We had such a good time last time we met, going around the circle and sharing how we felt, that we decide to do it again. I think we are all still on a high from having spent 4 days with Shahabuddin. It was a wonderful seminar, we did lots of practices with him, and it was so good to see him again, and feel his presence.
D says that now the election is over, she is finally getting back to seriously looking for work, but she has enjoyed the feeling of being retired for a few months, and wonders if she can cope with working again. She has been talking to her financial advisor, and trying to work out which Medicare Plan to use - she tells us it is incredibly complicated. We all tell her she will be able to advise us soon!
T says her company might be hiring at the beginning of the year. She explains about what her company does, and then it is her turn, but she says she is having "re-entry disease", and I can see it on her face.
UD says she went for a walk on Sunday afternoon, when she got home from the seminar, and she floated rather than walking! Then she started picking up Fall leaves, which were in beautiful shades of red, and that helped to reground her. The harmony and beauty of the colors moved her. She has laid them in a pattern on her dining table, and they really are lovely.
K says he was not aware of how high the seminar made him until after he left and tried to be "normal" again. T said that she thought if you did a lot of seminars regularly, or were like a healer and did "stuff" regularly, then you increased your capacity for absorbing the energy without becoming so dizzy. K says he wants to do the 40 Day Retreat that Shahabuddin told us about - this is a way to do a retreat while in the midst of daily life. When should he start, he asks? We talk about when the new moon will be and how close to which holidays. UD reminds us that the Winter Feast for the Soul starts on Jan 15th 09. Then it is M's turn, and he was glad to be at home the day after Shahabuddin. He has realized that even if he manages to reduce the number of things that he has to do, he will always have 6 things to be doing at once.
F likes to go over the notes she took at the seminar while it is still fresh in her mind. She survived work today, but the seminar is an emotional roller-coaster for her. UD remarks that she was on an even-keel afterwards, and spent an hour fixing a computer problem and stayed calm the whole time!
Someone asks D if she can go over the order that S has said we should do our practices in, and D says she is doing an abbreviated version of the 40 Day Retreat practices daily. Then we have this messy discussion about the order: moving energy to the souls of our feet, invocation, attunement, purification/ablution, prayers, Darood, Wazifa, Darood, where people chip in with suggestions and soon I don't know what the order is.
M says usually his job is very grounding - he works with stone, but he found himself today, walking on a narrow ledge 3 stories up, entirely unconcerned. Maybe he wasn't so grounded at all!
D has a great idea for our next meeting. Rabbi Arthur Waskow's Shalom Center in Philadelphia is promoting events around the country to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King (Jan 16) and the Inauguration (Jan 20); see www.TentofAbraham.org. This time also coincides with the Winter Feast for the Soul (Jan15 to Feb 23), and Murshid's Urs (Feb 5). Rabbi Waskow's group is proposing to focus this period on renewing Dr. King's mature vision, as put forward in his Riverside Church speech of April 4, 1967, one year before his death. Unlike the "I have a dream" speech which is commonly revived at celebrations of his birthday, the "Riverside" speech is harder for people to hear, because it is blunt in connecting the issues of peace and social justice, and about our failings in both arenas. Maybe, D says, we should take the time to listen to it again. We all think this is an excellent suggestion, and M offers to get a recording of it.When will our meeting be? Dec is 9th, and Jan is 13th. T also has some suggestions, about doing daily remembrance or practice during the Winter Feast for the Soul at the Interfaith Church. M will talk to the Pastor. (For details see www.winterfeastforthesoul.com/)
We say the Peace Prayer and hug each other. As we leave I reflect, that yes, our conversation was all over the place tonight - we are still "under the influence", it was like trying to take minutes at a cat conference, if you could ever get cats to have a meeting!
hasEML = false;
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Minutes for Meeting 14 October 2008
As we start to talk, H has a suggestion - that we should go around the circle and see how we are all feeling. She says she needs to learn to listen more and talk less, so we should start with someone other than her!
M is next to her, so he starts. He says he is insanely busy, and is wondering if he can keep coming to our meetings, even though it is just once a month. He loves the calmness he finds here.
J likes the calmness too. She says she has less and less patience with people who just talk talk talk all the time, don't listen, and are freaked out by everything. She likes the quiet grounded atmosphere. She is busy organising Shahabuddin's visit.
K has been having intuitions for many months of a doom coming, in dreams and messages. He has been thinking about Shahabuddin and how Nizam has returned to Florida to be nearer to him.
U has had a diverse month. She went to the Abode for a meeting, and also to Baltimore. Then she went to the weekend with Gayan and that felt wonderful. She has been having a great time and has been ignoring the markets, although reading lots of politics and blogs. She is happy to be involved with the coming election, and is enthusiastic about the number of young voters.
T thought it was strange to watch the debates, she came away feeling that whatever happened we were doomed. She mentions some of the bad things she has heard - such as a story about an army brigade deployed in the US, and wonders what it is meant for? At work she is frustrated by her management who still think that 30 men can do in 1 day what several people could do in a month! She also talks about Anti-Columbus Day, and tells us some of the terrible things that Columbus did. We are dismayed and saddened by these truths which are not known generally.
F has found that she is very angry about the current financial crisis. She talks about the greed and selfishness of the bankers and financiers, how they have paid themselves so they are multimillionaires, and how they have happily allowed less knowledgeable people to make foolish mortgages, and get themselves deep in debt. J talks about how Yom Kippur is about forgiveness, and loving thy neighbor, and wonders if she can forgive Bush, or come to terms with her anger at the Israeli settlers. How can she be a peacemaker if she feels this way? She remembers reading "The Lemon Tree" and how it helped her to understand the whole history of the region. H is reminded of The Bereaved Families Group, and how they pass through the stages of grief, and somehow get to forgiveness, and how survivors can grow above their history. She thinks Judaism has the ability to hold on to the agony and ecstacy of life. Recently, when she was upset at home over some issues, she realized the problem was her own anger, so she spent 4 days doing as much "spiritual stuff" as she could, and happily the anger dissipated.
K talks about a book called "Women Who run with the Wolves", and remembers a section of it that is about forbearing, forgetting, forgiving. Some of his dreams have been about making reparation, and then being able to let go.
H goes back to the understanding that the evening before Yom Kippur, you are absolved from promises that you are unable to keep. If the promise did not take you nearer to God, then it is OK to let it go. Then you can forgive yourself, and you get to start over.
K says, we can allow ourselves to evolve, to forgive, to move on.
J says learn to be objective, not subjective,
K remembers something Shahabuddin said to him once, about not paying attention to the emotion, but to the energy. We start to try to clarify this idea. H talks about rightful emotions, like rightful anger, and clearing a space to feel the energy, not the ego attachment.
T says a very interesting site is Reality Sandwich, a web community, who are promoting a world wide meditation this Friday, to open the world.
I am getting too tired to understand what we are talking about! We say the Peace Prayer, and hug each other good night.
As we start to talk, H has a suggestion - that we should go around the circle and see how we are all feeling. She says she needs to learn to listen more and talk less, so we should start with someone other than her!
M is next to her, so he starts. He says he is insanely busy, and is wondering if he can keep coming to our meetings, even though it is just once a month. He loves the calmness he finds here.
J likes the calmness too. She says she has less and less patience with people who just talk talk talk all the time, don't listen, and are freaked out by everything. She likes the quiet grounded atmosphere. She is busy organising Shahabuddin's visit.
K has been having intuitions for many months of a doom coming, in dreams and messages. He has been thinking about Shahabuddin and how Nizam has returned to Florida to be nearer to him.
U has had a diverse month. She went to the Abode for a meeting, and also to Baltimore. Then she went to the weekend with Gayan and that felt wonderful. She has been having a great time and has been ignoring the markets, although reading lots of politics and blogs. She is happy to be involved with the coming election, and is enthusiastic about the number of young voters.
T thought it was strange to watch the debates, she came away feeling that whatever happened we were doomed. She mentions some of the bad things she has heard - such as a story about an army brigade deployed in the US, and wonders what it is meant for? At work she is frustrated by her management who still think that 30 men can do in 1 day what several people could do in a month! She also talks about Anti-Columbus Day, and tells us some of the terrible things that Columbus did. We are dismayed and saddened by these truths which are not known generally.
F has found that she is very angry about the current financial crisis. She talks about the greed and selfishness of the bankers and financiers, how they have paid themselves so they are multimillionaires, and how they have happily allowed less knowledgeable people to make foolish mortgages, and get themselves deep in debt. J talks about how Yom Kippur is about forgiveness, and loving thy neighbor, and wonders if she can forgive Bush, or come to terms with her anger at the Israeli settlers. How can she be a peacemaker if she feels this way? She remembers reading "The Lemon Tree" and how it helped her to understand the whole history of the region. H is reminded of The Bereaved Families Group, and how they pass through the stages of grief, and somehow get to forgiveness, and how survivors can grow above their history. She thinks Judaism has the ability to hold on to the agony and ecstacy of life. Recently, when she was upset at home over some issues, she realized the problem was her own anger, so she spent 4 days doing as much "spiritual stuff" as she could, and happily the anger dissipated.
K talks about a book called "Women Who run with the Wolves", and remembers a section of it that is about forbearing, forgetting, forgiving. Some of his dreams have been about making reparation, and then being able to let go.
H goes back to the understanding that the evening before Yom Kippur, you are absolved from promises that you are unable to keep. If the promise did not take you nearer to God, then it is OK to let it go. Then you can forgive yourself, and you get to start over.
K says, we can allow ourselves to evolve, to forgive, to move on.
J says learn to be objective, not subjective,
K remembers something Shahabuddin said to him once, about not paying attention to the emotion, but to the energy. We start to try to clarify this idea. H talks about rightful emotions, like rightful anger, and clearing a space to feel the energy, not the ego attachment.
T says a very interesting site is Reality Sandwich, a web community, who are promoting a world wide meditation this Friday, to open the world.
I am getting too tired to understand what we are talking about! We say the Peace Prayer, and hug each other good night.