12.56
Monasterio Nuestra Senora De Los Angeles (Monjas Dominicas), Sant Cugat, Spain.
Rising at 06.15…
II…
The sun is now shining…
Cranescape I…
II…
Performance at breakfast of the-closest-thing-to-a-Neapolitan-ballad I have heard in GC.
T’ai chi with Luciano at 09.00 while, for me, meeting the UK team to address Developing Variations For A Mixed Ability Group, beginning with a simple motif.
Personal meetings at 10.00.
Several of the team are leaving today, mainly English persons.
19.53 A quiet Lunch with performances & Silence visiting.
Personal meetings at 15.00. Today’s personal meetings have addressed more practical issues, often results of personal observation & a developing practice.
Tea with performances ranging from energetic to therapeutic.
A personal Alexander class at 17.00.
T’ai chi at 18.00 with Luciano & mosquitoes. The sun brought them out to play.
Some preparation for tomorrow…
Soon, farewell O desk…
Soon, farewell St. Dominic…
22.36 Dinner with origami, spaghetti a la solid, and performances.
House Meeting with mosquitoes at 21.00, preceded by a division of attention exercise which gave some difficulties.
Several good comments & observations offered on the past 8-9 days of the Level Three receiving visitors; and thanks offered to Hernan, Mariana, Leonardo, Luciano, Valentina, Ignacio & Mariella, and Dr. Mike. Thanks are also appropriate for all those who worked honourably in various roles & capacities throughout this visit. Departed visitors & AAD contributors were also acknowledged.
At 21.50 it was acknowledged that this course is continuing. Robert announced he would be returning to the ballroom with guitar in 5 minutes, and anyone who arrived with theirs were welcome & invited.
The new sexatonic scale was used as the basis for circulating, in addition to its enneatonic form (ie several additional notes, not all of which bore a close connection in terms of kinship & affinity). A satisfying completion to our large group-guitaring after yesterday evening’s adventure with F natural minor.
A question has arisen: why practice the morning sitting? accompanied by why not practice guitar for half an hour instead?
1. Before we ask ourselves to do something, we begin by asking ourselves to do nothing.
2. The exercise develops relaxation & an engaged sense of personal presence;
3. Distinguishes what-we-are from who-we-are; for example, our background noise & who is listening to it;
4. Strengthens volitional attention; ie practises the will (whatever we might understand by that).
But, these are comments are made very much at the beginning of the practice; although, even as a beginning, this much is already a considerable achievement. In time, the practice leads to a more sophisticated awareness of qualities & distinctions within our personal energy field.
23.49 A final meeting with Hernan, touching base. Hernan suggests the consensus among the Team is that this was a very positive course. I concur.
A sense this evening of a process coming to an end. Not sadness quite, but feeling this moment is almost passed. It is the same sense as when, 17 years ago, Hernan drove down the hill from the Red Lion House, turned left at the bottom, and was gone. That was not a finish: Hernan did not go away. Seventeen years later, Hernan is here & directing GC activities in Europe & South America.
But that sense again: this moment is going; it will not return.
At the end of this course: the completion of a rich & growing period, with moments of clarity entering the everyday surprisingly often. I hope that when my own end is close I feel the same sense of completion:
this life is at an end;
it will not return;
it is only a beginning.
"Interrogate the error."
