Posts by Brenda Cook4

I’ve already seen this movie before.

And let’s be real, a phone directory isn't exactly the Quran or the Old Testament.

Besides, we aren't even talking about democratic political correctness anymore—this is clearly just plain old fear.

If we keep dancing around the issue instead of facing it head-on, it’s going to lead us all straight downhill.

silverrider44 said:Things were completely different when the Pope was here, so quit whining.
Traffic was halted for half an hour. The streets were empty, but only because everyone was either at the racetrack or glued to their TV.

Around here, they’ll arrest you just for walking across the bridge near the American embassy. They'll haul you off to a local precinct, hold you for two hours, drop you back at your job, and then demand your employer vouch for you...

The highway from Virginia to D.C. gets shut down from Thursday night until God knows how late Friday morning, truck driving is banned for several days, and Customs basically goes on strike...

And the funniest part was what they said on the news: the US is covering half the costs—five million—just to protect its "good reputation."

And the Pope's $20 million—and that's without even counting the cost of building all those useless vanity projects...

stormyowl21 said:You really cracked me up. 🙂 It’s like, when it feels that real, you almost start believing it actually has a soul, right? ^^

🙂 I mean, true... either way, being green somehow saved you—you walked away totally unscathed.

John 2072 - Honestly, all I can say is that I actually find it quite charming when you get all worked up over things... that whole animism thing you have going on is pretty sweet.🙂

We don't need to lose sleep over God.
There’s really no reason to dread death.
The good things in life? They’re right there for the taking.
And the bad stuff? It's simple enough to steer clear of.
Epicurus

casualmaker13 said:TM initiation is just there so you can get the mantra used in the technique. It doesn't require any loyalty to a specific religion or heritage that you don't even need to know anything about. What you're thinking about is a totally different thing.
If you were taken to a church as a kid and baptized, it doesn't mean you're a Christian, especially if you believe in Allah now.😍
Similarly, learning a certain technique doesn't instantly change your faith or your religion.
As for the research, well, all scientific research is subject to questioning, isn't it?
The only things that are truly questionable are those other techniques that haven't been sufficiently studied, which allows people to sell "foggy" techniques that are terrified of actual research that might expose them.
Since you clearly don't have a clue about these studies, maybe it would be better not to spread misinformation based on nothing but assumptions.
I get it, you probably wish the techniques you personally use had been studied too, because I can tell you're not entirely sure they actually work. But there's no need to be bitter about it.😉
If you're going to be interested enough to talk about it, maybe try to learn a bit more first so you aren't just talking for the sake of talking. It'll look better next time.🙂

Come on! 🙄

Here are the words of Maharishi:

When you first start out, they don't exactly pull back the curtain on the deeper, more spiritual significance behind the mantra. It’s kept under wraps for those just beginning. But Maharishi breaks it all down:

Think of it this way: we perform certain rituals here, specifically through precise chanting, to create a ripple—an actual effect—in another realm. It's like sending out a signal to catch the attention of those higher beings or gods inhabiting those different planes. In essence, The entire knowledge of The mantras or hymns of The Vedas [ hindu scriptures is all about building that bridge, facilitating a direct line of communication between us and the higher beings existing within the various layers of creation.

Transcendental Meditation is essentially a direct path to God.

Think of meditation as a profound way to pray—it’s a direct path that carries us straight to the field of the Creator, right to the very source of all existence, into the field of God.

TM is truly the sole path to finding both genuine success and spiritual salvation in this life; honestly, there just isn't any other way to go about it.

So, it turns out a 'mantra' isn't just some random, meaningless sound used in the TM technique. It’s clearly much more than that—it acts as a genuine 'spiritual' tool, a way to actually bridge the gap and connect with higher spiritual beings.

And then there’s the puja—that sung invocation. When you look at the translation, it goes something like this:

I bow down to Lord Narayana, to Brahma The Creator, born of the lotus, and to Vashishta, to Shakti, and to his son, Parashar. I bow down to Vyasa, to Shukadava, to the great Gaudapada, and to Govinda, the leader among yogis. My respects go to his disciple, Shri Trotika and Varttika-Kar, to all others, and to the sacred lineage of our masters. I bow down to The abode of The wisdom of The Shrutis , Smritis and Puranas, to the sanctuary of compassion, to the living embodiment of the Lord’s glory, and to Shankar, who liberates through the Lord. I bow down again and again to Shankaracharya, the redeemer, known as Krishna and Badarayan, the commentator of the Brahma Sutras. AT whose door The whole Galaxy of gods pray for perfection day and Night, he stands adorned in boundless glory—the one who perceives the entire world. Having bowed down to him, we find true fulfillment. He is a master at clearing away the fog of ignorance for all people; that gentle liberator, Bramanand Saraswati—the supreme, brilliant teacher—is the one I hold in my consciousness.

So, here’s the thing... TM is essentially just a religion or a cult wrapped in the branding of Hinduism—it’s basically a "scientific" way to tackle tension and stress. It’s really just a vehicle for spreading neo-Hindu messages across America.

So, where did he head off to?

mistyfox812 said:Sometimes when I’m just staring up at the clouds, I’ll see a shape and be like, "Whoa, look, a horse." Then, out of nowhere, my brain flips and goes, "Wait, no, that's a motorcycle!" Like, a total transformation.
Living things don't work like that. A horse doesn't just turn into a Harley.
A stallion and a mare have another horse (not a bike).

The actual "stuff" that makes up that horse might change over time, but it's still a horse. It keeps its form (eidos). Even if the "matter" of its offspring is different from the parent's—it's still a horse (and definitely not a motorcycle).

Total transformations happen in dreams, though: one second you've got a horse, the next it's a motorcycle. But in the real world? That just doesn't happen.

When we watch clouds, or during nightmares, or when someone's tripping on something, or even just in some crazy rambling from a lunatic, or when everything feels totally chaotic... we get a tiny glimpse of what total instability looks like: everything turning into everything else. You can't even distinguish between "this" and "that" when nothing stays solid and everything just melts into chaos.

For us to actually talk about anything—and since logos basically means speech/reasoning—there has to be something that allows a thing to actually *be* itself. Like, making sure a horse doesn't suddenly become a motorcycle in the next heartbeat.

We shouldn't think or talk like people who are fast asleep. (73.)

Logos is the opposite of pure chaos.

Other people will never understand what we do while we're awake, any more than they understand what they do while they're dreaming. (1)

It has to be... there’s this "formula" that supposedly makes it all possible. It’s called Logos.

Permanence? It’s nothing more than an illusion...

mistyfox812 said:And honestly, how am I even supposed to know what you mean by the "physical world," or the "world we see," or the "real world" in the first place?

Anyway:
The invisible harmony is stronger than the visible one. (54.)
People totally mess up when they try to understand visible things... (56.)
Eyes and ears are pretty lousy witnesses if a person has a barbaric soul. (107.)
Nature loves to hide. (123.)
Humans don't have the power of true perception, but the divine does. (41.)
When people die, they face something they never even hoped for or suspected. (27.)
A man lights a lamp for himself at night when his sight fails. While living, he touches the dead in his dreams, and while awake, he touches the one who sleeps. (26.)

If I were looking at a rock, I think Heraclitus would agree that it’s just a rock. After all, he famously argued that our eyes are far better witnesses than our ears. When we're awake and alert, we rely on our senses to navigate the world around us—they're essential tools, certainly—but they can’t give us anything more than a fleeting impression of a universe that is constantly shifting under our feet. True wisdom doesn't come from staring at a single, isolated object. The Logos remains elusive to us; we can only grasp fragments of it. We only see pieces of the puzzle because we are confined to our own limited perspective within this reality. Language itself is a bit of a bottleneck, isn't it? Concepts in language tend to be static, which is exactly why Heraclitus chose fire as his primary metaphor. It captures that constant state of motion perfectly.

So, I'll say it again: existence is nothing but constant change. There’s just no such thing as some reality floating above the physical world—no "meta-physical" realm exists beyond what we can touch and see. It all comes back to Heraclitus.😁

Our senses can be incredibly deceptive—especially when we fail to perceive the world as a state of constant flux. There is an inseparable link between the Logos and our sensory perception. Ultimately, all is one. They are one and the same. This world of appearances? It is the only reality we have. We find unity through opposites: "...through the individual comes unity, and from unity comes everything individual."
Measurement within change—within the very dance of opposites—finds its true purpose in the Logos.

Heraclitus or ηρακλειτος in Greek, who famously pushed back against the notion that everything had a single starting point...
The universe... it’s a wild concept, isn't it? I've been thinking about those thinkers who flat-out rejected the notion that our entire existence is just some mental trick or a mere figment of the imagination. They weren't looking for an easy way out through pure idealism; they wanted to get their hands dirty with reality. It reminds me of how we try to grasp the sheer scale of everything around us—trying to find that solid ground when everything feels like it's shifting under our feet.
It really comes down to our own imagination—and specifically, those thinkers who dared to reject the idea that universal laws govern everything in nature.
Artificial, static distortions of what’s actually real. In one of the few pieces left standing...
He once remarked that simply piling up facts doesn't actually lead to true understanding—otherwise, we'd all be geniuses just by reading an encyclopedia.
It really would have been enough to teach even Hesiod and Pythagoras... Flux and Change itself is seen as more durable than universal laws.
Flux and Change itself is seen as more durable Than universal laws.

Process—that constant, restless transformation driven by opposites—is the very fabric of reality. With Heraclitus, there’s no such thing as that "higher reality" Plato talked about. There isn't some separate realm of "Ideas" where the material world is just a collection of shadows flickering on a cave wall. Hallelujah.

mistyfox812 said:Look, change isn't "total" for Heraclitus. There's this unity that hangs above all the chaos.

Nature stays the same every single day. (106.)

I mean, if everything was just constantly flipping out, there wouldn't be any "nature" to anything—nothing would ever be "one." But Heraclitus says that nature exists, and it's always constant.
That Logos which is always there... (1.)

Logos is permanent; it doesn't budge.

People totally misread him sometimes, thinking he's some hardcore relativist—but he's not:

The awakened people share one common world. (89.)

But look, Heraclitus sees the One, yet that One is actually the Logos—that constant process where everything is being unified through its own contradictions. u When we talk about eternal change and the sheer abundance of existence—well, there isn’t some mystical "higher" reality floating above the physical world for Heraclitus. To him, constant flux and reality are essentially the same thing. Since everything is in a state of perpetual motion, the idea of a fixed "substance" just doesn't hold up. There is no static object or unchanging being; there is only the river of eternal becoming, which serves as the ultimate unity of all opposites.

The Logos isn't something we carry inside us—rather, we exist within the Logos. This entire world we perceive? It's the only real thing there is. As Heraclitus used to say, "All is one."

Donna Campbell6 said:That priest's statement is just plain bullshit... because it implies the girl somehow "chose" death. I mean... the poor thing was murdered in cold blood, and that's the only truth here.
Everything else is just a product of that half-crazy American obsession with turning every single tragedy and horror into some grand epic poem.🙄
It also feels like they're trying to force a comparison to those firefighters who are constantly being labeled "heroes" or "martyrs" in endless press releases for whatever reason. Is that just a way to soothe the collective conscience or what? Should we be calling everyone who dies in car accidents "heroes" too? And how exactly is that supposed to help anyone...

I'm with you.👍 (And honestly, that "half-mad American urge" toward myth-making is a spot-on observation... feels very much like a classic piece of gritty Americana right in the heart of it.🙏)

Rebecca Cox2 said:Word has it that Bohr was once asked a question—following his "formulation" of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle as a complementary system (the idea that you can't simultaneously pin down a particle's position and its momentum; the more you know about one, the less you know about the other)—what he believed might serve as a complement to truth (wahrheit)?

Bohr’s response was simple: Clarity. (klarheit)

When you carry this over into the realm of philosophy, it lands right in the middle of some of the most heated debates out there (and not just among philosophers). What does this tell us about:

a) the existence of God? How much of a concept is God—is He defined by clarity, or by truth?

b) our theories regarding "Truth"? If Bohr was onto something profound with that remark, how much "truth" can actually be clear and comprehensible?

c) our fundamental understanding of the world and the laws of nature?

Alright, physicists, philosophers, psychologists, biologists, mathematicians, and everyone else! This is a multi-disciplinary topic, which is why I'm bringing it here to philosophy—the mother of all sciences...

Was Bohr referring to an unbearable kind of "clarity," much like the implications of his own quantum theory?😁

"And anyone who thinks they can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy hasn't yet understood the first thing about it.
"If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet."


Why on earth should truth even need to be "clear"?
I mean, what does that even actually signify?

I mean, honestly🙂

😕
No, look—people vent about their problems all the time, but they rarely bring this much depth, style, or sheer mental energy to the table. Everything you shared was framed around the possibility of you creating something... though, obviously, only if that’s actually what you want to do.

Besides, you didn't even dump a ton of raw data on us... what I really saw from you was this incredibly powerful, moving stream of consciousness.

Austin Hayes66 said:I honestly don't see what part of this is hard to figure out. Two opposing forces cancel out to zero.
Two identical forces also equal zero. In fact, both scenarios just result in zero. 😍👍
Both sides collapsed. Don't you people realize that? 😍🤣🤣=0

😁

briskgull27 said:Brenda Cook4, my brain is still in a bit of a fog right now, but I’ll definitely be wide awake by this evening. In the meantime, could you please consider this? Just because I have such a vivid inner world doesn't necessarily mean I have the talent to actually create something from it.
I have to admit, my energy levels are pretty low today.
What you're asking of me is honestly quite a heavy lift.
I could certainly write a book just to prove that someone dealing with schizophrenia is capable of it, but Paul Cézanne already paved the way there. Well, maybe he wasn't technically schizophrenic, but they did put him through electroshock therapy, so who knows?

😘
Let’s break this down, one piece at a time. It’s much easier to digest when you don't try to swallow the whole thing at once. Think of it like building a custom home in the suburbs—you don't just wake up with a finished kitchen; you start with the foundation, move to the framing, and eventually work your way up to the finishing touches. You have to respect the process.
Can you actually write on a forum and suddenly grab everyone's attention like that? Do you have any real ideas to pull it off? Any insights to share? Are you even interested in speaking up? And if you are—what exactly is it that you want to say?

Maybe the simplest way to look at it—which is exactly what you’ve been doing here on the forum lately—is to view it as pure communication. Think of it as sharing your own lived experience. You aren't just posting; you're offering a hand to others, shedding light on things they might have missed, or maybe even sparking a bit of inspiration. It's really just about passing along some hard-earned advice.

Imagine if, while you're sitting there typing away, you were actually just grabbing a coffee and talking to a close friend. It changes everything, doesn't it?

I'm sure you can find plenty of websites out there dedicated to publishing, grammar tools, and professional editors.😘

Maybe you should sit down and sketch out a rough outline before you dive into the actual writing. Just grab some paper and jot down a few bullet points about what you really want to get across... it helps to have a roadmap.

Karen Sanchez19 said:but since we're dividing things into an infinite number of segments: the time required to cross one of those infinitely small segments APPROACHES ZERO😉 😁

If Diogenes had just stood up and walked away,🙏 you’d see what I mean now.😁

So you're all geared up and ready to go, 👍
just waiting for the starting gun to fire.😁

922 posts
over 15,000 openings🙏

grab a keyboard
fire up Word
and let's get this book moving
between gym sessions😁 😘

Gregory Young3 said:What you're saying, Blue Bird, isn't really grounded in reality. I know you mean well, but that approach is honestly dismissive of both people living with this disorder and modern medical science.
Telling someone to "get it together" isn't helpful advice for those dealing with severe mental health challenges. As I’ve mentioned before, medication provides a necessary break from unbearable pain and a distorted perception of reality, allowing you to see things more clearly and maintain some perspective.
It's like the old saying about fixing the roof while the Sun is shining. You need clarity to make sound decisions and truly help yourself.
That’s why a combination of medication, psychotherapy, and gradually reshaping your thought patterns is the way to go.

That isn't about "getting yourself together"—it's an attempt at a deeper understanding of the root causes. Besides, Langley and that entire school of thought were among the most significant psychiatrists of the 20th century.

You always have to maintain a healthy level of skepticism. What are we supposed to do about the dark stains on psychiatric history? We're talking about a scientific community that even awarded a Nobel Prize back in the forties
in Mainz for lobotomies. By the way, as far as I know, that remains the only Nobel ever awarded in the field of psychiatry. Throughout history, lobotomies were used to "help" countless people—over 50,000 in the USA alone during the fifties, and for a while, they even thought it was a way to "correct" disobedient children in Japan.
Then there's electroshock therapy, or insulin shock therapy used to induce comas—methods that were highly praised at the time and, unfortunately, carried out on real people.