granty

BTW that chanting stuff - seems to me like something else to develop your concentration. You could do that using your breath / body sensations etc and get the same results.

I read that book too, good wasn't it? Yeah, generally I'm wary of anything or anyone who offers the quick, secret, expensive solution to inner peace. That covers scientology, the maharishi yogi and unicorn piss anti aging balm.

Mike Love from the Beach Boys is into TM, he's also a massive cunt by all accounts. It all sounds a bit like new age quackery to me, I like my practice bedded in common sense. I'm sure TM has benefits though.

Keeping your back straight when you're on the floor is hell. Do yourself a favour and stack some cushions up and sit on them, doing the half lotus position instead. That thing about palms upwards with fingers touching is pointless I think too. Just find something that leaves you comfy yet alert, less likely to fall asleep. A kitchen chair works just as well.

Cool, those talks made the most sense to me when I started. I like Gil's honest and simple explanations, without using all of that confusing Buddhist terminology. How's the course working out for you?

To start out I'd say do it in the morning, if you have to choose one over the other, there's less going on in your head so you'll get to that place of silence faster. Once you're familiar with that place and how it feels you'll be able to find it more easily when you're mind's spinning away from the day's events. Total silence would be nice and probably make it easier to focus on your breath, but external noises can help because you can observe them too and witness your physical and mental reactions to them, giving you more opportunities to practice being with your body letting go of thoughts. This is a good skill to learn, because you can take your meditation 'off the cushion' and practice basically anywhere in any situation.

Twilight Samurai - lovely film, very mellow, made me feel all noble and righteous.

I need to connect my MacBook to my VGA projector but I haven't got the right adapter. I had a thunderbolt to hdmi to DVI but that won't connect to the DVI/VGA converter as its the wrong type of DVI socket.

Looks like he interrupted your quiet time for some impromptu dub reggae poetry.

Yeah, I'm sorry my hostility sounded directed at you. I really like a lot of the people I work with - but I remain unpleasantly surprised at how white, male and young my world is. I was expecting more diversity in a "creative" field but it's just not there. Nothing against you personally, as you said I don't know you at all. Objectively speaking though, nice shirt. Very gracious of you mate. So you work in film? Sounds cool, on paper...

Long hair takes way more effort than a beard, it'll never take off because there's no cool 'inbetween' stage. You just look like someone who's come out of a relatively short coma until you hit the sweet spot.

No way man, I grew this years before the beard trend in a foolish attempt to simulate a jawline. Years of sun burn to my face has given me a tramps tan, meaning if I shaved it off I'd be sporting a sort of inverted beard of pale skin. Plus my wife said if I shaved it off she'd divorce me. I'm patiently waiting for the beard trend to pass anyway, so I can think of myself as can non conformist again. Soon...#beard4life

Also, making false assumptions about people like that makes you sound like a lot of people I see on the internet, not very nice.

I work in marketing, and that's a cheap old H&M shirt I'm sporting - but yes, everyone dresses like me and has a beard now, even One Direction ffs.

I got to film Paul McGann today, he was pretty cool and, I have to admit, damn handsome and trim for a 50 odd year old.

Bonobo just posted a pic of his setup if anyone's interested:

I was a bit bored today, made this:

Only two of us actually did it every day in July (the guy who organised it even wore ties on the weekends). Here's a collection of last year's efforts: http://tiejuly.tumblr.com/ I'm gonna go for a different tie every day, this year. I certainly have enough of them to do it. That's dedication, I particularly like the polka dot cravat. You should milk it by saying it's for charity - then ask people to give you money. Some people where I work think they can raise money for charity simply by not drinking alcohol for two whole months.

Yes! Do it. I've always wanted to wear a double tie - we don't have anything like Tie July though. I might have to instigate one.

I felt the same way after reading Frankie Boyle's autobiography, which again was quite funny in places. At first I thought he was breaking down taboos and barriers for a higher purpose, then on further reading it just gradually revealed him to be a vain, nihilistic, selfish prick.

You look like a sensible chap. Are you wearing two shirts at once or is this some sort of double 'future shirt' we haven't seen in the UK yet?

I do find a lot of his stuff funny, but there's something about him I find really unlikeable - not sure what... maybe it's arrogance?