SHACK 179 THE ARCHER

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Long ago in Japan there was a famous archer he toured everywhere and was never beaten. One day in his travels he came across a remote village and although well off of the beaten track his reputation had gone before him.

The villagers held him in great esteem and the elder of the village said ' Oh venerable master there is an old man at the top of the mountain, a hermit and mystic he was said to be the best archer of all time'.  The master went to meet the old man and said 'you are or were the best archer of all time, how so'?  The hermit took the master to edge of a two hundred foot mountain edge and there the mystic stood right on the edge on one foot drew his bow and fired at a distant eagles nest ( the arrow could not reach the nest, it was just a target) and it was higher than the edge of the mountain.

The master shuddered he was scared to balance on one leg at the edge of the mountain with a huge drop below.  He asked the hermit to teach him.  Two years later the master could stand at the edge and release the arrow. The master then continued his arrogance and boasted he was the best.

The hermit then said you see that village down there a mere speck from that height, well down there is village elder who is better than I am he might have something to offer you.

The master then descended the mountain and went to meet the elder and said 'I was sent here by the hermit and he said you are still the greatest archer' with that the master looked for a bow in the home and could not find one and he said to the Old Man where is your Bow and Arrow and the old man scratched his head and said 'whats a bow and arrow'?

The master went away thinking the old man was senile and a dotard.  But you and I know he wasn't

SHACK

Sensei and Sifu emphasized that the use of training physically with the breath and meditation was to overcome the ego, find compassion and be cheerful, happy and joyous. To have a still mind, empty and free mind.  If one still wants to practice that is fine so long as it is not for trophies and beating another, no fuel for the ego. Having attained a modicum of peace and tranquility many went to write poetry, draw and sketch or just live ordinarily in the village content and tranquil. (SHACK) 

SHACK 178 THE DEER

dreams are so wonderful in many ways

“A deer knows it’s a deer. It has no inner conflict about its past, its purpose, its needs, or its destiny. It lives in the moment and is 100% resourceful at all times, minute by minute, its senses completely keen, its focus pure and unburdened.”

Apparently this quotation is allegedly taken from a Shaman somewhere in natures heritage.

To me this is like when one is in meditation, alert, hardly a thought, in the martial arts Sensei called it Muga Mushin 

Muga-mushin (無我無心) is a compound term of muga and mushin. Muga literally means no-self^[2] (derived from the Sanskritanātman) and Mushin no-mind^[3] (also from the Sanskrit a-citta). What is negated is the empirical body-mind as an ontological independent state of existence. Muga and mushin point to the same thing, the state of egolessness, but from different perspectives. Muga refers to the negation of the physical state, mushin to the mental state of empirical existence.

To understand better mushin one needs to understand acitta, or simply its Sanskrit-root citta. Citta is not easily rendered into English. As is the case with so many other Sanskrit terms, there does not seem to be a precise equivalent for it in English. Previous translations have proposed a variety of renderings, such as 'mind-stuff', 'thinking-principle', and similar compound words. In many instances, citta seems to convey consciousness, mind, intellect or psychic mass that orders and illuminates sensations coming from without—can serve as a mirror for objects, without the senses interposing between it and its object. Thus the non-initiate is incapable of gaining freedom, because his mind, instead of being stable (still, non-fluctuating) is constantly violated by the activity of the senses, by the subconscious, and by the 'thrust for life'.(courtesy Wikipedia)

Sensei described it as 'mind permeating body' and to look at the Mune Oshi some say this is a chest push, however I was taught that awareness ' like the cat at the mouse hole or the cart with fast horse at winding path, not knowing what is around the bend' and just raising the anticipation, a sharp radar without image of what it might be. Mune Oshi was the eye at the breastbone cleft as above.

The hands holding lightly and breathing easily looking at the Judoka's chest breast bone and noting the breathing, watching the tip of the breast bone, the hollow 'eye' the breathe in before the strike or throw, the breath in for action and so by watching the breath of the Judoka one can avoid the action, the deer senses are completely keen.  Empty Mind. Thoughtless awareness.

I was shown how to develop this through Sensei's Kendo training. Surprise attacks in unfamiliar places or familiar ones, until one senses the movement but not what it is. I found this useful when seeing clients, not to jump at them but to feel their problem. One can develop this in meditation as long as there no imagery, visualization perhaps just watching the breath.

Nowadays it doesn't seem necessary to practice just relax and enjoy, trusting the awareness will click in when needed.

SHACK

Does the deer feel happy?  The few occasions in Randori (Judo practice and Shiai contest) I found it a beautiful relaxed feeling similar to sitting  in meditation.  It was meditation in

movement. Stillness and movement. (SHACK) 

SHACK 177 THE COMEDIAN

www.maxmiller.org

My late father knew a famous comedian named Max Miller.  Max was an extraordinary character.  He was flamboyant and risqué.  

In the interval Max would go into the bar and Dad went in as well with a crowd of ‘in’ admirers I was outside and Max would say to Dad ' Maurice who’s the boy who’s the boy? (Max often repeated things twice) My dad would say that's my son Geoff.  Max would say 'Give the boy a sherbet (Sherbet is a fizzy powder sweet, usually eaten by dipping a lollipop or liquorice, or licking it on a finger) they could make it into a drink by adding water.  Dad knew I detested sherbet and came to me with the drink and said 'tip it into the flower plant bucket and don't let him see you do it' I did this and Max saw my glass empty and ordered another one for me.

Max had several reputations of being mean or being awkward, I did not know if either were true and also tales of being mean and unkind to his wife, friends and chauffeur.  He was fondly nicknamed ‘The Cheeky Chappy'

He enjoyed notoriety and fame and had a lot of money.

Many years later Gill and I were walking down the promenade in Brighton a seaside town near London when I saw a stumbling downtrodden looking man shuffling along, I recognized it was Max. I went up to him and said ‘Hello Uncle Max’ he looked startled. 'I‘m Geoff, Maurice Freed’s son’ He replied ‘I don’t remember', he sobbed and said ‘ You Know no one wants to know the cheeky chappy anymore’ I put my arm around his shoulders and said ‘well I remember you’ With that he shuffled off and just ambled to a seat and gazed with a sad look at the sea, maybe at times gone past. 

Gill and I went into a café and had some tea and we reflected on having a persona and fame, indeed anything that one uses as a mask to which one really is. When the fame as so many celebrities be they TV, cinema, sport or political fall out of fashion, indeed some retired folk, the mask falls away and a black hole and depression can ensue

. I knew a Chief Superintendent in the Police who came for counseling and he was just retired.  He said at midnight he was a plain Mr so and so and that ID card had all the power in it and his identity, now it was gone, a very good pension, a happy family and yet he had no hobbies, and felt that was another ‘activity’ and was not the real basic him. He took up meditation and found that quiet ‘beingness’ a feeling of being empty and yet full of inner joy and solitude.  He said ‘he had nothing to live up to or defend and this was really something, and this is who I am, I cannot define it but I can live happily with it.

SHACK

SHACK 176 OTHER REALMS

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In Shack 175 a reference is made to a number of clients who had the ‘mysterious invisible ‘hand’ at work, a book of these could be presented, I saw three thousand clients in thirty six years at various clinics and workshops ( I had  workshops in the UK, Scotland, Canada and Europe, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain and Germany).

The next series that could be a book full is my favorite workshop presentation (I did 61 subjects) Pre-life agreements.

I feel there is a ‘place’ in the non local mind, an energetic plane, a dimension that ‘houses’ these non logical or intellectual and often ridiculed by academia to be essentially as ‘real’ as everyday living and that all manifestations of the local and non local mind eventually fade and would be seen as an illusion, here today gone tomorrow.

Two brief sketches; On occasions couples or single clients would come in to see if a pregnancy could come about.  In a imagery we would go to the ‘place’ where deceased humans were now energy beings and wished to inhabit another life. The process took place in a chamber in the consciousness of imagery and a soul if you like would be present if that was to be and an agreement set up between the parents and the soul soon to be a baby. Couples in Germany, England and Spain are on record as having achieved this.

Scenario two; Birthmarks play an important part of this there is the BBC 40 minute programme of several documented reincarnations and birth marks.

Just one example from my files; a famous business man came for a session; he kept losing cases against large corporations who fiddled him.

He said he had a strange birthmark when he got vexed about the impending case.

I looked at the mark and from Forensic it looked like exit point of spear or large knife from back to front.  I asked him if he had a mark on the back and he said he was not aware of it, when I looked sure enough it was the stab, when I showed him the wound in a mirror he could not believe it. I said we could try imagery and access the hidden subconscious meaning; he laughed and said it was baloney.

Three weeks later he returned and said he would try, and I suggested hypnosis and regression. He said he was desperate. I told him I would take him to a friend of mine who was very good at this, he agreed as long as I was present.

Harry(name change) the therapist then asked him about the stabbing wounds and this is what came out; he was a small boy riding on the back of a horse and holding his father round the waist belt, on one shoulder was a quiver of arrows, the horse reared up, frightened by something, the boy fell off and one of the arrows fell out somehow stabbed the boy though the back to the chest.  The boy was dying and he mumbled ‘Father why you have ki---- and dyed before the last words or his father explaining it was a tragic accident.

This hardened business man wept like a child he understood that the corporations were like his Father, always stabbing him in the back and he was always trying to beat them.  Incidentally we did forgiveness stuff as mentioned in SHACK 175 and lo and behold at the next court case he won.

One can do imagery with deceased ones on forgiveness indeed a bulk of the work is on that.  I did it with my living family at present and my dear late father

It is never too late to forgive or love.

SHACK

 A lot of work is done on forgiving yourself, its not always your fault you were brainwashed and conditioned, groomed and manipulated, now you know and your awareness has grown this need not happen again. You might have finished unfinished business by forgiveness of others and yourself. (shack) 

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SHACK 175 THE SECRETARY

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Good morning Mr Rose (name change) he just puffed and fluffed and grunted, and then he poked his head out of the office and grunted ‘coffee, the usual’.

Anna (name change) was Irish, red haired and blue eyes and a trim figure, gentle and vivacious.

She said to me ‘why is he so rude, I do my work and am his secretary, if it wasn't for the good pay, not far from home and convenient I would have left’.

I asked her if he reminded her of anybody.  She pondered for a while and said ‘yes its funny he has the same flared nostrils as my father when he is angry and demanding, and he goes red and breathes hard’. Then I said ‘what was your relationship with your father’?  ‘Awful, he always wanted a son and he got two daughters, nothing was ever good enough for him and he bullied my mother, but being a good religious person she blamed herself and said she must have been a sinner’

We did an imagery in which she went to a favorite place in nature where there was a circle and she felt safe and felt fairies and angels resided there.  She invited her father and her boss to the circle and felt (not deliberated, let the image come to you, breathe and wait, try not manufacture an image to suit, in fact don’t try, just watch, then see what form of ropes, ties, bonds or energies stretch over the circle to you).  After a while she saw horse reins and then on other occasions rope, fences and barriers.  I asked her to dissolve the bindings and note where they attached themselves on the body and dissolve them by invoking the love that you can muster as light. (Not to strain and break them by force)

After a few sessions she came in one morning and said ‘last night I sat down after dinner and did the imagery and all the ropes dropped and melted, I saw my boss smile and father grin, when I went into work Mr Rose came in and said ‘Good morning Anna, please could you kindly get me a coffee and come into the office’ ‘I thought he was going to sack me’.  I went in and he said ‘sit down please, I have an apology to make, I have been rather hard on you, heaven knows you are a great secretary, can we start again’ I apologized and wept a bit and said ‘yes Mr Rose of course’ ‘ He grinned and said can I have another cup of coffee’

Anna then phoned her home and spoke to her mother and to her surprise her father wanted to speak to her and all he said was ‘when yer coming home girlie, its been a long time’ She said ‘I missed you Dad’  She wasn't sure but she thought she heard him stifle a cry.

Anna thanked me and I said you see the power of the mind, and having done this work for nigh on twenty years I am convinced there is an invisible energy, a connection that somehow joins folks at deep levels and time and time again similar things like this happen and my colleagues here talk about it often.

Anna and I had a big happy hug and again she taught me and reminded me to ‘cut binding inner ties that snare not only us but the other person’.  One not only frees oneself but the other person as well and whats more they are not aware of the process going on or in the vicinity.  I feel the link between the person(s) is in the deep levels and perhaps the unconscious to give it a label and here time and distance and our logic and intellectual laws and rules do not apply, the local mind gives way to non local mind, maybe something to do with quantum weirdness.

We may never know what goes on in the other person, however by feeling free of the restraints one has truly forgiven.  To just say I forgive you is great, to truly let go without reserve is magical.

SHACK
Most of the clients taught me lessons I needed to learn and strangely enough when I had a problem often clients came in with similar issues, the invisible hand the precious energetic something at work again---what a blessing.
Shack

SHACK 174 CONTEST

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When one embarks on a 'spiritual' quest it is often to pray, chant, do a physical discipline to quieten the body so to speak and breathing to to quieten the mind and a plethora of other things.

One of the most common obstacles is to quieten the inner chatter and inner dialogue that gets in the way of feeling a calm mind without thought or a state of happiness and enjoyment when one is having a great fun time.  Also those nagging thoughts almost just feelings without thought that blight the mind and cause anxiety.

What is recommended is watching the thoughts go by like clouds in the sky, letting them go and not being attached to them, or like an observer on a river bank with a straight ahead gaze letting the river traffic go by and not judging anything, including the thought of not judging.

Body itching or tension, noise distraction are also present and the controller, the censor, the judge and jury, the political correctness of the mind bunched into a word---the ego. The habits and disciplines, the rights and wrongs, the worn grooves and railway like tracks one adheres too that keeps one on the straight and narrow contests this quiet observer. It takes the ego out of its comfort zone and presents the unknown and is a threat to one's way of accumulated habitual life.

So one may employ techniques as above, watching the breath, counting and pausing, mantras, yantra, mandala, beads, hypnosis, imagery, visualization, music, chanting, prayer and anything else.

Of course the internet provides one with an abundance of You Tube videos and the purveyors of this and that technique, e-books, free trials and each one stating ' you've tried the rest now try the best' .

The ego gets off on emotions it gets a ‘buzz’ from the highs and lows of the phantasmagoria and melee. It also can be delighted in being wrong. In childhood if one was constantly told ‘you are a waste of space’ ‘I wish you were never born’ and so on the ego is then content it is carrying out its inherited messages, I Am happy to verify my parents wishes, this is my way of proving them right, and myself as well.

Most egos thrive on contesting, fighting, determined to hold their ground and fulfill their habitual brainwashed programmes.  The ego is very tricky and smart, it can set up its own observer or witness and praise itself on the kaleidoscope of images it modifies, justifies and juxtaposes.  One sees this lot in politics.  It congratulates itself on its own manipulations and victories and remonstrates in its loses.

A way that may assist is to look at the presentations as an enjoyable TV show and know that it is not the real you. Sort of be fascinated and wonder where did all this junk come from and let there be no answer to this, let it go by and have its free reign and know that it will disappear whilst the real you comes through, something will click in when you do not fight the ego, it has nothing to contest, it cannot reach or define the real Witness Observer. The ego may rant and rave but like a storm it will blow itself out.

Be aware and watch for the backlash and let that blow itself out as well-----after the storm the calm---and then?

Shack

When the ego is calmed down and the real entity of you appears here correct action not reaction and one does what one has to do against ego aggression.(Shack)

SHACK 173 HIDDEN BEAUTY

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Agnes (name change) was dressed in drab brown full length tweeds with faded dark blond hair which was straggly and unkempt. She had pale skin which had an unhealthy look about it and had black under her eyes and puffy eye bags as well. She spoke in a tremulous voice and kept rubbing her hands together.  

I was the only therapist available and she reluctantly chose to go with me to the consulting room.  She kept her heavy coat on and it smelt of mothballs and dampness.  She said she was desperate and at the end of her tether, she had prayed and was a sort of Christian, she came to St. James as it was a church with a therapeutic ministry. I said that not all the therapists and healers were Christians but we believed in compassion and an Intelligence in the Universe named God and other names. She agreed this was what she wanted and was glad that it was all embracing as she had enough of preaching and abuse.

I said if the abuse was physical I would suggest she went to the police or social services. She said no, it was verbal, psychological and mental harassment.

I asked her if she would care to share with me the harassment.  She said it was her husband he was a well known academic, he would not have children and felt emotion was stupid a waste of energy and an unnecessary indulgence. He monitored her reading material and media activities. She was a qualified University Historian and he a well known Paleontologist. 

They did not make love, it was more like mutual masturbation and he hated it, he never kissed her or comforted her, he had changed from their University romance, especially when he got his doctorate, he felt it was unfitting for a Professor or Doctor to be ‘victim of the emotions’.

I said I would like to explore your trapped emotions by using creative imagery, drawing and relaxation through breathing. She thought this unbelievable crude and left the room.

Two weeks later she returned, looking even more frail and wan.  She had researched these techniques and would like to try even though she was not thoroughly convinced.

The first imagery was amazing.  Sitting on a wall was a character like Humpty Dumpty and he looked sorrowful and he resembled her. I asked whether it made sense if I suggested she got off the wall and did something about her situation, she looked animated and said yes. We explored this over the next couple of sessions.

The came a big breakthrough on about session seven we did another imagery I felt she would see a fruit without juice, I sometimes could feel these things, she saw a grape squeezed dry and when she shared, she told me this. I suggested she was squeezed emotionally dry by her husband and if she went on like this she could get seriously ill.  She said her doctor thought she was going in the direction of leukemia. Her husband was draining the life out her, a sort of slow death.

When she saw this from the grape we discussed ways of reinventing and energizing her.

A few sessions later as I arrived at the clinic the receptionist said to me’ look over there’.  Sitting in the corner was a stunning blond with fishnet stockings, high heel shoes, a mini skirt and dazzling make up.  The blond got up and walked towards me and she said ‘Hi Geoff’. I was stunned, it was Agnes.

This is what she did; she walked next door to Simpsons and bought a negligee for nightwear, suspenders and sexy briefs and some make up, and an assistant helped her put it on, she then went home put on the nightwear and suspenders then went into her husbands study, apparently he looked startled and aghast and said ‘have you lost your mind, get out, you look absurd’ she beckoned a sexy finger at him and said ‘Come on big Boy show me what you got’.  He asked where have you got these ideas from, she said she had been to therapy, he said I will sort this therapist out, he never did.

He freaked out and kicked out of the house, she rented a small room and left him and was getting a divorce.  She asked me to wait for her after my sessions with other clients and she wanted and even begged me to have a glass of wine with her and a snack.  We went into a wine bar I had a small glass of wine as she told me the story as above.  She thanked me for my patience and work with her.  I told her she had the images and she had this inner something and it will always be there.  I thanked  her for her kind words.

We went outside after the drink and snack, she kissed me on my eyes and cheeks and hugged me and I kissed her cheeks and had a long hug.

She went away to the tube station and I to my longish walk to where my car was parked.  I never saw her again until one day turning on the radio I heard her being interviewed over her latest book on History.

SHACK

Agnes gave me permission to tell her story(Shack)