Venture Fourth Weekly Work
Week Twenty-Three June 15, 2010

Dear Venturers,

I hope this finds all well. You have had perhaps a slower month (based on your journals) and now it's time to pick up energy again as we approach Intensive 4. I hope you have all obtained and begun reading Donald Rothberg's The Engaged Spiritual Life. I assume all are meditating and working with supports to practice and your short list of qualities. Today I want to give more precise detail about the upcoming intensive, and the preparation I'd like you to do.

I leave Friday to lead a weeklong retreat and will not have email again until June 27. If questions about this email, try to send them tomorrow (Wednesday).

First, assignments.

1) The above book: I want you to read chapters one through three carefully. It's fine to read the whole book but it's okay if you only get to page 90. We have plenty of time for the rest of the book later on. Read those first chapters carefully and practice with the exercises.

We have six weeks until the intensive. I want you to take one precept a week, such as non-harm, and look at that precept in relationship to your short list of qualities, the specific ones with which you have been working. For example, a number of you are working with humility; how does it connect with the precept for not killing and for non-harm? Another one many of you are working with is patience. How does that relate to the precept to non-harm. Does deep attention to the precept help you to stay more centered with the quality? Learn how they go together. Responsibility; kindness; gratitude; karuna. . . . whatever several qualities are your own special focus.

How does deep attention to not taking what is not freely given support your investigation of your special qualities? As personal example, humility is one of the present qualities I'm working with. I was just at a large family wedding, a three day affair, lots of talk with folks I have not seen for years. I watched the swing, talking too much or too little, shifting from pride to some slight edge of "no one will want to hear that. . . ." I watched this swing with the precepts of non-harm, not taking what is not mine, and right speech. It made me much more aware of the habits I carry, of the swing out of center, and I was able to share in comfortable and appropriate ways and with ease and joy.

Five weeks: five precepts. Work with his exercises. We'll spend time talking about this at the intensive. When I meet with you in early July, I want to focus part of our meeting on what you are doing with this. Please include in your journals too, those who are still writing them.

2) Satyagraha. We will also talk about this at the intensive. Optional book: Gandhi: Non-Violent Resistance, Dover publications, Mineola, NY, 2001, or the original published in 1961. Amazon has it new, in stock for $10.17 and has used copies from $5.75.

http://www.amazon.com/Non-Violent-Resistance-Satyagraha-M-Gandhi/dp/0486416062/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276652702&sr=8-6

Here are some articles from the web on satyagraha. I collected these while at my cabin, dial up connection, so did not look extensively. You can google Gandhi+Satyagraha and find many more. Please DO read the articles or others of your choice for background. If you find an outstanding site, please share it.

Gandhi on satyagraha (there's much more on the site)

http://www.gandhi-king-season.net/g-satyag.htm

• Satyagraha is a relentless search for truth and a determination to search truth.

• Satyagraha is an attribute of the spirit within.

• Satyagraha has been designed as an effective substitute for violence.

• Satyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it covers all the elements of the society and makes itself irresistible.

• The fight of Satyagraha is for the strong in spirit, not the doubter or the timid. Satyagraha teaches us the art of living as well as dying.

• Satyagraha, of which civil-resistance is but a part, is to me the universal law of life.

• Satyagraha can rid society of all evils, political, economic, and moral.

• A genuine Satyagraha should never excite contempt in the opponent even when it fails to command regard or respect.

• Satyagraha thrives on repression till at last the repressor is tired and the object of Satyagraha is gained.

• Satyagraha does not depend on the outside [for] help; it derives all its strength from within.

• The method of Satyagraha requires that the Satyagrahi should never lose hope, so long as there is the slightest ground left for it.

• In the dictionary of Satyagraha, there is no enemy. Since Satyagraha is a method of conversion and conviction, it seeks never to use the slightest coercion.

• For a Satyagraha brigade, only those are eligible who believe in ahimsa--nonviolence and satya--truth.

• A Satyagrahi has infinite patience, abundant faith in others, and ample hope.

• A Satyagrahi cannot go to law for a personal wrong.

• In the code of the Satyagrahi, there is no such thing as surrender to brute force.

Also see:

http://www.quietspaces.com/satyagraha.html

How does the principle of Satyagraha inform your speech, actions and thoughts in the world? How does it connect to the work above? See more below.

3) meditation: If you are not sitting regularly , now would be a good time to get back to it. Please establish some balance that works for you, of vipassana and Pure awareness practice. Also please continue to work with chakras, crystals, with your guides, with the elements. . . . I do NOT expect everyone to do everything (I do expect regular vipassana practice though) . See what supports you. Part of this process is to learn what supports you best in different situations. For example, probably 50 years ago, I found myself at a lunch counter in a small southern town where the proprietor had taken our orders for coke, served it into glasses (as I relaxed and thought, "Boy, that was easy") walked toward us with the cokes, and dumped coke over my head and that of the person sitting beside me. Then the police entered and dragged me out. How does one stay centered? That day I worked with the elements, literally using that icy drink over my head as a cooling experience to balance anger and the fire energy.

Another example, one you have heard from me, is the man at a weekly peace demonstration who kept pushing me over onto the ground and kicking me, week after week. How does one not move into hatred, anger and fear? What supports compassionate response? Or use a much simpler example: your toddler is having a meltdown, or your spouse is yelling. What supports clear response?

4) journal writing is optional but recommended, even if short, if you can manage it.

Next, plans for the intensive: I'm happy about the way it is unfolding.

On Wednesday night we'll meditate, then gather in a circle and share what's been happening.

On Thursday, we have a treat. A local woman named Laurie Akerros will join us for the day, to share her work in Esoteric Energy Healing. Please see the link to an article about her work. Open the link and go to page 24-25. I think you'll really enjoy her, and the energy practices she will teach us and do with us. This is just one more tool for your "toolbox" as we find ways to remain centered and clear in body, emotions and mind, and to ground in that clarity as we work in the world.

http://en.calameo.com/read/000084129f21e86efae7a

In Thursday night Aaron will talk more about working with the elements. Then we'll move into silence, as we did last intensive, through Friday morning. I hope that Friday will be a beautiful day and allow you ways to meditate and especially to do practice with the elements in and on the lake. There will be some short instruction periods Friday, but mostly silence and no casual conversation.

Saturday we'll change tracks (or if weather is terrible on Friday we'll switch the two days and hope for nice weather Saturday for the element work). Here we get to the reading and preparation I've asked you to do on Rothberg's book and on Satyagraha. As we prepare ourselves to do service in the world – whether it's the service of cooking meals for our families or work in a soup kitchen, keeping peace in our relationships or being active in support of world peace ­– the precepts and Satyagraha are guiding principles. We have a lot more confidence in our ability to stay centered when we understand how to literally rest in the precepts and to use "soul force" (which is a translation of "satyagraha" from a place of emptiness. We'll spend one day of the intensive talking about these things in depth. I'll also share from some of my experiences in peace work and in the south, what I learned and the mistakes I made too.