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This might be worth a try: 4-7-8 breathing

Neuroscientists discover a song that reduces anxiety by 65%. Read 'n Listen - http://www.anonews.co/neuro-song-anxiety/

Thoughts on how Buddhist books are utilised in the West - how they're read, what is read and whose reading them: https://www.vajrayanaworld.com/long-bits/the-state-of-buddhist-publishing

Nice photo essay

No, according to some sources of canonical Buddhism Siddhartha was Buddha number 28:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_named_Buddhas

If you hang round Buddhist circles you will notice that no one ever admits to being enlightened or even claims any sort of realisation whatsoever. Even revered teachers won't claim any special qualities and great practitioners go unnoticed in their lifetime and are only recognised by how well they die. No one speaks of their attainments either, though they do speak of their non-attainments. Personal practice will be the only confirmation you'll get. Sit with revered teachers with no special qualities, especially when they're sitting in silence and see what you experience and how that experience can be deepened and matured through following spiritual instructions and practices. No one is going to tell you anything, they'll give pointers but you'll have to do the work. If you're worried about wasting your time check out really elderly practitioners who've been practicing for a lifetime and see if they've got something that you lack but want.

In the news again: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/universe-hologram-holographic-evidence-3d-astrophysics-university-of-southampton-a7553766.html The late Michael Talbot's book is now freely available: https://archive.org/details/HolographicModelOfTheUniverse

I beg to differ.

What's mantra got? It's got the lot! Mantras are the manifestation in sound of particular qualities of enlightened awareness, inseparable from the aspect that is being expressed. Recitation can lead to profound states of inner stillness, with clarity and bliss conjoined with emptiness.

Don't know if this'll be any use Soaren but I stumbled on this which ticks all the keyword boxes from your post: https://www.amazon.com/Be-Man-Guide-Masculine-Power/dp/1622032292/ This too: http://robertmasters.com/book/knowing-your-shadow/

Difficult to say without knowing the particulars but it is perhaps a cautionary tale about motivation on the path, spiritual orientation and discernment. I'd question the understandably fearful fundamentalist conclusion as it could be argued that we are here to become fully human and embody the transcendent.

Nice one! Close your eyes and watch your breath again.

Not always the sort of stuff I'd like to own but there's some titilating eye candy here: http://dark-occult-books.tumblr.com

Welcome to the Daobums Loulie! So many deep and wide ranging questions in one post. It might be better to ask them separately in their own posts.

Thanks for posting this, it is intriguing; especially the ingesting of burnt yantras and the access to a teaching stream. What may be difficult for those on the outside is the presentation and the nature of the teaching stream itself. Without personal contact with teachers or practitioners or a well developed inner discernment it is difficult or even foolhardy to just jump in indiscriminately. Edit:Tpyo

Interesting indeed. In my limited understanding I don't think this is really Buddhist, but uses Buddhism and other religions as an expedient means to open people up to the grace it can offer.

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A literal lie which when she starts courting will be found to express a particular truth.

There's a lot out there. From your avatar it seems you're already aware of the PGM. There's also 'The Book of Abrasax', 'Living Theurgy' and 'Graeco-Egyptian Magick'. Then there's The Philosophers of Nature courses and The Sangreal Sodality Shadow Tree series. Funny thing is when it comes to some books I can never quite get to read them, either falling asleep, getting distracted or having to attend to things - not sure if it's my Higher Self putting me off or the current represented by the books rejecting me, or both.

Theocracies do contain inherent but not insurmountable contradictions. Even elements of these traditions themselves acknowledge the contradictions and difficulties; there's that story about a master being questioned by monks from another school who were looking for a sectarian reason to beat him up, and there have been tensions between monastic centres and the terma tradition. The terma tradition does not rely on sanskrit sources. The suggestion of rancour enters with your seeming unquenchable thirst for the blood of existing teachers and a theocracy that no longer exists. You've apparently received all the teachings but still take issue with the teachers and traditions. There's more openness now, available translations and teachers teaching openly then there were ten years ago. Arguably other Western and Eastern traditions are more secretive and difficult to gain admittance to.

With your long and apparently rancorous relationship with Buddhism, you are seriously unaware of Buddhist methods that use the Anja? Can't you indulge Wells here? Edit: tpyo

Buddhist methods are intrinsically meshed with a particular ethos and overriding sensibility and are more about relationship then specific tech, though the tech is there. Tech is tech however; so instead of looking to a tradition for which you both display little regard, why not look to the Daoist Kan and Li methods instead?

Are you after the spiritual tech divorced from the underlying practice ethos and ideals?

By time. Work out how many mantras you can recite in a given period of time (e.g. 10 recitations in 15 seconds). Then recite for a set time, calculate the number at the end.