Minister of Truth
Practically Perfect
World's going to end in less than 6 months, so we might want to get this argument resolved sometime soon, people. Just saying...
#4
- Thread starter Phantasmal
- Start date
/MSG/
Uwaa OmO
Well, the Necronomicon foretells about the stars, and the Mayan calender is celestial based. Ergo, the sunken city shall rise. Just look at the rise in madness, the riots, the polarization. The Old Ones shall return.
Mott the Hoople
Sweet Jane
Mott the Hoople
Sweet Jane
Fuckem if they do. Joe will take care of them.
Cancel 2016.11
Darla
The old ones? Do you mean Ruk?
Mott the Hoople
Sweet Jane
No...I think he means The Rolling Stones.
doubtful, Jagger is Catholic -my birth religion, that i disgarded as too weighted down with sin -as the Beatles said "carry that weight" .
Watts is Jewish.
Bowie is Buddhist. maybe you guys are referring to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars ?
no gods/no souls/no self
Lowaicue
英語在香港
I'm not very good at fighting so I lower my material needs and am very clear to differentiate between my needs and my wants. I do not know how to be greedy or aquisitive (sounds holier than thou, I know, but it's not meant to be), I have watched my contempories fight to increase their collections of 'toys' and now I look back and my fullfillment hasn't differed markedly from theirs. I have had hard times and I have had good times and now I'm at a time without a label. I try to give people what I crave for in myself and that is a smile and a laugh and a kind word.
I still fall in love regularly and am bitterley disappointed when that love is not returned and I strut like a turkey cock when it is. I am grateful to have survived and grateful to have still got the energy to rock on a dance floor as I did just 11 days ago at a beautifully decadent, and almost secret, night spot in one of the most exciting cities in the world.
I had a hundred people to my barbie earlier this month and had to give away much of what I was given because we just don't have room. And I look at the Trumps and the Antonovs and the Bushes and the Ashcrofts and I can honestly and with hand on heart stick two fingers (I still have two arms and ten fingers and thumbs) up to them and say 'You are no better, no happier than me and I am better and happier than many of you.'
I do not need a god or a faith in the supernatural, I do not need to listen to snake oil salesmen who preach eternal happiness and, more often, eternal damnation. I do not need to share any one else's philosophy but I will share my joy with anyone who wants it. There are a lot of people like me. We are the world and we care for it.
End of self opinionated twaddle (trans: Here endeth the lesson)
ah. i misread your concept. apologys. That is a good Path. You make your own philosphy of life, sounds like you enjoy life to it's fullest. I am truely happy for you.
For those of us that get buffeted by the storms of life ( i won't go into my past, but born Catholic - quickly disgard that notion of carrying around sin), or are concerned with karma ( sum total of past lives deeds/thoughts/words) Buddhism is a HUMANISTIC guide to life.
Many don't folow the dharma( the religious ideas), but just use the Nobel Path as a guide for life.
I was atheist too. I found it to be unsatisfactory, are we just blobs that fuck/eat/defecate -the same as dinosaurs?
No. I'm more than that. While it's great to have "no label", some humans believe we are reflections of the universal mind - unique -at least on this planet.
I'm a big fan of Tom Petty, and was on his message board, back in the late 90's. I began talking to a bodhissatva ( many different meanings -here I use it as one who uses their time and effort to help others on the Path), whom reawaked my mind to eastern thought.
Taoism is too ancient, but gives the concept of Yin/Yang ( duality of nature and all things - even proton and electrons)
To make a long story short i used the Path as a guide to overcome my flawed life. It's still flawed! But I have attained "the quiet mind" - i use walking meditation, but have done some chants and so forth -walking seems to work for me, the natural world will quiet the mind if you are reflective.
Soon I realized that i was ageing without a purpose -again back to the reptilian mind you alluded to. I have always had spiritual thought -who are we?
What is our purpose? Scientists say life self generated( given the ideal situations for life to start) - and this is the grestest contribution of the western scientific method.
Many are happy with just this western mind, all they need, that's great. For those of us who don't beleive in aliens/gods/ space monsters - but think life did self generate from the earth - we still notice the diffference between humans and all animals. The fact we are speaking of such is manifestly so.
So I fully embraced the Path - I started to notice less cravings, less focus on material goods, and less emphasis on "what's next".
Where Buddhism comes into play is that it's not a "revelation religion" dependent on a god to save oneself, but acknowledgement that the human mind is capable of understanding absract thought -again awareness of our mortality.
So I started to reasearch it further, and the book i mentioned (Depak Copra's -Life of Buddha) really hit home. If you know his life, you see how he set about determination to find out why ppl must suffer, and more importantly how to overcome it.
Enough for one post.
Siddhartha was born in a royal Hindu Kshatriya family. He was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati.
By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him.
His father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
Siddhartha is then said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
Departure and ascetic life
.At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man.
When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic.
These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome ageing, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and aboard his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street.
After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimisara offered Siddhartha the throne.
Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers. After mastering the teachings; he was asked by Kalama to succeed him.
However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practise, and moved on to become a student of Udaka Ramaputta.
With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further.
They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification.
After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned.
Siddhartha began to reconsider his path.
Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing.
He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing.
Enlightenment
The Buddha sitting in meditation, surrounded by demons of Māra. According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative jhana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.
In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl .
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree—now known as the Bodhi tree—in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left.
After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment.
From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One"
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it.
These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching.
Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being.
The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" .
Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain.
In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha*
(note mine: we are all" Buddha like", but we have to follow the Path to attainment)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him.
His father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
Siddhartha is then said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
Departure and ascetic life
.At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man.
When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic.
These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome ageing, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and aboard his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street.
After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimisara offered Siddhartha the throne.
Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers. After mastering the teachings; he was asked by Kalama to succeed him.
However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practise, and moved on to become a student of Udaka Ramaputta.
With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further.
They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification.
After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned.
Siddhartha began to reconsider his path.
Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing.
He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing.
Enlightenment
The Buddha sitting in meditation, surrounded by demons of Māra. According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative jhana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.
In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl .
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree—now known as the Bodhi tree—in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left.
After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment.
From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One"
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it.
These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching.
Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being.
The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" .
Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain.
In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha*
(note mine: we are all" Buddha like", but we have to follow the Path to attainment)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
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/MSG/
Uwaa OmO
No. Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, Narlathotep, Etc.
LOL. now we're speaking of mythical space gods who've fallen into sleep
( had to google this one). Why not Gandalf, Aragorn, Sauron -elves and demons?
Or just go back to taoism like Treebeard
I remember one guy on a board who ridiculed religion -said god was the "flying spaghetti monster" - his point being worshipping any gods is foolish.
He was correct, there are no gods, the only thing i find puzzling is what started the big bang.
I'm not a physicist, but it seems like matter had to coalesce to a singularity. which caused the energy to be released. starting the universe.
Then there is the string theory -multiple universes. which brings up the concept, how is the human mind capable of understanding everything everywhere?
My hypothesis: it cannot, but it can extrapolate such ideas. Which makes us close to omniscent -but not so.
The mind is a wonderous thing, my cat prolly thinks i'm a god. he placates me, and is rewarded with food, and care.
Such is the fallacy of all religions, even Buddhism which i practice, i cannot prove Nirvannah - but the chi (life force) has to go somewhere, as energy cannot be created or destroyed.
It's amazing what eastern and western thought combined can accomplish - but like Einstein, whom spent the latter part of his life searching for such a unified field theory, but was unsuccessful -i doubt if we'll ever be able to think it all through.
The fact we can even postulate such is amazing enough, one would go crazy trying to find an all inclusive theory of everything.
/MSG/
Uwaa OmO
Well, my use of the Elder Gods is mostly tongue in cheek, but I do so because they best illustrate the most likely forms gods would take. Something unknowable and inconceivable to the human mind, utterly unconcerned and uncaring about humanity. I mean, do you care about ants? Or the fungal spores on said ants? That's what humanity is to them. Fungal spores.
sure. agreed, the gods ( if they existed) would prolly be more concerned with cosmic affairs ( for lackof a better term)
FUCK THE POLICE
911 EVERY DAY
You know, Buddhists strive their entire existence for the chance to maybe, one day, be granted liberation from the endless cycle of death and rebirth. Us atheists, luckily, get to experience such a fine delicacy with no effort whatsoever.
/MSG/
Uwaa OmO
And us devotees of C'Thulhu have sweet madness to look forward to. Keep your boring cold reality.
Minister of Truth
Practically Perfect
Jeezus, people, the World's about to end!! 
