Sherman Krebbs

From my own recent experience, I have found it is best to stare the trauma in the face. Don't try to run from it, or try to suppress the experience. Accept it and surrender to it. When the memory of the event or thing comes into your mind, let it stay there and go where it pleases. It is uncomfortable, but it will (hopefully) eventually tame itself. I am just a random person on the internet, however, so take my words with a grain of salt. Good luck.

I for one vote to close this thread.

Thanks for posting. A few personal musings on the first three: To me concentration is like a muscle. It can be trained, but you can't hold a 50 lb weight forever (well maybe Schwarzenegger could, but I cant, and eventually even he would have to let go) In my view, it is the letting go of concentration, like the relaxation of a muscle, that brings about self awareness. Unlike concentrating (i.e. using a muscle to hold a weight), it is possible to stay in a relaxed state for an extended period, but nothing lasts forever. And it is probably still necessary to train the mind through concentrative practice, else it turns into a couch potato. Sometimes it feels that there is a deeper, ethereal "knowledge" that transcends the analytical and linguistics knowledge of the mind. My intellect (as well as all other phenomena) are tools to keep me alive, which I can also use to connect with that deeper knowledge. I actually don't know what dualism really means, other than some sort of ghost in the shell conceptualization, which to me makes no sense. Here I am, what else is there which must be split in two. Surely there different components ( a heart, a brain, a nose, cells, mitochondria, molecules, atoms, particles, quantum fields...), but these all function as one thing or being, which lies in a deeper place than I have the ability to comprehend intellectually, although at the same time its presence is always right there on the surface. I have to talk about it like it is something else, but that is just an artifact of language since I am both the speaker and the object that is being spoken of. In a way, maybe everyone and everything is part of one thing working in cosmic homeostasis.

Perhaps my sarcasm was too subtle? : ) Maybe you need to question your need for a phone and electricity in the first place. If you want to get off the grid entirely, what you need is lots of wood. Fire is amazing. It can cook your food and give you warmth. It is also infinitely pleasing to watch as the flames twist and dance, much more pleasant than staring cross-eyed at an RGB LCD display (I have a theory that, with smartphones, human eyes will gradually evolve to get closer and closer together, until they eventually merge into a malformed cycloptic mass). You will also need food and water. I am not sure if you are envisioning something apocalyptic, but if not, you might invest in some chickens and a chicken coop. Otherwise, you might invest in a rifle and stock up on LOTS of ammunition. Finding clean drinking water will also be a challenge (more challenging that you would think). Culinary water is a vastly under appreciated convenience, much more so than electricity. Best to try to locate by some kind of spring, but don't tell anyone where it is, else you might end up using up all your ammunition. I am afraid that charging your smartphone may be the least of your worries in such a situation.

I live in Finland -- it would work great in the summer. In the winter just buy a hanging plant light, and put the solar panel under there... viola

as a place in time the roaring fire blazes flames that know no clocks

Please PM me if you are interested in becoming an initiate, although I must warn you that only the most dedicated of students have the aptitude to master the highest levels of secret abilities and powers that I have cultivated, if at all, and it will take a lifetime of practice and determination to learn the highest level of secret abilities, which I and only I posses. You may come to question some of the methods, particularly in the early levels of initiation, but I assure you, they are vital steps for you to be able to comprehend and understand the highest levels of secret teachings. I do not take compensation for my teachings, although I will send over my venmo in case you would like to make a contribution. While not required, I have found those who contribute are much more conducive to learning the secret teachings, and it is only by giving up all worldly possessions for this purpose that one is truly able to understand the highest level of secret teachings. I also accept bitcoin, and ether. All of my secret teachings are done in person. I keep a room at the Motel 6 in Reno. When you arrive tell them your there to see Bert. Please arrive in loose fitting clothes and bring lots of tissue paper.

Also having secret abilities and powers, I have found it is best to wear a cape. Wearing a cape is a great way to let everyone know that you have super secret super abilities. I also wear my underwear outside of my pants, that way I can better exude myself into the ether, without unnecessarily constraining my vessels. Like you, I have no patience for people who do not understand this practice. I pity them for their ignorance, really. They are ants, and I, with my cape blowing in the wind and whitie-tighties radiating in the sunlight, am the sole keeper of the true power of the universe.

calling Dick Tracy... for a tea and cigarette there's no mystery

Zero problems here in europe, but could there be issues with AI data harvesting (I blame lois). I have heard that is a problem for other sites.

Try licorice root powder. -random person on internet.

mountains topped with snow slumbering lords witness my quiet solitude

I always thought transcendentalism was a pretty silly. I mean who other than an overentitled rich kid can quit his job, move into his friends cabin by a serene lake in the woods for two years and sit around watching ants all day. Then he writes a book about it shaming others for having to work 9 to 5 just to keep food on the table. What a jerk. Reminds me of the record "we are only in it for the money" by Zappa. Transcendence is for people who go to love-ins to sit around and play bongos in the dirt, imnsho.

Few quotes I read about bön spontaneous presence, which I think is a complement to dependent arising. I don't have a great understanding between the two, other than dependent arising is more like a chain of occurrences, where as under spontaneous presence, all things arise from the same base. This was from a book "Unbounded Wholeness" by Ann Klein and Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.

Thanks for posting this. Interesting to me how much of life can be analogized with the flow of water. Reminds me of the book Siddhartha. Also, my favorite section of Zhuangzi was the guy who jumps into the rushing torrent and emerges unfazed on the other side. Ride the current, don't fight against it. Maybe you are the current. What is it about water that has this property? Is the movement of water a reflection of something deeper. does it matter? Is water magic? Do river guides have a better understanding of life based on their understanding of how water flows : ) ?