Lost Coin Notes 4/18/2011 San Francisco _________________________________________________________________ Your 30 day goal and what is stopping you Each of you is working on a 30 day goal. Make it something concrete that you can look at after 30 days and know whether you did it or not. The thing that stops you is, in The Fourth Way, called your chief feature. It is the thing that stops you from getting where you want to be, doing what you want, being successful, accomplishing goals, etc. If you asked the seven people closest to you what it is, they would all know it but you do not. It is hard to put into words because it is a “complex,” a cluster of moods, behaviors, actions, and emotions. What stops you from your goal for this 30 day experiment will be related to your chief feature. Remembering to BE Remembering to be HERE. What will stop you from doing this is REMEMBERING to do it. We literally forget to do this. The central practice of “I am.” Not thinking about being here but ACTUALLY being here. This is a powerful thing as it allows you choice and gives you the option to direct your energy wherever you wish. It is actually easier to remember to DO your goal- your task than it is to remember to do something like the “I AM” exercise. We can remember to DO stuff but be cannot remember to BE. Imagine what we could do and how much better we could do it if we remember to do it and also BE it at the same time. BE THERE while doing your task. In relationship we tend to take for granted but if you remember to BE, you’ll work against that habit of taking your partner for granted. The tendency will still be there but you will act better. “BEING” can be used against ANY form of negativity. The difference between being taught and being trained For Doen, he needs to know what is going on with us. Be open with him. He can do an ongoing training with you if he knows what is going on and you are open. Doen had 12-13 teachers during his musical career and the held him to ideals about music but they also TRAINED him. We are doing two levels of things. Enlightenment + Enlightenment while being in your life as a powerful force of self-development. I AM is the most important beginning of this. If you were to ask a painter, a runner, a musician, “How much time do you spend thinking while you’re doing your painting/running/playing music?” They would not even answer. There IS thinking about when it comes to these things but mostly, the most important part of it, is the DOING IT. This is training. It is not teaching. It is not thinking. It is not doing anything other than doing IT. What has thinking done for you lately? Buddha said Thought = Suffering. What he was saying was attachment to those thoughts and the emotion created from that attachment creates clinging and this is suffering. The Buddha had a student named Ananya and Ananya has become known for remembering verbatim every word of the historical Buddha’s lectures and then writing them down afterward. The Buddha is giving a talk and holds up a flower. Ananya just stands there; he doesn’t get it. But Mahakasyapa smiles. He gets it because he is empty of thought. Ananya asks Mahakasyapa “when he gave you the robe and bowl what else did he give you?” Meaning, when he transmitted the Dharma to you, what did he do- how did you get it, what was there to get? Mahakasyapa says, “ANANYA!!!!!! “ Ananya says, “Yes!” Makahasyapa says, “Take down the flagpole,” which means the teaching is done. Ananya experiences realization. “ANANYA” was the whole teaching, as was the flower. This is not thinking. When you want to do something, JUST DO IT. Don’t think, “I can do it.” Don’t think, “I can’t do it.” Just do it. All the rest is nonsense. The rest is lying. If you want to move. Move. If you want to paint. Paint. If you want to sit Zazen, SIT. Write? Write. Run? Run. No trainer in the world would disagree. The difference between a trainer and what we are doing is that we are also talking about consciousness. Deep BEING HERE while you are doing anything and seeing that this about life and death. This is about true nature. Who you ARE. Training is often about action first, but we are about consciousness first. A lineage of heart with depth. Why don’t we do what we love? So why don’t we do what we love? When doing it, we love it so why not do it? The students tried to answer this with reason A, B, C. Doen says “Try this on for size. There is NO reason. There is not reason at all. You simply don’t do it.” Scheduling it will help because it allows you not to think about it at other times but it is still a matter of not having any reason stand in your way because there IS NO REASON. A student asked about using this as a rationalization to do bad things. Doen says, not really because we are doing it with consciousness so you are choosing what you are doing. Another student asked about the quality control of just doing. Doen says just do it and quality control will come. A first draft isn’t about quality. Ugly first draft is fine. DOING is important. As you do there will inevitably be effort toward better quality. Group chi In Kamakura Japan a group of Samurai would be going out together and so they would talk up war, they would do everything they could to support their endeavor and cheerlead for each other. We need to be the same. With Basho, poets would travel in a group and compete for best poems, help each other to improve their craft. This builds a love and loyalty to each other and gives you support to live the way you want to. The advantage of this versus just taking a class is that you create more FORCE by doing it together. Whoever picks a goal, everyone should presume success and work on supporting it. If a student wants to paint, everyone should WANT that student to pain and should support the student doing that. Gurdjieff compared this to a person who wanted to get out of jail. That person needed: 1. a teacher- someone who knows how to do it 2. a sangha- people to help 3. the teachings of fourth way and zen- the tools Gurdjieff also thought of this in terms of outward development First you must help yourself. Then your group. Then the world. The first level should be a very very selfish effort to work on yourself. If you start with the world, it won’t work. The world help must come from overflow of knowing how to do things for you. Creating a culture of the group. Keep it simple. Even in “good works” people get into the idea of “for the world” but can’t really even make things happen for themselves. This won’t work. If we create a group of people who are working to make things happen for themselves, this is actually a remarkable thing and will eventually allow group to learn by training together. The thing that stops us is the negative. Blame, fear, inertia. You aren’t losing anything when you lose your thoughts or habitual feelings!!!! Thoughts are either conscious or unconscious. You want to minimize formatory (unconscious habitual) thoughts and feelings. Keep going. The second week will actually be harder but put the energy in your GUTS not your thoughts. This is the WARRIOR way of doing things and will give you a lot of power.