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Asoka

The wise king

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Saturday, 26 Feb 2022, 19:19

COVID is absolutely horrendous. I have never had anything quite like this before. It is fecking horrible.

It certainly puts one to the test does sickness, it is quite tiring remembering to try and see the dhamma (four noble truths) in each moment and to disengage from the pain and not suffer, only to wish it would stop the next moment, then remembering dhamma again. I don’t know how advanced practioners do it, how they manage to not suffer when in pain, but I really respect and admire them. Sickness definitely humbles one.

Still I feel an odd peace, my life has not been wasted. I have grown spiritually and that’s all that matters in the end. The true wealth is within. I may be poor and considered a loser by the standards of the material world, but spiritually I feel like I have been very fortunate and the thought occured to me if I die now I don’t mind at all, I feel I can go with some peace and dignity and no regrets.

There’s a story in the suttas about a wise king who answered the Buddha skillfully when he asked him what he would do if armies where coming for him in all directions crushing everything in their path, and the king answered he would practise generosity.

I am not wealthy like the king, but generosity doesn’t have to be just about money. One can be generous in all sorts of ways. Even in poverty and lieing in bed sick one can still practise generosity by sending metta (loving-kindness) energy to others. And a mind imbued with loving-kindness is an excellent state of mind to be in when sick and also at the moment of death.

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Asoka

Strange virus

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Wednesday, 23 Feb 2022, 21:57

I am feeling better today, but my son is still unwell with COVID. He is seventeen, so am suprised he has had it much worse than I have being middle-aged. It is a strange virus how it affects everyone differently.

I read that the USA has been developing a chimera version of COVID by mixing it with the original SARS, to create a more deadly and aggressive form of the virus. In fact they may already have created it. The reasons for doing so are not very clear. Apparently it is dual-purpose, but I suspect one of the purposes is for the military. Madness. Such research should be banned worldwide, as if it isn't bad enough we have nuclear weapons of mass-destruction, now we are creating biological weapons of mass destruction. We really are doomed as a species if we carry on the way we are.

I also read an article about how the so-called 'Life sciences' are creating technologies to kill off entire species of animals and plants that are considered pests. I thought the Nazis had been defeated, but it seems they are still alive and well and still playing with science. I wonder if this is a consequence of operation paperclip, where Nazi scientists where whisked away to the US, Britain and Russia. Given new identities and amnesty if they worked for those governments. Some went on to occupy high positions in NASA and the CIA, and God knows where else in society. Quite a chilling thought as many of them where insane unpleasant people.

I don't think using life science to wipe out entire species that we consider a nuisance is a good idea. The Chinese tried to get rid of sparrows believing them to be a pest that was damaging their crops. So they wiped out loads of them, but an unexpected thing happened, they made things worse, and the harvest got ruined by caterpillars that the sparrows had been eating.

This looming future with our new Life science technology is something that gives me the creeps, honestly the amount of arrogance and ignorance we humans show to nature and the other beings and eco-systems around us is going to be the end of us as a species I think. We are like kids playing with loaded guns, no, we are kids playing with weapons and technology of mass destruction. We have not evolved much in terms of the mind whilst playing with science that could destroy everything on the planet.

We are even in the middle of the sixth mass extinction event and still we are creating weapons of mass destruction and technology that has the potential to make things worse. We are building more nuclear power stations while we are still clueless about what to do with the nuclear waste.

We talk about war, but our biggest threat is the mass extinction event happening around us.

War is like two humans who have jumped off a cliff and are shooting at each other as they fall to their deaths.

This human world is madness.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Darren Menachem Drapkin, Thursday, 24 Feb 2022, 12:02)
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Asoka

Inner wealth

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Tuesday, 22 Feb 2022, 13:00

Focusing on getting this assignment done for the module I am studying. Fatigue is quite challenging at the moment, I find myself reaching a point where I just have to stop and rest, because the body says: 'Nope'. 

I have been granted a four day extension for the assignment after emailing my tutor, although he didn't reply to let me know I have an extension. I only just found out by checking my assessment tab. He is probably really busy and that's why he didn't reply, either that or doesn't like me very much. I imagine I am just being paranoid with the latter conclusion. 

It is a problem I have where I often feel like others dislike me.I am trying to learn how to have the courage to be disliked, so it doesn't affect me anymore. The thoughts are challenging though, whirring away on loops reminding me I am crap and everyone hates me, I should top myself... blah blah blah, so tiring, and the more I try to stop them the worse they get, like some part of my brain is determined to make me feel miserable. It no doubt comes from past conditioning. 

Meditation has been somewhat helpful in giving me some ability to disengage from the thought processes and just let them happen in the background like any of the other senses without being particularly concerned by them. Maybe it is true that people don't like me much. But I give up trying to please others, it is a miserable existence trying to live like that. I try my best with this difficult mind I have, I'm not perfect, and doubt I ever will be, but I am trying. 

Pain and pleasure; wealth and misfortune; success and failure; praise and blame. These are the eight worldly winds.

Ultimately we are all alone, we are all islands, locked into our minds. I am trying to practise self-compassion and how to be a friend to myself, even when my brain seems determined to be my enemy. I will keep trudging forward and persevere.  

 Anyway quarantine certainly gives me plenty of time to hopefully finish this assignment, it is not easy and the materials are challenging. Still if I can get the hang of it, my career prospects may improve, although energy is a big factor causing me problems just now. Often need to liedown and sleep when the fatigue gets overwhelming. I honestly do not think I will ever be able to work full time again, many of the jobs in Computing and IT are fulltime, but I just can't work the long hours expected, so not sure where all this studying will lead in the end. 

There's not much I can do about it, other than try my best. It is a bloody difficult world at the moment for many of us. Economics is messed up and cost of living is getting ridiculous, perhaps we are heading towards a 'hunger games' society. It is not an easy world to survive in and make a living. But I don't feel like my life has been for nothing, I may not be a success careerwise, but I have discovered the dhamma and the Buddha's teachings in my lifetime, which is more than the majority of people do. And when I die those teachings will be with me, so I won't feel confused or regret for having wasted my life. I might be a loser by worldly material standards, but I very much feel like a winner when it comes to the spiritual life, when it comes to unworldly standards. So despite my financial struggles, my health problems, this life has not been wasted. It has been a turning point, a time of spiritual growth, which in the end is the most important thing of all.


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Asoka

Endemica

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Friday, 24 Dec 2021, 23:03

Sadly I think we are going to have to cancel our Christmas plans of travelling down South. As I don't want to risk getting stranded or use public transport if they suddenly announce lockdowns. I also don't fancy wearing a facemask for six hours on the train. Plus Scotland is getting increasingly uncertain about what sort of restrictions might be coming, and it is possible it might be difficult getting over the border.

They should just let omicron go endemic and become the dominant strain as it is fairly mild. And also constantly vaccinating everyone means the virus will be more likely to mutate to evade the vaccines and then there's a risk of it becoming more deadly because of excessive vaccination. Apparently this has happened in the past with vaccines. Honestly, the unvaxxed are heroes and are doing everyone a favour if they catch COVID, as natural immunity is much better protection for the herd. Not that I am criticising anyone for getting vaccinated. I respect other people's decisions, I wish they would respect mine and not believe all the hype. People should have the right not to play a game of chance with their health or lives by being forced to have an experimental medical procedure. I firmly believe this. And I will be standing my ground on that, even when the Nazis of the Fourth Reich come knocking on my door to take me away to a concentration camp, just kidding, or am I?  

The truth seems to be that Big pharma doesn't want to lose the huge profits it's making from these vaccines. And all this stuff about protecting the NHS is bollocks. It's the government who are to blame for problems with the NHS, they have been systematically undermining and destroying the NHS for years, a planned demolitian job; there's now 50% less hospital beds than there was in the 1980s, and a much larger UK population in 2021. So don't believe what the government are saying, and don't blame the unvaxxed for the over-stretched health service, it isn't their fault. If you need to point a finger at someone, point it at Westminster.

Here's a not so fun fact: a third of hospital beds in the UK are currently being taken up by old people who no longer need to be in hospital but have nowhere to go due to lack of social care available for them. And also there are more vaccinated patients in hospital just now than unvaccinated. So the government and media is full of shit. It is just pointing the finger at the unvaxxed because they make an easy scapegoat at the moment. It is an old tactic, governments have always used scapegoats to distract, divide and conquer; and sadly much of the public seems quite happy to go along with it, almost everyone likes to have someone to point the finger at and blame for their problems, someone to hate. It is a political tactic as old as human civilization.

Anyway I am still standing my ground in this corner of the world, and will continue to do so. And if like me you are declining the vaccine and sometimes get a bit of flack (for what inmho is a sensible decision) and need a good factual counter-argument, then read this letter written by a law firm who have written to the government with proof the jabs are causing harm and are seeking an injunction. 

https://pjhlaw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/letterMHRA.pdf 

The unvaxxed are well within their rights to decline these experimental injections, and in doing so are no threat to anyone whatsoever, in fact they are doing society a huge favour if they catch COVID as natural immunity to COVID has better and longer lasting protection than these experimental vaccines that you have to keep having boosters of. Those who have acquired natural immunity to COVID don't need booster jabs. And over-vaccinating the population can increase the risk that the virus will be forced to mutate faster to evade the regular boosters and as a result potentially become something more deadly. So unlike what the media and politicians tell you, the unvaxxed, (or refuseniks as the media likes to call them) are actually the unsung heroes in this pandemic. Hats off to them I say.

What threat exactly are the unvaccinated to society? 


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Asoka

What threat exactly are the unvaccinated to the vaccinated?

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Saturday, 11 Dec 2021, 23:59

This is very interesting, well worth a listen if you can spare five minutes.

'In a population of what 68 million, what threat exactly are the 5 million who choose not to be vaccinated going to be? Bearing in mind that two thirds of those who are unvaccinated will have already caught COVID and have acquired natural immunity, which is superior to any vaccine and lasts much longer, (for example, people who caught SARS still have immunity to it 17 years later, and SARS has gone now) so if you have already caught COVID and have natural immunity you are actually doing the population a favour not getting vaccinated, as natural immunity is a stronger protection and a bigger help towards herd immunity as it lasts for much longer than a jab you have to keep having a booster of every 3 months. And lets not pretend that there aren't people in hospital being treated for vaccine injuries, because there are, however much we would like to brush that under the carpet. There are also double-jabbed people catching COVID and passing it on to other people who are double-jabbed. There is also evidence that the side effects of the vaccine are worse if you have already caught COVID. So why on Earth would someone who has acquired a natural immunity to COVID still need to be vaccinated? It makes no sense. The idea of mandating a vaccine that hasn't been licensed is bizarre.'

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Asoka

Re-Break

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Friday, 24 Dec 2021, 23:04

Feel a distinct lack of anything today. Feel a bit dead inside. Although I did start the day with a fair bit of anger this morning, and yes it did upgrade itself to hatred for a moment, I even expressed my hatred out loud to the universe (as if it gave a shit, lol), I confess I felt pure hatred, but now that tempest of a storm has passed and frozen me into an ice king. Can't feel much love, joy, pleasure, compassion, empathy, can't feel much of anything really. Just an apathetic sludge of dispassion. I guess that is the punishment for not abandoning hatred when it arose in the mind. Still there's an assignment to do, and I am struggling with it, but intend to get it completed by the deadline. 

I hear fresh calls on the media to go after the unvaxxed and punish them for not wanting to take a chance on an experimental medical procedure, one that offers no compensation if you get injured by it or die. And let me repeat, if I get seriously ill I won't bother the healthcare system whatsoever, so the media can fck off with its guilt trips, harking on about how the refuseniks should be punished because they will overstretch the health service and make it unavailable for the holier-than-thou vaxxed. I promise you if I get seriously ill with covid I will not bother the NHS whatsoever, I will of course quarantine myself for 14 days so I don't pass it on to anyone else. 

 They should just let omicron go endemic, it will become the dominant strain then, and seen as it is being reported in different parts of the world as mild and harmless, it seems the most logical thing to do. Lockdowns and restrictions may no longer be necessary. I even heard (Singapore I think) saying they were considering letting it go endemic due to how harmless this new strain seems to be. Omicron could be a gift that puts an end to this pandemic. I don't understand why the government are so pushy with the vaccine, especially with kids and young adults who are more at risk of harm from the vaccine than the virus. Natural immunity is much better. And the covid vaccines don't prevent one transmitting the virus to others anyway. The vaccines are just there for people to protect themselves if they choose to, but the vaxxed can still catch and spread covid. I feel like a broken record though, I have written about my views on this before, so won't bore any readers with it again. Other than think for yourselves, and don't trust the mainstream media or any government, they have lied to us before about many things in the past, nothing is what it seems. Look at who is making the money, the big bucks. I imagine a mandatory regular booster may be a huge kerching! for someone out there (cough.. big pharma.. cough).

The thought of mandatory vaccines gives me the creeps. There's a reason the Geneva convention protects our human right to decline a medical procedure, as such things can be abused by dodgy governments, don't forget WWII and the horror of the Nazis, because if we aint careful we may end up sleep-walking into the fourth reich. Our human rights should always be protected.

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Asoka

Strange times

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Tuesday, 30 Nov 2021, 18:03

When a friend went to get her jab, she was given a medical consent form to sign, which had a box she had to tick saying she understood that the vaccine was an experimental medical procedure and if there are any adverse effects, neither the people administering the jab, nor anyone else will be held liable for any damage caused.  

So basically, if one does have an adverse reaction, which many people have (check out the data on the yellow card scheme), one is on their own, with no compensation and no-one who can be held accountable for any injury caused by the vaccine. 

So I think people are well within their rights to refuse these experimental COVID vaccines and shouldn't be made to feel bad for declining. All this mass pressure and coercion to get vaxxed is wrong. 

The new COVID variant: Omicron, which sounds like a transformer, (maybe it's a decepticon). The scientist credited with discovering it Dr. Angelique Coetzeep was speaking to Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk Radio about omicron, and said:

“Patients I’ve seen with it had mild symptoms and recovered. None were admitted and no oxygen was needed. The hype makes no sense to me at all.”

So why are the media and government hyping it up?

Is there something fishy going on? If I question it, I just get labelled a conspiracy theorist, ridiculed or made to feel bad for practising some critical thinking. 

Bad governments like to have a war on something, it is a classic way to distract the people, used throughout history.

 By choosing to be unvaccinated I am harming noone. And if I do get seriously ill from catching COVID I will accept it, I won't put any pressure on the NHS and won't go to the hospital for treatment. And if I die I won't feel any regret for declining the jab, I have done nothing wrong, it is my choice. I am not a bad person for doing this.

 I am no threat at all. 

The vaccine does not stop a person catching or transmitting the virus. These vaccines only protect the person who has been vaccinated not anybody else. The viral load for a vaccinated person is pretty much the same as the viral load for someone who is unvaccinated. Being vaccinated does not stop the spread of the virus or protect those who are vulnerable, (other people can still catch COVID off you, even if you're triple-vaxxed). There is absolutely no need to vaccinate everyone, especially young people who get COVID mild. In fact children are at greater risk of harm from the vaccine than from the virus. It makes no sense to me, it is very strange and illogical, and the media is full of double-speak and misinformation at the moment. 

I also heard on the radio that many people in care homes have died, something that isn't been talked about much. They didn't say what the cause of death was but hinted it could be due to lack of staff.

Maybe there's not much use to writing my thoughts on this. I have no power to change what is happening in the world, it is outside my control. And I certainly don't want to divide people with my words, just merely offer my thoughts for whatever they're worth. The only control I have really is the choices I make for myself. We will all have to wait and see how this plays out in the end - time will tell.

 All my Buddhist friends have been fully-vaccinated, and they don't agree with my stance but they also don't judge me. 

It can be lonely being someone who stands on the edge and doesn't follow the herd. But sometimes I think people like that are necessary.


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Asoka

I do not trust the media or politicians

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Saturday, 27 Nov 2021, 13:54

There are reports of footballers and athletes collapsing from myocarditis on the field and going to hospital, all quite close together in a short period of time, one cannot help but wonder if it is something to do with these COVID vaccines?

I also disagree with the decision to vax kids with experimental COVID vaccines, as the chances of getting myocarditis from the vaccines are much greater in young people, and the virus hardly touches young people anyway, they get it very mild and sail through it. These COVID vaccines don't stop one from catching and transmitting COVID, so I don't understand why the government is planning to vax children as young as 5 years old. Something doesn't feel right and I again feel the need to speak out about it, as the mainstream media is full of misinformation and as it has done repeatedly in the past over other things (such as the Iraq invasion, the Hillsborough tragedy and the blatant lies about and character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn being just a few examples), it has a track record of misleading people into believing things that aren't true to support the government's agenda.

 I have a heart murmur, and as these vaccines do carry a risk of developng myocarditis I don't feel comfortable injecting experimental MRNA technology into my arm. Because if something does go wrong noone can help me, or (like what happened to someone locally who had an adverse reaction to the vaccine) the doctors and nurses will fob me off and tell me it is nothing to do with the vaccine. There is this vibe now in society that nobody is allowed to criticize the vaccines at all, and anyone who does so is ostracised and made to feel bad. Things are way too biased at the moment and I don't trust it at all when things get like that.

Besides, I think I may already have had COVID (twice), so does a doctor I saw when I described the symptoms, but I never got tested because it was early in the pandemic during the first lockdown and there were no tests available at the time, so I may already have natural immunity which research is showing is much better than a vaccine. See what is happening in India where it has become endemic and the virus has stopped spreading and mutating due to natural immunity.

There is also strong evidence showing asthma sprays are able to prevent one getting severe COVID as well as vitamin C, Zinc and vitamin D3. The treatments and medical knowledge about COVID is also much better now than at  the beginning of the pandemic. 

And by the way I am not anti-vax or a conspiracy theorist, I have had vaccines in the past, and I believe the tetanus jab saved my life. I just do not feel comfortable with being coerced into having a new experimental technology injected in me that nobody can possibly know what the long-term effects on my health might be.

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Asoka

New blog post

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Wednesday, 24 Nov 2021, 05:50

I feel the need to speak out against the misinformation being spread by politicians and much of the media. 

Both The Lancet Journal and The BMJ have published evidence showing that, “Adults who have been fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 can carry the same viral load of the delta variant as those who are unvaccinated.” 

Oxford University scientist Carl Heneghan said that, “the evidence is clear that the viral load of the vaccinated and unvaccinated is very similar, it doesn’t reduce transmission.” Heneghan was speaking to Talk Radio.

Gibraltar and Israel are two of the most vaccinated places on Earth – yet infections continue to increase in both places.

To quote the historian Neil Oliver:

'History shows bad governments often look for people to blame, often some of their own people. Uniting a large part of the population against a smaller part – giving frightened, angry people a focus for their frustrations, and also for their disgust – is as old as the hills.

If the 20th century has a lesson for us, a lesson that ought to be as permanent, as indelible as any scar, or tattoo, it is that encouraging citizens to regard a minority of their fellows as unclean, as vectors of disease, generally ends badly, badly for everyone.'

https://www.gbnews.uk/a/161746


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Asoka

To vax or not to vax

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Friday, 21 Jan 2022, 21:36
I will continue to stand my ground on refusing the vaccine, even if it means I get fined and imprisoned like the government have decided to do to the unvaccinated in Austria. I will not be forced into having an experimental medical procedure with no data on any possible long term side effects. I have a right to do so under the Geneva convention, which was set up after WWII to prevent a repeat of the appalling medical experiments done by Nazi scientists. 

 I also have a strong intuitive feeling not to have the covid vaccine, and I have had dreams warning me not to have the vaccine. I trust my intuition more than I trust the government and the propaganda machine of the mainstream media. I don't trust them, they're liars. They manipulate us with fear and have been caught out lying to us over and over in the past. Don't believe the hype. The reason hospitals are struggling is because the Tory government have been practising austerity for over a decade now, leaving the NHS seriously underfunded and at breaking point well before the pandemic started.

 If this vaccine is so great why do you need three doses? And why are fully vaxxed people filling up the hospitals? And the argument that the vaccine stops you infecting others is bullshit. If you are vaccinated you can still catch and infect others with the virus. So vaxxing kids is completely unnecessary, the vaccine is actually more harmful to children than the virus itself. There's something fishy going on with these vaccines I feel. I don't trust it.

I also disagree with testing on animals, all synthetic medicine is tested on animals, and that doesn't rest easy on my mind. Every  being values their life, and other animals don't want to be experimented on, but they don't get a choice, humans just bully, exploit and abuse them. They are living beings that suffer and feel pain, what right do we have to treat them the way we do? This idea that some lives are more valuable than others is the root of all that is wrong with this world.

Anyway, what I write here makes no difference to what is happening in the world. I am just a tiny insignificant part of the population and governments are getting heavier on the unvaccinated and I imagine I will be increasingly ostrasized by society for refusing to play ball. But I won't be co-erced, and when things get heavier, I plan to turn my back on the world and disappear into the wilderness. I feel alone anyway. 

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Gill Burrell, Saturday, 20 Nov 2021, 18:05)
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