11/25/2009

Great 'Guy' Gift : Manspaces



Sam Martin : Manspaces
A Primal Guide to Marking Your Territory
 

Fab site!
Manspaces.com

From the book:
   You know you need your space, but what’s the answer? Manspace! It’s the shot in the arm, the rallying cry, the inspiration for guys like you to take back a little piece of territory, to have some space where you don’t have to change shirts or pick up after yourself. With more than 50 great guy places like recording studios, drinking sheds, workshops, and general all-around hangouts, Manspace shows you what and it shows you how.....

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11/16/2009

Shambhala Events



SNEAK PREVIEW – Fundraiser for CRAZY WISDOM
Nov 21 / 7:30 PM - Nov 21 / 10:00 PM
Johanna Demetrakas will screen her film, "CRAZY WISDOM: the life and times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche," for the Los Angeles Shambhala sangha and general public.

Work, Sex, Money and the Spiritual Path in L.A. -- a Public Talk at our Westside Center
Nov 22 / 5:00 PM - Nov 22 / 6:00 PM
Our Western culture has many preconceived notions of what is and is not "spiritual." Many times we follow a spiritual path in order to "escape" from the "earthy" realities of our lives.
more info


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11/06/2009

Home Sweet Home

Retreat is complete, and much to catch up on!

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What is Trance Dance?



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10/20/2009

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8/16/2009

Dakini Retreat


Florence, Oregon

Even a dakini needs to retreat, recharge and restore, that's why we have summer

Florence is amazing, but the dsl is less than fab


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7/27/2009

Jung Monday

The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.

We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.


Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

-JUNG


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7/12/2009

Monday Mantra: Let Go


LET GO

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned,
so as to accept the life that is waiting for us."
-Joseph Campbell

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7/07/2009

8 Secrets to Great Sex

The secret to great sex? It's not technique
CTV News
Mon. Jul. 6 2009

Great sex isn't about technique or buff bodies.
Intense physical sensation, orgasm, lust and chemistry also don't have much to do with it.
Instead, a new study, says
great sex is more about connection and focus.
Sex therapist and University of Ottawa psychologist Peggy Kleinplatz,
the lead author of the report, interviewed three groups who reported that they had "great sex." .
....The study found that great sex involves the following eight components:


• Being present
• Connection
• Deep sexual and erotic intimacy
• Extraordinary communication
• Interpersonal risk taking and exploration
• Authenticity
• Vulnerability
• Transcendence


Of all the components,
"being present, focused and embodied" was cited the most by participants. ......more from CTV
Peggy J. Kleinplatz is a Canadian psychologist and sexologist known for her work critical of the medicalization of human sexuality.
Kleinplatz graduated from University of Ottawa with a B.A. (Honours) in Psychology in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1987.
She has served as Associate Professor of Medicine and Clinical Professor of Psychology at the University of Ottawa[2] and is an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University.

* Kleinplatz PJ, ed. (2001). New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives. Psychology Press, ISBN 9780876309674
* Moser C, Kleinplatz PJ (2006). Sadomasochism: Powerful Pleasures. Routledge, ISBN 9781560236399



Tantric systems and practice develop, refine and repair these key components of great sex, and authentic connection.
One of the potential, and commonly mentioned side effects of excessive Solo porn consumption is the reduced ability or inability to connect emotionally with a partner, and over time, a diminished sexual arousal regardless of type or intensity of stimulation.
A delicious mix of feel good, and bonding chemicals are released in the brain during arousal, and a flood at the point of orgasm, creating a perfect moment to connect and bond with your lover, or the image on a computer screen. Oddly enough, if it's the computer, please know you are not really 'connecting' with Savannah Samson, Dick d'Bone etc...but you are reinforcing and strengthening the necessity of a computer image to feel aroused.

A real, flawed human will feel you mentally leave for your porn place.
While you are mentally conjuring up Dick or Savannah to keep your arousal up, you are absent, self absorbed and ignorant of the person you are with..How can you connect and tune into the person you're with and what is turning them on, the markers of a great lover, if your head is somewhere else?

On the other hand, if you have a partner that doesn't mind and you are happy with sex at that level, that's great!

Porn consumption alone, or with your partner now and then can be a fun, revealing, intimate experience that spices up the sex and strengthens the bond and connection between you.
Porn is no different than sugar, a little goes a long way, and if you become dependent on it your health will suffer, and your relationships will suffer, being overweight, and inching towards diabetes does not make for the best sex partners...

it's all about being mindful, do what you will, but be conscious of what you are doing, and what it's doing to you.
In moments of arousal we are training our brain, creating our own Pavlovian response to future stimuli, it's very simple and highly effective.

.....
Great sex comes from being present, focused and embodied.




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7/06/2009

Monday Mantra


That's Life
a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
and each time I find myself flat on my face, I pick myself up
and get back in the race...
-F. Sinatra

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7/04/2009

I Tarantati

I Tarantati, healing dance of the tarantella. Aligns with sufi mystics,native American shamans ...
gives trance dance a whole new meaning, Goa's got nothing on this...

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7/01/2009

Hafiz on Fear


"Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions."
- Hafiz


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6/29/2009

Monday Mantra: No

NO



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Vikram Madan on Jung and Enlightenment

Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light but making the darkness conscious.
-Jung


"What I like about Jung's definition is -- it is integrative in nature. Is not trying to reject darkness.

Eckhart Tolle's definition of enlightenment : "Restoration of Sanity".

Buddha's definition (or so it is claimed) : "No Suffering/End of Suffering".

The point at which the full and final collapse of the false-i/ego occurs, delusion ends, and the continuous, beyond-doubt direct experience of the connection with the deepest (shunya) level of life occurs.

Tolle talks of a waxing and waning joy, that has never left him, ever since he found enlightenment. The peace never goes. The joy waxes and wanes. Sadness is also felt by him, when he sees some kind of a serious tragedy somewhere.

He also talks of the end of boredom, loneliness, restlessness, and all such things that make us common-ly human. Tolle can be stuck in traffic or stand in a long que, and not lose his cool.

He also says that the sights and sounds of the world around him became more lucid, and lost their irritating, disturbing flavour, after he found enlightenment.

But the biggest thing --- is the appreciation of the difference between "LIFE" and "life-situation".

The enlightened person can appreciate the difference and know that the difference is not subjective, ambiguous, debatable.

ie. it points to some kind of a multi dimensional existence in which --- one is continuously aware that this is the realm of maya (via continuous direct experience) *YET* functioning as if it is *NOT* maya. And this mode of existence is *NOT* confusing and uncomfortable.

And I'll stop here, before I end up slipping deeper into...as you would have guessed by now...advaita vedanta "
-Vikram Madan



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6/26/2009

Jung on Enlightenment


Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light but making the darkness conscious.
-Jung

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6/25/2009

Elizabeth Gilbert on Marriage: Eat, Pray, Make Love

Eat, Pray, Make Love
Time Magazines 'one of the most influential people of 2008', Elizabeth Gilbert,
author of Eat, Pray, Love, asks us to consider the demands and expectations of contemporary marriage,
are we asking for too much in our relationships?
Could the high failure rate in marriage be related to the burden of out of scale expectations we
place on a 'love' relationship?
Elizabeth is 5yrs into a second marriage, she describes it as complex, but much richer than the romantic beginning she ends her book with.
Self admitted owner of a hungry, passionate heart, Elizabeth gives authentic insight for those of us with a passionate, and wildly curious nature.
Helen Fisher would most likely type Elizabeth as a Negotiator/Explorer.

Does anyone else see the Cameron Diaz resemblance? even her laugh is very Cameron!
Note to Elizabeth: Help the economy, give Cameron Diaz a job with 'Eat, Pray, Love', the movie....



Full interview with Big Think


Elizabeth Gilbert on Creativity and Genius at TED Talks
Is creativity something only a few have? What is the difference between being a 'genius', and having one? What if we realized we all have a genius, daemon, a muse just waiting for us to show up? And how do we relate to it without losing our mind? Who is your divine genius?


Elizabeth Gilbert.com

Authors @Google : Elizabeth Gilbert


“wise, jaunty, human, ethereal, heartbreaking.
-Anne Lamott on Eat, Pray, Love



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The Dangerous Friend

The ecstatic, wild, and gentle figure who short-circuits your systems of self-referencing.
The only person in your life who cannot be manipulated.
The invasion of unpredictability you allow into your life, to enable you to cut through the convolutions of interminable psychological and emotional processes.
The terrifyingly compassionate gamester who re-shuffles the deck
of your carefully arranged rationale.


-Trungpa Rinpocha



Art: my dakini
3'x5' oil on canvas


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Porn Predictions with Bob Guccione, Jr.

"....Porn is so unbelievably boring, it is such a drag to be sent a link of two people eating each other..
.I think it's going to become more artistic, sensual, erotic and intellectual...."


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6/24/2009

Yahel & Eyal Barkan,


Nitzhonot, a yummy blend of Goa and uplifting trance tunes....

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Steve Jobs and Manipura Dakini, Yantra and Mantra

Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking.
Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drowned your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition,
they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

– Steve Jobs


This is the purpose of the third chakra, listen to your gut, listen to Manipura


Manipura Mantra: RAM

Each chakra has its own dakini and mantra.



Manipura Yantra: 17"x24, colored pencil on Black Strathmore paper
Manipura Dakini: 3'x5' oil on canvas

art: mydakini


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Mary Roach on Freud and the Importance of Masturbation

Freud believed the sexual satisfaction from clitoral stimulation was childish, it was something to be outgrown in favor of being passive and receptive.
btw: Clitorectomy was performed in the US during the late 1850's through the 1860's.
One of the sure signs of a witch during the great witch hunts of the 1400's-1700's, was orgasm, if a woman was orgasmic she could be burned as a witch, as well as her daughters. .....and we wonder why 40-60% of women are non orgasmic or have difficulty achieving orgasm.
Use it or Lose it? Can masturbation help women with arousal difficulty? Is this a way to bypass some of the dampening effects of antidepressants on libido? yes!

Mary Roach on NPR
In a conversation with Robert Siegel, Mary Roach explores the state and the history of research into human sexuality in her new book, Bonk.
"..."The 1920s were almost like the '60s in a way — and then we swung back to a more conservative era....."....more from NPR

MaryRoach.com




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6/22/2009

Monday Mantra: Yes

Yes



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Sandra Tsing Loh on Marriage


The Atlantic
Sandra Tsing Loh
“..........................When marriage was invented,” Ellen continues, “it was considered to be a kind of trade union for a woman, her protection against the sexually wandering male. But what’s happened to the sexually wandering male?”

In our parents’ era, the guy hit 45, got the toupee, drove the red Porsche, and left his family for the young, hot secretary. We are unable to imagine any of the husbands driving anything with fewer than five seat belts.

“Ron only goes as far as the den,” Ellen says. “He has his Internet porn bookmarked on the computer.”

“Ian has his Cook’s Illustrated,” Rachel adds. “And his—his men’s online fennel club.”

.........it’s clear that females are dissatisfied—more and more, divorce seems to be initiated by women. If marriage is the Old World and what lies beyond is the New World, it’s the apparently stable men (comfortable alone in their postfeminist den with their Cook’s Illustrated and their porn) who are Old Worlders, and the Girls’ Night Out, questionnaire-completing women who are the questing New Worlders. They most embody what Tocqueville described as America’s “restless temper,” or l’inquiétude du caractère. (Interestingly, according to EnlightenNext magazine, some northern European women are reportedly eschewing their progressive northern European male counterparts and dating Muslims, who are more like “real men.”)......

...............So, herewith, some modest proposals. Clearly, research shows that what’s best for children is domestic stability and not having to bond with, and to be left by, ever new stepparent figures. Less important is whether or not their overworked parents are logging “date night” (or feeling the magic). So why don’t we accept marriage as a splitting-the-mortgage arrangement? As Fisher suggests, rekindling the romance is, for many of us, biologically unnatural, particularly after the kids come. (Says another friend of mine, about his wife of 23 years: “My heart doesn’t lift when she walks in the room. It sinks, slightly.”) If high-revving women are sexually frustrated, let them have some sort of French arrangement where they have two men, the post-feminist model dad building shelves, cooking bouillabaisse, and ignoring them in the home, and the occasional fun-loving boyfriend the kids never see. Alternately, if both spouses find life already rather exhausting, never mind chasing around for sex. Long-married husbands and wives should pleasantly agree to be friends, to set the bedroom aglow at night by the mute opening of separate laptops and just be done with it. More than anything, aside from providing insulation from the world at large, that kind of arrangement could be the perfect way to be left alone.

As far as the children are concerned, how about the tribal approach (a natural, according to both primate and human evolution)? Let children between the ages of 1 and 5 be raised in a household of mothers and their female kin. Let the men/husbands/boyfriends come in once or twice a week to build shelves, prepare that bouillabaisse, or provide sex.....".........more from Sandra at the Atlantic


Sandra, as a new Save Singlehood devotee, brings humor, respect and truth to the perfect boomer marriage, and divorce...as well as generating controversy and a fair bit of outrage with her 'cool' attitude towards her divorce, but that's why we luv her! We must remember she is a humorist going through a divorce, it's her job to make us laugh. And though she seems to be handling it with a casual wit, I would also suggest she has had her share of time curled up in the fetal position, crying over all of it.


"Marriage remains the most efficient engine of disenchantment yet invented. There is nothing like uninterrupted cohabitation and grinding responsibility to cast a clear, unforgiving light on the object of desire."
-Caitlin Flanagan
contributing editor of The Atlantic.

Sandra with Bill Maher, 2001



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6/18/2009

Manipura, Trust Your Gut




Manipura is the chakra located near your navel, this is the chakra of will, power, intuition and transformation.


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Los Angeles Tantra Coach

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6/12/2009

One Tantra Member, Xen

new online tantra community

OneTantra.com

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6/10/2009

Heather Graham on Tantric Practice

"You haven't lived until you've tried tantric sexual healing.
I first got int
o it when I was filming The Guru in 2002 and I haven't looked back. What most people know about tantric sex is that Sting does it and it lasts eight hours. But he's not having sex continually. You can take a bath, massage your partner, listen to music. The idea is that you let the whole thing build very slowly until finally you merge with your partner. It works for me!....." -Heather Graham.....more from Huffington Post .....for full interview from UK Daily Mail



Los Angeles Tantra Coach

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6/08/2009

Monday Mantra:

Tat Tvam Asi

Thou art That!

Chandogya Upanishad

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The Hookup, Mate Without the Date?

NPR
For the many who are delaying the responsibilities of marriage and child-rearing, hooking up has virtually replaced dating.

It is a major shift in the culture over the past few decades, says Kathleen Bogle, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle University.

Young people during one of the most sexually active periods of their lives aren't necessarily looking for a mate. What used to be a mate-seeking ritual has shifted to hookups: sexual encounters with no strings attached.

"The idea used to be you are going to date someone that is going to lead to something sexual happening," Bogle says. "In the hookup era, something sexual happens, even though it may be less than sexual intercourse, that may or may not ever lead to dating.".......more from NPR





Los Angeles Tantra Coach

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6/05/2009

Is There a Moral Limit on Multiple Orgasms?

MD's fave sexpert, the brutally honest, and very funny Dan Savage, on women and multiple orgasms
Is it fair for her to have 8 orgasms to your one?

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6/04/2009

Why Do We Choose the Wrong People in Relationships?



Reid tells us the bottom line about relationships.
Look for him... at OneTantra.com.

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6/03/2009

Dr. Helen Fisher's, 'Why him, Why Her?' Quiz

The longest and most lasting marriages are between builders, and after reading what the 'Builder' personality type is, it makes total sense. Builders are exactly what the name suggests, they build, they are traditional and play by the rules, and they are the most common type, comprising 40% of the population, and Explorers are the rarest type at 8%.

HelenFisher.com.....Helen Fisher, PhD, says you can predict a couple's chances of happiness based on which of four personality types they fit into....." Since antiquity, poets, philosophers, and physicians have classified people into four styles of temperament. For Plato, they were the Artisan, Guardian, Idealist, and Rational. I have come to call them the Explorer, Builder, Negotiator, and Director. Each basic type, I suspect, is associated with a distinct cluster of genes—along with the expression of certain brain chemicals and a unique collection of personality traits....People who express dopamine — I call them Explorers — tend to be risk-taking, curious, creative, impulsive, optimistic and energetic. The traits associated with the serotonin system express themselves in what I call Builders. They're cautious but not fearful, calm, traditional, community-oriented, persistent and loyal. Directors have traits associated with activity in the testosterone system. These people tend to be very analytical, decisive, tough-minded; they like to debate and can be aggressive. The fourth type is the Negotiator. Men or women who express activity in the estrogen system tend to be broadminded imaginative, compassionate, intuitive, verbal, nurturing, altruistic and idealistic."

Sample of test results, and I must admit this is a shockingly accurate description of my dakini.
Take Helen Fisher's test at Why Him Why Her.com


My dakini..., you are a

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6/01/2009

Monday Mantra

Det kunne være værre

It could be worse

According to international happiness surveys of the last 30 years,
Denmark is home to the happiest people on the planet.
The classic American response to, "how are you?"
is all too often, 'Excellent!' 'Great!'
Ask the same question of a Dane, and you will most likely hear,
“Det kunne være værre....... It could be worse.”

This attitude and outlook is not pessimistic, but merely realistic.





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72 Year Harvard Study on Happiness


Loving is the most important contributor to happiness.
Happiness is love. Full stop
-Dr. George Vaillant


the Atlantic
June 2009
Joshua Wolf Shenk

Dr. George Vaillant, director of a 72-year Harvard study on aging, explains what makes people strive
for fame and why dirty laundry symbolizes a perfect life

Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant.

More than 80 percent of the Grant Study men served in World War II, a fact that allowed Vaillant to study the effect of combat. The men who survived heavy fighting developed more chronic physical illnesses and died sooner than those who saw little or no combat, he found. And “severity of trauma is the best predictor of who is likely to develop PTSD.” (This may sound obvious, but it countered the claim that post-traumatic stress disorder was just the manifestation of preexisting troubles.)

“It is social aptitude,” he writes, “not intellectual brilliance or parental social class, that leads to successful aging.” Warm connections are necessary—and if not found in a mother or father, they can come from siblings, uncles, friends, mentors. The men’s relationships at age 47, he found, predicted late-life adjustment better than any other variable, except defenses. Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93 percent of the men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister when younger. In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

Positive emotions make us more vulnerable than negative ones. One reason is that they’re future-oriented. Fear and sadness have immediate payoffs—protecting us from attack or attracting resources at times of distress. Gratitude and joy, over time, will yield better health and deeper connections—but in the short term actually put us at risk. That’s because, while negative emotions tend to be insulating, positive emotions expose us to the common elements of rejection and heartbreak..........more from the Atlantic


Harvard Gazette
William J. Cromie 2001
How to be happy and well rather than sad and sick

Dr. George Vaillant and his colleagues at Harvard University Health Services teased out seven predictors, which are at least partly under personal control, and, if adhered to before age 50, can lead to good physical and mental health at ages 70, 80, and older.
Some of them are old news, things like quitting smoking, exercising regularly, and not abusing alcohol. Others turn out to be surprises. For example, education trumps money and social prestige as a route to health and happiness......

Life ain't easy," Vaillant points out. "Terrible things happen to everyone. You have to keep your sense of humor, give something of yourself to others, make friends who are younger than you, learn new things, and have fun."
Immature defenses, on the other hand, produce sad results. Don't blame others for your problems, or deny that you have problems. Having imaginary rather than real friends causes more problems than it solves. So does distracting yourself by sipping scotch and watching television. ...
With hard work and/or therapy, our relationships with our spouses and our coping styles can be changed for the better. A successful old age may lie not so much in our stars and genes as in ourselves." ....more


NPR
Talk of the Nation
June 1, 2009
What Makes Us Happy?

Journalist Joshua Wolf Shenk gained access to one of the most comprehensive studies conducted to find the formula for happiness. "What Makes Us Happy?" is his essay in the June issue of The Atlantic. Shenk, along with Todd Kashdan, professor of psychology and author of Curious: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life, explore what makes us happy.

Happiness is a result of warm, caring, quality relationships. ...and relationships are hard, ones ability to cope, tolerate, and skilled conflict resolution are the key to fulfilling relationships......................listen to full 30 minute interview



JK



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5/28/2009

What is the Price of Admission in a Relationship?

Savage, sane, 'wake up and smell the coffee', advice
from my fave former Catholic, Seattle's darling, Dan Savage.

Do the white lies, perfect lighting and inflated egos we present early in a relationship force us to be better people?
If we want the relationship to hold must we now live up to what we claimed we were?
Can we go beyond tolerating behaviors of our partner to a place of authentic acceptance?

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5/25/2009

Monday Mantra and Tao of the Self Obsessed



....................,,,.....................<*****(((((( 'expect only what you are given' ))))*****>.............................,,,........

If we can follow the above all the time, we will be enlightened bliss beings
If we can follow it most of the time, we will be happy.

If we never follow it, we will be miserable, always disappointed, alternately feeling guilty and indignant.
Chasing shadows, following the way of the self obsessed

Bhagvadgita

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोस्त्वऽकर्मणि॥

Line 1: Karmanyevadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana -
Don't expect fruits. To expect a fruit is a mistake that leads to suffering.

Line 2: Ma karma phala he tur bhuh, ma te sangvasta karmani; -
You have a duty, you have an obligation to do, but you have no right to expect a particular consequence or result or fruit to follow from what you do.

The above is an interpretation via Vikram Madan, not translation
*

Monday Mantra is a weekly mantra series,
exploring the power of mantras both ancient and contemporary.
The power of our thoughts is well established scientifically, and has been known to the prophets, seers, philosophers and magicians throughout history




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5/20/2009

TED, 10 Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm


Mary Roach on the amazing, and frequently silly, little known facts of orgasm


Mary Roach
Bonk, the curious coupling of sex and science
ted.com


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5/15/2009

Green Porno with Isabella



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5/12/2009

Leonard Shlain, Best-Selling Author, San Francisco Surgeon Dies

May 11, 2009

The Bay Area and the world lost a renowned visionary thinker and educator when Leonard Shlain, best-selling author and San Francisco surgeon, died Monday, May 11, 2009 at his home in Mill Valley after a battle with brain cancer. He was 71 years old.

Admired among artists, scientists, philosophers, anthropologists and educators, Leonard Shlain authored three best-selling books: Art & Physics, Alphabet vs. The Goddess and Sex, Time, and Power. He delivered multimedia presentations based upon his books in venues around the world including Harvard, The New York Museum of Modern Art, CERN, Los Alamos, The Florence Academy of Art and the European Council of Ministers. His fans include Al Gore, Norman Lear and singer Bjork who credited Shlain ’s Alphabet vs. The Goddess with inspiring her recent album “Wanderlust”. His fourth book Leonardo’s Brain about Leonardo Da Vinci will be published next spring by Viking. Dr. Shlain was a surgeon for 38 years at California Pacific Medical Center where he headed the Laparascopic Surgery Department and an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF.
........more from Leonard Shlain.com

Art & Physics

The Alphabet vs. The Goddess

Sex Time & Power


om mani padme hum

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5/01/2009

Leonard Shlain at UC Berkeley

Dr. Shlain talks about his three previous books--Art and Physics; The Alphabet Versus the Goddess; and Sex, Time and Power and his forthcoming book on Leonardo da Vinci.

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4/29/2009

Honoring The Wisdom Of The Yoniverse

Honoring The Wisdom Of The Yoniverse

Women Healing Women
Jun 6-7, 2009

Through Initiation and Celebration
A workshop for women
Step into the Temple of the Sisterhood to be supported in igniting
Your Own Divine Feminine Nature
ExperienceTantric Initiation Rituals and other sacred and safe techniques to

Activate and transmit the Feminine Life Force and awaken your ancient natural
Ecstatic Feminine Power
Learn to Invoke True Sexual Magic as we
clarify and set intentions for ourselves


www.tantricsacredjourneys.com
dawn@tantricsacredjourneys.com
www.awakenedloving.com
judith@awakenedloving.com

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Pam Babbitt, Transmuting Sexual Energy

Denver Tantra Examiner
Pam Babbitt

Tantra is a magical path to creating the life and experiences of your dreams.
‘Tantra invites your body to remember’ - your essence, your power, your potential, your dreams, and your body’s innate erotic intelligence.
It helps remove blockages due to dis-ease, sexual abuse, invasive medical procedures, negative experiences, and the stresses of everyday living. Tantra lovingly returns you to ecstasy - your birthright.

Our most ecstatic sex occurs when our body and heart merge with our soul to achieve a powerful connection to ourselves, our partner, and our Creator. When we allow ourselves to sink deeply into that state of peace and release all those goal-oriented notions (you know the ones), waves of ecstasy can ripple through and transport us to a place of connectedness with all there is.

....more from Pam Babbitt

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4/22/2009

The Dragons Gift, Sacred Arts of Bhutan, SF


Now through May 10, 2009
San Francisco Asian Art Museum

Free admission Sunday May 3, 2009 (and first Sunday every month)


The first exhibition of its kind, The Dragon's Gift provides an exceptionally rare opportunity to view some of the most sacred and beloved Buddhist arts in Bhutan. ...more from SF Asian Art Museum

Reviews:
SF Examiner
Marisa Nakasone
I was most impressed by the Asian Art Museum's sensitivity toward preserving the spiritual and cultural integrity of the objects--these are not mere artifacts but spiritually utilitarian objects that must be framed in the context of their original religious setting. The Asian Art Museum has addressed this by bringing a Buddhist altar into the foyer of the museum and inviting Bhutanese monks for a residency for the duration of the exhibition. The active, ritual movements and interactions between the monks, the altar, and the sacred objects reinforces the immediacy and vitality of the objects and the culture of Bhutan. ....more

Wall Street Journal
Michael Ybarra
He looks like a demon from an especially bad nightmare: a blue monster with horns and three eyes on his head, which is in turn topped by another eight heads, culminating in a strangely serene Buddha face. His main hands hold a chopper and a cup made from a human skull. Thirty-two other hands wield an array of weapons. He wears a belt of human heads and his 16 feet trample small humans and animals. A nimbus of orange flames surrounds his body. Even his penis is angry, brandished like an avenging sword.....more from WSJ
Wall Street Journal slide show

Namaste Nancy
The Sacred Arts of Bhuta is one of the most ambitious and eagerly anticipated exhibitions of Buddhist art in many years. Bhutan is a tiny kingdom in the Himalayas, wedged between the two superpowers of China and India. It was never conquered, never colonized and still survives as both an ancient independent kingdom and the world's newest democracy. The Dragon’s Gift explores Bhutan’s Buddhist cosmology through its sacred visual arts and ritual dance (cham), using Buddhism as a lens through which to explore the full range of Bhutanese culture.

Vajrabhairava is a wrathful form of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom (* see Tom Christensen's blog for a delightful exposition of this "blue meanie)

The exhibition includes more than one hundred works of art with a wide iconographic scope. Exhibited materials include thangkas (textile mounted paintings), sculptures, metalwork, textiles, and ritual objects, all made for use in a Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhist context.......more from Chez Namaste Nancy

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4/20/2009

Live, April 24, Dalai Lama, 'Ethics of Our Time', KCSB 91.9 FM, UC Santa Barbara


Dalai Lama will give two lectures at the UC Santa Barbara Events Center, New Moon, Friday, April 24:
“The Nature of Mind” (9:30–11:30 a.m.) and “Ethics for Our Time” (2:00–4:00 p.m.).

This will be the fourth visit His Holiness has made to UC Santa Barbara, and the first since an endowed professorship – the XIV Dalai Lama Chair in Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies – was created in his honor in 2001.

Both lectures are sold out

April 24th, KCSB 91.9 FM, Exclusive live broadcasts of two speeches by the Dalai Lama from the Events Center at the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Tune into KCSB 91.9 FM or to KCSB’s live webstream (www.kcsb.org) to hear his lecture, “The Nature of Mind,” from 9:30-11:30am, PDT, and his follow-up talk, “Ethics for Our Time,” from 2-4pm. Continue reading ‘KCSB 91.9 FM to Air Exclusive Live Radio Broadcasts of the Dalai Lama’s UC Santa Barbara Speeches on Friday, April 24′

Toward Enlightenment: The Sacred Art of Tibet &
Universe of a Deity: A Tibetan Sand Mandala

University Art Museum, UC Santa Barbara
April 1, 2009–June 14, 2009
The exhibition highlights the multi-level functioning of the art and its themes of transformation of the profound into the worldly with a strong emphasis on depictions of teaching. These paintings echo the purity and precision of visionary buddhas, bodhisattvas, archetypal deities, lama portraits, and protectors.


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4/16/2009

Yoga Therapy and Tantra Teachers

from TIME
Talk. Share. Cry. Stretch? Psychotherapy has historically been an exercise of the mind, but in the offices of more and more modern-day mental-health providers, emotional healing is taking place not just on the couch but on the yoga mat. ....
"................The concept of healing the mind via the body, and vice versa, has been around for decades. "Freud used to work with hysterical women with unconscious conflicts that they couldn't express through words," says Visceglia. "Only through looking at the symptoms of their body [like phantom pregnancies] could they even get to what was psychologically needed for healing." .......
Since the days of Freud, research into the mind-body relationship has come a long way. Studies show that not only are your mental health and mood dependent in large part on physical factors like exercise, but also unchecked stress, anxiety and depression can affect physical health, increasing blood pressure, heart disease and even risk of death. So it was perhaps inevitable that patients would start bringing their yoga mats into therapy.
.....more from TIME

Tantra Yoga teachers and educators have always understood this connection. Tantric practice encourages clearing of emotions, using them as a path of transformation, not through repression or indulgence, but through naked awareness. Direct experience of our authentic selves exposes the roots of disturbing emotions, and with awareness comes transformation. Tantra uses all the energies available, and instructs in disciplining and developing the senses as tools for spiritual and emotional liberation. Techniques, including, breath, mantra, bhanda and touch, expand consciousness and help us access the spontaneous, and outrageously awake, place of bliss. Instruction, because it is often one on one, provides a sacred space to learn, experience and practice the powerful, radical, fast acting, multifaceted tantric techniques, and an experienced guide holds a mirror, and helps you process, and integrate all that arrives. .....and administer cpr, no, just kidding!!..lol


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