This meeting was billed as a Board of Directors' Meeting. Of course, we have no Board of Directors. Indeed, each one of us is a "Director" of our group. But we do have this type of meeting on occasion, when it becomes necessary to make plans for future meeting topics and presenters. Therefore, everyone was asked to bring some ideas and to consider presenting a topic of interest in the future. As a result, we did discuss some good ideas.
Sky had an idea that maybe some presentations could occur by so-called committee. Perhaps 2 or 3 people could work on a topic. Sky would particularly like to do a combined presentation on suffering. Some of the members thought that such a topic might be too general. But just the idea did spark a fairly long discussion of the topic. Someone gave a quote: "Suffering is the path to God." Sharleen thought that one source of suffering is ignorance. Gary thought that the end of suffering and ignorance is to embrace it. Life is what it is, "but it's the only game in town. Shit happens." With regard to suffering, the Buddha used the Sanskrit word, dukkha, which really translates into discontent or unsatisfactoriness. This word applies to a realistic view of the nature of our lives. First, of course, there is suffering that may result from injuries, illnesses, and later just from aging and then from death. But there is also suffering that occurs because of the nature of life itself. Nothing is stable and permanent but is always changing. We become attached to a stable and what for a time may seem a satisfactory state of affairs, but the nature of life and this world is that stability will not persist. The constant change itself produces anxiety and a form of suffering. But Buddhism teaches that we can lessen this discontent by becoming less attached to those things that will inevitably change. We can indeed actually choose to be happy, choose to accept the way things are with equanimity. We were referred to a book which writes of these ideas: Be As You Are, by Ramana Maharshi. In the end, there was a consensus that several could work with Sky and present an introduction to suffering and then we could see if further weeks could be used to follow this topic more.
Sharleen would like to present eurhythmy, an expressive movement art form developed by Rudolph Steiner and Marie von Sivers in the early 20th century, and used in education, especially at Waldorf schools, and occasionally used in therapy. Sharleen would also like to present the topic: moral individualism. Liz would like to present a talk about the 8 limbs of yoga. Mark has already spoken for presenting on neurobiofeedback. The topic of phenomenology of perception was mentioned. Lori was asked if she could bring a video of her art exhibit because it was an experiential moment, or even talk about installation art in general. A member asked if the group was interested in learning more about Eckhart Tolle's pain body. Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell also emphasize a pain body. There did seem to be an interest in this topic.
One member of our group has always had an interest in experiential practice. He explained why he is somewhat put off by just words and descriptions. He likes the idea of trying to be an experiential shaman of consciousness. In contrast, another member of the group expressed somewhat of a fear of some experiential practices such as kundalini meditation or yoga. After some discussion of what such concerns might be, it was the general consensus of the group that such practices might be presented, that each member is capable of deciding whether to participate or continue with the practices, and that our group does not need rules to guide such presentations. Certainly there are some practices that involve hyperventilation, contortionist positions, and the like which common sense would guide each individual into the degree to which they should participate. But in general we sometimes can only learn more by at least a brief or superficial trial of the practice during a presentation. Words alone may not describe the practice.
On May 21st, Gary will present "Transplant Memories", based on a book entitled A Change of Heart: A Memoir by Claire Sylvia and William Novak. If you would like to read a brief summary of the cases described in this book, here is a link: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/salud/esp_salud25.htm
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