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2 points"Researchers" studying the venom of the Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) discovered a peptide (small protein) called exendin-4. They noticed it had a striking similarity to a human gut hormone called GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1). GLP-1 is released after eating and helps regulate blood sugar by stimulating insulin release, suppressing glucagon (which raises blood sugar), and promoting a feeling of fullness. Natural human GLP-1 breaks down in the body in just 2–3 minutes. A drug "scientists" derived from the similar peptide in Gila monster venom mimics human GLP-1 but is far more stable — it lasts in the body for a week. For the Gila monster it is likely an evolutionary adaptation: the venom helps immobilize prey by lowering its blood sugar. The adaptation and massive amplification of this mechanism for humans is the drug Ozempic. Evolution nervously smokes a joint in the corner of the room.
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2 pointsif you are going to give up your soul to be rich, the 70s was the time to do it. sort of the height of analog american culture, before the start of the great digital downfall of man... : ) plus ive been watching a lot of Columbo.
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2 pointsExcellent ! many just use the term and have all sorts of ideas about it . What do you think it might be ... from your perspective ( not really interested in a copy of others thoughts ... been researching that for decades ! ) ... let's say you do have one , what do you think it might be ? Office job ? Obviously the original context is not following the supposed 'current' recommended religious practice It can mean dont sell yourself out for material gains . Are you familar with the idea that many indigenous or even 'third world ' people with little material goods often seem naturally happy while rich people with a lot of possessions have a high rate of depression and 'pointlessness' ( that is ... unless you own a jetski ! )
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2 pointsIn the ancient Egyptian and Kabbalistic traditions the human has 5 souls. The middle soul (anchoring in the higher mental body) corresponds to the Christian soul
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1 pointAustralian desert dragon ; Thorny Devils ( ' Moloch horridus ' ) are really small but a wonderful lizard . You can put your hand under them , under the sand and scoop them up . They dont seem to mind and dont move while you do it, or maybe just a bit . On your hand they just sit there, maybe cock their head to look at you . It is illegeal to 'interfere' or touch them .... but I was with an indigenous elder and he instructed me to to do it as it was a desert sand 'roadway ' , so we moved them to safety . Curious little fellahs
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1 pointnope, but the wicked witch of the west monkeys did take some bites out of me along my way on the yellow brick road.
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1 pointwhen i was in 2nd grade our school bus had a route through some desert area where it ran over a Gila monster; its dead body supposedly got stuck between the dual wheels at the back of the bus but we were kept far away from getting a closer look to verify that. Anyway the event was talked about in awe and speculation for several days among us as to whether or not it it survived the run over and might still be around to bite one of us.... yikes
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1 pointYour image doesn't come through for me but there certainly is quite a bit of flamboyance in the Bön traditions. The sounds, smells, costumes, iconography, stupas - lots of beautiful stuff (if you're into that sort of thing). There are "nine ways" according to the old Bön tradition which I reference below. The first four are referred to as "causal vehicles" and are closely related to the shamanic roots of Bön and working with natural forces, elements, and energies and such. The 5th and 6th vehicles are related to the sutric paths (paths of renunciation, working with one's body, speech, and mind to reject samsara and strive towards liberation through prayer and mind training primarily). The 7th and 8th are the "tantric" vehicles. In this group we find many practices that I think are closest to what you are describing as "active meditation." Practices developing relationships with meditational deities (yidams) and elemental goddesses (dakinis) and becoming intimately familiar with all of their associations, visualizations, rituals, offerings, mudras, mantras, behaviors, etc... When I think of and refer to "active meditation," it is in the context of the 9th vehicle. These are not "active" practices per se but are an application of dzogchen practice to every activity imaginable. Life becomes the practice. The core practice, as I think you know, is to recognize the nature of the mind and eventually identify with this as one's ultimate "self." In this context, active meditation ultimately means that one remains fully connected with the mind's pure essence throughout every waking, active, sleeping, dreaming, and dying moment. The practice is to first establish stability and continuity in formal practice on a cushion in a quiet place, undisturbed. When stable enough, we try to find that connection, and eventually some stability and continuity, while engaged in "righteous" and "supportive" practices like reciting mantras, circumambulating sacred sites, reciting prayers, and so on. When that is successful, we move on to more mundane daily activities like eating, cleaning, sex, and so on. Finally, we challenge ourselves with activities that would typically take us far out of that space - emotional and painful situations, jobs that involve creating harm (like butchery), fighting, and so forth. These categories are not mutually exclusive. Most practitioners are engaging with practices from different vehicles at any given time in their life depending on what is needed and how they are progressing. Tantric practitioners also practice with the nature of mind but do not consider that enough in and of itself and engage in transformative practices with the assistance of meditational deities. The 9th vehicle focuses exclusively on the nature of mind and states that the results of all other vehicles are accessible when this practice is done properly. The Nine Ways of Bön according to the Southern Treasures: (quoted from https://ravencypresswood.com/2013/02/24/what-are-the-nine-ways-of-bon/) 1. The Way of the Shen of Prediction: This Way includes divination, astrology, various rituals, and medical diagnosis. 2. The Way of the Shen of the Phenomenal World: This Way includes rituals dealing with communication with external forces such as rituals of protection, invocation, ransom of the soul and life-force, and of repelling negative or harmful energies. 3. The Way of the Shen of Manifestation: This Way includes venerating a deity or master and then applying mantra and mudras in order to accomplish a goal such as requesting assistance from natural energies. 4. The Way of the Shen of Existence: This Way is primarily focused upon rituals for the dead and methods to promote longevity for the living. 5. The Way of the Virtuous Lay Practitioners: This Way specifies the proper conduct of lay person taking vows. 6. The Way of the Fully Ordained: This Way specifies the proper conduct for those who are fully ordained practitioners. 7. The Way of the White AH: This Way is primarily focused upon tantric practice using visualization. 8. The Way of the Primordial Shen: This Way is primarily focused upon higher tantric practice. 9. The Unsurpassed Way: This Way is primarily focused upon the practice of Dzogchen, or The Great Perfection. This Way does not rely upon antidotes of any kind, ritual or practice with a meditational deity. It is concerned with the realization of the true nature of one’s own mind.
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1 pointIs there a (type of ) reverse Bonpo practice of this ? ... what I call 'active meditation ' .... a 'polarity' to the 'passive' meditation of 'stillness , silence , etc . I dont mean like in the first part of the above practice where the mind is encouraged to be active so as to move to the still state , but actually for the active part . Its a process in magick where one learns the magical correspondences so they 'bed in ' ( after a while into the 'unconscious ' ) so associations are 'automatic ' ; eg. Venus is similar to goddess Aphrodite , she rules love , her colors are the greens of nature, he incense is jasmine , her mandala , shape, number is .... etc . So , when one goes into the Venus temple , even the mind is active and wandering each 'wander' ( focus on things around one ) is Venusian and 'throws one back' into the 'Venus vibe ' ... so the active wandering mind is bought back into the focus of the operation or meditation . I am assuming something like exists due to the extravagant flamboyance of some rites , temples etc . and assuming all this ^ is not just 'for show' but has inner significance regarding shape, sound, form, smell, color ?
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1 pointThis allows outer action and inner action in parallel. Chop wood while considering the flows of the cosmic ocean
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1 pointI wish I could post the film .... if you were a little mouse and big cat was hassling you .... where to hide ? On the cat ( sometimes the too obvious works ) a friend showed me this on her phone ..... very fluffy cat is 'playing' with a mouse , mouse manages to escape and hide , but where ? Cat looks around, side to side .... no mouse , huh ? Where did he go . Then on the film you hear friend say '' Its on your shoulder ! '' and you can notice a grey lump in the thick hair of fluffy cat . cat turns its head backwards and sees it ... oh man, the look on the cats face ! but that causes mousy to burrow in deeper . The follows an hilarious visual of frantic cat acrobatics , shaking, flipping cartwheels, high jumps, legs and tail going everywhere . '' Get im off getim off !
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1 pointHere is a list of some of the best Qigong sets I've found. A lot of them have instructions on the inner movements of Qi and visualizations, which can be very useful when first starting out with this practice. Some are even designed for womens energetic system, as they differ slightly and they can really benefit from learning how to store the Qi higher in the solar plexus area also to avoid leakages during the period, and thus risk Qi-deviation. ☯️🙌 1-10 Meditation Shengong, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk0Q8Ka4KTI The 13 Stretches Qigong (Warm-Up) https://youtu.be/DTMqjF20VzA?si=osYZoKaXz9ow-LhB Golden Ball Qigong (Tonify, Purge, Regulate) https://youtu.be/_KNFVKxbHLI?si=rSnSgZnPwFBocFU- Qigong Specific For Women https://youtu.be/JnwU3n7YJMU?si=74rV-BkgW2tV_f9i Women's Qigong https://youtu.be/5mT5UBuBqkU?si=5zFvbpaeJm2h8hT0 Nei Yang Gong https://youtu.be/5mT5UBuBqkU?si=5zFvbpaeJm2h8hT0 Daoist Five Yin Qigong Set https://youtu.be/_QYngRrbsKo?si=0opS1q3aAdzZIoTR Hun Yuan Qigong Set https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykWDHhCln3c Old Man Qigong Exercise (Purge) https://youtu.be/-PwsGcDkKkA?si=JrCa1jTGvz2Mcuta Microcosmic Orbit Qigong Meditation https://youtu.be/KB2xvWOMZmY?si=Kb6c9qhnpwiNFca8 Six Healing Sounds Qigong Exercise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFqotaIc3Dw Hun Yuan Qigong Set Long Version https://youtu.be/s_q58CohLZo?si=IYTxCjhBSvNVNCH7 Tapping The Eight Nests Qigong (Purging) https://youtu.be/sTEmaYkbIlU?si=dPON-x5ym2Q6aHn3 Taiji Shen Gong, Sheng Zhen https://youtu.be/x7xj7oJK7QY?si=haSwRYoTLUiQq0KZ Kuan Yin Qigong, Sheng Zhen Part 1 https://youtu.be/4cCD0l7COqk?si=YrKUWVsOFpGQBbA4 Kuan Yin Qigong, Sheng Zhen Part 2 https://youtu.be/ANSNaN4x-80?si=_BJ3LeLW9PduNycB Ba Duan Jin Qigong 8 Brocades https://youtu.be/6Zn_d2D15Q4?si=xSkNBNpmr9MpOCV1 Shi Ba Shi 18 Movements Qigong https://youtu.be/PL-oWpdlOtA?si=uG5tSslxgAI75kdr Shi Ba Shi 18 Movements Qigong 2 https://youtu.be/pypi7456Yso?si=4NQgTWC5SAKa3OXm 5 Animals Wu Qin Xi Qigong https://youtu.be/sytr0_ufm04?si=P5bO22g1JlT9VgC4 Wudang San Feng Qigong https://youtu.be/doBnsJa2SKI?si=PDO53Od4AdpGsdxl List of Bagua Zhang Ressources. (Advanced Circle Walking Practices) Part 1: https://youtu.be/DbiDkH3IgyY?si=uzqHZtOqK6E992_8 Part 2: https://youtu.be/y_9gyZqzyCI?si=z0EX7-XA-1Eb6Z-F Bagua Masters meeting: https://youtu.be/9-YZmPlNJF0?si=s17cVJ0upW53l9L5 Jerry Alan Johnsons Training In Bagua: https://youtu.be/tuCBj7Drs68?si=qgxQXVxwYSI3wCL0 https://youtu.be/7T_FX9np8jM?si=T4IC56ZWVP6veDLw https://youtu.be/OQ_Lj5p3iMA?si=dczX6Vb-QqmKzSVd https://youtu.be/OQ_Lj5p3iMA?si=lCY3ilSJNw_xpjjk https://youtu.be/o9802RoPeJM?si=lL6c-OFmNaYDawxv https://youtu.be/j7mjV8qctqk?si=yigFbzhUUQ6OE5c_ https://youtu.be/wgqd3hnQZh4?si=3SscKXioegy2woBy
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1 pointThe common tactic among Western teachers is to take the simplest practice possible, overcomplicate it with made-up nonsense, create artificial barriers, and then sell it in tiny pieces for as long as they can. If they didn’t do this, they’d run out of material to teach in a week or a month. I’ve seen Damien “Standing Post aka Zhan Zhuang” course. For about 6–8 hours he teaches almost nothing of value with 99% of the information tied to basic physical posture. He has zero knowledge of the energetic aspects of the practice, no understanding of the upper and lower channels, and he clearly has no clue that you need a specific mental state and develop meditation skills to gain any real benefit from the posture itself. It’s basically like a kindergartener stealing a high-school math textbook written in a foreign language, ripping out all the important chapters, and then teaching other kids how to draw carrots and cucumbers so they can count to 10. In Chinese tradition it's very common to just give students the basic stuff like physical postures and hold back the real 99% of valuable info until the person proves they're trustworthy, loyal, hardworking, talented, etc. That's why you get all these "early graduates" who basically got kicked out by Teacher. The simplest way to ditch someone annoying is to pump up their ego: "You've learned everything, you're a master now, go spread the word!"
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1 pointOne more thing. I find Dvd7 med #4 good for awareness meditation. Do that first or end your meds with #4, then abide in pure awareness for the amount of minutes you like doing.
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