Plan for first email? - don't go overboard ?? ... **** did al that plan then see (A) below asterisks!!! - Yeah 60,000 & long periods of full awareness without my mind being cluttered up by thought at all. It's near impossibe to describe in words though many have tried. - ask about what they do BUT explain situation financially & personality & time wise & no car ... - Links to dalai & madman - a couple of meditations on sheets - one about Who am I & other about labels & "opposites" ... - schizo?? and what I used to think and THE most amazing people I have ever met ... - plus when you aint worked for 17 yrs due to being totally out-of-it (or totally IN it depending on your conception of reality!) ... people tend to be trifel wary of hiring - not to mention few "conventional" skills ... plus I never really saw myself holding a "conventional" job ... - link to site - I'll tell you the WILDEST thing i believed while I was psychotic - my own private Hell from cure.htm - brief descrip - complete fragmentation of identity & personality & feeling of little or NO control over your thoughts & emotions. Have to exercise TOTAL concentration every moment - either get DAMN good at it or go crazy! A bit like the Tibetan monks who meditate in caves for 15 years - something which to us in the West is just about unimaginable ... - yeah meditation - consider someone you don't feel you have ANYthing in common with at all. Systematically in your mind peel away all the labels you have attached to yourself & to the other person - age, build, personality traits, behaviour, temperamnet, gender, NAME, likes, attractiveness, anything comparative or categorising, Keep peeling away enough labels until you can see that you both share the same essence. As in Buddhism - we all want to be happy & avoid suffering. etc ... - Yeah, simple to say but damn difficult to do (Christ, Buddha etc) - simply extend your love to everyone you encounter without hesitation, reservation, condition or expectation (of it being returned or even appreciated) ... if you want a challenge uyou can't top that one ... reminds me of The Madman I read on train ... - Saintly? the only reason I'd want more money is to help more people out or give it away. ***************************************************************************************** Then in bed befoe Flinders .... You seemed curious about meditation when I said I very much doubt that i have 60,000 thoughts per day. BTW, that's a good way to get people's attention with a sign like that. My story is rather unusual in many respects but you may find it interesting or illuminating so I may as well tell you some of it. I do a lot of writing so it's no problem for me to dash off a few paragraphs like this. Firstly, I was diagnosed as having schizophrenia back in 1983. I'm not sure if you have heard of schizophrenia or know anything about it. Not many people do unless they have experienced it or know someone who has experienced it. To me, having lived with it over the course of the past 17 years, it is one of the most misunderstood and puzzling phenomena that a human being can experience. Psychiatrists are seen by this society as the experts in these matters but even they will admit they have few answers as to why it occurs or what to do about it. A person's behaviour & thinking can wander so FAR from what we call "normality" that they are generally given powerful edications in an attempt to "bring them back". These medications can have some severe side-effects i won't go into here. In my case, the side-effects were far worse than the schizophrenia itself so I decided I would get through the experience without the medications. I have since learned that relatively few people make that decision and that I was indeed fortunate because psychiatrists legally have the power to force you to take the little magic pills. Anyway, what does all this have to do with meditation you might be asking yourself? Well, without going into all the gory details of what the schizophrenic experience is like, let's just say it absolutely forces you to undertake an inner journey into your own mind in ways that a "normal lifestyle" never does. For me, it has been a real hit-and-miss affair but the last 15 months have been literally phenomenal. I have tried many forms of meditation over the course of this journey with erratic results. Then one day it suddenly clicked and I now experience LONG periods of complete awareness without my mind being cluttered up with actual thoughts. It is tough to describe what this fels like in mere words. Many have tried. That is why my first comment when I saw your sign was to say I very much doubt if I have 60,000 thoughts per day. And if you are talking about the number of different thoughts, I would have far fewer than that number again. If you had said I would ever come to regard schizophrenia as a blessing I would have laughed in your face. Most people see it as a curse and I have often seen it that way until these past 15 months or so. Many of my experiences lately have been literally out-of-this-world and I have been chronicling them as best I can at my website and if I ever get all my writing together there are several book's worth of material there. Quite simply, having schizophrenia has forced me to develop a much expanded state of awareness or I would not be here to tell the tale. This expanded awareness often manifests itself in ways that seem odd or bizarre to people who have only ever experienced ordinary states of consciousness. I'm sure many people throughout history have ended up in asylums or worse because nobody around them understood what was happening. Even today this still happens. Some of the most extraordinary people I have ever met have been in psychiatric wards receiveing the tender mercies of the psychiatric profession. I don't know if any of this is useful to you but feel free to ask me any questions you might have. I have used many forms & styles of meitation/contemplation and each has its merits. I may have done this the HARD way having never had an experienced guru or guide or teacher but I have generally felt i could trust my own inner guide. I could give you more details on what meditations I find beneficial if you were interested. Here's a simple one - sit quietly in a place with little or no noise or disturbances. In your mind, repeat the following three things - 1. I am not my body 2. I am not my thoughts 3. Who am I? You needn't do this for a LONG period but it usually helps me alter my level of awareness & consciousness and can be done anywhere if you get really good at it. I really do feel that most if not all of the problems in this culture is that e don't teach or encourage people to undertake such an internal voyage. Most people feel they don't have the time or the resources to do it. But even a small amount of time and effort usually produces some benefit. I realise few people are in the position to do as much meditation as I do. I often feel like one of those Tibetan monks who go off and meditate in a cave for 10 years or more. The person who finally emerges from the cave is fundamentally different from the one who entered it. I would be interested in hearing details of what sort of business you are involved in. Though, like most writers & mystics I tend to be rather introspective and contemplative and often don't communicate as well in person as I do on paper. I really don't concern myself with money although it would be nice to have financial security it is not such a huge priority for me just at the moment. My dream is to continue my writing & maybe get some stuff published when I feel I have down on paper what I really want to say. I realise few writers actually make a comfortable living. We draw our inspiration from our poverty! :) I feel my journey is a LONG way from complete and that all our journeys which seem individual and separate are interconnected in ways that we haven't really begun to understand. Many others are reporting similar experiences to mine that have awakened a new awareness in them. I have a sense of where this is all headed that I would never have imagined possible. When more & more souls have awoken then life on this planet will probably become more wondrous than even my imagination can grasp. Here's a couple of sites you may find interesting - http://www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/writing.html This is my home page. It needs updating but has a lot of my writing that I have done over the course of these past 17 years. http://www.madnation.org/works/dalai.htm The Dalai Lama's practice for new Millennium http://members.aol.com/Quietluv1/Madman.html A brilliant piece of writing I found at the Poetry Shack site. I often get goosebumps just reading this. It is called "The Madman". Rather ironic actually! Namaste. Geoff. {In case you're unfamiliar with the word "Namaste", it is a Sanskrit greeting meaning "I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the place in you, where lies your love, your light, your truth and your beauty. I honor the place in you where...if you are in that place in you...and I am in that place in me....then there is only one of us."} Again, feel free to ask me any questions you may have. **** check THE MADMAN LINK & THE OTHERS! .... ******** *************************************************************************************************** For next - 17 years as above etc ... more on sheets? mate ... Then I go for a walk (that would NEVER have happened if the FENCE - boy! they gave me 2 hours warning and we both have dogs!) anyway ... * redirect mail?? Steve's?? * there is an entire spectrum of techniques - it continually AMAZES me how many ways you can say the same thing - God is Love - because we are all individual in our personalities & some will resonate more deeply with one individual than with another ... I have found Conversations With God to be extraordinary and so have many of the others who have come across it. (Site & Interviews & webcasts) * Oh yes! THAT was the biggest revelation in this period - that the potential for Christ Consciousness exists in every human soul. Once someone has told you that, you will find it hard to look at the world the same way ever again. * We've barely scratched the surface in how to unlock human potential (it is UNlimited in everyone) esp the capacity for uncon love * I see all religs as threads in a giant tapestry being weaved by an unseen weaver? To see any one thread as more important or beautiful is to not see the forest for the trees. * I'm not sure if you are at that stage in your journey where this makes a lot of sense to you. If you are, that's wonderful as I have an endless supply of material that can assist the awakening process ... ***** FEEEL free to give this email to anyone you think might benefit from it or to give them my email ... phone number?? ... ah yes - from chopra forum - that girl is you with a different face on - to see others as different versions of youself... * Yeah, networking - esp if THAT person has many contacts! (Mum) & they in turn ... reminds me a LOT of Susan Greenfield & the brain lecture I recorded ... THANX Dave! * I love writing! (I have sacrificed a LOT for my writing at times!) Language is truly a miracle we take for granted (like my poem) - for instance, a Japanese person could read this page and get absolutely nothing out of it. Writing, especially inspired writing, can sing to the soul. Can give you an insight into another person's thoughts-experience-feelings. Can give you a glimpse of the absolute and th divine ... * I am back! flying! As I wrote a while back - you could dip some ants in ink and let them wander across the page and I'd find inspiration in what they produce ... * Yes, I suppose it is SOME yarn! An atheist - an extremely bitter & twisted atheist at that! - experiences a Satori in a psych ward! ... BUT main motive would be to write it if it can be of benefit to others - and I suppose it can! * I used to want to write a book that would blow people's minds. And I have more than enough material from my time in the dark side to do just that. Now, my motive is identical - but with the aim to inspire or help awaken and ... * I just have this funny feeling I was meant to write this email to you. If not FOR you then maybe for somebody else you might show it too. Just a hunch. I could be wrong. There's a first time for everything. * I don't really know WHAT to tell you. The world DOES seem unfair, cruel & unjust while we are in our unawakened state. * Blurb on CWG III - as in journal june 12 ... yes, my own personal transformation has already been phenomenal yet I'm starting to see it as just the first tiny step of a journey with unlimited possibilities ... and that that SAME potential exists inside each & every soul around me - that has been the HUGE revelation of the past year or so ... how to UNLOCK and TAP into that potential in EVERYONE is the ONLY question worth focusing on ...