1. Welcome to Issue #161 (June 2006) of MIND CHATTER, 
the e-mail newsletter of Centerpointe Research Institute: 
http://www.centerpointe.com.

Mind Chatter is published once a month, on or about the 16th of each month.

Please send Mind Chatter to a friend, and please send us 
your questions, comments, and suggestions.

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2. If you would like to unsubscribe, you can manage your account 
   via the link at the end of this newsletter. 
   (But please don't. We like you and we want you to stay.)

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3. In This Issue

// MindQuotes (scroll to #5)

// A few recommendations that may benefit you (scroll to item #6)

// Feature Article
   Who are you, Really?
   by Bill Harris, Director (scroll to item #7)

// Glowing Testimonials of the Month (scroll to #8)

// Book Review (scroll to #9)
   Ten Eternal Questions
   Wisdom, Insight, and Reflection for Life's Journey
   By Zoe Sallis
   Review by Marc Gilson

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4. MIND CHATTER contains articles about:

// How you create your life--and how you can stop unconsciously creating 
experiences and outcomes you do not want, and instead begin to create 
exactly what you do want

// Personal and spiritual growth in general

// Meditation (high- and low-tech)

// Recovery from emotional trauma

// Pretty much any other subject I get excited about and want to write about. 
After all, it's my company and my newsletter,  and I can do whatever 
I want with it. So there.

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5. Mind Quotes

Let's not just transform those in need, we can also find ways to help transform
those in power.

-unknown

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but
reveal to them their own.

- Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher
demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

- William Arthur Ward

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang
except those that sang best.

- Henry Van Dyke

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6. Live long and prosper!

Unless you've been living in a cave lately, you must have seen some of the
recent news about the health benefits of meditation.

It's everywhere...

* An article published in the American Heart Association journal, Stroke, 
  recently reported that meditation can reduce cholesterol buildup and the 
  associated risk of heart attack and stroke.

* And another study of the elderly found that meditation actually 
  added years to their lives.

* The National Institutes of Health reports that regular meditation reduces 
  chronic pain, anxiety, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and 
  cortisol (sometimes called "the stress hormone") production.

* A University of Wisconsin-Madison study discovered 
  meditation boosts brain function and the immune system.

* A recent issue of the American Journal of Hypertension featured the 
  results of a study showing a significant lowering of blood pressure in a 
  group of meditators compared to a control group of people who didn't meditate.
 
  The study also reported a 23% decrease in usage of antihypertensive drugs 
  between the group of meditators and the other group.

* A Harvard study also concluded that regular meditation can reduce pain, 
  lower blood pressure, and cut production of the stress hormone, cortisol.

* The most recent study by The American Heart Association shows heart 
  and artery health improved 69 percent in test groups practicing meditation.

And this is just the beginning.

Practically every time you turn around there's another study documenting and
supporting fantastic health and wellness benefits of meditation.

So, what's the quickest way to actually achieve these amazing benefits?

If there's a downside to meditation it's this... Traditional meditation can take
years, even decades to master.	

The Holosync Solution changes all that.

Holosync uses advanced scientific technology to induce deep states of meditation
virtually at the push of a button.

Most regular users of Holosync report fabulous results in weeks rather than
years.

Try Holosync for yourself-for FREE!

Click visit http://www.centerpointe.com/demo/ to get a FREE Holosync demo CD so
you can see for yourself how this powerful technology can improve your life.

Here's an even better idea.  Go ahead and order Awakening Prologue (the first
level of The Holosync Solution) and get started with the real thing.

With our One-Year 100% Iron-Clad Guarantee, you can do so with no risk
whatsoever.  

Use Holosync for up to a full year and enjoy all the powerful and lasting
benefits this kind of meditation brings you.  And if you decide that Holosync
isn't everything we promise, simply let us know and you can return it for a full
refund.  It's just that simple.

If you have any interest at all in increased health and vigor, increased
longevity, lower blood pressure, peace of mind, and all the other great benefits
of meditation, at least give Holosync a try.

Remember you can get a FREE demo CD by going to 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.centerpointe.com/demo/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And to learn all about the science behind Holosync, check out our extensive
articles section here: 

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http://www.centerpointe.com/about/articles.php
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

** // **

Which of these big life improvements would you like to enjoy?


[ ] I want more loving and fulfilling relationships

[ ] I want to enjoy my successes rather then have them 
torn from my grasp at the last minute

[ ] I want to be happier and more satisfied with my life

[ ] I want to get rid of bad habits and adopt resourceful ones

[ ] I know I could achieve a lot more with just a little bit of help


[X] I want to create MY LIFE rather than 
live one that just happens to me


I know that many people may have promised that they 
can teach you how to create the life you want.

I promise you that I really can--and have for thousands of people.

I've also arranged for you to be able to 
experience a sample of how I do it, FREE.

So, here's a very special opportunity for you...something that can totally turn
your life around. And, it could be worth a considerable amount of money to you,
as well.

Just for a moment, imagine:

WHAT IF you could be IN CHARGE of what happens to you--including your feelings
and emotions and other internal states, as well as your external results?...

Wouldn't that be a lot better than waiting for life to "just happen," where you
sometimes get what you want, and sometimes you get what you don't want?

Are you willing to learn exactly HOW you can do this?

For the last year and a half, I've been teaching three 12-lesson online courses
called the Life Principles Integration Process, or LPIP, that teach you all of
this, and more. I've received thousands of emails and letters from the people in
these courses telling me how what they've learned has transformed their lives,
even saved their lives. (You can see some of the comments people have made
below.)

So more people could afford the LPIP courses, and as an introductory offer, I'm
offering them for an incredibly low $249 per course. 

And, if you sign up for all three, I'll give you the third course for FREE.

This actually made each course $166 each, about $13.83 per lesson.

If I taught the LPIP material in seminar form, it would probably take at least
ten long intense days to teach each course. And with all the personal follow-up
I include, I'd have to charge several thousand dollars per course for you to
attend.

And even at that lofty price, it would be worth it, I promise you.

Not only that, there is an iron-clad money back guarantee on these courses. Take
the course and do the homework, and if you don't think this is the most
transformational experience you've ever had, I'll immediately refund your entire
tuition.

In other words, you have nothing to lose but whatever ways you have been
automatically creating what you don't want in life.

I will warn you, though. These LPIP courses are not your typical pablum-filled
feel-good seminars where you feel high at the end but realize three weeks later
that little if anything really changed.

If you take these three courses, EVERYTHING will change--and, for the better.
Your life will be transformed. You will have all the tools you need to be in
direct control of your life--your feelings, your internal state, your external
results, your behavior.

And, you will gain a huge insight into who you really are, why you're here, and
what life is all about.

Plus you'll learn, step-by-step, the exact strategies, internal and external,
used by the most successful people in the world to get anything they want. And,
I'll show you how to make sure you use them and make them work for you.

And, as I said, if you don't get what you want from these courses, for any
reason, you can get a refund. I'm taking all the risk, other than your time
investment in actually doing the lessons.

If you're not serious about changing your life, if you aren't willing to do what
it takes to operate at the highest level and really be happy, peaceful, and
successful ALL THE TIME, this isn't for you.

But if you're serious, if you're sincere, these three courses will utterly and
completely change your life.

Here's a huge and very unique benefit you'll get from these LPIP online courses:

In addition to everything else, all LPIP course participants get unlimited email
access to me for any questions they have about course content. I answer every
one of these emails personally--no staff members are involved--and some of my
answers, when necessary, are sometimes three, five, even seven pages long.

I put everything into this course, because I really, sincerely want you to get
everything I'm promising.

You though, have a part in the success of these courses--in fact, a big part. I
don't wave a magic wand over you and change you into a happy, peaceful,
successful person in complete control of his or her life.

I just tell you how to do it, and give you an easy way to make the change.

Because I have such a huge personal time investment in answering all your
questions, I want to make one thing very clear, though. Please DO NOT take these
courses unless you're willing to do your part. I do not have the time to waste
on those who aren't sincere and aren't willing to pay the price to create the
internal changes they want.

But if you ARE sincere, and you really do want to change your life, I want to
show you how to do it, and I will take you, step by step, through everything you
need to know.

You CAN create an entirely new life for yourself, regardless of your past or
present circumstances. 

You can read more about each course and what it includes, and even listen to a
free preview lesson, just by visiting the url below:
http://www.centerpointe.com/life/preview

So please, go listen to the free preview lesson, and if you really are ready to
change your life, enroll in this amazing courses risk-free.

I look forward to having you in these courses and showing you that the
possibilities for what your life can be really are limitless...regardless of
your present or past circumstances.

Just visit http://www.centerpointe.com/life/preview to listen to the free
preview lesson and to take advantage of the old low price before we're forced to
raise it on June 1st:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.centerpointe.com/life/preview
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Be well.

Bill

................................................................................

7. Feature Article
Who are you, Really? 
by Bill Harris, Director
Centerpointe Research Institute

In previous Mind Chatter articles, we've looked very closely at the many ways
you use your mind to create your inner and outer reality. In these articles I've
described in great detail the various ways in which you run your brain, the way
you internally process information, and how these create your internal states as
well as your external results. This has included discussions of beliefs, values,
metaprograms, internal strategies, and several other parts of what I call your
Internal Map of Reality.

The purpose of these articles is to open you to the possibility that you could
master these internal processes, rather than just continuing to allow them to
run on autopilot. If you pay the price to master this information, you can be in
charge of what you create in your life. (My Life Principles Integration
Principles online courses are a great way to master this information, and you
can listen to a free preview lesson at www.centerpointe.com/life/preview.)

Now, we're going to zoom out a bit from the details of how you run your Internal
Map of Reality and, in a series of articles, begin to examine two things: first,
the idea of change, how change happens, how we resist change, and how to get out
of the way so as to allow change to happen without resistance and suffering.
Mastering change is important, since we live in a universe whose main feature is
unrelenting, constant change. Learning how change happens and how to deal with
it is essential if we're to be happy, peaceful and successful in the world. 

Second, we'll look at something broader than the reality created by your mind,
and broader than the constant change happening in this universe--what some would
call the spiritual realm--and we'll see how the mind and what it creates fits
into the larger whole, and what that means for you as a human being. 

Three universal goals...

I've often spoken about three goals I believe pretty much all people have: to be
happy, to be peaceful inside, and to be successful in the world. If I were to
pick one term to encapsulate what I mean by all three of these, it would be that
all humans wish to thrive. This series of articles, in large part, is about how
to thrive. But instead of looking at the fine details, as we have when looking
at your Internal Map of Reality, we're going to look more at general principles.
If you follow these principles, you'll have the ingredients that will allow you
to thrive in this life. 

Often people will agree about something or profess to understand something on
the theoretical level, and then turn around five minutes later and, in practice,
violate the very principle they just pledged allegiance to in theory. This tells
me that people often do not really understand the actual application of
principles to real life. If you can't apply principles to real life, they have
little value. I will be doing my best in these articles to get you to understand
the practical application of what I'm going to share with you. 

No one would get involved with Holosync, or read my articles, or participate in
any other personal growth approach, if they were already 100% happy, peaceful,
and successful. If you were thriving, you wouldn't have the motivation to learn
this material. 

This means that there is very likely some result you want that you aren't
getting now. 

In order to get what you're not currently getting, you must be willing to do
things differently than you are now. This may seem obvious to you, but in actual
practice, it's not obvious at all. Over the last 25 years, I've dealt with well
over 200,000 people in my role as a personal growth teacher. Almost all of them
have shared one characteristic: they wanted different results, but almost always
without having to change the type of thinking and acting that was creating their
current results. 

Somehow, people do not get, at a root-cause level, that how they think and how
they act generates their results. This causes them to think they can get
different results without changing how they think and act. 

Getting different results does not come from changing your external situation.
It comes from changing your internal situation. 

My advice? Resolve right now to try new ways of thinking and acting. In previous
articles, I've asked you to go into your own mind and discover the details of
how you think, how you create your reality, what you believe, what you value,
how you filter what comes in, how you store it, how you represent it to
yourself, and so on. And, I shared with you my ideas of how to think in a way
that gives you the ability to be in control of what you create. 

What many people do when they read personal growth books and articles, or attend
seminars, is look for those parts of the information that support what they
already believe, and either ignore--or resist--those things that don't confirm
what they already think. 

So I ask you to come to this series of articles with what the Zen Buddhists call
"a beginner's mind." Use this information to adopt a new way of seeing yourself
and your place in the universe. If, at the end of the series, you'd rather go
back to your old way of seeing things, your old way of being, you're free to do
so. But unless you really try on what I'll share with you, you'll never really
know if it is a better way. 

So I'm suggesting that you look for times when I say something that's foreign to
the way you currently see things, and, just for fun, try it on, even if it feels
funny to you, or even if you feel a lot of resistance.	

What is "reality"?

Let's start with a very big picture overview of an age-old question, "What is
reality?" For thousands of years, mystics have said that there is one energy in
the universe, that the universe and everything in it is the play, the dance, the
vibration of one energy--that underneath the seeming multiplicity, everything is
made of the same substance. This energy, then, is everywhere, and "everywhen." 
     
This idea of Oneness is sometimes described as Omnipresence, or God. The Hindus
and Buddhists call this principle, Sat: one energy, everywhere, making up
everything, always, past, present, and future. 

Quantum mechanical physicists, for several decades, have been saying essentially
the same thing. They noticed that on the sub-atomic level, particles come into
being, seemingly out of nothing, and dissolve and disappear back into nothing;
that two or more particles collide, and one, two, three, or more particles,
often of a different kind, appear from the collision; or that all the particles
cease to exist. There is a "something" that everything comes out of and returns
to and which makes up, or is the background of, everything. 

Consciousness

The mystics, however, went one step further. In addition to noting that this one
energy makes up everything, and is everywhere, forever, they also said that this
one energy is aware of itself being everything and everywhere and
everywhen--that it is conscious, that it has consciousness. The mystics called
this second characteristic of reality Chit. 

Consciousness, in this sense, is not the same as what we would ordinarily
describe as knowing, in a cognitive sense. This is not the same as your senses
and your brain knowing or recognizing something, though that's one of the only
reference points we have, intellectually, for understanding the term
consciousness. Ultimately, you have to experience being it, and I'll talk more
later about what I mean by that. 

So this oneness, this unity, is aware of itself being everything. Pretend for a
moment that you are this one energy. If you were everything, there would be
nothing outside of you to fear. That would be like fearing your own hand. If
everything is you, and you're everything, there's nothing to fear. 

There would also be nothing to get, nothing you could lack, since you're
everything. There would also be nowhere to go, no journey to take. Seeking would
be unnecessary. You're everything, always, everywhere, with nothing to want,
nothing to fear, nowhere to go. 

If you were established in this awareness of who you are, knowing that there was
nowhere to go, nothing to get, and nothing to fear, you would be...happy,
peaceful, blissful. The third characteristic of reality, then, according to the
mystics, is called ananda, which means bliss. 

The mystical explanation of reality, then, is that reality is satchitananda,
which means one energy, everywhere, out of which everything is comes, that this
energy is aware of itself being everything and everywhere and everywhen, and
that as a result of this awareness, it is blissful, happy, peaceful. 

This, according to the mystical view, is who you really are. Your fears, your
desires, your idea that you have to get to somewhere, the idea that you lack
something, is, in this view, an illusion. You are not a separate ego in a bag of
skin, but, rather, this Oneness. 

Why am I miserable?

But the question comes: If this is true, why am I so unhappy so much of the
time? Why do I feel so powerless? Why does it seem as if I am a separate
creature in what looks to be a pretty dangerous and perilous world? 

To live, I need a constant supply of air, and without it I die in just a few
moments. I need food on a regular basis, or I die within a few weeks. I need my
environment to stay within a very narrow temperature range or the chemical
reactions that keep me alive cannot happen. And then there's ultraviolet rays,
and other dangerous electromagnetic forces, and poisons, and dangerous people
who want to hurt me, and if I get just a few miles away from the surface of a
planet that needs a certain atmosphere, at a certain temperature, and which
needs to be a certain distance from a certain kind of star, I can't survive. 

This is hardly the perspective of peace and bliss and the knowing that I am the
One energy of everything.

The mystics have an answer for this: you aren't happy and peaceful and in touch
with the fact that you are all and everything, everywhere, eternally peaceful
and blissful, because of your mind. Your mind is in the way of your experience
of who you really are. Your mind, through what I have called your Internal Map
of Reality, is creating an alternate reality that acts, in a sense (to use a
metaphor from Eastern philosophy), like dust covering a mirror, keeping you from
seeing who you really are. 

Meditation

Realizing that the mind gets in the way and obscures your true nature from you,
the mystics came up with methods for gaining the ability to perceive reality
directly, without the filter of the mind. The most effective and most popular of
those methods is meditation. Meditation is designed to still the mind, until
eventually you gain enough control that you can experience reality directly,
rather than filtering it through the mind and creating a representation, a map,
of reality (hence the term Internal Map of Reality). 

As long as you attend to what the mind creates and see its creation as the
reality, you miss everything else. When the mind wildly jumps around, creating,
without your intention, your entire universe, inside and out, that universe will
grab all your attention, and that's all you'll see. 

As the mind becomes quieter, you begin to see the spaces between what the mind
creates, like parting the branches in a thicket to see snatches of the meadows
and mountains beyond. 

One...or Many?

In describing reality, the mystics said something else very interesting: that at
the moment of creation, this one energy of all and everything polarized itself
into a seeming duality: good and evil, up and down, male and female, here and
there, black and white, off and on, yin and yang, and so on. There is a tension
between the two sides of each of these poles, and the mystics say that this
tension between polar opposites is what causes the universe to manifest. 

Notice that this duality is described as a "seeming" duality. There are two
reasons why this duality, these opposites, only seem to exist. The first is that
each side of the duality depends on the other side for its existence, which
means that they really make up one thing, a unity. "Here" makes no sense without
"there." "Not me" makes no sense without "me." "Good" makes no sense without
"evil." Each of these exist only in relation to the other. 

Each of these seemingly opposite poles are one thing, not two. In being
opposite, they are also inextricably tied to each other, and cannot exist
independently. They're like two sides of the same coin. You can't have a
one-sided coin, and the two aspects of duality cannot exist separately either,
nor can one win out over the other. 

The other reason is more basic, and consists of the fact that dividing anything
into this and that, or any other divisions, happens in the mind only, not in
reality. These divisions happen conceptually, and where the division made is
entirely arbitrary. Because we socially agree on where many of these divisions
are made, they often seem to be "real" but they are not. I will go into this in
great detail in a future article, and it is a mind-bending and fascinating
subject, as you will see.

But back to the idea of the duality of polar opposites. This tension between
polar opposites described by the mystics, interestingly enough, is reflected in
the human brain--or, you might say that because the brain/mind creates these
divisions, it isn't a surprise that the brain is structured in a split manner.

The divided mind

Your brain, as you know, is divided into two hemispheres, a left and a right
hemisphere, connected by a small piece of tissue called the corpus callosum.
And, it's possible for one side of the brain to be more active, more dominant,
than the other at any given time. This is called brain lateralization, and the
more the brain is lateralized--the more unbalanced it is--the more likely we are
to chop the world into separate things and see the two sides of any supposed
duality as being separate and opposite. 

On the other hand, the more balanced the brain--the less the brain is
lateralized to one side or the other--the more we naturally see how the two
sides of any duality are really one thing, and the more we perceive how
everything is connected, and that the divisions are created in the mind and are
not intrinsic to reality. When we see in this way, we get more and more in touch
with that satchitananda I described. 

I hasten to add that dividing the whole into separate things is a handy thing to
do sometimes. It's when we forget that we did it, conceptually, and that these
divisions are not a part of reality, that we get into trouble. More about this
in a later article.

When I say that the mind gets in the way of seeing and experiencing who you
really are, it would be more accurate to say that the lateralized mind, the
lateralized brain, gets in the way of seeing who you really are: the one
timeless energy of all and everything. 

When you do see who you really are, you relax. When this happens, there's no
where to go, nothing to get, nothing to fear, and you relax and experience
yourself as happiness, love, peace, and bliss. 

Meditation is designed to balance the brain, which allows you to increasingly
experience who you really are. Meditation, in balancing the brain, helps to get
the mind out of the way, allowing you to experience yourself, and reality,
directly, and when this happens, everything flows. 

The two worlds...

Let's look at a couple of implications of this description of reality I've
proposed. We have two worlds, or two ways of looking at things. We have the
world of the mind, and all its creations, what we would normally think of as
"reality" or the universe. Then we have what most people refer to as the
spiritual or metaphysical world. 

As a way of understanding these two worlds, consider the concept of foreground
vs. background. When you read a book, you look at the foreground, the printing
on the page, and you really don't notice the background, the page itself. The
printing is where all the information is, after all. When you drive into a town,
you see the buildings, the people, the trees, the cars, and so on. Again, you
could consider these things to be the foreground, and everyone would agree that
that's where the action is. You don't really pay attention to the space in which
these things are situated, which is the background. 

For the foreground, whatever it is, to exist, there must be a background against
which the foreground can be seen. Even though the blank page has no information,
the printing cannot exist without it. The page is blank, and contains no
information in and of itself, but without it, there can be no printing, no
information, no story. In the town I mentioned, there can be no people, no
buildings, no cars, no trees, unless there's the space in which these things can
exist. The space, as with the page, is blank, empty. It has no characteristics,
in fact, other than its blankness, its potentiality. But without this blank
background, there can be no foreground. 

Buddhists have a saying when talking about reality. They say, "Form is
nothingness, and nothingness is form." When they say this, they're talking about
the background and the foreground, and the fact that they "go together," they
depend on each other. The foreground is form, and the background--that which the
form comes out of--is nothingness. But this is a very real nothingness, in the
sense that without it, form could not exist. 

Here's another interesting way to look at this idea of duality, of polarity, of
background and foreground. We interface with the world through our five senses.
In a way, though, we really have one basic sense, touch. All the other senses
are a type of touch. We touch light waves with our eyes, we touch sound waves
with our ears, and so on. The neurons that sense these things really notice two
things. They either notice "on" or they notice "off"--that the phenomena of
being "touched" is happening or not happening. 

You probably know that by using combinations of zeros and ones--another form of
on and off--computers create very complex patterns of data that can encode and
express pretty much any information you can think of, from numbers to music to
video--anything. 

On and Off, Black and White

We live in a universe where everything is vibrating, and whether we think of
vibration in terms of waves or particles (or wavicles, combining the two), no
crest of a wave can occur without a trough, and no particle can occur without a
space or interval between itself and other particles. There are no half-waves,
nor are there particles without spaces between them. There can be no on without
off, no up without down. 

Our senses are constructed in such a way that when they "touch" something in the
world, we notice and respond to the "on" but miss the "off," in the same way
that we see the writing but fail to notice the page. But the fact that we don't
notice the "off" or the background doesn't mean it isn't there, and that doesn't
mean it isn't essential. The dark, the silent, the empty, the off interval, are
ignored, but all of them are necessary. Consciousness ignores the interval
between one "on" event and the next, but we would be unable to notice the "on"
without the existence of the "off." 

Earlier I mentioned the town and the space it occupies, and brought to your
attention that we pay attention to the solid objects but fail to notice the
space they occupy. With this in mind, consider that the entire universe is the
on/off vibration of space and solid, but we notice only the "on." 

This fact is very closely connected to why you feel separate and at risk in the
world instead of feeling at one, as you really are. There are two reasons why
most humans continue to have the illusion that they are separate egos trapped in
a bag of skin. First, we fail to recognize that all the so-called
opposites--light/darkness, sound/silence, solid/space, on/off, inside/outside,
cause/effect, and especially life/death--are poles or aspects of the same thing.


What you can learn from a cat...

Second, we are so absorbed in a type of narrow, conscious attention that we fail
to notice what is real. Alan Watts describes a person who has never seen a cat.
He looks through a narrow slit in a fence as a cat walks by on the other side.
First he sees the head of the cat, then the front legs, then the body, then the
back legs, then the tail. Then, the cat turns around and walks in the other
direction and he sees the same sequence again. After a few times, he concludes
that the head causes the front legs, which cause the body, which cause the back
legs, which cause the tail. 

We look at life through a narrow slit of conscious attention, focusing on one
thing at a time, in a linear way. This makes each thing seem to cause what
follows, making each thing seem to be the effect of what went before. But what
if the world, the universe, your life, was all one thing, like the cat? 

A scanning process that looks at things one bit at a time makes us think the
world is a collection of bits, causing and effecting each other. With this type
of attention, we have the feeling that the world is made of many bits and that
we are just one of them. We fail to see the space between the bits, and how it
connects them to each other. We fail to see the "off" and we fail to realize how
crucial it is. 

The Game of Black and White

Alan Watts calls this The Game of Black and White--separating the on and the
off, the up and the down, the me and the not-me, the cause and the effect, the
good and the evil. And then, we add a rule to the game, that "White Must Win."
Good must win over evil. Day must win over night. Having must win over losing. 

When the vibration is fast, we don't notice the "off", but when it slows, as
with night and day, or life and death, for instance, we can clearly see the
"off" half of the vibration. When this happens, we think the "on" half must win,
we think the light must win, and we fear the dark--as if light could win over
dark, when the reality is that the two are really one thing. This is a game we
cannot win, and really wouldn't want to if we could. 

And, ultimately, life must win over death. 

The mystics speak about attachment causing suffering. Attachment is really
nothing more than not realizing that "on" must become "off," that up must become
down, that life must become death, and that clinging to one over the other is
futile. When I have discussed the principle of letting whatever happens be okay,
I'm really asking you to stop trying to play the game of "White Must Win."  

The only way to achieve what is known as "enlightenment" is to stop identifying
with the mind and its creations. As long as the mind and its creations pull at
you, as long as they call out to you, as long as your awareness is focused on
them, as long as you either desire the creations of the mind or are repelled by
them, those creations will be real to you, they will grab your focus, and you'll
stay in that realm. 

Once you realize that the realm of the mind is a make-believe created by the
mind, you can make the leap into the realm of satchitananda. You can still
participate in the realm of the mind, but when you do it's like participating in
a play or a movie. You participate, but behind it all you know it's just a play.
This takes the pressure off, and allows you to enjoy life to the fullest.

Ultimately, nothing matters

Ultimately, none of this enlightenment stuff matters. I hate to tell you that,
since I know it's very important to some of you. Ultimately, you are this
background I've talked about, this one energy of all and everything, this
oneness that is obscured by, hidden by, the mind, and nothing can change that
fact. 

At the same time, you are the foreground, which is constantly changing. And,
even more, you are the relationship between these two poles of the magnet of
life, the magnet of existence. You are the "on" and the "off" rather than just
being the "on" you thought you were. Nothing you can do can make it otherwise.
So ultimately, whether you "become enlightened" or not doesn't matter, because
you are IT no matter what you do. It's like having a dream, and whether or not
the guys chasing you in the dream get you or you get away, it doesn't matter,
because it's only a dream. 

The idea is to step out of the dream, to know it's a dream, and then, to
continue to play your part, but to have it be fun because you know it's a dream.
When you do this, you can play with the dream and make it into whatever dream
you want. Or, if you like, let the dream be whatever it is, because you know
nothing can hurt you and that everything is fine, everything is perfect. 

The only way you can suffer is to think that the creations of the mind, that
which always changes, is the only reality, that the "on" can somehow exist
without the "off," that the words can somehow exist without the page, that solid
objects can exist without the space between them. The only way you can suffer is
to think that White Must Win. I will discuss these things in great detail in
future articles because thriving implies NOT suffering. 

This series, then, is about how to be happy, and peaceful, and successful, and
it's also about not suffering. My goal is to make this information something
more than just interesting philosophy and theory. I want you to really get how
to apply this to your life. 

Please do send your comments and questions about this and other articles to 
support@centerpointe.com. 

In the next article I'm going to prove to you that everything really is one
energy, despite how it seems, and that separate people, separate events, and
separate things really don't exist.

Be well.

Bill Harris

................................................................................

8. Glowing Testimonials and Letters
 

Well, I must start by saying, 'thank you'. Though I can't say my life has
changed in 2 short weeks, I have begun to see the beginings of some changes.
Quite a few in fact.

From the information and products I have reveiwed so far, I gather most people
are interested in your program for the spiritual or uplifting side of things.

Myself, though my life has been full of emotional upsets, I did not purchase the
program for that reason. I was more interested in it for the logical side of
things. I am aways looking for knew things to learn, and new ways to expand my
mind.

I have long since realized that 'happiness' is subjective. Simply a matter of
finding your balance and keeping it. It is a level reached differently by
everyone and maintained in as many ways as there are people. At least this is my
take on things.

What I am most interested to report are the other effects I have begun to
notice. I have begun to be so motivated about things. Before I was almost too
laid back. I now work out daily. Though I have been blessed with a great
metabolism, and never really needed to diet for weight purposes, I have put
myself on a healthy diet and stick to it without really missing all the junk I
used to eat. I am in better shape now than I have been in for 10 years. I went
from not exercising to now, two weeks later, doing about 120 situps a day along
with an assortment of other exercises. Get this, I actually look forward to it.
I even bought a pair of rollerblades!

I feel less tired. I follow the schedules I set for myself and more importantly,
if I fail to follow through exactly, I dont beat myself up about it. I have
frequently remarked to others that I am a self-diagnosed mildly
obsessive-compulsive type of person. So doing or making myself do something new
is not usually a problem (compulsive). Sticking with it isn't really a problem
(obsessive). But sticking with it even after I find that it isn't what I really
want is a BIG problem. I have always had a hard time telling myself no after I
integrate somthing into my life. So the result is usually to either not do it
and suffer guilt about it or do it and hate it. The worst part is just NOT to
start doing it 'cause I know where it might go...

....The reason for the letter is to let you know this one other effect. My
reading speed has doubled!!! I learned to read at the age of three and it has
been a passion and often an escape for the 32 years since then. Learning is my
life. I have gone from reading about 150 wpm to 300 wpm. I have always been one
to sit down with a novel and read it in one long day. Usually about 12 to 13
hours for a standard 300 - 350 pages with the usual breaks for eating and so
forth. Yesterday I read a book and I was shocked when I finished the book a mere
6.5 hours later and it was 350 pages!

More amazing is I have started to work on learning other things I have long
since wanted to learn and felt kind of intimidated by because they were not my
best areas. I finally started using those spainsh tapes and workbook I bought
over a year ago. I dusted off the keyobard in my room and Ive been working on it
for at least 30 mins per day. Though I'm nowhere near good at either after a few
weeks I can see a time not too far off when I will do well at both.

I'm even resisting the urge not to overload myself. Another BIG problem. I have
always been an 'I want it all now' sort of girl. I still am but Im not having
that raging desire with it. I'm just lining up things on my list with the
knowledge that I will get to them.

I just feel so excited about everything. Kind of like the world has finally
opened up and I'm there to take it all in. Again thank you.

With my love of words I could go on all day.

Sincerely,

Kimberley

................................................................................

9. Book Review
by Marc Gilson

Ten Eternal Questions
Wisdom, Insight, and Reflection for Life's Journey
By Zoe Sallis

***If you would like to read more about or order this book click here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0811853675/centerpointer-20

An actor and a political leader. A journalist and a sculptor. A world-famous
rock star and an Oxford professor. An empress and a filmmaker. These are not the
titles or occupations typically associated with spiritual wisdom. Yet Zoe Sallis
has composed a book of responses from nearly 40 individuals--leaders and
achievers in their respective fields--to ten powerful questions that will
challenge, inspire, and surprise.

Sallis, an actress and long-time partner of the renowned actor/director, the
late John Huston, spent five years arranging interviews with figures in the
public eye. She did not solely seek out individuals with a spiritual background
or agenda, although there are certainly some impressive spiritual and religious
figures included. Rather, she approached her subject from the Socratic maxim
that "the unexamined life is not worth living." What she ultimately presents is
a sometimes moving, sometimes funny, and always fascinating reflection of lives
examined.

Some might question (as I initially did with this book) why anyone would care to
know Jack Nicholson's views on God, or whether director David Lynch believes in
an afterlife. I share a great appreciation for the work of these individuals
with millions of others, yet I have certainly not felt compelled to consult
their wisdom in matters of spiritual development. But there can be no doubt that
individuals like Nicholson, Sophia Loren, Bono, and Gore Vidal (all included in
the book) do influence societal, and yes, occasionally even spiritual,
attitudes. In fact, these people sometimes exercise a more direct avenue to the
human mind and heart than do some religious leaders. They are not necessarily
experts in the realm of personal development and spirituality, but as human
beings with a distinctly unique set of life experiences to draw from, they are
certainly compelling voices.

Sallis does provide ample time to those more commonly associated with spiritual
wisdom. Besides individuals from the entertainment industry, Sallis asks HH The
Dalai Lama, Professor Richard Dawkins, Dr. Una M Kroll, and Shimon Peres
questions like: What is your moral code in relation to right and wrong? Who do
you admire in this world, historical or living? How do you find peace within
yourself? And more.

What makes this book unique is that Sallis so effectively steers clear of what
could have been a hackneyed and stale "feel-good" book filled with new age
platitudes and banal bumper-sticker philosophy. Instead, she has compiled a
readable, thought-provoking collection of ideas that wonderfully mirror not only
the optimism and open-mindedness of spirituality, but also the sometimes
cynical, doubting, and even uncomfortable aspects that come with contemplating
some of life's more vexing spiritual questions. Distinctively frank and open, I
found the book to reflect a wide range of voices, from the scholarly to the
sentimental.

Many of the answers provided by the contributors to Sallis' book are provocative
and unexpected:

Jack Nicholson on karma:

"My concept of karma is that it is constant and present. It is a first cousin to
existentialism. I mean you are what you do. It's always been there, and people
of little faith like myself might be more inclined to being slothful except for
the idea that everything you do has effects, everything counts."

Steve Vai, guitarist, on destiny:

"Yes, I do believe we all have destinies and that you can't fool fate. There are
those who believe that time, in its sequential linear form, is really an
illusion and that all things coexist in the here and now. Oddly enough, this
concept seems to make crystal-clear sense to me."

Emma Sergeant, artist, on a moral code:

"This is a tricky question for me because I have done things that are strictly
speaking wrong. (They felt quite right at the time). So I'm not one to start
talking about high values and morals here. I've always ended up hurting people.
I've tried not to, but I have."

And consider these rather juxtaposed comments from author Gore Vidal and
director David Lynch on the question "What has life taught you so far?"

Vidal: "Life's taught me nothing I didn't know going in. It is unjust and that's
to be expected. Most people collapse under injustice or conform. I was born to
be a fighter, a very Gore characteristic, so I have been fulfilled by life. Life
has given me so much injustice, not only personal but also in the world around
me. So I always have adrenaline flowing; I always have a sharp knife."

Lynch: "Somewhere along the line, life taught me that there is quite a beautiful
future for us, every human being. They say we are sparks of the divine flame.
Having the potential to see the big picture and to live the big picture is in
every person."

"Ten Eternal Questions" is a highly readable gem rich in wit and wisdom to
ponder from some of the most intriguing personalities of our time. (An excellent
gift for the graduate too!)

***If you would like to read more about or order this book click here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0811853675/centerpointer-20


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