An Enlightening Evening
with
Jack Kornfield & A. H. Almaas
Author: John
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Relatively Speaking
Relatives Are a Great Growth Barometer
Our relationships with family members and other relatives are one of the best barometers I know of to get clear unsolicited feedback on personal growth and integration. Those with whom we share long histories exert the most force on us to stay within established boundaries and relationship patterns. The primary one being – identity.Have you ever noticed that people continue to relate to you like they know who you are? And quite often we continue to go along with them – like they’re right! We fall into agreement because we, too, feel we know who we area and we return the favor by knowing who they are. It’s a very interesting experience to observe how the “known” gets placed on the person appearing in front of you or in your thoughts. Mostly, it seems, we don’t question this, let alone spend time observing it in any significant way.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that people are much deeper and more mysterious than they appear. My awareness of this is expanding because I am continually discovering who I am. If who and what I am is constantly revealing itself in ways that surprise me, then extending that freedom to others seems natural and effortless.
Of course, it’s nice to have names to go with faces. And, history doesn’t disappear. But this does not mean that we have to stay within the containment field (a field of relativity?) of the past in our interactions with others. It appears that the only real way to open up the whole situation is through personal experience that challenges what we know about who we think we are.
Items of Interest
Links of Interest
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The Fulcrum
Resolving the Paradox of Being vs. Non-Being
The annual retreat for the Ridhwan School focused on The Fulcrum, a term A.H. Almaas used to explore the point or interface where one’s consciousness can hold being and non-being (duality & the non-dual). A couple of central question for the retreat were – What is the interplay between these two views of reality? and What is the connection between spiritual practice and enlightenment?Here is the list of topics for the 16 sessions:
- Continual Practice
- Enlightenment Drive
- Motiveless Practice
- Practice to No End
- Opening Time & Space
- Uncaused Realization
- Non-Self Centered Practice
- Organ of Realization
- Paradox of Non-Doing
- Mystery of Emptiness
- Realization & Delusion
- Living Inquiry
- Living Dialectics
- Not One, Not Two
- Freedom
Items of Interest
Links of Interest
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The Recycled Self
Egoic Self is a Recycled Self
Yesterday, in his afternoon talk at the Ridhwan School’s summer retreat, A.H. Almaas referred to the recycled self. This is our normal sense of self – a false identity based on self-images and history. This self is engaged in constant ego activity which includes mental, emotional and physical patterns of rehashing the past.
All of this activity is a result in a belief that effort will get us where we want to be – and while that may be true when it comes to walking across the street, it is not true when it comes to satisfying urge or longing for peace, authenticity, happiness, love and other more fundamental human and spiritual quests.
The recycled self stands in shard contrast to what Almaas refers to as “runaway realization” – where True Nature spontaneously moves from moment to moment revealing deeper dimensions and understanding with no effort, hope, longing or past.
The Ridhwan School’s annual summer retreat’s focus this year is – The Fulcrum.
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Obsidian Samadhi
Obsidian Samadhi – Diamond Approach Summer Retreat
I’m at the annual summer retreat for the Ridhwan School (Diamond Approach). About 700 students are gathered at Asilomar near Monterey California.Hameed Ali, who writes under the pen name A.H. Almaas began the first session with a meditation he calls Obsidian Samadhi = clear awareness, calm alertness.
The subject of the 10-day retreat is Fulcrum (dictionary -a: the support about which a lever turns b : one that supplies capability for action). The inquiry will revolve around – Practice is Realization, Realization is Practice.
On first blush, it seems to me that the fulcrum is the soul or the personal consciousness where practice is initiated and applied and realization arises. We shall see.
Items of Interest
Links of Interest
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Rapprochement, Power & Negative Merging
Dreaming & Inquiry Lead to the ForlornA couple of days ago, I woke up from a dream full of conflict with my brother. It was one of those dreams where things were off just enough to give it a surreal feel from the imagery, but the intersubjective feelings generated were historically very familiar.
As I pondered the dream throughout the day, I became aware of a rapprochement conflict that was being exploited to establish a position of power. It was fascinating to see an unconscious intelligence preying on another’s unconscious material to establish a position of dominance over the other.
As I was driving home, the notion of negative merging entered my mind and I could immediately feel the connection – the intersubjective emotional field of the dream was permeated by that low-grade sense of frustration that is a hallmark of negative merging.
With the sense of negative merging more forefront in my awareness, I was able to tease out more of the rapprochement conflict which led to a sense of – forlorn – which these days is associated with being sad and lonely due to isolation or desertion. The word forlorn derives from Middle English associated with the word – lose.
This led my inquiry to a place of interest around loss and desertion. For sure, a sense of isolation is part of the mix – as in more ambivalence around moving toward or away from.
It has also been interesting to observe how the “moody” feelings activated by all of this heighten my susceptibility to move toward others carrying their own negative merged state closer to the surface.
Another area of interest piqued by all of this is the need for merged support in general – whether negative or positive. Why do so many of us need others to be in agreement with?
Items of Interest
Links of Interest
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