Archive for September, 2009

on chesil beach by ian mcewan

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

The fly cover of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan describes the book as “a short novel of remarkable depth by a writer at the height of his powers”. On Chesil Beach was recently short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, but lost out to Anne Enright’s The Gathering. I have read both books and, for me at least, what is so amazing is the mere fact that two such utterly different concepts could have been considered for the same prize. It is reassuringly astounding that the “genre” of literary fiction can be home to every style, every emotion, every approach, every outcome, everything imaginable and much that is real. Those who write book blurbs are often prone to hyperbole. The greatest, the best, the most, the biggest, the most superlative are terms of mundane commonplace. The term “best selling” is usually an empty platitude. “Real” often signifies “very”, but without the latter’s imagined meaning. So what can we make of “a short novel of remarkable depth by a writer at the height of his powers”? In the case of On Chesil Beach this blurb is an understatement, but it is essentially accurate and justified. If I were to write a blurb for this Ian McEwan novel, I would use a single word: masterpiece. I will offer only the merest summary of the plot to provide context, because the book effectively deals with just one event, a newlywed couple’s wedding night. What happens to them is the book’s crucial point, so to reveal it would render the reading less rewarding. Suffice it to say that Edward and Florence are newlyweds and they are in a Dorset hotel for their honeymoon. This is the early 1960s, an era when sexuality was not discussed or even approached in the manner of even half a decade later. Edward and Florence are products of their age and of their upbringing. Ian McEwan tells us much of these aspects of their characters in asides and cameos throughout the narrative. When I reviewed the same writer’s Saturday, I described the book as time turned inside out. In that book, across the span of a single day, an entire family is presented through its past, its aspirations, its identities. On Chesil Beach accomplishes a similar feat across a smaller canvas, but in a much more concentrated form, replete with comment, detail, analysis and observation. Florence is solidly middle class, Edward less so. She is a violinist from a musical family. He likes Chuck Berry. They are deeply in love and they marry, but they remain children of their age, and there is the rationale for the book, an examination of their private ideas on how to cope with adulthood, alongside an account of the practicalities. On Chesil Beach has limited objectives, lives mainly in the events of a single evening, but, like Saturday, turn its time inside out, so we have beautifully detailed pictures of both of the nuptials’ families. Coping, or not, is what characterised the age. On Chesil Beach is a masterpiece, beautifully conceived and executed. Do read it.

help with psychology dissertation available here

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Psychology dissertations advance scientific information in support of future solutions to psychology issues. That is, the scientific query asked is aggravated by psychology dissertations needs. How to write a psychology dissertation this is the question many students face during their academic career. The four necessary queries in this type of dissertation psychology are: 1. What is the query about the world that wants to be solved? 2. In what ways are earlier answers to this query inadequate? 3. What is my response to this query? 4. How fine is my reply in comparison to earlier answers? The “query about the world” is usually about Writing a psychology dissertation psychology dissertations. When thinking how to write a psychology dissertation, you to analyze, to understand, to evaluate and contrast, to reveal cause and effect, or to take a rise on an issue, it is likely that you are being questioned to develop a Psychology dissertations and to support it convincingly. Psychology dissertation writer’s use all types of tools to excite their thinking and to assist them clarify dealings or comprehend the broader meaning of a dissertation example of psychology topic and turn up at a thesis statement. Writing a psychology dissertation may not openly state that you require a thesis statement since your instructor may suppose you will include one. When in uncertainty, ask your teacher if the task requires a thesis statement. Start with an introduction, which will then lead to the literature review section. Dissertation help psychology, Dissertation guide psychology and Dissertation example psychology examiners to convince that you answered the doubt or solved the trouble that you establish for yourself. The third section of your psychology dissertation is methodology. The material that was protracted to make in literature inspection part is added here, e. g. graphs, pictures, interviews, review results, charts and tables etc. Here we too assess our answers establish in the survey. Then take out the findings and results, followed by the discussion. Next step is giving summary or conclusion of the psychology dissertation topic. Then references or bibliography is mentioned. Truth be known, most examiners too seem for their own publications if they are in the subject region of the dissertation, then we name these overly. Last section of psychology dissertation is the appendix; examples include plan listings, huge tables of information, protracted numerical proofs or derivations, etc.

the secret to writing memorable sales copy

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Want to know the secret to creating MEMORABLE promotional copy? Sales copy that actually stays with your customers long after they’ve finished reading it? Then master the art of using words to create pictures in your customers’ heads. If you can describe your products or services in such a way that it forms images in your customers’ heads, well, then you’ve just created something that will last long after the marketing is over. Why else do novels stay with us for so long? Those “pictures” we see draw us into the world of the novel, and those pictures stay with us long after we’ve closed the book. If you can create that kind of staying power with your marketing materials, think about how much ahead of your competition you’ll be. So, how do you get started? Below are three tips. (Note how all three tips have the word “specific” in common. Be specific whenever you can. We don’t think in generalities, we think in details. The more specific you are, the stronger the pictures.) 1. Use specific nouns. Quick — what springs to mind when I say the word “bird”? Now erase that image. What pops into your head when I say “cardinal”? When I said bird, you could have pictured any number of bird species or maybe even some sort of generic bird (something brown with wings and feathers). When I said cardinal, I bet you saw a bright red bird with that distinctive triangle head. See the difference? Cardinal is specific and it brings a specific picture to mind. Bird is generic, and it brings a generic picture to mind. Whenever possible, use the most specific noun you can. (However, if the most specific noun is something most people wouldn’t know, say some rare exotic insect only found in the Amazon jungle, then make sure you describe it as well.) 2. Use specific verbs. Verbs breathe life into your copy. They’re the difference between words lying flat and comatose on the page or jumping up and dancing a jig. Verbs bring movement to your copy. They tell your readers if someone is walking, jogging, sauntering, skipping or crawling. Or maybe that someone is exhausted and has decided to lie down for a bit. Now, when I say verbs, what I’m NOT talking about are “to be” verbs — am, is, are, was, were, etc. Those verbs don’t paint a picture. Not like hug, skate, sail, run, fall, spin, flip, etc. See the difference? While “to be” verbs are necessary, the idea is to use them as little as possible. In fact, I have a fiction-writing friend who has a “was/were” rule. Only three “wases/weres” per page. Yep, you heard me right. Per page. Yes, it can be done. I didn’t think I could do it either in my novels. And let me tell you, when you start pruning those “wases/weres” out of your prose, it’s amazing how strong your writing becomes. 3. Describe specific situations. Compare: “Our bookkeeping service is the best in the area. We can take care of all your bookkeeping needs, from invoices to paying bills to reconciling your bank statements.” To this: “Do your invoices go out late because you can’t stand the idea of sitting down to do them? Does your cash flow suffer droughts each month because no checks arrive in the mail (because your invoices went out late)? How much hair have you pulled out over the years because of accounting mistakes? Never fear, those days are over when you hire us to do your bookkeeping.” The first example is generic (take care of bookkeeping needs). The second example shows you HOW the business does it. (In fiction we call it “show, don’t tell.” Good advice, even for copywriters.) You can actually “feel” those business problems — late invoices, cash flow droughts, loss of hair. It’s the difference between something cold and impersonal that really has nothing to do with you and something that wakes you up with a spark of recognition (”Hey, that’s me. I need that.”) Creativity Exercises — See what others are doing Pick a piece of copy. Something with meat — at least 300 words or so. No, it doesn’t have to be something you wrote either. In fact, this exercise might be easier if it isn’t yours. Now analyze it. Look at the nouns. Are they specific? Or are they a bit too generic? What about the verbs? Could they be stronger? And does it describe a specific situation, something that you can actually feel and touch? Try this with a variety of writings — novels, nonfiction books, newspaper articles, Web sites, sales letters, etc. Look at both “good” and “bad” examples. (Although good and bad are somewhat subjective, follow your gut.) See what trends you discover. By analyzing what others are doing, you’re better able to see the strengths and weaknesses in your own writing. Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at .writingusa.com

to achieve article marketing and writing success you must follow these 6 steps

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

One way of promoting your website and product can be achieved for free. As an additional bonus, this “free” method can boost your sites and sales, doubling and even tripling your income. Article marketing is one of the best free advertising methods there is, the articles on the free content site contains a link to your own website. Readers, after reading your articles, may choose to click on the link and pay you an unexpected visit. Also your articles on the free content are available to other webmasters who may wish to publish that article on their site. Having you article on other websites also means you have a back link which will increase you search engine ranking. As you can see there are some great advantages to article marketing. Here are some great article marketing tips to help make sure your articles gets published and read. Article Marketing Step 1. Is to discover your topic and titles. As you would provide a first sentence for your article, one that would immediately grab the attention of your reader. To be concise, you would need to get all the facts that will support and go against your point. At this point you are also going to pic out some key words that best describe the content of your article and use these key words as much as possible throw out the article. This will help a great deal when it comes to search engines finding you article, if no one can find it, it will not get read. It’s that simple. Key words are a very important factor in article marketing. Article Marketing Step 2. One of the methods you can use to prepare yourself for writing articles is creating an outline first. Creating an outline for all your articles makes you prepared. You have an idea of what to do first and make a plan for your succeeding steps. Being prepared makes the job easier and faster. Being organized will allow for disorientation to be shunned away. Article Marketing Step 3. Never underestimate the power of the resource box. After all this is the why your submitting your article, right? It may be small in size but they will provide a significant aid in driving traffic to your site. A boring resource box will never get a job done. Be fun and creative but at the same time show that you have a great deal to offer, too much to ask for something that couldn’t fit a paragraph? Yes and no, there are many tips and guides that can help you in doing this, the first step is realizing how important a resource box could be in making people click your link and be directed to your site. Article Marketing Step 4. Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all that is you wanted is links back to your site. And any visitors it can generate are fine. Guess what? Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your content automatically. Oftentimes, they have some guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting. Article Marketing Step 5. You can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight. Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you. This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks, researching on a good topic and even hiring a writer to produce a good content on your behalf. In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time making quality contents. Article Marketing Step 6. Reread and reread what you have written down. Always refer to your outline so that you wont drift away from what you had first written down. Its not hard to be caught in the moment and get lost in your writing frenzy. Your outline will help you keep in track. All those hours spent in outlining your article will not go to waste. This will serve as your guide in writing articles. Trust and rely on your outline because this will prove to be a very helpful tool in writing all of your articles. If you use all these step to market your articles and provide good useful content your article marketing will be very successful. If you don’t feel like writing articles yourself, private label rights articles are always a option. If used properly they can be a great resource. Be sure not to copy private label rights articles word for word. Instead use many different articles and peace them together. This will insure your content is original. To your article marketing success: Mike Jones Webmaster for Free Private Label Rights Articles Pro Visit my article directory at Free Private Label Rights Articles Pro Also as a member of this article directory you have access to the private label rights category.Were you can download free private label rights articles. “All for free” Free Private Label Rights Articles Pro

communications messages for nonprofits better positioning in six easy steps

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

Positioning a message is a lot like good dinner party conversation; you need to learn enough about the person across the table to get the ball rolling. The act of translating this message into information that gets attention and sticks in the minds of your audience is called positioning. Many people struggle with positioning; simply put, it’s using your knowledge about your audience’s interests to help them better understand your organization and, most importantly, what you want them to know and do. Remember, your organization’s needs and wants aren’t those of your audience. The purpose of your communication is to inspire a specific action, which gets the desired result for your organization. All people, whether they are staff, donors or consumers, react to a message based on an emotional appeal. How well you appeal to their needs and interests will make or break the reaction you want. To do this for your organization, you have to consciously and deliberately go through these steps: Step 1: Identify your communications goal. Step 2: List your audiences. Step 3: Identify the concerns or interests of each audience, relating back to your goal. Step 4: Identify the desired result you want from each audience, again specific to your goal. Step 5: Determine the emotional appeal that drives your audience, relating it to their concerns in step 3. Step 6: Apply this knowledge and develop your message. Here’s an example of how this works: Your organization has identified improving governance and financial sustainability as a strategic objective. One of the supporting goals to reaching this objective is to use new accounting software that will track all revenues and expenses. This software was carefully selected for several attributes but it will be a large undertaking to convert data and there is a significant one-time cost. Your communications goal is to gain approval and acceptance of the new software. Your audiences related to this goal would be board (decision makers), staff (implementers). If there are no other audiences that are visibly affected (from their perspective), stop there and focus your efforts on those who will be directly involved or impacted by this change. Your primary audiences are your board and your staff. The board’s approval is needed to move ahead with this initiative. The desired result is to gain their approval. Their concerns would naturally be the cost and impact to the organization. Your message will therefore need to proactively address these issues. Emphasizing the long-term benefits and responsible use of funds could be important messages, for example. Assuming the board agrees, staff will be a key audience, as without their support and buy-in, implementation will fall apart. Their concerns will most likely be the amount of work, and the effect of the conversion on their current procedures. Significant change and the unknown create discomfort for many people, so the important message will be that you want to hear their concerns and that their effort on this project will make their tasks easier in the long run. Once you take a close look at your audiences this way, it becomes clear why one message does not fit all. In summary, follow these guidelines to deliver messages that add value. Know your audience

article writing and copywriting

Friday, September 25th, 2009

The idea placed behind article writing is to promote a person, business or opinion and idea. The main purpose of this marketing copy is to persuade the reader of your article to act based on your words. Your article or copy needs to be informative and persuasive; you need to be able to get people on board with your way of thinking and to do this you need to really connect with your audience. If you want your copy to successfully be persuasive you need to ensure that it is emotional and by emotional I mean it needs to address certain aspects such as fun, fear, wealth, vanity or freedom. By appealing to people’s emotions you are more likely to produce persuasive copy. Taking on the challenge of producing copy is not for the faint hearted, especially when it comes to writing copy for online use. This is because online copywriting is a lot different than print article production in the sense that online copywriting is all about SEO techniques, metatags and writing for search engine spiders; unless you are experienced in it or you have a background within this type of copy production it is advised that you enlist the help of a professional when it comes to producing your copy. A professional article writer/copywriter will be able to produce content in a style that is not only persuasive but that is also search engine friendly and that will be easy to read and draw people into wanting to read your copy. In the age that we live in now the Internet is one of the most powerful forms of media and has expanded to a range of opportunities such as web content ads, commercial emails and online media. In order to stay on top business wise when it comes to the Internet you need to ensure that your copy is produced with certain aspects in mind such as you need to make sure that all of the copy and articles that you are producing are wrote from an audiences point of view, that they offer a unique selling point and that you try to use short and gusty words as well as short sentences. Within the media industry it is likely that a copywriter will be working as part of a creative team. This is because a copywriter will be working closely with an agency or advertising department. In cases such as this the copywriter will have ultimate responsibility for the advertisements text content, which will be wrote using information that has been received from a client; an art director then has the responsibility of visual communication. This process of collaboration often helps to improve the work. This emphasises the point that if you require copywriting to be done you should enlist the help of a professional as you will have the best results possible. Copywriting can be produced based on any subject that you desire when you enlist the help of a professional. Professional article writing means that you will be left with content that is persuasive, informative, accurate and second to none as well as ensuring that you have the time needed to run the rest of your business. Helen is the web master of Article Alley, providers of a professional Article Writing Service.

using tipping point concepts to market your book

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Ever wonder how trends get started? As much as we’d like to think that all trends are Madison Avenue creations propagated by the media, many times a movement is sparked by the action of a few. Then word of mouth makes it spread. Author Malcolm Gladwell examines this phenomenon in his 2000 book “The Tipping Point”. There’s a chapter where he describes how this kind of movement by a few groups powered Rebecca Wells’s 1996 novel, “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”, to surprising success. When I read that I sat up and took notice. I realized I could use the same concepts to market my first novel, “All I Need to Get By”. I did with great success, and I’ll do it again when I launch my next book, “Doing Business By the Book”, this fall. You can too! Here’s how. 1.) Write Your Book So It’s “Sticky” Don’t compromise your artistic integrity, but do ask yourself the hard question: how much will your story appeal to others? When a book is “sticky”, it’s easy to remember. The story stays with people and they want to talk about it and tell others to read it. “Bridget Jones’s Diary” is definitely sticky. So is practically everything that Stephen King ever wrote and all of the Harry Potter books. The topic doesn’t have to be upbeat either. Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” was a sensation when it was published despite its grim subject matter. Since I was writing about a family with a powerful father figure I knew a lot of people would connect and see themselves in the characters. What aspect of your book will draw people in? 2.) Be a Salesman Yes, be a salesman, but not in the way you might think. I’m not talking about being “in your face” like the stereotype of a used car salesman. As Mr. Gladwell points out in his book, it’s the little things that can persuade others. For a writer, that “little thing” is confidence and a strong belief in one’s work. I recently spoke to a writer having a hard time feeling confident about her work. She’s trying to get up the courage to submit a manuscript to agents and publishers but, as I said to her, “How can someone get behind publishing your book if you can’t get behind it yourself?” People are attracted to a person who stands for something, who believes in what they’re doing. If you can be that person, people will want to buy your book. They’ll know you have something to say. If you’re dealing with low confidence, know that working on improving it is just as important as improving your craft as a writer. After all, no one is going to champion your book the way that you can. 3.) Use Small Groups To Spark Your Big “Epidemic” In the fertile soil of small groups, word of mouth grows. That’s what happened with “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”. It became a favorite for book groups, especially mother-daughter book groups. Those groups sparked a word of mouth wave that spread like wildfire. As Mr. Gladwell points out, “small, close-knit groups have the power to magnify the epidemic potential of a message or idea”. I explored this concept with some success by contacting book groups across the country and offering to visit them if they read my novel. What groups can you reach out to in order to harness the power of those circles? And how can you fan the flame of your message so it will spread? One Last Note: Why is all this important? Well, if you’ve gone through all the trouble to write and publish a book, your efforts won’t stand up if you don’t tell people the book is out there. And the concepts offered by Mr. Gladwell are so simple and organic that you may find the whole marketing pill easier to swallow. So take it–it’s good medicine. © 2008 Sophfronia Scott Sophfronia Scott is Executive Editor of The Done For You Writing & Publishing Company. Get your FREE audio CD, “How to Succeed in Business By Becoming a Bestselling Author” and your FREE online writing and book publishing tips at .DoneForYouWriting.com.

theres only two andy gorams or how to avoid upsetting the reader with bad taste

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

A slight exaggeration I suspect (it’s a common enough name after all and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that there’s in fact hundreds of ‘em) but nothing particularly awesome about the claim. The reason I mention it here though is that this was the content of a simple football chant, directed at the newly signed Ranger’s goalkeeper by supporters of their arch rivals Celtic. The reason? Well, shortly after joining Rangers FC, the unfortunate (and crap anyway) Mr Goram was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. So the question is, who amongst you (and be honest here because you’re only fooling yourself) wouldn’t have raised a smile having heard ten thousand Celtic fans chanting this abuse as you munched on your meat pie during the warm up? I for one would have choked on the pastry. But is it right to make a joke about someone who has only just found out that they have a potentially life changing disease? You know, I have absolutely no idea. I mean, what exactly are the rules here? Are there any? This question is something that, as a fiction writer who plies his trade on the darker side of comedy, I constantly have to be aware of. For example, in my first novel, Recycling Jimmy, there’s a passage in which the two heroes are dissecting the bones of a rather tasteless idea, that being suicide for profit. The discussion centres on people’s reaction to catastrophe. The whole scene is driven by the Hindenburg disaster and is at best irreverent (remember the footage of that geyser finally deciding that he couldn’t pull the big balloon back down on his own, but unfortunately waiting ‘til he was 200 foot in the air?). Of course, I’m not the first to take this subject matter and use it to underpin a gag. One of my favourite Simpson moments concerns the almost instantaneous destruction of the Duff blimp after it snags an impossibly high antenna. In this case the punch line is delivered by the crowd’s reaction. ‘Awe man, this is the worst air ship disaster ever!’ they cry. ‘Too fast, too fast!’ they complain. I’m smiling again now. So where are the boundaries? I’ve laughed twice whilst writing this, on both occasions at some one else’s misfortune. Well, for what it’s worth (and I’m only putting this out there, I’m certainly not claiming to be an expert here) I don’t believe that there are any boundaries in subject matter; bad taste or good taste isn’t really the issue because taste is such a subjective attribute and so can’t be accounted for with any certainty, especially if your trying to write something that you hope will make people in general laugh. No, the issue here as I see it is not taste but tact. Even the funniest wise crack, if delivered with a lack of tact, will wreck a cocktail party quicker than a turd empties a swimming pool. Case in point there, and consider the following passage from a work in progress. In the scene Danny is trying to illustrate pretty much the same point as I am and he tells his friend, Sam, the following joke. ‘There’s these two scousers visiting New York, just after nine-eleven. Anyway, they end up down at ground zero watching the clean up going on. There’s a crowd there but everyone is behavin’, paying their respects an’ that, all stood in silence with their hats removed and held to their chest. Anyway, one of the scousers notices that his mate’s still got his Burberry base ball cap on so he nudges him and tells him to take it off. Well anyway, stood next to them there’s this New Yorker and he over hears them talking. He gently taps the first scouser on the shoulder and says quietly, ‘Gee, boys, I hope you don’t mind me asking but I just happened to over hear your accent there and I wondered where abouts is it you’ve come from?’. The scouser looks him up and down and then whispers back. ‘We’re from Liverpool pal’. The yank thinks for a moment but of course, he doesn’t recognise the place so he asks ‘Really? And what states that in?’ The scouser looks at ground zero then back at the Yank and says ‘Erm, pretty much the same as this pal.’ Now I have no doubt at all that the subject matter of this exchange could be considered wrong on many levels. There is simply nothing funny about the destruction of the twin towers or indeed the level of urban decay that Liverpool is, rightly or wrongly, renowned for. What allows this joke to exist though is its tact, and in this case I mean the frame of reference from which very emotive issues are addressed. There’s nothing nasty about the scouser’s reaction to the place or the events that happened there. Similarly, the American’s innocence excuses him from any blame in his unintentional slur about Liverpool. The result? Your safe to laugh at this one without being labelled a sicko. Andy Tilley Author: Recycling Jimmy Publisher: Kunati Inc. (September 1, 2007) ISBN-10: 1601640137

top writers around the world will write for you outsourcing

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Top Writers Around the World will write for you; outsourcing The content of your site tells a whole lot about your website. They will basically describe what your site is about and also tell people what your site has to offer. Articles and website content makes a whole lot of difference in your site because they can catch the attention of your website visitors and keep them in there. With good website content you get the benefit of clearly depicting what it is you want to share with people. Also, good content and articles can lead people to your site. With more traffic, you get to earn more from your site making it profitable. A sites success, be it for profit or not, is the number of the flow of traffic in your site. So how does good content and great articles get you traffic? Well, many search engines rely on the keyword and keyword phrases of a site to put it in their results list. If your content contains a good number of keywords and keywords phrases, it may be chosen to be a part of the top listed sites in the search result pages. But before you think of just plastering your site with all the keywords and keyword phrases it could hold, search engines also filter out that abuse. You must have good well written articles that incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases properly in their content and articles. There are many of those who cannot afford the time to write their own website contents and articles. While writing content and articles specifically designed for the internet may take some getting used to and some researching and learning, there are many writers that can be found all over the world who could do it for you. Many of us do not have the time to learn web content writing and article writing designed for the internet. There are writers who have great experience in doing this and charge only a minimal fee for such work. Writers like this can be regarded as experts in this style of writing and can greatly help your website to get that coveted spot in the search engine rankings. Other than getting your site in the web results page of search engines, they can also provide your site with meaningful articles and content that can impress your website visitors and entice others to view your site. Every website could use the extra traffic website visitors could invite. Then there are those who need papers to be done either for their school or office work. Top writers around the world are very knowledgeable and do extreme researching to get a job done right. They are also very adept in many writing styles that are needed to best suit the client?s need. Many writers around the world charge a minimal fee depending on the type of writing job needed and the number of words needed in the content. Usually, a two hundred fifty worded article would cost from 4 to 8 dollars depending on the writers experience and ability. This is a small price to pay for having a content rich site or for a well researched and written paper. There are also many sites that can offer you these services with their team of well trained and experienced writers. They offer many writing services to cover any writing needs. A writer can be based anywhere in the world and are guaranteed to offer good contents and articles. Each one are doubly checked, edited and proofread so that you would get your money’s worth. Finding a good writer or a site that offers these kinds of services is simply done by searching for them in search engines. Type down your keyword or keyword phrase (e.g. Content Writers, Article Writers) and you will see a long list of sites that offer these services. The top sites would probably be the best since they have done a good job of keeping their content at a high quality to get them high rankings. But you may also want to shop around and read some of their sample work to get an idea of how much it will cost you. If you have any questions please contact us .Amintas.com or mailamintas.com.

the key a fairytale chapter 14 seven days part 4

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

“There is only one way that my training can be taken to heart,” Weepasa warned, “and that is if mindfulness is uninterrupted each wakeful moment of each day. Do you understand what I have just said? Each wakeful moment of the day! Initially you will feel lost and confused because when your mind is not permitted to retain recall of what it observes, it becomes very insecure with only awareness without registration. “But do not succumb to fear. Don’t be concerned about your physical health either, for if you are, you will constantly scheme to keep yourself safe, and this will generate thought and break your mindfulness. You truly must be a fearless warrior to reach the key, for you can easily die from the exertion here. But so be it. The effort will serve you well in the next lifetime.” Weepasa just said that I could easily die from training with him here! I finally had to face it; it was time to decide if I was willing to risk everything. After all these years of looking inward, however, I had to ask myself who exactly is was that is risking what? “Life is very short,” added Weepasa. “If all that you do in this brief moment we call a lifetime is to constantly save yourself again and again, you will never face the ultimate challenge. Saving yourself for the future can be an ongoing delusion, for when that future arrives, you will then save yourself repeatedly. Your habit pattern of quitting will become so ingrained that you will create kamma, the inclination to save yourself continuously, and therefore you will never find the courage to go beyond your ‘self.’ “Here you have an opportunity to break this pattern of many lifetimes of fear, the fear of emptiness, but a man such as you will never find his limits until he goes there. Don’t stop halfway as you have done so many times in the past. For once in your uncountable lifetimes, overcome your past kamma and proceed to finality without concern. “Your training begins now. You must practice the inner work of insight every waking moment until you meet the dragon. Seven years of unbroken mindfulness and the dragon will be yours. Never mind seven years - seven months of unbroken mindfulness will accomplish your goal. In fact, if you maintain unbroken mindfulness here for only seven weeks, you will find your key. Disregard seven weeks, for you, seven days of unbroken mindfulness and you will become a key keeper. “You may ask one question.” The question arose spontaneously in my mind, but it didn’t come from me. I couldn’t say where it came from: “Why help humanity if they posses no self?” Weepasa’s answer was immediate, almost as if he anticipated the question, “Because humanity suffers.” And with this, the master waived me off. I left Weepasa’s room with mixed feelings of apprehension and expectation. This definitely would be the most intensive thing that I had ever attempted, for even in the cave I had some control. Now, I would not be in control but would undeniably be completely free to remain within my inner work because of the structure and support here. This was the Master of Insight that the sorcerer had promised, and I knew that I was very close to the Dragon of Atta. I must not falter. How difficult could it be to maintain complete mindfulness for a mere seven days! I began the schedule and quickly discovered that relinquishing control wasn’t easy. After all, I had been controlling my life for over seventy years! But, for some reason, my trust in this teacher was unconditional, and I found that by following this extremely restrictive training of the mind, I was able to let go of my “self,” little by little. I did this by being aware of each thought impulse as it arose, as well as the physical emotions and mental feelings, and then releasing them immediately. I sat perfectly still during my inner work, not moving once I settled into my position. Any inclination to move was always preceded by a thought or physical sensation that I would let go of immediately therefore invalidating the action that would have normally followed. If I felt the inclination to move, I would release the inclination. This involved becoming mindful of all those initial contacts with my body or mind that precludes action, so that I could see the stimulations clearer and not be so automatic and unconscious in my responses. If the body needed to relieve itself, I noticed the initial sensation in the bladder and the building impulse to urinate. I found that practicing the inner work while walking was not much different from sitting, except that if I became very mindful during walking, the mindfulness became even more refined when subsequently sitting. While on the walking paths, I did not associate with anybody, no talking or looking around, not even a sideward glance. This was enormously important because I knew that only a one-minute conversation; a one-minute escape would ruin my mindfulness for days - if not weeks. I walked at a slow to normal pace from one end of the path to the other with my arms hanging relaxed and my hands clasped in front. I didn’t consciously direct my attention to anything once the walking began. There was only the walking, keeping my eyes two paces ahead on the path. With my mind aware and concentrated, I paid strict attention to the various sensations that arose, and then immediately released them, such as the sensations of the feet touching the ground, and the various joints moving. In many ways, I was becoming my own teacher, where something beyond myself was helping me see, or rather ‘feel’ in my heart. With the help of my years of inner work, it became known to me instinctively that this mindfulness must be unbroken. One peek away from my mindfulness during my walking practice would ruin it, and therefore I kept my focus intense, and remained within each moment as if I was perched on a high wire hundreds of feet in the air. My mind struggled and attempted every diversion to free itself from the restraints of this intense inner work. Severe doubt resurfaced, and memories of the past attacked me. I was well aware that these kinds of doubts and hindrances were merely indicators that my deluded mind was squirming, and that the practice was becoming effective, so I didn’t fall prey to any of the beginners’ mistakes of succumbing to uncertainty and reverie. I knew that if I did yield to these things, Insight would be finished. I tried to never think without being aware that I was thinking, and never talk to anyone. I was completely self-enclosed, and since everything was provided for me, I could simply follow the bells. One bell meant that it was time to sit in my room and practice. Two bells meant walking practice on the paths. Three bells announced the meal in the main building and four bells alerted me it was time to sleep, while five bells awakened me. My entire existence consisted of alternating periods of sitting, walking, eating once a day, and four hours of sleep each night. This was my training - simply following the bells and remaining in a constant, wide-open awareness. There were, however, troubling things that were not completely resolved in my mind, and they irritated me. I tried to merely watch them as thoughts, but they invariably returned, torturing me every day. I knew that I would need more help before my mind could relax enough to progress, so I risked seeing Weepasa again. (To be continued) (hr) E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, .SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-nine years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit .AYearToEnlightenment.com

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