Dinner and a Dead Guy #43 ~ November 5, 2006
We held our 43rd Dinner and a Dead Guy on Sunday. In Castaic, CA, myself, Joanne, and Rumi the cat. In Wilmington, DE, Ellen, Jen, Brian, and Cathy. In Toronto, Mark, Serge, Myrna, John, Joshua, and Jason. Rounding out the group was Tom in Oahu, HI, Odette in Quebec, Lisa in Eugene, and Ella-bella in New Jersey.
It was Cathy’s BIG six-oh birthday, so the Delaware group was its usual boisterous Self. We signed on around 4:30 PM Pacific time, and chatted, waiting for Ella, and when she arrived, Kris followed shortly thereafter at 4:50 PM.
Kris said that he would continue in the same vein as the previous three “Who Are You?” group sessions. His larger goal (or agenda) was to offer other perspectives and choices about who and what we really are.
We get our stories from other people who strongly influence us (thinking of the power of parental role in passing on social beliefs or memes to the young, and how long it takes to break out of the gravitational hold of those “stories,” roles, conditioning, etc.) The purpose of these recent sessions is to help us “release” the energetic hold these stories have on us, so we can continue to grow (more unblocking imagery).
The previous three sessions (Who Are You? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) make it clearer what we are and are not, in physical terms, in terms of inherited stories (social roles of son, daughter, brother, sister, grandson, grandaughter, etc.). We can use the dungeon practice from Part 3 to help free ourselves from the belief structures surrounding these stories.
We need to stretch our imaginations to grasp that our “personality structure” extends before birth and after death. Human personality is nested within a larger structure (essence, soul, psyche, etc.). Who and what we are is not limited to the physical perceptions of the focus personality (again I was reminded of Elias’ perception wave, one of the ten founational belief systems the collective is currently exploring en masse.)
We play with choices that can lead, IF WE ALLOW, to a much more exapanded vision of who and what we are in this lifetime. The more we explore, experience, and practice the easier it gets to see new choices in our lives and remember our state of essence (I was also reminded of Elias’ remembrance of essence, a similar definition of enlightenment, and Kris’ Avatar Yoga which is a tool to accomplish this in our lifetime, and also the large amount of material that Elias has given regarding choices (focus) and agreements (essence)),).
It sounds simple, and it is! But we make it difficult because we create conflict and opposition instead of allowance.
(I’m reminded of Elias’ effortlessness, and I note the similarity of these themes between both Kris and Elias. We can also throw in Seth’s magical approach and Kris’ recent Internet radio riff on The Magical Power of Choice. Same thing, and when seen through integral “eyes” – the eyes of flesh, mind, and spirit – we realize that there’s a spectrum of this magic that ranges from acorn to saplng to tree. All are magical, but the more mature forms move toward the transegoic, transpersonal, transrational side of perception, the less mature are pregoic, prepersonal, prerational).
The remembrance of essence occurs through allowance (effortlessness, magical approach). As we become more practiced in the art, our perspectives change and become less prone to kneejerk responses (thinking of Elias automatic responses, something at the heart of his info on choices/agreements.) We begin to act more consciously, with greater awareness, purpose (intent), and conscientiousness, which is ALL a natural expression of the remembrance of essence (enlightenment, again, it’s the year of “enlightenment through compassion” in the Kris Chronicles. So Kris has been riffing on this, and related themes all year).
When opposition (conflict) is neutralized we have allowance (effortlessness). It’s a meta-practice, and we can become aware of the choices we made before birth (but this takes practice, and we would get one shortly). We can look at our actions and backtrack to understand the many choices we’ve made in our lives, and further, become aware of the opposition we have set up (this where AAA/NIRAA come into play as a DAILY practice, because this opposition is deeply ingrained in our subconscious minds so as to be mostly invisible in our conscious minds!).
Through noticing we can become aware of the many choices AS WE MAKE THEM during each day. This is a type of contemplative awareness to help bring “kneejerk psychological defense mechanisms” (i.e., invisible beliefs, automatic responses) into our conscious awareness. (I also thought of Buddhist vippasana or insight meditation practices geared to enhanced simple awareness, is-ness, be-ing so as to see more deeply into our subconsciously held core beliefs.)
BREAK at 5:16 PM.
RESUME at 5:30 PM
We were made ready for yet another Practice and Adventure. Kris instructed us to sit upright in a comfortable posture with hands resting on our laps. This was funny because Joanne had melted into the LoveSac with Rumi, and had to get up!
Kris led us through “The Cinema of the Mind,” a tool to help us become aware of the many choices we have made (and like all tricky teachers, his defintion of “we” or “I” includes the essence perspective, so it’s quite BIG!). Kris guided us back to before we were born, and brought us forward bit by bit. I enjoyed seeing my parents and grandparents as youngsters, growing up to be come adult and having their own children. Though I can’t say I had any big epiphany of remembering WHY I choose these parents and grandparents, which Seth, Elias, and Kris are very clear and consistent that “we” do just that. So this Practice and Adventure is another tool to engage the remembrance, another module in the arsenal of Avatar Yoga practices that Kris has been presenting all year.
I spent much of my time coaching the young Paul to have confidence, don’t accept any adult answers as absolute truths, work hard, and go the extra mile in the various childhood scenarios that arose in my awareness during the movie part of the practice.
BREAK at 5:52 PM. (Discussion of what people experienced.)
RESUME at 6:00 PM.
Ella had wondered why she didn’t have any major AHA! and Kris came through saying there is no need to second guess our experiences, there is no single right or wrong way to do these, they take time and practice, and we each are so unique that there are many factors in what we may or may not experience (I realized that this is still a group situation, and my own defenses are still held quite strongly. I usually get deeper results during my private meditations.)
Kris said the point is to develop an awareness of our capacity to choose.
(I came up with a simple equation to express the three basic elements of this session and practice.)
OPPOSITION <==> ALLOWANCE
[CHOICES]
The more cognizant we become, the more we remember, the more power we have to create (more perception wave imagery, this deals with the mechanics of perception, which by Elias’ definition is HOW we create our realities). It CAN be this simple!
Ella asked a question about her perception that some people read Seth, Elias, Kris, etc. for years and still have some many challenges, and yet there are those who don’t avail themselves of this information and seem to manifest everything they need. To which Kris responded that some people use conscious creation material to further deny, repress, marginalize (and generally stay arrested I would add) and never get anywhere, because the DON’T DO the work required.
(I also wondered about those people in Ella’s perception who seem to have it all figured out, because in my perception they don’t, and are likely quite unaware of who and what they really are in the terms that Seth, Elias, Kris, and Wilber talk about. Still they may be quite content in their relationships, finances, families, etc. These are important translative elements and are not to be marginalized.)
This game of remembrance requires persistence, some more than others, as we are each so unique. But just doing one or two exercises and expecting a magic bullet is a mistaken notion.
(We NEED some kind of personal practice, something we do every day to some degree, whenever possible. Atheletes don’t perform at peak levels without any training and workouts. They work for years to attain the heights we see, the same is true with piercing the veils of the subconscious mind, bring those invisible belief into awareness and addressing to them, eventually accepting and neutralzing their effect. But this isn’t a one shot deal, you’ve AAAed and that’s all, because we create in the moment, and life conditions are always changing, evolving, regressing, arresting, and transforming. No rest for the weary, sorry! So we must make our practice to include AAAing every day. This is a type of introspection and contemplation, so it doesn’t need to be done more than 5-15 minutes a day, but doing it daily keeps the wheels well oiled, and doors open between conscious and subconscious Aspects as the wheel of samsara spins on).
Kris also coached us to “let go of our perceived failures.” ALLOW, move on, choose something different. (It’s that simple in the long run, incredibly simple.)
Kris closed with challenging us to play with allowing and soar like an eagle, spread those wings and FLY!!
Kris leaves the building at 6:17 PM.
The Delaware group, which had been sipping Tequila this evening (or so they claim ;-), broke out in a chorus of Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle”. Then we all sang Cathy a Happy Birthday, and imagined what her cake tasted like! We chatted a bit, and wished one and all a lovely good evening!
On the Castaic end, we had cheese, crackers, honey mustard and Merlot for hors d’oeuvres. For dinner Jo cooked a potroast, German noodles called spaetzle, creamed spinach, and mushroom gravy. She couldn’t finish her plate, but I devoured mine, and washed it down with a glass of Roibos Iced Tea (red tea). I helped Jo with the dishes, and settled down to watch the rest of the football game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts (and saw what had to be one of the greatest touchdown catches I’ve ever witnessed by Marvin Harrison in the 3rd quarter, a virtuostic feat by a kinesthetic genius).