Encephalon

So, let us give this thread a proper burial. Thanks.

The usage of terms is perfectly adequate here. They aren't prescribing blind adherence to an untested set of principles, but a conviction that the use of reason can avoid the pitfalls of irrational thinking.

I'm not entirely clear about what you're suggesting, but these are tools that we practice like any other skill, and the more we practice, the better we become at using them.

I'm fairly certain this is a misreading of the intention. The reference in question is about vested interests, not general interest. These are cognitive tools we use to maintain balance in the midst of unsound reasoning. They are not courtesies that we extend or withhold depending upon irrational thoughts of those we might contend with.

It never occurred to me that the distinctions between the two could be significant. I don't believe Ken Wilber gives it too much thought. Precise definitions of terms are are essential here, of course.

I agree with the biologist Gaus; I think the ethical choice is to euthanize the birds soaked in oil. The argument that it is an ethical mandate to try and save creatures with less than a one percent survival rate is weak. This has more to do with assuaging human guilt and grief (well-founded, of course) than any plausible goal of saving them. They've already suffered so much stress at this point that their immune systems are completely shot. Chi kung practitioners know the truth of this. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/07/4475943-clean-the-birds-or-kill-them

I mistakenly tried to alleviate some of my restlessness by listening to books on CD, or visualization youtube videos, etc. It did help time go by, but I couldn't feel anything. A good lesson learned the hard way. I sometimes recite affirmations in unison with my breathing, but I keep them short. I do use binaural beat technology with noise-cancelling headphones, however. I've used them for over a year and a half now and while the jury is out as to their efficacy, they make me feel great. http://www.iso-tones.com/

Agreed, on all counts. It's not necessarily simple, but it's uncomplicated, although there are a number of postural adjustments that need to be maintained, and in the beginning you will find yourself making little micro-adjustments all the time. (Actually, you never really stop making small corrections.) And then there's the awareness you must bring to your breathing as well. I think it receives less attention than it deserves because a lot of people, perhaps the majority, are temperamentally unsuited to embracing this discipline. Plus, you have to accept and invite the inherent challenges and physical discomforts of maintaining this posture for the twenty minutes advised. Hands down, THE most powerful practice I've ever discoverd after decades of seeking.

The coup is on its way!! Stig, I was driving down Topanga Cyn. Blvd yesterday behind a mini cooper with the GB tag and Calif. license plates that read "UK STIG." That wouldn't have been you, would it? Loyola Conference. I rewatched "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with Keanu Reeves the other day. I loved the movie. The philosophical point of the flick was that the human race would only evolve once their backs were up against the wall, just as you guys said. Could be true, eh?

Newsflash - You're the one who entered a forum and posted an argument that A God was key in saving Buddhism!! If you can't handle the rigors of anonymous intellectual sparring then you're not old enough to play in here.

Are you seriously asking to be rescued over this challenge!? To your credit, I don't recall any of your postings possessing the slightest bit of animus, but your mental universe seems to harbor no skills of critical thinking. Even theological arguments can be waged with sound reasoning, but we are obliged out of intellectual humility not to presume more than we know, and especially not more than we CAN know. Your posts regularly indicate that you have not yet acquired the ability to tell the difference. I think you have a rich spiritual life in store but you've got a brutal academic experience ahead of you if you don't practice some cognitive hygiene. You might want to consult the information on this link. I'm making the assumption that you are young and haven't had the privilege of going to college yet. Neither of these conditions constitute criminal acts! http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/valuable-intellectual-traits.cfm

You nailed it. Well done. Urban sprawl, and perhaps more accurately, suburban sprawl, was the essential design flaw that has crippled our efforts to retool for sustainability. James Kunstler calls suburbia "the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world." It wasn't an accidential creation, but a deliberate attempt to configure land use policy for the purpose of creating the world's first domestic mass consumer market. Americans were the lab rats, and now we have a built environment that cannot work without unlimited fossil fuel sources. Early 20th century urban planners did not willingly construct ecologically untenable cities, but neither did they consider the finite nature of natural resources. "The Geography of Nowhere" and "The Long Emergency" both by Kunstler are considered modern classics in this subject. I think we have to be careful in assigning blame for our predicament because we are all complicit in this unsustainable mess we've created. But we can't ignore the fact that the growth of the American consumer culture, and the rest of the global consumer class, was a deliberate and calculated achievement, waged with upwards of half a trillion dollars a year in commercial advertising, social engineering, and a steady corporate drumbeat that has equated consumerism with happiness. The Buddhist scholar David Loy has written about this at length - "The Great Awakening: a Buddhist Social Theory" - not to mention the legion of contemporary Buddhist scholars writing about green Buddhism and Buddhist environmental ethics. I don't think that blame for our predicament can be evenly distributed upon the world's inhabitants; clearly, there are real people with real names and addresses holding positions of global power who wield disproportionately greater influence, for better or worse, than the legions of zombies sleepwalking through consumer culture. But the inevitable social and economic contractions ahead can still be managed with wisdom and, hopefully, compassion. The Four Horsemen have already arrived; we still have options as to how we respond to them. But even this opportunity won't last forever. As a benevolent dictator, I would listen to the experts and decree - the end to industrial meat production. the end of industrial mega-farms for feedstock and a reversion to smaller scale, locally grown agricultural projects. a mandate that all housing stock be reconstructed with insulating technology that would vitiate the need for heating and air conditioning (rammed earth, hempcrete, passive solar), with materials salvaged from our vast suburban slums. A reconstruction of a national train system, with housing stock and light industry on TODs (transit oriented developments, in the spirit of urban renaissance, i.e., rebuilding Paris. A full-blown enterprise of industrial hemp production for food, fuel, building materials and topsoil replenishment. and, last but not least... mandatory nei kung training. Of course, this is silly, because Americans would rather drive their Hummers through the MacDonald's drivethrough on the way to Hell than actually bear the burden of being authentically human.

You're free to address my "assumptions" if you're up to it. Good luck indeed. And yes, Stephen Batchelor's "Buddhism without Beliefs" is a gem amongst the literature of agnostic Buddhism, although his most recent book is "Confession of a Buddhist Atheist."

If you're truly serious about this issue and are ready to bring some scholarship to your intellectual practice then I could recommend "A Buddhist History of the West" by David Loy, ch. 6 specifically. At some point you will be obliged to study the intellectual history of Buddhism and religious and philosophical movements generally. Original ideas are subject to a myriad of permutations as successive generations contribute their own interpretations, which are in turn colored by their own cultural influences. Most of us have no difficulty in recognizing the effects that successive generations of Christians have had on Christ's original intent. The same dynamics hold true for most other philosophical and religious movements, including Buddhism (perhaps, even Buddhism in particular). The point that needs to be made here is that the practice of trying to decipher original ideas from the study of doctrines that were written hundreds of years after the founder of the ideas is an exercise fraught with tremendous difficulty, perhaps even futility, and gives fodder to the petty battles over metaphysics and semantics. I recommend Loy only if you have already enrolled in an introductory class in Buddhism or Asian Studies. But I encourage you to investigate why you are clinging to a theistic interpretation of Buddhist origins, as it will continue to color any further arguments you make. Also, please be aware that Buddhism can be studied both as an academic subject and as an experiential path to liberation. Both routes are inexorably bound together, but we are obliged to maintain a critical awareness of the relationship between the two.

--- Imagine that, a God being the pivotal key in saving Buddhism (as from Shakyamuni Buddha) right at its beginning! Maybe this sutta will give anti-goders something new to consider but I'm not betting on it --- Om I would invite you to spend less time wrestling with ancient Buddhist cosmology, which was borne out of the Hindu orthodoxy of the day, and take heed of the Buddha's admonitions against pointless metaphysical speculation. I would then invite you to examine your practice of constructing a false dichotomy between people who allegedly believe in a god and those who do not. If this is what you have drawn from your studies then you have missed the entirety of the Buddha's teachings.

I think I'd rather take a stab at explicating Sarah Palin's twitterspeak than wade through this. I'd be willing to bet you wouldn't be characterizing this event with such rarefied air if you found yourself one of the millions of Gulf residents whose lives will be irreparably harmed by corporate malfeasance. And don't feed this bullshit about what has or has not been proven in a court of law; the trial date is months away from even being scheduled. You don't have to be a trial lawyer or a history major to grasp the record of corporate crime. I can understand the steady drumbeat of right-wing apologia winding its way into the mainstream. What I can't understand is how this sentiment finds its way into a Taoist forum. If Taoism possesses any singular axiom it is the affirmation of an ecological reality in which the entire web of life is revered, cared for, participated in, and grieved over in instances of deep and unnecessary wounding. Failure to register any empathy for this crisis, for the loss of human and non-human life, is an absolute failure of the imagination, in my opinion. How some can willfully choose instead to participate in this ongoing whitewash is a subject for social scientists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/21/chris-matthews-tells-leno_n_584708.html Some refreshing candor from Chris Matthews. He's right; Obama is really dropping the ball on this one.

I'm not sure their are depletion date estimates for specific resources; too many variables, no? But you're right; when the Himalayan glaciers disappear, it will get ugly.

Two points. One, a witch hunt may be futile, but a thorough exercise in assigning culpability could go a long way, given that corporate accountability is basically nil at this point in history. Two, there is no alternative energy to replace fossil fuels if a global population beyond 2 billion is maintained. Various strategies for culling the human herd by 80 to 90 percent will be the story of the 21st century. Live every day as if it were your last.

Sorry about the confusion. I'm a diehard critical thinking junkie/skeptic to an anal degree. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. My cranial throbbing is always pleasant, nothing like what he described. I don't even know what "Opening the 3rd Eye" means; it is so shrouded in mystique. My reductionist guess is that it is a state of mind created by supreme physical health, radical compassion toward oneself and others, and a firm intuitive grasp of interdependency (Indra's Web). This last quality came to me at an early age. The first two took almost fifty years to cultivate (and it ain't over).

Assuming that your experience is authentic and brushing aside any skepticism, you would most likely benefit from the exercises performed after chi kung practice that bring the energy back down to your lower dantien. "The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing" by Dan Reid has a great section on these exercises. They are physical exercises as opposed to simple mind direction practices. I may have had similar experiences - it's impossible to tell - but I can play Pong! between my temples at will. I always find it pleasant, but I have to bring it down. The sensation of descending the energy through the "Golden Bridge" and down through the "Multistoried Tower" of the windpipe is elaborated in great detail by Reid (he's actually quoting a T. Cleary translation). I found it really helpful. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Chinese-Health-Healing/dp/1570620717

Good job. Nice to see the level of eco-literacy going up in TTB. Maybe this title has already been recommended, but "The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century" by James Kunstler probably answers more questions about this subject than any other single work. I think this is so because he connects ecological collapse with our land use pattern of choice - suburbia - which is auto- and petro- dependent and entirely unsustainable. Well intentioned Greenies can only make limited adaptations when the housing and transportation grids are so dreadfully oil-based. As Kunstler repeatedly makes clear, three national campaigns would signify that our nation is serious about sustainability and long-term viability: the reconstruction of a national train system, a new, non-autodependent urban renaissance, and local, smaller scale food production. Short of that, we will continue to subscribe to the "Saved By Technology" myth that's starting to wind down. There are extraordinary opportunities ahead for those who can adapt to a radically different world. There will be utter despair for the rest.

I would heartily encourage everyone to watch the movie "Collapse" where and when they can.http://www.collapsemovie.com/ The dvd release date is June 15, 2010. Many questions will be answered. There are NO fossil fuel replacements on the horizon. Alcohol and shale development consume the same calories of energy that they provide. It's comforting to believe that energy technology will continue to evolve, but comforting thoughts go only so far. There is only so much agar in the petri dish, and it will not be replenished. I still maintain that cooperative ventures modeled on traditional Taoist communities would offer the surest path to a post-oil future, but fierce independence and self-sufficiency are vastly more demanding than daily chi kung practice. But that's where we start, right?

I was wondering when this subject was going to get covered here. The gusher is currently spewing 70,000 barrels a day, or the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez incident every four days. http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0513/gulf-oil-gusher-ten-times-worse-prior-estimates/ I posted Taoism/ecology themes more than a few times in here but they remained uninspired, which disappointed me deeply as there is really no other formal academic subject in our western paradigm that more closely mirrors Taoism. Anyone who is not grieving deeply over this tragedy has either become numb and inured to global calamity or is mired in that state of spiritual infancy where Indra's Web remains undetected. Yamu's speculations are correct; insofar as the nation is already bankrupt, the economic impact could accelerate the post-oil descent in some unpleasant ways. The fact that the CEO of BP suggests that this gusher is "relatively small in relation to the size of the world's oceans" is proof that unfathomable delusion reigns supreme amongst some of the world's most powerful individuals. I post again Deng Ming-Dao's thoughts on healing. It is perhaps the most powerful source of solace from a Taoist perspective I've ever discovered. B. Healing Fire cools. Water seeks its own level. No matter how extreme a situation is, it will change. It cannot continue forever. Thus, a great forest fire is always destined to burn itself out; a turbulent sea will become calmer. Natural events balance themselves out by seeking their opposites, and this process of balance is at the heart of all healing. This process takes time. If an event is not great, the balancing required is slight. If it is momentous, then it may take days, years, even lifetimes for things to return to an even keel. Actually, without these slight imbalances, there could be no movement in life. It is being off balance that keeps life changing. Total centering, total balance would only be stasis. All life is continual destruction and healing, over and over again. That is why, even in the midst of an extreme situation, the wise are patient. Whether the situation is illness, calamity, or their own anger, they know that healing will follow upheaval.