Apech

'bum conversation' ... what could be more basic and healthy?

I'm going to bring her an apple everyday ... beat that!!!!

Huh! creeping to the new mods already LOL.

horizontal eyes?

Sure. But I meant the whole stage managed performance ... not the excitement ...

I think maybe around the same time ... anyway we've both been on here a long time ... it's still great ... as I've said before more or less my home page ... always something new ... something I've never heard of or some link that I can follow up ... even its just the music you've been listening to a little bird told me that we have two new mods as well.

I went to Rome a few years back and saw the Pope appear from a tiny window way up, the crowds in St. Peter's square went wild it was like a rock concert. I couldn't imagine anything further away from spirituality or truth than that. the best thing in Rme is the Spanish steps and the house where Keats died.

Throw some fish.

No I can't

I find TBs goes through cycles, sometimes quiet sometimes noisy, bit like the weather ... I don't think its been particularly bad recently ... in fact I can remember far worse times ... on the politics front I think in America everyone is suffering from post super power blues ... people seem to want to get their gun and head for the hills ...

Very, very few people have actually been banned. By banned I mean the account was permanently blocked. A few more have been suspended for set periods, a week, ten days, 30 days etc. Even these numbers are small and tend to be repeat offenders. You have to work really hard to get suspended on here. And the main thing is always the same ... insulting, talking down, belittling the other person ... which always says to me that if you do this you can't sustain your point of view very well. Its not always politics and gender issues that cause the problem .... Buddhist philosophy on here seems quite fractious ... don't know why people forget their compassion and loving kindness so quick ... but they do. Bottom line is it doesn't matter if we disagree ... in fact the whole point of debate is to compare, contrast, bring out different points of view ... all Sean and the mod team are asking is ... do this without losing it... that's all really.

Was that before or after Archduke Ferdinand got shot?

I think it's me. Can we get back to discussing the pope please this is turning into another Buddhism thread.

They don't do it very well or nicely is the point.

Well here's another idea John Paul 3

We need a pope like this:

Smoke signals ... put the wagons in a circle!

Meanwhile what's happened with da Pope ... when do we get the new one?

News report with video footage ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/15/meteorite-explosion-shakes-russian

Imagine seeing that as you are driving to/from work?

Thanks for following this up! I am still reading Harmless People and the writing is amazing. Its very evocative of the people and the place ... I'd like to know more about their spiritual practices. With regard to homosexuality ... there's a big difference between there being none and it not being 'permitted'. From a quick read round of what's available online it seems generally to be thought that there were gay people in every culture - and we learn even giraffes do it If you know a lot about it let's have a thread in general on their spiritual practices .....

I think you completely misunderstand the reservations expressed on here. But I am grateful for the info and links you have posted and have downloaded one of Marshall Thomas' books Harmless People ... from a quick look she seems like a wonderful writer.

No that's dinner.

I think that what descartes was saying was that since I cannot necessarily trust what my senses tell me about the world and myself ... it is the fact that I can think that tells me i really exist. I don't think it was an ontological statement as in 'I am my thoughts' but that the evidence for my own existence is the fact that I am thinking. I will await correction on this point

Thank you for explaining. I don't get that at all from the text but its interesting that you and others read it that way.