tatsumaru

Taoism teaches that feminine (yin) is masculine (yang) and masculine (yang) is feminine (yin). Buddhism teaches that emptiness (yin) is form (yang) and form (yang) is emptiness (yin). So in other words the reality of duality is being governed by a balanced interchange between two opposites. Night/Day, Death/Life, Empty/Form, Centrifugal/Centripetal, Radiation/Generation, Levity/Gravity... I can go on like this. I even think that there's no such thing as a male or female but simply a ratio between masculine and feminine which depending on the ratio can yield different outputs/transformations. It's even said that the male boddhisattva Avalokitesvara transformed into a feminine version called Guan Yin. So with that being said I am curious what does aging mean from a Taoism / Qigong point of view. According to Aubrey de Grey there are 7 main reasons which are the causes of aging and all of them are types of damage or depletion that can be addressed successfully. One of them is uncontrolled growth for example (cancer). Interestingly enough Sadhguru claims that fasting is anti-cancerous and this claim seems to be somewhat supported by science. Does this mean that cancer is caused by too much yang and too little yin? If so what are old damaged cells? What is stem cell depletion? Also I am curious what is physical growth? Why are children able to grow, but adults aren't? I know that from a biochemistry perspective there are just growth plates which close down, but that doesn't really explain the cause, only what happened and therefore is of little value. For some reason I feel like qigong holds the secrets to dealing with aging (not death). any insights here? Thanks.

There's no non-mathematical infinity. If it's not the mathematical infinity then it's not infinity, it's something else. Words have specific meanings. As @RMQualtrough pointed out infinity can only be possible in space. If space isn't real there's no such thing as infinity either mathematical or the one your are imagining. From a mathematical point of view you can actually divide infinity and create multiple infinities and even have smaller and larger infinities which is just to show you how psychotic mathematicians have become, completely identified with the parallel worlds of their conceptual fantasies. They are no longer trying to understand the actual reality but to connect the dots of an imaginary conceptual reality.

So I am wondering this. Is the spiritual journey inherently painful, scary and dark or is it that way simply because we are attempting it in an environment that's not conducive or welcoming of spiritual evolution in any current way (e.g. religion, beliefs of separation, notions of craziness and normalcy, identity politics, disconnect from direct experience etc.) For example if a baby was born in Shambhala (a legendary city where only enlightened beings live) and was brought up by enlightened beings in an enlightened society would that spiritual journey still be painful or would it be effortless and painless?

Infinity is just a mathematical delusion. Infinity is another voguish belief topic among the object-ive minded. Theories of infinite space, time, and quantity are just objective math. Definitions of infinity are related or relative to the concept of immeasurability in space, time, or quantity. However, if there is no space, time, or quantity, as implied by Prajnaparamita, and quantum cosmology, then there is no infinity either. Infinity and Randomness are just byproducts of the inability of mathematics to explain a non-separate reality. Realize that right now you are just doing mental masturbation. Nothing conceptual is about feeling experience. You can't really divide anything because there are no things to divide. "Geometry is not true, it is advantageous." - Henri Poincare (French Mathematician)

A couple of years ago something that I perceived as extremely traumatic happened to me. A health meltdown, existential crisis, death of a parent, severe depression, institutional betrayal and a very dark spiritual episode all converged and occurred at the same time for me. Honestly I thought it was impossible for a person to be in so much pain at the same time without dying or going mad, but somehow I didn't die or kill myself. I think I was just too stubborn to do it. There's something in me that just doesn't allow me to give up no matter how intense and unbearable the suffering gets. Now 6 years later a lot of those issues have somewhat resolved at least to a degree, however what I did back then in order to cope with the overwhelming pain was to simply shutdown my emotions and turn myself into some sort of an empty husk. I still feel emotions, I still cry to good music and romantic movies, but something feels way off, it's like I turned the emotional volume from 100% to 10% for the majority of things in life. For example a beautiful sunset does nothing for me, the annual meeting with my grandparents feels like a chore (I used to love it as a kid), even the fear of death seems to have somewhat disappeared. In my favorite translation of the Tao Te Ching it is said: "If the people do not fear death, for reasons of extreme poverty or suffering, what is the point of threatening them with death?" It's like my heart is covered in cobwebs and trash. There is this scene in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises: After so much failures, regrets and suffering I feel like I am in a similar situation and that I am no longer a human being but just a husk. It is very likely that I am simply too afraid to face the possibility of such suffering again and have therefore repressed myself. But I want to be a full-fledged human being again. I want to feel, I want to strive, I want to live, not simply be alive in some mental prison. I want to live in a way that when it's time to go I won't die alone in some hospital bed full of regrets and sorrows, a coward. I don't want to be a coward anymore, I can't take it, it's just fear fear fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of pain, fear of suffering, fear of uncertainty, fear of doubt, fear of madness even fear of fucking fear. I've always been a fucking coward, but I can't do it anymore. It's too painful to live my whole life in the simulation of my imagination but never in actual life. Please help me... I've been hearing the call to begin the hero's journey for many years now but I've been too afraid to make the first step. I am paralyzed. I've been stagnant for so many years that I am starting to feel like I am developing spiritual "bed sores". I feel completely saturated by this mediocrity, by always not doing what I am supposed to do, by this simulation of a life. Half of my life has passed already so I don't have too much time left, but I want to make it count. I want to escape this mental prison I've put myself into and never ever return to it again, never. How can I escape? Thank you.

Whether almost eastern religions are atheist philosophies or not is irrelevant for even if all of them were atheist philosophies it still wouldn't make consensus a measure of truth. If one is interested in belief systems then by all means one can believe whatever they want so they can sleep well, if one is interested in direct experience then philosophies and -isms are irrelevant. Again what you believe is irrelevant whether its about sins, or heavens or gods. You can believe anything you want - you can believe that there are two gods and that sins only matter for one of them and that the other one will protect you from the first one. That you are equal to Hitler on death is also a belief. I can keep going on like that for almost everything you say because it seems to be rooted in beliefs and wishful thinking than in direct experience. How is awareness binary though?

I was contemplating the notion of systems thinking while watching a symphony conductor do his job and suddenly I started wondering if what he does is actually thinking or feeling. I mean its definitely not too rational and yet he's managing quite a complicated system so I am wondering if there is such a thing like systems feeling as opposed to systems thinking. Wouldn't it make sense for something like systems feeling to exist on which feeler types (myers briggs) to rely on more than systems thinking?

Throughout the years I've noticed that within my consciousness in some way shape or form resides an energy form that feels like a scared little boy. I first felt it when I was a little boy and got dropped at the kindergarten by my mother. For whatever reason I was overwhelmed by that experience, felt incredible sense of sadness and abandonment and it got so bad eventually that my mother had to pull me out of the kindergarten. Unfortunately this thing is still alive in there and when it expresses itself I suddenly lose my peace and become anxious, fearful, extremely insecure and feel this impending sense of abandonment. I guess it sounds a little bit like borderline personality disorder or something. I want to stress the fact that this thing whatever it is, is not benign. It causes me to run away from my long-term goals, to self-sabotage, to act awkwardly around people and to abandon my project and resort to hiding myself from society. It feels overwhelming, and it feels like all my confidence in my ability to figure things out and be a sufficient individual suddenly evaporates and I feel like "I want my mommy". This is literally interfering with me becoming an actual adult. I know it's ridiculous but I have no idea what it is and how to deal with it. Any ideas what this is?

Atheism is simply a religious belief in no-god, nothing more. It's not based in experience and isn't even based on scientific evidence. Most nihilists/atheists simply believe it because it provides the with solace and it gives them permission to not be afraid of going to hell or committing so-called sins etc. Unless death is in your experience there's nothing that you can think or say about it that's not a belief. All I am hearing is expectations, beliefs, hopes and mental masturbation. How did you even confirm that death is a thing? Focus on your direct experience.

I've noticed that when I write essays and long posts I am often prone to involuntary logical fallacies. These are not some sort of demagoguery but simply me connecting dots that are not really related. Saying that y arises out of x when maybe it's not true. How can I increase my logical intelligence in order to decrease the amount of logical fallacies that I generate with my content? Thanks.

That was quite helpful, thank you. I guess if I just become more deliberate in applying consistency I will teach myself out of saying random or unclear BS. Using my brain is so much work...

The word 'submissive' feels derogatory to me as well. Although devotion seems to be quite submissive too, female consorts washing the feet of all kinds of Buddhas and deities etc. It is still joyful though where in current society submission is usually grounded in desperation and confusion.

It is clear that both males and females possess both masculine and feminine energies (yin / yang) so when I am referring to feminine I am not referring to females per se I am referring to Yin. That being said it is supposedly more common for females to be more feminine than males and certain books like David Deida's The Way of The Superior Man claim that feminine energies are somewhat correlated with submissiveness while masculine energies with assertiveness. But if that is true then why are there so many feminine deities in the Hindu and Buddhism lore who are quite brutal and dominant. For example the feminine Buddha Vajrayogini said: "I am not suited to polite society, to social striving, upward mobility, and making good impressions. I am radically honest, sensitive, brilliant, and blunt. I hold up a mirror to the best and worst facets of human life.” ~Vajrayogini . So clearly she doesn't give two fucks about what most men want. If you look at some of her depictions you can even see here stepping on some kinds of beings (not sure what they are maybe demons or just ignorant idiots) which is also quite a dominant attitude as far as I understand it. And considering that the feminine is the gateway to truth, there's probably not a lot that's masculine about Vajrayogini. So how does this work?

In my experience, as long as you are an independent free thinker, not clinging to belief systems and dogma you will naturally progress on the spiral without the need for artificial effort. Most of tier 1 is about belief systems (Religion, Law...) and isms (Capitalism, Communism...) Tier 2 is about becoming conscious of the dynamic nature of relative reality and of the need to think, improvise and adapt to the present situation not to follow rules blindly like a robot. You were given the gift of brain so the only rules that apply to you are the rules of natural law, everything else are various control structures and belief systems. Don't worry too much about it. I became a systems thinker before I even knew of spiral dynamics simply by thinking for myself.

You can certainly regress. Walter Russell was especially concerned that having romantic and sexual relationships with incompatible individuals or individuals of lower consciousness quality could result in regression and the fall of whole civilizations. That which is relative is always subject to change. That which is absolute isn't. You have to take care of your relative aspect for without your efforts it will return to the mud. Personally I wouldn't be as concerned with not practicing systems thinking than I would with practicing tier 1 things. It is your attachment to tier 1 that brings you down not the lack of tier 2 exercises.

If you are not ready to have a discussion regarding certain absolute truths that you claim then you'd better not claim them at all.

Differentiate between direct experience and your own fantasies. Whether you are everything or not is not a matter of belief or logically convincing yourself. If it's not in your experience then it's not true for you even if the Buddha claims it. If Leo tells you that you are a cow or that you are already dead then what?

Hey guys, Are there some high consciousness(Stage Yellow+) TV Shows & Movies out there? I really like the first season of Westworld and The Matrix movies, as well as stuff like Star Trek The Next Generation. Any cool suggestions?

It's a shame I've already seen it. It was great.

I think this chart is somewhat messed up. For example integration is definitely masculine while disintegration is definitely feminine. It is integration which turns emptiness into form and disintegration which turns form into emptiness. Also I am not sure if the feminine should be on the right. If you take the yin yang symbol for example the transformation of masculine to feminine occurs on the left in an upward motion and clockwise fashion (when it is depicted correctly). You could argue that the symbol rotates and therefore the feminine will rotate on the right as well however by the time it approaches the right side it's already passed its culmination and beginning to transform into yang so not sure if the right side would be appropriate for Yin. Anything that has to do with focus is also Yang for Yin is centrifugal not centripetal. From that chart I only agree that the feminine corresponds to 'open', 'being', 'heart' and possibly 'intuition'. Anything conceptual/cerebro-centric I would also attribute to yang while anything intuitive/heart-centric I would attribute to yin. As for consciousness, I don't think consciousness belongs to the magic show of yin and yang and I think it is beyond both yin and yang and is therefore neither empty nor form. This is my understanding of who's who in duality: yang………………………yin. centripetal………………..centrifugal. integrating………………..disintegrating. spiral in…………………spiral out. implosive…………………explosive. converge…………………..diverge. in…………………………..out generative…………………radiative. gravity………………..levity inhalation…………………exhalation. sphere…………………torus. solid………………………..vaporous rotation decrease……………rotation increase. heating……………………cooling. charging…………………..discharging. contraction………………..expansion. Father Earth…..………………. Mother Sky particle………………………..wave. descension………..……ascension. I am wondering if that is 'wounded feminine' vs 'masculine' or 'wounded feminine' vs 'wounded masculine' because both of those descriptions seem quite dysfunctional.

Interesting point of view. I don't agree that consciousness is masculinity though.

Appreciated, but this requires a correction from a technical point of view. Centrifugal = feminine, Centripetal = masculine. The force that causes things to move away from the center and expand is feminine and the force that causes things to contract and compress toward the center is masculine. Remember that emptiness is feminine and form is masculine so there's no way that radiation is masculine. That's why the term Mother Earth actually doesn't make a lot of sense. It's Mother Sky and Father Earth. As for the praying thing I am not sure how that functions can you elaborate? That makes sense. So I suppose a more correct term for feminine would be surrendering/allowing, not submitting? But then I've met women who insist on being submissive, slaves even and feel uncomfortable being free because they don't know what to do when they aren't being controlled. Do you think this behavior is some sort of psychological issue?

At some point in the spiritual journey things get too weird for the little brain to handle them. So called realities start falling apart. So called understandings of the universe stop making sense. The society, The matrix, The career, The purpose it all starts to fade away as if it was just some dream and you have no clue what to even expect. Some sort of transcendence. To be completely honest I am quite afraid of waking up, I'm scared that I might just lose it and become some rambling madman medicated in some asylum or something. What is the proper way to go through the scariest and craziest spiritual journeys that we know nothing about and not know what to expect and is simply like a angry river taking our powerless selves down the waterfall of mystery? Is it to simply surrender and allow? Certainly resistance is futile and harmful. And without knowledge or understanding then what else could be the answer than to simply surrender? But could this surrender destroy our capability to be human again, to be able to communicate? Like those psychedelic users who remained stuck in their trips forever? On the other side of the rift there will be no friends to help, no forum to ask questions in, just a fractal void of mysteriousness beyond my wisdom. How to navigate this storm?

Here's what the Buddha taught about non-being and impermanence to his most advanced students (Makes you wonder how enlightened are those preaching non-being and non-self really?) Tathāgata was the term that Sakyamuni referred to himself as, instead of the pronouns me, I or myself. Tathāgata is the Buddha that most Buddhists, those on the Long Paths, don’t want to discuss. “Those who cannot accept that the Tathāgata is eternal, cause misery”-Mahaparinirvana Sutra. What? How can Buddha say that; didn’t he say everything is impermanent? The Buddha said the Self is “indestructible like a diamond” -Mahaparinirvana Sutra. No way! The Buddha said there was no self. “I will now show you the nature which is not produced and not extinguished” -Shurangama Sutra. Buddha said that “Buddha Nature [the Tathāgata] is the True Self and like a diamond, for example, it cannot be destroyed” Dharmaksema. Yes, Buddha taught impermanence, suffering, Emptiness, non-self for child-like students; yet on the day of Parinirvana, the Tathāgata taught eternity, happiness, and the Self, saying , “now, when his students have overcome the sickness of false views and possess a healthy, more mature appetite, he can teach them the Tathāgatagarbha.” “Those who hold the theory of non-self are injurers of the Buddhist doctrines, they are given up to the dualistic views of being and non-being; they are to be ejected by the convocation of the Bhikshus and are never to be spoken to”-Lankavatara Sutra 765. So why did Sakyamuni Buddha speak of non-being? He told a story of a woman with an ailing infant. The sickness of that child requires that it temporarily desist from drinking its mother’s milk while the medicine which has been administered to it is assimilated. To facilitate this, the mother smears her breasts with a bitter substance, and this deters the infant from suckling at his mother’s breasts. But after the medicine has been absorbed, the child can drink the health-bestowing mother’s milk to his heart’s content – although at first he is hesitant and fearful of doing so. This relates to the doctrine of non-Self, Emptiness (which many commentators on Buddhism equate with “non-substantialism” or “non-essentialism”) and Self: when his students are still spiritually “sick”, the Buddha gives them the bitter medicine of “non-Self” and Emptiness; but when they have progressed into greater health and maturity, he teaches them the reality of the Tathagatagarbha. A commentator mentions how early in this sutra the Buddha has to reprimand his enthusiastic “non-Self”-championing monks who “repeatedly meditate upon the idea that there is no Self” for being perverse in their understanding of Dharma and wrong-headedly applying the teaching of non-Self where its writ does not run – to the real Self. “As when a garment is cleansed of its dirt, or when gold is removed from its impurities, they are not destroyed but remain as they are; so is the skandha self freed from its defilements”- Lankavatara Sutra 756.

Did you come out the other side or did you return to where you started from?