Apech

A positive way of thinking about this is that what has happened is a opening up in you. She sounds like a flirty type and so probably nothing out of the ordinary has happened to her but she has operated as a target for your feelings. It is likely, and this is my experience that such feelings for her are in fact a precursor to allow you to feel this way about someone more appropriate. or to put it another way... wait for someone else to show up. If you stay open and true to yourself (and avoid bitterness or uncomfortability) this will most likely happen. I know this sounds like some kind of new age crap but it is my observation that this is how energy works in practice.

You say back pain ... how is your neck? Could be pressure on optic nerve from C2.

 

Blatant racist tweet map.

I saw this map ... it appeared in some British newspapers. I'm not sure thought how they allowed for the distribution of twitter use in drawing it up. But all the same its a sad thing that people still persist in racist views in 21 century. Somehow it seems instinctive in the human mind to condemn people who appear different in some way.

.........

Good point. Only an experiencing subject could experience not existing hence not existing would not actually exist.

Tony seems to be saying that there is Nothing at All. On the other hand it does appear to be Tony who is saying that.

When Tony married Claire the registrar who officiated did not say

"Claire, do you take this nothing to be your lawful wedded nothing"?

Oh I don't know! ... have you met Tony????

I wonder who is going to have the last word ... er, on the other hand I don't really care

@turtle

That map is exactly the same pattern as the voting in the election! is that the point? seems to say that the US is still two nations.

need to ask sean then ... I've sent him a message

I got in ... first time ever ... try again?

Surely this is a gradual vs. sudden path debate.

I reconcile this by saying that enlightenment is said to come of itself suddenly and (necessarily) without preconditions. i.e. it is not contrived or constructed by the mind >>> BUT there is a gradual path comprising a series of small steps (and a lot of work) ... each step being sudden.

You can't just sit in a room vacantly waiting for something to happen BUT on the other hand you can't make it happen by effort of will.

The best I saw was 1% in about 15 states.

Shame ... I thought more people might use it as a protest vote ... but I suppose most voters still thought they were being offered a real choice by obama-romney.

Oh well ... I wish Obama well and hope he makes the right choices for the US and the world. I'd like to see him more friendly with us Brits but we have a rather weak/insignificant prime minister who I can't imagine is worth talking to TBH.

Well looks like Obama four more years. How many votes did our Gill Stein actually get?

Oops, sorry Apech, mistook you for Cat.

 

Mr. Apech will do the trick if you email the Lama.

I believe it may have been Lama Dongdroop who advocated visualising the dharma as a removal vehicle but to avoid Gelugpa teachings, he was taught this by his aged master, so he used to quote: "My old man said follow the van but don't Dalai Lama on the way ..."

(joke for Brits only)

I used to be married to a limpet.

Was she attached to your bottom?

There's an old 2nd year philosophy exam question....

"What is it like to be a bat"?

Discuss with illustrative reference to the literature.

 

 

These days we are much kinder to our 2nd year undergrads, they can be assessed on course work, no exam.

A cricket bat maybe ... no I mean a genetic hybrid between an insect and a flying mammal ...

Who's winning? Gill Stein?

 

"NO Mr Buddha, that can't be right what you just posted cos Lama Dongdroop Ploppy says in the Cheddar Cheese sutra Chapter 1,299 verse 47 that......."

Do you have the contact details for Lama Ploppy?

I know Tony .

He's getting a living and is a throughly nice chap.

Posted this to show you don't need sutras and kt, lamas and such. It can all be done ina suburban front in Hampsted. Or anywhere else for that matter. No signing up to odd religions required.

I thought he was a nice and interesting chap ... but I wasn't completely convinced ... and I thought that the interviewers didn't get it at all ... a feeling of vagueness??? uh?

Sign the petition to preserve our heritage ... even if you are not Buddhist.

**** Moderation Team Message ****

In the spirit of maintaining healthy political debate, please refrain from making any ad hominem attacks on other posters ... for instance I don't think the term 'half weasel' is acceptable.

People may hold opposing and entrenched views and will argue their ground. This is ok. I hope we are all anti-racist, this board is, and that that we can agree on human grounds not to sling mud around in this respect, as it is likely to get out of hand.

Thanks.

**** Mod Message Ends ****

What do you mean by nonduality?

 

There is the realist like Kashmir Saivism.

 

There is the nonrealist like Madhyamaka etc.

 

Or do you mean the nature of the mind?

 

 

 

Vajrayana is about direct introduction to one's nature and working with the body to gain omniscient Buddhahood.

Madhyamaka is non-dualist, the middle way between nihilism and eternalism.

Can you two take this over PM, so as to not derail the thread with such meaningless BS? Please?

SJ,

This is a conversation like a real live conversation which may well become tangential ... so you'll just have to live with it.

A.

Thanks for the support. The worrisome thing for me is, this whole spiritual journey of mine started back in 2008, and the exact same thing happened to me twice, only it was triggered differently on both occasions.

 

My first "dark night of the soul" lasted 8 months, and my most recent one lasted 1.5 years. I barely got through them in one piece and were by far the worst thing myself and the people who loved me ever went through.

 

I am sad to say, my dear friends, I think this is the end of the line for me. Things have gotten progressively worse again and I am feeling terrible. I have a feeling of impeding doom hanging over my shoulders that I cannot shake off, and I cannot help but think about what is in store for me

 

I have school tomorrow and I can't fathom how I'm going to make it to class.

 

I am feeling scared, trapped, lonely, and lost.

 

How would you feel if someone told you you were to spend another year in isolated confinement inside the worst prison imaginable?

 

The thought alone of making my parents have to go through this with me for a 3rd round is unbearable.

 

I think I'm going to have a good cry now.

The feelings will pass. Try to normalize your day. Eat well, go for a walk, do something you like doing. If it gets bad then tell yourself its only temporary.

Is there anyone you could go and see who could help? if so ... go and see them ...

Thanks guys! Any advice for release trapped energy in the head as well?

you could try this:

Imagine on the crown of your head a lump of gold-coloured butter.

 

- It slowly melts, and wherever it runs down over your body, all stress and tension in the body disappears.

- Very slowly the butter flows over your forehead, all muscles relax...

- It runs down over your eyes and cheeks..., your whole face relaxes.

- Along the back of your head... your neck... shoulders; feel how much tension is there and let it go....

- Arms and hands.... the chest.. belly....

- Along the spine, the entire back relaxes...your legs and feet...

- The entire body is covered in golden butter and you radiate health.

- Go over the whole body again and breathe out all the remaining stress.

Atman = identity.

 

Thats how Karl Brunnholzl translates it in "Center of the Sunlit Sky" for just one example.

 

P.S. Studying Buddhism or Hinduism on Wikipedia is a joke. No wonder you are confused.

Not a joke if the definitions are correct. I believe these sources are being used because they are easily available and it does not indicate they are the subject of study in themselves. I think accusing others of being confused in not appropriate in these circumstances.

I'll discuss advaita.

I would suggest that objectless consciousness is an abstraction. I mean this in the sense that consciousness, which means something like that which divides itself, is never without objects. Object meaning that which thrown forward into the field of view. That is not to say that consciousness does not have this quality or nature of emptiness or voidity, in that it is itself formless, but it does not depend on the presence or otherwise of objects for this. Conscious is itself AND its predicated objects. They are non-different.