"I don't have the attention span to meditate"

Wisdom Quarterly (INTERVIEW with Fat Joe) no relation to Fat Mike

• Joe, do you or could you meditate?

"What? I have ADHD. At least I think I do. My mom's doctor gave me speed [the chemical pharmaceutical Ritalin], so I do now anyway."

[Still drinking soda, eating fast food (excitotoxins and cancer-forming carbs, adulterated fats, sugars), watching TV (commercials)...]

"There's no way I can meditate. I can't pay attention. I've been sitting here playing Call of Duty: Black Ops for like 12 hours.

"If I try to meditate, I'll fall asleep. So, like, forget it. My phone keeps going off, texts, uh... What was I saying?

"I'm so fat and losing my hair. I look like Da' Buddha, or who's that guy at the Chinese take-out, Hotei Budai? You know, you rub his belly. Anyway. What, like, you sit down, like, on the floor on a cushion? Dude. No way! Maybe after some primo bud..."

• But, Joe, how are you able to pay attention to those videogames for 12 hours?

"What d'ya mean?"

• If you have Attention DEFICIT and Hyperactive Disorder, where are you getting all this attention?

"Oh-oh, I see! Hmm, huh, yeah. Medication? This game's exciting! Isn't meditation, like, BORING? Just sitting there staring at your belly button. What is meditation? I can't do it! I don't have the attention span to meditate."

Fact Find Tour Inside Joe's Head


Short Attention Span Theatre "Leaving Jesusland" (NOFX)

• Beer and the Science of Partying
• Adventures in Hyperactive Meditation (borntoexplore.org)
• Zen Buddhism and ADHD: Meditation not medication
• VIDEO: Excitotoxins The Taste That Kills
• PDF: Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills
  
• TaoJoe.com: Path of Least Resistance

Meditation as treatment for ADHD (ABC News)

Stories of the Departed (Petavatthu)

Wisdom Quarterly

Ancient round of existences (Sanskrit, samsara) we cycle through endlessly due to ignorance and craving, the Wheel of Rebirth and Death (Hanciong/Flickr).

Stories of the Departed
Spooks, creeps, haints, poltergeists, monsters, ghosts... in Buddhism? The Petavatthu is a collection of ancient Buddhist scriptures in the form of ghost stories. It is located in the Khuddaka Nikaya. Composed of 51 verse narratives, it specifically describes how the effects of unprofitable karma can, when and if they ripen, lead to rebirth in the unhappy realm of "ghosts" (petas).

This happens in accordance within the framework of intentional actions and their results. It gives prominence to the teaching that giving alms to successful Buddhist practitioners (arhats, buddhas, meditators, monastics, moral individuals) is capable of benefiting the ghosts of one's relatives.

But how could my good actions become someone else's good actions? They can not, technically speaking. But since "actions" include words and thoughts, there is a way. If one's relatives in the realm of ghosts approves, lauds, and commends the good one does either on their behalf or in general, they themselves are generating very meritorious mental-karma.

When the deed they are approving of is very excellent, such as giving to an enlightened person, it can have immediate benefits for them. That a relative does it is important, that they approve of it is crucial. The other worlds are not far.

Hungry Ghost (Sanskrit, preta) scroll, Kyoto (Wikimedia commons)

• Famines combine the Realm of Humans and Hungry Ghosts

Health: Beyond the "Paleo Diet"

“With this book, she [Nora Gedgaudas] moves the diet discussion into the world of evolutionary science.” - Anna Jedrziewski, New Age retailer

"These days, hormones are a hot topic"

In Nora Gedgaudas' book, Primal Body-Primal Mind, she focuses on those specific hormones that are so commonly imbalanced and problematic to the American population, contributing to common and frustrating symptoms such as weight gain, low energy, poor mood, and even premature aging. In clear and simple terms, Nora describes the root of these hormonal problems and outlines specific solutions that are effective and easy to apply. If you suffer from any of these conditions or are concerned with presenting them, this is the book you want to read." - Dr. Janet Lang, author, educator, and Restorative Endocrinology founder More

Nora Gedgaudas: I was raised in a prominent medical family, steeped from the get-go in sciences and obsessed even as a small child with interests in biology (I was reading and absorbing advanced college textbooks on invertebrate zoology at the age of 7). Both my parents were Lithuanian immigrants who had first moved to Munich, Germany, then Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada before finally moving to and settling in St, Paul, Minnesota. My father was a world renowned radiologist (his department at the University of Minnesota hospital was the first in the country to obtain full-body CAT-Scan and MRI due to his influence). More

"Sugar: The Bitter Truth" (video)

UCSF Mini Med School for the Public [7/2009] [Health & Medicine] [Show ID: 16717]

We have an "epidemic" of obesity. It can't be that our genetics have changed in three decades to account for it. It can't be that we're suddenly lazy, for there is now an epidemic of obese six-month olds. We exercise more, and yet we're fat. We eat in moderation, and yet we're fat. Why? It's what we eat. The food industry has changed it, and the government has gone along. For instance, they have filled soda with salt. But we do not taste that salt. They cover it with sugar (14 teaspoons worth). The average American is now secretly being fed 141 pounds of sugar, which has been denatured and made into a toxin on purpose. Our leptin (the satiety hormone) systems have been disrupted. We have been deprived of good fats (unadulterated, raw, and unprocessed) and been stuffed with carbohydrates, in liquid form and as fluffy starch. It all adds up to a compelling talk: "Sugar: The Bitter Truth."

(UC Television) Robert H. Lustig, MD, University of California San Francisco Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.

• Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill (Udo Erasmus)
  
• Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It (Gary Taubes)
• Normal regulation of blood glucose (insulin vs. glucagon)
  
• UprisingRadio.org (May 11, 2011)
  
• Ian Masters (May 10, 2011)
  
• UC Television (uctv.tv)