dianicdreams

2. Ignorance comes from sense of "I". 3. The Meaning of Creation is Self-Realisation into our original form. When all are self-realised, then creation will end, as we will BE CREATION itself. With all the pieces falling into place, perhaps the best way to explain the meaning of these three answers is by retelling a story. Around five hundred years ago, in a sacred mountain beset with caves, a few dozen hermits, yogis and holy men spent their time meditating to attain realisation. There were so many caves that each of them spent their time in seclusion, intently focused on their goal. The plethora of meditators were from different paths, and some believed in such a thing as a soul, a self, and attempted to attain this experiential understanding. Others believed that there is no such thing as a self or soul, so they focused on the realisation of this nothingness. One day, a newcomer entered the arena. Pretty soon the yogis were convinced that this man was literally mad, because he wouldn't leave them alone. He would invade their seclusion and scream at them. For the yogis who were meditating on realising self, he would scream, "You fool! There is no SELF!" And for the others who were focused on realising no-self, he would roar, "You blithering idiot, of course there is a SELF!" The yogis knew nothing about this man, but he carried a knife with an engraving of a Dragon, so, that's how they began to refer to him. Pretty soon it became obvious that he wasn't leaving, and neither was he going to leave them alone. So, they came to a conclusion. They would hold a grand debate by the lakeside, and if they won, then he would either have to shut up, or leave. If he won, they would convert to his view. And if he lost and still didn't leave, they pretty much decided they would kill him. So, the day arrived. At sunrise the debate began – and those who were debating for Self sat on one side, those arguing for No-Self on the other. What happened next they didn't expect. Dragon kept switching sides! When one side presented an irrefutable argument for their view, and the opposition was lost for words, Dragon would come to their rescue and offer a counter-argument. And when the other side could not respond, again, he would explain a greater logic still. Infact, he presented far clearer views of both Self and No-Self than the swarm of hermits combined. Yet, as the debate continued, he was like a wild tiger, rampant, running around like mad, chopping off people's hair, screaming, an infinite reservoir of energy. Finally, sunset falls upon them, and the debate is nowhere near concluded. So, the hermits propose to Dragon to somehow end the debate. Dragon looks across and motions to the only female meditator in the group, and he says, "There is a Dakini present among us. Let her decide the fate of this debate." The Dakini also happened to be the only person that Dragon had never bothered since his arrival. She replies, "Let's meditate on it." And the congregation fall into a deep Samadhi – a deep state of pure awareness. An hour later, when the hermits came out of meditation, each of them had realised the truth of Dragon's teaching. One by one, they returned to their respective caves. Dragon, he entered his cave, and never bothered them again. The realisation was this: To have a VIEW of Self, or a view of Non-Self, are both extreme states of illusion. The hermits who believed in Self/Soul, believed it to be an absolute truth. And the hermits who believed in Non-Self, also thought of it as absolute. But how can one ever realise the absolute when one is looking at it from an angle? From a point? This is the lesson of Tantra: "The Truth can only ever be told in the contradictions. Or in Silence." Because a contradiction negates both opposing views, and thereby, eradicates them. Objective truth can never be in a view. It is like a finger pointing at the moon, but not being the moon itself. Zen works in the same way. When you truly believe something as true, and then one day you suddenly see that its opposite is equally true, the two beliefs cancel each other out – creating a moment of silence in the mind. It is this moment of silence that is truly precious. Dragon, is my teacher. The story is from one of his past lives - A small taste of his method of teaching. And so, we come to Self-Grasping. We constantly have thoughts: "I am this.. I am that.. I do this.. I do that.. I love this.. I hate that…" If we let these thoughts come and go, just watching them objectively, with equanimity, well, then we are not slaves to anything. But the moment we cling to a thought, because we love the way it feels, because we want to feel more of it, at that moment, we open the door of suffering. And finally we arrive at the completion of explaining the essence of Buddhism. Only one thing is left. The human imprisonment is formed in this way, according to the Buddha: First, there is the Form, the Object. For instance, consider a waterfall. Second, the Arising of Consciousness. Each sense consciousness is completely different and unique to the other. To see the waterfall is nothing at all like hearing the waterfall. The consciousness of it is different. So, when you hear the waterfall, Hearing Consciousness arises. Third, Perception. This is the calculation of the information you are receiving. Your perception imputes that the sound is that of a waterfall, and makes a judgement based on the information: "Ah, a waterfall. I love waterfalls!" or "Damn, a waterfall, I can't stand that annoying noise!" Perception is always subjective and relative to the individual. Fourth, Sensation. If perception concludes that you love the sound of a waterfall, then you will get a pleasurable sensation – soothing, erotic, energetic, however you see it. Or if you hate the sound, you get a painful or uncomfortable sensation. Fifth, Reaction. There are only two types of reactions. Craving or Aversion. If the sensation is pleasurable, the mind instantly craves for more. It's the natural reaction. If the sensation is painful, the mind reacts with aversion. And by this craving and aversion, the reactive human is formed. Every time you don't respond to the craving or the aversion, in that moment, you are free. It is the non-reactive moments that holds the essence of your will. When you remove everything that is not you, what will remain will essentially be you. Now, this explanation of the five aggregates as it is called, is not a Buddhist one. It was known in Hinduism, in Brahmanism, and most probably, even before. Yet during the time the Buddha was alive, every great spiritual teacher explained that the way to free yourself from being a reactive being is by transcending the Form/Object. If you crave beautiful women, then change the way you view beautiful women. Etc etc. This didn't work. At this point, Hinduism had lost its core to the decay of time. Buddhism began when the Buddha made a rediscovery. The key to liberation is not in the object of attention – but in the SENSATION on your body. By being equanimous – which is – to watch both your pleasure and your pain with a deep, passionate objectivity, you free yourself. Now, I have explained everything you need to know about how I understand Buddhism – laid the groundwork for what's to come. Now I can resume my story of the rebirth of the Warrior Code. To be Continued…

Theist, Only self-proclaimed "buddhists" who don't understand the context of their own religion rant on about no-self. The Buddha makes it very clear that to think about Self OR No-Self is both poisonous thought-frames. It is not helpful, and it is best to focus on qualities and paradigms that ARE helpful. in Part three of the Introduction I'll say more on this.

Of the million different angles from which I can approach this little revealing of myself, I suppose the most pertinent is what brought me to initiating the rebirth of the warrior code. Which reminds me, I saw the Passion of the Christ two days ago. It rendered me speechless. I cried with great realisation at moments - and it is apparent to me now that the film explains the HEART of the Warrior Code. Check it out, it's a masterpiece. This brings us to my intent on the warrior code itself. Lets see... how do I put this... I have an inherent sense of curiosity that overrides all tendencies to be close-minded. Which is simply fantastic for me. And Truth comes first and foremost, simply because there is nothing I could consider more important than the process of learning – of evolving – yet simultaneously not searching at all. I was born a Mage, but I didn't realise it until I was 22. Basically, if you could imagine a heavy intellectual with a mental map of how the universe worked - a perfect set of rules that seemed to apply to every situation via scientific empiricism - lost in a VIEW of the world, that's what I was. Confined to the subjective paradox. I was studying Communications Filmmaking - I was/am passionate about the medium of film and storytelling. Part of the criteria was to educate us in the great western minds that changed the paradigms of civilisation. Marx, Jung, Einstein, social theorists such as Foucault, and a great delving into the ways in which the world is controlled by the media, manipulated by the media, inspired at times - and ever so rarely, how the media was used righteously, to bring to light an obvious truth. The latter didn't happen that often in history. Linguistics and the notion of does the word create the meaning, or does the meaning create the word? The illusion of considering science to be factual. These are all extremely plausible and well set out arguments I was privy to, so in essence I learnt about how confused the world was made to feel until the veil of postmodernism. Merely another means of control. By the third year, I realised that I didn't really have anything of substance I actually wanted to SAY in my films - and I couldn't accept that. During this scenario, I meet a woman, and she talks to me about energy, and feelings, charkas and reiki.. My instant response was: "WHAT THE . ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" So, I sit her down, and we talk all night, and I just listen to what she has to say because at that point I was so involved in my head that I literally didn't have a clue. She was explaining it to me not just in words... and at an instant.. I had an inkling.. and every one of my chakras blast open! My whole body was vibrating - which was - well - unexplainable to myself. I couldn't put words to it.. concepts to it.. it was foreign - and yet right at home. There began the war in my mind. I literally drove myself insane trying to find a perfect "scientific theory" for what was going on. This is understandable, since it's what I'd been doing my whole life. After a year or so, I slowly regained my grounding.. am actually able to converse with people again without feeling a deep-set loneliness that no one understands me. I reintegrate into society.. into simply being able to talk about nothing all over again. Upon hindsight.. that first moment was the true flowering of the warrior code in myself - but damn there was much to face yet. It was during this period that what was known about magick, and most of those that claimed/practiced it were of little to no help for me… because as good or bad as they may be at it.. as much as they might have fine-tuned abilities… they still had emotional issues. They weren't happy people.. they weren't complete. They were still imprisoned by their own selves. And I was nowhere near grounded to realise this… Of course, there was much that happened during this process of attempting to learn magick, but most of it was a orgasmic/painful struggle of achieving great feats and simultaneously failing miserably. Which can be a great teacher indeed. Yet the frustration was in not being able to have a base… a fundamental grounding that was intact and unshakable. A good example I can use to explain is when about two months after my conversation with the first witch, I was speaking to a woman who was clinically diagnosed as unable to have children. She was an empath who was teaching me to fine tune my chakra awareness. When we were finished, she asked for a hug. As we hugged I felt a bolt of sacral chakra essence leave mine and enter hers. Two months later her hubby managed to knock her up! Now here's the relevance of the example: There was no ritual involved.. I didn't read books or create spells about this.. most important.. I didn't even KNOW what I was doing. All I know is that I had the wish to help her – to repay her for her teachings. After such incidents, to talk to other mages who insist on spells and reading a million useless books and especially.. who insist on complicating the whole process of magick for ego gratification, seemed futile. I rather wanted to know HOW I did it. Even then I wanted to know the essence. Such incidents reoccurred many times, but the struggle was always that I couldn't pinpoint the core of magick. I could theorise as much as I wanted.. others could have their opinions of how it may have happened.. but it all seemed like opinion on some level. What finally hinted that this wasn't where I was going to find my liberation was the powerful sensation that something is "missing". All I could do was let it go… At which point, I turn to discovering Buddhism. To be Continued….

The Question of Duality: I recently began to ponder that the Goddess Kali is sometimes painted holding a severed head, a sword, standing on the body of the God Shiva, and eating his entrails. http://www.siamese-dream.com/reference/kali.html Here is an example of Kali's Essence: I am the dance of death that is behind all life the ultimate horror the ultimate ecstasy I am existence I am the dance of destruction that will end this world the timeless void the formless devouring mouth I am rebirth Let me dance you to death Let me dance you to life Will you walk through your fears to dance with me? Will you let me cut off your head and drink your blood? then will you cut off mine? Will you face all the horror all the pain all the sorrow and say "yes"? I am all that you dread all that terrifies I am your fear will you meet me? Kali (pronounced kah'lee), the Hindu triple Goddess of creation, preservation, and destruction is the animating force of Shiva, the destroyer (lord of the Dance). She is the insatiable hunger of time that births then devours. Skulls, cemeteries, and blood are all associated with her worship. Kali's energy is uncontrollable. After killing two demons, she got drunk on their blood and began dancing on their dead flesh. She danced herself into a frenzy until she realized she almost danced Shiva to death. This is the part that perplexes me. She is the animated force of Shiva, and yet, she almost dances him to death? Can you not see the perpetual implications and contradictions in that? I mean, if Shiva is the God of Pleasure or something, something quite opposite to who she is, then sure, it would make sense.. but.. he is her masculine aspect. Ok.. lets look at Shiva: *Boy, this is exciting* http://www.siamese-dream.com/reference/shiva.html So, Shiva's actual consort - or spiritual partner - is Parvati. And to destroy the demons, as Shiva was in meditation, Parvati takes on the form of Kali - goes on a killing rampage. Lets look at this in detail: Intoxicated with Raktabija's blood, Kali ran amuck across the three worlds, destroying everything and everyone in her sight. To restrain her, Shiva took the form of a corpse and blocked her path. As the goddess, blinded by bloodlust, tripped on his lifeless body, she was jolted out of her frenzy. She wondered if she had killed her own husband. She placed a foot on Shiva's chest and brought him back to life. Shiva then took the form of a little child and began to cry, stirring maternal love in the heart of Kali. This forced her to shed her fierce form; Kali became Gauri, the radiant mother, bestower of life. Suddenly, I am reminded of how all forms are essentially, empty - non-existant - of how all Gods are one. http://www.selfempowermentacademy.com.au/htmdocs/SHIVA-KALI-YUGA.pdf Ah. Shiva is contradiction itself. The conqueror of lust and desire is also known as the erotic ascetic. The oldest God - as accounted. The Master of all Arts. Interesting, I didn't know that either. This gets deeper and deeper. Parvati is the daughter of the snowclad mountains. The consort of Shiva. The one who is incarnation of all energy. As a deity Parvati has the unique distinction of being thought of as the only goddess. All other goddesses are referred to as incarnations or manifestations of Parvati. Mmm. So to Understand Kali and Shiva - Death and Destruction - I need to have a greater understanding of Shiva and Parvati's relationship. "Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion? She appears black because She is viewed from a distance; but when intimately known She is no longer so. The sky appears blue at a distance, but look at it close by and you will find that it has no colour. The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance, but when you go near and take it in your hand, you find that it is colourless." ... Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86) So, I'd like to ask you folks to share with me any information you have about the stories and rare insights of specifically SHIVA AND PARVATI! :-) I am very curious and open to people who might know specific aspects of their relationship that is not generally known or said. Thank you.