mvanvoorden

What's absurd about vibration? Without vibration, there would be nothing. Nothing at all. Vibration is the foundation of all that there is and ever will be.

As a white person with dreads, I was pretty surprised I got hired at the place I'm working now. IT may be an exception, though.

But does it include the option of joining the Mile High Club?

Sounds like the Rick & Morty episode 'The Ricks must be crazy'

I assume because it's around the mouth. Food passes, some of that will stay in the beard, allowing for different cultures to grow than elsewhere.

Partly relevant: a few months ago they discovered bacteria in beards that also kill MRSA: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/beards-good-for-he...

I think that parent means that between torrent clients, the original file is being transferred, but the version that is saved on the hard drive (or Dropbox) is slightly altered, for example by adding/changing a random number of bytes.

When the file is opened in a torrent client, it will recognize these changes, revert them (in memory) and seed the original file.

You observe, without passing judgment. If a thought comes, just let it come, and don't 'reply' to it. When you notice you drift off, just acknowledge that, without judgment, and continue the process of observation.

For the sake of clarity, let's look at the mind as if it's a separate entity (like a child) that is constantly asking our attention. When we give in, when we reply to our thoughts, its behavior is rewarded and it will keep asking for attention. If you just acknowledge that it's there, but don't act on every thought, the stream will become less and less. The main goal being that it eventually shuts up unless you actually need (ask) your mind to help you with a task.

Exactly, I've been to a Vipassana meditation retreat, and the whole point is to eradicate suffering by eliminating feelings of craving and aversion. To see things as they are, without passing judgment. This creates a clear mind, free from worries and dwelling, and a more stable personality. From this comes happiness, as this is our natural state of mind.

People tend to mix up pleasure and happiness and think meditation provides the first.

Meditation, just like a psychedelic experience, can show you where you stand in life, and this can be scary. One can find out that they've been doing things wrong all their life, or realize that they are on a destructive path. The changes required might affect their spouse, children, friends or their job, creating a seemingly impossible dilemma, to go on and keep suffering, or to change and hurt others.

That explains why Steam now accepts bitcoins. Because nobody uses it to actually buy stuff... /s

In The Netherlands, you can order takeaway food at practically any restaurant with bitcoin. Overnight, this was the biggest expansion in the acceptance of Bitcoin to date.

Whatever your opinion is about bitcoin, it absolutely does not reflect the current reality, where Bitcoin is seen more and more as a serious alternative for payments.

You're repeating propaganda.

May be there's less violence, but the amount of suffering has skyrocketed over the years. A more than significant amount of people are dependent on tranquilizers and anti-depressants to make their life bearable, because for them it has become mundane and meaningless without.

Statistiscs may tell a story of less violence, and people getting older and having more material possessions, but these do not reflect the actual well-being of people, and also these numbers don't show how much exploitation and environmental damage our alleged 'prosperity' causes in other parts of the world.

That does not apply here. There's not an exact definition what a Scotsman is, except that he's from Scotland. Communism is actually a completely worked out ideology. It has never really been tried. In Russia for example, it was State Capitalism under the guise of Communism.

Give it another 10, may be 20 years, and there might be enough research available that people stop downvoting posts that remind people that this knowledge has already been around for a few thousand years.

Wow, this kind of writing appears even in scientific journals:

"Stampfer’s work found that people who ate peanuts and nuts regularly were less likely to die from any cause"

So nuts prevent death?

You might, but then it would be a conscious choice and you would be happy doing it. Don't judge your possible future self from your current selve's perspective.

The times we did it, some parties excluded, we started inside, and then moved to the outside whenever we felt like. Nature is awesome, especially pine forests.

I don't really see why this would have implications for the relationship between UK and Russia. Isn't this part of the spy game? When one defects, one can expect to be killed. I don't believe the UK wouldn't do the same the other way around. Spying gets you killed, eventually, no matter who you work for.

Same in Netherlands. Little text, so it's straight to the point, and no ads,

Needless to say, his ego is scared shitless about that.

It's not like you have to sit 10 hours a day without ever moving. The longest streak is about 1 hour, and only from day 5 there's two times a day a sitting with determination. Nobody's asked to force it, if it really hurts, then just move. Every hour there's a 5-10 minute break to walk around and stretch the legs.

As I knew there would be sitting with determination later in the week, I trained my body and mind in the first days by sitting still as long as I could.

Well, it wasn't wild life and it's not about feeding. There were 2 cats, who perfectly took care of themselves (saw them catching bugs multiple times), and sometimes they came to the people, stroking their bodies along their feet. If an animal does that, it's normal to pet it and it's not harmful or unethical at all.

Nobody had to feed them, or take care of them, they just came for attention sometimes.

During meditation, one can experience moments of such clarity of mind, that the answers to difficult or deep rooted issues suddenly show up in front of you. Usually it turns out the solution is so simple, that they wonder why they've never seen it before, and now they cannot unsee it.

Like an epiphany.

It's definitely not the same as relaxing on a beach for 10 days. Not even closely similar. Yes, you might be more relaxed, but this meditation is hard work and really disciplines your mind, something you won't be doing on a beach. As far as you are even aware of how active the mind is all day long, the beach will be full of distractions and you would take any opportunity to avoid any uncomfortable situations as well as take any opportunity to do things that give you short, momentary pleasures.

I noticed the culty part about it as well, but it makes sense to me, because it really works. The claim they make is really met and this convinces a lot of people that everybody should at least once in their life do such a retreat, including myself.

There is the Vipassana Research Institute, but their website disappoints me a bit, because the amount of links that is actual research is quite meagre. There are some good results with Vipassana in prisons, though. See http://www.vridhamma.org/Home.aspx

Nothing, there's no monetary obligation at all, from registering until you leave. It will only cost you time and dedication, for 10 consecutive days.

There nothing for-profit about Vipassana.

Mr Goenka set up the centers after he was profoundly helped by the practice. No money is asked, and donating either time or money can only be done after completing a course, when you sincerely feel that you want to pay it forward for a next student.

You can easily have this privilege. I asked my employer and they had no problem giving me 10 unpaid days off. I didn't mind it was unpaid, because I would not be spending money for 10 days either.

Usually you have to register about 4 months in advance, you can find a center close to you on http://dhamma.org.

Just realize how there will _always_ be new things happening and work never ends and is never finished, so missing 10 days is nothing and no job is so important that it can't be interrupted for 10 days or done by someone else for that period.

Exactly how I feel about it. I am pretty critical and have a knack for spotting hypocrisy, which there was enough to find of, at least in the center where I was (Bavaria, Germany, they are so attached to rules there, no amount of Vipassana can take that away).

One anecdote: Mr. Goenka ends every day with 'May all beings be happy.' Imagine my surprise when the server said we could not pet the stray cats that were walking around, to prevent them from coming back all the time, because they didn't want to take care of them.

Some of these contradictions started to annoy me, and almost made me leave, until I realized on day 5 that this is all part of the meditation, more or less. I wasn't there for them, I was there for my own development, and so I had to accept the reality as it is, stop comparing and focus on the experience. All externalities are not relevant, and the ability to not let your mood be influenced by things outside your control is exactly what is developed there. So every contradiction or irritation became a challenge, to strengthen my discipline.

I had an interesting conversation on the last day with a Buddhist. He also didn't like the 'one true way' part of it. He became a Buddhist mainly because his teacher told him honestly that his way was just one of many that one can follow.

And although Mr Goenka says it's the one true way, he also continuously says that you should not take his (or anyone else's) words for granted, but that you should experience and decide for yourself, and that whatever you do, decide on a path to follow and stay with it, because if you start a new path all the time, you will never reach the end of the road.

Being without smartphone and no talking is the easiest part. At least for me, an ADHD IT nerd who checks his phone all day long, and very, very talkative personality.

It was the best 10 days of my life, it felt quite liberating. And now my phone stays in my pocket most of the day, I talk a bit less, and I have no stress at my job at all, as I just do what I can and the rest is for tomorrow and after.

Any milder way wouldn't have the same effect, you cannot train discipline by giving in to your mind all the time.

Silly governments and corporations who think the internet can have borders ;) Use a browser plugin like ProxFlow/ProxTube and never have this problem again :)

I know what you mean. I've used cannabis a lot in my past, and my life was basically standing still. But without, my life felt unbearable. It turned out that changing what I was doing with my life eliminated the need completely, and without any signs of withdrawal effects.

It was also the case that it's not cannabis that introduced bad habits, it was that the bad habits led to (the need of) cannabis use to ease my mind.

Now, I use it as a tool for creativity, when I'm working with my music.

I would also like to share this video, about how addiction seems to work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg