The unborn undying mind of the Buddha

The path that Buddha spelled out for us has eight steps. Of course, each step has many parts, but these various parts fall readily into eight groups. According to the Buddha, this eightfold path is "best".

I think a lot of people get snarled up by trying to omit some of the steps or parts. That's probably not a good idea. So you've got right view, right intention, right speech, right actions, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Skipping something may not absolutely prevent you from making progress, but it is almost certainly going to slow you down.

You asked about what to meditate on. There is a Buddhist practice called "mindfulness", in which you simply retain your awareness in the here and now. That's very difficult to do. The mind likes to wander all over the Universe, but it seldom visits where you are right now.

Basically you sit in a comfortable upright position and quiet yourself. Then you bring your attention to where you are right now. As Baba Ram Dass said, "Be Here Now". When your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the here and now. As thoughts arise, let them bubble up and away, neither trying to hold them, nor trying to drive them away. Observe, but don't participate. Just "be here now".

This won't bring you to enlightenment, but it is a piece of it.

Originally posted by InthekNOwla
reply to post by schrodingers dog

 

Perfectly put my brother. STAR 4 U.

A Flower For You.

Here have my flower, my star, and my love.
Okay i see what you mean by star so is the flower a figure of speech or a compliment or what? Lol.

reply to post by chiron613


Sure it will, because it brings to awareness of the one who is aware, and who is forever present now, in back of form.

I've made a decision about this "enlightenment" thing, that it needn't be difficult, and that it can only "happen" in the present moment, and thus, by being present and aware, observing mind, without judgement or attachment and there it is.

And since the Buddha mind is already always present within, then it's just a matter of letting go and allowing to be peeled away all these egoic thought structures.

And the presence is in the present, for there is nowhere else to be.

It's simple.

reply to post by 4stral4pprentice


I practice giving to each person I interact with. My flower to you is a silent prayer of love, peace, and happiness in your life. :-)

Originally posted by InthekNOwla
reply to post by 4stral4pprentice

 

I practice giving to each person I interact with. My flower to you is a silent prayer of love, peace, and happiness in your life. :-)

What a wonderful thing to practise, very much like lighting a candle for each person. This is a prayer that lights up and send love too. Very much like your flower.

okay .... I propose a mental experiment based on the Bose Einstein Condensate vid post

Lets say we all stand hand on shoulder in a line 500 miles long

I pass a message to the one in front of me and on and on till the one at the last of the line .... how long will it take to get there ?

time * distance = time/distance ?

BUT , for instance I keep my contact taut as does everyone else and I make a push .... will it take longer to get to the end ? Or will it be "instantaneous" ?

[edit on 21-7-2009 by third_eye]

Originally posted by third_eye
Lets say we all stand hand on shoulder in a line 500 miles long

One big congo line? Assuming 2.5 feet from person to person, that'll take about 1.056 million of us.

I pass a message to the one in front of me and on and on till the one at the last of the line .... how long will it take to get there ?

time * distance = time/distance ?

distance = rate*time

thus

time = distance/rate

BUT , for instance I keep my contact taut as does everyone else and I make a push .... will it take longer to get to the end ? Or will it be "instantaneous" ?

No, because the propagation speed will have to be infinite though stiffening the links would likely speed that up. Every material is a spring. Energy will be dissipated in the form of heat. If you could push hard enough to make the one at the end feel it without anyone else adding energy, you'd have some unhappy or more likely dead people at the beginning.

reply to post by EnlightenUp


that last part made me laugh.

i had some horrible and humorous images pop into my head.

what if a life form a massive distance away thinks of the message you would send before the message you sent actualy reaches them.

[edit on 25-7-2009 by Wertdagf]

I think the bose einstein condensate vid I posted was directed more so at stripping one of one's self to get to absolute zero.

The conga line involves exerting energy, massages, pushing, force, time, distance, this is all creation of things. Whereas the condensate changes as it gets closer to absolute zero or nothingness it then becomes one with everything.

For our sake to reach absolute zero would require the stripping of exertion, of thinking, of being, of doing, of awareness, and then even ultimately let go of reaching toward this and even to let go of letting go.

Speaking for my self and doing self inquiry, I have had glimpses of this state in direct experience. Though when this happens/happened, there is no I experiencing anything, if that makes sense. There is only that experience and nothing else. This comes from searching out and realizing I am not the body (that dies), I am not the mind(it does other things when I sleep or I can stop thoughts), am not awareness (this sense can be gone beyond), and when you search for 'I' there is no substantial place it can be found. It is just a product of the thinking mind, so then the mind examines itself and doesnt find itself anywhere ......its doing all this work that eventually you get down into the Oneness

reply to post by dominicus

CONFIDENTIAL (for mature seekers only)

It is possible to produce a neurological Bose Einstein Condensate with something called 5-MeO-'___', but if you can get it, research it thoroughly beforehand, be very careful of the dose used (no more than 15-20mg ie: about the size of a single grain of salt - any more and the person would likely end up in a mental ward and prescribed antipsychotics), and do not do it alone. This would only be for people of spiritual maturity capable of allowing the ego to be completely and utterly nullified for the duration of the trip.

www.tryptamines.com...

You could order and read this book to get a perspective on it

Tryptamine Palace
www.amazon.com...'___'-Sonoran-Desert/dp/1594772991

Please do not share this information beyond here. This is ONLY for brave spiritual seekers. We don't want kids doing this in their parents basement, as it has the most profound psychological implications, although safe from a pharamacalogical/biological perspective.

What I find personally astounding about this, is that such a thing even exists!
Note: I have not done it myself, yet, and am hesitatantly contemplating seeking it out via local circles in the Vancouver area. Most if not all InterNet offerings of this still legal substance are bogus scams.

P.S. If you were an Atheist before being exposed to this substance, you won't be afterwards, guaranteed.

[edit on 26-7-2009 by OmegaPoint]

Originally posted by OmegaPoint
I've made a decision about this "enlightenment" thing, that it needn't be difficult, and that it can only "happen" in the present moment, and thus, by being present and aware, observing mind, without judgement or attachment and there it is.

Then later, take it a step further. There is no "present-moment". There is no divide between past-present-future.

And since the Buddha mind is already always present within,

And take it even further: Within-and-Without, Outside-Inside...none of it exists.

In an infinite context duality is arbitrary.

then it's just a matter of letting go and allowing to be peeled away all these egoic thought structures.

That does not exist either.

It's simple.

Even more simple than how you describe it.

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Then later, take it a step further. There is no "present-moment". There is no divide between past-present-future.

Now for me this is not within my grasp at the moment. I can see how The Now works, how there is no past, no future only Now, but you seem to be saying they all exist at the same time??? Is that correct, is that what you are saying? if so I cant take this step yet I just cant comprehend it.

Originally posted by Mr Green

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Then later, take it a step further. There is no "present-moment". There is no divide between past-present-future.

Now for me this is not within my grasp at the moment. I can see how The Now works, how there is no past, no future only Now, but you seem to be saying they all exist at the same time??? Is that correct, is that what you are saying? if so I cant take this step yet I just cant comprehend it.

This is very simple if you consider the Fourier Transform which converts signals from the time domain into the frequency domain, with each component of a complex signal as the sum of "amounts" (coefficients) of a basis function (in this case sinusoids) for each component.

Long story short, the signal exists in a timeless representation, all moments as "now" and can be reconstructed by performing the inverse transform into the time domain.

Originally posted by Mr Green
Now for me this is not within my grasp at the moment. I can see how The Now works, how there is no past, no future only Now, but you seem to be saying they all exist at the same time??? Is that correct, is that what you are saying? if so I cant take this step yet I just cant comprehend it.

Thats why I referred to it as a "later" step...at least "later" for the linear mind.

First one gets accustomed to the now-ness of reality. Then one drops that concept too.

The point being made is simple: Imagine INFINITY for a moment. Now where in Infinity is right, left and middle? Nowhere. Or anywhere. Its arbitrary. you have to define a POINT before you can define right, left, middle.

Same with small, medium, large. Or cold, warm, hot. Or past-present-future.

Defining a "present" immediately splits the mind into "present" and "not-present".

Enlightenment Buddha-style is not splitting anything anymore but experiencing ONE.

[edit on 26-7-2009 by Skyfloating]

Originally posted by Skyfloating
And take it even further: Within-and-Without, Outside-Inside...none of it exists.

In an infinite context duality is arbitrary.

Funny you should bring that up. I had some sort of direct experience of the artbitrariness of inside and outside relative to the self that I can barely explain. Everything is mutually contained and seemed to be a matter of chosen perspective alone.

An crude analogy might be to consider travelling through a wormhole to a different universe where depending on which end you're on, one or the other appears to be inside the other.

reply to post by EnlightenUp


Experientially (rather than intellectually) its pretty awesome isnt it? And all that from only a few simple restful meditations.

A very interesting thread indeed.
Many wonderfully scripted responses. Which should be boiled down (but never are) into this.

"You" cannot "learn" what cannot be taught.....

"You" will never find that which you seek....

There is no "You"...

There is..

is.

.

Originally posted by Skyfloating

The point being made is simple: Imagine INFINITY for a moment. Now where in Infinity is right, left and middle? Nowhere. Or anywhere. Its arbitrary. you have to define a POINT before you can define right, left, middle.

Same with small, medium, large. Or cold, warm, hot. Or past-present-future.

Defining a "present" immediately splits the mind into "present" and "not-present".

Enlightenment Buddha-style is not splitting anything anymore but experiencing ONE.

Very,very well stated.

So simple and yet so difficult to one who tries.

There is only now, not past, present or future....just now.

And once you strip away the ego the only thing that exists in the now is pure love.

I hope that you will experience it as I did, but unlike me, maybe you could let it exist in you. I ran from it.

Don't know if I wasn't ready or what. But it does not matter, I will experience it again, this lifetime or the next, or however long it takes...

I just have to get over the fact that I ran..there goes that ego again..

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Thats why I referred to it as a "later" step...at least "later" for the linear mind.

First one gets accustomed to the now-ness of reality. Then one drops that concept too.

The point being made is simple: Imagine INFINITY for a moment. Now where in Infinity is right, left and middle? Nowhere. Or anywhere. Its arbitrary. you have to define a POINT before you can define right, left, middle.


Defining a "present" immediately splits the mind into "present" and "not-present".

Enlightenment Buddha-style is not splitting anything anymore but experiencing ONE.

Excellent post skyfloating, I do believe that has shown me exactly how there is no present. very well put in terms most who understand the Now will be able to take it one step further.

Thank you.

I'm reading Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" now.. and, one of the things I like about his view, is that presence of awareness, as an ongoing present meditation, is what he advocates quite simply. He says there are a number of "portals" which can bring us to presence, and that the Now is the Big One, but another that he's introduced is cultivating with practice an inner awareness of the "inner body" or the feeling of the life force energy within, which he describes as being synonymous with the unmanifest manifestation of the divine.

I've noticed that when paying attention to the inner "body" or formless energy, while in presence to the present, does create the non-seeking non-grasping mind, and dramatically increases energy as a result, making it a self reinforcing thing.

It's actually very easy to get out of ego-mind, and he's right that it's obsessed with everything in the past, projecting it into the future, while bypassing the now.

I get what skyfloating is saying, about how you can't really distinguish now from past and future, but I also understand what's Tolle is saying about the mechanisms of the egoic thinking mind being locked into past and future but terrified of the now, because the now is eternal, and embraces all time, including all past and future.

His explanations of the formless containing form is really cool, and trippy, as well. Space, there's so much space ya know, both at the microscopic and the macroscopic level. Space I think can be thought of in terms of the peace which does not come from the world (form). It's very important to be aware of it, for example in listening to sounds, which always come from and go back into, silence. The space between words and thoughts is also important, and then the space between objects too - for example, when you look at trees, notice as much the space between the branches as the branches and leaves themselves - without that space, there would be no tree..