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At the start of the second 100 days group it was said that the process is not formulaic. There is always a risk that when you undertake something others have previously undertaken that the form takes precedence over the energy. The form provides the field for the energy to grow and to move. Basic space is the great container, the ultimate field. We are microcosms.

It is not the form that is the force, it is the energy within the form. in the relative world it is the form that has force, but it is still moved by energy, powered by energy. All form is energy. energy without form is not so useful; form that does not accommodate the movement or change in energy risks stagnation, decay, sickness. Even though there is a form to this work, can you begin to see how and where the form is bending and yielding to the collective energy?

Often in our lives we are set on a task or on a pursuit or in a belief and because of our attachement we resist the natural energy of change so that our attachement to the familiar is not disturbed. This is the root of all suffering.

In the 100 days the form is obvious. the parameters of the form must be retained and maintained to allow the harmonious evoltuion of the creative potential of the energy that assembles when a number of beings join together in such a venture. Form can help us when we are too airy. Solid form is essential in order to attract mercurial energy that is an essential ingredient of the highest work. the mercurial or spiritual energy by itself has no stability. Form gives it stability.

In the group, you will have noticed so much recent exchange between the members of the Lyon group who attended the meeting in January in Lyon.

The follow up messages are as relevant and revelatory as anything that was siad in the meeting. For example, the message about what have I missed? An example of how the movement of energy immediately highlights a habitual response from the writer. This is a tendency we all have, but this writer in particular has displayed it in the past and displays it again.

Moving energy in a conscious process highlights blockages and negative behaviour patterns. This is natural. In movement or in stillness, eventually the negative habit pattern will surface apparently from the depths of the unknown, not anticipated. it is the same when energy is moved vigorously-the habit pattern arises.

it is the foundation of meditation-you sit in stillness-eventually energy begins to move if the consciousness brought to the process is sufficiently mindful. Once that mindfulness becomes fully conscious, the blockages and negatve patterns surface. They become clear, they need not be named and identified, they may simply be released. we have to repeat the pattern in order to see it one last time before letting it go. Pam’s recent message from the yoga mat may be an example of this: seeing an old memory arise and then allowing I to dissolve ungrasped.

This part of the healing process is one we seek to avoid-revisiting pain or struggle. We must feel it with mindfulness if we are to let it go. That means what you don’t like you have to look it straight in the eyes with equanimity before you can let it go. The technical energetic truth about equanimity is that you see the phenomena is empty. So there is nothing to look at or even to let go. you feel it as it arises, but it gives rise to no conditioned response. Often we use terms like equanimiyy-it is useful as a tool for being in the world but also it has a strong purpose as a healing tool, as a neccessray ingredient to letting go negative habit patterns.

What was said in that meeting that has casued so much exchange, so much activity? Really, not very much more than was said at a similar juncture to the whole group at the beginning of the first group: meet together in small groups, make use of your common connection, help each other. And you will have seen the message written concerning what is help.

To have a fixed idea about what help you need is limiting the healing potential of conscious attention to your personal ideal. Release your personal vison to a vision based beyond the idea of me and someone needing help and there is a chance that the interraction with the group will begin to draw the kind of healing energy that is accessible and available when we try not to do anything in particular. This is the basis on which the group energy is established and it has taken perhaps two years or more for the first group to begin to see this-already, some 20 weeks into the second group, some of you are hearing it being described. So no form can be truthful to the dhamma if it is fixed and no truth is true if it is learnt.

A number of times and in a number of different circumsatnces I have discreetly directed you to the functional healing potential of this process: Be still, in the clear mind space out of which the lessons arise and everything will resolve naturally and perfectly. This is where deep healing is undertaken.

Without you in the way, in the clear mind space, abiding in that space with equanimity and with full attention.

There is no other way to abide in the clear mind space. Eventually even equanimity is not necessary because the pure attention does not contain anything of substance towards which we need to be equanimous.

-we have said attention resting on attention, the observer observing the observed-without you in the way, in this clear mind, the basic space of all phenomena, energy is naturally and perfectly organised.

in a recent message Emilie has described this:

Despite everything, we do have a dream about an ideal world. But let us be sure that our dreams accord with a dream that ends suffering for all beings and that our interractions within the group concern love for all beings.

And this is really the apsect that I found very amusing. She says, repeating a phrase I use often: there is nothing to attain, she says, since there is nothing to attain, let’s create something.

Really, that is what we are trying got do here, but within the parameters of a teaching that helps us to be clear of the ignorance, attachments and aversions that plague us and obscure the realisation that all phenomena arise out of the same source. Without exception. When you really see that, it is a very big realisation. When life, being, activity, any function or process accords with this, the potential is limitless.

But we do not have to attain that realisation, there is no obligation. But if we continue to adopt the teachings, to erode the belief in self will, to erode the belief in poor me or important me, then eventually this realisation will arrive. It wont even arrive-it will just appear in the same way as does the sun. it was never gone as such, just not in view.

So that is what is meant by attaining that which cannot be attained. I call it the cosmic joke, but it’s not even as profound as a joke because at base it’s just obvious once you see it. it does make you laugh having wasted so much time and energy to get something that can’t be got and then you laugh again at the thought of wasted time and energy because it cannot be wasted and there is no one to waste it and then it makes you laugh again because what began as funny is not funny because it’s so obvious and then it becomes funny again for another reason-that’s the punch line and you’ll have to wait for your own to have the best laugh.

There has been a lot of beautifual exchange. There has been honest sharing and there has been evidence of people making shifts in the way they see themselves or the world. We have been shocked, shaken and rattled and that will always be an ingredient. There are very few things we can be sure of. Any moment a shock will come. Any moment death will come. That is the warrior’s understanding: that death is always stalking us. If you like, it is comlpetely acceptable to be in this world and in this work so that you can work towards a perfect death or at least be prepared for a perfect death. So there is no fear at what might be the most wonderful experience.

Even that becomes an analogy. The only thing we can be sure of is death and even that becomes an analogy. More cosmic joke perhaps. In many of the systems this is expressed as die now and the battle is over. So there is the aspect of physical death, and the apsect of the death of the ego. The death of the ego, completely, implies considerable insight, wisdom, surrender. There are other characteristics, but essentially they are these. When you have seen enough of the real view, when your real wisdom mind is awakened enough and when there is surrender, the ego will die. But it will struggle and this struggle causes us more suffering and pain as we try to hold on to that which has no real substance.

and so it is with death of the body. When the moment comes, if there is struggle, attachement, ideas of things undone, not said, not recoverd and so on, then there is pain. Death can be very peaceful, it can also be very painful non physically.

Here is a beautiful expression by Dudjom Rinpoche:

"Like eagles soaring into space, we should be clearly convinced of the view, but at the same time we should heed the karmic principle of cause and effect...If you gain control over your mind, then even if you are at the point of death, you will understand that it is only because of a particular thought that there is an impression of dying - and that the nature of the mind is utterly beyond both birth and death. It would be excellent if you could gain this confidence. So keep this little, essential instruction in your heart. Conviction and confidence in this is what we call the Dharma."

This is one of the clearest and finest expressions I have found on the matter of life, death, mind and being. It is so simple. it explains the dharma in a paragraph. What is the dharma? Depending on who you ask and in what circumstances there will be different examples. Countless expressions. And these expressions will also depend upon your capacity to understand.

When I talk about the clear mind space this is not something you can imagine. Some of you have had the transmission directly. More accurate I feel would be to say that the transmission has always been there, all that an intermediate teacher can do is direct you to the transmission. To set up the circumstances where the transmisison can be received. It takes but a moment but setting up the conditons might take years.

This is really how Zen masters work and that is why there appears to be such bizzare variety of catalysts for enlightnement. It depends on the capacity of the individual. But we should also recognise that the indivdual is a concept and if we can at the same time work on breaking down that concept, the potential for the enlightening ctalayst to function becomes greater.

Simplicity is a good companion. The clear mind state, enlightenment, whatever it is, let’s settle for now on the sun in the sky. It is always there, always has been. Entombed in the ego, we do not see it. Enjoy your day.