i am

Not delusional. Able to be idealistic. No, not BE idealistic, many of us are that...but to LIVE by those ideals. Even if you ARE being supported by people who are living within the system you're attempting to live outside of. It's tricky...

I'm just jumping into this thread without reading more than this last page...but at the point I've jumped in, it brings up a lot for me. Growing up somewhat sort of Christian, in the way it's taught to most of us, I couldn't buy into the heaven after death thing, and was almost, at times, paralyzed by fear of death, or would jump out of bed in what I now realize was a panic attack, at the the thought that there isn't anything after death, that we're just gone, no heaven etc. This started around age...7 maybe? Because I realized how fast time could move, and it'd be the blink of an eye and it would all be over and I'd be gone. It's not exactly the same as that with Taoism...but it's funny that rather than finding something that refutes my above ideas, I've actually found comfort in something that to some extend supports them. Just a different way of looking at me vanishing into emptiness.

Sounds like you'd like to start a revolution. That's cool. I can understand hating the way modern society is set up. And so long as you remain living with your parents, you can afford to be so idealistic. There are off grid communities, communes, eco villages and other groups of people trying to escape the same stuff as you (I am too, to a point, though I'll admit I'd rather waste my precious energy enjoying life rather than hating the time and society I live in, so yes, im part of the problem), have you checked them out? The system you hate is so complicated, and the population now so large that with every problem you solve, you bring up six more, and your solution will be something someone else hates as much as you hate the current system. It's a tough time for anarchists! The world has become so overpopulated and complex, that revolutionary change is pretty tough. And we see, in places like Cuba, how it can turn out. One corrupt system replaced by another, no matter how well intentioned and burning with passion those revolutionaries were... Or Egypt...

Tell this to the poor in the trailer parks having child after child after child and having social services pay, and all the well educated financially stable couples having one, if any children. But as with anything, there's a middle ground. All my 30-something friends are married and having kids. All make somewhere between 20,000-60,000 a year, which is not my definition of wealthy or elite, though its all the money I'd ever need.

And what's this about Robert Plant's organ??

The last group I played with, we played a version of that song. Would still often give me chills while we played it at a local restaurant...

Karma is a way to make you feel bad for not tipping the barista, burrito maker etc.

Yes, both. We have a lot of breweries around here with tap rooms, and you can have 48oz a day. They close at 8. That's a very popular place for the after work beer crowd. You can have your kids there and all that. A couple beers there on a Friday often leads to dinner out somewhere, or dinner at someone's house. Used to lead to actual bars, but that rarely happens anymore.

Yes it's a problem with me, not my friends. I have great friends. Just not friends who live with the same goals as me, as far as cultivation. They would understand, it's just an awkward period of adjustment while they got used to me not drinking. Lately I've just been hanging out a lot less, to avoid drinking. I can hang out and not drink. It's just that at some point, people start getting buzzed, and the conversation is no fun anymore for a sober person! Anyway, when I stop talking about it and start doing it, that'll be a good day For now, I still go to the brewery with friends on a Friday after work. But I have one glass of beer to their three or four. If we go somewhere after, I have one more with dinner. If its a real late night, I might have three total. I'm ok with that, so long as I didn't drink at all during the week. But my days of having a couple beers right after work, before dinner or anything, on any random weekday are over. It got to the point that just one pint would ruin the rest of the evening, as far as getting anything done or feeling good.

Has that already been discussed in this thread? I didn't read the whole thing....just saw the topic and jumped in! I agree, on the terms you're talking about. I hate generators, and don't want to have to drive my camper to charge the batteries, if I didn't otherwise need to drive it. But the argument on how much something costs to produce, compared to what you get out of it, is obviously a legitimate one. Like ethanol, oil sands, de-salinating sea water etc.

Its great how available, simple and inexpensive solar is becoming. I'm in the process of rebuilding a little RV right now, and its definitely getting panels.

Yep, listen to it and enjoy it. The more sensitive you become, the more you'll notice things your body was probably telling you all along. I've been going through the same thing recently, maybe not quite as strongly as you. Just go with it. I'll admit, while trying to keep up a typical social life, its not very convenient...

Yes it's unfortunate that people are inconsiderate enough to drive after drinking, or drink while they're pregnant. I'll admit I'm surprised to encounter such a brick wall with you on this subject!

Yeah, qigong workshops aren't a place for drinking, for me...but maybe that's only because I'm just beginning and can't take the distractions? I don't know. The last time I took a trip specifically for training, every time I had dinner with other people and they wanted to drink and drink, I just kept having to say "that's not what I'm here for"...I'd eventually have to go to bed, since I was clearly a wet blanket on everyone else's good time.

Yeah, I think the "those who drink alcohol live longer" studies proved correlation, but not causation, and it's most likely a combination of things including the social interaction that actually causes people to live longer. Yeah it's an unnecessary turn to this thread...suddenly making the jump to drunk driving deaths.

I didn't love honey sweetened yogurt, and settled on maple syrup as my favorite sweetener. Getting away from even that much dairy lately, though, till I find cow products that don't gross me out.

Yes, pt 2, and video of making this style of coffee. Anxiously awaiting.

That's the one I was going to buy, until I read the reviews. I ordered mine (with wooden handle, though I like the idea of a metal handle better) today.

Roasted whole lamp??! Yummy! I never thought of alcohol as something to work with, only as something that would inevitably need to fade away the more seriously I took cultivation. But that's an interesting idea.

Yeah I guess this has turned I to more of a "is alcohol bad" thread. I agree with moderation. For me, I might need to completely stop for a while. All my friends drink, so if we're together, there's always drinking. It's a lot harder to just "cut back" in those situations...stopping completely would be easier. Then I could, in time, start having a drink every now and then, once people are used to me not drinking and don't expect me to drink and ask a bunch of questions if I'm not. But I see the birds getting drunk outside the window on fermented fruit. I have seen first hand the evils of alcohol (anyone who spent time at raging parties and bars late night in their youth has), so I know what it can do. I've also seen plenty of good times, of the sort that really only do happen when people get a bit drunk. But there's a time and place for that kind of silly fun, and it's better when it's a phase, not a way of life. Anyway, no need to be Puritan, for me. Alcohol is fine. My body has been telling me for last couple years that it can tolerate much much less than it used to, and I'm listening to it. I'm definitely not going to worry about it, or fight it! And for me, anyway, for what I want out of life, I think a complete break from it for a while, just to break old habits, expectations, and all that, is probably needed. Then we'll see how I feel in a year or so. Otherwise it's too hard for me, with the lifestyle and friends I have, to just cut back, and not fall in to old patterns. Which for me only means getting drunk-ish, more than a couple times a month. I've never had a problem, but at some point, if I'm drinking more than I want to, and keep drinking more than I want to, even if "more than I want to" means more than once a week, and more than one drink...that's still a "problem", I suppose...

It's situational for me. If I'm going about my usual routine, one beer can throw me way off balance and even effect the next day. But if I'm doing something like what I did this past weekend, camping with a bunch of people and playing music until 2am, with a beer around 1pm, and probably 5 more throughout the day (six beers between 1pm and 2am is well within the livers ability to process without getting very tipsy. Though its still not a good idea to drink that much..), I function just fine and wake up feeling fine. So...while I still shouldn't be drinking that much even though it's a very rare thing, my body somehow does fine with it... I'd say "go with it". Like others have mentioned, its partly because you're becoming more sensitive to what your body has probably been telling you all along, and it might be partly that because of your cultivation, your body is telling you its needs are changing, and its not going to tolerate some things right now.

This may just have convinced me to buy an ibrik... $20 range on Amazon, even though I love to hate to love to shop there...

Better not click on those links at work... I'm talking to myself there. I always preferred eating it.

Anyone seen this documentary? I won't spoil anything, I'll just say I was not expecting any Taoist ideas or cultivated people in it, and was surprised... I really enjoyed it.

Welcome back.