Dinner and a Dead Guy #45 ~ December 3, 2006
We held our 45th Dinner and a Dead Guy last evening. In Castaic, CA, myself, Joanne, and Rumi the cat. In Wilmington, DE, Ellen, Brian, and Jen. In Toronto, Mark, Serge, Myrna, John, Sylvi, and Joshua. Rounding out the group was Tom in Oahu, HI, Anya in Salt Lake City, UT, Emmy in Spain, and Jim, and Mavis in Calgary. A BIG group!
The session began at 4:47 PM. and Kris opened with some thoughts on allowance, the idea that leaps in awareness and consciousness occur when we simply allow, or get out of our own way.
Kris briefly referred to the Who Are You? sessions and the backpack practice from the very first one, and then opened the floor to questions. This was somewhat unusual as Kris has pretty much used the first segment of the session to deliver material for a long time. But similar to the Elias forum, in time, once the source gives enough material they eventually start to let the group ask questions, even putting people on the spot, to see where they’re at.
Rather than detail the blow by blow, we’ll save that for the transcript, and add some summary thoughts and impressions.
Brian asked about the hypnogoigc state, that state just before we fall into a theta or beta sleep where the outer ego greatly loosens to all sorts of imagery and feeling tones. Interestingly, Kris referred to this as a Bardo, or in-between, state. And suddenly that made great sense to me. I have gotten much better at being able to return from this Bardo with a snapshot of the imagery, and more often than not, it’s surprisingly mundane (of late) and abstract, but dives right into my Dreamer Aspects. So I have been getting a lot of more narrative dream snippets when I rise back into a waking state (usually due to a noise or some similar disturbance, but again, my “dream camera” is taking more snapshots that are getting translated into outer ego memories).
Kris also mentioned that this Bardo, once stabilized (an that’s the rub!) can be used as a launching pad. So early the next morning, after I woke up to pee around 3:30 AM, I did a mantra practice (“now I’m out of body”) to try and catch mySelf falling asleep. The mantra simply focuses awareness in the present as the body/mind drifts back into sleep. I had three short snippets where I entered the dream state awake, a lucid dream, and tried to focus on the environment. But in each case, it only lasted for several seconds, I couldn’t hold it and fell asleep. Still, I reinforced what Kris said and that Bardo is what you pop out of and into a dreamscape, and if you can maintain awareness, you feel the body dissolve, or else suddenly become aware as attention shifts into the first dream body (thinking of Seth’s three astral forms. But this isn’t a projection form, it’s a dream form, and they’re different).
Joshua asked about spontaneous remission cases as examples of human potentials and Kris’ answer shed some light. He said that at this “stage of development” our belief systems don’t support this en masse. Obviously, some individual cases are reported and treated as miracles (religious belief systems) or anomalies (scientific belief systems). But I was mused on how many folks I’ve seen come into our conscious creation email lists and look for a quick-fix to problems they may have spent years manifesting, all the time not yet understanding how they created their dis-ease in the first place (and I’m not suggesting this was Johsua’s situation, he didn’t really speak enough for me to discern what his interest was).
There was a break from 5:21 – 5:32 PM.
Break was quiet, and there were a lot of side bar conversations. So Jo and I just kind of relaxed a bit. We were tired from a long week that saw Jo’s 86 year old mom (Esohna) stay with us, Jo’s 49th birthday, getting the house ready for the holidays, and several trips to the airport on Friday and Saturday dealing with canceled flights home.
Still, Brian’s question made me wonder about the Quadrants in Kris’ cosmology (different from Wilber’s, Kris’ are nested “levels” and Ken’s are horizontal perspectives). I wondered how the “primary focus of attention” within any perspective works in Kris’ Quadrants, and more importantly, how we can learn to access them in waking, dreaming, and altered states. I sketched the following in my notebook:
Essentially, the idea is that in Quadrant 1, or physical reality, the “primary attention” is what we’re familiar with in terms of present evolutionary development. But simultaneously, in the Subtle or Quadrant 2 reality, essence (inner self, soul, psyche, oversoul, entity, etc.) is the “primary attention,” so it transcends yet includes all Quadrant 1s (assuming a massively parallel series of Q1s) into its “native focus of attention.”
So relatively speaking, what is Q2 to us is really Q1 or primary to the essence perspective. And so on inwardly toward nondual Source. Therefore, in what we perceive to be Quadrant 3, in the “primary attention” of what Kris calls the cluster level of consciousness, our native focus of attention transcends yet includes what we’d consider Q1 and Q2 as its “primary focus” (remember in Q3, there is still some form of duality or separation from Source). So relatively speaking, again, what is Q1, Q2, and Q3 to us are all included in the “native focus of attention” (or Q1) at the cluster perspective. I believe Kris uses these distinctions in what we can call species of “primary focus” to discern his Quadrants.
So relatively speaking from that perspective, what we consider Q1, Q2, and Q3 are all included in some BIG-ass “primary focus” at the cluster level. (If your head is spinning, that’s because the Self we’re part of is that BIG!)
Notice that as we move attention toward Quadrant 4, each Quadrant transcends yet includes the more outwardly focused Aspects of All-That-Is.
This diagram also relates back to my earlier musings on the nature of nested, holonic “species” of free will and enlightenment. So that each Quadrant has some kind of form and fullness, or dual and nondual potentials expressed as choice and potentially enlightened awareness.
Moreover, when we talk about who is the “you” who creates 100%, who is 100% Causal, we need to include these relationships for a more complete view of our multidimensional nature.
Finally, notice how the chart simultaneously converges (evolution) and yet radiates out (involution) from Quadrant 4 or what Kris calls Brahmajyoti (similar to the Dzogchen “clear light”). Well, that’s the impressions I was getting but I didn’t have the energy to bring it up because it is rather esoteric and could require a lot of discussion.
Kris left the building at 6:10 PM. We chatted a bit and said our good nights.
Jo and I had lightly snacked this evening, so this was our first time without any gourmet cooking! We’ll make that up on the next session on December 17th when Jo hosts our annual Seasons of the Soul Solstice celebration.