#a remedy to cure all ills commentary

[adhd-merlin]

merlin S1 rewatch: episode 6

it’s been a hot minute! today’s commentary is about episode 1x06, A Remedy to Cure All Ills. which I re-watched more than a month ago actually, but I’ve been busy.

just some random comments and thoughts (as usual), and not an actual review or analysis.

I think this episode is extremely underrated – I loved it the first time I watched it, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it on my rewatch. yes, it’s kind of a filler episode with a very traditional Villain of the Week format – but it's a great villain.

Julian Rhind-Tutt’s performance as Edwin is great and I love a suave, smooth-talking, scheming villain as much as the next person. The way he manipulates people, never suggesting anything outright but playing on people’s fears and biases, only saying just enough to make them reach the conclusion he wants. Something very Richard III about it. Very Iago.

EDWIN: “No… I shan’t say”

Another thing I love about this episode is the rare (unique?) instance of Merlin showing his magic to another sorcerer whom he isn't suspicious of (the audience knows Edwin is the Bad Guy, of course, but at this point Merlin doesn't).

I can’t think of another moment like this in the series. Freya didn’t actually have magic. There is Gilli, but when Merlin reveals his magic to him he already knows of the boy's intention to kill Uther, and it is a last attempt to stop Gilli from committing regicide without putting him in harm’s way. Merlin's relationship with Mordred and the Druids was always complicated by prophecies and by his role as Emrys.

But there’s none of that here. Edwin tells Merlin that magic can be used for good, and that it can be ENJOYED! which is all Merlin ever wanted to hear. And it’s a bit heartbreaking to see the hope on Merlin's face, knowing all that is going to happen later in the series.

I also loved the previous interaction between Merlin and Edwin:

“It can’t explain love”!! He’s a romantic. He loves love 🥺🥺🥺

I think the writers lost sight of Edwin’s motive a bit by the time they got to the ending. He’s not content with just killing Uther, he also wants to… rule the kingdom? And he tells Merlin they can do it together? (a concept revisited in the Cornelius Sigan episode). I don't think it works well.

I think Edwin’s final evil speech would have been way more impactful if he had tried to appeal to Merlin’s empathetic side, instead of his non-existent thirst for power, and reminded him of all the suffering Uther caused and why he deserved to die. I guess that would be a moral dilemma that deserves more than a few minutes of screen time to be resolved satisfactorily, and we’re already at the end of the episode at this point.

The series does dwell on it in To Kill the King, to be fair, but I think the “why not just let Uther die?” dilemma could have been presented before then. (Merlin's momentarily hesitation at healing Uther at the end is more to do with his fear of being seen using magic by Uther than by an actual reluctance to save the king.)

Anyway. I still think this is a very good episode overall, even with its relatively weak ending.

Other random thoughts:

The random-ass reference to alchemy. Something that wasn’t elaborated on, nor ever mentioned again (??) Missed opportunity imo.

Gaius is made "a free man of Camelot", whatever that means. (Does it mean that he, like Merlin, is not from Camelot? Or is it some kind of special privilege? We don’t know. I think maybe in Love at the Time of Dragons Gaius mentions something about he and Alice coming to Camelot but I can’t remember and I can’t be bothered to check now)

Some excellent display of brotherly concern from Arthur when Morgana falls sick. He's the one pushing for Uther to call for Edwin. We love to see it

Merlin and Gaius all but call each other father and son. DON’T TOUCH ME.

Gaius was 100% ready to let Uther die if it meant saving Merlin’s life. btw.

Gaius and Uther. WHAT ARE THEY

All the heavy hints at Gaius’s acting as a Category Traitor in the Great Purge + the only instance of Gaius talking to Kilgharrah (!!!) I am obsessed with it

The paralles between Uther & Gaius and Arthur & Merlin. I feel absolutely normal about it

“Now, open your eyes, My Lord. I want my face to be the last face you ever see.” -> I don’t care if it’s cliched, this line fucks

MERLIN CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM, AT LAST!! I was starting to worry but finally my baby is back to killing people :)

[frogprinceofspades]

http://kck.st/3MNUSyf

^^^^^^^

Also look at my Merlin Enamel Pin Kickstarter

[tiodolma]

I've always thought the prophecy was about both striking a balance. Merlin was meant to keep Morgana in check and Morgana was meant to keep Merlin in check.

Me too. Even Alice Troughton in the dvd commentary with Colin Morgan for s4 admitted that love/hate were always coexisted with each other.

Morgana certainly had the power and the invincibility for it, to keep Merlin in check, to draw him out, to make him face his dark and human side, to make him face his wrongs his sins and his victories.

Unfortunately Morgana didn't have the information he had. Merlin had all the information and he used that against everyone. Moreover her magic matured too late (with respect to Merlin's).

I think the real tragedy of Merlin's life was that he was already conditioned to kill from the very start (ep 1x06 Remedy To Cure All Ills ironic title ngl). That episode alone started it all. He was so so new and naive to everything and in that episode he showed absolutely no remorse at "accidentally" killing someone who offered him guidance and knowledge (at the expense of gaius).

And look I get it, he panicked. But after that he never wondered why Edwin was so so righteously angry at Gaius. Remember, Gaius sold Edwin's parents out to Uther and let young Edwin escape. Edwin's gravitas was so justified, you know? Merlin never tried to learn about the things Gaius did to protect "others" and most importantly to protect himself and his position. Even if Gaius thought black magic was evil, he still threw others under the bus for fighting for their lives. He still left Edwin (and Merlin) an orphan.

How does this relate with Morgana? You see from that point on, from episode 1x06 up to "2x03 The Nightmare Begins" Merlin has already killed at least seven people, most of them magic users.

Edwin,

Mary Collins (indirectly but him thwarting her plan zapped her of all energy),

Aulfric,

Sophia,

The Black Knight (who had a reason for it's anger),

Tauren's goons,

Nimueh

Sigan

Hengrist's goon's

plus he almost choose to get Mordred killed... 2 times.

He knew the reasons most of these had, but they didn't matter to him, he was never allowed to properly emphathise with them (Gaius taught him very very very well). Because his orders were always to "eliminate the threat" "kill them" for the sake of his destiny.

As Morgana's magic truly manifested in S2, Merlin was already too far gone and too far deep in the liar and vigilante game. Merlin was continuously performing treasonous and unlawful tasks UNCHECKED for two years! TWO YEARS!

TWO YEARS OF "JUSTIFIED IN HIS OWN HEAD" HOMICIDE AND MURDER WITH NO REAL REPERCUSSIONS.

And also I get why they had resorted to that kind of actions. One of the definitions of extremism from wikipedia said:

In addition, extreme acts are more likely to be employed by marginalized people and groups who view more normative forms of conflict engagement as blocked for them or biased.

That kind of radicalization and extremist training by both Gaius and Kilgharrah was effective as hell.

Morgana only started the proper coups at around mid-s2. She hasn't truly killed anyone for magic yet (aside from Tauren in S1). Even in Fires of Idirsholas she felt guilty of accidentally collaborating with Morgause.

It took 1 year of isolated training away from everyone for Morgana to be fully radicalized, forged in the fires of extremism herself. Even then, even in 3x01 and 3.02 when she killed one guard and she actively helped set in motion Morgause's terrorist attack, she still was willing to hear Merlin out in the crypts. She even laid out all her cards, showed her strengths and vulnerabilities for him to see and judge. Morgana still choose to be diplomatic despite it all.

What Morgana didn't know was that she wasn't dealing with a proper negotiator, she was dealing with a vigilante and secret agent who has three years worth of (1)all the vital information, (2)unchallenged power, (3)unchecked morals, (4)numerous kills, (5)experience in deception and (6)extremist conditioning. And the worse part was that the person who she thought was her friend, Merlin, even with everything he had, genuinely believed he had nothing to offer in exchange for her peace.

I think that's the tragedy of it.

With her truly coming into her full power only at s4, Morgana was too late to have a chance to inspire change in Merlin as a proper equal to him. Merlin has been in that overpowered and unchallenged state for 5 years at most. And by the time Morgana had become truly confident in s4, both of them had gone in the farthest ends of the extremes of their idealogies.

Merlin knew everything about her. But Morgana lacked the most important piece of information, the identity of Emrys.

No one could keep Merlin in check in the proper diplomatic manner anymore.

They have to come to arms.

[buzzcharacters]

Aiden - Thistle in the Weeds

Male (he/him) - 28 moons - Gray-asexual Biromantic - Single

Aiden has always lived a troubled life, and has always had terrible luck. He was born into a terrible clowder, who viewed kittens as just fresh meat to continue fighting whatever 'war' they'd dreamed up. All of the trauma built up until he developed an alter, Archer, who helped him in getting out of that situation. He met up with a healer and they travelled alone for awhile, before Aiden got swept up into another war -- this time between a group of rogues and a Clan of cats.

Personality

Aiden

Anxious, Respectful, Selfish, Reserved, Quiet, Kind He/him ; +0 Moons

Even from a young age, Aiden has never really been one to be boisterous and loud. Instead, he’s timid and quiet, speaking only when spoken to and never trying to go out of turn. The uncertain environment that he was raised in did little to help this and rather spurred on his ever-present anxiety. He’s jittery and speaks with a stutter, which grows worse and worse the more uncomfortable and anxious he himself becomes. It created a vicious cycle, with his parents hating his stutter and shouting and punishing him for it, which only made him more fearful and thus made his stutter worse. Perhaps that’s the true reason why he’s so quiet - he’s afraid that if someone he doesn’t know hears his stutter that he will be punished for that which he cannot control. His anxiety feeds into other things about him, too. While he is skilled with his paws as both a healer and a craftsman, he does not speak highly of his skills. Instead, he lets others come to their own conclusions, however incorrect they may be. He’s respectful and agreeable by nature, never interrupting others and never trying to pick a fight, listening to his elders as best he can and following any rules given to him. It’s sometimes difficult to maintain this respect, with Archer’s running commentary playing on loop in his mind, but Aiden perseveres nonetheless. Aiden, at his core, is a kind individual. It took him a long time to figure it out, but he’s decided that his purpose is to help others, be it through his strange crafts or through his ability to heal with herbs. Perhaps this kind nature is what makes him easily manipulated - if someone had more nefarious intentions but hid them behind a plea for help, Aiden almost certainly would miss the core of the message in his efforts to aid them as best as he could. Despite his inherent kindness however, Aiden has been known to have a bit of a selfish streak. He always seems to be thinking of himself and what’s going to happen to him if he doesn’t do something a certain way. He wants to cure himself of his restless mind and needless anxiety, and has been known to test remedies on other cats without their permissions. Never in a harmful way, mind you, just… he seems to have an affinity for illnesses of the brain such as headaches or anything similar.

Archer

Confident, Protective, Blunt, Precise, Charismatic, Aggressive They/He; +0 Moons

Archer would be the first to tell you that he was formed out of a need to protect Aiden from the tremulous environment he was being raised in. His mind, unable to handle the abuse and aggression from his parents, split into a personality that could handle it, and in fact was made to handle it. As such, Archer is extremely protective of Aiden, taking over control whenever he begins to feel like it’s going to be too much for Aiden. While the body lacks the strength it would take to physically fight back, Archer can take prolonged emotional abuse with a smirk and a shrug - it simply does not get to him the same way it does Aiden. Archer also exudes confidence in everything he does. While he’s not as skilled as Aiden when it comes to healing and crafting, he is very much of the mind of ‘fake it until you make it’. Alongside this, he’s charismatic enough to pull it off more often than not, and managed to hide his more aggressive personality from Aiden’s family for much of their time spent together. And, being not as skilled as Aiden doesn’t mean Archer is a slouch, either. While he prefers hunting to gathering, his mind is almost as sharp as his ‘brother’s, and he has a fantastic memory for herbs and their uses. He has to - as whenever he is awake, Aiden is not aware of the situation going on around him, otherwise Archer’s role of protector wouldn’t be much good. To go along with his charismatic nature, Archer is also a born salesman. Since the two of them were never trained properly about how to hunt, they had to come up with other means to get fed. Archer, who had noticed Aiden’s fondness for shiny trinkets he found in the city, began haggling them to other cats in exchange for food and shelter, and it became something of a hobby for him. Aiden eventually figured out what was going on between his missing items, but Archer still claims that it’s beneficiary for the two of them. And, well, he has fun doing it! When the going gets tough, Archer chooses aggression over compliance. For better or for worse, he doesn’t back down from a challenge, even when it’s very clear he will not be the winner. This has gotten the two of them into a fair bit of issues, especially with Archer’s blunt comments to everything and anything around them. But, honestly, if it’s for the betterment of Aiden and everything he enjoys, then Archer would go to the ends of the earth and back. He just… sometimes can’t understand that his actions will have consequences that Aiden might end up having to deal with. Foresight is not his forté.

Family

Mother - Shoal - Status Unknown Father - Ezra - Status Unknown

Sister - Strix - Status Unknown

Father Figure/Mentor - Oleander - Loner

Timeline

CW: stillbirth; emotional abuse from family; physical abuse from family; withholding food from a child; trauma stemming from abuse -- please note that I do NOT go into extreme detail

0 MOONS: Born to Shoal and Ezra in a feral cat colony in a city alongside two sibling. The colony is violent and aims to take over all the other colonies in the nearby area. Shoal's birthing goes poorly, and in her litter is one stillborn and two live kittens - though one is clearly stronger than the other. She and Ezra vowed to hide Aiden's weakness from the leader.

2 MOONS: Shoal and Ezra are found out and punished for trying to hide Aiden's weakness, right in front of the kittens. Those in charge than decided to begin Aiden and Strix's training early, in an effort to strengthen them both.

3-4 MOONS: Training does not go well for Aiden with his awkward and unsteady limbs. Try as he might, he could never match Strix, and was often verbally and physically punished. The most common punishment was withholding food from him until he could do better.

5-7 MOONS: Aiden falls further behind as poor treatment leads to malnourishment, which leads to even poorer performances. Strix begins partaking in the punishments and cruelty toward Aiden.

8 MOONS: Aiden's mental state worsens alongside his physical state, and eventually his mind splits in order to preserve his sanity. The new alter, Archer, begins taking over during the cruel training sessions and makes it their goal to protect Aiden by any means possible.

10 MOONS: It takes a full two MOONS for Aiden to realize what has happened. Archer is an active alter, and often speaks to Aiden in his mindscape even while not fronting.

11 MOONS: Aiden begins taking any chance he can to slip away from the colony and explore a limited range of the city, collecting trinkets and scraps to try making things out of them. His attempts are met with even more punishment for being so different.

14 MOONS: Illness sweeps through the colony, causing them to bring in outside healers in an attempt to stave it off. Aiden, ironically, did not grow sick and began sticking around the healers in an attempt to learn from them. He begins shadowing a kind cat named Oleander.

15 MOONS: Oleander leaves the colony when the sickness is irradiated, and Aiden aches to see him go. He's too frightened to try and join him, and instead resolves to stay with the colony. Archer, however, has different ideas.

16 MOONS: Shoal has another, healthier, litter of kits, which means Aiden's use has run out. Aiden is thrown into the front lines as cannon fodder during a large battle. In the midst of it, Archer forces himself to the front and manages to get them out alive - and decides to follow the stale scent of Oleander an in attempt to find the cat.

16 MOONS: Thankfully, Oleander hadn't gone far and readily welcomed Aiden to join him as a travelling healer. Aiden, when he eventually awoke, was frightened and confused, though relief swelled through him when Archer explained.

19 MOONS: Aiden sticks close to Oleander and is careful to learn everything the older cat has to offer. He's a quick study, and doesn't take long to become a proficient healer.

20 MOONS: Aiden finds a bulky leather collar on a dead cat and takes it for himself. He fashions a small 'bag' to attach to the collar, for easier carrying of herbs and other small knicknacks he may find.

21 MOONS: The trio begin travelling around frequently, stopping at small communities of cats here and there to offer their services. Often, Oleander lets Aiden and Archer do their own things, with the promise to meet back up before it's been a moon so they can see where they stand and if they want/need to move on. Aiden begins making a name for himself as a proficient healer, despite his age.

23 MOONS: During one of their split ups, Aiden is confronted by massive, unfamiliar cats and Archer doesn't have time to front before the two of them are knocked out. When Aiden comes to, he finds himself surrounded by those same cats, as well as a massive black cat who introduces himself as Klaus. Aiden is instructed to heal a cat with a gaping wound in front of him, and with Archer still out of it, Aiden readily complies. Despite his fears, he's always worked best under pressure, and is able to dress the wound and find the herbs he needs (conveniently) to properly fix the cat up for the time being. Klaus seems impressed and offers him a spot in this gang of cats as an 'associate', able to come and go as necessary but must be around when needed. Aiden, still fearful, agrees.

24 MOONS: When he reconveins with Oleander, Aiden explains that he's found a semi-permenant job here and needs to stick around for now. Archer thinks this could be extremely beneficial, but Aiden still isn't sure. Still, Oleander is nothing if not soft and easily agrees to stick around this area for as long as necessary. Aiden tries to figure out if that's better or worse than him refusing.

26 MOONS | SITE MOON 0: Aiden visits the Rogues' territory frequently and acts as a medic when required. While he values the conditional safety it offers, he's unsure if he's doing the right things - the whispers of the prisoners are hard to ignore, after all.

Extras

I've had Aiden around in some fashion since 2011 -- his interpretation started off much rockier (I didn't know as much about DID as I do now), and he started as a Clan cat. You can find his original creation image (with the date) here!

Please note that this character has undergone major revisions since his creation. I myself do not have DID. Originally the depiction of DID was not researched and very offensive and not portrayed correctly. Since then I have done a lot of research and done my best to portray him in a realistic and respectful manner. If you have criticism with his depiction or find something wrong/offensive, please don't hesitate to reach out and let me know so I can take steps to correct my mistakes.

Aiden’s perk (a boon system used by Thistle in the Weeds) is as follows: Green Witch For some reason, nature is particularly attuned to this character. Plants in their vicinity, particularly those they've touched or been around frequently, wither or grow based on this character's mood. Small sprouts may pop up in their nest after a night of good dreams, or the moss they sleep on could start to rot during a nightmare. While the effects are slow and subtle, taking too long to see in the moment, it's pronounced enough to be more than mere coincidence. +2 stats to charisma

When Archer is fronting, he alternates between he/him and they/them pronouns.

Archer is also very good at pretending to be Aiden, if he needs to. However, it's not impossible to make him break character if you push his buttons.

It's possible that Aiden has other alters in his system, but does not know they are there as they don't communicate with him.

Aiden and Archer have a brotherly relationship. Archer's goal is to protect Aiden and make sure nothing bad happens to him again. Aiden just wants to keep them both out of trouble.

Other Iterations

Webs sites (if I can dig up the info)

Lies in the Low

More? I'll have to look into it

[softzenia-tech]

Information about the Orthopedics Surgeon for the treatment

Orthopedics is a huge subject in the medicinal drug that deals with issues related to the musculoskeletal system. Despite being defined in medical circles as a form of surgery, maximum orthopedic approaches do now not contain invasive techniques. There are many orthopedic tactics that most effectively require muscle manipulations and different techniques employed in putting off the pain, curing, and promoting healing from harm or sickness.

There are several situations and illnesses treated through orthopedic methods through the best orthopedic hospital in Greater Noida. A number of these situations and illnesses are due to disturbing accidents while others are a result of infections main to strained muscle groups or degenerative diseases that affect the musculoskeletal device. Patients laid low with continual joint pains and arthritis can appreciably advantage from orthopedic tactics. Arthritis as an example is one situation that affects joint cartilage, especially in older humans by inflicting stiffness, inflammation, and persistent ache within the joints and bones. Such patients can gain a great deal needed remedy from the best orthopedic doctor in Greater Noida.

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Accidents suffered in sports activities or at domestic might result in bone fractures, dislocations, and sprains. In such cases, one would require the assistance of an orthopedic practitioner in remedy and in the commentary of the restoration system to keep away from submit-operative complications.

Why an orthopedic medical professional?

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Importance of Orthopedic health care Providers.

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Orthopedic surgeons are more often than not trained to treat bones, joints, ligaments, muscle groups, and nerves. Orthopedics has numerous sub-specialties. An orthopedic generalist, or one who treats a variety of injuries and illnesses, can refer you to an orthopedic specialist, which includes a consultant inside the hand. Specific sub-specialties of orthopedics include:

• Foot & Ankle

• Shoulder and elbows

• Hip and knee

• Medicinal sports

• Bone tumors (oncology)

• Childcare

• Tremor

• Spine

[weakforarwen]

A Remedy to Cute All Ills

This episode isn’t particularly exciting, but some important things happen.

Gaius’s past comes back to bite him in the ass and it’s honestly not undeserved. I can understand why Gaius chose to save himself and pledge his loyalty to Uther, but I can’t understand why he is genuinely loyal to Uther, when the King turned his back on him any time a stranger showed up and accused him of something. The fact that Gaius initially refused to choose between saving Uther or Melin is truly baffling. All the good characters are loyal to Uther and would rather save him than see him dead, even if he’s a cold-blooded killer. It’s as if the writers believed loyalty to the King was a pre-requisite for being good. Giving your life up for a tyrant is rarely a good thing. 

Truly, any episode in which saving the day means saving Uther is questionable at best. Edwin may have been “evil”, but killing Uther wasn’t such a bad idea. And we don’t even know if he was evil. He was manipulative and dangerous, but he only tried to kill the men who murdered his parents. When Arthur wanted to do the same, he wan’t evil, but Edwin is, of course, because he’s a sorcerer who does evil magic. The only people he really hurt had in coming, but sorcerers can’t be vengeful or angry, or wield their magic like others would a sword, without being branded as evil. And if they’re evil, then they’re worse than Uther.

Gaius’s cautiousness has always been cowardly and harmful. Merlin wasn’t allowed to use magic on Morgana because it was dangerous, but he could use it on the King, because his life was more valuable. Was it? Gaius was never willing to risk anything for Morgana, yet everything for the King. For that. Morgana went evil and the King betrayed him a handful of times. 

Arthur and Merlin’s concern for Morgana was touching. In the first season, Arthur does very little until episode 10 or so, so there’s nothing else to say about him in this episode, but he was nice to Merlin too, which was... nice. Arthur only became an ass in season 2, for some reason.

Poor Merlin was brainwashed into thinking he shouldn’t use his magic at all, that it was dangerous to use it to treat people. Why? But he can use it on Arthur? Gaius’s influence in dangerous. 

It’s odd that this episode marked the first and only time Gaius went to Kilgharrah for advice, but Kilgharrah was no friend of his, with good reason. He was told he either saved Merlin or the King, and after much deliberation he chose Merlin, which meant leaving Camelot. Poor Merlin... Gwen saw Gaius leave and told him he had a choice: to either stay and fight Edwin or walk away. It’s hard to understand how leaving Camelot would fix anything. Even if Merlin was saved, Edwin was dangerous and Merlin would be alone. But I don’t understand Edwin’s big plan to become King after killing Uther. Does he not understand how the monarchy works? He was hardly powerful enough to take Camelot by force.

Back to Gwen, whenever someone’s rude to Gwen, you know they’re evil. Edwin, Vivian, Morgana. Gwen knew Edwin had questionable intentions but she didn’t share what she’d seen with anyone. I know she’s only a servant but she should’ve tried to warn someone. It was nice to see her though. Just hearing her voice makes me happy. Her voice is so soothing. She’s definitely the moral compass of the show, always encouraging the characters to do the right thing and, above all, to be brave. 

I just remembered that Uther let a stranger with a “remedy to cure all ills” alone with Morgana. What idiot does that?

I don’t have anything of interest to say, really. It’s a mediocre yet mildly infuriating episode in which magic=evil and Uther is saved by those who wish to bring magic back to Camelot. Magic is only good if you don’t use it for anything, it seems. 

[twoohugs]

BBC Merlin 1x06 A Remedy to Cure All Ills

[Click here for a full list of my BBC Merlin commentary]

I know this scene probably simply means Merlin’s fidgeting irritates Arthur so Arthur starts pacing too, but I can’t help but think that it feels like Merlin and Arthur are one entity, like, they share each other’s emotions or something. So when Merlin is pacing, there is an outlet for the nerves, and Arthur can stay still. But when Merlin sits down, it makes both of them more angsty, and so Arthur has to pace. 

(do i make sense?) like, for a person, when you are anxious, if you can’t pace, you tap your fingers. for Arthur-and-Merlin, if Merlin doesn’t pace, Arthur has to pace.

This looks like a still from some sort of AU. Hogwarts AU, maybe?

Literally every single villain in S1:

1. sees merlin as a useless servant boy

2. sees merlin do something with magic

3. tries to recruit merlin

4. gets rejected by merlin (“I choose Arthur, thanks”)

5. tries to kill Merlin

We always say Uther’s problem is that he rules with hate and fear, and I always thought that simply means he hates sorcerers and fears magic. But this time when I noticed how often he says “I cannot risk [something]” and I realize the fear is not just of magic. It’s the way he does things—he would do everything he could to stifle anything that has the smallest chance of causing a scenario he doesn’t want to see.

He is afraid of many things: of magic, of Camelot being destroyed, of being dethroned, of losing power, of his children’s disobedience or betrayal, etc, and he lets this fear control his every move. So he may be a fair and just king regarding the day-to-day issues of the kingdom, but when you touch a nerve, he loses all rationality and does something unpredictable and extreme.

no but imagine, just imagine what if Edwin only wanted to talk revenge on Gaius. It’s not exactly impossible, since Gaius’ betrayal could’ve caused more resentment than Uther’s brutality. If Edwin stops here, Gaius would’ve been gone forever. Merlin would’ve been left alone. (I have no doubt Arthur and Morgana would look after him but still, Gaius is irreplaceable, he’s the father figure) Merlin would’ve been broken, seriously, just thinking about it makes my heart ache.

And the show just suddenly hits you with a quote so deep you just go... wow.

Here it is again, the all-villains-try-to-recruit-merlin observation. Sometimes I wonder if it would be possible that Emrys’ magic radiates some sort of aura that shouts POWER and draw all these power-hungry people to him? I mean, most of the time the villain-of-the-day completely disregard Merlin at first, so it can’t be his looks or anything that clues them in, but when Merlin so much as creates a spark they immediately decide that they want him on their side.

At first, I just thought, it’s disgusting how Uther always say he trust Gaius, but the next time Gaius warns him about literally anything he goes “no that can’t be, shut up physician” again.

But then that made me realize how scary it is that Uther can so explicitly say he trusts someone and that someone is his true ally, only to completely distrust, disregard or even punish them the next moment if he wants to (he’s thrown both Arthur and Morgana in the dungeon, and threatens Gaius almost every time he warns him of anything). How does anyone remain loyal to a king like this? A king who would trust you and thank you for saving his life one second, and execute you the next? A king that doesn’t cherish or respect even his most trusted and closest companions? I’ve read fanfics where Uther orders the execution of Arthur and/or Morgana and I have to say, I honestly don’t find the idea that impossible. He could totally do something like that.

Thank you, Gaius, for giving Merlin the appreciation and recognition he needs, wants, deserves, and never ever gets.

[vajranam]

Dealing With Anger

ON DEALING WITH ANGER

Undoubtedly, both Shantideva and the Dalai Lama are most articulate in their discourse on how to deal with anger and hatred.

Shantideva in fact opens the chapter on patience with the strong statement that an instance of anger can destroy positive imprints created over “a thousand eons.”

He further asserts that there is no evil like hatred and that there is no fortitude like patience. Thus, he recommends that we all seek to develop patience.

In Shantideva’s view, anger acts as the principal obstacle to the development of patience. To use the well-known medical analogy, hatred is the poison and patience is the medicine that removes the poisonous toxins from within the mind.

As the Dalai Lama’s commentary makes clear, Shantideva identifies two key elements in our attempts to overcome anger.

First and foremost, it is important for us to have a profound appreciation of the negativity of anger. Of particular relevance is to reflect upon the destructive effects of generating anger.

Second, Shantideva identifies the need to develop a deep understanding of the causal mechanism which underlies the arisal of anger. This is of special interest to the modern reader, who will unavoidably be approaching Shantideva’s text with many of the popular assumptions associated with modern psychology and its views on human emotions.

In verse 7 of the chapter, Shantideva makes the crucial observation that the “fuel” of anger is what he calls “mental discomfort.” This is an interesting notion. The Tibetan word is yi mi-dewa which can be translated as “dejection,” “unhappiness,” or simply as “dissatisfaction.”

It is best understood as a pervasive, underlying sense of dissatisfaction, which need not be felt at the conscious level. It is that nagging feeling that something is not quite right.

Shantideva seems to be suggesting that it is this underlying sense of dissatisfaction that gives rise to frustration. When this happens, the conditions are set for an immediate outburst of anger when things do not go the way we wish.

Once this causal nexus between dissatisfaction, frustration, and anger is understood, we can then appreciate the virtue of Shantideva’s approach to dealing with anger. We can see that much of his approach is aimed at rooting out this underlying sense of dissatisfaction rather than engaging in a head-to-head confrontation with actual full-blown anger.

This is the reason for Shantideva’s emphasis on reflections which aim to create stability of mind. As to the specific practices, the reader can follow the detailed commentary of the Dalai Lama in the appropriate sections of the book.

An important point to note here is that Shantideva does not appear to make any distinction between anger and hatred in his discussion.

However, the Dalai Lama’s commentary explicitly underlines this critical distinction. He observes that, in principle, it may be possible to accept what could be called a “positive anger.”

Anger as an outrage toward injustice done to others can often be an important catalyst for powerful altruistic deeds.

However, he rejects such possibility with regard to hatred. For the Dalai Lama, hatred can have no virtue. It only eats the person from within and poisons his or her interactions with fellow human beings. In his words, “Hatred is the true enemy; it is the inner enemy.”

Perhaps we can say that the feature that distinguishes anger and hatred is the absence or presence of ill-will. A person can be angry without bearing any ill-will toward his or her object of anger. The Dalai Lama instructs us to ensure that our anger, even when it arises, never culminates in full-blown hatred. This, I think, is an important ethical teaching.

A few words on some of the general principles which lie behind the approaches suggested in this book for dealing with our emotions and developing patience may perhaps help the general reader.

A key principle is a belief in what could be called the plasticity of the mind, that is, an assumption of the mind’s limitless capacity for improvement. This is supported by a complex understanding of the psychology of the mind and its various modalities.

Both Shantideva and the Dalai Lama are operating within a long history of Buddhist psychology and philosophy of mind which emphasizes a detailed analysis of human emotions.

Generally speaking, in this view the mind is perceived in terms of a complex, dynamic system where both cognitive and affective dimensions of the psyche are seen as an integrated whole.

So, when the two masters present means of dealing with emotions such as anger, they are not suggesting that we should suppress them. Both Buddhist and modern psychology agree on the harmfulness of mere suppression.

The Buddhist approach is to get at the root so that the very basis for anger is undercut. In other words, Shantideva and the Dalai Lama are suggesting ways of reorienting our character so that we become less prone to strong reactive emotions such as anger. It is in this light that most of the reflections recommended in this volume should be understood.

The motto is simple: Discipline your mind. Shantideva underlines the critical importance of this inner discipline with a wonderful analogy:

Where would I possibly find enough leather

With which to cover the surface of the earth?

But (wearing) just leather on the soles of my shoes

Is equivalent to covering the earth with it.

Likewise it is not possible for me

To restrain the external course of things;

But should I restrain this mind of mine

What would be the need to restrain all else?

(Guide, V:13–14)

This of course is reminiscent of the memorable verse from the Dhammapada in which the Buddha says:

Intangible and subtle is the mind,

That flies after fancies as it likes;

Wise are those who discipline their minds,

For a mind well-disciplined brings great joy. (Verse 35)

Shantideva calls this basic Buddhist practice “guarding the mind” and he discusses it at great length in chapter 5 of his Guide.

Another general principle I wish to draw the reader’s attention to is the basic pragmatism of Shantideva’s teachings. He does not appear to believe in the possibility of one cure or solution to any problem.

His is a strategy that involves drawing extensively from all our inner resources. Many of his arguments appeal to what we may call human rationality. But he also uses approaches that appeal to our fundamental humanitarian sentiments. Often he plays upon our sense of moral outrage too. So, the bottom line seems to be “whatever works best.”

In the final analysis, many of the approaches presented in this book are insights grounded in common sense. For example, who can argue with the sheer practicality of the following lines, which the Dalai Lama is so fond of quoting:

Why be unhappy about something

If it can be remedied?

And what is the use of being unhappy about something

If it cannot be remedied? (Guide, VI:10)

Perhaps most importantly for the modern reader, it is vital to appreciate that both Shantideva and the Dalai Lama do not believe in “instant enlightenment.”

In their teachings, there is the basic assumption that cultivating inner discipline is a time-consuming process. In fact, the Dalai Lama rightly points out that having expectations of immediate results is a sign of impatience, the very factor the teachings in this volume aim to counteract.

With a sense of irony, he observes that often what the modern reader wants is “the best, the fastest, the easiest, and, if possible, the cheapest way.” So the journey of someone who is on the path of self-betterment is arduous and requires long commitment.

Nevertheless, the rewards of embarking upon such a journey are potentially enormous. Even in immediate terms, the benefit such an endeavor brings to the traveler’s life seems remarkable.

If the Dalai Lama is representative of those who have gained the fruits of this journey, its merits are shown to be beyond question.

Geshe Thupten Jinpa

Girton College

University of Cambridge

Perfecting Patience - His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Geshe Thupten Jinpa - Shambhala Publications, Inc.

[scalpelandrose]

Trafalgar D. Lamia Profile

Name: Trafalgar D. Lamia

Birthday: September 5th

Height: 5’7” (adult)

Favorite Foods: Gyros, croissants, udon

Least Favorite Food: Taro

Occupation (Aside from Piracy): Doctor taking after her father’s trade. Onboard surgical assistant

Hobbies: Reading Law’s medical journals and books, playing with Ross (who she called ‘Ro’ as a toddler), collecting stamps from each island, sewing, running ‘diagnostics’ for the crew & her mother to ‘report’ back to her dad, sparring with her brothers, practicing applying game theory with her mother, tea parties with her stuffed plague doctor, snow leopard plush, and her family, studying about history and fantastical creatures

Abilities:

All 3 Haki

Krav Maga

Medical savvy allows for healing & precise striking

Can quickly understand maps and structures

Adept at using the liuye dao (willow-leaf saber)

Appearance: Lamia possesses Law’s nose and eye shape. She had gold amber eyes and has Michelle’s lips. Like both of her parents, she has black hair, which falls slightly above her waist with the front framing her face in a layered semi hime-cut.

Personality: As a child, Lamia was quite timid and could be found shyly holding Ross’ hand or hiding behind him when meeting new people; however, she slowly grew into her confidence with her parents’ gentle encouragements. Lamia is especially a daddy’s girl and has a talent for developing unconventional cures (she also goes forth to uncover a remedy for White Amber Lead Poisoning when she is older). Her ultimate goal in life is to find cures for initially ‘incurable’ illnesses against medical canon or what the World Govt. permits. She is practical and always open to lending a helping hand and goes out of her way to brighten the crew’s day by asking how they are doing and if there is something they need, so she can make something for them or report back to her parents for suggestions on the Polar Tang. There are moments in great excitement where she adopts her father’s signature smirk and her mother’s, “Hell yes,” in the heat of battle or high-energy situations, but usually she is modest with her expressions and the one to evaluate her brothers’ plans or actions.

-> More About: Ross | Lukas

Parent’s Commentary

M: Three years after Ross was born, Law and I decided that he should have a sibling to share his rich inner world with, and surely enough, just after his birthday Law and I discovered I was pregnant with Lamia. They both are such precocious children and she really brought another dimension of compassion and creativity out of Ross, as he began making more stories and imaginary scenarios for them to play in. It’s also adorable how she often peeks into Law’s office to be around him as he works, and I know he was clutching his heart seeing her reading his medical journals on her own volition. She really brings us all down to earth and reminds us of the small things in life we should always be grateful for, and there is not a day that goes by where I am not grateful for my family.

L: When I asked Michelle what names she had in mind after finding out we were having a girl, she immediately said, “Lamia” without a second thought, both for Lami and the meaning of ‘radiance.’ It was a moment that made me catch my breath, seeing a part of the people who I lost live on. Delivering her was easier than Ross, since we were more prepared, but I became anxious when she came out, because she wasn’t making a sound, until I realized she was sleeping. We both were relieved when she cried after a couple of pats. (reminiscing) Lamia continues to surprise us everyday. I remember the time she asked me if I could read her a bedtime story and pulled out one of my old journals she took from my office (chuckles) and she sometimes I catch her applying what I taught her on Ross or Bepo.

-> Tagging: @the-phoenix-and-the-witch, @conchasweetheart, @lariflames, @undercoverweeeb, @simp4ace, @gabrielasalazar18

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 408

THE DELICATE BALANCE OF LIFE ON EARTH: Part 2

Let me now provide some further incredible calculations.

For nearly every illness, the Great Creator has fashioned a plant or microbe as a cure. How can the ignorant, altogether lacking evidence, call this system a coincidence! To create the earth, to settle human beings there, and then to keep ready all the botanical and bacterial remedies for all their ailments in the laboratories of nature!

There are enough foxglove plants in the world to provide digitalis to cure all heart patients. There are also enough hashish plants to ease the sufferings of all the painfully ill, yet the medicine of that plant has become black market stuff under the pressure of heedless selfishness and is used to provide pleasure for the lunatic fringe.

Another example of the things produced in harmonious balance in the earth: until about a hundred years ago, firewood met the heating and energy requirements of men. If coal and oil had not been discovered, the forests would all have been the last of their kind on earth. But just at the right moment, the divine computer delivered the coal and later, the oil, that it had prepared millions of years ago, and in such measure as to provide enough for all human beings. Unfortunately man, the prisoner of egotism, is now preparing for the greatest war in history with oil as the centre of the controversy. And what of the House of Islam? Because it has not truly embraced the Qur’an, because it has been unable to understand it and to realize new scientific advances, it now stands dazed, looking in bewilderment at even the wealth gushing from its own backyard.

Let us now look at the proper balance of the earth’s constitution in terms of its metals.

We do not know the proportions of metals in the central core of the earth and the liquid mantle surrounding it. But in the crust on which we live, the elements are distributed in such proportion that it is as if a scientific committee had provided a shopping list and the orders had been met by an infinitely powerful factory. Each substance is present in the earth’s crust to the exact proportion that the level of civilization ordained by God demands. Compounds of silicon, iron and potassium are the basic substances for residential construction. If even one of these had been missing, we could not have cities.

Until recently we didn’t know what blessing water is. Today we know that the calcium bicarbonate in water is the best organizer of digestion. Vital substances such as salt are distributed over the earth in such proportion that man has almost arrived in a fully equipped biological laboratory.

Have you ever considered that sea water has been evaporating, and then returning to the seas by rivers, for millions of years? During this process, new substances are transported to the seas from land, and yet the composition of sea water never changes. Observe the magnificence of this miracle of the divine computer: millions of events take place, yet the harmonious balance imposed by God on the earth’s produce does not change. For the Guarded Tablet is also, in a sense, a law of the Qur’an.

Returning to metals, there are some whose names have been heard of only in the last 150 years, such as beryllium, uranium, cadmium, tungsten, tantalum and gallium. When these were first discovered, everyone regarded them merely as laboratory curiosities. Only later was it realized that these are the indispensable building blocks of advanced technology. From the utilization of atomic energy to high temperature technological activities, each one of these metals represents some essential property, and their presence on earth is adjusted according to the part they were predestined to play.

One of the greatest wonders of the planet earth, which the All-Mighty furnished before lowering man upon it, are the radioactive substances of the world. These are present in the earth’s crust in such perfect proportion that its measure could not be ordered by any scientific committee. On the one hand, there is uranium-235 to provide nuclear power, safe in its natural setting yet dangerous when purified; on the other hand, carbon-14 to enable biological activity. And how wonderful are mineral springs whose waters, which bear moderate amounts of radioactive substances, dispense health to millions of people all over the world.

Consider what we have said about the radioactivity of the earth from the reverse point of view. If uranium had been present in the earth in the form of its uranium-235 isotope exclusively, the world would have become a witch’s cauldron a short time after it was formed. On the other hand, if uranium-235 had not been present in uranium-238 in the proportion of 0.7%, we could not have obtained atomic energy. God has invested uranium-235 with such a characteristic that it can be converted to nuclear power only when it is separated, and does not pose a danger in its natural matrix in uranium-238.

Many biological events could not take place, but for the presence of carbon-14 in the atmosphere. If this substance, which has a proportion of one ppm (parts per million), had been slightly more common, it would have constituted a lethal hazard. And if the sodium-24 isotope were present in mineral springs, taking a bath would be like being present at Hiroshima when they dropped the bomb. Although the main substance in mineral springs is sodium, its isotopes other than sodium-24 are predominant.

Indeed, we could never exhaust commentary on this verse if we were to fill volumes. I have therefore been content to offer only a short summary. Let us read and re-read it with due reverence and wonder:

‘WE HAVE GIVEN THE PRODUCE OF THE EARTH IN HARMONIOUS BALANCE AND PROPER PROPORTION.’

[semper-legens]

5. Watching, by Winston Rowntree

Owned: Yes Page count: Unknown, not numbered My summary: We watch the past. To document, to catalogue, to learn. We watch the past from our perfect future, and are enriched by it. Some watch great events, some important moments, and from the past we understand the present. But I am watching the sick girl. And I do not understand. My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

My first comic of the year, and also one that you at home can read, for free, right now! Click this link to do so. It’s a short, speculative sci-fi piece about humanity and I absolutely love it, it’s one of my favourite of Rowntree’s work in Subnormality. I find a lot of his comics to be kind of hit-or-miss, but when he gets going on a short story like this it’s usually compelling, and I love this one to pieces.

So first, the premise - in the future, we have time travel that lets us watch the past. We can’t interact, but we can view and study. Many people in the future watch major events as a hobby, but our narrator is watching one specific event - a sick girl in a hospital, in the last few months of her life. The narrator is an incredibly vague figure. We know nothing about them but their perspective, and that’s sort of the point; getting a perspective on sickness and death and struggle from someone in a society that has eliminated sickness and death, generally. Like a Star Trek kind of future, they mention at one point that a single pill from their time could cure the girl instantly. There’s a nice little line describing our time as being ‘between diagnostics and remedy’ that reminded me of a documentary I watched a while back about a man with a 5 minute memory. He’d had a stroke or something in the 80s that completely destroyed the part of his mind that deals with memory, and while medical professionals could revive him, they couldn’t cure the memory thing. Someone on the documentart noted that a decade earlier, he’d have just died, and a decade later, they would have been able to prevent the memory loss, but instead he’s between diagonstic and remedy, where they knew what had happened but didn’t have the technology to fix it.

But this isn’t a story about technology - even the time travel’s just a plot device. This is about the sick girl, and the watcher’s point of view. They don’t understand, that’s the point. They don’t understand her resilience. They don’t understand why the girl isn’t miserable all of the time, why her friends and family stay with her. Why they don’t give up. The watcher’s speech is clinical, it’s detatched, and you wonder if they even have friendship in the same way in their distant future, or loyalty. And yet, the watcher recognises something familiar in them.

I just want to take a moment to discuss the exact techniques Rowntree uses to get his point across here. The art is muted, in monochrome blue or grey and white with a lot of white space. The text is grey and blocky and close together, aiding this overtone of loneliness as the watcher is, by necessity, isolated from the girl and the hospital. The watcher’s narration is terse and to the point, containing a lot of repeated lines as they circle back through the same points - ‘I am watching the sick girl’, ‘I do not understand’, ‘We have [X] in our time, but it is not like this’. The effect is almost poetic, and it’s honestly a masterclass in saying a lot with very few words, letting implication, inference, and the art fill the blanks.

And this is the point of why I love this comic - it’s about humanity. And it doesn’t really fall into some of the #Inspirational traps that it might have, depicting a young woman struggling with an unspecified illness. She’s not inspirational or worthy because of her valiant struggle or anything like that. Her humanity comes from the fact that she is human; that the watcher, despite coming from a time where this is completely alien, recognises in her a part of humanity that they share. Her likes, dislikes, wants, fears. Her bravery and weaknesses, her good days and her bad days. It’s like reading a diary from the Middle Ages or something - can I relate to the life of a plague victim? No, I don’t really have a frame of reference for what that would have been like. But can I relate to a person struggling and grieving, laughing with their friends and family, holding onto hope and good and having whatever experiences they can, with wants and dreams that they might never fulfil? Yes. It’s history, living history, and also a part of the present that we don’t really talk about. The girl isn’t Important, she’s not someone who makes history, but she is important because she lived and loved and was a human, and that’s what makes her worth watching, and that is why the watcher is there. To understand. To mark her life. And in that way, she is not forgotten.

[lokidrabbles]

Healing Methods (Loki x Reader Oneshot)

Reader catches a cold; Loki has a couple of things up his sleeve.

It was certainly that time of the year, the dreadful one where your co-workers seemed to collectively fall ill together. While you prided yourself as one of those individuals who “never got sick,” luck played a cruel game of chance, leaving you a miserable, flustered, leaking mess in your cold, cold apartment. It was probably four days already, four days of burning nostrils, sore throats, inhuman sounds coming from your larynx, and of you ingesting unwanted amounts of expectorants and antihistamines.

Yes, you were terribly sick with a cold. And Loki thought you were absolutely revolting.

One of Loki’s many pros of being Jotun is his immunity to Earthly viruses, diseases, and common bacteria. So, needless to say, Loki did not comprehend your current state. It was just another thing to add to the list of reasons why humans were so “pathetic” and weak to mere tiny organisms.

Normally Loki would just avoid you in this situation, knowing (or not really caring)  he would probably be the last person you’d wanted to be nagged or bothered by. Also you had become easily irritable at his snide remarks to you due to your throbbing head and fluctuating fever. You swore you saw an imaginary pair of devil horns grow on his head once he noted the bad mood you were in.

Like a snot nosed child, Loki made it his own personal goal to rile you up as much as he could. Mostly because he thought you attempts to hush him were, while admirable, quite hilarious.

It had been a long time since Loki had been able to live up to his reputation as the God of Chaos and Mischief.

And here you were, cuddled up against your couch in such a vulnerable state.

Such an easy target.

“Goodness, you look like death. What is that flowing from your nostril? You know, I don’t think I want to know. Please make sure you stand on the opposite end of the room, far away from me.” Loki retorted, mischief drizzled all over his face.

“I don’t recall inviting you here.” You retorted with a raspy voice, sounding horribly unappealing. A soft fleece blanket was wrapped over yourself and head included, with only a small opening allowing you to peer out with puffy eyes. You were a literal human burrito, with a pile of used tissue scattered around you. Truly a vision of beauty, you thought.

“Now, now.” Loki began, wagging his finger at you. “What is that saying? Ah, yes. Laughter is the best medicine. And I am here to cure you of this disgusting illness you’ve acquired.”

Deep within the layers of fleece, you shot daggers at him with narrowed eyes, only feeding his misdemeanor even more. You muffled something at him between your snot and sniffles, something he clearly made out as a plain “fuck you.”

Loki gritted his teeth in anticipation.

“Not while you’re leaking like this, dear.”

You revved up your leg accordingly, and shot out a firm kick at his ribs, purposefully shoving him off the couch.

He was being an absolute pain.

Loki landed with a soft thud on your floor, holding back his sniggering at how easily you were flustered by his tactful commentary. You humored him very well, maybe a tad too much.

You turned away from him justly so, burying your face deep in your blanket cocoon. “Go. Away.” You jabbed weakly.

Loki popped up right behind you, his hands tensing at the possibilities available to him precisely at this moment. You getting this upset and irked at him, riled him up even more.

“Are you certain you wish for me to leave you in such a critical condition? I mean look at you, in this defenseless, fetal position. Obviously, you aren’t getting any better...or cleaner.”

He gently patted your messy hair, only receiving a multitude of grumbling noises.

“Loki, if you want to share banter or want me to call you on your crap, I really don’t want to...ugh.”

Your voice became even more hoarse. Your throat dried up harshly, sending you into a fit of hacking coughs. Rightly so, Loki slowly backed away from you, getting a better understanding at just how bad you had gotten.

“Hmm, I’m rather disappointed (Y/N). Usually you’re more vocal and upright with your repartee towards me.” He teased, crossing his arms lazily over his chest.

You spun around and sat up to have a better view of him, wrapping and tightening your blankets much more snug over you. Loki only saw your pupils shoot up a glance towards him.

“I just need to lay in bed for a couple of days,” you began softly.  “So I would appreciate it if you weren’t here to affirm my grossness.”

“You have been laying in bed for a couple of days already. And whatever your human doctors have recommended for your treatment, clearly isn’t working.” He gestured towards the entirety of your spectacle, indicating how terribly ill you clearly still were.

“What’s your point?”

Loki eagerly scooted closer to you, sitting justly on your coffee table, perfectly reaching you at eye level. You were tense, knowing he was conniving something sinister to either piss you off more, or to simply amuse him. Or both.

“Luckily, you have the benefit of having me as your endearing acquaintance, who just happens to have the perfect remedy for you.” He announced as a matter of fact.

You raised an eyebrow, clearly doubting every word he mentioned. “So far, you haven’t made me laugh at all Loki.”

“I wasn’t referring to that, dear. Your ineffectual Midgardian healing is doing nothing to better your state. Hence, I’ve propped up a little something from Asgard which will surely bring you back to your usual self in no time.”

His chin raised up high and prideful, obviously garnering much confidence in this Asgardian remedy he was offering to you. If you weren’t backed up with mucus, snot and phlegm, you probably would have wanted to plant a much needed kiss on his seemingly perfect mug.

“Okay, so some medicine from Asgard? Hmm.”

You were pensive for a brief moment. However at this point, you were willing to try anything just to make you breathe normally again. Also to stop Loki from being such a pest.

“Alright, let’s have it Dr. Loki.”

His fingers danced and wiggled meticulously, as a soft glow began to manifest itself at the palm of his hand. The glow began to take shape of a small round object, quickly flashing, and then slowly revealing this ancient remedy used by Asgardians for thousand and thousand of years...

A fig.

A small, round, purple fig.

It wasn’t...quite what you were expecting. You looked up at him, and then back down at the plain looking fruit, and then back up again in disbelief.

“Loki, a fig? Are you kidding me? How the hell is a fig supposed to help me?” He flicked your forehead with quick fingers, hushing you before you continued onto your rant towards him.

“This isn’t a fruit from Earth you fool. This is a fig from the healing shrubbery in Asgard. These small fruits contain properties which almost help heal almost any type of illness or disease. I’m very certain it should be enough to take away this pesky “cold” you have.”

Again, your doubt fell heavy, as Loki inched the small fruit closer to your face. You inspected it, squinting your eyes to ensure you weren’t just seeing things. No. It just looked like a plain old fig to you. One you could just easily buy at the market downtown.

“Are you messing with me again?”

He rolled his eyes far into the back of his head, clearly irked at your ongoing interrogation at his attempts to make you, you, feel better.

“ I realize you aren’t in the best condition now, but you should know by now when I am being serious. Look, take a small piece and you’ll see you’ll feel much better already.”

You sighed heavily, knowing there really wasn’t a way out of this. Truthfully, your appetite was suppressed due to the amounts of cough syrup you ingested earlier on.

“I don’t know, I’m not feeling particularly...fruity.” You chuckled slowly, followed up by another set of hoarse coughs.

Loki took the small fruit in both of his hands, carefully pulling apart open, to reveal a very bold tint of red, pulpy like substance. He carefully crafted a very small piece, bite sized, picking up carefully between his thumb and index fingers and holding it precisely in front of your lips.

“Open your mouth now, aah.”

Your nose became wrinkled and your eyebrows narrowed, slowly jerking your head backwards away from the foreign piece of fruit. It wasn’t as if you were very picky with food, but right now, a lot of things seemed quite nauseous. On top of that, Loki wanted to hand feed you. With his own hand, and fingers. Feeding you, on your lips, your nasty, crusty lips. You looked up at him again, clearly indicating your lack of comfort.

“I thought you said I was disgusting and you didn’t want to be anywhere near me.”

He gave you one of his signature smirks. However, there was a sort of fondness behind it. Loki’s eyes were gentle on yours, slowly providing you with some relief.

“Perhaps, but I’d rather have you in tip top shape in order to defend yourself against me. It’s rather boring when you aren’t being your usual witty self. So, open.”

You gently opened your mouth for him, shaking in the anticipation of the moment. Loki feeding you some type of magical fruit of the sorts, for the purposes of healing you. Taking care of you. If your face wasn’t red already, you would have easily blushed at this fact.

With his slender fingers, Loki carefully propped a small piece of the fruit, gently placing it at the tip of your tongue. The moment was mind-numbing, especially once you felt his cool fingers slightly brush on your lips.

On one hand, this would be an extremely intimate and romantic moment, as sweet fruit juices would hopefully cover your throat and provide you with swift relief. However these juices were far from sweet.  They were sour, vinegar-y, pungent, and absolutely bitter. Nothing like a fig.

You shut your eyes harshly and your face became puckered at the intensity of tastes dancing on your taste buds. Your legs shook violently, as you let out a displeasing moan from your mouth after finally swallowing, gasping for air after the experience.

“That was...fucking...horrible!”

Loki’s mouth was twisted, obviously fighting back, again, a fit of laughter at your child like reaction to its taste. He covered his mouth immediately with a free hand, letting out a pronounced series of giggles.

“Ehehehehe.”

You continued to swallow, attempting to wash away the repugnant taste away with your own saliva. You darted a glance of pure indignation at him.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was going to taste like this! Blegh!”

“Oh! Did I forget to mention how severely bitter and acidic this particular fruit was?” He asked coyly, and then shrugged. “It must have...just not crossed my mind at all.”

Oh, you little ass-hat. You knew he was plainly lying through his teeth. You knew he, again, wanted to continue messing around with you. And it worked, worst of all.

“God, you suck Loki. Go away.” You said in defeat, bundling yourself up more.

“Okay, I admit, that was for my own amusement.” He replied, biting his thumb in anticipation. “It was indeed hilarious. However, this fruit truly does help heal all types of illnesses. The catch though, for it to work well...”

You shook your head violently. “No, no, no more!”

“(Y/N), you need to eat it entirely to feel better. Please, have trust in my words. I promise, I am not jesting with you anymore.”

You closely shut your lips tight together, determined in letting no other piece of food in your mouth, even if it was provided by Loki.

He clenched his jaw at your act of defiance.

“I wasn’t asking.”

His tone sent shivers down your spine, making your loosen up your lips immediately. When he wanted to, Loki was terrifying, and you knew he wasn’t playing around with you anymore.

“...fine.”

“Ah, good human.” His jaw loosed up as well, very pleased at your compliance with him.

“But!” You exclaimed softly. “You need to feed me every little piece.”

He arched an eyebrow at you, noting the twinkle in your eye. “Oh? Is that so?”

You nodded, propping yourself up straight, and justly opening your mouth, tongue slightly sticking out. You weren’t looking forward to it at all, but at least you could get some amusement and enjoyment out of it. Who wouldn’t want to be hand fed by an Asgardian god?

He chuckled. “Sly little human. By tomorrow you’ll be feeling much, much better. And perhaps we can put that little tongue of yours to some better use?”

You coughed harshly, again, completely ruining the moment.

“...Perhaps not.”

[cannabisrefugee-esq]

WWNRD?  Or, What Would Nurse Ratched Do?  Ft. Nurse Ratched 

Cannabis Refugee, Esq. Advertising / Media / Cultural Conversation, Alternative Treatment, Capitalistic Patriarchal Medicine, Family / Friends, Marijuana / Cannabis, Other Autoimmune Diseases, Radical Feminism

October 31, 2019

Nurse Ratched was a sadistic, evil bitch at the time and would be that and a dangerously out of touch political dinosaur now.  Please do not do what she would do.  If anything, ask yourself WWNRD and then do the opposite.

Speaking with my mother recently made me sympathize with young smartasses and activists who are just waiting for the elder generation — the out of touch Baby Boomers and the Baby Boomers’ parents and kids by this point — to give up the ghost and die.  A “dinosaur” or political dinosaur is someone whose philosophy and worldview are obsolete and rooted in problematic values and circumstances of the distant past.  For example, as a young activist in my teens and 20s I remember thinking and saying that the world would be a better place once those who grew up with unregulated environmental pollution and legal institutionalized racism, sexism etc. died off because their environmental unconcern, racism and sexism were so entrenched that they either didn’t realize, agree or care what they were doing and being was wrong.

Welp.  After being sick my entire fucking life with an undiagnosed autoimmune disease, and going on 8 years with a diagnosed one, I am having these same thoughts now about the older generation of Western medical practitioners and others who were born, grew up and/or progenated in a low-population, relatively unpolluted pre-nuclear world where lifelong serious, untreatable, incurable and progressive disease existed only in very small numbers and therefore where older people seem to believe and act as if chronic illness did not and does not exist at all.

To be clear, chronic illness obviously did exist in our recent and distant past, for example, natural uranium deposits are known to cause acute and chronic radiation sickness to those who spend time around it. And humans have likely always been struck down with genetic and congenital maladies that might not have outright killed them.  But old/er people seem to have lived their entire lives without chronic illness, including autoimmune and immune-mediated disease, front and center in their consciousness or as a part of their lived experience and this does make sense: before, say, the 1940s and 50s the worst industrial (man-made ionizing nuclear) pollutants had yet to be widely dispersed and contemporary Western medicine did not, because it could not, routinely pluck seriously ill and/or nonviable neonates, infants and others from the brink of merciful, natural deaths.  Today, seriously ill children and others are rather forced to live for years, decades and lifetimes with serious illnesses that do not outright kill them, because Western medicine will not allow it, but which Western medicine has yet to figure out how to treat, relieve, or cure.

Having researched chronic illness, primarily autoimmune and immune-mediated disease for going on 8 years now, it seems to me that, in stark contrast to the life experience and worldview of older people, young people today generally are very aware that incurable and progressive chronic illness exists.  Over and over I see that young people today, at least young Western people, well understand and accept the reality of chronic illness much more freely than older people, and the implications of that are extremely dark.  From what I can discern, this difference in worldview likely exists because young people are increasingly becoming seriously chronically ill themselves.  Young people understand and accept the material reality of chronic illness because experiencing it personally as individuals and in their peer group they have no choice but to accept it.

And over and over I see that older people are generally ignorant about issues of chronic illness and that they have not experienced it either individually or in their peer group.  Frighteningly, instead of recognizing their blessed ignorance and trying to remedy it, older people think that their personal opinion based on outdated and second- and third-hand pseudo-knowledge about chronic illness matters or affects the outcome.  It doesn’t, but unfortunately many medical professionals, healthcare policymakers, paid and unpaid caretakers and the like embrace an outdated worldview that no longer applies in our post-nuclear, Western world, and thus do not or cannot fully believe the self-reports of, or even contemporary peer-reviewed medical research addressing, the experiences and needs of seriously chronically ill.

A few weeks ago, a day and a half into a migraine (I’m getting 4 day migraines now, yay!) I panicked over my migraine-related inability to work on my small business, pursue benefits, or do virtually anything as I was completely and totally incapacitated.  In what I can only describe as a misguided and ultimately futile cry for help, bedridden, I called my mother to update her about the situation, whereupon she made some statements of position that were so ignorant they verily shocked me.  Laying in the dark with a sleep mask over my eyes, and a puke bucket near my bed, what I heard uttered from my mother’s lips was so egregiously out of touch with accepted thinking that it frankly terrified me.

Attempting to explain to her how and why she was wrong exhausted me. Knowing that she was moved not an inch by my description of my plight — instead smugly maintaining her “position” throughout as if she were engaging in a political debate rather than considering an emergency communique — enraged me.

For example, when I told my mom that I had a new diagnosis of High Functioning Autism, or HFA, she seemed unsurprised but said I wasn’t autistic as a child because I was always “bright.”  Okay.   In her mind, my HFA-consistent and completely obvious lifelong deficits in executive function — think literal and figurative “housekeeping” — and social competency (including feminine roleplaying which also includes both literal and figurative housekeeping, fuck me sideways) had nothing to do with autism and instead were just me being a lifelong asshole, lazy, and a bitch.  She always believed that about me and she never hesitated to tell me about it.  But at least I was bright.  But now, because I’m no longer a practicing attorney and a “success” and instead am struggling to maintain any quality of life as a seriously ill person with limitations, and I can’t maintain an illusion of physical health anymore if I ever could, I’m a lifelong lazy asshole bitch and a freshly minted unbright/retard on top of it.  Also, there is apparently such a thing as adult-onset autism. Because she says so. 

Of course, my mother’s opinion about HFA is irrelevant and obsolete where HFA-literate people today know that high-functioning autism — the bright, non-retarded kind —  is a bona fide thing, that particularly HFA females are often not diagnosed until late/r in life, and that “brightness” or intelligence is often a symptom/feature of HFA and not the antithesis of it.       Autistic Tumblr — or any young autism or chronic illness related social media site — would tear that political dinosaur a new egg-hole if she dared say something so ignorant patently false about autistics on that platform.  And so they probably should if they wanted to expend the energy and if they thought it would help.

Yes, I recently discovered the dark corner of the internet known as Autistic Tumblr: young people creating content, commentary and community from the shared perspective and lived experience that autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) including HFA is real and has real, material effects on people’s lives.  Often, those effects have nothing to do with being low-functioning, or unbright.  Which is not to say that I find Autistic or Chronic Illness Tumblr a particularly sane or comforting place to be.  As I recently learned myself, Autistic Tumblr is an upsetting, dystopian place where young autistics put great effort into and emphasis on “normalizing” and “validating” terrible things that rightfully should never exist at all: autistic and chronic illness related things like melting down, stimming and managing chronic fatigue, chronic pain, chronic gut issues and the like, because although most of them are much younger than me, due to their autism and (likely) related physical and mental issues they are extremely ill and can barely get through their day.  

In fact, upon hearing and considering these self-reports, one might even speculate that physical and mental pain is what likely drives autistics’ trademark weird, antisocial and self-absorbed behavior, where they are in fact “bright” enough to communicate online at the very least (and often have work, school and social commitments) but are exhausted from insomnia, chronic pain and ME/CFS; anorexic because they can’t eat anything; are having infantile hand-flapping meltdowns in public or breaking into inopportune episodes of “stimming” behavior to soothe themselves and they can’t deal with people giving them the side-eye at school and work on top of it.  Autistic young people are living in hell, utter hell, judging from their self-reports.  Considering that vast and increasing numbers of young people are autistic, it seems likely that extreme physical and mental distress is normal for many young people now.  Young people much more than old people seem to know this.  People who care to put in a modicum of research know this.

To further illustrate, when I was attempting to describe my current limitations to my mother she completely dismissed me and said that when it comes to disability, one is either totally disabled or not disabled at all.  Lest I misunderstand what she meant by that, she spontaneously clarified her statement to mean that if I have limitations I should be in a “home” and if I don’t need to be in a “home” then there is no reason I can’t act as if I’m not disabled at all.  In other words, despite being demonstrably, seriously ill, I “should” be able to act/function as if I’m perfectly fine.  Because she says so.  

Of course, as I understand it, invalid “homes” are largely a thing of the past, at least in this country, having literally gone the way of the dinosaur.  And many sick and injured people are, in fact, demonstrably partially disabled, where they are able to perform some activities of daily living and perhaps some higher level activities like bookkeeping and such but not all; accessing “services” to help partially and even very disabled people to live as independently as possible — and not institutionalized — is the way it works now.  Partially disabled does not equal totally disabled, you sadistic Nurse Ratched, you decrepit fossil, nor does partially disabled mean not disabled at all.  She then proceeded to disagree with me — and contemporary peer reviewed medical research corroborating thousands of years of human history and shared experience — that cannabis is an effective anti-inflammatory and is particularly useful in inflammatory bowel disease including Crohn’s.  According to her, and based on nothing, pot isn’t an effective or necessary medicine for any condition, and it’s “merely” an effective pain reliever (!) and therefore is not actually medicine at all.  Because she said so.

This ignorant, sadistic ideological fossil maintains her nursing license and continues to “care for” actual patients including sick infants and children.   Whatever “caring” means to her, and people like her: assholes who rely on frighteningly outdated material on which to form and support their opinions on contemporary medical and social issues, including contemporary chronic illness that for whatever reason is increasing in incidence and prevalence.  And particularly in our post-nuclear, radioactively contaminated environment, including the toxic, autoimmune uterine environment in which many of us spend our first 3/4 of a year and which is known to cause autism.  While information on Crohn’s, HFA, medical marijuana etc. is easily Googleable, and appears to be widely known by young people, apparently my 67 year old nurse mother is waiting for the news to break via Teletype or otherwise didn’t get the memo.  

Of course, if I was a partially disabled man and had a wife (or mother) to perform all my executive function tasks (including bookkeeping services for my small business) for me, no one would even notice I was disabled.  If I were male instead of female perhaps my life wouldn’t be falling apart at all, and certainly the prospect of committing me to a nonexistent/extinct 1940s era invalid home because I can’t wait in line or consistently do my business and personal taxes anymore would have never been raised at all.

Comments Open.

[idriesshah]

In Fihi Ma Fihi, at the very beginning, Rumi takes a saying of Muhammad which had passed into common speech and become a proverb, sagely passed from lip to lip. Muhammad is reported as having said, ‘The worst of sages is a visitor of princes; the best of princes is a visitor of sages.’ Rumi points out that the inner meaning of this teaching is that the meaning of ‘visiting’ depends upon the quality of the visitor and the visited. If a great sage visits a prince, it is the prince who benefits; and hence he is to be considered as having himself ‘visited’ the sage. This is very far from being a mere juggling with words, as some less reflective people have supposed. With what amounts to shock tactics, the Mathnawi opens its teaching, after the celebrated ‘Song of the Reed’, with what looks like a fairy tale about a prince out hunting and a beautiful girl. As the audience settles down to enjoy the conventional story, Rumi starts to manipulate it to create thought in the mind and to combat the tendency to ‘sleep’, which is Sufistically taken to be the usual reaction to folktales. A prince, out hunting, saw on the road a beautiful handmaiden. He fell in love with her, and bought her. Soon afterward she became ill. In desperation, the potentate offered his doctors anything they might desire of worldly goods to cure her. They were unable to do so, and the girl’s condition became worse. The prince, utterly distraught with love and fear, ran to a mosque and implored divine aid. He saw a vision in which an ancient assured him that a physician would soon appear. The following day, as predicted, this personage arrived. The doctor looked at the girl and realised that every remedy tried by the leeches had been useless and worse. He understood that her illness was concerned with her inward condition. Adopting a psychological method, he asked her questions and made her talk, until he discovered that she was in love with a certain goldsmith of Samarkand. He told the prince that a cure would be effected by bringing the goldsmith to the girl’s bedside, and he agreed. The goldsmith, for his own part, saw in the prince’s summons only a recognition of his own importance in goldsmithing. He did not realise what his fate was to be. When he arrived, they were married, and the girl recovered completely. Thus far the anodyne of the story may well have taken effect upon the audience, who surrender themselves to the delights of all being well that ends well. But the physician now prepared medicine for the goldsmith; a medicine which made his inner faults so evident that the maiden saw him as he was and started to hate him. He died, and the girl was able to love the prince, who was always intended for her. Apart from the complicated imagery of the tale in the original, the teaching contains an impact at many levels. It is not just a matter of telling a tale with one crude moral; it is a commentary upon some of the processes of life. Hadrat-i-Paghman says of this story: ‘Ponder it, for unless you feel it through, you will be like the little child who wants everything right and cries when things do not seem to be right. You will make a prison for yourself, a prison of emotion. When you are in this prison, you will hurt yourself on the sharpness of the bars which you have yourself arranged.’

[flamesofthebodhisattva]

Dealing With Anger

ON DEALING WITH ANGER

Undoubtedly, both Shantideva and the Dalai Lama are most articulate in their discourse on how to deal with anger and hatred.

Shantideva in fact opens the chapter on patience with the strong statement that an instance of anger can destroy positive imprints created over “a thousand eons.”

He further asserts that there is no evil like hatred and that there is no fortitude like patience. Thus, he recommends that we all seek to develop patience.

In Shantideva’s view, anger acts as the principal obstacle to the development of patience. To use the well-known medical analogy, hatred is the poison and patience is the medicine that removes the poisonous toxins from within the mind.

As the Dalai Lama’s commentary makes clear, Shantideva identifies two key elements in our attempts to overcome anger.

First and foremost, it is important for us to have a profound appreciation of the negativity of anger. Of particular relevance is to reflect upon the destructive effects of generating anger.

Second, Shantideva identifies the need to develop a deep understanding of the causal mechanism which underlies the arisal of anger. This is of special interest to the modern reader, who will unavoidably be approaching Shantideva’s text with many of the popular assumptions associated with modern psychology and its views on human emotions.

In verse 7 of the chapter, Shantideva makes the crucial observation that the “fuel” of anger is what he calls “mental discomfort.” This is an interesting notion. The Tibetan word is yi mi-dewa which can be translated as “dejection,” “unhappiness,” or simply as “dissatisfaction.”

It is best understood as a pervasive, underlying sense of dissatisfaction, which need not be felt at the conscious level. It is that nagging feeling that something is not quite right.

Shantideva seems to be suggesting that it is this underlying sense of dissatisfaction that gives rise to frustration. When this happens, the conditions are set for an immediate outburst of anger when things do not go the way we wish.

Once this causal nexus between dissatisfaction, frustration, and anger is understood, we can then appreciate the virtue of Shantideva’s approach to dealing with anger. We can see that much of his approach is aimed at rooting out this underlying sense of dissatisfaction rather than engaging in a head-to-head confrontation with actual full-blown anger.

This is the reason for Shantideva’s emphasis on reflections which aim to create stability of mind. As to the specific practices, the reader can follow the detailed commentary of the Dalai Lama in the appropriate sections of the book.

An important point to note here is that Shantideva does not appear to make any distinction between anger and hatred in his discussion.

However, the Dalai Lama’s commentary explicitly underlines this critical distinction. He observes that, in principle, it may be possible to accept what could be called a “positive anger.”

Anger as an outrage toward injustice done to others can often be an important catalyst for powerful altruistic deeds.

However, he rejects such possibility with regard to hatred. For the Dalai Lama, hatred can have no virtue. It only eats the person from within and poisons his or her interactions with fellow human beings. In his words, “Hatred is the true enemy; it is the inner enemy.”

Perhaps we can say that the feature that distinguishes anger and hatred is the absence or presence of ill-will. A person can be angry without bearing any ill-will toward his or her object of anger. The Dalai Lama instructs us to ensure that our anger, even when it arises, never culminates in full-blown hatred. This, I think, is an important ethical teaching.

A few words on some of the general principles which lie behind the approaches suggested in this book for dealing with our emotions and developing patience may perhaps help the general reader.

A key principle is a belief in what could be called the plasticity of the mind, that is, an assumption of the mind’s limitless capacity for improvement. This is supported by a complex understanding of the psychology of the mind and its various modalities.

Both Shantideva and the Dalai Lama are operating within a long history of Buddhist psychology and philosophy of mind which emphasizes a detailed analysis of human emotions.

Generally speaking, in this view the mind is perceived in terms of a complex, dynamic system where both cognitive and affective dimensions of the psyche are seen as an integrated whole.

So, when the two masters present means of dealing with emotions such as anger, they are not suggesting that we should suppress them. Both Buddhist and modern psychology agree on the harmfulness of mere suppression.

The Buddhist approach is to get at the root so that the very basis for anger is undercut. In other words, Shantideva and the Dalai Lama are suggesting ways of reorienting our character so that we become less prone to strong reactive emotions such as anger. It is in this light that most of the reflections recommended in this volume should be understood.

The motto is simple: Discipline your mind. Shantideva underlines the critical importance of this inner discipline with a wonderful analogy:

Where would I possibly find enough leather

With which to cover the surface of the earth?

But (wearing) just leather on the soles of my shoes

Is equivalent to covering the earth with it.

Likewise it is not possible for me

To restrain the external course of things;

But should I restrain this mind of mine

What would be the need to restrain all else?

(Guide, V:13–14)

This of course is reminiscent of the memorable verse from the Dhammapada in which the Buddha says:

Intangible and subtle is the mind,

That flies after fancies as it likes;

Wise are those who discipline their minds,

For a mind well-disciplined brings great joy. (Verse 35)

Shantideva calls this basic Buddhist practice “guarding the mind” and he discusses it at great length in chapter 5 of his Guide.

Another general principle I wish to draw the reader’s attention to is the basic pragmatism of Shantideva’s teachings. He does not appear to believe in the possibility of one cure or solution to any problem.

His is a strategy that involves drawing extensively from all our inner resources. Many of his arguments appeal to what we may call human rationality. But he also uses approaches that appeal to our fundamental humanitarian sentiments. Often he plays upon our sense of moral outrage too. So, the bottom line seems to be “whatever works best.”

In the final analysis, many of the approaches presented in this book are insights grounded in common sense. For example, who can argue with the sheer practicality of the following lines, which the Dalai Lama is so fond of quoting:

Why be unhappy about something

If it can be remedied?

And what is the use of being unhappy about something

If it cannot be remedied? (Guide, VI:10)

Perhaps most importantly for the modern reader, it is vital to appreciate that both Shantideva and the Dalai Lama do not believe in “instant enlightenment.”

In their teachings, there is the basic assumption that cultivating inner discipline is a time-consuming process. In fact, the Dalai Lama rightly points out that having expectations of immediate results is a sign of impatience, the very factor the teachings in this volume aim to counteract.

With a sense of irony, he observes that often what the modern reader wants is “the best, the fastest, the easiest, and, if possible, the cheapest way.” So the journey of someone who is on the path of self-betterment is arduous and requires long commitment.

Nevertheless, the rewards of embarking upon such a journey are potentially enormous. Even in immediate terms, the benefit such an endeavor brings to the traveler’s life seems remarkable.

If the Dalai Lama is representative of those who have gained the fruits of this journey, its merits are shown to be beyond question.

Geshe Thupten Jinpa

Girton College

University of Cambridge

Perfecting Patience - His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Geshe Thupten Jinpa - Shambhala Publications, Inc.

[erabtt]

Ayurveda Treatments - It Is just a Variety of Healthier Existence

Ayurveda could be the eternal Vedic science of lifestyle, the traditional pure healing method of India. Now, Ayurveda is for the forefront of brain-physique medicines. Ayurveda has distribute significantly past its traditional foundation and is also gaining awareness all through the globe. Ayurveda with its idea of daily life and consciousness becomes the medication of the longer term pay a visit to ayurvedic clinic in Sharjah. Ayurveda pretty much means understanding of everyday living. Its simple concepts are thought to generally be remembered by Brahma, the Creator himself. This knowledge consequently was handed down by way of mythological figures to The nice seers. The composed textual content of Ayurveda day again to many millennia as well as the exceptionally elaborate and Sophisticated ideas that embody them still variety The idea of assorted professional medical methods of currently. As a science of lifestyle Ayurveda makes an attempt to set out great and bad practices of lifestyle by outlining the cause of content and disappointed existence, what on earth is wholesome and unwholesome. In addition it elaborates guidelines for supplying a balance to generally frantic and unhealthy existence of contemporary world. Ayurvedic medicines are based upon the principle that each personal has a unique Structure that associated with his vital energies translated into Ayurvedic nosology as dosha or humors. The equilibrium of such humors is determined by a variety of things. The objective of Ayurveda should be to reestablish the equilibrium once we are ill and to keep up that equilibrium in order to retain us healthful. Ayurveda explores how you can recover our minds on all amounts from the subconscious to Tremendous aware along with the job of diet regime, physical exercise and all kinds of other methods to generate wholeness. Ayurveda primarily comprises of 8 medical specialties. They're: - Normal medicine ( Kaaya cikitsaa), Pediatrics (Baala cikitsaa), Psychiatry (Bhoota vidyaa), Treatment method of head and neck (S`aalakya tantra), Surgical procedure (S`alya tantra), Toxicology (Agada tantra), Rejuvenation therapy (Rasayana tantra) and Reproductive medication (Vajeekarana cikitsaa). Rasaayana and vajeekarana therapies have Unique relevance in the trendy era. As the daily life continues to be polluted and distorted in the sphere of our each day existence every purely natural blessings are significantly far from us. The road of therapy proposed as Rasaayana finds a positive feasible solution to health conditions Specifically from the psychosomatic point of view. It cleanses the body fully, regains the active head to its very best Doing the job degree, giving a sense of rejuvenation. One may well effortlessly surrender oneself into the exotic divinity of your therapy. Vajeekarana therapy is an important cure to drag out the latent energy to produce a new lineage of existence. The medicines of Ayurveda touches strongly to alleviate the prevailing or attainable hindrances regardless of whether rooted in the head or entire body. Ayurveda paved the way for surgical innovations which include organ transplantation. Classical ayurvedic treatises offer us reliable descriptions of operative medical procedures and from the blunt and sharp devices utilized for it. Sus`ruta, the author of Sus`ruta samhitaa, is hailed as The daddy of plastic surgical procedure. His compendium stresses the necessity of keenness and observation to perform many techniques on human body. Caraka Samhitaa, Sus`ruta Samhitaa, Asht`aan'ga sangraha and Asht`aan'ga Hr`daya are renowned Ayurvedic treatises. Madhava Nidaana, Bhaavaprakaas`a, S`aarn'gadhara Samhitaa and many others. also command reputation among the physicians. Of those Maadhava Nidaana is a handbook of pathology even though all of the Other individuals are encyclopedic performs on drugs and surgical procedure. Textbooks like Cakradatta, Yoga Ratnaakara and Bhaishajya Ratnavali are primarily publications dealing solely with therapeutics. These guides are created in Sanskrit and a variety of commentaries and translations of such books may also be offered. You can find an array of publications composed in vernacular way too. Panchakarma could be the essence of Ayurvedic procedure. It became popular as a result of magical benefits it might provide out even on usually incurable diseases. Purifying the body and regaining the normal rhythm through a wholesome line of remedy stipulated by regimens, that attends on your body as a whole can be a exceptional strategy of medication and that's the principle energy of Panchakarma. Emesis, Purgation, Oil enema, Decoction enema and Errhines kind the five operative procedures of Panchakarma. Kerala has modulated lots of Distinctive solutions to accommodate the desires of sufferers and also to treatment illnesses. They consist of different irrigation therapies and fomentation coupled with synchronized therapeutic massage. Pizhiccil, Navara kizhi and S`iro dhaara, a number of the Kerala specialties, constitute significant tools in rejuvenation therapy As well as in giving rest for the stressed and strained. India, the land of Ayurveda, strictly adopts a scientific tutorial process to show Ayurveda. The Central Council of Indian Medication, constituted by The federal government of India, screens the standard and typical of Ayurvedic instruction and observe. To conclude, it may be noted that Ayurveda isn't a mere science of remedy; This is a form of healthier lifetime.