Dearest Miss: Today is Wednesday, July 13th. I’m finally under the 3-years-to-go mark, that milestone was passed last Saturday. My release date, providing I maintain my good time credit, is July 9th 2014. Only 1,091 days to go to that glorious date on my calendar.
Marc and Jodie, May 30th 2011Marc and Jodie, May 30th 2011One of the ways to lose good time credit (47-54 days), and get put in the SHU (solitary confinement) for 90 days, lose your visitation rights for a year, and phone & commissary privileges for a while too, is to fail a drug screening urine test. Today I had one of those, for the first time in 15 months in the US federal prison system. I am not concerned, because I do not drink the homemade wine/alcohol that is made and consumed by many inmates in prisons, nor have I ever smoked tobacco, marijuana or any other drug, nor consumed any drugs in any way in 15 months of incarceration.
So I am fine. But the drummer for the band that existed before mine, Laid-Back, a superb band of Brian, Grizz, Terry and Branden, was broken up because Branden tested positive for marijuana and he’s been in the SHU (Special Housing Unit – solitary confinement) for 60 days now. You don’t get to play in a band when you’re in the SHU. You get absolutely nothing’. So it impacts big time when a member of a band tests positive. That’s why Laid-Back was disbanded, and Grizz and Terry reformed with me on bass guitar and a new arrival, Damian, on drums. Our band is named STUCK (as in ‘Stuck In Prison’).
I did the five tests to qualify to receive my GED (General Educational Development) and got the highest marks in all five tests – it was posted on the board “Marc Emery – Valedictorian”. On April 1st 1975, I quit high school only three months from graduation to open City Lights Bookshop in my hometown of London, Ontario. I never have needed any high school diploma as I have been in business for myself since I was eleven. (On January 1st 1971, I started Marc’s Comic Room, a vintage comic book business by mail order and retail run out of my bedroom, and prospered. By March 1975, I decided to open a vintage, antiquarian and used book shop in the downtown of my hometown, which still operates today under different owners). But here in prison they seemed determined to have me get my grade 12 completion, so I obliged. My mother was constantly hectoring me to get my high school diploma even a decade after I became a successful bookseller in London, Ontario, so if they have a town crier in the afterworld, I hope she’s heard the news that I have finally, 36 years later, graduated high school.
When I was at D. Ray James Concentration Camp for foreigners in Folkston, Georgia, a place I still loathe the memory of, I was bitten by the most venomous spider in all the United States, a Brown Recluse spider. Often very dangerous and even sometimes fatal, this bite caused a huge swelling around the bite marks on my left buttock, and within 10 days caused a two-dollar-coin-sized hole in my buttocks that seeped blood and pus for over two weeks, finally healing completely after 45 days. Over four months later, it has left permanent scarring and a purple discoloration. It also caused me to contract MRSA, and penicillin resistant Staphylococcal infection. This is unfortunate, as MRSA is often fatal. In fact, one of the inmates in my unit at D Ray James also picked up a MRSA infection just after I did and they couldn’t control it at D Ray James, and reports from other inmates claim his leg was recently amputated and then the infection was still untreatable so he died as a result of this same bacteria I now harbor permanently in my body!
So now this is one more hazard of prohibition I have to deal with for the rest of my life, along with the stress this causes you and its potential life-shortening impact on me. If I die in prison, or because of prison-related causes, it’s imperative that all my supporters in the USA, Canada and around the world remember who was responsible for putting me in a US federal prison for peaceful, consenting activities that harmed no one and advanced a great movement. This list of villains in that case is large.
Along with this deadly bacteria I now carry permanently inside me, waiting to be activated, I have been beset by painful boils on the upper cleft of my buttocks (where the MRSA culture was extracted) and now hemorrhoids, which I have never had before. The hemorrhoids come because of pressure caused by all the hard surface seats that are in the prison. The chair in my cell, the seats in the Chow Hall and Rec area, even the toilet seat surface, all are steel, hard, and very uncomfortable. I can truly say that 2011 has been a genuine pain in the ass for me!
2011年7月27日星期三
Top 10 Celebrities Who'd Make Great (or Interesting) Medics
It was a late December night a few years ago, and my partner and I were bored. Perhaps boredom and cabin fever got the best of us, and since it was the holiday season, we got it in our heads to go caroling. So we hit iTunes, downloaded "The Chipmunks Christmas Album" and a few other songs, burned them to a CD, and set forth…in the ambulance.
As my partner drove around the neighborhood, I cranked the stereo up, and held the PA mike to the speaker. Most of the real carolers we encountered seemed to find it amusing, but for some reason a few homeowners weren't in as festive a mood as we were, and lodged complaints.
Later, as I was unsuccessfully feigning shame and remorse to my supervisor, I don't know what I found funnier: the look on the supervisor's face, or the fact that one of the complainants had remarked that whichever medic was singing, did a remarkably accurate impression of Porky Pig singing Blue Christmas.
My partner and I pondered the possibilities afterward (and from the duck blind during our suspension) of what it would be like to have Porky Pig as a partner. Imagine Porky delivering a patient report or asking medical control for orders, or asking a stroke patient to say, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
Ultimately, we had to reject the notion of Porky Pig as the perfect paramedic partner, because as funny as it might be to watch him do those things, he'd also be likely to raise his hand and ask questions during those interminably boring CE sessions, and if we ever let him order food in the drive-thru, we'd never get to eat.
As my partner drove around the neighborhood, I cranked the stereo up, and held the PA mike to the speaker. Most of the real carolers we encountered seemed to find it amusing, but for some reason a few homeowners weren't in as festive a mood as we were, and lodged complaints.
Later, as I was unsuccessfully feigning shame and remorse to my supervisor, I don't know what I found funnier: the look on the supervisor's face, or the fact that one of the complainants had remarked that whichever medic was singing, did a remarkably accurate impression of Porky Pig singing Blue Christmas.
My partner and I pondered the possibilities afterward (and from the duck blind during our suspension) of what it would be like to have Porky Pig as a partner. Imagine Porky delivering a patient report or asking medical control for orders, or asking a stroke patient to say, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
Ultimately, we had to reject the notion of Porky Pig as the perfect paramedic partner, because as funny as it might be to watch him do those things, he'd also be likely to raise his hand and ask questions during those interminably boring CE sessions, and if we ever let him order food in the drive-thru, we'd never get to eat.
2011年7月25日星期一
Well Being: Potent reason for pedalers to adopt a gentler seat
My beloved Cratemobile, the battered Chinese 10-speed that I rescued from the trash and equipped with a milk crate, finally conked out last winter.
When I bought a new bike, I also bought a new kind of seat - one without a nose.
I use my bike to perform errands and commute to the Word Mill. Over the years, cycling with a conventional seat has irritated my male plumbing. A while back, my urologist, alarmed by the condition of my prostate, asked, "Do you do a lot of bike riding?"
Standard bicycle seats, it turns out, are hazardous to your health, especially your reproductive health. The bill of indictment includes numbness, hemorrhoids, bloody urine, and impotence.
And it's not just a guy problem. Women who log high mileage may develop "bicyclist's vulva," becoming susceptible to yeast infections, lymph-system blockages, and chronically swollen labia.
"You don't have to be a scientist to look at human anatomy and see that we were made to sit on our butts and not on our groins," says Steven Schrader, a reproductive physiologist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
For more than a decade, Schrader and his NIOSH colleagues have been studying bicycle seats. They began exploring the issue after receiving complaints from bicycle police officers of numbness and erectile dysfunction (ED).
Using a device that measures erections during sleep, NIOSH scientists found that biking cops had erections of shorter duration than men who did not cycle regularly. When sitting on a conventional saddle, 25 percent to 40 percent of your body weight rests on the nose, crushing the arteries and nerves that serve the genitals.
"There's as much internal penis as external penis," Schrader says.
With a conventional seat, pressure on the perineal region more than doubles, blood flow to the genitals falls to near zero, and oxygen levels may plummet 60 percent to 80 percent. Says Schrader: "Cutting off oxygen to any part of the body is not a great idea."
It also has consequences likely to manifest in the bedroom. Compared with the general population, ED among professional cyclists was twice as prevalent, a German study showed. No less an authority than Hippocrates noticed this phenomenon 2,500 years ago. Of the Scythians, nomadic people noted for their horsemanship, he observed, "The constant jolting on their horses unfits them for intercourse."
In a more recent NIOSH study, no-nose bicycle seats were provided to 121 bike cops in five cities. The no-nose seats reduced contact pressure by 66 percent. After six months, the number of officers reporting scrotal numbness dropped from three out of four to about one out of five. There was significant improvement in penis sensitivity. More telling: Only three of the 91 men remaining in the study had returned to a traditional saddle.
Declares NIOSH: "Contrary to some cyclists' belief, it is not normal for any part of your body to go numb or lose feeling. Numbness in the groin or genitals is a warning sign that should not be ignored."
The agency's recommendation: Use a no-nose saddle.
Some bike-seat manufacturers have addressed the problem by producing seats with splits, grooves, holes or channels down the middle. But because the pudendal nerves and arteries don't run along the center of the groin, such seats may actually increase pressure on the blood vessels.
Not everyone is convinced. You won't see no-nose seats in the Tour de France.
"The bike saddle shouldn't be an issue if you're fitted correctly to the bike," argues Brady Gibney, 30, general manager of Cadence Cycling & Multisport Center in Manayunk and a Category One cyclist who has been racing for nearly 10 years.
"Saddles are long so you can sit on different spots. With a no-nose seat, you're stuck in one position and can't change the placement of your rump and the mechanics of the pedal stroke."
I defer to my urologist, Jim Squadrito, chief of urology at Bryn Mawr Hospital. The pounding and rubbing of riding on a conventional bike seat is "a physical trauma," he says, that can cause prostatitis, recurrent infections, and elevated PSA.
Through online research, I discovered more than a dozen different no-nose bike seats. I chose the $81 Spongy Wonder, the brainchild of Canadian inventor Jeff Dixon, who experienced severe numbness during a long bike ride in 1999. It's basically two small pads that support only the sit bones. He has sold about 20,000 to customers all over the world.
Declares Dixon: "Human beings are not designed to sit on something that resembles a rounded two-by-four."
My new seat is weird and wonderful and attracts plenty of quizzical looks and comments. It took about a week to get used to, but I'm pleased to report that my male plumbing is happy and performing optimally.
When I bought a new bike, I also bought a new kind of seat - one without a nose.
I use my bike to perform errands and commute to the Word Mill. Over the years, cycling with a conventional seat has irritated my male plumbing. A while back, my urologist, alarmed by the condition of my prostate, asked, "Do you do a lot of bike riding?"
Standard bicycle seats, it turns out, are hazardous to your health, especially your reproductive health. The bill of indictment includes numbness, hemorrhoids, bloody urine, and impotence.
And it's not just a guy problem. Women who log high mileage may develop "bicyclist's vulva," becoming susceptible to yeast infections, lymph-system blockages, and chronically swollen labia.
"You don't have to be a scientist to look at human anatomy and see that we were made to sit on our butts and not on our groins," says Steven Schrader, a reproductive physiologist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
For more than a decade, Schrader and his NIOSH colleagues have been studying bicycle seats. They began exploring the issue after receiving complaints from bicycle police officers of numbness and erectile dysfunction (ED).
Using a device that measures erections during sleep, NIOSH scientists found that biking cops had erections of shorter duration than men who did not cycle regularly. When sitting on a conventional saddle, 25 percent to 40 percent of your body weight rests on the nose, crushing the arteries and nerves that serve the genitals.
"There's as much internal penis as external penis," Schrader says.
With a conventional seat, pressure on the perineal region more than doubles, blood flow to the genitals falls to near zero, and oxygen levels may plummet 60 percent to 80 percent. Says Schrader: "Cutting off oxygen to any part of the body is not a great idea."
It also has consequences likely to manifest in the bedroom. Compared with the general population, ED among professional cyclists was twice as prevalent, a German study showed. No less an authority than Hippocrates noticed this phenomenon 2,500 years ago. Of the Scythians, nomadic people noted for their horsemanship, he observed, "The constant jolting on their horses unfits them for intercourse."
In a more recent NIOSH study, no-nose bicycle seats were provided to 121 bike cops in five cities. The no-nose seats reduced contact pressure by 66 percent. After six months, the number of officers reporting scrotal numbness dropped from three out of four to about one out of five. There was significant improvement in penis sensitivity. More telling: Only three of the 91 men remaining in the study had returned to a traditional saddle.
Declares NIOSH: "Contrary to some cyclists' belief, it is not normal for any part of your body to go numb or lose feeling. Numbness in the groin or genitals is a warning sign that should not be ignored."
The agency's recommendation: Use a no-nose saddle.
Some bike-seat manufacturers have addressed the problem by producing seats with splits, grooves, holes or channels down the middle. But because the pudendal nerves and arteries don't run along the center of the groin, such seats may actually increase pressure on the blood vessels.
Not everyone is convinced. You won't see no-nose seats in the Tour de France.
"The bike saddle shouldn't be an issue if you're fitted correctly to the bike," argues Brady Gibney, 30, general manager of Cadence Cycling & Multisport Center in Manayunk and a Category One cyclist who has been racing for nearly 10 years.
"Saddles are long so you can sit on different spots. With a no-nose seat, you're stuck in one position and can't change the placement of your rump and the mechanics of the pedal stroke."
I defer to my urologist, Jim Squadrito, chief of urology at Bryn Mawr Hospital. The pounding and rubbing of riding on a conventional bike seat is "a physical trauma," he says, that can cause prostatitis, recurrent infections, and elevated PSA.
Through online research, I discovered more than a dozen different no-nose bike seats. I chose the $81 Spongy Wonder, the brainchild of Canadian inventor Jeff Dixon, who experienced severe numbness during a long bike ride in 1999. It's basically two small pads that support only the sit bones. He has sold about 20,000 to customers all over the world.
Declares Dixon: "Human beings are not designed to sit on something that resembles a rounded two-by-four."
My new seat is weird and wonderful and attracts plenty of quizzical looks and comments. It took about a week to get used to, but I'm pleased to report that my male plumbing is happy and performing optimally.
2011年7月20日星期三
2011年7月17日星期日
When love hurts
A patient experiencing menopause confided in Dr. Michael Feloney that she had lost interest in sex and her marriage was in jeopardy.
“I found that she had a normal desire,” said the Omaha urogynecologist and urologist. “Her real problem was that sex hurt her, and she was ignoring the pain. If you have pain with sex, you're not going to have a sex drive.”
Painful sexual intercourse (dyspareunia) has many causes, ranging from ovarian cysts to urinary tract infections. Hemorrhoids, sexually transmitted infections, lack of lubrication, vaginal infections, scarring from surgery after childbirth and allergies to products such as soap are among other possible causes of painful sex.
Another condition that causes pain is provoked vestibulodynia, also known as vulvar vestibulitis syndrome, an inflammation of the glands and tissue of the internal vulva.
“The cause is unknown, but there are known factors that can aggravate or trigger flareups, such as certain soaps or a diet high in oxalate, found in some foods and drink,” said Feloney, who treats female sexual dysfunction at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
A disorder called high tone pelvic floor dysfunction is another cause of pain. Inside the bony, bowl-like pelvis are muscles considered the “floor” of the pelvis. Like other muscle groups, they can become hypertonic or “spastic.”
Symptoms of high tone pelvic floor dysfunction include painful intercourse, back or hip pain, and pelvic pain or discomfort. The condition can be caused by trauma from a fall, vehicle accident, childbirth or repeated trauma from activities, such as running or bicycling. Sometimes the cause is unknown. Primary treatment is referral to a physical therapist trained in treating the disorder.
Feloney uses ultrasound technology when treating pain caused by high tone pelvic floor dysfunction. Ultrasound directs the injection of medication that relaxes the muscles and allows more effective physical therapy. — Judy Horan
“I found that she had a normal desire,” said the Omaha urogynecologist and urologist. “Her real problem was that sex hurt her, and she was ignoring the pain. If you have pain with sex, you're not going to have a sex drive.”
Painful sexual intercourse (dyspareunia) has many causes, ranging from ovarian cysts to urinary tract infections. Hemorrhoids, sexually transmitted infections, lack of lubrication, vaginal infections, scarring from surgery after childbirth and allergies to products such as soap are among other possible causes of painful sex.
Another condition that causes pain is provoked vestibulodynia, also known as vulvar vestibulitis syndrome, an inflammation of the glands and tissue of the internal vulva.
“The cause is unknown, but there are known factors that can aggravate or trigger flareups, such as certain soaps or a diet high in oxalate, found in some foods and drink,” said Feloney, who treats female sexual dysfunction at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
A disorder called high tone pelvic floor dysfunction is another cause of pain. Inside the bony, bowl-like pelvis are muscles considered the “floor” of the pelvis. Like other muscle groups, they can become hypertonic or “spastic.”
Symptoms of high tone pelvic floor dysfunction include painful intercourse, back or hip pain, and pelvic pain or discomfort. The condition can be caused by trauma from a fall, vehicle accident, childbirth or repeated trauma from activities, such as running or bicycling. Sometimes the cause is unknown. Primary treatment is referral to a physical therapist trained in treating the disorder.
Feloney uses ultrasound technology when treating pain caused by high tone pelvic floor dysfunction. Ultrasound directs the injection of medication that relaxes the muscles and allows more effective physical therapy. — Judy Horan
2011年7月13日星期三
Informative Website on Hemorrhoids and Hemorrhoid Treatment Launched
–HemorrhoidTreatment.info is the newest website where people can find all the information they need to know about hemorrhoids and hemorrhoid treatment. One of the most effective ways to deal with hemorrhoids is to add more fiber to one’s diet, especially adding fruits, vegetables, and water as these promote easier bowel movements which will provide relief from hemorrhoids. Another piece of advice is to drink less alcoholic drinks and drinks with caffeine. Hemorrhoids and its symptoms - discomfort, itching, and swelling are all easily treatable through natural means. Washing with anti-bacterial soaps will definitely help maintain good hygiene and lessen the irritation of hemorrhoids; additionally, a soft pad with aloe vera gel can soothe any discomfort.
Aloe vera is a natural extract that has anti-bacterial and disinfectant properties and it is also useful for healing severe skin burns. People with hemorrhoid problems are also known to have issues with their circulation and this makes it a lot tougher for the body to heal quickly. The body will heal itself faster if the right conditions are present. Herbal supplements like horse chestnut and butcher’s broom along with hot cayenne pepper are known to promote good circulation in the body and this winning combination is currently employed by a number of naturopathy experts.
People can visit hemorrhoidtreatment.info to find information conveniently organized into various categories such as Hemorrhoids 101, treatments, cures, tips, and videos. The portal also has a built-in search function which visitors can use to find the exact information they are looking for. It is recommended that people seek medical advice if the provided natural ways of healing do not work. However, people are encouraged to give this a try since most cases of hemorrhoids can be treated using these natural methods.
Aloe vera is a natural extract that has anti-bacterial and disinfectant properties and it is also useful for healing severe skin burns. People with hemorrhoid problems are also known to have issues with their circulation and this makes it a lot tougher for the body to heal quickly. The body will heal itself faster if the right conditions are present. Herbal supplements like horse chestnut and butcher’s broom along with hot cayenne pepper are known to promote good circulation in the body and this winning combination is currently employed by a number of naturopathy experts.
People can visit hemorrhoidtreatment.info to find information conveniently organized into various categories such as Hemorrhoids 101, treatments, cures, tips, and videos. The portal also has a built-in search function which visitors can use to find the exact information they are looking for. It is recommended that people seek medical advice if the provided natural ways of healing do not work. However, people are encouraged to give this a try since most cases of hemorrhoids can be treated using these natural methods.
2011年7月11日星期一
Salvation through baffling wisdom
Zen is baffling: You find yourself wrestling with thoughts such as "It is easy to grasp body-mind. The world is like rice or flax or bamboo or bulrushes."
Zen in translation is doubly baffling. Do words like body-mind, Buddha, the Way, love, compassion, truth, impermanence — even rice and flax — mean to us in English what they mean to the Japanese in their language, or the Chinese in theirs, or the Indians, who started it all, in theirs?
The monk Dogen (1200-1253) is known as the founder of the Soto sect of Zen, which in contrast to Rinzai Zen stresses meditation above all other practices, dismissing as irrelevant such Rinzai teaching devices as the "koan," the logic-defeating puzzles ("What is the sound of one hand clapping?") that fret and frustrate the mind until finally it ceases its self-defeating quest for comprehensible truth and accepts that truth is incomprehensible and all the more marvelous for that.
Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960), historian and philosopher, is considered one of modern Japan's deepest thinkers — benighted by liberals because he revered the Emperor, damned by conservatives for being, all the same, a democrat. He wrote the biography "Shamon Dogen" ("Dogen the Monk") in 1926 because, he explains, "The essence of our own culture cannot be properly understood without taking such religious figures into consideration."
"Shamon Dogen" caused a great stir in its day. Though classed among Buddhist Japan's great religious innovators, Dogen had for centuries been lost from view, his vast body of writing kept hidden by his own Soto sect, apparently because of Dogen's uncompromising views on rank priestly corruption.
"Were it not for Watsuji," observes translator Steve Bein in his introduction, "it is entirely possible that neither you nor I would ever have heard of Dogen."
Watsuji wrote from motives similar to those of Dogen — in hopes of purifying a religious establishment he, like Dogen 600 years earlier, saw as having gone to seed. Hence the "Purifying Zen" of Bein's title.
Watsuji begins by confessing his own limitations. He is a scholar, not a religious adept; such religious insights as he can claim "have not caused the truth to sprout up within me." So much the better, perhaps. He and his readers are together on the outside looking in, and understand each other at least, however elusive Dogen's deeper thoughts remain.
Dogen was born in 1200 into an aristocratic Kyoto family and took to monastic life in obedience to his mother's deathbed wish. The worldliness of the monks revolted him. If wealth, power and sex were all to them, why had they become monks? The apparent answer is that monkhood had become a path to, rather than away from, those very goals. "We should feel sorry for this remote little country," he said, and at age 24 left for China, where real religion was practiced and taught.
Studying under a great Chinese Zen master, Dogen learned the value of meditation. It went on from dawn to midnight. Monks who dozed were beaten and told, "No one passes through this world in comfort." Exhaustion, hemorrhoids, hypothermia (the meditation halls were unheated) were no excuse for relaxing austerities. The Way was the Way and life was nothing. Comfort and health were less than nothing.
Such was the uncompromising practice Dogen brought back to Japan. Disgusted by the monastery monks who clung to the kingdom of this world, he moved into an abandoned temple to pursue, in solitude or with a handful of like minds, the kingdom of truth. It was a time of famine, starvation, despair. A monk named Shinran stirred shattered hearts with his message of faith in the infinite compassion and saving power of Amida, the Buddha of Boundless Light. Human effort was unavailing, Shinran taught.
Amida's "Original Vow" promised salvation to all who called upon him with sincere faith, the expression of which was a murmured repetition of the nembutsu "Namu Amida Butsu" (Homage to Amida Buddha).
Zen in translation is doubly baffling. Do words like body-mind, Buddha, the Way, love, compassion, truth, impermanence — even rice and flax — mean to us in English what they mean to the Japanese in their language, or the Chinese in theirs, or the Indians, who started it all, in theirs?
The monk Dogen (1200-1253) is known as the founder of the Soto sect of Zen, which in contrast to Rinzai Zen stresses meditation above all other practices, dismissing as irrelevant such Rinzai teaching devices as the "koan," the logic-defeating puzzles ("What is the sound of one hand clapping?") that fret and frustrate the mind until finally it ceases its self-defeating quest for comprehensible truth and accepts that truth is incomprehensible and all the more marvelous for that.
Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960), historian and philosopher, is considered one of modern Japan's deepest thinkers — benighted by liberals because he revered the Emperor, damned by conservatives for being, all the same, a democrat. He wrote the biography "Shamon Dogen" ("Dogen the Monk") in 1926 because, he explains, "The essence of our own culture cannot be properly understood without taking such religious figures into consideration."
"Shamon Dogen" caused a great stir in its day. Though classed among Buddhist Japan's great religious innovators, Dogen had for centuries been lost from view, his vast body of writing kept hidden by his own Soto sect, apparently because of Dogen's uncompromising views on rank priestly corruption.
"Were it not for Watsuji," observes translator Steve Bein in his introduction, "it is entirely possible that neither you nor I would ever have heard of Dogen."
Watsuji wrote from motives similar to those of Dogen — in hopes of purifying a religious establishment he, like Dogen 600 years earlier, saw as having gone to seed. Hence the "Purifying Zen" of Bein's title.
Watsuji begins by confessing his own limitations. He is a scholar, not a religious adept; such religious insights as he can claim "have not caused the truth to sprout up within me." So much the better, perhaps. He and his readers are together on the outside looking in, and understand each other at least, however elusive Dogen's deeper thoughts remain.
Dogen was born in 1200 into an aristocratic Kyoto family and took to monastic life in obedience to his mother's deathbed wish. The worldliness of the monks revolted him. If wealth, power and sex were all to them, why had they become monks? The apparent answer is that monkhood had become a path to, rather than away from, those very goals. "We should feel sorry for this remote little country," he said, and at age 24 left for China, where real religion was practiced and taught.
Studying under a great Chinese Zen master, Dogen learned the value of meditation. It went on from dawn to midnight. Monks who dozed were beaten and told, "No one passes through this world in comfort." Exhaustion, hemorrhoids, hypothermia (the meditation halls were unheated) were no excuse for relaxing austerities. The Way was the Way and life was nothing. Comfort and health were less than nothing.
Such was the uncompromising practice Dogen brought back to Japan. Disgusted by the monastery monks who clung to the kingdom of this world, he moved into an abandoned temple to pursue, in solitude or with a handful of like minds, the kingdom of truth. It was a time of famine, starvation, despair. A monk named Shinran stirred shattered hearts with his message of faith in the infinite compassion and saving power of Amida, the Buddha of Boundless Light. Human effort was unavailing, Shinran taught.
Amida's "Original Vow" promised salvation to all who called upon him with sincere faith, the expression of which was a murmured repetition of the nembutsu "Namu Amida Butsu" (Homage to Amida Buddha).
2011年7月6日星期三
Natural Alternative Medicine to Cure Piles
A statistic detail suggests that more than one million people in USA gets victim of hemorrhoid every year and the situation is not different around the globe. Normally, the hemorrhoid conditions develop after the age of 45 but there are many cases of early suffering. Half of the USA population suffering from such painful condition, the reason is their lifestyle and eating habits. Less fiber diet, junk food, obesity are the major reasons, a survey reports.
Medically hemorrhoid is not life threatening disease but is very painful, irritating and creates feeling of discomfort. Doctors say, unhealthy diet, sometime hereditary factors and digestive complaints like diarrhea, constipation problems are the major causes of hemorrhoid. Bleeding with stool, itching, irritation, burning sensation and swollen blood clots are the visible symptoms. Ayurveda experts suggest few herbal formulations in such cases and Pilex from Himalaya is one of the recommended.
From the details available, Pilex Himalaya is combination of natural herbs like Guggulu, neem seeds, Amalaki, Daruharidra, Kanchanara, Vibhitaki. These lists of herbs are found to beneficial in extreme conditions of piles as they bear tremendous anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, pain reliving and healing properties. The well-known fact is herbal medicines have no side effects and are very effective. Himalaya Pilex heals any type of hemorrhoid, promotes normal circulation and venal magnitude of veins, capillaries and tissues. It also supports inborn state of the vascular system, maintains the anal veins normal and healthy. In addition to this, it relieves hepatic congestion and portal pressure.
Pilex from Himalaya is a herbal medicine available in the form of tablets and it is clinically proven safe to use by anyone as it is not known to have any side effects. But it should be taken under medical supervision and as per the prescribed dosage.
About OnlineHerbs
OnlineHerbs is an online herbal pharmacy which aims at providing the best quality herbal medicines like natural herbal remedies and natural herbal health supplements for healing various diseases. OnlineHerbs offer the herbal products from very well-known companies, ‘Himalaya Herbals’, ‘Olay Naturals’, ‘Lotus Herbals’ and ‘Olivia Herbals’.
Medically hemorrhoid is not life threatening disease but is very painful, irritating and creates feeling of discomfort. Doctors say, unhealthy diet, sometime hereditary factors and digestive complaints like diarrhea, constipation problems are the major causes of hemorrhoid. Bleeding with stool, itching, irritation, burning sensation and swollen blood clots are the visible symptoms. Ayurveda experts suggest few herbal formulations in such cases and Pilex from Himalaya is one of the recommended.
From the details available, Pilex Himalaya is combination of natural herbs like Guggulu, neem seeds, Amalaki, Daruharidra, Kanchanara, Vibhitaki. These lists of herbs are found to beneficial in extreme conditions of piles as they bear tremendous anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, pain reliving and healing properties. The well-known fact is herbal medicines have no side effects and are very effective. Himalaya Pilex heals any type of hemorrhoid, promotes normal circulation and venal magnitude of veins, capillaries and tissues. It also supports inborn state of the vascular system, maintains the anal veins normal and healthy. In addition to this, it relieves hepatic congestion and portal pressure.
Pilex from Himalaya is a herbal medicine available in the form of tablets and it is clinically proven safe to use by anyone as it is not known to have any side effects. But it should be taken under medical supervision and as per the prescribed dosage.
About OnlineHerbs
OnlineHerbs is an online herbal pharmacy which aims at providing the best quality herbal medicines like natural herbal remedies and natural herbal health supplements for healing various diseases. OnlineHerbs offer the herbal products from very well-known companies, ‘Himalaya Herbals’, ‘Olay Naturals’, ‘Lotus Herbals’ and ‘Olivia Herbals’.
2011年7月4日星期一
Water chestnuts
True to its name, c ủ năn (water chestnut) grows in water. A water chestnut is nearly 70 percent water, 19 percent starch, 2.25 percent protein, 0.19 percent fat, and 1.58 percent essential minerals.
In Oriental medicine, water chestnuts are used to cool the body, clear sputum, and treat fever, dehydration, sore throat, coughs, bronchitis and red eyes. They are diuretics and relieve urinary tract infection, according to doctors Hoang Khanh Toan and Nguyen Duc Quang. Dr. Toan adds that water chestnuts can stop the bleeding associated with hemorrhoids or severe dysentery.
Here are some simple water-chestnut remedies, the first five from Dr. Toan:
Recipe 1:
Wash and peel half a kilogram of water chestnuts, chop them roughly, juice them in a blender. Filter the juice through a seive or clean cloth into a glass. Then crush 250g rock sugar and mix it with the juice. This concoction cools the body, reduces excess sputum, and eases sore throat, bronchitis or tonsillitis.
Recipe 2:
For this you need 500g water chestnuts and 500g honey. Wash and peel the chestnuts, chop them into small pieces, juice them in a blender, and filter the juice through a clean cloth into a glass. Stir in the honey and drink this to cool the body, clear up sputum, and fortify the upper respiratory tract to keep it free of infection.
Recipe 3:
Take 200g water chestnuts, 200g lotus rootstock, 200g pear and 15ml honey. Begin by washing and peeling the chestnuts, lotus rootstock and pear. Chop everything into small pieces, juice together in a blender, filter the juice through a clean cloth into a glass, and stir in honey to taste. This drink cools the body, eases coughing, and prevents urinary tract infection, bronchitis, sore throat, hemorrhoids and water loss from fever.
Recipe 4:
Take 200g water chestnuts, 80g rock sugar, 350g sugarcane, and 200g carrots. Wash and peel the chestnuts, soak in salt water for 10 minutes, and rinse again. Peel and slice the sugarcane into medium pieces, soak in salt water for 10 minutes, and rinse again. The carrots should be washed, peeled and chopped into small pieces too. Place the lot with rock sugar in a pot, cover with water, cook for 30 minutes, then let stand until the liquid cools down. This beverage cools the body and gets rid of excess mucus. It’s also good for treating urinary tract infection, sore throat, retention of urine, chronic nephritis, and high blood pressure.
Recipe 5:
Take 100g water chestnuts, 100g fresh lemons and one liter of boiled water. Wash and peel the chestnuts, and slice them thinly. Wash and peel the lemons, and cut them into two. Simmer the chestnuts and lemons, with one liter of water for 15 minutes. This drink cools the body, treats upper respiratory tract infection and lowers blood pressure.
Dr. Quang suggests two remedies using water chestnuts:
Recipe 1:
Mix a half glass of water-chestnut juice and a half glass of light white alcohol. This drink is used to help treat bloody stools. Contact your doctor immediately if blood persists.
Recipe 2:
Wash, peel and chop 120g of water chestnuts, juice them in a blender, pour the juice into a glass and refrigerate. The cool juice is good for a swollen or otherwise sore throat.
A word of warning: water chestnuts are unsuitable for people with indigestion, watery defecation, cold limbs, or stomach pain from eating fresh and cold food.
In Oriental medicine, water chestnuts are used to cool the body, clear sputum, and treat fever, dehydration, sore throat, coughs, bronchitis and red eyes. They are diuretics and relieve urinary tract infection, according to doctors Hoang Khanh Toan and Nguyen Duc Quang. Dr. Toan adds that water chestnuts can stop the bleeding associated with hemorrhoids or severe dysentery.
Here are some simple water-chestnut remedies, the first five from Dr. Toan:
Recipe 1:
Wash and peel half a kilogram of water chestnuts, chop them roughly, juice them in a blender. Filter the juice through a seive or clean cloth into a glass. Then crush 250g rock sugar and mix it with the juice. This concoction cools the body, reduces excess sputum, and eases sore throat, bronchitis or tonsillitis.
Recipe 2:
For this you need 500g water chestnuts and 500g honey. Wash and peel the chestnuts, chop them into small pieces, juice them in a blender, and filter the juice through a clean cloth into a glass. Stir in the honey and drink this to cool the body, clear up sputum, and fortify the upper respiratory tract to keep it free of infection.
Recipe 3:
Take 200g water chestnuts, 200g lotus rootstock, 200g pear and 15ml honey. Begin by washing and peeling the chestnuts, lotus rootstock and pear. Chop everything into small pieces, juice together in a blender, filter the juice through a clean cloth into a glass, and stir in honey to taste. This drink cools the body, eases coughing, and prevents urinary tract infection, bronchitis, sore throat, hemorrhoids and water loss from fever.
Recipe 4:
Take 200g water chestnuts, 80g rock sugar, 350g sugarcane, and 200g carrots. Wash and peel the chestnuts, soak in salt water for 10 minutes, and rinse again. Peel and slice the sugarcane into medium pieces, soak in salt water for 10 minutes, and rinse again. The carrots should be washed, peeled and chopped into small pieces too. Place the lot with rock sugar in a pot, cover with water, cook for 30 minutes, then let stand until the liquid cools down. This beverage cools the body and gets rid of excess mucus. It’s also good for treating urinary tract infection, sore throat, retention of urine, chronic nephritis, and high blood pressure.
Recipe 5:
Take 100g water chestnuts, 100g fresh lemons and one liter of boiled water. Wash and peel the chestnuts, and slice them thinly. Wash and peel the lemons, and cut them into two. Simmer the chestnuts and lemons, with one liter of water for 15 minutes. This drink cools the body, treats upper respiratory tract infection and lowers blood pressure.
Dr. Quang suggests two remedies using water chestnuts:
Recipe 1:
Mix a half glass of water-chestnut juice and a half glass of light white alcohol. This drink is used to help treat bloody stools. Contact your doctor immediately if blood persists.
Recipe 2:
Wash, peel and chop 120g of water chestnuts, juice them in a blender, pour the juice into a glass and refrigerate. The cool juice is good for a swollen or otherwise sore throat.
A word of warning: water chestnuts are unsuitable for people with indigestion, watery defecation, cold limbs, or stomach pain from eating fresh and cold food.
'What To Expect When You're' Anna Kendrick
One thing you can say about Anna Kendrick: girlfriend is versatile! One minute she's playing a flighty high school student in "Twilight," the next minute she's wowing us as a be-suited professional businesslady in "Up in the Air", and then—BAM—it's back to school again for more Forks drama and a stint in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World." (Not to mention her part in the upcoming "Rapturepalooza," where she'll take her own turn battling evil forces to save the human race from apocalypse and extinction.)
So it's no surprise, after all this, that her most recent casting announcement is totally unlike any of those other roles in any way whatsoever.
The news: Lionsgate has confirmed that Anna will appear in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" (a movie based on that terrifying book about puking, hemorrhoids and all the other lovely things that happen during pregnancy). The film will be a "Love Actually"-style mashup of multiple plotlines—only with babies and minus the English Prime Minister—and also features Brooklyn Decker, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez.
Anna will play Rosie, a young woman who "reunites with an attractive old flame after a turf war between their respective food trucks, and they embark on a funny, poignant journey together in the wake of a surprise pregnancy."
Sounds like the 25-year-old may need to tap "Breaking Dawn" co-star Kristen Stewart for some on-screen pregnancy advice!
So it's no surprise, after all this, that her most recent casting announcement is totally unlike any of those other roles in any way whatsoever.
The news: Lionsgate has confirmed that Anna will appear in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" (a movie based on that terrifying book about puking, hemorrhoids and all the other lovely things that happen during pregnancy). The film will be a "Love Actually"-style mashup of multiple plotlines—only with babies and minus the English Prime Minister—and also features Brooklyn Decker, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez.
Anna will play Rosie, a young woman who "reunites with an attractive old flame after a turf war between their respective food trucks, and they embark on a funny, poignant journey together in the wake of a surprise pregnancy."
Sounds like the 25-year-old may need to tap "Breaking Dawn" co-star Kristen Stewart for some on-screen pregnancy advice!
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