There are certain mystic sounds, which have the power to touch your heart and take up residence there, as a longing that points the way. For each sound I will give a short description, but if you want to experience them you should seek to hear them pronounced by a native speaker.

“Om Shantih Shantih Shantih” … it means “the soundless sound (or the sound of silence) peace peace peace” and it is the sound that every Eastern scripture ends with. It is meant to give a sense of the whole scripture in just these few words.

“Om Mani Padme Hum” … it means “the sound of silence… the diamond in the lotus”, it is often used by the Tibetans as a mantra though the words are Sanskrit, it is trying to convey the beyond in a way comprehensible to the mind.

“Hari Om Tat Sat” … it means “the sound of silence… this is the only truth”, it is used to connect with the divine, surrender the ego, and affirm that only the eternal is real.

“Sat Chit Anand” … it means “truth, consciousness, bliss”, it is one of those Sanskrit sayings about the mystical experience that echoes the heights of consciousness of those who have gone before.

“Satyam Shivam Sundram” … it means “truth, godliness, beauty”, it is a reflection of the mystical experience of ultimate reality.

But what of others illuminating our whey and why?

For example:

• Be in the world, not of the world - Christian Gnostics (ah ha! Perfect for lay Buddhists)
• “No one will reap except what they sow.” - Quran 6:164 (ooh sounds a bit karmic)
• Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
  Terry Pratchett

No know quotes please?

Breath in everything. Breath out Blessing ...

The Plant Medicine Path is a whole different tradition, based on ceremonies and ingesting usually Ayahuasca mixed with other ‘helper’ plants. It is done together, in a group context, and it is meant to treat the whole human being - emotional, energetic, spiritual and body. It has an amazing track record in treating depression, anxiety, addiction and other psycho material conditions. There have been numerous cases of spontaneous remission of cancer, there are a lot of these mind-body effects that show up.

It makes me wonder whether a natural medicine that works with the body might not have been a better tradition…

I came across a book by this man, Darryl Bailey, who I found quite sympathetic. It was only when I listened to a talk of his that I heard about his extensive background as a Buddhist monk under Ajahn Sumedho. In any case, he talks about the impermanence of things, how this means that things have no permanent form and are really constantly changing. He talks about how impermanence affects thoughts, and the desire for pleasure.

He talks about how examining impermanence can bring you to the realisation that the universe is a mystery, made of constantly moving and evolving matter without permanent forms, and that the acceptance of a world without form can bring change to the thoughts that are trying to describe form, and so ultimately freedom and peace.

Here is the YouTube talk…

As a horror pumpkin and its crazy cult following is now burying America, we can all relate to the un-dead and similar foretold atrocities.

As soul-less Buddhists we may be involved in a stranger mythology:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_ghost

Personally I think I will stick wth treats... You?

If you accept these things are all the dreams of other people and largely illusory, you are just left with places which are more pleasant and places which are less pleasant. If you wish to truly understand the world, a walk among the woodlands has more to teach you than the words of priests. You would see that everything is continually transforming, trees becoming soil becoming bushes, clouds becoming rain becoming streams, plains becoming mountains before being worn down again, and that all form is purely temporary.

It seems to me only reasonable that in a spiritual world there might be a similar principle, that acting beings get recycled from role to role according to the whims of the energetic winds. That as beings become more sophisticated they pass through a series of natural challenges to do with how well evolved they are, which are intended to teach them lessons.

Gautama the Buddha
Lao Tzu
Mevlana Rumi
Jesus Christ
Chuang Tzu
Socrates
Diogenes
Bodhidharma
Kabir
…

Maybe people would like to add?

If I could summarise my last months, maybe years, I could say I've enjoyed quite a sensual and samsaric existence. For the past days I have managed to return to my meditation practice (twice a day, 30 minutes), sitting zazen. I still study / listen to Thai Forest Tradition monks and mingle it with Science and Western philosophy.

I have also started re-reading Dogen and last night after listening to Ajahn Punnadhammo's video on the Formless Realms I found the following video about the chapter Komyo from Dogen's magnus opus.

I followed Brad Warner's simplified reading while also reading Gudo Nishijima's (who by the way was Brad's teacher) and found myself quite lost. The only grasp I got from this text was that we are all Buddha's, we are all one, if you allow me this expression. This light within, isn't just a potential, it is our true nature. Many times I've spoken of violence being in our nature, but this is just a potential. This light, or so I understood, is something that goes beyond. However, I tend to attach to it values like kindness and goodness, which I sometimes think it is a very dualistic interpretation.

Anyway, I will link the video here.

Peace!

Buddha told us to be careful with our actions and thoughts. Meditation is a way of pausing and permitting a moment of clarity and peace. Even if there a maelstorm going on. You are part of the washing program.

Working on right speech now.

You know the saying, be careful what you wish for? Not very long after, I had a vision on the edge of sleep. I was wrapped in a cocoon, together with many coloured swirling flecks of light, and I was approached by a dark black human figure with wings. It examined me closely. Later on waking I thought this was the Angel of Death, but now I am no longer sure of that.

This for me was the start of a spiritual journey. It began with an episode of voice hearing (or was it a shamanic illness), treatment in the mental health system, and a gradual return over years as I started listening to Osho again. One day I was listening to a lecture on the Dhammapadda, and I had a thought: instead of listening to Osho explain snippets of the Dhammapadda, why not go to the source and look at the original Buddhist text?

This was the start of a good six years of Buddhist study and practice. I feel it was very wholesome for me, it purified me in a way. It was a path back to silence and health. I would highly recommend it, to combine a course of study at a Western Buddhist temple with reading of the sutras and vipassana meditation. You get to keep good company and immerse the mind in the words of the Buddha.

During this period a lot of things started to drop away from me. Life long enthusiasms with science fiction and fantasy, computer games, even television and the news disappeared. Instead I meditated and spent time walking on the beach and in the dunes.

Eventually I started reading the works of other teachers, and I found that for me - and perhaps others like me - the search for enlightenment was not the sine qua non of the spiritual journey. I once asked a spirit on the edge of sleep about it, and was told, perhaps for you it happened very early in life. Perhaps it did, but I have no memory of such an event. In any case nonduality teachers may be right to say it is not a very huge occurrence, just a moment of ‘ah this’.

In any case, spirit voices and visions on the edge of sleep have stayed with me. It seems to lead me away from my mistakes towards the paths of wisdom, and for that I am grateful.

• I don't, through personal effort, try to follow the 8FP
• I don't, though personal effort, try to keep Precepts

What I do:

• Meditate. Shamatha, to be precise.

From discussion with senior students, mentors, and respected teachers, I've come to believe:

• to make a personal effort to do these things, introduces an element of self that is counterproductive to realization
• The Buddha, according to tradition, didn't "keep" precepts or the 8 elements of the path. He meditated.
• Shamatha has been taught to me as a "complete practice", and will lead to enlightenment.
• As enlightenment approaches, the 8FP and Precepts will fall into line and manifest as a result, naturally, and not by any personal effort on my part.
• Enlightenment and Buddhahood is the result of meditation.

Your mileage may differ and I respect that. This is just what I do and don't do

It is easy to think of truth as an absolute, as language encourages you to do so. Yet truth is more often relative, as for example Akira Kurosawa’s excellent 1950 film Rashomon shows. The single, real truth can be elusive. So truth in an analytical sense may be the province of judges and fools, and not really the common man.

Instead it occurs to me that truth is something of the heart… it too is mysterious, but even as you know who you love, your heart knows the truth when it hears it. It is like a little silver bell that rings, telling you to pay attention. You feel this resonance of truth in films as well, sometimes a scene speaks to your heart and tells you there is something true in it.

The ideal of the truth of the mind, through science and analysis, leads to a place where logic replaces the heart, where being vanishes and one becomes a machine. To maintain one’s humanity, one’s warmth, one’s love and romance one needs to start understanding the language of the heart. Eventually one leaves the lands of love and romance behind for places of clarity and compassion, but this is a question of becoming pure at heart like a mountain stream.

I am just curious to see what other people think about the Sakya Buddhism School please?

Thank you 🙏🏽

Of course for Buddhists there are the Five Precepts and the Bodhisattva ideal that encourage us to be better people. In our consumer society the people who get rewarded are those who will do anything to increase shareholder profits, which is basically a stance of selling out your moral backbone to the highest bidder. This chase towards making money is ultimately depraved, it is morally corrupt.

So what about spiritual people who do not feel a connection with Buddhist morality? Christians perhaps? They also have a morality that is perhaps more complex, less pure. So you could certainly argue that most spiritual people you are likely to meet have morals that would keep them from following money or power exclusively.

It reminded me of what was told about Sri Ramana Maharshi, the holy man of Arunachala Mountain, who held that his most advanced students learned from his silence. A new disciple would first be tested to see if he could learn in silence, then he would be asked to try self-inquiry, and if he said that was not the way for him it would be suggested that singing bhajans and doing worship in the temple would be good for him.

So there are students of different measures of readiness and quality. According to the first teacher, there are many who lack the respect for a teacher’s words and will just repeat a few choice phrases, such as in the nonduality fad a few years ago for the phrase “you don’t exist”, while losing the proper context. There are undoubtedly some teachers who will retreat into silence because of this.

But I think it is in part due to the culture, and cultural changes of recent decades. Authority of all kinds is getting challenged, people feel more free to do their own thing especially in the West. The language of respect is heard less frequently. It makes me sad.

I struggled for a bit with this looking for reasons behind Osho doing these things. In the end to me it felt like approaching a relationship which was “of the heart” with reason, and that somehow got in the way. It got the mind involved in the connection with Osho. For me, the relationship with Osho was one of love. It is like looking at a foto of Ramana Maharshi and instantly liking him because of his smile and his eyes, Osho in person was like that. It is a relationship one cherishes, despite the devices.

Buddhism is in many ways simpler. In many streams of Buddhism you can rationally approach the teachings and the path, in most cases they will even be explained to you. Except if you’re following a Zen teacher — a lot of Zen is quite irrational. Which is perhaps why it is no longer as popular as say the Pure Land schools. A short story about Zen…

When Rinzai lay dying, his disciples approached him with a last request. “Master,” they said, “your teachings are so many, so deep, that we feel we can’t summarise them. Would you give us a one sentence summary, so that we may treasure it?”
After a moment, Rinzai then let out a great shout, a lion’s roar. The disciples were shocked that the old man could produce such a noise. Silence descended.
Then Rinzai said, “This is it!” And he closed his eyes and died.

So whether you’re following a Zen teacher or Osho, it’s much the same affair. There is an edge of irrationality, of shock, of devices being deployed. In this age of reason it’s a rare path. Which may explain why Osho spoke almost exclusively on Zen in the last years of his life.

For a disciple it’s about love and trust. A love for the master and trust that he means well, whichever direction he chooses to guide you in.

Now I vaguely recall the Buddha stating that the lore was to be let go towards the end of the journey, and it seems to me true that you have to let go of all obsessive views, all the fascinations of the ego before you even get anywhere near the end.

What do you think about that? Are we on a path to let go of all religion, or even of all strong views?

Being blind to important truths, we reincarnate life after life according to our karma.
Thus, we fall into the deep trenches of painful rebirths because of our past karma.
Constantly entrapped by our fires of greed and hatred,
We harm ourselves and other people.
We sink deeper and deeper into the sea of ignorance,
Without any karmic conditions to enable us to find a piece of wood that will prevent us from sinking ever more deeply.

生盲信業走,隨業墮深坑;
縱此貪瞋火,自損損他人;
長沒無明海,遇木永無緣。

Namo Amituofo!

People here seem to be programmed into organised religion. The Netherlands still has a ‘bible belt’ which stretches diagonally across the country, lots of religious towns and villages where life revolves around the church. But even they cope with greying congregations, and young people who are more concerned with jobs, mortgages and going out than religious seeking.

Even in Buddhism a lot of monks just follow the programming, they spend their time in a monastery with the words of the Buddha, following the ancient path, coming to a point where they have the perfect quote to hand for any debate. But is that authentic? Is it real? It is purer than the life of the politician-priests, but it does not approach the flowering of the individual.

I might have liked to meet an authentic man of Zen, a hermit-poet like Ryokan who lived his days making calligraphy and haiku. That is pretty close to an authentically religious man, a person who was trained as a monk, attained, and spent the rest of his days on his art.

The Buddhism of Ajahn Chah
It is all about letting go.

Osho
Don’t take it seriously.

The Diamond Sutra
Regard this phantom world
As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud
A flickering lamp - a phantom - and a dream.

Ajahn Chah is not wrong, but by saying ‘let go’ he calls to mind the areas of possessiveness and grasping. Also, holding on is sometimes natural and necessary, and emphasising letting go might lead some towards forcing. Osho on the other hand encourages playfulness with his emphasis on taking things lightly. He accomplishes the same thing, not exerting effort in holding on, but gives it a deeper meaning about not seeing the world as a serious place. The Diamond Sutra goes to more extremes, saying the world should be seen as no more than a phantom of very limited duration, while also encouraging us indirectly not to hold on to the world or even our bodies.

“Now, though I am a beginner on the path, I have returned to the West for a time to work out karma or unfulfilled commitment. Part of this commitment is to share what I have learned with those of you who are on a similar journey. One can share a message through telling ‘our-story’ as I have just done, or through teaching methods of yoga, or singing, or making love. Each of us finds his unique vehicle for sharing with others his bit of wisdom.”
— Ram Dass, Be Here Now

I found the passage above near the end of the first part of the book, where Ram Dass talks about his experience going from being a Harvard professor to being a Baba in India. It speaks to why he wrote the book, that in a way each of us on this path have by nature of walking the spiritual roads taken on some karma to serve as a guide for generations who come after us.

Each generation copes with different circumstances, for example I think games are a problem for this generation, and so is the trend for remote contact with gurus through Zoom or Skype, and so are smartphones. There are different things you can write about. So I wonder if Ram Dass may be right to write about ‘commitment or unresolved karma’.

Dear Friends in The Way, https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/26749/mindfulness-losing-it

And we all are in our own Way As we progress, change in capacity, nature, practice, devotion, usefulness occurs. How so?
Well this is what I am aware of:

1. Calmness influences our interactions ☯️
2. We are the chicken … that crossed the road/path 🤔
3. The other side is always different
4. All roams lead to roads … eh … all roads lead to Rome … then again …
5. Destinations are not an end to means but a mean arrival wherever we are!
6. Do not trust your self … but wait … we are all ourself. Trust that.
7. This world is the Pureland. Paranirvana full of Buddhas, Christs, Thaws, Thors and melting pots.
8. Listen, observe, feel the environment. Engage! (Jean Luc Picard)

What are are your noteworthy progressions?
https://medium.com/mind-cafe/youve-been-thinking-about-enlightenment-all-wrong-1f4b3a99e3fa

I watched the first video and found it helpful. Trying to write this is pushing me to bring on the headaches and anxiety.

I will come back, my apologies.
George

Being blessed, empowered or in contact with the three jewels is a blessing
did you guess?

Well just imagine the Buddha sneezed. Bless you!

Any favs?

Here is one we did earlier ...
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/24989/blessing-now-available

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosynthesis

It seems that psychosynthesis draws on “Buddhism with a smattering of Taoism” and uses certain concepts from various religions to illustrate its principles, according to my friend, but it’s not so easy to tease out the direct relations. I found this abstract from the Christian perspective which might be helpful:

Pastoral psychologists have long tried to establish a working model that encompasses the seemingly conflicting disciplines of science and religion. Psychosynthesis, a transpersonal psychology and therapeutic approach, offers such a model of the human personality, in which the psychological and spiritual perspectives can converge. This article explores psychosynthesis psychology and therapy as a theoretical framework for pastoral psychology. Although psychosynthesis psychotherapy relies on an array of techniques, it fundamentally works with the clients’ will while emphasizing, exploring, and cultivating their relationships on all levels—intrapersonal, interpersonal, and with the Higher Self. In addition to the subconscious, psychosynthesis includes a higher psychological plane, called the superconscious, from which our higher ethical, aesthetic, scientific, and spiritual values are derived. This article begins by introducing psychosynthesis concepts and techniques. It then provides qualitative findings showing that psychosynthesis counseling helped to awaken spirituality in three out of eleven clients who had formerly identified themselves as atheists. In addition, testimonies are included that show that psychosynthesis counseling also helped all eleven clients to attain personal growth. Finally, the counselor describes her experience of psychosynthesis as a Christian in the therapeutic setting. The framework of psychosynthesis psychology and its techniques are viable methodologies for anyone searching to incorporate spiritual growth into a psychological working model.

So psychosynthesis basically includes a more sophisticated model of the human mind, drawing on a range of influences, with as goal making for explorers a kind of map of the mind, allowing greater understanding of the role of elements like the subconscious.

In religion you come across all kinds of thoughts that are not compatible with either scientific truth or your own experience. For example the gods of Hinduism, or the devas of Buddhism. These things don’t need to be taken literally, you can take them as otherworldly, or astral, or other dimensional. They are mythical truths, that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.

If you think of the world as purely scientific, just what is proven, you don’t give yourself much room for manoeuvre. Just because you can’t repeat an experience, does that mean it is untrue? I remember one extraordinary experience I had on the edge of sleep, of an encounter with a shaman dressed in bright green and yellow and feathers and a golden mask. In the end he blew a powder on me and I fell asleep.

In the end, this experience and many others made me think, the world is much more than only the material, and I decided to let go of science. In the end, all of our beliefs, conditionings, look to me now like limitations, things to ultimately be let go of. For me this was a big one, next to games perhaps the single biggest influence in my life.

I'm relating horizontal transcendence to the bodhisattva path and its feeling to me as life affirming. In my practice I've long started with the prayer "Until enlightenment I go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through the merits of this practice may I free my mind from craving, hatred and delusion so I may be of benefit to others". I think years of having done this practice has created in my mind the notion that even though my practice benefits me, ultimately it is also for others, in experience and intent it isn't a purely selfish pursuit. Scott mentioned that in the idea of horizontal transcendence there isn't such a strict delineation between what is good for oneself and what is good for others. In terms of the interview it felt a lot of the time like Scott was pushing back against Ken's more vertical notion of transcendence.

The way it has me thinking at the moment is in terms of the notion that the path of the Arhat is relatively quick and the path of the Bodhisattva is eons long. The enlightenment of an Arhat is that vertical transcendence that escapes the world, the enlightenment of a Buddha embraces the world. But because it embraces the world it has to psychologically bring the rest of existence along with it.

I'm just making stuff up, but it feels opening and empowering for me. Probably in part because I don't really feel able to escape life right now, and in my experience my practice does have a positive impact on those I interact with. Or maybe it fits with the type of bodhisattva I've always resonated with, that of the ferry man vs king like (Amitaba) or shepherd like(Avalokiteshvara).

Since I have been back in the States, I have become much more aware of the endless negativity infecting the world. Violence, Greed, Hatred, and Deceit are spreading like weeds. How badly we need to tend to the garden before it becomes completely overgrown. To see what I could do to put a stop to the negativity, I asked the spirit of ayahuasca for advice.

"What can I do to stop the negativity in the world?"
This was my question. After a few moments of deep concentration and determined intention to find the answer. A voice in my head replied with the following beautiful message:
You cannot stop the flow of the River of Negativity, and it is not your job to. This river has been here since the beginning of time, constantly pouring into the Sea of Misery, and it shall continue to do so until the end of time. There is nothing you can do to stop it.
What you can do is clear a space by the bank of the river, and at this space you can build a dock, and from this dock you can make a trail going away from the river and eventually joining up with the Great Path, which leads to the Eternal Light of Love and Compassion.
And when people float by on their rafts of bad habits, they will see the dock and know they have choice. And if they decide to get off their vehicles of defilement and put an end to their path towards misery, the dock will be there to make it easier to disembark. Then, when they get to the shore, they will have a new path to follow, one that will lead them on a journey towards their own salvation.
A time will soon come when the waters of the River of Negativity will become so polluted, that no one will wish to travel it. There will soon be a migration away from the Sea of Misery and towards the Mountain peaks of Love, Peace, and Harmony. Know the paths up these mountains... and when a guide is needed, you will be prepared.

This was a very inspiring exchange. I hope that reading it will give you more determination to continue on the healing path. The world can and will be healed, not by stopping the negative, but by our own decision to head the other way, towards the light.

It puts me in mind that Buddhism is a large dock by itself, with its focus on virtue and doing the right things. But perhaps there is more we can do each individually, by making our own small docks, encouraging people to leave the River of Negativity.

So coming to a stop, living without stories is a way to create space in which we can examine the mind, who we are, and our attitudes. It is a way to realise that what we usually think of as ourselves are only thin veneers of behaviours in the mind. I tried this for a while, and while you still have thoughts they are less frequent and the mind is a lot quieter.

Maybe an aid to meditation?

While I can see the sense of avoiding aggressive recruitment or hard sell techniques, I fail to see why it would "always" be "safer and better" to stay with the religion of your upbringing.
Any thoughts?

There we are in desperate straits, unable to cope. Or maybe that is just me in the hell realms …
Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! Karma Chameleons Dharma practitioners!

Is that you?

• Able to dedicate practice merit
• Offering metta
• Practicing puja
• Sending in the Buddha Powers
• Etc.

Luckily for everyone I am always in need.

So please:

• For my mother who is enduring dementia and recovering from falls.
• For my sister enduring me social anxiety and depression.
• My other sister dealing with work related stress

… and of course others may ask?

I thought it was a very beautiful story, very inspiring. Not just that he comes back, but what he does with his life afterwards, that he is inspired to paint and to compose music. As if creativity in service of the hereafter is a goal of life. Beautiful.

Indonesian Buddhist teachings seem to have Australian application. One of four Vinaya pārājikas for monks forbids stealing (and sexuality, murder, lying about degree of spirituality). Maybe that is connected with the virtue of burning and preventing stealing. A king burned his own body.
Sad-dharma Puṇḍárīka Sūtra. The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law.
Chapter 23 - The Story of the Bodhisattva Medicine King :
https://e-thesis.mcu.ac.th/storage/rsyZ ... 9cRrXJ.pdf p62
The Buddha then addressed the Bodhisattva Star Constellation King Flower: ‘In your opinion what say you, was the Bodhisattva Loveliness some other person? It was indeed the present Medicine King Bodhisattva. His self-sacrifice and gifts were of such countless hundred thousand myriad kotis of nayutas in number as these. Star Constellation King Flower! If anyone with his mind set on and aiming at Perfect Enlightenment is able to burn the fingers of his hand or even a toe of his foot in homage to a buddha's stupa he will surpass him who pays homage with domains, cities, wives, children, and his three-thousand-great thousand-fold land with its mountains, forests, rivers, pools, and all its precious things.’

In Sydney, buduwai may be buddha vanaya, wanaya in Old Javanese language of 800-1300CE.
https://www.academia.edu/26882939/DHARA ... o=download p6
Ritual for preventing children from becoming thieves by scorching their fingers buduwai.

https://www.williamdawes.org/docs/troy_ ... cation.pdf

Language, Mythology and Ceremony.
'ceremony to prevent people becoming thieves—the parent of a child would scorch its fingers so that it will not steal. buduway _'scorch'. _putuwi.'

https://www.williamdawes.org/docs/steele_thesis.pdf
Putuwidyánga wiangáta putuwi 'My mother scorched my fingers (that I should not steal)' .
Then putuwi was the spelling by the early British settlers and is corrected by Indigenous language-speakers to buduway.The expression can be explained as:
ganadyanga 'burning. aches', gana 'burn'. dyánga 'aches', Old Java dhyāna 'concentrate'. Indigenous/ Skt ga 'come' . Indigenous wiangáta 'my mother'.
None of these are words for 'finger, fingernail, hand', so the concept seems to be putuwi / buduway and not just 'burning a finger'.
So a word for 'snatch' yaramadyawiniya seems to contain wanaya. The first part yaramadya appears to mean 'fighting / crab. damage' suggesting stealing and an offence against wanaya. Then hopefully the child will become budyari 'good; well; right; proper'. So then, the children in Sydney were Budyari. As wanya means 'tell lie', then two of the four Winaya are part of the culture.
Adultery and murder are universal offences and probably weren't affected by new teachings. Does the evidence so far seem credible for Damma being brought to Australia?

Now, quite a few years later, I am feeling more natural. If the feeling to meditate comes, then I meditate. But the feeling of discipline has entirely disappeared, I don’t seem to be able to access it anymore. The drive to meditate every morning is gone.

I appreciate the relaxed feeling of being natural. Sometimes I enjoy a little just-sitting.

For example we may gain wisdom/compassion from a dead fly or remain ignorant of our transitioning being. There are many examples amongst us of useless and useful teachings and teachers.

We have to develop discernment, otherwise we settle for celebrity gurus/new age flim flam/incompetent 'spiritual' influencers and incomplete 'teachers'.

So what is useful? For me it is the tried and tested.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_artificial_intelligence

Now that yoga is mainstream …
https://metro.co.uk/2022/01/28/i-thought-yoga-was-soulless-and-overwhelming-now-i-need-it-16001721/
… and I am practicing mindful breathing whilst walking …

I had started by breathing only nasally but am now using in through nose and out through mouth.
When doing yoga, I find alternate nostril breathing calming.
https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/26762/the-buddha-yoga-body/p1
If doing martial moves, I do sequences on the out-breath for as long as comfortable.
During meditation, I aim for silencing and smoothing the breath.

Do ya breath? How Well?

The Ginkgo is a living fossil, with fossils recognizably related to modern Ginkgo from the Permian Age, dating back 270 million years.

270 million years is way before our present civilization took its form. But nonetheless it is a living reminder, a reminder of the Natural Dharma which existed long before the human creature made its aggressive presence known.

So it represents the Dharma even beyond the BuddhaDharma we practice and the Buddhism which has become popular today.

And let those with the capacity to strike directly at that octopus that darkens the world, with only with the shield of a pure mind and the sword of expedient means, destroy all Duality in the minds of men and women. As they enter into mortal combat against Mara, let them advance in the shoes of the Conqueror himself.
These teachers of the Dharma Law of Awakening (with the lion’s roar), though they may in the end lose their life, are, as Buddha declared, “worthy” and true noble sons of the Dharma.
This is then a strong call for all to generate noble and correct Dharma Intentions. This is a strong call for correct Dharma Actions.

I am also interested in Taoism. Is anyone here a Taoist? There is a "Taoist" Tai Chi centre close to my home that I want to go to when it re-opens if we ever get past Covid situation

What is stained Modern Buddhism? It is a Buddhism which is generating a religious approach to compassion and benevolence (clearly without a supreme being or soul). This “popular Buddhism” teaches without any meaningful reference to the richness of the profound teachings that lead through Dharmayana to the dissolving of Suffering and Identity, and to Bodhi Dharmayana, which is the Dharma of Awakening leading to the direct experience of no-mind and the elimination of Duality within conscious thought.

What is stained Modern Buddhism? It is a Buddhism that permits the constant reinforcement of conscious thinking and generates in those with developed cognitive intelligence an analytical and cold Buddhism that is only at best academic. The danger is that those captured by the worship of their own academic mind believe that they are on the path when they are actually wandering, immersed in the bogs of Mara.

What is stained Modern Buddhism? It is a Buddhism which is at the elementary level in all disciplines from Theravada to Tantra teachings and is applied at a superficial level, capturing adepts at one extreme by the academic and simple beauty of the teachings and the other by ritual, rites and ceremony. These, contrary to their own Great Masters of the past, do not in any way teach the subtlety and profundity of even the first steps of Refuge. They evolve parrot rendition of mantras and sadhanas and simplistic understanding of the Noble Truths without the profound understanding which is necessary.

What is stained Modern Buddhism? It is a collection of closed systems which has lost the richness of mutual understanding at the higher levels and has developed into a competitive arena in which the number of followers is counted as the measure of success and the building of stupas and temples is more relevant than the pledge to truly eliminate Ignorance from all human creatures and free all creatures from the destruction of the human stained mind. It is a Buddhism built and dependent upon names and labels, not upon the essence of the Dharma truth.

What is stained Modern Buddhism? It is the modern impetus that believes that the teachings of the great realized Masters of the past (from Buddha to Atisha, Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa and Milarepa in the Tibetan teachings; Huineng, Yunmen, Fayan, Dongshan, Caoshan, Linji, Guishan, Yangshan and Zongmi and others of the Golden Age, in the Chinese teachings; and all that truly followed in their footsteps keeping true at all times to the natural Dharma) can be modified to suit our times and even melded with eternalist ideas and the consumer world.

What is stained Modern Buddhism? It is the application of patches to Suffering in a thousand different forms which trap those treated in a round of samsara. It is the proliferation of false compassion and false benevolence founded on the intellectual application of the Dharma, melded with a natural and correct concern for social injustice. It is the great trap of Mara that permits pity, empathy and Identity to masquerade as compassion.

The use of the word Buddhism itself is a reflection of the disease and, as all “isms,” is best forgotten. While there have been many forms to divide Buddha Dharma into coherent groups, here we do not use the traditional triple division of Buddha Dharma into three vehicles (Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana). Instead we use the designation of three paths which more correctly represent the flowing relationship in which it can be seen that the apparently separate vehicles actually meld into one. These are the paths of the true Bodhisattva pledge (Bodhisattvayana), which leads and continues into the path of the Natural Way (Dharmayana) and the Dharma of Awakening to the No-Mind, the Primordial State (Bodhi Dharmayana).

These may best be considered not as three vehicles leading to separate destinations, but as a single train in which passengers can alight and enter and in which the conductor may change. Beyond that there is the long walk within samsara with the constant presence of the No-Mind that leads to final Enlightenment.

The practice has quietened my mind, I am not usually filled with thoughts when external stimulus is absent anymore. Some things cause thought to erupt in me, a good documentary or an article. So perhaps I am less lively, less full of impulses. But this seems like a good thing, one doesn’t need to be so full of turmoil. Be at peace, seems to be the advice.

The dharma has given me important pointers to modify my behaviour. The guidance to the Kalama’s and the advice to Prince Abhaya on right speech will live long in the memory, and have proved to be core to how I approach people and knowledge in general. Taking opportunities to deepen my understanding of the Four Noble Truths has helped, as has looking for ways to increase letting go when there is clinging.

The teachers I am still learning to appreciate. When looking at Thich Nhat Hanh on video, or Ajahn Chah, I don’t really get a sense of them. I know them through their words, not in a personal way. Whether that means that I have learnt from them without becoming their follower, I am not sure.