posted July 21, 2019 08:11 PM            

I've been reading other articles in it that have made me consider giving Buddhism a closer look. (I once examined it before and decided it wasn't for me. But maybe it is...once I'm ready. Not saying I am, mind you, but a single issue made me question it which is impressive.)

They even looked at some issues I wouldn't have thought at all, like one writing in that he was born male but feels more like a woman and wants to transition, and yet that conflicts with his belief of no-self, and the responses were how important expression of the self is as transcending it. If someone there's interest, I'll go into this as well. (There are plenty of other subjects as well, most of them what I'd expect, I was pleasantly surprised to see multiple Buddhist views on that issue, though.)

x

But the article I felt like sharing today is as I'm sure it would interest some here is on the nature of karma called Who's Pulling the Strings?

It first goes on about how our ancestors had a naturally animistic view, and that's it's natural to think life is in the control of others, determined by deities or karma rather than one's own ability to work through karma and affect it for better and worse in one's current life. The article points out that the Buddha's teachings have repeatedly said that liberation would be impossible without free will to act, and that karma, especially from other lives, is more mutable than that.

It goes on to talk about the 5 Laws of Nature, which include the physical universe, our biology, and also action (be of it of society or individuals) that create natural cause and effect results. The fourth is citta-niyama, or how the mind works (law of psychology) which create patterns of thinking that in turn shape our lives. And beyond that is the overarching and all-encompassing dhamma-niyama that in Japan would be called the Void, in Western occultism the ether or astral, in any case, the cosmic egg of sorts between formed and unformed.

All 5 work simultaneously on all of us, and asking who's in control is asking the wrong question. "It's not a matter of who but of understanding how these various force, these different laws that contribute to our experience, operate and function in relationship to each other. Karma, as expressed in our actions and personal choices, forms just a tiny proportion of the whole array."

And goes on to say that "making good karma" isn't the point, but the teachings and wisdom/insight that lead to liberation from karma. (Nevertheless, it's easier when living a good life, that is the Buddhist field of good deeds. Even if you can lie and cheat with impunity, it still creates tension inside that distracts and weighs down from such insights, while goodness can lighten one's own mental burdens and facilitate enlightenment.)

It doesn't claim that karma as it's commonly thought of, both within a life and over several lives, doesn't exist, only that it's overstated in many people's lives and that by focusing too much on it they lose the power to free themselves of it.

But at the same time, to not pay attention to these other aspects is just as entrapping. Since environment matters, so does choice. As an overly simplistic one, choosing to spend a day focusing on enlightenment with a good teacher is going to produce different results than spending a day focusing on a major sports event, both psychologically and in terms of karma.

It also goes into the misconception that each person is separate from the universe that they do things with, manipulating or even controlling it, when it's intrinsically linked.

The article goes on for pages (and is small print as well compared to most magazines), but I can't find it online. I'll just end with the last 2 paragraphs here:

quote:

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Moment to moment, day by day, week by week, year in and year out, it's helpful to survey the way life takes shape. What we're experiencing in this moment is the flow of the natural order--the extraordinary thing is that within that natural order we have the capacity to make changes, to have an effect. We are able to choose; this is what makes the possibility of liberation open to us. To see things in this way is to realize that our destiny--if you like to use that kind of language--is entirely in our hands.

When we make the choice to let go of self-centeredness and move toward awakening, to let go of that which is obstructive and harmful, we bring our hearts more and more completely into accord with reality. In this way, the mind becomes aware of its part in the universe; it's through our spiritual efforts that the the universe is able to become aware of its own nature. We can make that choice.

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posted July 22, 2019 09:07 PM            

As for choice, I do believe not everyone has it, they do have, but let's say they don't know how to choose, or they've never been taught to use this muscle by their ancestors who themselves were simply driven by the factors around them, which I think even a spiritually advanced person would be driven by, but far less in comparison, but it is also so strange(I don't know what to call it) how we get to choose everything and yet we actually do not choose anything at all.

As for power, it has its own charm indeed, even one who is making a positive difference might be doing so simply to boost their ego, and even a "self-less"(I think the term itself has been misunderstood) act can create an ego, perhaps it is not what you do, but where it 'comes from', like Gurdjieff is claimed to have said "Everything done without awareness is a sin." . However, I also do think ego itself has been far too condemned and feared even, and has its own utilities even in a spiritual path, its funny how most things we do is ego-driven and yet we fear it . Like Osho is claimed to have said "Only a ripe fruit falls." . But Buddhism does try to cut the root of the ego right from the start though, unlike some other approaches.

posted July 25, 2019 07:42 AM            

I think Buddhism is fortunate in how it can more easily incorporate such nuances as Transgenderism, where many other Spiritual Institutions or Religions might struggle to do so... mainly because there aren't any concrete rules per say, often allowing for a sway/bend in their Moral Code on a situation by situation basis. And more of a focus on the End Justifying the means, which may in time bring up alot more scenarios that would run into murky water in how best a Buddhist might traverse such matters of the Spirit.

Course I still think it's a Religion/Spiritualist view that suffers from some delicious Paradoxes in how the Goal of the Individual is in of itself... quite a Selfish One, well... perhaps no more so than any other Religion but a relatively arrogant Goal nonetheless. But anyhow, it's not like I know what the best recourse is myself, and if someone is Drawn to wanting to Explore Buddhism to its Ultimate Potential, I say go for it! I don't feel there is a wrong way to Live or Explore the Universe, only the Experience you feel you can 'Live With' matters in my opinion. But since we are beings who often struggle for Answers and Understanding... we can indeed be drawn to a more Structured Approach in helping ourselves and each other in getting from Spiritual A to Spiritual B.

If anything I'm probably very much emulating anonymidarkness's reply also, though I would add to this the thoughts of a Sage Philosopher from a favored Movie of Mine called Big Trouble in Little China where the Demon Sorcerer 'Egg Shen' comments on the more 'Salad Bar' approach to Religion in upon examining what people have to work with, such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoist Alchemian Sorcery... 'You Take what you Want, and Leave the Rest'... and although put forward as a more scolding remark for his part... There is I feel, much goodness in how effective an approach this can be... in that all Religions and Paths to a better form of Self Understanding are worth exploring, and finding between them all some kind of a Space or Obscure Angle that gives you an overall better view of the Universe is definitely worth the effort.

And even if a Person did take Buddhism to a point where they feel they have reached Nirvana and Beyond, I'm sure if they so choose it they could just as easily slide-back down to Earth and perhaps take their new found knowledge in a Different Direction, and this probably beats the heck out of languishing in various other Afterlife Possibilities... (Good or Otherwise).

I'm fascinated with the Advent of Virtual Technology and the possibility of Self Transcendence (Physical) in this regard, and how Buddhism or any other Religion might yet deal with it...

posted July 29, 2019 03:18 PM            

I have mixed feelings on Buddhist liberation. On one hand, it sounds like addiction recovery, like maybe life itself is the addiction (though why not other spirit beings as well, perhaps those who also enjoy watching us the same reason we enjoy watching thrillers and Game of Thrones like dramas?). This explains why "good behavior" (self-sacrificing) seems conducive to enlightenment, because by eliminating attachment, one eliminates greed, envy, and the like and ironically gets richer as they need less and less to be fulfilled (as a side effect this can make them very charitable).

OTOH, it sounds like to graduate school, one should avoid its classes (though from a certain perspective that's not entirely wrong).

The views I saw in the mag seems to cut a balance between those extremes.

x

And LK, there is something appealing about how a game player realizes he is a game character himself, and I know I'm not the only one given movies like The 13th Floor. As the Hermetics say, As Above, So Below.

x

posted July 29, 2019 03:23 PM            

One was that the Buddha taught to be indifferent to their bodies yet also use their bodies for enlightenment. Neither extreme is good, nor is it conducive to enlightenment to be miserable all the time. A lifetime is one of challenges and becoming whole, and one such possibility is gender dysphoria or some such in which one expresses one's more authentic self by crossing over, but ultimately rising above the very concept of gender itself. Incongruence, the sense of alienation, is common to most if not all people, it just takes different forms, some more socially acceptable than others (and what draws many to religion in the first place, though I'd add it's also why many leave the religion they were raised in as well).

The second is that the teaching of anatta does not say there is no self, but rather "nothing conditional can be pointed to as being who are what you are." He goes on to say that she will face many new challenges as a woman that will likely be conducive to learning detachment and letting go which is a good, if sometimes painful, thing.

posted July 31, 2019 10:00 PM            

The flipside is that you won't get attached to anything you see on the road, there is no one who will get attached to things in the place here. But like I said, there are no songs, and very few companions, unless you are in a monastery lol, come to think of it, it does make sense why a monastery might have been created, but even they are busy watching their own breaths, who gives a fuq about yours ?

The opposite path is to embrace everything that comes in life, "the path of fullness" , but it too can be very difficult, its easy to hug your friend, but your enemy,very difficult, perhaps Jesus was from this side of "the road". And the road is fun, and the flowers are many, but the flowers do tend take you away from the road time and again.

Osho in this article's first question sums it up pretty much................... I think ..
http://oshosearch.net/Convert/Articles_Osh o/Krishna_The_Man_and_his_Philosophy/Osho-Krishna-The-Man-and-his-Philosophy-00000020.html

posted October 17, 2019 02:41 PM            

We had some GREAT exchanges here in DivDiv and Health&Healing with her. She was a very loving person, and very much in love with God. She shared some vids of the kinds of prayer services her people were a part of.

Some of it involved dances. Circling around and around, and those people together in a bigger circle, while they danced for at least an hour?? I watched those all the way through. The women had a separate group.

I love people who have that kind of God-Love inside them. There are NO Boundaries when you have that inside you, in common.

I used to share appropriate cross-over worship songs with her, that I knew she could resonate to. She played some of them for her mother and daughter (she said). She appreciated everything.

(Too bad that she began having computer-connection problems here, because she'd post, and then, it would *poof* within hours. And, a few nasty-people treated her terribly in the astrology forum. She unregistered.)

You know... There are 'some' sky transits that can occur which ENHANCE Spirituality and spiritual connectivity. I don't think others could relate to it during those times.

There's 'A Promise'.. that there will come a Great Awakening upon the earth.

We need that.

What I Imagine -- would be (metaphor)
like us here at LL.
We're all taking turns, typing messages to each other. No one can see the other person, or hear them.
Awakening --
Then SUDDENLY, we ALL have Skype/Zoom/FaceTime that COMES ON INSTANTLY. All our senses can see, hear, touch, smell(??haha) each other {it's Good}.
Seeing Each Other AS they are.
Hearing each other's thoughts without speaking.
{haha, lyrics to The Sound of Silence?}

And IN that moment there would be in SUCH CLARITY.
Nobody needing to be mad at each other.
Stillness..
INSTANT Perfect Understanding, and Peace, and Illumination.

Same as when each person holds a single candle in a darkened room. Candles getting lit. We see EACH FACE in a Warm Light and Clarity.

And LOVE would Fill in The Spaces between thee and me.

And we would know that the LOVE is GOD-- and the Love we all would feel is OF God. God Presence and Light. The Universe held Together by that Love we all instantly share.

And we ALL See it Together. EVERY living soul.

posted October 30, 2019 12:39 PM            

I don't feel like waxing on this long, so I'll just say that many factors, including misguided feminism as much as misogynists, have once made me scared of expressing "feminine" traits. This wasn't why I was a tomboy (that had more to do with convenience than anything, and a few years of being shunned by girls so that I was pretty much forced to play with the boys from ages 6-10 also exacerbated that) but it was why I found it hard to stop as an adult. I felt that to allow myself to demonstrate feminine traits would make me weak, spineless, and a victim. It was subconscious based on a lifetime of experience and media.

But I was wrong. The most empowering thing I did was embrace my feminine side...which does NOT mean I therefore discarded my masculine side. (But again as I'm not transgender, I speak only psychologically.)

Of course just because that's true of me doesn't mean it's true of others who become transgendered, including those who want to fully cross over. But I wonder how many it IS true for.

It's a black mark on our society that refuses to look at sex and sexual identification and orientation (and biological intersex) when it's so central to our human nature (apparently even as a fetus).

Of course that fundamental factor is why religion targeted so much, not only for patriarchal reasons when women were more property than people, but also because how better to make people feel guilty and scared than to make them insecure about their own nature, thus giving control over to a church, often with much money to pay for things like indulgences or as a means to "make up" and thus balance their "sins" that aren't really sins. I could also point out just how the rural Bible Belts are such hotbeds of especially perverse sex, which I believe comes from being told NOT to think about it so that they can't help, and since even the most vanilla masturbation will send you to Hell (so they believe) it easily mixes with the more extreme stuff, all repressed until it explodes (exacerbated by boredom), and I'm not even including the sexual abuse (though I'll mention that a sting in a Bible Belt netted so many Baptist preachers as sexual predators that a cop said he wasn't even surprised by it anymore).

I have reason to believe that being told how sinful it is in church actually makes it all the hotter for some.

Of course the guilt also contributes to the need of scapegoats, such as the hatred of gays and transgenders (people talk about not feeling safe if transgenders can use either restroom, but the safety I worry about is the transgender, and that includes MtF using women's restrooms who can be targeted with violence by women as well as men!). I could wax long on this as well, but I'll just mention that my own aunt who was on a crusade against anything homosexual or transgender was (like Kim Davis) a woman with multiple divorces and children by each husband. Though she liked to quote a Bible verse that MIGHT be anti-gay (*), she ignored the Bible verse immediately following where Jesus Christ himself said divorce was only valid if done in the case of infidelity (and technically, it was if the woman cheats, not the man), and therefore her own life was as sinful--at the very least (possibly more sinful)--than a loving and loyal lifelong gay marriage. But she needed to feel better about herself and thus her hatred against gays and transgenders (and by extension, any who violated "gender norms").

posted October 31, 2019 04:32 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Lexxigramer:
Since the subject of trans was mentioned;
We are born biologically each mostly male or mostly female
However;
My very personal long time struggle and my personal experiences have shown me that to desire to be the opposite sex is more often than not;
a desire to be allowed to do the things that are stereo-typically assigned/dictated as to what is a male supposed to be like and same for a female; dictated solely by the societies and the times we live in.
History has many examples of this.
What are any activities and any kind of clothing and just about everything slapped with stupid male and female labels have to do with whether we have a penis or vagina?
Kids' toys even! Boy toys, girl toys! WTF? Again what the heck does having a penis or vagina have to do with toys? Or clothes? Or careers? Or anything?
And then too often; so disturbingly and sadly; the same exact stereotyping of things becomes even more pronounced and the trans persons actually go on to heavily promote and reinforce those exact same revolting and illogically biased insane stereotypes of what society and not our genitalia determines; as to what represents a male or female; by adopting the stereotypes created by society; the ridiculous overly feminine or overly masculine stereotypes; the overblown often exaggerated caricatures of the what society or the times dictate as being male or female.
Fraking ugh.
Just be yourself and not subscribe to the damn societal dictates of what it dictates as being a male or a female.
No need to go out all trans in most cases. It took me over 5 decades to realize that I did not want to actually be male;
I simply did not want to be forced to adopt society's ideal and dictates of what I was allowed to be, do, dress like! So I just be myself now.
Screw the dictates of society and its damn dictates of how a male or female should act/be and so forth.
OK rant over.

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posted November 03, 2019 08:07 PM            

1st part involved a vivid dream I had when 16 where I was viewing a huge, vast library, and the scene/focus narrowed to two men. One was a middle aged man and the other was older looking and very wise feeling.

In that peculiar way of dreams, I just knew that I was very connected to the middle aged man (and what he thought and felt, I intimately became aware of/knew).

The older/wiser man handed my other self a large book that was opened up, and my other self took it, and as we looked at it, we saw that something like a 3D hyper realistic movie was playing inside it.

In the scenes of same, was a somewhat rough looking trapper/pioneer type looking guy trudging through the woods. The sense was early America, and the trapper looking man was Euro/white looking. As we watched, I knew that both of us were also deeply connected to this other man, and then we got sucked into the scenes as if we were living it from his eyes/perspective.

He ended up getting mauled pretty badly by a black bear and as he laid nearly dying in the woods, a half Native American, half White woman who looked like/reminded me of Tori Amos pretty strongly, found him and attempted to heal him and nurse him back to life. There was an impression that she was rather psychic and could commune telepathically with animals, and that she was the healer of her tribe.

All of a sudden we get pulled out of that perspective and we're back in the library with the older man, who takes back the book and asks my other self pointedly by first saying the other person's name followed by, "don't you think you had the knowledge/awareness within you at the time?"
For some reason, my other self, and I through him, feel a sense of chagrin, like we should have known better, that we had messed up somehow.

Ok, pretty intense dream for a 16 year old, but I filed it away in the back of my mind as interesting, but for the most part forgot about it in the detail sense (the Soul/Spirit connection to that man however remained more so in my conscious awareness).

Flash forward about a decade. I had joined a metaphysical oriented online forum. I ended up becoming friends pretty quickly with a woman a couple decades older than myself.

Besides our shared interests in the particular branch of metaphysics of the forum, we found out that we had a lot in common otherwise, such as we were both really into the Edgar Cayce readings, love Yeshua and his teachings in a nonreligious way a lot, had deep spiritually based ideals, etc.

More oddly was that though I was now living some 600 miles away from her, I found out that she lived very closely to where I spent a chunk of my childhood growing up (and later found out it was like literally within about 10 minutes).

A couple of months or so into our online friendship, her husband who she was very, very close to, ended up dying on an on the job accident. To say that she was devastated would be an understatement. As it was all completely out of the blue and she had no conscious preparation, and because of their degree of extreme closeness, it really hit her very hard, and she became very depressed. All she wanted to talk about was death, and I felt her slipping further and further into deeper depression and despondency.

I spent many hours on the phone listening to her and trying to nudge her towards a bigger picture, spiritual perspective. We had grief in common, some 5 years earlier, my beloved mother who I was very close with and who I shared the same B-day with, died after a 4 yr off and on battle with cancer.

Some of our mutual friends from that forum ended up distancing themselves from her because they couldn't take the heaviness and the constant focus on death. Being highly empathic, the heaviness wasn't easy for me either, but I felt this very strong and persistent sense of needing/having to be there for her no matter what.

Some time later, my partner and I were planning a visit back to our home state to visit family and friends, and I contacted her and said, hey, I'll be in your area, would you like to hang out at all. She said yes, and we set up some plans.

The first night we hung out, it was just her and I, and as we were sitting there talking, all of a sudden she reminded me of/sort of looked Tori Amos, and as soon as that came up, that dream from a decade prior came flooding back into my awareness, and along with the dream was extra information that I hadn't remembered from the dream.

I felt strongly/knew that my friend was connected to the half Native American, half White woman healer that had found my other self and nursed him back to life. I knew that her other self had been successful at this, and that after, they had had a romantic relationship, but my other self had ended up hurting her very deeply emotionally.

I didn't know what to do with this information if anything at all. I knew she was vulnerable and didn't want to add to any upset. I decided to just feel it out, and ask her questions like, "how do you feel about Native American culture", "early American period", "healing", etc. After she answered that she had interests in all these areas, I felt nudged to just spill the beans and tell her the dream and what was going on as we were talking.

After I finished telling her, it was one of the few or only times in my life where I experienced someone's mouth dropped in surprise/shock. She took some moments to collect herself and she started telling me that many years previously, thee was an older lady that was her friend and a spiritual mentor to her. This lady was very connected to Edgar Cayce and his organization the A.R.E.

One year during my friend's birthday, her friend said to her that she wanted to get her a unique present. She had an old friend that was retired from doing past life readings (this lady was also very connected to the A.R.E.), but thought that she might do a favor for her and give my friend a reading.

It all worked out and during my friend's past life reading, the sensitive focused on primarily two lifetimes, one in Greece, and one in early America where she was a half White and half Native American woman who was the healer of her tribe. She became involved with a white man and he ended up hurting her deeply. At the end of the reading the sensitive, looked at her intently and said, "You and this man will meet later on in this life, for you have unfinished business with each other."

We were both blown away by this synchronicity, and it explained to me why I came into her life shortly before her husband died, and why I felt such a strong sense of duty and obligation to be there for her no matter what. Just as she had nursed my other self back to life in that life, so did I try to nurse her back to life in this life, though in a different way. My Spirit owed her a major debt of karma in a sense.

The rabbit hole actually gets deeper. The man in the dream that I knew I was strongly connected to/part of, was someone connected to Edgar Cayce and that whole scene back in the early to mid 1900's. When I had had the dream back then, I wasn't aware of all the karmic and past life back stories involved.
And though after the second part of the experience, I had some awareness of some of this information, there was still a lot I wasn't consciously aware of.

I did some digging after the experience with my friend. I found out that these two lifetimes as talked about in my dream and in the psychic reading for my friend, were outlined quite clearly and similarly for two people that had known Edgar Cayce and had gotten "Life Readings". One of whom was the man I had observed in my dream. The only thing which wasn't outlined in the Cayce readings for these folks' past lives was the man getting mauled by a bear. But all the other major points fit. Euro trapper ahole dude gets involved with half white, half native healer of her tribe, hurts her deeply, she had psychic gifts and could telepathically commune with animals, etc.

posted December 26, 2019 05:11 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by anonymidarkness:
I've found that Buddhist way is like Mayweather boxing, boring but you will last the journey with a pretty face, Yoga on the other hand is like Mike Tyson, you know you're going to break down some shjt somewhere down the line and then pick up the pieces, funnily even Tyson seems to have gone a bit Buddhist now, for the "Tyson" type, it is difficult to approach shjt like Mayweather though I've found, you just wanna conquer and its telling u to bloody watch!!!1 aFter a while you're like "Fjck this shjt!!! and fjck yu too"...And you go back to punching daylights out of people again...

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posted December 31, 2019 01:46 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by anonymidarkness:
I've found that Buddhist way is like Mayweather boxing, boring but you will last the journey with a pretty face, Yoga on the other hand is like Mike Tyson, you know you're going to break down some shjt somewhere down the line and then pick up the pieces, funnily even Tyson seems to have gone a bit Buddhist now, for the "Tyson" type, it is difficult to approach shjt like Mayweather though I've found, you just wanna conquer and its telling u to bloody watch!!!1 aFter a while you're like "Fjck this shjt!!! and fjck yu too"...And you go back to punching daylights out of people again...

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posted January 15, 2020 09:08 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by PixieJane:
As for the transwoman who wrote in there were 3 responses. I'll try to sum them up as briefly as I can (which will be skipping a lot and perhaps I don't encapsulate it perfectly).

One was that the Buddha taught to be indifferent to their bodies yet also use their bodies for enlightenment. Neither extreme is good, nor is it conducive to enlightenment to be miserable all the time. A lifetime is one of challenges and becoming whole, and one such possibility is gender dysphoria or some such in which one expresses one's more authentic self by crossing over, but ultimately rising above the very concept of gender itself. Incongruence, the sense of alienation, is common to most if not all people, it just takes different forms, some more socially acceptable than others (and what draws many to religion in the first place, though I'd add it's also why many leave the religion they were raised in as well).

The second is that the teaching of anatta does not say there is no self, but rather "nothing conditional can be pointed to as being who are what you are." He goes on to say that she will face many new challenges as a woman that will likely be conducive to learning detachment and letting go which is a good, if sometimes painful, thing.

The last says the greater the obstacle, the greater the opportunity, and that transitioning is a great way to explore the relationship between absolute and relative truth. After more details on this, she sums up with all of us are victims of primordial identity theft and that a man becoming a woman is an attempt at recovering her true self...but that "the finite cannot contain the infinite, if we identify with that form, it will always feel like something is missing."

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