GrandmasterP

Now that is a common misconception which the 'Redneck Sutra' clearly refutes. Bubba had that stuff in spades. He was the one who ran the still. Billy Budd Bubbha on the other hand was an entirely different cousin. Bubbha was the snake handler as in... " Pass the rattlers Deacon Bubbha!" The similarity in nomenclature tends oft to bemuse. Hope that helps.

I'm genuinely not trying to steal your soother buddy. You suck on it in good health if it makes you feel better. It's yours.

Nope, that was his cousin Bubba.

" I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe." In that translation ( page 76).

Everything on TTB for starters.

That last Dr Who was a bit wet for my taste. This new guy might be OK though. Tom Baker was the best Doc for me so far and old William Hartnell for ham. I've seen em all come and go.

'He had opened his heart to the sublime indifference of the universe.' ( Albert Camus in L'Etranger) Good book. Very Taoist. Enjoy...... http://www.macobo.com/essays/epdf/CAMUS,%20Albert%20-%20The%20Stranger.pdf Mods... It's out of copyright.

£30 for a full day at our centre includes lunch. £25 if they bring their own lunch. £15 to £20 for an afternoon session. The Mindfulness Coaching & Mentoring Award costs £360 and the course lasts two terms, one afternoon a week for 3- hours plus 50-hours supervised and assessed practice. QiGong classes are free for seniors but the Health Authority pays room rent and my employer covers my wages as part of the college " Community Outreach" programme. Without that subsidy each attendee would have to pay about £5 per 2-hour session based on 30 attending. TaiChi in our village hall with a super excellent TaiCh Union GB teacher is £3 a session for ' leisure pass' members and £4 a session for non members. Cup of tea and biscuits included.

Anyone for chocolate cake?

Mindfulness is a technique.Once instructed in how to do it the cultivator just gets on and does it. The Mindfulness coaches and mentors might go in for periodic contact with students, I don't; I just teach Mindfulness teachers how to pass the OCR ( Oxford, Cambridge & Royal Society of Arts) Level 4 Coaching and Mentoring Award for Mindfulness Teachers. The Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapists are clinicians with a Masters Level university accredited qualification. They work within a regulated medical paradigm as part of our National Health Service. I don't do that either. There's a big difference between instructing a technique and grooming dependency. Same goes for QiGong I teach a class of seniors one session a week in term time. No way can a senior be groomed - they have far too much common sense for that- and no way would any Qigong teacher seek to groom. The 'groomers' are your 'playing Mommy for money' shysters in the guru and 'belief' game. Those dudes are never short of customers because many people want someone to take on responsibility for their own life as they can't fess up to doing that for them-self. Look at the anguished howls on here whenever one of those poor saps thinks that someone is trying to steal their pacifier.

Career's maybe a bit ambitious. Careers tend to happen inside professional frameworks with salaries and pensions etc. You'll not get that as a jobbing spirituality merchant. Self-employment is more likely. Why not train to teach English? You could then travel the world doing the spiritual stuff in your free time whilst enjoying a wage with a modicum of job security. Then if it all comes together somewhere you really like and can get a living by it, you could hang out your shingle and go full time with the spirituality work. Remember Rule Number 1 for gurus.... " Never, ever; giggle whilst taking money from the punters." That's where Osho fell down.

You are interested. The universe, on the other hand...... isn't.

The burning topic of today is... Can you emulsion on top of lime wash? Seems like... No .....unless you prime the existing lime wash with a super expensive sealer. Sealer duly ordered. All the internal walls at the 'new' ( 200+ years old) cottage have been lime washed since Jesus played full back for Israel and Mrs GMP wants Vinyl Emulsion throughout.

The universe is sublimely indifferent.

A 'cult' is a religion without political power. Most religions began life as cults and gradually gained political power. The ones that don't gain political power remain as cults. Hence... Paganism is a cult whereas the Church of England is a religion.

Alcohol is 'Satan's Buttermilk'. Filthy stuff and best avoided.

These 'realised individuals' buddy. They are just dudes no different to any other dudes. The only power anyone has is that vested in them by some saddo who needs somebody else to take charge of their life. The act and the fact of your Dzogchen 'masters' doing that invalidates the transaction. Any half decent teacher will promote and encourage autonomy. Your guys have set themselves up as the 'go to' guys. That's never right. Promoting dependency be it in magic or lineage, 'holy' texts or rituals is a form of grooming.

The Tao of South Park: Dissonant Visual Culture and the Future of Politics By Theodore Peter Gournelos Here...... http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Tao_of_South_Park_Dissonant_Visual_C.html?id=S7Zdm4d7lfkC&redir_esc=y

+1 It's all a bit cultic wherever you get some professional class of lamas or priests or whatever claiming to have all the right rituals, interpretations, lineages or answers so that the regular punters have to 'go through' the clergy in order to get anywhere. Most faith paths begin with some dude teaching stuff but once the dude dies at that point you get a self appointed caste of 'Dude Interpreters' kibbitzing on about what the dude really meant. That always 'means' something along the lines of them getting to wear really silly hats and running the show for a sweet full time living whilst the punters give them 'offerings' so to do.

It is debatable and you're right. In that context though I was meaning 'here' where people can't physically fly around without artificial assistance of some sort. I used to kite surf, it's brilliant... and to be able to do that without a kite... If only one could.... Epic!

Same here. Total sugar junkie. Might there be a pattern emerging here?

We're veggies by habit rather than by conviction. I was raised veggie and never took a taste for meat eating and Mrs GMP has been veggie since teenage years. It's what suits us and it's certainly a much cheaper diet given what they charge for meat products in the shops. We'll eat fish or chicken at a pinch if dining out but we don't buy those and 'red' meat is a total non starter chez nous. I've always thought that more people would be veggie if they had to kill their own animals for meat but they don't have to do that so I could be wrong. Ethics I leave alone and choice is choice, good luck to anyone in whatever diet they enjoy. It does seem a bit surreal though to pass good food through an animal in order to produce meat to eat when you could just eat the good food yourself and cut out the 'middle man' ( or ' middle cow') as it were. The biggest factory farming operations round here produce milk.

Cycling around Hyde Park Corner in the London rush hour. That's ' Hell'.

Vulcans v Klingons no contest. Vulcans would win every time in an even numbers match. Reason being that the Vulcan team captain could call the plays and all the team would know what to do cos all Vulcans speak perfect English. The Klingon team, on the other hand; would have to keep stopping to consult their " Teach Yourself Klingon" phrase books in order to understand what it was that their skipper was saying.

Not you buddy... this just me thinking out loud.All respect to any and all dietary choices. Whatever we grew up eating if we were lucky enough to get enough to eat... That's 'home' food. Most people stick to that and maybe enjoy a few forays into different dishes. It's all good. Food faddists get to a place where dinner becomes a statement that somehow defines them... " I am a veggie." " I am a vegan." " I am a meat eater." ..... "YOU ( meaning the rest of us who eat differently to them) are all wrong. My diet is the only right diet!" Well 'duh'... OK, be whatever you choose and chow hearty on whatever foods float your boat but don't preach it to others who have differing tastes and have made different dietary choices. We can all of us respect difference and whatever goes into someone's mouth as food does not define them. It's what comes out of folks' mouths as words that defines and delineates what's in their hearts.