Great Thunks from E-Mail
Ramon (Ray) Sender
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=May 19, 2003
Dearest T
Meher Baba went around India collecting 'Masts,' defined as god-intoxicated
individuals, often living as homeless beggars and considered by most as
mad. He brought them to an ashram he set up where they could be bathed
and fed. It was a relationship of mutual benefit, I think, because he did
derive some sort of energy from being near them.
Meher Baba himself actually was enlightened via a rock thrown by a somewhat
advanced but eccentric woman sadhu. The rock hit him in the third eye area.
He went into a trance state for some days, and then emerged as the avatar
that we all know and love.
I understand how he could collect these folks. I find, for instance,
George in the ARC group very interesting. Unfortunately he's copped to
my interest, and whenever I pay him too much attention he closes down his
energy. George is an adept of some sort, I'm convinced. There probably
are others in the group as well. I suspect Steve, for example.
"Psycotheology is a fun word. I also like "eudaemony" a lot.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=May 22, 2003
Dear J:
As a fellow non-joiner rambling up Mt. Meru on his own, I very much
appreciate your careful look at each and every aspect of the topic you're
covering.
At the same time, I must confess to you that I suffer from the obsession
that Mother Nature intends us to live in eudaemony, and that there exists
a built-in, easy way for a larger percentage of humankind to 'get there.'
For this reason I've tried out various fumes and fluids,
poked into Aurobindo
for some years (I wish he gave more details about how how he achieved
the Silent Mind in three days!), and then, with the Newsweek article
on Neurotheology, looked into brain devices including Todd Murphy’Äôs
Persinger-inspired SHAKTI, and also the ROSHI, which I found did indeed
induce a delightful twilight state. I have a Mind Mirror II sitting in my closet
I used once, just enough to find out my 'bulge' on the graph is positive.
(SHAKTI -- I still have to give it a serious try, and will report later).
Some 'smile' experiences a year or so ago took me first to some Taoist
'Smile Down' exercises, and then to lunch with Paul Ekman (I was working
on an essay titled "Why Is The Buddha Smiling?") who said something
quite
interesting. His new book, by the way, does not capture the warmth and
charm of the man, IMHO. He said, "Our research shows that holding the same
facial expression for as little as ten seconds changes brain function."
Then, when I hauled out my home-made gadgets to hold certain facial muscles
stable, he commented, "You know, facial muscles are not designed to stay
in one position long. Why not just memorize what parts of your brain light
up when you smile and go directly there?" This is a very smart person.
I've meditated in my own peculiar manner ever since the 1960s and had
more than my share of the chemistry goodies (I started with a peyote trip
that my dear composer friend S R laid on me in 1964 -- I'd never even smoked
pot - lived my life backwards right out through the moment of conception,
and the rest was just -- well, what it was.
Anyway, I'm just delighted to find your new book, AND
I'm also delighted to have found your website with all the 'outtakes'
-- ah, what a delicious repast to look forward to!
You wife sounds like a wonderful person. Mine just retired from teaching
ESL in public high schools for 29 years, and now devotes herself to putting
the right people together on such heart-breaking topics as 'Seeking Peace
in the Middle East.' Actually we both are seeking peace. I'm looking for
it inside, and she's more out in the world.
I have a feeling we'd enjoy one another. If you find yourself in the
Bay Area, come on by for a chat.
Best Wishes - and thanks again for the book. I'll probably be bothering
you again as I read further into your materials.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=May 24, 2003
Dear J:
How kind of you to reply so soon! And sorry that we missed each othexr
on your last Bay Area visit. But never mind, there'll be other opportunities.
I believe in remaining an amateur in all aspects of life. Professionals
take themselves far too seriously. In fact I think my somewhat famous and
emotionally abusive father, Ramon J. Sender, used to accuse me of being
'an amateur.' It sparked my interest in it as a non-career.
You ask, "After all your searching for inner peace, Ray, have you found
it?
What a good question, J. I think I can say "Yes, on a certain level
I have found peace." I could die this moment and not feel any tremendous
regrets about 'unfinished' anythings -- except the sorrow that I would
inflict on my wife and children. And I'd leave an awful welter of
half-completed
projects, but then I think that will always be the case. My ONLY REAL regret
would be that, as I believe I mentioned to you previously, my unfinished
search for the built-in universal panacea that would allow ANYONE easy
access to those rarified realms where we all can dissolve into THAT without
dropping the corporeal form.
The closest I have come to this U.P. discovery -- well, it all began
a long time ago on a commune far away, when a wedding party arrived from
the city. The caterer, as it turned out later, enjoyed overdosing gatherings
with a punch that consisted of at least five or six various mind-expanding
ingredients, if the broken tabs and detritus found on the bottom of the
punchbowl later were any indication.
Anyway, everyone was told just to drink a quarter of a Dixie cup's worth,
but everyone drank more 'just to be sure'. The event went down in commune
history as "Black Sunday." We were lucky in two respects. The closest
telephone
was about 1-1/2 miles uphill on a terrible dirt road (so no one called
the LSD Rescue Squad -- the same caterer repeated this act a few months
later at Harbin Hot Springs with disastrous results, ambulances, etc.)
And secondly, no one came out of it seriously hurt, either physically or
psychically, to the best of my knowledge. If any of this sounds intriguing,
the chapter describing this event can be accessed on line at:
http://www.diggers.org/homefree/hfh_14.html
I just re-read it, and just love some of the folks' comments, especially
Zen Jack's towards the end of the chapter. Jack is one of the funniest
people I know -- or at least was until he decided that California was going
to fall into the ocean and moved to Thailand's outback, from whence he
keeps sending these idiotic 'Let's Roll -- Let's Gettum' right-wing stupid
messages.
Anyway, I cite Black Sunday because that was the day I discovered that
a quick and easy method to cool out someone on a 'bad trip' was to get
them to lie down somewhere quiet and shady, and tell them to plonk their
thumb in their mouth. Thumb-sucking stimulates peristalsis, which gives
a very pleasurable 'massage' to the whole digestive tract, as well as evoking
a blissful regression to babyhood. It has never failed me. Some years later
I adopted the Binky baby pacifier as a method to stop smoking -- worked
great, and I finally weaned myself from dangling it on a string around
my neck when the UPS guy at the door gave me a strange look.
From there, some years later, I began to investigate the neuroanatomy
of the mouth area and tried various little homemade exercises that led
me to discover:
1) that tongue placement is important in Zazen meditation -- something
I should have known years ago and saved myself some time and effort.
2) that tongue placement is important in Taoist "microcosmic orbit"
Qi circulation exercises (I love the Taoist exercises, by the way -- they're
so straightforward and no-nonsense - I highly recommend Master Mantak Chia's
book "Awaken Healing Energy Through Tao" as a reference book, but I
avoid
his cassettes because his English is almost incomprehensible.
3) that 'sleep-nursing' the way babies do in their dreams - little
tongue clucks - stimulate the soft palate and uvula in ways that are quite
interesting _if done first thing upon awakening for, let's say 300 repetitions_
-- and locking it onto the heartbeat rhythm is also not a bad idea.
All this recently culminated in two essays: "Why Is The Buddha
Smiling?"
http://www.raysender.com/smile.html
and "Enlightenment For The Just Plain Disgruntled."
http://www.raysender.com/pooh.html
At the end of the latter, I add: "for the Truly TERMINALLY Dis-Gruntled
Donkey, Grandma Poohbear offers her own rescue remedy. She suggests that
you request a Donkey Gruntler from the e-mail address below. The Gruntlers
currently are available on a free-trial-postpaid-plus-"love donation if
you love it" basis. The Gruntler goes "hee-haw" on the inhale
and exhale.
One hundred of these "hee-haws' will dissolve lateral chest tensions
('armorings'
in Wilhelm Reich's terminology) and do something to the donkey brain that
is definitely de-gloomifying. Words cannot encompass the results! Gruntling
even dissolves road rage, as well as that panicky "I'm late for a very
important date" feeling. With increased repetitions over time, it raises
the setting of the overflow valve on your bliss tolerance level. Many donkeys
really do reach a point where they -- hee-haw! -- absolutely have to stop
because -- hee-haw! -- they are FULL UP!"
I'd be more than happy to mail you a Donkey Gruntler for your own inspection
and try-out. It consists of two teddy bear squawkers connected by a short
piece of vinyl tubing -- sort of like a one-note harmonica. There are now
about 300 of them circulating. Kids absolutely go nuts over them, although
the acoustical tranquillity of the home may suffer. Here's the latest 'thank
you' I received just a few days ago:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=
BLB writes:
I want to let you know about the adventure of the Gruntler you left
with me. I have a dear friend who was losing her mother to cancer in Southern
California. She came to see me and I was showing her the Gruntler. She
wanted to take it with her when she went south. She has laid her mother
to rest and came back to tell me what a comfort it was. Toward the end,
it was the only thing her mother reacted to. It gave her a life when her
mother would open her eyes and give her 'a look'. She thanked me for it
and I told her I would pass her thanks on.
love, B
You ask, "Or is it the search that's important?"
Look, J, either I've been so 'deficient' in feel-goods all my life that
the waves of bliss so easily available to me these days are what most people
experience all the time, or else there is a goal -- perhaps not the ultimate
goal (because tradition has it that there exist higher samadhi's where
even bliss drops away) where we can go whenever necessary to 'drink from
the never-empty font'. Personally, as a worshipper of the Divine Mother,
I now visualize my uvula as her bliss-inducing teat and my heart as her
breast.
By the way, one of the positive aspects of Divine Mother worship is
that it helps deflate spiritual megalomania -- the worst kind of ego problem,
because it is all SHE who is doing it and not YOU (see the book "Halfway
Up The Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment" by
Mariana
Caplan). . . . .
Now that I've once again taken up too much of your bandwidth, I'll sign
off. Many thanks for your warm reply, and wishing you success on your
cross-country
rambles.
Quoting one of my major gurus, Ananda, five years old:
3/22/03 "Ananda Speaks"
"I am glad I am here," she said after suddenly sitting up during a
quiet
moment together, "I am glad I am myself." She continued, "I am
glad I came
out into this world because I am gwowing up and I am going to do all what
I want to do in this world and that is why I'm glad." I reached for a
scrap
of paper and a pen and as I scribbled she went on, "I love myself and
peace
because I am in peace. I am glad I have a little brother and that I have
a mommy and a daddy.
I am glad Mommy gave birth to Zack. I love my mommy and daddy so much
I can't even believe it. I love Zacky and he's pwetty funny. He cwawls
to every little spot that I come. I love my whole family." Then she
paused.
"That's it." [picture attached: Ananda, 5. I place it on my desktop
to
copy her smile]
Beams, and Blessings from S W M F & C U L
Your Friend,
Ray
"I'm thinking, but nothing's happening!"
- Curly of The Three Stooges
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
May 25, 2003
Hi :
Just finished your book -- and am left with a very warm feeling for
you and your family. You're a good person, J, and deserve the blessings
that you've received. Gratitude -- the heart of prayer, right? I've got
the book on the shelf. You're truly blessed with two beautiful children
and wife -- and it takes a blessed person to recognize another, perhaps.
My three boys are in their 30s-40s, married and well-launched .
Thinking of your wife's loss of her pet, I too must have cried for two
weeks over having to put down a poor demented Jack Russell rescue we'd
had for four years, who just would not stop biting people. I suppose I
should have muzzled him, but I think he would've bit me when I put it on
him.
For months after, I couldn't even drive by the pet hospital, and finally
contacted a pet psychic who 'connected' with Winston and we had quite a
good chat. First thing Winston wanted to know about was "the cat on the
back fence," which was his nemesis. So that suspended my disbelief a
little.
Next I asked him about this biting thing, but he said he was never 'there'
when it happened, which sort of backed up the vet's final diagnosis that
it was a brain lesion.
Anyway, I always have had trouble crying. Beloved family members drop
off the tree right and left, and good old Ray is still dry-eyed over a
stiff upper lip. But this crazed Jack who put an eye-tooth half an inch
into the palm of my hand -- bit a neighbor's eight-year-old on the finger,
and finally attacked Judy twice out of nowhere - I wept for days! Go figure.
But back to your book.
I found all of your interviews extremely interesting because I've been
on an 'interview' quest of sorts myself, although doing it via running
up a tab at Abe's used books online.
I've dipped and dabbled into all the major traditions, upgraded my Aurobindo
with SatPrem's books on Sweet Mother and divinizing the cells (got me to
try talking to my cells, which was an interesting experience for them as
well as me -- they first sort of viewed me as Mussolini ranting on the
balcony, so I had to get down to their level). I just bought a translation
from the French titled "Kundalini -The Energy of the Depths" from the
SUNY
Series in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir. Kundalini is a path I've passed
up because of all the warnings about not doing kundalini without an
accomplished
teacher -- as well as reading Gopi Krishna's book in the 1970s. Although
recently via these peace-smile exercises, I've begun to be able to raise
energy from the lower end.
I Meanwhile, I've thought more about my previous answer to you about
finding peace -- quote:
I "I think I can say 'Yes, on a certain level I have found peace.' I
could die this moment and not feel any tremendous regrets about 'unfinished'
anythings..."
I now view my reply above as somewhat arrogant. If ever I'm diagnosed
with a terminal disease, no doubt I'll undergo all the fears and 'why-me's'
that are part of the human drama.
And the universe, of course, just to test my peace brag, presented me
yesterday with a car with a dead battery -- not only the car but the back-up
'Power Depot' I bought just for this moment. So I spent a some hours Saturday
dealing most unpeacefully -- well, at least with a grim smile -- with a
little 'yoo-hoo!' from this best of all possible realities.
The dead battery forced me to give up any notion of even hanging ticketless
around the edges of this weekend's Mind States IV conference in Berkeley,
but you know, perhaps it was just as well. Finishing your book gave me
a bunch of hours of extreme pleasure and information in a rich and compact
format, which I have a feeling I would not have received across the bay
. Can't remember when I've enjoyed a book so much! So thank you!!
. . . .
Returning to your book. I think as a species we could handle a general
'boost' in our endogenous DMT production without just melting into hammocks
and lawn chairs forever. So I'm with Rick Strassman on that particular
thought form although, frankly, I rarely have gotten the 'visuals' the
way you on ayahuasca (and many others) do. This may have something to do
with my very early childhood experiences, about to be evoked in the next
issue of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Newsletter via -- oh well, I'll attach
it --but I'm definitely tuned in to sounds and sound usage of various sorts.
See the 'Peace Now Thou' exercise [on this website].
Or basically, just try a spreading a smile verrrrrrry slowly from the
pursed lips 'kiss' position, isometrically tensing the pursed lips against
the smile muscles to keep a smooth, very gradual 'spread' occurring (you'll
feel your ears wiggle). Towards the end, pull up the frontal chin muscles.
I It's very peace-provoking for me personally, and the chin lift triggers
a rush of what I only can describe as 'compassion' up the chest.
Your book has given me all sorts of people and places to discover on
the Internet, but ultimately, to quote the only part of the Good Book that
we were forced to memorize in 8th grade (Ecclesiastes XII) - "and of the
making (reading) of books there is no end, and much study is a weariness
of the flesh...'
Somewhere you say that perhaps writers are 'doomed' to never achieve
THATness. But it's all sort of built in anyway, right? I said
"RIGHT?!"
If I can just up my bliss tolerance level to where I don't just 'drift'
after three hundred uvula pulls... I fall back asleep when I do them upon
awakening. Maybe if I can just keep them going - like right now! (9, 10,
11, 12, 13)
IAll the very best to you and your dear ones,
Ray
P.S. Of the Advaita teachers, for me the most comprehensive is Master
Aziz Kristof in Poone, India. His one-page map of Awakening is worth a
look-over:
http://www.azizkristof.org/MapOfAwakening.html
He claims to have gone beyond the traditional higher states to something
new. Of the dualists, which I prefer actually because the craziness gets
less intense, I'm very attached to David Spero
http://www.davidspero.org
who sits fat and sassy on Ma's lap (he was with Ammachi for some years,
the hugging mama) in sahaja samadhi and is basically just 'pulling me through'
effortlessly. I like that!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=May 25, 2003
All this has inspired me to start another essay with the working title:
"The Eudaimony 'Plateau' Effect."
I want to discuss why people operate on such low levels of 'well-being,'
as if that's all there is, instead of opening themselves up to more --
or at least to the realization that what they experience every night asleep
-- i.e. dissolution into union within the great ocean of self - if reached
consciously while awake, would fulfill their deepest desires and awaken
an understanding that infinite love/consciousness is their true self -
Sat-Chit-Ananda - and not just tradeable commodities on the Schlock Exchange.
This theme grows out of two of my own experiences: one, with my personal
'method' for achieving higher levels of eudaimony (seizing the tip of my
tongue the very instant I awaken and nursing on it and the uvula/soft palate
area -- an exercise I describe at some length on my developing website)
I find that I basically reach my personal bliss tolerance level and then
'overflow' back into sleep or else 'drift' into an awake 'project' -- 'time
to get up and make coffee, etc' that moves me out of the exercise. Don't
ask me why I just don'tcontine with it while I move around the kitchen,
but 'something' must feel 'satisfied,' so I stay on that plateau. Curious,
no? Here I have at least a personal working method of nursing on my heart
as if it was the Divine Mother's breast and I reach satiation too soon.
I know I could travel further into wider understandings and realms, so
to speak, but I drop away before I achieve any permanent abiding in THAT.
Dumb, eh? Maybe it's some sort of feat of 'too much' of a good thing -
or of the unknown.
The second experience is that, despite my best efforts to communicate,
only a very few of my friends seem to have any idea of what can be experienced
via the tongue/uvula -nursing exercise. So perhaps either this is a very
personal path, or else they too are hitting a bliss tolerance level set
too low because of their life experiences, their growing-up, whatever.
Even the word 'bliss' these days has been so overused that I hesitate even
to evoke it.
I do not mean to imply that my own current state of daily life is not
so fulfilled that I am not extremely grateful. As I assure my dearest and
most wonderful life partner Judy, I am indeed one of the luckiest guys
around, but I do at the same time feel that my 'job' in this lifetime is
to achieve a permanent 'seat at the table,' to continue the metaphor, and
prove to my own satisfaction as well as perhaps serve as a positive example
to others that the historically defined states of Union and Awakening can
be achieved within one lifetime by a perfectly imperfect, happily married
sort of guy with wonderful kids and a favorite dog, ensconced in a fulltime
job. Nicht wahr?
Any suggestions, advice, critiques of the topic, etc. are very welcome!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-June 6, 2003
Hi H...........!
Look forward to rrrreading your book, but I must warn you, dear heart,
I'm an 'early hippie' and not a 'late beatnik.' The Beats still were too...
well... "European-Existentialist" for me? Of course NOT Allen G...
But
the general bump-into artsy crowd at the North Beach bistros in summer,
1957, were too-too somber and serious about themselves. Many furrowed brows,
unfortunately including mine.
I'm reading "Rational Mysticism" by John Horgan. Lots of
quotables,
such as:
"Zen teachers have an excellent method of dealing with students who
start comparing themselves to Buddha or God. 'They take a stick and beat
the crap out of you. And after five or ten years of that, you finally get
over yourself.' Even if you achieve cosmic consciousness, you must still
work on your nonspiritual dimensions, by seeing a psychotherapist, doing
public service, reading books with an intellectual content, exercising,
eating properly'." [quoting Ken Wilber, The Monster Intellect.]
I'm not sure I completely agree with all of KW, but he's profound, always
profound... And Horgan I like a lot. He ends up taking ayahuasca on the
Marin Headlands or thereabouts, at the end of the book. I'm trying to write
a review, but it's turning into an 'overview.'
Beams,
Ramon -- aka Professor Tingle-off
Professor Tingle-off:
Lesson #32: Vee take the schnozz, and vee slightly pinch the nos-trells
with zee thomb and ringie fingertips. Then vee 'blast' away on zee exhales
- sniff! Sniff! Sniff! Sniff! Do-ink the Bhastrika Blasts! 30 blasts --
nothing too hard, nothing too much, and then a biggggg inhale, squeeeze
the buttoks and put zee chin to chest to hold, hold hold.
EXHALE, eyes roll up into forehead and tongue rolls back to SUCK on
it in zee Kecharee Mudra.
30 sucks, and then we repeat again.
Pinch the schnozz, do-ink the blasts, eckercetera...
For a more serious version, see:
http://www.kamakala.com/tantra2.htm
(just discovered this site yesterday)
And May She Who Manifests First Shower Us With Her Blessings!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
June 5, 2003
Dear Friend:
I think I'm written out, in terms of the long form. At least for the
time being. And a young composer who thought the same as you did a
multi-multi-hour
intervew, transcribed it, showed it around - and now it's somewhere in
my file drawers. I also wrote up my two years in the Bruderhof communities
(1957-59), and my agent H S did his best, as he did with all my other
non-fiction,
but I'm just not ECA - East Coast Appropriate. As for the novels, they
were much too whacky for Howard, who cultivates that fondness for Merry
Olde England ties and tastes that's shared by upper cawste New Englanders.
I tried to convince him that I was the J. P. Wodehouse of hippiedom, but
to no avail.
Anyway, some day I'll mama-samadhi (sic!) and belatedly be 'discovered,'
and my three sons will have to deal with the chaos. The author's schizoid
life I just cannot handle -- that is, the hermit at the word processor
I just LOVE, but the persona who must sally forth and talk the talk and
walk the walk of 'celebrity appearances' -- I don't think so. I have no
sense of appropriateness, and tend to just come off as ridiculous -- Zero
the Wunderweight, clown in mufti!
I did the book tour once for "Being of the Sun," which Alicia Bay
Laurel
marvelously co-authored with me, and I really do believe that having our
images microwaved in all directions was not salubrious for our souls. The
six months after the tour were truly hellish. Of course, now, I might consider
it a true yogic discipline to face the blast of other people's psychic
feedback. But I think I am terminally affflicted with wanting everyone
to LIKE me...
Reminds me of a story Gurdjieff tells in "All and Everything"
about
the man whose job it was to ring the bell in the morning that awakened
the townspeople. He told his teacher how awful he felt after ringing it.
His teacher told him that, before ringing the bell, he should shout out
a curse on all within bell-hearing distance. "You sons of misbegotten
camels,
may you suffer terminal dingleberries, may your teeth fall like rotted
grapes, etc. etc." He followed his teacher's advice and immediately felt
much better.
As his teacher explained, every morning after he rang the bell he was
the receiver of all the curses of his listeners, who were saying, "Oh that
imbecile of a bell-ringer. May he rot in hell for awakening me to yet another
miserable day!"
I suppose he who curses first laughs last?
On another topic, I discovered a very interesting website that I think
you might also enjoy. I don't know who this person is -- Roderick Marling
but he does put his photo up, so I guess he's real.
http://www.kamakala.com
Anyway, it sounds as if he's done thirty or so years of the Yogananda
/ Kriya Yoga path, so he's my age, and I do like his essays. His overview
of human history I appreciate, although this Mayan end of a cycle in 2012
-- well, we've been through a number of those end points and still are
staring at what certainly must be a map of the Kali Yuga on our president's
face. Anyway, Marling has skimmed the 'cream' off the top of the yogas
- hatha, pranayama, the body locks (bandhas) and the mudras, and packaged
them in a Lefthand Path tantric manner (mentioning sex a lot!) that I think
is about as immediately and potentially rewarding to a student as any system
I've read. Plus - and this to my mind is a big PLUS - he offers it for
FREE online to everyone.
Of course I especially appreciate his discussion of the 'kechari mudra'
-- rolling the tongue backwards and nursing on it, because it definitely
resonates with my own exercise.
Check him out. I've already written him a fan letter.
http://www.kamakala.com/tantra-2.htm
And his 'Cannabis Papers' are a fun read also! Not much about the guy
on Google - one appearance on something called POT-TV and a few on the
2012 and the tantra circuits - almost wrote 'circuses'. So he's definitely
not out for fame and fortune. Big Plus #2.
Anyway, I'm gonna skim out the essence of what he recommends. I'm not
sure this old bod is going to do the hatha yoga stuff - the Bow is NOT
easy, by the by. The Cobra is fine, but I prefer my inflatable rubber ball
to roll my back out over. But I AM gonna sit in this chair right now and
do 100 breaths of fire. We used to called them 'bellows breathing - 'bhastrika'
back on Pranayama Mama Plateau at Morningstar Ranch, and they're a great
entry point into meditation -- or your writing day -- or anything, for
that matter. And I'm gonna try to remember to do them every morning! They
always felt so marvelous in the Good Old Daze --
don't why I'm so stubborn about the 'done that's' when I know particular
things really do work. I guess it's because I'm still looking for the
man-in-the-street
solution. And when I did the Breath of Fire sniffs in bed last night, the
resident goddess decided I must be having an attack of some sort. I really
need to find something that is QUIET and seems NORMAL to reassureher that
I'm not self-destructing. So it's not the 'man-in-the-street' but the
'husband-in-bed'
solution that I'm after.
Of course the moment I explain that it should also improve our sex life,
then it's -- "Oh yes, indeed, please continue!"
The rest of that particular Marling instruction is worth doing too,
IMHO.
REVIEW OF PART II PART III
Hatha Yoga postures (Actually I prefer the Surya Namaskar to those below)
1. Bhujangasana (Cobra)
2. Salabhasana (Locust)
3. Dhanurasana (Bow)
Fast sniffy exhales:
4. Kapalabhati Pranayama (Breath of Fire-100 times)
Hold inhaled breath in
5. Jalandhara Bandha (Chin lock - down on chest) and
6. Mula Bandha (Tighten PC muscle)
Exhale, relax, and move into
7. Shambhavi Mudra (Eyes up into forehead)
8. Khechari Mudra (Tongue turned backwards with suction)
Normal breath with
9. Eeeee on Inhale
10. VUM on exhale 'hold the MMMM"
36 times and then
Meditation (10-20 min.).
Marling continues:
VAMACARA TANTRA
PART IV
After exploring Part III of our Program for 1 to 3 months, you are ready
to move on into Part IV. The techniques you will be incorporating into
your daily routine are all designed to generate and intensify energy in
specific areas of your body. The principle involved is the same as in the
"floating arms phenomena". You will be generating a charge of energy
in
specific areas of the body by contraction and relaxation of various muscle
groups. You will then pull this accumulated energy up the spine and into
the head.
Ray continues:
(Marling goes on with more detailed and advanced exercises, mainly exploring
the seed syllables EEE and VUM. I like EEE a lot, and had been using it
on my own with the name of the goddess EEE-SEES. I have a whole rap about
how the Fundy Xtians are actually praying to an Egyptian Creator Goddess
with their GEE-SIS, because to evoke Jesus you must intone his original
seed-syllable YESH-UA.)
Anyway, I've never gotten into the kundalini thing before, but have
evolved spontaneously a very similar exercise to his where I've been inhaling,
doing the mulabandha (squeezing the 'mule,' I call it) and raising both
hands, thumb and index fingertips touching, to 'conduct' the energy up
the body to the throat. "Now, asshole, on the upbeat," I'm
thinking...
So it's sort of similar, and I'm pleased to find a positive 'resonance'
in a traditional teaching. Always makes me feel validated along the
mountainside
to spot a footprint of someone who's gone on ahead -- and they normal,
not cloven, and unbloodied as far as I can tell.
By the way, please don't feel compelled to respond to my rantings. I
know that you no doubt are up against tight deadlines.
I'm gonna stop talking the talk and walk the walk a bit myself.
May She Who Manifest 1st and Cleans Up Last Bless Our Sincere Efforts,
and not forget to remind others to put a royalty check in the mail.
Always Your Friend,
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