In pain, there is also medicine.
Through pain, we deepen our empathy and understanding of others.
We can heal the world and thus ourselves through compassion.
Chinese Story Of Neither Good nor Bad
Here is a great Taoist story explaining how — in the great complexity of nature and reality — the judgements we make as to whether something is good or bad are often only true for a fleeting moment. In the grand scheme of things there is neither good nor bad. Things just are.
Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.” The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”
The farmer steadfastly refrained from thinking of things in terms of gain or loss, advantage or disadvantage, because one never knows… In fact we never really know whether an event is fortune or misfortune, we only know our ever-changing reactions to ever-changing events.
“When It Will Be Silent” Short Film Review
A short film by Dan Sachar covering powerful archetypes which will bring tears to all but the coldest eyes.
Poetry could be described as art focusing on that which is not said. Or in other words “reading between the lines”.
This video perfectly fits that definition.
Filmed in sepia almost to the point of black and white. A dead landscape showing what is oil or blood dripping down a heart symbol drawn on a wall. Puddling near a dead bird with feathers being blown by the wind. A broken bridge. A man in a truck wearing a gas mask. Drudgingly digs a hole in the dust. He pulls out the body of a woman draped in white from the back of the truck wearing a wedding ring. Of skin blistered with chemical burns. The mask wearing man carries her down the valley of the broken bridge and into the hole he dug. He lays next to her and takes off his mask, looks at the corpse of the young woman and dies next to her from what we assume is a toxic air. The video ends with oil or blood dripping down a heart drawn on a limestone wall. Soberly melancholic as it brings up the ancient archetype of love, loss and grief with and an unspoken undertone of environmentalism.
When it Will Be Silent (כשיהיה דומם) from Dan Sachar on Vimeo.
The Problem With Search Engines
With search engines, I often tell people to “ask yourself before you consult search engines or external resources…”
While search engines allow us to research things and find inspiration; It is also causes us to no longer ask ourselves what we think and feel about a subject when we have the lazy way of just searching answers online. Too often we no longer think for ourselves but instead ask google. There are two negative potentials here.
Number one is the fact that google can control what you see and what you don’t see. This is centralized control of information. If you ask a search engine a question about genetically modified foods or global warming, your opinion can be based on what the computer shows you whether they are ads, page rank or mere omission.
The second is it often robs people the preciousness of creative critical thinking. You no longer have to think up an answer to your question when you can just search for it via google (or other search engines). But what if new answers would be discovered in the laboratories of our minds if people only thought for themselves? More often than not, search queries yield results from lay people on forums whom often know nothing more than I do or are repeating fictitious misconceptions. This also results in the development of echo-chambers whereby we get increasing polarization of view points through positive feedback loops which do not happen in libraries and book stores.
The old-fashioned way of learning things through other people, books, magazines and our own thinking allows us to be exposed to more varied and experiential view points.
Of course this comes from me … a person who built their own tiny-house version of a library … but I digress.
Vitamin C and Earthing. Are They Connected?
I recently read the book “Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases and Toxins” by Thomas Levy and learned about the electron theory of health. Basically disease and inflammation is a result of a lack of electrons. Oxidation and inflammation consume electrons. Anti-oxidants give electrons. Most other animals produce their own vitamin C naturally, but humans do not so we are particularly susceptible to deficiency. While there are many different anti-oxidants out there, vitamin C is particularly good because it goes throughout the entire body whereas other anti-oxidants tend to focus on specific systems. We can only orally absorb 8-12 grams of vitamin C a day. However, intravenous vitamin C allows for substantially more uptake. Many scientific studies prove that intravenous vitamin C injections have healed people from the brink of death. It has been shown to cure polio, ebola, heavy metal poisoning, mushroom poisoning, snake bites, etc. It is truly a miracle substance at high doses (Sometimes 50 gram infusions). However it can be difficult to find clinics outside of big-cities to administer through this route. The good news is they now have “liposomal vitamin C” which is a nutraceutical that encapsulates vitamin C particles at a nano level with a phospholipid layer.. This modified version of vitamin C allows unprecedented oral uptake of vitamin C approaching intravenous levels and with no intake threshold. It is said that Liv-On brand liposomal vitamin C is the superior form whereas others are mostly a vitamin C emulsion with a small amount of true liposomal C. It is very expensive though at over $1 a gram.
After learning about the panacea of vitamin C, I listened to a book about grounding called “Earthing. The Most Important Health Discover Ever?” by Clint Ober where he talked about how contact with Earth allows us to absorb free electrons. The 100 lightning strikes every second on the planet splits atmospheric atoms into positive and negative ions where the positive ozone goes upward and the negative electrons go downward thus creating a collection of free electrons on the surface of the Earth as if a battery. When I heard this, I made the mental connection that Earthing is similar to having a transfusion of vitamin C.
Unlike vitamin C, Earthing is free.
Before I learned about these two critical keys to health, I was getting sick every three months. Once I started using an earthing pad my frequency of getting a cold went down to one a year. Then I found that if I took 4 to 6 grams a day of liposomal vitamin C for three to four days at the earliest signs of a sore throat I have never gotten sick again. Health is wealth and learning the keys to wellness before dis-ease strikes is critical to living a good life.
Can Math Explain The Truth Of Existence?
1+4=5 and 2+3=5
Different variables leading to the same result is a beautiful concept. But even this mathematical and concrete concept fails to truly represent the truth of our existence.
Many left brain people think math is the ultimate truth. That math explains the universe. That zeros and ones are the ultimate truth. But my response to those people is what about the space between the zeros and ones?
In meditations, I have explored the language of math and was reminded that it is woefully inept in explaining the truth of existence.
Can our consciousness be explained by an equation or numbers? No! Our universe is governed by concepts of infinity. The past and future are infinitely expansive. The present now is infinitely small. Black holes are infinitely dense. The connection in quantum entanglement is infinitely fast. Math cannot handle infinity because math is governed my limitation and hard edges. If anything, fractal geometry is the closest thing that math has to explain the truth. But regardless, math is simply a signpost pointing towards the truth; but it is not the truth nor reality.
Furthermore, math is defined by certain definitions that we humans deem as true. For example, the speed of light was once a different number back in the 1930’s. And even now, they think the speed of light is no longer a definite answer.
Whenever you think you have the singular answer or are a master,
you have fooled yourself. Some questions are worthy of pursuit but will never be fully answered.