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On The Subject Of The Impending Energy Crisis.


Matt Vandart

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Ben I have to say I relate to most of this but I would never put it under a name as Buddhism etc. I rarely get attached to anything, bar family and my gf. Everything else is just a material that is used to get on with my life. I guess what I am saying is I expect a lot of people out there can relate to a lot of the views of Buddhism and other religious streams but don't actually care or wish to know what this is. I would call myself a realist. I take everything with a bucket of salt and I know within my life what matters to keep me happy and that truly is only the two things I stated in my first sentence. Money, motivation etc etc is all a "nice to have" or "wish to have" but f**k it.. If I had neither I'm still breathing and I still have what I hold closest.

(Y)

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Ben I have to say I relate to most of this but I would never put it under a name as Buddhism etc. I rarely get attached to anything, bar family and my gf. Everything else is just a material that is used to get on with my life. I guess what I am saying is I expect a lot of people out there can relate to a lot of the views of Buddhism and other religious streams but don't actually care or wish to know what this is. I would call myself a realist. I take everything with a bucket of salt and I know within my life what matters to keep me happy and that truly is only the two things I stated in my first sentence. Money, motivation etc etc is all a "nice to have" or "wish to have" but f**k it.. If I had neither I'm still breathing and I still have what I hold closest.

I appreciate what you're saying and despite the fact I subscribe to a lot of Buddhism I don't really feel the need to call myself a Buddhist or structure my life exactly according to what it teaches; so I relate to what you're saying in a sense. Although one day I expect I will probably join a Buddhist monastry and devote the rest of my life to meditation and the Buddhist path. Even Buddhism says that what it refers to isn't Buddhism so you don't actually need Buddhism. Buddhism in that sense never feels the need to gain members. In fact it's essential to not get hung up on the Buddhist system otherwise you'll miss the reality that it's pointing to. The analogy goes that Buddhism is the finger that points to the moon (enlightenment or end of suffering) and if we get too into the sytem we can end up mistaking (as enlightenment) the finger for the moon.

However, what Buddhism will claim is that this problem of attachment, non-acceptance, delusion, etc. is very deeply rooted within us (attachment can be to status, sense of self, etc. which can be subtle) and although we may believe ourselves to be aware and living in accord with this way of thinking but actually we probably are only to a superficial degree. The process of breaking down the delusion is extremely difficult and requires a great deal of hardwork with meditation, mindfulness, etc. This is evidenced if we accept that there are levels of happiness, serenity, boundless love, etc. that Buddhists claim 'infinitely' exceed what almost everyone who calls themselves happy are experiencing. Buddhism is worth a look if you're interested in depth, with regard to being a happier, saner, more selfless person, etc. perhaps in an ultimate sense.

Something else Buddhism or mysticism in general often says is that people who do have consistently happier lives within the common way of approaching the world probably won't turn to Buddhism. The attraction to Buddhism usually follows from the right blend of happiness and suffering. Suffering, to a certain degree, tends to make us much more refective and in a style that makes Buddhism appealing.

As My Granger said to me on msn yesterday, this does have a kind of idealism to it (nowt wrong with that) but it's actually what we need to survive. If everyone could be content from having their awareness on the mystery of existence, boundless loving, etc. then we wouldn't, at worst, have as much of a problem with energy. As it stands, we narrow the direction of our interest toward having this (car maybe), achieving that (status maybe) and only loving those who come under the label of family or close friend, or girlfriend, etc. Logically it's obviously a loss for us all. The more interest and love you have the better you feel.

It's really frustrating writing stuff at the moment. My head is really fuzzy so I hope that I'm still communicating something half decent here.

Edited by Ben Rowlands
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Why stop at hamsters? Little wheels for shrews, big ass wheels for elephants and some with high quality bearings for cheetahs...

you may be onto something, you know the whole idea of dangling a carrot in front of a donkeys nose, im thinking we set the wheels up in chains of 3 or 4, directly behind each other with transparent wheels.

so you got a smallish wheel at the front, with say with a grasshopper in it, next one back would be a shrew, so the shrew would think if it ran faster, itd get the grasshopper, then lets say a snake, thinking if it runs quicker, itll get the shrew, then behind that a mountain lion. but this has the added bonus, of if they were to look back theyd think the predator behind them was chasing them, and run faster still.

a similar one could be set up, with like door mouse, cat, dog, korean man.

then just to give everyone a major boot up the arse, right at the back, honey badger.

regarding the energy crisis,Im about as green as i can be, i think, i drive a diesel car, i dont make unneccesary journeys, (im not saying i need to go shopping to the town 15 miles away on saturday, but i dont just go for drives, or drive 200 metres),i dont leave lights on, i dont use the heating hardly at all.

sure i could not turn anything on in the house, not use my cooker at all, and start jogging 35 miles a day to and from work, but realistically that isnt going to happen, about the only thing i do, is take plenty of holidays that involve flying, which I realise isnt exactly environmentally friendly, however I dont charter a private flight, and every flight would still occur if i didnt go on it, I know everyone thinking that way means nothing will change, but i dont think its an individual that needs to make the change, big companies and governments do.

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For those that say "Other people use more energy than me so what difference does it make me cutting back? well this is a massively defeatist attitude and a lame justification. There's no downside in doing your bit so why not? It doesn't cost you anything to switch things off when they're not being used or trying to do things more efficiently.

On another note it was nice to read a thread where (some) the contributors are writing concise, intellectual and well thought out replies, such a refreshing change for this forum.

Edited by ellingtj
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you may be onto something, you know the whole idea of dangling a carrot in front of a donkeys nose, im thinking we set the wheels up in chains of 3 or 4, directly behind each other with transparent wheels.

so you got a smallish wheel at the front, with say with a grasshopper in it, next one back would be a shrew, so the shrew would think if it ran faster, itd get the grasshopper, then lets say a snake, thinking if it runs quicker, itll get the shrew, then behind that a mountain lion. but this has the added bonus, of if they were to look back theyd think the predator behind them was chasing them, and run faster still.

a similar one could be set up, with like door mouse, cat, dog, korean man.

then just to give everyone a major boot up the arse, right at the back, honey badger.

regarding the energy crisis,Im about as green as i can be, i think, i drive a diesel car, i dont make unneccesary journeys, (im not saying i need to go shopping to the town 15 miles away on saturday, but i dont just go for drives, or drive 200 metres),i dont leave lights on, i dont use the heating hardly at all.

sure i could not turn anything on in the house, not use my cooker at all, and start jogging 35 miles a day to and from work, but realistically that isnt going to happen, about the only thing i do, is take plenty of holidays that involve flying, which I realise isnt exactly environmentally friendly, however I dont charter a private flight, and every flight would still occur if i didnt go on it, I know everyone thinking that way means nothing will change, but i dont think its an individual that needs to make the change, big companies and governments do.

Keep it up dude and thanks.

Gents, we will go down in history as the men who solved the energy crisis forever.

...and we all know women love to go down on men who go down in history (Y)

Hahahahahahhahahahahahaha!

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so on a completely different view of 'energy crisis'... Fukushima nuclear plant set to blow?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219

I don't claim to be an expert, but that sounds like a pretty massive situation they've got going on there. I guess when you're planning to make somethign safe, you don't really account for a wave wiping out half your country. It's truly incredible that a load of water can destroy so much, so quickly.

I'm not religious at all, but if there is a God up there, we must have really pissed him off. Otherwise it's just nature being extremely cruel.

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They would have taken it into consideration in their risk matrix during the analysis but unfortunately the chances of it happening the risk was probably seen as too low.

Ironically the Japanese are pretty anti nuclear power on the whole, but they have to import all they oil/gas/coal so they were effectively forced into the situation, it is very sad.

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I don't claim to be an expert, but that sounds like a pretty massive situation they've got going on there. I guess when you're planning to make somethign safe, you don't really account for a wave wiping out half your country. It's truly incredible that a load of water can destroy so much, so quickly.

I'm not religious at all, but if there is a God up there, we must have really pissed him off. Otherwise it's just nature being extremely cruel.

It's only a matter of time before a natural disaster wipes out everything. There is no God. Accept it and enjoy your life.

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I'm not religious at all, but if there is a God up there, we must have really pissed him off. Otherwise it's just nature being extremely cruel.

If there is a God, he's one cruel, sadistic f**k who doesn't deserve to be worshipped that's for sure!

God is a mean kid sitting on an anthill with a magnifying glass.
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For the record, I'm definitely not religious in the slightest, and stuff like this just adds to my anti-God list.

I think if there was a God it's wrong to assume he's there to look after us - if I could make a world I'd probably get bored and f**k around with it too lol.

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