Good enough for God.

Often times we think: "I believe in God, but I'm not sure if I am ready, if I am good enough, to have a personal relationship with God". Or we just don't pray because we think that we do not know how to pray. What we are doing then with this attitude is creating the self-fulfilled prophesy of our lives without God or prayer because we believe in the self imposed obstacle more than we believe in God. We actually do this with many other things and many other areas in our lives as well. If we ever want to get out of our rut; really begin to believe with our whole hearts in God, in prayer, we have to let go of that obstacle we place before ourselves. No one is greater than the next, we all mess up. Even after we forge into our relationship with God we still mess up, it is human nature, and it is forgiven if our hearts are true. Instead of thinking, "God isn't ready for me because I'm not perfect, or I don't know how to pray so I'll just skip it"; we could think something like, I am not perfect but God wants me anyway so that he can begin to perfect me, or maybe I'll just close my eyes and start talking to God right now, just a hello will do, or a thank you, or for help and guidance, or peace. We just have to get over that fence to get out of these trenches of lifelessness.

cool Watts video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXmz605GAnc

Poem by Alan Watts

You're breathing
The wind is blowing
The trees are waving
Your nerves are tingling

...The individual and the universe
Are inseparable
But the curious thing is
Very few people are aware of it

Everything in nature
Depends on everything else
So it's interconnected

We confuse ourselves as living organisms which are one with this whole universe
With something we call our personality
And what is our personality?

And our fundamental self is not something just inside the skin
It's everything around us with which we connect

When you look out of your eyes
At nature happening out there
You're looking at you
That's the real you-
The you that goes on of itself

Now listen

It's absolutely necessary
That we let go of ourselves- and it can't be done,
Not by anything that we call doing it, acting, willing,
Or even just accepting things

It seems that the human being
Really has a very simple kind of mind... ~ Alan Watts (Mid 20th century philosopher).

Further Musing:

In this poem it seems as though Dr. Watts is speaking of the Noumenon central to existence. This is the same Noumenon expressed by Immanuel Kant and Schopenhauer as that central point of reality that exists behind the scenes as an abstract potential causing existence to occur by a "willing of will itself"; the same centrality expressed as "The Way of Things" or Te Tao by the ancient Chinese philosophers, including, more contemporary, Bruce Lee and Alan Watts; the same omnipresent spirit of God who created everything and expressed himself as the great "I am".

Health Benifits of Fasting

There has been much contention in the scientific field about whether or not fasting is beneficial to one's health. Fasting is an integral part of many of the major religions including Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Many are dubious as to whether the physiological effects are as beneficial as the spiritual promoted by these religions. There is a significant community of alternative healers who believe that fasting can do wonders for the human body. This paper will look at the arguments presented by these healers in an attempt to raise awareness of the possible physiological benefits that may result from fasting.

Fasting technically commences within the first twelve to twenty-four hours of the fast. A fast does not chemically begin until the carbohydrate stores in the body begin to be used as an energy source. The fast will continue as long as fat and carbohydrate stores are used for energy, as opposed to protein stores. Once protein stores begin to be depleted for energy (resulting in loss of muscle mass) a person is technically starving.

The benefits of fasting must be preceded by a look at the body's progression when deprived of food. Due to the lack of incoming energy, the body must turn to its own resources, a function called autolysis. (2) Autolysis is the breaking down of fat stores in the body in order to produce energy. The liver is in charge of converting the fats into a chemical called a ketone body, "the metabolic substances acetoacetic acid and beta-hydroxybutyric acid" (3), and then distributing these bodies throughout the body via the blood stream. "When this fat utilization occurs, free fatty acids are released into the blood stream and are used by the liver for energy." (3) The less one eats, the more the body turns to these stored fats and creates these ketone bodies, the accumulation of which is referred to as ketosis. (4)

Detoxification is the foremost argument presented by advocates of fasting. "Detoxification is a normal body process of eliminating or neutralizing toxins through the colon, liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph glands, and skin." (5). This process is precipitated by fasting because when food is no longer entering the body, the body turns to fat reserves for energy. "Human fat is valued at 3,500 calories per pound," a number that would lead one to believe that surviving on one pound of fat every day would provide a body with enough energy to function normally. (2) These fat reserves were created when excess glucose and carbohydrates were not used for energy or growth, not excreted, and therefore converted into fat. When the fat reserves are used for energy during a fast, it releases the chemicals from the fatty acids into the system which are then eliminated through the aforementioned organs. Chemicals not found in food but absorbed from one's environment, such as DDT, are also stored in fat reserves that may be released during a fast. One fasting advocate tested his own urine, feces and sweat during an extended fast and found traces of DDT in each. (5)

A second prescribed benefit of fasting is the healing process that begins in the body during a fast. During a fast energy is diverted away from the digestive system due to its lack of use and towards the metabolism and immune system. (6) The healing process during a fast is precipitated by the body's search for energy sources. Abnormal growths within the body, tumors and the like, do not have the full support of the body's supplies and therefore are more susceptible to autolysis. Furthermore, "production of protein for replacement of damaged cells (protein synthesis) occurs more efficiently because fewer 'mistakes' are made by the DNA/RNA genetic controls which govern this process." A higher efficiency in protein synthesis results in healthier cells, tissues and organs. (7) This is one reason that animals stop eating when they are wounded, and why humans lose hunger during influenza. Hunger has been proven absent in illnesses such as gastritis, tonsillitis and colds. (2) Therefore, when one is fasting, the person is consciously diverting energy from the digestive system to the immune system.

In addition, there is a reduction in core body temperature. This is a direct result of the slower metabolic rate and general bodily functions. Following a drop in blood sugar level and using the reserves of glucose found in liver glycogen, the basal metabolic rate (BMR) is reduced in order to conserve as much energy within the body as can be provided. (2) Growth hormones are also released during a fast, due to the greater efficiency in hormone production. (7)

Finally, the most scientifically proven advantage to fasting is the feeling of rejuvenation and extended life expectancy. Part of this phenomenon is caused by a number of the benefits mentioned above. A slower metabolic rate, more efficient protein production, an improved immune system, and the increased production of hormones contributes to this long-term benefit of fasting. In addition to the Human Growth Hormone that is released more frequently during a fast, an anti-aging hormone is also produced more efficiently. (7) "The only reliable way to extend the lifespan of a mammal is under-nutrition without malnutrition." (5) A study was performed on earthworms that demonstrated the extension of life due to fasting. The experiment was performed in the 1930s by isolating one worm and putting it on a cycle of fasting and feeding. The isolated worm outlasted its relatives by 19 generations, while still maintaining its youthful physiological traits. The worm was able to survive on its own tissue for months. Once the size of the worm began to decrease, the scientists would resume feeding it at which point it showed great vigor and energy. "The life-span extension of these worms was the equivalent of keeping a man alive for 600 to 700 years."

In conclusion, it seems that there are many reasons to consider fasting as a benefit to one's health. The body rids itself of the toxins that have built up in our fat stores throughout the years. The body heals itself, repairs all the damaged organs during a fast. And finally there is good evidence to show that regulated fasting contributes to longer life. However, many doctors warn against fasting for extended periods of time without supervision. There are still many doctors today who deny all of these points and claim that fasting is detrimental to one's health and have evidence to back their statements. The idea of depriving a body of what society has come to view as so essential to our survival in order to heal continues to be a topic of controversy.

Learning how to go with the flow.

Success comes in being able to set goals, make a plan; however, more importantly, in being able to be flexible enough to change with the greater changes and still keep in mind those goals. I tend to think that while I make plans for my life and set goals, that God, "The Almighty", has an ultimate plan and goal for me. ...The Eastern Taoist "philosophers" would understand this wisdom as: that while I try to "do" life, life has a way of "happening". The wisdom, in one sense, comes in learning how to access that greater plan and have faith that God has plans to prosper us; and in another more philosophic translation it is to be an active part of the "happening" that seems to be part of life, all of life.

Approaching the hard problem of consciousness.

So, how is it possible for the intangible yet personally subjective experience of consciousness, can come from mere matter? Is this hard problem of consciousness something that can be answered through biochemistry and psychology, or will an answer come from knowledge not yet understood? Perhaps we are approaching the question in a reverse order than it really is, maybe we should ask, "how is it that perceived matter can exist from conscious experience. Or even possibly, it may be such that perceived matter and consciousness are two different forms of something fundamental to the existence of the universe. They could be just two different experiences of the same thing: matter is perceived through phenomenon, while consciousness is felt in a form more closely to the noumenon. Both matter and consciousness behave quite similarly to that which we call light. Light can be both a particle (matter) and a wave (consciousness). Just as light behaves as a wave until observed, when at that precise moment it collapses into a particle; quite similarly, may be the way matter and consciousness behave. They are simply two different forms of the same stuff. And, I believe it to be the stuff of the universe, of which it is made. And, yes, made as in created by an omnipresence in a patterned image of itself (like the infinite fractals within a hologram) known to mankind as God.

Center and Circumference of the self.

Without the center there is no circumference, and without the circumference there is no center. .. In this way the human being is inseparable from the whole of the universe... one's centrality of existence is something like an aperture of which the fundamental principle of the universe has come alive and can view itself.