Maybe that’s what real individuality is about, as opposed to the Madison-Avenue search for supposed self-expression that you have criticized in past columns

Yes! I think you’re absolutely right. That really ties something together for me. Thank you! The pieces you are referencing in particular:

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006/11/17/beneath-the-burqa-ban/
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006/11/20/podcast-11-express-yourself/

Sometimes the more one analyses stuff the more obscure it gets.

Yes, but sometimes less as well. I think the thing about tying yourself into knots mentally is that it forces you to a crisis point: either untie them or die trying. Certainly not the easiest way through the mess, but it works if you have the intestinal fortitude and patience to continue

you have to do it yourself.

Well said, Tim. Maybe that’s what real individuality is about, as opposed to the Madison-Avenue search for supposed self-expression that you have criticized in past columns (I can’t remember off the top of my head which columns). Those criticisms of self-expression have given me a lot to think about, because I figured that individuality was sort of at least one of the driving forces behind the whole spiritual-investigation thing you have going on here. But maybe what we ought to be looking for when we look for individual self-expression is not the endless thirst for buying crap that somehow tells other people just which niche we fit into, but rather an attempt to seek answers to life’s questions for ourselves, each of us, mindful of others doing the same thing (God do I sound like a hippie or what!). I read a book once years ago called The Quantum Society, which if I remember correctly talked about how the human personality is much like and wave/particle things in quantum physics; just as something can be both a wave and a particle, a person is simultaneously an individual interdependent part-of-the-fabric.

http://www.soul.org/Great%20Work.html

The exact process by which this transmutation is accomplished is taught to all students of the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis. While we cannot give the entire process here, we can give you a hint as to how this is to be accomplished. The human brain is so constructed that as we think and take actions these activities are recorded and programmed into the nerve cells. The more we think or do something, the stronger and stronger this nerve impression becomes. On the other hand, if we do not think or do certain things, the nerve impressions of these items gradually fade. If we consciously replace adverse thoughts and actions by those in harmony with the Divine Law, these more constructive elements will gradually replace the impressed nerve pathways of the less desirable elements. Thus, by first changing our thought patterns we are eventually able to change our emotions, and with the change in our emotions we are able to modify our actions. This is the basic physical functioning of transmutation. It takes a strong desire and constant effort on the part of the student to accomplish such a work, but it is an absolutely essential part of the Great Work.

Like I can be totally not negative outwardly towards others. And I can even with not a lot of effort get over being negative inwardly about them. But it’s MUCH more difficult to simply not be negative towards myself. Like I can cut all these other people all kinds of crazy breaks - a compassion which I can’t always seem to give towards myself.

It is one thing to be not negative in regard to other people. Actually, these days I sometimes find that much easier, and those rewards are superficial.

The real work is to not be negative INSIDE.

Know what I mean?

I have found that by making a deliberate decision not to be negative I can sometimes actually do it and the rewards are self-evident.

Yeah, I’ve been noticing that as well a whole lot lately too. It can be very difficult to maintain, but when you start not being negative and put a real effort into it, you really do start feeling better. I always thought of that as being one of those way too obvious self-help type things that was bullshit, but its not.

Magic Grubb:

No, I have never tried Pilates. I’m not actually sure I even like yoga yet, either. I haven’t done it enough to know for certain. I did Tai Chi briefly in highschool and am thinking about taking that up again though, as I remember really enjoying that.

The great thing with this Pilates breathing technique is that you can do it anywhere. I had to sit through a TV show taping a few months ago and I had slept in a weird position the night before…after an hour of just sitting there and breathing and working that internal core network, I was fine. It’s one of the few things I’ve found out about like this that’s actually worked for me…and worked very quickly, to boot.

It resonates with me now because I have been closely examining my own negativity and trying to realize the sinfulness of it, in more precise terms “something not necessary.” I have found that by making a deliberate decision not to be negative I can sometimes actually do it and the rewards are self-evident.

Until the next inevitable big tsunami of lead comes to swallow me, I remain a curious “experiment”!