Stosh

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Everything posted by Stosh

  1. Grokk into Winnie the Pooh and practice SFQ?

    Winnie , diminutive of Winston and meaning pure or white, the - Pooh ( exclamation meaning inconsequential ) -bear , Pooh-bah master of many things - somewhat ridiculous ................ So the name boils down loosely into ( Pure and childlike master of nothing-ness) Or not ,, its just a name.
  2. The Cool Picture Thread

    Shennong.
  3. Quenching the Firebrand

    While that article does begin by restricting forms to conditioned or recognizable shapes , the issue broadens out in the next line .. manifestation into the fictitious plurality of the phenomenal world owing to maya, the unreal adjunct. Manifestations are not restricted to those things for which we have names , and clearly cannot be since we can indeed discern a plurality in the world whether or not we know them 'abstractly'. I can accept an interp that into and out of Brahman ,go manifest forms ,and they exist in what could be described as a latent state in Brahman... fine .. but then they are then still eternal as latent Brahman forms , still pure , and still as valid as the clay. With the caveat that the clay is still reliant on form, to be manifest either. And that there is no such thing as magic which is real , nor illusion outside the mind , and therefore no maya.
  4. Quenching the Firebrand

    You are confusing 'form' with recognizable shape, or shapes that have names attached to them , thats not what is meant. Step one draw a free form blob on a sheet of paper , See that it has no defined name one can call it , now beneath that , draw another one which has no form whatsoever.. It cant be done , there must be form for the matter , in this case ink, to manifest it. and there must be matter to specify which form you have. The manifest and the mystery , specified and unspecified , Yang and yin. Whatever forms do occur , are potential possibilities in this universe and those which cannot exist here -are not here. Easy as pie
  5. Quenching the Firebrand

    Yes , I assumed as much , he is saying self as a larger principle potential of the universe is pristine, eternal and we all can be considered as such , though we also manifest as a corporeal individual subject to wear and tear , illusion and suffering. The more entrenched in experiencing enlightenment we become, the less subject to suffering. Got it. But no, the pot is not just clay , it is the form of the pot manifest in clay. There is no unformed 'clay.' We have words for forms and some forms we have no word for , but that doesn't matter, the word or name , is just an association which we make with the particular forms we recognize. This is why we can peruse the universe and grok its form ,, our means of understanding is symbolic , the symbols represent forms , forms are eternal , and so the eternal forms we associate with words we can call principles which apply universally. Therefore a paper airplane will essentially, work on Mars, and mustard will still be yellow on the moon.
  6. Quenching the Firebrand

    I don't disagree on what is being said, but the form of the pot is a thing which exists, Plato got into this. Whatever you smash the clay into , it still has A form. if you glue it back together , the form is reestablished, as a pot, and it still works like one. That clay is NOT independent of form , whether it be a blob ,shards, or a pot. I think he was trying to establish some kind of prioritization , about an individuals form not being on the level of eternal , brahman or atman , but in fact he should recognize that what I am saying , that the form is eternal regardless of the material manifestation , is actually a more provable and logical support for the existence of this 'universal-self-principle'. He earlier brought up a mango seed not becoming an apple , from which should be understood that the form called a mango tree is perpetuated by the mass of any clump of matter which fulfills the form. Plato had a hard time explaining this , and I remember the rhetorical argument ' I see plato's table , and I see plato's cup , but I dont see his cupness and tableness.' And this is precisely true one should not be expecting form without matter to be seeable as matter is , nor should one be expecting matter to be formless. The form and matter of two sides of the same snake. I moved my furniture to the east side of the room , and now the space is on the west. Unless space is destructable , unconserved in the universe , the space is now moved. Try sliding a two by four and see if you can do it in such a way so that the space taken up in front , does not equal the space vacated in back . How does it get there? And you can 'see' likewise in spacial distortions at relativistic speeds that space is indeed conserved.( it just has different values, it 'springs back' to its full size)
  7. Taoism and Avoiding Grains

    I think you are not alone in that conjecture , regular medicine is just so diametrically opposed to treating people as whole biological systems I doubt there is much enthusiasm for such an empirically effected treatment. The whole idea has been to simplify to a blank slate by killing things so hypothesis can be proven or disproven. Having all that independent uncontrolled complicated morass of relationships is just anathema to the system we have. There's so many odd chemicals and antibiotics floating around in our food and water , and we have so many food resources that I picture it is indeed difficult for our guts to come into the balance they are supposed to have. I saw a show where a lady took a whole pile of capsules , which I figure can be made to break down in the colon specifically. She tolerated it like a champ, swallowed em all without barfing at the idea and after years of crazy symptoms , finally she got some relief.
  8. Taoism and Avoiding Grains

    Does this approach 'Fecal transplant' or ' yellow soup' sound applicable ? I couldn't say that it works or not , but at least it addresses the gut flora thing and the many manifestations that seem unrelated , but clearly are.
  9. Quenching the Firebrand

    Ok, I watched the qa but that wasnt my point ,entropy being part of a pot. The point was that form has validity, seen as ramifictions. Its unimportant though ,so too ,is whether material items move in a larger field of space, so too ,is the existence of some kind of common experience of the world being projected or not. As i see it the message really just boils down to whether happiness is the result of embracing others under an umbrella common identity regardless of the status of individual identity. And that the mere intellectual understanding needs to make its stamp on ones life before it can be said to be assimilated. Which is a fine message.
  10. Quenching the Firebrand

    Fine, but simply having a definition doesnt mean the definition has validity. Where would the space be if you inflate a balloon? Certainly not where the balloon is thats a full spot. Unless one wants to say that space was destroyed, it moved. The guy is making a logical progression, move the glass the water moves with it, but he doesnt say that it is the definition of water for it to be in a glass. If space is real, it spans distances , and we do not know how to traverse distance regardless of space between. So space impedes travel , interacts with matter ...therefore the glass wall interacts with The space which preserves The form of the glass and we have no reason to think that the space does not move with the glass... its just not heavy. He is making presumptive leaps just like he invites us to scoff at the idea that the form of the pot requires the clay. It does not. A pot may be made out of glass yet still have the effect of the form which need not be clay. The form directs where the water goes and it must be complete. Ajything which satisfies the form Will do therefore the manifestation of a pot is indeed independent of the material, just as the material must have some form to exist , but can exist without being a pot.
  11. Taoism and Avoiding Grains

    My issue is more about getting fat than being skinny , so I employ the laziness gene , and leave mostly nothing in the house to grab. I don't really care to eat three meals , I like the way it spaces a day , but the meals aren't all that important. I feed the cat meals , one in the morning and one when I get home , the rest of the time there is just no potential to eat and so its off her mind , she can relax. (Comparatively ,,,, three meals a day! every day ! ...for crying out loud! ) Any way , mon I skipped lunch but roasted a chicken and ate the dark meat for dinner, tues I had the breaded breastmeat and two tall glasses of icy welches grape juice. This morning I ate two croissant sandwiches with eggs and bacon , and may just skip lunch , and get some more fruit juice for dinner. Lazy , cheap , and really 'enough, is as good as a feast' IMO. ( I weigh about 220)
  12. Taoism and Avoiding Grains

    I don't really eat three meals a day. One meal , maybe snacks , and I do eat some carbs , I just don't do the big bowls of pasta, the full size tuna subs , (where you end up eating a half pound of grain at a time ) breakfast cereal and so forth. I figure , the more one spends mentally dwelling on their food , the more you or I end up spending in cash. Numerically kcalories as they measure them, never add up to a useful barometer of intake, because the energy content is not assessed by enzymatic breakdown , nor is uptake vs waste compared , nor is your colon flora considered. Seriously , its all total garbage, the poor rates of success in dieting , the high rates of diabetes and heart disease etc , should smack everyone in the face that the 'authorities' just have no clue as to what they are promoting. I suggest that one needs to take some guesses at what ideas will stand the test of time , watch the effects of what they eat , and realize that as we age the rules we used to go by won't fit so well. Paleo style diets are probably a good bet, but frankly paleo peoples ate -what they could get their hands on. Just as we eat foods that are convenient and entertainment packed.
  13. Quenching the Firebrand

    I enjoyed that. But still thinkthe form of the clay pot exists. Drill a hole in the pot and water will not be held in it. The form has legitimacy though the clay is material. If the glass is moved though space who is to say that the space within has not moved with it? Since it does not become full.
  14. Taoism and Avoiding Grains

    When I was younger , I probably ate 2 bagels with cream cheese every day for many years , so been there, done that, so Its ok for me to skip most bread and grain products. At least I didn't end up diabetic so I should be happy for that. Pound for pound cheap meat costs the same as capn crunch. Vegetable oils and carb diets are , IMO, terrible for human consumption outside the regular content vegetables have. But I am not instructing anyone on this. I came across an interesting factoid I had forgotten, which was that pretty much everything you actually digest and absorb , is reduced to water and CO2 , so a big dump, like after a pasta meal, means most of that was never used , at all. But people do not really eat what they do to 'fuel themselves',, more so they are feeding a gut flora . If it was the case otherwise, we could get by with relatively very little. And yeah , you should count yourself 'lucky', if you aren't afflicted with dietary imbalances and inflammations. Live long and prosper ,skinny dude.
  15. Everyone post some favorite quotes!

    Ok, but consider this, new agers , they want what everyone wants. They want people to be nice and honest and genuine , they want a rich life , where they can see meaning. They would really like to have support which points them in a good direction etc, but the old paradigms don't resonate with them. They do credit the ancient time tested paths with potential legitimacy but , cant bring themselves to see with the same level of credibility , the old thought forms. Brahma now needs to be understood as a symbolic representation of spiritual actualities rather than a 'being'.. and so forth. What you have to offer them is a bridge of sorts , between old and new. Instead of wanting them to somehow grasp things in the same way of 4000 yrs ago, bring the vision forward to where they are at now. Embrace them in the way so they can see what you do, and then y'all can both thrive. The toughest role is always that of the teacher.
  16. Everyone post some favorite quotes!

    I'm saddened that you feel this way , I've always liked you , and still do. I thought you were in the mood to roughhouse. My bad. Sorry.
  17. Everyone post some favorite quotes!

    Sounds like the 'new age' soup of ideologies to me , since enlightenment leads to nirvana which is the cessation of being involved with samsara , as an immortal, you've forever excluded yourself from that possibility. Try just picking one tradition.
  18. Everyone post some favorite quotes!

    I thought you were 'old school Taoist' the kind chasing immortality, divining with oracle bones , and contracting sphincters ,and kicking things , for various reasons . What would you personally know of enlightenment? which is beyond the gods and not even Taoist?
  19. Everyone post some favorite quotes!

    It worked for Gotama..
  20. Time Machine Dinner

    I thought on this thing a while now, and , for me , there's two categories for considering the guests , one , is the group of whom one has particular questions to ask , like ,,, How did you guys move the big rocks? or What really was Your view before everyone else made comment ? And the other group would be folks who one would just think it was easy to have an interesting dinner thing with, that they might play off one another and make it memorable. Picking from group 2 , I go with Jane Goodall , Carl Sagan , and Jeremy Wade ( yes, the fishing guy) .
  21. Taoism and Avoiding Grains

    I'm told there are many factors act play , which you may have heard already, but ... Since your brain requires glucose to run , you basically have to get it from carbs , protein can be converted, but ones liver only marginally provides enough enzymes to keep you operational on proteins so there's a point at which it just doesn't matter how much protein you consume , it will not be sufficient. Your overall energy levels may be met with fats and proteins , but having to do all the conversions wastes metabolic energy. ( So, an amt of carbs added to a high fat and meat diet makes a big difference in your feeling of energy and weight. ) Then there's issues like vitamins and essential nutrients to complicate it all. What anyone else eats really shouldn't be very influential about what your OWN diet needs to be. I feel I do best on a rather low carb situation.. and little to no wheat especially .. but that's just me.
  22. Everyone post some favorite quotes!

    " A man, can dig himself a hole , with his mouth,,, faster , than he can ,with just about anything else."
  23. Everyone post some favorite quotes!

    "Enlightenment, is the event which happens , when one recognizes, that one is really very tired of considering ones-self unenlightened, and decides to stop."
  24. Lineage or order , , essentially an imaginary fabrication of similarity.
  25. Unfitting pieces of the Chuang tzu?

    Lots, starting with all the things Conf. Is attributed.