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20050531

Thou Art the Mantra I Chant

Thou art the mantra I chant,
thou art the tantra I practise,
thou art bliss!
thou art bliss!

20050529

The Ego Prayer (poem)

If the very nature of Being
is to become "I am",
what a challenge for someone
who foolishly chooses
Ego over selflessness!
For this person would sooner
choose having No-mind
over all the suffering
that Ego has brought to life
on this good earth.
So let this person lose
his hold over all clinging,
if only to let go of Ego.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to a special friend!
Today is May 29!

20050528

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

It hurts to be ignored,
to not be even given a word
to explain your absence.
And yet I ignore my pain
despite missing you deeply,
for such is the depth of love
which I feel for you...
Yet, I know that this love
is but a delusion, a fragment
of unconditional love,
for it clings and grasps.
Thus I let go of this love,
and let unconditional love
embrace me, so that I may be
released from human love.
Though it hurts to be ignored,
unconditional love erases the pain.
When you have the time for me,
please let me know you're okay.

20050527

Words More Powerful Than a Gun

The pen and the tongue are more powerful than a Colt 45.

After six shots, that Colt could kill a half dozen people; but a wrongly placed word spoken or written can mean life or death for billions of people.

I've decided togo back on welfare

Due to part-time status (under 20 hours a week), I've decided to go back on welfare.

So over the next week, I will record my ordeal...

20050526

Dietary Supplements and Nutrition for Depression

Folate intake and serotonin levels are directly related relative to depression.

Low folate intake lowers serotonin levels, causing depression.

A good multivitamin thus helps to improve moods.

Listmania! UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN: INTERMEDIATE COURSE

I am currently reading Restak's Brainscapes.

It's a really good read, despite the big words.

This is the first book of many on neurology and the brain, which I am currently researching to augment my extensive experience in meditation and alternative health solutions to mental illness.

Our True Nature

"We are stardust, we are golden." -- Joni Mitchell

We are more than just human beings. In us is the echo of the gods, and the legacy of the whole universe.

Because we err, we are human. Yet in forgiveness is the divine, the blessings of angels themselves!

Thus our True Nature rises above our material form.

We are indeed stardust, our minds Golden.

For what are we but a dream of high consciousness? And that is the epitome of divine!

Meditation, optimal nutrition and its effect on mental health

It may be possible to create neuropeptides which result in a positive self esteem using meditation and visualization.

Thus, the pharmaceutical approach to control of mental illness is defective since it treats the problem and not the underlying cause.

Getting well may be as easy as a multivitamin pill, salmon oil capsules and a low beef diet consisting of occasional consumption of chicken and seafish, coupled with meditation and visualization.

It may even begin with such chants as the following:

Om mani payme hum - the Avalokiteshvara mantra

Om tare tutare ture svaha - the Tara mantra

20050525

Thank You to a Dear Friend

You came into my life,
and it was changed forever.
Gone are the dark days,
since you brightened mine up.
It's like a miracle,
this darkness made into light.
With every day life improves,
and it's never the same.
And now you've got game.
I'm moved by the happiness
which has recently happened
to someone so dear to me.
Thank you for being my friend.
Thank you for letting me into your life.
I'm here for you until the end...

Why Mental Illness Is feared (satire)

British Columbia Schizophrenia Society: "'Why Do People Find Mental Illness So Unacceptable?'


Fear of Danger
Many people are afraid that people who have a mental illness are dangerous, unpredictable, and aggressive. In reality, people with a mental illness are usually anxious, fearful of others, and passive. The myth of danger is largely based on inaccurate and outdated cultural myths that always portrayed people with mental illness as violent.

Fear of Criminal Intentions
People with psychiatric disorders are no more likely to commit crimes than the general population. However, if mental illness is left untreated and allowed to become progressively more severe, people who are acutely ill may inadvertently end up in jail. Another common confusion has to do with the nature of involuntary hospitalization, which is sometimes necessary to treat and safeguard someone who is very ill. Hospitalization for medical treatment to regain one's health should never be falsely equated with incarceration in the criminal justice system.

Fear of the Unknown
People often fear what they do not understand. And when they don't understand, they often make wild guesses. Some cultures believe mental illness is the work of evil spirits, while others believe it is caused by bad blood, poisons, or lack of moral integrity. As people learn more about the real nature of mental illness, many of these harmful beliefs fade.

Aversion to Illness
After hundreds of years, 'mental illness' has finally been identified as a disease just like epilepsy, Parkinsonism, or diabetes. But this change from the realm of the witch doctor to the medical doctor doesn't erase all negative feeling -- only lessens it somewhat. The public still has a very strong aversion to hospitals, disease, and doctors.




Better health education programs can help do away with old myths and misunderstandings.

Giving patients the necessary supports to recover in their own communities will also help overcome the general prejudice against all people with mental illness."

As well, most mentally ill people tend to be less likely to lie than sane people, who might be sociopathic in a good way. Though I will point out that sociopathy is not a mental illness nor is criminal psychopathy. It is a legal term as is in/sanity.

20050523

The Alternative to Medication

"...Peptides provide our body's most basic communication network. To study the molecules' specific function, Pert and colleagues at NIMH began taking wafer thin slices of rat brains and, using radioactive molecules, mapping peptide receptors in the brain. Dense clusters appeared in parts of the brain long associated with emotion. According to Pert, the hippocampus, a small, almond-shaped structure that is crucial in memory, is the brain's emotional gateway. Almost every variety of peptide receptor is found there, she notes. The frontal cortex and another brain structure, the amygdala, are also densely populated with peptide receptors. Since emotions are regulated by neuropeptides, and the brain's memory centers are filled with receptors for these peptides, it's likely that emotion and memory are intertwined. However, the peptide network reaches into all the organs, glands, spinal cord, and tissues of the body." — Impertinent ideas. (alternative medicine pioneer Candace Pert); Neimark, Jill Psychology Today 11-21-1997

In short, our emotions are stored throughout the body.

For wherever neuropeptides created by our feelings go, so too goes the memory for that feeling.

Thus it is possible to access emotional memory anywhere in the network which makes up the body-mind.

This is how meditation, chiropractic therapy, therapeutic touch (Reiki) and other forms of healing — even the simple activity such as walking - work.

Often our minds do not truly need psycho-pharmaceutical drugs — at least, not for the rest of our lives.

The side effects of those drugs show us their true nature, of becoming too much of a good thing.

Thus, Professor Pert's research implies that even AIDS is a body-mind threat, and that an interdisciplinary outlook towards disease is the optimal one.

However, I would caution against the strategy implied in the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" when Amanda throws away her anti-anxiety medication.

Tapering off medication is essential to gaining control over the body-mind. This involves reducing medication over a period of time i.e. over a period of four months from full dose to 3/4 of the dose over the first month of weaning to 1/2 of the dose during the second month to 1/4 the dose during the third month, to 1/8th the dose during the fourth.

No one needs to go through the process alone, given the number of cognitive behavior therapy groups out there to help a person by providing emotional support.

Even so, a few people may view daily exercise, a multivitamin supplement, salmon oil capsules and wholesome food as useful on the long run for what ails them.

The challenge is in adopting such a strategy to maintain positive mental health.

What the Bleep Do We Know?

I've read the sfgate article and am prepared to rent the movie.

My friend bugged me about not being able to get her copy of it through MSN Messenger.

It was friendly razzing, but I am certain it's a combination of her router and mine.

Anyway, the movie itself is about a spiritually uplifting film that gets people discussing it after the movie is over.

I am confident it will confirm much of what I've been writing about for the past couple of years.

*A side note here: I read a couple journals I'd written a couple years ago and it's total gibberish on the spiritual part, except maybe for a few reflections on Taoism. The Buddhist reflections ramble on, and don't make any sense.

Yet I find the stuff I've written over the past 2 months is making plenty of sense now.

So I'll go watch What the Bleep and see how close it fits my current ideology...

20050522

Why Fear?

From the Dhammapada 212-216 (a collection of sayings of the Buddha):

"From what is dear, grief is born,
from what is dear, fear is born.
For someone freed from what is dear
there is no grief
-- so why fear?

From what is loved, grief is born,
from what is loved, fear is born.
For someone freed from what is loved,
there is no grief
-- so why fear?

From delight, grief is born,
from delight, fear is born.
For someone freed from delight
there is no grief
-- so why fear?

From sensuality, grief is born,
from sensuality, fear is born.
For someone freed from sensuality
there is no grief
-- so why fear?

From craving, grief is born,
from craving, fear is born.
For someone freed from craving
there is no grief
-- so why fear?"

How to Master Fear

The cause of all fear is self-grasping ignorance, and all the delusions, such as selfishness, attachment and anger, arise from that ignorance, as well as all the unskillful actions motivated by those delusions. --From Tharpa.com

Thus, the antidotes to the delusions of selfishness, attachment and anger are
selflessness, detachment and unconditional love.

Selflessness is best achieved by helping people without expecting reward, to give of ourselves without thought of being a giver.

Detachment is known as letting go, i.e. to not hold onto something as though it were near and dear to you, even when this turns out to be your own life.

Yet to throw away your life needlessly is not detachment, but foolhardiness.

With a healthy sense of detachment, one learns to balance self-preservation with self sacrifice.

Unconditional love is also known as compassion, the kind of love which makes no exceptions, such that one may love another, regardless of whether s/he is friend or enemy.

It may be that selflessness, detachment and unconditional love are the greatest tools a person may develop to remove all delusions, and even ignorance itself.

And no one is excluded from developing their skills in use of these tools.

Yet, only the good of us continue to use them to benefit us all.

20050521

Unconditional Love

True love transcends mere physical attraction.

It binds people together in ways that go beyond attraction.

Such love creates community and revitalizes society.

For some people such love is symbolized by God.

Or it may be what a few people see in a simple act.

At the root of it is unconditional love.

Thus, in a spiritual sense, infinite consciousness creates this universe out of unconditional love.

And yet that Creator is not apart of the created.

For Creator and the created are one.

And this spiritual union is due to unconditional love.

Spirituality Scares the Ignorant Masses

It's amazing that when faced with even a mention of spirituality, the ignorant ridicule the messenger.

My suspicion is that the unenlightened have persecuted the enlightened more often in history than we care to admit.

This may be at the root of the persecution of Gnostics since the Third Century by the Church.

It may even explain the Inquisition (jealousy of the syncretism of Judaism, Islam and Christianity in Spain) and modern-day Protestant myths about other sects and religions, especially the myths about "satanism."

Little does the average Christian know that satan has been bound since the Christ's death. For Christ dealt with the devil's work and bound him.

To believe that satan is bound is supported by Christian doctrine; to believe otherwise - that a personification of evil walks among us is a myth of mass media and diabolic fear-mongering.

Persnally I don't believe in satanism, I believe in Buddhism, and its traditions are free of belief in satan.

For the concept of non-self suggests that satan does not exist, being a spiritual being purported to "live forever" i.e. an exceptionally long time described as "immortal".

Since immortality as a form of permanence is impossible due to the Buddhist concept of non-self, satan does not exist except as an archetype or a symbol of Christian dualistic thought (the symbol of evil versus God as symbol of good).

For I do not view satan as a personification of evil but as a symbol of diabolism.

Within the confines of reality, satanism is a mass media myth that people believe in either for "thrills" or social control.

Regarding social control, belief in satanism helps solidify group dynamics within a religious organization provided checks and balances are observed to prevent abuse of power by religious leaders.

However, it is diabolism to abuse the trust of members of religious bodies including any groups of religious instruction formed by Christians in positions of authority, whether it is a home meeting or a church.

To further emphasis my point on diabolism, I present this website called Children of the Matrix, and its page on "Spiritual" satanism and "christian" conmen for review.

Please note how important maintaining disbelief when viewing it as it may induce a strong denial regarding the topic material.

Any suspension of disbelief that promotes antipathy towards Christianity is not my intent as I do not believe a religion is responsible for what "wolves in sheep's clothing" do behind closed doors.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biggestsecret/matrix/matrix16.htm

Commentary:

Note: see http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net for disclaimer. This article appears to be propaganda.

Illuminati is a code word for the 1 percent that want to profit from mass media propaganda.

With regard to the charges again Prescott Bush, I looked up the Union Banking Corporation and found this article on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Banking_Corporation

The bulk of the article linked in this article is wrong about the Bush family.

"Rumors about the alleged Nazi 'ties' of the late Prescott Bush ... have circulated widely through the internet in recent years. These charges are untenable and politically motivated. Despite some early financial dealings between Prescott Bush and a Nazi industrialist named Fritz Thyssen (who was arrested by the Nazi regime in 1938 and imprisoned during the war), Prescott Bush was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathizer.”

However, they are right in criticizing Billy Graham for manufacturing the religious propaganda of "the immortal soul", which is a syncretism from neo-Platonic sources that the early Church fathers borrow, and then instituted as dogma.

This particular syncretism gets condoned by resorting to the Bible to back up a pagan idea called "immortality". Immortal life is not mentioned in the Bible but "eternal life" in heaven with Jesus is mentioned in that strongly symbolic chapter called "Revelations".

I do not endorse anything David Icke wrote, as the link regarding Children of the Matrix is his work of art, and looks like he cherry picked all the dirt on his targets of derision regarding the richest people of America.

Conspiracy theories like this are great for people who have biases against American organized religion, rich people, and televangelists. I don't believe anything that I can't find anything to debunk. It's not propaganda to give people choices, for it's important to not make a choice but to dance like David.

YMMV

Originally written: May 21, 2005 at 1052H
Edited and updated: February 4, 2013 at 1017H

Tantra: Beyond Sexuality - Embraced By Sensuality

Tantra is about becoming unconditional love.

The Bengali Shiva practices may make use of sexuality in its worship.

However, sexuality is merely one tool of many used by the tantrika to be embraced by the bliss of ecstatic worship of the cosmic union of God and Godddess.

Since, at the core of the tantric practice is the journey of becoming unconditional love, it helps to study the love stories of Gods and Goddesses such as Krshna and Radha, Shiva and Parvati, and others.

As well, even the love story of Princess Diana and Prince Charles is a useful tool.

Ecstatic sensuality is a spiritual practice.

Mere sexuality pales at what it can achieve: unconditional love.

"But what of Kundalini?" asks the novice.

Let go of your preconceived ideas about life and nature.

Cultivate new bonds with the web of life itself.

In this way, you become unconditional love...

20050520

Dating is Not Sex

A date does not always lead to sex.

And no, getting into some lady's pants is not my idea of a successful date.

Rather, a successful date leads to more dates, more discussion about our respective lives, and everything but sex.

So when does sex occur?

Hopefully on the wedding night. ;)

20050518

White Tara

OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA

White Tara is the Buddhist goddess of compassion.

She represents the essence of unconditional love.

The lovingkindness of the Christ shows evidence of this feminine power of love.

Thus White Tara is reflective of that lovingkindness.

Hallucinations and near-death experiences

Because we are not prepared for it, LSD is abused as a drug, out of a mistaken attempt "to get high."

Because of this potential for misuse, the use of LSD was restricted by law.

For not all people are able to use what they learn while under this drug's influence, due to the emphasis on money over spiritual wealth in our education system.

Indeed, what use is a person who follows the spirit rather than money to society today?

Compassion: Letting the Head Rule Over the Heart

Once touched by compassion, a person has difficulty reverting to his previous life when passion ruled.

He knows that reason tempers emotions.

Thus, this is the essence of the concept of "mind over matter."

In matters of love, it is prudent to let the head rule the heart.

Otherwise, we end up falling in love, not with the object of our desire, but with a false love, the pale reflection of unconditional love itself.

In doing so, we see life as though "through a mirror darkly."

By letting reason rule over passion, a person who truly knows compassion, having risen above his passions, is truly able to love all people equally, unconditionally. This called equanimity

Let this be the measure of the depth of your compassion, to allow the embrace of unconditional love to touch your heart.

All it takes is love...

Originally posted: May 18, 2005 1715H
Updated: February 8, 2013 2051H

20050517

Compassion and Wisdom

Om mani padme hung.

In the Pure Land school of Buddhism, Amida Buddha is the Buddha of Boundless Light (Spiritual Wisdom) and Boundless Life (Spiritual Compassion).

In essence, he is the symbol of spiritual aware of compassion and wisdom in the world.

In counterpoint, the Christian's spiritual awareness of the lovingkindness of the Christ arises from prayerful oneness in God, which is available to all of us.

Embraced by Amida, a person's life may be changed so that all she does is reflect the compassion and wisdom so deep that other people's lives are also changed for the good.

All it takes is faith.

The Calm Heart is Full Of Love

Calm is this heart
so that all is revealed now --
thus do I save life
in order to live again,
living in peace, full of Love.

magdalene.org - Was Mary Magdalene a Temple Priestess?

magdalene.org - Was Mary Magdalene a Temple Priestess?

A free woman, freed of marriage, is a threat to men and holy matrimony.

Indeed, then, Mary Magdalene is the archetype of Feminism.

Mary can also be seen as representing the triple goddess of Mari-Anna-Ishtar.

20050516

Meditation on God as Oyasama

In this heart (points to heart)
No ego resides,
Only Oyasama (God).

Oyasama is
Heaven and earth,
The primordial Parents.

When this body dies,
Its soul returns
To Heaven from this Earth.

Thus, living or dead,
This body is always
In the hands of Oyasama.

The Bodhisattva Vow or Vow of Buddhist Angels

"May I become food and drink in the eons of famine for those poverty-stricken suffers.
May I be a doctor, medicine and nurse for all sick beings in the world until everyone is cured.

May I become never-ending wish-fulfilling treasures materialising in front of each of them as all the enjoyments they need.
May I be a guide for those who do not have a guide, a leader for those who journey, a boat for those who want to cross over, and all sorts of ships, bridges, beautiful parks for those who desire them, and light for those who need light.

And may I become beds for those who need a rest, and a servant to all who need servants.
May I also become the basic conditions for all sentient beings, such as earth or even the sky, which is indestructible.
May I always be the living conditions for all sentient beings until all sentient beings are enlightened."

and

"While their evil ripens in me, may all my virtue ripen in them."

~ Shantideva, 8th-century CE.

Of Mary, Joseph and Jesus: the Egyptian connection

Who is this Queen and Virgin but the Great Mother / Great Goddess worshipped since time immemorial?

She is Isis to Osiris, as Mary is to Joseph.

She is Isis, mother of Horus, as Mary is mother of Jesus.

20050515

The Use of Green Tea as Medicine

Today I've noticed two side effects of green tea consumption:

sedative action and anxiolysis (relief of anxiety).

My reduced anxiety in social situations is probably attributeable to green tea consumption combined with a multivitamin and salmon oil.

This is a long form of therapy though, since I've dedicated myself to the use of green tea and the above multivitamin and essential fatty oil supplementation over the past 9 months.

I would attribute even my feelings of reduced anxiety, my positive behavior (smiling and return of smiles from passers-by), and other behavior in crowd situations (clubs and out in the big city) to increased green tea consumption.

Thus, green tea is a safe substitute for the pharmaceutical approach to general anxiety disorder.

YMMV

20050513

Osiris is the Green Man of Celtic Lore

The Gods of Ancient Egypt -- Osiris

"In his original form, a green-skinned man dressed in the raiment of a pharaoh. Following the Legend of Osiris, he appears as a green-skinned man in the form of a mummified pharaoh."

This makes Isis the Queen of May.

Osiris may be the origin of the pagan Mysteries and the later rise of Christianity:

"Many skeptics of Christianity believe that the story of Osiris rising from the dead may have influenced Christianity and its story of the resurrection of Jesus." - wiki

20050511

Acting Now

"Success will not wait. If I delay she will become betrothed to another and lost to me forever.

This is the time. This is the place. This is the man.

I will act now." -- The Scroll Marked IX, The Greatest Salesman in the World, Og Mandino

Though failure has been my reward in life, it is because I did not act now.

Any action I do now only affects this moment; it touches not the past nor influences the future. For that future moment truly never comes.

So when I do not hear from my job prospects, it because they failed to act, to phone me.

In due time I shall return to each one to inquire about my application.

How The Muse Writes Through Me

She takes my hand, guiding it
To place these words to read.
Without careful calculation,
these words flow on and on,
until I can write no more.

Sometimes a theme will come
to me, or a mood will grasp me.
Caught by the Muse, my writing
grows feverous -- I am possessed!
Then she leaves me abruptly.

At times I am sure what to write.
Other times, my unsureness grabs me
and wrestles with my pen...
Yet with patience do I wait
for the Muse to haunt me again.

The Lover and the Beloved Are As One

By telling me your life story
It's as though I became you.
Together you and I made this "we",
And it's like being reborn.
Now and then God whispers
your secret thoughts in my ear.
I listen to every word He says.

20050510

love is what you give away (poem)

Love conquers all --
Don't you know it?
People who think otherwise
think they got love
when love ain't something you get.
You gotta give it away.

Love is my armour --
Am I invincible?
All I know is I am vulnerable,
since I got love.
So love ain't something you get.
You gotta give it away.

Love is bigger than sex --
Why should I fuck around?
How can I respect myself afterward
taking your love?
Cos love ain't something you take.
It's what you give away.

20050509

Rise Above Passion: a Second Look (poem)

Chasing passion,
my desire has ended,
now to be fulfilled.
I chased the girl of my dreams.
Who can do better than that?

Time and time again
crawling after mirages,
I had fooled myself.
Now I rise above passion,
and start to know what love is.

Indeed, love makes clear
the heart shrouded in passion.
It controls the mind
with the music of the heart,
until passion goes away.

For love is greater
than the conditions we place
on the ones we love.
Though passion has brought me here,
it is love that holds me close.

We Are All the Same

Listen to the reeds as they sway apart;
hear them speak of lost friends.
At birth, you were cut from your bed,
crying and grasping in separation.
Everyone listens, knowing your song.
You yearn for others who know your name,
and the words to your lament.
We are all the same, all the same,
longing to find our way back;
back to the one, back to the only one. - Rumi


With friends like that who needs enemies?
It's as though you re-entered the womb,
and were reborn like a babe, ready for Love.
Sure, everyone knows your song now.
Your yearning for others who know you
has been rewarded with these simple words:
"I will always believe in you."
You and I are both the same, both the same,
and we've found our way back;
back to the one, back to the only one.

Indomin - Controls Blood Sugar, Obesity and Headaches

Indomin has been proven to reduce blood sugar and obesity, as well as headaches.

It could also be a cure for hypoglycemia.

Origins of Mayday

Cinco de May is more than just Mexico beating the French for independence.

The week from May 1 to 8 is the Mayday period.

Dominion Day also has the same pagan roots in Beltane.

Why Green tea Is Good For You

3000 years of research by the Chinese is now being proven by recent research.

So throw the coffee away, and drink green tea!

Australian Family of Captive Offers Donation to Iraq

My heart is for the family of Douglas Wood, an engineer who helped Saddam Hussein's government built power plants for Iraq.

Their charitous donation will help Iraq during its rocky road ahead.

My heart goes to the members of the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen in Iraq, and I pray Inshallah so that they listen to Allah and not to the shaitan of revenge.

1 Corinthians 13: Paul Describes Unconditional Love

"...love is patient. Love is kind. It's not jealous. It does not brag, and it's not arrogant. It does not act rudely or unbecomingly. It does not seek it's own. It's not provoked. It does not take into account a wrong suffered. It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices with the truth.

..love bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things. Love never fails."

So Paul says, "Pursue love."

And I amplify:

When you pursue your dream or a love, you pursue love. Whether it captures your heart, or you capture theirs, let love capture yours!

The Armour of Love Protects This Heart

From this heart (points to heart)
comes the armour of love
I wear to protect myself
from the stress of post-modern life.

LOVE: The best protection from fear

"Love is said to be the greatest protection from fear, the best armour."

Indeed unconditional love, not lust or passion, is the greasts protection from fear.

For lust and passion arise out of desire to maintain the romantic delusion common in dysfunctional love relationships.

Simply loving another person and hoping that this act will not cure another person of his misconduct in the relationship.

For love needs to be communicated in order to be heard.

That the relationship sours only shows that perhaps one of the two people involved in a romance is not listening except to his/her own desire.

The Root of Romantic Delusion

"When an unpleasant object such as an enemy appears to our mind, we take this appearance at face value as a real, externally existent enemy, and so we react with fear or hostility; and when an attractive object such as a beautiful man or woman appears to our mind we are equally taken in and respond with desirous attachment. We are fooled completely by appearances - not for a moment do we question their validity.

If we did question appearances, we would discover that that is all they are: mere appearances to mind, with no real object behind them. The enemy we fight or flee from is no more real than the tiger in the dream, and has no more power to harm what we really are. And the beautiful man or woman we are so attached to is like a lover we meet in a dream, a mere appearance arising like a wave in the ocean of our mind and later dissolving back again."

Question appearances, lest you mistake a friend for an enemy and harm society itself.

It appals me that in romance, we do not question appearances but create a perfect world based on what other people present as true.

We do it in our work relationships but not in our romantic relationships.

By doing so, we suffer for not questioning appearances.

In doing so, we give lie to our loving nature.

If one truly loves another person, then it is imperative to question appearances.

Dealing With Fear

"A balanced fear of our delusions and the suffering to which they inevitably give rise is therefore healthy because it serves to motivate constructive action to avoid a real danger. We only need fear as an impetus until we have removed the causes of our vulnerability through finding spiritual, inner refuge and gradually training the mind.

Once we have done this, we are fearless because we no longer have anything that can harm us, like a Foe Destroyer (someone who has attained liberation, defeated the foe of the delusions) or a Buddha (a fully enlightened being).

All Buddha's teachings are methods to overcome the delusions, the source of all fears."

Fearlessness begins with protecting others from danger or harm.

This is called "acting with fearlessness." — http://www.tharpa.com/background/dealing-with-fear.htm

If such protection is no longer necessary, then one may make prayers and offerings to release ourselves from the danger (stress) of concern for others.

Praying for others to be released from their delusions, especially that of self-grasping (the delusive belief in the ego as real and in need of protection), which is the root of fear itself.

Once you eliminate the cause of most fears, it is the fear of fear itself that remains, for fear itself is an aspect of the ego.

How tightly we hold onto the ego as something real shows how much fear we have.

I feel that self-grasping is at the root of the fear of the outsider.

In a relationship setting, a woman may fear a man because his whole lifestyle is foreign to her. Until she finds things in common with him, her fear is justifiable.

Thus it is up to the man to find things in common with her.

20050508

Of dolls, intuition and empowerment

Dolls help take us out of childhood.

Some children use them to roleplay family drama so that the child mind can make sense of family dynamics for later recall as adults, when we finally do look at our childhood to make sense of it and to help us cope with life.

When I left Victoria in 1990, I was given two frog dolls by a close frind of mine.

They helped me adapt to living with my folks again.

About three years later, my friend from Victoria found a boyfriend, got pregnant and broke off contact with me.

The story of Vasalisa
, who relies of her doll to escape Baba Yaga, is one about rising above the good mother, the part of us that can't stop helping others, even to the point of losing touch with our inner self.

Certain types of romance result from unfairly taking advantage of women who are mothering and act out of their compassion.

They may find sympathy for a man who tells his life story after he has gifted her with positive attention i.e. charming her by commenting on her beauty.

This story of Vasalisa contains the means by which such a woman can find her Wild woman side and nurture her intuition.

In this way shewill be able to balance her mothering abilities with her intuition so that she is not vulnerable to the charming sweet-talking men out there.

My friend's gift of the frog dolls, I feel, helped me to adapt to home life.

In a sense, she too is a mother figure, since she did loan me cutlery and eating utensils.

I hope she too found someone to help her grow into motherhood.

It's been 15 years since I left Victoria, and 12.5 years since she broke off communication.

Her own child is about 13. I wonder what's happening with her...

20050507

The "Experts" on Psychosis Fear "Psychos"

"To many, mental illness is frightening. Unfortunately, this fear can discourage people from seeking help early. Neither denial of the problem nor delay will help a young person with psychosis. Much of the fear surrounding mental illness is based on myths and misunderstandings. Mental illness need not be feared. Like other medical conditions, mental illness can be treated."

Fear is what drives the members of a certain website for club-goers to perpetuate myths and misunderstandings about psychosis.

Rather than seeking to understand it, they continue to live by myths and misunderstanding, contrary to the truth.

Just by talking about it without any knowledge about it, only by their rumours about it, they only show their fear, not their compassion.

These armchair psychiatric savants thus perpetuate their own psychotic state of their own little world, but may perpetuate this state through drug use, especially alcohol or, possibly, the illegal substances.

My advice to them, which shall fall on deaf ears, is you need cognitive and dialectic behavior therapy, STAT.

Chasing success doesn't make you immune to what you fear.

Indeed, you fear in others what you fear in yourself.

For the sociopaths who wish another person dead just for suffering the psychosis attendant to post-postpartum depression have proven to be liars repeatedly.

Sadly though, they are in denial, and thus a greater threat to those of us who are confirmed mental health consumers.

Why its not a waste of time to put God first

Since we're all God, whether or not we put Him first makes no difference.

Even when we put ourselves first, God still is coming first.

That we live in conscious ignorance of this is the root of all suffering.

This is what the Buddhists mean when they say that ignorant craving is the root of this suffering.

Yet the answer is not to eradicate craving or even the very passions which lead to it, since it is unfruitful and fraught with even more suffering.

Aimless action is truly not the answer.

Mindful inaction - wuwei - is best.

In doing so, we cannot help but put God first.

For just as the Lover and His Beloved are one, so too is the Creator and His creation.

Let the wise see the wisdom inherent in this, and the fools, distracted by their ignorant folly.

20050506

I am a Mass Transit Junkie



I've been riding the bus and doing mass transit since 1980.

So I am a 33-year veteran of mass transit, and loving it.

With my million-dollar smile and sense of fun, a grueling ninety-minute trip becomes an adventure.

For I find public transit to be more convenient than the 4 or 5 mile walk from my home to the nearest Skytrain station.

Witnessing the grass fields at Fry's Corner on the Fraser Highway, the many sunrises and sunsets, rain pattering on the bus's windows, and the wind whistling through an open window... all these memories are worth having to appreciatee other bus passengers and their idiosyncrasies.

As a confirmed mass transit junkie, I appreciate the convenience that public transit provides.

The Fuss About Who Pays on Dates

I am not a cheap-ass.

If I had a good job, I'd pay for the dinner.

Since I don't have a good job, I don't go on dates.

Besides, I've been dating myself so long actually dating another person might make me jealous. ;)

Schizophrenia and Zinc

As part of medication, a doctor may prescribe 80 mg of Zinc, since the chemical imbalance in the body of a schizophrenic person results in its elimination.

As well, mutlivitamins with a higher amount of B vitamins may be prescribed since they help with an enhanced metabolism.

As well, anorexia nervosa depletes zinc and leads to a worsening of the disease.

What this means is that the stress and resultant mania and psychosis that may accompany anorexia nervosa is partly due to zinc deficiency.

Since cortisol levels are increased during stress, zinc is probably used in the metabolic pathways, especially that of the endocrine system.

Thus malnutrition and starvation may lead to impairment of the endocrine system.

20050505

The Term "Crazy" VS "bipolar. borderline. paranoid. depression"

"Crazy" is the manufactured term for "bipolar, borderline, paranoid, depression", which are medical terms.

However, "crazy" is a term overused in popular culture and is used in much the same way as "monster" is used e.g. Frankenstein's Monster.

The popular culture terms basically contribute to the mythology about mental illness.

In actual fact, depression, mania and psychosis are all temporary states of mind for the majority of people.

Yes, I am suggesting that even "normal" people experience the same states of mind as the mentally ill.

But, I seriously wonder who truly is crazy: the people who are normal yet are afraid of the mentally ill or the mentally ill themselves.

I myself find that the social drinkers often experience the same symptoms that the mentally ill go through during the early stages of alcoholism.

Indeed, alcohol consumption depletes the body's supply of B vitamins to the point where a minimal vitamin deficiency does occur, resulting in changes in state of mind similar to depression and mania of a mixed state.

At the root of this is hypoglycemia, which alcohol consumption causes, especially beer and wine as well as the coolers, due to fructose.

Once the body's blood sugar level is stabilized, much of the psychiatric disorders will be relieved.

What If the Insane Were the Only Sane Ones Among Us in this Crazy World?

In the process of becoming unsane in this sad but sane reality a person may have to have his or her sanity confirmed in a psychiatric ward.

Because we are afraid of what the inappropriate behavior of a schizophrenic person exposes us to (that irrational fear which may result in temporary depression, mania or psychosis in us), society developed medication to control their behavior, often with dire consequences to them.

So they all get the seroquel treatment.

This powerful anti-psychotic has sedative properties, but its side effects leave patients with weight gain and its side effects on the heart and cardiovascular system.

In effect, society keeps the schizophrenics asleep of their true potential, which is to poke holes into the fabric of deception and lies which society weaves to entrap us.

How utterly insane is society, that it should medicate the brightest of us, just because they've seen through the reality manufactured by society!

Again, the social control experiment called Club Vibes is a perfectly good example what I am babbling about.

Say NO to BBQ Dinners!

Sorry, man! I'll pass.

Nitrosamine carcinogens and the risk of stomach cancer would need a bowl full of brocolli to go with those overcooked smokies.

Also ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) reduces the formation of nitrosamines from forming.

The vegetable with lots of Vitamin C in it is red peppers.

So eat veggies with your BBQ dishes, peoples!

"About 1970 it was discovered that ascorbic acid inhibits nitrosamine formation. Consequently, the addition of 550 ppm of ascorbic acid is now required in the manufacture of cured meat in the U.S. Actually, most cured meat manufacturers add erythorbic acid (an isomer of ascorbic acid) rather than ascorbic acid. Although erythorbic acid has reduced vitamin C activity, it is as effective as ascorbic acid in inhibiting nitrosamine formation and is also cheaper than vitamin C. Another antioxidant, alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), is added to some cured meats to inhibit nitrosamine formation. As a result of these strategies, there are now significantly lower levels of nitrosamines in fried bacon and other cured meats than there were some years ago. Ascorbic acid, erythorbic acid, and alpha-tocopherol inhibit nitrosamine formation due to their oxidation-reduction properties. For example, when ascorbic acid is oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid, nitrous anhydride, a potent nitrosating agent formed from sodium nitrite, is reduced to nitric oxide, which is not a nitrosating agent. The discovery that ascorbic acid can inhibit nitrosamine formation was serendipitous."

Why Fish is In

It's not just a Californian trend.

Salmon oil and Omega 3 oils in particular are useful in stabilizing bipolar disorder, an endocrine-based mental disorder associated with thyroid imbalance (usually indicated by low amounts of the thyroid hormone, thyroxine).

Thyroxine itself consists of iodine atoms attached to two linked chains of tyrosine, an amino acid associated with the neurotransmitters, dopamine and noradrenalin.

In essence, low thyroxine levels also reflect low levels of dopamine and noradrenalin, neurotransmitters associated with the behavior reward system and the "fight-or-flight" syndrome, respectively.

As a result of this chemical imbalance, people with bipolar disorder tend to suffer mood swings.

Such people fall into two classes: the positive and happy kind, and the negative and unhappy kind. There may be a third class with mixed symptoms (both depressed and manic at the same time).

The happy bipolars tend to be warm, caring, and loving; they also tend to "fall in love" quickly in relationships, and may treat both praise and abuse as attention, thus confusing both kinds as "love."

Indeed, happy bipolars are motherly if female, and fatherly if male.

The unhappy bipolars may exhibit additional psychosis with paranoid symptoms and also may keep all aspects of their illness a secret; they tend range from not trusting a person to being too trusting of a romantic interest, depending on the depth of their psychosis.

At times, unhappy bipolars tend to get aggressive with violent outbursts towards loved ones.

Mood stabilization is the first concern of a medical professional using lithium.

Fish oil is also a mood stabilizer, as evidenced by the demeanor of people who eat a lot of fish.

Indeed, bipolar symptoms are rare among the Japanese, who eat a lot of rare fish such as salmon, mackerel and tuna.

Perhaps Human Problems Are Symptoms of Our Social Stress

The public education system is designed to manufacture wageslaves not people.

The stress of having to adapt to this repressive system results in "mental illness".

Such disorders as psychoses, mania and depression are all temporary, being maladaptive behavior to adapt to stress, especially that of the insidious double-bind.

The prime example of the double-bind is the "love/hate" relationship of parent and child.

Indeed, human relationships are rife with schizophregenic manifestations complete with depression, mania and psychoses as ways of adapting to the stress of getting along with each other.

And our mental and social ills are the symptoms of human society stressed to the breaking point.