Cheltenham Group Meeting 03/02/11 Illusion and the Drama

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fiona
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Cheltenham Group Meeting 03/02/11 Illusion and the Drama

Postby fiona » Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:40 am

Cheltenham Group Meeting Notes 3/02/11 Maya, Illusion and the Drama.

Particular parts of the paper were read. These are some of the comments and discussion that arose:

Q. Is the use of the word ‘illusion’ problematic? Is ‘Maya’ better?

* I like the word ‘illusion’, particularly when H.H. says ‘the whole creation is magic’. It reminds me that it’s all a wonderful show.
* We are the illusion.

Q. Is it a good measuring rod to our waking up when, although engaged in the passing show, we are able to observe it?
* I feel stuck in the middle of all this. I have always found the idea of Maya difficult to comprehend.
* Well, do you have any experiences that just arise spontaneously? For me it can happen in a crowded street, or in a supermarket. It’s like a cinematic experience.
* But is that really seeing it as illusion? I think it’s different. I think it become illusory as we approach that boundary in Samadhi, from savikalpa to nervikalpa.
* When you witness existence – that brings you back to your true Self.
* I don’t think you can see the complete illusion – if you’re seeing it, it’s still there, although vast quantities of it have dropped.
* I’m puzzled by this. It’s a paradox. As an example – I can be on a crowded tube train and feel non-duality: a sharing of the experience with others, but stepping back and seeing it as an illusion seems to be something opposite.
* My experience is not ‘stepping back’ – it’s more that one can see the ‘real’ in those people.
I don’t set out to ‘do’ it. It comes in moments of waking up.
* I would have recognised these moments a few years ago. Now I feel I have gone dulled.
* But aren’t there times when you drop the feeling of separateness – that there’s a feeling of unity?
* That’s what I don’t feel as much anymore.
* Allowing the mind to be quiet and the body relaxed can trigger remembrance. Stillness.
* I think we’re talking about Sattvic experience here. The experience of Maya – it’s discovering what’s real and permanent. I find H.H.’s description of the three phases of Maya very interesting. It’s about our attitude – it’s a process. It’s like how a mountain grinds down into the sea. Enjoy it without being a slave to it.
* I find the idea that ‘you’re an illusion’ is easier than the idea that ‘I’m an illusion’!
* The real ‘I’ survives all that. Illusion is the transcience.
* If you’re awake then the right things just happen. It’s when you’re mechanical that unnecessary things go on. I don’t get it as a ‘guiding voice’. It’s just there.

Q. I find this expression difficult – “What is useful to the Atman.” What does it mean?
* Everything that’s useful to your soul – to your daily life. For example, for me it’s repeating the mantra.
* I think it refers to Aim – what’s useful to your Aim.
* Yes – and the anagram of Aim is ‘I AM’ ! Stillness being the Aim.
* It says in the Record that all activities arise from Stillness and go back to it in the end. We have to spend time there.
The meeting ended on a shared moment of Stillness.
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