[FairfieldLife] The Doom Gloom Fixation
A philosophy professor from New Zealand recalls the Y2K apocalypticism at the dawn of the last decade: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/opinion/01dutton.html 'The Y2K Nightmare' caught the sensationalist tone, claiming that 'folly, greed and denial' had 'muffled two decades of warnings from technology experts.' Denial - how useful that word is for the faux rationalists! ... KNOWING our computers is difficult enough. Harder still is to know ourselves, including our inner demons. From today's perspective, the Y2K fiasco seems to be less about technology than about a morbid fascination with end-of-the-world scenarios. This ought to strike us as strange. ... Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems needing intelligent attention. Even something as down-to-earth as the swine-flu scare has seemed at moments to be less about testing our health care system and its emergency readiness than about the fate of a diseased civilization drowning in its own fluids. We wallow in the idea that one day everything might change in, as St. Paul put it, the twinkling of an eye that a calamity might prove to be the longed- for transformation. But turning practical problems into cosmic cataclysms takes us further away from actual solutions. This applies, in my view, to the towering seas, storms, droughts and mass extinctions of popular climate catastrophism. Such entertaining visions owe less to scientific climatology than to eschatology, and that familiar sense that modernity and its wasteful comforts are bringing us closer to a biblical day of judgment. As that headline put it for Y2K, predictions of the end of the world are often intertwined with condemnations of human folly, greed and denial. Repent and recycle!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Angelina Jolie hates Obama?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozg...@... wrote: nablusoss1008 wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@ wrote: nablusoss1008 wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@ wrote: Yup, Jolie is pretty confused. Capitalism sucks. It's just a bunch of robber barons holding the masses up. They are a real drag on society. The ironic thing is that the capitalists are getting bailouts from the government which is socialism for the rich while the rest of us are expected sink or swim in the cesspool of capitalism. I'm really noticing trends in elitism in this country. Special suff for the rich and nothing for the masses. The time for revolution is NOW! Your wish has been granted. The revolution will be silent and very effective, no bloodshed. Now that communism is gone the next to go is capitalism - Maharishi I'm not holding my breathe. That's been promised since the 1970s. Wrong. You missed that the quote is from 1989. Still waiting It took the Sidhas, Governors, Maharishi and the Masters of Wisdom many years to pull down the evil Berlin wall. Tearing down capitalism is obviously a much greater undertaking as it is an older and global cancer reaching all corners of earth. But don't worry, Maharishi has had the downfall of capitalism in mind since He came out of the Himalayas, it's bound to happen but patience is necessary. Somewhere He was quoted from the 50s saying that this Knowledge would end the disgracing slavery conditions for working people everywhere (from memory) If someone has the exsact quote it would be appreciated. Not the quote but the idea that the TMO would change the world. It would take much more than the TMO to do that. If you read the above, in the message included The Masters of Wisdom who oversee the evolution of all souls on earth and Whom Maharishi was in close contact Brahmananda Saraswathi being one of Their most evolved Masters. With this view the TMO obviously is only one of many forces for evolutionary change but I dare say Maharishi has been the strongest voice and foremost transformator during the last 50 years.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost...@... wrote: Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems needing intelligent attention. Even something as down-to-earth as the swine-flu scare has seemed at moments to be less about testing our health care system and its emergency readiness than about the fate of a diseased civilization drowning in its own fluids. We wallow in the idea that one day everything might change in, as St. Paul put it, the twinkling of an eye that a calamity might prove to be the longed- for transformation. But turning practical problems into cosmic cataclysms takes us further away from actual solutions. This applies, in my view, to the towering seas, storms, droughts and mass extinctions of popular climate catastrophism. Such entertaining visions owe less to scientific climatology than to eschatology, and that familiar sense that modernity and its wasteful comforts are bringing us closer to a biblical day of judgment. As that headline put it for Y2K, predictions of the end of the world are often intertwined with condemnations of human folly, greed and denial. Repent and recycle! Amen. I've always noticed that the same people who become hung up on apocalypse fantasies are also the ones most invested in Beam Me Up Scotty Syndrome. They're always looking for something *outside themselves* to resolve things for them. And for many of them, the world ending resolves them quite nicely of responsibility to solve things themselves. I've also noticed that a lot of the people who get off on apocalypse fantasies buy into the concept that the purpose of life is to extinguish life. That is, they really buy that the ultimate goal of life is to get off the wheel of incarnation and rebirth. Not my idea of much of a purpose. I think such a world view was promoted by people who were always *afraid* of life and more driven by narcissism and their own desires than by caring for others. And that includes IMO any spiritual teacher in history who preached avoiding rebirth as the goal of living. How is that point of view NOT narcissistic and self-serving? It's basically a way of saying, My bliss is more important than yours. Why should I stick around to help others or teach them anything if I can just dissolve into the ocean of bliss? It's basically the spiritual counterpart of the Me-first-ism we see preached by the Capitalists here. Having as one's goal the cessation of the incarnational process is essentially a way of saying, Fuck you! All that matters is my own eternal bliss. I like the teachers and traditions who think about enlightenment the least, and spend the majority of their time trying to do as many nice things for others as possible. Those people don't tend to focus on getting off the wheel and avoiding reincarnation. They don't get hung up on apoca- lypse fantasies as a way of hoping that non- incarnation happens sooner. They *look forward* to the next incarnation as much as they look forward to the next day. Both provide a new opportunity to do for others. Only someone who cares more about doing for them- selves looks forward to the next day never coming. Or worse, never coming again. Just my opinion...
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
Power promotes hypocrisy, study finds Dec. 29, 2009 and World Science staff 2009 may well be remembered for its scandal-ridden headlines, from admissions of extramarital affairs by governors and senators, to corporate executives flying private jets while cutting employee benefits, and most recently, to a mysterious early morning car crash in Florida. The past year has been marked by a series of moral transgressions by powerful figures in political, business and celebrity circles. A new study explores why powerful people – many of whom take a moral high ground – don’t practice what they preach. Researchers sought to determine whether power inspires hypocrisy, the tendency to hold high standards for others while performing morally suspect behaviors oneself. The research found that power makes people stricter in moral judgment of others – while going easier on themselves. The research was conducted by Joris Lammers and Diederik A. Stapel of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and by Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. The article is to appear in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science. “This research is especially relevant to the biggest scandals of 2009, as we look back on how private behavior often contradicted the public stance of particular individuals in power,” said Galinsky. “For instance, we saw some politicians use public funds for private benefits while calling for smaller government, or have extramarital affairs while advocating family values. Similarly, we witnessed CEOs of major financial institutions accepting executive bonuses while simultaneously asking for government bailout money.” “According to our research, power and influence can cause a severe disconnect between public judgment and private behavior, and as a result, the powerful are stricter in their judgment of others while being more lenient toward their own actions,” he continued. To simulate an experience of power, the researchers assigned roles of high-power and low-power positions to a group of study participants. Some were assigned the role of prime minister and others civil servant. The participants were then presented with moral dilemmas related to breaking traffic rules, declaring taxes, and returning a stolen bike. Through a series of five experiments, the researchers examined the impact of power on moral hypocrisy. For example, in one experiment the “powerful” participants condemned the cheating of others while cheating more themselves. High-power participants also tended to condemn over-reporting of travel expenses. But, when given a chance to cheat on a dice game to win lottery tickets (played alone in a private cubicle), the powerful people reported winning a higher amount of lottery tickets than did low-power participants. Three additional experiments further examined the degree to which powerful people accept their own moral transgressions versus those committed by others. In all cases, those assigned to high-power roles showed significant hypocrisy by more strictly judging others for speeding, dodging taxes and keeping a stolen bike, while finding it more acceptable to engage in these behaviors themselves, the researchers said. Galinsky said hypocrisy has its greatest impact among people who are legitimately powerful. In contrast, a fifth experiment found that people who don’t feel personally entitled to their power are actually harder on themselves than they are on others, a phenomenon the researchers dubbed “hypercrisy.” The tendency to be harder on the self than on others also characterized the powerless in multiple studies. “Ultimately, patterns of hypocrisy and hypercrisy perpetuate social inequality. The powerful impose rules and restraints on others while disregarding these restraints for themselves, whereas the powerless collaborate in reproducing social inequality because they don’t feel the same entitlement,” Galinsky concluded. --- On Sat, 1/2/10, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation Date: Saturday, January 2, 2010, 2:50 AM Amen. I've always noticed that the same people who become hung up on apocalypse fantasies are also the ones most invested in Beam Me Up Scotty Syndrome. They're always looking for something *outside themselves* to resolve things for them. And for many of them, the world ending resolves them quite nicely of responsibility to solve things themselves. I've also noticed that a
[FairfieldLife] Self is just self capitalized
Today's cafe rants are probably going to have a theme. This theme was inspired by an old friend saying with a straight face on another Internet forum that exclusive aim of human existence is to break free the from the repetitive phenomenon of birth and death. On one level, I feel for this friend. I used to parrot this crap myself once, and actually believed it. I now look back on the being who believed that as incredibly narcissistic and incredibly lazy and incredibly self- serving. I too once preferred the silence of meditation to the noise of the streets, and thus bought the teach- ings of recluses who were so afraid of noise that they withdrew into ashrams that the ultimate goal of life was to eliminate life entirely. By withdrawing from life and living the life of a recluse until one realizes enlight- enment, and then ultimately by withdrawing from life entirely so much so that it never happens again. All that would be left is the silence. That was perceived as the goal. Some here perceive that as the goal still. I do not, and in this particular cafe rap I'm going to rap a bit about why. Caveat emptor. Much is said in traditional Eastern spirituality about realization of the Self. Capital S. As opposed to that awful lower-case s word, self. But if you analyze what most of the spiritual teachers you revere actually said, most of them were teaching that self and Self were exactly the same thing. Meditation -- meaning eyes-closed, withdraw-from-the- senses-and-the-world meditation -- is the *easy* path to realization of the Self. You shut everything out, and if you're lucky you manage to transcend the noise and experience silence. And you call that experience Self. Capital S. If you bought the dogma that the teachers revere taught you, you hope that someday this silence will be 24/7 and that you will experience it all the time. Nothing wrong with that, IMO. It's just the belief that self is something *different* than Self that I don't buy. Self is just self realizing what's really going on. And a self can do that as easily in activity as it can with eyes closed in meditation. If this were not true, then enlightenment could not exist. So why do so many *rag* on self, and talk about eliminating the self, or becoming Self, as if the latter somehow left self *behind* like a snake shedding its skin? That's not how I see things, or experienced them during my personal enlightenment experiences. I always saw -- and experienced -- enlightenment as an *additive* process, not a *subtractive* one. Perception of everything as silence with eyes closed in sitting meditation was not any different than perception of everything as silence in a traffic jam. My experience was always the 200% of life that Maharishi talked about. And 200% was always perceived as more interesting than 100% -- on *either* side of the equation. That is, 24/7 samadhi in activity tended to be more fun and more fulfilling not only than 100% lost in the relative with no samadhi, it *also* tended to be more fun and more fulfilling than 100% lost in samadhi, with eyes closed. So I find it difficult to comprehend why so many profess the latter as their goal in life. They claim to be working towards 200% of life, but the actual goal they speak of is to have the relative half of life GO AWAY, so that they are left with only the silence of samadhi. They wish to become the drop merged with the ocean, Self with *no* self component. Seems to me that what they're hoping by believing this is that *after* having realized 200% of life by realizing their enlightenment, the *payoff* for this is reverting to 100% again. For all I know I may be the only person on this forum who thinks this is REEEALLY REEEALLY STOOOPID. But then I believe that that First Noble Truth indicates that Buddha was somewhat of a Wuss. Life is suffering as the basis of all of his teachings? Give me a fuckin' break. Life is cool. If the teachers we revere are really to be believed, relative existence is not only not lesser than the Absolute, it *is* the Absolute. 200% of life is being able to realize and appreciate both simultaneously. And yet thousands if not millions strive for enlightenment *so that* they can theoretically eliminate one half of life. They set as the *goal* of their spiritual path getting off the wheel, and ending incarnation entirely. They *look forward* to leaving 100% of the relative behind, *rejecting* the accomplishment of 200% of life, and becoming 100% of the Absolute for all eternity. Go figure. I do not share their goal. My goal is not to transcend the relative but to experience it as *both* relative and Absolute, all the time. And then to *continue* experiencing it as both, as long as that continues. I do not seek a cessation of life or a cessation of self or a cessation of seeking. I hope that life is set up such that seeking continues eternally, and that I -- as self or Self -- never tire of it.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
Try telling this to people caught in Nazi holocaust, Partition riots, Khemer rouge genocide in Cambodia, Stalinist purge in Soviet Union, Cancer patients, children suffering from mal-nutrition in third world countries etc etc. Life is not exactly cool for them. eh.?? --- On Sat, 1/2/10, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Subject: [FairfieldLife] Self is just self capitalized Date: Saturday, January 2, 2010, 4:14 AM Today's cafe rants are probably going to have a theme. This theme was inspired by an old friend saying with a straight face on another Internet forum that exclusive aim of human existence is to break free the from the repetitive phenomenon of birth and death. On one level, I feel for this friend. I used to parrot this crap myself once, and actually believed it. I now look back on the being who believed that as incredibly narcissistic and incredibly lazy and incredibly self- serving. I too once preferred the silence of meditation to the noise of the streets, and thus bought the teach- ings of recluses who were so afraid of noise that they withdrew into ashrams that the ultimate goal of life was to eliminate life entirely. By withdrawing from life and living the life of a recluse until one realizes enlight- enment, and then ultimately by withdrawing from life entirely so much so that it never happens again. All that would be left is the silence. That was perceived as the goal. Some here perceive that as the goal still. I do not, and in this particular cafe rap I'm going to rap a bit about why. Caveat emptor. Much is said in traditional Eastern spirituality about realization of the Self. Capital S. As opposed to that awful lower-case s word, self. But if you analyze what most of the spiritual teachers you revere actually said, most of them were teaching that self and Self were exactly the same thing. Meditation -- meaning eyes-closed, withdraw-from- the- senses-and-the- world meditation -- is the *easy* path to realization of the Self. You shut everything out, and if you're lucky you manage to transcend the noise and experience silence. And you call that experience Self. Capital S. If you bought the dogma that the teachers revere taught you, you hope that someday this silence will be 24/7 and that you will experience it all the time. Nothing wrong with that, IMO. It's just the belief that self is something *different* than Self that I don't buy. Self is just self realizing what's really going on. And a self can do that as easily in activity as it can with eyes closed in meditation. If this were not true, then enlightenment could not exist. So why do so many *rag* on self, and talk about eliminating the self, or becoming Self, as if the latter somehow left self *behind* like a snake shedding its skin? That's not how I see things, or experienced them during my personal enlightenment experiences. I always saw -- and experienced -- enlightenment as an *additive* process, not a *subtractive* one. Perception of everything as silence with eyes closed in sitting meditation was not any different than perception of everything as silence in a traffic jam. My experience was always the 200% of life that Maharishi talked about. And 200% was always perceived as more interesting than 100% -- on *either* side of the equation. That is, 24/7 samadhi in activity tended to be more fun and more fulfilling not only than 100% lost in the relative with no samadhi, it *also* tended to be more fun and more fulfilling than 100% lost in samadhi, with eyes closed. So I find it difficult to comprehend why so many profess the latter as their goal in life. They claim to be working towards 200% of life, but the actual goal they speak of is to have the relative half of life GO AWAY, so that they are left with only the silence of samadhi. They wish to become the drop merged with the ocean, Self with *no* self component. Seems to me that what they're hoping by believing this is that *after* having realized 200% of life by realizing their enlightenment, the *payoff* for this is reverting to 100% again. For all I know I may be the only person on this forum who thinks this is REEEALLY REEEALLY STOOOPID. But then I believe that that First Noble Truth indicates that Buddha was somewhat of a Wuss. Life is suffering as the basis of all of his teachings? Give me a fuckin' break. Life is cool. If the teachers we revere are really to be believed, relative existence is not only not lesser than the Absolute, it *is* the Absolute. 200% of life is being able to realize and appreciate both simultaneously. And yet thousands if not millions strive for enlightenment *so that* they can theoretically eliminate one half of life. They set as the *goal* of their spiritual path getting off the wheel, and ending incarnation entirely. They *look forward* to leaving 100% of the relative behind, *rejecting* the accomplishment of 200% of life, and becoming 100% of the Absolute for
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Jason jedi_sp...@... wrote: Try telling this to people caught in Nazi holocaust, Partition riots, Khemer rouge genocide in Cambodia, Stalinist purge in Soviet Union, Cancer patients, children suffering from mal-nutrition in third world countries etc etc. Life is not exactly cool for them. eh.?? Actually, the teaching of every realized being in history is that life *is* cool for them. Coolness dependeth not on one's external circumstances. It dependeth only on how one perceives those external circumstances. As my man Bruce Cockburn once said: Little round planet In a big universe Sometimes it looks blessed Sometimes it looks cursed Depends on what you look at obviously But even more it depends on the way that you see I do not delude myself that I am 'way fortunate. I am the luckiest fuckin' human being I've ever met. I should have died dozens of times. Or wound up behind bars somewhere. I have systematically ignored the rules and popular wisdom presented to me *as* wisdome most of my life. And I have gotten away with it. I honestly do not know which is the chicken and which the egg in this scenario. Did I manage to ignore or break all the rules and have a smokin' life anyway because I dreamed it into existence by never imagining that there was any other way to live my life, or did the good fortune of my life just tempt me into thinking that the rules didn't apply to me? Beats the fuck outa me. All I know is that I have been phenomenally lucky. Others have not been so fortunate. One could go so far as to say that *most* have not been so fortunate. I feel for them. So did all of the spiritual teachers in history. That is probably why they taught using the *metaphors* and the *desires* of the less-than-fortunate. Find yourself preaching to an audience who believe that life is suffering -- because that is what they perceive their lives to have been -- and which metaphors are you going to pick to convey a way *past* suffering? Duh. I do not *fault* the Buddha for starting with Life is suffering. Look at his demographic. It's just that lately I am more drawn to teachings that don't speak to that demographic. There are a few of us out here in the spiritual smorgasbord whose lives have *not* been perceived as suffering. They've been perceived as one fuckin' glorious E-ticket ride, in fact. For whatever reason, our lives rocked. They rock still. Every morning presents a new opportunity for additional rock-on-age. So the life is suffering metaphors don't *work* as well for me as they might for those who are suffering. I do not deny their suffering or the desire for a cessation of that suffering. It's just that -- for whatever reason -- I find it difficult to *feel* that desire for a cessation of suffering or a cessation of relative life itself. Relative life has just fuckin' *rocked* for me. In this incarnation and in several more that I have memories of. In some of them I was persecuted and literally tortured to death. Slowly. By people who were *getting off* on torturing me. These memories -- whatever they are and wherever they came from -- are part of my personal memory bank, my recollection of my personal past. To me they feel just as real as memories of last week. But those incarnations rocked, too. I would not change one moment of any of them. If I did, I wouldn't be here the way I am now, and I kinda like here and the way I am now. --- On Sat, 1/2/10, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Subject: [FairfieldLife] Self is just self capitalized Date: Saturday, January 2, 2010, 4:14 AM Today's cafe rants are probably going to have a theme. This theme was inspired by an old friend saying with a straight face on another Internet forum that exclusive aim of human existence is to break free the from the repetitive phenomenon of birth and death. On one level, I feel for this friend. I used to parrot this crap myself once, and actually believed it. I now look back on the being who believed that as incredibly narcissistic and incredibly lazy and incredibly self- serving. I too once preferred the silence of meditation to the noise of the streets, and thus bought the teach- ings of recluses who were so afraid of noise that they withdrew into ashrams that the ultimate goal of life was to eliminate life entirely. By withdrawing from life and living the life of a recluse until one realizes enlight- enment, and then ultimately by withdrawing from life entirely so much so that it never happens again. All that would be left is the silence. That was perceived as the goal. Some here perceive that as the goal still. I do not, and in this particular cafe rap I'm going to rap a bit about why. Caveat emptor. Much is said in traditional Eastern spirituality about realization of the Self. Capital S. As opposed to that awful lower-case s word, self. But if you analyze what most of the spiritual
[FairfieldLife] Re: Global Family Chats 2009
Thanks Nablusoss, this one with Hagelin is large at so many points. Glad you called it to attention. I think you're right too that everyone on FFL ought to listen to all of it to get the whole context. I wish him well and all luck in the New Year. I think they'ed get it too if they'd go honest public with their all their financial numbers now and show that they have nothing to hide anymore. Would improve the old view of their integrity a lot. may be too, while Hagelin is in silence he could spend some little time writing at a 'code of ethics' for MUM and the movement community. Something about accountability to some common standards that could be pointed to. Different from Bevan's old own sense of loyalty and making bones. JGD, -D in FF --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_re...@... wrote: * Archives http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/archive.html * Podcasts http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/podcasts.html * Global Family Chats 2009 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-archive.html * Global Family Chats 2008 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-2008.html * Global Family Chats 2007 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-2007.html * Global Family Chats 2006 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-2006.html * Special Celebrations http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/special-celebrations.html * Press Conferences 2007 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2007.html * Press Conferences 2006 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2006.html * Press Conferences 2005 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2005.html * Press Conferences from 2004 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2004.html * Press Conferences from 2003 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2003.html * Press Conferences from 2002 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2002.html * World Peace Parliaments http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/world-peace-parliaments.html Global Family Chats 2009 To download the Windows Media Player files, right click on the link and select 'save target as'. The link for any day should be working approximately 24 hours after the chat finishes. Global Family Chats December 30th http://streaming.mou.org/MOU/Chat/30_dec_09.wmv Raja Hagelin gave a masterly overview of the many great initiatives and developments in Invincible America. Many may not be aware that since the beginning of the Invincible America Assembly 4 years ago, the crime rate has come down every year, this year by 11%. It is now the lowest since record keeping began in 1962, all in direct contradiction to all expectations. Raja Hagelin attributed this otherwise inexplicable trend directly to the group of Yogic Flyers, including over 1000 Vedic Pandits, on the Invincible America Assembly. Raja Hagelin went on to bring out the significance of many initiatives, with the added effect of slides and 4 video clips, in three areas: outreach initiatives, marketing initiatives, and programmes that are increasing our positive image. The presentation was so rich that any attempt at summarizing it would be meaningless; watch it and enjoy the vision of Ram Raj unfolding. Great congratulations and thanks from Maharishi's global family all around the world to Raja Hagelin and his team, and to the Pioneers of Invincible America on the Invincible America Assembly! http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-archive.html http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-archive.html
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Sanskrit help, please
On Jan 1, 2010, at 4:13 AM, cardemaister wrote:
I think it's better to avoid the curious Harvard-Kyoto -transliteration of
palatal (Spanish ñ) and velar (ng, as
in 'king', although e.g. some British people seem to
pronounce that *almost* like 'kink') nasals, namely J (e.g.
'jJa' for 'jña') and G ('aGga' for 'an.ga' [ang-ga]) respectively.
The basic principle of H-K -tranliteration of
Sanskrit seems to be to be able to present all Sanskrit
sounds without diacritics. I guess nowadays that would be unnecessary
with the advent of UTF encoding, but H-K was created
several years ago.
It's a convention helpful for typing on a computer. In actual print
publication, diacritical transliteration is still the standard.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
Has it occured to you that both of us are an elite minority on this planet. I mean how many of us really pondered over the meaning of existence.? You seem to believe in an infinite series of re-incarnations. That dosen't sound logical to me. all things ultimately end. --- On Sat, 1/2/10, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized Date: Saturday, January 2, 2010, 5:08 AM Actually, the teaching of every realized being in history is that life *is* cool for them. Coolness dependeth not on one's external circumstances. It dependeth only on how one perceives those external circumstances. As my man Bruce Cockburn once said: Little round planet In a big universe Sometimes it looks blessed Sometimes it looks cursed Depends on what you look at obviously But even more it depends on the way that you see I do not delude myself that I am 'way fortunate. I am the luckiest fuckin' human being I've ever met. I should have died dozens of times. Or wound up behind bars somewhere. I have systematically ignored the rules and popular wisdom presented to me *as* wisdome most of my life. And I have gotten away with it. I honestly do not know which is the chicken and which the egg in this scenario. Did I manage to ignore or break all the rules and have a smokin' life anyway because I dreamed it into existence by never imagining that there was any other way to live my life, or did the good fortune of my life just tempt me into thinking that the rules didn't apply to me? Beats the fuck outa me. All I know is that I have been phenomenally lucky. Others have not been so fortunate. One could go so far as to say that *most* have not been so fortunate. I feel for them. So did all of the spiritual teachers in history. That is probably why they taught using the *metaphors* and the *desires* of the less-than-fortunate . Find yourself preaching to an audience who believe that life is suffering -- because that is what they perceive their lives to have been -- and which metaphors are you going to pick to convey a way *past* suffering? Duh. I do not *fault* the Buddha for starting with Life is suffering. Look at his demographic. It's just that lately I am more drawn to teachings that don't speak to that demographic. There are a few of us out here in the spiritual smorgasbord whose lives have *not* been perceived as suffering. They've been perceived as one fuckin' glorious E-ticket ride, in fact. For whatever reason, our lives rocked. They rock still. Every morning presents a new opportunity for additional rock-on-age. So the life is suffering metaphors don't *work* as well for me as they might for those who are suffering. I do not deny their suffering or the desire for a cessation of that suffering. It's just that -- for whatever reason -- I find it difficult to *feel* that desire for a cessation of suffering or a cessation of relative life itself. Relative life has just fuckin' *rocked* for me. In this incarnation and in several more that I have memories of. In some of them I was persecuted and literally tortured to death. Slowly. By people who were *getting off* on torturing me. These memories -- whatever they are and wherever they came from -- are part of my personal memory bank, my recollection of my personal past. To me they feel just as real as memories of last week. But those incarnations rocked, too. I would not change one moment of any of them. If I did, I wouldn't be here the way I am now, and I kinda like here and the way I am now.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Jason jedi_sp...@... wrote: Has it occured to you that both of us are an elite minority on this planet. I mean how many of us really pondered over the meaning of existence.? Absofuckinglutely. A critic once said, when discussing the films of Woody Allen, Neurosis is a disease only the well-to-do have time for. I would suggest that enlightenment and the spiritual path are things that only the well-to-do have time for. If we had been born into the karma of *most* of the sentient beings on this planet, would we *ever* have had time to ponder them? You seem to believe in an infinite series of re-incarnations. Yes, I guess I do. That dosen't sound logical to me. all things ultimately end. I do not believe this. I think that's an anthropomorphism projected onto a universe that never ends. I do not believe that there is a goal or an end to sentient existence or to spiritual seeking. I tend to believe that, as the Tao Te Ching says, From wonder into wonder life will open. I further believe that it will keep opening forever. At least I hope so. I would view reaching a state in which I thought I had attained the goal or end of life as an indication of FAILURE, and a sign that I should press the Restart button and buy a humility clue. I would hope that the purpose of life -- if there is one -- is that wonder keeps opening into wonder eternally. --- On Sat, 1/2/10, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized Date: Saturday, January 2, 2010, 5:08 AM Actually, the teaching of every realized being in history is that life *is* cool for them. Coolness dependeth not on one's external circumstances. It dependeth only on how one perceives those external circumstances. As my man Bruce Cockburn once said: Little round planet In a big universe Sometimes it looks blessed Sometimes it looks cursed Depends on what you look at obviously But even more it depends on the way that you see I do not delude myself that I am 'way fortunate. I am the luckiest fuckin' human being I've ever met. I should have died dozens of times. Or wound up behind bars somewhere. I have systematically ignored the rules and popular wisdom presented to me *as* wisdome most of my life. And I have gotten away with it. I honestly do not know which is the chicken and which the egg in this scenario. Did I manage to ignore or break all the rules and have a smokin' life anyway because I dreamed it into existence by never imagining that there was any other way to live my life, or did the good fortune of my life just tempt me into thinking that the rules didn't apply to me? Beats the fuck outa me. All I know is that I have been phenomenally lucky. Others have not been so fortunate. One could go so far as to say that *most* have not been so fortunate. I feel for them. So did all of the spiritual teachers in history. That is probably why they taught using the *metaphors* and the *desires* of the less-than-fortunate . Find yourself preaching to an audience who believe that life is suffering -- because that is what they perceive their lives to have been -- and which metaphors are you going to pick to convey a way *past* suffering? Duh. I do not *fault* the Buddha for starting with Life is suffering. Look at his demographic. It's just that lately I am more drawn to teachings that don't speak to that demographic. There are a few of us out here in the spiritual smorgasbord whose lives have *not* been perceived as suffering. They've been perceived as one fuckin' glorious E-ticket ride, in fact. For whatever reason, our lives rocked. They rock still. Every morning presents a new opportunity for additional rock-on-age. So the life is suffering metaphors don't *work* as well for me as they might for those who are suffering. I do not deny their suffering or the desire for a cessation of that suffering. It's just that -- for whatever reason -- I find it difficult to *feel* that desire for a cessation of suffering or a cessation of relative life itself. Relative life has just fuckin' *rocked* for me. In this incarnation and in several more that I have memories of. In some of them I was persecuted and literally tortured to death. Slowly. By people who were *getting off* on torturing me. These memories -- whatever they are and wherever they came from -- are part of my personal memory bank, my recollection of my personal past. To me they feel just as real as memories of last week. But those incarnations rocked, too. I would not change one moment of any of them. If I did, I wouldn't be here the way I am now, and I kinda like here and the way I am now.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time and as he passed the pretzel stand he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel. And this went on for more then 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him. Without blinking an eye she said: They're 35 cents now. Good for her. The young man had been subtly dissing her by treating her as a charity case instead of an entrepreneur. Which makes you, once again, a schmegegy.
[FairfieldLife] TM connection (was Re: Starting the Year with a Mariachi Band)
BTW, just as an aside and a tip of the hat to those like Nabby who feel that a subject has no relevance on FFL if there is no TM connection, my love of the film Desperado has such a connection. One of the TMers I knew peripherally (but not well) in L.A. during the last days of my TMness was a TM teacher named Bill Borden. As I remember it, Bill was an energetic and enthusiastic Nice Guy, one of those who parlayed his TM experience into Something More. As I remember it, he was one of several (like Howard Gewirtz) who signed on to TM-owned Los Angeles TV station KSCI early on, and who turned that experience not only to their advantage, but the world's. Howard turned his KSCI resume into a successful career as a TV writer and producer. Bill Borden (although I lost touch with him and do not claim him as a friend) seems to have taken an even higher path. Hispanic or partially-Hispanic him- self, Bill seems to have found his bliss at first in Hispanic-themed efforts. After paying his dues as Associate Producer on Against All Odds and White Nights, Bill's first producing effort on his own was La Bamba. I don't know about you, but I tip my fuckin' hat to the dude for that movie. I'm *of* the Richie Valens era. I *grew up* listening to the music of Ricthie Valens. And I did so never knowing (because of marketing) that he was Chicano, and thus Breaking Barriers. Ritchie Valens *broke ground*. He was one of the first Hispanics to seriously break into the Rock 'N Roll industry. He left his mark, and opened doors of possibility for other Hispanics by doing so. I always thought it was just really NEAT that Bill felt about him the way that I did, and created such a loving portrait of him. Despite the critical and box office success of La Bamba, Bill paid his dues for a while, pos- sibly because he was Hispanic, doing lesser work. Then came Desperado. Robert Rodriguez (Hispanic himself) is a force majure, a Law Of Nature. His personal power is unmistakable. When his first film El Mariachi was submitted to Sundance and walked off with all the accolades, Bill Borden was the producer who walked off with the rights to a sequel. Desperado was the result. It's in my personal Top Ten Film List. And a TMer or former TMer produced it. Does that fuck with my image as a minion of Satan or what? :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, John jr_esq@ wrote: I decided to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant at the Mission District today. As I got in the restaurant, I was surprised to see a five piece Mariachi band playing there. So, I ordered my usual machaca dish and listened to the music. Towards the end of my meal, I requested the band to play the following song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTf_elyjNEfeature=related I'm hoping for everyone that the new year will be just as exciting as today. I am not a fan of Mariachi music, but every time I go to Paris, I go to a Mexican restaurant there because the Mariachis are fans of Los Lobos, as am I. They don't restrict themselves to the standard lame songs, and by now they know me, and when I step into the room they play this song, Cancion Del Mariachi. Their lead singer has neither the voice nor the looks of Antonio Banderas, but it always lifts my spirits to hear the song again. This is more my idea of how to start an exciting new year. Or just an ordinary evening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myQ4LwFkt28 YMMV. In fact, if you can listen to the Maharishi Honey Song without throwing up, your mileage almost certainly varies. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time and as he passed the pretzel stand he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel. And this went on for more then 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him. Without blinking an eye she said: They're 35 cents now. Good for her. The young man had been subtly dissing her by treating her as a charity case instead of an entrepreneur. Which makes you, once again, a schmegegy. AZ, if you know, please clear up for me some of the mystery of the term schmegegy. Being not of the Jewish persuasion, the only times I have heard this phrase in my life have been accompanied by a grimace of cognitive dissonance, my face reflecting the fact that I simply don't get the reference. A Jewish friend of my acquaintance, exorted over a shared joint back in college to define schmegegy for me, replied: You know how when you go to the laundromat to do your wash and afterwards you discover weird lint stuff in the pockets of the washed clothing, stuff that you can't quite figure out the origin of? Schmegegies. So what's the literal meaning?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Starting the Year with a Mariachi Band
John wrote: I decided to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant at the Mission District today... You were surprised to see a Mariachi band at a Mexican restaurant at the Mission District?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Starting the Year with a Mariachi Band
I am not a fan of Mariachi music... So, you're not fond of polka music? http://www.brave.com/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
--In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: snip So why do so many *rag* on self, and talk about eliminating the self, or becoming Self, as if the latter somehow left self *behind* like a snake shedding its skin? That's not how I see things, or experienced them during my personal enlightenment experiences. Oh, really? The fascinating thing is that none of the ways that these selves-attached-to-their-selves present them- selves are 'them,' either. Only Self is really 'them,' and Self doesn't cast a shadow. --Barry Wright, June 8, 2009 (#221177) Barry's views about Life, the Universe, and Everything as expressed in his cafe rants are determined by whatever he's selected as his dumping target for the day. Today it's those who value the Self over the self, regardless of how often he himself has proclaimed this same value in the past, as in the June post (only one of many I could have quoted).
[FairfieldLife] TM connection (was Re: Starting the Year with a Mariachi Band)
Rock on w/ yer bad self I mean Self -Make it a charged rock... 'like a rock'(cue Chevy commercial;Segar tune) roll on over those bumps in life laugh at the mountains ha ha ha! Mountain, you are no end, no obstacle!You are fun to climb!Ha ha ha! -The power of intention is so doubt deficient that when you're connected to it you see what you'd like to have as already present. -Dyer M
[FairfieldLife] Re: Angelina Jolie hates Obama?
Bhairitu wrote: By motivating the public... Now look what you've done! You made Judy angry and use her last post of the week - she called your revolution ideas dumb. And you caused Shemp to over-post by one, right when he asked you for details about your 'revolution'. You're just causing anarchy around here!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
TurquoiseB wrote: But if you analyze what most of the spiritual teachers you revere actually said, most of them were teaching that self and Self were exactly the same thing. Well, I don't know what teachers you've been seeing, but no Buddhist would teach the idea of 'self' or 'Self' - Buddhists don't agree with the notion that individuals each have an eternal soul-monad. I always figured that Turq didn't understand Advaita Vedanta or the Ramana Maharshi, and this proves it! Maybe I should pass this message over to alt.buddha.short.fat.guy - LOL!!! Meditation -- meaning eyes-closed, withdraw-from-the- senses-and-the-world meditation -- is the *easy* path to realization of the Self. You shut everything out, and if you're lucky you manage to transcend the noise and experience silence. And you call that experience Self. Capital S. If you bought the dogma that the teachers revere taught you, you hope that someday this silence will be 24/7 and that you will experience it all the time. Nothing wrong with that, IMO. It's just the belief that self is something *different* than Self that I don't buy. Self is just self realizing what's really going on. And a self can do that as easily in activity as it can with eyes closed in meditation. If this were not true, then enlightenment could not exist. So why do so many *rag* on self, and talk about eliminating the self, or becoming Self, as if the latter somehow left self *behind* like a snake shedding its skin? That's not how I see things, or experienced them during my personal enlightenment experiences. I always saw -- and experienced -- enlightenment as an *additive* process, not a *subtractive* one. Perception of everything as silence with eyes closed in sitting meditation was not any different than perception of everything as silence in a traffic jam. My experience was always the 200% of life that Maharishi talked about. And 200% was always perceived as more interesting than 100% -- on *either* side of the equation. That is, 24/7 samadhi in activity tended to be more fun and more fulfilling not only than 100% lost in the relative with no samadhi, it *also* tended to be more fun and more fulfilling than 100% lost in samadhi, with eyes closed. So I find it difficult to comprehend why so many profess the latter as their goal in life. They claim to be working towards 200% of life, but the actual goal they speak of is to have the relative half of life GO AWAY, so that they are left with only the silence of samadhi. They wish to become the drop merged with the ocean, Self with *no* self component. Seems to me that what they're hoping by believing this is that *after* having realized 200% of life by realizing their enlightenment, the *payoff* for this is reverting to 100% again. For all I know I may be the only person on this forum who thinks this is REEEALLY REEEALLY STOOOPID. But then I believe that that First Noble Truth indicates that Buddha was somewhat of a Wuss. Life is suffering as the basis of all of his teachings? Give me a fuckin' break. Life is cool. If the teachers we revere are really to be believed, relative existence is not only not lesser than the Absolute, it *is* the Absolute. 200% of life is being able to realize and appreciate both simultaneously. And yet thousands if not millions strive for enlightenment *so that* they can theoretically eliminate one half of life. They set as the *goal* of their spiritual path getting off the wheel, and ending incarnation entirely. They *look forward* to leaving 100% of the relative behind, *rejecting* the accomplishment of 200% of life, and becoming 100% of the Absolute for all eternity. Go figure. I do not share their goal. My goal is not to transcend the relative but to experience it as *both* relative and Absolute, all the time. And then to *continue* experiencing it as both, as long as that continues. I do not seek a cessation of life or a cessation of self or a cessation of seeking. I hope that life is set up such that seeking continues eternally, and that I -- as self or Self -- never tire of it.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
So why do so many *rag* on self, and talk about eliminating the self, or becoming Self, as if the latter somehow left self *behind* like a snake shedding its skin? That's not how I see things, or experienced them during my personal enlightenment experiences... Judy wrote Oh, really...? So, I'm going to need some help here, can anyone name a spiritual teacher that is teaching materialism, that the 'self' is the same thing as the 'Self'? For those well versed in the Vedaanta the world is like a city of Gaandharvas - an illusion. Source: 'Gaudapada' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudapada
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time and as he passed the pretzel stand he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel. And this went on for more then 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him. Without blinking an eye she said: They're 35 cents now. Good for her. The young man had been subtly dissing her by treating her as a charity case instead of an entrepreneur. Which makes you, once again, a schmegegy. Oh, come on, you can do better than that. Pretty wimpy start to a brand-new decade of Judy-bashing.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
meh- ixneh on the negative closing things out To me more loving and real is to sit with eyes closed and accept with no judgement, in fact, with open mind/arms -Welcome each sound, each car driving by, each bird talking while flying by,the sound of the air swirling... any and every sound all are existing here along with me Acknowledge each 's existance by just listening and thereby accepting it's lifeforce/essence with me Seems negative to 'delete' sounds This way I become more aware and okay with all that is existing how arrogant to think I am the only one that is important. these birds have families and bellies of their own to feed and thoughts- just listen and do not close the door on them , include them in your world because they are there already they are there for a good reason open up the doors of the heart and see heart open link There is a time for close (open-close)(breathe in, breathe out) but my own opinion is that meditation is not the time for close. Y all can disagree, it is my own experience, that this works for me. Listen, acknowledge, welcome, let go- listen...wait, patience, quiet the mind/body,next sound-and so on , and give thanks for all. We need the bitter with sweet, and that with the sounds and people as well as foods. Commentary by Meow
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: snip Which makes you, once again, a schmegegy. AZ, if you know, please clear up for me some of the mystery of the term schmegegy. It describes someone who is ferblonjet.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
ferblonget?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: snip So the life is suffering metaphors don't *work* as well for me as they might for those who are suffering. I do not deny their suffering or the desire for a cessation of that suffering. It's just that -- for whatever reason -- I find it difficult to *feel* that desire for a cessation of suffering or a cessation of relative life itself. Relative life has just fuckin' *rocked* for me. In this incarnation and in several more that I have memories of. In some of them I was persecuted and literally tortured to death. Slowly. By people who were *getting off* on torturing me. These memories -- whatever they are and wherever they came from -- are part of my personal memory bank, my recollection of my personal past. To me they feel just as real as memories of last week. But those incarnations rocked, too. I would not change one moment of any of them. If I did, I wouldn't be here the way I am now, and I kinda like here and the way I am now. The interesting thing is that a lesson learned in one life may be forgotten in the next, which means one may have to repeat it in a subsequent life. (Remembering what happened in one life is not the same as learning the lesson it represented; either can occur without the other.) One may have to go through many cycles of learning a lesson, forgetting it, and then having to learn it all over again, until eventually the lesson sticks from one life to the next, so that one no longer repeats the mistakes that necessitated the lesson in the first place.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
I m going to choose to revel in my illusion savor each grain of laughter and chunky salt, and creamy smoothness with a bite goats milk, and the heat of smirks.Spice, and texture in all I love my illusion, full of interesting things to play with and be amused by. wow three blue jays just now are all sharing the seed bowl! They most times i observe, are so 'alpha male ' ish, chasing each other away, only one can eat at a time-it seems, King of the Mountain type energy. That was sure nice to see them all taking turns;one deep in the bowl, two perched on top.And a sparrow they did not chase away. How lovely.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, m 13 meowthirt...@... wrote: ferblonget? Lots of ways to spell Yiddish words in English, since they're based on the sounds of the Hebrew alphabet. Same with any English transliterations from languages that use a different alphabet--Arabic, Chinese, Sanskrit, etc. You'll see ferblonjet, ferblonget, ferblonzhet, for example; and schmeggegy, shmegegy, shmegeggy, and so on.
[FairfieldLife] Dog Years
Time is relative, not static. Different species on this planet have different perceptions of time, and how quickly it seems to be flowing past. Nothing reminds one of this more than having dogs. Conventional wisdom says that there is such at thing as dog years, and that for every human year a dog experiences, it's as if he or she is experiencing six of our years. This turns out not to be true. Different dog breeds have vastly different life expectancies, depending on size and breed. My dogs statistically have a pro- jected lifespan that has them aging five times faster than humans age. But does that affect their *perception* of time? Not as far as I can tell. One of my dogs...let's call him Paris...lives in the same time continuum I do. Wake him up suddenly, and he's instantly awake, ready for anything. Take him on a walk and watch him get totally lost in some obsession like a passing cat, and it's *gone* from his mind thirty paces onwards. My other dog is...not like this. When asked to describe him, I often refer friends to the movie Zoolander. Those of you who have seen the film, do you remember how Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander specialized in striking poses for the camera that *looked* as if he was pondering existence deeply, but in reality was just striking a pose? That's Pippin, the smaller and more infuriating of my dogs. Infuriating occasionally because he insists on striking these poses while we're out on walks, and expecting me and Paris to react to his pose-striking as if he actually *was* pondering existence deeply. Paris can decide where to pee or poop in a heatrbeat. Need to poop? Why not here? seems to be his credo, as it is mine (within normal social boundaries, that is). By comparison, Pippin is working on a completely different level of time, and the perception thereof. The concept of pooping first seems to hit him as a vague concept, one that has very little relationship to Here And Now. But he has to stop dead in his tracks and ponder (or seem to ponder) the concept anyway. He's often upset when, after a few moments of him stopping dead in his tracks and producing nothing for all that pondering but a great photo-op, I drag him onwards. Repeat ad frustratium. It can take Pippin ten minutes from the onset of the *concept* of pooping to attain actual pooping. If the concept of dog years were accurate, that would mean that it takes him almost an hour (human time) longer to associate the *concept* of pooping with actual pooping than it does me, or Paris. I often catch the same looks of What is *taking* you so long? on Paris' face that I feel on mine. This may mean that both of us are lesser evolved than Pippin, and are just missing the fine points of having to sniff every square centimeter of terrain in a ten-block area before deciding that one of them deserves to be pooped on. Or it could indicate that Paris and I live on a more realistic, here-and-now time frame, and that heavy decisions such as where to take a dump don't necessarily have to take all day.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: Today's cafe rants are probably going to have a theme. This theme was inspired by an old friend saying with a straight face on another Internet forum that exclusive aim of human existence is to break free the from the repetitive phenomenon of birth and death. On one level, I feel for this friend. I used to parrot this crap myself once, and actually believed it. I now look back on the being who believed that as incredibly narcissistic and incredibly lazy and incredibly self- serving. I too once preferred the silence of meditation to the noise of the streets, and thus bought the teach- ings of recluses who were so afraid of noise that they withdrew into ashrams that the ultimate goal of life was to eliminate life entirely. By withdrawing from life and living the life of a recluse until one realizes enlight- enment, and then ultimately by withdrawing from life entirely so much so that it never happens again. All that would be left is the silence. That was perceived as the goal. Some here perceive that as the goal still. I do not, and in this particular cafe rap I'm going to rap a bit about why. Caveat emptor. Much is said in traditional Eastern spirituality about realization of the Self. Capital S. As opposed to that awful lower-case s word, self. But if you analyze what most of the spiritual teachers you revere actually said, most of them were teaching that self and Self were exactly the same thing. Meditation -- meaning eyes-closed, withdraw-from-the- senses-and-the-world meditation -- is the *easy* path to realization of the Self. You shut everything out, and if you're lucky you manage to transcend the noise and experience silence. And you call that experience Self. Capital S. If you bought the dogma that the teachers revere taught you, you hope that someday this silence will be 24/7 and that you will experience it all the time. Nothing wrong with that, IMO. It's just the belief that self is something *different* than Self that I don't buy. Self is just self realizing what's really going on. And a self can do that as easily in activity as it can with eyes closed in meditation. If this were not true, then enlightenment could not exist. So why do so many *rag* on self, and talk about eliminating the self, or becoming Self, as if the latter somehow left self *behind* like a snake shedding its skin? That's not how I see things, or experienced them during my personal enlightenment experiences. I always saw -- and experienced -- enlightenment as an *additive* process, not a *subtractive* one. Perception of everything as silence with eyes closed in sitting meditation was not any different than perception of everything as silence in a traffic jam. My experience was always the 200% of life that Maharishi talked about. And 200% was always perceived as more interesting than 100% -- on *either* side of the equation. That is, 24/7 samadhi in activity tended to be more fun and more fulfilling not only than 100% lost in the relative with no samadhi, it *also* tended to be more fun and more fulfilling than 100% lost in samadhi, with eyes closed. So I find it difficult to comprehend why so many profess the latter as their goal in life. They claim to be working towards 200% of life, but the actual goal they speak of is to have the relative half of life GO AWAY, so that they are left with only the silence of samadhi. They wish to become the drop merged with the ocean, Self with *no* self component. Seems to me that what they're hoping by believing this is that *after* having realized 200% of life by realizing their enlightenment, the *payoff* for this is reverting to 100% again. For all I know I may be the only person on this forum who thinks this is REEEALLY REEEALLY STOOOPID. But then I believe that that First Noble Truth indicates that Buddha was somewhat of a Wuss. Life is suffering as the basis of all of his teachings? Give me a fuckin' break. Life is cool. If the teachers we revere are really to be believed, relative existence is not only not lesser than the Absolute, it *is* the Absolute. 200% of life is being able to realize and appreciate both simultaneously. And yet thousands if not millions strive for enlightenment *so that* they can theoretically eliminate one half of life. They set as the *goal* of their spiritual path getting off the wheel, and ending incarnation entirely. They *look forward* to leaving 100% of the relative behind, *rejecting* the accomplishment of 200% of life, and becoming 100% of the Absolute for all eternity. Go figure. I do not share their goal. My goal is not to transcend the relative but to experience it as *both* relative and Absolute, all the time. And then to *continue* experiencing it as both, as long as that continues. I do not seek a cessation of life or a
[FairfieldLife] Re: Dog Years
Splitting Time from Space Zeeya Merali Was Newton right and Einstein wrong? It seems that unzipping the fabric of spacetime and harking back to 19th-century notions of time could lead to a theory of quantum gravity. Physicists have struggled to marry quantum mechanics with gravity for decades. In contrast, the other forces of nature have obediently fallen into line. For instance, the electromagnetic force can be described quantum-mechanically by the motion of photons. Try and work out the gravitational force between two objects in terms of a quantum graviton, however, and you quickly run into trouble—the answer to every calculation is infinity. But now Petr Hořava, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks he understands the problem. It’s all, he says, a matter of time. More specifically, the problem is the way that time is tied up with space in Einstein’s theory of gravity: general relativity. Einstein famously overturned the Newtonian notion that time is absolute—steadily ticking away in the background. Instead he argued that time is another dimension, woven together with space to form a malleable fabric that is distorted by matter. The snag is that in quantum mechanics, time retains its Newtonian aloofness, providing the stage against which matter dances but never being affected by its presence. These two conceptions of time don’t gel. The solution, Hořava says, is to snip threads that bind time to space at very high energies, such as those found in the early universe where quantum gravity rules. “I’m going back to Newton’s idea that time and space are not equivalent,” Hořava says. At low energies, general relativity emerges from this underlying framework, and the fabric of spacetime restitches, he explains. Hořava likens this emergence to the way some exotic substances change phase. For instance, at low temperatures liquid helium’s properties change dramatically, becoming a “superfluid” that can overcome friction. In fact, he has co-opted the mathematics of exotic phase transitions to build his theory of gravity. So far it seems to be working: the infinities that plague other theories of quantum gravity have been tamed, and the theory spits out a well-behaved graviton. It also seems to match with computer simulations of quantum gravity. Hořava’s theory has been generating excitement since he proposed it in January, and physicists met to discuss it at a meeting in November at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. In particular, physicists have been checking if the model correctly describes the universe we see today. General relativity scored a knockout blow when Einstein predicted the motion of Mercury with greater accuracy than Newton’s theory of gravity could. Can Hořřava gravity claim the same success? The first tentative answers coming in say “yes.” Francisco Lobo, now at the University of Lisbon, and his colleagues have found a good match with the movement of planets. Others have made even bolder claims for Hořava gravity, especially when it comes to explaining cosmic conundrums such as the singularity of the big bang, where the laws of physics break down. If Hořava gravity is true, argues cosmologist Robert Brandenberger of McGill University in a paper published in the August Physical Review D, then the universe didn’t bang—it bounced. “A universe filled with matter will contract down to a small—but finite—size and then bounce out again, giving us the expanding cosmos we see today,” he says. Brandenberger’s calculations show that ripples produced by the bounce match those already detected by satellites measuring the cosmic microwave background, and he is now looking for signatures that could distinguish the bounce from the big bang scenario. Hořava gravity may also create the “illusion of dark matter,” says cosmologist Shinji Mukohyama of Tokyo University. In the September Physical Review D, he explains that in certain circumstances Hořava’s graviton fluctuates as it interacts with normal matter, making gravity pull a bit more strongly than expected in general relativity. The effect could make galaxies appear to contain more matter than can be seen. If that’s not enough, cosmologist Mu-In Park of Chonbuk National University in South Korea believes that Hořava gravity may also be behind the accelerated expansion of the universe, currently attributed to a mysterious dark energy. One of the leading explanations for its origin is that empty space contains some intrinsic energy that pushes the universe outward. This intrinsic energy cannot be accounted for by general relativity but pops naturally out of the equations of Hořava gravity, according to Park. HoYava’s theory, however, is far from perfect. Diego Blas, a quantum gravity researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne has found a “hidden sickness” in the theory when double-checking calculations for
[FairfieldLife] Re: Dog Years
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Jason jedi_sp...@... wrote: Splitting Time from Space Zeeya Merali Was Newton right and Einstein wrong? It seems that unzipping the fabric of spacetime and harking back to 19th-century notions of time could lead to a theory of quantum gravity. Very nice article. It's really difficult to explain highly complicated stuff like this to a lay audience so that they get the general idea without getting bogged down in so much abstruse detail that they lose track. Merali has done an excellent job. (At least, what s/he's written presents a comprehensible picture; I'm not in a position to know whether that picture is in accord with the real story!)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Remember this next time you see something on TV and think it's real
TV weatherman wears green tie; hilarity ensues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0CghAKgY4E --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: Cool video by Stargate Films demonstrating that what you see on TV is not only not necessarily what you get, most of the time it isn't. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE9nbHSAHdA
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost...@... wrote: A philosophy professor from New Zealand recalls the Y2K apocalypticism at the dawn of the last decade: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/opinion/01dutton.html 'The Y2K Nightmare' caught the sensationalist tone, claiming that 'folly, greed and denial' had 'muffled two decades of warnings from technology experts.' In 1999 I was working for a technology PR company that monitored Y2K stories for a 'well known software giant' and it seemed to me that the stories of impending doom came primarily from newspapers desperate to sell copy and from computer companies trying to make a buck riding on the wave of hysteria. Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems needing intelligent attention. But they get the attention from the people they need attention from. Unfortunately for the author overpoulation, soil erosion and peak oil are real problems that you can easily get apocalyptic about because they are real and no-one is taking them seriously. Yet. But they will and I've no doubt there will be people saying that we don't need to double the amount of farmland we need by 2050 even though it's stark staringly obvious. This isn't doom and gloom but a sober assessment. Wait a few years, the papers won't stop going on about it once it's become obvious we are just going to have to live with climate change. The way this works is scientists give out the worst case scenario to spur governments into action. Suppose no=one had listened about the ozone layer. Not a problem? Think again. Even something as down-to-earth as the swine-flu scare has seemed at moments to be less about testing our health care system and its emergency readiness than about the fate of a diseased civilization drowning in its own fluids. Imagine if the government had done nothing and swine flu had turned out like the black death did and exter- minated half of europe? Things do change in the wink of an eye, many a civilisation has collapsed overnight. The real stupidity is thinking ours is immune. We wallow in the idea that one day everything might change in, as St. Paul put it, the twinkling of an eye that a calamity might prove to be the longed- for transformation. But turning practical problems into cosmic cataclysms takes us further away from actual solutions. Only way to wake people up I'm afraid. I can't wait to see what the climate deniers think of having to have a rationed water and food footprint to go with reduced carbon by the middle of this century! If you think it isn't going to happen you aren't facing up to the facts, *that's* denial. This applies, in my view, to the towering seas, storms, droughts and mass extinctions of popular climate catastrophism. Such entertaining visions owe less to scientific climatology than to eschatology, and that familiar sense that modernity and its wasteful comforts are bringing us closer to a biblical day of judgment. So the seas won't rise when the ice melts? The world's weather patterns aren't already changing? Biblical day of judgement? Where do you get this nonsense from dude? BTW the BBC have finished the second series of my fave TV show Survivors. Broadcast starts on 12 Jan. Catch up here: http://survivorsbbctv.wordpress.com/ The best post apocalypse show ever made. As bleak as the day is long. I like my doom and gloom.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost...@... wrote: snip [quoting a philosophy professor from New Zealand:] Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems needing intelligent attention. As if poverty, terrorism, and broken financial systems didn't have their own apocalyptic scenarios. snip This applies, in my view, to the towering seas, storms, droughts and mass extinctions of popular climate catastrophism. Such entertaining visions owe less to scientific climatology than to eschatology, and that familiar sense that modernity and its wasteful comforts are bringing us closer to a biblical day of judgment. As that headline put it for Y2K, predictions of the end of the world are often intertwined with condemnations of human folly, greed and denial. Repent and recycle! Whereas, of course, nobody ever suggested the problems the writer believes need intelligent attention--poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems--have anything to do with human folly, greed, and denial. snort What's really going on here is an attempt at guilt-by- association, linking the problems the writer wishes to deny with eschatological nonsense, thereby implying that concern about those problems is itself nonsense.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Global Family Chats 2009
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5 dhamiltony...@... wrote: Thanks Nablusoss, this one with Hagelin is large at so many points. Glad you called it to attention. I think you're right too that everyone on FFL ought to listen to all of it to get the whole context. I wish him well and all luck in the New Year. I think they'ed get it too if they'd go honest public with their all their financial numbers now and show that they have nothing to hide anymore. Would improve the old view of their integrity a lot. may be too, while Hagelin is in silence he could spend some little time writing at a 'code of ethics' for MUM and the movement community. Something about accountability to some common standards that could be pointed to. Different from Bevan's old own sense of loyalty and making bones. JGD, -D in FF While I do appreciate some of what you say your use of common standards makes me want to puke. May the TMO never ever follow the corrupt standards of the common, creedy man. If you still wonder what happened to all the money, why don't you follow Global Family Chat's reports on the TMO's expansion all over the world ? http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-archive.html --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@ wrote: * Archives http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/archive.html * Podcasts http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/podcasts.html * Global Family Chats 2009 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-archive.html * Global Family Chats 2008 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-2008.html * Global Family Chats 2007 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-2007.html * Global Family Chats 2006 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-2006.html * Special Celebrations http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/special-celebrations.html * Press Conferences 2007 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2007.html * Press Conferences 2006 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2006.html * Press Conferences 2005 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2005.html * Press Conferences from 2004 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2004.html * Press Conferences from 2003 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2003.html * Press Conferences from 2002 http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/pc-2002.html * World Peace Parliaments http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/world-peace-parliaments.html Global Family Chats 2009 To download the Windows Media Player files, right click on the link and select 'save target as'. The link for any day should be working approximately 24 hours after the chat finishes. Global Family Chats December 30th http://streaming.mou.org/MOU/Chat/30_dec_09.wmv Raja Hagelin gave a masterly overview of the many great initiatives and developments in Invincible America. Many may not be aware that since the beginning of the Invincible America Assembly 4 years ago, the crime rate has come down every year, this year by 11%. It is now the lowest since record keeping began in 1962, all in direct contradiction to all expectations. Raja Hagelin attributed this otherwise inexplicable trend directly to the group of Yogic Flyers, including over 1000 Vedic Pandits, on the Invincible America Assembly. Raja Hagelin went on to bring out the significance of many initiatives, with the added effect of slides and 4 video clips, in three areas: outreach initiatives, marketing initiatives, and programmes that are increasing our positive image. The presentation was so rich that any attempt at summarizing it would be meaningless; watch it and enjoy the vision of Ram Raj unfolding. Great congratulations and thanks from Maharishi's global family all around the world to Raja Hagelin and his team, and to the Pioneers of Invincible America on the Invincible America Assembly! http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-archive.html http://www.maharishichannel.in/archives/gfc-archive.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Hugo richardhughes...@... wrote: So the seas won't rise when the ice melts? If maybe. The world's weather patterns aren't already changing? Always have. Always will. Biblical day of judgement? Where do you get this nonsense from dude? BTW the BBC have finished the second series of my fave TV show Survivors. Broadcast starts on 12 Jan. Catch up here: http://survivorsbbctv.wordpress.com/ The best post apocalypse show ever made. As bleak as the day is long. I like my doom and gloom. You sure do Hugo. Cheer up mate! Private we're all doomed Frazer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgsPzydgzxE
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Fine Art Of Not Knowing
In the pundit project and in a disciplined meditating are the bold and far-seeing spiritual works of the fight for global climate. Come join the fight. Come back to meditation for your selves, your friends, your family and a future humanity. Come to action, in meditation. II. If you won't come to meditation, at least hire a meditating substitute in your place. As would off-set the materialism raging of the world. The science so says as does the experience of the age. If you work in the world, particularly in the first world, consider supporting a meditator in Fairfield as a 'fat off-set' to your wicked material way out there in the world. If too busy to meditate, then trade your wages of sin for a meditator. The science on all sides is ever more clear that spiritual regeneration may be our last and best hope. All our hope. Confront your materialism on all sides, come to meditation Transcend, you sinners! This is serious stuff. An incredibly utopian millionaire paying people to meditate and we got disciplined meditators in the domes being docked $15 a month each to heat the domes now. Some lot of people there by the skin of their teeth by the science for us all. On the other hand, we got a guy here working for IBM here walks his dog lurking the naked girls on Spanish beaches. Another, a 'public defender' attorney lurks here and spends his free time surfing. Seems by the science that some are getting off free who should know better. A consciousness gap. That is a 'fine art of not knowing'. Dear Rick and Nablusoss, You guys both seem to be well connected to TB people in the middle of Transcendental Meditation. Say if someone like Marek Reavis or Barry Wright lurking here, well employed, realized their responsibility and wanted to contribute towards something larger than themselves, could you check with your insiders and find out where they could make their contributions really count? Would their hard earned money be well used in the MUM annual fund? MSAE? Are the boards of directors functioning more independently now, of India and Bevan? Or, would it be better to join with Howard Settle or David Lynch and make payments directly to people and their own projects adjunct to the TM-movement? For instance, I can think of a number of people living by a thread on the Invincible America course. Is there a list of people in further need of help to keep them in the Domes? I understand the TM-movement is docking these IA participants $15 each per month to 'heat' the domes for 'program'. Could money be sent by others directly to the Utility company to help bolster these people. Instead of their Howard Settle stipends being laundered through the organization. How can lurkers more effectively help with the particulars of something very large, utopian and yet opaque? Rick, you seem to be on old terms with Bobby Roth who has risen to demi-god status inside the movement, and also Craig Pearson too inside the President's office. They are real people. How do they see it now? If they had money to put inside the movement, how would they do it? Nablusoss, what do your European TM insiders think about how it is going now? Where is it safe to send support? Just Wondering, -D
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote: snip [quoting a philosophy professor from New Zealand:] Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems needing intelligent attention. As if poverty, terrorism, and broken financial systems didn't have their own apocalyptic scenarios. Well no. That's exactly the trouble with poverty. It is NOT apocalyptic. Neither is terrorism going to bring the end of the world. Nor even banks going bust. The world CAN live with poverty very easily and very well, thank you very much. And will carry on doing so all the more in my view if we fret irrationally over CO2 in such an apocalyptic way. If false, the alarmism will represent a gigantic diversion from the real issues. That will have substantial consequences for the needy. We need rice and water, not wind farms. So is it false? Now there's a question. Poverty is a fact. Terrorism is a fact. These need our full attention. I do not consider CO2 alarmism to be reasonably based on fact (sound science). A decade ago I was similarly sceptical about Y2K and puzzled as to how this meme (if that is the right concept) had gained such enormous power.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
Nice, but Goat's Milk is just plain disgusting! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, m 13 meowthirt...@... wrote: I m going to choose to revel in my illusion � savor each grain of laughter and chunky salt, and creamy smoothness with a bite goats milk, and the heat of smirks.Spice, and texture in all I�love my illusion, full of interesting things to play with and be amused by. � wow three blue jays just now are all sharing the seed bowl! They most times i observe, are so 'alpha male ' ish, chasing each other away, only one can eat at a time-it seems, King of the Mountain type energy. That was sure nice to see them all taking turns;one deep in the bowl, two perched on top.And a sparrow they did not chase away. How lovely. �
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
PaliGap wrote: Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems needing intelligent attention... Is the movie 'Avatar' an 'apocalyptic' scenario? LOL!!! A philosophy professor from New Zealand recalls the Y2K apocalypticism at the dawn of the last decade: KNOWING our computers is difficult enough... Apparently lots of professors of philosophy trusted their entire digital library to a DOS Operating System? Go figure. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/opinion/01dutton.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems needing intelligent attention. Judy wrote: As if poverty, terrorism, and broken financial systems didn't have their own apocalyptic scenarios. PaliGap wrote: Well no. Uh,oh!
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote: snip [quoting a philosophy professor from New Zealand:] Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems needing intelligent attention. As if poverty, terrorism, and broken financial systems didn't have their own apocalyptic scenarios. Well no. That's exactly the trouble with poverty. It is NOT apocalyptic. Neither is terrorism going to bring the end of the world. Nor even banks going bust. All three could bring about apocalyptic (i.e., disastrous) change, especially in combination. Don't play word games by equating apocalyptic with end of the world. Nobody's saying climate change is going to bring about the end of the world either. The world CAN live with poverty very easily and very well, thank you very much. Only up to a point. Ditto for terrorism and broken financial systems. And will carry on doing so all the more in my view if we fret irrationally over CO2 in such an apocalyptic way. If false, the alarmism will represent a gigantic diversion from the real issues. That will have substantial consequences for the needy. We need rice and water, not wind farms. And if true and we ignore it? There will be far worse consequences for the needy. Climate change is *already* having severe effects on the needy. So is it false? Now there's a question. Poverty is a fact. Terrorism is a fact. These need our full attention. Lots of things need our full attention. I do not consider CO2 alarmism to be reasonably based on fact (sound science). A decade ago I was similarly sceptical about Y2K and puzzled as to how this meme (if that is the right concept) had gained such enormous power. And apparently completely missed the fact that the alarmism resulted in actions taken to successfully defang Y2K. It was a real threat, averted because attention was paid to it.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
Hugo wrote: do you get this nonsense from dude? BTW the BBC have finished the second series of my fave TV show Survivors. Broadcast starts on 12 Jan. Catch up here: http://survivorsbbctv.wordpress.com/ The best post apocalypse show ever made. As bleak as the day is long. I like my doom and gloom. It starts on BBC America in February and probably season one. I don't have BBC America unless they play the series OnDemand. The robber barons at Comcast seem to want $61 more to get the tier with BBC America. Ridiculous! The trailer sports a one person super-hero theme, seemingly a woman who is immune to the virus -- and yes that's a theme that has been done numerous times. It is a reinforcement of the me meme. I watch trends and if you do that you can see where things are going. We've slammed into the wall of overpopulation. That problem could be solved if the wealthy would give up their power. But they want to stay in control and leave millions possibly billions in misery. They have NO RIGHT to do so! Our job is to make the public realize this and take action.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, pranamoocher bh...@... wrote: Nice, but Goat's Milk is just plain disgusting! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, m 13 meowthirteen@ wrote: I m going to choose to revel in my illusion And of course the Lord gives you that freedom, the choice is yours and if your choices are good you'll have an easier time of itBut they say even the Sattvic choices and consequences become stale over time, and nothing, NOTHING, worldly can compare to the bliss of Spirit. You won't know that until you have first hand experience of it, then there will be NO doubt.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Self is just self capitalized
TurquoiseB wrote: Much is said in traditional Eastern spirituality about realization of the Self. Capital S. As opposed to that awful lower-case s word, self. But if you analyze what most of the spiritual teachers you revere actually said, most of them were teaching that self and Self were exactly the same thing. For those who have realized the Self the self can be hard to find. But it is there as it has to be or one would be unable to communicate with the other selves. IOW, you have to localize when dealing with the world. One may go a whole week without realizing they have not focused on the self but then one of these occasions arises when they have to. Also an enlightened person may act more like a realist than a bliss ninny. The latter is a show that gurus often put on.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: And apparently completely missed the fact that the alarmism resulted in actions taken to successfully defang Y2K. It was a real threat, averted because attention was paid to it. A friend noticed that every morning Mulla Nasrudin would sprinkle crumbs on his doorstep. Why do you do that, friend? To keep the lions away But there aren't any lions here? See, it works!
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Angelina Jolie hates Obama?
nablusoss1008 wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozg...@... wrote: nablusoss1008 wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@ wrote: nablusoss1008 wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@ wrote: Yup, Jolie is pretty confused. Capitalism sucks. It's just a bunch of robber barons holding the masses up. They are a real drag on society. The ironic thing is that the capitalists are getting bailouts from the government which is socialism for the rich while the rest of us are expected sink or swim in the cesspool of capitalism. I'm really noticing trends in elitism in this country. Special suff for the rich and nothing for the masses. The time for revolution is NOW! Your wish has been granted. The revolution will be silent and very effective, no bloodshed. Now that communism is gone the next to go is capitalism - Maharishi I'm not holding my breathe. That's been promised since the 1970s. Wrong. You missed that the quote is from 1989. Still waiting It took the Sidhas, Governors, Maharishi and the Masters of Wisdom many years to pull down the evil Berlin wall. Tearing down capitalism is obviously a much greater undertaking as it is an older and global cancer reaching all corners of earth. But don't worry, Maharishi has had the downfall of capitalism in mind since He came out of the Himalayas, it's bound to happen but patience is necessary. Somewhere He was quoted from the 50s saying that this Knowledge would end the disgracing slavery conditions for working people everywhere (from memory) If someone has the exsact quote it would be appreciated. Not the quote but the idea that the TMO would change the world. It would take much more than the TMO to do that. If you read the above, in the message included The Masters of Wisdom who oversee the evolution of all souls on earth and Whom Maharishi was in close contact Brahmananda Saraswathi being one of Their most evolved Masters. With this view the TMO obviously is only one of many forces for evolutionary change but I dare say Maharishi has been the strongest voice and foremost transformator during the last 50 years. Nabby, have you ever even been to the US? If you had you would see what people here who want a more fair and equal government are up against. Basically millions of zombie like creatures who have been programmed to think socialism bad, capitalism good. The only way we'll get single payer health care is to probably break up the US into several countries (our creditors may do that for us). We here in the western states might well get something fairly reasonable ... or maybe not. Anyone can see trends and MMY was one among those who did. Most of the zombies however are afraid to think beyond their own nose. I think that masters are merely seeing the obvious that the rest of the world is afraid to look at. Enlightened people are realists not bliss ninnies.
[FairfieldLife] Iran warns West it will make its own nuclear fuel
I don't get it. Why don't we just destabilize Iran, as we've done before? When an invasion in the Middle East was announced, the average Iranian was disappointed when they discovered the invasion planned was against Iraq instead of Iran. Can't we send some pundits to Iran? http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9CVO0NO0show_article=1 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran set a one-month deadline Saturday for the West to accept its counterproposal to a U.N.-drafted nuclear plan and warned that otherwise it will produce reactor fuel at a higher level of enrichment on its own. The warning was a show of defiance and a hardening of Iran's stance over its nuclear program, which the West fears masks an effort to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran insists its program is only for peaceful purposes, such as electricity production, and says it has no intention of making a bomb. We have given them an ultimatum. There is one month left and that is by the end of January, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, speaking on state television. Even if Tehran started working on the fuel production immediately, it would likely take years before it could master the technology to turn uranium enriched to the level of 20 percent into the fuel rods it needs for a medical research reactor. Still, any threat to enrich uranium to a higher level is likely to rattle the world powers that have been trying to persuade Iran to forgo enrichment altogether. Enrichment is at the center of the West's concerns because at high levels it can be used in making nuclear weapons. At lower levels, enriched uranium is used in the production of fuel for nuclear power plants. Iran dismissed an end-of-2009 deadline imposed by the Obama administration and its international partners to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap most of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The deal would reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium, limiting—at least for the moment—its capability to make nuclear weapons. The U.S. and its allies have demanded Iran accept the terms of the U.N.-brokered plan without changes. Instead, Tehran came up with a counterproposal: to have the West either sell nuclear fuel to Iran, or swap its nuclear fuel for Iran's enriched uranium in smaller batches instead of at once as the U.N. plan requires. This is unacceptable to the West because it would leave Tehran with enough enriched material to make nuclear arms. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, refused to comment Saturday on Iran's announcement of a one-month deadline. The U.S. State Department also had no immediate comment. The U.N. deal has been the centerpiece of the West's latest diplomatic push to get Iran to scrap a key part of its nuclear work. Under the plan, drafted in November, Iran would export most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium for further enrichment in Russia and France, where it would be converted into fuel rods. The rods, which Iran needs for the research reactor in Tehran, would be returned to the country about a year later. Exporting the uranium would temporarily leave Iran without enough of a stockpile to further enrich the uranium into material for a nuclear warhead, and the rods that are returned cannot be processed further for use in making weapons. They (the West) must decide on supplying fuel for the Tehran reactor on one of the two offers—purchase or swap, Mottaki said. Otherwise, the Islamic Republic of Iran will produce the 20 percent enriched fuel with its own capable experts. Iran currently has one operating enrichment facility that churns out enriched uranium at a level of 3.5 percent. The country needs fuel enriched to 20 percent to power the Tehran medical research reactor. For nuclear weapons, uranium needs to be enriched to 90 percent or more. The U.N. has demanded Iran suspend all enrichment, a demand Tehran refuses to meet, saying it has a right to develop the technology under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran has also defiantly announced it intends to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites, drawing a forceful rebuke from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency and warnings of the possibility of new U.N. sanctions. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Starting the Year with a Mariachi Band
Hey, RD The Muppet version appears to get the message through, especially Miss Piggy's part in the song. But then again, there could be a deeper significance to this song than meets the eye. Perhaps, the wise members of this group can help us unravel the message of the song. Regards, JR --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchy...@... wrote: Thanks. Two versions of Bohemian Rhapsody Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irp8CNj9qBIfeature=fvw The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, John jr_esq@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, John jr_esq@ wrote: I decided to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant at the Mission District today. As I got in the restaurant, I was surprised to see a five piece Mariachi band playing there. So, I ordered my usual machaca dish and listened to the music. Towards the end of my meal, I requested the band to play the following song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTf_elyjNEfeature=related I'm hoping for everyone that the new year will be just as exciting as today. Regards, JR Wow! What a hottie. Luis Miguel can put his shoes under my bed any day. Thanks for the spicy dish and Happy New Year. I'm glad you enjoyed the clip. Here's another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNXOtvU5Yi4feature=related
[FairfieldLife] Re: Starting the Year with a Mariachi Band
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, John jr_esq@ wrote: I decided to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant at the Mission District today. As I got in the restaurant, I was surprised to see a five piece Mariachi band playing there. So, I ordered my usual machaca dish and listened to the music. Towards the end of my meal, I requested the band to play the following song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTf_elyjNEfeature=related I'm hoping for everyone that the new year will be just as exciting as today. I am not a fan of Mariachi music, but every time I go to Paris, I go to a Mexican restaurant there because the Mariachis are fans of Los Lobos, as am I. They don't restrict themselves to the standard lame songs, and by now they know me, and when I step into the room they play this song, Cancion Del Mariachi. Their lead singer has neither the voice nor the looks of Antonio Banderas, but it always lifts my spirits to hear the song again. This is more my idea of how to start an exciting new year. Or just an ordinary evening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myQ4LwFkt28 YMMV. In fact, if you can listen to the Maharishi Honey Song without throwing up, your mileage almost certainly varies. :-) Powerful message in that song, particularly the visual effects. That's how its done in Mexico. Or is it in Spain as well? Take it easy on the tequila when in Paris, amigo.
[FairfieldLife] TM connection (was Re: Starting the Year with a Mariachi Band)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: BTW, just as an aside and a tip of the hat to those like Nabby who feel that a subject has no relevance on FFL if there is no TM connection, my love of the film Desperado has such a connection. One of the TMers I knew peripherally (but not well) in L.A. during the last days of my TMness was a TM teacher named Bill Borden. As I remember it, Bill was an energetic and enthusiastic Nice Guy, one of those who parlayed his TM experience into Something More. As I remember it, he was one of several (like Howard Gewirtz) who signed on to TM-owned Los Angeles TV station KSCI early on, and who turned that experience not only to their advantage, but the world's. Howard turned his KSCI resume into a successful career as a TV writer and producer. Bill Borden (although I lost touch with him and do not claim him as a friend) seems to have taken an even higher path. Hispanic or partially-Hispanic him- self, Bill seems to have found his bliss at first in Hispanic-themed efforts. After paying his dues as Associate Producer on Against All Odds and White Nights, Bill's first producing effort on his own was La Bamba. I don't know about you, but I tip my fuckin' hat to the dude for that movie. I'm *of* the Richie Valens era. I *grew up* listening to the music of Ricthie Valens. And I did so never knowing (because of marketing) that he was Chicano, and thus Breaking Barriers. Ritchie Valens *broke ground*. He was one of the first Hispanics to seriously break into the Rock 'N Roll industry. He left his mark, and opened doors of possibility for other Hispanics by doing so. I always thought it was just really NEAT that Bill felt about him the way that I did, and created such a loving portrait of him. Despite the critical and box office success of La Bamba, Bill paid his dues for a while, pos- sibly because he was Hispanic, doing lesser work. Then came Desperado. Robert Rodriguez (Hispanic himself) is a force majure, a Law Of Nature. His personal power is unmistakable. When his first film El Mariachi was submitted to Sundance and walked off with all the accolades, Bill Borden was the producer who walked off with the rights to a sequel. Desperado was the result. It's in my personal Top Ten Film List. And a TMer or former TMer produced it. Does that fuck with my image as a minion of Satan or what? Sometimes we wonder. The jury is still out on this one. Segue, as they say in Spanish.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: And apparently completely missed the fact that the alarmism resulted in actions taken to successfully defang Y2K. It was a real threat, averted because attention was paid to it. A friend noticed that every morning Mulla Nasrudin would sprinkle crumbs on his doorstep. Why do you do that, friend? To keep the lions away But there aren't any lions here? See, it works! Anytime you want to change your approach and have an intellectually honest discussion, just let me know, OK?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Angelina Jolie hates Obama?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozg...@... wrote: snip Nabby, have you ever even been to the US? If you had you would see what people here who want a more fair and equal government are up against. Basically millions of zombie like creatures who have been programmed to think socialism bad, capitalism good. Actually, polls have consistently shown that a majority of the public supports single-payer healthcare: http://www.wpasinglepayer.org/PollResults.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: And apparently completely missed the fact that the alarmism resulted in actions taken to successfully defang Y2K. It was a real threat, averted because attention was paid to it. A friend noticed that every morning Mulla Nasrudin would sprinkle crumbs on his doorstep. Why do you do that, friend? To keep the lions away But there aren't any lions here? See, it works! Anytime you want to change your approach and have an intellectually honest discussion, just let me know, OK? Oh, back to this sort of stuff. Depressing. Honest/dishonest. What on earth are you talking about? Look at the above. I am making a point. I believe it is valid. Do you think I DON'T believe it is valid? Because that would be dishonest I suppose. Except that's false (that I don't believe it). So, what on earth are you on about? Perhaps you don't understood the point I tried to make? Perhaps I didn't make it well? Perhaps it's not valid? That's all OK by me. But honest/dishonest? You're on another planet.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: And apparently completely missed the fact that the alarmism resulted in actions taken to successfully defang Y2K. It was a real threat, averted because attention was paid to it. A friend noticed that every morning Mulla Nasrudin would sprinkle crumbs on his doorstep. Why do you do that, friend? To keep the lions away But there aren't any lions here? See, it works! Anytime you want to change your approach and have an intellectually honest discussion, just let me know, OK? Oh, back to this sort of stuff. Depressing. Yeah, that's what I thought. Honest/dishonest. What on earth are you talking about? Look at the above. I am making a point. I believe it is valid. Then *argue* it, with facts and logic. *Document* that nothing that was done about Y2K was actually necessary. Don't hide behind a Nasrudin teaching story as if that were a definitive response. Do you think I DON'T believe it is valid? Because that would be dishonest I suppose. No. I'm saying your use of the Nasrudin story is a thought-stopper, a way to avoid making a cogent argument.
[FairfieldLife] For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk
TOKYO — For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels. “It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep,” he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit — one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. “You get used to it.” When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 opened nearly two decades ago, Japan was just beginning to pull back from its bubble economy, and the hotel’s tiny plastic cubicles offered a night’s refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home. Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510’s capsules, no larger than 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II. Once-booming exporters laid off workers en masse in 2009 as the global economic crisis pushed down demand. Many of the newly unemployed, forced from their company-sponsored housing or unable to make rent, have become homeless. The country’s woes have led the government to open emergency shelters over the New Year holiday in a nationwide drive to help the homeless. The Democratic Party, which swept to power in September, wants to avoid the fate of the previous pro-business government, which was caught off-guard when unemployed workers pitched tents near public offices last year to call attention to their plight. “In this bitter-cold New Year’s season, the government intends to do all it can to help those who face hardship,” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a video posted Dec. 26 on YouTube. “You are not alone.” On Friday, he visited a Tokyo shelter housing 700 homeless people, telling reporters that “help can’t wait.” Mr. Nakanishi considers himself relatively lucky. After working odd jobs on an Isuzu assembly line, at pachinko parlors and as a security guard, Mr. Nakanishi, 40, moved into the capsule hotel in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district in April to save on rent while he worked night shifts at a delivery company. Mr. Nakanishi, who studied economics at a regional university, dreams of becoming a lawyer and pores over legal manuals during the day. But with no job since Christmas, he does not know how much longer he can afford a capsule bed. The rent is surprisingly high for such a small space: 59,000 yen a month, or about $640, for an upper bunk. But with no upfront deposit or extra utility charges, and basic amenities like fresh linens and free use of a communal bath and sauna, the cost is far less than renting an apartment in Tokyo, Mr. Nakanishi says. Still, it is a bleak world where deep sleep is rare. The capsules do not have doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows. Each capsule is furnished only with a light, a small TV with earphones, coat hooks, a thin blanket and a hard pillow of rice husks. Most possessions, from shirts to shaving cream, must be kept in lockers. There is a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks. Cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are security cameras. But the hotel staff does its best to put guests at ease: “Welcome home,” employees say at the entrance. “Our main clients used to be salarymen who were out drinking and missed the last train,” said Tetsuya Akasako, head manager at the hotel. But about two years ago, the hotel started to notice that guests were staying weeks, then months, he said. This year, it introduced a reduced rent for dwellers of a month or longer; now, about 100 of the hotel’s 300 capsules are rented out by the month. After requests from its long-term dwellers, the hotel received special government permission to let them register their capsules as their official abode; that made it easier to land job interviews. At 2 a.m. on one recent December night, two young women watched the American television show “24” on a TV inside the sauna. One said she had traveled to Tokyo from her native Gunma, north of the city, to look for work. She intended to be a hostess at one of the capital’s cabaret clubs, where women engage in conversation with men for a fee. The woman, 20, said she was hoping to land a job with a club that would put her up in an apartment. She declined to give her name because she did not want her family to know her whereabouts. “It’s tough to live like this, but it won’t be for too long,” she said. “At least there are more jobs here than in Gunma.” The government says about 15,800 people live on the streets in Japan, but aid groups put the figure much higher, with at least 10,000 in Tokyo alone. Those numbers do not count the city’s “hidden” homeless, like those who live in capsule hotels. There is also a floating population that sleeps overnight
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Doom Gloom Fixation
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: And apparently completely missed the fact that the alarmism resulted in actions taken to successfully defang Y2K. It was a real threat, averted because attention was paid to it. A friend noticed that every morning Mulla Nasrudin would sprinkle crumbs on his doorstep. Why do you do that, friend? To keep the lions away But there aren't any lions here? See, it works! Anytime you want to change your approach and have an intellectually honest discussion, just let me know, OK? Oh, back to this sort of stuff. Depressing. Yeah, that's what I thought. Honest/dishonest. What on earth are you talking about? Look at the above. I am making a point. I believe it is valid. Then *argue* it, with facts and logic. *Document* that nothing that was done about Y2K was actually necessary. Don't hide behind a Nasrudin teaching story as if that were a definitive response. Do you think I DON'T believe it is valid? Because that would be dishonest I suppose. No. I'm saying your use of the Nasrudin story is a thought-stopper, a way to avoid making a cogent argument. *And* you're using Y2K as a stand-in for climate change, so you're trying to short-circuit argument about that at the same time.
[FairfieldLife] Post Count
Fairfield Life Post Counter === Start Date (UTC): Sat Jan 02 00:00:00 2010 End Date (UTC): Sat Jan 09 00:00:00 2010 75 messages as of (UTC) Sat Jan 02 23:08:58 2010 14 authfriend jst...@panix.com 10 WillyTex willy...@yahoo.com 8 TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com 5 PaliGap compost...@yahoo.co.uk 5 John jr_...@yahoo.com 5 Jason jedi_sp...@yahoo.com 4 raunchydog raunchy...@yahoo.com 4 m 13 meowthirt...@yahoo.com 3 BillyG wg...@yahoo.com 3 Bhairitu noozg...@sbcglobal.net 2 nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com 2 dhamiltony2k5 dhamiltony...@yahoo.com 1 pranamoocher bh...@hotmail.com 1 guyfawkes91 no_re...@yahoogroups.com 1 gullible fool ffl...@yahoo.com 1 fflmod ffl...@yahoo.com 1 cardemaister no_re...@yahoogroups.com 1 azgrey no_re...@yahoogroups.com 1 Vaj vajradh...@earthlink.net 1 It's just a ride bill.hicks.all.a.r...@gmail.com 1 Hugo richardhughes...@hotmail.com 1 Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com Posters: 22 Saturday Morning 00:00 UTC Rollover Times = Daylight Saving Time (Summer): US Friday evening: PDT 5 PM - MDT 6 PM - CDT 7 PM - EDT 8 PM Europe Saturday: BST 1 AM CEST 2 AM EEST 3 AM Standard Time (Winter): US Friday evening: PST 4 PM - MST 5 PM - CST 6 PM - EST 7 PM Europe Saturday: GMT 12 AM CET 1 AM EET 2 AM For more information on Time Zones: www.worldtimezone.com
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time and as he passed the pretzel stand he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel. And this went on for more then 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him. Without blinking an eye she said: They're 35 cents now. Good for her. The young man had been subtly dissing her by treating her as a charity case instead of an entrepreneur. Which makes you, once again, a schmegegy. AZ, if you know, please clear up for me some of the mystery of the term schmegegy. Being not of the Jewish persuasion, the only times I have heard this phrase in my life have been accompanied by a grimace of cognitive dissonance, my face reflecting the fact that I simply don't get the reference. A Jewish friend of my acquaintance, exorted over a shared joint back in college to define schmegegy for me, replied: You know how when you go to the laundromat to do your wash and afterwards you discover weird lint stuff in the pockets of the washed clothing, stuff that you can't quite figure out the origin of? Schmegegies. So what's the literal meaning? Schmegegy is a noun meaning idiot with connotations or being full of hot air. If you referred to someone as full of baloney, the person you were referring to would be a schmegegy. Lets say, for example that someone said that schmegegy was a wimpy way to bash but then spent 3 post responding to the comment. That person defines being a schmegegy. The use of examples to define subtle differences in words is often hilarious. Some of the ones used to differentiate schlemiel and schlimazel make me laugh till I cry.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Self is just self capitalized
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Jason jedi_sp...@... wrote: Try telling this to people caught in Nazi holocaust, Partition riots, Khemer rouge genocide in Cambodia, Stalinist purge in Soviet Union, Cancer patients, children suffering from mal-nutrition in third world countries etc etc. Life is not exactly cool for them. eh.?? --- On Sat, 1/2/10, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Subject: [FairfieldLife] Self is just self capitalized Date: Saturday, January 2, 2010, 4:14 AM For all I know I may be the only person on this forum who thinks this is REEEALLY REEEALLY STOOOPID. But then I believe that that First Noble Truth indicates that Buddha was somewhat of a Wuss. Life is suffering as the basis of all of his teachings? Give me a fuckin' break. I think the quote is not Life is Suffering but Suffering is inevitable, one being as pessimistic and imbalanced (yes even really stupid) as it sounds, the other stating an unavoidable reality, as Buddha seems, in that well known story (even if hagiographic or apocryphal), to have noticed that without exception we all will age and die, and watch our loved ones age and die as that is inevitable, and quite appropriately none of us laugh about that, mixed with other more wondrous or awe inspiring experiences. As to those more horrific events which we are at risk to experiencing, that is why one of my favorite summaries of advaita is sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never hurt me. Mamma was right, the error of superimposition is the root of much unnecessary mental anguish. But realizing that does not neuter the other reality, that sticks and stones can break my bones. Buddha, for what its worth, did there draw a line in the sand and part with magical thinking.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_re...@... wrote: snip Schmegegy is a noun meaning idiot with connotations or being full of hot air. If you referred to someone as full of baloney, the person you were referring to would be a schmegegy. Lets say, for example that someone said that schmegegy was a wimpy way to bash but then spent 3 post responding to the comment. Four: (1) The response to your post mocking you for such a lame bash; (2) explaining to Barry what schmegegy meant; (3) explaining to Meow13 that Yiddish words could be spelled many ways; and (4) this one, correcting your 3 post [sic] responding to the comment, since only one of my posts was actually in response to the comment, and that was the same one in which I pointed out that it was wimpy. The use of examples to define subtle differences in words is often hilarious. Some of the ones used to differentiate schlemiel and schlimazel make me laugh till I cry. In your case, no differentiation required. Shtunk, shmuck, and putz would also be appropriate, as would zhlub and shmendrik.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: Which makes you, once again, a schmegegy. AZ, if you know, please clear up for me some of the mystery of the term schmegegy. Being not of the Jewish persuasion, the only times I have heard this phrase in my life have been accompanied by a grimace of cognitive dissonance, my face reflecting the fact that I simply don't get the reference. A Jewish friend of my acquaintance, exorted over a shared joint back in college to define schmegegy for me, replied: You know how when you go to the laundromat to do your wash and afterwards you discover weird lint stuff in the pockets of the washed clothing, stuff that you can't quite figure out the origin of? Schmegegies. So what's the literal meaning? Schmegegy is a noun meaning idiot with connotations or being full of hot air. If you referred to someone as full of baloney, the person you were referring to would be a schmegegy. Lets say, for example that someone said that schmegegy was a wimpy way to bash but then spent 3 post responding to the comment. That person defines being a schmegegy. Thanks. So my friend's suggestion that a schmegegy was an individual with the same basic worth as trouser lint was correct.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfiend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: snip Schmegegy is a noun meaning idiot with connotations or being full of hot air. If you referred to someone as full of baloney, the person you were referring to would be a schmegegy. Lets say, for example that someone said that schmegegy was a wimpy way to bash but then spent 3 post responding to the comment. Four: (1) The response to your post mocking you for such a lame bash; (2) explaining to Barry what schmegegy meant; (3) explaining to Meow13 that Yiddish words could be spelled many ways; and (4) this one, correcting your 3 post [sic] responding to the comment, since only one of my posts was actually in response to the comment, and that was the same one in which I pointed out that it was wimpy. The use of examples to define subtle differences in words is often hilarious. Some of the ones used to differentiate schlemiel and schlimazel make me laugh till I cry. In your case, no differentiation required. Shtunk, shmuck, and putz would also be appropriate, as would zhlub and shmendrik. Like I said, five. Here's a quarter Sweetie, buy yourself some duct tape and keep the bagel. The arguementum ad hominiem attack is the second to last resort of someone who is losing a debate and is unable to respond with legitimacy. The last resort (most difficult for the ego) is to admit that he or she might be wrong. See how stupid you are?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Chutzpah
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: Which makes you, once again, a schmegegy. AZ, if you know, please clear up for me some of the mystery of the term schmegegy. Being not of the Jewish persuasion, the only times I have heard this phrase in my life have been accompanied by a grimace of cognitive dissonance, my face reflecting the fact that I simply don't get the reference. A Jewish friend of my acquaintance, exorted over a shared joint back in college to define schmegegy for me, replied: You know how when you go to the laundromat to do your wash and afterwards you discover weird lint stuff in the pockets of the washed clothing, stuff that you can't quite figure out the origin of? Schmegegies. So what's the literal meaning? Schmegegy is a noun meaning idiot with connotations or being full of hot air. If you referred to someone as full of baloney, the person you were referring to would be a schmegegy. Lets say, for example that someone said that schmegegy was a wimpy way to bash but then spent 3 post responding to the comment. That person defines being a schmegegy. Thanks. So my friend's suggestion that a schmegegy was an individual with the same basic worth as trouser lint was correct. Another example of analogy and example being spot on to clarify definition. Thanks for your suggestions regarding my Blue Moon maladies. Come to find out, it was nothing that a near felonious motorcycle ride on some deserted highways and byways followed by howlin' at the moon with 100K of my closest friend couldn't cure. I feel much better now. :-o~ http://www.fiestabowl.org/index.php/blockparty/entertainment/ Say, back in the day, did you ever know Hans Olson? I would wager Bruce Cockburn knows him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Olson
[FairfieldLife] Police report gives first details of Arizona sweat lodge deaths
Police report gives first details of Arizona sweat lodge deaths Spiritual adviser James Arthur Ray faces murder investigation after three people die and 20 were injured A leaked police report has revealed the horrifying final moments of participants in a new age retreat where a sweat lodge session killed three and injured 20. The spiritual retreat, whose wealthy participants paid thousands of dollars for five days of motivational talks and physical tasks, was led by James Arthur Ray, one of America's best known spiritual gurus. The retreat's Arizona sweat lodge ended up steaming people to death last October. The tragedy was at first hailed as a terrible accident, but Ray is now the subject of a murder investigation. The police report has cast a spotlight on America's self-help industry, where self-proclaimed gurus make millions by urging people into ever more bizarre and extreme behaviour. The report showed that participants in a sweat lodge ceremony vomited, passed out and screamed for help. Ray told them not to leave. He was outside the only entrance into the lodge, controlling the flap that let people in and out. One witness, Theodore Mercer, who helped run the sweat lodge, said Ray told scared participants three times: You are not going to die. You might think you are, but you are not going to die. The two-hour ceremony, which saw red-hot rocks passed into the lodge every 15 minutes, came after two days of fasting and not drinking water. After an hour, two people were dragged out, one saying: I don't want to die, I don't want to die. Ray allegedly responded: It's a good day to die. Almost at the end of the ceremony, with just one more round of rocks to be put in, it emerged that two people had passed out. They were kept inside. When the ceremony was finally over and panicked people were trying to get the victims out, Ray called attempts to remove blankets from the lodge's walls sacrilegious. One of the victims had been subjected to such intense heat that his lungs were scorched. Ray has so far not been charged with any crime, although he has been sued by some of the victims. The tragedy was a terrible accident that no one, including James Ray, could have seen coming, Ray's lawyer, Brad Brian, said in a statement. But the leaked report does reveal previous incidents when problems arose at Ray's sweat lodge and other strange ceremonies. One man described Ray telling him to shatter bricks with his bare hands, which he did, breaking bones in his hand in the process. Critics say that such tasks are a sort of confidence trick that exists at the extreme end of America's $11.5bn (£7bn) self-help industry. Ray, who was born into extreme poverty in Oklahoma, recently bought a multimillion-dollar home in Beverly Hills. There is little doubt that he exercised a powerful psychological hold over many of those who took his courses. The man who broke his hand shattering a brick described the experience to police as amazing. The same man was at the fatal October sweat lodge ceremony. He staggered out halfway through, severely burned by the hot rocks, yet went back in for the last round. In explaining such behaviour, the police report concluded simply: Participants thought highly of James Ray and didn't want to let him down by leaving the sweat lodge. It was a decision that cost some of them their lives. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/03/sweat-lodge-deaths-murder-probe)
