The Way of the Warrior: Holding Space for The Fourfold Way

[Julie Smith]

Thanks for your comments, Harrison.  I have also experienced this as a genuine (and friendly) open space.

Harrison wrote:

As for the correction (addition) -- I would have to take some issue with the notion that "discord" has put in it ugly appearance here on this LIST. Perhaps it will, 'cause we all seem to be pretty human too. But what I have experienced is a genuine open space in which all four Ways, Warrior, Visionary, Healer, and Teacher are all showing up right on cue. There are differences to be sure, and indeed the "system" requires those differences. Sometimes those differences can be pretty sharp. Healers and Warriors sometimes have a difficult time understanding each other. As indeed Teachers and Visionaries often seem to be singing from a different song sheet. But Viva La Differance!  The only time we get in trouble, I think, is when somebody comes to the conclusion that their Way is the only one. Then the Great Conversation ceases, and that is the true disaster

As I read that I started thinking about the value of the Great Conversation and also the value of finding the Way.

I wonder sometimes whether the Great Conversation itself sometimes gets defined as the Way, as if the conversation itself is the point of it all...... while others are clearly pointing to a belief that there is, indeed, a Way.  A one, true, eternal Way.

So, thinking slowly now...... if someone says... 

"The only time we get in trouble, I think, is when somebody comes to the conclusion that their Way is the only one.  Then the Great Conversation ceases, and that is true disaster."

...is that an exclusion, a closing of space, to the idea that there is (or might be) a Way?  

Would it be helpful to acknowledge that one of the reasonable options available to us is to believe there IS a Way?

....And to acknowledge that for those who believe there is a Way, the Great Conversation is one of many means, not an end.  It is sometimes a finger pointing at the moon, but never the moon itself.

....And disaster is not the ceasing of the Great Conversation.  Disaster is not finding the Way.

So, smiling now...... I'm remembering the first day I joined this list.  I was lured into immediate participation by Birgitt's question (to Kenoli, I think) about the nature of truth.  Is it relative, she asked, or absolute?  Are we simply having THAT conversation, over and over?  Have we just renamed things and confused ourselves?  Are those who focus on the value of the Great Conversation our relativists?  And those who value finding the Way our absolutists?

And if so...... perhaps there comes a time when we recognize we're traveling around the same circle again.  I wonder if there's a way off.  

I've heard many here say how much they value diversity, the idea that all our voices are important and need to be heard.  That means a lot when the place we have most recently come from deliberately excluded some segments of Us.  But at some point we achieve that, don't we?  And then what?  What happens after diversity?   Is integration next?   I'm starting to wonder what integration might look like.

Julie  




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20010925/e59c0636/attachment-0017.htm>