i am

Or using this question as a way to remind the forum of this great advice?

I'm sure you're asking for deeper meaning...because on the surface it's pretty obvious. Too many people regurgitating what they've read in books, giving it out as advice as though they KNOW, and using it in arguments as though they KNOW. If you've never experienced it, shut up about it. If you have experienced it...I think in most situations you'd choose to keep shut up about it. Except in appropriate settings/cases. Advice I need to remind myself of often. Those who know, don't speak etc. But are you getting at something more with your question?

"I win"? Always off is always off, as usual...

I'm "lucky" to still have all my wisdom teeth. And whether because of genetics or fluoride in my water growing up, or both, I've got pretty hard, healthy teeth. And never needed braces But my dad had his wisdom teeth pulled in his 40s...which is much less fun then getting them pulled in you teens...so I'm very careful to floss and brush and keep them in good shape. It's hard to reach them, so most people who didn't get them pulled when they were young end up getting them pulled later because they didn't clean them well enough.

It's unfortunate to feel the need to request this, but I'm glad you did, and I hope people respect this. Results which just show what people think they're supposed to be doing this stuff for won't show us anything at all. It was interesting for me... What I want most, I feel very OK with. But I won't deny wishing for some "super human" abilities

Yeah... I've hesitated at many open doors recently. After my "don't turn down any opportunity" phase and subsequent burn-out. But I'm sure that knowing which doors are conducive to growth and which aren't is half the battle.

No! Not offended at all. I'm just saying the special olympics one is offensive.

One response to a negative review of the book by someone claiming it will cause you to be possessed by demons: "WAIT. This book will increase your concentration skills AND summon demons?? SOLD!"

I think any meditation would work, as long as they start with a very small amount of time. Sitting there for an hour with your mind wandering all over is both a bad habit to form, and asking too much at once. Even starting with 5 minutes a couple times a day would be good. Moving stuff like qigong might even be a better start, since it would give them something more to focus on.

I like this. I had once seen a fake motivational poster comparing arguing on the Internet to running in the special Olympics, but it was very non-pc and just kind of not cool, though it made the point very clearly... This one is much less offensive.

That's the truth. Actually when I looked closer at that fallacy poster I noticed two of the logical fallacies address some arguments in this thread. The Fallacy Fallacy is one. Basically says that "just because there's a logical fallacy in someone's argument doesn't make them wrong. Just because someone's argument is completely without logical fallacy doesn't make them right". **edited to fix posted to poster, and the resulting rhyme is an unexpected benefit.

Not necessarily...knowing logical fallacies a. Helps keep you from committing them and b. Informs you of what they are, so that when some asshat accuses you of one and clearly has no idea what they're talking about, you can nicely point it out to them. Knowledge is always good. From there it's just how you use it. The points I've seen in this thread are that a. You can't just call out "straw man!" And then sit back all smug thinking you're all smart. You better explain how the person is using a straw man argument and how it's beside the point and b. Just because someone's reasoning is falling into a logical fallacy doesn't mean they're wrong. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn about, and try to avoid logical fallacies. IMO

It scares me to think of what goes into the air when the printer and copy machine are running in my office. The smell is terrible. Day after day...ink and whatever glue is in the paper getting laid down and heated up as it goes through the printer. The water jugs our "spring water" come in are pretty hard plastic, but plastic all the same, run through a plastic water cooler. All the flame retardant pillows I sleep on, materials in my house and office, off gassing. These are just a few of the indoor pollutants I deal with. What's in the air and water is a whole other deal. Toxic chemicals, other peoples prescription drugs, etc. Yikes. With or without "on purpose", it's a pretty toxic environment.

I do have to ask, though...why are they poisoning us, in your opinion? Do they want their consumers dead, unable to buy more of their products? Or is it all in service of the healthcare industry? Make them sick so they'll spend money at the hospital, then poison them even more at the hospital so they don't get better and keep spending money? So it's the government, in a conspiracy to poison all of its citizens, so they'll spend money at the hospital? And what about the "they"? Are they somehow immune to all the poisons in the environment? My point is that they want to make money. And don't believe the products are really that dangerous, or don't care. But if they're purposely poisoning us, then they're purposely poisoning themselves and their families too...which I just don't buy.

Poisoned on purpose? Do you really believe that? I believe that industry pollutes, and comes up with all sorts of nifty things which serve the intended purpose (delivery, containment, preserving, adhering etc), but use chemicals and metals which harm us. And unfortunately our government is set up to serve corporations, not the public, so these things are allowed in our products and environment because a scientist on the payroll of the corp can show that the products aren't that harmful. And I completely agree that they aren't testing what happens when these different approved toxins get into people or the environment and combine, creating much more toxic effects. It would be nice to get the facts of what's out there without the conspiracy theory, though. The dangers are there. We ARE being poisoned. But I don't believe that they (and who is they in this case?) are putting things into our environment with the intent of poisoning people. Who here uses toxic cleaning products? Glues and adhesives? Oil and antifreeze in their car? Flame retardants? Some of them are nasty! We use them because they work. They work because of the nasty stuff in them. They are made the way they are because they work really well, and people demand products that work really well. Not because they're trying to poison us. If people would be happy with natural products which don't necessarily work as well, because they're more interested in a healthy environment than the product which works the best, these chemicals wouldn't be out there. The industry gets positive feedback from us, the consumer. "Use the nasty stuff. We don't care. We want what works the best." Most people don't buy the product that doesn't work as well. Unless they are educated, and give a shit. The majority of people buy simply based on what works the best, and price. Anyway...continue. This thread wasn't meant to be a debate on this stuff, I'm sure...

Different people will be different. There are Olympic athletes who are vegetarian. Even body builders. Gorillas are vegetarian. Shaolin monks are vegetarian. But...that doesn't necessarily mean it will agree with you. I think you more or less have what you need from people here (though it's an interesting discussion so there's no need to end it). Talk with vegetarians who make it work and give it an honest try. If it doesn't start working for you...maybe go back to meat. I just know way too many vegetarians who are fit, active people to believe that anyone would just start wasting away without meat.

It's all "you". But I think part of cultivation is keeping the non productive yous in check. I've definitely taken his advice of "developing the witness" to heart. An impartial, non judging viewer to all you do. Step outside of yourself and watch yourself from the outside, with no judgement. I like it.

It's cool where this stuff pops up. I like that rather than being part of a religion/philosophy which seems less an less practical and possible the more we learn about the nature of things through science, ours regularly gets proven right. Oh....maybe those crazy Asians/natives etc weren't so crazy after all... This came in an email from an accomplishes banjo player, singer/songwriter a month or so ago: "poetry and music are high endeavors [perhaps the highest]. i've considered giving up so many times[for surely i know the 10,000 ways to fail] that i've come to just embrace that as another feeling and not worry about it too much and keep going. there's a light. beyond everything we see is a beautiful light. it's obscured but it's always there. vibration. light. grace. forgiveness. earth. flower dog water beach. see you out there somewhere, i'll have a banjo, a backpack, and a suitcase."

I can't believe the nazi/hitler rule doesn't show up in any of those! The free speech thing is a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people pull that card. And I have to agree...the incessant quoting of giant pieces of text by some members is ridiculous. There was one recently that almost took up a whole page all on its own.

Is it really that easy? I sort of wonder if that island house is photoshopped. If not, I sure hope that's high water! Seems to be asking for it. White walls with natural wood is a really good feel. Like taking a full log cabin, and sheet rocking the ceiling and painting it white, and maybe one wall, but keeping some of the log structure in that wall exposed.

I wonder what the thought behind the tree house was? If they just thought it would be "cool", or if they're trying to stay safe from predators, or what. In a cold climate, it's not so good to have cold air circulating under your floor! I'm sure they insulated the floor well, though.

Here's one, but there has been a whole series on NPR, some of it a lot more interesting than this. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/11/08/243929866/can-we-eat-our-way-to-a-healthier-microbiome-its-complicated

Google MICROBIOME. There have been many NPR reports on it lately, and tons of studies. Symbiosis isn't when you eat something. It's when two organisms work together to meet each other's needs. Think of the birds on a horses back, eating the insects that would otherwise bite the horse. Win-win. Birds eat, horse doesn't get bit. Most food you eat, YOU don't digest. The bacteria in your stomach digests it. Everyone has good and bad bacteria. You have ecoli in your stomach. We all do. It's when there's too much that you get sick. Having a higher proportion of good bacteria to bad bacteria is what makes you healthy and digest well. Some you're born with, others come from eating the right things. Without the right stuff in your gut, you aren't going to properly digest these foods you're eating. Taking probiotics is one good way to get healthy bacteria in you. Yogurt, kombucha etc. "Live, active culture".

Is GP general practitioner? I wouldn't trust most with diet advice... I know a trained nutritionist, and it's the governments opinion and therefore guideline that dairy, and milk in particular is a NECESSARY part of the human diet. Can't be healthy without it. This was just one of a few conversations that caused me to stop getting into discussions about food and health with her... If you're going to see someone about diet...ask around and choose wisely. Most just tow the line.

That lady in Amongst White Clouds also seemed to be having the worst time of it. She seemed to go out of her way to show how hard everything was for her, and almost seemed to break down a couple times...I felt bad for her.