Fwd: Why(Mach) What(T): Good Vibration

[Ian Livingston]

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> Date: October 16, 2021 at 10:17:17 AM PDT
> To: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Why(Mach) What(T): Good Vibration
> 
> With equal respect, David, you are right. There are many interpretations of the term, “enlightenment”, and even among adherents to the foundational texts of Buddhism there is a lot of disagreement. Mahayana practitioners pursue attainment to reincarnation as Bodhisatvas, so that they can help others escape the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, with the ultimate goal of ending the suffering of attachment that is the basis of rebirth. 
> 
> But, you are right particularly in that the little I know of all that is derived only from my few years in service to Mahayana monks, who also talked a bit about “direct path” practitioners of Theravada Buddhism whose pursuit was the straight way to enlightenment and release from the cycle of rebirth. 
> 
> I did some other reading about Buddhism on my own, of course, but I’m not really a student of any critical theory of religions, I’m just curious what draws people to religion rather than to self aware knowledge of what they can do individually to make the world a better, more cooperative place to live in as long as we’re here anyway. I often catch myself grinning and wondering how seriously folks such as TP, who’ve had so much more commitment to study than I’ve been able to muster, might read some of the verbal fistfights that break out among his readers. 
> 
> Always a pleasure seeing your posts as I lurk and learn. I take you seriously as a reader and thinker. 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>>> On Oct 15, 2021, at 3:47 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>> 
>> Respectfully, Ian, you are wrong.  There is no single goal with regards to “enlightenment,” a word with a multitude of definitions.  We could get into Tantrism, Zen, Dzochen, TCM, many  lineages of Buddhism, Shaivism, Sufism, Shamanism, etc, ad infinitum.  But we won’t.
>> 
>> David Morris 
>> 
>>> On Fri, Oct 15, 2021 at 6:33 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Actually, the goal is to attain enlightenment, ultimately to escape the cycle of rebirth. 
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> 
>>>>> On Oct 15, 2021, at 11:30 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> <IMG_0181.jpg>
>>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Mach-T is onto(logy) something:
>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>> “Why what.
>>>> 
>>>> The things that you do, the everyday things.  These are borne by, light.
>>>> 
>>>> What guides your heart, your lungs, your kidneys.  You can call it whatever you want.  Light.
>>>> 
>>>> There is an electric universe, that exists as pulsations of varying intensities.  Beyond that, consciousness.”
>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>> 
>>>> And I completely agree with him.
>>>> Everything is a manifestation of Light.
>>>> 
>>>> But what is Light?  Some, like Mach, say that Consciousness is the source of Light, the source of everything.  But many also feel another thing to which Mach also alludes:  Pulsations. (“There is an electric universe, that exists as pulsations of varying intensities.”). Between the Source, Consciousness, and Light, the “stuff” of which everything is made, is Spanda, Vibration.
>>>> 
>>>> Spanda (which means “small movement” in Sanskrit) is regarded by Kashmir Shivaism as being the pulsing, radiating energy that comes from the absolute or Supreme Consciousness (Brahman).
>>>> 
>>>> Or maybe light and vibration are the same thing.  Is light a particle or a wave?
>>>> 
>>>> Is Light a Wave or a Particle? - Ask a Spaceman!
>>>> https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=37&v=EP_XbyvmGEA&feature=emb_logo
>>>> 
>>>> Quantum Theory Made Easy [1]
>>>> Quantum Theory Made Easy,” a series in which the concepts of quantum physics are broken down, more in-depth than most presentations for laypersons, but without the mathematical rigour needed by a specialist in the field.
>>>> So, you've heard that light is a wave/particle. Now you get to find out how we know this!
>>>> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e5_V78SWGF0
>>>> 
>>>> And Mach’s grooving us all to The Who’s “Eminent Front (It’s a Put On)” was a sly way of telling us again that “Everything is (really) Light.”  One (scientific) way of seeing the world is to realize that everything we see is a “front.”  Some call it all an “illusion.”  That’s just a word, and all words fail in describing Quantum Reality.  The same can be said of Mystical and Metaphysical realities.
>>>> 
>>>> Just so you know (in case you didn’t), the ultimate goal of almost all eastern religions is to become “enlightened.” That means to experience first hand —not as a mental concept—  the true nature of reality.  Then, after one gets a flash of that, however brief, one tries to get back to that experience again and again, and to become “stabilized” in that experience.  And if one can learn how to remain in that experience through meditation, the next step is to “live” in that state, to walk around and function in everyday life in that state.  Believe it or not, we have some “normal” people like that who walk among us.
>>>> 
>>>> Happy Friday to you all!
>>>> David Morris
>>>> 
>>>>> On Fri, Oct 15, 2021 at 10:57 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Spanda is a Sanskrit term – “to move a little” (kimcit calana).
>>>>> 
>>>>> The term is a key concept of the Kashmir Śaivism monistic philosophy (ninth century), according to which the entire universe is nothing but conscious energy, and that everything in the universe is that consciousness expressed in different forms. Spanda can be translated as throb or pulse or vibration, referring to waves of activity issuing forth from an unseen source of spontaneous expression, emanating not only from the centre outward but from everywhere at once.