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43 Things Got It Wrong

I took the 43 Things personality test for some fun, but 43 Things got it wrong. Easily done I guess, but the programmers made some erroneous assumptions when they coded it.

43 Things concluded I was:

“You are a Self-Improving Lifelong Learning Believer”

Problem is… I’m not a believer.

I’m not Christian. I’m not Jewish. I’m not Muslim.

As a Buddhist I have no hard cast beliefs apart from the fact that I am going to die. And this belief is not so much a belief as more of an observation. I have observed others and noticed they die. It seems to be part of the human condition. As I am human, I accept that I am going to die. That is the only belief I have.

Buddhism lays down NO beliefs. Buddhism deals with reality and suggests you look at things, observe certain events, both within and without. And follow certain practices which produce results.

In a way its almost like Science, except it isn’t.

Anyhow 43 Things got my evaluation wrong.

Go take the test yourself, see what it has to say about you.

What’s The Fuss?

I watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon the other night. First sat through this movie a few years back, shortly after its release.

For the recent viewing I was disappointed. The plot was weak. The characters were wooden, the settings and costumes were good. The fight sequences were excellent, highly polished and drilled to perfection. On the whole its not a movie I would recommend.

I found the whole flying around like learner pilots a little hard to swallow and felt it somehow detracted from the viewing experience. I know its a Wuxia thing, but I felt it was overdone.

I checked reviews out on a few movie websites and was taken back by the rave reviews it universally received. Maybe the movie has aged, since its release in 2000? Nine years is a long time in cinema.

If you want to watch an excellent movie in this genre, I recommend “House of Flying Daggers”. I did a post on a while ago.

Not recommended.

Runtime: 120 mins

IMDB Info

Tell It Like It Is

Q: Is truth important?
A: Yes

Q: Why is truth important?
A: Cos “Truth is reality”.

Q: Is it okay to tell white lies?
A: No

Q: Why not?
A: Cos your distorting reality. Creating your own version!

Q: What’s wrong with that?
A: That’s not reality as it exists. It’s not reality as it happens. It’s how you would like reality to be.
( Isn’t that what the insane do, in an extreme form? )

….

Q: What about fantasy, fairy tales, myths and all that stuff?

A: These are true also. But they yield from a different place. The dream world. The world of Myth.

A dream is a dream and you tell it like it is.

Its All The Rage

I came across a few sites, mostly so called psychics that offer Karma Cleansing. How is that possible? How can you clean your Karma? Its not possible to consciously access the Karmic seeds stored in the Alya-Vijnana – the Unconscious, so how do these so called Psychics perform the cleaning?

Karma Cleansing 1
Karma Cleansing 2
Karma Cleansing 3
Karma Cleansing 4
Karma Cleansing 5

Karma itself is in four parts:

1. Hetu – Causal Acts
2. Vipaka – Ripening
3. Pratyaya – Conditions
4. Phala – Fruits

Karma is Sanskrit for action. When you perform an act a thought or a word, whether those are good or bad, their seeds are stored in the Unconscious. These are called Hetu – Causal Acts.

The seeds lay dormant until they ripen and are ready to come to consciousness. These are called Vipaka – Ripening.

The Karmic seeds cannot come to be until they meet the right conditions, at which point they bear fruit. These are called Pratyaya – Conditions.

The ripening seeds Vipaka, on meeting the right conditions, Pratyaya, bear fruit and come into consciousness. This is called Phala – Fruits.

This is the stage at which people normally comment on having good or bad karma. They see the fruits of past actions and pass judgement on them as either good or bad.

The Cleansing

So, I would like to know at which point in the process do the psychics cut in and to the cleaning? Do they remove all the bad seeds? How do they differentiate between good seeds and bad seeds?

Maybe they do very little apart from some smart chat and take your money, then leave you on your merry way, believing your somehow better off than you were before you phoned them on their premium rate numbers charged at £1.50 per minute or £60 per hour?

Yeah, I guess thats how it works.

There’s one born every minute. So I’ve been told.

Cause And Effect

Brief notes on Karma. Karma is Sanskrit meaning action.

Karma is a key concept and a fundamental part of Buddhist philosophy and practice.

Karma producing actions take three forms:

1. Thought – Mind
2. Word – Speech
3. Deed – Acts

Karma itself is in four parts:

1. Hetu – Causal Acts
2. Vipaka – Ripening
3. Pratyaya – Conditions
4. Phala – Fruits

Vipakahetu – Ripening Actions
Vipakaphala – Ripening Fruit

There are places on the Internet that purport to help you Clear Your Karmic Debt, if thats possible. Of course there is as much Pyrite as Aurum. Don’t be fooled.

Violent Barbarism

A 16 Year old was given 50 lashes for wearing a knee length skirt in public in the city of Khartoum. To make matters worse, she was not a Muslim; she was a Christian.

It would appear that Islam lacks compassion, or this kind of practice would not occur. Maybe its this brand of Islam? I don’t know.

Its hard to believe such things happen in the 21st century We live in an enlightened age. Unfortunately some people still live in the stone age.

How sad.