Miffymog

   difficult to see how salting the earth can be done with good intentions

???

From a very simple point of view, those who salt the earth are doing so to further their own particular aims, which is most probably to inflect damage on those who need that particular bit of earth. No one salts the earth that they themselves need to feed their own family. If they did, natural selection would have removed them.

Seek understanding of those whom make these decisions. 

Swansea goes down again. Arsenal get a much needed win.

 

Liverpool vs. Tottenham game was on here in the US very physical game but entertaining.

It's strange, its' only been three games, but already there seems to be some very clear trends.

Saturday the 10th of September - Guardiola vs Mourinho

Both on 9 points, very interesting. Some people are saying this might just be a 0-0 boring draw, I don't reckon so.

Sunday the 11th of September - Swansea vs Chelsea

What do you think BlackStar, home advantage? ... :)

Merkel allowed so many immigrants into Europe for completely practical or selfish reasons - because Germany had the lowest birth rate and highest ageing population in the Western world, without an new influx of people the entire economy would eventually stagnate.

Yes - very true. This is the same reason why Tony Blair let so many Polish people into the UK 10 years ago. Now, 3/10 of new born children in this country are from foreign parents, the largest portion of this number are Polish.

We have a small advantage here though, the cultural clash of Eastern Europeans to Brits is smaller than that of Middle Easterns to Germans. We have now kind of learnt our lesson, Merkel is just starting to. But what will the result of article 50 be ... I wait with baited breath

I like to believe that there were good intentions behind these things. Stronger together, greater integration and unity.

But, the people in power were becoming unelected and unaccountable.

Unfortunately, almost any human being in a position of power who is unaccountable becomes obsessed with one thing, maintaining or increasing their power (especially those who enter into this kind of profession).

This then becomes a betrayal of democracy.

But, there are good intentions behind many of the decisions (such as Merkle allowing so many immigrants into her country, even if this is proving to be misguided).

I try to cling on to the positive interpretation of things.

Just googled the significance of the number 72 - my favourite fact, from wiki, is this

72 is the smallest number whose fifth power is the sum of five smaller fifth powers

19⁵ + 43⁵+ 46⁵ + 47⁵ + 67⁵ = 72⁵

So there, it's all in the numbers!

I've just spent the last 20 minutes trying to find a radio feed for the match (I don't have the download capacity for tv) - I've got a pirate feed of Radio Manchester and tonight I am Light Blue

Gooooo cittaaayyyy !!!!!!!!!!

Penalty was saved !!!!!!!!!!

"For me the moment of death will be a moment of jubilation, not of fear. I cried when I was born and I shall die laughing."

I'm currently reading 'I Am That' by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I may well be posting more from this book in the future

I'm going to stand up for Wenger. Some clubs spend £150 million a year on new signings, but Arsenal less then £50 million and yet his team are more consistently in the top four than any other. And if they get rid of him, which loads of Arsenal supporters want, who do they get instead? The game was good and showed both strengths and weaknesses.

But I reckon there is something about Klopp's halftime speeches that seem to work wonders.

Chelsea to beat West Ham tonight I'm afraid...

My current approach to this kind of situation is to persevere, but try to make very, very small improvements in it. The downside of this is that it can literally take years for any noticeable change. But this 'just keep swimming' method is very suited to my character and nature so it works, albeit slowly, for me.

What meditation style are you practicing?

The retreat I went on that didn't work was one that concentrated on the Koan, 'What is this?'. I had not been studying this before the retreat and I just didn't take to it.

The retreat I went on which was a success was using the Chan method of 'Silent Illumination', where you sit with a bright and clear mind. I had been practising this daily for 6 months before and so not only was I already familiar with it, I knew that I liked it too. During the retreat when I relayed my experiences to the retreat leader, she passed comment that I'd found my meditation technique.

I continued it for a few years afterwards but did give up. But it was very useful as I use a similar state of mind while doing my current practice of ZZ .

 Chi Force,

 

speaking of the South China sea, the disputed islands are not islands to the Philippine side which asserts they are just coral reefs, and they are islands to the Chinese who say they may have been coral reefs "sometime in the past" but they have topsoil with both natural land vegetation and cultivated crops there and therefore are, without a doubt, islands, part of "land."  

 

No one smashed them (yet), and yet to the Philippines they didn't, don't, and won't exist.  

 

And go to China and a change occurs without any involvement of time and space -- there's islands, they exist -- did, do, and they believe will in the future, exist.

 

Funny how these things work, right?

 

Now back to my main theme -- probability.  The probability of the islands existing in the past, present and future fully depends on China's chances (stochastic, probabilistic likelihood, which can take the form of diplomatic, military, economic, power-dictated, secret-conspiratorial, open-defiant, manipulative, reckless, carefully thought through, an "act of god" or of the United States government, etc. etc. etc. -- i.e. the interplay of luck/opportunity and intent/interference I was talking about) to win the dispute. 

 

Win the dispute, kaboom -- islands!  Islands!!  Material space, under cultivation, in time -- has been, is, will be.  Lose the dispute -- kaboom!  No islands!  Fishing grounds in the sea, with some inconsequential coral reefs, who cares about coral reefs in the fishing grounds, it's not like they're islands or anything, there have never been, isn't, nor ever will be any islands in that space at any time.  

 

Funny how these things work...  awe-inspiring if you take the thought further...  and further still...  

Slightly off topic but a mild continuation to what Taomeow was saying. I read somewhere that one of the reasons China is keen to extend their territory up the the 9 dash line is so that they have easy access to deep sea and so can then get their submarines out without being detected. Both the Americans and Russians have a net work of detectors on the seabed around the world so they can try to track each others submarines. China wants to do a similar thing, and the deep sea inside the 9 dash line is the first step to this. (there are of course a number of other things going on there as well.

Hull just went went up 2-1 over LC good game so far.60 min in

What, but I thought Hull didn't even have a manager. How on earth do they even know which direction to run in, let alone beat the current champions???

Right, I've done it - I've put £10 on United to win the league. Will Mourinho make me £30 richer when it comes to next May? HE BLOODY BETTER !!!

There is no other actual path.

 

-VonKrankenhaus

what do you mean ? people provide explanation to what you mean you make me feel like justin bieber ...  asking" what do you mean?". 

Don't worry too much about it. I do these kind of things because I've researched them, found practises I like, and I enjoy doing them. If you like them, stick with them, if not, don't.

my experience- books are better when they confirm a state/experience as opposed to describing something abstract that one has no relation to; makes things too confusing. we end up reaching for fairy tales instead of settling into what is real.

 

I've had lineage teaching in Chan, but not any in Daoist practises. I try something out, and if I actually feel that something is going on, I know I'm going in the right direction.

There's a problem here, if I don't get any initial feedback from a technique immediately, I've no idea whether I should continue it. With those things which I currently practice, ZZ and healing sounds, I've got that immediate feed back and experience and so know I'm going in roughly the right direction, but there is also a sense of walking around in the dark.

Hell...just because you saw someone playing a piano, it does not mean you know how to play one.....

ummm, clearly there were some lessons involved in this story that I didn't mention. During these lessons, the kid found out they were naturally very good at it

I may have already relayed this story on this website, apologies if this is the case

Has there ever been a time when you've looked at a clock and the second hand has seemed to be frozen in time. That second has seemed to last for ages, so much so that almost a very mild anxiety occurs as because that second seems abnormally long? Now, the second does of course pass and the hand moves on, but you remember that strangely long second. Why did this happen?

Well, there's a fairly simple explanation behind it. What you'll find is that these 'long' seconds only occur when you've just looked at the clock. Now, when you move your eyes from one direction to anther, the visual cortex is filled with a blur as the eyes move from left to right. Instead of transferring this blur to you 'consciousness', your mind fills up this period of blur with a stationary image. This 'blur' as your eye moves lasts up to one third of a second, which if ignored and changed into a stationary imaged of a clock hand, when added to a normal duration of a second, is enough to give you a freaky experience of a very long second.

Here's the rub - how can your 'consciousness' (in order to cover up the period of the blur) be given the image of a stationary second hand, before it actually gets to see it? The answer - it cant.

What we see as a procession of events are greatly (if not entirely) fabricated by various parts of the mind so that there seems to be consistency in our life experience. Now, this has been successful enough for us to survive and reproduce, but our impression of the now is really quite made up.

Well, from some points of view ...

neither can see them or grasp them? i mean, all religions, practices and beliefs are accessible and available all over the internet and it is not that hard to encounter any of these and find explanation. lots of practices from meditation and qigong are available on youtube and anyone can learn it. it doesn't have to be predestined. you had a choice at some point in your life and you did take that road by ur own choice.

This is a half true story. Imagine you were the son or daughter of concert pianists, but were adopted. You then, by luck, find yourself in front of a piano. You take an interest in it and find a latent affinity with it. This instrument is in your blood and you have all the natural skills required to excel at it ... now, did you choose it, or did it choose you?

That's correct....   It was never a choice. 

I think for many people this is true. I'm guessing it's a kind of calling, or they discover things about themselves and their existence which are only met by these practices. For me, I'm definitely just a dabbler. One of my greatest passions in life is learning new skills, and having discovered these, I've found them beneficial and interesting.

EDIT - when you read Spotless' post you realise that it definitely chose him!

Just wondering, are there any foundational practises he could do in preparation which are not risky?

I'm currently doing the 6 healing sounds which I feel is both safe and beneficial, are there any equivalent for kundalini?

I could say that it's because I would like a better life experience - more energy, feel healthier and have better emotional balance. But I think the main reason is that I like to do things that engage my mind and I find interesting, and these practices do that.

John 4:48

Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

The arc, which would follow the circumference of a circle, remains the same - but the degree diminishes as they get closer to the hole - no longer a need for a full 45 degree swing, it might be down to 3 degrees at the hole, then finally down to nothing and they pop right in.  I'm not a mathematician so maybe I'm looking at it wrong.  I'm looking at the degree as would be measured from the radius to the triangle of the outer circumference terminal points getting smaller and smaller as he approaches; the degree of angle of a measuring protractor diminishing.  But he never flatlines, I don't think.  It's the same arc all the way up.

 

Perhaps we can get federal funding to study this phenomenon.  

They've done studies measuring the speed of a dog as it runs to catch a thrown ball. I'm afraid that it was a while ago that I read it and so I don't have a source for it nor can I tell you exactly what the equation was - but they found that the equation that described their speed was a differential of the tangent of the angle that the dog was looking up at.

Basically, the dog's brain was performing calculus at high speed, without the dog being aware of it. This may be similar to those bees.

 

Getting back to politics, Trump seems to be loosing it. He is short on impluse control. What concerns me is if Trump is fried by his party, who will step up to replace him? And if the legal system of our government does follow through with arresting Hillary, what happens next. It is possible that we may go through another year of Obama, and another year of a new Presidential Candidates race.

 

I have enjoyed reading all these differing opinions on cannabis, but it's nice to get the thread back on track. In England, we've just had a very interesting referendum on whether to leave the EU. And it's now nice sitting back and reading what you guys have to say on what is another interesting vote coming up on your side of the Atlantic. Papers always tend to have agendas, but what's written here gives insight into what you guys actually think - which is why I like the thread tending back to its original topic

Thanks, Marblehead..  I wanted to emphasize the part you wrote above -- so true!  People always see so much more about us than we think they do.  Or at least that´s my experience.  Even online, different personalities really come through.  

Yep. The personality that we see in ourselves is, by definition, that which we see in ourselves by virtue of our own consciousnesses i.e. that which we are conscious of.

But this is just a small fraction of our overall personality and who we are. That larger part of our personality which is a result of our subconscious is seen by everyone one else with crystal clarity ... but not by us.

EDIT - and that is where our vulnerabilities lie, which has already been mentioned in this thread.