Meditation and Open Space

[Harrison Owen]

At 06:05 PM 11/23/2001 -0900, you wrote:
>Harrison, I find your statement "for a long time it has been obvious that
>for the facilitator of Open Space, it is much more about "being" than
>"doing,"" to be very refreshing.  I think the mediation profession, as a
>whole, is less comfortable with that idea.  Your statement may be somewhat
>less true for mediation because I assume (without really knowing) that
>mediation engages with people at a level of deeper interpersonal conflict
>than is engaged in most OST events.  In many mediations, there are moments
>when "doing" something seems to be critical to keeping the conversation
>moving in a constructive way. Still, I think the mediation profession
>generally would benefit from taking a closer look at the quality of
>"being" that is inevitably linked to the quality of "doing."  I also agree
>wholeheartedly that a meditation practice is a very useful way to attain a
>helpful state of being. (I love the lingual closeness of mediation and
>meditation..... though it can be tricky. I've found sometimes that people
>confuse mediation, meditation and medication!)

At least in my practice, mediation in Open Space is just like anything else
in Open Space -- It seems to happen all by itself. The people do it -- with
no help required from me. I recognize that this observation may run
somewhat counter to the prevailing theory and practice of  some Mediators,
but there it is. I would guess that there are situations where a more
active role might be required, but I have never run into one. Even when the
level of conflict is very high and the issues are old and deep. For
example, in South Africa in the days shortly after Mendela's release from
prison we  did Open Spaces with such folks as Zulus, Hausa, Afrikaners --
all together, and no problem. I have often wondered why this is true, and
my best guess is that The Law of Two Feet provides the needed
"safety-valve"  Folks come together because they want to solve some issues.
At the same time I think it to be true that nobody (save for a few
pathological types) really like to blow their cool, so to speak. The desire
to solve the issue brings them together, and the Law enables each
individual to judge when they need a walk around the block to "cool off." I
have seen this lots of time, and never seen it to fail.

Harrison


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-469-9269
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh

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