11:33

It is TOUGH.

It's really hard to know.

I personally would search around for others who know more about the subject, and see what they think of the possible masters visiting your town. Just the way I like to check reviews online before buying things

Maybe go to where the Tantra people gather online and ask them about them.

It made me throw up.

 

I keep it on the shelf with all the free-mason bullshit, all the Theosophy bullshit, and otherwise western new-age or occultist bullshit.

What exactly do you find bullshitish about it?

I kinda think, "hey who cares? Why does it matter?"

The Kybalion has a certain message. I guess it doesn't matter to me very much who may or may not have borrowed from it. It matters what is true.

Do you think the 7 principles outline in The Kybalion, is spread throughout self-help, self-improvement, philosophies and occult?

Why do you ask?

Who has read "The Kybalion." What are your thoughts? The Kybalion has 7 principles that basically are set in stone laws. Do you think these 7 principles are legit? If you have not read it, here is the link. What do you all think?Kybalion

I just read it yesterday. I think it's legit. I liked it.

I think what you describe can and does happen often. But I don't think it is the only way that life unfolds. Sometimes you get something and do appreciate it. Sometimes you even appreciate dissatisfaction and instead of thinking, "Oh well, here we go again... I am dissatisfied again... yawn, there it goes again.... how boring and redundant is that? Haven't I learned anything?", you might be thinking, "I am dissatisfied. That's great! It is time to satisfy myself in new ways. The field is once again wide open, and the possibilities are many." Dissatisfaction could be a creative state that you could look forward to as much as you can look forward to satisfaction.

 

I think I keep repeating this, anything can be anything. Nothing has to be something in particular. It can be. But it doesn't have to. That's kind of what it means to be empty. In the language of mathematics it looks like this: "It can be but doesn't have to be" = "empty".

Sounds good.

I wasn't saying you would always get things and not appreciate them. I said "can", not "will". However, in the unfolding process that comes up while learning these things there are many little insights you gain. For example, you don't actually NEED any of the stuff to show up, since when you experience it in your being you are experiencing it, and so you already effectively have it. (Of course this is when it does show up, hehe) The point wasn't that desire is evil, or desire inevitably leads to unappreciation. The point is, to know why you want what you want, and stop wasting time with things you don't truly want. It teaches you to really know what is valuable to you.

:Why are vegos 'healthy' at all, especially long-term ones? Paul.

I've heard some interesting facts about the popular 7th Day Adventist study off of WestonAPrice.org. About how the data was incorrectly analyzed (agenda of the studiers), and in fact the vegetarians were not healthier.

Another important thing to understand when reading about health studies for different diets is that some diets may decrease the rate of a particular disease, say heart -disease, but then INCREASE the rate of all other diseases.

So the real thing you need to look for are studies that analyze deaths from all causes. In the above example deaths from all causes might have gone up quite significantly, and you are thinking "oh great its good for my heart, I'm all for it!"

Actually something I found really valuable is actually GETTING some of those surface desires. And then seeing how over time you stop appreciating them, and suddenly you're right back where you started: dissatisfied. Hehe. All things are empty But it really takes some life experience to realize that you can actually get lots of things you wanted, and not appreciate them. Most people have been thoroughly convinced that happiness lies somewhere near a pile of new clothes or new cars or new ANYTHING. It's cliche, but it's true.

Get stuff you want, but understand where the real happiness comes from, I say.

I agree. That post by freeform is very helpful. I hope people are paying attention.

I agree with freeform too.

I would just like to add that for me at least I've found that even focusing on the surface desires, when done with umpf helps in time to lead you deeper into understanding yourself. You never do GET those surface desires, but you learn why you didn't actually want them, and you learn a whole lot of other stuff about yourself and life/the world/the universe/the tao.

You can only start in life from where you are at, and most people are firmly in a place where these surface desires are really important to them, and no amount of preaching from me or anyone will change that. Hehe...

Though maybe you all are smarter than I was

Before they arranged a marriage they would consult an astrologer to calculate the 'compatibility' and the lucky periods when the marriage should be done. This was done to prevent any problems that may occur on the path since a marriage is suppose to be a 'dual spiritual cultivation' that last as long they live.

You know what's fascinating?

My girlfriend who I've been with for 2.5 years (the one I met after I wrote the long list of qualities I had reflected on and wanted that I put in my bureau under the socks)... Amazingly she and I are compatible in every form of astrology and numerology I've ever heard of:

western astrology, chinese astrology (I only checked the years, not all the other parts), numerology both based on name and birth date, as well as Mayan astrology.

The universe can really bring you some good stuff when you ask nicely and get the heck out of the way

They bought a Fu

Marriages were arranged traditionally. More modern techniques can include going to highly populated areas at night time, such as bars, night clubs, or party events. Theres also a lot of online dating sights that are geared for meeting up with the opposite sex and they are searchable according to various preferences you may have regarding religion, height, or smoking habits for example.

But they didn't have night clubs back then

It is a shame so many "wise people" don't know more about nutrition.

If you are stronger, it means you can overpower someone weaker without skill. On the other hand, if you are weaker than your opponent and yet you can somehow overpower your opponent anyway, then you have skill.

In kung-fu internal strength IS a skill. It's semantics. Why the need to nitpick semantics?

If you are a kung-fu master then you are stronger than the student. It shows you have skill.

From the above link:

This is pure baby-boomer narcissism: the universe is your personal concierge. "Make a command to the universe. Let the universe know what you want. The universe responds to your thoughts" (page 47). The thought that the universe is some kind of genie (the actual image used in the DVD version of The Secret) whose sole purpose is to fulfill the endless desires of human beings is terrifying.

The problem with this is that to a large degree he's wrong. There is a LOT of truth in The Secret. (There's many a flaw as well) Reality does tend to magically reflect our mind-states! I don't know HOW! Thats what makes life so crazy!

And better yet, I would say I really am happy The Secret was so successful because it put a concept like th eLaw of Attraction into the public eye. Of course it will cause people problems, they won't get everything they want, they will get what they want and still be unhappy, their egos may grow out of hand until one day they explode etc... But... but this is improtant, it changes the way people see the world. Most people actually think there is no spirituality. Most people think that we're just physical beings with nothing else attached.

In life, you'll never get anywhere if you don't think for yourself. And don't learn to see through the seemingly endless supply of people promoting things that aren't true. So sift through The Secret, sift through Abraham-Hicks, sift through Taoism

And find the truth, the real truth that can't be shaken.

Nice post Pietro.

I think romantic love is a shoddy imitation of real love. I think you could mistake in your post that somehow there is something "wrong" with relationships or marriage. The mistake isn't in the marriage, if anywhere the mistake is in YOU (not you personally Pietro )

Or maybe you don't even believe love exists at all? I can't go down that road. To me love is a natural result of Oneness. The natural desire to see all beings truly happy and wise.

GoldIsHeavy,

That sounds about right.

The very name "a teacher" designates a conventional role, that is implied to be kind of authoritarian and it's meant for convention-upkeep. Wisdom masters really should not be called "teachers" even though, if you are lucky, you can learn from one. Alternatively call everything "teacher", even your own shoes, and really mean it as seriously as when you use that word in other circumstances, that's also fair.

 

A wisdom master is a free man/woman, and so doesn't have to do anything. However, supposedly, and the key word here is supposedly, the wisdom masters have the mark of compassion, while at the same time having gone beyond the material needs either completely or substantially, so a combination of compassion with low or non-existent material needs often yields "free" teaching.

 

Wisdom masters demand commitment and passion instead of money. They want dedication and liveliness. A rich man who pays lots of money but who has no true dedication, no real interest, and is not lively is turned away by the wisdom master, together with his money and all.

Can you refer me to some of these masters in particular, so I can learn from them?

My 2 cents:

There is absolutely 100% definitely a magical force in the universe that tends to respond to your thoughts, visualisations and preferences. It is not something that can just be explained by the normal physics model of the universe. There's more going on than that.

Teaching for free is not the mark of a great master. I don't really know much about Wang Li Ping, but I thought I should point out that teaching for free doesn't mean anything. And charging for lessons doesn't mean anything either.

There is plenty of good teachings out there in the world totally free. So why do teachers need to teach free? They don't, because you have so much free teachings at your disposal via the web.

empty your cup and you can fill it again...

 

better yet attract nothing and get everything.

It's not that you don't create with thought, but that you don't need to create with thought. We're already thinking, all the time. The cycle of rebirth is on autopilot. Once you can see that life IS responding to you personally (God knows every hair on your head...) then you can release. And you will need to release, in my opinion, because to become enlightened you will need to release even the concept of self.

So I like the yin/yang concept being brought into this

...

If you want to learn about the Law of Attraction read: Ask and It Is Given. It is much better than The Secret. I worn you, it is NOT Taoist, hehe. It's about as New Age as you can get, but there is valuable stuff in it. Just don't forget that you will have to let go of your self to understand true wisdom.

Peace.

I also know people who have experienced this stuff, who don't do qigong, but who specifically focused on feeling really good.

I'd like to hear more about Listening. I think I probably get the gist of it, but still would love to hear about it.

All the Best

Hey Uncle,

I have aquestion for you.

How come sometimes the I-Ching seems to give me a long series of extremely accurate answers. But then it just starts seemingly giving me junk. It makes me not want to even mess around with it, because something that is right sometimes and totally wrong others is even worse than something that is always wrong (cus you would never use something that was always wrong!).