Re: Bringing "sitting meditation" into the rest of your life.
Posted by Eddie on 06/01/2011 13:31:15
In reply to Re: Bringing "sitting meditation" into the rest of your life. posted by sorrisi on 05/29/2011 05:02:53
Sorrisi
Coach had a gift of putting things so simply; (much of which
was ‘developed’ through years of work). When he would express these
ideas they would seem so simple and even natural. That is one of the
things that stand's out in my memory about the difference with him
than so many other teachers. He seemed to always hold forth the idea
that anyone could do this deal (Mindfulness). At times I would catch
myself thinking that he was a bit of an idealist {smiles}, then at
other times I would clearly recognize how realistic he would be being,
and he (most usually) came across so warmly and positively kind and
helpful, and so easy to love. Just here as I write this I remember
saying that to him once, and his response to me was, “Yes except when
I’m not, heh, heh.”
One of the main things I remember about his personal approach is the
way he tended to always bring everything back around to it being
interesting and having “fun” with it all. He would often use the
term “’play’ the awareness game”. In listening to him you would get
the idea that it all came so naturally easy for him, but he was quick
to assure you by giving clear examples of his own ‘personality’ that
it had came through long work efforts all the while strongly
expressing the point of making a ‘game’ out of it all and to “play
with it” and to have fun with it, and how interesting it all is. And
one of the main things that stand’s out for me is the somewhat mater
of fact way he would always say: “we all have personalities and
automatic habitual ways that we demonstrate”.
Coach once said: “This training is about creating a process of living
that is different than the way you've automatically been doing it all
the way along over the years, stuck in your old conditioning and
habits. This training is about stepping out of your old self-defeating
habits and being able to get into a process of living in a new and
different way.
Sorrisi let me point out I realize this post in it’s entirety
including the link at the end is a lot of material. (((Take your time
with it)))), I feel it would be well worth the effort to you
personally. I have found a number of places that I feel that are
directly addressing where you might be. Again I am very sorry it is so
long, but again if you decide it’s something you want to take the time
to investigate please don’t feel rushed.
*************************************************
Lately, there seems to have been a bunch of interest in Gurdjieff-
related teachings here among members of our class—Pauline has been
getting into the Enneagram, Lou has discovered Burton, now Rob, who
hasn't even beearound here all summer, reports organizing his recent
practice efforts around teachings of Maurice Nicoll, perhaps the
greatest of Gurdjieff's interpreters . . . in my book, anyway.
So, what's to be made of this? Is there any problem here—some of you
studying and working with Gurdjieff teachers instead of with me and
the awareness game? Not at all!!! If there's any one element to have
been learned during these last three years of such highly eclectic
conversations as we've been seeing around here, it is that—surely it
is obvious and apparent by now!—all of these approaches are teaching
virtually all the same things.
It really doesn't matter if you derive your methods of working on your
Self from the awareness game, or from Nicoll, or Burton, or Shinzen,
or Thich Nhat Hanh, etc. All of these trainings are designed to
provide you with experiential methods of addressing your ego-driven
personality, and learning to step aside from it, and *just be*,
dwelling freely in the natural human strengths and qualities that you
were born with, and stepping out in life as a master.
The awareness game is just a *teaching tool*! It doesn't even really
matter if you actually play the awareness game, or if you use some
other approach of work on your Self that you happen to like instead.
Of course, I do really practice with the awareness game in my own
daily life—and I recommend it so enthusiastically because I know it
can be played and I really enjoy playing it. And I know others who
have played it in recent years, and also enjoyed it. And if a student
comes along to this class who doesn't happen to already prefer
Buddhism, or Gurdjieff Work, for instance, then they *can* really play
the awareness game that is taught here, if they'd like to, because it
is a real game that *can* really be played. But perhaps the awareness
game will only serve some of you students here as a mere teaching tool
that helps you to better understand and *implement* some other, more
classical teachings that you have become familiar with and fond of.
That's fine.
All of the classical enlightenment approaches are awareness games,
too. Or, conversely, the awareness game is merely a metaphor of all
these other trainings. It is a metaphor that is cast in the simple,
raw, contemporary language of our modern times. That's what I'm
wishing to emphasize here: the awareness game is just a metaphor of
classical trainings. But it is a real game, too, that can actually be
played in life . . . if some of you try it out, and you like it.
As I've said before in the past, you don't have to sign up for
anything in this school, you don't have to swear allegiance to me or
my specific coaching, or wear a sweater with our TTMT logo on it, or
even give this school credit for anything. This school is simply here
to be of whatever help it can. And if it helps you to understand
Gurdjieff work better, and that's what you prefer to put into play in
your life, then this school will not have failed in its purpose one
single bit.
I would say our task, as students, is to be able to recognize and
catch-on as quickly as possible to what these "same things" are, that
*all* of the classical trainings are coaching. And all this class
is "supposed to be" is a place where it is as easy as possible to do
that!
There are just a few generic characteristics of all human behavior
that we need to learn to pick up on in this class.
Is the data you are looking at (gleaned through any diagnostic system)
exemplary of being reactive to the other person, or of being
responsive to the other person?
Is it a stinger?—i.e. selfishly wounding, or selfishly frustrating the
recipient of the behavior?
Is it aggressive or passive, instead of being assertive or yielding?
By understanding and applying these simple experiential tests—and
we've had some practice of studying this already here in the past—no
matter what "types" or Self-study approaches provide the data we are
looking at, we will always be able to tell if it is "Self," and
something to be "worked on," or if it is innate natural "Being." All
we need to catch-on-to about any identified behaviors in this class is
whether they—like narcissism—are actually getting in the way of the
fulfillment of our lives (i.e. Self), or whether—like creative genius
applied with love and understanding—they are instead furthering our
peace and harmony with the totality of it all (i.e. Being).
The model, the awareness game with the wheelbook, is just another
teaching tool for learning to pick up on these things objectively.
Coach
In the awareness game, we are trying to learn to become more and
more "authentic" in our relating with other people. We're studying and
practicing *authenticity* as a valuable quality, and a strength.
Let me point out that different teaching approaches make different
uses of technical terms, in breaking down the structure of our over-
all human beingness into specific parts that can be recognized and
studied, and worked on. Terms like "ego" and "essence" have different
meanings in different schools.
Once a student has caught on to the over-all actual make-up of our
human beingness by studying *any one of these models*, then he or she
can read all the other different descriptions and catch-on to them,
even though some of the terms appear in different places on the chart.
All of them are describing the same "anatomy of human beingness" that
we are all looking at, yet each of them have divided it up in slightly
different ways, and used some of the same terms in slightly different
ways.
All that being said, let me clarify a few terms, as they are used here
in the awareness game training.
The "ego" is the driving force that impels us to go after the things
we think we need and want in life. The ego is the "I want" part of our
nature. Juxtaposed (in this approach) to the ego is what I call the
"true self." The true self is the innate power in us that inspires us
to do what we are interested in, what we are best suited to, what
we're good at, what we love. The voice of the true self says, "I
like." "I love." — "I want," the ego says.
The ego is the power that gets us to go after what we want. And the
"personality" is made up of the several different recognizable
specific forms of manipulative behavior which "serve the ego," so to
speak, in manipulating for what we want. If the ego wants to be in
charge, for instance, the personality includes things like bullying,
lying, punishing, etc., etc. in order to be in charge. And these kinds
of ego manipulations (whether aggressive or passive) are the things
that ordinary humans ordinarily do in trying to get what we want.
In the terminology of this training, then, juxtaposed to the
personality is the term "essence." Personality is the use of certain
definable patterns of manipulation that we have become conditioned to
use as we have been growing up. And essence, in this approach, is the
use of certain corresponding natural strengths, qualities, and talents
that we were born with. In the situations that come up in our lives,
either we will use the manipulations of acquired personality, or we
will use the talents of natural essence. So, in the lingo we use
around here . . .
it is:
ego, or true self —(wanting, or loving) personality, or essence —
(manipulating, or sharing love skillfully)
And that's the awareness game! This is a game of waking up,
recognizing our ego-driven personality when it's going on, awarely
stepping aside from that, and, keeping awake and aware, putting our
essence—our natural strengths and talents—into the game on purpose
with love, instead of manipulations.
All of the many spiritual or metaphysical teachings are talking about
two sides of our human beingness. One is the side of us that is
conditioned and "asleep" which brings us repeatedly to the same
troubles and problems over and over again in our lives, back again and
again to the same suffering. That's the conditioned ego-driven
personality of this training.
The other side is the side of us that we were born with, before we
grew up and became conditioned by the challenging things that happened
to us in our lives. This is the side where our greatest natural
strengths and qualities dwell—the side of mindful awareness for
instance, and all the natural talents that each of us may learn to
like and us, and can be spontaneously good at in life. That's the true-
self essence around here. It is *freedom*, when we dwell in this . . .
instead of our conditioning.
((((Take it easy. It can't all be done at once.)))) Work with it at a
mellow pace, if you can . . . one part at a time over the weeks. You
will catch up to the old-timers more swiftly than you might expect, if
you do it that way. Let your learning be guided by the parts of the
training that attract your greatest interest, the parts that you
recognize that you harmonize with. And let it flow from there in a way
that seems peaceful to you. And keep asking questions in Classroom
Talk whenever you wish.
Who we *really are* is this essence of strengths and qualities that we
were born with, that lies underneath, and not this False Self that is
put on like armor on the outside as we are growing up. Yet, we still
have to "own it," so to speak. We have to "take responsibility for
it," take responsibility for the fact that this False Self does
manifest out of these human bodies of ours. And during our days, we go
forth, doing all the many things we do, without being aware of it.
In the terminology of the awareness game, this False Self we have is
called simply the "Self." And the essential strengths and qualities
that we were born with is called our "Being." So, the idea of the
awareness game is that who you really are is your Being. The Self is
not who you really are (it's a "false disguise" that you have put on
during the years that you were growing up, made up out of reactions to
the painful things that have happened to you along the
way) . . . . . . and yet you have to own it. You have to take
responsibility for this Self, in order to be able to step aside from
it and transcend once again to the freedom of your Being, you have to
take responsibility for it.
When a student transcends their Self (for some period of time, however
short), a Buddhist might call that "no self." In our approach, we
simply call that pure Being. I hope this use of terms is clear. Being
and Self are the two basic states we are working with here. And Being
is who you really are, not Self.
Self, and Being
Self
1. sleeping (and stirred-up or upset about something).
2. having typical emotional feelings that go unfelt and unprocessed,
and thus build-up as tensions in the body until one reacts to it
physically.
3. caught up in typical thinking and judging that one believes is
truth.
4. driven by typical ego urges to have what we want, not have what we
don't want, and desires to change other people to be who we want them
to
be.
5. automatically acting-out the typical aggressive or passive
manipulative patterns of personality.
That's the Self, in simple, as we use that term in this class. This
Self is what we see arising when a person is reacting to life,
reacting
to another person. (That's why it's such a useful exercise to practice
noticing when you or the other person are reacting! That's one of the
best exercises in the awareness game! When you see it's reacting
that's
happening, you can know right away that the Self has arisen and is
holding forth in the field, with all the characteristics I've
described
just above—reactive emotions, reactive thinking and talking, reactive
desires and motives, and reactive behavior, often in the form of
outright stingers. In other words, a student can learn to know what's
going on when their Self and/or the Self of another person arises in
the field.
Being
1. awakening and sleeping, awakening and sleeping . . . (and things
happen which have impact on one's body).
2. being in touch with emotional feelings that arise and processing
them
3. seeing it's only thinking that comes up, and recognizing judgments,
projections, fantasies for what they *are.
4. recognizing and understanding ego motives, and being able to
contemplate them objectively, and . . . . . step aside from them, or
pause and stop.
5. instead of acting-out personality, being able to awarely apply the
strengths and qualities of one's natural essence to appropriately deal
with the task at hand.
That's the Being, in simple, as we use that term in this class. Living
in this Being is what we see when a person is responding to life,
responding to the other person.
In a simplified re-statement of these ideas, you could say that what a
person does when they step aside from their ego, or from their Self—is
that they begin coming naturally from who they really are. This is
Being. They don't have "selfish aggressive motivation" to get what
they want, but are instead yielding to the motivation that is already
innately in them as human beings—loving, responding to life, being
inspired by the challenges of life, responding to others, being
inspired by the challenge’s that others present, and being intent on
*mastering* the task at hand . . . . . mastering the problem,
mastering the puzzle, mastering the challenge, mastering the task,
whatever it is, that lies at hand . . . . . mastering the task in a
way that "gives peace a chance," a way that *can* allow a possibility
for harmony all around. There are no "guarantees." One can only do
one's best at mastering life in this way. Mastery is an art. It is a
skill that can be developed by mindful practice.
Below is a post Coach wrote back in 2002. I’m recommending it not
because of the personal connection with me and a friend of mine, but
(((ONLY))) for the content of what Coach was teaching there, and a
bonus portion of Coach’s history with his personal work. Enjoy…
http://www.mindfulnessclasses.com/classroomtalk/20030204/messages/2770.
html