If everything is an illusion why drink water ?

[LfcCharlie4]

@undeather I also saw these documentaries/ YouTubers who are 'Breathitarians' who knows maybe with the right practice and shit it could work, but for 99% of people as you said it isn't feesible, especially those who want to do more than meditate all day, which again is 99.9% of people, even those in this work. 

As a doctor, how do you think we can tackle the obesity crisis, even with friends who are athletes, they don't seem to care about eating a shit diet 24/7 and I have no idea how you could help someone like that, it seems as if it's only going to get worse!

[tsuki]

On 17.12.2019 at 9:10 AM, Nak Khid said:

If everything is an illusion why drink water?

What kind of stupid question is this?
Stop drinking water and see for yourself.

[undeather]

19 minutes ago, LfcCharlie4 said:

@undeather I also saw these documentaries/ YouTubers who are 'Breathitarians' who knows maybe with the right practice and shit it could work, but for 99% of people as you said it isn't feesible, especially those who want to do more than meditate all day, which again is 99.9% of people, even those in this work. 

As a doctor, how do you think we can tackle the obesity crisis, even with friends who are athletes, they don't seem to care about eating a shit diet 24/7 and I have no idea how you could help someone like that, it seems as if it's only going to get worse!

Exactly, maybe after years of meditation its possible for some humans to gain control over that. Nevertheless, I will remain skeptic about it since I have never seen it work. What I never understood: If you really have that power, why not show it to the world? You will easily find scientist/sceptics who are willing to give it a shot, why not show them? This could paradigm shift our human existence to the next level and do so much good.

As for the obesity crisis, thats a difficult issue. You have many aspects to deal with but I would argue that the right upbringing and your level of mindfulness are 2 key components to fight it. I have told many of my patients that the right diet will not only protect, but can also reverse heart disease in some cases (Esselstyn diet) - yet the majority prefers to grab some statin (cholesterol lowering drug) and keep their current lifestyle instead of changing a habit. The roots for that are known, we just crave sugary, fatty, salty food due to our evolutional blueprint, plus change is always difficult and inevitably connected with suffering. For grown ups, I dont see any solution whatsoever to improve this on a global stage, the fast & bullshit food industry is just way too strong/present for that to happen. Most people are just not interested in changing their diet or the habits surrounding that issue. The best thing we can do, in my opinion, is focusing on the children while hammering out content like game changers that reaches at least some people in the older community. What I found out works very well sometimes is adding some healthy parts to a bad diet, which is the furthest I can go with about 90% of my patients. 

Another big part is that there is so much "confusion" going on in the diet-world. We have so many proponents of so many different diets, we are literally getting overflowed with information,yet most of it is dangerous noise. Its not that difficult actually. Basically all the nutritional reasearch of a healthy diet can be summed up in 3 statemants: "Eat REAL food, mostly plants, not too much" - Michael Polan 

PS: IF anyone in here possesses some kind "breathitarian" or "light food"- abilities and want to prove this under controlled circumstences, therefore propably winning the nobel price and helping millions of people worldwide, contact me please. I am a medical doctor and also clincial researcher that can make that happen for you. I am NOT soem stage orange skeptic, dont worry about that

[silene]

@Lento  @Inliytened1  thanks, this is helpful. I do find my mind having these two distinct states. I have an intuition there is a deeper level which encompasses both duality and nonduality, some people talk like that, but haven't reached it yet. It's ok either way. I'm not striving for anything other than awareness of the present moment. 

[silene]

@LfcCharlie4  @undeather Right on. Dieting is a multi billion global industry, connected with another multi billion industry of addictive junk food. The basic advice on diet and exercise is available for free from responsible governments, but It’s the psychological habits which are hard to break. We abuse our bodies for years, then expect an instant magic cure from the medics! Yes I agree there's a deeper problem where we are indoctrinated into seeking instant gratification from a young age; stage orange consumerism and marketing doesn't help. It's all part of this spiritual work of seeing the bigger picture, the long-term over the short-term perspective. Broadening our minds. 

On the breathatarians, yes by all means do scientific research, but I can't help being a little bit skeptical about people claiming special powers, siddhis etc, in case it's just attention seeking by egos. There is a grain of truth here though, isn't there some good research about the health and life-extension effects of a low calorie diet? I recall reading about some research on animals to do with this. 

Edited December 18, 2019 by silene

[undeather]

Quote

There is a grain of truth here though, isn't there some good research about the health and life-extension effects of a low calorie diet? I recall reading about some research on animals to do with this. 

Yes, definitely! 
If you eat about 20% less calories than you "need", your body will activate certain genetic/epigenetic pathways that will ultimately make you live longer. At least thats the hypothesis most studies nowadays work with. 
Its not a fun life though. Most people will feel incredibly cold and tired because of it, so not really worth it in my opinion. Also, most of the data is comming from studies with rodents. There are some epidemiologic human studies out there that show a similar result, but the interpretation is quite difficult because of all the cofactors that come into play. We will have to wait and see! 
What we already know for sure is that a high plant based, high fiber, high good carb diet is a wonderful key for longevity. 

And regarding the breathatarians: There is still a huge difference between someone who eats less and someone who eats nothing. 
As you already mentioned, there is an incredible amount of ego/illusion involved with those practices and esoterica in general.

[silene]

@undeather fantastic thanks This is a bit off-topic, I know there's a different area for health issues, so I'll not labour the point. But I've been dieting fairly successfully recently, and wondering what to do when I reach my ideal weight. Increase my calories a bit to stay there? Or keep on low calories for good health, maybe activate these genetic pathways and see how it goes? I'll follow up in my journalling. 

Edited December 18, 2019 by silene
Grammar.

[undeather]

1 hour ago, silene said:

@undeather fantastic thanks This is a bit off-topic, I know there's a different area for health issues, so I'll not labour the point. But I've been dieting fairly successfully recently, and wondering what to do when I reach my ideal weight. Increase my calories a bit to stay there? Or keep on low calories for good health, maybe activate these genetic pathways and see how it goes? I'll follow up in my journalling. 

Experiment with it! This is obviously a highly individual thing and sometimes really, really counter intuitive. For example, some internvention might make you feel subjectively worse in general, but could also play a big positive role in your longevity. 

If you really want to get nerdy on that, research the Horvath-clock. Its basically a measurement of methylation processes in your DNA and propably the best predictor of your real bilogical age at the moment. We know that this clock can be influenced by certain epigenetic triggers, so if you want to have any real metric on how your diet/lifestyle is influencing your actual health, this is the way to go! 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by undeather

[Leo Gura]

If water is real, why drink it?

Can you see that your drinking of water has nothing to do with its reality or unreality? You do not care what is real, you only care what advances your survival. If survival turns out to be unreal, you don't care. You will still keep doing it because you are addicted to survival and don't a damn about truth.

[VeganAwake]

THIS is the best game in town, there is nothing else....

Might as well drink the delicious Kool-Aid ...water gets boring...❤