24 August 2020

Paul and I helped Mary with a Zoom call this morning and then sat in the garden with the dogs and our silence for quite some time. We left briefly to complete salaat and then returned to some benches near the pond in the shade. After a while, SFH appeared on his veranda, taking a seat in the sun, clearly out to be quiet and enjoy the birds and soft Lowveld breeze.

Eventually, we got up, thought about heading in for our own lunch, but then turned to walk over and greet him. He welcomed us onto his veranda and spoke with us briefly, mostly concerning his desire for us to begin work in line with the research around Quantum Mechanics he had first indicated on our sunset walk.

Before this, though, he said that the whole business is about learning to stop and go beyond the self. Once you know how to do this, you can have an occupation and a skill and all the rest of it, but “the highest skill is to go beyond the self”. He offered us a condensed version of his cosmogony to illustrate the point, talking about the two zones as they relate, in particular, to the work he wishes us to do and how this links with attaining full consciousness or going beyond the self (these being one and the same thing).

He himself was sitting half in shade, half in sunlight. Reclining ever so often to get his head into the shade and better see the two of us. He again indicated how no-one, no teacher, no guru can give you anything and how everyone over-complicates this incredibly simple message and practice of self-knowledge. We are both light and shadow, and his very position reclining in that chair halfway between sun and shade illustrated this point most wonderfully, as well as demonstrating his own ease with the simple fact of this.

After talking, he invited Paul to show me his balcony - an almost unbelievably tranquil place with beautiful music playing and an atmosphere that will not fit into these few words. He indicated a particular plant growing near where he was seated and spoke about how he chews it each morning as it has many beneficial Ayurvedic properties. I took a close look at the shape of its leaves, trying to imprint it in memory, though I have now forgotten its name. I will have to ask Paul.

Lunch was, as ever, delicious and nourishing.