#stayhappybros

[stayhappybros]

Biotech job hunts

are brutal

#personal #stayhappybros

[panatmansam]

If asked to teach how does one teach, especially when one is still a novice? Furthermore, how does one lead, is it the same as by example?

Great question.

This happens to us in the West. In traditionally Buddhist countries most people do not meditate or even study the dharma. They support the monks in the monasteries much as Europeans once supported the clerics in the monasteries who in turn did their reading of scripture and praying for them. 

We in the West have no such tradition in modern times. We do it on our own. We teach each other and we do directly which most Easterners do indirectly through their monks.

So, as a Westerner with some knowledge of the dharma what do you do if asked about the dharma, that is the teachings of the Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha?

Then you teach what you know. You adhere to the teachings and do not interject your own beliefs into it. For example, the Buddha never took a stance on ucchedavada, also called “annihilation “ or sassatavada, also called “eternalism”. He rejected them both as false beliefs.

Yet, personally, I lean toward eternalism and the belief that we are all part of one great thing and that we do merge back in with this great thing. You can call it God if that suits you culturally or call it Paramatman, or go the route of the Transcendentalists like Emerson and call it Oversoul.

So, I am always careful to point this out so that people know that I am speaking for myself and not passing on the teachings of the Buddha. You will find though that if you do attend a Buddhist temple that the monks there may have beliefs which seem outlandish and in direct contradiction of the teachings. This is because the exoteric part of Buddhism, the outer teachings, has absorbed a lot of folkways of the lands where they originated.

Most Western Buddhists are secular and ignore these traditions as quaint superstition and tend to focus on the core teachings of the Buddha which are as he often said designed to end dukkha that craving, that gnawing sense of fear and dissatisfaction that never really leaves, but that poisons our psyche and stands in the way of joy.

Joy.

How many humans feel this emotion? Many feel happiness in small bursts when things are going well but, joy. Joy is a transcendent emotion and it must be cultivated. It must be as one starts a campfire. It starts small but then grows as we gain some measure of control of our runaway minds.

#stayhappybros

[mushroooms]

I have not followed you for long but I love you, mushroom. You are the Kief to my dashboard.

^____^ wow ah thank you haha

#stayhappybros

[stayhappybros]

12/10/2022

The sky is not inherently blue, nor is it inherently any color at all. The sky is an ever-changing atmospheric condition, an intricate and vibrant tapestry of energy and particles in constant motion and collision. The colors we see in the sky are a result of the way our brains interpret the light that comes from the sun and travels through the atmosphere to our eyes. When sunlight hits the atmosphere, it is made up of a spectrum of vibrational energy, each with a different wavelength. Some of these colors are absorbed or scattered in different directions by gases, particles, and other substances in the atmosphere. Some reach our eye and catalyze a chemical reaction in specialized cells. Similarly, a bird's chirp is not an inherent quality of the bird but rather vibrations in the air that our ears interpret as sound. Nothing has a fixed or permanent nature; everything is in a state of flux and transformation. There is no sound, no color, no taste. There is a reality we experience: but is it the one we perceive? 

#stayhappybros

[stayhappybros]

When two masters meet on the street, they need no introduction; when thieves meet on the street, they recognize each other instantly.  The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It refuses nothing. It receives but it does not keep.

Alan Watts “Zen Bones” lecture 

#stayhappybros #watts

[stayhappybros]

THE NEPHROLOGIST

The man next to me is one of legend:  his necklace Is a bright red identification badge with DOCTOR written in white text.  We sat together in the microscope room to examine the patient’s biopsy. The massive microscope sits on a gyroscopic table that automatically levels itself in response to tilting or pressure – and balances an array of fluorescent lasers and mirrors.  It automatically relays information from the eyepiece onto a digital monitor. The combination of antibodies we’ve used produces a mosaic of bright pink and deep blues, highlighting our regions of interest.  

“Switch to 10x please, let’s find a blood vessel with a better signal.” his voice has a rhythm and speed hinting his roots in Mumbai.

“We have to cure this disease. Even if this idea fails, I will sleep better knowing we at least tried. What I want is this study to move to clinical trials and you get into medical school.” He laughs  

“Covid was an extremely testing time man. There was so much death that bodies were being left out at room temperature in the hospital.  I had to take an early break from rounds one day after a patient grabbed my hand in fear as he died.” He pauses briefly, and his tone of voice softens to a gentleness we reserve for the expression of lived truths.  

“People have varying sensitivities to the suffering of others. You are more sensitive than most, and I think that will make you a great advocate for patients as a physician. In time Austin, you will learn that in medicine you can have nothing else. You live it and breathe it. and you only breathe because it is involuntary; or there would be no time.”    

The words sheathed a meaning that impacted me yet simultaneously contain a hidden lesson that evades my comprehension; as if foreshadowing a story I’ve lived before yet am a stranger to.  I wake before 5 am unable to return to sleep, as if subconscious pushes my system online.

#STAYHAPPYBROS #MEDICINE

[stayhappybros]

Trees without fruit

In 'Gulistan,' Sheikh Sadiq al-Shirazi narrates a conversation with a wise man. A person said, 'Of all the great trees created by God, why is the cypress alone called 'azad,' or free, when it doesn't bear fruit? What's the meaning of that?'

The wise man replied, 'Every tree has its season - a time for growth, followed by a decline. The cypress remains independent of this. It symbolizes those who are truly free ('azad'). Don't set your heart on what is fleeting, impermanent. The Tigris River will flow through Baghdad long after mankind is gone. If fortune grants you abundance, be generous in your giving, like the date palm. But if you have little, be like the cypress

#poetry #stayhappybros

[stayhappybros]

You've placed him in a dilemma where there are two choices, both of which are wrong.

Jiu-Jitsu Instructor during a demo

#Stayhappybros

[stayhappybros]

I was watching when you were sparring with the wrestler to see if you would keep your composure. You did at the start of the round - but then lost it. Just because your opponent begins to speed up doesn't mean you have to. Keep calm and play your game.

Instructor to student

#stayhappybros #martial arts

[stayhappybros]

Finger warm up , jiu jitsu

#stayhappybro #bjj

[stayhappybros]

No greater opportunity, responsibility, or obligation can fall to the lot of a human being than to become a physician. In the care of the suffering, [the physician] needs technical skill, scientific knowledge, and human understanding.… Tact, sympathy, and understanding are expected of the physician, for the patient is no mere collection of symptoms, signs, disordered functions, damaged organs, and disturbed emotions. [The patient] is human, fearful, and hopeful, seeking relief, help, and reassurance.

Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 1950

#medicine #stayhappybros #qoute

[stayhappybros]

RESOURCES

Back-pain

Dr. Stuart McGill: See his excercise here 

Mobility:

Ben Patrick:  (knee and ankle focused)

Kelly Starrett

Flexibility 

Kit Laughlin 

Strength Training 

Stan Efferding

Charles Poliquin

Grappling-related

Dr. Mike Piekarski: sport-specific biomechanics 

#stayhappybros #resources

[stayhappybros]

As a rule - never give more information than what is asked for.  What you say can be used agaisnt you in the future; so don't volunteer more information than necessary.

Excerpt from a research mentor 

#stayhappybros

[stayhappybros]

Lessons from lab

 The senior physician begins to speak, in his usual quick cadence.

“Never say you don’t know.” 

“When issues arise with experiments, or with patient care, expect to be questioned by your PI or the attending physician. Never say you don’t know - we already know that you don’t.“ 

“Think and come up with possibilities, suggest some ideas. If you only say you don’t know - it’ll go into your evaluations. ”

Minutes later we go to interpret results with protein quantification - and then turning to me he asks

 “Austin, tell me what is wrong with these results.” 

#stayhappybros #lab #science

[stayhappybros]

pistol squat progress 

#pistol-squat #calisthenics #stayhappybros

[stayhappybros]

Resourcefulness

Apart of on going series.. 

He approached me carrying a tiny red bottle of ponceau, a common lab reagent used to stain proteins red. 

Just minutes ago I had asked him if we should order more, as our supply was dwindling. 

Handing me the bottle, he says 

“In science, never stop experiments because reagents are low. They must go on.”  pausing for a moment, he continues. “I heard something from a Noble Laureate, Phillip Sharp, that really stuck with me.” 

“What separates successful people from unsuccessful people is how resourceful they are. Remember that.”

 Sharp received a noble prize in 1993 for physiology or medicine for his discovery of RNA splicing. 

#stayhappybros #science