Jodistrict

If you want transformation, you need a long-term and consistent spiritual practice. The psychedlic journey is a tool that makes it easier to go inside and do inner work and is done when called for within the context of your practice.

The border is a legitimate issue. Robert Kennedy discusses the border rationally bringing up the real issues without using racist language to provoke emotions.

The left has as many biases as the right. I have talked to democrat party liberals who hate Putin and blame Russia for all the problems in the world. But they are doing the same thing that Senator Joseph McCarthy did in the 1950s (which all good liberals condemn). They both listen to their own echo chamber and are locked into a group think.

Edward Snowden says he sees an Oswald vibe. https://x.com/Snowden/status/1835460582855631350

Transformation is part of any spiritual path. The “chasing enlightenment” seems to be a modern thing. In Ashtanga 8 limb yoga, samadhi is only one of the 8 limbs. The Yoga Sutras talks about transformation which Pantanjali calles “parinama”. Transformation (parinama) is produced by a sequence of steps (krama). YS 3.15 A “krama” is a step or a single action. You transform yourself by taking one step at a time. Have a consistent practice over a long period of time, practice consistently without gaps, and with enthusiasm and an attitude of service YS 1.14. This unleashes the full potential of the mind. YS 3.4

A video has surfaced of the suspect recruiting foreign fighters for Ukraine (but this doesn't imply Ukraine knew anything about it). https://x.com/i/status/1835457866544582918

I was actually talking in general and not directed to any one person. There are a lot of youtube videos of people describing their awakening experiences.

Lately, they seem to be in to making youtube videos.

The title of this thread is misleading. Being a competent historian or being enlightened are two different issues. What Sadhguru said was reasonable and actually understated. "The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the Bloodiest story in History" Will Durant, Historian

According to some reports I have read, the immigrants are being flown there by the government and are given subsidies. How else do they get there? And if that is not true can you provide me with a real article written by an investigative journalist that actually explains the situation and what is happening. Keep in mind that conspiracy theorists fill in the vacuum provided by lack of real information. I have some limited direct experience of Haitians. Several years ago a group of Haitian workers were kicked out of Brazil for some reason and they all showed up in Tijuana to apply for asylum in the United States. Many of them ended up settling in Mexico. They were well dressed and all using smartphones. They were workers who had skills and obviously weren't the type who would eat somebody's pets. I wonder exactly who the Hatians are in Springfield and if they are of the same class.

The question is how much are the undocumented workers being subsidized by the government? An American local can’t compete with a subsidized undocumented worker. He wouldn’t be able to survive. This is profitable for the factory owner (who may be a democrat or a republican). There is also the issue of corruption. Where is the money coming from and where is it going. My guess is that RFK would have focused on this area since he has a long verified history of being pro worker and pro union.

I think Trump’s Haitian cat meme was a fatal blunder. It took focus away from the real issue and appealed to prejudice based on unverified reports. The media has learned his tactics so they didn’t take the bait, downplaying the story. I think he is an amateur debater who regurgitates lines from his stump speeches and appeals to emotions. Robert Kennedy would have easily won that argument based on facts and discussing what is actually occurring.

One of the problems with learning math is that there aren't many teachers who know how to teach it in a way that students actually understand what they are doing rather than learning rules to shuffle symbols. So finding lessons on the Internet that uses interactive tools and is taught to induce undestanding would be the way to go.

I have plantar fasciitis, which is a disorder of the plantar fascia, the connective tissue that supports the arch of the foot. It results in pain at the bottom of the foot. Approximately 2 million people in the US seek help for plantar fasciitis every year. It is estimated that podiatrists make around $376 million dollars a year treating plantar fasciitis. The cause of the disease is not totally understood. The treatments usually don’t seem to work. Some people have it for more than 10 years. The average recovery time can be more than one year. This brings me to the topic. I was on a subreddit called “plantar fasciitis” for people suffering from plantar fasciitis. It was the most useful subreddit I have been on. It actually helped me find a treatment that greatly improved my condition. I have found that podiatrists are almost completely useless and even harmful. They do things like give cortisone shots that don’t heal the underlying condition and are know to actually harm the foot. Well, recently I got a message from Reddit that said the subreddit has been shut down for spamming. The message said “This subreddit was banned due to being used for spam”. I was astonished because I have never seen spam on this site. I would check the site 2 or 3 times a day. Most of the posts were people complaining about their feet. Not only did they stop the subreddit but all of the previous posts have been removed. I even did a google search and can’t find any of the posts. It was a google search that originally led me to this site. All the information is gone. If they banned the site, why did they also have to go back and completely delete the past information, thousands of useful posts? This leads me to wonder about how much useful information has been disappeared from the Internet. I also wonder if the subreddit was going against the powerful podiatry industry and was shut down. Is other information being censored from the Internet because it goes against the interests of money making industries? Is that Internet even useful anymore or will it just end up being spam approved by large corporations?

The polarization and hysterical rhetoric is at a level that I have never seen before. The reality is that whichever side wins, the oligarchs and their bureaucracy will be firmly in control. The clown show diverts attention from the real power structure.

There is more danger to censoring speech. The correction to bad speech is more free speech.

You are giving a version of the "free speech is too dangerous" argument. The framers of the US Constitution rejected that argument. And there are already plenty of rules and regulations. It's a balancing act that's largely driven by the Supreme Court. It would be worthwhile to educated yourself on Constitution Law.

Having right-wing and anti-ukraine sentiments is protected free speech. A foreign government targeting the U.S. is a different issue and brings in other laws like the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Espionage Laws.

I would stick with the US Constitutional Law in 60's and 70s when the Supreme Court was expanding free speech. I think the "hate speech laws" is a slippery slope which will end up biting you in the ass.

Right. People need to study history. In the 1960s, civil rights workers were considered a danger to society. Martin Luther King was investigated by the F.B.I. and considered a dangerous communist. It was only free speech in the Constitution that allowed them to keep protesting.

Not that is not absolutist. It's Constitutional law that puts in place neutral restrictions that don't favor one side over the other or require a subjective judgment of what is dangerous. The problem with your scenario is who determines what is dangerous"? Someone has to make the decision. And the decision is made by who is in power and at the end of the day "dangerous" is whatever threatens their power. Most people want to ban speech that they don't agree with. That is why freedom of speech is important.

It’s not as complicated as it sounds. US Constitutional law has already carefully carved out areas where regulation of speech is allowed. For example, if you yell fire in a crowded theatre or advocated violence against an individual, that speech can be regulated under criminal law. If you spread false facts to defame someone’s reputation, you can be sued under civil law. Although, these are exceptions to free speech, they are value neutral in that they don’t favor a particular political class or power interest.

China is authoritarian so they are going to restrict speech. The more authoritarian the government the less free speech. If someone argues for restriction on free speech, it is because they have the power to determine which speech is considered “too dangerous” and not permitted. In reality, the speech that is “too dangerous” is dangerous to their maintaining power. Everyone would like to prohibit criticism of themselves, but only those who actually have power can do it.

When you hear all the silly excuses for why free speech is too dangerous, it underlines the reason for free speech.

I think that criticism might be that Buddhism doesn't account for the wide range of mystical experiences and states of consciousness or the existence of the Absolute or God-like experiences. But the important think to keep in mind is that Buddhism is directed to suffering and the elimination of suffering as summarized in The Four Noble Truths. The Buddha would not answer metaphysical questions and avoided any speculation that diverted from the end of suffering. Don't ask a car to be an airplane.