BUDDHISM and curing HEP C

 FROM PATCH.COM

C. Pierce Salguero, an associate professor of Asian history and religious studies at the Abington campus, says that his new book, Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and the Skeptical, is designed for readers seeking to learn about a different spiritual tradition or those looking to understand the roots of their mindfulness practice.

"It's for people who are not necessarily lining up to go to mindfulness classes but feel there might be some value and who want to see what the tradition entails," Salguero said in a statement. "Others might want some background information."

The author said the book offers a broad overview of Buddhism and looks at the eastern spiritual practice in a more objective and balanced way.

As for the term that he coined, "Buddhish," Salguero says it goes in line with his on-again, off-again relationship with the faith throughout the years.

Find out what's happening in Upper Moreland-Willow Grovewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I've been Buddhist-adjacent as a fan and critic and scholar of this tradition my whole adult life," he said in his statement.

Salguero said he spent around 18 months writing the book, which also highlights time he spent at a Thai monastery and also touches on his years living in Asia.

"In some respects, this is the product of 25 years of investigations and reading about Buddhism," he stated.

Visit here to learn more about the author.

***

When I worked as a psychotherapist at Bristol Bensalem Human Services, which has subsequently been razed, I would upon occasion drive over to a Buddhist monestery.

Would enter these huge iron gates and eat lunch on a park bench. Colleague Gregorio, as I called him, would occasionally join me there.

Once we attended a Buddhist service there. I think we had to sit in lotus position for hours. 

Congregants bring them food.

They did have a cock-a-doo-doo-DOO rooster who crowed when he felt like it.

This is reminiscent of when Scott and I strolled the outside of Pennypack Trust off Terwood Road on one of "Mike's Hikes."

This morning we visited Dr Jeffery Berman who explained the new and effective treatment for HEP C.

First his secretary Dara will make sure I have the proper insurance.

Amazing to think how easy it is now to 'cure' the disease. 98 percent effective. 

Heat - Coffee - and E O Wilson

 

The late Edmond O Wilson - 1929 - 2021 - age 91.

June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, and writer. His specialty was myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he was called the world's leading expert,^[3][4] and he was nicknamed Ant Man.^[

In the Wiki entry he called himself an agnostic, not an atheist.

Am sipping my Folger's Instant Coffee now in THE DAILY GRIND cup I bought at Giant.

And yes I am making loud sipping noises.

Sean, the HVAC man, was here earlier. He removed the faucets in the upstairs shower and is going to his Fox Chase office with friend Bill to purchase new parts.

THE DAILY GRIND

 

Ed, I have always been a fan and

now you may find out what is beyond

our earthly life.

Sail sail sail upward

A big smile upon your face

Leaving us mortals

In the dark. 

THE BLUE GLASS - written many yrs ago

 THE BLUE GLASS

One morning I woke up with that feeling of “ugh”:
I haven’t written a good poem in nearly a month.

Only yesterday
I called and invited myself over.
Slipped on my black clogs
and walked out the front door
to the wild cheering of
birds – a woodpecker going at it -
o, succulent insects! I love you so -
a dog barking
at some
real or imagined threat
to his master.

the wind was rising
as I crossed Cowbell,
you couldn’t see it,
only its emissaries
the northwesters
and southeasters
blowing my hair and
light spring jacket
as I walked up the hill that was
the Kiernans’ front yard

As I stood awaiting entry I turned around
and looked at our street from
their point of view.
The Kiernan slant. Could be the name
of a magazine.

Neil’s garden, across the street,
a horticulture student at Ambler, who
in a greenhouse far away
devises hybrids of daylilies,
Neil was a wonder, a man with
a red pick-up, but his
day lilies? Whoa, back to the labor’atory with ya, Neil.
The colors are dismal.
Not on the ROY P VIG spectrum,
as we know it,
though don’t you really wonder madly
about the colors our poor eyes can’t see?

A quick glance at my own house
tucked in among the others
lovely, yellow, flowerless in March,
the little kitchen
they’d put on sticking out like
a shoebox of marvelous windows,
you should see how lovely it looks at night when you
round the bend in the darkness and the
kitchen is all lit up with Dan in there
heating up his processed food in the microwave

Hello! said Patrick opening the screen.
You knew them from afar.
And went into their house the first time.
A thrill. Almost as good
as sex. Perhaps even better. I couldn’t jog
my mind to remember what that was like.
(Vague remembrances of some rapture
and ultimate security. Of captured belonging.
Once I said to someone,
It feels like I will never die.)

The living room was on the left.
They let me sit anywhere I liked.
I chose a big leather chair with studs.
You had to lean way back
it felt like I was falling backward
like Alice

Wow, I said laughing, this is some
chair. Sue came in with the baby
and placed him, in the way that
mothers have, in a special rocking cradle.

I went over to say hello and see
what he thought of me.
He lifted a see-through eyebrow
and blew bubbles from his fat little lips.

If you were looking for the Dalai Lama
you need look no further.

Babies, I told them. I love them.

I didn’t say I’d
have another in a minute, the wife might get
suspicious and think I was after Patrick.

“Can I get you something?
Orange juice? Coca-Cola? Iced Tea?”
“Water is my favorite,” I said.
“A glass of cold water, please.”

It was one of those deep blue glasses
she brought me, blue like
old-time medicine bottles.
“A blue glass!” I said in wonder
stretching out my hand.
It was heavy. A very deep
blue. With octagonal lips.

What manner of people were the Kiernans
the People of the Blue Glass.
People who knew the meaning of things.
I’d never drunk from a blue glass before,

and as I was drinking I looked down the glass
with my nose inside
drinking and looking at the same time.
Good as sex. Possibly better.

I stayed for an hour.
Couldn’t pick up any clues whether they wanted
me to stay or go.
We’d just met and I was waiting for them
to kick me out.

I stood up to go and we went over to the living room window.
So they were into windows too.
It had panes like mine did. Once, I took the panes out
just for fun
and couldn’t stand the way the world looked without panes
Panes gave focus and security, they sharpened Charley’s house
and allowed the dogwoods to take on immense importance.

“I write poems about my neighbors,” I said.
I thought it best not to tell Patrick I’d written
seven about him and his little white dog, Wesley.
Played it safe and told him I’d
written more poems about Charley
than any man I’d ever met.

Sue was on the couch with her legs
curled up. “Why would you write
about Charley?”
She was coming out of her shell.
I thought a moment. We all discussed our
impressions of Charley. To Patrick,
Charley was an old man always
outside clipping his bushes. Patrick would
come upon him and try to start a conversation.
But Charley was stone deaf without his
hearing aids. “I just gave up,” said Patrick.

“Now you’re going to write about us,” said
Sue with certainty.
“No, no,” I laughed. “You’re far too normal.”
“Too boring,” she and Patrick said together
like a singing duet.
“Yes! Aren’t normal people boring?” we agreed.

“Actually,” I said with narrowed eyes
gazing down Cowbell
speaking in the kind of voice
you use when you’re alone and
think no one’s listening,
actually, I said peering out the window
at all the houses and lawns and trees
and flowers ready to burst into bloom:
not a one of them’s a bore.

DONATIONS

 I am the kind of person who questions everything.

Why, I ask, do I always read in the living room, as I am now. Answer at blog's end. 

Am reading THE ATLANTIC - thank you Rem for the subscription - about John Gunther's book DEATH BE NOT PROUD.

The editors thought, No, we cannot publish a book about a 17 yo's brain tumor that killed him.

They were wrong. The book was a best seller with proceeds going to fund research into pediatric cancer.

Now before I continue on with this blog, I am gonna get off and pick up some of the stuff on the living room floor.

Got a note from Jimmy Carter who wants money to help with terrible diseases in Africa like the guinea worm.

Good grief!

I have never donated to his causes before, so I just may.

The light comes pouring in to my living room. Let's see... four windows, plus those in the adjoining kitchen. 

LIGHT

With light and a working body

you can do most every thing.

If you cannot do it, you can

use your imagination.

When I walk briskly from my living room

into the kitchen, I feel tall as a bride

in veil and lacey dress.

I whisper to my husband

when we marry, we will build

a swimming pool in my

huge back yard.

The World Runs on Dunkin

 https://agewave.com/who-we-are/the-team/ken-dychtwald/

I have watched this man many a time on PBS. He is a gerontologist. What is the legacy by which we want to be remembered when we die?

And, yes, die we must.

Dyou hear me sipping my hot Folger's Coffee?

It is a little bit bitter, but that is okay.

My friend Judy K drinks nuffin but Dunkin Donuts.

They changed their motto to The World Runs on Dunkin.

I remember explaining dat to Mom when she was on her deathbed. 

Her legacy was that she was a wonderful person who helped SO MANY PEOPLE. 

In the glorious days before the pandemic, I would drive to Dunkin and order a medium sized cuppa Dunkin, then pull out a chair, which made a scraping sound on the floor, and try to get into a conversation with someone.

Who me?

Yes, it makes me feel good. Serotonin, not only in my brain, but belly, too.

Ken D did a marvelous interview with his grandmother, Clara, who did not remember when she was born as she was in an orphanage.

Scuse me. Rem has reviewed my short story. I quickly saw that he reminded me of my changes in TENSE. 

Spring forward

 Scott changed all my clocks including the one next to my bed. He simply read the directions and now it is showing Sunday, March 13, 9:51 a.m.

This Folger's Instant Coffee is delicious! I popped it open with a knife and listened for the WHOOSH. Scuse me while I take another sip.

Nice n hot.

Some like it hot. Some like it cold. Some like it in the pot nine days old.

From Pease Porridge Pot. 

My Saturday Group has not yet responded to OIL OF OLAY, so I sent each of them individual messages.

And, yes, as I've said before, you must make a SIPPING NOISE when you drink.

Fell asleep while watching the L CHAIM SHOWS. To a good life. 

Thanks to Judy Kroll for my new fave coffee cup - WTF is going on in the world.

Thanks also to Sarah and Ethan.

I did peek at the TIMES and what is going on in Ukraine.

Some of our mishpucah - is that the right word, Mom - have gotten out.

Oh, look, someone has reviewed my short story. False alarm, she was improving on someone else's story.

PTL and pass the ammunition. That was an old song I used to play when I was a kid. 

Neurology appt today

 John S Khoury, MD. Abington, PA.

A short bio of Khoury was provided. He is interested in sleep disorders and also likes to play poker.

He asked interesting questions. The worst was count backwards by 6 from 100. All the while I was memorizing four words.

Yellow, Sidney, Bike and Hope. (Thank you Scott.)

Mild Cognitive Impairment, tho if I can get my A1C down, it has been as high as 11 - he whooped - I may have a fighting chance.

Continue exercising, he said, and I told him I also ride my stationery bike in my bedroom. He engaged in very good eye contact. I know that folks with Alz do not.

I have an AMY's bowl of THAI RED CURRY in the oven now. Timer set for an hour. Aluminum foil covering over the meal.

YES, I was mildly traumatized by the diagnosis.

Gotta get an MRI. Will call Foxhall and see if he will prescribe, once again, some generic Klonopin. Clonazepam. 

Khoury also had me walk and saw that I bent to the left, a result of sciatica. 

Ruthie, I feel confident that you will improve, both the  mild cognitive impairment and your A1c.

Stay positive and work it. 

❤️