Bredonborough Rising at The Minx
10.04
Bredonborough.
Rising at 07.00. The Minx was hiding as I emerged into my day, twitching with excitement at the prospect of making her husband jump.
WillyFred was carried to the kitchen to be given his ointment I...
II...
… which makes bun a little grumpy. Wilf is now in his eighties and requires a degree of maintenance appropriate to his age.
And Mr. Cheese at the back door, honourably discharging his responsibilities as our Property Maintainer at a level exceptional and rare.
Down the garden I…
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III...
Morning reading…
Doll Face Willcox is out shopping for our lunch with visitors. Here, now, into action.
11.14 The send has just been hit: a few words to the GC Team at the Casa de la Montaña, Cuernavaca, who complete their seven-week course tomorrow…
Advanced Beginner Course – Mexico Summer 2014
Cuernavaca, México
July 7 - August 24, 2014
Directed by: Leonardo Requejo.
What to do next?
I
For some of us, this course takes place during a transitional stage in our lives. Now, at the completion of our course, what to do next? noting:
1. It is necessary to see the next step. It is not necessary to see the step after the next step.
2. Better not to ask the future to present itself unless we are prepared and willing to act on what we are shown.
II
The House Rules have been a feature of GC activities for many years. Why?
(Even, ask why seven times). Simply: because we are unable to act from conscience. What is conscience? A working description might be: that part of us which indicates how to act rightly. Rules come from the outside, Conscience from the inside. Perhaps surprisingly, Conscience, while just about the most intimate part of us, is utterly impersonal.
During the first week, some of you may have heard me banging on about being present. If we are not present, we are not. Nothing happens. But, problematically, nothing-happening generates a stream of inevitable consequences and repercussions which are, strictly, unnecessary; but accumulate alongside the necessary repercussions from our proper activities, and act to weigh us down.
Becoming present is the beginning, and very simple beginning-to-begin is to bring part of our attention inside the right hand, or another limb: a touch inside. We experience the distinct quality of being alive, directly and immediately. One characteristic of this experience is that it takes place in the moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but this particular now. From here, everything else follows. Otherwise, we are subject to the vagaries of weather.
A key point, easily overlooked, is that to bring our attention within the hand requires both choice and decision. This engages the will, whatever we might understand by that. But, for now, good to have the information.
What follows? We choose to become present, again. When our practice is more established, becoming-present we find something-already-waiting-for-us. We have become more substantial, better able to act on the promptings of what we see and feel to be the right course of action.
Being more-fully who-we-are enables us to be more-fully with others, and working with others is necessary for us to become more-fully who-we-are. At a certain point, a group emerges from within a team, and in a group something becomes possible that, otherwise, would remain highly unlikely.
A group appears in service to an aim.
II
So, what to do next?
For some, The Guitar Circle is their way, and their family. For others, this is on their way to their way. Perhaps, for a small number, this is an end: a finish or conclusion.
An immediate next-step may be:
1. To let go of all the practices for a period of time – a week, or forty days - to allow the energies generated in us during the course to find their place and level.
2. To continue, in a gentle fashion.
3. To continue, with intensity.
This is for each to decide.
The course will continue to resonate with us, in proportion to our participation in it, and our experience remains available for us to recall, re-capitulate and re-experience.
Interrogate your experience!
What may seem inexplicable now, in forty years’ time may speak clearly and unambiguously. Perhaps, even in ten years. Perhaps, the day after tomorrow.
III
Within the overall development of The Guitar Circle, the fifth seven-year cycle began around the time of the first course in Mexico (February 2013).
A suggestion for the Circle in Mexico: accept responsibility to and for yourself: autonomous, while continuing with the support of other Circles, and supporting them in turn.
Were this to be so, what is your aim?
IV
My gratitude to everyone on the course, in whatever capacity, proximity and role. Its contribution and support to the work of all Circles, and the larger Guitar Circle of which it is a part, is significant; and makes something else possible for all of us.
The following went to Curt, upon Curt’s recent return from the Casa de la Montaña to a grumpy cat in Seattle:
Something very large is unfolding in the world, on a scale well beyond my perception. But I get echoes and a few insights on my level. As much as everything seems to be going down the tubes, probably it's more like: everything that has to go down the tubes, is. And whatever is needed for the future is pretty much on course.
Here whenever you need me.
V
May we have the clarity to see what is required of us.
May we have the courage to accept what is required of us.
May we have the capacity to discharge what is required of us.
Thursday 21st. August, 2014;
Bredonborough, Middle England.
17.37 Pals Des and Byron visited for lunch. Wonderful. Great company and conversation. Des and Byron set off to Malvern where
Des is on tour with
Thérèse Raquin.
Otherwise a day of stuff and organizing. Haircut with Mark of Boggle’s Spa c. 15.35. E-flurrying. More stuff to go and practicing before gentling.
Afternoon street I…
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About to close the computer in preparation for tomorrow’s travelling.
