zanshin

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Don't like shoes, don't like cold feet, really don't like foot support. Still haven't found a perfect solution. Wear off brand Ugg type boots with no foot support whn it's really cold, my feet slosh around in them and I stay relaxed. Vibrams with Injinji socks are good. Altras or Vivo barefoot are good when I want something that looks like a normal shoe. And I like my Minnetonka leather soled moccasins. Real solution to probably move somewhere warm and stick to barefeet or sandals. Luna sandals are good. Blech, 4 or 5 more months of shoes.

Aww, I thought it sounded like Einstein. "What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of "humility." This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism."

Wish I'd learned better organizational skills, took a little study skills class in college and it was like the lights came on, using a calendar, planner, breaking down components of tasks and making lists and schedules. Also basic home and car maintenance. My dad always did this; he should have shown me how to do some things. Have learned a lot from you-tube though. You-tube doesn't yell or drop "honey, sweetie" stuff. Wish I could have understood adults and authorities did not always have all the answers, was raised to be very respectful and not challenge things.

I love the wrestling coaches. Evidently, it is a sport for short compact guys; I feel like an Amazon princess when I stand up next to them. I don't wrestle; my son does. Did aikido for a few months and that was the most testosterone charged martial arts class ever. I like aikido in theory, but those guys got on my nerves.

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Funny. My young friend told me he likes wrestling better than basketball because it is more fun to throw people than it is to throw a ball.

Do ask your housemates for advice them. Admitting to vulnerabilities like loneliness can be charming, of course too much becomes whining. But you have to connect with others to feel less lonely. Admitting you're a virgin for a 20 year old guy could be charming too, some girl is going be way into that, so don't pretend to be experienced til you are.

Bored maybe frustration not so much arguing. Boredom may be a bigger cause of disharmony than anger. Don't poke the bear, let sleeping dogs lie.

And sometimes there's rocks and weeds. I listened once in a while in church. Doing math doesn't seem to prompt bad feelings lIke religion though.

Nothing will grow if you cultivate and keep it in the light. If you bury it down in the darkness of the earth with just enough water, then this enables it to start to grow.

If you really wanted to know. Lower income people, who don't have health insurance, can usually fill out lots of paperwork and get their bills paid each state has a version of this program http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/cms/dsh.html Middle to higher income people really take a gamble without insurance, because you really do have to deplete your assets to pay the bill.

IF you really don't understand the implications... You wishing he'd cultivate harmony, whole(ness) and other good stuff implies perhaps you now think he's cultivating "bad stuff." It does come off as a subtle put down and judgement. There are alternatives, could be you don't think he's cultivating anything or don't know what he's cultivating and it's part of a nice generic wish for all people to cultivate harmony. I wish people would not be snotty and superficially nice. At least some times when people get angry they finally express how they really feel. We're taught anger is bad and should be repressed, so sometimes when it is expressed becomes like an explosion and gives anger a bad name. It really makes me mad! When I'm compelled by family obligations to occasionally attend church, I like to sit quietly and do math in my head. Usually more interesting to me than the sermon and it probably makes me unusual that I can be involved in a religious activity and have the right answers. (Because math has right answers and thus must be holy).

I probably have Raynauds to some extent (undiagnosed), my grandmother had a very bad case, her hands would turn almost bluish, then bright red when they got warm again. But Raynauds and lack of circulation not quite the same, Raynauds is due to vasospasm; it can be sometimes all at once almost painful in getting cold an in getting warm again. So things to try to force circulation to spasmy arteries really don't feel good. I can run 15 miles in 50 degree weather and my hands can still be like ice unless I wear gloves. Staying relaxed promotes vasodilation, so does staying warm. The think I find helpful is try to stay warm in the first place, dress warm, wear gloves when in the cold, hands and feet are connected, so keeping my feet toasty helps a lot, cashmere or alpaca socks are a cold weather staple and not itchy.

How would we measure what is connected to the source or who is qualified to decide that? We still need to define "source" and "connected." I really liked it when I first read it, but sort of same problem. But thinking on the first post, about a new car. A new car seems like a materialistic, perhaps even frivolous thing. But why couldn't it be holy?. If we have a life that involves a car then often we spend a lot of time in that car. Maybe we transport our family and friends who we have loving conections with so it does seem important to have some good safety features. We have obligations to meet so we need a reliable car. And if you think about the history of cars, there's been a lot of engineering and innovation in the past century, sort of amazing. A car can reflect who we are, maybe you have a "green" car, maybe a V8 turns you on, maybe a cool sound system makes you feel relaxed and happy. And again is awareness, maybe an old car you just drive and don't enjoy or think about it, but it sure is a pain when they break down. And with as much time as we spend in cars we should at least be aware to keep them clean and well maintained. Maybe I'm just rambling, but maybe a connection is awareness, when we bring our attention to ordinary things they really can be special.

I don't think he claimed either was better. How can you say that one is correct? You can't measure it so this is how holiness came about it. We can't prove it objectively, so people claim their way is right because it is from god and that makes the idea of holiness. A third way is experiential, which goes with the idea of actually feeling what your response is rather than thinking about what you should be doing or what people should do. And then our experiences can contradict when juxtaposed against each other, yet both be correct.

But back a couple thousand years ago, people much more commonly recognized the "holy" aspects of sexuality and abundance. Why did the religious and philosophical paradigm change to see emptiness and celibacy as "holy." If we want objective proof first we'd have to concretelt define holiness and then decide how to measure it.. Words like "good" and "holy" are inherently subjective, yet still value in discussing them; we also can't really define the value. Another trap to think we can define and measure everything.

This idea of holiness is based on idea that some things are special and set apart and more in touch with being divine and good. But do things have to be what we think of as perfect to be divine? Sex can be beautiful, but most of our currently popular religions certainly don't consider it holy. We can enjoy comfort and beauty for it's own sake though; it's not always about feeling superior or a deep down desire to procreate. Maybe easiest to see in natural settings, if you sat out in nature near a gorgeous waterfall, can you see how you could just relax and feel pleasure for it's own sake? Is a delicious meal less enjoyable after that charity came knocking and told you about the starving people? Sort of a mental trap for pleasure to always be wrapped up with guilt. We need awareness which comes from the body, often we override the heart and body with the mind and we don't really even know what we enjoy or don't enjoy because we're in stuck analysis and ideas of what people should do rather than openly experiencing our real responses. The mind's role is to temper things, but not to create. Is holiness in the eye of the beholder or is holiness a matter of consensus? Maybe nothing is holy, maybe everything is.

Stosh, that was a very interesting and fabulous explanation. I appreciate it although I still do not really understand it

“I mean that a typical spirit is basically like our unconscious mind. He cannot think deliberately, make decisions, or create. He is subject to whatever he has brought with him.” John was silent for a time, then caught my eye and held me with his gaze. “For example,” he said, “your father can remember everything about you. He knows that you are his son. He remembers holding you in his arms when you were born. What he cannot remember is what it was like to love you.” We were shocked, all of us. mmmhmm, and I can how understand how that is something a parent would want to remember and not forget. But, what about you guys? You don't want mates, children or attachments of a householder. No descendents will live on, you don't even seem to like this human existence very well. Why would you want the ability to remember what you never felt anyway and remain yourself when you're dead.

I like you theory. If you mix all different hues like paint you get black or a very dark color, but if you mix all the different colored wavelengths of light it turns pure white. Not sure if this has anything to do with the thread, but it seems odd how this can happen.

What remains is your children, friends and family. What sort of ripple will you leave in the ocean of time, peaks and troughs? Death spins the wheel, some going up and some going down, when it stops moving then all a dried up dead husk.

You're doing the same thing in reverse, announcements to all that it has to be your way. Again, I believe celibacy and spirituality is a valid choice and may be right for some. But you're an outlier, it's a lonely path, no? How are the public service announcements helping, pretty sure no one changing mind to renounce the world and eschew relationships. Perhaps a journal or narrative, you can tell us how you have benefitted from this path, what advancements have you made, what are the insights and feelings of a 99.9% evolved human?