Aerobics Instructor, Fitness Instructor, Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer

Want to be at the head of the class? Fitness trainers and aerobics instructors are leaders of all their classes, leading exercise groups at health clubs, exercise studios, and other facilities. They demonstrate correct exercise form and the proper use of equipment. These teachers also instruct students on weight training, flexibility, aerobics, and other workout styles, often developing programs for people with special needs or goals. Aerobics instructors plan routines that work different sets of muscles and combine a high-energy sweat session with music. The job may require maintaining equipment and keeping records, as well as promoting membership and enrollment in a gym or health club. Good communication skills and an approachable manner are essential; some positions may require expertise in weight control and nutrition. Running several classes a day requires stamina and energy, so it's expected that you be in good physical condition. Many instructors work in the field part-time. Instructors often enter the field with experience in fitness classes, dance, or other sports disciplines. Certification in first aid, and in a fitness field such as personal training, weight training, or aerobics may be required. Becoming a fitness trainer is a great way to share your commitment to an active lifestyle.

What they do:

On the job, you would:

Business

Education and Training

Math and Science

Arts and Humanities

Basic Skills

Social

Endurance

Flexibility, Balance, and Coordination

Physical Strength

Verbal

People interested in this work like activities that include helping people, teaching, and talking.

They do well at jobs that need:

You might use software like this on the job:

Accounting software

Data base user interface and query software

Project management software

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Fitness Trainers & Aerobics Instructors at My Next Move

Aerobics Quotes - Inspirational Quotes about Aerobics

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May you find great value in these inspirational Aerobics Quotes from my large datebase of inspiring quotes and sayings.

I have been through various fitness regimes.I used to run about five miles a day and I did aerobics for a while.- Sting

Related topics: Fitness

I run six-to-eight miles a day, plus weights and aerobics in the lunch hour.I also lie a lot, which keeps me thin.- Hugh Laurie

I think aerobics are great, of course,but it just bores me out of my mind.- Peter Steele

The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said:If we're going to charge $10 an hour,we can't call it Jumping up and down.- Rita Rudner

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I don't criticize weight training - as long as it isnot a substitute for aerobic training.- Kenneth H. Cooper

When doing your aerobic exercise, go at a comfortablepace until you've developed more stamina.- Lee Haney

Aerobic dancing is already adjusting to injury problemsand will probably phase out to some extent.- Kenneth H. Cooper

With Aerobic Strip Tease, you can do it at home -it makes it easier for women that don't want to go to the gym.- Carmen Electra

No one will burn out doing aerobic running.It is too much anaerobic running, which the Americanscholastic athletic system tends to put young athletes through,that burns them out.- Arthur Lydiard

Poetry seems to have been eliminated as a literary genre,and installed instead, as a kind of spiritual aerobic exercise -nobody need read it,but anybody can do it.- Marilyn Hacker

Since then, I have not missed five consecutive daysin getting some type of aerobic exercise,mostly jogging.- Kenneth H. Cooper

Cyclists, I work with a number of cyclists.They are great athletes; they are great aerobic athletes.If you ask them to hit a baseball or golf ball,they can't do that.- Eric Heiden

The way I use to develop an aerobic condition is three against three,man to man, in a square 20 metres by 20.- Jose Mourinho

Now I say that if you run more than 15 miles a week,it's for something other than aerobic fitness.Once you pass 15 miles, you do not see much further improvement.- Kenneth H. Cooper

It's a question of spreading the available energy,aerobic and anaerobic, evenly over four minutes.If you run one part too fast, you pay a price.If you run another part more slowly your overall time is slower.- Roger Bannister

Don't Criticize, Condemn, Or Complain.- Dale Carnegie

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain,and most fools do.- Benjamin Franklin

Flatter me, and I may not believe you.Criticize me, and I may not like you.Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.Encourage me, and I will not forget you.Love me and I may be forced to love you.- William Arthur Ward

Before you criticize a man,walk a mile in his shoes.- Anonymous

Let the refining and improving of your own lifekeep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I love America more than any other country in this world,and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the rightto criticize her perpetually.- James A. Baldwin

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.- Abraham Lincoln

If it's very painful for you to criticize your friends -you're safe in doing it.But if you take the slightest pleasure in it,that's the time to hold your tongue.- Alice Duer Miller

We criticize mothers for closeness.We criticize fathers for distance.How many of us have expected less from our fathersand appreciated what they gave us more? How many ofus always let them off the hook?- Ellen Goodman

People have a right to criticize.- Luciano Pavarotti

I criticize those critics.The reason being that they're doing one of the worstthings that ever can be done to an actor,which is to say, Look, you do what we like you to do or else.- James Lipton

My attitude is, if someone's going to criticize me,tell me to my face.- Simon Cowell

The new fashion is to talk about the most private parts of your life;other fashion is to repent of your excesses and tocriticize the drugs that made you happy in the other times.- Mick Jagger

No matter how well you do, no matter how successful you are,they're always going to criticize you.- Todd Bridges

You can't really praise somebody's work and then criticize the process.- Lucinda Williams

We criticize, copy, patronize, idolize and insult butwe never doubt that the U.S.has a unique position in the history of human hopes.- Ferdinand Mount

As an actress, I have to be objective about myself.If I don't criticize myself, there are plenty who willdo a find job of it for me!- Loretta Young

Criticize the act, not the person.- Mary Kay Ash

Much of the messy advertising you see on televisiontoday is the product of committees.Committees can criticize advertisements,but they should never be allowed to create them.- David Ogilvy

The nature of a democracy consists to an importantdegree in the right of the people to criticize problems and mistakes.- Walter Ulbricht

Great relationships begin with two people who are eachself confident and who come to each other with the opennessto see and accept the other as a unique and wonderful person.If there is true love and an alignment of fundamental values,choose to join your life with your new partnerand vow never to criticize their nature -the essence that makes them uniquely themselves.- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I try to be a guide for people, to make their darknessbright and to make the pathway light,and never to condemn or control or criticize.- Little Richard

Amin knew that neither West nor East would criticizehim for fear that he would support the other side.He felt he was untouchable and he said so openly.- Ryszard Kapuscinski

So I think we have an obligation with our size to makesure that we are open to what people have to say tous because the people who criticize us,they're not all mean-spirited.- Lee Scott

It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.- Titus Livius

One should never criticize his own work except in a fresh and hopeful mood.The self-criticism of a tired mind is suicide.- Charles Horton Cooley

The Middle East is literally going up in flames,as is California, and Katrina's problems haven't been solved,and Congress' response is to criticize Federal judges.- Alcee Hastings

Anyone can negatively criticize - it is the cheapestof all comment because it requires not a modicum ofthe effort that suggestion requires.- Chuck Jones

To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate,to take intellectual possession, to establish in finea relation with the criticized thing and to make it one's own.- Henry James

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never tocriticize or attack the government of my own country.I make up for lost time when I come home.- Winston Churchill

A lot of people criticize the primaries,but I think they are absolutely essential to the educationof the President of the United States.- Pierre Salinger

If you put garbage in a computer nothing comes out but garbage.But this garbage, having passed through a very expensive machine,is somehow ennobled and none dare criticize it.- Rory Bremner

Those who are lifting the world upward and onward arethose who encourage more than criticize.- Elizabeth Harrison

It would be very easy for us to do a collection thateverybody would like and not criticize.But criticism is a part of life.You have to take it.- Donatella Versace

I criticize by creation - not by finding fault.- Marcus Tullius Cicero

I criticize my own work pretty harshly.- Ritchie Blackmore

How one can live without being able to judge oneself,criticize what one has accomplished,and still enjoy what one does,is unimaginable to me.- Anna Freud

How many McDonald's gift certificates would it taketo sway a lot of Americans to pledge to never publicly criticize the U.S,President?- James Bovard

When we criticize in Iran the actions of the government,the fundamentalists say that we and the Bush Administration are in the same camp.The funny thing is that human rights activists andMr. Bush can never be situated in the same group.- Shirin Ebadi

They are damn good projects - excellent projects.That goes for all the projects up there.You know some people make fun of people who speak a foreign language,and dumb people criticize something they do not understand,and that is what is going on up there -God damn it!- Harry Hopkins

I wonder what it is that the people who criticize mefor telling this story truly object to:is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or thatthe story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear?- Joyce Maynard

I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor.I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo thatwill kill American people at a drop of a hat and Idon't believe that persuasion isn't going to work.Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind.- George W. Bush

The three parts of the theory are analytical ability,the ability to analyze things to judge,to criticize.Creative, the ability to create, to invent and discover and practical,the ability to apply and use what you know.- Robert Sternberg

It is easy to criticize, particularly in a political season.But to lead is something altogether different.The leader must live in the real world of the pricethat might be paid for the goal that has been set.- Norm Coleman

And sometimes I'm criticized.But I think that if those who criticize us will lookat the reason why the shape is this,well then, I think that they would not object so strenuously.- Minoru Yamasaki

The vehemence with which certain critics have chosennot simply to criticize what I've written,but to challenge my writing this story at all,speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval.- Joyce Maynard

They criticize me for harping on the obvious;if all the folks in the United States would do thefew simple things they know they ought to do,most of our big problems would take care of themselves.- Calvin Coolidge

I have zero desire, just so you know,to be in the limelight.I don't think it's good for the country to have a formerpresident criticize his successor.You're not going to see me giving my opinions in the public arena,until I start selling my book.I'm going to emerge then submerge.- George W. Bush

Just let me go, we have to be able to criticize what we love,to say what we have to say 'cause if you're not tryingto make something better,then as far as I can tell, you are just in the way.- Ani DiFranco

You can criticize any news staff in some ways,but the one thing that you couldn't call the VillageVoice staff was a staff of stenographers,taking notes from public figures and just passing them on.- Sydney Schanberg

When a man returned from the field and we'd look at the work,we'd criticize each other very genuinely and never offensively.And we would avoid all tricks, angle shots were just horrible to us.- Ben Shahn

You know there's nothing a Hill Democrat would ratherdo than criticize another Democrat.It is their favorite activity.Then they can read about how honorable they are in an Op-Ed piece,how bipartisan.- James Carville

I criticize a lot of players and coaches.But I back it up with facts.A lot of times guys get mad at me because someone told them what I said.I say, 'You're wrong: Go check the tape.'- Phil Simms

I heard someone in opposition to reform last nightcriticize the president for saying it's their money.They said it's not their money; it's my mother's money.Well that's what's wrong with the system.- Johnny Isakson

If a child lives with criticism,he learns to condemn....If a child lives with fear,he learns to be apprehensive....If a child lives with encouragement,he learns to be confident....If a child lives with acceptance,he learns to love.- Dorothy Law Nolte

Whenever we condemn, we cloak the world in pain.- Hugh Prather

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Aerobics Quotes - Inspirational Quotes about Aerobics

Its the dawning of a new year and you finally have some money to invest. Perhaps you just got a raise. Or, maybe an end-of-year bonus is burning a hole in your pocket. Either way, you need to be smart about investing if you want those extra dollars to count.

The problem is, you have no clue where to invest your cash. While youre aware of the myriad investing options available, the sheer number of possibilities is overwhelming.

In the investing world, this is called paralysis by analysis. You spend so much time analyzing your options that you wind up putting it off and never investing at all. And eventually, the extra cash you set aside gets consumed by bills or unexpected expenses. In other words, life happens.

If you want to make sure your extra cash doesnt disappear, you need to invest it right away. A certain amount of analysis is fine if it helps you find the right investment options for your goals, but you still need to act fast.

With that in mind, I wanted to share what I believe are the four best ways to invest your excess funds in 2018.

While invest in the stock market is some of the most basic advice youll ever read, please hear me out on this one. While everyone knows that investing in the stock market has historically paid off, there are far too many people who dont trust the financial markets and choose to sit on the sidelines altogether.

Then there are people who think the stock market is so overvalued right now that they would be crazy to jump in. But, heres the thing: Instead, Im suggesting you invest small sums of money over time using a method called dollar cost averaging.

Dollar cost averaging requires us to trickle our money into investments over any length of time. It could be 12 months. It would be 18 months. Heck, it could be five years.

Colorado financial advisor David Henderson of Jenkins Wealth goes further to explain how dollar cost averaging works: When the market is high, you buy fewer shares and when the market is low you buy more shares, he says. This means that, over time, you will have a lower average share price using this method. Obviously, its easy to see why this would be beneficial.

Now that weve talked about the importance of investing in the stock market, lets talk about exactly where to invest your money. What are the best tools and vehicles we can use?

This is yet another situation where the options are overwhelming. Still, I typically suggest people get their feet wet with mutual funds or ETFs.

If you have a financial advisor working on your behalf, they may be able to weed out the well-performing actively managed mutual funds from the ones that arent doing so great. Otherwise, you can invest in index funds, which are not actively managed but have a long history of solid returns.

If you have a brokerage account already, then you may want to stick with it. Otherwise, youll need to find a new place to help you invest your funds. One company I always suggest is Betterment. With Betterment, your money can be invested in ETFs and they dont charge a fee for managing these for you. Plus, they actually pick the ETFs you invest in based on your appetite for risk, investing goals, and other factors.

What does that mean? That means that you can invest your hard-earned money, then sit back and enjoy the returns and let them do the hard work.

If you want to have more control on your investments, online brokerage firms like Ally Financial, TD Ameritrade and E-Trade make it easy to stay in charge with low fees and easy-to-use platforms. Plus, there are a multitude of other "robo-advisors" to choose from.

As a final note, theres one more simple way to invest in the stock market with even less effort boosting how much you contribute to your work-sponsored retirement account. Arizona financial planner Charles C. Scott says this may be your best option yet especially if youre not contributing enough to get a match from your employer.

Every dollar you contribute could get a dollar match, says Scott. Thats a 100% return on your investment.

If youre not making the most of your 401(k) or contributing enough to get a match, then youre probably best starting there.

A second place to stash some of your excess cash this year is in peer-to-peer lending platforms like Lending Club and Prosper. With these companies, youre able to loan money to individuals in small increments as if you were the bank. The best part is, you get to earn a pretty decent rate of return usually upward of 6% or more.

As an investor in peer-to-peer lending, youre investing in other people and their goals. It's comforting knowing you arent lending people you dont know large sums of money. Instead, the money you invest is split up into increments as small as $25 over hundreds or even thousands of loans.

While it may seem strange to hear a financial advisor suggest people invest in peer-to-peer lending, Im not the only one who sees the value in these platforms. Kansas City Financial Advisor Clint Haynes told me he supports peer-to-peer lending as an alternative to the stock market for a few reasons. First, these companies make it easy to sign up and get started. Second, your rate of return can range from 5 7 percent for safer loans and even more for riskier loans. Last but not least, you can typically open a new account with as little as $1,000.

In addition to the stock market and peer-to-peer lending websites, a third investment strategy to consider this year is real estate. The thing is, Im not suggesting everyone run out and buy an investment property. After all, not everyone is cut out to be a landlord.

Im certainly not. I tried investing in physical real estate seven years ago and almost lost my shirt. I learned a lot of lessons from my foray into becoming a landlord, the biggest of which was that I dont need that kind of stress in my life.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to invest in real estate without dealing with a physical property. One option to consider is investing in real estate notes. I got started investing into real estate notes because a really good friend of mine was crushing it with real estate and offering his friends the chance to invest.

He would buy a pool of real estate properties, and then investors like myself would invest money into his project. From there, he would manage the properties and pay me a dividend or interest off that money. For me, this has been an attractive way to invest money without having to be a landlord or deal with tenants.

Obviously, there is a ton of risk in a situation like this. You have to have a lot of trust to invest in real estate notes offered by an individual.

The good news is, there are other ways to invest in real estate outside of real estate notes. One option Im really excited about is a company called Fundrise. Fundrise offers an investing scenario similar to the one above. They buy commercial properties and allow investors to invest small sums of money. Obviously, this is yet another hands-off investment. You may own part of a commercial real estate project, but you dont even see or deal with the property itself.

Like Lending Club, Fundrise requires an upfront sum of around $1,000 to get started. Once you invest, however, Fundrise mostly lets you set it and forget it. Even better, you may receive a pretty hefty rate of return through this platform. On the company website, Fundrise claims its returns have averaged between 8.76% up to 12.42% over the last five years. Not too shabby.

Obviously, there is risk investing in a platform like this one, too. First off, the company is newer so it doesnt have decades of data to share. Second, youre letting a third party choose buildings and investments on your behalf, which means youve given up all control.

Regardless, I think its pretty cool that technology has allowed investors to get access to commercial properties in a way we havent been able to in the past.

This last investment option might sound cheesy, but its one of the best investments anyone can make.

Believe it or not, there are a ton of ways to invest in yourself that dont cost a ton of cash at all. One of the best ways to improve yourself could even be free if you have a library.

Thats right; read a ton of books! But, how many should you read? Minneapolis Financial Planner Morgan Ranstrom says that reading three to five books on successful personal finance strategies or leadership skills will absolutely make you smarter over the course of a few months.

If you have more time, you could read even more than that. If youre not sure what to read, you could even consider signing up for Leaderbox a monthly subscription service that includes books and leadership strategies curated by thought leader Michael Hyatt.

It's been stated that CEOs of major corporations read 60 books per year on average. These guys and gals are managing businesses worth millions or billions, and they can still read 60 books a year. Imagine how busy they are. Now, ask yourself how busy you are.

If you dedicate yourself to reading just one book a month 12 books per year I promise you will be amazed at the results.

Of course, reading isnt the only way to invest in yourself. Another investment you can make into yourself is in courses or investing into material that you can learn from other people. Trust me; everyone has something to learn.

Personally, I have found a lot of success via learning from others in my niche. Recently, I even paid $3,500 for a course on how to launch a successful YouTube channel. That might sound crazy to some people, but I have made investment back and then some already.

A third way you can invest into yourself is through personal coaching. I've done a few different ways. I went to a business and entrepreneurship coach for five years and spent a ton of cash that I could barely justify. The thing is, this investment paid off in spades even though it was expensive.

Youcan also hire a personal coach to help you with whatever your goals are. There are career coaches. There are business coaches. There are fitness coaches. There are life coaches.

While coaching is expensive, its amazing what you can accomplish when you have someone to be accountable to.

Last but not least, dont discount the idea of going back to school. Brian Behl, a Wealth Advisor with Bronfman Rothschild tells me he feels too many people overlook this option when it might be their ticket to long-term wealth.

Lets say you could spend $10,000 on a designation or advanced degree but it increases your annual income by $10,000 or more. Thats an incredible rate of return, says Behl, but it becomes an even better investment when you consider how much more youll earn over 20 or 30 working years.

While it would be great to invest these funds in your portfolio, there is no investment which is likely to pay off in this way, says Behl.

And if you think youre too busy to go back to college, dont forget about online degrees says, Orange County financial advisor Anthony Montenegro of The Blackmont Group.

Many of the countrys top-ranked schools also accommodate the busy professional by offering certificate and degree completion programs online, he says. If youre interested in becoming more marketable to your current employer or want to explore opportunities with a competing company, consider carving out time to study for a graduate degree or specialized designation for your industry.

Investing in yourself might sound clich, and it is, but its a bet that could absolutely pay off. And if you want to make the most of your investments this year, betting on yourself is one of thesmartest moves you can make.

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4 Best Investments To Make In 2018 - forbes.com

What do Aggressive and Conservative mean?

The Investment Calculator uses two investment strategies that typically produce two different retirement scenarios. Aggressive investing indicates a higher financial risk with a higher potential reward, while conservative investing offers a lower financial risk with a more moderate potential reward.

Aggressive investing typically means that you will invest in more stocks than in bonds. This type of investment strategy is smart when you have a longer amount of time before your retirement. A longer amount of time can also, in theory, withstand all the volatility of the stock market. The other good news is that more time passing will compound your interest, resulting in significantly larger retirement savings.

Conservative investing is a more balanced strategy in which you invest in stocks as well as bonds. The return, or the amount that your money grows, is not as large as it can be when aggressively investing but the risk is lower. Conservative investing is best when your retirement date is nearby. Vanguard published a great article about these types of scenarios, showing the historic risks and rewardsin quantitative form. These table graphs will show the differentstrategies in terms of being growth or balanced oriented anddisplays the assumptions behind each retirement strategy.

The retirement calculator takes the Total retirement savings and calculates how much monthly income a 4% annuity would generate without drawing from the principal. This indicates the type of lifestyle you can expect without running out of money.

Inflation is inevitable. If that word is new to you, it simply determines how much purchasing power of your dollar. Historically, inflation has always increased with time. The average inflation is currently 3.22%.

These recommendations are correlated to a comfortable lifestyle. Comfortable lifestyle is a subjective term used to describe retirement savings that lets you be mostly free from financial restrictions or fears. A recommendation helps you know what your monthly investment and initial investment should be in order to achieve a comfortable retirement lifestyle.

The investment calculator uses three lifestyle terms to depict retirement scenarios: Frugal, Content, and Comfortable. Frugal describes a lifestyle where you will have to carefully monitor your spending to make sure your savings will last. A comfortable lifestyle describes a scenario where you can spend librally and enjoy retirement. Content is somewhere in the middle where you are able to enjoy retirement but still monitor your spending.

No, Social Security is not included in this retirement calculation. The investment calculator leaves out Social Security because it tends to vary too greatly from person to person. Social Security also varies depending on the age that you decide to collect. If you collect at age 62, you will receive 25% less. If you collect at 70, you can collect a check for 32% larger.

Social Security is important in calculating your retirement savings. It can impact your monthly retirement income greatly. The average monthly retirement benefit was $2,687 in 2017, or $32,000 for the whole year. The goal of this calculator is to help you define helpful strategies but not to give individualized investment advice.

Investment Calculator provides a generalized overview of your retirement situation, but it is not intended to replace a financial advisor. Our goal is to help you get a better understanding of your financial outlook and inspire you to save / invest more.

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Alan Watts was a prominent British philosopher, writer and speaker, who is recognized for interpreting and promoting Eastern Philosophy by making it accessible to the Western audience. His services as a volunteer programmer at KPFA, a Pacifica Radio station in Berkeley made him a very famous figure in San Francisco Bay Area.

Alan was born as Alan Wilson Watts onJanuary 6, 1915 in Chislehurst, Kent, England. Alan belonged to a middle class family, his father was employed at the London office of Michelin Tyre Company, while his mother was a housewife. His mothers devout religiousness had a meaningful impact on his upbringing. Alan attended the Kings School in Canterbury and during his teen years, he was presented with the opportunity to travel to France along with wealthy Epicurean, Francis Croshaw. Croshaw also influenced Alan with his Buddhist beliefs and practices. After completing his secondary education, he briefly worked in a painting house, and later, at a bank. Watts interests were piqued by philosophy, he began extensively reading works of philosophy, history, psychology, psychiatry and Eastern wisdom. He encountered influential spiritual authors who had a profound impact in shaping his ideologies, such as, Nicholas Roerich, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and theosophists like Alice Bailey.

Alan learned Chinese, and did significant research in Zen Buddhism and the fundamental beliefs and practices of religions and philosophies of India and East Asia. Alan was a prominent member of the London Buddhist Lodge, and in 1931, he was appointed the secretary of the organization. In 1936, he attended the World Congress of Faiths at the University of London, where he heard D.T. Suzuki, a prominent scholar of Zen Buddhism, who had a strong influence on his thoughts. The same year, inspired by the works of Suzuki, Watts published his first book, The Spirit of Zen. In 1938, he moved to America and began training in Zen Buddhism, however, unsatisfied with the methods of the teacher, he left Zen training. Alan then enrolled himself in the Anglican school of Sea-bury Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied Christian scriptures, theology and Church history and he received his Masters degree in theology. His thesis was published under the title, Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion.

In 1951, Alan Watts settled in California upon accepting a position in the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco. He was also on the administration board of the academy for several years. During his stay at the Academy, he instructed himself in written Chinese as well as, Chinese brush calligraphy. Watts left the Academy to embark on a freelance career, and in 1953, he began his career as a radio programmer for the Pacifica Radio Station KPFA in Berkeley.

In 1957, Watts published his highly acclaimed and much discussed book which rose to the status of international bestseller, titled The Way of Zen, which dealt with the philosophical fundamentals and history of Zen Buddhism. During his travels to Europe, Alan encountered eminent psychiatrist, Carl Jung, and on his return to America, Watts began exploring the subject matter of modern science and psychology, aiming to establish an alignment between mystical experiences and material theories of the universe. He also began taking psychedelic drugs. He published his famous book, Tao: The Watercourse Way, which firmly established him as a prominent Zennist. He also produced an audio series, Out of Our Mind, where he discussed diverse subjects such as arts, cuisine, child rearing, education, law and freedom, architecture and sexuality.

Alan Watts composed more than 25 books on diverse topics such as cybernetics, semantics, process philosophy, natural history, the anthropology of sexuality, and Eastern and Western religion. Some of his famous books include The Way of Zen (1957), Psychotherapy East and West (1961), The New Alchemy (1958) The Legacy of Asia and Western Man (1937), The Meaning of Happiness (1940) and The Joyous Cosmology (1962) among others.

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Alan Watts | Biography, Philosophy and Facts

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Real Consumer Spending Rises in November

December 21, 2018

Personal income increased 0.2 percent in November after increasing 0.5 percent in October. Wages and salaries, the largest component of personal income, increased 0.2 percent in November after increasing 0.4 percent in October.

December 21, 2018

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 3.4 percent in the third quarter of 2018, according to the third estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The growth rate was revised down 0.1 percentage point from the second estimate released in November. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 4.2 percent.

December 20, 2018

State personal income increased 4.0 percent at an annual rate in the third quarter of 2018, an acceleration from the 3.4 percent increase in the second quarter. Personal income increased in all states and the District of Columbia. The percent change in personal income across all states ranged from 6.2 percent in Nevada and Washington to 2.1 percent in Missouri.

December 19, 2018

The U.S. current-account deficit increased to $124.8 billion (preliminary) in the third quarter of 2018 from $101.2 billion (revised) in the second quarter of 2018. As a percentage of U.S. GDP, the deficit increased to 2.4 percent from 2.0 percent. The previously published current-account deficit for the second quarter was $101.5 billion.

December 17, 2018

The estimates of gross domestic product for the U.S. Virgin Islands show that real GDPGDP adjustedtoremove price changesdecreased 1.7 percent in 2017 after increasing 0.9 percent in 2016. Forcomparison, real GDP for the United States (excluding the territories) increased 2.2 percent in2017 afterincreasing 1.6 percent in 2016.

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U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

In the following letters, Sri Aurobindo describes his major inner realisations. In the first letter, he describes his Nirvanic experiences and how it blossomed further into a much more positive and integral realization. The second letter is also from Sri Aurobindo but here he refers to himself as a third person with his name.

I have never said that things (in life) are harmonious nowon the contrary, with the human consciousness as it is harmony is impossible. It is always what I have told you, that the human consciousness is defective and simply impossibleand that is why I strive for a higher consciousness to come and set right the disturbed balance. I am glad you are getting converted to silence, and even Nirvana is not without its usesin my case it was the first positive spiritual experience and it made possible all the rest of the sadhana; but as to the positive way to get these things, I dont know if your mind is quite ready to proceed with it. There are in fact several ways. My own way was by rejection of thought. Sit down, I was told, look and you will see that your thoughts come into you from outside. Before they enter, fling them back. I sat down and looked and saw to my astonishment that it was so; I saw and felt concretely the thought approaching as if to enter through or above the head and was able to push it back concretely before it came inside.

In three daysreally in onemy mind became full of an eternal silenceit is still there. But that I dont know how many people can do. One (not a discipleI had no disciples in those days) asked me how to do Yoga. I said: Make your mind quiet first. He did and his mind became quite silent and empty. Then he rushed to me saying: My brain is empty of thoughts, I cannot think. I am becoming an idiot. He did not pause to look and see where these thoughts he uttered were coming from! Nor did he realise that one who is already an idiot cannot become one. Anyhow I was not patient in those days and I dropped him and let him lose his miraculously achieved silence. The usual way, the easiest if one can manage it at all, is to call down the silence from above you into the brain, mind and body.

*

Now to reach Nirvana was the first radical result of my own Yoga. It threw me suddenly into a condition above and without thought, unstained by any mental or vital movement; there was no ego, no real worldonly when one looked through theimmobile senses, something perceived or bore upon its sheer silence a world of empty forms, materialised shadows without true substance. There was no One or many even, only just absolutely That, featureless, relationless, sheer, indescribable, unthinkable, absolute, yet supremely real and solely real. This was no mental realisation nor something glimpsed somewhere above,no abstraction it was positive, the only positive realityalthough not a spatial physical world, pervading, occupying or ratherflooding and drowning this semblance of a physical world, leaving no room or space for any reality but itself, allowing nothing else to seem at all actual, positive or substantial. I cannot say there was anything exhilarating or rapturous in the experience, as it then came to me,the ineffable Ananda I had years afterwards,but what it brought was an inexpressible Peace, a stupendous silence, an infinity of release and freedom. I lived in that Nirvana day and night before it began to admit other things into itself or modify itself at all, and the inner heart of experience, a constant memory of it and its power to return remained until in the end it began to disappear into a greater Super consciousness from above. But meanwhile realisation added itself to realisation and fused itself with this original experience. At an early stage the aspect of an illusionary world gave place to one in which illusion is only a small surface phenomenon with an immense Divine Reality behind it and a supreme Divine Reality above it and an intense Divine Reality in the heart of everything that had seemed at first only a cinematic shape or shadow. And this was no reimprisonment in the senses, no diminution or fall from supreme experience, it came rather as a constant heightening and widening of the Truth; it was the spirit that saw objects, not the senses, and the Peace, the Silence, the freedom in Infinity remainedalways with the world or all worlds only as a continuous incident in the timeless eternity of the Divine.

Now that is the whole trouble in my approach to Mayavada. Nirvana in my liberated consciousness turned out to be the beginning of my realisation, a first step towards the complete thing, not the sole true attainment possible or even a culminatingfinale. It came unasked, unsought for, though quite welcome. I had no least idea about it before, no aspiration towards it, in fact my aspiration was towards just the opposite, spiritual power to help the world and do my work in it, yet it camewithout evena May I come in or a By your leave. It just happened and settled in as if for all eternity or as if it had been really there always. And then it slowly grew into something not less but greater than its first self! How then could I accept Mayavada orpersuade myself to pit against the Truth imposed on me from above the logic of Shankara?

*

Sri Aurobindo has no remarks to make on Huxleys comments with which he is in entire agreement. But in the phrase to its heights we can always reach very obviously we does not refer to humanity in general but to those who have a sufficiently developed inner spiritual life. It is probable that Sri Aurobindo was thinking of his own experience. After three years of spiritual effort with only minor results he was shown by a Yogi the way to silence his mind. This he succeeded in doing entirely in two or three days by following the method shown. There was an entire silence of thought and feeling and all the ordinary movements of consciousness except the perception and recognition of things around without any accompanying concept or other reaction. The sense of ego disappeared and the movements of the ordinary life as well as speech and action were carried on by some habitual activity of Prakriti alone which was not felt as belonging to oneself. But the perception which remained saw all things as utterly unreal; this sense of unreality was overwhelmingand universal. Only some undefinable Reality was perceived as true which was beyond space and time and unconnected with any cosmic activity but yet was met wherever one turned. This condition remained unimpaired for several months and even when the sense of unreality disappeared and there was a return to participation in the world-consciousness, the inner peace and freedom which resulted from this realisation remained permanently behind all surface movements and the essence of the realisation itself was not lost. At the same time an experience intervened; something else than himself took up his dynamic activity and spoke and acted through him but without any personal thought or initiative. What this was remained unknown until Sri Aurobindo came to realise the dynamic side of the Brahman, the Ishwara and felt himself moved by that in all his Sadhana and action. These realisations and others which followed upon them, such as that of the Self in all and all in the Self and all as the Self, the Divine in all and all in the Divine, are the heights to which Sri Aurobindo refers and to which he says we can always rise; for they presented to him no long or obstinate difficulty. The only real difficulty which took decades of spiritual effort to carry out towards completeness was to apply the spiritual knowledge utterly to the world and to the surface psychological and outer life and to effect its transformation both on the higher levels of Nature and on the ordinary mental, vital and physical levels down to the subconscience and the basic Inconscience and up to the supreme Truth-consciousness or Supermind in which alone the dynamic transformation could be entirely integral and absolute.

SRI AUROBINDO

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Nirvana and Human Consciousness by SRI AUROBINDO | Next ...

Book The Mother by Sri Aurobindo: These inspirational essays by Sri Aurobindo form a powerful statement of the true attitude to be taken by a sadhak of the integral Yoga: one of a complete and dynamic surrender to the Mother. They describe the triple movement of aspiration, rejection, and surrender, the conditions for a true faith and sincerity, the irresistible power of the Divine Mothers grace, the need to reconquer the money-force for the Mothers work, and the joy of a perfect instrumentality through selfless work, surmounting the demands of the ego. The final piece describes the four great powers and personalities of the Divine Mother.

Author: Sri Aurobindo

Print Length: 32 pages

Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Contributor: Krishna

Book format:PDF,ePub,Kindle

Language:English

There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers.

But the supreme Grace will act only in the conditions of the Light and the Truth; it will not act in conditions laid upon it by the Falsehood and the Ignorance. For if it were to yield to the demands of the Falsehood, it would defeat its own purpose.

These are the conditions of the Light and Truth, the sole conditions under which the highest Force will descend; and it is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties . . . There must be a total and sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self-opening to the divine Power; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending, a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature.

The surrender must be total and seize all the parts of the being. It is not enough that the psychic should respond and the higher mental accept or even the inner vital submit and the inner physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be in no part of the being, even the most external, anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions and subterfuges, anything that revolts or refuses.

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Self-Remembering

Self-remembering is the bridge between knowledge and wisdom. It is an effort to be aware of oneself in the present, to break away from whatever imaginary world one may have delved in a moment ago and return to reality. It is an instantaneous internal reorganization: pushing ones mechanical thoughts and emotions to the background while bringing ones Higher Self to the forefront remembering ones Self.

Gurdjieff introduced self-remembering in one of his early talks with his Russian students, inviting them to share what they had seen by observing themsveles. None had noticed the most important fact: that they didnt remember themselves. Ouspensky, who narrates this discussion, begins experimenting with self-remembering and subsequently realizes its key role in the work towards consciousness.Here, as before, Gurdjieff borrows and translates an old practice. The Upanishads were an extensive treatise on the Self, on the need to remember it and bring it to the forefront. Sufism speaks of Remembrance of God in terms very similar to Gurdjieffs later expression. But the term God had lost its meaning by the twentieth century, associated too deeply with religions connotations that prevented people from relating to it practically. Gurdjieff was translating older systems into language palatable to modern western man.

Hence the difference between the system and the Fourth Way: while the system is Gurdjieffs twentieth-century expression, the Fourth Way is the sum of all past and present expressions of this way the long body of tradition that appeared and disappeared on the stage of mankind.

Earlier expressions of the Fourth Way would not have called themselves Fourth Way. Gurdjieff called his presentation Fourth Way to distinguish it as one of four possible ways to awakening. All four lead to the same end: awakening of consciousness, becoming real, being able to Be. The spiritual paths that lead to that same goal, however, may differ in character, like different roads leading to a similardestination.

We will not expound on the three ways to avoid straying from our main focus. These are well described in In Search of the Miraculous. What isnt clearly emphasized there, however, is that, while Gurdjieff presents three archetypes of ways based on human types, this is true only in theory. In practice, any way will prove a blend of all three ways with a center of gravity on one. The Fourth Way differs from these in that it strives to blend all three ways harmoniously.We say strive, for that is the idea. Normally, though, a teaching will begin as Fourth Way and evolve to place emphasis on one aspect over the others. It may gradually assume an emotional, religions hue; or it may gradually assume an intellectual, academic hue. This seems to have happened in both Gurdjieff and Ouspenskys teachings, where each began at a similar place but gradually gravitated towards an emphasis closer to his own natural tendency; for Gurdjieff it was physical movement, for Ouspensky it was intellectual discussion.

A fundamental aspect of the Fourth Way, absent in most modern practices of spirituality, is that the spiritual evolution of man has to be linked to a scale greater than man. Man does not evolve solely for his own benefit. He is generally not meant to evolve spiritually, but serves organic purposes, for which his normal undeveloped condition is sufficient. Evolution is a rare exception, a going against the stream, an escape from the general law.

The reason spiritual evolution is, at all, possible, is because its benefit to a higher cosmos. Parallel to the downward movement of universal growth of the endless physical expansion of the universe there exists an upwards movement towards consciousness, for which a minority of conscious individuals is indispensable. These are the broad and narrow ways mentioned in the Gospels and likened by Gurdjieff to acorns in a field. Of the billions of acorns produced each year, how many will mature into trees?

The Fourth Way is, therefore, exclusive by definition. It is not for all. It flatters none. Neither is it a path that can be traveled half-heartedly. It is a last resort, a way for those disappointed with everything else, who have sought yet havent found. It is a way for disillusioned people who know too much who know they have nothing to lose.

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