Lost Coin Notes
San Francisco
12/13/10

Discussion about assignment for the week: noticing which of three centers you operate from the most.

According to the Fourth Way, a way of understanding the self, of how you can grow, is to look at the three centers: intellect (#1) or emotions (#2) or physical/moving (#3) and, finally, the balance of all three is center #4. Center #3 is action oriented, always doing. The aim of practice is to attain #4, that is to always act out of all three centers. The point is to incorporate the center that is the weakest. We all know intuitively what our balance is-- we just have to be aware of it and go into it.

Doen recommends a Gurdjieff book by Kathleen Riordan Speeth, The Gurdjieff Work.

Each center has a positive and negative side, e.g., if you are emotion oriented, then the negative side is to do or avoid doing things because you're scared. This study relates to enneagrams.

Assignment for the week: Ask yourself, “How can I grow, what is my next step”?

We tend to view ourselves as always thinking reasonably. But we need to contrast thinking out of habit versus taking a few minutes and telling ourselves, “I'm going to sit and really think about this”.


“Taking refuge” is a Zen idea, meaning that mind is where you find the answers; they are not found outside of you. “Taking refuge” is understanding that the only place we live is in mind.

The group participated in a Zen Circle with the instruction to not think about what you will say for your turn while others in the group are speaking.

According to Doen, the future of Dharma practice is women. A reason that women don't teach as much as men do is that many women think that they must teach like men. Lost Coin is forming a culture of spirituality and much of it is women.

Zen is not hierarchical; the culture in which Zen is practiced is hierarchical. As such, nobody knows what the practice will be in a particular time and place until we reach a particular time and place.