thelerner

That is really nice. A bit masculine for a cow year though.. maybe give a some eyelashes.

The concept of the 'Dark Midnight of the Soul' runs through many cultures. Go deep, quiet the mind enough and you might get to a pretty dark, nihilistic place. As if you were heading towards 'enlightenment' but took a wrong turn.. everything sucks and there's no reason or meaning in anything. Death and tragedy can trip people into the state to. Some require mental hospitalization, others fall back to normal, a few find it a necessary step on the way to enlightenment. A lesser drama is once you've got the mind quiet for longer periods, the negativity (shit) comes out..louder. Quiet the 1,000 thoughts and the ones that remain hit harder and be way more disturbing. I've found without a positive direction, the mind drifts in a negative direction.

What has been most difficult for you about the pandemic? Lack of socializing. My usual haunts weren't available, the coffee shops, restaurants, plays, music.. all canceled. I got a VR game system (Oculus) and lived a more virtual life. What have you learned about yourself during the pandemic? I've understood meditation better, thanks to more practice and the Waking Up app. Seeing it more holistically as getting in touch with the truer self. How have you maintained connections with other people during the pandemic? I tried but it was harder. I think of myself as middle of the road as far as protection but others were much stricter and largely quarantined themselves. How have you taken care of yourself during the pandemic? Picked up a couple of health habits. From the top, teeth- rinsing my mouth out several times a day til no little bits of food come out. Also spitting out the toothpaste at night but not rinsing it out, so a little more film stays in my mouth overnight. From the bottom I've been putting foot powder on my feet after showers. It dries and keeps them from itching during the night. I've let the middle pretty much go to rot. Had a good AM program lifting kettlebells that was going well, til I quit it due to an aching shoulder. More meditation. Having 1 or 2 small coffee and one green tea a day. Taking vitamin D. Fighting unsuccessfully the Covid 15#'s but back on track now. Been hanging out w/ some 72 year olds who are amazing examples of health and fitness.

We got rain yesterday. There's been a drought in the Midwest and we really needed it. As much as we curse the drought we need to appreciate the rain. Best of all is when we appreciate the weather we got.

As I've grown older I've gotten more lactose intolerant. weh still good for a small portion though.

never heard that, but I think it's worth the risk. There's so many good things about chocolate that I'll often put a teaspoon or two of the cocoa powder into my coffee. Nice to get a hit of Magnesium, anti-oxidants and unique flavonoids first thing in the morning.

Belgian Balance Brewer coffee maker. Fill the copper steam reserve w/ water. Put coffee in the glass cup, light the alcohol burner. Wait for the reserve to steam enough to slowly fill cup. When the reserve is empty, it rises, shifting the balance and turning off the heat. Coffees brews a little while, then gets siphoned back into the reserve tank for serving. The very definition of steam punk cool.

Portuguese Sherry French Pear-in-Bottle Brandy Life best uncorked.

Interesting question. It seems like you're coming from a place of compassion. Song birds are rare, one legged mothers, even rarer. Somehow the thought to help it came to you. I'd say go with it, too often we argue ourselves away from initially compassionate decisions.

Even if you get some advantage of self satisfaction out of giving to charity, imo, do it anyway. Cause its still needed. Selflessness like most human qualities runs a gamut. imo most of us could use a bit more. I don't aim to be a saint, but I'm culturally conditioned to think me me me, more more more. Can't help thinking it's not good for me or society. Even what I consider middle ground is probably more egoic then it should be.

There's a system of Gong. Doing 100 days in a row of something challenging. There's willpower needed, even if its physical, overriding the minds instinctive want of pleasure/laziness. The practice I've done that really pits mind against body is Wim Hof program. The daily cold shower is a test of willpower, especially when they get longer or require a long breath hold under cold water, where the body's stressed. With any strenuous martial art, you have the mind overriding the body.

Udemy.com has hundreds of online learning courses. They're having a Black Friday discount. For example I'd been thinking of trying there 100 Days of Python computer course, now its on sale, down from $94 to $9.99, it's a no brainer. They have a wide variety of classes, from Chi gung to cheese making. Drawing, musical instruments too. During this long covid winter, online learning might be just the thing. Especially now that may courses are 90% off.

In the same vein, for an easy dual sexual practice- One person, usually the female, on top, and as one breathes in, the other breathes out. Large relaxed belly breaths. There's a nice feeling, maybe some energy exchange as it goes on.

I see some wisdom there, in that you don't want pieces of information to get all 'telephone' game- Spread out and mis-repeated or done in the wrong steps. Maybe its my American conceit, but I don't see anything wrong with using better English words to describe processes to English speakers. Especially in the beginning and intermediate stages. Some people seek the scholarly route and that's great, but for those looking to experience and learn a system, foreign words are less important than the teaching.

Wonder if the problem isn't really a cure. We're closing on 7.8 Billion people in the world. That's alot. If population growth slows or stabilizes I won't shed any tears. An organism grows until it overruns resources or begins to poison its environment. This is a warning shot. We can sustain, even grow slowly but we need to keep our environment clean. In any case if it becomes a real problem, people will demand cleaner air, food and water. Which is not a bad thing. Mother nature kicking us in the balls to wake us up. random thought. I wonder if Space isn't the next frontier, but planned created islands? With cheap energy and good desalination maybe it's not other planets but our own that we'll start colonizing.

meditation to mysticism. that got a little too out there, went for grounding in the martial arts, moved to softer martial arts, back to meditation, swerving every now and then into esoteric energy practices.

Bowing down upright I find myself upside down Must set my soul straight.

I'll second all of these and raise you, Ajahn Brahms who has wonderful books and dharma lectures. Haven't read Midnights w/ Mystics but I've enjoyed Sadghuru's dharma talks. Most authors have indepth articles, interviews and writings available on the internet, so its a good start to see if the author connects with you.

A book I was reading delved into this (Everything is F*CKED by Mark Manson), that we are more comfortable than ever, but also more anxious and depressed. The Paradox of Comfort is going on. Without meaning and real struggle we blow minutiae out of proportions and make ourselves crazy. We are a society aiming at the wrong targets.

I'd like to think so. Course I'd be happy w/ silver or bronze

hopefully they didn't have to drown too many to come up with that statistic I think the authorities should keep their eye one Dr. Grachyov. I was walking near Lake Michigan recently. It holds one quadrillion gallons (though I'm always suspicious of such round numbers). Its said if you drained 400 billion gallons it would go down one inch. https://blog.livnfresh.com/how-many-gallons-does-lake-michigan-have/ Looking at it, is entrancing. Like the sky there's a feeling of infinity in its glittering vastness.

I'm another w/ poor visualization. Yet as an avid reader I get swept up in books. I get swept up in guided meditations and yoga nidras.. its generally not imagery I see, rather its feelings brought on by the words. With practices like microcosmic orbit it may be just as well one can't imagine, it makes you rely on the sensations going on.

Rerun

Not at all. Good point. When my wife complained of my snoring I bought a wedge pillow that keeps your head and shoulders angled. It worked nicely, but wasn't that comfortable. Later I found I got the same affect by placing my pillows in a T, which also raised my head.