thelerner

Speaking of politics- “Outrage is like a lot of other things that feel good but over time devour us from the inside out. And it’s even more insidious than most vices because we don’t even consciously acknowledge that it’s a pleasure.” — Tim Kreider

That reminds me of a Talmudic saying: “Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow." - The Talmud (w/ a new age-ish translation) dig deeper (Bereshit Rabbah 10.6) and maybe its not exactly grass but every herb, and not so much whispers as 'strikes it' and says grow grow. Striking might be more painful then a whisper but often growth comes with a certain amount of discomfort. course dig deeper then that and is it Angels? or is it the stars/contellations in heaven? or is it meaning destiny? or maybe its this one (Niddah (30b), also from the Talmud. While in the womb, an angel whispers in your ear, all the secrets of life, then just before you're born, they touch just under the nose, which gives you little indentation and you forget all that knowledge. So, your mission is to re-learn. Which, after all is easier, because its partly remembering.

only during the full moon. then i change.

True, but I'm taken by the idea of kids in the next generation saying the space shuttles were fake. That all the photos and videos fake. All the people who designed and built them fake. All the people who flew them liars. How can something so big fly? I'm sure they could find videos of some kid asking if an old mothballed ship could 'fly' if it was refueled and an ex pilot saying no. The kid could ask why there weren't new ones coming out. Further he could point out they were built by the government which lies. The people who built it were schooled by an army of engineers and technicians who worked and were educated by those who worked in the Apollo program who learned from the Gemini missions, and they learned from Project Mercury. More evidence Stephen Spielberg did a movie space camp, which had a shuttle in it, and he married the actress. Which means he coulda faked the launch, and all the other launches. Seems to me very similar arguments can be made for both, if you dismiss all the literally tons of physical evidence, all the photos, the videos, the 1,000's of people who worked intimately on the project world wide. Dismiss that, dismiss the experts debunking the conspiracy theorists claims. Once all the physical, logistical, and logical evidence is dismissed you have reasonable doubt. It could happen. This generation its the moon landing, next generation space shuttles, after that flat earth all the way.

This is a good answer to the question of why fund NASA. Cool informative video. Near the beginning it talks about a wonderful satellite the man worked on that measures soil moisture throughout the world, every few days. An incredible tool to help mankind predict droughts. Yet to the true conspiracy nut. NASA is pseudo science. It government funded and must be fake. All a lie cause, the government.. and control and paranoia.. NASA tends to have the best of the best in cutting edge engineers and theoreticians. Yes the government organizations can lie. That doesn't mean they all do, all the time. Humans can also lie, that doesn't everything is a lie. They were able to get to the moon in 1969, and 1970 and 1971 and 1972. We did it 5 times. It costs billions and the decision was made that its better to put the money into the an orbiting space station that could be much more easily manned because while the moon has lesser gravity its still much much much harder for things to land and take off versus an orbiting station. I get the feeling most of the most smart people are on one side of the issue. If studied beyond conspiracy theory youtubes, you pretty much know the simple truth.

There are some excellent guided meditations around. I was thinking we could listen to them once a day for a week, and record what we find. What feelings, benefits and learning they might give us. I'm proposing we start one this Monday, Dec 25th, and listen to the recording here preferably each day for a week and write down our observations. For the first one I present Barry Long, a mystic, perhaps best known as a major influence behind Eckhardt Tolle. Long has a soothing voice, with straight forward methods of removing thoughts. This meditation is from a youtube video Start Meditating Now by Barry Long, originally 36.51 minutes, after listening once or twice, feel free to fast forward to 6:24 minutes (or 10:24) depending on how much pre-instruction you want. You can listen at your computer or transfer it to an MP3 player to listen to in bed or during meditation. I encourage people to give this a try. This is a great experiential meditation, with imo important lessons. Like many mystics, Long sees thoughts as addictions, once we get away from habitual 'junk' thoughts, we get more instep with reality. Generally a good thing. Meditation_guided_Barry_Long_1.mp3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB_S4jLJ3KI&list=PLmOtSswGcXa4bmB2BiYbZMsO0CM9w_OsY

Haven't added anything here in awhile. These days I'll skip long inductions, getting to the heart of a meditation, and sometimes they'll have several themes. Here's a short piece of guided hypnosis from a longer Jason Stephenson meditation- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr0VnEtQH1AI The original is over an hour and quite fun. This piece is shortened, about 10 minutes then allows you to go where you will. Deep_breath_to_Deep_Sleep_2.mp3 Let me know what you think.

Vipsanna is known for its long vigorous retreats. Can you tell me about them, and what kind of preparation a person should have before undertaking one. I'm thinking in terms of the 7 or 10 day.

Course, it doesn't have to be War or Office Job. Its a big world. Certainly has more office jobs then soldiers, thank goodness, but there's a whole array of jobs that aren't office. Though I can dig that office job might mean workin for The Man. But a soldier still works for him, longer hours too. I suppose the question always is, what is my best life? What do I need to get there and am I willing to make the sacrifices? Or is that yearning a false path, that in truth we should happy with what we have? I've enjoyed the householder path, but I've been pretty lucky. wealthy, good looking, sexy, humorous, I've been batting .500.

The show of sacrificing something precious showed devotion. In general people lived much more closely with the live stock and felt the loss more keenly. In Judaism there was a confessional aspect to 'sin' sacrifices. In many cases the sacrificed animal would end up being eaten by the people or at least the wide spread version of the clergy. Which gave them reasons to continue it. I suspect the sophisticated knew God doesn't benefit from sacrifices, its the people who do, ie by using it to acknowledge God as judge/ruler. By the first century, with the destruction of the second temple it was decided that God preferred prayers, morality, charity and repentance over animal sacrifices. Lesser sacrifices continued on the fringe, though.

My son was interested in joining ROTC, which would lead into the service after graduation. I was okay with it as along as there was no shooting war going on. Too often US troops are targeted by all sides, including their host country. It's tough going, but there's deep lessons in discipline, responsibility, honor and teamwork. Hopefully practical skills to be gained. The travel bug, ie he'll want to visit another country for a semester and rowing have probably changed his mind about it.

You're showing a picture of actors, not soldiers. They literally have just had there hair and make up done. The movie was probably 2 hours or less, lots of action. The reality of war/soldering is long hours/months/years of drudgery and monotony, some scary scenarios a fraction of the time. Being told what to do, when to do it, pretty much 24/7. I assume the dream of many soldiers/grunts after awhile is an office job, going home to friends and family by 5:00 and getting back control of there life. Often its the camaraderie, youth, and having a single over riding cause that soldiers miss. I suppose the alternative to joining an army is to find a cause you're passionate about, and put in the time and sacrifice. I respect our armed services but don't glamorize it. I had a couple friends in the Navy, father in law was Air Force, my dad's told me stories about basic training.

Wait, a second.. Your Birth year remains a constant. Your age goes up by 1 every year. Thus in 2019, the number will be one year more, thus the strange and inexplicable happens again, and will happen the next year too. In terms of magic, its called number forcing.

I kinda doubt it. I guess it can be seen as a modernist take on the world as 'Maya'. There can be benefits in using some Matrix philosophy in life, but taking a pop culture movie literally is usually asking for trouble. As the Beatles said, 'We all want to change the world, but ' you have to keep some grounding in the tic toc 'real' world. Beyond The Matrix there was good low key move called 'Cafe' that took place in a coffee shop. One of the regulars was a computer programmer working on an involved simulation game. Throughout the stories, a little girl comes up him, saying they have things in common because she is god and he is one of the characters in her simulation game. Good story, partly because its just one thread in several. Partial definitions- Religion is trying to 'do' Gods will. Magic is trying to get the Universe to do your will. Frustration is when the universe, doesn't do what you want. Zen/Flow mentality is going along with the Universe, knowing you can steer a little bit. addon> course (per the OP), one never knows but I don't think it'd make much difference, or that there are any easy cheat codes.

What is your definition of spirituality? Its sign posts and goals? What is a spiritual person? On my phone now so I'll answer later.

Unless its secretive or so much apart of the system thats its unuseable to outsiders, could you write a little on herbal preparations? thanks.

Not too long, maybe 7 to 10 minutes. For a couple years I'd given up energetics and just sat. I've added that bit of energetics in the middle, I guess its inspired by my interpretation of the Golden Flower meditation. It's followed by silent breathing, then letting that go.

With this in mind, while most of my meditation is just sitting, one part (in 4) is breathing in through my 3rd eye area, into the center brain(ish) area then guiding it down slowly to my lower dantien, keeping my mind on the dantien throughout a slow out breath, then repeat. Afterwards I return to just sitting. I don't get anything intense from it, other then I feel a bit more internal heat, ie my hands get surprisingly hot when I rub them together and the mid 60's feels a bit warm. Any thoughts, or the same thoughts, that its counter productive?

What if we did it 5 times? Isn't that better then once? We have eye witnesses. All the astronauts, all the support staff, all the technicians and people monitoring and trouble shooting. All in all, 400,000 people, with 1,000's intimately working on it. Who know the truth, that it happened and was very well documented. You can research any facet. Your handful of rocks is 842 pounds, 2200 separate samples from six different sites. Including some fascinating ones like the yellow volcanic 'sand' that they found. They were photographed on the moon and brought back. Experts around the world have been able to study and learn from them. If you want to learn about such rocks and why they're lunar - http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/howdoweknow.htm Sending up a satellite and photographing the actual vehicles left on the moon, that's pretty good evidence. We've done it, Japanese did it. We'll continue to do it.

We don't go back to the moon for monetary and political reasons. The original support vehicles from '68 to '72 are unsurprisingly gone, ie what was said poorly on a youtube video. They were all extraordinarily expensive and custom made. With modern tech we could go faster, cheaper and safer but its still billions and we don't have the political will, for better or worse. However there seem to be government and commercial proposals out there. As we get better at space travel, the odds of returning to the moon in our life are pretty good. And odds of some new satellites circling the moon and taking more high res photos are even better. not that they'll be believed by the hard core.

I wonder if our kids will doubt that the shuttle existed or that it went into space. Yes pictures of it but we have pictures of the 5 moon flights, this decade the Japanese had a satellite that took somewhat murky picture showing the landing sites and evidence, a few years later the U.S launch LOR that came back with better mapping of the moon and had clearer picture of the vehicles left behind. The pilots who flew on it will be alive but they could be stooges as well as all the engineers who built it. Fake because it was paid for by the government, and it can't be trusted. Course since 1972 we left behind large reflectors that allowed us then and now to shoot lasers at the moon and see get there reflection back, so we can get the distance within inches. We left 1,000's lbs of gear and took back 100's of pounds of rock. Studied them and learned about the origin of the moon. Including some strange yellow soil, that they photographed on the moon, took back and found it volcanic. To fake it isn't just movie set stuff. Thousands of people worked hands on, on the project and 100,000's worked tangentally on it. Physically we built the worlds largest rocket, on top put on a two part landing vehicle and a large powered orbiter. There's a complexity here that is astounding. On the face of it unnecessary. You'd assume going to the moon, the same vehicle would get you there then get you back, but the physics don't work that way. Before the 17 (depending on how you count'em) Apollo missions there 19 Gemini missions done to test vehicles and men in space. We built, flew and tested and it very very dangerous work. Test pilots and astronauts died. Like Lindberg's solution to crossing the Atlantic, it was all about weight, so the landing vehicle needed to be explosively separated, left behind and lunar module launched into back into space to be caught by orbiter. At every step here, there are geniuses who repeated failed and kept working on the 1,000 myriad systems of life support, propulsion, navigation, until they got it right. I find calling there work fake is horribly disrespectful. Giant rockets loaded with multiple vehicles went up, seen live and on TV by millions. Capsules parachuted down (and pieces of the rocket) and were picked up by sea. To hide repeatedly all of the tons of machinery involved would be herculean. To be exposed as cheating would be a national wound. If you succeeded, no one in there right mind would do it 5 times, because conspiracies don't work with 1,000's of people. We continued in space, we built a space station, the Russians did; we worked with nations around the globe to build the International Space Station and its visible across the sky each night. Much of the skeptical proof is debunked, easily found in articles and youtubes. I was just looking at Snopes.com, moon stuff but debunking is everywhere plus fun stuff from people like Mythbusters and The World's Smartest man Cecil Adams weighs in here, https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1758/was-the-apollo-moon-landing-a-hoax/ Its sad we need this though, but the proof is out there.

my 2 cents. 1 and 2 don't seem like parts of a balanced diet, partly because of the 'as much as possible..', some of both is good, but a healthy diet is balanced, less processed and often less is more. Extremes tend to be bad. 3. horse stance is great.. reverse breathing can be problematic particularly if its done too forcefully, good to have an experienced teacher see what you're doing. Also strenuous exercise before bed can keep you from sleeping. 4. In winter longer hours seem fine, but again, balance, don't over due it. 5. Celibacy.. many top people here think if its forced, its not true celibacy. Perhaps a disciplined approach is better then strict celibacy especially if you're not following a system that specifically deals with turning jing to chi.. 6. Sounds good, everything in moderation. Including that advice; every now and then let loose, enjoy yourself.

You don't need blind faith, you can study. Not pop youtubes that exist to confirm bias's but books by experts, people who've spent there lives studying this. Some people are authorities because they've spent a life time of study. Versus people who haven't. Yes, its good to believe, in my opinion, people who've spent decades studying a subject. Better still several people, get a wide view from intelligent experts. With the understanding that science evolves as it goes along, paradigms change, models get better. Modern medicine, has problems, but its also saves countless lives. You disregard it at your own risk. Its also important to know its weaknesses and dangers. Where modern medicine exists life spans are longer. It's not a panacea but its evolving. Course so are some of its problems, ie expense. What some consider moon landings 'anomalies' have been explained by experts. You don't have to believe experts in the field or people who were there, who accomplished it, but don't pretend that's open minded, its having a tight agenda that disbelieves modern science and history.

I see people who disbelieve in the 6 moon landings pretty much the same way you see flat earthers..ie pretty stupid. Close to the same thing, ignoring an overwhelming body of evidence and constructing an impossibly complex conspiracy theory. <that's probably overly harsh on my part, but guess I have issues with it> Questioning is fine, it's great, but if you have a strong and paranoid agenda, you'll be blind to answers. You can study the plans and building of the 6 moon landings in incredible detail. The 10,000's of thousand of people involved are still alive. One can trace the beginnings and steps. You can see the evidence, talk to the people. Learn the problems they faced and how they overcame them. You can also see the fruits of there progress by where we are now, ie the space station, multiple countries sending probes and vehicles to different planets and asteroids. The truth is clear and easy if you have an open mind, you can study how and why it happened, first hand. You can learn from people who've been in space and designed crafts. I'm in Chicago, where they have the Adler planetarium, you can go there and see the history of human learning, how it evolved, problems given and solved. You don't trust the government so.. one of mankinds greatest achievements is null and void to you. Oh well... your loss cause learning about space, its history, the engineers and researchers who solved and continue to solve real hard problems is fascinating. The now of it, the cutting edge science thats being done. It's inspiring. Hopeful even.

true, I wait around patiently for someone, somewhere to use the phrase 'I want the the Truth', so I can say the Tom Cruise quote back at them. Sometimes it takes years, but its worth it when it happens.