A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME We go about our daily lives, understanding almost nothing of the world.

We give little thought to the machinery that generates sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an Earth that would otherwise send us spinning off into space, or to the atoms of which were made, and on whose stability we fundamentally depend. Except for children, who dont know enough not to ask the important questions, few of us spend much time wondering why nature is the way it is, where the Cosmos came from, or whether it was always there, if time will one day flow backward, and effects precede causes, or whether there are... BUS 9 TO PARADISE Its not easy to give up the idea of a perfect world. We want to think of our parents as being perfect, we search for perfect relationships, and perfect solutions to our problems. It is indeed a constant struggle to separate the real from the ideal, to see in our imperfection an essential element of our humanness. We can all remember the most beloved childrens stories that always seemed to end with the prince, in all his perfection and heroic, romantic splendor, galloping off with the heroine with her virtually flawless characteristics, united for all time in their perfect love. A currently popular theory holds that from these fantasies, an indelible impression is formed of true love and happily-ever-aftering ... one that persists into the realities of the adult world. THE DIFFERENCE -- POEM I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. I had so much to accomplish that I didnt have time to pray. Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task. Why doesnt God help me? I wondered. He answered, You didnt ask. I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled gray and bleak; I wondered why God didnt show me. He said, But you didnt seek. I tried to come into Gods presence; I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, My child, you didnt knock. I woke early this morning, and paused before entering the day; I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray. FISH It is fashionable today to believe that we should not settle for anything less than doing what we love. Write poetry, travel the world on a sailboard, paint---do whatever you love, and the money will follow. We tell ourselves that life is too short to spend our working hours doing anything less than the ideal, and we continue our search for the perfect workplace. The danger is that if our quest for ideal work focuses us on the future, we will miss the amazingly wonderful life that is available today, in this moment. FISH is a parable, an invented story about finding the deep source of energy, creativity and passion that exists inside each of us by learning to love what we do, even if at the moment we may not be doing exactly what we love. FRIENDS One of the best things about life is friends. You find them wherever you go. Friends are essential because they help bring out the best in you. When they see your worst, they still care. They just accept. Friends are the stars in your happy memories. In your sad memories, they are the shoulders you leaned on and the hearts that listened. They just care. Friends help you in your times of need. When things are going smoothly, they are content to be your friend. They just know. Friends help create all your fun times, always there to spread laughter and joy. When you need tears, friends provide these too. They just understand. I CAN!

We can lift ourselves out of ignorance. We can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free. We can fly! Each of us is in truth an idea an unlimited idea of freedom. Everything that limits us we have to put aside. The most important thing in living is to reach out reach out and touch perfection. As Jonathon Livingston Seagull learned, the gull sees farthest who flies highest. I will! I have! I can! I DIDNT SPEAK UP, by Rev. Martin Niemoeller In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists... and I didnt speak up because I wasnt a Communist. Then they came for the Jews... and I didnt speak up because I wasnt a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists... and I didnt speak up because I wasnt a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics... but I didnt speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me. JOY The idea is JOY. When was the last time you felt real joy--that down-to-your-toes tingle of pure delight? Bigger than contentment, more intense than happiness, it's a feeling so vast it almost overwhelms you. And however fleeting, joy is the ultimate expression of gratitude and appreciation. It's what fills you up and fills you out, connecting you to something larger than yourself and leaving you staggering with wonder. MEDITATION Make yourself comfortable, sitting upright, with a straight spine. With your eyes closed, look at the point midway between the eyebrows on your forehead. Inhale slowly, counting to eight. Hold the breath for the same eight counts while concentrating your attention at the point between the eyebrows. Now exhale slowly to the same count of eight. Repeat three to six times. After inhaling and exhaling completely, as the next breath comes in, mentally say Hong (rhymes with song). Then, as you exhale, mentally say Sau (rhymes with saw). Hong Sau means 'I am He' or 'I am Spirit'. Make no attempt to control your breathing, just let its flow be completely natural. Try to feel that your breath itself is silently making the sounds of Hong and Sau. Initially try to feel the breath at the point where it enters the nostrils. Be as attentive as possible. If you have difficulty feeling the breath, you can concentrate, for a while, on the breathing process itself, feeling your diaphragm and chest expanding and contracting. Gradually as you become more calm, try to feel the breath higher and higher in the nose. Be sure that your gaze is kept steady at the point between the eyebrows throughout your practice. Don't allow your eyes to follow the movement of the breath. If you find that your mind has wandered, simply bring it back to an awareness of the breath and the mantra. As you become calmer, be more aware of the breath itself, higher and higher in the nose. Be sure to keep your gaze steady at the point between the eyebrows throughout your practice. Don't allow your eyes to follow the movement of the breath. If you find that your mind has wandered, simply bring it back to an awareness of the breath and the mantra. By concentration on the breath, the breath actually diminishes; its gradual refinement leads naturally to an interiorized meditative state. TO BEGIN A MEDITATION

Lock the eyelid-doors and shut out the wild dance of tempting scenes. Drop your mind into the bottomless well of your heart. Hold the mind on your heart that is bubbling with life-giving blood. Keep your attention tied to the heart, until you feel its rhythmic beat. With every heartbeat feel the pulse of almighty Life. Picture the same all-pervading Life knocking at the heart-door of millions of human beings and of billions of other creatures. The heart-throb constantly, meekly announces the presence of Infinite Power behind the doors of your awareness. The gentle beat of allpervading Life says to you silently, Do not receive only a little flow of My life, but expand the opening of thy feeling powers. MEDITATE ON GODS LIGHT Close your eyes. Forget the darkness around you and watch the bright red color within your eyelids. Look intently into that violet-red color. Meditate on it, and imagine it is becoming bigger and bigger. Behold around you a dimly shining sea of violet light. You are a wave of light, a ripple of peace floating on the surface of the sea. Now watch carefully. You, the little wave, are tossing on an ocean of light. Your tiny life is part of the all-pervading Life. As your meditation deepens, you, a little shallow wave of peace, are becoming the deep, wide ocean of peace. Meditate on the thought, I am a wave of peace. Feel the vastness just beneath your consciousness. The wave should feel the sustaining life of the vast ocean beneath it. TO AWAKEN MENTAL FREEDOM Sit still with a straight spine. Cover up your fidgety eyeballs with the sheets of your eyelids. Hold them still. Then loosen your mind from the consciousness of body-weight. Relax the nerve strings that are attached to the heavy muscles and bones of your body. Forget the consciousness of carrying a heavy bundle of bones tied in the thick cloth of flesh. Rest. Free your mind from the consciousness of a beast of burden. Do not think of your body-load, but feel your soul untied from the constant material quality of heaviness. Feel and meditate on this, your mental freedom from your body. THE REAL TRAVELER There is a distinction between the traveler and the tourist. The Real Traveler travels off the clock. Schedules shift from the routine and expected to the new and surprising. The heart opens. Differences dissolve. Friendship and discovery are the most prized commodities on the travelers road, and cost only the time it takes to listen, to explore, to step from one well-worn trail to a fresh cut path through new terrain. Become a real traveler and discover an earth that gives generously to the gracious guest. RELAXATION Concentrate on the breathing as you would ride the in breath then ride the out breath. Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth. Accept and open to the in breath. Release and let go the out breath. You hold the breath in for a tiny moment, letting everything dissolve. Everything is resolved in the spacious clear awareness of luminous Bodhi chita. Then exhale it all as bright shining light. You are exhaling luminosity like sun light and cool fresh spring breezes.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED On ones journey of spiritual growth, one must often take new, unfamiliar actions, in consonance with ones new world view. Behaving differently than one has behaved before may represent an extraordinary personal risk. The passive young man for the first time asks a girl for a date. The person who has never trusted anyone lies down for the first time on the analysts couch, allowing the analyst to be hidden from view. The previously dependent housewife announces to her controlling husband that she is obtaining a job. The emotionally distant, seemingly self-sufficient strongman first allows himself to weep in public. THE TREE OF YOGA In the The Tree of Yoga, by B.K.S. Iyengar, youll learn how one of the world's foremost teachers of yoga offers his thoughts on many practical and philosophical subjects, ranging from the place of yoga in daily life to insights from Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. Included are chapters on family life, love and sexuality, health and the healing arts, meditation, death and advice to teachers. SACRED WELL YOGA STUDIO Hatha Yoga practice will help you reduce anxiety, fear and stress. In a Yoga class geared toward stress reduction we start with a warm-up and continue with standing poses that strengthen our bodies and build stamina. This section of class allows us to create a focused level of physical activity that matches the intensity of our inner circular mental activity, which is the chief cause of stress in our lives. We then continue with floor work to calm and center ourselves as we work on our physical and mental flexibility. This section of class allows us to slow down the rhythm of the breath and movement so that our minds can slow down as well. Our breathing then deepens as stress breaks up like a wave on a beach. One way you can do this on your own is take a brisk walk and then come back and take 10-15 minutes to breath slowly and rhythmically. (continue or use as second option) Heres a calming breath pattern: 1) Sit in a position that allows you to relax and yet maintain a lengthened spine. 2) As you slowly inhale through your nose, with mouth closed, soften your belly and let the breath slowly fill you. Try to stream the breath in at an even pace. If you can, try making a soft ocean like sound in the back of your throat as you are inhaling. This is called Ujjayi breathing. 3) Exhaling again make that ocean sound as you breath out your nose. 4) Continue pattern and to pace your breath you can try mentally repeating: 5) Breathing in I am filled with peace 6) Breathing out I fill my world with peace. SCRIPTURE The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwell in the land of gloom, a light has shone. You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as men make merry when dividing spoils. For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, and the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed, as

on the day of Midian. For every boot that tramped in battle, every cloak rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for flames. For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. SELF-ESTEEM If you have a self-esteem problem, youre not alone. Everyone has some difficulties associated with a lack of self-esteemfeelings of inadequacy, insecurity, depression and behavior that reflect their lack of self-confidence. This tape series will help you gain your confidence, and help you boost the quality of your life. SERENITY PRAYER God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will. That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. THE STATION Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of city skylines and village hills. But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day, at a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering waiting, waiting, waiting for the station. SUCCESS IS A JOURNEY -- NOT A DESTINATION Success is a journey, not a destination. Hung on the shower that fronts the Golden West, the rainbow bursts like magic ... frail in its date, eternal in its meaning. There are rules and laws for the success of any venture or adventure. And the first one is: Success depends on beginnings, so start now with what you are, where you are, and with what you can do in the next 60 seconds. Success is the power with which to acquire whatever one demands of life without violating the rights of others. Getting to know and like people, and getting people to know and like you are the two trump cards in the game of success. WHY WE NEED FATHERS: By Dan Davenport In 1960, 5.8 million American kids lived in single-parent families. Today, that number has more than tripled, to an astonishing 18 million. Another figure is equally startling: nearly 40 percent of our children don't live in the same home as their biological father. Today, the number of kids whose parents are divorced is nearly equaled by the number of children in homes where there never has been a dad. One out of three babies in America today are born to unmarried women--a 600 percent increase since 1960. "Children need both a mom and a dad." Why both? In his recently published book, Life Without Father, Rutgers University sociologist David Popenoe details the unique yin and yang generated by a woman-man parenting team. "Mothers tend to be responsive and fathers firm. Mothers stress emotional security and relationships while fathers stress competition and risk-taking. Mothers typically express more concern for the child's immediate well-being, while fathers concentrate on a child's long-term autonomy and independence," Popenoe says.

YOGA JOURNAL Welcome to the world of Yoga. Explorations of hatha yoga, body works, alternative healing, diet and other body positive practices. From meditation to martial arts, philosophy to psychology, discover new and old, mind-expanding possibilities. A nurturing blend of Eastern and Western traditions offers food for the soul. Join us on the path. Before we begin, make sure you are wearing soft, loose clothes nothing should restrict your movements. Have a comfortable mat on a hard floor surface. And make sure you can easily hit pause and play on this video without needing to leave the mat -- either with a remote, or by being positioned closely to your video player. Hit pause now, and when you are prepared, hit play to begin. We begin with a series of stretches to warm up the body. Our first stretch loosens the mind as well as the body YOGA TAPE Let yoga be your secret weapon for toning and firming the upper body. Hands, arms and shoulders are potent instruments of expression and action. It is through them we reach out and participate in life. Yoga can shape, sculpt and firm your upper body, while also calming your mind and soothing your soul.