My friend is taking a 5 session course in San Francisco. The 5 sessions take place all-day on the Saturday and Sunday over the course of 5 months (one weekend a month). This past Sunday was "invite your friends to see your progress Sunday". So I went to see what Jos and her husband Scott had been up to.
The Course Part 1
The course focuses on Relationships. Basically the theory is that the value of your life is determined by the relationships with people you have and the conversations (things you say out loud) to people and what you hear them say to you.They then have you establish the following:
1. Who you speak to on a weekly/bi-weekly basis
2. What kinds of conversations you have and how often
3. What your biography/history is
4. What negative thoughts have come up in your past and where did they originate
5. When and why did you choose to act on these negative thoughts
So Jos and Scott showed me their circle of "influencers" or friends they talk with on a regular basis and what circles their in (business, spiritual groups, recreational...) as well as their autobiographies.The only thing I didn't like about their auto-bios were that when it came to the part mentioning negative thoughts that came and where they came from were not studied more in depth. They were acknowledged/mentioned but were not supposed to be looked into with further detail.
The beginning of the course was looking around the room at the different "friend circle diagrams" and auto-bios of people in the course. About 80% of the people in the room were over the age of 60. Most turned out to be Leos and Cancers, and Pisces. Go figure. A spiritual/wisdom course being taken by spiritual/wisdom-seeking people. The host of the meeting had everyone who brought guests stand up and introduce their guests. Since a lot of the people were elderly a lot of their guests were either their grown up children or friends they had had for over 30 years. A lot of what they said was sentimental and many people in the room cried when they heard people talking about what it meant to them to have their friends there.
Jos actually got up and introduced me. I wondered what she would say because unlike a lot of the other friendships in the room, ours isn't that emotionally-based. I've supported Jos and have been loyally helping her with her major projects for over a year now. We've had great talks and have shared a lot, but emotions and feelings aren't necessarily at the heart of our friendship -mostly thoughts, visions, and goals. So when we got up there she thanked me for coming and spoke of me -to me- in front of me. she mentioned that she had enjoyed seeing me grow in Toastmasters from new member to President of the club and appreciated me helping her out with her women's group. She said I was a great graphic designer and a valuable asset as a friend. I just listened respectfully and knodded my head.
While we were there we also met a woman who talked about her work with "Ancestral Healing". Basically she said that she would spiritually look back at a person's grandparents and parents and distant past relatives to see what "breaks in the chain" had occurred in the past that are disrupting the person's present. Your body comes from DNA and genes from your mother/father and their mother/father and their mother/father. She said if past relatives were not at rest -you will not be at rest.
She also said that healing should take place as a group. When someone is having issues with drugs or destructive behavior it's usually caused by issues that are occurring around them -usually involving people of influence in their lives. It's a sign among a community that something wrong is occurring with in it when someone starts suffering individually. They are seeing something wrong occurring and internalizing it. Therefore if an individual is going to be helped, their relatives and friends and people of influence need to be tapped into to uncover underlying issues happening within the group.
Lunch Break
After the intros and talking it was time for lunch. Jos, Scott, and I went to a sandwich deli. We joked around and had fun during our lunch break. Jos mentioned that she had actually worked on a project in college with a friend. They were supposed to come up with a restaurant concept. Everyone else in the class had come up with typical sit-down restaurants. But Jos and her friend had vision. They came up with a restaurant called "Lucifer's Grill" -which was funny because it was before Hell's Kitchen came around. She wanted the restaurant to have 3 floors: Hell on the bottom, Purgatory/Limbo in the Middle, and Heaven on Top. We were then making jokes about the restaurant:
Maybe Purgatory can be just one long line around the room.
The register can be at the front of the line and there you can pay for your sins and your meal.
If you've sinned you have to go to Hell and you sit at the table and wait for your food -which never comes.
If you want food you then have to be "reincarnated" and go to the middle floor again and stand in line.
If you agree to share your food with others you can go to Heaven.
The Course Part 2
We then went back to the Wisdom Course -which took place in a hotel. The next portion of the course was dedicated to sitting in circles of 6 people. Jos and I got into a group and waited for instructions. The first thing the group had to do was go around in a circle discussing 3 things:
1. Visions/Goals we have had that we achieved
2. Visions and Goals we have not achieved yet
3. What Visions/Goals we would have if we lacked for nothing and could do anything
Then we broke out of the circles and everyone stood around the room, shoulder-to-shoulder, in a square. We were then told to look across the room and envision our "Happiness". Everything we could possibly want and need to be happy. We were then told -at once- to go across the room to the place exactly across from us to our "Happiness". I realized a stampede was inevitable so I hung back a little and walked a little more slowly to my "Happiness" -I wasn't in much of a rush. It went smoothly and I made it across while everyone else was dashing across like mad rabbits.
Then once we reached the other side we were told to once again go across the room to the spot we had previously occupied to our "Happiness" again. Only this time we were supposed to notice the people beside us and walk in a more "present" way. People went slower the second time and it was actually a lot more complicated because of that -a lot more maneuvering. Everyone was focused on everything around them and it was harder for me to focus on reaching the my spot. It was a lot more chaotic.
Jos said that she hadn't felt as happy reaching her "Happiness" if she arrived before her friends did and was alone. I agreed. If my friends weren't there I spent the time in my "Happiness" looking around trying to see where they were.
We then broke back into circles of 6 again. We were given 4 quotes on a piece of paper each and meant to go around in a circle one at a time discussing each quote. The quotes involved Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
I found that initially I was excited and engaged. I was bringing up thoughts and sharing my insights. Then as time went on people started talking in circles and debating what Truth itself was. They said "Truth" is an opinion and each person has their own version of the truth so truth doesn't really exist -it's just an opinion/concept. And beauty is useless because some people find dirt beautiful so what is "beautiful"? "Goodness" was equally elusive and was also decided amongst the group not to exist since "bad" and "good" were also just opinions. There was no Universal anything -everything was just an opinion of personal experience called "Truth", "Beauty", and "Goodness". I shut up because I disagreed and didn't want to get into an argument. Better to let people believe what they want. So I fell silent and tuned out and felt bored listening to people degrade concepts into thin air.
The only piece of wisdom that I really got came from someone who mentioned Plato's philosophy. Plato believed that Mankind was an Imperfect representation of Ideals. I agreed. Mankind constantly strives for greater, but is never truly Perfect. The Divine is Perfect and since mankind is not purely divine but strives to be since we have connection to it and pieces of it within us.
Then other groups shared what they had come up with and a similar pattern was found. Someone said their group decided there were 2 "Truths": Universal truths that exist above all else and are just there -but are usually greater and more elusive to find (hence the reason Seek the Truth), and Personal Truths (interpretations of reality people have based on their own personal experiences). With this I agreed.
After the Course
After the course ended about 3 different people cam up to me asking about Toastmasters. I'm going to be receiving emails from them soon to fill them in on Toastmasters and CCPY. Jos should be paid by Toastmasters for always managing to bring it up in almost every situation.
On the way back to San Jose, Scott and Jos were joking around again. Jos said, "If only our women's group had one wealthy patron to support us financially we'd be set". Scott suggested she go to funerals since there were old, rich women there. Jos said, "Quick let's head to a cemetery!" My friends are dorks.
The last thoughts I were left with were What is the difference between Philosophy and Spiritual Truths? Some people are adverse to Philosophy and outright hate it. But they'll still like Spiritual Truths. So for the record:
Philosophy is the rationality-based study of fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, spirituality, and language.
Spirituality is the search for the "sacred", mystical, universe, supernatural, metaphysical, and that which generally involves the notion of the "soul" or "spirit" or "energy".
Basically Philosophy debates everything and religion/spirituality tries to draw actual conclusions on things. Neither "ends" or has a conclusive agreed-upon resolution.
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