Best Of
Re: How very disappointing...
@federica said:
The answer is always no, if no means no. No matter who, why, or where.
Quite right
Rape is the most inhuman and degrading, humiliating indignity any one person can brutally inflict on another.
Yes, and I have up-close-and-personal experience that confirms this.
The answer to the question that you're probably asking yourself, is, yes, I was.
And the VAST majority of perpetrators are men, raping women.
And I guess I fall into that statistically insignificant minority
Which reveals the sobering reality that the dating pool for hetero women, also contains their most dangerous predator.
I would say that hetero women have their own predatory instincts, too. I've known a few.
Anyway, this convo has gone from impropriety, to rape, and I'm not down for that.
Done.
Re: Space - the final frontier
Local newspaper writing about an upcoming supernova category 1a -extremely rare- which will be visible from Earth. Of course in 23,000 years. The stars are located 150 light years away from us so no amargeddon yet.
"They occur, the research center adds, when a white dwarf exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit—the maximum it can withstand without collapsing under its own gravity—triggering a gigantic nuclear explosion equivalent to more than a quadrillion nuclear bombs.
Many years ago, it was predicted that the merger of two white dwarfs, whose total mass exceeded this stability limit, could be the origin of most Type 1a supernovae, but this is the first time astronomers have found a system that will clearly end as a Type 1a supernova."
I have searched Chandrasekkhar's limit and it is fascinating what Physics is finding out from our world. What an age to live in! All this knowledge is so vast!
Kotishka
How do you experience your body?
Lately I have been experimenting with a technique I found in Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. In it he describes a method he calls “feeling the body from within”. It seems fairly straightforward, you just feel the sensations of your body. But what I found was that there were various tinglings which force themselves on my attention when I do this, and then I come to focus more on the tingling, which seems to exist in various clouds around the body. It’s like having a second skin, which is being continually touched.
If I focus carefully, I can explore the sensations of the real body: I can feel my trousers against my legs, I can feel my shirt against my shoulders, I can feel the touches of my tongue against the roof of my mouth, I can feel my lips, I can feel the cool air against my arms. These things give me rest, a peaceful feeling. The tinglings persist as a kind of tinnitus, something that is both heard and felt, but it is continually moving.
How do you experience your body?
Jeroen
Re: Dogen's Shobogenzo - Komyo (光明)
@Kotishka said:
I have found a 5 hour podcast about this chapter done by Brad if anyone else wishes to join my quest. It is split in 5 parts. The first part is him reading a paraphrased version for those unfamiliar. It includes a commentary of the paraphrased version and why he thought it would be useful.Good sittings to you all!
Thanks for this, didn't realize or think to look that he has a podcast. Going to add it into my rotation.
person
Re: Zazen is not meditation?!
But zazen is meditation then! Why say it is not meditation practice? I mean, I find this an extra-confusing step. Perhaps you want to get rid of categories and concepts but human beings operate and construct these to engage with their reality.
[Dramatic pause]
Mid-way through writing that paragraph I realise how this conceptual proliferation -In Theravada, they call it papañca - is so human-like and perhaps to reach Nirvana one must learn to pause it.
Kotishka's head begins to emit steam
Thank you all.
PD: I will watch the videos later Shoshin 
Kotishka
Re: Funny Stuff
Recently, in a large French city, a poster with the image of a skinny and tanned young woman appeared in a gym window. The text read: “This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale? ”
A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the model on the poster, responded publicly to the provocation with these words:
“To whom it is due,
Whales are always surrounded by friends: dolphins, sea lions and curious humans. They have an active sex life, get pregnant and give birth to adorable baby whales. They love eating shrimp, playing and swimming in the oceans, visiting amazing places such as Patagonia, the Bering Sea and Polynesian coral reefs.
Whales make amazing singers and they even recorded CDs. They're incredible creatures and almost free of predators, except for humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost the whole world.
Mermaids, on the other hand, don't exist. And if they existed, would they line up in front of psychoanalysts’ studies to solve their identity crisis: fish or human? Even the most experienced therapist would find themselves in trouble.
They don’t have a sex life, because they kill the men that approach them. But how could they? Where would 'that thing' be? Consequently, they don't have children. And who would want to approach a girl who smells of fish tank?
P.S. We live in a time where the media tries to convince us that only skinny people are beautiful. I, on the other hand, prefer to enjoy ice cream with my children, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and good chocolate with my girlfriends.
Over time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that, when there is no more space, it is distributed to the rest of our body. So we are not burdened, we are hugely educated and happy. "
Jeroen