What are you reading right now?

[konchog uma]

I noticed that there is a "what are you watching on youtube" and a "what are you listening to" thread, but i hadn't notice a "what are you reading' thread, so i thought i would start one!

 

today i finished Swami Satyananda Saraswati's Kundalini Tantra. It was completely great, one of the best books on kundalini i have read yet. The latter 1/3 of it is dedicated to scientific approach to bioenergy and kundalini, citing the pioneering work of some scientists and inventors i had never heard of before, like Dr Motoyama, who invented a phonebooth looking thing that is leaded and lightproof with electro-sensitive plates and photo-sensitive plates to measure people inside while they meditate on their chakras! in experienced meditators (5 years) he observed the generation of light from the heart center when it was meditated on. Neat stuff. Also in there is great exposition of the chakras, and a pretty good bit of kundalini yoga that i like better than Yogi Bhajan's approach by 100x, not so action oriented, although some of it looks challenging, but more sitting and leading prana with the intention and mind.

 

So now i am reading the Bardo Thodol again.

 

I am also picking my way through Mind At Ease: Self Liberation Through Mahamudra Meditation by Traleg Kyabgon, and Mahamudra: The Moonlight by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, about Buddhist meditation in the tradition of the Tibetan Kagyu lineage.

[Protector]

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Started reading it long time agoooo, right after I posted about it in my screaming burning crushing journal of pain but still didn't finish it

I keep stopping right before the most interesting parts

[julianlaboy]

I am reading 'Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice'. It's a really interesting compilation of a lot of articles. It has three big perspectives (and all three are a multiplicity of voices): Chinese, Japanese and Indian. The weird thing is that these perspectives have lots of things in common: for example, beliefs in multiple selves (although the word "self" and probably its existence is obviously a Western idea), belief in the context and thus in the plasticity and the changing aspect of these selves, among others.

[julianlaboy]

BTW, Sinfest, I love your current image display. Korra and a huge hug! Excellent pick.

[doc benway]

I've been reading through some of Jiddu Krishnamurti's works lately - excerpts from To Be Human and Total Freedom.

And I just started reading a novel in five parts called "Wool" about a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future by Hugh Howey.

Next I'm planning to read Discourses on Ashtavakra Gita by Swami Chinmayananda. My friend and training partner is reading it currently and loving it.

[konchog uma]

cool

 

i am also listening to an audiobook called "Love is a Fire and I am Wood" by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, about sufism. Its kind of an overview, and i like it so far.

[sbtl_nrg]

Dead Souls - Gogol

Blazing Splendor - Urgyen Rinpoche

Awakening of Intelligence - Krishnamurti

Journey to the End of the Night - Celine

Textbook of Ayurveda Vol. 1 - Vasant Lad

[Taomeow]

I'm 2/3 done with the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Hate to see it end! -- which happens with one book out of a 1000 for me, the remaining 999 usually striking me as too damn long, a short story puffed up to a novel, a paragraph occupying the seat of a short story without having paid for it.

It masquerades as "science fiction" but it's mostly historic fact, creatively reinterpreted at times, left intact at other times. The writing style -- another surprise -- is crazy without being neurotic. Most books aspiring to captivate the mind of an intellectual are written by very neurotic authors and I have little patience with them; while most books intended for the "general audience" are written by salesmen (skillful some of them, retarded most of them) and have nothing to do with literature.

It was written in 1975 and most things it had to say about what's to come have so far -- that is, up to the 2/3 of it I've read so far -- proved unbelievably accurate. Much more so than most prophecies I've seen. The authors were either in on some Inner Party information, or so artistically gifted that they could translate a trend of the present into an event of the future with accuracy bordering on clairvoyance.

I found a short excerpt from the novel posted by someone on the internet (it's just one page out of a book of 800 pages, so I hope no copyright violation by the original poster, much less by me, is involved) and offer it to your attention below.

From _The_Golden_Apple_ by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson [as extracted from pp.438f of _The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy_ compilation]

"Very nice,'' I said. "But why did you bring me up here?''

"It's time for you to see the fnords,'' he replied. Then I woke up in bed and it was the next morning. I made breakfast in a pretty nasty mood, wondering if I'd seen the fnords, whatever the fell they were, in the hours he had blacked out, or if I would see them as soon as I went out into the street. I has some pretty gruesome ideas about them, I must admit. Creatures with three eyes and tentacles, survivors from Atlantis, who walked among us, invisible due to some form of mind shield, and did hideous work for the Illuminati. It was unnerving to contemplate, and I finally gave in to my fears and peeked out the window, thinking it might be better to see them from a distance first.

Nothing. Just ordinary sleepy people, heading for their busses and subways.

That calmed me a little, so I set out the toast and coffee and fetched the _New_York_Times_ from the hallway. I turned the radio to WBAI and caught some good Vivaldi, sat down, grabbed a piece of toast and started skimming the first page.

Then I saw the fnords.

The feature story involved another of the endless squabbles between Russia and the U.S. in the UN General Assembly, and after each direct quote from the Russian delegate I read a quite distinct ``Fnord!'' The second lead was about a debate in congress on getting the troops out of Costa Rica; every argument presented by Senator Bacon was followed by another ``Fnord!'' At the bottom of the page was a _Times_ depth-type study of the growing pollution problem and the increasing use of gas masks among New Yorkers; the most distressing chemical facts were interpolated with more ``Fnords.'' Suddenly I saw Hagbard's eyes burning into me and heard his voice: ``Your heart will remain calm. Your adrenalin gland will remain calm. Calm, all-over calm. You will not panic. You will look at the fnord and see it. You will not evade it or black it out. You will stay calm and face it.'' And further back, way back: my first-grade teacher writing FNORD on the blackboard, while a wheel with a spiral design turned and turned on his desk, turned and turned, and his voice droned on, IF YOU DON'T SEE THE FNORD IT CAN'T EAT YOU, DON'T SEE THE FNORD, DON'T SEE THE FNORD . . .

I looked back at the paper and still saw the fnords.

This was one step beyond Pavlov, I realized. The first conditioned reflex was to experience the panic reaction (the activation syndrome, it's technically called) whenever encountering the word ``fnord.'' The second conditioned reflex was to black out what happened, including the word itself, and just to feel a general low-grade emergency without knowing why. And the third step, of course, was to attribute this anxiety to the news stories, which were bad enough in themselves anyway.

Of course, the essence of control is fear. The fnords produced a whole population walking around in chronic low-grade emergency, tormented by ulcers, dizzy spells, nightmares, heart palpitations and all the other symptoms of too much adrenalin. All my left-wing arrogance and contempt for my countrymen melted, and I felt a genuine pity. No wonder the poor bastards believe anything they're told, walk through pollution and overcrowding without complaining, watch their son hauled off to endless wars and butchered, never protest, never fight back, never show much happiness or eroticism or curiosity or normal human emotion, live with perpetual tunnel vision, walk past a slum without seeing either the human misery it contains or the potential threat it poses to their security . . . Then I got a hunch, and turned quickly to the advertisements. It was as I expected: no fnords. That was part of the gimmick, too: only in consumption, endless consumption, could they escape the amorphous threat of the invisible fnords.

I kept thinking about it on my way to the office. If I pointed out a fnord to somebody who hadn't been deconditioned, as Hagbard deconditioned me, what would he or she say? They'd probably read the word before or after it. ``No _this_ word,'' I'd say. And they would again read an adjacent word. But would their panic level rise as the threat came closer to consciousness? I preferred not to try the experiment; it might have ended with a psychotic fugue in the subject. The conditioning, after all, went back to grade school. No wonder we all hate those teachers so much: we have a dim, masked memory of what they've done to us in converting us into good and faithful servants for the Illuminati.

[Protector]

Finished reading my book and reached enlightenment as promised by the cover

[Cat Pillar]

I've always wanted to read the Illuminatus! trilogy. Maybe it's about time I buckled down and bought it.

 

I wish I could say I was reading something right now but I'm really not. It's been so long since I just sat down and enjoyed a good book...time is so hard to come by these days.

[Birch]

Reading too many things at the same time. But just finished 'The Primal Scream' early 1970's version. A lot of the stuf in there reminded me of a lot of the stuff we deal with on here and many of my experiences and the techniques that bring them on and shut them off. The overlay (my term) of the symbolic reconstruct to meet resolution of the original experience. The false self and what's under it. The going through and not avoiding of one's actual real experience.

 

All that stuff and a whole bunch of other things I can't articulate at this point. I figure that guy is part Shaman, soul-retriever, shakta-guy, breaker of conditioning...

[Disabled Not Broken]

today i finished Swami Satyananda Saraswati's Kundalini Tantra. It was completely great, one of the best books on kundalini i have read yet.

I read that recently, and agree - an awesome read.

 

Currently reading:

 

"Opening the Dragon Gate - The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard" By Chen Kaiguo & Zheng Shunchao

 

Most recently, was listening to a Manly P. Hall commentary in which he speaks about the chakras.

 

His opinion [though he addresses it as 'fact'] is that there is no such thing as chakras.

 

They are only 'in the brain' ...

 

Those who believe in such 'absurdities' are new age loons

 

Those energy ganglion appear real to me...

Edited July 14, 2012 by Disabled Not Broken

[konchog uma]

I read that recently, and agree - an awesome read.

 

Currently reading:

 

"Opening the Dragon Gate - The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard" By Chen Kaiguo & Zheng Shunchao

 

Most recently, was listening to a Manly P. Hall commentary in which he speaks about the chakras.

 

His opinion [though he addresses it as 'fact'] is that there is no such thing as chakras.

 

They are only 'in the brain' ...

 

Those who believe in such 'absurdities' are new age loons

 

Those energy ganglion appear real to me...

 

hehe manly p hall is an intellectual and a scholar, not a mystic or a yogi

 

so for him i guess they are "in the brain"

 

patanjali is my favorite new age loon

[Disabled Not Broken]

hehe manly p hall is an intellectual and a scholar, not a mystic or a yogi

 

so for him i guess they are "in the brain"

 

patanjali is my favorite new age loon

 

"The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali"

&

"The Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga" By Arthur Avalon

 

were the first books I read once my Kundalini went full blown...

 

what a mess I made lol

[Jetsun]

Reading too many things at the same time. But just finished 'The Primal Scream' early 1970's version. A lot of the stuf in there reminded me of a lot of the stuff we deal with on here and many of my experiences and the techniques that bring them on and shut them off. The overlay (my term) of the symbolic reconstruct to meet resolution of the original experience. The false self and what's under it. The going through and not avoiding of one's actual real experience.

 

All that stuff and a whole bunch of other things I can't articulate at this point. I figure that guy is part Shaman, soul-retriever, shakta-guy, breaker of conditioning...

 

I started reading that but I got worried that it would be like many other psychology books that I have read in that they speak a lot of truth but the solutions they propose don't work, so you get really well educated in how you are messed up but you are still messed up, which doesn't help in the long run as you are just spending your time focusing on being messed up rather than focusing on something you enjoy... so I stopped reading it. It's probably not like that at all but I have been scarred by reading psychology books.

 

Right now I am reading "Living With Joy" by Sanaya Roman, or rather Sanaya says she is channelling a being of light in a her books called Orin who provides all the wisdom contained within, which at first sounded a bit crazy to me but reading it at the moment all of the content seems true so far and not crazy at all and very useful.

 

The other book is "The Joy of Living" by Yongey Mingur Rinpoche which is a really good book for a someone who wants a decent clear introduction to Buddhist meditation.

 

Unfortunately with the kindle I download a new book every day and never finish them

[de_paradise]

Truman Capote "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in this bilingual French edition.

[Birch]

I started reading that but I got worried that it would be like many other psychology books that I have read in that they speak a lot of truth but the solutions they propose don't work, so you get really well educated in how you are messed up but you are still messed up, which doesn't help in the long run as you are just spending your time focusing on being messed up rather than focusing on something you enjoy... so I stopped reading it. It's probably not like that at all but I have been scarred by reading psychology books.

 

Right now I am reading "Living With Joy" by Sanaya Roman, or rather Sanaya says she is channelling a being of light in a her books called Orin who provides all the wisdom contained within, which at first sounded a bit crazy to me but reading it at the moment all of the content seems true so far and not crazy at all and very useful.

 

The other book is "The Joy of Living" by Yongey Mingur Rinpoche which is a really good book for a someone who wants a decent clear introduction to Buddhist meditation.

 

Unfortunately with the kindle I download a new book every day and never finish them

 

 

I found it an enthralling read. I didn't read it as a psychology book - it's pretty critical of psychology and psychologists. I saw it as this guy (albeit with education and practice in a variety of psychotherapies) sort of stumbling across this approach 'by accident' and then repeating it enough to lay out a consistent method and formulate a theory. The stuff he's doing is very similar to stuff in qi-gong practices. Well, I saw a lot of parallels (sp?) to things I've experienced and pondered. But I guess I brought a lot of myself to the book;-)

 

A lot of 'psychology' is bunk IMO. It's the rearranging of the overlay, the re-conditioning of behaviour (never mind where the latter comes from) and the reiteration of 'functionality' inside specific social constraints.

 

---opinion :-)---

[idiot_stimpy]

Becoming what you are - By Alan Watts

[Trunk]

C.G.Jung's autobiography, "Memories, Dreams, and Reflections". It's taken real work for me to relate to him in some ways, other ways a shoe-in. Good writer. The book has impact.

[JustARandomPanda]

Babaji: The Lightening Standing Still - by Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath

 

Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics - 3rd Ed. by Susan and Bruce Kodish

[suninmyeyes]

Just started Sarangel 'Riding the windhorses'. It seems interesting so far.

Its about Mongolian/Siberian shamanism, including some rituals and practises too.

[Jeramiah Zeitigeist]

Just started Sarangel 'Riding the windhorses'. It seems interesting so far.

Its about Mongolian/Siberian shamanism, including some rituals and practises too.

 

I have read that. I thought it was very good.

[zerostao]

http://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Worlds-M-C-Escher/product-reviews/0681891203/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

nice pictures

 

http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item1175269/?site_locale=en_US

nice pictures

[Brian]

Reading too many things at the same time.

<snip>

 

Oops

Edited July 19, 2012 by A Seeker

[Brian]

Reading too many things at the same time.

<snip>

 

^^^ Me, too. Four right now, maybe? Can't remember any of them at the moment...

 

Maybe I'll repost later with titles and such.

Edited July 19, 2012 by A Seeker