HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tt@wag.caltech.edu (Toshi Takeuchi)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Negative for positive? (was Re: Soul Recycling)
Summary: Thread taken from alt.meditation.transcendental.
Date: 3 Sep 92 18:57:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1992Sep4.054538.1412
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

Hi all, thanks for the comments and the questions from my last post.

I'll try to get to the questions as soon as possible!

It was written in alt.meditation.transcendental:

...  I don't always think you need the neg aspect to grow,
although from my last neg. experience, i learned a great deal. However, it
still bothers me that i needed to be neg. to grow. It's almost like saying
it is ok to sin. any thoughts?

------------My reply follows

	As you stated, sometimes you need the bad to shock you into
realization about what you are doing.  If you are an alcoholic and you
don't realize it, then perhaps it takes something as shocking as killing
someone from drunk driving to shock you out of it.  Hopefully this is
enough, and better yet, it doesn't get that far!

	For the most part, I think we are very comfortable where we are.
As Buddha says, 'Change brings suffering.'  If change brings suffering,
then who wants to change?  Well, this, in simplistic terms, is where
a great deal of inertia comes toward growth.

	Meditation is extremely powerful way to fight inertia because 
consciousness is not stagnant.  Consciousness will move you to greater 
heights whether you like it or not.  What I'm talking about is the 
energy that is created in meditation.

	What is this energy?  Well,  you can feel this energy often in
the forms of chills, warmth, or tingling sensations during and outside
of meditations.

	As we meditate, we bring an untainted, or "universal" consciousness
into our system.  It immediately molds to our system, but it gradually
pushes us higher.  Please don't believe any of this stuff, just 
meditate :)

	Other people call this energy Kundalini.  Well, it's all related to
your chakras and such.  Anyhow, after meditating with TM mantras for a while,
I drifted toward doing more Kundalini type mediations.  Now, I'm drifting
towards using both types of meditation (simultaneously).

------The crux of the issue is how can one keep from stagnating?

Well, if life were that easy...

Even meditations can stagnate as you probably know.

I guess sometimes, it takes the bad to get you out of stagnation and get
you moving again.  I think everything tends to go in cycles.  Some days,
weeks, or months may go by, and you might think that things are happening
and you are really moving.  Other times it may seem like nothing is
happening and you want to give up.

In essence, if we were superbeings, then I guess we wouldn't need
bad experiences to keep us going.

I always try to learn from my bad experiences and put them into
perspective.

Good luck,

Toshi
tt@wag.caltech.edu
From: RADAMS@cerritos.edu (Roger Adams)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: More (expletive deleted) About Death
Date: 29 Aug 92 02:27:22 GMT
Organization: Cerritos College, Norwalk CA
Originator: toshi@sandman
From: raj@globe1.att.com (Rajendra P Sharma)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Enlightened Beings
Date: 3 Sep 92 13:37:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1992Sep4.054211.1095
Organization: AT&T

Marc laughs:

> A fool may think of himself as being wise and laugh at everything,
> but as a wise knows himself as a fool and can laugh with all.


	A laugh is a laugh,
	not foolish or wise;
	a laugh is a laugh,
	not a roll of dice.
	
	
	[Thanks for the beautiful saying.]
	

---raj
From: degrace@upei.ca (John DeGrace)
Subject: George Grimm
Summary: Background information wanted.
Originator: toshi@sandman
Keywords: Buddhism, Pali, German, biography
Organization: ----
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 17:42:20 GMT

Recently in a used book store I came across a book by George Grimm, an 
english translation from the German, entitled "The Doctrine of the Buddha - 
the Religion of Reason and Meditation" (Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1958, 
415p.).  According to the preface some 16,000 copies appeared in German, and 
my 1958 version (originally translated into English in 1926 by Bhikku 
Silacara) is a second edition in that language.

A brief biography of the author is given, and the preface makes reference 
to "...This most comprehensive spirit already [which] during the lifetime of 
Dr. George Grimm enabled a community of faithful followers to gather round 
him.  After his decease on 26th August 1945 at Utting am Amersee ... this 
community grew to considerable numbers; but his friends and admirers extend 
far beyond this narrower circle."

I thought I was fairly well-read on western Buddhist scholarship (and the 
book _does_ appear to be a scholarly work), but this has opened up whole new 
fields of ignorance for me.  Can anyone provide me with some more 
information on this man?  

Thanks in advance,

John DeGrace					DEGRACE@UPEI.CA
From: farris@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Lorenzo Farris)
Subject: Re: More BS about Death
Originator: toshi@sandman
Organization: ----
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 02:13:50 GMT


Jack writes:
[....
Yet we willingly quoth this master and that swami instead
of hunkering down with death itself.  Why do we skip so easily to
the airy-fairy talk of next lives, swapping bodies, etc. - which
never seem to be our first-hand experiences - and ignore the reality
of death? 
....]

I comment:

I agree that perhaps too much emotional energy, at least on the
newsgroups I read, goes into worrying about metaphysics.  But this is
the only criticism I have.  If it brings some enjoyment to discuss
metaphysics, which ultimately has little to do with living or dying,
then that's cool.  I think death does not get discussed by those who
are aware of it and those that run from it both.  For those that live
as if they were immortal, it's obvious why they don't talk about it.
For those that are aware that death can tap them at any moment, this
is an intimate knowledge that permeates every moment, and gives them
the power to act with abandon and live here now.  For all this
metaphysical speculation, a rational person must recognize that you
can't know what happens when you die.  No one that I know has come
back from death.  And those that report near-death experiences, theirs
was not the final death.  Any mystical experience I may have, while I
operate with the model that I am touching infinity, and that my soul
cannot die, it may be nothing more than a fortuitous explosion of
neuropeptides.  I just don't know.  Like I can't KNOW anything,
really.  But it doesn't matter. The principles of living are the same.
If everything you do is as if it was your last act on earth, 
then you have lived.

Yours as worm food,
	Lorenzo

Lorenzo Farris			farris@ruhets.rutgers.edu
From: eradm@wbst845e.xerox.com (Erik Radmall)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Thanks for Responses
Date: 3 Sep 92 15:30:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1992Sep4.054712.1587
Organization: ----

I just wanted to thank those that replied to my posting.

Erik.
From: iw@tosser.Rational.COM (Iseult White)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: And the saga continues
Date: 27 Aug 92 17:39:58 GMT
Distribution: soc.bi

sara@castle.ed.ac.uk (Swamp Thing) writes:

>tweaver@nyx.cs.du.edu (T.C.Weaver) writes:

>>iw@tosser.Rational.COM (Iseult White) writes:

>>>honour and obey me.  Okay so sometimes they get a little bit *stroppy*
>>>but I can whip them back into shape pretty quickly.

>>But she's a femme. No, really. She wears lipstick & poses with a pool cue.
>>I thought you suggested you were on the receiving end of the pool cue when
>>you picked up women?

>Oh no, she's a fem top.

I really appreciate it when my friends respect my self-identification.
Thanks Sara.

>>I'm terrible at obeying - the most uppity bottom in the world?
>Possibly.

>Ah ha, obviously a *stroppy bottom*!

Indeed!

Iseult.
From: fenthe@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: A de-muffinning, and a coming out
Date: 25 Aug 92 20:01:11 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon Computer Club

ss7m+@andrew.cmu.edu (Steven M. Stadnicki) writes:
>Well, I actually made it all the way to the end of soc.bi, so I suppose a post
>is in order... 

 Yow! Hi! Great to see you here.. *hugs*

> So who am I?  Well, I'm one of those Furry folk, foremost, a collector of
>art and comics and such and general hanger-about;

 Hee.. another of us, then. Heh. Wonder how many more from a.f.f.'ll be
popping up here as time passes?

 *hugs, snuggles, and other such welcoming noises*

 -- Fenthe
From: sara@castle.ed.ac.uk (Swamp Thing)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: And the saga continues
Date: 26 Aug 92 18:25:18 GMT
Distribution: soc.bi
Organization: News Addicts

cjohnson@zeus.calpoly.edu (Coe Salzgeber) writes:

>pclary@radish.csc.calpoly.edu (Ellen Clary) said...
>>cjohnson@zeus.calpoly.edu (Coe Salzgeber) wrote...
>>>It would be such trauma!  <hehe> my mind is starting to sound like some weird
>>>hippy California blues: "everyone's gone now... the party is done...  the 
>>>hot tub is lonesome... six is better than one..."  

The Lonesome Hot Tub Blues

Well Ah wolk up this mo'ning,
And got outta mah bed,
Well you know Ah felt so lonesome,
Ah just wished Ah was dead,
Nobody to gimme a back rub,
And nobody to share mah hot tub ...

Not like yesterday evening,
When Ah got outta mah head,
Ah didn't feel lonesome,
No sirree, didn't wish I was dead,
Coz Grant was there to gimme a back rub,
And there were 3 hot bi babes and 2 hot bi studs to share mah hot tub
....

Etc.

Alas I've missed as fair bit of this thread due to being on aeroplanes. 
>{8-(

>>>Although it is an
>>>interesting way to write a thesis: "Hmmmm, don't quite know how to word
>>>that section... think i'll go sit in the hot tub and ponder...." :^)

I used to like putting chapters of my thesis through jivetalk and
valspeak ... (OK OK, it was my first time on a Unix system and it helped
compensate for having to use troff)

>>Just for that I'm not going to ntalk to you anymore about what 
>>constellations to look for when you're sitting in the aformentioned
>>hot tub, while I'm elsewhere in the state trying to get some work done.
>>(Now that all of our wonderfully distracting guests have gone for a 
>>little while.)

Well I'm virtually here ...

>>Sara will be coming back to the UK a few shades darker than she
>>started out.

>Should do a time-lapse of photos of Sara through her trip - see how
>her color changes!

Yes, I've gone from pale white to pale cream.  Not too much of me is
bright pink any more ...

Sara
-- 
 >{8-)     Sara Hopkins     (-8}<              _____^__
 Geography Dept.  Edinburgh Uni.  Drummond St. \ OOO/ / The Thing
 Edinburgh,  EH8  9XP,  UK. +44 (0/31) 650 2662 \++/ /   From
 >{8-) sara@geovax.ed.ac.uk (-8}<                \/\/ The Swamp
Newsgroups: soc.bi
From: janhen@sci.kun.nl (Olaf)
Subject: Re: New (? doubtful) thoghts on bi'phobia'
Organization: Intravenous News Addicts
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 14:36:04 GMT

In article <1992Sep4.001314.13789@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> tweaver@nyx.cs.du.edu (T.C.Weaver) writes:
>Clause 28, a.k.a Section 28 or 29 was the oft-resited (and recited) bit of
>the local government act which forbade the promoting of homosexuality by
>local authorities. This was generally taken to mean that local libraries
>could not stock books which accomplished this, and schools could not mention
>homosexuality as a valid alternative to heterosexuality (& why do the straights
>seem to find the gay lifestyle so damn' seductive that all their programming
>can be disrupted by the mere concept of same-sex love?). Fortunately, Oxford
>at least seems to have disregarded this as an unlawful and stupid attempt by
>central government to interfere in matters which are the prerogative of local
>govt.

I've wondered... it depends on the exact wording of that clause (which
seems to me in conflict with at least the spririt of the international
declaratiom of Human Rights)... "promote" isn't /at all/ what's
happening in practice.  Certainly, no-one is converted from straight to
non-straight, it is only that people are made to /realise/ that they are
not straight. Nothing is promoted, only things that were previously
hidden are made (more) visible. Wouldn't this argument render that
clause completely ineffective?  (I suspect it wouldn't because reality
is probably more complicated than I've realised)

>Tanaqui, in lawyer-mode   
-Olaf.
--
___ Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert      B4f+-t-w--g+k+(+)svmrp+  janhen@sci.kun.nl
\X/   It'sneveragoodideatoarriveinthepastwithyourpantsaroundyourknees -Sam
From: pflynn@ccvax.ucd.ie (Peter Flynn, Official Muffin-sampler)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: Sara's SF visit - a few quotes
Date: 25 Aug 92 10:05:13 GMT
Organization: University College Dublin

In article <1992Aug23.025210.7954@rat.csc.calpoly.edu>, pclary@mushroom.csc.calpoly.edu (Ellen Clary) writes:
> 
> By the way, in all the stuff about Grant's party, I haven't seen any
> mention of the story that one attendee (not on soc.bi) was telling
> about having an escalating arguement in a restaurant about whether
> the phrase "to female ejaculate" was a split infinitive or a 
> compound verb.

Neither. It's a verb followed by a noun :-)

///Peter
From: ss7m+@andrew.cmu.edu (Steven M. Stadnicki)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: A de-muffinning, and a coming out
Date: 23 Aug 92 19:27:21 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.wea5QNO00WB4MDhWpg
Organization: Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Well, I actually made it all the way to the end of soc.bi, so I suppose a post
is in order... I try and read soc.bi when I can, really I do, but it's got one
major problem in that it's at the end of my newsgroups list, behind about a
dozen other high-volume groups and countless lower-volume ones, so I so seldom
make it this far.  At any rate, though, I'm here now.  :-)
     So who am I?  Well, I'm one of those Furry folk, foremost, a collector of
art and comics and such and general hanger-about; I'm also a computer folk,
particularly interested in graphics, and a math folk, with all sorts of wierd
interests there.  I'm also not terribly good at just talking about myself, and
I'm *much* better at answering questions, so feel free to ask.  *smile*

     At any rate, I have a much more somber/relevant/important thing to talk
about right now.  Specifically, coming out to my parents...
     I've been talking with various friends for a while about doing it, but
every time I had the opportunity I never had the nerve, until a recent vacation
where me and some friends took a weekend off and headed up to a small cabin my
parents are building on a lake (northern Lake Champlaign, specifically, about
20 miles north of Plattsburgh); before I started the trip I'd sort of psyched
myself up and said that *this* would be the time.  I finally managed it, the
evening before I took off, and I really doubt I would have been able to do it
without the support of my friends.
     I actually told my parents that I was bi, rather than that I was gay; in
retrospect, this may have been a mistake, because one of the things they kept
asking me was, "Well, if you're in a long-term relationship with another male
(I am), why do you say that you're bi?  It sounds more like you're gay", and
then I had to try and explain the rather abstract concept of physical and
emotional attraction.  There were a few fairly dumb questions, and some really
obvious ones (my father asked me if I was being safe about things), but there
were a lot of times where my parents surprised me with their perception (they
really seemed to *think* of the relationship, at least, like any other, and
asked questions that would have been appropriate to ask of any relationship).
I just wish the final results weee a bit better; they basically said that,
while they still love me, they definitely don't understand and right now don't
accept, and they're not sure if they want to.  Still, though, it's a lot better
for me than it was for a lot of people I know.
     Anyway, that's my story, for right now at least; hopefully I'll make it
back here to say 'hi' more often from here on out...

                              Steven Stadnicki/Shaterri
                              ss7m@andrew.cmu.du
                              temporarily left wtthout an appropriate quote...
Newsgroups: soc.bi
From: strickha@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Heath A. Strickland)
Subject: Hi everyone!!!
Organization: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 23:22:59 GMT



Can anyone remember me?  It's been a long summer in boot camp but hey I am  
back.

Heath
*smile*
From: grant@Autodesk.COM (Grant Hogarth)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: Coronation Street!
Date: 26 Aug 92 22:04:23 GMT
Organization: Autodesk Inc., Sausalito CA, USA

sr09@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (SIMON NICHOLAS RUSSELL) writes:
> 
> Let's do an exchange.  You get the Oreos, the milk and American TV, if I can
> have McVities Digestive Biscuits, some PG Tips, and an episode of "Coronation
> Street."
> (Actually, are there any other bi "Coronation Street" fans out there
> who would care to do me a favour?  When I was home at Christmas, Alma
> Sedgewick and Ken Barlow were "getting it on"...whatever happened with this?
> And how are the Duckworths doing?  Please, I'd be really keen to know).


I want in on this, Simon! :-) I got hooked on CS when I was home in Canada, 
and feel very deprived, even if it was about a year behind whatr was happening in
the UK.  I think I might have to invest in a satellite dish to watch canadian TV
(Me, who can hardly be bothered to turn the blasted thing on, is saying this?  


Arrghhh!!!! (Ancient Hibernian cry of deprivation...not to be confused
with the the ancient Hibernian cry of anger (more "rrrr's") or the
ancient Hibernian cry of pain (more "hhhhh's") :-)   )

Grant.
Newsgroups: soc.bi
From: orc@usite-next.uchicago.edu (David Parsons)
Subject: Re: Cool Spots for Bis (Was the War Between Us
Summary: Another blatant e-flirt.
Organization: Ministry of Skritching
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 20:11:35 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.183322.185434@zeus.calpoly.edu> cjohnson@zeus.calpoly.edu (Coe Salzgeber) writes:
|Hmmm, now what could i do to make Elaine smile again? :^)

   We want pictures!
                 __
   david parsons \/ orc@pell.chi.il.us
From: SA121@phx.cam.ac.uk (Arrowsmith)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Aimless thoughts
Date: 23 Aug 92 17:50:51 GMT
Organization: Bad Grammar

Subject says it all, really -- I'm away from net access for a month or
so as of tomorrow, and when I get back I don't know what accounts 
I'll have, but the mail will still get through (-8

I guess I wanted to post a message of thanks to soc.bi (I tried the
other night, but there was a power cut) for being here as some sort
of reference point in what's been a very rough year for me.  It's not
as though I've really had any of the personal issues I needed/still
need to sort out gone through here, but it's been a background, and
given me a sense of identity as a bisexual, and that can only have
helped.  The Edin<mumble> party cleared a lot of the remaining shit
out of my system, and I've got something now to keep me going for
another year, and maybe I can find hope again from somewhere.  A few
months back, I was expecting to be writing farewell messages about
now -- I've been turned round, for good, if I'm lucky.

Not that I'm too sure I want to go on, at times.  In a train the other
day I was sitting in the next block of seats to a group of kids who,
for the whole length of the journey, did nothing but spout homophobic
shit, mainly directed at a group of people in the carriage they'd just
vacated.  One of them said, "When I'm older, I'm going to go out faggot-
bashing."  I'm not going to forget that, ever.  Life's so hard as it is,
and when you live in a society that's rapidly slipping towards your
nightmares, the will to continue wears very thin.

Oh, here's something to chew over:  If society, by law or by whatever,
could accept homosexuality as normal, albeit minority, behaviour, without
any sort of "us and them" ghettoization, then those of us with monogamous
tendencies(*) in between the extremes automatically get any relationship
accepted, and a lot more will have been gained than the fundamental 
premise.  Now, on reflection, this is a complete idealisation, and only
of academic worth, but maybe trying to gain acceptance for bisexuality
in a single bound is taking on too much -- maybe smaller, easier steps
are needed.  Don't ask me -- I'm hiding in my ivory tower.  ((*) The
requirement of this is left as an exercise to the reader (-8 )

So I'm off home to see my family, and an ex-boyfriend as he passes
through, and all those grey-haired matriarchs of the family who may,
finally, have stopped expecting me to have a girfriend, even if they
remain unaware of a signifiicant part of the reason.  If I'm confused,
if I'm screwed up, it's because I'm alive, not because I'm bisexual.


--
\S 
SA121@phx.cam.ac.uk           | There's nowt |"Stormy weather turns to blue;
sarrowsm@nyx.cs.du.edu        | so queer as  |"Here's a song to take with you:
and elsewhere, for a while.   | folk....     |  --Mike Oldfield, "Taurus II"
Newsgroups: soc.bi
From: pclary@mushroom.csc.calpoly.edu (Ellen Clary)
Subject: Re: Quayles meet Usenet (was Re: PLEASE VOTE!!!)
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 92 14:34:57 GMT
Organization: Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA - aka Barnum & Bailey

smd@uunet.ca (Sean Doran) wrote...
>elle@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Ellen Keyne Seebacher) ecrit:
>>[We've weathered a decade of media fearmongering in the U.S. and Canada
>> about "obscene" materials and taxpayer funding
>
>Really?  I must be completely out of touch with the media here then. 
>
>For all their annoying quirks, the Canadian media seem less inclined
>to focus on issues like government-funded controversial art (even
>"obscene" works) than on ``Canadian religious issues'': the eternal
>constitutional crises, NAFTA, the Blue Jays and the Expos, and the
>fact that it snowed in Alberta last week.
>
>The only fearmongering in the media over the past few years I've
>really noticed has invariably concerned one of those issues.

Yes but branches of the Canadian Gov't (as opposed to the media)
do some harrassment (not sure about the fear-mongering.)

There was a Canadian queer publication (whose name escapes me - 
anybody remember?) that had to shut down around 1987.  They
were citing gov't harrassment and threat of prosecution as
the reasons.

Ellen (Clary)
From: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu (Muffy Barkocy)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: Objectification (was Re: Sexual Harassment)
Date: 3 Sep 92 20:58:27
Organization: Natural Language Incorporated
	<1992Sep03.175940.20454@rat.csc.calpoly.edu> <25517@castle.ed.ac.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
In-reply-to: mlloyd@castle.ed.ac.uk's message of 4 Sep 92 02:10:02 GMT

In article <25517@castle.ed.ac.uk> mlloyd@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Lloyd) writes:
> OK, so I miss San Francisco ... well, let me be more specific.  I miss
> Coe and Ellen's hot-tub.

Well, Mike, *now* you've done it...the waterbed is jealous...*grin*...

(*HUG*)

Muffy
--

Muffy Barkocy | muffy@mica.berkeley.edu | wi.4636@wizvax.methuen.ma.us
~Little round planet/in a big universe/sometimes it looks blessed/
 sometimes it looks cursed/Depends on what you look at, obviously/
 But even more it depends on the way that you see~ - Bruce Cockburn