Apparently Buddha's back
Discussion
He's been sitting under a tree for the past 6 months......not done much yet, no miracles or any good stuff.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/27112005/80/nepal-probe-mys
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/27112005/80/nepal-probe-mys
some guy says said:
"We want to investigate claims that the boy has survived for so long without food or drink," Subedi said.
Bamjon sits cross-legged beneath a "pipal" tree, which is sacred to Hindus, with his eyes closed in meditation. He does not speak and followers are only allowed to see him from a distance of 50 metres (165 feet).
Oi! He's dead you bunch of t
ts 
I was wondering if this topic would crop up.
Took my time to get a reply together as I wanted something a bit more intelligent to pressent than, it's a hoax or it's not a hoax.
I actually don't have any problem with believing this story to be true, now of course, I'd like it to be true, but if it isn't then it won't disturb me too much.
There's an artical here :
www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,69700,00.html?tw=wn_story_top5
Detailing some talks the Dalai Lam has been giving in the US at the moment. Specifically that Western Science is waking up to the physiological effects that meditational practice has on the body.
I have a book here somewhere called Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism,
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/086171119X/qid=1133369829/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-9213826-2844619
To be honest, I've really never got past Chapter 2. Beyond there it becomes totally incomprehensible to me and because I haven't done the practice, and am not under the guidance of a Guru - I basically have no idea what it's talking about.
One thing though that is clear, to talk about meditation reducing stress levels and having physiological effects on the body is plain enough to appreciate by about page 4.
When you read about some of the abillities that manifest, described towards the middle and end of the book it's bordering on plainly miraculous.
My view on this is that with only Western Scienctific Philosophy as a view point, when you look to solve or investigate a problem generally the observer is looking measure an immediate effect.
An effective treatment for a disease is normally measurable in a matter of weeks if not days. When this doesn't happen, it is immediately assumed that the treatment isn't working and so something else is saught.
When you consider that it takes years of regular meditational practice to attain some of these higher states of mind then it is understandable the Western Science views it as Hocus Pocus.
Damn shame really, and I can't believe they put a petition together to get the talks dropped, just speaks volumes about how much we've still got to learn.
Whatever your view point, I think you have to appreciate that there is something quite special going on here, and I'm eagerly awaiting more news.
best
Ex
Took my time to get a reply together as I wanted something a bit more intelligent to pressent than, it's a hoax or it's not a hoax.
I actually don't have any problem with believing this story to be true, now of course, I'd like it to be true, but if it isn't then it won't disturb me too much.
There's an artical here :
www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,69700,00.html?tw=wn_story_top5
Detailing some talks the Dalai Lam has been giving in the US at the moment. Specifically that Western Science is waking up to the physiological effects that meditational practice has on the body.
I have a book here somewhere called Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism,
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/086171119X/qid=1133369829/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-9213826-2844619
To be honest, I've really never got past Chapter 2. Beyond there it becomes totally incomprehensible to me and because I haven't done the practice, and am not under the guidance of a Guru - I basically have no idea what it's talking about.
One thing though that is clear, to talk about meditation reducing stress levels and having physiological effects on the body is plain enough to appreciate by about page 4.
When you read about some of the abillities that manifest, described towards the middle and end of the book it's bordering on plainly miraculous.
My view on this is that with only Western Scienctific Philosophy as a view point, when you look to solve or investigate a problem generally the observer is looking measure an immediate effect.
An effective treatment for a disease is normally measurable in a matter of weeks if not days. When this doesn't happen, it is immediately assumed that the treatment isn't working and so something else is saught.
When you consider that it takes years of regular meditational practice to attain some of these higher states of mind then it is understandable the Western Science views it as Hocus Pocus.
Damn shame really, and I can't believe they put a petition together to get the talks dropped, just speaks volumes about how much we've still got to learn.
Whatever your view point, I think you have to appreciate that there is something quite special going on here, and I'm eagerly awaiting more news.
best
Ex
Whats this "Western scientific philisophy" thing? Science has no eastern/western bias.
There sure are lots of things we don't understand about the human body, no one claims that science fully understands this, science is a 'work in progress' with many discoveries yet to be made.
I'd be interested to know what can be achieved by meditation though... ?
>> Edited by scorp on Wednesday 30th November 17:35
There sure are lots of things we don't understand about the human body, no one claims that science fully understands this, science is a 'work in progress' with many discoveries yet to be made.
I'd be interested to know what can be achieved by meditation though... ?
>> Edited by scorp on Wednesday 30th November 17:35
scorp said:
Whats this "Western scientific philisophy" thing? Science has no eastern/western bias.
I disagree, for us, science is/was borne out of Western Philosophy - maybe we need to agree terms on what 'Philosophy' means - to me it is a belief system - a description and explanation as to why what we observe around us, is the way it is, and works in the manner in which we observe it.
Now, here, in my mind is a fundamental problem. As (and I think it was Linus Pauli - him of electron shell exclusion theory) once stated - "We are suspended in language".
We only see what our culture teaches us to look at. Everything else is filtered out.
The classic analagy for this is the Eskimos who have fifteen or so different words for snow and ice, we get by with 'snow' or 'ice' and possible 'slush'. The Hindus use the same word for rain and snow.
So now, if we take a look into some of the Tibettan Philosophy on the 'mind', we suddenly find a myriad of words, used commonly in every day language (not the high brow scientific stuff we normally see over here, where without a bit of a grounding in Latin you can be none the wiser), where these words are describing very very subtle changes in state of your mind and conciousness.
To them, the only way to observe and understand these states is through many years of meditational practice.
Along side this they gave up years ago in presenting themselves to western scientists and saying this is how it works, simply because these scientists, not only lacking in any laboratory equipemnt with which to measure such differences were at a complete loss as to even accept the descriptions of what was going on. Primarily because they don't have the 'cultural' sight to begin to accept that what they were being told might be true.
As I said, it's all been dismissed as Hocus Pocus. I have exactly this problem with my Dad, an eminent cardiologist, I simply can't talk to him about my first hand experience of this stuff because he simply cannot believe it, doesn't have the tools to measure it, and doesn't know the words to discuss it.
It's painful.
scorp said:
There sure are lots of things we don't understand about the human body, no one claims that science fully understands this, science is a 'work in progress' with many discoveries yet to be made.
Of course, this is plainly obvious, but my gripe here is that the method that 'our' 'science' (simply by virtue of it's very nature) demands in order to investigate, describe and document is likely be flawed, especially when it comes to the pyschological-physiological interface.
In fact certainly it is, otherwise our kids would be going to school and receiving teachings on psychology that would make Freud look like a retarded numbskull unable to count much higher than 10, whilst the rest of the class are solving calculus.
scorp said:
I'd be interested to know what can be achieved by meditation though... ?
Aye, every Westerner's dream. I've been there and asked the very same questions. The only option really is to go do the practice, when you do the practice the achievements become essentially irrelevent - in fact most of the 'miraculous' effects of which I made mention are generally seen as awkward side effects to the root development of understanding and controlling the mind.
I'm not too happy about posting much more of this on a public forum, some of it is extremely personal, a lot of it cannot be described until terms of reference and agreement on philosophy have been described. Invariably direct experience of the techniques have to be available to understand what is going on.
But if you are curious then go find a bookshop and spend a while looking at the book I posted above, there's plenty of discussion on mind reading, knowing of the three times (past, pressent and future), some of it is pretty 'far out'.
I'm happy to discuss most of this, but I'm wary of opening myself to the barrage of questions (and the enevitable riddicule I'll get through here) if I go much further, I simply cannot afford the time at the moment to craft the responses, so I might be a bit late back (The latest and greatest Inmarsat Satellite system (BGAN) goes live tomorrow and our customer Xantic will be the first in the world to go live with them - gonna be a busy few weeks ironing out any problems)
best
Ex
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