paradigm

Every age, every generation has its built in assumptions, that the world is flat, that the world is round etc. There are hundreds of hidden assumptions, things we take for granted, that may or may not be true. Of-course in the vast majority of cases historically, these things aren__ true. So presumably, if history is any guide, much about what we take for granted about the world simply isn__ true. But we__e locked into these precepts without even knowing it. That__ a paradigm.

You and I have the decision to decide what we are going to be with our life! Or we can let the paradigm control us and march along in lockstep type fashion.

Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil---the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be.

If I were to make a list of focus for well-being, I would begin with lifestyle (the totality of one__ circumstance and how that is engaged, including job and relationships, and proximity to nature), attending to the physical functions correctly (posture, breathing, exercise, food, rest, etc.), consistent expression of your natural range of qualities, working and playing well and hard, and designing things so that you are doing what compels you. Obviously, you can__ give this list out as a prescription for physical problems and diseases, but then again, it is probably the correct prescription. If one were to follow it, any specific problem, even extreme, would almost certainly resolve itself.

The subjective experience of intense pain (__hat__ all I can take_) corresponds exactly to one__ subjective experience in relation to truth (__hat__ all I can take_).

It__ highly refined stuff__olding to one__ purpose and focus, but also intuiting the value of being a piece in a larger design and evolution. The balance between these two rhythms is where and when true harmony is achieved and magic happens. Often, just the release of the obsession for personal preferences and to personally gain opens the door.

No one will improve his health significantly without accurately perceiving priorities, knowing clearly what is at stake if those are not attended to and what is to be gained if acted on correctly. That__ the basic homework before any change can come about. Then that knowledge has to be transformed into a sustainable motivation.

If you__e ignoring a high percentage of the elements of your entire being, and the range of qualities they can naturally engage, there will be no real recovery or progress until you do. The typical relentless worker is just as lazy as the typical indulgent idler; they__e both just going through the habitual motions. To break the repetitive pattern, and discover more energy and effectiveness, one simply must stretch out in all directions, rotating focus and application of the qualities that make up one__ natural versatility.

True balance, and harmony, necessitates finding a way to override the addictive, reactive emotions that are the fabric of one__ subjective illusion, and discover emotions that correspond to actuality.

I look at the idea of rest as rotating one__ qualitative focus, not just doing less or changing activity. The role of rest is recovery. If you keep pushing the same quality button (fast or slow, concentrated or dispersed, hard-working or lazy_) for the same component all the time, of course it__ going to become depleted, just like if you keep working a single muscle in the same fashion or don__ use it at all.

The essential dynamic underlying almost every elite and esoteric physical art is work with the breath, so there__ information available. I would only add that it__ unfortunate that so much work is done with it, and not much play. Laughter has got to be the single healthiest activity one can perform. Just think how healthy you would be if you could sincerely laugh at that which now oppresses you. I__e mentioned before that one good measure of someone__ depth of spirituality is how long it takes before they become offended. Imagine laughing hysterically at the criticisms, complaints and impositions you receive. At the least, you__ be breathing well.

As I__e mentioned too often before, we are governed, and specifically our physicality is governed, by fairly strict rules, which are easily observable in nature. We have some freedom to manipulate some of these, but really not by very much. Everyone knows, or at least has the information, about the horrors of ignoring health issues and expecting your body to do what you want it to do with the least investment in it. Another __uthority_ telling you what you should do is not the answer.

The transitory and random quality of emotions (__ell, that__ just the way I feel about it_) is deeply connected to, and largely the cause of, random engagement of one__ values and priorities. This very randomness and inconsistency is actually the cause of deeper suffering, primarily through the accumulation of addictions and the indulgence in reactions that are disproportionately small in comparison to what is really being sacrificed for them. Curiously__nd a major theme in my own work over decades__he casual association of emotions to love is part of the insanity in all this.

The trick is in genuinely appreciating the elements of apparent resistance while you are engaging them. Not to oppose or remove them as much as to creatively fold them into one__ linear line of movement, exploiting them and making the necessary adjustments as you go.

Ironically, many of the institutions that run the economy, such as medicine, education, law and even psychology are largely dependent upon failing health. If you add up the amounts of money exchanged in the control, anticipation and reaction to failing health (insurance, pharmaceutical research and products, reactive or compensatory medicine, related legal issues, consultation and therapy for those who are unwilling to improve their physical health and claim or believe the problem is elsewhere, etc.), you end up with an enormous chunk. To keep that moving, we need people to be sick. Then we have the extreme social emphasis placed on the pursuit and maintenance of a lifestyle based on making money at any cost, often at the sacrifice of health, sanity and well-being.

If one follows what is in one__ heart (let__ leave out mind for the moment), one ends up with what one truly values and loves in life__nd one acts accordingly. One__ own private indulgent cyclic habitual reactive subjective transitory feelings are, hopefully, not at the head of that list.

If you, one, loves something or someone, that means that one is willing to, and does, sacrifice for it. That is, one chooses to do and give what is better to the being or thing one loves than to sacrifice the loved one for the personal emotion that is unrelated to or even hinders the giving. In other words, the way to transform an emotion is with a deeper one. This involves discernment and, yes, discipline, which are both frowned upon and seen as emotionless and less important. Which is immaturity, plain and simple, and is the fundamental aspect of human growth from child to adolescence to adult.

A balanced diet_ is not so much about protein/fat/carbohydrate ratios. The real ratios to consider, at least for the typical American or European, are energy consumption/expenditure, pleasure/actual need, food/everything else.