silent thunder

Bad religion is arrogant, self-righteous, dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists, scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith. They think they know the truth. ~Rupert Sheldrake

Hmm not scientific lairg. and... even among friends having a lark while hanging out casually... Venus is now a star?

While it's still my experience that there is little influence on the source of thoughts and emotions, in that i do not choose what to feel, and only rarely what to think; i do experience, at times, the ability to stop feeding into thoughts and emotions when they arise to not narrate into them and feed them, and instead allow them to fall away. Thoughts and emotions arise like waves and with a more yin approach, they fall away if not fed and followed. The Storyteller is perhaps the most pervasive and challenging aspect of mind in my experience. It seemingly effortlessly fills broad strokes and fine details of narration from tiny snippets of experience that subsequently feed a particular thought/emotion path. A thought arises, an emotional response is triggered, and the Storyteller brings to fruition a narration that if followed, prompts another similar thought which reinforces the emotion and this self feeding cycle becomes as a train, that once inertially powered can chug on indefinitely dominating my awareness for extended periods. Acknowledging without analyzing or judging is a decidedly yin process and one that is often experienced to be as elusive as it is effective. Though looking back over the last several decades i recognize a marked diminishment of feeding of the Storyteller. Of late, i find a recent persistent craving developing... to detach from the world and withdraw for an extended period in solitude from human company and society. i've always taken short solo retreats (3 -7 days) into the woods throughout my adult life, but lately, there is a sincere draw to pull away for a year or more. This will have to wait for certain life changes to occur. So the daily dance with the waves and the narrator continues, and i am grateful for the awareness at least that the storyteller is not a gauge of truth, nor reality, only story... and in this, there is an experience of freedom in observing and releasing rather than identifying with the generated story and being operated by it.

Folks are in desperate places, particularly of late. To know that there are some willing to prey on this situation, being wilfully misleading and hurtful... it is deeply disturbing. May those affected soon awaken indeed and be free of such malicious maya.

Bai

My pursuit of a formal meditation practice was induced by inroads made during my time studying Shaolin 5 Animal and Jeet Kun Do.

While reading this thread yesterday, I glanced over my shoulder at the tv my wife was viewing just as the detective in a BBC drama was holding up a dog collar with 'Bella' inscribed on it...

Life is sustained by consuming other life. There's no way round it. The decaying life in your gut at this moment, fuels your life force. On a lark, vegans, try checking the ingredient contents of your organic potting soil. Spoiler alert. It's not vegan, or vegetarian. Find your balance and live it, if you're able. Or think nothing of it and live as well. We manifest here, in this process that systemically requires we consume other life to maintain our own. Live in dissonance or not as you will. Currently my wife of 33 years can eat no food of any kind. It's been several weeks of next to no food being tolerated. No matter how bland or simple, without severe crippling pain and possible hospitalization. She's lost 35+ pounds and there's no sign of any beneficial response to the most powerful medicines available to treat the most chronic of cases of what she has... She's literally starving in our home from this disease and I'd give anything to find any type of life she could consume to support her life force at this point. Life is Life. Decay fuels Life. Without that, one whithers and decays themself. C'est la vie bitches!

Sublime desert guitar

I'm a proponent of attempting to say exactly what I mean and meaning precisely what I say. But this is never an excuse for bludgeoning people. There's always a way to share directly without abusiveness or bullying. I've grown intolerant of insensitivity, belittling or abusiveness played under the guise of 'just telling it like it is, or talking straight', or under any other guise. Caveat to 'being direct' without acting like an ass involves tact, thoughtfulness of speech and methodology in approaching how what is being shared, is offered. It is crucial that being direct is not used tolerated as an excuse to just go about being a bully about one's opinions and personal perspective in life. Implication and Inference are key. As in all interactions, context, intent and manner of sharing is utterly crucial. And seldom are we sharing objectively concrete information in life and here on the board. We each experience life from the center of our own awareness and in this all perspectives are subjective.

I witnessed the paper feat in person while on retreat at my first meeting with Zhou back in 2011. Very remarkable human. I'm grateful to be working with his teachings and to have benefited from his healing and guidance in promoting my own health. Zhou's teachings have aged well in my life and augment very beneficially with what I've incorporated from Wang Li Ping's Longmen Pai system.

Welcome.

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Well met and welcome JM.

Just the guy to follow Tom...

Only thing you forgot was the Chia reference. Classic intro mate. Welcome!

It's the targeted achievement of the operation revolving around succesful 'ignition' of a controlled fusion reaction using the 1.9 megajoule laser drive. This was theoretical prior to this achievement. Many assumed it could not be done. After 60 years of work by teams around the world, it's no longer theory. The engineering involved in turning this first step into a functional grid is likely decades off, but this step was crucial if that were to be a possibility.

This is rather gobsmacking to me. They were closing in at 1.3 return for quite a while, but now they've done it. Net gain in energy in a controlled fusion process. Truly an historic achievement: scientists at LLNL achieved a net gain in energy return passed the 1.9 megajule threshold. Decades of global pursuit resulting in success. I'm chuffed. Still a long road to get the engineering and infrastructure to handle and process it for major usage (and fight off the expectant surge of resistance to change), but this is a massive breakthrough and a huge achievement for our future. Fusion Energy Breakthrough - CNET article

Excellent progression and transitions in this set.

I used to think I had met a few 'normal' people in my life. Then in some cases, I got to know them better and realized, I was assuming. In a tangentially related way, I used to suffer from insanity. Now... I quite enjoy it.