Tuesday 24 May 2011

When asked if he was conscious when thinking, Einstein wrote " The words or the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The psychical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images which can be 'voluntarily' reproduced and combined. "

Monday 23 May 2011

The 1990s is the decade of breakthrough in the scientific acknowledgment that man is not transparent to himself. The germ of this breakthrough lay in knowledge that what we sense to what we perceive is 1,000,000 to 1.
"The fact that you recall the meaning but not the words of the last sentence is a commonplace observation, As you read the sentence it is actually very difficult to describe just what you are conscious of, although you are clearly conscious of something."Richard Latto and John Cacmpion
Or are you ? But thinking . . . Surely thinking is a conscious activity. Don't you think ?
" I insist that words are totally absent from my mind when I really think, " wrote the mathematician Jaques Hadamard in his famous ' Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field '. " Even after reading or hearing a question, every word disappears at the very moment I am beginning to think it over, words do not reappear in my consciousness before I have accomplished or given up the research. . . . I fully agree with Schopenhauer when he writes, thoughts die the moment they are embodied in words,"
More from ' The User Illusion ' soon. / .

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Many thanks to Michael for this version of the 'mini' form.

Ann's Mini Form (Yang Style) 2/2 from Heartworker on Vimeo.

Monday 16 May 2011

" The interesting things in life may not be the ones that take long explanations to describe but those that take many experiences to get to know.. . .
Depth shows that something has interacted with the world. It has changed, but is still itself; out of balance, but not out of itself. It has known surprises in its time. But it is still here.
It has marked the world and the world has marked it.
It has grown deep."
Tor Nørretranders (from The User Illusion )

Tuesday 10 May 2011




"Full effort is full victory," said Gandhi. You need not be troubled if you have made mistakes, or if your ideal has slipped away. Just continue to give your best. If you fall, pick yourself up and march on. If you cannot run, walk. If you cannot walk, crawl. Nothing in life is more joyful or more thrilling. The effort alone brings a continuing wave of joy in which every personal problem, every suffering and humiliation, is forgotten."
Gandhi

Monday 9 May 2011

If you can change your mind, you can change your life.
William James

In the last few decades, thanks MRI imaging techniques, scientists can observe what’s actually going on in the brain while people sleep, work, make decisions etc.
The breakthrough in imaging techniques led Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, now a research psychiatrist at the School of Medicine at the University of California and co-author with Sharon Begley of Mind and the Brain, to wonder, “What kind of internal experience is generated by the neuronal activity captured on a brain scan? Even more important, how can we use scientific discoveries linking inner experience with brain function to effect constructive changes in everyday life?” A student of Buddhist meditation, he developed a form of therapy to change the faulty chemistry of a well-identified brain circuit: that of the patient with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (OCD is a prime example of pathological brain processes in which negative thoughts can be traced on an MRI). He told his patients: “The feeling of doubt … is a false message, due to a jammed transmission in the brain.”They learned to change the way they thought about their thoughts through regular refocusing, which engaged them in intentional rather than automatic behavior, activating a different brain circuitry. Not only did he introduce a new treatment for mental illness, he also ­provided hard evidence that the mind can control the brain’s chemistry as he demonstrated how refocusing literally reprograms the brain, and mindfulness gives people more control over their lives.

Friday 6 May 2011

In the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone, the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.
Rachel Naomi Remen

Tuesday 3 May 2011

" In the heaven of Indra there is said to be a network of pearls, so arranged that if you look at one you see all the others reflected in it, and if you move into any part of it, you set it of, you set off the sound of bells that ring through every part of the network, through every part of reality.
In the same way, each person, each object in the world, is not merely itself, but involves every other person and object and, in fact , on one level is every other person and object. "
Buddhist Avatamska Sutra

Monday 2 May 2011

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
Saint Basil

Sunday 1 May 2011

Our practice needs to be soft and quiet to encourage our shy spirit to open. We cannot force it to come and reveal itself to us. We need to be patient and provide a loving space in and around ourselves so it feels safe to come out and dance.