Wax on, Wax off, Self on,  Self off, Don't forget to breathe, very important...



http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/elusive-on-off-switch-found-for-human-consciousness-140707.htm

Reading some other threads, coming across the ideas of re-birth, etc,  Which remined me of (here comes impersaonal associated thoughts arising), a quote, that I had thought was attributed to William Blake:

"Nothing lasts, yet nothing is lost.

So, we ponder, "here is this body, here is this mind", but from where does this arise, could this have existed before and exist after?

And, apparently all we are has existed already and all we are will continue to exist.


http://press.web.cern.ch/backgrounders/fourth-generation-particles




So "we stuff" has already been around, and will continue on changing and combining into new patterns, just like it is doing right now, in essence we are all sharing the same stuff.  Not even getting into the dark matter subject.

But , also, for consciousness to exist, it too has to be made of something, Mass and Energy, quarks and atoms, maybe stuff we as yet are unaware of.

But, do our patterns of consciousness come from times long gone and does it carry forward to the future?

If one has a past life memory, are you sure it is "your" past life memory, or just "a" past life memory.  (or sumthin' else)

Anyway, the quarks and electrons we are currently made of have been around for at least 13 billion years, "I" am older than "I" thought.  

Happy Birthday Everyone!

Psi Phi

Evidence builds that meditation strengthens the brain


http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/evidence-builds-that-meditation-230237



So, one could view meditation as exercise, for the brain.  And similar to bodybuilding, one could suppose that when one doesn't meditate, the gains one makes would atrophy, i.e. one would gradually lose the gains.  I think we often do not notice the changes meditation makes, as the process is gradual, but science is proving that there are real, positive and even physical effects of meditation. 

Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani Padme Hum.....

Psi Phi

• What do we know … of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have.
  • "From Beyond" Written November 16, 1920, published June 1934 in The Fantasy Fan, 1

H.P. Lovecraft

How does the song go - Cthulhu wants me for a dark energy beam ?

My personal take on "self" is that it is emergent - meaning it is a distinct phenomena made of simpler parts.  In the same way a painting is made up of three simple primary colors, a painting did not exist "in the paint" before it was made, and if you scramble up the colors, it wont exist anymore.  You can say all the parts of the painting are still there, but that misses the point of a painting - it's ISness comes from the arrangement of the colors specifically.  The painting isn't just the molecules it's made of, it's the pattern those molecules make.  When I die, or when you die, the molecules that we are made up of will still exists, but we won't because we are the patterns. Buddhism seems to be about allowing the pattern to recognize itself - a kind of death before death.

I've never really been clear how rebirth could be a part of Buddhism. Mahayana talks about "karmic seeds" which I take to mean that this pattern we are (our "self") causes other patterns to emerge elsewhere through our interaction with the world. When we are enlightened (or become Bodhisattvas, which is more the Mahayana ideal) our pattern causes other patterns to move towards enlightenment as well. The end of rebirth would be when everything is enlightened together.

Theravada seems to take a more practical approach that we are reborn directly, but then, Theravada is also more focused on anatta than Mahayana seems to be, so there's a bit of a conflict there.

Just pondering.

That which is beyond.  Is it that which is beyond that some humans try to line up with.  Is it that very thing , the ground of all that we are not aligned to?  It seems that we are , as humans, at times, out of phase, so to speak.  Say there is a background frequency to the Universe, and when we are not in synchronicity with this background frequency, it is then that we suffer and cause others to suffer as well.

Think of it, lining up the chakras, bare attention, PCE, centering prayer, jhanas, fruitions, HGA, all of it.  All of it,  humankind trying to line up closer to something beyond, beyond thought.It seems very important to be as sane as possible, for humanities sake.  Humanity as a whole are rather like schools of minnows, following and moving with each other towards one thing or another, or away from one thing or another.  Humanity can swerve towards warfare and abrupt violence, as can be seen in both history and the present.  But, knowing this tendency, can humanity also swerve toward an entirely new direction?  Can humanity, as a whole, be swerved ever more towards a more peaceful and harmonious way of living?

Is it thought that gets in the way of harmony with the Universe?  Why is there so much importance placed upon thought?  Where has it actually got us to?  Or got us into?

So, are we maybe like human tuning forks, when in tune there is harmony, when out of tune there is discordance?

And, like tuning forks do we harmonize with others, changing each others frequencies, so to speak?  As the saying goes do not underestimate the range of a buddha.  Or , as in Star Wars, Do not underestimate the powers of the Dark Side....

This may sound like fluff stuff, but really,but,  when one is in tune , in the flow, beyond normal thoughts, even in daily activities, the thoughts of contempt , jealousy, anger, resentment, racism, war, criticism, judgement, none of that, literally none of that arises, zero.

So, this harmony, for lack of a better word, does exist, it is beyond thought in the normal sense of the word, so how does one maintain and stabilize this?  And how does one pass this along?

To paraphrase from the new Lucy Movie, we are cells, made up of cells, and a cells job is to pass along information, that is what cells do.

Psi

That link appears to be stale (Error 404 - Sorry, this page has not been found.)
Any suggestions where to find the article?

This is Your Brain on Meditation, Brain processes more thoughts and feelings during meditation, study shows

"I was surprised that the activity of the brain was greatest when the person's thoughts wandered freely on their own, rather than when the brain worked to be more strongly focused," said Xu. "When the subjects stopped doing a specific task and were not really doing anything special, there was an increase in activity in the area of the brain where we process thoughts and feelings. It is described as a kind of resting network. And it was this area that was most active during nondirective meditation."

"The study indicates that nondirective meditation allows for more room to process memories and emotions than during concentrated meditation," says Svend Davanger, a neuroscientist at the University of Oslo, and co-author of the study.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140515095545.htm

New Scientist articles are usually behind a paywall, but here's the link:


https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329762-700-consciousness-on-off-switch-discovered-deep-in-brain/



Edit: nope, that link doesn't work either - the paywall refuses the connection.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/elusive-on-off-switch-found-for-human-consciousness-140707.htm


Here it is, from another source, same study, fixed OP link also.  Kind of weird to turn off and on our consciousness like this, huh?  

No thoughts needed here, No controller self needed, but thank the Lord for Impersonal Processes....  15 second video clip, really cool, Attack!!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRgq3v1W61w

Water World, or Venus here we come!

Venus is what happens when a planet has a runaway greenhouse effect, or so they say...


http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/01/21/watch-30-years-arctic-ice-melt-in-1-minute

Psi

Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta

Edit, To explain why posting this, as it may seem to be just noise and not practice related.  The reasoning being, if we, as humanity do not change the course of our behavior and the impact on the planet, there will be no one to practice anyway.

Game Over.