Grab a partner or gaze into my virtual eyes while I gaze at the camera and we chat about the ins and outs, ups and downs, and knowns and unknowns of this beneficial yet sometimes intense interaction
Thursday December 9 — 3:33 pm Central
Distortions and Dreams
A 15 minute side glance at making New Years resolutions by exploring the barraging of barriers of distortions and the ups and downs of (some) dreams
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Is it helpful? Is it the right time? We’ll explore these guidelines for wise and skillful speech and share stories, challenges, insights and do some practice
feedback, self-containment and discernment as tools to further the practice of non-harming
non-aggression principle
Second Amendment
Gangster/Crony capitalism and competition as (subtle) harming
cooperation
disappointment with socially responsible investment funds and alternatives
corporate favoritism and pushing aside Mom and Pop businesses
change
constants in equations
three marks/characteristics of existence: inconstancy/impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, non-self
how expecting to achieve lasting happiness by arranging and maintaining external conditions to our liking is a set up for stress and unsatisfactoriness in the long run
logic and math as two tools among many for proving facts
epistemology and empiricism
approaching metaphysics with speculation, faith, and seeing and knowing for oneself
curiosity
knowing via the sense bases and if there’s anything beyond
investigation
the four roads to (spiritual) power
IntegratingPresence.com open call for podcast submissions recordings answering “What is light? How do you know?”
call for any corrections to/for this conversation
[NOTE: After spending hours editing I realized I likely did so with a version not recorded with a good mic, but with the built-in laptop mic by error. There’s a much higher quality backup version though. If interested in a better quality version to listen to, reach out and I’ll send the link to an unedited, unlisted YouTube version.]
Audio: (Knowing) Reality: In Conversation With “Beta Ray Bill”
On November 28, 2021, I held a 15 minute event concurrently on Insight Timer Live and the Wisdom app called “Towards Cognitive Dissonance Resolution” with the description:
One way to address cognitive dissonance is to simultaneously hold unpleasant, confusing, chaotic oppositions equanimously in awareness with kind intent to transmute into calmness and clarity for the liberation of all
Often using the pronoun “we” throughout to highlight community commonalities, I mentioned the similarities of “cognitive dissonance” and “paradox.” I then wondered if the definition of either of these words accurately portray the stuff of this semi-meditative practice involving simultaneously holding in awareness similar yet significantly different notions.
We start with the more emotionally neutral theme of transportation: planes, trains and automobiles, then get into the more spiritual spectrum:
flow — stillness
idealism — realism
humility — empowerment
I pause to drop in instructions to notice the amount of identification with each of the concept pairs as well as to notice the degree of clinging (to one over another); continuing:
purity, chastity — passion, procreation
boundaries — boundlessness
I pause again to speak on how I came about this practice and on coming across a recent teaching: what may seem like duality and polarity are actually “one,” but “not one and the same” — they’re at different locations on the same spectrum. Continuing again:
For this month’s regular open-audience, open-discussion “Ask Us Anything” — continuing discussions about meditation and related topics — Insight TimerteacherLydiaGrace rejoins Denny and I along with friend and practitioner Elizabeth Foster for a roundtable about embodiment coaching.
After introductions we speak much about the body and embodiment, especially in relation to experience and working with others. We continue sharing embodiment wisdom and beyond:
being in the body
integrative somatic trauma therapy training
dark night(s) of the soul
human design
dark ages in the Western culture, intellect, and information compared to Experiential Eastern approaches
polyvagal theory
social engagement system
“science of safety”
dysregulation of nervous system
wisdom of the body
Lydia’s body speak method
holding space, mediation, safety, consent, trauma
shame, guilt and self-doubt
intuition
being present to whatever is happening in the moment
Since I live right across the river from the ancient world heritage site Cahokia Mounds the place occasionally comes up in conversation. The two extensive articles below, with potential significance for many areas of reality, address subject matter not commonly propagated about the ancient earth works. I also toss in of couple of my visuals that are in no way associated with the authors work. I can’t stress enough to follow and support them. Please do so. If to relate Cahokia to subject matter on Integrating Presence, perhaps it’s an ease and heighten sense of body awareness, at least when when I visitWhat follows is for information, resource, research and original author support purposes only.
No that’s not Johnny Depp above as Tonto in the latest Lone Ranger movie, its a real historical picture of the Cahokia/Sioux bird man spirit/deity/ancestor. Click the image to see the historical source picture that was a black and white image with colour added.
What is the connection? What is a ‘bird man’? I have spent over a decade researching the American Indian mound builders, especially right here at ground zero. Nothing quite gelled here in my attempts of recognising star patterns.
Only recently I found out why. A cataclysmic flood appears to have washed away two primary mounds down to their almost invisible bare foundations lost in the wild vegetation growth. That upset all star correlation permutations, until January 2014 when they were shown in the lidar radar photograph that experts sadly missed.
From here the first ‘snowball’ effect occurred… it solved all the other North American ancient site layout plans including the most famous site of them all… Serpent mound in Ohio. It records a genesis of the first people of North America encoded in a clear message. This will be the grand conclusion of the article here at the bottom of the page.
The first American Indian ‘pyramid’ city of Cahokia as shown below, is said by many scholars to be not just their first major city in North America but it was so massive 1000 years ago that it was one of the top 10 largest developed cities on the planet ref .
If this claim is true then it is here where all the secrets lie, with its mound layout plan and with the artifacts found here.
It was a ‘pyramid’ building mound culture like the Stonehenge Barrow builder types in the UK and the sizes of the mounds compare with many average sizes in Egypt. This view below Looks from the direction of the primary solar mound I propose matching all the other star maps around the world towards the largest ‘Monk’s Mound’ and its lost causeway. The causeway was magically partially visible in the Google Earth 2005 image (that follows later) Just like their earlier counterpart ‘brothers’ the Maya, they placed causeways between the main monuments.
THE MISSING MOUNDS AT CAHOKIA… APPEAR
My book The Hidden Records, only had a short one page summary on the Cahokia Mound history sadly as it had absolutely no visible correlation with any star constellation at all.
It already had the bird man cult, star obsession and ritual matches as per many other ancient civilisations that I propose as Pleiades ‘star visitor’ ancestor civilisations.
To start with, the research claims by scholars on Cahokia on the layout plan and the history was strangely so conflicting that it clearly suggested the area with the mounds was either badly flood damaged and hence no longer clearly possible to conclusively categorize each mound. But as the years passed I periodically checked Google Earth images to see if they had newer or older overlays available to look for missing mounds.
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
“Lotus Flower — Padma – Symbol of Purity. Can be any color except blue
For the (early) non-personal Buddhist symbol of a lotus, why is it said a blue one can’t be used?
Are there any trickster(s) (archetypes) in Buddhism? Perhaps Mara or Devadatta? Why or why not?
Can techniques leading to a non-dual state also provide a condition for susceptibility to unwholesome mind control especially if and when discernment is inadequate? (For example, someone might say “oh that’s just an illusion, there is no separateness, since everything is one it’s all good.”)
How to best inform audiences that the great Mahayana teachings — or any teachings for that matter — are not:
to a certain extent, for pacification of past unwholesome actions
to justify, uphold and maintain (righteousness of) unwholesome/unskillful/unwise ideologies, beliefs, institutions, systems, etc.
for bypassing
for chastisement
for belittlement
for superiority
to be considered as complete, ultimate, and total unchanging teachings
to support past, present or future unwise lifestyles
(adult) bedtime stories
While this body is not me not mine what about other claims of ownership on it? [the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office claims the power to assign ownership of your DNA to private companies and universities who apply for patents on your genes….To date, more than 4,000 genes have been assigned ownership to corporations and universities by the U.S. patent office…. you cannot transfer ownership of something unless you first own it yourself]
Hypothetically, say someone without any meditation instructions chose the breath as meditation object, and without any further intent, how long then before one starts going towards Samatha-like practice versus Anapanasati? Would someone realizing awakening with the breath naturally discover Anapanasati the way the Buddha taught it? How can we know?
If/Since the goal of establishing/attending to mindfulness of the body is: “Thus he lives contemplating the body in the body internally, or he lives contemplating the body in the body externally, or he lives contemplating the body in the body internally and externally. He lives contemplating origination factors in the body, or he lives contemplating dissolution factors in the body, or he lives contemplating origination-and-dissolution factors in the body. Or his mindfulness is established with the thought: ‘The body exists,’ to the extent necessary just for knowledge and mindfulness, and he lives detached, and clings to nothing in the world. Thus also, monks, a monk lives contemplating the body in the body.” . . . Could it then be possible — since the Buddha clearly laid out six contemplations of the body in the Satipatthana Sutta quite sometime ago — that the (the various physical manifestations and beings associated with of the forces and armies of) Mara have deeply studied and carry out countermeasures against this? If so, would it make sense to keep an open mind about refining and expanding on these six body contemplations as well as considering additional new ways to continually achieve bodily insight of body to “the extent necessary for bare knowledge and mindfulness.”? Why or why not?
If/when (conscious) awareness of the boundless nature of the Brahma viharas (momentarily) lapses, do the Brahmaviharas temporarily cease being boundless? Why (not)? How is this known?
How did the Nagas get the teachings they gave to Nāgārjuna?
With all Buddha’s (psychic) powers and skillful means, why couldn’t he (directly) stop the battles/wars that he tried to stop?
Do the defilements have a discernible origin? If so, what? If not, why not?
Can seeds of/in alaya consciousness be destroyed? Why or why not? Where are these “seeds” stored and how?
Could the following be one reason the Buddha put such emphasis on mindfulness of breath: It is said by some that certain “higher” beings are constantly observing and monitoring every moment. What if we were one of those types of monitor beings doing the same to/with our breath from a place of (secondary) inbuilt purpose, power, effortlessness, and joyful duty — observing and monitoring our each and every moment with and through breath including breath itself? Also, if this human body is designed to confine the spirit and/or be tethered to it, could the Buddha have went along with this, not fighting or changing, but mastering it by what’s mentioned above?
Is waking up from being lost in thought(s) the only reference point for reestablishing mindfulness?
How and why does this sense of “I” seem to be bound to (the perception of) a/this body, instead of say a submarine, spring (time) or an angel wing?
What calls forth our (given) names (into identification)? And how? In other words, how do I know I’m “josh” and to say “josh” when asked for my name or someone says my name?
If truth is so obscured due to being entrenched, engulfed, enmeshed, and mired in deceptions — and next to impossible to ascertain in such a state — would it make sense to consider (propagating) more wholesome, skillful and wise deceptions in order to ween off such extreme deceptions to arrive at truth? Why or why not?
After participating in events and facilitating meditations at Fat Cat Longevity for quite some time now, I finally sit down with the care and wellness honcho herself Lisa Frey:
After participating in several online meditation circles, and facilitating my first one in September resulting in beneficial feedback, I wish to continue.
We’ll each bring our meditation experiences to interacting with one another and can then apply beneficial circling takeaways to deepen and enrich our meditation practices.
We start by taking on truth and presence as ground rules by refraining from speaking deliberate falsehoods while setting aside talk of past and future events and of folks who aren’t in the circle.
Additionally, for energetic cleanliness, we take self-responsibility for welcoming our experiences with acceptance while leaning into communication, relation and articulation.
Then, after a brief period for questions, and a few moments of silence, circling starts.
Without giving too much away, most of the circling involves verbalizing and mutually interacting with various mindfulness based meditation practices.
The practice wraps up with another short silence followed by a group debrief and ends with another moment of silence.
When presented with “The Pāramitā Challenge” I accepted and here we are. In addition to the Pāramitās or Perfections (or furtherance, development, or sometimes even something extending beyond your normal capacities) the challenge also includes precepts and the 52 Stages of the Bodhisattva Path and Bodhisattva vows.
So far, instructions are to journal contemplations resulting from observed intentions, opportunities, and actions to be generous, moral and ethical while arousing faith in the Triple Gem then seeing where/when confident and where/when in doubt.
For whatever reasons the first month I received was for October 2021, so I started recording right away and kept recording after receiving August and September. Therefore, while these first three months are condensed into one long recording, and still in chronological order for the listener, going forward recordings plan to be one month at a time until ending, thus spending a proper full month on each. While mostly very listenable, quality is sometimes less than ideal due to recording environment. I also edited out most of the silences between speaking to save on listening time.
I’ve not taken Bodhisattva vows, and so with little instruction in Mahāyāna Buddhism, apart from maybe a smidgen of the zen stuff, there’s the benefit of beginner’s mind is a nice way to put it. I shoot from the hip with a lot in this recording and will often use a Theravada lens and a lot of inquiry as I ponder out loud. It may come off at times as criticism and sometimes it may actually be, but these are mostly solo efforts at summonings what is really meant by the material.
“…people are prepared to transcend all moral boundaries to sustain their view and to fixate upon it beyond all reason. Beyond investigation. Investigation is considered a conspiracy. To actually try to find truth is considered a deviant occupation…”
Why even bother with investigation or inquiry? Perhaps inquire, assess and question with intent to lead toward true knowledge, liberation and the (long-term) well-being of all. Know the truth of the way things actually are and then align with truth to bring great happiness. But how and why does aligning with truth bring happiness? Maybe it’s time to investigate for oneself?
One of the primary draws to the Buddhadharma (for me) is the encouragement to deeply, throughly, and fully investigate horizontally, vertically, and beyond. “Ehi Passiko” is a Pali phrase meaning come and see for yourself — or, don’t take my word for it, you must look into and investigate so you know for yourself.
Some modes of investigation:
go to/discover the root (causes and condition(s)
the origin(s)
who (all) is involved?
discover and examine any and all (core) intention(s)
what is the gratification
what is the danger
what the escape
who benefits?
[revised and amended old tweet:] #ProTip: when investigating go to the root (condition), the origin(s) and who (all) is involved. Also discover and examine (core) intention(s) along with asking: what is the gratification, what is the danger, what the escape? Who benefits?
Let’s revisit a bit of an older blog post as a type of Buddhic apophatic chisel to carve a bit deeper into Why and Why Not to Question/Inquire (reposted here):
First and foremost obviously, zero harming
Not for denigration; to invalidate and/or say something is being done wrong
Not to challenge anyone’s knowledge
Not to discredit anyone or anything
Not to challenge authority
Not to promote one viewpoint over another
Not to upset the (surrounding) status quo and certainly not to divide
Not to test
Not for domination
Not for control
Not for distraction
Not for delay
Not to mislead or misguide
Not to disrupt
Not for uneasiness
Not to enact any agendas, known, unknown, or otherwise (other than valid reasons to inquire/question)
Not for grandstanding, gaining favor, merit, credit, or brownie points
Not to impress
Not to destroy
Not to uphold
Not to rebuild or reconstruct (from a place of loss or defeat)
Not for any specific changes
Not to prove who’s right and who’s wrong from a place of righteousness
Not in order to prove one’s doubt
Not for the requirement to receive an answer
Not for any unskillful, unwise, unwholesome reasons associated with modern day schooling systems aka educational institutions
Not to nitpick and get lost in the weeds
Not to leave others behind
Not to patronize and/or speak down to anybody
Not to dumb down oneself for a better chance to be under/overstood
Not to ask one thing but mean another
Not to personally prove oneself
Not to suggest preferences or desired outcomes without clearly stating them
Not to ask because one can
Not to be seen and/or heard (in order to be heard and/or seen)
Not for mere curiosity
Ven. Sāriputta said: “All those who ask questions of another do so from any one of five motivations. Which five?
“One asks a question of another through stupidity & bewilderment. One asks a question of another through evil desires & overwhelmed with greed. One asks a question of another through contempt. One asks a question of another when desiring knowledge. Or one asks a question with this thought,1 ‘If, when asked, he answers correctly, well & good. If not, then I will answer correctly (for him).’
By name alone buddhistinquiry.org is a great include, not to mention the vast knowledge and resources there
Some inquiry techniques:
practice of sitting with a question by holding it in awareness in meditation/contemplation/reflection and then inquiring about what’s behind and underlying each answer
feeling into the truth of something
zen practice of being the koan question
Related audio using this post from the Insight Timer Live event: ‘AskAnyone Anything? Live With Whom? Minor “Ask Us Anything” Restart?‘
1/ Fifth Awareness of the Buddha not mentioned? The other four are:
Unity of emptiness and presence
Unity of emptiness and space
Unity of emptiness and awareness
Unity of emptiness and passion
Almaas’s definition of self and its relation to anattā/not-self? How’s the elixir jibe with emptiness?
@soundstrue 5th Awareness of the Buddha not mentioned? 1)*Unity of emptiness* & presence 2)* * & space 3)* * & awareness 4)*Unity of emptiness* & passion
Almaas’s definition of self & its relation to anatta/not-self? How’s the elixir jibe with emptiness? https://t.co/l81Cw3tUgE
2/ Is there Neurolinguistic Programing (NLP) within Almaas’s material beyond circular, psychological logic when addressing non-dualism?
3/ There is potential in this interview for easy conflation between concepts due to repetition of (interchangeable) concepts in similar ways with (only) slightly significant differences that at times seem inconsistent.
4/ He lays out corresponding adjectives and concepts independently then also mixes and matches them in various ways. And by referring to “it” after several clustered terms it’s a challenge to know what “it” then references.
5/ A transcript may be helpful (because the audio conveys a type of mumble-blurring of words) as well as written definitions for (many appended) terms like nature; true nature; self; consciousness; individual(izing) consciousness; presence; fundamental presence; ….
6/ . . . knowing; spiritual knowing; texture of knowing; being; texture of being; soul; and person. I still want somebody to show me their person because I’ve never seen mine.
Questions: Could delineating between relative and absolute levels be helpful?
7/ While it is known to be rare is Almaas saying non-physical beings have zero chance of enlightenment? Isn’t there a sort of body, sense organs, and capacity of knowing and discrimination for some #nonhumans?
8/ If consciousness is pure how can and does consciousness express itself with the perception of defilement? Doesn’t consciousness and presence change? What about clinging to consciousness?
9/ Why couldn’t (a) soul change? Why use the analogy of an organism since an organism changes? How do some of these concepts relate to jhana absorption? Is mastery possible with never ending learning? How can there be a true, complete human being when possibilities are endless?
10/ Most of these questions seek to clarify his teachings because without such innerstanding initiating a more general inquiry is unskillful.
