Dear ,
This is my first newsletter of 2017, so - happy new year! I hope this year brings you a great deal of containment and
fulfilment.
The year feels like a new beginning to me too, partly because I’ve decided to change my life a little. One thing is that I’ve decided to give up coffee. I’ve been a lifelong lover of coffee, and probably drank too much of it. I read some research that showed that an excess of coffee can stop you absorbing vitamins and other nutrients in food, and rather than cutting down I decided to give up altogether. It hasn’t been
so difficult - after the first couple of days I felt pretty comfortable in a caffeine free state (well, maybe not completely free, because I’m still drinking the occasional cup of tea.) At the same time, I’ve decided to do yoga regularly again, twice a day. I followed this practice about 15 years ago, just 6-7 asanas in the morning, and then a few different ones in the evening before dinner, followed by a short meditation. This is partly because I haven't been feeling so healthy recently, and
haven’t been sleeping so well. I’m also conscious that I’m no longer so young - I’ll be 50 in a few weeks! And I have been feeling great as a result. It does seem to helping me sleep better too (of course, that’s perhaps connected to giving up coffee too!).
I’ve probably also made these changes because I’m aware that over the next few weeks my life is going to get very busy, in the lead up to the publication of The Leap. I’m
pleased to say that in the UK, the book is being published by Hay House, who I published three books with a few years ago. I’ve always found them great to work with, very dynamic and helpful, and they’re going to run a promotional campaign for the book, including articles and interviews. I already have a few interviews booked, and have written some articles for magazines. They’re going to run a competition based on the book too - so I’ll let you know about that in the near
future.
It’s exciting to feel that the book is about to be released into the world. I think of it as a little having a child. People sometimes ask me, ‘Why did you decide to write the book?’ But I have never decided to write a book, and have never decided to write a poem. To me it always feels as if books want me to write them. They build up inside me over a long time, slowly gestate, and eventually it feels that they are ready to take
form. It’s a bit like being pregnant. (I said to this my wife, by the way, and she laughed a little disparagingly, having experienced what it’s really like to be pregnant!). And when a book is published it’s a bit like a child leaving home. It heads out into the world, and doesn’t have a direct connection with you anymore. You wish it well, but don’t control its fate anymore…
I occasionally have a slight issue with too many books
gestating inside me, and causing a degree of internal pressure. At the moment I have about 5 books developing somewhere within me, and I know they’ll have to emerge at some point. One is another book of poetic pieces (which is almost ready), another is a book based on my recent research and theories about purpose, another is a book on the theme of appreciation (which I planned out a couple of years ago), another is a book based on my ongoing research into combat situations and spiritual
awakening…And the final one is a book that I’ve already started; in fact, I finished the introduction to it this morning. At the moment I’ve called it ‘Spiritual Science: Beyond Materialism, to a new vision of reality.’ It’s oriented around science, trying to show how the materialist model of reality can’t actually explain the world we live in, and that in order to ‘solve’ a lot of problems in science, you have to adopt a spiritual or ‘panpsychist’ model. I’ve planned this book out in a lot of
detail, and structured it into 13 chapters, and already written up some of the different sections. So it should be quite easy to finish, when I have the chance. I’m quite excited about it, and might start looking for a publisher soon.
and here for the UK
We recently received the foreword from Eckhart Tolle, which is a beautiful piece of writing. I can’t
include the whole foreword, but here’s the final paragraph:
‘Life always gives you what you need, and right now it has given you this book to use as a guide or companion for a while through challenging times. It contains a great deal of precious wisdom, expressed in straightforward, clear and down to earth language that Steve Taylor is so good at. I have a feeling that, by way of a miracle, it may even reach one or two people in the media and
in politics!'
Here’s the cover, if you haven’t seen it - it looks very striking.
The Calm Center Video Course - available to download
Over the past two years, I’ve run an
on-line course called ‘Returning to the Calm Center’, based on the themes of my book The Calm Center, and incorporating some of the ideas from my previous book Back to Sanity. The course has been extremely rewarding and fulfilling, both for me and the participants - so much so that, in order to increase access to it, I’ve created a downloadable version, which is now available to purchase.
It costs £30 or $40 and for
that you receive five hour long videos, the powerpoint slides that accompany the videos, and a wide variety of materials, including exercises to practice and new poems. You will also receive three audio files of the meditations which I lead during the sessions. (You will receive 20 downloadable files in total.) You will also have the opportunity to e-mail me with queries or comments, or to request guidance. You can find out more about it, or sign up, here: https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/online-courses/ The Calm Center Audio Book - Free!
One more thing about The Calm Center - I’ve just learned that the audio version of the book (with me reading the pieces and providing the music) is begin given away free as a special offer if you sign up for a trial with Audible, the main provider of audio books. You can sign up for the trial, order The Calm Center for free, and then not follow through with your registration! You can find out more or order it at Audible.com for the US, or at Audible.co.uk for the UK.
Marc Allen's Magical Path Year Long Course In the US, The Calm Center and The Leap have been published by New World Library, which was founded by Marc Allen, the great visionary publisher, poet and musician who first published The Power of Now and Eckhart Tolle’s other early books.
Marc is running a year long
course called ‘A Year on the Magical Path: 12 months of miracles and manifestation.’ I would definitely recommend it. You can find out more here: http://www.successwithease.net
New Poem A couple of weeks ago I took the
train to London for a meeting with my UK publisher, Hay House. Unfortunately there was a tube (subway) strike on, and the traffic was so bad that I couldn't make it to the meeting. Instead, I had a wander around and went to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. There I had a mystical experience, through being surrounded by so much timeless beauty, created by highly awakened painters like Constable, Monet, Van Gogh and Rubens. It gave me a sense that the past still exists, that if you can
perceive and depict a moment in time intensely enough, then in some sense it becomes eternal. There I was, in the present, surrounded by eternal moments of beauty. When I got back to Manchester that night I wrote a poetic description of my experience, which became a fully formed poem. It’s quite a different type of poem to those I normally write, so I’m not quite sure what to make of it - except that it’s a pretty authentic and accurate description of my experience. Let me know what you
think?
Beyond Entropy
(At the National Gallery)
Some moments are so perfect
that they become eternal.
And this is where these moments live -
this cathedral
of beauty, these halls full of sacred space
where a thousand voices sing
and the light of a thousand different colours
pours through a thousand different windows.
Flowers and fields, blazing with so much is-ness
that they surely couldn’t ever cease to be
landscapes so deep with stillness
that time surely couldn’t ever move them
otherworldly skies, and strange swirling
seas
from a different universe, with different laws
where systems are stable, and don’t ever decay.
Every painting is a portal
to an experience so intensely real
that the world was stunned, and stopped for a moment.
And that was when the experiences escaped,
when they slipped outside the flow of time,
and became immune to entropy, forever
pristine.
And so now these timeless moments have become mine
as I stand here, too awe-struck to analyse, too dazzled even to look,
just leaving myself open, to absorb the countless shining streams
that flow through me, from every vantage point, across centuries.
You are with me now,
you masters, as I was with you then.
I meet you outside time, in spirit
and I bow my head, and thank you.
That’s all for this month!
All best wishes and blessings
Steve |
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