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Didn't think I was imagining it re Tao's point of view, ("classical atheist"). :) earl

well my cardiologist does want me to come in again since the blood pressure isn't sufficiently controlled. However, don't think I'll inform him of the reason I've been checking it twice per day after months of not checking it-i.e., my wife cluing me in.:) earl

2 out of 3 wrong. But I'm talking about nearly identical numbers that track each other up and down. If the merely conventional was occurring you wouldn't expect 2 folks to always be in synch with those numbers through the course of a day over a number of days. So, keep throwing out the...

OK, CZ-you Taoish fellow, explain the blood presure readings being essentially identical.:p earl

I've mentioned before here that my wife is a physical empath. Empaths are folks who somehow tap into others' emotional or physical states and, consequently, feel what they feel. In my wife's case, that means for years she will experience some physical symptoms and ultimately discover that that...

snoopy, here's to hoping your family health matter improves and will miss you. earl

Beg to differ I Brian, but agnostic implies relative uncertainty and seldom do Tao's vehement posts come across as uncertain and typically the most vehement ones are when he's suggesting materialist causes of phenomena. So you know that whole walks like a duck and quacks like a duck thing.;) earl

Perhaps those are "certainties" Avi, but we all know that when it comes to consciousness there will never be "certainties." There are suggestive possibilities. But, ultimatley all evidence related to consciousness-or at least interpretation of that evfdence, will remain as Breeze and I, (or if...

What Tao has never grasped-though Path of one used to go to great pains more patiently than me to point it out to him-is that he, indeed, very much holds to a view of what reality is. A truly open-minded individual, when confronted with experiences emerging from a variety of altered states...

Well, Tao, I believe the term he would tend to use would be "altered state" as opposed to "abnormal" state.;) Though, I'd suspect the brain is functioning differently when such states occur. At the same time, the experiences one has in altered states may or may not reflect a verdical reality...

Netscape Search Here's an interesting recent interview with the transpersonal psychiatrist, Stanislav Grof, who has spent his entire career on matters related to consciousness research. Even has some passing references to his views on survival of consciousness post-death Tao, not to mention...

Breeze, you might want to check out a thread I started some months back entitled "scientific fundamentalism," started simply because I'd noted that Tao does indeed stricty base his belief systems on what hard science can prove and he does indeed seem selective in the evidence he accepts for his...

Path & N-N, your ongoing dialogue/debate in this thread at least in part seems to come down to the differentiation between spirituality, (a personally meaningful, expereintially-based approach to spiritual development) and religion. Though, obviously, those 2 don't have to be at odds. But...

If he is leaving, I shall miss him. earl

A ways back NN posted pics & thoughts re prostration which is found in some form in many traditions and generally means the same in all of them. That is, though the outer trappings & forms of prostration may vary from tradition to tradition they're all intended to be a fomr of mentally...

Not in the mechanics indeed, Snoop. As you know the Buddha listed rituals as 1 of the 10 fetters to enlightenment when looked at simply mechanistically. But ritual done with the right mindset of course can be yet another upaya. In fact, I tend to think since the "active ingredient" in a ritual...

Well, Baba & Nick, while I feel for any job struggles, guess a bright side to your experiences is the wonderful opportunity to live in China for a spell. I'd think that was interesting.:) earl

welcome Baba. So how is it you ended up in China? For that matter, Nick, how is it you ended up in China?:confused: earl

Heck, I'm more of a leftist than Obama and I ain't a Commie.:p Actually, I think the Norwegians, (I'm fourth generation Norwegian-American myself), were probably rewarding what they saw as an internationalist perspective which was an attempt to tone down the American tendency in recent years to...

NN, those photos remind me of photos I've seen of Catholic priests and their ceremony of final vows. Just that they don't do them 100,000+ times.:p But goes to show that except for superficial changes in practice, there seem to be core practices that can be found in various religious approaches...