Hello everyone,

Since no one made it to last week's meet up, Im scheduling this this week. Hopefully we will be all dug out by then. If there is a poor response by wed afternoon, I will cancel it and we'll get back to our 'normal' every other wed. so stay tuned. Please try to respond by tuesday evening.
this is a repeat of last weeks meetup info.
At this meetup we will continue on to Chapter 2 of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. Please read the chapter and highlight or make notes on anything that resonates with you or you have questions about or you just want to discuss.

Here are the exercises from Oprah's website from the webcast:

Awakening Exercise for Chapter 2: Listen for the Voice in Your Head
Oprah.com
Notice the voice in your head.
A few times a day, listen quietly for the voice in your head, the stream of continuous self-talk. Then ponder the following questions. Just be with the questions. Don't necessarily try to answer them

* Am I the thoughts that are going through my head?
* Or, am I the one who is aware that these thoughts are going through my head?

Pay attention to the gap between your thoughts—when one thought subsides and before another arises. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. When these gaps occur, you disidentify from your mind and feel a certain stillness and peace inside you. This is the essence of meditation and the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment.

Use these next days to try these exercises out and share with the group your experiences.

These questions are from the workbook, please take the time to work on these quewstiona dn share with the group:

Ego: The Current State of Humanity

In Chapter 1, you began to explore how to wake up and be present in each moment. This week, use your workbook to help you unravel your true identity from your ego's attachments.

As you read this chapter, use the workbook questions below, as well as Your Flower and the Awakening Exercises, to help you make the book's message real in your every day life. After you watch the Chapter 2 webcast, you can change or add to your answers, or write down anything from class that confused, moved or surprised you.

1. On pages 30–33, Eckhart tells the story of a woman on the subway who appeared “quite insane.” Later in the story, he realizes there were only differences in degree between that woman and himself—and all of us—because we all have a “voice in the head” that we mistake as our self. Start listening to that “voice in the head” as often as you can. Pay attention to any repetitive thought patterns, particularly negative ones about yourself, your life or other people. Write down any such repetitive thought patterns that you detect.

2. In childhood, we start looking for a sense of self in the things we want and get. "My toy later becomes my car, my house, my clothes" (p. 35). Things themselves are not bad, but our identification with those things keeps us unsatisfied and unhappy. Investigate your relationship with the world of things, and in particular, things that are designated with the word my. Be alert and honest. Take some time to honestly answer the following questions from page 38, using examples from your daily life:

Do certain things induce a subtle feeling of importance or superiority? Do you casually mention things you own or show them off to increase your sense of worth?

Does the lack of them make you feel inferior to others who have more than you? Do you feel resentful and somehow diminished in your sense of self?

3. "There are people who have renounced all possessions but have a bigger ego than some millionaires. If you take away one kind of identification, the ego will quickly find another" (p. 44). What do you think this means?

4. "No matter what your body's appearance is on the outer level, beyond the outer form it is an intensely alive energy field" (p. 52). Close your eyes for a moment and see if you can feel the life energy inside your hands. This is your “inner body.” Make it a habit this week to feel the inner body in your hands as often as you can. If you like, you can incorporate other parts of the body—feet, legs, arms, chest, abdomen and so on—into that feeling until you are aware of the inner body as a global sense of aliveness. This kind of body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is also a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. Record your experiences here.

5. Have you ever had the experience of standing before the open refrigerator, not really hungry, but looking for something anyway? Many people try to fill up their life with food, drink, drugs or other addictive behavior. The “need for more” can turn into insatiable hunger. The next time you find yourself reaching for something you think you want, get in touch with your inner body—your “essence identity”—and see what happens to your “need for more.” Record your experiences here.

6. Whenever loss occurs, we can either resist or yield. "Yielding means inner acceptance of what is. You are open to life. Resistance is an inner contraction, a hardening of the shell of the ego. You are closed. … When you surrender, a new dimension of consciousness opens up. … Your action will be in alignment with the whole and supported by creative intelligence. … Circumstances and people then become helpful. … Coincidences happen" (p. 57–58). Have you ever had an experience of loss that you resisted? Have you had an experience of loss that you yielded to? What happened? Write about these experiences.

Also, if you wish go to Oprah's website and listen to the webcast for chapter 1:

http://www.oprah.com/....

Here is a link to chapter 2's webcast:

http://www.oprah.com/....

Here is a meditation technique also from Oprahs website:

Instruction on the Breath (from Jon Kabat Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living (excellent book btw. I use the companion CDs regularly)
Oprah.com
Bring your attention to your breath.
1. Assume a comfortable posture lying on your back or sitting. If you are sitting, keep the spine straight and let your shoulders drop.

2. Close your eyes if it feels comfortable.

3. Bring your attention to your belly, feeling it rise or expand gently on the in-breath and fall or recede on the out-breath.

4. Keep the focus on your breathing, "being with" each in-breath for its full duration and with each out-breath for its full duration, as if you were riding the waves of your own breathing.

5. Every time you notice that your mind has wandered off the breath, notice what it was that took you away and then gently bring your attention back to your belly and the feeling of the breath coming in and out.

6. If your mind wanders away from the breath a thousand times, then your "job" is simply to bring it back to the breath every time, no matter what it becomes preoccupied with.

7. Practice this exercise for 15 minutes at a convenient time every day, whether you feel like it or not, for one week and see how it feels to incorporate a disciplined meditation practice into your life. Be aware of how it feels to spend some time each day just being with your breath without having to do anything.

That's it for this week! Enjoy! Stay in the moment!