HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: linda@brunel.ac.uk (Linda Birmingham)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: A poem
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:10:59 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

I recently spotted this poem, perhaps I should say prose - and thought
you might enjoy it. - Linda.


	 You Gotta Larf Don't Ya

Dead Stratified Stultified
Self Conscious suspension of immediacy replaced by
Openness in the 3rd pigeon hole to the left on the bottom row and
Spontaneity at four-o-clock sharp, if you don't mind.

Pretending not to pretend
So that you can really pretend
That everything is fine or there's a good reason why it isn't fine
And you're a good person who has moments of badness but for very good
reasons so there really isn't a problem.

Being a good (and don't they know it) person is very hard work
Needing intellect of Einstein to pull all loose ends together to
cover your badness
Like Arthur Scargill's hair.

The modestly good (and don't they know it) person is worst of all
Being good and kind in an unassuming way that somehow looms larger than
Godzilla in a phone box,
Forcing you to agree with their irreproachable behaviour which somehow
makes you feel that someone is
Gently but firmly pressing a large sloppy turd into your reluctant hand.

O for the freshness of the openly bad person, the man with no moral
deodorant
Don Juan, the one who would rather be himself than somebody better.
Nothing can be done for such a man.
He laughs in the face of niceness
And wipes his arse on the curtains
Asks women their age at parties
And refuses to have a nice day.

by Mingyur Dorje
(Journal of sang-ngak-cho-dzong.)



-- 
Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, England.
janet: Linda.Birmingham@brunel.ac.uk
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
From: tt@wag.caltech.edu (Toshi Takeuchi)
Subject: Simple breathing exercise
Summary: Guaranteed to stop stuffy noses and hay fever.
Keywords: pranayama
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 21:35:43 GMT

Well, here's something I have done for several years now with great
benefits.  I thought I would share it with you and it may help
you.

To give you some background, before I started using this breathing
exercise, I had terrible hay fever, I had a stuffy nose 3/4 of the
year, I took sudafed all the time, but it never did any good.

I even took those nasal sprays but they also lost their effectiveness.

Basically, I was addicted to decongestants.

I did this breathing exercise, and within 6 months (along with meditation,
which I discovered at the same time) I hardly ever had stuffy noses
and rarely see any symptoms of hay fever.

I said guaranteed to stop stuffy noses and hay fever in the summary.  Well,
it worked for me, and so I imagine it will work for you if you do it
consistently.

Besides, this exercise only takes 5 min anyhow.  I usually do it before
I go to sleep and before meditations.  Once a day is probably good.

--------

The first step toward breathing is to learn to breathe through your
stomach using your diaphragm.  Of course your chest will also
rise, but it should be in conjunction with the diaphragm.

Place your hand on your belly and when you breathe, you should feel
your diaphragm rising and falling.

If you breathe only through your chest, then you are losing out on alot
of your lung capacity.

If you practice this breathing exercise with this better breathing technique,
which allows for greater use of lung capacity, then you will
begin to breathe using the diaphragm naturally.

-------

The technique (really simple):

Place one hand on the stomach if you need to practice breathing with your
diaphragm.

Take your other hand and close off one nostril with your thumb (or forefinger).
Push the air out of your lungs using your diaphragm and relax
the stomach and allow air to reenter the lungs.

Close off the other nostril (and open the one that was previously closed)
and repeat.  (pushing the air our of lungs, and relax the stomach
and allow air to reenter lungs)

This should be done in two stages.

Stage one about one minute:

quickly alternating the breath through each nostril
probably 2 breaths per second. (of course just a ballpark suggestion)
(I consider a breath an out (in) cycle)

out (in) switch_nostril out (in) switch_nostril etc...


Stage two, two to three minutes:

take slower, longer breaths alternating through each nostril
probably 1 breath every 3-4 seconds or so.

----

The important point to note is that the breathing out stage
is the only time that any effort has to be made.  The stomach should
relax as you breathe in and no effort is necessary.

So there you have it, 3-4 minutes a day, and after a few months, easy
breathing.   Of course good breathing isn't the only benefit, but
it's a good enough reason for me to continue doing it.

Toshi
tt@wag.caltech.edu
From: kambic@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (Bonus, Iniquus, Celer - Delegitus Duo)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: Just asking...
Date: 15 Apr 92 17:25:29 EST

In article <1992Apr15.191145.11934@tc.fluke.COM>, emery@tc.fluke.COM (John Emery) writes:
> In article <1992Apr11.021136.4961@ac.dal.ca> hartigan@ac.dal.ca writes:
>>
>>What is love?
> 
> Love is holding no malice toward those who wrong you.
Who defines wrong?
> 
> Love is paying back good to those who do evil to you.
Who defines evil?
> 
> Love is releasing bitterness toward a person who has hurt you and forgiving
> them from the heart.
Who defines hurt?
> Love is being patient with those who try you.  Love is not being easily
> angered.
"Easily" angered?  Why is it qualified?

etc.

GXKambic
standard disclaimer
From: johnlee@pnet07.cts.com (John Wiley)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: Emery as an irritant
Date: 16 Apr 92 08:05:12 GMT
Organization: People-Net [pnet07], San Diego, CA

It would be sad to have "NOT-Christian" be the result of a
lack of respect exhibited by people calling themselves
Christian.  Yet that appears to be the way you wish to take
my post.  I disagree, yet do not wish to engage in flame wars.

Please give it a rest and go in peace.

---
{crash,ucsd,ncr-sd,nosc} !baron!pnet07!johnlee   (John Wiley - San Diego, CA.)
pnet07!johnlee@nosc.mil
johnlee@pnet07.cts.com
From: nkraft@bkhouse.cts.com (Norman Kraft)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: Emery as an irritant
Date: 10 Apr 92 04:45:25 GMT
Organization: Argus Computing, San Diego, CA
X-NewsSoftware: Amiga GRn V1.28 2/25/92 (Beta) by Mike Schwartz

While I'm on the topic, I have a question for you, John. Why is it that
I see your posts here with five or six times greater frequency than
soc.religion.christian? In case you missed it, what so many of us have
been posting is not so much an anti-christian stance, as a call to
stay on topic.

In soc.religion.christian, I find your posts informed, well stated,
and very Christian. As such I always appreciate them (though I don't
always agree with them), and they are most certainly on topic. In 
fact, the moderator wouldn't let one of us go too far astray.

Here, however, where anything goes, I find your posts off-topic,
overly righteous, and often pedantic. Do you really enjoy stirring
up such trouble?

Norm.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Norman R. Kraft 			   INET  : nkraft@bkhouse.cts.com
Senior Partner				   UUCP  : ucsd!crash!bkhouse!nkraft
Argus Computing 			   GENIE : N.KRAFT3
San Diego, CA				   PORTAL: nkraft@cup.portal.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: geraldb@tau-ceti.isc-br.com (Gerald Bryan (Denver))
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: Communal Living
Date: 10 Apr 92 18:34:03 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: ?

In article <1992Apr7.112127.4024@verifone.com> ed_l1@verifone.com writes:
>	Kerista is a polyfidelitous commune in San Francisco.

Oooo...  Is this legal ?
-- 
"Truth is simply the understanding of seeking" -- da Free John
From: moskowit@tronsbox.UUCP (Len Moskowitz)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: Newage technology
Date: 10 Apr 92 04:13:29 GMT
Organization: Xanadu Enterprises Inc.

In article <57013@cup.portal.com> Don_-_Showen@cup.portal.com writes:

>Then over 500 people introduced me to immortality by willingly remembering
>their past lives and sharing with me what they did after the body died. It is
>impossible to communicate the profound effect that sharing death and the
>point after had on me. Nobody has ever DIED. ...

I think that the best you can assert based on your experiences is that
all the people who are alive today have had previous incarnations.
Perhaps there were people who died, have not reincarnated, and never
will reincarnate.  Those folks may be gone forever.
-- 


Len Moskowitz
moskowit@tronsbox.xei.com
From: nkraft@bkhouse.cts.com (Norman Kraft)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: Emery as an irritant
Date: 10 Apr 92 02:05:36 GMT
Organization: Argus Computing, San Diego, CA
X-NewsSoftware: Amiga GRn V1.28 2/25/92 (Beta) by Mike Schwartz

In article <1992Apr9.054510.10878@baron.uucp> johnlee@pnet07.cts.com (John Wiley) writes:
>Perhaps a pearl will form, but...
>
>I use a system without Kill file capability.  I've seen people yell at John
>Emery, and just saw someone plead with him.  I'm curious: has anyone tried to
>limit or revoke his net access?  He seems unwilling or unable to limit the
>size and number of his rantings, much less share them in a group with similar
>interests.

I, too, have no kill file capability. I miss it, I really do.

Never thought I'd see myself write this, but how about some solid moderation
for this group? Works very well in soc.religion.eastern to keep things
on topic, and the flamefests to a reasonable level. It's nice over there:
relevant posts, fundamentalist Christian posts never make it past the
moderator, and flame wars end when the messages start containing more
flame than information. 

Norm.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Norman R. Kraft 			   INET  : nkraft@bkhouse.cts.com
Senior Partner				   UUCP  : ucsd!crash!bkhouse!nkraft
Argus Computing 			   GENIE : N.KRAFT3
San Diego, CA				   PORTAL: nkraft@cup.portal.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
From: tt@wag.caltech.edu (Toshi Takeuchi)
Subject: mindfulness, some exercises
Summary: some exercises to see how mindful you really are!
Keywords: insight,exercises
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 00:25:21 GMT

Hello talk.religion.newage readers.  Several of you have written me and I am
grateful for that.

However, I have seen 0 responses on the net for 5 or so articles I have
posted.  This leads me to conclude:

1. You are bored with my posts.

2. You are interested but have nothing to say.

3. You are interested and have something to say, but are afraid to say it
   to the net.

Here's my proposition:

I assume that most of you have soc.religion.eastern.  If you like my
posts, then I suggest you read them there.  If many of you who only
read talk.religion.newage want me to continue posting here, write to me
and if there are more than 10 of you, I will continue posting here.

Otherwise, I'll just email my posts to those who are interested and
only post occasionaly here.  This way, I won't take time away
from your letters to Tom, your INVASIONS of earth etc... :-)

I'll wait 10 days or so for the responses.  Thanks.

----

This post is a little exercise to help you examine how aware you are of 
your actions.

--------

Okay, I got these exercises from:

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom,
by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield,
Shambala Publications, Boston
1987
ISBN 0-87773-327-9 $10.95

I've only read a bit of this book, but I like several things in it.

The exercise I give today centers around right speech in the Eightfold path
quoted from page 9:
   
       Don't lie, it (Eightfold path) says.  Speak only what is true
       and useful; speak wisely, responsibly, and appropriately...
       Be aware of how we actually use the energy of our words.
       We spend so much or our lives talking and analyzing and 
       discussing and gossiping and planning...We can align our 
       speech to the principles of what is truthful and what is most
       kind or helpful.

------

Exercises:

In the book they talk about conscious conduct and examining your actions.

We do so many things without thinking.  I'll start today with having
mindfulness about false speech.

From page 13-14:

---Refraining from false speech: speech from the heart.  Undertake
for one week not to gossip (positively or negatively) or speak
about anyone you know who is not present with you (any third party).

-----

Comments:

I've started to try this and boy is this tough for me!  I started out okay
yesterday, but then I quickly forgot and I counted at least 8 times
when I forgot about the exercise.  Already today I've forgotten once. 

It is easy to continue to do things when you don't realize you are
doing it.

If you are aware of your actions, then you can make conscious decisions about
them.

I'm not saying gossiping is bad, I'm just saying are you aware that you are
doing it?  Could you be spending your time being more helpful, caring, or
loving rather than gossiping?

I think I could, but I have alot of work to do!

-----

I hope this helps,

Toshi
tt@wag.caltech.edu
From: jethro@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: Old Civilizations
Summary: Just the facts Ma'am
Keywords: Human Sacrifice
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 92 20:17:48 PDT
Reply-To: jethro@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us

In article <1992Apr5.192707.9270@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v248lgz2@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott P Schwenk) writes:
> Does anyone out there have a background knowledge of old civilizations like
> the Aztecs, the Mayans, etc. ?
> 
> I'm interested in finding out why there was a need for human sacrifice, what
> was it that these groups were trying to achieve through these methods?

A modern Mayan priest and author, Kumbatz Men, "Secrets of Mayan
Science/Religion," claims that this was a lie spread by the Spaniards as
justification for murdering the Mayans and desecrating their temples. 
The Mayans were a peaceful, earth-honoring, spiritual and Tantric-like
people. Their way of life was blasphemous and threatening to the Catholic
Spaniards.

To this day, it is against the law in Mexico to practice the Mayan religion.
It's no wonder, the Mexican government has deep roots in Catholicism
and reportedly has exploitive plans for the Yucatan pennisula where most
of the Mayan temples are.

I'm sure the story with the Aztecs is the same.

How many lies have been spread by Christianity about other religions
and cultures? How much damage has been done to other peoples in the
name of Christianity? It taxes the imagination .....

Namaste,
Jeffery

-- 
======================================================================
Jeffery Tye                             cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us!jethro
Beyond Your Limits                                      (408) 688-6712
======================================================================
From: emery@tc.fluke.COM (John Emery)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Letters to Tom [6 of 10]
Date: 7 Apr 92 15:19:50 GMT
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA


Tom, remember my last letter, when I talked about guilt?  I haven't
forgotten any of those thoughts; as a matter of fact, they are still
churning in my head, and I don't know where they will eventually
carry me.

Since I last wrote, I did come up with one challenging proposition
about guilt: that it could be a fact, and not just a feeling.

I'm sure you know how much the rest of us despise that one aspect of
Christianity: the classic "guilt trip."  If I recall the jargon
correctly, we are all "sinners," we are all guilty.  Religion has
always been, in my perception, one big guilt trip, and no one wants
to feel guilty.  That is why my friends and I spent so much time and
energy concocting a universe in which right and wrong did not exist--
if there is no right or wrong, there is no need to feel guilty about
anything.

Now for the wrench in the works, first thrown in this morning: the
possibility of guilt as a fact and not just a feeling.  If--and I
emphasize the word if--there is a fixed standard of right and wrong--
a fence, as I've said--then it is possible to be guilty of an offense,
all feelings of guilt aside.  I can be on the wrong side of the fence
and be in the wrong regardless of how I feel about it.

Please bear with me if I state the obvious; I have the distinct fear
that you got all this clear in your own mind when you were a child
and are getting bored, but please bear with me.  I have to think it
through, and it helps to do it on paper. 

Let's say I rob a bank.  that makes me guilty of robbery.  Let's say
I don't feel guilty about it.  If robbery can be established as wrong,
then I'm still guilty of robbery, regardless of how I feel.

The feeling--or lack of it--does not change the fact.  

So, reflecting on what I've learned through the years in the humanist
and mystic camps, I see that much of it was an attempt to escape from
guilt through philosophy, meditation, drugs, etc., etc.  But now I
have to ask, what exactly have I been trying to escape: the feelings
or the fact?  I have been able to escape the feelings--for a season.
The feelings you can bury, suppress, deny, and talk yourself out of.

But what can change or erase the fact?  So far I haven't thought of
a thing.
From: ed_l1@verifone.com
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Re: New Age/Survey/Music/Artists (was -Help!)
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:15:39 HST
Organization: VeriFone Inc., Honolulu HI

 In article <eoLwiB5w164w@jab.tucson.az.us>, stevea@jab.tucson.az.us (Steve Albany) writes:
> korins-russ@CS.YALE.EDU (Russ Korins) writes:
> 
>> John Bozeman's assumption that New Age music is connected with New Age
>> religion/mysticism is not at all naive.  In fact, many people do believe
>> they are connected.  Many people have asked me, knowing that I like
>> New Age music, whether  I'm into "crystals" and that kind of stuff.
 
 Well, lots of people giving attention to the "new age" happen to like that
 kind of music.  Perhaps an alternative would be to call it "music for
 the new age," or for the "new-agers."
 
 I'm "New Age" though, and I'm __NOT__ into "crystals...."
 
>> 
>> Maybe that does make a case for changing the name of New Age music.  But
>> I don't think anyone's hurt by the name "New Age" even if it doesn't
>> apply to every album and every artist.  Composers such as Yanni, Andreas
>> Vollenweider and William Ackerman insist that their music is not New
>> Age, but the fact is that their music comes closer to being representative
>> of that genre than any other genre we have in the English language.
 
 I agree with this assumption.
 
>  
>         I'm one of those who is quick to point out that the music form 
> predates the term NEW AGE by well over 15 years. And while I'm a Buddhist, I 
> see no connection between the two.
 
 Whenever the term "New Age" arose is irrelevant.  The "Age of Aquarius,"
 which is the name of the "New Age," was being touted back in the mid 1960's.
 That's almost 30 years ago.  
 
 The New Age is not like turning on a light bulb.  It's more like day
 fading into night through an evening that matches the length of a 
 2000 year long "day."  The transition has been taking place for at least
 60 years or so (perhaps even a hundred), and will continue perhaps for
 another hundred.
 
 Or compare it to a sunrise.  At first only a little light suffuses the
 darkness, and it grows slowly until there is more light than dark.
 Then soon after, the sun breaks the horizon and there is direct sunlight.
 As the sun continues to rise, it gets brighter and brighter.
 
 The first hints of the light of the New Age came years ago.  This light
 influenced musicians, artists, and people of all kinds.  Some have not
 yet noticed that it is getting brighter, and some fight to keep the
 darkness, but the sun _will_ rise.  Perhaps these artists do not claim
 to be New Age, but it is obvious that their works are influenced by
 the energy of the New Age.  Consequently, people attuned to the New Age
 will be attracted to it.
 
 We ain't seen nothin' yet!
 
 -- 
 ===========================================================================
 || Ed L'Esperance - P.O. Box 4635, Kane`ohe, Hawai`i 96744  U.S.A. Earth ||
 ||   Anthropologist, Writer, Editor    -*-     IN%"Ed_L1@VeriFone.Com"   ||
 ||   Opinions Copyright (c) 1992 Ed L'Esperance.  All Rights Reserved    ||
 ===========================================================================
From: ccasm@cc.newcastle.edu.au
Subject: Re: The Pleiades Needs Telescopes! (Re: The Pleiadians: Awakening)
Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 03:47:52 GMT

In article <1992Mar30.162009.4190@watdragon.waterloo.edu>, jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll) writes:
> In article <56549@cup.portal.com> Don_-_Showen@cup.portal.com writes:
>>
> 	Gibberish deleted
> 
> 	The star system of the Pleiades has seven stars, six of which we
>>believe, you may see from the naked eye.
> 
> 	Hee hee. Millions of years of residence, and the only members of
> that group of stars they know about are the ones *we* can see with the naked
> eye from Earth. Pretty poor astronomers, these  Pleiadians. One could be
> excused for wondering whether they aren't just the delusion of a terran
> ignorant of astronomy...
> 
> 	Clearly, there's a market in the Pleiades for glasses and telescopes.
> 
> 							James Nicoll
> 
> Is this stuff about another universe new to the Pleiadian mythos since the
> previous appearance? I seem to recall people pointing out the Pleiadians
> predate the Pleiades they claim to come from...

Correct. Down here in Oz even my young son can see more than seven stars in 
the Pleiades group with his naked eye,( like about 15 stars)  although I
need a telescope to see them. guess my eyes arn't any better than a 
Pleiadians.   ^ ^    BIG AL.
               |
              \_/
From: smd@VAB02.LARC.NASA.GOV (Steve M. Dahmen)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Weekly Love Meditation #15
Date: 13 Apr 92 04:10:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: vab01.9204130410.AA07900

From "Worthy of Love - Meditations on Loving Ourselves and Others",
	a weekly meditation book from "The Hazelden Meditation Series"
---
			=====> WEEK FIFTEEN <=====

	I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved...
	the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.
						- George Eliot

We've all heard many times that we must love ourselves if we're ever to love another.
Too often we mistakenly think that means we shouldn't need to hear someone's
affirmation of love.  That assumption is wrong.  Praise from others builds our
self-confidence, keeps us on track, aware of how we're presenting ourselves moment
by moment.

But many of us didn't develop healthy egos in our youth because we didn't get
feedback that affirmed us.  We didn't hear we were loved.  As adults, we're
scrambling to feel confident, to feel sure of our direction and our value to
society.  And we're hoping to hear we're loved.  We can be certain someone close
will be helped by hearing our words of love.

There's no time like the present for sharing love.


-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Steve Dahmen, Systems Analyst                         (804) 864-4519 (W)
Vigyan Research, Inc .- NASA Langley Research Center                    
Internet: smd@vab01.larc.nasa.gov
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage