"Spirit" - what is it?

[Taomeow]

No need for you to worry about that, it's what those staples in your head are for.

 

It's not staples, it's symbiotic ascended masters from the Pleiades, staples boy. They like to hang around signs of intelligent life on planet Earth. Took me a while to convince them that staples boys is not all this planet has to show for intelligent life, or they would've zipped off in a jiffy, after performing the global spring cleaning I've persuaded them to postpone till the next year. The planet has become dirty, they've been telling me, so they are anxious to remove some garbage. Now, since I have their ear for as long as I don't bore them as badly as you bore me, I promise I will insist on their accepting a definition of "garbage" that would assure safety of at least some of the staples boys, the well-behaved ones.

[9th]

I promise

 

You sound lonely. Its ok though, I dont pity you.

[Taomeow]

You sound lonely. Its ok though, I dont pity you.

 

Such profound insights! I am honored to have been positioned on the receiving end of your creativity. What kind of little memo book of brilliant repartees are you perusing when straining to come up with one? I've GOT to get me one of those! Nevermind you're on the wrong page, your response has to have meaning in some context sometime. Not the context of the above conversation, to be sure... but you've tried, and you've tried your hardest, and that's what counts.

[9th]

blah blah blah

 

You are really getting somewhere with all that, your teacher must be so proud.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

y'all mind if we get back to the thread now before it ends up in the pit? Or maybe just move the last 5 posts?

[Taomeow]

y'all mind if we get back to the thread now before it ends up in the pit? Or maybe just move the last 5 posts?

 

Well, yeah, I give up. I was trying to humor 9th because, well, if he attacked someone else out of the blue, I'd moderate, but since he went after me, I was sort of undecided -- let it slide? -- bad example... have some fun? -- well, I'm human. Sorry.

[9th]

I'm human. Sorry.

 

There will be no forgiveness for you on the path to immortality. It will be the opposite. Your lack of responsibility for the maturation of your capability for self-discipline is quite alarming, considering your age and your claims of practice. After you have spent all that time and energy on the maintenance and glorification of your self-image, what will be left over? It wont be an "immortal fetus", I can tell you that.

[Protector]

urgh

[Harmonious Emptiness]

So 9th, what practical advice do you have to offer? Criticism by itself serves little purpose other than self-indulgence.

Edited November 27, 2011 by Harmonious Emptiness

[Birch]

Hey!

 

I started this thread and went away to not fight anyone this TKSGK and when I came back it had gotten too funny to ignore.

 

Folks, nirvana is the transmutation of the yang spirit away from the yin. Otherwise known as death, I think. Could be wrong as usual but IMO the point of Taoist immortality is to avoid death AND to embrace life. You can't IMO embrace life if you're spending too much time in survival mode, which is what the lizard brain's job is and the lizard people's job to insist upon. No tin-foil hats required, a BS meter will do for starters.

 

If you check, over the last however many centuries, there has been a culturally consistent telling of human history that includes:

- duality

- ascension

- future promises for present sacrifice

- the inherent worthlessness/weakness of humans (can't save themselves out of a paper bag)

 

Which of course is BS.

[Birch]

I should add that my reference to "lizard people" means anyone who engages in tactics that invoke lizard-brain responses in anyone else with a view to controlling the outcome in one's own favour. Also known as "fear-mongering".

 

Edit: When I referred to the lizard people's "job" I meant that it's as much their "job" as it is a gazelle's "job" to run away from a lioness and a lioness' "job" to catch the gazelle.

Edited November 27, 2011 by -K-

[9th]

So 9th, what practical advice do you have to offer? Criticism by itself serves little purpose other than self-indulgence.

 

Watch and learn.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Watch and learn.

 

Even the best tea makes you sick when you drink it from a pile of %?&*

 

I should make that a bumper sticker

[9th]

Even the best tea makes you sick when you drink it from a pile of %?&*

 

I should make that a bumper sticker

 

 

So you are quite pleased with yourself?

[Harmonious Emptiness]

edit:

 

*takes off war bonnet, unties horses tail. sweeps up karmic debree from floor*

 

Okay sorry about that. Please do continue

 

Edited November 29, 2011 by Harmonious Emptiness

[Marblehead]

I am so happy to see that this thread is moving along in the spirit of love and compassion.

[Birch]

I am so happy to see that this thread is moving along in the spirit of love and compassion.

I'd cut the kid some slack if they just went through Thanksgiving

 

I'm watching and learning :-)

[suninmyeyes]

Wow what happened since I was here last .

 

I was gonna comment(although its been a week - I am often late ,it is a part of my personality) on this which is also an attempt to change the current rhytam.

 

in the (cough) spirit of spirit being something you can't describe you just have to witness for yourself, i hope this help you all. I think Junior IS a spirit cause people can't do that stuff man!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ammAU-RKDhs

 

edit: actually i'm serious, i think there is a highly cultivated shen involved in what he is doing

This may be right. My mum used to be a classical ballet dancer training literally 7 hours a day 5 sometimes 6 days a week.

20 years after she stopped she took up meditation dilligently to sort herself out(she cured rheumatisam, nervous disorder and sleeplesness)and told me that now she can understand why she loved ballet so much ,it is the same feeling and sense of wellbeing that she feels in meditation.

 

Anways this guy in the video is WICKED!

[mantis]

It's not staples, it's symbiotic ascended masters from the Pleiades, staples boy. They like to hang around signs of intelligent life on planet Earth. Took me a while to convince them that staples boys is not all this planet has to show for intelligent life, or they would've zipped off in a jiffy, after performing the global spring cleaning I've persuaded them to postpone till the next year. The planet has become dirty, they've been telling me, so they are anxious to remove some garbage. Now, since I have their ear for as long as I don't bore them as badly as you bore me, I promise I will insist on their accepting a definition of "garbage" that would assure safety of at least some of the staples boys, the well-behaved ones.

 

Could you expand more on this? I'm very curious, as usual. Thanks.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

edit:

 

*takes off war bonnet, unties horses tail. sweeps up karmic debree from floor*

 

Okay sorry about that. Please do continue

 

...

[Taomeow]

Could you expand more on this? I'm very curious, as usual. Thanks.

 

Well, it's hard to explain... On my Peruvian trip I saw the Machine. Their/its operations are not about us but we are a trickle-down reality from their/its operations. (It was impossible to tell whether the Machine is alive or mechanical, technology or biology -- it was sort of both and neither. If you've ever seen Mayan and Inca art, it might give you an idea of a world that looks like a combo of a jungle and a microchip... that's the best I can put it.) They/it are doing some maintenance. I saw stuff swept out of existence in the course of this maintenance. A few civilizations, a bunch of nations, continents, even planets, stuff like that, all getting removed from our reality but not because we "did" or "didn't do" something, just because we somehow didn't matter. You know, when you vacuum your carpet, you hold no grudges against any mites that may get sucked out of their peaceful existence in the carpet... something like that.

 

So, the Machine terrified me more than anything ever possibly can, because the "vacuum cleaner" does not just remove life, it removes Being and Nonbeing of everything that has no Meaning. But anything that does, it doesn't remove, Meaning is indestructible. It's hard to translate into words, because Meaning does not reside in words, nor depends on them for its existence. Meaning resides in the Pattern. So, the pattern of your carpet stays, but the mites that are not part of its Meaning don't.

 

So it was my understanding that if you do not contribute to the pattern, if you interfere with it, you get removed. That's the best I can do... if it doesn't make much sense, that's because, like I said, I know what it is but I don't know if words can convey even the foggiest.

 

For the purposes of where it came up in the thread:

I was working with "conform to the Pattern" meaning of it -- much like a cat takes the shape of the pillow she's lying on without BECOMING the pillow, or a school of fish that conforms to the current in its outlines without becoming the river, or a swirl of autumn leaves that conforms to the wind and follows its shape without becoming the wind. It's not unlike taiji -- "stick, adhere, and follow." But then I had to break the contact because, well, in taiji you don't involve EVERYONE, it's a one-on-one exercise, until you're at a higher level. I did notice that some of the spectators started "stick-adhere-follow" to MY pattern which was itself conforming to the offered pattern, so there was a hint of how you can work with the pattern further if you want to expand it. But I didn't, so I terminated it. I do many exercises of this nature because of the Machine I've seen, never knowing in advance which ones will reveal a Meaningful Pattern to adhere to and which ones, Meaningless Garbage to steer clear of. As you go, you start discerning them better, but you don't see it all at once. You learn by practicing... I don't know how else to say it. Don't know if I made any sense to you. I tried.

[Informer]

Essential nature = Spirit, Spirit = Essential Nature

(Awareness stripped down)

 

 

Charles Luk defines it in the glossary of his book Taoist Yoga: Alchemy & Immortality as: "Spirit (shen): The divine in man or his immortal nature which derives from the purification of vitality. Spirit leads to the realisation of essential nature and vitality to eternal life which are the aim of Taoist alchemy."(p195)

 

What do you guys think about his definition? The writing seems to imply "man" and I am not sure if it is literal or meant to be man as human? It does seem to lend credence to ones assessment that soul/spirit is feminine/masculine.

 

Do women have a different method of Taoist alchemy then men? Is the objective the same?

Edited November 30, 2011 by Informer

[mantis]

Well, it's hard to explain... On my Peruvian trip I saw the Machine. Their/its operations are not about us but we are a trickle-down reality from their/its operations. (It was impossible to tell whether the Machine is alive or mechanical, technology or biology -- it was sort of both and neither. If you've ever seen Mayan and Inca art, it might give you an idea of a world that looks like a combo of a jungle and a microchip... that's the best I can put it.) They/it are doing some maintenance. I saw stuff swept out of existence in the course of this maintenance. A few civilizations, a bunch of nations, continents, even planets, stuff like that, all getting removed from our reality but not because we "did" or "didn't do" something, just because we somehow didn't matter. You know, when you vacuum your carpet, you hold no grudges against any mites that may get sucked out of their peaceful existence in the carpet... something like that.

 

So, the Machine terrified me more than anything ever possibly can, because the "vacuum cleaner" does not just remove life, it removes Being and Nonbeing of everything that has no Meaning. But anything that does, it doesn't remove, Meaning is indestructible. It's hard to translate into words, because Meaning does not reside in words, nor depends on them for its existence. Meaning resides in the Pattern. So, the pattern of your carpet stays, but the mites that are not part of its Meaning don't.

 

So it was my understanding that if you do not contribute to the pattern, if you interfere with it, you get removed. That's the best I can do... if it doesn't make much sense, that's because, like I said, I know what it is but I don't know if words can convey even the foggiest.

 

For the purposes of where it came up in the thread:

I was working with "conform to the Pattern" meaning of it -- much like a cat takes the shape of the pillow she's lying on without BECOMING the pillow, or a school of fish that conforms to the current in its outlines without becoming the river, or a swirl of autumn leaves that conforms to the wind and follows its shape without becoming the wind. It's not unlike taiji -- "stick, adhere, and follow." But then I had to break the contact because, well, in taiji you don't involve EVERYONE, it's a one-on-one exercise, until you're at a higher level. I did notice that some of the spectators started "stick-adhere-follow" to MY pattern which was itself conforming to the offered pattern, so there was a hint of how you can work with the pattern further if you want to expand it. But I didn't, so I terminated it. I do many exercises of this nature because of the Machine I've seen, never knowing in advance which ones will reveal a Meaningful Pattern to adhere to and which ones, Meaningless Garbage to steer clear of. As you go, you start discerning them better, but you don't see it all at once. You learn by practicing... I don't know how else to say it. Don't know if I made any sense to you. I tried.

 

I'm going to go ahead and assume some Ayahuasca was consumed during this Peruvian trip? I'm not sure if I understand just because your writing style is so, should I say, "unique"? Interesting nonetheless.

[Birch]

(It was impossible to tell whether the Machine is alive or mechanical, technology or biology -- it was sort of both and neither...

 

----

 

Pretty much what that Taoist Yoga for women points at too. Interesting.

 

Edit: As does the Sophia myth.

Edited November 30, 2011 by -K-

[Aetherous]