TheSongsofDistantEarth

ah, drew hempel...welcome back, Rapscallion of the Full Lotus...

P-5-P, a B-vitamin derivative: http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2010/may2010_Innovative-Strategies-to-Combat-Kidney-Disease_01.htm

If rainbow's for it, I'm for it

That's right, Joe Blast all you experts out there, watch out!

Yeah, the Market fixes and heals and makes all Wrongs Right. Down with the gummint!

I have nothing to say about this video.

Like many children, I was enlightened as a young child, then forgot about my being as immediate Awareness when I became an older child and started to identify with my thoughts, experiences, and the world around me. In my early 20's I experienced a re-living of that Awareness while on psychedelics, and that prompted me to 'remember' Awareness and to start on a path of spiritual pursuit. Now, many years later, I realize that there is nothing to pursue or to realize to become 'enlightened'. Only to live in Awareness, which is what I am learning to do. All the spiritual practices and pursuit of experiences only led to more seeking.

This will be a thread I would participate in...but why limit ourselves to the 12-Step model? Why not 'Buddhism and Addiction"? I have a problem with a lot of the 12 Step material.

huh?

I wonder how the bums generally feel about getting OLD. I mean elderly, debilitated, demented. I suppose if I become a Taoist Master, it would be alright, but otherwise it just seems weird and sad getting old. It really gets me when I run into someone I knew from my youth and they are middle-aged now and barely recognizable...(at 53, I don't have any grey hair or receding hairline, so I look pretty much the same as I did). I suspect a lot of us do energy cultivation as 'insurance' against the ravages of aging. Although I love old people in general, I have had the occasion to spend quite a bit of time lately in 'Old Folks Homes', i.e., nursing homes and assisted living, and there is a gradient of broken-downedness, from functioning people all the way to the living almost-dead. It's very weird to see humans warehoused like they are...I'd rather go out consciously than lose my mind and fade a-w-a-y

What's the best way to watch from the beginning?

"You will be a success in all you do in Life" Lucky Lotto Numbers 3,8,15,23,27,38,39

2012 is economic apocolypse...forget "Earth Changes"...can you feel it coming?

'Damn Thirsty' First The fish needs to say, "Something ain't right about this Camel ride- And I'm Feeling so damn Thirsty" -Hafiz

Friended, friend.

"Scotty" has no independent existence.

256 years on Planet Earth? Please, no...

[quote name='Stigweard' date='03 September 2011 - 08:38 PM' timestamp='1315107516' post='288 The prayer/invocation Fu Jyeo work on two basic levels. Firstly it is about bringing the mind back to ziran, naturalness or self-so-ness. By engaging these Fu Jyeo with a sincere and focused mind you are reestablish natural pathways and formations of the mind. The quality of the mind determines our thoughts and behavior, and also the quality of our qi body(s). And yes there is also the aspect of Fu Jyeo that seeks a response from the subtle realms. It assumes the ontology that life extends beyond the small spectrum of perception that we assume is reality. It furthermore assumes that there are subtle beings that "inhabit" these subtler realms either because they are naturally existing there and/or because they once living in the coarser sphere of life and refined their beings to exist there (see discussion on Immortals (Xian Shi)). So some of these Fu Jyeo are about petitioning these subtle beings to come and help with one's cultivation and spiritual progress. Sounds good to me! How come most of the rational world won't even permit themselves to consider that there is something beyond our limited perception, or what Science is concerned with and can explain.

Gurdjieff describes a way of self-develpment where one separates from the false self, sometimes called 'The Way of Blame'. One actually places oneself in a position to look foolish, rather than always trying to feed the ego, all done as a spiritual practice: "Friends of the false ego are foes of the essence. An essence friend is no flatterer and does not admire the antics of the inner fool. It was well said by the Sufi poet, Jalaluddin Rumi, that the friendship of a fool is like the friendship of a bear. He added, in another story, that even Jesus fled from the fool, saying: "I can make the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame run and raise the dead, but I cannot turn the fool away from his folly." 70) So the practical student of Creative Psychology learns to avoid those people and circumstances which encourage the manifestations of the false ego. Instead, he seeks essence friends whose aims are similar to his own. This does not mean that he lacks compassion or is excessively critical. He is simply a realist who knows his own limitations and does not propose to make a hard task still harder by deliberately fostering his own delusions. If a man really wishes to see his false ego, all he need do is to put that entity in a situation in which it looks foolish, contemptible, inept or unsophisticated. To do this deliberately, not as a means of self-punishment or as an excuse for playing the buffoon, requires considerable effort and constitutes an aspect of Outer Theater which is as profitable as it is difficult. The extent to which we identify with the false ego becomes painfully obvious the moment we attempt intentionally to place it in a bad light. The attempt may consist of nothing more than making a naive remark in a company that considers itself sophisticated or intentionally appearing not to know something one should know and actually does. This trick of playing dumber than one is gives insights not only into the structure of one's own false ego but also into the false ego of others, whose reactions (scorn, condescension, polite contempt or tolerant smiling) give a clear indication of where they stand on the scale of being. It has been said: "Only a very clever man can intentionally play the role of a fool." Shakespeare knew this. The whole of King Lear is a profound representation of the interplay between false ego and essence. The two aspects of man's psyche are dramatically juxtaposed against a background of storm and catastrophe; the conscious element deliberately plays the role of Fool while the false ego, in the role of the Mad King, struts and declaims in the face of the indifferent tempest, putting the blame for his misfortunes on everything except his own stupidity. Again and again King Lear (King Lear, IV. i, Laurel edition) confronts his mentor, but every time he fails to hear the message. LEAH: Dost thou call me fool boy? FOOL: All thy other titles thou hast given away, that thou wast born with."

Nothing to Do by Shel Silverstein Nothing to do? Nothing to do? Put some mustard in your shoe, Fill your pockets full of soot, Drive a nail into your foot, Put some sugar in your hair, Place your toys upon the stair, Smear some jelly on the latch, Eat some mud and strike a match, Draw a picture on the wall, Roll some marbles down the hall, Pour some ink in daddy's cap - - Now go upstairs and take a nap.

Mewtwo, I am not a programmer, but found that absolutely brilliant. Source?

Galantamind Apparently taking a combination of galantamine (a plant-derived Alzheimer's drug) and choline produces spectacularly vivid lucid dreams. You can order it on Amazon. I will report back with my experiences. Google for more background information.

Stuart Alve Olson lives in the Phoenix area and is connected to The Sanctuary of the Dao. If you've read his books, you know he's the real deal.