Synopsis for March meeting

     The meeting began with Nadine talking about her insight that language is a barrier; that we have a brain that is wired to make stories with language in order to catalogue our experiences. Constance continued by saying that our personal story determines in some ways what that experience is and this accounts for much possible misunderstanding between individuals and groups.
     Nadine ( pg.141) expressed her confusion about "notice" vs. "awareness" and it was suggested that it is best to think of it as being "aware of noticing."
      Mary Ann related a story of stress being  relieved by listening to a radio program and some discussion ensued as to that being a form of avoidance in some instances. An alternative was given by Ken in terms of exploring the stress in meditation and it is why it is important to practice with the small things in order to be prepared to use this process when the bigger issues arise. The ideas is to "be with" the discomfort without the tension that is attached to the experience.
      Gail asked if enlightened moments or a threshold once crossed produced a permanent state and I think it fair to say that the consensus was that it is a process of coming to realize that we are already enlightened (have Buddha Nature) though this fact is obscured by the operation of egoic thinking and the "small mind." (Then again, I was tired and I may be all wet on this recollection. If so, Ken will set me straight later... I'm sure.)
      And finally Mary Ann shared another of her poems that described a moving experience with a hawk while driving down the road. And unfortunately my lack of cyber-prowess has made it impossible to figure out how to send the attachment to you in this blog. If you want copies just email me direct.


Next meeting: at Gail's April 22nd and directions are forthcoming in separate emails to you all.


PS: Apparently I do know how to send it but didn't know that I knew.....Suzuki was right....just "don't know."


The Witness
The Hawk and the Squirrel meet in the natural world one February day.

The sun is sinking in the sky and the moon is rising above it when I spot them. 

For a split second the hawk commands the busy thoroughfare on the road named Reynolda.

It lands quickly on the black asphalt with outstretched wings spread upward like a gigantic fan.

The next second it lifts off into the sky and flies away with a baby squirrel clinched in its jaws,

with one of its legs dangling in mid air as the hawk climbs over the tree tops.

The hawk gives me such beauty before it reveals its predatory nature.

Its feathers of white and brown decorate the roadway like a magnificent piece of art.

Without that first view which hid the hawk’s mission, the despair that follows would dominate.

The loss of the squirrel to nurture the hawk is stark reality. 

It is beauty and despair in the same moment - the language of life and death as being one.

The hawk and the squirrel remind me just how much Nature is my master in so many ways. 

Without its presence I would not know about ecstasy,

Intimacy; natural connections,

Interdependence; mystery,

and most importantly, beauty and destruction.

It reminds me always that I know absolutely nothing for certain.

It teaches me courage no matter the incoming lesson or the outcome.

Being the witness today, am I looking through a two-sided mirror? 

Nature’s image merges with me – the hawk and the squirrel.

I am the hawk who supplies my needs.

I am the squirrel who nurtures others.

I am the witness to the awakenings,

slumbering no more in the secure hold of the womb.

I am a witness to life and live it at the same time.

   ©Mary Ann Weatherman- February 2012