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Of all the exercise supplements that you can get, the one that gives you the most bang for your buck, without an iota of doubt, is the humble sodium bicarbonate, aka baking soda.

The alkalinity / acidity of our body is measured on a pH scale. On this scale, from 1 to 14, 7 is neutral, below 7 is acidic, and above 7 is alkaline.

Our body's ideal pH is around 7.36, on the alkaline side of things. When the body becomes acidic all sorts of health problems develop.

I'll talk first about exercise, then about general health.

Alkalinity and Exercise

When you do exercise that works your muscles they first burn oxygen in the blood stream as fuel. Once you exceed the oxygen carrying capacity of your heart/lungs/blood your muscles turn to anaerobic respiration - literally "breathing without air". Stored reserves are burned in a chemical reaction that releases oxygen for the muscles to use, and also lactic acid. As the acidity in the muscle rises it begins to fatigue. This lactic acid build up is also responsible for muscle soreness and stiffness the day after exercising.

There are two things that will increase your body's ability to stretch - heat and alkalinity.

Drinking sodium bicarbonate helps to keep the acidity of your body down. An intracellular pH buffer like Beta Alanine does the same thing on a really low level, but it's more expensive than sodium bicarb.

Alkalinity and General Health

You can read more on this subject in this article: The pH Equation & Health.

Here's a chart of Acid and Alkaline Foods.

The bottom line is: alkalize to survive.

I can say that with 100% certainty. Let me tell you my own story in this regard. After a lot of research I'm able to describe this to you, and let it be a cautionary tale:

My wife found a lump in her breast, and she didn't do anything about it. She's almost afraid of hospitals and doctors, and it's only with great effort that I'm able to get her to go when it's really necessary.

By the time she told me about it, it had grown significantly, and it was increasing in size at a rapid rate.

What had happened was that due to her diet her body had become very acidic. As a result her body drew the acidity away from her organs by building up cellulite. She then went on a fast from grains. This resulted in her body consuming the cellulite, but drawing the acidity back in.

If you want to lose weight, and especially cellulite, make sure that you alkalize your body, because cellulite is the body's natural defense against an acidic state.

The acidity accumulated in her body tissues, and the breasts are particularly susceptible to this. As a result of the pathologically acidic state a tumor began.

The doctors were not able to describe this to us, but merely told us that we had no choice but for her to undergo surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. I noted that the chart that they used to describe the situation to us had been supplied by a pharmaceutical company, and I also noted that they asked no questions about lifestyle, or showed any inclination to understand, explain, or address the preconditions that had caused the tumor. I also noted that with a small amount of product training I could also sell those products to people coming in to the hospital.

We went out and did the research instead. Yes, there are conflicting opinions and experiences out there on the net, but it's just a matter of reading through hundreds, or even thousands of them, and picking up the patterns.

That's what we did, and alkalinity/acidity came out as the common factor.

We switched to an alkalizing diet and lifestyle, juicing greens hourly, eating alkalizing foods, and dropping acidic foods.

The result was that the tumor stopped growing completely.

One of the easiest and most powerful ways to alkalize your body is by drinking alkaline water. You can get pH strips at a health food store and test the water you drink. We found that the bottled water supply that we were using was actually slightly acidic. By adding a small amount of sodium bicarbonate to it you can make it alkaline.

You can use pH strips to figure out how much to use, but I do it by taste - just enough to make the water taste "mellow". Param Satya overdid it (as she is apt to do) and her face broke out with a rash due to excessive alkalinity. You'll figure it out.

Sodium bicarb ftw!

A recent zdnet article IT ethics and the recession examined the ethics of IT workers in three countries. The punch line: a large percentage of folks surveyed would steal confidential company data in the event of layoff rumors. The results are fairly ugly, painting a negative picture of ethics in the workplace.

What this demonstrates is that for many people ethics are situational, that is to say: ethical behaviour is acceptable when it produces a desired result. When desired results and ethical behaviour diverge, ethical behaviour goes out the window, and chasing results by whatever means necessary becomes the modus operandi.

These people are not Doing the Right Thing(tm) under normal circumstances. They are Pretending to Do the Right Thing. That their actions are ethical under normal circumstances is a matter of convenience - it's an appearance only. Their underlying orientation and attachment to the material outcomes of action is the cause of sinful behaviour.

A devotee performs his or her actions as a means of pleasing the Supreme Lord. That is the single motivation for action ("one-pointed intelligence"). Thus their commitment to right action (dharma) is unaffected by the "good" and "bad" results that may or may not eventuate. Those with irresolute intelligence are chasing many different goals (in terms of the results of activities - different material outcomes). They will modify their actions and misalign themselves with dharma if they perceive that it will allow them to achieve their goals.

The Right Thing to Do is always the right thing to do.
- Dr. John C. Maxwell

Always choose the hard right over the easy wrong
- Andy Stanley

Related posts:
The Right Thing
The Right Thing Part 2

Conch.

Consciousness.

Environment? Dark. Pre-dawn. It must be before 4 am. Conch outside the house? I hope not. If the conch, it means Param Satya is outside the house, instead of in bed downstairs. An airhorn maybe? One that sounds like a conch? A stretch.

Conch.

Conch in the temple means arati. Conch outside means something very different: War.

A window shatters outside. Voices are raised and in conflict. Heart rate increases. Is that our car? Adrenaline hits the bloodstream. Body surges up, mind focuses to a single point: no matter, what is done is done, what is about to be done has to be done with full focused attention.

Searching for my glasses. Not there. Curses! Deviation from routine leads to dangerous vulnerability.

Abandon the search for glasses. Lights. Check time. 2.55 am. Outside pants? On the railing. Retrieve them. Glasses nearby. No shirt - if application of force is required appearing with no shirt will be a greater deterrent.

Outside. No movement near our car. Voices across the road. Param Satya is there. Approach at an angle, stand off and assess.

Two people, both disturbed. Listen to the tones of voice, look for the posture of the body. No immediate threat. Don't go in, because with no shirt on and adrenaline in the bloodstream it will raise the intensity.

Situation seems stable. Another neighbour appears. Christopher, an older man. He reminds me of Bhagavat Asraya. He reassures the couple and together he and Param Satya work with them to resolve their situation. The girls feet and hand are cut from broken glass. She is drunk and distressed. The guy is rapidly sobering, and embarrassed.

Return to the house and put on a shirt and hooded jacket. Watch from the shadows.

They go back inside. We return to the house. 3.30 am.

Happiness in the mode of ignorance is nectar in the beginning and poison in the end. When you trace the chain of action and reaction back from your suffering you find that it directly connects with your proactive attempt to create enjoyment.

"Don't worry," Param Satya told her. "When you've been married for twenty years you'll look back at this and laugh."

Reassuring, perhaps, but I am more cynical. Statistically it is unlikely that they will marry, or remain married for 20 years if they do. And then, I would be more likely to cringe than laugh looking back at it.

Social destruction.

www.foodmatters.tv

FLUORIDATED water will begin flowing from Brisbane taps in December after a deluge of publicity to convince consumers the water is safe.

Consumers in the greater Brisbane area and Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast will be the first to drink the treated water forced on them by the State Government.

- Brisbane to get fluoridated tap water in December, Courier-Mail, July 3, 2008

This in spite of the conclusions of the Lord Mayor's Taskforce:

A small majority of Taskforce members (52%) stated that they were opposed to the fluoridation of Brisbane’s water supply. A significant proportion of members (23%) who had initially been supportive of fluoridation had changed their opinion to opposition by the end of the Taskforce process.
...
Many Taskforce members were unconvinced by assurances that serious risks to health were negligible or non-existent. In particular, there was concern about ambiguous scientific evidence of an association between water fluoridation and higher levels of hip fracture.

- THE LORD MAYOR’S TASKFORCE ON FLUORIDATION BRISBANE CITY, AUSTRALIA. FINAL REPORT

My commentary:

What knucklehead drinks tap water anyway?

This post is about Ethics from Bhagavad-gita.

If you scanned the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita looking for the verse where Krishna explains the difference between "Doing the Right Thing" and "Pretending to Do the Right Thing" you were probably surprised when you couldn't find it.

I scanned it and I couldn't find it. I could, however, remember writing about it in a commentary on the second chapter that I wrote while I was in Ecuador in 2001, pre-9/11.

I dug around and found it - it's old school, written on paper with a pen.

Here's the relevant section, picking up from 2.37:

2001 "Ecuador" Gita Commentary

Krishna has now redirected Arjuna's compassion to the spiritual platform, removing the conflict between this and Arjuna's duty. He has at once validated Arjuna's compassion (2.11) and his varnashram duty.

Krishna then proceeds to demonstrate that there is no conflict between varnashram duty and material enjoyment, as Arjuna had presented. Arjuna's presentation was more the product of his compassion, an attempt to justify his not fighting on other terms than a serious analysis of the situation, as revealed by the exchange in 2.2-2.4. Krishna has now finished with that presentation. "Even if you are after enjoyment, following your duty is the way to get it, so fight"

In text 38, Krishna answers Arjuna's concern about incurring sinful reactions for his actions. The answer lies not in some pop notion of sin, based on sentimentality, but in performing one's duty in a particular state of consciousness - without calculation such as Arjuna has made [ed: emphasis added 2009]. Krishna has shown that varnashram duty is not incompatible with either compassion or material enjoyment, the two objections that Arjuna raised. Now he is signalling that sinful activity arises when one makes calculations which, due to a lack of knowledge, contradict one's duty and thus one deviates from his dharma [ed: emphasis added 2009]. In order to avoid this, one should simply carry out his duty without considerations of factors.

Note that this does not advocate blind following. Krishna has demonstrated the superiority of dharma over Arjuna's faulty calculations in this specific case, and now he lets it be known that this is also the general rule.

Although here it is not stated whether one receives sinful reactions simply by carrying out one's duty in a calculative fashion, or by calculating one inevitably deviates from his duty, Krishna will explain this in the balance of the chapter* [ed: see the 2009 commentary on this point, below]. This calculating mentality arises from attachment to the results.

2.39: "O Arjuna - thus far I have minutely analyzed the situation according to so many constituent factors (sankhya), and the conclusion is that you should fight. Now I will give you the general rule, the holistic approach that does not rely on specific factors, and which produces the same result. I have proved the specific case, now I will give the general rule."

or

"I have explained this in an analysis that relied on your material desires. Now I will explain it in terms of an approach that does not rely on your material desires, and that allows you to become free from the reaction of activity"

Summary and Analysis of Krishna's Instructions on Buddhi-Yoga

In this section Krishna is doing two things - he is instructing Arjuna in how one can follow his dharma without being deviated, or in other words without incurring sin. He also answers Arjuna's deeper concern: the fact that the promise of sense gratification in the heavenly planets is no longer sufficient to keep him on the path of dharma. Due to this, Arjuna requires a higher consideration to motivate him, and Krishna explains how the two are one - it is precisely the attachment to the fruitive results promised by the Vedas as an inducement to follow dharma that leads one to the calculative mentality that inevitably causes one to deviate. Without coming to the crisis point Arjuna has come to, one cannot discover the true purpose of dharma.

In other words, Arjuna has tired of karma, and through speculative knowledge (jnana) was seeking to renounce action.

2.41 Those working with resolute intelligence have only one goal - to discharge their duty. Those with irresolute intelligence have many goals in terms of the different superficial results of their duties. They are attached to the results, not to the duty. Thus when duty and a desired result diverge, they deviate from dharma.

* Some 2009 commentary on Motivation and Sin

I now have a thought about whether sin is incurred when following dharma with a calculative mentality, or attachment to the result. I think it is.

I have a thought experiment for you, arising from two things that I've studied since 2001. One is the compulsory ethics training that all employees, associates and managers alike, at my work must take each year. This year we had a module named "International Bribery and Corruption". It was quite a laugh to receive a certificate in this subject. The other thing is Transparency International's "Confronting Corruption: The Elements of a National Integrity System"

Anyway, think about this scenario:

You work in an office where vehicle registrations are issued. The cost of a vehicle registration is officially $100, but due to rampant corruption officials in the registry are able to charge $150 or more. You routinely charge people higher than the standard price.

I don't think that anyone has trouble identifying this as corrupt behavior.

One day your friend comes in. Rather than charge him $150 you charge him $100. Is that a corrupt action?

YES. Although you are charging him the official amount, your action is part of a pattern of corrupt behavior, where you preferentially treat personal friends. Therefore this action, while appearing to conform with official standards, is also corrupt.

That sentence above is the kind of explanatory sentence that will appear after you answer the multichoice yes/no in the online ethics training.

I've thought a lot about this, and right now I think this is correct. The person charging $100 to a friend is not Doing the Right Thing. They are Pretending to Do the Right Thing. There is a difference, and it is noted by the universe.

The inverse of this example / thought experiment is also illustrative: you are a sheriff who lets his friend get away with murder. Then when you are punishing some other criminal you are still not Doing the Right Thing, you're just Pretending to Do the Right Thing. Again, your pattern of behavior is corrupt, and this action is part of that pattern.

The terrible thing about this is that in a corrupted system all actions are essential corrupt, even those that superficially appear to be the Right Thing. If the fundamentals are askew, it is not possible to Do the Right Thing, ever. Thus we have personalities like Duryodhana, who, even while superficially appearing to follow dharma, are completely deviated.

Today I struggled like a little girl in the Bikram class. Actually, girls are quite flexible, and I'm not, so I'm using that as a manly metaphor for having difficulty.

Last night I slept 7 hours, from 11pm - 6am. I went to bed so late because I waited up for Adam to arrive from Sydney, and then had prasadam with him and Prem, Vraj, and Josh.

The night before I also slept 7 hours, but from 7.30pm - 2.30am. And that day I did two classes, back-to-back, like I was drinking a glass of water.

The conclusion? As any Ayurvedi will tell you - the hours before midnight are worth twice those after in terms of sleep.

Maha-mantra wrote me a while back with this gem:

Oil massage is medicine for the vata body type,
Exercise for the pita body,
and Sleep for the Kapha.

My body type is a combination of pita and kapha, so I need to do hard exercise and sleep. My New Year's Resolution for 2009 is to get more quality sleep. Pretty spiritual, huh?

There is a subtle but important difference between someone who is doing the Right Thing(tm), and someone who is pretending to do the Right Thing.

Someone doing the Right Thing because it's the Right Thing is really doing the Right Thing.

Someone doing the Right Thing because it's the convenient thing is pretending to the Right Thing.

In fact, they are really doing the Convenient Thing.

Krishna explains this to Arjuna in the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita. (more after harinam...)

We should not pray for good health, rather we should work dutifully to maintain the body we have been given, and accept what happens as the Lord's mercy upon us.

With respect to the body our prayer should be that the Lord's will be done to our body and through our body.

There is a difference between thinking of your body, and thinking you are your body.

The right type of bodily consciousness is favorable to sustained devotional service.