n1. The
Tang dyn asty physician Sun Szu-n1o ((lO r-6X. z), author of the
tnedical classic Prcs cripti<liiS <�f,, TlwiiStllld c;o/dpiacs, took a sitnila r
stand. He \Vrote that if a nun has great sexual statn ina, he should
not hold back fron1 tjaculating for too long, or he will suffe r con
gestion and illness. Frequency of ejaculation, Sun said, should
depend on a rnan's age and general health, and the season. The ancient classics agree in general in their reconllnenda
tions for n1ale ejaculation schedules. Son1e of them give alter
natives for the n1ore vigorous and the less so. The Classic of the
Elemeutal Afa id says that virile young n1en between the ages of fif
teen and twenty may ejaculate once a day, or several tin1es a day if
they are strong. At thirty a man may ejaculate once a day if he is
strong, every two days if he is not. Men of forty may ejaculate
once every three to four days; men of fifty once every five to ten
days; men of sixty once every ten to twenty days; and men of sev
enty once every thirty days-or not at all if they are weak. Pre
scriptiatzs of a Thousand Goldpieces gives these recommendations:
At age twenty, men may ejaculate once every four days; at thirty,
once every eight days; at forty once every sixteen days; at fifty,
once every twenty-one days; and at sixty, once every month--or
not at all if they are weak. The Secret Art of the Jade Chamber gives
this advice: At age twenty, men may ejaculate once every two days;
at thirty, once every three days; at forty, once every four days; at
fifty, once every five days; and at sixty, not at all. The Essnz tials of
Nurturirzg Life, quoting the Taoist Liu Ching, recommends an
ejaculation once every three days in spring, twice a month in sum
mer and fall, and none at all in winter. In the spring, Liu reasoned,
a man's sexual essence is strong, while in winter it is weak. The
book gives no recommendations according to age, so presun1ably
these prescriptions are for the middle-aged. Orgasmic brinkmanship -going to the brink but not over
as taught in ancient Chinese classics etnploys both psychosomatic
and purely physiological techniques. The fanner arc recom-C/(luds tmd Ra;,
I I 7 THE ART OF THE BEDCHAM BEH
n1ended when the rnan feels the approach of orgasm; the latter arc
applied as an emergency measure when ejaculation is imminent. Below is a sumn1ary of the recornmendations in various classics:
In his Prescriptions of a Thousand Goldpieces, Sun Szu-mo teaches
that whenever a man feels he is ncar ejaculation, he can control
hin1self by opening his eyes wide, closing his mouth, and breath
ing through his nose with his diaphragm. Then, using his index
and n1iddle fingers, he should press firmly the pin,{. i acupoint
(found one inch above the right nipple) and gnash his teeth a thou
sand times. Essentials of the Jade Ch amber, quoting Tlze Class ic of the Immor
tals, teaches that a man n1ay surmount the crisis by pressing his
fingers on the hui-yi11 acupoint (found on the perineum between
the anus and the penis) while breathing deeply and gnashing his
teeth several dozen times. The Secre t Art of the jade Chamber, quoting the second -century
B. C. sexologist Wu Tzu-tu, says that a man may control himself
by raising his head, stopping his breathing momenta rily, shout
ing, and glaring left and right while contracting his abdomen. The text also prescribes pressing "below the genitals" with the
left hand. The Mystic Master of the Grotto advises the n1ale partner
to wait and time his own orgasm to coincide with that of the
wom an. He suggests these delaying tactics: The man should with
draw his jade stalk so that the insertion is only one or two inches
deep-"like a nipple in an infant's n1outh. " Then he should close
his eyes and concentrate while pressing his tongue on his palate,
hunch his shoulders and stick out his head, dilat e his nostrils and
inhale deeply. This will not only delay his ejaculati on but litnit it
to twenty to thirty percent of the nonnal ctnission when it does
take place. A Ming dynasty sexual-alchetn ical treatise with the fornlid
abk title lntc rprt'ttlliotl t�{thc Cultil',ltioll t�f 7ha h hy the Gn·,lt Immor tal
t�f the Purple-Gold C/t1r}' echoes Wu Tztt-tu's recon1n1endation s. During copulat ion, it says, when the nun is nuking three-shallo w,
one-deep thrusts and feels he is about to ernit, he should with
draw his jadl· stalk so that i t is only one or two inches det'p, and
wai t until he caltns down. Then he nuy resurnc his thrusting. Tht •
nun is adv ised further to adopt a deliber ate attitu dt· of indiftcr
ence towa rd his partner in order not to excite his passion. Acupressure tnethods arc very effective, but they should he
only as an en1crgcncy n1casure, since apparent non tjaculation nuy
n1can an internal ejaculation into the bladd er. This defeats the
purpose of the exercise and tnay han n the nun. The ancients practiced orgasn1ic brinknunship for two pur
poses. One was health-which included preserving the nun's life
essence and pron1oting longevity. The other involved the sex act
itself-prolonging n1alc activity and bringing the won1an to her
din1ax, repeatedly if desired. Which purpose was mor e itnpor
tant was-and is-a n1atter of pt·rsonal choice. What is significant
is that this technique is workable, even though it takes son1e prac
tice and plenty of self-discipline. For modern lovers this opens
new vistas on the erotic horizon. If a n1an is skilled in this art,
with the cooperat ion of his partner he can create ecstatic pleasure
for both of then1 in their lovemaking. Sexologists in ancient China believed that blood and semen
were different n1anifestations of chi, or life-energy. To their minds,
semen was a much more concentrated form of life essence than
blood. Any indiscriminate squander ing of semen, and to a lesser
extent, blood, would bring ill health, even death. Significantly,
they used the terms "return alive" to describe the unejaculated
phallus after coitus, and "return dead" to describe a spent phallus. Most earlier sexologists advocated limited male ejaculation, cer
tainly for improved procreation, generally for health, and often
for pleasure. The consensus of ancient Chinese sexologists was
that both men and women must have sexual intercourse regularly
for health and longevity, but that limited male ejaculation was es
sential. Female sexual essence was inexhausti ble, according to the
Taoists, and thus female orgasm and ejaculation would not harm a
woman's health. In light of this theory, rabid dogmatists, especially later sex
ual alchemists, took the extreme view that every ejaculation of
male semen was a dire catastrophe. Out of this belief was born the
bizarre-and at times hilarious-sexual practice of "pluck-and
nurture," described in the next chapter. Clor4ds and Rain
I I 9 9
The Sexual Duel of
Pluck-and-Nurture
Battling /or the Elixir o/ Li/e
LIKE AN UNDULATING DRAGON, tlze wlzite wa/1 with its war1y, tiled top
ell closes the secluded gardcu. On tlze_far side, bamhoos sway iu the refresh
ing breezes of a summer el'enitlJ. · Gol�fish swim lmzguidly in au irre,g
ularly shaped pond fritlJ.,Cd with greenery and spmmed by a uarrow,
archt•d bri�.,C,�f brilliant vermilion. Otl OtiC side is a low, r,u,Mifl,., /wriSt'
with curl'ed ea11cs and upswept ro<. �{ wnzers. Thcfr,l. _.,r,mce_ti·om tl clump
t{jasminc hushes lends an iur,,xicatill,., scllsrwusllcss to the 11ir. A H


bricks. The most savvy investors in the world were
valuing this piece of paper at over a hundred million
dollars. My mouth went dry, and tears welled up in my eyes. I
had given everything up, and it kept coming back
tenfold. When I had decided to let go and devote my life
to s erving what was unfold ing in front of me, I was
earning less than five thousand dollars a year. WhenBuilt with Love came together, it grew from tens of
thousands to hundreds of th ousands in revenue. When
Personalized P rogramming came together, it quickly
grew to millions and then mo re than ten million in sales
and royalties. Now I was dealing with a hundred-million-
dollar asset. It wasn’t the mo ney that moved me; it was
the invisible hand of life that blew me away. I stood there
in the bank and offered that piece of paper back to the
universe from whence it had  come. I vowed to serve the
company I had watched life build, brick by brick, and to
use the money entrusted to m e in a way that would help
others. I took a deep breath, closed the deposit box, and
prepared to ship the stock certificate up to New York.4 5. B e c o m i n g  C E O
M edical Manager Corporation was born out of a
successful IPO  on February 2, 1997. Out here in the
woods o f Alachua, not only di d I maintain my position as
president of our large R&D facility, but I also became
CEO an d chairman of the bo ard of directors of the new
company. I was completely naive as to how much work I
would b e taking on as CEO. I quickly realized that it was
going to require all the one-pointed focus I had
developed thr ough my years of meditation. I had
surrendered, a nd this was t he task life had given me. That made it part of my spiritual journey, and I was fully
prepared to devote myself to it to the absolute best of my
ability. The first thing I did was tak e the steps necessary to
assure that I would know what was going on in the
company. I was in Alachua, a nd a group of independent-
minded execu tives accustom ed to running their own
businesses were scattered around the country. If I was
going to take responsibility for the company, a thorough
flow of inform ation needed to pass across my desk. This
was going to require regular group conference calls and
an enor mous amount of reporting to keep up with what
everyone was doing. When I announced that each
executive had to turn in a weekly report on the major
activities under their domain, there was definitely some
grumbling. But together we had an enormous amount of
experience, and I wanted the group-mind making
decisions, not any one person’s mind.It wasn’t long, however, before I realized that I
couldn’t possibly keep up with all the weekly status
reports plus be properly prepared for the executive
conference call s. I needed some serious help, and as you
may have guessed by now, that is exactly what I got. We won ’t call it a miracle, but this time life’s magic
showed up in the form of a young lady named Sabrina. Paul Dobbins had met her years earlier at one of our
national dealer seminars, and apparently, it was love at
first sig ht. Not too long after  that, Paul informed us that
Sabrina was moving here, and they were getting married. I didn’t know Sabrina, and I was concerned that Paul
expected her to move int o a yoga-based spiritual
community when she wasn’t even into yoga or
meditation. He  assured me that she would fit in just fine,
and he also inf ormed me that I would be very pleased to
have he r work at the company. Surrender, surrender,
surrender—like I had a choice. As it turns out, Sabrina’s family business was a small
Medical Manager dealership in California. She had been
selling, installing, and suppo rting practice management
software since she was thirteen years old. Though she
was only twenty-two when she began working at
Personalized P rogramming, and had never even been to
college, I soon found out that senior-level business
analysis was completely natural to her. Despite the fact
that she had no prior experience at this level, Sabrina
was the  person I turned to for executive help when I
became CEO. With Sabrina at my side, one of my main
responsibilities as CEO beca me growing the company. Fortunately, this was no ordinary company; the
prospects for growth in th e newly created Medical
Manager Corp oration were phenomenal. To start with,
our growth would come naturally as we acquired our
dealers. We had close to two  hundred dealers, many of
which would be very good ac quisitions for us. As long aswe had  a steady stream of new dealers merging into the
company, we had a natural source of growth. Much more interesting to me, however, was the
tremendous growth that could come from our ability to
electronically c onnect our enormous number of doctors
to the rest of the health -care industry, including
insurance companies, laboratories, and pharmacies. Once we rolled support of our practices under one roof,
we could provide a level of automation for the health-
care sys tem that would not o nly cut costs but also result
in improved efficiency and patient care. I sa t down wit h Sabrina and told her that getting our
hundred-thousand-plus doctors fully up on electronic
claims and other health-care  transactions was going to
be our first new corporate business initiative. I then
informed her that she was going to be in charge. This was
the birth of what we called Medical Manager Network
Services. The success of this venture at so many levels
was practically incomprehensible. It started out as an
inspired vision and grew into a $100-million-a-year line
of busin ess. In a very short period of time, we led the
industry in electronic transactions. Over the next two years, the  company grew by leaps
and bounds. We kept acquiring more and more of our
dealers, and our nationwide  presence meant we could
provide our services to larger and larger clients. Meanwhile, I never worked so hard in my life. But it
didn’t burn me out. In fact, it had the opposite effect. The
more I let go of “Mickey” and just committed myself to
the task life ha d given me, the more the spiritual energy
flow increased within me. It was as though by aligning
myself w ith life ’s outer flow, t he beautiful, inward flow of
energy was naturally stren gthened. By now, I had
become thorou ghly convince d that the constant act of
letting go of o ne’s self-centered thoughts and emotions
was all that was needed for profound personal,
professional, and spiritual growth.4 6. T h e  I n t e r n e t  a n d  H e a l t h  C a r e
A fter almost thirty years, I’d seen enough perfection
unfold around me that nothing in me wanted to interfere
with the flow ever again. I had seen time and again how
what at  first appeared to be a  problem turned out to be a
guiding force of change leading us forward. That was
certainly the case toward the end of 1998 as our
executive strategy calls began to focus on how the
Internet was going to affect our business. It concerned us
that our competitors would so on have inexpensive access
to all physicians nationwide without the need to build
out a dealer ne twork. John Kang and I were well aware
that two  health -care Internet  companies, Healtheon and
WebMD, were already soliciting our doctors on an ever-
increasing basis. We knew we had to do something if we
wanted to be able to compete successfully in the
upcoming world of Internet connectivity. Around this time, John Kang had been introduced to a
company calle d Synetic, in New Jersey, that was in the
process of building a very advanced health-care Internet
portal. Synetic had one of the finest management teams
in the industry, and it appeared that none of the other
start-up companies stood a chance against it. Synetic executives were very interested in a possible
merger with Medical Manager Corporation. Their dream
was to handle all the industr y’s health-care transactions
through their Internet portal. When they looked at us,
they sa w more than one hundred thousand physicians
already connected electronically for a broad range of
services. If they handled the transactions for all ourphysicians, everyone in the industry would want to do
business with them. Synetic w as in a position to leverage
the asset we had built to an entirely new level. In May of 1999, John Kang set up a meeting for me to
meet Synetic’s  chairman, Marty Wygod. Marty and I
lived on opposite sides of th e country, so he suggested
that we  meet at an aptly named private airport in
Midway, Texas. Midway wa s, in fact, almost exactly
halfway between California and Florida. I chartered a
private jet and flew in by myself. Sitting


’t say anything about it. Do you like it or dislike it? It is neither pleasant nor unpleasant. It just is what it is. Now take the image of your ex-boyfriend with his new partner, but don’t
refer to any thoughts about the image. Just experience the raw image without
commentary. T ell us about it. 142attending to painful emotions
It’s…(long pause)…again, I can’t say anything about it. Do you like it or dislike it? Again, it just is what it is. Anything I feel or say about it would be added to the
raw experience. Perfect! Is there any suffering present in your current experience? No! What is the common name for this absence of suffering? Peace or happiness. Where did you go to find this peace and happiness? I didn’t go anywhere. Exactly! You didn’t escape from your current experience. No, actually, I stayed with my current experience! That is the great secret! People normally believe that their suffering takes
place now and that relief from suffering is to be found in the future or past. However, our suffering begins the moment we try to escape from our current
experience into an imagined future or a remembered past. If you want relief
from your suffering – that is, if you want peace and happiness – simply stay
with your current experience. There is a practice in the Theravada Buddhist text the Satipatthana
Sutta in which students are asked to focus on a ‘bloated, livid and festering’
corpse. *  The student is asked to sit with the experience for as long as it
takes for their repulsion to be neutralised in their disinterested contem -
plation. 143* As translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu ( 2008 ).you are the happiness you seek
Visualising my ex making love with his partner is much worse than imagining
a rotting corpse! Well, you are a mature student! However, a mature student is not necessarily
one who has been on the path for a long time, but rather one who has the
courage, the love and the clarity to go for the truth of their experience irre -
spective of the cost to their personal life. But I forget that it’s here when I’m so stuck in my feelings. Keep reminding yourself until it becomes natural to simply live in the now. Most people live in the past or future and only visit the now briefly on the
fulfilment of a desire, in the pause between thoughts or in the peace of
deep sleep. Make the now your home and only visit the past or the future
when required to do so for practical, celebratory or investigative purposes. Everything you have ever truly longed for lives there. But I can’t stop my thoughts about my past relationship. It is only possible to entertain one thought at a time. The whole weight of your
suffering is contained in a single thought. Cease investing that thought with the
power to make you miserable. At any moment of suffering, just ask yourself the
question, ‘Without reference to thought or memory, where is my suffering?’ All
suffering is contained in the imaginary space between what I have and what I
want. Make what you have what you want and there will be no room for suffering. There’s a part of me that feels that I need to be doing a little suffering. That is your freedom! But why do you feel you need to suffer? I think it’s partly because I’ve created this story: I’m a woman whose relationship
has ended. All my friends and family are in this with me, like, ‘Oh, you poor
thing, this is really terrible.’

Yes, the suffering is in the story, not the situation itself. Who is telling you
that story? 144attending to painful emotions
I am telling it to myself! Yes, simply stop telling yourself that story. It’s kind of added to by the people around me. I think it’s society as well that does
that. Don’t blame others for your suffering. No person or situation imposes suffer -
ing on you. Your suffering is your own activity. All suffering is resistance,
and all resistance is contained in the thought ‘I don’t like what is present;
I want what is not present’. Have the courage and the clarity to see that. It feels quite hard. There’s a justified part of me that wants to say, ‘Well, no, what
he did was wrong and unkind’. I hear what you’re saying, but there’s that going
on as well. Even when I just talk to people, they’re like, ‘Oh my God, that must
be really awful’. Choose carefully whom you speak to. Seek truth, not consolation. It is truth
alone that will liberate you. Have the courage and the clarity to face your
experience without turning away from it. The heavy burden of suffering that
you have been carrying around with you, not just this last week but all your
life, is contained in a single thought. Can you taste the peace and freedom
that is available to you if you don’t refer to that single thought? Yes. You are like someone in prison with the door wide open. Just walk through it. I think I’m just a professional sufferer. Retire! Yes, I look forward to retiring. Don’t look forward to it! Hand in your notice and leave! You are already free. 145chapter eighteen
The Unity of Being
The Kingdom of God is within you and it is outside of you. jesus

If we were to distil the contents of this book thus far into a single phrase,
it might read, ‘The awareness of being is happiness’. This understanding sum -
marises the first universal truth that is the source of all the great religious,
spiritual and philosophical traditions and which, when clearly seen, brings
the search for happiness to an end. However, we may object on two grounds: one, that we arrived at this
understanding by making a distinction between awareness and the content
of experience, thereby maintaining an inherent dualism; and two, that this
understanding takes care of the individual but neglects society and the en -
vironment at large. As we have seen, most of us are so exclusively identified with our
thoughts, feelings and sensations that we have allowed ourselves to be defined
by them. Our being seems to be coloured by experience. Therefore, in order
to recognise our essential nature, it is first necessary to divest our being of
the qualities and limitations it seems to have acquired from experience. This involves turning within, sinking into being to the exclusion of ob -
jective experience. In this process, being is initially revealed as the neutral
ground that underlies all experience, and then this neutrality gives way to
peace and, in time, joy. As Yvan Amar, a Dutch teacher of non-duality once
said, ‘Peace is happiness at rest; happiness is peace in motion’. However, this is not a static process. In the words of Rumi, beautifully
rendered by Coleman Barks, the investi gation into the essential nature of
our self is to ‘Flow down and down in always widening rings of being’. *
* Jelaluddin Rumi, ‘A Community of the Spirit’, Selected Poems, translated by Coleman Barks (Penguin
Classics, 2004 ).you are the happiness you seek
     As we sink more and more deeply into being, or, stated from the per -
spective of being, as being is progressively divested of the qualities it seems
to have acquired from experience, it grows ‘wider’; it loses its limitations. Our being is not our being. There is no ‘our’, no ‘me’ to whom being belongs. There is just utterly intimate yet impersonal, infinite being. Gradually, or occasionally suddenly, the mists of belief that have shrouded
our being evaporate. Being loses its apparent limitations and is understood
to extend beyond the individual. It is shared, universal, whole. Being shines in each of us as the am-ness of our self and in the world
as the is-ness of all things. This utterly intimate and yet impersonal, infi -
nite being that was first recognised within us as the experience of peace
and happiness is now revealed as the being from which everyone and every -
thing derives its apparently independent existence. This is the second as -
pect of the non-dual understanding: we share our being with everyone
and everything. losing the sense of separation

When I was seven years old, apparently I said to my mother that I thought
everything was God’s dream. I cannot help but notice that now, more than
fifty years later, I have not evolved very much, although I express myself in
rather more sophisticated terms! Later on, in my teenage years, I developed a great admiration for the
Romantic poets, with their reverence for the all-pervasive spirit which per -
meated the natural world and, at the same time, lay in the depths of their
own heart. In particular, I noticed how their use of words had the ability to
induce in myself the same experience from which their poetry originated. My love of the beauty and power of language perhaps comes from this
period. Around that time, I also developed a love of being in nature. Walking in
the landscape, I would often notice that my mind would spontaneously
quieten and, at the same time, I would lose the sense of being enclosed within
the body. The landscape felt as intimate as my body, and my body became
as open and expansive as the landscape. I felt that I was melting into a presence that was familiar and yet, at the


ancer	were	profoundly	impacted	by	the	consumption	of
protein. In	my	research	group,	we	learned
that	we	could	turn	the	bad	genes	on
and	off	simply	by	adjusting	animal	protein	intake. Furthermore,	our	China	research	findings	showed	that	people	of	roughlythe	same	ethnic	background	have	hugely	varying	disease	rates. These	are
people	said	to	have	similar	genes,	and	yet	they	get	different	diseases
depending	on	their	environment. Dozens	of	studies	have	documented	that	as
people	migrate,	they	assume	the	disease	risk	of	the	country	to	which	they
move. They	do	not	change	their	genes,	and	yet	they	fall	prey	to	diseases	and
illnesses	at	rates	that	are	rare	in	their	homeland	population. Furthermore,	we	have	seen	disease	rates	change	over	time	so	drastically
that	it	is	biologically	impossible	to	put	the	blame	on	genes. In	twenty-five
years,	the	percentage	of	our	population	that	is	obese	has	doubled,	from	15%
to	30%. In	addition,	diabetes,	heart	disease	and	many	other	diseases	of
affluence	were	rare	until	recent	history,	and	our	genetic	code	simply	could	not
have	changed	significantly	in	the	past	25,	100	or	even	500	years. So	while	we	can	say	that	genes	are	crucial	to	every	biological	process,	we
have	some	very	convincing	evidence	that	gene	expression	is	far	more
important,	and	gene	expression	is	controlled	by	environment,	especially
nutrition. A	further	folly	of	this	genetic	research	is	assuming	that	understanding	our
genes	is	simple. It	is	not. Recently,	for	example,	researchers	studied	genetic
regulation	of	weight	in	a	tiny	worm	species. 12
	The	scientists	went	through
16,757	genes,	turning	each	one	off,	and	observed	the	effect	on	weight. They
discovered	417	genes	that	affect	weight. How	these	hundreds	of	genes
interact	over	the	long	term	with	each	other	and	their	ever-changing
environment	to	alter	weight	gain	or	loss	is	an	incredibly	complex	mystery. Goethe	once	said,	“We	know	accurately	only	when	we	know	little;	with
knowledge	doubt	increases.”
13
Expression	of	our	genetic	code	represents	a	universe	of	biochemical
interactions	of	almost	infinite	complexity. This	biochemical	“universe”
interacts	with	many	different	systems,	including	nutrition,	which	itself
represents	whole	systems	of	complex	biochemistry. With	genetic	research,	I
suspect	we	are	embarking	on	a	massive	quest	to	shortcut	nature	only	to	end
up	worse	off	than	when	we	started. Does	all	this	mean	I	think	that	genes	don’t	matter? Of	course	not. If	you
take	two	Americans	living	in	the	same	environment	and	feed	them	exactly	the
same	meaty	food	every	day	for	their	entire	lives,	I	would	not
be	surprised	if
one	died	of	a	heart	attack	at	age	fifty-four,	and	the	other	died	of	cancer	at	the
age	of	eighty. What	explains	the	difference? Genes. Genes	give	us	our
predispositions. We	all	have	different	disease	risks	due	to	our	different	genes. But	while	we	will	never	know	exactly	which	risks	we	are	predisposed	to,	we
do	know	how	to	control	those	risks. Regardless	of	our	genes,	we	can	all
optimize	our	chances	of	expressing	the	right	genes	by	providing	our	bodieswith	the	best	possible	environment—that	is,	the	best	possible	nutrition. Even
though	the	two	Americans	in	the	example	above	succumbed	to	different
diseases	at	different	ages,	it	is	entirely	possible	that	both	could	have	lived
many	more	years	with	a	higher	quality	of	life	if	they	would	have	practiced
optimal	nutrition.PRINCIPLE	#5
___________
Nutrition	can	substantially	control	the	adverse	effects	of	noxious
chemicals. Stories	of	cancer-causing	chemicals	regularly	appear	in	the	press. Acrylamide,	artificial	sweeteners,	nitrosamines,	nitrites,	Alar,	heterocyclic
amines	and	aflatoxin	have	all	been	linked	to	cancer	in	experimental	studies. There	is	a	widely	held	perception	that	cancer	is	caused	by	toxic	chemicals
that	make	their	way	into	our	bodies	in	a	sinister	way. For	example,	people
often	cite	health	concerns	to	justify	their	opposition	to	pumping	antibiotics
and	hormones	into	farm	animals. The	assumption	is	that	the	meat	would	be
safe	to	eat	if	it	didn’t	have	those	unnatural	chemicals	in	it. The	real	danger	of
the	meat,	however,	is	the	nutrient	imbalances,	regardless	of	the	presence	or
absence	of	those	nasty	chemicals. Long	before	modern	chemicals	were
introduced	into	our	food,	people	still	began	to	experience	more	cancer	and
more	heart	disease	when	they	started	to	eat	more	animal-based	foods. A	great	example	of	a	misunderstood	“public	health	concern”	regarding
chemicals	is	the	lengthy,	$30	million	investigation	of	minimally	higher	rates
of	breast	cancer	in	Long	Island,	New	York,	referred	to	in	chapter	eight. Here,
it	seemed	that	chemical	contaminants	from	certain	industrial	sites	were
creating	breast	cancer	for	women	who	lived	nearby. But	this	ill-conceived
story	has	proven	to	have	no	merit. Another	chemical	carcinogen	concern	surrounds	acrylamide,	which	is
primarily	found	in	processed	or	fried	foods	like	potato	chips. The
implication
is	that	if	we	could	effectively	remove	this	chemical	from	potato	chips,	they
would	be	safe	to	eat,	even	though	they	continue	to	be	highly	unhealthy,
processed	slices	of	potatoes	drenched	with	fat	and	salt. So	many	of	us	seem	to	want	a	scapegoat. We	do	not	want	to	hear	that	our
favorite	foods	are	a	problem	simply	because	of	their	nutritional	content. In	chapter	three,	we	saw	that	the	potential	effects	of	aflatoxin,	a	chemical
touted	as	being	highly	carcinogenic,	could	be	entirely	controlled	by	nutrition. Even	with	large	doses	of	aflatoxin,	rats	could	be	healthy,	active	and	cancer-
free	if	they	were	fed	low-protein	diets. We	also	saw	how	small	findings	can
make	big	news	every	time	cancer	is	mentioned. For	example,	if	experimental
animals	have	an	increased	incidence	of	cancer	after	gargantuan	exposures,	the
chemical	agent	is	trumpeted	as	a	cause	of	cancer,	as	was	the	case	for	NSAR
(see	chapter	three)	and	nitrites. However,	like	genes,	the	activities	of	thesechemical	carcinogens	are	primarily	controlled	by	the	nutrients	that	we	eat. So	what	do	these	examples	tell	us? In	practical	terms,	you	aren’t	doing
yourself	much	good	by	eating	organic	beef	instead	of	conventional	beef	that’s
been	pumped	full	of	chemicals. The	organic	beef	might	be	marginally
healthier,	but	I	would	never	say	that	it	was	a	safe	choice. Both	types	of	beef
have	a	similar	nutrient	profile. It	is	useful	to	think	of	this	principle	in	another	way:	a	chronic	disease	like
cancer	takes	years	to	develop. Those


 and that could
explode at any moment; and so I lived my whole childhood
with a bomb that had not yet e xploded and that, of course,
also e xploded fr om time to time. So this is not good k arma and so the young adult became
unhappy, he absorbed the unhappiness of his envir onment,
etc. All this is not good k arma, but it is pr ecisely because of
this bad k arma that the suﬀering became unbearable and
then this sur render happened, when the suﬀering was no
longer bearable, and suddenly the grace appear ed. One
may ask - I may not be able to answer it, but I am asking
the question - the fact that the devotion took place in the
midst of suﬀering must have been a grace; it may well have
been. W ell, who knows - the sur render happened, and with
the sur render, suddenly grace could ﬂow in completely. Grace is the essence of who you ar e and it ﬂows thr ough
that for m, and in that state of grace, the density of the for m
decreases, and when it decr eases, grace can better ﬂow
through it. The density of the for m decr eases thr ough the
surrender or acceptance of something simple lik e the
present moment, just as it is. As a spiritual e xercise, if you
make that your spiritual practice, you won't always succeed,
that's ok ay, you should for give yourself, and if you don't
succeed in accepting what is, you accept that you can't
accept what is at that moment, so you have another level of
acceptance behind the non-acceptance. I can accept that
anger is arising in me at that moment, it is what is; I could
also deny it and think: "Oh, I should be accepting- why can't
I accept the pr esent?"! Or better yet: a conversation in the
mind, as if it wer e two people: "Why can't you do this? See,
you can't do it! Y ou failed again!" This is the ego's soliloquy. Instead, we should have compassion; if we can't accept, we
should acknowledge it and allow the emotion to be ther e;
then we still have some "width" ther e. And ther e is grace,because grace is br eadth; (r hymes in English with grace-
space) grace happens when e xpanse, as unconditioned
divine consciousness, comes into life, and that's why the
quick est way to invite that grace into one's life is, as I
sometimes e xpress it, to accept being that moment,
whatever for m it tak es, because "it is" anyway "lik e that", so
why not say "yes" because "it is" That doesn't mean that
you can't do something. But at that point, it's lik e that. In
other wor ds, we follow the pr overbial e xpression of walking
with the river of life and the river is always her e and now,
never go against it and the point of entry is always the
being-ther e of this moment. With this acceptance, the gate is opened and grace can
enter. If one complains about the diﬃculties or the
unsatisfactory natur e of the pr esent moment, the gate
remains closed or, in other wor ds, the shutters ar e down,
the sun cannot enter. This does not mean that one is mor e
powerful than the sun, the shutters ar e equal to the sun. When one goes into denial, one is somehow against the
present moment, or one uses it as a means to get to a mor e
important place, because one wants to go thr ough it, and
then grace can no longer act in one's life, or one r eceives
only a dr op, just enough to go further, occasional dr ops,
when one per ceives for e xample something: "L ook at that
sunset! "and for a moment the complaining entity goes away
and grace can enter, and you live for 3 weeks: a sunset. But
it's only a dr op of water, of course, and so moving fr om for m
to for mlessness is achieved by accepting whatever for m
appears in the pr esent moment, whatever for m that
moment is. Y ou immediately say to yourself, "Ok ay, this is
how it is now." With the acceptance of for ms, the
formlessness opens up within. And the ultimate truth of that
can be seen in the image of the cruciﬁxion, which to me is
beyond r eligion; some people have an aversion to that andsay, "Oh, I don't lik e that image with that man on the cr oss,
it's connected to so much suﬀering and unhappiness" and
so on. But ther e is a deep meaning ther e which per haps
could not be e xpressed in an abstract way for a long time,
and that meaning is: her e is the image of the absolute
suﬀering of a man; he is nailed to a cr oss, and it is an
instrument of tortur e, and this man is able to sur render and
accept: "Not my will but yours be done! ", and then the
instrument of tortur e suddenly becomes a symbol of the
divine. Isn't that strange? The instrument of tortur e
becomes a symbol of the divine. Everything that is
consider ed an obstacle or something hor rible is transfor med
by acceptance. Any situation that is fundamentally accepted
- and if it is a big deal lik e a cruciﬁxion, then the acceptance
has to be very deep - then an immediate transfor mation
takes place. Grace is also hidden in what seems so ter rible; the ter rible
suﬀering that we see all ar ound us - it is ther e! And grace is
hidden ther e - and you can only see the truth of that in
yourself; I'm not saying that everyone should just believe it. You have to discover for yourself that grace is hidden in the
seemingly hor rible things; even in the little things that go
"wrong", but even mor e so in the big things that go "wr ong";
and eventually you r ealize that it's not "wr ong" at all; it just
looks lik e it is when you judge it. And that's how you invite
grace into your life, you bring a deep "yes" into the pr esent
moment and then personal development accelerates and
the mor e you do that, the less you need the disasters
because you'r e working with the unfolding consciousness;
the consciousness wants to unfold in that dimension. So it's
really about welcoming what is. That was my str oke. I was in
the hospital, and I saw all the doctors and nurses talking to
my family, my friends...all shaking their heads and saying,
"You're having a str oke?!" and I could feel how somethingquite ter rible had happened to them, and on the wall was a
pictur e of Maharashi. That str oke was grace. Ther e are three
guys her e - my medical team - I would never have met
them. I wouldn't have met them; we philosophize together,
we talk about medicine. But I had a str oke and it was grace. Befor e I had this str oke, I read a book called "How Can I
Help". I felt lik e I could r eally help. A fter the str oke, I had the
title of the book in my head, "How can I help? I never
thought it was possible, that... I was so addicted; and so
trapped in myself; I lear ned a lot about addiction. And it was
positive. Many of you have pr obably seen the movie that
was made about R am Dass' life, called "F ierce Grace." I love
that title, because when something bad lik e that happens,
it's really "violent" and those who can sur render to it r eally
go far. So when a kind of "violent grace" comes into a life,
there is at the same time the possibility of going very deep
and this violent grace bur ns the illusory self. It is the ﬁr e in
which the ego is bur ned. But it can just as easily str engthen
the ego by saying, "T errible, ter rible, what happened to
me?" "How could life do this to me? How could God do this
to me? Why did this happen to me?" And so then what
would have actually been a huge opening and an
opportunity to bur n through the accumulations of maybe
thousands of years is block ed. This may be good to know for
those who ar e facing a very big challenge in their lives right
now.I have one last question for both of you: R am Dass, you
mentioned several times your r elationship with Maharashi
and the importance he had in your life. I know that some
people look at the two of you and see you as a guru ﬁgur e
to them personally. Whether you believe it


 the unde rstanding of the nature of consc iousness. Consciousness is capable of recognizing only T ruth. It merely fails to
respond to falsehood. Similarly, a mirror reflects an image only if there is
an object to reflect. If no object is present to the mirror, there is no
reflected image. T o Calibrate A Level. Calibrated levels  are relative to a specific reference scale. T o arrive at the
same figures as in the chart in Appendix B,reference must be made to
that tabl e or by a statement such  as,“On a scale of human consciousness
from 1 to 1,000, where 600  indicates Enlightenment, this _____
calibrates over _____ (a number).” Or,“On a scale of consciousness
where 200 is t he level of T ru th and 500 is the level of Love, this
statement calibrates over _____.” (State a specific number.) General Information. People generally  want to determine truth from falsehood. Therefore, the
statement has to be made very specifically. A void using general termssuch as a ‘good’ job to apply for. ‘Good’ in what way? Pa y scale? W orking conditions? Promotional opportunities? Fairness of the boss? Expertise. Familiarity with the test brings progressive expertise. The ‘right’
questions to ask begin to spring forth and can become almost uncannily
accurate. If the same tester and test subject work together for a period of
time, one or both of them will develop what can become an amazing
accuracy and capability of pinp ointing just what specific questions to
ask, even though the subject is totally unknown by either one. For
instance,the teste r has lost an object and begins by saying, “I left it in my
of fice.”(Answer: No.) “I left it in the car.” (Answer: No.) All of a
sudden, the test subject almost ‘sees’ the object and says, “Ask, ‘On the
back of  the bathroom door.’ ”The test subject says,“The object is
hanging on the back of the bathroom door.”(Answer: Y es.) In this actual
case, the test su bject did not even know that the tester had sto pped for
gas and left a jacket in the restroom of a gasoline station. Any info rmation can be obtained about anything anywhere in current or
past tim e or space, depending on receiving prior permission. (So metimes
one gets  a “no,” perhaps for karmic or other unknown reas ons.) By
cross-checking, accuracy can be easily confirmed. For anyone who
learns the technique, more information is available instantaneously than
can be held in  all the comp uters and libraries of the wo rld. The
possibilities are  therefore obviously unlimited, and the prospects
breathtaking. Limitations. The test is accurate only if the test subjects themselves calibrate over 200
and the intentio n for the use of the test is integrous and also calibrates
over 200. The requirement is one of detached objectivity and alignment
with truth rather than subjective opinion. Thus, to try to ‘prove a point’
negates accuracy. Sometimes married couples, for reasons as yet
undiscovered, ar e unable to use each other as test subjects and m ay have
to find a third person to be a test partner. A suitable test subject is a person whose arm goes strong whe n a love
object or person is held in m ind, and it goes weak if that which is
negative (fear, hate, guilt, etc.) is held in mind (e.g., W inston C hurchill
makes one go strong, and bin Laden makes one go weak). Occasionally, a suitable test subject gives paradoxical responses. This
can usua lly be cleared by doing the ‘thymic thump’. (W ith a cl osed fist,
thump three times over the upp er breastbone, smile, and say “h a-ha-ha”
with each thump and mentally picture someone or something that is
loved.) The temporary imbalance will then clear up. The imbalance may be the resu lt of recently having been with negative
people, listening to heavy-metal rock music, watching violent television
programs, playing violent video  games, etc. Negative music ener gy has a
deleterious ef fec t on the ener gy  system of the body for up to  one-half
hour after it is turned of f. T elevision commercials or background  are also
a common source of negative ener gy. As p reviously noted, this metho d of discerning truth from false hood and
the calibrated levels of truth h as strict requirements. Becaus e of the
limitations, calibrated levels are supplied for ready reference  in prior
books, and extensively in T ruth vs. Falsehood. Explanation. The muscle-stre ngth test is independent of personal opinion or beliefs
and is an impe rsonal response of the field of consciousness, just as
protoplasm is impersonal in its responses. This can be demonstrated by
the observation that the test responses are the same whether verbalized or
held silently in mind. Thus, the test subject is not influenced by the
question as they do not even kno w what it is. T o demonstrate this, do the
following exercise:
The test er holds  in mind an image unknown to the test subject and states,
“The im age I am holding in mi nd is positive” (or “true,” or “calibrates
over 200,” etc.). Upon direction, the test subject then resists the
downward press ure on the wris t. If the tester holds a positive image in
mind (e.g., Abraham Lincoln, Jesus, Mother T eresa, etc. ), the test
subject’ s arm muscle will go strong. If the tester holds a false statement
or n egative image in mind (e.g. Bin Laden, Hitler, etc. ),the arm will goweak. In asmuch as the test subject does not know what the tester has in
mind, the results are not influenced by personal beliefs. Disqualification. Both skepticism  (cal. 160) and cynicism, as well as atheism, calibrate
below 200 because they reflect  negative prejudgment. In contrast, true
inquiry requires  an open mind and honesty devoid of intellectu al vanity. Negative studies of the testing methodology all calibrate below 200
(usually at 160), as do the investigators themselves. That even famous professors can and do calibrate below 200 may seem
surprising to the average person. Thus, negative studie s are a
consequence of negative bias. A s an example, Francis Crick’ s research
design that led to the discovery of the double helix pattern of DNA
calibrated at 440. His last research design, which was intended to prove
that consciousness was just a product of neuronal activity, calibrated at
only 135. (He was an atheist.) The failure of investigators who themselves, or by faulty research design,
calibrate below 200 (all calibrate at approximately 160), confirms the
truth of the very  methodology they claim to disprove. They ‘should’ get
negative results, and so they do, which paradoxically proves the accuracy
of t he test to detect the dif ference between unbiased integrity and
nonintegrity. Any new  discov ery may upset the apple cart and be viewed as a threat to
the s tatus quo of prevailing beli ef systems. That consciousness research
validates spiritual Reality is, of course, going to precipitate resistance, as
it is actually a direct confronta tion to the dominion of the narcissistic
core of the ego itself, which is innately presumptuous and opinionated. Below consciousness level 200, comprehension is limited by the
dominance of Lower Mind, whi ch is capable of recognizing facts but not
yet able to grasp what is meant by the term ‘truth’(it confuses r es interna
with r es externa ), and that truth has physiological accompaniments that
are d if ferent from falsehood. Additionally, truth is intuited as evidenced
by the use of voice analysis, the study of body language, pupillary
response, EEG changes in the b rain, fluctuations in breathing and blood
pressure, galvanic skin response, dowsing, and even the Huna t echniqueof m easuring the distance that the aura radiates from the body. Some
people h ave a very simple technique that utilizes the standing body like a
pendulum (fall forward with truth and backward with falsehood). From a more ad vanced contextualization, the principles that prevail are
that T ru th canno t be disproved by falsehood any more than light can be
disproved by darkness. The non linear is not subject to the limitations of
the linea r. T ruth  is of a dif ferent paradigm from logic and thus is not
‘provable’, as that which is provable calibrates only in the 400s. Consciousness r esearch method ology operates at level 600, wh ich is at
the interface of the linear and the nonlinear dimensions. Discr epancies. Dif fering calibrations may be  obtained over time or by dif ferent
investigators for a variety of reasons:

1. Situations, people, politics, policies, and attitudes change over
time. 2. People tend to use dif ferent sensory modalities when they hold
something in mind, i


ness that follows the I Am. Sense your presence, the naked, unveiled,
unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good
or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all
form.A New Earth
C A N  Y O U  H E A R  T H E  M O U N T A I N
S T R E A M? A Zen Master was walking in silence with one of his disciples along a
mountain trail. When they came to an ancient cedar tree, they sat down
under it for a simple meal of some rice and vegetables. After the meal,
the disciple, a young monk who had not yet found the key to the mystery
of Zen, broke the silence by asking the Master, Master, how do I enter
Zen? He was, of course, inquiring how to enter the state of consciousness
which is Zen. The Master remained silent. Almost five minutes passed while the
disciple anxiously waited for an answer. He was about to ask another
question when the Master suddenly spoke. Do you hear the sound of that
mountain stream? The disciple had not been aware of any mountain stream. He had been
too busy thinking about the meaning of Zen. Now as he began to listen
for the sound, his noisy mind subsided. At first he heard nothing. Then,
his thinking gave way to heightened alertness, and suddenly he did hear
the hardly perceptible murmur of a small stream in the far distance. Y es, I can hear it now, he said. The master raised his finger and, with a look in his eyes that in some way
was both fierce and gentle, said, Enter Zen from there. The disciple was stunned. It was his first satori a flash of enlightenment. He knew what Zen was without knowing what it was that he knew! They continued on their journey in silence. The disciple was amazed at
the aliveness of the world around him. He experienced everything as if
for the first time. Gradually, however, he stated thinking again. The alert
stillness became covered up again by mental noise, and before long hehad another question. Master, he said, I have been thinking. What would
you
have said if I hadn't been able to hear the mountain stream? The master
stopped, looked at him, raised his finger and said, Enter Zen from there.A New Earth
R I G H T  A C T I O N
The ego asks, How can I make this situation fulfill my needs or how
can I get to some other situation that will fulfill my needs. Presence is a state of inner spaciousness. When you are present, you ask:
How do I respond to the needs of this situation, of this moment? In fact,
you don't even need to ask the question. Y ou are still, alert, open to what
is. Y ou bring a new dimension into the situation: Space. Then you look
and you listen. Thus you become one with the situation. When instead of
reacting against a situation, you mer ge with it, the solution arises out o
the situation itself. Actually, it is not you, the person, who is looking and
listening, but the alert stillness itself. Then, if action is possible or
necessary, you take action or rather right action happens through you. Right action is action that is appropriate to the whole. When the action is
accomplished, the alert, spacious stillness remains. There is nobody who
raises his arms in a gesture of triumph shouting a defiant Y eah! There is
no one ho says, Look, I did that. All creativity comes out of inner spaciousness. Once the creation has
happened and something has come into form, you have to be vigilant so
that the notion of me or mine does not arise. If you take credit for what
you accomplished, the ego has returned, and the spaciousness has
become obscured.A New Earth
P E R C E I V I N G  W I T H O U T  N A M I N G
Most people are only peripherally aware of the world that surrounds
them, especially if their surroundings are familiar. The voice in the head
absorbs the greater part of their attention. Some people feel more alive
when they travel and visit unfamiliar places or foreign countries because
at those times sense perception experiencing takes up more of heir
consciousness than thinking. They become more present. Others remain
completely possessed by the voice in the head even then. Their
perceptions and experiences are distorted by instant judgments. They
haven't really gone anywhere. Only their body is traveling, while they
remain where they have always been: in their head. This is most people's reality: As soon as something is perceived, it is
named, interpreted, compared with something else, liked, disliked, or
called good or bad by the phantom self, the ego. They are imprisoned in
thought forms, in object consciousness. Y ou do not awaken spiritually until the compulsive and unconscious
naming ceases, or at least you become aware of it and thus are able to
observe it as it happens. It is through this constant naming that the ego
remains in place as the unobserved mind. Whenever it ceases and even
when you just become aware of it, there is inner space, and you are not
possessed by the mind anymore. Choose an object close to you a pen, a chair, a cup, a plant and explore it
visually, that is to say, look at it with great interest, almost curiosity. A void any objects with strong personal associations that remind you of
the past, such as where you bought it, who gave it to you, and so on. Also avoid anything that has writing on it such as a book or a bottle. It
would stimulate thought. W ithout straining, relaxed but alert, give your
complete attention to the object, every detail of it. If thoughts arise, don't
get involved in them. It is not the thoughts you are interested in, but the
act of perception itself. Can you take the thinking out of the perceiving? Can you look without the voice in your head commenting, drawingconclusions, comparing, or trying to figure something out? After a
couple of minutes or so, let your gaze wander around the room or
wherever you are, your alert attention lighting up each thing that it rests
upon. Then, listen to any sounds that may be present. Listen to them in the
same way as you looked at the things around you. Some sounds may be
natural water, wind, birds while others are man?made. Some may be
pleasant, others unpleasant. However don't dif ferentiate between good
and bad. Allow each sound to be as it is, without interpretation. Here too,
relaxed but alert attention is the key. When you look and listen tin this way, you may become aware of a
subtle and at first perhaps a hardly noticeable sense of calm. Some
people feel it as a stillness in the background. Others call it peace. When
consciousness is no longer totally absorbed by thinking, some of it
remains in its formless, unconditioned, original state. This is inner space.A New Earth
W H O  I S  T H E  E X P E R I E N C E R? What you see and hear, taste, touch, and smell are, of course, sense
objects. They are what you experience. But who is the subject, the
experiencer? If you now say, for example, W ell, of course, I, Jane Smith,
senior accountant, forty?five years old, divorced, mother of two,
American, am the subject, the experiencer, you are mistaken. Jane Smith
and whatever else becomes identified with the mental concept of Jane
Smith are all objects of experience, not the experiencing subject. Every experience has three possible ingredients: sense perceptions,
thoughts or mental images, and emotions. Jane Smith, senior accountant,
forty?five years old, mother of two, divorced, American these are all
thoughts and therefore part of what you experience the moment you
think these thoughts. They and whatever else you can say and think
about yourself are objects, not the subject. They are experience, not the
experiencer. Y ou can add a thousand more definitions (thoughts) of who
you are and by doing so will certainly increase the complexity of the
experience of yourself (as well as your psychiatrist's income) but, in this
way, you will not end up with the subject, the experiencer who is prior to
all experience but without whom there would be no experience. So who is the experiencer? Y ou are. And who are you? Consciousness. And what is consciousness? This question cannot be answered. The
moment you answer it, you have falsified it, made it into another object. Consciousness, the traditional word for which is spirit, cannot be known
in the normal sense of the word, and seeing it is futile. All knowing is
within the realm of duality subject and object, the knower and the
known. the subject, the I, the knower without which nothing could be
known, perceived, thought, or felt, must remain forever unknowable. This is because the I has no form. Only forms can be known, and yet
without the formless dimension, the world of form could not be. It is the
luminous space in which the world arises and subsides. That space is the
life that I Am. It is timeless. I Am timeless


 are saying, but you  cannot believe  something  about
“I am”  and not create  it. We  are creating  morning, noon, and   night by
our “I am”  statements. If you  say, “I don’t feel well”  and you believe  it,
you are perpetuating  illness in your life. You must change  those  state-
ments to “I feel wonderful. ”   We were taught, “Let the  weak man say, ‘I
am strong. ’”  But, you  can’t say it like  a parrot. We  have to pray (say I
am), believing  that it is true,  and then we  will receive. First, we must be  like the Watchman at the  Gate. We must watch every
thought that  contains I Am. If you  are observant, you  will see that you
have created  every circumstance and  experience of your life. Another  important word  to watch is “if. ”  The conscious mind  is very subtle
in expressing doubt (Satan or the  Devil). We  may be  able to keep  our
minds focused  on what we  want by using  positive  “I” statements. If we
are not careful, we  may let a  little “If” sneak  in without recognizing  its im -
plication. We  could  say, “I feel wonderful”  but then follow  it with “If the
pain continues, however, I will see a  doctor on Tuesday. ”  “If’s” are always
followed  by something  negative  and that is simply doubt creeping  in to
steal the  good seed we have  sown. Remove  the word “if” from your vo -
cabulary, as it is not productive  of that  which you  would  like to reap. “If”
puts everything  in the  past or future  tense, and  I always experience what
I believe  I am. I am is not future  tense. Getting  well is not being  well. I
must believe  that I am already what I want to be. Remember, “Every word  that goeth forth from my mouth shall not return
unto me  void. ”   Do you  believe  it. “In the  beginning  was the  Word, and
the Word was with God, and  the Word  was God. ”  What’s his Name. I Am. So, begin to monitor every word  (I AM) that you  say. Do you  see a  pat-
tern. Don’t the  circumstances of your life  reflect what you  have been say -
ing. You  have been misusing  the creative  power  that is God  (I AM). Now
that you  are aware  of what you  have been doing, watch every word and
make it conform to  what you  wish to bring  into your life. Eventually, you
will have  faith that what you  are stating, though there  is no outward  evi-
dence to support it, is a  fact in consciousness and  will shortly project itself
so that you  may experience it in the  outer. Knowing  that God actually be -
came  you because  He is I AM, you  must realize that you  are using  your
power  to create  every time  you use that Name. Choice – Free Will
More Free Books Law of Attraction HavenCreation is finished  and you have free will to choose  the state you will oc -
cupy. Therefore, it is important to determine  the ideas from which you
think. Any concept that is accepted  as true  will externalize itself in your
outer  world. Choice of what you  will focus your attention upon is the  only
free will that you  can exercise. Once a  thought is accepted  and charged
with feeling, the  creative  power  within proceeds to externalize it. Whether
your assumptions are  conscious or unconscious, they direct all action to
their fulfillment. It is a  delusion that, other  than assuming  the feeling  of
the wish fulfilled, you  can do anything  to aid its realization. Your own
wonderful human imagination determines the  means it will  use to bring
your assumptions to fruition. Each of us is subject to a  sea of ideas. We  listen to the  radio, watch the
news on television, or hear some  gossip. If what we  observe  calls forth an
emotion, we  have reacted  and, thereby, planted  a seed which will sprout
at some  future  time. Thoughts do  not recede into the  past. Rather, they
advance into the  future  to confront us so that we may see that which we
have planted,  either  wisely or unwisely. It is a  worthwhile  exercise  to awake  in the  morning  and imagine  yourself
at the  end of your day, having  accomplished  all that you  wanted  and feel-
ing happy and  contented. If there  is a situation that you  will encounter
later in the  day that is of concern to you, spend   a few moments imagin -
ing the outcome  you wish to experience. These  imaginal activities will now
advance into your future  to reveal the  harvest you  so wisely planted. Desire
Desire  is a gift of God. Man is required  to do nothing  more than accept
the gift by simply giving  thanks for the  unseen reality before  he observes
it in his outer  world. Through  desire, God  beckons us to lift our awareness
to higher  and higher  levels of consciousness. During  our journey through
this dream of life,  it is necessary to experience all possible states so that
we may return as God, the  Father, but enhanced  by having experienced
both good  and evil. The  desire  to do more,  to be more,  and to have more
than you  are presently  expressing  is the  urge for expansion. You may question whether  a desire  to kill or injure  someone  can be  in-
spired  by God. The  answer is that no man actually desires to kill or harm
another. He  may wish to be  free from that seeming  other  and, through his
limited  understanding, he  feels that the  only way he  can achieve  such
freedom is by destroying  the other. Man does not realize that the  desire
for freedom contains within itself the  power  and the means to fulfill itself. Because  of his lack  of faith, man distorts these  gifts from God. He  does
not realize that God, the  wisdom and  power within him, has ways that
he, as man, knows not of and  those  ways are  past finding  out. Learn to be  grateful for the  desires you  have been given. They already ex -
More Free Books Law of Attraction Havenist and  are ready for embodiment in your world. You  are not called  upon
to do anything  to aid  their realization except to free your mind  of any
doubt as to how  they will come  about and  completely accept them as you
would  a gift from a  loved  one. Be Observant
The importance of objectively observing  your thoughts cannot be stressed
enough. It is easy to slip  into thought patterns that can hinder  us in
achieving our desires. It then  becomes easy to blame  others or attribute
our frustrations to second  causes. Being  a rather  impatient person, I am usually anxious to get home after
work and I particularly dislike  waiting  in lines. I began to notice that no
matter  what time  I chose  to pick up a few items at the  market, I would
encounter  problems at the  check  stand  such as price checks needing  to
be done,  people  writing  checks who had  trouble  locating  their identifica -
tion, and  various other  kinds of delays. I found  myself dreading  these  oc-
casions, and  I wanted  to do something  about this annoying  situation. As I
began to observe  my thoughts, I found  that, while  standing  in line,  I
would  say to myself, “I always have  to wait. ”  Then I realized  that those
statements made over  and over again had  created  that which I did  not
wish to experience. I consciously changed  that statement to, “No matter
when I stop  at the  market, I never  have to wait. ”  Of course  that new
statement has worked  just as well as the  old negative  one. As you  begin to observe  your thoughts, do not be  discouraged  if you find
that your inner  conversations do not match the  way you  would  feel if you
you have achieved  your goal. You   must first become  aware  of what you
are doing  with your creative  power  before  you can begin to change  it. I
ask you to go down to the  “potter’s house” and  see what he  is doing. If
the vessel is spoiled,  then rework  it into the  kind of vessel that will please
you. As you  begin observing  your thoughts, you  cannot avoid  the realization
that you  alone  are the  cause  of


 to 30% of calories from protein, and 60 -
65% from fat. You can get non -grain fed beef. Insulin is not the o nly cause of disease. There are other considerations such as iron. We know that high iron levels are bad for
you. If a person's ferritin is high, red meat is out for a while, till we get their iron down. SO there are other things invo lved about
if we are going to allow a person to eat red meat or not. There is a great deal of difference between a non -grain fed cow and a grain fed cow. Non -grain fed will have only 10% or less
saturated fat. Grain fed can have over 50%. "There is a big difference. A non -grain fed cow will actually be high in Omega 3 oils." There is a big difference. A non -grain fed cow will actually be high in Omega 3 oils. Plants have a pretty high percentage of
Omega 3, and if you accumulate it by eating it all day, every day for most of your life, your fat gets a pretty high proportion of
Omega 3. I would try for 50% oleic fat, and the others would depend on the individual, but about 25% of the other two. copyright © Dr. Stanley S. Bass   (718) 648 -1500    www.drbass.com                                               83

..... I like sardines if they will eat them. Sardines are a very good therapeutic food. They are baby fish so they haven't ha d time
to accumulate a bunch of metal. They are smoked so they are not cooked and the oil is not spoiled in them. You have to eat the
whole thing. Not the boneless and skinless. You need to eat all the organs and they are high in vitamins and magnesium......
"Insulin is by far your biggest poison." So if people are worried about chromosomal damage from chromium, what they should really be worried about instead is high
blood sugar. Insulin is by far your biggest poison...... The lowering of insulin is going to be better than any possible detriment of any of the therapies you are u sing. Insulin is
associated with cancer, everything. Click here for the full article: rosedale2.html

www.drbass.com/books.html
FREE DOWNLOAD

NEW! REMARKABLE RECOVERIES FROM SEVERE HEALTH PROBLEMS
Information you can use to gain a complete understanding  of how the human body works in health and disease. ----  Dr. Stanley S. Bass uses this booklet as required reading for his patients - to give an introduction to drug -free natural healing
FREE download (Adobe Acrobat Format, 16 pages, 65 KB)

With 3 Genera tions of Vegetarian Hygienists
Written for publication at Dr. Shelton's request that I interview Dr. Christopher Gian -Cursio - for an explanation of his ideas and methods
used in treating his patients for over a 50 year period. I also interviewed 3 generat ions of his patients and the results were a revelation of
new ideas in Natural Hygiene techniques and clinical nutrition. - This booklet summarizes findings of Dr. Gian -Cursio that later led to major disagreement over diet in Natural Hygiene, a split in AN HS, and
the removal of Dr. Gian -Cursio and others. As a result there has been a dominance of vegans in ANHS up until now. - postpaid $4.75. Before downloading - read a presentation here. FREE download (Adobe Acrobat Format, 16 pages, 35 KB):

BOOKS BY STANLEY S. BASS

All of the below books and booklets can be ordered from the author. Some can be downloaded. Information on how to order
you will find at bottom of this page. To download all Dr. Bass' e -books for $29 see below. From the Average Diet to Su perior Nutrition in 7 Weekly Programs      ("How to become a vegetarian")
A simple and easy way to reach a high -quality vegetarian diet (including dairy and eggs) from a conventional diet by 7 gradually -
progressing weekly diets. Many people from around the  world have written to me stating that their health problems disappeared
in a few weeks to months just by following this book. - postpaid $8. Included in "3 books to download for $12.00" (Adobe Acrobat Format, 58 pages, 328 KB):

Ideal Health Through Seque ntial Eating   (Perfection in Food Combining)
A simple method of eating which leads to maximum digestion, absorption and assimilation (which eliminates gas, belching and
heartburn). It is based upon scientific and proven research (published in Howell's "Tex tbook of Physiology") which has been
overlooked and is largely unknown. Maimonides was the first physician to mention it. It has been tested for over 50 years and
proven to be the highest approach in food combining by Natural Hygiene doctors such as Dr. Cu rsio, Dr. Jack Mega, Dr. Marvin
Telmar, Dr. Jack Goldstein, myself and other practitioners. - postpaid $8. Included in "3 books to download for $12.00" (Adobe Acrobat Format, 24 pages, 249 KB):

In Search of the Ultimate (Vegetarian) Diet   - Volume I. --- (Testing Nutritional Theories on Mice)
Quote: "As a believer in raw food vegetarianism myself, I feel a moral imperative to share the disturbing, surprising results  of
my experiments with mice." - This book is based upon lectures given by  Dr. Bass comprising the first two years of a 4 year
research project undertaken by him - the thrilling story of how he investigated and tested all the theories and diets advocated by
writers and practitioners in the field of vegetarian Natural Health. The  result especially revealed the dangers of fruitarianism. Quotes: "Since the average fruitarian cheats, he doesn't know that his diet doesn't work." "Small adjustments in the (all -
vegetarian) raw diet... to avoid slowly developing but disastrous health  problems." Hundreds of mice were used to test diets such as the vegan, fruitarian, vegetarian, lacto -vegetarian, ovo -vegetarian, raw diets,
cooked diet, other diets and variations, periodic fasting and longevity, juice programs, all -raw vs. cooked Natural  Hygiene diets. copyright © Dr. Stanley S. Bass   (718) 648 -1500    www.drbass.com  84

Accompany Dr. Bass on a fascinating journey, one which is comparable to testing theories of nutrition on what is the equivale nt
of 120 years of nutritional experiments on hundreds of humans. - postpaid $8.50
Included in "3 books to download for $12.00" (Adobe Acrobat Format, 54 pages, 359 KB):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovery of the Ultimate (Vegetarian) Diet   / [In Search of the Ultimate (Vegetarian) Diet - Volume II.] --- (Testing Nutritional
Theories on Mice)
Follow Dr. Bass step by step to the conclusion of "In Search of the Ultimate (Vegetarian) Diet". The tale of all the tests a nd re -
tests in choosing the best vegetarian diets, the best aspect of each diet, and eliminating all weaknesses in each. After 14 y ears
of much painstaking work testing 50 diets and 65 related diets - the discovery of 4 ultimate diets - the safest and ide al raw food
diet, cooked food diet, etc. The information will give the reader knowledge to arrange any type of a diet which will lead to superb
health - proven by living creatures, beyond theoretical guesswork - something which is impossible to arrive at b y book study or
experience with human patients alone. - Quote: "... we have now arrived at the knowledge of how to design nutritional
programs, which in my opinion will be able to reverse some of the most advanced pathologies which presently plague long -
suffering mankind." - Note: if you send a US check or international money order to Dr. Bass, you can get the booklet postpaid $20, incl. priority m ail
-. Now as download for $14 (Adobe Acrobat Format, 89 pages, 575 KB)
------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------

The Laws of Life
A simplified yet complete interpretation of the Laws of Life which will give you a clear understanding of the causes of disea se
and health, not taught in medical colleges. Through understanding these basic laws, you can evaluate the true causes of illness
and can chart a lifestyle for yourself which is synchronized with Nature and leads to peace of mind, vibrant health and
happiness. Quote: "Strange as it may seem, the philosophy of "Natural Hygi ene" was evolved (appr. 150 years ago), mostly by medical
doctors who concluded that the philosophy and practice of medicine are an incorrect approach to health care. These medical
practitioners came to the reasoned conclusion that there were natural laws which governed human life, and when these laws
were applied, health could be both maintained and recovered if lost." - postpaid $4.75
Included in "4 books to download for $16.00" (Adobe Acrobat Format, 34 pages, 343 KB):
Click below for Free download - the first pages: (Adobe Acrobat Format, 213 kb, zipped):

Overcoming Compulsive Habits
How to overcome compulsive habits, based upon a lifetime of study and personal experience of Oriental and Western
philosophy, psychology


 rejected the former emphasis; it is merely
being amended. The amendment is so thoroughgoing, however,
as to amount to the placing of the Greek upon an equal footing
with the modern standpoint. Moreover, the concepts modified are
so primary, so important and so general and universal in their
application that every branch of human activity-and even the
very meaning and significance of any fact we observe or of any
experiment we perform-are affected. The elemental and essen
tial fact as it appears in physics can be stated very briefly. Atomic physics has had to be supplemented with field physics. The point to be noted is that the particle both conditions and is
conditioned by its field. Stated in more general terms, this means
that continuity, as well as discontinuity, is ultimate, that Nature
is both one and many. In short, any local system in part, con
stitutes-and, in part, is constituted in its behaviour by
Nature as a whole and the physical field in which it is embedded. This rediscovery of the continuous field-or the one, as causal
factor conditioning the behaviour of the constituent particles or
the many-is a return to the Greek standpoint. But the partic les
28 THE COURSE AND THE COMP ASS
also determine the character of the field. This is the modern view
point. The reciprocal causal relationship between field and par
ticle amounts to the union of both viewpoints. This is the fact
that anyone with an eye to first principles can see standing out
amid all the complexi ties of the confusions of current discoveries
in physics. *
But this mere designation of the fact is not enough. We do not
possess science until our findings are formulated in terms of clear,
consisten t principles. The modern conception of Nature as a dis
continuous collection of moving particles makes all order in
Nature a temporary effect, renders Nature as a whole a mere
aggregate and provides no meaning for the continuity as a prim
ary factor or for the field as a causal factor. The Greek conception
as formulated in mathema tics and astronomy by Plato and
Eudoxius, or in biology by Aristotle, does justice to continuity,
unity and organization-and also to the field character of
natural phenomena-but at the cost of interpreting Nature as a
single substance or system. It is clear, therefore, that before the doctrine of reciprocal inter
action between particle and field can be made significant a new
theory of the first principles of science must be developed. More
over, this new theory must combine the Greek and modern
conceptions of science which previously were supposed to be
incompatible. It is essential to realize the necessity of this theor
etical formulation before going further because, otherwise, the
electro-dynamic theory of life will appear merely as a new name
for traditional conceptions and its essential novelty and sig
nificance will be lost. The theory, however, means more than this. The microscopic
physico-chemical constituents do determine in part the character
of the field. No one cognizant of modern physics and physiologi
cal chemistry can deny this, but this relationship between field
and partic le is not, as traditional modern scientific theory has
assumed, an asymmetrical or one-way relation. The �e:ld both
determines and is determined. To understand that the field determines the behaviour of any
local process or constituent, it is necessary fundament ally to
* Cf. F. S. C. Northrop, 'Science and first Principles'. THE COUR S E AND THE CO MPASS
modify modern science by revising our theory of first principles
in order to justify the unity of Nature as a causal factor. With
out this revision of our most elemental concept of Nature, as
conceived by science, all field theories, whether in physiology or
physics, are mere verbiage. Einstein has shown that the apparently constant macro
scopic structure of space is the approxima tely constant micro
scopic structure of matter itself. The field is not independent of
matter, but an appropriate determinant of the behaviour of
matter. Thus, Einstein replaces Newton's three laws of motion
with a single law, that a body moves in a path in the space time
of the observer's frame of reference. But the general theory of
relativity also prescribes that the distribution of matter deter
mines the character of the field. Thus the particle both conditions
and is conditioned by the metrical field. We can see the significance of this for biology if we reconsider
its most fundamental and perplexing problem, the problem of
organization. It is a commonplace that living creatures, not with
standing the modification in types in evolution, maintain a cer
tain constancy in structure through continuous changes of
material. The traditional modern doctrine, that the chemical
elements determine the structure and organization of the organ
ism, fails to explain why a certain structural constancy persists
despite continuous metabolism and chemical flux. This obvious
inadequacy led to the introduction of non-physical factors, such
as Driesch's entelechy, Spehmann's organizer, Child's physio
logical gradients, Weiss's biological field, all of which have cer
tain validity as descriptive terms. It now appears, however, that the difficulty is not in the
failure of any possible theory, but in the inadequac y of tradi
tional theory. For-in spite of the mass of accumulated data con
cerning the development of the organism, in general, and of the
nervous system, in particular-no thoroughly satisfactory ex
planation has been given of the regulation of the control of
growth. Description of successive steps of development in a wide
variety of forms reveals little of the relationships which exist be
tween the steps or the factors which regulate the passage from
one to another. The very wealth of the accumulat ed facts tends
30 THE COURSE AND THE CO MPASS
to obscure the underlying regulation and to defy analysis. It was this difficulty that led Driesch to postulate a vital
force of entelechy. This brilliant hypothesis has never received its
just due. The whole theory is a very adequate description of an
extraordinary constant control and regulation of growth. Its
weakness lay in its assumption of an extra-biological agent in
capable of scientific description. The field theories of Spehmann,
Weiss, and Gurwitsch are also valuable attempts at explanation
but, like the entelechies of Driesch, scientific analysis is well
nigh impossible. It is well known to every biologist that each biologi
cal system seems to possess a dynamic wholeness, the main
tenance of whose integrity is a necessity of continued
existence. Virtually all the theoretical analyses stress this quality,
but no adequate definition of its dynamic agent or adequate ex
planation of its working has been offered. A considerable body of
information is available concerning the physical and chemical
structure of protoplasm, but we know little of the way in which
the elements are organized into a dynamic whole. The cytoplasm of a living cell is not a formless conglomeration
of chemical substances, but is an integrated and co-ordinated
system. It is impossible to conceive a cytoplasm as a haphazard
arrangement of molecules. A definite pattern of relationships
must exist. We possess a modicum of knowledge of these relation
ships at anyone moment, but we have no adequate theory of the
mechanism which maintains that pattern throughout the rapidly
changing flux in living systems. The difficulties suggested above
are no less apparent in the analysis of the development of the
nervous system. Its successive steps have been described by in
numerable workers. We lack any rational explanation of the
appearanc e of local regions of growth and differentiation and of
the final establishment of nuclear masses in fibre tract pathways. 31 THE COURS E AND THE COM PASS
3
With the advent in physics of the field theory of the relation
ship between particulate matter, the resolution of the biological
theory becomes dear. We believed that the electro-dynamic
theory would satisfy this condition and if it could be demon
strated, would solve many problems of biology. The theory is the result of many years of experimental in
vestigation of the mechanisms involved in the nervous system. *
In these studies it has been shownt that an extremely important
factor in the organization of the nervous system is the rise and
fall of differential growth rates within the wall of the nemal
tube. Moreover, experimental work confirms the belief that the
direction of growth and the end station of differentiating nerve
fibres is related to these primary centres of rapid proliferation. Since they seem to be potent factors in imparting the fibre pattern
of the nervous system, it is necessary to examine the agents
which could act to determine the locus areas and to regulate the
division rates within them. If these could be established it would
be possible to formulate an hypothesis as to the origin of pat
tern in the nervous system. Conceivably, this might provide a
due to the origin of the pattern in developing organisms and in
other living systems. An increasing body of evidencet indicates that bioelectrical
phenomena un derlie growth as well as many other biological pro
cesses. Numerous bioelectrical studies compel us to believe that
polar and potential differences exist in living systems. If this is
true, it follows by deflnition that electro-dynamic flelds are also
present. Their existence in the physical world is generally accepted. Moreover, the inter


 joy. ” And you walk right into the bullets, and
you go into ecstasy. The minute you leave the body—ecstasy. Having done
it and remembering it, when done for the Love of God, the immediate
experience as you go out of body is ecstasy. You know that you have passed
a great barrier and that many have not. One of the great values of war is that
it does allow those below 200 to cross over 200. Because when you face
death for the belief in a higher good, even if it’ s for the good of mankind or
for the Love of God, then you pass a certain level that those who have not
done it cannot pass. So, in a way, war is an opportunity for which many
young men seek to reach that level, because you actually have to face literal
death to do it. You can’ t just do it in your imagination. That’ s one of the
side benefits of war, not that I recommend this as the best way possible. But
it beats hari-kari, I tell you, because hari-kari was not too great either. The willingness to surrender one’ s all: that, as I’ve said in previous
lectures, is the integrity of the kamikaze pilot and a lot of these Islamic
zealots; when you calibrate ’em, they actually, literally believe they are
doing it for God; and as such, they are over 200. They may be in error, but
those who manipulate such people, on the other hand, calibrate at 70. When
they get there and find there are 72 vir gins, what they don’ t know is they’re
over 900 years old. That’ s the part the guru doesn’ t tell them. So, spiritual integrity: spiritual integrity means one does what one does
out of the innate love for God. Now, that love for God may not swell up as
an outpouringness of emotion. It can be a profound commitment, out of the
willingness. So, ascending the ladder, if you want to call it the ladder, then,
is based on willingness. The willingness to surrender anything because it
stands in the way of your experiencing the Presence of God. So it comes out
of a profound commitment and not an emotionality. Emotionality is a
substitute for what is really a greater insight. The greater insight is the
intuitive understanding of the essence of your own existence and the
willingness then to commit to a greater understanding of that reality. Willing to surrender everything to God is the machinery behind all this. Now, as you take the nature of the ego apart, the work becomes more
specific. We’ve said, religion is one thing; enlightenment is another. Jesus
Christ died for the salvation of the world. The Buddha taught
enlightenment. Christ taught the way to heaven. There is only one quote we
still have, and that is, “Heaven is within you”: that God is both transcendent
and immanent. But the stress of Christianity is primarily on God as
transcendent. Although it is the way of the heart, the Buddha is aimed in a
different direction: the realization of the Presence of God as the Buddha
nature, as the Reality of the Self. That branch of Buddhism called “Lotus
Land” coincides with Christianity, in which the Buddha of the Lotus Land
is the Savior. The aim of Christianity is to reach 540. The ultimate sainthood, the ideal
of Christianity, is Unconditional Love: 540. Where can you find 540 in
today’ s society. There are spiritual teachers above 540. There are spiritual
groups 540 and over—the best known being Alcoholics Anonymous. AA,
curiously enough, calibrates at 540, Unconditional Love. Unconditional
Love, which is shocking to people who are not familiar with Unconditional
Love—because a guy has a slip; he goes out and shoots three people, runs
over five children, and burns down his house. And when he comes back to ameeting, they say, “Gee, we’re glad you’re back, Joe. You sure need to be
here. You may not think you’ve got a problem, but we know you do. ” That
is Unconditional Love in practice as a reality—not as a religious ideal to be
memorized, but as an actual way of the heart. Jesus says that if you get up to 540, you really don’ t have to worry; in
fact, He says if you get up to 500, you don’ t have to worry—the ideal of
“Love your neighbor as yourself. ” “It’ s over 500: resist” (T rue). “It’ s over
540: resist” (T rue). It’ s Unconditional Love. I hate to tell you, but it’ s
Unconditional Love. Where does the willingness come from. As justified as it is, you realize
what it’ s costing you. You say, “Do I love Jesus, do I love Christ, do I love
God. Am I willing to sacrifice the ego for Enlightenment more than I want
to dislike this person. ” And of course, the answer becomes, “No. ”
Otherwise, you’re giving your ultimate spiritual destiny to some stranger—
your ex-mother -in-law, or something.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the main issue with addiction, according to the author?,
A: The ego gets hooked on it.
Q: What is the author's perspective on A Course in Miracles?,
A: He likes it because it disassembles the ego as the great thing at which we genuflect, but disagrees with the textbook because it tends to polarize one with the ego and portray it as an enemy.
Q: What is the source of the ego, according to the author?,
A: The ego is the persistence of the animal, but now elaborated through the mind and given authenticity by the mutual agreement of society.
Q: What is the key to surrendering the ego, according to the author?,
A: The willingness to surrender everything to God, which requires a profound commitment and not an emotional response.
Q: What is the author's perspective on karma and reincarnation?,
A: He believes that karma is a fact, but reincarnation is not necessarily the case, and that one's karma is determined by one's own choices and actions.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Well, it helps to find out that karmically, you embezzled a lot out of a lot of
people, a lot of lifetimes. And it’ s payback time. That makes it a little easier
to handle, right there, and to see that it doesn’ t really matter. So, the
willingness to let every instant be the past, of course, closes the door to all
regret about the past. And the way one’ s consciousness evolves, then, is the
willingness to surrender everything as it arises. To live in the absolute,
radical reality of the moment of “now” means, like listening to music, to let
go of the last note and make room for the next. Each thing as it arises, you
can let go wanting to change it. The willingness to surrender this instant to
God as it arises means you don’ t live on the front of the wave, trying to
anticipate the future; nor do you live on the back of the wave, trying to
cling to the past. As it is now, it is spoken. As it is now, it is done. As it is
now, it is acted upon. And you let it be the way it was, huh. Is that simple
enough? It’ s walking on the edge of the knife. To walk precisely on the
edge of the knife is what allows you to go through sur gery without
anesthesia, because the instant you begin to resist the pain, it becomes
excruciating. It’ s only when you completely and totally surrender to it, not
call it “pain,” stop resisting, you become one with whatever the sensation is
without any calling it anything—all of a sudden, one transcends it and the
pain disappears as though being transported by angels to a dif ferent realm. I wonder if that degree of surrender actually brings angels around, or
something. “That’ s what happened: resist” (T rue). Okay. It was a definite
sensation, as though one was being lifted out of the body by angelic beings. They’re angelic because the exquisite grace, gentleness, and radiance of
Love was profound. It was as if one was being lifted out of the physicality,
and the physicality was going through all this sur gery, and chopping of f
your thumbs and various things were going on. And there was only a
feeling of infinite peace and joy. So, that surrendering, that intense
surrender, then... well, let’ s ask that again. “The intensity of the surrenderfinesses the Presence of God expressed as the angelic: resist” (T rue). Wow,
I didn’ t know that; suspected it but didn’ t know it for sure. So you see, kinesiology, as we use it, is a constant learning tool. It’ s just a
tool, that’ s all. It confirms, denies, tells you’re in the wrong direction. It’ s
like looking for Easter eggs—you’re warmer, you’re warmer, you’re
warmer—you know what I mean. You are warmer this way; no, this way,
this


ego	is	not	that	powerful. Truly	atone	for	your	errors,	make
amends	where	possible,	and	you’ll	be	free	to	begin	again. According	to
A	Course	in	Miracles,
	in	the	moments	when	you	were	not
your	best	self—when	you	didn’t	stand	up	as	the	most	loving	you	could	be—
then	all	the	good	you	deflected	is	being	held	in	trust	for	you	until	you’re	ready
to	receive	it. God	will	return	to	you	the	years	that	the	locusts	have	eaten. And
the	past	as	you	know	it	shall	be	no	more. Wherever	there	was	fear,	love	will	ultimately	prevail. Whether	in	response
to	your	own	mistakes	or	to	the	cruelty	of	the	world,	God	will	always	have	the
final	say. And	His	say	will	always	be	how	very	much	that	you	are	loved. Dear	God,
Please	help	me	to	forgive	myself
for	what	I	did	and	did	not	do. Pour	forth	upon	me
Your	infinite	mercy,
that	my	life	might	be	redeemed. Take	away	my	shame,	dear	God,
and	heal	my	broken	heart. Amen
W
HENEVER	I	FEEL	AT	THE	EFFECT	OF	MY	PAST
,	I	try	to	remember	people	whose
experiences	have	been	not	only	so	much	worse	than	mine	but	worse	than	any
I	could	even	imagine. And	yet	they	rose	above. My	friend	Naomi	is	an	86-year-old	Holocaust	survivor. World	War	II	beganon	her	19th	birthday,	as	German	troops	crossed	the	Polish	border	on
September	1,	1939. Living	in	Warsaw	at	the	time,	she	went	from	enjoying	the
life	of	a	young	woman	preparing	to	go	to	college	in	England	to	hiding	from
the	Nazis	with	her	mother,	husband,	brother,	and	sister-in-law. Her	father	had
already	been	arrested	by	the	Russians	and	sent	to	Siberia. In	1943,	having
survived	the	bombing	of	Warsaw,	Naomi	and	the	other	members	of	her	family
were	huddled	into	a	cattle	car	for	a	horrendous	trip	that	many	didn’t	survive,
and	taken	to	a	concentration	camp	at	Auschwitz. She	was	at	Auschwitz	from	the	age	of	22	to	24. My	problems	at	that	age. Romance,	career,	and	the	like. Hers. Adolf	Hitler. Naomi’s	husband,	mother,	and	sister-in-law	all	died	at	Auschwitz. Her
mother	died	in	a	crematorium;	then	her	sister-in-law,	having	told	Naomi	one
morning	that	she	simply	would	not	go	to	work	that	day	(“I	cannot	stand	it,”
she	said. “I	cannot	live	like	this. ”)	disappeared	and	never	returned. My	friend
and	millions	of	others	lived	in	Nazi	concentration	camps	under	conditions	as
horrifying	as	any	forced	on	human	beings	by	other	human	beings	before	or
since. Ultimately,	Naomi	survived	the	war. After	emigrating	to	the	United	States
in	1946,	she	married	and	was	widowed	a	second	time,	leaving	her	with	three
young	children	to	raise	as	a	single	mother. If	anyone	might	have	been	given	a
pass,	forgiven	for	just	giving	up,	it	would	have	been	Naomi. Yet	that	simply
isn’t	who	she	was,	or	is. Her	character	is	bigger	than	her	circumstances. She
raised	her	children	beautifully,	started	an	import-export	company	that
eventually	became	phenomenally	successful	(at	a	time	when	not	many
women	were	doing	that,	by	the	way),	and	has	lived	through	the	years	as	an
inspiration	to	countless	who	have	known	her—including	myself. In	2002,	Naomi	went	back	to	Germany	with	her	son. As	their	plane
approached	Berlin	and	she	sat	looking	out	the	window	at	the	land	below,	he
asked	how	she	was	feeling. Her	response,	she	said,	surprised	even	her:	“It’s
very	strange,	but	I	feel	good	about	this. I	am	here	on	my	own	terms. I	am	not
being	brought	here	by	anybody. I	am	coming	of	my	own	free	will. ”
Visiting	Wannsee—where	in	1942	Hitler	and	his	top	aides	made	plans	for
“the	final	solution,”	or	complete	extermination	of	the	Jews—Naomi
collapsed. Yet	her	reconciliation	with	her	past	continued. In	2003,	she	made
an	emotional	journey	back	to	Auschwitz. After	having	cried	the	entire	way
there,	she	had	a	strange	experience	once	she	arrived. Upon	entering	the	gate
with	its	famously	ironic	inscription,	“Arbeit	macht	frei”	(“Work	makes	you
free”),	she	felt	herself	becoming	very,	very	strong. She	didn’t	feel	the	painshe’d	expected. Rather,	she	said	she	felt	a	spirit	of	victory	move	through	her
as	she	realized:	“Oh	my	goodness,	I’ve	come	back—and	I	survived. I	came
here	to	perish,	but	I	did	not. He	who	wanted	to	destroy	me	was	himself
destroyed,	but	I	survived. I	am	a	survivor. ”	In	that	moment,	she	knew	what	it
meant	to
be
	a	survivor—not	only	physically,	but	emotionally	and	spiritually
as	well. And	she	was	free. “I	felt	I	could	build	on	my	past,”	she	has	said,	“but	I	knew	I	could	not	live
in	it. In	spite	of	the	fact	that	I	lived	through	the	Holocaust,	I	have	never
dwelled	on	it. “I	went	through	something	so	terrible,	but	I	like	to	think	something	good
can	come	from	it. I	have	so	much	more	empathy. I	like	to	think	I’m	a	better
person	because	of	it. “Hope	is	always	in	us. In	spite	of	the	fact	that	everything	looks	so	bleak,
there’s	something	in	all	of	us	that	keeps	thinking	things	are	going	to	get	better. I	knew	I	had	to	look	to	the	future. I	had	to	always	ask	what	I	could	do
now
	to
be	more	productive. I	wanted	to	live	for	the	future,	for	myself	and	for	my
children. And	I	did. ”
Whenever	I	start	to	feel	sorry	for	myself,	I	remember	Naomi. I	remember
those	in	the	Holocaust	who	did	not	survive. I	remember	those	people	who
even	today—in	Somalia,	Darfur,	and	elsewhere—are	experiencing	atrocities
like	she	did. And	in	the	gratitude	I	feel	for	the	relatively	extraordinary	ease	of
my	life	so	far,	I	am	lifted	to	a	place	where	I	understand	that	my	life—although
it	might	not	be	consistent	bliss—is	still	indeed	worth	thanking	God	for,	every
minute	of	every	day. And	I	do. If	my	friend	Naomi	could	rebuild	her	life	after	what	she	went	through,	who
among	us	doesn’t	have	in	deep	reserve	the	strength	it	might	take	to	rebuild
ours. We	have	a	moral	responsibility,	not	only	to	ourselves	but	to	a	rising	tide
of	collective	hope,	to	do	everything	in	our	power	to	rise	up	from	whatever
ashes	might	litter	our	past. Yesterday	was	yesterday,	but	yesterday	is	over. Today	is	today,	and	t