Use "Other Editions" to save money buying used books on amazon

Amazon has a way of listing books such as to hide the cheaper books.

Here's an example of a book I was looking up today. The book is Essential Tibetan Buddhism, by Robert A. F. Thurman.

I did a search on Amazon "Thurman Essential Tibetan Buddhism" and got the following page: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=thurman+essential+tibetan+buddhism&x=0&y=0

If the listing has not changed since I posted this, you will see that the lowest-priced book of this title is a paperback edition for $1.65.

However, if you click on the label "Other Editions: Hardcover" at the end of that listing, you will see that you can buy the new hardback edition for only 11 cents!

So, when you are looking for used books on Amazon, be sure to check the "Other Editions" tag attached to some of the listings.

So far, I've not been able to determine what the logic is in how they decide what editions to hide, except that it seems to be the lowest-priced one.

How I Quit Smoking Using Auto Hypnosis

by Gloria D. Vyne

I read a book published back in the 60's, called "How to Quit Smoking", or something like that. I recently went to AbeBooks, but it was not listed in the 800+ books they had on quitting smoking, so I can't verify the title or even the author. The technique the book used was auto-hypnosis.

Prep
Before I discuss the technique I used to quit smoking, I want to talk about what I was doing when I was smoking, because I think it made it easier to quit. One thing I had been doing for several years before I started this was rolling my own cigarettes. I smoked Drum tobacco, sometimes Top tobacco. One reason these are better than store-bought cigarettes is that they don't have chemicals that keep the cigarette burning if you put it down.

If I were to smoke now, I would smoke organic tobacco. The only brand I know that has organic tobacco is American Spirit. There are over 700 chemicals added to cigarettes; some to make the tobacco more addictive, some to keep it burning. If you switch to just tobacco, without all those chemicals, I think it will be easier to quit. I suspect some the addiction is to the additives, and if you switch to hand-rolled cigarettes, you will break the addictions to the chemicals without also having to deal with the tobacco withdrawal at the same time.

Plus, if you roll your own, the cigarettes are smaller, and the ritual of rolling your cigarette means that you spend less time smoking. My consumption of tobacco fell quite a bit when I smoked roll-your-own cigarettes. Plus, after a few years, I could hardly tolerate the chemicals in regular cigarettes.

Clearing your lungs
This has nothing to do with quitting smoking, but I think it's important for cigarette smokers, whether they are quitting or not, to do lung-clearing exercises every morning. It's just a matter of doing deep coughing, to clear the phlegm out of your lungs and nasal passages. Lean back and take a deep breath, and then use the force of your body as you bend forward and cough as hard as you can, without doing any damage. Don't cough so much you rasp your throat, but do a deep and thorough three or four coughs like this.

Also clear your nasal passages. You can get a neti pot, but I just put luke-warm water in a saucer with a bit of salt and snorted it up my nostrils, until I felt it in the back of my throat, and then spit it out my mouth, and blow it out my nose. As long as the salinity is normal, and it's body temperature, it feels fine.

Back to the story.
The first thing the book instructs the reader to do is write down all the reasons you can think of to quit smoking. I did not do this part, and I think its is one of the reasons it took me six tries to finally quit. It's possible I might have quit the first time if I had done this step.

Some reasons might be:
* The smell - not only on you, but on all your stuff
* The cost, in time and money
* The inconvenience
* Health consequences, both to you yourself, and to family members who share your air
* Social pariah factor
* Danger of accidental fire
* Bad example for children
* The feeling of self-abnegation when you realize how morally weak you feel, not being able to quit.
* Moral objection to strengthening corporate greedsters' wealth

Don't put in a time limit.
I remember this was the most striking thing about the program to me. He just said to trust to Spirit, that on the right day, you will wake up and not want to smoke. Don't say, "By next Friday" or "By my wedding day" or any time limits at all. And it was true - that's just what happened!

Visualize not smoking.
This is the key.

How do you visualize a negative?

Watch what happens in your mind's eye when I tell you, "Don't think about your left foot" You think about your left foot!

We are dealing with our subconscious here, which does not understand "NOT".

When you are instructing young children, tell them what to do, not what not to do.

Say, "Walk quietly.", instead of "Don't run".

Say, "Shut the door carefully.", not "Don't slam that door!".

When you say, "Don't run!", what does the subconscious hear? "Run!"

When you say "Don't slam that door!", what does the subconscious see? A door slamming.

So…how to visualize not smoking?

People will have different ways to do this. I suggest thinking about what your life will be like as a non-smoker. What good images does the word,
"non-smoker" conjure up for you?

For me, I pictured myself walking briskly outdoors, walking with big strides, shoulders back, arms swinging, empty-handed, and wearing clothes with no pockets. As a smoker, I always had tobacco, papers, and matches with me. I never went anywhere without them. Plus, I could not breathe in deeply, and vigorously for more than a few breaths before I started hacking. So, that image of taking a long, brisk walk became my visualization.

You will have to come up with your own image, maybe being in a fragrant environment, with a favorite smell you haven't smelled in a long time. It has to be personal, and it has to be positive.

Maybe you will visualize what you will do with the money you will have saved by not smoking. Whatever. Maybe you'll see yourself enjoying your friends in a restaurant after eating, rather than impatiently waiting to leave, so you can have a smoke.

Do the Relaxation Countdown
After you have your visualization, you can start the Relaxation Countdown. This is the core work you will be doing.

I did this at bedtime, in my bed. I went to bed earlier than usual, to make sure I didn't fall asleep.

I modified the approach described by the book - I was too high strung and nervous. Because this approach worked so amazingly well for me, I have to assume the author(s) had real success with this approach, even though I had to modify it, so I will describe the author's method, and then my own modification.

The book I was reading said to do a count-down from 10 to 1. That may work for you, it didn't for me. I had to use a more complicated system.

In the countdown, you are relaxed, either lying in bed (if you are well-rested and won't go to sleep) or sitting up in a chair or in a yoga asana position.

I didn't do the countdown from 10 to 1. Instead, I used my fingers to keep track of the breaths. The count-down is slow: one deep, slow breath per number - one exhale and one inhale. Make it as long and slow as is comfortable. The point is to be deeply relaxed. If you strain your breath, you defeat the purpose. At each breath, tell yourself you are going deeper into relaxation….deeper….deeper….more relaxed…more relaxed…. Don't think the numbers. The only thing to think is "deeper, slower, more relaxed" etc.

Press each of your ten fingers, one for each breath. With the first slow exhale, press your first finger and say silently to yourself, "More relaxed. Deeper into relaxation…..deeper… down deeper. . "

Say that the entire time you are exhaling and inhaling. Just keep telling yourself you are getting more and more relaxed. As you start each deep, slow exhale, press the next finger.

At the tenth finger, vividly picture the image you have previously developed of yourself as a non-smoker. Make it as real and detailed as possible.

I had to do a double-countdown, because I was too nervous. Before I got started, I told myself to do a relaxing count-down for each of my fingers. When I got to the last finger, that's when I would give myself the suggestion to do another count-down and finish with the visualization of myself striding briskly down the street, hands empty, no pockets, breathing deeeply. When I got to the last finger this second time, is when I would do the visualization.

That's it.

I modified the instructions from the book to suit my own peculiarities; you may want to do the same.

I did this maybe five nights a week. I would occasionally forget. I did not beat myself up if I forgot, I just did it the next night. The point is to deeply relax, and you can't do it if you're stressed out about missing a night.

Results
After a few weeks (maybe five, I can't remember now) I woke up one morning and did not want a cigarette. It was the damndest experience I had ever had, even to this day! I didn't want a cigarette! If it hadn't happened to me, I would not have believed it. It was like a gift from God. I went through all the withdrawal symptoms. My hands and arms felt big - not light or heavy, just big. My mouth felt funny, like it didn't know what to do, my whole blood chemistry was upset. It was very physiological. But it had nothing to do with cigarettes. I did not associate it with wanting a cigarette. I was disoriented. It was like having the flu - nothing to do but suffer through it until it ran its course.

My co-workers would ask me how it felt to not smoke, and I didn't really know what to say, because I was not associating these weird body feelings with nicotine withdrawal. When they asked me how I liked not smoking, I said I hated it.

Backsliding
After a few weeks, I was at a bar, and someone offered me a cigarette, and I took it, and that was it. All over. Bummer.

So, a few years later, I decided to try to quit again. I was so amazed that my subconscious had that much power. I never would have believed it if I hadn't experienced it myself. I wanted to see if it would happen again. It did. It was the most amazing thing. I just did not want a cigarette. After a few weeks of complaining about not smoking, I started again.

I really didn't think it would work a third time, but it did. And a fourth, and a fifth.

By this time, six years had passed since my first successful foray into the world of the subconscious.

Success
I re-read the book, and realized that one step that the author spent a fair amount of time on, I did not do. The author said you should write down all the reasons why you want to quit, so that after you quit, you will re-read that list. It's not enough to quit. You have to stay quit.

Of course! I was reprogramming myself to start! It was obvious, but I didn't get it the first five times.

So, I decided to quit once more, but this time, I would keep the auto-suggestions going. Every time anyone asked me about how I felt about quitting, I would say, "Great! I'm so glad I quit. It's the best thing I've ever done." And that worked! I haven't smoked since, and it's been over twenty years.

Every time I think about having a cigarette, I think, "I'm so glad I quit. It's the best thing I've ever done."

Am I still hooked?
One thing still to talk about, though - my dreams.

Six months after the last time I quit, I dreamed I took a puff on a cigarette. I could feel the tobacco going deep into my lungs. It felt so good. Then I was devastated. I remembered how difficult it had been to quit - it took me eight years. And I knew from experience that I could not take even a single puff without being re-addicted. I had started smoking again and I was grief-stricken over it. Then I awoke, and was so relieved to realize it was only a dream.

A few months later, I had another dream, only this time I finished the cigarette before that deep remorse set in. Again, I woke, and realized that I was still safe, it was only a dream.

In the next few years, every few months, I would have a dream about smoking. And in each dream, I became successively more of a smoker. After about six years, I remember one dream where I reached into my pocket for a cigarette about 3 pm, and the pack was empty. I distinctly remember that I had had three-quarters of a pack of cigarettes that morning, and I had smoked them all up. This was proof that I was becoming more and more addicted, and that I was lying about not being hooked on tobacco. Again, deep relief when I awoke.

But by that time, say between four and ten years after my last cigarette, my dreams took a weird twist. I remembered my dreams in my dreams,they had a continuity. I was living a parallel life in my dreams.

In my dreams, I was lying about the fact that I don't smoke. In my dreams, I'm saying that I'm not a smoker, but I am. It was like when I was a teenager. I started smoking at 16, but didn't buy my first pack of cigarettes until I was 19, I always bummed them. I figured as long as I don't buy them, I'm not a smoker.

In my dreams, I was living the same kind of schizy life, smoking, but trying to call myself a non-smoker. I even started beating myself up in my dreams for being self-deceptive.

I remember one dream, about eight years after I quit. Before bed that evening, I had been a little short of breath reading a bedtime story to my child. In my dream that evening, as I was arguing with myself about not smoking, my Smoking Self said, "See. You were out of breath, sitting on a bed reading a story. That's proof that you are still smoking."

My smoking dreams remember all my other smoking dreams, and I remember becoming addicted in my dreams.

I can't remember the last time I had one of those dreams, because they are a constant
alternative reality to me. I know when I am awake that I am awake, and not a smoker, and not dreaming, but when I am dreaming, I think I have a higher state of awareness, that maintains a history, as well. And time does not live in that dimension. When I forget my dream upon awakening, I forget to remind myself that it was only a dream, so when I comes back again, months or years later, it seems like a continuation.

So, now, I periodically have these dreams, and I don't know if it's been weeks or years since the last dream, but I am struggling in my dream world with the fact that I am a liar, and am sneaking smokes away from myself.

I have not a clue what this whole thing is about, but whenever I think about it, like now, when I'm writing this, I just keep saying, "I'm so glad I quit. It is a very powerful step to building a successful life. I'm so glad I quit. It was a great thing to do." And I repeat it over and over.

I've changed the part about "…best thing I ever did.." because in the intervening twenty-plus years, I'm really proud of some of my accomplishments, so I've changed my mantra.

But, I still have to reaffirm that intention. I can't let it slide. Although, I can't really think I would ever be tempted again. But, on the other hand, I wasn't addicted when I first started smoking, I was just curious, and I need to remind myself to keep my curiosity at bay in this one area.

Exploring 2012 Themes

by Dorene A. Carrel

We are now past the Winter Solstice and it is only six short years until December 21, 2012, the year the Mayan Calendar is said to come to an end. I have been quite intrigued with what the various prophecies have said about the year 2012. The ideas around this period also interest me because of my long-term study of astrology. Astrology can be described as a study of time that is based on the relationships of planetary cycles, with each cycle having its own unique characteristics. Both astrology and the Mayan Calendar view time as cyclical in nature, as opposed to the more linear view of time that our current civilization has adopted.
What do scholars have to say about this 2012 end time? In Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, John Major Jenkins writes about a rare alignment of the December solstice sun with the Galactic Center in 2012. Jenkins further develops his theories in a more recent book called Galactic Alignment. Will Hart has written an intriguing article called “2012: End of the 5th Sun.” It can be found on Geoff Stray’s website, which is www.diagnosis2012.co.uk. In this article, Hart expounds on the relationships between the many cycles occurring during this 2012 period. According to Hart, the year 2012 signals the completion of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, begun in 3114 BC, along with the end of the 5th Sun. Hart said that 2012 also coincides with the next solar sunspot maximum. This means we are going to enter the flip side of a new 13,000-year cycle with an overheated earth resulting in increased earth changes and erratic weather patterns.
Author Steve Alten concurs with Hart that the Mayan Calendar has five great cycles, with the current one being the fifth cycle. His research, based on the Dresden Codex, finds that the previous four cycles have all ended in cataclysms and that our fifth cycle is expected to end in a great flood. He claims that the Mayan Calendar is based on science and has been proven by past events.
Some scholars, such as Bruce Scofield, take a more discerning approach and view the significance of the year 2012 as arbitrary. In a recent article in the Mountain Astrologer, Scofield said he believes that the winter solstice sun is actually closest to the galactic center in 2219 (in his footnotes). Scofield argues that the Maya had longer periods of time than the Long Count and concludes that therefore they must have expected time to continue. He astutely suggests that no matter what cycle we follow our consciousness will have to change if we are to survive.
According to Scofield and others, it is the specific alignment with the dark band of the Milky Way galaxy that will occur in 2012. He said the Maya called this place the origin point of creation and the pathway to the gods who dwelled in the underworld called Xibalba. William Henry, investigative mythologist and author, puts forth the idea of a serpent rope that will descend from this galactic center opening and the partaking of a substance called cosmic sap. He proposes that we may then be able to ascend and become star walkers.
One of the most intriguing possibilities put forth by one author, Carl Calleman, is the end of time as we know it. Another scholar, Jose Arguelles, has said it will be the end of history. It is hard for me (and likely others) to imagine how we can live continuously in the present without any reference to the past or the future. However, just because our limited minds can not conceive of this, it does not mean it would be impossible.
In a recent interview, Arguelles said he believes the Mayans were time travelers. He thinks they purposely shut down their civilization at a certain time and disappeared through time travel. This sounds both plausible and intriguing to me. But where did they go -- to another dimension or another universe perhaps?
Our changing orientation towards time is likely one of the outstanding themes of 2012 (at least for me) that could be due for a total transformation. And that transformation could start in the next 1-2 years with the alignment of Pluto with the Galactic Center, which first occurred on December 29, 2006 and will again occur during the latter half of 2007. Pluto is the planet of birth/death and total transformation on all levels. Pluto also rules the cataclysms that the Mayan Calendar seems to suggest are coming our way. Will our current life choices determine the outcome of this transformation?
How would we live our lives if we viewed time like the Mayans, as cyclical, instead of linear? Perhaps we would live our lives more by synchronicity and intuition rather than following the current world’s expectations. It is also prophesied that the world power center will move from the west to the east. Eastern countries put a higher value on the right brain (intuition) over the left brain (mental) functions.
I will conclude these opening ideas/remarks about 2012 themes with the hope they will inspire others to share what ideas are important for them about 2012. I’d like to hear comments from others who have read the sources I have cited in this article.

A New Name for the Library

Welcome to the Seattle Metaphysical Library blog. This is a way we can discuss things that take up too much time in our bi-weekly staff meetings, and also that have a wider interest than just the volunteer.

One thing we have been talking about since the library's near-death experience in the summer of 2005 is renaming the library.

The library was originally called the Seattle Metaphysical Library before it incorporated as the AS-YOU-LIKE-IT Library in the early 1960s. When the Board changed its name back to the old original name a couple of years ago, many people thought that was a significant improvement.

But the discussion centers around whether we want to use the word "Metaphysical". It has connotations of looking-backward and high-status arrogance of the European aristocracy. The reason we like having "Metaphysics" in our name is that metaphysics can be stretched to include just about everything we are dealing with. Dictionary.com has a definition of "Metaphysics" as

The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality, including

the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute,

fact and value.

When we are talking about metaphysics, we are talking about the fundamental nature of Reality, of what we are as human beings, of how we, as humans, affect and are affected by the world around us. This affect is not limited to a narrow, Newtonian view, but encompasses how our world view affects us and our lives.

We want to understand, at a deep, fundamental level, what affects our world view, and our view of ourselves, because we understand that our assumptions affect what we see, and what we see affects what we get.

We understand, at a deep level, that there is a mysterious connection between what we think, and what we see, and what we get. This is not a simplistic "You create your own reality" pablum handed out like candy by so many New Age hucksters, as if the kids being hacked up in Africa created that reality for themselves.

Nor is it a comforting view of Karma, in which bad things happen to bad people, good things happen to good people, and we deserve everything we get, as a reward or punishment for behavior in previous lives. That is a nice, reassuring philosophy for the well-off and comfortable, but there is no reason to believe it is tue. A variation on the Law of Karma is that when we see something bad we can say, "Wow. That person must have been really bad in a previous lifetime, to deserve to be treated like that today!" I see the Law of Karma as having a high correlation with a stratified society, and people being complacent about extreme differences.

I find it distressing when I hear people use that as a rationale for inactivity. But, on the other hand, it is to important to live honorably and to develop a high sense of ethics - that something happens to people when they are always trying to get the edge on others. Something happens to us when we decide that we have a life of sufficiency, that we don't have to always be in a hard-scrabble sitation - even if we are in a situation of extremely low income. We know the importance of our thoughts, and our vision.

Clarity of vision and intent allows our creative intelligence can come up with better actions. So- back to our name. We want the Library to be more of a resource center, to be a place that people can have small group meetings, meet others of similiar interests, provide a space set aside for people to develop and hone their intent to widen their vision of possibilities.

We don't want the main focus to be on the books themselves, but, rather, on the community of high-energy people consciously striving to create a better world for themselves, their friends and family, and the community at large.

Welcome to the Seattle Metaphysical Library blog.

This blog allows us to discuss things that take up too much time in our bi-weekly staff meetings, and also that have a wider interest than just the volunteer librarians.

The library itself is in downtown Ballard, and you can see the address, open hours, and booklist on our website, www.SeattleMetaphysicalLibrary.org.

This blogsite is intended to talk about issues in the library, especially the vision of what it could be, as well as a way for people to discuss the subjects in the library with others of similiar interests.