liminal_luke

Two of lifes unanswerable mysteries: what happens after death, and the value of Marblehead`s reality.

I`m not really part of a paleo community (other than virtual) and have no idea how much meat the average paleo person eats. There`s a lot of hoopla about how you can eat bacon and steak with butter sauce because those are foods not commonly associated with weight loss diets -- and lots of people start any diet program to lose weight. But I`ll bet that paleo eaters consume way more vegetables than the average person. Most people eat a whole lot of grains (think bread and pasta) and processed food, and when you completely cut that out, well, you`ve got to eat something. For many of us, that something is asparagus and broccoli and salad greens. We`ve talked before about how vegetarians sometimes feel judged by meat eaters and meat eaters sometimes feel judged by vegetarians. There`s plenty of judgement all round, and it`s not good for anybodies digestion. I prefer to focus on what our different diet plans have in common -- vegetables -- rather than the meat that divides us. Almost everyone agrees that veggies are healthy and that processed junk food is not. If vegetarians and paleo folks came together to encourage people to eat more broccoli and drink less Coke we could start a revolution.

Hi Dust, I`d just like to add a sidenote about the paleo diet It`s a very common misconception that this is necessarily a high meat diet. Lots of people do it that way, it`s true, but there is plenty of variation among paleo eaters. It`s possible to eat a very low meat version of paleo. Or a seafood only version of paleo. There are even people who attempt to eat a vegetarian paleo diet, though most would say some animal protein is important for optimal health. It`s not so different from vegetarianism: there are a lot of different approaches. One vegetarian might eat mostly raw fruit, another a lot of rice and beans, another lots of fake meat products. People advocating a paleo approach are similarly diverse.

That`s a pretty tough hurdle, I imagine. A century with no substantial changes in structure? I`m not sure there`s such an animal. But OK, sure...all other things being equal, the longer a system has successfully worked, the better. I like your earlier explanation of rights. It`s tempting to think of universal health care as a right, but I don`t want the government to start outlawing my unhealthy choices. Few people would argue that Mexico has an ideal government, but one of the things I like about living down here is that there are less rules -- and also a greater assumption of personal responsibility. Wanna drive without a seatbelt? No problem. Forgot your bike helmet? Ditto. But don`t expect great healthcare if you get into an accident. Lots of people from the United States are afraid to visit Mexico. My experience is that it is indeed dangerous here, but it`s not the drug cartels you have to watch out for. The real danger is the potholes in the sidewalks. If you`re not watching where you going it`s easy to fall and twist an ankle or worse. And you can forget about sueing. Mexicans would laugh you out of court; you`ve got eyes don`t ya?

Just throwing this out... Some say health care works best when allowed to work according to the free market with minimal (or no) government involvment; others say the government needs to preside over a program of "universal health care." Personally, I`m undecided. I think it would be informative if Bums advocating for one position or the other would throw out examples from other countries that follow their proposed system with success. Free-market advocates: Is there a country you can point to that follows a free-market health care system with success? In what sense is it sucessful? Government-program health advocates: Is there a country with a health care system overseen by a government that you can point that succeeds? In what sense is it successful?

Well, let`s just say I`m not known for my rational mind. Let me reframe the general idea so the timeline isn`t so twisted. I believe there`s an inverse relationship between present-day life satisfaction and fear of death. So, in general, the less satisfactory the life, the more fear of death. Suppose we came up with a questionaire that validly and reliably measured how engaged people were with the things they wanted to do in life (using that as a proxy for "life satisfaction"). Let`s throw out the data at the very bottom, say the 5% unhappiest folks. Some of those people are probably depressed in a way that makes them more open to death. My contention is that the people in the happiness range of say the bottom 5 to 30 percent are more afraid of death than the happiest 10 percent at the top. It`s counterintuitive. You`d think that the people leading subjectively crappy lifes would be less afraid to die, but I don`t think it works that way. Do you disagree?

We dont so much fear death as we fear not having lived life to our own satisfaction. When we die all of our unlived someday-I will-hopes die with us.

Indeed. Never have so many waved the American flag while unwittingly waiving what it stands for. Well, not since the Obama rallies anyways. Or so I`m told...

Congratulations on your successful fasting program, Nature Beeing. A slight correction: you`ll get more results if you google intermittent fasting. I`m a big fan of intermittent fasting though I`ll admit it`s not for everyone. Depends who you are, what you`re trying to accomplish with your diet plan, where you are in your life. At the risk of being pelted with tomatoes and other vegan goodies, I`ll mention that I`m not a big fan of the meatless approach. Again, depends who you are and all that. For most of us, some meat (grassfed is best) is the healthier choice.

Some thoughts... The Art of Peace is largely about recognizing our resistance to what is. How can we be at peace if we`re fighting against reality? This doesn`t mean that we can`t work for change, only that any such work will be built upon a foundation of tranquility. Peace is a surprisingly unpopular mindset. It`s always there if we want it, but we keep pushing it away. My two cents... (PS. I disagree with some other posters in this thread, and my first impulse is to write about how wrong they are. Debate can be good, but the impulse to fight -- the addictive pull of conflict -- is not. For now, I`ll resist.)

Ummm....I don`t think it works that way Gendao. If memory serves, Taomeow once talked about the common misconception that the actual substance of semen was jing. (In the interview section I believe, if you want to go look for it.) No doubt, how we deal with our erotic energy influences our jing, but it`s quite a bit more complicated than some retaining enthusiasts would have us believe. No horse semen shots for me, thanks.

Me too, Orion. We`re all a mixture of yin and yang, regardless of gender, and when those qualities merge energetically interesting things happen.

Mandrake, Thank you for your well wishes on my cultivation, and your thoughtful post. It`s true that in the past I`ve encountered homophobic posts. Not so much lately, thankfully. In my opinion, your point about people wanting to puff themselves up and seem more expert than they are is spot-on. There`s a surprising amount of very high level practitioners here willing to share knowledge, but it`s necessary to look carefully among the weeds to find the flowers. That`s my experience anyways. I don`t mind saying that I`m gay because I generally don`t get snagged into online negativity about that subject. Been there, done that. (My track record on other subjects is more spotty.) If a fellow Bum is gay and has questions about how sexuality integrates in with Taoist practice, I`m happy to share my experience.

It`s funny about the bathroom thing. I sometimes go to a Starbucks that has two bathrooms, one for women and one for men. Both bathrooms lock so it`s just one person at a time. There`s been a few times when the men`s bathroom is occupied and the women`s isn`t. So I go into the women`s, lock the door, and use the facilities. It just seems silly to me not to. I`ve noticed that a lot of guys don`t share my approach. Men will stand outside the bathroom waiting for a long time when there`s a perfectly empty, single-person women`s bathroom right there. I don`t get it. Am I some sort of crazy gender rebel? Two notes: (1) I`d never use a women`s bathroom if it was meant for group use; (2) I`m always careful to put the seat down and leave things clean.

There are legitimate questions of medical ethics when it comes to the treatment of gender dysphoria in children... but it`s more fun to talk about who gets to use which bathroom.

Great question. I guess I`d mostly want to know whether the original question of energetic balance within homosexual relationships is purely theoretical or comes out of personal experience. Otherwise, it`s hard to offer a useful answer. I`m gay and have explored many of the paths people talk about here, and I`m balanced enough I guess.

Yes, I can yawn when I want to. Anybody can, I think. You just kind of fake it. Here`s a zapchen video about yawning.

Oh, so many ways. It seems like everything I do by way of spiritual practice is about releasing blocks and "issues." Otherwise, why do it? I`m a big believer in going through the body. All that emotional stuff is exactly mirrored on a bodily level. No, that`s not quite right -- all those emotional blocks are phyical blocks. Maybe I`m just lucky, but I think pretty much everything works. Here are some favorites. Self-massage (acupressure, chi nei tsang, just making little circles wherever there`s soreness or tension) Breathwork Shaking (Kunlun, trauma release exercises, plain old any-which-way shaking and jiggling) Yawning Any sort of Tai Chi warmup, joint mobilization (knee circles, arm circles, hip circles, neck circles, eye circles)

Blackstar, I`m guessing you didn`t vote for Trump. Neither did I. Just listening to him speak, I`m astonished that pretty much anybody did. I`ll bet there`s a bunch more stuff we agree on too. How do you feel about military spending? I`d be happy to cut it down by about 50% and use all that money to plant trees instead. I`m pro-choice when it comes to abortion, and also believe in euthanasia, at least in certain instances. (And, in case your wondering, I hold life sacred -- and no, I don`t see the contradiction.) I could care less who uses what bathroom, and am happy to let someone change their gender back and forth six ways to Sunday and not say a word about it. In other words, I suspect that some of the more right-wing people in the forum can only conclude that I`ve been thoroughly brainwashed by a corrupt government and the "false news" liberal media machine. But about this sociopathy business: I`d be careful with that. Other people are often more complicated than they appear, and making statements about their inner working is a delicate and dangerous business. We`re on safer ground confining our statements about inner psychological states to ourselves. (This doesn`t apply, of course, to Trump; I`m happy to diagnose his mental state.) In general though, it`s hard to know what other people are thinking and feeling. It`s especially difficult to diagnose whole huge groups of them. Personally, I wouldn`t do it.

"a distributor of hugs" --- a wordsmith indeed! Thanks...

Aawww, I dunno. I believe in soulmates. Why look...he`s just getting up now. We`ve been together eight years, none of them easy, all of them worth it.

It`s pretty hard to get around making decisions. We`re naturally going to be in favor of some things, and opposed to others. Much time is spent debating these decisions. Is it OK to watch porn? To charge money for spiritual teachings? To eat meat? Oftentimes how we answer isn`t nearly as important as our grip strength. How tightly do we hold on to our opinions? It`s possible to hold an absolute conviction -- for instance, " I will not watch porn" -- without using megatons of emotional concrete to hold the conviction in place. Usually that`s not what we do though. Usually we tighten around our beliefs -- and that tightening can lead to difficulties. To me, that`s the trap of being staunchly against things, say porn, since we`ve been talking about that. We may have every reason in the world to believe that it`s wrong, but if we constrict around that position our belief will only hurt us. Of course we can also constrict around wanting something, and that`s called addiction. Either way, there`s a loss of freedom.

I`m sure there are lots of ways. One pretty failsafe all-round tension reliever is yawning. Just yawn for a few minutes, maybe five or ten. Let yourself make noises as you do it. Maybe give a little stretch. Afterwards lie down and take a little nap or let your mind just wander for a bit. This is an exercise from something called Zapchen.

In the category of... Least accurate handle: Marblehead Cat you don`t mess with: Taomeow Sweetest policewoman: Kar3n Most likely to recite the constitution by memory: Brian Bum who most inspires me to be my best self: Silent Thunder Best poker player: Ralis Most likely polar bear swim participant and/or Burning Man bartender: Thelerner Lowest temperature: Cold

,,,