Purgatory Camp Caravan Royalston MA
08.25
Purgatory,
Camp Caravan, Royalston, MA.
Rising at 05.15.
Morning Sitting at 06.30.
Now cooler, a breeze even. Hooray!
18.17 A morning of personal meetings.
Lunch at 13.00 followed by a personal meeting.
A walk around the property, which is ideal for practical work I…
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Meditation on Silence at 14.30.
Tea at 16.00
Theme Meeting at 16.30 on the theme of Noticing. Although I made no comments at the meeting, these are my own (very basic) notes…
Noticing.
The most powerful kind of noticing is where something comes to us, from nothing & out of nowhere: it is a creative moment. Although any public speaker aiming at success knows to never use the word hyparxis, nevertheless noticing is an hyparchic event. There is nothing that leads to this moment, of something-seen or speaking-directly to us, in a flash, in an instant. This instantaneous moment, although perhaps a second in clock-time, continues to resonate, perhaps even for the rest of our lives. This is a moment where we are not apart from the subject / object of our noticing. Another way of putting this: noticing is a creative moment. Cf George’s comment when presenting the theme on Monday: there is a kind of noticing when the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Noticing is also an activity & can be described by the tetrad, giving four different qualities of noticing…
Creative
Professional Conscious
Automatic
Automatic noticing: what we notice confirms our existing prejudices & opinions. That is, we notice what we already know and cannot notice anything other than this.
Attracted noticing: We notice what our attention is attracted towards. One example of this is professional noticing. We notice what we already know, but we have an opportunity to engage with it intentionally.
i) We direct our attention to engage with what has been noticed.
ii) We direct our attention to see what is there, in depth & content.
iii) We notice, mark & record our noticing. That is, we establish in our practice a default procedure to make the most of this opportunity.
Conscious noticing. We see a pattern & connections within it; perhaps connections with other patterns. We have a practice that facilitates & supports moments of noticing. Without noticing, there is no self-observation, although noticing goes beyond this.
Creative noticing: we notice what we don’t know. Moments such as this direct the course of our lives.
II
Where our attention is, we notice. Noticing engages the attention. Which comes first?
We notice discontinuities.
So, what do we do when we notice? Good to have a default strategy in place for when we notice: the process is notice, mark & record.
Noticing is a gift. It is impossible to understand this. How, why would a Creative Benevolence without end, without limit, lean over & take us into Its confidence?
If we notice that something is needed, we are halfway committed to do so.
If we are given an insight, shown a necessary piece of work available to us, we are we are called to address it; and halfway committed to doing so. But, although there may be necessity, there is no compulsion.
22.35 E-flurrying & an inbox of UMG Horrors that I shall not plug into now, as there is nothing I can do with any of it until Monday in any case.
BTTHG reading at 18.30.
Dinner at 19.15.
The third RF Talk / Presentation at 20.30. Actually, it was on the board for 20.15 so Elan had to come & get me. I was on my way down, supposedly early. So much for noticing the Notice Board. The Presentation began…
In strange and uncertain times, such as those we are living in, sometimes a reasonable person might despair.
But hope is unreasonable,
and Love is greater even than this.
How is it that the Creative Impulse enters our lives & acts through us?
In the first & second meetings we looked at what we can do to move towards the Creative Impulse: how to be heroes for more than one day, and how to go from good to great.
I approach this with temerity, and this is not something I expected to present here, neither did I anticipate it. Forgive if many of my comments are self-referential, but better to speak from my experiencing.
Then moved to specific personal examples of creative moments, moving from Wimborne to London, King Crimson to Sherborne House, to NYC, to King Crimson, to Guitar Craft; and how creative moments are unlimited by duration. One example of this: the Point Of Seeing at the end of the first Guitar Craft course in March / April 1985 that directly informed the beginning of the Completion Course, The OCG III in March 2010. Rather than providing an ending, the Point Of Seeing began a new process. Something like, the POS reached back 25 years to attract GC towards it. Points Of Seeing are in Creative Time (or in the terminology-that-dare-not-speak-its-name, hyparchic).
II
The tetrad of musicianship; of four different qualities of musicianship.
Four Qualities Of Musicianship.
Genius
Professional Master / Mystery Musician
Happy Gigster
Four centers of gravity.
Four degrees of excellence.
Four qualities of functioning, of feeling, of thinking, of volitional attention.
Four qualities of decision making, of choice, of necessity,
Four qualities of discipline.
Four qualities of suffering.
Four qualities of noticing.
Four capacities of responding to challenge.
Four present moments, each of which are vastly different.
Each have different degrees of reliability, repeatability & response-ability.
The Orchestra.
Composer
Section Leaders / Principals Conductor / Director
Rank & File
As a whole, this describes the degree to which our symphony of parts work together in harmony. Alternatively expressed, the degree to which our personal orchestra acts under one conductor – without rebellion & dissension in the rank & file – in service to the representative of the Creative Impulse.
The musician has three disciplines: of the hands, the head & the heart.
III
The question for the novice, aspiring to become a musician is: How do I get to be a professional?
So how do we move from being novice to professional, and professional to master? We need discipline.
Discipline confers effectuality in time.
Reliability.
Repeatability.
Responsibility.
IV
Acquiring discipline is also a process.
Discipline is also a process: beginning, middle & end. Be very careful about the beginning; then be very careful about the ending. Then, be very careful about the middle.
A beginning is defined by our aim.
The middle is governed by our commitment.
The completion is recognition & acknowledgement of our understanding by those competent to make the judgment.
The overall stages correspond to injunction, application & verification.
V
May also be approached as: our station is determined by the quality, quantity & intensity of the energy supply available to us.
This then becomes a practical concern: we address the energy supply. Finding leaks & wastage; finding efficient techniques for the energy that is naturally available to us; techniques for generating & increasing energy – bought, borrowed, stolen.
Recapitulating topics from the first two presentations: How To Be Heroes & moving from Good To Great. These might both be alternatively rendered: what can we do to move towards the Creative Impulse? Then, referring to the theme of this week – noticing – and the creative element involved, noting from personal meetings that a number of people on the course are in transition & asking in their own way - what is required of me? - this evening’s presentation reverses the directional approach of the other two, and looks at the tetrad in another way: how does the Creative Impulse come to us?
What Am I Going To Do With The Rest Of My Life?
1.
Better not to ask the future to present itself if we’re not prepared to follow where it leads.
2.
This future will have an unexpected quality.
3.
If we impose our wants & hopes on the future, we prevent it from speaking to us.
4.
The creative future accords with common sense; ie it is practical & possible.
5.
It is necessary to know the next step, but not necessary to know the step after that.
6.
The future may already be in front of us, but unrecognized or unacknowledged.
7.
Better to hold the question gently, with eyes open & an available ear, than in desperation; trusting that what is necessary for us is possible & benevolent; and as available to us as we are ourselves available to our creative future.
Two examples of better not to ask the future to present itself if we’re
not prepared to follow where it leads given:
1.
Dear God, I’ll do anything you ask of me provided I don’t have to move to England.
2.
I’ll do anything required of me providing I can live in Bredonborough, Worcestershire, with my Wife and pet rabbit.
There is nothing that we can do.
Nevertheless, we must do what we can.
The nothing-that-we-can-do refers to Creative action. Like the weather, it is beyond our control. But, we may be able to push out the boat & raise the sail. If this is what we can do, this is what we must do.
The presentation continued until c. 21.35, followed by 3 personal meetings.
