Cheltenham Group 25/11/10 Practice, effort, remembering

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fiona
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Cheltenham Group 25/11/10 Practice, effort, remembering

Postby fiona » Sun Nov 28, 2010 10:25 am

We focused on a question that arose from our previous meeting. We had taken it as an exercise in observation during the week. Our focus at this meeting was supported by material selected by the evening’s group taker (see “Practice, Effort and Remembering” attachment).
Question and exercise:
Sooner or later we are all going to die. If we knew that we would die in, say, a week's time, what would we do differently? Perhaps we would spend more time focusing on the 'real' rather than the 'unreal' - remembering Param-Atman, Self-remembering? But in fact we don't know we are going to die in a week's time and certainly don't think we are. So we spend most of our time in unreality. Sometimes we wake up briefly and remember, but that happens relatively infrequently. What can we do to rectify this unfortunate state of affairs? How can we, step by step, spend more time in the 'real', more time in the present moment? For each of us what works and what doesn't work?

Some comments:
• I find that what takes me away from wanting to be in the present moment is the desire to do something else.
• I want to be in harmony, witnessing the presence in all. It’s cultivating an appropriate attitude – for example, in what could have been an annoying situation –by realising that the present is just as it should be.
• I found myself pondering what I understand by the word “real” – that it’s actually bigger, both physically and psychologically, than I might habitually accept.
• I can place limitations on myself.
• I find that life can appear boring/tedious until the moments when I wake up. Then all is fine, questions are resolved and life is known to be enjoyed. But most of the time for me it’s teetering on the brink – something is missing. Questions and doubts disappear when I wake up.
Referring to quotations in the supplied material, it was asked “What is your Aim?”
• An aim needs clarity – the big one is ‘I want to be fully realised’, but what does that mean? At the moment, it’s smaller – it’s a chipping away at impediments. It’s a constant exercise.
• Is some struggle necessary? (Some felt not.) Using discrimination makes it less of a struggle. But we all have different temperaments, so the understanding of “struggle” could be different for individuals. We have to try to know ourselves – it’s about being who you are. It’s like the three jumps of the frog. It’s overcoming stuff that is a part of one’s nature – it’s accepting, not doing. It goes deep.
• My aim is contentment – and that is surrendering.
• Claiming a situation is what stops us. It’s about accepting what happens – whatever the outcome may be.
• My aim is to have a clear focus to life. A practical, physical example is to sit and let go of all that isn’t a part of that focus. Dr. Roles referred to effort, leading to stillness – and then going into action. I aimed for that this summer.
• Last week an example was given of how people often, when approaching death, worry about the small things in life that are still needing to be done. But I think that if we knew we only had a week to live, well, it be could be an amazing liberation because one could say ‘I don’t need to …..’ It’s a state of not worrying. (Think of the 17th century, when the reality of death was always imminent and think of our attitudes to it now.)
• If we don’t have great fears, it seems the mind is conditioned to have something to worry about.
• So it’s all about being here, living now and enjoying it.
• I complicate things! I feel I should listen – that actually everything should be completely simple.
• In regard to Love (“the emotional centre of gravity”), I was able to understand the sense more when remembering there is no division between me and anything – molecules/energy – for me, that’s what love is – a feeling of unity. There is no division – it’s holding that in memory.
• “I am you, you are me”.
Attachments
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