Someone asked me a funny question the other day, “What do Buddhas eat?”

Now this is a funny question because Buddhas are people just like you and me who have simply awakened, and as a result the question is basically, “What do enlightened people eat?”

The answer is: “Anything they want.”

Let’s go into this a little more deeply because I’m sure you were expecting the answer to involve veganism or vegetarianism. If you are a person devoted to spiritual cultivation, what you consume depends upon your needs and the circumstances and purposes. That’s the first thing to consider. Compassion is also a major factor in choosing what to eat, but if you’re adrift on the high seas and only fish are available to keep you alive, you must choose whether you willing to die in place of the fish. It all comes down to your wisdom and your circumstances.

In the first years of Buddhism, it’s surprising to know that the Buddhist monks weren’t perfectly vegetarian but ate whatever food was offered to them unless it was meat from an animal that was specifically killed for them. If that was the case, or if they were asked to select the animal to be slaughtered, they were forbidden to eat it. In Tibet today, many Tibetan monks are also not strictly vegetarian either but eat whatever is offered. In China, however, with a history of plentiful vegetarian food because of the monastic system, the rule of vegetarianism was enforced for all monks.

But consider this: the famous meditation adept Milarepa only attained his enlightenment after ending a near starvation diet by drinking some beer and eating some meat supplied by his friends. As he found out, if you don’t eat the right food to keep up your strength, it is hard to succeed at spiritual cultivation. Even Buddha was not able to succeed in attaining enlightenment until his health, damaged by severe asceticism, was restored to normal after eating some rice gruel or porridge. I also know of a great Zen master who ate only one small vegetarian meal a day at noon and also found that it did not supply him with enough energy for his cultivation efforts, and so he started eating meat again, although in limited portions, to restore his health and cultivation efforts. It comes down to what you need in conjunction with what you think is right and proper.

And this is one of the main factors to consider – that less meat is certainly better than more, but none may not be enough, especially if you are subsisting on the wrong type of carbohydrates in a vegetarian diet. Many monks in China eat too much tofu and soybeans and as a result, pancreatic cancer and diabetes is quite prevalent due to their diets. In America many vegetarians eat far too much sugar and wheat and destroy their health in the process, too. Meat protein may be warranted, but with today’s hormone laden food, even this decision is questionable.

Then again, it’s a rule in Buddhism that if you are sick and need to eat meat to recover, it is considered a breach of discipline to refuse that medicine though you may want to keep the purity of vegetarianism in play. Once again, it comes down to what’s necessary to help one stay healthy and thus able to succeed in their cultivation. In Orthodox Judaism, a similar rule holds that if you refuse non-kosher food that’s part of the medical prescription for getting well, it is also a breach of discipline to refuse it.

So what do you eat to stay healthy and succeed in spiritual cultivation? What is the best diet for you and for people in general? No one can say with authority, although many would like to– it’s dependent upon you and your genes, your efforts, your circumstances and how you feel with the diet you choose. Many people say they feel cleaner on a vegetarian diet, and that meat weighs them down and clouds their mind, and that they are healthier as vegetarians or vegans than as meat eaters. For such sensitive people, they’ve already determined what’s best for themselves.

Then again, one thing I can mention is that many naturopaths and nutritionists have told me that when strict vegetarians get sick, in many cases it’s almost impossible to cure them if they don’t start eating some animal protein again. The famous Edgar Cayce recommended fish, then poultry, then lamb and beef in this ascending order if one were to eat meat as a source of protein. Pork is universally recognized as one of the worst meats across all traditions. And as to what vegetables are good for people, you have to first rule out if you are allergic or have a sub-clinical sensitivity to it. Just because it’s a vegetable doesn’t mean it’s good for you!

Many people are sensitive to foods but don’t know it because their vitality is strong, but as they get older and their immune system declines those foods start producing symptoms that were previously masked by robustness. So what may seem like a vegetarian “safe food” may actually be doing harm to your body. If someone gets cancer, one of the first things to do is find those food offenders through a blood test and then strictly rule them out of the diet, vegetarian or not. With today’s GMO foods, this rule is more important than ever as many people are allergic to GMO crops.

The question as to whether you should eat meat or not is really up to you from considering your circumstances and the effect that it brings. It’s a matter of balance, necessity and compassion. So what do enlightened beings eat? Whatever they choose to eat because of their vows and circumstances.

I always recommend the Tibetan 9-bottled wind practice for cultivators. It involves holding your breath for as long as possible and is an assist to cultivation in the early stages of the path.

Well the world record holder’s method for holding their breath — shown here doing so for nearly 17 minutes under water in front of Oprah — explains his method of khumbhaka to Oprah and the audience.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/10/30/how-to-hold-your-breath/

Pay attention to the fact that at the end when he cannot hold any longer, he says he practices a type of emptiness meditation.

That’s the key — letting go of both mind and body. He looks extremely healthy and well balanced, just like a martial artist, because he has somewhat opened up his channels. Practicing emptiness meditation would in all likelihood change his appearance to an even lighter complexion over time.

Here are his steps though you can read more on the blog post.

The Steps:

1:30 deep breathing
1:15 purging (if you feel like you’re going to pass out, do it less intensely)

Hold breath for target 1:30, no more
After 1:30:
Take 3 semi-purge breaths

1:30 deep breathing
1:30 purging

Hold breath for target 2:30, no more
After 2:30
Take 3 semi-purge breaths

2:00 deep breathing
1:45 purging

Hold breath for as long as possible
After exhalation:
Take 3-10 hard semi-purge breaths until your recover

I often tell people they can approach cultivation through Confucianism, which depends on the practice of vipassana, or watching the mind. This is similar to the Socratic idea of know thyself through awareness, too. Telling people to cultivate awareness is often better than telling them to cultivate meditation because in meditation they always get caught in body feelings an thoughts and never catch the real meaning of the Tao as taught by Vedanta or Buddhism.

Our awareness is always caught by the feelings of the body, and emotions. That means it’s caught by what isn’t really you, it’s caught by an illusion because an illusion is something that always changes that we think is solid and real, like a mirage.

Neither the sensations nor emotions are things you can hold on to. The body isn’t you either, and is always changing. When science investigates it, it finds smaller and smaller details such as DNA replication, cells dividing, etc. showing that it’s always changing and never staying still. This cause leads to that result — it’s all held together through massive interdependence. It’s an illusion to think it’s a fixed form, and an illusion to think it’s the real you. It’s just a function that comes along.

In one sense we can say you are spirit, or shen, or awareness, which is a function of the original nature. The original nature, which we call “void” or “empty” to denote it is not something phenomenal, is why in Taoist cultivation we say shen transforms or returns to emptiness, which is its substrate or essence or source. Christians call it God instead. Awareness is just a function of this essence, so we are ultimately this essence and cultivation is to find this essence, not be captured by what awareness notices.

Yet when awareness is captured, we think we are something we are not. If you know all is illusion and don’t hold on to it, then you can relax and not be so tight. You enjoy good feelings because you think they’re true but they are all illusions that don’t stay. The same for bad feelings — they’re illusions. Whatever comes to you in the world because of past karma, you just react to it and respond as you should, and a new illusion will arise that isn’t the original nature, just something captured/seen by awareness.

How do you change your fortune? Your karma comes because of past thoughts and behavior that result in what’s produced. If you watch your thoughts to keep your bad habits from coming out, you can change your fortune. It’s as simple as that. That’s vipassana. If you let go of attachments, in time your chi will change and awareness will return to the source, and recognizing the source you can become liberated.

This is the Confucian method of cultivation. You cultivate “awareness” to change your behavior for the better, which perfects you as a human being. It changes your fortune for the future. By letting awareness function without clinging, you also cultivate the Tao.

What could be simpler?

I’ve read many pundits and the conclusion is there’s a 50:50 chance we’ll have a double dip recession. I think it’s more like 60:40 because real jobs cannot come back. Furthermore, the housing stimulus is over.

The BP oil well will probably keep spilling for another few months simply because it happened before, and it took 8 months to fix the problem … in shallower water with the same techniques they’re trying today.

Don’t believe me? Watch this video …

I’ve often sat in my room trying to brainstorm ways to get rid of that giant floating island of plastic the size of Texas that is now floating in the Pacific. Shakyamuni Buddha often said that the world would become toxic to an extreme degree and it’s no lie that our environmental ways are poisoning the planet. The BP spill is an example, but this one represents an even larger long term danger.

Forget all this emphasis on global warming — this is the problem we should be working on. Silly me, I kept envisoning ships sweeping the ocean with nets between them to corral the waste so that it could be compacted and towed somewhere, but also knew it wouldn’t work because people would have already suggested this methodology. Finally I found something that the billionaires of the world should finance as a try:

http://www.rense.com/general90/rid.htm

Start your ideas swirling after reading about the Thermal Conversion Process perfected by a New York company, Changing World Technologies.

And speaking about saving the oceans, Kevin Costner, the actor, has funded to the tune of over $20M the development of barges that suck up oil spills in water, spin the water in a centrifuge, and separate out the oil from the water for a 99% clean discharge … a way to help clean up ocean oil spills. This is exactly the type of free thinking, far thinking, important thinking that I always urge people to do, especially the superrich looking for ways to spend their monies on charity.

This is also where I get very disappointed because the people best positioned to invest in something like this are the oil companies themselves and the billionaires of the world and both did nothing. I’ve always been trying to figure out a way to clean oil spills from the ocean and here we have an actor spending his own funds to do so, which to me is an embarassment of the mega-rich:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011925837_oilkevin22.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bp-calls-in-costners-26m-vacuum-cleaners-to-mop-up-huge-oil-spill-1979976.html

The growing disasters over the next few decades will not just be oil spills, but seed/crop disasters caused by unwise policies of Monsanto and other companies. These catastrophes are happening before our very eyes, just like the banking crisis, and when they occur it will be too late for legislation. “We didn’t know. The science said __” will be all the rage of officials trying to cover their butts. I warned you of the recession. Don’t say I didn’t wan you about this.

Only great minds can read this This is weird, but interesting!

If you can raed this, you have a sgtrane mnid too

Can you raed this? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed this forwrad it

And now for something fun and completely different to break up your day ….

And now for the real thing … listen for the lyrics that they left out when Dean Martin or Gérard Darmon sings …

I know people love Micheale Buble but Dean Martin did an excellent job with SWAY …

And when I want a little fun I like to watch this now and then … their story is inspiring:

People who meditate tend to become a little too serious. Relax and enjoy culture now and then. That’s the lesson.

A friend of mine, Dr. Jeffrey Moss, owns a nutritional supplement company and a few years ago went through hell due to tinnituis. Having access to almost any supplement and modality available, he tried many things until he came upon Dr. Natan Bauman of Hamden, CT (203-287-9915). What finally helped Jeff was Dr. Bauman’s teaching on what to do to reduce the problem and what causes it, and Jeff attributes an awfully large part of his “cure” to meditation.

In the elderly, tinnitus is often due to poor circulation, and can often be helped with anti-inflammatory, pro-circulatory supplements such as ginko biloba, vinpocetine, and nattokinase.

For individuals who have actually physically damaged their ears — such as musicians — the tinnitus is therefore caused by anatomical damage and supplements usually don’t help much in these cases. In these cases, various hearing aid devices that retrain the listening function can help.

Jeff explained that so much of tinnitus has to due  with a limbic system-inner ear connection, so any type of emotional/mental issue (that’s limbic) will magnify and prolong the problem. People will hear it less or not all because  of their minds, and the way to break the limbic connection is through meditation.

Neural biofeedback techniques can often help in this direction by redirecting brain function and chemistry, but Jeff says the best answer he’s found is meditation. Dr. Bauman, he explained, knows more about hearing than anyone he’s ever met and can help explain the nature of the problem and options available.

There’s also Kevin Hogan’s tinnitus program you might look into as well:

http://store.kevinhogan.com/tinnitusreductionprogramwithbook.aspx

The last part of the Surangama Sutra mantra is the key heart of the mantra, and the mantra people recite to help get over sexual desire:

 

e na li

pi she ti

pi la ba she la

two li

pan two pan two ni

ba she la bang ni pan

hu syin du lu yung pan

swo pe he [soha]

Most people know that writing books is not a way to make money today. Their best use today is as a virtual business card to generate leads for higher priced products, which incidentally we don’t sell.

Publishers in the spiritual field have even told me directly that the topic of meditation is at the bottom of the profitability barrel for their book businesses because as one publisher told me, “Meditators tend to be cheap so they don’t buy books.” I laughed, but it’s a true story from someone who published thousands of New Age titles for over two decades. Another publisher friend warned me away from entering the business saying you’ll never make money shipping out paperbacks one by one (he was sick of it), so the ebook solution was born (otherwise you’d never get our materials since regular publishers don’t want to touch them). We still have most all the other costs of book production except the $1.50 or so it costs to put words on paper. So don’t think that just because something is an ebook it cost less to produce it or that it should be free… if that’s the case the other books you buy should all cost about $1.5 as well.  Anyway, we do what we can here to help provide you with superior materials and try to cover our costs to make it all possible.

An individual who recently came into some money, knowing all this and the great value of genuine meditation materials (since you can’t find them out there today), asked to purchase from us 100 copies of Measuring Meditation to be given away to the first 100 people who requested them. Delighted at his request (we disuaded him and made him think about it several times before agreeing), we threw in The White Skeleton Visualization Method to boot.

Because of his generosity, if you are one of the first 100 people responding you can download these books for FREE right now. Yep, a $100 value for free. These are the very same books you buy on the site for green cash. So act quickly because the links won’t work after 100 people download these materials.

For this gift made possible by a donor, go here:

SORRY BUT THE TIME LIMIT IS PAST FOR THIS OFFER AND WELL OVER 100 PEOPLE DOWNLOADED THE MATERIALS

Just watch:

http://vimeo.com/2769845

To transform the teeth in cultivation is hard. Very hard. Teeth stand for money in many fortune telling methods — lose money or make money you can tell by the teeth such as tooth aches, lost teeth, broken teeth, infections, and so forth. Even the appearance of teeth means something. When the teeth all point inwards you can know that person is selfish and always thinks of themselves first no matter how generous they may outwardly seem. You can know all sorts of things about someone’s personality by their teeth and many face fortune telling books can teach you some basics. Every part of your body reflects your fortune, but ordinary people don’t know how to read it. Of particular importance are the bones, which is why I encourage you to cultivate your skeleton and make skeleton offerings.

As people get older, they tend to lose their teeth. Cavities filled with mercury, rather than non-toxic substances contribute to health problems later in life, too. Root canals are another problem you can trace to breast cancer, heart health or other health issues; the impacted infection beneath a particular tooth follows its acupuncture meridian down to an organ to hurt it.

What do you do to maintain healthy teeth? Brush, floss, gargle, etc. Anything more?

Get ready for this — BLOT the gums. Many people have bleeding gums and then root canals and major gum problems later because they’ve been brushing incorrectly all their life. What they should be doing is blotting their teeth, which can often save them once you learn how to do it. In fact, blotting, we are told, is superior to brushing because people brush crap into their gums just beneath the gum lines. That’s what causes gum disease and infections later on despite all the flossing and brushing you may do. Some people develop gum problems and then follow their dentist’s orders to brush and floss religiously but the problem gets worse and worse despite their efforts. What can help? What do you do in this situation if this is you?

Go purchase this inexpensive DVD from the Price Pottenger Foundation and show your family, especially if you are over thirty years old. Learn to do this. It may save your teeth. It may save your friends’ teeth. Everything you’ve been taught about brushing is mostly wrong. And buy two several of their special tooth brushes (just $2.50) while you’re at it because you’ll need them:

http://www.ppnf.org/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=38&products_id=47&osCsid=b5abb7e433756af38fa4970f77ffe23d

Root canals? Read this:

http://www.ppnf.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=194&osCsid=b5abb7e433756af38fa4970f77ffe23d

What else to know? In Taoism you’re taught to chomp on your teeth about two dozen times every day to keep them healthy. Perhaps this works because it shakes their roots to help prevent infections. Also you’re taught to clench your teeth just a bit when you defecate because you’re losing chi below and the closed teeth pulls the chi upwards. But don’t grind them! That’s not the teaching.

In India they teach you to use a tongue scraper to scrape off the gunk on the tongue every morning, or at least brush it off. Smart! Don’t swallow it! Using a tongue scraper is the best way and it costs about $6. Also, wipe the sides of the mouth with a tooth brush too as the Price Pottenger DVD shows. That’s where bacteria are, so do it! get that DVD because I guarantee you haven’t been taught this, and I want you to keep your teeth, save your teeth, and make money. I don’t want anyone to lose their teeth and I want everyone to make money.

Okay, for bleeding gums and gum disease I’ve been told this natural formula works: OraMD which you can buy on the web. Dr. Richard Schulze of the American Botanical Pharmacy has a cayenne pepper gum formula that works for some people, too, but I’d try the OraMD first. You just put 1-2 drops on your finger and rub it in, or put it on your toothbrush and brush it on your gums. You never know which will work for you.

Edgar Cayce recommended Ipsab and the mouthwash Ipsadent, both of which can be found on the web along with stories of their workability or not.

And water picks? Fantastic idea.

Does tartar build up all the time despite brushing and all sorts of methods? I believe Dr. David Williams was the one who reported it might be due to a clogged gall bladder not secreting enough bile.

Now for a cultivation topic — transforming the teeth as promised. You have to reach the stage where you push out the dirty chi within the chi channel beneath each tooth. Even for the teeth that are not there you do this. In fact, for the extra Buddha teeth that are not even there (a rupakaya has 40 perfectly aligned teeth, gapless, pure white without decay, etc.), you do this to prepare for that one day in the future. You just push the dirty chi out the center of the tooth, and then later push off the tooth bone chi as well (which is something you’ve done for countless times for other bones to even get close to this stage). This can be accomplished at the stage wherein your etheric body appears with the curly cue hairs on your head as a Buddha does. That’s the marker for this stage. It’s a stage of achievement that has nothing to do with “Buddhism” – please remember that. “Buddha” is just a short hand name for a fully enlightened being, that’s all.

What you can do to get rid of the tooth bone chi is use the tip of the clear jelly chi (when you reach the stage where it’s clear) to from a loop like the top of a cane, and use that to push off the tooth. Or you can use you mind to squeeze it out by squeezing the roots so it pops out and just the clear chi channel is left dangling there until you push that out. That’s very effective because the teeth are stubborn. Offer them to Mahagala Buddha and the other Buddhas.

Another method is to expand the width of each tooth’s chi channel to crack the tooth surrounding it and pop off these remnants. And remember to do this not just for the teeth that are there but for teeth that you lost, and for the Buddha extra teeth that don’t appear but whose roots would be way back near to where the gums turn inwards into the body. Regular people have thirty-two teeth but Buddhas in perfected bodies have forty. Working on these extra “non-existent” teeth (you’ll find their spot if you reach this stage) is preparing for the one day you’re fully enlightened and wish to have a perfected physical form so as to provide an example for the people. People need examples which is why fully enlightened beings sometimes appear in fully perfected forms.

If you do this for all the teeth, pushing out the impure chi beneath them by pushing it through the teeth, and then later pushing off the teeth or pulling them off if you must, then the entire etheric gum bones will eventually lift off, and then a layer of bone beneath that, and so forth. The chi channels that form the areteries and veins beneath this structure will pop off and then you canpirfy them.

After the teeth and jaws, you can proceed to transform the rest of the skull, including the bones at the top of the skull and the rest of the skull bones everywhere. Congratulations. Now you have some secrets for transforming stubborn bone chi which, being earth element chi, is some of the most difficult chi to transform. Start with the skeleton method. You cannot realize how important it is to try to get a handle on trasnforming the body’s earth element, which is why I encourage this simple technique as one of your preparatory intensified practices:

http://www.meditationexpert.com/Skeleton.htm?meditation/10/Skeleton

I just found a quick way to find our out of print books at reasonable prices.

Got to www.Bookfinder.com and put in the title or the author.

Simple as that.

In the many opinions people toss about on what the US should or should not do in the world, or what any country such as France, Israel, China or Russia should do to preserve and maintain itself,  I must remind people that every country should consider its international efforts and relations with neighbors in view of survival and prosperity. The various strategies a small state, middle sized state, interior state, island nation, impoverished state and macro state should pursue for survival as underlying national policy I have gone over in my book on Kuan Tzu.

First, a country should act in order to preserve itself. This is called acting for survival. The island exporting nation Japan has  different survival strategies than Israel, which uses strategies different from Ethiopia, China, France, Mexico or a Vanatu, India or Saudi Arabia. Each country must seek  to maintain itself and influence other countries for its own interests, which they all do though in means helpful or detrimental to their long term interests. All nations do this; Britain was a past champion of being able to influence and intervene (some would say interfere) in nations for its own interests of maintaining Empire. The question to be asked by strategist is "how will these actions threaten my survival in the short run or long run? Will they possibly threaten our survival through direct or indirect consequences, in the short run or long run, as we are most prone to simplistic straight line thinking and need to broaden our horizons. Is this the BEST strategy for our survival ?"

Frankly, the US in recent years has done a terrible job at examining these questions because  many of its geo-political actions and interventions have backfired, and if institued with long term survival in mind, show a nation that has imperiled itself rather than strengthened itself.

If survival is not an issue, the country’s leaders must consider whether its actions will,  in both the short run and long run, buttress or weaken its current and future prosperity. The underlying goal is called "maintaining a state of auspiciousness" and is most often achieved by a achieving a balancing of forces (a "golden mean" so to speak) in moderation over a prolonged period of time. In neither economic nor military nor social spheres should you let the nation progress to an extreme. "hubris" — the great error of the Persian Empire — should not be allowed.

In other words, statesmen should ask "will the actions we take or are currently permitting further our goal of ascension in the world, or weaken it through direct or indirect consequences?" There is definite blowback, or cause and effect, for every action taken, and we must consider  the full scope, measure and width of blowback consequences to our hopeful march forward. Obviously this has not been done.

What must not be done is let corporations, which are purely money seeking ventures, call the shots or influence the shots with preponderance. Corporations, for profit, will readily gut a country without a second thought, and only wise legislation can prevent this.  Furthermore, they often profit from wars, which are then seen as desired vehicles of profit for their goods and services, which provides an underlying motivation for them not to make influential moves that would help pace the way for peace and stability in troubled times. Wars are the biggest stimulators of consumption, but no populace benefits by them. Only the powerful at the head of strong banking and defense interests really benefit from military ventures that destroy property, lives and socieities. History has shown this over and over again…countless books commenting upon this have been written.

In capitalism, consumption is driven by advertising to stoke demand, consumer debt to make it possible, and war to make it necessary. Presently America has reached the limits of the capabilities of debt to stimulate production and consumption. Consumerism, or the stoking of demand by advertising and a materialistic ethos, does not have an unlimited lifespan just as capitalism does not have a  guaranteed ticket to ever increasing returns (profits increasing quarter by quarter) unless new markets are constantly opened and resources made available, sometimes by force if necessary. Such is the hidden basis of capitalism’s history, whether spoken of openly or not. The inherent idea is that there must always be growth, but in actuality, the economic models do not rule out a zero growth or low growth environment, which is something that might have to be considered in the next fifty years as even China and the other former Communist regimes reach saturation.  As it is, in most developed countries the consumer markets are replacement markets (eevryone has a car, tv, telephone), except for innovations.

When a government falls into the hands of large profit seeking interests or listens to them too much, thinking their interests are what is best for the people, it makes a big mistake and yet we have drifted into this teritory over the last 30 years because of PACS and the merging of economic thinking by the Democratic and Republican parties.  Corporations are not synonomous with the economy, yet they are readily identified by politicians seeking election donations whereas the great mass of the public is not usually turned into an identifiable voice with a single cash wallet. As a sage once said, "the best bank is to store money amongst the people," not the corporations, yet the rise of electorial politics has caused us to forget this thinking that the benefit of the corporations, and not the working people is what matters. It is too bad that our statesmen do not read economist Michael Hudson who often paints a clear pictue of where we are.

Consider that if one is guided by profits alone, what actions would not be undertaken to further gain? Humanity, ethics, society, culture all go out the window in pursuit of the almighty dollar and profit. That is why I often bring up the commentary by the Grand Historian of China when reading Mencius:

As the Grand Historian was reading Mencius, he unconsciously put the book down and sighed when he came to the place where King Hui of Liang asked Mencius, ‘How will you profit my country?’ The historian said, ‘Ah, profit is truly the beginning of disorder. That is why Confucius seldom spoke of profit, always shoring up the source.’ The source is the beginning. Whether it is found among the upper classes or the lower classes, the degeneracy of lust for profit is basically the same. When those in public office profit unfairly, then the law is disordered. When those in the private sector profit by deception, then business is disordered. When business is disorderly, people are contentious and dissatisfied; when law is disorderly, the citizenry is resentful and disobedient. This is how people get to be so rebellious and belligerent that they don’t care if they die. Is this not a demonstration of how, ‘Profit is truly the beginning of disorder’? The sages and saints were deeply cautious and aloof from profit, giving honor and precedence to humanity and justice. But in later times there were still those who deceived each other in hopes of profit; what limit is there to those who destroy morality and ruin education? How much the more serious is the problem when the path of adventurous profiteering is publicly espoused and pursued; under these conditions, how could we hope for the world’s morals and customs to be upright, and not be thin and weak? 

The Story of Chinese Zen, by Nan Huai-Chin, (Charles E. Tuttle Company, Vermont, 1985), p. 205-206.

 

 
What is the passage Szuma Chien is referring to? It is from the very opening of the book of Mencius, which starts out with a conversation between Mencius and the King Hui of Liang, who said,

 

‘Sir, … You have come all this distance, thinking nothing of a thousand li. You must surely have some way of profiting my state?’
 ’Your majesty,’ answered Mencius, ‘What is the point of mentioning the word "profit"? All that matters is that there should be benevolence and rightness. If Your Majesty says, "How can I profit my state?" and the Counselors say, "How can I profit my family?" and the Gentlemen and Commoners say, "How can I profit my person?" then those above and those below will be trying to profit at the expense of one another and the state will be imperiled. When regicide is committed in a state of ten thousand chariots, it is certain to be by a vassal with a thousand chariots, and when it is committed in a state of a thousand chariots, it is certain to be by a vassal with a hundred chariots. A share of a thousand in ten thousand or a hundred in a thousand is by no means insignificant, yet if profit is put before rightness, there is no satisfaction short of total usurpation. No benevolent man ever abandons his parents, and no dutiful man ever puts his prince last. Perhaps you will now endorse what I have said, "All that matters is that there should be benevolence and rightness. What is the point of mentioning the word ‘profit’?"’

 Mencius, Volume One, transl. by D. C. Lau, (The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 1984), p. 3

These are things you should consider when you examine the world trend of events today and try to decipher who is pulling the strings, or pulling for outcomes in certain directions. In the last 60 years a certain style of capitalism and world economic system has developed, but the system has reached a turning point that marks its end and a new one is slowly developing. But what will its shape be?

I recall several small quotes from Understanding This Chinese Generation that touch the periphery of these issues but enough to make their review worthwhile:

Throughout the cultural history of mankind our conceptions of morality have been governed by the religious principles of sin and retribution; from this our educational norms and modes of thought have taken shape, maintaining the social order for the last three millennium. With the rise of the modern culture of materialism and the consequent rapid development of commerce and industry, our view of morality has gradually fallen victim to an ideology of economic valuation that attaches a price tag to all things.

…

This is how danger is transformed into security, and the nation’s fears are put to rest. National salvation follows from the application of talent and wisdom, and the cultivation of talent and wisdom is the windmill which harnesses the “kinetic energy” of the winds of profound thought and learning. Based on the concepts of “rethinking the old to understand the new” and “examining the past to master the future,” we must map the recent historical evolution of our present approach to national salvation. With this in hand, the causes and effects of the complex confusion before us will be revealed and we can begin to understand how to productively direct our efforts in the perilous days ahead.

…

Today, universal education and the boundaries of knowledge grow with each passing day at a rate unheard of more than thirty years ago. Yet, the dedication and spiritual “zeal” of our youth to the ideals of the “movement for national renaissance” cannot compare to that of the generation before them. As we pattern ourselves on the advances of material civilization, we trade in our inhibitions and self-control for the good life, seeking refuge in its promised future of comfort and security. Blindly pursuing the development of commerce and industry, each frantic moment of our precious time is devoted to the attainment of wealth, even as our love of learning and self-realization become impoverished. As a result, we have fostered a social milieu that slavishly stresses the potential of the natural sciences, but treats the exploration of humanist thought as a profligate squandering of time. We continue to avert our eyes from the tragic future certain to result from the grotesque juggernaut of natural science as it feeds off the remains of humanist culture, like a “parasite in the belly of a lion, consuming its mighty host.”
 
If we truly desire to chart a new ideological course for the nation and the world, we must first come to terms with the struggles of modern life and the realization that they are the symptoms of a cultural war. Whether we look to the regions of communist control or the Free World, the industrially advanced First World or the underdeveloped Third World, as in the past we remain lost between the goals of spiritual realization and the necessities of practical existence. In other words, our frustrations are a product of the competition between man’s quest for economic equality in the face of scarcity and his search for spiritual rebirth and peace of mind. In our struggle, two preliminary issues emerge: the unabashed borrowing of capitalist economic devices by modern communism, and our own wrongheaded worship at the altar of materialism. Therefore, other than the current focus of modern youth on learning the skills necessary for everyday life and the struggle for national renaissance, there are two important topics that urgently need to be addressed by the best of this generation:

1. How to shape a new economic philosophy for the benefit of mankind
2. How to synergistically unite and harmonize the cultures of materialism and spirituality.

In the process of working towards this goal, we must proceed with the understanding that our endeavor is an outgrowth of the humanist ideal and a challenge worthy of the best among us, requiring deep reflection, a love of learning, and an inductive approach. Our task is not one of hasty plans and hurried work. While it may be true that there is an ocean of difference between our quixotic goals and the reality of the world around us, “diligent study ultimately leads to success.” Applying this wisdom to the honorable pursuit of humanist ideals will lead us to the inner realm of self-understanding. If, however, we limit our strategies to the goals of personal success and the necessities of individual life, then the historic opportunities now within our reach will be lost. We must seize our present situation and exchange it for an everlasting reality, grab hold of our individuality and transform it into an historical destiny. If we do see to it that these notions take on a renewed sense of worth in the minds of our young, we run the risk of becoming the laughingstock of future generations as we leave a legacy of blank pages to the next sixty years of scholarship.
 

Many years ago I wished to write a book entitled Genes are not Your Destiny. Neither is your environment, as Mencius would say, although it plays a big part in it. Go read Mencius and you’ll see.

Bruce Lipton, in his various works (books, videos, etc.), has seconded many of my views in this regard and provides the scientific paradigm for the same opinion. In short, genes do their thing based on what the cellular receptors of your body tell them to do. The inside of the cell doesn’t just decide to go wild, make this protein or that enzyme, but does so based on what the receptors "tell it" to do. Cellular receptors look like hairs or limbs sticking out from the membranes of cells, and  twist, turn, wiggle, fold or react … however you wish to word it and affecting the inside of the cell when they do so … based upon what they contact in the bloodstream.

Aha! Immediately this brings up the notion that if you flood your blood stream with good stuff … from good nutrition and supplements, etc. — then good things will happen. Bad stuff and bad things will happen. Continual overexposure   to a bad environment provokes an unfortunate reaction as the body tries to compensate but is eventually overwhelmed and cannot. Solution? Better environment, better good stuff to avoid a negative fate, negative outcome. White Fat Cow actually talks about this in a different way, but the same lesson comes forth. Meditation for Beautiful Skin is an entire book built around this concept.

[By the way, this article is not about this book, but I received this testimonial just the other day:

"I would like to write a testimonial regarding "Meditation for Beautiful Skin" although I have not read the entire book yet. You may use any part or all of the testimonial. It all is fascinating reading. I do not know where to start with this book. I have read large sections of this book, however, I am not finished yet because I just wanted to actually start practicing some of the information from the book.

"This book is filled with meditation techniques, nutritional information and other information regarding beauty tips. This is obviously much more than a book on superficial beauty. I set up a routine based on information from this book and am starting to see great results after only a few weeks of application. My skin is becoming so smooth and I have had several experiences with alternate states of consciousness that felt profound.

"This book is loaded with lots of practical short term and long term practices and techniques. I like the fact that you have many different alternatives to reach your spiritual, health and beauty goals from reading this book. The author really seems to have put a lot of time and research into supplying and validating information regarding everything that is in this book. This author even goes as far as telling you where to go to obtain products mentioned in the book. I am certain that anyone who is looking for practical information on how to meditate while improving their physical appearance will find more than enough help in this book."

Patricia Lodge
epamail.epa.gov]

Okay, so if you don’t activate genes because the cellular receptors don’t fire … because you in turn take care of yourself and start doing more  of the right things than wrong things, that’s a prescription for healthy living. With this understanding of cellular receptors, we then also have an understanding for why cardiovascular disease, in a family where it dominates, doesn’t seem to strike all the  family members …. and also why it can be reversed. Just do the things that don’t activate the receptors to set off the genes. Same for diabetes [see Julian Whitaker's book on reversing diabetes].  Those who eat right and exercise and take supplements designed to counter such a condition, more often than not don’t seem to activate the genes that would imperil them. A doctor would just call this "healthy living" but Lipton decribes it in terms of whether or not you activate receptors based on what you do or don’t do as a habit. In other words, he describes it from the basis of biochemistry and genes.

In short, it comes down to the same old story of exercise and good nutrition. So what about cancer, and preventative masectomies when you find out you have a "cancer gene."

First, there is no such thing as a "cancer gene". There may be a tendency for cancer, but your fate is not in the genes. It’s in what you do or don’t do. So start doing more of the right things if you find out you have this "genetic predispositon" and stop doing the wrong things.

Even the US government says most cancers are caused by environmental factors or there are nutritional causes, Therefore, to maximize your chances of avoiding cancer, eat right, detoxify, make sure your lymph channels are unrestricted, untwisted, untangled, etc. and stay away from pesticides, radiation, excess EMF and so forth.

I talk about breast health in several articles:

What I’d Do If I Was A woman Who Got Breast Cancer

Breast Cysts, Breast Health

Meditation Methods to Help Fight Cancer

Fight Cancer With Alternative Therapies

Cancer and Natural Medicine Cures

What to Do When You Have Cancer

I talk about a lot of these things and what to do about them in my Beautiful Skin book, which you should probably pick up if interested. If helps clean you out both internally and externally.

What would I do if I found I had this gene?

First thing:  a big, big, big, big , big thing. I’d detoxify every year BIG TIME – Richard Schulze products, Sally Rogers glutathione-lipoic acid detoxification protocols for the liver, etc. etc. I love Nature’s Pure Body for this purpose. I do it every year with two bottles at least.

Second — lymph drainage massage for the breast every year to keep the lymph channels clear. In my articles I explain how to find someone who can do this.

Third – eat right. I like Master Naturopath David Getoff’s ideas on eating as natural as possible. A big thing you should do is get an allergy test from a blood work lab like Immunolabs, find out what foods make you sick that you don’t know about, and stop eating them. They’re taxing your immune system. Cut them out and you’ll lose weight and probably feel better, too. Unbelievable results. Basically, you’re "removing the probable causes".

And of course there are special anti-cancer supplements you can take.

Once or twice a year you should do an immune boosting routine to help clean everything out. That’s why I never worry about colds and flus. They help you rev up your immune system to clean out the garbage that’s accumulated over time, like a typhoon in Asia that comes along every year and blows away the trees and plants that are too weak and encumbering the rest of the vegetation. Recessions do that too, by the way — they come along and get rid of weak economic players too fragile for the economic system.

So genes are NOT your destiny. React but don’t overreact. Change your habits and you change your life. You change your risks, you change everything.

And don’t forget to meditate, too!