Disagree with Tolle's recommendation to not judge thoughts

[mybubble]

Many Thanks.

As luck would have it the next random book I picked up explored this all in quite a bit of detail too. It seems quite a widespread view behind meditation; Oneness, Tao and Emptiness etc.

It made a lot more sense although raises more questions. The theme seems to be we come from energy and I can accept that, we all come from the same pot of energy and that makes sense too hence the Oneness. It did imply we individually and directly come from energy and no mention of the role of evolution as of yet. Gives me more to ponder...........

[JonW]

(Take) the cosmic interconnection of the Big Bang. We are all products of that primordial explosion. The hydrogen and helium atoms that make up 98% of the universe’s ordinary matter were made during the first three minutes of its existence. The hydrogen in seawater and in our bodies comes from that primordial soup. So we all have the same genealogy. As for the heavy elements that are needed for complexity and life, and which make up the other 2% of the universe’s matter, they were produced by the nuclear alchemy in the centre of the stars and the explosion of supernovas.
We are all made of stardust. As brothers of the wild beasts and cousins of the flowers in the fields, we all carry the history of the cosmos. Just by breathing, we are linked to all the other beings that have lived on the planet. For example, still today we are breathing in millions of atomic nuclei from the fire that burned Joan of Arc in 1431, and some of the molecules from Julius Caesar’s dying breath. When a living organism dies and decays, its atoms are released back into the environment, and eventually become integrated into other organisms.
(Trinh Xuan Thuan: The Quantum & The Lotus)

It's like you took a bottle of ink and threw it at a wall. All the ink spread. In the middle, it's dense. As it gets out on the edge, the little droplets get finer and finer, making more complicated patterns. You and I sitting here in this room, as complicated beings, are way out on the fringe of that bang. We are the complicated little patterns on the end of it. So we define ourselves as being only that. If you think that you are only inside your skin, you define yourself as one very complicated little curlicue, way out on the edge of that explosion. Way out in space and way out in time. Billions of years ago, you were a big bang but now you're a complicated human being. Then we cut ourselves off and don't feel that we're still the big bang. But you are. You're not something that is a sort of puppet on the end of the process. You are still the process. You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are. (Alan Watts)

We are all made of stars. (Moby)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1rFAaAKpVc

Cheers,
Jon

[mybubble]

Thanks Jon!! Some great quotes there. Easy to understand on the atomic level, I need to start working on feeling it too.

[JonW]

I'd recommend that you dip into a bit of Alan Watts, mybubble. He cuts straight to the chase with all this stuff.
Cheers,
Jon

[Jonaaaa]

Another thing that confuses me about Full Catastrophe Living is that JK-Z says we should suspend judgement when we practice. But he also says at one point that when we notice ourselves thinking we 'note what is on our mind, discern the accuracy of the thought, then let it go'.

Surely discerning content is judging?

PS - I have made two posts here which seem to bash JK-Z. I'm not, and I am continuing to work through FCL. His contribution to secular meditation can never be overstated. It's just that I find him damn-well frustrating at times.