Exploring Excellence Notes for 12-12-2006

Business

Daniel is out of town January 17 to January 29.

Administrative meeting scheduled for 12-15-06 is to be rescheduled, perhaps for next week.  Look for an email from Patricia about when the meeting will occur. Daniel reminds that any financial issues related to the class will be handled by Patricia.

Homework for next week

Read 10 more pages from In Search of the Miraculous, taking us to page 30.

Practice being 'objective to self' by dividing the mind, then identifying the laws you're under.  Focus on the laws that limit you.  Write these in your journal.

Practice dividing the mind, then identifying the 'impressions that you feed yourself,' the impressions that you pay attention to.  Next, notice the impressions that aid your aim to wake up, to feel more alive and, 'learn the taste of them.'

Agenda for tonight

More discussion and teaching from Ouspensky's book, In Search of the Miraculous.  We are now up to about page 20 in our reading.

More teaching on The Fourth Way.

More teaching from Ouspensky

It is important to keep in mind that these books were written almost 100 years ago and they reflect the strong interest at the time in seances, magic, alchemy and similar topics. The key point is that the more mechanical we are, the more 'laws or rules' we're under.  That is, if we're not conscious, we'll be held in by our beliefs or perceptions.  Basically, we pursue pleasure and avoid pain as we see these things.  Therefore, as we become more conscious, more objective, of what laws we're under, we're able to be free of them.  An example of the way our beliefs or perceptions affect us is experiencing the world as a scary place, like a law, which creates fear or other negative emotions and behaviors which limit us. Daniel relates this idea to the Zen koan, or 'public case.'  The practice of working on becoming conscious of the laws we're under, is like working on the 'private case.'

*A task for next week is to divide the mind and then notice and record the laws you're under.  Make a list.

   : Ouspensky believes that the planets are consciousness.  For evolution to continue, for our survival, we eventually need to get off of this planet.  This practical understanding is only possible if we are truly objective and we aren't operating according to laws or rules.
   : Gurdjieff taught Ouspensky: There is a certain 'I' that understands that the most important aim is not to be a machine.  When this 'I' comes forward, only then can you make a commitment, particularly to 'the work.'
   : A class exercise: Try to be 'objective to yourself,' then identify something you've learned about the laws you're under. The idea is to get outside you in order to see yourself.  Perhaps this is something you've never seen before or you have seen, but never before stated it publicly or concisely.  Get a taste of what's it like to be 'objective to yourself.'

Next, deepen the experience.  Create a state of more distance from     yourself but dividing the mind, then doing the exercise by using this  statement: Your name here ('It') tells himself that he's ___(a law you're under)___.  But, I'm (work 'I') actually ___________.  The 'it' is the story you tell yourself, the conditioned 'I.'  The work 'I' is the unconditioned 'I.'

A class exercise: Make an agreement with yourself to watch only you as you say a couple of sentences.  The point of this exercise is to keep attention only on you so then you are not yourself.  Avoid falling into a memory as you speak.

As part of the debriefing of this exercise, Daniel relates this experience to what Ouspensky calls internal and external considering.  The former is when you're lost in feelings about how you come across or relate to others.  The latter is when you do whatever the situation of the moment demands, but you have no emotional interest.  External considering is the warrior.

More on The Fourth Way

Part 1

Certain 'I's' eat certain impressions; certain impressions nourish certain 'I's.'  For example, will a half hour of watching TV nourish your development more than a half hour of meditation?  What are you doing with your time?  What are you paying attention to?  When you buy clothes, what image are you trying to create?  How long has it been since you fed yourself something that you know is good for you.  Such as a walk alone in the woods.

Internally we are also feeding ourselves --- fear, hope, anger.

Certain impressions we feed ourselves aid our aim to wake up;  certain impressions don't feed this aim.  If you're not being mechanical, then you choose to feed yourself certain impressions.

Part 2

More from Ouspensky: Impressions vary not just by what you choose, but also the degree to which they're taken in.  The variable is attention.

Daniel reminds that attention is the deepest form of love.  If you love something, then you pay attention to it.

Discussion about noticing the impressions we pay attention to, i.e., how we feed ourselves.

*A task for next week is to practice dividing the mind, then identifying the 'impressions that you feed yourself,' the impressions that you pay attention to.  Next, notice the impressions that aid your aim to wake up, to feel more alive and, 'learn the taste of them.'
