Leo

I drive a manual 'cause that's the car I got. Manual definitely makes me feel more connected to the road, and it is a little safer (if you ever loose your brakes you can downshift). Oh, yeah, and it's usually better fuel milage too (especially when you like to coast like me ). But I gotta say I'm gettin' a little tired of shifting in traffic all the time, and if I had my druthers I think I'd get me an automatic where I can just stomp on the gas 'n go!

Here is a version of the Middle Pillar combined with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram that is quite good. The Pentagram ritual is important, as it seals up the aura and helps to make sure you don't "short circuit" anything. I'm sure from your other practices that you've gotten everything strong and able to handle lots of energy, but still to be on the safe side I would recommend doing the Pentagram ritual once or twice a day for a week or so before you start the Middle Pillar. Then always do a Pentagram before you do a Middle Pillar (it just takes a few minutes). If you've haven't done a lot of serious chanting before, you may feel a little silly at first, but I think that tends to fade pretty quickly. You'll notice that parts of the circulation of the light are similar to the microcosmic orbit, so your previous experience should serve you well. Also, the instructions here are to stand while you do the practice, but I would highly recommend you actually lie down. When you finish doing the Pentagram Ritual, you will be facing East. Lie down with your feet in the East, and your head in the West. Much more relaxing! Try lying down and meditating for a good while afterwords. I would suggest focusing either on the light surrounding you, or on the sphere in the solar plexus. The spheres used here don't exactly conform to the Eastern chakra system, but that's ok. Some of them are combined, or in slightly different places, etc. My understanding is that this way the chakras are stimulated a little more indirectly, and therefore a little more safely (the chakras are actually more located on the back of the body up the spine, and here we are visualizing the spheres on the front of the body). Happy Humming!

Yes! But if it be your aim to destroy the Earth, don't forget the Checklist

Well...I suppose I could tell you how it felt there if I could reach it! But I know it feels great when I can get someone to scratch it for me!

Show us a picture - where is it? what does it mean? what's it supposed to do?

I use the Crystal roll-on deodorant. It's the same stuff as the stone, but the stone is a big hassle. I think it ends up being more expensive, but it lasts so long that I think it's still pretty cheap. I tried to use some other brand once, but it smelled weird and I took it back (I can't really smell this stuff - you probably already know the idea is it doesn't let the bacteria grow so it ends up smelling like nothing). The only thing is you gotta use it every day, and use a lot. If you skip a day then it takes a few days to "catch up". Also, I think it may depend on your chemistry - Mrs Leo tried it swears it smells like "dirty feet" on her.

I am definitely not an expert in nutrition. I eat ovo-lacto vegetarian because it seems to me that is a logical conclusion of the precept of non-killing (if I buy meat at the store they didn't kill it for me, but they gotta kill one to replace it, etc). I try to eat my fruit and veggies and take vitamins. I don't try to convert people to my way of eating, or try to tell them that they're wrong for wanting to eat meat, but I would take issue with the "ok to kill fish" idea. I've heard it before from people who are otherwise vegetarian, and it just seems like a justification to me. If someone wants to eat fish, I think they should just eat fish without saying that fish don't mind being killed. All beings love their lives and hate death. Even an ant will run away if you try to squish it. If someone has ever seen a fish struggle on a hook or in a net, or seen them gasping for air on a boat I think they would agree that they don't look like creatures that are ok with dying.

I think that it used to be that America always looked at itself as just and right, and if the story didn't support that it was changed or swept under the rug. That was dishonest, but it was at least sustainable for society. Now I am becoming increasingly alarmed about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. No people can survive as a people if they only tell negative stories about themselves. We look at ourselves with sneering sarcasm and scorn, we tell cynical stories about ourselves to ourselves and the world. And we wonder why people hate us. Loving our country is not cool, and hasn't been for a long time. Anyone that loves America is looked at as either naive or corrupt. We tell the world that their problems are our doing. Is it any wonder they believe us? Most people want to blame someone else for their problems. The bigger and more powerful the target, the easier it is to cast blame on. And if that target is in perpetual spasms of self-flagellation? Well, heap it on! Have America and Americans done negative things? You bet! People are people and we will all do good and bad things. But there is a hyper-judgmentalism about America right now, and we need to wake up and start presenting ourselves in a better light because if we don't, no one else will.

Yeah...I think consensus opinion was that he had a fairly high attainment, but he didn't seem to leave behind any students that ended up being good teachers. If you are interested in the Western tradition in general, one of the best guides is "The Zelator" by Mark Hedsel. It is the story of a guy running around in the occult circles in Europe and America from around the 1920's or so through modern day. It is pretty intricate though, with tons of footnotes, and lots of names that may not mean anything to you unless you're very familiar with a lot of the different schools of thought. Anyway, one of his teachers that he mentions in the book seems to have been Gurdjieff, although he doesn't name him. If you're interested, here is a web site devoted to the book and related thought: http://zelator.topcities.com/index.htm

By far the best thing I've ever read to help with those kinds of things is "The lazy man's guide to enlightenment". It is plentiful and cheap (Amazon has many, many copies), and you can likely find it in your library, although I suggest buying a copy. You can read it in a sitting, although if you read it once you will probably read it over and over. I like to read it from time to time. I'm not sure that I agree with everything that's in it anymore, but I'm not sure that I disagree with anything in it either. It was written during a time when people were using heavy drugs to open up as quickly as they could, and needed a guide to help them - especially during some of the rough times that come with trying to use substances in those ways. Don't get me wrong, drugs are not required (nor necessarily recommended) by the book, but if it will work for your heavy-duty drug induced frenzied hippie freakout, it'll work just fine for your run of the mill spiritual crisis!

Wow...I just started taking Aikido a couple of weeks ago with the local parks department. It is incredibly cheap, and I was very excited to start taking it. But lately, as I'm aging (35) I've noticed I injure more easily and heal more slowly. I was hoping to learn the stuff about ki, but evidently the style I'm taking is the more martial style. They do joint locks and throws and stuff, and you're supposed to slap your leg or the ground if it starts to hurt too much. Last time they paired me with a kid that seemed to enjoy the pain. It was a little weird...he wanted me to go really far before he would tap. And he was a little rough, and I type for a living, and I was thinking maybe I shouldn't press my luck. This morning I've been debating it, and then I saw your post and I think I've made up my mind! That being said, I've had some lingering unrelated injuries, and I've started taking some enzymes designed to make you heal faster. I've only been taking them for a little while, but so far they SEEM to be working. Here's a link to the kind I wanted to get (they didn't have them at the store I went to because they're so new): http://www.gardenoflife.com/detail_fyi_restore.shtml And here's a link to the kind I did get: http://www.enzymedica.com/proteolytic_enzymes.php They're all a little spendy, but if they work it's worth it!

I think "good" things happen, and "bad" things happen (good and bad depends on who you ask - winning the lottery is great for you, but bad for the million people that lost a buck). Karma isn't about some kind of punishment, it is just cause and effect. For instance, if you are talking on the phone and not paying attention, and you don't get the lid all the way on the pickle jar, then the next time you grab it you grab it by the lid and the jar falls off and breaks all over the kitchen floor, that's karma. You're not being punished by the pickle god! It's not because you're a "sinner" or a "bad" person, you were just unskillful. Sometimes people don't like the idea of karma because they are afraid. Maybe they did some stuff that they don't want the results of to happen. Often when people talk about karma, it is in the context of their enemies getting punished, or themselves getting rewarded. People may not want to believe in karma because it seems too complicated or ethereal. But as the Alchemists are fond of saying "as above, so below", and there is no exception to karma in any sort of science experiment I've ever seen, and I have no reason to doubt that it is a universal principle, especially when so many diverse people who have achieved attainment all insist on it's existence. There's a lot to karma that I don't like. I don't like it when I eat too much and get fat. Or stub my toe. Or neglect my car maintenance and have a big mechanic's bill. But ignoring cause and effect or pretending it doesn't exist because I don't like it is foolish. And just because someone is successful, doesn't mean they really know how they got that way. "I just said 'umpty umpty umpty' three times and I won the lottery!" doesn't mean it will work for you. And if they're selling something, put your hand on your wallet and run!

How about using Taoist Wu Wei? Since you know you are necessary and don't have to worry about being thrown off, you can sit back and let the situation resolve itself. If a lifeboat holds 7 adults, and there are three kids making up the rest of the 10, they can sit on laps and totally resolve the situation. If everyone is adults, the biggest, stongest men, and therefore the ones most likely to help survival, will boot the smaller ones off. And anyone who's spent more than five minutes in a bar knows those same men will boot off the smaller men in favor of any women (especially young attractive ones). Anyone who was in danger of being thrown off could plead their case to the group, and may succeed in getting the big guys to go after the next smaller one (as a very small man I'd be really glad that I was the one with the navigation knowledge!) And even if that wasn't a contrived solution, that's probably the way it would go down anyway.

OK...so you guys are obviously WAY more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am, but I have to say that when I was younger I got a copy of "Richard Hittleman's Yoga : 28 Day Exercise Plan". Now, I have always been a particularly inflexible person, and when I looked at the pictures of what you were supposed to be doing at the end of the 28 days, I thought "yeah, sure!" But you know what? It worked! After I was able to do the final routines at the end, I stuck with it for some time, but eventually stopped. And I think even to this day I am much more flexible than I would have been - which isn't really saying much, but still it's something! And you can get it pretty cheaply on Amazon.

In my opinion, for dealing with fears, etc, you can't beat NLP. You shouldn't have too hard of a time finding material at the library or even used bookstores. I would recommend "Using your brain for a change" by Richard Bandler. You can also find tons of info about it on the web. Richard Bandler has the added plus of being very funny (if you like George Carlin, you'll love Richard Bandler). If you live in any type of urban area, you also shouldn't have too a hard time finding a practitioner. One of the beauties of NLP is that it is partly based on the idea that your brain learns fast, not slow. For instance, someone with a fear of snakes probably got that fear in a fraction of a second, then spent a lifetime replaying that fear. This idea leads to NLP cures that are quick by design - you won't spend years lying in a couch. As far as Chinese medicine goes, I totally agree that you HAVE to go to an expert to get it right. I've been studying yin and yang and related ideas for probably twenty years, and I still don't feel like I totally get it. If two can be that complex, five is exponentially so, and I would really, really advise you see a professional herbalist or acupuncturist before you start messing with elements. When I do chi kung, I try to use established sets, and not deviate. People spend years getting into these things, and continually uncover new nuances. The sets are designed to be balanced, and I would think doing something gentle and simple would probably help. But make sure you stick to the established routine, and don't try to self-diagnose, or add here and subtract there, etc.

He sent the alien one out on his free mailing list...you can sign up for it on his website, and I really look forward to getting the emails. A lot of the time they are plugging one of his ebooks, but not always, and they're usually a good read. Anyway, I fully endorse all of the ebooks I've bought from Bill, and one could spend their money on a lot worse things.