TheSongsofDistantEarth

Could one combine BOUNCING and SHAKING? Just bounce without leaving the surface of the rebounder and shake at the same time...Might be awesome!

"Drawing inspiration from the 60's cross country acid-fueled journey by Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters, (except this one is powered by chi and french-fry grease), this rag tag bunch of awakened beings is up to some "serious fun" en-route to give their East-Coast compadres a 'metaphysical hot-foot'. Buddhists must ride on top of the bus on the luggage racks and will serve as wait-staff to the Taoist contingent. Breakfast will be served by Vajrahridaya and Sunya, a couple of derelict 'dharma hobos', and will be Taoist Toast with khechari nectar. Wearing burgundy colored Snuggies, the bums are on the road with merriment and hi-jinks aplenty. Innocent people in small town America along the way getting more than their fill of "indian burns, underpants snuggies, and Three Stooges style whoop-de-do in their faces". Run out of several towns already in Caifornia, ringleader Blasto's stated aim is to "find Drew Hempel, wherever he may be, and if unsuccessful, to bring out the 'inner Drew Hempel' in everybody..."

Interesting reaction, Twinner. Why the hostility?

Blasto, you're much more aware and tuned in to reality than your average father-to-be. I think that the Taoist Eco-Village is the best alternative, but it's still a long shot for survival, long term, if the shit really does hit the fan. I would find it torture to to be I. Your position, with what you know and with a little one on the way. But then again, I tend to be extremely pessimistic about these things.

Yes, interesting, except who are 'they'? And please don't tell me "the Rothschilds".

Exactly.

That's my take on it. Made me appreciate life more, but that period of my life remains deep Mystery to me.

Sure seems like Mother Earth is not very happy right now.

For a period in my life about 15 years ago, I would have very, very vivid images of several scenes and experiences of myself dying. One involved being in a horrible car wreck, and experiencing the surreal altered state of that moment being played out. I knew exactly how this would feel, and it wasn't the physical pain that frightened me, but rather that of a violent death. I experienced the energy state of that, experiencing psychological states that I haven't in real life. I would shut down the playing out of the disturbing images almost reflexively, with a sharp intake of breath and sudden freakout level fear from this 'vision' I was experiencing, so I did not allow it to play out further to find out what came next. I would have this several times a month, and I questioned whether it was just a vision, or was past life, or belonged to someone else, or was a premonition. I had a bunch of other death stuff I was working with at the time, and there were weird coincidences too, at that time, such as a local guy with the same very unusual name as me (but spelled slightly differently) and same age, falling to his death in the mountains surrounding the city where I live. I turned on the noonday news one late Spring day and heard that 'I' had died my body was being brought down out of a canyon below a ridge by Search and Rescue. I then heard for several days on the news when 'my' funeral was taking place. I had numerous friends thinking I had fallen to my death, and my phone rang for a couplle days with freaked out friends calling to check if it was me. Weird. Especially since I had fallen 10 feet in a canyon myself in the same mountains while hiking alone a few years before and broken my arm. I had a frightening vision after that of falling of that boulder and breaking my leg or pelvis and not being able to get out, and lying there waiting to die (I had stupidly told no one that I was even going out hiking by myself). I somehow had an 'experience' of my own death, and at the time, didn't know what to do with these visions about death that I was having. All the death stuff came to a head the next year when I did a vision quest and had a transformative experience, and the day after I came out of the wilderness I received word that my mother had suffered a horrific stroke, and she died 2 days later with me at her bedside. I had an amazing experience with the vision quest that eased my fears, and these troubling visions left me after that.

Be wary of the tramadol. It's not a controlled drug, but probably should be. It's a synthetic stimulator of opiod receptors, and people can abuse it and get addicted to it just like opiates. Being synthetic, it's not as 'clean' as some opiates, and lower's the seizure threshold. Not a real great alternative to Vicodin, IMHO.

No worries.

OK, so according to this guy I know, dependent origination trumps everything else, there is no ultimate unity, and all of us with our different paths ultimately do not end up in the same place. I don't buy it. It sidesteps the issue of First Cause. Is there anyone here who can convince me that the view of dependent origination (upon which all of the Buddha's teachings rest) is the way reality is? If so, what are the implications for other religions? It therefore affirms that God (the First Mover, without a cause) does not exist. If only there was someone here who could clear all this up for us...

Ya Mu, what do you recommend for a work out with a rebounder? Anything special for a routine?

Ya Mu says he uses them and even is a distributor for the best brand. Maybe he could weigh in???

Emoto's work is crap science. It may or may not be real, but he has gone about it sloppily. It's drek.

Benzo's really suck as a long term solution for anxiety. I would try and get off them as soon as you can. That's a bad class of drugs.

Interasting thread, Blasto my boy. Slowly taper off the Vicodin, it's been nearly a month. How much pain are you really having? I would stick with Vitamin V for another 3 weeks or whatever, rather than going back to your D.O.C. Songs Formula clearly states Work at home guy + maryjane2 = Wanker (Computer x Internet) + pain No pot.

Blasto's back!

Mmmm...I do...and why is that so?

I'm not sure I agree with you totally about addiction being the "disease of self-hatred". I have to think about that. I'm not sure about the disease part, either. In any event, it seems to be about self-destruction, which can be related to, but is not the same as, self-hatred.

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.

I'm reading this book, and it's really good! Complete Idiot's Guide to Toltec Wisdom Very useful and surprisingly high level.

The deep psyche absorbs things on the pattern level, so on some deep level, that killer game you're playing has consequences. What about a VR game, where according to your senses, you are 'there', 'experiencing' what is happening in the game as your 'reality'? And they do have 12-Step meetings for gamers, eating and risk taking. Really. Can the hard-core gamers walk away from their machines and relax and read a book? Many can't. Saw some 'Dateline-esque' program about Japanese or Korean gamers who were as hard-core addicted to their machine experiences as any smoker or drug user is to their substance.