Anonymous

One of my favorites in the series.

Reviewed: 06-17-23

One of my favorite books in the series. Probably top three.

There have been a number of running story lines for a couple books now that finally come to a conclusion. A new character that may become a regular is introduced. I'm not saying this is the case. But if the Gorean saga were to wrap up after an even 40 books, I wouldn't be surprised. When you see how things align at the end of this book, make a judgement for yourself.

One thing I'm not sure of is there may have been a political statement made. There's a part on the press of Ar and whether or not people want an honest and truthful press for a more entertaining one full of lies and ulterior motives. I view these books as an escape that is the crap we deal with in the real world and if this is a statement, then I'm not too fond of finding it here. I absolutely hate the media and the way they portray things, so I guess he chose the right thing to complain about.

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I just unsubscribed after listening for years

Reviewed: 02-24-23

This show used to be one of my favorites and it's gone downhill tremendously. After suffering for a while now, I just unsubscribed.

This podcast and the jim cornette experience started gaining a lot more popularity when it started reviewing modern wrestling. That also marks the point where the show started to die, in my opinion.

Jim has a right to his opinion and in a lot of cases has a valid point. He turns up the volume on it in a way that's supposed to be entertaining and instead it's un-listen-to-able. They say that the greatest wrestler gimmicks are the real wrestlers personality turned up a notch. He turns it up too many notches.

They don't know when a joke has run it's course. That horse died a long time ago and they're still beating it. Jim has to come up with a stupid name for everybody he talks about. Most of them suck and aren't funny. Some are borderline offensive and just shouldn't be used. I hate cancel culture as much as the next guy. But being a dick because there's no such thing as bad publicity is different and kind of uncalled for.

The singing is horrible and cringe-worthy. Again, it's just not funny any more.

Most episodes start with a story of what's recently happened in his personal life. It's gotten old.

The commercials are horrendous and LONG. I've fast forwarded for more than five minutes and usually just fast forward that length by default. Way too long. Some people have actually convinced them these things are good and they've released a collection of their commercials. I skipped it. It suppposedly did well. They must have used one of those bots to increase the numbers

I hate politics. But his opinion on "orange man" was one of my favorite parts and I haven't heard anything like that in a while.

All the above have occasional gold nuggets adn that's what I used to listen for. The memory of those and hearing a new one every now and then is why I held on as long as I did. It's just a waste of time now.

I have issues with Brian Last as a person. He bashes people he has a personal issue with in a very sneaky way that makes them look like terrible people and he's some kind of saint or something. The problem I have with this is he disguises it every well. A lot of people I don't think see exactly what he's doing. Be professional and check your problems at the door. Don't spit on your listeners and what you're doing by using it for personal grudges.

I'm just so frustrated with this show. It used to be so good and now I just quit in the middle of a podcast.

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This field of mindfulness needs a next generation

Reviewed: 11-14-22

Most of these aren't normal, traditional mindfulness meditations. It's sort of a very promising combination of mindfulness and positive psychology. First, I honestly think the combination of all the different forms of CBT, including positive psychology, getting mixed and combined with a variety of different meditations is such a promising field that I'd invest money in it if I could. The problem is I think we're 30 or more years away from actually achieving what I picture in my head. You're gonna have to pay close attention to keep someof the meditations from being exactly like another. You'll almost have to listen to it to get the idea of what to do and then go back and listen again, only this time performing the meditation. Once you know what to do, brainstorming and taking notes beforehand might also be a good idea. A good example is you'll need a list of positive experiences in life that fit what the meditation is asking for. It can be tough to do that the first time through. The meditations will be a mixed bag. You may get great results from one and find another completely useless. Another person might find those exact two meditations to be the exact opposite. Previous and current life experiences will dictate these things. I like the format of some of the traditional meditations like the meta meditation. There's a couple of different forms and he does the one I like and the one that will probably get most people the best results. It's also the most guy friendly considering meta medition is also called "loving kindness" meditation. The slightly more modified meditations have potential if you have the positive life experiences needed for some of them. If you don't, you're kind of SOL. There are possible variations I thought of that weren't mentioned like using the positive of anything funny in the meditation. This can be a nice alternative to those lacking positive life experiences. I also wasn't too crazy about the tempo of some of them. I wish they were a little slowly and more methodical. You're supposed to bask in the glow of previous good and you're asked to move on too fast, in my opinion. CBT has evolved a little bit since it's birth. It's even been modified into different forms like DBT, ACT, MBCT and positive psychology. This is a realy good step one that needs a step two. Thanks for opening that door for us, Rick. Now we need a number of devoted, smart individuals to take the ball and run with into the next generation. I think some people will get some benefits from this, but there is so much more potential that's untapped. Expect to do some of the work yourself. This isn't the type of thing where you listen and kind of half heartedly pay attention and the benefits come. You'll have to a bit more than that.

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3 people found this helpful

Best review I've given so far.

Reviewed: 10-08-22

I've been going through the entire series and hope Audible produces the rest of the books in the series in audio book format sooner rather than later.

If you've been going through them all like I have, you've noticed a couple changes along the way. In the very first book, he wound up back on earth. The book was so popular that he had to do another and thus find a way to get him back on Gor. The slave aspects of these books was a bit more in the background until about the 10th book in the series or so. Again, that part was popular, so it got fan serviced into the books more. Personally, I found that a little annoying. It was better off in the background. The main story progressed very little at times because of it.

Now to this actual book. Finally the greatness has come back to the series!!!I won't ruin anything for you, but you'll probably notice little mini arcs throughout this book. The invasion of Ar for example. Depending on how you want to look at it, this book either continues the main arc or starts a new and very interesting one that's related to the main one. Easily my favorite book in the series. I'm a couple chapters into the book that follows this and you'll definitely want to get them together. So far, these two books are very much linked. I'm still fairly early on in the next book, Swordsman of Gor, but liking it just as much as this one.

If the slowness of the story or side arcs have driven you away or made your interest fade, don't give upcompletely before you get to this book. Finally everything that makes this series great comes together in one book in all the right amounts.

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Far and away my favorite book in my large collecti

Reviewed: 07-07-22

My favorite book, by far, of all the books I have on meditation. Shinzen's way of thinking of things really connects with me a lot more than most meditation teachers / coaches. I think this would be the same for most westerners. Some of my favorite meditations are included in this book and they're kind of out of the ordinary. You won't find every other coach doing these exact same meditations. I think this is a very good starting point for somebody who is interested in meditation and wants to know more. I try to stick to people with phd's in some type of psychology as it keeps the voodoo mumbo jumbo out of the equation. I learned one thing from this book that I had to check, double check, and triple check. Listen to the audio sample. Sounds like a little old Japanese woman. Right? Wrong. That's a little old Jewish guy. Shinzen is his monk name. The voice thing I still can't explain.

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A little disappointed. Meditations were too short

Reviewed: 07-07-22

Shinzen does some of my absolute favorite meditations. I was disappointed in these. If you do the math, it works out to about 20 minutes per meditation. It's closer to 15 minutes of explanation and 5 minutes of meditation if you're lucky. I usually find Shinzen to be very informative and I feel like there was a lot of potential info on each of these meditations left on the table. They must have been rushed or more likely limited by overall time for some reason. I don't know if this is gonna make any sense at all. But I view this book as more for informational purposes only as opposed to something you're gonna learn something from. This may help to point you in the direction of a meditation style you'd like to try. You won't find that actual meditation on here. He's capable of doing much much better.

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Arguably some of the best meditations for beginne

Reviewed: 07-07-22

As I tried to say in the title before I ran out of space, arguably some of the best meditations for beginneRS. If I had any issue, it's that the first two and last two meditations are grouped together in the same chapter. My advice is that the very first meditation here is a great foundational meditation and could and probably should be done immediately before you do any of the other five. The way the book is formatted complicates that. The very first meditation starts out slow and progresses as it goes on. Perfect for beginners. The second meditation is attached to it and also great for beginners. The next two meditations are a little bit more complicated. Good for high beginners or low intermediate meditators. Like I said above, doing the first meditation immediately before either of these two is a great idea for warming up to them. . The last two meditations are more for advanced meditators. Until you have a certain amount of meditating under your belt, you can do these meditations, but you'll be a bit limited to how much you can get out of them. It would be like a bodybuilder lifting a weight that's way too heavy for them. Too soon in their lifting career and that's a mistake. Later on, that type of thing is much more beneficial. Joseph Goldstein has three books in an abiding in mindfulness series. These meditations would accompany those books perfectly. I'm only about halfway through the first book in the series, but that's enough to know what's going on. I did check the very end of the book and it looks like these meditations are NOT included in that series of books. I guess you could view this as the unofficial fourth book in the series. On that topic, there is a big sky meditation by Joseph Goldstein available on Audible. That exact meditation is included in this book, so don't waste your money on that if you plan on getting this. Final thoughts: I'm pleasantly surprised with how good this was. I was very borderline on buying it. (I'd compare the price and actually buy it vs using a credit on it. It's cheaper for me that way.) You can spend the first year of your meditation doing the first two meditations in this book followed by mixing in the next two for the following year or two. After that, mix in the last two. You can get some great mileage out of these and they're some of the best out there for initially learning from.

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The plot given is wrong. Here's the real one.

Reviewed: 06-14-22

The description of this book that's given as I type this is wrong. It's the one from the previous book in the series. Below is the real description taken from Amazon. Taken as a possession, Judy Thornton, an Earth resident, is found meandering in the wilderness of the Earthlike planet of Gor. In keeping with the uncivilized culture of the Goreans, she is trained and used as a slave. What her masters don't know is that Judy is more than just a beautiful chattel. She has the power to obliterate Gor and all that is related to it. Determined to seize control of her, Priest Kings and Kur-Monster enter combat, neglecting the fact that the fate of Gor rests in the hands of the ethereal Judy. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the first book of the Gorean Saga, TARNSMAN OF GOR, E-Reads is proud to release the very first complete publication of all Gor books by John Norman, in both print and ebook editions, including the long-awaited 26th novel in the saga, WITNESS OF GOR. Many of the original Gor books have been out of print for years, but their popularity has endured. Each book of this release has been specially edited by the author and is a definitive text.

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Great if you use it right

Reviewed: 03-28-22

Where this book excels is in it's ability to give you multiple shorter meditations you can do throughout the day. In a traditional retreat, you'd avoid all the items of your regular daily life like your phone and work. You can go through and do a meditation from this every time you get a chance to throughout the day and get great results. If you're a newcomer and looking to boost your meditation, that's a great approach to take to do so. You can really do that just about every day. You might want to do the meditations out of order from where they are in the boook, though. For example, I like doing a body scan in bed while I'm getting ready to fall asleep. Great versions of the basic meditations like mindfulness of the breath. There is a loving kindness meditation in here that's in the format I prefer. A bit short and not structured enough for what I I'd consider a true day of meditation. If you save things like cleaning up around your house for Sunday, then you can fairly easily set these up at various times throughout the day and mindfully clean around the house between meditations. It's basically a good collection of varied basic meditations anybody can try at any level. This could be very good for a true beginner if you do a meditation or two or three a day.

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Pretty good. But not for beginners

Reviewed: 03-28-22

I have a feeling beginners 'might' feel overwhelmed by this. If this is your first foray into mindfulness meditation, then I'd go very slowly. This isn't really the type of book you read in a day anyway. Plenty of good stuff in here. A mixture of both meditation and psychology. I noticed aspects of CBT and even DBT in some of the meditations. There's also some more traditional style meditations. Nothing weird in here that would scare off the average westerner. If you're looking for something to help you overcome anxiety or depression, there are better options. I'd suggest this for people with stress or even trouble sleeping at night. The final meditation in this is a great one for right before bed or even in it. It will take most people a while to master this program completely. Don't let that scare you away. That said, I still think this is an ideal SECOND book on meditation with another option being your introduction.

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1 person found this helpful