I want to become stronger and I'm looking at ways to train my body without going to a gym as I'm trying to be as frugal as possible.

What are your training routines? The reason exercise has become to me important lately (well, it should be to all of us) is that I was facing some health issues derived from sedentary lifestyle and poor diet.

I've lost quite a lot of weight (from 120kg to 91kg) and I would like to add some muscle as my doctor recommended me to continue lifting weights but I cannot afford a gym not any equipment where I am at currently. My target is to be around 80-85kg. I am also trying to incorporate Qi Gong and Yoga. Particularly this routine:

I'll believe anything. Especially if it is true.
When I studied Chen Yen (Shingon) Buddhism and Chinese and Japanese Yoga and Kempo etc.
I believed, for many years, I may have been in a cult. Maybe I was. Maybe not.
https://isshinkempo.com/nagaboshi-tomio-the-buddhist-who-refused-to-fight/

Now that I am planning on continuing my Dharmic studies into Hinduism, Jainism. I need some free goodies. Maybe. Maybe not.
https://srividyatantram.com/free-publications/

Or maybe I'll just take up fortune/future telling and start my own cult? Tips welcome...
https://web.archive.org/web/20060622011645/http://pages.britishlibrary.net/lobster/tarot/

It is a chat between Mike Corey, a YouTuber whose goal it is to show people that travel is nothing to be afraid of, and Mpisi, the medicine man and tribal elder of the Ndebele tribe in Zimbabwe in Southern Africa, and it gave me some food for thought.

Basically Mpisi tells that city life is full of chemicals, in the food, in the clothing, and in the environment. He thinks people are far happier in villages, where people are hospitable and friendly. He finds that in the city everybody is alone, just one, and that there is no hospitality. He thinks money should be invested in goats or chickens, so that it can grow.

We have a lot of comforts in modern life — hot and cold running water, showers, toilets, electric light, refrigerators, washing machines — all sorts of labour saving devices, so that we can spend our days surfing the internet and watching wise YouTube videos. These are things you wouldn’t have living the tribal life in Southern Zimbabwe.

Yet I think Mpisi is not far wrong when he says the problems of modern life have to do with connectedness, with being open to our fellow humans and to the animals.

I've been having some troubles lately (poor sleep) and am in need of some positivity.

Even though there might be some potential drawbacks to this, spiritual ego and all that stuff, and the yang in the yin and the yin in the yang, let's have a thread to celebrate some of the things we are doing right.

No need for this to be a hollier-than-though thread, we're all flawed (Mistakes R US as Genkaku would say), but equally I know that we are all trying to be better and practice on a daily basis towards our aspirations and Boddhisatva ideals.

Three things I'm doing right these days:

• Over half a year and more of not taking my phone to the toilet a.k.a. practicing not being a phone zombie. Great success! I know that it's the small things that eventually snowball towards better things.
• Three established projects of a socially-useful variety (the already mentioned Kiva + two through my highschool Alumni foundation, organising Alumni lectures for the pupils + a scholarship ). One big project of this type in (purposefuly slow) development, hopefully it will slowly come to fruition.
• Quit drinking 4-5-6 months ago, feeling good about it.

What are some things you are doing right?

I was reading mainstream media on eating and sky meditation …
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jan/30/easy-wins-if-stillness-isnt-for-you-you-can-meditate-while-eating

Reminded me of attending monastic settings were a clear delineation exists between those practicing mindfulness and those just eating, gibbering and living a mindless cycle of being.

I prefer using the word 'focussed' rather than 'concentrated'. Really because of the difference between tension and attention. So mindful eating is an attention to the 'taste gate' awareness.

So eating as meditation is a singular attention?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eat-your-way-to-enlighten_b_231308

How do you eat?

As we may know people [Spoiler alert] die

For example I am surprised when I wake up in the morning,
after the 'little death' of zzz time.

Lobster Pre-Obituary
aka cructacean, lobby, lob etc. was a
fanatical devotee of the Mettaray Buddha
of the future.
She/He/IT, practised many forms of abandoned Dharma.
They passed away quietly in someone else's sleep.
https://yinyana.tumblr.com/

1. https://mastodon.clinicians-exchange.org/@goodnewsrobot
2. https://live.newscientist.com/
3. the below video

Should be easy for you guys...
What are your 3 good things for today?

“Earthing is about having direct skin contact with the surface of the Earth, whether it’s your bare feet, your hands or other parts of your body,” Dr. Albers explains. The theory is that when we physically connect with the ground, its electrical energy rebalances our own. Proponents believe that the rise in chronic illnesses can be attributed, in part, to our footwear.

“They point out that we've just recently started wearing shoes with rubber soles, which don’t conduct electricity,” she continues. “So, part of the argument is that we've removed that contact from the Earth, which is making us unwell.”

Modern earthing is a new(ish) twist on a widespread belief in the healing potential of the Earth. Practitioners of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy of reflexology sometimes walk barefoot to stimulate the flow of energy (qi) throughout the body. Being barefoot is also a feature of many indigenous cultures around the world — and several religions require devotees to remove their shoes to pray or enter a place of worship.

So, these ideas have been “in the air,” in one form or another, for a long time. But the specific practice of earthing has been having a moment since 2022, when it became a hot topic on social media.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/earthing

She has a couple of the products they sell for indoor grounding. A set of sheets with fine metal wires that you connect with an electrical outlet's grounding plug as well as a mat that you can sit or stand on. We had a voltage meter that picked up my natural voltage which was only like .3, but then when I stepped on the mat it reduced to 0. So something happens, but does it really do anything more than placebo or being outside in general?

This reminded me somewhat of @lobsters rants on this subject, but turning ones demons into friends seems like a good practice.

Feeding our demons rather than fighting them contradicts the conventional approach of fighting against whatever assails us. But it turns out to be a remarkably effective path to inner integration.

Demons (maras in Sanskrit) are not bloodthirsty ghouls waiting for us in dark corners. Demons are within us. They are energies we experience every day, such as fear, illness, depression, anxiety, trauma, relationship difficulties, and addiction.

Anything that drains our energy and blocks us from being completely awake is a demon. The approach of giving form to these inner forces and feeding them, rather than struggling against them, was originally articulated by an eleventh-century female Tibetan Buddhist teacher named Machig Labdrön (1055–1145). The spiritual practice she developed was called Chöd, and it generated such amazing results that it became very popular, spreading widely throughout Tibet and beyond.

I think all these things are fairly subtle movements of mind, but they're things that are usually buried. Like trying not to creep on the young attractive women, or judge the overweight people. There's also a seeming obsession with imagining romantic relationships, or who I'd have a shot with, etc.

On one level its kind of misery making. On another it shows me relatively unexplored areas that need to be resolved and let go of, or worked on in some way.

Now I don’t know where this attitude came from, I haven’t been exposed to real stoic philosophy at any point in my life, but somewhere in my childhood it came to me that this was the way to be in life. This basic enduring has sometimes been good for me, it has kept me from chasing sex or being easily addicted, but it has also had downsides, like when my knees started playing up and I didn’t go see a fysio for a year.

In enduring the sunshine and the rain, and not being easily moved, I have found a kind of wisdom about the passing nature of things. I have been a witness to good events and bad, and have found that with patience personal happiness tends to return.

But I have to admit, when I imagine a Buddhist being offered a donut, I imagine them deciding that the sense pleasure brought by the donut is not worth the unhealthy ingredients, even if it really won't be too much bother to metabolize or balance out with a majority of healthy eating and exercise.

That is to say, I imagine the middle way for donuts is to abstain from donuts, and perhaps look for something else that gives us a bit of sweetness to enjoy? Or is it okay to just eat the donut?

May seem like a small thing but it's a small thing that won't go away for me.

I would wish for them to have happiness, which cannot be bought, but which can be found in Freedom. I don’t think that’s idealising people, just acknowledging that the quest for happiness is universal.

Often it is people’s desires that make them unhappy, whether they realise it or not. People who think they are too fat, lonely and wanting a rich husband, envious of the status of others, it all is desire and part of the mind.

So I think whether you are rich or poor, there is a way to happiness, as long as you know the art of being satisfied with life’s small pleasures. A cup of tea, or a favourite piece of music on the radio.

As a child, your expectations are small. As an adult, things get out of hand. Your desires get large, until you start on the spiritual path and let it all go again, recognising the ultimate futility of the thing. And in the end you are satisfied with a cup of tea again.

In Poonjaji the other day I read “this is the discrimination of the burning ghat: in the end there is nothing left of your body but a few ounces of ash.” And you can’t take possessions, money or family with you when you go.

So a new topic, here it is.

I’ve had periods where I have been very disciplined — when I got into a new and much more corporate job, I changed my life and started going to the gym three or four times a week, and got really muscled and fit over the course of about a year, lost about 25 kg of body weight, but then I had a mental breakdown and ended up shifting to a much less stressed lifestyle.

That was when I got into a more relaxed way of living. I realised I had overdone it, over-strained myself and had to make a change. There is nothing wrong with living in a relaxed, low-energy style. You can take more time to smell the roses, sleep, reading and writing letters and correspondence to people you know.

As has been mentioned in the thread, there is a spectrum between discipline and laxity (wording?). Allan Watts called them "prickly" (disciplined) and "gooey" (lax/undisciplined). The Buddha advised the middle-way. Hence, here to it must be that the middle way applies as the way that brings the best results and least suffering.

An open question is how good any of us are in determining where we place on the spectrum in relation to the middle, hence which direction we should go with full steam ahead.

In our modern way of life, I think a lot of people will go more deeply into discipline first, and then like I did experience a backlash. The current mental health epidemic is a signal showing that, where a very large percentage of people end up taking medication, anti depressants or anti anxiety meds like benzodiazepines. These just mask the symptoms, whereas at their core is an unhealthy lifestyle.

I think we can take a leaf from the lives of cats… they sleep an average of 15 hours a day! Discipline is the art of ignoring your boundaries, of being subject to whatever goals the goal-directed part of your mind puts in front of you. Sure discipline helps you achieve your goals, but it’s not living.

I'm currently trying to go all solar as independence benefits my practice and others around me (I think). I am currently reading this article to learn how to set up a DIY.

Any guidance is more than welcome.

I think if you take the widest possible view of this it starts with print media (books and photos), continues to radio, cinema and television, internet-connected computers and eventually the smartphone. They become gradually more addictive, although arguably computers without social media are less harmful. The era of always available Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube seems to have made this addiction widespread.

Personally I try to protect myself from this by using as little social media as possible, but I still find it hard to limit my forum use. When I go to visit my father and don’t have my tablet with me, I still log in on my phone, and suddenly my phone use goes up by three hours a day. Dropping forums completely I would expect to create some withdrawal.

I find the ‘Screen Time’ indicators on my devices and the weekly usage stats a great reminder of how much time I spend with devices.

How does this feel for you?

He described the experience like this…

It might happen to you...

Dropping an atomic bomb (God's molecule / 5-Me0-DMT) into my brain...

Kaboom, a Nagasaki and Hiroshima scene... the terror of death, crying like a werewolf while being dragged along and destroyed in scorching whirlwinds, but to no avail... nothing was left… 'I' was destroyed... both the searcher and the search completely wiped away.

Silence... An empty plain… surrealistic... absolutely nothing of my beliefs was still standing. Dazzling light... the observer became the universe (and partly because of this the mystical experience is often described as experiencing your own death).

This happened to him in 2019 and since then in certain circles he has been calling himself enlightened. He laughs a great deal and is a jolly kind of fellow. He still takes psychedelic substances two or three times a year.

So it strikes me that there is this tradition in Buddhism for pratyeka buddhas, who have reached enlightenment on their own, without the guidance of an awakened one. Could it be that people who have this kind of experience are on that path? Of course a lot is dependent on how you integrate this kind of experience, what it means for your mind and body. A real enlightened master has undergone an evolution which has changed mind and body, having an experience of this type is temporary.

It seems to me that strongly held beliefs, of what is true in this world, are a barrier to most types of enlightenment. There is a stanza in the Tao Te Ching which goes, “The man of knowledge gains something new every day, the Man of Tao lets something go every day.”

I had my own period of stillness studying Buddhism along Holland’s North Sea coast, where I had a little apartment on the fourth floor overlooking the beach. I spent years there in relative solitude, quietly reading Dhamma talks and meditating. I found it rejuvenating, it brought me back to myself after a long period of work-focussed life in England which was starting to strain my physical and mental health, and had taken my mind away from the spiritual.

A lot of the lessons in retrospect were about being more aware, of stressors when working hard and of opportunities for recovery when in a quiet period. Often when we are younger — and getting older! — we don’t know the limits of body and mind. A key thing for me was looking after my sleep as a number one priority. Long periods of sleeplessness were a danger sign I shouldn’t have ignored at the time, and getting good-quality sleep was key during recovery.

I do still daily express my gratitude, not least for the foresight to build up enough savings to sustain me through a difficult period. But also for the chance to reconnect with my spiritual roots, through Osho, Buddhism and much reading of the world’s spiritual classics, many of which are freely available on the internet.

Gasho my friends

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/28/1194526119/ozempic-wegovy-drinking-alcohol-cravings-semaglutide

One part of me thinks this is great and has the potential to reduce one of Buddhism's big three sources of suffering, craving. The other part of me envisions a dystopian future where we're all consuming some future iteration of this and have lost all motivation to do anything.

It also occurs to me to wonder what the economic implications of widespread usage of this would be?

It makes no sense to try and live by another’s exact words, you cannot imitate him or be him come again. Instead, be the unique expression of the universe you were meant to be. But you cannot stop changing or evolving, as long as you are alive change will be there. So it is with letting those changes teach you, alter you, shape you.

So learning means to absorb, which means to read slowly, deliberately, to let realisations which come from the words of a text arise and be considered. It is often good to pause and contemplate for a few seconds. But when you’re done, discard the words and carry on.

Memorising is a form of clinging. It is better to let the words go, and just let their essence stay with you, even if it means occasionally returning to texts you had read before, in order to see if a new appreciation arises. Even with quotes, which are meant to be memorable, it is good to just let them be and forget them for a while… if they are truly worth remembering they will stay with you. So I thought I would close this with a quote

“The man of knowledge learns something new every day. The man of Tao forgets something every day.”
— Lao Tse

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/eustress-vs-distress#summary

For a while I've been embracing the value of challenge and difficulty in their ability, and I'd say necessity, to improve mental and physical health. The human mind and body are built to react positively to certain levels of stress. Like the immune or skeletal system, live too long in a sterile or gravityless environment and these systems degenerate and break down. I think there is truth to this regarding our mental well being too. Remove all challenges from someone's life and they become incapable of coping with the inevitabilities of life, or something like how really beautiful people don't have to try as hard for attention and they develop comparatively boring personalities.

Many people face real struggles in life that wear them down and degrade their quality of life. Being able to make this distinction between types of stress helps.

The main distinction between the two has to do with the level of resources, both external and internal, the individual facing the stress has to meet it. From a Buddhist perspective in developing a compassion practice wishing for people to have the internal resources, such as resilience and confidence to face life's challenges, has been more conducive to building compassion for me than things like wishing for things like safety. We all can do things in our lives to increase our ability to meet difficulty, changing distress into eustress. When I get overwhelmed by situations I consciously turn my thinking from worry into focusing on the things I can do to improve the situation and my mental health improves.

And last night, I had some espresso coffee at about 3 am, and was awake until 6 experiencing in extreme detail how coffee also produces a rush, and then a protracted period of inner energetic grinding. That’s not the first time I have noticed that, and it has put me in mind that really looking at what your body is telling you is a good guide for what is good and what is not. So I have resolved to go off coffee for a while as well.

It seems to me that as your mindfulness increases, you become more sensitive to these things.

used in miso and soy sauce
Delicious meals of stir fry and soup. Yum!

Stay healthy!

I have been noticing for many years now that I have trouble finishing a job - the last 5-10% of it. I will frequently (not always) stop and postpone or experience discomfort as if the last 10% is as difficult as, say, the previous 40%. This then results in either anxiety (if I postpone) or tiredness (if I expend too much psychological energy).

This could be while running, washing dishes, tapering off smoking, a work-task, meditating, anything really.

While running, my cousin makes a point of going maximum effort in the last stretch. Is this a good way (in all contexts)?

Do you experience this phenomenon? Any sage advice on how to make finishing tasks easier?

Thanks!

Dear Friends of the Medicine Buddha,

As we know gut bacteria can be improved,
https://www.eatthis.com/gut-health/

so can the nose and mouth biome
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/killer-sinus-infection-how-to-tell-if-yours-is-viral-or-bacterial/

How do you improve your health?

New study provides evidence for a ketogenic diet

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRyfA1sM/

He’s also on YouTube. Ven Tri Dao

All this in the interest of not identifying with the body, and not identifying with the thoughts, of course.

My bestest food favs are:

• smoothies
• fruit salad
• air fried sweet potato fries

What food is your best?

Some of us are addicted to the samsara/devil we know …
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2021/aug/22/how-digital-media-turned-us-all-into-dopamine-addicts-and-what-we-can-do-to-break-the-cycle

Personally my dopamine fixes come from:

• Meditation, yoga, chanting [good lobster]
• News, newbuddhist posting, being outraged by political incompetence [just to mention a few]

My name is lobster and I am a dopamine addict. 🧎🏼💉🍫🦞

You?

What you watching?

Now, i don’t really agree with that. It seems to me cruel and unusual to ‘stimulate’ someone by withholding from them something that they want. I don’t think I would particularly enjoy this myself. But the wider point that people need stimulating seems more interesting, when you start letting go of desires a whole lot of motivation disappears from your life. So do buddhists need stimulating?

What do you think?

As a counterpoint we also build up an image of unpleasant, bad. Cold, sharp, harsh, insulting or overbearing, controlling. These are things we usually associate with this shadow, things to be avoided. We interpret certain things in this way, a voice may sound harsh, words may seem insulting.

This means that we naturally construct in our minds the Three Poisons: desire (for what is pleasant), avoidance (of what is unpleasant and bad), and at its root ignorance (of the dharma). In a way desire and avoidance rule our lives, they drive us as we move towards and away from things. The dharma therefore is a path to freedom, and once you start seeing how this works you find yourself automatically letting go of many impulses.

Recognising what is pleasant and unpleasant is unavoidable, our eye appreciates good design or a fine painting, or our tastebuds the taste of chocolate. Yet to some extent this is conditioned by experience, often coffee or wine does not taste good at first encounter when we are children, but we may grow to like them. This stays with us.

So, when we let go of pleasant and unpleasant, we remain aware of the natural distinctions. We may choose to return to a more natural taste, foresaking coffee for tea. But the essence of this aspect of the dharma is that we learn to consciously partake of that which is wholesome and beneficial, rather than merely following what is pleasant and avoiding what is unpleasant.

That we learn to eat potatoes and sauerkraut instead of only chocolate biscuits.

I am a nerd. Maybe a Buddhist Nerd. Religion nerd. Computer nerd. Linux nerd.

Today I came across Nadi X (wearable AI Yoga pants) whilst reading Hackspace.
https://hackspace.raspberrypi.com/issues
Do I need them Hell Yeah! not really.
Do we need to be immunised against consensus consumer reality?

So many of our interests can be let go of or utilised efficiently. Too many enslave our being.

The question is really who are we and what do we really need?

During Lockdown walking was a high risk activity. Now I am doing more. Trying my best to avoid those coughing. Quite a few in London. I have had vaccine shots but not the flu jab.

Interestingly I can feel I need to straighten up. Basically shoulders back, head up and speed walk. Great exercise.

maybe this might come in handy … eventually …
https://prepareforchange.net/2016/07/09/the-lung-gom-pa-runners-of-old-tibet/

Any walking tips?

I noticed it when I tried out a Freethinker forum the other day. A whole group of people who have freed themselves from religion, who spend their days thinking and talking… so much thinking… so little appreciation for silence. I’m finding it difficult to connect to them, although I do agree with some of their views on the church.

Is it possible that by spending enough time among Buddhists we become unused to normal socialisation?

Apparently Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga was devised by Tartang Tulku Rinpoche. You may find it interesting, here is a link to the website…

https://www.kumnyeyoga.com/

All my clothes are from other family members. Some still in packaging. Now I am overwhelmed with clothing. So of course donate or pass on. Can I?
Seems it is not that simple.

Clothes banks, 5 minute walk away. Gone!

Swishing? Pah! Seems as much fun as Clothing Sales Frenzy …
http://swishing.com/

Traid? I thought they were a Chinese mafia …
https://www.traid.org.uk/clothes-donations/find-a-bank/

Charity shop maybe? Or local Church/Mosque?

I am worn out from wearing …

In order to deal with anger/fear and excessive comfort eating I have decided to engage in yoga plus ...
@Kerome is working towards a 30 day hatha yoga challenge. Hope he will share his reasons and progress

https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/comment/560329/#Comment_560329
I have been doing my daily (usually 20 mins) and this is what suits me in terms of exercise:

After doing meditation with @how I do exercise. So this is just after 6.30am for me.
I sometimes use guidance - plan to do one of these in a few hours ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/55151792

Already I am noticing my preference needs and progress:

• limited space and a wintery room means a quick bout of martial muscle tension exercise warms
• yoga and tai chi stretches and loosens
• a led or timed session is very inspiring
• daily is good practice

There even seems to be something to inspire my lobsterian tendencies. Nice claws.

As we know life tips.

What have we learned and can share?

Nobody cares?
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/the-top-10-life-tips-that-we-should-be-informed-about.html

Love is all there is?
https://highexistence.com/life-secrets-and-tips/

Wait ... too much already ... ?
https://www.inc.com/lolly-daskal/25-excellent-pieces-of-advice-that-most-people-ignore.html

All I wanted was how to make great soup with leftovers. The everyday essentials ...
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/5-easy-ways-make-soup-leftovers-0

ah ha ... hot water in the bird bath during winter cold ... now we are talking
https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/comment/561069/#Comment_561069

Was watching this about Japans Satoyama, or water garden living.

How wonderful to be green, sustained directly. I was woken up by our vocal garden fox. My garden garlic, fennel and parsley is growing fiercely. Harmony. Peace of land. Wonder.

How do you sustain?

Senses can be highlighted, Thoughts focussed.

We can hear a mediation pin clang drop ... Observe the nurtured mine, mined mine. Feel the arisings.

Still we are.

Ain't it so? Same as it ever is ...

I still don’t get angry often but when it happens now I have decided to try and observe it mindfully, rather than repressing it. It is funny, it only seems to turn from irritation into anger when I actually express it. Otherwise it is just a small dark cloud on the horizon... I recall Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a whole book on mindfully handling anger.

It seems to me that when you become angry, your thinking is somewhat twisted, you are no longer reasonable in your thinking. It takes an effort to think logically when you are angry. Things within me seem to protest when I attempt to think logically while I am caught up in the righteousness of temporary anger. For me anger is always about getting justice, righteousness.

Just another thing to let go of...