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Tell your oldboy even if the phone does start vibrating in your pocket it won't get you off like drink n smoke does, so whats the point. Economy of Damage.

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There be dragons....

 

Chase em... ALC6935_PD_HOTLP_July_388x314_5.jpg

 

ALC6935_PD_HOTLP_July_388x314_5.thumb.jpg.dba1a64e1906fb676a414b35777a6f8b.jpg

ALC6935_PD_HOTLP_July_388x314_5.thumb.jpg.dba1a64e1906fb676a414b35777a6f8b.jpg

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^LOL.    ...I do chase them, but then I ride 'em

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 When you find a big clot of dried blood in your hair on the back of your head and have no idea how it got there...

i mean, I got bent last night, but really?

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random interesting facts from today's nerding 

 

The vital role of miRNAs in gene expression is significant to addiction, specifically alcoholism.[198] Chronic alcohol abuse results in persistent changes in brain function mediated in part by alterations in gene expression.[198] miRNA global regulation of many downstream genes deems significant regarding the reorganization or synaptic connections or long term neuroadaptions involving the behavioral change from alcohol consumption to withdrawal and/or dependence.[199] Up to 35 different miRNAs have been found to be altered in the alcoholic post-mortem brain, all of which target genes that include the regulation of the cell cycle, apoptosis, cell adhesion, nervous system development and cell signaling.[198] Altered miRNA levels were found in the medial prefrontal cortex of alcohol-dependent mice, suggesting the role of miRNA in orchestrating translational imbalances and the creation of differentially expressed proteins within an area of the brain where complex cognitive behavior and decision making likely originate.[200]

 

miRNAs can be either upregulated or downregulated in response to chronic alcohol use. miR-206 expression increased in the prefrontal cortex of alcohol-dependent rats, targeting the transcription factor brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and ultimately reducing its expression. BDNF plays a critical role in the formation and maturation of new neurons and synapses, suggesting a possible implication in synapse growth/synaptic plasticity in alcohol abusers.[201] miR-155, important in regulating alcohol-induced neuroinflammation responses, was found to be upregulated, suggesting the role of microglia and inflammatory cytokines in alcohol pathophysiology.[202] Downregulation of miR-382 was found in the nucleus accumbens, a structure in the basal forebrain significant in regulating feelings of reward that power motivational habits. miR-382 is the target for the dopamine receptor D1 (DRD1), and its overexpression results in the upregulation of DRD1 and delta fosB, a transcription factor that activates a series of transcription events in the nucleus accumbens that ultimately result in addictive behaviors.[203] Alternatively, overexpressing miR-382 resulted in attenuated drinking and the inhibition of DRD1 and delta fosB upregulation in rat models of alcoholism, demonstrating the possibility of using miRNA-targeted pharmaceuticals in treatments.[203]

 

 

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 When you find a big clot of dried blood in your hair on the back of your head and have no idea how it got there...

i mean, I got bent last night, but really?

 

 

^

lone star tick.jpg

 

Or.....

 

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

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1

Everything that is taken as a self;
Everything that is taken as other:
These are simply changing forms of consciousness.

2

Pure consciousness transforms itself
Into three modes: Store consciousness,
Thought consciousness, and active consciousness.

3

The store consciousness holds the seeds of all past experience.
Within it are the forms of grasping
And the dwelling places of the unknown.
It always arises with touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.

4

The store consciousness is clear and undefinable.
Like a great river, it is always changing.
Neither pleasant nor unpleasant, when one becomes fully realized, it ceases to exist.

5

The second transformation of consciousness is called thinking consciousness.
It evolves by taking the store consciousness as object and support.
Its essential nature is to generate thoughts.

6

The thinking consciousness
Is always obscured by four defilements:
Self-regard, self-delusion, self-pride, and self-love.

7

The thinking consciousness also arises with the mental factors
Of touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.
This consciousness ceases when one becomes realized.
It also falls away when consciousness is impaired,
And when one is fully present.
8

The third transformation of consciousness
Is the active perception of sense objects.
These can be good, bad, or indifferent in character.

9

This active consciousness arises with three kinds of mental functions: Those that are universal, those that are specific, and those that are beneficial.
It is also associated with primary and secondary defilements
And the three kinds of feeling.

10

The universal factors are touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.
The specific factors are intention, resolve, memory, concentration, and knowledge.
The beneficial factors are faith, modesty, respect, distance, courage, composure, equanimity, alertness, and compassion.
11

The primary defilements are:
Passion, aggression, ignorance,
Pride, intolerance, and doubt.

12

The secondary defilements are:
Anger, hatred, jealousy,
Envy, spite, hypocrisy, deceit…

13

Dishonesty, arrogance, harmfulness,
Immodesty, lack of integrity, sluggishness,
Restlessness, lack of faith, laziness, idleness,
Forgetfulness, carelessness, and distraction.

14

Remorse, sleepiness, reasoning, and analysis
Are factors which can be either defiled or undefiled.

15

The five sense consciousnesses arise in the store consciousness
Together or separately, depending on causes and conditions,
Just like waves arise in water.

16

Thought consciousness manifests at all times,
Except for those born in the realms of beings without thought,
Those in the formless trances, and those who are unconscious.

17

These three transformations of consciousness
Are just the distinction of subject and object, self and other–
They do not really exist.
All things are nothing but forms of consciousness.

18

Since the storehouse consciousness contains all seeds,
These transformations of consciousness arise
And proceed based upon mutual influence.
On account of this, discrimination of self and other arises,

19

All actions leave traces,
And because of grasping at self and other,
Once one seed has been exhausted, another arises.

20

That which is differentiated
In terms of self and other,
Or by whatever sort of discrimination,
That is just mental projection:
It does not exist at all

21

Appearances themselves
Which arise dependently through causes and conditions
Exist, but only in a partial and dependent way.

22

Ultimately, perfect nature, the fully real, arises
When there is an absence of mental projection onto appearances.
For that reason, the fully real is neither the same nor different from appearances.
If the perfected nature is not seen, the dependent nature is not seen either.

23

Corresponding to the threefold nature,
There is a threefold absence of self-nature.
This absence of self-nature of all dharmas
Is the secret essence of the Buddha’s teachings.

24

Projections are without self-nature by definition.
Appearances too are without self-nature because they are not
self-existent.
Perfect nature is without any differentiation whatsoever.

25

The true nature of consciousness only
Is the true nature of all dharmas.
Remaining as it is at all times, it is Suchness.

26

As long as consciousness does not see
That subject-object distinctions are simply forms of consciousness
Attachment to twofold grasping will never cease

27

By merely thinking
The objects one perceives are forms of consciousness
One does not realize consciousness only

28

One realizes consciousness only
When the mind no longer seizes on any object
When there is nothing to be grasped, there is no grasping
Then one knows – everything is consciousness only.

29

That is the supreme, world-transcending knowledge
Where one has no mind that knows
And no object that is known
Abandoning twofold grasping
The storehouse consciousness is emptied

30

That alone is the pure, primordial reality
Beyond thought, auspicious, unchanging
It is the blissful body of liberation
The dharmakaya nature of the enlightened ones

 

Vasubandhu's Thirty Verses (a very accessible translation from https://wutai.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/trimsatika-thirty-verses-of-vasubandhu/)

 

So it's straight forward to apply this to external objects, but what if we turn the idea inward to our own mind?

not only our own self construction of an ego-identity but also the construction of a self-being

if we employ a recursive examination (what is it that constructs this self? what is it that constructs this construction and so on)  to the arising of self what are we left with?

 

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What we call the world of perception, far from being a mere formless mass of impressions, already includes definite fundamental and original forms of synthesis. Without this, without the synthesis of apprehension, reproduction, and recognition, we should have neither a perceiving nor a thinking ego – there would be an object neither of pure thought nor of empirical perception. At the beginning of the Critique of Pure Reason [Kant] sensation and understanding are differentiated as the two stems of human knowledge (which may, however, have sprung from a common root that is unknown to us). Here the opposition between the two, and their possible common factor, seemingly continued to be understood in a realistic sense: sensibility and understanding belong to different strata of existence, although both may have a common root in a primal stratum of being which precedes all empirical separations but which we cannot grasp or determine more closely. The analytic of the pure understanding, however, viewing the relationship from an entirely different standpoint, drastically shifts the point where sensation and understanding meet, as well as the point where they separate. For the unity between the two is no longer sought in an unknown foundation of things; rather, one might say, it is sought in the heart of knowledge itself. If this unity is at all discoverable, it must be grounded not so much in the essence of absolute being as in an original function of theoretical knowledge, and it is through this function that it must be intelligible. Kant designated this original function as the “synthetic unity of apperception”; it became the supreme point to which all uses of the understanding, even all logic and with it transcendental philosophy, must relate. And this supreme point, this focus on spiritual activity, is one and the same for all “faculties” of the spirit: hence it is the same for the understanding and for sensation. The “I think,” the expression of pure apperception, must be able to accompany all my representations: “for otherwise something would be represented in me which could not be thought; in other words, the representation would be either impossible, or at least be, in relation to me, nothing.” Here, then, a universal condition is established which applies equally to sensory and to purely intellectual representations. In transcendental apperception Kant finds a “radical faculty of all our knowledge,” to which both can equally be related and in which they are indissolubly linked. This means there cannot be any such thing as an isolated, “merely sensory” consciousness – that is, a consciousness remaining outside of any determination by the theoretical signification and preceding them as an independent datum.

 

Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Volume 3: The Phenomenology of Knowledge (Engl. Trans 1957 [1929]), p.8

 

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Genesis 3:22 - "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"

 

I thought there was only one god? "one of us" - what did they mean by this?

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V__48BA.thumb.jpg.6d5c1098892a4d6cd79bd9ace4b79627.jpg

 

 

 

This 5 chef cooked us dinner last night. Tobasco marinated boneless hot n' spicy.

 

 

 

Today the pain is akin to defecating nuclear waste, worthy of an endone.

 

 

V__48BA.thumb.jpg.6d5c1098892a4d6cd79bd9ace4b79627.jpg

V__48BA.thumb.jpg.6d5c1098892a4d6cd79bd9ace4b79627.jpg

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I had a dream the other night. I remember the whole dream quite clearly, which is unusual for me. I either only remember small bits, and then only for a short time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was laying on my back in a desert, watching a bird slowly spiralling down. As it came closer, I sat up and it landed in front of me, in between two cacti. It was a large bird of prey, an eagle I think. An incredibly large monitor lizard walked from behind me, up to the bird. The bird spread its wings and grew very large. It then leaned forward until its head was at ground level between the cacti, and opened its beak. The lizard lumbered into the bird's mouth, the bird closed its beak, folded its wings, shrank back to its original size then stood looking at me, first through one eye then the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cacti started to wilt and small wisps of smoke arose from them. As they seemed to melt, a breeze picked up blowing the smoke into my face. It smelled of the ocean. The bird's feathers started to ruffle in the breeze. The breeze suddenly became a sharp gust of wind and the bird crumbled in a puff of dust which blew into my face almost like a slap. As the dust hit me I flinched and woke up. For a moment after I woke, I could distinctly smell an odour like burnt hair.

 

 

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On 04/05/2017 at 1:50 PM, DiscoStu said:

Genesis 3:22 - "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"

 

I thought there was only one god? "one of us" - what did they mean by this?

 

The assumption is Yahweh was speaking with the court of Angels, the Bene ha Elohim (?). The immaterial ones. I'd love to know how it came to be that humankind became personal secretaries for the Almighty... (cos it didn't happen???). 

 

Speaking of which, I love how atheists throw the argument "why does God allow bad things to happen"? Choose a better argument, Atheists, there's plenty to choose from. 

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big morning finished. Im gunna go out and stare at tbm's for an hour.

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fkn skazi, fkn bullshit.

 

 

EDIT and not in a good way, just shit.

Edited by godless
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Partner went back to Sydney today for a job interview which he desperately needs. I'm stuck here in coffs for three months until I can move back into our old house unless I happen to get a magic job before then and I might stay. Sucks being apart again. Got to sell a sick car I only bought a few months ago and just put in new suspension and audio and of course the hand controls. Reiterating again the legal system rarely cares about the little people. I love coffs but the job market here blows the big veiny one. We knew it was bad but the attitudes of employers sucks. The divide between those who want to get ahead and those who want to Coast are miles apart, doesn't appear to be much middle ground. I'd still rather die here surrounded by bush than in the big smoke surrounded by brick and mortar

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My grandparents owned a 60 hectare piece of land up near there @FancyPants , they were at Bonville. When they died it was divided amongst the kids (my Dad and his brother and sisters) and they sold it off cheap. I wanted a piece of it but I wasn't factored in to the equation. Now it would be worth well over 10 million.

 

I would have rather lived up there in a tent than here in this shit hole.

 

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60 hectares at bonville? Yeah that's a mint... bummer! That's a beautiful area and where my partner and I want to buy land and build when we come back as it's the south side and closest to the hospital

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As for the six contemplations, first is the contemplation of true emptiness, returning objects to mind. This means that whatever there is in the world is only the creation of one mind; outside of mind there is not a single thing that can be apprehended. Therefore it is called returning to mind. It means that all discriminations come only from one's own mind. There has never been any environ­ ment outside the mind which could be an object of mind. Why? Because when the mind is not aroused, the environment is funda­ mentally empty. The treatise [on distinction of the mean and ex­ tremes] says, "Because they are based on consciousness only, objects have no essence and therefore the meaning of true emptiness is established; because sense data have no existence, the original con­ sciousness is unborn."

And scripture also says, "Before you realize that objects are only mind, you produce all kinds of discriminations; when you have realized that objects are only mind, discrimination does not arise. Knowing that all things are only mind, you then relinquish the characterizations of outside objects. By this you cease discriminat­ ing and awaken to universally equal true emptiness. As in the world there is a king of physicians who cures illnesses with wonderful medicines, so also do the Buddhas expound 'only mind' for the sake of beings."

By this we then know that objects are manifested by mind and mind is manifested by objects: mind does not go to object, object does not enter mind. You should exercise this contemplation-its wisdom is exceedingly deep. Therefore it is called the contempla­ tion of true emptiness, returning objects to mind. 

 

Second is the contemplation of inconceivable existence, mani­ festing the environment from the mind. That is, phenomena do not linger in noumenon; with every phenomenon there occur differ­ ences. That is to say, in the preceding approach we returned charac­ teristics back to the essence; in this approach we initiate functions based on the essence, fully cultivating myriad practices to adorn a land of reward. In the preceding approach, moreover, we returned characteristics to the essence in order to reveal the body of reality; in this approach we initiate action based on essence to cultivate and perfect the body of reward. Therefore it is called the contemplation of wonderful existence, manifesting the environment from the mind. 

 

Third is the contemplation of the mystic merging of mind and environment. Mind means mind without obstruction; all Buddhas realize this, whereby they attain the body of reality. Environment means environment without obstruction; all Buddhas realize this, whereby they achieve a pure land. This means that the Buddhas' body of reward and the pure land on which it is based merge com­ pletely without obstruction.

Sometimes the body manifests the land. As the scripture says, "In a single hair pore are infinite lands, each having four continents and four oceans and, similarly, polar and surrounding mountains, all appearing therein without being cramped."

Sometimes the land manifests the Buddha-body. As the scrip­ ture says, "Into every single atom in the Flower Treasury world the Buddha enters, producing mystic displays for all sentient beings; such is the way of Vairocana."

In this way, within this gate it is divided intofour propositions, as explained in the "Mystic Discussion" commentary.49 In this way object and subject merge without distinct boundaries. That is to say, the preceding two contemplations each set forth one side; this contemplation now merges them, communing mind with objects. Therefore it is called the contemplation of the mystic merging of mind and environment. 

 

Fourth is the contemplation of the body of knowledge reflect­ ing myriad objective conditions. This means that the essence of knowledge is only one and capable of reflecting myriad objective conditions. The characteristics of objective conditions are funda­ mentally empty; the radiance of the essence of knowledge is silent. The characterizations of all objective conditions ended, thusness as such alone subsists. This means that conditioned things all contain the nature of reality. It is like the orb of the sun shining clearly far out in space: all who have eyes see it, the blind also receive its bene­ fits, informing all of the time and season, the periods of cold and heat, and the plants and trees, all inanimate beings, all luxuriate and grow-so also is the sun of knowledge of those who realize thus­ ness. Therefore it is called the contemplation of the body of knowl­ edge reflecting myriad objective conditions. 

 

Fifth is the contemplation of the images of many bodies in one mirror-the reality-realm of noninterference among each and every phenomenon. This means that the ten bodies of Vairocana act to­ gether without interference or obstruction. The scripture says, "Sometimes with his own body he makes the body of sentient be­ ings, the body of lands, the body of rewards of action, the body of disciples, the body of self-enlightened ones, the body of enlight­ ening beings, the body of Buddhas, the body of knowledge, the body of reality, the body of space." Of these ten bodies, whichever one is brought up contains the other nine. Therefore it is called the contemplation of the reflections of many bodies entering one mirror.

Just as one body has the interchangeable function of the ten bodies, each hair pore, each physical member, each joint, all have the interchangeable function of the ten bodies. Sometimes one uses the medium of the eye to perform ear-medium Buddha work, some­ times one uses the medium of the ear to perform eye-medium Bud­ dha work-nose, tongue, body, and mind are also like this. Why? Because when you experience the sustaining empowerment of this method of great cessation and subtle contemplation, you become like this. The scripture says, "Sometimes one body is made of many bodies, sometimes many bodies are made of one body; sometimes one body enters many bodies, sometimes many bodies enter one body. It is not that one body vanishes and many bodies come into being; it is not that many bodies vanish and one body comes into being."5l It all comes from the power of profound concentration­ that is how it can be like this. Sometimes we enter concentration on the same object and emerge from different objects. Sometimes we enter concentration with one body and emerge with many bodies; sometimes we enter concentration with many bodies and emerge with one body. Therefore it is called the contemplation of the images of many bodies entering one mirror. 

 

Sixth is the contemplation of the net of Indra, where principal and satellites reflect one another. This means that with self as principal, one looks to others as satellites or companions; or else one thing or principle is taken as principal and all things or principles become satellites or companions; or one body is taken as principal and all bodies become satellites. Whatever single thing is brought up, immediately principal and satellite are equally contained, multiplying infinitely-this represents the nature of things manifesting reflections multiplied and remultiplied in all phenomena, all infi­nitely. This is also the infinite doubling and redoubling of compas­sion and wisdom. It is like when the boy Sudhana gradually travelled south from the Jeta grove until he reached the great tower of Vairocana's ornaments. For a while he concentrated, then said to Maitreya, "0 please, Great Sage, open the door of the tower and let me enter." Maitreya snapped his fingers and the door opened. When Sudhana had entered, it closed as before. He saw that inside the tower were hundreds and thousands of towers, and in front of each tower was a Maitreya Bodhisattva, and before each Maitreya Bodhisattva was a boy Sudhana, each Sudhana joining his palms before Maitreya. This represents the multiple levels of the cosmos of real­ity, like the net of Indra, principal and satellites reflecting each other. This is also the contemplation of noninterference among all phenomena. As for the six levels of contemplation set forth above, when one is brought up as the principal, the other five are the satel­ lites or companions-there is no before or after; beginning to end they are all equal. Whichever gate you enter, it completely includes the cosmos. 

 

Fa-Tsang "Cultivation of Contemplation of the Inner Meaning of the Hua-yen: The Ending of Delusion and Return to the Source"

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