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Buddhism & CFS

Dr. Yes

Shame on You
Messages
868
Hey Jody and DB

What's all this about Jody and llamas??

Man, this thread gets weirder every day. :p
 

Jody

Senior Member
Messages
4,636
Location
Canada
Dr. Yes,

LOL

Dreambirdie has been encouraging me to go back to an old dream of keeping llamas for their hair to make sweaters from.

She even gave me a song about llamas. Did you listen to it? :D
 

Dr. Yes

Shame on You
Messages
868
Well, NOW I did..

DB:
roflol---Isn't it hilarious! It's like being on speed for a couple minutes.

A COUPLE MINUTES??

On my computer it just kept repeating... I didn't realize that until it had already caused brain damage... Then I tried to close it and it closed BUT THE SONG KEPT GOING and I closed Firefox and it KEPT GOING and then I got really worried but it finally died ten seconds later...

So thank you both very much.
:eek: <---(llama trauma)
 

MEKoan

Senior Member
Messages
2,630
hehehehe hahaha heehehehehehe

oh dear

hahahaha hehehehehe

heheehehee

oh my, DrYes,

funny!
 

MEKoan

Senior Member
Messages
2,630
Wait, Dr. Yes,

How did you know Lucie was there?

Hi Lucie,

The topic has not been Buddhism for a while except, of course, that it's all what it is all the time.

It's been very interesting.
 
Messages
50
Location
U.S. Southwest
Yes, Koan. Unfortunately I cannot read and keep up every day even in a CFS world. That's why I loved the beginning of this thread. It helped me deal with that fact.

Could you private message me if you know a forum, Yahoo group, etc. that is a peaceful non-provocative place to learn and discuss the Buddhist path.

Lucie
 

Dr. Yes

Shame on You
Messages
868
Hi Koan

Because I'm psychic

p.s I'm glad you found my suffering amusing.

Fortunately I found an antidote. :)

Dreambirdie and Jody, consider this my gift to you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTpUVAcvWfU&feature=related

Four minutes and forty two seconds guaranteed to drive "the llama song", and you, out of your minds. (You have to take it all in to get the full therapeutic value. I particularly liked one of the viewer comments.)

If you haven't seen this before, consider it my revenge. ;)

ETA Don't worry Lucie, we'll get back on topic again eventually... All things pass...Except for the "fish heads song" posted above...
 

MEKoan

Senior Member
Messages
2,630
Hi Lucie,

I will PM you this but will also put it here in case someone else may be interested.

http://www.stillpointmeditation.org.uk/

Welcome to Stillpoint

Online articles, information and resources on meditation and Buddhism for those with chronic illness.

Stillpoint focuses on mindfulness and meditation as spiritual practices, as well as their relationship to health and healing.

The Illness and Meditation section looks at how meditation can help with healing and, because this site arose from an ME/CFS support group, contains specific reference to problems associated with these conditions.

Meditation Help covers tools such as mantras and mindfulness, and 'healing attitudes' such as loving-kindness, while Illness as a Teacher has personal accounts of how illness has affected people's spiritual lives.

"Every time one of us truly rests, the world rests a little, so intimately connected are we with one another." Dolores Leckey

Take a look at the Stillpoint Community section where you can sign up for a e-newsletter or take part in a virtual meditation, or read reviews of tapes, CDs and books.

Reaching Buddhism is for those looking to find out more about Buddhism.

Though inspired by Buddhism, Stillpoint is a resource for people of all religious backgrounds and none.

Inside Stillpoint:

Illness & Meditation

Too ill to meditate? Meditation as an aid to healing. Problems when meditating with ME/CFS and some solutions, including some specific treatments that may make meditation easier. Relaxation advice for when meditation is too hard.
Meditation Help

Advice and tips including the cultivation of 'stimulation-free' time, mindfulness, finding the present moment and loving kindness. Section on audio help materials.
Reviews

Reviews of meditation and Buddhism books, tapes & CDs, videos and DVDs.

Illness as a Teacher
Personal accounts of how illness has affected people's spiritual lives, Buddhist teachings on sickness and general reflections on illness and spirituality.

Reaching Buddhism
Resources for the isolated and beginning Buddhist. Includes contacts, resources and libraries, correspondence and internet courses and basic Buddhist teachings.

Stillpoint Community
Our Breathing Space e-newsletter. Monday Metta virtual meditation group. Details of who currently runs Stillpoint (and how to volunteer!).

Noticeboard
Specialist projects linking illness with meditation and/or Buddhism, including a notice board. Advice on setting up a patient group. Access and support suggestions for sanghas and groups.

Latest Articles:

Ferocious Blessing
A wonoderful photo exhibition by Stillpoint member Penny, who is be
... [read more]

Meditates with Cats
(With apologies to Kevin Costner)
By Dorothy Scarth

... [read more]



It is a very welcoming and gentle community.

I hope you find it helpful!
Koan
 

gracenote

All shall be well . . .
Messages
1,537
Location
Santa Rosa, CA
labyrinth at Mercy Center

Lisette, I appreciate you sharing your story. Lessons come to us in so many interesting ways.

There is a beautiful stone labyrinth at Mercy Center in Burlingame. It is surrounded by a well kept garden and with areas set aside for St. Francis of Assisi and the Buddha. It has a beautiful rugged stone in the center. I've gotten to walk it a few times. Sometimes alone and sometimes with others. I haven't had your experience of others needing to go faster than I was wanting to walk so my experience has been different from yours.

When there were many of us from the same group, I was awed by turning corners and seeing new faces very close to me that had not been there just the second before. I would turn this way and see a lovely face and turn that way and see many more lovely faces. It was interesting because we didn't directly engage with each other but walked passed each other and still felt like we were all on the same path making the same journey and blessed to be in the same space at this one time. A luscious feeling of community.

There have been times that I walked it alone and felt the loneliness of my journey, and the disconcerting feeling of going and going and never getting anywhere as I would loop close to the center and then out to the edge but never knowing where I was in the process. It felt so much like my present life struggle that it was difficult to appreciate at first.

My life often feels like a labyrinth and I choose to enter and be present for the experience (except when I don't or can't!).

It has been good to remember that special labyrinth at Mercy Center. Just thinking about the beauty it offered me visually and soulfully has touched me again in this moment.

I also love Rachel Naomi Remen's books, though I don't remember that particular story.
 

MEKoan

Senior Member
Messages
2,630
Thank you, Gracenote, for another beautiful and vivid description of walking the labyrinth and finding what one finds there.

I haven't walked a labyrinth for a long time and don't know where there is one near me. I will have to find out. Maybe I should start a Labyrinth Group to meet on my local beach to create and walk a labyrinth on Sunday mornings!

I would also like to thank you, Gracenote, for your lovely, mindful, careful way with everything... including the spelling of labyrinth! I won't forget - thanks! Seriously, each post you write has a sense of calm about it which is, in some small part, due to the care that goes into it. I feel that you always take care.

peace to you,
koan
 

gracenote

All shall be well . . .
Messages
1,537
Location
Santa Rosa, CA
the other Buddhism and CFS thread

Yes, Koan. Unfortunately I cannot read and keep up every day even in a CFS world. That's why I loved the beginning of this thread. It helped me deal with that fact.

Could you private message me if you know a forum, Yahoo group, etc. that is a peaceful non-provocative place to learn and discuss the Buddhist path.

Lucie

Lucie, there is also another Buddhism and CFS thread over in the Mind/Body section. It's beginnings are the same as this one, but it has gone in a different direction. The latest postings have been about labyrinths. There are no llamas or fish heads there (yet).

Koan, thanks for reminding me about the still point meditation site again. I keep meaning to check it out and now I will.
 

Dr. Yes

Shame on You
Messages
868
Maybe they ought to close the other thread (so it stops confusing people) and move its new posts over here (before there are too many)?

That seems like a perfect way to get this thread back on track, and then new posters won't get lost and will be able to read all the past goodies on this one?
 

gracenote

All shall be well . . .
Messages
1,537
Location
Santa Rosa, CA
Buddhism and CFS times two

Maybe they ought to close the other thread (so it stops confusing people) and move its new posts over here (before there are too many)?

I don't know about that Dr. Yes. Can there really be too many Buddhism and CFS threads on a forum? I think it's kind of interesting to watch the two branch off and go in different directions. You get llamas and fish heads over here, labyrinths over there, here a recommendation to stillpoint meditation, there a reference to Rachel Naomi Remen's story about a young Buddhist man who helped his roommate overcome a chemical addiction.

I like having two threads. That's my vote. I'll keep reminding people about the other thread over there, or if I'm over there, about this thread over here. Over here, over there, this one, that one, there is no this or that . . . all is one . . . where am I?
 

Dr. Yes

Shame on You
Messages
868
Over here, over there, this one, that one, there is no this or that . . . all is one . . . where am I?

:D

See what I mean? I don't know how I'll navigate TWO Buddhist threads in the "fog"... But I also like the 'more the merrier' idea, gracenote (I just may sprain my brain doing it!).

. . . where am I?

I ask myself that a few times every day. :p
 

starryeyes

Senior Member
Messages
1,558
Location
Bay Area, California
You all seem so brilliantly wise and brain functioning!

This is an illusion.. :D
fresh eyes wrote: Once on a (Zen) meditation retreat I had a flash that "eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil" meant slipping out of the eternal-present-moment, just-this, only-don't-know mind, into the dualistic mind that says yes/no, right/wrong, I like this/I hate that, This is good/That is evil. Don't know if it's true (!) but it made quite an impression on me at the time.

That's brilliant fresh! I've never thought of that myself but I'm quite sure it is right. Coooooooooooooool. Boy does that ever link Judeo/Christianity with Buddhism.

ETA: I hadn't read the rest of the thread when I posted this.
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
I'm glad you found my suffering amusing.

Fortunately I found an antidote. :)

Dreambirdie and Jody, consider this my gift to you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTpUVAcvWfU&feature=related

Four minutes and forty two seconds guaranteed to drive "the llama song", and you, out of your minds.
If you haven't seen this before, consider it my revenge. ;)

ETA Don't worry Lucie, we'll get back on topic again eventually... All things pass...Except for the "fish heads song" posted above...

FISH HEAD FISH HEAD roly poly FISH HEAD..... WHAT A BLAST!

Thanks Dr Yes... for that wild and weird fish head song.

And Lucie--in case you didn't notice, we really needed a blast of humor around here.
Sometimes the most enLIGHTening thing is to just ROFLOL. As Jody-Llama has illustrated so many times.
THANKS JODY! :D

Eventually... we will return to our regular programming. Whatever that is.