u/Objective-Work-3133

So, i have been sleeping on a standing futon mattress for several years. It is kind of perfect. I slept a couple of nights on my sister's tempurpedic mattress and i hated it. I actually prefer it decently firm. However, my mattress got moldy and i need to replace it asap. I am poor (like minimum wage) so im trying to not spend a ton. I spent about an hour and a half sleeping on my yoga mat (1 inch thick foamy material) but it hurt my shoulder.

So, has anyone made this transition to something like the zonli floor futon, which i understand is less firm, and been okay with it?

I do sciatic nerve flossing before the stretch. But I do not feel any stretch in the belly of the hamstring. It does start to quiver. I can feel it in the belly if I do the stretch where I elevate the foot and lean my torso over. However I read that is bad for the back, and back pain is the reason I am doing this.

1. If i am not successfully keeping the precepts, is there any point of abiding in non-activity, or is it wasted effort? The precept i struggle with the most is the fifth. I consume caffeine and vape. Celibacy is difficult but i did go a month.
2. I have back pain. I went three months without being able to sit at all. Is it ok if i am changing my position every 20 minutes or so, when trying to be non-active? Getting up to get a pillow or towel for my back, adjusting the recliner, stretching, switching to lying down, etc.

I would also like to request some clarification for what i actually should be doing when i "sit". I know i am not supposed to be sensation watching or trying to think of nothing. I am supposed to neither accept nor deny my thoughts rooted in greed, hatred, or distraction. Is acceptance or denial of the thoughts more about the attitude with which i regard them, as opposed to what i do with them when they arise? So, i am sitting. I think about someone who is *making me angry. Then, i recognize the thought, which is itself another thought. Do i go back to thinking about the person making me angry, so that i can patiently endure the anger? Or do i just think about something else, making the patient endurance not so much the endurance of the unwholesome thoughts' contents and their concomitant feelings, so much as the endurance of the process whereby the unwholesome thoughts repeatedly assault me and i choose to think about something else. But if that is the case, isn't that denying them? I am saying no to them, which is what denial is. The only thing that makes sense to me so far is what i suggested earlier; acceptance or denial is in the attitude with which i regard the thoughts, not so much what i do with them when they arise. I think the way Ven. Nanamoli phrased it is "not putting out the welcome mat."

*not literally. i make me angry. or, "anger happens".

However, if I knew, in advance, that there was a zero percent chance of anyone reading and appreciating my writing; I wouldn't write.

tl;dr: last paragraph before “Thank you.”

Hi. I will try to be brief. I would appreciate any guidance because this has been weighing on me heavily. I have rewritten this post several times over several days. I have no reason to expect that I wouldn’t be shown kindness here, but in posting on Reddit before, when looking for help, I have been dragged through the mud. So, I guess what I am saying is, please be kind, if you can. I am just trying to do the right thing and I don’t know what that is.

It seems to me that hiring or directing someone to kill for you is worse than doing it yourself. You are still killing, it is just that you are using another human being as your weapon. So instead of just you getting the bad kamma of killing, both of you do.

2.25 years ago I agreed to foster a cat for a stranger on facebook for 6 months to a year. I told the woman she could visit every two weeks. I never saw her again.

Now the cat is my best friend. He is healthy. But I am not, and I am poor. I have little to no savings. While not young, he is not old, and he is everything a cat-lover could wish for in a cat.

Many cats, when they get sick or old, just wander off to die somewhere. However I don’t know if/when that will happen. It is possible that he will just end up agonizing loudly continuously for weeks. I would not be able to sleep, and if I go to work without sleep I am putting myself and others in danger of grievous bodily harm or even death. I probably won’t have the funds needed to ensure his comfort during the process of dying. And I can’t violate the first precept by euthanizing him should such a set of circumstances arise. So, I am thinking that the best option is to rehome him now, while he is still a delight. Find him a new owner/caretaker who would be happy to have him. He loves all people, so I am confident he wouldn’t miss me too much. I would miss him more.

However, here in America, euthanasia is generally considered to be the humane option for the pains of severe illness or death. My state recently approved medical assistance in dying for humans.

So, if I rehome him (my cat) now, and the new owner does not give me explicit assurances that they won’t euthanize him under any circumstances (which I imagine would be near impossible to come by), and they go on to euthanize him, perhaps years from now, am I culpable for the killing?

Thank you.

I would really like to quit both but am looking for motivation. They are my last substance addictions. Sober 3.5 years. In pain for about 2. Because of all the damage drugs have done to my life, the harm I caused others, and all the work I have done to get off of them, I would probably kms before taking narcotics for pain relief. At the moment, my pain levels seem stable. But I never know if tomorrow is the day it flares up agajn, or if this will be the time I do not succeed at finding some physical means to remedy it. It has been like that for 2 years...stable for a month or two, comes back, getting worse every day, until i find some new movement or exercise that addresses it, which works for a month or two, rinse and repeat. I have about 10 days to find something that works when the pain comes back, before it becomes debilitating and I can no longer work. I live in constant dread of the day where it comes back and I can't find something. I already found someone who will take care of my cat.

I am moving and need to restart my aquarium, my back hurts, I don't feel like going to the woods to dig up some topsoil (I don't have a car)

Property management company (PMC) left the building's driveway flooded with sewage for months. A week ago, a notice for a hearing to determine whether or not the building should be condemned was posted on the building's door (note: NOT a notice of condemnation, a notice for a hearing to determine if it should be condemned) I let the PMC know about the sewage by phone about 6 weeks ago, no written documentation, but they already knew about it. I found a new apartment in my price range almost immediately. Doing so is far from guaranteed, and I decided to pull the trigger on the new lease rather than hope with my fingers crossed that this PMC would do their job. I didn't want to wait for it to be condemned and find myself shit out of luck when that happened.

The hearing was yesterday. Other tenant went, they are not condemning it, the PMC appears to have addressed the issue in the last week. Lease says I owe them two months' rent for breaking the lease early. I don't have that kind of money, I make minimum wage.

I am pretty confident that if they took me to court for those funds, they'd lose given the state they left the building in for so long. But, as far as my deposit is concerned, the building wasn't condemned, so I think it is safe to say it is forfeit. What do you guys think?

Binghamton

Also, does EIPA protect $2750 in my bank account, or is that just for debts? Not that i have that much...

My apartment building was expelling raw sewage on to the driveway for 3 or 4 months. I contacted the landlord by phone about 6 weeks ago, they had already known about it. 1 week ago there was a notice of a hearing, to take place tomorrow, to determine if the building should be condemned. On that day, I found an apartment within my price range; not an easy feat these days, I make minimum wage. I decided to sign the lease and break my current one rather than risk letting this nowadays rare opportunity slip through my fingers, and possibly find myself SOL if the building did get condemned. The property management company has a reputation as a slumlord, and the lease I signed says I owe them 2 months' rent for breaking it. I am hoping a judge will see that they failed in their duties and dismiss their claim, but I don't know how that works. They appear to have gotten to work unclogging or repairing the sewer line.

Thanks for your help.

I graduated with an ms in a field related to industrial engineering 4 years ago. Since then, i haven't even looked for a new job. I have just been working in a kitchen doing prep. The truth is, if this job paid more, I would be content to keep it indefinitely. I like my job. The reason why i never used my degrees is because, well, i went to rehab for alcoholism my last semester of grad school, and I intended to just spend a year working a flexible, part time job, that was low stress while i focus on "sobriety stuff". Then, i procrastinated for another year (i am 3.5 years sober now), and my back pain started about 2 years ago.

I went 3 months without sitting down. Now, in some chairs, i can last an hour. Standing in one and only one place is also not great, though not as terrible as sitting. Sitting for 40 hours a week in a standard chair would literally be a death sentence. My job in the kitchen, as far as my back goes, is perfect. I move around frequently, and since i just do prep, i can make things far in advance, and take breaks almost whenever i want. I think the position is designed for people whose organizational skills are not on par with mine, because based on my observations i am twice as efficient as any other person i have seen doing my job. So, it is low stress as well, stress also being a trigger for pain. I almost never have to rush, even during the rush (periods of high restaurant traffic). If others performed prep in the manner in which I do (the days I am not there), I would literally never have to rush.

There is one way i can sit comfortably, but i imagine it would look really awkward in an office setting. A gravity chair, with my knees up against and over the arms, and my legs hanging on the edges of the part of the chair that protrudes. Basically, manspreading while reclined. Then, i either read or use my computing device by placing it on a couple of pillows on my stomach/crotch. I haven't tried it, but i think i could do 40 hours in that position.

Obviously, remote work is probably the move. However, i also have no marketable skills. I never even used excel; anytime I did any sort of data analysis I would just import the spreadsheets into a Python (programming language I was ok at) array. The only skill i developed in school is getting really good at taking classes. So, I guess I will have to learn skills if I am ever to pay off the debt i got into to learn skills.

I used to be very athletic. I was 205 lbs lean (so like, 10-15% bf by my estimation) I was getting my urine tested routinely because I was participating in a vaccine trial. Ketones were consistently detected in my urine, even though I was eating 150 to 200 grams of carbohydrate per day (total calorie intake was around 3000 calories or more)