By Calvin Harris, H.W., M.
A Day in the life – September 02, 2016 – 4:45 a.m. Random thoughts going through my head as I am in that zone between asleep and fully awake, still in bed, before moving through the day:
Today starts The Prosperos Assembly, at the Westin Hotel, in Long Beach, California. Much has gone into the preparation of this Assembly “It feels like a birth; it should, more than 9 months has gone into its creation.”
“Make the effort and look for the Unexpected.”- Calvin Harris, H.W., M. strange to hear that statement from me. It must have come from the themes and images that have been playing out in my head all this week, such as:
Lost Horizon (1937), a film produced and directed by Frank Capra for Columbia Pictures based on James Hilton’s best-selling 1933 novel. In the story, a motley band of people find themselves thrown together on a plane, during War, in an attempt to escape from danger or death in China and find safety in England, but they find this plane ride delivers them to a very different and unexpected reality after an arduous and difficult climb together as “companions at the crossroads.”
OR
Thane’s Teacher, George Gurdjieff (Mr. G.), who I have been told by Thane had a large group of pupils that followed him in crossing the Caucasus mountains during World War I across Eastern Europe to safety, through the raging battle lines of Bolsheviks and Cossacks in turn. With the help of his students, Gurdjieff eventually established a school in Fontainbleu, France, for the study and practice of methods of spiritual self-transformation, where Thane was privileged to attend. The Transformation was in the unlearning of what they “thought they could not do.”
I am up now, the time 7:10 a.m. Out on the Patio having coffee and in discussion with houseguest Cookie James, Richard Hartnett, We are discussing our histories together and how our lives have changed over the years through our friendship and association – Quotes come to mind that will have seemed to pushed this Assembly gathering forward, at lease for me:
Thomas Merton wrote, “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.”
“Never think of results, just do!” – Gurdjieff
“All real living is meeting.” – Martin Buber
“Love well, be loved and do something of value.” – Aristotle
“Give thanks to unknown blessings already on their way.”
— Native American proverb
Somewhere during the conversation, a discussion on the brain and how we could tap into conscious knowing by way of using science and art/music techniques of learning to rewire the brain. To have us do something different, to have a different outcome.
While this conversation is going on, I slipped into a revery of my thoughts:
When I was very young (I know that it is hard to believe I was ever very young) The world was still reeling from World War II, people were sick, tired, exhausted and disgusted with the wars. The political lies and intrigues to gain power, and the suffering caused by the war. It was only then that people of the world were willing to work together to put forth the efforts needed to change their world for the better. Strange that the movie, “Lost Horizon,” comes to mind again, where through the efforts of these characters on a path to somewhere from their former lives, they reach the summit Shangri-la, the Valley of the Blue Moon, Paradise – a place that offered far more than comfort or safety of their intended destination of England. But not without the ordeal to reach the summit, a trip that cost some much more than personal resources, time, money, energy, rather a chance to look at their core values, a chance to make a choice to go or to stay and work for “Paradise.”
Then Mr. G’s students came to mind, undergoing a trek which would mean the end of one way of life for the unknown. “Never think of results, just do!” Gurdjieff said. To march students across a continent, feeling unprepared for such a physical and ego deflating! experience because of the assurance in his teaching of truth and the power of “unlearning”. To make the theory of the classroom manifest itself in their daily practice and to a new reality.
I was thinking I did not know what the Assembly would hold, but I hoped through the months in preparations we could present an opportunity for our fellow Companions attending this Assembly to find after their efforts and struggles with expenses, travel, trust issues, and other challenges would, like the Companions in the Movie and Mr. G’s students, discover a truth buried in this ordeal that presented them with a new reality, and like the efforts of the companions…
I slipped out of this reverie in time to have my notes, clothes, toiletries ready and packed to put into Bob Biddle’s car (he had volunteered to drive me to the Westin Hotel for the Event.) Strange, but the last items that I brought out to put in his car were the Hawaiian Waikiki floral bouquet, and the four single strained “Ti leaf’ teacher’s lei from Island Floral for each of our podium teaching presenters. I thought a moment about Thane, “Uncle” George Naope and Hawaii.
On being dropped off at the Westin Hotel, and after unloading the car and stepping through its swing doors into its Lobby, a smile had come across my face, for symbolically I had entered “Paradise,” the Aloha Spirit of Agape. There came to my ears the ancient chants, Hawaiian music, the sight of the sway of young men and women in the storytelling moves of the hula, and the smell of tuberoses and plumeria Flowers. An omen that for this weekend, as Thomas Merton wrote, “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.” That my “companions at the crossroads” had arrived, proud and willing to share the journey and the reflections of transforming fears into self-actualizing servants of Consciousness.
To Be Continued…
