I’ve been asked to create a series of meditation lessons on various topics that people might subscribe to, sort of a step-by-step video lesson-per-month on various topics so that people can gradually master the knoweldge and expertise on a topic.

Here’s the problem — I don’t want to spend my time and money creating lessons no one wants or will pay for.  I’ve done that too many times int he past. So I’m asking you to let me know your thoughts on what monthly (video, email, pdf, etc.) lessons you’d be interesting in subscribing to, and what that would be worth …

If there is a lesson or topic that I’m missing, let me know as well including how much you’d pay for it per month.  Click here to take the survey – Please be as honest as possible:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=pmKVS_2bpNHMr2r0KqYhdNlg_3d_3d

Previously I’ve written about the “Chinese Nostradamus” books based on the I-Ching, which so far have about a 100% hit rate and predict  a new sage to be born in China this century quite soon … and because people ask I’ve dug up the most famous “Russian” (actually Bulgarian, though  the predictions relate to Russia) forecastor – Vanga (Vangelia) Pandeva.

Here’s the history of how she developed her abilities — note that she became blind, which is one of the five possibilities for someone to be able to predict the future:

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/notes-from-history-baba-vanga/id_13025/catid_3

Here are Baba Vanga’s upcoming predictions for the world, including the dire November 2010:

http://russianfun.net/interesting-galleries/vanga-predictions-for-this-world/

2010 (Nov) – 2014 (Oct) – Nuclear and Chemical War
2014 – Most people have skin problems
2018 – China becomes the new world power
2033 – Melting of polar ice caps and world oceans rise

You can study how these tally with Mother Shipton’s prophecies.

http://www.crystalinks.com/shipton.html

Frankly, I always tell people that you cannot depend on prophecies. They are very changeable, or often just false from the start. Many people feel they can predict the future or see it at low stages of cultivation, and it’s just false.

A big problem today is that many people crack open the Old Testament or even Revelations and try to say XYZ is going to happen, but who can really decipher those texts? People without any cultivation attainments don’t even know the regular cultivation meaning inherent in the Bible, so they have no quality to even try to begin an interpretation. Even if the Bible does have prohpecy, that type is very changeable.  Usually you just have wishful thinking on people’s parts when they read this stuff  … and some  even take steps in policy to try to make the  things they think it says happen, thinking it’s the word of God. Irresponsible! The karma that comes to us, whatever it turns out to be, is made by us, not God . If you try to make destruction happen, rather than work in the opposite direction, what type of crazy notions are you following?

Anyway, fun reading. It’s a lazy day and someone sent this to me, so take a break and have some fun.

The eighth consciousness, also known as the alaya consciousness or storehouse consciousness, is a particularly complicated, difficult subject to discuss. Shakyamuni Buddha taught for several decades and had many highly advanced practitioners as his disciples, yet despite disciples of high prajna wisdom and high samadhi attainments, Shakyamuni rarely spoke of the alaya consciousness in order to prevent any entries into error. That’s how important this topic is, and how difficult it is to discuss. As Shakyamuni said,

The storehouse consciousness [alaya] is very profound and subtle;
All its seeds are like a torrential flow.
I do not explain it to the ignorant,
For fear they will cling to it and consider it a self.

Shakyamuni threfore gave very few teachings on the alaya consciousness in order not to provide people with another false source of fixation of something as the ultimate. He didn’t want to talk extensively about something that sentient beings, lacking wisdom, might take as a higher Self or final Reality. In particular, he worried that beings might take the alaya as a big Self, or true atman. In fact, the Hindu sages who were able to reach to the alaya body of consciousness before him all made this very mistake, taking the alaya as the Great Self (Brahman) when it is only the essence of consciousness. They would reach this stage of cultivation and claim, “I am He, I am He” or “I am Brahman, I am Shiva.” Similarly, “All this is Brahman,” “I know the Supreme Brahman; there is nothing higher than that (Prasna Upanishad VI.7),” “All this Universe is Brahman. The Self is Brahman. (Mandukya Upanishad, Verse 2).”

Contrast this with Buddha’s discourse in the Diamond Sutra where he says that there is no such real thing as a world system or agglomeration of world systems, for if such a thing existed in reality it would be the oneness of all phenomena. Neither any components nor the whole should be regarded as real. No stage of attainment should be regarded as real either. If one even considers themselves an ego, identity, being or real self, they are not correct either. No stage of attainment is really existing or ever really attained.

Many in history have reached the stage where they were able to claim “I and the Father are one,” but this was also only reaching the alaya — if that far — without fully transforming it or overturning its basis. And many of those sages were killed by people who did not understand what they were saying. To overturn the alaya and produce a revolution in its basis, turning all its seeds into wisdoms – that’s the stage of true enlightenment taught by Shakyamuni Buddha. Many masters since then have been able to reach to the alaya by cultivating the seventh consciousness to the stage where they silenced the sixth and first five consciousnesses by turning away from the senses and phenomena. Many yoga concentration techniques will help you do this. But many of these also made the mistake of holding on to the alaya as the object of the seventh consciousness and clinging to it as a Self. In Zen a master would have to break up someone’s stage of realization in order to get them to perceive this (awaken) and go beyond. Afterwards, as long as they had attained the right view and understanding, a master would not worry about what particular cultivation practices a student would thereafter choose to follow.

This is so important to understand these various fine distinctions that we should review this in more detail. If you do not understand this, you cannot understand the real meaning of enlightenment and how it puts an end to transmigration (as well as sorrow, misery, etc.) or why it involves cultivating prajna transcendental wisdom. Those things are just words until you understand the whole picture and grand scheme of things.

To read the rest of the article,  click here: The Highest States in Buddhism vs. Hinduism, the Alaya Consciousness vs. Brahman

What a scare. The blog was hacked and I thought the posts were gone forever. For days I’ve been trying to retrieve things and posting the articles as static html pages just in case.  For those of you who are Wordpress inclined, here’s what happened – a new exploit:

There’s a Wordpress plugin that uploads jpg and png avatars for users.  As we found out the hard way,  do not activate it ever. It’s the exact way how the attacker can get into your files (png can be script). Any plugins/addons that allow your subscribers to upload something (you can allow jpg or gifs for avatars, but better keep it safe) turns out to be DANGEROUS.

Here’s how the attacker gets in the database for Wordpress and starts causing mischief.  In the database appears javascript code that creates a second administrator.  It will have no name but all rights and call itself Wordpress (like a superuser).  So you have no chance to see this user in a list. But, there’s still one place where you can see it (please remember it).  When you’re on the user managing page, theres a list

All users | administrators (1) | subscribers (65)

When you click on the All Users, you will see administrators (2) – so if you know there’s only 1 administrator, the second is an exploit.

Why tell you all this? Maybe you can use this info to save a friend.  It sure is hard running a website to offer information nowadays!

William James wrote a pathbreaking work, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), which is one of the reasons I named my Stages course The Various Stages of the Spiritual Experience when I was first developing its nearly 1000 pages of content. Some of the important points James made on this topic are exactly what I’ve been saying all along:

"Religious genius (experience) should be the primary topic in the study of religion, rather than religious institutions—since institutions are merely the social descendant of genius." 

In other words, cultivation is what matters. Gong-fu is what matters. Religion is all about teaching you how to cultivate and preserving the means of cultivation so that you can EXPERIENCE gong-fu and spiritual states. If you think it’s about ceremonies, rituals, belief or just study, frankly you’re cheating yourself. That’s just not enough.

"The intense, even pathological varieties of experience (religious or otherwise) should be sought by psychologists, because they represent the closest thing to a microscope of the mind—that is, they show us in drastically enlarged form the normal processes of things."

Just as in science, it is the anomalies that bring forth new principles. It’s the people who actually achieve something ont he spiritual trail whom you should study. You cannot nor should not dismiss them just because they don’t "fit your picture" or notions of how things should be. They are as things are, it’s just you don’t understand yet.

Because so few people cultivate, so few reach stages of gong-fu. But gong-fu is the true state of affairs. It is the gong-fu of advanced practitioners we should study, especially the same gong-fu that appears across religions. This is something I always emphasize. Lift weights in China, Africa, Israel, Russia or anywhere else and your muscles will get bigger. It’s a law or principlethat holds regardless of your sex, race, country, religion. The result is non-denominational. Cultivate correctly and you’ll get the first dhyana samadhi and experience similar gong-fu. It’s the same common principle regardless of your religion. This is what spiritual striving is all about.

 

 

In the many opinions people toss about on what the US should or should not do in the world, or what any country such as France, Israel, China or Russia should do to preserve and maintain itself,  I must remind people that every country should consider its international efforts and relations with neighbors in view of survival and prosperity. The various strategies a small state, middle sized state, interior state, island nation, impoverished state and macro state should pursue for survival as underlying national policy I have gone over in my book on Kuan Tzu.

First, a country should act in order to preserve itself. This is called acting for survival. The island exporting nation Japan has  different survival strategies than Israel, which uses strategies different from Ethiopia, China, France, Mexico or a Vanatu, India or Saudi Arabia. Each country must seek  to maintain itself and influence other countries for its own interests, which they all do though in means helpful or detrimental to their long term interests. All nations do this; Britain was a past champion of being able to influence and intervene (some would say interfere) in nations for its own interests of maintaining Empire. The question to be asked by strategist is "how will these actions threaten my survival in the short run or long run? Will they possibly threaten our survival through direct or indirect consequences, in the short run or long run, as we are most prone to simplistic straight line thinking and need to broaden our horizons. Is this the BEST strategy for our survival ?"

Frankly, the US in recent years has done a terrible job at examining these questions because  many of its geo-political actions and interventions have backfired, and if institued with long term survival in mind, show a nation that has imperiled itself rather than strengthened itself.

If survival is not an issue, the country’s leaders must consider whether its actions will,  in both the short run and long run, buttress or weaken its current and future prosperity. The underlying goal is called "maintaining a state of auspiciousness" and is most often achieved by a achieving a balancing of forces (a "golden mean" so to speak) in moderation over a prolonged period of time. In neither economic nor military nor social spheres should you let the nation progress to an extreme. "hubris" — the great error of the Persian Empire — should not be allowed.

In other words, statesmen should ask "will the actions we take or are currently permitting further our goal of ascension in the world, or weaken it through direct or indirect consequences?" There is definite blowback, or cause and effect, for every action taken, and we must consider  the full scope, measure and width of blowback consequences to our hopeful march forward. Obviously this has not been done.

What must not be done is let corporations, which are purely money seeking ventures, call the shots or influence the shots with preponderance. Corporations, for profit, will readily gut a country without a second thought, and only wise legislation can prevent this.  Furthermore, they often profit from wars, which are then seen as desired vehicles of profit for their goods and services, which provides an underlying motivation for them not to make influential moves that would help pace the way for peace and stability in troubled times. Wars are the biggest stimulators of consumption, but no populace benefits by them. Only the powerful at the head of strong banking and defense interests really benefit from military ventures that destroy property, lives and socieities. History has shown this over and over again…countless books commenting upon this have been written.

In capitalism, consumption is driven by advertising to stoke demand, consumer debt to make it possible, and war to make it necessary. Presently America has reached the limits of the capabilities of debt to stimulate production and consumption. Consumerism, or the stoking of demand by advertising and a materialistic ethos, does not have an unlimited lifespan just as capitalism does not have a  guaranteed ticket to ever increasing returns (profits increasing quarter by quarter) unless new markets are constantly opened and resources made available, sometimes by force if necessary. Such is the hidden basis of capitalism’s history, whether spoken of openly or not. The inherent idea is that there must always be growth, but in actuality, the economic models do not rule out a zero growth or low growth environment, which is something that might have to be considered in the next fifty years as even China and the other former Communist regimes reach saturation.  As it is, in most developed countries the consumer markets are replacement markets (eevryone has a car, tv, telephone), except for innovations.

When a government falls into the hands of large profit seeking interests or listens to them too much, thinking their interests are what is best for the people, it makes a big mistake and yet we have drifted into this teritory over the last 30 years because of PACS and the merging of economic thinking by the Democratic and Republican parties.  Corporations are not synonomous with the economy, yet they are readily identified by politicians seeking election donations whereas the great mass of the public is not usually turned into an identifiable voice with a single cash wallet. As a sage once said, "the best bank is to store money amongst the people," not the corporations, yet the rise of electorial politics has caused us to forget this thinking that the benefit of the corporations, and not the working people is what matters. It is too bad that our statesmen do not read economist Michael Hudson who often paints a clear pictue of where we are.

Consider that if one is guided by profits alone, what actions would not be undertaken to further gain? Humanity, ethics, society, culture all go out the window in pursuit of the almighty dollar and profit. That is why I often bring up the commentary by the Grand Historian of China when reading Mencius:

As the Grand Historian was reading Mencius, he unconsciously put the book down and sighed when he came to the place where King Hui of Liang asked Mencius, ‘How will you profit my country?’ The historian said, ‘Ah, profit is truly the beginning of disorder. That is why Confucius seldom spoke of profit, always shoring up the source.’ The source is the beginning. Whether it is found among the upper classes or the lower classes, the degeneracy of lust for profit is basically the same. When those in public office profit unfairly, then the law is disordered. When those in the private sector profit by deception, then business is disordered. When business is disorderly, people are contentious and dissatisfied; when law is disorderly, the citizenry is resentful and disobedient. This is how people get to be so rebellious and belligerent that they don’t care if they die. Is this not a demonstration of how, ‘Profit is truly the beginning of disorder’? The sages and saints were deeply cautious and aloof from profit, giving honor and precedence to humanity and justice. But in later times there were still those who deceived each other in hopes of profit; what limit is there to those who destroy morality and ruin education? How much the more serious is the problem when the path of adventurous profiteering is publicly espoused and pursued; under these conditions, how could we hope for the world’s morals and customs to be upright, and not be thin and weak? 

The Story of Chinese Zen, by Nan Huai-Chin, (Charles E. Tuttle Company, Vermont, 1985), p. 205-206.

 

 
What is the passage Szuma Chien is referring to? It is from the very opening of the book of Mencius, which starts out with a conversation between Mencius and the King Hui of Liang, who said,

 

‘Sir, … You have come all this distance, thinking nothing of a thousand li. You must surely have some way of profiting my state?’
 ’Your majesty,’ answered Mencius, ‘What is the point of mentioning the word "profit"? All that matters is that there should be benevolence and rightness. If Your Majesty says, "How can I profit my state?" and the Counselors say, "How can I profit my family?" and the Gentlemen and Commoners say, "How can I profit my person?" then those above and those below will be trying to profit at the expense of one another and the state will be imperiled. When regicide is committed in a state of ten thousand chariots, it is certain to be by a vassal with a thousand chariots, and when it is committed in a state of a thousand chariots, it is certain to be by a vassal with a hundred chariots. A share of a thousand in ten thousand or a hundred in a thousand is by no means insignificant, yet if profit is put before rightness, there is no satisfaction short of total usurpation. No benevolent man ever abandons his parents, and no dutiful man ever puts his prince last. Perhaps you will now endorse what I have said, "All that matters is that there should be benevolence and rightness. What is the point of mentioning the word ‘profit’?"’

 Mencius, Volume One, transl. by D. C. Lau, (The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 1984), p. 3

These are things you should consider when you examine the world trend of events today and try to decipher who is pulling the strings, or pulling for outcomes in certain directions. In the last 60 years a certain style of capitalism and world economic system has developed, but the system has reached a turning point that marks its end and a new one is slowly developing. But what will its shape be?

I recall several small quotes from Understanding This Chinese Generation that touch the periphery of these issues but enough to make their review worthwhile:

Throughout the cultural history of mankind our conceptions of morality have been governed by the religious principles of sin and retribution; from this our educational norms and modes of thought have taken shape, maintaining the social order for the last three millennium. With the rise of the modern culture of materialism and the consequent rapid development of commerce and industry, our view of morality has gradually fallen victim to an ideology of economic valuation that attaches a price tag to all things.

…

This is how danger is transformed into security, and the nation’s fears are put to rest. National salvation follows from the application of talent and wisdom, and the cultivation of talent and wisdom is the windmill which harnesses the “kinetic energy” of the winds of profound thought and learning. Based on the concepts of “rethinking the old to understand the new” and “examining the past to master the future,” we must map the recent historical evolution of our present approach to national salvation. With this in hand, the causes and effects of the complex confusion before us will be revealed and we can begin to understand how to productively direct our efforts in the perilous days ahead.

…

Today, universal education and the boundaries of knowledge grow with each passing day at a rate unheard of more than thirty years ago. Yet, the dedication and spiritual “zeal” of our youth to the ideals of the “movement for national renaissance” cannot compare to that of the generation before them. As we pattern ourselves on the advances of material civilization, we trade in our inhibitions and self-control for the good life, seeking refuge in its promised future of comfort and security. Blindly pursuing the development of commerce and industry, each frantic moment of our precious time is devoted to the attainment of wealth, even as our love of learning and self-realization become impoverished. As a result, we have fostered a social milieu that slavishly stresses the potential of the natural sciences, but treats the exploration of humanist thought as a profligate squandering of time. We continue to avert our eyes from the tragic future certain to result from the grotesque juggernaut of natural science as it feeds off the remains of humanist culture, like a “parasite in the belly of a lion, consuming its mighty host.”
 
If we truly desire to chart a new ideological course for the nation and the world, we must first come to terms with the struggles of modern life and the realization that they are the symptoms of a cultural war. Whether we look to the regions of communist control or the Free World, the industrially advanced First World or the underdeveloped Third World, as in the past we remain lost between the goals of spiritual realization and the necessities of practical existence. In other words, our frustrations are a product of the competition between man’s quest for economic equality in the face of scarcity and his search for spiritual rebirth and peace of mind. In our struggle, two preliminary issues emerge: the unabashed borrowing of capitalist economic devices by modern communism, and our own wrongheaded worship at the altar of materialism. Therefore, other than the current focus of modern youth on learning the skills necessary for everyday life and the struggle for national renaissance, there are two important topics that urgently need to be addressed by the best of this generation:

1. How to shape a new economic philosophy for the benefit of mankind
2. How to synergistically unite and harmonize the cultures of materialism and spirituality.

In the process of working towards this goal, we must proceed with the understanding that our endeavor is an outgrowth of the humanist ideal and a challenge worthy of the best among us, requiring deep reflection, a love of learning, and an inductive approach. Our task is not one of hasty plans and hurried work. While it may be true that there is an ocean of difference between our quixotic goals and the reality of the world around us, “diligent study ultimately leads to success.” Applying this wisdom to the honorable pursuit of humanist ideals will lead us to the inner realm of self-understanding. If, however, we limit our strategies to the goals of personal success and the necessities of individual life, then the historic opportunities now within our reach will be lost. We must seize our present situation and exchange it for an everlasting reality, grab hold of our individuality and transform it into an historical destiny. If we do see to it that these notions take on a renewed sense of worth in the minds of our young, we run the risk of becoming the laughingstock of future generations as we leave a legacy of blank pages to the next sixty years of scholarship.
 

I was just introduced to a new mineral product, MMS, chlorine dioxide, for killing off pathogens in the human body. I haven’t used it yet, but have heard wonderful things about it for Lyme Disease, Cancer and even malaria.

You can learn more about it from this site: http://www.mmsmiracle.com/mkbsfo

The other two approaches that come to mind – which the government hates — are H2O2 and colloidal silver from www.purestcolloids.com

The continuum body of flowing thoughts
whose origins are deep and subtle
That incessant never ending flow
is called the alaya consciousness.

Its ultimate origins cannot be fathomed
So the origin is simply called "ignorance"
It’s not that you make an "ignorant" mistake of first thought,
It’s "ignorance" in that the origins can’t be known.

In cultivation you aim to purify the alaya
which means you want to purify the whole body of consciousness
so that the stream that must appear  is always quite pure
in goodness, compassion and skill.

What knows the alaya consciousness is termed empty awareness
or sometimes it’s called "prajna wisdom"
It’s a non-moving  ever present function that knows without thought
And is still a "guest"  rather than the ultimate "host."

If you enter a room of pitch darkness
That blackness should be considered a color
The eyes see the color of only dark black
not because of light but because the function of prajna is there

So the "clear light" of prajna awareness
is really no light or physical illumination
we just say that awareness is an ever present clear knowing substrate that’s always there
otherwise the blackness  couldn’t be  seen

Whatever you see of the world around you
is actually only your mind flowing
Everything you experience are only  consciousness images
The world you see therefore is only You.

That entire body of human experience
Is what we call  Consciousness-Only
But what knows it,  sees it or experiences this All like the dark room
is the non-moving prajna wisdom that’s always there.

Prajna is separate and yet it’s not separate
It just shines without moving and without objects
If you realize this thing you can separate from the flow of illusion 
and enter the cultivation trail.

So in cultivation you must first realize the truth of Mind-Only
and then strive to realize the underlying prajna knowing
That "sees" the alaya whole without being sucked into  the same thing
and then you’re on the road to the true Self.

 

What you have to understand is that awareness has the potential of knowing, but it is called awareness when knowingness has not yet arisen. Because it is empty like this, it is pristine, clear, ever present existence. The path of spiritual practice is to help you achieve the state of ready awareness in a condition of now. This is called wisdom, or prajna or transcendental knowing when awareness knows without clining, and just reflects things as they are.

You should never block awareness by holding anything in the mind because that blocks this ever present clear one. Rather, always just let thoughts be born. That’s the correct functioning of the mind. You cannot stop the stream of thoughts anyway. They wil alwasy come. You can only know them without clining.

When thoughts are not there, which is the case in-between successive thoughts, just abide in the true nature of empty awareness,   ready to let thoughts be given birth again. Just never cling to the mind and you’ll always be in awareness. If you stay in that state of presence without clinging because it’s become natural, then subtle mental pollutions of attachment you didn’t even know you were performing will eventually disappear and then you’ll discover that ready awareness is universal. You are just clinging to local consciousness because of the habit of identifying with the body, but since true Mind is everywhere, you can realize That when you practice beingness without clinging. It’s not a matter of thinking the right thoughts…

You don’t create universal awareness. Universal awareness is always there and you’re just covering it over with clinging. If you can throw all your clinging away by emptying it out, then you’ll find that awareness encompasses the cosmos. It encompasses all of creation. Everything that arises is within its body of pure essence. What you can perceive right now is limited because you are clining to the body and ITS five consciousnesses.

There is a state prior to the arising of conscious perception, called empty awareness, just as there is something there prior to your awakening in the morning event hough you are in a state of oblivion or ignorance before waking.  That state is there all along during wakefulness, deep sleep, and even when the knowledge of “I am” is operating or not operating. There is something constant, a continuous substrate that is has always been there all along and will be there all along. The problem is that we get so caught up in what arises upon this substrate that we mistake the scenery for the light. We get caught up in the display of Consciousness-Only that we can never realize what it is that lets us KNOW this, what’s its basis. Like seeing the black of a dark room, that which lets us REALIZE the darkness is wisdom illumination, or clear awareness. No matter where you go in the universe, to the Heavens or Hell, you are never apart from It. It is always with you just as the originla nature is alwasy with you. The function of the original nature is this awareness. The essence behind awareness is the fundamental nature, the empty essence that is real, non-moving, silent, still, pristine, immaculate, perfect, complete …. but which isn’t inert because it gives birth the the realm of illusions, namely consciousness that cannot stay.

That underlying substrate of knowing is empty awareness. It is pure, unblemished, pristine and clear. It is pure so it is free of thoughts and forms, and thus pure through and through. Free of thoughts, it is unmoving and changeless. It is a function of your fundamental nature because it is a function that co-exists with its body of essence that shares its same characteristics. Spiritual practice is to find this ultimate one that is the essence or body of awareness. That’s what spiritual practice is all about. It’s called "empty" because everything you think it is, it is not…it is empty of all those things. "Neti, neti, not this, not this." So it’s called absence of existence, but also neither existence or non-existence because you cannot identify it as something, and also because though empty it gives birth to this world of forms (which is existence).

And thus the Middle Way is to know This One and illusion without clinging to either. Can you get there? I hope you understand it better now. The samadhi states are just practice vehicles and resting stations to help you prepare to realize This One, which is why they belong to the Stage of Intensified Practices within the five phases of cultivation.