The 3 Commandments versus The 10 Commandments

Came up for me this morning that I never wrote about any connection between these.  

The 3 Commandments came up for me, when writing “Conversations with Dog.”  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2020/04/conversations-with-dog-chapter-9.html

I never really thought about any real connection with The 10 Commandments…  

Being of Jewish background, let us start there.  

There are actually 613 Commandments in the Torah, the Jewish bible.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/613_commandments

Categorized here:

https://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm

They are traditionally called mitzvahs, or “good deeds,” also labeled as commandments.  

As an aside, I found this was interesting, someone illustrated all of them:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/us/an-illustrated-guide-to-the-613-jewish-commandments.html

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Traditionally, it is thought that The 10 Commandments were written by G-d on 2 stone tablets and given to Moses.  

Let us take a look at these copied from one of the more conservative Jewish websites:  

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2896/jewish/What-Are-the-Ten-Commandments.htm

English Translation of the Ten Commandments

1. I am the L rd your G d, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

2. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor any manner of likeness of anything that is in heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I the L rd your G d am a jealous G d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.

3. You shall not take the name of the L rd your G d in vain; for the L rd will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the L rd your G d. On it you shall not do any manner of work—you, your son, your daughter, your man-servant, your maid-servant, your cattle, and your stranger that is within your gates. For in six days the L rd made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the L rd blessed the Sabbath Day, and hallowed it.

5. Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long upon the land which the L rd your G d gives you.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his manservant, his maid-servant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

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This same site observes the following: 

The Symmetry of the Ten Commandments 

The Ten Commandments were carved on two tablets, so let us visualize them as being laid out as follows:

    

TABLET ONE                                                 TABLET TWO

1. I am the L-rd your G d …                                 6. You shall not murder.

2. You shall have no gods …                                 7. You shall not commit adultery.

3. You shall not take the name of the L-rd your G d in vain … 8. You shall not steal.

4. Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy … 9. You shall not bear false witness …

5. Honor your father and mother …                 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house …

Note that we can read the commandments down each tablet, or we can read them from side to side. This Midrash3 provides the connection:

Commandments 1 and 6: Every human is created in the image of G d, so murder is an affront to the Creator.

Commandments 2 and 7: When one worships a deity other than G d, it is as akin to adultery. G d is our loving spouse (and much more).

Commandments 3 and 8: A person may feel that stealing is only between him and the victim, but it is also a crime against G d, whose name will ultimately be taken falsely.

Commandments 4 and 9: Through keeping Shabbat, we testify that G d created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. When one disregards Shabbat, he testifies falsely about the Divine origin of the universe. 

Commandments 5 and 10: The juxtaposition of jealousy and honoring parents tell us that one who lusts after that which is not his, will ultimately give birth to a child who curses his parents and honors others instead.

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And another way of grouping them here: 

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-ten-commandments/

The philosopher Abraham ben Chiyya, after placing the first commandment apart as comprising all the others, divided the other nine according to the commandments of thought, speech, and action, and according to relations between human and God, human and his family, and human and human, reaching the following classification:

Relations between: Man & God                        Human & Family                      Human & Human

Thought 2:“Thou shalt have no other God” 5: “Honor thy father and thy mother."  10: “Thou shalt not covet.”

Speech 3: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.” 6: “Thou shalt not murder.” 9: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”

Action    4: “Remember the Sabbath.” 7: “Thou shalt not commit adultery." 8: “Thou shalt not steal.”

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As a reminder, here are The 3 Commandments, and remember, they are observed in strict order: 

         1-There is only one Source.

                    2-Love everything.

                              3-Enjoy yourself.

And the most important mistakes are made within the Second Commandment…  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-second-commandment-love-everything_24.html

I won’t get into a deep “compare and contrast,” as we were all asked to do in our classes…  

In general, all of The 3 Commandments are positive, obviously, the first one is simply a statement…  

In the case of the original 613 Commandments, 248 are positive and 365 are negative (That is from a website above, I did not count them…).  

If we take a look at the 9 above, 2 are positive (instructions to do) and 7 are negative (to do not)…

The First Commandments of the 3 and 10 are basically the same statement, without using the word G-d, substituting the word Source…  

Source as “All-That-Is” and All-That-Is-Not.”  The everything that exists, and everything with potential for existence…    

The Second Commandment of the 3 encompass the rest of the 9 of the 10…  

The “Mistakes” of the Second Commandment can be directly mapped on these 9… 

I won’t take up your time here on these…  

For me, the interest lies within the frameworks of various religions…  

I am much more interested in the relationship of mystery and paradox at the core of each religion… 

Let us close with 3 great quotes from Huston Smith: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Smith

"If we take the world's enduring religions at their best, we discover the distilled wisdom of the human race." 

"Institutions are not pretty. Show me a pretty government. Healing is wonderful, but the American Medical Association? Learning is wonderful, but universities? The same is true for religion... religion is institutionalized spirituality." 

"The goal of spiritual life is not altered states, but altered traits.”

Let us all practice deep love for all beings and the world…  

Namaste

The Sarchasm

“the intellectual gap between the person who makes a sarcastic joke and those who don’t get it”

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/sarchasm

I’ve been the victim of a book burning…  

Well, maybe a book banning…  

No…  not quite right…  

A Blog Banning!

I guess I really should be flattered…  

That is appropriate for a self-designated heretic… 

I should be flattered… and amused…    

But, it really did piss me off, at least for a day or so…  

Then I thought about this blog entry…  

That cheered me up!   

I have been a teacher since graduate school, started teaching in 1976.  

Taught all through my 25-year tenure at my medical school until about 5 years ago…

Including 3 years on a team helping to revamp all 4 years of our teaching program at the med school…  

5 years ago, went into private practice rheumatology, so I could eventually retire on at least a somewhat decent retirement income…   

My wife and I have been involved in the psychedelic research arena, together, my research ended when I left the University, my wife kept on doing psychedelic research until this past year.  

I keep up on the literature…  

Psychedelics are one of the most fascinating current topics, with deeply interesting aspects of science, psychology, politics, economics…   

We keep on talking about setting up a psychedelic practice, but these medications are still illegal, Schedule 1, unless we wanted to practice ketamine-based treatment…  

And I am still working 80%, 4 days per week, and very full challenging days…  

I have taught on and off on psychedelic therapy, mostly with my wife, we put together a dynamite role play program at the beginning of this current psychedelic teaching renaissance.  

I have taught with her on an off…  she has taught yearly.  

I was kicked out for a while, for being a white male…  

This year the program has had some additional difficulties…  

Won’t go into details…  

When I teach on psychedelics, I usually put a link to my blog at the end of my biography…  

This blog, after all, is all about self-growth and self and societal evolution…  

Exactly what psychedelic therapy is all about!  

The core of this blog are practices and methods which I have found helpful, or others have found helpful (as if there are any “others” :-D)

I always ask the reader to check in with yourselves, follow your instincts, I ain’t no preacher man…  

And, as I have written, I also am not some Enlightened Being…  or Guru…  

I guess, however, there must be some level of arrogance, just to write about these topics…  

Really feel the most important writings are on:  The 3 Commandments, particularly the mistakes of number 2, Love Everything…

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-second-commandment-love-everything_24.html

Apparently, folks running the psychedelic research program, thought the title of my blog might offend…  

Hence, the sarchasm…

So, they axed the link to my blog in my bio, and attached another link to something conventional about me…  

They then called me afterward to let me know…  

My wife and I were already cut to giving a talk only…  

I think the powers that be felt our role play might be too provocative and challenging for the students…  

So, I sent a polite email, declining to teach…  

Made the most sense to me, if my blog is too controversial, my talk might be as well…  

I think the act of avoiding our role play sessions, and banning my blog link, are an excellent example of a classic mistake of Commandment number 2, the mistake of Idiot Compassion…  

Additional relevant thoughts here:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2021/03/cancel-culture.html

I will leave it to the folks running the psychedelic teaching program to figure out exactly what they need to do to fix their program…  

Namaste

McMindfulness?

Had not heard this term until reading this quarter’s Tricycle, Fall 2021!

I started meditation practice in the early 1970’s as part of Karate training…  

I kept an on and off practice until the early 1990’s when I spontaneously awoke at 3 am to sit pretty much every night for about 5 years.  

Mostly an alone meditator, with extensive reading about Buddhism and meditation.  

Eventually joined a few weekend meditations with others, and then multiple week plus Vipassana trainings at Barre MA, and later at Spirit Rock.  

I was involved in research studies of the role of meditation on the immune response.  

I met my wife at a retreat learning to teach mindfulness meditation…  

I have co-taught Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes for a couple of years…  

I consider Jon Kabat Zinn a friend and mentor.  

Jon constructed an amazing training program, stripping out religion from mindfulness training…  

I have seen amazing changes when persons attend MBSR trainings…  

I have also seen failures…  

I have had some experience with this subject…  

So…  McMindfulness???

Perhaps this is a similar criticism to those modern yoga practices, when they tend toward only a physical exercise practice…  

Maybe…  

I seems to me the important part which gets left out of exercise yoga, is the mindfulness, meditative, practices.  

This Tricycle article mentions that some individuals may be harmed by mindfulness training… 

Of course, that is possible!   

That is why MBSR programs needs trained practitioners, that is why retreats have trained teachers, and you need training if you use mindfulness training in your psychology practice…  

There are similar risks with psychedelic therapy…  

If your personality is fragmented, a practitioner first needs to assess and help create a stronger less fragmented personality…  

Meditation and psychedelic therapy can both be like tossing a large boulder on to your “raft” of self…  

I you have a strong raft it can fall apart and be lashed back together, perhaps leaving out parts that no longer serve, creating even a stronger raft…  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-raft-of-relationship.html

The article also mentions worries about “cultural misappropriation,” and possible reinforcement of materialistic and nihilistic elements in people and our culture…  

For example, Google using mindfulness as a “tool of global capitalism.”   

They didn’t even mention mindfulness training which may be used make better soldiers…  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2014/05/war-and-peace.html

Perhaps this is a part of evolution…  

We live in a capitalistic society, everyone is trying to make a buck.  

Inevitably, people will try to monetize mindfulness…  

On the other hand, we all have needs for shelter, to eat, sometimes to send our kids to college…  

The article also mentions that those that critique mindfulness are getting something out of being a critic, including money…  

The article mentions second and third generation mindfulness…  not sure I even understand what these might be…  

I no longer do research in this area.  

Nonetheless, I like to keep track of what is happening in these areas of mindfulness and meditation training…  

My general feeling is that as mindfulness has moved into the mainstream, it will continue to evolve…  

My hope is that meditation and psychedelic therapy will continue to evolve together…  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2017/01/invitations-and-demands-to-growth-of.html

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2017/03/boredom-pain-addiction.html

Namaste

Musing on the Future

Always a dicey proposition…  

Few can predict what might unfold…  

My wife and I were conversing about the recent deaths of well-known teachers, started with Ram Dass (2019), then went to the psychedelic leaders and teachers, most recently Ralph Metzner (2019).  

I brought up John Welwood (2019), I have so much appreciated his writings.  

We then discussed the advanced age of many teachers we have read, or sat with in meditation retreats, or learned from in psychedelic meetings… 

Then she asked an interesting question, “who will be the next leaders?”  

We have sat with younger meditation teachers, and there are young people entering the psychedelic research and teaching communities.  

What came up for me was, could there be other possible unfoldings for teaching and learning on the path to higher evolution.  

In searching about John Welwood’s death, I came across his wife, Jennifer Welwood’s, outline for a retreat in 2022:  

“In this retreat we will engage the two interweaving pathways that comprise any authentic journey of transformation:  the ascending pathway of realizing our awake nature, and the descending pathway of integrating that nature into our down-on-the-ground human embodiment and human life.”  

First, fun to see because it will be held at the Mount Madonna Center, Watsonville, California, that is where my wife and I first met, at a retreat on teaching meditation!  

Second, that part of her outline so beautifully states the path of travel to higher evolution…  

In musing of what could unfold next, I wondered about the recent intersection of meditation and entheogen or psychedelic medicines, both can be pathways to growth and evolution, along with psychotherapeutic work...    

Could there be a system of lay people, not professional gurus, or teachers, instead, peers leading peers…  

We already have local groups who gather to meditate together…  

Could there be fewer famous teachers in the future…   

Can we teach each other…   

Can these teachings begin at home…  

Can these teachings filter into the school systems, there are places that already incorporate meditation into grade school teaching…  

Some great ideas here:  

https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-education/

We would need to be careful with the use of entheogens or psychedelics, they still need more studies…  

I would like to see someone study the use of these medicines in small groups led by lay people…  

This would be a much more affordable method for integrating these medicines into personal evolution… 

We shall see what unfolds…  Depending on how long we live… 

Namaste

Cancel Culture

Perhaps you have been reading about various famous individuals saying things that have not been well received by others…  

With resultant “Internet shaming…”  

Along with burning of an author’s books… 

One illustration here:  

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/what-cancel-culture-why-150-writers-and-academics-including-jk-rowling-signed-letter-condemning-intolerant-climate-free-speech-2907717

This blog arose after reading the New York Times this morning about a French intellectual publication that was going out of business…

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/opinion/french-intellectual-life-america.html

Perhaps a central quote from the article:  

“There is a mighty ideological wave coming from the United States,” the philosopher Yves Charles Zarka wrote last fall in an article about the death of Le Débat. “It brings rewriting history, censuring literature, toppling statues, and imposing a racialist vision of society.” 

I really cannot get to the deeper nature of what this publication represented over the years.   However, I got the broader gestalt with the final words of the article:    

“There are still lessons Americans can learn from France, provided we approach it with the right questions in mind. A good one to start with might be whether the American academy of recent decades — with the culture it carries and the political behaviors it fosters — has been, in the wider world, a force for intellectual freedom or for its opposite.”  

Perhaps on another view on the spectrum of free speech…  

In a NYT article “The Rotting of the Republican Mind” David Brookes wrote :

“Rauch pointed out that every society has an epistemic regime, a marketplace of ideas where people collectively hammer out what’s real. In democratic, nontheocratic societies, this regime is a decentralized ecosystem of academics, clergy members, teachers, journalists and others who disagree about a lot but agree on a shared system of rules for weighing evidence and building knowledge.

This ecosystem, Rauch wrote, operates as a funnel. It allows a wide volume of ideas to get floated, but only a narrow group of ideas survive collective scrutiny. “We let alt-truth talk,” Rauch said, “but we don’t let it write textbooks, receive tenure, bypass peer review, set the research agenda, dominate the front pages, give expert testimony or dictate the flow of public dollars.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/opinion/republican-disinformation.html

But, who is to judge what is Truth?   

Being a Heretic, my hackles rise up when I hear about “Political Correctness.”  

First of all, I believe in respect for everyone, even those I do not believe respect me or my beliefs.  

In The Friends of Voltaire, Hall wrote the phrase: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall

On the other hand, I do not believe we should allow the widespread dissemination of speech that calls for harming others…  

This has become a problem in our current society with the unprecedented role of social media, which often allows the widespread dissemination of almost anything anyone wishes to say…  

So how do we deal with overwhelming political correctness that suppresses the generation and discussion of a wide variety of ideas and, yet, “doing no harm…”  

There is an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review regarding the problems of political correctness and how to address certain difficulties in cross-cultural interactions in the workplace: 

https://hbr.org/2006/09/rethinking-political-correctness

• Pause to short-circuit the emotion and reflect.

• Connect with others in ways that affirm the importance of relationships.

• Question yourself to help identify your blind spots and discover what makes you defensive.

• Get genuine support that doesn’t necessarily validate your point of view but, rather, helps you gain a broader perspective.

• Shift your mind-set from “You need to change” to “What can I change?”

Sounds like mindful practice to me!

There are interesting 10 suggestions regarding this cancel culture here: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/08/ten-rules-preserve-common-sense-debate-about-free-speech/?_gl=1*1woxgg7*_ga*WmwxRDY4WEtzeUxyemMzLU5YbFpiOFBvUXZfVDdHbk5zN0pVV3NnSVNSVXJ1OGctMzBIX0QyZTdWaFQ2RzRoZA

This one is interesting and relevant: 

9. It is easy to say that “there are more important things to fight about” than cancel culture or suppression of speech. But the latter is a precondition to a democratic, free society that can successfully govern itself and address those problems. We can and must defend free speech at the same time we are calling out police brutality, threats to public health and systemic racism.

Perhaps some answers arise from considering an Integral perspective…  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

Interesting thoughts here: 

https://www.paragonhouse.com/wp/ideas/a-needed-reset-for-liberal-culture/

“Wilber sees as one of the main failings of the green meme the idea that “the lack of green values (egalitarian, group freedom, gender equality, human care, and sensitivity) is due to a presence of oppression. Lack of green = presence of oppression.” However, “the major problem with that view taken by itself is that it completely overlooks the central role of growth, development, and evolution” (p. 39).”

“To the politically correct greens that idea of development and growth for anybody is totally anathema because we have to accept everyone as they are, not that they are as they are because of the stage of development they have attained. Thus, “although the green will not allow the existence of any ‘higher’ or ‘better’ views, it still deeply feels that its own views are definitely ‘higher’ and ‘better’” (p. 43). This makes it an ethnocentric view, incapable of the inclusiveness it espouses.” 

Sometimes referred to as the “Mean Green Meme.”  

As always, I write to clarify my own thoughts and feelings…  

Whenever I write, I like to think that these words and quotes are seed plantings…  

Your own ideas are much more important than my own…  

Dialogue on!  

Namaste

   

Daily Vitamins and Supplements

Let me be a little revealing about my health…

My number one problem is osteoarthritis, as a rheumatologist, I have read the literature.  

In general, the only non-surgical treatment is keeping muscles strong around your joints!   

Otherwise, there is no clear proven treatment for osteoarthritis.  

You can get some pain relief from NSAIDS such as ibuprofen or naproxen, if your stomach can tolerate it, and even better combined with acetaminophen.  

I usually recommend over the counter ibuprofen 200 mg along with 500 mg immediate release acetaminophen, every 4 hours, up to 6 times daily.  

Or, you could try over the counter naproxen 220 mg twice daily along with acetaminophen extended relase 650-1300 mg twice daily.  

Make sure your liver, kidneys, stomach, can tolerate these doses (check with your primary care provider!).  

I try to avoid long term use of NSAIDS and acetaminophen, lots of possible risks to liver and kidneys, with both, and to your cardiovascular system with NSAIDS.  

Sometimes a steroid injection can help.  But steroids tend to destroy joints when used too often.  

We try to avoid opiods, since you just need more and more to control pain, highly addictive.  

Sometimes we use chronic pain meds such as gabapentin and cymbalta, at least they are non-addictive.  

My osteoarthrtis tends to be inflammatory, I’ll get a joint that even turns red, then calms down with a nice bony osteophyte to show for that episode.  

I am also into CAM, also known as Complementary and Alternative Medicine.  

Acupunture has helped me at times.  

One highly skilled naturopath-acupuncturist recommeded InflamAway, it is by prescription only, a very expensive supplement, being an MD I can get it wholesale.  Even then it is relatively expensive…  

Do I need all these supplements?

Or, am I just making very expensive urine?

Good question…  

I am not sure…  

I do feel that my inflammatory osteoarthritis has been quieter on these supplements, but as an N=1 experiment, and not a placebo controlled trial, it is always hard to tell what is true.  

My second problem is intermittant low back pain.  

I have some slight daily achiness at my right sacroiliac joint area, but not worse at night.  

Started when my kid was about 1-year old and I slipped down the carpeted stairs, holding tightly on to the 1-year old to protect him.  

Years later I was lifting a really cool large round rock for the garden and had pain in that same area.  Probably a bit too heavy a rock, and was very awkward to carry.  

I have a history of scoliosis, actually wore a Milwaukee brace through middle school.  Not clearly related to my back pain.  

The back pain is probably related to my underlying propensity toward osteoarthritis.  

My mom had osteoarthritis of the hands, also had back surgery for disc disease.  She had a hip replacement at age 90!

I have had episodes where I could move only with severe pain due to pain in that right sacroiliac area.  Never missed work.  Did sometimes roll around the exam room on a stool!    

The most important thing that keeps my back pain from flaring is daily exercise.  Rolling on a foam roller helps as well.  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-space-between.html

In addition to my morning routine, I try to do 1-2 hours of aerobic exercise every other day.  Biking outside if weather permits, or on the ellipitical trainer indoors.  Occasionally, I’ll fit in a weight training day, hope to do that more as I age.  

If I get really severe back pain, I’ll use acetaminophen for a couple of days, happens perhaps once every 2 years, more often if I let go of daily exercise.  Even more rarely needing NSAID therapy added to the acetaminophen.  Maybe once in 4 years.  

I feel very lucky to have very few medical problems.  

I am very nearsighted, have avoided Lasik, due to fears of complications.  Wearing glasses since 3rd grade!  

I am on no prescription medications.  

Product                             Daily dosage         Brand Name        Reason

Mature Multi Vitamin 1 daily                     Kirkland/Costco General supplement

Ginkgo Biloba         120 mg                 Puritan’s Pride Heart and blood health

Glucosamine                 500 mg                 Puritan’s Pride Joint health

MSM                         1000mg x2         Puritan’s Pride Joint health

C-500 timed release 500 mg x2         Puritan’s Pride Antioxidant immune support

Vit E mixed tocopherals  400 IU                 Puritan’s Pride Antioxidant

Pe Min Kan Wan          2/day                 Plum Flower Allergies

Vit D3                         1000 IU                 Whole Foods Bone health

Fish Oil                         1200mg each x4 Puritan’s Pride Cardiovascular health

Calcium w/D                 600 mg Ca/400D Kirkland/Costco Bone Health

Co Q10                 100 mg                 Puritan’s Pride Heart health

B-Complex 50                                 Whole Foods Vitamin

Triple Ginsing                 1 cap                 Whole foods Antioxidant

Bilberry                         60 mg                 Puritan’s Pride        Eye health, antioxidant

Rhodiola extract         120 mg                 Gaia         Antioxidant

 5-HTP                 100 mg ER         Natrol         Mood

Tumeric                         800 mg         Puritan’s Pride Antioxident

InflamAway                 3 capsules         Natura Joint health

It looks like a long list of supplements to me too…  

I have not had a primary doc until this year.  

I had that episode of surgery for hydrocoele last year, first surgery ever.  

So, also got a primary care doc.  Probably a good idea at age 67…   

She is trained in internal medicine, and is a former faculty member, also is trained in CAM throught Dr Weil’s fellowship program.  Very glad to have her as my doc!  

She did not balk at my supplement list, actually recommended I take an additional Vit C daily for my occasional allergies.  

This blog has mostly been about my personal unfolding as to emotional and spiritual growth.  

As well as an occasional rant!  

I am adding this information on my personal health and supplements to fill out the connection between Body, Mind, and Spirit…

Perhaps helpful…  Perhaps not…  

Namaste

What Kind of Lab Are You!

 Expectations…  

So interesting.   

Yes, being quite dog centric these days…  

“Puppy brain”

One of our trainers describing puppies with “the attention span of a gnat…”  

It seems that us owners sometimes have a similar problem.   

Our world revolving around this new member of the family.  

Takes a lot of time, can be very distracting…  

Luckily, after lots of play, naptime can allow room to do some work, some thinking, some writing.  

My family and I only had 2 dogs, the first, Midnight, was an unclear mix of Lab and Great Dane.  

Arrived at about 3 months of age.  

With expectations of a huge dog, we bought a huge crate…  

Midnight only got to about 45 pounds…

A great dog, we probably could have done a better job of training her, but I was new Assistant Professor, working too hard, bucking for tenure…  

I left most the training to my then wife and young kids…  

Midnight did not eat like a Lab, you could leave food in her dish all day, and she would only eat when hungry…  stayed muscular and thin naturally…  

After Midnight passed on, my then wife lasted about a month or so, when the need for a puppy arose…  

This time went for a purebred Lab…  

Dakota was great dog, but ate like a Lab…  

As a small puppy, we visited with family out of town, he found a bag of dog food, then proceeded to almost eat himself to death…  

His belly was so huge, I was sure we would need to take him to the vet for surgery.  

He was known to eat a large portion of a large pumpkin placed on the porch for Halloween…  

We were going on a trip, got cash from the bank.  We left Dakota in the car for a moment, and he proceeded to eat the 200 dollars, including the bank envelope.  

I processed his poop for about 3 days, somehow recovering all but 2 of the $20 dollar bills, required a bleaching process, that still resulted in bile-stained bills to be turned in to the bank…  

Would eat toilet paper, and socks, more like a goat…  

The kitchen floor was always spotless.   Everything was licked and eaten, food, dirt, anything…  

As I mentioned, both my current wife and I have had Labrador Retrievers.  

She has had a similar experience.  

Zev, is a standard poodle.  

Does not eat like a lab…  

You can leave food in his bowl, only eats when hungry, sometimes turns his nose up at anything but special “high value” treats.  

You can drop food on the floor, it gets ignored…  

Treats can roll out of his treat toy and he misses it on the floor, until you point it out…  

Therefore, we often remark “Not a Lab” or “What kind of Lab are you!”   

Expectations…  

We humans fall into expectations…  

Our minds develop grooves…  

We fall into repeated ways of operating in the world…  

We can be thrown off, when things change.  

In the case of Zev, it is fun…  

Fun to watch my mind look at amazement when he does not inhale his entire bowel of food in a minute…  

It is actually nice that Zev does not scarf down everything, food and not food…  

He is a chewer, “puppy piranha,” we are working on that…  

This behavior is a natural part of puppyhood…  

We are both working on training, my wife is taking the lead, and she is laying out quite a bit of money on training classes and instruction…  

This is an investment…  

 It is a pleasure to have a well-trained dog…  

And Zev is quite smart and trainable…  

He is entering his adolescence…  

We are doing our part, reading, taking the time to give him the attention he needs, help him be active, tire him out…  

Training is patterning the brain…  

Creating the grooves, when to sit, to stay, to heel, to come…  

Learning, reading, about puppy growth, about dog communication and behavior…

Humans are complex, I’ve spent my life trying to understand myself, trying to understand other humans, how we grow, how we change, how we can live better lives…    

Bringing dog energy into the family can also help reveal more deeply who we are as humans… 

Humans have been interacting with canines for millenia…  

“The genetic divergence between the dog's ancestor and modern wolves occurred between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_domestic_dog

Dogs are not humans…   

With other humans, our mistakes are often with projection…  

With dogs, we have to be careful of our natural tendencies toward, “anthropomorphism,” perhaps better defined as personification…  

Seeing clearly,

 Seeing everything,

 Just as it is…  

A never-ending unfolding…  

With dogs and without…  

Namaste

Puppy Time

No not entitled “Puppy Love”   

We love our puppies, I don’t think our puppies love us…  

Not in the way we think out puppies love us, that is our projection…    

Often, I believe, that is the beginning of where we get things wrong when bringing up puppies…  probably kids as well...  

Been reading…  always reading…  

I think Melissa Holbrook Pierson gets things right, she usually does.

She does her research…  

Her book is titled, “The Secret History of Kindness:  Learning From How Dogs Learn”  

The title didn’t make sense, until I was about halfway through.  

She is an eclectic writer, started reading her books on motorcycling…  

What could be better that a woman who likes to ride!  

Mellissa has a great voice, very revealing of her failings, and successes… 

My wife was a motorcyclist.  That was before I met her…

Both my wife and I had Labrador Retrievers in our past lives, BWGT…

Before we got together…  

We are both dog people… 

We are also kid people…

My wife is a people person, she even likes adults…  she is an extrovert…   

I prefer dogs and kids…  

I enjoy the company of adults, just for shorter periods of time…  I am an introvert…  

Zev arrived into our lives about 8 week after being born on Halloween 2020

My wife and I have been together for 16 years.

Her 2 kids were grown and out of the house, and I had one kid out on his own when we started living together.

My last child was about 16 when we got together, and he was only with us a couple of days each week, and had a car, so was free to come and go.  An easy kid, did his homework, never got into any trouble, that I got to find out about anyway…  

We always talked about how freeing it was to be without dependent small kids and dogs…  

Yet, we always enjoyed what we called a “dog fix,” similar to a “baby fix,” the joy of spending time with young, usually, joyful creatures.  

We did think we would eventually bring dog presence back into our lives…  

Many conversations about the meaning of dogs in people’s lives…  

We agreed on trying to get a dog that would be easier to train, not one that would be a fixer upper…  

There are many that would fault us on that…  

There are some vet practices that seem to discriminate against people that get a purebred puppy…  apparently, only rescues allowed…  

We love labs, but wanted a breed that would be a bit calmer, and not such a food machine, less likely to eat half a giant pumpkin, $200 in cash, toilet paper (even more true stories, untold)… 

We are still active, wanted a dog that could hike, maybe run along biking…  

Our friend had a lovely Labradoodle, that probably started the ball rolling… 

I had a patient who is a veterinarian, and I asked her about Labradoodles, she said, it is hard to know what you might get, they can have the problems of both breeds, why not get a Standard Poodle.  

My wife took to her research…  Came up with a few breeders that breed for the stockier, original hunting dog type, Standard Poodle.  

She is a small breeder, only 2 litters per year…  

My wife got on the list…  We originally thought next Spring, 2021, but the litter was large, and we got in line for this Fall, 2020.  

We watched the pictures posted each week, not knowing which of the 10 would be ours.  

We made up lists of possible names… 

We made pros and cons of each pup, weight, color, gender…  

We bought a big crate, toys, food, treats, dog bed…  

Then drove 5.5 hours to Nebraska to pick up the little creature…  

I had some underlying resistance…  

Despite being 67, I am not retired, I work full-time, busy weeks in clinic, and really like my free time…  

My wife said she would carry the majority of the work caring for the pup, and she has lived up to that promise.  

However, a puppy is part of a household, changes the whole energy of the house, a lot, almost as much as having a new baby…  

Yet, we can’t help but fall in love with these young creatures…  

And, if we wish a well-behaved dog, we have to start training as puppies…  

Luckily, Melissa’s book came into our lives before Zev.  

The book well outlines the history of behavioral training… 

Highlights BF Skinners work, and, most importantly, the advantages of Karen Pryor’s clicker training.  

Melissa’s book is compelling, with a simple overall message:  

Reward good behavior, IGNORE bad behavior!!!

We don’t always use the clicker.  

We use lots of treats.  

The message is simple, carrying it out is more difficult.  

Humans like to punish.   

I won’t go into the details, read Melissa’s book…  

However, this does not only relate to training animals, this relates to bringing up children, to how we treat prisoners…  

The human obsession with punishment needs to change…  

This is how we can change our society for the better…  

Heretic!  

I love being a Heretic…  

Can’t write as much these days, have a puppy that keeps me busy…  

Oh, to add to being a heretic, as a gun lover, our dog is actually named after a favorite G19 from Zev Industries…  

We tell most people Zev means Wolf in Hebrew…  

We like that too…  

Namaste