thelerner

Sadly, such racism was a norm, generally on all sides, in the early 1900's. The diary is from the 1920's. Young Einstein was a man of his time, a genius, ambitious. As a human being, Einstein grew as he aged. I don't think he'd write the same thing in his 40's or 50's. His later writings on humanity and pacifism were excellent and showed this evolution. ie A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security. Albert Einstein

My sensei had a long speech we'd hear many times over the years. The theme was Walk away. If you have to fight, fight- then walk away. Win or lose.. walk away. Don't stay, don't gloat, don't excuse, don't threaten, don't moralize, don't get in the last word. Walk the hell away. Those last few words can turn a losing situation into a disastrous one, and a winning situation into one requiring an emergency room. State your piece, do what you must, leave. Especially on the internet. You're (hopefully) fighting with idiots, don't waste too much time, state your truth. Let it rest a few days, or find another site, or do something that's actually more productive then arguing with strangers.

Haven't visited his website in a long time, but SoG always seemed like a pretty upright guy to me. just an addon. Not looking to argue bout it. some group dynamics inevitably turn some off.

Here's a suggestion. You can find 'shaking' in a couple of gi gung regiments. Simple long shaking of the body, getting it to vibrate. Often its just done for a minute or two til you feel the vibration ruminating through the whole body when you slow down and stop. Or some have it go on for 10, 15 minutes or longer. There's the small shake; arms by your side, shaking your hands with a small half circle, increasing the speed til the whole body vibrates. Done vigorously enough and you may feel the back of your heels tapping off the ground. There's the big shake, similar, but the knees get involved and the whole body moves. Kind of like an ape thing, you can sound off hoo hoo hoo like a great ape. Big motion. Both loosen up the joints, give the internal organs and perhaps the energy body a gentle work out. Any time your holding tension- mental or physical.. shake it out. For mental, juggling works well too.

hmnn, I might go back stream and pick up my great grandmother on my dads side who I never met. Perhaps give equal time to a great great granddaughter, I'd pick up in the future. Then 20 years into the past and pick up my mom. Lots to discuss, I'm sure.

but mamaa.. that's where the fun is..

eyumm, semi-evil but yum. course i'm still hoping to find another faire that does deep fried Snickers**; looks like a corndog, tastes like molten chocolate heaven. **pretty much pure evil. you need a note from your doctor to order 2, and a note from your priest to order 3. My green shake is an avocado, half banana (frozen or add handful ice), handful or two spinach, cover with up with milk and blend. Maybe put in a few drops of vanilla and teaspoon or two of sweetener.

To me, variety is the spice of life. Vive le difference. One can't throw common sense out of the window ofcourse, but travel opens the mind. We learn things we didn't know, we didn't know. It gives us the chance to learn from the best of other cultures and better appreciate the best of our own. Monochrome is boring.

You do see it popping up in a couple cultures. I think in India it was considered a Royal approach. Perhaps for its health or simply because it took discipline. I was listening to a podcast by a U.S general who only ate once a day and felt it boosted his energy and gave him much more time.

Sounds like you know your body, and its reaction to food groups. Only thing I'd encourage is less processed food, perhaps getting more healthy fats. I love avocado smoothies.. various nuts to keep up your body weight. Note* I'm a not a good example.

Welcome to the board. I admire Robert Peng's work & Sufism. One of my sayings is marry one practice, but be willing to flirt with others. You intuit you need more grounding. Probably a good to honor that. Zhuan Zhang is good grounding practice, one that builds strength and resilience too. Maybe build that strength and steadiness before eventually working with energy like the MCO. Unless you have access to good live teacher.

true, I did say ideally though. Yet there's a bias towards thinking things are 'worse then ever' that runs rampant through the human psyche. And the truth is percentage wise, there is less war right now, there is less poverty, there are strides being made. I'd wager that for all its problems the 21st century is doing better then the 20th. For example we're not in the midst of a world war right now. WWI had over 16 million casualties and would spark multiple genocides. So far we've been plague free. Let's not forget the Flu pandemic of 1918, ie the Spanish Flu that killed off between 50 to 100 million people at a time, single handed dropping the life expectancy by 12 years at a time when we had a much smaller population. So.. while its good to see the whole picture, one has to look at the progress and smell the roses too.

Here's a good interview with him https://taiji-forum.com/tai-chi-taiji/tai-chi-interviews/tai-chi-interview-paul-crompton/ I think its from 2018, but not 100% sure. He does say he's 73 in the article. "I am almost 73 years old now. Over the years I have learned Qigong and different aspects of meditation, and have developed methods of my own. You know the legend of Chang San Feng and how he learned tai chi in a dream. I thought, years ago, that it was not exactly a dream, but rather it came to him, if the legend is true, when he was in deep meditation of some kind. Not a dream as we think of it. So if you can go deeply enough into yourself, your body and intuition ‘teach’ you, if you are sensitive enough to listen and hear and interpret what you have heard sufficiently well to carry it out."

Ideally peace works from the ground up. Starting with ourselves, then our families, our communities, our leaders, our nation, our world.

Little bit of music, but the Archaeous is mostly a progressive course. Course there are enough purists who'd say to only stand w/ attention and silence that its probably wise to spend some practice that way too.

nope, but a quick google search gets me 136,000 hits in under a second.

I don't really care one way or the other. Let the British decide if they want to keep paying for there Royalty. So far, they do. They do get tangibles and intangible benefits from it though. Never underestimate the power of tradition, pomp and circumstance. After all, they have been Englands longest running soap opera for a thousand years.

I've enjoyed listening to Rawn Clarks Archaeous series when I do Zhan Zhuang. Not that its meant for that. Its a hermetic system that stacks the elements earth, water air.. onto the body. Its in nice 15 minutes sequences, makes the time go by and gets pretty esoteric.

I just work with whatever metaphor sticks its finger in my socket.

Is this really so remarkable? That a program that slowly stresses the body can strengthen it? To me the important part is the commitment to find out for oneself isn't very high and that his students demonstrate similar abilities. There's his 10 week program, or at Higher Existence (http://highexistence.com/the-wim-hof-method-revealed-how-to-consciously-control-your-immune-system/)there's a good article that's contains the main aspects of the system. Plus there's many video diaries of people going through the program. I like the Swedish Iceman youtubes. Looks like he has a free 3 part mini course. His original 10 week video course at $199. And the newer fundamentals at $297. I like both and they both seem to get you to the same place. maybe the original is harder. Also he tends to have sales once or twice a year. Course > https://www.wimhofmethod.com/elearning (not easy, actually tough & somewhat painful at times, but if I did it, most can) I blogged my diary of the experience in my ppd here. It's not rocket science its a 2 1/2 or 3 month commitment that's less then an hour a day. Faster if you fast forward through the videos.

They did exactly that. Infecting him and some other practitioners with an active virus.endotoxin. He and they beat it. There's a bunch of articles on it. here's one- http://theglobalfool.com/iceman-wim-hof-and-the-flow-within-the-immune-system-goes-with-it/ "Results from the new study (Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans), published about two weeks ago in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, raise hopes for people with chronic inflammatory diseases, as for example rheumatoid arthritis — the results indicate that the techniques developed by Wim Hof allow to control and decrease the levels of inflammation. The study included 24 volunteers — 12 volunteers were trained for 10 days in meditation (third eye meditation), breathing techniques and exposure to cold (immersions in ice cold water). The other 12 volunteers represented the control group and were not trained. After completion of training, all volunteers were injected with endotoxin, a component from the cell wall of bacteria that elicits a response from the immune system. Peter Pickkers, one of the researchers, said in a press release “”By administering a dead bacterial component we are actually fooling the body. The immune system responds as if living bacteria are present in the blood stream and produces inflammatory proteins. As a result of this the subjects develop symptoms such as fever and headache. We can therefore use this approach to investigate the immune system of humans.” The researchers demonstrated that, in the trained volunteers, endotoxin injection results in the voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system — the trained volunteers produced much higher levels of epinephrine than the untrained ones. Epinephrine is a stress hormone that is released during increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and suppresses the immune response. The researchers found that, in the trained volunteers, the release of inflammatory proteins was attenuated, resulting in the decrease of symptoms such as fever and headache. In conclusion, results from the study show that “voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system results in epinephrine release and subsequent suppression of the innate immune response in humans.” Huge amount of anecdotal evidence (ie most graduates have a couple stories) and a significant amount in the laboratory. The Wim Hof method seems to be a strong stimulant for the immune system. I practice it. I assume the stress it brings out, from the long breath holds trigger some positive hormonal releases and an anti-inflammatory response. Likewise the cold water treatment stimulates the body to protect itself. Like muscle building, short amounts of specific controlled stress, strengthen. Like anything worthwhile, its not easy or comfortable, but a worthwhile skill to pick up. Doing the method takes about 10 weeks, a bit more for slackers like myself. You won't reach Wim Hof levels, but mental toughness, cold endurance and anti-inflammatory response should see big gains. And you'll easily beat any non Hof'er in breath holding contests. I found it a nice challenge compared to most of the meditation practices I've done.

hmnn.. you know gun control isn't so much about banning guns as much as setting intelligent regulations. What does this have to do with the OP? idk Yes, I do. One way to control is to regulate. Instead of a straight ban, perhaps setting 2 days a week to go to the firing range. That will be the time for 'lustful' thoughts. Otherwise, when they arise, command your mind, not now, not yet. Try to avoid places that trigger them. Not easy, but possible. Do what you can, find a skillful solution you can live with.

I've always had the view of Musicals as alternative realities where people are all connected and spontaneously break into song. This video captures that nicely. I wish there was a kind of vacation place based on musicals where guests and workers broke out into song at random moments and everyone was expected to join in. Might be a pain if it happened too often, but every now and then, a few times a day, a little song and dance. That'd be real nice.

I have an old CD called Yogic Breathing by Christer Ekstrom. When I first heard it I thought I'd been ripped off. It was tones, in two styles. One was an upward tone for 8 seconds then downward tone 8 seconds and another 15 at longer intervals going to 44-44. The other style had 3 part breathing ie hold in the middle. starting with 8-8-8 going up to 14-56-28. It tended to like a 1/4/2 rhythm. The 'secret' of the CD was to set your player on repeat. Once you got comfortable with one timing, you'd stretch yourself and go on to the next until it was comfortable. The benefit of the practice for me was that this kind of breath work, made my natural, unforced breathing, longer and deeper. I usually use it for 10-40-20 breathing rhythm. And its much much easier to do after I've done a few sets of Wim Hof sets. Without the Wim Hof sets of fast breathing and holds, I can only do 8-32-16 for longer amounts of time.