As always, feel free to fill in the blanks and expand as needed.
Feelings ... scattered, fragmented, skimming, distracted by life, wanting to re-engage.
**Regular Friday session to begin at 9:00 am on zoom and resume after the Weller call for a debrief.
Note on Friendship: on FrancisWeller.net, there is an interview with Michael Lerner where Lerner says, "You and I know that, for the ancients, friendship was the highest form of relationship, and that was because friends, in the true sense of friendship, ask nothing of each other than to accompany each other on this journey."
DO: Anam Cara by John O'Donohue ... book club approach, 1 section per week. Section 1 for March 3. Bring to the discussion what his writings means to us. What is an anam cara? Have we ever had one?
Section 1: The Mystery of Friendship
Light is generous
The Celtic Circle of belonging
The human heart is never completely born
Love is the nature of the soul
The Umbra Nihili
The Anam Cara
Intimacy is sacred
The mystery of approach
Diarmuid and Grainne
Love as ancient recognition
The Circle of belonging
The Kalyana-mitra
The soul as divine echo
The wellspring of love within
The transfiguration of the senses
The Wounded Gift
In the Kingdom of Love, There Is No Competition
Marginalia: C. S. Lewis, in a letter to Arthur Greaves, 1932, describing the pleasure of a particular kind of marginalia, or reading with a pencil:
"To enjoy a book like [Froissart’s Chronicles] thoroughly I find I have to treat it as a sort of hobby and set about it seriously. I begin by making a map on one of the end leafs: then I put in a genealogical tree or two. Then I put a running headline at the top of each page: finally I index at the end all the passages I have for any reason underlined. I often wonder — considering how people enjoy themselves developing photos or making scrapbooks — why so few people make a hobby of their reading in this way. Many an otherwise dull book which I had to read have I enjoyed in this way, with a fine-nibbed pen in my hand: one is making something all the time and a book so read acquires the charm of a toy without losing that of a book." -- C.S. Lewis
Travel discussions related to the idea of "slow travel," not being a tourist, looking for insights into ourselves. Rather than have a structured program (such as the David Whyte, or John O'Donohue pilgrimage) make this our own pilgrimage using hired guides or other enlightening experiences to create our own structure and insights. Need time to deepen into a place ... one month?
Thought: I wonder if creating a Google Map of the British Isles might reveal any patterns of ancestors, interests, people (like O'Donohue) that would begin to form a guide?
ALSO: I want to reiterate my belief that this particular part of the journey is your calling and I hope you feel free enough to ask for what you need, whether that's doing all or part of it by yourself or whatever. It's all new territory so I'm sure it will come with new insights for me however it's done. It seems to me though, without being too completely woo-woo, that the Universe has lined up this possibility for you in a very substantial way and I'd just like to be part of your support system.
EWR: Dharma Talk scheduled for 4/6 ... rehearse in Julian
*Discussion of what it means to love ourselves? Can you love someone else if you don't love yourself? If we loved ourselves, what would be new? What would we do or not do that we are doing now? What is the relationship to narcissism and perfection?
*Resilience exercise. Identify examples of resilience from the past.
?What do we mean by spiritual?
?"We've come far." said when I passed along the notes. But is it true? We've done a lot, created a circle of trust, learned a lot about each other ... however, what have we individually learned or experienced? Maybe we need to acknowledge changes and insights. They may be mere seedlings at this point, but we need a way to recognize them ... assuming this is a gradual process rather than an explosion that cannot be missed.
DO: Anam Cara by John O'Donohue ... book club approach, 1 section per week. Section 1 for March 3. Bring to the discussion what his writings means to us. What is an anam cara? Have we ever had one?
Section 1: The Mystery of Friendship
Light is generous
The Celtic Circle of belonging
The human heart is never completely born
Love is the nature of the soul
The Umbra Nihili
The Anam Cara
Intimacy is sacred
The mystery of approach
Diarmuid and Grainne
Love as ancient recognition
The Circle of belonging
The Kalyana-mitra
The soul as divine echo
The wellspring of love within
The transfiguration of the senses
The Wounded Gift
In the Kingdom of Love, There Is No Competition
Marginalia: C. S. Lewis, in a letter to Arthur Greaves, 1932, describing the pleasure of a particular kind of marginalia, or reading with a pencil:
"To enjoy a book like [Froissart’s Chronicles] thoroughly I find I have to treat it as a sort of hobby and set about it seriously. I begin by making a map on one of the end leafs: then I put in a genealogical tree or two. Then I put a running headline at the top of each page: finally I index at the end all the passages I have for any reason underlined. I often wonder — considering how people enjoy themselves developing photos or making scrapbooks — why so few people make a hobby of their reading in this way. Many an otherwise dull book which I had to read have I enjoyed in this way, with a fine-nibbed pen in my hand: one is making something all the time and a book so read acquires the charm of a toy without losing that of a book." -- C.S. Lewis
Travel discussions related to the idea of "slow travel," not being a tourist, looking for insights into ourselves. Rather than have a structured program (such as the David Whyte, or John O'Donohue pilgrimage) make this our own pilgrimage using hired guides or other enlightening experiences to create our own structure and insights. Need time to deepen into a place ... one month?
Thought: I wonder if creating a Google Map of the British Isles might reveal any patterns of ancestors, interests, people (like O'Donohue) that would begin to form a guide?
ALSO: I want to reiterate my belief that this particular part of the journey is your calling and I hope you feel free enough to ask for what you need, whether that's doing all or part of it by yourself or whatever. It's all new territory so I'm sure it will come with new insights for me however it's done. It seems to me though, without being too completely woo-woo, that the Universe has lined up this possibility for you in a very substantial way and I'd just like to be part of your support system.
EWR: Dharma Talk scheduled for 4/6 ... rehearse in Julian
*Discussion of what it means to love ourselves? Can you love someone else if you don't love yourself? If we loved ourselves, what would be new? What would we do or not do that we are doing now? What is the relationship to narcissism and perfection?
*Resilience exercise. Identify examples of resilience from the past.
?What do we mean by spiritual?
?"We've come far." said when I passed along the notes. But is it true? We've done a lot, created a circle of trust, learned a lot about each other ... however, what have we individually learned or experienced? Maybe we need to acknowledge changes and insights. They may be mere seedlings at this point, but we need a way to recognize them ... assuming this is a gradual process rather than an explosion that cannot be missed.
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