Apech

Europe has something like 48% more forestation since the end of WWII - but it is not natural being more pine and eucalyptus used as a resource. I believe most predictions suggest the world population will peak at 9 billion and then decline quite rapidly. Our problems might become those of a species in decline - who knows?

You should focus on body first not mind or breath. Although you should regularize you breath. Focus on body part by part allowing all unneeded tension to drain away down through the soles of your feet. Don’t get frustrated or use much intent. Just sit like this until it becomes natural and full.

I take that headline as a personal attack.

What you see today is a direct consequence of the post war liberal consensus. Because this includes a fake interpretation of personal freedom. True freedom means to follow Dao, fake freedom is following personal wants and gratification.

I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But it's home to me, and I walk alone I walk this empty street On the boulevard of broken dreams Where the city sleeps And I'm the only one, and I walk alone I walk alone, I walk alone

M said she wanted to get her nails done. So I drove her at top speed to the doctors. ’what are we doing here’ she asked. ’man he cure’

There’s a nugget of truth in that.

If I win bigly!

The thwarting downvote always wins.

You guys are just not trying hard enough.

This is a rather self effacing life account by this English Lama - he makes light of his own achievements but is actually a great scholar and meditator. It struck me that he could easily be a DaoBum with his background. If you are in England or Europe or Cali then I would recommend seeking him out if you are interested in Tibetan Buddhism. www.dechen.org

Nungas have I ever told you how I feel about you …. ?

Define toast Define jam

@Mark Foote Hi, Yes those are interesting pics. They are from so-called 'Mythological Papyri' which were produced in 21st Dynasty Thebes as short/condensed versions of the Book of the Dead with very little text being mostly in picture form. They are very helpful for getting at the underlying patterns of meaning in Egyptian beliefs. The shape with the writing on it on the left and the object being offered to the snake are the heart symbol 'ab'. The heart was the seat of consciousness which was weighed against truth in the famous judgement scene. The text on the heart symbol on the left is Chapter 30b from the Book of the Dead - which begins 'My heart, my mother, my heart, my mother, ka in my body ...' - so the heart was a part of your being which allowed you life and 'ka' which is something like an energy body had a close relation to the heart. They were not so much talking about the physical heart but more perhaps like the heart-centre or chakra (?) which was the location for the creation of a being (hence your mother). Chapter 30b was usually carved on a stone scarab beetle symbol - the link being the scarab beetle god Khepera 'stood' on his own heart in order to create the cosmos. So there is a strong link between th eheart and Khepera (whose name is derived from the verb khpr = to be, to become.) The serpent's name Neheb-kau means 'uniter of kas' or 'joiner of kas'. This god had a strong relation to the inundation of the Nile - so bringing fertility - and also with the seven neck vertebrae. There is a sense here of that which connects the expressions of energy together - like a field or continuum - hence the many coiled serpent imagery sometimes used. The beard is interesting perhaps because if you imagine having a plaited beard like this - if you arched your neck it would touch you sternum - in front of the heart centre. The Bennu bird is the Egyptian phoenix and is about life emerging from the pre-creational void. The ma'at figure represent 'order' in the universe. This picture would be part of a longer sequence which would place it in the context of a series of events or transformations undergone in the afterlife (or in this life when doing certain practices).