Friday, August 16, 2019

Protea Pinwheel (Leucospermum catherinae): Yoga as wu wei (non-action in Taoist sense), Am appreciating your "wu wei" (non-action, in Taoism) lie-on-your-back Yoga approach (Angela Farmer's too) to your back challenges, as therapy too * * * "Life of Brian Debate (1979) ... Monty Python" * * * [NTF-talk] Clapton is god - & NtFs? (re Non-theist Friends/Quakers), Conversation is the important thing re these issues * * * By the way, re NtF and Quakerly informed World University and School's monthly business meeting (in the manner of Friends) ... Please join us at our open (hour-long) World Univ & Sch @WorldUnivAndSch monthly business meeting this Saturday, Aug 17, 2019, at 9 am Pacific Time, 12 noon ET, electronically




Hi Barbara, 

Am appreciating your "wu wei" (non-action, in Taoism) lie-on-your-back Yoga approach (Angela Farmer's too) to your back challenges (back injury, back pain), as therapy too, and which you touched on in passing in Berkeley the other morning I think. And if I recall correctly, yogini Dona Holleman explores a 'wu wei' philosophy in her (self-published books) "Yoga Syllabus for Teacher and Student" and its companion volume "Asana in Photo." As I think about the "non-action" movement therapy benefits inherent in Asana poses (because for the most part, they are done in stillness), I wonder how to take a "wu wei" approach to doing the poses in Dona's beginning course - ie very brief standing poses on Mondays and Thursdays, sitting poses on Tuesday and Friday, Twists and miscellaneous poses on Wednesdays and Saturdays. (Have you checked out the 3 places re her cross-referencing system?).  And I appreciate what these books offer too - a "wu wei" approach to taking a course or finding a teacher even. :) And 'non-action' with the 'mumbo jumbo' (religious, cultural, theistic even, codes) of the Mehta's Yoga book has merit in my way of the thinking too, but I also think there are some pointers in this book to the beneficial asanas in this Mehta book which are worth gleaning re asana as movement therapies. Building a foundation in one's body from the bottom up (feet, legs, pelvis ... ), learning about one's own body by doing asana (always learning), and lengthening the spine like the string of a balloon in most wu wei ('do nothing' or 'non-action') poses / explorations, where one's head is like a helium balloon, has much merit as one learns about one's own body's challenges, and explores creating via a kind of non-action in doing the poses, as well as the space to heal, and also re creating space around an injury. 

Just some Yogic musings about healing via "wu wei." Keep swimming, walking, and lying on your back (and pulling your knees gently over your torso, and maybe even dropping your knees to one side and the other) +!

Cheers (and happy birthday again!), Scott

Just added Yogi to my Twitter profile here - 
Am appreciating your "wu wei" (non-action, in Taoism) lie-on-your-back Yoga approach (Angela Farmer's too) to your back challenges, as therapy too


- and posted this A&V trailer ... worth seeing the 4-5 minute clip too

Interview with Angela & Victor about teaching Yoga ~
(link: https://youtu.be/4EvflFnKymsyoutu.be/4EvflFnKyms #AngelaAndVictorYoga #Yoga A&V are so creative in their Yoga explorations, & love Harbin
@HarbinBook
 too. (link: https://wildyogi.info/en/issue/interview-angela-farmer-and-victor-van-kooten-unique-waywildyogi.info/en/issue/inter… > (link: https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Yogawiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Yoga (
@scottmacleod
) > (link: https://angela-victor.com/content/scheduleangela-victor.com/content/schedu… ~


https://twitter.com/scottmacleod/status/1161278967648624640?s=20
https://twitter.com/HarbinBook/status/1161283600014303234?s=20
https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch/status/1161278185998184448?s=20



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Hi Barbara, 

Re this "Life of Brian Debate (1979) ... Monty Python" email thread, here's something from Richard Dawkins' examining Life of Brian in a different vein :) 

"Life of Brian.

Is anything funnier? Anything funnier? Tell us it, then.

Just re-watched this documentary about it:
(link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdU_6jUQI9syoutube.com/watch?v=hdU_6j

Cleese & Palin were wrong to say it isn’t blasphemous. Of course it is blasphemous. That is one of its great virtues."

https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1151157490928590848

Enjoy :)

Cheers, Scott


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- https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1151157490928590848


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Hi Barbara, 

Via conversation (a kind of information arbitrage), and your back challenges/pain, am hoping the social psychology of the medical profession or Yoga teaching of  movement therapies (where the role of the expert or authority looms large - and re certain specific kinds of knowledge - can be ameliorated, such that you further develop your own agency (free decision-making, or intentional causation:) re your back challenges ... (not to discount what MDs say re your back pain, - but with a great variety of knowledges, that you can make great informed decisions about how to manage your back issue ... sorry you're in pain) ... Thinking (and differently as well). 

Cheers, Scott






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[NTF-talk] Clapton is god - & NtFs?



Hi Non-theist Friends, 

Did you ever hear the phrase "Clapton is God" referring perhaps to the 'place' he took people when he played Blues and Rock&Roll? ... I looked this up: 

And athough 'Clapton is god' could have been considered heretical or blasphemous at one point, I find this interesting to inquire about on a non-theist friends' email list ...

So I was interested in and searched on "where did the phrase 'clapton is god' come from?," and Tweeted about this too: 

wherefore 'clapton is god'? "Clapton is God" is mid-'60s slogan referencing Eric Clapton, then-guitarist for Yardbirds & John Mayall & the #Bluesbreakers. Phrase originated as graffiti spray-painted by unknown admirer on wall in Islington, London in '65/66 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapton_is_God ~



And this logic from the 1960s, I'd imagine, could get extended to the all kinds of religious language ... virgin birth etc. :)


And in a quite related, and very funny, vein, check these "Life of Brian" clips from 1979 out with John Cleese ... (which I Tweeted to Open Band a while back)

They are comic :) ... and kind of amazing :)

A bit amusing & quite brilliant @JohnCleese 
Monty Python's 
Life Of Brian- 1979 Debate (1/4)
4/4 =1 I think-https://youtu.be/NXmJHlqMvvE  
A bit of an anthropologist here @scottmacleod what is going on?:))



More from Richard Dawkins' in this NtF examination of the ideas of heresy and blasphemy: 

"Life of Brian.

Is anything funnier? Anything funnier? Tell us it, then.

Just re-watched this documentary about it:

Cleese & Palin were wrong to say it isn’t blasphemous. Of course it is blasphemous. That is one of its great virtues."


I appreciate Dawkins' turning this blasphemy logic on its head with the language of 'virtue.'

And re Quaker history - re the NtF emergence - I can think of some examples where Quakers were considered heretics and died because of this ie Mary Dyer, and those other Friends in New England who had Puritan fire and brimstone directed at them - and in America - I can't think of examples historically where Friends / Quaker made others into heretics, with the language of blasphemy, although I'd imagine all the schisms within the Quaker tree could have been a result of this. 

I'm appreciative too with the examples above from the '60s and '70s that soaring music and comedy are the positive outcomes of 'hippies' playing in a friendly way (Friendly too in a sense) with the awful legacies of religion and religious language. What do you think? 

Greetings from Berkeley, and glad we live in an historical period after the 1960s and 1970s, and with 1st amendment legal rights in this country. Religion as Dawkins' continues to point out is still up to no good, and brainwashing folks into damaging codes. 

Am a NtF fan of Clapton's Blues' playing ") ... but as a f/Friendly non-theist I don't think I'd say 'Clapton is god' except perhaps in friendly humorous appreciation ... 

NtF cheers, Scott

PS
Duane Allman & Eric Clapton 1970 - Studio Jams 1 thru 6
not officially nosebleed territory ... but I thought Clapton was God ... I don't want to get into it ...



-- 
- Scott MacLeod - Founder & President  

- World University and School

- 415 480 4577


- CC World University and School - like CC Wikipedia with best STEM-centric CC OpenCourseWare - incorporated as a nonprofit university and school in California, and is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization. 



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Monty Python's Life of Brian film was accused of blasphemy, amazingly!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Life_of_Brian


The Secret Life Of Brian: Documentary on the Monty Python film



https://youtu.be/hdU_6jUQI9s




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Ed InChapelHill
8:17 AM (43 minutes ago)



to me

Hi Scott, as a pantheist, I tend to think Clapton is God and everything else is God as well. But bringing up pantheism on this listserv just seems to generate a lot of hate. Cheers...Ed


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Scott MacLeod
Date: Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 6:49 PM
Subject: [NTF-talk] Clapton is god - & NtFs?
To: nontheist-friends@googlegroups.com



*
Thanks, Ed, 

Haven't observed or sensed what you observe re "hate," except in your email's mentioning of this. And as a Quaker, I find exploration of such non-theistic Friendly ideas germane to this NtF list's conversation and discernment process, thinking-wise. 

Am just thinking about how Monty Python handled the 'hate' of the church of England (Mary Whitehouse) when they were accused of blasphemy in the late '70s for making "The Life of Brian" (1979). 

I think Non-theist Friends have navigated the issues of integration within  (being hated by?) the Religious Society of Friends re Friends General Conference (which Pacific Yearly Meeting is now joining, amazingly, since possibly the 1940s! Why, I wonder, now?) skillfully (Os and Rosemary and James and DavidB among others?). I think at different times, NtFs have faced not being part of Friends General Conference (a kind of exclusion for heresy even, in a sense?) What do you think?

Thanks for your email. NtFs are kind of navigating a radical edge of Quakerism, and these related questions of music and humor, I'd warrant (as a kind of NtFriendly leading even?), are all a non-theistically Friendly discernment process ... in this email conversation and sharing process.

Scott
PS
Am thinking it's a healthy NtF conversation to have and explore too re heresy and blasphemy questions within the RSOF, given the history of Mary Dyer and the valiant 60 plus related ways of thinking (and there are probably many other examples), and bearing witness and remembering to their suffering (for outrageous acts by the perpetrators of religious punishment). If not the Non-theist Friends' email list re Quakers, where? Thanks.


Conversation is the important thing re these issues.




Hi Non-theist Friends,

Partly in reply to a off-list NtF message re this thread ... who wrote ... 

Hi Scott, as a pantheist, I tend to think Clapton is God and everything else is God as well. But bringing up pantheism on this listserv just seems to generate a lot of hate. Cheers..


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Scott MacLeod
Date: Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 6:49 PM
Subject: [NTF-talk] Clapton is god - & NtFs?
To: nontheist-friends@googlegroups.com


Thanks, - -

Haven't observed or sensed what you observe re "hate," except in your email's mentioning of this. And as a Quaker, I find exploration of such non-theistic Friendly ideas germane to this NtF list's conversation and discernment process, thinking-wise.

Am just thinking about how Monty Python handled the 'hate' of the church of England (Mary Whitehouse) when they were accused of blasphemy in the late '70s for making the film "The Life of Brian" (1979).

I think Non-theist Friends have navigated the issues of integration within (even being hated by?) the Religious Society of Friends re Friends General Conference (which Pacific Yearly Meeting is now joining, amazingly, since possibly the 1940s! Why, I wonder, now?) skillfully (Os and Rosemary and James and DavidB among others?). I think at different times, NtFs have faced not being part of Friends General Conference (a kind of exclusion for heresy even, in a sense?) What do you think?

Thanks for your email. NtFs are kind of navigating a radical edge of Quakerism, and these related questions of music and humor (very enjoyably so - and as if Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, as well as Monty Python were somehow being 'lead" re the Quaker sense of this - as inspired - in creating these), I'd warrant (- and as a kind of NtFriendly leading too even?), are all part of a non-theistically Friendly discernment process ... in this email conversation and sharing process esp.

Scott
PS
Am thinking it's a healthy NtF conversation to have and explore too re heresy and blasphemy questions within the Religious Society of Friends (RSOF), given the history of Mary Dyer and the valiant 60 plus related ways of thinking (and there are probably many further Quaker and some NrF examples), and while bearing witness to, and remembering, their suffering (for outrageous acts by the perpetrators of religious punishment). If not the Non-theist Friends' email list re Quakers, where? Thanks.

Conversation is the important thing re these issues - now on the NtF email list.

Have blogged a bit about this here -
https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2019/08/protea-pinwheel-leucospermum-catherinae.html



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Very odd.  I have not seen any hate on any subject
on this list and I think there are some pantheists
or have been; certainly discussion of pantheism vs.
other similar ideas.  Maybe the correspondent was
not referring to the non -theist list.
     Margaret



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Margaret and Non-theist Friends,

:)
In the name of non-theism (NtFs And Quakerly atheism too!), I'd affirm that this email list is quite caring. Still not sure though about the NtF philosophical claim that "Clapton is god - & NtFs?" (re https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2019/08/protea-pinwheel-leucospermum-catherinae.html).

Scott

PS This is quite extraordinary music too - "J. S. Bach - Sonatas & Partitas For Lute"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTBooio3h9U- and while I won't claim in parallel manner that Bach is divine, it could be something for NtFs to explore further, writing-conversation-wise - and maybe online musically as well at https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach ...

By the way, re NtF and Quakerly informed World University and School's monthly business meeting (in the manner of Friends) ...

Please join us at our open (hour-long) World Univ & Sch @WorldUnivAndSch monthly business meeting this Saturday, Aug 17, 2019, at 9 am Pacific Time, 12 noon ET, electronically, in a Google group video Meet; email info@worlduniversityandschool.org if interested in joining!
World University's open monthly business meeting Agenda for August 17, 2019:

https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch/status/1161819259426594817


Please join us at our open (hour-long) World Univ & Sch @WorldUnivAndSch monthly business meeting on Sat 8/17/19, at 9am PT, 12 noon ET, electronically, in Google group video Meet; email info@worlduniversityandschool.org
https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2019/08/agenda-news-for-sat-17-aug-2019-world.html - and - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2019/08/honeysuckle-lonicera-periclymenum.html ~

https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch/status/1161857355895603200
https://twitter.com/WUaSPress/status/1161857546526662657
https://twitter.com/scottmacleod/status/1161857084037582848
https://twitter.com/sgkmacleod/status/1161857797383790593
https://twitter.com/TheOpenBand/status/1161858493860593664
https://twitter.com/HarbinBook/status/1161858927568359425





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