The lyrics are astounding! I have always been a fan and was introduced to them many moons ago by some using friends although I find now in recovery they mean so much more to me than when i was supposedly expanding my mind with drugs. Even today their early albums are so accurate, so pertaining to the scheming of the new world order. I always find that occasional
poets and musicians hit the right emotional targets - capture the mood - of nations falling apart, and the evil ones - the governments - behind it all. lol radical eh! whats you favourite song or lyrics and why. At the moment mine is "wish you were here! but i reserve the right to change favorite because they are all brilliant.
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,blue skies from pain.Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?A smile from a veil?Do you think you can tell?And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees?Hot air for a cool breeze?Cold comfort for change?And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?How I wish, how I wish you were here.We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,Running over the same old ground. What have you found? The same old fears.Wish you were here
did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
Over the course of my professional career i have been offered a few lead roles in cages but so far haven't took the invitations seriously what about you?
The most effective ways to deal with poverty, declining economic opportunity, and community rebuilding originate from within the community. The most efficient way of administering these solutions is by and through the community. Community programs often lack breadth, their ability to reach many, because they lack that one important resource that frequently determines whether a program will last or perish.. MONEY!!. WE NEED POLITICO-ECONOMIC INNOVATION! ANY ONE UP FOR IT?
Wednesday 28 May 2008
Friday 23 May 2008
If I had a Recovery worker what would she do?
I'm with Bill White when he describes what a worker in the field could be to help facilitate recovery.
1.Lay and professional helpers should not do anything for the individual or family members over time that they are capable of doing for themselves.
2. Professional agencies and roles should not provide services to the community in response to needs that can be met within the client’s natural support system.
3. Professional helpers should avoid creating barriers to client contact with local communities of recovery, e.g., scheduling service activities at times that conflict with community recovery meetings, restrictive visitation policies that prevent contact while individuals are in
residential treatment modalities.
4. Persons occupying all roles should accurately represent their education, training and experience as well as the basis upon which their recommendations are being made.
5. Conflicts between those filling these roles are best resolved within a framework of mutual respect.
6. All recovery support roles share a commitment to help those they serve and to not exploit this relationship for personal or institutional gain. All parties have a responsibility to immediately confront such exploitation if it occurs.
The question is not, “Which of these roles is THE most important in the recovery process?” Each contributes different ingredients to the recovery process at different stages of individual and family recovery. The question is, “How can such resources be bundled and sequenced in ways that widen the doorway of entry into recovery and enhance the quality of recovery?” Achieving that vision requires the availability of multiple support roles that are accessible at key points within one’s addiction and recovery careers as well as the careful delineation of the boundaries of these roles.
One of the sources of role ambiguity and conflict between sponsors and recovery coaches is the commonalities that are shared by these roles. Persons filling both roles:
• are credentialed by experience rather than formal education and training (My one amendment here would be that they have to have had some experience of recovery not necessarily from substance misuse and that training is essential especially in motivational interviewing if this is not a natural skill they possess.
establish non-hierarchical (or minimal-hierarchy) relationships based on a mutuality of shared experience,
• rely on self-disclosure and advice, • focus on removing obstacles of recovery and building recovery capital • model core recovery competencies and • maintain continuity of contact over time with those needing recovery guidance and support.
1.Lay and professional helpers should not do anything for the individual or family members over time that they are capable of doing for themselves.
2. Professional agencies and roles should not provide services to the community in response to needs that can be met within the client’s natural support system.
3. Professional helpers should avoid creating barriers to client contact with local communities of recovery, e.g., scheduling service activities at times that conflict with community recovery meetings, restrictive visitation policies that prevent contact while individuals are in
residential treatment modalities.
4. Persons occupying all roles should accurately represent their education, training and experience as well as the basis upon which their recommendations are being made.
5. Conflicts between those filling these roles are best resolved within a framework of mutual respect.
6. All recovery support roles share a commitment to help those they serve and to not exploit this relationship for personal or institutional gain. All parties have a responsibility to immediately confront such exploitation if it occurs.
The question is not, “Which of these roles is THE most important in the recovery process?” Each contributes different ingredients to the recovery process at different stages of individual and family recovery. The question is, “How can such resources be bundled and sequenced in ways that widen the doorway of entry into recovery and enhance the quality of recovery?” Achieving that vision requires the availability of multiple support roles that are accessible at key points within one’s addiction and recovery careers as well as the careful delineation of the boundaries of these roles.
One of the sources of role ambiguity and conflict between sponsors and recovery coaches is the commonalities that are shared by these roles. Persons filling both roles:
• are credentialed by experience rather than formal education and training (My one amendment here would be that they have to have had some experience of recovery not necessarily from substance misuse and that training is essential especially in motivational interviewing if this is not a natural skill they possess.
establish non-hierarchical (or minimal-hierarchy) relationships based on a mutuality of shared experience,
• rely on self-disclosure and advice, • focus on removing obstacles of recovery and building recovery capital • model core recovery competencies and • maintain continuity of contact over time with those needing recovery guidance and support.
Monday 19 May 2008
solution?
Unless policymakers understand the disruptive real effects of overly expansionary monetary policy, the energy and food crisis may worsen beyond manageable limits and put at risk millions of more lives.
Addressing inflationary expectations is not costless.
World energy and food markets can be stabilized, but only when the Fed and BOE renounces interest rates control and reins in monetary and credit expansion to a stable range.
This is exactly what Paul Volcker did successfully during his tenure as Fed chairman.
Economists and the US Congress must convince the Fed and the BOE to concentrate on managing liquidity, which is under its total control, and give up managing the entire economy, which is not under its control.
After seven years of inflationary monetary policy, there is now more pressing need than ever for stabilization policies to address inflation and energy and food crises.
Addressing inflationary expectations is not costless.
World energy and food markets can be stabilized, but only when the Fed and BOE renounces interest rates control and reins in monetary and credit expansion to a stable range.
This is exactly what Paul Volcker did successfully during his tenure as Fed chairman.
Economists and the US Congress must convince the Fed and the BOE to concentrate on managing liquidity, which is under its total control, and give up managing the entire economy, which is not under its control.
After seven years of inflationary monetary policy, there is now more pressing need than ever for stabilization policies to address inflation and energy and food crises.
House Prices mmmmmhhh
Basic money theory says that prices cannot sustain a general increase without an accommodative money and credit expansion.
Therefore, the rise of oil from $20 to $126 could not have occurred under restrained and stable monetary policy. The same goes for corn, rice, milk, etc,,,,, a twofold or threefold price increase cannot take place without an unduly expansionary monetary policy.
What is absurd is that the BOE does not react to abnormally high energy and food prices, that is, what is referred to as Keynes' wage goods.
It reacts only to core inflation.
In other words, when prices of basic food commodities, including bread and butter so necessary for our children, triple or quadruple, this causes no concern to the BOE, because they are not part of core inflation.
However, when toys prices go up by 10%, they may become of some concern because its signaling that core inflation is rising! But with us the workers struggling to put food on table, we are less concerned with buying toys.
Hence, toy prices may never increase, core inflation may not rise, and the BOE may never respond to racing energy and food prices.
Alarming signs of deteriorating global food shortages and an impending world stagflation, stemming from the Fed's policy, are now pervasive.
World energy and food markets have become critically fragile in the face of mounting speculation and inflationary expectations. The falling Pound, Dollar and accelerating inflation will certainly depress both the global demand and supply of commodities.
As money depreciates, suppliers of commodities, already straddled with piling international reserves, will supply less as their expectations of higher prices and revenues are fully met. The evolving food crisis seems to have no precedent in modern history.
While severe food shortages are developing in many vulnerable countries, media-interviewed shoppers in the US have sadly responded that they have been forced to dramatically curtail their food consumption and it will be the same here soon.
I forsee rampant energy and food prices will threaten social stability and will certainly undermine the BOEs objective of re-inflating home prices. Unless mortgage loans are showered without down payments and pay checks, as was the practice during the recent housing boom, prospective home buyers will be preoccupied by simple survival and will be less willing to take on more debt.
Energy and food price inflation will depress further highly overvalued home prices.
Sunday 18 May 2008
Addiction studies oh there are many
Studies on addiction treatment ...... oh there are many but tonight i want to highlight one in particular, known as the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey,it indicates shock horror that first that treatment is not a cure-all, and second woe and behold that it is not necessary.
The vast majority of Americans who were alcohol dependent, about three-quarters, never underwent treatment. And fewer of them were abusing alcohol than were those who were treated.
Now im not saying that treatment can't be useful and neither did the study. But what it made clear was the most successful treatments are nonconfrontational approaches that allow self-propelled change.
Psychs at the University of New Mexico led by William Miller tabulated every controlled study of alcoholism treatment they could find.
They concluded that the leading therapy was barely a therapy at all but a quick encounter between patient and health-care worker in an ordinary medical setting. We at work currently use the FAST screening tool. Many patients then decide to cut back—and do!
As brief interventions have evolved, they have become more structured. A physician may simply review the amount the patient drinks, or use a checklist to evaluate the extent of a drinking problem. The doctor then typically recommends and seeks agreement from the patient on a goal (usually reduced drinking rather than complete abstinence).
In America more severe alcoholics would typically be referred out for specialized treatment. A range of options is discussed (such as attending AA, engaging in activities incompatible with drinking or using a self-help manual). A spouse or family member might be involved in the planning. The patient is then scheduled for a future visit, where progress can be checked. A case monitor might call every few weeks to see whether the person has any questions or problems.
The second most effective approach which mt workplace also currently provides is motivational enhancement, also called motivational interviewing. This technique throws the decision to quit or reduce drinking and to find the best methods for doing so back on the individual.
In this case, the therapist asks targeted questions that prompt the individual to reflect on his drinking in terms of his own values and goals. When patients resist, the therapist does not argue with the individual but explores the person's ambivalence about change so as to allow him or her to draw his own conclusions:
ie "You say that you like to be in control of your behavior, yet you feel when you drink you are often not in charge. Could you just clarify that for me?" I always feel a bit sneaky using this but thats just me and it dose prove worthy therfore justifies me feeling uncomfortable.
Miller's team found that the list of most effective treatments for alcoholism included a few more surprises.
Self-help manuals were highly successful.
So was the community-reinforcement approach, again a resource we currently provide which addresses the person's capacity to deal with life, notably marital relationships, work issues (such as simply getting a job), leisure planning and social-group formation (a buddy might be provided, as in AA, as a resource to encourage sobriety). The focus is on developing life skills, such as resisting pressures to drink, coping with stress (at work and in relationships) and building communication skills.
These findings square with what we know about change in other areas of life:
People change when they want it badly enough and when they feel strong enough to face the challenge, not when they're humiliated or coerced.
An approach that empowers and offers positive reinforcement is preferable to one that strips the individual of agency.
These techniques are most likely to elicit real changes, however short of perfect and hard-won they may be.
The vast majority of Americans who were alcohol dependent, about three-quarters, never underwent treatment. And fewer of them were abusing alcohol than were those who were treated.
Now im not saying that treatment can't be useful and neither did the study. But what it made clear was the most successful treatments are nonconfrontational approaches that allow self-propelled change.
Psychs at the University of New Mexico led by William Miller tabulated every controlled study of alcoholism treatment they could find.
They concluded that the leading therapy was barely a therapy at all but a quick encounter between patient and health-care worker in an ordinary medical setting. We at work currently use the FAST screening tool. Many patients then decide to cut back—and do!
As brief interventions have evolved, they have become more structured. A physician may simply review the amount the patient drinks, or use a checklist to evaluate the extent of a drinking problem. The doctor then typically recommends and seeks agreement from the patient on a goal (usually reduced drinking rather than complete abstinence).
In America more severe alcoholics would typically be referred out for specialized treatment. A range of options is discussed (such as attending AA, engaging in activities incompatible with drinking or using a self-help manual). A spouse or family member might be involved in the planning. The patient is then scheduled for a future visit, where progress can be checked. A case monitor might call every few weeks to see whether the person has any questions or problems.
The second most effective approach which mt workplace also currently provides is motivational enhancement, also called motivational interviewing. This technique throws the decision to quit or reduce drinking and to find the best methods for doing so back on the individual.
In this case, the therapist asks targeted questions that prompt the individual to reflect on his drinking in terms of his own values and goals. When patients resist, the therapist does not argue with the individual but explores the person's ambivalence about change so as to allow him or her to draw his own conclusions:
ie "You say that you like to be in control of your behavior, yet you feel when you drink you are often not in charge. Could you just clarify that for me?" I always feel a bit sneaky using this but thats just me and it dose prove worthy therfore justifies me feeling uncomfortable.
Miller's team found that the list of most effective treatments for alcoholism included a few more surprises.
Self-help manuals were highly successful.
So was the community-reinforcement approach, again a resource we currently provide which addresses the person's capacity to deal with life, notably marital relationships, work issues (such as simply getting a job), leisure planning and social-group formation (a buddy might be provided, as in AA, as a resource to encourage sobriety). The focus is on developing life skills, such as resisting pressures to drink, coping with stress (at work and in relationships) and building communication skills.
These findings square with what we know about change in other areas of life:
People change when they want it badly enough and when they feel strong enough to face the challenge, not when they're humiliated or coerced.
An approach that empowers and offers positive reinforcement is preferable to one that strips the individual of agency.
These techniques are most likely to elicit real changes, however short of perfect and hard-won they may be.
Saturday 17 May 2008
The nasty decade?
For the time being at least, the nice decade is behind us,” said Bank of England governor Mervyn King this week, as he announced some of the gloomiest UK inflation forecasts in recent years. The “nice” decade – for non-inflationary continuous expansion – may be behind us, but the question is whether a nasty economic decade lies ahead.
So what can we do well rather they ........The government can do a lot. Rather than boast about its economic record, strong fundamentals 10 years stability blah blah blah they should make life easier for business, and reform the public sector to improve productivity, re balance away from financial services for a start.
Then some (Keynesian) suggestions. Start to address the energy shortfall of the next decade immediately. This will require a huge program of new nuclear power station construction and massive roll out of alternatives, such as wind and solar. This would require the training of a new generation of scientists and engineers and keep the civil engineering/construction industry alive. It would also revitalise the UK dare I say Scotland as a high-tech, precision engineering economy.
Every home in the UK be made as energy efficient as possible with additional microgeneration capabilities, e.g. PV and passive solar, loft insulation and boiler lagging, triple glazing etc. Benefits: will keep the construction industry alive along with all the builders, plumbers, electricians etc as well as help address point obviously this will also encourage small business.
and my final suggestion
Stop pissing about.
So what can we do well rather they ........The government can do a lot. Rather than boast about its economic record, strong fundamentals 10 years stability blah blah blah they should make life easier for business, and reform the public sector to improve productivity, re balance away from financial services for a start.
Then some (Keynesian) suggestions. Start to address the energy shortfall of the next decade immediately. This will require a huge program of new nuclear power station construction and massive roll out of alternatives, such as wind and solar. This would require the training of a new generation of scientists and engineers and keep the civil engineering/construction industry alive. It would also revitalise the UK dare I say Scotland as a high-tech, precision engineering economy.
Every home in the UK be made as energy efficient as possible with additional microgeneration capabilities, e.g. PV and passive solar, loft insulation and boiler lagging, triple glazing etc. Benefits: will keep the construction industry alive along with all the builders, plumbers, electricians etc as well as help address point obviously this will also encourage small business.
and my final suggestion
Stop pissing about.
Thursday 15 May 2008
Arrogant abusive ????
The Bank of England indicated that there is not likely to be another cut in interest rates for two years, as it forecast that inflation will reach 4 per cent this autumn. The Bank admitted for the first time yesterday that recession was a real risk for the economy and that inflation would stay above the Government's official 2 per cent target until 2011.
The Governor of the Bank, Mervyn King, said price rises would lead to "a squeeze on real take-home pay, which will slow consumer spending and output growth, perhaps sharply". Contrasting with that pessimism, the Treasury and Alistair Darling say the economy will bounce back to growth of between 2.25 and 2.75 per cent next year.
ha ha ha ha ha are these shirksters for real????
Take off the rose tinted specs off Mervy baby, your money printing policies have been delivering that to the majority of the population already, for years.
So much for the NICE decade he either a lying puppet or too thick to see the consequences already of the NICE decade,
record debt,
falling productivity,
falling savings,
malinvestment,
speculation,
the erosion of purchasing power,
the destruction of the productive capacity and the production of a bloated, service orientated paper hat wearing nomark economy.
"growth" my booty the past GROWTH he speaks of is a reflection of how much of the printed and borrowed money was able to recirculate round the inflationary flea-pit.
The squeeze started when it was pretty damn obvious that the majority of the economy had problems saving any bloody money at all short term or god forbid even a pension.
The official inflation stats are crooked as the day is long, anybody using those as a measure is either a fool or a liar too . I wonder how angry and abusive the public are going to get over inflation eating every last penny they have at the end of each month, every month.
If you think I am being arrogant and abusive well,,,,,
I find it rather abusive to collectively ruin the economy of an entire nation and encourage housing prices to go beyond the pockets of a huge number of hard working people.
Merv bashing here pales into insignificance by comparison. And let us not forget that when he was in a corner over Northern Rock, his answer was to attempt hoodwink NR customers and shareholders, and indeed the entire nation by outrageously requesting that any negotiations involving TAX PAYERS' cash injections should be kept secret on the flimsy excuse that not doing so would precipate panic. How arrogant is that?
The Governor of the Bank, Mervyn King, said price rises would lead to "a squeeze on real take-home pay, which will slow consumer spending and output growth, perhaps sharply". Contrasting with that pessimism, the Treasury and Alistair Darling say the economy will bounce back to growth of between 2.25 and 2.75 per cent next year.
ha ha ha ha ha are these shirksters for real????
Take off the rose tinted specs off Mervy baby, your money printing policies have been delivering that to the majority of the population already, for years.
So much for the NICE decade he either a lying puppet or too thick to see the consequences already of the NICE decade,
record debt,
falling productivity,
falling savings,
malinvestment,
speculation,
the erosion of purchasing power,
the destruction of the productive capacity and the production of a bloated, service orientated paper hat wearing nomark economy.
"growth" my booty the past GROWTH he speaks of is a reflection of how much of the printed and borrowed money was able to recirculate round the inflationary flea-pit.
The squeeze started when it was pretty damn obvious that the majority of the economy had problems saving any bloody money at all short term or god forbid even a pension.
The official inflation stats are crooked as the day is long, anybody using those as a measure is either a fool or a liar too . I wonder how angry and abusive the public are going to get over inflation eating every last penny they have at the end of each month, every month.
If you think I am being arrogant and abusive well,,,,,
I find it rather abusive to collectively ruin the economy of an entire nation and encourage housing prices to go beyond the pockets of a huge number of hard working people.
Merv bashing here pales into insignificance by comparison. And let us not forget that when he was in a corner over Northern Rock, his answer was to attempt hoodwink NR customers and shareholders, and indeed the entire nation by outrageously requesting that any negotiations involving TAX PAYERS' cash injections should be kept secret on the flimsy excuse that not doing so would precipate panic. How arrogant is that?
Wednesday 14 May 2008
If I was suffering from addiction and you were my WORKER in the fleld.
If I was suffering from addiction and you were my key worker what would I ask from you?
A SCRIPT FOR SOME VALLIE OR DIFFS? MAYBE SOME ANTIBUSE PERHAPS, help sorting out my benefits , possibly, a referral to a rehab or detox mmmmmh.
But WHAT IF I asked you to reconnect with why you got into the job and to tap into that passion for helping others and being of service to people you wanted to help.
WHAT IF I asked the organisation you work for to re-center itself both clinically and ethically.
WHAT IF I asked you to change your service in response to new knowledge and the changing characteristics of clients, families, and communities.
WHAT IF I asked the whole addiction field to address the problems of leadership, development and succession.
WOULD YOU CONSIDER MY REQUESTS?
A SCRIPT FOR SOME VALLIE OR DIFFS? MAYBE SOME ANTIBUSE PERHAPS, help sorting out my benefits , possibly, a referral to a rehab or detox mmmmmh.
But WHAT IF I asked you to reconnect with why you got into the job and to tap into that passion for helping others and being of service to people you wanted to help.
WHAT IF I asked the organisation you work for to re-center itself both clinically and ethically.
WHAT IF I asked you to change your service in response to new knowledge and the changing characteristics of clients, families, and communities.
WHAT IF I asked the whole addiction field to address the problems of leadership, development and succession.
WOULD YOU CONSIDER MY REQUESTS?
Gordon Brown
Gordos new financial miracle, draft queens speech!
According to the BBC its £200m fund to buy unsold new homes and rent them to social tenants or make them available on a shared ownership.
An additional £100m would be made available to shared equity schemes to help more first-time buyers to purchase newly-built homes on the open market .... now that would be a work of genius.
Ok Gordon great strategy, wait for the market to be utterly saturated with a load of virtually unsellable flats held by developers with serious cash flow issues, then put out a policy announcement well ahead of the fact that scares off any lingering potential buyers and drives the prices down even further then snap them up at barely more than construction cost thus replenishing social housing at the expense of construction firms and their shareholders.
Think about his gamble with gold in reverse. £40bn here, £50bn there, £200m for good luck elsewhere.
How many more rolls of the dice is this "prudent strong fundamentals uninterrupted growth " Parrot, going to make with OUR money?
I speculate that they'll give the money to housing associations for the most part with some kind of stipulation that it has to be spent on pre-existing houses.
I can't see the government actually doing anything themselves since housing is one of the few areas that they haven't taken direct control of over the last 30 years.
FTB are intelligent enough to realise that by waiting while house prices fall they will be able to buy a complete house all 100% later rather than a 50% or 75% share now for the same price.
Or am I expecting too much?
According to the BBC its £200m fund to buy unsold new homes and rent them to social tenants or make them available on a shared ownership.
An additional £100m would be made available to shared equity schemes to help more first-time buyers to purchase newly-built homes on the open market .... now that would be a work of genius.
Ok Gordon great strategy, wait for the market to be utterly saturated with a load of virtually unsellable flats held by developers with serious cash flow issues, then put out a policy announcement well ahead of the fact that scares off any lingering potential buyers and drives the prices down even further then snap them up at barely more than construction cost thus replenishing social housing at the expense of construction firms and their shareholders.
Think about his gamble with gold in reverse. £40bn here, £50bn there, £200m for good luck elsewhere.
How many more rolls of the dice is this "prudent strong fundamentals uninterrupted growth " Parrot, going to make with OUR money?
I speculate that they'll give the money to housing associations for the most part with some kind of stipulation that it has to be spent on pre-existing houses.
I can't see the government actually doing anything themselves since housing is one of the few areas that they haven't taken direct control of over the last 30 years.
FTB are intelligent enough to realise that by waiting while house prices fall they will be able to buy a complete house all 100% later rather than a 50% or 75% share now for the same price.
Or am I expecting too much?
SHAME !
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Sotlands new drug stategy
As we wait to see the the final document I am pondering the quote,
"It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them. "Bill Vaughan.
Mmmm makes you think Huh.
"It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them. "Bill Vaughan.
Mmmm makes you think Huh.
Tuesday 13 May 2008
Agree disagree?
"i do i run with scissors and throw away my reciepts."
MENTAL EH! but someones gotta live on the edge, dont you agree!
MENTAL EH! but someones gotta live on the edge, dont you agree!
hope is as hollow as fear
Success is as dangerous as failure
Hope is as hollow as fear
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure? Whether you go up the ladder or down it,your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantomsthat arise from thinking of the self.
When we dont see the self,what do we have to fear?
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self: then you can care for all things.
Attitude "Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier." (Charles Kettering)
"An optimist expects his dreams to come true; a pessimist expects his nightmares to." (Lawrence J. Peter.)
"Our life is what our thoughts make it." (Marcus Aurelius)
"As ye think, so shall ye be." (Jesus Christ)
"What we think, we become." (Buddha)
"We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and delusion, just as effectively as bombs." (Kenneth Clark)
"Change your thoughts and you change your world." (Norman Vincent Peale)
"Your life is what your thoughts make of it." (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus)
"Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it." (Ernest Holmes)
"Think in terms of poverty and you will live in poverty." (Napoleon Hill)
"Things are only worth what you make them worth." (Moliere)
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." (William James)
"Either I will find a way, or I will make one." (Philip Sidney)
"Everyone constructs their own bed of nails." (D. Sutten)
"Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." (Dennis P. Kimbro)
Hope is as hollow as fear
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure? Whether you go up the ladder or down it,your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantomsthat arise from thinking of the self.
When we dont see the self,what do we have to fear?
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self: then you can care for all things.
Attitude "Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier." (Charles Kettering)
"An optimist expects his dreams to come true; a pessimist expects his nightmares to." (Lawrence J. Peter.)
"Our life is what our thoughts make it." (Marcus Aurelius)
"As ye think, so shall ye be." (Jesus Christ)
"What we think, we become." (Buddha)
"We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and delusion, just as effectively as bombs." (Kenneth Clark)
"Change your thoughts and you change your world." (Norman Vincent Peale)
"Your life is what your thoughts make of it." (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus)
"Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it." (Ernest Holmes)
"Think in terms of poverty and you will live in poverty." (Napoleon Hill)
"Things are only worth what you make them worth." (Moliere)
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." (William James)
"Either I will find a way, or I will make one." (Philip Sidney)
"Everyone constructs their own bed of nails." (D. Sutten)
"Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." (Dennis P. Kimbro)
Right here right now!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Here now What you need for this moment, you already have. Everything else is a delightful bonus.
There is nothing for which you must strive. For you are here, and alive, and aware and able.
There is no reason for worry or anxiety. There are so very many ways that you can choose to make a difference.
There are no pressures, no demands, no regrets and no struggles. There is only now and the opportunity to fully live it.
In this moment, let go of the illusion of need and you are truly wealthy beyond all measure.
Realize that lack and limitation exist only in your mind, and you'll see that you can instantly be free of them.
The whole universe is yours in this moment, to live, to experience, to transform into value and fulfillment. All the best that you could ever imagine is here for you now to bring to life.
-
Here now What you need for this moment, you already have. Everything else is a delightful bonus.
There is nothing for which you must strive. For you are here, and alive, and aware and able.
There is no reason for worry or anxiety. There are so very many ways that you can choose to make a difference.
There are no pressures, no demands, no regrets and no struggles. There is only now and the opportunity to fully live it.
In this moment, let go of the illusion of need and you are truly wealthy beyond all measure.
Realize that lack and limitation exist only in your mind, and you'll see that you can instantly be free of them.
The whole universe is yours in this moment, to live, to experience, to transform into value and fulfillment. All the best that you could ever imagine is here for you now to bring to life.
-
No Regret?
You are, this moment, where you need to be. Take the opportunity to live it with passion and purpose.
There is no reason to keep pushing the best of life out of your reach, saving it for another time, another place, or another set of circumstances. Now is the time, this is the place to fill with goodness and richness, with beauty and love.
There is no need to wait or to hope for things to get better. For you can be your very best no matter what else may be happening around you.
There is nothing to be gained by wishing that the past had been different. Instead, put your energy into living and fulfilling the best of the countless possibilities that are now in front of you.
The value, the goodness, the love and effort you give to this moment will come back to you many times over.
Now is the time to invest yourself in positive, productive thoughts and actions.
Stop making excuses and start being the best you can imagine. Stop waiting and start to truly and fully live.
There is no reason to keep pushing the best of life out of your reach, saving it for another time, another place, or another set of circumstances. Now is the time, this is the place to fill with goodness and richness, with beauty and love.
There is no need to wait or to hope for things to get better. For you can be your very best no matter what else may be happening around you.
There is nothing to be gained by wishing that the past had been different. Instead, put your energy into living and fulfilling the best of the countless possibilities that are now in front of you.
The value, the goodness, the love and effort you give to this moment will come back to you many times over.
Now is the time to invest yourself in positive, productive thoughts and actions.
Stop making excuses and start being the best you can imagine. Stop waiting and start to truly and fully live.
My personal statment
I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes and Rischard and Judys 10 grand twice.
Last summer, I toured England with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.
I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening.
I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on holiday in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery.
The laws of physics do not apply to me.
I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago, I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down.
I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
lol if that didnt make you smile you are in need of prozac my friend.
A piece from Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
When the Deep Thought computer was about to compute the Answer to Life,
the Universe and Everything (later found to be "42"), representatives of
the National Union of Philosophers, Luminaries and other Thinking Persons"
demanded that it stop... or else there would be a national philosophers'
strike.
Deep Thought responded: "And whom would that inconvenience?"
Brilliant
Last summer, I toured England with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.
I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening.
I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on holiday in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery.
The laws of physics do not apply to me.
I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago, I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down.
I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
lol if that didnt make you smile you are in need of prozac my friend.
A piece from Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
When the Deep Thought computer was about to compute the Answer to Life,
the Universe and Everything (later found to be "42"), representatives of
the National Union of Philosophers, Luminaries and other Thinking Persons"
demanded that it stop... or else there would be a national philosophers'
strike.
Deep Thought responded: "And whom would that inconvenience?"
Brilliant
What do you do? What do you dream of?
Entry for 12 July 2006
"To be, or not to be" wrote William Shakespeare in Hamlet in Act III, scene 1, "that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them."
To die; or to be suspended; and by ending death "to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to."
‘Tis nobler to defy the claims of death on our mortal minds and to take arms against its eternal hold, and by opposing death end it.
Hamlet’s question "to be or not to be" is probably the most widely known phrase in the English language contemplating life and death. For me, as an activist in preserving and extending life, it is the definitive question. How serious we are about answering it, reveals what we are doing about it.
The modern question: "What do you do" has become the ancillary, although the most socially repeated question in the English language. "What do we do for a living" has become the sin quo non for our lives. So much so, that what we do for a living characterizes our life’s role. To be, we must do!!!!. Madness.
But, "What do you do for living?" With the "a" taken out of the sentence, it is a totally different concept and a less taxing question. What we do for living relates to mental and physical pursuits our curiosity, sense of adventure, our health and vitality, our pleasure and fun, and our mental well-being.
All three questions cause us to shed pretense, but to claim affiliation and purpose. To be—to live—is what we do.
It is our talent, our business and our pursuit of well-being which we must carry out. The refinement of this built-in talent currently separates us from other life forms. It is our native, intrinsic talent, calling for the creative challenge to do something—anything—as long as we are "doing." To be, we must do. If not, we are busy dying.
Some of my current friends, I've never met. Most of my communications with them are alphabetical letters arranged into words written in strings of algorithmic codes.
some of the time I don’t even know what my friends look like, or what they are feeling. Feelings are sometimes difficult to express in written words for fear we may come off weak or soft, vulnerable or naive.
When I think of our culture, I see it as a body of electronically connected data filtering messages into its appendages. Out into the capillaries of culture, our technology has become far more exacting and more robust than our biological bodies.
Our biological bodies are far too inadequate to keep up with our ideas and the new landscapes we venture. From the telegraph to telecommunications, from the Net into Space, it is no longer just the written symbol—the word—being transported, we are the new transportees.
My own future body design, similar to that of linda carters (wonder woman) lol is engineered like a finely tuned machine and designed in the form of a human biological body, for aesthetics sake.
The outward appearance is merely an illusion, a type of logo for mental association and visual recognition. Soon we will have bodies that do not age, are easily upgradeable, have meta-sensory components, gender options, 24-hour remote Net relay, and upload into cultural hives.
We will have bodies that appear biological and bodies that have no form. I can remember many years ago envisioning various types of designs for mobility, as early as childhood, wondering how I could split myself in two parts that could simultaneously perform tasks of different natures. This came from trauma I was experiencing at the time and stems from a intrigue of oxymorons, a desire for contradictory interests, and enthusiasm for enormously flexible and transportable mechanisms and ofcourse Dr who.. Im a child of the 70s.
Mobility has catapulted our evolutionary desires by affording us opportunities for exploration. Mobility has catapulted our ability to arrange words in ways that intensify meaning providing emotional leverage. The human body is more than an appendage; it is a network of words and ideas pulsating across time.
Our words about living and doing are emanating throughout the digital landscape—from Hamlet to AI and A-Life—with distinctive cultural jargon and digital acronyms, riffing on techno jive.
Cultural slogans change and myths merge, but they never disappear. They, like us, mutate.
Get real, whit, What’s the craic? sound like throw away phrases—knockoffs from the earlier times of Lay it on me or Where you coming from?
They may seem flip, but not really. They function as a means, like an impulse which alerts us to pay attention, if only for a moment. These singsong slang-statements are impulses firing off from one mind to another in archetypal discovery of another person’s point of view. Views are like vistas. Both expressing landscapes, one internal the other external.
A poem perhaps, to dream perchance to sleep?
Within the internal vista where I come from, the broad attainable space for ideas and innovation is bright and full of possibility. Human creativity is the most fertile space I have ever laid eyes on.
But it’s out in the unknown that I really feel at home. All that space—the infinite space of discovery and the space for ideas, like the vast space between stars my we boy and I stare at with equal wonder.
But here in this landscape, we have the sun, so its intimate too. The way light touches our senses, turns colors rich and bright, kind of rubs a certain way, and we start feeling ideas as part of our own being— half buried in memory, like a dream we can’t quite remember. And as thoughts slip through our fingers, its like sifting all the neurons of our minds that we may ever leave behind.
Gets me to feeling nostalgic, for something I may never have envisioned, or something I thought of long ago, or something far away, or the future. Or something so unique, I don’t want to stop thinking about it.
I just want it to be, and then to become.
"To be, or not to be" wrote William Shakespeare in Hamlet in Act III, scene 1, "that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them."
To die; or to be suspended; and by ending death "to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to."
‘Tis nobler to defy the claims of death on our mortal minds and to take arms against its eternal hold, and by opposing death end it.
Hamlet’s question "to be or not to be" is probably the most widely known phrase in the English language contemplating life and death. For me, as an activist in preserving and extending life, it is the definitive question. How serious we are about answering it, reveals what we are doing about it.
The modern question: "What do you do" has become the ancillary, although the most socially repeated question in the English language. "What do we do for a living" has become the sin quo non for our lives. So much so, that what we do for a living characterizes our life’s role. To be, we must do!!!!. Madness.
But, "What do you do for living?" With the "a" taken out of the sentence, it is a totally different concept and a less taxing question. What we do for living relates to mental and physical pursuits our curiosity, sense of adventure, our health and vitality, our pleasure and fun, and our mental well-being.
All three questions cause us to shed pretense, but to claim affiliation and purpose. To be—to live—is what we do.
It is our talent, our business and our pursuit of well-being which we must carry out. The refinement of this built-in talent currently separates us from other life forms. It is our native, intrinsic talent, calling for the creative challenge to do something—anything—as long as we are "doing." To be, we must do. If not, we are busy dying.
Some of my current friends, I've never met. Most of my communications with them are alphabetical letters arranged into words written in strings of algorithmic codes.
some of the time I don’t even know what my friends look like, or what they are feeling. Feelings are sometimes difficult to express in written words for fear we may come off weak or soft, vulnerable or naive.
When I think of our culture, I see it as a body of electronically connected data filtering messages into its appendages. Out into the capillaries of culture, our technology has become far more exacting and more robust than our biological bodies.
Our biological bodies are far too inadequate to keep up with our ideas and the new landscapes we venture. From the telegraph to telecommunications, from the Net into Space, it is no longer just the written symbol—the word—being transported, we are the new transportees.
My own future body design, similar to that of linda carters (wonder woman) lol is engineered like a finely tuned machine and designed in the form of a human biological body, for aesthetics sake.
The outward appearance is merely an illusion, a type of logo for mental association and visual recognition. Soon we will have bodies that do not age, are easily upgradeable, have meta-sensory components, gender options, 24-hour remote Net relay, and upload into cultural hives.
We will have bodies that appear biological and bodies that have no form. I can remember many years ago envisioning various types of designs for mobility, as early as childhood, wondering how I could split myself in two parts that could simultaneously perform tasks of different natures. This came from trauma I was experiencing at the time and stems from a intrigue of oxymorons, a desire for contradictory interests, and enthusiasm for enormously flexible and transportable mechanisms and ofcourse Dr who.. Im a child of the 70s.
Mobility has catapulted our evolutionary desires by affording us opportunities for exploration. Mobility has catapulted our ability to arrange words in ways that intensify meaning providing emotional leverage. The human body is more than an appendage; it is a network of words and ideas pulsating across time.
Our words about living and doing are emanating throughout the digital landscape—from Hamlet to AI and A-Life—with distinctive cultural jargon and digital acronyms, riffing on techno jive.
Cultural slogans change and myths merge, but they never disappear. They, like us, mutate.
Get real, whit, What’s the craic? sound like throw away phrases—knockoffs from the earlier times of Lay it on me or Where you coming from?
They may seem flip, but not really. They function as a means, like an impulse which alerts us to pay attention, if only for a moment. These singsong slang-statements are impulses firing off from one mind to another in archetypal discovery of another person’s point of view. Views are like vistas. Both expressing landscapes, one internal the other external.
A poem perhaps, to dream perchance to sleep?
Within the internal vista where I come from, the broad attainable space for ideas and innovation is bright and full of possibility. Human creativity is the most fertile space I have ever laid eyes on.
But it’s out in the unknown that I really feel at home. All that space—the infinite space of discovery and the space for ideas, like the vast space between stars my we boy and I stare at with equal wonder.
But here in this landscape, we have the sun, so its intimate too. The way light touches our senses, turns colors rich and bright, kind of rubs a certain way, and we start feeling ideas as part of our own being— half buried in memory, like a dream we can’t quite remember. And as thoughts slip through our fingers, its like sifting all the neurons of our minds that we may ever leave behind.
Gets me to feeling nostalgic, for something I may never have envisioned, or something I thought of long ago, or something far away, or the future. Or something so unique, I don’t want to stop thinking about it.
I just want it to be, and then to become.
The odds against us ?
Entry for 14 July 2006 The odds are against us folks.
The odds that things will go wrong for human beings outweigh the odds that everything will go right, so we as individuals are playing against a cosmic house of death and destruction that plays its hand with better odds than we have. Right?
Las Vegas casinos consistently make money on games of chance because the odds are in favor of the house by the very nature of the game. The laws of chance are highly consistent over time and on a large scale. A few individuals get lucky for awhile, but over time even their good luck runs out. Despite his great wealth, even legendary singer/actor Frank Sinatra called himself a "loser" in his final years because he was subject to old age and ill health just like everyone else.
If a six mile wide asteroid suddenly hits the earth and destroys all human life, it would not mean that everyone in the world had developed "bad karma." It would only mean that our collective luck as life forms on planet earth had run out, just as it had run out for so many other species who existed here before us.
If you drink too many beers today and have a hangover tomorrow, it means your foolish behavior caused a negative reaction in your body which you pay for with a splitting headache. That is simple action and reaction, not supernatural karma.
If you eat and drink in moderation, get adequate exercise, and do good deeds for yourself and for others, the chances are you will have a healthier and happier life. Good behavior and positive actions usually do result in positive reactions. Unfortunately, even right action can be overpowered by bad luck.
BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE FACT.
Life is much more of a casino than most of us would like to admit, so the myth or concept of supernatural karma was developed to wallpaper over the unfair and often scary facts of life with a fictional philosophy of supreme justice.
Could it be that there is no all-seeing eye of karma that directs events in this life as well as events yet to come in a mythical future life. The idea of ultimate justice through karma and reincarnation is heartwarming, but life cannot live up to our lofty expectations for goodness and reason.
Is man a product of life on earth, not the creator and architect of life on earth. Could it be that we must play by cosmic rules of chance that are often as cold and cruel for us as they are for the animals we eat and the bugs we squash.
The ancients invented myths of immortal souls and a variety of heavens in order to lessen the fear of death, a fear which creates a continuous burden on the minds of intelligent animals who understand the inevitable time-death equation.
It would appear that plants have no past or future, no goals, no desires, and no attachment to life. They exist right here and right now. The worlds of trees, shrubs, and grass have no problems because plants are not aware of themselves as individuals. They are full of life energy, but they have no soul or do they.
In meditation, the human brain falls back into a simpler vegetative state where complex cerebral capabilities become inactive, and this has been demonstrated by functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (fMRI scans) of the brains of Buddhist monks and Hindu yogis.
There is no reasoning, planning, measuring, or owning in meditation. Because so many energy intensive portions of the brain are turned off during meditative practice, the brain stores up large amounts of unused neurotransmitter energy.
This saved energy is transformed into pure consciousness, and this is part of the reason that the practice of meditation takes so much time. Time is needed to store up sufficient excess energy, and time is also needed to gradually relax and let go of the thinking functions of the brain.
In meditation the brain deeply relaxes at the basic level of energetic neurons, which form a sea of consciousness without personal attachments. The mind-brain then feels like cosmic life essence without any individuality.
It is the individual that suffers, and plant consciousness reduces suffering, not by solving problems, but by diverting our attention away from life's inherent conflicts and the constant struggle to survive. This diversion of attention works beautifully, right up to the moment a tiger eats you, your family starves, or your country is invaded by a hostile foreign power
The vegetative meditative state feels good, but has little survival value unless you use your plant consciousness power of presence to become a guru selling religious myths to the masses. Meditation often sparks religion, and religion always becomes a business.
Human beings are biological creatures and part of the earth's carbon cycle, not part of any cycle of reincarnating ghosts that haunt the world for all eternity. There is nothing mystical about the carbon cycle, but it does unify all life on earth, from bacteria to man.
Scientists and mathematicians have calculated that the carbon atoms in the atmosphere become so mixed up over time that when we take a deep breath of air we are inhaling at least a few of the carbon atoms, in the form of carbon dioxide, that Siddhartha Gautama exhaled during his last dying breath.
Our bodys contain recycled carbon atoms that were once part of the bodies of Lao-tse, Genghis Khan, Jesus, and millions of other deceased humans, plants, animals, insects, and bacteria. The farther back in time an individual existed, the more likely the chance some of their carbon atoms are living again as part of our own body.
Our DNA code structure is carbon based as well, and we all share many common DNA code sequences with other animals, plants, insects, and bacteria.
Human suffering is inevitable and predictable because of the basic mathematical structure of the universe.
There are ways to reduce the suffering of life, but there is no way to escape suffering entirely as long as you are alive and have a pulse.
Even the "enlightened" continue to suffer on the physical level until the moment of death, and even the "enlightened" have at least some psychological suffering, disappointments, and regrets.
Famous gurus usually don't like to talk about their personal suffering because they have a public image to uphold. If you look into their eyes and analyze their life histories, you will find that they do suffer psychologically, but less so than the average human being.
Suffering is dramatically reduced by the enlightenment phenomena, but it is not eliminated completely. There is no state of 100% freedom possible for flesh and blood animals living on planet earth.
Meditation is a great cosmic convergence with many benefits for the individual and for society as a whole. Meditation can bring peace and psychological balance, and meditation can become a beloved refuge of serenity in the stormy seas of social conflict and politics.
It is important to remember that the practice of meditation should always be balanced with the need for social responsibility in order to ensure the survival of family, friends, nation, and the planet itself.
stick that in your pipe n smoke it!
The odds that things will go wrong for human beings outweigh the odds that everything will go right, so we as individuals are playing against a cosmic house of death and destruction that plays its hand with better odds than we have. Right?
Las Vegas casinos consistently make money on games of chance because the odds are in favor of the house by the very nature of the game. The laws of chance are highly consistent over time and on a large scale. A few individuals get lucky for awhile, but over time even their good luck runs out. Despite his great wealth, even legendary singer/actor Frank Sinatra called himself a "loser" in his final years because he was subject to old age and ill health just like everyone else.
If a six mile wide asteroid suddenly hits the earth and destroys all human life, it would not mean that everyone in the world had developed "bad karma." It would only mean that our collective luck as life forms on planet earth had run out, just as it had run out for so many other species who existed here before us.
If you drink too many beers today and have a hangover tomorrow, it means your foolish behavior caused a negative reaction in your body which you pay for with a splitting headache. That is simple action and reaction, not supernatural karma.
If you eat and drink in moderation, get adequate exercise, and do good deeds for yourself and for others, the chances are you will have a healthier and happier life. Good behavior and positive actions usually do result in positive reactions. Unfortunately, even right action can be overpowered by bad luck.
BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE FACT.
Life is much more of a casino than most of us would like to admit, so the myth or concept of supernatural karma was developed to wallpaper over the unfair and often scary facts of life with a fictional philosophy of supreme justice.
Could it be that there is no all-seeing eye of karma that directs events in this life as well as events yet to come in a mythical future life. The idea of ultimate justice through karma and reincarnation is heartwarming, but life cannot live up to our lofty expectations for goodness and reason.
Is man a product of life on earth, not the creator and architect of life on earth. Could it be that we must play by cosmic rules of chance that are often as cold and cruel for us as they are for the animals we eat and the bugs we squash.
The ancients invented myths of immortal souls and a variety of heavens in order to lessen the fear of death, a fear which creates a continuous burden on the minds of intelligent animals who understand the inevitable time-death equation.
It would appear that plants have no past or future, no goals, no desires, and no attachment to life. They exist right here and right now. The worlds of trees, shrubs, and grass have no problems because plants are not aware of themselves as individuals. They are full of life energy, but they have no soul or do they.
In meditation, the human brain falls back into a simpler vegetative state where complex cerebral capabilities become inactive, and this has been demonstrated by functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (fMRI scans) of the brains of Buddhist monks and Hindu yogis.
There is no reasoning, planning, measuring, or owning in meditation. Because so many energy intensive portions of the brain are turned off during meditative practice, the brain stores up large amounts of unused neurotransmitter energy.
This saved energy is transformed into pure consciousness, and this is part of the reason that the practice of meditation takes so much time. Time is needed to store up sufficient excess energy, and time is also needed to gradually relax and let go of the thinking functions of the brain.
In meditation the brain deeply relaxes at the basic level of energetic neurons, which form a sea of consciousness without personal attachments. The mind-brain then feels like cosmic life essence without any individuality.
It is the individual that suffers, and plant consciousness reduces suffering, not by solving problems, but by diverting our attention away from life's inherent conflicts and the constant struggle to survive. This diversion of attention works beautifully, right up to the moment a tiger eats you, your family starves, or your country is invaded by a hostile foreign power
The vegetative meditative state feels good, but has little survival value unless you use your plant consciousness power of presence to become a guru selling religious myths to the masses. Meditation often sparks religion, and religion always becomes a business.
Human beings are biological creatures and part of the earth's carbon cycle, not part of any cycle of reincarnating ghosts that haunt the world for all eternity. There is nothing mystical about the carbon cycle, but it does unify all life on earth, from bacteria to man.
Scientists and mathematicians have calculated that the carbon atoms in the atmosphere become so mixed up over time that when we take a deep breath of air we are inhaling at least a few of the carbon atoms, in the form of carbon dioxide, that Siddhartha Gautama exhaled during his last dying breath.
Our bodys contain recycled carbon atoms that were once part of the bodies of Lao-tse, Genghis Khan, Jesus, and millions of other deceased humans, plants, animals, insects, and bacteria. The farther back in time an individual existed, the more likely the chance some of their carbon atoms are living again as part of our own body.
Our DNA code structure is carbon based as well, and we all share many common DNA code sequences with other animals, plants, insects, and bacteria.
Human suffering is inevitable and predictable because of the basic mathematical structure of the universe.
There are ways to reduce the suffering of life, but there is no way to escape suffering entirely as long as you are alive and have a pulse.
Even the "enlightened" continue to suffer on the physical level until the moment of death, and even the "enlightened" have at least some psychological suffering, disappointments, and regrets.
Famous gurus usually don't like to talk about their personal suffering because they have a public image to uphold. If you look into their eyes and analyze their life histories, you will find that they do suffer psychologically, but less so than the average human being.
Suffering is dramatically reduced by the enlightenment phenomena, but it is not eliminated completely. There is no state of 100% freedom possible for flesh and blood animals living on planet earth.
Meditation is a great cosmic convergence with many benefits for the individual and for society as a whole. Meditation can bring peace and psychological balance, and meditation can become a beloved refuge of serenity in the stormy seas of social conflict and politics.
It is important to remember that the practice of meditation should always be balanced with the need for social responsibility in order to ensure the survival of family, friends, nation, and the planet itself.
stick that in your pipe n smoke it!
Grubs and Eagles
Entry for 02 August 2006 from mt yahoo 360 page.
Your life's purpose We all wonder what our life's purpose is, what we are here to be or what we are meant to do. It's very simple - you are here to be you. There are countless billions of people on the planet with many similarities and many differences, but there is only one you.
The lives of your parents and ancestors have been passed to you like a baton in a relay race. You have some handicaps and some advantages. Good things and bad things will come your way. Some people will lift you up and some will push you down. This race is entirely your experience. Not one other person in the history of the world has your entire, unique make-up.You are not here to be the assistant in someone else's life. You are here to be you.
You have your own unique DNA, personality, experiences and emotional and physical history. There are countless influences that make you who, what and how you are. Absolutely no one knows more about you than you do.So, be yourself and no one can tell you that you are doing it wrong.
If you spend any time thinking that you are less valuable or worthy than anyone else, then it's your thinking that is wrong. In life, we have many baited lines thrown to us. With a little attention we can be prepared for them and take the time to decide which ones will hurt us and which ones will feed us.
You have the power to decide which ones you will grab and which ones you will run with. A Soaring Eagle pays no mind to the opinions of the lowly ground creatures. Metamorphosis A butterfly starts out as a grub. It is really limited. Of all the creatures, I guess its the one that has the least going for it. Its plain, untalented and at the bottom of the food chain. Its the most likely creature to be eaten up by just about everything, it has very few defences.
A grub goes through a stage of being totally bound and locked up in darkness. It cant move, it is in total bondage and stillness. Its in this darkness that the metamorphosis begins. Imagine the immense struggle, danger and fear involved in having to push itself out of that cocoon. Imagine if he decided at this stage it was all too hard and just gave up. When he finally emerges he does so with great beauty and so much potential that he can fly!
Heres to grubs and eagles for 2008.
Your life's purpose We all wonder what our life's purpose is, what we are here to be or what we are meant to do. It's very simple - you are here to be you. There are countless billions of people on the planet with many similarities and many differences, but there is only one you.
The lives of your parents and ancestors have been passed to you like a baton in a relay race. You have some handicaps and some advantages. Good things and bad things will come your way. Some people will lift you up and some will push you down. This race is entirely your experience. Not one other person in the history of the world has your entire, unique make-up.You are not here to be the assistant in someone else's life. You are here to be you.
You have your own unique DNA, personality, experiences and emotional and physical history. There are countless influences that make you who, what and how you are. Absolutely no one knows more about you than you do.So, be yourself and no one can tell you that you are doing it wrong.
If you spend any time thinking that you are less valuable or worthy than anyone else, then it's your thinking that is wrong. In life, we have many baited lines thrown to us. With a little attention we can be prepared for them and take the time to decide which ones will hurt us and which ones will feed us.
You have the power to decide which ones you will grab and which ones you will run with. A Soaring Eagle pays no mind to the opinions of the lowly ground creatures. Metamorphosis A butterfly starts out as a grub. It is really limited. Of all the creatures, I guess its the one that has the least going for it. Its plain, untalented and at the bottom of the food chain. Its the most likely creature to be eaten up by just about everything, it has very few defences.
A grub goes through a stage of being totally bound and locked up in darkness. It cant move, it is in total bondage and stillness. Its in this darkness that the metamorphosis begins. Imagine the immense struggle, danger and fear involved in having to push itself out of that cocoon. Imagine if he decided at this stage it was all too hard and just gave up. When he finally emerges he does so with great beauty and so much potential that he can fly!
Heres to grubs and eagles for 2008.
Another reponse to an article about huge rise in methodone treatment.
Not always my words but def my voice!
People take drugs for many reasons: peer pressure, relief of stress, increased energy, to relax, to relieve pain, to escape reality, to feel more self-esteem, and for recreation. Millions of pounds may be spent on policing the drugs industry from the poppy fields of Pashtun farmers to argyle or dockhead Street, but I could still wander out of my front door right now and score within minutes.
There are a few things that you should know about drug treatment in the UK. If you go to see a doctor, a social worker or a probation officer, the person that you see will have received some training for the job.
If you go to a drugs agency, there worker that you see is unlikely to have been trained as a drugs worker. They may have trained in another discipline but the amount that they actually know about drugs or drug problems varies immensely.
This lack of knowledge will often permeate the whole of the agency. If the boss has very little drug-specific knowledge it is unlikely that he or she will insist on it in his staff.
As a consequence, Britain has drug services that are typified by their lack of professionalism. The unstated position that is implicit here is, 'they're only drug addicts, anybody can deal with their problems', when in fact, too many drugs workers are unable to identify the issues even when they are spelled out for them.
The expansion of drugs agencies over the last ten years or so has been fuelled by political pressures and the availability of money, rather than any proven success at addressing a particular problem. Much of what drug services do is about justifying their existence or building empires and securing salaries, rather than addressing problems effectively. That said, there are many good, committed workers out there who will do their best to help you, and even the ones who aren't can be useful if you learn how to work the system and play the game.
While the predominant position in Britain today is that treatment and prevention of drug abuse ought to take place within a medical framework, drug use is still punished under the law; and while it is argued that legal deterrence is necessary due to the dangers of drug use, more people die every year from tobacco and alcohol use which are not illegal.
The mainstream approach to substance use (prohibition), treatment (according to the disease model), and prevention (through education) is an utter disaster, yet it continues to flourish. This is because of two factors:
first, there is a lot of money to be made in this 'industry,' and second, there is a complex underlying psychopathology in society.
Society suffers from the failings within education (children are taught to work hard for external rewards; education does not make better jobs available), consumerism (the degradation of work; ownership is the ('British dream'), politics and morality ("we have a history of lawlessness in international matters;" "the leaders we elect are immoral and alienated from themselves" and the environment (a pervasive use of problem denial; the alliance of government regulatory bodies and industry), leaving it at the level of a poorly functioning, self-centered one- to three-year-old.
This pervasive self-serving attitude is one of the factors which, maintains the incredibly profitable "war against drugs," and the lucrative but ineffective mainstream substance abuse industry.
The approach to substance abuse has been superficial at best because it has avoided dealing adequately with the "underlying cultural pathology, oedipal and preoedipal" "if one wished to bring about sound, stable changes in the drug abuse situation, the basic pathology of our culture should be addressed" But this will not and cannot happen by means of the convention conventional approaches because mainstream substance abuse counsellors are not sufficiently educated and trained to work at any but the most superficial levels.
I doubt much progress would be made in the "war on drugs" as it was being fought in the pathological US/UK society of the early 90's and present that even if it were successful, "the current official 'enemy number one' would be succeeded and replaced by some other suitable 'enemy,' perhaps terrorism, nuclear war or other"
Probably the credit crunch lol "the banks" are the bad guys.
People take drugs for many reasons: peer pressure, relief of stress, increased energy, to relax, to relieve pain, to escape reality, to feel more self-esteem, and for recreation. Millions of pounds may be spent on policing the drugs industry from the poppy fields of Pashtun farmers to argyle or dockhead Street, but I could still wander out of my front door right now and score within minutes.
There are a few things that you should know about drug treatment in the UK. If you go to see a doctor, a social worker or a probation officer, the person that you see will have received some training for the job.
If you go to a drugs agency, there worker that you see is unlikely to have been trained as a drugs worker. They may have trained in another discipline but the amount that they actually know about drugs or drug problems varies immensely.
This lack of knowledge will often permeate the whole of the agency. If the boss has very little drug-specific knowledge it is unlikely that he or she will insist on it in his staff.
As a consequence, Britain has drug services that are typified by their lack of professionalism. The unstated position that is implicit here is, 'they're only drug addicts, anybody can deal with their problems', when in fact, too many drugs workers are unable to identify the issues even when they are spelled out for them.
The expansion of drugs agencies over the last ten years or so has been fuelled by political pressures and the availability of money, rather than any proven success at addressing a particular problem. Much of what drug services do is about justifying their existence or building empires and securing salaries, rather than addressing problems effectively. That said, there are many good, committed workers out there who will do their best to help you, and even the ones who aren't can be useful if you learn how to work the system and play the game.
While the predominant position in Britain today is that treatment and prevention of drug abuse ought to take place within a medical framework, drug use is still punished under the law; and while it is argued that legal deterrence is necessary due to the dangers of drug use, more people die every year from tobacco and alcohol use which are not illegal.
The mainstream approach to substance use (prohibition), treatment (according to the disease model), and prevention (through education) is an utter disaster, yet it continues to flourish. This is because of two factors:
first, there is a lot of money to be made in this 'industry,' and second, there is a complex underlying psychopathology in society.
Society suffers from the failings within education (children are taught to work hard for external rewards; education does not make better jobs available), consumerism (the degradation of work; ownership is the ('British dream'), politics and morality ("we have a history of lawlessness in international matters;" "the leaders we elect are immoral and alienated from themselves" and the environment (a pervasive use of problem denial; the alliance of government regulatory bodies and industry), leaving it at the level of a poorly functioning, self-centered one- to three-year-old.
This pervasive self-serving attitude is one of the factors which, maintains the incredibly profitable "war against drugs," and the lucrative but ineffective mainstream substance abuse industry.
The approach to substance abuse has been superficial at best because it has avoided dealing adequately with the "underlying cultural pathology, oedipal and preoedipal" "if one wished to bring about sound, stable changes in the drug abuse situation, the basic pathology of our culture should be addressed" But this will not and cannot happen by means of the convention conventional approaches because mainstream substance abuse counsellors are not sufficiently educated and trained to work at any but the most superficial levels.
I doubt much progress would be made in the "war on drugs" as it was being fought in the pathological US/UK society of the early 90's and present that even if it were successful, "the current official 'enemy number one' would be succeeded and replaced by some other suitable 'enemy,' perhaps terrorism, nuclear war or other"
Probably the credit crunch lol "the banks" are the bad guys.
same words different voice
Thought I would start this blog with some comments I have made over the years on various websites about my beliefs and opinion's around addiction, I know they are shared by many and contested also by more but hey ! opinions are like arseholes every body's got one!
This was in response to an article written in a Scottish broadsheet about a brilliant and effective new treatment facility for addiction based in Edinburgh.
Having disclosed that I am a recovering addict of 11 almost 12 now years abstinence with my professional work mates and to my horror, this disclosure is mostly met with utter disbelief, as their thinking is that people do not, can not will not RECOVER, and judging from the dearth and quality of services available in Scotland I can sympathise with this common but very wrong understanding of addiction.
What we need to hear in Scotland is that there is hope for those addicted to alcohol and other drugs – to be free from addiction and live in healthier and safer communities. The solution is to treat addiction as the public health crisis that it is.
I am delighted nae ecstatic to at last see the NHS funding a project that will actually work and run by people who actually know what addiction is. It’s time to implement public and private policies at the local, and national levels to help everyone get the help they need, including access to recovery, a process that requires time, patience and support. Policies that discriminate against people in recovery must be reversed, and the barriers that are raised by stigma against those with addiction must be removed. People with drug convictions face additional obstacles that threaten their chances of becoming productive members of society.
Breaking the cycle of addiction is critical to a healthy society. Anti-discrimination policies and policies that encourage recovery can benefit individuals, their families, and their communities.
They also protect the public health and safety, and the taxpayer.
When will we let go of the rhetoric and political war on words eh I mean drugs.
A recovery-oriented criminal justice system that provides alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders is needed imminently as our addicted brothers and sisters appear to be taking up the majority of our prison space.
People in recovery and their family members, by speaking out and putting a human face on recovery, play a critical role in breaking down barriers by educating the public about the disease of addiction and fighting stigma to end discrimination against those seeking and maintaining recovery.
WAKE UP TO THE FACT THAT when tailored to the needs of the individual, addiction treatment is as effective as Treatments for other illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma.
Investing in Recovery helps make the many pathways to becoming free from addiction to alcohol and other drugs accessible and increases opportunities for individuals to regain their lives.
LEAP in Edinburgh are offering coordinated health care, education, housing, employment, and social services at the community level, that will give the addict the best possible chance of leading fulfilling and productive lives.
Again Congratulations on your own recovering and to all those you and your team at leap will no doubt lead to the path of happy destiny.
This was in response to an article written in a Scottish broadsheet about a brilliant and effective new treatment facility for addiction based in Edinburgh.
Having disclosed that I am a recovering addict of 11 almost 12 now years abstinence with my professional work mates and to my horror, this disclosure is mostly met with utter disbelief, as their thinking is that people do not, can not will not RECOVER, and judging from the dearth and quality of services available in Scotland I can sympathise with this common but very wrong understanding of addiction.
What we need to hear in Scotland is that there is hope for those addicted to alcohol and other drugs – to be free from addiction and live in healthier and safer communities. The solution is to treat addiction as the public health crisis that it is.
I am delighted nae ecstatic to at last see the NHS funding a project that will actually work and run by people who actually know what addiction is. It’s time to implement public and private policies at the local, and national levels to help everyone get the help they need, including access to recovery, a process that requires time, patience and support. Policies that discriminate against people in recovery must be reversed, and the barriers that are raised by stigma against those with addiction must be removed. People with drug convictions face additional obstacles that threaten their chances of becoming productive members of society.
Breaking the cycle of addiction is critical to a healthy society. Anti-discrimination policies and policies that encourage recovery can benefit individuals, their families, and their communities.
They also protect the public health and safety, and the taxpayer.
When will we let go of the rhetoric and political war on words eh I mean drugs.
A recovery-oriented criminal justice system that provides alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders is needed imminently as our addicted brothers and sisters appear to be taking up the majority of our prison space.
People in recovery and their family members, by speaking out and putting a human face on recovery, play a critical role in breaking down barriers by educating the public about the disease of addiction and fighting stigma to end discrimination against those seeking and maintaining recovery.
WAKE UP TO THE FACT THAT when tailored to the needs of the individual, addiction treatment is as effective as Treatments for other illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma.
Investing in Recovery helps make the many pathways to becoming free from addiction to alcohol and other drugs accessible and increases opportunities for individuals to regain their lives.
LEAP in Edinburgh are offering coordinated health care, education, housing, employment, and social services at the community level, that will give the addict the best possible chance of leading fulfilling and productive lives.
Again Congratulations on your own recovering and to all those you and your team at leap will no doubt lead to the path of happy destiny.
Monday 12 May 2008
I love beginings dont you?
who am I?
probably why you have arrived here right?
or perhaps who is this ejit?/ assho/ wonderfull guru type woman. Well I have many aspects to my personality and many strings to bow. I am Annemarie and i cant decide at the moment what projections of myself I want to put into the world wide web, mmmmm nope I suppose you will just have to make you own mind up.
probably why you have arrived here right?
or perhaps who is this ejit?/ assho/ wonderfull guru type woman. Well I have many aspects to my personality and many strings to bow. I am Annemarie and i cant decide at the moment what projections of myself I want to put into the world wide web, mmmmm nope I suppose you will just have to make you own mind up.
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