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Post by Peter on Oct 7, 2020 3:40:46 GMT -5
I see a far right and an intolerant far left We watched the Netflix docu-drama "The Social Dilemma" as a family the other night and it made the point that social media is entirely focussed on trying to engage your attention for as long as possible (so as to show you more ads) and that more extreme posts get more attention. They showed a graph of political position over time and how both left and right are moving away from the centre ground. Recommended viewing for either side of the debate. |
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Post by Peter on Oct 2, 2020 3:13:53 GMT -5
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Post by Peter on Sept 30, 2020 3:09:33 GMT -5
Oh, to clarify, I don't think ALL his supporters are Nazi scum or cult members. "I'm sure some of them are nice people"  |
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Post by Peter on Sept 23, 2020 2:56:28 GMT -5
To keep from mixing apples and oranges, look at the history of confirming Supreme Court Justices. Over the years the matter has become more and more political. My memory goes back to when Bork became a verb. And some judges have traditionally been sly enough to sometimes surprise their pickers, subsequently. TIL: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bork#Bork_as_a_verb |
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Post by Peter on Aug 15, 2020 2:59:30 GMT -5
Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there. I do not sleep. We used this poem for my brother's grave:  |
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Post by Peter on Jul 19, 2020 4:58:58 GMT -5
Maybe inavalan can clarify the intended question. Twice. I guess I don't know what trolling is. (Anybody like to help me on this? ... honestly). Help you with knowing what trolling is, or being able to spot it? For a definition I came up with "Being disingenuous in order to provoke an emotional response in another person". The Urban Dictionary of course does a much better job: www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TrollingIn terms of how to spot it, that's quite tricky because you have to know someone quite well to be able to determine when they're not being their true selves (and I mean true as in normal, not like Tara Brach True Self). Which is quite interesting in itself because it reflects back how easy it is to jump to the assumption that another person is stupid or racist, or holds opinions that might seem unjustifiable. So in the situation where you can't be sure if someone is genuinely objectionable or if they're just pulling your leg, I find the safest thing is to respond calmly, in the manner of replying to a coke'd up toddler. |
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Post by Peter on Jun 25, 2020 8:17:35 GMT -5
Steve is back!  Wow. Let's see...last post....Aug 1 2018. Nearly 2 years away and he just swans back in with an IDK like he never left. Hello stranger, what you been up to? |
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Post by Peter on Jun 8, 2020 4:22:14 GMT -5
I've been thinking about what's going on both in my life just now and in the world in general and it came to me that the student does not set the curriculum.
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Post by Peter on May 29, 2020 8:17:10 GMT -5
I'm always wary of following bare links, both in terms of some nefarious malarkey and in terms of it not being of interest to me. What domain are we in here, music, transhumanism, the work of Christopher Lambert between 1986 and 1994? |
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Post by Peter on May 22, 2020 4:41:04 GMT -5
So, secretly, the desire to help is actually just the desire to share. When the desire to share is accepted as just that. the desire to share just that? Aren't we saying "I've got this thing which is putting me in a better position than you're in, so I'm offering it to you so that you can join me in my better position" It's not starting from a place of "you're perfect just as you are". And I know this is difficult. For me the tension between what's fine as it is and what "needs" to change is the whole of the spiritual life; that's the serenity prayer right there. How much of this helping is "I think you should be like me, to validate my life" ? Join my gang, be part of my herd. When the thing being offered is rejected, it hurts right? But the offering itself is hurtful. It's saying "you're not right, here's how you can be right". Have you (whoever is reading this) come across the dualities of Service to Self (STS, bad, boo), Service to Others (STO, good, yae) ? There's a phrase in that tradition that goes "STS does not become STO by determining the needs of another". STO gives to "all who ask" but the request for help needs to be made first. Otherwise one is "pushing" one's will on the other. I think this is why in the Christian tradition they say "Knock and the door will be opened" You have to ask, to invite that thing into your life. Higher entities know of the danger of transgressing the free will of another uninvited, they wait until they're asked. Which is why this forum is often fractious, because we've a bunch of people acting like teachers, and very rarely does anyone submit themselves into the position of being a student, saying "please help me". |
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Post by Peter on May 17, 2020 2:11:16 GMT -5
There are 3,500 calories stored in one pound of fat. This is pure physics, this is the same for everyone. So if a man burns on average 2,400 calories a day, you can see how difficult it is to lose weight by burning fat. On a "diet" one can expect to lose no more than one to two pounds a week. I heard this expressed as "You can't exercise your way out of a bad diet" And I'm an unripe coconut now? I will need to retire and reflect on this. At least it's not even a nut, so I feel better about that. |
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Post by Peter on May 14, 2020 8:30:29 GMT -5
I can tell you of this True, Ultimate, Chocolate .. but only if you're interested, I wouldn't want to presume ... How come Jenna gets special attention? I don't remember you ever offering to tell me about the One True Ultimate Chocolate, Laughter.  |
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Post by Peter on May 14, 2020 8:22:20 GMT -5
And don't eat a thing after 7pm, just let my liver get to work overnight. Top tips  Can you explain me about this? I keep hearing this. What happens if one eats after 7??? Well firstly and most seriously you'll turn into a gremlin, but the theory is that it's your liver that breaks down carbohydrates & fat into glucose that your cells actually use. So if you've eaten a big bowl of pasta for your evening meal, then your liver is going to be working its way through that and storing the excess as fat. Whereas if you don't eat a lot of carbohydrates before sleeping, then your liver will instead start breaking down existing fat to keep you alive...while you sleep and therefore not needing much in the way of energy. See www.diabetesforecast.org/2012/feb/the-liver-s-role-how-it-processes-fats-and-carbs.html |
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Post by Peter on May 14, 2020 2:31:57 GMT -5
Extremely logical. If I come up with any ifs and buts with that advice, I am in effect, just giving excuses. It may take even longer than 10 years but I will give this a shot. TBH I have been on similar diets off and on, albeit never wholeheartedly. I even began losing weight but the cravings got the better of me last time. I will try my best to give it 100% this time, promise. Oh are we actually talking about chocolate? I thought you were being allegorical. I've been losing weight at about 100g per day during lockdown and partly it's because I'm wearing these retainer-like braces on my teeth that make it a hassle to unconsciously snack because I have to take them off, and partly I'm doing some deliberate things like: not having crisps and chocolate in the house or only have dark cooking chocolate that isn't quite so more-ish. Also I've been getting friendly with the feeling of being a bit peckish. Like, feel that, it's a good feeling because it means I'm going to be slim and attractive (this is what I'm telling myself, right? NLP style) so I associate that feeling with feeling good about myself, rather than considering it to be a problem. And don't eat a thing after 7pm, just let my liver get to work overnight. Top tips Also, it's not a diet, it's: "that's how I eat now, that's my life" Oh, and if you're going white knuckle with will power against craving, you're going to lose eventually. Like the other chaps are saying, your attention has to go elsewhere. |
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Post by Peter on May 13, 2020 2:00:13 GMT -5
I guess if you remember that you forgot to touch the door frame that's still a remember thing <snip/> So what really is the meaning of touching the door frame? It's a reminder to be "choicelessly aware". Do you have reminders to be choicelessly aware? Then it's not choiceless observation, is it. Be honest, throughout the day, how often are you choicelessly aware? If not very often, then yes, you can call that choiceless observation. But if you say: I am choicelessly aware the majority of the time, I will say without reservation, that's just not true. <snip/> If you remember, later, Oh, I passed through that door and didn't touch the frame, that, in and of itself, right then, can yes, be a reminder (to be "choicelessly aware", that is, "to bring about some particular state of mind"). Right, when you remember then you've come back to yourself. But it's not a choice to remember, it just pops into one's head. The train of thought finally arrives at its destination and the passenger debarks. It came to me yesterday that this is why we have these stories of monks hearing a drop of water on bamboo and gaining enlightenment - that's all it took to bring them back to themselves for that final time. Or perhaps not final, who knows. It's the human condition to get distracted. How often am I aware, through choice or choicelessly? The smallest fraction of a sliver. Five mins absolute tops, on a good day (outside of meditation time). I wonder if it's actually tiring something out in some way - it feels like a muscle to exercise. What might be interesting is that the choice - if it exists at all - does not exist in that moment. It exists in the previous instance of awareness - however many hours or days ago that might have been. We set alarm clocks when we are awake, not during our sleep. My alarm clock keeps failing to go off. Very unreliable alarm clock. Or I sleep through it. Or I wake up briefly and fall asleep before I walk through the next door. And it feels like such a small carriage to be in, that train of thought, so constricting compared to the open expanse of awareness. A bubble reflecting in on itself. A scene from Jim Henson's 1986 film The Labyrinth came to mind, where Sarah sees a bubble then suddenly she's in the bubble and it takes some time for her to realise that her situation is something to escape from. |
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