Z had become aware of how much she had missed by missing a meeting. She felt she had drifted. She is more aware of what she is being eaten by, for example petty annoyances like not being able to find things.
T spoke of the reading for the month. It was initially about the spaceship, and quite technical, but she was moved by the later section about being-duty, where Beelzebub is talking to the child, Hassein, about requiring a period of preparation for the future.
RM said that, like Z, he had been battling against attachments, which might be petty annoyances, and are very distracting. Recently, preoccupied with such thoughts, he dropped a cup of coffee he was walking with - it cost twenty minutes. This issue really gets in the way of being in the present, which is what he is working on at the moment.
D has been reminded of mortality. He had a meal at Christmas with a friend, and phoned some days afterwards for a chat. A stranger answered and told him his friend had been taken ill and was in hospital. He has been visiting the friend. He went for a health-checkup himself. He has been doing the awareness exercises, and feels much more aware after this wake-up call.
M also spoke of distractions, saying they were a fiendish trap, by which one is robbed of one's time, and that it was an interesting coincidence how many were speaking of this in the Meeting, and suggesting that this indicates this problem be given special attention.
L had been influenced by the part of the month's reading in which Beelzebub advises his grandson to reach a negotiation with the different parts of his psychological being, asking each not to dominate as they will interfere with broader progress in the bigger picture.
GC has had some personal problems over the month, and had tried to separate himself from the problem. It had been difficult to sleep, and he talks to himself when that happens. Separation doesn't help him in that context, as the question arises who it is that wants to sleep.
The Meeting continued reading Beelzebub's Tales.
D has been reminded of mortality. He had a meal at Christmas with a friend, and phoned some days afterwards for a chat. A stranger answered and told him his friend had been taken ill and was in hospital. He has been visiting the friend. He went for a health-checkup himself. He has been doing the awareness exercises, and feels much more aware after this wake-up call.
M also spoke of distractions, saying they were a fiendish trap, by which one is robbed of one's time, and that it was an interesting coincidence how many were speaking of this in the Meeting, and suggesting that this indicates this problem be given special attention.
L had been influenced by the part of the month's reading in which Beelzebub advises his grandson to reach a negotiation with the different parts of his psychological being, asking each not to dominate as they will interfere with broader progress in the bigger picture.
GC has had some personal problems over the month, and had tried to separate himself from the problem. It had been difficult to sleep, and he talks to himself when that happens. Separation doesn't help him in that context, as the question arises who it is that wants to sleep.
P has been doing the awareness exercise with food. This type of practical exercise was a new experience for her, which she appreciated, as in other groups there had been lots of reading but less practical work.
[Removed at the request of BS.]
Responses to the contributions were then offered.
D thought that in the Meetings, we speak too much about the metaphysical. He wants more time to be spent dealing with our practical experience, analysing at which moments we stopped becoming conscious. If he got his group going he would want two-thirds of the time to be spent on that. Z outlined what the meeting is doing - discussing such issues and then reading from Beelzebub's Tales. T was not sure it would make any difference to discuss the problem more. GC said it would give moral support. RM maintained the solution is simpler, it is just to avoid distraction, and be in the present. L argued that this might just be turning a dream into a more vivid dream. Waking up is about consolidating round a single centre. Meeting with other people who are asking questions about what is real is a way of helping stir us from the dream. we need other people to pull us up. T added, or bring us down. Z said that if we do not wake up to this question, life lives us.
GC talked of simpler societies where people shared a common belief system, with no intellectualising. T mentioned the case of Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan, shot for promoting education for girls. L said that everyone had freedom of thought, but not all had freedom of expression. He preferred our sophisticated societies over the simple ones. GC pointed out that although they are asleep, simple societies are more at one with their environment. L said that things should be simplified, but they need to be as complicated as they need to be to enable the expression of freedom in action."
GC said the personal world is really imaginary. L responded that we are not natural. Anything we are doing can be an illusion and we might be asleep. He thought it best to follow the ABC principle: Assume nothing, Believe nothing, Check everything. An apparent experience of waking up might be a delusion.
Z mentioned the metaphor of the onion, where outer levels of skin are successively peeled away, and asked what was left of the personal world then? Did this process help one see more clearly?
Responding to D, L opined that death is our friend, in that not knowing when death will come helps him be awake. He went to a Christmas Party where somebody his age would normally have been present, but had recently suffered an accident falling down stairs, and had not recovered. This happened for no reason at all and suddenly she was gone. D said that it's not the events that rock your life, it is your reactions to them. The news he had received about his friend was a shock that woke him up to be present in himself. We take a lot for granted. We are attempting to wake up and we are falling asleep. We know the difference between being there and not being there. The effort for him is to be more present. Being more present, his sense of presence improves.
[Removed at the request of BS.]
Responses to the contributions were then offered.
D thought that in the Meetings, we speak too much about the metaphysical. He wants more time to be spent dealing with our practical experience, analysing at which moments we stopped becoming conscious. If he got his group going he would want two-thirds of the time to be spent on that. Z outlined what the meeting is doing - discussing such issues and then reading from Beelzebub's Tales. T was not sure it would make any difference to discuss the problem more. GC said it would give moral support. RM maintained the solution is simpler, it is just to avoid distraction, and be in the present. L argued that this might just be turning a dream into a more vivid dream. Waking up is about consolidating round a single centre. Meeting with other people who are asking questions about what is real is a way of helping stir us from the dream. we need other people to pull us up. T added, or bring us down. Z said that if we do not wake up to this question, life lives us.
GC talked of simpler societies where people shared a common belief system, with no intellectualising. T mentioned the case of Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan, shot for promoting education for girls. L said that everyone had freedom of thought, but not all had freedom of expression. He preferred our sophisticated societies over the simple ones. GC pointed out that although they are asleep, simple societies are more at one with their environment. L said that things should be simplified, but they need to be as complicated as they need to be to enable the expression of freedom in action."
M said we must understand that we live in a common world and an inner world (comprising a soul, an eternal part, which very few are conscious of). The common interest of society is very different from the personal.
GC said the personal world is really imaginary. L responded that we are not natural. Anything we are doing can be an illusion and we might be asleep. He thought it best to follow the ABC principle: Assume nothing, Believe nothing, Check everything. An apparent experience of waking up might be a delusion.
Responding to D, L opined that death is our friend, in that not knowing when death will come helps him be awake. He went to a Christmas Party where somebody his age would normally have been present, but had recently suffered an accident falling down stairs, and had not recovered. This happened for no reason at all and suddenly she was gone. D said that it's not the events that rock your life, it is your reactions to them. The news he had received about his friend was a shock that woke him up to be present in himself. We take a lot for granted. We are attempting to wake up and we are falling asleep. We know the difference between being there and not being there. The effort for him is to be more present. Being more present, his sense of presence improves.
...in spaces where there is no resistance, contemporary ships like ours simply fall towards the nearest 'stability'; but in spaces where there are any cosmic substances which offer resistance, these substances, whatever their density, with the aid of this cylinder enable the ship to move in any desired direction.
The Meeting agreed that this was a reference to resistance to waking, which can be useful as something to work against.
Later he alludes to perpetual motion, inferring that the journey to awakening can be sustained purposefully.
"... it can safely be said that, with atmosphere alone given, it will work perpetually without needing the expenditure of any outside materials.
"And since the world without planets and hence without atmospheres cannot exist, then it follows that as long as the world exists and, in consequence, atmospheres, the cylinder-barrels invented by the great Archangel Hariton will always work.
For the coming month's exercise, GC suggested using the moment when liquid touches the tongue as a trigger for self-observation.
