Thank you all, particularly to Jack, for the opportunity to share this TSK journey with you. The posts written by everyone were wonderful to read and to consider. There are obviously so many ways to relate to this vision. Jack mentions that it took Tarthang Tulku twenty years to write TSK and perhaps it should take an equal length to read it. This reminded me of my first reading of TSK. Maaida had introduced the ideas of TSK to us, but told us not to try to tackle the book ourselves as it required introduction and guidance. Of course that was sure to make me determined to tackle it, so I ordered a copy through a local book dealer, took it on holiday with me, and read the whole book. This was about 1983/4, and I don’t think I understood a single thing in the book! So here I am 23 years later, and I’m still trying to grasp those concepts – sometimes I wonder whether I have any further grasp than I did in 1983.
This course however, has been great in helping me to relate to the breadth of the vision, and to feel reassured that any way of approaching it, providing that it is “opening” my tight focal setting, is valuable. Awareness as a Reflective Surface is a great exercise to end. It is one of my favourites and represents that wonderful ‘rightness’ which allows one to let go and just ‘be’. Maybe I do have just a little bit more “unifying clarity’.
Jack, I would like to participate in future programs. However as I will be overseas on holiday for four weeks of the first course, and also want to get to work on developing a Turiya practice book which I have been promising our senior students for some time, I think I will opt out of the next course and probably rejoin you in January. Best wishes to all of you, and thanks particularly to Peter, Arthur and David for the helpfulness of your regular comments throughout the course.
Gaynor
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