That is really interesting, not so,ethin you will find in most textbooks here. Talk about deeply compassionate behavior.
Now fast forward 10:years and juxtapose that behavior with the human lab experiments that went on in concentration camps.
It makes you wonder at what point did things make a turn for the worst?
yes, indeed, even probably a little earlier than in 10 years. I have no answer to the question why this happened. Could it be the misanthropy of Herr Hitler? I donāt really know the reasons for his anti-Semitism either. Generally speaking, many topics are, so to speak, stigmatized, which of course interferes with objective scientific study. So, I agree that your first amendment is the greatest achievement of democracy.
Not sure if it was misanthropy of him. He was rumored to bena womanizer, and a dog lover, and I got to believe he had a great deal of love for some of his people.
I womder if it was the slow disintegration of dissenting opinions?
Not sure on the timelines, but were there other potlitical parties that were slowly crushed by the Nazis over those 10 years? Or did the Nazi party have zero political opposition during that time frame?
AMEN
Sources for this? . . . .
"The United States expressed its support of the creation of the Commonwealth structure. In November 1991, a group of nuclear security specialists argued that "the United States still has an incentive to prefer as little disintegration as possible ā¦ the United States may have little leverage on the disintegration question. But it can try to create incentives for union rather than independence. "39
On December 12, Baker stressed that U.S. priorities which were essential for American recognition of the new states were, in the following order: (1) military and especially nuclear security; (2) democracy; (3) market-oriented economies. Having received a positive response from the Ukrainian government regarding these principles and the international obligations of Ukraine as one of the state-successors of the Soviet Union under the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the United States recognized Ukraine as well as Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan after the resignation of Gorbachev on December 25."
Looking back on histroy, was the war in Vietnam about what was best for the Vietnamese people?
What about the Bay of Pigs invassion? Was what is best for the Cuban people the top priority of the US?
This is not an exhaustive list of the many times the US has interfered in other countires politics, not formtheir benefit, but for what is best for the United States.
While the history books say the Ukrainian people voted for independence, given the long history of US interference in global politics, and the fear of communism, I doubt the choice for independence was made soley by the Ukrainian people. I think they had a few western hands helping push them in the direction that favored western interests.
I have to agree with @KhyungMar that this discussion is best undertaken in Reddit, as it is really not in the purview of Night Club topics. That is not to say it is not a worthy topic or topics, but there are more suitable venues for it. Peace.
So many countries so many customs! But as Andrew said more than once, No one has a patent on truth. Very true!
So, let me to once again express my position on the war in order to exclude misunderstandings that could appear here. Since i strongly believe that the right words delivered in the right way at the right time can helped to turn the tide .
We are all aware of the monstrous physical casualties of the war.We see heartbroken mothers with crying babies in their arms, watching their houses go up in flames.So many children have been mutilated by missiles. A war in which children are incinerated, is a war that mutilates our souls either. We also can see solders being sent home physically handicapped and mentally deranged These casualties are enough to cause to be oppose the very nature of this war.
But the physical casualties of the war are not alone catastrophes. Damage to principles and values āāis equally pernicious . In fact, If the fundamental losses are not healed, the physical losses will continue to grow. One of the casualties of the war was the Charter of the United Nations.
Article 2(4): All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
The world we live is full of hazards and we come to realise the fragility of life and what is important to us when we experience anguish and despair.
This war represents the fragility of life and serve as a reminder that our precious life can also be tragically short.
Someone wise once said:
We donāt beat the Grim Reaper by living longer, we beat the Reaper by living well and living fully for the Reaper will come for all of us. The question is what do we do between the time we are born and the time he shows upā¦
Sincerely yours Boris
Amen, that is another one of my favorite lines of him.
And it is gut wrenching to see these images and hear these stories, but nothing compares to actually being there and hearing the screams and wails, and smelling the burnt flesh, and seeing the lost limbs. No amount of news coverage can do justice to the horrors and atrocities that are taking place on a daily basis.
Really well said. There is something deeper that is fundamentally wrong and broken here. And if it is not fixed, the cycle of bloodshed will never stop.
I heave heard Andrew mention the war in Ukraine in a number of the videos listed here.
Is not one of the core teachings of Buddhism to do non harm and help relieve suffering of sentient beings? This area of the world may very well be the greatest concentration of harm and suffering at this time. Ignoring this and killing off dialogue seems to me like that goes against the Dharma?
I have also heard Andrew say, āif you are in a room with Hitler, you kill Hitlerā.
@BorisA All is good, absolutetly no need for any apologies.
You mentioned that you are buddhist, what meditation are you practicing? Are you connected to a lineage? How is your lucid dreaming practice going?
Great questions, I am very interested in knowing this as well.
Would also be highly interested in any tips and tricks you have for people who are just starting their lucid dreaming practice. I am a Noob. @KhyungMar and @_Barry are Masters, and It sounds like you have a great deal of knowledge and wisdom to share here as well.
@NightHawk999 My friend, for me it is clear that you mean well and I hope you do not take criticism on the subject personally: In my view, the thread was getting quite political and in my opinion was starting to distort the political responsibility for currently about 30.000 civilian casulties. You are right, it is one of the biggest concentrations of harm and suffering of our current time and there should be focus on it. But I think a dharmic way to focus on this suffering would be more focussed on compassion for the people actually suffering and not on political narratives on who is to blame.
In our current era of mass-media, āalternative factsā and political echo-chambers, it remains the great challenge for us to be very precise and alert on what are facts and what is opinion-manipulation of lobby/interest groups.
The great relevation of the last decade for me is that - in our subjective reality - narratives have seem to become stronger than facts.
It is obviously in our human nature that our mind lives on narratives and needs to describe realities in narratives.
ā This is being actively exploited in so many ways in our current time (econonmically, politically).
In my view the reaction should of course not be to just not believe anything at all and shut out all news on what is going on in the world (and stay just within oneās own smallest personal environment ā this is one of the strategies of autocrats in order to keep their population apolitical), but, to take the time to seggregate facts from āalternative facts (i.e. fiction)ā to piece together a broader view on what is going on. This takes effort and time and in the era of fast news, facebook and co. - nobody takes the time anymore and expects to reach facts in a āone-clickā effort.
Nowadays it is fast, effortless and convenient to 1-click a couple of days and adopt a narrative.
Only few people are willing to step back and make the effort to get out of the opinion-battle.
The issue is actually not the narratives themselves, I think.
The issue is that we are not lucid enough to realize that narratives mingle facts and fiction, as well as emotions - somewhat like a dream. Being non-lucid to such narratives will justify almost anything: invasion of a sovereign country, and all thinkable attrocities.
From this point of view - if it comes to the subject of ādream-likeā narratives and how they influence us - this would actually be a fitting topic for a lucid dreaming forumā¦ 
@NightHawk999 
no no, from time to time I manage to get lucid, depends always on the current focus and situationā¦
We are all dreamerzzzzz here on nightclub, all on our individual pathā¦
Not at all. Like I said, I worship the First Amendment, I truely believe that diversity of though and opinion is the best way to find creative solutions to difficult problems. I am sorry for the blame in my words, and I agree with you 100% that there are so many narratives and private agendas out there (on both sides of the political aisle)
that it is almost impossible to get a complete grasp of the Truth.
Very well said. I totally agree.
No doubt, it is so important to bring doubt and deep questioning to any āfactsā that are presented to you. And even more important to keep an open and flexible mind. I dont use Facebook, I think they treat people like cattle. I have little doubt that historians will coin the term ādigital slaveryā for this current area of mass social media.
Very true, the propeganda has been perfected, almost as if personally tailored to manipulate different subsets of the population.
Good afternoon KhuyngMar, great to hear from you.
Allās well that ends well! Iām glad you asked about my
Buddhist practice. Since Iām already a little tired of
discussing political news, although from the perspective
of Mahayana practices, Nighthawk is also right when he talks
about an expanded understanding of the Dharma.
Anyway, getting back to the point about my practice
In general, I think for lay practitioners, it may not be so
important to distinguish clearly to which particular Buddhist
tradition you belong. As my Buddhist teacher used to say, one
should not separate people because of what kind of hats they
wear. Red like in the Karmapa or yellow like in the Gelugpa.
Such hats are good for monks but do not suit worldly people,
as my teacher used to say.I donāt know how things are in your
States, but in Russia practitioners, especially those with
little experience, often behave like fans of football teams,
they say I practice Dzogchen, Iām cooler than you who studies
philosophy in Gelupa, or -Karmapa is a school of great practit
ioners of meditation like Milarepa, and you practice a miserable
Hinayana. And so on. Therefore, although I identify myself as
a Buddhist, probably from a lack of understanding of Emptiness,
I am also interested in Taoist teachings and hatha and raja yoga
and modern scientific research in the field of psychology,
physics, as far as I can my by humble abilities.I received tantric
initiations from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in Darmasala,
India, I consider him as my root guru. I also received
initiations from some other great Tibetan teachers,
such as His Holiness Sakya Trichen 41. However, call yourself
a tantric practitioner I canāt, Iām too lazy or rather
disorganized to do daily sadhana. Although for the last year,
after attending 10 days of Vipassana, I manage to practice
Shamatha-Vipassana meditation twice a day. It seems to me,
mentioned in my previous posts that I also practiced in
South Korea, in Zen toadition and participated in the 100 day
retreat at the Hwagye sa temple in Seoul, back in 2007.
By the way, I am a history teacher by profession and a
little I taught at the university at the beginning of my
career, I really liked history and, apparently, this is why
I so easily enter into political discussions,
Also I am a screenwriter, screenwriter of short films.I can
probably share information about Buddhism, but my knowledge
is mostly theoretical, the practice I am essentially lacking,
I think I answered everything you asked,but a long time ago
did not write so much in English, so maybe there will be
stylistic or grammatical mistakes.Sorry about that.
Yeah, I absolutely agree. If the association to a particular lineage becomes just like an association to a āfootball-teamā then itās just another reification of ego-identityā¦ Always healthy to check oneself from time to time on that, because it is natural āsamsaric semā-nature to associate with that which one does all to easily and become non-lucid to that. As Andrew said many a times āNo one has a patent on truthā and that is why I value so much the interviews in the interview secion of nightclub with so many representatives of different faiths and lineages.
I can also understand the āeffort issuesā with tantric meditation which in my personal experience also takes many hours of continuous, strenuous attention for visualisationā¦
On Shamatha-Vipashana there are already some resources on the forum, but this is also for me one of the major treasure troves still to be lifted with direct relevance to lucid dreaming and dream yoga regarding developing stability and vividness of lucid dreams. If of interest, check out the interview with B.Alan Wallace.
Thank you very much I have already found his interview here on the site. By the way, heās very famous in Russia, he came here a couple of times, the last time in 2019, when he did a Dzogchen retreat. I read somewhere on this site that you recommend for reading his book The Revolution of Attention, which really contains, I think, the most detailed information about the Shamath I have ever met. Itās a book, like four or five of his other books are now available in Russia.
I do not think that was a coincidence, not at all. You prayed and the universe answered. That is a very powerful sign from God.
Before that 15 year dry spell, how often were you having lucid dreams?
Your English is perfect, why the hell are you aplogizing!?!?
And your resume is very impressive! As is your histroy knowledge and perception of the political climate.
āHistory does not repeat itself
But it does rhymeā¦ā
Do you meditate daily? For how long?
When you do meditate, what are your favorite techniques and strategies?
Well, I just blushed with embarrassment, thank you, thank you for the compliments, sir! My CV is really extensive just like big Russia, seriously I went to college back in the days of the good old USSR and graduated when it collapsed safely. So I had to change my life plans quickly and dramatically. My biography is as eventful as modern Russian history. But basically I donāt complain, I lived in Italy, South Korea, in Canada in the glorious Winnipeg, Manitoba, I wanted to immigrate there. As a tourist, I visited France, Germany, India, China, Egypt, Turkey ā¦ So life was very interesting , I even have filmed one movie that was my thesis as a screenwriter.
Well, now I hope to outlive our fabled president. Regarding meditation, in general, for the last 15 years I have been meditating more or less regularly. It was
mainly Shamatha meditation and some vipassana. I try to follow my breath and scan my body from top to bottom, trying to catch physical sensations. The last year after devoured some Andrewās books, I returned to the practice of lucid dreams and yoga of the illusory body, One bright LD I described in the first post, several others were very short, because after I realized that I was in a dream, I was quickly thrown out of my dream, otherwise saying I woke up.By the way, this is interesting, my Taoist teacher called dream yoga a Yin practice, unlike, for example, a Yang practice such as Tai Chi. He meant that Yin practices cannot be done by force, or rather voluntarily. These practices rather happen, happen spontaneously, regardless of our control. All we can do is create or collect the necessary conditions and wait
I am passionate professional seeking to gain a new and rewarding positionš