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@SoonHei Well thank you, SoonHei I really like how you put that. I'd add to that by saying; it is your movie, actually. It is not just a movie. That would imply separation, again. Every other movie that possibly exits is also your movie. There is no other movie you could watch But there are infinite versions, genres and lenghts of movies. Which both are you and about you. It can be no other way. However, one cannot possibly be free while identifying with the main character in the movie, solely. Be it Ivan, SoonHei, or any other. The movie is centered around the character for a reason. This whole journey/movie is both personal as it can possibly get and completely impersonal as well. One can choose how to look at it. Watch whatever movie you like. Enjoy it. Watch other movies. Enjoy those. Now you know you created them all. And they are all telling you one thing; this is a movie about you. It is about love; life and death.

@ivankiss And if the decisions we make come out of nowhere, they are still impersonal and just happen without us contributing anything. Free will and no free will are two sides of the same coin.

I think that the marketing strategy you use is highly dependent on what value you're providing. If it had been an impersonal product, Eben Pagan's marketing would have been way more useful. Most people do not really care about the hand-made quilts, howsoever cool you may think they are. While some may and they'll put the word out. Since you're a coach, personal recommendations are going to much more effective than an ad-I-didn't-ask-for before a YouTube video or on Facebook. Of all the personal/ business development ads I've seen on YouTube/FB, the only one I looked up is Tai Lopez because I had already heard of him from other sources - which is unlikely unless you're internet famous/notorious like him. However, the reach of personal recommendations is definitely limited in a sense. I'd say put 90% of your time and efforts in providing massive value and creating a following. For 10%, try doing effective ads and test the waters. Godin's strategy makes much more sense if your clients are internet-savvy millennials who already have a lot of choices on their fingertips. If your clients are middle-aged people, they MAY click an ad that solves their immediate problem/pain.

For the past months I have been hunted by this feeling. It comes back over and over. I would describe it as an existential despair/pain. It feels like I am in a free fall down a deep ravine. I know the ravine leads nowhere. When I hit the bottom my flame will be blown out. I try to grasp at the wall, try to slow down my fall by holding onto anything including people. Anything I hold onto eventually falls away. There is no way out, there is no special person, no event, there is nothing that will make it go away. Even if there was anything/anyone as soon as that one/thing is less available or closes down the pain is back, instantly. However the emptiness doesn't always feel empty. Sometimes it is very full, calming, soothing and just there. In a way it is pure consciousness. It is just there. Present, observing and in fact impersonal. It can feel like I am dead though. I usually don't fight the feeling, I just sit it out and eventually I forget about it. Though I was wondering if there are any techniques to breathe more life into me when I feel empty. I have found that breathing energy down the front while inhaling helps a little.

No spoilers Thanos acts very impersonally as goes on genocide which might seem evil to Tom, Dick and Harry. All his justification for his actions seem very impersonal (not ego driven) and big picture. I know he is just a fictional character but he reminds me of Krishna who had similar motivation behind his decision to destroy the whole Kuru Civilisation about 5000 years ago. Unlike Loki who acts out of Ego, Thanos is big picture guy. quotes of Thanos- 1. The end is near. 2. You’re strong. But I could snap my fingers, and you’d all cease to exist. 3. Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe. But this… does put a smile on my face. 4. Stark… you have my respect. I hope the people of Earth will remember you. 5. When I’m done, half of humanity will still exist. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. I hope they remember you. 6. You should have gone for the head. 7. I know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right, yet to fail nonetheless. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives. Or should I say, I have. 8. You’re a great fighter, Gamora. Come. Let me help you. 9. Going to bed hungry. Scrounging for scraps. Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I was the one who stopped that. You know what’s happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It’s a paradise.(Justifications for genocide on Gamora’s planet) 10. I’m the only one who knows that. At least I’m the only who has the will to act on it. For a time, you had that same will. As you fought by my side, daughter. 11. I ignored my destiny once, I can not do that again. Even for you. I’m sorry Little one. 12. With all six stones, I can simply snap my fingers, they would all cease to exist. I call that mercy.” “And then what? 13. Thanos: “Daughter.” Gamora: “Did you do it?” Thanos: “Yes.” Gamora: “What did it cost?” Thanos: “Everything.” 14. Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian. 15. You’re strong. Me… You’re generous. Me… But I never taught you to lie. That’s why you’re so bad at it. Where is the Soul Stone? 16. You should choose your words wisely 17. The hardest choices require the strongest wills. Whats your take on this Leo and my fellow seekers. Please do watch the movie.

Deficiency needs is a good answer, but I would also say lack of familiarity with the Spiral Dynamics model itself, and lack of epistemic inquiry. The dynamics of knowledge (epistemology) needs to be directly explored and contemplated. Also systems thinking. Seeing the world as a complex web of impersonal inter-related systems. Most problems are systemic problems requiring systemic solutions. Few people look at the world this way. They look at the world too personally, as if the world revolves around them and their judgments, as if the solutions are linear and black & white. Yellow is nonlinear thinking. Most people are highly linear thinkers. Yes, but Green still clings too much to its SJW perspective as being superior. Green is not able to detach enough from its own perspective.

@Arhattobe There is no need to make it personal and become combative. It’s an impersonal observation and was not linked to your username. Relativism is a yellow stage mode of being, while objectivism is an Orange stage mode of being. Selectively pointing this out occasionally within threads can help Green stage readers get a feel for the difference as they evolve into Yellow. Yet, this comes at the expense of triggering some Orange stage readers.

Actually I've thought about it. The truth of the matter is, Enlightenment is happening every instance. Right now! But alas! Most of us are having a really grotesque and mistaken translation of this godly 'experience' moment to moment. Let me 1st explain with an analogy. When we are watching a movie, we are only looking at a flat screen. That's it! That's all we are looking at in reality. But yet, we 'choose' to only see the drama and content of the movie. We wanna conjure up all this false sense of time, story, laughter, suffering, characters where in fact all we are looking at is a contentless, unchanging screen. Just notice how the way of looking can distinguish between Actuality and ignorant imagination. Sounds boring huh? Now let's bring it down in our own lives. ANY and ALL phenomena/experience, first and foremost inform us the presence of impersonal, non-located, unlimited, eternal Awareness. BUT, we are trying so hard deliberately(or not) to ignore this constant truth of our experience. Instead, we are mistakenly translating this very enlightening experience as stories of ourselves as people who were born, inhabiting a body, married to so and so, doing so and so, with a past and going to another future time, gonna die in the future, engrossed in pleasures and pains of life etc and etc. So whose fault is it? Is it a person's fault or is it the fault of the translation/perspective? ''Perspective is EVERYTHING''- Sunyamurti ''Right now I'm telling you about your real, unborn nature. But you don't see it because you prefer to be that monkey form!''- Nisargadatta Maharaj

@Angelo John Gage A decent explanation of a very tricky topic. I noticed you saying several times that you "believe" this. What is your direct experience of God? If I was shooting a video like this (and I do have this topic planned for the future as a video), I would make sure to stress that God is not a belief, or a theory, or a speculation, but a direct experience which the viewer can have. This is what's most amazing about God: you can realize it for yourself! This is what most people misunderstand. A newbie watching your video would walk away with the idea that what you're talking about it is just a philosophical theory of God. The viewer would think, "Well, how does this guy know? He's just theorizing. This is just his opinion." It's absolutely critical to plant the seed in the viewer's mind that consciousness of God is a real thing and requires doing concrete practices. Otherwise God forever remains an idea. The whole point of such a video would be to get people to realize that they must start doing the necessary practices. Other distinctions which might have been useful are realism vs idealism, and esoteric vs exoteric versions of religion. Really what your video was debunking were the exoteric versions of God. All mainstream religions are exoteric. Most religious people don't even know that esoteric religion is possible. It's a very tricky topic, so you did a decent job. The tricky thing about God is, it's both deeply personal and impersonal, encompassing every set of attributes.

Novels were included so I figured science fiction allegories ok. A One Thousand and One Words Review Of Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson by Will Mesa The purpose of Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson is stated by the author at the very beginning of his book: "To destroy, merciless, without any compromise whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world." There is no question that the author, from his very first word, strives merciless in order to fulfill the purpose of his book. The Tales are the “Unofficial Story of All and Everything,” of God, Creation, the Universe, Earth and Man. Unofficial because it is not the account given to us by official history and the official philosophies, sciences and the arts; and official religion as well. It is the hidden story, the one rejected by the ancient Greek fishermen turned philosophers-scientists. The story is told by Beelzebub, a three-brained being from a planet close to the Center or Most Holy Sun Absolute, the chief Place of Residence of our ENDELESS CREATOR. Long time before the story actually begins, this Beelzebub is forced, because of a transgression of his youth, to live in exile in a remote corner of the Universe, our solar system. Instead of complaining and dwelling in self-pity, Beelzebub spends his thousands of years, (time in the story being relative to the place of birth of the observer), of exile learning about All and Everything, including the reason for his exile. Because of his meritorious work and indirect service to our UNI-BEING OMNI-BEING COMMON FATHER ENDELESS CREATOR, he is eventually pardoned and allowed to return home. He is now recognized in the whole Universe as a distinguished Sacred Individual and He is invited to a special conference in the solar system whose sun is the "Pole Star." While flying through space in route to the conference in the "transspace" ship Karnak, Beelzebub tells his twelve years old grandson Hassein about All and Everything he has learned during his years of exile. Of special interest to Hassein are those strange three-brained beings breeding on the planet Earth, where Beelzebub spends great part of his exile. With time and attention, we the reader become Hassein. Everything we have heard of is elevated or brought in the story to unexpected levels. Entropy, we are told, is Time, the Merciless Heropass, the "Ideally-Unique-Subjective-Phenomenon." It is precisely because of Time's Subjective-Merciless action that the CREATOR has to create the present universe. In this way Entropy is vanquished, in such a way that even Maxwell's clever demons could not have remotely figured it out. The secret, we are told, is very simple: "The Trogoautoegocratic principle of existence of everything existing in the Universe by means of reciprocal feeding and maintaining each other's existence." This principle of existence our COMMON FATHER ALL-GRACIOUS LORD SOVEREING ENDLESS ENDLESSNESS CREATOR actualizes by altering the functioning of the two primordial sacred laws, making them the two fundamental laws of World-creation and World-maintenance: the Sacred-Heptaparaparshinokn and the Sacred-Triamazikamno. Hell is elevated to a state of voluntary suffering; suffering itself to a cosmic necessity arising from the operation of the Laws. Good and Evil are impersonal forces operating in conformity to World Laws. Man's fall is caused by the "unforseeingness of Most High Sacred Individuals." Chiefly among them are the Great Archangel Sakaki and the Chief-Common-Universal-Arch-Chemist-Physicist Angel Looisos. They are responsible for the implantation in Man's ancestors of an organ with very astonishing properties, among which that of making them to perceive reality topsy-turvy: Kundabuffer. Although Kundabuffer is later removed, the consequences of its maleficent properties are still with us. The story at times gets very provocative. We are told about "that completely formed Arch-Vainglorious Greek, the future Hasnamuss, Alexander of Macedonia." We learn that the Divine Teacher Sacred Individual Jesus Christ is resurrected not in His physical but in His Kesdjan body. Judas is not a traitor but the "most faithful and devoted" of all the disciples of Jesus Christ. Darwin, in the words of the very wise Mullah Nasser Eddin, "is very successful, though not without luck, in finding the authentic godmother of the incomparable Scheherazade on an old dunghill."Mesmer is a humble and honest learned being who, had he not been pecked to death by his contemporaries, might have saved Man from the consequences of Kundabuffer. Mendelejeff is "a contemporary comical earned chemist." Atlantis is a place of the highest learning. A university "is just that `hearth' on which everything acquired during decades and centuries by preceding beings is burned..." America is, during the present flow of Heropass, "the fundamental source of the issuing of new causes of abnormality." Among Americans is the largest percentage of beings with "possibilities for the acquisition of Being nearer to the normal Being of three-brained beings in general." And much more we are told. Man himself is elevated to a Being with the possibility of attaining Objective or Divine Reason and thus becoming a conscious laborer of our ALOVING ALMIGHTY COMMON FATHER ENDLESS ENDLESSNESS ETERNAL CREATOR ALL-MAINTAINER, a cell in GOD's Brain. But Man, we are told with great sadness and great sorrow, is now asleep to his innermost essence, to the Divine Impulse of Objective Conscience, the REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CREATOR in Man. He takes the ephemeral for the Real. He can no longer Love with the "Love of Consciousness," Believe with the "Faith of Consciousness," and Hope with the "Hope of Consciousness." This is "The Terror of the Situation." Consequently, Man can no longer fulfill his highest destiny. The chief particularity of his strange psyche is to periodically engage in the process of reciprocal destruction or war. Everything is elevated or brought to unexpected levels in the story; sometimes with great humor; all the time with great humanness. Even the concept of everything itself is elevated, becoming the "common-cosmic Ansanbaluiazar: Everything issuing from everything and again entering into everything." After having read the book three times, following the author's indications given in his Friendly Advice, one wonders: Have we been doped by the "official story of all and everything?"

@Nahm Thanks for the recommendation brotha, appreciate it. @Alex bAlex I feel ya man, we all need some sort of mentorship in lives. I currently have someone I see myself. You can obviously pay to get a mentor like Nahm said. That’s usually the most direct way. But you could also find someone you admire and offer to work for free. Tell them you have XYZ skill they might need and that you’ll do whatever they want. Don’t even mention mentoring. Books and courses can also be a more impersonal sort of mentorship. So yeah, mentorship comes in all forms. It doesn’t have to look a certain way. Hope that helped. By the way, if you decide to go with a coach and you pick @Emerald over me, we are going to have to have a very serious discussion via DMs

Mi take on this is that everything has to come from nothingness. There must be a point where nothing was there, and matter manifested from that nothing... our mind can't not comprehend it, because we have an "idea" of what nothing is. Let's say that nothing is a state where there's all the possibilities for everything to manifest. It contradicts our logic. In that nothingness everything is manifested. The only thing that exist is nothing, or you can call it silence, the void. Our mind try to separate things to understand. It says, here there's a person, a tree, an animal, etc... but everything is made of the same substance. Awareness. Some people call it God, others the source, others nothingness, and so on... God has thousands of names. It is personal and impersonal at the same time... and I won't continue writing because everything I write is not even near of what reality is. God is the ultimate reality. Think of nothingness as the ultimate truth. Truth shall make you free!

From a Gurdjieffian perspective. For whatever it's worth,,,, In Talks on Beelzebub's Tales, J. G. Bennett distinguishes four types of suffering - Unnecessary Suffering, Unavoidable Suffering, Voluntary Suffering and Intentional Suffering: The first is Unnecessary Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that we incur because of our unreasonable attitudes and expectations towards others, from our ill-will, hatred and rejection of others, from doubt, possessiveness, arrogance and self pity. In other words, suffering arising from our self-importance. The second is Unavoidable Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that comes to us by accident or from events beyond our control, such as interpersonal conflicts, war, disaster, disease or death. Third, we have Voluntary Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that we take upon ourselves in order to accomplish a personal aim, such as an athlete who disciplines himself to win a race, or a student who labours to get good grades. And finally we have Intentional Suffering. According to Bennett, this would be the kind of suffering that we take upon ourselves in order to accomplish an impersonal or altruistic goal, one that is directed more towards service to others or to the Work, and not for any personal gain. Bennett assumes that this is what Gurdjieff meant by Intentional Suffering.

Carl Jung, Kundalini Yoga, Lecture 2, Pages 39 – 40. Yes. It is the withdrawal from the emotions; you are no longer identical with them. If you succeed in remembering yourself, if you succeed in making a difference between yourself and that outburst of passion, then you discover the self; you begin to individuate. So in anahata individuation begins. But here again you are likely to get an inflation. Individuation is not that you become an ego—you would then become an individualist.You know, an individualist is a man who did not succeed in individuating; he is a philosophically distilled egotist. Individuation is becoming that thing which is not the ego, and that is very strange. Therefore nobody understands what the self is, because the self is just the thing which you are not, which is not the ego. The ego discovers itself as being a mere appendix of the self in a sort of loose connection. For the ego is always far down in muladhara and suddenly becomes aware of something up above in the fourth story, in anahata, and that is the self. Now, if anybody makes the mistake of thinking that he lives at the same time in the basement and on the fourth story, that he is the purusha himself, he is crazy. He is what the German very aptly call verrückt, carried off his feet up to somewhere else. He just sits up there and spins. We are allowed to behold only the purusha, to behold his feet up there. But we are not the purusha; that is a symbol that expresses the impersonal process. The self is something exceedingly impersonal, exceedingly objective. If you function in your self you are not yourself—that is what you feel. You have to do it as if you were a stranger: you will buy as if you did not buy; you will sell as if you did not sell.Or, as St. Paul expresses it, “But it is not I that lives, it is Christ that liveth in me,” meaning that his life had become an objective life, not his own life but the life of a greater one, the purusha. ~ --------------------------------------------- So as a crude model? A distilled Ego, Individualist, would be something like the dot in the middle with arrows pointing towards. The individuated person would be the dot in the middle with the arrows pointing outwards. In which case I could see why people, may become psychotic, from perhaps doing kundalini. --------------------------------------------- My question is, can anyone recommend any Kriya Yoga videos on Youtube, or perhaps a site dedicated to such a thing? I found this site http://www.kriyayogainfo.net/ videos of the guy clucking his tongue was a bit bizarre, the only thing I can think of is, I don't know, mimicking some kind of frequency the various parts of the body may respond to. Bit like how parents sometimes talk to the child in the womb. A lack of contact also kills a new born, heard something about that happening in Romanian orphanages. Overloads their opiate system or something. I came across a Book called "The Serpent Power." by Sir John Woodroofe alias Arthur Avalon. It's not on the Booklist, what I'm looking for is the most refined I can get, looking more at the past, to try and avoid any fads or corruption in the present. EDIT: Thought the following video was interesting with Carl Jung talking about a patient and finally Kundalini briefly.

Surprisingly, none of the career quiet-sitters have sought to help you (yet), kobe. Most people consider meditating with eyes open much more difficult than with eyes closed. I would recommend having the eyes open just a bit. I would not recommend that you use your eyes to do anything. Relax everything inside and outside; forget inside and outside, and just observe mind without deliberation. Completely dispense with rambling mental commentary without trying to stop it by force of will. Just intend to notice it along with everything else that occurs (or not). The ancient admonition is to not be afraid of thoughts, just be afraid of not noticing thoughts unawares. That's what rudimentary reformative meditation practice is. It's PRACTICE. It's practicing a subtle awareness of the mind that moves by the mind that shines. Don't make the mistake and think that there are two minds. The scattered mind IS the shining mind. It's an inconceivability. After a long long time, you'll find out less and less as the mind-ground clarifies. Whether your eyes are open or closed or somewhere in-between isn't as important as noticing thoughts as they occur without entertaining further commentary relative to habitual ingrained psychological activity. There are many ways to approach subtle observation of mind. Sitting meditation is effective practice for some people. I've never practiced "just sitting" myself. The point of reformative practice is to discover the means to see what underlies conditioned awareness and then endeavor to apply that potential in the midst of everyday ordinary situation by using impersonal subtle observation to fluidly meet the requirements of the moment without following habitual ego-reflective psychological patterns. In doing so, self-refinement is accelerated.

@saffron The best thing to do would be to work on releasing resistance to the feminine and integrate your feminine side in the form of the Anima (aka the inner woman in every man as an archetypal aspect of the psyche). When a society has really strong resistance to the feminine principle and women by extension (as has been the case in almost all cultures for the vast majority of written history up until present day), the men in that society will usually have issues with Anima integration that will have debilitating effects on their psychological health, which brandishes itself most in the form of sexual obsession issues and misogyny. Because the Anima is literally the aspect of you that is a woman, it has needs and feeling and desires and strengths, just like the conscious aspect. So, if you learned a resistance to the feminine from a young age, and an extreme one at that, it will manifest in the form of Anima repression and Anima possession. And it is always the Anima's desire to reintegrate and become known and accepted by your conscious awareness. It wants to reunite with you and be accepted. So, it projects itself out onto reality in form of an acute sexual obsession (or obsession in general) with women. This is especially strong, since the man sees this as the only acceptable outlet for connection to the feminine... as he has a strong desire to reunite with his own feminine side but society disapproves... and he has learned to disapprove in the same way. So, sex with a woman is like a metaphor for the connection with himself that he unconsciously desires, so he craves sex with women in a stronger way than normal. But despite the desire to reintegrate, the Anima also gets jealous and spiteful. She doesn't like to be rejected. So, she seeks revenge upon the man that rejected her by projecting onto women an image of power over the man who rejected her. And that power that she projects is that women have the power to validate and invalidate the man's very existence just through forming an opinion about a man's sexual desirability. And the Anima will project the image of the cold and impersonal woman who is up on a pedestal and all powerful and holds a man's worth in her hands. So, the man who is Anima possessed will have deep feelings of misogyny and a strong desire to drag women down from the pedestaled position of power that he projects onto reality. And when he sees images of men dominating women physically, sexually, and otherwise, it will be very satisfying because to him it is the story of the underdog male taking down the all-powerful female tyrant and putting her in her place. And archetypally, it will be the false story of how he overcomes the issue of Anima possession by beating his feminine side away and keeping it in a state of submission. But this beating away is just adding fuel to the fire of his Anima possession, as this is the very pattern that causes Anima possession in the first place. So, it becomes a self-feeding cycle and the Anima possesses the man more and more and the shadow feminine consumes him. So, the only way to actually overcome Anima possession is to integrate the Anima and accept the feminine side as an integral part of yourself. Also, with the integration of the Anima, you will gain access to divine wisdom hidden in the unconscious mind.

The Secret of the Golden Flower is an ancient transmission directing people towards a subtle recognition of inherent capacities underlying habitual patterns of self-reifying psychological activity. The general mind-ground constituting these inherent capacities can be termed nonpsychological awareness. There have been attempts at giving this transmission a cultural attribution, but, to quote the Avatsakam Sutra (Hua Yin or Flower Ornament Scripture), "Civilization is by virtue of Universal Good, not a country." Ultimately, the true teacher is in one's heart of hearts. I am quoting directly from some of the 16 paragraphs comprising the tenth chapter of the volume translated by Thomas Cleary to serve as an introduction to the book, The Secret of the Golden Flower, Harper San Francisco ISBN 0-06-250193-3, as well as to help point out basic tenets of 24/7 subtle observation which is beyond the scope of rote reformative meditation practice done in private or in cloistered settings by beginners and those habituated to such methods of comfort. I have already introduced the elements of general practice in differentiating the psychological and nonpsychological capacities comprising human awareness. The title of chapter X makes this differentiation obvious in terms that should be recognized as having the same source, that is, the light of awareness. Chapter X is titled, The Light of Essence and the Light of Consciousness. The opening of potential is a very slippery term. By the end of the chapter, what comprises potential may become clearer. The point is that "turning the light around" is not a matter of time, place, activity or conditions. What matters is finding the opening of potential. The key to recognizing the opening of potential is in spontaneous activation of mind without falling into the habitual patterns of discriminatory consciousness. Spontaneous activation of mind is up to conditions. When it arises, subtle observation comes into play. Just see without entertaining views relative to self and other, right, wrong, good or bad and the opening of potential is ephemerally present …before the first thought, it's your own mind right now. When the light turns into ideational consciousness relative to self and other, the opening of potential is once again obscured, in that it cannot be seen by seeing. One must then concentrate subtle awareness and await the arising of the light of potential in the midst of situations unbeknownst to anyone. The real (potential) is found only by virtue of the false (delusional karmic evolution). One must await conditions to see reality. The taoist phrase, "Water produces metal", symbolizes an alchemic formula referencing the refinement of the body or vitality, (sensory awareness) into real knowledge. Answer~ not you. Your own mind before the first thought is not you. The special use of the term "not you" is just the selflessly aware potential essence not attributable to the psychological apparatus of the being that is going to die (the being that is going to die is you). Therefore, potential is termed "other", as in the saying, "Essence is the self, use it to call back sense", that is, use essence to recognize the real knowledge of the impersonal sense of potential. That's "not you." Calling it back is seeing potential. Seeing potential is itself absorption. "Mistaking the thieving human mentality (the light of consciousness) for the light of essence is the number one error of students.", is a very ancient warning for those whose introspective practices are not producing evidences of efficacy after even 5, 10, 20, or more years spent on the meditation cushion. Therefore the opening of potential is recognized in the quality of awareness which is not thought. Specifically, this is the mind which underlies the thinking, self-referencing function of the personality. When the thinking human mentality is forgotten, this is the true arising of essence. Therefore, this mind is not some other mind; there are no two minds: Mind is one. This is why it is said that all beings are already this enlightenment, but they are simply unable to recognize and permanently stabilize selfless potential in the midst of conditions due to habit energy (karmic psychological momentum). This is the alchemic correlate of the refinement of body/sense/water/vitality mentioned in section 4. This section refers to mind/essence/fire/energy, where energy refines into essence. This is the heart of the meaning of the Golden Flower transmission. Objects and sense organs are not the issue. There is no need to deny, restrict, or renounce anything in the Golden Flower method. The Secret of the Golden Flower is just recognizing, activating and using essence directly without intermediary (being the working definition of enlightening activity) in the midst of ordinary situations simply as a matter of effective use of mind which does not employ self-reifying consciousness habitually or unawares. It is fluid and impersonal communion with inconceivable reality as the totality of being within Suchness, that is, emptiness which has no such emptiness. This is one's spontaneously adapted expression of selfless unity neither conditional nor absolute. This is innate enlightening function which is not dependent on sudden enlightenment. The sudden is one such result of accrued virtuous activity carried out secretly in public over a long period of time. These are terms denoting advance practice. If one cannot forget the self that thinks, consciousness will not be stopped and the medicines will not become accessible for further refinement. Seeing potential is seeing unrefined potential. After a period of maturation, refined potential is released from the matrix of karmic evolution, that is, Creation (which is "crystallization of the elixir"). This is the meaning of the saying, "planting lotuses in fire, transcending endless transformations and entering the Way in Reality." ed note: typo 3rd; add "vitality" in 4th section's commentary; add to commentary of 6th section; change "enlightened" to "this enlightenment" in the commentary after 11th section; add commentary after 15th section

hi ShugendoRa~ I've added to the commentaries of several sections since you responded to this thread. This teaching is as ancient as it gets, yet the most recent historical account of its re-transmission occurred during the British rape of China during the 18th century. A corrupted version of this book was first translated into the German language by Richard Wilhelm in 1929 that subsequently became fashionably popular with the intelligentsia in Europe by its association with C. G. Jung's commentary. It is essentially a taoist/buddhist lay manual for the benefit of ordinary people, without regard to religious affiliation, being a concentrated revival of an ancient universalist teaching, according to Thomas Cleary 's translation, copyright 1991. I believe that I became aware of this current and correct version of the Golden Flower teaching's translation of the T'ai i chin hua tsung chih, sometime around the turn of the century and found that it fully corroborates my direct experience in inherent enlightening function pertaining to the means relative to recognizing potential and furthermore carrying out the operation of impersonal adaption to situations which is properly termed the absorption of potential. This current volume's version is associated with the great taoist alchemic teacher, Lü Tung-pin, who, by some accounts. is believed to have been born in 798 CE. He is purported to have appeared at various times during the last millennium. ed note: typo 1st sentence; add "by some accounts" in penultimate sentence

I didn't compare anyone to a disease. I compared an impersonal social system to a disease (as an example of another impersonal system). So, I was using one system that's more familiar and tangible to explain a pattern in another system that is still intangible and hard to understand for most people. And I use this metaphor to explain how a lot of problems work, as there is no more familiar example of 'problem/symptoms/root dynamic' that the vast majority of people can understand and relate to. So, understand that I'm not moralizing or shaming people who are unconscious one bit by using this metaphor. It is literally just the most effective metaphor. I also sometimes use the "if tree=problem; then problem lies in the roots rather than the leaves or fruit on the tree." But even this metaphor is kind of a stretch because it requires people to envision a tree as a problem first. But again, if you have a better analogy to explain this dynamic to get people focused toward root causes instead of symptoms and individual intent, be my guest.

This is why I make a point to state that the system of racism is mostly an invisible hand issue, that stems from the workings of the system as opposed to direct malicious intent. So, unconsciousness itself is the primary enemy, not individuals. But I do believe in being as frank and direct as possible for the sake of understanding and optimization of nuance in that understanding. And I don't like to sugar coat anything, as it is not necessary and tends to coddle and muddy the waters. The social system is very impersonal anyway, so just being accurate won't make anyone feel implicated or demonized... unless they were going to project that anyway no matter what anyone has to say on the matter that they disagree with. The way I see it is that if I am as perceptive, thorough, and honest as possible then the people who are the least emotionally attached to their current paradigm will be able to have an "aha!" moment and be able to have more clarity around this situation. People who are very emotionally attached to their perspective are unlikely to change no matter what, unless they share the value of becoming more conscious. So, the way I see it is that I'm very unlikely to make those that are triggered emotionally by this topic budge at all. But there are a ton of people who aren't triggered emotionally who will be able to recognize these patterns if I lay them out accurately and thoroughly, as their emotional attachments won't stand in the way of their perception.

@Mikael89 How can the body be an ego? It does not feel physical pain - when somebody hits you, then there is a sensation of pain which even the word 'pain' does not accurately describe as it is merely a part of the infinite flux of sensations = reality. So 'pain' is just a label you constructed for a specific sensation and 'body' is another label referring to a set of other sensations. In reality there is simply an impersonal occurrence of what you describe as 'pain'.

Contemplate on doing/actions. Can be a good way to see there is no such thing in direct experience, merely feedback from reality (an endless flux of impersonal occurrences). So what you are left with is sensations/perceptions/thoughts. Looking at those, 'you' do not really DO anything to think or to perceive - it all comes naturally even if you are resisting it. Thus, where is the doer/thinker? Just adding this exercise which might be useful before somebody gets offended that I am refuting his point

I wrote this quite a while back on one of the Dharma Overground forums in response to one of the thoughtful contributors to the thread and someone recently quoted my post and left a nice comment last month. Formal meditation is a temporary expedient. Initially, its purpose is to create a habit of overarching, then subtle observation of mind at all times. There is a reason for this, but it is provisional, and I don't do that. Formal meditation is not "good", per se. Unless it is serving the purpose of consciously cultivated temporary expediency, its relevance to the self which thinks good or bad, right or wrong and before or after in terms of self and other is a significant error in which effective authentic self-refinement is obstructed. Since the initial "high" produced by the kind of "artificial meditation" practiced by some beginners habituated to identification by their "achievements" in contemplative arts wears off anyway and is essentially ineffective, for the most part, in dealing face to face with ordinary situations to any great extent, it is best to do whatever is necessary to hit the ground running, so to speak, in terms of turning the light around in order to effect seeing reality, as is, cold turkey— and wean oneself of self-reifying identity issues with practice done in private, as soon as reasonably possible. I'm not saying one shouldn't pursue "just sitting" in private meditation venues— the point is that formal meditation is a TEMPORARY expedient. The point of effective self-refinement is to see reality, as is, without any filters perpetuated by the psychological apparatus of the being that is going to die by activating the inherent potential of nonpsychological awareness. Seeing the essence of complete reality is seeing reality with the Dharma eye of nonpsychological awareness— it's your own mind right now. What is reality? Unity of absolute and relative is the working definition of reality. Nondual nature is your nature. Consequently, Nirvana and Karmic evolution are not only equal, they are identical. This is the basis of the saying "sameness within difference", though there are several aspects in terms of dealing with the conceptual device relative to the various provisional teachings within buddhism. Arriving at nonduality in terms of everyday ordinary affairs is essential to buddhist practice. Actually, it is the working definition of enlightening being. Enlightening being is the function of awareness. Awareness is your nature. Awareness, your own mind right now, is not created. Seeing reality is activating the mind without dwelling on anything. The only reason this is possible is because your own mind right now is unborn. Mind is one, undifferentiated, selfless, void of identity. It's you. People aren't just already enlightened— they're enlightened mind incarnate. I need to remind people that it's not the person …but it's not somewhere or something else either. Real 24/7 meditation practice is seeing through phenomena without denying their characteristics. Taoist alchemy calls this refining the medicines. Buddhism calls this using the sickness to cure the disease. It's not about meditation, after all. You can take all the provisional entry-level teachings and use them as applications of the real in the midst of the false in broad daylight unbeknownst to anyone. This is having the gumption to move beyond the zero-point of the intent of all provisional teachings and thereby gain entry into the inconceivable. It's about using the world to refine the self; using conditions to arrive at essential nature. This cannot be accomplished by quiet sitting alone. That's because, reality is already Mind— your mind, right now. Perhaps you are not ready to hear this. Reality is relative to your mind in terms of the degree of one's clarified enlightening potential. As long as your mind is habituated to the view of its separate nature, you will not see essence in everyday affairs. After a long process of self-refinement carried out correctly and effectively in everyday ordiary situations, the self-reifying mental habits that perpetuate the illusion of the separate self-identity as ultimately existent will die off, bit by bit, and that much of your primordial potential will be activted as the selfless function of awareness. Actually using this is selfless adaption; activating the subtle operation of spiritual transformations in the midst of worldly situations. Nonduality realized all the time is seeing the physical, psychological, psychic, emotional, causal matrix of karmic evolution (Creation) as void of self— because that's what it is (no different than you, that is, void of self). Going along with this, just as it is, knowing it as utter illusion— how could you possibly bring yourself to act on behalf of situations arising from this insane chaos, good, bad or indifferent? Acceptance of conditions is "going along— not denying characteristics". Not acting on conditions is "seeing through phenomena". The sense of nonattachment to outcomes aids in adapting to the inevitable where unavoidable— the ups and downs look just like reality: therefore "perfection is easy for those with no preferences." Soon enough, you may come to the working strategy that this entire malestrom of karmic momentum is just your perception of it. Otherwise, it just doesn't make ANY sense …to leave it up to the world, and fortunately, you don't have to. YOU take total responsibility for your sensory perception and mental postures. It doesn't require doing— just meeting and accepting conditions for what they are— illusion. If you can come to the temporary working realization that phenomena is what reality looks like without having the slightest shred of belief it its ultimate nature, then it might be possible to endeavor to work at adapting to conditions as they present themselves out of a sense of inevitability without clinging to good or bad outcomes. It's not a thing. There is no moral implication in terms of selflessness— it's impersonal. That's mind. This is actually an entry to the buddha's teaching of Suchness and thus carrying out the activation of enlightening potential and partaking of the Great Vehicle of Tathagatas. This is penetrating reality, in fact. Right in front of your nose is this nondual reality 24/7. As such, it is so whether you are aware of it or not. In terms of the point of meditation in the first place, and the fact of reality, it is Mind alone. The lesser vehicle of personal liberation is a temporary expedient as well …why is this? It's another lie to trick you into the path, that's all. That Suchness is reality is nominally due to the fact that it is neither absolute nor conditional. Both Nirvana and Creation are the same illusion. One is your mind before creation and the other is after. Clinging to one or the other is delusion. Neither absolute stillness nor karmic momentum is the essence of reality unified, present and naturally so, without ever entering creation, which is your nature already. Even those who experience sudden enlightenment must learn to realize this truth by APPLYING it in the midst of situations seamlessly according to its potential. You can begin to see this if you can dismiss your dependent relationships on circumstantial interpretations. Reality doesn't look any different than delusion when your relationships to circumstances are not dependent on outcomes, good or bad. Perpetual unity with reality is just subtly activated nonpsychological awareness of the essential underlying nature of impersonal circumstantial process as your own potential void of attributabilty in terms of an absolute personal identity. When you act based on karmic dependence, you change inherent selfless enlightening potential into karmic debt. Ouch! ed note: add to the 2nd line, 3rd paragraph; add "of" in first line of 15th paragraph

Nothing of this intensity in my direct experience, but something that might be tangential - I would often try to let go of control and be like 'do whatever you want' to the body. In such cases my hands would start doing random movements and everything would seem to be happening of itself. I recently had the realization that there is no such thing as 'action', but simply perceptions and sensations of impersonal occurrences (reality itself). Thus, any control is just an illusion - the ego is trying to predict what is going to happen as it has no idea/control. So it might be that this occurrences were there to show 'you' something similar to this. Using the guy sitting next to the road analogy - he can only guess which way the cars are headed, but has no real control over it. However, he believes that he is orchestrating the entire event. This is in a way the ego. Interesting post.

I read this in the internet, now I am sharing with you all. Read it carefully The first principle is becoming aware of our thoughts and the nature of thought. By taking the position of just being an observer of the thoughts and images that come and go we recognize all thoughts are the same: they are temporary appearances that come and go like clouds in the sky. Give no importance to one thought over another. If we pay no attention to any thought but remain in the “observer” role, it seems the space of awareness becomes more open and thoughts less demanding of attention. We discover all thoughts are without substance and importance. We could say our thoughts are “empty”, like clouds: appearances without any core or entity. The second principle is recognizing our stories and emotional dramas are structured only from thought, our “empty” thoughts. In continuing to observe our thoughts we should notice how they tend to link together in chains of meaning and particular significance. It is this linking together of thoughts that creates our stories, beliefs and emotional drama in a convincing and powerful way. As a result we may spend most of our time going from one mini-daydream to another. It is this trance-like state of mind that we need to break up again and again as often as possible. We do that by shifting our attention from thought to the presence of the five senses in immediate now-ness. Just notice your physical environment and the direct sensory experience free of analysis. Practice this shifting away from mental engagement in thought to noticing your physical environs as often as possible. The third principle is recognizing that one’s sense of self is also only an empty story made of thought; a mental construction without an actual identity as an entity that exists independently and with self-determinism.. There is no personal self present other than this make-believe “me” story. Even science makes clear there is just one unified field of energy as the universe without separate parts. The entire field is inter-dependent without any breaks or splits in the unity. The sense of being an independent entity like a “personal self”, is just an illusion and has never existed in fact. By observing the “me” thoughts that arise from moment to moment we can notice the “personal me” is nothing more than a chain of linked thoughts about identity that are supported by memories and imagination. Seeing this directly and clearly, not just intellectually, the emptiness of personal identity becomes obvious to the mind at which point the illusion ceases… The fourth principle is recognizing what exactly is the nature of that which is observing and experiencing the empty nature of thoughts, stories and personal selfhood. What is doing the “recognizing”? What is this impersonal aware consciousness that perceives and knows? In these recognitions there seems to be an ever increasing evolution or revelation of wisdom. As a result one’s cognitive space seems expansive, open and vividly transparent without a center… The fifth principle is recognizing the inseparable relationship between one’s empty, aware “seeing” and the five senses. One can’t find awareness separate from one’s sensory perceptions. There isn’t first a sensory perception and then an awareness of it. The five senses are this “knowing awareness” seeming to be split up into five separate sensory components. These sensory capacities are not limited to the physical five senses. “Knowing awareness” can perceive independently of the five physical senses with no limitations regarding time and space. Merging our attention fully with the five senses instead of with the mental phenomena of thoughts, stories and beliefs in personal identity, reveals a state of total “nowness” beyond thought and mind. A limitless vista of knowing transparency and Clear Light reveals itself to be our true nature beyond any descriptions or assumptions of mind. In merging our attention totally with the five senses, the luminous nature of appearances reveals the empty vividness of our Aware and Knowing Space. If one incorporates and integrates these five principles into one’s daily practice, in my opinion no other methods or practices should be considered necessary…