In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Airport Scanners - PHAIM!

In the new "full-body" scanners they're putting in at some U.S. airports, including Seattle and Houston (which we flew through to Brazil and back), they have you stand with you feet on your mark, (like in a play), and put your hands up above your head in the mudra (hand gesture) of PHAIM familiar to Vajrayogini practitioners!

Even though i have a port (aka "port-a-cath" - it's a port and a catheter, which means they can put fluids in and take them out) in my upper chest, and small plates and screws in my head (to hold a bit of my skull in place), I don't set off any airport screening devices because they're all made of titanium. Every cancer patient I've ever heard of who has a port loves it. My Mom also had one that she liked.

I've heard that the individual pat-downs they give you now can be very invasive - and that the scans are quite revealing. You can read more about that in lots of places. I don't want to turn this into a political blog. I will point out that there's better technology - developed by a U.S. company! - but so far only used abroad that is effective but less invasive: U.S. body-scan technology used by Dutch is better than ours.
And in searching for info on that, I found this piece, which made me laugh: "German body scanner protesters remove clothes at airport"- video too.

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