STRAIGHT UNBELIEVABLE - Inhabitat » X-SEED 4000: World’s tallest tower will house 1 million people

There’s a lot of debate about what the tallest tower in the world currently is. Some say the Taipei 101, at 1671 ft to the tip of it’s spire, is the world’s tallest tower, whereas we might argue that the Sears Tower, at a whopping 1731 ft (and 110 stories), still takes the prize. However, if the enormous, 13,000 ft X-Seed 4000 structure ever gets built in Tokyo - it will win the worlds-tallest-building competition hands down and leave its puny competitors in the dirt.

Looking eerily like Mt. Doom in the above rendering, the mountain-like X-Seed 4000 represents a utopian eco-vision for a self-contained high-rise city in the Tokyo harbor - powered mainly by solar energy. Aesthetically inspired by nearby Mt. Fuji, the behemoth building would measure 13,123 feet tall with a 6 square-kilometer footprint, and could accommodate five hundred thousand to one million inhabitants.

Designed by Taisei Construction Corporation as an “intelligent building,” the futuristically-named X-Seed 4000 would maintain light, temperature, and air pressure in response to changing external weather conditions.

Unlike conventional skyscrapers, the X-Seed 4000 would be required to actively protect its occupants from considerable air pressure gradations and weather fluctuations along its massive elevation. Its design calls for the use of solar power to maintain internal environmental conditions. Some estimate that the cost to construct the X-Seed 4000 structure may be somewhere between US$300-900 billion.

We’re not saying it’s impossible, but for now, X-Seed 4000 seems like more of a utopian vision for contemporary green urban planning than a viable design solution.

+ X-SEED 4000

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Bra fitting guide

Bra fitting guide

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Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks

Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks

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Digital Ethnography » Blog Archive » Great deal at Target

Digital Ethnography » Blog Archive » Great deal at Target

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How to Avoid the Most Common Reasons for Small Business Failure

General Business Factors

• 78% - Lack of a well-developed business plan, including insufficient research on the business before starting it.

• 73% Being overly optimistic about achievable sales, money required and about what needs to be done to be successful.

• 70% Not recognizing, or ignoring, what they don't do well and not seeking help from those who do.

• 63% Insufficient relevant and applicable business experience.

Financial Factors

• 82% Poor cash flow management skills/poor understanding of cash flow

• 79% Starting out with too little money.

• 77% Not pricing properly - failure to include all necessary items when setting prices

Marketing Factors

• 64% Minimizing the importance of promoting the business properly.

• 55% Not understanding who your competition is or ignoring competition.

Tip! A complete business plan helps you get financing and includes a marketing plan, which addresses lack of marketing and insufficient financing, two more often cited reasons for small business failure.

• 47% Too much focus and reliance on one customer/client.

Human Resource Factors

• 58% Inability to delegate properly - micro-managing work given to others or over delegating and abdicating important management responsibilities.

• 56% Hiring the wrong people - clones of themselves and not people with complimentary skills, or hiring friends and relatives.

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asplode_Fail.gif (GIF Image, 160x120 pixels)

asplode_Fail.gif (GIF Image, 160x120 pixels)

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Print 60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For

60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For

The following risky activities, decadent foods, and otherwise foolhardy indulgences are detrimental to your health. You will, however, not perish in vain.

1. Danger dogs.
The Tijuana delicacy -- a hot dog wrapped in bacon, fried, and topped with mayo -- has made its way to San Diego and Los Angeles, sold from carts outside stadiums, clubs, and wherever hungry drunks congregate. See also:

2. Jersey breakfast dogs.
An East Coast derivative with scrambled eggs and melted cheese.

3. Surfing Teahupoo, Tahiti.
Unbelievable swells that roll over a shallow coral reef. Catch a wave and you're flying; bail and you're bleeding.

4. Giving a buddy a kidney.
You only need one. Hopefully.

5. Black Cat espresso from Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea.
A triple. Note the exceedingly heavy body, with chocolate, caramel, and dried-fruit notes. Also note that you're vibrating. That means it's working. intelligentsiacoffee.com.

6. Lyle Sankey's "Vision Quest" Bull Riding Adventure Experience, Branson, Missouri.
The Website says it well: "We work hard to match the livestock with your abilities, but we can't make you an athlete, change your mental or physical condition, or help you lose weight in a three or four day session. Come into this realizing that Rodeo is NOT tee ball." Of course, if the bull really pisses you off, you can seek revenge on his kind at the...

7. Bullfighting school at the California Academy of Tauromaquia.
One of the only (legal) bullfighting schools in the country. Someone's getting wounded in this battle. Hopefully, it's the bull. (Visit the Website for more information.)

8. Butter.

9. Drugs.

10. Cream puffs.
The best are available at the Wisconsin State Fair for two weeks every August.

11. Blowhole diving.
Jump in and get sucked by the current through tunnels forged over thousands of years of erosion. Timing is everything. It should feel like being flushed down a toilet, not like smashing your face on rock. Hone your skills at the "easy one" in Laguna Beach. (Ask a local.)

12. Punching Barry Bonds in the face.

13. A Little Downhill

Hard: Corbet's Couloir, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Congratulate yourself for nailing that 15-foot mandatory air at the top, but try not to slam your skull into the soaring rock wall if you fail to wrench an immediate, impossibly sharp left turn.

Harder: Silverton Mountain, Colorado.
The owners of this one-lift wonder hurl bombs to avoid avalanches, but that's the extent of the pampering: no signs marking the claustrophobic glades and chutes as narrow as coffins. Avalanche beacons and shovels required -- for real.

Downright nuts: Helicopter skiing the Chugach Range, Alaska.
Staring down the descents would terrify you -- if they didn't fall away in concave pitches so steep you can't see them. Riders who wipe out tend to cartwheel a long way because they're mostly falling in space, reconnecting with snow every 40 feet or so.

--Rob Story

14. Chopped Liver

I was not raised by daring Jews. Nor were they brainy and accomplished. This Junior of Zion was saddled with no family legacy of piety, wisdom, or Talmudic scholarship. My people were chosen for bubkes, peasants in both countries, Old and New.

I’ll tell you what we had: We had chopped liver. Hankering to defy death? Try schmaltz, hard-boiled eggs, organ meat, and onions, all ground to a coarse pâté, thumbed up from the bowl on thick heels of seeded rye. Add salt. Then we’ll speak of risky feats and cardiologic derring-do.

Its earthy serf-feed roots are blatant -- no one ever kvetched, "What am I, beluga?" -- and yet chopped liver lives on as a great delicacy savored wherever Jews gather to fress like chozzerim -- which is, quite frankly, how Jews love to eat. The last platter I devoured -- airy, creamy, nothing that my thick-fingered Bubbe would have recognized -- was floating on a bed of lettuce in a poyer-free deli in Beverly Hills. It certainly wasn’t bad -- gehakteh leber simply can’t be bad -- but it wasn’t Gram’s.

Bad for you? Hell is yonder, full of hungry, heart-healthy bastards; heaven’s hither, beaming from that laminated menu in your hands. Quick! Before that white-smocked cossack comes to pump up the blood-pressure cuff.

--Scott Raab

15. Smoking Cubans (in Cuba)

Until night, it's Guilt City, Havana. Especially from the top of the Parque Central hotel, rising high and new out of the nearruins, with its rooftop pool and bar and rich Germans browning in the last of the sun that's been cooking the poor streetbounds since morning. After dark, it's easier to forget what surrounds you, because you can't see the poverty; only the hotels stand out, like stars against the night, foreign currency having trumped the day's electricity rations. In the distance: the historic Hotel Nacional, where you wandered this afternoon on the lazy hunt for cigars. Not Cohibas -- every fat-fuck turista down here smokes Cohibas -- but a box of Sancho Panzas, cheap and creamy and drawing enough heady smoke to begin choking out the last strains of ill feeling. The rum assists -- in mojitos, drunk through straws stuck in a pile of wet sugar at the bottom -- as do the cheeseburgers, grind-house bloody, because there are no surgeons general to mind your store in Cuba. Nobody cares if you die down here. And at last, just now, spitting out the end of your night's fourth cigar, ordering another rummy drink, your belly full and warm with still-kicking meat, you don't care, either.

--Chris Jones

16. A night on the town with Kiefer Sutherland.

17. Deep-fried Twinkies.

18. The schmaltz at Sammy's Roumanian, New York.
One tablespoon of pure rendered chicken fat contains nearly 13 grams of fat, 11 grams of cholesterol, and 115 calories. Delicious on steak or drizzled over bread.

19. The Ramos ginfizz.
In a cocktail shaker, dissolve 1 tbsp sugar in 1 tbsp water. Add:

• 1 1/2 ounce Tanqueray gin
• 1/2 ounce lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce lime juice
• 1 ounce heavy cream
• white of 1 fresh egg
• 3 drops -- not dashes -- of orange flower water

Fill with cracked ice and shake lustily for a long, long time, and then strain into a tall glass. Add 1 oz chilled seltzer, stir briefly, and then smile.

20. Paragliding Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wyoming.
Dangerously close to that wall we call the Grand Tetons. Especially if you lack knowledge of tricky thermal currents.

21. Smashing the cameras of paparazzi mercilessly hounding Angie, Scarlett, or Halle.

22. Oysters Mosca at Mosca's in Avondale, Louisiana.
A baked casserole brimming with two dozen oysters in garlic and butter with a breaded topping. A night ender.

23. Mountain biking in Moab, Utah.
Possible dehydration, heatstroke, and disorientation. Probably the most inspiring panorama you'll ever see.

24. The Fat Darrell at the R. U. Grill & Pizza in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Considering his namesake sandwich is made up of chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and french fries, it's a wonder that Darrell is still with us (and trim).

25. Testing your cold-weather driving skills in Arjeplog, Sweden.
Where auto engineers converge to drive at high speeds on frozen lakes. They seek automotive innovation; you seek 75-mile-per-hour doughnuts. Beginners should first try the Porsche Camp4 Colorado Winter Driving School -- ice slaloms in a 911 Carrera.

26. Combo No. 4 at the Varsity in Athens, Georgia.
For $6.90, you get a tray of Americana and grease: a chili cheese dog, a chili cheeseburger, french fries or onion rings, and a medium drink. Upgrade to the Frosted Orange for 30 cents more.

27. The dark-chocolate-and-peanut-butter gelato from Il Laboratorio del Gelato in New York.
laboratorio-delgelato.com.

28. The fugu (poisonous blowfish) tasting menu at Morimoto in New York and Philadelphia.

29. Playing tackle football past the age of 25.

30. Narco Diving

The Bahamian island of Andros is a sheer-walled skyscraper, lapped by the six-thousand-foot-deep Tongue of the Ocean, where a diver can kick out a few yards and fall right off the continental shelf. While the abyss is free to all, Small Hope Bay Lodge offers a guided dive called Over the Edge of the Wall, down to 185 feet. It's not for the impulse-control challenged; at that depth you will be thoroughly narced, as in nitrogen narcosis, the dreaded Rapture of the Deep.

Why one gas should produce euphoria and another mere unconsciousness is not easily explained. But at about a hundred feet, a strange sea change begins to come over your brain, thanks to the increased partial pressure of nitrogen at depth. The muted colors of dangling sponges and the melancholy shapes of massive plate corals leap out at you, laughing. All at once, you're in on the cosmic joke. Truly, you are tiny, so freaking tiny, yet oceanic in your newfound wisdom. All is one -- and then some! Cap'n of the Good Skull Lollipop, you soar in space as you slowly fall, blessing basses and wrasses and intoxicating gases. At last you touch down on a little sandy ledge, a catwalk worthy of the north face of the Eiger, overlooking blue-black inner space. You may ask yourself, referencing the Talking Heads, How did I get here? And you may experience the profound confusion of an honest philosopher, which some people do not enjoy. But Jerko -- it's just scuba diving. You're only high, frying your synapses on pressurized dope. Confusion and death await those who linger too long.

So don't. Head for the surface and you'll come down as you go up, into the brilliant Bahamian light, no longer such a smarty-pants, perhaps, but still on vacation.

--Bucky McMahon

31. Getting a Road Job

Sometime before you die, and potentially right before, you must enjoy a blow job while driving a car in excess of eighty miles per hour. Everything about a blow job is better at high speed: the power, the thrill, the feeling you're about to lose control and leave a memorable obituary. A few caveats: The interior design of automobiles has changed since my road-job days, and it seems like it would be impractical in these newfangled models with their obstructive cupholders. It won't work in a Prius, for example, which is a damn shame, because imagine the self-satisfaction of zero-population-growth sex with low carbon emissions. It would probably work in a Hummer. Other considerations: It works best in the Great Plains, where the highways are long and straight; it's safer, and more fun, in broad daylight, particularly if you slow down as you pass a truck; and most important, drinking and driving and dunking don't mix. I can't recall exactly how you talk a woman into going down on you in a speeding car, though. I think it's mostly hand gestures.

--Larry Doyle

32. Carousing with the Mob

It happened one night in a bar near the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. I was researching a novel and found myself deep in conversation with a number of ballet dancers. Don't laugh. Dancers drink. Dancers smoke. Dancers believe in the short life.

Two in the morning. We had all been overserved. It was time for one last song. I closed my eyes and belted it out. The bartender grabbed me by the shoulder. "Shut up," he said. I've heard the complaints before. "Shut the fuck up," he said. "Look."

I turned and saw a number of impeccably dressed men walking into the bar. They were packing guns. One of them stopped and stared at me. It was as if all the oxygen was gone from the air. They cased the bar and abruptly left. I started singing again. The bartender grabbed my arm. Seconds later the real mob -- without their well-dressed bodyguards -- walked in: fat and unshaven and scruffy. Each had a bouquet of beautiful women on his arm.

"Leave," my ballet friends whispered. "Leave now -- and quietly."

I walked across the room. I picked out the meanest fucker of them all and hunkered down beside him. He looked as if he'd just strangled Vladimir Putin's mistress. There are times in life when we must throw out the anchor, even when it's unattached to a rope. "You want to hear an Irish song?" I asked him. He stared at me, his mouth quivering. I was suddenly quite sober. He took me by the collar. I could feel my heart beating in my cheap white shirt. He said nothing but slowly broke into a grin.

The drunk man often navigates by the stars beyond the ceiling. Still to this day I cannot remember what song it was I sang, but I do recall that fifteen minutes later I was party to the spectacular sight of three great Kirov ballerinas dancing on the long wooden table of the Shamrock Irish Bar on Dekabristov Street, performing ballet moves with three very large Russian mafiosi, shots of vodka thrown back and forth, and the dancers outlasting them, and outcharming them, with ease.

As they left the bar -- it was five in the morning -- the Mafia leader put his arm around me and said that he would help me if ever I was in trouble. "What do you do?" I asked, trying hard to be naive. He turned and looked me straight in the eye. "I am . . ." he said, stumbling toward the door, "...I am a Russian baby-sitter."

--Colum McCann

33. Drinking Alone

I know that everything I'm about to say has already been said better by George Thorogood. And listen, I aced health class back at Sedgwick Middle School, and so I know that drinking alone means you're an alcoholic. I know too that being an alcoholic is bad, that alcoholism turns you toothless and yellow and moaning in the dark.

Until I was thirty, my biggest fear was that I'd end up drinking alone. Like every day. Like full-time. But now I'm thirty-five. I've got a nearly regular job. I'm married, and I've got a daughter. This means I'm almost never alone. And that's great. That's the best thing that's ever happened to an idiot like me. And yet...and yet...I miss drinking alone. I miss walking into a bar early and without intent. I miss sitting there talking to no one. I miss ordering a Harvey Wallbanger only because I've never had a Harvey Wallbanger and because I might never summon the courage to order a Harvey Wallbanger in the company of others.

The more I think about it, my mistake was worrying too much about drinking alone. I should've drunk alone more often. All the stupid things I've done...and no one to see me do them. All the stupid things I've said...and no one to hear me say them. Yeah, the drinking alone might end you early, but sometimes it sounds like heaven.

--Benjamin Alsup

34. Refried doughnuts.
When and where can one sample the unholy union of Krispy Kreme and hot bacon fat? In your kitchen, whenever you make one.

35. Duck-fat potatoes.
• 1 pound small red new potatoes (about 16), with strip peeled around center
• 4 tablespoons duck fat ($3 for 7 ounces; specialty supermarket or dartagnan.com)

Over low heat, melt duck fat in deep skillet with tightly fitting lid. Raise temperature to get hot. Run potatoes under water, letting excess drain through colander. Transfer to skillet (water and hot fat create splatter but also cooking steam; potatoes must be in one layer with enough room to roll around) and quickly cover. Shake pan slightly to coat potatoes and cook until deep golden and tender, about 18 minutes. Season abundantly with coarse salt and ground black pepper and serve.

36. Bodysurfing the Wedge, Newport Beach, California.
When the Army Corps of Engineers installed a jetty on the north side of Newport Harbor, it created a massive freak wave that peaks only a few times a year (primarily summer). A blessing or a curse, depending on your skill level.

37. Speaking truth to power.
Thomas Becket. William Wallace. You.

38. The Carpetbagger steak topped with blue cheese, a fried oyster, hollandaise, and caramelized onions at Jacques-Imo's in New Orleans, washed down with:

39. A "three-bagger" of Sazeracs at Tujague's.
Three strong rye-whiskey cocktails in a row at a bar with the perfect seedy charm.

40. Attending a Glasgow Rangers versus Glasgow Celtic soccer match.
Preferably in the Scottish Cup final. Imagine: Red Sox versus Yankees, if the ALCS involved sectarian hatred, hooligan rioting, and the occasional death threat.

41. Fried dill pickles at Cock of the Walk in Natchez, Mississippi.

42. Secondhand smoking.
The smoker has the best stories, tells the best jokes, and laughs the hearty, hacking laugh of someone wise beyond his dwindling years. If black lung by proxy is the price we must pay for staying close to this dying breed, so be it.

43. A Home Firearm

My entire life is a series of hedged bets. As the fifty-four-year-old dad of a seven-year-old, I take no uncalculated risks. I don't let the gas-gauge needle fall below the quarter-tank mark. I set the ADT alarm every night. You could not pay me to travel outside the northern half of the Western Hemisphere. Everywhere lurks doom; I acknowledge its inevitability by avoiding all danger at every turn. When I can, I avoid turns.

I spent a long time living dangerously. I was the guy they sent into the pharmacy with the forged quaalude prescription. The guy who sold weed by the pound to the outlaw bikers. The guy who ate ham-and-cheese sandwiches on Yom Kippur. Now I'm the guy who insists that his wife clean the dryer vent twice a year so the lint doesn't catch fire.

Still, a few feet from where I now sit typing on the third floor of our home in a Garden State suburb of leafy calm sits my shotgun. The safety's on, but it is loaded. I don't hunt. And though my penis would win no bar bets, the shotgun doesn't make me feel larger. It is what it is: the most fearsome, effective, legal home-protection device around. Is it a danger to me and mine as well? Many studies say so, but I haven't seen a study yet that helps me get to sleep at night.

Call me crazy. Call me an ugly American. But don't expect me to call 911 if you break into my house -- not till I've blown your head and neck clean off your shoulders.

--Scott Raab

44-48. The Five Most Decadent Burgers in the United States of America:

The cheeseburger at Shady Glen Dairy Stores in Manchester, Connecticut.
Four carefully arranged pieces of cheese extending far beyond the border of the patty melt directly on the grill, creating a chewy crust that is as difficult to describe as it is to digest. $4.95.

The original DB burger at DB Bistro Moderne in New York.
A sirloin burger filled with braised short ribs, foie gras, and black truffles. $32.

Denny's Beer Barrel Belly Buster at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
The world's biggest burger: 11 pounds of beef, 22 slices of cheese, three whole tomatoes, and a jar's worth of pickles. No one person has ever finished it. $49.95.

The Krispy Kreme burger at the Gateway Grizzlies ballpark concession stand in St. Louis.
A bacon cheeseburger with glazed doughnuts in place of a bun. A thousand-plus calories. Minor league gimmick; major league angina. $4.50.

The deep-fried hamburger at Dyer's Burgers in Memphis.
Instead of a grill, Dyer's uses a cast-iron skillet filled with grease. Old grease. They've been using the same batch since they opened -- in 1912. $3.

Click the print button up there and take this with you the next time you're in Sin City.

49-59. The 18-Hour Vegas Vacation

For each activity, multiply the time spent by 100 and subtract the total from your life expectancy. Repeat twice annually until death.

 Sunning (sans sunscreen) to a robust burn while marinating in premium tequila after dozing off at the pool: 1 hour

 Chain-smoking unfiltered Kamel Reds to intimidate fellow poker players: 2 1/2 hours

 Agonizing over minor scoring fluctuations in a meaningless NBA game: 2 1/2 hours

 Devouring hare stuffed with duck confit and foie-gras-and-blood sauce at Guy Savoy, not to mention the 12 other courses: 4 hours

 Watching Cirque du Soleil's Love, at the Mirage. (No life sacrificed, just dignity): 1 1/2 hours

 Impersonating Nick Nolte with a bottle of Grey Goose at Tryst at the Wynn: 1 hour

 Wandering downtown in search of the Four Queens, one of only two Vegas casinos that still offer single-deck, 3-2 payoff, dealer-stays-soft-17 blackjack: 1/2 hour

 Talking shit to strangers with unplaceable accents at the table while alternating caffeinated and alcoholic drinks in ten-minute intervals: 3 1/4 hours

 Threatening to exact bloody revenge on the firstborn child of a stingy dealer: 1/2 hour

 Touching Brandie when it "feels rights" at Crazy Horse Too: 1 hour (ten songs)

 "Date" with suspiciously underdressed woman sitting alone at the hotel bar: 1 hour (okay, 15 minutes)

60. Directing

A year ago, my twelve-year-old daughter, Chloe, was acting in my film RV. After a long day, I said, "You know, Chloe, you're painfully opinionated and you boss everyone around. You should be a director."

"No offense, Dad, but I'll stick to being a movie star," she said. "Directing looks too stressful."

On the first movie I directed, The Addams Family, I ended up fainting when, after a sleepless night, I thought I could maintain some sense of awareness the next day by drinking nine straight espressos. When the head of Paramount Studios said that it was unreleasable, I spent the night weeping on Sweetie's (the wife's) lap. During Men in Black II, I was raced to the hospital with what I thought was a heart attack. After spending the night in the emergency room next to a woman whining, "I need quinine," I was given an echocardiogram and told that I was simply suffering from stress and that I should get into a program of meditation. (I didn't tell the doctor that I was meditating when the chest pain started.) On Wild Wild West, I broke my hand in five places when I punched Will Smith's arm.

So why direct? It's the closest a guy like me will ever come to being a general. I have a thought, and suddenly manly men are building gigantic sets. Plus, being forced to make thousands of decisions a week on topics that you didn't know you were ever going to need to have an opinion about (Lara Flynn Boyle's girdle comes to mind) is exhilarating. I also get to send back cappuccinos because the foam looks too much like a latte and work with people smarter than me, who make me look good. If every couple of years I have a psychological breakdown, well, at least I've got a thick head of foam on my cappuccino.

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The Foundations of Buddhism

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THE FOUNDATIONS OF BUDDHISM

 

THE THREE JEWELS

1. Buddha

2. Dharma

3. Sangha

 

THE THREE REFUGES

1. I take refuge in Buddha, and I wish all sentient beings, Will awaken to the Great Path, and make the Supreme Resolution.

2. I take refuge in Dharma, and I wish all sentient beings, Will penetrate the sutras, their wisdom as deep as the ocean.

3. I take refuge in Sangha, and I wish all sentient beings, Will be brought together in Great Harmony, without any obstructions at all.

 

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

1. Suffering exists.

2. Suffering has an identifiable cause: Desire to be and to have.

3. That cause may be terminated.

4. The means by which that cause may be terminated is the Noble Eightfold Path.

 

THE THREE PILLARS

1. Sila: Morality, charity & compassion.

2. Dhyâna: Practice & Concentration.

3. Prajna: Wisdom.

 

THE NOBLE EIGHT FOLD PATH

(Prajna)

1. Right understanding

2. Right thought

(Sila)

3. Right speech

4. Right action

5. Right livelihood

(Dhyâna)

6. Right effort

7. Right mindfulness

8. Right concentration

 

THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH

Ultimate Reality. There is no "I" or being in to be found in any phenomena (namely the five aggregates).

 

THE RELATIVE TRUTH

The conventional truth. There is no self or being but we speak of truth conforming to the convention.

 

THE FIVE PRECEPTS

1. I will not kill

2. I will not steal

3. I will not engage in sexual misconduct

4. I will not lie

5. I will not take intoxicating beverages or drugs

 

THE FOUR GREAT VOWS

1. I vow to deliver innumerable sentient beings.

2. I vow to cut off endless vexations.

3. I vow to master limitless approaches to Dharma.

4 I vow to attain supreme Buddhahood.

 

THE THREE POISONS (FIRES)

1. Greed

2. Hatred

3. Ignorance

 

THE FIVE HINDRANCES

1. Sexual desire

2. Ill will

3. Sloth and torpor (laziness)

4. Restlessness and worry

5. Doubt

 

THE THREE MARKS OF EXISTENCE

1. Suffering (unsatifactoriness)

2. Impermanence

3. Not self

 

THE BRAHMA VIHARAS (FOUR SUBLIME STATES)

1. Loving - kindness

2. Compassion

3. Appreciation.

4. Equanimity

 

SAMANTABHADRA'S TEN GREAT VOWS

1. The first, to worship and respect all Buddhas.

2. The second, to praise the Tathagatas.

3. The third, to cultivate the giving of offerings.

4. The fourth, to repent all karmic obstructions.

5. The fifth, to rejoice in the merits of others.

6. The sixth, to request the turning of the Dharma wheel.

7. The seventh, to request that the Buddhas dwell in the world.

8. The eighth, to always follow the Buddhas in study.

9. The ninth, to always harmonize with livings beings.

10. The tenth, to transfer all merits to all others.

All Buddhas of the past, present and future in all quarters.
All Bodhisattva Mahasattvas. Maha Prajna Paramita.

 

TEN PARAMITAS (Perfections)

1. Generosity

2. Morality

3. Renunciation

4. Wisdom

5. Energy

6. Patience

7. Truthfulness

8. Determination

9. Loving-kindness

10. Equanimity

 

THE FIVE AGGREGATES

1. The Aggregate of form (matter). This includes the body, which is analyzed in the terms of four elements (solidity, fluidity, heat and motion) and their derivatives, which include our five basic sense organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body).

2. The Aggregate of feeling or sensation. Feeling/sensation are of three kinds: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral, and arise out of contact between a sense organ and a sense object. One extra sense organ comes into play here: the mind, which apprehends mind-objects (ideas, mental images, etc.)

3.The aggregate of perception. Perception is the faculty that actually recognizes an object by picking up its distinctive features. Its data comes via the interaction of the five sense organs and the mind with appropriate objects.

4.The aggregate of mental formations. This encompasses all the willed activities of mind, plus a few others.

5. The aggregate of consciousness. When a sense organ or the mind makes contact with an appropriate object, simple awareness but not actual recognition of that object is the function of consciousness, which arises in dependence on that object.

 

DEPENDENT ORIGINATION

Dependent Origination is the doctrine of conditionality of all physical and physical phenomena.

1. Ignorance gives rise to

2. Volitional action, which in turn gives rise to

3. Conditioned consciousness, which in turn gives rise to

4. Name-and-form, which in turn gives rise to

5. The six bases, i.e., the five senses and mind, which in turn give rise to

6. Sense-impressions (Contact), which in turn give rise to

7. Feelings, which in turn give rise to

8. Desire or craving, which in turn give rise to

9. Attachment, which in turn gives rise to

10. Becoming, (the life- or rebirth process), which in turn gives rise to

11. Birth (or rebirth), which gives rise to

12. Old age, death - grief, lamentation, illness, sorrow, and despair.

 

THE TRIKAYA DOCTRINE

1. Nirmanakaya: his "Transformation (or Appearance) body." This is the body in which he appears in the world for the benefit of suffering beings. It is not a real, physical body but more a phantom-like appearance assumed by

2. Dharmakaya: his "dharma body," wherein he is one with the eternal dharma that lies beyond all dualities and conceptions. There is also

3. Sambhogakaya: his "Enjoyment (or Bliss) body." This is body that appears to bodhisattvas in the celestial realm where they commune with the truth of the Mahayana.

 

THE TEN FETTERS

The ten factors that bind individuals to samsaric existence

1. Belief in personality

2. Skepticism

3. Attachment to rules and rituals

4. Sensuous craving

5. Ill will

6. Craving for material existence

7. Craving for non-material existence

8. Conceit

9. Restlessness

10. Ignorance

 

THE TWELVE ENTRANCES

The six sense - organs, (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind) and the six sense objects (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thought).

 

THE EIGHTEEN REALMS

The realms of the six sense - organs, their sense - objects and their perceptions.

 

THE SIX REALMS OF REBIRTH

1. Heaven

2. Diva (Asura)

3. Human

4. Animal

5. Ghost

6. Hell

 

THE FOUR ELEMENTS

1. Earth (solid)

2. Water (liquid)

3. Fire (heat)

4. Wind (motion)

 

THE FOUR CLINGINGS

The 4 kinds of Clinging are: Sensuous Clings, Clinging to Views, Clinging to mere Rules and Ritual, Clinging to the Personality - Belief

1. "What now is the Sensuous Clinging? Whatever with regard to sensuous objects there exists of sensuous lust, sensuous desire, sensuous attachment, sensuous passion, sensuous deludedness, sensuous fetters: this is called sensuous clinging.

2. "What is the Clinging to Views" 'Alms and offerings are useless... there is no fruit and result for good and bad deeds...': all such view and wrong conceptions are called the clinging views.

3. "What is the Clinging to mere Rules and Ritual? The holding firmly to the view that through mere rules and ritual one may reach purification: this is called the clinging to mere rules and ritual.

4. "What is the Clinging to the Personality - Belief? The 20 kinds of Ego-views with regard to the group of existence these are called the clinging to the Personality - belief."

 

WARNING TO THE ASSEMBLY
(to be contemplated towards the day's end)

This day has passed.
Our lives, too, are closing.
Like fish with little water,
Joy will not last.
Let us work with pure effort.
Work as we would were our heads aflame.
Be mindful of impermanence.
Be careful of idleness.

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25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself

Feeling less than motivated all too often? I do. Well, perhaps not too often. But sometimes I just feel really lazy and unmotivated.

Want some practical solutions to that universal motivation-problem? Here are 25 of them. Try a handful.

Let me know which ones work well for you.

I’m sure you’ll find at least one or two that do just that among these suggestions.

1. Make a deal with yourself. Good for overcoming procrastination and getting things done. You can make the deal small or large. You simple tell yourself something like: When I’m done with this chapter/these reports I can take a walk in the park and enjoy an ice-cream.

2. Act like it. If you don’t feel motivated or enthusiastic then act like it. The strange thing is that within a few minutes you actually start to feel motivated or enthusiastic for real.

3. Ask uplifting questions in the morning. Here’s what you do; every morning ask yourself five empowering three-part questions this way:

What am I ______ about in my life right now?
What about it makes me _______?
How does it make me feel?

Put in your own value in the blank space. For instance, a couple of my questions are:

What am I happy about in my life right now?
What am I excited about in my life right now?

It’s important that you really feel how it makes you feel. When I think about the last part about what makes me happy right now I really feel it. These morning questions are great because the way they are set up makes you recognize things you take for granted and then they really get you to feel those positive feelings.

4. Move the goalposts. Set a large and specific goal. This will motivate you much more than small goals. A big goal has a big effect and can create a lot of motivation.

5. Do something small and create a flow. Just clean your desk. Or pay your bills. Or wash the dishes. You just need to get started. When you have finished that small task you’ll feel more alert and ready to go do the next thing. You just to get started to get motivated. So if you really don’t feel like doing anything, start with something small and work your way out up.

6. Do the toughest task first. This will ease a lot of your day-to-day worries and boost your self-confidence for the rest of the day. Read more about doing the hardest task bright and early right here.

7. Start slow. Instead of jumping into something at full speed start slow. When you do that your mind will not visualize the task as something hard that you have to do fast, fast, fast. If your mind sees such things guess what often happens? Yep, you don’t get started. Actually getting started, even if it’s at a slow pace, is a whole lot better than not getting started at all.

8. Compare yourself with yourself. Not with others. Comparing what you have and your results to what other people have and have accomplished can really kill your motivation. There are always people ahead of you. Most likely quite a bit of people. And a few of them are miles ahead. So focus on you. On your results. And how you can and have improved them.

Reviewing your results is important so you see where you have gone wrong in the past to avoid similar missteps further on. But it’s also important because it’s a great motivator to see how much you have improved and how far you have come. Often you can be pleasantly surprised when you do such a review.

9. Remember your successes. And let them flow through your mind instead of your failures. Write down your successes. Consider using a journal of some kind since it’s easy to forget your successes.

10. Act like your heroes. Read about them, watch them, listen to them. Discover what they did that was special and what made them tick. But remember that they are people just like us. So let them inspire you instead of looking up at them admiringly.

11. Remember to have fun. Or create fun in a task. Then you’ll stay motivated to do and finish it.

12. Get out of your comfort zone. Face your challenges to get a real boost of motivation. If you are holding yourself back have a look at 5 Life-Changing Keys to Overcoming Your Fear and the methods in this article. They can help you get started and take that first scary step outside your comfort zone.

13. Don’t fear failure. Instead redefine it as feedback and as a natural part of a successful life. As Michael Jordan said:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Also, try to find the valuable lesson(s) in each of your failures. Ask yourself: What can I learn from this?

14. Do some research on what you are about to do. Then your expectations will be more grounded in reality and you can also get good hints on what difficulties that you might run into along the way. Managing your expectations can lower the often almost explosive initial enthusiasm. But it can also lessen the lack of motivation that usually follows when most of that enthusiasm has dissipated.

When you know what has happened to others in similar situations - what path they have walked - you can adapt and try their solutions (and personal variations of those) and your own. This makes the worries and challenges easier to handle. Both emotionally – since you know at least some of the things that will happen and that others have lived through it before - and practically.

15. Figure out why you´re doing something. If you don’t know or don’t have good enough reason to do something then it will be hard to get it done. Do things that you have really strong reasons to do. If you want to do something then figure out a good reason to do it. If you can’t find one consider dropping it and doing something that you have a good reason to do instead.

16. Write down your goals and reasons for working towards them. Tape them on your wall, computer or bathroom mirror. Then you’ll be reminded throughout the day and it becomes easier to stay on track and stay focused.

17. Take The Positivity Challenge! Learn to think more positively most of the time. Learn to let to go of negative threads of thought before they have a chance to take hold of you. You might not be able to be positive all the time no matter what happens. But I think most of us can improve on our positive thinking and the results it can lead us to. Perhaps more than you realize right now.

18. Cut down on TV. Do you watch it too much? Watch less of what they are doing in TV-land and do more of what you want to do in life.

19. Break it down. Break down your task or project into small steps. And just start with focusing on that first small step. When you are done move on to the next and just focus on that one. The small successes will keep your motivation up and keeping your focus away from the big picture stops you from becoming overwhelmed and discouraged. It’s amazing how much you can get done if you follow this simple method.

20. Reprogram your information intake. Program out negative and cynical thoughts from the media and society. Reduce your information intake. Then program in positive news and entertainment, more of your own thoughts and useful information such as personal growth tapes and books. Be selective and keep it positive.

21. Make use of your creativity. Take out a piece of paper. Write at the top of the page what area in your life you would like to have more ideas about. Perhaps you want ideas to earn more money or become a healthier person. Then brainstorm until you have written down 20 ideas on that topic. Then try for 10 more. Not all ideas will be good. But some will. And as you make use of your creativity you not only discover useful ideas. You also discover just how creative you can be if you try and how motivating and great that feels. Have a look at 8 Ways to Spark Your Creativity for more ideas on this topic.

22. Find out what makes you happy. Then do that. As much as you want or can.

23. Listen while you’re on the move. Build your own small library of motivational/personal development tapes. Listen to them while you are driving, riding the bus or your bike, while you are out running or walking. Take a peek at my recommended personal development products if you are looking for a good place to start.

24. Think outside your box. Don’t imagine the future from the box of what you have now. Just because your mind is in box of previous experiences doesn’t mean that´s the limits of the world. Your possibilities are much larger. Create the future from the now and from nothing rather than your past to experience bigger changes with fewer limitations than you would if you created it from what you can see from your box.

25. Make each day count. We don’t have all the time in the world. So focus on today and do the things you really want to do.

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7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People

1. Not showing up.

Maybe you’ve heard this quote by Woody Allen:

“Eighty percent of success is showing up”

One of the biggest and simplest thing you can do to ensure more success in your life – whether it be in your social life, your career or with your health – is simply to show up more. If you want to improve your health then one of the most important and effective things you can do is just to show up at the gym every time you should be there.

The weather might be bad, you might not feel like going and you find yourself having all these other things you just must do. If you still go, if you show up at the gym when motivation is low you will improve a whole lot faster than if you just stayed at home relaxing on the sofa.

I think this applies to most areas of life. If you write or paint more, each day perhaps, you will improve quickly. If you get out more you can meet more new friends. If you go on more dates you chances of meeting someone special increases. Just showing up more can really make a big difference. Not showing up will not get you anywhere.

2. Procrastinating half the day. To keep it short, my 3 favourite ways to get out of a procrastinating state are:

- Swallow that frog. What´s this means is simply to do the hardest and most important task of the day first thing in the morning. A good start in the morning lifts your spirits and creates a positive momentum for the rest of the day. That often creates a pretty productive day.

- How do you eat an elephant? Don´t try to take it all in one big bite. It becomes overwhelming which leads to procrastination. Split a task into small actionable steps. Then just focus on the first step and nothing else. Just do that one until it’s done. Then move on to the next step.

- The Get around to It Paraliminal. I find this guided mediation to be very useful. After 20 minutes of mostly just lying on my bed and listening I’m far more productive for a few days. I don´t feel the urge to sink into that procrastinating state or the need to find out what’s new over at one or five of my favourite websites.

3. When actually doing something, doing something that isn’t the most important thing right now.

One of the easiest habits to get stuck in, besides procrastinating, is to keep yourself busy with unimportant tasks.

To be effective you probably need some kind of time management-system. It might be something really simple, like using the 80/20-rule at the beginning of each day. The 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle as it´s also known, says that you´ll get 80 percent of your results from only 20 percent of your tasks and activities. So you need to focus most of your energy on those few important tasks to be effective.

When you have prioritized using this rule just write down the top 3 most important things you need to do that day. Then, from the top, start doing them. Even if you just get one of the things done, you have still done the most important thing you could do today. You may perhaps prefer some other system, such as GTD. But however you organise your work it’s still of highest priority to find the most important tasks so you don’t spend days, weeks or months doing busywork that isn’t that essential anyway. Just getting things done faster isn’t that useful if the things you get done are unimportant to you.

4. Thinking too much.

And thereby seldom taking action. Paralysis by analysis can waste years of your life. There is nothing wrong with thinking before you do something. Do some research, make a plan, explore potential upsides and problems.

But compulsively thinking and thinking and thinking is just another way to waste your time. You don’t have to examine everything from every angle before you try it. And you can’t wait for the perfect time to do something. That time never comes. And if you keep thinking you’ll just dig yourself down deeper and deeper and taking action will become more and more difficult. Instead you just need to stop thinking. Shut of your mind – it just helps you up to a point – and go do whatever you need to do.

5. Seeing the negative and downsides in just about anything.

When you see everything from a negative perspective you quickly punch a hole in your own motivation. You find faults everywhere and problems where there are really none. You cling to details. If you want to find a reason to not do something then that’s no problem. From a negative viewpoint you can find ten reasons every time.

And so very little gets done, you whine to anyone who wants to hear – and many who don’t – about how crappy your job, life and boss is. Which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as you create the life that is appropriate considering how think and see your world.

A solution is to realise the limits of a negative perspective. And that your perspective isn’t some kind of 100% true picture of the world. Then try other perspectives. For instance, trying to establish a habit of seeing things in a more positive and optimistic light can be quite useful. In that vein, you may want to try the Positivity Challenge. It´s not easy, but if you do the challenge and try to only think positive thoughts for 7 days it can give you an insight in how much your perspective and beliefs changes how you interpret your world. And what results you get.

6. Clinging to your own thoughts and being closed to outside influences.

It can be hard to admit that what you thought or believed was not the best alternative. So you cling to your thoughts harder and harder and keep your mind closed. This makes it hard to improve and for instance to become more effective. Even really considering the possibility that you can change your life can be difficult in this position.

One solution, obviously, is to open up more. To open up and learn from the mistakes of others, from your own mistakes and from other sources like books. This is easy to say though. It can, as almost anything, be harder to do. One suggestion I have is to, like I said about the previous habit, realise the limits of what you know and the way you going about things. And then just try something new.

Another tip is to read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and especially look at the chapters about the Ego. If you stop identifying so much with your thoughts and your Ego, as Tolle prescribes, it becomes a whole a lot easier to let new ideas and thoughts come into your life. And to let go of old thoughts that aren’t useful to you anymore. On the other hand I’d like to add and counter-balance with these tips: don’t get stuck in reading, in just taking in new information either or you might become a self-help junkie. Use the new information, put what you have learned in to action and try it out.

7. Constantly on information overload.

With information overload I don’t just mean that you read a lot. I pretty much mean an overload in all input. If you just let all information flow into your mind it will be hard to think clearly. It’s just too much stimulation. A few more potential downsides to this habit are:

- Some of the input you receive will be negative. The media and your surroundings often put a negative spin on things for various reasons. If you aren´t selective in what input you want in your life then you’ll be dragged into this negativity too. This affects how you think, feel and act.

- It creates an urge to keep up with what’s happening but there are always ten more things happening so you can’t keep up. This makes life stressful.

- It becomes hard to make decisions and take action if your mind is constantly bombarded with information or trying to sort through it all. Personally I find that if I get too much information it leads to a sort of paralysis. Not much get´s done. Or you get stuck in habit #3 and keep busy, busy, busy at high speed with low priority activities.

To be able to focus, think more clearly and take action it´s useful to be more selective in what you let into your mind. When you work shut out as much distractions as possible. Shut off the phone, internet and shut the door. It is strange how much you can get done when you aren´t interrupted every fifth minute or have the opportunity to procrastinate by checking your RSS-feeds or favourite websites.

Now I´m not suggesting that you should stop reading all blogs or newspapers. But think about what you really want to read and what you read just read to fill your time. And have a look at other areas of input where the doors are wide-open.

For instance, you don´t have to let in all the negative emotions from your surroundings. If everyone else are procrastinating or are anxiously keeping themselves busy by doing low-priority tasks at warp speed it´s easy to be influenced by that mood. If you have a door, then it might be good idea to shut it and focus on doing more important things.

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18 ways to improve your body language

1. Don’t cross your arms or legs – You have probably already heard you shouldn’t cross your arms as it might make you seem defensive or guarded. This goes for your legs too. Keep your arms and legs open.

2. Have eye contact, but don’t stare – If there are several people you are talking to, give them all some eye contact to create a better connection and see if they are listening. Keeping too much eye-contact might creep people out. Giving no eye-contact might make you seem insecure. If you are not used to keeping eye-contact it might feel a little hard or scary in the beginning but keep working on it and you’ll get used to it.

3. Don’t be afraid to take up some space – Taking up space by for example sitting or standing with your legs apart a bit signals self-confidence and that you are comfortable in your own skin.

4. Relax your shoulders – When you feel tense it’s easily winds up as tension in your shoulders. They might move up and forward a bit. Try to relax. Try to loosen up by shaking the shoulders a bit and move them back slightly.

5. Nod when they are talking – nod once in a while to signal that you are listening. But don’t overdo it and peck like Woody Woodpecker.

6. Don’t slouch, sit up straight – but in a relaxed way, not in a too tense manner.

7. Lean, but not too much – If you want to show that you are interested in what someone is saying, lean toward the person talking. If you want to show that you’re confident in yourself and relaxed lean back a bit. But don’t lean in too much or you might seem needy and desperate for some approval. Or lean back too much or you might seem arrogant and distant.

8. Smile and laugh – lighten up, don’t take yourself too seriously. Relax a bit, smile and laugh when someone says something funny. People will be a lot more inclined to listen to you if you seem to be a positive person. But don’t be the first to laugh at your own jokes, it makes you seem nervous and needy. Smile when you are introduced to someone but don’t keep a smile plastered on your face, you’ll seem insincere.

9. Don’t touch your face – it might make you seem nervous and can be distracting for the listeners or the people in the conversation.

10. Keep you head up - Don’t keep your eyes on the ground, it might make you seem insecure and a bit lost. Keep your head up straight and your eyes towards the horizon.

11. Slow down a bit – this goes for many things. Walking slower not only makes you seem more calm and confident, it will also make you feel less stressed. If someone addresses you, don’t snap you’re neck in their direction, turn it a bit more slowly instead.

12. Don’t fidget – try to avoid, phase out or transform fidgety movement and nervous ticks such as shaking your leg or tapping your fingers against the table rapidly. You’ll seem nervous and fidgeting can be a distracting when you try to get something across. Declutter your movements if you are all over the place. Try to relax, slow down and focus your movements.

13. Use your hands more confidently – instead of fidgeting with your hands and scratching your face use them to communicate what you are trying to say. Use your hands to describe something or to add weight to a point you are trying to make. But don’t use them to much or it might become distracting. And don’t let your hands flail around, use them with some control.

14. Lower your drink – don’t hold your drink in front of your chest. In fact, don’t hold anything in front of your heart as it will make you seem guarded and distant. Lower it and hold it beside your leg instead.

15. Realise where you spine ends – many people (including me until recently) might sit or stand with a straight back in a good posture. However, they might think that the spine ends where the neck begins and therefore crane the neck forward in a Montgomery Burns-pose. Your spine ends in the back of your head. Keep you whole spine straight and aligned for better posture.

16. Don’t stand too close –one of the things we learned from Seinfeld is that everybody gets weirded out by a close-talker. Let people have their personal space, don’t invade it.

17. Mirror - Often when you get along with a person, when the two of you get a good connection, you will start to mirror each other unconsciously. That means that you mirror the other person’s body language a bit. To make the connection better you can try a bit of proactive mirroring. If he leans forward, you might lean forward. If she holds her hands on her thighs, you might do the same. But don’t react instantly and don’t mirror every change in body language. Then weirdness will ensue.

18. Keep a good attitude – last but not least, keep a positive, open and relaxed attitude. How you feel will come through in your body language and can make a major difference. For information on how make yourself feel better read 10 ways to change how you feel and for relaxation try A very simple way to feel relaxed for 24 hours.

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