This is my son's high school friend's blod. He is a taxi driver in Pittsburgh, PA. http://www.taxiburgh.com/ Stories are about his encounters and short conversations with his passengers. This is one of them.

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'Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance.' Confucius.

There is a 'joke' I remember from probably 50+ years ago. "Life's a bitch and then you die." This is not an unusual point of view for many, just as a new board member posted in effect on another thread. As Adviaita pointed out to him, since he obviously has an Internet connection to post here, he probably also has clean water, food and shelter. This puts him in the minority of earth's inhabitants. He is among the fortunate of earth's 7 billion. Welcome to the kindergarten.

My cousin tells me about his neighbors. Across the street an elderly retired woman has a near middle aged son who is paranoid schizophrenic and lived with her. His social worker sent the police out to their home because he was not taking his medications and getting worse, apparently now a crime in America! Instead of sending a squad trained for this kind of duty, they sent a mixture of plain street cops and swat team members. When they came in like "gang busters" and threatened to break in his bedroom door, he came out. However being a paranoid schizophrenic with a long standing diagnosis as such and off of his medications, he came out and pepper sprayed the cops. In retaliation, he has been held in the local jail for 6 months in the general population while the judge kept putting off a decision. Finally the judge committed him to the state hospital for treatment to get him stabilized on drugs with the intention that when he is judged 'sane' again, he will be put on trial. However it will be at least a month of further incarceration for him without trial or protection of his rights or adjudication because it will take that long for a bed to open up in the state hospital. The lawyer his mother hired took the $5000 she gave him out of her savings, his up front demand to do anything, and appears to have done very little in exchange. Welcome to the kindergarten.

My cousin was going to take in a boarder but has decided that at his age and condition he cannot because the young man is too dysfunctional and has seizures that he is afraid he could not deal with on top of everything else. The kid, who lives with his elderly and also dysfunctional mother, was about to go off of his food stamps and medicaid and etc. and was given a sheaf of papers to fill out and get them back to the office within 10 days in order to keep his services. So instead he heads off to his grandmother's house down the state for Christmas and does not return in time to file the papers. He came back to town on a bus and didn't turn his cell phone on. His mother is frantic with worry because he is walking the 3 miles back home from the bus stop at night carrying heavy luggage and he cannot be reached on his turned off cell phone. His mother drives my cousin frantic trying to push dealing with this off on him when he has no car and does not drive. The kid could ride his bicycle to the nearest food stamp office but instead has been going to an office across town by bus with great difficulty because no one has sense enough to look it up and see that there is an office easily within bicycling distance which I looked up for them. The reason that he wants to live elsewhere is that his brother, who is not very functional either and also lives with his mother, hates him and makes him live in a storage shed in the back yard. Welcome to the kindergarten.

It feels like bailing out a leaking and sinking boat using a teaspoon for a bailer. But it is our job to do the best we can in terms of interacting with all of these dysfunctional others out there. That is what Tom would teach us through MBT. Interact with the best Intent. You are your brother's keeper. As another old saying goes, either you are part of the solution or you are part of the problem. The feedback as part of this training here in the PMR kindergarten refines our digital minds as IUOCs so that our entropy is gradually lowered and the quality of our consciousness is gradually improved. It does not sound like fun nor is it by any rational definition. It is however our purpose in being here. As your quality improves sufficiently, you start to be of value in bringing up the quality of those with whom you interact. You transition from kindergartener to part of resident staff. It is hard to see that any progress is being made as you bail the boat with your teaspoon but the score is not kept here. This is however the place, among many other PMRs, where the cutting edge lies. The place where the work gets done of lowering the entropy of all of those IUOCs of which you are each just one of trillions.

Ted

Taxi drivers get a lot of opportunity for interactions. Thank you Lena.
Love
Bette

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All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Ted, two toes up on the post!

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

This touches on the idea I have been thinking about regarding "gaming" the simulation by choosing activities that intensify your interactions with others, as well as variety of experience in this regard

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

This reminds me of a movie about a guy who's a well-to-do best selling author that intentionally decides to become a taxi driver, to interact with people as a normal person. He wins the heart of some famous supermodel because he treats her like a normal person, what she really wants.

This pmr is hardcore btw, I felt like Maximoong in his "I don't want to evolve" thread MANY times. Try growing up a spoiled brat with a lot of money, then losing everything and being forced to live with bipolar, schizophrenic, drug-addict, criminal uncles who invite homeless people over for drugs, blasting music 24/7, and want to kill you when you dont give them money for drugs when they run out. All while trying to go to school. Not fun.

but it's all good now ;) lol

LIke Ted says, It might sometimes feel like bailing out a leaking boat filling with water with a spoon.



I suppose that Gandhi said it best...




I would say that it only SEEMS insignificant. In the BIG picture, every spoon helps.
If there are enough spoons working together...who KNOWS...

We need more spoons. Calling all spoons....

Reminds me of the cartoon superhero "The Tick", That was his battlecry...


SPOON!!!

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LOVE is the answer

peace
patrick

wow, that sounds like great data

tell us more!

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

lol... more interactions from this rough kindergarden? There's a lot, maybe in another thread if you guys want it. The following would be the conclusion to me crazy life:

I've suffered so much I just don't give a damn anymore. I could care less about money, marriage, status, psi, and even out of body exploration. I just want to be happy. This is why I meditate.

a quote:

"We live in the worst possible world.
Any world slightly worse than this one, would cease to exist." - Arthur Shopenhauer

(in other words, a slightly harsher world would be so unstable it couldn't exist) and maybe he's right, this kindergarden can be hardcore.

Maybe look at it this way Willmeister - would you rather live a life as a rich spoiled person and make no headway on your consciousness or be challenged and work your way up the ladder? Look at all you've learned by having your circumstances change and having to rise to the occasion.

Perhaps your first step to happiness is gratitude.

I agree, Sainbury. Sorry if I came across a bit negative. The years have forged a tough guy attitude in me, I can assure you what I meant held no spite, though it may seem that way.

I've adapted to and danced with the drama all along.

Because of it all, my sense of well-being is more constant, and less easily shaken. What most people consider a "rainy day," I hardly notice. Looking back, I owe my diplomacy and rapport skills from dealing with madmen, who could at any moment do some horrible things I won't even mention. I've noticed that people gravitate to me in tense situations because of this sense of unshakeability they take shelter in, so to speak. It does a lot of good. I enjoy being in places full of disorder, just to help others along :) It's hard to explain, but whatever, there it is lol.

Dido.

Oogie boogie ghouls who wouldn't leave a scratch in NPMR are given the keys to a reality where they can inflict tangible pain and suffering on others. Welcome to the kindergarten.

Psychopaths rise to the heights of power/wealth/status simply because their very nature(machine-like single-mindedness, zero concern for others, immunity to outside criticism) allows them to win the 'game' while normal folks who just want to be good and do good lose because their goodness(concern for others, conscience) short-circuits their ability to win at that same 'game'. Welcome to the kindergarten.

Humans have emotional hot buttons and can be easily manipulated. The psychopaths know this and use it to their advantage by manipulating the masses. Little pockets of truth pop up occasionally but is drowned out by the entranced masses who act as unwitting human shields for the psychopaths, who continue to get away with murder on a daily basis and without consequence. Welcome to the kindergarten.

When you confront a ghoul about their behavior, they give you a snarl. When you complain to an enlightened being(a la Tom) about the ghouls they give you a snarl and tell you to mind your own business(literally). Welcome to the kindergarten. ;)




I hope Ted doesn't mind me borrowing his style, heh.

You are welcome to it as I can't seem to recognize it.

You misunderstand what Tom has to say:Tom does not tell you with a snarl or otherwise to mind your own business but rather explains that if you think to raise the QoC of another, you cannot as you can only deal with, as in raise, your own QoC. That is entirely a different matter than an admonishment to mind your own business.

Do you not remember Tom saying that it was Intent that mattered? That optimizing free will was the goal? That this means that it is recognized that there will be conflicts regarding free will and who gets their way. It is desirable and acceptable when a 'ghoul' attacks the free will of others, including when others includes those who cannot protect themselves, to oppose the free will of the oppressor. In fact it is somewhat of a duty to protect those who cannot protect themselves as opposed to saying 'mind your own business'. Trying to raise the consciousness of an oppressor might be and probably is a waste of time, especially if they are in fact psychopaths. They will simply have no connection to what you say. But opposing them to protect yourself and others is not a waste of time or undesirable in any way.

Please try to understand this clarification.

Ted

I understood what he meant perfectly Ted, I was just being sarcastic but thanks for the great explanation anyway. As are most things that Tom says, it makes perfect logical sense but because he delivers the truth in such a pure form it can be hard for poor kindergartners like myself to take at times. :P (kind of like a kid tasting alcohol)

I feel the same when he says we're not here to have fun. Yes, I know what he means but still....booooooooo.

>:(