'World Belief' Articles (con't)
Jains see every Jiva as being in a relationship to every other, including the angels and hell beings. Much of the imagery of the Buddha being confronted by demons comes from that belief. But unlike more common beliefs, the angels and demons are equal to humans. So reviling demons gives you negative karma, and attachment to angels gives you positive karma, and neither allows liberation. They believe in the realties of these things, but form no pantheon and if a Deva seems to be a god, or a hell being seems to be an incarnation of evil, they have no… Seek More
December 21st, 2008 | Leave Your Insight
Jainist sects also have differing views of sex. Some seeing it as no sex outside of marriage, the other as no sex at all. Why? Attachment. Sex can insure positive or negative karma I find the idea that women can’t achieve liberation in that life questionable. They teach tolerance of even seemingly perverse views as they are not a moralistic faith, but they do sink into a logic glitch. The clothed ones have no such view of women. Interesting isn’t it how beliefs so often glitch on sex? Yes. Sex is important in all religion as either sacred or sinful, but… Seek More
December 22nd, 2008 | 1 Insight
Tantrism tends to be karma yoga. Liberation by exhausting the karmas, positive or negative. In the tantric view you willingly incure positive karma in sex. Delve into it. Lose yourself in it, and by doing so see it for what it is. But also, and this isn’t so public, they do embrace negative karma also. This is why tantrism is generally seen as evil. BDSM is not against tantric teaching, and is why they speak of the role of a guru. Why you transition to red yoga (if you ever do), is that in embracing the white, the “positive” karma, you… Seek More
December 22nd, 2008 | Leave Your Insight
You may seek surrender yet people don’t seem willing to let you, and they accuse you of not being responsible so you obey. But in obeying that, you disobey your spirit who needs the surrender to be whole. Where you may get confused, is you mistake surrender for obedience and discover you can’t do that. What you desire is to move with the yang energy, in doing that embrace your yin nature. Do you notice you like feeling the energy at parties? You are not driven yourself, but enjoy the company of those who are? You will do things on… Seek More
December 23rd, 2008 | Leave Your Insight
Buddhism isn’t what many perceive it to be. It is a very old “faith”, but doesn’t center on concepts of worship as most understand them today. It’s primarily concerned with a path of seeking and a body of practices with a code of conduct. The code of conduct is referred to as the eight fold path, perhaps loosely akin to the ten commandments, but differing in that they focus more on specifying elements of life style and courses of action, rather than specifying taboos to abstain from. A core practice of Buddhism is meditation. It’s believed by meditation, regardless of… Seek More
January 2nd, 2009 | 1 Insight
The eightfold path breaks down the aspects of life, and elaborates on how they are reached and what they are like. Most schools of Buddhist thought are not “dogmatic”, so you can find many texts with very broad opinions, even by modern authors. This is no break from Buddhist teaching. They refer to life in general as dharma, roughly meaning duty, or the way you live. This is much like the original meaning of the word ‘religion’, which in Latin was used to denote any body of practices, similar to the word ‘regimen’. The teachings of Buddhism are so broad… Seek More
January 3rd, 2009 | Leave Your Insight
There are so many ‘isms’ in this world (Communism, Islamism, Anarchism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.). I think that those limit our awareness, and freedom? My own view of ‘isms’ is that if you are looking for “self” in an ism then yes, it’s an encumbrance. But like words they can be stepping stones, useful tools. They are no substitute for experience of the true self. If anything rather much the opposite. It seeks clarity so that when a loved one hugs you, you will be truly aware of it. That when someone helps you up from a fall, you will… Seek More
January 3rd, 2009 | Leave Your Insight
When I give my talks I tend to just go with the flow of inspiration, regrettably it means I sometimes “leave no trace”, even in my own mind. I like the format of these discussions, going with the flow. It gives all a chance to talk and is more interactive. People learn by doing, not by being done to is my experience. I believe in the true meaning of education. All are better served by educement, drawing out. I know plenty who want to intellectually sword fence with me. I won’t bother with that. They aren’t teachable in that state,… Seek More
January 4th, 2009 | Leave Your Insight
The word ‘cannibalism’ itself was actually a Spanish ethnic reference to the caribe tribesman of what we all know as the Caribbean islands. In the case of the more common examples of traditional endocannibalism, and even in the case of much exocannibalism, it was believed that a spiritual essence was contained in a particular part of the body like the heart, or brain, or the blood, and that the power could be absorbed by consumption. In the case of endocannibalism it was more an act of veneration and in a sense “inheritance”, than an actual simple cannibalization. Endo vs exo?… Seek More
January 25th, 2009 | Leave Your Insight
Many of the modern medical observations came from old “occult” experimentation, “necromancy”, and alchemical exploration. The common practice for chemical analysis in old alchemy was by taste, and human material was used in medicines as in a sweetbread. Heart in animals is a “sweet meat”, as is brain, which do tend to go to the rich. To date, in a sense, we do still practice quite legal cannibalism, blood transfusion and organ transplants, and cannibalism is linked to the practice of human sacrifice. Evidence shows the bulk of it to have been voluntary. The “victim” almost worshipped, celebrated and heavily… Seek More
January 25th, 2009 | Leave Your Insight
