Stillness, Silence, Centering
Set aside life. Follow the breath into stillness— silence centering. The rest are thoughts. Come back to the breath Be
Inner Work
The Truth Of My Life
What is the Truth of My Life? This comes at the end of a prayer that I composed. The prayer became part of my practice before sitting down to work on my memoir, Real People. Now I say it before I sit down to write this blog each week. There is something that happens with … Read more
Heanen and Air
Are heaven and air connected? Where does our spiritual body go upon death? I’m beginning to wonder. This enquiry is stemming, once again, from my Lenten practice of doing the rosary. Years ago, I found myself gazing up into the sky while contemplating “longing desire for heaven.” This was my inner meditation while thinking about … Read more
Grace
What is Grace? Does it flow to me, and does it flow from me? I’m familiar with rare moments of grace touching me. Sometimes this happens unbidden, after some kind of inner work. Other times it comes as answer to a prayer, a heart-felt petition, or an un-named ache. But this morning, I wondered if … Read more
What Do I Bring?
What do I bring to the edifice of the Work? I hadn’t thought of it like this when I committed to helping with Claymont’s upcoming Three-Month Course of Study. But this is the image Madam de Salzmann offers in The Reality of Being when she talks about group work. “I am responsible for the stone … Read more
The Practice of Blending
The practice of blending is an important aspect of the Gurdjieff work. It has taken me a long time to appreciate its value. Initially, blending was an instruction that I understood conceptually, but not in practice. For instance, I understood the directive to blend emotional feeling into the sensation of an arm or leg. But … Read more
I Teach How to Cook
I Teach How to Cook, Not What to Cook, by Ben Bennett I am very grateful to Ben Bennett, for writing a thorough and balanced overview of his father’s long search for transformation. Beginning with J.G. Bennett’s extraordinary out of body experience during World War I, Ben tells a complete tale of his father’s spiritual … Read more
How I Am
I keep bumping up against how I’d like to be and how I am. Recently, I wrote about my experience of “passing through” into a moment of connection, and about a dream showing me how my attitude creates my world. Alongside these wonderful insights of how I could be, I’m aware of how the smallest … Read more
Letting Go
I’m thinking about letting go for Lent. Yes, I’ll give up my usual things like coffee, sweets, alcohol, but I’m trying to taste something different. I received a clue from a dream the other night. I was in a familiar setting, alone in my Respiratory department at the hospital. It was a quiet day, peaceful. … Read more
Passing Through
They weren’t just passing through. One of the kids who had grown up at Claymont, an intentional Work community, had brought a couple of friends for the weekend. They’d traveled to tend young trees along Bullskin Run which traverses the front field of Claymont’s property. Around four hundred saplings were planted a few years ago … Read more