s e x

[nomadologist]

Ha. Any suggestions?

Do you mean an SSRI? That shit is insane. It feels like coming off a bad peyote trip. I refuse to take it.

 

[Gavin]

Hence the need for some antithesis to the hedonic treadmill...

Or our Western analogs, those leftist ascetic workaholics:

 

[zhao]

i actually wasn't ENTIRELY taking the piss with that one. i do believe some kind of spiritual discipline is ultimately the only satisfaction available in the drugstore of life. i mean a basic thing like yoga just simply makes you feel all around much better IMMEDIATELY. and if you do it regularly for any period of time...

 

[nomadologist]

i often have to do that yoga move where you lay down and put your legs parallel to your torso with your ankles above your head, to help my liver drain a little. that's what feels like it's happening when i do that, anyway.

i used to like working out a lot when we had a free gym at work at the university. the elliptical machine is nice. i'm not supposed to lose weight though: i weigh 104 lbs right now and i'm supposed to eat 3000 calories a day or something ridiculous.

 

[nomadologist]

Or our Western analogs, those leftist ascetic workaholics:

Maybe I should join the damn Peace Corps like I've been threatening to do for so long.

 

[gek-opel]

I'm unconvinced western minds can utilise religious concepts like Zen or whatever as anything other than drug-solutions (ideally suited to pacifying and rendering the individual adequate to the demands of capital)

 

[nomadologist]

I agree, and I get pretty offended when people misappropriate the Other's religion as flagrantly as (even well-intentioned) Americans do eastern religions. I have never really taken a yoga class, someone taught me that one move because they call it their hangover cure.

I think I have a long haul ahead of me of replacing whatever works as a lesser of many evils. It's what I see happen over and over again. A lot of people who go straight become foodies, I've noticed.

 

[zhao]

to help my liver drain a little.

hahaha

Maybe I should join the damn Peace Corps like I've been threatening to do for so long.

didn't figure you to be the humanitarian type at all... a friend of mine was just in Mongolia for some weeks working at an orphanage. she had some pretty amazing experiences with the kids... and also throat singing concerts.

 

[Gavin]

Maybe I should join the damn Peace Corps like I've been threatening to do for so long.

I really think the Peace Corps has more to do with guilt atonement and personal enlightenment/exploration than actually solving significant world problems, but I guess if you are sanguine about it...

I am skeptical of the real effectiveness of such a lifestyle (because that's what it is right, the "diet caffeine free" version at the lifestyle supermarket), but I do admire the work ethic of a Nader or Chomsky.

 

[nomadologist]

For me, it would have more to do with forgiving my student loan debt and getting me out of temptation's way than any delusions about changing the world.

 

[nomadologist]

didn't figure you to be the humanitarian type at all...

jeez thanks

am i that bad? sigh.

 

[zhao]

I'm unconvinced western minds can utilise religious concepts like Zen or whatever as anything other than drug-solutions (ideally suited to pacifying and rendering the individual adequate to the demands of capital)

nonsense.

the "western" mind may have more layers of conditioning, stuffed with more bullshit, and thus harder to clear. but that's as far as the difference goes.

you guys seem to subscribe to some fundamental difference between east and west, and that is just illusion (fostered mainly by many many politically motivated revisions of history, made by those who seek to benefit from such lies). there is no divide. western culture is just a mutated version of eastern culture. all civilization came from Persia. and all of us come from Africa.

 

[nomadologist]

I don't know, Pan-everythingism can lead us down some pretty rocky roads in and of itself.

Cultural difference is a good thing, not a bad thing.

 

[nomadologist]

Instead of a "Worth Dying For" thread I think we should start a "Worth Living For" thread. It'll be much shorter, but it may cheer me up.

Not.

 

[gek-opel]

Well theoretically Zhao you are correct, and zen is literal anticapital. But in practice it doesn't work like that socio-politically...

 

[Gavin]

why are the zen white people always the richest ones

 

[gek-opel]

why are the zen white people always the richest ones

That's a horrifying picture and yeah, OTM.

 

[nomadologist]

much like the vegans

(how do erect nipples show throw a thick, black padded bra? those have to be inserts or something--or photoshopped. i think it's photoshopped)

 

[zhao]

Cultural difference is a good thing, not a bad thing.

no one said difference is bad. all I'm saying is that unshakable inner peace is attainable by anyone through a variety of different paths (but again, all the same path).

zen is literal anticapital. But in practice it doesn't work like that socio-politically...

doesn't have to! it works on an individual basis. and becomes political later.

how 'bout them monks protesting in Myanmar? i wanna fly there to join and like, i dunno, design some posters for them?

why are the zen white people always the richest ones

because the richest ones are the only one's visible to you.

 

[nomadologist]

i don't know, i know tons of kids from the west coast who were zen buddhists in college, and they were all oil money and shit. i don't know any white buddhists who aren't rich.