ONLINE Wed, Aug 13: Filo Sophie King -Guest

"I have written a short story and some questions to use as a springboard for our inquiry/discussion:

Searching for Gold
A young man once heard someone talking about a wondrous gold discovery he had found. This person was so ecstatic that the young man thought to himself, “I too must go in search of gold so that I may be as happy as he is.” So, after getting a few directions as to where to begin his search, he set off in earnest. The days turned into months, which turned into years that turned into decades. And he still had not found any gold. One day, after climbing a steep snow covered mountain, with the summit nowhere in sight, no shelter, and a storm on the way, he sat down on a boulder, completely exhausted and feeling more despondent than he had ever felt, began to sob.
A little later an old woman passed by, heading down the mountain. When she saw the old man crying, her heart went out to him and she asked, “Dear sir, why are you crying?” He replied, “I have spent my entire life looking for gold in order to be happy, but here I am at the end of my life and I have still not found any gold.” The woman smiled and said, “Brush the snow off the boulder you are sitting on.” The old man did as he was told and underneath he saw a bright shiny yellow metal. “That’s gold…” the old woman said. “This?” Said the man, “But I’ve been seeing this ever since I began my search many years ago!” “Yes, quite so,” the old woman said as she turned and continued down the mountainside. The old man began to cry again, but this time they were tears of joy.

Participants are invited to write down their initial reactions to the story.
And then deeply inquire into the following questions:
Was story useful or not?
Why was it useful or why wasn’t it useful?
Now take a look into the thoughts that are answering the questions.
Are the thoughts sitting on beliefs, attitudes, experiences? What are those?
What is noticing the thoughts?
Ever since thoughts first began to arise has there not always been a noticing of them?
Has there not always been a noticing of whatever comes into our experience?"
Is that ‘noticing’ the “gold” being referred to?

*************************************
Filo Sophie King (a pseudonym) will also be one of the presenters at this month's Aug 22-24 TAT Retreat weekend at the Claymont Mansion, eastern WV. He is described in the weekend's summary as:
"One of many unpretentious, extraordinary people doing their part as friends along the path to spiritual awakening. He is the author of Imaginary Conversations with Imaginary People: Awakening to the Unspeakable through Enlightened Dialogue
(Available at Amazon Books)

Here are some quotations:
"What you think of as nothing is in truth, everything.”
“Remember it is all only a dream.”
“Realize that what you want is not up to you, and will never be achieved by you, even though it is what you are.”
“See that everything has already happened, and yet nothing has happened.”
“Accept your destiny, whatever it is and however long it takes.”
“Surrender, yet keep going, for love."
And from the Amazon description of his book:
"To be awake is to continuously recognize the Immediacy of life, its utter spontaneity, its aliveness. And to know without a shadow of a doubt that You are not separate from this Immediacy, and never have been. And so the good news is You are already awake. The bad news is you probably don’t believe, or even know that you are already awake. You believe you are a separate, independently volitional, individual. This is because you are identified with a group of ego-i’s, a gang of “me’s” that are desperately hanging onto that belief, hanging on for dear life, in the hope that You don’t suddenly realize the truth; that You are the Immediacy, the totality of All, and always have been.
In order to forestall their death, the “me’s” will take you on a years or decades long journey through suffering and doubt, all in search of what you already are, and you can bet your bottom dollar they would take you to the grave in that condition if they could. Many people embark on a spiritual search, looking for what they already are. For a time I was one of them..."
**More information regarding the TAT Weekend Retreat Aug 22-24 can be found here under the Events section: tatfoundation.org**