LOSTCOIN CLASS NOTES FOR MARCH 6TH, 2007

We started the evening with mediatation without conceptual thought.  You loose the separation of mind and self when you concentrate on no conceptual thought.  What you see is you, not separate.  The effort is equal to divided attention.  The  more you sit, the more you develop concentration power. The whole class should be a type of meditation.  Forget everything:  gender, age, physical characteristics, career, etc.  Try to remember to be in this space, you develop intimacy in the world and with each other.  As a group you develop good, kind, caring feelings for each other.

There will be a retreat to be planned in May, 1 day long, email Patricia to let her know dates that would work for you.  There is a standing invitation at Daniel's friends Zen Center in the San Ascinto Mountains outside LA for anyone to go to a longer retreat.

Review:  What did you notice when you had emphasis on stopping the mind? You will be one with subject and object as they merge.  If you look at it happening it will vanish.  Be there even a few seconds is helpful.  It is crutial in the teaching to learn to stop the mind.  Nature has no reason for us to stop the mind, you can go on eating and procreating,  it goes against the grain to stop the mind.  Being able to stop the mind briefly makes a big difference.

How did trying to embody Kindness in an ordinary way go?  Several people said they could feel a softening, that it was felt in the moving center. Kindness is the way you feel, not what you do.  In the Buddhist tradition the 3rd stage is the Great Death- the complete loss of self, there is no self.  When you experience death you see the people around you are suffering because they have a self.  Daniel is teaching us gradually.  You give people messages by word, deed and attitude.  Alot of what you learn from a teacher is not from words.  What you are is more important than what you think.

FOR NEXT WEEK:  DO A SCRUPULOUS STUDY OF YOUR OWN NEGATIVITY, PARTICULARLY LOOKING AT HOW MUCH ENERGY IT TAKES.

Diamond Heart:  Truth:  the deepest meaning is not necessarily facts.  The study of the false personality is the same as the chief feature in the 4th Way.  Kristi describes her experience of training in Diamond Heart.  She particularly found the one on one teaching with the teacher helpfull as during a discussion he would stop you and ask what you are feeling, this helped in dissolving ego structure, and find memory for what this feeling had come from.  Questions like:  What is right about being defended? asked over and over and  checking into sensations an feelings.  It is a life-long process, with significant psychology of the ego. Daniel is personally oriented not psychologically oriented.  If you understand why something occurs will it go away? NO.

We broke into groups of 4-5 and in a contemplative way had three arenas to address.

1.  Think about what negative emotion you are feeling now, in the present.

2.  Then shift to something in your life at this time that has the same feeling.

3.  Then reflect on the same feeling you have had in childhood or less than 20 yrs old.

Each person take 3 minutes and tell the others.

Daniel notes loss of negative emotions and self remembering complete the octave.

When you feel something negative see where it is acting in another part of your life as well as in your youth.  This will give you an intimate understanding.  It is like we are walking in boots over our shoes, and we are trying to understand enough to take the boots off.  There is no possible benefit for negative emotions.

The only spiritual teachers that teach with negative emotions are alcoholic. They use their anger as a source of learning for their students.  This does not mean they are not good teachers.

Remember that knowledge and being are not the same thing.  You are not what you think.  Both are important but not interchangable.

Story:

G, as a boy, saved to buy a book. He had exactly enough money.   He went to the store and the person said he would have to order it and it would cost more for the postage.  The vender said  "when going on a spree go whole hog including the postage".  Put everything into the Work.
