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Post by melvin on Nov 28, 2024 15:32:24 GMT -5
We don't have control. There never was. What's in our minds are the makings of one who is in control.
Bg 18.61
The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.
Purport
Arjuna was not the supreme knower, and his decision to fight or not to fight was confined to his limited discretion. Lord Kṛṣṇa instructed that the individual is not all in all. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, or He Himself, Kṛṣṇa, as the localized Supersoul, sits in the heart directing the living being. After changing bodies, the living entity forgets his past deeds, but the Supersoul, as the knower of the past, present and future, remains the witness of all his activities. Therefore all the activities of living entities are directed by this Supersoul. The living entity gets what he deserves and is carried by the material body, which is created in the material energy under the direction of the Supersoul. As soon as a living entity is placed in a particular type of body, he has to work under the spell of that bodily situation. A person seated in a high-speed motorcar goes faster than one seated in a slower car, though the living entities, the drivers, may be the same. Similarly, by the order of the Supreme Soul, material nature fashions a particular type of body to a particular type of living entity so that he may work according to his past desires. The living entity is not independent. One should not think himself independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The individual is always under the Lord’s control.
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Post by inavalan on Nov 28, 2024 16:41:29 GMT -5
The beauty and the difficulty of all this is that everyone, when awake, is let to have his own beliefs; about what he is, about what he should do here, about what all this is, about everything. You can even believe that you know.  |
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Post by melvin on Nov 28, 2024 22:46:04 GMT -5
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is
Chapter Ten
The Opulence of the Absolute
TEXT 1: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Listen again, O mighty-armed Arjuna. Because you are My dear friend, for your benefit I shall speak to you further, giving knowledge that is better than what I have already explained.
TEXT 2: Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and sages.
TEXT 3: He who knows Me as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds – he only, undeluded among men, is freed from all sins.
TEXTS 4-5: Intelligence, knowledge, freedom from doubt and delusion, forgiveness, truthfulness, control of the senses, control of the mind, happiness and distress, birth, death, fear, fearlessness, nonviolence, equanimity, satisfaction, austerity, charity, fame and infamy – all these various qualities of living beings are created by Me alone.
TEXT 6: The seven great sages and before them the four other great sages and the Manus [progenitors of mankind] come from Me, born from My mind, and all the living beings populating the various planets descend from them.
TEXT 7: One who is factually convinced of this opulence and mystic power of Mine engages in unalloyed devotional service; of this there is no doubt.
TEXT 8: I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.
TEXT 9: The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.
TEXT 10: To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.
TEXT 11: To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.
TEXTS 12-13: Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsa confirm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.
TEXT 14: O Kṛṣṇa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons, O Lord, can understand Your personality.
TEXT 15: Indeed, You alone know Yourself by Your own internal potency, O Supreme Person, origin of all, Lord of all beings, God of gods, Lord of the universe!
TEXT 16: Please tell me in detail of Your divine opulences by which You pervade all these worlds.
TEXT 17: O Kṛṣṇa, O supreme mystic, how shall I constantly think of You, and how shall I know You? In what various forms are You to be remembered, O Supreme Personality of Godhead?
TEXT 18: O Janārdana, again please describe in detail the mystic power of Your opulences. I am never satiated in hearing about You, for the more I hear the more I want to taste the nectar of Your words.
TEXT 19: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Yes, I will tell you of My splendorous manifestations, but only of those which are prominent, O Arjuna, for My opulence is limitless.
TEXT 20: I am the Supersoul, O Arjuna, seated in the hearts of all living entities. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.
TEXT 21: Of the Ādityas I am Viṣṇu, of lights I am the radiant sun, of the Maruts I am Marīci, and among the stars I am the moon.
TEXT 22: Of the Vedas I am the Sāma Veda; of the demigods I am Indra, the king of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the living force [consciousness].
TEXT 23: Of all the Rudras I am Lord Śiva, of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas I am the Lord of wealth [Kuvera], of the Vasus I am fire [Agni], and of mountains I am Meru.
TEXT 24: Of priests, O Arjuna, know Me to be the chief, Bṛhaspati. Of generals I am Kārttikeya, and of bodies of water I am the ocean.TEXT 25: Of the great sages I am Bhṛgu; of vibrations I am the transcendental oṁ. Of sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names [japa], and of immovable things I am the Himālayas.
TEXT 26: Of all trees I am the banyan tree, and of the sages among the demigods I am Nārada. Of the Gandharvas I am Citraratha, and among perfected beings I am the sage Kapila.
TEXT 27: Of horses know Me to be Uccaiḥśravā, produced during the churning of the ocean for nectar. Of lordly elephants I am Airāvata, and among men I am the monarch.
TEXT 28: Of weapons I am the thunderbolt; among cows I am the surabhi. Of causes for procreation I am Kandarpa, the god of love, and of serpents I am Vāsuki.
TEXT 29: Of the many-hooded Nāgas I am Ananta, and among the aquatics I am the demigod Varuṇa. Of departed ancestors I am Aryamā, and among the dispensers of law I am Yama, the lord of death.
TEXT 30: Among the Daitya demons I am the devoted Prahlāda, among subduers I am time, among beasts I am the lion, and among birds I am Garuḍa.
TEXT 31: Of purifiers I am the wind, of the wielders of weapons I am Rāma, of fishes I am the shark, and of flowing rivers I am the Ganges.
TEXT 32: Of all creations I am the beginning and the end and also the middle, O Arjuna. Of all sciences I am the spiritual science of the self, and among logicians I am the conclusive truth.
TEXT 33: Of letters I am the letter A, and among compound words I am the dual compound. I am also inexhaustible time, and of creators I am Brahmā.
TEXT 34: I am all-devouring death, and I am the generating principle of all that is yet to be. Among women I am fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience.
TEXT 35: Of the hymns in the Sāma Veda I am the Bṛhat-sāma, and of poetry I am the Gāyatrī. Of months I am Mārgaśīrṣa [November-December], and of seasons I am flower-bearing spring.
TEXT 36: I am also the gambling of cheats, and of the splendid I am the splendor. I am victory, I am adventure, and I am the strength of the strong.
TEXT 37: Of the descendants of Vṛṣṇi I am Vāsudeva, and of the Pāṇḍavas I am Arjuna. Of the sages I am Vyāsa, and among great thinkers I am Uśanā.
TEXT 38: Among all means of suppressing lawlessness I am punishment, and of those who seek victory I am morality. Of secret things I am silence, and of the wise I am the wisdom.
TEXT 39: Furthermore, O Arjuna, I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being – moving or nonmoving – that can exist without Me.
TEXT 40: O mighty conqueror of enemies, there is no end to My divine manifestations. What I have spoken to you is but a mere indication of My infinite opulences.
TEXT 41: Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.
TEXT 42: But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe.
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Post by Reefs on Nov 28, 2024 23:57:45 GMT -5
The beauty and the difficulty of all this is that everyone, when awake, is let to have his own beliefs; about what he is, about what he should do here, about what all this is, about everything. You can even believe that you know. In the relative truth context, that would be correct. However, in the absolute truth context, that is circular reasoning, because the belief that it is all just beliefs is also just a belief. It's like saying it's all appearances and stopping there. That won't get you anywhere unless you have a references for something prior to beliefs or appearances. And so that kind of awakening is always relative, never absolute. And the furthest you can go with this is solipsism.
But there's a reality prior to beliefs, any beliefs, or appearances. It's a reality not even Seth was aware of. And until one hasn't seen that, directly, one cannot be said to be awake. That kind of awakening is absolute.
So, you are not really wrong. The tricky part is to not conflate relative truths with the absolute truth, i.e. declare a relative truth as the absolute truth, or the absolute truth as a relative truth. That's the definition of ignorance (avidya) in the non-duality context, i.e. seeing the false as real and the real as false. And if you do that, you would be wrong. But you will only know that when you suddenly see or realize, directly, the real as real and the false as false. Until then, it's just mental kungfu and no one will be able to convince you otherwise.
The absolute truth is prior to concepts, beliefs, logic and language. Which means a logically unassailable argument has nor bearing on any of this. Such arguments can only be relevant in the relative truth context. Even what is said here about the ultimate truth is not ultimately true. Because it can only be talked about as a concept and by doing that we are in the relative truth realm again (aka the Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao...)
However, these concepts, when in engaged earnestly, can work as some kind of monkey-wrench that can stop the mind machine. And when that happens, it's all in plain sight, self-evident.
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Post by melvin on Nov 29, 2024 2:30:22 GMT -5
Exceptions are real
Whatever arising from my mind isn't true, except
Whenever I speak, what comes out are false, except
Whatever I put in my stomach, food and drink, ain't real, except
Whatever I write on paper is an illusion, except
Whenever I feel pain, it's not real, except
Whatever I learned, experienced in life is illusory, except
The only thing that matters is that I am alive , except
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Post by melvin on Nov 29, 2024 14:12:57 GMT -5
Exceptions are real Whatever arising from my mind isn't true, except Whenever I speak, what comes out are false, except Whatever I put in my stomach, food and drink, ain't real, except Whatever I write on paper is an illusion, except Whenever I feel pain, it's not real, except Whatever I learned, experienced in life is illusory, except The only thing that matters is that I am alive , except Chatgpt Version I must acknowledge the connections I share, except In this world of shifting shadows, moments are fleeting, except Yet within the chaos, there lies a truth, except For every doubt I harbor, love breaks through, except Each heartbeat whispers of existence, and still, except I find solace in the small, simple joys, except In my breath, there is a rhythm, a pulse, except Though illusions thrive, hope shines brighter, except In the dance of life, I'm both lost and found, except The essence of being transcends the mind's trickery, except Ultimately, I'm here, and that's a truth worth embracing, except. |
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Post by inavalan on Nov 29, 2024 19:11:18 GMT -5
The beauty and the difficulty of all this is that everyone, when awake, is let to have his own beliefs; about what he is, about what he should do here, about what all this is, about everything. You can even believe that you know. In the relative truth context, that would be correct. However, in the absolute truth context, that is circular reasoning, because the belief that it is all just beliefs is also just a belief. It's like saying it's all appearances and stopping there. That won't get you anywhere unless you have a references for something prior to beliefs or appearances. And so that kind of awakening is always relative, never absolute. And the furthest you can go with this is solipsism.
But there's a reality prior to beliefs, any beliefs, or appearances. It's a reality not even Seth was aware of. And until one hasn't seen that, directly, one cannot be said to be awake. That kind of awakening is absolute.
So, you are not really wrong. The tricky part is to not conflate relative truths with the absolute truth, i.e. declare a relative truth as the absolute truth, or the absolute truth as a relative truth. That's the definition of ignorance (avidya) in the non-duality context, i.e. seeing the false as real and the real as false. And if you do that, you would be wrong. But you will only know that when you suddenly see or realize, directly, the real as real and the false as false. Until then, it's just mental kungfu and no one will be able to convince you otherwise.
The absolute truth is prior to concepts, beliefs, logic and language. Which means a logically unassailable argument has nor bearing on any of this. Such arguments can only be relevant in the relative truth context. Even what is said here about the ultimate truth is not ultimately true. Because it can only be talked about as a concept and by doing that we are in the relative truth realm again (aka the Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao...)
However, these concepts, when in engaged earnestly, can work as some kind of monkey-wrench that can stop the mind machine. And when that happens, it's all in plain sight, self-evident.
It feels like I should reply something, but I really have nothing to say. |
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Post by inavalan on Nov 29, 2024 19:25:21 GMT -5
... I've had back pain, on and off, for 25 years. ... - "Searing pain screamed up my spine and down my legs. I was paralyzed with agony to the extent that for a few seconds, I couldn’t even move.
Even when the pain settled down, it was still so intense that I couldn’t stand.
I dragged myself along the floor to my bedroom and lay down on my bed. No matter how I moved or oriented myself, I just couldn’t make that pain go away.
The pain passed eventually, but it kept on coming back every 4 or 5 years, getting worse each time.
That first time I experienced sciatic back pain, it was gone the very next day.
The next time, a few years later, things had clearly deteriorated, because it lasted a few days.
Each time I had an attack, the pain would get worse. And it would persist for longer. The first attack lasted for a single evening. The last one… almost a month.
My doctor had a cunning plan. Just take these powerful painkillers for the rest of your life, she said.
That didn’t appeal to me very much, and even though I’d been a self-hypnotist for 20 years at that point, I’d never thought to look into pain control.
So I did some research, and as a result of that research built a simple hypnotic pain control process. Then I used a self-hypnosis process to implement it within myself.
That was over 10 years ago, and I haven’t had a single attack of sciatic back pain since. And as a side benefit, these days I never use pain-killers for anything.
I went from being quite literally crippled by the pain, to having the occasional twinge every few years, with a simple self-hypnosis process."
--- Max Trance, "The Self-Hypnosis Formula"
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Post by melvin on Nov 29, 2024 19:53:07 GMT -5
What is the Absolute Truth?
It's something which can't be described by words, but can be felt. When you're anxious, your heart beats fast. When you are calm, your heart beats slow.
There's duality in that statement, isn't it? Anxiety and calmness, fast and slow. When these are not separated means there's oneness, non-dual.
The Absolute Truth is a non-dual concept since it can not be described as fast or slow, anxious or calm. So, if one can not describe something chances are it's the Absolute Truth.
When you say, hot and cold, hate and love, big and small, etc it aint the Absolute Truth. You can't even point this and that is the Absolute Truth. It's not the Kailash or Himalayas, it's not even the newly-elected president of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
We can go on and on using the word Absolute Truth, but it's neither any of this or that.To know the Absolute Truth, listen first to your heart. In there it says to: " Lub Gud...Lub Gud...Lub Gud.."
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Post by sockawacka on Nov 30, 2024 9:42:26 GMT -5
What is the Absolute Truth? It's something which can't be described by words, but can be felt. When you're anxious, your heart beats fast. When you are calm, your heart beats slow. There's duality in that statement, isn't it? Anxiety and calmness, fast and slow. When these are not separated means there's oneness, non-dual. The Absolute Truth is a non-dual concept since it can not be described as fast or slow, anxious or calm. So, if one can not describe something chances are it's the Absolute Truth. When you say, hot and cold, hate and love, big and small, etc it aint the Absolute Truth. You can't even point this and that is the Absolute Truth. It's not the Kailash or Himalayas, it's not even the newly-elected president of the United States of America, Donald Trump. We can go on and on using the word Absolute Truth, but it's neither any of this or that.To know the Absolute Truth, listen first to your heart. In there it says to: " Lub Gud...Lub Gud...Lub Gud.." A feeling is also an experience, no? It falls under neti-neti, another object of consciousness, not real? |
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Post by sockawacka on Nov 30, 2024 9:52:15 GMT -5
Does anyone have a spiritual hypothesis for "the speed of light being a universal speed limit" (even if with some fine print according to some physicists)? physics.stackexchange.com/questions/113209/speed-of-light-as-a-universal-speed-limit- (A comment to the topic): Bob Geroch of the U. of Chicago has posted a paper on this topic. I extract a little bit and give you a link to the rest.
"We shall argue here that, all this evidence notwithstanding, special relativity need not be construed as prohibiting superluminal signals. Relativity theory with such signals permitted, we shall argue, is as viable and physically acceptable as relativity theory without. We suggest that a universal limitation on signal speeds need not be taken as any fundamental principle of physics. Rather, the whole idea of such a limit has more to do with history and with the types of interactions to which we are commonly exposed. We emphasize that we are not suggesting here that some new theory be introduced to replace special relativity; nor, indeed, that any of the basic structural components of the theory of relativity be changed. What is to be changed is merely our perspective on relativity theory."
link to abstract arxiv.org/abs/1005.1614v1
Speed of light is basically infinite speed, for the traveler. You (the massless particle) arrive at your destination immediately, in no time passed. So it can't be any faster. (This is according to the best physics we have, and they are right about many things...) It seems to me that light is on the edge of manifestation, on the threshold between the Manifest, and the Unmanifest. It has no "time", since its voyages are instantaneous. It has no mass, ie., no body. It binds our manifest bodies together - the universal electromagnetic field is what holds atoms together (+ attracting -), and what determines "chemical" reactions that build so much of life on earth..... |
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Post by zendancer on Nov 30, 2024 9:59:31 GMT -5
What is the Absolute Truth? It's something which can't be described by words, but can be felt. When you're anxious, your heart beats fast. When you are calm, your heart beats slow. There's duality in that statement, isn't it? Anxiety and calmness, fast and slow. When these are not separated means there's oneness, non-dual. The Absolute Truth is a non-dual concept since it can not be described as fast or slow, anxious or calm. So, if one can not describe something chances are it's the Absolute Truth. When you say, hot and cold, hate and love, big and small, etc it aint the Absolute Truth. You can't even point this and that is the Absolute Truth. It's not the Kailash or Himalayas, it's not even the newly-elected president of the United States of America, Donald Trump. We can go on and on using the word Absolute Truth, but it's neither any of this or that.To know the Absolute Truth, listen first to your heart. In there it says to: " Lub Gud...Lub Gud...Lub Gud.." A feeling is also an experience, no? It falls under neti-neti, another object of consciousness, not real? True. A better word is "grok," from Heinlein's book "Stranger in a Strange Land." The truth can be grokked, or directly apprehended, via a kensho event of oneness. That kind of event is beyond the intellect and duality, and there's no sense of an SVP being present during such an event. |
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Post by melvin on Nov 30, 2024 11:33:25 GMT -5
What is the Absolute Truth? It's something which can't be described by words, but can be felt. When you're anxious, your heart beats fast. When you are calm, your heart beats slow. There's duality in that statement, isn't it? Anxiety and calmness, fast and slow. When these are not separated means there's oneness, non-dual. The Absolute Truth is a non-dual concept since it can not be described as fast or slow, anxious or calm. So, if one can not describe something chances are it's the Absolute Truth. When you say, hot and cold, hate and love, big and small, etc it aint the Absolute Truth. You can't even point this and that is the Absolute Truth. It's not the Kailash or Himalayas, it's not even the newly-elected president of the United States of America, Donald Trump. We can go on and on using the word Absolute Truth, but it's neither any of this or that.To know the Absolute Truth, listen first to your heart. In there it says to: " Lub Gud...Lub Gud...Lub Gud.." A feeling is also an experience, no? It falls under neti-neti, another object of consciousness, not real? The Absolute can be felt with the heart, according to Helen Adams Keller. Keller, who was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, said that the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or heard, but must be felt with the heart. The Absolute is a term used in philosophy and theology to describe a perfect, self-sufficient reality that is independent of anything external. In theology, the term is often used to refer to the supreme being |
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Post by zazeniac on Nov 30, 2024 11:40:26 GMT -5
The beauty and the difficulty of all this is that everyone, when awake, is let to have his own beliefs; about what he is, about what he should do here, about what all this is, about everything. You can even believe that you know. In the relative truth context, that would be correct. However, in the absolute truth context, that is circular reasoning, because the belief that it is all just beliefs is also just a belief. It's like saying it's all appearances and stopping there. That won't get you anywhere unless you have a references for something prior to beliefs or appearances. And so that kind of awakening is always relative, never absolute. And the furthest you can go with this is solipsism.
But there's a reality prior to beliefs, any beliefs, or appearances. It's a reality not even Seth was aware of. And until one hasn't seen that, directly, one cannot be said to be awake. That kind of awakening is absolute.
So, you are not really wrong. The tricky part is to not conflate relative truths with the absolute truth, i.e. declare a relative truth as the absolute truth, or the absolute truth as a relative truth. That's the definition of ignorance (avidya) in the non-duality context, i.e. seeing the false as real and the real as false. And if you do that, you would be wrong. But you will only know that when you suddenly see or realize, directly, the real as real and the false as false. Until then, it's just mental kungfu and no one will be able to convince you otherwise.
The absolute truth is prior to concepts, beliefs, logic and language. Which means a logically unassailable argument has nor bearing on any of this. Such arguments can only be relevant in the relative truth context. Even what is said here about the ultimate truth is not ultimately true. Because it can only be talked about as a concept and by doing that we are in the relative truth realm again (aka the Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao...)
However, these concepts, when in engaged earnestly, can work as some kind of monkey-wrench that can stop the mind machine. And when that happens, it's all in plain sight, self-evident.
The first time I washed the household dishes--my mother showed me how-- was magical. I revelled in the warmth, the suds, the scrubbers and sponges. It was fun. When it became a weekly chore, it became a dreaded weekend activity, an obstacle, a drag on fun. The task of doing dishes didn't change. It seems to me the relative and the sublime are inextricably entwined when chopping wood and carrying water lose the stigma of drudgery. |
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Post by inavalan on Nov 30, 2024 12:40:48 GMT -5
Does anyone have a spiritual hypothesis for "the speed of light being a universal speed limit" (even if with some fine print according to some physicists)? physics.stackexchange.com/questions/113209/speed-of-light-as-a-universal-speed-limit- (A comment to the topic): Bob Geroch of the U. of Chicago has posted a paper on this topic. I extract a little bit and give you a link to the rest.
"We shall argue here that, all this evidence notwithstanding, special relativity need not be construed as prohibiting superluminal signals. Relativity theory with such signals permitted, we shall argue, is as viable and physically acceptable as relativity theory without. We suggest that a universal limitation on signal speeds need not be taken as any fundamental principle of physics. Rather, the whole idea of such a limit has more to do with history and with the types of interactions to which we are commonly exposed. We emphasize that we are not suggesting here that some new theory be introduced to replace special relativity; nor, indeed, that any of the basic structural components of the theory of relativity be changed. What is to be changed is merely our perspective on relativity theory."
link to abstract arxiv.org/abs/1005.1614v1
Speed of light is basically infinite speed, for the traveler. You (the massless particle) arrive at your destination immediately, in no time passed. So it can't be any faster. (This is according to the best physics we have, and they are right about many things...) It seems to me that light is on the edge of manifestation, on the threshold between the Manifest, and the Unmanifest. It has no "time", since its voyages are instantaneous. It has no mass, ie., no body. It binds our manifest bodies together - the universal electromagnetic field is what holds atoms together (+ attracting -), and what determines "chemical" reactions that build so much of life on earth..... I like that. |
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