Jim D.

The energy level I expend removing facial hair is minimal. It projects a positive image to those that apprecaite a clean shaven look. One way or the other, I think that the way a person holds himself to include his posture and self image is perceived by others as having confidence and good self esteem.

I am in this moment of my life trying to open my mind to the possibility of learning about what was not interesting to me before I became a DoaBum. Bindi was most helpful in sending along a website that I related to very well. Every philosophy seem to have their own language. But when it all shakes out, It seems we are talking about the same thing and experiencing the same life.

Pardon me, who is the you you're referring to. There does not seem to be a quote in your comment. Brian, the picture that is being used to associate your name with you is very interesting, even disturbing. As I read this pictures feeling level he seems to be desperate in the moment where he is about to be impaled by a sword or a knife.

Right now I am listening to my body heal. Behaviors I was not so willing to perform a few hours before are not an obstacle. Sounds that were considered to be noxious stimuli to my senses are somehow bearable. My surroundings are coming into focus ever so slowly and subtely. It is almost not preceivable. Sleep is healing. It awakens the wholeness of me that is within. Like an awakening baby, untarnished by life's indulgences and cruelties. There is a pureness in healing...that which we cannot see...Is

For me, there is something about enlightenment that shines a light, if you will, or opens a door to what it is that I haven't seen before. Another way to express my thought is, I am not to know that which has been hidden until I will have become ready to hear it, see it, and experience it Spiritually.

For me, the answer given seems to be etheral or vague. I do not understand your answers. I respectfully am asking the question(s) because I do not have the answer. I am not asking about origin nor destiny. I am asking how is it that something that is discussed as much as it is be so unimportant as to not address questions about this phenonmena.

An associate of mine has said many times that the ego only has two purposes, "to hurt or be hurt."

I think that you are on to something blacstar212. It is stated somewhere in the Old Testament that when a woman had her mences, she was considered unclean until her cycle was over. She was to purify herself by bathing, and then be inspected by the "Rabi" in order to get permission to mingle with othes in her home group. Women who had their mences were isolated away from others so as not to defile them.

I will ask the question differently. Why is it important to feel Chi? Why is it important to get outside of the body? I have felt a "a field of energy" that seems to be between me and another person. But why is that important?

How is it important to feel Chi? How is it important to get outside the body?

She must be very unhappy.

What is "localized understanding." The experience of Chi is subjective and therefore non-measureable, as least for now. However, branin activity is measureable. Maybe someday humans will think Chi is important enough to study scientifically. Briefly, what is astral projectionn?

Fleshing out my observation of the weaker sex a little further, I am pointing to years prior to the Sexual Revolution experienced in the 60's and Pill. Prior to this eara, women were seen as 2nd class citizens by the men who were politically in charge. A good example of how society was represented microcosmically would be found in the weekly comedy "All in the Family," the most ground breaking and controversial sitcom ever to be produced in these United States. In my opinion, married men may be still living in the 50's where they were the boss. The wife was to meet his needs in and out of the bedroom, and the kids were to be seen and not heard. Some men strayed because their wives who were sexually inexperienced did not provide the kind of pleasure their husbands were desiring. Now this is not a blanket statement to be sure, but in my observations of the women I come in contact now, they report that they give in to their man "to keep him from straying." Or conversely, they are so engraged with his Neanthrathal approach inside and outside of the bedroom, that the've lost interest all together in having anything to do with him sexually. It seems that it will be a lengthy amount of time for this belief and habit of viewing woman as not good as to be unleared.

Great Balls of fire MH!!!!!!!!

I humbly submit to you my observation that men will give love for sex, and women will give sex for love. Women are basically "nesters" and men are basically "hunters" I think that over the evolution of the this planet to include humans, woman figured out that if they were to keep a man around they needed to be sexually available more often than their period of ovulation. But as time went on, Clans developed, tribes developed, cohorts developed, populaions developed and so on. What didn't change were the rules...if you want sex often than stay with me and our children. Since women are physiologically built differently than men they tend to be weaker physically...therefore the need for the male counterpart. A woman's only negotiable attribute is her willing to have, or not have sex with her "committed male." The word committed in this sense means emotionally committed. Moreover, it seems that the male has to some degree attained a certain degree of emotional sophistication. The nomadic male is still there within him, but has been evolutionarily suppressed through agreed upon norms, mores and cultural standards. Of course, there are always deviations from the norm which comes out in affairs, divorce, subsance abuse, gambling, sexual addiction. And this is the same for both females and males. It has been my observation that no matter who we as males, we have contitioned females to be what we want them to be. We have in a sense exploited them. They are however underneath, very interested in being cherished, defended, cared about, cared for, and seen as special. Sex has become a way for the female to get a lttle piece of the pie if it is offered by the male. In other words, if the female's only way to receive physical touch and attention is in bed, she will opt for it hoping the male will get her and what's she really wants and needs...that is communication.

I have observed within myself a phenomenon so strong that it takes every ounce of courage and presence of mind not to blame someone else to get the attention off me, and on to someone else. What happened to change from this to rigorous honesty was my facing the futility of my life. I was an utter failure as a man, a husband, a parent, an employee, as a decent human being. I was Spiritually bankrupt and on my way to the bowels of Hell through the grip of insanity. I did not want to die, be forgotten, or be institutionalize for the rest of my life. I was told by my Psychiatrist that what I had was untreatable. Suddenly, and in the moment I fell into a black hole of despair. I was frozen in time. There was no turning back, and no going forward...all I thought I knew was absolete and broken. I was the cause and outcome of my own suffering...

Right now I am feeling the pain where my teeth use to be. It is interesting that what seems to hurt the most are where the Novacaine shots entered the skin of my jaw bone. It is a paradox. Pain to relieve pain, but only to feel pain later. So, what I am listening to is my body telling me it has been traumatized. I didn't feel pain during the procedure because my brain did not receive the messages. But my nervous system did. I had a transient thought. What if the circumstances was radically different, and I were strapped into a chair immobilized...could not move my body, arms, or legs...and there were these two surgically gowned and surgically gloved young men ordered to extract information out of me through creative denistry. I have often wondered how I would hold up under torture. Not very well...not very well at all. In the past, the thought of it made me feel cowardly and ashamed. Today, I know better. John McCain cracked under torture as evidenced in his Book, Faith of My Fathers...A Family Memoir.

Through what practice? Please explain.

No, I am not tough. I am courageous! :-)

Spirituality is the how of our existence. Instead of being controversial, I would rather be honest. I really don't know what happens at the point of death, other than what I have seen happened to my father, and mother, family members and the elderly and not so elderly who were in the process of dying when I worked in Nursing Homes. Outside of these experiences, I only have heard or read about the question of death in literature created by professional, and not so professionals. Everyone seems to be guessing...searching. I don't think of death because there is so much more time left to live. If I had a year, I suppose I would be frightened at the thought that I would no longe exist in a while. I might look back over the years and pick out how I failed to do this or that, or be this or that. I might be afraid enough to go back to the Faith that I was born into hoping for redemption because surely I don't deserve it. Going back to my Faith would be a diversion, a way of coping with the inevitable. And even this would feel empty and raise doubts and unanswered questions. I would morn that some day soon I would have to close my eyes...no longer being able to open them and see my wife again. These are the realities I know and there will be no comfort until I make peace with the inevitabilty of death. I will not have to face death, until death faces me. I and I alone can only be the one to stand and look death in the face as no other can because I alone live in this body.

Right now a carpenter is working on a room right off my wife's bedroom. What I am listening to is hammering, drilling, and pulling of nails out of the old 2 x 4's...

It is comforting to imgine that our life will go on in a state of painless animation.

Well, I am back from the dentist. I did not have tooth aches before. But I did have granulated tissue, meaning a sizeable infection. The Novacaine is wearing off. So far, so good. Discomfort is minimal. I had two young Dentist students in their 3rd. year. They took very good care of me. They were meticulous and professional, and worked well together. I am not fearing that the teeth they took out are dead, because they are...Dead! So, I am not fearing anything right now.

Does anybody know the true story of Independence Day? Look it up...put it in your browser. Then take a look at the words in the Star Spangel Banner. I don't know about you, but I think most American People and kids see it as a day off, and an opportunity to see pretty displays of fireworks, drink a few, get laid, and call it a day...and wish they could sleep it off Tuesday when they have to go back to work. They might as well put in for a four day week and get some fireworks, brew, food and plan a "nooner" with the whomever every weekend, because that's as much as importance as Americians have placed on this Precious Holiday.

This morning I will have had two molars extracted. At this moment I am not projecting about will have happen. But as I drive towards the Dentist office, somehow my heart rate will increase. And by the time I sit his chair, they will take my blood pressure. I will not be surprised to see that it is a little high. And then the needle will come forward and into my mouth to inject Novacaine. If they were to test my HP it will have risen more, and I will have a grimmace on my face from the pain. But as the Novacaine takes effect, I will still wonder if there will be any pain. I will wonder throughout the procedure, and even after I am on my way home, I will wonder about the amount of pain I will be in once the Novacaine wears off. Fear is there to help us to survive. When there is too much of it, than it can be physiologically damaging and pathological.