Dreamingawake

Spiritually powerful, yes; good, hell no. a few years ago, when I was deployed in Afghanistan, I had a small group of friends who were all 'sensitive' that used to hang out all the time and play. One girl who hung out with us was always unhappy and had some pains that went went rather deep. One day a chain with a cross on it slipped out of her shirt and as soon as we saw it, Hector (one of my friends) and I immediately started to get the bad vibe and I actually started to feel very ill. Both of us looked at each other and realized the other felt it too. So we tell her to put the damned thing away and asked her where the hell she got it. Turns out her mom had been to Rome and that crucifix was personally blessed by the pope.

Anyone who can charge an object to feel so unbearably evil has some BAD MOJO. He is not a good man.

Horse's mouth? You must be referring to my confidence in my contemplation skill. Been at it all my life, more or less, nonstop, with a slight pause in my adolescence. But I refuse to say I am an authority. That would be counter to my vision. I do not accept authorities above myself in contemplation. And I recommend all others who care about the contents of their minds reject all authorities on contemplation and think for themselves.

 

I am a horse's mouth in that I don't need to look a stray horse in the mouth when it comes to contemplation. I got my own. And I also suggest that you be your own horse too.

 

As for Vajrasattva, it's going to take some kind of change for me to begin liking him. I started out pretty neutral-to-friendly with Vajrasattva. Then at one time, when I felt that someone complimented him in an absurd manner, I voiced my surprise. I didn't think Vajrasattva was bad at the time, I just didn't see anything special in Vajra, so I said so. Then Vajrasattva exploded all over the forum with his insane posts and crazy energy outbursts, just because I didn't agree that he was a shiny beacon of light. I wasn't even saying anything negative about Vajra at the time. But then after he exploded on that comment, I started paying more attention to Vajra and nowadays I don't like him. Later I began to like him a lot less when I found he's a Muslim. I can't stand Islam. I don't like religion in general, and I think Islam is the worst religion on the planet. It's the most destructive and ruinous religion on Earth. Then I found out Vajra has an entire posse on this forum, all his "customers." Then I also found out that there is a chance Vajra is donating to Islamic charities that support terrorism or that fund fundamentalist schools. Unless Vajrasattva comes clean as to which charities he donates to, so that we can check their validity, I am going to assume Vajra supports either terrorism or Islamic fundamentalism.

 

In a word, I don't like Vajrassatva and I am going to comment on it, pretty much as long as I am on this forum. I am not going to talk about it every day, hell no. I have better things to do. But when Vajra says something really stupid, and he invariably does that from time to time, I will take the opportunity to voice my displeasure.

 

Vajrasattva can keep peddling his stolen wares on this forum because this is not my forum. If this was my forum, I'd kick him off so fast, that time would slow down as Vajra approached the speed of light. If it was my forum, hell, I wouldn't even accept Vajra's advertisement on it. But this is not my forum and not my decision. However, I don't have to like what Vajrasattva is doing. I believe Vajrasattva is harmful for the people in the same way sugar is harmful. Sure, a little bit is OK, but if you eat only sugar, your arteries will get clogged and you'll die from a heart attack or you'll get type 2 diabetes. That's your Vajrasattva: all calories and no nutrient content.

 

So to list my beef with Vajra:

 

1. Sells that which he doesn't own.

 

2. Poses as an authority (this is required to sell crap like that).

 

3. Promotes Islam.

 

4. Has a "posse" of dittoheads infesting this forum. This wouldn't be a problem if Vajrasattva either wasn't here on the forum, or was here, but wasn't selling anything. But since he is here and he is selling here, it creates a conflict of interest when people, which superficially look like "independent" posters, are actually Vajrasattva dittoheads who protect their pimp daddy.)

 

So Vajra can keep doing what he's doing, but I am unlikely to like what he's doing. I don't think Vajra is going to change any of his behaviors, and I don't think I'll change my dim view of those behaviors either.

1. time and effort spent teaching? You already started an entire thread about how teachers don't deserve to feed their families, and if I'm not mistaken, were thoroughly defeated in that debate. Even if you consider some of the things vajrasattva says to be 'advertising' he's certainly not the only one. Just the other day I saw an entire thread started to inform TTB about a new dvd about daoist meditation the threads author was releasing soon. A while back I also saw a thread about a burning hand or flaming palm something-or-other qigong where the threads author was basically using the thread to advertise a dvd set he was releasing. I didn't see you attack either of those people. This is personal. Your publicly attacking someone just because you don't like them and finding reasons to justify your actions after the fact.

2. So do you. Whether you claim to be an authority or not, YOU ACT AND POSE AS ONE. When you tell someone you know they're wrong because of your own experience, you pose as an authority on that subject. Refusing to say what experience you have to back up those claims makes you look like a fraud.

3. You hate him because he's muslim!? YOUR A BIGOT.

I wonder if criminals see that they are being used as "tools". Also, after they turn "bad", they are kept in that role by society.

Sociologists understand it and explain it in a pretty detailed manner even in intro level classes but I doubt that criminals 'see' much of anything, else I doubt they would be criminals

edit: grammar

I see "gun laws" differently. People have the "rights" that they can "buy" in a court and the "rights" that their "friends" afford to them.

Thats true, but I think we can say with certainty that any attempt to disarm or limit the offensive/defensive power of society at large is a thinly veiled attempt to keep them under thumb. People who can defend themselves are dangerous to criminals.

They shouldn't. You said most people are stupid, I think otherwise. I'm starting to figure that I may "lose" money donating to a charity but it gives a lot, lot less to the govt in order to buy guns or just speed up the process to mount up the debt so people will realize further what is going on. Even if it doesn't produce anything, the problems are going to be further up front and more pronounced.

 

A lot of people blame the baby boomers for what's going on. Thing is that it is not them.

I wouldn't worry too much about 'giving' money to the government. All the money collected from taxes doesn't even cover the interest on the national debt. When the government needs money, it just borrows more from the federal reserve (created out of thin air) to be paid back by you.

They also don't need to buy guns since they already have more than they could ever need. They just need to disarm the populace to make law-abiding citizens vulnerable to criminals (they will, and do, break gun laws anyway) and government oppression.

Nothing against charities though, generosity ALWAYS comes back to you

Lol If people want to be emotional about something they've looked nothing into about-let them be idiots. lol

Try and say that when they're eating your brains!

The zombie/obambie apocalypse can't be far off now!

As long as were on the subject of zombie cults...

apologies to any christians who are offended by the above image. I think it's hilarious and had to share

Doh!

 

I knew about it before but I didn't really internalize it. They play both sides of the field.

The only way for totalitarians to win is to hedge their bets by playing both sides of the game. Any huge event you see on the news has at least two sides and the elite are on both of them. 'Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain' because things are much easier for him if you stare at his shell game

It just occurred to me that as long as we fight about HOW they should rule us, we'll never get to IF they should rule us.. ( here, us = society at large)

The entire culture is cult-like in its structure: family, school, church, spiritual, social system, political parties. I think people need to ask whether they are the individuals they think they are before focusing on the other half of the equation. It's too easy (and considerably more comfortable) to point to small examples of negative cult behaviour in order to take the heat off of the macro-cults ( and micro ones-our ego selves!). For example the largest example of cult hysteria I've 'witnessed' lately was the Obama election and it's ongoing aftermath: he is now officially a secular saint(Nobel Prize) and everyone is too embaressed to admit he is naked so the support is still there, with everyone playing their zombie-like roles of tacit support lest the ego is confronted with the truth of its reactionary behaiour. And when he finally has used up all his chances to prove our 'choice' of candidate right, we will disown him because of his bad behaviour and bitch about how he has let us down! We are all our own cults (of personality) and the social system plays on the need for the ego to hide in a system that mirrors/hides that fact, thus replicating 'itself' and ourselves. I'm almost at the stage in my life where I think outright cult behaviour is far less damaging than those cults that are officially sanctioned since there is probably more chance of escaping the intensity of indoctrination and of learning valuable lessons from it in the long term than escaping the 'mundanity of evil' found in socially sanctioned systems.

 

Also the amount of involvement/interaction between what we call governments and cults tells us something about the value cults have for social control......anyway...it could go on forever this mirroring of society/self/cult. I think it all starts by the individual letting their guard down and giving up their self-regulation through confusion/lethargy etc and that probably comes from the immensity of 'choices'/confusion our democracies throw at us. Paul

OMG! He actually said it! In public!! Be careful bro; the Obombies (Obama-zombie get it? ) eat non-believers. First they'll discredit you as a racist for speaking against the new messiah, then they'll eat your brains

So true...

 

...and single

...and deperate for personalized instruction.

...and sexually open.

 

Ah...hot students mmmmmmmmm.

 

(anyone who is offended by this needs to meditate more in order to get over themselves)

Love and Peace,

 

Sundragon

I may have to become a teacher one day

Reminds me of GTO lol Google 'Great Teacher Onizuka' if you don't know what I'm talking about.

You keep calling it "something-for-nothing" or corruption.

 

I call it design. The govt was designed to be that way.

 

The "standard method" that you describe has been implemented since "government" was created by man.

 

Corporations were not meant to serve the public good in the first place. If it took a charter then the same rich had to pull strings and grease palms for it.

 

Sorry but the USSR was "communist" in name only. It set up a lower class and an upper class.

 

True capitalism at its truest nature is Social Darwinism. You take what little you gained in imaginary "rights" and give it away and what you get is a lot of employers firing people at the drop of a hat in order to hire a lower wage worker <--- that will get repeated for a few cycles until the worker is being paid next-to-nothing for 18-20 hours a day...or maybe...it is going to get done during this recession/depression <--- notice that I'm not calling it a recession/depression cycle because the significant drop in quality of life for a huge chunk of Americans is permanent.

 

The "middle class" is, at best, imaginary. Many people have already found that they were one medical catastrophe or one job loss (maybe both combined) away from being homeless...after the fact.

 

The "middle class" isn't doing it right. The "middle class" isn't setting up "charities" and "foundations"...which I think might be worth investigation by some of the more prominent members at thetaobums since they serve the public good anyway.

Your absolutely right. I keep saying it in the hopes that it might sink in. You keep blaming capitalists for the actions of socialists, communists, and fascists. if you want to talk about systems designed to create the super-rich and super-poor, then lets take a look shall we? In fascism the rich corrupt the government to their own ends through lobbying, bribery, and 'color of law' until they literally own the government.

In socialism and communism you convince the middle and lower class that the rich have too much at the expense of the little guy. Then you encourage the something-for-nothing, take-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-poor ideal and get them all wound up with promises to make everybody 'equal.' The people willingly give the few who orchestrate the whole thing ALL the power so he/she/they can play robinhood and those few simply never give anything back. Now they have all the power/wealth and nobody else has a pot to piss in. That is how these systems are designed. They are simply different methods of creating a totalitarian dictatorship.

Capitalism has at it's heart the earn-what-you-get, fair-compensation mentality. When you say teachers deserve to be compensated, your supporting capitalism. So when you turn around and bash the very idea you just supported it's a little confusing to anyone who expects continuity of thought or coherent logic. If you try to hate and love the same thing at the same time, create a self defeating ideology which is generally the exact opposite of what anyone on this board would want.

At the beginning of America, the founders said that ALL government was, at best, a necessary evil. They decided that a limited government was the best that could be done. As long as it's powers were kept in check, it could never interfere in society on too large a scale. FDR intimidated the supreme court into submission, then appointed corrupt judges to rapidly expand the powers of government in direct violation of the Constitution. He convinced the people that it was OK because he was gonna give them a 'new deal' free money for everybody. This was the start of many, if not all, of the problems to be found in our government now. However if you listen to the propaganda put out in school and the mass media without actually checking the facts yourself, you will be taught that capitalism is responsible and we need more government power to stop the greedy capitalists. Meanwhile those 'greedy capitalists' i.e. the corporate elite are actually greedy socialists/communists/fascists sending you on a wild goose chase. As long as you hate capitalism like a good little sheep you'll never question the real problems.

Really, I suspect that your not so much arguing for the idea so much as just arguing with me. I suspect that I offended you with my remark about ghettos and trailer parks (not my intent). Guess what? I've lived in both too and I got the hell out as soon as I could. Most of the people I've known in and from those places (while often nice enough people) had a terrible entitlement mindset and spouted socialism/fascism/communism and how much they hated capitalism and rich people without ever really having any idea what they were talking about.

Generally the extremely poor (often found in ghettos and trailer parks due to said poverty) also have little or no education (again, due to said poverty) and so only know what they see in the media; which mean they know NOTHING about how to run a sensible government. This is not an insult; this is a fact. Just because you are from a ghetto and generally seem to have a good head on your shoulders does not mean that everyone else in your area is the same. Go talk to your neighbors and they'll probably agree with 99% of the propaganda you've repeated here.

I should point out that I'm not trying to offend anyone; least of all, you lino. I generally like your posts and think we would get along in person (so long as your not hot tempered ) I'm just pointing out a huge flaw in logic as I see it. If I've struck a nerve then look inside and find out why.

Wow that was much longer than I meant it to be soo.. I'm off to bed.

Much love and peace to everyone here.

I am not arguing about a something-for-nothing mentality. And you DAMN WELL proved my point because you are calling the average "Joe Blow" an idiot. I am from what is considered a ghetto and the last thing I want to do is enter a court. Also, something for almost NOTHING is being gained by a moneyed class when it could put in appeal after appeal and set an undercover precedent. The next guy on the street will see it and may do nothing about it or just pick his spot and put a bullet in the offender.

 

Would you like to be attritioned out of your imaginary "rights" simply because the other guy has more money than you?

 

Sorry but your version of "history" doesn't hold up. An imaginary "middle class" didn't exist until FDR's time.

Before that we have Company towns, Hoovervilles, children working in factories for 18-20 hours a day, Bonus Army, Gilded 20s, and nonwhites getting kicked down along with blacks getting lynched in order to steal a black's property.

 

From my observations, your perfect world is one where the majority of people just struggle to work 18-20 hours a day to put scraps and crumblings of food on the table in a barely livable mud hut or cockroach-infested tenement while a tiny few enjoy extreme excess. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I didn't call the average 'joe blow' an idiot. Your getting a little too heated and putting words in my mouth. I also said nothing a bout a middle class so when do you suppose I 'imagined' that? Those who have lots of money prescribe to something-for-nothing just as much as poor people. Hell you could say that is a large part of the CAUSE of these current problems since they used their money and power to corrupt the system in their favor. Court is easier for rich than it is for poor because of money but that is also due to this corruption. FDR EXTENDED the great depression by several years, with his hoovervilles and company towns, and it was the corrupt bankers that helped put FDR into who actually CREATED the great depression as an excuse to create the central banking system which has helped created our current financial problems.

My perfect world is actually very different from the one you use to demonize someone for disagreeing with you. I can understand the need to use emotional imagery but, yes you are very, very wrong. The conditions you describe are a direct result of the something-for-nothing corruption of the corporate elite I'm talking about. Their standard method for the last 50+ years has been to implement corrupt socialist/fascist ideals than blame capitalism for the problems they just created. And guess what their solution is? That's right, more something-for-nothing socialism/fascism. The worse things get, the more they blame capitalism until Russia err... America totally collapses.

Used to be one had to prove to the government that a corporation served the public good and benefited the community at large to be granted a charter. Now it just takes a little paperwork to nearly completely absolve oneself of financial responsibility. That's NOT capitalism. That's corruption. Under capitalism, the 'middle class' flourishes while socialism and fascism crush the middle class into oblivion leaving only the super rich and the super poor. Look for instance at the graduated income tax. The super rich pay almost no taxes because they can afford the best tax lawyers and the super poor pay almost no taxes because they don't make enough to take. The 'middle class' on the other hand get 1/4 or sometimes even 1/3 of their yearly income stolen to pay for bloated, useless bureaucracy.

Short answer...YES.

I cut out the rest of the quote to save space but your entire post sums it up pretty much perfectly

I'm sorry but I don't feel that you are being observant enough.

 

At first, the constitution was supposed to protect white land owners.

 

Then nonwhites and non-landowners were supposedly given "equal protection".

 

The guy that runs the other guy out of money by putting in appeal after appeal wins...PERIOD. People that don't have the huge amount of money in order to support themselves in a courtroom HAVE NO RIGHTS. THIS IS HOW GOVERNMENT IS DESIGNED.

 

I'm not arguing whether teachers should be compensated because I think that they should be well compensated simply for the fact that it could be the difference in between heaven and hell.

 

I call it like I see'em. You want to buy into the brainwashing that school gave you then that is your problem.

 

Good Luck to you

The gov was designed to protect itself from idiots. Stupid people are WAY too easy to control and could therefore be used to corrupt the system through mass manipulation (as is so common today). The only people who could be counted on to make educated responsible decisions were educated people and back then the most easily measurable common denominator was land ownership. This benchmark may not have held up well over time but back then thats what they had to work with. Or do you think the people from the ghettos or the trailer parks of today demanding big brother wipe their ass for them have any idea how to run a sensible government? I'm not saying the system was perfect, but until it became totally corrupted around the time of FDR, it worked damn well. America was the smartest and most powerful nation in the world until it started rotting from the inside from corruption with socialist/fascist ideals. The something-for-nothing mentality destroys everything it touches.

Accusing me of being brainwashed for believing in honesty and fair trade doesn't really hold up well to a rational mind. The idea that more socialism can solve the problems caused by socialism is how we end up with things like the banker bailout. Last I checked, all the propaganda being put out in the media SUPPORTS big brother/totalitarian socialist government and claims that the fair trade ideal that has been almost totally out of play for 50+ years is somehow responsible for all the problems that have sprung up since leaving fair trade. Wake up bro, a lot of what your saying comes directly from the talking heads in the school/mass media propaganda machine.

If you believe that teachers should be compensated for their time/energy/work, then why not everyone else?

Corruption?

 

Nope

 

That is the way this government was designed to be.

 

And you think that in capitalism it would be any different? The person that has the most money wins in capitalism simply because the other guy is going to run out of money.

 

BTW...I have to change what I said before. This system is a mutant strain of DEBTISM and undercover FEUDALISM.

The government was designed to PROTECT the rights of the people. no more, no less. Check out the constitution and you'll see what I mean. All the evils we see in government today are perversions under color of law.

Anyway, we are derailing this thread. I only brought it up to point out the large scale consequences of the selfish something-for-nothing mentality that leads to the idea that teachers should not be compensated. And before people start whining "We pay in other ways!" no, your just selfish and coming up with excuses why this makes you more 'spiritual' than the ones teaching. It's called the sour grapes theory.

Ken Wilber observes: "At every single moment, there can be a spontaneous awareness of

whatever happens to be present, and that simple, spontaneous, effortless awareness is

Spirit itself. Even if you think you do not see it, that very awareness is It. And thus the

ultimate state of consciousness - intrinsic Spirit itself - is not hard to reach, and impossible

to avoid."

 

And if we think for one minute that money have to be exchanged to simply wake up to

this realization above, then i am afraid we are only fooling ourselves.

 

If we are to find a teacher, one who is sincere about pointing out this, IMO, the true essence of

spirituality, we will see that whatever the teacher does can be summed up in two words: WAKE

UP! Open the 'eyes' and be totally present now, and for this simple direction, no payment is

necessary - no price is necessary - both from the student or from the teacher. But human

beings cannot accept that it can be that simple, so there arises the notions that there must

be tremendous hard work involved if one is to sweep away all the accumulated negativities

so that the ground can be fertile again, and one will then replant new seeds on this ground.

If this is to be true, then the possibility of an experience of sudden realization is to be thrown

out the window, and yet, if you really think about it, where is the real difference between one

who 'arrives' at sudden realization after 20 years of hard work, and one who decides, right

this moment, that one is already present, already 'here'? For 'here' is where you really want

to get to after 20 years of searching.. or not?

 

When one pays for something, it creates expectations, needs, pressures - and standards have

to be met, both by the payee and the service provider. These are measures. The question that

begs to be asked is, can the essence of spirituality be truly measured in any way? And please

do not bring 'energy' into the equation, for it is not, and never has been, the true purpose of

spiritual cultivation, for to open one's eyes hardly requires any infusion of super-energy in any

form.

I agree that spirituality can be difficult to quantify at best. However, A teacher's time and energy can and he/she has every right to be compensated for that time/effort just like any other teacher. Teachers are human too. They don't lose their natural rights the moment they start teaching 'spiritual' things. Teachers still need to eat and provide a home for their families just like the rest of us.

"Socialist and fascist"? If there was TRUE capitalism, everybody would starve, including today's neo-barons and neo-"noble"-men. Even with what we have now, I'm going to label as "unsatisfactoriness" and I sure hope that it is "IMPERMANENT".

 

What we got is a mutant strain of feudalism. If you don't have money, you don't have rights. Look in Brooklyn, a developer was able to kick out a whole community for private purposes and he had the Govt do it with "Imminent Domain". Sometimes I wonder if it is any good to own anything. For the sake of everybody, I hope things get better but I'm definitely not counting on it.

 

What you call "True Capitalism" was actually a racist caste.

What your talking about is NOT capitalism, it's CORRUPTION. Imminent domain means the government takes your shit and gives it to someone else which is an interesting feature of SOCIALISM AND FASCISM. In true capitalism the government would exist only to PROTECT your rights rather than abolish them by stealing from you. Your using examples of the problem to bash the solution. That's dodgy logic.

Just some thoughts:

It's important to remember that the vicious ideology that world capitalism has become is based on certain life hating humanist principles that work well for a certain social mind-set. If you agree with the ideology you have to be prepared to take responsibility for the cause/effect relation that comes out of it- (war, poverty,class, hate,pollution, dislocation of integrity etc etc etc)- otherwise I imagine it will just produce what we 'westerners' insistantly call Bad Karma.This is how capitalism stands in the globlisation/new empire era. Perhaps we are suppossed to learn the causal relations between things by observing the money exchange system on a global scale rather than learn it from seeing a 400 million dollar feel-good fantasy like 'Avatar' which is the spectacles' way of making us live a pacified life as we learn of the total outrages committed by 'our' civilisations. Anyway, we do live in Kali Yuga.

The world monetary system (scam?) can be seen as very yin/yang like, very flow oriented but like the internet is the product of a certain thinking (in these cases the military and the elites, though I am always willing to concede that those with the control also have their hands on the 'best' systems through their understanding of esoteric natural principles),and has the same effects on human psychology as any simulacra designed to take us further from our 'true' selves. The interlocking effects of any system creates holographic effects in the populations' thinking,therefore behaviour- and round it goes. Of course those without the reference point of proper organic life connections and 'scientific' life principles see these examples (internet and money) as liberating for mankind, while the systems at the same time exclude competition through their viral like self-propogation/infection).

 

While people are almost absolute slaves to this type of exchange system throughout most of the world, the internalised threat of exclusion from this system and the consequences that would immediately come from it warp peoples psychology terribly. It's very widely known that those inside systems adopt the

thinking/behaviour/life of that system even if it kills them. I find most peoples' lives to be built like a house of cards- a life without true self-regulation and control, without knowledge even of the system they were born into. This can only produce a very unstable relationship to self/reality. And I find the idea of money/commodity exchange to be a deep motivator in creating a life that really isn't worth living in some ways (if only from the perspective of "the unexamined life is not worth living" school of thought--and who can honestly have both an examined life and a life lived based on what one has learnt from this process in cultures structured like ours ?).

Money for survival is one argument, but a life based only on the acceptance of this enforced mode of survival is surely an acceptance of totalitarianism. In the 'alternative' scene, new-age, spiritual blah... I see the newspeak that belies the helplessness that got people into the problem in the first place : green capitalism (as if it actually meant something) ;"abundance" to hide the the terms greed/desire; "alternatives" that have their production/resource base in the hands of the ones who created the need for alternatives.

 

Just a few thoughts.... since such thoughts rarely come up here. I'm always surprised about the lack of awareness regarding the effects of the exchange system of money on the minds of those who live in capitalism. Paul

Not to derail the thread but what is so vicious about capitalism and what does it have to do with 'life hating principols?' If I create something, that thing is mine. I have the right to request compensation before it can be taken from me. Thats what's called 'fair' in most civilizations that I'm aware of and it's the basis of capitalism.

The idea that something can be had for free at the expense of others who create/produce because I deserve it since I don't create/produce is selfish and narrow-minded. It also shows extremely low self esteem since this mindset comes from the idea that since I can't make myself 'equal,' I'll demand to be made 'equal.' Take a look at Americas economy. When it was closest to 'true' capitalism, the US flourished yet now it has become socialist and fascist in the extreme and is now only a few years away from total collapse. Things that affirm life BRING LIFE. The idea of fair trade (capitalism) makes countries flourish, and the selfish idea of taking without giving back (socialism/communism/fascism) destroys them just as quickly.

Almost all money in the world now is fiat. This means it is not connected to any concrete thing of any value anywhere. It's just worthless paper. For instance, a dollar bill; a bill for what? Generally, when presented with a bill, you pay it. All money is printed and then loaned at face value to be collected with interest which can only be paid by borrowing MORE money. So every 'bill' printed is actually exactly what it says; a mark of debt. But what is the debt to be paid? ENERGY! Money is a symbol to represent the exchange of energy; nothing more and nothing less. It's no more 'mundane' or 'spiritual' than sex, prayer or trading pokemon cards.

Cutting and dividing everything into "you can only exchange energy this way under these circumstances" but "it's not ok to exchange energy under these circumstances" amounts to MENTAL MASTURBATION and trying to push this 'reasoning' on me or anyone else is just an attempt to squirt in our eyes

This idea that spiritual teachings should be free is selfish bunk.

P.S. paul none of this is specifically aimed at you. your post just stood out so that's where I jumped in.

edit: typos

I want to find a way to thoroughly exercise these areas of my life. My gongfu training has gone beyond my expectations and opened me up to something new and exciting. I am exercising almost every part of my mind and body with great efficiency. But my internal experience is still limited and I feel that my training and life would both be enhanced if I intelligently focused on my weaker points: Active intelligence, creativity, and charisma.

 

My best idea for exercising my social mind is to start talking to strangers. Also, trying to exercise the Charisma Arts and Juggler philosophy when talking to others.

 

For problem solving, I can only think of puzzles. Start solving puzzles. Do puzzles actually spike your intelligence?

 

For creativity, true authentic creativity, I do not know. Maybe this will be integral to my growing social experience.

 

Do you have any suggestions or comments?

Talking to strangers seems like a good idea (it's ok to talk to strangers when your a 'grownup') and I think it worked/works for me. For added challenge talk to the ones who make you nervous, ridiculously hot women for instance.

For creativity I would suggest making a habit of looking at things from as many perspectives as you can. ' how would so-and-so look at this?' same for problem solving, I guess.

Thats the best I can come up with right now, but hopefully someone with more experience will chime in with some solid advice.

Many vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they're supposed to protect you from. If you're training properly, then your immune system should be functioning pretty well so as long as you stay positive you should be fine.

 

@Dreamingawake

Objectively the 3D technology is not as big a step as color is, because color gives you information that you could not derive from the material without it, while 3D just adds a perceptionally assisting effect. I would rather compare it to the technology of HD resolution. Actually HD might even be more significant, because it, too, delivers more information - more details. Although those details are of minor significance. Maybe a movie technology that is of somewhat similar significance like color is surround sound, because it adds missing position information. The only problem here is that most times it is quite artificial and not really needed to provide further information.

True but your thinking of color as it is now. When it first came out, they only had a few ridiculously bright colors. So you have black, white, gray(s), and a few colors so bright as to not even fit in or add anything useful to the show. This is where 3D is now; at that not-quite-useful stage. In a few more years it might be a very different story. In 10 years most homes will have 3DTVs.

For those who haven't seen it yet, it's 'Dances with Wolves' meets 'Pocahontas' in a galaxy far, far away..

It is pulled off extremely well and yes it is beautiful to look at. 3D changes the game like color did back in the day. I'm probably gonna go see it again in a couple of days since my girl hasn't seen it yet.

Absolutely.

Some random thoughts about forum sparring...

One thing that I find really helps me is that I try to use it as an opportunity to learn more about myself. Questions come up like:

Why am I posting in the first place?

What am I really doing and on whose behalf?

Why am I replying and to whom?

Why am I reacting in a certain way because somebody doesn't share my perspective or intentionally wants to be argumentative?

All great stepping off points for self-investigation.

 

The other thing is that I reached a point where I just don't care that much if anyone agrees with me.

In part, it's because I'm not as sure as I used to be that I really "know" anything worth sharing.

Whether I tell someone something or not generally does very little for either of us.

Allowing the other person to feel like they "won" can sometimes be an act of compassion that makes me feel better than "winning.

 

Interesting topic for discussion, I often find myself observing my forum behavior and I find some interesting things out about myself from this.

I've come to the conclusion that arguing online should be purely for entertainment's sake. It can be lots of fun if you don't take it seriously or care about the outcome.

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It is said that Shakyamuni's last dying words to his disciples were, "Be a lamp unto yourselves."

I prefer Oscar Wilde's dying words. "Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

So guys, I just figured out the trick.

 

You gotta put HOT fudge in with the ICE cream, then you have ALCHEMY in your mouth!

Brilliant!! I'm gonna try that now wait, I don't have fudge.. maybe if I heat up a home-made chocolate chip cookie...

God Bless the Vagina!

Damn skippy By far one of the nicer things here on Earth