Earlier quoted context omitted.
But there’s Judgment Day after it.
How do you know?
“it came to me”
All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
431–440 of 468 posts
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
Occult practices for me means devil worship and associated rituals. I consider them bad because I consider the devil bad.
That's wrong, though. Occultism didn't have the evil meaning until very recently. That's similar to how nazis have changed the public image of swastika: before them it was an Egyptian symbol of light or something of that sort. "Occult" merely means hidden from plain sight. Coincidentally, the most occult thing out there is hiding in plain sight: it's electricity.
It’s got to do with the semantics, and for that you need to keep track of the context in which it was used by me.
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
So is it scientific or a mystery? If it’s scientific then it must be well understood in terms of cause and effect. In which case, it is like any other physical phenomenon, nothing special. And if it’s not scientific, rather if it’s a mystery, then scientists will have to take a call on what is.
Science is not as black and white as it's made out to be. In this particular case, the observation seems to have been made with scientific rigor, so this part is definitely scientific. As for the parts of the causal chain that are not fully understood, these will be subject to further inquiry. It would be fair to call those parts "a mystery", but that doesn't imply them having any "mystical" properties. "Mystical" to…
Yeah, that’s basically what I said. Let scientific inquiry conclude on this and then it can be shared as evidence. Otherwise it’s just anecdotal.
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who decides what orthodox Islam and what is heresy? You'll find Sunnis who think Shiites are heretics, and Shiites who think Sunnis are heretics, and both are major branches of Islam. Of course you'll find both Sunnis and Shiites who think Sufis are heretics, and Sufis who think Sunnis and Shiites are heretics (or at least don't understand the true or secret meaning of the Koran or of Islam). And does the Koran have…
You are correct in assuming that whoever takes the Qur-aan as the central scripture is a Muslim. That’s really all that is to it. I will just add a bit of a historical background. You can read the Prophet’s history to best judge what Islam he brought. I will start from the basics: The fundamental word of Islam, the one word which differentiates between who is a Muslim and who is not is the well known Kalima (كلمة) of…
Childish.
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ecstasy. This dude knew how to meditate. A lot of people think meditation is just an exercise in patience and self discipline to stop the chatter of the mind, and that that is the end in itself. They are unaware of where meditation can lead. When the central channel (referred to as sushumna in yoga) is open and energy flows freely, you can feel ecstatic sensations in the centre of the brain as the upper centres becom…
Do you have suggested reading for how to learn about this effort? Most meditation and yoga related content I find is geared toward the woke soccer mom, not those looking for acutely reflective time
This is one of my study interests and hence i can offer some suggestions. Read up on "Kundalini". These models are explained in the school of Indian Philosophy called "Tantra" and its derivatives. They have been popularized under the practices of "Hatha/Laya Yoga". The entire subject is quite extensive and fascinating. However, there is a lot of Junk/BS/new age woo-woo out there which you need to avoid.
For authentic sources, start with the book The Serpent Power by Arthur Avalon (real name Sir John Woodroffe). He was a Britisher who was a High Court Judge in Colonial India who was so fascinated with the entire subject matter of "Tantra" that he studied Sanskrit under native Indian scholars and translated a lot of Tantric texts into English. For a nice picture book with rare photographs on the same subject matter, see Kundalini: The arousal of inner energy by Ajit Mookherjee.
The above will give you a solid foundation after which you can move on to other original texts.
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#436I don't think the problem is people can't be alone with their thoughts. I think people know that essentially all our lives are mundane. But that's not what we want to look like. We want to do things, or at least look like we are doing things. And to be alone and sitting in a room is not something you can broadcast to the world, or even explain to most people. When we seek to please no one but ourselves, being alone is actually rather fun.
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you strip away the dogma and cultural "decorations" of most religions the foundations are all mostly the same.
That doesn't have much to do with the wager itself as it is concerned with a potentially infinitely negative or positive outcome seen through the lens of belief in an afterlife of some sort. If we are merely concerned with life in itself, then religious belief is redundant: you can indeed strip its useful aspects through careful study but leave the actual belief aside
Agreed.
My only point is that your wager need not be limited to dogmatic adherence of existing religions. You can create your own God in a sense.
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#438“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” - Franz Kafka
Ecstasy. This dude knew how to meditate. A lot of people think meditation is just an exercise in patience and self discipline to stop the chatter of the mind, and that that is the end in itself. They are unaware of where meditation can lead. When the central channel (referred to as sushumna in yoga) is open and energy flows freely, you can feel ecstatic sensations in the centre of the brain as the upper centres becom…
Minor nitpick: meditation is not about stopping the chatter but observing the chatter, not clinging to thoughts and then letting them go.
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have suggested reading for how to learn about this effort? Most meditation and yoga related content I find is geared toward the woke soccer mom, not those looking for acutely reflective time
This is one of my study interests and hence i can offer some suggestions. Read up on "Kundalini". These models are explained in the school of Indian Philosophy called "Tantra" and its derivatives. They have been popularized under the practices of "Hatha/Laya Yoga". The entire subject is quite extensive and fascinating. However, there is a lot of Junk/BS/new age woo-woo out there which you need to avoid. For authentic…
I found The Serpent Power of fashioned and archaic. There are far better more recent introductions IMO, but an in depth knowledge isn't required. I'd recommend starting with something simple like the AYP lessons which are more experientially oriented and leave the details for another time. Too much knowledge, not to mention the discrepancies between authors, can be confusing.
Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)
#440Sorry for the morbid take, but the reason why we cannot sit quietly alone is to distract ourselves from our eventual demise.
> the reason why we cannot
> Your < reason maybe, not mine or the one of many others. The fear of death is tied to your culture/education, many people aren't anxious when they think about death