Inedible

Sorry, but I think its a bullsh*t article on meditation.

 

If meditation has an object, the object is to observe the mind and thus magnifying awareness. Looks like these particular "mediators" use meditation as some sort of self-hypnosis to escape reality and not, as it should be, to pacify the mad monkey mind through the use of careful observation of the mind's workings.

What a coincidence. Your response shows what the article is talking about. Do you meditate?

When someone chooses to become a Bodhisattva they are given extra training and other advantages. In general, this tends to be a result of willingness to be of service regardless of tradition. These people are like the first responders at a disaster scene, like fire fighters and police and ambulance workers. Most people don't have the specialized training or the equipment. Not everyone has a suitable temperament to become a first responder. Where almost everyone is concerned, the appropriate thing to do is to get themselves clear of a disaster scene if they can so they don't end up making more work for the first responders. There is nothing selfish about doing this.

For what it's worth, the gap between the Theravada and the Mahayana seems to be closing.

If I had a chance to go back and try again, I would have dropped out of high school, gotten a GED, and then enlisted in the Marines. Book learning comes easily to me, and the people in school are just awful to be around. It isn't that I have something against education; it is just that at the time I was too young to appreciate it. Giving myself a few years in the real world away from my family would have helped put things in order and I would have done much better in college.

Some days my allergies are so bad I'd actually think about it, but I'm concerned about getting it right. Why don't you go first and show me how it is done?

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7327/1450

Retroactive prayer. The results didn't seem particularly significant to me, but then, I don't think the average person will get much better results praying for present and future results either.

I have some one-liners for you, too.

You dumb, god-damned fools--

I do feel a bit dumb for expecting to find a serious discussion in this thread.

reply with your bullshit one-liners, but, OF COURSE, avoid discussion of the topic presented ! Criticize me, however ignore my words ! You make me sick, you filthy trash !

Admit it: you got what you asked for.

Adam West, I will share directly with you the concept of the occult opening in a PM. I would sooner piss on these other fools than share with them.

Spitting on us when you rant isn't sharing.

--You know, Bodri's emphasis has always been on emptiness... I am not quite sure if he has ever made the distinction between emptiness and the mysterious pass... I'll take a quick look...

In emptiness there are no distinctions.

The book has lousy pictures. It would be good if some generous person were to get photographed properly, doing the techniques, and post them.

The job of a Bodhisattva is to guide all sentient beings into Nirvana, in order to empty out Samsara. One who becomes an Arhat and enters into Nirvana is one less sentient being to be guided there. The funny thing is that in order to become a Buddha you have to vow to save all sentient beings by guiding them into Nirvana. All of them. Every Bodhisattva vows to save all sentient beings. You might expect a certain amount of overlap to be involved, and maybe you'd expect a few Arhats to have saved themselves, but it doesn't work that way.

They're serious about wearing a robe, too. If you get the right kind it can help you to build up your energy faster.

There is a technique used in NLP where you imagine a timeline and then visualize yourself travelling backward to an earlier point in your life. You make a change, then follow the timeline forward to the present and even into the future to see what the results of the change are. If you like the changes, you keep them. If you find you've made things worse, you can go back again and un-do them. I'm fairly sure I got this from Anthony Robbins, but I don't recall which of his books it was in.

My earlier self had to learn everything the hard way and wouldn't take advice from anyone - even a future me. All I could do is send energy.

Anyone who says a Refuge prayer is paying respect to the Arhats as they are included in the Dharma Gem and the Sangha Gem.

The key difference between an Arhat and a Bodhisattva is the motivation which is present when they first perceive emptiness of inherent existence directly. The Theravada refers to this as the three marks of existence.

There is a link on that page for a file called Rubicon.pdf and you do not need to enter in any information to right-click on the link and then download the file. It is 15 pages long and not particularly useful.

The best way to know if someone is enlightened is to be enlightened, too. Otherwise it is very difficult to know.

The tongue tends to tense in preparation for actually speaking when the thoughts are going through the mind. Deliberately relax the tongue.

Where do you want to go?

the really really empty one

You may not think so, but I actually had a purpose in writing.

The first thing you have to do if you want to have a meaningful discussion about Emptiness is to establish which Emptiness you are going to discuss.

Whenever I meditate, I fall asleep due to the sheer boredom and futility of it all.

Too much relaxation, not enough concentration. Don't lay down and don't meditate where you sleep.

Boredom, because it isn't interesting.

It helps to pick an object you enjoy, so that you will not have as much resistance in returning to it over and over.

Futility, because nothing comes out of it, no improvement in myself, no control, no visions, no new ideas, nothing. It's simply stagnation.

If that's what you are trying to accomplish you might want to try doing that instead of meditating.

Put simply, there's no difference between pre and post meditation. My meditation revolves around observing myself and when I do,

There are lots of different ways to meditate. I am more familiar with Buddhist than Taoist. If I knew you were Buddhist I'd tell you to watch yourself this way outside of meditation and during meditation work toward jhana by focussing on breath sensations at the tip of your nose. Your focus is too wide. If you tend toward headache, focus on your breath at your stomach as the stomach moves in and out. It is a larger area than the tip of your nose so it will take longer.

I simply find the same thoughts and desires coming and going. It's a monotonous process that bores me to death.

Yes, this is normal. Most people just don't see it.

If there are no thoughts, there's an empty space and that's equally boring.

The mind relies on movement. Holding still meets with resistance whether it is the body, the mind, or both.

I am not sure what to do. Do I assume meditation isn't my thing and do something else?

Why did you start meditating to begin with? Go back to that. You must have had some kind of purpose in mind and holding your purpose in mind will help pick a direction to go in from here.

That's just how it is with Google ads. Google decides what ads belong on which web sites by matching the content. If they have decided that Scientology ads belong on Tao Bums then it must be because they think people who come here are likely to be interested in it and they can prove it.

Just noticed something... You shouldn't use a direct picture link to another website for your avatar picture, for that creates a lot of traffic for them. Load it down and then up to the avatar picture pool of this forum.

 

@Desert Eagle

That's why I linked to the picture of the t-shirt: This way it will only cause them traffic the first time someone reads the thread.

 

I'm not sure...I think they're just tea leaves...I found it in google images randomly.

I put it on my photobucket account. You can use my link if you don't feel like moving the file.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n15/TomSKinney/tamb.jpg

It isn't an herb, but I'd think water fits the description.

I went back to Transparent and unzipped the file, then uploaded it to my box.net account. That's what I created a link to.

http://www.box.net/shared/static/num3iqmbr8.exe

You're right, though, here's the thread:

http://www.transparentcorp.com/community/f...ic=4411&hl=