ilumairen

Are deaths the only metric you are following? Have you considered long term organ damage? A coworker shared a story with me of encountering a man in the grocery store who had been one of the cases filed under “mild” and “recovered” who was rather insistent (in her re-sharing of what was shared with her) that it was no joke. Do I “believe in” coronavirus? Yes. Do I believe this focus on mortality rate skews the larger picture? Yes. The local KFC and Taco Bell were recently closed owing to employee outbreak, and where I work (a small part of a much larger corporate structure) masks, gloves, and temperature checks are required - at mounting cost to the employer. An employer who hired added cleaning crew to sanitize shared surfaces throughout the work day, turned conference rooms into added lunch rooms to enable more social distancing, and yesterday briefly stopped production in various areas to let each department know a second employee (who thankfully had stayed home according to corporate guidelines and therefore reduced the risk of spread to fellow employees) has a confirmed case, and contact tracing protocols are being followed. I can understand looking at the death toll in relation to what was presented by various news sources and feeling somewhat underwhelmed, but to me there is something rather callous, distasteful and disrespectful in referring to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people as a “f#@king joke.”

looking like green lace slowly wilting and browning then falling to dirt

Writing only as a member, the words eventually and quickly are not often used in conjunction, and a little careful editing could avoid the confusion this oxymoron could potentially cause. And maybe avoiding the sarcasm “a really hard and taxing job” seems to imply would show a bit more good faith in communication to a team of moderators who took time out of their own lives to facilitate your early return from the lengthy suspension you had been given.

Most articles these days seem misleading to me - in one way or another. This at least provided some food for thought. And I found myself singing “baby it’s cold outside,” remembering how it had been a holiday favorite of mine. Then came the day someone questioned the lyrics, and made some noise. Back home the station that played seasonal tunes had a listener vote, and the song stayed in rotation. I don’t think it did here, and at least haven’t heard it when the holidays come around unless I played it myself.

Apech was removed from the moderation team at admin discretion. Bindi has resigned. We appreciate both stepping into the role of moderator and thank them for their service. (This thread replaces the other, now pitted, thread.)

Soup!

@steve, would you be able to expedite this request?

No, I’m not Buddhist, although there are aspects I resonate with, and I do a number of Bön practices which I find beneficial.

To my way of thinking, it is a Buddhist way of pointing to the inseparability of mystery and manifest. I quite like this “map is not the territory,” so very much like words are not the experience they are utilized to express.

Back to chapter 1, eh? The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery.

Playing along, I would name it “change.” And if Truth is the dynamic, potential for, and (to the extent one is able) understanding of change, would this still be irrelevant in the manifest world? Going Buddhist on you, do you have any particular thoughts on, or understanding of, “emptiness is form; form is emptiness?”

I think it would be worth noting as well, this present action was a member request (made in the new mod team thread). And the sleeping ppd area isn’t something just now being created, but already existing and now being utilized again.

Not really as the cultural biases and relative truths are karma, in my understanding. :shrug:

Evil cookies, luring the unwary into ill health one sweet whisper at a time. The worst are the saccharine sweet, with their false sense of healthiness, and promises not to spike blood sugar or add inches to waistlines.. indulge, indulge they whisper.

In calm smooth water A reflection shines, until A splash! It is gone.

From the view it cannot be (compared to anything that is) - it is positionless, and duality as I was using it here refers to subject/object dichotomy.. when the self as a reified subject falls away there is only what in this moment I’ll refer to as a dance of mutually arising phenomena. I would suggest desire (and the action of naming) provides the vision of manifestations, and duality. While being desireless enables a dance of non-duality. I would also suggest that the argument you have presented is beautifully illustrated in the first four lines here. As soon as I start naming and separating things out with words, I create an experience of the ten thousand things, and as you said, “there is no way around it.” So there is no way to share what I wish to point towards, without setting up the very argument you presented, and sometimes I share anyway - trusting the individual to recognize what is being pointed towards, or not, according to their present disposition. IMO this is where one will actually look to what the words intended to convey, or get lost in them. Of course you can disagree. I do not feel chapter 38 encourages goodness in the manner I am understanding you to present, and I believe the bit about trying to do good being considered not good highlights this. For your consideration I present this article on the paradox of virtue: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40213566 Regarding the rest, I cannot speak for the other poster’s intent - only share a certain understanding where it could actually make sense, and still fall within a Taoist framework (even if we are actually in the general discussion area, and this shouldn’t be of to much importance). What do the following lines convey to you? “A truly good man is not aware of his goodness, And is therefore good. A foolish man tries to be good, And is therefore not good.”

If I am understanding what helpfuldemon was pointing towards, a case could be made using chapter 38 of the tic, and with pointing towards the “truly good” you seem to also point towards in a following post: And it could (from one perspective) be argued using chapter 2: Although I think both chapters refer to ideas of goodness in juxtaposition to natural action which may appear “good” from an outside perspective - a natural goodness the sage holds no concept of, and which could then be said to be beyond duality.

On track, off balance Motion then predetermined Save for the wobble

Balanced

Some random thoughts as a view on the subject slowly coalesces: The ability to deny systemic racism may actually be a symptom of, and indication of the effectiveness, of just what it denies - systemic racism. Police presence, documentation, and journalist contact, as seen in some recent cases doesn’t make someone less dead. Ideals about not escalating violence tend to serve those with a tendency towards violence and those willing to forcefully use their power and position to maintain and/or abuse said power and position.

I saw a press conference given by a Florida law enforcement officer when some protests around the country were being used as cover for criminal activity. He was very direct about the people in his jurisdiction not only being armed, but encouraged to act in defense of their homes should somebody be foolish enough to try to forcefully enter. I don’t think there are so many home invasions here..

And now we are locked again, pending further review. Edit to add: The first sentence of the preceding post led to some moderator discussion, until the posting member was banned for refusal to edit a post in another thread and cursing out the mod who requested the edit - thereby rendering the discussion somewhat moot.

Hi dawn90, are you referring to people who seem to naturally radiate a somewhat contagious joy of being?

This worthy topic is being temporarily locked, pending moderator review. Edit to add: after a couple posts not keeping with the spirit of the forum were hidden the topic has been reopened.