gdp's Comments

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Judith Hanson Lasater Slams Yoga Journal for "Sexy Ads." ~ via it's all yoga, baby

Sun, 8 Aug 2010 02:56:40 +0000

This is so interesting: "She is completely NAKED , not in a loin cloth or leo or little shorts and a sports bar , just NAKED ! For no other reason..." Once upon a time, we wore clothes for a reason. Now we need a reason to take them off.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:48:28 +0000

Lovely.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:13:35 +0000

How shall we come to some consensual agreement? By evaluating evidence?

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:28:57 +0000

Exclusionary doesn't mean questioning and rejecting. Something that has been questioned and rejected has not been excluded. And exploratory doesn't mean accepting. Can you think of any ways of approaching a text that are acceptable to you other than questioning and rejecting aspects of it?

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:03:31 +0000

At no point have I ever suggested accepting claims without question. By using the open/ fill metaphor, I'm talking about fostering an exploratory rather than exclusionary approach to the text. And the text is not made up exclusively of claims. On what basis do you say that I accept the text without question? What's your credible basis for that claim?

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:20:48 +0000

I understand better now. I grew up knowing of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, but I didn't discover the Yoga Sutra until I was deeply involved in a yoga practice, so in my experience it seems much more obscure. But I see now that you mean within the yoga community. And yes, the concision would make for a different kind of discussion.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:49:19 +0000

Yes, I have no quibble whatsoever with disagreement. What I mean by polemics is that the Gita merely serves as a stage for an argument about other topics, in which people hold fast to one pole or another of a polarizing view. People arrive with a view, argue about it, and then depart with the same view. In such a discussion, the Gita may have inspired the argument, but that's not the same as letting the Gita teach us. What interests me is listening to what this ancient text has to say, not so much listening to other 21st Century Americans lecture on or debate 21st Century ideas of science or religion. Those debates may be interesting in their own way, but they're also available everywhere.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:55:27 +0000

YogiOne, if I may ask, what did you learn in those polemical debates that caused you to revise your thinking?

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:54:35 +0000

Bob, what do you mean when you sayt that the Yoga Sutras are overexposed relative to the other two texts?

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #15: Nearing the Conclusion of Gita Talk / How are We Doing?

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:42:31 +0000

Well done! Satchidananda or Ravi Ravindra (which I just discovered and have been very pleased with). I would love to read your treatise, though...

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #12: Does the Infinitely Wondrous Universe Give a Damn About You and Me?

Mon, 5 Jul 2010 16:44:29 +0000

Yes, Bob, your reading seems quite strong. In The Stranger, by Albert Camus, humanity turns its back on the protaganist, leaving him utterly unloved... "and gazing up at the sky with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe."

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Three Things You and I are Doing to create the Oil Spill.

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:50:47 +0000

I think we can and should boycott bp regardless of who owns the stations. And in addition to boycotting their stations and all other gas stations, we should boycott plastic bottles, plastic bags, and here's a few more ways: http://sn.im/boycottbp

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #10: Pretend We're All Just Sitting Around In My Living Room Together

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:23:12 +0000

It does. It's like reading a book, or writing one, about the limitations of language.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #10: Pretend We're All Just Sitting Around In My Living Room Together

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:51:11 +0000

This is a wonderful, illuminating reply DurgaDasji. Thank you.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #10: Pretend We're All Just Sitting Around In My Living Room Together

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:42:28 +0000

Elise, Roger Nelson isn't the only one (and thank you for the link to him). Most physicists working in Unified Field Theory believe in a universal consciousness that individuals tap into.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #10: Pretend We're All Just Sitting Around In My Living Room Together

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:52:59 +0000

Yes and no one said we shouldn't have confidence in the areas that are well understood. You can even extend that confidence to areas that are not well understood if you like. Just don't expect everyone to join you.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #10: Pretend We're All Just Sitting Around In My Living Room Together

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:30:27 +0000

Really, we don't have an area or distributed network within the brain that receives sensory input?

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #10: Pretend We're All Just Sitting Around In My Living Room Together

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:28:28 +0000

Right on, and the best we have are some competing theories of how consciousness operates and why it's so complex. I know of some scientists--and these guys are the hard core materialists--who don't think consciousness is produced in the brain and nervous system. They think the brain receives it, like a radio receives radio waves, as the senses interact with the material world.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #10: Pretend We're All Just Sitting Around In My Living Room Together

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:26:18 +0000

It is likewise absurd to insist something doesn't exist just because you lack the proof for it. What if you have no access to spaghetti? Will you insist spaghetti doesn't exist? In any case, the purpose of religion is to speak of the mysterious, the unprovable.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Gita Talk #10: Pretend We're All Just Sitting Around In My Living Room Together

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:18:42 +0000

Yes, DurgaDas! Thank you.