mike..yes indeed.. all drugs can be administered by the doctor... legalise the lot...and the crime rate drops...merle
Merle, Yes, but government prohibitions against drug use has never worked and, in fact, usually exacerbates such problems. That's why education and personal responsibility are better strategies than punitive sanctions (for personal users, at least). On a more relevant note (for this forum), it's not the substances themselves that are the problem, but the cravings that drive us to use them. We can't destroy most of them and there would be no point in doing so as other substances would soon replace them anyway. We need to look within to understand why we have addictions and suffer. And what better way to do that than begin to sit in meditation and experience the process of consciousness-perception-sensation-reaction (craving/aversion). This will not be seen into merely by intellectualisation, but must be experienced at the most subtle of levels. Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]>; To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; Subject: Re: addictions Sent: Wed, Feb 27, 2013 7:08:00 AM mike ....many people are their own worst enemy..no self discipline or self control..and hence they cause harm to themselves!..merle Merle, Well, not nicotine anyway.. ; ) But you're correct. People should have the freedom to put into their body what they like as long as it doesn't cause harm to anyone else. People need to come to the realisation of what is harmful to them by themselves thru education and experience - not thru coercion. Recovery is more valid that way. Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]>; To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; Subject: Re: addictions Sent: Tue, Feb 26, 2013 11:34:25 AM mike: are you that someone?... if you like smoking go for it...it's between you and your lungs!..merle Merle, You mentioned that someone didn't have the will-power to quit smoking. How do you know he, or anyone else for that matter, wanted to quit? Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]>; To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; Subject: addictions Sent: Tue, Feb 26, 2013 5:39:22 AM mike your point being?...merle Merle, Not all people who smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, or eat chocolate want to quit! Mike Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]>; To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: Dogen, Mystical Realist Sent: Mon, Feb 25, 2013 10:24:10 PM hey joe..he smoked them..the cigarettes because he was addicted to nicotine and did not have the will power to give them up!... merle Salik, Salik very kindly wrote: "A real madman of devotion, love and gratitude." I love it! Sounds like a fine fellow. I think I might know this (that!) Salik!, Salik! I think he was/is? a close associate of Shahabuddhin Lesh. A tallish skinny fellow, eyes a little sunken, yellowish short hair (in 1973-74-75) and who smoked cigarettes, even inside the Cathedral!, where it was Verboten, on our Sufi Dancing nights. He said he smoked them "in order to keep from becoming too pure". Maybe it's the same principle as practiced in the construction of Islamic Mosque tile-mosaics, in which an obvious "mistake" is always committed intentionally so as not to offend Allah, and left in full view. It was Salik who often did the Call to Prayer once we were all assembled there on Wednesday evenings after we had moved HUNDREDS of wood chairs out of the 100-foot space under the dome arching over the cathedral's "Crossing", where the Transcept intersects the Nave-Apse axis of the building. That Crossing is the largest of ANY Cathedral's in the world: 100 x 100 ft. A record. And Saint John's is also the largest Cathedral in the world (Saint Peter's in Rome is a larger building, but it is *not* a Cathedral: it is a "Basilica"). Salik would put his open hands behind the ears and solemnly project the Call up into the rafters, bringing in some *really* sharp and arresting tones: Wow! It was always a privilege to hear him and see him do this, belting out the sounds up into the stone "rafters" there inside the Christian cathedral. You know the acoustics in that place: just amazing! Very lively. And Salik never let the echo come back and step-on a new syllable: he had the timing DOWN. Definitely a musician. He played the drum during our dancing, and was a natural at it. An amazing guy. I'm so glad you're at ZCLA. I know you'll have great practice there. I wish you very, very strong practice. Many great Sesshin, and powerful ones. May they open up for everybody there the full flower of our original face. Many blessings, and as my Ch'an Shih-fu used to say, "Don't be in a hurry!" And, "just fall right in line with how they practice, there". --Joe PS I'm sorry to sound so ignorant of Gurdjief's ways, earlier, but I am! But I really don't need to express uninformed opinions as I did. Toward the One! That's for sure, --J. > "salik888" wrote: > > Dear Joe > > I spent some time with a friend and fellow Shaykh in the Halvati Jerrahi > Tariqa, Shaykh Salik Schwartz. A real madman of devotion, love and gratitude. > He knew Lex Hixon well, was with Shaykh Muzzafer Effendi for years. > > I just missed meeting Sensei Bernie by a couple of weeks at the Zen Center of > Los Angeles, of which I have just joined. I have been at the Gurdjieff > Foundation studying for about 5 years. Sensei Bernie was here and apparently > there was quite a bit of talk about the new book, The Dude and the Zen > Master. > > I am back to sit with a Sangah, although I have been sitting and working with > the Gurdjieff Foundation, studying the ideas and text of Gurdjieff's All and > Everything. > > But, always "sitting." Even during my sitting with Gurdjieff Foundation I sit > zazen. (sitting is different in Gurdjieff Tradition, more Taoist) >
