Sunmaster

1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

eth provides ideas.  Vedanta provides ideas.  Some ideas are the same and some are different.  Yet ideas is all that either offer.  Then given those ideas it becomes a matter of discerning which ideas are an accurate reflection of what reality is and how it functions.  What is clear is that two ideas which oppose each other cannot both be an accurate reflection of reality.  Therefore it is not a matter of better or best but one of accuracy.  One is accurate and the other is not.

Never heard of the parable of the blind men, each one touching a different part of the same elephant and each claiming to know what the elephant looks like? A tree trunk? A rope? A fan? A wall? A spear?
You say 2 conflicting ideas can not be both true. I disagree. Seemingly contradictory ideas may find a peaceful resolution on a new level they both transcend. Or are you saying you can see the whole of the elephant? How? By intellectual understanding??
How is it possible to squeeze the unfathomable, ineffable Absolute Truth into limited relative truth made of concepts and language?

5 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

Is that too deep for you?

Not at all. 
Goodbye. Come back any time. 

1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

 

I couldn't give your video a reaction as I can only give one.  So I have to reply to give it two reactions.
 

 

 

I'm starting to see more clearly where you're at with this.  Everything you write is pretty much verbatim of what the Swami talked about and what's talked about in this video.  The benefit of those videos is that the information is more structured than our conversations.  Our conversations are ad hoc in that we jump around from one specific idea to another.  That makes it much more difficult for me to get an overall picture of the idea construct of Advaita Vedanta, or any thought system that is more loosely or more tightly based upon it.

 

As I've said, there will be similarities and differences.  I give a thumbs up for the similarities.  But then there are other ideas expressed which, sorry to say, I find putrid.  I would consider those ideas to be conclusions which are reached from the experience of connecting with, say, your inner self which then become explanations, for example, for what our physical self is.  Those are what I call the distortions of the truth.  And in my most honest and humble opinion I consider some of those distortions to be quite massive and even detrimental.

 

Anyway, I need some time to sift through all of this information and organise my thoughts before I reply to your last posts and to this latest video.  I'll probably watch it a second time.  Maybe even a third.  I might want to watch some more of the Swami's videos.  Advaita Vedanta doesn't seem to be a very complex system of thought.  So far I see there are a number of basic concepts, tied together to make overall sense.  I say it's not very complex because there is a whole lot that's left out.  Hence why I bombard you with endless questions that I think become frustrating for you. 

Take your time and when you're ready, I'll be curious to hear what you consider massive and detrimental distortions. 

You're right though, on the surface AV is quite simple and boils down to 2 main concepts: A) Brahman is the Absolute Reality and B) Brahman can be experienced through self-inquiry and meditation.
It is also true that those wise Indian guys had 1000s of years to refine their explorations in consciousness to the smallest of details. You know how Innuits have something like 100 different names for snow? It's the same with the Indian definitions of all the nooks and crannies of consciousness. 

It is also worth remembering that what you hear from Swami Sarvapriyananda on YT is targeted at laypeople, not those who have studied Vedanta in great detail, and so the language and the concepts are presented in a way to be understood by those laypeople. 
I'm quite sure that whatever doubt or protest we can come up with, has already come up and been dealt with many times during the past few 1000s years. 

Sunday. A perfect day to relax, sit back and enjoy a Sunmaster approved video. 
If I'd seen this a couple of years ago, I would have saved myself a lot of typing.
 

5 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

That first reply wasn't enough?    I'm still on that one.    You're intent on keeping me busy the rest of the day. 

Pfff...says the one with the rapid-fire, encyclopedic posts. 

To see what intellectual knowledge without direct experience is, just look at Christianity. It started as direct experience (Jesus and Co., allegedly), but has quickly become an empty shell. Great to look at from the outside, but soulless inside. Why? Because the whole religion is built on the idea that we are worthless and full of sin, that we can't reach God on our own and need an intermediator. There is no focus on introspection apart from praying. Those that are supposed to teach us the way to God, have themselves no idea how to get there, so they teach the stories in the bible instead. Those that actually do have direct experiences within this structure are too few and have no real power to change anything. Christianity (but not only) is like a lifeless corpse, a zombie. 

The same can be said about all those lofty, highly elaborate ideas and philosophies that do nothing but perpetuate a self-congratulatory circle of intellectual self-pleasuring. Unless those ideas promote and are substantiated by direct experience, they too are lifeless and worthless.

Harsh but true.

32 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

Haven't you gotten the answers to those two questions from reading Seth's first two books?  I'm shocked that you're asking those questions.    Not really, as it does make sense.

 

Refocusing your consciousness might be better understood by replacing consciousness with awareness.  Your awareness changes after a six pack of beer, or smoking a joint, or taking a hit of acid.  But you can achieve the same without the alcohol, weed, or drugs.  You learn to change the focus of your awareness consciously and deliberately.  I had offered you the book of Seth's complete exercises in changing the focus of your consciousness, each such exercise geared towards a different end.  Have you gone through it at all?

 

It appears to me that Advaita Vedanta accounts for only two realities - the illusory physical one and the ultimate reality of Brahman.  I've seen no mention of any other reality.  The fact that this school of Hinduism believes in reincarnation then your reincarnational selves obviously don't exist in your current reality.  So, given that time is simultaneous then where are their existences occurring?  The idea of reincarnation then hints at the existence of other realities.  Granted, it's still dealing with only a single camouflage system.  To consider the idea of the existence of an infinite number of realities, certainly many other than physical, I would think that concept would necessarily throw you for a loop.  Consider that Seth has said that not all entities choose to experience our physical reality.  What about them, then?  Or are all entities engaged in the imprisonment in other realities trying to liberate themselves from their form of suffering, and perhaps their own cycle of existence in those realities, too?

 

 

I've asked before, what is Sunmaster doing in this world?  Did you come here of your own free will, of your own choice, or were you sent here against you free will?  And if you chose to come here then for what reason?  If you already are a part of God, or Brahman, then what's the point of having to endure suffering via however many reincarnations in order to rediscover your connection?  Is that any different than Christian theology's version in which God puts people on earth to prove themselves loyal to and adoring of God?

 

One of the greatest conflicts I see with the Seth material and Advaita Vedanta is this idea of moksha, which is the liberation from suffering and rebirth.  For one, the truth is that any suffering is self-created - you create your own reality always, here and in any other reality you find yourself in.  For another, liberation from rebirth suggests that a) you did not choose to come here, unless of course you're a masochist, and b) it's a terrible cycle of existence.  For what is the definition of 'liberation'?  You don't liberate yourself from bliss, do you?

 

I do believe you never went further with Seth because too much of it would contradict much of Advaita Vedanta.  Since you settled on Advaita Vedanta as your path then much of the Seth material cannot fit and must, therefore, be ignored.  As you've stated many times, needless intellectualization or superfluous details.  Or, as you yourself have stated, "I often have to re-read entire paragraphs because of the over-convoluted sentences."  What is straightforward to me is convoluted to you.  And perhaps Seth makes little sense if you're trying to squeeze his information into the framework of Advaita Vedanta.  But you credit Advaita Vedanta with, as Christians like to term it, "seeing the light," and granted that was a valid and even life changing experience, and so Advaita Vedanta must be the way forward.

The problem here is, your harking on about Vedanta this and Vedanta that, compare it to Seth said this and Seth said that... I only came to Vedanta because it reflects what I already see by myself and it clears up some points that were not as clear before. Seth did the same at one point. I say it again, I'm not an expert on Vedanta. How could I? I just got into it less than a year. So, if you're eager to compare notes about the subtleties of Vedantic philosophy, I would suggest you find someone that is more versed in it.
If you want to compare notes on spiritual practice however, then I'd be happy to offer you my point of view.

Without going into too much detail, I'd like to clear up some of the distortions I found in your post.
Yes, awareness is the better word here. Consciousness is what IS, awareness of this one consciousness is what changes. There are endless degrees (levels?) in which awareness can focus on and illuminate consciousness. No, I haven't had time to read the book you shared. I'm currently reading Seth's Early Sessions Book 3, but since I started with the art projects I didn't have much time to read. All in good time.

Adavaita Vedanta is based on a non-dual spiritual/philosphical idea. That means that Brahman is the non-dual All-That-Is beyond time and space...the Ground from which all else emerges. From that point of view it is logical that everything that happens in Maya (the world), including all incarnations and reincarnations, happen right here, right now.
What happens to the other of your selves that are incarnated? Who cares? What benefit is it to you to know about them? Why bother about something you won't find out in this lifetime, when there is still your own self that needs discovering? I would say, find the root of this self first, then you're more likely to find the answers about those other selves. Your own self should be the starting point before everything else.

If you already are a part of God, or Brahman, then what's the point of having to endure suffering via however many reincarnations in order to rediscover your connection? 
A common misconception. Why bother with anything if your true identity is already Brahman? Are you aware that you are Brahman? My guess is no. So, knowing it on an intellectual level and knowing it because you are that, are 2 very different things. We are here because we forgot who/what we are. Why? I explain it to myself with the analogy of the lonely child creating the finger puppets. Brahman creates Maya as a way to experience itself. You say Vedanta doesn't mention creativity. I'm not sure that's true, because what is there more creative than Maya itself? The cosmic dance of creation and destruction on the background of eternal IS-ness.....is the greatest conceivable act of creativity.

Is that any different than Christian theology's version in which God puts people on earth to prove themselves loyal to and adoring of God?
God, Brahman, Spirit....none of them need or require to be worshipped. The act of worship benefits you alone. It's an attitude towards the Unknown that allows you to tune in with it. Non-dualists don't usually worship a personal God, but they don't dismiss it either. If it helps you to reconnect, then why not.
 

1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

One of the greatest conflicts I see with the Seth material and Advaita Vedanta is this idea of moksha, which is the liberation from suffering and rebirth.  For one, the truth is that any suffering is self-created - you create your own reality always, here and in any other reality you find yourself in.  For another, liberation from rebirth suggests that a) you did not choose to come here, unless of course you're a masochist, and b) it's a terrible cycle of existence.  For what is the definition of 'liberation'?  You don't liberate yourself from bliss, do you?

"You create your reality" Which "you" is that? The limited awareness called Tippa? Or the "you" that is the eternal Self? 
What is suffering if not a limited awareness of All-That-Is? Not being one with All-That-Is means being separated. Of course, we are never really separated from it, nor are we never not one with it. The difference lies with the degree of awareness. Absolute reality (Brahman) and relative reality (our condition). Relative reality (RR) emerges from absolute reality (AR), it can not exist without AR. If you take away RR, AR will still exist. In that sense, which is "more real", more fundamental? AR is. 
A) How did you make the jump to this conclusion? You went to school knowing full well that you will have to take courses, difficult tests and tiring evaluations. You still chose to go to school, right? The reward was worth all the hardships, correct? 
B) Liberation....to free yourself from ignorance regarding your true identity. To peel all the onion layers until you come to the center. Once you reach the center, what will you find there? How is that terrible in any way?
You don't liberate yourself from bliss, do you?
Are you in a state of bliss right now? Not just happiness, I mean BLISS. No? What keeps you from it? Ignorance. What is the absence of ignorance? Bliss.

1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

I do believe you never went further with Seth because too much of it would contradict much of Advaita Vedanta.  Since you settled on Advaita Vedanta as your path then much of the Seth material cannot fit and must, therefore, be ignored.  As you've stated many times, needless intellectualization or superfluous details.  Or, as you yourself have stated, "I often have to re-read entire paragraphs because of the over-convoluted sentences."  What is straightforward to me is convoluted to you.  And perhaps Seth makes little sense if you're trying to squeeze his information into the framework of Advaita Vedanta.  But you credit Advaita Vedanta with, as Christians like to term it, "seeing the light," and granted that was a valid and even life changing experience, and so Advaita Vedanta must be the way forward.

I didn't stop reading the Seth material, but like you said: why reading more and more manuals when you already have the best one? 🙂
I didn't "settle" on any particular teaching, unlike you. Any teaching I follow or study, I do so because it highlights a particular question I have or focuses on a particular aspect of my own experience. Experience comes first, the framework (manual) is built around that. Not the other way around.
Seriously though, what I'm looking for now can not be found in any book, neither the Baghawad Gita, nor Seth not anywhere else. 

And perhaps Seth makes little sense if you're trying to squeeze his information into the framework of Advaita Vedanta. 
lol The same can be said about you, trying to squeeze Vedanta in the Seth material.

 But you credit Advaita Vedanta with, as Christians like to term it, "seeing the light," and granted that was a valid and even life changing experience, and so Advaita Vedanta must be the way forward.
Not quite correct. What I said is that the concept of non-duality as highlighted by Advaita Vedanta, made sense to me in understanding and integrating my own experience. The same way the Seth material did for another aspect of my experience. 
Again, experience comes first. No book or teaching can be a replacement for direct experience.
God can not be understood, God must be experienced.

Did I already mention EXPERIENCE? 😁

2 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

 

I wanted to bump this post because it hadn't received any comments.  Not that bumping it is guaranteed to get any.    Any thoughts as to the parallel I'm drawing between needing to change the focus of ones eyes  to see the image and refocusing ones consciousness to view other realities?  Not any different, I think, than imbibing in alcohol or smoking weed or ingesting drugs will alter the focus of ones consciousness.  Seth says . . .

How do you "refocus" consciousness? 
View what other realities? If we can't even see the whole of this reality...?

10 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

I just gave your post a 'laugh' reaction and was surprised to see another poster had already given it the same.  Not too many posters on this thread currently so I'm using the deductive reasoning module of my intellect to figure out possible culprits. 

It's the Bully Gang!!

34 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It's not an actual gutter ( just a figure of speech ), and it's enjoyable. I liked Pattaya, which could be regarded as a gutter city, I liked the bar girls etc. It's too lonely up there in the stratosphere.

I know what you mean.
In the absence of a deeper connection, we seek human connection in relationships or even just a meaningful friendship, and if that's not available, a casual shag in Pattaya will have to do.
There comes a point in one's life though, where these types of connections don't satisfy us anymore. They are just mirror images of a deeper longing that, no matter how deep the connection to that other person is, still seeks fulfilment. Then, if that longing becomes unbearably strong, you embark on a new journey. This journey requires you to become a hermit, not just physically but spiritually. It requires you to let go of those other worldly endeavors and face the unknown. It is indeed lonely up there in the stratosphere.
So why do it? 
Because you realize that "absence of likeminded people or meaningful relationships" is not the same as loneliness.
Because you reconnect to the source that puts all other forms of fulfilment in the shadow.
And once your feet are firmly rooted in that source, you come back to the world and you notice a big change in you. Those meaningful connections you were seeking in that one special person, you can now find in every person, any stranger you meet for 5 minutes. You recognize that the Source in you is the same Source in them, even if they don't know it/see it. 
You will not feel lonely ever again.

10 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I've no personal problem living in the gutter along with most of humanity

Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense to me.
WHY?!?

12 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

It's a looooong way to the top, though.  May as well read something to kill the time. 

Is Tipperary a sort of paradise in Tippers' world? It's a long way too...
 

15 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

 

Here's the link to the free King James version as a PDF.  What's the old saying?  One man's garbage is another man's gold.  Or is it the other way around?  You just might find some gold in it, Sunmaster.  ฿35,436.06 per baht.  It would be wise not to sneeze at that. 

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/The-Holy-Bible-King-James-Version.pdf

Thanks but no thanks. Too busy climbing those stairs. 

2 hours ago, fusion58 said:

^
 

Congrats - you’re a contender for the title of “poster boy for projection.” 😂

 

Wake us up when you understand the concept of “burden of proof” and have either empirical evidence or a sound argument for the existence of a supernatural being.

Thanks for enlightening me. 

55 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Reading the Bible helped a lot... 

Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.
(1 Peter 2:18)

If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity. 

(Deuteronomy 25:11–12)

You shall acknowledge no God but me. . . . You are destroyed, Israel. . . . The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.

(Hosea 13:4, 9, 16)

Thor would never have said any of this.

 

Sorry, not sure what you're talking about. I never read the bible and I doubt I ever will. 

13 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

Now pay attention, Sunmaster.  I'll get him to buy.  Now just sit back and watch a master salesman at work.

 

Well, now Purdey.  You see, the Christian God comes with a lot of bennies.  Onesies, twosies, threesies . . . what's your preference?  If more He's got 'em.  Imagine yourself laying on a cloud with these beauties!  For all of eternity.  One-time payment of your soul, is all.  Along with a sizeable up front cash payment.  Bitcoin accepted.  1Lbcfr7sAHTD9CgdQo3HTMTkV8LK4ZnX71  What other God is gonna give you a better deal?  Go ahead and take your time if you need to meditate on it.

 

(I think I hooked him, Sunmaster.  His eyes are all lit up.  )

 

 

 

I don't know about Purdey, but I'm in.

8 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

No wonder you've never made any sales with pitches like that, Sunmaster.    Ya gotta sell him on what's in it for him.    Why else should he pay good money? 

A-ight....you go talk to him. Show me how it's done. 
Let's see if you can get a "popular post" this time.

12 minutes ago, Purdey said:

While I see Odin and Thor are pretty good gods in the films, I know they are fantasy. 

I see the Christian god as a pretty negative fantasy. 

(Sunmaster puts on the white coat and apron and approaches the customer)

I compliment you for the way you worded that. Others would have simply said "It's all BS and you are all delusional."

The argument of "the Christian God" perceived as something negative is something we can work with. If we take the concept of the Christian God being a constant, what changes is how people perceive this concept. Some perceive it as uplifting, benevolent and loving. Others, like you, perceive it as negative, oppressive and cruel. 
The question now is, how did you come to this conclusion? 

2 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

All this typing is getting ridiculous.  Why don't we just have a three-way phone conversation and be done with it in a few minutes.   

What? And deprive the other posters and posterity of all these pearls of wisdom? That would be selfish and cruel!

3 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

Y'all are jez'a buncha bullies. 

We are strict with you because we care...like loving parents who want to see little Tippers grow up well and find happiness. 💖
 

Just now, Tippaporn said:

 

I'll commission you to do all the watercolours. 

 

That there is only Vol. 1.  Can't say how many volumes make up the entire tome 'cause I can't count that high. 

That is only the foreword and the table of contents...

2 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Tippers, the bright little boy laying on the couch, eyes closed, meditating.  Mother enters the room.

 

Mother [angrily to Tippers]:  What da hell is ya doin'?

Tippers [sheepishly]:  I'm a meditatin', maw, so's I kin alleviate mah pain - foreva.  Mah bestes buddy, Sunmaster, tells me it works good.

Mother:  Getcher goddamned ar$e off'a the damn sofa and do somethin' useful, like readin'.  Mah foot'll give ya a pain in yer ar$e thet ya can meditate on all the day.  And I don't eva wanna see's ya hangin' 'round thet kid agin.  He's a badun.  Ya hear me??

55555
Always listen to momma. Momma knows best. 

5 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

 

Naw.  How 'bout this:

 

Tippers' Book-Learning Adventures In Consciousness

 

That would tickle the kiddies' imaginations much more.  And it would inspire them to read, too. 

You can write that book and explain to them what consciousness is. Knowing you, it'll probably end up being a rather long book... 😁
Make sure you add a few pictures too. 

2 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

~ de gustibus et coloribus non disputandum,

and so I definitely will keep referring to you as Tippa instead of Tippers...

Also because Tippersporn invokes the image in my mind of a dirty old man providing tips at a shady Gogo bar to the girls...

I know: a dirty mind is a joy forever... 😁

How about this for a title? "Timmy Tippars and the Way to the Stars".