There are just five days left to pick up a copy of our two new books before the introductory price increase evaporates.

There is The Little Book of Meditation, which I think is now the best how to guide on mediation in print, and Internal Martial Arts Nei-gong.

= = = = = THE LITTLE BOOK OF MEDITATION = = = = =

I have reduced hundreds of possible meditations you might try in life to the BIG FOUR you might want to master – (1) mantra practice or prayer recitation, (2) mental watching (mindfulness, introspection, cessation-witnessing or vipassana), (3) visualization practice [including the white skeleton technique], and (4) breathing practices of pranayama together with anapana, which hardly anyone ever discusses. There are also discussions on the seeing the light method, sexual cultivation, diet and detoxification and how to make up a meditation schedule. Since it’s 388 pages I finally had space to write it all down. It can even be used as a teacher’s text. Check it out.

The Little Book of Meditation

= = = = = = INTERNAL MARTIAL ARTS NEI-GONG = = = = =

Inside this book you will learn how to cultivate inner gong-fu, how this ties in with the martial arts tradition, and practice details for how not to go astray. This is a very practical book that discusses many martial arts topics that are rarely found in this genre, it spends a great deal of time talking about how to cultivate the Taoist notion of shen, or awareness, which becomes possible after all your channels have been opened and your mind becomes clear and calm. There is also a new detailed discussion on how to cultivate the Six Yogas of Naropa, together with Samantabhadra’s mantra method for opening up the body’s central channel.

I wrote this to help martial artists, but frankly, if will help anyone who is a regular meditator who wants to concentrate on cultivating internal energies for special abilities and/or powers, and if you liked the Little Book of Hercules, this is right up your alley. It’s has helped all my students who are not martial artists because they’ve learned so much they have applied to their ordinary cultivation practice.

You can find the book at Internal Martial Arts Nei-gong

I have finally finished two (2) paperback book projects for the holidays – the first on how to meditate, and the second on cultivating internal gong-fu (especially slanted for martial artists).

= = = = = THE LITTLE BOOK OF MEDITATION = = =

The first new book, which I am really excited about because I think it will become the definitive how to meditate properly book that will help a lot of people, is entitled THE LITTLE BOOK OF MEDITATION. This new book on how to meditate, and its effects on your body and mind, is like my Hercules book in that it is just as large (388 pages), and contains topics rarely discussed. I’m sure it will help even long time meditation practitioners because of some of the contents.

Over the years people have seemed to keep asking me the same questions on meditation time and time again, and I’ve answered the most common “how to” and “why does this work” and “why does that happen” questions about meditation in this book. Plus, I’ve thrown in a lot of extras …

I have reduced hundreds of possible meditations you might try in life to the BIG FOUR you might want to master – mantra practice, mental watching (mindfulness, introspection, cessation-witnessing or vipassana), visualization practice, and breathing practices of pranayama together with anapana, which hardly anyone ever discusses.

This book contains all the detailed instructions and tips on how to practice these meditation techniques effectively for genuine deep results. In fact, you know our books contain real contents rather than fluff. These 2 books will not disappoint anyone along these lines. There is more new but extremely useful information here on effective meditation practice than you will find in print anywhere else such as how to cultivate these techniques correctly, signs of progress, and what they are all about.

It also covers detailed practice instructions for the famous 9-bottled wind pranayama technique I always mention, and incredible details on the white skeleton visualization practice from India that I have not put anyplace else. Since it’s 388 pages I finally had space to write it all down.

This new book is very practical and contains a lot from the western traditions. It doesn’t just concentrate on these big four meditation methods, but reveals practice instructions and details on several others as well such as seeing the light, sexual cultivation and so on. There are even discussions on diet and detoxification supplements for cleaning out your body. The important thing is that it shows how to work two or more of the most effective meditation techniques into a busy schedule, and how to change your behavior. If you wanted just one book on how to meditate for yourself, or as a gift for friends to teach them how to meditate or introduce them to the topic, that’s this book! Check it out.

https://www.createspace.com/3754311

This book was written with the objective of creating a definitive source for how to meditate, answering all the common questions about meditation that I am sure have popped up in your mind over time but you had no one to ask about. It can even be used as a teacher’s text. I wanted to make it good enough that you could give it to friends who want to learn meditation for better health, energy, mental clarity, longevity or for spiritual purposes, and it covers all those bases and more. Therefore I have included lots of stories about my teacher, Master Nan Huai Chin, and how he defeated a holy fox spirit on Omei mountain, or would handle qi-gong visitors, or deal with people coming to him who had done great evil deeds and wanted to change their karma and behavior.

It’s at: https://www.createspace.com/3754311

Grab it during the holidays at the discount price and pick up a copies for friend before the new price increase at the new year. This is GIHUGIC at 388 pages, (I only wanted to keep it at 50 pages when I started) and the stories will entertain you. Plus, if you like Vedanta and Zen, per requests I have included such high level wisdom discussions within to describe the nature of the human being and your mind. These discussions are also rare to be found in print.

= = = = = = INTERNAL MARTIAL ARTS NEI-GONG = = = = =

On to book number two for martial artists which is also available for the holidays at a discounted price soon to go up: INTERNAL MARTIAL ARTS NEI-GONG. This book was already released as an ebook earlier this year, and those download files have been updated to contain most of the new materials found in this print edition, which make it about 25% larger. So if you already bought the ebook, just download your file again and you’ll have most of these new materials. We put the book into print because of all the requests for a paperback, so we had to add a little extra, and we certainly did.

https://www.createspace.com/3739551

Inside this book you will learn how to cultivate inner gong-fu, how this ties in with the martial arts tradition, and practice details for how not to go astray. This is a very practical book that discusses many martial arts topics that are rarely found in this genre, and this new edition is quite different from the ebook in that it spends a great deal of time talking about how to cultivate the Taoist notion of shen, or awareness, which becomes possible after all your channels have been opened and your mind becomes clear and calm.

There is also a new detailed discussion on how to cultivate the Six Yogas of Naropa, together with Samantabhadra’s mantra method for opening up the body’s central channel. There are also discussions on anapana and the white skeleton visualization, although far more details are found in the Little Book of Meditation. The results of some interviews with a few top martial artist in China were worked into the new volume, and there is also a large emphasis on the idea of 10,000 hours of practice for mastering any skill.

I wrote this to help martial artists, but frankly, if will help anyone who is a regular meditator who wants to concentrate on cultivating internal energies for special abilities and/or powers, and if you liked the Little Book of Hercules, this is right up your alley. It’s has helped all my students who are not martial artists because they’ve learned so much they have applied to their ordinary cultivation practice.

You can find the book at https://www.createspace.com/3739551

This is quite different than most martial arts books because it’s full of meaty content, and now has been updated to give more details discussions on actual inner cultivation energy techniques, and how to dissolve inner blockages.

So finally these two paperbacks are done, and I hope you pick them up for yourself or order them for friends. The price goes up at the New Year, so act now and help support our humble publishing efforts at the same time.

I hope to be releasing two new paperback books in December, if all goes well. Stay tuned for the announcement of publication coming soon. I’m hoping they’ll be ready in time for Christmas as, because of the topics (martial arts and how to meditate), they might even be given as gifts. But more on that later …

Right now I’m looking ahead to the economy in 2012, and see it much more volatile than in 2011. Remember when I warned you that we were already in a recession back in 2007 when the government said no problem? The cracks will accelerate next year, which might see massive changes in the financial system the world over, especially with the Euro crisis. The key is survival because we are in a Great Recession right now regardless as to what the talking heads tell you. That means jobs, income, the worth of your currency, and even access to your money (to do with it as you please) are all at stake.

It appears that every sixty year period (that’s roughly three generations) in history usually sees a country suffering from some form of depression, war, plague or natural catastrophe that hurts the majority of the population. Right now, for us, the problem is economics because we’ve luckily avoided the problem of the government bringing a war to our shores. Can you thrive in such difficult economic times? What do you need to know when people are losing their houses and jobs, and government stimulus does nothing since most of manufacturing and customer service jobs (like call centers) have been exported to lower wage countries? How do you protect your money, and your future (such as job prospects)?

Previously I sent people to watch the Mad Hedge Fund Trader videos for his explanation of the coming trends in the world, and what the hedge funds do to make money with these trends. Some bought gold (all the central banks are doing this, as forecast), some are buying farmland (some countries are doing this, too), some are getting ready to short interest rates because they expect them to rise. People sent me tons of thank you messages, and that guy made more in 2011 than most all of Wall Street, which has lost money.

Now I want you to watch the following videos on what to do to preserve your wealth, and even grow it into the future. One of the key strategies used is infinite banking, and I wish I had known about this when I was younger so I could have set this up. (”Bank on Yourself,” by Pamela Yellen, explains a similar concept):

http://theelevationgroup.net/whattoexpect/?a_aid=6d137ec0&a_bid=418a665e

This is priceless to learn just by watching. This is the type of information I wanted when I was in my twenties and thirties, but which was not available. If you are in that age group, don’t contact me about getting in the STAGES course – get this stuff instead. Get it, watch it, even refund it it if you must, but this is what you need to know to get started building your nest egg so that by your forties you’re all set. If you have a steady job and steady income, get this, and consider setting up the type of infinite banking concepts they discuss. This type of information is so valuable to those who are young and getting started because they have more time to put it into action, and reap the benefits.

If you are already in your 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, then you need to see this as well because you already have wealth and need to know how to preserve it, and grow it, in a way that is immune to the volatility of the markets and the US government’s power to come in and grab it. This next year will be the year of CHANGES. You can no longer depend on the economy or the government or the union for your job security. You cannot even guarantee that financial institutions will protect your wealth, as the recent problem with Corzine (and Madoff prior to this) shows.

It comes down to this: “How do you protect and even grow your money during this economic crisis?” Watch this guy and listen to not just his 15 strategies on wealth, but his explanation of how the big millionaires use a concept called infinite banking to grow their money safely.

http://theelevationgroup.net/whattoexpect/?a_aid=6d137ec0&a_bid=418a665e

Meditationexpert.com is all about WISDOM and BEHAVIOR, and knowing what to do for certain objectives, such as surviving and prospering over the next three years. We haven’t had to worry about that for a long time but now our past excesses have caught up with us, and this is the period of reckoning where a lot of financial problems have to get fixed, and that will mean pain to many in the country. I hope this helps.

Happy Holidays…

Bill

Steve Jobs passed away. Many praise him for having created unique products that not only had style, but which served customer needs as no other products could. In short, Apple products had their own unique selling points, or characteristics by which they stood out from the crowd and appealed to people, causing customers to become raving fans. All his products differntiated themselves by having a unique selling proposition.

People in the world are employed by businesses which supply products and services. If you want your business to succeed in the vast ocean of competition, you need some way for it to be different and stand out. You need a way by which its products and services can both satisfy cutomer needs while representing a unique value they can get nowhere else. That is the basis of a USP. A USP will help your company survive and prosper, and protect the jobs of its employees due to its success.

To help the small businessman succeed in these tasks, which leads to more employment and a stronger nation, I’ve just released How to Create a Million Dollar Unique Selling Proposition. The details:

What short marketing message can you create in order to instantly tap into the core buying desires of your prospects and customers so they buy from you and not your competition? What do you say so that your products or services start getting noticed and jump to the head of the pack in a crowded marketplace?

If you haven’t created that strategic advertising message for your business, products or services, then you’re unnecessarily losing sales, customers and money. Finding that message, and then promoting it throughout all your marketing and advertising mediums, is the strategic secret to dramatic sales growth and market dominance.

That attractive message that attracts prospects and wins them to your offerings is the USP, or Unique Selling Proposition, which broadcast the unique advantages of your product or service to the marketplace.

A USP promises big, bold benefits to potential customers. It positions your product or service as being entirely unique and dramatically different from the offerings of everyone else, and it is written in such a way that it is believable without challenge. It positions your product or service as being the obvious choice over all the competitive options, including the option of doing nothing at all, and is worded in such a way that not only is it naturally credible, but prospects can immediately understand it and easily remember it.

Basically, a Unique Selling Proposition attractively encapsulates the unique benefits of your product or service in an attention getting, memorable way so that potential customers are compelled to buy from you rather than from anyone else.

There are ten different ways you can set about to try to create the perfect USP for a business, product or service. If you work through those ten methods, which can be done in about one to two hours (sometimes less), you can create a killer USP in record time and then use it to increase your sales and align your entire marketing strategy.

More than just theory, this book gives you those ten proven formulas for crafting your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP, that instantly taps into your prospect’s core buying desires.

Plus, in this book you’ll see countless examples of how powerhouses like Fedex, Domino’s Pizza and others owe their stunning success to their breakthrough USPs. You will even learn how to create a USP for yourself as a means of personal branding that will help you when searching for new career opportunities, and you can even use it to craft a short elevator speech that will help you win new clients. Whether for a business or person, the USP is the basis of niche marketing.

The bottom line is: Great businesses, products, services and people have great USP’s, mediocre and losing businesses either don’t have one, or don’t have a good one. This book is the definitive source on how to create and use a killer unique selling proposition for your major marketing needs that will form the basis of your marketing strategy and catapult your company’s sales to the next level.

You can find the book at the CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/3454127

After all this time, The Little Book of Hercules, which shows you exactly what to expect will happen to your body as you make progress in meditation practice, is finally here. “Little Hercules” is not so little, but is actually BIG.

It’s a whopping 400 pages chocked full of new information on chakras, channels and kundalini, as well as special cultivation techniques, that has never been in print ANYWHERE. It should be called the “BIG” Little Book of Hercules because of all the rare content. I decided to just keep adding information since I wanted one book to answer the countless questions that continually arise concerning gong-fu and the physical stages of the spiritual path from all the different cultivation schools. If you have a question about what happens to the physical body on the spiritual path, and the problems you’re encontering if your practice has advanced, it’s probably in here. 400 pages is double the size of our last book, so grab this early bird special before the price on Amazon.com rises in one week.

The five editors who worked on the book each said that this book will blow open the field of spiritual cultivation because it reveals what has previously been considered the “secrets” of the path – including the mechanisms behind the visions people experience in various traditions as they start to cultivate their body.

Click here to get your copy right now from our Amazon.com eStore:

https://www.createspace.com/3600124

What’s inside?

If you want to know ALL the stages of a kundalini awakening, this book is for you. What people normally consider a kundalini awakening is just a tiny fractional part of the process, as it starts in some stages you are probably experiencing right now but don’t know it. This book takes you through the practices you can use to open up your body’s central chi channel (the sushumna) on through to the actual sequence of chi channel openings that occur (such as the microcosmic and macrocosmic circulations) in a kundalini awakening, or the Completion stage of Tibetan Buddhism, and even shows where this information appears in countless traditions, including the Bible. Yeah, the Bible!

The Little Book of Hercules also links incomplete descriptions of spiritual gong-fu from Chinese Taoism with Hindu tantric yoga and Tibetan Vajrayana practice, so if you follow any of these schools this is must-have, never seen in print information that will definitely help your understanding of the spiritual path. No more wondering what all those meditation phenomena are, and why some people get them and you don’t, and how to get them most quickly, how long they last, what’s the next step in the sequence, and what it all means.

Not only that, but “Hercules” reveals all the tiny details of these stages. And tells you how to cultivate them.

You’ll even see descriptions of these stages proving they were known to the ancient Egyptian, Jewish, Celtic, and even Meso-American cultures!

Finally the gong-fu explanations of so many different schools – Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Kashmir Shaivism, Shintoism, Vajrayana, Confucianism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, western alchemy, paganism, etc. – are explained and linked. Yes, the path is non-denominational because everyone goes through the same thing, and you finally have a guide book to all these phenomena.

But wait, there’s more … You didn’t think that was it, did you?

This book explains how opening up your chakras and channels and cultivating your chi and physical body to a state of purity and excellence totally transforms it and enables all sorts of super power abilities to come out, and so you finally have explanations behind some of these abilities.

You’ll also discover how internal energy cultivation is related to the attempt to realize our True Self, absolute nature or dharmakaya, because that’s the actual focus of the spiritual path. That’s what it’s all about, so this is a rare book to link the cultivation fo the sambhogakaya, or reward body of the spiritual path, with the cultivation of realizing our original nature, or discovering the dharmakaya. Rarely are the two efforts linked together so you can see how one supports the other. It therefore explains the connection between cultivating the sambhogakaya and dharmakaya, something rarely seen in Tibetan texts and the books of other traditions.

Then, for another “first in print”, it explains the mechanism behind visions that spiritual practitioners experience along the path or thoughts they often have out of the blue related to spiritual and physical matters, called nirmanakaya, and why visions differ according to tradition for the same stages of accomplishment. This is actually how “Heaven” intervenes to help spiritual practitioners, though of course it has to do with one’s merits.

And of course, because this deals with tantric body cultivation, there are deep discussions of pranayama, the skeleton visualization, sexual cultivation (probably the most detailed discussion in print), chi purification, chakra openings, and countless other techniques.

Basically, most of this content has never been in print before. We are having a one week special introductory price at our Amazon.com eStore, and then the price increases one week later. For the discount pre-release, get your gigantic copy now at:

https://www.createspace.com/3600124

If you want to reap the spiritual & health benefits of eliminating sickness and extending longevity that go along with spiritual practice, then The Little Book of Hercules gives you the secrets you want to know.

You’ll be very pleased because as I said, buying one book from us is like buying dozens from other publishers, and you cannot find this content elsewhere. It will help your practice for years! Hurry before the one-week discount ends! You can get it at:

https://www.createspace.com/3600124

So, …

If you’ve studied Tibetan Buddhism and want to know all the stages prior to and after the opening of the sushumna channel, and methods used to accomplish this, and COMPLETE explanations of what happens during the process, this book is for you … if you’ve been collecting empowerments this material will help your practice …

If you are a yoga practitioner and want to know about tantric yoga, and ALL the complete stages of the kundalini awakening (which have never appeared in print until this book), and why this is painful for some practitioners and easy to pass for others, this book is for you …

If you practice pranayama, you need to know this material …

If you practice visualization exercises, you need to know this material …

If you practice meditation, such as vipassana, and start to feel the energies within your body, and feel you are encountering problems (such as headaches, uneasy feelings, etc.) but cannot explain them, this book is for you …

If you are a Taoist practitioner and want to know all the stages of the opening of the body’s chi channels, and sequences of nei-gong (internal alchemy) which are not clear in Taoist books, this is for you …

If you are a Christian, Jewish or Moslem practitioner and you want to see how the Bible describes these exact same stages of gong-fu, this is the only book in existence that will teach you this material and you’ll find explanations of some Biblical passages that have remained indecipherable for centuries because they dealt with the chi, chakra and energy gong-fu transformations of the spiritual path …

If you are a martial artist and want to understand how to cultivate qi-gong and nei-gong, this book is for you …

If you are a Shintoist and want to understand what your practice is all about, and want detailed explanations of your practice, this book will pull away the mysteries for you …

If you are a western alchemist, pagan, student of the western mystery schools, or scholar of ancient western religions, this book shows you how various ancient western cultures represented the exact same stages of spiritual gong-fu in their art and literature because they are non-denominational … everyone who was an adept knew about the physical results of the spiritual path because everyone goes through them …

If you are a screenwriter, or novelist who wants to see the real Hero’s Journey that can become the basis of the next generation of movies and action best sellers, this book is for you …

Frankly, this material is too rich in content blessings for most practitioners but I had to write it because if I don’t, then who will? My teacher would probably say most people lack the merit for it. In Tibet you would have to wait nearly twenty years to get just some rudimentary bits of this type of teaching, and those materials would not include these advanced explanations that help you progress further and keep your sanity as you go through all these physical transformations of the chakras and channels.

So if you want to understand the physical side of the Esoteric School and the rudimentary beginning stages of physical transformation of the spiritual path that members of ALL RELIGIONS pass through when their cultivation practice is good enough, the door has been opened and curtain pulled back for this rare and previously “secret” information reserved to initiates. Now you’ll understand many mysteries in the field of religion and spiritual cultivation as they will finally be explained to show the unity of the spiritual path. How to find these answers?

https://www.createspace.com/3600124

We are getting near one of those important junctures in the market — QE2, the stimulus plan of the Federal government, will end in June. Cycles show that the market may turn in May in anticipation of this drop off of easy credit and low interest rates.

On top of this, the “Dogs of the Dow” strategy has an interesting cyclical profile, and Japanese stocks (EWJ) do too. Look for a contrarian low point in a few months.

Where can you find all these projections so you can make money or save money, specifically the value of your 401K? Just for this month only I’ve made my Dow forecast newsletter available for free. You can download it at

MarketTimingResearch.com/bonus/DJIA-March-April-2011.pdf

I once wrote a long piece on karma and relationships.

For the past several thousands of years, couples needed one another to survive in an agrarian society. That helped cement the marriage bond between partners who had a life expectancy of 40-years old …

Not anymore. Women can get decent jobs all on their own, which is great. That means they can leave a bad relationship any time they want, too, which is also a bonus.

Society no longer pushes people to stay together.

Television paints a picture of fun, fun, fun and beer-commercial-heaven which a relationship is not, so expectations are large and people have no patience anymore.

We could write gobs on this, but I found a nice article in the Huffington Post by someone who looked hard at what’s wrong from the woman’s side. The man’s side has issues as well, of course.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tracy-mcmillan/why-youre-not-married_b_822088.html

We love intorducing quality information to people, especially when it comes to finances. Over this next 4-5 years real estate is not going to recover. The 25 million jobs the US gave away to China and other emerging markets are not coming back to these shores either. An entire generation of jobs was given away.

Those jobs are gone thanks to our free trade agreements and globalization and the internet, and they are not coming back no matter how much money the US government spends. We could spend billions and you will not see a single new job come back or created. We have to manufacture things to create jobs. This means that high levels of unemployment are to be expected going forward and this will become clear over the next 4 years. Unemployment is now structural and permanent.

So what do you do to make money? What do you do after QE2 runs out?

John Thomas, one of the founders of the international hedge fund industry, one of today’s top performing hedge fund managers, and 40 year veteran of the financial markets, recently provided his forecast of Six major moves for 2011 that can make you rich or miserable. John recently showed smart investors how to make 17% in his December private coaching portfolio, and has been up over 25% for 2011 so far. Hundreds of hedge funds consult him, and now you know why.

John worked for the Economist, and is consulted by the CIA and heads of state for his macro global “big picture” investment advice which he reveals in this FREE video that we thought you should see. The information has President Obama and Ben Bernanke sweating bullets at night if the trends come true, which is happening right now …

Click here to Watch his forecast video of why inflation and commodities and your cost of living is going to jump …

http://bit.ly/hs1czx

In a just released FREE video, John reveals why at this moment we are sitting in the greatest macro, i.e. “big picture,” trading environment of our lifetimes. The rule is that “Crisis = Opportunity,” and the US is in a severe unemployment, real estate, budget deficit, trade balance, inflation and debt crisis as is the rest of the world. In this short video, he lays out a dizzying array of profit opportunities and the risks you need to sidestep if you want to make 2011 your best financial year ever.

This is one of the few times that one of the financial elite has taken the small guy investor under his wing and spoken frankly to reveal exactly how the big “macro players,” such as George Soros, Jimmy Rogers and Paul Tudor Jones, think and trade. This class of super investors are not government mouth pieces but put their own money at risk, and try to profit from mega world trends which John is revealing but which you will not hear analyzed on television. You can sometimes mirror their activities and capture the same trades in your IRA accounts through easy to trade ETFs, options and stock investments.

Click here to Watch his 2011 market forecast video now …

http://bit.ly/fPcIBE

This is a 100% FREE video briefing revealing the risks and opportunities barreling down on traders (AND your bank account) in the next 12 months. It’s very timely and explains what you should think about for the year ahead. This just-released 2011 market forecast video will either make you wealthy if you catch these trends … or miserable if you don’t. You can either be on the right side of these market moves that the hedge fund managers will be going after, or on the wrong side of the market and weeping once again.

We suggest you watch the videos in sequence or you can check out Macro Millionaire Coaching.

Hercules is Coming

Very soon the new book on Hercules is coming for the final chapters are being completed. I am sure this new book will rock the market because the contents include some of the firsts of their kind in print, especially about certain stages of Taoist cultivation, Tibetan Vajrayana, Biblical Jewish cultivation, Egyptian cultivation schools, the Indian Nath yoga tradition and so on which have never been disclosed. Secrets, BIG secrets until now …

Basically, here’s what you need to know about the path of spiritual cultivation that comes through in the book, which is a good synopsis of the path in general. You should already know this, but I have collapsed it down to simplicity, just as in the Hercules book.

All genuine religions, spiritual schools and traditions employ a variety of cultivation practices, or meditation methods, which are designed to help you achieve a quiet mind. This is the basic beginner’s spiritual path so a lot of spiritual practices help you do this. Because thoughts die down from practicing these techniques, this resulting mental quiet or silence is called peacefulness, cessation, calming, stopping, purity, emptiness, empty mind or any number of other pertinent synonyms. Your mind empties of loud, busy thoughts and so you experience peace.

When the mind quiets, proper spiritual practice is that you must remain aware (rather than try to suppress thoughts from arising) and that awareness practice is called witnessing, observing, contemplating, knowing, prajna, introspection, awareness and so on. As the mind quiets, you continue to watch the mental scenarios of the mind but without attaching to them. This is cessation-witnessing practice, also known as mindfulness, rememberance or “vipassana.” The two principles of cessation and witnessing are inherent in all spiritual practices. ALL spiritual practices. The important thing is that you learn how to let go of thoughts, called detachment, in order that wandering thoughts (the monkey mind) dies down so that the stage of cessation finally arrives. That’s why you practice meditation.

Because the gradual calming of your mind means you are letting go of thoughts (which is why they are able to die down in the first place), and because chi and consciousness (thoughts) are linked, as you let go of thought attachments you are also letting go of clinging to the chi in your body. Normally you’re pushing your chi around all the time, especially in your head, but with meditation you learn to let go of this consciousness-chi-body connection. You learn how to let it function without interference, which is what happens in a perfectly healthy body.

Chi and thoughts are linked; by letting go of thoughts you are not interfering with your chi flow anymore. Attaching to the chi of your body and physical energy sensations is something you are always subconsciously doing but you don’t realize it because you are so used to the habit. From countless lives you are used to this habit, so it takes time to break it. Once you learn how to truly let go and be free, with nothing pulling your chi this way or that way anymore because you have learned how to let go of thoughts, the real chi of the body will start to arise and its natural circulation will start to resume. Thus it is said, “From the stillness of yin (quiet), yang will arise.”

That yang chi is called kundalini, which is the real chi of the body as opposed to the wind chi that people are always playing with as they practice most spiritual techniques. When the yang chi of the body finally arises, it will open up your chi channels and chakras naturally. There is nothing you need to do to prompt this other than cultivate an empty, non-clinging mind. There is nothing you need to know other than how to be quiet and let go to experience the peace. Your outer physical body, due to the yang chi resultantly arising, will experience transformational phenomena as this happens called spiritual “gong-fu.”

Your inner subtle chi body will also transform and purify the more you let go of thoughts and let your mind quiet. Your chi will purify as well, and thus your emotions and habit energies. Your physical and energetic bodies will start purifying because you are finally letting go of clinging to your chi, and so it will revert to its natural circulation – the way it is supposed to flow in a perfectly healthy individual before thought attachments warp it this way or that. Thoughts are supposed to come up all the time – you aren’t supposed to suppress them – but you should not cling to them.

The transformation of your body that results from your ascending chi results in a purification of your physical nature, but because chi and consciousness are linked, your mind will reach a higher stage of purity (emptiness) as well. So a quiet empty mind leads to your chi arising, your chi arising leads to the purification of your chi, channels and chakras, that purification leads to a greater degree of mental purity or emptiness, and the two components body and mind reach ever increasing levels of purity until eventually from that purified foundation one can achieve samadhi.

All from just learning how to let go…

The forthcoming Little Book of Hercules explains all the chi and body phenomena that happen along the beginnings of this process … what we must call “beginner’s spiritual gong-fu” for attaining the Reward body, or sambhogakaya. You’ll find out that the ancient mystery schools of the west knew as many of these phenomena as the eastern schools, but while the evidence is right before your eyes you’ve probably missed it. This new book will reveal it.

Now because of samadhi, a wise person who has the right teachings (and thus view) can eventually detach from consciousness to realize the clear base of awareness that is always present with being or existence. But since that clear awareness is just a function of the original nature, recognizing that pristine empty awareness that knows is not full enlightenment yet. What gives birth to that awareness is the original nature or fundamental essence, God, Allah, Brahman, or whatever your wish to call the true self. No one really knows how to describe It, so it is also called the Unknown One. When one realizes that original fundamental ground nature or essence, one becomes enlightened, or realizes their true self. Hence the term “self-realization.”

In the universe we go for countless lives, countless eons searching for everything but our true self. When beings find their true self, they finally become spiritually free, liberated, saved. It all starts with spiritual cultivation. While religion will not lead you to this, spiritual practice will and the proper sort of spiritual practice, and stage of gong-fu you will resultantly pass though as you make progress on this hero’s journey will all be revealed in the Little Book of Hercules when it soon comes out.

As to our latest paperback release on Amazon.com, Spiritual Paths and Their Meditation Techniques, the price has risen in December as I said it would but you can still order it in time for Christmas: http://amzn.to/cuF1vE . A great book to teach you what you should be doing and where you should NOT BE WASTING YOU TIME in spiritual practice. This will save you years of effort and I wish I had the information when I get started. Like all our books, we speak directly with no nonsense and try to put in as much information as possible so that just one of our volumes is the equivalent of reading dozens of other books out there.

http://amzn.to/cuF1vE

Many wrote to thank me about the information from John Thomas, the hedge fund trader and his synopsis of world trends. I already made money on his advise, and my friends as well, and it came from his email newsletter which is free. Enlightenment is not just about spiritual practice but worldy wisdom… understanding the world and how to skillfully deal with the world. Many enlightened masters were doctors, some were politicians, some businessmen, some martial artists, some cooks and many other occupations, too. They weren’t just all monks or nuns. If a king found a man of Tao in his kingdom he would try to employ him as a minister because they were easily competent in all things.

The universe is endless and you must start learning about all dharmas if they can help others and yourself. Start here: http://bit.ly/fxf4Ck Pass to friends. As I’ve been writing elsewhere, if America does not invent something new and big and does so fast, job declines will continue and there’s nothing all the rah-rah patriotism can do about it. As Wikileaks proves, and as I try to point out all the time,  what the government says to the public is different from the reality of the way things really are. Without jobs, which we’ve offshored, we’re cooked compared to emerging markets competitors and lower standards of living are here to stay. To protect your income and retirement, watch these videos, learn this information (he’ll have several in series, such as a recent one on currencies so you know where to put your monies in your IRA via ETFs):

http://bit.ly/fxf4Ck

Speaking of diverse things, along these lines of the fact you should study many disciplines, we hope to release a new book on combining spiritual parenting with practical education, a book on small business marketing, multi-generational income and several other non-fiction titles next year. More when that happens …

And lastly, please take the time to avail yourself of a personalized Karma Calculator reading of the upcoming events for 2011, 2012, and 2013 in your life before the special December discount ends. It’s just $50 for several years and I often throw in more years beyond the special deal listed. But come January 1 the special is finally over as previously stated. This is a great Christmas gift for yourself or someone else (you just need the birth time, birth date and birth location) and will help you prepare for the years ahead. It’s dirt cheap compared to the $250 normally charged for just one year from a Vedic or Chinese astrologer. Someone wisely told me that if you want to mantra to change your fortune this will tell you what to mantra about.

It’s at http://www.karmacalculator.com/order.html

If you have an IRA, 401k or any other type of savings or investing account I highly recommend you go watch this presentation:

http://bit.ly/fxf4Ck

This is the last gift I can give you for 2010. Watch it and share it with anyone who you know is saving or investing for retirement, who wants to buy a house, or who just wants to understand world trends and what the next ten years are going to bring. Sharing this is an easy way to do a good deed and gain some “financial merit” because this will dramatically increase your worldly wisdom about money.

If you think you’re too “spiritual” to worry about money you’re fooling yourself – having money and NOT being attached to it is what lets you be more charitable, be more influential and be a more effective positive force in the world. This information will help you get to that position yourself. To be a leader you have to know this stuff and learn to think this way … finally I found some guy who put this in a video (the sort of information I hammer into my Stages students all the time).

If you’re a cultivator I always say it’s your responsibility to understand how the world really works. Confucians, for example, are “ashamed when they find something they don’t know.” Because the only way to be effective in the world is to see it clearly.

And in this remarkable presentation one of the founding fathers of the international hedge fund industry explains the big global trends around the world and why we are where we are.

Including what big companies like Goldman Sachs are REALLY betting on right now. And how you can help yourself, your friends and your family recover what they may have lost in the financial crisis or grow their nest eggs using this same worldview and information.

Just ignore the title “How to play the commodities boom” (because it’s not really about that) and get past the first few minutes where the man (John Thomas) establishes his credentials, and then sit back for a presentation usually only privately given to the mega-wealthy telling them where to put their dollars because that’s where the macro trends are going.

These are the trends you’ll normally only hear about after most of the rich insiders have made their money. They are not secret, but you just won’t ever hear this information. These are the forces shaping the US right now, and the world, and what will prosper as the recession continues.

On “60 Minutes” Ben Bernake just revealed what I have been telling people – the employment will not be here for years because we offshored manufacturing and sent many jobs overseas that are not coming back. You need to know that lower living standards are a definite for the next generation of Americans because of countless mistakes made in all sorts of policy directions.

But that does not mean you cannot become financially independent anymore or that you cannot do anything to protect yourself and prosper, which is what cultivation is also about. If you have the information, as in this video, you can prosper safely following what the big boys do (you just never hear this information – I am so glad a Stages student sent this to me so I can pass it on to you).

This is the best short video to get you up to speed that I can give you. I write about these topics on the blog and in my books, but this guy has put it all together and he’s fascinating. The information on population pyramids, how countries are producing a giant inflationary risk in the future that will dictate your decisions, what gold will do, why people are switching from paper assets, the prospects for residential real in the foreseeable future, … all this is invaluable to saving you money or making you money.

So because of how badly the financial crisis hurt so many good people I urge you to watch this, retrain your mind to start thinking of things this way, and share it with anyone you know who has a savings or investing account or who is thinking of buying property next year. You will learn a lot from this, especially how to think as you protect yourself and your family in the years ahead. They do not teach you what he has to say on television or in the news.

So consider this a rare opportunity for you as a spiritual cultivator to develop your financial wisdom.

http://bit.ly/fxf4Ck

P.S. Learning how to think this way is a great skill to master. This is how George Soros got rich, how Jimmy Rogers got rich, how Paul Tudor Jones got rich, how the largest hedge funds made their money while everyone else slept and how you can help yourself not get caught in what the next years will bring as the US economy struggles and other countries decouple. I warned everyone about this recession long before the government finally recognized it and this info will prepare you for what’s coming these next five years because from my own financial forecasting work (I used to work in Wall Street) it’s pretty scary with ups and severe downs between now and 2015. Frankly I’m tired of writing about all this and people not believing me. This guy has a great series of videos that will finally educate you. And yes, ignore his sales talk if you don’t like it; that’s why he made the video in the first place, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get this information, so I’m thankful. Soak up his way of thinking, that’s the important thing! He’s definitely one of the brightest guys I have found in a long, long time and has a lot of information to offer (especially in the other videos I saw). May you prosper in 2011 with this sort of info, and please pass it onwards to others who might benefit.

Our new book is released – Spiritual Paths and their Meditation Technqiues. It is a rewrite, in paperback form, of the Insider’s Guide to  the Best and Worst Spiritual Practices. The price goes up in December, so get your copy now:

With the economy in the doldrums, many people are wondering how next year will fare. Personal fortunes are fated to rise and fall. They can be great in bad times, and then bad in great times. A great fortune can turn sour overnight, and a bad one can turn beautific. This is why sages of all religions tell us to persevere, never to do wrong, and to always do good in order to avoid the creation of bad karmic returns and maximize our states of good fortune. Does next year hold good fortune or bad fortune in store, and how do you transform it? A Karma Calculator fortune can tell you. That’s why I bothered to bring this technique to America from Asia.

In fact, right now you can get several extra years of your life’s fortune prediction as a BONUS. Predictions for years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 – all for just $50. This is the best deal you’ll get at $10 a year of predictions.

I won’t be holding this special for long so do yourself a favor and see what life holds in store, and then you can act wisely to change things. Go right here while the SPECIAL lasts … and remember that for anyone ordering the $50 3-year fortune package, you’ll actually get the fortune for the years 2008-2013 sent back to you, not just three years. (after this special offer is over it reverts back to 3 years again). It should help you work through the year ahead to help avoid errors and make your fortune the best possible.

Where is the Special at?

http://www.karmacalculator.com/order.html

Someone asked me a funny question the other day, “What do Buddhas eat?”

Now this is a funny question because Buddhas are people just like you and me who have simply awakened, and as a result the question is basically, “What do enlightened people eat?”

The answer is: “Anything they want.”

Let’s go into this a little more deeply because I’m sure you were expecting the answer to involve veganism or vegetarianism. If you are a person devoted to spiritual cultivation, what you consume depends upon your needs and the circumstances and purposes. That’s the first thing to consider. Compassion is also a major factor in choosing what to eat, but if you’re adrift on the high seas and only fish are available to keep you alive, you must choose whether you willing to die in place of the fish. It all comes down to your wisdom and your circumstances.

In the first years of Buddhism, it’s surprising to know that the Buddhist monks weren’t perfectly vegetarian but ate whatever food was offered to them unless it was meat from an animal that was specifically killed for them. If that was the case, or if they were asked to select the animal to be slaughtered, they were forbidden to eat it. In Tibet today, many Tibetan monks are also not strictly vegetarian either but eat whatever is offered. In China, however, with a history of plentiful vegetarian food because of the monastic system, the rule of vegetarianism was enforced for all monks.

But consider this: the famous meditation adept Milarepa only attained his enlightenment after ending a near starvation diet by drinking some beer and eating some meat supplied by his friends. As he found out, if you don’t eat the right food to keep up your strength, it is hard to succeed at spiritual cultivation. Even Buddha was not able to succeed in attaining enlightenment until his health, damaged by severe asceticism, was restored to normal after eating some rice gruel or porridge. I also know of a great Zen master who ate only one small vegetarian meal a day at noon and also found that it did not supply him with enough energy for his cultivation efforts, and so he started eating meat again, although in limited portions, to restore his health and cultivation efforts. It comes down to what you need in conjunction with what you think is right and proper.

And this is one of the main factors to consider – that less meat is certainly better than more, but none may not be enough, especially if you are subsisting on the wrong type of carbohydrates in a vegetarian diet. Many monks in China eat too much tofu and soybeans and as a result, pancreatic cancer and diabetes is quite prevalent due to their diets. In America many vegetarians eat far too much sugar and wheat and destroy their health in the process, too. Meat protein may be warranted, but with today’s hormone laden food, even this decision is questionable.

Then again, it’s a rule in Buddhism that if you are sick and need to eat meat to recover, it is considered a breach of discipline to refuse that medicine though you may want to keep the purity of vegetarianism in play. Once again, it comes down to what’s necessary to help one stay healthy and thus able to succeed in their cultivation. In Orthodox Judaism, a similar rule holds that if you refuse non-kosher food that’s part of the medical prescription for getting well, it is also a breach of discipline to refuse it.

So what do you eat to stay healthy and succeed in spiritual cultivation? What is the best diet for you and for people in general? No one can say with authority, although many would like to– it’s dependent upon you and your genes, your efforts, your circumstances and how you feel with the diet you choose. Many people say they feel cleaner on a vegetarian diet, and that meat weighs them down and clouds their mind, and that they are healthier as vegetarians or vegans than as meat eaters. For such sensitive people, they’ve already determined what’s best for themselves.

Then again, one thing I can mention is that many naturopaths and nutritionists have told me that when strict vegetarians get sick, in many cases it’s almost impossible to cure them if they don’t start eating some animal protein again. The famous Edgar Cayce recommended fish, then poultry, then lamb and beef in this ascending order if one were to eat meat as a source of protein. Pork is universally recognized as one of the worst meats across all traditions. And as to what vegetables are good for people, you have to first rule out if you are allergic or have a sub-clinical sensitivity to it. Just because it’s a vegetable doesn’t mean it’s good for you!

Many people are sensitive to foods but don’t know it because their vitality is strong, but as they get older and their immune system declines those foods start producing symptoms that were previously masked by robustness. So what may seem like a vegetarian “safe food” may actually be doing harm to your body. If someone gets cancer, one of the first things to do is find those food offenders through a blood test and then strictly rule them out of the diet, vegetarian or not. With today’s GMO foods, this rule is more important than ever as many people are allergic to GMO crops.

The question as to whether you should eat meat or not is really up to you from considering your circumstances and the effect that it brings. It’s a matter of balance, necessity and compassion. So what do enlightened beings eat? Whatever they choose to eat because of their vows and circumstances.

I always recommend the Tibetan 9-bottled wind practice for cultivators. It involves holding your breath for as long as possible and is an assist to cultivation in the early stages of the path.

Well the world record holder’s method for holding their breath — shown here doing so for nearly 17 minutes under water in front of Oprah — explains his method of khumbhaka to Oprah and the audience.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/10/30/how-to-hold-your-breath/

Pay attention to the fact that at the end when he cannot hold any longer, he says he practices a type of emptiness meditation.

That’s the key — letting go of both mind and body. He looks extremely healthy and well balanced, just like a martial artist, because he has somewhat opened up his channels. Practicing emptiness meditation would in all likelihood change his appearance to an even lighter complexion over time.

Here are his steps though you can read more on the blog post.

The Steps:

1:30 deep breathing
1:15 purging (if you feel like you’re going to pass out, do it less intensely)

Hold breath for target 1:30, no more
After 1:30:
Take 3 semi-purge breaths

1:30 deep breathing
1:30 purging

Hold breath for target 2:30, no more
After 2:30
Take 3 semi-purge breaths

2:00 deep breathing
1:45 purging

Hold breath for as long as possible
After exhalation:
Take 3-10 hard semi-purge breaths until your recover

I often tell people they can approach cultivation through Confucianism, which depends on the practice of vipassana, or watching the mind. This is similar to the Socratic idea of know thyself through awareness, too. Telling people to cultivate awareness is often better than telling them to cultivate meditation because in meditation they always get caught in body feelings an thoughts and never catch the real meaning of the Tao as taught by Vedanta or Buddhism.

Our awareness is always caught by the feelings of the body, and emotions. That means it’s caught by what isn’t really you, it’s caught by an illusion because an illusion is something that always changes that we think is solid and real, like a mirage.

Neither the sensations nor emotions are things you can hold on to. The body isn’t you either, and is always changing. When science investigates it, it finds smaller and smaller details such as DNA replication, cells dividing, etc. showing that it’s always changing and never staying still. This cause leads to that result — it’s all held together through massive interdependence. It’s an illusion to think it’s a fixed form, and an illusion to think it’s the real you. It’s just a function that comes along.

In one sense we can say you are spirit, or shen, or awareness, which is a function of the original nature. The original nature, which we call “void” or “empty” to denote it is not something phenomenal, is why in Taoist cultivation we say shen transforms or returns to emptiness, which is its substrate or essence or source. Christians call it God instead. Awareness is just a function of this essence, so we are ultimately this essence and cultivation is to find this essence, not be captured by what awareness notices.

Yet when awareness is captured, we think we are something we are not. If you know all is illusion and don’t hold on to it, then you can relax and not be so tight. You enjoy good feelings because you think they’re true but they are all illusions that don’t stay. The same for bad feelings — they’re illusions. Whatever comes to you in the world because of past karma, you just react to it and respond as you should, and a new illusion will arise that isn’t the original nature, just something captured/seen by awareness.

How do you change your fortune? Your karma comes because of past thoughts and behavior that result in what’s produced. If you watch your thoughts to keep your bad habits from coming out, you can change your fortune. It’s as simple as that. That’s vipassana. If you let go of attachments, in time your chi will change and awareness will return to the source, and recognizing the source you can become liberated.

This is the Confucian method of cultivation. You cultivate “awareness” to change your behavior for the better, which perfects you as a human being. It changes your fortune for the future. By letting awareness function without clinging, you also cultivate the Tao.

What could be simpler?