From: pagemail@swcp.com   
      
   In article ,   
    "Alan B. Mac Farlane"  wrote:   
      
   > ya Joe ... i have been around.   
   >   
   > the first few NDEs I had ... were not that great ... but it did keep my   
   > interest.   
   >   
   > as I got better (healed up my PTSD issues), stoped living in fear and did   
   > the work of living in love.   
   >   
   > the NDEs got better.   
   >   
   > it is all a projection.   
      
   I guess it could be; how could we tell?   
      
   Here's a funny thing about "living in the now":   
   I used to think that meant making myself try harder   
   to *pay attention* to what was going on around me   
   instead of always being distracted by the circus of   
   noisy bullshit going on constantly in my head (like   
   most folks, I think, nothing special about that).  I   
   recently ran into a guy who used to be the   
   meditation wrangler for some swami or other from   
   India but who's now living quietly on his own and   
   advising a small stream of clients on meditation   
   techniques, and damned if he didn't turn that   
   completely around for me so that dropping my   
   awareness deep inside my physical body and   
   staying there for a while turns off the noisy head   
   so I can hear myself not think, as it were.   I find   
   that about 20 mins of that per day seems to set me   
   up for a calmer, more settled way of living, which   
   I badly needed; might go back and see him again   
   some time.  The idea seems to be that Westerners   
   get all detached from their bodies, which they   
   hate because bodies suffer and die, and then the   
   head gets hyper-active and screws things up.  If   
   you re-connect with the body and give it the   
   attention that it's due, then the head can relax,   
   and action arises cleanly out of the body's direct   
   connection with the world and is always the   
   appropriate action.   
      
   I like this idea; it fits with the Zen notions that   
   I've found to be the most sensible and attractive   
   notions of what living is about, and I find that I   
   actually am doing the meditation regularly, which   
   I could never manage before (when tuning to the   
   "outside" in an effort to shut the inside up).   
      
   Still, it *is* a form of "contemplating your navel",   
   which sounds really stupid -- until you remember   
   that your navel is "about" your birth as a physical   
   being, which is sort of important, no?  So maybe   
   connecting more with that belly-area (also the   
   home, according to many Eastern traditions, of   
   chi/qi, or life engery) is useful for making some   
   kind of better "connection" with the necessary death   
   of that physical vessel and survival of the energy-   
   part?   
      
   Ramblin' this morning . . .   
      
   C   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)