thelerner

Eco-system? Living in harmony w/ nature takes a lot of work. Why should a community let you in? What would you add to it? It's easy to talk about the joys of no money, no taxes, no capital.. but how hard are you willing to work for it? That's what people want to know, how hard you work now, how hard you'll work if you join. You could head to a Kibbutz next week or monastery next year, get food, room and board, but you'll work like hell, 10 or 12 hours in hot sun. You'll be paid zippo, but there's a great sense of community (not at first cause you're an outsider). If you're living at home with your parents thats the best 'free lunch' you're gonna get. Once you leave, expect hard work. Have you done it? Are you prepared to? Or are you searching for a place where nothing or only 'great thoughts' are expected of you and you eat and sleep for free? I'm 'applying' to a commune like place to live for a week and what I'm telling them is I'm willing to work in the hot sun and provide gallons of home brew apfelwein too. I think that should persuade the Whiskey and Dust camp to let me in. It's not about how great I am, its about what I can do for them.

This probably won't do any good, but I'll throw it out anyway. Some of your statements are about hurting the innocent, doing violence to others and yourself. That is bad, its a call for help. You need a professional to talk to. Not anonymous people on the internet to argue with. Get away from statements like 'I am the spirit of truth' and find a professional you can talk to. Focus on your life not on others or the world's dietary principles, on yourself. You don't need to change your beliefs, but you need focus. Where you are and where you want to go. What are your strengths and resources. I cannot stress this enough. A good social worker won't improve things instantly, but can change the arc of your life, heading you in a better direction. Think about it. Research it a bit, there are free or cheap programs out there. At some point in our lives most of us have needed to talk things out and get clarity. I certainly have. The right professional can make a world of difference because what we think of as 'my unique problem' is often not so unique, matter of fact it's damn common, just a different degree and flavor. Find help. Once you get focus and direction you'll be great. Yours Michael

That's why I only discuss the Big Questions with Myself. I don't necessarily get smart answers but it's easier to tell myself 'Shut up you idiot' then others .

In the orient I thought it was connected to death, thus we have ni(2nd) dan, san (3rd), but no chi(4th) dan, fourth degree belt is yo dan. Double checking myself I found this: The pronunciation of the number 4 is a homophone for the word "death"in Chinese and Japanese (C: 'si' falling tone = 4, 'si' low tone ="death"; J: both are pronounced "shi"), and possibly other languagestoo, and is naturally enough avoided as bad luck. 14 is a homophonefor "it's death" in Chinese (but not Japanese) ('shr si', rising thenfalling tone = 14, 'shr si', falling then low tone = "it's death").

Whatever one's system, the value of element theory is how it personally effects you. How well you connect with the elements internally and externally. How you see and predict things by virtue of their interplay.

Far as keeping the colon and intestines clean, I like psyllium seed, ie metamucil or any generic. Modern eating tends to lack fiber. At the end of the month for a few days I'll take some. By the end as Yoda said, you're getting long smooth ropes (sorry for the visual)and practically don't need toilet paper. Start off slow and the last day or 2, take some in the morning, some in the evening once your system has a bit of tolerance. My veggie son seems to get most of his fiber from popcorn and if he doesn't get a bag every day or two he'll get uncomfortable.

What will it be like in a hundred years? Don't know. I think its a mistake to extrapolate from current trends. Things move in cycles, small and large. The longer out you go, the harder it is to predict, though I tend to discount apocalyptic and utopian outcomes.

never mind.

It's not all bad news. We're coming off the worst recession since 1929. Things may be looking up. Things cycle, even greed goes out of fashion. More Billionaires Pledge to Give Away Half Their Wealth By Good News Network Sunday, May 12, 2013 Nine more wealthy families and individuals have pledged to give at least half of their fortunes to charity as part of a giving campaign by two of the world's richest men, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Some of the big names joining The Giving Pledge, which was launched in 2010, include real estate magnate and Miami Dolphin team owner Stephen Ross, Sara Blakely, the founder of SPANX, and Britain's Lord Ashcroft. This brings the total number of signers of The Giving Pledge to 114. The group includes CNN founder Ted Turner, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sir Richard Branson, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and Hollywood director George Lucas. See the full list at GivingPledge.org.

Yup, like gravity. IMO a good Taoist lives in harmony with the world around him. Whether its in a mountain cave or the city. If they/you don't like life where you are, go somewhere else. Or if you have a strategy for getting people to stop using currency then let us know what it is. As per usual you could mail the filthy lucre to me. By the way I like the money system, barter is hugely inefficient. Striving for a better life man will specialize and one way or another currency will arise. I live in a currencyless non commercial society a week out of the year. Its great, but its only possible because its for a limited time and driven by the wealth that people have collected working. Communes tend not to last for more then one or two generations. In Illinois, where I live, there were many attempts to build a Utopian towns, they didn't work. Hard core Kibbutzs that were bastions of pure communism either broke up or had to reform. I think history and mankind's make up is against you, unless you go monastery, commune or primitive tribe. Which you can do, but probably won't.

I don't think anyone's scared about what your thoughts on currency. It doesn't really matter, but it makes you look young and idealistic. Which is not necessarily bad but when you interface with the 'real' world, you'll need cur·ren·cy [kur-uhn-see, kuhr-] noun, plural cur·ren·cies 1. something that is used as a medium of exchange; money. You can complain about it, philosophize about it, assume your thoughts are scaring other people, but the simple truth is, you'll need it, unless you head to a monastery or commune. Cool, live the bear life, just don't complain about it. Also "Why do you need compensation for building your own house? isnt the house the compensation for building it?" Unless its a simple hovel, you're gonna need lots of supplies and hardware. Are you anywhere close to your ideal of living? Making your own clothes, growing your own food, knowledgeable enough to build a house out of scratch. Or are you talking theoretically.

Lets put it this way. Under your system(?), you want to 'get' a house or car. How do you do it? What happens? Think about it and tell me. Going a little deeper. Who builds the house and car and how are they compensated?

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I assume he and many of his students are pretty well up there in terms of cultivation (though maybe not balance). I don't know much about what they do, but according to Sean Denty it started w/ 4 hours of meditation a day, and went up from there. It had heavy requirements and much time on the mat. I think regardless of the system, you put in that much time silencing the mind, you get some juice and skills.

They were in Star Trek. Seriously, we might seem like gods to people 1,000 or 10,000 years ago. Certainly our tech would. In a world of god and goddesses, powers would mean nothing since every one had them. It'd be 'Hey Zeus you bum, take out the garbage.'

Try living for a month only bartering. You may find it inefficient. <Brief as I was Viator beat me to it. Though I win for brevity >

I read a book about children who remembered past lives. Often they'd fade out by 7 or 8, but before then, they had information and even birthmarks that would be damn hard to explain with standard science. The researchers themselves were American and tended to be neutral to skeptical, but the evidence was overwhelming. One could argue what the phenomena behind it might be, but there was no trickery involved. While the cases were somewhat rare in the U.S, when the researcher went to India, it was everywhere; considered almost normal. I'm not a believer in much psychic phenomena, but there's something there. Whereas hypnotized adults can be led to indepth role playing, even recalling faint bits of old articles or conversations picked up decades earlier to blend into believable but made up scenarios.

Still fuzzy on your concept of Tao of Dying. Sometimes your writing seems to indicate you're looking for: The Way to Live, other times the way to suicide before infirmity, still others that you're looking for a formula for immortality or extra long life. We accept the fate as unavoidable because we don't know anyone who's avoided it, short of legends. The solution may well be calm acceptance. Again, what is your hope?

We tend to romanticize 'ye olde' tymes. Supposing in the beginning it must have been great. Not necessarily. There may have been peaceful altruistic utopian civilizations, but get too lovey dovey and your more aggressive neighbors or new comers will wipe you out- kill or enslave you. Sometimes destruction comes from a bad ambitious seed from within. Sad but true.

22,865, another 6 comes on line next Tuesday. They make up 2.973723001% of the mass conglomerate. Read a few, they're a good antidote to the fringe conspiracy theorists, because by nature they have to study the whole issue in context not sensationalize a bias they already have. Really there are many many serious historians, its a frickin college major and doctorate, needing serious study and students can't get by quoting the status quo. It's all about serious research. Unfortunately there are popular outlets like the History Channel which produces (generally) the worst tabloid junk programming possible.

0 I've been seeing this thought bouncing around the bums. It may be true at grammar school and high school level, but when you dig into history with a respected historian, you can find out the truth. A real historian doesn't have an axe to grind or bias. They go beyond the days press conference into personal letters, cause and effects, detective work, following the money and understanding the period within its context and the social rules and norms that guided it. My favorite historian in Paul Johnson, all his works are wonderfully readable. For example: in his book about Socrates he explains the sources information that comes to us then which of those he finds most credible. Even those from a direct student, at the point they were written the student Plato(?) was increasingly biased thus his later writings are not a good source.

No you can only enlighten yourself I was looking to find a briefer explanation, but here's my favorite teacher's somewhat indepth explanation on them: http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Books/Ajahn_Brahm_The_Jhanas.htm

Super intelligence?? Generally I advise against going after cartoon or movie powers. Image streaming is said to give a few more IQ points and open up intuition. The real greats in the brain department were renaissance men, then and now. People of endless curiosity who tackled diverse fields and were masters of time management. My nephew is amazing, not just because he got a quarter million dollar scholarship for a doctorate in medical engineering something, but he plays most instruments at high level and chooses unlikely music like ska and celtic. Always has a dedicated girl friend, always playing in a band. He works hard and incredibly long hours but has the knack to enjoy what he's doing. In your quest mastery of time management and balance are essential. I like Michael Geld's stuff. He's got books on modeling yourself after famous genius's, but more importantly he had a great podcast about enjoying wine, enjoying food. In the play 1001 Nights, the wisest person in the world was asked to give the secret of life. She said it in 2 words. Cultivate Enthusiasm. Pretty true if you ask me. Good luck and don't screw yourself up with drugs.

The secret to avoiding the 'loonies' <the definition varies and we all fall into some ones def> is to ignore them and avoid threads they post in. Let things slide, wait a week or so and most of the time 'offensive' threads get flushed downstream. Grinning and baring them without overly taking offense is good life training.