thelerner

Inflation will steadily erode your saving by 2 to 5% a year (lately its been low). Taxes, medicare, social security will take a large bite, 20 to 40% from every paycheck you get. Sales tax will also take a big bite out of your earnings. In other words on our earning we pay a shitload of taxes and whatever you do save will be eroded by inflation. Intelligent investing, in a diversified portfolio, or the SP500, DOW or similar index will over the long run (15 years plus) tend to earn you 8%+ on your money. Keep you nicely ahead of inflation, even taking into account the inevitable depressions and recessions. Its good to fight for social justice, but it doesn't make sense to work hard and earn $100,000 and see its buying power fade to $20,000 versus growing to 3 or $400,000, 40 years later when you want to retire.

You seem have very strong focus and self discipline. That'll take you far. I'm no expert in anything, but as far as diet, I'd recommend more healthy good fats. Avocado's, throwing some ghee onto something, cheese, even eating some eggs. Good fat is not the enemy, its a needed leg on the nutritional stool. The IIH is a great long term practice. For it and shorter term things to do, I highly recommend going to abardoncompanion.com . Rawn Clark who created it has many free audio programs on it that compliment IIH as well as a very well done collection of writing on the IIH that I've found greatly compliment the original. Spend some time with listening to his Center of Stillness Meditation (very deep if you can get into it), YHVH meditations (chant/canticle/magic system), lastly he has an Archaeous system that is a Hermetic element work, that is a series of 15 minute lessons that work very well with standing. For me they make standing 15 minutes go by quickly and easily, not that they are meant for that. Don't over do it. Get a practice or two, keep a journal. I did Wim Hof's 10 week program, lot of fun, very worthwhile. Some have gone very far without the program, just using the instructions from the HigherExistence article that was done on him. Books.. I really dig a travel spiritual tome called "The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha" buy Professor Asma. Great read on travel and Buddhism. I liked Daniel Reids books "The Tao Of Health, Sex, and Longevity: A Modern Practical Guide to the Ancient Way by Daniel Reid (Author). There are many good podcasts out there like Zencast and infiniteSmile that are great to listen to on long walks. I could name more books, but its important not to get too top heavy. Stay grounded, know that this stuff is a marathon, not a sprint. Inner smile is good. I prefer Glenn Morris's Secret Smile technique better. You can find it on a youtube channel with much of his old Meditation Mastery stuff. There's a ton of stuff out there. Look around, find out what you connect with. Then roll up sleeves, take a break from books, videos, and philosophy and work with integrity. Not obsessively but faithfully and daily.

Can't help but think, you get too yang and you burn yourself out. That there needs to be balance and movement. Thats not to say you can't have practices that specifically work with yin or yang, but too much imbalance and I assume you'll have problems. Afterlife theories are tricky. You simply don't have people reliably coming back and talking about it. We're moving into the area of religion and superstition. I find writing by serious researchers on the memories of young children on past lives is fascinating, the mechanisms aren't really nailed down, maybe they can't be. Energy wise some traditions speak of the danger of going halfway and failing, then there's a more psychological danger, that of increasing fear of death. Dying in fear of losing everything versus acceptance into a natural state.

podcasts- Zencast and the zen inspired dharma talks on Infinitesmile.

eyeballing it quickly I couldn't find the part where washrooms were mentioned and 'mandated'. Could you cut and paste to that part? I don't like unfunded mandates but don't like discrimination either. I kinda wish we had firm numbers on how many people are being affected by this. If its truly small enough, let'em fill out paperwork and allow use the teachers washroom. Seems to me the transgendered are going to be screwed whatever choice they make. Look like a guy and enter the girls washroom is going to get you stares at best, insults at worst. Maybe worse the other way too. Schools will have to investigate the numbers and make the best decision. Otherwise in smaller venues I'm seeing more single person washrooms for either sex. Which works fine for me. Might not work for schools though. Family washroom have popped up all over in larger venues. Still.. don't like wasting school money unnecessarily. The sometimes brilliant, sometimes not, often foul mouthed cartoon South Park has already investigated the problem and might give insights. Its the only show I know of thats looked at the issue. The Cissy in Season 18 Episode 3 Couldn't find a good video on it. There's this:

I find there is a qualitative difference when I meditate outside. My favorite being a tree stump near water. The florescence behind my eyes are different, meditation takes on a different perhaps deeper state. As I recall Morehei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido was quoted saying something like 'With my right hand I express yan, with my left I have yin'. Which I interpret non mystically to be fully effective martially and in life you need to express force and surrender. Too often in the West we downplay yin, and pack our tool chest full of hammers.

Faith is nice, but I keep mine away from places and ideas that smell of fear. Too often fear is the bait for some form of control.

Here are two fascinating articles from healingtaousa on bigu. http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=32 http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=23 Like many things Taoist, bigu works best when it comes naturally and unforced. In the book "Masters of the Way", one practitioner wouldn't eat for days, not as a formal practice but she simply wasn't hungry and followed her body's natural rhythms. It's no beginners practice, rather the culmination of impeccable discipline and practice. Nor is it necessarily a long term practice. Its dangerous and without guidance some can fool themselves with it, to the death.

thelerner, on 02 May 2016 - 17:24, said: Though part of me, perhaps a masochistic part, would like the existence of a Mo Pai thread the doesn't have a flame war in it. Maybe for learning, maybe just to show we're adults and we can. One part of mo pai is the exploration of chi, particularly separating yin and yan functions. Maybe a new thread looking at how different arts interpret and practice yin and yan energies? I've been on vacation for a while. I'm sorry to see this. I particularly wanted to have different views in here, especially Mopai's since I know that art has particular insights in yin/yan energy splits. I was hoping to see a discussion that could start and develop based on ideas with no stigmas, prejudice or bad will. Mopai shouldn't be a dirty word. As the OP writer, I'd prefer my original intent honored. That this be an inclusive discussion on the subject of Yin Yan energies. To avoid insults, be open minded and avoiding pissing contests. Keep discussion based on ideas and leaving behind the old arguments and feuds.

If anything, the unexpected now isn't dying, its coming back from the dead .

I watched the series Carnivale on HBO a few years ago. I just took out the DVD's from my library. It started off a little slow, got a little soap operaish, but over all its very captivating. It pulls no punches on how life was in the Great Depression, not only do you see the incredible poverty in the U.S, but for the first season the main hero, has only one outfit which gets dirtier and dirtier and he generally sleeps on the ground under a truck. The bigger story is a mystical good verse evil ala Stephen King's The Stand, but neither character is sure who or what they are or the extent of there powers. Very good acting, original characters, very raw stuff, the racism, the poverty comes off as very authentic. I continually want to drop HBO, but the mini series, like Carnivale, Rome and now Game of Thrones keeps my anteing up the money.

omg is that photo proof that they had computers and photoshop in the 1880's? Too much time on my hands- https://www.reddit.com/r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/38f4q3/my_friend_buys_a_book_showing_dead_pterodactyl/ I wouldn't get too upset if I were you. The very last picture at least is an obvious fake. No known organism has perfectly straight wing fingers. They look like they're made out of poles, instead of jointed bones. 2 is a fake by a sci fi artist named Chris Smith. It was made in 2010.

didn't we decide it was Womankind. or kindness of woman. whichever came first?

I have a bias against sites that misname themselves. Judging by there list of articles, Public Discourse.com, is clearly a right wing Christian site, discoursing on a particular viewpoint of the world, which is fine. I just don't like how they named themselves non religiously or politically. I get the feeling there 'experts' are expert first in right wing Christian orthodoxy, secondarily in there field. It reminds me of other Christian sites that have there expert scientists weighing in on flat earth and dinosaurs. I'd rather get information from a source that's less bias'd then right wing Christian apologist one. What does a real sociological or psychological source say about the phenomena? addon> imo, its not necessarily bigoted, the article raises some decent points, its just from such a slanted angle that I don't trust its conclusions and find some of its language and assumptions off.

Hmnn, like some of the others, I suspect you are blaming the wrong organism. Seems the brain is the culprit here. I'd recommend some heavy drinking to kill off some of its cells in order to degrade and punish it. Liver be damned, you either take control of the errant organ or it will take control of you. kidding . We've all done that, 10 years ago, when there were video stores in existence.

I may not be able to prove to myself that I exist, wouldn't want to unless I had much time and pot. But I can prove to another that I exist with the punch test. I.E you tell the existentialist to punch themselves as hard as they can. It won't hurt them because they won't do it, their sense of self preservation overcomes there philosophical theories. Then you punch them, solar plex or under the nose. I think this experiment proves that the hitter is an existing individual; perhaps a nasty one. It shows the hittee/philosopher that logical structures, maps, fingers, moons are secondary to reality and actions taking place therein. When I was taking Objectivism in kindergarten the first rule was- Get out of the way of moving objects.

Is it really so bad we have to start eating vegans? Won't we run out of vegans in a few years? and then who will eat the plants?

I like combining zhan zhuang (simple natural stance) with Rawn Clark's Archaeous series. They're free audios, about 15 minutes long and because they 'stack' the elements on the body- hips down is earth, stomach is water, lungs air etc., they work well for standing though that is not what they were intended for. They make the 15 minutes go by easily. http://www.abardoncompanion.de/Archaeous-Links.html Its not standing but the other thing I'd recommend is Gabriel Roth's Sweat Your Prayers- Wave dance style. Putting your body through particular rhythms gets you out of your head and into the fundamental pulses of life. You can find pieces of it on youtube.

Good, I'm not the only one who thinks that if Christ had gone all Doctor Manhattan on the Roman's Ass & Herod's too, that Christianity and the world would be in a better spot now, ie when Pontius asks for proof, blowing up a few buildings, some soldiers, then making himself emperor of the Roman empire. Would have been a better way to go, rather then the 1,300 years or so of dark ages.

yup, by nature, herself.

Another golden rule, perhaps one that controls our outer lives more is: Whoever has the most Gold -Makes the Rules. Hmnn, cynical, but wisdom is also gold. Enough wisdom and we can slip through social and cultural constraints and live the life we choose.

There was a book I paged through years ago, about a line of Jewish Egyptian Pharoahs!? I forget the author and the proof they offered. The interesting thing was they, the author were Moslem and some of the proofs he used came from Koranic writings. The book says in time, relatively quickly too, the line went native. Is it possible? Don't know. Wouldn't put money on it. The Torah talks about Joseph making it the number 2 position, but doesn't go further then that. And personally I don't see the Torah ie first books of the old testament as an accurate history book. Still, its intriguing and .. possible. Thank you Google: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=nrprAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA6 Here is the book I paged through over a decade ago: The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt: The Secret Lineage of the Patriarch Joseph, Edition 2 Ahmed Osman September 19, 2003 Inner Traditions / Bear & Co A reinterpretation of Egyptian and biblical history that shows the Patriarch Joseph and Yuya, a vizier of the eighteenth dynasty king Tuthmosis IV, to be the same person • Uses detailed evidence from Egyptian, biblical, and Koranic sources to place Exodus in the time of Ramses I • Sheds new light on the mysterious and sudden rise of monotheism under Yuya’s daughter, Queen Tiye, and her son Akhnaten When Joseph revealed his identity to his kinsmen who had sold him into slavery, he told them that God had made him “a father to Pharaoh.” Throughout the long history of ancient Egypt, only one man is known to have been given the title “a father to Pharaoh”--Yuya, a vizier of the eighteenth dynasty king Tuthmosis IV. Yuya has long intrigued Egyptologists because he was buried in the Valley of Kings even though he was not a member of the Royal House. His extraordinarily well-preserved mummy has a strong Semitic appearance, which suggests he was not of Egyptian blood, and many aspects of his burial have been shown to be contrary to Egyptian custom. As The Hebrew Pharohs of Egypt shows, the idea that Joseph and Yuya may be one and the same person sheds a whole new light on the sudden rise of monotheism in Egypt, spearheaded by Queen Tiye and her son Akhnaten. It would clearly explain the deliberate obliteration of references to the “heretic” king and his successors by the last eighteenth dynasty pharaoh, Horemheb, whom the author believes was the oppressor king in the Book of Exodus. The author also draws on a wealth of detailed evidence from Egyptian, biblical, and Koranic sources to place the time of the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt during the short reign of Ramses I, the first king of the nineteenth dynasty.

Meat.. sometimes it tastes good, filling, satisfying. Other times, I can taste the death in it.

It isn't about pain, that's secondary, as much as gaining a level of control of mind over body. Either by disassociation or better connection. Not that I'm all that tempted to do this crazy thing, but by the time I've had an accident and am in pain and injured, then its too late. I haven't learned the biofeedback to control it, even if its only in a small way.

It's not so much about love. I think the world would be much improved if we treated the other with respect. In my mind, love sets so high a bench mark that it ends up being easily disregarded. People I love, family and very close friends are given a blank check by me. What ever they need. I can't and won't do that for strangers. Though I can treat them well and give them respect or strive too.