American vice: sex, smoking, and booze

• The Kyle Kulinski Show

What was first drink? Coffee, tea, wine?

Of course it has to be water, good old H2O, no, mother's milk, in a shot glass for comfort.

How old is the Mexican drink we call chocolate (xocolatl) cocoa from Theobroma cacao?

What was the first beverage?

Not gonna say water, right? Don't say water. Water is too obvious. Shoulda known it was water.

There's a new drink in town, in a can, with microdoses of shrooms and maybe CBD: BREZ

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Tea party for Tara (Jetsun Dolma), Aztec cocoa?

(PBS Eons) When exactly did we start drinking other things and why? To find out, we have to look at the world’s oldest beverages – which are not what we expected.

• References: docs.google.com/document/d/1A...
• Theobroma cacao was chocolate, food of the gods

How To: Mindful Drinking

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Should've stuck with water and milk, not fruit rot

To support the channel, head over to eons and pledge for some cool rewards! Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook - eonsshow, Twitter - eonsshow, Instagram - eonsshow. #Eons 

Find out more about prehistoric elephants: complexly.info/mammoths

• PBS Eons, Sept. 3, 2024; CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Survival mode to thriving: nervous system

MSN.com ; CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

It can seriously feel like we are constantly under siege. The barrage of news is relentless, politics are dismal, Israel won't let up, the economy is uncertain, coffee/stimulants to counter exhaustion, and our family responsibilities can be overwhelming.

Burnout is a very real danger and can affect anyone — even those who seem to have it all together. But the warning signs of burnout are easy to miss.

If we know what to look for, we can take steps to manage stressors effectively and prevent burnout from taking over our life.

Let's discuss the causes of burnout and suggest solutions that will help calm the nervous system so we can thrive during difficult times.

How does prolonged stress impact the nervous system? The economy (and our personal finances), family responsibilities, and fast breaking news all cause fatigue and contribute to the current stressors impacting our nervous system.

• Elon Musk wants Neuralink in your brain. You'll feel better?

Other things (financial, job instability, long-term financial planning) all add to the weight of daily life. At the same time, caring for children and elderly family members, balancing work and home life, and maintaining relationships under stress can be emotionally draining.

To top it all off, the constant stream of negative news and the emotional toll of global events can lead to information overload.

When these stressors become too much, our nervous system struggles. This can manifest in physical symptoms like

• headaches,
• fatigue,
• digestion problems,
• muscle tension,
• mood swings.

It can also lead to mental-emotional issues like anxiety and depression. If left unchecked, burnout can take hold and have a devastating impact on our overall wellbeing. More: From survival mode to thriving, regulating our nervous system in challenging times

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• Smoking marijuana linked to increased risk of heart attack, stroke
• How to spot a spiritual narcissist
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• Yoga Pilates: How to begin practicing yoga and meditation

BDS at home in LA: Boycott Starbucks

Crystal Q., Sheldon S., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Students boycott Starbucks in support of Palestine Los Angeles

(Los Angeles Loyolan) Nov. 2, 2023: Loyola Catholic School students gathered in front of the Starbucks located near the entrance of William H. Hannon Library on Wednesday, Nov. 1st, 2023, and urged other students to boycott Starbucks after the coffee corporation sued its union for trademark infringement over a post expressing solidarity with Palestine on the Starbucks Workers United's X (Twitter) account.

• Code Pink: Women for Peace
• Jewish Voice for Peace (jvp.org)
• Jews for Palestine: Neturei Karta (nkusa.org)
• U.S. Veterans for Peace

Sleepless nights gone in less than 3 minutes

Couldn't I just meditate myself back to calm? - Yes, but that would take effort and practice.

Punk rock for sleepless stress (Kryad Music) Avenged Sevenfold "Game Over" (Life is a But a Dream)

Say goodbye to sleepless nights in less than 3 minutes • Cures for anxiety disorders, depression

(Soft Calm Music) Streamed live on May 20, 2023. Sleeping music for deep sleep. Say goodbye to sleepless nights. Video made by Soft Calm Music.

📜 How was the day? Today is here to create new tunes, new sounds. Music is indispensable in life. If this music helps make others happy or forget about worries, the makers are happy. Listen to relax, meditate, study, read, get a massage, take a spa treatment, or sleep.

This music is ideal to allay anxiety, stress, and insomnia because it facilitates relaxation and helps get rid of bad vibrations.

It's completely free. A like or subscription motivates the constant creation of such useful music. Follow: • @softcalmmusic. Always have happy and beautiful days. © Copyright: ‣ Contact: hello@beemedia.art ‣ Animation created by Soft Calm Music ‣ Footage and images under license (envato, storyblocks, istock, stock.adobe...) ‣ All right reserved. Published by Soft Calm Music ♪

Marketplace and Village Festival (10/16)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Onochie, Rhythms of the Village; Oh Happy Days!; Wisdom Quarterly

UPDATE: It was a massive success despite the clouds overhead, which cozy up to the foothills and usually get squeezed like sponges overhead. The stage is full of Afro-rhythms and the crowd is dense. There were probably too many vendors and too much to choose from -- foods of all kinds, baked goods, crafts, jewelry, healings. It happens again in the spring. For once the gloomy weather did not keep Angelenos away.

LOS ANGELES - There's a place in the Foothills no one believes in. Daily people walk in -- enter a time warp where the 1960s are alive and well -- and say, "How long have you been open? I've lived in the area for years and never knew you were here."

We're grateful for this place, Man.

The proprietor, Doc John Hopkins takes it in stride: "Groovy, Man, you finally made it!" He's busy behind the counter serving up the day's homemade items -- hot entrees, a filling soup, sandwiches, a whole grocery store of things, cold drinks, herbs, bulk staples, and other odds and ends: Kombucha, CBD, candy, chips...

• Village Market & Festival — Rhythms of the Village
• Rhythms of the Village Marketplace and Festival (Behind Secret Vegan Cafe), Sun, Oct 16, 2022, 12:00 PM | Meetup

Village Market & Festival, Sunday, Oct. 16th

We have fashions that make a pro-African statement

Aztec gods like Los Angeles multiculturalism

Rhythms of the Village is an Afrocentric shop (of "authentic creative African inspired art") next door. The pot shop between them got raided twice recently and shut down, and Pizza Joe's tanked, but there's still an antique shop, all squeezed between a Post Office and Corporate Burger in a Box, across from the new Grocery Outlet and Aldi's high up on Lake Avenue in Altadena.

Get on the party bus to Zorthian Commune

On Sunday between noon and 7:00 pm the back lot will fill with music, dance, food, handcrafted goods, and more for its biannual festival. It'll be a an art festival and marketplace of vendors, workshops, multicultural foods, games, and family fun. It's good vibes in the village with a wide range of rhythms and talents, storytelling, African dance, Folklorico, Danza Azteca (Aztec Dance), and more!

• FEST: rhythmsofthevillage.com
• O Happy Days: Cosmic Vegan Cafe (Pasadena Weekly)
• Oh Happy Days Vegan Cafe - Altadena, CA )Happy Cow)
• O’ Happy Days Natural Food Store: photos and reviews 2283 N. Lake Ave., Altadena, CA (Yelp)

Coffee causes CANCER, Starbucks sued

The Associated Press (ap.org via mail.com); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Green tea is much healthier and also has caffeine to feed addiction to morning stimulants.

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Californians to take their coffee with a  CANCER WARNING

Proposition 65 warning sign at LA Starbucks

LOS ANGELES, California - An L.A. judge has determined that coffee companies must carry an ominous cancer warning label because of a dangerous, carcinogenic chemical produced in the coffee bean roasting process.

Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said Wednesday that Starbucks and other companies have failed to show that benefits from drinking coffee outweigh risks.

I'm addicted to Starbucks, caffeine, sugar.

He ruled in an earlier phase of trial that companies had not shown that the threat from the carcinogenic chemical was insignificant.

 

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a nonprofit group, sued Starbucks and 90 other companies under a state law that requires warnings on a wide range of chemicals that can cause cancer.

Cancer is a Bitch (Gail Kanap Baker)

One such chemical is called acrylamide, the result of browning foods and a carcinogen present in coffee.
 

"Defendants [like Starbucks] failed to satisfy their burden of proving...that consumption of coffee confers a benefit to human health," Judge Berle wrote in his proposed ruling.

The coffee industry had claimed the chemical was present at "harmless levels" and should be exempt from the law because it results naturally from the burning process that makes beans more flavorful. It also argued... More

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Coffee cherry fruit husk flour for baking

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Imogen, Dev (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Jenny Neill (sprudge.com, 4-18-14)

Coffee cherry fruit husks (Jansen)

"Flour" made from coffee fruit? Who even knew coffee came from fruit? But, yes, flour for baking can be made from the byproduct of coffee bean harvesting. It's gluten-free, has protein, is best mixed with other flours.

Moreover, it's highly nutritious, only mildly caffeinated (depending on serving size), and it's environmentally conscious.

It's a fine powder like a bitter cocoa that makes a dense product (CoffeeFlour.com).

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I'm already a coffee drink addict.

It's made from the coffee cherry pulp left over from green coffee processing. A crazy sounding idea to be sure, it is something that got a number of news outlets quite excited when it was first launched in 2014.

This is more than just a health-food craze. It might also be a capitalist move to maximize profitability. CoffeeFlour.com founder Dan Belliveau has big plans to reshape the environmental and economic impacts of the coffee supply chain.

 

Big plans with big backers, including Intellectual Ventures, the massive intellectual property and R&D firm founded by Nathan Myhrvold (co-creator of the landmark Modernist Cuisine), and industrial coffee supply chain heavyweight ECOM Agroindustrial Corp. Ltd and Mercon Coffee Group. Sprudge.com sat down with Belliveau to hear more about the Coffee Flour story. More

Chocolate (Theobroma cacao) comes from the bitter roasted seed of a nice fruit.

What is tea? Buddhist "cha" ceremony (video)

TheTeaSpot.com; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Kirsten Dirksen; KY; TL

Buddhism and tea go way back: Ch'an tea culture, China (BuddhistChannel.tv).

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Maybe American yerba mate (a kind of Holly introduced by the Guarani Native Americans in South America) is better than Chinese (sine=chine) "tea" (Camellia sinensis or cha). Matcha means powdered young green tea leaves, which is extra potent with phytonutrients and caffeine. But what is "tea"?
 

The Tea Leaf

Darjeeling is from Buddhist Himalayan India

Many people are surprised to learn that all teas -- white, green, oolong, black, and pu-erh -- are made from the leaves of the same species.

 
While the varietal of the particular Camellia sinensis plant as well as the weather conditions and soil contribute to the final taste of the tea, the significant differences of tea type develop in the processing of the leaves.
 

The distinguishing factor that determines whether a tea plant will become white, green, oolong, or black tea is oxidation. [More oxidation turns an anti-oxidant rich green leaf black or "in between" called oolong.]

Oxidation begins after the leaf has been plucked from the plant to begin the process of being dried, withered, rolled, and heat-treated. A black tea is fully oxidized, causing it to turn black, while a white tea is barely oxidized at all, thus retaining its soft, silvery down.

(TeaLeaves) Chado Ceremony with Kazue Kojima, June Yoriko Tanemura, and Yasuko Takahashi, who all practice the Japanese "Way of Tea" in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Most of us tend to call many things we infuse in hot water a "tea." But technically, it’s only tea if it’s made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen plant indigenous to China and India [particularly Ceylon/Sri Lanka, the Buddhist teardrop-shaped island at the tip of India]. Today tea is grown in over 100 countries to meet the worldwide demand.

Do you fresh young green tea powder yet?

Tea is the world’s second most popular beverage, after water. More people in the US are drinking tea than ever before, joining a booming worldwide trend. Increased understanding of the role antioxidants play in weight loss as well as the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease has revealed tea as an ideal health beverage.

Fresh brewed tea is 100% natural, fat-free, calorie-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, preservative-free, and low in caffeine -- tea is the healthy choice. More

(Kohei Yamamoto) What is the tea ceremony procedure?
 
The Tea Ceremony
Kirsten Dirksen (faircompanies.com) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

I've got a principle in my hand.

Cha-do ("tea-way") is often translated as "tea ceremony," but it or chanoyu ("way of tea") is neither a ceremony nor a ritual in the strictest sense. It is more a culinary celebration of arts or crafts and philosophy, particularly in Zen Buddhism.

It originated in China in the 8th century, spread to Japan in the 9th, and became an art sometime around the 12th century. It wasn't until this past century that the "way of tea" became accessible. In Japan it can now  be studied like home economics or in a college club.

The lure may be partly in the brew. Tea has always been used for health. Christy Bartlett of the San Francisco Urasenke Foundation explains that following the form, which she compares to the practice of music, helps one to find intense focus in the moment. As you sip, be here now. More

One of the world's best chefs says you can taste the love in really good food

Tea and Buddhism

Peter GW Keen (teabox.com, May 13, 2016); CC Liu, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly

Chinese Buddhist monks pick green tea leaves in field (Buddhistchannel.tv)

Tea and Buddhism: More Than Just Contemplation

Gold Buddha (popolisson/flickr.com)

At one level, the association of Buddhism and tea seems natural and obvious. The ethos and practices of its many schools and their impact on modern modes of yoga, Zen, meditation, nutrition, and daily living conjure up images associated with tea: calm, cleansing, meditative, and ceremonial [but stimulating enough to preserve vigilant mindfulness].

Somehow, the link doesn’t quite seem the same for other beverages: Seek karma with a languorous double latte caffeine jolt, a contemplative soda sugar boost, or a double rye on the rocks?

But the impact goes much further and shaped almost every basic element of tea production and much of its social context. There are two great traditions of tea, Buddhist and British.

They are marked by what may be called The Great Sugar Divide. Basically, Buddhism drove the methods of producing great teas pre-sugar, giving us the legacy of mainly green teas and oolongs [oxidized and fermented].

It’s hard to put dates on the 4,000 or more years of tea in China, but by 800 CE, it was a mature agricultural activity in China, and had been introduced into Japan and Korea. At that stage, it was in essence Buddhist-driven.

 

Buddhist monks and British merchants: two great traditions

The British created the later tea culture of the West, but their role was very much that of trading: building the global supply chains, blending, packaging and branding that have made tea a consistent, cheap and convenient commodity, now mostly in tea bags.
 

This was built on scale and integration: the consolidation of small growers’ harvests through centralized auctions, the magnificent tea clipper ships that raced the Pacific to cut weeks off the many months of journey, the monopoly control of the East India Company, and the creation of large farms in Assam [India] and Ceylon [Sri Lanka]. More

Ask a Ninja: How to Meditate: 5: Restlessness

Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanaponika, Five Hindrances and Their Conquest: Selected Texts from the Pali Canon and Commentaries

Think. There are hindrances to meditation. Overcome them and be a ninja.

"Most of the things you worry about never happen!" (halfwaybetweenthegutter)

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"This year, rise above it"! (AB)

This is Part V of a seven-part series (see Part IV) on overcoming the Five Hindrances, culminating with what to do as an enlightened Meditation Ninja. Reaching enlightenment may take anywhere from seven days to seven years, according to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutra. But it depends on effort, sustained-ease, and consistency. Over-effort is something to be overcome by calm; under-effort is overcome by energy: balanced-effort is the goal. There is much more to be gained by practicing a little every day rather than a lot on Sunday and none at all the rest of the week: Consistency over time is the tortoise's secret, leaving the hare far behind. Everything can wait, but the search for enlightenment cannot wait.

4. Restlessness and Remorse
A. Nourishing of Restlessness and Remorse

There is unrest of mind. Frequently giving unwise attention to it is nourishing the arising of restlessness and remorse (distraction and worry) that have not yet arisen and for the increase and strengthening of restlessness and remorse that have already arisen. — SN 46:51
 

B. Denourishing of Restlessness and Remorse

There is quietude of mind. Frequently giving wise attention to it is the denourishing of the arising of restlessness and remorse that have not yet arisen and of the increase and strengthening of restlessness and remorse that have already arisen. — SN 46:51

Six things are conducive to the abandonment of restlessness and remorse:

1. knowledge of the Buddhist texts (sutras, scriptures, the Doctrine and Discipline);
2. asking questions about them;
3. familiarity with the Code of Monastic Discipline (Vinaya) for monastics and intensive practitioners, and for lay followers the principles of virtue (sila, as detailed in the Sigalovada Sutra);
4. association with those mature in experience, who possess meditative serenity, restraint, and calm;
5. noble friendship (wise association with a kalyana-mitta);
6. suitable conversation.

These things are also helpful in conquering or calmly overcoming restlessness and remorse:

1. rapture (piti, bliss), one of the Five Factors of Absorption (jhana-anga);
2. concentration, one of the Five Spiritual Faculties (indriya);
3. Tranquillity, concentration, and equanimity, three of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (bojjhanga).

Waves atop Morningstar Beach, Mars (C2C)

When the mind is restless, it is not the proper time for cultivating the following Factors of Enlightenment: keen investigation of phenomena (dharma), energy (viriya), or rapture because an agitated mind can hardly be quietened by them.
 

When the mind is restless, it is the proper time for cultivating the following Factors of Enlightenment: tranquillity, concentration, and equanimity because an agitated mind can easily be quietened by them. — SN 46:53

C. Simile

Sometimes restlessness overwhelms me.

If there is water in a pot, stirred up by the wind, agitated, producing ripples and waves, a person with a normal faculty of vision would not properly recognize and see the image of one's own face (using the surface of the water as a mirror). In the same way, when one's mind is possessed by restlessness and remorse, overpowered by restlessness and remorse, one cannot properly see the escape from restlessness and remorse that have arisen. Then one does not properly understand one's own welfare, that of another, nor that of both. And texts memorized a long time ago do not come to mind, to say nothing of those not memorized. — SN 46:55

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