<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560</id><updated>2025-02-15T17:58:28.115+11:00</updated><title type='text'>The Contemporary Taoist</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default?alt=atom'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default?alt=atom&amp;start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>317</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-992409796062212831</id><published>2009-10-21T11:14:00.001+11:00</published><updated>2009-10-21T11:17:32.773+11:00</updated><title type='text'>Taoist music!</title><content type='html'>Download totally Taoist music by me, &lt;a href=&quot;http://seamus.bandcamp.com&quot;&gt;Seamus Anthony&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object classid=&quot;clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;100&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/album=1815387040/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;quality&quot; value=&quot;high&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowScriptAccess&quot; value=&quot;never&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowNetworking&quot; value=&quot;always&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;bgcolor&quot; value=&quot;#FFFFFF&quot;&gt;&lt;embed src=&quot;http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/album=1815387040/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; pluginspage=&quot;http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer&quot; quality=&quot;high&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;never&quot; allownetworking=&quot;always&quot; bgcolor=&quot;#FFFFFF&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;100&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;noembed&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&quot;http://seamus.bandcamp.com/album/dogs-may-bark&quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Go Away by Seamus Anthony&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/noembed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/992409796062212831/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/992409796062212831' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/992409796062212831'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/992409796062212831'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2009/10/taoist-music.html' title='Taoist music!'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-4973587152123117574</id><published>2009-02-16T23:59:00.004+11:00</published><updated>2009-02-17T00:05:25.204+11:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>Hi - my name is Seamus Anthony and this is my old, old website - &lt;a href=&quot;http://seamusanthony.com/about&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to see my current website and either read more writing by me or listen to my music for free.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks for stopping by!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/4973587152123117574/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/4973587152123117574' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/4973587152123117574'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/4973587152123117574'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2009/02/hi-my-name-is-seamus-anthony-but-this.html' title=''/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-5377233778495858411</id><published>2008-11-26T16:49:00.003+11:00</published><updated>2008-11-26T16:54:31.034+11:00</updated><title type='text'>Cool Taoist article and Psychedelic Meditation eBook</title><content type='html'>Here&#39;s a cool Taoist article worth checking out&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livingnow.com.au/2008/11/transensing-and-the-obvious-truth/&quot;&gt;Transensing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And I just finished an awesome book about going &quot;right out there&quot; with your meditation - I&#39;m talking visions, spiritual beings, the lot. Go here to read more:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://psychedelicmeditation.com&quot;&gt;Psychedelic Meditation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/5377233778495858411/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/5377233778495858411' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/5377233778495858411'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/5377233778495858411'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2008/11/cool-taoist-article-and-psychedelic.html' title='Cool Taoist article and Psychedelic Meditation eBook'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-5934964037035249217</id><published>2008-09-20T00:15:00.002+10:00</published><updated>2008-09-20T00:17:44.465+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Free e-book give away at Rebel Zen</title><content type='html'>Hi there, &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ve just pummeled out a 9500 word e-book about Curly&#39;s Law, an incredible concept that can help you to flow with the Tao all the way. Check it out at &lt;a href=&quot;http://rebelzen.com&quot;&gt;Rebel Zen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/5934964037035249217/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/5934964037035249217' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/5934964037035249217'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/5934964037035249217'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2008/09/free-e-book-give-away-at-rebel-zen.html' title='Free e-book give away at Rebel Zen'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-4932370665165737351</id><published>2008-07-18T23:26:00.004+10:00</published><updated>2008-07-18T23:31:26.825+10:00</updated><title type='text'>The Karma of Small Actions</title><content type='html'>I have written a new article about my post-Taoist-phase philosophy. That&#39;s not to say I don&#39;t totally get into Taoist thought anymore, I do, but just that I have made some modifications of my own in terms of belief. I&#39;ve become a little less hardcore I suppose. Anyway, check it out at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rebelzen.com/2008/07/everything-counts-even-in-small-amounts/&quot;&gt;Rebel Zen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/4932370665165737351/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/4932370665165737351' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/4932370665165737351'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/4932370665165737351'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2008/07/karma-of-small-actions.html' title='The Karma of Small Actions'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-3554180332590019507</id><published>2008-07-08T08:14:00.001+10:00</published><updated>2008-07-08T08:16:58.179+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Zen and Office Chairs</title><content type='html'>Arm Rests. Adjustable ones. The key to happiness is being able to notice that things like this exist. Allow me to elaborate…&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When things get wacky (difficult, painful), the hardest thing to do is to see the woods for the trees. Let me begin with an example - the common occurrence of a friend’s advice to a lovesick mate:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“It will be okay; either you’ll break up with your boy/girlfriend or you’ll work your problems through and stay together. Either way you’ll be fine and it will all be for the best.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An answer to which our lovesick puppy will categorically fail to relate to until later, when he will see that it was absolute truth all along. Until then the problem will seem tragic, unbearable, and probably life-threatening.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Read the rest of the article at my new blog &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rebelzen.com/2008/07/the-great-arm-rest-debacle/&quot;&gt;RebelZen.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/3554180332590019507/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/3554180332590019507' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/3554180332590019507'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/3554180332590019507'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2008/07/zen-and-office-chairs.html' title='Zen and Office Chairs'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-5613257633941097754</id><published>2007-06-13T18:14:00.001+10:00</published><updated>2008-06-29T23:30:43.674+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Tao do you do?</title><content type='html'>Hi and welcome to The Contemporary Taoist blog. Although there&#39;s plenty here to read, I don&#39;t really blog here anymore, but I am still actively blogging about the Tao, Zen and that kind of thing so you might like to pop over and visit my new blog &lt;a href=&quot;http://rebelzen.com&quot;&gt;RebelZen.com&lt;/a&gt; or if you are interested in my music then try &lt;a href=&quot;http://seamusanthony.com&quot;&gt;SeamusAnthony.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livingnow.com.au/storyarchive/?cat=12&quot;&gt;Contemporary Taoist print articles online&lt;/a&gt; at LivingNow magazine&#39;s website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/5613257633941097754/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/5613257633941097754' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/5613257633941097754'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/5613257633941097754'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/06/tao-do-you-do.html' title='Tao do you do?'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-8449361934841036714</id><published>2007-05-02T22:02:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2007-05-02T22:02:39.543+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Tao of Meditation Handbook</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href=&quot;http://home.att.net/~meditation/MeditationHandbook.html&quot;&gt;Meditation Handbook&lt;/a&gt;: &quot;Enlightened humans are vastly expanded human beings, not perfect human beings.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This website is a particularly good reference for meditation, quite rational. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is also a good poster-child for the theory that Google likes old sites with lots of written information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Maybe I shouldn&#39;t have been so quick to kill my old meditation website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Meh. Tao is as Tao does.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/8449361934841036714/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/8449361934841036714' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/8449361934841036714'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/8449361934841036714'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/05/tao-of-meditation-handbook.html' title='Tao of Meditation Handbook'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-1816888358451810575</id><published>2007-04-18T07:21:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2007-04-18T07:21:49.441+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Zen and the Art of the Long Essay</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href=&quot;http://pandc.ca/?cat=buddhist&amp;amp;page=zen_ineffable&quot;&gt;Personality &amp; Consciousness - - Zen and the Art of Imitating the Ineffable&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would read this today if I wasn&#39;t so busy - I will have to wait until a a less intensely work filled day - but meanwhile perhaps you have the time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Enjoy!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/1816888358451810575/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/1816888358451810575' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/1816888358451810575'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/1816888358451810575'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/04/zen-and-art-of-long-essay.html' title='Zen and the Art of the Long Essay'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-1572353465876816063</id><published>2007-04-15T20:11:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2007-04-15T20:27:11.431+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Just One Song</title><content type='html'>I have recently been thinking a lot about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000805.html&quot;&gt;Curly&#39;s Law&lt;/a&gt;. I won&#39;t go on about it too much in terms of my life in general right now, because I have an article coming up about it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://livingnow.com.au&quot;&gt;LivingNow magazine&lt;/a&gt; in May, but I will point your attention to this new post I just wrote &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com/2007/04/15/the-second-great-age-of-the-single/&quot;&gt;over at Moosemusic.com&lt;/a&gt; about a new recording of a song of mine called &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;Soul Transfer Protocol&lt;/a&gt; I have just finished and what I intend to do with it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh, and if you&#39;ve been reading, I have thus far successfully stayed off the booze for three weeks, am sticking with my Taoist semen-retention practice, and have been channeling all the energy these two factors usually usurp into my work (of which I have done bulk over the last two weeks). I can also report that the semen retention and the sobriety have lessened my need for sleep by about one quarter (six hours a night has been plenty). I have been meditating which has been clear, pleasant and easy, and I have been able to concentrate on tasks until they are done, which has been a problem in the past.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh and I also may or may not have been driving my work colleagues nuts with my constant fidgeting and high-speed chattering ;-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livingnow.com.au/storyarchive/?cat=12&quot;&gt;Contemporary Taoist print articles online&lt;/a&gt; at LivingNow magazine&#39;s website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/1572353465876816063/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/1572353465876816063' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/1572353465876816063'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/1572353465876816063'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/04/just-one-song.html' title='Just One Song'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-7176176770086246940</id><published>2007-04-12T06:57:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2007-04-12T07:37:45.461+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Tao of Motivation</title><content type='html'>G&#39;day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am feeling totally inspired right now. Why? Because I have some reasonably major life issues and these inspire the hell out of me that&#39;s why. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What issues? Well, here&#39;s a small selection of some of the most major ones.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight:bold;&quot;&gt;I have drinking problem: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not a drink-all-day-everyday-from-a-brown-paper-bag kind of problem, but rather a go-out-two-three-four-times-a-week-and-drink-&#39;til-I&#39;m-a-blind-Irish&lt;br /&gt;-raving-loony kind of problem. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I know that most Aussie men would probably just laugh at me for calling this a problem*, but bugger it, my partner and I decided together that this is the reality, and at the end of the day it&#39;s my call anyway. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight:bold;&quot;&gt;So why does this inspire me?&lt;/span&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There&#39;s nothing more inspiring than admitting you have a problem and resolving to do something about it. After years of (unsuccessfully) trying to moderate my behaviour, I have simply decided to quit cold turkey. I did that with (my habit of occasionally smoking) cigarettes, so why not do it for drinking? It&#39;s been two and half weeks, which isn&#39;t long at all, but it&#39;s been a breeze so far. Maybe I&#39;ll screw it up along the way, maybe I won&#39;t; time will tell. I won&#39;t go into great detail here but I will later I am sure. Meanwhile wish me luck.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*There is a t-shirt I&#39;ve seen around that sums up the Aussie attitude towards excessive drinking. It reads: &quot;I&#39;m not an alcoholic, I&#39;m &#39;Straalian!&quot; (It requires a working knowledge of the Aussie accent to get that kooky spelling.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight:bold;&quot;&gt;I am in debt:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know people with more debt than me, but I have a nice wad of credit looming over me like a freakin&#39; gorilla on my back. So at the age of thirty three, not only am I still faced with prospect of earning my financial security in this life, I am also faced with a period of just getting back to square one. Yowch!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight:bold;&quot;&gt;So how does a credit problem inspire me?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because I know that there are people out there who have shown how it is possible to get out of debt and prosper, no matter what age you are. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because it gives me a sharp pointy stick &lt;span style=&quot;font-style:italic;&quot;&gt;a la&lt;/span&gt; motivation that pokes me in arse everyday and forces me to get amongst it all and give it a good go. If I was already rich, I might well just choose to do nothing much. Seriously I probably would, except that...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight:bold;&quot;&gt;I live in a troubled world.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And as far as I can see I haven&#39;t done nearly enough to help with that. Sure I&#39;ve done some things to help, but not as much as I could have. I&#39;ve spent far more time indulging in feel-good activities (mostly until the point where they don&#39;t feel good any more). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So between now and when I am financially wealthy, I need to find ways to help people every day, and when I do become financially wealthy, I will need to keep earning a reasonable amount of moolah so that I can help out in money kind of way, as well as the former method, which I&#39;ve no doubt rich people get satisfaction from despite their ability to give chocolate-kisses to bums in cardboard boxes (can anyone pick the film I am referencing?).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And to close, I&#39;d like to add that none of the above comes from a non-Taoist, non-Zen I&#39;m-all-frustrated kind of perspective. I am in fact very peaceful in my own skin, and this is the greatest motivation of all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Except perhaps for the semen-retention! (See previous posts. And yes, I am still Master of My Own Domain!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livingnow.com.au/storyarchive/?cat=12&quot;&gt;Contemporary Taoist print articles online&lt;/a&gt; at LivingNow magazine&#39;s website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/7176176770086246940/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/7176176770086246940' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/7176176770086246940'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/7176176770086246940'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/04/tao-of-motivation.html' title='Tao of Motivation'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-2493605555847320326</id><published>2007-04-10T07:18:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2007-04-10T07:46:35.022+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Tao of Sex Energy.</title><content type='html'>There can be no denying that synchronicity exists. I can be a cynic when it comes to woo-woo New Age concepts, (because sometimes I simply think that people get too dependent on the fantasy of it all (magic) and use it as a prop and as an avoidance mechanism) but I see far too many synchronistic moments to ignore. And suffice to say I just had one.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was flicking through my RSS feeds this morning, while an idea for a blog post struck me. I woke up thinking about Napoleon Hill&#39;s &#39;Think and Grow Rich&#39; for some reason, and particularly about the concept of redirecting one&#39;s sexual energy into one&#39;s work. As I am going through a period of highly inspired activity (more on that later) I decided that it would be a good time to practice some *ahem* chi-retention. By this I of course mean limiting the amount of times I *cough* release, so to speak.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why? because, as most readers of Tao-stuff would know, it is a very healthy thing to do for men, saves your energy (noticeably so), and supposedly prolongs your life (although the jury&#39;s out on that one, but I can buy it, even if traditional Western medical types can&#39;t). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I decided, as I read about other things (oh dear, not very Zen ;-) that I might consider doing a blog post about restricting my, err, gratification to once a week for a while to see if I have more energy and get more work done. I hadn&#39;t made up my mind though, as I know that although worthwhile it can be quite a challenge :-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then I clicked on Steve Pavlini&#39;s feed (the last one my reader) to see that his latest entry is this: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/04/sex-energy/&quot;&gt;Sex Energy&lt;/a&gt;. Trippy man. And therefore, confirmed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I am now entering experiment mode. I am hereby only going to *cough* &quot;whatsit&quot; once a week and record the effects. I want to see if I can be more energetic AND productive. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have done this before, by the way, and I already know that it will give me a lot more energy (or rather save my energy), but I also know that it will not necessarily make me more productive. I will need to practice regular meditation to settle my chi and focus it in the direction of constructive behaviour. Otherwise I run the risk of expending this extra energy in nonconstructive ways like explosive temper tantrums or wild spontaneous nights spent carousing the night away in the bars and nightclubs of our fine city. Heaven forbid.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water ... (once a week)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livingnow.com.au/storyarchive/?cat=12&quot;&gt;Contemporary Taoist print articles online&lt;/a&gt; at LivingNow magazine&#39;s website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/2493605555847320326/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/2493605555847320326' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/2493605555847320326'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/2493605555847320326'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/04/tao-of-sex-energy.html' title='Tao of Sex Energy.'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-3856446580091118388</id><published>2007-04-09T21:46:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2007-04-09T22:16:50.171+10:00</updated><title type='text'>One Thing First Thing</title><content type='html'>I was feeling uninspired as I was skimming this mostly lackluster article, about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/throw-a-lifeline-to-your-future.html&quot;&gt;throwing your future a lifeline&lt;/a&gt;, when I came across this suggestion:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Every single day, do one tiny doable thing to make that future happen, and do it the very first thing.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What a great idea!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I have long believed that doing all those little things adds up, not that I have always practiced it, but I really like this idea of doing one thing - for yourself and your future - first thing. It could be quite a challenge couldn&#39;t it? For example, tomorrow I &quot;have&quot; to get up and go to work really very early indeed. What could I possibly do before 6:30am to get myself to where I want my life to be in the future? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, this of course may make some Tao-types and Zen-types smirk. &quot;Spending today wanting to be somewhere in the future is missing the point of Tao/Zen!&quot; I hear you cry. Well, yes ... and no. It depends on your mindset. If you are totally cool with where you are today (even if by means of rationalisation!) then spending time and effort working for tomorrow makes perfect sense. I am sure the worker ants in that fable were happy as they worked all summer to prepare for winter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, this is not the main point of this post. All I really wanted to do was comment on how interesting the idea of doing something first thing, no matter what, specifically to advance your life towards a desired future outcome is. I think it is a very interesting strategy. I also know that I do it all the time. I often start out by planning a number of &#39;personal&#39; tasks that I will squeeze into my working day, tasks that are centered around achieving my long term life goals. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also often exercise in the morning first thing before work, although not as often as I should! This is something that moves me to where I want to be in the future - fit and healthy! Or sometimes I write short stories on the train. Again, moves me towards my desired future life as a fabulously wealthy author :-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But although I think doing &quot;one thing first thing&quot; it is a very good idea if you don&#39;t feel you are getting enough done each day to get you to your desired future, in the end it is never going to be enough. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&#39;s why I always like to choose at least five things. I have a few areas in life in which I want to achieve things: a couple of main career goals, health goals, relationship and happiness goals, money goals, and social responsibility goals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I just do one thing each day and then spend the rest of the day simply subsisting, then I will never get it all done. If I do AT LEAST one thing from each category above then I will be like somebody who is making a concerted effort to save money, one day I will look at my bank statement and go &quot;Hey! Smooth going, dude, way to go ... rolling in it!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livingnow.com.au/storyarchive/?cat=12&quot;&gt;Contemporary Taoist print articles online&lt;/a&gt; at LivingNow magazine&#39;s website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/3856446580091118388/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/3856446580091118388' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/3856446580091118388'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/3856446580091118388'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/04/one-thing-first-thing.html' title='One Thing First Thing'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-8281326481088388371</id><published>2007-04-06T13:24:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2007-04-06T17:07:19.438+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Understanding the Tao</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span lang=&quot;EN-AU&quot;&gt;Understanding the Tao is &lt;a href=&quot;http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/&quot;&gt;like trying to fit the ocean in a teacup&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This article by the ever clever Scott Adams, reminds me of this post, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thetaobums.com/lofiversion/index.php/t339.html&quot;&gt;Everything is Appropriate&lt;/a&gt; that I made to a website called Tao Bums ages ago. I hadn&#39;t looked at in a while, but it seems that since I have the article has inspired some civilised discussion.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I first saw the phrase &#39;everything is appropriate&#39; back in the spring of 1998 when I walked into the office of a vegetarian hippy cafe, called Feedwell Cafe, on Greville Street in Prahran, Melbourne that I had just begun working at. The owner manager, a lovely older gentleman called Alan, had it scribbled on his white board. That was all he had on his whiteboard: Everything is Appropriate. I was struck by the apparent nonsense of this phrase and questioned it. Alan said nothing much about it, only that it was true. A chef present grumbled something about how &#39;it wouldn&#39;t be very appropriate if somebody walked into the cafe and began chopping off people&#39;s heads with an axe, would it&#39;, and thus a train of thought began in my mind that took a couple of years to resolve. This was just before the time that I started to explore meditation and Eastern philosophy, instead of just self-annihilation and hedonism (which I also kept up for a fair while afterwards though I must confess).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway gotta go and push a wheelbarrow.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span lang=&quot;EN-AU&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span lang=&quot;EN-AU&quot;&gt;Flow like water...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livingnow.com.au/storyarchive/?cat=12&quot;&gt;Contemporary Taoist print articles online&lt;/a&gt; at LivingNow magazine&#39;s website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/8281326481088388371/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/8281326481088388371' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/8281326481088388371'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/8281326481088388371'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/04/understanding-tao.html' title='Understanding the Tao'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-1403957529537429038</id><published>2007-03-01T10:18:00.000+11:00</published><updated>2007-03-01T10:25:26.188+11:00</updated><title type='text'>Now Online: Contemporary Taoist print articles</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;You can now read my Contemporary Taoist print articles at &lt;a href=&quot;http://livingnow.com.au&quot;&gt;LivingNow&lt;/a&gt; (the website of the  magazine). These were previously only available in the monthly print magazine in Australia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Go to the Story archive (top menu) and look for them in the right hand sidebar or search for them via the search function. I write under the name Seamus Anthony.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They are not all up yet but a bunch are and the rest soon enough ;-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;span class=&quot;on&quot; style=&quot;display: block;&quot; id=&quot;formatbar_CreateLink&quot; title=&quot;Link&quot; onmouseover=&quot;ButtonHoverOn(this);&quot; onmouseout=&quot;ButtonHoverOff(this);&quot; onmouseup=&quot;&quot; onmousedown=&quot;CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton(&#39;richeditorframe&#39;, this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com/&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com/&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/1403957529537429038/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/1403957529537429038' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/1403957529537429038'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/1403957529537429038'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/03/now-online-contemporary-taoist-print.html' title='Now Online: Contemporary Taoist print articles'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-5455250946252574295</id><published>2007-01-07T14:06:00.000+11:00</published><updated>2007-01-07T14:10:39.937+11:00</updated><title type='text'>Happy New Year</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Hi all, I still am not sure whether or when I will resume blogging on a regular basis but meanwhile I can tell you that all of my Contemporary Taoist print magazine articles from LivingNow magazine will soon be accessible online via the soon-to-be-launched, re-vamped LivingNow website that I am in charge of. More news on this (very) soon. Meanwhile, if you are looking for something to read, take a look around through this blog; I may not be writing here much at the moment but there is still plenty of stuff (good and bad) to read in the archives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com/&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com/&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/5455250946252574295/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/5455250946252574295' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/5455250946252574295'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/5455250946252574295'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2007/01/happy-new-year.html' title='Happy New Year'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-116405997289087228</id><published>2006-11-21T08:58:00.000+11:00</published><updated>2006-11-21T08:59:32.913+11:00</updated><title type='text'>Holiday</title><content type='html'>I am taking a break from blogging until I decide otherwise. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/116405997289087228/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/116405997289087228' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116405997289087228'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116405997289087228'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/11/holiday.html' title='Holiday'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-116233472171053022</id><published>2006-11-01T09:42:00.000+11:00</published><updated>2006-11-02T07:10:25.073+11:00</updated><title type='text'>Rantastic!</title><content type='html'>I have been totally unmotivated to blog lately, but thankfully, &lt;a href=&quot;http://badger3k.livejournal.com/283922.html#cutid1&quot;&gt;Michael&lt;/a&gt; has been doing it for me! Check out the rant factor as response to my last post! Classic!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As it happens, I neither believe nor disbelieve, I simply do not know.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/116233472171053022/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/116233472171053022' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116233472171053022'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116233472171053022'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/11/rantastic.html' title='Rantastic!'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-116157429732867332</id><published>2006-10-23T13:19:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2006-10-26T05:49:10.720+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Does God Drop Cosmic Hints?</title><content type='html'>Most people are familiar with the practice of reading the symbolism in dreams, but some people believe that the &quot;universe&quot; or God (or whatever) communicates with us by dropping cosmic hints in the form of signs or omens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have actually always leaned slightly towards having a cynical view of all this, but then again ... my argument against (no proof) is easily turned against itself (no proof that there aren&#39;t &quot;signs&quot; either). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyways, all I know is that my elbow hurts and that the events of the other day were pretty wacky. Stella Woods, who I am yet meet in person, is an astrologer who writes for the same magazine as I do (&lt;a href=&quot;http://livingnow.com.au/&quot;&gt;LivingNow&lt;/a&gt; magazine. Go to the astrology section to read Stella&#39;s fortnightly updates). She sent me this following interpretation of the accident:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;3 is the number of creativity so 33 is one of the most creative years of your life.  Snakes represent feminine wisdom and whether the bulging belly was from a tasty mouse or pregnancy/eggs etc it adds to the fertility/female symbol. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And as for the fact you didn&#39;t kill the snake but ended up breaking your elbow - the elbow represents changing direction and accepting new experiences and bone fractures, rebelling against authority and structure. So you changed direction on the bike and ended up breaking your structure..... &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;d say you&#39;re trying to tell yourself something about &quot;where to next and what do I need to change?&quot;  If it&#39;s your left elbow it&#39;s the feminine side (unconscious), if it&#39;s the right elbow its the masculine side (conscious).&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/116157429732867332/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/116157429732867332' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116157429732867332'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116157429732867332'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/does-god-drop-cosmic-hints.html' title='Does God Drop Cosmic Hints?'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-116146571280341184</id><published>2006-10-22T07:10:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2006-10-22T09:35:52.060+10:00</updated><title type='text'>The Tao of Broken Bones</title><content type='html'>As I have already reported, I fell off my bike and cracked my elbow bone on my *sob* birthday of all days. Not the end of the world but certainly a bump in the road that has lead to some introspection...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;...and let&#39;s face it, some stroppy temper tanties on my behalf! The novelty of living life one-handed soon wears off, let me assure you. That goes for typing too!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But this morning&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/free_I_Ching_reading/flash.html&quot;&gt;I Ching&lt;/a&gt; reading for myself was simply &quot;39 Jian&quot; which the book I use to interpret my results (I prefer a modern interpretation, which may make the purists groan and gnash their teeth) says is all about &quot;obstruction, interruption of flow&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Indeed. Well, as I pointed out below, the popular call has been that my accident, while thankfully minor in terms of injuries, was heavy in symbolism, and in fact there are those who suggested that I have in fact manifested &quot;a sign&quot;. (I recieved an excellent reading of the event from the astrologer, Stella Woods, who writes for LivingNow magazine - who I also write for - and I am just waiting for her permission before I post this here for disemmination.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, it all falls into two categories: Meaning, and Response. I am going backwards here and dealing with the latter first.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/zenbest-way-of-mountain.html&quot;&gt;ZenBest&lt;/a&gt; response to the fact that my fitness regime has been blown out of the sky? That my music now has to be put on hiatus? That I can&#39;t tie my own damn shoelaces?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Patience. Contemplation. And turning the situation on it&#39;s head by looking for the inherent opportunity that lies in the situation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More on this as it comes to hand (or should I say &quot;elbow&quot;? Hardy har)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;UPDATE: I have written more scintilating one-handed blather about this subject &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com/2006/10/22/what-guitarists-should-do-when-they-break-an-arm/&quot;&gt;here at my other blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/116146571280341184/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/116146571280341184' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116146571280341184'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116146571280341184'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/tao-of-broken-bones.html' title='The Tao of Broken Bones'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-116114694689078074</id><published>2006-10-18T14:29:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2006-10-18T14:49:07.033+10:00</updated><title type='text'>The Tao of Reading the Signs</title><content type='html'>Firstly, I am typing one handed today - you can get the background to that sorry state of affairs here at &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com/2006/10/18/the-birthday-snake/&quot;&gt;MooseMusic&lt;/a&gt;, my newer fledgling blog. (Yo&#39;ll come back now y&#39;hear?)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Right, done with that? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Funny? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So then I&#39;m sitting at the kitchen table last night, self-medicating the pain away, when the phone rings. It is my boss from LivingNow magazine, Elizabeth. Now Elizabeth is not only a very successful entrepreneur, she is also totally spiritual. In fact she lets &quot;Spirit&quot; guide her business decisions everyday (and to great success too).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Congratulations!&quot; she said, giggling away. &quot;You have manifested a very powerful sign!&quot; She meant the snake crossing my path. &quot;Now you must figure out what it meant. And you must not try to avoid &quot;it&quot; once you&#39;ve figured it out - even if it is scary - because as you saw, it was trying to avoid the snake that resulted in your injury...&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So that my friends is what I am doing today - besides grumbling about my sore arm and reading other blogs - I am researching the symbolic meanings of the Snake in the various spiritual traditions and trying to figure out what it all means for me, what my great sign from the universe is (besides &quot;watch out for snakes&quot;).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So far I only have small clues - I will come back with an answer soon...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;technoratitag&quot;&gt;Categories: &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Tao&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Tao&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Taoism&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Taoism&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Spirituality&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Spirituality&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Oracles&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Oracles&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Personal-Development&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Personal-Development&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/116114694689078074/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/116114694689078074' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116114694689078074'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116114694689078074'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/tao-of-reading-signs.html' title='The Tao of Reading the Signs'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-116094979909151124</id><published>2006-10-16T08:01:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2006-10-18T14:05:11.706+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Zen and Creativity</title><content type='html'>I have been away from my computer over the weekend, so in the absence of time or inclination to write, check this out:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pearsonified.com/2006/10/how_to_find_your_creative_zen.php&quot;&gt;How to find your creative Zen&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I need to go do the same.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/116094979909151124/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/116094979909151124' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116094979909151124'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116094979909151124'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/zen-and-creativity.html' title='Zen and Creativity'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-116025653949454873</id><published>2006-10-08T07:17:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2006-10-18T08:57:36.843+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Tao of Moderation</title><content type='html'>I have been pulled up by a couple of people very close to me who have had some things to say about my latest round of total abstinence from alcohol (&lt;a href=&quot;http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/zenbest-way-of-mountain.html&quot;&gt;as per this post&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;You&#39;re just repeating the pattern,&quot; was the call from both, &quot;of going hard-at-it, then abstaining.&quot; And they both went on to predict that I would just &quot;go hard&quot; again once I begin allowing myself to drink again.*&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I asked myself the question &quot;Have I made the &lt;a href=&quot;http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/zenbest-way-of-mountain.html&quot;&gt;ZenBest&lt;/a&gt; decision in setting a period of abstinence or should I be putting my efforts into learning to be more moderate?&quot; The answer seemed clear. Moderation is my goal so why torture myself with three dry months of beerless misery ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was my girlfriend (an effortlessly moderate drinker herself) who pointed out that she always has to put up with me either roaring drunk and refusing to leave the party until the last beer is gone and the sun is nearly up, or she has to put up with me refusing any drinks whatsoever and then sitting there looking glum and whining to go home by 9:30pm. I can see her point: not a lot of middle ground there!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So last night I changed the plan somewhat and began to practise moderation. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frankly, it wasn&#39;t entirely as successful as I had hoped, but then again it was a step in the right direction. I set out to drink only three stubbies, smoke no ciggies, and share one joint (given I hadn&#39;t enjoyed one in over a week). In actuality I drank one long neck in the late afternoon sun - I ordered the beer off a waitress/friend who innocently enough figured I&#39;d rather be &quot;super-sized&quot; for no extra charge. Ah, the price of popularity ;) Then I took a break until our guests came for dinner around 7:30pm. Over the course of the evening, interspersed by glasses of water, I drank three and 1/2 stubbies, shared two joints and smoked no ciggies. The cigarettes are not really a problem any more as long as I don&#39;t get smashed; I find them unappealing until then.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those who don&#39;t drink would probably think that is a lot of beers; those who like a few would understand that what I consumed barely even &quot;touched the sides&quot;, as the saying goes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What you might not understand is what it feels like for someone like me who has long been a borderline alcoholic*. Once I work up a thirst for beer, it (to drink) becomes an extreme compulsion. It&#39;s a bit like having an itch that you just have to scratch, one of those itches that the more you scratch it the itchier it gets. So for me to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n while I am drinking, and to stop at a healthy point in time and just leave those remaining beers in the fridge, drink some more water and settle down for the evening, is really quite an effort.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But I did leave those two last beers in the fridge, and I don&#39;t have a hangover today. You can tell this because I am actually writing. Wish me luck on my continuing foray into the land of moderation; I am going to a BBQ tonight. It is a Sunday, and I have a big week of work ahead. I think it would be best for me to only drink those two stubbies I have left tonight, and smoke nothing. I am sure you will be waiting breathlessly for my report tomorrow morning ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*Let me qualify something here - or at least try as this is a very subjective scenario: I am not an full-blown alcoholic :) or at least I don&#39;t believe so. I am aware that dyed-in-the-wool AA converts would probably say I am, but frankly, I don&#39;t buy the whole alcoholism-as-disease model as it is so liberally applied by AA types. Maybe if I was a gutter-bum swigging from the turps bottle all day everyday, but I&#39;m not. In fact by Aussie standards I am not even a particularly hard drinker (anymore). I would however say I am &lt;span style=&quot;font-style:italic;&quot;&gt;alcoholically inclined,&lt;/span&gt; and that it&#39;s fortunate I am strong enough to not let this &lt;span style=&quot;font-style:italic;&quot;&gt;potential&lt;/span&gt; problem get the better of me. So given that I am pretty much okay, it just becomes a matter of what I consider acceptable behaviour for myself. And let me define that: A few drinks here and there = acceptable; Drinking until pissed enough to give me a rotten hangover = unacceptable (expect maybe on rare occasions). So this is my yardstick; and no I am not one of those people who wakes up shaking until I have my first drink, although I have been there, but that was years ago. That kind of extreme behaviour I find easy enough to discard, it&#39;s the finer tweaking of my actions that has proved a little harder to maintain.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Especially in this fine, wide, brown land of ours, where the brews just seem to...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight:bold;&quot;&gt;Update:&lt;/span&gt; I looked in the fridge later that day and realised that I had in fact only consumed two and a half beers that evening, for what it is worth. *sigh* guess if I am going to count my drinks I had better learn to count first! Didn&#39;t go to the BBQ. Drank one beer at home (with company, like a sane person).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;technoratitag&quot;&gt;Categories: &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Tao&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Tao&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Taoism&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Taoism&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Zen&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Zen&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Personal-Development&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Personal-Development&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Self-Improvement&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Self-Improvement&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Motivation&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Motivation&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Happiness&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Happiness&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/116025653949454873/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/116025653949454873' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116025653949454873'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116025653949454873'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/tao-of-moderation.html' title='Tao of Moderation'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-116008352119561181</id><published>2006-10-06T07:20:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2006-10-06T07:52:38.030+10:00</updated><title type='text'>Pedal-out-of-Debt Zen</title><content type='html'>I have twice recently opened my copy of &quot;Zen in the Art of Mountain Climbing&quot; by Neville Shulman randomly (as I do ... by way of asking for guidance from the universe) to find that I have opened to page 41 and that my eyes have landed on this paragraph:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;&lt;span style=&quot;font-style:italic;&quot;&gt;Ji&lt;/span&gt; refers to the technical aspects of a Zen art. &lt;span style=&quot;font-style:italic;&quot;&gt;Ri&lt;/span&gt; is the underlying principles of the universe, the universal truths, formless and unchanging. Ri denotes inspiration, whereas ji denotes skill. &lt;span style=&quot;font-style: italic;&quot;&gt;Now I will have to concentrate on the ji...&lt;/span&gt; (my emphasis)&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have taken this as a sign that I need to concentrate less on ideas and more on action, on the details, on the skills and putting them to good use, of figuring out what the &lt;a href=&quot;http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/zenbest-way-of-mountain.html&quot;&gt;ZenBest&lt;/a&gt; thing to do is - the &lt;span style=&quot;font-style: italic;&quot;&gt;doing it as well s I can&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some examples of how I have been putting Ji into effect in my &quot;mountain climbing&quot; are:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Result needed&lt;/span&gt; - I need to spend less money and pay off my debts. &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Ji skill &lt;/span&gt;- not drinking and estimating how much I would have spent on drinks during an evening out and putting this money onto my credit card debts the next day. And this also helps with the next item...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Result needed&lt;/span&gt; - Lose &quot;spare tyre&quot; around waist. &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Ji skill&lt;/span&gt; - riding my bicycle to work, which takes an hour either way. This also helps me save about $50 a week on LPG (gas fuel). It would save me more if I was silly enough to drive a petrol car ;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;music biz blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;technoratitag&quot;&gt;Categories: &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Zen&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Zen&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Tao&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Tao&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Taoist&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Taoist&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Personal-Development&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Personal-Development&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Motivation&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Motivation&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Self-Improvement&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Self-Improvement&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://del.icio.us/Seamoose/Productivity&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Productivity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/116008352119561181/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/116008352119561181' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116008352119561181'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/116008352119561181'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/pedal-out-of-debt-zen.html' title='Pedal-out-of-Debt Zen'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9542560.post-115982730827492005</id><published>2006-10-03T08:06:00.000+10:00</published><updated>2006-10-03T08:44:42.833+10:00</updated><title type='text'>ZenBest - The Way of the Mountain</title><content type='html'>I would like to introduce you to a new personal project that I have just begun. Being ever in love wth catchy titles, I have dubbed it ZenBest and it goes like this:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;I have been feeling like it is time for me to step up to the plate and stretch myself again in terms of personal development.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I have just finished reading &quot;Zen in the Art of Mountain Climbing&quot; by Neville Shulman, a very simple, modest book about how the man just decided to climb a bloody great mountain one day and despite the odds stacked against him, did so by using the mental strength that comes of Zen philosophy and practice.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;We all have mountains to climb every day. I am currently standing a short distance the way up Career Mountain. It is  very much my obsession to make it to the  summit of this mountain. I have attempted several hundred times to  make it to the top - but have thus far abandoned all of my attempts.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I believe it is my pre-destined mission in life to climb this mountain. There are other mountains that I will need to climb also but these are in fact part of the same mountain. Sounds a bit out-there I know, but what I mean is (for example) if I am to climb Career Mountain I will also need to climb Health Mountain as there is no career without my health.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Maybe I am just an egotist, but I have no desire to follow somebody ele&#39;s pre-determined program for success. I am not so full of myself that I don&#39;t read the collective wisdoms of those who have climbed before me and take it all into account, nor do I have any desire to re-invent the wheel, but I believe we all have our own personal mountains to climb, and that these are all different. Therefore they cannot be scaled by just following somebody else&#39;s guidebook.   We each must write our own.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;So now I begin ZenBest.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;ZenBest for me is a way followed by asking myself at any given moment - at moments of decision making - &quot;is this the ZenBest thing for me to do?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;This is different from asking &quot;Is this the BEST thing?&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The BEST thing to do might be complicated. Complicated is not my way.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The ZenBest Way is defined by these two words: Simplicity. Productivity.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;I have written enough for today, but this will be the continuing theme of my blogging from now. I began my own personal ZenBest program on Sunday October the 1st 2006 with two simple decisions. The first was to set up a pty ltd company and get serious about my career. The second was to abstain from drinking until Christmas Eve 2006. Two simple decisions that I believe will make all the difference ... but ONLY if carried through. Making decisions is easy, acting on them can be difficult. Anyone can decide to climb a mountain, it takes great resolve to actually do it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have posted further about this subject at my other blog &lt;a href=&quot;http://moosemusic.com&quot;&gt;MooseMusic&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;ATTENTION Melbourne Crew: I am playing a gig tonight at The Wesley Ann on High St Northcotte at about 9pm with Tully and Hilda. Come along!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Flow Like Water...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://embracemeditation.com&quot;&gt;meditation website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download my free music &lt;a href=&quot;http://myspace.com/seamusanthony&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/feeds/115982730827492005/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/9542560/115982730827492005' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/115982730827492005'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9542560/posts/default/115982730827492005'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thecontemporarytaoist.blogspot.com/2006/10/zenbest-way-of-mountain.html' title='ZenBest - The Way of the Mountain'/><author><name>Seamus &quot;Moose&quot; Anthony</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13144651344240292356</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>