Opportunity From Disaster – Learning Opportunity Three: What is My World View?

Do you view suffering as random? Do you view it as punishment for sinners? Do you view it as Divine Intervention in human affairs? Do you feel that events have meaning? If so, what is the meaning? If you feel that they have no meaning, examine that as a world view. In other words, do not assume that events have no meaning beyond what you can see, and you can see none. Assume that your understanding that events have no meaning is not necessarily the case. It is your world view. Then ask yourself if you are comfortable with that world view.

However you interpret the events that you encounter, look at your interpretation of events as your way of understanding phenomena that are larger than you can comprehend. That is your world view. Allow your experiences of suffering, your own and other’s, to illuminate for you the world view that you hold and, whatever it is, consider the possibility that your world view is not necessarily the way the world is. Therefore, you can choose the world view that is most comfortable to you, and the most healthy that you can imagine, and experiment with it.

ADDED NOTE: This OPPORTUNITY is not only to identify your world view, but also to examine the impact it has on you once you find it. Your world view is not what you think about the world, but what you really feel about the world. It is not as easily changeable as a thought. Does the way you see the world make you feel relaxed, expanded, safe, valuable, supported, or loved? Does it make you feel tense, constricted, in danger, insignificant, alone, or unloved? Does it give you hope or put you into despair once you really see it clearly? Does it make you feel safe exploring your life or frightened to explore your life? Does it nurture your unlimited creativity or force it into certain channels? These questions have no right or wrong answers, but each answer can help you see if your world view is the one you want to keep - even if you are convinced it is obviously “true” and all other world views are imaginary (each world view appears that way to the person who holds it). If you are frightened to think about seeing the world differently, that is part of your world view, too. Experiment with beginning to see the world differently, if you chose, by opening to the possibility that your view of it is only that – your view – and you are the one who chooses it.

Opportunity from Disaster - Learning Opportunity Two: Do I React or Respond?

How much do you allow yourself to experience your emotions? How much do you allow yourself to truly experience your pain when you see the pain, anguish, agony, and the suffering of others, or you are enveloped in pain, anguish, or agony yourself?

To the extent that you can experience your emotions fully, you can respond to what you feel (make a conscious and, hopefully, wise choice). To the extent that you cannot, you react (do what you habitually do). Television gives you an opportunity to see great suffering every day. Can you feel what is happening inside of your body when you see neighbors killing neighbors, parents and grandparents searching desperately for missing children, when you see mothers and fathers looking for each other, when you see old and young people dying, when you see tens of thousands who have lost everything they have worked for all their lives?

Do you mask what you feel by going to the refrigerator, lighting a cigarette, or having a drink?

Do you indulge what you feel by lashing out in anger, judgment, or criticism, or spiraling down into depression? Or do you allow yourself to feel the depth of the pain in you – to actually feel the physical sensations in your body? Especially notice what you feel in your chest, stomach, and throat/shoulder/jaw areas when you are suffering or you see the suffering of anyone. Put your attention into these areas and see what physical sensations you find there. Take note of them.

Learn to experience your emotions in terms of the physical sensations in these areas (tightness, aching, throbbing, stabbing, etc.) because painful sensations there tell you that you are frightened, and that is a good time to pay special attention to what you do and say so that you will not do or say things you will regret later, or that will not help you or support others. In other words, you can make a choice from a healthier part of your personality, even while you are frightened.

Every emotion has physical sensations. Practice detecting them and while you feel them, even if they are painful (and you want to blame someone for what you feel), decide if there is a healthy response that you can substitute for your habitual (and destructive) reaction. A response that will be constructive for you and others.

The Great Pennies, Nickels & Dimes Campaign Revisited; Metta Jar

Earlier this year A Circle of Friends introduced "The Great Pennies, Nickels & Dimes Campaign; Small Change Can Make a Big Difference for Those in Need!" See the flyer Susan created for this fundraiser below.

The campaign was a great success, allowing us to collect over $700 and help Mike's parents visit him when he was so very ill. The good news is that Mike is well now and doing good works everywhere!

A Circle of Friends now has a new way of fundraising that will include what we refer to as the "Metta Jar." The Metta Jar will allow us to collect spare change here and there so that we can help those in need in our own group as the occasions arise, and they do arise now and then. This will help us to meet group needs without breaking the bank at inopportune times financially for group members.

Be sure to seek out Richard, who will be maintaining the Metta Jar during our meditation sits. Remember, pennies count, and your small change makes a big difference for those in need!

Click here for a larger, more readable view of the flyer!

Opportunity From Disaster – Learning Opportunity One: What Can I Learn About Myself?

Are you a participant or or a spectator in your life? Do you watch the events of your life unfold as though on a movie screen, not affecting you, or do you use those events to learn about yourself?

The first OPPORTUNITY that every painful experience offers, even if it is a painful experience that others are suffering, is to ask yourself, “What can I learn about myself from this experience?” Not what the people who are suffering can learn, not what friends can learn, not what you can learn about others, but what you can learn about yourself. For example, do you feel overwhelmed? Do you feel there is nothing you can do? If so, are you paying attention to that feeling? Those experiences are experiences that you can challenge and change because they are expressions of frightened parts of your personality, not “who you are.”

If you watch a disaster on television, such as a flood, hurricane, or tsunami and decide to contribute to the relief effort, why are you giving? Do you look at your intentions? Are you giving because of guilt? Because you have so much and now so many have nothing? Because you think others expect you to give? Or because you expect yourself to give in these types of situations, that your self-image requires giving? Are you giving because you want to help with no second agendas? Look at your intentions and learn about yourself from them, not to judge yourself but to learn about yourself so that you can free yourself wherever you see yourself controlled by fear.

Free Online Course from GARY ZUKAV: Welcome to Opportunity from Disaster: 13 Ways to Grow Spiritually

Welcome to A Circle of Friends participation in Gary Zukav's free online course, Opportunity from Disaster: 13 Ways to Grow Spiritually.

Each week a new posting and lesson opportunity will be presented. Please check back weekly to participate. We will also open the floor for discussing our experiences during our meditation discussions. We hope you enjoy this opportunity to grow spiritually!

-COF Administration

INTRODUCTION

Every unexpected sorrow and pain – the death of a child or parent, a divorce or the dissolution of a relationship, the failure of a business, an accident or an illness – is an OPPORTUNITY to grow spiritually. Even when a painful event happens to others, you can use your experiences of it to observe and learn about yourself. Hundreds of millions of people around the world watched in horror as the Twin Towers in New York City collapsed with thousands of people in them, and then suffered again and again as replays were aired of jetliners carrying parents and children, business people, and tourists exploding into flames. All of these viewers as well as tens of thousands of people on the New York streets that day were given the opportunity to learn about themselves and change themselves constructively.

This free on-line course gives you the tools to use all of your experiences to grow spiritually and gives you practice in using them. Every painful event provides OPPORTUNITIES to learn from your experiences or to react to them – to create as you have in the past or to create differently – and your experiences continue from your birth until your death. All of them are OPPORTUNITIES for you to learn about YOURSELF, about your fear and about your love. Even as you watch the painful experiences of others you are given opportunities to watch yourself as well, to observe and learn about yourself and change yourself.

All of your experiences give you OPPORTUNITIES to discover how you are creating and how you can create differently if you choose. Every adversity offers this OPPORTUNITY – to lapse into victim or become a creator. The potential to shift from victim to creator is very great when we hurt as much as we do in times of sorrow, loss, and despair – a treasure offered to those who are willing to work for it.

We are offering this FREE on-line course to help you learn about yourself from your painful experiences no matter what they are or how you encounter them. You can begin it anytime (now is a good time). Whenever you decide to begin learning about yourself in order to change yourself – and sooner or later you will begin – you will always be able to learn more about yourself, challenge more of your fears, and give expression to more of your love.

Wayne Dyer - Quote for the Day

How Brains Meditate: Neuroscience Meets Contemplative Spirituality; Wednesday, July 8 - FREE

How Brains Meditate:

Neuroscience Meets Contemplative Spirituality
Peter Grossenbacher, Ph.D.; 7:00 PM Wednesday, July 8;
12South Dharma Center, 2301 12th Avenue So. Suite 202

How do the capacities of the human brain enable people to meditate? What lasting effects does meditation have on the brain? How do these anatomical and physiological changes impact the lives of meditators? Recent scientific investigation has begun to discover helpful answers to these compelling questions.

This talk presents exciting findings from recent studies of brain function and meditation, and offers a simple framework for understanding human nature revealed by these studies. Guided meditation will be offered to connect this emerging understanding with actual lived experience.

Dr. Grossenbacher is an international speaker on meditation and the brain, whose own research has been covered in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine and Discover Magazine. Associate Professor in the Contemplative Psychology Department at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, he teaches psychological courses on perception, cognition, statistics and research. Peter regularly provides meditation instruction, and also directs a program of research on meditation and contemplative spirituality.

Questions? Call Paul Felton at 969-6358