Of course it is! There would be no way I could enter a pool colder than 85 degrees. I would seize up.
It's been pretty cool here as well. It's always strange in the spring here. We are on the line where we share four of the ten regions of Texas. That means we also host eight corridors of species, not including species which live outside the corridor and/or both in and out. Very diverse.
It was 90 degrees a month ago. I will take the cooler springs, but the summer still comes, so we may as well have warm springs. Nothing changes the summer heat. Having lived down here from New York for 15 years, I've grown used to the heat. I am truly cold in this temperature today. My feet feel like they are frozen.
My mother in law up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin had 12 inches of snow last week! I would love to move to Wyoming or Montana, but the long, freezing winters no longer appeal to me.
"I was forged!" is the one you pull out of your rear every now and then. The headerws were checked the last couple times you pretended not to be you. You were never forged. Take responsibility for your own behavior!
Define "loony," and give examples when I was your definition of loony. Also give instances where you claim I'm a nut. Then again, go back to ignoring me. I easily saw your anger in posts to many others. And that, my dear, is your projection. It goes both ways, unless you have a egocentric mind.
I didn't say all. Why did you follow me around the Internet if you weren't fascinated with me? What's your problem? Granny not giving you any lately...
Already did, but if you forgot already, all these seem pretty nutty for starters:
...unlike you inever threatened to come to your house and attack you physically from behind (I loved your accidental confession of going for peoples' backs); never pretended to be an African American woman or a Crow Nation American Indian to score unmerited bonus points as you have done; never signed onto hypochondriac newsgroups as you have done confessing to the the most amazing mental illnesses and addictions and disfigurement...
To which I'd add pretending years & years of the craziest posts were forged, once even claiming "I'm a completely different Victoria, completely new here," what were you smokin' when you thought that'd work. And of course a mispent youth that destroyed your middleaged health, which from a teetotlar's point of view does look crazy.
I did watch two dear friends go down for much the same behaviors -- one killed his pancreas which nothing could be done about, the other his liver which MIGHT have been fixed but wasn't. Unlike you (and I do admire you that at least, seeing how impossible it was for supposedly tough guys with considerable intelligence) they never quite gave up any of those behaviors. Sad thing to see. Tom broke out of the hospital in his hospital gown long enough to panhandle the money for his next fix, then went back to the hospital stoned and drunk & crazily believing the doctors would believe his claim to have been clean for over a year. Of course they just let him die. Poor dumb f*ck, hard to forgive him even now. He'd inherited millions and could've done so much. Instead he killed his liver and thereby himself.
I never said any such things. I have no idea what you are talking about. Why would I fake being African American? Do you know that I'm not African American? Fibromyalgia is not hypochondria. I've been diagnosed since I was 13. Not last year. I professed to having depression for which I've been treated for and continue to be treated for. If that's the "amazing mental illnesses and addictions" you refer to, you better wake up. I used to have destructive behaviors, but that ended 26 years ago. I developed cirrhosis last year. If you think that is being hypochondriac, so be it. You're an ass.
I don't recall, to be perfectly honest. I may have done that, but since I don't remember I can't say one way or the other. There was at one time two different Victoria's here, but again I don't remember every detail that you stalkingly seem to recall. I also don't give a driplet of shit whether or not your point of view says I look crazy. You seem to have a lot to say about people you don't know. I could call you many things, but it's not worth it. It's YOU who everyone is on to. Not the other way around.
Well, I'm very fortunate because I did live long enough for my inherritance and I live very well. I still wipe my own ass and my shit still stinks. I will live till I die just like you dear. We all die, so what's the difference? I'm sorry if your shit comes out perfect with no stank, but once again, I don't give a driplet of shit what you think of me, or what you have to say about me. You have been stalking me for a long time based on what you wrote here. You haven't a clue. You don't know if I'm black, OR Indian, OR nuts. You never will. Go back to ignoring me. Please. You are a bore.
Meant to add. This is an important point. This idea of culture and it's relationship to our spiritual journey.
Scott Peck states (paraphrase) that one cannot, without great difficulty, or possibly not at all, advance spiritually outside of their culture and upbringing and their cultures religious beliefs. After years of struggle, I realize this as truth, to me. How can one relate completely to a philosophy that is grounded in millenia of culture and society, and it's language with it's inherent symbolism, that is alien to the student? One cannot truly understand a language, or worse, a translation, or the ideas and symbolism, apart from the culture.
I have come to believe that how we philosophically/spiritually learn is dependant upon our cultural understanding, and we add in philosophy and ideas and beliefs of others that benefit our journey. Ideas and beliefs with which we were innoculated as children, and as societal/cultural members, are very powerful. Thus my oft repeated statement of having to *unlearn* many things. It is quite easy to say that we reject or modify early teaching, yet sometimes quite difficult to actually arrive at that place.
ahh.....confusing....yes.
Confused Charlie
"If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself." ~~Confucius
This is not always true. I suppose my parents were very good for me in this regard because whatever religious "thing" I wanted to attend was okay by them. When I was 8 years old I went to Young Judia (sp?) and when I was staying at my grandmother's house we went to the RC Church and I knew the mass. There weren't problems of forced religion so I didn't carry any of the dogmatic baggage when I was old enough to start a spiritual journey.
After several failed attempts at different pagan systems, I found Tibetan Buddhism. Everything about it seemed familiar, even the cultural aspects. It's my contention that, since the US is such a young country, and people are taking rebirth all the time, many people being born here are possibly from other eastern cultures in past lives.
Some of the most unlikely people have become yogini's. My sister in law who attended 12 years of Catholic school is a yogini and has taken vows of chastity and devotes herself to her Swami. She's also an advanced yoga instructor. In ten million years I never would have thought she was drawn to a Hindu based spiritual path.
So, I think less and less people are being born into this baggage of their parents. It would seem the world is changing, though very slowly. I think much of the world is going to be destroyed before it comes back up from the depths of spiritual bankruptcy. I also think non-theistic religions like Buddhism are going to take more of a hold in the west because it truly is an intense study or science of the mind and its operation through mind training.
Hmmm...yes, this could explain, in part, the differences and difficulties in people's ability to fit in a belief system that is outside their culture. Interesting. Incarnation, reincarntion...this perhaps bears a little more integrated thought upon my part. Don't take this a cue to proselytize. ;-) (joke, that's a joke, note smileyface thingie!!! No disrespect intended!!)
The paths to the mountaintop are varied, are they not? Apologies to dis-interested parties for seemingly going off topic, but then again, should not gardening be a spiritual journey, a realization of the interconnectedness and interdependency of all, cycles of birth and death?
Central to most major belief systems, theist or otherwise, are the principles of duty to others and self-sacrifice, which, to me, implies negation of Self. Self is the issue. If we seek Duty, it is nothing, it is Self seeking fulfilment. If we can remove Self (damned hard), situations *will* present themselves that allow duty to be fulfilled. I believe this is at the heart of many "religions", but is not understood by many, at least in the West. The principle below, common to all, should indicate what path we should follow.
Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.: Udana Varga 5:18
Christianity: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.: Matthew 7:12
Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. Sunnah
Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.: Talmud, Shabbat 31:a
Confucianism: Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.: Analects
15:23
Taoism: Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss.: T'ai Shag Kan Ying P'ien
Pardon my musings. We each make our own way, taking what we may from whatever instruction benefits us. The journey, the holy intent and attempt, is what I find to be most important. And finding interesting traveling companions along the way, in whatever circumstance I find my Self.
Who knows. Are you duty presenting itself to me? Am I to you? :-)
Now, I must go rest a bit before lunchtime duty begins. I've a cold and feel like shit. Probably caught it as punishment for straying from the path and engaging unkindly with that person the last couple days. ;-) ;-)
As a man was relieving himself in front of a statue of the Buddha, a priest yelled at him, and scolded him for relieving himself in front of the Buddha. The man responded,"Where isn't the Buddha?"
None taken. Reincarnation is not what happens to lay Buddhist in general. We take a rebirth. A reincarnation implies it is the same mind stream in its conscious state throughout the process of death and into the next life. For example, the Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of Chenrezig as said in Tibetan, and Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit. He is the reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion. He has seen emptiness and knows and abides in the perfection of wisdom. Me, I am just a shlep slogging through, practicing and practicing. Practice makes perfect.
Yes, you just described emptiness. Nothing exists from its own side. It is dependant on a label, and that label is what determines what it is. Each of us have perceptions and not always in agreement. There are certain things I can't grasp; ie: how do we all agree something is green and collectively we see a color and label it green. This is where it gets confusing to me. So I study and go to teachings.
Not negation of self, emptiness of self. If you like me and someone doesn't like me, I am still appearing to those different labels as something, right? I exist, but I'm empty and depend on interconnection of millions and billions of things which have to happen in order for me to take a good human rebirth.
I'm going to hear a six day teaching by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Pennsylvania in July. He will be teaching on the Great Treatise as presented by Lama Tsongkhapa, at the request of Master Atisha five hundred years after the historical Buddha Shakyamuni had already gone into his current position, the Buddha field where the perfection of wisdom resides. The teaching is also refered to as the Lamrim, or in English, Stages of the Path. It's all very fascinating to me and I feel comfortable surrounding myself.
Musings pardoned. Muse away. This is the stuff anyway and yes I do believe gardening is a path which could lead us to our spiritual life. No doubt about it.
As for presenting one to the other, we've both empty and dependent on a label, so duty away!
You didn't get the cold for the reason you implied, you got the cold as a result of something you did in another life and that karma is ripening as a cold. My karma ripened as liver disease. I rejoice for its ripening, one less hell realm.
Better yet, V, ignore *her*. She's never going to stop until you do, you know it. Those of us who have been here long enough remember who is worth it or not :o)
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