en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/758857 Comments by waltww http://staging.finerminds.com/personal-growth/vishen-asks/#IDComment76681397 Mostly I meditate through journal writing in the early morning hours for 15 to 30 minutes each day. If I have time I also read a chapter from one of my top priority book on my reading list. Sat, 22 May 2010 18:36:11 +0000 http://staging.finerminds.com/personal-growth/vishen-asks/#IDComment76681397 http://www.finerminds.com/mind-power/quantum-jumping/#IDComment66810170 Part 2 of my obsevations regarding Burt Goldman's Interview. About 20 years ago I quit my engineering job at Lockheed to become more creative and be more diverse in what I did in life. Driven by Gurdjieff's nudging to awaken from our sleepwalking through life and Maslow's message that we can rise to be self-actualizers and transpersonal higher beings I set out to discover my so called authentic self and to nurture the seeds within me. Upon leaving my twenty something year job in engineering I enrolled in Junior College programs for Art, Computer Graphic Art and Technical Writing with a vague idea of earning a living doing those activities.From that program I learned to make watercolor portraits and landscapes, desktop publishing, I received a certificate in Computer Graphic Design and a certificate in Techinical Writing. Armed with these new skills I sought to earn my living doing what I loved. It was tough to get regular employment, however, so I moved from one temporary position to another and along the way I also made efforts to create personal businesses in Computer Graphic Design. watercolor paintings and electronic desktop publishing. Looking back over the past 20 years I feel my income suffered compared to my comfort zone engineering job but my experiences and fun in life made the journey well worth it. I worked at a series of jobs as an artist, a graphic design artist, a newspaper reporter, a technical writer consultant and an instructor at a junior college. Along the way I see now I then went through my own version of Quantum Jumping in mastering writing skills.I took about 10 online writing courses and read a number of books on creative nonfiction writing. I confess I never earned a living with my writing but that doesn't mean I didn't fulfill myself in that area. I've been volunteering as editor of several newsletters for the California Alpine Club, Friends of the Willits Library, The Unitarian Fellowship, and now the California Grey Bears. And I've been writing personal essays and poetry. Furthermore, I've increased my efforts to be more disciplined in my reading of self-improvement books. Related to that I became a member of the PhilosophersNotes program with its summary notes and aids to big ideas. At this time and place I'm concentrating on the book---The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks---which I hope will truly show me how to make giant leaps from my current and past styles and performances. Quantum Leaping matches my current goal perfectly. Fri, 9 Apr 2010 14:38:39 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/mind-power/quantum-jumping/#IDComment66810170 http://www.finerminds.com/mind-power/quantum-jumping/#IDComment66801942 I loved this interview of Burt Goldman because I've been focused on studying the book The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks and Goldman presents a show and tell version of resetting our personal limits. Funny how I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself being 70 years old running out of time and then you show me Burt with his attitude and performance level living life with gusto. I have a voice in my head that keeps telling me I'm irresponsible for attempting to do too much in learning skills and applying myself to be all that I can be. Burt helps me override this message by example. I am a fan of Maslow's self-actualization theory and Ken Wilber's Integral Life Practice to guide me to live an optimal life style balanced with humanity. Right now I have been somewhat stuck figuring out how to add love of activity with soulful connections as overlays on activities I have been doing that I feel fall within Hendrick's Zone of Excellence that I want to update to the Zone of Genius. Thank you Vishen for sharing this interview with us. It truly inspired me to follow Burt's example for my remaining days. Fri, 9 Apr 2010 13:53:00 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/mind-power/quantum-jumping/#IDComment66801942 http://www.finerminds.com/lifestyle/philosophersnotes-challenge-end-50-days/#IDComment64878121 The best result I got from doing this 50 lesson project was that the wide number of books and their different focused topics helped me resolve loose thoughts about how to integrate my life purpose and my current priorities. I particularly liked Gay Hendricks book The Big Leap and am working on using his suggestions to make a breakthrough of my own. In general I concluded I had previously read about a quarter of the books selected in our project. Since I am 70 A I have had plenty of time to do that. Beyond that I decided to buy about ten other books recommended that I had not seen before. So although the course is over I have about ten books sitting on the sideline waiting for me to read and study. I am a big fan of Maslow and his theory on self-actualizaton, Wilber and his Integral Life Practice, Tony Robbins and now Gay Hendricks. My personal criticism of the program is in two areas: first although Debbie Ford's The Dark Side of the Light Chasers accounted for the dark side we all seem to have, one book out of 50 on that topic was too light from my viewpoint. I personally recommend the addition of Neurosis and Human Growth by Karen Horney to beef up and balance our human ways of being. Also, there were a small group of books that seemed to fall in the class of New Age thinking where we were coaxed to wish and make affirmations only. I have little trust in those methods. Overall I am pleased I took the program and feel It will continue to influence me in positive ways in the future. Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:55:27 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/lifestyle/philosophersnotes-challenge-end-50-days/#IDComment64878121 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/meditations-marcus-aurelius/#IDComment63363430 I have heard of Marcus Aurelius for most of my adult life yet never read his famous notes to himself. So Brian's summary of PDF notes and a TV video review really hits the spot with me. My biggest impression though is that many of his great ideas are being taught by other teachers these days. Don't worry what others think of you. The big idea that each day is another opportunity to live fearlessly with courage once more really seems meaningful to me since I'm now 70. But I also see another insight here, perhaps due to my own declining days. If you are fortunate as I have been you may have experienced enlightenment for moments during your life or maybe even eternity in the moment. If so you can look forward to living such eternity moments during on day at a time rather than planning out years of a life that may never unfold. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:42:06 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/meditations-marcus-aurelius/#IDComment63363430 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-seven-spiritual-laws-of-success-deepak-chopra/#IDComment62870569 The first thing that strikes me cold about this summary lecture is that my own spirituality is a force that wants to connect with life and humanity and this book Seven Spiritual Laws of Success seems to concentrate on me, me, me. It seems the me society is responsible for much of the trouble in the world. So I would have to carefullly read the book to filter out what I see as spiritual and not so much just accepting what Deepak is teaching as aspects of spirituality. Now having said all that I now admit to being quite close to the teachings of Buddha and as such I was quite taken by Brian's personal story of finding his Dharma for his calling in work. To find the truth within ourselves that will most make us useful and happy truly seems great. While I think I have tried that a number of times I never really based my search on the word of the Buddhist Dharma concept. Now I will. Thanks to this lesson and Brian. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:34:52 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-seven-spiritual-laws-of-success-deepak-chopra/#IDComment62870569 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/your-erroneous-zones-wayne-dyer/#IDComment62866389 I am a big fan of Emerson so I readily believe in self-reliance and taking charge of our own life. But this Erroneous Zones went further be suggesting that I believe much more in myself to reach my own dreams. That may be the biggest ah haw I encountered from this lecture. Although I must admit I am a big believer in dealing with our dark side and negative aspects such as neuroses.These two rules would be major transitions toward the human we would become. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:06:06 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/your-erroneous-zones-wayne-dyer/#IDComment62866389 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-spontaneous-fulfillment-of-desire-deepak-chopra/#IDComment62864067 According to my understanding of the TV lecture for The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire essentially the theme of this book is directed toward the type of person we need to become to sparkle in this life. We need to operate from our soul and do authentic creative actions that only we can contribute. We need to integrate ourselves of the fear and the darkside and the conscious enlightened side. We need to be certain about what we really want to do and have and then we need to go after them. We need to create dreams and then make them real. So this book is a master plan on how to be an enlightened, spiritual, compassionate human being the best we can be. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:45:04 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-spontaneous-fulfillment-of-desire-deepak-chopra/#IDComment62864067 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/pathways-to-bliss-joseph-campbell/#IDComment62691506 Joseph Campbell was the first scholar that caught my attention and handed me the message that I needed to follow my bliss and dreams. I was 45 at the time entrenched in a lifetime job at Lockheed as an Industrial Engineer. Three years latter I quit that job that I'd had for 21 years and became a writer/artist (what I thought was my bliss). That was 25 years ago. Over these years I have changed my faith from a lifelong Protestant to an agnostic Buddhist, Taoist, spiritual person who now sees God in a very different way. However, I can imagine that God if he or she exists is likely within each human walking the planet. So to say being in touch with your bliss is like also being in touch with God could be possible with my beliefs. While I have believed in following my bliss ever since I heard Campbell advise that I never heard that one should bring back what they found while experiencing that bliss, which was one theme in this lesson from Paths to Your Bliss. The truth is I can think of several important new understandings that I discovered when I dove in my art bliss. I learned to honor my work and my values which worked well back on other work I did. I learned that in some settings painting could be cathardic and healing just by concentrating on the process. I also learned that if I was following my bliss it was easier to overcome fear associated with projects. In other words if my soul was connected with my activities I was much stronger and brave. Another remark from this lesson that I observed but never emphasized was that leaving work that is your bliss and returning to mundane activities subjects that are not connected to your bliss or soul you lose your spirit doing such work. So while some may need high salariies as a payoff from working on a blissful job I found that aliveness was the most important payoff for me. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:52:33 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/pathways-to-bliss-joseph-campbell/#IDComment62691506 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-power-of-intention-dr-wayne-w-dyer/#IDComment62667505 No matter what your intention is it ought to be part of your awareness and part of your designed plan for your life. Therefore, I strongly feel that our greatest intention ought to be our purposes in life and thereafter a long list of the priorities of what our goals and values are and just how we expect to reach and honor them. Dyer defines four steps to be necessary for intention to be successful: discipline, wisdom, love and surrender. How could you not succeed when you intentionally rely on these techniques? Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:04:27 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-power-of-intention-dr-wayne-w-dyer/#IDComment62667505 http://staging.finerminds.com/personal-growth/philosophersnotes-challenge-13-days-left/#IDComment60431023 This is an additional remark about feedback for this program. I had one technical problem a few times along the way. A few assignments that came to me would not allow me to login using my preferred username waltww. Thus I had to log in by typing my name in a way that stored my answer or remarks in a separated database. As a result I have no way to account for all the replies I have made. Mon, 8 Mar 2010 15:48:00 +0000 http://staging.finerminds.com/personal-growth/philosophersnotes-challenge-13-days-left/#IDComment60431023 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-places-that-scare-you-pema-chodron/#IDComment60281175 My biggest impression about Pema Chodron’s book ─The Places That Scare You─ are my good memories about when I first discovered her writing style. Eight years ago I joined a small group in my Unitarian Universalist Church to learn about Buddhism. That group stayed together for three years and evolved into a more formal Sangha group where we regularly met once a week to discuss questions we had about practicing Buddhism. During that learning period we identified a dozen or more books that seemed to introduce newcomers to understanding the practice of Buddhism. Pema represented an intermediate level which seemed very spiritual without being religious. I liked her at once and began reading several of her books. The Places That Scare You was one of the first. One of the first Big Ideas we were introduced to in Buddhist teaching was the concept of “Beginning Mind,” a fresh original way to look at our thoughts. Like a first time meeting when we were a child yet with increasing maturity that took the encounter seriously. One of her first stories in this book is about the excellence of Bodhichitta (the awakening of the mind/body). One of my major desires since discovering Gurdjieff, who taught that people sleep walked through life, was to avoid that sleep walking state myself. She has also published books on Start from Where You Are, Lovingkindness, Falling Apart and Tonglen. I feel she always exhibits Beginner's Mind, seeing live in the moment without old bagage. I watched a shared discussion between Alice Walker and Pema about Tonglen or the art of studying the suffering of others to help draw it away from them. That meeting was held in San Francisco some years ago. Alice Walker is one of my heros and Pema is one of her heros Another thing I like about her is from her admiration for her teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, who I have also learned to enjoy reading his writings. Mon, 8 Mar 2010 02:19:14 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-places-that-scare-you-pema-chodron/#IDComment60281175 http://staging.finerminds.com/personal-growth/philosophersnotes-challenge-13-days-left/#IDComment59663951 Since I began the 50 Lesson/50 Day project I have been repeatedly asking myself what beneficial result am I receiving from remaining committed to doing these lessons. First, I decided to be open to whatever beneficial experience I might find. In my case I had read about 20 percent of the selected books and I had good impressions from having done that so I appreciated being reminded of them and browsing over them using Brian's summaries of the big ideas he saw in each of them. As I seldom reread books I've read and my memories consistently dwindle over the years I began to realize the large portions of big ideas I had lost from good books I once knew well. Shockingly some of the books I had read were read as far back as 35 years ago. Most, however, fell in the category of 5 to 15 years ago, still long enough to observe slipping memories. Thus I realized that being reminded of key ideas and principle in books that I had already read before was beneficial. In general most of the books I had not seen or chosen to read before were positive learning experiences for me. Although I do not adamently reject the concepts of affirmations or even New Age ideas of wishing and praying for things and success I found I am rather resistent to those approaches thereby causing me to easily reject such teachings if they are not connected with some concrete motivations and results that make sense to me. Previously I was not a fan of Dr. Wayne Dyer but after being exposed to a few of his books filtered through Brian's mind's eye I learned to trust and like his teachings. Also, I became a fan of Gay Hendricks. My personal favorites: Maslow, Campbell, Wilber, Robbins, Pema Chodron, Gurdjieff and Horney were covered to my pleasure except for Gurdjieff and Karen Horney who represented avoiding sleepwalking through life and ineffective living based on major influences of neurotic and shadow traits that interfere with searches for authenticity and true success. The most tangible benefits that I claim from participating in this program has been my decision to create several personal projects: 1) Based on a 100 pct commitment I agreed to complete this 50 Day project; based on another 100 pct commitment I am attending a gym facility 5 days a week; and I am commited to creating a reading discipline where I read quality books one or more hours each day. I'm still open to new experiences I might become aware of from participation in this program. So far this project has been very worthwhile for me. I very much like the combination of watching Brian's TV video followed by reading his six page PDF summary of the book and I have purchased about eight books to expand my personal library. Thank you Brian and Vishen for creating and offering this project. Thu, 4 Mar 2010 01:46:31 +0000 http://staging.finerminds.com/personal-growth/philosophersnotes-challenge-13-days-left/#IDComment59663951 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-first-30-days-ariane-de-bonvoisin/#IDComment59256911 I believe I have been a change optimist in spirit but not consciously aware of the fact. Now that I think of it I would say that it is because I believe change is positive that I am never satisfied with my current state of being. I simply want to change because I feel I would be better fulfilled if I made the changes. Thus the first 30 days by Ariane de Bonvoisin I’m convinced is my kind of book. Making those changes will help me love my life even more than I do now. Wow! This is a major realization for me. I don't think fear is holding me back so much as lazyness. I think I have the courage to change. However, I notice that the nine principles for change are all based on the nature of people who successfully change. This is my Acillies' heel for I often give up before I change successfully, before I demonstrate I can do it. I need to be reminded of when I was successful because I appear to forget that I already have a record of wins here. All my victories in the past can help me now. Like thinking about each of the major things I learned that made me able to do more. Being accepted at Brooklyn Technical School in Junior High School, Graduating from New Jersey Institute of Technology with a BS in Industrial Engineering degree, receiving many raises and promotions during 21 years working at Lockheed Missile and Space Company, Writing hundreds of application programs to use as a process control engineer and a quality assurance engineer. Writing dozens of technical reports describing manufacturing research investigations. And then when I decided to change my career from Engineer to an Artist / Writer I acquired credentials as a Technical Writer and a Computer Graphic Designer and a thick portfolio showing my artwork and watercolor portraits. Thus I have a long trail of accomplishments that demonstrate I have successfully made many changes in my life. I even relocated my family of four children and a wife from the east coast to Sunnyvale, California and bought a relatively new home with a swimming pool. Consistently I changed my life to live my dream of a better life. So I know I have a history of making positive changes All I need do is remind myself of what I already did to make positive changes when I was younger. And people like Ariane De Bonvoisin can remind me of what I already did that demonstrates my previous change success. Mon, 1 Mar 2010 21:59:22 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-first-30-days-ariane-de-bonvoisin/#IDComment59256911 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-dark-side-of-the-light-chasers-debbie-ford/#IDComment58526181 As a known dabbler I realize all that I may have done on Shadow work is only a partial effort toward resolving what may be in my shadow. So I feel I've read a lot about the shadow and the unconscious aspects of who we are or might be. But Debbie Ford seems to do an excellent job in summarizing how we can rediscover these shadow aspects of ourselves. One of the Big Ideas that got through to me from this video lecture is that we are not perfect only looking at those parts of ourselves that we accept but perfect as a whole assembled being with recognized flaws. I'm sure I heard that before but it seemed to ring a loud bell this time. Another concept that stikes a chord deeply within me is noticing projections. Here is a poem on projections that I wrote a couple of years ago. Copyright © April 2004 Walt Weintz Projection by Walt Weintz Sometimes what people do reminds me of me They show my shadow. Who I was, or might be When their actions frighten me without reason I’ve reached, no doubt, a lost internal lesion My view of others is not of them but me From my past their actions provide a new key Often others appear better—in my view Showing courage, compassion and wisdom too Yet I’ve realized these attributes I’m seeing Are from my own psyche’s dark spots, agreeing In this dark place, at times, little candles glow Causing better insight. Causing self to grow Seeing distorted projections from within Expose my hidden traits of goodness and sin Awareness next releases lost parts of my soul And wholeness assembles...fulfilling my goal Now standing as a unit solid and free I note my life is but a drop in the sea Billions of souls we know form humanity Collective lives struggling to find sanity When the pieces come together there is no me Instead, I see a new whole—of God and thee Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:32:15 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/the-dark-side-of-the-light-chasers-debbie-ford/#IDComment58526181 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/mastery-george-leonard/#IDComment58259489 Mastery by George Leonard is one my top 50 self-improvement books. I studied from it about 15 years ago when I had the intention of mastering graphic arts, desktop publishing, technical writing and watercolor portrait painting. I never became Michaelangelo but I did get so I could sell some of my work and built a portfolio of my work to show potential customers. It took me a dozen years to feel my work was good enough to sell or in the words of the Leonard that I had mastered sufficient skills and knowledge of these fields of study to offer my services. For me Personal Mastery was a related part of self-actualization. After all I was the one devoted doing the work to gain the expertise. That same point of view was incorporated in the best selling book The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge. Since then I have gone on with the intention to master creative nonfiction writing and world citizenship. Am I perfect? No way. But I know a lot about these topics and have quite a bit of skills to be creative doing work in those areas. Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:48:58 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/mastery-george-leonard/#IDComment58259489 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/trust-your-vibes-sonia-choquette/#IDComment57837952 Vibes intuition represents a sense of mine that I've never understood or had under control. I think when I was a young man I turned to intuition often but as I lived being an engineer in my adult years I avoided intuition thinking it was not smart or rational. Now I don't know why it would be wrong so much as I wouldn't know if my ideas or vibes were right. It certainly seems it could be right as an intuition but whatever one needs to have confidence in the ideas involved I would need to practice using it.. I love and believe in breathing to reduce stress. I think I would definitely benefit by studying Sonia's work on intuition. Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:42:47 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/trust-your-vibes-sonia-choquette/#IDComment57837952 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/ken-wilber/#IDComment57829666 I have been reading Wiber's books for years and I often have trouble understanding just what he is saying. I had occasion to give a sermon at our Unitarian Universalist church about the difference between the soul and spirit and I heavily quoted him. In that case I felt he guided me quite well. But sometimes when he is organizing everything he loses me. I personally can't track more than a few things at a time. I think his philosophy of Integral Life Practice makes sense and I am embracing it as a modern evolution of consciousness. In that area though, I've been consulting Steve McIntosh's book Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution as well as the Integral Life Practice by some of Wilber's followers. I like Wilber best when he is speaking about spirituality but not so much when he talks about everything and what quadrant I need to live in. Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:57:48 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/ken-wilber/#IDComment57829666 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/big-mind-big-heart-genpo-roshi/#IDComment57508812 Big Mind, Big Heart is Genpo Roshi's term for a spiritual state of being I have heard about for years. In fact my true self has looked out to the world some times and without common language communicated and understood what existed for short moments. So I somehow knew that this state existed yet I never dreamed I could move in and out of this awakend state at will. Now thanks to Genpo Roshi being the chicken pecking at my surrounding egg at the right time I feel I will come out or go in and be aware of the world and the life on it. I look forward to getting his book and studying it and practicing meditation until I also learn to awaken to Big Mind and Big Heart. I particularly love that he quotes Maslow in pointing out we need to transcend beyond our ego self and become part of the universal lives and souls on this planet. Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:53:56 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/big-mind-big-heart-genpo-roshi/#IDComment57508812 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/conscious-living-gay-hendricks/#IDComment56748108 This was the most exciting lesson I have participated in so far. I picked up The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks and I ordered this one, A Year of Conscious LIving also by Hendricks. I thought it was particularly delightful that Brian combined remarks from so many others to substantiate the main concepts being recommended regarding consciousness. I am a major fan of Maslow and Campbell and Ken Wilber. And now I can add Gay Hendricks as well. When I was a young man I discovered the writings of Gurdjieff mostly through his main follower Peter Ouspensky. They taught the main idea that most people sleep walked through life and needed to learn to live life awake. To do that I have read about the shadow to better understand the conscious and unconscious mind. These lessons and book seem to be honing in on exactly the main focus that I have wanted to resolve and dedicate myself to follow. Kudos Brian. You hit the cord that resonates with my soul. Thanks. Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:14:29 +0000 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/conscious-living-gay-hendricks/#IDComment56748108