INSTRUCTIONS FOR BEGINNING THE NEW SEMESTER HERE. Posted by John on January 04, 19100 at 23:44:44:
Welcome to another century of mindfulness training on this planet. My
name is John Bilby. I'm in Tucson, Arizona. And I'm the coach of this
on-line interactive class.
Feel free to ask your questions about mindfulness here. And share with
other class-members about your experiences learning mindfulness, and
using mindfulness to deal with both the tough situations AND the great
opportunities that come along in your life.
This website opened on April 14, 1998. Classes began here in Classroom
Talk that summer, and so far, they have continued ever since. From the
beginning, the classes here have been called "Kindergarten." But a
couple of semesters ago, one of the regular students asked when we were
going to move along to "First Grade." And this—beginning now in January
2000—is just the second semester of the First Grade already.
If you're wondering why I happen to use these names for our classes,
it's because—out of all the broad spectrum of enlightenment and
transformational trainings that have been developed over the centuries
around the world—the classes in this school focus on two simple, primary
subjects—subjects that are quintessential in this kind of personal or
"spiritual" development: learning how to be "awake," or mindful, and
learning how to use mindfulness as a conscious tool in dealing with
situations that come up in everyday life.
So, on this website, you will find the Kindergarten, the Playground, and
now, the First Grade of enlightenment and transformational training. It
is just a basic beginning of it All. But these classes provide a *solid
beginning, for those who are really interested in learning to be more
awake and mindful in their daily lives.
In the Kindergarten, one may find basic classes in learning to recognize
what mindfulness is, and how to be able to practice it. These classes
contain experiential exercises. And if a student will take the time to
actually do these exercises, as instructed, they will, in this process,
catch-on to what mindfulness is, in their own obvious and direct
experience. Do not be satisfied until mindfulness "stands out in high
relief" for you as obvious and apparent!
In the Playground, one may find a complete wholistic diagnostic system
for learning to recognize the types of personality and essence that can
be observed in studying human behavior while practicing mindfulness.
"Personality," as the term is used here, is the habitual manipulations
and defenses that we acquire as we are growing up, our "conditioning."
"Essence" is the fundamental natural strengths and qualities that we are
born with, that which lies underlies our conditioning and can be re-
discovered and re-adopted by mindfulness practice.
These classes can enable a student to gather a thorough, in-depth, well-
rounded collection of true objective insights about their own make-up,
as it really is, as they go about doing all the things that they do in
their daily life. By attaining this specific and accurate "self-
knowledge," a student becomes able to recognize the same kinds of in-
depth insights while studying any other person that they know or meet.
With practice, this can be done "off the top of their head," in the
present, as they are mindfully observing both their own behavior and
that of others while the situation or event is going on.
The over-all method that is employed in this school is called "the
awareness game." This is a true game that can actually be played at any
time by mindfulness students—alone, or while engaging with any other
person. "Losing" in the play of the awareness game is when the stresses
are piling up in your body and you are feeling uptight and "acting out"
in reaction to things that are happening. The idea is to learn to
recognize your own "ego" and "personality," and step aside from this.
"Winning" in the awareness game is when you can be alert enough to have
the presence of mind to realize when you are being uptight, and you can
"get off of that," let go of your ego and personality, and just be calm
and clear, and utilize your awareness to bring your true inner strengths
and essential qualities into play in the game.
In this second semester of the First Grade, there will be much more
explanation of how this game is played. So far—if you all continue
along with us—we are blessed with a fine group of students, a small
group of whom post regularly in Classroom Talk, a few who communicate
with me only through "the Coach's Office" (i.e. by e-mail) . . . and we
seem to have "settled in" with about a dozen or more of you who are
content to visit this class without "raising your hands" and speaking
out on the bulletin board. That's perfectly okay.
There aren't any "rules" here, in particular. The whole idea of this
school is that you learn more and more fully how to be who YOU really
are . . . . . not by anything I would say about you, as the coach, but
through what you observe as obvious and apparent within you, on your
own. My job is providing the methods for doing this. Although there
"aren't any rules," I will, however, assert to keep the lesson plan on
track as we go along. For there are some definite subject areas that
I'd like to focus on most thoroughly, as we continue here in the First
Grade.
In these endeavors, I am being assisted by two long-time students here:
Sally, who is our "Hall Monitor," and Jeff, who is our "Blackboard
Eraser." Sally's job is to help me keep students' eyes on the ball—that
is, focusing on the study of mindfulness and its practical uses in life.
Sally has also earned the right to be called our "School Librarian," as
her findings and sharing of superb writings with us all, that she finds
around the Internet, drawn from a variety of outstanding teachers and
approaches to teaching mindfulness, have *pertained to our ongoing
lesson plan with uncanny synchronicity over the semesters.
Jeff is the class-member who seems to me to rank highest in "common
sense." He is unphased whether the common nonsense comes from a class-
member or from me, the coach, and he comments gently and precisely on
issues that come up that "need balancing out from a common sense point
of view." I have asked him to be an independent fair observer. In that
job, Jeff takes sensitive actions during the flow of discussion that may
serve any one of us in the capacity of "School Ombudsperson." He often
does this by simply showing that there's always more than one side to
anything we look at here.
As we leave the first semester of the First Grade, Hoodoosuz, has shown
us that it is possible to have a good time during the holidays without
letting guilt get in the way. Good for you guys, Suz! That thread
provides some reminders of the important part that emotional feelings
play in the game of life that we are observing here. And we'll get into
observing these ordinary human emotional feelings much more in the
semester that is to come.
Lydia called me recently on some "projections" I was having, and that
provided a great opportunity near the end of last semester to focus on
what I mean by "having projections." If you missed that class of mine,
I wish you'd go back and read it (Brent, our School Webmaster/Designer,
will move that whole semester to the Archives at some point along the
way, when he can.) A "projection," as we use that term in the
awareness game, is when you think you know where the other person is
coming from, and probably really don't. The less we have these kinds of
mistaken projections on each other here in this class, the sooner we
will get to know each other on a deeper and more realistic level. That
takes honest communication, on all of our parts, one of the subjects we
are studying here.
And Douglas has just asked when we are going to get into "the spiritual
part" of it all, in a fascinating posting that I intend to respond to in
detail very soon. I'd like to address the question of "What is
'spiritual,' anyway???" What does the word "spiritual" mean? Douglas,
of course, [heh-heh] wants to jump all the way to the Sixth Grade right
away, with the valid questions he is asking! But there are Kindergarten
and First Grade answers to your questions, too, Doug. And . . . "cosmic
consciousness," which is what you seem to be driving at . . . . . well
{ahem}, I'll give you the most direct and honest answers that I can,
because that's what teachers are supposed to do. Just remember, please,
that we're still in the First Grade around here. And until one's
awareness is developed sufficiently, conceptual discussions of this sort
will be of no real experiential value, except for entertainment,
perhaps.
As for newcomers and beginners, I have some recommendations that may
help you to get started, and can enable you to join right in with the
rest of us in Classroom Talk in an informed way, if you wish. I'd
suggest starting with the classes that are found through the Site Map,
under the links called "What is mindfulness?" and "a philosophy." Then—
unless you are familiar with practicing mindfulness already—I'd suggest
spending a week or more actually taking and practicing the five basic
awareness classes that you will find under the "Kindergarten" link.
Doing this will really mark the *beginning of your work with
mindfulness. And without knowing what mindfulness is, in the *
experiential way that these classes in Kindergarten provide, the classes
here in Classroom Talk cannot have the full meaning for you that they
will have for other students.
Once you are familiar with mindfulness, you are enouraged to ask
questions here about it, and about your beginning development of a
mindfulness practice that is tailor made to suit you—that is, a practice
made up of routine things you do every day that you like to do with
awareness. Practice is what makes mindfulness proliferate in our lives,
once we have learned what it is.
Threads of conversation with newcomers will go on here on the same
bulletin board, but separate from the threads that pertain to the First
Grade classes. This is so that beginners can get extra attention in
becoming oriented and in catching up with the more advanced students in
the class. You more experienced students are definitely encouraged to
help newcomers along, as I will be attempting to do. Some of the most
interesting and informative threads in this class are between you
students talking with each other when I'm not around. Although I
usually check-in every day to read new postings, most of my own postings
are made on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
*Anyone who visits our classroom here is encouraged to speak up and ask
questions or share about your experiences with mindfulness at any time
that you wish. Do what you like. If there are any rules around here,
that's one of them. Recognize what you like, and do that. That's what
we call "the true self" in the awareness game. Try to learn to use
these insights into your own true self—what you like, what you are
interested in, what you are "good at," what "turns you on," what you
love—as peacefully as you can.
So . . . . . onward into the new century! After many centuries and even
millenia that it has been kept hidden in "the inner circles" of
esoteric, mystical, metaphysical, and spiritual schools around the
world, the common generic art among them all, mindfulness, seems finally
to have been becoming more openly known about during the latter years of
the 20th Century. I look to the 21st Century and the new millenium for
signs that this knowledge and the use of mindfulness can become even
more and more widespread among the people on this Earth at last . . .
for the sake of more peace and harmony on this planet, and in the
Universe as a whole.
The awareness game is a game for waking up, in whatever the
circumstances, and playing on purpose for harmony and peace with other
people, whenever we can.
So . . . . . a warm welcome to you All!
John Bilby
coach@mindfulnessclasses.com
Continue with Winter 1999/2000 Classroom Talk or
Post a new discussion in the current Classroom Talk
Archived February 13, 2000