Ian

I just hope you can see how what you are saying is so prejudiced with your particular point of view and belief system and is not necessarily true for everyone. Please, what I'm saying about individual will and the egoic mind is not a result of a twisted upbringing or something. It is the core principle, which I've come to gradually, reluctantly, accept, of such spiritual teachers as Barry Long, Eckart Tolle, and, er, Buddha. And I'm not saying that being denied stuff is good of itself. But denying yourself stuff puts you in a position where you can observe your own distress. We tend to notice our distress and take our pleasure for granted. Denial is not virtuous of itself. But it's a good tool. And a refreshing change, on this planet. To clarify another thing: When I talk about manifesting I'm talking about making things happen by non-ordinary, "magickal" type means. When Sean made this website happen, as far as I'm aware, he just made it happen, by physical, observable, typing code and paying servers. And, no, Thaddeus, your style is not irritating me. My own inability to convince everyone that they're utterly wrong and I'm utterly right is irritating me, and I take full responsibility for that. And, Yoda, I've met three people, to my knowledge, who've overcome their ego enough to be radically different to the rest of us. And been exposed to the teachings of a couple more. I believe that it's not only possible, but necessary. Otherwise people can, as you say, rearrange the furniture to become kind, generous, whatever. But that doesn't prepare you for death....

It can't help it. Individual will is a product of the egoic mind. The egoic mind produces and maintains the illusion of separateness, and anything and everything it wants is to further its own survival, and boost the sense of its own identity, which is not in the interest of the individual or any other person. It is the obstacle to spritual cultivation. Period. It's very clever. It can argue all day and say that x, y and z will benefit the wider community, but it won't. The wider community will still be identified with their egoic minds and nothing will have changed. It's just shuffling the pieces around. Or so this egoic mind is convinced, anyway. Time I took it away and resumed my endeavor to give it some time off. Sorry for ranting.

Well, no. At least not nearly as often. Because satisfying the desire involves Joe running along with the mind that formed the desire, whereas denying it brings him into conflict with that mind and offers far more chance to witness and detach from said mind. If gratifying every desire that came along worked as spiritual practice a lot of us would be enlightened. Because that's what most people try to do all day every day. Yes, unless you're enlightened, god-realised, transformed by direct experience of the stillness within and possessing permanent access to the peace that passeth understanding, then there damn well is a conflict. Does that describe you? It doesn't me. Individual will is petty, selfish, mental and aligned with fear and greed. Even when it's trying really hard to be nice. Right now I may seem like I'm trying to champion virtue in some half-assed way, but I just want to be right. We read a lot, all of us. We have access to a lot of teachings about what it's like to be an achieved spiritual person. And we tend to apply some of those ideas to ourselves even though we haven't got there. At all. I know the old Sufi parable about the teacher who lives in an opulent mansion, and the seeker disdains him and goes to a poor teacher, who explains the foolishness of the seeker's preference. "He lives in wealth because he is immune to wealth and I live in poverty because I am immune to poverty" But we are not enlightened teachers, any of us. (If I'm wrong in that, any of you, then please, an announcement. And some tips!) I'm going out on a limb here. It sounds like many people on this board have experiences of great connection, great stillness, central channel stuff, wherein their awareness is transformed. But I haven't heard anything that leads me to believe that any one of us has been so transformed, permanently, in terms of their perception of themselves and their nature and boundaries, that they can rightly say with confidence that they are manifesting the will of undifferentiated life when they want something. Am I wrong? I'd love to hear the details.

Now Yoda's take on this, I believe, comes from Abraham, and while it's very appealing to assume we're at the end of a pipe of infinite possibility, I'm not sure I regard Abraham's word as conclusive. For example Barry Long, (and I'm not saying his word is conclusive either, but it does show that other views are possible) in his book "A Prayer for Life", says that poverty and hunger are entirely a consequence of some peoples prayers being weaker than other people's. In short, that resources, on this planet at this time, are very clearly limited. Else why are people starving to death, while we try to manifest the ideal car/job/whatever? Do we think the mothers of dying children "aren't comfortable enough" with the idea of their child surviving? Or is it just that their manifesting suffers from a lack of the feelgood factor? Surely they are sincere enough, wholehearted enough to cause a few cosmic ripples? Now I'm not trying to paint myself as ultra-virtuous. I don't give my salary away. I'm not special. It's just that all this getting oneself nice stuff is in no way a spiritual practice and really shouldn't be confused with one. Why should we "get what we want out of life"? Listen to that phrase. We, separate, go up to life, extract what we want, and take it back to our bubble? We can't get anything out of life. We're in life. And what we want is the problem. "Not my will, o lord, but thy will be done." How about a bit of that? Grrrrrrrrr.

Ha! Interesting. This is more or less what I've been doing for a couple of years. The fascinating thing is that Sifu Yap used to teach his students to use a mantra, inside a lower body space, not the tan tien, but behind the bladder, I forget the name. BUT he changed to just feeling the arse on the chair, because the mantra, iho, is further away from emptiness in that it requires mind, where feeling doesn't. Anyway, enjoy. I recommend keeping it low in the body, but I'm like that.

Wake up spontaneously at seven. Stay in bed practicing involuntary bladder awareness until 8. Finally get up and wee. Sit on edge of bed and do metta. Feel surprise at things happening in body and wonder what was going on all night. Drag self kicking and screaming to standing practice. Stand for 30 mins. Collapse in grateful relief. Quick wash, juice something, walk to work. At weekends, move the whole thing back two hours. Omit the work.

Have you tried a form of lotus walking? Just feeling the contact of your feet on the ground with each step, and relaxing your body as much as you can? Whatever the mind says, say "shut up, I'm busy with my feet". Likewise the senses. Not ideal in traffic, as you can stumble like a drunk. But very useful.

Heard an interview with Eckhart Tolle recently. He was being pressed to say whether the world we experience is real or not. He finally said "It is a temporary manifestation of the real" He said it real nice.

I think this is a really important point and marks where Michael Winn and the buddhists have their fundamental split. Basically : Does your core want anything? Does it have character, uniqueness, or not? If you get to a point where you are identified with, connected with your core, (or life at large, if indeed there's a difference) instead of being identified with little ego issues, and from this connection you are moved to do something, is that your "true nature" or just an impersonal expression of what needed doing in that place at that time? I would claim that we don't know. I would also claim that to find out for sure, we need to get rid of everything we are able to get rid of, and never assume that anything, however much we like it, is our "essential nature" In the meantime I am uneasy about suggesting that the core resonates with anything. Wot you reckon?

Dude, I'm in. How much?

I've heard several teachers talk about the practice of mentally directing energy. What they say is: if you're not embodied enough before you start, then you are moving mental body stuff, rather than jing, or even proper chi. You can still feel it, so you're outraged to be told it's "not real" but, they say, you are "playing cartoons". Wasn't it Voice's shaolin teacher who said that? I've heard others use the analogy of video games. This description certainly fits what I was doing in HT. Not speaking for anyone else.

Can't remember. I think it was just a case of not being that disciplined at the time, plus the fact that you could only do it with a cd player, which wasn't always there, plus I had/have the lungs of an eighty year old miner on eighty capstan full strength a day. My excuse would be that the words came a bit fast, but Pietro got round that by making something from a computer do regular bell noises without the instructions. Where there's a will...

You can also get a double cd of his breathing practice. Not sure if it covers entirely the same territory, as I never got past the first half of disc one. Ask Pietro about it.

Still enjoying ball. But have concluded, with Pietro's help, that the 85cm is way too big, even for me. In fact most people will probably be fine with the 65. Bigger ones are great for balancing on, with feet off the ground, tho. Like a unicycle, but much mellower.

Hello Karen, I'm fishing for reassurance here. I don't have a problem with etheric devices and so on. I've had stuff from the Centre for Implosion Research and had advanced teachers confirm that they work. (although they have given warnings that these things can get fouled up and need recharging) But my problem is, clicking the link you give above, and then looking at "reputable providers in UK", then looking at the how-to pages of one of them, suddenly I'm in a world where people are talking about "satanic sites" and are engaged against dark forces in a battle for the soul of the countryside. Sorta. Where can you draw the line between purifying your environment and getting caught up in finding evil everywhere? Cos I truly don't believe the latter is healthy. What's your take on this kind of issue? Best wishes, Ian

Yes, indeed. I've been doing Sifu Yap's practices for about two and a half years, and gradually stopped everything else, (except for listing to tapes by people like Barry Long , Eckardt Tolle etc) I utterly, utterly recommend it. It's been very gradual, for me. See my recent post in the articles section and the link in the links section. If you have any questions after that feel free to PM me Best wishes, Ian

Guess what i found at the back of the cupboard? A healing tao style wire hitter and rattan stick, complete with original denim shoulderbag thing. Free to anyone who wants them, providing they come get/pay postage. I'm in Oxford, England. Imagine overseas postage is pretty substantial, as the wire thing is a meaty bugger. And a sock full of mung beans will do just as well. But anyway...

Light may be dawning. He's presumably the guy who teaches Energy Arts stuff in oxford? If so, I have spoken to him a year or two back, and could certainly find him. I would like to get rid of the lot, else I will still have the bulky stuff, with the added issue of nothing to transport it in when I move. Will see what I can do. Just spoke to him. All set.

Nice one. PM me yr address and I'll send you a present. Good luck with the next 20 years!!

Sure, if they come to Oxford. Isn't Bruce in Sussex/Reading/Bristol? You just want the bag, or the contents too?

I am reliably informed that we "pray"/"attempt to manifest"/"transmit our fears and desires" with every single thought. Our entire lives are manifested in this fashion. Those things which we manifest as swift, noticeable, isolated, instances happen, either because it doesn't clash with the desires of others, or because we are particularly loud and clear, or both. More importantly, every single unfulfilled desire (and fear) will be, has to be, fulfilled eventually. This is how creation is created and maintained. Be ever so, ever so careful in these practices, is my advice. You may be wishing for something lovely, but if at the same time you're amping up your wish power, and you haven't learned to control your thoughts yet..... Call me Cassandra....