Lost Coin Notes December 23, 2008

Blog: http://blog.lostcoindev.com

Website: www.lostcoindev.com

D will be in Holland from January 12th ? 22nd.  San Francisco retreat is on February 21st.  D will be in Germany mid-May.

Aim:  Where do you want to go?  What do you want to do?

In Charles Dickens? story The Christmas Carol, the main character, Scrooge, is led through three Christmas? by different ghosts.  The ghost that scares Scrooge most is the ghost of Christmases is to come ? the Christmas when he is dead.

If one thinks they will live forever, they have a different aim, than if one realizes they will not live forever.  When we accept that we are getting old, will most likely have a disease and die, then our perspective and our Aim changes.  This idea, aging, illness and death is only depressing if we resist it.  Our story is not important, ? of our worry is about nonsense. If you live an unconscious life, thinking you will never die, then it can be a miserable life.  When unconscious one does not have an aim.

Aim can have you ? can be the result of forces working on us, the result of unconscious forces.  Often there are patterns that can be negative. Often lead a life of fear and anger when one lives an unconscious life.  If you are unhappy and you switch professions or move etc, it will not necessarily make you happy if you are unconscious in these decision/s.

The best aim to have is to be awake because it transforms everything.

Historically, Zen teachers were advisors to the president and the military. Zen has always been about seeing who you are ? about excellence.  It is not excellent to have negative thoughts.  The universe does not require anything.  The universe does not care.

The history of thought that lead to Lost Coin, the Forth Way, Buddhism, and Monastic practice where all religiously based.  Drop it ? live where you practice.  Balancing practice w life is always hard.  Do I sit or spend time w my son?  Do I sit or go make a living to provide for my family?  Lost Coin integrates life w practice.  Lost Coin integrates every stripe, every sex, race, religion, sexual practice ? Lost Coin does not interfere w anyone?s life style.

Aim to wake up. It is the only reasonable aim.  Do it to for your life and for the globe.  Powerful technologies are being developed, if they end up in the hands of someone who is not awake it could be very bad, but if they end up in the hands of someone who is awake it could be very beautiful.

Find Aim in your individual, ordinary life.  This life supports your practice.  Ordinary life includes the fact that we will all die so wake up.

You are not getting anywhere.  If one has no aim then they have a story about getting somewhere.  There is nowhere to go.  Some think, if we climb a mountain we will be happy, this is not true.  Stories are nice but they are just that stories.  It is the spirit of slaying dragons that will make you happy.  It is the spirit that does not want to be afraid and does not want to be asleep.  You may slay dragons, but the slaying itself does not make you happier.

You can develop.  You can develop spirit, determination, commitment and persistence.  You can develop personal power.  You can develop aim.  You can direct all your personal power in one direction.

D asked students to talk about examples of aim.

*During the holidays last year everyone left and I thought about all the things I could have done.  This year we made a list and did some of the stuff on the list.  It felt really good.

*Organizational goal was met.  It took 8 years.

If you choose to do something and your heart is in it, then you will have a good life even if it does not work ie even if your organizational aim is not met.

Come to consciousness to set an aim. Drop your story because story can lead to aimlessness esp if the story is mechanical.  Some people have great stories but no matter how good the story it can also hurt.  Generally speaking your story is never a good story.  Stories are often about disaster and alienation esp if the story is that your parents were alcoholics.  Often the story controls everything.

D can teach us aim.  He can remind us that we will not get where we want intellectually.  For example, the scene out of the window is beautiful but if you think about it, you do not see it.  Aim, you can do it  - it is not complicated.  Intellection is not the answer.  Aim is the direction of spirit.

Exercises to help w. aim:  sitting because it breaks down our stories and frees us from conditioning.   D asked us to think about our life and come up w one thing that we did were we had aim.  Something that was worthwhile. Something that felt really good where your were one w the world, one with self.

In general students talked about overcoming to stand on own whether it through work or divorce.  Students talked about connecting emotionally, making efforts.

Your spirit is like a sword, if you polish it and use it well.  Give energy to aim and spirit.  Decisions around aim take courage.  Aim can help you conquer courage and fear and give you discipline.

Without exception aim requires spirit and effort.  These are things that make you happy.  Every time one does something to step out of a comfort zone one feels rewarded, not by how the effort turned out just by the effort ? just by doing it.

As we grow up we learn to have relationships.  Once we have a teacher all issues around relationship come up with our teacher.  The teacher represents what we have to overcome.  As a student one must submit and surrender.  When D was a student this drove him crazy.  Roshi used to ask him ?What is your practice??.  D would say he did not know.  Roshi would reply ?you need to be me?.  D did not like this, it made him miserable.  Easier to study Kong Fu for ten years then deal w/ ego and reserve.  Roshi saw D?s desire to be special so he stepped the desire all the time.  It is one thing to desire being special and another to be special.

It is important to relate to others in the group so we can dissolve out of personal story into the group story.

In Sufism Baraka means blessing or the energy the teaching produces.  The more open you are the more open your heart and your mind, the more teaching just sinks in.

December 13th marked the 5th anniversary of D?s, Doen?s, transmission ? Shiho ? to be a teacher.  D always thought he wanted to be a flight instructor.  One does not get anywhere by being grounded.  One does not get anywhere by analysis.  One gets somewhere by taking a big step.  One uses intellect to build a business, but it takes spirit and aim to knock on the door of a potential customer and make that person a customer.

Think about what you want.  Remember you are not here long.  Life is a sword fight that you eventually loose so it is the dignity with which you fight that matters.  You will not be here long.   Show compassion to the world. In Buddhism there are two pertinent words: majushri,  the sword of truth cuts through it all and avo ??? (?sp) compassion.

Plse think about a task that you want to do that would be hard, but you know you can do it.

Only one thing disconnects us with the little man in your head who is running around like crazy.   The essence of Buddhism is realizing that everything in your head is just a thought.  Mind can contain everything.  An empty mirror reflects and contains everything and nothing.  Who is the empty mirror?  It is you.  It is nothing.
