Cheltenham Group Meeting 04/11/10 The Observer

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fiona
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Cheltenham Group Meeting 04/11/10 The Observer

Postby fiona » Sat Nov 06, 2010 12:41 pm

Cheltenham Group Meeting. The Paper: C. & E. Pewsey Groups "Giving Up: Practice"

We began our meeting by discussing responses to the exercise suggested last week:
Take up a position in which to remain still for 3 or 4 minutes. Relax, especially face, eyes, lips, jaws. Bring to mind the strong intention that you want to notice the inner impression that will take you away from stillness. Drop that thought and just be present. Let the mind be momentarily still. Seven times a day would be good.

Summing up, it was generally felt that the exercise was beneficial in that it brought about a state where one could be alert and aware not only of one’s immediate environment but of all the accompanying, churning and purposeless thoughts. And although someone felt that it didn’t produce a feeling of stillness, it had the effect of keeping her ‘here’. Another group member felt it very helpful in cutting the hold of perpetual thinking and someone else felt that it took one away from ‘the backdrop of negative feelings’. A suggestion, to someone who was struggling to drop thoughts, was to really concentrate on first relaxing the body, reminding us that H.H. has said that if thoughts are still in the mind during meditation, then there is still some tension in the body.
A pertinent question was raised, directly related to our practice – “What are you prepared to do for Realisation?”
Our study of quotes from Dr. Roles and H.H. in the “Observer” part of the paper brought some differences to light, re. the relationship of the Observer and the Atman. These are included below:
* Some felt that the real Atman might lie beyond the role of the observer, and that the impartial observer, ‘resting on bliss’ , may prepare the way for the emergence of the Atman.
* Should we be thinking of the Atman as remote? Does the Atman live ‘in’ us, or could it help our understanding to sense that it lives ‘through’ us? Could that equate with the feeling of expansion?
* The Observer feels like a state – that it is our true Self. When the Observer is present, detachment comes and Bliss. H.H. tells us that the Observer is the Atman.
* Referring to the Observer, H.H. also points out the difference between 'glimpses' and permanency.
* In regard to seeing things as a whole, one of our members referred to the last pages of “The Master and his Emissary”. Its author, Iain McGilchrist, writes that he would be surprised, but not unhappy, if future study shows that his long work (on thinking and being in the world) is not related to the two hemispheres. Certainty, he says, is the greatest of illusions:
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve. (McGilchrist, p. 460).

An exercise for the week was suggested: Earlier this evening, we made reference to the need for physical stillness. So, when you remember, just be aware of your body and what it is doing – even if you are moving. Where is the tension, where the relaxation?
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