Thursday Night Zoom

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JIM PETERSON

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Dec 31, 2025, 1:13:44 PM12/31/25
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Hey Zoomsters,
 
I meant to get in touch with you sooner, but I got distracted by life.  Better late than too late.  Tomorrow is January 1, a day of celebration and holiday.  Friends of mine have expressed a desire to come to my house tomorrow and watch football on my big screen tv.  As an old geezer who lives alone, it's hard for me to turn down opportunities to be socially engaged with friends when the opportunity arises.  So I've decided to party with my friends tomorrow and to put our next gathering off until Thursday, Jan. 8.  I'm spending a lot of time in spiritual inquiry and exploration, and I think I'll have something for us to discuss at our next gathering.  Not that we really need something specific.  Just gathering tends to awaken us to our own questions, to the pleasures and challenges and amazing gifts of engaging with each other.  I hope you've all had a great Christmas and that the new year offers the potential for fresh insights and adventures of all kinds, especially if they emerge from the mundane everyday life.
 
Sheri and I wish you all the best until we meet again next week.
 
Jim and Sheri

Jeffrey Angelson

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Dec 31, 2025, 1:37:56 PM12/31/25
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Happy New Year Everyone!!

Jeff Angelson


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Dan Kilpatrick

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Dec 31, 2025, 2:58:29 PM12/31/25
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Jim, while I don't participate in the Thursday meetings, your explanation grabbed me. Here's to socializing and life intervening, always unexpectedly!

Best wishes to you and all in the year ahead and beyond. 

-Dan

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Paul Rezendes

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Jan 1, 2026, 11:03:26 AMJan 1
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Happy new year everyone.

Paul
















Jeffrey Angelson

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Jan 1, 2026, 1:22:13 PMJan 1
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Happy New Year 🎈 

Jeff Angelson


JIM PETERSON

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Jan 7, 2026, 8:09:59 PMJan 7
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Hey Zoomsters,
 
So shall we resume our conversations?  I think it's "important," so I will be there tomorrow night to keep it going.  For me, there is such a thing as "spiritual contagion," and I feel that we are spreading the possibility of insight, understanding, realization with our conversations.  This contagion is among ourselves but it also transmits to those outside of our group to whom we speak about these things.  What I mean by "spiritual" might not be exactly the same as what you mean, but I feel it's close enough to resonate with others.  So much is coming into my field of inquiry and deepening my spiritual life that I am overwhelmed.  I can't articulate all of it at this point.  I hope the openness fostered by this group and others is facilitating and deepening the unfolding of your own "process."  I once said in this group that what matters is how we treat the next person we meet, and I'll stand by that.  And yet it can't be a prescription.  Kindness, generosity, compassion are more thoroughly becoming us.  There is no "I" acquiring these qualities.  We can see this distinction through self-observation, in my opinion.  I want to mention one more thing, and then I'll pose a question.  I've been looking into what Richard Rose called "betweenness."  It has other names in other spiritual systems.  I am speaking about my understanding of this, which may not conform exactly to what has been said by others.  To live or operate between is to be a bridge, a conduit.  Without these bridges there can be no connection.  Yes, I know everything is already one; nevertheless, these bridges are vital in my opinion.  That may be an example of betweenness.  Another example: Many of us say that the Absolute is totally impersonal.  Others of us say that the Absolute is the most personal of all.  How do we bridge these two understandings?  To be the bridge is to have access to both the impersonal presence of the Absolute and the personal presence as well.  My statements are only expressions of how I am currently seeing.  They are not meant to be the "Truth" for you.  I know you know that, but it's good to keep that clear.  We talk about the intimacy of lovers.  But it's nothing compared to the intimacy of THIS.  What could be more personal than that?  My question is, how do you experience the Absolute?  Or, do you feel that the Absolute cannot be experienced?  Or is this a non-question for you, having no importance whatsoever?  Okay, that's three questions sort of rolled into one.  Thanks for tolerating my longish rambling comments.  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow evening after our longish break.
 
Jim and Sheri
 
Jim Peterson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
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Time: Jan 8, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
 
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JIM PETERSON

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Jan 14, 2026, 8:02:14 PMJan 14
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Hey Zoomsters,
 
Sheri is still on the road this week, so we will have to make do one more week without her.  So, as always, I've been considering what we may want to talk about this week.  Again, not that we need any topic ahead of time to gather and engage with each other.  But sometimes a nudge of some kind triggers some good explorations.  This last Saturday I attended another Zoom meeting similar to ours, and Steven Harrison was there.  He's the author of "Doing Nothing" and quite a few other books.  He's also a businessman and world traveler.  In this meeting, he pointed us to the actual moment we were experiencing.  Someone then asked "How do we find that?"  And then others started answering the question.  When Steven spoke again, just one more time, he asked, "Why do we need to add all of these concepts to it?"  And then he had nothing to say for the rest of the meeting as we proceeded to add more and more concepts.  Even his revealing to us that we were lost in conceptualizing didn't keep us from piling on more.  Now, this is just my interpretation of the meeting, and to be fair by the end some people had circled back to the point that Steven was making.  So if I were to pose a question or two, I might ask "Why do we prefer so strongly the conceptual answers to the visceral experience?"  Another way to ask the question is "Why is this, right here and now, not enough?"  Another way to ask it might be, "Does our infatuation with lack extend to the reality that is so present to us right now?"  Feeble attempts, but maybe they will jar something loose.  I look forward to talking with you tomorrow night.
 
Jim and Sheri
 
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JIM PETERSON

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Jan 20, 2026, 6:24:00 PMJan 20
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Hey Zoomsters, 

Though I've been away I've read the introduction blurbs Jim has written for the last two meetings. It sounded to me as though there was really rich material for exploration. I therefore wanted to open the floor up to any further insights, revelations or thoughts that may have popped up since either of those two meetings.
Let's face it! It's hard to follow in Jim's steps so I'm just gonna put his shoes on for a bit! 
If the previous has been exhausted, or doesn't kick things off, something has been front and center for me recently which might be interesting to take a deeper look at. Love. It comes up now and then but I'm not sure we've ever had it as a focal point. Below are three quotes from Sri Nisargardatta Maharaj where he describes his perspective, or perhaps experience, of love.
“Love is not selective, desire is selective. In love there are no strangers. When the centre of selfishness is no longer, all desires for pleasure and fear of pain cease; one is no longer interested in being happy; beyond happiness there is pure intensity, inexhaustible energy, the ecstasy of giving from a perennial source.”
“The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.”
“Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.”
How do you experience love? Or, what is love to you? What role, if any, does love play in awakening/self realization? 

I'm excited to see you all again! 

Sheri and Jim
 
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Time: Jan 22, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
 
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JIM PETERSON

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Jan 28, 2026, 5:15:40 PMJan 28
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Hey Zoomsters,
 
Let us gather again tomorrow evening at 7 ET if we are all willing and able.  Because of our meetings, I have become sensitive to "issues" or questions that are arising not only in our meetings but also in the other Zoom meetings I attend and the Diehards online discussion group also.  Something that arose for me multiple times this week has to do with what we call "clinging."  As a confirmed clinger myself, I want to assure you that my words are not meant to make any claim for myself, nor are they meant to be any sort of criticism of anyone else.  I do feel, however, that clinging may be an excellent point of inquiry and exploration since it is often described as an obstruction to realization or awakening.  It seems to me that clinging is at least an unconscious habit of mind and body, and it may even be a congenital function.  In my inquiries this week, I found that the mind/body will cling to literally anything to preserve its sense of a separate, independent self.  Here, self manifests as a need for security, control, certainty.  It is an escape from the psychological/emotional "freefall" that has been coming up in our discussions lately, the freefall that sometimes describes awakening.  In one of the zoom meetings on Saturday, I decided to conduct a self-inquiry experiment with myself.  I thought I would see if I could "see" into my motivations for speaking up in that meeting.  As the meeting began, I realized the only way I could do that would be to not speak.  Sure enough, throughout the really excellent and fun meeting, I had the urge to speak, to be a part of the discussion, to say something penetrating and clever.  This impulse rose up in the body/mind like any emotion.  It could be seen wordlessly as "energy" moving in me.  Like a thought, it rose up and soon fell away.  This system was simply reacting to the environment through its layers of conditioning and habit.  I felt no interest in trying to change it or inhibit it, and I noticed that it traveled its own course in a matter of seconds.  It was also interesting to me to notice that this impulse is a form of clinging.  I was clinging to the image of myself as the one who speaks from wisdom and intelligence.  The discussion, in my mind, couldn't proceed intelligently without my input.  Ha!  It was a great discussion without me.  Perhaps even better; who knows? This was a fascinating study of this particular impulse, this form of clinging.  For me at least, it is a beautiful thing to see the movement of conditioning within me without any judgment or need to interfere.  It was THIS doing its thing.  But interestingly, the impulse weakened and I was happy not to speak.  And I wouldn't have spoken if Paul hadn't asked me near the very end if I had anything to say.  At that point, I described my experiment to the group.  And now I've described it to you.  Some questions: Is there any "benefit" to this form of inquiry related to the old exhortation to "know thyself"?  Through not-doing, are you able to see more clearly what you are unconsciously often doing?  Can we witness our minds annexing our spirituality as yet another form of clinging or selfing?  Is clinging, or anything else, really an obstacle to the discovery of "what is" or THIS?  Maybe other good questions will arise.  Thank you for your patience with my lengthy intro.  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night.
 
Jim and Sheri
 
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Jeffrey Angelson

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Jan 28, 2026, 5:55:04 PMJan 28
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Jim
I didn’t know you were clinging. I always thought you were a Klingon. ( Startrek Referencr)

Jeff Angelson


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JIM PETERSON

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Feb 4, 2026, 7:34:46 PMFeb 4
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Hey Zoomsters, 

We will meet again! 
Currently, though there is much inquiry and pointing happening, none of it has inspired a lead in for our discussion tonight. 
So! The floor is open for silence, for inquiry, for pointing, for revealing.....for Being. 

See you then! 

Sheri and Jim
 
 
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JIM PETERSON

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Feb 11, 2026, 7:31:18 PM (9 days ago) Feb 11
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Hey Zoomsters,
 
I have two suggestions for our discussion tomorrow night coming from the dynamic duo of Bob H. and Jason (man of many names).  The first is a link to a short Youtube "reel" about Alan Watts and how his drinking problem was a deliberate act of awakened freedom.  I hope I interpreted that correctly.  The link is below.  The second is attached as a Word doc from Bob.  It is selections from a dialogue on the ST website about the distinction between the body/mind and the "person."  That will be clarified when you read the document.  I think these two interestingly relate and just may lead us to some inquiry.  I look forward to discussing all of this with you tomorrow evening.
 
Jim and Sheri
 
 
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From Bob Harwood 2 11 26.docx

JIM PETERSON

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Feb 18, 2026, 1:16:51 PM (2 days ago) Feb 18
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Hi Zoomsters!
It's Thursday!  
Actually, it's not. Not yet. I am writing this on Tuesday evening. 
I can't seem to help myself in soliciting your attention regarding the Women's Olympic hockey gold medal round happening tomorrow - Wednesday. Though the game has not yet happened, it doesn't really need to as everyone invested already knows the outcome. 
With that said, congratulations to both teams and all the US olympic hockey fans!!! 😢

Back to regular programming. 

Angelo Dilullo. Here is a 5 minutes clip of him in Satsang answering a question regarding non-doing, restlessness and investigation of thought. 
Let's see if we can keep our focus on what is happening in the immediate experience as opposed to following thoughts, regurgitating beliefs and sharing opinions. 
Where in immediate experience is resistance arising?
Where in immediate experience is grasping arising? 
Where in immediate experience is 'me' arising?  Is that in thought? Is that in feeling? 
How are the subject/object poles being set up? 
Also, if it jives with the flow, I'd like to try a sense gate experiment. 

The video is approximately 5 minutes long. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9N8z-qI7Xs
 
With Metta, 
Sheri and Jim
 
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