To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/06/06 22:48
Subject: Re: [K-list] On getting my head together..............
From: jasmine five
On 1999/06/06 22:48, jasmine five posted thus to the K-list:
>From: "Raymond Wand" <raymondoATnospamfreeuk.com>
>Reply-To: "Raymond Wand" <raymondoATnospamfreeuk.com>
>To: "World Network of (Ex-)Users and Survivors of Psychiatry"
><wnuspATnospamlyris.peoplewho.net>, "K. list" <kundaliniATnospamList-Server.net>,
> <heartzenATnospamlistserv.servtech.com>, "actmad digest recipients"
><actmadATnospamlyris.rainier-web.com>
>Subject: [K-list] On getting my head together..............
>Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 22:06:03 +0100
>
>Friends,
>I found this in my newspaper today.
>I thought it might help someone out there.
>
>Love and Hugs,
>Raymond
>Hi Raymond; thanks for the article below...it's brilliant.I'm going to
>forward it on to a few people so they can crack their jaws as well (ow!)
;D Jaz
>MEDITATION CANNOT be taught I know this. I learnt transcendental meditation
>as an undergraduate. A group of us paid 50 quid apiece. The bloke told us
>he'd studied for years in India with the Maharishi. It looked authentic. In
>my ear he whispered my very own mantra that I was never to tell anyone in
>case I discovered that it wasn't personal at all.
>We attended four long sessions. We were told to devote at least 20 minutes
>twice a day, or it wouldn't work. Of the six of us, maybe one was still
>going two weeks later. I couldn't bear to. Whenever I closed my eyes in a
>darkened room, I saw the string of saliva that was perpetually strung
>between my TM teacher's upper and lower lip.
>It was stories like these that prompted Zen Buddhist monk Clark Strand to
>write a no-nonsense guide to meditation. He reckons you don't need to spend
>three years with a Chinese hermit.
>He wondered, "Was there a way for people to slowdown and experience
>themselves ... without adopting a new religious or philosophical ideology?"
>He admits that by writing a book he is in some way part of the problem.
>"The
>only choice left was to write a book of my own and be sure to include a set
>of matches, hoping the fad might catch on."
>
>Meditation made even simpler:
>1. Meditation should be a hobby There should be no six-month schedule for
>reduced blood pressure. You should not be thinking, "Are all the others
>doing it better?".
>2. Make sure the room is dark. Wear loose clothing. Put on an Enya CD ...
>spot the deliberate mistakes? It's all needless. Stop looking for a set of
>rules, you uptight old Brit.
>3. That said, a good way to empty the mind is to focus on breathing. Count
>one to four with each inhalation. Strand adds: "As golf pro Harvey Penick
>said, Whatever you do, do not try to relax'."
>4. Sit comfortably. Clark Strand tried the lotus position and permanently
>lost the feeling in the top of his big toes. Just keep the back straight,
>eyes horizontal and nose vertical.
>5. Where should you meditate? None of this dark silent room nonsense. Just
>do it.
>6. The keys to meditation are with you. But it's like your house keys: you
>know where they are but you can't find them. Calm down. Look again and
>there
>they are.
>7. When you try to lose yourself in the present it normally proceeds thus.
>You managed it for about 0.01 seconds before you think "Ooh, I did it!",
>then you do it again. Then think "Ooh!" again. This phenomenon is called
>"The Watcher". Don't worry about it.
>8. Meditation is about letting go and seeing that the world does not
>collapse when we stop paying attention.
>9. Once you can do it, you will probably get bored because there is nothing
>to it. The benefit is also the problem. You need to stop needing to do
>something. This is self-contradictory, obviously.
>10. And what's the point? While gurus hesitate to evince anything as
>shallow
>as purpose, ignorant Life Doctors can say you wlll be calmer, more
>confident, less bogged down, more aware of the bigger picture. All that
>kind
>of stuff. This being a post-modern column I would say that the film City
>Slickers had meditation summed up. While the woman doing her TM on a rock
>was oblivious to the cattle stampede, Curly the Cowboy, who told Bllly
>Crystal that city folk "worry about a lot of s**t", was truly relaxed. It
>backfired a little. They thought he was so chilled he slept on a rock with
>his eyes open. In fact he was dead. Watch for that.
>
>'The Wooden Bowl: Simple Meditation for Everyday Life' by Clark Strand,
>price £8.99.
>http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0717128725/qid=928703271/sr=1-2/026
>-8848276-0247039
>
>
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