Enchantress said:Roger Hall15, but how can we ever actually grasp an absolute truth?
If my version of the truth clashes with yours, sure, maybe one of us is just plain wrong, but there's also the possibility that we're both right in our own way. What holds true or feels right for me isn't necessarily going to be the same thing for you.
What exactly are we getting at here?
(I'm interested in the topic, but I feel like I'm missing the core point, so a little more context would probably help me out. 😉 )
I didn't actually use the words absolute or universal. 😲 I left them out on purpose, really, just to leave some breathing room for interpretation—you know, where one person hears "my" truth while another hears "absolute" truth. Or maybe just that "something" we're all trying to grasp at. 😉
Fair enough. 🙂 It could also mean that we're both completely off base.
Just think about it. 🙂 We're talking about ourselves. 🙂
Everything seems so black and white when you're a kid. You're taught there's a specific way to tell the truth, a list of things you should or shouldn't do, a clear line between good and bad. Then you grow up and see... well, you see what you see... 😉
Everyone’s got their own version of the truth, I suppose. But that isn't really what we're getting at here.
Maybe they actually do know, and they’re just playing dumb, or perhaps they simply have no desire to find out. It’s possible they’re avoiding the facts so aggressively that they’ve managed to convince themselves they’re truly in the dark. Sometimes the weight of it all is just too much, and the idea of knowing becomes something they physically can't stomach. Honestly, who cares. It’s much easier to live in the fog. 🙄
velvetpilot212 said:I’ve always had this nagging feeling—ever since I can remember—that I pretty much have the answer to every single question. I can try to argue against it or make excuses, but the truth is, I just know. There isn't really any other way to put it. So you're telling me you don't?
Look, maybe I don't have a definitive answer for every little thing, but I definitely have this internal compass, this gut feeling that tells me when something is off, or fake, or just plain wrong. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what it is, but it’s this unshakable sense of certainty about whether something is true or not. And honestly, sometimes that intuition is completely at odds with how I actually behave. If we're being totally real here, that's just how it goes. 🙄
velvetpilot212 said:there aren't any elaborate lies left, no settling of scores, no grand judgments... everything is out in the open. just say it—don't tell me you didn't already know.
I think we mostly just waste our own energy trying to dig up whatever version of the truth happens to make us feel better about ourselves.
boldsailor32 said:Most of the time, we’re just chasing our own preconceived notions of what the truth actually looks like.
And those little ideas we hold onto—our version of "truth"—they aren't static; they shift constantly as we age, gain experience, learn things the hard way, and eventually grow old...
V.
So, are we actually striving toward a lie? 😲
If only we were honest enough to admit it. You already laid it out in your first post here, so you don't really have to, and honestly, being the only one saying it doesn't change much. 😬
All this talk about "liars" is really just stuff for children. Nursery rhymes, basically. The kind of sentimental nonsense Zvonimir Balog writes. 🙂
Still, he managed to make a valid point in his own roundabout way. 😉
tisina said:I don't lie much, honestly—I’m a pretty straightforward person—but I guess it really depends on the situation and who we're talking about, because some people just earn a bit more leeway than others when it comes to being "truthful."
The thing is, most of us walk around under this comfortable delusion that we're being perfectly honest and telling nothing but the truth. 😉 But we tend to bend the truth, if you want to call it that. 😲 😲 😁
We just reshape it until it fits our own version of reality, of course.
boldsailor32 said:To figure out just how big a lie actually is, you’d have to measure it against the truth.
But then again, I don't claim to know what the truth even looks like.
So, I can't really sit here and tell you that what I'm saying is the absolute truth.
It’s always some version of a lie; the only real question is whether it's a small one or a large one.
And honestly, everyone seems to have their own personal yardstick for that.
V.
Does it actually change anything if someone spends their life chasing the truth? If we don't truly grasp what the truth is, we don't even really know what we're aiming for. 😢
Small lies, big lies... but why is one considered smaller and the other larger? Maybe it really does just come down to how each individual chooses to measure things. In the meantime, though. 😲 Does anyone actually have a name for the stuff that fills up the gaps when a lie is "small"? The message itself doesn't lose its value just because the delivery was a bit off. If the lie is smaller, then what exactly is the "bigger" part?
There's a very real chance that overthinking this whole thing might just trigger a bout of depression. 😵
...let's just commit to nothing but the truth from here on out." (Zvonimir Balog)
Impossible? It’s absolutely impossible.
You’ve got prophets and fortune tellers—the enlightened ones, the clueless ones, the jokers, and the serious types—all of them spinning yarns.
Does it actually sting your soul when you lie? What about your spirit? 😉
Is dishonesty just some mandatory detour on the road to finding what's real?
I wonder how spirituality even deals with lies. Maybe it condemns them outright. Or maybe it doesn't care. Are there actually people out there who never tell a lie? Or are those just the most deeply spiritual deceptions of all?
If everyone actually took Zvonimir Balog seriously, the world would become an unbearable place. 😁 The truth is, we just don't have the slightest clue how to handle the truth. That's probably why it stays hidden from us in the first place. 😉
adriatic said:In Western tradition, heavily shaped by Christian influence, the physical body was often treated with a certain level of disdain or outright hatred—essentially viewed as the domain of Satan. That mindset almost certainly played a massive role in shaping folk beliefs.
Everything was fundamentally different before that whole Christian counter-revolution took hold. The ancient Greeks wouldn't have even dreamed of looking down on the human body. Regardless of what anyone thinks about Platonic philosophy (or his supposed wisdom), it’s worth noting that his name—which was actually just a nickname—literally translates to "Broad-shouldered." His actual birth name was Aristocles. 😉
Absolutely. 😉 It’s seen in all those various attempts to satisfy human nature while trying to keep Satan at bay. 😬 You could even argue that the way certain body parts or specific ornaments are highlighted isn't accidental at all. All those different types of adornments... 😁 😁
It’s hard to put a finger on exactly how it works sometimes. Whenever I’m running on empty and completely burnt out, my body starts throwing those classic cold symptoms at me for a day or two, and then once I actually catch up on sleep and give myself some downtime, everything just clears right up. 😲 The same thing goes for my central nervous system, honestly. It’s just one of those things. Anyway, I won't go on whining about it indefinitely. 😁😁
Jonathan Reed4 said:The shot goes in about two months before flu season even kicks off, so the virus isn't even floating around yet. There’s just no way you actually caught the flu.😕
In my office, I saw a few people deal with some pretty rough symptoms—though it didn't last nearly as long as actual flu would—where they were legitimately wiped out for a bit. Sure, some folks felt absolutely nothing, but it seems like a good number of people had some kind of reaction to that vaccine, one way or another.
Jonathan Reed4 said:Are you absolutely certain it was actually the vaccine that caused everything to go south?
No, obviously not, though I did chalk the whole thing up to that, even if the symptoms were, you know, relatively mild—just a slight headache, a bit of a fever, some general aches and pains, feeling totally wiped out, all that stuff. It honestly drove me a little crazy.😲 It all kicked off right after the shot.
Then again, maybe I was already coming down with something and just didn't give it enough thought at the time.
I got my shot last year, but I honestly can't say the same for this season. I probably couldn't even function properly for nearly two months because of how rough it hit me.
If I had just caught the actual flu, I would have been sidelined for a week or two, but what happened to me was just a whole different level of miserable.
The folks over at my office are organizing another round of shots, and they handed out some flyers—I haven't really looked through them yet, though I could probably tell you what they say once I get a chance to check them on Monday😁—and told everyone to sign up if they want one.
Nothing. 😁 People tend to think this topic is interesting. And, honestly, it is.
Personally, I found the whole thing quite refreshing: we all have a bit of a predator in us from time to time. We really do. But there’s this incredibly fine line that separates a slightly awkward or even unfavorable "trade" from being a straight-up leech. And the more someone feeds, the more they end up getting drained themselves. Hmm.
So, people always ask me about what it actually means to be a yogi, as if there’s some secret manual or a specific ritual you need to master to unlock this enlightened state of being. It isn't really like that, though I get why people think it is. You don't just show up at a place like YogaWorks, twist your body into a pretzel for an hour, and suddenly walk out with all the answers to the universe. It’s more of a slow burn, a gradual shift in how you perceive everything around you, which can be a bit overwhelming if you aren't prepared for it. It’s less about the physical poses and more about that quiet, internal calibration that happens when you finally stop fighting against the flow of things. So, if you happen to find yourself near the New York Public Library tomorrow around 12:30 PM, there’s actually something worth checking out. Dr. Vlado Poznovija—who some folks might know better by his moniker, Swami Brahmajnananadd—is doing a short talk to help promote his new book, Being a Yogi. It’s a pretty massive undertaking, honestly, running well over six hundred pages, where he dives into all those ways you can actually level up your daily life and your spiritual growth. He covers just about everything under the sun, from physical and mental conditioning to diet, your sex life, even the way we sleep and dream, not to mention how our concept of God evolves over time. It touches on personal development, communication, relaxation, and meditation too. The lecture itself is going to be fairly grounded, mostly focusing on the core fundamentals of Yoga and making all these complex teachings accessible to people who aren't necessarily practitioners.
Just a quick correction here: tomorrow is actually today, Thursday, October 28th.😁 I'm not sure where this was originally posted, but I figured I'd share it here anyway. I was just scrolling through Monitor's pages earlier, and honestly, there’s a lot to take in there if you actually bother to sit down and read.
You can find more details right here. I'm here.
From the YogaWorks website:
If you follow the guidance laid out in this book, you’ll eventually find your way to Divine Perfection, Unconditional Love, and the absolute truth.
There’s actually an active thread about teachers sitting right there on the front page—you might have missed it scrolling by—so I figured I’d just merge this in. This whole piece is a fantastic addition to that discussion.
I feel like I’ve heard this one all before, but if you’re asking me, I’d put it this way:
1. I definitely wouldn't tell her what to do, mostly because I don't believe it's anyone's place to advise someone on whether or not to have an abortion. No matter what the circumstances look like from the outside, nobody has the right to judge someone else's life choices, and frankly, none of us can crawl inside another person's head to understand the weight of everything they're carrying. 😁 So, my answer is no—not because I think she made the wrong call, but just because I find the idea of telling someone else how to handle something so deeply personal to be fundamentally wrong. Little Ludwig shouldn't be caught up in any of this. 😁😁
2. As for presidents, I don't really buy into the whole concept, honestly. I wouldn't pick anyone, simply because I have zero desire to see anyone sitting in that office. 😬 I just don't care for it. 🙂