Aluminum Cans, Suffering (Part 1) and Guru Nanak

April 21, 2024

Drinking from aluminum cans.

Topic submitted by: James Y. from Raleigh, NC

Years ago, it was discovered that beverages stored in aluminum cans would slowly accumulate with toxic metals as they sat on shelves.

That is, the longer your soda, beer or sparkling water sits in storage, the more that aluminum leaches into it.

Because of this, engineers began inserting a BPA plastic lining inside of these cans in order to protect them from degrading and being contaminated with aluminum.

That solution became yet another problem when it was discovered what BPA does to our bodies.

In reaction, BPA was quickly removed from the products and replaced with BPS’ and BPF’s (which are basically the same thing, but with a different molecular formula).

The result is what we see today: 80+ billion aluminum cans with the words “BPA-free” inscribed on their surface, convincing us that what we are consuming is safe.

The problem now is three-fold:

BPS and BPF liners get eaten away by the liquid within the cans, meaning plastic will leach into your drink if the product isn’t purchased soon enough after manufacturing.
Refrigerating an aluminum can causes the metal to contract, weakening its inner liner. And then when the can warms up, especially in the sun, the metal expands quickly, pulling the liner apart. This temperature fluctuation happens repeatedly during shipping, meaning you are likely still being exposed to toxic aluminum, despite there being a “safe” inner epoxy coating.
Your skin contains natural oils that are highly acidic and react with metals. This reaction causes the oil to corrode and erode the metal, leading to metal leaching when it comes into contact with your skin. Consequently, even touching industrial aluminum (found in products like aluminum cans or foil) can cause trace amounts to penetrate your skin and enter your bloodstream.

Practice

It is best to avoid consuming any kind of beverage (or food for that matter) stored in aluminum packaging.

Instead, opt for eating/drinking out of glassware — it’s the safest option! 🙂

Further, you might see on the internet that aluminum is only toxic at higher doses. This is just not true — aluminum is toxic at any amount. It’s only at certain dosages that the bioaccumulation becomes enough to visibly wreak havoc on your brain and nervous system.

How does suffering arise?

Topic submitted by: me, Ethan!

This is Part 1 of 4 on a series about suffering.

At bottom, suffering is identification with desire, and is caused by attaching to the idea that Reality should be different from how It actually is.

Two examples.

(1) You really want to be eating a pastry at your favorite coffee shop, but instead you’re alone, bored trying to meditate: suffering. (2) You desperately want your political opponents to lose the election, but unfortunately can’t control how other people vote or see the world: suffering.

In either case, suffering emerges from the gap between your fantasy and Reality.

Digging deeper, suffering isn’t actually caused by objects themselves but for the sensations they do (or do not) bring.

(1) You don’t really want the pastry — you actually want the rush you get in your body from smelling, tasting, and ingesting the pastry.

(2) You don’t really want your political opponents to lose the election — you actually want the sensations of dread, fear and hatred in your torso to stop.

Said differently, the absence or presence of a thing is not the actual cause of suffering. Instead, it is the sensations, feelings or emotions they evoke that create your misery.

This understanding, though seemingly trivial, profoundly changes the context of your entire life. It adds a new dimension to every single preference you have, every single decision you make, and every single interaction you partake in.

Oh…and it provides a loophole out of suffering. More on that next week.

P.S. I released my full thoughts on how to avoid suffering a couple years ago. You can read or listen to that by clicking here.

“Let no man in the world live in delusion; without a guru none can cross over to the other shore.” — Guru Nanak

Quote submitted by: Oliver W. from Charlotte, NC

Say you are holding a pencil and wish to let go of it. How do you do it?

Well, certainly, your hand cannot release its own grip — that would be like saying that your teeth can bite themselves.

No! Your hand relies on your nervous system and brain to let go.

Your nervous system and brain, in turn, also do not function in and of themselves. They, too, need more fundamental properties such as electromagnetism, gravity and chemistry to work.

This realization — that your existence always relies on progressively “higher” powers — also functions in the domain of wisdom and soul liberation.

That is, in the same way that a man or woman cannot physically pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, your ego cannot enlighten itself, because the ego operates on a “lower” plane from where enlightenment exists.

This eternal problem is what the guru helps solve.

A true guru — be it Christ, Buddha or any other fully liberated being — shines light on the unconscious parts of you that cannot possibly shine light on themselves.

Or, in the wise words of Guru Nanak: “without a guru none can cross over to the other shore.”