Wow! Where did the summer go?

Hello, Gentle Reader:
I really do believe I'd posted here during August, but don't see anything! So here's a quick catch-up, which hopefully will inspire me to post some more by topic names. Firstly, enlightened master David Spero has graced us with two evenings at The Noe Valley Ministry, and will return September 24 for his third and probably final San Francisco appearance this year. Don't miss this, if you're in the Bay Area!
The Sixth annual season of The Odd Monday Series, presented by my very dedicated and adorable partner Judith and myself, with the blessings of the Ministry, began on 9/11 with an evening devoted to the anniversary of the WTC tragedy. Three speakers from the three Abrahamic faiths spoke very movingly, and then a member of the Compassionate Listening Project presented an example of just how they teach the topic. All in all it was a very moving evening, with music provided by the Noe Valley Ministry choir.
What else? On September 30th, composer Nick Alva will present 'The Morningstar Idyll,' a scaled-down version of the Morningstar musical he has written. This will be its first showing, and will take place at The Marconi Center on Route One near Marshall during the annual Communal Studies Association meeting. The Morningstar event is open to the public, but seating is limited. The conference itself is for CSA members only.
Currently I've been listening to recorded meditations by Adyashanti, a local meditation teacher whom I like a lot. His three-CD set includes three meditations that are excellent, especially the one on the phrase, "Not my will but the will of my heart" (paraphrased?)
I've also been reading with great interest a new book by Ajahn Brahm, abbot of a Buddhist monastery in Australia, titled "Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook." In it he explains how the Buddha promoted bliss states as essential to entering meditative absorption, but how many teachers today ignore or do not emphasize this aspect. Quoting from p 130:

...the Buddha repeatedly stated that the pleasure of jhana 'is to be followed, is to be developed, and is to be encouraged. It is not to be feared.' (MN 66,21).
In spite of this clear advice from the Buddha himself, some students of meditation are misled by those who discourage jhana on the grounds that one can become so attached to jhana that one never becomes enlightened. It should be pointed out that the Buddha's word for attachment, 'upadana,' refers only to attachment to the comfort and pleasure of the five-sense world or to attachments to various forms of wrong view (such as a view of a self). It never means attachment to wholesome things like jhana.
Simply put, jhana states are stages of letting go. One cannot be attached to letting go, just as one cannot be imprisoned by freedom. One can indulge in jhana, in the bliss of letting go, and this is what some people are misled into fearing. But in the 'Pasadika Sutta' (DN 29,25), the Buddha said that one who indulges in the pleasure of jhana may expect only one of four consequences: stream winning, once-returning, non-returning or full enlightenment! In other words, indulging in jhana leads only to the four stages of enlightenment. Thus, in the words of the Buddha, 'One should not fear jhana.'

There is a free online or .pdf downloadable version of an earlier draft that later became chapter 9ff, at look under Ajahn Brahn