Lost Coin Notes January 3, 2008

Direction for the year:

Place more emphasis on people learning how to be nice to each other.

News:

- Sitting at Joan's house: the space is important, Zen Do is a sacred space, would like to have everyone in a line and to use black pillows.

- Retreat will be the 2nd week in April

Daniel discussed several methods of study, including Sitting, Koan study, she chan tasun (?sp), self remembering, and self observation.  He is available for Koan study.

*	Morning sitting: ? hour each morning.  Daily practice may be enhanced with a buddy in the morning, if someone is close by.

*	Self Remembering: I am, I am here, and you exist

*	Self Observation: to watch yourself, like you're in a film.  Life is hard because we are hard wired.  Our spiritual practice will help; small changes make a big difference.  We are afraid the most... If we can see ourselves, like we see other people, we would understand the reasonableness.  You can feel you have a relationship and the other treats you badly and that you are fine.  If we look at this and turn it around and look at why you are afraid, why you caused it .... START with yourself.

There are 13 Precepts; 10 are given on certain occasions, like marriages.

#1 Precept - Do good and refrain from evil

Famous story -

   2 guys, Zen practitioners are walking along, and one says, "The essence of the teaching is to do 'good' and refrain from evil".  The second, 80 yr old Zen practitioner says, "HOW SIMPLISTIC!!!"

   The first respond, "So how come any 80 yr old man can't do it?"

You are responsible for how your life goes.

Class exercise:

Formulate one intention of one thing you are going to do this year

Some group responses:

*	practice not to be afraid to be Real
*	deepen my practice and be fearless
*	out of debt by end of year
*	be fit
*	be in choice
*	deepen spiritual life
*	have my own business
*	maximize the amount of profit my company can make
*	start every day w/ thoughts of appreciation
*	to have more joy in what I am doing
*	to be more relaxed, note anxiety and judgment
*	to focus on generating recurring revenue, so I can do what I want
*	understand addiction in lives of those I love. Daniel would be willing to talk about his past heroin addiction.
*	rework 12 steps as a recovering alcoholic
*	ask and deal with feeling instead of suppressing them
*	meditate daily
*	more % of meditation ins space
*	financially set in better shape
*	de-clutter
*	write another series that is meaningful to me and others
*	to befriend my resistance, feel it, see how it holds me back
*	better Zen student, commit to taking a bigger plunge
*	to do less and enjoy more
*	improve my practice
*	ask what I want
*	what I want and long for
*	to be more intentional

Challenge yourself with what you love

Daniel guided us in self remembering and we discussed this past weeks assignment to self remember and drop fear.  A good thing to do when you come to and remember yourself is remember the last time your remembered yourself.  Be come objective to yourself.

We are a club united against fear.

Fear of intimacy is a basic fear, you are afraid of yourself and other people.  A lot of the practice is to lose the fear of intimacy.  Some keys to this fear are: you don't want people to know you and you don't want to feel your feelings or other's feeling.

It is being open....

Intimacy is being one with your self and the world and life

Daniel spoke about his chess teacher and how he tells Daniel, "it is not enough to beat the opponent, you have to humiliates, etc. him."  His teacher wants me to be out there and fight.

We can take the strength from each other and hear the voices in the group.  You can't do everything yourself, sometimes you need a teacher and a group.

Koan -

How do you get out of a coffin locked on the outside?

You must say, "Help"

We are afraid to succeed because when you succeed your have to be there.

Gurdjieff said: "Remember that you will die and everyone you know will die.  Keep this close to your heart.  We are only passing through here."
