Waking Up to Now.... day 2

the full series will be at, PoemsFromNow.com

Today's a day to smile

It's good for us.
We know it.
People around us know it.

So: when to smile.
When you see another person.
When you see a cloud, or a leaves or the sky.

That's one game to play today:
See people, see reflected light: smile.

Another is this:
Sit quietly and sense your entire right leg, from toes,
all the toes
to the hip joint
Eyes closed
Then, keep the leg in awareness and start with your right fingers
and move up through your right arm to the right
shoulder socket.

Enjoy the whole right arm and the whole left leg

Breathe

Add on sounds.
Add on awareness of breathing , your breathing as you hear sounds.

Open your eyes.

Now the main game of the day:
Sense your right arm and right leg all day,
as much and
as fully as you can.

Talking
walking
reading this
sending emails
doing the text/ phone thing
driving
eating

right arm
right leg

they aren't going any where

where is your attention?

bring it on home, for the fun
and grounding
and freeing of it



This will be lopsided, yes,
and being mindless is
more lopsided, don't you think.


You can smile and eat light while you do
this,
if you wish.

Bench again, Working and Waking

I made a couple of benches
a while ago,
one was good,
one got torn
down,
all that's left is
the pictures

(For these pics,
see blog entry: Fun and Unimportant,
which actually
wasn't "true".
Anything done with love
and attention
is "important.")

One bench is for an amazing man,
amazing musician,
Sukhawat,
and as Sukhawat is back in
town
yesterday was the day
to finish the one above.

Working for its own sake
is great
and
working as a practice in
waking is
really sweet.

So much of the "spiritual" life
is avoiding of work, and "the world,"
and all that,
meanwhile, often rushing off to "spiritual" places
in a car,
and then
rushing away to go back to sleep
in the ongoing rush.

Is that true?

Who knows?

Sometimes.

Anyway
sweet reunion yesterday
with a fellow who loves/ enjoys/ follows
the Gurdjieff work
where I first learned
of ongoing physical work,
like gardening, carpentry, painting
as the real meditation.

Met people who were cab drivers,
carpenters, painters, gardeners,
computer programmers, writers, nurses,
all sort of things
and the practice was:
go to work
be in the world
and keep huge amounts of attention
on arms and legs, sensing,
ears, hearing,
eyes, noticing reflected light.

Ah, this is still a sweet,
sweet practice:
this "doing" not in the do-do head
way of conditioned life,
but "doing" as a chance to develop
"being"
while out and about in the "world."

Love


A ways back
and good
luck
with any efforts you might
enjoy in this direction:

Chris

Other People's "Concern"

sometimes,
in the doldrums,
we really like
other people's
"concern"

especially of the sort:
"How are you doing?"

And you answer.
And they listen.

And don't "help."
And don't tell you "it will get better."
And don't argue you out of how
you feel.

Often,
though:
other people's concern
is an excuse to dive deeper
into "Feeling Bad,"
and their agreement to listen
seems to warrant our feeling badly,
and we end up feeling worse,
after their concern.

Gurdjieff, with a penchant for rather
severe automobile accidents,
used to forbid people to visit him
in his sick room
(he wasn't fond of hospitals).

He discovered their "sympathy"
and "worry" and "concern"
made it harder for him to heal.


Think of it this way:
Enlightenment is Loving what is,
and when we are healing,
we can be loving that healing.

The temptation to fall back into self pity
is great,
and other people often push that way.

So:
Marlie and I,
can be cruising along just fine,
enjoying the undoing,
and then other people
think it's a big tragedy,
and I go back that mode:
ohmygod, I'm/ we're doing something
wrong.

Here I need, help, and it’s right here, with
The good old question:
Is it true?
that
"I'm/ we're doing something wrong?"

Don’t think so.
Others might disagree.
Their business, their sweet, their own, business.

good

Liking what "it" doesn't like

Gurdjieff has this very fine
idea
(actually quite a few,
but one good idea can
change
a life,
and this is one of those,
"can change a life"
ideas)

Here it is:
" Like what it doesn't like."

What's "it"?

Our conditioned,
robot,
habitual response,

usual instant but
not intuitively instant,
rather reactive and low level
and over and over and over
and over and over and over
again
instant

That's all.


Went to SonoMa Ashram today
for a long "Puja,"
special fall program:
long,
long,
lots of chanting we do,
lots of praying Babaji does
on and on

My "it" thought of
church boredom
when young,

my "it" body didn't want
to be trapped

my,
this is new, interesting,
what a big and amazing world
me
loved it,
and loved saying, "there, there,
little fellow,"
to my
"it."


...
Who is Gurdjieff?
Awakened rascal,
lived a while back:
2 books fun:
Boyhood with Gurdjieff, by Fritz Peters
and
Meetings with Remarkable Men, by G.I. Gurdjieff

---

Today at 108 days:Undoing with Love
...
I don't know yet.
Check in later.

Okay: here's a related one
to the
"troubles" as my sister thinks,
"endings are bad"

and the "opening"
as I realize,
when living clear and without the story:

My Mom Should be Nicer: Is that True?

what is gurdjieff meditation, fast funky version

like this
get up in morning
sit at edge of bed
sense right toes, right foot, right heel, etc up to right hip
keep whole right leg in sensing awareness
add on right arm, like this:
start with fingertips, and up to shoulder, each part of arm (and leg earlier, bones, muscles, blood, whole thing)
keep both in awareness
add
on left arm, shoulder to fingertips
now we are three
add on
left leg, hip to toes
sense all four limbs, as long as want
add on outer world
first:
sounds coming in ears,
plus four limbs in awareness
second:
light coming in eyes
(good idea to open eyes to do this)

get up
go about day keeping four limbs
sound
light coming in eyes
in "continuous" awareness

very sparky
and amazing
and hard
and good for doing with anything

Night Writing

'tis late
i've reviewed the learnings of today
and now
"something to say
worth saying"

ordered some books on
the Gudjieff work
from Amazon,
ashamed to admit,
but got the idea
reading Gurdjieff legacy,
which i first saw at Reader's Books,
and is published by
Arete Publications

One book
Eating the i
is about William Paterson's
coming of age
as a Gurdjieff teacher,
wrestling with all the i's
in his very human
and very earnest personality

learning to "remember himself,"
the enormity of that task

just started
good

don't know if he
let's on
what a thrilling
adventure
this is
without which
life
is but a pale
relfection

but i
bet he does

and Gurjieff's message:
humanity is asleep
in it's day to day living,
we all are,
and if we don't wake up:
disaster coming

la
la

what to do?

read more
self remember
do the The Work of Byron Katie
learn amazing ways of transforming
and learning such as The Anat Baniel Method
connect to nature
follow our breathing
strive to continuously meditate
wake up to now
learn how to love
plant a garden
follow our breathing when reading and writing and
talking and listening

and eating

love
chris

Remembering Ourselves

to be now
and know
we are
right now

this can be called:
Remembering Ourselves

it can be called
Being Awake

it can be called
Being Present

it can be called
Being Mindful

where Mind is not just
in the head
but heart
and body
and spirit

how to be
now

perhaps the most
important
question in life

or at least one of big
three:

how to be now
how to love and take care of each other
how to love and take care of the Earth

(this site, once a day,
the other two,
once a week,
and today's the day,
to add something to each
wakeup-feldenkrais.blogspot.com
and
http://taichiyoghealthweightloss.blogspot.com/

it may take a while
but something will be
there
today

and what was this all
about:
oh yeah:
remembering ourselves

easy to forget
fun to remember

a sweet
and always
available game