Mapacho

Any medical stuff I'm interested!

No worries. I appreciate seeing people working with it from an open-minded approach, because it shows intrinsic goodness, humility and awareness. It is not easy to uncover the truth of what produces harm and harmlessness. Really, while there is a sense of self and other, how can there be harmlessness? Duality begets good and bad, and there's no getting around it. So I think that this discrimination is worth being conscious of to be sure, and that it is essential to practice its minimisation where clearly possible, but I spend very little time on it as an ideology. This is because I know when I cannot see clearly, I am liable to make mistaken conclusions and fall into the endless rumination game. To take non-discrimination in the context of food to its logical conclusions, we can either eat nothing and die, or embrace nihilism and kill whatever we see and eat it, human, animal, plant, anything. This shows me its unsatisfactoriness as a primary rational ethical framework. We either harm indiscriminately, or attempt to harm only ourselves, where it is unlikely that others wouldn't be harmed anyway. Personally I find the dharma to describe ethics in the most satisfactory way. The evolution of compassion and wisdom are what reduce harm and suffering for oneself and others. The path is one of continual purification where the end point is not something that can be seen from the current clarity, but where the progress is constantly in sight and provides invigoration to continue. A lot of relief comes from knowing that action is only necessary when we have the capacity to understand the answer, then it will come, but we can't jump ahead and have to work with what is clearly wholesome now. This generates humility, responsibility, gratitude, and a sense of goodness that reduces harm alot more than anything else I've come into contact with.

Lol those viciously voracious vegans and vegos with vindictively violent vendettas against veges! Its a great question and thanks for your gentle approach, but it is ok...why should any question be off limits?! I appreciate it actually. I won't get too into detail but I will give you a few insights into my perspective. I could go into the biology of it, but I am not familiar with plant biology, so this wouldn't be fair and thus is fairly limited in its worth, not to mention much of it is debatable. It is safe to say though that plants don't have a central nervous system, with a brain at the apex. So while there is evidence of nervous transmission, there is no core that receives pain the same way as the brain does in humans. They have complex behaviours, but not a nexus where that behaviour is decided independent of external stimuli. In the beginning I think humans are the same, relying on external stimuli to a large extent, but as we develop our "selves" this changes and becomes a web of "self" and an appearance and belief in "free will". A self forms, one that identifies with the body as self etc. I think animals are somewhere in between, noting that all vertebrates have a hindbrain and nervous structures similar to humans. (Edit: also fascinatingly, humans have the endocannabinoid system and endogenous opioids that clearly work to alleviate painful stimuli, similar to many animals. Perhaps the existence of this and forgive me if I'm wrong but the absence of this in plants indicates a different context for pain between the species?) This is enough for me to consciously doubt plants capacity to feel and suffer pain as a vertebrate does. I dont think plants sense themselves as separate from earth and animals and all phenomena like we do. I think that is the wisdom we touch on when working with teacher plants. I wont touch on factory farming or even general farming practices much, however, antibiotic resistance is a huge issue impacting humans and animals alike. The animals' physical suffering ranges alot too. Meat and dairy are huge contributors to global warming. According to recent scientific papers this is a much bigger issue than clearing land for farming. Again a complex issue. All of this pales in comparison to one thing though. My heart. I have killed plants for food, and I have killed animals for food. One made me feel deeply saddened and physically sick. One did not. In the end, I will not be dictated by rationality but the heartmind. Even if this perspective is wrong due to myopic sensory limitations of the human body and mind, it is the most reliable source of determining right and wrong. I am headed for awakening. The path has shown me that before I let go of all views, the existence of right and wrong, the existence of a separate persisting self, that first I must be as purely right or wholesome as is possible, with the heart and mind synchronously guiding me. It is my heart that tells me to eat less meat, not that meat itself is bad, but that if I can reduce the suffering of that which I know myself to suffer, even just a little, it is worthwhile. Would we feel bad about eating a lettuce or a carrot if we didn't know all this science? What about cutting a pig's throat? I see the difference, I feel the difference, and I trust this more than thinking that there is no difference. This is where I'm at. I don't expect or demand others to feel the same, but I would encourage them to sit with it. And I know its right for me, for where I am at now.

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Depends on your definition of spirituality ;) You're expressing a challenge that appears to be coming from a place self-superiority, whether you mean to or not. This speaks more a spiritual materialism than anything else, just a heads up. In saying that I respect the message you're trying to convey. Action is necessary where it is called for. For example, me loving meat yet going towards vego, trying to see the environmental impact of that and the impact on the suffering of beings. Moreso, it is most effectively transmitted through endearment, encouragement, inspiration and humility.

As far as telling him to can it, I think you did a really good thing. Such behaviour is seriously misguided and foolish with an intent clearly based on profit. That is not debatable, no matter what opinions are on what "should" be ok. I would go further to suggest that it is all our responsibility to let any sellers of such plants in a form implicating consumption in any such public space know that they are exposing all aussie collectors and healers to increased potential for backlash. Trading and selling these plants for their beauty is wisdom that all such plants would approve of, for now.

inb4 this thread gets the boot lol. I'll think on some memories.

I can second that as I degrafted several of mine of last winter's batch from peres with no leaves. Their growth was very slow ~20-30% and extra spiny compared to their tall leafy counterparts. If glochids are giving you trouble, gloves are a better option. An archers glove with nice thick leather on thumb, index and middle fingers would probably be a great solution. Otherwise a thorn-armour glove on one hand works well.

Thanks for the link! I am super keen to get into areole grafting! Here are some baby texana after a month. These were grafted at exactly 10 days post sowing. Looks like they all took! I just need some free time to do more. p.s. please excuse the 6-year-old smartphone quality. Also i just watched the vid...my "parafilm" is much tougher, in tape form, and not opaque like that. Do you have an ebay link or something to the stuff you're using? Cheers!

How old does my buddy have to be for trimming leaves?

Aw maybe, unfortunately I can't know for sure until a week or so beforehand. Fingers crossed.

Hey friendos, I'm just popping in to marvel at your sweet darlings and pop a few grafting whippersnapper questions of my own, cos I have some little lophlets about 10 days old. 1. Are there special tricks to grafting stuff less than 1 month old? I've never grafted stuff under 4 weeks. 2. I bought parafilm for the first time cos Inyan here said it's the business: Any hot tips for using it? A couple of questions I have for using parafilm on peres/trich stock; does it need to seal the scion to the stock airtight? (a) will this keep humidity? (b) therefore not require a dome? Is there a higher risk of infection being sealed into the joining area, therefore a need to use more aseptic/infection control measures? Also a general cacti question; I have a sharxx grafted to a 40cm PC stump that ballooned up over the summer. During its growth the stump tried to pup about 10 times and i meticulously admonished it, cutting off every attempt. Lately the sharxx and its stock look rather dehydrated below the top 20cm of tip growth and no matter how much water that has been thrown on it I have seen no change. I was hoping to leave it on another season but if it has stopped I'll cut it. Any ideas why it would do this? I will pop up some grafts soon!

I posted something up recently but Jordan Petersen covers addiction in a very helpful way on some of his youtube vids. The guy is a prodigy. Understanding the psychological/emotional shadow and the neurophysiology at work from his vids is really helpful to identify what is at work when the craving arises. Knowing is half the battle. He also has other points on how to approach getting through it. Ibogaine does help physiologically aswell as psychologically but isn't the be all and end all of treatment. Any short term plant medicine work will probably help but not get to the root of relapse which is the conditioned "circuits" of the reward pathway and the associated perceptual/emotional/psychological/social triggers because these can still activate for months after kicking the physical act of taking the substance. The antidote to these triggers is to identify each of them thoroughly and avoid exposure and/or routed around with conscious behaviour change until the new behaviour becomes the "normal" circuit and the old behaviour circuit weakens and the triggers fade. We know this can be enhanced by medicines. Not only do plant medicines show us the goals we need to set and find meaning which creates reward for new behaviour, plus it is shown that Aya and psilocybin do generate enhanced neuronal branching in the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with memory and learning. So, anecdotally I have a mate who has used (good) LSD initially and then later on microdosing shrooms to be very helpful along with the occasional deeper journey. l have been shown that asking the plant to "teach me how to..." or "show me how to..." do something in a simple humble and grateful way is very effective method of directing towards the desired results. Also, find meaning in ending your addiction in what way calls to you, and then align your efforts and the specific steps needed to do so, which will create their own reward circuits due to that goal resting in what you give meaning to. Jay Shetty has a good vid or two on youtube about ikigai, a method of searching for personal meaning if you're stuck for what matters to you. All the best with your process.

Tea is probably the most gentle and I've heard it hits really, really fast if its strong. i've also heard its really as simple as making tea. i know a good guy in the US who holds ceremonies I could contact but thats for aya.

Great packaging and came within expected timeframe. Thanks for your help!

Thanks! I'm glad to hear some affirmation. I don't really talk to anyone in the field yet but one day I hope to work in it on the psychotherapeutic end.

I don't know much about it but I have read Australia is unfortunately rather resistant thus far to conducting much in the way of this kind of research. It challenges the political, legal, medical, psychotherapeutic and psychopharmalogic status quo and the literature I have read notes that universities are reluctant to take up research where there is controversy from the powers that be. How mobile is she? What is the timeframe of her process? My first thought is that if she can afford and cope with travel then she could go to an ayahuasca retreat centre in peru, or perhaps there is are other clinics in other progressive countries. Hopefully someone points you to something local. Also it may be a long shot hoping for a reply but you could email Stephen Bright, co author of this review http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0004867416670520 Perhaps ask him if he knows of any current research she could apply to as a participant. He is co founder of PRISM and as they dont take emails o this sort of thing you could maybe get around it by emailing him: [email protected] If she is interested in exploring faith based advice ajahn brahm has good talks on how to handle death and cancer from a buddhist approach. Otherwise getting in touch with a faith she resonates with may help quite alot. Is she seeing a psychologist? This is also advisable. Also just being there as a friend is a powerful supportive process, if your resilience is adequate. Listening to her experience of where she is at will help and you may notice avenues that she would receive support from that she hasn't considered. Sending good thoughts for you both.

11am is good for me.

Ajahn Chah would talk about meditating by a still forest pool, and how when he was very very tranquil, absorbed in the breath, non reactive to sense noise, the animals in the forest so rare to be seen, would come to drink. If he got excited by their beautiful forms, they would notice and startle, vanishing within moments. If he maintained that tranquility, not minding if the animals come and went, they would remain and drink their fill. Sometimes incredibly rare creatures would come, the most timid of all who would wait until the other animals had tested the pool. He learned to be still enough that they would come and drink without noticing his presence, and he would allow them to come and go, knowing that if he felt any excitement they would sense it and flee. Chah said that these forest animals were like the nimittas, coming into awareness. If our awareness responds even with an "oh!", they will flee. And the beautiful most rare animals, they are the jhanas. So Chah said to sit like a still forest pool, not minding who comes to drink. The story makes clear that if we chase jhanas and make them important to our mind, we will create too much excitement and deny ourselves their presence for mroe than a few moments, so we can learn to be very still and tranquil, and then if they come they will come, we are not bothered. Brahm said this to me on my last reatreat when I told him of the bliss and light and how I loved it so much but knew it wasn't jhana and he said this: "mapacho, be happy with what you have. If this is all you get for the rest of your life, be happy with that". I took that in deep after 9 days of silence. Then he said with his voice filled with cheekiness, "...and then maybe, just maybe jhana will come" and then he laughed. It makes me laugh because it is such good advice for me at this time, and I think for many others. Its alot like when Morpheus when he says to Neo after he visits the oracle, "you were told exactly what you needed to hear". Brahm is the oracle. Long story short, don't focus on nimitta, jhana. Focus on loving kindness, stillness and equanimity, perhaps best if its in that order too.

Nah he's giving you a hand, its a really good resource for growing from seed. All sorts of teks and methods for pest control, plus the folk there are a great help to diagnose with any issues.

Sounds about right to me. The 5 senses completely cease as reference points in the 1st jhana. It'll come to me when its ready. I used to think meditation would get me there, but I've since realised that all of the other factors are crucial to its emergence. I now focus on becoming an embodiment of sila. Virtue is the seed of shamatha.

If your meditation is getting unstable in the deep end it is truly because you don't have enough focus on metta, loving kindness. This counts in actions, thoughts and speech off the mat, as well as specific meditation or mantra focus. Attention makes the mind very strong and clear. Loving kindness does multiple things but one is that it inclines it in the right direction. Deep insight without the power of loving kindness can bring about intensely disassociative experiences. People with too much of the former with not enough of the latter often get this "unstable" experience and sometimes even develop temporary or recurring psychosis due to their response to practice; a kind of egoic rebound stress. Long story short, metta is crucial for stability and safety in strong practice, especially outside of a monastic environment. Even in monasteries the Buddha referred to it as a rapid path to jhana/samadhi. It is invaluable to develop a powerful metta practice. It can get to the point that you can feel powerful visceral loving sensations in the body towards others, even complete strangers. It keeps things safe! As for shamanism, I like stephen harold buhner's approach to plant relationships. He has some great books. And your future aspirations, who knows, it is possible. Make all the merit you can. Figure out how to turn obligation into devotion. Plenty of advice here, possibly unsolicited, just offering

Hmm I'll check out the pine bark, thanks!

Tangential but I wonder if there is wisdom here on this subject: I've been considering nicotine as an alternative ADHD medication, to replace the role of caffeine in my current needs. Thoughts?

Thanks very much! Any tip on perceiving the vascular bundle behind the areole? How hard is it to line that up? Also infection control? What do you do?