Neurodharma

So I haven't actually listened to a single podcast but I subscribed to Buddhist Geeks because, well, I'm a geek and a Buddhist. Seems like a fit to me.
But I _do_ have them on twitter, and while yes as an IT nerd it causes me physical pain to type out that sentence I do actually follow about 6 twitter streams.
 
Anyway I found this article amazingly interesting. It's an article by
 
It's a transcript of their interview with Rick Hanson a PHD in neuropsychology and  Theravadan Buddhist
The coolest part is that in it he covers a bunch of stuff about physiologically why we are the way the Buddha says we are. or said, or does,whatever

stupid Zen.

But the best part is that it's not just all hot air. There is actual practical useful information in there on how to make your meditation more effective and ways to help ensure that the meditation makes it with you into the real world.
'real'

the place where you live and interact. The place where you really could use the meditation but really don't have the time.

-DB

Food

I'm starting a new thing here on BNZ.* Food product reviews. Vegetarianism is a bit of a hot topic in the arena of Buddhism and if you're reading this site you're probably an idiot, I mean you're probably not your average tree hugging hippie the way that so many of us* of Americans who find Buddhism are.

So while in principle I agree with the Idea that meat analogs (fake meats) are lame and why can't you just eat veg without trying to make it look like a turkey. In practice it's a different story. My old man was raised in Oklahoma for most of his life. He ran a restaurant in a Major hotel there. I grew up eating meat, Lots of meat. In fact I don't think I ever cooked a vegetable more than 30 times from the time I started cooking*** until I got married.****

So now that I am veg I still have a lot of homey happy associations with the carcass foods. Turkey on thanksgiving, cold turkey for days afterwards. I know the difference between the white and dark and actually know how to make giblet gravy that is fantastically awesome and not totally gross.***** As well as a whole lifetimes full of eating burgers and other crap.

So while we do eat a lot of just veg stuff we also tend to supplement with some sort of veggie strip or 'chicken nuggets' a couple of times a week. though honestly we do those probably because they're fricking easy and fast rather than preparing a whole meal.

And since transitioning from non-veg to veg is much easier when you can eat the same foods. I'll give some run downs on some foods that make the cut and some that don't and hopefully some things that make the switch easier. Usually it's not the 'meat' flavor that you're missing but the huge hit of salt and fat and savory that usually come with it.

Ironically I was inspired by my friends over at Lords of Bacon who have finally been talking about bacon, the love of their life for long enough that someone out there is actually going to be giving them bacon so they can do a review. Congrats to the boys over at LOB and now you'll have to do an actual real review instead of a 30 second text vomit like most of your posts. ^_^

So you can expect a fake bacon review coming up in the not too distant future.
From me.
Not them.

* Did I really just acronym myself?
** I say us because even though I cuss a lot and I like martial arts and shooting guns I am still a bit of a tree hugging hippie kind of deep down.
*** something like 12 or 14.
**** later
***** The trick is first to boil it down several times for like 10 hours and then blend the shit instead of leaving all those gross assed hunks of giblets.

Right Effort Right Concentration

Right now I am practicing neither. I've been at work for about an hour now and probably put in 15 minutes of work. The rest has been Buddhist stuff and an email conversation with my wife.

Now I'm writing a blog entry about spirituality.

But I feel like I need the way. I've often in my life felt the desire to do something like become a priest. To teach people the joy and love that can be attained through spirituality but to teach them something that didn't suck. Most of what I've viewed as Christianity didn't qualify. I never considered the idea of becoming a Buddhist monk because like most of you I have this idea that they're all head shaved ascetics who live in a monastery and don't have any fun.

let alone sex.

But recently I've learned that isn't true anymore. Sure there still are tons that do but there's also tons of well respected monks like Nishijima Roshi that worked for a cosmetics company for years. And some less respected but no less well versed in the Dharma like Brad Warner who worked for a company that made Godzilla movies till he got to the point where he could make money on his books and on speaking engagements.

Does this mean I want to be a monk?

I don't know really. That's sort of a big commitment and I don't know if I'm up to it.

I'm not even certain why am I considering it. Is it because I think I'll achieve some magical sense of peace and no longer be concerned with these worldly toils? Probably, but then logically I know this isn't true. On the other hand there will be some sort of calm that comes from the true realization that we are all one, connected, interconnected, the same. That all this suffering in the world is transitory and not real. Things that I know with my head but still don't quite stick in my daily life.

If I did then how would I support my family?

I don't know. I think I do want to take the precepts, a zen ceremony. Hopefully I can make it tonight but I think I need to restart a server for someone. Maybe I can get a coworker to do that and I can go discuss it with my teachers. I'll shoot for that.

Monk hood. Am I being selfish instead of wanting to do it to help people?

maybe

Is my sudden re-conversion to Buddhism stemming from some stupid new-agey kinda hippy bullshit.
probably

Is there a larger part of me that has always felt that God has been talking to him?

Yes.

Am I getting back to work now and planning on accomplishing something?

Definitely