manitou

That is adorable! I love how the speaker became the raccoon. A oneness of sorts

I was married for 35 years to a murderous type, and a thief. He changed himself 180 degrees and died as the most wonderful man, a shaman in fact, that you could possibly know. When you're real young and treated real badly, there isn't much you can do to rebel against it. Most of the damage is done in the first 7 years or so. All I know is one thing. That we all boil down to the same thing on the inside; we are The Intelligence that has created all this, and continues creating. Our conditioning is the very thing that hides the Intelligence, and it's not until one removes their conditioning that the Intelligence can be found. It's found by peeling away the layers of conditioning. It must be a concerted effort to do this, it doesn't just happen. Whether the concerted effort is to dig and look for defects, or utilize a mantra or some other device that will diminish them. If a person just stays the same old person after horrible conditioning, I don't think there's a chance in hell for enlightenment.

Miffymog, this is the best collection of funny animal pictures I've ever seen. Adorable!! Thanks so much for posting.

When you refer to a murderous type, this is ignoring the fact that we are all the same entity. Funny thing is, if I had the same conditioning as the 'murderous type', I'd be a murderous type too.

Badda-bing

buffoon

Unfortunately we are mirrors of each other

I have wondered if he merely went in on the question "Who Am I?" That one went to the heart, Girard! Ouch! The K-phenomenon isn't a new age phenomenon. In fact, that snakey thing that was on the pharaoh's and 'pharaoh-essess' headpieces an indication of the wearer being not only 'divine' but K-active? Or so I've read in some new-agey book. Kundalini is a Thing. I've got it. It's not pleasant, it's bothersome. It does give talents, though. Third eye among them. And the only time I've spent underground was in one of Castaneda's dirt coffins. I remember the words on something written on this site: that we are a loosely-knit and eclectic bunch of seekers. That's why this is the coolest spiritual site out there. Because many of us have reached the top of the utility of the horse we rode in on. We've reached the shore we have been looking for, and it's at this point that we can choose to discard the boat. If we're relegated to being a specifically Daoist site, then that's just spending more time than necessary in the boat... Love your comment about being all Immortals in the first place. Of course we are, it's all Now! (OH. I see you said ungrounded followers, not underground followers. Apologies to Castaneda)

Yes! I missed this before, @Apech. To gaze into someone's eyes is difficult if you are filled with secrets. If you have guilts, if you are not honest. To decide to gaze into another eyes is to open yourself to the release of fears, I've found! You can almost feel the layers of obstruction falling away. Not a comfortable beginning - but as you say, when the separations are gone, mind rests in mind. Recognition! It recognizes Itself!

Understand

I kind of agree with that teacher, lol. Yes, negative and positive are polar opposites. But the designation of negative or positive is in the mind of the beholder. So many things in my life I might have labeled 'negative' at one time, turned out to be 'positive' after some time passed.

I like this, Steve. That seems to be what it's all about! To understand one's own conditioning so that one's reactions can be studied. Once the conditioning is understood, clarity is achieved because there are no further obstacles. They have been removed by one's attention and consciousness of when and where the reaction started. This is the essence of the 'inner work' that is required of self-realization. That's it, exactly. To 'realize' (make real) who we really are. And 'Who we Really Are' is fairly non-reactive.

Dragons roaring. That's incredible. That's it exactly. I became kundalini active, spontaneously, about 20 years ago. It was nothing I was trying for. But the K descended on me with a HUGE roar, it sounded like a train was running on a track one foot from my bedroom. It was the loudest noise I think I've ever heard, and it was debilitating for a few moments. I quickly looked outside and there was certainly no train or cyclone happening at the moment. Aaah. But there was a big dragon!

I think I might live in a fantasyland when it comes to fear. I am convinced in the depth of my soul that fear is optional. I believe the DDJ when it says that the Sage remains unmolested, regardless of the circumstances. This is how I honestly try to live these days. Am I a Sage? Who knows? But I think that's something to shoot for, being free of fear. If one really buys into the illusory nature of physical 'reality', it's remarkable how much of what appears to be substance is actually space. Somewhere like 99.999999% to 1 ratio. If we are actually 99.99999% space, what's to fear? If a tiger jumps out of a tree at me, he too is 99.99999% space. He's not really here. Now, I don't know how I would actually act if a tiger jumped out of a tree at me, but I know how I would like to act. I would like to act in the reality that he's really not there. I would hope that love of the Oneness would diffuse it. The tiger and I are actually one and the same substance, we're both part of the Whole Idea. Marbles would get pissed when I'd say this. He was always telling me not to go up and kiss a bear. I'm kind of an all-or-nothing person when it comes to my own philosophical bent. I don't think it's just words. I see it more as an aspiration.

I love that word. Equipoise. It describes my muddle-headedness, in that there is no pointed thought unless absolutely needed. It's amazing that the memory of yesterday and the planning for tomorrow has pretty much gone. It's probably dementia with a spiritual component that remains quite clear in the here and now. But not the yesterday and tomorrow. I might as well sit here and enjoy it...

I have a CD of the Dalai Lama chanting 'I Am'. It is definitely not 'aum'. It is I Am. I've heard him chant aum in another CD.

I'm not sure there's a murderous type. I was married to a man for 35 years who had a horrendous background, one of his crimes being murder. Also transporting prostitutes across state lines, and also a thief. And addicted to heroin, to boot. This man, by hitting his bottom, turned his life around to the point where he died an enlightened one. This is where the concept of no-judgment is so crucial, IMO. Had I turned my back on him because of his past, I would never have had the wonderful years (the latter ones) I had with him. A magical man.

I've got one similar. I was driving through the desert, out in the middle of nowhere. I stopped at a restaurant to use the restroom, which was an outhouse built out of rocks. I was just sitting there, when I noticed that someone had written between two rocks, really teeny, the following words. I had to lean way forward to see them: "F*!k you, eagle eyes"

It seems like there are the two physical / psychic, the normal and the tantric. He is no doubt talking about tantra here. But there is another type of intercourse between partners that happens after years together, if the fit is right, the two really do become as one. When the usual old things no longer bother you, when there emerges a new and gentle kindness toward each other - there is not a day I can remember in particular when this joining started to occur. But all I know is that one day I looked back and I could see how beautifully intertwined our souls were, and even though we were both getting old and wearing glasses and gimping around most of the time, sometimes I could just take one look at that face, and my heart would melt, even after 35 years. The love; the true, all embracing, shining love was stronger at the end than at the beginning. Probably because we went through many hells together. But we stayed.

And in the final run, belief is just something that is a product of our conditioning. Every single person on this earth, whether then, now, or later - has had different conditioning. If we sit across from each other in a restaurant, we are having two different experiences. I'm looking at the pretty view and you're watching the sweaty kitchen workers. I guarantee we'll come back with two different impressions of the experience. It seems so silly for any one belief, religion, cult - to think that their particular path is any better than any other path. The thing we all have in common all around the world is the inner urge to know. Whatever folklore we happen to be born into is our very challenge in this life; to break through this familial or societal conditioning and get to where the clarity resides. It is contained within no boat that got us across the river. The boat is ultimately discarded, but available for visitation always.. Belief in demons or angels is a conditioned belief system. This makes it no less real! Sometimes these things develop out of a young child's need to get attention away from another sibling - so many things could have started the ball rolling. But roll it does. I personally think that if you, @helpfuldemon, ever got to the point where you managed to see that all things are really unified - and to know me is the very same as to know you. We are one. But we have forgotten that, from the huddled tribe days. We are merely one spirit walking around in separate skin bags - but in actuality, we are all the very same ocean, and you know what happens when two water drops run into each other on your windshield. Can't tell 'em apart any more This is also the very mindset that is needed to love people unconditionally.

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent". Eleanor Roosevelt

Bindi, thank you! What a fabulous talk - getting rid of the hold that emotions have over you. I too am of the belief that developing and uncovering one's inner self, one's motivations, one's memories that started the feeling to begin with. His solution is so perfect, as what it's requiring is nothing more than to bring up that original memory and go through the physical feeling. For the longest time I didn't know that. It was always something vague, feelings. But he's talking about that butterfly in your stomach, that tightening of the throat, the heat of embarrassment on your face - those actual physical responses. Little responses. He emphasizes the necessity of reliving the occurrence, remembering it fully - and then do nothing more than take note of the physical sensations, as many times as necessary to diminish the physical feelings, which are those places that restrict the free flow of energy. Many, after purging themselves of these restrictions and doing what is necessary to alleviate old guilts and angers (usually involving seeing our own part in the transaction in a new way) sometimes apologies are necessary to straighten out the wrinkles. You can actually feel the warm smoothing of a previously clenched physical and psychical areas. The body and the mind are one. The load gets lighter and lighter as the layers are uncovered until, one day, you begin to see who you really are. These ideas, these inner journeys are what the alcoholic or addict must take in order to get and remain sober. If they are 'fearless and thorough', as they say, as to finding inner faults and shortcomings, and do what it takes to reverse the blockage. Work the steps. The steps are the very dynamic that Damo speaks of so eloquently. I've never heard anyone link the two dynamics together as well as he did. It makes me know that he has either gone through recovery himself, or he is very close to someone who has.

Interesting thread. I know next to nothing about internal alchemy, but I do know that there are certain internal 'things' I have to do to get the qi disseminated. A masseuse comes here twice a month, and I get a massage. I'm K-active and the build-up of energy can be uncomfortable. I've worked with this man for about 6 months, and he is energy-intuitive. He uses a third eye to know what part of the back, shoulders, etc. to manipulate to allow the K-energy to release. This last session, something wonderful happened. There are things I have to do, and most of it is stilling the mind and disengaging every single muscle in my body that I possibly can. He does mental preparation of his own. This time, there was a blissful circuit of kundalini energy, a sexual energy, that would connect between us. At one point it was such a strong current, he had to break away and cry. What a phenomenal blissful, spacious feeling we shared. It seems like I'm learning how to project it to another, with a mental pumping action.

Is it the Avatamsaka Sutra that makes chronic mention of the crow landing on a palm tree, and the coconut falls off at the same time, but is not the cause of the coconut falling? I could be thinking of Vasistha's Yoga.

Joe was a shamanic man, he was a healer. He did a little writing - nothing serious - but I just came across this entry in a notebook he had been writing in shortly before he died. His life prior to alcoholic recovery was a street life and all that entails. The depth of this man's heart was astonishing. I share this with you because it shows what it's like to truly tend one's own soul. It is the Practice of taking responsibility for one's own life. "Fear - fear in any form, physiology or mental, distorts clarity. Most humans have a great deal of fear, which denies compassion. So when a person is afraid in any way he has no compassion. There are many forms of fear, not being as strong as before, getting old, losing a loved one, feeling not as good as others, of being rejected, and fear of being abandoned. I don't have to invite fear, it is there. I'm a living human being now, and in that state your fears, though they may be dormant, are still there consciously or unconsciously. I may be afraid of not having any money, one may be afraid of some past pain, and not wanting it again. Go to the root of fear. Where there is fear there are many kinds of neurotic actions, emotionally. Being aware of conscious fear is okay, you can deal with it, but it is much more difficult to be free of fears which you do not know. Fears that are hidden. Observing thoughts, feelings and recollections, see who is recalling. The thinker. Mind is empty, emptiness is clear light. Do not avoid life as it is, say yes to life situations, challenges, thoughts, pain. Nothing that is suppressed goes away, strong emotion is a door. Whatever arises in the mind is Me. I have been conditioned to negative feelings, thoughts, emotions, that is all I've ever had. I have been trained to fear, I've always had fear, the punishment of not living good. Of wetting the bed, fear of almost everything, of being an ugly child, a no good child, a worthless child and an adult. My dreams are negative. I have learned to offer no resistance to what is. I have learned to allow the present moment to be, circumstances to be and accept what is. Study, read, learn, write. Negativity ranges from irritation or impatience, to fierce anger. Stillness, hold awareness in and around my thoughts, and emotions - do not deny them, know that they are there. Practice stillness, silence, and spaciousness 5 times a day, commit my self to remembering inner refuge throughout the day.