[December 4, 2022 Update: Originally published November 11th, 2022 it’s being republished with a new date due to recent podcast publishing challenges and requirements]
I pitched the October 30th, 2022 Insight Timer live event Practical Purity thus:
What’s the importance of true purity? How can we view purity and what can we realistically think, say and do to increase the purity rate from day to day in our everyday mundane lives?
1. freedom from adulteration or contamination 2. freedom from immorality, especially of a sexual nature
a Dictionary definition of purity
Some notes:
mind, emotions, body
optimal energy, perhaps some qualities like:
Balance
Stamina
Tranquility
Lightness
Softness
Flexibility
Uprightness/Authentic/Truthfulness
Proficiency
Puritan origins
Hellfire Club
How can this be transformed?
sex, sexual activity/energy
waking up in the middle of being emotionally entangled
(living) environment inside and out: cleaning, tidying, energetic hygiene
4 nutriments:
food
sense-impressions
volitional thought
consciousness
If fear based driver (activity) then energy will be fear based
‘setting the intention to increase purity and then being able to have the will power and desire to make the necessary changes, as hard as those may be’
Stargates are dual spiral pairs of electromagnetic fields that naturally exist inside planets and suns. The stargate pairs are configured in gender principle with a white hole and black hole pairing that intersects in their electromagnetic spiral in the direct center point where there is a crystal key or seal. The crystal key in the center holds the fire letters, key codes and intelligence for that dimensional spectrum and is what activates the electromagnetic spin in the stargate or portal system. When the stargate pairs activate, the crystal transmits dimensional intelligence and genetic codes and the white hole and black hole merge together to form an interdimensional counter rotating field, which opens into a passage doorway. This center point would be comparable to the inner still point existing inside the human lightbody. In the stargate system, the white hole and black hole merge into a counter rotational spinning field where its center becomes a still point or form constant that is generating the transtime portal.
Stargates are the natural mechanics of how the planetary grid steps down the solar plasma intelligence, higher frequency energies and electromagnetic wave spectrums transmitting from the Source field into the Sun, which is then directed throughout the many Stargates. The Stargates transmit an energetic spectrum of frequencies, moving from the higher to lower dimensions, in order to reach the matter fields and circulate them throughout the planetary grid network. Stargates create spirals of these energies, which are designed on a frequency scale . . .
“are from the God worlds that serve to stabilize the planetary merkaba shields under great duress, were placed during the crisis intervention that began the Guardian Christos mission of Ascension Plan B”:
1D Atlantic Ocean off coast of Sierra Leone, Africa 2D Atlantic west of Conakry, Guinea, West Africa 3D Atlantic east of Amapa, northeast Brazil 4D Algerian border, southwest of Ghat 5D Mid-Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda 6D Machu Picchu, Peru 7D Bay of Biscay, Spain 8D Aral Sea, Kazakhstan 9D Sardinia, Italy 10D Kashmir, Tibet 11D East Iran 12D Xian, China
(stepped down to support base 6 blue ray harmonics designed to support the mass Indigo population):
1D Adare, Ireland 2D Stonehenge, England 3D Seattle, Wash, US 4D Manhattan Island, US 5D Bali, South Pacific 6D Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia 7D Phoenix, Arizona US 8D Atlantic Ocean, SW of Bermuda 9D Antarctica 10D Baghdad, Iraq 11D Newgrange Ireland 12D Cornwall, UK
1 Malibu beach, Malibu California 2 Belize City, Belize, Central America 3 Goa ,India (1mile of SE coast) 4 Staten Island, NYC, New York 5 SE Tuscany, 7 Miles of Castaglione, Italy) 6 Fiji , South Pacific Ocean 7 Andaman Sea (7miles W of coast Tavoy) 8 Auckland City, North Island, N-Zealand 9 Lake Superior, Canada (2miles of coast Thunder Bay) 10 Hatshepsut Temple, Egypt 11 Epsom Downs, Surrey United Kingdom 12 Cork, Ireland
1D Stargate Sedona, Arizona 35° N, 111.8° W 1D Inner gate Cyprus 35.1264° N, 33.4299° E 2D Stargate Temple Mount 31.7781° N, 35.2360° E 2D Stargate Sarasota, Florida 27.3364° N, 82.5307° W – FPM [“the main access star gate of Sarasota is the controller of all of the other planetary star gates.”] 2D Inner gate Easter Island, Chile (Grual-Grail Point) 3D Stargate Bermuda Triangle 25° N, 71° W 3D Inner gate Johannesburg, South Africa 26.2041° S, 28.0473° E 4D Stargate Giza, Egypt 29.9753º N 31.1376º E 4D Inner gate Central Mexico, Aguascalientes 21.8853ºN, 102.2916º W 5D Stargate Machu Picchu 13.1631º S, 72.545º W 5D Inner Gate Vatican City 41.9029º N, 12.4534º E 6D Stargate Caucasus Mountains at Russia & Georgia border 42.639ºN, 44.155ºE 6D Inner gate Thar Desert at India & Pakistani border 27.47ºN, 70.6ºE 7D Stargate Lake Titicaca 15.9254º S, 69.3354º W 7D Inner gate Ionian Islands, city of Gaios on Paxos 39.2ºN, 20.18333º E 8D Stargate Xian, China 34.3416º N, 108.9398º E 8D Inner gate Lop Nur, border Tibet/China 40.1666º N, 90.5833º E 9D Stargate Tibet Autonomous Region, Bam Co Lake 31.25277778º N, 90.57861111º E 9D Inner gate Valley of the White Horse, Westbury England 51.26361111º N, 2.14694444ºW 10D Stargate Abadan, Iran 30.3ºN, 48.3º E 10D Inner gate Basrah, Iraq 30.5081ºN, 47.7835º E 11D Stargate Vale of Pewsey, Amesbury, Wiltshire, UK (Stonehenge) 51.1679º N, 1.763º W 11D Inner gate Ireland’s Eye, Irish Sea 53.404608º N, 6.063344º W 11D Inner gate St. Ives Bay, Cornwall, UK 50.211º N, 5.48º W (Grual-Grail Point) 12D Stargate Monsegur, southern France 44.65º N, 0.0803º E 12D Inner gate Kauai 22.16444º N, 159.65722º W
[12/10/2022 UPDATE: This post was originally published 1/23/2022. I recently discovered that at that time I did not include the audio file here for the podcast so I had to change the blog post publishing date in order for WordPress to push this out as a new podcast.]
Five short excerpts of some questions I asked from the 8/11/2021 Ajahn Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhuzoom event with Mid-America Buddhist Association about potential paradox with the Cetana Sutta; advice for preserving and/or unifying various Buddhist schools & lineages; strategies for fear of annihilation; on effort involved with vittaka & the relationship with vicara; and if there’s “Right Jhana” and the Buddha’s instructions for Jhana
The questions individually:
About the potential paradox of some suttas instructing various uses of will with the refrain of “no need for an act of will” in the Cetana Sutta: An Act of Will:
2. About pros and cons for both maintaining individual Buddhist schools and lineages and for unifying them:
3. I wonder about how to deal with fear of annihilation even if cognitively knowing this is an extreme:
4. I stumble with my question that I wrote before hand but didn’t read verbatim: How does effort for vitakka wax & wane? How does vitakka turn into, or allow, or go along with vicāra?
On effort involved with vittaka & the relationship with vicara:
5. On if there is a “Right Jhana” mentioned in the suttas and if the Buddha ever gave specific instructions for achieving Jhana:
Before recording this third installment of this ongoing live series inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion Wendy said, and I agreed, unless there are live questions we perhaps ought to chat about “how to practice with ambiguity, uncomfortable truths, people we love but don’t like their ways or words, navigating guilt, shame, humiliation, privilege. . . The problem of wanting to be good, right, ethical, when these are all one side of the coin, how to include the crappy stuff without avoiding it or being overwhelmed. How to rise to the challenge rather than rise above it to avoid the challenge.”
I replied, “the only thing amongst what you’ve mentioned I see and feel has been mostly hijacked for political purposes on both sides is “privilege” so while I can still obviously address, this comes as low preference. All the others are all engines go with preferences weighted to meditative contexts.”
We talk about some of what Wendy laid out prior along with live questions about the two truths teaching and if playing saxophone can be meditation. Amongst many angles of approaching our primary topics of (real life) ambiguity and uncomfortable truths, we also touch on flow state(s) as well as the importance of delivery, tone and body language when communicating.
*There’s naturally an ongoing open call for meditation (related) questions for the (roughly) monthly “Meditation Q & A” either by the various social media means listed; integratingpresence[at]protonmail.com or just showing up on Insight Timer live or Wisdom App to type/ask live.*
Regular, current and past visitors to Integrating Presence may recall the monthly series “Ask Us Anything” I did with Denny K Miu from August 2020 until January 2022 — partially including and continuing on with Lydia Grace as co-host for awhile until March 2022.
For a fewmonthsthereafter I did various Insight Timer live events exploring potential new directions and/or a continuation of the Ask Us Anything format while weaving in other related teachings to these events.
Then, after chats with meditation coach Wendy Nash, it became clear to start a new collaboration similar to “Ask Us Anything” simply and clearly called “Meditation Q & A” especially due to the original intent of the Ask Us Anything’s being “discussions about meditation and related topics.”
We did not start with brief instructions along with a discussion beforehand as I mentioned on this blog post earlier, but we did hold a discussion afterwards even though it’s not on the recording.
The recording starts off with a body scan then we get into awareness practices of mindfulness of body, feeling, mind, mind objects, and awareness itself followed by the sublime abidings of loving-kindness, compassion, vicarious joy and equanimity.
And for completeness sake, for a description, I edited in a starting mediation bell as well as doing significant noise removal, loudness normalization and equalization.
Although it is now somewhat listenable, it still leaves a lot to be desired. For reference, one can hear the unedited persistent hiss of background noise after the ending bell, but that’s only one version of it as it changed significantly a few times as these noises can when recording live in a public space not specifically designed for audio.
Anyway what I guess I’m getting at is if any professional audio engineers would like to donate their time and expertise to cleaning up the audio please reach out at integratingpresence [at] protonmail [dot] com and I’ll send the source file.
Overall though the meditation was well received in real life and on Insight Timer live. I have even been invited back right away even though I may not return to do so for quite awhile due to other positive life circumstances.
Audio: An Integrating Presence Meditation: Awareness And Sublime Abidings — December 15, 2022, At Rootbound
‘Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state.’
from the metta sutta
Does this line in the metta Sutta — ‘Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state.’ — mean action should be taken (to prevent deception)? If so, how and to what extent? (Deception often happens as protection or retribution, btw)
To further muddy the waters even some truthful statements can mislead, or can at least contribute to being misleading. Further, being (partially) truthful in certain ways, and in certain contexts — like combining misinformation and/or omitting other truths — can even shroud, coverup and/or obscure other truthfulness.
And what ought to be done if witnessing some being fooled without the conscious intent to fool? Here’s an possible example: someone’s zoom background image looking like it might be the actual real life background of what’s behind one in relation to one’s camera but it’s actually a custom chosen zoom background without any conscious awareness of potential deception. Or, I’ve been in the woods on zoom before and someone asked if I was using a zoom background image and I said no, and moved around to show it wasn’t.
I’ve also asked a few I suspected of being fools, “how do you deal with fools?” Is this a wise approach since I was ambiguous to whether or not I was accusing them of being a fool? It may have been more clear that I was trying to find this out though and/or glean wisdom from them.
Two zoom videos spliced together, largely unedited. The hemming and hawing about unfavorable conditions in the podcast audio version is edited out to save listeners time
In the second installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion we primarily address what meditation actually is while spiraling up, around and back on this topic to also include:
Examples of what is and isn’t meditation
Mind training
Intention
Stop being aware exercise
Consciousness
Awareness
Focus
Familiarity with the mind
Heart qualities
Wisdom
Aspiration
Development
Self-help
Addressing ego’s yearning for control
Vipassana
Investigation and inquiry
Samatha
Con-CENTration
Stillness in the eye of the storm vs excluding
Western notion of concentration being tight with a lot of effort
Jhana
Mind spaciousness
Pros and Cons of goals and attainments
Wendy’s practicing with viewing and responding to retreat organizers canceling and not returning all the deposit
Ego:
Positive ego
Negative ego
Superior ego
Inferier ego
Spiritual ego
Responses to the statement “Emotions are thoughts” in Wendy’s discussions with a meditator:
Dogs crying tears of joys for their owners after long separation
*There’s naturally an ongoing open call for meditation (related) questions for the (roughly) monthly “Meditation Q & A” either by the various social media means listed on the site; integratingpresence[at]protonmail.com or just showing up on Insight Timer live or Wisdom App to type/ask live. It’s cliché but there really are no dumb questions.*
Meditation Q & A Series Background
Regular, current and past visitors to Integrating Presence may recall the monthly series “Ask Us Anything” I did with Denny K Miu from August 2020 until January 2022 — partially including and continuing on with Lydia Grace as co-host for awhile until March 2022.
For a fewmonthsthereafter I did various Insight Timer live events exploring potential new directions and/or a continuation of the Ask Us Anything format while weaving in other related teachings to these events.
Then, after chats with meditation coach Wendy Nash, it became clear to start a new collaboration similar to “Ask Us Anything” simply and clearly called “Meditation Q & A” especially due to the original intent of the Ask Us Anything’s being “discussions about meditation and related topics.”
Thanks to Ellen for the great comments prompting some spontaneous teachings of sorts. I initially recommend a related podcast called “Ghosted, Ignored, Canceled?”:
I’ve seen and heard various other Buddhist teachings matching up with the Four Noble Truths [and if I remember any to significant degree and/or come across them again perhaps I’ll add them here] but it occurred to me the Four Sublime Abidings might also pair up with the Four Noble Truths:
Truth of Dukkha/Suffering/Stress/Unsatisfactoriness = Compassion
The wise response to suffering is compassion
Truth of the Cause of Dukkha (“thirst”, craving, and clinging) = Equanimity
Equanimity, the crème de la crème of the Brahmaviharas, and one of the highest, most complete, whole and total of the conditioned states of development is what’s called for overall when seeing, going into, knowing and eradicating craving, clinging and even the unwholesome roots of greed, ill-will and delusion/ignorance
Truth of Cessationof Dukkha = Vicarious/Empathic Joy, Rejoicing
Suffering’s final end, and even that this possibility is very real — with study, training and practice — evokes joy and rejoicing in oneself and to and from others
Truth of the Eightfold Nobel Path Leading to the Cessationof Dukkha = Metta (Loving-kindness)
Lots of loving-kindness — towards self, those we encounter and all beings — helps us better gain the capacity to abide well on a conditioned path progressing towards the unconditioned
This irregular “Dharma Questions” series deals with “dharma” meaning both the truth of the nature of reality and some Buddhist teachings. Please see this post on the intensions for questioning and not questioning. Amongst other things these questions can be, but not necessarily:
thought experiments
borderline musings not meant to be answered
from laziness of not contemplating or researching them yet
Could Asuras under the ocean, yet not water beings, be due to being below the water table, or could they be in the astral realm (as astral is often related to “water” and/or SEE/SEAing?
Could the Northern Continent be Venus?
Could polarity — or again, maybe referencing the astral aka distortion planes — help explain the stark contrast of the two versions of the Northern Continent: one being a paradise, the other about yakas taking humans from the southern continent with wrong view and making them slaves?
What does the “Nāga Sutta: The Bull Elephant” — about the Buddha and a Bull Elephant finding peace in a spacious forest — have to do with nagas?
If there are three characteristics of existence, what are the characteristics of non-existence, if any?
Could and ought various psionic/psychic research (teams) employing different methods and abilities be double-blind tasked to investigate some of the mysteries in the Sutras/suttas? Why or why not?
From whatever place on the wheel of dependent origination can the direction of movement only go one way? Can it go the other way, or be forked? Why or why not?
From one place on the wheel can its neighbors be seen and known? How many of its neighbors?
For example, from craving can feeling and contact be seen and explored in one direction and at the same time attachment and becoming be seen and explored in the other direction?
If remembering correctly the Buddha said something along the lines of using regular language without being fooled by it; what else, if anything, did the Buddha say about language itself, especially in the context of meditation practice?
In as much detail as possible, where (all) did the lineage of Buddhist nuns continue and where did it die out?
While there seems some shame in (popular) Christianity around original sin, in Buddhism is there (some unskillful) denial of a type of underlying shame in regards to ignorance (being one of the unwholesome roots to the cause of dukkha)? And if so, how ought this shame of ignorance be skillfully addressed without approving of ignorance?
What is the Śāriputra back story for this: ‘Now I consider that we must guard temple property even more closely than our eyes [It is said that Śāriputra] formerly gave his eyes to a Brahman and was greatly retarded [in his progress on the path].’ –from (p.15ish in one version) of Instructions for the Tenzo –Dogen)
Does samphappalāpa support papañca and/or vice versa? If so, how?
papañca: mental proliferation, intellectualism, (excessive) mental fabrication, obsessive mental construction. This obstacle often takes the form of excessive mental activity and reflection over matters which do not deserve particular attention.
Could the importance placed on mindfulness of the four main postures — sitting, standing, walking, lying down — be in response to many humans being dumbed down in consciousness and more or less trapped in a physical body?
If so, does this kind of play along with, and comply with, how such a seemingly simpleton activity mindfulness of the four postures is? All the while not fighting such a downsized limitation but using mindfulness of the four postures to master awareness while not upsetting the apple cart of those in power who benefit from dumbing down the masses?
What are the origin(s) of Chi/Qi/Life Force energy and when was this first written down? As far as I know, why is there very little mention of how Chi operates and functions in Early Buddhist Texts/Teachings?
Wouldn’t/Couldn’t the Dzogchen practice of prostrations encourage exhaustion leading to sleep and then the later instructions of “just relax” lead to an inclination of lethargy?
With, or without polarity (dynamics) is there any kind of relationship between (various states of) pain and (the highest bliss of) Nibbāna?
Further to consider: (how) would this question be answered differently if only merely tasting Nibbāna compared to all the various stages on through to full attainment of Nibbāna?
What are the roots, the causes and conditions of the dukkha of non-becoming (and the same for the dukkha of being and becoming)?
(Do these differ from the three (poisons/)roots of greed, ill-will and delusion/ignorance? Why or why not?)
Did beings responsible for (Earth’s) human origins [as put forth in the Aggaññasutta https://suttacentral.net/dn27/en/sujato] realize that a human birth is necessary for Buddhahood? What was/is the karma involved for either realizing this or not?
How do/does Āyatana(s) — “sense base”, “sense-media” or “sense sphere;” (defined internally as “organs”, “gates”, “doors”, “powers” or “roots” — defined externally as “sense objects” or “domains”) — relate to modern “scientific” notions of dimensions as well as the notions of densities and dimensions in some other spiritual teachings?
How does the perceptual process work?
How do some seem to have diminished and expanded perceptions?
How all can perception be engaged and discarded?
What is wise perception?
What are some of what psychologists would consider “triggers” within — and more specifically applying to — Buddhist communities? If any, how ought such tiggers be viewed and addressed?
How might it be skillful and wise to consider extrapolating and applying the four right efforts to not only the present moment but also notions of future and past?
Can one, and ought one if one could, remove and prevent probable unskillful states in the future that would likely be in the way of maintaining and generating skillful states?
What about generating and maintaining certain skillful states to more expediently remove and prevent (foreseen and/or likely) unskillful future states?
How can the four right efforts be applied, perhaps via imagination, to the past as a whole and/or for particular past times and situations/occurrences?
Could there actually be an immediate rebirth with(in) the (so called) (Tibetan) bardo period with such a rebirth being like a sort of temporary being with a short lifespan (and/or a super critical stage of consciousness) before the next more substantial rebirth?
By “critical stage of consciousness” I mean: what happens to consciousness after shedding the body?
What are some other potential translations for Satipaṭṭhāna? How about [with “awareness” also swappable for “mindfulness”]:
“The Four Foundational Grounds for Establishing Mindfulness”
“The Four Establishments For Attending With Mindfulness”
“Establishing the Four Foundations for Attending with Mindfulness”
“The Four Foundational Ways(/Means/Methods/Modes) for Attending with Mindfulness”
“Establishing the Foundational Ways(/Means/Methods/Modes) for Attending with Mindfulness”
Establishing the Four Frames of Reference for Attending With Mindfulness
“The Four Essentials To Mindfully Attend To(/From)”
“The Four Essentials Of Mindfulness”
For the 7th consciousness in Mahayana Buddhism “defiled mental consciousness” or kliṣṭamanovijñāna does not polarity exist for this consciousness as in various gradations of amounts, levels and proficiency in/with/to/of discernment and selfing? Examples: very little defiled mental consciousness and quite a lot. Very little sense of a (defiled) self and quite a lot.
If so, and with widespread adoption — especially if mixed into governments — could this potentially become something like an IQ test where those deemed professionals with high levels of mastery over “defiled mental consciousness” become placed in charge of controlling those deemed needing help with “defiled mental consciousness” thus potentially resulting in a dividing, compartmentalizing, and hierarchical control structure that essentially works against emancipation of dukkha / stress / suffering?
How would such professionals with mastery be determined? By whom?
Integrating Presence 