silent thunder

Yup. It's how our minds process the perpetual unfolding of the eternal present...

Dropping pearls forest... thanks for sharing that.

One of my all time favorites from my 'can't sit still' list...

These two insights have been echoing and arising of late... Most of us want to feel better, we don't actually want to see that we're misperceiving things. But that's the core of spirituality. And the only way to really wake up is to realize that the way you perceive yourself is not true. ~Adyashanti Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretence. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true. ~Adyashanti

Some folks see the moon. while others stare at the finger pointing... and wonder.

Haven't noticed whether or not you argue, but repeatedly you shit on other's shared experiences, denigrate their schools and lineages with no experience and display a rigid, inflexible attitude and projection of life that speaks distinctly of your level of attainment and 'mastery of your domain' compared to others in the community and in my face to face experiences. Hence, trying to share meaningful words with you is like tossing pearls in mud... though Taomeow has more fortitude than I for this. C'est la vie.

Pearls before swine... Taomeow. Respect for rising and declaring... that TT dismisses Nathan 'at a glance' reveals much... TT consistently reveals and props his 'self' up as the perpetual 'master' What has been revealed by TT's sharings here compared to my direct experience with Master Wang is TT's mind trapped in its own mirrored bubble. 41 The wise student hears of the Tao and practices it diligently. The average student hears of the Tao and gives it thought now and again. The foolish student hears of the Tao and laughs aloud. If there were no laughter, the Tao would not be what it is.

I sense that folks get hung up on 'not understanding' many aspects of life. It makes sense, we are taught to identify with our thoughts and our thinking, rational mind is so exonerated in our western world... but who says this is the be all and end all of life? Taoism surely does not exalt thinking, or words which most thinking is comprised of.... If anything, taoist sharings repeatedly diminish their utility and warns of their endless eddies and side paths. Perhaps, consider the space of being which opens up by allowing yourself to encounter a thing, place, circumstance and not understand it? And be anyway. Be with it and accept it anyway? Perhaps reality is not here to be understood by small mammalian minds? There is such potency in being. In encountering something new and not instantly having to form an opinion about it, either yay or nay. But to simply encounter and perhaps listen to those who share authentically and if still confused, simply hold space and not need to create understanding, but share comradeship in simple beingness... together. Being a cisgender straight man, I have no experience or understanding of what it is to be attracted to other men, or to feel I have manifested in the wrong body. But I have the unshakeable vajra knowingness that to share space and embody love with my gay and trans friends and strangers... I have no need to comprehend, or find a logical path of understanding. And to appreciate their process and listen with the intent to expand my awareness, all I have to be is present and share the essential nature of what I am, which is one small awareness. edit to add: and consider this about thinking and words... if you are thinking in words, you are thinking someone else's thoughts. Unless you created the words you are thinking, they were given to you, created by others and lent to you and you accepted them. Above all it seems utterly essential to cultivate some space within life, for simple being and silence.

My first recollectible memory of this life was an out of body experience induced by an intense dream. It indelibly imbued the gift of vajra knowing that my essential nature is awareness. The body, manifests as a semi-persistent experience, which arises within a field of awareness. The mind... another aspect of semi-persistence, though vastly more changeable and vacillatory moment to moment than the body, also arises and persists only within a field of awarneness. Body is not the I am. Mind is not. I am. Awareness is... all else rises and falls away within this. To rest as awareness is to open the door to true nature in this one's experience.

Incredibly well stated @stirling. Thank you for finding those words and sharing them!

Quite the opposite. It's disheartening, exhausting and frankly sad to encounter such attitudes, assumptions and projection from such obvious lack of experience on a to topic of social importance. Combined with staunch unwillingness to listen and potentially expand experience is the reason for my push back on your presence in this conversation. A timely exit would be wise, but equally unanticipated.

Our essential nature is awakened. This is clouded over by the conditioned mind which is why sitting and allowing the mind to quiet is as basic and advanced a practice as I've encountered. We are buddha nature. Tao expresses through our beingness. A muddy glass of water, perpetually stirred will remain cloudy. But allow it to settle... Muddiest water Undisturbed by meddling Rests in clarity. We need not do nor achieve any thing. To encounter our true nature allow that which is not true nature to fall away. Release everything. Absolutely every thing... that which remains is awake.

Strong description of observation forest. This exact paradoxical playground is why i have recently found so much resonance in Chuangze's sharings on 'walking two paths ay once'

I think you showed admirable restraint and patience Maddie. Were sean active at this time said troll would have been gone by his third post in the thread...