Shift Happens, so SHINE! (video)

Seven (Co-Editor, Wisdom Quarterly)
(GR8quotes/Facebook)

The Real Meaning of "Metta"

The exclusively Buddhist language Pali has a word being incorporated into English: Mettā. This term (Sanskrit, maitri) is very much like the English meta.

Although it is usually translated as (altruistic-) love, kindness, loving-kindness, or friendliness, it has more in common with meta, which means "beyond." It is an "active interest in others" that takes us beyond ourselves.

Selfishness, self-interest, and self-absorption are the problem; the sense of love that grows so powerful it becomes compassion is part of the solution along with liberating wisdom.

Metta goes beyond. It transcends. It is universal and eventually boundless. One extends it first to loved ones, respected teachers, one's own tribe or the constellation one navigates. But with the same fervor a mother shows for a beloved child, that same concern extends to everyone without exception -- even the monsters, betrayers, Hitlers, devils, or anyone considered "other."

Of course, there's ONE horrible, almost unforgivable creature who also deserves our loving-kindness. Most find this being so odious that they just cannot bear to forgive it. Compared to this one, Adolf Hitler is easy. But it is necessary to do so. It may even be necessary to forgive this one first:

You can travel the whole universe and yet never find anyone more deserving of your loving-kindness than yourself.

According to Gary Sanders: The founder of Against the Stream, (Dharma Punx author) Noah Levine had so much trouble loving Levine that he set up a picture of himself as a child on an altar. Following Jack Kornfield's advice, he developed loving-kindness towards that child for a year. When we are able to love ourselves, loving everyone else somehow becomes possible. And we can finally go beyond.

Shift happens, like an accident or job loss. But foul shytza becomes fine soil. For it is capable of fertilizing many great things. It is fundamental to our meta-morphosis into loving, empathic beings.

Meta Futures (metaphorics.co.uk)

(GR8quotes/Facebook)

Stay "Mindful" with Mindful.org

It was a very exciting time around the Shambhala Sun offices last year. They were preparing a special print publication called Mindful with the tag-line “Living with Awareness and Compassion.”

Mindful was a 40-page mini-magazine inserted into the December-January 2010 issue of the Shambhala Sun and also distributed across North America FREE in health food stores, bookstores, health clinics, and wherever those who seek mindfulness might congregate.

Mindful, which Barry Boyce was in charge of, had short articles about mindfulness meditation and other forms of awareness, body, and compassion practices, all written from an entirely secular viewpoint.

• Mindful.org

When the mini-mag was starting to reach people, a website was launched. It carries the latest information on bringing mindfulness, awareness, and compassion into our lives. It is updated every day with fresh stories and news.



Mindful.org offers mindfulness-based approaches to all the important issues of life today, from health, happiness, emotional well-being, psychology, relationships, and family life, to work, creativity, activism, and the science that is proving its benefits. Source

New Hippies through the Decades (video)

Amber Dorrian, Seven, Macpherson, Pauper Poet (Wisdom Quarterly)
1960s: "Wonderwall" with George Harrison

Imagine a world where we all got along. Nothing divides us but our arbitrary categories and allegiances. We say we're this, not that. Imagine converting to all religions, clinging to none. Imagine accepting everyone, rejecting none. Imagine not judging, and without judgment, acceptance and compassion.

1970s: "In every dream home a heartache. And every step I take takes me further from heaven."Is there a heaven? I'd like to think so. Standards of living, they're rising daily. But home, O sweet home, it's only a saying..." (Roxy Music).

The Buddha's Dharma is universal and leads to light. There is no reason to reject anything or anyone. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain seemed to be onto something. But even before that, the Beatles understood, and Led Zeppelin imagining themselves traveling through Kashmir. Then Rave Culture caught on in the very next decade, first in the UK then the US. And there may be no better example of techno than Makai's remix of "Five Elements Ninja."

• "Instead of money and power, rave called for empathy, intimacy, spirituality, and the joy of losing yourself in the crowd."

1980s: Rave culture is born

Of course many think the 90s were a dark period of materialism, blind ambition, and chemical drugs. But there was crunchiness and a longing for days gone by, as funny as it may seem that three decades on, the Sixties were still the only example of "peace, love, and happiness" many Americans had, that and Grateful Dead shows followed by Phish. This was followed in the aughts (00s) by endless free festivals that continue to this day.

Rainbow Spirit

1990s: Festivals, festivals, and more plans for festivals

Then the music industry fell into a dormant period, at least rock music did, until one Buddhism inspired some depressive Seattle slackers to wish for a "final end of suffering." The singer named his new band "Nirvana" as he tried to walk the path and cross over from the muddy banks of the Wishkah. It has smelled like Teen Spirit deodorant ever since. And in 1999, it culminated in a post-punk MTV orgy of violence and greed.

• Kurt Cobain: "At this point I have a request for our fans. If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us... leave us the ***K alone! Don't come to our shows, and don't buy our records."

2000s: Y2K began in 1999 with MTV's version of Woodstock

The Fenians, Irish Republic Proclamation: "All men are born with equal rights, and in associating together to protect one another and share public burdens, justice demands that such associations should rest upon a basis which maintains equality instead of destroying it. We therefore declare that, unable longer to endure the curse of monarchical government, we aim at founding a republic, based on universal suffrage, which shall secure to all the intrinsic value of their labour" (The Irish People to the World 1867).

Suburban angst builds before Los Angeles rises

2010s: "And now The End is near. And so I face the final curtain. Ha, ha, ha. You can't, I'm not a queer. I'll state my case, of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. I traveled each and every highway. And more, much more than this, I did it my way" (Sid Vicious).

• L.A. RISING 2011: Rage Against the Machine (July 30)

Things

• Los Feliz Village Street Fair 2011 (Hollywood)
• We beat JetBlue by Bike during LA's "Carmageddon"
• Pelican Bay Protest: Protecting tortured prisoners
• The amazing "Wonderwall" (1968) explained
  
• The most beautiful women in the world are Muslims
  
• Topanga Film Festival.com
• Earthbound Spirits on Coast to Coast (radio)
• Jim Crow Fascists: Woody Gutrie freedom songs
• Tortured prisoner hunger strike solidarity
• Awkward One Night Stands
  
• Timbuktu: A Journey to Africa's Lost City of Gold
• Titicaca: the Highest Navigable Lake in "The World"
  
• VIDEO: Shangri La, the Last Illusion in Bhutan
  

Chemical Midlife: 1 in 10 on Anti-Depressants

Claire Bates (dailymail.co.uk)

Overwhelmed by life? One in 10 middle-aged adults in Europe take anti-depressants

Seeking chemical happiness: Why one in 10 of us reaches for the anti-depressants in middle age

It's a time of life when many adults reach the peak of their careers and are busy raising their children, but a new study reveals you are most likely to be depressed in your late 40s.

Researchers from the University of Warwick and the University of Stirling found one in 10 middle-aged adults acrossEurope took anti-depressants in 2010. [They do not work but rely on placebo effect and are toxic]. The rates were greatest in the UK alongside Portugal, France, and Lithuania.

In Britain, seven percent said they had been on drugs such as Prozac for more than four weeks, while two percent said they had taken them for under a month or from time to time.

This means 5.5million adults in the UK were on anti-depressants at some point last year.

Middle-aged women who were unemployed, divorced, or separated were the most likely to pop the pills.

Co-author Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick, said: "As we live in the richest and safest era in the history of humans, perhaps we are going to have to ask ourselves why one in ten of Europe’s middle-aged citizens need a pill to cope with life.

"That is an awful lot of people relying on chemical happiness."

The scientists said that the results supported the hypothesis that most of us experience well-being in life as a U-shape. So we start and end our lives relatively content but become bogged down by stresses and strains at work and home leading to a mid-life crisis. More

What's the Alternative?

Wisdom Quarterly

If you cannot afford to be depressed, you cannot afford to eat poorly, no matter how much it costs to eat well instead. We are the only people happy to ruin our health to get rich then go give that wealth away to try to get well again.

There is so much that can be done, a plethora of therapies and solutions. But the one thing we refuse to do is listen to the condition. Why are we depressed?

Oftentimes it is appropriate. It becomes inappropriate and debilitating. Nevertheless, chemical allopathic drugs do not themselves work. Being paid attention to, given something, taken care of, feeling side effects (that reinforce the placebo effect)... all of these give us hope. We are being sold hope and cancer. With help comes a high price -- soaring health care costs, toxic livers (full of fluoride, heavy metals, enzyme disruptors, and artificial excipients).

The shocking truth is that MOST of our serotonin is made in the gut, not the brain. Eating well (food combining" for smooth digestion) and avoiding "food complementing" (for complete protein, which means food goes undigested ruining our digestion and serotonin levels) is often enough.

Utilizing an alkalizing diet also helps so long as we alkalize the blood not the stomach. The stomach needs to be acidic. Anyone who thinks s/he has an "acid stomach" is almost certainly lacking acid. Antacids are a terrible idea! Instead, the solution is vegetarian digestive enzymes. Digest more, be depressed less with no intestinal distress.

Anyone who has gut problems is likely to become depressed. There is an ancient Chinese saying: We are only as healthy as our intestines and only as young as our backs.

Good digestion is a blessing we do almost everything we can to ruin -- with sugar, starch/grains/carbohydrates, alcohol, vinegar, artificial and "natural" flavors (all of which are artificial excitotoxins toxic to braincells but legally called "natural" because they mimic a naturally existing flavor), gluten and grain damage (Celiac disease), chemical sweeteners...

• Food Combining Chart (acidalkalinediet.com)

Our "Food Pyramid" is a testament to the Four Food Lobbies. No human group in history or prehistory has ever eaten this way. If one wants to see the danger in such a diet, here is how:

Go to an Indian reservation. Its food supply is provided by the American government and wholly subsidized. It therefore follows American (Food Pyramid) guidelines. You will not find worse health -- obesity, acne, diabetes (insulin resistance), hypoglycemia, heart disease, high cholesterol, alcoholism, oxidative stress (premature aging), sugar addiction, and depression.

The other major cause of depression is lack of steady sleep (due to stimulant use, worry in reaction to stress), failing to exercise (a little many times a week is much better than a lot a few times a week), and toxicity. Heavy metals can be cleared by chelation.

But good luck trying to get any help for any of these things from an allopathic doctor. Such doctors and the medical industry in generally is utterly vested in disease and symptom treatment. Health means invasive treatment in this sense. But this is not holistic or sustainable but enslaving and bankrupting.

• Eat fats that heal (which are satiating)
• Avoid all processed carbohydrates and sugar
• Eat greens daily, preferably at every meal
• Eat antioxidant rich organic fruits and berries
• Consume clean proteins (unfried, cruelty-free, vegetable-based)
• Drink lots and lots of water (unfluoridated and never in plastic)
• Eat daily probiotics (cultured food, not fermented)
• Eat as much fiber/roughage as possible ensuring as many bowel movements as meals in a day
• Detox through exercise, sweating, deep breathing, bathing in chlorine-free water (use a shower filter)
• Avoid hydrogenated fats in plastic containers (which means processed oils such as canola and soy oil, even though they do not say so on the label)
• Avoid putting chemicals on skin such as sunscreen (replacing it with antioxidants and phytonutrients), sodium lauryl sulphates (and related chemicals) or in hair.

There is much we can do to avoid depression. If it all seems like to much to be responsible for in our own lives, consider that we are doing all these things that need avoiding. Simply stop. There are countless alternatives.

What a Beautiful Tree! Is that Lust?

Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly response to Figleafforum.com
Bodhisattva under a redwood tree, Sequoia Nat'l Park, CA (AllegoryImaging/Flickr.com)

"Lust" (kama- or raga-chanda, sensual-craving) is a strong desire to possess something. (Desire can seem neutral, but in Buddhism it is translating terms with a negative aspect since there are certainly "good" desires like the will and zeal to realize the liberating truth).

Christians and Muslims have a similar word in is covet. Christians learn that lust and covetousness are "sins" often without considering how or why. What about admiration, the wish to understand, the desire to find harmony? Love, compassion, altruism, and impartiality all express a desire but with a free and happy heart: It does not possess the object of our admiration.

Of course, it is impossible to "possess" things. But what is possible are the harmful mental actions of grasping and clinging, obsession and attachment. The heart is unable to let go. It binds itself. It does not have the object of its craving, yet it does have all the worries and costs of possession.

In a conventional sense, a person may be described as being possessed by objects one clings to. But who -- other than the Five Aggregates -- is clinging? Ultimately, "we" cling to the "factors of clinging." Those factors are called the Five Aggregates. But ultimate truth eludes us.

The title of this article may seem absurd; the story behind the article is even stranger. Our nude Christian friends at Fig Leaf Forum first asked the question in a theistic context. It was like an episode of the Daily Show's "This Week in God." It's beautiful the way things are explicable even with different assumptions about this world.

Do beautiful objects in our perceptual field -- like trees, sunsets, newly nubile gals/guys/ponies -- come about as acts of heavenly Creation or evolve along Evolutionary lines? There's truth in both views, except the polarities won't budge a whit. They thereby turn a blind eye to what is real and what is not. Taking sides is easy, reconciling why the sides exist is less easy but more beneficial. "It's a trap!" we can Admiral Ackbar and Cherry say. Both views are a trap.

No peace is coming between camps, just a few conversions, mostly of sciencey types turning churchy. The truth stands apart, and there would be much more peace if we could see what is right about each pole rather than dismissing one side as kooks and lauding ourselves as the great non-kooks. It's kooky. Keep your view, but keep all eyes open and investigating. Any bias, even a well intended one, causes us to look for confirmation not information. It's our confirmation seeking tendency.

If a particularly stunning tree or model or mountain or magazine cover comes into view, there is great pleasure in taking it in and enjoying its proportions, symmetry, interactive bits, and pleasing fullness (abstract concepts explaining why something strikes us as beautiful that, for less abstract thinkers might just be termed, oh who knows, "God's" handiwork).

Musicians appreciate well performed works and composing skills, jewelers are impressed by well set gems, nature buffs love natural (fractal, Fibonacci, golden mean) beauty. And the wise derive joy from truth, however counterintuitive the Truth may be.

As human beings we find other human beings most beautiful of all -- attractive, creative, evolved, faithful, or intelligent, it hardly matters.

When the mind/heart first hits upon the idea of possessing, we're in line for disappointment and dissatisfaction (dukkha). What if we could be mindful instead, mindfulness being fully aware without thinking, judging, evaluating, planning, or measuring. "It is what it is," people foolishly say, but there's great wisdom in this foolishness. Of course, it itself doesn't say anything, yet something is being said.

Bare awareness means not becoming attached or enmeshed but just seeing, just knowing, just accepting, just allowing. It's very peaceful. It allows the right brain (our silent co-consciousness) to have a say. Of course, it won't speak, but it will communicate with feelings and a bodily sense we react to. ("We" being the left brain thinking portion that thinks, judges, and tries to possess). "Let it be, let it be," the Beatle said.

Will lust help or harm? We can have all that is, but we can possess none of it. What will we choose to try to do?

To carry this analogy further, beauty appears in all sorts of ways. Beauty is not to blame when lust arises. It's not even the reason for admiration. If it were, how would Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and arhats ever be freed from lust (craving, thirst, bondage, disappointment)?

Objects there, responses here. The world is the world; the heart/mind looking out on it can choose to notice this about it or that (the beautiful or the disappointment inherent in it), and then choose to either attempt to possess it or not.

Buddhism is very pleasing because it syncs up with psychology. And we modern Americans love all things psychology. It's no coincidence so many psychologists, therapists, neuroscientists, and the like are Buddhists. The Buddha focused on our internal experience of the external world far more than he spent talking about physics. As interesting and elegant as physics is, it can hardly hold an atomic candle to cognition, perception, emotion, motivation...


The Buddha gave physics its due ("form" means materiality, fine and gross, basic and derivative, four interdependent qualities or characteristics of material bodies). But he elaborated on our experience of the physical by giving psychology the lions share: sensations, perceptions, volitions, and consciousness are what beings cling to and what they can be freed from clinging to.

That freedom comes with enlightenment, is brought on by enlightenment, so much so that many well intentioned teachers and even monastics think nirvana and bodhi are synonyms. But bodhi is enlightenment, insight, awakening, whereas nirvana is complete freedom, peace, the end of suffering.

Oh to be free! Sex is sex. But clinging, attachment, obsession, possession, being consumed instead of consuming, that's just sad. Naturally, in the Sense Sphere (kama-loka) we like sense objects. That's normal. Is it normal to imagine we can "possess" or "keep" or "own" the composed and decaying object of person, be it tree or person, wealth or self?

All are falling away every moment. And in the meantime, we miss what is available -- enlightenment and freedom.

We can't live without trees. Maybe some people can. But we can't. The trees, the trees, rooted in earth, reaching for the sky. Casting shade, dropping figs (and fig leaves), holding my back while I meditate. What meditation? I'm mindful. There is no straining in my striving. I'm just watching. Eventually I'm seeing things as they truly are. Ahhh. No words for it. The right brain knows. It's the left brain that conceives and tries to capture just the right wording.

But completely "detached from sensual objects, O meditators, detached from unwholesome states of mind/heart, a meditator enters into the first absorption, which is accompanied by applied attention and sustained attention, is born of detachment [withdrawal of the senses, samadhi, intensified-concentration opposing workaday dissolute-distraction] and filled with rapture and happiness" [the Buddha defining the first "absorption" or in Pali jhana, Sanskrit dhyana, Japanese zen, Chinese ch'an, Tibetan samten].

Turning this mind to objects of insight -- vipassana practices -- is suddenly fruitful. Loving-kindness! The breath having become a nimitta takes me to equanimity. The factors-of-absorption (jhana-anga) become my best friends. As such where have "my"

• sensual desire (lust)
• ill will
• sleepiness and laziness
• restlessness and worries
• doubts

gone? Hindrances fall and opposing states come in peace:

• applied attention (on my object of meditation)
  
• sustained attention
• rapture
• happiness
• concentration.

Turning the wheel (cycle) of "Dependent Origination" in mind, it becomes clear that this is the way to enlightenment. One persisting in this practice, strengthening absorption then applying that laser focus to insight practices, can see freedom in the distance.

Going, going, going beyond, going altogether beyond, O what an awakening, so it is!

It's a nice mantra not learned rote and repeated with bell and drum but uttered spontaneously -- as words fail and contentment overtakes me.

• Thanks to the editors at Wisdom Quarterly for helping me putting into words.

Lust is discussed in Fig Leaf Forum revisited by Mark Roberts in a debate published in Issue 55/56 of their newsletter. This article is responding to Issue 59.

Fig Leaf Forum realizes that "Lust is a problem of the heart, not of the mind." But in Buddhism heart is mind (citta). Lust is a problem of both. If we were speaking the same technical English, we would agree. Lust does not help perception; it twists (kinks, perverts, distorts) it. "Love others as ourselves," yes! Love everyone! Choose lust at your peril. For what is possible here and what impossible is often found out too late. What is possible? Freedom from the bonds of craving.What is impossible? Actually possessing and controlling what we crave.

Why We Love Trees (Tree Hugger's Ball)

We love trees. And what better way to show it than to save them, meditate under them, and hug them? The Buddha was born under a Sal tree in Lumbini Garden.

During his quest, he sought shelter under a great Sal tree. There he realized that a course of austerities was no way to enlightenment; then, mistaken for a tree spirit (dryad or bhummi-deva), he was fed good food that fortified him for the more difficult effort of balancing striving-and-receiving.

He then sat under a Bodhi tree and reached enlightenment. He taught under trees, taught others to sit under trees, and frequently retreated to the forest alone to enjoy the silence and bliss of meditation under trees.

Such was his experience under the canopy that when it came time to pass into final nirvana, he laid out between twin Sal trees. He joyfully said goodbye, gave his last words of advice -- "All conditioned-phenomena are hurtling towards destruction; work out your liberation with diligence" (Parinirvana Sutra) -- then entered the purifying absorptions (jhanas) before going beyond:

"Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, so it is!" (the Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra mantra)

(OC Weekly: Tree Hugger's Ball)

It’s that time of year again -- the annual Tree Hugger’s Ball takes over Silverado, and OC’s eco-maniacs get their day in the Sun. The afternoon begins with the Go Green Expo, an environmental fair dedicated to teaching everyone how to do just that via food, art, auctions, shopping, costumed dancers, and information about alternative energy and fuel-efficient vehicles. Eco-hero Daryl Hannah is the night’s guest speaker; she’ll be followed by bands playing folk, Appalachian music and “environmental blues” (gas prices, oil wars?) and dancing until midnight. Guests are encouraged to wear their own earthy costumes. It is a ball after all.

A Colbert-Style Report: Comedy with News

Wisdom Quarterly, Colbert Nation, The Buddhist Blog, Dr. Robert Jacobs

Stephen Colbert on "blogger and journal-ish" Breitbart on Weiner on crotch-shots on Comedy Central (Huffington Post)

Living in a topsy-turvy world is easy -- as long as our sense of humor remains intact. That's not always easy. To keep smiling, to start laughing, is a blessing.

It takes not only an open mind but a throbbing heart. The heart opens, the mind opens. The marriage of compassion and wisdom is no mismatched pairing.

There are are growing number of intelligent comedians thriving in the the Bush-catastrophe era we are still living in with Barack O'Bush, who has done so much to keep and promote not only the policies of the Cheney-Bush administration but also its key players.

Why argue about revolution when things are worse than ever with a much nicer face on it? How I wished we could have a black president. I never bargained for a (shsssssh) sad "sell out."

The Colbert Report, Family Guy, American Dad, The Onion, The Daily Show, SNL (Seth Meyers), YouTube, The Young Turks, Bill Maher, Go Harrison-Jimmy Dore-David Feldman (KPFK radio progressive news comedians), Amy Sedaris, David Sedaris, This American Life... there are many options, many opportunities to laugh.

Buddhism has many comedians: Ajahn Brahm, Nes Wisker, Roshi Albrizze, Ashley Wells, and even the British Western-Thai-Theravada-tradition monk Ajahn Sumedho, who wrote a book titled Who We Really Are, which explains:

Laughter is Great Medicine for self-obsession

The Buddhist Blog

"Now one of the big problems in meditation is that we can take ourselves too seriously.

"We can see ourselves as religious people dedicated towards serious things, such as realizing truth.

"We feel important; we are not just frivolous or ordinary people, going about our lives, just going shopping in the supermarket and watching television.

"Of course this seriousness has advantages; it might encourage us to give up foolish activities for more serious ones.

"But the process can lead to arrogance and conceit: a sense of being someone who has special moral precepts or some altruistic goal, or of being exceptional in some way, having come onto the planet as some kind of messiah.

It's a kind of pride that can make human beings lose all perspective; so we need humor to point to the absurdity of our self-obsession."

James: I laugh a lot when I meditate, especially when that sneaky ego creeps in with the "spiritual materialism" of smugness, arrogance, and pride of feeling like I'm something special because I'm meditating, because I'm a "Buddhist," or because I'm feeling like I "get it." It is as if there is something to "get" (shaking head and chuckling). It's more like there is something to lose [to abandon, to let go of]. Namely, the very ego that wants to acquire. More

Kirlionics diagnoses and heals diseases

• Dr. Rife (also) cured cancer with frequencies
• Kirlionics cures cancer and other diseases in Space Age
• What is "electronic harassment"? (bugsweeps.com)

Laughter and Buddhism
This May I will travel to France to present a paper on Laughter and Buddhism. The meeting is that of philosophers interested in comparative work between Western and Eastern philosophies. The topic this time is "Laughter: East and West."

PICTURES: Buddhist wonders from Tegis Photography

Self-compassion: most important life skill?

Saner Living Guru (Chris Wucherer, AnnArbor.com/LiveScience.com)

One of the more frequent themes for my clients is the ability to be harsh on themselves. I've got a touch of it myself, in certain areas, as do all human beings. The feeling of not being good enough, smart enough, thin enough, rich enough, and so on, is as common as ants at a picnic, ready to devour the feast set out.

Not holding oneself in high esteem is like a virus spreading its tendrils throughout one's spirit and soul. Sometimes you may be cruising through life, feeling good, when the yucky low self-esteem virus knocks on the door of good feelings.

For some people, low self-esteem is like an unwanted relative who has decided to make camp in their home, uninvited and unwanted for an unspecified period of time. It covers them like an old worn overcoat laying thick and heavy on their spirits.

Recently, I came across this article on self-compassion in LiveScience, which notes that, "psychologists are finding that self-compassion may be the most important life skill, imparting resilience, courage, energy, and creativity." More

• Recognizing Depression in Men (Harvard)
• Malaysian women urge wives to be "whores in bed"
• Kidnapped girl showed resilience in captivity
• Woman sues Dunkin' Donuts over sugar in coffee
• Girl falls to death from New Jersey Ferris wheel
• Arizona judge sets bond: $75 million. Cash only.
• Missing Canadian teen to be reunited with mother
• Palin flubs explanation of Paul Revere’s ride
• Texas boy, 10, ticketed for improper seat belt use
• Why would anyone buy Android or iPhone?

Eating Well, Preventing Cancer

Gary Null, Ph.D. (garynull.com)

The Peoples' Food Pyramid

When determining the perfect diet, it is important to remember that no two people have the same dietary needs. [One has to be responsible for oneself because entrusting it to someone else often results in S.A.D., the Standard American Diet.] It is best to consult with [not necessarily listen to] a dietitian to determine what best suits a particularly body and lifestyle.

Active individuals may need more calories and protein. Petite people may need fewer calories. For some, gaining weight may be an issue. For others, it is a goal. So there is not one magic diet to will fit everyone. [Body types, blood types, type of environment, season, and current state of health also changes what is "best" for health.]

The People's Pyramid is meant to be a guideline. None of the quantities or numbers are hard and fast rules. Rather, they are a general basis to establish healthy dietary choices. For a chart with samples of foods, dietary facts, and basic foods that are easily accessible, click here.

Remember, when picking produce, eat organic and choose local foods. Avoid processed foods. For many vegans, getting high quality protein is a priority. This is easily achievable by eating a balanced diet of greens, complex carbohydrates, legumes of all kinds, vibrant vegetables, and vibrant fruits.

There are many cures! (mccain.com)

Cancer Can't Kill...Unless We Let It
Powerful new cancer treatments are not taught in U.S. medical schools. But they are saving millions of lives in England, France, Germany, and more than 180 countries throughout the world (Gary Null “Advance News” Medical Report).

Cancer is projected to be the number one cause of death worldwide by the year 2010. This frightening disease can affect anyone at any. The terror, confusion, and physiological deterioration that cancer causes devastates not only those who are afflicted by it, but everyone in their lives as well.

[Most of its scary appearance actually results from invasive treatments like making the body toxic, killing cells and wiping out the immune system; cancer does not do that, oncology-industry insanity -- toxic chemicals, corrosive radiation, and invasive surgery -- does that.]

We need to arm ourselves with useful information to help to protect ourselves against this naturally-occurring and dreaded disease. [If we are causing it by taking in toxins, the cure is easy and prevention is even easier! Remove the toxins, and supply the body with good nourishment.]

Gary Null, Ph.D. and the world’s leading alternative cancer experts show powerful strategies to prevent cancer from ever forming or reversing it even if it has gotten to an advanced stage. [Your doctor will not like it and will not listen because that's not the business she's in, so use these scientifically-backed and industry-ignored protocols do the natural healing.] More

Escape? The seclusion illusion

Megan Johnston (smh.com.au, May 14, 2011)

(Illustration by Robert Duong. Photo: Robert Duong)

Sick of modern life? You're not Robinson Crusoe. But withdrawing from the world only makes things worse.

It has been almost 20 years since an idealistic drifter called Christopher McCandless trekked into the Alaskan wilderness and died. Seeking a period of contemplation and driven by a contempt for civilization, the young American gave away his savings and abandoned his possessions before embarking on what he saw as a noble odyssey.

Desperately ill-prepared, his quest lasted barely a few months before he perished from starvation.

His journey may have been doomed, but our fascination with it and the abundance of websites, books, and films that have immortalized his memory all speak to our longing for solitude.

The impulse is familiar to anyone who has felt overwhelmed by modern life. When disaster, over-information, or financial stress become too much, we retreat to soothing distractions and bunker down in personal affairs.

Instead of escaping to the wilderness, however, we usually seek solace in the cinema, in the meditation hall, or at a bolthole by the beach.

In many cases it's no more than a healthy diversion. No one could sensibly argue that an occasional break is anything other than good for our well-being.

But for some, seclusion can morph into long-term withdrawal. Solitude can tip into loneliness. Cocooning, it's often called. Or its close relation -- escapism. As inviting as both may seem, they rarely bring contentment. More

• British woman beheaded in front of tourists in Tenerife, Spain
  
• Tolerance a recipe for drug misery
• OSL is dead, now it's time to put myths to rest
• Reclaiming the "S"-word (slut)
• How funny money takes our mickey
• Proud to strut when SlutWalk comes to town
• Punishing the innocent