*Lost Coin Development* : Class Notes 3/27/2007

*Administrative*

Reminder to pay full tuition amount for next year and commit to permanent group if possible.

New Structure : Start w/ 4 minutes of objective music practice.  Mr. Nyland called it Musica.  Teaching through emotional center through music helps invoke the higher emotional center.

Remember Yourself : Keeping posture straight helps keep you awake during class.  We will be doing the "stop" exercise again during class.

New Location : Impressions are very important, we will find new place to meet.  Daniel is looking for something old, elegant, and artistic.  One option is the Lady's Literary Club.

Administration Meetings : Will be held weekly on Fridays.  Please check w/ Patricia if you'd like to attend.

Small Groups : As of next week we'll be placed into small groups of 5 members.  Daniel has put a lot of thought and time into organizing these groups.

Traditional Fourth Way  - Daniel will be using a more traditional fourth way structure. But there will be newer vocabulary as we're now in a different era than when Fourth Way was originally developed. "Default" : Specifically means where you go in mind, body, heart when you're not making any effort. Paying attention to your default helps identify your chief feature.

***Syllabus for next 12 weeks--basic Fourth Way training***

Week 1:  Sleep as we define it - Normal state

   1. Hypnosis
   2. "Sheep," per Ouspensky
   3. the machine ("mechanicalness")/CPU
   4. History : Mad Machines
   5. Default

Week 2:  Waking up and Escape

   1. Self-remembering

   1. Group
   2. Teacher : Valuation
   3. Objectivity

Week 3:  The Three Centers

   1. Negative Emotions
   2. Formatory Thinking
   3. Effort
   4. Balancing the centers

Week 4:  Levels of Being

   1. mapping being and consciousness
   2. levels 1-7

Week 5:  The Many "I"s

   1. Their preferences
   2. Mapping them
   3. Seeing the work I
   4. Allies and opponents

Week 6:  The Laws

   1. Law of 3
   2. Law of 7
   3. Alchemy
   4. Completing octaves

Week 7:  Effort and Accumulation

   1. Food
   2. Energy
   3. Conscious suffering

Week 8:  Self-observation

   1. Chief feature
   2. Imagination
   3. Buffers
   4. Methods

Week 9:  Types

   1. Enneagram
   2. Sheldon's types
   3. The Lunatic, the Tramp, and the Householder
   4. Dominant Center

Week 10:  Exercises, Meditation, and Forms

   1. Stopping thought
   2. Wishing
   3. Sensing
   4. Visualization
   5. Hearing the teaching
   6. One-on-one teaching
   7. Reading

Week 11:  Esoteric Teaching

   1. Sources
   2. Objective art

Week 12:  Knowledge and Being

   1. Personality & Essence
   2. The Absolute

Books : We should have these books:

    - *In Search of the Miraculous***
    - Nichol vol. 1
    - *Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson***

* *

New structure : Will focus on one area at a time.  Reduced system to real basic structure that covers it all.

New Students : Those that are new to group should read "In Search of the Miraculous" as quickly as possible.  Skip the "crazy" parts.

 ------------------------------

*Discussion*

Comment from student that the work is harder when one is tired, hungry, or ill

DS: When tired/hungry harder to be awake because not enough energy.  Negativity is one waste of energy that can be reduced.  Talking and anxiety are also energy drainers.  You can be out of energy even if not tired or hungry.  The goal is to maintain a certain level of energy.  Doing anything but the default takes a lot of energy.

Comment from student re watching TV as draining her energy.

DS:  His wife likes to relax by watching TV but also wants his presence, so he'll sit with her but will bring a few books or his laptop.  "Be smart about things"--have critical intelligence.

Stopping the mind:

Q:  how do you measure success?

DS:  You have two lives:  one is your story, mechanical ways, etc.  The other is when you're *awake*.  When you stop the mind, you awaken.  When you do it, you'll feel it.  The self will fall off.  Start to see that the default state of associative thinking isn't your true state--it's more like an infestation.  It's *one* way the mind manifests and it's by default. Take that away and you open up myriad possibilities.  That state is the entrance to a different kind of understanding.

 ------------------------------

*Diamond Heart*

In-Class Exercise - Each said one sentence while trying to maintain dual-attention.  The energy from exercise should be maintained for as long as possible through self-remembering.

Almaas: "Giving to the Work" : When involved w/ a system you end up giving money, time, and energy to the work.  Daniel's difference in approach is that he prefers not to divide the work from life.

   : Even if our work influences our lives the most, we don't need to abandon our lives (people who do that often do it to avoid resolving things--Daniel doesn't want us to do that).

   : Value the work, value the group, but value your life not just as the canvas to do your work, but as the essence of your work.

   : In Buddhist context: "Seekers looked for enlightenment to help their life but once they found it they discovered that their life is enlightenment."

Indulging : We all have a favorite indulgence like "anger" or "nervousness". situation will arise where you could have done something but instead you default to your favorite indulgence.  This favorite indulgence is close to and gives clues to your chief feature.

Reminder : Always read with critical intelligence.

In-Class Exercise : Repeated "say one sentence while self-remembering" exercise.  The kind of energy produced during this exercise is what Daniel wants us to produce in group in general.  While you speak, self remember and put energy 2 inches below navel.  The quality of attention in exercise is the quality of attention we should have during the entire group meeting.

 ------------------------------

In Class Exercise : Continued last exercise from last week w/ same small groups.  Instructed not to socialize and to stay focused.

***Beelzebub's Tales* : Daniel read a selection.  Comments:

   : Alien not a Devil.  Aliens has an objective observation of Earth.

   : You have to be awake to follow when read out loud.  This form of writing/reading wakes you up by making you pay attention.  Should be delivered with full body intonation

Every Stick has 2 Ends : Those who are particularly sensitive experience it as both a strength and weakness.
