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Bamso: The Art of Dreams |  | Author: Asanaro
Publisher: Tarcher
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.00
as of 3/12/2010 17:22 CST details
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Seller: creatorspirit
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 614299
Media: Paperback
Edition: Original
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 1585427527
Dewey Decimal Number: 135.3
EAN: 9781585427529
ASIN: 1585427527
Publication Date: December 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9781585427529 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
A journey through the mysterious world of dreams.
In this mystical memoir of his spiritual journey through the world of Dreams, teacher of pre-Buddist Tibetan martial arts and philosophy Asanaro describes his apprenticeship with his master, Alsam. As the young apprentice opens his vision to the Astral World, he learns that the art of mental projection allows him to jump through time and space . . . and what he discovers isn't at all what he had expected.
Written in the form of a teaching story, Bamso uncovers for readers the fundamentals of astral projection and "doubling"- the art of lucid dreaming. Presented in an engaging yet instructive manner, this book will captivate fans of Carlos Castaneda and Paulo Coelho.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Hypocritical and hard to believe February 11, 2010
Nathan
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book from Lulu before this version on Amazon was released in a last-ditch effort to give Mmulargan and Asanaro another shot. I figured if I were impressed with the discussion on meditation/astral projection, the arts I never studied under the Mmulargan school, I would consider practicing it again. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed.
My biggest problem, apart from my skepticism regarding the details about "astral projection", is that the book is entirely hypocritical. Using deceptive logic, Asanaro tries to portray a dream teacher who preaches tolerance, understanding, openness, and the like. Unfortunately, the teacher does not seem to possess these qualities at all, as the book is essentially an attack on the Christian religion. While I may agree with some of the complaints about Christianity, I was surprised by the viciousness in the teacher's criticisms of it. It is highly detailed and thorough; it is readily apparent someone, presumably Asanaro, has been deeply offended by Christianity. Given that the Mmulargan school existed in South America in the early 90s and caused an uproar by denouncing the Church, it seems their ways have not changed much. It is my opinion that Asanaro clearly holds a deep-seated grudge against the Church and, despite his preaching of being positive, of being open, understanding, and allowing other people to reach their own opinions, he does not do a very good job of any of that. Rather than showing any respect for what Christians/Catholics believe, he wholeheartedly denounces them. It is one thing to express an opinion, it is another to write an emotionally charged book on it and state it as undeniable fact. (While I use scientific explanations for much of this review, I recognize that science deals in probabilities, not absolutes.)
The rest of my disbelief comes from 1) the lack of authenticity in Asanaro's teachings, in that it is more than likely impossible the arts are over 10,000 years old, are more than likely not Tibetan, and are more than likely a conglomeration of other established traditions from which he copied them, and 2) my own skepticism regarding astral projection. While I believe in karma as it fits in with my Tendai Buddhist practices, I recognize the distinct possibility that it may not be real; however, there is no strong material evidence one way or the other, though some aspects of theoretical physics suggest it is a possibility. Astral projection is a different matter because the "out of body" experience has been reproduced in controlled laboratory settings, and what has been found is that the brain is either messing with its sense of place, producing the feeling of being outside the body, or that, if one is traveling in an astral body, one often gets details incorrect (e.g. seeing the wrong color of a neighborhood's houses). Moreover, on the subject of people who experience OBE's recalling details they would not remember if conscious, it is either 1) a lie, intentional or not, of anecdotal evidence, or 2) the mind is in fact hearing and perceiving even if one is not conscious. 2) has been observed in comatose or stroke patients before. All in all, the evidence is against there being any "astral body".
It goes without saying that Asanaro's idea that the earth's history is somehow embedded in its magnetic field is ridiculous; moreover, his recounting of the earth's history is not what professional historical scholars agree what happened. At the end of the book, it is also implied that Jesus traveled eastward, invoking the somewhat-popular myth that Jesus visited Shangri-La. Given that Asanaro claims Boabom originated in Shangri-La (known to be an entirely fictitious invention by an author that caught on popularly) and is now implying Jesus visited there, before we know it, he will be saying Jesus learned Boabom.
For the record, I am not a "Scientist" with a capital S. Science is a method I feel works for many scenarios, and is not my belief system to explain everything. As a Buddhist using both shamatha and vipassana meditation practices, I've had experiences that I believe science cannot yet explain, but this does not mean they cannot be accounted for materially, whatever scientific paradigm is employed (it may not even be reductionist!). Unfortunately, it looks as though astral projection is mostly wishful thinking and tricks played by the brain; and the entire premise for the book (the history embedded in the earth's magnetic field) is outright ridiculous.
When the Tibetans had to leave Tibet and were challenged by Europeans that there was no Mt. Meru in the center of the cosmic universe, they eventually had to agree in the face of the overwhelming evidence, and this is the position of the current Dalai Lama. Asanaro needs to get with the times and recognize what is actually useful for people and what is not.
 Both Window and Mirror, a book like no other December 11, 2009
Scott Meredith
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Possibly the best book yet written on the (heretofore) mysterious connection between dreams, astral travel, meditative/energetic states, mystical ecstasy, and ordinary smell-the-coffee hard-ass physical materiality. The obvious comparison that will leap forward to the informed reader will be with Carlos Castaneda's work. So let me walk through the main points right here and get that over with.
The similarities are obvious, an eager somewhat naive young student personality is being initiated into apparently contradictory and confusing mystical Jedi-type teachings by an obscurely wise Yoda-like figure. However, the differences are more important than the similarities. Both the content of the Bamso teachings, and the way they are presented in the author's personal narrative are far more sensible, gentle, approachable than anything in Castaneda. But the most important difference to me is the feeling of truth the resonates and threads the whole narrative. Asanaro is not playing games. Castaneda is a great writer, it's no criticism or shame to Asanaro to point out that Castaneda's' presentation is on an entirely different level of literary artistry - he was simply a genius as a writer. There's only one problem with that - he was a hoaxster and his narrative as presented was false. That has been thoroughly researched and fully established beyond doubt. He was a truly great, yet essentially dishonest, literary genius.
Asanaro is something different. Asanaro is a teacher. And in my opinion that is something both more needed and more rare than another great literary work of art. Of course we don't have videotape proof of Asanaro's exact journey as written here either. Yet I have absolute confidence in his teachings. Not only because they confirm most of the best writing on the subject of dreams and astral travel, such as the seminal works of Robert Monroe. But also because this narrative contains not a single false note, in terms of what I have personally observed in my visits some years ago to the Asanaro's original school, the same basic setting for most of the narrative in the Bamso book.
To be clear, I am neither a member of any of the Mmulargan schools, not do I practice Seamm Jasani or any of its sister arts. But I have met Asanaro and his senior students as a visitor to their home ground, the same environment where the Bamso narrative begins, and they made an indelible impression on me of absolute honesty, gentleness, humor, and profound understanding. I was honored to have been briefly accepted into their world, but only now, reading Bamso, have I begun to understand how deep that water really is. And that's something that a casual browser of these reviews and the book might want to keep in mind, that Bamso is really one part, perhaps the crowning element but not the only one, of an art that encompasses a whole lot more (presumably much more than I ever saw). Those other elements are alluded to in this book, but for fuller appreciation you will probably find yourself wanting to read at least the author's first book on Seamm Jasani.
Anyway, getting back to the book itself, having read virtually everything ever published on astral travel, mystical consciousness, and the deeper aspects of dreaming, I do not know any other book that unifies all the confusing, disparate observations of many great spiritual masters over the eons. This is truly a great book, a much needed book, a landmark achievement, and hugely enjoyable, a tremendous pleasure to read.
I am not a student of Asanaro or the school, I work on my own arts in my own way, but for that very reason, for the fact that he has taken the trouble, for the benefit of outsiders to his method, to shed such illumination on THE fundamental problem of consciousness and reality, I thank him most sincerely.
the dream of time December 11, 2009
Ryan Midura (Boston, MA USA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
"What you will read here is true." So begins Bamso, and it may sound strange to say about a book that involves lucid dreaming, astral projection, time travel, ancient conspiracy, capricious spirits, and passionate love -- and yet, true it is.
As a student and a teacher of the Arts of Boabom, I've read this book many times. I always find myself surprised to see the glimpses of our art's inner thinking laid out on the pages, for our way is to be reticent about such things. It's a rare event that the mystic and philosophical ideas expressed in this book will come up in one of our classes in the moving meditation we call Boabom; we prefer to give each student space to feel their own unique and individual experience of the art, without expectation or prejudice. Yet implied in each movement, whispered in each breath, there is a foundation of principles that guides our teaching.
In Bamso, those core ideas find an expression in story, a story that shows how they arise in the body and reach through the mind into the realm of art, the world of dreams. What is found there will be surprising. It may be shocking, or comforting, or confusing, or clarifying. Just as each student of Boabom discovers their own resonance with the arts of movement, each reader of Bamso will develop their own understanding of the art of dreams. It's in that exploration, that self-examination, that journey to the reaches of the stars, the reaches of the self -- it's there that the true meaning of Bamso emerges.
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