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Multiple Species of Humanity
Sometimes I think that misfortune is the only thing that humbles people. I could imagine that people with limitless powers would be quite arrogant and self-centered…. That view, I assume, is a humanist one? That is a humanist view, yes. But if we evolve beyond human we will be different in our attitudes. Transhumanism actually goes further…
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Human Is as Human Does
Would transhumanists be opponents to genetically modified food? They would be opposed to genetically modified food. Part of the concern is that genetically modified food would somehow infect those who eat it. And alter us as well? Yes. Epigenetic shifting was occurring well before we even gained the ability to chemically alter DNA. Nature does it…
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Up With Deliberate Engagement
I am still looking for intra-terrestrial intelligence. My own area of personal concern is meta-terrestrial. It’s what I have been monitoring, earth’s noosphere. Are there transhumanist and humanist debates there? There are, because most mainstream scientists are also humanists. Noosphere? The world has not only a biosphere, but a sphere of consciousness as well. Cyberspace? Cyberspace…
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Karmic Burden
Today we are talking about karma yoga. Yoga roughly translates as union. It’s like self-discipline in a way, but focused more on personal development than goal striving. In fact, the absence of goal striving is the key element behind karma yoga. The word karma draws its origin from the Sanskrit word kri, meaning action. Karma…
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Understand Actions
In Karma yoga, you don’t swear off all action, and in fact, there is a reason normally undertaken action has the burdensome effect it does. When you take an action you see yourself as personally involved, no? Anything you feel personally involved in you overlay personal meaning onto. This is the only way you can…
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Element of Choice
How often have you taken an action that you failed to see turn out the way you like, but would have accepted a working solution instead of the outcome you got? A compromise? How often does refusal to compromise pan out the way we want it to? Again, the issue at hand is not judgemental…
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Gnani, Bhakti and Karma Yoga
That trio I mentioned earlier, thought, belief, and action, these three form the core of any system of yoga, and ultimately anyone will manifest a leaning toward one of these over the others in yoga practice. The three correspond to Gnani, Bhakti, and Karma yoga respectively. In Gnani yoga, you seek to cultivate true understanding…
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Reflection on Actions
Karma yoga isn’t just constant action. There is a practice of reflection to gain insight from ones actions. You don’t subscribe to self-recrimination in this reflection. Self is a non-factor in Karma yoga. Insight meditation. You reflect on the course of the events you were involved in, how everything happened, your own actions included, and…
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Worth Ship
Whereas karma yoga is the yoga of action, bhakti yoga is the yoga of love, but not necessarily the love we think of most readily. The practices behind bhakti yoga resemble what we might at the surface call worship, but just so that we are all clear; What is worship? Devoting ourselves to something? To…
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Devotion to the Divine
Shall I start with personal gods or go into the complicated one first? Personal. Ok. The different traditional paths of bhakti have their root in traditions leading way back into the history of India. They refer to them as lineages. The divinity being shown devotion represents principles that are seen as both essential and transcendental…
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State of Being in Love
How do we know what love is? Do we know it just by saying it? A feeling? Can you describe the feeling clearly? I think we know the feeling before we can really understand it and not be afraid of it. I can’t and I think that’s why poetry gets so elaborate. People struggle with…
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Paths of Yoga Suit Individual Temperament
The paths of yoga each suit an individual’s temper- ament differently, and everyone experiences some element of each of the aspects no matter what their personal nature makes them lean toward. For some, using the channel of love and devotion that our social circuits use just doesn’t engage them fully and leaves them uneasy. One…
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Object of Devotion
Any questions about bhakti yoga/the devotional path”? There was an earlier question about whether anything can be the object of devotion. The answer was complicated so I put it off until now, but the answer is yes. Everything that exists has it’s existence in the divine, in the universal spirit that gives rise to all…
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Mind Merged with Matter
We have discussed the karma of action without attachment to outcomes. We have discussed the yoga of devotion that absorbs the self and thus liberates it. Gnani yoga is a bit more like the scientific ideal without the materialistic bias. In Gnani, through contemplation of ancient wisdom, meditation and speculative exploration of our experiences of…
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Growth in Understanding
Gnani yoga doesn’t of necessity preclude reverence for a deity though many traditions do not incorporate such reverence in their core teachings. This is one of the elements that all schools of yoga have in common. The gods they traditionally venerate are not seen as especially invested in anyone’s specific affairs. The wheel of karma…
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First Confront the Self
The reason one attempts to identify their path in yoga, is not because they need to classify themselves. That motive itself would be a serious stumbling block. To not move with knowledge is to lack real understanding. I like the idea of taking a stand with the knowing that you can move on from it.…
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Gnani Exercise
I have asked this repeatedly. It was actually in preparation for this point. Though the question still has no wrong answer, I can clearly explain the exercise. Shall we do a Gnani exercise? No one’s answers are wrong, but everyone who is willing should participate, and then I will explain. If you will, which paths…
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Natural Starting Path
Everyone tends to understand things best if they start in a particular way. They can take on any other point of view sure, but they will not understand it as well as they could if it had started on the right foot, started with the right path. My own reason for sudden shifts of mood…
Category: World Belief
On my spiritual path I have studied many world beliefs. While I don’t claim to be an authority on them, I will share some of what I’ve learned in the ‘World Beliefs’ category. Perhaps they will inspire you to seek further.
Those who abandon their faith are not faithless. Perhaps quite to the contrary, their faith has given them the strength to abandon trappings. Religion from the Latin religio meaning practice. We will all have practices. I was very devout myself, and in my devotion I found I could no longer devote myself to that creed. My faith isn’t weak. It motivates my seeking. I don’t subscribe to any specific faith. I find truth in my personal experience which does loosely label me a Gnostic. Many Gnostic schools say the logos indwells our sun itself.
The Buddhas wisdom was put into the context of the greater way as was the only way it could be, but in fact the symbolism is at best intuitively true. The spheres exist within us. Wisdom is simple. It is the sign of true knowing. Not if they can spout arcane jargon, but can they take an arcane topic and make it abundantly clear to the uninitiated.
I will state that these beliefs discussed are not necessarily my beliefs.
“There is not enough religion in the world to destroy the world’s religious.” Friedrich Nietzsche