Just did it....frightening then freeing experience. When I moved myself away from the crime scene altogether, my first reaction was "well if those thoughts/sensations/tickles aren't happening to me, then why do I even need to be here? Why did I even come?"
Then it retracted further into a view of the movie from behind the screen, peaking from behind a curtain. Not the best seat in the house, but wildly entertaining to watch the audience watch the movie.
Then the curtain crashed with an alert from everyone's favorite iPhone app.......... "Messages"
Jeff - I don't know how you're finding time to breathe truth into email after email, but it's making my time breathe easier.
We're almost a month out from the course, and somehow your hug is still vibrating my heart. It's inspired my own style to evolve from "side hug" to "full frontal." Plus your soothing background singers named Meditation and Nature have inspired as well.
(the part where I tell you how):
NATURE
1) There was a moment by the main pond where I was watching my thermos allow steam escape, yet the steam's exit strategy was no strategy at all....it was at the mercy of the Wind and the Nature.
We, too, are at Nature's mercy. It is so much bigger than us - who are we to complain what it serves us as guests in its house? Enjoy every dish Nature serves with enthusiasm and an appetite.
2) It was Nature's size that inspired the attached doc as a morning reminder for how insignificant/unimportant our worries are (it's editable, so feel free to re-word for your own inspirational taste)
In my mind, I always wished that I lived near the stars or ocean for this very reminder, but MS Word reminded me that everything is solvable.
) I've never been an active nature advocate (my apt building doesn't even recycle) -- but every time I walked out of the woods and back to the parking circle, I couldn't help but notice how out-of-place the cars looked in comparison to their surroundings. They looked so.....unnatural. And this feeling was coming from someone who LOVES driving - who once even drove 8000 miles from Germany to Mongolia.
Yet, since the course, my to-do list now says "sell car".....(for a smaller car).
Nature, pat yourself on the back, you win. Your mother (Divine?) would be proud.
4) While walking uphill, a parallel thought occurred that an Incline Treadmill is the world's greatest laxative.
MEDITATION
1) For "Meditation-in-Motion" (or as my mind calls it, "Hell"), I have to thank Kiki's sound effects a.k.a. opera-singing exorcism that kept me going.
It got to a point where the sensations just felt like my body trying to speak. In the hollow-and-empty afterwards, I thought "how adorable that my body was trying to talk, like a baby trying to talk." Moral is to observe objectively and enjoy every sensation, it's just your body being silly.
2) Those H&E's really slowed down the mind's frames so I could see each thought separately, like separating/opening up a stuck-together plastic produce bag. It shined a light on my disguised actions that were indirectly desiring happiness. Doing things for external approval, when I already had my own approval. It reminded me of when I used to hide school supplies in the house, just so we could buy new ones. But Mom would say, "we already have that, why buy it again?"
We already have love, happiness, joy. Why try to buy more elsewhere?
3) Don't scold yourself when you know you've thought something you shouldn't....it happens every time we're asked to slowly open our eyes when we feel complete. Mine try to open as slow as possible, to win Room's Most Graceful Eye-Opener. Then my mind reacts to my participation in an imaginary game and instead the eyelids open as smoothly as a pinball garage.
INSTEAD, skate smoothly past thoughts, knowing that they're just thoughts, they're just there..........like Hrithik Roshan's thumb.
4) The most profound personal revelation was while Sri Sri asked us to imagine our last 7 days on Earth. I just assumed I'd want to spend it awash in Brazilian sex adventures and ice cream bubble baths. But in truth what surfaced was the desire to spend those days just laughing hysterically with friends and family.
And why wait til the last 7 days? This can be done EVERY day. Like MS Word taught me earlier, everything is solvable.
JEFF
1) Your Sri Sri stories made him seem so fun and playful. Like the challenges on this path were being designed by an enlightened child, not a nazi monk. It reminded that we should enjoy every moment on this path, instead of taking it so seriously :) Like you said, every moment is a gift.
2) When a thought arises, IT'S JUST A THOUGHT.
Your simple words were so right. I realized these thoughts are made by cells which have all the same parts as the cells in my foot hair. Would I ever listen to my foot hair?
A few questions:
1) I understand the mind "toll gate" analogy, but what about Sri Sri's strategy of being with a thought in order for it to dissolve? How do you know when to be with a thought, instead of just lifting the bridge before the thought crosses into Attention Ave?
2) Can you define "Divine"? How necessary is it to establish a belief in divinity/grace for this spiritual path to make sense? Can't the universe's ecosystem of souls self-govern themselves without a higher power, like a dog who's able to lick itself clean?
3) Thanks again for teaching this Art of Silence - but when are you teaching the Art of Hugging?
Hugs and kisses,
Mohit