What's your guilty pleasure? - Not wine, meat, or illicit activities...

Aside from actual illicit activities that might be against your religion, what is your favorite guilty pleasure and why?

Examples might be bad tv, too many milk sweets, playing computer games, romance novels, body building magazines, mysteries, collecting odd knicknacks...the classic time or money wasters or health impairing activities.

(I thought it was time for another light topic.)

I'll fess up...

When the whole reality tv craze hit I was horrified, and quickly swore I would never feed into it by becoming hooked myself. Well, pass the ketchup, I'm about to eat my words.

I now regularly watch Wife Swap, on ABC Wednesday nights. (A similar show is on Monday nights on FOX network, but I have to draw the line somewhere.)

Why am I hooked?

Well, instead of the tawdry affairs, disgusting foods or back-stabbing competitions of other reality shows, Wife Swap is about families confronting another family's culture. It appeals to the anthropologist in me, as well as the feminist.

What they do is take two families, and switch Moms. (Although once they did swap Dads.) She arrives at the other home alone, and has time to look around by herself and read a manual that the other Mom prepared for her. For the first week she must live by the rules of her new home. She must do everything the way the other Mom would. For the second week, she gets to change the rules. In fact, it looks like the producers really encourage or even require that she really make them live like her family would, rather than go easy on them or only slightly change their routine. Of course, we see how things go in the other household as well.

As an Anthro-major I already knew that our families are little micro-cultures within our larger culture. In America the differences in family style may even be more extreme than in other countries, I don't know. It is fascinating to see who they put together and what the reactions and judgments are. As those of us who joined a temple know, when you go into an environment where even the most basic things are done differently, you experience culture shock.

It's also fascinating to see how some people really live. I didn't believe people really lived on meat and junk food (with zero vegetables) until I saw it. And you can't pass up the chance to watch the casual vegetarian meditators take on the super meat eating clean-freaks. Will that vegetarian Mom actually make meat balls? Ew! And how about the sports and fitness fanatics versus the junk fooditarian couch potatoes?

And then, the highlight is on what the Mom does for the family, even if she works outside the home. They certainly do appreciate her more when she comes back!

Finally, they see if each family took away something positive or changed something as a result. Sometimes that is pretty cool, and sometimes they can't wait to get rid of all traces of the other family's way of living.

I am still pretty embarrassed to be watching any form of reality TV but I can't stop watching this program.

Ok, my dirty little secret is out. What's yours? Or are you going to let me have the humiliation all to myself?

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...

My most destructive sinful activity is computer gaming. (Destructive to me, I mean. At least potentially, for I didn't make me agressive and didn't cause epileptic fits so far, on the other hand, I learned written English.

)

The other one is that I love fires and pyrotechnics. I'm very careful not to set ablaze anything, and don't burn plastics to avoid too much environmental damage. I made firecrackers from matches and such.

(On New Year, there is a tradition in Hungary to use "real" firecrackers in great quantity, and so did I. There was a possibility for an interesting experiment: there was too boxes of firecrackers, and I offered the contains of one of the boxes to Radha-Krishna - and it seemed to enhance the voice and light of the explosion.

)

The third is that I'm lazy and disorderly.

Besides these, I'm fairly sinless.

omg i cant believe you watch that show wife swap thats the best show ever, i know exactly which episodes your talking about, like the one about the overpunctual clean freak vs the meditating inter-racials that was on just last week, though it was a repeat. Seriously it's the best show ever I stumbled upon it one day and i was like hahaha what is this, then went online to tell some people to turn on the tv immediately and one of the people was like: are u talking about wife swap? thats the best show! and i was shocked because this person doesnt watch these things, but he is now always talking about this show. And now yet another person. Sure it's pretty formulaic and they seem to be always pitting vegetarians vs meat eaters together and it seems every show a wife bursts out crying, but who cares, i still say its the best show ever haha

Uuh, my vice is shopping. I am no compulsive shopper and I buy things that I need and use, but isn't it amazing how our needs expand as soon as we get a little more money on our hands. I do have shopping buddies.

I also read women's magazines (fashion, celebrity gossip, pop psychology, pop music) but only in Dutch. It is so hilarious, and the language is half English anyway. Pure entertainment.

I have no TV subscription and can receive only the two state channels. The children watch the children's programs on the second one which are excellent. I have never watched a single reality show, Big Brother, Friends, Sex and the City or ER or the local soaps. I like nature programs and interesting films, otherwise TV bores me or gets on my nerves. It seems that my years in the temple unhooked me from watching TV permanently.

I have a weakness for old James Bond movies, esp. the ones with Sean Connery. I started watching them to keep company to my husband, but came to like them a lot.

I have also amassed fitness DVD's, but am using them quite religiously. But if I am honest, I think I have two times more than I need. But you know, having many doesn't do any harm, otherwise you get bored and stopped working out.

One more I forgot: I like to watch European football (soccer), but only the elite competitions like the Champions League, European Cup and World Cup.

Actually, just about any interest I share with my brother. Usually bad movies, bad tv, anime & comic books. I think its half the medium, and half bonding with my brother (we are close in age & get along great). Nothing I love more than talking 'shop' on the above things with my bro. Visiting a local comic shop with him is just such a great time... even if we don't buy anything...

As for personal guilty pleasures, I have to be a bit more specific. Shaw's Brothers Kung Fu movies. Preferably from the 70's, and the wackier the better. BTW, I happen to know I am not the only person on this board sharing this particular pleasure

[Edit to add more]
Grr... ok, I have to add more

English football & European rally racing. Football somewhat obsessively, rally racing whenever I get a chance to watch (not shown that much in the States...)

Well, first of all, I don't have any pleasures that I feel guilty of or feel in any way contradict my spiritual understandings but I feel this question is more about pleasures defined outside of our spiritual traditions.

I love to play golf, hit golf balls at the driving range or golf whiffle balls in my yard. Verily that which is Narayana, the elan vital, goes through me and into the golf ball as it soars into the heavens. Golf is very much a yoga for me and Bhagger Vance is my caddy. I as well watch it on tv. And yes, I am doing the Bharat Varsha correct thing and so am a big fan of Vijaya Singh.

As for the "reality" tv that has become quite the trend both in the secular world and too, here in the Vaisnava world (well, at least according to some of the posts I've read here), I watch some of that too. I thought the show with those Amish folks was cool. I thought it was great how they visited the Iskcon temple in L.A. on one of their excursions but wow did I laugh when the devotee was explaining how the personal form of God as the highest as the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Boy, did he get the teachings of Mahaprabhu wrong. Mahaprabhu was all about the Light.

But last but not least, my greatest of joys is upon awakening in my cottage which is a beautiful 18th century trapper's home in the Catskill Mountains at present piled high and deep in snow, getting the woodstove cranked up to get some warmth flowing and sitting in the heat's wake with my partner enyoying a hot cup of joe. Can anyone smell the coffee brewing?

moved to another thread

I love sailing but I dont feel guilty about it

I do feel guilty about watching too much TV... it is such a waste of time and so little actual pleasure. It is more like a disease or addiction of sorts

I guess my guilty pleasures are eating and sleeping: I am actually quite tamasic.

-/[

I can't think of any pleasures I would feel guilty of, but well some that make me self-conscious. That I feel it would be better if I cut down on.

So... (takes a deep breath): the love-hate relationship I have with my acne. My skin is a real trip, and my compulsive squeezing it hardly makes it any better. I should just stop, throw away the mirror, and do it professionally myself or at a beauty salon once a fortnight or so. Instead I walk around looking as if I was getting first symptoms of some deadly extra-terrestrial infection...

Then, like Indranila, shopping. Clothes, of course. As a Pole I am deeply conditioned into monitoring shops every time I pass by; still haven't learned that if the object of my dreams at all exists, it will be in many shops for most of the time; and if it doesn't, then it won't, ever. (Sweden is full of ugly outfits, let me tell you.) Plus Sweden has seasonal sales. I have a pastime of checking out several shops on my way from school, finding real cheap things, trying them on, thinking deeply, then buying nothing and walking out of the shop an hour later feeling victorious and proud that I am so thrifty.

As for TV, I watch mostly news. I share Indranila's experience of being permanently unhooked by ISKCON from watching TV. Ek and I on Friday night, scrutinizing the weekend's TV program, is a sorry sight. We really want to watch TV and enjoy. But we find nothing watchable! Scandal!

I would just as soon nobody mentioned too many milk sweets, but as long as we are being otherwise open and honest...

My favorite guilty pleasure is solving crossword puzzles. If I don't do one every day, I start going into withdrawal. I've done them long enough that it doesn't waste much time, but every once in a while, while working one, I can hear the little voice in the back of my head saying things like "prajalpa" and "pilgrimage place for crows".

Over the years, I've learned to limit myself to one a day, which conveniently is how they're served up on the web. My favorite (free, of course) is the Canoe crossword, but don't blame me if you waste a lot of time working crosswords instead of making spiritual advancement because you clicked on the link.

Actually, working crosswords is enough a part of my personality that I feel obliged now that it has come to light to edit my profile to include it.

Dandavats,

Lancer

QUOTE(DharmaChakra @ Feb 2 2005, 04:18 AM)

Actually, just about any interest I share with my brother. Usually bad movies, bad tv, anime & comic books. I think its half the medium, and half bonding with my brother (we are close in age & get along great). Nothing I love more than talking 'shop' on the above things with my bro. Visiting a local comic shop with him is just such a great time... even if we don't buy anything...

As for personal guilty pleasures, I have to be a bit more specific. Shaw's Brothers Kung Fu movies. Preferably from the 70's, and the wackier the better. BTW, I happen to know I am not the only person on this board sharing this particular pleasure

[Edit to add more]
Grr... ok, I have to add more

English football & European rally racing. Football somewhat obsessively, rally racing whenever I get a chance to watch (not shown that much in the States...)

Oh, I am sure I saw some of those movies. My first husband was into martial arts. I remember one that was so funny, it was dubbed by Southern American accented actors and these formal looking Chinese guys would open their mouth...and sound like they stepped out of Georgia. We were howling.

I don't remember the title, just the accents.

QUOTE(Lancer @ Feb 2 2005, 11:51 AM)

I would just as soon nobody mentioned too many milk sweets, but as long as we are being otherwise open and honest...

My favorite guilty pleasure is solving crossword puzzles. If I don't do one every day, I start going into withdrawal. I've done them long enough that it doesn't waste much time, but every once in a while, while working one, I can hear the little voice in the back of my head saying things like "prajalpa" and "pilgrimage place for crows".

Over the years, I've learned to limit myself to one a day, which conveniently is how they're served up on the web. My favorite (free, of course) is the Canoe crossword, but don't blame me if you waste a lot of time working crosswords instead of making spiritual advancement because you clicked on the link.

Actually, working crosswords is enough a part of my personality that I feel obliged now that it has come to light to edit my profile to include it.

Dandavats,

Lancer

Well you could dovetail this propensity by creating some transcendental cross word puzzles

Maybe others would join you and you could trade them back and forth.

QUOTE(Tapati @ Feb 2 2005, 12:53 PM)

QUOTE(Lancer @ Feb 2 2005, 11:51 AM)

I would just as soon nobody mentioned too many milk sweets, but as long as we are being otherwise open and honest...

My favorite guilty pleasure is solving crossword puzzles. If I don't do one every day, I start going into withdrawal. I've done them long enough that it doesn't waste much time, but every once in a while, while working one, I can hear the little voice in the back of my head saying things like "prajalpa" and "pilgrimage place for crows".

Over the years, I've learned to limit myself to one a day, which conveniently is how they're served up on the web. My favorite (free, of course) is the Canoe crossword, but don't blame me if you waste a lot of time working crosswords instead of making spiritual advancement because you clicked on the link.

Actually, working crosswords is enough a part of my personality that I feel obliged now that it has come to light to edit my profile to include it.

Dandavats,

Lancer

Well you could dovetail this propensity by creating some transcendental cross word puzzles

Maybe others would join you and you could trade them back and forth.

Well, there's dovetailing, and then there's dovetailing. Working (or creating) crossword puzzles is really not something you want to encourage me to spend more time on, because that slippery slope into full-blown maya is just so steep.

For now, I focus all of my dovetailing efforts on honoring milk sweet prasadam.

No, I take that back. I'm really not that focused a person. I'll honor pretty much any prasadam, milk sweet or not. But "there's always room for the portly king".

Dandavats,

Lancer

sorry my dial-up freaked out

I like spy & political thriller movies such Bond, some Tom Clancy stuff. As long as it has plot twists and turns, gunbattles, fast cars, and allows me to zone-out thouroughly and forget whatever else I could be doing to be a more productive, well-rounded individual.

I plant chili peppers every spring. I don't feel guilty about that though. I am planning to expand this year into herbs, since my stomach can't take the heat like it used to.

I go every month or so to the shooting range with a friend and hone my marksman skills which are not too shabby, I must say. Ammunition isn't cheap so I do feel a little guilty about that one. It's a bit of a silly thing to do, but I've been doing it since I was a young lad.

Most of all I like to travel, and have been fortunate to do much of that, though with a small child now it is not as easy as it used to be.

QUOTE(angrezi @ Feb 3 2005, 03:21 AM)

I plant chili peppers every spring. I don't feel guilty about that though.

Oh, there are lots of pleasures I don't feel guilty about. I do feel guilty for helping to support the whole reality tv trend in general. A show here or there may be ok, but the sum total ends up being a lot of garbage on TV. It crowds out the quality shows (and yes, there are some) that cost more than reality TV to make.

I love reading science fiction, no guilt there, and listening to music, enjoying nature, and I've been known to plant a chili pepper or two. Alas the slugs got to them first.

I can't get to sleep at night without hearing what my wife and I call Stories.... which are Old Time Radio shows from the 40's - 50's ... particularly the SCARY ones.

(& my wife listens to Howard Stern

)

I fill my japa mala bag up with sweet rice and take a slurp when no one is looking.

QUOTE

I fill my japa mala bag up with sweet rice and take a slurp when no one is looking.

Every once in a while you just crack me up, babu!

Dhyana wrote:

QUOTE

(Sweden is full of ugly outfits, let me tell you.)

I know! In Belgium there is more variety, there are also French, Dutch and Spanish clothes chains here, while in Sweden you have to be happy with H&M, Kappah and Lindex. Actually now that I think about it, it was in ISKCON that I developed a passion for clothes, I had well too many saris. Before I joined I was a jeans and T-shirt girl. In ISKCON I grew my hair long and became ladylike.

I also like to give money to street musicians. I do feel a bit guilty about it because I gave nothing for the tsunami or for Jagat's trip to India.

And I collect straw animals. And that's about all.

QUOTE(babu @ Feb 2 2005, 05:40 PM)

I fill my japa mala bag up with sweet rice and take a slurp when no one is looking.

I'm curious, do you kick your beads out or do they take a milk bath?

QUOTE(Indranila @ Feb 3 2005, 02:09 AM)

Dhyana wrote:

QUOTE

(Sweden is full of ugly outfits, let me tell you.)

I know! In Belgium there is more variety, there are also French, Dutch and Spanish clothes chains here, while in Sweden you have to be happy with H&M, Kappah and Lindex. Actually now that I think about it, it was in ISKCON that I developed a passion for clothes, I had well too many saris. Before I joined I was a jeans and T-shirt girl. In ISKCON I grew my hair long and became ladylike.

I also like to give money to street musicians. I do feel a bit guilty about it because I gave nothing for the tsunami or for Jagat's trip to India.

And I collect straw animals. And that's about all.

I am sad about my wardrobe, which is jeans and t shirts right now, and not very many of those. My problem is that I don't want to spare my book money for clothes. I almost wish my friends would nominate me for that show What Not To Wear just so I could buy a decent wardrobe with money I am only allowed to spend on clothes. In the meantime, I just have to buy more books.

I sent my nicest silk sari, purchased for a wedding I was a part of, to Sri Lanka. I fantasize that some woman who has lost everything will be given a package with this sari and be cheered up, if even for a brief moment. It had gold jari and beads on it. I paid $125.00 for it (this is the sari I was given a discount of $50.00 for having been a devotee). I had no where to wear it anyway.

Radhe!

on festivity days i make a mala of 108 gulap jamuns, bind them together and eat them after chanting gulap-gayatri on each of the balls.

hmmm, my gulit-pleasures..

1) computer-stuff (hardware). i am a performance -freak...
2) burning some DVD-moviez ( like The Big Lebowski, ...)
3) listening to Coheed and Cambria-songs.
4) overeating

maybe more pop-up in my junky mind later.

QUOTE(Tapati @ Feb 3 2005, 11:11 AM)

QUOTE(babu @ Feb 2 2005, 05:40 PM)

I fill my japa mala bag up with sweet rice and take a slurp when no one is looking.

I'm curious, do you kick your beads out or do they take a milk bath?

Do you mean "lick my beads?" Yes, one can really taste the nectar of the holy name.

QUOTE(Satyabhama @ Feb 3 2005, 04:09 AM)

QUOTE

I fill my japa mala bag up with sweet rice and take a slurp when no one is looking.

Every once in a while you just crack me up, babu!

Hopefully when we go back to God's head, while they are making living arrangements for the newcomers, we can request our cottages will be close together so we can tell jokes whenever we get a chance.

I eat more prasadam than I should but the real pleasure for me is coffee. I dont drink tons of it but I like to wake up with it and have another at school to wake me up before Java class around 1pm.

QUOTE(angrezi @ Feb 2 2005, 05:51 PM)

I go every month or so to the shooting range with a friend and hone my marksman skills which are not too shabby, I must say. Ammunition isn't cheap so I do feel a little guilty about that one.

he he... I eliminated the guilt part by reloading my own ammo

if you happen to visit Prabhupada Village we can squeeze off a few (hundred?) rounds in a local ravine...

we have a tv and I am always trying to reduce the amount I watch...this has been a struggle for me even before trying to become a devotee. I do like watching the news...I like to keep informed...but the two channels I can't give up yet are T.V. Land and Cartoon Network. I am addicted to cartoons, my favorites are The Grimm Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Power Puff Girls, and all old Warner Brothers well, about anything pre 1985... I also idulge by watching the Adult Swim cartoons late at night before my wife impatiently asks "Are you ready for stories yet?"

Another Vice of mine is sugar cereals (like to eat while watching my cartoons) like Cap'n Crunchberries.... (unoffered, of course)

QUOTE(Kulapavana @ Feb 3 2005, 07:41 AM)

QUOTE(angrezi @ Feb 2 2005, 05:51 PM)

I go every month or so to the shooting range with a friend and hone my marksman skills which are not too shabby, I must say. Ammunition isn't cheap so I do feel a little guilty about that one.

he he... I eliminated the guilt part by reloading my own ammo

if you happen to visit Prabhupada Village we can squeeze off a few (hundred?) rounds in a local ravine...

I actually enjoy shooting as well. I just can't afford to do it very often.

QUOTE(babu @ Feb 3 2005, 06:35 AM)

QUOTE(Satyabhama @ Feb 3 2005, 04:09 AM)

QUOTE

I fill my japa mala bag up with sweet rice and take a slurp when no one is looking.

Every once in a while you just crack me up, babu!

Hopefully when we go back to God's head, while they are making living arrangements for the newcomers, we can request our cottages will be close together so we can tell jokes whenever we get a chance.

I am so glad I started this topic (I hesitated to) just to see sweet exchanges like this.

I think having fun together helps when we often discuss such weighty issues in other topics.

..

I will say that my one is music and books.

QUOTE(Tamal Baran das @ Feb 4 2005, 04:19 AM)

I will say that my one is music and books.

Tamal Braanji, I sure hope you're talking about bhajans and sastra!

Just kidding, I'm the same with music and books. Oh yes, and world politics. Specifically US foreign policy and Nazism.

One of my (guilty) pleasures is reading Istagosthi, and here's why:

QUOTE

Kalisurfer writes:

Originally posted by jumbo777:
Let's imagine Vaisnavism in the future being actually the leading religion in the world!
How do you see it in your particular country?
In terms of temples- politics-agriculture-and the rest?

I see total economic chaos in the United States for a while. The sale of pants, underwear and leather shoes would plummet drastically, as all the men would be wearing dhotis, brahmin underwear and flip flops. Wal-Mart of course would survive, for they would have the best deals on Sari’s, mainly because their sweatshops in Asia would be able to meet the demand. Your visit to Wal-Mart’s would be greeted at the door by a pukka looking retired devotee shouting a hearty ‘Hari Bol, Prabhu, tilak on sale on isle 5’! Of course there would be a controversy about them selling tilak, for they buy in bulk and the shores of Ganges and Yamuna would be totally dug out and depleted, causing a shortage that would break out as scandal on the CBS Sunday108 Minutes news program hosted by PrajalpaSpeaker and Bhakta Morley Shafer. Due to the tilak shortage, a scandal was created when it was learned that Wal-Mart was substituting clay from the Mississippi river and calling it pure tilak!

McDonalds and Burger King would suffer until they discovered that mouth watering special veggie patty full of ghee that fits perfectly on a soft sesame seed bun. Budweiser would start making fizzy water juice drinks and survive, but most breweries would go out of business. Slaughterhouses would be burned down and replaced with soy processing plants, as PETA would start protesting the sorry state of soybean treatment. Restaurants would serve all food from plastic buckets and you would have to eat with plastic utensils on paper plates everywhere you ate.

Detroit goes under because no one buys cars anymore, but all the newly declared sudras make a killing as ricksaw drivers and of course GM makes a huge ricksaw called a HamsaHummer that needs 28 poor sudra’s in combat boots to pull it.

Of course Cows could roam the streets of all towns and cities freely, causing a boom in street cleaners collecting the magical cow pies that now where gathered and marketed by Proctor and Gamble as the new revolution in cleaning and purifying agents used in Mr. Clean and Tide products. Of course there would be no more toilet paper, although paper mills would do OK due to every household having a full set of Bhagavatams, but those poor souls making toilet seats would be out of business in no time.

Politically speaking, not much changed. You still had blue and red states dividing the nation between conservative fundamentalist vaisnavas and the more liberal left wing vaisnavas. The ritvics and reformers joined with ISKCON in forming an alliance against the tree hugging, homosexual loving, new age liberals who kept getting only 49% of the popular vote. The President of the United States, Jayadeva dasa (formerly known as Jeb Bush) won the tight election of 2008 by carrying his home state of Florida, although they were reported voting irregularities in the Alachua County. President dasa caused a stir by declaring war on Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and anything New Age, although finding strong allies in fundamentalist Christian camps.

Book distributors on city streets go stir crazy, for everyone already has all the books, while Christmas is cancelled for there is no more need for marathons, and whose birthday was it anyway?

Women of course are not heard from anymore except for child rearing, deity sewing and cooking. It is reported that some can be seen way back in the temple room, but that is just a rumor. But there are alarming reports of an underground movement of Goddess worshipping warriors started by a Tapati dasi out west. Kasatriya homeland security forces are now looking into this phenomenon as this could pose as a huge roadblock for the total testosterone domination of the global United GBC (once known as the United Nations).

Istagosti.com buys out Time Warner/AOL and Darwin and Tony become vaisnava media moguls. Darwin was last seen driving around Hollywood in his new sports ricksaw with plenty of beautiful matajis chasing him wherever he goes. Tony buys Microsoft and becomes the national moderator of all web forums while thinking of running for public office.

I am captured and held hostage by disgruntled angry fundamentalist vaisnava reformers living in West Virginia before having my (violent act deleted) on a jack bootlegged video distributed by PADA.

That’s the effects I see if American Vaisnavism , as it is today, were to become the leading religion in the world.

I haven't laughed quite so hard in ages!

Of course I am biased since I am given such a fun role to play in this future dystopic vision.

It's also obvious it was igm style Vaishnavism. I am sure the Vaishnavas of GD would be far more ecologically sensitive and that I would not need to rally my Goddess Warriors to liberate women from them.

But what would Madhava do with Microsoft, I wonder? For starters, insure a solid connection in Vraja!

And does Jagat take over at TimeWarner? With all the Sanskrit scholars in the country flocking to be his interns?

QUOTE(Tapati @ Feb 3 2005, 04:23 PM)

QUOTE(Kulapavana @ Feb 3 2005, 07:41 AM)

QUOTE(angrezi @ Feb 2 2005, 05:51 PM)

I go every month or so to the shooting range with a friend and hone my marksman skills which are not too shabby, I must say. Ammunition isn't cheap so I do feel a little guilty about that one.

he he... I eliminated the guilt part by reloading my own ammo

if you happen to visit Prabhupada Village we can squeeze off a few (hundred?) rounds in a local ravine...

I actually enjoy shooting as well. I just can't afford to do it very often.

Ha.. I too really enjoy this. I come from a long line of marksmen (and gun nuts, but I was born in NH!) My brother was top marksman in all classes in his Marine division, and my father is the top marksman in his club (and has been for many years)

Unfortunately, shooting is usually tied to hunting, something I'm not personally interested in (tho we could probably have a good conversation over it) My father recently introduced me to comeptition pellet shooting, but I can't come close to affording it

QUOTE(DharmaChakra @ Feb 4 2005, 07:44 AM)

QUOTE(Tapati @ Feb 3 2005, 04:23 PM)

QUOTE(Kulapavana @ Feb 3 2005, 07:41 AM)

QUOTE(angrezi @ Feb 2 2005, 05:51 PM)

I go every month or so to the shooting range with a friend and hone my marksman skills which are not too shabby, I must say. Ammunition isn't cheap so I do feel a little guilty about that one.

he he... I eliminated the guilt part by reloading my own ammo

if you happen to visit Prabhupada Village we can squeeze off a few (hundred?) rounds in a local ravine...

I actually enjoy shooting as well. I just can't afford to do it very often.

Ha.. I too really enjoy this. I come from a long line of marksmen (and gun nuts, but I was born in NH!) My brother was top marksman in all classes in his Marine division, and my father is the top marksman in his club (and has been for many years)

Unfortunately, shooting is usually tied to hunting, something I'm not personally interested in (tho we could probably have a good conversation over it) My father recently introduced me to comeptition pellet shooting, but I can't come close to affording it

And to think, I felt self-concious that I was the only gun person here! I thought of getting into competition shooting at the inspiration of a good friend at New Vrindavan, but I never did.

My brother in law is a big hunter. I personally think it's pretty barbaric if you're not starving in the woods at the verge of death. My redneck friend I shoot with doesn't hunt, thank God.

Shooting to me is like a meditation, you put on your headphones, everything is quiet, then you notice your breathing, in... out, aware of every thought. Silence, you can hear your heart beating, then slowly, calmly squeeze the trigger. Next, taking note of point of impact, contemplate neccessary adjustments to windage and elevation. Again, quietness, breathing. You are one with the weapon. Only seeing the 'eye of the bird' as Arjuna did, nothing else...

Indeed, it is Zen if done properly. I usually feel much more relaxed afterward.

Yes, it's unusual for me too, to be into target shooting and for us to own guns as a family, being a liberal. I certainly don't plan to go shooting up the town or anything.

It's nice to find out we're not alone.

Too bad we don't all live close enough to go shooting together sometime.

I also like the night like and to go out dancing. While I no longer drink the hard-stuff as I did in my bacheloracari days, I am not adverse to liberating myself with a libation. And too, I appreciate the spiritual roots of many alchoholic beverages. For instance Benedictine is brewed by Benedictine monks and so my thirsts for brews is to water the creeper of my devotion. It should as well be noted that the processes and ideas to develop higher alchoholic content brews came from the alchemists in their attempts to turn base metals into gold. If that is the case, could not a single malt scotch so transform the pathways of our consciousness to enlightenment? I present these ideas as possibilities and not as truths and by all no means do I encourage those who have taken religious or monastic vows or vows that because of their personal tendency for alchohol to have extreme deleterious consequences in their personal lives as they are alchoholics to have a drink.

As for the music and the dance, I like all types. I like the lower chakra stirring aspects of rock and roll and blues music and so I like to get out there and boogie. Disco can be fun. I also enjoy ballroom swing and most preferably what is known as cajun swing as I find cajun music to be of my favorites. And too, I like to tango but am as of yet, not even a novice. I would encourage those who are thinking of becoming gopis in their swarupa identity to take up some tango and ballroom swing as I think it will shorten your learning curve when you take up learning the rasa dance with Krishna.