Three Monk Mindfulness - Amazon S3 · Complete Three Monk Mindfulness Course . Al J. Simon . ......

Three Monk Mindfulness

How a Simple Zen Story Reveals the Secrets to Finding Your "True Self" and Living a Happy,

Successful, Joyful, Love-filled, Meaningful Life

An Excerpt from the Complete Three Monk Mindfulness Course

Al J. Simon

This PDF is Copyright © 2011-2014 Al J. Simon (the “Author”). All Rights Reserved. Published in the United States of America. The legal notices, disclosures, and disclaimers in the front and back of this book are Copyright © 2009-2011 Law Office of Michael E. Young PLLC, and licensed for use by the Author. All rights reserved.

No part of this PDF may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system -- except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or website -- without permission in writing from the Author. For information, please contact the Author by e-mail at [email protected] or by mail at P.O. Box 130, Hillsboro, OR 97123-0130 U.S.A.

Published by Al J. Simon, Inc. (the “Publisher”).

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Happy New Year 2014! Happy New Year. To celebrate the beginning of 2014, I have a gift for you. It's a special excerpt directly from our Three Monk Mindfulness course.

Three Monk Mindfulness is the DEFINITIVE version of our unique approach to mindfulness. It combines Eastern Zen and Western mindfulness for living a happier, more joyful, more successful, more mindful life.

To create your NEW mindful, meaningful life, I'm NOT going to ask you to quit your job, leave your family, renounce your friends, or give away all of your possessions. I'm NOT going to ask you to run off to a monastery in order to do some Zen. And I'm NOT going to ask you to sit in lotus position and start meditating for hours a day. And I'm NOT going to ask you to totally re-arrange your life to bring Zen into it.

Instead, the Three Monk Mindfulness approach uses a combination of:

(1) Zen Mind-set and world-view understanding, plus

(2) Simple chi energy (qigong) work for mind and body, plus

(3) Insight practices, which are mental exercises you can work into your life as it is.

You can think of this course as "Zen for ordinary people" or "Zen for busy people." It's for those of us who can't spend hours a day meditating or totally re-arrange our lives to practice mindfulness, but still want to reach our full mindful potential.

I've chosen two chapters to share with you from Book 2 of the course. This is where we explore the "programmed reactions" that hold us back from being our True Selves. There are four primary areas of programming, and these two chapters introduces you to the first area - security.

Of course, these are just two of the fifty-one lessons that make up this course. The entire course covers everything you need to know to start applying Zen-based mindfulness for a more happy, more joyful, more loving, more loved, more successful, more mindful life.

Enjoy!

Copyright © 2011-2013 Al J. Simon 5 www.AlJSimon.com

Lesson #19 - Saber-toothed tigers

Imagine if you have lived in primitive times, like our remote ancestors before the beginning of civilization. Each day would have been a struggle for you to search for water, to hunt for food, and to find shelter to protect yourself from the wind, rain, sun, and snow.

Not to mention the threats to your life from wild animals hunting you as their prey. Or threats from other people and other tribes who might see your existence as threat to their own survival. The entire world might have seemed a threatening, hostile place.

Quick Thinking

When confronted with threats, especially from other predators (two-legged and four-legged), our ancestors had to make quick decisions. They may have only had seconds to decide. Is this situation really a threat? And if it is, should I turn and run, or stay and fight? Of course, in some situations, making these decisions consciously would be much too slow. A slow decision could mean death.

So instead, their senses took in the information about the situation, their brains assessed the information, and their nervous systems acted on the information. The brain and nervous system would trigger the release of the appropriate hormones and chemicals to make them feel safe, or to make them afraid so they'd turn and run, or to make them angry so they'd fight.

This was all decided instantly below the level of consciousness.

Modern Saber-Toothed Tigers

Today, few of us face this amount of struggle for our mere existence. But we do face other types of threats.

Your boss might show up at your desk to discuss a failing project. Or your kids are running through the house yelling at the top of their lungs. Or your spouse is complaining about something you've done. Or you've just lost your job and have financial problems. Or you've just recently had health problems or are starting to notice the effects of aging.


Or you watched or read the news today, to find yet another war is happening in the world, or another corrupt public official has been exposed, or the government is once again threatening your safety and liberty. Or any one of THOUSANDS of things that happen on a daily basis to make you feel like the world is a hostile, threatening place.

Of course, you have just about the same structures and processes at work in your brain and nervous system as your ancestors did. So when these new threats happen, your brain and nervous system react the same way. At a level below conscious, your brain assess the threat. and creates the appropriate hormonal/chemical release for you to flee or fight.

Maybe We Should All Just Duke it Out

Of course, there's a big difference between what your ancestors did when this happened, and what you can do. When that wildebeest or wild boar or saber-toothed tiger was ready to attack, your ancestor RAN or FOUGHT. Through physical activity, they actually USED the chemicals and hormones that were released and burned them off.

But with today's threats, physically running or fighting might not be practical, and in some cases, might not even be possible. You can't beat your boss up every time she shows up at your desk. You can't run away from kids, or your spouse, or your finances. (Well, you can try, but it usually doesn't work for long.)

You get the same "chemical dump" in your body as your ancestors, but you don't get to burn it off by physically running away or physically fighting. And that can lead to a variety of problems.

Security Programming

SECURITY is one of the four main areas where programmed responses affect us the most.

While security programming saved our ancestors in life-or-death situations, today they are as much a hindrance as a help.

Our security program can lead to:


1. Stress-related illness

Constant, regular exposure to those fight-or-flight neurochemical dumps can cause health damage over time. Immune system dysfunction, heart problems, lung problems, digestive problems, circulatory problems, liver problems, kidney problems - you name it. Just about every internal system is affected negatively by long-term exposure to these chemicals.

2. Emotional problems

In extreme cases, long-term exposure to stress can cause emotional and mental breakdown, depression, uncontrollable rage, suicidal thoughts, and much more. But short of these extremes are a whole range of problems that hinder us from reaching our full potential.

Problems such as emotional withdrawal, hot-tempered anger, fear of new situations, fear of the unknown, malaise, lack of motivation, feelings of constant failure, avoiding introspection, consistently turning to distractions, even emotion-based eating or drinking or drug use might be the result.

These are all the emotion-based equivalents of fleeing or fighting.

3. Hostile world-view

Perhaps the worst problem is that the constant bombardment of stress hormones and chemicals WARPS our view of the world. It's much like we said about beliefs earlier. When you believe something, you are more likely to have experiences where the belief is true than experiences where the belief is false.

Well, the more of these fight-or-flight chemicals we produce, the more we see, think about, and feel that the world is a threatening, hostile place. And this creates a downward spiral. The more threats we perceive, the more we physiologically respond to the threats. And the more physiological responses, the more threats we perceive.

In other words, the more afraid you are, the more you'll find to be afraid about, which means the more afraid you'll be, which means the more you'll find to be afraid about, on and on and on.


Both Safe and Hostile

Of course, this also works in reverse. The same body systems, when they perceive something positive in your environment, release chemicals and hormones such as endorphins and dopamine. These chemicals make you feel safe and happy. Instead of fight-or-flight, they help you to stay put, since the situation is perceived as safe.

And of course, the safer you feel, the more likely you are to find things to feel safe about, which leads to feeling safer, which leads to new experiences to feel safe, on and on and on.

Both of these views, that the world is getting more hostile or the world is getting safer, are warped. The objective view (as best as we can determine) is that the world is composed of both safe situations and threatening situations.

We don't want to respond to safe situations as if they were hostile, or hostile situations as if they were safe.

So our goal here is to not let our security programming warp our view. We want to respond appropriately to the situation. For most daily situations, we want to be able to choose our response, and not let these automatic chemical dumps choose for us.

Of course, if you are crossing the street, and a automobile runs a stop sign and is heading right for you, by all means, let the chemical dump do its work.

But when your boss is angry, or the kids are yelling, or your spouse is complaining, the chemical dump is probably not going to make the best choice at that moment.

The Zen of Security

Next time, we'll talk more about security programming and how to work with it. But for now, I want to add a couple of Zen stories. I often tell these Zen stories in this course, because I think they are the best way of seeing, thinking about, and getting a feel for how Zen applies to daily life.

Even though these are "ancient" stories, they apply to us now more than ever. The ancient Zen masters knew nothing about hormones or chemicals. And of course, without computers, they had never even heard the word "programming".


But they knew a heck of a lot about the security mind-set. Here are two quick stories. Ponder these stories for a bit. See if you can relate them to our discussion of security programming, and to your own feelings about safety and security.

Is It Hot?

Zen master Eshun knew that the end of her life was near. She asked some monks to build her a funeral pyre.

Rather than passively waiting for death, Eshun decided to leave life on her own terms. She set the edges of the pyre on fire, stepped into the pyre, and sat down in the center.

As the flames started to rise, one of the monks shouted at her: "Master Eshun, is it hot in there?"

Eshun shouted back, "Only a complete IDIOT would ask such a stupid question!"

The flames continued to rise, and Eshun passed away.

How Sweet it Tastes!

A man was walking through the forest one day when he stumbled upon a tiger. He turn and ran, with the tiger chasing him.

Unfortunately, he ran right to a cliff. To escape, he climbed over the edge by grabbing hold of some vines. The tiger couldn't follow, but instead stayed at the top of the cliff growling.

Full of fear, the man started to climb down the vines, but immediately saw that there was another tiger already in the valley below!

All he could do was cling to the vine for his life. But then he saw two mice had appeared from a hole in the side of the cliff. They immediately began to nibble on his vine. It appeared as if they were going to gnaw right through it!

Hanging there, the man saw a delicious, ripe strawberry growing on the side of the cliff. Holding onto the vine with one hand, he reached out the other hand, grabbed it, and popped it into his mouth.

It was the sweetest strawberry he ever tasted!


Lesson #20 - Wild mountain savage

SECURITY is one of the four main areas where programmed responses affect us the most.

In Book 1 of this course, we've talked about the Programmed Self in general. You've even done some exercises to help you fully experience how the Programmed Self operates. But let's take what we've learned about the Programmed Self in general terms, and apply these insights now to security programming:

1. The Programmed Self at the security level is about your feelings and automated reactions to the world that cause you to feel safe or threatened.

2. It's NOT about your intellectual judgment about security. You can intellectually know you are secure or know you are threatened, but actually feel and react the opposite way.

3. The Programmed Self presents a view of the world and your level of security in it that is consistent with its security programming.

4. In other words, if you feel threatened, you will generally have more threatening experiences than safe experiences. If you feel safe, you will have more safe experiences than threatening experiences.

5. The Programmed Self, when it comes to security, is NOT trying to sabotage your well-being and happiness. It's trying to protect you.

6. However, in trying to protect you, it sometimes over-reacts or under-reacts. It over-estimates or under-estimates the threat or safety.

7. The goal here is not to try to "overcome" these reactions, or fight against them. That's trying to use the weaker "Conscious Self" against the much stronger "Programmed Self".

8. Fighting or overcoming doesn't work in the long run, and will more likely make the programming stronger, more entrenched.

9. In addition, our goal isn't to have a certain type of security programming. You don't want to always feel safe (as pleasant as that may sound). Instead, you want to be feel safe when it's right, or feel threatened when that's right.

10. The best way to achieve these goals: work towards observing your security programming and investigating it. After that, you can focus on accepting it, and calming and relaxing it.


11. Observing and investigating is difficult, because sometimes our brain re-orders our experiences.

It may feel like:

... We experience a threatening situation,

... Then we are aware of feeling unsafe or afraid,

... Then we react based on these feelings.

But what may have actually happened:

... We experience a situation,

... Below conscious level, we evaluate it as threatening,

... This causes a chemical dump to make us afraid,

... We react based on these feelings,

... Then we are aware of feeling unsafe or afraid.

The Security Scale

When it comes to security programming, we have two polar opposite ways of relating to the world. (By the "world" - I mean all the people, places, things, and situations we encounter.)

These opposites are:

The world is a threatening, hostile place. I need to do what I can to protect myself, and need to be distrustful of anything new or different in

the world until it has proven itself.

- vs. -

The world is a safe, secure place. I can open myself to the world, and I can trust that anything new or different in the world is actually there

for my benefit and well-being.

Instead of just polar opposites, I like to think of security programming as being on a numeric scale that runs from zero to one-hundred. At zero, the world feels threatening. At one-hundred, the world feels safe. I won't type out all one hundred numbers, but this scale would look like these chunks:


0 = The world feels completely threatening. Nothing feels safe.

1 to 24 = The world feels primarily threatening. I've had a few times in my life that felt completely safe, but very few.

25 to 49 = The world feels mostly threatening, although I've had many experiences where I felt safe.

50 = The world doesn't feel particularly threatening, but it doesn't feel particularly safe either.

51 to 74 = The world feels mostly safe, although I've had many experiences where I felt threatened.

75 to 99 = The world feels primarily safe. I've had a few times in my life that felt threatened, but very few.

100 = The world feels absolutely safe. Nothing is threatening.

When it's New or Unexpected

Of course, during our lives, and sometimes even in the course of a single day, we fluctuate up and down this scale. But I don't want you to focus on this fluctuation, or even on how you feel most of the time. I want you to focus on how safe or threatened you feel when something new or unexpected happens in your world, or when your security is directly affected.

Here are a few examples. Even if you've never faced these situations, imagine them, and imagine how you'd feel or react. Keep in mind, you might have a variety of feelings in these examples, but focus on whether you feel safe and trusting, or feel afraid and distrustful.

• When you meet someone for the first time

• When you have money problems

• When you lose your job

• When a close friend moves away to another city

• When you receive a financial investment opportunity

• When you walk through a dark parking lot to your car

• When you hear a politician talking about security measures


• When you walk in the woods and find that you are lost

• When you find that your house has been broken into and robbed

• When someone becomes angry with you and yells at you

• When you think about global warming and environmental disasters

• When your adult children come for a visit

• When your adult children leave after a visit

• When you hear the news about riots in your country

• When you find your car has been stolen

• When you come into a financial windfall

• When you someone proposes a new business idea to you

These are just a few examples among many we could list. Once again, you might feel a variety of feelings in each of these. But focus on whether you feel afraid/distrusting or safe/trusting.

Always Insecure

Also, don't automatically think that you'll feel "safe" in safe situations or "threatened" in threatening situations. That might not always be the case.

For example, one of my business clients was definitely programmed to feel unsafe or threatened. As a matter of fact, the more successful she got, the more insecure she felt. We started her business from scratch, and built it up step by step. Each step improved her financial security and the business's stability.

But with each step, she became more insecure about what was happening. She was afraid she was going to lose everything. She began to question and doubt decisions AFTER we had already implemented the decisions and they were bringing her more clients and more orders! I had to spend numerous hours re-convincing her of decisions she herself had made that were already done and working.

Each step forward resulted in her feeling less secure, not more. That was her programmed reaction to the new situation, despite what was happening "objectively" to her business and income.


Always Being Secure is Just as Troublesome

I will admit - I have the opposite problem. I tend to feel safe and secure, even when by all objective standards I should feel afraid.

For example, I used to hike quite frequently around the Columbia River Gorge here in Oregon. I always hiked by myself, preferring the solitude I found in the forest. This area has beautiful scenery, but some of the trails can have some serious drop-offs. In some places, the trail narrows as you go past some steeper cliffs.

One day, I was hiking a trail I'd been on many times.

And at some point on the trail, I came across a big warning sign:

TRAIL CLOSED. DO NOT ENTER.

Trail closed due to landslide. Please use alternate trail.

And my programmed response: "No problem. It'll be OK."

So I continued on. Along the way, I began reasoning: "I've been on this trail many times. I know where it goes. I can probably get past the landslide and continue on my way. And if it gets too tough, I'll just turn around."

Of course, all that reasoning came AFTER I had already gone past the sign and continued on the trail.

After about a mile, I came to the landslide. I could see that it was really steep, but not very wide across. And it was mostly small rocks and pebbles, with only a few larger rocks and boulders. It was a steep slide, but I still wasn't afraid. Actually, it never occurred to me to be afraid. And I followed that up with, "The trail continues just on the other side of the landslide. I can see it from here. I'll just ease my away across the slide here and I'll be fine."

That's not what happened.

About half way across, I fell and slid down along with some of the loose rocks. I didn't slide very much though, only about ten feet below where the trail should have been.

I wasn't worried. I'd only slid down a little


So I began to stand up, but wound up sliding down a bit more. OK, so standing up wasn't going to work. So instead, I decided to stay on all fours and climb back up. But the rocks were too loose. When I tried to climb up, I slid down a little more.

A Little Too Late

It was only after about four downward slides and I was about twenty five feet below the trail, I became afraid.

A little too late, wouldn't you say?

My "safe" programmed had led me to underestimate the danger until it was too late.

It eventually turned out OK. I'll tell you what happened at the end of this lesson below if you are curious, but I don't want to wander too far from the main point here. And the point is that even in threatening situations, my default programming is to feel safe. But that's definitely not the best choice in every situation.

In other words, no security programming is always good or always bad. My business client felt insecure, even when the situation was secure. I felt secure, even when the situation was not safe.

So as you explore your security programming, don't assume it "matches" the situation. You might find it especially helpful to look for times when your feelings or reactions might have been contrary to what the situation called for. That will more likely be the case.

Next time, we'll discuss how you can use your Conscious Self to help you work on calming your security programming.

But if you are curious about how my landslide experience turned out, here's the rest of the story.

Landslide Brings Me Down

OK, so there I am, stuck on a landslide about twenty five feet below the trail I was originally on. And every attempt to climb up slides me farther down away from the trail.

Now, keep in mind, this was in the days before cell phones, and of course, there was no one else hiking in this area. And no one would have known to send help for me, because no one knew where I was.


Maybe after a few days, someone might have noticed my car abandoned in the parking lot, but that might not have happened for a while.

So I was completely alone.

I couldn't climb back up, because the rocks and gravel were too loose. I couldn't even stand up, because I was afraid the rocks and gravel would slide out from underneath my feet and I might fall and break something.

My only choice - I had to slide down the ENTIRE landslide on my butt and on my back a little at a time.

I'd push off a bit, slide out of control for a short distance, then come to a stop. Then push off again and do it all over. I had to do this over and over for just under an hour, with some breaks in between to rest.

During the sliding, I had two serious challenges. First I had to steer my way past some steeper cliffs and drop-offs, so that I'd stay on the landslide, and not go over the cliff part. Secondly, on one of my slides, my foot got trapped in bigger rocks while the rest of me continued to slide. Fortunately, I stopped before anything serious happened. But I had to try to make sure it didn't happen again, or I might break or dislocate something in my legs.

I tried putting my feet in the air during the slide, but I'd slide a lot further completely out of control. That was too scary, especially near the cliffs, so I had to keep my legs down to slow each slide.

As I said, it took me just under an hour to slide all the way down.

The slide ended in a damp, muddy wild area without trails that was still quite steep. But I could see a short trail head near one of the parking lots about thirty feet below where I was.

I then had to climb down through the muddy area, which ended in a five foot drop onto the trail head. I jump/dropped this last five feet. I was muddy, dirty, with rocks and dust and leaves all over my clothes, scrapped-up hands, mud all over my arms, my face, and my head, ruined shirt in tatters, ruined pants, and ruined backpack. And I was exhausted.

And as I dropped onto the trail, there just happened to be an older couple near the trail head.

They looked like tourists, and had just left their car in the parking lot, and were taking a few pictures near the sign at the trail head. They hadn't seen me above them, and when I dropped down that last five feet, seemingly out of nowhere, I surprised them.


They looked at me like I was a wild, mountain savage ready to attack.

Actually, that's exactly what I looked like.

They stood and looked stunned. (I wonder how their Programmed Selves were reacting?)

Anyway, my legs were a little wobbly, but as casually as I could, I strolled past the tourists and said:

"Welcome to Oregon."


New Year's 2014 Special! Save $100 and Get Free Shipping

For Your Three Monk Mindfulness Course!

I hope you enjoyed this special excerpt from our Three Monk Mindfulness course. I know many of you have been wanting to start this New Year off right and make it your most mindful year ever. Well, to help you with that, I have something special for you.

From now until midnight January 6th, I'm offering a $100 discount off our acclaimed Three Monk Mindfulness course. This is the course that many of our Mindful Masters started with on their path to mindfulness. It is the DEFINITIVE version of our approach that combines Eastern Zen and Western mindfulness for living a happier, more joyful, more successful, more mindful life.

Previously I had only taught Three Monk Mindfulness privately, either in one-on-one sessions or to small groups of under ten people. But now, the fifty-one lessons that make up this course have been collected in a special series of three professionally printed spiral bound books. These books contains all the text, insight practices, and chi exercises that are part of the entire Three Monks approach.

In addition, you'll also receive a Bonus CD-ROM for your computer. This data CD-ROM has printable worksheets for the course, plus the videos and audios so you get everything you need to start learning right away.

You'll be ready to get started immediately on finding your True Self and getting the mindfulness (and the life) you really want.

Now, normally this course sells for $397, and even at that price, people have told me this is the best investment they've ever made in their happiness and mindfulness.

But until January 6th, you can save $100 off that price.

Plus as an added bonus, we'll also give you Free Shipping. I will pay the shipping to get this course to you anywhere in the world.


So all you need to do to take advantage of this offer is head to this web page:

http://taggedfor.me/3monk-new-year

To get to the page, just click on the above link, or copy and paste into your web browser.

Then just scroll down the page, and click on the Add to Cart button you'll find there. It will take you to our secure order page, where you can order your Three Monk books and data CD with your $100 discount, plus your free shipping.

But don't delay, because the clock is ticking.

This one definitely ends on January 6th, so head to that page right now, and I'll see you on the other side.

You have my best wishes for the New Year,

Al J. Simon

Mindfulness Specialist, Chi Master, Zen Sherpa, Teacher, Author

http://taggedfor.me/3monk-new-year�


About the Author

Al J. Simon has been involved in meditation, mindfulness, and chi life energy for over thirty years.

Al learned his first Qigong exercises in 1975 (back when it was called "Chinese yoga"). He began studying Taoism, Zen, and Zen meditation in 1982, and began Tai Chi in 1984. In addition to these Eastern paths, he also spent the better part of the decade between 2000 and 2010 exploring Western esoteric, motivational, and mindfulness approaches.

Along the way, Al has become a Tai Chi and Qigong Master recognized by the Headfounders Grandmasters Council and the International Martial Arts Council of America. He has also been inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame three times, including as a Master and as a Founder, for his innovations to Tai Chi and Qigong.

Al is the creator of the Mindful Masters monthly newsletter, which explores in-depth the application of mindfulness to everyday life. You can find this newsletter at: http://www.MindfulMasters.com

Al is the author of three Amazon books on mindfulness and Zen: (1) Mindfulness Breakthroughs: Eight "Applied Zen" Mindset Changes to Start You on the Path to Mindfulness, (2) Point Your Mind: Zen Mindfulness in Everyday Life, (3) To Float Like Clouds, To Flow Like Water: Tai Chi as a Zen Path to Mindfulness.

He is also the author of the three book series, Three Monk Mindfulness: How a Simple Zen Story Reveals the Secrets to Finding Your "True Self" and Living a Happy, Successful, Joyful, Love-filled, Meaningful Life.

He is also the author of the online ChiFusion Tai Chi and Qigong Complete Course and the ChiFusion Tai Chi and Qigong Certification Course.

He has also been featured on both "Living Energy Secrets" and on "Secrets of the Qigong Masters". And his articles have been in numerous magazines, including Natural Health Newsletter, The Empty Vessel, and Qi Journal.

Al is also a member of Mensa, the high I.Q. society.

http://www.mindfulmasters.com/�


New Year's 2014 Special! Save $100 and Get Free Shipping

For Your Three Monk Mindfulness Course!

Head to this web page right now:

http://taggedfor.me/3monk-new-year

Click on the above link, or copy-and-paste into your web browser.

Hurry! Offer Expires January 6th, 2014

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