livescience posted a study this week showing that some promiscuity is the result of warmth or an expression of warmth, instead of pleasure seeking and relationship avoidance. they wrote:
While sleeping with multiple partners certainly carries with it certain health risks, “it could be that someone’s not doing it to achieve the most pleasure. Someone actually might be doing it as an expression of their warmth to other people,” he told LiveScience. “A warm person might hug lots of people; a warm person might kiss lots of people. Well, maybe a warm person might sleep with lots of people.”
i don’t particularly see “warmth” as the motivator in this nelly video, but you be the judge:
it looks like recent brain research is finding altruism is hard wired, and lights up the parts of the pleasure centers also activated by food and sex. The washington post summarized how surprising this is by writing, “Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable.”
tibetan monks learn a form of debate, where one takes a particular view or position and a challenger tests the soundness of their logic. tibetan buddhism is quite logical for a spiritual tradition. also found on youtube today a good english example of the debate format, here lorien provides arguments for the difference between color and red and she takes both sides of the argument. a very nice window into how it works. thanks lorien!
but if you’d like a less than pious take on it, check out this ‘loosely’ translated version of tibetan monks debating in india:
found this short talk by ponlop rinpoche on youtube, about dualism (subject/object separation) and how that relates to the difference between conditional joy and unconditional joy and happiness in the tibetan buddhist tradition; and he uses fashion and computers as his examples.
i found it interesting to watch him while he discussed this, since it’s said that he is a person who has stabilized the ability to rest and even teach while dropping attachment to a subject/object dualistic point of view. he looks quite joyful!
and i hear he is quite the computer person, he hacks his own web sites. hence, his first hand experience of a computer being obsolete as suffering. rinpoche if you read this: hello!
i get multiple 419 scams each day, but today was a first. they appealed to my gentle, buddhist sensibilities!
And Recently, My Doctor told me that I would not last for the next six months due to my cancer problem (cancer of the lever and stroke). Presently this money is still in the Bank.Having known my condition I am in need of a HONEST Hearted Individual buddhist that will use this funds and build a foundation for our children and lean more about the spiritaul teachings of Buddhist.
ooo, you tricky scammers. almost got me that time…
i’m surprised to see such a public back and forth. i guess it’s not uncommon with other controversial spiritual groups. i’m surprised i haven’t heard of the group before, since i life in san francisco, and some of the controversy is about sex. hell, there’s a buddhist oriented sex cult just a block down from my office. but this is the first i’ve heard of them.
the cons, allege that the group is a cult, that it promoted sexual relations with one’s own children and with outsiders for recruitment, and that sexuality with children must be alright if it’s provided by god. that seems to me to be the most controversial claim. the liturgical basis of the group also appears to be direct prophesy and channelling through their leaders of jesus’ word and they quote jesus directly on topics like 9/11 where he says among other things, “I wish to humble this proud people, to bring them to their knees and to jolt them to their senses as well.” (Attack on America, 2001, par. 167). the most recent news centers around ricky, an adopted son of the founder, who killed a church leader in a murder suicide in january 2005 who had allegedly abused him since infancy. the disturbing and hard to follow suicide-note video he made the day before is available too.
designer fiona carswell is interested in clothing that relates to and reflects health, and she’s designed a jacket for smokers which has external lungs that blacken as you smoke, as well as a bakini which gets moles the more you’re exposed to sunlight.
a very interesting design direction, demonstrating the interdependence of action and result but quite explicitly and visually.
greg just posted an extended trailer for the documentary he’s editing, about the 16th karmapa. i never met karmapa, but i’ve seen him on video from the 1970’s and it was impressive. his mind definitely was different, something distinctly different about the way he would relate and interact.
perhaps he was a modern day buddha. as are possibly many people in this documentary! besides those named with subtitles, i also recognized trungpa rinpoche, khandro rinpoche, dzongsar khyentse rinpoche, and ponlop rinpoche; all have had claims that they are enlightened, all identified as small children as reincarnations of previously revered teachers and trained from youth.
i was lucky and attended one of greg’s interviews with dzongsar khyentse, during rinpoche’s teaching on madhyamaka a year ago. it’s crazy just being in the room with these teachers. what khandro rinpoche describes, your hair standing on end and you leaving completely shaky after just three to five minutes, is just touching on it. there’s something non-conceptual going on, something i can’t really describe. and it’s not just one teacher in particular, there’s something that meditation does to people after awhile where they radiate into the whole room. and it’s not all love and light, it’s incredibly unnerving. like you’re totally naked. and there’s nowhere to hide whatsoever. but so powerful, just being there shows you so much about your thought patterns and your agenda and your personal trips. so there’s compassion in the radiation, but it’s not particularly sweet compassion. very scary sometimes.
perhaps this post makes me sound like some 1970’s guru worshiping devotee, with flowers and scented water. that’s definitely not me. i’m the last person to follow around a guru and donate all my money so they can have another freakin rolls royce. but i have to confess there is something very unusual about the experience of being with these teachers. and it’s not about them particularly. i’ll attempt an explanation. it’s like we’re used to getting some sort of feedback from our gestures, our emotions, from what’s on our mind. most people play along and relate, whether they agree or disagree with our story line. but being with these people you get nothing back, complete space. it’s not what we expect, and suddenly our normal patterns are pointed out to us in the midst of that unusual space. all they do is see what our trip is, and in doing so we find ourself being forced to look at it as if in a mirror. so it’s our trip, but then who wants to look at their own selfish trip like that. it sucks. but it can be very helpful.
a couple weeks ago danah asked how people were using twitter. after my short initial experience here are my thoughts:
1. Why do you use Twitter? What do you like/dislike about it?
as a lightweight way to see what friend’s days are like, and what’s going on in their lives, and to offer the same.
2. Who do you think is reading your Tweets? Is this the audience you want? Why/why not? Tell me anything you think of relating to the audience for your Tweets.
friends who are also interested in this new medium since it’s new; they’re experimenting with it. from my experience, however, i’d actually like friends who i am closer to using this kind of communication. since it’s more intimate, a window into smaller aspects of their day, which i’m mostly interested in for my closest friends. but they’re not using twitter yet for the most part. it has been wonderful to get a greater sense of how my extended friends’ lives are like, the folks who are using twitter so far.
3. How do you read others’ Tweets? Do you read all of them? Who do you read/not read and why? Do you know them all?
On my phone, and I read all of them. Except for one friend, who is posting so frequently that I had to turn them off on my phone. But I think he was just using it that way briefly for a conference. I’ll add him back after that. I do know them all.
4. What content do you think is appropriate for a Tweet? What is inappropriate? Have you ever found yourself wanting to Tweet and then deciding against it? Why?
For me it’s as much about frequency of writing as it is about content. If I haven’t heard from someone in awhile via twitter, even an inane tweet like “going to the gym finally” is a meaningful way that i can touch in with their life and their emotional state. but if they’ve just sent seven twitters to my phone of this sort then i’m way beyond connecting with their day and rapidly getting bored with their one sided conversation. so it’s something about frequency, wanting to have an emotional connection, and what kind of tweets create that connection. one tweet i loved recently was a friend who woke up to the sound of rain on their skylight, and i could really picture her in that situation and the experience. that tweet was wonderful to receive. but it’s fine if they’re not all things i particularly enjoy. but something that shares some intimacy, what’s going on in their life that’s meaningful, seems to be what i enjoy more. So what’s inappropriate for me is a high frequency of tweets that don’t measure well on that scale. Or just a high frequency in general. Similarly, I find myself sometimes wanting to tweet and then holding off because I’ve already sent a couple in a day and feel i should only send something particularly interesting.
5. Are your Tweets public? Why/why not? How do you feel about people you don’t know coming across them? What about people you do know?
Yes they’re public, because I keep things relatively clean and straight forward, rather than trying to have a more intimate but constrained set of people i’m interacting with. I am somewhat worried about non-friends reading them, but therefore keep the content self censored so it’s generally consumable.
6. What do i need to know about why Twitter is/is not working for you or your friends?
It’s not working for close friends, particularly, because of low adoption among friends. but it is making me feel closer to the people i know who are using it so i feel like it is valuable; it’s creating value for me - in the form of greater connection and as little reminders to think about my friends at times i wouldn’t otherwise. i’m not sure how my friends view it, haven’t asked them yet.
monkey see, monkey do serves as a personal blog and creative outlet for