♦ CONTEMPLATIVE and AWARENESS MEDITATIONS - A Good Read: - Dhamma Wiki articles by Akasa Levi -

 - A Good Read: - Dhamma Wiki articles by Akasa Levi -

♦ CONTEMPLATIVE
and AWARENESS 
MEDITATIONS
A Good Read ~ 
Dhamma Wiki
articles 
by Akasa Levi   
-------------------

"There's an Art
to becoming
a Realized human being.
Training exists. And it works.
Art is not a Thing - Art is a Way".

Sri Ananda Maitreya (Maha Nayake Thera)
1895-1998 Balangoda, Sri Lanka
---------------------------------------

http://www.artofliving.com/blog/home.php?&a=5
What do you want for yourself ?  Photos from 1996 Malibu event

Buddhist Style Meditation and Self-Inquiry is an Invitation to Be Willing to Sit within Your Very Own Mind. "Taking The One Seat" as Zen has named it -- with Mindfulness: it's the only place you could be -- anyhow...You're there / here right now and probably aren't awake to it, even yet... immediate and obvious.
It is a uniquely sane approach to mental Clarity, which can offer you vital access to Human Kindness and Self Transformation. Would you want that for yourself? What do you want for yourself?

By means of meditation we can teach our mind to be calm and balanced: Calm. Then, within this calmness itself is found an already resident richness and a potent potential, an innate creativity, a ready-to-go inner-knowledge which can gift our lives to be boundlessly satisfying and meaningful. Then we can tap the true healing qualities of our mind. While the mind may be what traps us in unhealthy patterns of stress and imbalance, it is also the mind which can free us.

The practice of a Buddhist-style Awareness Meditation uncovers the awakened state of mind. That's what it does. In order to understand what is meant by "awakened", it is necessary to understand what is meant by the opposite of awakened.

The opposite of awake is "asleep". Being asleep refers to the joyless cycle of conflict and hassle which pervades so much of our daily lives. We shuttle between feeling that things are terrific or that things are terrible, and we become wrapped up in continuous anxiety trying to establish some sort of solid ground. This suffering produces fear, anger, frustration and confusion - that blocks and shuts down our true ongoing experience of ourselves. What a loss!

In meditation, for a little while in the beginning -- by seeing, by softening, by giving up and letting go of this habitual knee-jerk struggle we've got going for ourselves, we are able to fully appreciate each "experience" and the exquisite power, the"in-the-moment" richness of what it means to just be alive. With clarified awareness, we no longer see our "experiences" just in marketable terms of what it can get or do for us or how it can hurt us. This grand appreciation is the first glimpse of what it means to be awake.

Meditation is the heart of the practice. Although it starts with specific techniques, Awareness Meditation is ultimately a path of very clear seeing and a wholesomely spontaneous way of being. No spiritual contortions, contrivances or gimmicks. Meditation is a process of slicing through the views, opinions, commentary and judgments which normally cloud our experience of life. No, the intellect or feelings are not rejected -- they are liberated from the bondage of both hope and fear, becoming less confused and more enhanced and vivid to awareness.
 --------------------------------

Meditation is, quite simply -- Centered --  just being in the present moment, clear, central in your noble stance, between the "This" and the "That" - the metaphysical media broadcasting from the Middle - at the peak of it's ever constant 'becomingness', in the Center right here in the Middle point. The Middle of the Moment - that's when things momentarily appear to fully exist. Experiencing The View from the Middle. That's what "meditation" "IS".
---------------------------------

In an Awareness Meditation Class or Retreat, you work with silence, stillness and inquiry, to train the mind to come back again and again to the here and now. Here and Now. Directly experiencing just "what is" - and just what "isn't". The practice of meditation and the goal of meditation are the same: to be Awake.
So, are you sincerely interested in giving up your notions of self-protection, the need to be "right", the need to be in"control"-- and in letting go of out-dated thought patterns, heavy programmed agenda, naïve belief systems and confusing attachment-avoidance tendencies -- and taking up a self-perpetuating process by which you can wake yourself up? Then you will be treated to a constantly expanding spacious clarity of life based on non-clinging and non-confusion. You'll know what's what! And you'll be free!

Complete Awakening has been achieved by ordinary human beings. Enlightened awakening is not a promise, a heaven, a dream or an idea. It is actually possible to seek out our own liberation and to attain a completely awakened state of mind. Just as sleep belongs to us, is inside us, so a meditatively clear wakefulness is inside us. Wakefulness is happening all the time, and the meditation practice consists of merely training ourselves to become aware of it. That makes sense, doesn't it. Sure it does.
We say "Buddhist-style meditation", not "Buddhist". We are not at all interested in you having a relationship with Buddha (he's dead) or in you becoming a "Buddhist," (you can't, there is no such thing). These meditation approaches are merely human developments in evolving human consciousness over the course of time. We offer no salvation and there is nothing to save.

The Laughing Buddha Sangha
From Dhamma Wiki
The Laughing Buddha Sangha:
§ Address: 2046 Fourteenth Street Santa Monica CA 90405
§ Tradition: Theravada, Sri Lanka Amarapura Nikaya
§ Affiliation: Dharma Vijaya Vihara Los Angeles
§ Phone: 310 450 2268
§ Website: www.
§ Spiritual Director: Akasa Levi (Phone: 310 450 2268)
§ Notes and Events:


The LAUGHING BUDDHA SANGHA offers a very eclectic "Inquiry into Self" practice combining the calm observation approach of traditional Vipassana Mindfulness with the crazy wisdom irrationality of Zen Non-Duality which short-circuits the obsessive self-absorbed, self-identified mind.

Newcomers: Beginners very welcome !  You will be very patiently guided. Newcomers are asked to please inquire first by phone to see if this group is possibly even for you. This sitting group encourages highly inquisitive, unflappable people with a natural, deep love of learning who relish the abstract, and even the absurd - with a genuine taste for the indefinable existential stuff.
Experienced Meditators who are seeking a much deeper questioning into Self - and a de-mystifying, open-minded, caring conversation into Wisdom, Empathy and Spiritual Reality in our Western life-style + some poetry and laughing! Our practice is informed by traditional Theravada Buddha Dharma for clarity of view.
"BUDDHA: The JOYOUS ICONOCLAST" Study Series – offers a much more outside-the-box-Buddhism! Heart filled 'heresy' for a more maverick spirited inner-quest – for nourishing an iconoclast intelligence and compassionate critical thinking with a caring heart thru some refreshing, risky, even radical spiritual considerations of Reality by developing a Dharma informed mind.

The Open Meditation Class is 7:30 to 9:30 PM, Monday Evenings and Includes: Guided Instruction a 35 minute Silent Meditation Dharma text study with QandA dialogue Metta-style Loving Kindness Meditation with sacred poetry to conclude. The Core Study Group meets with Akasa on Tuesday evening, The Zen-Men Group on Thursdays. Sangha Shabat one Friday evening a month. Please Phone for Details.
Akasa Levi was one of the few Americans of the counter culture generation that lived a decade in Asia during the 70's, to be directly with the last living spiritual teachers of the pre-global era. He was a Buddhist forest monk for six years - trained and ordained into the Theravada monastic lineage by the revered Maha Nayake Ananda Maitreya of Sri Lanka. Originally a Vajrayana initiate of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan, Nepal - and later, a Vipassana student of S.N. Goenka and Anagarika Munindra in Bodhgaya, India - and practicing Non-Duality Advaita in satsang with Nisargadatta Maharaj in Bombay. Akasa is a Bodhi-Acharya lineage holder of the Theravada teaching transmission. He is known for his spontaneity and wry unpredictable humor.


For more information call 310 450 2268.
You can also visit his webpage at http://zentrance.com
The Laughing Buddha Sangha
From Dhamma Wiki
The Laughing Buddha Sangha:
§ Address: 2046 Fourteenth Street Santa Monica CA 90405
§ Tradition: Theravada, Sri Lanka Amarapura Nikaya
§ Affiliation: Dharma Vijaya Vihara Los Angeles
§ Phone: 310 450 2268
§ Website: www.zentrance.com
§ Spiritual Director: Akasa Levi
    (Phone: 310 450 2268)
§ Notes and Events:


Edited and non-edited Versions of this and many other pieces -- are just that Pieces, and that will take too much Time. Enjoy what is presented as it is, please... 

“And then the day came

when the risk to remain

tight in a bud

was more painful

than the risk it took

to blossom”        ~ Anais Nin

_______________________

Spiritual ‘progress’ in almost all the world's inner-development technologies and traditions is effectively made by using rediscovered body-mind prescriptions, skillful applied body-work exercises, a better diet and didactic mind-cultivation teachings. Huge looming personal Questions concerning How Long Does Therapy Take ? - certainly needs a reasonable responsible response. Hey, You deserve it for coming this far already ( just take the compliment - you could use a little praise ) 

But, we’re just not going to just answer you or your 'insistent' need to know -- in the "wise-guy zen way" -- in a way, like a little baby aquatic creature put back into the pond, but close by -- we're going to send you back for you to “go back on the cushion and sit some more”. Go find out, but keep going to find out. So, No Question will be answered today by giving you a day date calendar of Time -- then again, it takes time.

So here on this page are some pithy sacred snippets to help you facilitate good Questions for yourself. I say only ‘good’ because I’d rather not even word the question for you with any more description, but let it arise in 'your' present moment purely by itself while on your cushion/or in your chair, and you may have to wait, and that takes time.

 “Language Is All We Got” !  All individual words in every culture’s language can be ‘Contemplated’ / ponder, mull over, deep ecstatic consideration - with so much rich goodies packed into even a mean man’s bag of bad words, that too can be contemplated. Well meaning ideas can really help you, but can also hinder you with ready made answers.

 As Rilke said:

 “Love the Questions
Themselves”, Instead “ 

_______________________

See Jack Kornfield’s books -
especially ‘A Path with Heart’
and ‘The Wise Heart’.
See Mark Epstein’s books etc.
See our Booklist also...
_________________

Practice…
"Contemplative Repetition" is a Positive Pondering Practice along with frequent silent sitting Meditation-- both being your new best practice friends. Read to yourself the quotes on this page, and shop for a good little book on basic affirmation practice.

_____________________

OK ~ So, How L o n g Does 'Therapy' Take ?

Then again, there are a lot of "basic conditioning factors" involved.

Hidden on this page, in these savvy poetic quotes that 'prompt' you

to see better, experience deeper, are some forthright responses to

this Question: How Long ? 

• Therapy Takes Time and Therapy Takes Effort.
___________________________________________________________

-- and let's recite it again,

“Your difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

your whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

some time

to turn around”...

another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

,

NOW --another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

me a whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

me some time

to turn around”

another time again…

time

to turn around”

and another time again…
another, another time again…
this time continue forever
in the first person

( We will continue off the page
with exercises that short circuit
the resistive mind and play it out
thru Repetition for a few minutes -
that's OK I hate this process also... )

----------------------------------------------

“ It is still up to you to choose ~
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember, that to choose one
is to let go of the other --

when the way comes to an end,
then change -- having changed,
you can then pass through."      ~ The Tao

____________________

• One of the most classic therapy-gained Truths comes as a deep personal realization and a pointed reminder ( or wrong end of a pointed stick )...

that working on yourself, your difficult issues and wounded feelings -

Feelings that took your whole life-time to develop -

- will certainly take some time to turn around....

The Struggle of Living Through Things

_________________________________

. 

When wiggling through a hole,
the 'difficult' world looks different ~
than when scrubbed clean
by the wiggle and looking back.  ~ Mark Nepo 

“ I love you, gentlest of Ways –
you who ripened us ...
as we wrestled with you.”

~ Rilke on Buddhism ( Paris 1908 )

“ Individual people
stumble over pebbles,
never over mountains.  ~ Emilie Cady

It takes Time…

T I M E . T I M E . T I M E .

 How Many Visits ?

.. How Long Does

....'Therapy' Take ?

......This is a huge

........indefinable

..........indefinite

...........question

............ It takes

.............T I M E .

Again. . . .

How L o n g Does 'Therapy' Take ?
Are We Lookin’ at

LONG term, SHORT term
We do need to explore
your operating
relationship with "Time"

We need to explore
your relationship
with "Achievement"

and "Accomplishment"
and private Experiences
of personal Satisfaction

and inconsolable Loss

... stuff like that.
_________________

"Where are you coming from ~ No, not the Beach, I mean in your head"  

is a major influence factor: Everyone knows that. There's a whole assortment of human cultural artifact in the language, mood and tone we are using behind the simple utterance: "How Long is IT going to take ?" --"How Long is THIS proceedure going to take ?" -- based on "Who" you 'think' you are: your mind-set, your identity thinking, your privilege thinking, your entitlement thinking, and your resentment of/at even being here. And you thought you were in control, in charge. And like this is already ( sigh ) going to take some more of My Precious Time -- and our upper middle class values pull us around "to being served" -or- “serviced” -or- “serving”. Actually, I'm always the end product of being served up: Me -- Me Serving Me My Self and I -- at 'my best' every 93 seconds, serving and pleasing, serving and pleasing, serving and pleasing -- I'm the friggin Product -- and I’m paying for this !?! I’m paying to be a test product. I’m a sample. How could there not be resentment waiting for some dark njght for some alone time to arise, so I can tell myself a ‘story’ to survive. And there's all this constant palm device fidgety personal status 'adjustment' for each one of us. This goes on inside absolutely everyone.

Oopps, somene’s latte justfell off the roof of their Honda…
____________________________________________

is not just in your therapist’s  office -- but what you put into it

in your day to day -- call it ‘All-the-time-Awareness’ towards a spacious, clear and richer mindfulness that opens you for a much more aware Living Experience of Living.  

You've gotta plan on giving it some really open-ended exploratory time – Honestly: I really don't know -

it's really person by person.
 

Inner-Healing of any kind takes its own time – individually, person by person, situation by situation. And it's 'Teachable !

Certainly one session is not enough to be effective and semi-lasting except as a basic introduction for the client and counselor to simply check each other out.

AND for the client to 'confirm' for themself - that they are hopefully doing something good by the active decision itself to seek counseling. In a preliminary session - maybe I can observe a basic 'diagnosis'. Maybe. Maybe I can inform you in a few first sessions what we may be looking at as to how "a therapy" might develop, or maybe I could refer you somewhere that could work in a better balance with your particular needs. Maybe.....

Let's just consider seeing if even a common ground of open communication exists – and might grow between you and me, your counselor.

You gotta' give 'it' a chance. What else can I say?...

" We just ain't got No easy answers..."

Therapy takes Time and therapy takes Trust and Risk.
One of the most classic therapy-gained truths comes
as a personal realization and a pointed reminder --"... that working on yourself, your difficult issues and wounded feelings, feelings that took your whole life-time to develop - will certainly take some time to turn around.

That's why I offer a FREE phone consultation -

First - before coming in here for the first time.
Inner-Healing MUST be a very, very 'Human' thing. 

A 'therapist' or a 'counselor' is a special new 'human'

In your life. Beginning 'therapy' is sort of a professiona

Blind-Date. Do you two even 'Like' each othe

So go easy on the immediate impulse to judge or evaluate these first few session impressions. So give a fresh new experience a fresh new chance.

Th

erapy takes time and takes work. We're also looking

at ‘how’ or ‘how not’ have you spent money on yourself before - And please, do not expect only a few sessions to be sufficient: 'Self-healing' your difficult issues and wounded feelings that took your whole life-time to develop - will certainly take some time to turn around. There are NO silver bullets, no magic pills or divine interventions. No fantasies. There IS a lot of 'resistance'. Of course there is, that's how you muscled-up and survived so far...
You and me, your counselor, are going to have to work and walk and talk in each other’s one-to-one presence -- very intimately – and be openly truthful, trusting and honest. Change takes a willingness to work the 'change' and give it time -- and for us to responsibly KNOW that....

“ If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes ! “

And at times you will experience painful , sobbing moments, even days - and even 'scrape bottom' where hopelessness lies... be brave. After a short time actually - you will begin to consciously process as you progress - towards a healthy noticeable 'shift' in your very own 'experience' of yourself. Yet, it's gonna take some TIME.

 “ Small victories, and

self realized baby-steps

give definite, authentic,

realistic motivation

and momentum

to the journey.

I will promise you

some small victories ! “    ~ Akasa

" While one person hesitates because they
'feel' inferior and 'think' insecure thoughts –
The other is just busy making mistakes aplenty
and becoming quite superior."....~ The Tao

 _________________________________

Spiritual ‘progress’ in almost all the world's inner-development technologies and traditions is effectively made by using rediscovered body-mind prescriptions, skillful applied body-work exercises, a better diet and didactic mind-cultivation teachings. Huge looming Question concerning How Long Does Therapy Take ? - certainly needs a reasonable responsible response. Hey, You deserve it for coming this far already ( just take the compliment - you could use a little praise ) 
So, we’re just not going to just answer you or your 'insistent' need to know -- in the "wise-guy zen way" -- in a way, like a little baby aquatic creature put back into the pond, but close by -- we're going to send you back for you to “go back on the cushion and sit some more”. Go find out, but keep going to find out. So, No Question will be answered today by giving you a day date calendar of Time -- then again, it takes time.

So here on this page are some pithy sacred snippets to help you facilitate good Questions for yourself. I say only ‘good’ because I’d rather not even word the question for you with any more description, but let it arise in 'your' present moment purely by itself while on your cushion/or in your chair, and you may have to wait, and that takes time.

 “Language Is All We Got” !  All individual words in every culture’s language can be ‘Contemplated’ / ponder, mull over, deep ecstatic consideration - with so much rich goodies packed into even a mean man’s bag of bad words, that too can be contemplated. Well meaning ideas can really help you, but can also hinder you with ready made answers.

 As Rilke said:

 “Love the Questions Themselves”, Instead “ 

_________________________________________________

See Jack Kornfield’s books - especially ‘A Path with Heart’ and ‘The Wise Heart’. See Mark Epstein’s books etc.

Practice… Contemplative Repetition is a practice - and Pondering next to frequent Meditation is one of your best practice friends. Read to yourself the quotes on this page and get a good little book on affirmation practice.

_____________________________________________________

OK ~ So, How L o n g Does 'Therapy' Take ?

Then again, there are a lot of "basic conditioning factors" involved.

Hidden on this page, in these savvy poetic quotes that 'prompt' you

to see better, experience deeper, are some forthright responses to

this Question: How Long ? 

• Therapy Takes Time and Therapy Takes Effort.
___________________________________________________________

-- and let's recite it again,

“Your difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

your whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

some time

to turn around”...

another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

,

NOW --another time again…

-- and let's recite it again,

“Your difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

your whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take 

some time

to turn around”...
another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings
another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

NOW --another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

me a whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

me some time

to turn around”
another time again…
time

to turn around”

and another time again…
another, another time again…
this time continue forever
in the first person. We will continue off the page with exercises that short circuit the resistive mind and play it out thru ‘Repetition Contemplation’ for a few minutes - and that's OK, I hated this process in the beginning, also.
----------------------------------------------

“ It is still up to you to choose ~
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember, that to choose one
is to let go of the other --

when the way comes to an end,
then change -- having changed,
you can then pass through."      ~ The Tao

____________________

-- and let's recite it again,

“Your difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

your whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take 

some time

to turn around”...
another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings
another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

NOW --another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

me a whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

me some time

to turn around”
another time again…
time

to turn around”

and another time again…
another, another time again…
this time continue forever
in the first person. We will continue off the page with exercises that short circuit the resistive mind and play it out thru ‘Repetition Contemplation’ for a few minutes - and that's OK, I hated this process in the beginning, also.
----------------------------------------------

“ It is still up to you to choose ~
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember, that to choose one
is to let go of the other --

when the way comes to an end,
then change -- having changed,
you can then pass through."      ~ The Tao

____________________

-- and let's recite it again,

“Your difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

your whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take 

some time

to turn around”...
another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings
another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

NOW --another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

me a whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

me some time

to turn around”
another time again…
time

to turn around”

and another time again…
another, another time again…
this time continue forever
in the first person. We will continue off the page with exercises that short circuit the resistive mind and play it out thru ‘Repetition Contemplation’ for a few minutes - and that's OK, I hated this process in the beginning, also.
----------------------------------------------

“ It is still up to you to choose ~
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember, that to choose one
is to let go of the other --

when the way comes to an end,
then change -- having changed,
you can then pass through."      ~ The Tao

Buddhist.counseling.mindfulness.therapy / Tony P / 4.16.docx

http://buddhistcounselingmindfulnesstherapy.blogspot.com  Site in work, Read anyway

http://buddhistmeditationsantamonica.com  plain text site  - Good reading

Hey Tony ~ I'm glad you go    t this far in your 'search' for some clarity that might unstick the valves in

Hey Tony ~ I'm glad you go    t this far in your 'search' for some clarity that might unstick the valves in your Life. It always takes courage for anyone to reach out to reach deeper in. Ain't easy for most people to do -- go see someone and get some skillful help. Well, here you are. It’s a long visit with the written-word to get you to go further…

And Tony, I have a story also. I just went sort of semi retired. After many, many years as a Buddhist-based therapist and counselor in Santa Monica, seeing longer-term therapy clients and shorter term counseling folks - I've finally been able to get more submerged in working on my book, teaching meditation, and re-educating the emotional mind. I'm a good counselor and caring therapist and really don't want to just shut it all down because I’m turning 75.

So I didn’t. So that I would give back to the community again: So I made a deal ( a ‘just considering’ - ‘a what If’....)) with my lady companion -- That I would experiment by only seeing highly motivated new younger clients if they lived very locally - within a five mile or so radius, coincidently as you mentioned that Tony. More like a small town flavor. I found when my clients or my students were too far away, there’s that exhausted dash of a drive-time factor that bites badly at them - and they arrive here ‘too pooped to participate’. Too wiped out to go deep within their own ‘sacred-space’ to go into and under the issue - to get at and ‘work’ the issue - to go beyond the issue - to get a living ‘wise-up’ experience that sticks enough to make a noticeable difference.

“If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes “ said an old zen master. 

To resolve issues you need some safe ground, trust and some uncompromised space, and you need some ‘me’ time - which it seems you do want to offer yourself -  and have enough usable energy for inner growth. Is that an odd criteria ?  All those people who are ‘working’ on a time-schedule that doesn’t allow them to find time to arrange for therapy. The wound stays infected. No time to heal. No Time.

Also in my story Tony, there’s been a natural tapering off of my longer-term clientele as many have matured and healed well -  and I’m now exploring putting myself at the service of much younger minds, people developing themselves way out tide any box -- who would benefit by the ‘enlightening’ experiences of a savvy old man who’s also a good listener, smart advisor and nimble facilitator - an older counselor who’s “Been There Done That’. I like this opportunity of giving myself some praise. You certainly can too. Another important side to me  is that I am a Buddhist, my ways eventually based in empathy for the suffering human condition. Caring about people doesn't cause an obstacle for me. I’m trully sorry you’re hurtin’ Bro… I will be guiding you into a secular method of how to gain mindful clarity to meet your emotions and issues head-on with what is appreciatively called Wisdon-Kindness ---  Nuf' go find the link:

So if you want to set up a Free one time visit, I can accommodate that,  since you're also nearby. What does Thumbtack require ?

Humor-time: “Therapist confesses to Client” - Thanks Tony who ever you be, It’s good for me to get this out of the way, embracing some fairly big changes in my own life -- and changes in my website’s life -- If Thumbtack allows - a rough current copy of a new one - a link is enclosed so that you can graze around in it now - reaping it’s benefits, unfinished as it is a new project of mine for you to get into parts of it.

FEE - My current base fee is a $150 per 90-minute session. This could be for 6 -to- 8 weeks, usually a once weekly meeting. As we know where we’re going -- you and your situation -- we can address the fee dropping down, or the time frame shortens, or you come every other week, or you go to meditation class to ‘chill’ and sweeten-up -- or both. I do excellent work with the mind. I’m a trainer, a coach in this regard. With younger clients like yourself, we could talk about just cutting the fee down a quarters or even a half. “Fee” itself is an integral part of the whole dance of having and not having and how that’s maintained. Maybe we can do this at a Buck a Minute, like in the old days. Some times in working together you need only a half hour, other times you’re working well and don’t want to stop for the day -- and sessions go to over an hour and a half.  Other clients are here on just a regular reduced fee basis at what they can afford out of pocket. Again, maybe my “Dollar a Minute” plan. I don’t take insurance or do Medicare. I’m not licensed, I work as a ‘minister’. I’m not a ‘standard’ mental health professional. If you read my site, it’s all very much there…

A Tough Love Story: I almost commanded - like in a movie - but compassionately -  that this troubled guy, like you, local - that he come over here every day for only15 minuets, and then leave. Every day this West LA guy did this for many weeks + a few words from me, and the improvement was tremendous. For some, hearing this story would say, hey, it’s less time than an ordinary work-out -- but the set-up was different. Ordinary common actions, but a different way of looking at his level of committed-intent to effect change, hopeless as it may have seemed. It changed. For him, the integrity of it became a very important big deal -- his “Intent”. What are the ‘agreements’ - what is the ‘going-intent’ set up in your family ? In your Life ?  

My site didn’t grab the new template quite right yet - but you'll have some fun, and some insights none the less. Whatever arrangements work forTthumbtack work for me -- and I assume you. So catch a Free Visit with a strange old therapist, one free session, low fee, mid-week, late and early don’t work for anyone, so that has to somehow change or nothing works You have to become available, Tony my friend. 8 week commitment and lets work on your stuff.

The site I’d like you to read , messy as it is, will also factor in as a very useful information tool also. Sorry got no kewl video available -- but very available to clients is the Heart of an old fashion ex New York grandfatherly, Buddhist guy with some potent wisdom to work you over with... This world be an experiment for me too. And you get the Dollar a Minute fee deal...

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

me a whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

me some time

to turn around”

another time again…

time

to turn around”

and another time again…
another, another time again…
this time continue forever
in the first person

( We will continue off the page
with exercises that short circuit
the resistive mind and play it out
thru Repetition for a few minutes -
that's OK I hate this process also... )

----------------------------------------------

“ It is still up to you to choose ~
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember, that to choose one
is to let go of the other --

when the way comes to an end,
then change -- having changed,
you can then pass through."      ~ The Tao

____________________

• One of the most classic therapy-gained Truths comes as a deep personal realization and a pointed reminder ( or wrong end of a pointed stick )...

that working on yourself, your difficult issues and wounded feelings -

Feelings that took your whole life-time to develop -

- will certainly take some time to turn around....

The Struggle of Living Through Things

_________________________________

. 

When wiggling through a hole,
the 'difficult' world looks different ~
than when scrubbed clean
by the wiggle and looking back.  ~ Mark Nepo 

“ I love you, gentlest of Ways –
you who ripened us ...
as we wrestled with you.”

~ Rilke on Buddhism ( Paris 1908 )

“ Individual people
stumble over pebbles,
never over mountains.  ~ Emilie Cady

It takes Time…

T I M E . T I M E . T I M E .

 How Many Visits ?

.. How Long Does

....'Therapy' Take ?

......This is a huge

........indefinable

..........indefinite

...........question

............ It takes

.............T I M E .

Again. . . .

How L o n g Does 'Therapy' Take ?
Are We Lookin’ at

LONG term, SHORT termWe do need to explore
your operating
relationship with "Time"

We need to explore
your relationship
with "Achievement"

and "Accomplishment"
and private Experiences
of personal Satisfaction

and inconsolable Loss

... stuff like that.
_________________

"Where are you coming from ~ No, not the Beach, I mean in your head"  

is a major influence factor: Everyone knows that. There's a whole assortment of human cultural artifact in the language, mood and tone we are using behind the simple utterance: "How Long is IT going to take ?" --"How Long is THIS proceedure going to take ?" -- based on "Who" you 'think' you are: your mind-set, your identity thinking, your privilege thinking, your entitlement thinking, and your resentment of/at even being here. And you thought you were in control, in charge. And like this is already ( sigh ) going to take some more of My Precious Time -- and our upper middle class values pull us around "to being served" -or- “serviced” -or- “serving”. Actually, I'm always the end product of being served up: Me -- Me Serving Me My Self and I -- at 'my best' every 93 seconds, serving and pleasing, serving and pleasing, serving and pleasing -- I'm the friggin Product -- and I’m paying for this !?! I’m paying to be a test product. I’m a sample. How could there not be resentment waiting for some dark njght for some alone time to arise, so I can tell myself a ‘story’ to survive. And there's all this constant palm device fidgety personal status 'adjustment' for each one of us. This goes on inside absolutely everyone.

Oopps, somene’s latte justfell off the roof of their Honda…
____________________________________________

is not just in your therapist’s  office -- but what you put into it

in your day to day -- call it ‘All-the-time-Awareness’ towards a spacious, clear and richer mindfulness that opens you for a much more aware Living Experience of Living.  

You've gotta plan on giving it some really open-ended exploratory time – Honestly: I really don't know -

it's really person by person.
 

Inner-Healing of any kind takes its own time – individually, person by person, situation by situation. And it's 'Teachable !

Certainly one session is not enough to be effective and semi-lasting except as a basic introduction for the client and counselor to simply check each other out.

AND for the client to 'confirm' for themself - that they are hopefully doing something good by the active decision itself to seek counseling. In a preliminary session - maybe I can observe a basic 'diagnosis'. Maybe. Maybe I can inform you in a few first sessions what we may be looking at as to how "a therapy" might develop, or maybe I could refer you somewhere that could work in a better balance with your particular needs. Maybe.....

Let's just consider seeing if even a common ground of open communication exists – and might grow between you and me, your counselor.

You gotta' give 'it' a chance. What else can I say?...

" We just ain't got No easy answers..."

Therapy takes Time and therapy takes Trust and Risk.
One of the most classic therapy-gained truths comes
as a personal realization and a pointed reminder --"... that working on yourself, your difficult issues and wounded feelings, feelings that took your whole life-time to develop - will certainly take some time to turn around.

That's why I offer a FREE phone consultation -

First - before coming in here for the first time.
Inner-Healing MUST be a very, very 'Human' thing. 

A 'therapist' or a 'counselor' is a special new 'human'

In your life. Beginning 'therapy' is sort of a professiona

Blind-Date. Do you two even 'Like' each othe

So go easy on the immediate impulse to judge or evaluate these first few session impressions. So give a fresh new experience a fresh new chance.

Th

erapy takes time and takes work. We're also looking

at ‘how’ or ‘how not’ have you spent money on yourself before - And please, do not expect only a few sessions to be sufficient: 'Self-healing' your difficult issues and wounded feelings that took your whole life-time to develop - will certainly take some time to turn around. There are NO silver bullets, no magic pills or divine interventions. No fantasies. There IS a lot of 'resistance'. Of course there is, that's how you muscled-up and survived so far...
You and me, your counselor, are going to have to work and walk and talk in each other’s one-to-one presence -- very intimately – and be openly truthful, trusting and honest. Change takes a willingness to work the 'change' and give it time -- and for us to responsibly KNOW that....

“ If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes ! “

And at times you will experience painful , sobbing moments, even days - and even 'scrape bottom' where hopelessness lies... be brave. After a short time actually - you will begin to consciously process as you progress - towards a healthy noticeable 'shift' in your very own 'experience' of yourself. Yet, it's gonna take some TIME.

 “ Small victories, and

self realized baby-steps

give definite, authentic,

realistic motivation

and momentum

to the journey.

I will promise you

some small victories ! “    ~ Akasa

" While one person hesitates because they
'feel' inferior and 'think' insecure thoughts –
The other is just busy making mistakes aplenty
and becoming quite superior."....~ The Tao

 _________________________________

 The Cultural Creatives

Spiritual ‘progress’ in almost all the world's inner-development technologies and traditions is effectively made by using rediscovered body-mind prescriptions, skillful applied body-work exercises, a better diet and didactic mind-cultivation teachings. Huge looming Question concerning How Long Does Therapy Take ? - certainly needs a reasonable responsible response. Hey, You deserve it for coming this far already ( just take the compliment - you could use a little praise ) 
So, we’re just not going to just answer you or your 'insistent' need to know -- in the "wise-guy zen way" -- in a way, like a little baby aquatic creature put back into the pond, but close by -- we're going to send you back for you to “go back on the cushion and sit some more”. Go find out, but keep going to find out. So, No Question will be answered today by giving you a day date calendar of Time -- then again, it takes time.

So here on this page are some pithy sacred snippets to help you facilitate good Questions for yourself. I say only ‘good’ because I’d rather not even word the question for you with any more description, but let it arise in 'your' present moment purely by itself while on your cushion/or in your chair, and you may have to wait, and that takes time.

 “Language Is All We Got” !  All individual words in every culture’s language can be ‘Contemplated’ / ponder, mull over, deep ecstatic consideration - with so much rich goodies packed into even a mean man’s bag of bad words, that too can be contemplated. Well meaning ideas can really help you, but can also hinder you with ready made answers.

 As Rilke said:

 “Love the Questions Themselves”, Instead “ 

_________________________________________________

See Jack Kornfield’s books - especially ‘A Path with Heart’ and ‘The Wise Heart’. See Mark Epstein’s books etc.

Practice… Contemplative Repetition is a practice - and Pondering next to frequent Meditation is one of your best practice friends. Read to yourself the quotes on this page and get a good little book on affirmation practice.

_____________________________________________________

OK ~ So, How L o n g Does 'Therapy' Take ?

Then again, there are a lot of "basic conditioning factors" involved.

Hidden on this page, in these savvy poetic quotes that 'prompt' you

to see better, experience deeper, are some forthright responses to

this Question: How Long ? 

• Therapy Takes Time and Therapy Takes Effort.
___________________________________________________________

-- and let's recite it again,

“Your difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

your whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

some time

to turn around”...

another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings

,

NOW --another time again…

“My difficult issues

and wounded feelings,

feelings that took

me a whole life-time

to develop --

will certainly take

me some time

to turn around”

another time again…

time

to turn around”

and another time again…
another, another time again…
this time continue forever
in the first person

( We will continue off the page
with exercises that short circuit
the resistive mind and play it out
thru Repetition for a few minutes -
that's OK I hate this process also... )

----------------------------------------------

“ It is still up to you to choose ~
to join with ‘truth’ or with ‘illusion’.
But remember, that to choose one
is to let go of the other --

when the way comes to an end,
then change -- having changed,
you can then pass through."      ~ The Tao

____________________

• One of the most classic therapy-gained Truths comes as a deep personal realization and a pointed reminder ( or wrong end of a pointed stick )...

that working on yourself, your difficult issues and wounded feelings -

Feelings that took your whole life-time to develop -

- will certainly take some time to turn around....

The Struggle of Living Through Things

_________________________________

. 

When wiggling through a hole,
the 'difficult' world looks different ~
than when scrubbed clean
by the wiggle and looking back.  ~ Mark Nepo 

“ I love you, gentlest of Ways –
you who ripened us ...
as we wrestled with you.”

~ Rilke on Buddhism ( Paris 1908 )

“ Individual people
stumble over pebbles,
never over mountains.  ~ Emilie Cady

It takes Time…

T I M E . T I M E . T I M E .

 How Many Visits ?

.. How Long Does

....'Therapy' Take ?

......This is a huge

........indefinable

..........indefinite

...........question

............ It takes

.............T I M E .

Again. . . .

How L o n g Does 'Therapy' Take ?
Are We Lookin’ at

LONG term, SHORT termWe do need to explore
your operating
relationship with "Time"

We need to explore
your relationship
with "Achievement"

and "Accomplishment"
and private Experiences
of personal Satisfaction

and inconsolable Loss

... stuff like that.
_________________

"Where are you coming from ~ No, not the Beach, I mean in your head"  

is a major influence factor: Everyone knows that. There's a whole assortment of human cultural artifact in the language, mood and tone we are using behind the simple utterance: "How Long is IT going to take ?" --"How Long is THIS proceedure going to take ?" -- based on "Who" you 'think' you are: your mind-set, your identity thinking, your privilege thinking, your entitlement thinking, and your resentment of/at even being here. And you thought you were in control, in charge. And like this is already ( sigh ) going to take some more of My Precious Time -- and our upper middle class values pull us around "to being served" -or- “serviced” -or- “serving”. Actually, I'm always the end product of being served up: Me -- Me Serving Me My Self and I -- at 'my best' every 93 seconds, serving and pleasing, serving and pleasing, serving and pleasing -- I'm the friggin Product -- and I’m paying for this !?! I’m paying to be a test product. I’m a sample. How could there not be resentment waiting for some dark njght for some alone time to arise, so I can tell myself a ‘story’ to survive. And there's all this constant palm device fidgety personal status 'adjustment' for each one of us. This goes on inside absolutely everyone.

Oopps, somene’s latte justfell off the roof of their Honda…
____________________________________________

is not just in your therapist’s  office -- but what you put into it

in your day to day -- call it ‘All-the-time-Awareness’ towards a spacious, clear and richer mindfulness that opens you for a much more aware Living Experience of Living.  

You've gotta plan on giving it some really open-ended exploratory time – Honestly: I really don't know -

it's really person by person.
 

Inner-Healing of any kind takes its own time – individually, person by person, situation by situation. And it's 'Teachable !

Certainly one session is not enough to be effective and semi-lasting except as a basic introduction for the client and counselor to simply check each other out.

AND for the client to 'confirm' for themself - that they are hopefully doing something good by the active decision itself to seek counseling. In a preliminary session - maybe I can observe a basic 'diagnosis'. Maybe. Maybe I can inform you in a few first sessions what we may be looking at as to how "a therapy" might develop, or maybe I could refer you somewhere that could work in a better balance with your particular needs. Maybe.....

Let's just consider seeing if even a common ground of open communication exists – and might grow between you and me, your counselor.

You gotta' give 'it' a chance. What else can I say?...

" We just ain't got No easy answers..."

Therapy takes Time and therapy takes Trust and Risk.
One of the most classic therapy-gained truths comes
as a personal realization and a pointed reminder --"... that working on yourself, your difficult issues and wounded feelings, feelings that took your whole life-time to develop - will certainly take some time to turn around.

That's why I offer a FREE phone consultation -

First - before coming in here for the first time.
Inner-Healing MUST be a very, very 'Human' thing. 

A 'therapist' or a 'counselor' is a special new 'human'

In your life. Beginning 'therapy' is sort of a professiona

Blind-Date. Do you two even 'Like' each othe

So go easy on the immediate impulse to judge or evaluate these first few session impressions. So give a fresh new experience a fresh new chance.

Th

erapy takes time and takes work. We're also looking

at ‘how’ or ‘how not’ have you spent money on yourself before - And please, do not expect only a few sessions to be sufficient: 'Self-healing' your difficult issues and wounded feelings that took your whole life-time to develop - will certainly take some time to turn around. There are NO silver bullets, no magic pills or divine interventions. No fantasies. There IS a lot of 'resistance'. Of course there is, that's how you muscled-up and survived so far...
You and me, your counselor, are going to have to work and walk and talk in each other’s one-to-one presence -- very intimately – and be openly truthful, trusting and honest. Change takes a willingness to work the 'change' and give it time -- and for us to responsibly KNOW that....

“ If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes ! “

And at times you will experience painful , sobbing moments, even days - and even 'scrape bottom' where hopelessness lies... be brave. After a short time actually - you will begin to consciously process as you progress - towards a healthy noticeable 'shift' in your very own 'experience' of yourself. Yet, it's gonna take some TIME.

 “ Small victories, and

self realized baby-steps

give definite, authentic,

realistic motivation

and momentum

to the journey.

I will promise you

some small victories ! “    ~ Akasa

" While one person hesitates because they
'feel' inferior and 'think' insecure thoughts –
The other is just busy making mistakes aplenty
and becoming quite superior."....~ The Tao

_________________________________