
(Sorry, everyone, if you all received another email from me that doesn't make sense. Mistake.)

-Continue to examine beliefs and negative emotions this week. Cultivate inner silence with which to see beliefs clearly.

-D read from Casteneda. Don Juan was talking about inner silence--the same inner silence that D talks about cultivating. D recommends reading Casteneda.

-D told personal story of being married to beautiful woman with whom he was not in love. He remembers lying in bed feeling empathy for her. He also realized that he was spinning a story in his head about her and their relationship that didn't really serve her or the relationship well. The story consisted of a number of beliefs that were getting in the way of seeing the relationship clearly and being able to act accordingly. 

-He married again, and he and his wife were living in Cambridge, MA., very close to Harvard. He would get up every day and walk across Harvard Square to visit the many bookstores in the area--looking for the very latest spiritual books coming out. It was during this period, while sitting on the lawn outside of his apartment, that he realized that he was not going to find what he was looking for in a book. It occurred to him that what he was looking for was not going to be found in the realm of ideas--it was beyond the conceptual mind. There is very little that we can fundamentally alter in ourselves through conceptual thought.

-When D had Guillaume Barre disease, the treatment were very unpleasant. He chose, though, not to engage thoughts that he didn't want to ... thoughts of upcoming treatment, possible tracheotomy, etc. By cultivating an inner silence, he was able to circumvent the painful emotions that would have accompanied thoughts of painful treatment.

-Developing inner silence can take us outside our beliefs and personal modes of operation. Most of our beliefs are based on fears; when we begin to brake down our beliefs, we begin to brake down our fears, and personal freedom results.

-Most of us are resistant to having our beliefs "shaken up" though (notice the conversation that ensued after our belief conversation a couple of weeks ago). We are resistant because we are afraid. Cultivating inner silence is a way to dismantle beliefs and fears.

-According to Don Juan, inner silence is accumulated and accrued. Some take longer than others to accrue inner silence (based on personal characteristics, sensitivity, etc.), but we all can.

-REALLY examine our beliefs. We have the ability to choose our beliefs. We don't have to believe what we've taught by parents, society, etc. Examine them. Choose our beliefs. Don't let ourselves get "spoon-fed" our beliefs. Our beliefs become our identity, but our identities (beliefs) usually serve to "nail us down," take our freedom.

-We live as though we are immortal (like we have all the time in the world to do this work on ourselves). We are not ruthless enough with ourselves. "Things that make us comfortable, make us dead." When we get out of our comfort zones, something opens up. All the fear we had built up around a particular situation turns out to be nothing ... just something we made up. No basis in reality.

-We are responsible for our circumstances. When we make up our minds to be free, no one can take that away. When we explain ourselves, we are really apologizing. Live our lives so that we don't have to explain ourselves. The deep water is the free water--swim in the deep water.

-Our inner process determines the quality of our experience, not necessarily the external circumstances of our lives. We may have more money or less money at some point, or a different house or job, but life will not necessarily be "better." "Better" is right now, this moment.

-D studied with 3 of the most prominent, influential teachers in the history of the Zen tradition (also with very prominent 4th Way teachers): Daido Loori Roshi, Genpo Roshi, and Maezumi Roshi. As students of D, we are now a part of that lineage and tradition.

-As our personal power grows our influence grows. The more "work" we do on ourselves, the greater our influence in the world will be. When we practice, we reclaim our freedom.

-In the upcoming weeks we will begin to look at art as a group as a way to "see things for what they're not." Doing this is another means for dismantling beliefs (art from a 4th Way/Zen perspective). 
