Alan Watts – Forget the Money, Do What You Love (Video)

Alan Watts - Forget the Money, Do What You Love (Video) | Third Monk

In this lecture, Alan Watts expertly expresses eastern philosophies that look deeper into the question of what we all want.

We are in a game where we need to earn money for food and shelter, but what if that wasn’t the rule of the game? What if we lived in a society where money didn’t exist, what would get you up in the morning?

Alan Watts – What If Money Were No Object, Speech Transcript

What do you desire?

What makes you itch? What sort of a situation would you like?

Let’s suppose – I do this often in vocational guidance of students. They come to me and say, “Well, uh, we’re getting out of college, and we haven’t the faintest idea of what we want to do.”

So I always ask the question, “What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?”

Well, it’s so amazing. As a result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say, “Well, we’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets, we’d like to be writers. But as everybody knows you can’t earn any money that way.”

Or another person says, “I’d like to live an out-of-doors life and ride horses.”

I said, “Do you want to teach at a riding school? Let’s go through with it. What do you want to do?”

When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do. I will say to him, “you do that, and forget the money.

Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You will be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing. Which is STUPID!

Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.

And after all, if you do really like what your’e doing, it doesn’t matter what it is, you can eventually become a master of it. It’s the only way to become a master of something, to be really with it. And then you’ll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is.

So don’t worry too much. Somebody’s interested in everything. And anything you can be interested in, you’ll find others who are.

But it’s absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like in order to go on doing things you don’t like and to teach your children to follow in the same track. See, what we’re doing is we’re bringing up children, and educating them to live the same sort of lives we’re living in order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing. It’s all wretch and no vomit. It never gets there!

And so therefore it’s so important to consider this question. “What do I desire?”

Shadow Boxing Workout Routine, Tutorial and Examples (Video)

Shadow Boxing Workout Routine, Tutorial and Examples (Video) | Third Monk

Denny the Trainer teaches you the secrets of shadow boxing like a champion. He teaches you foot work, punching techniques and how you can improve posture, agility and flexibility whilst doing shadow boxing training. Shadow boxing can be used as a warm up exercise or a cool down exercise.

Boxing Basics – How To Shadow Box

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT4GflZvEhE Boxing trainer, Brandon Krause explains the basics of proper shadow boxing.

Manny Pacquiao – Shadow Boxing and Footwork

Andre Ward – Shadow Boxing

Buakaw – Muay Thai Shadow Boxing

Bernard Hopkins – Shadow Boxing

Benefits of Cannabis Use By Carl Sagan, Essay Excerpts

Benefits of Cannabis Use By Carl Sagan, Essay Excerpts | Third Monk image 4

Carl Sagan’s essay on cannabis was written in 1969 for publication in Marijuana Reconsidered (1971). Sagan was in his mid-thirties at that time. He continued to use cannabis for the rest of his life. Here are our favorite excerpts that highlight the benefits of cannabis use.

Break On Through to the High Side

I had reached a considerably more relaxed period in my life – a time when I had come to feel that there was more to living than science, a time of awakening of my social consciousness and amiability, a time when I was open to new experiences. I had become friendly with a group of people who occasionally smoked cannabis, irregularly, but with evident pleasure. Initially I was unwilling to partake, but the apparent euphoria that cannabis produced and the fact that there was no physiological addiction to the plant eventually persuaded me to try.

 

Surreal Art

The cannabis experience has greatly improved my appreciation for art, a subject which I had never much appreciated before. The understanding of the intent of the artist which I can achieve when high sometimes carries over to when I’m down. This is one of many human frontiers which cannabis has helped me traverse. There also have been some art-related insights – I don’t know whether they are true or false, but they were fun to formulate. For example, I have spent some time high looking at the work of the Belgian surrealist Yves Tanguy. Some years later, I emerged from a long swim in the Caribbean and sank exhausted onto a beach formed from the erosion of a nearby coral reef. In idly examining the arcuate pastel-colored coral fragments which made up the beach, I saw before me a vast Tanguy painting. Perhaps Tanguy visited such a beach in his childhood.

 

In Tune With Music

A very similar improvement in my appreciation of music has occurred with cannabis. For the first time I have been able to hear the separate parts of a three-part harmony and the richness of the counterpoint. I have since discovered that professional musicians can quite easily keep many separate parts going simultaneously in their heads, but this was the first time for me. Again, the learning experience when high has at least to some extent carried over when I’m down.

 

Enhanced Taste of Food

The enjoyment of food is amplified; tastes and aromas emerge that for some reason we ordinarily seem to be too busy to notice. I am able to give my full attention to the sensation. A potato will have a texture, a body, and taste like that of other potatoes, but much more so.

 

Sex and Weed

Cannabis also enhances the enjoyment of sex – on the one hand it gives an exquisite sensitivity, but on the other hand it postpones orgasm: in part by distracting me with the profusion of image passing before my eyes. The actual duration of orgasm seems to lengthen greatly, but this may be the usual experience of time expansion which comes with cannabis smoking.

 

One Consciousness

I do not consider myself a religious person in the usual sense, but there is a religious aspect to some highs. The heightened sensitivity in all areas gives me a feeling of communion with my surroundings, both animate and inanimate. Sometimes a kind of existential perception of the absurd comes over me and I see with awful certainty the hypocrisies and posturing of myself and my fellow men. And at other times, there is a different sense of the absurd, a playful and whimsical awareness. Both of these senses of the absurd can be communicated, and some of the most rewarding highs I’ve had have been in sharing talk and perceptions and humor.

 

Baking For Social Change

I find that most of the insights I achieve when high are into social issues, an area of creative scholarship very different from the one I am generally known for. I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves. It was a point obvious in a way, but rarely talked about. I drew the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down. One idea led to another, and at the end of about an hour of extremely hard work I found I had written eleven short essays on a wide range of social, political, philosophical, and human biological topics. Because of problems of space, I can’t go into the details of these essays, but from all external signs, such as public reactions and expert commentary, they seem to contain valid insights. I have used them in university commencement addresses, public lectures, and in my books.

 

The Plant or the Bottle

I have mentioned that in the cannabis experience there is a part of your mind that remains a dispassionate observer, who is able to take you down in a hurry if need be. I have on a few occasions been forced to drive in heavy traffic when high. I’ve negotiated it with no difficult at all, though I did have some thoughts about the marvelous cherry-red color of traffic lights. I find that after the drive I’m not high at all. There are no flashes on the insides of my eyelids. If you’re high and your child is calling, you can respond about as capably as you usually do. I don’t advocate driving when high on cannabis, but I can tell you from personal experience that it certainly can be done. My high is always reflective, peaceable, intellectually exciting, and sociable, unlike most alcohol highs, and there is never a hangover. Through the years I find that slightly smaller amounts of cannabis suffice to produce the same degree of high, and in one movie theater recently I found I could get high just by inhaling the cannabis smoke which permeated the theater.

 

We’re Getting There Mr. Sagan

There is a very nice self-titering aspect to cannabis. Each puff is a very small dose; the time lag between inhaling a puff and sensing its effect is small; and there is no desire for more after the high is there. I think the ratio, R, of the time to sense the dose taken to the time required to take an excessive dose is an important quantity. R is very large for LSD (which I’ve never taken) and reasonably short for cannabis. Small values of R should be one measure of the safety of psychedelic drugs. When cannabis is legalized, I hope to see this ratio as one of he parameters printed on the pack. I hope that time isn’t too distant; the illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.

> Mr. X By Carl Sagan (Full Essay on Cannabis) | Marijuana Uses

How to Balance Self-Reliance Over Neediness (Guide)

How to Balance Self-Reliance Over Neediness (Guide) | Third Monk image 1

Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or interaction, for survival. It is therefore a type of personal or collective autonomy.

Codependency is a tendency to behave in overly passive or excessively caretaking ways that negatively impact one’s relationships and quality of life. People with codependency are more likely to attract further abuse from aggressive individuals, more likely to stay in stressful jobs or relationships, less likely to seek medical attention when needed and are also less likely to get promotions and tend to earn less money than those without codependency patterns.

Steps to Balancing Self Reliance

1. Assume Responsibility 

Start taking responsibility for your life and the things in it. Start using a calendar to keep track of your appointments and important due dates. If you make a mistake, own up to it, and try to make it right yourself instead of immediately relying on other people. When a child is able, he, in gratitude to the unselfish care he received for many years from his parents, should begin to transfer his load from their shoulders to his, as soon as he possibly can.

Instead of feeling like life is simply happening to you, you’ll begin to feel like the captain of your destiny and master of your soul. As you assume responsibility for your life, you’ll notice doors open up to new and better opportunities. As the video above puts it, while it’s easy to get by by having other people do everything for you, “the trouble is, when you’re not self-reliant, you’ll never do more than just get by.”

2. Be Informed

Of course in order to take on more responsibilities, you have to know how to carry out those responsibilities. The excuse of ignorance is weak in the age of the internet, with answers to many of life’s questions just a Google search away.

This isn’t to say that you should completely avoid advice from others. There are some problems or decisions Google just can’t help with. You should definitely take advantage of the practical wisdom older people have acquired by asking for their input when making an important decision or trying to solve a problem.

So investigate yourself first; try figuring things out on your own. Experience can be the best teacher. Once you’ve reached a wall, then go seek help. Because you’ve gotten your hands dirty with your issue, so to speak, you’ll be in a better position to ask them effective questions.

In situations where the stakes are high, turn to others sooner rather than later; oftentimes it’s better to learn from the mistakes of others, rather than making them yourself.

Be very observant wherever you go. In this way, you build up a library of information that you can draw upon when making a decision or solving a problem.

3. Know Where You’re Going 

A self-reliant person has goals that are personally setAims should not merely be those things other people think you should do.  The self-reliant person is autonomous and doesn’t overly rely on others to validate a decision. A self-reliant person works with an end in mind, blueprints have been created for the future. When a problem arises, the self reliant person is informed on what an ideal resolution would be and then works to make it a reality. Plans out your weeks and ensure tasks that you’re responsible for are completed.

4. Make Your Own Decisions

Life is actually much easier and a lot less stressful when you proactively make your own decisions.  With any choice or problem you may face, decide on an action plan quickly, and execute it immediately.

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt

Also, while you should certainly seek advice from others to inform your decisions, don’t rely on them to make your decisions for you. It’s your life. Don’t let others live it for you.

> Developing a Self-Reliant Mentality | The Art of Manliness

Endless Daylight and Darkness at the Poles – Midnight Sun and Polar Night Time Lapse (Video)

Endless Daylight and Darkness at the Poles - Midnight Sun and Polar Night Time Lapse (Video) | Third Monk image 3

When the sun gets too stoned, it can forget when to leave or when to show up.

The Midnight Sun Time Lapse – BBC Planet Earth, Pink Floyd

The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at places north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. The midnight sun is visible at the Arctic Circle from June 12 until July 1. The further north one goes the longer this period extends. In “The Midnight Sun”, an episode of The Twilight Zone, the Earth is on a collision course with the sun, causing a midnight sun effect.

The Polar Night Time Lapse

The polar night occurs when the night lasts for more than 24 hours. This occurs only inside the polar circles.

The polar night in Ny-Ålesund (Island of Spitsbergen) lasts from late October to late February, almost four months in total, and this is a collection of almost every time lapse I did during the polar night, several which I have not uploaded before. The last shot of the movie is made on the last day of the polar night, at a mountain south of town. Unfortunately there was too much clouds to see the sun. – The Ny-Ålesund time lapse Chronicles

The concept of a night of almost one month long has been the subject of the vampire movie 30 Days of Night. In this film, the vampires are drawn to the long duration of darkness, allowing them to terrorize the area as they please.

Life Without a Psychedelic Experience is Like Dying a Virgin – Terence Mckenna

Life Without a Psychedelic Experience is Like Dying a Virgin - Terence Mckenna | Third Monk

The idea of someone going from birth to the grave without ever having a psychedelic experience is like someone going from the birth to the grave without ever having a sexual experience. It means you never really played in the game. You were a spectator, a silent witness. It means that you never figured out what it was all about. – Terence McKenna

Sex provides a shared state of mental and physical euphoria, a psychedelic experience provides spiritual euphoria by opening the third eye and destroying all previous judgments and conditioning. Both experiences are necessary for living the story of a stoned ape on planet earth.

Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way Galaxy, Time Lapse (Video)

Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way Galaxy, Time Lapse (Video) | Third Monk

Time lapse video of the Perseid Meteor Shower and the galactic core of the Milky Way as seen from Joshua Tree National Park. Notice a meteor burning up and leaving a cloud of smoke at around the 00:32 second mark.

Summer is the best time to catch glimpses of the galactic center of the Milky Way. The galactic core of the Milky Way was visible after sunset in the South-Southeast direction but the milky way extends completely across the sky from horizon to horizon. It was visible all night long until sun rise.

To see the Milky Way, the ideal time is summer during or around a new moon so that the moon light doesn’t drown it out. Head to a place far away from the pollution of city lights. To photograph the galactic core, I suggest making sure you don’t have a city positioned to the south of your location. Your long exposure will pick up the light from the city.  – Evosia Photography

12 Healthy Snacks for Stoners (Guide)

12 Healthy Snacks for Stoners (Guide) | Third Monk image 13

Hungry but don’t have the time for a full meal? Healthy snacking is the key to speedy metabolism, energy and endurance. Here is a list of healthy snacks that stoners will enjoy:

1. Beef Jerky

Extremely high in protein and low in fat, beef jerky is probably the ultimate stoner snack. Bring your bag of beef jerky to your next smoking session and watch how fast that bag gets passed around. Get them in bulk at a place like Costco because the small bags you get at the gas station can be way overpriced.

2. Fruit Smoothies

Fruit smoothies are the healthiest way to satisfy your sweet tooth. They’re delicious and the nutritional benefits (protein, fiber) of the fruits outweigh all of the sugar used.

3. Breakfast Cereal

Cereal is good for any time of the day but it’s perfect for a midnight snack because it won’t bloat your stomach before you go to sleep. Choose one with lots of fiber and add your favorite fruits and nuts to it for extra benefits. Remember to drink water after because water and fiber are homies.

4. Carrots and Hummus

Combining baby carrots with a dip like hummus is good idea because it’s high in nutrients and will satisfy your hunger. If you love hummus but hate vegetables, use toasted flat bread instead. You won’t get the benefit of a carrot but can still enjoy the protein from the hummus.

5. Tapioca Pudding

If you’re craving something creamy and sweet, go for Tapioca Pudding. It doesn’t really have any health benefits but it keeps the unhealthy ingredients to a minimum.

6. Waffles with Nutella Chocolate

This is the low budget version of stoner dessert favorite, Crepes with Nutella chocolate and sliced bananas. The wheat waffle is healthier than a crepe, providing you with protein and fiber. The chocolate doubles as an antioxidant and aphrodisiac, keeping you healthy and horny.

7. Cashews

Who doesn’t love cashews? You can throw them in almost anything but eating them alone is enough to give you a healthy boost. Eating two handfuls will raise your body’s levels of iron and magnesium.

8. Instant Oatmeal

Oatmeal has a ton of fiber to give you healthy dumps. Top it with berries or banana slices along with some nuts for a mega powerful healthy snack.

9. Protein Bar

When you have to skip a meal, consider a protein bar because there are enough vitamins and nutrients in a protein bar to be a substitute for a meal. We don’t recommend making your daily lunch consist of two protein bars but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

10. Tortilla Chips and Salsa

Get a bag of multi colored tortilla chips, they’re more flavorful than the regular kind. Eating the chips with your favorite salsa provides you with protein and fiber. If you find yourself eating too many, regulate your body with fiber filled fruit like an apple.

11. Frozen Banana Slices

Dice up an overripe banana into slices and freeze them overnight. You can eat them plain as a tasty healthy snack but if you’re really stoned, top them with Nutella chocolate spread or chocolate syrup.

12. Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Upgrade your PJ sandwich by using natural peanut butter which has more protein and none of the extra preservatives that regular peanut butter has. Instead of using jelly from a jar, smash some blackberries, blueberries, or raspberries in between the bread.

Joe Rogan – Cannabis Takes Away Motivation To Do Things That Suck (Video)

Joe Rogan - Cannabis Takes Away Motivation To Do Things That Suck (Video) | Third Monk image 1

Joe Rogan talks about the common misconceptions that people have about cannabis.

Eddie Bravo Converted The Once Anti-Cannabis Joe Rogan

Back in Boston, the real problem was I hung out with a bunch of fucken idiots. The people that I knew that smoked pot were idiots and pot wasn’t helping them. If you got a little low watt brain and you super charge it with fucken jet fuel, you still got a low watt brain. So I associated pot with stupid people but then I meet this genius (Eddie Bravo) and he smokes pot all the time. I’m an open-minded person, and I’m willing to drop all preconceived notions that I have and go “Ok, I’ll try it”. I remember very clearly the day I got high with him. I remember that day going , “Fuuucck!!!” It was like I shot through a cannon and all of a sudden I was on the other side. He was like “Dude, glad to have you over here”. And I’m like “Glad to be over here. I can’t believe I was over there!” Shit, we had ice cream sundaes, I couldn’t believe how good it taste! Millions of new thoughts were just flooding my brain, it was like I was ripping down walls and shit was just flowing in.

joe rogan

The Filipino Bajau People – Nomads Living in the Ocean (Video)

The Filipino Bajau People - Nomads Living in the Ocean (Video) | Third Monk image 1

BBC’s Human Planet explores the seafaring lifestyle of the Bajau, an indigenous ethnic group of Southeast Asia. For most of their history, the Bajau have been a nomadic, seafaring people, living off the sea by trading and subsistence fishing. They keep close to the shore by erecting houses on stilts, and traveled using handmade boats.

Bajau – Nomads of the Sea Photo Gallery