Cheltenham Group Meeting 01/07/10
We take it in turns each week to act as meeting taker. We feel this works well as it allows for diversity in approach and often in choice of material. It encourages us to listen and give respect.
During the past week we have individually studied the C & E Pewsey Groups paper “FCR 1976-82. Giving Up/The Observer.” Last night we shared our responses/experiences. Here are some of them:
• I find giving up to be random. I don’t slip easily into it.
• I found it helpful to study the paper during the week. It encouraged me to focus purposefully. I wouldn’t call it practising, yet it brings the idea back into my mind.
• Two of us mentioned how helpful the practice of Prasad is for us in cutting out unnecessary actions/thoughts and allowing ‘good company’ to shape our lives.
• For me, it’s not replacing the individual by the universal: it’s more ‘a becoming’. Buddhi is so important in this process, through its direction and discrimination. The Gunas play their part, of course.
• A link was made between giving up and the observer – how coming to really understand the significance of giving up the expression of negative emotions affords more energy for observation.
• For me, I wouldn’t use the word negativity, but I understand how anxiety and fear infuse you and then the state of Tamas takes hold.
• I find self-remembering comes when I am walking and Ouspensky’s reference to ‘quieter streets’ informs me.
• I find the observer to be a ‘state’, of being in awareness. I tried it while I was driving, and realised that time was threefold – the radio, my own thoughts and the observer!
* Watering each plant in a large vegetable garden is a very helpful exercise in developing the observer!
• We talked of how, in stillness and silence, a feeling of realness and of watching oneself emerges. Sattva is so important. The Sattvic ‘reservoir’, if already filled by good practice, can refresh us. Just watching what state you are in can be liberating.
Cheltenham Group Meeting 01/07/10
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Cheltenham Group Meeting 01/07/10
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Re: Cheltenham Group Meeting 01/07/10
I just wanted to say what a very rich meeting this was. We talked quite a lot, but it was quiet, and there was a strong feeling of Good Company. I was very grateful to be there.
This was the poem that was mentioned.
As torrents in summer, Half dried in their channels,
Suddenly rise, tho' the sky is still cloudless.
For rain has been falling.
Far off at their fountains;
So hearts that are fainting Grow full to o'erflowing,
And they that behold it, Marvel, and know not
That God at their fountains
Far off has been raining!
Henry Longfellow.
This was the poem that was mentioned.
As torrents in summer, Half dried in their channels,
Suddenly rise, tho' the sky is still cloudless.
For rain has been falling.
Far off at their fountains;
So hearts that are fainting Grow full to o'erflowing,
And they that behold it, Marvel, and know not
That God at their fountains
Far off has been raining!
Henry Longfellow.
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