Quinta Tonantzin Retreat House Tepoztlan
07.04
Quinta Tonantzin Retreat House, Tepoztlan, Cuernavaca, México.
Rising c. 05.50 and editing GC Course Diaries for The Guitar Circle.
08.56 Morning Sitting with the Beginners in the Ballroom: Do Nothing – As Much As You Can! at 07.15 for 07.30.
Breakfast at 08.00.
Comments invited on the course so far.
It’s great!
Gratitude for this!
Wonderful people!
So far, so good.
Advice was given from one member of the Intro Team to the others on their sitting posture and backs.
A few honest hands acknowledged that after twenty minutes, twitching began and backs began to hurt.
And - oh no! Voices In The Head would not be quiet!
Nevertheless, if the course stopped here, some would leave happy, it seems.
09.32 Beaudoux GC Pro…
I was offered the choice of a second model to use for the course, one unlike any of the other GC Pros I have played: somehow more substantial, more solid. An excellent guitar that, as with any handmade craftwork, has individual characteristics. I opted to stay with the model above.
13.52 Meeting with the Kitchen Team in The Room Next Door at 09.45. Practicalities and an exercise for the Team while working in the Kitchen.
Guitar Meeting for the Beginners at 10.15 in the Ballroom.
Coming into our personal presence within the Circle of Others, in this particular space, at this particular moment.
Bringing attention to the soles of the feet;
the top of head;
to what is in between.
Then, to what is in front of us;
what is behind;
on our right;
on our left;
to what is above us;
to what is below.
Then, returning to the soles of the feet the top of the head, and to what is in in between.
To the Guitar Circle:
Please choose one note. When ready, please play this one note, which may be your first intentional note for one week.
Mostly, only the one note was struck; c. 7 seconds.
Please choose a note. Do not play the note, prepare to play this note, and when ready, begin: c. 20 seconds.
Please choose a note, any note other than a note you have already played. When ready, begin: and respond as you feel appropriate.
Longer by a few minutes.
To circulating.
To the right and left;
with smiles for my Friend on the adjoining chair;
and with smiles for my Friends on both adjoining chairs.
Circulating with up-beats in two, three and four groups.
Twenty minutes break.
Returning 11.20.
A circulation is an exact auditory representation of the state and condition of the Circle at any particular moment.
Addressing the Right Hand, the Left Hand, returning to the Right Hand.
Meeting completed c. 11.58 allowing perhaps 25 minutes for personal practicing before T’ai Chi with Luciano at 12.30.
Lunch at 13.00.
Good comments and observations. Questions were of mixed necessity, varying between questions of the head and those of genuine need.
The question asked me on the way to the second part of the Guitar Meeting this morning:
Q: Will we be circulating every day?
A: I don’t know.
Q: Haven’t you planned (the course)?
A. Find a better question.
Q: What do you hope we have achieved (by the end of the course)?
A: What was your aim, declared at the meeting yesterday evening?
Q: To get closer to music.
A: I wish for you what you wish for yourself.
(Paraphrased, and allowing for translation).
Question from the top table: Where does a question come from?
Answer from the tables: Necessity.
Question from the top table: What are we passing, when we pass a note?
Many good answers were given to this: music, feeling, commitment, who we are; and more.
A question, on a circulation as an exact auditory representation of the state and condition of the Circle at any particular moment.
Q: Why do circulations break down?
A: Because we are not present. If we are not present, we are not. Presence is connected to attention. We are, where our attention is. This then becomes a practical question: how do we practice attention? And a practical question invites a practical answer.
Work called for this afternoon:
Intro Team with Curt and Luciano at 15.00.
17.38 Tea at 16.00 with plates of biscuits and chocolate chip cookies. Tom put out a plate of biscuit crumbs for me.
17.38 Alexander with
Sandra (
Mind Body 40 Days /
Video)
Rodrigo and Erin at 17.00. Three of the Five Relations were addressed. The sitting-postures in the Circle were very different at the end of the meeting than at the beginning.
20.31 T’ai Chi at 18.00.
A few words on Doing Nothing – As Much As You Can! at 18.30.
An introduction to Doing Nothing is also an introduction to Personal Presence, also an introduction to relaxation by directing the attention: cf the GC aphorisms…
Relaxation is necessary tension. Tension is unnecessary tension.
Relaxation is never accidental.
So, this practice is also an exercise in developing our power of attention.
A late arrival. Not good for an exercise of this importance.
Dinner at 19.00. While at the coffee station…
Q: I think I have the Right Question.
A: How do we know this is not the Right Question?
Many questions. Some of them were relevant, even.
Comments and observations were mostly excellent.
One point of seeing: our work as building a parallel construction which is not completed but in process (paraphrase).
IMO: this is an important seeing.
Q: In the circulations, what do I do with my mind?
A: Hold the pattern. The mind has the capacity to move in time, which the body and the feelings don’t: their experience is in the immediate present. The mind can hold the pattern, from the first note played in the Circle to the last, perhaps for three complete circulations. Whichever note is being played in successive time, we can be connected to the first, the last, and all the notes in between.
Curt noticed in the first guitar meeting this morning that music peeped in during the third improv. This confirmed Tom’s own noticing of the same, conveyed in slightly different words.
What is the best use of your time this evening? We could send out for whisky and cigarettes, and watch a movie on the large Magnavox in The Room Next Door. The consensus: a House Of Guitars.
22.08 House of Guitars in the ballroom at 21.30 with 38 guitars in the Circle.
Circulations in single notes;
Multiple notes moving around the Circle;
then chords instead of notes;
and into four groups plus Group Tom.
Fun, with some interesting clusters.
A 35-minute meeting felt long enough, this confirmed by Curt.
Three sprang! chords were signaled. A few winding-down circulations, with greater presence than at the beginning of the meeting.
The past week has flown by as if it were only a day.
This is an authentic Level One.
