I rarely read self-help books, but I saw a story in TIME magazine about Brene Brown and decided to get one of her books. After reading some Amazon reviews, I settled on "Daring Greatly."
It's mainly about the courage to be vulnerable, to take chances even when the odds are against us, to reveal ourselves honestly without a guarantee that other people will like what they see.
Brown brings up scarcity in an introductory chapter.
Given the topics I study, I know I'm onto something when folks look away, quickly cover their faces with their hands, or respond with "ouch, "shut up," or "get out of my head." The last is normally how people respond when they hear or see the phrase: Never ___________ enough. It only takes a few seconds before people fill in the blanks with their own tapes:
-- Never good enough
-- Never perfect enough
-- Never thin enough
-- Never powerful enough
-- Never successful enough
-- Never smart enough
-- Never safe enough
-- Never extraordinary enough
...The counterapproach to living in scarcity is not about abundance. In fact, I think abundance and scarcity are two sides of the same coin. The opposite of "never enough" isn't "abundance" or "more than you could ever imagine." The opposite of scarcity is enough, or what I call Wholeheartedness.
As I explained in the Introduction, there are many tenets of Wholeheartedness, but at its very core is vulnerability and worthiness: facing uncertainty, exposure, and emotional risks, and knowing that I am enough.
Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Many holidays are rather strange -- Christmas features Santa Claus, and Easter the Easter Bunny -- but Thanksgiving projects its own strong scent of strangeness.
This morning one of the two newspapers we get, the Salem and Portland papers, had to be put in our mailbox because each of the newspapers was super-thick, being filled with a large number of advertisements for post-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" sales.
So while Thanksgiving Day itself is billed as a time to get together with friends and relatives over a tasty turkey dinner (being vegetarians, my wife and I get a meatless roast), with at least some of the talk being about what people are thankful for, the next day starts off a pre-Christmas shopping season in which buy, buy, buy and more, more more drowns out the we're thankful for what we've already got vibe of Thanksgiving.
Our consumer-driven economy is fed by more, not by enough.
Now, I'm not saying that wanting more is a bad thing. It is very much a good thing when a lack prevents someone from being able to enjoy life.
We need more food when we're frequently hungry. We need more money when we're always broke. We need more friends when we're feeling lonely. We need more purpose when life seems meaningless. We need more health care when we're sick and can't get medical treatment.
The list goes on, and on, and on of important human needs that require more to make them right. However, as Brown observes, there's also many times when we feel that something is lacking in our life -- a scarcity -- though actually it is difficult, if not impossible, to point to a genuine lack.
The lack really isn't in ourselves, but in our response to a cultural or societal expectation.
This is how, as an atheist who deconverted from religiosity after 35 years of believing that I lacked God (Eastern mystical variety), I've come to look upon religion. There are genuine human needs that religions fulfill. Yet there also are needs founded in a spurious sense of scarcity that require skepticism.
Here's some examples of what I consider to be spurious needs: requiring salvation; forgiveness of sins; protection from the Devil; having an afterlife in heaven rather than hell; feeling part of a "chosen people," being told what morality consists of; learning about the nature of reality from a holy book rather than science; having the Big Questions of Life answered by a religious authority figure rather than by ourselves.
On the positive side, and I'm basing what I say on those 35 years of mostly feel-good moments as a religious person, here's some examples of genuine needs that a religion can fulfill: feeling part of a caring community; celebrating together via rituals, ceremonies, and group meetings; opening ourselves up to the majestic mystery of existence; asking the Big Questions, even if persuasive answers are lacking.
I realize that many people are going to disagree with my take on spurious versus genuine reasons for being religious.
If someone considers that God is unquestionably an objective fact, rather than a subjective belief or unproven hypothesis, then they're going to look upon what I just said with decidedly skeptical eyes. I'm just speaking about how I see things, which is all any of us can do.
Those were the concepts of Divine Energy/ Atomic energy pervading the universe ascribed to God. But unlimited Atomic energy = Divine Energy. Fear of God >> Existence of God. Because it instills the sensitivity required to perceive Divine Energy and understand the Physics of Divine Energy. Cunning crooked atheists , Are you not searching for few Churches who use divine energy, even for electricity usage
Posted by: Vinny | November 22, 2018 at 10:39 PM
Growing spiritual wealth through the pleasures of meditation devalues worldly acquisitions and undercuts the stress we place ourselves under struggling to achieve and acquire.
Spiritual practice becomes more valuable, a bitcoin we mine without end within ourselves. And so worry evaporates.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 22, 2018 at 11:13 PM
@ Vinny - please name a church that uses divine energy for electricity.?
Posted by: Arjuna | November 23, 2018 at 09:52 AM
Sufi poetry for cronies of atheists
Rind jo mujhko samjhtey hein unhey hosh nahin
Mehkada saaz hoon mein mehkada bardosh nahin
Cronies of atheists were flying on seventh heaven. Now the same cronies are saying, tell us the name of Church which runs on divine energy. Matthew 10:16 Be shrewd as snakes, innocent as doves. I'm more shrewd than all the atheists and theirs cronies combined together. I know these atheists and their cronies don't have the intellect required to penetrate the secrets of divine energy even in next 1000 years
Posted by: Vinny | November 23, 2018 at 12:12 PM
Also to Vinny: please share any solid evidence that divine energy even exists.
Posted by: Brian Hines | November 23, 2018 at 12:22 PM
Brian, are you saying that chi or prana does not exist?
Posted by: Joe | November 23, 2018 at 12:27 PM
Joe, yes, that's what I'm saying. And I'm saying that as someone who has practiced Tai Chi assiduously for 14 years -- taking classes three times a week, which includes frequent Qi Gong sorts of exercises. Of course, Tai Chi itself is a form of Qi Gong, really, just more in motion.
My instructor believes in chi, meridian channels, and all that. I respect his beliefs, but I don't agree with them. I feel some sorts of energy while I practice Tai Chi, of course, just as I feel energy in my body all through the day. The body ingests energy; it excretes energy; it is sustained by energy. However, I'm not aware of solid evidence that any of this is immaterial or divine energy.
Often in class we talk about the supposed ability of Tai Chi or Kung Fu masters to be able to use their marital arts skills through "divine energy," either alone or combined with physical movements. Well, recently I wrote about how one Tai Chi/Kung Fu master fared against a MMA fighter, and talked more generally about Tai Chi as a martial art, which it is. See:
https://hinessight.blogs.com/hinessight/2018/11/tai-chi-actually-is-good-for-self-defense-just-not-against-mma-fighters.html
Posted by: Brian Hines | November 23, 2018 at 01:00 PM
A Year Without Food by Ray Maor , After reading this book crooked atheists will learn something in life
Posted by: Vinny | November 23, 2018 at 02:31 PM
Brian, how do explain certain phenomenon then. First instance, a Chinese man I worked with often demonstrated chi by having someone lie on the bench and then he would wave his hands down the persons mid-line a few times. Stand with your palms facing the feet of the person and you could feel the wind pouring of the person's feet.
That is just one example.
I could listen many more.
Posted by: Joe | November 23, 2018 at 05:03 PM
Joe, self-delusion comes in many forms. People want to believe in something, so their brain manufactures evidence for that belief. Don't be fooled by this sort of crap. Reality is fine just as it is. There's no need to make up fantasies. Don't you think that Qi was real, there would be solid evidence for it, not just anecdotal stories? I've heard plenty of such stories in my 14 years of Tai Chi practice. I believe none of them.
Posted by: Brian Hines | November 23, 2018 at 05:52 PM
Joe, I'm afraid the world of martial arts abounds in bullshit, quite as much as the world of religion and spirituality.
Here's a website I'd come across a year or two back -- rather poetically called bullshido -- that's apparently dedicated to debunking extravagant claims by martial artists, including weird claims with Tai Chi and the like.
Check it out, you might enjoy it. You too, Brian -- if you haven't seen this site already.
I'd only browsed through some forum discussions there a year or two or two-and-a-half, and always meant to come back later on for a more detailed browse-through, only I somehow never did. Anyway, seems apposite to link to it at this point in the discussions here.
Here's the link: www.bullshido.net
Posted by: Appreciative Reader | November 24, 2018 at 05:18 AM
Hi Brian
You write
"... self-delusion comes in many forms. People want to believe in something, so their brain manufactures evidence for that belief."
This can be true of any belief, including a belief in no - God, or a belief that theism is harmful (both forms of Anti-Theism).
The problem of self - delusion isn't always solved by culture - bound human definitions of science (eugenics for example). Or agreement by experts (groupthink).
And there are definite warning signs. Whenever you find conclusive statements such as "This proves... That X exists!.. That X doesn't exist" be careful.
An individual must make up their own mind from their own experience and understanding.
There are things science can't explain.
And there are things that upon deeper investigation science can explain.
One day, I believe, science will bring to our western culture understanding of energies and worlds we have no knowledge of today. I believe Science may yet find a connection between individual awareness and such fields of energy and alternate, finer worlds.
Science already does so all the time. These are called "discoveries".
But until then we can do individual work to sharpen our ability to distinguish the creations of our mind, or imagination, with our perceptions and thoughts, and broaden our awareness by setting aside, as much as possible, all the things that sway objective understanding, including strong emotions and mere opinions. Then, we will certainly see things differently.
And that is one important purpose of meditation practice.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 24, 2018 at 10:27 AM
Hi Vinny
The story of the man who went a year on no food is true...
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/survive-without-eating-382-days/
He was extremely obese, and under significant physician supervision. The man initiated enthusiastically the idea of prolonging what was a short fast.
Small vitamin, potassium and other adjustments were made based on his frequent blood tests.
Fasting can be extremely healthful, but it is also extremely dangerous.
The brain itself depends upon fat, and underweight adults have a higher risk for altzheimers.
A washboard stomach might be the sign of a weakened intellect....;)
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 24, 2018 at 10:55 AM
Or not....
https://www.alzheimers.net/10-07-15-midlife-weight-connected-to-alzheimers/
Here being overweight in midlife increases the risk of earlier onset of alzheimers.
https://www.nature.com/articles/mp2015129
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 24, 2018 at 11:07 AM
Brian: "Our consumer-driven economy is fed by more, not by enough."
This is understandable when this is viewed as an attempt to mitigate the human condition. Consumerism and rampant acquisition represents, among other things, our desire to enlargen ourselves.
No amount is enough when it comes to augmenting oneself in an effort to be immunized against the eventualities of existence. This is true not just of what money can purchase, but also with money itself. It is the same dynamic that leads to the amassing of grotesque quantities of personal wealth, often (and usually) at the expense of others. Parenthetically, the rich get richer as the poor get poorer (and the middle gets squeezed out of existence) and this is exactly what we would expect to see in a zero-sum global economy.
Ironically, greediest among humanity are likely the most fearful, as greed is engendered by fear. Their "never enough" mentality of amassment is a symptom of the desire to be rid of limitation, and as such, represents unfettered denialism.
I think that scarcity is reality. But the realist also knows that no amassment of money, possessions, status, or even knowledge will insulate them against the inevitable realities of life. Therefore, they don't chase after that ever retreating mirage.
Posted by: JB | November 24, 2018 at 01:16 PM
@ Vinny - don’t ever call me a cronie !!!
I was asking you a question about name a church with divine energy - that is all!
Posted by: Arjuna | November 24, 2018 at 01:38 PM
Brian said :
"an objective fact, rather than a subjective belief or unproven hypothesis,"
What is your sincere advise 4 a seeker
Being self-irritating objective for decennia
or
Being subjectively gigantically in Love the same time
Truth seekers FIRST
Brian
Did you ever feel Love from and for Charan?
At any moment more than for your daughter ?
777
Posted by: 777 | November 24, 2018 at 03:48 PM
Brian, you are so off base it is not even funny. I'm not talking about your average every day California martial artist or new age hipster.
This is the real thing. I studied with this man and saw what he did and experienced it for myself. No delusion, hypnosis, faith or magic involved.
As I said, I could give dozens and dozens of examples.
You appear to be lost in the woods a lot of the time, mistaking your rejection of the excesses of American commercialism and religious dogma for knowledge of what you don't understand or have not experienced.
So stop deceiving people and face up to the truth about your non-experience. Or is all this just a game your playing?
Posted by: Joe | November 24, 2018 at 03:49 PM
I agree with this absurdism
After killing the Indians, ... then do this
is the same
as
Germans celebrating the Warsaw Ghetto
and everybody is free
or
Israelies the same after the Gaza Ghetto
is ausgelost
777
Posted by: 777 | November 24, 2018 at 03:53 PM
@ Joe - well said I was thinking what you wrote above.
The irony is Brain may be the lucky one. In so much as being a tool of the master but I know not how. Just a gut feeling or intuition.
He will say this is the play of the imagination but he is obsessed with Gurinder but yet the mind which has pistol whip control of him - says there is nothing supernatural,
All the best
Posted by: Arjuna | November 24, 2018 at 10:40 PM
Hi JB
Everybody knows the game is fixed...
And the ship is leaking...
"Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah, give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah, when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows
And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows"
- Leonard Cohen
Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 24, 2018 at 10:59 PM
For 10000 fake breatharians , even if there is one sun gazer/breatharian/Himalayan mystic who has gradually developed his body for these energies and is living without food it is enough to bust the lie of atheists.
Posted by: Vinny | November 24, 2018 at 11:27 PM
This thread seems to have gone nutty and nuttier.
Brian, I would like to say Thank You for having this blog and also thanks for your patience. I appreciate reading all the different points of view. It makes interesting reading and for satsangis and ex-satsangis its somewhere to express their differing opinions and it doesn't seem to get too nasty and mostly its polite and kind ;)
Cheers
Jen
Posted by: Jen | November 24, 2018 at 11:51 PM
This thread seems to have gone nutty and nuttier.
Say what... ?
Divine energy, a MMA vs Tai Chi bout, commercialism, Bullshido,
breatharians, a pistol whipping by the mind, Alzheimers, risks of
washboard stomachs. A spirited (or dispirited) exchange with all
the card carrying faithful weighing in - believers, pretenders, the
wannabe's, hard/soft atheists, hard core anti-theists. Scattered
sightings of Israelis, Gaza, Germans, Warsaw ghetto, cronies,
Himalayan masters, and even Leonard Cohen to add a beautiful
coda.
It's just another sunny day on the blog.... you gotta love it.
Posted by: Dungeness | November 25, 2018 at 02:11 AM
Dungeness:
"It's just another sunny day on the blog.... you gotta love it."
Absolutely! :--)
I always say, Brian's posts are what bring us here, but once here, it is this eclectic blend of comments of all kinds -- the exact flavor of nuttiness, just the right amount of crunchiness, neither too hard nor too crumbly -- that one enjoys just as much as the posts proper!
@Joe:
I'm not saying this applies to your particular individual experience, obviously I have no way of knowing about that specific instance, but I remember reading at that bullshido site a couple years back some accounts of how practitioners of this qi/chi stuff sometimes spectacularly "throw" matches -- not necessarily with any dishonest motive, but simply because that is the accepted form (when the master, or the opponent, lifts their hands just so, then you yourself defend yourself just so, as if you're dodging bolts of qi/chi), so that the end result is sometimes the illusion of some kind of inner "force" working its magic, when actually it is nothing but conditioning. And these comments I'd read in the forum discussions there (I suppose they are still there, with perhaps more added since then) were by actual practitioners, people who've actually done a spot of throwing (or so they recollected in retrospect).
Again, obviously this does not -- can not -- speak to your specific instance, it's just a general comment (without in any way denigrating the actual demonstrated effectivity of these disciplines as far as both fitness and self defense) about carrying the proverbial pinch of salt when looking at things magical in Tai Chi gyms and other traditional martial arts dojos.
Posted by: Appreciative Reader | November 25, 2018 at 05:50 AM
@ALL
Those, denying vehemently ( and mean it) that God, The Creator
and His Light reside in themselves
condemn themselves to
a Lightless life
ainsi soit t'il.
777
Posted by: 777 | November 25, 2018 at 07:32 AM
@Dungeness
That was really nice
I wish you a lot of SUN
Posted by: 777 | November 25, 2018 at 07:35 AM