 present. Give it your com plete attention. W atch the turbulence inside you. Know
it is there. Hold the knowing, an d be the knowing. Remember: Do not let
the p ain-body use your mind and take over your thinking. W atch it. Feel
its e ner gy directly, inside your b ody. As you know, full attentio n means
full acceptance. Through sustai ned attention and thus acceptance, there comes
transmutation. The pain-body becomes transformed into radiant
consciousness, j ust as a piece of wood, when placed in or ne ar a fire,
itself is transformed into fire. Menstruation will then become n ot only a
joyful and fulfilling expression  of your womanhood but also a sacred
time of transmut ation, when you give birth to a new consciousness. Y our
true nature then shines forth, both in its female aspect as the Goddess and
in its transcendental aspect as the divine Being that you are beyond male
and female duality. If y our male pa rtner is conscious enough, he can help you with the
practice I have just described by holding the frequency of intense
presence particularly at this time. If he stays present whenever you fall
back into unconscious identification with the pain-body, which can and
will hap pen at first, you will be  able to quickly rejoin him in t hat state. This means that whenever the p ain-body temporarily takes over, whetherduring m enses o r at other times, your partner will not mistake it for who
you are. Even if the pain-body attacks him, as it probably will, he will
not react to it as if it were “you,” withdraw, or put up some kind of
defense. He will hold the spac e of intense presence. Nothing else is
needed for t ransformation. At other times, you will be able to do the
same for him o r help him reclaim consciousness from the mind by
drawing his attention into the here and now whenever he becomes
identified with his thinking. In th is way, a permanent ener gy  field of a pure and high frequency will
arise bet ween y ou. No illusion, no pain, no conflict, nothing that is not
you, a nd nothing that is not love c an survive in it. This represents the
fulfillment of the divine, transpersonal purpose of your relationship. It
becomes a vortex of consciousness that will draw in many others. GIVE UP THE RELA TIONSHIP WITH YOURSELF
When one is fully conscious, would one still have a need for a
r elationship. W o uld a man still feel drawn to a woman. W ould a woman
still feel incomplete without a man. Enlightened or not, you are eith er a man or a woman, so on the level of
your for m identi ty you are not complete. Y ou are one-half of the whole. This incomplete ness is felt as male-female attraction, the pull to ward the
opposite ener gy polarity, no matter how conscious you are. But in that
state of inner connectedness, yo u feel this pull somewhere on the surface
or p eriphery of y our life. Anything that happens to you in that state feels
somewhat like that. The whole world seems like waves or ripples on the
surface o f a vast and deep ocean. Y ou are that ocean and, of co urse, you
are also  a ripple, but a ripple that has realized its true identity as the
ocean, a nd comp ared to that vas tness and depth, the world of waves and
ripples is not all that important. This does not mean that you don’ t relate deeply to other people or to
your partner. In fact, you can relate deeply only  i f you a re cons cious of
Being. Coming from Being, you are able to focus beyond the veil of
form. In  Being,  male and fema le are one. Y our form may continue to
have certain needs, but Being has none. It is already complete and whole. If those needs are met, that is b eautiful, but whether or not they  are met
makes no dif ference to your deep inner state. So it is perfectly possible
for a n e nlightened person, if the need for the male or female polarity is
not met, to feel a sense of lack or incompleteness on the outer level of his
or her being, yet at the same ti me be totally complete, fulfilled, and at
peace within. In the quest for enlightenment, is being gay a help or a hindrance, or
does it not make any differ ence. As you approach adulthood, uncertainty about your sexuality followed
by t he r ealization that you are “ dif ferent” from others may force you to
disidentify from socially conditioned patterns of thought and behavior. This will automatically raise yo ur level of consciousness above that of
the unconscious majority, whose members unquestioningly take on board
all i nherited patterns. In that respect, being gay can be a help. Being an
outsider to some extent, someone who does not “fit in” with others or is
rejected by them for whatever reason, makes life dif ficult, bu t it also
places you at an advantage as far as enlightenment is concerned. It takes
you out of unconsciousness almost by force. On the other han d, if you then develop a sense of identity based  on your
gayness, you have escaped one  trap only to fall into another. Y ou will
play roles and g ames dictated by a mental image you have of yourself as
gay. Y ou  will become unconscio us. Y ou will become unreal. Un derneath
your ego  mask, you will become very unhappy. If this happens to you,
being gay will have become a hindrance. But you always get another
chance, of course. Acute unhappiness can be a great awakener. Is it not true tha t you need to have a good r elationship with you rself and
love you rself befor e you can ha ve a fulfilling r elationship with another
person. If you cannot be at ease with yo urself when you are alone, you will seek
a r elationship to cover up your unease. Y ou can be sure that th e unease
will then  reappear in some othe r form within the relationship, and you
will probably hold your partner responsible for it. All you really need to do is ac cept this moment fully. Y ou ar e then at
ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself. But do you need to have a relationship with yourself at all. Why can’ t
you just be  y oursel f. When  you have a relationship with yourself, you
have spl it yourself into two: “I” and “myself,” subject and object. That
mind-created duality is the root cause of all unnecessary complexity, of
all problems and conflict in your life. In the state of enlightenment, you
ar e  you rself — “yo u” and “yourself” mer ge into one. Y ou do not judge
yourself, you do not feel sorry for yourself, you are not proud of
yourself, you do not love yours elf, you do not hate yourself, and so on. The spl it caused by self-reflective consciousness is healed, its curse
removed. There  is no “self” that you need to protect, defend, or feed
anymore. When you are enlightened, there is one relationship that you no
longer have: the relationship wit h yourself. Once you have given  that up,
all your other relationships will be love relationships. CHAPTER NINE
B E Y O N D  H A P P I N E S S
 A N D  U N H A P P I N E S S
 T H E R E  I S  P E A C E
THE HIGHER GOOD BEYOND GOOD AND BAD
Is ther e a differ ence between happiness and inner peace. Y es. Happiness depends on cond itions being perceived as positive; inner
peace does not. Is it not possible to attract only positive conditions into our lif e. If our
attitude and our thinking ar e a lways positive, we would manifest only
positive events and situations, wouldn’ t we. Do y ou truly kn ow what is posi tive and what is negative. Do you have
the total  picture. There have b een many people for whom limitation,
failure, loss, illness, or pain in whatever form turned out to be their
greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of false self-images and
superficial ego-d ictated goals and desires. It gave them depth, humility,
and compassion. It made them more r eal. Whenever anyth ing negative happens to you, there is a dee p lesson
concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Ev en a briefillness o r an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life,
what ultimately matters and what doesn’ t. Seen from a higher perspective, conditions ar e  always positive. T o be
more pre cise: th ey are neither po sitive nor negative. They are as  they are. And when you live in complete  acceptance of what is  — which is the
only sane way to live — the re is no “good” or “bad” in your life
anymore. There is only a higher good — which includes the “bad. ” Seen


 1 tsp potato starch, and 2 tsp brown
sugar. Place cherries in saucepan with water to cover.Cook 10 minutes over low flame. Add potato starch dissolved in 2 tsp cold water. Add to boiling cherries. Cook 2 minutes longer. Chill and serve. Currants
¼ lb red currants and 3 tsp brown sugar. Clean and wash currants thoroughly before removing stems. Place in dish, add sugar, and serve. Buttermilk or yogurt (if permitt ed) sweetened with brown sugar may be
used for sauce. Fruit Combination
3 cups fresh cherries and apricots (halved, sliced, pitted), 2 cups water, ½
cup brown sugar, and 2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in
  cup cold water. Place fruit with water and sugar in saucepan. Boil gently, slowly for 10 minutes. Add cornstarch. Cook 3 minutes longer. Cool and serve. Glazed Pear Halves
4-5 ripe pears and 4 tbsp honey or Sucanat (or ganic dried cane sugar). Cut ripe pears into halves, and core. Add about 4 oz of water to honey or Sucanat and mix well. Place pear halves in baking dish and pour sugar mixture over fruit. Bake in slow oven (Z75°F) until done. Baste with juice if necessary. Frozen Y ogurtSD DAIR Y¼ cup stewed fruit (cherries, apricots) and 1 1b fat-free yogurt. Spoon yogurt into a thin mesh strainer that has been lined with two layers
of cheesecloth, and place it over a deep bowl. Let it drain into the bowl in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Spoon the drained yogurt into ice cube trays and freeze. Mix fruit and yogurt cubes in a food processor or the grinder of your K &
K juicer or Norwalk® juicer until the consistency is thick and smooth. Serve immediately. Oatmeal Cake
4 cup oatmeal (dry oats), 2 grated or blended carrots, honey and raisins as
desired. Combine all the above ingredients in a baking dish. Put in the oven without a lid and bake for 45 minutes at 250°F. Oatmeal CookiesDAIR Y
1 cup applesauce, 1 cup rye flour, 1 cup raisins, ½ cup churned
buttermilk, ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup molasses, 2 cups oatmeal, and 1 pkg
yeast. Mix and let stand 10 minutes. Drop from teaspoon and bake in moderate oven about 20 minutes. PashaYN (Uncooked Cheesecake )DAIR Y
¼ cup fresh orange juice strained, ½ cup chopped dried fruit, 4 cups soft
or medium curd cottage cheese, ½ cup honey or ¾ cup brown sugar, plus
raisins, dates, papaya, peaches, prunes, etc. Mix all ingredients. Pour batter into a strainer or colander lined with a clean cotton cloth
(muslin). Cover with a plate to weight it down. Place in a bowl or pan and refrigerate for 5-10 hours or until dry and
firm.Turn out onto a plate and slice. Good as is, or on a slice of Essene bread. Peaches
½ 1b peaches (skinned) and 2 tsp brown sugar. Wash peaches. Place in boiling water ½ minute, drain and peel. Cut in halves. Remove pits and place in saucepan with boiling water. Cover. Simmer for 10 minutes. Cool. Add sugar and serve chilled. Pears
1 large pear (peeled, cored, halved) and 1 tsp brown sugar. Place pears in saucepan with water to half cover. Add sugar and cook 30 minutes
Plums
½ lb plums and 2 tsp brown sugar. Wash plums, cut in half, and remove pits. (Plums can also be cooked
whole.) Place in saucepan with water to cover. Cook 15 minutes. Remove, cool, and add sugar. Serve chilled. Prune and Apricots (Dried)
½ lb of each of the prunes and apricots plus 1/3 cup barley. Soak prunes and apricots overnight in water to cover. Use same water and boil with barley.Cool and serve. Prune and Banana Whip
1 cup dried prunes (soaked, cooked), 2 small bananas, ¼ lemon juice, and
1 tsp brown sugar. Whip together thoroughly and put in refrigerator for 1 hour. May be served in slices decorated with sweetened yogurt (if permitted). Pumpkin Pudding PieYN (Unbaked)
Pinch of allspice, pinch of coriander, pinch of mace, 2 tsp unsulfured
molasses (optional), one 8” or 9” pie crust, ½ cup tapioca, 1½ cup dates,
pitted and chopp ed, 1
 cup apple juice  or water, and 1½ to 2 cups mashed
pumpkin. Soak tapioca and dates in juice overnight. In morning, stew over low flame using a burner pad to dif fuse heat. Cook for 30 minutes until thick, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Purée tapioca and pumpkin in Foley food mill or processor. Add spices and molasses. Pour into prepared pie crust and chill thoroughly (may put in freezer for
several hours until very firm); otherwise cutting will be a problem. Serve with a dollop of honey-sw eetened yogurt cheese (see under Apple
Tart) if desired (and permitted by physician). Variation: Use cooked squash, yams, or sweet potatoes in place of
pumpkin. Thin Buttermilk CrustDAIR Y
1¼ cup oat flour,
 cup churned buttermilk, apple juice or water (cold),
2 tsp honey, pinch allspice or mace, and 1 tsp Featherweight (sodium-free)
baking powder (optional). Mix dry ingredients. Add honey and just enough liquid to make a stif f dough. Knead lightly to mix.Roll out on floured board or between layers of waxed paper. Carefully place in 8” or 9” pie plate which has been thoroughly coated
with oat flakes to prevent sticking. Trim excess dough and flute edges or make indentations with fork. Chill crust, then bake at 325°F for 10-15 minutes or until lightly
browned. Note: This will not be your traditional flaky crust, so roll out thin. Raised Pie CrustYN
1 cup oat flour, ½ cup potato flour (or use more oat flour), 1 cup triticale
or whole  wheat flour, 1 tsp hone y or brown sugar, ½ cup warm water, and 1
tsp baker ’s yeast. Sprinkle yeast into warm water mixed with honey. When frothy add flour and mix well. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Knead on floured board for 5 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes and roll out on floured board. Place in 8” or 9” pie plate that has been thoroughly coated on the bottom
with rolled oat flakes. Flute edge. Let rise for 15 minutes. Bake at 375°F for 20-25 minutes. Variation: Omit yeast; use just enough cold water to make a stif f dough. Roll out between sheets of floured wax paper. Carefully place in pie plate. Chill crust. Then bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. Essene Br ead CrustYN
2 cups Essene bread crumbs, ¼ cup honey, and 3 tsp oat flour. Toast slices of bread in slow oven until lightly brown. Let cool. Grind coarsely by running through grinder or Norwalk®. Add flour, then honey.Press into pie plate that has been well coated with rolled oat flakes. Chill for 1 hour. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. Roll, then fill. Rhubarb
½ 1b rhubarb (washed and cut into 1” pieces), 2 to 3 tsp brown sugar (to
taste), and 1 tsp cornstarch (if desired). Place washed rhubarb in saucepan. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in a little cold water. Add to rhubarb and allow to stew a few more minutes. Cool and add sugar. Note: Combine rhubarb with other sweet fruits such as apples, peaches,
or apricots (fresh or dried). Stewed Fruit Combinations
Together, use pears and plum s, plums and applesauce, peaches and
plums, apricots and plums, apricots and sliced apples, or peaches and pears. Note: Stewed fruits may be served on toasted rye bread by placing a thick
layer of fruit on top and allow ing it to soak through for ½ hour before
serving. Sunshine SmoothieSD
In a blender or food processor container, combine 1 cup nonfa t organic
yogurt, ½ cup orange juice, 2 tbsp honey, 1 cup cut-up fresh fruit, and ½
cup crushed ice (made from distilled water); process until smooth. Sweet Potato and Apple BakeGSG12 oz sweet potatoes, 3 eating apples, allspice, a little brown sugar, and a
little water. Cook the sweet potatoes gently in their skins until tender. Allow to cool. Slice and put into baking dish, alternating with layers of apple. Over each layer, sprinkle some water, a little


’re defeated. All hope is lost; the anxiety mounts. Such
is the crucifixion of self. Sometimes the crucifixion is individual, as in the perpetration of a
wrong committed against one person; at other times, the crucifixion is
collective, such as war or genocide committed against a group  of people. The crucifixion is a universal experience. It relates as much to the suffering
of humanity today as it related to the suffering of Jesus on the cross two
thousand years ago. Jesus on the cross is the symbo l of fear’s rampage and the suffering it
produces. Whatever the form or size, the crucifixion is always an example
of the conscious ness of fear seeking to obliterate the consciousness of love. The crucifixion was a sign that apparently fear had won. But only apparently. For the ego’s win was temporary. Three days after
the crucifixion, the women who arrived to retrieve the body of Jesus were
told it was no longer there. They were met by angels who told them, “He is
risen.” His being had been transformed. The three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection are
psychologically significant. They symbolize the time it takes for a pattern of
fear to transform  into a pattern of love. It is the time it takes for forgiveness
to shift our consciousness and rearrange our circumstances. The way we
think  while we are in the middle of a crucifixion determines our power to
invoke the resurrection. If Jesus had closed his heart or lost his faith, the resurrection would not
have occurred. He placed his mind so fully in the hands of God that allpower of God was given unto him. He doubted, perhaps, but he did not
waver. What does it mean to waver? It means to give in to hatred, anger,
resentment, victimization, revenge, or any other closed-hearted response to
the crucifixions in our lives. Lovelessness deflects the miracle by which the
universe would otherwise self-correct. While such feelings might be
thoroughly valid, even in the midst of our tears we can say, “I am willing to
see this dif ferently.”
Knowing that nothing real can be threatened  and nothing unreal exists
is the thought that casts out darkness. We don’t wait until we feel that way
to embrace the thought; we embrace that thought, which begins to
alchemize our feelings. If some thing is not love, it exists within the three
dimensions yet has no ultimate reality. As we embrace the knowledge of
what’ s Real, what is unreal begins to lose its hold on us. During that time, it makes sense that we’re in grief over the conditions
that hurt us. But knowing the deeper significance of that time period gives
us the power to hasten its end. It gives us faith. It gives us the ability to see
the victo ry that is as yet unseen. It gives us the strength to endure, to know
that “this too shall pass.”
None of this is always easy and sometimes it’ s very hard. It doesn’ t take a lot of work to complain, but it does take a lot of work
sometimes to burn through the pain and hold on to our faith. Faith in things
unseen is like flying on instruments, when a pilot knows the horizon is there
but simply can’t see it through the clouds. Faith is the realization that no
matter what tears we’re crying now, we’re in the process of an awakening
that will lead us to a peaceful place. We can’t see that when our spiritual
eyes are not yet open. Jesus will lend us his, if we ask. In the meantime, we don’t deny  our tears. They are part of the healing
process. Women wept at the feet of the crucified Jesus, and so do we. Tomb time, as my friend Sandhi calls it, is sacred in its own way. It’s
important to surround ourselves at such times with people who have
compassion for our suffering, yet refuse to join in an interpretation of
events that would only prolon g it. It’s the meaning of the Simon &
Garfunkel lyric, “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you
again.” Tomb time is often a period of deep sadness—over a divorce, a poor
diagnosis, the loss of a loved one, and so on—and we cannot rush through
it. The time to be heartbroken is when our heart is breaking.There’ s a way in which, given the state of the world today, being
heartbroken—sharing in the sentiment “Jesus wept” in response to the
suffering of the world—is not only legitimate, it is healthy. It is a functional
response to the sorrow of our times, not a dysfunctional one. If anything,
our denying how far off course humanity has swerved—our trying to
suppress the pain and even calling our heartbreak a “syndrome”— that is
pathological. Nothing would be better for humanity right now than if we
could all together have a big, long cry. Good Friday is that, in a way. Or that
is what it should be. Going through the pain of life, even its extreme pain, and allowing
Jesus to impress himself upon your mind while you do, invokes the
resurrection in your life as in his. He will mystically overs hadow you
during your time of heartbreak. He will share his resurrection with you. The fact that you hold on to love while having endured a cruci fixion—
that you are willing to forgive, that you continue to serve, that you have
faith in miracles—is your salvat ion and rebirth. You will literal ly no longer
be who you used to be, having  been transformed and illumined by your
pain. The emoti onal body of your broken self, like the physi cal body of
Jesus, will disappear. The wome n at the tomb being told that his body had
disappeared means your defeated personality will no longer exist. Your
persona will shift. You will become someone new. You will no longer be
who you used to be. He rose, and so shall you. OceanofPDF.comEaster
Christmas and Easter are like existential bookends that hold the psyche
together. They relate not only to events in the past but also to the meaning
of every  moment. In any instan t we can give birth to Christ through the
expression of our love, and in any situation we can overcome the darkness
of the world through the expression of our love. Jesus is the Alpha and the
Omega because his mind is both the beginning and the end of everything. Easter is the good news because it’s the ultimate triumph of spirit over
matter. The purpose of the crucifixion was not to perpetuate suffering but to
end it. Jesus doesn’ t invite you to take up his cross, but to put down yours. It’s not that we are asked to ignore our problems. We should look at our
crucifixions but not dwell on them. If we simply ignore a problem, we’re
not in transcendence but in denial. If we overemphasize the problem,
however, we increase its power over us. The art of living lies in
acknowledging the existence of the crucifixion—the ego, the fear, the
destructiveness it causes—yet denying its power over us. That is the
resurrection: not just the gentleness of love, but also the power of love. The power of the resurrection is a power in each of us; the issue is not
that our power is weak, but that our faith is weak. We often have more faith
in the power of a problem than we have faith in the power of God to solve
it. That’s why faith matters; it is a power of the mind. And miracles arise
from conviction. Conviction is a force multiplier. Standing with conviction
that the power of love is great er than the power of fear creates a portal
through which miracles flow. Jesus did not say he had fixed the world; he said he had overcome it. His consciousness was lifted above attachment to the world, and therefore
its cruelty could not ultimately destroy him. We say to darkness : “Yes, I see
you, but I deny your power to defeat me. I claim the power of theovercoming. Jesus robbed you of your power; therefore you have no power
over me.”
Because all minds are joined, when anyone achieves anything, then
their achievement becomes an available option for everyone. Jesus having
broken the ego’s spell, it is now broken for anyone who chooses to place
their mind under his guidance. The ego is literally a misunderst anding. Its biggest falsehood is that our
lives are limited to the life of the body. It is the illusion that we are
temporary beings when the life of the spirit is eternal. Overcoming that
illusion is the miracle that sets us free. In fact, the body is like a suit of clothes. “Physical birth is not a
beginning; it is a continuing” (T-81). And physical death is not an ending; it
is a continuing as well. Death, accordin g to the ego, is proof that we are locked into the body,
destined to suffer and doomed to die. But if death is in fact not the end of
our lives, then we are liberated from all manner of limited beliefs. We are
freed from the idea that we are separate, and we are freed from  the belief
that we are tied to the limitations of the mortal plane. The ego mind is
trapped within illusions


after. These two young people were full of resentment, fear, suspicion,
and anger. These attitudes weaken, exhaust, and debilitate the whol e
being. They learned that hate divides and that love unites. They began
to realize what they had been doing with their minds. Neither one of
them knew the law of  mental action, nor they were misusing the ir
minds and bringing on chaos and misery. These two people went bac k
together at my suggestion and experimented with prayer therapy. They began to radiate love, peace, and good will to each other. Each
one practiced radiating harmony, health, peace, and love to the other,
and they alternated in the reading of the
Psalms every night. Their marriage is growing more beautiful  every
day. 152  • The nagging wife
Many times the reason the wife nags is because she gets n o
attention. Oftentimes, it is a craving for love and affection. Give your
wife attention, and show your appreciation. Praise and ex-alt  all her
many good points. There is also the nagging type of woman who wants to make the
man conform to her particular pattern. This is about the quic kest way
in the world to get rid of a man. The wife and the husband must cease being scavengers— always
looking at the petty faults or errors in each other. Let e ach give
attention and praise for the constructive and wonder-ful qualit ies in
the other. • The brooding husband
If a man begins to brood, grows morbid against his wife because  of
the things she said or did, he is, psychologically speak-ing,
committing adultery. One of the meanings of adultery is idolatry, i.e., giving attent ion to
or uniting mentally with that which is negative and destructi ve. When
a man is silently re-senting his wife and is full of hostilit y toward her,
he is unfaithful. He is not faithful to his marriage vows, which are to love, c herish,
and honor her all the days of his life. The man who is brooding, bitter, and resentful can swallow his
sharp remarks, abate his anger, and he can go to great lengths to be
considerate, kind, and courteous. He can deftly skirt the differe nces. Through praise and mental effort, he can get out of the habit of
antagonism. Then, he will be able to get along better, not only with his
wife, but with business associates also. Assume the harmonious state,
and eventually you will find peace and harmony. 153  •The great mistake
A great mistake is to discuss your marital problems or  diffi-culties
with neighbors and relatives. Suppose, for example, a wife s ays to the
neighbor, “John never gives me any money. He treats my mother
abominably, drinks to excess, and is constantly abusive and insulting.”
Now, this wife is degrading and belittling her husband in the eyes  of
all the neighbors and relatives. He no longer appears as the i deal
husband to them. Never discuss your marital prob-lems with any one
except a trained counselor. Why cause numer-ous people to think
negatively of your marriage? Moreover, as you discuss and dwell
upon these shortcomings of your husband, you are actually creating
these states within yourself. Who is thinking and feeling it? You are! As you think and feel, so are you. Relatives will usually give you the wrong advice. It is us u-ally
biased and prejudiced because it is not given in an im-per sonal way. Any advice you receive which violates the golden rule, which is  a
cosmic law, is not good or sound. It is well to remember that no two human beings ever lived be neath
the same roof without clashes of temperament, periods of hurts and
strain. Never display the unhappy side of your mar-riage to your
friends. Keep your quarrels to yourself. Refrain from criticism  and
condemnation of your partner. • Don ’t try to make your wife over
A husband must not try to make his wife over into a second edition
of himself. The tactless attempt to change her in many ways i s foreign
to her nature. These attempts are always foolish, and many time s
result in dissolution of the marriage. These attempts to alt er her
destroy her pride and self-esteem, and arouse a spirit of con trariness
and resentment that proves fatal to the marriage bond. Adjustments are needed, of course, but if you have a good look
inside your own mind, and study your character and be-havior, you
will find so many shortcomings, they will keep you busy the res t of
 154  your Me. If you say, “I will make him over into what I want,” you are
looking for trouble and the divorce court. You are asking for miser y. You will have to learn the hard way that there is no one to cha nge but
yourself. • Pray together and stay together through steps in prayer
The first step: Never carry over from one day to another
accumulated irritations arising from little disappointments. Be sure to
forgive each other for any sharpness before you retire at night. The
moment you awaken in the morning, claim infinite intelligence is
guiding you in all your ways. Send out loving thoughts of peace,
harmony, and love to your marriage partner, to all members of  the
family, and to the whole world. The second step: Say grace at breakfast. Give thanks for the
wonderful food, for your abundance, and for all your bless-ings. Make
sure that  no problems, worries, or arguments shall enter i nto the table
conversation; the same applies at dinnertime. Say to your wif e or
husband, “I appreciate all you are doing, and I radiate love and good
will to you all day long.”
The third step: The husband and wife should alternate in praying
each night. Do not take your marriage partner for granted. Show y our
appreciation and love. Think appreciation and good will, rather than
condemnation, criticism, and nagging. The way to build a peaceful
home and a happy marriage is to use a foundation of love, beauty,
harmony, mutual respect, faith in God, and all things good. Read the
23rd, 27th, and 91st Psalms, the 11th chapter of Hebrews, the 13th
chapter of I Corinthians, and other great texts of the Bibl e before
going to sleep. As you practice these truths, your marriage w ill grow
more and more blessed through the years. 155  • Review your actions
1. Ignorance of mental and spiritual laws is the cause of all  marital
unhappiness. By praying scientifically together, you stay together. 2. The best time to prevent divorce is before marriage. If you learn
how to pray in the right way, you will attract the right mate for you. 3. Marriage is the union of a man and woman who are bound
together by love. Their hearts beat as one, and they move onward,
upward, and Godward. 4. Marriage does not bequeath happiness. People find hap-piness by
dwelling on the eternal truths of God and the spiritual values of life. Then, the man and woman can con-tribute to each other’s happiness
and joy. 5. You attract the right mate by dwelling on the qualities and
characteristics you admire in a woman or a man, and then your
subconscious mind will bring you together in divine order. 6. You must build into your mentality the mental equivalent of  what
you want in a marriage partner. If you want to attract an  honest,
sincere, and loving partner in life, you must be honest, sincere, an d
loving yourself. 7. You do not have to repeat mistakes in marriage. When you really
believe you can have the type man or woman you idealize, it is  done
unto you, as you believe. To believe is to accept something as t rue. Accept your ideal companion now mentally. 8. Do not wonder how, why, or where you will meet the mate you
are praying for. Trust implicitly the wisdom of your subconsc ious
mind. It has the “know-how,” and you don’t have to assist it. 9. You are mentally divorced when you indulge in peeves, grudges,
ill will, and hostility toward your marriage partner. You are mentally
dwelling with error in the bed of your mind. Adhere to your marriage
vows, “I promise to cherish, love, and honor him (or her) all the days
of my life.”
 156  10. Cease projecting fear patterns to your marriage partner. Project
love, peace, harmony, and good will, and your mar-riage will grow
more beautiful and more wonderful through the years. 11. Radiate love, peace, and good will to each other. These
vibrations are picked up by the subconscious mind resulting in  mutual
trust, affection, and respect. 12. A nagging wife is usually seeking attention and apprecia-t ion. She is craving for love and affection. Praise and exalt her many good
points. Show her that you love her and ap-preciate her. 13


 and a condition of
atrophy ensues. The diseases of this type which produce the hyper effect on the glands of internal
secretion are relatively small in number as comp ared with those that have, from the very
first, a depressing effect. As a rule, the depres sing effect on glands of internal secretion
from toxic material circulating in the blood is not an effect on one gland alone, but is an
effect on all the glands, with special emphasis on the one which gives the predominant
symptoms. For instance, the adrenal may produce outstanding symptoms which calls the attention of the physician to the adrenal, but  all of the other glands are being depressed
in a similar way, but not in the same degree. The failure of one of the glands of internal secretion means not only the failure of all
the other glands in a lesser degree, but also means the relative failure of the pituitary. Failure of the glands of internal secretion has been likened to old age. It is an error to
say that it may be likened to old age. It is old age. This is the mechanism by which old
age occurs. In a person who has existed for many years on a deficiency diet, the signs of old age may appear at the age of thirty to thirty-five. Women who are poorly nourished
cease to menstruate at a relatively early ag e. This is not because the ovaries are exhausted, but because the whole endocrine chain is exhausted. There are plenty of ova
left in the ovaries, but the stimulus from the pituitary necessary to bring the ova into
activity is lacking. Women who are well nourished continue to menstruate well beyond
50 years of age. CHAPTER VI
HOW WIDESPREAD ARE DEFICIENCIES
   The author has had much experience in examining young men for service in the Army
and young women for service in the Red Cross. In those exhibiting the symptoms which
go with dietary deficiency, those who have the peculiar symptoms of scurvy and
pellagra so commonly seen, the hair turns gray  at a relatively early age; the teeth are
decayed or lost; the skin becomes wrinkl ed and sallow in appearance; the facial
expression becomes less animated, and the eyes lose their luster. Along with these we
find a failure of acuity. The eyes lose th e power of accommodation; the ears are unable
to distinguish the higher vibrations. The person no longer appreciates the aroma of good
food, not does he get the full flavor of the taste. Memory fails, and fatigue occurs on
lesser physical exertion. Of all these signs and symptoms, the most outstanding is the peculiar wrinkling of the
subepithelial tissue. This shows plainly in the face of the person who has begun to take
on old age--fine wrinkles around the eyes, nose, and mouth, with the structures
drooping and the lines sloping downward. This, with the development of the sallow
color of the skin and the distorted shape of  the lips due to loss of teeth, or the
replacement of natural teeth with crude effort s of the dentist, presents a typical picture
of advancing age. These signs are to be seen in the pictures  of many of our most news-worthy men. It is
not uncommon in newspaper and magazine pictures and in news reels of the moving
pictures to see men who exhibit these signs, along with tortuous blood vessels in the
temporal region (arterial sclerosis), and in those who smile, decayed, discolored,
irregular teeth and swollen, diseased gums. The persons exhibiting these evidence of old
age are senators, representatives, judges, a nd other persons of importance in the affairs
of the nation. It is not difficult to explain the bungling and muddling that exists in high
places in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our government. The men
who are at the head of our affairs are old men, no matter what may be their years. They
are diseased men, no matter what false set of standards may classify them as normal. A study of the requirements for normal nutrition and a study as to how well the
average dietary meets these requirements leads to the conclusion that the average diet of
the average civilized person of the presen t time is a deficient diet. Civilization has
brought with it factory foods, and factory foods have in no way contributed to health. On the contrary, in every case where factory foods have been adopted, health has been very seriously impaired. The small child who catches cold easily, a nd after repeated colds has diseased tonsils,
is eventually brought to the operating room for relief. If the child had been properly fed so that catching cold was impossible, or if the colds were less severe, the necessity for removing certain organs from his body because they had become foci of infection would not occur. There is no question but that diseased tonsils do in some cases become
centers for the distribution of microorganisms through the body by way of the blood
stream. There is no question but that children in this condition are benefited by the removal of these putrid tonsils. The point of interest is that the well-fed child does not
acquire the disease. The child on whom the operation has been performed is cured of one of the effects of the disease. He is not cured of the disease itself, or the condition
which brought it about. The Dionne quintuplets were subjected to a wholesale tonsil removal. The newspapers
record at times the incident of whole families having tonsils removed on the same day.. Some years ago a certain column of the Journal  of the American Medical Association
recorded the big-heartedness of the Kiwanis Club of a certain western city, the occasion
being the invitation for a certain group of families of the town to bring the children into
the hospital on a certain day and have their tonsils removed at the expense of the Club! The doctors and the laity have been educated to tonsil removal as a proper way to meet
a certain emergency. Apparently no one ever raised the question as to why these tonsils
need removal, or what could be done to prevent the tonsils from becoming diseased. In the case of the Dionnes, the situation is more interesting because these famous
children were supposed to be given every possible attention, and the feeding problem
was managed by university professors who specialized in the care and feeding of
children. In spite of the formulae devised and the protective barriers thrown around the little girls, they did catch colds; they did develop chronic disease of the tonsils, and they
did have to have their tonsils removed. The fundamental principles of good nutrition evidently had not extended as far as Callendar, Ontario. The largest diseased group in school children in the grade schools is that group which
have severe colds, rheumatic fever, and rheumatic heart disease. In the high school
group, the greatest disease producer is tuberc ulosis. The heart disease victim is the
victim of some chronic focal infection. The victim of tuberculosis is also a victim of lowered resistance against disease, due to dietary deficiency. The problem of these
diseased children is simply a problem of right and proper diet. No further proof need be adduced to prove the correctness of these statements than a
visit to any school cafeteria. It will be found that candy bars, sweet drinks, pastries,
cakes and other white flour and sugar products predominate. The teachers and the
school boards evidently concur in the poisoning of the children by these deficient foods,
while making an attempt to build some kind of an intelligent mind on these poisoned bodies and brains. The first effort of those in charge of education should be to build
sound bodies, and since at the present time only one meat during the day can be under
the control of the school board, that meal should conform in the best possible way to the
demands for a high vitamin and mineral intake. The school cafeteria reflects a very low
degree of intelligence in school management. The schools and colleges of the country could very easily become centers for the dissemination of proper information in
connection with diets. The best possible way to start on such a campaign would be the restriction of foods sold in school cafe terias to natural health-producing foods. In the group of young men who are being inducted into the Army, the examining
physicians and the induction boards are rejecting around 40 per cent. These rejections are for eye diseases, diseased teeth and gum s, and heart disease. They also include
rejections for other diseases which are produced by bad diets. It is quite evident that the
two first-named are deficiency diseases. The young men show a large incidence of
subclinical scurvy, pellagra, beriberi, and rickets. In no case do we find any of these
diseases as a clear-cut entity. Those who are rejected show a combination of subclinical
deficiency diseases, so we may conclude that errors in diet are the main reason for the 40 per cent rejections in this age group. (1941). (In 1942 physical requirements for army
service have been lowered but rejects are still around 36%.) The group that are accepted for Army service are not by any means physically perfect. Those accepted have many minor degrees of heart disease. Some have a history of
having had operations for stomach ulcer or a ppendicitis or hemorrhoids. Many have had
tonsillectomies, and many have varying degrees of rheumatic disease and arthritis. Chronic headaches and anemias are not uncomm on in this group, as are lesser degrees
of eye disease and defects of hearing. Acceptance into the Army does not mean a
physically perfect specimen, but one who is in the upper 60 per cent as


 always
right and given on time; side eﬀects are minimal or
nonexistent; and the directions for using the drug are
included in the drug itself, as part of its built-in
intelligence. —
Thinking about these well-known facts has led me to three
conclusions. First, that intelligence is present everywhere
in our bodies. Second, that our own inner intelligence is far
superior to any we can try to substitute from the outside. Third, that intelligence is more important than the actual
matter of the body, since without it, that matter would be
undirected, formless, and chaotic. Intelligence makes the
diﬀerence between a house designed by an architect and a
pile of bricks. For the moment, let’s keep our deﬁnition of the word
intelligence  as simple and practica l as possible. Rather
than referring to the intelligence of a genius, which may
seem both exalted and abstract, I deﬁne it simply as “know-
how. ” There is no doubt, whatever you think about
intelligence in the abstract, that the body must be credited
with an immense fund of know-how. The body’s inner intelligence is so powerful that when it
goes awry, the physician is faced with a truly formidable
antagonist. Every cell in the body is programmed by itsDNA, for example, to divide at a certain rate, producing
two new cells after the mother cell splits in half. Like
everything else regulated by our inner intelligence, this
process is not purely mechanical. A cell divides in response
to its own internal need combined with signals generated
from the cells around it, the brain, the faraway organs that
are “talking” to it via chemical messages. Cell division is a
carefully considered and well-thought-out decision—except
in the case of cancer. Cancer is wild, anti-social behavior, whereby a single cell
reproduces itself without check, heeding no signals from
anywhere except, apparently, its own demented DNA. Why
this occurs, no one know s. It is a good bet that the body
itself knows how to reverse the process, but for some
reason, equally unknow n to science, it doesn’t always
succeed. It is only a matter of time, once the process
begins, before the cancer cells overwhelm a vital organ,
crowd out its normal cells, and cause death. When the ﬁnal
crisis comes, the cancer  cells perish with the rest of the
body, doomed by their ungoverned appetite for self-
expansion. Medicine has so far not ﬁgured out a way to send a
message to the cancer cells in time to ward oﬀ the tragic
fate they have created. The chemicals a physician might
use against cancer are not at all eﬀective on the level of
intelligence. Cancer is endowed with mad genius, while
drugs are simple-minded. So the oncologist resort s to a
much cruder assault, a form of poisoning. The anti-cancer
drug that is administere d is generally toxic to the entire
body, but because cancer cells are growing at a much
faster rate than normal cells, they ingest more of the
poison and die oﬀ ﬁrst. The whole strategy is a calculated
risk. The patient must be fortunate; his physician must be
extremely knowledgeable about the dosage and timing of
the chemotherapy, both of which are absolutely vital. Thenthe cancer may be defea ted, adding years of useful life to
the patient’s existence. Ironically, the therapy may fail because it strips the body
of the very intelligence that usually guards it from  disease. Many anti-cancer drugs are extremely damaging to the
body’s immune system; they directly suppress the bone
marrow, which manufa ctures our white cells, with
devastating eﬀect on the white-cell count in the blood. As
the course of chemotherapy continues, the patient  becomes
more and more susceptib le to new forms of cancer, and in a
certain numb er of cases—as high as 30 percent for breast
cancer—new cancer appears and the patient dies. Moreover, it is sometimes not statistically possible to kill
every malign ant cell. It has been estimated that a typical
cancer patient may have 10 billion cancer cells. If his
chemotherapy is 99. 99 percent eﬀective, there would still
be 1 million survivors, more than enough to start over
again. Cancer cells are not created equal; some are hardier than
others and therefore more diﬀicult to kill. It may be that
destroying the weaker cells acts as a kind of Darwinian
selection, leaving the ﬁttest to survive. In that case,
chemotherapy would actually promote a more virulent
disease than it cured. (Likewise, the persistent
staphylococcus infections  that patients come down with in
hospitals are often highly resistant to antibiotics, because
only the most vicious bacteria can live in the sterile
environment of operating rooms and withstand the
continual bombardment of penicillin injections. ) One can
easily conceive of a strain of “super cancer” that might
arise from one or two malignant cells that had the
strongest resistance to treatment. In any case, the early promise that chemotherapy would
wipe out cancer in our generation, widely believed in the
1950s, has sobered. Now a few cancers at a time aredefeated, such as lymph ocytic leukemia in children and
some kinds of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, while other major
killers, such as lung and brain cancers, are virtually
untouchable through chemotherapy. —
Nothing I have said so far about the body’s know-how is
hypothetical. We have all been informed, doctors and public
alike, about the body’s wondrous intricacy. Yet we persist in
thinking of the body in an obsolete mold, as basically
matter, but with a smart technician inside who moves the
matter around. This technician was once called a soul; now
it tends to be demoted to a ghost inside the machine, but
the same emphasis remains. Because we see and touch our
bodies, carry  their solid weight around with us, and bump
into doors if we don’t watch out, the reality of the body
appears to be primarily material—such is the bias of our
world. But the bias has a huge blind spot in it. Despite the
overwhelming superiority  of the body’s know-how, which
scientists freely acknowledge, a minute amount of time and
money is spent trying to grasp the living body as a whole,
and for very good reason. The Greek philosopher
Heraclitus made the famous remark, “You cannot step into
the same river twice,” because the river is constantly being
changed by new water rushing in. The same holds true for
the body. All of us are much more like a river than anything
frozen in time and space. If you could see your body as it really is, you would never
see it the same way twice. Ninety-eight percent of the
atoms in your body were not there a year ago. The skeleton
that seems so solid was not there three months ago. The
conﬁguration of the bone  cells remains somewhat constant,
but atoms of all kinds pass freely back and forth throughthe cell walls, and by that means you acquire a new
skeleton every three months. The skin is new every month. You have a new stomach
lining every four days, with the actual surface cells that
contact food being renew ed every ﬁve minutes. The cells in
the liver turn over very slowly, but new atoms still ﬂow
through them, like water in a river course, making a new
liver every six weeks. Even within the brain, whose cells
are not replaced once they die, the content of carbon,
nitrogen, oxygen, and so on is totally diﬀerent today from a
year ago. It is as if you lived in a building whose brick s were
systemically taken out and replaced every year. If you keep
the same blueprint, then it will still look like the same
building. But it won’t be the same in actuality. The human
body also stands there looking much the same from day to
day, but through the processes of respiration, digestion,
elimination, and so forth, it is constantly and ever in
exchange with the rest of the world. Certain atoms—carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen
—pass through the body very quickly, being an essential
part of the things we use up the fastest—food, air, and
water. If it were up to only these four elements, we would
be creating new bodies for ourselves literally every month. However, the pace of renewal is slowed by other elements
that do not ﬂow through us very rapidly. The calcium bound
into our bones can take a whole year to replace itself—
some authorities extend the time to several years. Iron, the
component that makes red blood cells red, is held onto
quite tenaciously, being lost mainly through the sloughing
of dead skin cells or the actual loss of blood. Even though  the rates of change may diﬀer, change is
always there. What I am calling “intelligence” takes on the
role of guidin g this change so that we do not collapse into a
heap of brick s. That is one of the most obvious facts aboutthe physiology, but


ifying phenomenon, because it’s
needed as a crucial part of the healing system (bringing
extra blood to the disea sed or injured area, triggering a
cascade of complex chemical interactions at the site) while
in its most acute state, such as the inﬂammation that
occurs during severe burns, it can be fatal. The most troubling kind of inﬂammation is chronic and
low level, which is one reason it took medical science so
long to identify it as a culprit. But the internal war I wrote
about is chronic, too, whether we are speaking of
inﬂammation, stress, or imbalances that lie below the level
of producing  symptoms. (In my view, inﬂamed emotions are
likely to be just as damaging to cells.) Western medicine is
catching up with Ayurveda in this regard. Thousands of
years ago Ayurvedic physicians focused on subtle
imbalances that pushed the body out of its natural balance
and ease. Saying that your body needs to be aligned with Nature
sounds very nonmedic al. It’s more like homespun
philosophy. In the ﬁfteen years I practiced endocrinology
before lookin g into meditation and alternative therapies, Iwould have shrugged oﬀ this piece of advice. Thirty years
later, it resonates very deeply. I see the human body as
having cosm ic implicatio ns. It is the interface between a
single individ ual and Nature as a whole. In the early part of
the twentieth century a poor boy from India named Jiddu
Krishnamurti was scooped up by spiritually minded
Westerners and for a time declared to be the next “world
teacher” after Buddha and Jesus. Krishnamurti’s life story is fascinating, because although
he renounced the grandiose title being foisted upon him, he
seems to have been some one Jeﬀery Wright would  place in
Location 4, where consciousness becomes free of
boundaries. At the very end of his long life—he died in
1986, at age ninety—Krishnamurti became a public ﬁgure
for a second time. Now he was a white-ha ired ﬁgure of
wisdom, an image that ﬁt a little awkwardly. He was too
tart and impatient, too rational and inquisitive, to be
anyone’s idea of a comforting, otherworldly guru. You can see a YouTube video* from Madras, India, in
1980 where a very frail but alert Krishnamurti is asked a
written question. “You often switch over from mind to
brain. Is there any diﬀere nce between them?”
Krishnamurti’s reply begins with an apology. If he used the
words mind  and brain  interc hangeably, it was a slip of the
tongue. He muses for a second before answering the
question with a question. “Is the mind something
untouched by the brain? Is the mind not the result of time,
while the brain is?”
In a nutshell  he has described the mystery of time and
the timeless. As creatures  of the brain, human beings live
in the realm of time, and yet our minds keep returning to
the timeless. Quantum physics oﬀers one lens for
examining how spacetime came about, but ultim ately, the
investigations of science run into a contradiction. The
brain, in trying to examine the quantum ﬁeld, is itself aquantum phenomenon. Every atom in the brain is reducible
to a quivering vibration in the quantum ﬁeld, and each
wave vanishes into multi dimensional Hilbert space, whose
existence is purely mathematical. In other words, relying on a quantum object to explain
quantum reality is like asking a robot to build itself from
scattered parts lying around the ﬂoor. You have to have a
plan—instructions, a blueprint, a conception—for the robot
to follow before it can do anything. If someone produced a
robot that could build itself from scratch, the machine
would be a hoax or a delusion. Somewhere behind the
physical apparatus, a mind must set the agenda. The same
is true of the brain. It is just a thing in a world of things,
with no privileged position. The atoms in your cerebral
cortex aren’t  smarter than the atoms in a lump of sugar or
in the dust picked up by a vacuum cleaner, because atoms
aren’t smart to begin with. Only mind is. It’s not hard to grasp that a robot can’t build itself from
scratch without instructions, but the human brain doesn’t
come with a manual, and we witness it doing all kinds of
things on its own, like a player piano that produces the
inﬁnite variety of music without anyone touching the keys. For this reason, neuroscience will continue to be
materialistic for quite a while longer; it’s much easier to
take apart a player piano than to explain the invisible
pianist. Krishnamurti, like the ancient Vedic sages, found a way
beyond the duality of mind and brain. It begins with self-
awareness. If you look at how your brain is operating, he
says, you’ll see what a narrow groove your thinking follows
and how mechanical it is. Our education and careers, the
perspective of science and engineering, our mem ories—all
contribute to conditioning our thoughts. (In a wry aside,
Krishnamurti remarks that neuroscience is beginning to
view all of life as conditioned by the brain, “which  we havebeen talking about endlessly.” He spent decades trying to
get his listeners to break away from the conditioning of the
brain, but few understood what he meant.) “A thought is a material process. There is nothing sacred
about thought,” Krishnamurti points out. When you go to a
temple, when you project a happy future, when you
entertain idealistic hopes, all of this is a material  process. Saying such things is quite ruthless. Krishnamurti’s
audiences frequently found themselves squirming under his
barbed challenges. Perhaps it was futile for someone who
had arrived at the freed om and clarity of Location 4 to
explain what he saw to people who hadn’t even
experienced Location 1. Yet in the simplest everyday words,
he wanted them to see what was really happening:
“thought has created the architecture and everything
inside the building.”
If we are aware of this, he says, we must move in a totally
diﬀerent direction. The past is constantly being repeated in
the present. Tradition, however noble, oﬀers no help. “If we
accept tradition, it makes the mind extraordinarily dull.”
Imagine the shock to audiences who thought that
Krishnamurti himself belongs to the tradition of Hinduism
and gurus and enlightened sages—he swept all of that
away. With so much pain, disorder, and chaos in the world,
he says, how can we simply turn to tradition? He even
torches the sacred Bhagavad-Gita: Reading it is repetitive
and convenient, but meanwhile the brain becom es dull,
routine, and stupid. So what was his totally diﬀerent direction? Taking the
mind to its source in the timeless. This begins by observing
your own actions and behavior. In a word, Krishnamurti
asks his listeners to stop looking at the content of their
consciousness and instead at consciousness itself. In the
Gita, Lord Krishna declares, “Curving back on myself, I
create again and again.” To understand this passage, youmust substit ute “pure consciousness” for “Lord Krishna,”
and then a seemingly religious statement makes universal
sense. The whole of creation is consciousness working
within itself. It never stands apart from its creation. How
could it? There is nowhere else to go. This realizat ion, the very foundation of Eastern wisdom
traditions, has recently become a hot idea in cosmology,
under the name of panpsychism, which holds that the
universe is conscious. If you accep t panpsychis m, you no
longer have to explain how matter learned to think. You
aren’t limite d by the notion that consciousness is a late
arrival in the cosmos, coming on the scene only when the
human brain  evolved. A host of dilemmas is solved when
mind is everywhere. But a nifty theory that has caught
everyone’s fancy doesn’t meet the challenge posed by
Krishnamurti: How do we deal with a world in chaos and
disorder? There must be peace at every level—body, mind, and
world—for healing to be complete. When you’re sick,
getting well isn’t theoretical. The same holds true in a
Middle East battle zone or in a conﬂicted soul. “Is love, is
compassion, the product of thought?” Krishnamurti asks at
the end. By implication, it isn’t, but he wants every listener
to look inside and discover this truth on their own. Accepting it blindly amounts to no more than another nod
to tradition, which dulls the mind. Every spiritual tradition
extols love and compass ion, but we don’t live in a world
where they’ve taken root to defeat hatred and discord. For the truth to set us free, it must happen one person at
a time, through a journey of self-awareness. The g


 t est tube or observed through a microscope. They ca nnot be examined in the traditional objective sense. Ideas can only
be e xperienced subjectively. Ac cording to A yurveda, the body is a field of
information and  ener gy that we experience objectively, and the mind is the
same fie ld of information and en er gy that we experience subjectively. There
is a correlation between subjec tivity and objectivity. Wherever a thought
goes, a molecule goes. Spiritual traditions say that the word was made into flesh. In reality, the
word an d the flesh are the same thing, much as physics tells us that particles
and wav es are the same thing. The body is a collection of pa rticles. The
mind is  a collection of wave s. They are the same thing experienceddif ferently, dep ending on your method of observation—o bjective or
subjective. Many studies have confirmed that biological age correlates better with
psychological ag e than chronological age. If you are young at heart, your
biological marke rs are likely to reflect a young heart, literally. When your
heart is being attacked through hostility or lack of love, you m ight indeed
suf fer a heart attack. It th erefore becomes important to understand what creates a  youthful
mind, be cause a  youthful mind is likely to translate into a you thful body. All the factors we have discussed in the preceding chapters are, of course,
very imp ortant. However, if your mind is old, your body will re flect it even
if you practice everything that we have suggested so far in th is book. A
youthful mind is a mind that is constantly growing. As a popular saying
goes, “People don’ t grow old. When they stop growing, they become old. ”
Neuroscientists are learning that the brain is an extraordinarily dynamic
or gan th at is continuously reshap ing itself. The cortex of the brain, which is
less than  one-qu arter of an inch  thick and covers only 350 square inches,
contains over 20 billion neurons. Each of these brain cells has over 10,000
connections with other nerve cells throughout the brain. These connections
are under going constant transformation. The electrical, ma gnetic, and
chemical fields of your brain are in perpetual flux, reflecting your moment-
to-moment changing experiences. Even the anatomy of your brain  is being resculpted. Microscopic tendrils
connecting one neuron with ano ther are extending and retracting. The cells
themselves are coming and go ing. The long-standing belief that adults
never ge nerate new brain cells h as been overturned. Recently, researchers at
Princeton University have foun d evidence that thousands of fresh brain
cells are born every day. Y our experience s are ever changing. All experiences take place in the
mind, w hich is notoriously nonstationary. The brain reflects this pliability. Attend to keeping your mind fresh and youthful, and you will keep your
brain and your body fresh and youthful. The body is a field of information and ener gy
that we experience objectively;
the mind is the same field of information and ener gy
that we experience subjectively. A Y outhful Mind
A youth ful mind is dynamic, vib rant, and curious. This is what we all desire
—an ale rt vibra nt mind along w ith strong physical vitality. As a result of
your com mitment to the other s teps in this program, you have set the stage
for this ideal st ate. Y ou have c hanged your perceptions and expectations
about aging. Y ou are taking time on a daily basis to quiet your mind through
meditation. Y ou are lovingly nurturing your body with healthy food,
nutritional complements, mind/body integration techniques, and balanced
exercise. Y ou are eliminating toxins from your body, mind, an d soul. Y ou
are culti vating flexibility and creativity in your consciousness, and you are
making love the most important thing in your life. W ith all thes e other key
components in place, it is essential that you keep your mind active and
expanding so you can enjoy the  fruits of the life-af firming choices you’ve
made and the life wisdom you have accumulated. A y outhful mind has many vital qualities. It is enthusias tic, it is
spontaneous, it is fluid, and it is  adaptable. Observe a child at ease and you
will see all the qualities of a youthful mind in action. Y ou have a youthful
mind within you now. Y ou simply need to allow its expression. ENTHUSIASMA yo uthful mind is an enthusiastic mind. The word enthusiasm comes from
the Greek word entheos, meaning “filled with the divine. ” A mind that is
infused with the creative intellig ence of the cosmos is a youthful mind. It is
overflowing wit h ener gy. The universe is born anew every moment, and a
mind th at resonates with this ener gy sees the world with the wide-eyed
enthusiasm of a child. Follow the advice of Lord Shiva who enc ourages you
to “s tep out of the river of memory and conditioning and see the  world as if
for the first time. ”
A youth ful mind is a beginner ’ s mind. It is enthusiastic about e verything
—a butterfly, a rainbow, the stars at night, a cottontail rabbit, a new book, a
fragrant rose, a fresh strawberr y. Stay alert to the amazing display that is
taking p lace around you. Pay a ttention to the remarkable dance of nature
that is ever fresh and new. Ene r gized alertness is the basis of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm reverses aging. SPONT ANEITY
A youth ful mind is spontaneous. It is unpredictable. It has not been
conditioned. A youthful mind is awake to all possibilities and is not
inhibited by established norms. A youthful mind relinquishes the need to
narrowly define itself. A youthful mind tolerates ambiguity, which gives
rise to spontaneity. Y ou hav e sponta neous impulses  inside of you right now. Close your eyes
and feel  the exuberance of spontaneity that wants to manifest. Right now, as
you are reading this book, do something spontaneous. Find the impulse
within you and nourish it with your attention. Here are some suggestions:
Kiss your spouse
Start dancing
Call your motherStart singing
T ake of f your clothes
Read a poem
Draw a picture
Be s pontaneous. It is not possib le to “practice” spontaneity, but you can
be a lert to nurtur ing the spontaneous impulses that are bubbling up inside of
you. Spontaneity is a quality of a youthful mind. FLUIDITY AND ADAPT ABILITY
A youth ful mind  is fluid and adaptable. It does not allow itself to be trapped
by b oundaries that overshadow the unity of all things. It natura lly sees the
interrelatedness of life, and therefore is able to flow with changing
situations and circumstances wi thout resistance. A youthful mind does not
get stuck in fine distinctions. Be a daptable. Don’ t allow you rself to get trapped into viewi ng things
from a narrow, limited perspective. Practice seeing the big picture. A void
letting boundari es overshadow your unity. Look for the interrelatedness of
all things in life. YOUR QUANTUM MIND
At th e le vel of quantum reality,  the universe is not made up of things. It is
comprised of oscillating fields of ener gy. The quantum domain is
spontaneous. It is inherently unpredictable, resisting all ef forts to define it
precisely. In the quantum domain, everything is interrelated. Any
perturbation in the field influences everything else in the field. The quantum realm has unlimited ener gy, unlimited unpredictability, and
unlimited interconnectedness. Another way of saying this is that the
quantum realm is enthusiastic, spontaneous, and fluid. These are the
qualities of the cosmic mind that every moment gives rise  to a fresh
universe. These are the qualities of a youthful mind that every moment
gives rise to a new body. Heightening Y our Level of Sensory A wareness
A youthful mind is alert to the rich inner and outer sensations  of life. An
aged mind is dull and oblivious to the sensory delights that are available
internally and externally. Y ou can create a youthful, exubera nt mind by
heightening you r state of sensory awareness. A waken to the rich  sensations
inside and outside of you. Enliven your imagination. A youthful mind is
tuned in to the multidimensional, multisensory universe we inhabit. NOURISHING YOUR BODY/MIND THROUGH THE FIVE
SENSES
Pay attention to your environment. Feed your senses delectable, interesting,
awe-inspiring impulses. A youthful mind is nourished through the
exploration of new domains. See your environment with fresh eyes. Don’ t
take your world for granted. Listen to beautiful, interesting, dif ferent music from around the world. Listen to the sounds of nature—birds singing, the wind blowing
through the leaves, rain beating on your roof, ocean waves crashing
against the shore. Feel the texture of things. Dig your hands into the earth. Stroke your
pet. Caress your loved ones. Feel a sculpture. Rub your hands along a
tree’ s bark


 unication. Greetings, my dearest friends. May this evening be a blessing and
an enric hment for every one of you here and for all who read these
words. May you open your minds and hearts so you can deeply
understand yourselves. And even if you cannot understand my
words immediately, some of them may take root in your psyche and
come to fruition later. Full understanding of this lecture may reach
you only as you work your way through the deep layers of your
unconscious where what I say here will apply. There are two basic ways to approach life and the self. Or, to put
it dierently, there are two fundamental possibilities for human
consciousness: the dualistic and the unied plane. The majority of
human beings live predominantly on the dualistic plane, where you
perceive and experience everything in opposites: either/or; good orbad; right or wrong; life or death. In other words, practically
everything you encounter, every human problem, is shaped by this
dualism. The unied principle combines the opposites of dualism. By transcendin g dualism you will also transcend the pain it causes. Few human beings transcen d the dualistic plane, so most people
experience only an occasional taste of the limitless outlook, the
wisdom and freedom of the unied plane. On the unied plane of consciousness there are no opposites. There is no good or bad, no right or wrong, no life or death. There is
only good, only right, only life. Yet it is not the kind of good, or
right, or life that comprises only one pole of the dualistic opposites. It trans cends them both and is completely dierent from either one. The good, the right, the life that exist on the unied plane of
consciousness combine both dualistic poles, so no conict exists. This is why living in a unied  state, in absolute reality, creates bliss,
unlimited freedom, fulllment, and that unlimited realization of
potentials which religion calls heaven. Heaven is usually thought to
be a place in time and space. This, of course, is not so. Heaven is a
state of conscio usness that can be realized at any time by any entity,
whether a human being in the esh, or one who does not live in a
material body. Understanding Is the Way to the Unied Plane
The unied state of consciousness is attained through
understanding or knowingness. Life on the dualistic plane is a
continuous problem. You have to struggle with the arbitrary,
illusory division of the unied principle, through which things
become oppo sites that impose conicts. This creation of
irreconcilable opposites generates a tension within and therefore
with the outside world. Let us understand this particular struggle, and therefore the
human predicament, a little better. You already have, in your real
self, a unied state of mind, regardless of how unconscious and ignorant
you may be of it. This real self embodies the unied principle. Now,even those who have never heard of such a thing have a deep
longing and a mostly uncons cious sense of a dierent state of mind
and life experience than the one they know. They yearn for the
freedom, blissf ulness, and mastery of life that the unied state of
consciousness aords. This longing is misinterpreted by the personality, partly because it
is an unconscious yearning for happiness and fulllment. But let us
understand precisely what is really meant by these words. They
mean the unication of the dualistic opposites, so that there is no
longer any tension, conict, or fear. Consequently, the world
becomes alive and the self is master, not in a tight, tense, hostile
way, but in the sense that life can be exactly what the individual
determines it to be. The freedom, mastery, and bliss of this
liberation are sought after consciously and unconsciously. The misinterpr etation of this longing occurs partly because it is
unconscious—only a vague feeling deep within the soul. But even
when the theoretical knowledge of such a state exists, it is still
misinterpreted for yet another reason. When freedom, mastery,
unication, and the resulting bliss of the unied state of
consciousness are pursued on the dualistic plane, a tremendous
conict must ensue because they are absolutely impossible to
accomplish on that plane. You strive for the fulllment of your deep
longing to transcend and nd, deep within yourself, a new state of
consciousness where all is one. When you seek this on a plane
where all is divided, you cannot ever nd what you seek. You will
despair and split yourself further apart in conicts, for illusion
creates duality. This happens overwhelmingly among people who are ignorant of
these possibilit ies, but it also happens among people who are more
spiritually enlightened, yet are nevertheless ignorant both of the
dierence between these two planes and of how they can learn to
transcend the dualistic plane in their practical daily existence. When the vague longing for, or the precise theoretical knowledge
of, the unied plane of consciousness is misread and therefore
sought on the dualistic plane, here is what happens: You sense that
there is only good, freedom, right, beauty, love, truth, life, without athreatening opposite, but when you apply this on the dualistic
plane, you will immediately  be plunged into the very conict you
seek to avoid. You then ght for one of the dualistic aspects and
against the other. Such a ght makes transcendence impossible. Let me demon strate this in a familiar, everyday human problem,
so that you can understand these words more concrete ly. Let us
assume that you are quarreling with a friend. You are convinced,
from where you sit, that you are right; therefore, immediately, the
friend becomes wrong. With dualistic understanding issues can only
be either/or.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Self-Acceptance
The genuine desire to better oneself leads one to accept one’s
personality as it is now. If this basic premise is the main governing
force of your motivation for perfection, any discovery of where you
fall short of your ideals will not throw you into depressio n, anxiety,
and guilt, but will rather strengthen you. You will not need to
exaggerate the “badness” of the behavior in question, nor will you
defend yourse lf against it with the excuse that it is the fault of
others, of life, of fate. You will gain an objective view of yourself in
this respect, and this view will liberate you. You will fully assume
responsibility for the faulty attitude, being willing to take the
consequences upon yourself. When you act out your idealized self,
you dread nothing more than that, for taking the responsibility of
your shortcom ings upon yourself is tantamount to saying, “I am not
my idealized self. ”The Inner Tyrant
Feelings of failure, frustratio n, and compulsion, as well as guilt
and shame, are the most outstanding indications that your idealized
self is at work. These are the consciously felt emotions  out of all
those that lie hidden underneath. Actually, the basis of the tyranny
of the idealized self-image is the sense of false shame  and false guilt
that this image  produces when one cannot live up to it. In addition,
the idealized self also manifests false needs, which are superimposed
and articially created, like the need for glory, the need to triumph,
to satisfy vanity or pride. The pursuit of these needs never results in
true fulllment. The idealized self has been called into existence in order to attain
self-condence and therefore, nally, happiness, pleasure supreme. The stronger its presence, the more genuine self-condence fades
away. Since you cannot live up to its standards, you think even less
of yourself than you origin ally did. It is therefore obvious that
genuine self-condence can be established only when you remove
the superstructure, which is this merciless tyrant, your idealized
self. Yes, you could have self-co ndence if the idealized self were
really you; and if you could live up to these standards. Since this is
impossible and since, deep down, you know perfectly well you are
not anything like what you think you are supposed to be, you build
up additional insecurity with this “super self,” and further vicious
circles come into existence. The original insecurity, which was
supposedly whisked away by the establishment of the idealized self,
steadily increa ses. It snowballs, and becomes worse and worse. The
more insecure you feel, the more stringent the demands of the
superstructure or idealized self, the less you are able to live up to it,
and the more insecure you feel. It is very important to see how this
vicious circle works. But this cannot be done until and unless you
become fully aware of the devious, subtle, unconscious ways in
which this idealized self


yoga  lineage holder. Viniyoga  aims to
make yoga relevant to every sit uation and every individual person,
and concentrates on postures, breath, meditation and prayer. The ben efits of yoga are many: T aken from the Sanskrit,  yoga
means “ union” or “joining”, so the ultimate aim of yoga is to join
with the  Almighty. This may not  be within the reach of many, so, on
a m ore prosaic level, yoga con fers many less ambitious benefits. Physically, practitioners report increased flexibility, be tter
lubrication of joints, massaging of internal or gans, toned muscles
and detoxification of the entire body. These are joined by mental,
spiritual and emotional benefits as well. Devotees often report
transformations in their lives once yoga is practiced regularly.Stress, anxiety, ill health, unhappiness and anger are replaced by
peacefulness, vibrant health, service, and love towards all creation. Many Indian spas, hotels, resorts, retreats ashrams and healing
centers of fer yoga. People also often attend yoga schools or  sala,
and there are li terally hundreds of inspired settings in India ( and
outside India) in which to prac tice this ancient art (see photo  on
page 100). A painting depicts the Hindu  sapta rishis  or seven sages who are extolled in the
Vedas and other Hindu literature. They  are regarded as the patriarchs of the Vedic
religion, so have perfected many of the teachings in the V edas. The sage at center
bottom is in  urdhva-padmasana  or elevated lotus position.A relatively low-key, but top-notch, yoga school in Mysore is the Mandala Yoga
Sala housed in a 100-year old house on Dewan street in the Laxmipuram area. Set up by Harish Bheemaiah, the school is renowned for its excellent tuition by
acharya  (teacher) Mr V Sheshadri and his son. Sheshadri was a student of
Yogaratna Sri B N S Iyengar (not to be confused with B K S Iyengar) and has
achieved recognition at both international and national levels. He helps students
push beyo nd their limits with a unique style of adjustment (he often sits or stands
on them!). Urdva danurasana  or “intense back bend”.Uttanasana  or “forward bend”.Kukkutasana  or “rooster pose”.An adjustment to  uthita trikonasana.Virabhadrasana 1  or “warrior 1”. Urdva mukha shvanasana  or “upward facing dog”.Adho mukha shvanasana  or “downward facing dog”. Punatanasana  or “east extension posture”, an  asana  that helps strengthen
shoulders and wrist joints.Adho mukha svanasana  or “downward facing dog”, one of the postures in the Sun
Salutation series. Matsyasana  or “fish posture”, helpful for neck and spine. Shreyas Retreat, just outside Bangalore, combines five-star facilities with an ethos
that can best be described as boarding school basic. As the owner explains, it is
about “living an ashram-style life with daily yoga, meditation sessions, organic
vegetarian food, no alcohol, communit y service and farming”. For those who want
to immers e themselves in India’ s ancient wellness traditions, it offers innovative
tuition and plenty of peace and quiet, but does not skimp on creature comforts. It
markets itself as a place that helps guests to find their “inner core.”Sarvangasana  or “supported shoulder stand”, a posture that helps with thyroid
disorders.Trikonasana  or “triangl e pose”: Maintained to streng then knees and calf and thigh
muscles, this posture is good for the spine. Aided by Shreyas instructor Bharat Kumar Patra, our model and yoga teacher
Yana Odnopozov demonstrates some of the different  asanas  in the yoga
repertoire. Asanas  should be “steady and comfortable” according to Patanjali and
Yana looks nothing if not poised in these photographs.This is a variation of  padmasana  or “lotus pose”; usually performed sitting upright,
here the practitioner leans back.The headstand, known as  sirsasana, is a major pose in yoga. Hands and arms
can be used in a number of different ways to support this pose which stretches thespine and builds neck muscle. The crane pose or  bakasana  is a yoga posture that stretches the knees,
hamstrings and lower back. It is one of the easiest balance arm postures in the
yoga repertoire. This posture is known as  halasana  or “plough pose” ( hala  in Sanskrit translates as
plough). As the plough makes the hard ground soft, the veins are stretched here
to reduce stif fness in the body. Another variation of  padmasana. Parsva bakasana  or “side crane pose ” gives an intense stretch in the lower back
and requires good upper body strength. The lower arms bones (ulna and radius)
act as supporting beams and the legs are bent at the knee. This is a variation of
the side crane posture, as the participant has stretched out both her legs to one
side.Pulling arms and legs stretches the abdomen; hamstring stretch; twisting from the
waist to free up muscles in the upper arms; pulling the client towards  dhanurasana
or the “bow pose” to stretch shoulders and elongate the spine. The skilled  Amanbagh therapist pulls, turns, manipulates and stretches the client’ s
body to simulate certain yoga postures and stretches. All the while, she works
along the energy lines, using acupressure, reflexology and internal organ
massage. The aim is to clear blockag es of  prana  and give the client a full body
workover to improve overall health and create a feeling of wellbeing. amulya uphar  Lazy Man’s Yoga
Similar to Thai massage, but based on the stretching
facilitated by yoga postures, Amulya Uphar is a unique
technique of fe red at Rajasthan’ s Amanbagh. T ranslating as
“Priceless Gift” from the Hindi, it is an oil-free treatment
that takes place on a mattre ss on the floor, with the client
wearing a loose  kurta  pyjama suit. The therapist works on
the client’ s meridian lines and acupressure points,
manipulating the body into dif ferent positions to open upener gy chann els that in t urn stimulate sluggish blood
circulation, movement of lymph and the flow of  chi. First of all, clien ts are prepared for the body work with a foot wash
with a hot towel to remove negative ener gy and a gentle touch on
the solar plexus and crown  chakra  to let them know they are in safe
hands. L ying on their back on a mattress on the floor, they  are
requested to breathe normally before the massage begins. This
always starts with the feet as it  is here that the body weight re sts:
Using thumbs and the palms on the meridian lines, reflex points  are
awakened on the soles, then the masseuse moves up the legs to
stomach and hands, shoulders and head. After this, the client turns
over and the therapist works on the legs, back, neck and head. Amulya Uphar is quite a physically demanding experience, with
the thera pist sometimes sitting on the client, and often pulling him
or her into somewhat contorte d positions. The cobra pose, for
example, has the therapist kneeling on the pressure points of the
client’ s thighs while holding both hands and pulling them
backwards. At certain points the client may be requested to breathe
in or out in ord er to facilitate the opening up of the body, but the
therapist — by listening to the  body — knows how far it can  be
coaxed, stretched or twisted. Amulya Uphar can be an ama zingly de-stressing experience,
with ma ny clients reporting deep relaxation, relief of tension and
increased suppleness afterwards. As with W atsu, a similar practice
of fered i n water, it works best if clients give themselves up enti rely
to the therapist by relaxing completely. Such yo gic stretching is of fered at other venues in India and
overseas: Essentially, the body is being assisted into yoga  asanas
and stret ches wi thout having to make any ef fort itself. It has all  the
benefits of yoga, but much less of the hard work!Another “bow pose” angle. Stretching arms to work on the triceps.pranayama  Therapeutic Breathing
Exercises
T aken from the word  prana  meaning “vital ener gy” or “life
force” and  ayama  that means “control” or
“extension/expansion”,  pranayama  comprises a series of
breathing exercises that c alm the mind, improve the
condition of the abdominal and chest area, and eliminate
toxins from the body. Orig inally expounded by Patanjali
(see page 100), it is all about the expansion of the


 lo wer-center  arousal  subsides. This wi ll count
as one  exercise. You will repeat  this procedu re: stimulating  yourself,
and then  practicing  the Orgas mic Dra w until the  arousal  subsides
and the orgas mic feeling  moves upw ard. Practice  makes perfect. Once  you totall y gain  control  of your
sexual  organs  and the energ y involved  in solo practice,  you will
naturall y have  full control  during  sexual  intercours e. You can
continue  to have  sex and  practice  at the  level  you have  reached. Some wi ll natur ally become skillful mu ch mo re quickly  than  others
if they  have  trained  their minds through  yoga, meditation  or other
mental disciplines. If you are not involved  in a prog ram of dail y
physical discipline,  do some wa rm-up exercises  and stretching
before  practicing  the Orgasmic Draw. Iron Shirt  breathin g and
packing  directl y assists in the  execution  of the Orgas mic Dra w.
These exercises  will tone  up the energ y in yo ur organs,  making it
easier  to feel y our intern al Chi ener gies,  and thus speed  up the
command of your sexual ener gy:
    People  spendin g years and years earni ng a doctorat e in med icine
or a Ph.D. in any high  technolo gical science  know  that such
know ledge is important  to ma king a living  in this w orldly life. However, people  must also consider  learning  the high  technolog y
about  them selves,  one involving  an energ y body  and a spiritual
body  and earning  a doctor ate in prepar ation  for the next life. All of
the energy  practices  of this  life can  be transferr ed to your next  life
if you start to practice  while you still have  an abun danc e of that
energy. Consciously  you will transfe r your own identification  to a
spiritual  body. Therefor e, it is w orthwhile to spend  time on practice
to earn  this highest  of hum an technologic al degre es. - 134  -Chapter  VI
D. Orgasmic Draw,  or How to transf orm aroused Sexual
Energy into t otal bo dy org asm. 1. Practice  in an Unaroused State
A. Pre- Exercise
   While learnin g the exercise,  first practice  in an unar ouse d state. (1) Lower  Abdominal  Breathing
    From yo ur practice  of the Microcosmic Orbit  you may now find
yourself breathi ng normally in the lo wer abdomen,  with little or  no
movement of  the chest  and shoulde rs. Lower abdo minal  breathi ng
is the  way we breath e when we are babies,  and the way we breat he
when we are asleep  or in deep  relaxation. Man y of us  have  to relear n
how to breathe  into the lower abdomen  when awake and alert,
Lower abdominal breat hing causes  the diaphragm to  move lo wer
during  inhalatio n, thus  elongati ng the lungs  and providing  more lung
area to be filled  with air. Check  yourself at random during  the day
and discover  from  which area  you are breathi ng. You can practice
lower abdo minal  breathin g anytime. In additio n to increasing  lung
capacity  abdominal breathi ng will also  greatly  strengt hen the lower
abdom inal muscles, w hich will help  you to control  lower abdominal
energy. (Fig. 6-1)
(2) Diaphrag m
    Sit or  stand  in a comfortable  position. Exhale,  flatten  your
abdomen, and  exhale  once  more, relaxing  the diaphragm do wn to
press  against  the organs,  especially  the adrenal  glands  (located
on top of  each  kidney ). Relaxing  the diaphr agm in the  exhale  position
requires  practice. Your mind can  help  to guide  the diaphragm and
you can use  the Inner  Smile to sm ile to it. The diaphra gm can
beco me stuck on  the rib cage  if is too tight,  and this will make it
difficult to mo ve it up  and down. You can assist  its m ovement b y
rubbing  along  the bottom of the  rib cage  until the  tightness  and pain
are gone. This w ill enable  the diaphr agm to stretch  and you will find
your breath  beco ming  deeper:  making it easier  to practice  abdo minal
breathin g.
(3) Energy  Ball
Now inhale  without expandin g the abdomen. You should  feel a
- 135  -Orgasmic Upward Draw
Inhal ing with  the d iaphr agm pressi ng
down,  the a bdomen expands. Inhal ing with  the d iaphr agm
up, the abdomen moves in. Spinal Cord
Cross-Sectio n of the Abdo men
Cross-S ection of the Ab domen
Fig. 6.1 Lower Abdominal  Breathing:  Breathe as  a round  shape,
          expanding  all sides a nd not the stomach only. - 136  -Chapter  VI
pressure  on the lo wer abdomen  which serves  to pack  the orga ns
into a smaller place. This w ill help  to concent rate the energy  in the
lower center  and pack  and condens e the energ y into an  energ y
ball, w hich we call a  “crystal” ball. Exhale and relax. This condens ed
energy · will be of tremendous  use in later higher  practice  of the
Taoist sys tem as y ou form  the energ y body  and spiritual  body that
give birth  to the  soul and spirit. B. Relati onship of the Palate to the  Organs
   The palate  and the tongue  are closel y related  to the  organs  and
glands. Knowing how to activate  the palate,  the floor of the  Cranial
Pump, wi ll enabl e you to trigge r that pum p’s action,  thereby
assisting  the flow of Chi. (1) Front Palate
   The front  part of the palate  near  the teeth  and the inside gum is
related  to, and  is the  reflex  point  of, the heart  and small intestine. (2) Middle Palate
   The m iddle part  of the palate  before  the soft palate  is related  to,
and is the  reflex  point  of, the  liver  and gall bladde r:
(3) Back  Palate
    The soft  palate  located  toward the back  of the  mouth is related
to, and  is the  reflex  point  of, the kidney s and bladder. (4) Front of The  Mouth
   The point  at the front  of the  mouth betw een the upper  and lower
teeth  is related  to, and  is the  reflex  point  of, the lungs  and large
intestine. (5) Jaw  Line
   The j aw line betw een the lower teeth  and gum s is relate d to,
and is the  reflex  point  of, the  spleen,  stomach and  pancre as. C. Activating the Pumps
   In these  exercises,  we com bine lower abdom inal breathi ng
together  with muscle po wer locks. - 137  -Orgasmic Upward Draw
Close and pu ll the e yes in, then
look up toward  the crown. Press the flat side of the
tongue ag ainst the palate..
Push the chi n
 backward. Fig. 6.2 Activating  the Cranial Pump. (1) Activation of the Cranial Pump ( Fig. 6-2)
   The mu scle po wer lock that  is responsible  for activating  the
Cranial  Pump is acco mplished  by squeezing  the mu scles of the
tongue  against  the palate  and teeth,  while simultaneously  squeezi ng
the muscle at the  back  and base  of the  skull,  thereby  activating  the
Cranial  Pump as w ell as all of the pumps in the  body. (A) Teeth
  Clenching  the teeth  will help  to squeeze  the temporal  bones,
and when released  will activate  the Cranial  Pump. T he cranial  bone,
- 138  -Chapter VI
located  at the palate,  is called  the palatine  bone. Clenching  the
teeth  will also stim ulate  the lungs  and large  intestine. Front Pal ate: Reflex
point of the h eart and
small intestin e.