Thank you Jayne
Thank you for your engagement, and your part in making this possible.
I have enjoyed reading your and everyone else's takes on the ideas presented.

Thanks to all the others too that I haven't yet thanked by name, Bernard, Mark, Stephanie, Shivana, Jeanette, Peter, Maxine. Susan, Maninoa, MisterZee, Ed, Ljerka, Rolana, JD, Walt, Kavalloore, Renee and any others I have left out.
It's been a full on 10 weeks. Today I leave for 3 weeks on the road, visiting my clients on the other major Island of New Zealand (most imaginatively named North Island - as distinguished from South Island where I live in the northern part - the ferry leaves in 5 hours and is two hours drive away.)

Been a great journey - thank you all once again - Most especially Brian & Vishen.

Hi Team

Love the opening of this note "Performance, health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy."

The four principles certainly work in my life - training in all dimensions and domains.
A great book to end the challenge on.

I'd say rather than simply being a sprinter, it is appropriate to train for whatever situations seem probable.

Yes there are rhythms, and we need to work with them, and sometimes we need to be able to work past them. I know I have worked 75 hours. I have programmed 40 hours without any more than a loo stop. And I do enjoy a good 8 hours of sleep most of the time.

Water is certainly a big thing. For me salt is also critical. If I do not keep the salt intake up, cramps result - I sweat it out very quickly.

TV is tricky. Yes it is addictive, yes it can be junk, and I do find the documentary and news channels interesting, particularly the BBC "Hard Talk" interview series.

Anacoluthia is great. In a deeper context, being the best we can be, which takes a lot of "knowing thyself".

"How am I that" is certainly powerful. Never pleasant, and almost always accurate.

YES to intrinsic purpose !!!

Another big yes to being specific and measurable - and doing the one touch thing at the same time.

Yep - rituals - required.

A visionary leader does it for me.

Great note to finish with Brian & Vishen - Thank you.
Thank you team - Tom, AF & all others.

Hi Team

I like the idea of living in harmony with nature, including our own nature. Harmony meaning that the tunes we create work with all the others around and within us, with luck creating something greater.

Certainly we need to be present, and there is power in understanding the rythms and trends of the past, and projecting the consequences of our actions now into the future; and it is our actions that count, and the only time we can act is now (well we can initiate actions now, even though it will take an appreciable number of milliseconds before anything actually happens.

Real power in "The approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him."

I love "Retire Within Yourself" and the call to "Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement and so continually renew yourself."

"Being in Tune with Every Note" is an interesting idea. Reality provides a chorus that cannot be altered in a sense, as it is already past before we become aware of it; and we can alter what is coming with our choices. Sometimes a little dischord at one level is required to create greater harmony at another level.

The many speeds of change. From the evolution of the universe, to the life of galaxies, to that of stars, to the changing earth upon which we live, tectonic plates moving at the rate our fingernails grow, creating continents, mountains, volcanism, earthquakes. The slow pace of genetic evolution, the much more rapid pace of cultural evolution, and the sometimes lightning speed of individual transformation and intuition. Some life forms play out their existence over hours, others over thousands of years. We humans historically over a century or less.
Some subatomic particles live and die a billion times in a second.

I completely refute the notion that everything "is created for some duty". That does not work for me. Simply not compatible with the observations of my life. Existence just is. We can choose purpose or duty, it is not imposed upon us (except by cultural memes that bind us into some sort of slavery to some notion, economic, religious, or some other idealism or hegemony).
I reject the notion entirely, and claim for each and every individual the freedom to be the authors of their lives, to be first cause in the matter of the future actions.

Which idea above, leads me to utterly reject the idea of "Your One Delight" being having God always in mind. Service certainly, in one sense, because I choose, and in another for in serving the community, I am looking after my own long term interests, because I am a member of the community and my long term welfare ultimately depends upon it.

I like the "Equanimity Game" noticing when I am not calm, and allowing the disturbance to pass, and peace to return.

I agree that we have the power to create or dispell any stress or distress.

I am not at all certain what truth is, and I am completely aligned with removeing falsehoods. It is relatively easy to establish what is not so, and what remains may be so, and is not necessarily so.

I am all for doing what we do to the best of our abilities.

I believe that right and wrong are things that children must learn, as part of their growth. It is a notion that must be learned, so that it may be transcended as soon as possible. I do not believe the notion is of any value to adult.

I don't like to think of bonds, and it is certainly powerful to contemplate the many many levels of connectedness and influence that are present in reality.

Thanks Brian and Vishen, an interesting note from a historical perspective, with some notions still relevant to today, and others that are best left to history.

[Part 3]
Selecting the target is the key. Mark Joyner's read fire aim, take some action, see what the response was, no refine the action, has something going for it. So many domains containing targets!

It really does seem to take a great deal of effort, and stress is not required.
Being calm allows one to see the whole picture, to be open to so many more intuitions and options; stress narrows the focus of attention, which can be powerful for very short periods, but not for more than a few seconds at a time.

Great note Brian & Vishen - thank you both!

[Part 2]
Certainly agree the trick of perception is in what we notice, the "context" we bring. That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

"We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye" is worth dwelling upon.

"Death as advisor" as in any choice is possible while still alive, is powerful.

Stilling the chatter - not easy in a head like this one.

Creating that independence from the good or bad opinions of others, and doing so responsibly, while bring integrity to being - often not at all simple - so many flows of consequences.

Hi Team

I first read Castenada in the early 70s and found it interesting.

"Does this path have a heart" - so metaphorical. Yet how else to phrase it? Part bliss, part moral, part integrity, part contribution, part excitement, part duty, part interest, part alignment with one's own deepest intuitions.

Had an interesting experience a few hours ago, on the roof cleaning gutters, and suddenly noticed the complete absense of vertigo. I was complete engaged and present to cleaning gutters, and at the same time, completely engaged in contemplation of a scientific understanding of the mystic experience. There was no space for fear, fear was not present.
Vertigo has normally been my companion on the roof - not today.

Certainly understand the endless struggle. The levels of choice, the need for constant vigilence for the return of old patterns, and the patterns of response to patterns. The noticing, with intent, and without criticism.

[Part 9 - last one;) ]

The five rules sort of fit within the above. Basically it is about creating contexts that are supportive of the physiological mechanics of brain, thus creating the best possible environment for the ongoing operation and transcendence of our highest levels of awareness.

Joy can certainly be a great partner in that, and that has an extreme too, don't become a junkie or "wire head". Always be conscious of our highest selves, and also be kind to the many levels of lower self that exist within us - meet their needs too, and give them opportunity to "self express".

Everything is great, in the sense of the opportunity it presents for self expression and contribution - Thanks Brian and Vishen.

[part 8]

Around stress, I agree in a sense. Stress is a physiological response to perceived threat. Historically, in evolutionary time, it has served our ancestors well in surviving threats like, predators, landslides, .....
The problem we now have, is that we now have a self declared self awareness that inherits a context of being from culture, and slowly examines and refines it over time, and perhaps abstracts (transcends) itself into new domains. In these new domains, perceived threats may have nothing to do with our physical survival, but rather the survival of "social" elements, like our "looking good" or "approval of others" etc. The physiological response to threat that brain has is not at all appropriate to these new domains of threat. The most powerful response is to distinguish and dismantle these "threat paradigms" and transform them into "opportunity paradigms" at some level.

[Part 7]

Cause and effect is another very interesting thing. Without a degree of lawfulness nothing could make any sort of sense. Without a degree of freedom, we are all simply automata. Learning where law ends and freedom begins is extremely interesting. True freedom exists in being a first cause (at some level).

The law of gender is another myth that shows the human centred nature of all these Hermetic thoughts. Certainly many things have gender. Understanding sex and gender is fascinating, from many different domains, genetics, evolution, physiology and culture to name a few (many more within "culture").

[Part 6]

The law of polarity is another myth, that again has a germ of truth. Actually very few things actually have poles that can be defined. Most things exist on finite spectra, and what is observable is but a limited range of the potential. Certainly, the limiting observation is in a sense a pole, but in the sense of any sort of absolute limit, it is not that.
So polarity is a principle of a sort, and in another sense it is but a simple logical necessity.

The law of rythms is yet another myth. Certainly many things are cyclic, and have rythms. Certainly it makes sense to work with the rythms of things that exhibit rythm. The circle is an important element of geometry, and in rotation creates rythms in many domains, and there are other geometric constructs that also expression in many levels of reality. Some things are linear (straight lines), some are spiral (cyclic in one dimension and linear in another), others are exponential. All gemoetries have the logical equivalence in all domains, not simply the circle.