how can i achieve good health for a good mind (2025)

I'm not sure this thread belongs in this forum, but...

1. Get your life situation in order. For example, if you are a member of the working class, or feel you need to be for the moment at least, then be sure to have work that is not unhealthy for you. I once worked at a factory that pays almost twice as much as my current job (farming), but it was psychologically unbearable for me. This is not to suggest pursuing a comfy and cozy life of excess ease, merely to say that there is no point in taking on extra obstacles when you already have a challenge that is quite enough: becoming as wise as you possibly can.

2. Get your nutrition in order. There is no need to become a health nut or health Nazi or foodie. But be sure to get a decent amount of the nutrients and minerals needed for good physiological and psychological health, so that you can think clearly. Get this down pat. Learn to cook nutritious (organic and local if possible) foods you like and learn to use inexpensive (but not cheap) staples such as rice.

3. Spend enough time alone. This is, of course, required if you are to have enough time for all of the philosophy and meditation. But most importantly, it is required for your conscious efforts at your own inner transformation. In other words, it is not enough to be erudite or learned or scholarly or academic about eternal philosophical/spiritual ideas such as non-duality, but to feel their POWER, and PERSONALLY, and to let them completely TRANSFORM your entire being. This is not to suggest pursuing a solely hermetic life either, as the greatest heroes are those who can still meditate and be conscious of Reality even in the hustle and bustle of everyday life in society.

Boot Camp Inner west

Unidian wrote:Take vitamin D, 5000 IU per day.

Yes, very good for the head and regenerates (rejuvenates) body cells, too.

brad walker wrote::) Beans: yay or nay?

I'm cookin' up some chicken thigh soup. I peel off the skin and fry the chicken and skin together. The skin fat is a healthy source of natural fat but skin is discarded once the chicken is done.
Skin left on potatoes, skin-on carrots, peas and onion. Plus some added reverse-osmosis water.
Seasonings are turmeric, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper, marjoram and a smattering of Emeril Lagasse's "Essence of Emeril" powder (Bam! kick it up a notch). When it is about done some added parsley.

Sometimes I add pinto beans but not this time :-(

Tomas wrote:

brad walker wrote::) Beans: yay or nay?

Sometimes I add pinto beans but not this time :-(

I was hoping for some genius bean recipe and all I got was this chicken shit.

Talking about chicken: garlic powder? C'mon smash your own with the skin on. Be consistent!

In other words, it is not enough to be erudite or learned or scholarly or academic about eternal philosophical/spiritual ideas such as non-duality, but to feel their POWER, and PERSONALLY, and to let them completely TRANSFORM your entire being.

This is correct, and is in fact possible, but it only rarely occurs instantly. More commonly, the ego makes a gradual retreat. Once it knows it is good and well beaten (by the fact of non-duality, etc), it begins to exit stage left - but often taking its own sweet time to do so.

I do think that sudden and total ego loss is possible (and have even experienced it for fairly brief periods), but I suppose "total" is the wrong word to use since that state tends to be unstable for many people who attain it. The total peace usually seems to require ongoing cultivation.

Apologies to anyone who happened to become a permanent Buddha instantaneously. But I have never seen any convincing evidence of anyone doing so in my lifetime. My experience has been that the gradual path of enlightenment is most common, at least for Westerners.

For me, the "moment" of enlightenment is when the ego realizes it is totally beaten and cannot possibly ever escape the truth of non-duality, etc. This does not necessarily instantly remove the ego, but it does put it in a state of permanent retreat and diminishment.

The rest happens by itself (with some ongoing cultivation and practice), as it's all uphill from that point.

Oh, and selenium. Take it if you drink flouridated water. It flushes flouride out. You don't want a petrified pineal gland.

People running around with a major brain structure rendered disabled (especially the one traditionally associated with spiritual insight) is a possible reason Americans (who flouridate the most aggressively) tend to be so incapable of higher-level thought. Well, that and TV.