Hi All,
Apologies for taking longer to get this email and the recording links out this week. Has been a busy one for me. Apologies for the audio in this recording, it seems my microphone gain was up too high, I have found that turning the volume down low while listening to this recording makes it reasonable.
Here is a link to the recordings from the meeting for week 7:
Before Breakout:
#^https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/5SiCOLHJg4UPEiS9B2ZWjGwnjsplqZ8eiiDbANbRNgbn-5nj9r_CoTvPr2KorFKj.rrPR3r5Qc72Rlg4b?startTime=1639933337000 After Breakout:
#^https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/5SiCOLHJg4UPEiS9B2ZWjGwnjsplqZ8eiiDbANbRNgbn-5nj9r_CoTvPr2KorFKj.rrPR3r5Qc72Rlg4b?startTime=1639938374000 The speaker view video, a gallery view video (just one page of the gallery is available), and audio recording are all available (you might have to download the files to watch other views than the speaker view).
Mark-Ups:
Here is a link to Chapter 4 Marked Up through page 53:
#^https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A1bVr_ZFBwaoQSAfzLjZ3whmApHbo75d/view?usp=sharing Prayer for This Week:
God, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know about everything for an open mind, and a new experience.
Reading for this week:
We Agnostics to the end of the chapter.
Keep looking for statements that suggest questions and consider what they mean to me.
Highlight anything that points out your lack of reliance on God (or self-reliance).
Continue to consider the 2nd step choice.
Do I want to choose to have the Consciousness of my relationship to Universe be the center of everything in my life, or am I going to allow myself to continue to exist in a state where I move through the world unaware of my connection to the Universe?
Assignments:
Make 2 appointments with someone from the workshop. Hopefully someone you have met in the workshop, and someone you don't know yet. This interaction is a major part of the work we do in this workshop. Discuss the experiences you are having.
Joey's Highlights:
Here are the links to related recordings (11,12 and 13) from 2020 in case you want to spend some time with them:
#^https://redmatrix.us/channel/stones/&mid=b64.aHR0cHM6Ly9yZWRtYXRyaXgudXMvaXRlbS80YjM2MmVkMS04NGE2LTQzNTAtODk4NC0yZDEzZDQxYTRjZWU Here are some highlights from Joey. Of course interacting with the 2020 recordings is optional, there is some cool stuff in them if you feel inclined.
RECORDING 11
Step 2
2:50- 5:00
Here we are talking about unmanageability.
Spiritual sickness, spiritual malady
Some people call it being crazy. Some people call it untreated alcoholism. Some people call it my disease. My brain is talking to me. My alcoholism. Many different terms or ways to identify or label the unmanageability
page 52
5:30 - 12:30 Newsreels of Lunar flight- analogy…explained- important
In the realm of material Men's minds were Federer by a superstition tradition and all sorts of fixed ideas and are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable of the realm of the spirit as the ancients were the realm of the material
People get caught up on this analogy and misinterpret it.
47:21 - 51:16
“when I engage my own power to try and solve things in my life then pretty soon- God is nothing”
“My problem was I was not good at evaluating where I was. I won’t take corrective measures if everything is going great”
“The pain of my self reliance, the pain of the bedevilments….the pain of living in the bedevilments the pain of embracing these bedevilments, and trying to manage my life; is actually worse than the pain of facing them.”
“If nothing changes and I stay in this problem ( playing video games - refer to the list) could I drink over them?”
52:30-57:30
“I can’t use the example that I’m sober for a long time to prove that I’m relying on God” - (MAA guy who stayed sober for 20 plus years and out came his slippers and he was dead in x years)
57:45-1:01:00
Other Questions; Therefore, Can I see that these problems manifest from inside of myself rather than outside of myself?
“I’m making these things happen, these things are showing up because of something that's true about me, and it's something that I don’t know is true about me”
“IF what I thought was true about me, was actually true about me, I would not have these things showing up in my life”
1:01:15 - 1:02:58
“If the story I was telling myself about who I am and how I’m living was true, I would not be in the bedevilments at 20 years of sobriety”
1:04:22- 1:06:36
“Can I see that these are the manifestations of my unmanageability, my untreated alcoholism, and my spiritual malady”
1:09:05- 1:15:30
“If this was exactly the way I wanted it could I still drink over it?” I.e. $10 mill, The hottest Wife, The Greatest Husband, The Dream Home
1:23:50 -1:32:10 (end)
The Cement that holds us together…..
What is the solution? The Solution is the reliance on a Power of the Universe
When we read We Agnostics - Mike wants us to highlight or underline the things that point out our lack of reliance on God (Spirit of the Universe)
Recording 11 basically stops at Page 53.
RECORDING 12
We Agnostics
Are the Stones properly in Place?
Mike sees Alcohol as a symptom of a far greater problem for him
“If you are trying to stop doing something and you can’t stop doing it on your own- you and I have the same problem”
13:20 - 17:48 (leading us into something big and interesting and scientific)
“There’s a part of my mind that uses intellect and language to Understand things”
“The second step is where we ask for Reasons consent to move forward on this spiritual progression”
17:50 - 41:06
Mike discusses an experience he had with a course he took ……..
THIS IS GREAT AND IMO NECESSARY TO LISTEN IN ITS ENTIRETY
COURSE NAME, “EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS”
51:00 - 55:40
“Not important that our intellect fully understands this power of the universe.”
“If it was a requirement that I understood things I wouldn’t be able to do anything”
1:14:23 - 1:29:30
“The third choice is always the first choice in disguise” which turns into God is Nothing
“Half measures avail me nothing- HALF MEASURES SHOULD AT LEAST AVAIL BE 25%”
“Spiritual experiences happen in a moment. They don’t happen in the future ,they don’t happen in forever- they happen right now. So my self reliance discussion about this is oh I can’t make God everything because eventually I’m going to fuck that up and thats not gonna work - and Im tripping up in some past experience….”
“GOD IS EVERYTHING IS ABOUT RIGHT NOW”
“This thing that my self-reliance is asking me to do which is to come up with an idea of God being everything FOREVER!” That is a self reliant idea. That is not a spiritual idea
“I’m never going to get to tell you a story on how I made God is Everything FOREVER”
“When I look at the things on the lists, they put me in a place where God is Nothing right now”
“This self reliant concept that I have to live on a Spiritual basis is not what it means to live on a Spiritual Basis”
“I have gotten to a place where I understand that my Spiritual Condition cannot be replaced by any of these things on those lists”.
“if I actually made this Spiritual Life, This Power, This Relationship, the top priority in my life- the Most Important thing in my life - what would my life look like?”
Notes:
If you would like to set up a calendar link so people can make appointments with you, people are using Calendly and Calendar Hero (or use whatever service you like). If you send me a link to make appointments with you I will add it to the list.
Here is a link to a list of appointment calendars for people who are available to discuss the work:
#^https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17p9a6rcEOVnhD5n6vFvCMXUFAde8XGO3WBuLLSrsKqQ/edit?usp=sharing PDF Files Open to Be Marked Up:
Open PDF file of Chapter 4 - We Agnostics - (pp. 44-57)
#^https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ow821MYghdc7ALmww6xpSg7iqXxDuzRU/view?usp=sharing Open PDF file of Chapter 5 - How It Works - (pp. 58-71)
#^https://drive.google.com/file/d/12HCDmPjjRcxVXSrZ1ecWHTqXdaNTaeke/view?usp=sharing Open PDF file of Chapter 6 - Into Action - (pp. 72-88)
#^https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IVmhSWTWZ61e-lmOZIybMCht0jEU6JOp/view?usp=sharing Open PDF file of Chapter 7 - Working With Others - (pp. 89-103)
#^https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mvq6ruoaFne41H8sfOIasr6SH6uBhPKH/view?usp=sharing Open PDF file of Chapter 11 (A Vision for You)
#^https://drive.google.com/file/d/152wNHhUsSrF50e9-i6nTvur5DI4bjUyI/view?usp=sharing Reminder:
Everything about this workshop including the previous recordings from 2020 (scroll to the bottom) are posted at:
#^https://redmatrix.us/channel/stones The Monday Wednesday and Friday meetings are at 5pm Pacific Time at the same link as the workshop:
#^https://us04web.zoom.us/j/550885842 If you know people who are interested, please feel free to invite them to join us and catch up if you like. The link to sign up for the mailing list if you are not on it already is here:
#^https://bit.ly/3bwWLuZ Looking forward to seeing you all again next Sunday!