Encephalon

I've found that any sensible investigation of the etimology of consumerism includes a look at what happens to a culture when it is bombarded with app. $200-250 BILLION a year in commercial advertising. Some folks love to say that they are psychologically impervious to advertising and that everyone else should be too, but that money wouldn't be getting spent if the returns didn't justify it. KILL YOUR TELEVISION!!

I'd like to suggest that we shift gears away from the discussion of capitalism and focus on what I think is the more manageable and pertinent topic - global consumerism. I make this suggestion for the following reasons - Few people in here know what the fuck they are talking about when it comes to capitalism, much less economics. (There, I said it.) I am not an economist either, but I've slogged through enough globalization in my grad studies to know that all this grand theorizing can be had by anyone plucking a C+ out of Econ 101 at the local jc. Beyond that, everyone who is not getting their degree in economics paid for by a grant from the Heritage Foundation or the Cato Institute discovers that economics, as well as capitalism, is not a pure science like physics, as capitalist cheerleaders would have us believe, but a vulgar and usually transparent attempt to dress ideological self-interest in the trappings of mathematical credibility. In ecological jargon, economics becomes so abstract that it fails entirely to address the schisms between the technosphere (human world) and the biosphere (the world of nature). A little learning is a dangerous thing, as Alexander Pope once said. I don't think Consumerism is quite so incomprehensible. True enough, capitalism is the engine of consumerism, but even staunch defenders of capitalism can recognize the deleterious effects of mindless consumption on people (obsessive and addictive behavior), cultural values, and entire global ecosystems (at least that's my hope; even the puritan stripe of early 20th century conservatives didn't really dig the country's descent into consumer culture on moral grounds). Of course, I'm biased too; my thesis was a Buddhist critique of global consumerism using - that's right! - The Three Poisons. That being said, I am an agnostic Buddhist - tantra not spoken here - and like Teddy and FDR, I want to see capitalism saved from itself, because I too want to sell my products, make a wad of cash and get the hell out of Los Angeles!

All you Bad-asses out there, male and female, may have flirted with NO supplements, worked out, and then preened in front of the mirror for an hour. It turns out that it's basically useless for building muscle mass, and extremely effective at sucking money out of your bank account. However, according to the book "NO More Heart Disease," by Louis Ignarro, NO is extremely effective at reversing and preventing heart disease, mostly by its rejuvinating effects on the vascular system (one of the same effects attributed to Chi Kung by Daniel Reid). OTC NO products are a waste of time. Here are the dosages the good Doctor recommends. I'm planning on taking this regimen, along with the Dean Ornish Heart Flush Diet, for one year, starting on my 50th birthday, which is 9 months away. This regimen would easily cost $40 a month, but I think it'll be worth it to me when the time comes. L-arginine 4-6 grams/day L-citrulline 2mgs-1gram/day Vit. C 500 mgs/day Vit. E (alpha-tocopherol) 200 IU/day Folic acid 400-8-- mcg/day Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) 10 mgs/day. wouldn't it be cool if these amounts did in fact help with gaining muscle mass? The price is competitive with all the other stuff on the market, and the dosages are much higher. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcIWX8C91s4

I don't think it's possible to assign a proper regimen without an adequate audit of your strengths and weaknesses. We don't know if you're sitting at a desk getting soft and frumpy or getting tight and misaligned busting up concrete. Generally speaking, Chinese medicine assumes that mere existence is hot and that health and longevity depend on cooling the fire; this is particularly true for people who eat western food. I don't think you can beat the Water Method of standing meditation as taught by Bruce Frantzis - "Opening the Energy Gates of the Body." It's Very safe, cooling, it doesn't demand the precise alignments called for in other Nei Kung postures (which also call for proper instruction), and it's relatively quick and easy to learn. It's physical, but the attention you bring to bare on your energy gates is a form of mindfulness meditation in itself. "Opening the energy Gates..." is a modern classic that all newbies should get anyway.

I brought my nei kung And meditation practice to a halt for about a month when my daughter was born because I became busier with obvious priorities and was also too sleepy to get excited about my practice. I've recommenced regular practice now that things have returned to some measure of routine and am finding (with gratitude!) that the chi flow is still really palpable. The best analogy I can think of is the waterhose. After shutting off the flow for a month, the hose (meridians) shrunk slightly and now that I'm running the energy again it subjectively feels stronger as it courses through a "shrunken" pathway. From what I read of Frantzis, a strong sensation does not necessarily mean a strong current, and that advanced practitioners don't experience this sensation at all, just an openness. I think I could get "hooked" on this practice, just to feel that stronger current, even though taking time off like that would suit no honest practice. Does anyone else get this effect?

I first questioned the wisdom of posting this political self-test here, owing to the tendency of politics to create fissures between people that may not otherwise exist, but then I thought, what the hell. http://www.idealog.org/en/index - 20 questions Maybe at some point in the future we can investigate whether or not Taoism presupposes a specific political viewpoint. That's a recipe for friendly discussion, right? edited for Tai Po

Last December, my wife insisted that I run down to Kaiser and have my sperm checked out. We had been trying like rabbits to get her pregnant since June so it seemed the sensible thing to do. My swim team checked out fine but a testosterone check did indicate I was in the low normal range for a 50 year old. It turned out that she was pregnant by January and Natalie Jean was born on Thursday, October 6th at 1:23pm, so that story has a happy ending. I was not up to starting a supplemental T therapy at all and started looking at alternatives that could help with general health and fitness maintenance. I performed what I thought was a thorough investigation of DHEA therapy, which is over the counter here in CA. I started slow with 10mg every other day and noticed within a few weeks that I was leaning out nicely and horny as a high schooler, which was actually kind of a drag but my wife didn't seem to mind. I eventaully upped the dose to 50mgs every other day and then noticed a negative side effect; my blood pressure, which had hovered around 110/60 since I was old enough to notice, was up around 160/100. I first suspected the medications I had taken following shoulder surgery in February and started the process of elimination, first suspecting Norco, but I eventually found evidence that DHEA was the culprit. All the benefits rang true for me; greater energy, libido through the roof, lowered body fat, workouts that worked, but apparently it causes the adrenal gland to secrete aldosterone, the hormone responsible for blood pressure regulation. Songs of Distant Earth got me started on Olive Leaf Extract, 1,500mg a day, and that dropped my BP down to 140/90 in about three weeks. I went ahead and ordered Divya Mukt Vati, an ayurvedic herb promising that it could cure HBP and attendant symptoms of restlessness, anxiety, and insomnia with no side effects. Within 10 days my BP was 110/66, where it stayed ever since. There is one side effect that has been recorded; some minor nasal congestion, a histamine reaction to one of the ingredients, but that's a small price. There's a pretty cool doctor on the web, Dr. Ray Sahelian, who does not express happiness that DHEA is sold OTC in any dosages over 5mg, and his reasoning seems sound. I've gone back to that dose every other day and four days later, I am once again Horndog with low blood pressure and a wakefulness that belies getting awakened by 10-day old, 10 lb. screaming shit machine every three hours. she's an awfully cute one though and I woudn't have it any other way. If your under 40 and reading this, forget it. You don't need this stuff until middle age.

Exactly. There have been several cultural fault lines that divide this country between left and right, many of them simply construed by the politic process of vote-getting, but the dirty little secret is that the real divide is between class. It's been that way since the 1890s at least. Thanks for posting this. I imagine some will read this and argue that the Occupiers still don't have a legitimate reason to be so upset.

I'd like to start a Buddhist 12-Step thread in here starting January 2012. Depending on how robust the turnout gets, I would imagine taking one step a month. This would allow for all participants to benefit from reading, if desired, a handful of fairly popular titles on Buddhism and recovery - "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the 12 Steps" by Kevin Griffin "The 12-Step Buddhist" by Darren Littlejohn "Mindfulness and the 12 Steps" by Therese Jacobs-Stewart As much as I would like to begin my own hybrid understanding of Taoism and the 12 Steps, I think it better to keep it focused on Buddhism for the duration of this project. I've been going to 12 Step meetings on and off for about 30 years. I quit drinking in 1982 but started intermittent reefer madness when I moved to LA 10 years ago . I've been off the grass since March of 2010. I began my study of Buddhism shortly after getting off the booze and find that it is paticularly useful for penetrating the depths of human craving. I personally believe that we are all addicts, and that modern consumer culture encourages addictive behavior as an engine of economic growth. This is part of the reason why society holds addicts and alcoholics in such contempt; they make the whole system look bad. My next reading assignment is "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Mate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9ChRBF9fpE

Lots of points to respond to! There Is a small but robust Buddhist 12-step community in America today. Some of the groups follow the example and format created by Kevin Griffin ("One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the 12 Steps") and the Buddhist Recovery Network. Some are modeled on Darren Littlejohn's work. Some are modeled on the work Noah Levine, author of "Dharma Punx." The point I want to emphasize is that many people in recovery who resonate with Buddhism live in places where the Buddhist 12-Step vibe hasn't caught on. What AA offers is the critical component missing from American Buddhism; the "sangha" if you will, the social connection and group participation in relative proximity to Anywhere, USA. I would like to be able to investigate the affinities between the Dharma and the 12 Steps so that those on the Buddhist path of recovery can feel comfortable within AA orthodoxy. I still find it challenging at times to perform the inner translations myself, but that is a reflection of the depths of the Dharma and the Steps I have yet to fathom. My assumptions from the get-go are - The American Buddhist 12-step community is likely a much different community than the self-identified Buddhists of TaoBums. I don't believe the TTB Buddhists speak with a monolithic voice, but I often find them referenced in a general, and often perjorative, fashion. As far as I can tell, Buddhist psychology in the service of the Buddhist recovery movement is mostly limited to the 4 Noble Truths, the 8-Fold Path, the Three Poisons, and the 5 Precepts. This is purely secular; no metaphysics, no suspensions of reason. Beyond that is your own private path. I am choosing Buddhism because it is part of my practice and for reasons I stated in my opening post; because Buddhism is trained on the human impulse for craving, desire, addiction, lust, etc., and that to open it up to an ecumenical investigation would dissolve the unique contribution Buddhism makes to the recovery movement. I am only too happy to see a more ecumenical interpretation of the 12 Steps at some point in the future, though. edit - removed article from Dr. Weil

Given our recent discussion about global population and energy factors I thought I might post this. "The mortal blow to human industrial civilization will be when oil prices spike and nobody can afford to buy that oil... and everything will just shut down."

Right. I suppose we're at that stage where we start impugning each other's ability to think independently. I think I'll bail now and spare us both the hassle. All the best, Scott

I'd like some assistance in finding any online source that legitimates the abiotic oil theory. I've used The Oildrum and the PostCarbon Institute to stay abreast of the global energy issues and I can't find a single article online that supports this notion. http://www.angelfire.com/planet/eatingfossilfuels/NoFreeLunch-prelude.pdf

I just watched it on youtube, thanks to you. I think they make excellent points, not the least of which is the recovery rate of people in 12-Step groups, which hovers around 5%. Penn & Teller are atheists, and while my spirit is oriented more to skepticism and critical thinking, atheism still presumes information that is not available to us. I prefer the scientist Timothy Ferris' idea that agnosticism is the most cognitively hygienic philosophical stance we can take, because it presumes nothing, which is why I fall into the camp of agnostic Buddhism as described by Stephen Batchelor. As I understand it from the readings I posted in the beginning, Buddhism is a powerful psychological tool for understanding our craving instinct, and for some people, it offers a way out of addiction that works better than the 12 steps. What the 12-Step community has that Buddhism in America doesn't have is a critical component of the recovery process, that being a sense of community and group participation. Evaluating the 12 step process through the lens of Buddhism becomes an important means for Buddhist-minded individuals to benefit from the comraderie of 12 step meetings. PS - To anyone who has reservations about my premises for starting this thread, I respectfully ask that you do not participate. I would refer you instead to the dozens of authors listed on Amazon who write on this subject.

Beautifully wrought. Again, you remind me of just how much work I have left to do on my own petty self. I hope I didn't create another layer of confusion with my last post; it was not intended as a jab against you, nor was it in response to any perceived criticism of me. My main point was to point out that zealotry of the consistent and premeditated stripe may require a sturdier response than simply yielding, less Buddhism, more Taoism. I can feel the tenderness that animates I4L's crusade to inoculate the universe against the alleged wretched meaninglessness of humanism, but his practice and delivery is not in accord with honest and productive communication, which is what I hope we are all here for, ostensibly. I can appreciate the commitment of young Mormon missionaries out on the trail, but I don't want them banging on my door day after day.

Thanks for reminding me just how treacherous the road to enlightenment is! I know I've been accused of being a louse who is too quick to pass judgment on others over their posted content, and I'm sure some of it is well-deserved, but the problem I have is not with people who lack access to information, or education, or experience. I hope I have never ridiculed a person for simply not having access to a piece of information. I see no problem with exploring the limits of our imagination. What I find problematic are the ideological zealots who aggressively proselytize points that are not only beyond their own understanding or realm of expertise but beyond everyone's understanding. It is this lack of intellectual humility - asserting as fact that the earth really is full of catacombs through which alien spacecraft fly unfettered - that diminishes everyone's ideas, because it just dissolves any criteria by which we can have sensible discussion. I had my own metaphysical notions throughout for the first 36 years of my life before I finally got off my ass and went to college. But I never argued them as facts by which others were obliged to gauge the validity of their own experience. I've been always the skeptic, even with my own mental constructions.

That's not entirely true. You are interested in all of the aspects of these various subjects except those that require any intellectual rigor. You came in here with a shotgun and blasted the place with some of the shoddiest pseudo-science of the last hundred years. You wore out that rationalization many moons ago. Those maverick thinkers who made a difference were creative people who wielded expertise and broke free of the conceptual straightjackets of their respective fields. They did not skip the hard work, whether in academia or through their own private studies as autodidacts. You, on the other hand, possess no scientific experience of any kind, but instead of getting yer butt to the local junior college and taking your mental life seriously, you've chosen instead to skip the process entirely while waging a jihad outside outside the classroom, throwing rocks through the windows. Oddly enough, you seem perfectly capable of formal study, but we all take the academic plunge when we're good and ready. I was 36. And therein lies your "agenda;" you cannot imagine a mature spiritual life not grounded in a theistic view of the world. Humanistic spirituality seems to have become an intensely irritating notion for you. Cosmology without God is life without meaning, so much that you've turned this forum into a battlefield to wage your arguments. I understand where you're coming from, and even empathize with you, inasmuch as I once held it myself, but like millions of happy humanists (of all stripes, even Taoist) who've come before me, I've discovered that a creative and meaningful life in the midst of mystery, not a conjured divinity, is not only possible but necessary. Ultimately, it's just a function of our spiritual imagination and our curiosity that determines how much we personalize God or Tao, but some semblance of contentment in the midst of ambiguity is a nice reward. The point of all this, I guess, is that you can't win souls with badgering. You do so by setting an example that others would follow themselves.

Greetings - I'm sorry to hear about your suffering. Even with specific details about your medical history, online options are limited. It sounds as if you were deeply traumatized at a critical juncture of your development. The good news is that there are bodywork practitioners who have had much success healing trauma on the somatic level. I would find a somatic practitioner, take your prescribed meds, and get yourself started on a Taoist healing path. I would investigate Nei Kung first - www.neikungla.com - and accept that healing takes time. There are support groups that can assist you in gradually learning to feel comfortable in wider social circles. Please know that all of us are wounded to some degree and empathize with you. For years I couldn't speak or read in front of people because my eyes would uncontrollably seal shut, as if someone had sprinkled a few grains of salt into each one. But it eventually subsided with practice. All the best, Scott

Your only proven strategy was ignoring the legitimate questions posed to you long after people stopped asking. You had every opportunity to demystify your agenda and bring all the speculation, which I suspect you deeply enjoyed, to an end. The idea that scientifically illiterate individuals can single-handedly turn 300 years of scientific progress upside down seems pretty ludicrous, but I have to give you credit for trying. But I have to say, your repeated insistence that we needed your pseudo-scientific explanations of the universe in order to have an authentic spiritual education was even more priceless. Again, your persistence is admirable, no matter how misallocated.

Yes. For me, the duration required to get it pumping strong again depends on how much time I commit to daily practice. If I get three 30-minute session in a day, it comes back fast, longer if I only get one session.

Congratulations to you all! I'm currently in "Stare Mode;" I can just sit a watch her construct one expression after another, picking out which parts she got from her mother, which from me. My wife and I are both brown-eyed but Natalie has bright cobalt blue eyes that "seem" to take in everything. Thanks to all of you for responding. This wasn't the first time I experienced this so I am grateful for sound feedback. Resonation is encouraging.

Some good points. My job as I see it is to reevaluate the tenet of Right Speech and employ this in all my affairs. I was going to attempt an investigation of what constitutes anti-intellectualism but decided against it, since it's all relative, not to mention intensely personal. It's incumbent upon me to find a board that suits my wavelengths, so I will adjust accordingly, and remind myself that the word "equanimity" is still in the vocabulary.