Encephalon

Yep, it can get awfully comical pretty fast! I don't buy the whole Biddhisattva-Wannabe story. I think some people can become so victimized that passivity becomes a conditioned response, which they rationalize as enlightened conduct.

I think you're right. I should have been more precise. What I feel like I'm doing in here is the equivalent of going into Big Bob's BBQ and demanding that they improve and expand their vegetarian entrees. I've reconstructed my spiritual life on secular grounds, where agnostic Buddhism and Taoism figure prominently, but it's impossible for me to find common ground in here on those wavelengths, and I don't want to be belligerent with people who deviate from my path. But it's gone both ways too; I was ridiculed for narrow-mindedness for insisting on the validity of my mere five senses when I failed to take someone's UFO experience as fact. I had a faith-based outlook until I lost my faith at 36, so I am obliged to respect where people are in their own particular stage of development, and I don't think I've performed that task too admirably. "Who the fuck am I?" is a question that seriously needs to be asked of me. The only thing else I could add is that I am prone to addictive behavior, and in the absence of drugs or alcohol consumption, it's easy to use online bickering as a destraction. Notice I did not request a permanent ban, just another one of my cooling off periods. I thank you for your sincere points.

More psycho-babble, but beneath it all, you're just angry because you're ill-equipped to respond when I challenge your BS.

I'm not sure I follow you. I find information like this to be invaluable in understanding the human predilection for delusion and self-deception, especially when used in the service of exalting ourselves. I also do not believe it impugns us in any way to point out our behavioral kinship with other creatures. This conclusion of neuroscience can only help us by making sure that we don't confuse our innate and hard-wired instincts for higher cognitive functions. Rationalizing brute force as ideological purity has a pretty nasty tract record, does it not?

Can't really argue with your assessment. I would argue that 20 years is too short of an historical update. As someone who was born and raised in the SF Bay area, with gay relatives in my own family, I'm aware as much as a straight person can be of the strife. Matthew Shephard, although not an activist, wasn't murdered all that long ago for the crime of being himself. I don't really care what you say or think about me. I think it's important to challenge your regular practice of warping the hell out of Asian studies which you often do in the service of attacking the thoughtful ideas of others, including many senior members of this forum who have demonstrable expertise in ancient texts as well as personal practice, neither of which you possess nor seem willing to even consider pursuing. Rather, you prefer to argue from the point of your own narrow subjective experience, as if that were the sole criteria for constructing your arguments. If you can't handle the heat, then give your infantilism a rest and consider being more accountable for your content.

I'm glad you retracted that allegation. It was unfounded. Sloppy Zhang was simply advocating the traditional role of the warrior ethos, the practice of cultivating oneself in order to protect the weaker members of society from those who use force and cruelty to take what they want. Twinner's pacifist idealism has noble origins as well but he's stretched the balance between resolve and yielding beyond practicality. If everyone who fought and died for gay rights had behaved according to Twinner's logic, the carnage would've been even greater than it is and he'd be much worse off. Taoism is about empowerment and warriorship. Jettisoning this tradition from the equation is like advocating vegetarianism on a meat-eater's forum.

True enough. That legend lasted for decades. I'd say that nei kung practitioners see growth in body-mind union and higher states of consciousness, not greater synaptic recruitment. Although, the movie "Limitless" was totally kick-ass!

Sun Tzu sought to preserve life at all cost. He was emphatic that the superior warrior is one who wins without fighting. I believe you've repeatedly demonstrated balance in this forum, Cat Pillar, and that your quest to achieve higher levels of empowerment for the good of oneself and the world is natural for someone who cultivates their warriorship and scholarship. If you had unconscious motivations to simply dominate others it would have long been revealed in your posts by now. My favorite people are in this thread. There are others who habitually bludgeon others with reckless and persistent misinterpretation of ancient texts and while passing it off as a palliative.

For chrissakes, get a grip! He's pulling your leg!

?? I gave this post a second reading in order to ferret out the ineffable profundity that escaped me the first time around, and all I took away was the assertion that 1. fear not, technology will save us, and 2. to lose our balls is to lose our heads.

Mearsheimer used the term "pacifier," not peacekeeper. Pacification in its modern usage frequently refers to coercive powers of the state to maintain order. This was my original point; reduced violence due to state apparati. Mearsheimer is more transparent than he believes. The fact that the US fits the criteria of a modern empire doesn't seem to have figured much in his equations, either.

It's not rambling, it's the dialectic in action! Hegel's answer to yin/yang! Static ideas are worse than useless. Impermanence is the only reality.

We did solve the whale oil problem... with kerosene! With the end of the fossil fuel era about to wreak havoc with our entire planetary culture, the whale oil analogy ain't exactly a good fit, is it? I agree with everything you say except the idea that "there is some very positive news out there." Very positive? I don't see it. I see a race between the complete exploitation of the biosphere and a further exploitation of the inherent creativity and imagination of humankind. To me it seems like the race between the car and the elevator of the early 20th century - no contest. I am entirely convinced that my new daughter will be in charge of her life but I don't share that optimism with the bulk of humanity, barring a radical breakthrough in solar-powered electrolysis of sea water for hydrogen. I know that sounds reductionist but it really does boil down to solving the energy debt and creating more stable-state living environments.

"The facts are not in dispute here; the question is what is going on," John Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author of "The Tragedy of Great Power Politics." That's the key point of the article. I don't see any room for exuberance just yet. It sounds like the perfect assignment for the authors of "Freakonomics," the sleuths who've distinguished themselves with their economic detective work. If I had to shoot from the hip I'd say that the mechanisms of the social surveillance and control, the vast networks of global intelligence agencies, have a lot to do with maintaining order. As alarming as it would be to see us all go up in smoke tomorrow, such an event could conceivably be consistent with dozens of mass extinctions of the past. Missing also from the piece are the implications of the collapse of the fossil fuel era, any nanosecond now, geologically speaking. That alone is going to unleash a violent competition for remaining resources that will wash over the globe, unless we grow up as a species or solve energy debt problem. As usual, I hope I'm wrong.

I'm trimming my library. I have "The Hidden Roots of Aikido" by Shiro Omiya, "Abundant Peace: th4e bio of Morihei Ueshiba" by John Stevens and "Aikido: the Way of Harmony" also by J. Stevens, and "Aikido and the New Warrior" by Richard Heckler. Great resources for someone in training. Will ship anywhere. PM if interested.

This is my daughter, Natalie Jean, demonstrating the sleeping visualization form technique. Born 10/06/11 @ 1:23pm.

Thanks to all of your kind words, folks! I genuinely feel that a lot of what I've learned in here is pertinent to enlightened parenting. Regards, Scott

As opposed to non-scientists who simply pull shit out of their ass and read it like tea leaves.

No argument from me there. I was merely pointing out that the shift from a fossil fuel-based culture to a renewable one hasn't been fully conceived yet,and it would require almost all the remaining fossil fuels to reconstruct a global green grid. As you correctly pointed out, the fossil fuel industry is not eager to participate in its own extinction, so you won't find them lending a helpful hand in this effort. As for the two resources I mentioned, I merely offered them as tools for understanding the dilemma. Current green energy technology can't maintain anywhere near the standard of living that fossil fuels provide. Iceland and Norway are both blessed by geography and geology (tidal, thermal, hydroelectric)and small populations, but they are exceptions. Perhaps the most unfortunate part of this whole story is that even if we were to suddenly agree on a consensus to rebuild a global energy grid, the whole planet has been bankrupted; there's no credit available, so healing the global financial sector actually comes first, the global energy grid second, not the other way around. Oil companies have been awfully busy buying back their own stock with record quarterly profits, so who knows, maybe they'll go green when they feel like they can corner the global alternative energy market. Similar proposals were made two decades ago; maybe they can be bribed into doing it without taking the whole planet down with them.

Wow. Physical geographers and geologists have been explaining the creation of cenotes, or sinkholes, that exist by the thousands throughout th Yucatan Peninsula as the result of more acidic rain water slowly drilling holes through the vast porous alkaline limestone formation just beneath the topsoil. Who would of thought that eating LSD-tainted dog meat could yield such potent alternative explanations. Keep on truckin', I4L! It gets better all the time!

I share your goals in that direction but I'm wondering if you've had a chance to adequately consider the enormity of resource allocations necessary to do that. Your proposal has been mulled over for decades by scientists of all stripes. A great place to start would be the book I list below or his colleague Richard Heinberg at http://www.postcarbon.org/person/36200-richard-heinberg

No.

WAY cool site! Thank you for posting this. I lost the link and the file a couple months ago due to a computer bug. It's difficult to capture the importance of their work without going off into dimensions of future studies, human ecology, peak oil, post-consumer culture, geography, permaculture, appropriate technology, etc.... One consensus amongst the post-crash crowd is that food production will become the most important industry when we no longer have the ability to use dirt to turn oil into food. Our social and economic contraction will necessitate forming our social groups on smaller scales with equipment and skills that can be readily commanded by people. The shit will hit the fan in due course but all of these people will weather the storm like kings because they're so friggin' bright and tuned in to the needs of post-consumerism culture. My only hope is that we can get enough people trained in time. Engineering savvy is not a talent that is universally distributed throughout the population; I barely got through college algebra! But I think I could make the rammed earth brick machine with a little effort. http://richardheinberg.com/ http://www.ic.org/ I've said it before and I'll keep saying it; the best chance we have of making it through upcoming bottleneck is a hybrid modern version of ancient Taoist villages and modern ecovillages. These guys are doing the work that will make the creation of these communities possible. Thanks Zanshin!! Are you prepping?