Best Of
Re: A chat with Mpisi
Evolution "designed" humans to live in small bands of hunter/gatherers. We stepped out of that world when we started agriculture and animal husbandry. Ever since so many of our problems are problems created by our solutions to previous problems. Horses help us carry more and be more productive allowing us to better feed ourselves > horse manure piles up in cities at city block scales > automobiles solve that problem > now we have unwalkable cities and CO2 pollution.
I'm happy moving forward and keeping with the "solve the next problem" type of mentality. Off the top of my head (so it may be off) in the 1900s something like 1/3 of children died before 5, now its around 1%. A more productive, specialized world allows some of us to give art, writing, spirituality, science to the rest of the world rather than 95% of us focusing on food, shelter and security.
The Harvard study of adult development has been going on for over 80 years and they've found that the best predictor of well being and longevity is the quality of our relationships. For all the talk of tracking our biometrics or getting chemicals out of food this is a major factor that hasn't gotten enough attention. People are starting to talk more about it lately. It gets framed more as a loneliness epidemic.
This is 6 years old, and its only getting worse.
person
A chat with Mpisi
Today my YouTube feed gave me this…
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.
Jeroen
Re: What we are doing right?
Great Insight, tips and skilful means everyone 
Many thanks!
There is no negative BUT we can lighten our Way to Banana-Nirvana as the minions do.
When we enter the Buddhist stream we can:
- Go against the flow and get swept away anyway
- Go with the flow and end up further along on the far shore
- Stop crossing, being cross orientated and forgetting, shore, stream and both sides are The Way
lobster
Re: Deliberatly Ending a Human life- How can we justify it ?
I’d like to add a coda…
My father’s death was another interesting case. When he was admitted to hospital it was with a stroke, not something you usually die from. Initially his prospects of making a decent recovery were rated quite highly. But then he had a lung infection and spent ten days on a breathing machine in Intensive Care, and by the time they moved him back to Neurology there were serious doubts whether he could survive unaided.
So what does it mean - surviving unaided. It means you can breathe and eat and drink without assistance. They put him on a Code 3 protocol, which means no invasive actions which extend life, so no liquid food via a tube, no extra liquids via injection, no breathing machine etc. And he couldn’t swallow. He had a less than comfortable 24 hours before he passed away quietly.
It was clear that my father required less aid in dying than my stepfather. He was not on morphine as far as I know, he didn’t get a deep sleep medication at the end, it was just his time. It was also his wish not to live on if he was going to be stuck in a wheelchair, something he made very clear to us over the years.
Yet if we had our own private hospital and a nurse and doctor, his life could have been extended. For the doctors it was very clear that by choosing the Code 3 protocol they were removing the supports which had been keeping him stable. So there was a conscious life or death choice on their part.
Jeroen
Re: What we are doing right?
I came across this quote…
Never make the negative the object of your study, because the negative is not there. You can go on and on and you will never arrive anywhere. Try to understand what light is, not darkness. Try to understand what life is, not death. Try to understand what love is, not hate.
I thought it was a good pointer. One should study the positive things in life, like the art of loving, like the art of appreciating nature and beauty, the art of enjoying small things.
Jeroen
Re: Daily meditation changes you
Listening to an interview today the teacher Matthew Brensilver said something that I thought shed some light on the idea to not get hung up on meditation progress. He said your meditation practice is none of your business. It was a kind of Zenny clever way of putting it, but he explained its kind of like doing bicep curls and constantly checking to see if your muscles are getting bigger. It happens slowly and almost imperceptibly, with exercise we see enough examples to have confidence that it will work. At the moment meditation is still fairly new in the West and its harder to have faith that our efforts will bear fruit, so we keep looking for affirmation.
He also shared something from his own teacher, can't remember her name, about not getting hung up on success or having good meditations. Her advice was along the lines of treat it like a job, just show up, punch in, punch out, and do the work.
person
Re: What we are doing right?
@Jeroen said:
I seem to have mastered my craving for sweets. There is a small holdout remaining first thing in the morning, when I want to have some chocolate with my first coffee, but after that i can go the whole day without sweets and I don’t miss them either.
That's interesting @Jeroen , I was under the impression if you can resist the craving when you first get up, that can set you up for the rest of the day.
Thus have I heard : The first craving or urge in the morning is often one of the strongest because it’s tied to routine and conditioned behaviours. If you manage to resist that initial urge, especially with something like smoking, sugar, or even checking your phone compulsively, you’re more likely to strengthen your self-control early in the day, which builds momentum and your brain learns that you can say no, which makes it easier next time.
Shoshin1
Re: Deliberatly Ending a Human life- How can we justify it ?
During my aunts funeral reception a couple of days ago my cousin showed up with his five young kids aged 13 to just a few months. The coffin had been closed just before the reception began, but still, there was inevitable talk of the deceased and dying. In a way that was very good, to not hide the fact of death from those young kids, and to let them partake in this facet of life also.
Jeroen