The Goldenrod February 2010

The Goldenrod February 2010

When you are listening very intensely to a piece of music there is no choice but to deny the self, so that you could properly appreciate that music through identity. In a similar way, to properly appreciate the wonder of the ideas, some of the things that are explained in philosophy, it is necessary to get rid of your “I.” In philosophy, if a person is truly in love with the things they’re understanding, it’s inevitable that an abnegation of the self will take place. You can’t get into philosophy if you’re full of yourself. –Anthony Damiani

Embodiment and Unembodiment:
Who lives? Who dies?
This seminar will be led by Avery Solomon with special guest Sidney Piburn on March 27-28. Join us for discussion, meditation, healing, and shared experience with friends.
Saturday morning: exploring insights into the nature of body and embodiment from several sages and traditions, ancient and modern. Saturday afternoon: a presentation of the Tibetan view of the dying process. Saturday evening: videos on near death experiences, and a cult classic: the realm of the senses. Sunday morning: round the table discussion. Food will be provided for lunch and breakfast. Donations welcome.
“The body is a screen to partly shield and to partly reveal the light that is blazing inside your presence.” -- Rumi

More Seminars
Two more seminars led by Avery Solomon will be held on May 1-2 and June 5-6. For more information, see wisdomsgoldenrod.org.

Mike Conners
Mike Conners from TAT (the Truth and Transmission Foundation) has accepted an invitation to come to WG the weekend of May 7-9, 2010. For more information contact Mark at mark.scorelle@gmail.com.

Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream
There’s an exciting possibility that WG will join Hector Presbyterian in sponsoring a symposium on the environment. The tentative date is July 17th. The Pachamama Alliance was initiated by the Achuar, an indigenous people of Ecuador. The idea is that the culture of consumption, or “the dream of the North,” drives the destruction of the rainforests. For more information see awakenthedream.com. “If you really want to help us, you need to change the Dream of the North.” ~Achuar Leaders

Mentalism and Paul Brunton
A workshop is scheduled for the 4th of July weekend. The focus will be on mentalism, using Paul Brunton’s The Wisdom of the Overself as the primary text. For more information, please contact wisdomsgoldenrod@gmail.com.

Astronoesis Summer Studies
A summer workshop on Astronoesis is tentatively set for Labor Day weekend, 2010. Save the date!
This year’s section will be “The Intellectual-Principle,” and the intention is to provide an overview of this philosophically packed material. For more information, please contact June Fritchman ifnisworld@yahoo.com or juneagle@juno.com.

News from Ohio
The Columbus group has been reading several of the chapters in The Wisdom of the Overself. While reading the chapter on the Overself we wanted to shed light on the relationship between the Overself and the World Idea so we are reading parts on the soul in Astronoesis. We also have a brief discussion at the beginning of our meetings to bring up questions and ideas that have occurred to us during the week. There is such joy in sharing.

Audio, Transcripts and Diagrams
A hard-drive is available that includes the audio of about 600 classes taught by Anthony, along with the transcripts of about 140 classes. Also available: a large set of 300 AD diagrams is available on a 1 gig USB flash drive and two booklets: “An Introduction to Anthony Astrological Mandalas” and “Anthony’s Metaphysical Diagrams.” If you are interested, contact Avery at avery@averysolomon.com.

Visiting WG
If you would like to visit or stay at Wisdom’s Goldenrod, please contact us at 607-546-7777 or
wisdomsgoldenrod@gmail.com.

CURRENT CLASSES

Sunday
Egyptian Goddesses (meets twice a month) We are studying Egyptian Goddesses using Alison Roberts’ book My Heart My Mother: Death and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt as a starting point. Contact Barbara at 387-6303.

Monday
Astronoesis (7:30, Library) This class is resuming discussion of the Intellectual-Principle chapter, with occasional excursions into related topics. To verify topic, meeting time and location, please contact David Gallagher dgallagher@aol.com or 387-5863 or June Fritchman ifnisworld@yahoo.com or juneagle@juno.com. All are welcome.

Celebration of the Heart (meets monthly, 7:00 pm, Main Building) Through music, chanting, whirling and mystical poetry, we hope to create a space where the Divine Love can be evoked and experienced. All are welcome. Contact Gran at gran_rockett@yahoo.com.

Monday School This program for children is “on vacation” until the spring. For information please contact Madhurima at ma24@cornell.edu.

Tuesday
Emerging Teachers of the One (7:30 pm, Main Building) We’re reading from I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj, going over videos of Nondual teachers from conscious.tv and Never Not Here (most recently Scott Kiloby and Mooji), listening to tapes of John Wheeler and Adyashanti radio broadcasts, and to Eckhart Tolle’s monthly webcast. Contact Mark at mark.scorelle@gmail.com.

Also on Tuesday
Gentle Svaroopa Yoga (5:30 to 7:00 pm, Main
Building) These Svaroopa style Yoga classes are devoted to developing that inner knowing through poses that open and release your spine. Wear loose-fitting clothing. Contact Caroline at 351-1962.

Buddhism (7:30-9:30 pm, Library) We are now reading from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s book Advice on Dying. All are welcome. Contact Andrew at vectorart@aol.com or Lou at desarno@htva.net.

Wednesday
Plotinus’ Enneads (7:45-10 pm, Library) After meditation, we read and discuss sections from the Enneads, currently “That the Principle transcending Being has no Intellectual Act” (V.6). All are welcome. Contact Herbert at 277-5685.

Thursday
Meditation with Raphael and Discussions on the Quest (4:15-6:45 pm, Library) We start with a reading as a seed for meditation, and then discuss our own journeys on the path. All are welcome. Contact Avery at 546-7300 or aps5@cornell.edu.

PB Class (7:15 to 9:30, Library) We begin with meditation, then read and discuss PB’s writings and some of Anthony’s classes on PB. Currently we’re reading The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga and selections from Volumes 12 and 13 from The Notebooks. We would like to entice new people to join the class and are willing to focus on other areas of PB as the class interest evolves. All are welcome. Contact David Bulkley at 592-6413.

ELSEWHERE

Self Inquiry Discussion Group (7:30-9:30 pm on Wednesdays in Ithaca) We use Robert Adams’ The Silence of the Heart as a guide for our discussion of spiritual paths, teachers, techniques, and systems. The focus is on our own personal experiences as seekers and the evening includes a period of silent meditation. To be notified of dates and locations of this meeting sign up at Meetup http://www.meetup.com/Self-Inquiry-Discussion-Group/ Notices will be sent on Goldenrod list also. All are welcome. Contact Mark at mark.scorelle@gmail.com.
Katha Upanishad (Sunday evening, Tim and Karen Smith’s home) This class is working on the Katha Upanishad, which deals with death and what survives death. We also touch on the beautiful verses of the Bhagavad Gita every third week. Our starting time alternates every other week, and the gathering includes meditation sessions, plus a dish-to-pass supper every other week. To confirm starting time and specifics of class, contact Kira at kiralallas@yahoo.com.

For Anthony
At the 25th Anniversary of Your Passing

Hey, ho, what happened? I was seeking
teaching and a hurricane struck. Your
philosophy so swift my mind darted in
stillness surprising to my heart bursting
with your profounder-than-music and crude
spot-on insight, utterly sensitive intelligence.

Sometimes I marvel at the generosity of
perspective you delivered yet at times still
I rail. You were -- are -- a presence beyond
escape or self-deceit. Ever am I accountable.

That day I caught you sitting -- dare I call it
meditating? -- alone in the main building in
what was then your usual place for class --
beneath the blackboards -- gave me a blast
of your inner power. With no prior knowledge
you were there I blithely waltzed solo into
the threshold of the meditation room and
blam! Rays of multi-colored lights emanated
from higher chakras vibrating throughout this
being seated outward toward the empty room.
Circles radiating energies bright, nearly blinding
encircled your shining raven hair in larger, ever
glowing spheres. I stepped back utterly startled.

Confused, I dared not move. Your strength palpable,
the auras wildly vital, I simply watched your ecstasy.
Myself humbled and honored, I stood and soaked
greaselike into the grace and pulsations of this moment.
Soon, as classtime drew near with others soon to arrive,
your enlivened halos -- reflections of your metaphysical
drawings -- subsided slowly, apparently quite consciously
as you returned to a more worldly state -- I tried to turn
away but you caught my gaze with classic dark stare, a
happy glint of do-not-tell in your clever eyes. And never
again did you sit beneath the blackboards, either in that
class or any meditation. I checked with utter regularity.
You moved on that day to the little corner near the tapes.

And hey! Ho! Your brilliance fleet, sheetlike and clear as
the Diamond Sutra. The synchronicity at times so sweet
yet striking deep. You’d take me aside or pauperlike I’d
beg and you’d give personal guidance. Voice soft, secret of
mysticism, mediumism, devotion. Gave a mantra, asked of
dreams, pressed your hands into prayer looking remarkably
inspiringly like a ‘simple Buddhist monk.’ Said, “there are
some who approach metaphysics through mysticism; others
must go the other way. Once during a sesshien I thought
you’d somehow generated bell-like sounds with a coin then
actually did lean over to me and insisted I stop that swaying
or you’d strike me flat. I was not afraid, oh no.

Hey! Ho! I love Padmasambhava. Because you were the first
I’d heard speak of him, so like you, brows furrowing
frighteningly loving piercing glances tamed demons like ours,
now aging students. Well hey, at least you’ve clapped into
our heads how the archetypes grab us most daemonically, even
the beauteous ones and where to find them -- in chart or hiding
in the muck. And your warnings, enthusiasms for Buddhism
stuck. And all those books that didn't know what they were
talking about. Whoa! Stop! No peace and love gurus for us.
Get to the point. Follow the thought. Throw out the garbage.
Do the work. Ho! Slay the dragon...

Through you my selfhood was charged.
As if you’d yelled, “Clear!”
And all those nearby deftly and swiftly
jumped from the defibrillator so I’d
bolt sharply in clarity to life --
and knew without doubt I could be.

-- Nanci Rose-Ritter

In addition to special events, there are several groups that meet regularly to meditate and to read and discuss various books. Our “classes” are always free. (We depend on donations for our operating expenses.) These are some of the books currently being discussed:

Alison Roberts’ My Heart My Mother:
Death and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt
Katha Upanishad and The Bhagavad Gita
Anthony Damiani’s Astronoesis
Nisargadatta Maharaj’s I Am That
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Advice on Dying
Plotinus’ Enneads
Robert Adams’ The Silence of the Heart
Paul Brunton’s The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga and The Notebooks.

If you are interested in joining these groups see the information on page 2 of this newsletter.



















The photos were taken by June Fritchman.The goldenrod sketch on page one is by Barbara Nowogrodzki.




Wisdom’s Goldenrod
Center for Philosophic Studies
5801 Route 414
Hector, NY 14841
www.wisdomsgoldenrod.org