Encephalon

Any other Metal Rats in here? My DOB - 09/12/60. Gonna be a good year for me.

I found this article pretty effective at teasing out the political implications of interdependence, a subject held dear by Buddhists, Taoists, and not a few Hindus, not to mention the science of ecology. The western worldview predicated on the supremacy of individual existence, to the absolute eclipse of our interdependency and mutual causation, will have to give way to a more ecological worldview if we are to become an enlightened, planetary civilization. This article looks at the fraying of the "man as an island" theology. https://www.salon.com/2020/05/14/the-pandemic-exposes-the-truth-right-wing-individualism-is-just-selfish-garbage/ AMANDA MARCOTTE MAY 14, 2020 5:15PM (UTC) During Donald Trump's daily press conference (and, wait — wasn't he going to quit those?) on Wednesday, the president was unable to hide his irritation at coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, and pooh-poohed the latter's concerns about re-opening schools and universities. Fauci had testified in front of the Senate on Tuesday and was asked about the possibility of educational institutions opening in the fall. He did not actually weigh in on this policy issue, but just observed, "Even at the top speed we're going, we don't see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get to school this term." Without rigorous testing, he said, there's "a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control." Trump, who's always furious at any hint that he actually be working at his job, and is overtly hostile to the concept of expanded testing, became visibly angry about Fauci's comments. "I think they should open the schools, absolutely," Trump told reporters on Wednesday, while bathed in appropriately sinister lighting. "It's had very little impact on young people." Trump reiterated the argument a few minutes later, saying this was "just not an acceptable answer" because COVID-19 "is a disease that attacks age. It attacks health." As usual, the president was barely coherent, but it appears he meant to say that the coronavirus is more dangerous for unhealthy or elderly people. Trump got a lot of pushback, with critics pointing out that there have in fact been numerous cases of young people dying or becoming gravely ill. But that criticism misses the point to a large extent. The principal reason for shutting down schools in the first place was less about protecting young people themselves — who do appear less likely to contract COVID-19, and generally tend to recover quickly — and more about shutting down a major vector for the coronavirus' rapid spread. Even if not a single young person died from the disease, shutting down the schools was the right move so that kids can't unknowingly transmit the virus to their parents and grandparents, or other high-risk people in the community. This moment, in other words, was another reminder that Trump doesn't even grasp the basic concept of caring about people other than yourself. In his mind, the only factor that should determine whether a student goes back to school is the personal risk to that student. It doesn't even occur to him that students might have concerns about other people's health — possibly even members of their own families. But this problem extends beyond Trump. For decades, conservatism has preached a gospel of "individualism," disdaining the idea — which is backed by considerable scientific evidence — that humans are deeply interdependent pack animals whose survival depends more on cooperation than on individual striving. That right-wing gospel is being rapidly exposed as not but silly, but meaningless and even dangerous in the age of coronavirus. Just a few short years ago, conservatives were in an uproar because Barack Obama gave a speech arguing, "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that." (Obama, it should be noted, got the basic premise of the speech from Elizabeth Warren, then a Senate candidate, who gave a spontaneous speech at a meet-and-greet in 2011 making the same points.) Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign seized on "you didn't build that," stoking anger among conservatives who love to tell themselves that their wealth is strictly a matter of their own hard work and who ignore the obvious fact that they wouldn't have gotten far without the taxpayer-funded infrastructure Obama was talking about. This is what passed for "scandal" in 2012: A Democratic politician telling a bunch of delusional conservatives something obvious, which is that individual prosperity depends on the extensive benefits of an interconnected society. To understand how and why the vast majority of Republicans eagerly voted for Trump, a man who literally demonstrates every symptom on the sociopathy checklist, it helps to understand how much the right has morphed into a cult of individualism. In 1987, for instance, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a major architect of contemporary right-wing thought, famously said, "There's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families." The Tea Party protests — which were largely what Obama was responding to in 2012 — were fueled by this faith that "society" is merely an illusion and that conservatives are a bunch of rugged individuals who don't really need anyone else to survive. Certainly, in the far-right mythology, there's no need to respect the concept of a "social contract," or any obligations, such as paying one's fair share of taxes, that flows from it. I shouldn't even have to say this, but racism has long been the not-so-secret fuel for this cult of individualism. The rise of 1964 Republican nominee Barry Goldwater, with his hostility toward federal anti-discrimination legislation and social safety-net programs, was a direct result of white people's anger at the civil rights movement's insistence that black people be included in the social contract as full equals. The Tea Party was full of people whose newfound loathing of taxation was directly proportional to their anger that a black man had become the face of the federal government. Still, the media has taken this idea of "individualism" at face value for decades and dutifully reported right-wing anger at Obama's "you didn't build that" speech as if it were legitimate disagreement, instead of the loony rantings of people whose lives would fall apart the second there was the slightest disruption to social systems that work only because of government investment. The coronavirus has exposed this delusion of individualism for what it is. For one thing, the virus doesn't care if you pop on a tricorner hat and declare yourself a rugged individual. It'll infect you just as easily as it infects a person who stays home, wears a mask and pays their taxes without complaint. Individualism can't stop the virus — only collective action can. But on a deeper level, the virus has exposed the incoherence of the individualist ideology. Right now, the same people who fueled the Tea Party protests, including Trump himself, are out there insisting that the lockdowns end. Why? Well ... because they miss the benefits of living in an interconnected society. They want their kids in school. They want to go to the mall or the gym or the hair salon. They want to use public spaces that are either directly funded by taxpayers or only possible because taxpayers pay for roads, utilities and other public infrastructure that make it possible to open stores, gyms and restaurants. More to the point, the idiocy of this individualistic rhetoric is exactly the reason we can't just return to normal life. The "every man for himself" philosophy is why Republicans resisted building up the public health infrastructure that could have responded to this crisis with the kind of mass testing and tracing needed to stop the spread. Even when it was clear the virus was spreading, Trump — due to laziness, but also due to his refusal to treat public health as a serious issue — didn't do what was necessary to ramp up an emergency response. Obama's words about how "you didn't build that" now feel less like an admonishment and more like a warning. Conservatives have rejected the idea that we're all in this together. Because of the extreme social and political negligence that provoked, they're now losing the benefits of living a society that they pretended they didn't want and didn't even notice. "Every man is an island" sounds like a romantic notion until you actually have to live that way, locked up in your house and unable to interact meaningfully with other people in public spaces. Too bad they had to ruin it for the rest of us, but that, of course, is just more proof that we're all in this together. AMANDA MARCOTTE Amanda Marcotte is a politics writer for Salon who covers American politics, feminism and culture. Her new book, "Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself" is out now. She's based out of Brooklyn and can be followed on Twitter @AmandaMarcotte. MORE FROM AMANDA MARCOTTE • FOLLOW AMANDAMARCOTTE

It's pretty clear that the US intelligence community is demonstrably getting politicized to demonize ALL things Chinese as the next permutation of Trump's scapegoating and deflection from his own incompetence. Fox News is complicit in this ongoing charade.

Cut and pasted from my previous article, the following skill sets have been prioritized for "eco-villages" of all kinds, Taoist or otherwise. I believe most architectural considerations will mandate extreme insulation, as we would want to reduce as much as possible energy expended on heating or AC. Obviously, rammed-earth or underground design maximizes the most prevalent building material available. And, of course, humanure will prevail. No way around this. Gotta close that loop! Passive solar design Organic bio-intensive food production Animal husbandry Permaculture and aquaculture Natural and preventive medicine as well as “ditch” medicine Book-binding and printing Low-cost short wave radio Computer-free mathematics (Greer, J.M. 2016) Further specialization as defined by Lewis Dartnell for a post-industrial reboot included – Clothing Water power Transportation Advanced chemistry (biodiesel, hydroponics, medicines) (Darnell, L., 2014) https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-Aftermath-Cataclysm-ebook/dp/B00DMCV5YS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+knowledge&qid=1589566534&sr=8-1

Sorry folks. The political debate may have quieted down some in TTB. Maybe that's a good thing.

I've Oxe'd out my house, including the fridge. Ready for a balanced relationship between my ratness and my ox.

Uh-oh. I'm effed. Was advised to stay away from horses and rabbits. Married a horse, my wife gave birth to a rabbit. The lady at the mail-order bride company said that inauspicious Taoist combinations were no grounds for getting my money back. All sales final. Looks like a trip to the Mexican market for some ox-tail soup... by the gallon.

It would appear that some folks dealing with crippling body-mind issues have not yet discovered the healing power of chi kung and basic methodical, abdominal breathing. TCM... thousands of years old... way ahead of the curve! https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/i-now-suspect-the-vagus-nerve-is-the-key-to-well-being.html?fbclid=IwAR0glHLlN9a3tBxp6XbDwq5TyuvDDbpIqRlcNfiNAd-gJn6O-EYRTL6qovs

The Barefoot Doctor Spells it Out.

As it's been said before, madmen impose patterns on the world. Geniuses see the patterns. I don't remember where I read that.

Well, Taomeow, it looks like this is going nowhere for now. Maybe some other time. Regards, scott

Beginning a thread on Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) has been a goal of mine for some time. It wasn’t my original plan to start it here in TDB, but it seems pertinent enough. The human journey is from ignorance to enlightenment, and bringing our hidden wounds into the light of consciousness is an essential first step. Because of a sequence of cathartic events between 2012 and 2017, events that aren’t necessary to detail here, I was finally compelled to seek out professional counseling at the end of 2017. It was a humorous beginning, which I took as a good omen. I instantly recognized my counselor as the “crazy lady” who used to live in the apartment next to us. We shared a laugh over the synchronicity of the event and plowed right in. I told her that I had long suspected the presence of deep and pernicious unconscious, negative conditioning that was holding me back from fully exploiting my personal potential. I described my tumultuous upbringing and the patterns of my adult life with candor and concision. At the end of the first session, she told me, in no uncertain terms, “You are deeply, deeply, deeply conditioned!” A triple deeply. I was pumped. It took no more than one or two sessions before she referred me to “The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma” by Bessel Van Der Kolk, the flagship work of this subject, and “…the most important series of breakthroughs in mental health in the last thirty years.” I devoured the book and quickly realized the relief that comes from finally being understood. I’ve lived most of my adult life as a self-help junkie with a self-destruction complex, an absurdly bewildering path that meanders back and forth between the passion for learning and the terror of being alive. I would have likely remained just a run-of-the-mill, dipshit underachiever had I not been born under conditions that many Dao Bums are probably familiar with. According to Chinese astrology, I’m a Metal Rat, an armored little fucker, first one off the ship and out the gate, along with not one but two Water elements in my chart (and no Earth element, a different sort of problem). Bruce Lee was fond of saying, “Be water, my friend,” but what he didn’t mention was that the emotion for Water is fear, and I got a double dose. I was terrified and helpless by the end of my first decade, hopelessly disempowered by the end of my second one. I remained in a state of learned pessimism and underachievement until the age of 57. While taking an online course in Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory a while back, I consulted the Enneagram for character typing and found myself a solid 5, the Investigator. I’ve always had an unquenchable curiosity but I learned that this comes from a desperate desire to make the world more comprehensible, and therefore less frightening. It was a sobering discovery, and although I’ve learned that curiosity, creativity, and spirituality are often the same process, the insight still stung a bit. What can I say? The human nervous system is profoundly vulnerable to conditioning, bad as well as good. My own dose of childhood trauma was greater than some, less than others – being stripped naked and whipped by an alcoholic was my own story – but the results were the same as detailed by van Deer Kolk; a bewildering assortment of dysfunctions, addictions, phobias, underachievement, an obscenely wilted identity crippled by self-hatred, the conviction of unworthiness and irreparability, and the daily, chronic stress of keeping other people from finding out. The psychological effort required to maintain an imposter identity is unsustainable and ultimately terminal by one means or another. The Water element goes EVERYWHERE. It leaves nothing uninvestigated, remains tireless in the pursuit of information, knowledge, wisdom. A consequence of this was that I found myself wandering from one adventure to the other, investigating as much as I could. My dysfunctional programming would inevitably see to it that I burned down just about every bridge I crossed. The trick for Water element types is to build up Waves of courage and strength, not just tiny brooks and streams. The goal of the Enneagram Investigator is competency, the acquisition of knowledge refined into skill. This has been my experience evaluating my own struggle with childhood trauma. Obviously, Bums of different character types will investigate their own history of trauma in their own way, but the symptoms of DTD are well established. Toward the healing of DTD, Bums are in for some good news; as the title of the book suggests, the Body Keeps the Score, and the body is the instrument of healing, which should come as no surprise to those of us who have pursued physical fitness and body-mind fusion with the passions of madmen. Yoga, chi kung, tai chi and martial arts are indicated in the healing response of a traumatized body and mind. The damage exists down deep; our burden is to reach down to the marrow and positively recondition our nervous system. But you all knew that already, right? I am personally happy to report that on some level, call it a higher self or just a deep but silenced intuition, I’ve stayed extremely healthy for the past forty years. I remained fucked up in the head but somehow managed, in spite of my worst instincts, to keep the carcass ready for the day that true healing could seize hold. My nei kung practice starting in 2009 was extraordinary, but once my child was born, it collapsed. I’m still in athletic shape for an old fucker (59) but I can’t wait to begin nei kung again soon. I also managed to get a decent education, not unusual for Enneagram Investigators or Water elements. I have absolutely no Earth element in my astrological chart, but I ended up with a graduate degree in geography, so I must have somehow plugged a hole or tended an imbalance without realizing it. I’ve just about fucked up everything I’ve ever done in my life but I just might be able to grow up before I grow old. I hope this inspires others to explore the role of DTD in their own lives and form meaningful bridges between their childhood wounds and their internal alchemy practices today. Chapter 10 in Van Der Kolks book is “Developmental Trauma: the Hidden Epidemic” is aptly titled. Many thanks to Taomeow for an astrological reading that has proven remarkably insightful over the last decade.

What was your reading list during the 10-year era? I'm making an effort to honor my love of reading, but I haven't enough hours in the day.

Mighty sobering message - I've seem some interesting models for global climate mitigation we could throw into effect if at the last minute we decided we wanted to live. Now it seems our technical and social challenges are tantamount to putting out hurricanes.

Thanks to CT for the video post. I found that very relevant and I love the speaking style of Dr. Neale. The sooner we get this knowledge out there the healthier our world will become. I loved the point he made about the many folks who have followed the dharma successfully, who've gone on to have families and careers and successful accomplishments, and yet still feel like there is something stuck inside of them that won't budge, that won't allow a fuller blooming of potential. I'm glad to hear him reference Dr. Mark Epstein's "trauma of everyday life." His books are wonderful psychological journeys. Great stuff.

Has anyone else read this? The most important Buddhist work I've read in a decade. Cuts to the chase about unconscious conditioning and how to free ourselves from it.

The biggest producer of Window Pane LSD goes on to become a Zen master and the 83rd Patriarch of the Rinzai Zen school of Buddhism. One of the best stories of modern enlightenment, of the integration of Eastern mystical wisdom with Western psychological insight, in years. Who is ready to wake up?

"Encephalon - I vaguely recall that you had opened your MCO with your neigong? So, did you maintain that after stopping your training after your child was born?" Well, time to atone for another delusion. Yes, I was making some great progress back then, but in all honesty, I couldn't complete the cycle from my upper spine to base of the skull without being quite stoned. So I must concede that, no, I likely didn't achieve a genuine MCO. But meridians in torso, upper and lower limbs were opening up nicely. On another note, I still read 365 Tao everyday, and yesterday seemed mighty pertinent to this post and to Water types in general - Depth Morning light illuminates the meditating wrestler. In his mind, even a wooden temple is washed away. Who can challenge an ocean's depth? There once was a wrestler who, in spite of his great physical stature, lost most of his matches. He consulted coach after coach, but no one could show him how to win. Although he lacked neither might nor skill, he did lack concentration and confidence. Finally, he went to consult a meditation master who agreed to help. "Your name means 'vast Ocean,'" observed the master. "Therefore, I will give you this meditation to practice." That night, the wrestler sat alone in the shrine and first visualized himself as waves. Gradually, the waves increased in size. Soon, he became a flood. then the flood became a deluge, and finally a tidal wave. In his mind, everything was swept before him: Even the gods on the alter and the timbers of the temple were consumed in his surge . Near dawn, the water settled into a vast and endless sea. That morning the master came to check on the wrestler's progress and was delighted. He knew that the wrestler would not lose again. For each of us, it is only depth of character that determines the profundity with which we face life. We can either add to our character each day, or we can fritter away our energies in distractions. Those who learn how to accumulate charcter each day achieve a depth that cannot be successfully opposed. (underlines added)

Heartened by all the welcoming energy. Good to see some Old Bums.

I was an active member ten years ago, before I got married and had a child. I had more time for nei kung practice and forum participation back then, but I eventually stopped participating inTDB for a few reasons. #1, to the extent that I maintained animosity toward myself and was still subject to the power of my own negative, unconscious conditioning, I inevitably projected that animosity toward others, and had a well-earned reputation for being less than honorable when it came to voicing criticism of others and their ideas. If we remain true to our practice of awakening, the reality of interdependence begins to replace the delusion of an isolated self, and the very idea of attacking others in any way becomes untenable, even in the midst of strongly differing opinions. #2, It was not until 2015 that Developmental Trauma Disorder become recognized as a specific condition with the publishing of The Body Keeps the Score. And it wasn't until 2018 that I actually sought and received help for this. (It's possible a DTD thread could be valuable here.) #3, I was having multiple surgeries on my skeletal system back then, and was clearly acquiring a fondness for extra doses of Vicodin, not to mention plenty of weed. This practice is not helpful in the battle over delusion. I own all this and categorically apologize for the hostilities I unleashed in this forum. I was quite arrogant and haughty and justified my style under the guise of being intellectually rigorous. That being said, there were inherent conditions of TDB I could no longer tolerate. Foremost was the sheer volume of lunacy, anti-intellectualism, and magical thinking that prevailed during the era of 2009+/-. I did my best to cite references to support my claims, a practice which often elicited ridicule given my arrogant style, but I still maintain that intellectual honesty is the bedrock of a functioning inquiry. Even discussions of a spiritual nature require a basic respect for critical thinking and definition of terms, perhaps even more. I was taken aback by the volume of right-wing conjecture that was prevalent even then. My earliest posts were attacked and ridiculed through the looking glass of paleo-conservative ideology, void of of any meaningful substantiation. Almost everyone seems a little guilty of confirmation bias these days but the truth is available wherever it whenever it is respected. Ironically, I have actually become more conservative during this last decade, but my conviction has only grown that both Taoism and Buddhism recognize the interpenetration of all phenomena, ideas as well as the entire web of life, and that a sensible and sane politics that prioritizes happiness over the pursuit of pleasure is inconsistent with modern industrial consumer capitalism. So,yeah... ecology is real. And it's radical. I commend Sean for taking his recent actions. Our current leadership is taking cues from the ancient authoritarian playbook to obliterate reality by denying any objective truth, by slowly whittling away the belief that people can be certain of anything. They live beyond the bounds of reason and cannot be reasoned with, not in life, not in forums. Anicca, the Buddhist expression of impermanence of all things, remains the only solution.

Thanks to Steve and everyone else. Good to touch base again. Not sure how to participate anymore so I'll just dip my toe in the wading pool to start.