What Feeds You
Lo Que Te Alimenta
A returning student reflects on staying away from what seems to be lacking, and on the way certain pointings have taken on a living quality. The teacher responds on the pleasure of this kind of exchange.
What Feeds You
A returning student reflects on staying away from what seems to be lacking, and on the way certain pointings have taken on a living quality. The teacher responds on the pleasure of this kind of exchange.
It's so good to see you, and so great to hear you. I'm just grateful. I missed all of you.
I want to say something. I felt a strong inclination, not to go for fulfilling what seems lacking. That was what fed me for a while. It's good to go after what seems lacking if what you're reaching for will actually feed you. And this group has fed me.
This whole time I was away, certain things I've heard you say kept echoing in me. They're alive in me, very alive, and it's precious. I don't have words for it. The pointing that it's right here, right now: I actually heard that from you. They aren't just words. I heard you say it, and it has a life in me. I don't have words for my gratitude for your ability to get it across.
When a pointing becomes a guardrail
There's one other thing that's all mine now, and for me it works like a guardrail. Suddenly I just hear the words, and it's, "Oh, I'm giving this meaning. This is a projection." It's like magic.
I didn't come to this group to become a better person, that's for sure, although in some ways it has been good that way too. I just find the pointing so refreshing and so unique. I missed this. So here I am, and it's great.
I'm very happy to hear it, and thank you for the kind words. I'm glad it's been helpful.
Yes. It's great to have things that are helpful, but it gives it a special flavor when it's so rare, so distilled, so clear, so user-friendly. That's a strange word to use, because who is using what? But I can actually hear it, and it becomes part of me. I guess that's what it is, whatever that means. That's what comes up at this moment.
The pleasure in the exchange itself
I hear the gratitude, and it's a pleasure to know it's affected you in that way. "Helpful" is a strange word too, but that it has reached you in the way you're expressing is a big pleasure for me.
This is really why I hold these groups. To be more clear, I hold them to see if that happens. I have no guarantee or foreknowledge that it will affect anyone in any particular way, but the response, the sense that it has a positive effect, is what keeps me coming back.
And there's the pleasure in the exchange itself. Even if it had no positive impact at all, the sharing and the communion would still be a pleasure. The pleasure is already in that alone. Then the intended effect, when it lands, is really beautiful.
Anyway, happy to have you back.