Unity IV is from the New York Group. We focussed on Prasad and began to look at Samadhi.
Prasad (What we offer to the Lord and then receive back). How to practise it in our daily lives? Individual responses from our group:
* Life itself is Prasad, a gift.
* Develop a devotional attitude of gratitude: that all these gifts in life are lent to us.
* Practising Prasad reminds us that there is nothing I can call mine or my own. The idea of a separate being becomes an illusion.
* The practise will help to purify our thoughts and actions.
* It's a self-remembering exercise. It is to come awake to one's life.
* Is 'offering' the right word? We don't have to regard our true selves as being different from the spiritual giver.
Natural Samadhi (Comes after the fulfilment of one desire and before the rise of the next desire). Savikalpa Samadhi (Absorption, with the continued awareness of the duality of the perceiver with the thing perceived) and Nirvikalpa Samadhi (Non-dual absorption, absolutely devoid of any awareness of a distinction between the perceiver and the object).
We began with Stillness. Individual responses:
* To be still and without desire allows the Atman to shine through.
* Samadhi comes with grace, but we can create the conditions for it.
* When we are in stillness, aspects like fear, which is related to imagination, don't arise.
* Being quiet, a state that is very beneficial, is also the least valued in our society.
Two practical examples:
* When practising the piano and reaching a point, perhaps after forty minutes' concentration, when the brain and hands were overworked, the player would get up and take a break from it. Now she remains where she is for a few minutes, simply being aware. This creates a kind of Samadhi.
* Being present at a meeting in a town hall where a large group of people had come to listen to a talk on developing stillness. The teacher made the group aware of what it is to be still by being still herself! It made the member of our group aware of one's constant mental and physical activity.
Gaps and Natural Samadhi.
A question was raised about what one can do when life doesn't seem to be flowing naturally. The questioner provided her own answer: 'I rest'. This led to a discussion on gaps.
*Samadhi can come between desires when the body is active. An example: Someone commented that she formerly used to look for gaps between desires, but now feels the need is just to observe. She gave an example of how, in the kitchen, she was watching her fingers doing some chopping. Then came a miaow and she observed the emergence of a desire to feed the cat!
* Finally, we were reminded that Joseph Campbell spoke of the deep silence that underlies the manifest, and to which all things must return.
Cheltenham Group Meeting 21/01/10 Unity IV
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Cheltenham Group Meeting 11/02/10 Unity IV
The Cheltenham Group discussed the rest of this paper and started by considering the practicalities of tapping into Natural Samadhi during the day. Some people found it easier to create gaps between activities rather than looking for gaps between desires. If you have just finished something then that should be the end of that desire. You can then be still for a few moments before starting the next task. Someone mentioned that it was important not to carry forward the desire associated with an unfinished task into the next activity – you have to leave it. An older member of the group remarked that now she was a very old lady she had far fewer desires.
One person felt it was very important to find Natural Samadhi while actually doing an activity. Someone else remarked that this was much easier to do when you are carrying out physical (and therefore fairly mechanical) activities. You initiate the activity and then just watch the body – your hands or your feet – doing the work. The difficulty comes when you are doing something that requires thinking, like writing, or researching on the Internet. It was suggested that the only solution in that case was to wait for a convenient stopping point and then just be quiet for a few minutes.
Someone pointed out that he watched a well-known actor playing a very emotional scene and he saw that the actor’s hands were quite still and relaxed. He was apparently able to play the scene being aware of everything that he and the other actors were saying and doing, but from an entirely detached viewpoint. Someone asked “how can we do this in normal life when there isn’t a script”? The reply was “sometimes it just happens – you can watch yourself talking”.
We moved on to discussing energy. One person said that meditating twice a day provided the energy she needed. Another said she thought that wasn’t enough – you had to practice during the day as well – attention, short periods of stillness etc.
We then discussed the burden imposed by feeling you have to finish an activity before you stop. A long-standing member of the group recalled that in the early days there were occasions when the group used to work together in someone’s house and garden. Every so often they would all be told to stop and they had to stop immediately. Someone would read a short passage and after that everyone would go back to their work. Another person said he had had to learn to leave tasks unfinished because from time to time his wife rings a bell from the other end of the house which means he is expected to drop everything immediately and come and help with something!
There was general agreement that work culture in the UK makes it quite difficult to adopt the attitude that HH suggests. One member of the group who works for a charity for people with learning disabilities said that she had previously found this to be a wonderful place to work because everyone just got on with their work quietly and happily. There was a good atmosphere that gave energy. That has all changed since it was taken over by the NHS. There are now deadlines and targets which destroyed the peace and stillness found through working together.
Finally, it was noted that by coupling Prasad with Natural Samadhi the author of this paper had shown us the connection between the two. Whatever situation you find yourself in – pleasant or unpleasant – can be seen as an opportunity and is therefore Prasad.
One person felt it was very important to find Natural Samadhi while actually doing an activity. Someone else remarked that this was much easier to do when you are carrying out physical (and therefore fairly mechanical) activities. You initiate the activity and then just watch the body – your hands or your feet – doing the work. The difficulty comes when you are doing something that requires thinking, like writing, or researching on the Internet. It was suggested that the only solution in that case was to wait for a convenient stopping point and then just be quiet for a few minutes.
Someone pointed out that he watched a well-known actor playing a very emotional scene and he saw that the actor’s hands were quite still and relaxed. He was apparently able to play the scene being aware of everything that he and the other actors were saying and doing, but from an entirely detached viewpoint. Someone asked “how can we do this in normal life when there isn’t a script”? The reply was “sometimes it just happens – you can watch yourself talking”.
We moved on to discussing energy. One person said that meditating twice a day provided the energy she needed. Another said she thought that wasn’t enough – you had to practice during the day as well – attention, short periods of stillness etc.
We then discussed the burden imposed by feeling you have to finish an activity before you stop. A long-standing member of the group recalled that in the early days there were occasions when the group used to work together in someone’s house and garden. Every so often they would all be told to stop and they had to stop immediately. Someone would read a short passage and after that everyone would go back to their work. Another person said he had had to learn to leave tasks unfinished because from time to time his wife rings a bell from the other end of the house which means he is expected to drop everything immediately and come and help with something!
There was general agreement that work culture in the UK makes it quite difficult to adopt the attitude that HH suggests. One member of the group who works for a charity for people with learning disabilities said that she had previously found this to be a wonderful place to work because everyone just got on with their work quietly and happily. There was a good atmosphere that gave energy. That has all changed since it was taken over by the NHS. There are now deadlines and targets which destroyed the peace and stillness found through working together.
Finally, it was noted that by coupling Prasad with Natural Samadhi the author of this paper had shown us the connection between the two. Whatever situation you find yourself in – pleasant or unpleasant – can be seen as an opportunity and is therefore Prasad.
Re: Cheltenham Group Meeting 21/01/10 Unity IV
We were reminded in this meeting - in regard to Samadhi and our practice - of some of Ouspensky's words:
* "Continue to observe and you will find that there is a place in you where you are quiet, calm, and nothing can disturb you - only it is difficult to find the way there . . . This quiet place is not a metaphor - it is a very real thing."
* "We are in a train, the train is going somewhere. All we can do is to pass the time in the train differently - do something useful or spend it quite uselessly."
* "Continue to observe and you will find that there is a place in you where you are quiet, calm, and nothing can disturb you - only it is difficult to find the way there . . . This quiet place is not a metaphor - it is a very real thing."
* "We are in a train, the train is going somewhere. All we can do is to pass the time in the train differently - do something useful or spend it quite uselessly."
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