When we are kind to ourselves, when we have compassion for ourselves, when we love ourselves without reserve, we create the conditions in which to most easily evolve.
All of this evolution is towards a more peaceful and loving version of the [conventional] self.
Self-love creates a state in which one can hear the voice of our higher self and also feel that voice in the heart.
That higher voice points to the path ahead. The path ahead is always evolving [becoming] towards a more loving version of self. Self-love creates a kind of quiet in the mind/heart.
The lower mind is the place of judgment. That which is not love, that which is harsh, is loud in the lower mind. Self-love is the antidote to this loud voice. It balances and heals the harshness, restoring a kind of homeostasis, a calm, equitable ground [dzogchen]. Self-love creates neutrality in the self. It creates openness, and openness is peace. Into the true openness of peace, the presence of universal love, universal kindness, universal knowing arrives.
All those who walk with universal love walk in service to all beings.
So self-love creates the conditions for one to more easily become peace, and into that peace of the self, the great wisdom of universal loving-kindness arrives. And the individual into which it arrives now carries it as a remarkable offering for all.
Higher mind
It is as if self-love builds the room. The empty room is peace. And universal love always arrives to fill it. Put simply:
This peace flows from the individual consciousness into the collective consciousness, where it heals that which has not been loved which has remained there as residue.
["One-pointedness of mind/heart (cittass'ekaggatā), Ven. Visakha, is called concentration (samādhi, stillness, coherence)" (MN 44).]
Flower power made in the USA
When peace has flowed into the collective consciousness and has healed that which is not-love that is there, new possibilities emerge for humankind.
Old wounds are healed.
Old grievances are healed.
And more people, no longer held in bondage by old grievances, are able to hear their higher selves' voice, which is a loving voice.
And more people, hearing their highest voice, choose to act in love.
And things begin to change.
Old patterns suddenly end.
There is more harmony between people.
There is more peace.
And that peace, felt by any one person, enters the collective consciousness and heals another layer of what is there
calling to be loved,
calling to be witnessed,
calling to be healed,
calling to be honored for all that it is, exactly as it is.
Peace does that.
[EDITORIAL NOTE: When Goenka talks about observing sensations (feelings) in the body, he says to observe each one “AS IT IS.” The Pali phrase he uses is “yathā-bhūta.” Buddhist Sanskrit (tathātā) akin to the Chinese term rú zhēn (如眞) “suchness.”]
It's as if our hearts were burning as one at BM.
So all is honored, all is healed, and another wave of people feel called to lean into that voice at the center of their chests, their own heart's voice, the voice of a higher self, a voice that speaks of their purpose. That voice is loving, the font of love at the center of each being, what we can call the heart's voice. So it is better perceived, easier to hear and learn from.
An act of service to the world
Earth and every living being on it is so much more beautiful and unbelievable close up.
Our self-love is an ACT [karma] of service (sevā) to the world. Is builds our peace first, and our peace builds all peace.
Yes, it builds our neutrality (equanimity, unbiased looking on, upekṣā), which allows us to hear our higher voice. The peace it builds in our own heart/mind travels into the collective consciousness, where it heals and creates new opportunities for future peace, our own and the peace of others.
Our self-love powers this whole peacening[pacifying, cooling, slaking, quenching towards the highest peace of all, which is Nirvana or the "nirvanering"] process.
Our self-love is local -- planetary service to others.
(The Earthing Movie) The Earthing Movie is a documentary that reveals the scientific phenomenon of how we can heal our bodies by doing the simplest thing that a person can do -- standing and walking (grounding electrons) barefoot on the raw earth. See earthingmovie.com.
Barefoot earthing
There are many health benefits and a few risks associated with going barefoot in modern cities. Shoes, while they offer protection, can limit the flexibility, strength, and mobility of the foot and can lead to higher incidences of flexible flat foot, bunions, hammer toe, and Morton's neuroma.
Walking and running barefoot results in a more natural gait, allowing for a more rocking motion of the foot, eliminating the hard heel strike and generating less collision force in the foot and lower leg [1][2].
There are many sports that are performed barefooted, most notably gymnastics, martial arts, and swimming, but also beach volleyball, barefoot running, barefoot hiking, and barefoot waterskiing.
Historical and religious aspects
Buddhist monks are obligated when on alms round to do at least part of it barefoot. While this is regarded as a mark of respect, it may have been implemented for its many health benefits.
WIKI VIDEO: Theravada Buddhist monks in Mahagandhayon Monastery (Amarapura, Myanmar, Burma).
Buddhist monks line up barefoot to accept their late morning meal offered by donors.
Zen Buddhist monks and practitioners engage in kinhin or "walking meditation" barefoot or in natural (cloth or straw) sandals for best results, touching the earth and grounding.
The ancient Greek Spartans required boys to go barefoot as part of their obligatory military training [3], and the athletes at the ancient Olympic Games typically participated barefoot and naked [4].
Although the ancient Greeks had a great variety of footwear, many—famously including Socrates [5]—preferred to go barefoot [3]. More
If identification with ego, soul, and self are based on ignorance (avijja, not knowing, not understanding, not penetrating that, ultimately speaking, there is no self wrapped up in these forms or these feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness or outside of these), then losing that seems to the logical mind as "death."
It may be ego death. But death is always wrapped up with rebirth. When there is no further rebirth to endure, no more samsara, that is not death. That is liberation (vimutti, moksha, freedom, emancipation). All phenomena is characterized by Three Marks of Existence.
While the words of Alan Watts are very beautiful and his understanding (intellectual grasp of Eastern philosophy) very tidy, it is wrong. It is incomplete.
Alan Watts is not enlightened, nor to our knowledge did he ever claim to be. He is reciting a definition of "enlightenment" or "awakening" that is quite valid in Hinduism and therefore in Mahayana Buddhism. This is the whole idea that life is Brahman (GOD) at play (lila) in a great drama pretending to be that Atman (individual soul or self). Life is but a dream.
It is a dream but not in this way. We do not awaken -- in the sense that the Buddha or Awakened One meant -- to ourselves as GOD looking for another good time by dipping into Maya (Illusion) again in endless cycles of time (samsara).
This is not what the historical Buddha (Siddhartha "Shakyamuni" Gautama) taught at all. In fact, he went to great pains pointing out the faults in the Vedas (the ancient "Knowledge Books" of the Brahmin priestly caste).
Former CIA agent on perception vs. perspective
The Brahmins chewed up Buddhism, regurgitated it, and incorporated what they liked, dismissing the rest, ignoring or purposely avoiding the Buddha's criticism of their schemata and depiction of reality. What the Buddha taught, ultimately, was that ALL phenomena, all things, are beset by three characteristics. And Brahmanism (or the Old Vedic Religion that Hinduism points to as its roots) cannot accept any of these three, except by ignoring or changing their meaning. These the Buddha called the "Three Universal Characteristics of all Existence."
Three Marks of Existence
1. All things are impermanent -- not only the phenomena we see and regard as material, physical, and tangible but more importantly all that we regard as immaterial, personal, and effable, namely, the Five Aggregates clung to as self. (See the Heart Sutra, which countless sing without ever making the effort to comprehend).
2. All things are disappointing -- that is, they are incapable of ever fulfilling us, satisfying us, satiating our craving once and for all. They are unsatisfactory, painful, suffering.
3. All things are impersonal -- that is to say, there (ultimately speaking) is no soul, no self, no atman. What we find and cling to as this "self," this "soul," this "ego" or "personality" or "essence, our True Self," is in fact the Five Aggregates clung to as self (our bodies, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness).
Theravada Buddhism -- in distinction to Mahayana, Hinduism, Brahmanism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Zen, and Vajrayana -- is a movement principally interested in what the historical Buddha actually taught. This is found in the Pali canon in the lingua franca the Buddha spoke in ancient Magadha.
In Dharmic (Indian) religions, the siddhis (Sanskrit सिद्धि siddhi, fulfillment, accomplishment) are material, paranormal, supernatural, magical powers, abilities, and attainments, such as levitation (paranormal).
They are the products (sometimes byproducts) of yogic advancement through daily practices (sādhanās) such as meditation (jhana, dhyana) and eight-limbed yoga [1].
The Pali term iddhi ("psychic powers," ṛddhi) is often used interchangeably in Buddhism.
Etymology
Illusion in Prague using steel armature
Siddhi is a Sanskrit noun that can be translated as super "knowledge," "accomplishment," "attainment," or "success" [2].
Method
Buddhism's Path of Purification (Visuddhi-magga) is one of the great commentarial texts to give explicit details about how meditators and spiritual masters can actually manifest supernormal abilities [3].
[These powers are not really "supernatural" because, however uncommon, they are our natural potential.]
It states that abilities such as levitation (flying through the air), walking through walls (solid obstructions), diving into the ground as if it were water, walking on water as if it were land, and so forth are achieved through changing one element, such as the earth element (Pali pathavi), into another element, such as air (vayu) [3].
[This is done at will because one has mastered the absorptions (jhanas) via that element. How this is done is explained in practice by Buddhist teachers and meditation masters. Theoretically and conceptually, it is laid out in The Path of Purification, an ancient Buddhist text compiled by the great monk and commentator Buddhaghosa.]
The individual must master disc (kasina) meditation before this is possible [3]. The modern Buddhist Master Dipa Ma ("Dipa's Mother"), who trained in The Path of Purification via her personal teacher Anagarika Munindra, had these abilities -- according to her closest American students who went on to become world famous meditators and teachers (Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein). Their claims were verified in Calcutta and the USA but, of course, never to the satisfaction of Western science or the impossible standards of the great skeptic the Great Randi. See the great book about her by an American admirer Amy Schmidt, Knee Deep in Grace. Not only did she develop these powers with Anagarika Munindra's instructions, she taught them to her enlightened daughter Dipa and others around her. More: Siddhi
Levitating monk | Stable Diffusion; Aperture, The 7 Levels of Reality; Jason Gregory, Siddhis; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
In the West we tend to believe “you can't get something for nothing,” but in this program Watts explores the possibility that nothing may be the very basis of something — and uses the example of sounds emerging out of silence to explain what is discovered in Zen practice.
Watch the full 26-minute version of "Nothingness" along with 33 more full videos and over 70 more audio programs with a low-cost subscription to the official Alan Watts streaming platform COMMERCIAL-FREE at play.alanwatts.org. #alanwatts #alanwattsphilosophy #alanwattswisdom
Researchers claim they’ve discovered the legendary Halls of Amenti in a “vast city” beneath Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza — a wild theory that has perplexed archeological experts who dismiss the claims as “fake news,” to quote a moronic Trumpism.
Italian and Scottish scientists studying the pyramid of Khafre say the “groundbreaking study has redefined the boundaries of satellite data analysis and archeological exploration,” according to spokesperson Nicole Ciccolo.
PHOTO: A 3D model was created displaying the newly discovered structures inside the central part of the Pyramid of Khafre (Khafre Project)
Aptly named the Khafre Project, Corrado Malanga from Italy’s University of Pisa and Filippo Biondi of the University of Strathclyde in Scotland led the expedition to discover the Giza Plateau’s second-largest pyramid.
Tomographic images showing different feedback results could indicate internal artificial structures under the pyramid in most recent discovery made public (Khafre Project).
Scientists said they located five small room-like structures inside the pyramid using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology. One structure contained a sarcophagus mistakenly thought to be the Pharoah’s Tomb, the team said in a press release.
The group claims the five structures — previously unknown before the images — were found in the center of the pyramid.
The newly discovered structures are connected to pathways that lead below the surface and are believed to expose hidden rooms and wells underneath the 4,500-year-old world wonder.
Electromagnetic signals were turned into phononic data that unveiled larger infrastructure leading down thousands of feet underground.
The eight large, vertical structures — theorized to be wells or shafts — are thought to extend over 6,500 feet across and 2,000 feet below ground.
Researchers didn’t reveal the use of the larger structures that stretch below “ground zero” but plan for further analysis and possible excavation to verify the “artificial nature of the structures.”
The project used two satellites 420 miles up in space to send down radar signals that “photographed” the pyramids, according to the Daily Mail.
Data was compiled into images to create a rough copy of what is believed to be below the pyramids, including the eight wells.
The hollowed structure consists of spiral pathways leading down further underground.
The group used the data to make a rough 3D model estimating what is believed to be hidden from the world’s eye.
“When we magnify the images [in the future], we will reveal that beneath it lies what can only be described as a true underground city,” Malanga said, according to the outlet.
Skepticism and accusations that the study was a hoax arose when the project did not publish the information with any peer review from independent researchers.
Renowned archaeologist and Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass, promptly called the claims “completely wrong” and “fake news.”
“The claim of using radar inside the pyramid is false, and the techniques employed are neither scientifically approved nor validated,” he told The National.
Researchers created a 3D model for the giant “wells” that descend below the pyramid with a spiral pathway. The group used the data to make a rough 3D model estimating what is believed to be hidden from the world’s eye (Khafre Project).
One researcher at the University of Denver said the claims were “exaggerated” as the technology is not advanced enough to create such images.
Radar expert Lawrence Conyers said there is a likelihood the five smaller structures found just below the surface may be there because of the history of the area.
Conyers said the land was sacred to the ancient civilizations even before the pyramids were constructed, according to the Daily Mail.
The wild claims have contributed to a growing interest in the possibility of a discovery of ancient texts and other resources from Egyptian myths.
“A remarkably strong correlation between the layout and characteristics of these underground chambers and legendary Halls of Amenti as described in ancient myths,” Ciccolo said.
Radar expert Lawrence Conyers said there is a likelihood the five smaller structures found just below the surface may be there because of the history of the area. Khafre Project
The Halls of Amenti include the fabled Hall of Records, a hidden room believed to be underneath the pyramid complex or the Great Sphynx containing resources of information about the ancient people of the area.
“These new archaeological findings could redefine our understanding of the sacred topography of ancient Egypt, providing spatial coordinates for previously unknown and unexplored subterranean structures,” Ciccolo added
Something MASSIVE was JUST found beneath the Pyramids of Giza
(The InBetween) March 23, 2025: The InBetween OFFICIAL Podcast. What lies 648 meters (2,126 feet) beneath the Giza pyramids shatters everything we thought we knew about ancient Egyptian history. Eight massive spiral wells plunge more deeply than New York's Empire State Building is tall. Underground chambers could house entire skyscrapers. Evidence of advanced [space alien] technology existed 12,000 years ago, when Göbekli Tepe was supposedly built. The truth is stranger and more extraordinary than fiction.
MSN.com, March 23, 2025; The InBetween; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
(Democracy Now) Lebanon's Hasan Nasrallah committed the ultimate crime of agreeing to a ceasefire with Israel, so Israel had to kill him, illegally assassinating him for standing in the way of imperial war. Christianne Amanpour (CNN's Amanpour & Co.) reports.
Did Israel’s Iron Dome fail against Iran’s missiles? | Vantage with Palki Sharma
(Firstpost) Oct. 2, 2024: The Iranian military has claimed that 90% of its missiles hit Israeli targets. Pictures from Israel suggest Iran’s attack caused more physical damage than the attack in April. Did Israel’s air defense systems fail? Palki Sharma dares to contradict the IDF and its propaganda claims.
Israel Iran Conflict | Dictator | Warlord | War Criminal | Benjamin Netanyahu | Iron Dome | Iran | West Asia | World News | News Live | Vantage | #israeliranconflict #benjaminnetanyahu #irondomenews
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