date:20070511

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> and upon the 
> throne sat a being of purest gold, draped in pure gold ermine and 
> velvet, a skull demonic face upon a beautiful skeletal body, deep 
> gold ribs and pelvis, leering as only a face stripped of flesh will, 
> with sockets of deep shadow, yet radiant purest gold. I was slightly 
> afraid and wanted to look elsewhere and yet at the same time, this 
> demonic Being was radiating such love and Bliss, 

That was a Grateful Dead Album cover.


>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning - flaws of Unity

2007-05-11 Thread jim_flanegin

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rory Goff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
> YES! This is what I meant when I said there is a place inside 
where 
> the Purusha deeply hates and fears the Prakriti, and vice versa. 
> Coming upon the Purusha's utterly helpless imprisonment within the 
> bodymind-world-prakriti stymied me for a moment, as this seemed to 
be 
> the ultimate demonic Hell. Then I remembered the approach which 
has 
> generally worked for me in the past: When I meet a demon, I 
embrace 
> it. Since the demon here seemed to be the whole of physical 
creation, 
> I embraced it. Wow! Just under that horror of separation/hate was 
the 
> passionate Understanding of the intimacy of the world as my body, 
as 
> my LOVE!
> 
> *L*L*L*
>
I saw something just after my meditation last evening which 
represents another view of what you have said- Lying down after my 
twenty minute journey, I saw clearly cast against a resplendent and 
regal golden crimson backdrop of heavenly light was a stunningly 
majestic throne of purest gold, radiating pure bliss, and upon the 
throne sat a being of purest gold, draped in pure gold ermine and 
velvet, a skull demonic face upon a beautiful skeletal body, deep 
gold ribs and pelvis, leering as only a face stripped of flesh will, 
with sockets of deep shadow, yet radiant purest gold. I was slightly 
afraid and wanted to look elsewhere and yet at the same time, this 
demonic Being was radiating such love and Bliss, I could not look 
away, as I just watched fascinated and calm until He faded away from 
my sight. It was really quite extraordinary!

[FairfieldLife] Re: 20/20

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> ABC's 20/20 show on Faith is quite good. Very good segment on Amma
at the
> beginning. It's 2 hours long and not yet half over as I write this.
Those on
> the west coast should be able to see the whole thing.

I stayed up last week to watch it and got john stossel for an hour. I
hope its really on this time. :)

[FairfieldLife] Re: ignorance is part of totality

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> "Ignorance is only apparent, it isn't real" - I know, fundamentally 
> and philosophically this is supposed to be so and yes one can 
> appreciate the "cleverness" in that magical trick - it's only a rope 
> that appears like a snake etc; but experientially suffering is real 
> enough. 

But how real is it? Give the sufferer something that change ones
neurotransmittor balance -- ectasy or  cocaine to increase dopamine,
or opiates which also increase dopamine while modify signaling within
pain receptors.

"The human body naturally produces its own opiate-like substances and
uses them as neurotransmitters. These substances include endorphins,
enkephalins, and dynorphin, often collectively known as endogenous
opioids. Endogenous opioids modulate our reactions to painful stimuli.
They also regulate vital functions such as hunger and thirst and are
involved in mood control, immune response, and other processes.

The reason that opiates such as heroin and morphine affect us so
powerfully is that these exogenous substances bind to the same
receptors as our endogenous opioids. There are three kinds of
receptors widely distributed throughout the brain: mu, delta, and
kappa receptors.

These receptors, through second messengers, influence the likelihood
that ion channels will open, which in certain cases reduces the
excitability of neurons. This reduced excitability is the likely
source of the euphoric effect of opiates and appears to be mediated by
the mu and delta receptors.

This euphoric effect also appears to involve another mechanism in
which the GABA-inhibitory interneurons of the ventral tegmental area
come into play. By attaching to their mu receptors, exogenous opioids
reduce the amount of GABA released (see animation). Normally, GABA
reduces the amount of dopamine released in the nucleus accumbens. By
inhibiting this inhibitor, the opiates ultimately increase the amount
of dopamine produced and the amount of pleasure felt."

http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_03_m/i_03_m_par/i_03_m_par_heroine.html

Such drugs are not a viable or permanent solution to suffering in that
they can negatively effect cognitive and motor skils etc, and their
mechanisms change over long term use (increased dose tolerance,
receptor breakdown, etc). However, they simply amplify naturally
occuring, vital nuerotransmittors already working 24/7 in the nervous
system. 

Thus, that such changes in naturally occuring neurotransmittors can
dramatically change the perspective OF THE SAME SITUATION from pain
and suffering to joy, compassion and vitality supports the premise
that suffering is not inherent in external  circumstances but is one
of many possible "outcomes" of internal processing of those external
circumstances.

>The deception then becomes not playful but unimaginably 
> cruel. And there is just smugness in the philosophy, no real 
> compassion, unfortunately. It's voyeurism on the part of the Self - 
> witnessing like in a peep show, at safe distance, whilst the whole of 
> creation is left languishing in despair..
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Marek Reavis" 
>  wrote:
> >
> > Quick comment below:
> > 
> > **
> > 
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk"  
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > "'So both diversification and unification ... when the two come 
> to 
> > > awareness then the hiding, the cover, also comes to awareness. So 
> > the 
> > > cover is uncovered." This is the mechanics of how we get 
> suffering 
> > > and the elimination of suffering. But suffering still dominates 
> in 
> > > the Relative, like a flowing river; the elimination of suffering 
> is 
> > > by contrast a drop by drop process, so on balance venturing into 
> > the 
> > > Relative is utter stupidity. There is something rather perverse 
> in 
> > > the idea that you have unity, diversity and the COVERING in the 
> > first 
> > > place. Why not unity, diversity and total CLARITY instead? That 
> way 
> > > unity is never lost whatever the experience in the relative, 
> bliss 
> > > overriding any possibility of suffering, and thus all would be 
> > well. 
> > > The cover that needs uncovering is the ROOT of suffering and it 
> has 
> > > nothing to do with our own karma after all!! It is a flaw in 
> > Unity.. 
> > > right? 
> > > 
> > > You say ignorance is part of totality - but totality INCLUDES non-
> > > ignorance which you would expect to OVERWHELM ignorance. Whereas 
> > the 
> > > experience of Nature - apart from a few fortunate individuals 
> here 
> > > and there - is that non-ignorance has the upper hand. If the 
> > > INTENTION is to expand happiness via the Relative these mechanics 
> > > simply insure that the outcome inevitably is a FAILURE!! One has 
> to 
> > > question, therefore, the intelligence or sanity at the root of 
> > > creation.. 
> > > 
> > **snip to end**
> > 
> > But that's the glory of Maya; somehow the boundless,

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning - flaws of Unity

That raises the question, in my mind, "if you were living in hell,
would you know it?" Or would you rationalize an altrnative more
hopeful view? 

It seems the Cathars recognized / believed that they were in hell -- a
suffering life made by and ruled by Satan. 

Hells, various levels, might be characterized as life where happiness
/ suffering ratio >1. The higest hell approaching 0. The highest
heaven approaching infinity. 

The prior post characterization is of a life of predomininate
suffering. A hell.  Marek characerizes life as a heaven aka >1.

Many religious traditions within christianity prior to 20th century
feel good ones seemed to reject the world and its trappings / traps --
perhaps not too far from a catharian view.  

How much of happiness / heaven is a reflection of Pure Consciousness
(the polishing of the reflector) and how much is simply better
dopamine release, reutake inhibition, or tuned up dopamine receptors?

"Dopamine is commonly associated with the pleasure system of the
brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a
person proactively to perform certain activities. Dopamine is released
(particularly in areas such as the nucleus accumbens and striatum) by
naturally rewarding experiences such as food, sex,[4][5] use of
certain drugs and neutral stimuli that become associated with them.
This theory is often discussed in terms of drugs such as cocaine and
amphetamines, which seem to directly or indirectly lead to the
increase of dopamine in these areas, and in relation to
neurobiological theories of chemical addiction, arguing that these
dopamine pathways are pathologically altered in addicted persons.

However, cocaine and amphetamine influence separate mechanisms of
action. Cocaine is a dopamine transporter blocker that competitively
inhibits dopamine uptake to increase the lifetime of dopamine and
augments an overabundance of dopamine (an increase of up to 150%)
within the parameters of the dopamine neurotransmitters. Like cocaine,
amphetamines increase the concentration of dopamine in the synaptic
gap, but by a different mechanism. Amphetamines are similar in
structure to dopamine, and so can enter the terminal button of the
presynaptic neuron via its dopamine transporters as well as by
diffusing through the neural membrane directly. When entering inside
the presynaptic neuron, amphetamines force the dopamine molecules out
of their storage vesicles and expel them into the synaptic gap by
making the dopamine transporters work in reverse. Dopamine's role in
experiencing pleasure has been questioned by several researchers. It
has been argued that dopamine is more associated with anticipatory
desire and motivation (commonly referred to as "wanting") as opposed
to actual consummatory pleasure (commonly referred to as "liking").
Dopamine is not released when unpleasant or aversive stimuli are
encountered, and so motivates towards the pleasure of avoiding or
removing the unpleasant stimuli."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> 
> You're starting to "get" why Catharism so appealed
> to the people of the Middle Ages. It was a tough
> time, man. We're talking wars, plagues, poverty,
> and all of the torments of Hell, unless you were 
> privileged enough to be born noble. And even then...
> 
> So one of the things that appealed to the medieval
> mind about Dualism was that God *wasn't* responsible
> for the mess that they saw around them on a daily
> basis. The phenomenal world had been created by the
> Other Guy, the demiurge, by Satan, by the False 
> Jehovah. The world didn't just "look" like a gnarly 
> place because we didn't understand The Unfathomable 
> Workings Of God. It *was* a gnarly place, designed 
> by a dude from The Other Place, the *opposite* to 
> spirit.
> 
> The populace flocked to Catharism in that period 
> because it gave them a respite from trying to under-
> stand The Unfathomable Workings Of God. They got to
> blame the world on Someone Else, not God. And it
> gave them comfort. And the promise of a better life
> in the spirit after they died -- in one incarnation
> or another -- gave them hope. And hope is a good thing.
>

[FairfieldLife] Weekly Quota Reset

It's almost midnight Friday night. I think the 35 post limit worked well. No
one exceeded it. Even Shemp was two posts short. So I'll reset the count.

[FairfieldLife] Re: MSNBC To Catch a Predator

2007-05-11 Thread authfriend

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> A friend of mine works for NBC and he told that they are heading out 
to  
> Fairfield Iowa to set up the Catch a Predator sting there.It will be 
interesting  
> to see who gets caught!

Be interesting to see if your spilling the beans
here means they come away empty-handed.

[FairfieldLife] MSNBC To Catch a Predator

2007-05-11 Thread MDixon6569

A friend of mine works for NBC and he told that they are heading out to  
Fairfield Iowa to set up the Catch a Predator sting there.It will be 
interesting  
to see who gets caught! 



** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

[FairfieldLife] Dalai Lama Quote , Buddhist version of Brahman

2007-05-11 Thread quantum packet

Note: forwarded message attached.

-
Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware
protection. --- Begin Message ---
Title: Snow Lion Publications Newsletter

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week
"When the thought of the internal
And the external as 'I' and 'mine'
Has perished, grasping ceases
And through that cessation birth ceases.

When actions and afflictions cease, there is liberation;
They arise from false conceptions, these arise
>From the elaborations [of false views on inherent
Existence]; elaborations cease in emptiness."
--Nagarjuna

Inherent existence has never been validly known to exist; therefore, it is impossible for there to be any phenomenon that exists through its own power. Since it is experienced that mere dependent-arisings, which are in fact empty of inherent existence, do cause all forms of help and harm, these are established as existent. Thus, mere dependent-arisings do exist. Therefore, all phenomena exist in the manner of appearing as varieties of dependent-arisings. They appear this way without passing beyond the sphere or condition of having just this nature of being utterly non-inherently existent. Therefore, all phenomena have two entities: one entity that is its superficial mode of appearance and one entity that is its deep mode of being. These two are called respectively conventional truths and ultimate truths.

--from The Buddhism of Tibet by the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications

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[FairfieldLife] Re: ignorance is part of totality

2007-05-11 Thread authfriend

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "qntmpkt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --So which is it? Suffering is eliminated, or is it reduced?

As I understand it, suffering is *transcended*.

"You" (whoever "you" is) become identified with
That which cannot suffer, which is beyond the
plane of suffering. The small-s self may continue
to experience suffering, but "you" simply witness
the suffering taking place because "you" are no
longer identified with the self.

That's what they say, at any rate. The "evidence"
is the subjective reports of those who are in that
state of identification with Self rather than self.

> Occasionally, a scale of 1 to 10 is used in questionnaires to rank 
> one's subjective level of sufferingsay migraines.
>  Are you saying that with a rank of "k" or below, suffering is 
> eliminated, but reduced if it's above "k" level?  Or, are you 
saying 
> that anything - 10 or below - can be eliminated? What's your 
evidence 
> for this?
> 
> 
> 
> - In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Marek Reavis"  
> wrote:
> >
> > Comment at bottom:
> > 
> > **
> > 
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk"  
> wrote:
> > >
> > > "Ignorance is only apparent, it isn't real" - I know, 
> fundamentally 
> > > and philosophically this is supposed to be so and yes one can 
> > > appreciate the "cleverness" in that magical trick - it's only a 
> rope 
> > > that appears like a snake etc; but experientially suffering is 
> real 
> > > enough. The deception then becomes not playful but unimaginably 
> > > cruel. And there is just smugness in the philosophy, no real 
> > > compassion, unfortunately. It's voyeurism on the part of the 
> Self - 
> > > witnessing like in a peep show, at safe distance, whilst the 
> whole of 
> > > creation is left languishing in despair..
> > > 
> > **snip to end**
> > 
> > It's not the cleverness of the philosophy that removes the sting 
of 
> > suffering but the realization that you can truly remove your 
> attention 
> > from the suffering.  And that's done just by putting attention on 
> > attention.
> > 
> > Think of all the surgeries that take place while the patients' 
> > attention is removed from the physical plane.  It would all be 
the 
> most 
> > hideous of torture except that the patient isn't allowed to feel 
> it.  
> > So is that suffering?  The same act done with the patient's 
> attention 
> > allowed to be drawn to it would result in great suffering, but 
> remove 
> > attention and there is no suffering.
> > 
> > And if you have children, do you remember when they were very 
young 
> and 
> > they had bad dreams and how scary and upsetting that was for 
them?  
> > Sure, of course, right?  But you knew that it was just a dream 
and 
> that 
> > there was no "real" hurt that happened or could happen.  But even 
> so, 
> > weren't you still full of compassion for their emotional pain and 
> > suffering, even knowing that the cause wasn't real?  Of course 
you 
> > were; all any parent wants to do is soothe and comfort their 
> child.  
> > 
> > No matter how terrible and scary and hurtful life can be, and is 
> for 
> > all of us at one time or another, suffering evaporates like 
nothing 
> and 
> > *is* nothing when attention is removed from it.  When attention 
> gets 
> > drawn to itself on a regular basis then it begins to insinuate 
> itself 
> > into every situation and creates a kind of lubrication that 
reduces 
> the 
> > friction (pain) of experience.  Kind of like a mag-lev train, or 
a 
> > hydraulic cushion between the experiencer and the experience such 
> that 
> > suffering is eliminated or reduced.
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] 20/20

ABC's 20/20 show on Faith is quite good. Very good segment on Amma at the
beginning. It's 2 hours long and not yet half over as I write this. Those on
the west coast should be able to see the whole thing.

[FairfieldLife] Re: ignorance is part of totality

2007-05-11 Thread qntmpkt

--So which is it? Suffering is eliminated, or is it reduced?
Occasionally, a scale of 1 to 10 is used in questionnaires to rank 
one's subjective level of sufferingsay migraines.
 Are you saying that with a rank of "k" or below, suffering is 
eliminated, but reduced if it's above "k" level?  Or, are you saying 
that anything - 10 or below - can be eliminated? What's your evidence 
for this?



- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Marek Reavis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
>
> Comment at bottom:
> 
> **
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk"  
wrote:
> >
> > "Ignorance is only apparent, it isn't real" - I know, 
fundamentally 
> > and philosophically this is supposed to be so and yes one can 
> > appreciate the "cleverness" in that magical trick - it's only a 
rope 
> > that appears like a snake etc; but experientially suffering is 
real 
> > enough. The deception then becomes not playful but unimaginably 
> > cruel. And there is just smugness in the philosophy, no real 
> > compassion, unfortunately. It's voyeurism on the part of the 
Self - 
> > witnessing like in a peep show, at safe distance, whilst the 
whole of 
> > creation is left languishing in despair..
> > 
> **snip to end**
> 
> It's not the cleverness of the philosophy that removes the sting of 
> suffering but the realization that you can truly remove your 
attention 
> from the suffering.  And that's done just by putting attention on 
> attention.
> 
> Think of all the surgeries that take place while the patients' 
> attention is removed from the physical plane.  It would all be the 
most 
> hideous of torture except that the patient isn't allowed to feel 
it.  
> So is that suffering?  The same act done with the patient's 
attention 
> allowed to be drawn to it would result in great suffering, but 
remove 
> attention and there is no suffering.
> 
> And if you have children, do you remember when they were very young 
and 
> they had bad dreams and how scary and upsetting that was for them?  
> Sure, of course, right?  But you knew that it was just a dream and 
that 
> there was no "real" hurt that happened or could happen.  But even 
so, 
> weren't you still full of compassion for their emotional pain and 
> suffering, even knowing that the cause wasn't real?  Of course you 
> were; all any parent wants to do is soothe and comfort their 
child.  
> 
> No matter how terrible and scary and hurtful life can be, and is 
for 
> all of us at one time or another, suffering evaporates like nothing 
and 
> *is* nothing when attention is removed from it.  When attention 
gets 
> drawn to itself on a regular basis then it begins to insinuate 
itself 
> into every situation and creates a kind of lubrication that reduces 
the 
> friction (pain) of experience.  Kind of like a mag-lev train, or a 
> hydraulic cushion between the experiencer and the experience such 
that 
> suffering is eliminated or reduced.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "BillyG."  wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister  
> wrote:
> > > From a linguistic POV that's so confusing that I'd like
> > > to know what exactly is your source for that.
> > 
> > The analogy of the crystal ball comes from Swami Yogananda's book,
> > "The Second Coming of Christ". 
> > 
> > > Actually, those Hindi truncations(?) of Sanskrit words
> > > make me "furious"! Well, at least a bit irritated...  :]
> > 
> > But there is a good reason for it as Brahm-a with 'short' a, 
> signifies
> > something different than Brahmaa (two a's for effect only) with a 
> long
> > a.  
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by "for effect only" but the difference
> between "brahma" (nominative singular *neuter* gender form of the
> word whose lemma , i.e, "dictionary form" is "brahman") and "brahmaa"
> (nominative singular *masculine* form of the..., etc.) is *almost*
> as essential as the difference in English between, say , "fit"
> and "feet". I know there's a *qualitative*, not just quantitative, 
> difference between the vowels in those words, but that's the closest
> analogy I can think of in English to the importance of the length
> of vowels in Sanskrit, where it is a so called distinctive feature,
> that is, two words with totally different meanings can differ from
> each other only by the length of their vowel, like for instance
> "sama" (same) and "saama" (song, and stuff).
> 
> Here are some forms of the singular inflectional paradigm
> of the word (whose lemma is) "brahman":
> 
> nominative singular masculine   brahmaa
> (Example: yatiinaam brahmaa bhavati saarathiH)
> accusative singular masculine   brahmaanam
> 
> nominative singular neuter  brahma
> (anaadimat paraM brahma...)
> accusative singular neuter  brahma
> 
> Actually, the "criterion" for a neuter gender
> word in Sanskrit is that its nominative and accusative
> (English: objective) are identical in form.
> 
> In the rest of the inflectional cases (instrumental, dative,
> ablative, genitive and locative) 'n' appears as a "separator"
> - or whatever it's officially called - between the stem and
> the suffix; for instance, genitive (English: possessive)
> singular of both masculine and neuter inflection is 
> "brahmanaH" (because of a peculiar assimilation , actually: 
> brahmaNaH - brahma-N-aH).


I just set'em up and you knock'em down, I'm NO expert!

[FairfieldLife] Re: ignorance is part of totality

Comment at bottom:

**

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> "Ignorance is only apparent, it isn't real" - I know, fundamentally 
> and philosophically this is supposed to be so and yes one can 
> appreciate the "cleverness" in that magical trick - it's only a rope 
> that appears like a snake etc; but experientially suffering is real 
> enough. The deception then becomes not playful but unimaginably 
> cruel. And there is just smugness in the philosophy, no real 
> compassion, unfortunately. It's voyeurism on the part of the Self - 
> witnessing like in a peep show, at safe distance, whilst the whole of 
> creation is left languishing in despair..
> 
**snip to end**

It's not the cleverness of the philosophy that removes the sting of 
suffering but the realization that you can truly remove your attention 
from the suffering.  And that's done just by putting attention on 
attention.

Think of all the surgeries that take place while the patients' 
attention is removed from the physical plane.  It would all be the most 
hideous of torture except that the patient isn't allowed to feel it.  
So is that suffering?  The same act done with the patient's attention 
allowed to be drawn to it would result in great suffering, but remove 
attention and there is no suffering.

And if you have children, do you remember when they were very young and 
they had bad dreams and how scary and upsetting that was for them?  
Sure, of course, right?  But you knew that it was just a dream and that 
there was no "real" hurt that happened or could happen.  But even so, 
weren't you still full of compassion for their emotional pain and 
suffering, even knowing that the cause wasn't real?  Of course you 
were; all any parent wants to do is soothe and comfort their child.  

No matter how terrible and scary and hurtful life can be, and is for 
all of us at one time or another, suffering evaporates like nothing and 
*is* nothing when attention is removed from it.  When attention gets 
drawn to itself on a regular basis then it begins to insinuate itself 
into every situation and creates a kind of lubrication that reduces the 
friction (pain) of experience.  Kind of like a mag-lev train, or a 
hydraulic cushion between the experiencer and the experience such that 
suffering is eliminated or reduced.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning - flaws of Unity

2007-05-11 Thread Rory Goff

> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk"  
wrote:
> >
> > Both of you are looking at the Relative in a rather upbeat way, 
> > perhaps reflecting transient (for most mortals) blissful moods 
> > (maybe states or permanent stations in your cases??). 

For me a mood is a state of consciousness, and vice versa. I find we 
can generally select whatever mood/state of consciousness we wish 
(taking into account the various particles of the bodymind which may 
object, and engaging them into an integrity or synthesis), and on 
that basis, we find the senses then gather information to support and 
uphold and perpetuate that particular state or mood.

Doesn't 
> > help the wilderbeast being tormented to death by lions or some 
> > innocent 16-year old in Pakistan having acid thrown in her face 
> > because in love with a Hindu or not wearing full Islamic dress. 
> > Take a snapshot of the WHOLE of Nature and all there is, 99.99 
> > of it, is suffering. 

This appears to be an example of the senses gathering data to support 
one particular preselected, a-priori mood. There also appears to be a 
lot of supposition here. Who knows whether the wildebeest 
is "tormented" by the lions? IIRC people who have been (partially) 
eaten by tigers and then escaped, reported a feeling of euphoria 
during the process. All we can really *know* is our own state. I find 
if I take steps to attend to the root suffering inside, and heal it, 
my outer world changes correspondingly. Looking to (and at) the outer 
for anything other than a perfect mirror of the bodymind and perfect 
unfoldment of my own preselected state/mood, constitutes attachment 
and suffering.

> > Maybe the flaw in Unity 
> > is an inherent madness - well, who would NOT go mad in total 
> > isolation? Put anyone in solitary confinement with sensory 
> > deprivation and they will hallucinate and create nightmares for 
> > themselves. That's the real story perhaps - a madness without 
cure. 
> > It goes on FOREVER because even when it transcends time it ends 
up 
> > recreating it all over again. There is no sense in a creation 
which 
> > just gives suffering to everyone. Either God is mad, bad or just 
a 
> > fool - so much (supposed) intelligence in the geometry and 
sequence 
> > of laws of nature but then making a total mess with the 
experiment. 

 TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> You're starting to "get" why Catharism so appealed
> to the people of the Middle Ages. It was a tough
> time, man. We're talking wars, plagues, poverty,
> and all of the torments of Hell, unless you were 
> privileged enough to be born noble. And even then...
> 
> So one of the things that appealed to the medieval
> mind about Dualism was that God *wasn't* responsible
> for the mess that they saw around them on a daily
> basis. The phenomenal world had been created by the
> Other Guy, the demiurge, by Satan, by the False 
> Jehovah. The world didn't just "look" like a gnarly 
> place because we didn't understand The Unfathomable 
> Workings Of God. It *was* a gnarly place, designed 
> by a dude from The Other Place, the *opposite* to 
> spirit.
> 
>

YES! This is what I meant when I said there is a place inside where 
the Purusha deeply hates and fears the Prakriti, and vice versa. 
Coming upon the Purusha's utterly helpless imprisonment within the 
bodymind-world-prakriti stymied me for a moment, as this seemed to be 
the ultimate demonic Hell. Then I remembered the approach which has 
generally worked for me in the past: When I meet a demon, I embrace 
it. Since the demon here seemed to be the whole of physical creation, 
I embraced it. Wow! Just under that horror of separation/hate was the 
passionate Understanding of the intimacy of the world as my body, as 
my LOVE!

*L*L*L*

[FairfieldLife] Amma is going to Brazil and Chile (first time in S. America)

I don't know if we have any South Americans on the list, but in case we do:

 
Amma announced that She is in fact going to Brazil after Chile, with public
programs on July 31st, August 1st and 2nd.
There will be day and night programs, as well as Devi Bhava on the last
night.
If you want to go and help, or know someone that would like to, please ask
them to get in contact with Atulita ASAP at this address:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

"It is when we forget about ourselves and live for the happiness of others
that we experience the real beauty of life." - Amma

[FairfieldLife] Re: ignorance is part of totality

"Ignorance is only apparent, it isn't real" - I know, fundamentally 
and philosophically this is supposed to be so and yes one can 
appreciate the "cleverness" in that magical trick - it's only a rope 
that appears like a snake etc; but experientially suffering is real 
enough. The deception then becomes not playful but unimaginably 
cruel. And there is just smugness in the philosophy, no real 
compassion, unfortunately. It's voyeurism on the part of the Self - 
witnessing like in a peep show, at safe distance, whilst the whole of 
creation is left languishing in despair..

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Marek Reavis" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Quick comment below:
> 
> **
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk"  
> wrote:
> >
> > "'So both diversification and unification ... when the two come 
to 
> > awareness then the hiding, the cover, also comes to awareness. So 
> the 
> > cover is uncovered." This is the mechanics of how we get 
suffering 
> > and the elimination of suffering. But suffering still dominates 
in 
> > the Relative, like a flowing river; the elimination of suffering 
is 
> > by contrast a drop by drop process, so on balance venturing into 
> the 
> > Relative is utter stupidity. There is something rather perverse 
in 
> > the idea that you have unity, diversity and the COVERING in the 
> first 
> > place. Why not unity, diversity and total CLARITY instead? That 
way 
> > unity is never lost whatever the experience in the relative, 
bliss 
> > overriding any possibility of suffering, and thus all would be 
> well. 
> > The cover that needs uncovering is the ROOT of suffering and it 
has 
> > nothing to do with our own karma after all!! It is a flaw in 
> Unity.. 
> > right? 
> > 
> > You say ignorance is part of totality - but totality INCLUDES non-
> > ignorance which you would expect to OVERWHELM ignorance. Whereas 
> the 
> > experience of Nature - apart from a few fortunate individuals 
here 
> > and there - is that non-ignorance has the upper hand. If the 
> > INTENTION is to expand happiness via the Relative these mechanics 
> > simply insure that the outcome inevitably is a FAILURE!! One has 
to 
> > question, therefore, the intelligence or sanity at the root of 
> > creation.. 
> > 
> **snip to end**
> 
> But that's the glory of Maya; somehow the boundless, timeless, 
> nothing-else-but-that, " forgets". Somehow it appears as if we have 
> forgotten who we are (even though we never do and never have).  
> Ignorance is only apparent, it isn't real; it just seems real at 
the 
> time.  But you are outside of time; you just "think" that you've 
> forgotten.
>

[FairfieldLife] Totality and non-existence of diversity

2007-05-11 Thread bob_brigante

'Totality is everywhere and diversity is non-existent. Diversity is 
non-existent. Unity is eternal, diversity is non-existent. Sarvam 
khalvidam Brahm, Aham Brahmasmi, wherever is 'A', there is totality, 
Brahm. That is why Aham or Atma, Aham, Atma. That is totality. 

'That appears, to be diversity, only appears to be diversity. 
Creation is not created; it's only an appearance, definitely an 
appearance. Exactly similar to the example of string appears to be a 
snake. There is no snake, but it appears to be a snake. It's a matter 
of quality of vision, drishti, what the quality of drishti is

'Totality is everywhere and diversity is non-existent. Diversity is 
non-existent. Unity is eternal, diversity is non-existent. Sarvam 
khalvidam Brahm, Aham Brahmasmi, wherever is 'A', there is totality, 
Brahm. That is why Aham or Atma, Aham, Atma. That is totality. 

'That appears, to be diversity, only appears to be diversity. 
Creation is not created; it's only an appearance, definitely an 
appearance. Exactly similar to the example of string appears to be a 
snake. There is no snake, but it appears to be a snake. It's a matter 
of quality of vision, drishti, what the quality of drishti is. 

**

full text:

Maharishi's address to the Conference on Unified Field-Based 
Administration - Part II

Global Good News
11 May 2007

On 7 May, following the presentation by Dr John Hagelin, Minister of 
Science and Technology of the Global Country of World Peace, on the 
non-dual, holistic administration of the universe and society by the 
totality of Natural Law in the Unified Field, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 
spoke about the holistic and detailed vision of Veda by the first 
seer of Rk Veda, Madhuchhandas. 

Having given a detailed explanation of the vision of Mahdhuchhandas 
in Part I of his talk, Maharishi continued: 

'The vision of Madhuchhandas is very clear. This is the Vedic 
Tradition, the tradition of the seers of the Veda, those who cognized 
the Veda, those who lived the Veda.' 

Four Vedas, six Vedangas, and six Upangas
Maharishi then explained that there are four Vedas, six Vedangas and 
six Upangas. He said there was so much diversification in the field 
of language and number systemsall the different disciplines of 
mathematics, arithmetic, trigonometry, alphabets, consonants, and all 
languagesbut all have their starting point where they meet together 
in 'A', and these are all divided so clearly and distinctly into 
Vedangas and Upangas, all the different aspects of the Veda. 

Maharished continued to explain that the whole universe is spread out 
in this numbers system and the word system, in the alphabets and 
language. Vak means language, and it is said, Sarva vak, total 
language, and Akarovionly 'A' stands for Total Knowledge, total 
language, which is in Akni mile, the flow of Veda. 

''A' is the origin', Maharishi said, 'and 'A' in itself, as 
Madhuchhandas saw, 'A' is in terms of flow. Flow means Devata, Kriya 
shakti, action principle. The Doer. Doership belongs to Devata. 

Atma
'So 'A' Rishi, 'I' Devata, and 'U' Chhandas, the covering. This is 
the penetration of Madhuchhandas into the first letter of the Veda, 
which came out the first letter of Atma (Self) of everyone. 'A' means 
Atma. 'A' is the flow of Atma. Atma of everything, any species. Atma 
of animals, of birds, all the innumerable species, everyone has Atma. 

'So the body of everyone is the extension of his Atma. We can say his 
Atma for human beings, and its Atma, Atma of a tree, something that 
does not appear to be lively. Anything, any grain of creation, any 
dust of creation has Atma, Atma, Atma.' 

Flow of total Rk Veda from 'A' to 'I'
Rk Veda starts from 'A', Maharishi said, and it ends in 'I'. So the 
flow of total Rk Veda is from 'A' to 'I', and the total Veda was 
available to the sight of Madhuchhandas when he saw 'I' in 'A'. He 
saw the beginning of the Veda 'A', and he saw in the end of the 
Veda 'I'. So 'A' itself is total Veda. 'A' is the first syllable of 
the Veda, 'I' is the last syllable of the Veda in its flow, and when 
the flow is within 'A', the flow is found within the unmanifest... 

Totality and non-existence of diversity
Maharishi continued: 'Totality is everywhere and diversity is non-
existent. Diversity is non-existent. Unity is eternal, diversity is 
non-existent. Sarvam khalvidam Brahm, Aham Brahmasmi, wherever 
is 'A', there is totality, Brahm. That is why Aham or Atma, Aham, 
Atma. That is totality. 

'That appears, to be diversity, only appears to be diversity. 
Creation is not created; it's only an appearance, definitely an 
appearance. Exactly similar to the example of string appears to be a 
snake. There is no snake, but it appears to be a snake. It's a matter 
of quality of vision, drishti, what the quality of drishti is. 

Drishti dosh and the importance of the Guru
'Drishti doshif the vision is not pure, then it is muddled, and 
muddled vision doesn't see the reality. It's the visi

RE: [FairfieldLife] Airport Shuttle

From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Jonathan Chadwick
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 11:50 AM
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Airport Shuttle

 

Is there still somebody in FF who runs a shuttle to and from the CR airport?

FFL's own LB Shriver: (641)
  919-6919

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.

2007-05-11 Thread cardemaister

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "BillyG." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister  
wrote:
> > From a linguistic POV that's so confusing that I'd like
> > to know what exactly is your source for that.
> 
> The analogy of the crystal ball comes from Swami Yogananda's book,
> "The Second Coming of Christ". 
> 
> > Actually, those Hindi truncations(?) of Sanskrit words
> > make me "furious"! Well, at least a bit irritated...  :]
> 
> But there is a good reason for it as Brahm-a with 'short' a, 
signifies
> something different than Brahmaa (two a's for effect only) with a 
long
> a.  

I'm not sure what you mean by "for effect only" but the difference
between "brahma" (nominative singular *neuter* gender form of the
word whose lemma , i.e, "dictionary form" is "brahman") and "brahmaa"
(nominative singular *masculine* form of the..., etc.) is *almost*
as essential as the difference in English between, say , "fit"
and "feet". I know there's a *qualitative*, not just quantitative, 
difference between the vowels in those words, but that's the closest
analogy I can think of in English to the importance of the length
of vowels in Sanskrit, where it is a so called distinctive feature,
that is, two words with totally different meanings can differ from
each other only by the length of their vowel, like for instance
"sama" (same) and "saama" (song, and stuff).

Here are some forms of the singular inflectional paradigm
of the word (whose lemma is) "brahman":

nominative singular masculine   brahmaa
(Example: yatiinaam brahmaa bhavati saarathiH)
accusative singular masculine   brahmaanam

nominative singular neuter  brahma
(anaadimat paraM brahma...)
accusative singular neuter  brahma

Actually, the "criterion" for a neuter gender
word in Sanskrit is that its nominative and accusative
(English: objective) are identical in form.

In the rest of the inflectional cases (instrumental, dative,
ablative, genitive and locative) 'n' appears as a "separator"
- or whatever it's officially called - between the stem and
the suffix; for instance, genitive (English: possessive)
singular of both masculine and neuter inflection is 
"brahmanaH" (because of a peculiar assimilation , actually: 
brahmaNaH - brahma-N-aH).

[FairfieldLife] Re: ignorance is part of totality

Quick comment below:

**

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
>
> "'So both diversification and unification ... when the two come to 
> awareness then the hiding, the cover, also comes to awareness. So 
the 
> cover is uncovered." This is the mechanics of how we get suffering 
> and the elimination of suffering. But suffering still dominates in 
> the Relative, like a flowing river; the elimination of suffering is 
> by contrast a drop by drop process, so on balance venturing into 
the 
> Relative is utter stupidity. There is something rather perverse in 
> the idea that you have unity, diversity and the COVERING in the 
first 
> place. Why not unity, diversity and total CLARITY instead? That way 
> unity is never lost whatever the experience in the relative, bliss 
> overriding any possibility of suffering, and thus all would be 
well. 
> The cover that needs uncovering is the ROOT of suffering and it has 
> nothing to do with our own karma after all!! It is a flaw in 
Unity.. 
> right? 
> 
> You say ignorance is part of totality - but totality INCLUDES non-
> ignorance which you would expect to OVERWHELM ignorance. Whereas 
the 
> experience of Nature - apart from a few fortunate individuals here 
> and there - is that non-ignorance has the upper hand. If the 
> INTENTION is to expand happiness via the Relative these mechanics 
> simply insure that the outcome inevitably is a FAILURE!! One has to 
> question, therefore, the intelligence or sanity at the root of 
> creation.. 
> 
**snip to end**

But that's the glory of Maya; somehow the boundless, timeless, 
nothing-else-but-that, " forgets". Somehow it appears as if we have 
forgotten who we are (even though we never do and never have).  
Ignorance is only apparent, it isn't real; it just seems real at the 
time.  But you are outside of time; you just "think" that you've 
forgotten.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

An old quote that I'd saved in my Quotes file, but
only rediscovered today:

"People cannot discover new lands until they have 
the courage to lose sight of the shore."
- Andre Gide



--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Turk,
> 
> Nice piece, dude.  Felt inside your brain.
> 
> And for good reason:  yesterday I made a decision to move also.  
> 
> Synchrony between me and you, go figure.
> 
> I live on a lake, and from my office window, for three years now, 15
> feet from the water, each day I see the sun and moon kiss a mountain
> on the other side of the lake.  I've had over 60 species of animals
> play in my small cove where the wind sings to the water and leaves.  
> 
> Morning slanting rays color the scene as if Maxfield Parrish was 
> God.
> 
> And yet, I'm leaving.  
> 
> I've seen blue herons stabbing foot long fish and gulping them down
> snake lithe throats, seen musk rats fucking like gonzo vibrators, 
> seen
> twelve turtles sunning on one log, seen a hawk swoop down like 
> Dracula
> on a mourning dove, in one moment seen red wing blackbirds harrying
> crows harrying eagles harrying ospreys for their still writhing
> talon-viced prey, seen seen an island raft of white pelicans 
> sleeping
> on the water the day after tens of thousands of them disappeared in 
> a
> Canadian blink, seen wavefronts of geese honking south and north, 
> seen
> trees along the shore bending, stooping, groaning to the lash of
> driven rain.  And, once, just once, the winter broke for a week, and
> as the three inch thick ice was piled up on the shore like blown
> leaves, waves clanged the hunks into each other to produce a 
> hypnotic
> chorus of deep marimba chiming.
> 
> And I'm leaving.  
> 
> I'm going to a place where I can have more society, more
> opportunities, more venues. Gunna expand a bit.  See how it fits to
> drape my spirit with a city.
>  
> Paradise, but even the angels want to incarnate as meat puppets when
> claustrophobic heaven becomes merely the "spiritual boondocks," so,
> like a truant angel, I'm biting that apple, grabbing a fig leaf --
> gunna boggie again.
> 
> You in your garden being taught by silent flowers, me looking for a
> place to till the social soil and plant a me.
> 
> Might get a silent flower to grow.  We'll compare notes, eh?  
> 
> Edg

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning - flaws of Unity

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Marek Reavis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Comment below:
> 
> **
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk"  
> wrote:
> >
> > Both of you are looking at the Relative in a rather upbeat way, 
> > perhaps reflecting transient (for most mortals) blissful moods 
> > (maybe 
> > states or permanent stations in your cases??). Doesn't help the 
> > wilderbeast being tormented to death by lions or some innocent 16-
> > year old in Pakistan having acid thrown in her face because in 
> > love 
> > with a Hindu or not wearing full Islamic dress. Take a snapshot of 
> > the WHOLE of Nature and all there is, 99.99 of it, is suffering. 
> > So 
> > where is the expansion of happiness in that? Maybe the flaw in 
> > Unity 
> > is an inherent madness - well, who would NOT go mad in total 
> > isolation? Put anyone in solitary confinement with sensory 
> > deprivation and they will hallucinate and create nightmares for 
> > themselves. That's the real story perhaps - a madness without 
> > cure. 
> > It goes on FOREVER because even when it transcends time it ends up 
> > recreating it all over again. There is no sense in a creation 
> > which 
> > just gives suffering to everyone. Either God is mad, bad or just a 
> > fool - so much (supposed) intelligence in the geometry and 
> > sequence 
> > of laws of nature but then making a total mess with the 
> > experiment. 
> > There are states of matter, because of laws of nature, which are 
> > not 
> > permissable. For instance H2O, at a given temperature and 
> > pressure, 
> > is always water. If Unity truly wanted to expand happiness also in 
> > every phase of the Relative, all you'd need is some corollary laws 
> > concerning suffering. Make one step towards goodness, Unity etc=1 
> > million times stronger than one step towards badness, anti-Unity. 
> > Then Unity can safely wander into diversity without resulting in 
> > suffering for no-one. That is what MMY says is going to happen 
> > NOW, 
> > right? So why not have that as an invariable law in the first 
> > place? 
> > We would be deprived of many experiences yes - but do you mind 
> > terribly if you don't taste the experience of being a torturer? or 
> > a 
> > victim of torture? What about free will? Where is the free will 
> > when 
> > all the probabilities are stacked in favour of you ending up 
> > suffering, even when you chose bliss? Sorry, but there IS a flaw 
> > with 
> > Unity and the supposed "expansion" of happiness via the Relative. 
> > I've never seen a convincing argument to the contrary... Wish 
> > there was one though!!
> > 
> **snip to end**
> 
> You're right, there is no convincing argument to negate the apparent 
> ubiquity of suffering.  But as Buddha pointed out (along with many 
> others, including Maharishi), there is an end to suffering and that 
> is by removing one's perspective (attention) from the plane of 
> existence where suffering is always present to another (you could 
> say higher) plane where no suffering can possibly exist.  
> 
> On the plane of the movie story, Jack Nicholson's character in The 
> Shining is always going to go stark raving, and homicidally, mad 
> each and every time you watch it.  But on another (arguably more 
> fundamental) plane, that movie is just colored light dancing and 
> flickering on the screen in whatever theatre, CRT, LCD, or plasma 
> device you're catching it on.  Of course, if your attention is just 
> on the flickering light then not only do you not get the pants 
> scared off of you, but you miss all the great parts of the story 
> and the acting and the cinematography, etc.
> 
> It's not denying that suffering exists, but that it only exists to 
> the degree you put your attention on it.  

Well said. One of the best posts here 
on FFL in quite some time.

[FairfieldLife] Re: ignorance is part of totality

"'So both diversification and unification ... when the two come to 
awareness then the hiding, the cover, also comes to awareness. So the 
cover is uncovered." This is the mechanics of how we get suffering 
and the elimination of suffering. But suffering still dominates in 
the Relative, like a flowing river; the elimination of suffering is 
by contrast a drop by drop process, so on balance venturing into the 
Relative is utter stupidity. There is something rather perverse in 
the idea that you have unity, diversity and the COVERING in the first 
place. Why not unity, diversity and total CLARITY instead? That way 
unity is never lost whatever the experience in the relative, bliss 
overriding any possibility of suffering, and thus all would be well. 
The cover that needs uncovering is the ROOT of suffering and it has 
nothing to do with our own karma after all!! It is a flaw in Unity.. 
right? 

You say ignorance is part of totality - but totality INCLUDES non-
ignorance which you would expect to OVERWHELM ignorance. Whereas the 
experience of Nature - apart from a few fortunate individuals here 
and there - is that non-ignorance has the upper hand. If the 
INTENTION is to expand happiness via the Relative these mechanics 
simply insure that the outcome inevitably is a FAILURE!! One has to 
question, therefore, the intelligence or sanity at the root of 
creation.. 

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "george_deforest" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > claudiouk wrote:
> >
> > "constantly crossing and recrossing the gap of ignorance" 
> > might imply therefore that something is lacking in UNITY?
> > Never saw the sense of the purpose of life as 
> > "expansion of happiness" by going into ignorance..
> > if the happiness is in the return to Unity,
> > why wander off in the first place??
> 
> Maharishi discusses this very point (abstractly) in his
> recent commentary on the cognition of Madhuchandas:
> 
> 'Immediately what Madhuchandas saw when he saw -- one is two. 
> What he saw? One is not only two, but there is a third element. 
> What came to the sight of Madhuchandas? He saw something that was
> hidden from view. The two were hidden from view. They were existing 
> in the 'A', in the flow, but not known.
> 
> 'Now he saw silence and dynamism at the same time. At the same time
> he saw the third value which was hiding 'I' from 'A', and hiding 
> 'A' from 'I' -- those two values, silence and dynamism. 
> One was hiding the other.
> 
> 'So when he saw 'I' is unfolding 'A', bringing 'A' to consciousness,
> to awareness, so 'A' comes to awareness which was hidden so far,
> and 'I' comes to awareness which was hidden so far. So when the two
> come to awareness then the hiding, the cover also comes to 
awareness.
> So the cover is uncovered.
> 
> 'So he saw not only silence and dynamism but he saw that the 
covering
> of silence and dynamism is over, so the third element he also saw. 
> He saw the Chandas. So Rishi, Devata, and Chandas. 'A' stands as 
> a unified wholeness of Rishi, Devata, Chandas.
> 
> 'This is how step by step, through sequential steps, unfoldment of
> diversity commences ... 
> 
> 
> 'To know what variety is, we have to know Unity and we have to know
> how Unity is composed as Unity of many values, and that we know when
> we are able to take out the units of variety and put them back in
> Unity again.
> 
> 'So both diversification and unification ...
> 
> 
> selections snipped from "First Seer of the Veda" at:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/138961
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (For Billy G. and all)

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Among theological circles, Moses is proclaimed to be the author of 
> the Myth of Eden.  Given his Hebrew background, the ideas of maya and 
> prakriti are foreign to him.

I think it would be hard to say what Moses knew

  However, he did make a point that Adam 
> and Eve "walked with God".  This means that, as humans, they were 
> living the most exalted life here on earth.  In other words, they 
> possessed the highest level of consciousness in  vedic terms.

Yes, but walked with God was meaning back in the Lemurian and
Atlantian epochs where man in the making was shepherded by the gods
out of necessity.  It was only until the form side of Adam/Eve became
crystalized enough thru in-volution was it capable of being en-souled.

The life side (the spark) is his spiritual nature, 'who's splendor
knows no end', via e-volution

> This implies that the human physiology has the capacity to attain and 
> retain divine consciousness.  So, it would mean that the divine was 
> one with humans, the created entity or Prakriti, in the beginning.  
> However, something occurred in the course of time which made 
> humans 'fall' from their previous exalted position.

The fall was the temptation of Lucifer in the spinal canal of infant
humanity, (sexual energy in the spine, hence the metaphor of the
snake), now he had freewill and 'fell' (i.e. succumbed to temptation)
from the nursery home of his passive spiritual consciousness in the
higher regions of the then constituted brain. 

He now launched his journey thru learning the lessons of matter/life
and its opposites, until he achieves MASTERY and becomes a *MASTER OF
THE UNIVERSE*. A veritable Purusha in his own right. As it says in the
Bible...

 Psalm 82:6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of
the most High.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning - flaws of Unity

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Both of you are looking at the Relative in a rather upbeat way, 
> perhaps reflecting transient (for most mortals) blissful moods 
> (maybe states or permanent stations in your cases??). Doesn't 
> help the wilderbeast being tormented to death by lions or some 
> innocent 16-year old in Pakistan having acid thrown in her face 
> because in love with a Hindu or not wearing full Islamic dress. 
> Take a snapshot of the WHOLE of Nature and all there is, 99.99 
> of it, is suffering. So where is the expansion of happiness in 
> that? 

In the "long shot." One of my favorite Great
Quotes Of Spiritual Teachers Through The Ages
is by an oddball one, Charlie Chaplin, who
said "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, 
but a comedy in long-shot."

> Maybe the flaw in Unity 
> is an inherent madness - well, who would NOT go mad in total 
> isolation? Put anyone in solitary confinement with sensory 
> deprivation and they will hallucinate and create nightmares for 
> themselves. That's the real story perhaps - a madness without cure. 
> It goes on FOREVER because even when it transcends time it ends up 
> recreating it all over again. There is no sense in a creation which 
> just gives suffering to everyone. Either God is mad, bad or just a 
> fool - so much (supposed) intelligence in the geometry and sequence 
> of laws of nature but then making a total mess with the experiment. 

You're starting to "get" why Catharism so appealed
to the people of the Middle Ages. It was a tough
time, man. We're talking wars, plagues, poverty,
and all of the torments of Hell, unless you were 
privileged enough to be born noble. And even then...

So one of the things that appealed to the medieval
mind about Dualism was that God *wasn't* responsible
for the mess that they saw around them on a daily
basis. The phenomenal world had been created by the
Other Guy, the demiurge, by Satan, by the False 
Jehovah. The world didn't just "look" like a gnarly 
place because we didn't understand The Unfathomable 
Workings Of God. It *was* a gnarly place, designed 
by a dude from The Other Place, the *opposite* to 
spirit.

The populace flocked to Catharism in that period 
because it gave them a respite from trying to under-
stand The Unfathomable Workings Of God. They got to
blame the world on Someone Else, not God. And it
gave them comfort. And the promise of a better life
in the spirit after they died -- in one incarnation
or another -- gave them hope. And hope is a good thing.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> From a linguistic POV that's so confusing that I'd like
> to know what exactly is your source for that.

The analogy of the crystal ball comes from Swami Yogananda's book,
"The Second Coming of Christ". 

> Actually, those Hindi truncations(?) of Sanskrit words
> make me "furious"! Well, at least a bit irritated...  :]

But there is a good reason for it as Brahm-a with 'short' a, signifies
something different than Brahmaa (two a's for effect only) with a long
a.  The former refers to the omnipresent Pususha or the formless (can
take any form) Creative intelligence in nature, (Brahman's reflection
in Prakriti).

The long a is consistent with the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu,
Shiva; for what it's worth, I know little about the pantheon of Hindu
gods per se! :-)

Hence when MMY talks about Brahm, he apparently means the Creative
Intelligence/God consciousness underlying all of manifest creation,
not the trinity per se. Brahman is unmanifest/Absolute.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (For Billy G. and all)

2007-05-11 Thread John

Billy G.,

Your response is very thought provoking.  I'm sure the theologians 
and yogis of the past have addressed your ideas one way or another.  
My take is as follows:
 
1.> Certainly 'Adam and Eve", (representing the thinking and the 
feeling part of man's nature, even today) the androgynous human, was 
largely a 'descended' one or a product of maya/prakriti, although 
with the onset of freewill he was 'enabled' to become as gods, 
literally as the Bible points out, and that will be his/her destiny.
> 

Among theological circles, Moses is proclaimed to be the author of 
the Myth of Eden.  Given his Hebrew background, the ideas of maya and 
prakriti are foreign to him.  However, he did make a point that Adam 
and Eve "walked with God".  This means that, as humans, they were 
living the most exalted life here on earth.  In other words, they 
possessed the highest level of consciousness in  vedic terms.

This implies that the human physiology has the capacity to attain and 
retain divine consciousness.  So, it would mean that the divine was 
one with humans, the created entity or prakriti, in the beginning.  
However, something occurred in the course of time which made 
humans 'fall' from their previous exalted position.

(to be continued, as I have to go to work..lol)




2.> As Adam/Eve sinned or transgressed the laws of nature they set in
> motion the inevitable law of consequence or karma and are working 
out their destiny till today as is the Divine Plan. We got tricked by 
the Satanic force of Maya/illusion which cast a hypnotic spell on us 
which only the Purusha can dispel.
> 
> 
> > I believe the error was that they as humans assumed Knowledge can 
be 
> > obtained through the senses and phenomenal existence alone.  In 
other 
> > words, they thought they were gods.
> 
> I think they were promised, correctly, that they would become as 
gods
> but in actuality they became *egos* or maya identified/deluded
> entities...remember the flower analogy by MMY?
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning - flaws of Unity

Comment below:

**

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
>
> Both of you are looking at the Relative in a rather upbeat way, 
> perhaps reflecting transient (for most mortals) blissful moods 
(maybe 
> states or permanent stations in your cases??). Doesn't help the 
> wilderbeast being tormented to death by lions or some innocent 16-
> year old in Pakistan having acid thrown in her face because in love 
> with a Hindu or not wearing full Islamic dress. Take a snapshot of 
> the WHOLE of Nature and all there is, 99.99 of it, is suffering. So 
> where is the expansion of happiness in that? Maybe the flaw in 
Unity 
> is an inherent madness - well, who would NOT go mad in total 
> isolation? Put anyone in solitary confinement with sensory 
> deprivation and they will hallucinate and create nightmares for 
> themselves. That's the real story perhaps - a madness without cure. 
> It goes on FOREVER because even when it transcends time it ends up 
> recreating it all over again. There is no sense in a creation which 
> just gives suffering to everyone. Either God is mad, bad or just a 
> fool - so much (supposed) intelligence in the geometry and sequence 
> of laws of nature but then making a total mess with the experiment. 
> There are states of matter, because of laws of nature, which are 
not 
> permissable. For instance H2O, at a given temperature and pressure, 
> is always water. If Unity truly wanted to expand happiness also in 
> every phase of the Relative, all you'd need is some corollary laws 
> concerning suffering. Make one step towards goodness, Unity etc = 1 
> million times stronger than one step towards badness, anti-Unity. 
> Then Unity can safely wander into diversity without resulting in 
> suffering for no-one. That is what MMY says is going to happen NOW, 
> right? So why not have that as an invariable law in the first 
place? 
> We would be deprived of many experiences yes - but do you mind 
> terribly if you don't taste the experience of being a torturer? or 
a 
> victim of torture? What about free will? Where is the free will 
when 
> all the probabilities are stacked in favour of you ending up 
> suffering, even when you chose bliss? Sorry, but there IS a flaw 
with 
> Unity and the supposed "expansion" of happiness via the Relative. 
> I've never seen a convincing argument to the contrary... Wish there 
> was one though!!
> 
**snip to end**

You're right, there is no convincing argument to negate the apparent 
ubiquity of suffering.  But as Buddha pointed out (along with many 
others, including Maharishi), there is an end to suffering and that 
is by removing one's perspective (attention) from the plane of 
existence where suffering is always present to another (you could say 
higher) plane where no suffering can possibly exist.  

On the plane of the movie story, Jack Nicholson's character in The 
Shining is always going to go stark raving, and homicidally, mad each 
and every time you watch it.  But on another (arguably more 
fundamental) plane, that movie is just colored light dancing and 
flickering on the screen in whatever theatre, CRT, LCD, or plasma 
device you're catching it on.  Of course, if your attention is just 
on the flickering light then not only do you not get the pants scared 
off of you, but you miss all the great parts of the story and the 
acting and the cinematography, etc.

It's not denying that suffering exists, but that it only exists to 
the degree you put your attention on it.  Some events in our lives 
(in our stories) draws attention more or less forcefully to the 
suffering, and without a doubt, if I was subject to having my head 
sawed off by a religious fundamentalist who thought that the most 
appropriate way to address his or her own suffering was by making 
mine even worse, then I'm positive that it would be an extremely 
overshadowing experience.  But even then, at some point during that 
process, "who" is having that experience?  Who is that guy?  Who is 
dying, me or the body?  When the body is defunct and no longer able 
to draw attention, what happens to the attention?  Wasn't the birth 
of the body the factor that drew the attention in the first place?  
And if so, then doesn't that raise the issue that Attention (in some 
latent state) was there as the primary condition?

And That really is all that there is and That You Are (already and 
always).  It's really true what "they" all say.

[FairfieldLife] ignorance is part of totality

2007-05-11 Thread george_deforest

> claudiouk wrote:
>
> "constantly crossing and recrossing the gap of ignorance" 
> might imply therefore that something is lacking in UNITY?
> Never saw the sense of the purpose of life as 
> "expansion of happiness" by going into ignorance..
> if the happiness is in the return to Unity,
> why wander off in the first place??

Maharishi discusses this very point (abstractly) in his
recent commentary on the cognition of Madhuchandas:

'Immediately what Madhuchandas saw when he saw -- one is two. 
What he saw? One is not only two, but there is a third element. 
What came to the sight of Madhuchandas? He saw something that was
hidden from view. The two were hidden from view. They were existing 
in the 'A', in the flow, but not known.

'Now he saw silence and dynamism at the same time. At the same time
he saw the third value which was hiding 'I' from 'A', and hiding 
'A' from 'I' -- those two values, silence and dynamism. 
One was hiding the other.

'So when he saw 'I' is unfolding 'A', bringing 'A' to consciousness,
to awareness, so 'A' comes to awareness which was hidden so far,
and 'I' comes to awareness which was hidden so far. So when the two
come to awareness then the hiding, the cover also comes to awareness.
So the cover is uncovered.

'So he saw not only silence and dynamism but he saw that the covering
of silence and dynamism is over, so the third element he also saw. 
He saw the Chandas. So Rishi, Devata, and Chandas. 'A' stands as 
a unified wholeness of Rishi, Devata, Chandas.

'This is how step by step, through sequential steps, unfoldment of
diversity commences ... 

'To know what variety is, we have to know Unity and we have to know
how Unity is composed as Unity of many values, and that we know when
we are able to take out the units of variety and put them back in
Unity again.

'So both diversification and unification ...

selections snipped from "First Seer of the Veda" at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/138961

[FairfieldLife] Let's reclaim Mother's Day for peace

2007-05-11 Thread Dick Mays


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/10/commentary.noor/index.html
Let's reclaim Mother's Day for peace
POSTED: 10:48 a.m. EDT, May 11, 2007
By Queen Noor
Special to CNN

Editor's note: Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan is an international 
humanitarian activist, a leading voice on issues of world peace and 
justice, and honorary chair of Rediscover Mother's Day, which 
celebrates the role of women as peacemakers.


AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- In 1982, during a period of dangerous 
stalemate in the Middle East peace process, I gave a speech at 
Georgetown University about the critical need for a more engaged and 
balanced role for the United States in the region.


The newspapers the next day covered my handbag, my rings, and my 
dress. When asked about the substance of my message, one U.S. Senator 
said, "It's a great public relations weapon to have an attractive 
queen."


Twenty-five years later, the geopolitical landscape of the Middle 
East still reflects some of the most pressing global challenges 
confronting the contemporary world -- the stagnant 
Palestinian/Israeli peace process, the increasingly dangerous 
conflict in Iraq, the escalation of extremism, the debate over 
emerging democracies -- all point to the need for visionary and 
transformative leadership. I firmly believe that peace will only come 
to the region when mothers find their voice and say of the violence, 
"Enough is enough!"


Mother's Day -- whether it is the U.S. tradition of celebrating 
mothers on the second Sunday in May, or on the first day of spring, 
when we observe the holiday in Jordan -- is universally meant to be a 
tribute to motherhood and the blessings of peace. In fact, in America 
the holiday was originally called "Mother's Day for Peace." It was 
proposed over a century ago by Julia Ward Howe, the famous 
abolitionist and suffragist, after she witnessed first-hand the 
terrible bloodshed of the Civil War in America and the 
Franco-Prussian War in Europe. Howe hoped that the powerful maternal 
desire for security could shape world events, and she called on 
mothers of the world to unite against war.


Howe's vision and her call to action could not be more relevant 
today. As a mother, stepmother and grandmother, nothing is more 
important to me than the safety of my family. I am not alone. Studies 
show that women's priority, when given either money or opportunity, 
is the well-being of their families. They invest their time and 
devote whatever resources they have to reducing poverty and hunger, 
improving maternal, child and general health and promoting 
educational opportunity. That is why the position of women is the 
best marker of a country's development and stability.


Mothers prove every day, all over the world, that peace and security 
require cooperation and compassion. Having traditionally occupied a 
paradoxical position at the heart of society but on the fringes of 
power, women often bring unique strengths, talents, and perspectives 
to the quest to resolve conflict and establish freedom. They are 
willing and able to cut across ethnic, religious and tribal barriers, 
and break through obstacles through peace in order to do what is best 
for their families.


It is no coincidence, then, that so many of today's leading 
peacemakers are themselves mothers. All of us must do everything we 
can to support their efforts. People like Swanee Hunt, who served as 
the United States Ambassador to Austria and has spent her life 
advocating for peace and for the inclusion of women in the peace 
process through her work and by creating Women Waging Peace. Or Trish 
Malloch Brown, who travels the world advocating for people affected 
by war and conflict on behalf of Refugees International. Or Lisa 
Schirch, the director of the nonprofit 3D Security Initiative, who 
uses development projects like building schools and water wells to 
disarm conflicts from Lebanon to Ghana.


But the day has come for something more than individual efforts. 
Millions of mothers from Nablus to New York and from Baghdad to 
Beersheba must begin to find common cause in peace and work together 
to give their quiet power a louder voice. We need a movement of what 
Naila Bolus of Ploughshares Fund calls "global security moms," who 
can work within their families and communities, and in national and 
international arenas to temper extremism and to hold their leaders 
accountable for decisions that escalate the cycle of violence rather 
than address underlying problems. Such a movement of mothers would be 
impossible for our leaders to ignore, and would be more powerful than 
all the tanks and suicide bombers combined.


So from one mother to many others, let us be silent no longer in the 
face of war and violence. May all mothers and families around the 
world be blessed with a happy Mother's Day for Peace.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (For Billy G. and all)

2007-05-11 Thread cardemaister

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "BillyG." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Brahm is Brahman's reflection in Prakriti, as such He/She is 
limited
> in time and space. A blue crystal ball will refect the yellow 
light of
> the sun IN the crystal, as blue...once the crystal ball (prakriti)
> disolves the 'blue' light returns to its source/color of the sun 
or 
> Brahman/unmanifest).
> 
> Reality consists of; Illusion/Prakriti the Mother Divine OM 
vibration,
> the TAT/Brahm or son of the, Father/Brahman SAT. OM TAT SAT. Life 
is
> BOTH Relative AND Absolute that is the reality. So in essence you 
are
> right but to dismiss all manifestations of Brahman as illusions is
> better left to Prakriti perhaps, they're all real, but limited to 
time
> and space.
> 

>From a linguistic POV that's so confusing that I'd like
to know what exactly is your source for that.
Actually, those Hindi truncations(?) of Sanskrit words
make me "furious"! Well, at least a bit irritated...  :]

[FairfieldLife] Re: recent photos of rishikesh

2007-05-11 Thread jyouells2000


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "lurkernomore20002000"
> steve.sundur@ wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" 
> > wrote:
> > >
> > snip
> > > >
> > > So you are insinuating that Maharishi is an unethical crook? Was
> > > Mark the possibly French dude the actual one to write the check
> to
> > > the craftsman, or was he just an anti-social seeker?
> >
> > Jim, I'm just relating a story to the best of my recollection.  We
> > were all gathered around to hear the latest news and inspirational
> > stories this Purusha guy had.  This is the part I remember.  I am
> > sorry to say that on balance, his talk was not that inspiring.  You
> > may draw any conclusions you wish. During this time I practiced
> > program at the center every afternoon without fail.
> >
> > lurk
> > >
>
> My take is that the craftsman was a greedy little crook who needed
> some correction. Maharishi would never do such a thing, if it is a
> true story, without a very good reason.

What happened to 'never use someones ignorance against them' ?
Many unethical things have been justified with this kind of reasoning.

JohnY

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning - flaws of Unity

Both of you are looking at the Relative in a rather upbeat way, 
perhaps reflecting transient (for most mortals) blissful moods (maybe 
states or permanent stations in your cases??). Doesn't help the 
wilderbeast being tormented to death by lions or some innocent 16-
year old in Pakistan having acid thrown in her face because in love 
with a Hindu or not wearing full Islamic dress. Take a snapshot of 
the WHOLE of Nature and all there is, 99.99 of it, is suffering. So 
where is the expansion of happiness in that? Maybe the flaw in Unity 
is an inherent madness - well, who would NOT go mad in total 
isolation? Put anyone in solitary confinement with sensory 
deprivation and they will hallucinate and create nightmares for 
themselves. That's the real story perhaps - a madness without cure. 
It goes on FOREVER because even when it transcends time it ends up 
recreating it all over again. There is no sense in a creation which 
just gives suffering to everyone. Either God is mad, bad or just a 
fool - so much (supposed) intelligence in the geometry and sequence 
of laws of nature but then making a total mess with the experiment. 
There are states of matter, because of laws of nature, which are not 
permissable. For instance H2O, at a given temperature and pressure, 
is always water. If Unity truly wanted to expand happiness also in 
every phase of the Relative, all you'd need is some corollary laws 
concerning suffering. Make one step towards goodness, Unity etc = 1 
million times stronger than one step towards badness, anti-Unity. 
Then Unity can safely wander into diversity without resulting in 
suffering for no-one. That is what MMY says is going to happen NOW, 
right? So why not have that as an invariable law in the first place? 
We would be deprived of many experiences yes - but do you mind 
terribly if you don't taste the experience of being a torturer? or a 
victim of torture? What about free will? Where is the free will when 
all the probabilities are stacked in favour of you ending up 
suffering, even when you chose bliss? Sorry, but there IS a flaw with 
Unity and the supposed "expansion" of happiness via the Relative. 
I've never seen a convincing argument to the contrary... Wish there 
was one though!!

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Marek Reavis" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> "I" sees through both "my" eyes.  I sees through all 100 trillion 
> eyes on this planet.  So what's the use of yet another pair of eyes 
> to see with, unless it's to check out what the binocular 
perspective 
> from that moving point in the universe is like.  
> 
> Being yet one more hot squidge of granodiorite cooling off in some 
> crack in the mantle 70 miles below Mt. Shasta is just another way 
to 
> experience what Is, too.  Or moving into a garden apartment in 
> Sitges, busking on the sidewalks in DC, walking the trails in 
> Fairfield, pounding out more code in San Jose, or offering flowers 
to 
> the lotus feet of another monkey that looks more like me than I do 
> myself.
> 
> It's all play.  Just wonderful, tragic, frustrating, sad, tedious 
and 
> exquisite play.
> 
> Have to say that FFL seems particularly sweet this morning. Thanks 
> for that.
> 
> **
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rory Goff"  
> wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk"  
> wrote:
> > >
> > > "constantly crossing and recrossing the gap of ignorance" might 
> imply 
> > > therefore that something is lacking in UNITY? Never saw the 
sense 
> of 
> > > the purpose of life as "expansion of happiness" by going into 
> > > ignorance.. if the happiness is in the return to Unity, why 
> wander 
> > > off in the first place??
> > 
> > Because happiness is the return to Unity, enriched by the 
> experience of 
> > non-Unity. How else can we "expand happiness" except by moving it 
> into 
> > where it (apparently) wasn't? How can we learn and grow if not 
> through 
> > creation, through stories? Now on the other hand, if you wish to 
> say 
> > that in truth we *don't* actually learn or grow, that Isness is 
all 
> > there ever Is, you'll get no real argument from me! :-)
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (For Billy G. and all)

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> John wrote:
> > As an extension of Chopra's analogy, we can say 
> > that if one has not reached cosmic consciousness, 
> > then the phenomenal world is an illusion or Maya 
> > due to the effects of the gunas.
> > 
> The point I was trying to make, John, is that if 
> Purusha, the Transcendental Person, is part and 
> parcel of the relative world of prakriti and subject 
> to the three gunas, then, according to Shankara, 
> the highest God, Creator Brahm, is just an illusion 
> - a result of Maya, thus not real. 

Brahm is Brahman's reflection in Prakriti, as such He/She is limited
in time and space. A blue crystal ball will refect the yellow light of
the sun IN the crystal, as blue...once the crystal ball (prakriti)
disolves the 'blue' light returns to its source/color of the sun or 
Brahman/unmanifest).

Reality consists of; Illusion/Prakriti the Mother Divine OM vibration,
the TAT/Brahm or son of the, Father/Brahman SAT. OM TAT SAT. Life is
BOTH Relative AND Absolute that is the reality. So in essence you are
right but to dismiss all manifestations of Brahman as illusions is
better left to Prakriti perhaps, they're all real, but limited to time
and space.

snip>
 It is very difficult to relate on a 
> personal level to a non-person and at the same time 
> call that person God, who is obviously a Person, 
> by definition, according to the Upanishads.

God is both personal and impersonal according to MMY.

[FairfieldLife] Weird Support of Nature??

2007-05-11 Thread cardemaister


http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/assassination_attempts.html

[FairfieldLife] Re: Question on Pete Townshend

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On May 11, 2007, at 12:58 PM, TurquoiseB wrote:
> 
> > Vaj (or anyone), do you know whether Townshend
> > has ever followed a formal spiritual path, or
> > paths? I've been watching the 2005 DVD of his
> > live performance of Psychoderelict (and many
> > old Who songs as well), and the man is *very*
> > impressive indeed. Psychoderelict is a ballsy
> > blend of live theater and rock 'n roll, and it
> > might almost seem pretentious except for the
> > guy who wrote it, and the fact that he wrote
> > Tommy and Quadrophrenia as well. His strong
> > spirituality tends to come out in his songs,
> > and I'm wondering just what that "flavor"
> > of spirituality might be.
> 
> He was and is a "Baba lover", a follower of Meher Baba. In fact his  
> first (and best) solo album, Who Came First, is dedicated to Baba,  
> with pictures, etc.

Thanks. Now that you mention it, I do remember
something of that. Baba O'Reilly, and all that.

It's difficult to judge from a DVD performance,
but I'd have to say that his spiritual path
has done really well by him. He has a very 
nice vibe.

> I have the CD of Psychoderelict, but haven't seen the DVD yet.

It's way cool. Filmed in a fairly small theater
in New York, the performance starts with Pete
performing some old standards (well...*his* old
standards), and then segueing into a live per-
formance of Psychoderelict. 

He must play...and play the hell out of...a 
dozen different guitars during the performance.
The man rocks.

Re: [FairfieldLife] Question on Pete Townshend

2007-05-11 Thread Vaj



On May 11, 2007, at 12:58 PM, TurquoiseB wrote:


Vaj (or anyone), do you know whether Townshend
has ever followed a formal spiritual path, or
paths? I've been watching the 2005 DVD of his
live performance of Psychoderelict (and many
old Who songs as well), and the man is *very*
impressive indeed. Psychoderelict is a ballsy
blend of live theater and rock 'n roll, and it
might almost seem pretentious except for the
guy who wrote it, and the fact that he wrote
Tommy and Quadrophrenia as well. His strong
spirituality tends to come out in his songs,
and I'm wondering just what that "flavor"
of spirituality might be.



He was and is a "Baba lover", a follower of Meher Baba. In fact his  
first (and best) solo album, Who Came First, is dedicated to Baba,  
with pictures, etc.


I have the CD of Psychoderelict, but haven't seen the DVD yet.

[FairfieldLife] Question on Pete Townshend

Vaj (or anyone), do you know whether Townshend 
has ever followed a formal spiritual path, or
paths? I've been watching the 2005 DVD of his
live performance of Psychoderelict (and many 
old Who songs as well), and the man is *very*
impressive indeed. Psychoderelict is a ballsy
blend of live theater and rock 'n roll, and it
might almost seem pretentious except for the
guy who wrote it, and the fact that he wrote
Tommy and Quadrophrenia as well. His strong
spirituality tends to come out in his songs,
and I'm wondering just what that "flavor"
of spirituality might be.

[FairfieldLife] Airport Shuttle

2007-05-11 Thread Jonathan Chadwick

Is there still somebody in FF who runs a shuttle to and from the CR airport?
 
-
We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love
(and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning

"I" sees through both "my" eyes.  I sees through all 100 trillion 
eyes on this planet.  So what's the use of yet another pair of eyes 
to see with, unless it's to check out what the binocular perspective 
from that moving point in the universe is like.  

Being yet one more hot squidge of granodiorite cooling off in some 
crack in the mantle 70 miles below Mt. Shasta is just another way to 
experience what Is, too.  Or moving into a garden apartment in 
Sitges, busking on the sidewalks in DC, walking the trails in 
Fairfield, pounding out more code in San Jose, or offering flowers to 
the lotus feet of another monkey that looks more like me than I do 
myself.

It's all play.  Just wonderful, tragic, frustrating, sad, tedious and 
exquisite play.

Have to say that FFL seems particularly sweet this morning. Thanks 
for that.

**

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rory Goff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk"  
wrote:
> >
> > "constantly crossing and recrossing the gap of ignorance" might 
imply 
> > therefore that something is lacking in UNITY? Never saw the sense 
of 
> > the purpose of life as "expansion of happiness" by going into 
> > ignorance.. if the happiness is in the return to Unity, why 
wander 
> > off in the first place??
> 
> Because happiness is the return to Unity, enriched by the 
experience of 
> non-Unity. How else can we "expand happiness" except by moving it 
into 
> where it (apparently) wasn't? How can we learn and grow if not 
through 
> creation, through stories? Now on the other hand, if you wish to 
say 
> that in truth we *don't* actually learn or grow, that Isness is all 
> there ever Is, you'll get no real argument from me! :-)
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Cathar Heresy

2007-05-11 Thread Richard J. Williams

Turquoise wrote:
> The "parent" belief system is called Dualism, with the 
> different "flavors" of Dualism being the children. In 
> other words, Catharism isn't a child of Gnosticism; both 
> are children of Dualism.
> 
Cathars come from Bogomils, Bogomils come from Paulicans, 
Paulicans come from Gnostics, and Gnostics come from 
Manichaeans or through Marcionites and Valentinians. All
were dualists derived from the Asian notion of Indian 
Sankhya radical dualism. All Indian dualism predates 
Gnostic and Manichaean dualistic notions by many centuries. 

Apparently the interview with Haliczer misquotes "Kill 
them all. The Lord knows his own" as "Kill them all. 
The Devil knows his own" while mistakenly attributing 
the statement to Simone de Monfort instead of to Arnaud 
Amalric, the Papal Legate as per the reference to 2 
Timothy 2:19.

According to Kater Moggin, the parfaits could fall into 
human imperfections. Catholic priests like Pierre Clergue 
sympathized with the Cathars of Montaillou, eventually 
betrayed them, but bedded a fair number of their women 
while he had the chance.

"Me, I was simply ill-informed due to the superficiality 
of my readings about gnosticism." - Uncle Tantra

"The Cathars, Bogomils, and Paulicans are medieval 
gnostics. Their thinking probably derives from 
gnosticism in its ancient forms, thru the Manichaeans, 
as Klaus says, or thru the Marcionites and Valentinians, 
but the links are still undocumented, so far as I know, 
though the parallels, large and small, are easy to see." 
- Kater Moggin

[FairfieldLife] Re: First seer of Veda

2007-05-11 Thread Richard J. Williams

Erik wrote:
> Well, whadya know! That seems to be *true*!
> 
Well, whadya know - there's no mention of any "Devata" 
in the Vedas. Or any Yakshis dwelling in a *Kadamba* tree!

bob_brigante wrote:
> > > 'So in the common terminology he saw Rishi, he 
> > > saw Devata value...
> > >
Richard J. Williams wrote:
> > There's no mention of any "Devata" in the Vedas, Bob. 
> > Or any Yakshis dwelling in a Kadamba tree.
> > 
> > The idea of Devata came much later with the rise of the 
> > Bhakti sects. There are no 'devatas' in the Vedas, that 
> > is, there are no household or sylvan deities, apart from 
> > or in addition to the supernal devas such as Surya, Indra 
> > or Vishnu. 
> > 
> > Devatas belong to earth and do not share in the 
> > charateristics of Devas. Devatas are all minor mind-made 
> > demi-gods such as Shiva and Durga. Devatas are just 
> > potencies, instruments, or in some cases, deified heros 
> > such as Vasudeva, Krishna, or Ramchandra. The names 
> > Krishna, Balarama, Vasudeva, and Rama  do not occur in 
> > the Rig Veda.
> > 
> > On the other hand, a Deva is a 'celestial' power, the 
> > deification or personification of natural forces and 
> > phenomena, distiguised by name and attributes in the 
> > Rig Veda and the Zend Avesta. Devas are believed to be 
> > auspicious if propitiated, such as Surya, Agni, Usas, 
> > or Saraswati, all derived from Prajapati. 
> > 
> > According to the Rig Veda (I.139,11), they number 
> > thirty-three.
> >
> ye de\'vaaso di\`vy ekaa\'dasha\` stha pR^i\'thi\`vyaam adhy
> ekaa\'dasha\` stha  |\\
>   a\`psu\`kShito\' mahi\`naikaa\'dasha\` stha te de\'vaaso ya\`j~nam
> i\`maM ju\'Shadhvam  || \EN{1}{139}{11} \\
> 
> 11 + 11 + 11 (ekaadasha divi, pRthivyaam and apsu)...

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning

2007-05-11 Thread Rory Goff

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "claudiouk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> "constantly crossing and recrossing the gap of ignorance" might imply 
> therefore that something is lacking in UNITY? Never saw the sense of 
> the purpose of life as "expansion of happiness" by going into 
> ignorance.. if the happiness is in the return to Unity, why wander 
> off in the first place??

Because happiness is the return to Unity, enriched by the experience of 
non-Unity. How else can we "expand happiness" except by moving it into 
where it (apparently) wasn't? How can we learn and grow if not through 
creation, through stories? Now on the other hand, if you wish to say 
that in truth we *don't* actually learn or grow, that Isness is all 
there ever Is, you'll get no real argument from me! :-)

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (For Billy G. and all)

2007-05-11 Thread Richard J. Williams

John wrote:
> As an extension of Chopra's analogy, we can say 
> that if one has not reached cosmic consciousness, 
> then the phenomenal world is an illusion or Maya 
> due to the effects of the gunas.
> 
The point I was trying to make, John, is that if 
Purusha, the Transcendental Person, is part and 
parcel of the relative world of prakriti and subject 
to the three gunas, then, according to Shankara, 
the highest God, Creator Brahm, is just an illusion 
- a result of Maya, thus not real. If God is an 
illusion and not real, then there is no Transcendental 
Person in the absolute sense. You must admit that this 
is a significant conundrum and probably the reason why 
all the Upanishadic commentators ascribed to either 
dualism, quasi-dulaism, or qualified dualsism - 
Ramanuja, Madhva, Vallaba, Nimbarka, and Chaitanya, 
instead of adwaita. While all these acharyas were 
transcendentalists, they did not agree with Shankara 
concerning the Absolute nature of the Purusha. In 
fact, as pointed out by Vaj, the notion that Brahman 
is an unmanifest and impersonal Absolute without 
attributes is almost pure Middle Way Buddhism 
(Madyamika). It is very difficult to relate on a 
personal level to a non-person and at the same time 
call that person God, who is obviously a Person, 
by definition, according to the Upanishads.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Reflections on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (For Billy G. and all)

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
snip>
> In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the effects of Maya is similar to 
> the myth of Eden, where humans have lost the capacity to enjoy divine 
> existence while here on Earth due to the error (sin) of Adam and 
> Eve.  
>snip

Certainly 'Adam and Eve", (representing the thinking and the feeling
part of man's nature, even today) the androgynous human, was largely a
'descended' one or a product of maya/prakriti, although with the onset
of freewill he was 'enabled' to become as gods, literally as the Bible
points out, and that will be his/her destiny.

As Adam/Eve sinned or transgressed the laws of nature they set in
motion the inevitable law of consequence or karma and are working out
their destiny till today as is the Divine Plan. We got tricked by the
Satanic force of Maya/illusion which cast a hypnotic spell on us which
only the Purusha can dispel.

> I believe the error was that they as humans assumed Knowledge can be 
> obtained through the senses and phenomenal existence alone.  In other 
> words, they thought they were gods.

I think they were promised, correctly, that they would become as gods
but in actuality they became *egos* or maya identified/deluded
entities...remember the flower analogy by MMY?

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning

2007-05-11 Thread Rory Goff

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
> And why is it that the billions of souls on this atmospheric sphere 
> placed precisely in space, near Surya, have chosen this very moment 
> to realize the exact lessons, their perfect dreams, the specific 
> scenery of life that seems most real down to our smallest particle 
> of our being here? Someone was quoting Maharishi speaking about 
> magic. To me, this, all of this is magic. 
> 
> Why we see all what we see as real, is magic. Why we are able to 
see 
> the infinite diversity of God, just here and just now, as "humans" 
> on "earth". 
> 
> Considering the size of the Universe, just one, and we all share 
> this perfect dream together, billions of us dreaming this one 
> existence together, so perfectly and coherently that we can share 
it 
> with each other; a tree is always seen as a tree, a baby as a baby, 
> music always heard as music, food always nourishes, and at the same 
> time, each of us experiences every bit of it uniquely, with enough 
> infinite diversity on this small hot rock to produce infinity 
within 
> each and every one of us. Pure magic.

YES! I've always been tickled by the relationship -- identity, 
really -- of the words "maya" and "magic" -- and we aren't doing the 
word justice when we say (usually deprecatingly) "it's only maya" -- 
unless we use the word "only" more literally as "onely". It's 
not "only maya" -- it's Onely Magic! It's all in the particles, and 
unless we're willing to be the flea(s), we can't really enjoy being 
the elephant. Willingness to be Creature as well as Creator, and to 
be Creator being Creature, is where the Magic really begins! :-D

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Turk,
> 
> Nice piece, dude.  Felt inside your brain.

I can only hope that this was a pleasurable
experience. It's sometimes a bit trying for me. :-)

> And for good reason:  yesterday I made a decision to move also.  
> 
> Synchrony between me and you, go figure.

Doo de doo doo... (Twilight Zone theme). Cool.

> I live on a lake, and from my office window, for three years 
> now, 15 feet from the water, each day I see the sun and moon 
> kiss a mountain on the other side of the lake.  

Another synchronicity. I once lived on a private
lake in Pound Ridge, NY. Only five houses on the
lake, and me with a canoe. Great place to meditate,
in a canoe, in the middle of the lake.

> I've had over 60 species of animals play in my small cove 
> where the wind sings to the water and leaves.  
> 
> Morning slanting rays color the scene as if Maxfield Parrish 
> was God.

Lovely. I'm a Maxfield Parrish time of day person
myself. He really had a feel for light.

> And yet, I'm leaving.  

And I understand. 

> I've seen blue herons stabbing foot long fish and gulping 
> them down snake lithe throats, seen musk rats fucking like 
> gonzo vibrators, seen twelve turtles sunning on one log, 
> seen a hawk swoop down like Dracula on a mourning dove, in 
> one moment seen red wing blackbirds harrying crows harrying 
> eagles harrying ospreys for their still writhing talon-viced 
> prey, seen seen an island raft of white pelicans sleeping
> on the water the day after tens of thousands of them 
> disappeared in a Canadian blink, seen wavefronts of geese 
> honking south and north, seen trees along the shore bending, 
> stooping, groaning to the lash of driven rain.  And, once, 
> just once, the winter broke for a week, and as the three 
> inch thick ice was piled up on the shore like blown
> leaves, waves clanged the hunks into each other to produce 
> a hypnotic chorus of deep marimba chiming.

Lovely again.

> And I'm leaving.  

And I still understand. For me it was triggered 
a couple of months ago by a phrase used by one
of my favorite writers, humorist Christopher
Moore. In one of his public performances he was
asked by a fan why he was selling his house on
Kauai and moving back to San Francicso. He said,
"Living on Kauai is like dating a supermodel.
It's really great, but one morning you wake up
and you realize that the thing you want to have
most is a conversation."

Bingo.

That set off mental light bulbs flashing on and
off over my head, like in a Crumb cartoon. That
was the thing I craved most...more good conver-
sations. 

> I'm going to a place where I can have more society, more
> opportunities, more venues. Gunna expand a bit. See how 
> it fits to drape my spirit with a city.

Synchronicity. My new apartment may have a very
silent garden, but it ten steps away from my 
favorite WiFi sidewalk cafe, and 50 steps away
from Sitges' nightclub area. Walk 100 more steps,
and your toes are in the Mediterranean.

I'm going there primarily because of the cafe
society, and the level of *conversation* that the
people who live there are used to having. It's
really neat, and I hope to explore it thoroughly.

> Paradise, but even the angels want to incarnate as meat 
> puppets when claustrophobic heaven becomes merely the 
> "spiritual boondocks," so, like a truant angel, I'm 
> biting that apple, grabbing a fig leaf -- gunna 
> boggie again.
> 
> You in your garden being taught by silent flowers, me 
> looking for a place to till the social soil and plant 
> a me.

I'll be pretty social, too. We'll just have to 
see what grows. We've both got the fertilizer
thing down pat :-), so now all that remains to
be seen is what kind of seeds get planted.

> Might get a silent flower to grow.  We'll compare notes, eh?  

Indeed. May your journey be a happy one, filled
with heavenly conversations with the other fallen 
angels.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

2007-05-11 Thread Duveyoung

Turk,

Nice piece, dude.  Felt inside your brain.

And for good reason:  yesterday I made a decision to move also.  

Synchrony between me and you, go figure.

I live on a lake, and from my office window, for three years now, 15
feet from the water, each day I see the sun and moon kiss a mountain
on the other side of the lake.  I've had over 60 species of animals
play in my small cove where the wind sings to the water and leaves.  

Morning slanting rays color the scene as if Maxfield Parrish was God.

And yet, I'm leaving.  

I've seen blue herons stabbing foot long fish and gulping them down
snake lithe throats, seen musk rats fucking like gonzo vibrators, seen
twelve turtles sunning on one log, seen a hawk swoop down like Dracula
on a mourning dove, in one moment seen red wing blackbirds harrying
crows harrying eagles harrying ospreys for their still writhing
talon-viced prey, seen seen an island raft of white pelicans sleeping
on the water the day after tens of thousands of them disappeared in a
Canadian blink, seen wavefronts of geese honking south and north, seen
trees along the shore bending, stooping, groaning to the lash of
driven rain.  And, once, just once, the winter broke for a week, and
as the three inch thick ice was piled up on the shore like blown
leaves, waves clanged the hunks into each other to produce a hypnotic
chorus of deep marimba chiming.

And I'm leaving.  

I'm going to a place where I can have more society, more
opportunities, more venues. Gunna expand a bit.  See how it fits to
drape my spirit with a city.

Paradise, but even the angels want to incarnate as meat puppets when
claustrophobic heaven becomes merely the "spiritual boondocks," so,
like a truant angel, I'm biting that apple, grabbing a fig leaf --
gunna boggie again.

You in your garden being taught by silent flowers, me looking for a
place to till the social soil and plant a me.

Might get a silent flower to grow.  We'll compare notes, eh?  

Edg

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> 
> [ I wrote this yesterday night, but didn't post it
> at that time because it didn't seem to "fit" with
> the topics being discussed. It still doesn't, but
> here goes anyway. If Edg and Curtis can write about
> their everyday lives as if they were some kind of
> spiritual sadhana, I guess I can, too.  - Unc ] 
> 
> "The mind is drawn to ever-increasing levels of bliss." 
> Or something to that effect. That's what the man said.
> 
> Those are the first words that Maharishi spoke that 
> really *resonated* with me, all those years ago in the
> Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 1967. For me, a BTDT
> hippie searching for a saner path through life than
> psychedelics, those words really "caught the wave" of
> my life. At 21, I had *done* sex, drugs, and rock 'n 
> roll, right on the front lines of all three war zones, 
> and none of them (despite their undeniable charms) 
> had taken me where they had promised. So I was in 
> search of Something Else, another goal and path to 
> focus on to inspire me to keep on keepin' on. And 
> Maharishi just *nailed* it with that phrase. 
> 
> In retrospect, I suspect that even at the time, I 
> "signed on" more to that phrase, and that lifestyle,
> than I "signed on" with Maharishi personally. But I 
> followed the path suggested by that phrase, and him,
> and with heart, for fourteen years. And when the
> time came when ever-increasing levels of bliss were
> no longer found within the TM movement and with
> Maharishi, I followed the spirit of what he had 
> said that day in the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 
> even though it drew me away from him. 
> 
> I followed the bliss, not the man who had told me 
> about the bliss. And I thank him, in my way, for 
> being the first person in my life to ever put the 
> simple truth of "Follow your bliss" into words, 
> by living the truth of those words in my own life. 
> 
> I have pretty much *always* followed my bliss. Damn 
> making sense. Damn tradition. Damn career. Damn what 
> anyone else thinks of the irrational decisions I am 
> making. If the decisions lead me in the direction of 
> greater bliss (in my *own* definition of bliss, that 
> is, not anyone else's definition), then at this point 
> I really don't see the percentage in *not* following 
> the bliss. 
> 
> Doing so has worked out rather well for me for forty 
> years now. I've had one phwam! of a life as a result 
> of following Maharishi's advice about paying attention 
> to that which seems to offer increasing levels of 
> bliss.
> 
> This is all relevant to me today because yesterday
> I signed a lease on an apartment in a beach town 
> in Spain, and will be moving there in September. 
> To do this I will be leaving One Of My Best Designs
> For Paradise So Far, in favor of another, hopefully 
> a more evolved design.
> 
> I mean, I live right now inside one of my fantasies 
> from earlier in my life, in a tiny medieval village 
> where the her

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, new.morning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" > 
> > As far as discussing my everyday life being sadhana, here is the
> > secret: put the world "wholness" in it somewhere and you can get 
> > away with anything. Example
> > 
> > Yesterday I talked to this Iranian chick and she was so totally 
> > hot in her red shoes and her custom jeans and her cat-like 
> > eyeliner enhanced eyes, that it made me feel wholeness all up 
> > in the hizzi. (notice how I also made it relevant to the young 
> > people on FFL)
> 
> So your bliss grew and you followed it, right? To the ecstatic 
> union of inter-cultural wholness. Right? 
> 
> Henry Miller has nothing on you man.

Curtis is a closet Zennist, pursuing the path 
written about by 15th-century Zen Master Ikkyu:

A Woman's Sex:
It has the original mouth but remains wordless;
It is surrounded by a magnificent mound of hair.
Sentient beings can get completely lost in it.
But it is also the birthplace of all the Buddhas 
of the ten thousand worlds.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" > 
> As far as discussing my everyday life being sadhana, here is the
> secret: put the world "wholness" in it somewhere and you can get away
> with anything. Example
> 
> Yesterday I talked to this Iranian chick and she was so totally hot in
> her red shoes and her custom jeans and her cat-like eyeliner enhanced
> eyes, that it made me feel wholeness all up in the hizzi. (notice how
> I also made it relevant to the young people on FFL)
> 

So your bliss grew and you followed it, right? To the ecstatic union
of inter-cultural wholness. Right? 

Henry Miller has nothing on you man.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

2007-05-11 Thread curtisdeltablues

Only if measured in dog years.  But using the right language might
attract them to our wholeness...fer shizzzle.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues"
>  wrote:
> >
> > Fantastic news man!  You have the risk/reward system mastered. 
> > I am placing dibs on the wheelchair next to yours at the nursing 
> > home.  
> > 
> > As far as discussing my everyday life being sadhana, here is the
> > secret: put the world "wholness" in it somewhere and you can get 
> > away with anything. Example
> > 
> > Yesterday I talked to this Iranian chick and she was so totally 
> > hot in her red shoes and her custom jeans and her cat-like 
> > eyeliner enhanced eyes, that it made me feel wholeness all up 
> > in the hizzi. (notice how I also made it relevant to the young 
> > people on FFL)
> 
> There are young people on FFL?
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Fantastic news man!  You have the risk/reward system mastered. 
> I am placing dibs on the wheelchair next to yours at the nursing 
> home.  
> 
> As far as discussing my everyday life being sadhana, here is the
> secret: put the world "wholness" in it somewhere and you can get 
> away with anything. Example
> 
> Yesterday I talked to this Iranian chick and she was so totally 
> hot in her red shoes and her custom jeans and her cat-like 
> eyeliner enhanced eyes, that it made me feel wholeness all up 
> in the hizzi. (notice how I also made it relevant to the young 
> people on FFL)

There are young people on FFL?

[FairfieldLife] THE NEW RULERS OF THE WORLD

2007-05-11 Thread apprillia_s_d

THE NEW RULERS OF THE WORLD

- Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8firb73r67g

- Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYaDY-xTzZ0

- Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4se4jYI9KAc

- Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4se4jYI9KAc

- Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0tIB9m_BBg

- Part 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf2CSUoxyOk

- Part 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUmyevPS2cY

_

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTHFxjQCE1E


FREEDOM FOREVER!

[FairfieldLife] Re: recent photos of rishikesh & Chair order cancelled

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "lurkernomore20002000"
>  (here I sound like edg, being sure I keep the ego
> in check)
> 
> Lurky,
> 
> I think I'm on record for being helpless in the face of the 
> ego's powers to snatch identity out of my tightest grasp -- 
> and then use it like the skin off of the cop's face was used -- 
> as a mask by Dr. Hannibal Edg Lecter.

Nice image. In a Dexter sorta way, that is. :-)

> Yeah, ego is that hideous to me. Having a personality is being
> trapped inside a prison cell constructed entirely from meat.  
> Ego is a meat mask the soul wears.

I feel for you, but y'know...I really don't feel
that way. To me the different ego-personality
selves that flit across my Self are kinda cool.
They're like costumes, at a fancy dress ball. You
put them on for a while and see how they act and
how much fun they seem to have, and then you take
off that costume and put on another one. 

The things that these empheremal selves say and
do and believe last no longer than the time that
I'm "wearing" them, while the Self continues on.
What's not to like about that? It's not just 200%
of life, one Self plus one self...it's 100% of 
the Self plus 100% of a seemingly never-ending
succession of selves. 

> But it makes for some fine and subtle comedy.

Indeed it does. And at this point in my life I'm 
not convinced that it would be any funnier if 
there were no ego present. So a succession of 
costume-selves is just fine by me. Self may be
cool and all, but selves have more fun.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

Very nice piece.



--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> 
> [ I wrote this yesterday night, but didn't post it
> at that time because it didn't seem to "fit" with
> the topics being discussed. It still doesn't, but
> here goes anyway. If Edg and Curtis can write about
> their everyday lives as if they were some kind of
> spiritual sadhana, I guess I can, too.  - Unc ] 
> 
> "The mind is drawn to ever-increasing levels of bliss." 
> Or something to that effect. That's what the man said.
> 
> Those are the first words that Maharishi spoke that 
> really *resonated* with me, all those years ago in the
> Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 1967. For me, a BTDT
> hippie searching for a saner path through life than
> psychedelics, those words really "caught the wave" of
> my life. At 21, I had *done* sex, drugs, and rock 'n 
> roll, right on the front lines of all three war zones, 
> and none of them (despite their undeniable charms) 
> had taken me where they had promised. So I was in 
> search of Something Else, another goal and path to 
> focus on to inspire me to keep on keepin' on. And 
> Maharishi just *nailed* it with that phrase. 
> 
> In retrospect, I suspect that even at the time, I 
> "signed on" more to that phrase, and that lifestyle,
> than I "signed on" with Maharishi personally. But I 
> followed the path suggested by that phrase, and him,
> and with heart, for fourteen years. And when the
> time came when ever-increasing levels of bliss were
> no longer found within the TM movement and with
> Maharishi, I followed the spirit of what he had 
> said that day in the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 
> even though it drew me away from him. 
> 
> I followed the bliss, not the man who had told me 
> about the bliss. And I thank him, in my way, for 
> being the first person in my life to ever put the 
> simple truth of "Follow your bliss" into words, 
> by living the truth of those words in my own life. 
> 
> I have pretty much *always* followed my bliss. Damn 
> making sense. Damn tradition. Damn career. Damn what 
> anyone else thinks of the irrational decisions I am 
> making. If the decisions lead me in the direction of 
> greater bliss (in my *own* definition of bliss, that 
> is, not anyone else's definition), then at this point 
> I really don't see the percentage in *not* following 
> the bliss. 
> 
> Doing so has worked out rather well for me for forty 
> years now. I've had one phwam! of a life as a result 
> of following Maharishi's advice about paying attention 
> to that which seems to offer increasing levels of 
> bliss.
> 
> This is all relevant to me today because yesterday
> I signed a lease on an apartment in a beach town 
> in Spain, and will be moving there in September. 
> To do this I will be leaving One Of My Best Designs
> For Paradise So Far, in favor of another, hopefully 
> a more evolved design.
> 
> I mean, I live right now inside one of my fantasies 
> from earlier in my life, in a tiny medieval village 
> where the heretics I am interested in as a writer
> and as a spiritual seeker once trod. I live in an
> apartment built on the original 10th-century city
> walls in an apartment that costs me 450 Euros a 
> month, and would continue to cost me that for the 
> rest of my life. That is my agreement with the 
> Crumbs, should I choose to stay *for* the rest of 
> my days. That's quite an offer. The village is
> wonderful, the offer is wonderful, and the Crumbs
> are wonderful, and I'm moving to Spain anyway.
> Go figure. 
> 
> Following one's bliss is all about that ineffable
> quality of life that you can't put into words, try 
> as you might. For me, making this decision, it's 
> all about silence. How do you put *that* into words? 
> I stand on the ramparts of Sauve tonight and I feel 
> the level of silence here, and I marvel at its depth.
> And then I take a deep breath and remember the
> silence in Sitges...present in the most crowded
> chiringuito, in the noisiest nightclub street, or,
> moments later, in the deserted square in front of
> the 15th-century church, gazing out to sea, and
> there is just simply No Question about which level
> of silence draws me more. 
> 
> I've tried my best to fight it. I've taken this 
> decision through all the sane, rational, intellectual 
> hoops, and moving to Spain makes no sense at all. It's
> folly. But I'm moving anyway, and it's all about the 
> silence. 
> 
> The apartment I'll be living in there is on one of 
> the busiest streets in town, a block from the beach, 
> and full of crowds at all hours of the day or night. 
> But step inside the door and close it and miraculously, 
> the noise of that world just Goes Away and opens into 
> a pretty wonderful apartment. And then that apartment 
> opens onto The Garden.
> 
> It was The Garden that did it. It's immense, lovely, 
> private, and with a level of silence in it that is 
> astounding. I sit in The Garden, only steps away from 
> the bus

[FairfieldLife] Re: Uncle Tantra's Garden

2007-05-11 Thread curtisdeltablues

Fantastic news man!  You have the risk/reward system mastered. I am
placing dibs on the wheelchair next to yours at the nursing home.  

As far as discussing my everyday life being sadhana, here is the
secret: put the world "wholness" in it somewhere and you can get away
with anything. Example

Yesterday I talked to this Iranian chick and she was so totally hot in
her red shoes and her custom jeans and her cat-like eyeliner enhanced
eyes, that it made me feel wholeness all up in the hizzi. (notice how
I also made it relevant to the young people on FFL)




--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> 
> [ I wrote this yesterday night, but didn't post it
> at that time because it didn't seem to "fit" with
> the topics being discussed. It still doesn't, but
> here goes anyway. If Edg and Curtis can write about
> their everyday lives as if they were some kind of
> spiritual sadhana, I guess I can, too.  - Unc ] 
> 
> "The mind is drawn to ever-increasing levels of bliss." 
> Or something to that effect. That's what the man said.
> 
> Those are the first words that Maharishi spoke that 
> really *resonated* with me, all those years ago in the
> Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 1967. For me, a BTDT
> hippie searching for a saner path through life than
> psychedelics, those words really "caught the wave" of
> my life. At 21, I had *done* sex, drugs, and rock 'n 
> roll, right on the front lines of all three war zones, 
> and none of them (despite their undeniable charms) 
> had taken me where they had promised. So I was in 
> search of Something Else, another goal and path to 
> focus on to inspire me to keep on keepin' on. And 
> Maharishi just *nailed* it with that phrase. 
> 
> In retrospect, I suspect that even at the time, I 
> "signed on" more to that phrase, and that lifestyle,
> than I "signed on" with Maharishi personally. But I 
> followed the path suggested by that phrase, and him,
> and with heart, for fourteen years. And when the
> time came when ever-increasing levels of bliss were
> no longer found within the TM movement and with
> Maharishi, I followed the spirit of what he had 
> said that day in the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 
> even though it drew me away from him. 
> 
> I followed the bliss, not the man who had told me 
> about the bliss. And I thank him, in my way, for 
> being the first person in my life to ever put the 
> simple truth of "Follow your bliss" into words, 
> by living the truth of those words in my own life. 
> 
> I have pretty much *always* followed my bliss. Damn 
> making sense. Damn tradition. Damn career. Damn what 
> anyone else thinks of the irrational decisions I am 
> making. If the decisions lead me in the direction of 
> greater bliss (in my *own* definition of bliss, that 
> is, not anyone else's definition), then at this point 
> I really don't see the percentage in *not* following 
> the bliss. 
> 
> Doing so has worked out rather well for me for forty 
> years now. I've had one phwam! of a life as a result 
> of following Maharishi's advice about paying attention 
> to that which seems to offer increasing levels of 
> bliss.
> 
> This is all relevant to me today because yesterday
> I signed a lease on an apartment in a beach town 
> in Spain, and will be moving there in September. 
> To do this I will be leaving One Of My Best Designs
> For Paradise So Far, in favor of another, hopefully 
> a more evolved design.
> 
> I mean, I live right now inside one of my fantasies 
> from earlier in my life, in a tiny medieval village 
> where the heretics I am interested in as a writer
> and as a spiritual seeker once trod. I live in an
> apartment built on the original 10th-century city
> walls in an apartment that costs me 450 Euros a 
> month, and would continue to cost me that for the 
> rest of my life. That is my agreement with the 
> Crumbs, should I choose to stay *for* the rest of 
> my days. That's quite an offer. The village is
> wonderful, the offer is wonderful, and the Crumbs
> are wonderful, and I'm moving to Spain anyway.
> Go figure. 
> 
> Following one's bliss is all about that ineffable
> quality of life that you can't put into words, try 
> as you might. For me, making this decision, it's 
> all about silence. How do you put *that* into words? 
> I stand on the ramparts of Sauve tonight and I feel 
> the level of silence here, and I marvel at its depth.
> And then I take a deep breath and remember the
> silence in Sitges...present in the most crowded
> chiringuito, in the noisiest nightclub street, or,
> moments later, in the deserted square in front of
> the 15th-century church, gazing out to sea, and
> there is just simply No Question about which level
> of silence draws me more. 
> 
> I've tried my best to fight it. I've taken this 
> decision through all the sane, rational, intellectual 
> hoops, and moving to Spain makes no sense at all. It's
> folly. But I'm moving anyway, and it's all about the 
> silence. 
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: recent photos of rishikesh & Chair order cancelled

2007-05-11 Thread Duveyoung

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "lurkernomore20002000"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (here I sound like edg, being sure I keep the ego
in check)

Lurky,

I think I'm on record for being helpless in the face of the ego's
powers to snatch identity out of my tightest grasp -- and then use it
like the skin off of the cop's face was used -- as a mask by Dr.
Hannibal Edg Lecter.

Yeah, ego is that hideous to me.  Having a personality is being
trapped inside a prison cell constructed entirely from meat.  Ego is a
meat mask the soul wears.

But without ego, they say that incarnation is Adam before the fall.
Maybe sorta cudda.

Keeping the ego in check?  Only the ego thinks it's a doer, so only
the ego can be said to do the checking.  Wolf guarding the hen house.

But it makes for some fine and subtle comedy.

Soul: B
Ego:  MEE!

Funny, SE?

Like Ellen at the end of her opening monologue, now, all I can think
of to do is dance.

Let's all do the Monster Mash!  It'll be such a Thriller to have at
least another 28 Days and Nights of the Living Dead ganggervorting to
the Drag-Yer-Leg and Slough Off Shuffle by Magog and the Moldy Hearts.

Edg

[FairfieldLife] Uncle Tantra's Garden


[ I wrote this yesterday night, but didn't post it
at that time because it didn't seem to "fit" with
the topics being discussed. It still doesn't, but
here goes anyway. If Edg and Curtis can write about
their everyday lives as if they were some kind of
spiritual sadhana, I guess I can, too.  - Unc ] 

"The mind is drawn to ever-increasing levels of bliss." 
Or something to that effect. That's what the man said.

Those are the first words that Maharishi spoke that 
really *resonated* with me, all those years ago in the
Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 1967. For me, a BTDT
hippie searching for a saner path through life than
psychedelics, those words really "caught the wave" of
my life. At 21, I had *done* sex, drugs, and rock 'n 
roll, right on the front lines of all three war zones, 
and none of them (despite their undeniable charms) 
had taken me where they had promised. So I was in 
search of Something Else, another goal and path to 
focus on to inspire me to keep on keepin' on. And 
Maharishi just *nailed* it with that phrase. 

In retrospect, I suspect that even at the time, I 
"signed on" more to that phrase, and that lifestyle,
than I "signed on" with Maharishi personally. But I 
followed the path suggested by that phrase, and him,
and with heart, for fourteen years. And when the
time came when ever-increasing levels of bliss were
no longer found within the TM movement and with
Maharishi, I followed the spirit of what he had 
said that day in the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 
even though it drew me away from him. 

I followed the bliss, not the man who had told me 
about the bliss. And I thank him, in my way, for 
being the first person in my life to ever put the 
simple truth of "Follow your bliss" into words, 
by living the truth of those words in my own life. 

I have pretty much *always* followed my bliss. Damn 
making sense. Damn tradition. Damn career. Damn what 
anyone else thinks of the irrational decisions I am 
making. If the decisions lead me in the direction of 
greater bliss (in my *own* definition of bliss, that 
is, not anyone else's definition), then at this point 
I really don't see the percentage in *not* following 
the bliss. 

Doing so has worked out rather well for me for forty 
years now. I've had one phwam! of a life as a result 
of following Maharishi's advice about paying attention 
to that which seems to offer increasing levels of 
bliss.

This is all relevant to me today because yesterday
I signed a lease on an apartment in a beach town 
in Spain, and will be moving there in September. 
To do this I will be leaving One Of My Best Designs
For Paradise So Far, in favor of another, hopefully 
a more evolved design.

I mean, I live right now inside one of my fantasies 
from earlier in my life, in a tiny medieval village 
where the heretics I am interested in as a writer
and as a spiritual seeker once trod. I live in an
apartment built on the original 10th-century city
walls in an apartment that costs me 450 Euros a 
month, and would continue to cost me that for the 
rest of my life. That is my agreement with the 
Crumbs, should I choose to stay *for* the rest of 
my days. That's quite an offer. The village is
wonderful, the offer is wonderful, and the Crumbs
are wonderful, and I'm moving to Spain anyway.
Go figure. 

Following one's bliss is all about that ineffable
quality of life that you can't put into words, try 
as you might. For me, making this decision, it's 
all about silence. How do you put *that* into words? 
I stand on the ramparts of Sauve tonight and I feel 
the level of silence here, and I marvel at its depth.
And then I take a deep breath and remember the
silence in Sitges...present in the most crowded
chiringuito, in the noisiest nightclub street, or,
moments later, in the deserted square in front of
the 15th-century church, gazing out to sea, and
there is just simply No Question about which level
of silence draws me more. 

I've tried my best to fight it. I've taken this 
decision through all the sane, rational, intellectual 
hoops, and moving to Spain makes no sense at all. It's
folly. But I'm moving anyway, and it's all about the 
silence. 

The apartment I'll be living in there is on one of 
the busiest streets in town, a block from the beach, 
and full of crowds at all hours of the day or night. 
But step inside the door and close it and miraculously, 
the noise of that world just Goes Away and opens into 
a pretty wonderful apartment. And then that apartment 
opens onto The Garden.

It was The Garden that did it. It's immense, lovely, 
private, and with a level of silence in it that is 
astounding. I sit in The Garden, only steps away from 
the busiest street in a busy beach town, and samadhi 
just overtakes me. It overtook me in the real estate 
agent's office when I first saw it in a photograph of 
the property. The moment I saw that photograph, I knew 
I was a goner. Seeing the actual property was like an 
afterthought, a formality that I had to go throug

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning

"constantly crossing and recrossing the gap of ignorance" might imply 
therefore that something is lacking in UNITY? Never saw the sense of 
the purpose of life as "expansion of happiness" by going into 
ignorance.. if the happiness is in the return to Unity, why wander 
off in the first place??

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rory Goff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin"  
> wrote:
> >> Hi Rory, good to hear from you. Your perspective is always a 
> > refreshing and profound one. I find it delightfully paradoxical 
that 
> > we as humans, as the perfect agents of the Divine, serve Him and 
Her 
> > best by finding ourselves first ignorant and then taking the 
journey 
> > to enlightenment, over and over again, as if God Himself and 
Herself 
> > wants to experience that joy and agony of discovery and 
rediscovery 
> > infinitely.
> >
> Yes, precisely, Jim; many thanks! That's what I was trying to get 
at 
> with the stitching image -- constantly crossing and recrossing the 
gap 
> of ignorance, constantly encountering the not-self and re-membering 
it 
> as self, suturing sutras of self-recognition. We manifest because 
we 
> love to tell ourselves stories, and we love stories so much we are 
> tempted to believe in them, and that's where the suffering seems to 
> creep in...when we forget it's "only a movie" and start to take our 
> subtitles as gospel :-)
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Cathar Heresy

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, new.morning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I made the original post because the Cather perspective seemed
> interesting  -- there was far more in the series than the 
> sexual parts.
> 
> Searching, I found afew furhter interstingt articles. I am not a
> Cathar scholar and cannot vouch for the valitity of these views.
> 
> http://www.languedoc-france.info/12_cathars.htm
> 
> ...Cathars believed in reincarnation and refused to eat meat 
> or other animal products. 

Except fish. It's interesting, really. Maybe they
just thought of fish as "fast-moving vegetables." :-)

> They were strict about biblical injunctions - notably
> those about living in poverty, not telling lies, not 
> killing and not swearing oaths.

It was the latter, as much as anything else, that
got them killed. The entire society at the time
revolved around the swearing of oaths -- in trade,
in business, in one's social and personal life,
and they refused to participate. That, plus certain
real "heresies" with regard to the Catholic dogma
and a desire on the part of the French kings to
take over their land (it was not France at the
time) led to two Crusades and the creation of
the Inquisition to "deal with them."

> Basic Cathar tenets led to some surprising logical implications. 
> For example they largely regarded men and women as equals...

It was an equality shared by the whole Languedoc
region at the time, not just the Cathars. Women
could own property in their own name in 12th century
Languedoc, something that was not made legal in 
France as a whole until De Gaulle.

> ...and had no doctrinal objection to contraception, euthanasia 
> or suicide. In some respects the Cathar and Catholic Churches 
> were polar opposites. For example the Cathar Church taught 
> that all non-procreative sex was better than any procreative 
> sex. 

This (and their feelings about suicide and euthenasia
are almost certainly related to their extreme Dualist
beliefs. The Cathars believed that the relative world
was not only "not of God," but that it wasn't even
*made* by God...it was an illusory product of the
Demiurge, or Satan. There was no real concept of
"liberation while in the body," only a limited form
of identification with/bonding with God sometimes
called gnosis. The whole *idea* for them was to get
*beyond* the body, into the realm of pure spirit.

That's why tales such as the Cathar priest fooling
around with young girls are so silly. These were *not*
a "fun lovin'" folk; they didn't believe in pursuing
the delights of the body because, after all, in their
view the bodies and their activities were all designed
by Satan. Weird group of people...I am fascinated by
them, but cannot identify much with their belief
system, except the "live an ethical life" parts.

> The Catholic Church taught - and still teaches - exactly the 
> opposite. Both positions produced interesting results. 
> Following their tenet, Catholics concluded that masturbation 
> was a far greater sin than rape, as mediaeval penitentials 
> confirm. Following their principles, Cathar could deduce
> that sexual intercourse between man and wife was more 
> culpable than homosexual sex.
> ...
> 
> At the end of the extermination of the Cathars, the Roman 
> Church had convincing proof that a sustained campaign of 
> genocide can work. 

And how. Between the south of France and other areas
in which the Cathars flourished, the Church murdered
almost a quarter of a million fellow Christians.

> It also had the precedent of an internal Crusade within 
> Christendom, and the machinery of the first modern police 
> state that could be wheeled out for the Spanish Inquisition, 
> and again for later Inquisitions and genocides. 

The Inquisition lasted for 600 years! You don't want
to get me started on them. By comparison, the Nazis
were slackers.

> http://www.ordotempli.org/the_cathars.ht
> The Cathars believed that matter was evil, and that Man (Humanity) 
> was an alien sojourner in an essentially evil world. Therefore, 
> the main aim of Man was to free his spirit, which was in its 
> nature good, and restore it with God. They had strict rules for 
> fasting...

Sometimes to death, when one's death as a result of
a wasting disease was a done deal, and there was 
nothing else to be done to save the person. 

> ...and were
> strict vegetarians. The Cathars also allowed women to be perfecti,
> i.e., priests. They did not believe in a Last Judgement, believing
> instead that this material world would end only when the last of the
> angelic souls had been released from it. They believed in
> reincarnation, and that souls could take many lifetimes to reach
> perfection before their final release.
> 
> In many ways, Catharism represented total opposition to the Catholic
> church, which they basically viewed as a large, pompous, and
> fraudulent organisation which had lost its integrity and "sold out"
> for power and money in this world. The Cathars could als

[FairfieldLife] Re: Whole Brain Functioning

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "matrixmonitor"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --Right, but there's no law dictating that animals can't get 
> Enlightened.  Ramana Maharshi stated that Lakshmi the Cow got 
> Enlightened upon leaving her body. 

And, in a brilliant demonstration of the essential
equality of all beings, human or animal, there is
JUST as much proof that Lakshmi was enlightened as
there is that Ramana Maharshi himself was enlightened. :-)

>  My hypothesis: rocks can get Enlightened but they might have 
> difficulty communicating this fact.

The same has been said of rock stars...

[FairfieldLife] Re: Rigorous