TheSongsofDistantEarth

I found this article annoying, mostly because it is reactive (no, I am not a "New-Ager"). The article makes some valid points, but is not "spot on", as someone said. She has an accusing, self-righteous tone in this article. The truth is somewhere in the middle. I believe that there are lessons to be learned from life's hardships, including illness. The new age minister above was not wrong, but his timing was off. She needed practical help right then, later, perhaps some perspective. I also think that there is something wrong with the way we view disease, and often there is a taking on of an identity as a 'survivor'. Why do people continue to refer to themselves as a "_____ cancer survivor". If it were me, I would move on from that identity, and just live my life, instead of reminding strangers from here on out that you have "battled cancer" and won (for now, anyway). Why embrace that role? I believe that events are neither "good" nor "bad". Some things that happened in my life I thought were "bad" have turned out to be "good", and vice-versa (but then I stopped labeling them either way). From a perspective of greater time, one can see how there is really no "good" or "bad" event. There are spiritual teaching stories that allude to this. I have known some people who are fully in the role of victim, who continue to act and think in such a way that they continue to be victims over and over again, until something changes. For example, it's well-known that one's attitude and confidence affects whether or not a sociopathic individual perceives vulnerability and perpetrates a street crime on someone. I'm saying, learn how to step out of being victimized. So, what did Hannah decide her son's death meant? Anything? Nothing? He committed suicide, wasn't it that he had somehow (even if mistakenly) "chosen to die"? Hannah now apparently sees the world as a chaotic, random, frightening place, where things happen for no reason. So he committed suicide for a randomly? Could it be because of her parenting? His drug addiction? his unresolved sexuality? A Romantic world view? Or did it "just happen"? I don't know, Hannah, it would make me feel worse to believe that the world is simply chaotic, cold, and random. It's up to each of us to make sense of our life experiences through philosophy, or spirituality, or religion, or psychology, or science, or a mixture of all of the above. I think the concept of Karma evolved to try and ex[lain the randomness of life. But not all of life is random. You have a massive heart attack at age 53? Want to bet that your lifestyle, and your choices, and therefore your values have something to do with it? (Unless of course you have Familial Hypercholesterolemia or something related). You don't have to wonder why you 'created' an illness, but you can bet there are lessons involved in living (or dying) with it. So the article points something out that is valid, but overstates the case. Those people are not bullies. There are merely somewhat misguided, overzealous and perhaps insensitive. A bullies intention is to dominate and demean. I'm not sure I would call it hubris, either. I don't think things "happen for a reason", but later on, with hindsight, you can see that there often was meaning derived, or values changed, or a new direction, or a re-ordering of priorities, or a slowing down, or despair that led to suicide, or despair that led to a new strength and determination, and on and on... and so, there becomes a 'reason' (looking back) that something happened. The New-Agers need to practice presence and compassion, and avoid moralizing. Everyone likes to pile-on and ridicule some of the woolly beliefs and actions of New-Age people. But it seems to me their hearts are already in the right place...now let's not start bullying them!

I disliked that guy within the first 3 seconds of turning on that video. Big ego. I'm also amazed at the juvenile desire for siddhis, special talents that only reinforce the ego. I can't believe that some think "enlightenment would be nice, but wouldn't it be great if i just had these powers?!"

Are you guys nuts? Mankind's "survival" on an overpopulated planet means the end of nature. You have the 'carrying capacity', but without wild places, the biology and wilderness becomes dead. I would not want to live on an earth that has no real places of natural wonder to maintain my soul. We would all be lost, even if we could feed everyone (but the water issue is altogether different.) Anybody care for a Soylent Green Energy Bar?

*edit* comment moved to the other oil spill topic

Well, we always welcome any "special guest appearances" that you might be compelled to make here durkhrod!!

it's an interesting thing when a book of this much importance and value ends up dusty in a closet. We all seem to be prone to the next book, the next practice, and pass on over the treasure repeatedly. Ah, but at least it gets resurrected and dusted off and the treasure recovered. I did the same thing with this book.

Sorry to hear, would like to have heard about your upcoming adventures in China. But may I ask, why the announcement? Why not just move on, or come and go (or not) as you wish?

"Old Man" Contradiction?!?

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I probably bumped into you there once or twice. I don't know if there was a movie. Wouldn't have had the same impact as the story, though. That image of the dog at the end leaving his human to go back to camp is indelible in my mind's eye...

Our member TheTaoBum provided this link that should get you a download of Angel Tech: http://www.katzforums.com/showthread.php?p=2957016 but you didn't read it here...

Our member TheTaoBum provided this link that should get you a download of Angel Tech: http://www.katzforums.com/showthread.php?p=2957016

Every Tao Bum should read 'To Build a Fire'. It has a deep reality. And it is freaky. ralis, whenever I visit Santa Fe, I would make a bee-line to 'Blue Moon', that fantastic used book store on Montezuma that had a huge poster of Ramana Maharshi radiating love to the lovely woman who owned the store and her customers. I always found the best books there, and would come home with armloads of spiritual, metaphysical books, and would rent movies from her eclectic and interesting collection. Last year I went there and was stunned to find that there was now a different store and owner, no more 'Blue Moon'. Why does every good thing have to come to an end too early?

O.K., here's a wickedly good little sci-fi novel from the 70's that will raise the hairs on the top of your head by the end. It's pretty unknown, you'll have to order it online, or perhaps a good used bookstore... but it's well worth it. An un-discovered gem: Tetrasomy Two, a novel by Oscar Rossiter, is a first person narrative involving a psychiatry resident in a state mental hospital who discovers a very curious patient who appears to be totally unresponsive. When the somewhat high-strung Dr. Boyd discovers that a patient with the name of Ernest Peckham has never had a bedsore after being catatonic for 25 years, and has eye-blink intervals of precisely 43 seconds and every stool he passes weighs exactly 184 grams, Dr. Boyd decides to investigate deeper. The back cover describes the book as "a combination of Woody Allen and Michael Crichton" and they were pretty close. (Woody Allen was still creating comedies like Sleeper and Love and War, and Michael Crichton's claims to fame at that time were still probably limited to The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man). It's great read, and Dr. Boyd's narration steadily reveals a deteriorating psyche that keeps the book moving toward an astonishing conclusion. Whoa.

I loved Tom Robbins in College, and then there were years where I tried, but couldn't read him, the writing felt so baroque and convoluted and psychedelical, but then recently I can read him again and appreciate the brilliance. Jitterbug Perfume is one of my favorites, and I think it's time to re-read it.

Wow, those are some forbidding looking Magick-y titles on that site...are you sure that you aren't involved somehow with DARK POWER????

Hey, I just received an old copy of Radix today through Amazon. It looks reeeally good! From the back cover: "The awe-inspiring tale of a young man's journey of self-discovery from a life on the streets to near-godhood, it is an epic of the highest order, at once an exciting novel of conflict and adventure, and a deeply transcendent spiritual pilgrimage". Hey, that's sounds so familiar...wait a minute...it couldn't be...could it...no...could it actually be 'The Story of Vajrahridaya'???? Holy shit, ralis...stay tuned...

Booomp. Anybody still shaking??

I too, have a vast library. Perhaps we should set up our own book swap? Post what you are looking for and see what others come up with...

Check www.paperbackswap.com

I think sharing it privately with a few others is fine, like you do for a regular book. But posting it publicly for all-comers is not. Again, the author probably wouldn't mind if you shared it privately, pitching it up publicly on the internet is a big difference. In the eyes of the law, it remains illegal to post it without written permission, so it is black and white. Again, why not ask the author? Just because the content is digitalized, does not mean it ceases to be intellectual property.

[quote name='drewhempel' date='11 July 2010 - 08:30 PM' timestamp='1278909007' Personally I always thought piracy was if someone else was trying to make money off of someone else's product. But if it's free circulation then I don't see that as piracy. That's my personal view. OK, theft then. You are depriving the author to be compensated for his work. Do you really think he wouldn't mind? He's actually got a web-based business for his writing. It's not cool to distribute it, and it is also illegal. I would love to have that book as much as anyone else, but putting it out there for the taking is just plain wrong.