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A TMS book by Kevin Jarvis- perhaps to related to an earlier post

Hi Mala, how was Vietnam? hot, bad traffic, dusty...?
I don't think the poster, La Kevin, and this book's author is the same person. The book was publish back in 2008, but La Kevin just posted in tmshelp.com just a few months ago about his intent to write a book.
 
Balto. Thx for that information. I wonder then who Kevin Roberts is & whether he was ever a 'poster'. Perhaps Forest might know more.

We were only in Saigon. The weather was not too bad & I was very impressed by the wide boulevards. The traffic didn't bother me one bit. In fact I think Bangkok traffic is worse! We did a lot of walking around the city, ate Pho, Banh Mi & lots of other street food, enjoyed drinks opposite the opera house & generally just took in the atmosphere & had a good time.

Where in Vietnam are u from?

Mala
 
Sounded like you have a good trip there. I came from a small town about 30 miles from Saigon. Have not been back there for over 30 years. It probably nothing like it was before. Since we lost Vietnam I have spent most of my time in Thailand and the US.
Mala, please sign up for that meditation class you've talked about while ago. It did wonder for me. The more I learn, the more I love it. And I have seen it save countless souls from all kind of ills and hopelessness.
 
Wow, Mala, that sounds like such an amazing trip to Vietnam. I would so love to go visit there some day. It sounds beautiful. My only concern would be not knowing the language. Do you know it, and if not, was that much of a problem?

I've wanted to get in the habit of regular meditation, but I've always found it very difficult to bring my mind back when it wanders. What sort of meditation do you do, Balto?

Regarding this book's author, I'd agree with Balto that it is probably a different person than the recent post. I did Google the author, though, and it looks like he is a musician as well. In fact, I'm pretty sure I recognize his face in the following music video from the back cover of the book:

The book is pretty solid. He was a police officer and describes his descent into depression if I remember correctly. He did a lot of work to claw himself out.

I'll take another look at the book when I get back home. Right now I've got a brief moment of downtime, babysitting my nephew in a hotel room while his parents go apartment hunting. Go wi-fi!
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/off-to-california-without-an-aching-in-my-heart.4294/
 
Forest your nephew is just so adorable & your brother & sis in law are very lucky to have you look after him. What a shame u won't be able to see TT.

Saigon was very interesting. The French influence is very obvious but it has it's own very unique culture . What struck me was how fast Vietnam is developing & how modern it is becoming. We plan to go to Hanoi next time as I've heard it is quite different. Language was no problem.

Did u ever read the book Personal underworld? I just went back to the TMS Forum & found that the author has posted there as kjarvis.

Mala
 
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I know, right?! I'd love to visit with people. Enrique is here, too, but my brother and sister in law are super stressed out and I don't want to let them down. He's just three years out of school and they're also trying to sell the tiny little fixer-upper they bought in NH. They're pretty crazy.

I've probably read about a quarter or a third of the book, but I am a terribly slow reader and decided that I should finish reading Dr. Sarno's books first and got sidetracked. (My recovery was about reading success stories, reclaiming the activities that scared me, and learning to ignore my symptoms so they would eventually go away. I never started seriously studying the books until later - but that's just me.) I thought the book was well written and that it did a good job of showing Kevin's own personal journey - or, as the title suggests, his Personal Underworld."

I watched a very unique Vietnamese-French movie recently, directed by Trần Anh Hùng, called The Scent of Green Papaya:
https://www.google.com/search?q=scent+of+green+papaya
The movie is paced so slowly that it isn't for everyone, but after watching it, I felt like I had meditated for hours. It takes place in Vietnam with dialogue in Vietnamese and subtitles. I felt that it taught me a lot about mindfulness without ever saying the word or even showing someone meditating. It's just about a little servant girl as she grows up. Obviously, I'm no genius meditator, but it often feels like mindfulness meditation is a lot like TMS healing - it may be hard and one may want it terribly badly, but "trying hard" actually defeats the purpose. Instead you have to simply "allow." Somehow, the movie helped me elude this "meditation paradox" (that trying can defeat the purpose) by teaching me about being present without saying a word.

At least that was my take on it. Most of the reviews didn't even mention mindfulness or Buddhism, so it's tough to know. It just felt like it was so well embodied by the main character's existence.
 
I loved "The Scent of Green Papaya" when it first came out. Yes, slow-moving but also emotionally very moving.
Most movie critics have no idea what mindfulness is, or meditation, and Buddhism. If the movie doesn't have a lot
of action and explosions and involve vampires, they fall asleep. Too bad because they don't lead us to fine films like "Papaya."

I'm helping a friend, Jay Robert Nash, write a two-volume book, The Encyclopedia of Best Films, writing about the
3 and 4 star and masterpiece films from the silents to today. "Papaya" gets 4 stars. It will be finished this spring.
Parents, teachers, and anyone who loves good movies will welcome it.
 
Wow, Walt. I had no idea that anyone besides myself and Roger Ebert had watched that film. :) It's nice to come across someone else who watched it and liked it. After watching it, I think I remember feeling a sense of peace for several days after watching it.
 
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