Synopsis for the November meeting

      We began the meeting with our customary short meditation, and being shorter than usual, it drew groans from the crowd followed by "Now that was too short!" Hhmm! That would seem to indicate one's need to address that a bit more at home.....just saying!
      This led to an observation by Mary Ann that when she read the assignment she was repeatedly struck by the thought "No-self." She asked about the likelihood of being able to repeatedly regain the well-being she experienced from the reading, after she loses it by dealing with the mundane affairs of daily life. 
      This led to the belief that we each have within us, the desire or need to nurture this experience or we wouldn't be here discussing it, and attempting to explore our own individual practices. The idea was expressed that it is through the continued efforts, or "practice," that what we find it more and more ingrained as "who we are." And along with our practice becoming "who we are," we find a growing trust in the process which is needed in order to continue to strive toward becoming more genuine in all our affairs.
      It was also noted that we should be careful not to succumb to interpreting this "inherent characteristic" which pulls us back to our practice, as an excuse to let ourselves off the hook and think that we need not push through our boredom or negative self-talk.
       We also talked about how our meditation helps us clarify the origin of our emotions, which in turn often result in unskillful reactions. We talked about how we become more insightful into how thoughts and perspectives lend themselves to volatile emotional reactions, and how these unskillful reactions can be lessened through becoming more familiar with the reality behind them.
      It was also discussed how aging seems to play a part in becoming more open to not only the causes and conditions that led us into suffering and dissatisfaction in our lives, but also the willingness to struggle with a practice that offers us hope of transformation.
      We missed Elisabeth and hope she recovers quickly from her ankle injury and certainly I, for one, missed having Ken there to take issue with my points of view. I hope you are both doing well and will be able to journey with us at our next meeting.


Next Meeting: We will reconvene at Ginny and Claudine's house on December 11th.


Next Assignment: Since we have a consensus that the book is a valuable read, in the next meeting we will discuss our reactions to Section III.