Main Library link:
>Temple of Solomon the King (occultism, esotericism, anthropology and religion resources):
https://mega.nz/#F!AE5yjIqB!y7Vdxdb5pbNsi2O3zyq9KQ
Hey guys. It's been a long minute since I posted here. I'd like to pass along my library again, as it's got about 5200 academic texts or religious source scriptures. I'm posting today because I've revised my --Eastern folder-- to fit with recent expansions.
There are two reasons for the expansion: One, is that with the help of some Buddhistfriends, I've managed to assemble a rather large amount of both pre-Tibetan and Tibetan Vajrayana materials, up to and including uncensored documents revealing aspects of the higher initiations into their systems: Things like Hevajra Tantra similar. That said, I'm not a Buddhist and can only offer sparse commentaries on like the historical trajectories of the systems and my own comparative religion insights. Direct links:
Vajrayana in general: https://mega.nz/#F!QdgBDYJY!WsfyXE-j4KTtyeHlE6PWtw
Uniquely Tibetan Material: https://mega.nz/#F!lNpE2LYJ!dW3xwFeRzqZ2zgtanebv0A
What I'm rather more eager to share is my Kashmiri Saivism material, specifically things related to the Uttara Kaula Trika ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaula ) and Abhinavagupta. In the last two years it seems scans of Abhinavagupta's scriptures have exploded. I've gone from almost none to a large collection of his writings, to commentary on Bhagavad Gita and to extracts from Tantraloka, the so-called “Bible of Kashmiri Saivism”. Included are some individual chapters from Tantraloka, the only complete English edition of which costs between 400-900$.
The new folder contains Abhinavagupta's commentaries on aesthetics, mantra, rituals, and some of his foundational philosophical doctrines. What follows is an explanation of how I've divided up my Eastern folder for those who remember the old structure, and a direct link to the specific section of the library:
>>877606
I've taken Aghori's cache of files, and split them up: His Saivism general material went into my folder structures, as did the untranslated material, and the shakti stuff. I cleaned out all the 'misc' stuff from the Eastern folder itself into a 'beginners & basics' folder that covers some introductory historical and academic material into the subjects most represented in the folders. There is a new folder under the heading: >Eastern>Saivism>Abhinavagupta (Uttara Kaula Trika) -
The -NEW- Abhinavagupta material in that folder is as follows: (direct link: https://mega.nz/#F!9EZwWIJA!xtMSg_xVNs8-PjN9jrkZUA )
>Trident of Wisdom (Paratrisika Vivarana)
>Paramarthasara of Abhinavagupta with commentary
>Gitartha Samgraha – Abhinavagupta's Comment on the Bhagavad Gita
>Santarasa and Abhinavagupta's Philosophy of Aesthetics
>Tantraloka, Chapters 1, 2, 3, & 4
>The Dhvanyaloka of Anandavardhana w/ the Locana of Abhinavagupta.
This supplements what I already have:
>Malini Vijayvartik
>Tantrasara (very short version of Tantraloka)
>Svatantrya: The Idea of Freedom in the Pratyabhijna Thought of Abhinvagagupta
>Tantraloka Ch. 29, Para Puja, “The Kula Ritual” by John Dupuche
As well as a few core Kaula materials alongside for reference (Kaulajnananirnaya, Kularnava Tantra ((shitty ed. At that)).
I feel like this modest collection is significant as it's exceedingly difficult to find most of these materials irl, let alone via scans. You can learn a bit about Abhinava the polymath at his wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhinavagupta
>>877621
Remember I've got much more than just Eastern material, I've got Crowley's Yorke Microfilms of the Warburg Collection, a huge collection of historical grimoires, my Babylonian folder's gotten rather larger, extensive materials on Freemasonry from Weishaupt's original Perfectibilist papers in German to the SRIA rituals. I've got material from Zoroastrianism, any my Gnostic folders are stuffed with Brill editions (Brill's a fairly well respected academic press with editions that are madly overpriced: http://www.brill.com/). There's enough material from Crowley to the Golden Dawn to reconstruct your own arcane Orders, if you don't want to pay dues to join - there's everything from Amazonian assault shamanism to various flavors of Voodoo, so have fun.
I encourage you to look around and see if there's anything you like in the library, if you've not looked through it before, and challenge you to find a better repository outside of MAYBE TO.bz.
>>877645
>>877621
Bump for in depth academic analyses of, and translations filtered by, obscure Hindi esoteric traditions!
C'mon guys, gotta be more than just me that's sick of crusader general and Jack Chick's Babylonian revisionism.
I'm a novice bad mad interested about paganism. Here's a bump
>>877706
What exactly is your specialization? I know it has something to do with anthropology and comparative religion but beyond that I can't recall.
In other news, I'm going to go through with crazy feminist bulldyke school. Everyone was so autistic I'm sure to either fit in or run game. Beats Liberty.
>>877788
Don't worry, you can stay on the good side of that kind of feminist, if you let them hear what they want to hear.
It's very easy, just let them do all the talking, and they will walk away satisfied with the discussion and your input.
Nice work Thoth, the library's looking bigger and better than ever.
Couldn't find anything in there about Sufi teachings though, that might be something to look into.
>>877606
Awesome. Hope to see more posts. You've been my favorite trip fag.
>>877842
Ive been in the real world so long I forgot that they were a thing until I visited my friend in Oregon. Then I'm going and applying to transfer to a local college and every car in the staff parking lot is festooned with memes. But then my only other option in town, all the students wear a hundred dollar T-shirt with a whale on it so they can look just like everyone else while paying lipservice to an itenerant wanderer who renounced the world. Can't win.
Still, good advice I almost forgot works.
>>>/x/ is more inline with the supernatural/occult/magic wouldn't it be?
Unless you're asking about the history of such. Even so, /x/ would have more people interested in such, ask them.
>>878046
have you ever tried to have a sane discussion about anything on /x?
those people are collectively one big 12 year old schizophrenic
>>878046
Philosophical and religious aspects of occultism are /his/ friendly.
If you want to know more, look into Vajrayana Buddhism as well as Hermeticism.
>>878016
Glad it does, if it does. I need to get off of here, personally. I shitposted without realizing it in what ought to be a good thread, given the efforts OP has put in.
Why does Franz Bardon look so smug in all of his pictures?
He's even got the Pepe hand gesture going on.
>>877606
This is a goldmine. Thank you for putting this together, OP.
>>877905
Thanks bud, it'd be nothing without you folks too.
>>877921
Ayyy, thanks.
>>878046
see
>>878058
>>878147
Also, my library has a giant fuckton of academic texts that frankly, I don't think interest anyone outside our regulars. Here someone might actually read some texts.
>>878915
I actually just deleted all my Bardon.
>>878169
Like I said, this topic is specialized, poke around the library and I'm conversant with most topics, both in a practical and historical context, that we can get some fun rollin'.
>>879000
N/p m8.
FYI to like the historical collectors, the unpublished Crowley material's in:
>A.'.A.'.>Crowley>Yorke Microfilms of the Warburg Collection
Bump?
I think I may highlight a few more folders for reference, but it'll be a while yet.
>>877606
Oh so we can discuss this in /his/ now? Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I'm afraid we may be opening a can of worms...
>>880384
He was here pretty frequently a few months ago, not really my thing, but it didn't open a can of worms.
>>877606
FUCK Varjrayana, they can't compete with the zen ubermacht. They don't need mithology and other bullshit
>>880461
>don't fuck other monks
>unless you call yourself a priest and they're a leggy tween boy because yolo snunga swag yonnichi
At least vadrayana doesn't make a whole deal out of it. Never mind that chan mythology and lore is merely so bland that you don't see any of it as such or assume it can be taken naturalistically like a decadent Western pleb. Not that any of it matters because any recognized guru worth his weight in shit hated organized buddhism or was a tantric that the little autists claimed as their own.
>>880526
Who back with you tibetan church and hierarchy, i'm staying with my loneliness, meditation and silence, deep, disciplined silence...
>>880542
>>880461
Tibetan theo-politics and vajrayana are their own spheres of adumbration; vajrayana predates the rise of the Lamastaries by almost a solid thousand years.
Moreover, there's a long standing tradition of "mad monks" in Tibet that tell the monasteries to get fucked and go do Chod out in the burial mounds and caves.
RE: The pic in the OP, this story's from Dhammapada, but we've got fragments of varying detail elsewhere:
Once, in Rajagaha, there was a brahmin by the name of Vangisa, who by simply tapping on the skull of a dead person could tell whether that person was reborn in the world of the devas, or of the human beings, or in one of the four lower worlds (apayas). The brahmins took Vangisa to many villages and people flocked to him and paid him ten, twenty or a hundred to find out from him where their various dead relatives were reborn.
On one occasion, Vangisa and his party came to a place not far from the Jetavana monastery. Seeing those people, who were going to the Buddha, the brahmins invited them to come to Vangisa, who could tell where their relatives had been reborn. But the Buddha's disciples said to them, "Our teacher is one without a rival, he only is the Enlightened One." The brahmins took that statement as a challenge and took Vangisa along with them to the Jetavana monastery to compete with the Buddha. The Buddha, knowing their intention, instructed the Bhikkhus to bring the skulls of a person reborn in niraya, of a person reborn in the animal world, of a person reborn in the human world, of a person reborn in the deva world and also of an Arahat.
>>881398
The five were then placed in a row. When Vangisa was shown those skulls he could tell where the owners of the first four skulls were reborn, but when he came to the skull of the Arahat, he was at a loss. Then the Buddha said, "Vangisa, don't you know? I do know, where the owner of that skull is." Vangisa then asked the Buddha to let him have the magical incantation (mantra) by which he could thus know; but the Buddha told him that the mantra could be given only to a Bhikkhu. Vangisa then told the brahmins to wait outside the monastery, while he was being taught the mantra. Thus, Vangisa became a Bhikkhu and as a Bhikkhu, he was instructed by the Buddha to contemplate the thirty-two constituents of the body. Vangisa diligently practised meditation as instructed by the Buddha and attained Arahatship within a short time.
>>881400
>Bhikkhu: The Middle Pathway of Enlightenment is a route to many abilities some consider to be ... unnatural.
>Vangisa: What happened to Lord Siddhartha?
>Bhikkhu: He became so powerful... the only thing he was afraid of was his Dharma being lost, which eventually, of course, it will. Fortunately, he teaches all his apprentices everything he knows, and then one night, they gain Arahatship.
>Vangisa: Is it possible to learn this power?
>Bhikkhu: Not from a Brahmin.
>>880384
I don't see how it's any worse than 'Why Aren't You Christian General #841946'
>>881640
Yeah, this shit doesn't belong here, it's all just a bunch of mental illness and childish delusion. What good is a library this large if it's full of new age garbage?
>>881663
>le kneejerk dismissive and 'rational' millenial
>>881663
Lel. Comparative religion and anthropological sttudy of mystic practices through primary sources alongside the history of said groups isn't /his/.
>>881680
Exept that library has wicca and sex magic. Anyone writing about sex magic is self evidently a manipulative crackpot. Grow up.
>>881695
Yes child, your parents fucked. It is self evident that you don't find life magical or have any knowledge of or anything of value to say about the parallels between sex and the entirety of religious practice.
Or, if you're too autistic for that, you're complaining that a library has Downton fucking Abbey on DVD amidst all the fancy learnin books. Not even that, you're complaining that a library has books you don't like or don't understand in a subject you have nothing of value to say anything about.
>>881695
>>881663
Highlights:
https://mega.nz/#F!5Nx01KzS!2M4W0rp_ZNq5YJAcqRj-xg
^My A.'.A.'. folders, divided into:
>Crowley (Has the Warburg materials and like letters and various misc. material)
>Libri (Has the technical texts of the A.'.A.'. divided by 'class', as well as various forms of the Equinox and handy books, like Complete Magician's Tables as a substitute for 777. Has the unpublished officer initiation into the A.'.A.'.)
>Philosophy (Things Crowley liked or that I feel are essential to understanding the system; has some basic babby's first phil stuff).
>Pics (things like photos from the Abbey)
>State of the Caliphate (Has things like rare audios of Bill Breeze and Grady in meeting, the election minutes of Bill Breeze to the OTO)
>Thelema (Various Thelemic authors, also, all the OTO grade and ritual materials)
>>881990
Academic:
https://mega.nz/#F!UABmAJAK!76eC0KB0f7-DMqTBP8XEOA
^Is mostly comprised of Brill's journal on magic, the journal Praeternature, and another whose name I can't recall off the top of my head. Everything from rethinking Lovecraft's knowledge of the occult to obscure material from grimoires in analysis.
Freemasonry:
https://mega.nz/#F!0BZj1LZb!XrvWqq9Q5E3bWF31dEweZQ
^One of the more complete files on the subject, but not COMPLETE; there's some sensationalism, but I've got materials from "Collecteana, the journal of the Masonic College of Rites", up to an including the degree scripts for the Rites of Memphis & Mizraim rather than Yarker's brief redactions.
Also have the original Illuminati/Perfectibilist papers in their native German. Translations are available but not online:
http://www.lewismasonic.co.uk/the-secret-school-of-wisdom-the-authentic-rituals-and-doctrine-of-the-illuminati.htm
>>882003
Gnostic Studies:
https://mega.nz/#F!xYpWSZIA!AIJmBr-RrBJeUdGwjt1b3A
^The most attractive feature of this folder is the large number of Brill/academic texts alongside the core Gnostic traditions. Have Kurt Rudolph in English. I don't have my favorite collections of Apocrypha under a single volume, they've not been scanned as such, but with a bit of google and indexing you should be able to find everything you need.
Grimoires:
https://mega.nz/#F!AExjhAoS!lPomaOs11pcSIQGiSZqEEg
^This is the main repository of historical texts of magick in Europe from about 12-1800. I've also got some books that highlight magick in older cultures in an overview way. If it covers everything from Sumeria to Italy it's probably here instead of in a cultural folder. Have Jake Stratton Kent editions. Have the Hadean Press pamphlets. Have multiple editions of Lemegeton (so-called Goetai) including my personal favorite, the Henson edition.
>>882020
Kabbalah:
https://mega.nz/#F!IFxSnZBZ!bYj2MDaEbONbZbeKhpkh4w
^Another folder with a large amount of academic material. Also have fairly rare stuff, including the Genizah Fragments, which are reckoned to be the oldest "true" Kabbalah in the world, derived from the earlier Hekhalot material (which I also have, like Hekhalot Rabbati). Have lots of Aryeh Kaplan. SHOULD have David Chaim Smith's "Kabbalistic Mirror of Genesis" as well, though it could also be in A.'.A.'.>Philosophy.
Shamanic:
https://mega.nz/#F!RdpFmCTJ!WyWn0oyKqGR8vz05_7eEiQ
^Not really broken up into culture in any sense but more just a repository for all the shamanic related material I've got, including things like "In Darkness and Secrecy" which is about assault shamanism (not pretty), and like a book on artwork as it relates to shamanic notions of shapeshifting.
I've just come off a month-long retreat where I had, amongst other things, an interesting experience which has made a lot of the stuff I've read and never quite been able to understand make a lot more sense. Now I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to encourage the experience to return and maybe even stick, or whether it's just a case of 'keep practising'.
Some background: I've been meditating seriously since 2009 or so, although prior to that I'd been dabbling since the 90s. Most of my practice has been Theravada but there's also some Zen and Qigong (principally a couple of different approaches to the Microcosmic Orbit) in there too. I used a little bit of noting practice a few years ago but over time (and particularly on this retreat) I've been shifting towards more letting go and general mindfulness practices with occasional targeted 'experiments' (e.g. watching the mechanisms of thought to see how the illusion of self is created). My current assessment is that I experienced stream entry in late 2013 while on retreat, but that's another long story that I don't really want to get into now. Feel free to take my self-assessment with as much salt as you like.
What I was doing: On this retreat I spent quite a while experimenting with my sense of self. At one point I found myself becoming aware of a quality in my experience which seemed 'unchanging' (in a way that the rest of experience really doesn't -- I've been viscerally aware of moment-to-moment impermance for a few years now following a previous retreat experience).
>>882168
By paying attention to this unchanging quality I found myself watching my experience as if from a great distance (the analogy was sitting in a movie theatre watching things on a screen, and suddenly realising I was in the theatre rather than part of the action on the screen). I mentioned this to my teacher, who commented that I'd turned awareness back on itself, and was thus noticing the qualities of awareness itself as opposed to the content of awareness (the latter, of course, being subject to the three characteristics and hence impermanent). He recommended that if I found myself there again I should simply rest there and see if I ended up in a state with no sense of an observer, just 'observing'. So I did, and I did.
What happened: The first experience was really striking. After the sit I got up to go for a walk outside and found myself strolling around slowly, head turning from side to side automatically, marvelling at what seemed like an indescribable beauty in my surroundings that I'd somehow never noticed before. My sense contacts all seemed very 'raw' and fresh. After a few minutes a thought arose: 'I wonder if there's a separate observer here?' At this point there was immediately a sense of a separate observer popping into my awareness, and a shift in the way I was perceiving everything else, which leads me to suspect that I hadn't been positing an observer up to that point.
On quite a few (maybe 10?) subsequent occasions I was able to get back to this state. It didn't have quite the same 'wow' factor as the first time, but it felt markedly different from 'baseline experience', and in many good ways. In particular:196
>>882170
* Thoughts of I, me and mine were very rare or entirely absent
* I was clearly and effortlessly mindful of my whole sensorium without interruption -- thoughts came up and then passed away again without dragging me into a chain of mental proliferation
* Sense contacts from the periphery of my sensorium (distant sounds, sights at the corner of my eye) seemed brighter and more prominent, and the centre of my sensorium less prominent; in comparison to 'baseline experience' it seems that ordinarily I prioritise stuff 'in the middle' and now that prioritisation wasn't happening
* Pain and pleasure still arose but the usual accompanying aversion and craving was absent: when I noticed it was cold I simply zipped up my coat, without any of the usual negative mental reaction to feeling cold (the Daoist statements about 'doing without ado' came to mind here -- things were getting done as they needed to be without any of the usual self-related fuss)
* With a bit of experimentation I was able to call up the baseline perspective by e.g. looking at a distant object and forming thoughts like '*I* am walking towards *that tree which is different from me*', at which point the tree would seem to take on more separation from its surroundings and I would have a sense of myself as another separate entity; but doing this seemed to require effort and tension, and I was able to drop it and return to the previous state, at which point the tree seemed to 'sink back into' its surroundings to an extent (to be clear, I wasn't experiencing a loss of perception of objects, they just didn't feel as 'separate' from each other and me as usual)
* I felt content and unworried, and happy to remain in this state as long as it was around
>>882173
The last point is worth expanding -- I had a lot of fear come up on the retreat around making potentially permanent changes to my baseline experience, wondering if I was going to end up weird or an emotionless robot or somehow unable to function in daily life if I gave up the illusion of my self; but whilst in this seemingly 'self-free' experience all of those worries seemed totally absurd and it was clear that I would be able to function absolutely fine like that, just without the huge mass of dukkha generated by my self.
So a lot of this made me think of some of the descriptions of Pure Consciousness Experiences that I read back in the day when lots of people were into that, and it also makes a lot of the descriptions of how suffering is tied to the self and how it's possible to walk around in a state with considerably less selfing and be just fine (and, indeed, quietly contented, as opposed to emotionally flat).
A lot of stuff now makes sense that didn't, and a lot has changed in my practice since (in particular a greater emphasis on cultivating moment-to-moment mindfulness, which I'd been neglecting, and a greater emphasis on letting go, which helped a great deal with several situations on the retreat).
What I'm wondering is whether this is essentially a peak experience (e.g. second path or something along those lines) which I should treat as interesting, cool and maybe a sign of things to come, but not necessarily something to try to cultivate in the meantime, or whether this is actually a reproducible state of affairs that I could develop further with practice. In the latter case, if people have suggestions for practices that would be useful, please let me know!
>>882168
>I've just come off a month-long retreat where I had, amongst other things, an interesting experience which has made a lot of the stuff I've read and never quite been able to understand make a lot more sense. Now I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to encourage the experience to return and maybe even stick, or whether it's just a case of 'keep practising'.
I'll offer w/e perspective I can.
>e.g. watching the mechanisms of thought to see how the illusion of self is created
That's pure yoga, at least the midway goals. Many practices involve identifying the locus from which thoughts (non)arise and learning to dam the mindstream to stillness.
>So I did, and I did.
This is, very generally speaking, the upper end of Dhyana and the lower end of Samadhi, congrats, you've gotten a Taste.
>* Sense contacts from the periphery of my sensorium (distant sounds, sights at the corner of my eye) seemed brighter and more prominent, and the centre of my sensorium less prominent; in comparison to 'baseline experience' it seems that ordinarily I prioritise stuff 'in the middle' and now that prioritisation wasn't happening
Did you get any like mandala type images or a phenomenon that could be described as a 'streaming' or 'smoking' of sense, such as vision giving way to streams of color and letter as contact with that stream of sense retracts?
>* Pain and pleasure still arose but the usual accompanying aversion and craving was absent: when I noticed it was cold I simply zipped up my coat, without any of the usual negative mental reaction to feeling cold (the Daoist statements about 'doing without ado' came to mind here -- things were getting done as they needed to be without any of the usual self-related fuss)
Are you a nondualist or did you just become one in the process?
>>882174
I'd say you're close to some srs spiritual apprehensions. I'm reluctant to use words like "enlightenment". For what it's worth, I too struggle carrying 'bliss' with me out of Union.
>>882219
>>882174
>yanked trip to reply w/ bump.
As for the last little bit here, yes, this is a reproducible state of affairs. The broad trajectory of yoga in most all systems is the sort of thing you describe. From my knowledge and experience, I can tell you you're on the cusp of when things get Really Real if you catch my drift. The states you relate are the upper reaches, but not penultimate, goals of yoga. It's going to take fuckloads of stabilization and refinement to make smooth.
What you should do depends on what you want and like and feel a calling toward. If that's Buddhism, look into the tantrik material. If that's not, I can't really say. We're getting into like guru/chela territory here.
Work at what you're doing, and find some practices to refine. There is, I do advise, some thingness at the dissolution of all into purest Observation. Observation Itself...what FORM that takes for you; a vision of the Buddha, a vision of Shiva or Krshna, the Holy Guardian Angel, Melek Taus, etc., etc., etc., I cannot say, but the masters tell us it's one of the final masks that the Absolute wears before disrobing.
That's probably more cryptic than you want...I can't do much more without a tradition to root my metaphors in...what do you like, where do you want to specialize. If it's Therevada, I can't offer you more than best wishes.
Bump?
>>882374
Beat ya to it by about fir minutes there, friend.
Last time I was here there were some competent Buddhists around...they still drop by the board?
>early afternoon bump
Now this is chodracing
>>882931
does anyone have any HD pics of those depictions of the the wheel of samsara?
>>883475
Not on hand; I got a few fuzzy pics of a bronze kalachakra, tho.
Does anybody have any tips/thoughts/practices to help reducess anxiety and worry?
I've been meditating for about a year and my anxiety has gone down very much, but it is still inhibiting. I also get stuck in the future and tend to worry about uncertainty.
>>883558
Basic mindfulness or basic training on pranayama/asana (learning how to sit and breathe). I'm not big on yoga as a "self help" model. I'm after Liberation, everything else is incidental.
You may need some form of ritual practice to ground you in the moment, or some visualization techniques, to keep you from retreating to deeply into voidful meditations. I feel like basic mindfulness with little else kinda unintentionally facilitates a sort of either nihilism or existential dread, it's one of my little nitpicks about Buddhism in general - you'll hear trained instructors talking about this as well as not using yoga as an escape from reality...
Um, so my advice would be to learn a breath count, a slightly uncomfortable pose, and start learning how to focus the mind rather than still it.
>>883596
thanks. what's a voidful meditation? and what do you mean by focus rather than still?
>>883623
Mindful meditation leads to a kind of still voidness; no image, no goal, just quiet leading to nothing. Focus implies directing on an image or concept until it's the sum totality of perception. It leads to nothingness too, but I've found it mitigates that kind of nihilistic/dread thing.
>I should repeat that I'm not a Buddhist so take my perspectives with a grain of salt.
>>883596
>I'm not big on yoga as a "self help" model
I couldn't agree more with this. It's all well and good if someone finds that certain techniques help them in some way but, as a practitioner of Shingon Buddhism, I have a strong aversion to the sort of secularisation and profanation of the religion that grew out of the new age movement.
Incidentally, I think you might find this interesting: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102990
>Arousal vs. Relaxation: A Comparison of the Neurophysiological and Cognitive Correlates of Vajrayana and Theravada Meditative Practices
>>883764
beyond an understanding of emptiness, the practice of compassion, and truly being in the present with the help of meditation, what need have we of esoteric doctrines which see themselves as profaned when deviated from? the lesson has been learned, the vehicle must be dropped. do we not sleep in the bosom of our ossified theologies? can we awaken without them?
>>883785
You misunderstand me. I have no problem with deviation from the path so long as the end is the same. The image I posted is from a very unorthodox left-hand tantric sect of Shingon in fact.
In any case, mindfulness alone will never bring you the liberation that comes from comprehending self-existent nature firsthand.
You tell me to drop the vehicle yet you seemingly don't realise that even compassion is merely a means to an end that is beyond good and evil.
>>883764
>>Arousal vs. Relaxation: A Comparison of the Neurophysiological and Cognitive Correlates of Vajrayana and Theravada Meditative Practices
Fucking awesome.
>>883917
what is the end?
what's the difference between mindfulness and comprehending self-existent nature firsthand?
>even compassion is merely a means to an end that is beyond good and evil.
i really disagree with this. i it's product of the particular way japanese interpreted buddhism which doesn't really have much to do with the origial ethos.
sorry if i come across as confrontational. i don't mean to, this stuff is just so complex and i just want to cut down to the essential stuff.
>>883971
i think*
Can any Catholic or Orthodox explain to me some sacred hand gestures in Christianity?
>>883943
I wish I did. The only thing I can find in English is "Tantra of the Tachikawa Ryu: Secret Sex Teachings of the Buddha" and it looks to be pure fiction rather than a translation or adaptation of any original text. I'm really interested in the sect but information on them is scarce even in Japanese unfortunately. From what I can gather it is to a large extent vamacara with mikkyo trappings, dakini and all.
>I wanna know their secrets
This is a familiar feel.
>>883971
Maybe you should ask a teacher these questions.
>>883971
>origial ethos
What do you mean by this?
>>883971
Just recite the nembutsu, tomodachi.
Actually, I'll throw my two coppers in here:
>>883971
>what's the difference between mindfulness and comprehending self-existent nature firsthand?
Mindfulness allows mind to, in this case, contract, facilitating eventual communion with Absolute. Mindfulness is a rope, the Absolute is the wall. The wall is not the rope, the rope just helps you climb and, like, get nice and intimate with the fuckin' thing.
>japanese
Try early-middle Vajrayana. You'd be surprised at what gets done in the name of the "good of all beings". My point is the nondual apprehension's been a component of Buddhism since the rise of Mantrayana.
>this stuff is just so complex
This is one reason I'm not a Buddhist (he said, posting Abhinavagupta's encyclopedic comments on Aesthesis). Buddhism gets obsessive about lists. Wanna be a Buddha? Go out into the world of suffering like Siddharta did armed only with a robe, yoga, and the burning fires of Aspiration.
>>884202
Hey OP, I searched around briefly and snagged these texts on Japanese Buddhism, namely of the Nichiren sect.
Some of them are by Soka Gakkai, the largest Japanese New Religious Originization which is focused on this-wordly benefits through prayer and recitation of the Lotus Sutra.
https://mega.nz/#F!uBZ31TTS!kg4xGE5twSYHe_-L8LxT5g
if you like to be disappointed when your pleasures fade, after you put much work to get the pleasures beforehand, if you enjoy boredom once you are acclimated to these pleasures and comfort which fades more slowly than most of other pleasures, if you despise pain to the point of being afraid by it, if you fear death, then, sure, continue to be hedonistic.
but if you understand that you bring your own unhappiness, day after, day in searching outside you to fill you and that what you find to fill you is exactly what brings you down, you understand that being stopping envy is the way to go. the good thing is that stopping envy avoids you to identify with the pain (otherwise the pain becomes suffering) and the price to pay is that you do not identify yourself with pleasures too (with the few pleasures that you manage to get).
the good news is that once you stop identifying so much with your sensations, then you reach a higher bliss, that in buddhism is called second jhanas (this is where the Christians go when they pray, and normies picture it as an orgasm like the famous statue of the nun shows).
this is the level of spiritual hedonism, where you experience pleasure of the consciousness.
religious people stop here, because, as buddhists say, they take what they feel as a contact with their deities.
Once yo understand that hedonism is bound to fail, due to the lack of control of events and what you think is your self, disappear the faith in the avidity towards pleasures and the aversion towards pains, the faith in your speculations to get control over what you think is your life.
this state is not reversible and makes you despise hedonism. you have seen the ugliness and the eternal disappointment with hedonism.
There remains to put into practice your new knowledge. you switch back to attempting to establish the equanimity, joy, contentment, benevolence in meditating to be still. Once you eliminate your faith in hedonism, you are happy.
>>884281
in the dhamma, you even understand that, before nirvana, there is just as much degeneracy and mediocrity in those jhanas, than there is in material hedonism (= of the body, which is the hedonism of most of the humanity), precisely because you still crave the fruits of the jhanas, which are bliss, then tranquility and equanimity.
[in the jhanas, you are disconnected from the 5 senses and from your mind, there remains only what is causally referred to as the consciousness and, when you are not hedonistic, the jhanas are the study of the consciousness by the consciousness itself. since even hedonists manage to get the jahans, those people tend to dwell in them for the pleasures and other curiosities of ''knowing the true reality (of the sensations) and other fantasies.]
Sooner or later, you will understand that your emotions are not meant to be taken seriously (in order to be happy), ditto with your mind[=your imagination, your intellect] and its products [=your ideas, your inferences], ditto with your consciousness, ditto with the objects of your consciousness (the things that people call reality, or even worse, objective reality).
once you understand that even the jhanas are mediocre and you stripe your self of the envy of the jhanas (after you master them), you reach nirvana.
this is the dhamma. the dhamma is a user manual to establish irreversibly [<= this is the key word] equanimity+benevolence+joy towards, in using the vocabulary of ''self'', what you think is casually to your self, what you think is other people (and animals), at any place and at any time.
>>884284
the sole practice of the dhamma is really this quest for stillness [equanimity+benevolence +joy] towards whatever you feel (inside of you or coming form outside of you]. people tend to split the path into ''formal meditation'' [=the jhanas] and activities called ''informal meditation''[=practice of the morality], but sooner or later, you understand that this dichotomy is a choice and has no substance.
today, people tend to split the formal practice into
-tranquility, samatha, of the consciousness [where you make your mind quiet]
-insights, vipassna, [where you see that it is unbecoming, in order to be happy, to desire to take for personal and permanent what you always took for personal and permanent [typically your mind, your consciousness, your emotions, your sensations]
there are many books, talks and videos on the dhamma, so I cannot list all. I prefer to list only the free materials.
I give a bit of everything, in the school called the theravadan. this school is the most straightforward and does not insist on ''the vacuity (of personality and permanence) '', like the Zen buddhists and the tibetans love to talk on, but it remains the same (the practices preliminary to the jhanas [=the practice of morality in daily life] differ a lot though)
this is the first thing to take: watch videos of these retreats, especially the Q&A. this monk is famous and easy to follow. he is a good introduction, with some hippies flavors. he is quite rigorous in demanding that the jhanas are states where you no longer feel the 6 senses [people tend to lower the bar of these states, but they still call them jhanas]
watch first videos of talks during a retreat
https://www.youtube.com/user/AjahnBrahmRetreats/videos
especially this one, and the series with the green background
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9wWluu564c
another first thing to watch:
a short video on the jhanas
[YouTube] What is Jhana? By Ven. Henepola Gunaratana Nayaka Maha Thera(Bhante G) (embed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lv0PFLZ12o
[YouTube] Bhante Gunaratana (1) What is samatha-vipassana? Part 1: samatha (embed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaFOjJtEd2g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESQOi9djyaA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41NpmB2le3I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=div3NnAIoYU
and all the others videos from this series
The Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation by Henepola Gunaratana
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/gunaratana/wheel351.html
Mindfulness in plain English, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana.
http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf2/Mindfulness%20in%20Plain%20English%20Book%20Preview.pdf
http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_english.php
Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory Guide to Deeper States of Meditation, Book by Henepola Gunaratana
http://www.wisdompubs.org/sites/default/files/preview/Beyond%20Mindfulness%20Book%20Preview.pdf
>This site is dedicated to the teachings of Venerable Ayya Khema (1923-1997), a Theravada Buddhist nun ordained in Sri Lanka . Her teachings (which were prolific) describe simple and effective meditation methods for development of calm and insight, for expanding feelings of loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity towards others, and for overcoming obstacles to practice. She also gives detailed and lucid instructions for the meditative absorptions (jhanas) which provide access to higher states of consciousness, the way the Buddha himself practiced.
http://ayyakhematalks.org/
>>884285
>insisting on the setting the samatha first, this book recast the use of the mindfulness through the three angas, [swift introduction to the various sources PLUS good introduction to ''mindfulness'']
A History of Mindfulness Bhikkhu Sujato.pdf
http://santifm.org/santipada/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/A_History_of_Mindfulness_Bhikkhu_Sujato.pdf
>Moment to Moment Mindfulness, A PICTORIAL MANUAL FOR MEDITATORS, Achan Sobin S. Namto
http://vipassanadhura.com/momenttomoment.htm
>>884273
Um, neat? I don't really have a Mahayana section and never really intended on assembling one; these tantras are fuckin' extensive enough without normative Buddhism too...moreover this seems rather exoteric, so pardon if I'm reluctant to toss them up. I do, however, appreciate the effort and am always open to submissions if the material's the sort of thing I'm looking for.
>>884286
Hey, you're back!
For the bajillionth time I'm not a Buddhist and this dude always seemed rather well versed in particulars, so please direct any questions or comments on Buddhist doctrine to this dude.
I'm just here for the Samarasa and Wisdom Consorts, largely. The Vajrayana's a logical consequence of exploring the relation of Kashmiri Saivism to the development of Vajrayana into a coherent body of doctrine and scripture.
>>884291
yeah, no worries. I just wanted to give back in a way. I'll be collecting more Mahayana texts, just post on the /x/ thread if you change your mind.
>>884273
Absolutely disgusting desu senpai. Nichiren is an entirely exoteric sect that declares everything else to be heresy.
Don't even get me started on the Soka Gakkai cultists.
>>884307
The cultist part is the appeal to study them, though
Pradhyana breathing makes me control my emotions.
It's vital to whose use for empathy goes beyond 4memes
It's objectivity healthy
and it's homeopathic style of health makes you less of a destructive healer
Fuck me out
>>884327
>yoga
>tripfag tested
>anon approved
>>884123
>nembutsu
>falling for this meme in 2016 dame desu
>>884359
Amitābha's cool but I have grave doubts about Pure Land as it's presented in the vast majority of texts, but, as much as I hate to admit it, Kalachakra tantra comes really close to hitting a more sane mark (it's probably why Kalachakra Tantra gives me a nasty case of existential dread. I should really probably rectify that feel, frankly, if I wanna integrate the material in a meaningful way. It's not easy to grapple with outside of it's context, unlike Abhinavagupta who really makes heaps of sense if you're well versed in Crowley).
>>884378
In our days of latter dharma, these esoteric teachings are useless and only confuse one from enlightenment, building our egos, but the writings themselves too corrupted to gain true insight. The only thing to do is to trust in the compassion of the Amida Buddha. Even a single, honest recitation of the nembutsu will grant you rebirth in the Pure Land.
>>884404
reeeeee
evangelists pls leave
>>884415
You need to read up on your Honen. Your path would still lead to enlightenment provided it is rife with meritorious deeds, but it is a hard and confusing way that is likely to only inflate the ego, like collecting dust on a mirror. The most beneficial path is to seek even just one moment of ego-less love for the Amida Buddha.
>>884437
>bhakti
The occult is for those incapable of that. Going through that door doesn't just happen. Bhakti is usually a long way off for most and an impossibility for others. Not to mention it's all just believing a meme and blindly following it is the most dualistic thing you can do. It takes you no closer to meeting in the middle. Unless I missed the part where all the fakirs and mystics stopped using their God to get high and autistically separate themselves from the worlds.
The best explanation of why that is, that I’ve ever read, is from a 3rd Century Neo-Platonic mystic named Plotinus. I’ll quote what he said, but don’t get lost in it. Why? Because it is often more helpful to use a visual or allegorical depiction when dealing with a difficult subject such as that of the nonduality of reality. Speaking of the nature of reality necessarily introduces errors that cannot be overcome, unless one uses a technique designed to mitigate such structural errors which are introduced by everyday dualistic language, since all language is unsuited for metaphysical and spiritual discourse in the sense that it was created for the marketplace, according to the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.
One such technique used almost universally by mystics is apophasis, which means unsaying or saying away. In apophasis all statements are signs in a most indeterminate way, since they are used to point to that which can only be apprehended in a flash of illumination, or gnosis. It must be noted that apophasis is a linguistic performance and is different in intent than apophatic, or negative theological statements, with which it is frequently confused. Those kinds of statements say what something isn’t. That’s not what is going on in the quote below in which Plotinus explains the problem that necessitates his use of apophasis in this section from his “Enneads:”
“Since the substance which is generated from the One is form one could not say that what is generated from that source is anything else – and not the form of some one thing but of everything, so that no other form is left outside it, the One must be without form. But if it is without form it is not a substance; for a substance must be some one particular thing, something, that is, defined and limited; but it is impossible to apprehend the One as a particular thing: for then it would not be the principle, but only that particular thing which you said it was. But if all things are in that which is generated from the One, which of the things in it are you going to say that the One is? Since it is none of them, it can only be said to be beyond them. But these things are beings, and being: so it is beyond being.
“This phrase beyond being does not mean that it is a particular thing, for it makes no positive statement about it, and it does not say its name, but all it implies is that it is not this. But if this is what the phrase does, it in no way comprehends the One: it would be absurd to seek to comprehend that boundless nature; for anyone who wants to do this has put himself out of the way of following at all, even the least distance, in its traces; but just as he who wishes to see the intelligible nature will contemplate what is beyond the perceptible if he has no mental image of the perceptible, so he who wishes to contemplate what is beyond the intelligible will contemplate it when he has let all the intelligible go; he will learn that it is by means of the intelligible, but what it is like by letting the intelligible go.
“But this, what it is like must indicate that it is not like: for there is no being like in what is not a something. But we in our aporia, complete befuddlement, do not know what we ought to say, and are speaking of what cannot be spoken, and give it a name because we want to indicate it to ourselves as best we can. But perhaps this name One contains only a denial of multiplicity. This is why the Pythagoreans symbolically indicated it to each other by the name Apollo, in the negation of the multiple. But if the One, name and reality expressed, was to be taken positively it would be less clear than if we did not give it a name at all.”
The second guide I have adopted, is to see a kind of event horizon between the real and what exists. It’s an expression taken from Science where it is used to explain an hypothesized character of Black Holes. An horizon, as we all have or can experience, hides what is over the horizon from us. In the case of the expression event horizon, what I mean is that experience, which is easily analyzed into events, something we do all the time, still doesn’t show us what is over the horizon because the other side of that horizon cannot be directly experienced.
As Plotinus mentions, the intelligible must be let go of, if one is to reach enlightenment, in the same way that in order to reach the nature of the intelligible, one must meditate in a way that is free of all mental formations, mental images of independent things. What is the intelligible? Why, all experience, of course! Including all our theories, hypotheses, dogmatic assertions, and mental attempts to seize something that can never be within reach. We cannot understand what does not exist. But we can accept the reality of that which is evidenced, necessary, simple, and not contingent on anything for reality.
Yes, this is mystical. And that may grate our Western mindset even if we think we are better than that. We do so love our terminology! There will still be those that believe that they have the final answer to the riddle. But I learned from the example of Aristotle, renowned as The Philosopher in Western history, who, always looking to the material world for what was real, in the end realized that the only answer his exquisite powers of observation and reasoning could arrive at, was that God put everything in motion.
He failed. Why? Because he was trying to do something that is impossible. Not beyond our abilities; just impossible. He was holding onto the intelligible, searching for The Answer that he thought was there somewhere, and because he thought of Nature as an actor that had to be put into motion somehow. He also thought reality was populated with substantial entities, so he didn’t need to distinguish between what’s real and what exists. He didn’t realize that naturing is possible without a nature doing it, and that there was no need for the answer to why there is something, rather than nothing, there just is, and you and I cannot deny it, because in doing so, we affirm it. Nor can we point to a Nature that truly exists. It’s just idea that we have.
The tricky part is letting go of all those mental formations. There comes a point, the event horizon, when language, and ideas, just obfuscates our way completely. Which leads me to the point of this essay: What is known can only be known by appearing, in showing up the knowable is known. It’s that simple. But we are not the ones knowing. Let me explain this insight. If there is no observer and no true entities to be observed, then knowing cannot originate on this side of the event horizon which consists of that which exists, and therefore knowing cannot be structured as a seizing hold of, or grasping with awareness which is dualistic in the sense of involving a perceiver and the perceived a consciousness.
Frankly, there really can’t be any awareness on this side at all, which might explain why scientists can’t find it, but even speaking of awareness or knowing causes dualistic understandings to slip in because awareness is usually understood as being aware of something, as is knowing. This imputes a perspective into our understanding that is misleading and wrong. We may not see it as a perspective because we have removed the illusory me and you and it, so that it is now a perspective from nowhere; but that is still a perspective, and thus is still wrong.
This view from nowhere is widely found in science, where it is the basis for objectivity. But that kind of structural perspective can’t be real because it exists in experience. So this is my third guide: no views from nowhere. Any explanation that permits such a view to creep in, is defective in at least that way. This fundamental problem we have to confront, these perspectives, is exemplified by our tendency to speak of mind and body. This is yet another dualistic distinction we make because of our habitual failure to recognize our true nature, and that there is no entity in body, nor in mind, nor in the whole of both. Everything we think of, feel, and perceive is also lacking any independent reality. I could not, and I believe, nor can you, ignore what becomes so clear in deep meditation, that there is nothing other than this spontaneously creative naturing going on, and that is the true essence of Reality.
What we think of as mind or Mind is just the spontaneously creative naturing of forms, feelings, perceptions, consciousnesses, and mental constructions, the five Buddhist skandhas. We confuse the naturing of what exists with a mind that we lay claim to having, which finally dissolves in the clear light of meditative insight. Yet, if we adjust for the lack of an entity that we can call our mind, calling it instead, and grandly doing so, Mind, that is again a misconstrual of what is the case, because we think that Mind also knows or is aware in a conceptually dualistic sense, in most cases.
Naturing is not limited to the internal skandhas. Everything that exists has the same origin. This includes all forms: including the five skandhas, mountains, planets, galaxies, hummingbirds, trees, bacteria, quantum particles, wind fluttering leaves on a tree, a musical note, a kiss, a thought, etc. There is no mind entity in reality, neither is there a Nature entity. There is no place for knowledge to reside. That which is known is not known through cognizing in an awareness of sense, as if through reflection or contemplation of something, but directly through naturing. It’s the great mystery, of course.
I can think of an allegory to help you get over the initial difficulty that occurs as you try to swallow this argument, if you are hearing it before actually experiencing it: it’s something called the Piezo Electric effect. You make use of it all the time, in microphones, earbuds, even old phonograph pickups, as well as the clickers that ignite gas stoves today. A certain kind of crystal can create an electric field when sound vibrations strike it, causing it to slightly compress its structure. This is how a microphone works. The same crystal can vibrate and thus create sounds, when an electric current is passed through it. This is how earbuds work. In fact, the same crystal can be deformed in such a strong way by a large enough force that it can produce an electric spark in the kilovolt range. Using a small piston to strike the crystal is how a stove clicker works to create a spark. Think of the electric field as knowing and the crystal deformations as the known. They are not two things, they are the same process.
In a way, this allegory sits on the top of every Buddhist stupa in the form of the sun and moon, the Bindu-Nada void-point and vibrational emanation that our brains interpret as sound and which is the support of my meditation. I can only imagine what stupas would look like today, if they had had earbuds back in the day.
Having the habit of sitting for long periods, abiding, with hardly a thought, as the luminous naturing of Dharmata—the reverberations, arising as sounds and colored light, of the naturing of all appearances—I was amazed one day when something unusual happened. Suddenly, I realized where I was. It arrived like a flash of intuition, only not as a thought, for this was different. It was not so much something added, as something suddenly no longer there. It was that bare perspective that normally abided, a characterless perspective which didn’t so much disappear, as clarified, no longer lost immanently within the sounds and light, but present clearly, and that clearing was remarkably familiar. That bare perspective, that abided as the luminous naturing of Dharmata, suddenly paused, unmoving, unabiding, unhitched, just clearly there, present, holding all that was arising as a mother holds her newborn child still attached, lovingly, while the luminous naturing continued, not separate in any way, as if stillness and motion were the same, and this is when I realized it was the Now—the pure unchanging, unmoving presence immanent in the naturing. This clear Now that is the “ing” of all possible descriptions of what is happen-ing. The quality that all the words I tried to use to name it, ending in “-ness,” were after.
And I realized that this was definitive. This was the pure truth, at least as much as would ever show its face on this side of the Event Horizon. This was now! The Now. And it later dawned on me, that this is how Science and Spirituality would find their common ground. We discriminate, distinguish, dichotomize, and vivisect so many things out of the vast array of the appearances that we experience, naming them as we go, so much so, we can’t see the ground because of the forest we have created with our thoughts and words. This is that ground. And it is ever-present in every moment of experience. We just don’t see it. We can’t break through all these cuts and bruises we have inflicted on the Truth. This Now, this bare perspective that is the ground, the place, the venue, for everything that arises, is covered over and hidden by the myriad entities that we automatically carve reality up into in every moment. Found in everything by our discerning mind, not realizing that all that there is, all that appears, and all that we experience, are not many things, and are not different in nature, we take this commonality to be a pervasive container of it all. Yet, the source and the ground for all that is, is truly indistinguishable from it. We confuse ourselves, and call it Time.
The Now is not a time, nor is it Time itself. It is Presence—the presence of this naturing that arises as all that appears. It is that which sites all times, allowing the possibilities to present as they pass. It is the venue of all experience, all consciousness, all awareness, all Be-ing, and imbues it all with the character of duration. How can anything endure if there is no perspective? Finding it awkward, we make the perspective a view from nowhere, but there is nowhere else. The Now is the clearing that is that perspective. Whatever arises does so Now. Whatever passes away does so Now. Whatever is held to endure does so Now—this bare, clear perspective of Now, is characterized by limitless names, all pointing at abstractions of the Truth. But this is not a perspective from nowhere. This is the perspective for the very being of to be, the naturing of nature, the knowing of the known, the wakefulness of the awake, and the cognition of the cognizable.
It is this perspective that we grasp hold of, uncomprehendingly, and announce “I am.” And it is this misunderstanding that is the foundation for all dualistic grasping. Yet it is also the basis of all scientific knowledge because it makes it seem like time is passing and things are happening, each according to its nature. This passing of time is the conceptual time that we cognize as the fundamental dimension of all studied things, and of all practical knowledge. Call this perspective awareness and you clarify nothing, but call it Now and all becomes clear.
Phenomena continuously arise and seem to endure for a while, yet I’ve directly seen that nothing has such a single, permanent, independent, truly existing self, so how could they endure? Even so, in the experience of enduring for a while, I’ve directly seen that phenomena are evanescent, so that though there has to be a time for each to exist, a time unique to each and every phenomenon, these times cannot be real themselves for there is no entity called Time. So time must be something about phenomena, not something that phenomena exist in. And I’ve seen how each phenomenon has a formal appearance, so that this essence is the playing out of their nature. But when would those times be and how would they become? What other is there? Thought is useless to see the answer. Instead, I realized that Now, when it clears, is the only “when” that makes these forms of time appear. And this was the perspective that I saw barely as me, as I held tightly to what appeared to be. But Now is the real presence here, so I see the Real evidenced by all that comes to be and passes, and all that does, exists. But what exists is not other, so the Real encompasses it all, all of this activity, in this clear presence I know now.
It happens now and then as I abide that the clouds of appearances part and this clearing, and all that it upends, cuts through it all. I remember this in every passing moment, greeting each as an old friend in new clothing, as I continue on my way.
>>885525
<3 both Plotinus and Whitehead; both are in my library.
>>885530
>The tricky part is letting go of all those mental formations. There comes a point, the event horizon, when language, and ideas, just obfuscates our way completely. Which leads me to the point of this essay: What is known can only be known by appearing, in showing up the knowable is known. It’s that simple. But we are not the ones knowing. Let me explain this insight. If there is no observer and no true entities to be observed, then knowing cannot originate on this side of the event horizon which consists of that which exists, and therefore knowing cannot be structured as a seizing hold of, or grasping with awareness which is dualistic in the sense of involving a perceiver and the perceived a consciousness.
I would argue, rather, that they need transcended in synthesis. Logos is Logos for a reason. I'm going to pull some Abhinavagupta from Paratrisika Vivana ... or the digital edition sucks more than my hardcopy edition, I'll hit have to type out the passage I have in mind so gimme a second.
>>885533
>dualistic
Ew...also, the guy saying that language only impedes is subtly shitposting dualism? Kek.
>>885566
That'd largely already came to pass with the rise of taxonomy systems, both there and here.
>>885567
>The Now is not a time, nor is it Time itself.
Kewl, then it's my assertion (and Abhinavagupta's) that language does not impose because language itself is a method of liberation. The Word (Logoa) is not A Word, but the potentiality of all Words refracted through structures of culture or thought. If this is the case, we can see the cracks with sufficient training. Remember Merleau-Ponty (paraphrase at this point) "Any sufficiently developed trancendental idealism rids the world of transcendence and opacity".
Anyway, tea and I'm going to dig out my copy for a quote.
>>885581
"Divine Consciousness is identical to the Supreme Word (Para Vak) ((Logos)), and hence every letter or word is derived from the ultimately inseparable from this Consciousness. Abhinavagupta relates: "She (Para Vak) is, in the most initial stage, stationed in the Divine I-consciousness which is the highest mantra and which is not limited by space and time." Therefore, the analysis of language is inseparable from the analysis of divine consciousness.....the stages of the Vak represent a gradual descent (or ascent) from undifferentiated, transcendental states to the differentiated gross.
...
Abhinavagupta...continues that this is not limited to the confines of Sanskrit grammar, but applies to all languages, for "there is no language which does not reach the Heart directly."
~Preface, Para-Trisika-Vivarana (Motilal Banarsidass' 1st Ed, 2014)
>>885599
Bump for Logos.
The Dragon Book of Essex mentions an entity, Mahazael. Pic related.
Maneans reject Christ and the historical patriarchs in favor of the mythic figures...one of the entities they embrace is called Mahaziel, or the "Great First Word":
>The Life hath anathematised and Manda-d-Hiia hath cried out against and the Great First Word hath pronounced against any man, priest, who performed a baptism without his pandama. He shall be accursed by the Name (Vein) Of the Great Wellspring: Shilmai and Nidbai the guardian 'uthras of the jordan will curse him and the Wellspring and Palmtree will curse him. Yukabar will take away his crown and his seal and hull him back to his natural home, the Place of Darkness. Moreover, before any Nasoraean who retains his pandama whilst performing a baptism, a vein of the Great Wellspring will heap up and all that he doeth will be confirmed. All mischances will avoid him and darkness will roll away from him. His vestments will be kept in our safekeeping. Whilst he is alive in his body the Seven will be powerless to loose fear against him and lofty strength will be sent to him.
~The Ginza Rba
And another passage I'll need to dig for.
>>885662
>....O Hablaba (Sunday) ! deliver me from hell-beasts and from purgatory-demons and from water-penalties , and from pots that seethe, from fire and ice, from the snare of the planets, from the plots of the planets, from the slaying of the planets and from the seven hell-beasts , the chief Levier of dues and the children of darkness. Great Bihram! baptise me in thy sublime jordan and deliver me in purity to the Place of Light. Stretch forth thy right hand of holy truth to clasp that of this my individual soul, mine, Adam-Zihrun son of Mahnus', who have prayed this prayer and (offered up) these devotions. Be there forgiving of sins for me. O Abathur-Rama, 0 Abathur-Muzania! Weigh me in thy balance, build me into thy building and count me in thy reckoning! Mahziel, Great First Word, which assured me sight in mine eyes, pour wisdom into my heart! Open the eyes of my understanding! Haias'um, healer; Kus'ta, and Yusmir healer of the mana and its counterpart, heal me (preserve me) from pains, from blemishes from hateful curses, from a sickly body and from an oozing body. 0 Yawar-Rba, Yur-Rba , Treasurer, king of worlds of light, free me, rid me of my sin, my trespasses, my follies, my stumblings and my mistakes, mine, Adam Zihrun son of Mahnus' who have prayed this prayer and devotions. Be there forgiveness of sins for me, and for my father and mother, and nor my teacher , for my wife and children, for my priests and for all souls who stood for the Name of Life and were firm in the sign of Manda-d-Hiia with a sincere and believing heart. Yea, Life, verily Life , Life will be with the victorious. They (Life) will not condemn those who love Their name: they will be joined in holy union. Life for those who know, Life for those who believe, Life for beings who instruct us . Life is established in its dwellings: Life is victorious over all works."
~The Ginza Rba, "The Hymn of Praise"
thanks m8
>>885687
Glad to be of service, as always...there's a rather less technical thread on /x/ if anyone's remotely interested.
Someone just dropped a library over there that's got a couple books I'd been hunting for over the years, so it may be worth your while before the bump limit maxes out.
Oh knowledgeable dudes of this thread, can any of you please direct my ignorant eyes to those texts that could introduce me to Gnosticism?
Jokes aside, I'm a philosophy undergrad that is starting to feel the need for the spiritual in his existence - I have been reading Spinoza's Ethics lately, as well as some Deleuze and Kierkegaard (and Hakim Bey but I don't think people know or like him), and I'm starting to feel something I can't quite explain, an inward movement. Can any of you help me out? I know my request is frustratingly vague, but I'm still trying to figure out what's up with me.
"Bonus points" for anything correlating spirituality and anarchism.
>>885715
>Gnosticism
>I'm a philosophy undergrad that is starting to feel the need for the spiritual in his existence
>Spinoza's
Yeesh...could do worse, but....yeesh.
>Deleuze and Kierkegaard
Ayyyy
>Hakim Bey
>people don't like the chomo
Huh, I wonder fuckin' why?
>Can any of you help me out?
Yeah, go into the Gnostic Studies folder, you're gonna wanna two-prong it, source and analysis. For an OVERVIEW, I recommend "The Other Bible", which I don't have a fuckin' scan of:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Other-Bible-Willis-Barnstone/dp/0060815981
Then, in my folder to start with, there's a book called "Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism" which is one of the best, hands down, intros to broad strokes and specific strains of Gnosticism, it's by Kurt Rudolph.
Armed with these two, you've now got a machete to cut through the autistic details, and new age garbage.
>>885737
Thank you for your help and your directions - sorry for shitting up your thread with a pathetic post full of namedrops, but as I said I've just started thinking about these topics and well, it's not easy finding someone to discuss it so maybe that will kind of excuse the plebness.
>>885750
Bey's not a pleb he's just creepy. Spinoza's not a pleb but I just plain don't like him. Deleuze and K. are p. boss. Not stellar but I got 'em both on the shelf at home, they don't need to be in this library (usually).
Srs, though, Rudolph's book goes into the anthropology of how these cult groups lived, and some of them were rather anarchic. It's really the most spectacular text I've seen for getting grounded in the divisions of the cults and academic speculation, it's a goldmine for further research.
The Other Bible is just a cool collection of the better snippets of scripture. You'll wanna chunk through everything eventually but Other Bible gives you a taste from Hekhelot mysticism out through, say, 3-400 AD.
>>883764
>http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102990
OPEN ACCESS!
>>885834
I know, right?
>>885834
What about it?
>>886191
idle bump
Slow, lordy.
Bump.
One more bump for a while to cut through the monotony of Christian generals, then I guess I'll fuck back off for a bit.
This library will be gone in a couple days.
Raid it while you can:
http://abelhas.pt/Espirito_inquieto
What's the dankest thing that can be achieved employing occult practices?
>>887607
I've got a Brill text that centralizes and analyzes various writings on the Siddhis that you may start with for that sort of thing. It's either in my Eastern folder or A.'.A.'.>Philosophy.
Also, "In Darkness and Secrecy" goes into a shamanic power resembling force choke imparted to dark shamans of the cannibalistic and genocidal Parrot Gods; they OD on rustic tobacco and, provided they live, come back able to manifest what's described as a "tentacle of black smoke" that can reach inside you and crush organs.
P. sure that's in my "Shamanism" folder.
>>887550
>616 GBs
have you ever looked into possibly compressing all of this so I can have a backup of the contents
>>887649
That one's not mine.
Mine's only 30-35ish, last I checked, which means I'm starting to run low on space. You can back up my mega drive directly to your mega account, provided you sign up and have the space.
>>887632
Thanks senpai.
That Brill text is the type of shit I was looking for.
>>887666
my mistakes friend.
Bump because I can.
Chumbley's list of letters in Azoetia are arranged linguistically, mostly by location of production and shaping of air, applied to consonants rather than the usual vowel locations. He's not interested in where the plosive contacts but how the air gets channeled.
This is, imho, significant to some extent.
Should I keep bumping this thing every now and then or just let the thing slide off the board?
Interest in others like it?
What are your thoughts on Freemasonry?
Any good sources on it?
>>889476
It's a neat historical method to impart various bits of information, whatever the aim, that's been directed toward notions of brotherhood and some, albeit usually muted on the front end, spiritual speculation.
Yeah, my folder. Specifically to start with, Stellar Theology and Masonic Astrology (it's a reprint by a Christfag org, ignore the intro/preface/afterword, the core text is solid), as well as stichtingargus website to fill whatever gaps I have, though it's not 'complete' either.
http://www.stichtingargus.nl/vrijmetselarij/ritualen_en.html
What do you think of the idea of divine/magic forces or agents as being emergent. That is to say they developed after, or in response to human development, they are inseparable from man and in a symbiotic relationship.
>>889544
I think it's as good a response to the phenomena as any.
I try not to hedge bets with explanatory models. Way to early for that process.
>>889501
Thanks. How much weight should we attach to things like Albert Pikes morals and dogma?
>>889550
Depends on what you mean. You DO know how to source quotes in Morals and Dogma, right?
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/pike_a/misquotes.html
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/anti-masonry06.html#universal
>>889570
Yeah I know that people just make shit up to slander masons like the do with commies but Im interested in how other masons view it and the standing it has outside the US
>>889573
It's important in an American context...in the UK? 3-4/10?
Grand Orient Freemasons would probably have little to no interest in it at all.
>>889587
Any idea bout Australian Masons?
>>889600
Probably about the same rate; we've got an Aus. SRIA member who posts a lot. He's a bro you should ask him, I'm no expert, and not a Freemason, I just pirate their rituals :^)
>>889667
Cheers, do you know of frater K from /x/ he was big into the occult as well.
Do you practice any rituals personally?
Have you looked into the influence of the occult in Scientology and the Hubbard Crowley connection?
Just a question, why are you so interested in this shit OP?
Don't you know you're going to hell by being a Satanist?
There is no way this is going to have a good outcome.
Seek Jesus.
>>889697
So you don't want to answer the question?
Is eternal damnation really worth it?
I want to worship Minerva/Athena because she's the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, civilization, arts and crafts, battle, strategy, and courage. However, there are no temples dedicated to her around because I'm not in classical Greece or the Roman empire in late antiquity. What do?
>>889697
Jesus Christ, do you even read what you post? You act like some psychotic, ADHD middle-school tumblrfag. I bet you haven't even meditated for more than 10 minutes in your life.
ITT: Pagans and Gnostics worshipping the devil
Jesus is LORD & SAVIOR.
>>889714
You can't stay on topic what you post. You sound incoherent as fuck. You can't reply directly to any of the questions and can't provide legitimate answers. I think you need to be put on risperdal or seroquel. You sound incoherent.
>>889697
>I am Frater K.
Well that certianly clears things up
>>889713
>I want to worship Minerva/Athena because she's the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, civilization, arts and crafts, battle, strategy, and courage. However, there are no temples dedicated to her around because I'm not in classical Greece or the Roman empire in late antiquity. What do?
Check out my copy of the Greek Sacred Law and my Eleusinian/Baccic reconstructions with this: http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/ebm/ebm07.htm
Maybe look into the Greek Magickal Papyri?
>>889714
>>889724
?
>>889687
>Have you looked into the influence of the occult in Scientology and the Hubbard Crowley connection?
Yeah, I got quite a few books at home, I got a good deal of Parsons material, including some of his only recently published poems and some just general interest material in my "Psychological Model" folder.
>>889743
If you are really into collecting occult works and books, why won't you open your own bookstore?
>>889748
Because they fail in this economy when everyone can just download ebooks for free :^3
>I practice too. This week I've logged in maybe 11-12 hours of ritual and yoga beyond work and shitposting with you queers. That's a p. average week, too.
>>889759
>everyone can just download ebooks for free
sorry, that was 2011 when megaupload and mediafire were still up
>>889763
I don't seem to have much problem assembling and presenting my library.
>>889772
>reading books on computer
people don't like reading ebooks. they prefer paperback you ebook-cuck
>>889782
>paperback
I prefer hardback. Every edition that I need to scan is a newish hardback.
But the, um, 30? 28? posters unique participants that aren't shitposters disagree.
It blows my mind how anyone would willingly serve the devil.
>>889797
>every religion that isn't mine is the work of my spiritual enemy.
>>889797
Free will is a meme
>>889814
>free
>meme
>will
>is
>a
Spooks, all of them.
>>889811
>literal gnosticism and paganism
>not satanic
>OCCULTism
>not satanic
>New Age shit
>not satanic
Oh how deceived you are.
>>889816
>4head
>picture has no forehead
For shame.
>>889817
>gnosticism
Yes, a primordial form of Christism.
>paganism
Relatively little of that, depending on definition, with most definitions being confined to like the Euro folder.
>OCCULTism
>not satanic
>OCCULT means hidden. That's it.
>New Age shit
>can't discern New Age from academic analysis or source scriptures
Oh how illiterate you are.
>>889817
It can't be satanic if Satan doesn't exist.
>>889817
Satan is so smart he probably also wrote the bible too. No one would ever think of that one =^)
>>889826
Mate, you are LITERALLY practicing Satanism.
Occult magic is exactly what the mystery religions practice:
>Illuminati
>Freemasons
>Kabbalists
>Jesuits
>Talmudists
>Luciferians
>Theosophy
You are literally worshipping the fallen angels and the "secret knowledge" that they brought (Satan tempting to eat of the apple).
Your Kundalini pantheist shit is pure demonism.
"ye shall be as gods" and "everything is god".
Denying the LORD God.
Denying Christ's deity.
This is what the Bible calls the spirit of lawlessness. You are a law unto yourself, you believe in subjectivity/relativity and reject absolute truth. This is what satanism is all about.
>Greeks seek wisdom
>Jews seek signs
>But we preach Christ crucified
>>889811
Abrahamic religions in a nutshell.
It's literally their first commandment.
>>889851
>You are literally worshipping the fallen angels and the "secret knowledge" that they brought (Satan tempting to eat of the apple).
Yes, I know, on the 30th of next month I'll be summoning a retinue of 16 entities from the Book of Enoch who taught the secrets of worcutting and magick and metalsmithing unto the Children of Qayin.
>>889860
There is no such thing as "Abrahamic" religions.
It's a term coined by Muslims in an attempt to garner sympathy from Christians.
>>889861
So if you know you are worshipping Baal/Molech, the adversary.
Why?
God loves you.
Satan hates you.
God died for your sins.
Satan wants you dead.
Any pleasure you get in this world is not worth eternal hellfire.
>God was a tyrant who held man captive and ignorant in the garden
>Satan was a liberator who gave man knowledge and intellect
This is what the mystery antichrist religions believe in. This is satanism to the core (not the edgy anton lavey shit). Read Bill Cooper's "Behold A Pale Horse".
OP you better get saved. Repent and ask Jesus to come into your life.
What you're getting into is very dangerous. You're inviting demons. Satan masqueraides as an angel of light.
>>889865
>So if you know you are worshipping Baal/Molech, the adversary.
Baal in the manifestation of Draco the pole-serpent as described by Aryeh Kaplan in Sefer Yetzirah whose cult thrived in the Valley of the Sons of Lamentation aka Gia ben Hinom aka Gehenna sacrificing their children to the stellar serpent.
>Why
Because the Daevas are impotent, including YHVH, and I can cuck God by completing a Heiros Gamos with the avatar of Ishtar he married after Shemyaza sold her the Secret Name of God.
>God died for your sins.
YHVH is an inert formula of elements. The Throne in the on-high of Keter has always been Empty.
>Satan wants you dead.
>Blessed is the ground for your sake. In skill you will feast of it all the days of your life. Fruits also and medicines shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the joy of thy face shalt thou feast, till thou shalt be married to the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for love thou art, and to love shalt thou return.
>>889869
>>God was a tyrant who held man captive and ignorant in the garden
I don't think God's malevolent, just inert and largely inept.
>>Satan was a liberator who gave man knowledge and intellect
Yuh. I admit it. There's a reason the Devil tarot is correlated with Ayin, or the Eye, leading inward to Tifaret, the luminous solar crown of Beauty and Aesthesis. (There are other pathways, he is just one).
>OP you better get saved. Repent and ask Jesus to come into your life.
There is no place in my Heart for the "salvation" of the Nazarene.
>You're inviting demons
Trafficking with 'em for 15 years, thanks.
>>889878
Satan is a liar and deceiver.
God is truthful and unchanging.
God created you. He created mankind. He knitted you in your mother's womb. He knows you better than you know yourself. He sustains you, He loves you and died for your sins.
If Satan's "knowledge" and "secrets" are so good, how come it made the world so violent and full of warfare and bloodshed? God's original creation was paradies. Man was innocent and blissful until Lucifer's deceptions.
God is going to throw him into the lake of fire together with all who followed him.
The Bible tells us how it's gonna end, you're on the losing side in this grand opera called life.
Repent.
>>889888
Poe's law, everybody.
>>889888
>888
>Kabbalistic number of Christ
>Satan is a liar and deceiver.
At lest he replies.
>God created you.
Technically that was Sophia, unless we entertain the idea of lineal taints of bloodline going back to the Elioud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elioud
>God's original creation was paradies
And via inner and hidden spaces between the seams of things, I shall create a doorway into my own Secret Eden.
>The Bible tells us how it's gonna end, you're on the losing side in this grand opera called life.
Yeah, I'll see you at the Valley of Megiddo, buddy, we'll see which side prevails.
>>889901
>he thinks satan has a chance of winning against God
Yes because tanks, airplanes and bullets are much stronger than an omnipotent, omniscient Creator.
See you at Armageddon indeed.
You with your mark of the beast on your forehead, totally mind-controlled.
Me being raptured to bask in God's glory forever.
What you're gonna do is get on your knees and confess Jesus is LORD, everyone will during the white throne judgment :)
>>889906
>tanks, airplanes and bullets
>because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual [power] of wickedness in the heavenlies.
Read your own fuckin' book.
>You with your mark of the beast on your forehead, totally mind-controlled.
Already have it branded on my neck, wrist, and chest, I'll be easy to spot.
>What you're gonna do is get on your knees and confess Jesus is LORD, everyone will during the white throne judgment :)
No, what's REALLY cute is when we allow the Rightful Intercessor to take his Throne, unlike the "god" being cast down, we're gonna be nice humanists and let you guys taste of the fruits of New Jerusalem with us anyway because we're not vindictive pigfuckers.
>>889901
Speaking of divine battles between good and evil. I read something fascinating. In the Holy Grail legends one version states the grail is actually an artifact made by neutral angels: that choose neither God nor Satan during the rebellion.
The idea of celestial forces breaking away from the duality and going a 3rd, neutral path is absolutly game changing.
What is your thought on this?
>>889918
>What is your thought on this?
Yeah, you ever get into Neoplatonism? There are some REALLY interesting entities in there alongside the Archons.
By the time the Gnostics roll around the Archons are already demonized, but in Neoplatonic material you've got whole classes of entity; Iynges, Synoches, Teletarchai, and of course, the Daimones.
>>889917
Nah mate, what happens is that you Enki-followers get thrown into the lake of fire.
The creator of the universe has already decreed how the story will end, and there is nothing you can do about it.
Worship your little demons (who fear the name of Jesus) all you want. Lucifer is going to rape your soul and you're going to regret rejecting your Creator and falling for Satan's lies.
Keep role-playing pagan and gnostic games, see where it will get you.
>>886315
What book, brother?
I do everyday meditation for a month. I use techniques from Culadasa "The Mind Illuminated" book. In terms of a progress I'm a complete novice. But my strange experience I had once is not relaited to my meditation sessions. It was 6 years ago. If I have it now I would definitely believe that it is due to my meditation and it is some kind of insight or awakening or something other. But when I had it 6 years ago I was not into meditation at all. That's why it is so strange. Here it is.
I was in charge of a huge project at work. It was very responsible and stressful work. I remember how I was walking down the aisle in a hurry. My head was full of thought about how much of things I had to complete. And then, out of nowhere everything around me has changed. Everything became much clearer and brighter. I suddenly felt like the whole my previous life I lived was in kind of a space suite and watched kind of blured reality. But after that small wake up I felt so much energy and motivation to complite all my tasks. And all my emotions went away and I was able to do my work in "beast" mode. This "mode" of my existance had lasted for two month and the it had faded away. I have done so much things for my work, for my personal live, for my home. I was able to keep doing tasks for hours without break.
The experience that I had was a huge surprise for me. And it was so perfect! Each day when I laid down to sleep at night I was affraid that next day I would wake up it would disapear. Eventually, it has. No matter what I tried after it had faded out it all havent' worked out. I was kind of unhappy with it. First I decided that I have some form of ADHD because after that bright and clear experiance now I see how little will and motivation I had before and after that experience. Then I decided that I have bi-polar disorder and that experience was hypomaniac phase of my bi-polarity.
>>889878
Yo, the throne in briah isn't empty, if there could be a throne in kether it would have to be empty, but you couldn't fill it because You wouldn't be, you would only Be
>>890922
That's a component of my point, but I'm glad to see someone around here's on their toes.
DCS places the Vacant Throne a bit higher, into the Ain triad, past Keter, for indeed beyond that there is not "only Be" but "Only". And lots of light, vacant space...No-thing-ness.
Back to the top?
>>889790
This.
Demiurgefags BTFO.
>>889721
Renounce the demiurge and seek salvation!
>>891385
Yaldabaoth did nothing wrong.
>>884415
I don't know. Don't knock it. Might be our only way out, before long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yii0jw9SE9U
The guy is right. Watch this and you realize it all makes sense. Saturn is Satan and is represented by a cube, and Jesus is the only way out, once you find the light/Holy Spirit within yourself.
>>885767
>Bey's not a pleb he's just creepy.
How so?
>>889544
That seems the most defensible model.
>>891435
How does one into neoplatonism? What are some of the most direct books and some of the most useful ones summarizing and explainijg them? Ispecialized in dicks in college and didn't have a good phil program anyway.
>>892213
Read the Enneads.
http://classics.mit.edu/Plotinus/enneads.html
>>892237
Danks :DDD
>>892276
I really need to stop drinking after work. Oh well it's been a long week.
>>892237
Hypatia best waifu <3
>>892397
You have a neoplatonism folder. I have your library on my desktop and it only goes to show reality is entirely what I make of it.
>>892408
Happens to the best of us, m8.
>>892397
What/where is your Neoplatonism folder? Interested anon here.
>>892501
>https://mega.nz/#F!AE5yjIqB!y7Vdxdb5pbNsi2O3zyq9KQ
Go to this main folder^
On the left you'll see a list of folders. Scroll down to "n". "Neo Platonism" is between my collection of MEZLIM magazine and the psychological model folder.
Any advice for a man who has a social life (studies/work, woman/children etc)? The actual question is: is it possible to reach truly deep and meaningful stages while keeping a social life? Should one commit to the Work (in the form of rituals/yoga/meditation/prayer), or can serious attainment be had while having "a life"?
I had quite some experiences years ago, but lately I've been neglecting the Work. Now I'm wondering if an hour or two per night will actually bring me to anything beyond the most obvious benefits of meditation. I do not consider having some odd, psychedelic experiences as inherently meaninful (yes, I know they can be very useful and shit, but not what I'm talking about here). One of the reasons my dedication to the Work faded was that I didn't see a meaning in the experiences that I had.
Now I'm considering if I have to leave my life behind to get myself truly forwards, or is greatness achievable while living a "normal life".
>>892410
Isn't life weird? I love it. I'm going to try my damnest to get a class just for me and any kid with the balls to handle it on the the phenomenology of perception. I clearly need a refresher on shit I already allegedly know and know. I'm girlschoolanon and have decided to namefag for convenience from now on.
On an unrelated note I'm going to go to where 4 roads meet tonight to get azoetic and renew my vows. It's been too long and too much had come up betwixt to deal with. Gonna get schwifty.
>>892521
Yes.
If you can't find an hour in the morning and an hour after sunset for practice, you don't have a social life, you're a social junkie.
Many Eastern traditions have "householder" lineages, especially in Tantra. Not everyone's cut out for monastic life, despite having discipline to do the proper amounts of yoga.
I'm a grad student, worker (sorta), and I have something resembling a social life when I pull my head out of classwork or my dick out of the gf.
And I post here between pages of homework. So, yeah, it's doable.
>>892551
>On an unrelated note I'm going to go to where 4 roads meet tonight to get azoetic and renew my vows. It's been too long and too much had come up betwixt to deal with. Gonna get schwifty.
Nigga, Uncle Chumbles is using a linguistic division for the letters in Azoetia..."B=1=M", both are bilabial, being produced by the lips. This is (sorta) how Abhinavagupta divides Sanskrit.
>>892568
Cool. I kinda figured as I've studied both Japanese and Welsh with a little Sanskrit, mostly just the alphabet for the last one. Welsh is actually the most likely basis for a lot of his shit, not that I have the time to dig into it right now. Maybe after I finish up Spanish and get through these summer classes.
>>892557
I might've misworded myself. I do have an hour or two everyday, and of course sometimes more, but I'm thinking if that is enough for the deepest stages. A visual manifestation of a deity or communicating with an angel are not the stages I'm talking about. I'm thinking if Enlightenment/Liberation (for lack of a better word) is achievable while fucking gf, studying and partying. I'm well aware of the way Buddhists talk of different ways of life, and how monastic life ain't for everyone, and how it ain't bad per se to have a family and stuff, but I'm not going for some random Divine experiences or better karma, I think I've had quite a few of those. I'm thinking if it would be possible to reach the utmost heights without 24/7 practice.
>>892594
>I'm thinking if it would be possible to reach the utmost heights without 24/7 practice.
No, it's not possible.
But at that point every time you type something out it's the dancing of shiva and shakti. Every sentence spoken to your boss is a devotional hymn to Adonai. Every breath is your mantra, and every time you blink the deepest meditation.
At the point you're talking about, there's not even a division between practice and "regular life".
>>892594
Kek. He's not shitting you.
Monastic life is great if that is what you need, but chances are you are not one who needs or would benefit from it compared who the types that do. It's like people who succeed at business versus those who have to go get an MBA to work at Target.
Hour a day is all you need to put it into practice all the time. More doesn't hurt and less isn't the end of things, but I only manage 4 days a week and 8 months of the year and I'm miles ahead of most.everyone else.I'm stepping up my game soon because it isn't enough for the me I've become, but you may find it more than substantial for the time being.
>>892630
>Hour a day is all you need to put it into practice all the time
I'd kick that a touch higher. One hour is workable, two is better. The point is nobody ever attained on fifteen minutes of yoga a day.
>>892609
This is actually what I've been thinking lately. I was just wondering if the deeper stages required one live a certain kind of life, or if all in one's life could be 'subjucated' to the Work.
Also, as I see you know your shit, could you recommend some occult order? I'd call myself a Hermeticist, but I've always avoided all orders and groups because I've heard quite a bit of shit about them (from anons only though). Nowadays I really feel like I need guide, someone more experienced to guide me forwards. Or at least people at my level to discuss shit with. I'm from Finland btw, but I don't think you know much about our occult circles
>>892652
>some occult order
Usually no. Most of them are social circles for trading info about the work rather than learning or teaching the work.
Where do you live? Major metro area? Coastal? US or not?
OTO's really hit and miss and I'd hate to direct someone to them if they have a shitty local body (most local bodies are decent in large coastal cities with quality deteriorating the further into flyover country you push).
I'd say A.'.A.'. but the people who work it best are almost the same sorts of monastic types; it ain't for everyone, on top of the lack of quality instruction across lineages.
>>892397
>The latent pedophilia?
Good enough.
Fun fact: Biroco introduced Bey to Europe.
>>892667
>I'm from Finland
pls. A.'.A.'. is what I've been thinking. To be honest, I'd like to find some shamanistic line from Finland, as I really do like our traditonal symbolism. But as that would be hard as fuck, I'm thinking if I should seek a more realistic option. Any recommendation beyond OTO of A.'.A'.? Or would it basically mean India/Tibet then? And could A'.'A'.' be okay without monastic life?
>>892729
Yeah, didn't think that was relevant to our newfriend's first foray into the world of autonomous political zones.
>>892609
>At the point you're talking about, there's not even a division between practice and "regular life".
This.
>>892730
>Finland
>A.'.A.'.
I got some bad news, m8. Your location is shit for finding competent instruction.
A.'.A.'. is not monastic, just it takes a similar sort of 'tude. Your closest options are UK and Germany, with Germany having more of Gunther's fags because of Bogdan and Jungkirth
My very serious recommendation is to stick with the library if you want A.'.A.'., I've got the vast majority of everything you need already, well beyond any other website or library.
>>892746
Do you have some recommended intro books for each folder (I know you've listed a few here and there). Specifically for the Tibetan and A.'A.' folders, perhaps a few for "the occult" in general?
Also, I want to get into A.'A.' but it seems like Crowley and the ilk are just guys on drugs who made stuff up at times.
>>892769
The A.'.A.'. material is broad; if you're actually dedicated to that path you'll read every word of all the folders. Twice.
I'm not well versed in specifically Tibetan material. The story of Milarepa's p. cool. The practice of Chod has an interesting history.
I don't like the four(sih) schools of Tibet. Well, Kyagu ain't so bad but the Gelugs can certainly git fucked.
>it seems like Crowley and the ilk are just guys on drugs who made stuff up
K.
>>892777
>Kyagu ain't so bad but the Gelugs can certainly git fucked.
Why?
>K.
I guess I find it difficult getting into the practice because the practitioners in my area are OTO neckbeards who want to 4/20 blaze it.
>>892788
>I guess I find it difficult getting into the practice because the practitioners in my area are OTO neckbeards who want to 4/20 blaze it.
K.
>Why?
I have serious doubts about the endgoals of the Kalachakra tantra, as well as a pretty serious distaste for the way they do handle/have handled Dharma Protectors (see Dorje Shugden controversy).
If the Theopolitics I see out of that school is the end product of the ideology of Kalachakra Tantra, then no thanks, I'll be a mad monk who tells the Dalai Lama he's a shitpile and like practice in the charnel ground with Dhakinis and corpses as my direct guru.
>>892801
I'm not trying to have you "sell me" on Crowley, I'm just curious what the general apologetics are for him.
All schools of Tibetan Buddhism have lineage holders and participate in the Kalacakra lineage.
I think the Dorje Shugden issue is more of a nuanced internal Tibetan issue that has spilled over into international view.
>>892777
That dude wasn't me, who you were talking with earier (the Finn).
But. I did all of my shit all on my own, and I had some really deep experiences, but now I do need some guidance. I have read some of your library, but I do think it would be very helpful for me to get an actual person to guide me. Is there even any online community beoyond this general? This does sound a bit desperate perhaps, but I'm not desperate. I just want to get back into the Work, and it is hard without anyone in my life to share this with.
Much of this might be like a blogpost and venting shit, but I do need it every now and then
>>892833
>I'm just curious what the general apologetics are for him.
For him or the people who practice? I can't speak of other folks, only of me.
>internal Tibetan
Yes, within the Gelug school which specializes in the Kalachakra Tantra, historically speaking they are the protectors of that Dharma.
>>892837
You are desperate because there are very few qualified gurus, in Thelema or in Saivism. Unless you live part time between the West Coast and India, you're hard pressed to find personal instruction better than what's in the library.
Who here Miguel Serrano Fan Club?
>>892640
More is better but if fucking around were actual practice we would be gods at this point. An hour of actual practice a day is enough to get you in the mind to practice all the time. That was what I was trying to say.
>>892856
and here comes /pol/
>>892856
>Miguel Serrano
Generally speaking about as right as our audience gets is Evola and that's even just barely.
I think Evola raises serious problems about modernity and the poverty of materialism, but I don't think his answers hold water in the long run. The myriad facets of Aesthesis constantly compel me towards a center-left sort of "leave me the fuck alone" Libertarianism, or a Mystic Integralism to help refocus on the Big Picture.
>>892855
>For him or the people who practice?
For Corwley. My understanding of him is pretty weak, I've only read the Kaczynski biography and read a bit here or there more or less due to listening to Coil and C93.
I don't think an internal dispute is enough to just say "fuck the Gelug"
>not praying facing north
I mean I get it but it all moves by the day.
>>892970
>not worshiping the dragon-stars at the north, envisioning each point in the constellation as a luminous nectar in the skull bowls of Hevajra's 14 outstreched arms, with the two embracing his consort finishing the retinue of 16 Mothers and Fathers of Wytchblood.
>>892994
>not doing it half drunk obscured by clouds with the possibility of diarrhea on a national heritage site
>not have something to kvetch about
>not laughing about kvetching about it
I'm about to mentor an underprivileged jewish boy in automotive disassembly and eBay sales, step up sempai. I'm literally the dungeonsynth of vaporwave here.
>>893016
By that I mean help me take apart my car and sell it for a fair price while giving him a fair price if you know what I'm saying.
>>893016
Aand I just did a thing in a field. Drank some Ichor and now everything is Different. Havent felt this way ever. Havent felt similar in a long time. Time to go to the waffle house.
Just wanted to say thanks for sharing your library. I've delved somewhat into Jung and Buddhism. I'll certainly take a read over some of this stuff in the morning.
239. The Simile of the Chariot
“Bhikkhus, by possessing three qualities, a bhikkhu lives full of happiness and joy in this very life, and he has laid a foundation for the destruction of the taints. What are the three? He is one who guards the doors of the sense faculties, who is moderate in eating, and who is devoted to wakefulness.
“And how, bhikkhus, is a bhikkhu one who guards the doors of the sense faculties? Here, having seen a form with the eye, a bhikkhu does not grasp its signs and features. Since, if he left the eye faculty unrestrained, evil unwholesome states of covetousness and displeasure might invade him, he practises the way of its restraint, he guards the eye faculty, he undertakes the restraint of the eye faculty. Having heard a sound with the ear … Having smelt an odour with the nose … Having tasted a taste with the tongue ... Having felt a tactile object with the body … Having cognized a mental phenomenon with the mind, a bhikkhu does not grasp its signs and its features. Since, if he left the mind faculty unrestrained, evil unwholesome states of covetousness and displeasure might invade him, he practises the way of its restraint, he guards the mind faculty, he undertakes the restraint of the mind faculty.
“Suppose, bhikkhus, a chariot harnessed to thoroughbreds was standing ready on even ground at a crossroads, with a goad on hand. Then a skilful trainer, a charioteer of horses to be tamed, would mount it and, taking the reins in his left hand and the goad in his right, would drive away and return by any route he wants, whenever he wants. So too, a bhikkhu trains in protecting these six sense faculties, trains in controlling them, trains in taming them, trains in pacifying them. It is in this way, bhikkhus, that a bhikkhu guards the doors of the sense faculties.
“And how, bhikkhus, is a bhikkhu moderate in eating? Here, reflecting wisely, a bhikkhu takes food neither for amusement nor for intoxication nor for the sake of physical beauty and attractiveness, but only for the support and maintenance of this body, for ending discomfort, and for assisting the holy life, considering: ‘Thus I shall terminate the old feeling and not arouse a new feeling, and I shall be healthy and blameless and live in comfort. ’ Just as a person anoints a wound only for the purpose of enabling it to heal, or just as one greases an axle only for the sake of transporting a load, so a bhikkhu, reflecting wisely, takes food … for assisting the holy life. It is in this way, bhikkhus, that a bhikkhu is moderate in eating.
“And how, bhikkhus, is a bhikkhu devoted to wakefulness? Here, during the day, while walking back and forth and sitting, a bhikkhu purifies his mind of obstructive states. In the first watch of the night, while walking back and forth and sitting, he purifies his mind of obstructive states. In the middle watch of the night he lies down on the right side in the lion’s posture with one foot overlapping the other, mindful and clearly comprehending, after noting in his mind the idea of rising. After rising, in the last watch of the night, while walking back and forth and sitting, he purifies his mind of obstructive states. It is in this way, bhikkhus, that a bhikkhu is devoted to wakefulness.
“Bhikkhus, it is by possessing these three qualities that a bhikkhu lives full of happiness and joy in this very life, and he has laid the foundation for the destruction of the taints.”
>>889878
>The Throne in the on-high of Keter has always been Empty.
When everything is a thing, emptiness itself has a form. 810.
>>892640
I'd push it up to all the fucking time, tbqh paterfamilia.
>>892746
>Your location is shit for finding competent instruction.
I can instruct to a certain degree far as EU goes. It's not super-close, but hey, it's not like the Internet isn't a thing, and it's certainly better than messing around with flying overseas.
Alternatively, there's always the option of training in more Science™ approved things.
>>892855
>Unless you live part time between the West Coast and India, you're hard pressed to find personal instruction better than what's in the library.
Interestingly, I don't think that matters all that much, considering the amount of work I've personally done, and how it turned out. External factors are less than important when actually aiming for Initiation.
>>894228
Yuh, eternal vessels, etc., etc., etc.
>I can instruct
I didn't wanna push anything on you or I'd have made a suggestion.
>What matters
No, I agree, but I'm just answering the questions as is. Dude lamented on lack of community so I tried to address this. It's a hard question to tackle here, let alone Finland.
>>894855
>I didn't wanna push anything on you or I'd have made a suggestion.
I can easily handle at least three more as things are currently.
"There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God."
OP there is still time to repent and avoid hell.
Jesus loves you.
He died for you.
bump?
>>893771
No problem mate. Take it easy on the Jung. Don't go sideways on Buddhism. There's a point at which memorizing the Noble 15fold List of Lists is really just kinda worse than the Kabbalistic correspondences, which at least have practical application the vast majority of the time, as opposed to a rote monastic memetic imprinting. I mean, it does the job, just be careful m8.
>>892890
I have reservations about the Kalachakra Tantra's implications, goals, and intent. The eschatology is Abrahamic-scale creepy. I need more time with it to come to a conclusion but as for now I'll continue on the historical roots of Vajrayana rather than Vajrayana itself.
And to see what I mean read through the Para Puja plus other kaula materials in comparison with Hevajra Tantra.
Jesus fucking Christ I am not a landed gentleman with a pottery studio and masons on call. I don't have the time or money for this, I'm building my temple in the astral.
>>895186
That's certainly one option.
I've been blatantly trespassing on the property of others to fulfill my ritual obligations lately.
>>895368
Cool, man.
>>895474
Meh, I've places I know I have permission but none of them are this close and easily accessible. Also I've been lighting fires there for like five months and have had zero issue. I imagine anyone seeing the column of smoke thinks it's from a neighbor across the woods rather than dead center.
