Encephalon

I'm seriously thinking about it. I would HAVE to take a memory course; ain't ready to slog through organic chemistry without it. I was a medic in Alaska 20 years ago and really dug it. We'll see how well these Taoist Longevity drills work. I'm taking SFQ Level 1 this month too. Thank you for your thoughtful and penetrating analysis.

DISASTER Mute black night, Sudden fire. Destruction. Disaster strikes at its own time. It is so overwhelming that we can do nothing other than accept it. It alters the course of our days, our work, our very thinking. Although it is tempting to resent disaster, there is not much use in doing so. We cannot say that a disaster had malice toward us, though it might have been deadly, and it's hard to say that it has "wrecked" our plans : In one stroke it changes the very basis of the day. Disaster is natural. It is not the curse of the gods, it is not punishment. Disaster results from the interplay of forces : the earthquake from pressures in the earth, the hurricane from wind and rain, even the accidental fire from a spark. We rush to ask "Why?" in the wake of a great disaster, but we should not let superstition interfere with dispassionate acceptance. There is no god visiting down destruction. Disasters may well change us deeply, but they will pass. We must keep to our deeper convictions and remember our goals. Whether we remain ash or become the phoenix is up to us.

My hard copy was pissed on by my dearly departed pet rat. As I was born in the year of the rat, I wouldn't trade my copy for anything.

OPTIMISM Clearing blue sky, A promise in bare branches. In winter, there are sunny days. In adulthood, childhood can return. In winter, all things appear dead or dormant. The rain and snow seem incessant, the nights long. Then one day, the sky clears to a brilliant blue. The air warms. A mist rises from the earth and the perfume of water, clay, and moss drifts through the air. Gardeners are seen preparing new stock, though they are only bare branches and a gray root ball. The people are optimistic : They know that there will be an end to the cold. In adulthood, we often see responsibilities as something dreadful. Why should we dig the ground when the weather is disagreeable? We see activities only as obligations, and we strain against our fate. But there is a joy to working in harmony with the proper time. When we do things at just the right occasion and those efforts bear fruit later, the gratification is tremendous. There was an old man who began an orchard upon his retirement. Everyone laughed at him. Why plant trees? They told him that he would never live to see a mature crop. Undaunted, he planted anyway, and he has seen them blossom and has eaten their fruit. We all need that type of optimism. That is the innocence and hope of childhood.

Glad it was there for you.

I hope some of you have enjoyed these posts by Deng Ming-Dao. This will be the last one. The rest of the year can be found at http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/vortex/...365/365date.htm WORK The woodcutter Works in all seasons. Splitting wood is both Action and inaction. Even when it is snowy, the woodcutter must split wood. Unless he does, he and his family will not stay warm, and those who depend upon him will not survive. But the woodcutter does not work simply on a piecemeal basis. He labors in concert with the seasons : He worked hard to store wood prior to the first cold so that he would have the luxury of merely splitting kindling now. His work seems slight in one season, because he was industrious in the previous one. When he splits wood, he must place the log on the block and raise his axe. But he must strike the wood with the grain, and he must let the axe fall with its own weight. If he tries to chop across the grain, his effort would be wasted. If he tries to add strength to the swing of the axe, there would be no gain. Like the woodcutter, we can all benefit from working according to seasonal circumstances. Whether it is the time or the method, true labor is half initiative and half knowing how to let things proceed on their own.

Ah, you must be old.

It was extraordinary. I spent the first morning in Iowa on my back, under my '65 Valiant, in the snow, in a -15 degree temperature, removing the frozen hoses from my engine block and thawing them out in the locker room (I failed to adjust my antifreeze mixture for cryogenic weather conditions). I'm just lucky my engine block didn't rupture. I only lasted six months. It was hands down THE most dysfunctional environment I've ever been in, and I've lived in many different situations. They were perhaps the most deluded, anti-intellectual, superstitious and sexually repressed group of folks I've ever witnessed, but yeah, the food was good, and the chicks were hot, especially all the Eastern Europeans. They were only having sex with each other, evidently, because most of the men were just too fucked up. Anyway, I sold my mantra on Ebay. But enough about MIU. Where's the DMT? Sorry for the slightly tangential departure from topic.

Sounds like you composed your criteria straight out of the critical thinking material. Well said. http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/u...l-standards.cfm I framed these points within the issue of age for the simple reason that older folks seem to have the advantage of 1.) growing up in an era with an educational system that had higher intellectual standards, or 2.) have acquired better communication skills out of sheer repitition. As far as disparagement of youth goes, let me say there is nothing so disappointing as someone in middle age who comports himself like a 15 yr-old. (That would be my neighbor, one scary fellow.)

Well, I can certainly understand why you don't charge for your health and meditation advice!

Thanks InnerSpace for helping me laugh my ass off!

Thank you so much for this link. Glad to hear about your success with RB.

Imagine what would happen if we generalized the subject of music the way the subject of Buddhism gets generalized. When speaking of music, it would all be the same. Brittany Spears, Stravinsky, Bach, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Shakira, children's lullabies, all the same, all equal in sophistication, all emoting the same reaction, all worthy of the same artistic merit... This is Wilkinson's Straw Dog. The number of misrepresentations in this essay are too numerous and too convoluted to possibly plow through in this forum. The intellectual level that has been attained by the decades-old academic dialogue between Buddhism and the physical, biological, social and behavioral sciences leaves Wilkinson's ancient animosities in the dust. When I was at Maharishi International University, back in the 90s, the contempt for Buddhist thought was off the charts. Buddha recognized the corrupt Hindu orthodoxy of his day for what it was, and some folks are still holding the grudge. The fact that the Buddha realized the constructed nature of the self and the world(s) we create, 2,500 years before our own postmodern realization, our modern pyschological and ecological sciences, is THE testament to his imaginative genius. He lived in the Iron Age, but with respect to the Big Questions, he was way ahead of anyone at the time (with the exception of Lao Tse, of course). PS - For one of the most respected pieces of contemporary Buddhist scholarship pertaining to agnostic Buddhism, you can pick up "Buddhism Without Beliefs" by Stephen Batchelor. Batchelor's yet-to-be-released book is entitled "Confessions of a Buddhist Aetheist." Stripped of all the orthodoxies that typically acrete around original ideas, the essence of what the Buddha taught is remarkably consistent with cutting edge science of all kinds. Sadly, his teachings get bantered about with all the recklessness of Jesus' alleged teachings. Hard to avoid, I presume.

Why are you directing this to me?

Good point; I'll check. I can't say enough about Robert Bruce's book. Just the leg position instructions alone for getting sensations coursing through the foot (ankles, heels, balls and toes) is worth the $$, IMHO. Lot's of good stuff so far. Thanks folks!

I would have to agree. Regrettably, my own history in this forum is not without egotism and negativity, but I have resolved to keep them in check, mostly by not "biting the hook" (in Pema Chodron's terminology). There are very few Buddhist scholars in here who are prepared to delve competently into Buddhist cosmology, particularly with original texts. I would have to agree with durkhrod that it's best to leave these texts alone until one acquires the sophistication and learning to decipher their original intent, but I disagree that formal study should be avoided wholesale. Even a teenager can benefit from an Asian Studies course at the local junior college. But I think he's right regarding Vipassana; you can't "study" your way to an original experience of awakening. We do have the benefit of a fantastically talented generation of western Buddhist scholars who can explicate original texts for the benefit of serious students of Asian philosophy. Unfortunately, I never see them quoted in here (David Loy, Jack Kornfield, Joanna Macy, Stephen Batchelor, to name a few). I regularly witness people beating each other over the head with original texts, a process which guarantees the degeneration of debate within two or three posts. I've had to conclude over these few months in here that online forums are about as conducive to sound reasoning as AM talk radio. There is simply no adequate alternative to a moderated classroom environment.

As someone who struggles daily to find good reasons for continuing to live in Los Angeles, this is some of the best news I've had all year! Thanks, Stig, for making my day. I am prepared at this time to offer my living room couch to one out-of-towner who plans to attend the conference.

FORBEARANCE Arctic breath coils the mountain, Rattling the forests' bones. Raindrops cling to branches : Jewelled adornment flung to earth. Trees in winter lose their leaves. Some trees may even fall during storms, but most stand patiently and bear their fortune. They endure rain, snow, wind, and cold. They bear the adornment of glycerin raindrops, glimmering icicles, or crowns of snow without care. They are not concerned when such lustrous splendor is dashed to the ground. They stand, and they wait, the power of their growth apparently dormant. But inside, a burgeoning is building imperceptibly. Theirs is the forbearance of being true to their inner natures. It is with this power that they withstand both the vicissitudes and adornment of life, for neither bad fortune nor good fortune will alter what they are. We should be the same way. We may have great fortune or bad, but we should patiently bear both. No matter what, we must always be true to our inner selves. Deng Ming-Dao http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/vortex/...365/365date.htm

EMERGING Thunder and rain at night. Growth comes with a shock. Expression and duration Appear in the first moment. Things cannot remain in stillness forever. Winter storms may destroy some things, but they also prepare the way for life. If things are swept away, it is appropriate. There must be an opportunity for new living things to emerge and begin their own cycle. All growth comes with a shock. When a sprout breaks its casing and forces its way to the surface of the earth, it is the climax to a long and deep accumulation of life force. We may think that it came up suddenly, but in actuality, it emerged as the product of unseen and subtle cycles. When the seedling appears, it carries with it the complete pattern for its growth, perhaps even the makings of an enormous tree. Although time and the right conditions are necessary, neither of those factors adds anything to the inherent nature of the seedling. It completely embodies its destiny. Therefore, the growth and character of the plant -- and its very life -- are all present at the moment of emerging. Deng Ming-Dao http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/vortex/...ary/365/006.htm

Schizandra develops the primary energies of life, and generates vitality and radiant beauty when used regularly for some time. If used for 100 days successively, Schizandra is said to purify the blood, sharpen the mind, improve memory, rejuvenate the Kidney energy (especially the sexual functions in both men and women), and cause the skin to become radiantly beautiful.