Cheltenham Group Meeting 4/2/10 - Journey to Nowhere

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Rumpelteazer
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Cheltenham Group Meeting 4/2/10 - Journey to Nowhere

Postby Rumpelteazer » Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:03 pm

Initially we focussed on “having fewer desires”. There was agreement on the need for stillness to restrict the number of new desires coming in. Some members found it difficult to catch the moment between desires, but we can at least use the time between activities for stillness. One person said he found that doing only one thing at a time was important for reducing the number of desires. So he does not listen to the radio any more when he is driving.

Several members felt that attention is also the key to reducing desires. You initiate an action and then you just stay in present, watching it being done and dropping any thought of (or desire for) the end result. One person said it was difficult to get rid of the ‘commentator’ that constantly comments on what you are doing e.g. “I am now opening the door ...” There was general agreement that this is not real attention and we need to be completely quiet. Another person said she finds that just listening to whatever sounds there are in the environment around you is helpful in those circumstances.

The discussion then turned to the threefold pattern “listen to the words of the teacher, think about what you have heard and try it out”. One person felt the lack of a teacher. Another (a musician) described how many years ago he went abroad to study with a brilliant pianist and teacher. Now, if he finds that a passage is not going quite right, he will still ask himself “what would my teacher have said?” Then an answer in the teacher’s words comes into his head and he is able to solve the problem. He finds the same is true with HH’s words. Another person felt it was important to try things out in practice: observe yourself and see whether what you observe matches the model that the teacher has described. If it does, it then becomes a part of you. If it doesn’t you just forget it.

One person said that when she was working and encountered a client problem which she didn’t know how to solve, she would stop struggling with it and just go to the coffee machine, get some coffee and stand there for a few minutes just being quiet. Then miraculously, a solution – apparently from outside – would come into her head. Eventually she came to trust that this would always be the case. Two other members said they found that “sleeping on it” had a similar effect. One of them mentioned that he often changed his mind about what is the right thing to do after he has slept on it. Another solution (but not always advisable) was just to forget about the problem and wait for it to go away. Someone else said that the solution for him did not involve stopping thinking about it or being quiet – he just needed a kick from someone (his boss)! He thought it was perhaps to do with self-confidence – or is it Self-confidence?

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Rumpelteazer
Posts: 143
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:30 pm
Group: Cheltenham
Location: Gloucestershire, UK

Re: Cheltenham Group Meeting 4/2/10 - Journey to Nowhere

Postby Rumpelteazer » Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:08 pm

I felt this was a superb, inspiring paper that was outstanding for a number of reasons:
  • It was down-to-earth and practical
  • It was based on personal experience and had that fresh and lively quality that comes only from well-observed and clearly expressed experience
  • It provided several ideas for things that groups (or individuals) could choose to practice during the week
  • It helped to strengthen my determination (especially the initial quote from FCR) to overcome anything that gets in the way of meditating properly (or indeed, practicing anything else.)
  • It reminded me that “There’s never a moment when we cannot do something useful in line with Param-Atman”. Whatever I am remembering to practice throughout the day, it is not enough.
But above all, it is one of those papers that had an immediate, unexplainable emotional impact which (being a predominantly unemotional person) doesn’t occur that often.

(This paper is available for download from the Archive forum. Click here to go directly to the relevant entry in the Archive.)

billymole
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Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:34 pm

Re: Cheltenham Group Meeting 4/2/10 - Journey to Nowhere

Postby billymole » Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:50 am

It was a wonderful paper, and some wonderful responses.


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