GrandmasterP

Is it these ' Islands of the Blessed'? http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/taoism/peng.html

Very sad news about Shamar Rinpoche, from the Renchen-Ulm Bodhipath center in Germany, where he was teaching. http://bodhipath-renchen-ulm.de/news-pressestimmen/news-view/shamar-rinpoche-ploetzlicher-herztod-sudden-heart-death/f2ea01e63898e497e72962159fa6df41/ Dear friends, we are all deeply shocked - this morning during the breakfast Shamar Rinpoche passed away - he got a sudden heart death. The emergency doctors came here right away but couldn't do anything anymore. Rinpoche already had a short black out during the course but the doctors confirmed that even an immediate transfer to the hospital wouldn't have changed anything. Jigme Rinpoche and we all ask you to do the Buddha Amitabha Practise for Shamar Rinpoche, please. with extremely sad regards, your Bodhi Path Team

Mystic MH. Remote viewing services. Toenails a speciality. Reasonable rates.

This cup reads... When in doubt drink tea

Time for cake and tea perhaps? Anyone fancy a cuppa tea? Very calming is tea.

I think that organic farms set up has vacancies worldwide not just in UK. I have seen USA jobs on there before now. Thing is, most of that work is seasonal.

These people maybe?..... http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk/index.php?one=lin&two=lin&sel=15

Blue tea! EW Seriously though of it's working for you then by all means go with it, if not then check out other forms. There's lots on here and elsewhere.

Indeed we do. http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/346267-blue-tit-falls-over-itself-to-get-its-beak-on-free-nesting-materials

Here's one we made earlier.....

Our tap water here is pretty good but we still filter it for drinking. The finest tap water in England is said to be Birmingham's. London tap water has reputedly passed through at least six Londoners and been reprocessed prior to coming out of the tap. They have found traces of all sorts of drugs in London water. I begrudge paying for bottled water here in England we never heard of that when I was a kid it seems a bit of a fad and fashion to me but whatever suits anyone that's what suits them. Over in India we had to drink bottled water as the stuff from the well was barely fit to look at let alone drink.

I don't think they go in for that sweeping schtick these days. There's a rather splendid Zoroastrian Temple in Leicester and the priests there only wear those masks when they are tending their sacred fire which is never extinguished. They wear white robes a white hat and those masks.

Excellent interview and super- interesting answers thanks and respect to Dr J for taking the time and to BKA for sorting the interview for us.

Parsee ( Zoroastrian) priests used to carry little beooms for that purpose and they also wore a gauze mask so as jot to inadvertantly swallow flies. The richer ones employed little lads to sweep in front of them. It didn't matter if the little lad stepped on any bugs it was all about the priest not doing so.

We've had some but not many well publicised cases like that here in the UK. One guy, a farmer shot and killed one of two burglars who had broken into his house and surprised him. He went to jail for manslaughter ( taking a life without 'malice aforethought') I think he served two years. It was a big issue in the press at the time with pro and con arguments some for the guy some against. Under English law it comes down to a jury having to decide in each case what constitutes 'reasonable force'.

They have sadhus over in India who opt to live next to burning ghats where bodies are cremated. Quite often those guys go about buck naked apart from body paint. It's pretty hot out there so clothing's not an issue and they are accepted. People bring them food and generally 'adopt' them so that if one gets sick somebody will pay for their medical treatment. Thing is they have a union ( seriously) and an annual convention plus every four years a big get together that is covered by the TV news. It's a closed shop type union with different burning ghats demarcated to a nominated sadhu so that no other sadhu can encroach on his territory. Once the guy dies then the union runs a well subscribed lottery to allocate that ghat to a new sadhu.

Back when Mrs GMP taught in adult ed she was parachuted in to cover for a creative writing tutor who was off sick. She set the students a topic to write a poem or short piece involving feelings and emotions and to present it at the next class. She still shudders about that class saying that it was as though all the bile and invective in the world had poured through her classroom. Whilst the exercise must have been cathartic for the students it was borderline traumatic for poor Mrs GMP who had to listen to it all. Happily the regular tutor came back to work a couple of weeks later.

Welcome Laura. Nice dog in your avatar.

I like your post Kajenx and think that's kinda how Mindfulness works.We opt to cultivate Mindfulness as a conscious choice and then consciously choose to practice it. It's never 'automatic' and takes work that one either chooses to do or not do. I'll concede that there is an automatic factor involved and that is the 'monkey mind' that, left to its own devoces runs away with itself embroidering thoughts and expanding on 'stories' which, without Mindfulness; our mind can be pretty easy to become implicated and involved in. That mental chatter never ever goes away but Mindfulness teaches us how to deal with it so that it doesn't dominate us. Everyone reading this has it right now. In addition to these words you are reading on your screen now there's a whole 'thought show' running in your mind. Mindfulness encourages us to observe what is happening north of our necks without becoming 'bogged down' by it. It's a useful cultivation for those that take to it but like everything else it doesn't suit everybody. There's a cultivation out there to suit all tastes and conditions; Mindfulness has become so popular IMO because it is pretty straightforward and doesn't bring any sort of religious or spiritual baggage with it. It's a totally secular technique that anyone can learn and use if they choose to do so.

Newton's Cradle. ( I rest my case).

Good call. But at that point when the SHTF and the bullets etc are flying about then the guys fighting for peace aren't being peaceable as such externally. Maybe internally some of them are but from my happily few experiences of being in amongst it most of us weren't at all internally peaceable. Quite the opposite, certainly in my own case. ( Fenians saw red cross arm bands as useful aiming points) " Getting in touch with one's inner coward" didn't cut it at all. If I had a mantra back then it was.. " OH SHIT!!!"

I think they put sugar water in those feeder bottle jobbys. Certainly attracted the hummingbirds.

Good call. In Mindfulness we accept what comes, observe it without engaging with it and let it go by gently returning to the breath. I'd say that was a conscious choice as far as choosing Mindfulness goes but beyond that I'm with you all the way as you sound to be doing the same thing.