Messages

I guess I would have to say that I've never seen or met a person in Buddhism who worships a statue.  (I began Dharma in 1959).  There may be someone who is simply ignorant of the Dharma and does so, but a Buddhist is one who has taken refuge and is a member of a sangha.  By that point they would have been trained to know better.
I practice Vajrayana.  The emphasis is on PRACTICE.  As in doing.  The key to a students mind, from an old, old tantra, is through his or her questions.  The question is the key that opens the door.
However...the first guidance a teacher would probably offer you, if you asked the question, is to steer your mind to where you are now in terms of consciousness.  He would then, assuming you had questions about where you are now, give you replies, but more likely exercises to do that, if done, will reveal the answers you want.
If you ask speculative questions, such as many of these, he would not sit and blab away endlessly to your intellect.  He would give you exercises to do that are in accord with your Being.  ONLY those exercises will move you along the path, assuming you do them.
Buddhism is and can be an extraordinarily fulfilling study, if you find a teacher and go to work.  Lacking that it is just intellectual prattle that flows from the empty into the void, as Gurdjieff used to say.
Radha

Samsara,
I think the problem with most Dharma definitions is that westerners try to do Dharma with the intellect.  To "figure-it-out" and all that.  What Shakyamuni said after the four noble thoughts is the sequence with which the Dharma is more easily studied.  First have the correct view.  This means view in the sense of how we see...not how we think using the intellect.
If, as an ex, you took the view of Dzogchen ati yoga, thoughts would be clearly seen as what they are from that view.
If you see them from the view of being a physical body, they will seem different.  
I think the best approach to Buddhism, if new, can be reading and pondering.  That is a valid pursuit.  But in my opinion you will obtain a lot more clarity with a teacher to guide you.
A teacher can help you stay in the correct time.  If you ask about things of the past it probably won't help you.  If you ask about the future i.e. things too far ahead of where your consciousness in NOW, then it won't help.  The teacher will assis tyou in asking questions and obtaining answers about where you are NOW in your Dharma studies.
Not as exciting, but rewarding in the long run.
Tashi Delek
Radha

Narfellus;
My dear friend Hans Nintzel (RIP) was a true alchemist.  Not the armchair variety.  He died from imbibing his own potions.  This, in spite of 20-25 yrs experience, including training with some top alchemists when younger.
There is real alchemy.  It is a spiritual work and very rewarding for those who do the work correctly.
I know the chemical path is interesting, but remember, there is no "censor in the sky" who ensures what is printed is true.  In the esoteric orders there is.
Radha

Saints,
I began my work is Ars Magica in 1959.  I was, like most people my age, too stupid to listen to the guidance of others.  We obtained materials from Israel Regardie (things he had typed for Crowley) and we had Abramelin etc.  We strutteed about conjuring this and that.....and one night we got what we asked for.
One of the members is still mentally, severely damaged.  One went into drugs and is still a psychotic drug user.  One became a child molester.
Two of us walked out in one piece.
The nearest thing to advice I will ever offer is this.  Have the intelligence to work within an esoteric order that has been around say 20-25 years as a minumum.  
Radha

There has, at different times, been a greater or lesser amount of discussion over diffferences in these two seemingly divergent paths.
The concept I used to hear bandied about was that Mysticism was sort of vague and ephemeral and "not quite down to earth".  I have myself met those who were like this.  This is a false path under the delusion that it is "mysticism".  The truth in Mysticism lies not in thought and theory so much as in Being.  It's basic "Law" is that Change of Being is the soul's way of growth.  As a student learned to first see, then feel, the Be the object of meditation, their own personna was transmuted by the change of Being.  After all it is Being which attracts life to us.  AS the Mystic reaches higher and higher realms and can succeed in blending with thos areas, he or she doesn't have to command the elements etc.  The elements will always obey the Golden Mean.  Nature is to Man, as Man is to God.
Magic takes a different tack.  Moreso at the onset of study rather than later has been my observation.  As the erstwhile young Magus or High Priestess moves along, they develop a certain oneness with each sephiroth, moving as it were up the Tree of Life as they do.  As they grow with their ascent they also realize that only by blending with these energies will one have success.
Dion Fortune (from her magical name Deo Non Fortuna) wrote an excellent essay on this in her "Mystical Qabala".  She describes it similar to this:  The person who tries to control or coerce the elemental forces soon finds that they are treated by the astral light the same as a splinter is when it enters our body.  White blood cells surround it and isolate it from the rest of the system, and then try to eject it from the body.  The astral light does the same function to interlopers who seek to storm heavens keep.
The astral light only obeys its Master.  Become one with Him and THEN you will see that Mysticism and Magic both climb the same mountain, even though they may use diferent routes.
A.O.M.

After nearly a half century in various Orders, both East and West, and having apprenticed a few students, I wanted to mention what I feel is the main reason students fail to achieve anything with their attempts at studying Magic.
(1) Students have never realized they don't know what training they need.
Commentary:  All to many students run here to this book, or run there to this lecture, and continue like this for many years.  Why?  They actually think they know what they need.  They think that they have sufficient knowledge to know what exercises etc will benefit them the most.  Once they have run in circles long enough, if they are fortunate, an inner still voice will tell them to knock it offf...sit down...keep quiet...and learn from a competent mystery school that depends from the Inner School.

Recommended handling:  First of all, spend some time pondering, and then articulate the true answer to this question:  "What do you want?"  Until you can define with clarity what your goal is, then you aren't going there.  In truth you may not be going anywhere...simply because you never determined a "where" to go to.
If you haven't a goal, then any given "thing" you get interested in can only titllate.  It can't put you a single step nearer the goal.  It is said in the Schools, that man, as he moves through various lifetimes in his involution, will at some point hit the Nadir of his journey.  The "Initiation of the Nadir" it is called.  At that point, he or she will feel an inner urge to "do" something.  To "learn something"...usually ill-defined at first.  There is nonetheless that indefinable inner impulse that tells you there is more to this world than meets the eye.
That is "Deep calling to Deep".  Spend a few minutes each day sitting quietly and see if that call can be heard...and having heard it, see if you can ask for guidance as to what path would best fit your Needs (I didn't say wants, did I?)  You will get an answer
LVX

I did attempt to work with Monroe Institute tapes but had little luck at the time.  Now I've returned to the subject and see a lot of entrainment websites.  Has anyone tried using them to help keep the body/mind quiet so you can practice OB things?  Any results or do's and don'ts appreciated, especially if you found a CD that worked well for you.
Cheers, Radha

Yeah, I agree with you.  I'm trying now to get a guy who teaches sanskrit to start teaching me Pali.  Then I can read the earliest writings and maybe escape some more of the myths.  When I read some of the early writing as translated by people with several years training in Vipassana I can see so much more clearly what Siddartha was saying.  I guess that's what I was referring to in the earlier post when I said I disliked the "religion" aspect built around Siddartha's ideas.
Radha

Mark, You are welcome.  To my memory on Universel's website somewhere is the collected writings on Pir Hazrat Inayat Kahn.  Some 3,000 odd pages.  If you don't see it listed on there I'll search my files for the URL for it.
Yes, Adrian, you are quite spot on.  The "householder" started becoming the target of many schools that had long remained hidden.
I personally felt there was a need to test methods, then when they proved stable in the "closed door" groups they would be taught openly.
I still belong to such a group.  We get our heads knocked half off sometimes, but when the teachers smooth out the exercise, then we take it to our general membership, and they can take it out into daily life to apply.
Sufi are a strange breed of cat in many ways, but I've always loved them one and all for their tireless efforts.  Their orientation to being of service to mankind is something to behold.
When I wanted to be initiated, I knew a man near Chicago who knew aguy who knew a guy etcetc and he said if I could be at his pig farm in Iowa nby a certain time on a certain day, he could arrage it.
I drove like the devil across the country finally found the pig farm (more by odor that by road signs) and I got there, got out and sat on a log waiting.  After a couple of hours a Limo pulled in and out stepped a middle eastern gentleman.  He walked over to me and we did what we needed to do, then he left and so did I.  I drove half the night to get home and ready for work the next day.  Worth it?  To this day I can close my eyes and their is the Sheikh standing there beckoning to me.  Years later I was in a city visiting some sufi friends and we went to visit a group of Dervish who were there on a visit from Turkey.  Well whirling is a very wonderful experience, watched or done and when I said how much I wished we could get the fez of pure lambs wool here in the states, the Devish took his off and put it on my head.  No matter how much I protested he insisted I would honor him by keeping it and when I whirled , wearing it.  I still have it sittting on a shelf near where I type emails.
They are wonderful, selfless people.
Salaam,
Radha

Back in the period prior to their writing, the occult groups (Black) of Liepzig and Hamburg especially, were trying to bring forth black concepts and give them legitimacy.  The half truth is a usual vehicle for such propaganda, so Freud wrote of Libido without fully defining it from an esoteric point of view, and naturally it was twisted downward into "sex" which for most people would only have human sexual connotations.
Jung wanted to write QBL and was off to a start, however the black schools won and still, for the most part, control what is taught in psychiatry etc.
One person I knew researched this history fairly well but didn't publish widely.  Shame as the public could benefit from knowing more about the roots of these people.  Also the origins of the WFMH.

The Still Point
by T.S. Eliott

At the still point of the turning world
neither from nor toward,
at the still point there the dance is
but neither arrest nor movement.

And do not call it fixity
where past and future are gathered
neither movement from nor toward,
neither ascent nor decline.

The inner freedom from practical desire
the release from action and suffering
release from the inner and outer compulsion
surrounded by a grace of sense
a white light still and moving.

Except for the point -- the still point,
there would be no dance
and there is only the dance.

Salaam,
Radha

Adrian, all,
I couldn't get out of my mind a short poem by T.S. Eliott that has always defined Sufi to me.  For what it is worth:

The Still Point
by T.S. Eliott

At the still point of the turning world
neither from nor toward,
at the still point there the dance is
but neither arrest nor movement.

And do not call it fixity
where past and future are gathered
neither movement from nor toward,
neither ascent nor decline.

The inner freedom from practical desire
the release from action and suffering
release from the inner and outer compulsion
surrounded by a grace of sense
a white light still and moving.

Except for the point -- the still point,
there would be no dance
and there is only the dance.

Yes, I would agree 100% Adrian.  It was brought home to me when some friends I have of the Irish persuasion were researching into the Arthurian tradition.  It seemed every time they thought they had found where it came from, something else, much older would pop into view.
My first "Teacher" was a Chinese gentleman who was raised from age 7 in a monastary.  He said they were told that all training had the same goal: To re-gain conscious Union with Source.  The problem lay in choosing the mechanics for achieving it.  Some ethnic groupings would love detailed intellectual analysis, such as in the QBL; others would shudder at the thought preferring the direct approach of Zen or Surat Shabd Brahm.
If we all lived in our locales and had no outside communication, our training lives would be greatly simplified.  
The Chistiyya Sufi under Pir Vilayat Kahn and now his son and successor Pir Zia Kahn are examples I like to point out.  Pir Vilayat sent his son Zia, at a very young age, to train under the Dalai Lama,, and other teachers.
Thus Pir Zia has excellent insight into similarities and differences in various disciplines.  He might reply to a question with Buddhist thought or Hindu or Taoist...equally fluently.
This may pre-sage a return to times when we stress our oneness with one another in the common goal...as opposed to shooting each other for thinking differently.
Where would we be if we shot everyone who didn't think like we do?
A true Sufi, in my opinion, is in a country but not OF the country.  He is in a culture, but not OF the culture.  He just IS.
When in your work you arrive at the point where the only existence
IS...then you watch the universe whirl in it's silent dance...just as Rumi did, and you slowly begin to whirl...the smaller pendulum being turned by the larger one and then there is nothing but the whirling.  When the Dervish whirl, there is no doubt a golden silence spreading for miles around...as even nature pauses to bow as HE whirls past in his eternal dance.  Sufi always were and always will be there at the center where HE is Lord of the Dance...
Salaam

I'm not sure anyone can define Sufi to be honest.  There are those who feel it is Islamic, fo example.  However The Training (as I'll refer to it) existed before Christianity or Islam.  You might try to research the Kwajagan.  Teachers who brought The Training with them as, in my opinion, the Aryans moved southward from the North
Some Sufi groups study Al-Chemie (however they anglicize it) and this is the art we call Alchemy in the west.  Some are very similar to work done by Free Masons and Rosicrucians.
What I can say is that Hazrat Inayat Kahn brought the Chistiyya Sufi way to the West in the 20's and his two sons have each an international Sufi group for westerners.
Probably as good an intro to Chistiyya work, that is in simple english, is at the website of universel.net.  (It is spelled with an "el" at the end)
The other groups I've communicated with seemed to me to be unable to keep the chaos out of their Order and were falling into nonsense about international politics etc.  I would never recommend such a group as their Spiritual work is too weak to maintain Order and the Chaos is overtaking them as the Light withdraws.
Dervishes are another breed of cat.  Harder to locate, but the same general thoughts apply about them.  They are Rumi's people.  I fyou have never whirled and never tasted the wine of it they would be harder to understand, but well worth getting to know if you live near any.
Books?  The old "The Sufis" by Idries Shah is controversial but easy to read for westerners as an overview.  All of Hazrat Inayat Kahns writings are on the we b for free (3,000 plus pages of books).
Salaam,
Radha

One concept from early Christianity is that what they called "prayer of the heart" is actually very near to Zen.  I had two sisters at our local tell me about the early writings of Evagrius Ponticus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen as well as the Philokalia in the eastern orthodoxy, all talking about this topic.  Sister _____ told me that the society of Jesus (Jesuiti) had placed fathers in Japan asl long as thrity years ago to learn Zen, and that they were now going around the country teaching it to parishioners who were interested.  The official RC name was, I think, Centering Prayer.
Look at Jacob Needleman's Lost Christianity also.  It is not a fast read as Needleman is himself more than well trained and knows how to write with a lot of things between-the-lines.
Radha

I have practiced Iyengar off & on, and Kriya for several years.  I found I understood the purposes of yoga better once I had studied about the Rasayana sect.  They were involved with the deeper, alchemical aspects of inner work, and finally realized a value to having the body less resistant to inflows of prana.  They developed body work, which I believe evolved into hatha, but I have not seen that clearly documented.  Just my own opinion.  Once a person has the body to where it will not be a distraction, they can turn inward and benefit from art such as kriya and Bhakti.  The deepest effect Spiritually would be from Shabd Brahm Yoga also called Surat Shabd Brahm.  Later versions of yoga such as Radha Soami are quite powerful but would be better practticed with a sat guru available to assist.  Remember the goal of the art is to attain the state of Being called in India, Yoga.  Union with Source.  To that degree the Spiritual Being is the highest priority for training, the mind second and the body last.  However, as the rasa found out the body will distract if not cared for to some degree.
Naam,
Naam,

I think a useful book for anyone wanting a better understanding of the elements is "Natures Finer Forces" by Ram Prasad.  I went out of print in the late 1800's I beleieve but it is usually still floating around in reprints.
I would offer a small cautionary note however, and that is to not try to use the Tattva in your elemental studies.
Another take on elementals would be Algernon Blackwood's writings.  A lot of truth in them.  Same for Dion Fortune's old books.

Sure.  I guess the author Lobsang Rampa is dead by now.  I haven't been in touch with him in years.  I honestly don't know how to say or spell his brothers name.  He said I could call him Mr. Smith.  He seemed to get a big kick out of this.
I've used this datum ever since he told me about the idea.  If there is someone I meet that I can't get along with, I go inside and try to root it out so to speak.
For what it's worth, I trained for a period with Bhikku Uppaya.  He had been a monk in India for 61 years and had moved to some mountains near where I lived, in order to retire...
I loved this old guy for two reasons: He was a fount of Wisdom.  Real, practical, take-it-home-and-use-it type Wisdom;  and he had spent hours as a young man wiping food and tobacco stains off Samuel Clemens beard when he was dying.
He and I discussed this same concept one day and he said that Siddartha had taught that a person normaly only has one big "life" problem to handle in each incarnation.  That when one entered the Path of Return, it was like his evolution was accelerated.  The student might have as many "life" problems as they could solve.  He suggested I give it a go in trying to see how many "life" problems I could find...and go inside and dissolve.  He suggested I keep a diary and keep track of these for my own edification.
It really hasn't been easy, but it has been enormously beneficial.
Hope it helps as much as it has helped me.
A.O.M.

I was initiated into the Naqshbandiya Sufi in 1967.  Can I be of some assistance?

On a business trip to the UK once, we had occassion to visit the "local" at night for a pint or two, and some laughs around the fire.  Then we'd walk home to the manor where we were visiting.  One night as I walked along I suddenly felt the temperature of the air change.  I mean drastically enough that even with my share of the Guinness on board I could feel it.  I walked back and forth in the lane feeling this difference.  Our host, thinking me even more daft than usual came back and inquired of me, so I asked him what was the ancient history of these parts.  He laughed and said it was Druid country. Then he pointed off a bit and said there is the ashdown forest, and at night we can still see them in there.  My friends all laughed, but when we returned to the manor I went up on the roof and when I had opened my vision, there were many others out and about the forest that night.  It was also my first look at some picts.
They were beautiful people to be sure.

I agree wholeheartedly.  In many mystery schools of east and west, one thing they teach is that as you lie down at night, before sleep, play back the day in reverse.  If it is 10:00 when you go to bed start at 10:00 and review the day in reverse.  See and even try to feel what you felt during the episodes of the day.  Especially what you thought or felt toward others.  To me this is a tool that readily reveals what we ourselves need most to work on.
When you go to work or school actively and consciously look for the things that tinkle you off the most.  How did that person act?  What feelings did they put out that upset you most.  Then go to work on these in your own self.  And please don't bore me with "Oh, I NEVER do that."  Yeah right.  I've said that to my teachers and soon had to eat it so stopped and observed.
Gnothe Seaton!!!  Know Thyself (If you'll pardon my poor Greek.)
One time I was exchanging letters with a man who wrote books about Tibet. His name was Lobsang Rampa.  In time I got to meet his brother and in the conversation we discussed my love for martial arts.  He said the way to judge your level of perfection is how long you go between fights.  Every fight begins with the imperfection residing in your own soul.  Every fight ends when you uproot that germ and thus it never occurs.  So true.

As I have mentioned on other posts, the main problem with Westerners assessing Buddha hood is probably their lack of experience in it.
For example, they (and some easterners) refer to Siddartha as though his name was Buddha.  I wasn't and isn't.  Buddha relates more to a specific state of Being.  Siddartha achieved it and then all he said was I did it, and so can you.  He didn't found a religion.  People after him did.  He didn't say he was an exception...he said he was an example.
Reincarnation is not a theory.  However, until you can experience it for your own self, it does remain, for you, just an idea.  One of the great lessons one values after becoming conscious of having lived before is that the DhammaPada is correct.  Also that what you do sets in place a cause...and sooner or later you will be effect of your cause.  All energy in this universe returns to it's source.
Siddartha did address creation, but it is only "legible" to those who have a certain degree of Buddha consciousness realized.  Then they see in his writing where he refers to the principles by which it occurred. If you practice Zen awhile, then read the western Christian writings of Evagrius Ponticus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen...and the writings of the Eastern Church called the Phylokalia, you'll see they were speaking the same language.  It shows that at one point the west had a chance to study...and didn't.  It's a shame really.

There is not a problem you could encounter or a mistake you could make that I haven't myself experienced.  My teacher (one of them) used to tell me that when I got cocky, which I did occassionally, to go stand in front of the mirror and remove and put my pants back on as many times as it took to see that I, just like every other person, put on their pants one leg at a time.
The lady I mentioned as my first esoteric topics teacher was a kunoichi.  In Japan these are the Ladies who practice NinPo.  She was also Kahuna.  The way we met was almost a story in itself.  I walked in to a dojo in Honolulu where I trained "back yonder" in the late 50's/early 60's and when I noticed a very attractive young lady sitting there in the visitors chairs, I did what any red blooded surf bum would do.  As I was preparing to knock her off her feet with my imagined charms, I asked her why she was there?  Was she there to see about training?
She just looked at me and said  "Last night I had a dream and they told me to come get you and train you."  And if you think that didn't knock me for a loop, I'm Rolf Harris's Daddy.
Among other things she taught me was a simple way to obtain guidance.  She also taught me how Ninja talk to trees, but that's another time and place.  
Get a notebook.  Write down your question, and the date.  Wait.  The answer will come.  Maybe a month later maybe minutes later, but it will come.  When it does, wherever you are write the answer down as exactly as you can, and the date.  When you get home put it in the proper place in your notebook.
I know it sounds crazy, but I still use it all these years later.  Is there a way to check the answers for validity?  Yes.  First try this that I mentioned tonight.  Do it a few times to ground the energy and put action to will.  Then in a day or two we'll take it a step further if any of you are interested.
It will help some with not having a physical teacher to visit with.
Mahalo

Most real Taoist work is esoteric.  It wasn't designed for westerners, so isn't very visible in the west.  The westerners were given alchemy and QBL to study to attain the same ends by a means more suited to their make-up.  One thought is to mention that while we often see in books etc that Taoism relates to "Nature", rarely is that word defined in the sense the Taoists (and other esoteric schools) apply it.
Nature refers to that part of Life that occurrs automatically.  It's causation was put into place by a prior conscious act.  Life, as it comes toward us in our day-to-day affairs is like this.  We are not in harmony with it...unless we understand the prior cause that resulted in this automatic occurence.
The Golden Mean, in it's true delineation means "Nature is to Man, as Man is to God."  You can also use the word Tao instead of God if you wish.
To understand this concept, and more importantly, to live it requires a great deal of work.  It requires Wu-Wei.  Again, westerners try to translate this as "No Action" or similar wordings that seem to imply "do nothing" or a fatilistic apprach.  Just let it all happen to me and whatever it is it must be "Tao".  That sort of idea.
Just the reverse is true.  Wu Wei is a state of Being.  It is a state of Being that places causation by postulate alone.  Below that level of Being one begins to find the opposites and between the opposites is where effort and activity is to be found.
Wu Wei is a state of consciousness, with no mass, no energy, no time or space.  It just IS.  It is above the levels of being where "I" is felt as present.  It is a state known well to The Priests of Nothing.
A.O.M.

You are welcome.  My first teacher in esoteric matters and I were talking one day and she asked if I knew the definition of "The Way"...a term often used in these arts.  I gave her some sort of reply, and she said this: (1) draw a large circle on the page.  (2) out on the circumference is where you are (you was reference to myself) among the exoteric teachings.  I made an "x" to show where I was on the circumference.(3) Now put a point at the center of the circle.  I did this.  (4) She asked if I understood what Pythagoreans meant re a point being dimensionless?  We discussed that for a bit. (5) Next she told me to draw a straight line from where I had made the point, to the "x" representing myself on the circumference.  I did.  She said that straight line, narrow and razor sharp was "The Way" for me.  It was my personal Way from where I was to where I hoped to arrive some day.
She said if I didn't have a clear and clean goal (point in the center) then I didn't have a "way".  I would just wander aimlessly.
The only goal the esoteric schools have ever had is to assist people in regaining conscious union with Source.  Once I had that as my honest and true goal, she said, THEN, things would flow to me as I needed them.
It is an old wives tale that "When the student is duly and truly prepared, the Master will appear."  The first step in that preparation is to have a well-defined goal.
I started to apply this to the best of my ability, and over the years I have had teachers I needed at that moment, literally seem to appear out of nowhere.  I still have within my reach here at my desk the exact page I wrote my goal down on.  I can see it lying there as I type.
If an erstwhile student of Ars Magica never learns anything else, it would be this lesson.
A.O.M.