Lost Coin notes 04-03-07

HOMEWORK: WHERE DO YOU DEFAULT TO?  (or, To where do you default?)  WORK ON IT IN CLASS AND AT HOME.  SLEEP IS A TYPE OF HYPNOSIS, FOR EXAMPLE, WE ARE BEING HYPNOTIZED, NOT WITH OUR BEST INTEREST AT HEART, BUT BY ADVERTISING.  IN RELATIONSHIPS, IN THE CHOICES WE MAKE -- MANY OF WHICH ARE NOT IDEAS WE GENERATED OURSELVES.
	Daniel said he has known Zen students who can have an awakening experience and still be asleep.  		

We listened to some Mongolian music  a recording taken from a woman singing a rustic lullaby.  Daniel commented that they were in different harmonies or modes than those to which we are used to hearing.  For instance, Indian ragas have certain scales for certain times of day.  He says that music like this is for emotional training; it trains us how to feel.
Instructions: Try to stay awake during the group.  Work on self-remembering, instead of working by association.  Pay attention to yourself.  Dont simply use this as a social hour.    
Notice what you default to  not in words, but in mood.  Do you default to shifting about in your seat?  Do you adopt a sing-song manner of speaking?

Lost Coin
The Fourth Way says that we live in a state of sleep.  What we think we know: that were awake.  Awake is actually that you can put your consciousness where you want to.  You wont default, you wont get hijacked.
	Were using a new word for mechanical.  Were using default state.  If you dont do anything about your state, youll be in the same state forever.
	What are your default states?  Map them.  Your fear default, your silly default, etc.  Become objective.  Dont simply lapse into a different default state.  Most of our day is spent in anxiety, worry.
	Try STOPPING!   What do you feel like in your body when you suddenly stop?  Would you choose that state?  You have the capability of choosing the state you want.  Do you think that Jesus or Mohammed simply defaulted to kindness and lovingness?
	How is your mind operating?  Through association.  Dont take my word for it, watch yourself.  You think of a dress, then of your laundry, then what dress youll wear to  work, then to the address you passed on your way to work, which was next to where an old boyfriend lived, and on and on.
	What does your body do in default?  Its not a matter of evolutionary survival to learn this.  It must be done with a teacher and in a group.  
	Notice what drains your energy.  You can ultimately accumulate energy and redirect it.  Deborah said that she now talks less because it takes too much energy to talk.




Small groups
We broke into small groups with these instructions: the point is to help each other.  Keep your intention clear.  Be clear, objective, and say it in a way that the person can hear it.
	Sit for a moment.  Then person A speaks, trying to define a default state and describe it.  Then, each person takes a turn saying how it felt to them.  What did they sense in their bodies while person A spoke?  Then person A tells each in turn which I they heard speaking.  Dont think youre describing the whole person!  Just describe the I you observed, then they will be able to receive it, and you wont sound all-knowing.
	What makes people remarkable isnt the stuff of TV.  Receptive, open, objective  thats what makes a great person.  Its not presented often.  Coaches and psychologists have people coming in all the time saying they want to become these things, but they never do it.
	You dont fix one I with another I.  The thief for the murderer.  The light of seeing it changes it.  Its a much better method.

Then Daniel read from Beelzebubs Tales, and discussed his way of writing.   	
	


