LarryW

Search for the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's Stone (and eternal life in general, eg in Taoism), Kabbala, the right hand path.

but maybe it can be felt through our bodies, if powerful enough. I've seen a TV programme about vlf (very low frequency) sound waves being used in crowd control. I hear the worldwide hum sometimes, its low frequency but not as low as 7.83 Hz, a harmonic resonance perhaps? @nowimhere have you got a good link for researching it? Cheers

Not sure if I'm adding much to the other great posts, but just to reiterate that maths is a logical construction in our minds which we project onto the perceived external world out there, a numerical and logical map, if you like. There's trillions of drops of water, and your accounting for two in particular is a mental construction for you. Like creating a group of members and excluding the rest. One thing I do remember from maths at uni was, when I did group theory, I had the realisation, like a train crash, that this is all made up! Even basic stuff like + - etc was deconstructed out of common sense back to its axioms and assumptions in logic. I came to understand that the whole of maths is ultimately based on unproven assumptions, I guess that's where art and intuition comes into it. A bit like with imaginary numbers, the square root of -1, which doesn't exist in reality, it's just made up in maths but is used in engineering for real practical applications.

Add together 2 drops of water or 2 pieces of string, or 2 areas of space, or 2 lengths of time. What do you get? One bigger unit or two separate units? I vaguely remember doing this in group theory in maths yonks ago (sorry I forgot the detail after 30 years) and to get round the problem they invented a new symbol for addition, a plus with a circle round it to indicate a different type of adding. So the arbitrary symbols relate to human-created logic and assumptions underlying it all.

in that case I'd agree, my self exists in a different belief space than my physical body: my self is created whenever I draw a circle with an inside and an outside. My body, my mind, my family, my country, my home, me/not-me. That belief space does exist, as a belief, but it sometimes gets disfunctional, yet I need it to carry on living so I reincarnate myself continually.

yes some countries do, like Malta and Israel, but it's expensive on electricity. There's a new technology using a nano-filtering which is more efficient. The seas won't be gone, water isn't lost (in fact sea levels are rising) but it's fresh water which has a shortage.

but if everything is consciousness / imagination then my belief I am a separate self is as real as anything else? Are you saying my eyes are more real than my ego?

why not try a shorter retreat first, 1 or 2 days and build yourself up in stages so you don't put yourself off with a bad experience in a long 10 day one. Some people do a day mini-retreat by themselves at home too.

I eased myself into this state of resting in/as awareness/being by gradually progressing from mindfulness of breathing, to full body scans (ie broadening my attention from 1 thing to more), then letting go meditation where I let go of attention to 'things' (Leo has a video on letting go) ... then finally to 'letting go of letting go' or just letting be as the totality of awareness, a letting go of techniques altogether. I found Diana Winston's approach of Spectrum of Awareness useful which covers this range, although she calls it 'natural awareness' instead of 'resting as awareness'. Part of this (several years) of rather bumpy progress was developing my intuition of what is right for me, as I'm not following any particular teachings, but being my own teacher, so obviously don't just copy me but take time to reflect on your spiritual practice (perhaps via a journal) and take the wisdom which your practice offers you. "4. What is the difference in resting as awareness or resting in awareness?" There's a subtle distinction here which suggests 'in awareness' is a dualistic state with yourself in it, rather than collapsing the duality of yourself vs awareness when you are it.

There's lots of different types of retreats out there, I'd suggest doing your research to see what's on offer in your area and even talking to the retreat teacher to see if you gell with them and if their retreat is suitable for beginners / intermediate meditators. If you plunge straight into a hardcore retreat with more experienced meditators than yourself then it could well be a challenge. If you can increase your daily time to say, 2 x 30 mins morning & evening that would help IMO.

On the other hand, there are some special interest topics in the 'mega-threads' so if your main interest is Kriya Yoga, psychedelics, dream boards, Shamanic breathing or whatever you can have a more informal grouping of like-minded folks to hang out with. If you want a proper splinter group there's plenty of places elsewhere on the net where you can go and set one up.

PRACTICE Ok so some organisation and structure is needed to get my practice on track. Here's a plan for the rest of the summer. * Meditation. Increase to twice daily Morning & Evening. Practicing mindfulness of breathing, letting go, body scan. * Weight. Lose 1/2 stone (7 lbs) by the end of August. * Complete the free online futurelearn course in Diamond Sutra and Zen meditation in July. I'm not a Zen person particularly, but it has some good ideas & practice which I can integrate into my own. I gave up trying to follow a 'tradition' some time ago, I'm just too non-conformist and in any case, I get better results by making my own path. Though I need to work on my self-discipline, being a free spirit creates the danger of laziness. * Reading. - Currently: 'The Religion of Being' by Don Cupitt. Discussing Being mostly from the Western Philosophical tradition with a bit of Dogen & Nagarjuna thrown in. - Next: 'A Manual of Zen Buddhism' by DT Suzuki. Further ahead (Autumn): * checkout some breathing techniques for deepening my experience. Possibly re-do the futurelearn mindfulness course I did a couple of years ago (it's still open and free). Check out some further reading sources. * On my futurelearn wishlist is a cryptography course (for beginners!) as a side interest. OTHER STUFF All the coverage of video recordings of police activity especially from the George Floyd tragedy has led me to consider the videoing issue generally. There's been a big increase in surveillance and CCTV cameras which has created a bit of criticism from freedom & liberty campaigners. But now everyone is eager to view the footage when the cameras are on the police: even filming it themselves privately on mobile phones etc. So the debate has moved on; it's not just about big brother watching us and whether we can trust what they do with the information. If we are happy with people videoing the police (without asking permission first) we can't complain about 'them' videoing 'us' in return. It's becoming more complex. There is much more life 'on show' - I am writing this journal in a public forum, whereas previously it would have been a private diary on paper. All part of the interconnectedness of things I suppose.

@Someone here nice share although from my (limited) knowledge, these Mahayana sutras are later than Gautama Buddha's time, it doesn't really matter, their authors were realised beings too. I'm booked onto futurelearn's course on the Diamond Sutra and Zen meditation starting in July, hopefully I'll learn some more about this.

Where I live (UK) there's a monopoly on water supply, it was privatised in 1989 but we have no choice of supplier, and there is a regulator to limit prices and standards. Many of the utilities which were state monopolies before privatisation are only skin deep free market: eg we can change electricity and gas suppliers but the production and control/maintenance of the infrastructure (power stations, cables. pipes etc) is not a market. Its the same product with a bit of choice how it's administered to us.

Thanks that's really inspiring ? I'm trying to reboot my meditation practice and don't do any pharmas.

Aside from the issues of whether climate change is real or not, caused by humans or not, the thing which bothers me is what type of action could be progressive? I.e. not costing poorer people relatively more of their disposable income? We already have 'green taxes' in my country but they are regressive, such as a flat percentage rate on our fuel bills to subsidise green energy. This simply increases poverty and inequality as far as I can see.

@louhad "The foundation of the US economy has always been built on the backs of slavery..." also I try to read up on world history to broaden my perspective, exploitation and slavery go back thousands of years before the US or even Western civilisation was created. It's a problem of human development, and political solutions are only temporary sticking plaster to suppress it until we evolve. So I guess politics (short term) and spirituality (long term) are both needed.