I like Arthur's explanation of "parallel state" as well.

In my experience, the mind/body which contains all that chatter, thoughts/feelings/sensations , is more of a function of survival biology. Where as the observer is fundamental consciousness, which lives in the biological unit. This allows that parallel state processing, as it were to be able to allow the mind/body do it's thing, and be in it, but not get caught up in it.

I believe Alan Watts was connected to Trunpa's Shambala Buddhism in some way.

When I was with the Shambala people, they taught you to simply say to yourself

"thinking"

at the moment of "waking up" ...moment of awareness of chatter...when sitting on the cushion (which could be a chair)

and then you would return to paying attention to your out breath

this sets up a cycle of day dreaming- mindfulness - daydreaming- mindfulness

mindfulness=actually being in the room, aware of your breath

and over time, the goal would be to spend more time actually in the room, and less time daydreaming

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

I think one of the main reasons the whole parking space thing works is because there is a lot of randomness involved ( traffic lights, slight timing differences of other drivers (chaos theroy) etc)

I assume it is easier to will a certain outcome when there is a lot of randomness.

I had a friend who had quite a negative outlook on things, he would always moan that he got caught at red traffic lights, and sure enough he always did.

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It's all metaphors and it's all relative.

if several months go by and no one has had a cold, one of us might say, gosh, we havnt' had a cold in a while, we must be doing something right

sure enough, a cold would appear a day or so after

so we try hard not to think or talk about colds to avoid manifesting one

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

Conversely, maybe the noticing of the fact that you haven't had a cold, having the thought, is a actually sign that one is coming on, and that you should take care of yourself better. I've had that experience many times as well, being all proud that I haven't had a cold and then I get slammed with one. When that happens now I take a look at how I've been treating myself, and usually it's a sign one is coming on.

It's not just the thought "creating" it, because we are influenced by external forces, as much as we influence our reality. Shared reality system. It works both ways, and really is the same thing of course.

P.S. I love Watts and Trungpa and Chodron too. Mindfulness is the bomb!

like clockwork, got a cold the day after the above posting!

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

Take a big dose of vitamin C and it will go away just as fast. I'm talking multiple grams.

Ted

This happened to me just two weeks ago. Funny how that happens...

if several months go by and no one has had a bunch of money, one of us might say, gosh, we havnt' had a bunch of money in a while, we must be doing something right

sure enough, a bunch of money would appear a day or so after

so we try hard not to think or talk about bunches of money to avoid manifesting millions.

Love
Bette

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All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.