A Little Riff on Zen

The word Zen is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, meaning “meditation” or “meditative state.”

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. Zen emphasizes experiential wisdom in the path to attaining enlightenment. It favors direct self-realization through meditation and dharma. Meditation is the core aspect of Zen practice. Zen meditation is formally described as a sitting meditation with awareness being directed towards counting or watching the breath.  Experienced practitioners of Zen meditation strive to be aware of the stream of thoughts in their minds, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference. Read more of this post

Do Less: A Short Guide

Many of us work in an endless stream of tasks, browser tasks, social media, emails, meetings, rushing from one thing to another, never pausing and never ending.

Then the day is over, and we are exhausted, and we often have very little to show for it. And we start the next day, ready for a mindless stream of tasks and distractions.

I am a fan of going against the stream of what most people do, and taking a step back. Is it really worth it? Is this the best way? Are we losing our lives to busy-ness and distraction?

What if we did less instead? Read more of this post

World Record High Dive!

Whats up ZazenLife readers!?

Bestvidsonthenet is glad to be here to bring you, (you guessed it), the best vids on the net!

Ill be going through my list of videos that I’ve been compiling for the last few years, to bring you the funniest, craziest, most impressive, and overall most AWESOME videos on the internet.

Now watch this dude set the world record for the highest height a human has ever jumped into water from.  (He actually does a triple backflip)…

Read more of this post

The “Zen of Baseball” May get MLB Outfielder Back on Track

blue jays outfielder Travis snider

24 year-old Travis Snider

2011 was one of the worst years for Blue Jay’s outfielder Travis Snider


Snider, 24, has been considered one of Toronto’s top prospects since he was a first-round draft pick in 2006. But he has yet to produce consistently in the majors. He had the starting job in left field, and lost it two times to teammate Eric Thames. When he was sent down to the minors, Sniders season quickly ended after he was diagnosed with tendonitis in his right wrist. Read more of this post

A Guest Post by Lou Catarino: Zen and Marijuana

 

a strain of marijuana

Zen and Marijuana

Zen and Marijuana

By: Lou Catarino

You can read Lou’s blog @ https://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/

I came into Zen in my late teens after being raised a catholic.

The dogma of the church just did not do it for me.

So I ex-communicated myself and went on a quest for truth. I came across the antics of the Beat writers of which Jack Kerouac became my favorite.

Say what you will about those pre-hippies but they were the closest thing to genuine creativity in the US in the late fifties.

The Beatniks opened my mind to Alan Watts (Alan Wilson Watts /January 1915 – 16 November 1973) who turned me into Zen. At the time he was instrumental in making Zen understandable in the West.

I also discovered marijuana during that time.

Now, before I go any further, I must admit that writing this post torqued my brain around.

Zen is pure Buddhism.

It is a natural consequence and part of Buddhism. Siddhartha, in all his wisdom came up with five guiding rules for us to follow in order to reach enlightenment:  to abstain from harming living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication.

Buddha

Buddha

Here it is. Intoxication. What is intoxication?  Ingesting poisons that will harm you physically and mentally.

You cannot get intoxicated from cannabis.

If you intake too much marijuana you are just wasting your time, money, and weed.

Once you are in the zone there is no more higher “stoned” level.

Cannabis focuses your mind by freeing it from the daily mundane. It gives you a measure of peace and calm that recharges your energy and allows you to become disciplined.

Zen and Zazen both require discipline.

It is one of the most difficult spiritual practices to get involved with, but the rewards are out of this world.

Zen changed my existence.

It has given me: Empathy, compassion, discipline,  patience, an open mind, the desire not to hurt sentient beings by not eating them which in turn gave me incredible health and stamina, an understanding of life that is intertwined with death, and much more.

Zen changed my life and I arrived at Zen through off-beat counter culture readings and cannabis.

I am not advocating for everyone to get stoned like the song says.

Life should be experienced fully and soberly.

But you must admit that modern life is beyond stressful. It has become so complicated that most of us depend on legal and illegal drugs in order to cope with the insanity of it all. Roughly half the North American population is ingesting legal antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

Personally, I won’t consume cannabis until the necessary daily  rituals have been performed: Exercise, zazen, work, chores, etc..
At the end of the day cannabis becomes the holy grail of ceremonial and spiritual ceremonies.

It makes it all make sense.

-Lou Catarino

Visit my website if you are interested in reading more! :)

https://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/

My Complete Poker Manifesto, Part III: A General Overview of Poker

 

Elky multitabling

Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier setting the record for most tables played simultaneously

Part II: Prologue

Poker is a very interesting and extremely competitive game at the higher stakes.

The lower stakes games consist of mostly bad and reckless players with a few decent average regulars mixed in.

Developing a good and solid poker strategy takes a large time investment and an adjustment to a massive learning curve.

To truly crush the game, you will need a Zen like approach to poker psychology. This takes a long time and a lot of learning along the way to truly master. Read more of this post

Desire

Desire is a TRAP.

Desire-lessness is liberation.

Desire is the creator.

Desire is the destroyer.

Desire is the universe.

And: That applies to the physical plane, the astral plane, and the casual plane.

Heaven, Hell, Demons: Are all the creations of desire!

All the manifestations of the divine mother are creations of desire!

That’s why Naga (the naked ascetic), worked on getting Ramakrishna to go beyond his love for Kali.

Give up even the desire to be experiencing the bliss of being it all, of being with the divine mother.

-Be Here Now.

Peyton Manning is Retiring? According to Who?

Peyton Manning retiring

Is Peyton Manning retiring?

After all of the talk about where he will end up in 2012, Peyton Manning is going to retire?

Who exactly said that Peyton Manning will retire?

American Actor Rob Lowe.

He recently tweeted: “Hearing my fave, #18 Peyton Manning will not return to #NFL. Wow. #Colts.”

How would Rob Lowe have this information before any RELEVANT NFL SOURCES?

The only guess is that he got this information straight from Peyton manning, or he is completely making it up. Rob Lowe has been seen on the sidelines of multiple Indianapolis Colts games because he was invited by Peyton Manning himself. They are supposedly good friends and keep in touch often. Colts owner Jim Irsay also seems to be in contact with Rob Lowe occasionally on Twitter.

Rob Lowe

American actor Rob Lowe said that Peyton Manning will retire

According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Archie Manning said this is false. Mortensen’s twitter reads: “Archie Manning laughed when he heard @RobLowe said Peyton will retire, “Noooo…he ain’t retiring. I think he would’ve told me.”

So let’s forget what the source is for this breaking news and who is saying what, and let’s think logically.

Does Peyton Manning retiring actually make sense?

For a Colt fan, it  doesn’t make sense at all. Peyton Manning is the savior of Indianapolis (since Reggie Miller retired) and he wouldn’t just get up and leave his loyal fans like that.

Although, for Peyton Manning, retiring might make a lot of sense. Neck injuries are very serious, especially after having multiple surgeries on it. Even more serious is nerve damage, which Manning has in his neck. I’m sure the word “Paralyzed” has crossed Peyton Manning’s mind a lot these past couple of years.

I know, Peyton Manning rarely gets sacked or hit hard because he gives himself up, but one nice hit can do it. This risk is no longer worth it for Manning considering his own life, and now his twin children.

On March 31st of last year, Peyton Manning and wife Ashley welcomed their son Marshall Williams, and daughter Mosley Thomson into the world. Now that he is a father, I am sure retiring has crossed his mind a lot. Peyton Manning wants to raise his children and also wants his children to have a strong father figure. Taking these stupid risks of potential life threatening injuries can easily leave his children without this. I’m sure one of Peyton’s dreams is to train his son to become an amazing football player (and I can’t wait to see it).

Peyton Manning and his wife

Peyton Manning and Wife Ashley Manning are parents of twins

If I had to guess, I would say the Manning family is in good shape financially and their children are set for life. At this point, it’s not about money, it is simply about how much this guy loves the game and his team.

I’m sure everyone sees how much Peyton Manning loves football, but every good thing has to come to an end at some point.

In my opinion, I don’t see him leaving the NFL at all. He has the perfect personality and talent to become a Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator or even NFL Analyst.

Now it is Eli’s time to come out from behind Peyton and show the world that he is an Elite Quarterback. If Peyton Manning retires or not, he will be remembered as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play.

So for Rob Lowe, whether he heard this news in WAYNE’S WORLD or took Austin Powers Time Machine to the future, we won’t know the truth until the words come out of Peyton Manning’s mouth.

 

 

Similar Strange Noises in Different Locations of Canada

Big foot in the snow makes strange noises

Can these strange noises be coming from a gigantic beast?

Story found by @camseeger

Strange noises coming out of a forest can be very creepy.

There has been recent video posts on Youtube that share very strange and similar content.

People of different parts of Canada have recorded what seems to be a loud howling sound coming from the forest.

If you don’t plan on watching the videos, you probably have come to the conclusion that it is just a wolf or animal in the forest. I thought this at first too, but after hearing the extremely loud groans for myself, I changed my mind.

In one of the videos, there is what looks like a rescue or search team in a Canadian forest. They are looking around aimlessly trying to find out where these strange noises are coming from. You might find this noise familiar if you have seen the movie Cloverfield.

It almost sounds like a gigantic space ship is hovering over the nearby atmosphere. If this is a groan from an animal, than it must be one big beast.

The other video was uploaded onto Youtube on January 15th 2012. Someone is filming their backyard, and these same exact noises are heard again. Even the dog in the background is freaked out by the noise and starts barking uncontrollably.

Viewers have come to different conclusions on what these strange noises can be.

Some people commented saying that it is definitely aliens, while others think it is completely fake and just people trying to get hits on Youtube.

The most interesting concept that has come up is that of a giant beast in the forest, Big Foot.

Imagine these are the sounds of a giant Yeti in the forests of Canada?

Most research and investigations have proven that Big Foot does not exist, but there is no definite facts proving its non existence. The only reason I am against this “Big Foot” theory is because if it is real, it has been hiding from us for years.

Why would it start making incredibly loud noises to help us track it down?

Maybe it is a hoax, maybe someone is using a sound system to get hits on youtube, and maybe it really is a gigantic beast or spaceship in the forest.

Sometimes it is fun to look at things with an open mind.

Find more STRANGE NEWS here!

Source: Huffington post Canada

 

 

 

 

Cop Punches Special Needs Woman in the Face

Jermaine Green, a 6 year army veteran that just returned home from Iraq, witnessed a LA County Sheriff punch a woman with special needs in the face.

He caught the assault on his iPhone while riding a metro bus.

The Cop threatened Green that if he did not give him the video, he would arrest him.  Green did not hand over the video knowing that he would not get arrested for this reason. The cop searched him for warrants, but he was completely clean.

Green was asked why he did not want to give the video up to the police officer.

He answered: “I think they would cover it up. I think a lot of things are covered up.”

This is a news video of the entire situation explained by Jermaine Green.

 

 

U.K. Mom Clear of Cancer After Coughing it Up

Claire Osborn smiles for the camera

Claire Osborne

Claire Osborn said that she is free of cancer after coughing up a tumor.

The 37-year-old mother of 6 was driving when she started feeling dryness in the back of her throat. She began coughing heavily, and hacked up a 3 quarter-inch tumor. She immediately went to her doctor and early tests revealed that she had a rare cancer.

Metastatic Adenocarcinoma.

This is a very aggressive form of cancer stemming in the back of the throat which is very hard to detect in its early stages.

At first, doctors told her she would need chemotherapy to kill the remaining cancer cells. They gave her a 50 % chance of surviving this aggressive cancer.

After telling her that she has a 50 % chance of dying, they ran a PET scan to find the lingering cancer, and it was gone.

Claire said:

 “The consultant said: ‘It appears you have coughed up your cancer.  Congratulations. I was totally flabbergasted, a coughing fit had saved my  life.”

Amazingly, there was no cancer left.

Dr. Gary Walton, the surgeon that treated Osborn, said it was rare for a patient to cough up cancer, but not impossible.

“We suspect the tumor grew on a stalk in the back of her mouth which is very difficult to detect, somehow she dislodged this and the stalk snapped and she coughed up the tumor.”

Dr. Kim, head of mouth and throat cancer, made it clear that coughing up a tumor is very rare, but even more rare is that there was no cancer left behind.

“It’s very rare that these types of tumors don’t require any treatments” Kim said.

Kim estimated that fewer than 5% of people accidentally find out that they have throat or mouth cancer.

“Usually there are subtler symptoms, like difficulty swallowing or speaking” he said.

Doctors told Claire Osborn that she is very lucky to have coughed up the cancer early. If it wasn’t detected so early, it would have spread to other organs quickly because of its aggressiveness.

Osborn wants the world to know that if you are coughing frequently, be safe and get it checked out because you never know what can be in the back of your throat.

Source: mirror.com

 

The World’s 5 Most Futuristic Artifacts

The Baghdad Battery:

This vase looking structure was completely designed to the specifications of how a battery would work. Found in Baghdad in deep soil and happens to be 2000 years old! What kind of person in that era would have the sophistication to develop such an advancement like a battery? Read more of this post

Creating Your Ideal Reality

The main problem that arises for many people in the area of self-development is that they feel at effect to their current condition rather than working courageously to AFFECT their current reality.

Many of us feel effected by outside external circumstances instead of deciding to AFFECT them. When you choose to affect your current state of reality, you can reap the rewards effectively.

The universe will deliver whatever you want, you just have to set out your intentions and work towards creating them. You set your intention, and the universe will respond to your thoughts by guiding you along the way as you consciously create.

Subconsciously, without you knowing the exact way, the universe will do its work if you allow it to.

Create Your Own Reality.

Nothing is going to fall in your lap.

If your intention is to earn $1,000,000 dollars, it is not going to fall from the sky.

If you stick to your intention everyday and work at it as hard as you can, the universe will open up channels of opportunities to make your thoughts a physical reality. If for one second you don’t trust in the universe, it will respond to that distrust, and close up the channels.

You will face setbacks along the way, but treat those as learning experiences rather than failures. If you get upset over failing, the universe will tune into that frequency you are vibrating in, and attract more and more failure and discontent.

You have to know that it will not be easy to change your current state of reality.

If it was easy, you would already have what you want.

But most of us don’t, right?

It wouldn’t require any effort on your part, and everyone would have what they want.

It doesn’t work that way, but if you understand the Law of Attraction, you can use it to your advantage on your creative journey of life.

You are the master creator of your reality.

You are the manifester.

You are the alchemist of your own life.

Everything you create has stemmed from yourself.

Everyone else is simply an avatar in your reality, they don’t have to exist in it if you don’t want them to.

You can turn away from people who negatively effect you, and turn towards the positive people who can help you and embrace the entire experience with you.

You have the conscious choice.

There is no one telling you a certain way to act unless you are WEAK and give into the desires of others for their advantage.

Be STRONG and overcome the influence of others if it is guiding you in a wrong direction. You subconsciously know what is right and what is wrong, but too many times you might fall into the trap of doing the wrong thing.

The “right” thing is spreading positive energy and positive ideas to every single person or “avatar” you meet in your reality.

If you try to impose positive energy into other people’s lives, they will respond equally with positive energy.

If they are stuck in a rut of negativity and don’t respond well to positive energy, you can just let them suffer by themselves and consciously find other people to help you on your trip.

If you treat everyone you meet as you would like to be treated yourself, you will be amazed at the results.

Most people will return the energy you project on to them and help you as you help them.

It works hand in hand.

Two minds are better than one and two people working towards achieving a goal is a lot easier than one.

If you have big dreams and goals, don’t feel alone.

A lot of us have deep desires that we wish we could achieve, but we limit ourselves in our beliefs. There are many people out in this world who would love to help you and join team as you both work towards building a great future.

Don’t feel isolated because you don’t think anyone else will help.

If you can inspire people to think the same way you do, they will join your team and the goals will be easier to achieve.

If I thought no one would appreciate this website and what we have done, I would not have even bothered to create it.

It has become what it has become due to a TEAM effort of conscious individuals looking to grow and prosper and share those ideals with everyone who is interested in growing themselves.

If I for one second was fearful of what people thought of us, I wouldn’t have even bothered to create this.

I would have let the fear take over and I would be too scared to even try it.

Good thing that didn’t happen.

If I can leave you with one thought, it would be to stop thinking about what you want and START ACTING ON IT.

Stop dwelling on what you DON’T want and start moving towards what you DO WANT.

TAKE ACTION!

Stop being lazy, and stop expecting things to happen overnight.

They won’t.

Take baby steps and set baby goals at the beginning of your journey.

It will be easy to achieve these goals, and you will build confidence in yourself once you achieve some little steps.

After that, you will trust in yourself that you can achieve ANYTHING you set your mind to.

This is where its gets to be A LOT OF FUN.

Share the experience with everyone you think deserves it, and you will attract some more positive opportunities and people along the way.

We did, and we continue to each day.

So what are you waiting for?

GET MOVING! :)

The Courage To Live Consciously

The Evil Eye of Fear

Living consciously is all about the elimination of FEAR.

Fear restricts us from truly going after what we want.

When you fear something, you resist it.

By resisting it, you avoid things you would normally attack and go after if fear wasn’t a factor. Fear is what keeps your evolution and growth as a conscious human being STAGNANT.

Fear of being broke, fear of rejection, fear of trying something new, fear of what others think, fear of failure, fear of humiliation, fear of being alone, and fear of public speaking are a few common fears we all experience.

How many of these fears are holding you back?

As human beings, our main concern is SECURITY.

We are taught at a young age to not take unnecessary risks, not draw attention to ourselves in public and follow family traditions. We are taught not to talk to strangers, and keep an eye out for very suspicious people. Stay safe, don’t take ANY risks.

Well as you grow up in life, you might never realize that the only way to be OUTSTANDING at something is to STAND OUT from the rest.

This involves taking RISK.

The ones who take risks, are the ones who succeed. You cannot simply sit back in your secure little world and expect to get ahead. You should have the courage to meet strangers, speak out in public and  draw attention to yourself if it is for a good cause.

By doing this you create OPPORTUNITIES for growth through new experiences, new people and new ideas that your secure old little self would never get to even scratch the surface of.

Too many of us have LIMITING BELIEFS about what we can or cannot do. Those are just illusions you have created for yourself. There is no such thing as a limiting belief if you don’t believe in limiting beliefs. Quite the concept to grasp if you aren’t experienced in the field of psychology.

Courageous people are still afraid, but they don’t let that fear paralyze them. Instead of letting fear attack their beliefs, THEY ATTACK THE FEAR and overcome their own limiting beliefs.

Eliminate Fear, Grow as a Conscious Human Being

Most people are too weak, and simply give into fear. It is hard when you have been conditioned your whole life to stay safe and stay out of harms way. While this makes sense when you are crossing the street, it doesn’t make any sense in your career and self-development.

If no one took risks, we would all be on the same page. We wouldn’t evolve either. You can’t get better if you don’t take risk. You stay the same, or even worse, you move backwards into a more self-conscious hole of security that doesn’t have room for opportunity to grow.

The courage to live consciously involves recognizing fear, learning about what fear is and how it affects you, then consciously working to eliminate it.

It is not an easy process, but it is certainly doable. If it was easy, there would be no fear in the world, and we would all be successful. That is not the case, because we value security over risk way too much as a society.

As an individual, you have the choice to take risk. It is your life, you get to do whatever the hell you want with it.

Don’t let anyone hold you back and don’t let any limiting beliefs hold you back. Once you can let go of all fear and worry, you create channels of opportunity to grow as a conscious human being.

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.
- John Wayne

How to Manage a Poker Bankroll

Your Poker Bankroll: Manage it, or Lose it.

In poker, you have one lifeline, your bankroll.

Without it, you can’t buy into any tournaments or cash games.

For this reason, the most important thing as a poker player is to protect your life. Protect your money by learning how to manage it correctly.

The basic rule of thumb in bankroll management is to not put more than 5% of your entire bankroll into a cash game or single table sit n go. For multi-table tournaments, you should not be putting more than 1-2% of your roll on the line for a buy-in.

Under these rules, if you have a bankroll of $10,000, you should not be buying in to any cash game for over $500 and no tournament over $100.

At times, there will be opportunities to stretch these limits slightly but only if the games are VERY JUICY and you know you have an advantage.

Even having an advantage in a game doesn’t GUARANTEE that you will win. Luck is always a factor in poker and if you get unlucky, it can take a huge chunk out of your roll that you will slowly have to rebuild.

I will take shots in multi-table tournaments for up to 5% of my roll if I see that the player list is very weak. I want to invest in games I know I have the opportunity to make a lot of return on my investment.

The downfall of a lot of successful players is not managing their roll correctly. They hit a big score in a tournament and then dump it off in the cash games. Keep in mind, as the stakes get higher, the competition gets better.

I use a program called PokerTracker 3 to track all of my winnings and statistics of each of my individual opponents at the tables.

With PokerTracker, I can see how much I have won/lost at a certain stakes so I can determine my long term average win rate. If you are not beating a certain stakes after 10,000 hands, you will probably never beat it until you improve your game.

Find the stake that nets you the best return, and stick to it to build your roll.

You will lose money and win money on any given day depending on a variety of factors. ALWAYS manage your roll and make sure you are playing your A+ game or don’t bother sitting down. If you are not in the right mental state, YOU WILL LOSE MONEY, and losing money causes a lot of people to LOSE EVEN MORE MONEY. They like to chase their losses hoping to win their money back and in the process, rip their entire roll to shreds.

INCORRECTLY Manages a Bankroll

Just ask Viktor “Isilidur1″ Blom about bankroll management. This gentlemen might be one of the top 5 No Limit Hold’em players in the world, but he simply cannot manage a bankroll.

I am sure he is being staked and he makes some money from his Pokerstars sponsorship, but he is the complete opposite of an example of how to manage a bankroll!

Blom has won $5,000,000 in a week, then lost it all the next.

He is a complete sicko, but that is what separates him from the others at the high stakes.

His problem like many others is TILT.

He goes on big winning streaks, but can’t cut off his losing streaks.

He is only 21 years old, so I don’t blame him.

It must be tough being a millionaire at his age!

If you are serious about developing your game, I suggest checking out some of my other articles I have written:

The Poker Trance: The Ultimate Poker Mindset

Top 10 Reasons You Should Play Poker

Top 5 Reasons You Lose at Poker

My Multi-Table Tournament Strategy

Booking The Win at Final Tables

The $3,000 Guarantee Final Table Takedown

Top 5 Heads-Up No-Limit Cash-Game Strategies

How to Develop Into a LAG (Loose-Aggressive) Player

My Most Profitable Session of Online Poker

Using a Rubberband To Squash Negative Thinking Patterns

Good luck at the tables! :)