Eudaimonia (/u-die-moan-ee-uh/, Ancient Greek εὐδαιμονία]) is a Greek word that literally translates to the state or condition of good spirit, commonly translated as "happiness" or "welfare." In the works of Aristotle, eudaimonia was the term for the highest human good in older Greek tradition. It is the aim of practical philosophy-prudence, including ethics and political philosophy, to consider and experience what this state really is and how it can be achieved. It is therefore a central concept in Aristotelian ethics and subsequent Hellenistic philosophy, along with the terms aretē (most often translated as "virtue" or "excellence") and phronesis ("practical or ethical wisdom") [1]. Discussion of the links between ēthikēaretē ("virtue of character") and eudaimonia (happiness) is one of the central concerns of ancient ethics and a subject of disagreement. As a result, there are many varieties of eudaimonism. More
Alan Watts is on the radio every week in Los Angeles (kpfk.org) and on some Pacifica Free Speech Radio stations across the country. Hear him at 8:00 am every Sunday morning and at midnight on Thursdays for Something's Happening with Roy of Hollywood Tuckman, a legacy show on KPFK 90.7 FM with speech impediment Buzz and Diane Tuckman, wife of Roy (RIP). The show is available worldwide through the online KPFK Archives. Today's episode (Feb. 9th) was on the intention of desire from a talk entitled "Veil of Thoughts."
How can we increase our magnetic feminine energy and learn how to be magnetic, how to attract everything we desire from our divine feminine goddess energy? It would be life changing. We must first learn to heal wounds in the psyche and shadow-self, increasing our feminine energy with self-love.
How can we increase feminine pleasure, receive from our soft feminine energy, become irresistible, and learn to magnetize everything we could ever want? This video begins to make suggestion. If it serves, say so in the comments and please share with our sisters, beloved ones.
Can it be empowering to participate in a straight women's circle with Syma Kharal?
.
Man or machine?
Kate Nitshe shares that, “With Syma [Kharal]'s support, I was able to remove the darkness that had engulfed me and for the first time in a long time, I was able to see the light.
Would it help or hurt to love myself first? Help
“Syma helped heal my heart and allowed me to see all of my potential. I have been living lightheartedly and surrounding myself with people who positively serve me.
“I can't thank Syma enough. Syma CARES. She is genuine and truly wants to support you to become the best version of yourself."
Is there any hope for MEN and nontoxic masculine energy?
Who needs jerk men? The mainstream media says we can be happy lesbian families.
According to Alison Armstrong (alisonarmstrong.com), “Men have a natural attentiveness to providing what women need. One problem is they don't always know what women need. A bigger problem is the women themselves don't know what they need, even if they were willing to ask for it.
“Women want to help men get what they need, if only to keep them from being so grumpy and frustrated. But men ignore their needs until they reach the 'breaking point,' and the way they ask then causes women to resist providing it!
“The lack of information, misunderstandings, inability to speak up — and on top of that, the way we project our needs onto others — well, it’s going to be a mess for sure!”
Singer-songwriter Alanis M.
Alanis Morrisette shares that, “Alison [Armstrong]'s deep understanding and love of men moved me to a whole other level of clarity and peace about a gender that has confounded me for a long time. I feel like the wool has been pulled from my eyes and I can see men in a new and more loving way.”
Racist, pro-genocide, right wing radio host Dennis Prager agrees: “Alison Armstrong...is in my view brilliant and gifted beyond words with an original mind. Original minds are very rare, and she has it combined with a good heart and that's a terrific combination.”
TBS on YouTube (Seth MacFarlane's American Dad,), March 10, 2024; Seth Auberon, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY
Homer, rich Kurt wasn't Bean's worst parent.
Sex is too uncomfortable to talk about with my teenage son. Fortunately, some eighth graders in Beverly Hills got in trouble making porn and were unfairly made an example out of by being expelled from school, making this discussion a little easier.
Eighth grade is about 13, a year or two late for this pivotal, life-altering, father and son discussion. But the wife says I have to do it or he'll hear about it on the streets or worse, from his peers in school with their internet access, social media, iPhones, TikTok accounts, and sexting pics.
What if Patriarch Jesus got a tattoo? (Lev. 19:28)
Maybe we can just watch cartoons first and be surprised when American Dad breaks the ice by bringing up the subject first...before going too far and bringing up worse subjects in the world of today that I'll have to talk about with my daughter. No, that's her mom's job.
Wasn't Prince Siddhartha (who later became the Buddha) the worst father? - No, he was the best. - But he left. - Yes, but why did he leave? He did not leave, as many think, because he thought he would be a bad father and that he was doing his family a favor. He left to find what no one else could give them -- a solution to the problem of suffering (brought on by craving, karma, old age, and death).
Your father's back!! That's him! Go ask, Rahula.
It strikes us all, and would have included all of Prince Siddhartha's his future subjects, his parents, his children (he may have had two boys), siblings (a half-brother and sister he grew up with), two or three moms (depending how one counts), many cousins (extended family of Scythians/Shakyians), and a longsuffering dad, who did as much as a father could do.
At least that was true until the Buddha taught that there was one more thing. What more could a parent do for a child than King Suddhodana, the Buddha's father, did for Prince Siddhartha? A parent, beginning with the Buddha, could thereafter teach the child the Dharma, the Path to Freedom we now call Early Buddhism.
Anyone for whom this is news must what the Buddha did seven years after his great awakening under the bodhi tree, his first turning of the wheel of the Dharma, and his establishing of a fourfold (composed of monks, nuns, and male and female disciples) assembly called the Sangha (spiritual community) to keep the Dharma in the world as long as possible, all of which had been his goal from past lives over four aeons up until his final rebirth.
The mom, Francine, on American Dad!
The Best of Stan Smith | American Dad | TBS
"My Purity Ball..." (American Dad! S12, E10)
(TBS) March 10, 2024: U.S. father Stan Smith (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) is an all-American CIA agent, husband, and dad. He can be pretty selfish, but when it comes down to it, all he wants is the best for his family: wife Francine, daughter Haley, son Steve, pet Klaus, and Roswell survivor Roger. Check out some of his best moments and comment. Watch American Dad on TBS. #AmericanDad #StanSmith #SethMacFarlane #TBS
(Zach Highley) I based my journey into lucid dreaming -- the ability to become conscious that we are dreaming while we are still dreaming -- on the book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. One-third of our life, about 9,000 days, is spent asleep. Is it possible that there is more to our sleep than just blackness followed by waking up?
I tried lucid dreaming for 30 days, and my life has changed forever. My video, The Ultimate Lucid Dreaming Guide, is exclusively on nebula (nebula.tv/videos/zachhighley). Editor: Martino Gasparrini.
ABOUT: Who am I? My name is Zach Highley. I’m a fourth-year medical student in Philadelphia. I make videos about medical school, studying, and growth. I love trying new things and often mess up. However, every time I screw up, I usually learn something. Whatever I learn, I post. It's either on YouTube or on my website 🌐 (zhighley.com).
I write a weekly newsletter 💌 (zhighley.com/newsletter) linking the best things I read, watch, and listen to that week. Join the 2,800+ that get it every Sunday morning.
The Biggest Disease Affecting Humanity: “I’m Not Enough”
Through touching stories of helping burnt-out Hollywood celebrities, regular clients, and even her own family, Marisa Peer teaches us how to feel “enough” and shatter our limitations. Like this video? Try Marisa Peer's free masterclass on Mindvalley Academy:
Awesomeness (A-) Fest is an invite-only transformational event that gathers an extraordinary community of change-makers and visionaries who are driven by epic ideas to impact the world -- entrepreneurs, employees, artists, leaders, innovators, visionaries, and more. The festival takes place twice a year in paradise locations across the world. Receive powerful training, profound mind shifts, bio-hacking techniques, deep connections, incredible adventures, and unique opportunities to multiply our impact and give back to humanity, so that we can play an even bigger game and significantly expand our ability to accomplish bold things. For more info: afest.com.
Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Tori DeAngelis (American Psychological Association, APA.org, Feb. 2014, Vol. 45, No. 2); Dr. Tara Brach, Ph.D. (True Refuge/YouTube)
Psychology's
famous Ziggy Freud, who originated psychotherapy, had a couch. This is
it. Note the exquisite Buddha head figures next to his chair
(99percentinvisible.org)
Buddhist meditation and mindfulness teacher Psychologist
Tara Brach draws fans from high
schools, prisons, even the legislative offices of Capitol Hill.
A Blend of Buddhism and Psychology
When Dr. Tara Brach speaks, a lot of people listen. Even when she doesn't speak, they listen -- or simply join her in silence.
Brach
is a popular presenter at spiritual centers across the country,
leading about 10 workshops and two or three meditation retreats each
year.
Followers
in more than 150 countries download her talks and guided meditations
for free and devour her best-selling CDs and books, including her 2013
book True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart,
which discusses how people can find "their true home" -- what Brach
calls "a timeless, loving presence" -- under even the most challenging
conditions.
"What
I have found over time is that the more I can recognize what is
happening in the present moment and simply open and allow the
experience without judgment, the more I come back home."
Her
approach blends Buddhist and psychological teachings in ways that are
easy for people to apply in their daily lives, say colleagues.
"Tara has an incredible ability to bring the teachings alive with stories that are personal, that show she is vulnerable, but at the same time, not make them about her, but about others' development," says Cheri Maples of the Center for Mindfulness and Justice, a non-sectarian training center for criminal justice professionals and others.
Over the last decade, Brach's teachings and writings have helped to inspire a line of research that has made mindfulness techniques more mainstream, says one such researcher, University of Toronto psychologist Zindel V. Segal, Ph.D.
(Tara Brach) "Awakening from Trance: Embracing Unlived Life" recorded August 26, 2015.
When physical or emotional pain is too
much, our
conditioning is to pull away and avoid direct contact with raw feelings.
The result is a trance: we are split off from the wholeness of our
aliveness, intelligence, and capacity to love. This talk explores how
dissociation shows up in our lives and a powerful way that mindfulnessenables us to integrate cut-off parts of our being.
Join
Tara's email community to receive exclusive updates, events,
meditations, and a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation:
“Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease"
Support enables continued offering of these talks freely, so if you
value them, consider donating
He was a key founder of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, an approach that uses mindfulness techniques to prevent depression relapse, first outlined with colleagues J. Mark G. Williams, DPhil, and John D. Teasdale, Ph.D., in a 2000 article in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
"Coming
at a time when the field was still grappling with how mindfulness and
compassion practices could be integrated into clinical treatment,
Tara's work was profoundly influential," Segal says.
"The trance of unworthiness"
Brach came to her path by studying psychology, meditation, and yoga,
as well as by examining her own life and conflicts, which include a
1991 divorce, a 2003 diagnosis of a genetic disorder that affects the
connective tissue and a family that -- like her -- is "neurotic as hell," she laughs.
Now 60, Brach experienced an "aha!" moment at age 22 as a psychology and political science student at Clark University.
While
on a camping trip, a friend told her she was "learning how to be her
own best friend." Hearing this, Brach burst into tears, she remembers.
"I
realized I was just the opposite. Everywhere I looked I had another
judgment about myself: I was a bad daughter, I was a bad friend, I was
too heavy, I couldn't control my eating, I wasn't doing what I could be
doing academically, I didn't help the world enough," she says.
That observation led to an ongoing attempt to understand and free herself and others from what Brach has come to call "the trance of unworthiness."
It's a particularly strong habit in the West, she thinks, because our
competitive, individualistic culture pressures us to feel we're never
good enough.
To pursue healing and explore her spirituality, Brach decided to move into an ashram after college. For 10 years, she lived in this spiritual community, teaching at the ashram's yoga center, and working in a vegetarian restaurant to stay afloat.
She
immersed herself in practicing yoga, breath-based meditation, and
devotional chanting, which quieted some of her mental obsessing and
helped her gain more openheartedness and peace.
While
still living in the ashram, she began graduate school at the Fielding
Institute in Santa Barbara, California, where she earned her doctorate
in clinical psychology in 1991. More
Buddhism and Psychology?
What did Freud see in the Buddha's teachings?
Buddhism and Psychology(en.wikipedia.org)
Buddhism includes an analysis of human psychology, emotion, cognition,
behavior, and motivation along with therapeutic practices. A unique
feature of Buddhist...
Buddhist Psychology: Institute for Zen Therapy Buddhism is a path of liberation for the world. In the Buddhist
analysis, peace in the world and peace in the hearts of people are
simply... (instituteforzentherapy.com)
Mindfulness in Buddhism & Psychology He taught Training Compassion: From the Buddha to Modern Psychology, with Mu Soeng, at BCBS...Insight Journal asked Germer to talk... (BCBSdharma.org)
Buddhist Psychology, New College, Univ. of Toronto
Buddhist psychology is "radical," as it aims to challenge your
worldview (as all authentic spirituality and psychology does). It is
radical in that it addresses the [roots or radix]...
Buddhism and Modern Psychology, Princeton U.Buddhism and Modern Psychology from Princeton Univ. The Dalai
Lama has said that Buddhism and science are deeply compatible and
has...(coursera.org)
Buddha philosophy and Western psychology (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Buddhism and Western Psychology overlap in theory and practice.
Over the last century, experts have written on many commonalities
between Buddhism and...
Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology MA (naropa.edu)
Naropa University's concentration in Contemplative Psychotherapy and
Buddhist Psychology -- part of our Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Master's...
Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Crystal Quintero (editors), Wisdom Quarterly, Kataññu Sutras (AN 2.31-32) based on Ven. Thanissaro, a.k.a. Geoffrey DeGraff (trans.), accesstoinsight.org (Saturday Night Live, November 2015) Surviving family: Adele's Thanksgiving Miracle ("Hello")
"Generosity brings happiness at every stage of its expression. We experience joy in forming the intention to be generous. We experience joy in the actual act of giving something. And we experience joy in remembering the fact that we have given." - Gautama Buddha
SUTRAS: Gratitude
Kataññu Sutras (AN 2.31-32)
As video above shows, it's all about gratitude.
"Disciples, I will teach you the level of a worthy person and the level of an unworthy person [in terms of worthiness of offerings, reverence, hospitality, merit, with the fully enlightened person being the most worthy, one ennobled by one's own action, for which offerings are most meritorious]. Listen, heed well, and I will speak."
Then the Blessed One [the Buddha] spoke: "Now what is the level of an unworthy person? An unworthy person is ungrateful and does not gives thanks. This ingratitude, this lack of appreciation (thankfulness), is advocated by regressive people. It is entirely on the level of unworthy persons.
"A worthy person [on the other hand] is grateful and appreciative (thankful). This gratitude, this appreciation is advocated by progressive people. It is entirely on the level of worthy persons."
{II,iv,2} "I tell you, meditators, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Who? One's mother and father. Even if one were to carry mother on one shoulder and father on the other shoulder for a century, and one were to look after them by bathing, anointing, massaging, and rubbing their limbs, and even if they were to urinate and defecate right there [on one's shoulders as infants do on parents], one would not thereby pay or repay one's parents.
See how much I love you, mom and dad! (RSK)
"Moreover, if one were to establish one's mother and father in absolute sovereignty over this planet, the great earth, abounding in seven treasures, one would not thereby pay or repay one's parents. Why? It is because mother and father do much for their children. They care for them, nourish them, introduce them to this world.
"But anyone who rouses one's unbelieving mother and father, settles, and establishes them in confidence (conviction, saddha, faith), rouses one's unvirtuous mother and father, settles, and establishes them in virtue (sila, beneficial conduct), rouses one's stingy mother and father, settles, and establishes them in generosity (dana, charity, liberality, openhandedness, giving), rouses one's foolish mother and father, settles, and establishes them in wisdom (insight, knowledge, discernment) -- to this extent one indeed pays and repays one's mother and father."
Two people are hard to find in the world. Who? The one who is first to be kind, and the one who is grateful and thankful for kindness."
— AN 2.118
In saying that kind and grateful people are rare, the Buddha is not simply stating a harsh truth about the human race. He is advising us to treasure these people when we find them, and -- more importantly -- showing how we can become these rare people ourselves.
Kindness and gratitude are virtues we can cultivate. They have to be cultivated together. Each needs the other to be genuine -- a point that becomes obvious when we think about the three things most likely to make gratitude heartfelt:
You've actually benefitted from another person's actions.
You trust the motives behind those actions.
You sense that the other person had to go out of his or her way to provide that benefit. More
[The Buddha was once residing in Savatthi.] There the Blessed One said: "From an unfathomable beginning comes this continued wandering on in samsara [rebirth].
"No beginning is evident when beings first became hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving wandering on [in search of sensual pleasures, supersensual pleasures, continued wandering, or annihilation].
"What do you think, meditators: Which is greater, the tears you have shed while being reborn and wandering this long, long time -- crying and weeping from having to be in contact with what is displeasing and being separated from what is pleasing -- or the water in the four great oceans?"
"As we understand the Dharma taught to us by the Blessed One, the tears we shed while being reborn wandering on this long, long time is greater -- crying and weeping from being in contact with what is displeasing and separated from what is pleasing -- rather than the water in the four great oceans."
"Excellent, meditators, excellent! It is excellent that you thus understand the Dharma as taught by me.
"The tears you have shed while being reborn wandering on this long, long time is greater -- crying and weeping from being in contact with what is displeasing and being separated from what is pleasing -- rather than the water in the four great oceans.
"Long have you (repeatedly) experienced the death of a mother. The tears you have shed over the death of a mother while being reborn wandering on this long, long time -- crying and weeping from being in contact with what is displeasing and being separated from what is pleasing -- are greater than the water in the four great oceans.
Long have you (repeatedly) experienced the death of a father...
the death of a brother...
the death of a sister...
the death of a son...
the death of a daughter...
the loss of relatives...
the loss of wealth...
loss due to disease. The tears you have shed due to loss by disease while being reborn wandering on this long, long time -- crying and weeping from being in contact with what is displeasing and being separated from what is pleasing -- are greater than the water in the four great oceans.
"And why is that? From an unfathomable beginning comes rebirth. A beginning [first point] is not evident when beings began to be hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving while being reborn in this continued wandering on (samsara).
"Long have you thus experienced suffering (dukkha, disappointment, dissatisfaction), experienced pain, experienced loss, swelled the cemeteries -- long enough to become disenchanted with all formations, long enough to become dispassionate, long enough to be released."
The Stick
John D. Ireland (trans.) edited by Wisdom Quarterly (SN 15:9), Wheel No. 107
“Just as a stick thrown up into the air sometimes falls on its base, sometimes on its side, sometimes on its tip, similarly, meditators, do beings obstructed by ignorance and fettered by craving continue to wander on through the round of rebirths.
“At one time beings go from this world to another world, at another time coming from another world to this world. Why, what is the reason?
“Unimaginable, meditators, is a beginning to the round of rebirths [and redeaths]. For beings obstructed by ignorance and fettered by craving continuing to wander on through the round of rebirths, no starting point is evident.
“Thus for a long time, meditators, have you experienced suffering (disappointment), pain, and destruction, and the cemeteries have swelled. It has been long enough for you to have become dispassionate toward all formations (conditioned things), long enough for you to have become detached and released from them.” More
Growing up in America is all about being in an indie rock or punk band. Pass it on.
Punk Barbie & Spiky
Two early punk songs never get old (as long as new garage bands keep doing covers of them), one from the British anarcho-punks Rudimentary Peni and another from the early Los Angeles scenesters T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty).
Jack Greggors (Grisham) once did a duet, trading lines: "I'm tired of looking (It's not in my vision)/ I'm tired of seeing/ (I don't wanna see this)/ I'm tired of hearing (Don't tell me your sh-t)/ I'm tired of being (So why am I here?)/ I'm tired of life (And all of its jokes)/ Imaginary lines (To fool all you fools)/ Imaginary rules (To live your life by)/ And all the world's fools//
"Life is so easy when you're told what to do/ Where to work and how to be you/ But the jokes wears off and you're still laughing/ Caught in your own trap and you're all happy!//
"Too stupid to know it (Just try use your head)/ Too stupid to care (You've all been fooled)/ Just one voice screaming (Is there really a point?)/ Just one in a million (A little speck of flesh)/ Who's gonna hear it (Scream till you die)/ Who's gonna know it? (Your conscience, your mind)/ Who even cares? (No one but yourself)/ It's hopeless (You're hopeless)//
"Because of the process, because of the system,/ Because you're still laughing, because you don't listen,/ Because of the process, because of the system,/ Because you're still laughing, because you don't listen."
(Rudimentary Peni) "Tower of Strength" from the second EP
Towers (Micky75017)
Nick Blinko asks, Are you tired of things coming in only to go out again? "Tower of Strength takes to the sea/ Scours ocean via quay/ Same old story, muscle bound and gory/ Brand new story, death without glory/ Infinite story, something so hoary/ Build a tower of strength and watch it weaken/ Construct high hopes as the brightest beacon/ Watch the seagulls eat the trash/ You contemptuously ditch/ Do you know a seagull?/ Do you know a wreck?// Are you tired of the tide?/ Are you tired of the tide?/ Roll in a rock pool, come let's hide// Do you know a raging wind?/ Do you know a seagull?/ Do you know a wreck?/ Do you know a raging wind?/ Are you tired of the tide?/ Are you tired of the tide?/ Roll in a rock pool, come let's hide/ Tower of strength takes to the sea, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!"
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