LOST COIN DEVELOPMENT - Notes from 04/23/07

Introduction

Music played by Gurdjieff in the pentatonic minor scale. Objective  music, that makes a different point than Western music. It requires  attention and concentration  to the quality of each note.  Played  consciously as a kind of tuning. Similar to Zen temple music.

Administrative

Reminder to speak to Patricia regarding tuition and clarify your  relationship to payment. Retreat this Saturday, April 27th at Joan's house, Capitol Hill area.  She will send out a map with directions to the entire group.

MORE ON THE 3 CENTERS:

Exercise for the last week was looking at when you are in your  different centers and to continue identifying them in your life as to  where you default. To observe on different levels, thinking, feeling  in the body and how emotions create scenarios in the mind.

Exercise: Describe clearly  what you observed this last week.

Tightening in the belly and chest. Felt than analyzed. Tightness in the back. Mind reviewing a conversation. I thought I am not so tired, yet felt weary and bombarded by requests.

Daniel reminded us that the real part is actually happening, feeling  in our bodies. We are practicing as a group to observe ourselves.  Straight observations. To stand apart from yourself and see what is  really going on.

Homework for this week is to catch the hard ones, the shadow I's as  they show up and they will. Could be part of one's default.

Discussion:

Intellectual Center :Forward / Future orientation, thinking ahead. Emotional Center: Saying goodbyes, and feeling sad. Desire to do for others. Internal Considering. More ease in the moving center by letting go of control. Default of indulging in one's time instead of doing what needs to be  done.

Most of us are least aware of our emotional center. Daniel cited an  example from " The Way of the Turtle," as to how a group of people  were trained as traders of stocks. Those who traded  well, did so  without their emotional center. Those who did not trade as well. were  affected by the emotions of hope, fear, greed and despair.

Observe 'the friend,' that gloms on to our negative emotional center,  'that alien' that tells you - too ugly, too stupid,etc. This  'hitchhiker,' is hard to see. Even more than the shadow. We can't  tolerate things the way they are. Most of the time, we do things not  for the reasons that we believe. Negative, self-sabotaging that ruins  your self-esteem.

The Liar's Club. 4th Way. Focus on how this negative emotional center  makes you lie. Internal considering. Buffers. Difference in feeling vs. rationalization, the intellectual center. A deeper, fuller acknowledgement of discomfort. What is truly bad and  you don't see is what hurts you. DON"T LOOK FOR A SOLUTION RIGHT AWAY. The process of becoming more conscious brings more compassion. No  need to try and feel more compassion.

SEE WHEN YOU ARE LYING. The emotional center gloms on to the  intellectual center, hijacks it and you don't know it. You justify  what you do. Best method is self-observation. Meditation daily. Make  this a priority. Put effort into it.

Small Groups

Took turns telling each other one thing we lie about. Habit. This is  how you start to move away from it. By talking about in. Describing  it. In the 4th way, psychololgy is just the psychology of lying.

Closing

Daniel read from Beezlebub's Tales.... Watching how the 3 center  beings lie. Building an observatory...objectivity. Must go to Mars,  to separate truth from fiction.... to see what is there. The lies we  tell, bind us to inner considering. They do not allow us to lead free  lives. Another kind of lie is that we intellectually come up with  answers that are completely untrue. Or we answer quickly, knee jerk  reaction instead of thinking it through. Formulatory thinking, moving  center.
