Publication
Imprint: Eugene, Oregon : Center for Sacred Sciences, 2011. Context: Recorded during the Fall 2011 retreat. Series: Listening to the Stones Series. Responsibility: Joel Morwood. Physical: 1 sound disc (8 hours) : CD, digital ; 4 3/4 in. Volumes/Copies: 1 volume. 4 copies. MP3-CD and streaming.
Call number
CD / Front Desk
Original publication date
2011
Collections
CSS Library Notes
Formats available for lending: 8 taliks on one MP3-CD (four copies) CD-0877, MP3-CD-0878, MP3 CD-0879 and MP3 CD-880
8 Individual CDs CD-0881 through. CD-0888
8 Individual Audio Cassette Tape: AC-1977 through AC-1984
Online availability: this recording is on our iTunes podcast, and can be streamed directly from our website here: http://centerforsacredsciences.org/index.php/audios.htm
Description: LISTENING TO THE STONES “All created things are God's speech. The being of a stone speaks and manifests the same as my mouth about God,” said the great Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart. During the 2011 fall retreat, Joel asked each of us to pick a stone to be our guru for the duration of the retreat. Then, through a series of meditative practices, we learned step-by-step how to listen to what our guru-stones had to teach us about such things as impermanence, emptiness, Consciousness, universal sameness, and the Great Perfection. Finally, we tried to glimpse for ourselves what the Kabbalists claim, that “God fills everything and He is everything.”
#1: Learning to Listen. The reason we don’t normally “hear” the divine language of stones, or any other phenomena, is that, under delusion, our attention is absorbed by our thoughts about things rather than being directed nakedly at things, themselves. The first step, then, is to free our attention from our thoughts through practices of concentration and spacious awareness.
#2: Impermanence. Once attention has been freed from thought, we can begin to see the true moment-to-moment impermanence of our guru-stones and all other phenomena. This experiential insight helps us to cultivate detachment from grasping and rejecting, and thus attain an undistracted mind.
#3: Emptiness of Objects. Closely observing our guru-stones, and all other objects, we realize that they are actually made up of streams of impermanent phenomena which constantly arise and pass in the various sense fields, and are thus “empty” of any inherent existence.
#4: Emptiness of Self. Closely observing all the phenomena that we believe make up a subjective self, we realize that these phenomena, too, are constantly arising and passing away, and thus this supposed subjective self is also “empty” of any inherent existence.
#5: The Nature of Consciousness, Itself. Again, closely observing all phenomena, whether subjective or objective, that arise and pass away, we realize that there is something which does not arise and does not pass away—i.e., Consciousness, Itself.
#6: Universal Sameness. Abiding in the spacious awareness, we begin to realize that the phenomena which make up our guru-stones, along with all other phenomena, are inseparable from Consciousness in which they appear, and are all the same in being expressions of that Consciousness’s Creative Power.
#7: No Goal, No Boundaries. Contemplating our guru-stones, and all other phenomena, we realize that they have no goal other than to be expressions-in-form of Consciousness which, Itself, has no form and no boundaries.
#8 The Great Perfection. Finally, by practicing in the same manner as our guru-stone and all beings, we try to glimpse directly the Great Perfection that is perpetually masked by all our efforts to attain it
FY2012 /
8 Individual CDs CD-0881 through. CD-0888
8 Individual Audio Cassette Tape: AC-1977 through AC-1984
Online availability: this recording is on our iTunes podcast, and can be streamed directly from our website here: http://centerforsacredsciences.org/index.php/audios.htm
Description: LISTENING TO THE STONES “All created things are God's speech. The being of a stone speaks and manifests the same as my mouth about God,” said the great Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart. During the 2011 fall retreat, Joel asked each of us to pick a stone to be our guru for the duration of the retreat. Then, through a series of meditative practices, we learned step-by-step how to listen to what our guru-stones had to teach us about such things as impermanence, emptiness, Consciousness, universal sameness, and the Great Perfection. Finally, we tried to glimpse for ourselves what the Kabbalists claim, that “God fills everything and He is everything.”
#1: Learning to Listen. The reason we don’t normally “hear” the divine language of stones, or any other phenomena, is that, under delusion, our attention is absorbed by our thoughts about things rather than being directed nakedly at things, themselves. The first step, then, is to free our attention from our thoughts through practices of concentration and spacious awareness.
#2: Impermanence. Once attention has been freed from thought, we can begin to see the true moment-to-moment impermanence of our guru-stones and all other phenomena. This experiential insight helps us to cultivate detachment from grasping and rejecting, and thus attain an undistracted mind.
#3: Emptiness of Objects. Closely observing our guru-stones, and all other objects, we realize that they are actually made up of streams of impermanent phenomena which constantly arise and pass in the various sense fields, and are thus “empty” of any inherent existence.
#4: Emptiness of Self. Closely observing all the phenomena that we believe make up a subjective self, we realize that these phenomena, too, are constantly arising and passing away, and thus this supposed subjective self is also “empty” of any inherent existence.
#5: The Nature of Consciousness, Itself. Again, closely observing all phenomena, whether subjective or objective, that arise and pass away, we realize that there is something which does not arise and does not pass away—i.e., Consciousness, Itself.
#6: Universal Sameness. Abiding in the spacious awareness, we begin to realize that the phenomena which make up our guru-stones, along with all other phenomena, are inseparable from Consciousness in which they appear, and are all the same in being expressions of that Consciousness’s Creative Power.
#7: No Goal, No Boundaries. Contemplating our guru-stones, and all other phenomena, we realize that they have no goal other than to be expressions-in-form of Consciousness which, Itself, has no form and no boundaries.
#8 The Great Perfection. Finally, by practicing in the same manner as our guru-stone and all beings, we try to glimpse directly the Great Perfection that is perpetually masked by all our efforts to attain it
FY2012 /
Other editions
Physical description
4.75 inches
Language
Original language
English