Maddie

Why are we talking about rape? desireless arousal is like "wetless" water

can one get aroused without desire?

is there a difference between arousal and desire?

"I should start a YouTube channel.... I really should have handled that grappling situation in jujitsu last week differently..... do snail's dream?...." after 30 seconds of meditation.

That's exactly what I want to think!

One can spend a lifetime trying to prove or disprove infinite claims. Better to focus on the things that matter. I could try to prove that dinosaurs had a secret space ship hidden under the ice of Antarctica, but since there is very little reason to assume so, why would I want to spend my limited time doing that?

If I'm going to trust someone's claim it is because they can present verifiable evidence that stands up to investigation aka "the scientific method". So its based on the research method, not the person. About an infinite number of claims I go back to my "so what" example. If proven true, does it matter, and why does it matter? The Buddha used the illustration of a handful of leaves. He held a handful of leaves and said "this handful of leaves is what I have taught you. The forest contains what I have not taught you. What I have taught you is sufficient for liberation."

Not necessarily. I've never created an atomic bomb, but scientists have, have demonstrated it works, and shown how to reproduce the process. If credible, peer reviewed, and repeatable research has been done and published, that is sufficient for me. *youtube videos that can't be verified on the other hand are not evidence.

I would suggest the way any other researcher goes about deciding what to investigate. Is this important to me to verify and if so why? aka the "so what test". If someone makes a claim that if you walk around naked smeared in mayonnaise you will live to be 200 and we see 180 year old's walking around smeared in mayonnaise then that might be worth investigating. On the other hand someone says that cookies are actually made by elves in a tree and you know for damn sure you saw goblins in a cave making cookies you might not want to spend your time on something that is either not credible or not important to you since you might not eat cookies in the first place.

Here's an example. If one makes the claim that they discovered a new planet in the solar system, healthy skepticism says "oh really? show me the method with which you used to find it, and then I'll see if I can find it using the same method". Unhealthy skepticism would just dismiss it out of hand and say "no you didn't" without seeing if it was verifiable.

Welcome Johana :-)

By evidence I mean objective evidence that can be measured by anyone with the same instruments and the results will be the same regardless of who is doing the measuring. This is the definition of objective evidence. We can objectively measure the temperature with a thermometer. As long as the individual using the thermometer uses it correctly the reading will be the same as everyone else taking the temperature of the same object at the same time for example.

Seeing if something is real based on evidence is the definition of healthy skepticism.

Hopefully I don't sound too dense here, BUT as an acupuncturist I've never really understood alchemy. Honestly if the goal is to be healthy and get "qi" moving through the meridians and built up simply going to the gym or doing Pilates is an excellent way to do that. If the goal is to live forever and shoot lightning out your nose, um sorry but that isn't real. So not really sure what alchemy is all about.

I think as soon as we see healthy skepticism as a bad thing is when we enter extremism.

I also guarantee results when I take money. The result being that you have less money and I have more but it's still a result 🤭

Yeah those all work pretty well. I've had good results.

But I want to know what stereotypical things you do lol.

If we are talking about touching qi then I will apply many grains of salt 🤭 🧂 But then again "qi" is what causes your finger tips to move and what causes your nerves to feel it. So I guess we do feel qi.

I think when it comes to the topic of desire in Buddhism it is important to distinguish desires. The Buddha didn't say all desire was bad, thus the desire to liberate one's self is a good desire. The kinds of desire the Buddha said were problematic were sensual desires, or desires based upon the senses amongst other things. One of the reasons for this is impermanence. Nirvana is permanent, therefore does not lead to suffering. Sense desire is impermanent therefore leads to suffering.

Desire might be the spice of life, but the kind that burns your mouth and makes you cry when its going in and going out.

So as an acupuncturist I'll give my take on what I think qi is. Qi simply means energy. When it comes to the human body it takes energy to make things happen. So what today we would call digestion, back in ancient China they would often refer to as stomach qi. When we eat our body turns the food into glucose and sends it to our cells. When we breath our lungs extract oxygen from the air and send it to our cells. When these two come together in the mitochondria of the cell and make ATP our cells use this as energy to do what they do. Qi just means energy.

Something that I feel like I think about all the time that (to me at least, surprisingly) does not get discussed often is the topic of karma. I see karma in everything and am constantly working on it. I do so because at least with in Samsara it affects everything. Family, relationships, money, health, lifespan, ect. My primary practices are usually related to working on karma. To me everything is karma. In my opinion it answers almost every question. To me a good understanding of karma is essential because having one will affect just about everything we do and how we see the world. I think other cultures and traditions understand karma and interpret it to varying degrees, some better than others. For myself I began to become interested in karma about 12 years ago. I had recently gotten out of an abusive relationship that I had been in for years. I finally left and moved across the country and was eager to make a fresh start. When I got to my new location I was determined to be smarter, to do things better, to learn from my past. Well it didn't take too long before I found myself right in the middle of another abusive relationship that was shorter but just as traumatic. At the end of that relationship I decided to pause all relationships and reflect on what was going on. How could it be that no matter where I was, nor how smart it tried to be I kept ending up in abusive relationships? I began to reflect on all of my personal relationships of all kinds throughout my entire life. The family I was born into was abusive. Nothing I could have done to help that. My experiences as a child were often abusive. When I was a brand new young adult in the world I ended up in a cult which as also abusive. I began to see a common thread and realized that no matter how hard I tried to get away from abusive personal interactions, they always seemed to find me no matter where I was, or who I was with. After some time with these reflections I came to the conclusion that the common thread was karma. So I decided to not date anyone and work on my karma almost exclusively. I took over a good solid year of doing nothing but working on karma. After about a year or so of doing that I decided to try dating again. I was pleasantly surprised by the difference that I noticed. The people that I crossed paths with whether dating or just in general were on average much more kind. That was basically the beginning of my contemplations on karma and my working with it. I find it fascinating how many things it explains and how useful it can be to work with.

What I mean by just mind is I feel like a lot of the attributes other traditions ascribed to soul or a spirit Buddhism ascribes to the mind. Just mind as opposed to a soul or a spirit.