Foreword and Warning
easier for me than slowing the thing down. In my explorations, accidents and adventures, I have learned a lot about not only how to make very fast progress in meditation but also a lot about how to do so without completely wiping out. I hope that I can pass on some of the knowledge of both in this book. This should be seen as another warning. This book and the path presented in it are not for the damaged and unstable spiritual seeker. You have to have your psychological trip fairly together to be able to handle the intense techniques, side effects and results I am about to discuss.
I would like to thank the very many people whose influence,
friendship, support and kindness went into making this work what it is, though they are way too numerous to list here. This is an
interdependent universe, and so to write that this work is simply by me is not in accord with reality. It would be absurd not to acknowledge the extensive support of Carol Ingram, Sonja Boorman, David Ingram, Christina Jones, Christopher Titmuss, Sharda Rogell, Bill Hamilton, Kenneth Folk and Robert Burns, all of who were very instrumental in making what is good in this book and my own practice possible. I would also like to thank John Hawley, Roger Windsor, Daniel Rizzuto and Michael Wade for all their help with editing. However, the
responsibility for any flaws this work may contain must fall squarely on me. I can’t be sure that all of these fine people would even want their names associated with this work, but I reserve the right to express my deep gratitude nonetheless.
A brief note on style… The English language has no great way to use pronouns that refer to a single person without getting gender-specific.
Various solutions exist, such as constantly using “he/she” (which can be very distracting), alternating between “he” and “she”, and recasting sentences in the plural, where the pronoun “they” may be used. For better or for worse, I am going to use the pronoun “they” to mean
“he/she,” thus using what is ordinarily a plural pronoun with verbs in the singular. I am not particularly thrilled with this solution, but I don’t think it is much worse than the others. Should a reader disagree, I hope that he/she will find a way to forgive me, or at least that she will understand the problem, making room in his heart for one more author struggling with this linguistic limitation. I must also admit that I am x
