2.2: Inside the Fellowsip: Centre Dinners

A practice regularly observed in my early days in the London Centre, but later fallen into disuse, was the Centre Dinner (dinners with the Teacher, however, continue in Apollo). One could participate as a server or as a guest. My first experience was as a guest. The idea was to create a fine dining experience. There would be a freshly ironed linen table cloth and a small centrepiece of flowers. 

The guests would be greeted at the door and their coats hung up, and then ushered into the living room where pre-dinner drinks would be served. Meanwhile other students would be working with food preparation, serving and ‘restoration’ (clearing up).

Once the guests were seated and before the start of dinner one of the serving students or one of the diners would read a poem or other inspiring text.

Everything would be done very intentionally. Courses were served to the left of each diner and empty plates taken from the right. I do not know if this is normal in high-end dining but it was supposed to symbolise giving to essence and taking away from false personality.

There would be one diner whose job it was to guide conversation. There would usually be a chosen topic, or it might flow from the poem. Diners would raise a hand if they wished to give an ‘angle’ and the designated leader would indicate who should speak.

In this way conversation was kept to a high level and on topic. While to someone not used to it this might sound tedious, in fact it allowed the mind to rest. 

The aim of events like these was to encourage presence, and this was achieved partly by what was called intentionality or using the kings of centres, which is explained later.