thelerner

I've gone through periods of melancholy. Everything blah.. not as bad as depression, but empty and aimless. Thing is, it passes. As Churchill once said 'When going through hell, keep going'. Don't burn bridges or make rash decisions when you're in a funk state. Keep going, keep up your responsibilities, your friendships; at least go through the motions. Life will throw something at you sooner or later and you'll snap out of it. And occasionally snap back in. It'll be faster if you keep going about every day life and not give in. Force yourself to get out, take walks, meet people, learn something, go somewhere. These things are kindling to get the fire back.

Things like the military industrial complex that was growing out of control. Lets remember too the early 1930's conspiracy where some leading industrialists had formed an embryonic plans to force Roosevelt to accept a new part of an executive branch that would acquiesce to them. It was found out and disbanded early enough so they main players were embarrassed and not prosecuted. Random thoughts: In the 1920's when Wilson was president the boogie man was anarchists. Politics is expensive and feed at big businesses trough. What we consider corruption was mostly legal in the past. And hopefully some of whats legal now will be considered illegal in the future. The book came out in 1960's where the communist scare was picking up major steam. I thought Kennedy was known for assembling the 'Best and Brightest' ie elite which turned into a everyone agreeing with each other which led to some disastrous policies. So even letting the 'smart' guys rule has its problems. Matter of fact I prefer pragmatists to idealists. Idea who's time has come: strict term limits. I'd add: There's also a very human element to the 'things aren't as good as they used to be' paragraph. In some ways it's not so much nefarious as possibly the reminiscence of every long time politician and business man and old person in general.. things aren't as good as they used to be- They know that America is not a place of which it can be said, as it used to be, that a man may choose his own calling and pursue it just as far as his abilities enable him to pursue it; because to-day, if he enters certain fields, there are organizations which will use means against him that will prevent his building up a business which they do not want to have built up; organizations that will see to it that the ground is cut from under him and the markets shut against him." The above might be a song sung by every generation. Its a popular tune repeatedly loudly by all sides. Its the rallying call for most of the Republican candidates, gimme that olde tyme America.. that sweet spot between June 3rd 1954 and July 8th 1955.

dilution is right, I've heard urine should be 1parts to 7. Avoid using when sick. actually this good article (How To Pee in Your Garden) says 10 to 1 or more: http://www.nwedible.com/how-to-use-pee-in-your-garden/ also http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer/

I think we have to make our own purpose. and it can change and evolve as we get older.

amazing.

I like it, but its still very speculative to me. At what point (and what path) in the journey do you think people get that recognition?

I like this Youtube site. FightMediocrity- Good synopsis of business and self help books, efficiently and memorably presented. https://www.youtube.com/user/phuckmediocrity/videos

I know grains. Just saying some old Taoist traditions were anti-grain (Paleo before paleo was hip?). Not saying they're right or wrong. Just the way it was. I was looking for the actual books it came from and stopped when I found this: For example: from http://taoist-mind.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-is-taoist-diet-ezinearticles.html 'The Third Immortal King told the Emperor: "You attain the Tao by avoiding all grains. You will never again have to follow the rhythm of the moon and plant or harvest. "Now, the people of mysterious antiquity, they reached old age because they remained in leisure and never ate any grains." As the Dayou zhang (Verse of Great Existence) says: The five grains are chisels cutting life away, Making the five organs stink and shorten our spans. Once entered into our stomach, There's no more chance to live quite long. To strive for complete avoidance of all death Keep your intestines free of excrement!" While many ancient Taoists practiced abstention from grain, this is not absolutely true. There are many accounts of Taoists who ate, or who literally begged for rice. It may be that grain abstention was more of a purification process, or a sort of fast, leading up to important rituals, ceremonies or rites, like taking long medications, fasting, taking elixirs, and so on. Modern In more recent times, the typical diet has radically changed to focus on being PRIMARILY grain based, rather than practicing a total abstention from grain. Although there are some radical people who claim to never eat, they are often ridiculed by the media and later found out to be "starving" for attention rather than being a true ancient style Taoist. The modern Taoist diet essentially follows the basic yin-yang and 5 elements theory, and relies heavily upon un-processed whole grains, fresh vegetables (particularly root vegetables) and very little meat.'

Games seems to be- how much can I feed my ego. The old, I am godlike everyone else is a sheep. I am awake everyone else is asleep. For me, better to play the opposite. everyone is divine and special in there own ways. or even harder- everyone is a reflection of me.

A good cheap and very effective supplement is psyllium seed, ie metamucil. Unlike most you see results in 24 hours. Taken for a few days it seems to scour the bowels and lower digestive track, plus balances sugar and insulin, makes you feel fuller. Its not to be taken every day, but for a few days a month its probably helpful.

Taoist diet seem to be about keep it natural, keep it seasonal and somewhat anti-grain. So, no processed food, eat with the season (not that you much choice for most of history) and traditionally grains were an evil worm kind of thing. I think in modern times out of necessity, grains entered into some monasteries, but the oldest writings, I think, were against them.

Seems pretty shamanic. Here's Mr. Dundee doing it. Odds are the movie took the scene from a real life capability.. maybe.

Lead to gold - any guide books out there?I have such a book. I am willing to lend it out for 1.25 Trillion dollars in gold or lead.

Thanks, good site, connecting people with organic farms then setting up room and board situations. I'm sorry that there's a $40 or $50 membership fee for it, but maybe thats the way of the world.

Nikolai1 mentioned this site- http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk/ and asked if there was a similar one for the U.S. I don't know. Nice site though. Links to The Utopia Experiment, Intentional Communities Symposium, New Eurotopia- listing 430 progressive communities across Europe. As well as general Resource guides, directories and Noticeboard. Is there a similar site for the U.S, Canada or elsewhere? Where one can find Communal Living Links and such?

With stars you never know when there real persona starts and the publicity persona ends. Miley Cyrus is outrageous but that might be a reaction to feeling over controlled by Disney all these years. I couldn't find out through Charitywatch how much money donated to Happy Hippie went to people vs the organization, but the website is very well done. Dispensing good information on resources that can help people. Until I hear differently it seems like a solid source for good. Interesting article. I think Ham is the fundamentalist who built a multimillion dollar non-floating Noah Ark and creationist museum. Not too surprising he'd be against and try to get publicity from Cyrus's coat tails.

Because its a 'clean' informative thread I'm hesitant to mention it here, but there is an excellent post about experiencing a Wang Liping seminar. Here it is: http://thedaobums.com/topic/38541-what-do-you-think-of-this-level-of-a-master/?p=628842 . There may be other old ones floating around too. Positive or negative nothing substitutes for first hand experience.

I agree with this, I often use the two terms to mean the same thing. Still its nice to have native speakers remind us about the niceties every now and then. Its certainly doesn't seem worth fighting about. It gets close to what is Real Taoism and the whole religious vs philosophical debates.

Saints of many traditions really. I've always thought its because the painter paints what he sees. Saints have bigger aura's and the easiest part of an aura to see is at the top of the head which looks kind like a halo. Later on it became formalized and canonized as a round circle at the head, but it was originally top part of the aura. as always imo after most of these sentences. Note in some old paintings the whole body is surrounded by light, could be artistic license, but I think an artist draws what he knows, auras. Great artists have the eye for 'em. back to OP I'm reminded of a the story of a samurai who scoffs at a bunch of meditating monks; yells to them that there meditation has as much chance of enlightening them as rubbing a rock will make it a mirror. I've always thought the samurai was a too hard on them. That there's a chance the samurai also meditated and that it might be the extremely long hours he was complaining against. You could say Bodhidharma thought the same thing and introduced moving meditation, exercise, even martial arts to monks training.

, there is wisdom in silence

I agree, but you can find much practical stuff in Zen writings, particularly contemporary ones. Its just that they're less quotable. I get my zen inspired dharma lessons from infinitesmile.org, podcasts from Michael McAllistair.

Cool about the smell. I find when I'm doing well, in the groove, my gag and startle reflexes go away. Sudden loud sounds don't startle me, my toothbrush can't cause me discomfort anywhere. The opposite happens when I stop meditating and my get less deep calm.

Growing veggies can be done by the very lazy (such as myself). Years ago following Mother Earth magazine directions I laid 10 40# bags of soil end to end on my lawn. Slit the bottom, opened up the top and planted into them. I used cheap $1.20 bags of soil and supplemented with one bag of Miracle Grow soil. Things grew great. The next year I removed the bags, mixed one bag of Miracle Grow into the line. Following years I'll add in a mix of coffee,leaves and grass cutting compost. I do a poor job of trellising, but somehow things grow and thrive nicely. I usually do a gazpacho mix, tomatoes (favorite little sweet 100 & yellow hybrids), cucumbers, and peppers. By keeping it on the front lawn, I'm more conscientious and can grab a handful of sweet grape tomatoes any time I come and go. Best of all, a couple of neighbors have joined me in front lawn veggie gardens.

I understood your hypothesis, I'm just at the opposite spectrum if you think ethics are mind-control and lies. The master disciple relation should be very close and go beyond simple 'asking' and into deep knowing. The master should know his close students. addon> or maybe I'm wrong. For those people who've studied under higher level systems under guidance of a master level teacher did ethics enter into the teaching? Was there in any way a litmus test for continued study? In two arts I've been exposed to, Aikido and yoga, ethics were very important. You showed low character you'd be tossed out because of it. Some made it through, but the system working properly weeded them out. Heck even in Mo Pai, John Chang crossed an ethical line and paid for it. Spiritual development and ethics are not as separate as you might assume. They're connected because schools can't afford to teach and create powerful assholes. Not understanding the connection may be part of the reason Mo Pai is no longer taught in the West.

I heard an interview on NPR a few years ago, it was about a man who had similarly lost emotions. He commented it was similar to what some Eastern religions seemed to be aiming for, but the state itself felt ghostlike and empty. Note, he wasn't a meditator, it was a brain fluke. Ultimately he tested low for some brains hormone thingy and when he started taking some psychoactive drug his feelings returned.