Apech

Even if the answer is no .... ... the answer is always yes.

Is the Pope Jewish? This from online etymology: I like this ... An Old English word for "sacred" was godcund. I shall be using godcund from now on cos it sounds rude.

http://www.scholarsage.com/martial-arts-realm-of-the-deeply-insecure/ He's talking about Martial Arts as the realm of the deeply insecure! But it could equally applied to Daoism, Buddhism and anything else we discuss on here. This is a great validation of our own rules here on DaoBums - no personal insults, belittling and so on ... show respect to the other, keep calm and keep practicing.

What do people mean by sacred? This word is overused and not defined. As in 'all life is sacred' = more or less meaningless statement which sounds nice. Same with 'everything is sacred' ... oh really ... what about straw dogs (dogs and grass if you prefer)??? To say the Dao is sacred implies a special category for it. Why then do people laugh when they hear of it? If they didn't it wouldn't be Dao. The I Ching commentaries say the Dao is denoted for its uselessness ... square that with sacredness can you? Ha!

This division of people is really just falling into the hands of propaganda. The fact is that the economy rules and it is the economic conditions which determine how people live and how they behave. In an area of economic decline/collapse people will vote out of self interest for more left wing parties while where there is a reasonable prosperity, in order to protect what they already have people will be more conservative. So you get administrations in these areas which reflect these economic conditions. People will work hard where there is opportunity and less hard where there seem less rewards for doing so. To blame the local people for the decline of places like Detroit is ridiculous when you know that the local industry collapsed ... blame the industrialists instead.

cat's sighs ... you get them in the road.

Oh you know ... it's what cats do sometimes.

"Whenever I see ill-natured people, Or those overwhelmed by heavy misdeeds or suffering, I will cherish them as something rare, As though I’d found a priceless treasure." I'm conscious that many people are not Buddhists on here or don't feel a connection to it ... but this is part of a Mind Training Lojong text. For Daoists I would say its about inner/outer qi dynamics. Your subtle body is strongly geared to like/dislike movements. That is expansion, warming and movement towards what is liked, contraction, cooling and movement away from what is disliked. If you allow this to operate without attention then you are simply blown along by the wind (or washed along with the tide if you prefer). By deliberately reversing this flow ... especially by appreciating what you naturally dislike you can balance the subtle body so that it becomes smooth and stable. Similarly you can avoid rushing towards what you like (delicious food for instance). But its important to remain light and open in this process. Enjoyment is key, enjoyment does not = liking or pleasure.

You are clearly very irritated by 'C' and she seems to exhibit a set of behaviours which trigger this in you. There are several possible reasons for this not all of which relate to her at all. But that is not really the main issue. Having someone close by you who irritates you is extremely good fortune from a cultivation point of view. You should be dancing with joy that the universe has set this up for you. There was a great 10th Century Buddhist teacher called Atisha who when travelling deliberately chose the most useless and annoying monk he could find to accompany him. You should take this opportunity to learn about yourself and about energy interactions. There are many methods and techniques for helping with this depending on what type of practice you do. Study this. Put it into practice. Good luck.

sigh

I think it's probably good to be honest enough with ourselves that we would dearly love to kill someone. As long as we don't actually do it of course . I don't mean its ok to be angry but it is understandable. I think we get a lot of 'material' from our parents and grandparents, we have our own experiences in a fucked up world interacting with fucked up people and even the food we eat and air we breathe can import some disturbing chemicals and so on. So there's plenty of toxicity around. the worst thing to do would be to pretend not to be angry, especially that 'spiritual' calm which hides a lot of tension. At least with honesty we've got something to work with. Beyond that though if we are cultivators then we have to cultivate - which means restoring balance to our subtle bodies. Doing practices to purify ourselves and also to reverse the flow of heated emotions - that is our responsibility. And one of the early steps in this is to prevent whatever toxicity there is in us spilling out over those we interact with.

That's your definition of that term, I think he just meant your subtle inner self of thoughts and feelings.

depends what you mean precisely by inner nature. His bio if you are interested: http://therisinglotus.com/laoshi-damo-mitchell-biography/

Cheese is good but can always be improved: ... with pickle. A bit like friendship. You can be sweet, you can be sour, you can be cheesey. Butter your friends up, spread some happiness but occasionally be a little crusty. Have you noticed how symbolic everything is? Maybe God is a grocer?

I had a real friend once ... well I call him a friend ... it was some guy I met on a bus ... we chatted like we knew each other for ten minutes... then he got off ... never saw him again ... such is life.

They are probably friends of friends of friends ... that's how it works by extending your net wider. Just designate them spam and junk the lot if you are not interested ... definitely do not reply it will only encourage them ...

possibly your email address is in the address book of someone you know who is on FB ... if you are not careful FB will try to friend everyone on it ... look to see which names it says you might know for a clue.

His name cannot be spoken for it is Sean.

Verily, he dooth.

Almighty God owns it ... he goeth by the name 'Sean'.

I think: 1 ) no overall orthodox view or dogma (all views count) 2 ) gradualist approach to moderation i.e. evolving what works instead of sudden strict rules. 3 ) good humour and banter 4 ) the members of course! most people come here to contribute and learn 5 ) plenty of screen names and avatars with feline references

In Portugal we have proportional representation which means they take the votes and do a weird calculation called D'Hont to allocate the seats to the candidates. I think its the French system or similar. The link between the constituency and the MP is completely missing ... which is the main strength of English system ... in theory anyway the MP once elected represents everyone in his area not just those who voted for him. The other point which is often confused is that non-one unless you happen to live in the area they represent in Parliament actually votes for a Prime Minister. You vote for your local representative and that's it. So sometimes a very good local MP is worth more no matter if they are Labour, Tory or anything else. If you see what I mean.

It was skinheads I used to fear as a youth ... they were scary mfs.

You might be Teddy Boys.