his hands between his thighs and received Seth’s semen. Horus / went to tell his mother Isis: help me, Isis, my mother, come and see what Seth has done to me. And he opened his hand(s) and let her see Seth’s semen. She let out a loud shriek, seized the copper (knife), and cut off his hand(s) that were equivalent. Then she fetched some fragrant ointment and applied it to Horus’s phallus. She caused it to become stiff and inserted it into a pot, and he caused his semen to flow down into it.

     

    Isis at morning time went carrying the semen of Horus to the garden of Seth and said to Seth’s gardener: What sort of vegetable / is it that Seth eats here in your company? So the gardener told her: he doesn’t eat any vegetable here in my company except lettuce. And Isis added the semen of Horus onto it. Seth returned according to his daily habit and ate the lettuce, which he regularly ate. Thereupon he became pregnant with the semen of Horus. 

     

    -  Chester Beatty Papyrus I

     


    What’s the matter don’t you like lettuce ?

  15. Posted

    3 minutes ago, oak said:

    Isn't Buddhism a strange religion ?

    "According to tradition, the historical Buddha lived from 563 to 483 B.C., although scholars postulate that he may have lived as much as a century later. He was born to the rulers of the Shakya clan, hence his appellation Shakyamuni, which means “sage of the Shakya clan.” The legends that grew up around him hold that both his conception and birth were miraculous. His mother, Maya, conceived him when she dreamed that a white elephant entered her right side (1976.402). She gave birth to him in a standing position while grasping a tree in a garden (1987.417.1). "

     

    And this was just the beginning of things...


    Giving birth standing is not so unusual - the Egyptians did this also.

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  16. Posted

    7 hours ago, Taoist Texts said:

    exactly. same as yoga

    totally flattered because gnosticism is the most elitist and the only feminist one of all the christianities out there

    sorry to bear even more disturbing tidings. but... in that day and age all women were impregnated without their consent given that the marriage was decided by the parents 


    Luke 1:38

     

    And Mary said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” 
     

    = consent

     

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  17. Posted

    5 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

    I love Joni Mitchell´s music but don´t always agree with her about social issues.  I just wish she would make more of an effort to see things from both sides now.  Ditto for Neil Young.  I´m still searching for a heart of gold.


    You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

     

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  19. Posted

    I was brought up in a country which had an established state religion (the Church of England based on the moral compass of Henry VIII) and as my parents were both atheists the only place I received any religious instruction was at school.  The only mandatory event at school in those days was the daily school assembly where the whole school gathered in the hall while the headmaster read out Bible stories such as the one where a woman touches the hem of His garment and is healed, or when they lower a man on a mattress through the roof to be healed. 'Pick up your bed and walk'.  I used to sit (aged 7 -11) in rapt attention and usually with a lump in my throat and close to tears.  Being somewhat tunnel vision autistic I never realised the general scorn amongst my schoolmates.  My best friend was Jewish and thus excused, so I never got to discuss it with him.  But for me the very thought of the transcendent was deeply moving.  I think I loved Jesus in those days.  But it was an unexpressed love.  My father of course just scowled at anything even vaguely religious.    

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  20. Posted

    2 hours ago, Taomeow said:

    I'm not a fan of "Dune," I found the book rather tastelessly pompous and essentially boring, the movie version even more so (I only watched the first of the new ones), but there was this one concept therein, a pearl in a box of pearl barley, regarding Bene Gesserit.  A powerful ancient order busying itself with political, genetic and religious engineering of planets toward their own agenda.  The fact that in the book it was a "sisterhood" instead of the "brotherhood" it's always been in real life is a fly in the ointment, but other than that, this concept, of something akin to Bene Gesserit as the actual shaping force behind our planet's predicament, makes more sense to me than all religions combined.       

     

     

    The second film is one long yawn.

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  21. Posted

    1 hour ago, Taoist Texts said:

    no no, i totally got your point. i just totally disagree with each and every claim of it above;)

    sorry man but this POV ...uhm lets just say, has a room for improvement. on the other hand you are absolutely correct : the euhemerized western simulacra of those religions are exactly like that.

    i see what you did here. you change the subject. you substitute religion with "dharma". (red-herr-stra-man). so sly! hehe, but...Tell a religious believer in buddhism=daoism that the historicity and miracles are unimportant - he will do 'roll-eye shake-head'. i know he would, because i am him. and i just did;)


    it gladdened me to think you are a religious person - I had assumed you were a hard bitten textual critic - perhaps it was your name.

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  22. Posted · Edited by Apech

    8 hours ago, Gerard said:


    WHY ARE ALL RELIGIONS SO STRANGE?

     

    Who needs them anyway. ;)
     

    Edit: About Christianity and the ultimate God which seems is like some sort of "dude" sitting somewhere on top of us watching everything. This creates a lot of fear.

     

    A person who doesn't believe in Christ will go to Hell. Yes indeed! 
     

    A very flawed belief system, for sure. 

     

     

     

    I don't think any Christian thinks about God in that way (beyond Sunday school that is) - as they say to many atheists 'the God you don't believe in doesn't exist'.

     

    Just as an aside ... although I realise that Christianity originated in the Middle East and from the Jewish religion ... I find there is something quite Northern European about it.  I am sure that nature of divinity and jesus was somehow morphed sometime after the fall of the Roman Empire to appeal to the Germanic tribes especially the Franks.  For instance:

     

    'Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name'

     

    God is the Father and where is he? In Heaven - which in many languages just means sky.  So God is the Sky Father and his name is Hallowed ... a word which echoes for me something like Valhalla ... i.e. his name is in an exalted place.  Yes, yes I know this is spurious etymology - don't @ me!  God the Father is Deu Pater = Jupiter = Zeus ... it's all Indo-European imagery.

     

    'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done'

     

    Fealty to the Lord ... a feudal state of the soul.  

     

    'On earth as it is in heaven'

     

    The uniting of heaven and earth. (via a great tree on which the god is hung?)

     

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  23. Posted

    2 hours ago, Miffymog said:

    I use it as a simple way to access spiritual energy. Seek god first, then carry on with whatever I'm doing.

     

     

    Seek yea first the kingdom of heaven and all else will be added unto you.

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  24. Posted

    1 hour ago, Taoist Texts said:

    Because all humans are born with "a soul". A soul is a part of our mind that innately knows these things. This innate  knowledge is  called "a religious belief". Humans connected to their souls are called "believers". Humans disconnected from their souls are called "atheists". Humans trying to reconnect to their souls are called 'thedaobums.com forumers".

     

    Yes Mr. Texts you are right ... but ... you may have missed my point.  Other religions don't put this kind of miraculous stuff up front and in yer face the way Christianity does.  In doing so it requires of an enquirer an act of faith rather than a gradual growth of confidence which another system will allow.  And actually there are probably a great many cultural Christians who are not connected to their souls also.

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  25. Posted

    9 hours ago, Taomeow said:

     

    Parthenogenesis, aka asexual reproduction, aka immaculate conception, does occur in nature, although seldom in vertebrate species.    In humans (as well as other primates), it also happens on occasion, but in every single case results in a tumor rather than a god.  Theoretically it might be possible to accomplish via genetic manipulations, except the resulting organism could only be female and the exact replica of the mother at that.  If some geneticists from some "kingdom not of this earth" were to induce it in virgin Mary, the child would have been a little virgin Mary all over again.  Although if all the genetic material from a man's spermatozoon were to be implanted artificially into Mary's egg, perhaps that would also count as immaculate conception, since artificial insemination happens outside the sinful act.  In which case the baby had a 50% chance of being male.  I have long suspected some extraneous genetic shenanigans with our species -- not because of Christian stories, chiefly for other reasons, but some of those stories do start making some sense if you allow for this possibility -- and only in this case.

     

     

      

     

    I believe that technically the 'immaculate conception' is the conception of Mary by her parents who made love without lustful sinning in a perfect copulation.  Because Mary was born of a pure conception it was this that made her a fitting vessel for the holy spirit.  

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception

     

    ... but I guess it may also apply to the conception of Jesus by Mary (I am no theologian (thank God)).

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