I often tell people they can approach cultivation through Confucianism, which depends on the practice of vipassana, or watching the mind. This is similar to the Socratic idea of know thyself through awareness, too. Telling people to cultivate awareness is often better than telling them to cultivate meditation because in meditation they always get caught in body feelings an thoughts and never catch the real meaning of the Tao as taught by Vedanta or Buddhism.

Our awareness is always caught by the feelings of the body, and emotions. That means it’s caught by what isn’t really you, it’s caught by an illusion because an illusion is something that always changes that we think is solid and real, like a mirage.

Neither the sensations nor emotions are things you can hold on to. The body isn’t you either, and is always changing. When science investigates it, it finds smaller and smaller details such as DNA replication, cells dividing, etc. showing that it’s always changing and never staying still. This cause leads to that result — it’s all held together through massive interdependence. It’s an illusion to think it’s a fixed form, and an illusion to think it’s the real you. It’s just a function that comes along.

In one sense we can say you are spirit, or shen, or awareness, which is a function of the original nature. The original nature, which we call “void” or “empty” to denote it is not something phenomenal, is why in Taoist cultivation we say shen transforms or returns to emptiness, which is its substrate or essence or source. Christians call it God instead. Awareness is just a function of this essence, so we are ultimately this essence and cultivation is to find this essence, not be captured by what awareness notices.

Yet when awareness is captured, we think we are something we are not. If you know all is illusion and don’t hold on to it, then you can relax and not be so tight. You enjoy good feelings because you think they’re true but they are all illusions that don’t stay. The same for bad feelings — they’re illusions. Whatever comes to you in the world because of past karma, you just react to it and respond as you should, and a new illusion will arise that isn’t the original nature, just something captured/seen by awareness.

How do you change your fortune? Your karma comes because of past thoughts and behavior that result in what’s produced. If you watch your thoughts to keep your bad habits from coming out, you can change your fortune. It’s as simple as that. That’s vipassana. If you let go of attachments, in time your chi will change and awareness will return to the source, and recognizing the source you can become liberated.

This is the Confucian method of cultivation. You cultivate “awareness” to change your behavior for the better, which perfects you as a human being. It changes your fortune for the future. By letting awareness function without clinging, you also cultivate the Tao.

What could be simpler?

Teenagers are always into some new fad. The new one seems to be i-dosing:

http://lifehacker.com/398342/i-dose-sends-binaural-beats-to-your-brain

The I Dose website (http://www.i-dose.us/) offers several downloadable binaural beat music designed to alter your thoughts/mood. Some progams, like Holosync, use the technology to train people in meditation. In this case, however, the target is different.

I-Dose has offerings such as:

Quit Smoking
Energy Increase
Weight Loss
Aspirin
Intelligence Increase
PMS relief
Lucid Dreams
and so on…

Sorry folks. I’ve investigated all sorts of programs and modalities for most all the categories of recordings offering. Everything from self-hypnosis to astral projection audios to subliminal suggestions and more… probably about a dozen or so modalities including physical, electronical, vibrational and chemical means such as laser lights, electronic stimulators, radionic machines, homeopathics, herbs, etc.

Nothing works except cultivation. If you want to tune out the world, by all means spend your $9.99 for a download but I’d devote myself to meditation instead and solve a whole host of problems, including really balancing myself. None of this stuff will help you increase your intellgience, make a migraine headache go away, astral project, lose weight, turn off depression, … Great marketing names for the website, but that’s it.

These recordings just aiaren’t going to do it. You want to enter an altered state? You have to cultivate samadhi through meditation. You’ll encounter plenty of spiritual gong-fu and “altered states” of non-ordinary consciousness. Mantra recitation, or japa practice, is the single best way to do it if you want to use sound, and it usually takes months of effort to change your chi and consciousness that way.

But teenagers will be teenagers, and often want to rebel or do anything that is anti-establishment or status quo. Folks, just turn to meditation and truly get something out of it. Sages from countless religions have told you to recite mantras for the very things you want, and yet people always turn to this sort of nonsense, as well as crystals, magnets, channeling, shamans, seances, etc. They’re just useless fads. But it’s your dollar. Go enjoy.

LifeHacker suggest that if you’re looking for binaural beats or white noise, check out SBaGen or SimplyNoise.

I always tell people to THINK. They want to succeed in meditation and spirituality, but the field has so many nebulous claims that you need logic to think things through. Thus I tell them to sharpen their wits on real world topics. That’s the reason I bring up real world politics all the time. THINK here, don’t put “love the whole way round” on issues and blind yourself to what’s going on.

If you fail at making the right conclusions on real world issues, then to me I give you little chance to really be able to differentiate so many claims in the spiritual field. You will just be captured by prejudices of your race, religion, country and so on.

So here’s something to think about — draw your own conclusions:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/rust-discovered-bank-russia-issued-999-gold-coins

IF THE STORY IS TRUE, then the Russians are diluting their gold, plain and simple. They either want to make more money, or there is not enough gold to be put in the coins, or corruption is going on somewhere and higher ups didn’t know. There are a lot of possibilities, so drop the conformity view they teach kids in school today, QUESTION and THINK …

Could 100% pure gold rust? No! So the reason is due to something else. And if the Russians are doing this, are others?

There has been much writing over the last several years about central bank gold stocks dwindling, and this calls that to mind.