Simon V.

I am not afraid of the concept of evil, and see its place as a valid way of pointing at behaviour and world forces.
Well there are different shades of evil aren’t there? And there is a range in terms of how conscious you are of your wrongdoing. Generally it is the more conscious wrongdoing that is considered more reprehensible–at least, that…[Read more]

I have no plans to try and win over the neocons, which is why I said I did not mean to engage in a ‘chivalry media campaign’ (though I’m sure this would provide many with abundant amusement at my expense, and thereby brighten at least somebody’s mood : )) but only offer up a notion of doing a bit of creative meditating in appeal to conscience,…[Read more]

I have a tentative ‘magical hypothesis’–that focus on (and I don’t mean a media campaign but a meditative practice/prayer) the idea of ‘chivalry’ (which strongly incorporates the feminine archetype), or on deep spiritual warrior codes/traditions in general (e.g., ‘bushido’) is one way to appeal to those caught up in the surges of aggression; in…[Read more]

You’re refering to the guy whose techniques Aldous Huxley restored his eyesight with right? Huxley was already blind in one eye, was already at least in his sixties and had been told that he would, with no chance of recovery soon be going blind in the other eye. Instead he ended up with perfect vision in his remaining eye. Naturally he was…[Read more]

Keeping careful notes of your dreams, even if they seem obscure or mundane, can lead naturally to receiving advice on practice, and serves as a sort of natural mind training for decoding deeper or subtler levels of mind. And like attracts like.
I agree with what Singing Ocean said about such communications maybe some of the time being more like…[Read more]

I like this, because it is so wide open, philosophically sound, and honouring the uniqueness of individual path.

New Year’s for me involved some primal dancing to live music at a house party. Some kind of tapping in to the medicine of rhythm and sex and something unsaid that moves that, led to a kind of shaministic exhaltation, an overcoming of…[Read more]

Thought so. One of his books of poetry, The Book of Mercy, is great stuff too.

“There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

–Leonard Cohen

It is interesting that though China was filled with strife, nevertheless because of their unique earthy combination of worldly life and spiritual life, the esoteric practices were able to stay above board, rather than they way it went down in Europe with the inquistion etc. This is too much of a generalized comparison of two cultures, but I often…[Read more]

Maybe John McChanes has a closet interest in daoism and is sending out unconscious signals to draw daoists to him… : )

Respectfully, if you’re not sure maybe you shouldn’t right now. Focusing on one thing until you get it is more important than taking on too much too quickly.

One the other hand, at a point when you feel you have really digested and accomplished something in daoism, and if you are really interested, you could always go ahead and read the…[Read more]

Members of my family on my mother’s side have been quite active politically in a grass roots way (i.e., not as politicians) and consequently I have seen from my own immediate experience how positive things came about mainly because of the active involvement of, the pressure introduced by, concerned people.

My family is good this way, but there…[Read more]

A big topic.
Reading that book would be a good start. Also ‘The Lion’s Roar’ by Chogyam Trungpa is good–it goes into the yanas that come before Vajrayana too, which he considered important.
I have read the Gampopa book–very interesting.
I particularly like the part where Milarepa leans over and whispers in Gampopa’s ear, saying “There IS a…[Read more]

Indeed: One of my favourite conundrums is “Which came first, the Guru or the Student?”. Clearly the situation is less linear than we are usually tempted to think.
The Kadgyu lineage has two main streams. The more crazy yogi side comes from Tilopa, whose teacher is always psychedelically stated to have been “The Primordial Buddha”. Not much…[Read more]

I have had experiences like these.
And then what?
What about art, science?
We don’t have to give them up–how tragic if we felt we had to.
Mind expansion, and/or perfection of skills, is not the same as operative mode, or they interweave seamlessly, yet require their own form of cultivating intent.
Michael’s argument for ‘spiritual science’…[Read more]

Here’s a gem for you:

Nagarjuna’s Philosophy (or The Maha-prajnaparamita-sastra) by K. Venkata Ramanan. It is the little known Nagarjuna’s commentary on the Prajnaparamita. I should say, as the translator points out, that the case for the author being Nagarjuna himself is not airtight, just very good. The only surviving version was in Chinese,…[Read more]

I agree with the things you said here.

I would also say that being an overt spiritual teacher is just one (important) form of being a spiritual practicioner. Imagine if everyone who practices traditional spiritual arts were aspiring to be gurus, like all trying to be the ceo of the same company… It’s unrealistic, amusingly so. Just a thought…[Read more]

The Tibetant buddhist mahamudra approach (as I understand it) is that a view somewhat like this but with much technical tweaking (for anyone interested see The Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamptso) can be used to overcome problematic tendencies–i.e., it can be used as an alchemical device to purify kleshas…[Read more]

Ok; take your time.

Ok; take your time.