thelerner

Get back 50 years and yoga was an exotic thing and yogi's were reknown for sealing themselves into coffins and being buried underground. I'm sure you can google stories about it and it certainly must take a high level of breathless state. I'm pretty sure its been documented by doctors/science. More a human hibernation then totally non-breathing state. Yet its an 'act' that was taken over by magicians. Such show takes focus from yoga's spiritual aim. It invites charlatans. People died doing it, often when the top of the wooden casket gives way. For those in the know who see masters carrying out a 3, 4 or more minute breath cycle. Its awesome. Quite an attainment in mind/body control. There are stories of Taoist who sit in caves unmoving for years, having a disciple watch over there body, hard to find proof of this. Thats separate from the Taoist hermits who live as near breatharians in caves. Which is documented.

I've got one under the name Spoonk. I love it. It has 1,000's of small knobby spikes. It quickly 'teaches' you to lie perfectly still. I don't know too much about acupressure, but at the end of lying down, your back is full of little indentations from all the spikes. Once you get used to it, its actually feels good. I got mine at Whole Foods, but you can find'em cheaper on the internet.

Beyond there rote paranoia, I think Icke and Alex Jones conspiracy theories dumb things down. Like extreme Fundamentalist view of all science where the answer to every question is: Cause thats the way God made it. With them you have the very simplistic, its cause the Illuminati did it. You don't need to know the motivations/history/movements of the various countries/religions/leaders/movements. Everything is dumbed down, its even pre-ordained. Can any regular listener of them be surprised that any terrorist event isn't an Illuminati job? It has to be, the answer is always 'They did it'. Too simplistic.

We cannot run down most wild animals, a great runner can but at a heavy cost of calories. Burn through 1000's of calories to run down an animal, then you have to butcher it, transport the carcass, factor in no refrigeration and a successful hunt is no picnic. That versus the long road of domesticating animals, so you either herd them or fence'em in, but once done, you have greater control. Control is nice. You have security. Knowledge is nice, you learn to make things better. Still you don't want things or ones inventions to control you. To me the problem isn't technology its that humans tend to overshoot and miss the sweet spot. A place of balance where tech and time, art work and leisure find a proper balance. That sweet spot will have technology, schools and study. A bigger part is greater commitment to community. Work, party, art. We have the tools, there's just a lack of leadership. There are good models out there in the planned community movement.

The food that most of us have been eating since childhood has been heavily modified from how it originally formed from nature. We've been playing with our food for, in some cases, 1000's of years, certainly 100's. Even more so with cattle and fowl. I'm not talking GMO's. I'm saying humans have guided the growth of plants in a way to produce larger, sweeter, better crops. Its basic intelligence and its served us well. Farmers have for centuries taken the best and let it reproduce, cherishing bigger, stronger, sweeter; at times just plain mutations, that are improvements. Its made our lived better, literally kept us from starvation. How anti tech would you suggest we get? Would you abolish farms? Abolish machines? I'm not an Ayn Rand fan, but I remember her short sci fi book Anthem; where any progress, any improvement was illegal. She showed it as a nasty world, and I agree that it would be.

Thanks for this thread, its a good reminder how important it is to go bare foot outside. I've found to my delight if I leave my shoes on the beach and take a walk, they've always been there when I come back.

I wonder if you'd want to repeat your original post here: http://thetaobums.com/topic/20701-30-minute-30-day-mentorships/?hl=%2Bday+%2Bmentorship#entry294835 Its exactly what the thread was made for.

Hi Chrisrva, I assume when Stosh uses the word self, it should be looked at as 'ego' (I think). While I'm not as anti ego/thought as some, in the West we are to mind heavy and developing a quiet and excellent concentration is a step in the right direction. I find meditation restorative, it can act as a nice reset button but.. it can also be an escape if done too much or too mindlessly.

Debt isn't always that bad. You can save up for 30 years to buy a house, say from the age of 25 to 55, then buy it, or take on debt and have a place to live in while you pay it back at relatively low rates. Not that different with a car. Ofcourse its a double edge sword that has to be used intelligently but the ability to borrow can help people live better. If we're talking American Indian tribes they may very well have debt in order to fund major projects for the betterment of the tribe. Improved roads, better schools, better housing etc., Its easy to idealize a primitive life but imo its a very hard one to live. God bless indoor plumbing, refrigeration, these things aren't just conveniences they save lives.

I think the crazy conspiracy theorists like Icke make a lot of money and create much misery for listeners by peddling paranoia. If a person honestly believed him, they'd be very depressed, shivering in a bomb shelter since the early 90's, constantly awaiting disasters and apocalypti he predicts several times a year, every year. I'm amazed at how repetitive there programming is, and how its possible that 'true believers' lap it up, the calls of doom and destruction year after year after year.

I get it, i get it. like you, I'd welcome a flatter society. Don't know about aboriginal, but think I'd welcome a more European socialist economic model. Course the devils in the details.

I think the Sahara turned into desert over 3000 years ago due to climate change, not the hand of man (though there were people there). I think the United States of the 1700s and 1800s had massive poverty. It just went unnoticed because it was the norm. People worked on farms. Hard work and for many almost subsistence. Work was long hours, 6 days a week for very little money. People died because there was no safety rules and shear exhaustion. In 1700's and 1800's clean water was a luxury. Much as you dislike taxation and corporations they pay for the social programs the welfare, foodstamps, educational loans and 100's of programs that assist the poor that didn't exist back then. I'm looking for statistics, without luck, to see how poverty rates have changed. Ofcourse poor means different things. There was a time poor would literally be in danger of starving.

As a child I some how got it into my head that the only way for a fortune cookie fortune to come true, was to eat the paper it was written on. I probably still have some old cellulose making its way through my digestive system.

Does anyone really take Icke seriously??

edit> I probably should have read the OP more closely. Yet, my basic point remains. Seems to me such a tax would only bring a small fraction of what taxes do now. I guess you could ask the same thing about paying for goods. There'd be lots of advantages if shops gave there stuff away for free. Matter of fact most of the advantages are the exact same. Course a shop wouldn't last long giving there stuff away free. Similarly the government provides myriad protections from roads to police, education, safety standards and inspections, a very very expensive safety net to provide medicine and income for elderly and disabled. It spends more then it takes in too. Countries resorting to the 'free money' route inevitably make there currency worthless. So, the question isn't should it be free, rather, what services do you want to cut, how much money would it raise and do you understand the possible often unintended consequences?

Consider this. 'Bad guys' often don't consider themselves to be Bad. They rationalize their actions. (don't we all) Still, when there's an accumulation of bad things we do, driven by selfishness, revenge, anger. We creep closer to bad, follow a negative path. If you have frequent thoughts on hurting others, you may be on it. You can get off such paths at any time. Truth is we all meander, but since you go out of the way to say you're not a bad guy, you didn't 'used to' hurt people, then I'd recommend looking closely at your thoughts. Self defense is no crime, but being stuck in a vengeful mindset is; a crime against yourself, your better nature at the very least.

course when I wrote 'mother in all definitions', I was certainly including mother f'cker.

I wrote this a while back. Half tongue in cheek but there's some wisdom in it, I think: Ode to money; the lubricant of barter, the measuring stick of perceived value. We create it, name it & play with it. A useful idea, worthy servant and poor master. It Is because we think it Is. And if you don't, I have a nice P.O Box in Brooklyn for you to send it to. Even Einstein had problems with money. In 1904 working as a patent clerk he met my great great uncle, Manny the accountant, who explained it to him. Using language Einstein would understand Manny wrote this: M = E C^2. Which translates into Money equals Energy times Consumption Now and Future. You see how energy is at the heart of money? And what is energy? The potential for work. In humans terms Energy makes our lives better and more enjoyable. Flip the equation and we see E= M/C^2. Present and future consumption divides our M and cuts our Energy. Equations must be balanced and choices made. Still one can break out of the zero sum game through leverage. Creativity, creating new resources or combining old ones in new ways allow more work done with the same effort. This is how the wise tap the source of money.

I see guys like that as interesting little spices of life. From what I see mostly harmless and maybe a little good, a holy craziness. A different robe, a different time and you'd have Jesus. I'm not seeing as many apocalyptic bible thumpers parading around with loudspeakers and billboard signs as I used to. There used to be one or two corners that were always full. Pleasantly its pretty rare these days. I used to collect the more intense religious pamphlets, as examples of prime human craziness. I particularly like the Tony Alamo ones that would show up covering cars in my neighborhood every month or two. Alas I believe those and that over the top style have gone away. The whole 'I love you, but your evil and going burn in hell', style isn't making the rounds like it used to.

Nice. Link us a sample of your sounds here. When you can.

hmnn, it may treat Us as straw dogs, but imo, its damn good. Never forget its our Mother, in all definitions of the word.

I suppose it depends on the circumstance, but in general imo, bad karmically. Focusing so much on a person or group connects you to them, on some level. Sometimes seeming success, ie cleared things up and enhanced the situation, just sets a person up for a bigger fall later on. Hard advice, but it may be better to use skillful means (creative problem solving - avoidance) and or blessing the enemy then setting up hexes/curses.

The navy mate, from the short arm inspector.

lets see, Iron Giants, The New Hudder Dream Machine, The 4rth Dimension Backups. Looking Glass rockers, lets see what else comes to mind.. Reply to this Topic or uh.. Last Auto Saved, is oblique but memorable.

I'd go with size as the problem. If you haven't had a major food group in a while starting with a big portion will often cause distress. I thought oats were less usually less offensive then wheat to most people. I'll sometimes make oat meal in the morning, nuking it with water, almond butter, egg white and sweetener. Then add the yolk back when its almost done. Fast, tasty and you get a solid hit of protein.