Here’s another installment in a series of emails that took place between Michael and one of his senior students beginning the Summer of 2009. May you find the exchange interesting and enriching.
October 13, 2010 (#40)
Student: Okay, so what does it really mean to not know?
Michael: It really means that one is really available to the fullness of Emptiness.
Student: Really?
Michael: Really.
Most of us on the spiritual path find that its the little things that get to us; that it’s life’s trivial offerings that get in the way of what we want to experience. This retreat offers us a chance to explore the opportunities life gives us, no matter how trivial or annoying they may seem, and puts them to use as we begin to skillfully work with life’s challenges.
Each day will involve sitting meditation, walking meditation and dharma talks followed by Q&A, as well as practice interviews with Michael.
Cost & Registration:
Total cost per person including retreat, meals and lodging ranges from $220. to $375. for the entire weekend.
It is not too early to sign up. The spaces are limited and sell out quickly. To secure your spot please click the link that corresponds to your choice. Confirmation will be sent to you when your payment is received.
Accommodations:
Each of the following includes meals and Sangha fee. Please select the best option and you will be taken to our shopping cart check-out, followed up by our Paypal link. You can easily pay there with either a credit card or through Paypal.
Personal tent or van – $230 - Register Now
Center tent – $245 - Register Now
Double room – $320 - Register Now
Single room – $375 - Register Now
Double room with private bath – $345 - Register Now
If you have any questions, contact Joanne.
Michael works with The Book of Serenity‘s, Case #76 as a way of describing the path of attainment. He also weaves into this description an application of how people come together and separate in relationships. By using the phrase, “The moon sets, midnight going through the marketplace,” he points toward the teaching that there is a peace underneath whatever tangle, or karma, that we might face. With this in mind, he then pushes forward into the realm of his own situation, where he and his wife are currently employing mindfulness in how they are working through their own separation. He speaks to this by reminding us that love is fearless and fear is loveless.
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Here’s another installment in a series of emails that took place between Michael and one of his senior students beginning the Summer of 2009. May you find the exchange interesting and enriching.
Student: Why haven’t you ever publicly claimed that you are enlightened. Is this because of how it may be taken, and that it may not be helpful?
Michael: No matter how I answer that question, I’m screwed. If I say ‘yes,’ it either turns people off or helps generate inappropriate attachments to my particular expression of realization. If I say ‘no,’ it usually lets people decide for themselves and forces some deep examination of me which usually disappoints them since, more than anything else, I’m a normal guy.
Student: Why would this being normal be a problem?
Michael: It isn’t. But lots of seekers aren’t into having the Dharma expressed from a normal guy, even though that’s what this teaching is all about. The fact is that it doesn’t matter what any of us think since our thinking, and the attachments to the arising thoughts, are what prevent realization in the first place. I’m nothing other than what I am, what you are, what all things are, at the core of Being. This makes me utterly ordinary and kinda’ boring in some ways. There’s nothing really special going on.
Student: Then what sets you apart? Why do you people come to listen to your talks and do the whole retreat thing and so forth?
Michael: I don’t know what sets me apart. I don’t look at it that way. I’m just reminding people of a Truth that they’ve forgotten. Most likely they begin to trust me and my approach because they see that I don’t feel particularly caught by much. This doesn’t mean that I’m disengaged but rather that I don’t get very stuck most of the time. To be sure, I still have worldly struggles but they don’t stick. And if they do get sticky, I usually watch as an appropriate response arises.
Student: This living without getting stuck is enlightenment?
Michael: That’s a good way to put it. But back to your question: Does this make me enlightened? Let me counter that question with another: Who is it that cares?
Student: That’s just what I’d imagined as your response. I’ve not heard anyone say, “I’m enlightened” and not had it sound egoic.
Here’s another installment in a series of emails that took place between Michael and one of his senior students beginning the Summer of 2009. May you find the exchange interesting and enriching.
October 7, 2010
Student: Are knowing and loving the same thing?
Michael: Loving is the felt-sense of total release, of complete surrender. Knowing something factually, or finding certainty, is basically just a hiding place for the ego, where attachment can build. We might call this “small knowing.” On the other hand, “Big Knowing,” or what I have called “capital-K knowing,” is a state of openness that offers us the felt-sense of total release that we know, once again, as love.
Student: So they’re not really the same and they’re not really different?
Michael: That’s a nice way of describing this experience.
Student: Big Knowing is Big Loving?
Michael: Bingo.
Most of us on the spiritual path find that its the little things that get to us; that it’s life’s trivial offerings that get in the way of what we want to experience. This retreat offers us a chance to explore the opportunities life gives us, no matter how trivial or annoying they may seem, and puts them to use as we begin to skillfully work with life’s challenges.
Each day will involve sitting meditation, walking meditation and dharma talks followed by Q&A, as well as practice interviews with Michael.
Cost & Registration:
Total cost per person including retreat, meals and lodging ranges from $220. to $375. for the entire weekend.
It is not too early to sign up. The spaces are limited and sell out quickly. To secure your spot please click the link that corresponds to your choice. Confirmation will be sent to you when your payment is received.
Accommodations:
Each of the following includes meals and Sangha fee. Please select the best option and you will be taken to our shopping cart check-out, followed up by our Paypal link. You can easily pay there with either a credit card or through Paypal.
Personal tent or van – $230 - Register Now
Center tent – $245 - Register Now
Double room – $320 - Register Now
Single room – $375 - Register Now
Double room with private bath – $345 - Register Now
If you have any questions, contact Joanne.
Michael McAlister on Dialogs With My Teacher #40
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bradleypaulsmith on Dialogs With My Teacher #39 Michael McAlister on Dialogs With My Teacher #39 bradleypaulsmith on Dialogs With My Teacher #39© 2012 Infinite Smile. All Rights Reserved.
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