Being of the Sun - Softcover

Sender, Ramon; Laurel, Alicia Bay

4.59

17 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060125233 ISBN 13: 9780060125233

Publisher: Harper & Row, 1973

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Being of the Sun (Harper and Row, 1973), is the sequel to Alicia Bay Laurel's classic, best-selling guide to bohemian country folkways, Living on the Earth (Random House 1971 and 2000.) Co-written with author, avant-garde composer and solar yogi Ramon Sender, Being of the Sun opens as a guide to creating one's own religion, and then offers a compendium of spiritual practices the authors found valuable. Like Living On The Earth, Being of the Sun is entirely handwritten in Alicia's flowing cursive script and illustrated on every page with her line drawings, a shining example of her immensely influential original book design. However, unlike the simple brown lines and cover of Alicia's first book, Being of the Sun's design features purple ink throughout, a colorful cover, plus a dozen full color illustrations within. Ramon created sheet music of original spiritual songs he and Alicia wrote for the book. Featured in the Sonoma County Museum's spring, 2002, exhibit,!

Utopia Then and Now, Being of the Sun is a window on hippie life in the early 70's, and a cult classic among nature-worshippers to this day.

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About the Author:

Alicia Bay Laurel is the author/designer/illustrator of 10 published books, as well as a singer/songwriter/guitarist with two CDs released.She lives in Hawaii.

Ramon Sender, son of the famed Spanish novelist of the same name, is the author of four books, a noted avant-garde composer who helped invent the first synthesizer, one of the founders of the Well, an early Internet discussion group, and a devoted pioneer of consciousness. He lives in San Francisco.

One cosmic experience of your own is worth 10,000 second hand ones. In American Indian cultures, people used to have visions which became their personal religions or ways of getting high. A vision expands one's awareness and makes living easier and more enjoyable. Many beings have expanded their awareness to blissful states of at-one-ment with the universe. Some have taught other people their methods and beliefs. Many have followed these divine inspirations, but one may discover one's own way, as did these teachers.

Open yourself to the possilbility of having visions. Then, prepare for them by feeling your own being and your own environment. The wisdom of all ancient teachings lives in your heart. When you relax enough to hear it, this wisdom can rename you, reclothe you, give you dances, exercises and meditations, ceremonies and recognitions of divinity in everyday life that make your whole day an act of being radiantly blissful.

There are ways of abandonment and ways of restraint, and a million ways in between, any of which can bring you ECSTASY.

Abandonment: self-expression, ingestion of a sacrament, improvisational dancing, feasting, sense awareness, wilderness, nudity and costumes, love-making

Restraint: rules of behavior, study and meditation, exercises and rituals, dietary laws, tuning out of senses, temple or monastery, prescribed dress, chastity

Your friends can teach you ways to make your life happier and induce bliss states. They can teach you by example; you need not express to the person that they are your teacher, nor limit yourself to one. If you spend a night in the same house, your souls will merge as you sleep. If you meet someone who is admirable to you in every way, including life style, you might surrender to him or her that they may teach you their way. The qualities you admire in them cannot be recognized unless they are resonating in you at the same time. The teacher is a reminder of your highest self, and, in that sense, your guru is you. Animals and trees are also great teachers. Mountains, wind, ocean and sun are teachers. Lessons abound for the observant.

Every religion was born in one time and place. They do not travel well through time and space. At their best, each religion applies to one person, to a family or to a tribe. To cling to the past is to cherish abstractions. Drawing from experience of the here and now is the way to find your own religion.

The rest of this book is an example of a homegrown personal religion, which we have been discovering in the here and now of our lives and from teachings which have inspired us. These beliefs and methods of getting high have been discovered in the here and now of thelives of people we have met, so we do not claim them as ours alone. A consciousness is manifesting on the planet in many people at the same time. Sun yoga is as old as the sun.

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