Miscellaneous questions

["David Yeh" <ldreamr@...>]

Okay, some more miscellaneous questions.

With Eight Temples, after the initial scripted meditations (the first 
eight months), is there any order one is supposed to explore the 
temples in, or can I just explore where I feel most drawn?

With the Self-Healing Archaeous: Is the hallmark of having adequately 
mastered Lesson One the ability to sense and totally relax all of the 
respective parts of the physical body? I can go through the 
meditation without following the audio lesson (which is good, because 
I've misplaced my CD) but I hold a lot of habitual, chronic tension 
which it will take some doing to release. I am guessing that it is 
better to stay with this until I have developed a deeper state of 
relaxation through dwelling on the physical body, is this correct or 
am I making too much of this particular lesson?

With IIH: I think I have had some conceptual difficulty with thought 
control, so let me just make sure I'm getting it right. I'm not 
trying to control anything, not even strong thoughts or feelings as 
they enter my mind. Even if a whirlwind of thoughts or feelings is 
going through my mind, that doesn't matter as long as I maintain 
detachment.

I think what has been confusing for me is that having any mental 
contents whatsoever indicates to me that I *am* attached on some 
level. I can maintain a *surface* detachment and watch these strong 
thoughts and feelings go by, but I know that they arise because I 
*am* participating on a deeper level. I had thought that the 
hallmark of having mastered this exercise is that "only a few 
thoughts emerge in the consciousness as if from afar." But sometimes 
this doesn't happen even though I am detached on a surface level, 
sometimes there's a lot going on underneath the surface, and to my 
understanding, resolving those deeper issues is beyond the scope of 
this exercise.

So am I correct in assuming that the goal and the mark of mastery of 
this exercise is detached awareness regardless of content, and that 
the "only a few thoughts emerge from afar" remark is merely an 
observation of what *tends* to happen when this exercise is done 
correctly, but it should not be a focus or goal, strictly speaking?


Thanks,
David