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Buddhism is beyond Religion. It is not a religion -
It's a system which was named after the Buddha which
founded it, in this world - he meditated and said why we are sentient. Things that I was
always in a quandary about : Why are we here, What made me, What is time,
Why are all the same thing and not separate, How
many worlds reside in this "Big Bang" Universe, Does the Universe collapse
or expand without bounds, Mediating is beyond words - "NOT-THINKING",
Why all worlds are subject to the same things that confounds us.
If you are a Buddhist, you're an Explorer into everything.
Vipassana,
or insight meditation, emphasizes a calm, centered awareness of mind and
body leading to a fresh perspective on oneself, others, and life.
With practice, the sources of internal and external conflict, confusion,
and psychological and physical suffering are understood, seen through, and
transcended. As mental peace is
refined, warmth, kindness and compassion towards oneself and all beings
naturally arise from these profound realizations uncovered by the practice.
Dissatisfaction, anger, fear, restlessness and greed drop away.
The sense that there is not enough time, peace, love and harmony begins
to evaporate and is replaced by the experience of a purposeful, balanced, and
fulfilled life.
"Buddhism elucidates why we are sentient."
Links
Shasta Abbey - Buddhist
Supplies
Sutta Reading
Readings in
Theravada Buddhism
Buddhism from Ottawa -
Links
Die
buddhistischen Traditionen
Theravada Buddhism Web
Ring Links
Books
Jack Kornfield, "Living Dharma,
Teachings of the Twelve Buddhist Masters"
ISBN
1-57062-138-1
Tulku Thondup, "Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth: A
Tibetan Buddhist Guidebook"
ISBN
1-59030-387-7
Robert A.F. Thurman, "The Tibetan Book Of The Dead,
Liberation Through Understanding In The Between"
ISBN
0-553-37090-1
"Mindfulness
Yoga The Awakened Union of Breath, Body, and Mind" by Frank Jude
Boccio
ISBN
0-86171-335-4
"T'ai Chi Classics" translated by Waysun Liao
ISBN
1-57062-749-5
Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield, "The Path of
Insight Meditation"
ISBN 1-57062-069-5
Larry Rosenberg, "Breath by Breath, The Liberating
Practice of Insight Meditation"
ISBN 1-5702-350-3
Venerable Henepola Gunaratana,
"Mindfulness In Plain English"
ISBN 0-86171-064-9
Joseph Goldstein, "Insight Meditation:
The Practice of Freedom"
ISBN
1-57062-052-3
Glenn Yeffeth, "Taking the Red
Pill, Science, Philosophy and Religion in the Matrix"
ISBN
1-932100-02-4
Diane Stein, "Essential Reiki,
A Complete Guide to a Ancient Healing Art"
ISBN
0-89594-736-6
DVD's "Baraka"
- "Baraka" which doesn't have any text. It
has music by Michael Stearns and is as they say "A World Beyond
Words" which I have dubbed "A World Beyond Worlds".
It will change what you think about this world. It's given
"Two Thumbs Up" by Chicagoans Siskel and Ebert.
Baraka, an ancient Sufi word with forms in many languages, translates as
a blessing, or as the breath or essence of life from which the evolutionary
process unfolds. It was filmed in breathtaking 70mm in 24 countries on 6
continents. "What
the Bleep Do We Know?" - Science and spirituality come together in a
this mind-bending trip down the rabbit hole. "Illuminated
Manuscripts" - Is a series of computer video animations exploring the
visionary nature of journeys. Memory is celebrated as an active and
mysterious force that may create and then dissolve sacred places, paths, and
moments as it cycles through time. "Infinity's
Child" - Infinity's Child,
however, leaves behind the recognizable if digitally realized landscapes from
that first effort; this time, the images border upon the abstract. A brief
voice-over at the opening informs us that the Phleig exploration vessel,
Infinity's Child, is discovered adrift on the edges of explored space. Its crew
of thousands are mysteriously missing. The ship's logs point to an ancient
legend of a "gateway world" thought to be an entry point to realities
beyond. The Phleig discover the location of this world and launch a massive
mission to explore it. What they find when they arrive is nothing like they ever
imagined... For the next 40 minutes we hear nothing but an electronic
score alternatively droning and bouncing along as images drift by, undergo some
transformation, then fade away again. Translucent rocks lazily roll upon a
crimson sea; a watery substance ripples with golden light; crystal spires rise
up from oceans.
"The
Elegant Universe" - The third portion of The
Elegant Universe is the best [String 3]…
Einstein revolutioned our thinking about gravity because he said gravity
warps space and nothing can exceed the speed of light.
Einstein was swepped under by the discovery of quantum mechanics which
said we are life in an uncertain universe (Buddha says that too). It introduces
Ed Witten to us in his monumental Southern California lecture about string
theory clearing up how 5 string theories are one theory; “M Theory” which is
responsible for saying our universe is a BRANE (Membranes
[the 11 dimension, degrees of freedom]).
The M Theory, 11 degrees of
freedom says that have Membranes (BRANES) and our universe
is a BRANE. Branes are shacked up and constitute slices of bread in a “loaf”
(THE BULK – Buddha said there are many universes and we are one among many).
Why we can’t contact branes [gravitons].
Dr.
Norm Don
said I out to check out Robert A. Monroe’s, “Journeys out of the Body”
because stopping thinking and leaving your body can cause you to transfer to
other branes, forward or backward in time among other things.
Buddhism says leaving your body is elementary.
Olof Jonsson (an explorer) said that when looked out on our world
everything he saw shrouded in a shimmer, it was like he saw everything as
STRINGS, like parcels of code in the MATRIX..
M Theory says that our universe
(brane) collided with another brane and the contact of the branes constituted
our BIG BANG. That what the Hindus
said about the Big Bang. What are
you (alien, Jesus Christ) going to say about our Big Bang, when you talk to a
population that predates us?
“LET THERE BE LIGHT”
The
Way does not need cultivation - just don’t defile it. Zen does not need
study - the important thing is stopping the mind.
HUANG-LONG
Consciousness is the knowing faculty of the mind.
"Knowing" does not refer to knowledge we acquire about something, like
learning to drive a car or taking a course in chemistry, but rather to the
immediate direct recognizing of the object itself - knowing a sight, a sound, a
thought.
- Joseph Goldstein
Buddhism elucidates why we are sentient.
- Ken Kubos
An important question is, "Why should manifested life at
different stages of evolution emerge out of the
Absolute Reality which is infinite?" The
answer is that manifested life arises out of the impetus in the
Absolute to become conscious of itself.
- Meher Baba
You live in illusion and the appearance
of things.
There is reality, but you do not know
this.
When you understand this, you will see
that you are nothing.
And being nothing, you are everything.
That is all.
- Kalu Rinpoche
Let me tell you why you’re here.
You’re here because you know something.
What you know you can’t explain.
But you feel it. You felt it your entire life.
But there’s something wrong with the
world but you don’t know what it is, but it’s there.
Like a splinter in your mind. It’s
driving you mad.
You want to Wake Up! I want to free
your mind. All I’m offering is the truth.
- The Matrix ( Morpheus in the Movie)
Actually, in truth there isn't anything
to human beings. Whatever we may be it's only
in the realm of appearances. If we
take away the apparent and see the
Transcendent we see that there
isn't anything there. There are simply the universal
characteristics -- birth in the
beginning, change in the middle and cessation in the
end. This is all there
is. If we see that all things are like this then no problems arise.
If we understand this we will have
contentment and peace.
- Ajahn Chah
Karma means you don't get away with
anything.
- Buddha
"Reality is an Illusion"
"And the basic idea of being reborn is that you erase the memory.
Everyone is interconnected, and you're working out your karma with
people -
so you get erased, but all of the work left undone has to be
completed."
- Uma Thurman
Meditation is not thinking about things.
- Joseph Goldstein
Wisdom is very different from intellectual ability.
- David F. Vennells
Rick Strassman, M.D., DMT The Spirit
Molecule, 2001
ISBN
0-89281-927-8
Mystical States Pg. 234-235
In order to establish the close similarities between spiritual experience and
what is possible with the spirit molecule, I will first review briefly the
features of a mystical experience.
The three pillars of self, time, and space all undergo profound
transfiguration in a mystical experience.
There no longer is any separation between the self and what is not the self.
Personal identity and all of existence become one and the same. In fact, there
is no "personal" identity because we understand at the most basic
level the underlying unity and interdependence of all existence.
Past, present, and future merge together into a timeless moment, the now of
eternity. Time stops, in as much as it no longer "passes." There is
existence, but it is not dependent upon time. Now and then, before and after,
all combine into this exact point. On the relative level, short periods of time
encompass enormous amounts of experience.
As our self and time lose their boundaries, space becomes vast. Like time,
space is no longer here or there but everywhere, limitless, without edges.
Here and there are the same. It is all here.
In this infinitely vast time and space with no limited self, we hold up to
examination all contradictions and paradoxes and see they no longer conflict.
We can hold, absorb, and accept everything our mind conjures up: good and evil,
suffering and happiness, small and large. We now are certain that consciousness
continues after the body dies, and that it existed long before this particular
physical form. We see the entire universe in a blade of grass and know what our
face was like before our parents met.
Extraordinarily powerful feelings surge through our consciousness. We are
ecstatic, and the intensity of this joy is such that our body cannot contain it
- it seems to need a temporarily disembodied state. While the bliss is
pervasive, there's also an underlying peace and equanimity that's not affected
by even this incredibly profound happiness.
There is a searing sense of the sacred and the holy. We contact an
unchanging, unborn, undying, and uncreated reality. It is a personal encounter
with the "Big Bang," God, Cosmic Consciousness, the source of all
being. Whatever we call it, we know we have met the fundamental bedrock and
fountainhead of existence, one that emanates love, wisdom, and power on an
unimaginable scale.
We call it "enlightenment" because we encounter the white light of
creation's majesty. We may meet guides, angels, or other disembodied spirits,
but we pass them all as we merge with the light. Our eyes now, finally, are
truly open, and we see things clearly in a "new light."
The import and momentousness of the experience stands alone in our history.
It may serve to focus the rest of our life toward the completion, filling out,
and working through of the insights obtained.
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