Jetsun

I would say it is expanding, contracting and also not existing

Outbreath - expand. Inbreath - retract. Pause inbetween outbreath and inbreath - void/emptiness/formless

The best method I know is to really truthfully meditate on what you honestly want, what you want from this life. If you really, truthfully want enlightenment above everything else including money, women, family, achievement, recognition, avoidance, healing, peace, then you will get it. Hardly anyone really wants it though, or they want it on their own terms.

If you really want it you will do anything to get it including giving anything up and more crucially you will take enlightenment on its own terms rather than impose preconceptions on what it should look like.

Quite strange how the ego can be drawn to awakening even though it means it's dissolution, a bit like a moth to a flame, it just can't resist, or maybe there comes a point where the truth within is stronger than the ego which drives it to the flame, the ego just pretends it's still in charge.

One of my teachers read that book "Wake up and roar" by Papaji and immediately started having samadhi type experiences, to the point he went to India to speak to Papaji himself to ask about it, Papaji flat out said to him that those Samadhi experiences are not it, not awakening. And thank God he did otherwise he may have been stuck at that level of seductive bliss samadhi the rest of his life.

Looks like this guy has got some interesting research and stories. The issue with awakening is that freedom can show up in any way, because it is free by definition it can't really be pinned down. In terms of psycho-physiological signals I'm not sure how that could be measured either because awakening doesn't necessarily mean increased memory, brain function or health, I personally know people who are awake whose memory is shot and in terms of regular academic brain function are worse off. There are many awakened people with severe illnesses and some who are morally suspect in their behaviour. So while I like what this guy is doing he is trying to measure the one thing which is impossible to quantify.

I thought I wanted it, but then I came to realise what I really wanted was to escape suffering using enlightenment, so it was just escapism dressed up in different clothes.... but in the process I discovered that it wants me    

In a sense I am not sure if us (as most of us take ourselves to be) can honestly want enlightenment, as enlightenment is the end of us and by nature we aren't suicidal, yet it could be like moths to a flame I guess

The violence has become much more graphic in recent years, programmes like Narcos and Got have amazing stories but really graphic explicit violence. People must enjoy and get off on it, seems to have got worse since the "Saw" films were so successful.

It's like the 1400 white British girls being tortured and used as sex slaves by Pakistani Muslims going on for years as the police apparently didn't want to be called fking racist. Insane. cowards.

 

Let's all be "spiritual" though right? and only talk about nice things that's how you reach enlightenment by being a coward and a fool.

 

That actually happened in other areas of the UK too, wasn't just one incident https://www.channel4.com/news/oxford-abuse-operation-bullfinch-report-thames-valley-police for example Oxford was another case of a Pakistani Muslim gang systematically grooming and abusing hundreds of white English girls. Police and social services did nothing out of fears of being called racist.

A thing I heard Scott Kiloby say recently is that he has realised through his own experience and by meeting lots of students on the path is that the motivation for almost everyone on the spiritual path is avoidance. People trying to change and get away from what is.

That has been my path also- mostly avoidance, yet it still led to the fundamental realisation which is basically that avoidance doesn't work.

But in terms of how to, just notice that awareness already is unconditionally accepting all that is, including the bad stuff. It isn't awareness which rejects it is thoughts, mind and conditioning

The Western policy makers celebrate when every new Sunni v Shia war kicks off, as it means their dominance and position in the world is guaranteed for another generation.

But all this stuff about Aleppo in the news now is 5 years too late

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161208-why-vitamin-supplements-could-kill-you

Amazing article 

For example:

"A study published in 2007 from the US National Cancer Institute, for instance, found that men that took multivitamins were twice as likely to die from prostate cancer compared to those who didn’t. And in 2011, a similar study on 35,533 healthy men found that vitamin E and selenium supplementation increased prostate cancer by 17%."

Perhaps God is eroding your false ideas and conceptions about what it is through your suffering

  

 

1-2 days with proper Qigong and diet/herbs

What type of Qigong do you prescribe?

In Jin Shin Jyutsu the ring finger is associated with the lungs and intestine and the emotions of grief and sadness. Holding the fingers can help clear the channels associated with these aspects. But both fingers are considered equal in that system

Sorry for late reply. Use copper bracelet or copper ring on the ring finger of the left hand to ground your energies.

How does that work. Why is that finger important?

Also apparently MP's are not included in this digital surveillance bill, surprise surprise.

Not really sure how this is supposed to work.

 

An ISP will keep a record of connections (ICR) from each account held with it, but in many cases how will these agencies know exactly who visited each site? In a shared/family house with shared internet, or a public Wi-Fi spot, for example, how would they differentiate between users? (surely there will be a single ICR for each single account?)

 

I also don't understand the point of it. If someone's looking up illegal porn or trying to buy guns or chatting with ISIS or anything else the government could be said to have a right to invade privacy to investigate, they're likely not doing it directly through their ISP? (Tor/VPN/etc?) And I would imagine it is those who know how to evade detection that a government should be most concerned with detecting?

I have heard they are already trying to ban some advanced forms of cryptography as basically it's too good at doing its job ie stopping others from deciphering it

The book 1984 was based in the UK and it looks like it is becoming a reality. The government has used the Trump election as a cover for passing the most intrusive snooping law in history.

The following departments will now have access to your full internet history...

Metropolitan police force

City of London police force

Police forces maintained under section 2 of the Police Act 1996

Police Service of Scotland

Police Service of Northern Ireland

British Transport Police

Ministry of Defence Police

Royal Navy Police

Royal Military Police

Royal Air Force Police

Security Service

Secret Intelligence Service

GCHQ

Ministry of Defence

Department of Health

Home Office

Ministry of Justice

National Crime Agency

HM Revenue & Customs

Department for Transport

Department for Work and Pensions

NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England that provide ambulance services

Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service

Competition and Markets Authority

Criminal Cases Review Commission

Department for Communities in Northern Ireland

Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland

Department of Justice in Northern Ireland

Financial Conduct Authority

Fire and rescue authorities under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004

Food Standards Agency

Food Standards Scotland

Gambling Commission

Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority

Health and Safety Executive

Independent Police Complaints Commissioner

Information Commissioner

NHS Business Services Authority

Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust

Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board

Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Regional Business Services Organisation

Office of Communications

Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland

Police Investigations and Review Commissioner

Scottish Ambulance Service Board

Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission

Serious Fraud Office

Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Service Trust

Why work, food and health departments need to have full access to my browsing history I don't know.

Most of the genuinely highly realised beings I have discovered or met seem to have an element of devotion in their path, devotion to something outside of themselves, which maybe counters the increase in potential self egocentricity.

Even the most ardent non-dualists like Ramana worshiped a mountain and Nisagadatta would sing devotional Bhajans, even though on the ultimate level they knew these things weren't seperate or outside of themselves they still continued these dual type devotional practices.

It's pretty shocking to watch, it's the kind of scenes you might expect to watch from a military dictatorship imposing itself on its people.

I guess it's a corporate dictatorship, wikileaks basically showed that the banks picked Obamas cabinet and would have picked Hillarys, so maybe Trump can make a little difference in some way to turn things in another direction.

This is the truth, or rather the truth going on underneath 

Firstly, you do know self from 'out there' and have confirmed it. Whether you call that localised awareness or something else, you are aware that there is this self and you can direct your awareness to introspection, or extrospection.

That is true, yet awareness can also become one with the wider awareness . Basically when awareness becomes quiet and still it stops pinging around the mind bouncing from concept to concept its real nature can be revealed, like a wave realising that its real nature is water of the entire sea. 

I find it extremely easy to comprehend things exist beyond my immediate self. Isnt it you that denies it ?

 

Edit: rephrase as a question.

Well a lot of the day there is a localisation of awareness, which you could call an immediate self, and there are all sorts of things existing outside of that ie the rest of the world. Yet that immediate self in one sense is a functional illusion because you can't actually find anything you can put a flag on and say it is this Self, plus during certain times of the day such as meditation the sense of it isn't always there and a self can't be found distinct from the world, plus the localised awareness can go beyond the bodymind. So it is like the analogy of the wave and the ocean, you could say each wave is unique, yet it doesn't exist separate from the ocean and ultimately it's all water. Similarly even though your expression is unique a self can't be found as seperate from the wider universe and it's ultimate substance can't be discovered as distinct from anything else.

So Karl when you do your favourite enquiry "where am I?" what do you find? Do you find a self in your body? If so do you lose part of it if you lose a limb? Do you find a self in the thoughts, which can change at any moment and are influenced by all sorts of things outside of the mind.

What could 'I' realise ? ;-)

 

Self Inquiry, as the description suggests, is purely about the self. That's your journey, not mine. I can't be a passenger on your train, neither can you give me a ticket to board it.

 

I could tell you things, but then, that was another time. If you decide to board the train, then you do so alone. You are stuck on the platform. I know that because I once stood there myself.

Well I have to use convention language or there is no communication, but yeah the I won't realise anything yet there is still realisation it just isn't done by you. Without the experience it is pretty much impossible to get or understand this because the ego can't comprehend anything exists beyond its own domain.

LOL who is the one doing the finding ? Find that one.

It's impossible to say what or who that one is.

If you follow this out far enough you are doing self enquiry in the line of Ramana Maharshi, who says that I is just a thought which when tracked goes back to the heart, the primary I-identity thought which then breaks down leading to realisation. If you are prepared to go beyond where you are stuck Karl you could realise it

:-)

 

Your inquiry isn't deep enough Jetsun. For who is the 'I' that doesn't know it ? Ask who that one is.

Exactly, it still can't be found in the body or mind content