Yoda

Drinking is fun, but my body just doesn't seem to know what to do with the stuff anymore. Even just one drink doesn't work for me. Hopefully, this is a passing phase.

Plato had said nice things about the "Stress Eraser" and it sounds like a pretty cool innovation tracking vagus nerve activity. I was wondering how the Stress Eraser would compare to diaphram breathing and how the Stress Eraser works (without actually buying it... Yoda frugal.) Here's a review along those lines. Interesting sidebar on HRV, too. http://store.soundstrue.com/os01096d-review.html I did end up buying a Sirius light and sound machine. It's pretty cool and I hope Mrs Yoda gets into it. There's so much overlap with my meditation practice, that it's sort of redundant for me but still fun. I'd say its nice, but you can get a similar buzz through meditation. Great for non-meditators, though. The diaphramatic breathing *is* a good angle for me... my meditation takes about 40 minutes and there are plenty of times that a 4 minute breathing session is really a better fit for on the go stress reduction. Yoda

Here's the official Yoda pad and bling video on Degoba... more trees than you'll see in the desert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jvujTMUJeo

I'm from Phoenix originally but have been in Columbia, SC since 97 and before that Athens, GA since 94.

My mental body just got buff, thanks! If that ripples to the physical then I'm totally stylin'!

Good point... cars were a huge revolution in pollution reduction. It won't be too long before the next revolution. Technology is really cookin these days like never before. Alternative energy will come. P- yes, this is different from current incinerators.

Imo, we spend a third of our lives entirely in non-physical dimensions and even when we are awake, the awareness of the physical zone is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagination, art, dreams, instincts, and feelings are a good midpoint and transduction tool to communicate between worlds.

I just tried the google angle. All I got was some handy UFO info and an ad asking my opinion if Brittany Spears is losing her shit. Last I heard on the subject was that she was caught on tape having sex with two women and based on that might renounce her rights as a mother. Surmising the contents of the tape, one can only imagine that she'd make an excellent mother.

Re: detachment, Esther says that the whole manifesting thing centers around the ability to be detached from the manifestation of the particular desire. If you don't have the detachment, you'll be too negative in your observation of the lack of the manifestation, that you won't be able to allow it in. And the reason anyone wants an external manifestation is to feel better anyways, so it's imperative to learn to circumvent and free yourself from life's external situations so as to feel more bliss, peace, love, etc. She's basically just repackaging traditional religious values.

Check it out, I just got an as-seen-on-tv flowbee.com... one of those vacuum haircutter thingies. It's good. Trimming the very bottom of the hairline along the neck isn't its forte, so you might need a spouse or a pal or a steady hand with an electric clipper to finish it up. Imo, I think I could get the hang of it to do a total by myself haircut.

Oh, it's not a nose hair thingy, but it has been the butt of many jokes too. It was on Wayne's World, I think.

here's the article: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/873aa...ecbccdrcrd.html

I think Leidee's point is excellent and maybe it also addresses the desire angle... if there's no scarcity and everything is cool, and one begins to believe that at a very basic level, then there's no need to cling to desires and their fruitions and one's whole energy flow works more effectively due to the naturally arising detachment spoken of by the great masters like Vivekananda. I think the traditional way that the masters used to teach was to load up their disciples with the hardcore disciplines... the hairshirt route... and then bring in the grooviness of energy practice and meditation and then they sorted everything out on an intellectual level at that point. Discipline, samadhi, then prajna. I think the new way is to expose people to as much grooviness through uplifting paradigms and meditation then allow the discipline to come up naturally when as one attains enough samadhi and prajna. (Using the language from the excellent Bodri article I just found in the other thread.) I'm sure many of us have impaled ourselves on the discipline path more than once to know that there may be some merit to approaching the challenge from other angles.

I hate to keep being so positive about everything... but pollution is in the past. The next to the last issue of Popular Mechanics called this to my attention... Thanks to plasma beam technology (like in Ghost Busters) now it's possible to incinerate anything short of uranium, yielding a tremendous amount of electrical and gas energy and harmless, compact glass-like byproducts. The first commercial units will go online within the next several years in Florida and Panama... Not only will they shut down their landfills, they'll set up the plants near the landfills and empty them out. Best of all, the units are absolutely free to the respective governments... it's all owner financing for the income from the energy generation. So every municipality on the planet will be able to afford one. Yoda

http://www.teesfortards.com/eileen.htm

excellent thread idea! Yoda's perennial entry: advancedyogapractices.com Killer freebie from Bodri I got yesterday: http://www.meditationexpert.com/ebok/howtomeditate.pdf

that howtomeditate.pdf article is a good read!

Forestofsouls, I might be misunderstanding your vibe, but fighting desire is like fighting the force of gravity, don't you think? Yoda

Freeform, Very interesting angle... thanks! Yoda

Ian, Per the theory, your awareness of the scarcity of the commodity would probably crimp locking on to the signal in the first place... how excited can you be that the hope diamond will show up on your doorstep? But the emotional state that the manifestation will create is available to you and if you start to abide in that state, external manifestations that will be even more pleasing to you would show up. Per the theory, expecting even more happiness and love is the ultimate payoff. This is most often asked in the context where one is in love with another who is already taken. The answer is often to fantasize the state where he/she/it is yours and there you are. Shortly thereafter, one who exactly matches your new vibration will show up. Even occasionally, the spouse or comic book owner will die and you'll score exactly what you are looking for. Per the theory, this is fine too as death is a natural, positive, and even enjoyable aspect of life. Nobody can harm anyone else in this worldview--it's their own karmic impulses that line them up with their own manifestations and the whole birth, dying and comic book distribution process between beings takes place without a hitch... In kidney-speak, it's "Kill them all and let God sort it out," but Krishna's exact message was that you aren't really killing them--it's their own karma and they don't die anyways plus it all works out fine in the end... so fuck em up. Who was Arjuna's counterpart on the other side? I forget his name. Radheya? I cried when Arjuna killed him. But Krishna was right, it did turn out alright in the end. Yoda PS perhaps the best example of manifesting external objects are the things that you almost don't even know you want... maybe a corner piece of a bulletin board that has occurred to you a few times would be nice to have back... you don't feel any lack by its absence, and you are able to tune into how nice it would be to have it back, and then it just shows up a few days later. Or that you would like to be in a nicer mood over the next few minutes and you are able to pull it off or that you desire to feel even better tomorrow... applications like that is really what it's all about. Lot's of people want to test it out on the subjects that they have the most desire and negativity tied into it--I want to triple my income this year, eradicate my allergies, make my kid brilliant in math, feel twice as good tomorrow, etc. Short of dying, it's nearly impossible to change your vibration that quickly on any particular subject. Best to start more modestly and know that there is a compounding effect throughout eternity that is one your side... maybe you'll be born into the comic book family next time around and all the other collectors will be praying for your early demise? By then ebay will have upon demise type auctions so you can really torture them!!

I agree that the Secret stays at a very superficial level of intention, but that's the level where most people are interested in its application at the present time. In the future, that will change. I believe that the material will always remain within a selfishness based paradigm, as that is a key part of the message. Imo, the problem with having an altruism based map is that it doesn't fit the terrain very well. It seems to me that every biologically based entity down to their very organs, cells, and mitochondria is selfish and if you don't honor that perspective you start floating around feeling bad about not being very selfless and moral and will be too easily influenced by authority figures. Honoring selfishness allows you to accept and honor the workings of the world around you and gives you traction to deal with the reality of the now and to slowly mold those habits of feelings in a more compassionate direction for the selfish purpose of feeling better, spreading joy, etc. The selfishness perspective relies on one's feelings, vs an altruistic system often relies on authority figures and only honors nice, heart-based feelings and leaves most emotions from the kidneys and so forth outside the system. The secret behind the secret is to value all of one's feelings above other people's opinions. Honor your kidneys before your mother and father and you are on the right track. Jmo, Yoda

Actually, I remember reading that gay sex between men is consented to in the Bible in certain situations (bad relationship with wife, plus love between the men). I'd need to email my brother for the verse if anyone is interested. In Wile's Art of the Bedchamber, he quotes that the Yellow Emporer ascended to heaven thanks to a little help from 1,200 consorts.

I've enjoyed the free online advancedyogapractices.com as a good all-in-one with lots of detail and how meditation relates to energy practices. I've enjoyed Tarthang Tulku's Gesture of Balance... more poetic and general, not into much detail and how to. There's also Varieties of Meditative Experiences by Goleman which unpacks the various popular approaches to meditation practice which is also a good read.

Well put. I find that I often think that I'm excited about a particular desire and I pump myself up about it, etc but really I'm adding more nervous, edgy excitement rather than positive feeling excitement. Some degree of calmness and peace needs to be present, at least for me. So simply meditating more often is what helps the most for me.

Per the theory, there are two components to the law of attraction. The first is "ask" which is what the above questions are focusing on and the second is "and ye shall receive". Most of us in the modern, westernized world we have got the ask part down cold--with plenty of concentration and focus. It's the yin/receiving side that is the issue. Our desires are allowed in by our beliefs that allow ourselves to feel good about our desires. So if you desire a glass of water and feel good about it, a glass of water will manifest. The problem with desiring a glass of water is that it isn't that much fun. On the other extreme, a desire is too far out to be engaging at all... "I'd love to dance naked on the moon." Not much fun there either. It's the territory between these examples that makes life fun and challenging where you don't believe that something is entirely possible but you want it anyways... That's where both the ask and receive elements come into play. If the high drive of the ask is balanced with the fun and bliss of allowing then you will have the fun you desire. Here's an account of this by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, when asked if he and Bill Gates reminisce about the days when they were hoping to have more than just a few employees (their goal was 35 full time employees): "Yes, we always have a laugh because it's hard to explain the incredible level of fun we had. We talk about how Bill would sleep on the carpet at the office. The secretary would come in and see Bill's feet sticking out of the door. We were very hard-core. Our only recreational activity was going to the movies. And then we would program until two, three, or four in the morning and then we'd get up fairly late, go back, and do it again. We just loved it. We had a great time." One thing to keep in mind, is that the real manifestation of consequence is the emotional flow, not the end goal. To the extent that I have integrated this perspective, I have benefited by it. This perspective isn't vital, but the fun definitely is. Yoda