Haven't been here in a while. What l find fascinating about these threads, regardless of whether the are Scientific, Spiritual or Religiously based, is that they inevitably descend into these petty ego squabbles between the same HEADS! and l don't use the term lightly! "Opinions are like a**hole, everyone's got one" - Dirty Harry Someone needs to get a life! You know who you are! Ego's are hilarious...
Hey T, been a while! Our Tradition would say that the Earth was a complete energetic system before the arrival of Humans. We speak of the Earth(GrandMother) and her worlds, these include, mineral, plant, animal etc. There are said to 144 worlds of the GrandMother, ranging from the physical through to the spiritual. Humans are said to be the 145th world, as not all humans are part of the GrandMother's energetic system. So simply put, the GrandMother encompasses "Trees? Plants? Dolphins? Minerals? Earth itself?" She is a dynamic interactive energy system that has consciousness, She is a being in its own right. From this perspective it can be seen that empirical science has it uses, but also its limitations, as some of the worlds of the GrandMother can be experimented on/with, but there are many many more that are beyond the empirical sphere. The main difficulty in this is that both Science and the Mind come to new understandings by a process of separation, breaking things down to their component parts, and this is essentially moving backwards! What we need to be seeing is the bigger picture, where all is ONE, a great Dynamic Interactive Energy System, made up of many Dynamic Interactive Energy Systems. As with the Human body, it is a group of many organs (Systems) working together to create the Whole Human. As above, so below, or in biblical terms, we are created in the image and likeness of God/Creator. IT IS NOT THE OTHER WAY 'ROUND! HAVE WE HAVE CREATED GOD/CREATOR IN OUR LIKENESS???!!!!
We are the product of our environment, take away the belief systems we have, or have not subscribed to, and the rest of the mental, emotional and physical experiences that we have had remain, these also having created systems of belief. From my experience people who oppose a particular belief system are shaped by that system as much as those who subscribe to it! Belief systems define the Ego, and the ego is the mechanism that fixes us within time and space, in short they are what make us human! Without belief systems we would just be undifferenciated Consciousness. The problem we have today is that the vast majority of the belief systems that are held by humans are limited and thus limiting, regardless of whether they are Scientific or Religious.
So what do you think is the next level of relationships is? There is quite obviously a great chasm between our understanding of each other as men and women, how do we bridge the gap?
l think that the darker side to the supposed freedoms that came about throughout the 60's and 70's is a form of narcissism, a very self-centred approach to life. l deserve this, l deserve that, but what is happening is a social disintagration, Partnership and family have become disposable like so much else on this planet, including the planet! Fair enough, if you are in an abusive situation you have every right to walk away from that, but where do you draw the line? ls it up to another person to make us happy, or is that our own responsibility, what about our children? So many are growing up with no concept of a stable family invironment as their parents are hell bent on finding their own happiness, always looking for someone else to give it them. Men and Women today are not the same as they were in our parents or grandparents time, social constructs have changed, there is a much greater acceptance of equality, but what has that got us? What, through our actions are we teaching our children? l know when my parents separated l was shocked, my world imploded, what it thought me was that if l entered a relationship l could just leave it later. lt thought me that l didn't have to commit to anyone but myself, and thats exactly what l did. Now l'm a parent myself, and l see the difficulty my son is having, and l have to live with the fact that he has learned the same thing from his parents. But unlike me, he will grow up with not only his parents separated, but also his grandparents. Where are we headed?....
What do women know about being a man? A woman can no more teach a boy to be a man, than a bird can teach a fish to fly! This is the key to you dilemma....
l agree with the above, it is recognised in a number of paths that a student can only go so far without the guidance of a teacher. l have such guidance. On my path, what you call "stilling the mind" is called "Stopping the World", what you call "Mahayana" is called "Dreaming".
My reference was to "Hungry" ghost, not holy ghost! Got me all wrong dude! That is an interesting mistake on your part... But we got to the HEART of the matter anyway. ls it Karma that keeps the Dalai Lama incarnating? For me it is to cease creating the cause of suffering, not rebirth. lt is my understanding that the Buddha said that Compassion is the highest phenomenon, and he defined Compassion as "Love plus Meditation". Note, it is not Meditation plus Love! As far as l'm concerned, my post was completely harmonious with Buddhist teachings.
l'm curious, where do we disagree? and l don't get the pope and vatican thing? Beyond the fact that buddhism is about individual enlightenment, while the church would say its about a group, though not many become enlightened through it.
To put a different spin on it! l equate the mind, and consequently the ego with the force we know as gravity, it attracts, it is hungry, it desires. l have heard the term "Hungry Ghost" used, never satisfied, always wanting more. What it gets it adds to what it has already gotten, slowly creating an ever expanding Mind-Maze without limits. The Heart on the other hand is the opposite, it expresses, it gives, it radiates, it unites. lf our identity originates in the Mind, that is ego, if our identity originates in the Heart that is the true self. Mind will always be present and it has a purpose, but if the identity originates in the Heart then the Mind/ego serves the Heart as opposed to being self-serving. lt is the self-serving nature of the Mind/ego that creates suffering as this is not the proper order. The proper order can be seen in Nature, Gravity=Planet, Radiance=Star/Sun. The planet orbits the Sun, Simples! This is the importance of Nature, it is our map to proper alignment, and right-relationship...To live in Harmony with ones environment is to recognise the immense value of this map, for without it we are truly lost!
Just a big flush of hormones! Dangerous business, easy to get addicted to that feeling, no relationship has a chance if you become addicted to it. Always gonna be looking for the next hit after this one wears off!
Ego is Self-Centered, Self-important, Self-indulgent and Self-pitious. Ego Want/Desires, Ego Deserves(better than this), Ego is entitled, and it "not fair" if Ego doesn't get what it wants, deserves and is entitled to...
In the Toltec tradion it is said that to have be fully conscious is to "Walk the Dream". What this means is that at no point do we lose consciousness. Essentially a fully conscious individual will lay down to rest their body, but instead of slipping into unconsciousness they Wake up in the Dream. Their Life is spent in this world and the Dreamtime, always conscious, and with full rememberance of what occurs in both states. Mind blowing concept really!!!
A good practice for beginning lucid dreaming is to try to look at your hands in the Dream. My first experience of this was when during a dream l was looking at a coin in my hand. l had been intending for months to look for my hands in a Dream and all of a sudden l saw the hand that held the coin. At that moment there was a connection made between who l was in the "Real world" and the dream world. l immediately became aware that l was Dreaming but now with the full sharpness of my waking consciousness. The Dream stopped at that moment, and l stood there thinking what do l do now? l could remember what the original dream was about and decided that l would continue with what l had been doing. But now that l knew l was dreaming l could manifest instantly what l needed, so l manifested a car to get where l was going in the Dream. A bit limited l know, l could have just flew to where l was going, but you Dream and learn!
So when Freud said that "the lrish were a race of people for whom psychoanalysis was of no use what so ever". This is because the lrish have the capacity to simply jump from the first attention to the fourth skipping the second and third!
Okay, parallels between Toltec teaching and Psychology: Toltecs say that the are four "Attentions". First attention is normal daily awareness, can be see and the conscious, Second attention is deeper, often called "Heighted Awareness" can be seen as Subconscious, Third attention can be equated with The Unconscious, and Fourth attention can be equated with Super-Conscious. However from the Toltec perspective these are spheres within spheres, ie. second attention is both the conscious and subconscious functioning simultaniously and harmoniously. Third is all three at once and Fourth is all four. So for example, with many meditative practices there is focus on the breath. This is because the Breath is a "gateway" to the second attention, as it controlled by the subconscious, but the conscious can take control of it, and in doing so a link can be created between the 1st and 2nd.
What if, it was impossible outside of this present sphere of existence we currently inhabit, to act in any way that was not a true expression of our Soul. That the Free-Will we prize above all else is in fact nothing more than the ability to act in this contrary way? No good or bad, no polarity, simply this is my true Nature, and this is not. At this stage l would define terms. For me Polarity and Duality are not the same thing and you appear (appearances can be deceiving) to use the terms interchangably. Polarity is the 3rd dimension of a multi-dimenional Reality and as such is a constant, but one that can only be perceived from a multi-dimensional perspective. Example, Spirit/Matter, Male/Female etc etc. Duality is a charistic of consciousness that has identified with polarity, and as a consequence has become judgemental leading to Good/Bad, Better/Worse, Victim/Abuser and a host of other Dualities, in which the said consciousness will Identify itself with one or other of these illusionary poles. On the subject of the 6000 years of religion and philosophy, l would agree, but there are older traditions also that have the concept that is now called Karma. The Egyptians for example had the Goddess Maat, seen as Universal Harmony, to act contrary to this was seen as a breach of "The Law of Maat", it was on her scales that the Heart is weighed against a feather in the hall of Osiris. Nature abours a vacuum, was meant in the context that Nature will fill any and every vacuum, nothing is redundant.
l have no problem with the experiencing concept, and haven't had, it's all experience for the Soul and that is what life is about, but what is important is "New" experiences, new Knowledge, new awareness. Can you say that by just floating through life simply experiencing, that you will experience anything that any of the other incarnations of your Soul has not? Nature abhors a vacuum, nothing is redundant. All serves a purpose, and the purpose is the expansion of Awareness and "The Known". This is the same purpose which Karma (As l see it) serves. lt is the Spiritual mechanism within illusion that pushes us to Grow and expand our Awareness, l do not subscribe/believe in Karma in the way you see it, or at least in the way you are putting it forward. To me it is the Guiding hand of Spirit, gently but persistently pushing us towards the path of Dharma, which leads to the Embodiment of our Soul. Actually l would say that what Karma is, has been twisted to serve other powers, used to guiltify and thus control, but if it is discarded, throwing the baby out with the bath water, then this is just as much hampering the expansion of Awareness, as is believing that it is there to punish so called "Bad" behavior.
MGaff Forum Posts (148)
RE: quantum physics
Haven't been here in a while. What l find fascinating about these threads, regardless of whether the are Scientific, Spiritual or Religiously based, is that they inevitably descend into these petty ego squabbles between the same HEADS! and l don't use the term lightly!"Opinions are like a**hole, everyone's got one" - Dirty Harry
Someone needs to get a life! You know who you are!