liminal_luke

@Limahong, I love the quote you provided and think it goes to the heart of this whole thing about wanting secret teachings. Probably I was a little harsh in my original post because the truth is I want secret teachings too. It`s such an easy trap to fall into. Thinking that salvation or redemtion is to be found in the extraordinary when the ordinary world around us is every bit as potent if only we`d appreciate it. Thank you. LL

There are teachers that charge a lot of money for Daoist secrets, and there are teachers who give them away for free. I don`t believe that the expensive secrets are necessarily better than the free ones but students who go to teachers who charge have the advantage of paying. When people lay out good money they respect the teachings, they practice, they get results. It`s the rare person who will bother with free teachings, gold though they may be. Still, it`s possible that someone will read this who has the rare intelligence, drive, and heart to take advantage of a free and open secret. Such a person could go to https://healingtaousa.com/ and sign up for Michael Winn`s free Daoist newsletter. An email would then be sent to that person`s email giving them access to Winn`s 130 page ebook on the Inner Smile. It`s fantastic. Healing Tao material gets criticized a lot -- and not for nothing -- but you can`t go wrong with the inner smile. Anyway, there ya go. It`s not LMP. It`s not taking something from someone who doesn`t want to be taken from. It`s taking from someone who wants to freely give you something, in exchange for allowing him to send you occasional marketing newsletters. (You can always cancel after you`ve read the book.) Enjoy!

For those concerned about hookworm and other hazards, minimalist shoes offer the protection of traditional footware while preserving much of the earthy, proprioceptive zing of barefooting. The brand I`ve tried is Vibrams but there are many others. I remember one glorious Vibram-clad afternoon soon after I`d made my purchase, traipsing around downtown Berkely and delighting in all the little sensations that I`d been missing for decades in my tennies. Trying to walk in regular shoes is like trying to eat right after a dentist has shot your mouth full of novacaine: you`re not gonna feel anything. There are so many ways that technology cuts us off from what I`ll call, for lack of a better term, the real world. Following societal norms, we lose touch with reality -- and then lose touch with the fact that we`ve lost touch. We think so many things are normal that aren`t. Sitting at a desk for hours at a time. Eating genetically modified vegetables that have been sprayed with toxic chemicals and grown in mineral depleted soil. Living at the mercy of our "smart" phones and Facebook notifications. Shoes. Many Bums are expert at various spiritual arts and sciences. We practice tai ji and stand like trees. We meditate on emptiness and try to feel the stripped-down nature of how things are deep in our bones. I`d suggest that this endeavor is hindered if we also spend our lives sitting down in an office, interacting with screens more than people, and eating food that comes out of a box. Luckily, there`s one simple thing that goes a long way towards reconnecting ourselves with our senses -- taking off our shoes. Barring that, we can wear minimalist shoes. It`s something worth trying.

I think I remember you saying you`ve been in a relationship before? I rest my case.

Why try to control others when controlling yourself is so much easier, not to mention more fun? That`s where I`d start.

If I`m remembering correctly, both Taomeow and Brian left in the wake of conflicts with fellow Bums over on the Trump Talk thread. Others feel differently I know, but I humbly suggest that Off Grid political conversation does the board more harm than good. I miss them too and would gladly forego all the Trump talk in the world for more Taomeow and Brian talk. (Edit to add that yes, I`m someone who often posts in the very thread I`m objecting to here. As one of my best friends often says, "we live in contradiction.")

OK, so I lied. I`m not moving to Kentucky. I am however fit to be tied over rental law in Portland, Oregon where I own a house. They`ve got this new law called "mandatory renter relocation assistance." If I decide I want to move back into my home or sell it, I`ll owe my renters thousands of dollars in relocation assistance money. This even though they are on a month-to-month lease. I thought a month-to-month lease meant that either party could back out of the agreement with a month notice. Well, not anymore. No matter how much notice I give my tenents, if I ask them to leave I owe them big bucks. It`s almost enough to make a guy vote Republican. (Not quite, mind you, but almost.) Jeez!!!

Nah, I`d pay the fee before I burned the place down, as onerous as it feels. The Kentucky part is slightly tempting though. Although I suspect I`d have plenty of other difficulties there, housing regulations wouldn`t be one of them. What`s interesting to me is the way that the law pits tenants against landlords. I`ve been a very easygoing landlord raising the rent only minimally and responding favorably to tenant requests. Now I feel like I need to up the rent the maximum amount (below 10% yearly) just so that they`ll decide to move out and I`ll be free from the burden of this law. Or else finding some small reason to break the lease "for cause" that I might not have cared about earlier. So a law intended to protect renters has the unintended consequence of making their lives more difficult.

No, the relocation fee is totally separate from the deposit, unfortunately.

The size of the relocation fee depends on the size of the rental. For a three bedroom home like mine it would be $4,500.

Thanks Aetherous. Unfortunately, those exemptions you pointed out wouldn`t apply to me. The house has been rented out for more than three years, and I don`t have an immediate family member who would want to move in (the owner or spouse of owner do not qualify).

Beats me. I think they want to protect renters to mitigate the problem of homelessness. That`s good in theory, but I would of thought owners would have the right to do what they like with their home too.

I often do "leangains" style intermittent fasting, taking in calories only during an 8 hour window daily. It`s pretty easy for me and helps with weight loss. It would be interesting to hear how the health benefits of ADF might differ from this and other styles of fasting.

T This is how I`ve mostly seen chicken roasted in Mexico. It`s delicious but what you`re describing with just chicken breasts, onions, and tomato all spit-roasted together sounds even better.

Hi GeologyGeorge, Here`s an article on arabic tacos from one of my favorite food websites, serious eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/how-to-make-mexican-pueblan-tacos-arabes.html. According to the article, Middle Eastern immigrants to Mexico brought with them the tradition of shawarma. Tacos arabes are similar but mostly use pork rather than lamb. LL

Daoism, as I understand it, requires tremendous faith. It`s not a doctrinal faith like Christianity, none of this "accept Christ as your personal savoir, go to heaven" business. Nobody will ask you to sign on the dotted line that you believe there are five elements that relate to each other as specified in Chinese medical theory. You won`t be required to carry around the Tao De Ching. At least not by me. What you do have to do is trust the earth. Years ago I took a workshop in Chi Nei Tsang, a form of bodywork based on Daoist principles, from Gilles Marin. He had everybody stand up and really feel way the ground supported us, to allow ourselves to sink further and further into connection with the ground with every exhale. Almost none of us go through life trusting the earth to hold us up. We tense up in fear, unwilling to give ourselves over to nature. If you can begin to trust the earth, other things will begin to happen. It takes a certain kind of faith to let go into the calm and stillness that will emerge. Do you have the basic trust to surrender to your own essential nature?

Hi Attis, I don`t have personal experience with the Spring Forest system, but, for what it`s worth, it`s always seemed like a safe and very reputable system to me. You might type "spring forest" into the search button. I bet you`ll come up with a lot of threads where more knowledgable Bums have weighed in on your question. LL

I liked this part and think it`s true. As a side note, how easy it is to misunderstand people`s intentions online. I recently accused another bum of "frothing at the mouth" because of how something he wrote struck me. Later I discovered I was wrong. Generally I think of myself as pretty good at interpreting people`s meaning but mistakes happen.

Tacos al pastor are done on a gyro style spit all over Mexico (pictured below). There`s also something called "tacos arabes" -- arabic tacos -- a specialty of Puebla. The meat for tacos arabes is also cooked on a spit like shawarma and piled into a thick pita-esque bread. I don`t care a whole lot about authenticity myself as long as something tastes good. My mom used to make the best tacos that we`d top with jack cheese and American style sour cream. Not very authentic but boy were they yummy.

Here`s a pic of the main drag in Zacatecas. It`s beautifully colonial in the center, not quite so beautiful outside the center. Ten minutes up the street from where this picture was taken (not by me, I just get it off the internet) there`s a hole-in-the-wall place, only open at night, with the best tripe tacos. The tripe is cooked in a big vat of oil, not for the fat phobic. We usually got ours to go, but you can also eat there on little communal benches.

edited for needless cheekiness

Whatever is the Mexican way. When we lived in central Mexico, Tombartifact`s family used to come over to our apartment for family get-togethers. Here`s a typical exchange between Israel (Tombartifacts cousin) and me... Luke: I`m going to the store. Would you rather drink Sprite or Coke? Israel: Whatever Luke: I`m not going to be drinking your soda so I really don`t care. Which would you rather have? Israel: Whatever Try going to the movies in a whatever culture. When I go want to see a film, I first check and see what`s playing. I check and see what time the movie I want to see is playing and leave in plenty of time to watch from the begining. This is not the way Tombartifact`s family goes to the movies. If they want to go, they just go. Will there be something playing worth seeing when they get there? Whatever Will they have to wait an hour in the theatre before the movie they want to see starts? Whatever. I`m not a very whatever kind of guy but I^m learning.

The above strikes me as a very astute observation, LimA. Thanks for your warm words towards both of us. LL

I`d also like to welcome Tombartifacts! He`s my partner and has put up with me with my face buried in this website for several years now, obsessing over arguments in Off-Grid and checking and rechecking to see if my recent posts had been liked or not. Time that might have more productively been spent paying attention to him! In any case, he`s here now and I coudn`t be more pleased.

There`s something very useful to be gained from this observation that motorists often cross through bike lanes seemingly unaware of bike traffic, and it has nothing to do with whether or not said motorists are stupid or not. The takeaway for me is that bicyclists should be extra aware and extra careful so as to avoid getting hurt. This isn`t fair, I know. In a better world, drivers would be smarter, nicer, more careful. Unfortunately, there`s not a whole lot a single bicyclist can do to change the motoring world. It falls on bicyclists to protect themselves by wearing easily seen clothing and not making assumptions that cars are going to follow the law. I`m sure you already do this, Mig, so my comment isn`t meant for you personally. Just something I thought could use saying.