Thursday, October 29, 2015

Meat or No Meat --That Is the Question !


Humans are omnivores, and should have a variety of foods.  Key diet guidelines: balanced, moderate, and various sources, plus healthy and simple cooking methods.
 
"A diet high in red meat can shorten life expectancy, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School.
The study of more than 120,000 people suggested red meat increased the risk of death from cancer and heart problems.
Substituting red meat with fish, chicken or nuts lowered the risks, the authors said.
The British Heart Foundation said red meat could still be eaten as part of a balanced diet.
The researchers analyzed data from 37,698 men between 1986 and 2008 and 83,644 women between 1980 and 2008.
They said that during the study period, adding an extra portion of unprocessed red meat to someone's daily diet would increase the risk of death by 13%, of fatal cardiovascular disease by 18% and of cancer mortality by 10%. The figures for processed meat were higher, 20% for overall mortality, 21% for death from heart problems and 16% for cancer mortality.
The study,published in Archives of Internal Medicine, said: "We found that a higher intake of red meat was associated with a significantly elevated risk of total, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality.
"This association was observed for unprocessed and processed red meat with a relatively greater risk for processed red meat."
The researchers suggested that saturated fat from red meat may be behind the increased heart risk and the sodium used in processed meats may "increase cardiovascular disease risk through its effect on blood pressure".
Victoria Taylor, a dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Red meat can still be eaten as part of a balanced diet, but go for the leaner cuts and use healthier cooking methods such as grilling.
She suggested adding more variation to your diet with "other protein sources such as fish, poultry, beans or lentils." (14 March 2012, BBC)

  • "Red and processed meat
Red meat includes steak, lamb, pork and mince.
Red meat looks darker than white meat like poultry because of higher levels of haemoglobin and myoglobin, the iron and oxygen-binding proteins you find in blood and muscle.
Processed meat includes bacon, sausages, salami and ham."...
"Mortality risk debate
Professor Walter Willett, of the Harvard School of Public Health, heads a team that have been tracking the diets of tens of thousands of people for many years.
"We found that those who consumed higher amounts of red meat had a higher risk of total mortality, cardiovascular mortality and cancer mortality," he told me in the Harvard cafeteria, while I nonchalantly ate a large steak.
On the basis of one of the studies he co-authored - Red Meat Consumption and Mortality, published in Archives of Internal Medicine - he estimates regularly eating a small amount of unprocessed red meat (85g, around 3oz) is associated with a 13% increased risk of mortality, while eating a similar amount of processed red meat (a hot dog or two slices of bacon) is associated with a 20% increased risk.
Not surprisingly, he almost never eats meat."
"
Making sense of the statistics
An increased mortality risk of 20% means your risk of dying over the next year is 20% higher than if you did not eat the processed meat.
  • Professor Sir David Speigelhalter of Cambridge University says another way of looking at this is, if the studies are right, that you would expect someone who eats a bacon sandwich every day to live, on average, two years less than someone who does not.
  • Pro rata, this is like losing an hour of your life for every bacon sandwich you eat. To put this into context, every time you smoke 20 cigarettes, this will take about five hours off your life."  (18 August 2014, BBC)                                                                                                           

  • "Processed meats - such as bacon, sausages and ham - do cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Its report said 50g of processed meat a day - less than two slices of bacon - increased the chance of developing colorectal cancer by 18%.
Meanwhile, it said red meats were "probably carcinogenic" but there was limited evidence.
The WHO did stress that meat also had health benefits.
Cancer Research UK said this was a reason to cut down rather than give up red and processed meats.
And added that an occasional bacon sandwich would do little harm." (26 October 2015, BBC)

  • "I’m not saying dietary recommendations aren’t important. But the recommendations are important in aggregate. If you stick to the spirit of not eating in a horribly unhealthy way, you have a lot of leeway to continue to eat specific things you like even if you know they’re not the best for you. And meat falls firmly within that category." (posted on on by Scott Alexander)

Sources:
http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/10/28/meat-your-doom/
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34615621
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28797106
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-17345967

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Ten Qualities of a Guru



Ten qualities of a Buddhist Guru:
1. Discipline as a result of his mastery of the training in the higher discipline of moral self-control;
2. Mental quiescence from his training in higher concentration;
3. Pacification of all delusions and obstacles from his training in higher wisdom;
4. More knowledge than his disciple in the subject to be taught;
5. Enthusiastic perseverance and joy in teaching;
6. A treasury of scriptural knowledge;
7. Insight into and understanding of emptiness;
8. Skill in presenting the teachings;
9. Great compassion; and
10. No reluctance to teach and work for his disciples regardless of their level of intelligence.


Buddhist Teachings from Gurus

Source:



dllmsw
dl5ndl4dl3dl2
dl6_thumb_2_
dl11_266498109dl10_282014231dl9_133411972dl8_491156817dl7_217823150dl3_312794648dl2_385428468
117111611153

1121

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Buddhism As It Is

Buddhism may appear in different forms, varying from one observation to another: from one Buddhist school to another, from country to country, from culture to culture, and among different self-claimed Buddhist groups and subgroups.  Despite all changes in time and space, Buddhism's core or true nature remains the same, and it should be respected and preserved as it is.  Buddhist followers should discriminate true Buddhist teachings and practice from distorted forms of Buddhism.

Buddhism is a science.  One of its goals is to understand the true nature of  all events and phenomena (the world inside and outside us).  Buddhism emphasizes logic, intellectual arguments, empirical or evidence-based experiments (what the individual Buddhist practitioner actually experiences), critical  analysis and thinking.  Buddhism is not based on blind faith, but genuine Buddhists do have a strong belief in the capability of all beings to attain Buddhahood (the Buddha Nature which is inherent in every being) through the individual's strong right volition, effort, wisdom and practice.  A Buddhist is fundamentally an atheist.

Buddhism is a philosophy.  Buddhist dhamma teachings expound a way to view humanity and the worlds/universes, and a way to live and function in the human world.  Buddhist philosophy emphasizes nonviolence, compassion, tolerance, courage, equanimity...and, above all, wisdom.  Wisdom and intellectual capacity dominates Buddhist life philosophy in the sense that wisdom must guide all Buddhists' thoughts and actions.

Buddhism is practice.  Buddhism is not for theoretical or scholastic academia discussions.  Buddhism is for application and experience for the better of the individual and all sentient worlds at large.  Buddhist practice is the reason why the Buddha appeared and taught the Dhamma, the path that leads to the individual's ultimate liberation from all sufferings and from Samsara (the cycle of birth and death).  Unless a Buddhist follower practices the methods which the Buddha taught, all Buddhist teachings (from Tripitakas) would lead that person to nowhere, that is, s/he would not benefit from the Buddha's teachings.  On the other hand, if practicing rigorously under the guidance of a genuine guru (a genuine Buddhist monk/nun master), the individual can gauge/experience his/her progress, see the results of the practice (the application of  Buddhist dhamma) in his/her life as manifested through his/her own body, words and thoughts.  There must be a huge inner or spiritual transformation after a while, depending on many internal and external factors.  Although there are many levels of liberation, just as there are many levels of ignorance, the genuine Buddhist practitioner's ultimate goal must be to liberate oneself from the cycle of birth and death.  After that personal attainment, it is up to the person to choose how to help others to attain the same goal as s/he has reached.
The practice includes disciplines (precepts at various levels), meditation, and wisdom development.  The Buddhist follower first has to master (learn, read and listen to) the Dhamma teachings (Tripitaka).  Second, s/he must think over and over about, or mull over, these teachings, while observing the teachings in action in daily happenings within him-/herself and in the outside world.  Third, the person needs to practice meditation (samatha and vipassana).  Every practitioner is free to follow the method that fits him-/herself the best, for different practitioners have different levels of karma and spiritual development.  Without precepts or disciplines, it would be very difficult for a person to go further.  Therefore, precepts or disciplines must be the basis of all practice.

It is up to the individual follower to view Buddhism as a religion or not.  Rituals and any forms of Buddhist practice are only forms, and should be viewed as such only.  The method leading to the goal is not the ultimate goal.  Therefore, do not mistake the finger that points to the moon for the moon itself.  Throw away the raft you have used once you have reached the other shore of the Samsara river.  Do not carry the raft along all the way, when it is no longer useful.


Source:
Multiple sources, mainly based on the 14th Dalai Lama's teachings.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

The Human Mind, Suffering, and Reality


The human mind includes:
1/ Mind awareness/primary mind (6 of them: the first five of which have to do with/are connected with the 5 senses, such as visual, auditory..., direct perception; the last one is mental conscience/awareness).
and
2/ Mental factors (79 or 51 ? of these, including attitudes, moods, emotions...).

The omniscient mind (Buddhahood) is a continuum  with no beginning, no end, and the afflicted mind (conceptual, duality mind that is full of mental factors) exists in all beings.

The mind has many levels of consciousness: gross (conceptual, duality), subtle, and most subtle (non-conceptual; there are 8 or 4 of the most subtle mind).  The luminosity/clear light mind (the most subtle):  Experienced Buddhist meditators meditate and dwell on this mind at their physical/clinical death.
Physically, there are the inner energy channels, which may be connected with the energy of the subtle mind levels.
8 stages of the most subtle mind at near death:
1/ Mirage-like vision
2/ Pillowing smoke (like smoke coming from stacks of smoke)
3/ Spark-like vision (like fire-flies)
4/ Flames
5/ White Appearance (the person is like moonlight)
6/ Red Increase (like the sunset)
7/ Complete blackness near Attainment
8/ Luminosity or clear light (clarity/ reflection).  This can be sustained (post-humous meditation) for two weeks or 21 days or more.

51 (? the number varies depending on the Buddhist schools/traditions) mental factors:
always present (intention, attention, recognition, contact, feeling), determining (engaging, aspiration, belief, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom),wholesome (no attachment, faith, shame, fear of blame, non-attached, positive effort, conscientiousness, no harm), afflictive (attachment, hatred, arrogance,ignorance, doubt, wrong view), secondary afflictive, changeable (sleep, neutral, regret, gross investigation, subtle investigation, depending on motivation)
Single-pointed meditation/Samatha: Awarenes and clarity

Suffering/Dukkha  (Duhkha)
Three levels of suffering: evident suffering (acute suffering, only this life), suffering of change (bigger horizon, many life times), suffering of conditioned existence.

Reality varies from person to person.  It is a construct of the (afflicted/duality/conceptual) mind.  There is no such thing as an actual reality which exists outside the observer's mind.  It is out of the interactions between the human mind and the environment over the course of evolution that reality is constructed.  Your reality is different from mine.  A human's world is different from a dog's.  What we view as reality is just formations and designations or names and constructs.  Nothing else.
Sources:
Berry Kerzin http://altruismmedicine.org/about/founder-dr-barry-kerzin/
David Eagleman.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Eagleman