For those of us who are interested in Meditation we have to face the difficult problem of Queting the Mind, which of course brings up the question who is Queting who or what.

But we also face the problem of our bodies, it is difficult to stay in a meditative posture for a long period of time, Yoga execices will help of course and I found this book to be very usefull also. You get good information about the body, how to Relax it and use it right without straining, how to ease into the posture you're using and how to breathe correctly, when you finaly get it right it has a feeling of lightness and naturalness to it, it feels RIGHT.

It doesn't matter what kind of Meditation tradition you come from or what type of posture you're using this book will help you.

It realy is extraordinary how much the mind can change how you feel in you body and how just the right information can have such a dramatic change, So Your body is all in your Mind.

This book has information which I have not found in any Yoga books so far, Highly Recomended.

See also Rodney Yee, Yoga Journals Practise for Meditation, a good video to get you body in shape for the Lotus Posture.

Buy this book --- it's the real deal --- It's the 25 year-old-version updated beautifully. (I had the old one, but lost it along the way) All the fine line drawing are here, plus many colored faux wood-block illustrations.
Contents are as follows --- Foreword. Introduction.
Chapter 1 -The Meaning of Self-Sufficiency. Chapter 2 - Food from the Garden. Chapter 3 - Food From Animals. Chapter 4- Food From The Fields. Chapter 5 - Food From the Wild. Chapter 6 - In The Dairy. Chapter 7 - In The Kitchen. Chapter 8 - Brewing & Wine-Making. Chapter 9 - Energy & Waste. Chapter 10 - Crafts & Skills. Chapter 11- Things You Need To Know. Contacts & References. (many of these) Glossary. Index.
John Seymour also passes along much new wisdom, such as finding and working with other like-minded persons and urban gardening information. It's an absolutely excellent book, all 312 pages of it. It's a positive and uplifting expression of self-sufficiency that the world sorely needs.

This book helps me immensely; it is simple, easy to read, and depending upon the stage of recovery the survivor is in, should provide daily insights which will strengthen and inspire the reader. It rings true! Janice Knowlton...

This book is a life saver, if not a marriage saver. I am married, just turned 35, work full time and have two kids 5 & 8. I got to the point where I realized I had fallen out of love with my husband. What happened? Life. I went to the library looking for guidance and happened upon this book. I can't thank Hattie Hill enough for the 2x4 theory. This book shows you the warning signs, tells you how you got there and advises you on how to correct the situation. What more could you ask for? I am truly amazed and so very grateful.

Great book. Easy reading. Lots of spells. Empowering your life broken down into simple english and easy to follow steps. Nice addition to my library - used as a reference manual.

This is a great audio-book... I lost it,... But, because is very good and usefull to do the excercises some times,.. I'm rebuying it... very good... I rate this audio-book with 5 stars... It really worth (more than the money)... It's great to hear the author (great feeling) not only reading... !

This book is a 20!

This is a pen and book process. It asks questions, gives activities and planning guides.

The first part teaches the definition of self-esteem and helps you evaluate your own upbringing and the attitudes you learned as a child that--even though you say you won't--you'll teach your daughter.

It shows you how what you say and DO will help her develop a 'Hardy Personality'. It gives a stage by stage strategy for raising a 'identity achieved' daughter.

But it isn't just a here's-how-to-do-it book. You develop your own plan for raising your daughter, and part of it is how you will change your own behavior to achieve it.

The authors say: Think of this book as "Raising a Daughter 101". Yep. That's what it is. I just wish I had this 30 years ago when my daughter was an infant, instead of my granddaughter.

But don't give up hope--even if your daughter is a teenager (or 30 like mine) there's a lot to learn in this wonderful book.

From the wonderful and wacky to the beastly and bizarre, this fabulous collection is like a Whitman's Sampler, providing a delicious taste of Saki's most uproarious tales populated with some of his most enduring characters. The antics of juvenile delinquents Clovis and Reginald, and the rest of the Saki's population of insane characters will have you in stitches as they maneuver through a marvelously entertaining set of offbeat adventures.

Saki (or H.H. Munro) is one of the greatest writers of short fiction ever in the entire history of the universe. No exaggeration. His hilarious, slightly morbid tales of the bored and felonious English aristocratic set are as addictive as popcorn. Ever Saki story is told with unique flare and a sensational caustic wit. Any fan of Dahl, Wilde, Wodehouse, or anyone who loves a laugh cannot possibly go wrong with a book of Saki's.

This book have really opened up my eyes toward life in ways I've never imagined! In this book Isabell give you a message on how love, courage and be able to see the positive things in life no matter what, can make life a gift even though it for us seems unfair sometimes. Isabell is a 15 years old girl how discover she have caner and we follow her through the last year of her life by her mothers memory and Isabell's diary.

This book have really changed my life and now I think I would have given anything in the world to get to know her... I read the book in one evening and when I was finish I was so embrassed over the way I through of life and the way I lived mine. I haven't been able to see how great life really is untill I read this book!

If by any small chance you, Christel Zachert, reads this then THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES for making this book! I bet you have heard this millions of times, but the way your daughter though really when in to my heart!!! (sorry for my bad english)

BTW, READ THIS BOOK!!!!! You won't be sorry and it will probably (if you allow yourself) change your way of how you see life to the better.

In "The Spontaneous Self", Paul Breer defends a philosophical position that is shocking to Western sensibilities; the thesis that free will is an illusion. Many would immediately reject this assertion as self-defeating, equating it with nihilism or fatalism. Undaunded, Breer carefully examines the idea of an autonomous "self" and finds, with Hume before him, that it is wholly without rational support. The implications are profound--and surprising--for Breer finds nothing problematic nor even troubling in dispelling this illusion; instead he finds that doing so leads to greater calm, and even to a more defensible notion of morality. To his critics, Breer is quick to point out that abandoning free will does not appear so outlandish when one considers the self-governing and organizing abilities of societies, which lack a centralized agency, and the fact that Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies have long ago cast off free agency.

One of Breer's objectives is to examine why we, in the West, cling so tenaciously to the idea of free will, for if it is an illusion the consequences are myriad and profound. As Breer put is, "The thoughts which affect us the most are the basic metaphysical assumptions we make about the way the world works. Free agency is one of those basic assumptions." [p. 215] In the opening paragraphs of the book, Breer notes that we are indoctrinated into many beliefs that we scarcely question, such as that of free will, yet those beliefs do not hold up to scrutiny. Breer states rather dramatically that "It may be unrealistic enough, in fact, to qualify as a delusion, i.e. 'a false belief regarding the self or persons...that persists despite the facts...'" Breer claims that free will is essentially a homunculus, a vestige of Cartesian dualism, which is also behind the concept of god. "What makes free agency a specifically spiritual concept is the assumption that the agent's choices are not caused by antecedent conditions."

Breer finds nothing compelling, nor even desirable, in the idea of a "soul"; he finds instead both paradox and oppression. He asks, "How can it be that, in a universe where every other living and non-living thing participates in a chain of cause and effect, we humans managed to extricate ourselves from that chain?" He observes that "Our Western belief that individual souls remain separated throughout eternity, in heaven as well as on earth, creates a sense of personal isolation unknown elsewhere in the world." [p 219] According to Breer, there is a fundamental error behind this duality: "The error lies in inferring that if the organism is capable of thinking about its own thinking or perceiving the way it perceives, it must be a subject distinct from the experience it is 'having'". [p. 235]

Naturally, strenuous objections issue from those who wish to defend Western notions of morality, which are inextricably bound up with intention and free will. As Breer admits, without the assumption of free agency, the notion of morality loses its usual meaning. Actions are "simply normative or abnormative, i.e. they either conform to or deviate from agreed upon rules." According to Breer, "Many philosophers have worked hard to avoid this very conclusion, primarily because they can not imagine society's functioning without a belief in free agency." However, "...there is nothing incompatible between viewing behavior as determined while continuing to express moral judgments about it." In defense of this claim, Breer introduces the notion of "positional responsibility", which does not depend upon free will. According to Breer, "To say that I am positionally responsible for a given act means that, because the act arose here in this body/mind rather then somewhere else, I am liable for whatever the consequences may be of this arising." As a consequence, "When our responsibility is purely positional rather than moral,... deliberate punishment makes sense only if it has some kind of deterrent or rehabilitative value."

Breer considers what effect these conclusions have on individuals. "In blaming others, our belief that an agent inside the other person could have caused something less offensive to happen make acceptance of the actual behavior far more difficult. The more freedom we assume that agent to have had in its choosing, the angrier we are likely to feel over the choice actually made." [p. 117] In a similar spirit, Breer makes the following observations: "What non-agency calls for is not forgiveness but acceptance; this is a cognitive rather than a spiritual process." [p 121] "Giving up the illusion of causal autonomy moderates our desires while reducing our temptation to engage in violent effort in order to achieve them. One of the primary effects of that changed attitude is a reduction in anxiety." [p. 153] "With the giving up of agency, speculating about either the past or the future becomes less interesting. We are drawn more intimately into the present..." [p. 178] "The key lies not in loving every moment or wishing for every event but in accepting whatever arises." [ p. 213]

I find Breer's thesis to be quite intriguing, and worthy of serious consideration. Breer makes an interesting case, both for rejecting the notion of free will, and for embracing its many implications rather than fearing them. Personally, I feel that Breer has overlooked some elements of human nature that have bearing on his theory, such as our righteous indignation toward those who do not share our values. However, I must join Breer, Hume, and legion Eastern philosophers in asserting that our notions of agency are perhaps more fiction than fact, and that it behooves us to gain a more realistic understanding of who we are.

If you intrigued by radical ideas and are not put off by philosophies that run counter to Western notions of morality, then you will likely enjoy this book. Breer posits his ideas very clearly, and explores the evidence and the consequences quite thoroughly. Whether you end up agreeing with Breer or not, it's an interesting journey. If nothing else, it's a great thought experiment.

Throughout history, we humans have cherished notions of holding a special place in the universe. Although we have had to (reluctantly) relinquish the idea that the rest of the universe revolves around the earth, we rarely if ever question the perception that the inside each of us resides an agent of free will which is our essential self. Unlike plants, animals, and other phenomena of the natural world, we see ourselves as "uncaused causes" which are capable of actions free from the influence of genetic and environmental history. We believe ourselves to be like gods, having the supernatural power of uncaused causation. The Spontaneous Self presents persuasive evidence and logic that challenge this belief, and makes a strong case that in every respect humans are just as much natural products of prior events as the rest of the universe. Approaching the issue from the perspective of Western philosophy, Paul Breer's book is a nice complement to the books by Alan Watts, which have done so from the context of Eastern spirituality. Taking the issue to the next step, The Spontaneous Self explores the costs and benefits of giving up the idea of free will, making an effective case that we would be better off individually and societally by doing so. Throughout the book, the psychotherapist author cites his own experiences during an ongoing systematic program of self-therapy to rid himself of the free will illusion.