[OSList] Individual and collective master (was: OST - Open Systems Thinking)

[Harrison Owen]

Bernhard – having said that “I was in”(for more discussion) – I guess I just
sort of disappeared without further word. However, being at a loss for words
is not a common state for me J -- and the topic you raise is, and has been,
of intense interest to me.

 

The similarity of the Open Space experience and the Buddhist practice and
experience caught my attention some time ago. And, as I said in my prior
post, it is not just Buddhism but many, perhaps most, of the other great
traditions. But Buddhism is certainly a great place to start. 

 

I am not at all sure what the initiating moment was, but I rather think it
was when I noticed a common phrase that folks used in the closing circle. It
didn’t happen every time, but more often than not, somebody would remark, “I
feel like I have come home.” Nobody ever defined precisely what they meant
by “home,” and maybe they couldn’t – so I always took it at face value.
Something about feeling natural and comfortable, just the way I am. The
implication was that in other situations the feeling was being un-natural,
ill at ease and to some extent inauthentic or “put on.” What popped into my
head was a phrase I had often encountered in the Buddhist literature about
seeing/meeting my “original face.” 

 

When combined with observed and/or reported feelings and behaviors in Open
Space, such as: --  focus and presence, the capacity to treat others with
respect, the ability to listen and engage the other with depth and
sensitivity, an expanded sense of vision and possibility, renewed hope,
fundamental life change, an acute sense of spaciousness such that the
present moment (Now) just grew and grew
 it seemed like something was going
on. The fact that most or all of these things are also the reported results
of Buddhist Practice (certainly my practice which is pretty much Buddhist)
was more than sufficient to alert my curiosity bump. Something was
definitely going on. But what and why? 

 

That Buddhist Practice could produce such results was understandable to me
given the original insights of Gautama, centuries of intense study, communal
practice, and no small amount of discipline. But what about Open Space? We
just sat in a circle, created a bulletin board, opened a market
place
originally inspired by two martinis. And our history in this
enterprise is hardly extensive, at least in comparison to the Buddhist
community. I confess that it made absolutely no sense at all.

 

The questions, however,  are fairly clear even if the answers are a tad
wispy. What are the connections? What is the means/mechanism? You mentioned
a “collective Master function” – about which I would love to hear more. But
my thoughts have been going in a slightly different direction. No certainty
for sure – but just to share.

 

First for the connection. It seems to me that the connection between
Buddhist Practice and Open Space is probably co-incidental. But that does
not make it a weak connection, for co-incidental, as I am using the word
here means that the two are connected through a prior (coincident)
connection
 with the power of  self organization. Yes I know – the whole
notion of self organization nowhere shows up in the Buddhist literature, so
far as I know. But if the present general scientific contention is correct
that self-organization has been operative for at least 13.7 billion years it
would be rather odd if we (present day humans) were the first to notice the
effect upon human life, be that individual or collective. So my thought
(suggestion) would be that the Buddhist community, being the keen observers
of the human condition that they are, discovered a (the) fundamental power
of life (by whatever name) and created a practice enabling human beings to
fully align themselves with that power. Once in alignment, the experience is
of full authenticity, being fully what we really are, seeing our original
face. Or coming home.  Is this really true? I don’t know, but given another
lifetime, I would surely like to find out. I guess I should have been a
Hindu?

 

My story about Open Space is that, quite serendipitously (dumb blind luck),
we arrived at a similar place by a very different route. Every time we open
space, the process of self organization is initiated, re-initiated – or
maybe just brought to our consciousness. And the net result is that we (the
participants) find ourselves in a environment which allows/invites us to be
as we really are. Almost without knowing it, we find ourselves in alignment
with a fundamental process of the cosmos. Once there, we experience a
strangely comfortable world, which looks just like the “everyday” world, but
feels rather different. We have come home.  Obviously, not everybody in
every Open Space shares this experience. For some people it just doesn’t
“take,” or if it does “ take” the level of resistance is such that the new
experience is perceived as strange, weird, or worse.  But for many people in
multiple times and places over our 25 year adventure – it definitely feels
like we have come home. At least that is a possible story.

 

Would I suggest that Open Space somehow supplants the  Buddhist experience?
A straight simple shot to Nirvana? Absolutely not! But I do think the two
experiences can be very complementary. At least that has certainly how it
has been for me. Even though a first encounter with Open Space can feel like
“coming home,” that homecoming is often taken with baby steps. What is
missing is a deep appreciation of the full power and possibilities at hand.
It is sort of like coming back to the old homestead with lots of warm
feelings, but little knowledge of all the rooms and spaces, nooks and
crannies that await our exploration and appropriation.   In my own case, it
was my practice (largely Buddhist, as I said) that became my guide, both as
facilitator and participant. I don’t have a clue as to whether others might
share – they will have to speak for themselves.

 

So if it were true that the operative power of self organization were the
connecting link between the Buddhist experience and Open Space would that
somehow consign both to a realm dominated by a purely physical force,
thereby reducing each to the level of a side show in the great drama of
Physics? Do we suddenly and necessarily find ourselves in the company of all
those who choose to understand life and our part in it simply as the product
of quarks and neutrinos, hormones and peptides? What about those other
realities that some of us call Spirit or Consciousness? The choice is
clearly there to be made, but from where I sit, the two poles (Spirit and
matter) and not mutually exclusive.

 

One of the oldest discussions of humankind is the precedence of
Spirit/Consciousness and matter. Is matter the product of
Spirit/Consciousness? Or did it somehow occur that matter evolved to become
conscious? For the vast majority of human history it was understood that
matter emerges from Consciousness, indeed I suspect  that is the majority
opinion even today. Recently, however, the relationship has been reversed,
at least in parts of the Scientific West. I suspect there will never come a
day when the issue is resolved at the level of proof. It will remain a
matter of discussion, choice, and experience, which I rather think to be a
good thing.

 

Speaking personally, however, I am clear about my experience and my choice.
In the beginning, indeed before any possibility of beginning – there is
Consciousness/Spirit. Given this experience and choice, self organization
assumes the position of a manifestation of consciousness. Self Organization
is what Consciousness does in time and space, along with many other things.
Is this true? I don’t think we will ever know, and indeed the wondrous gift
of this Great Cloud of Unknowing is a less than gentle reminder of our
limitations. In the meantime, and all that said – It works for me. Those of
you who know me will hardly be surprised. After all I am the guy who opened
his first book on Organizations with the line, “Spirit is the most important
thing.” I haven’t changed.

 

Enough of this esoterica! And if you have read this far you may well be
asking yourself, “Where’s the Beef?” What possible practical benefit? What
makes you think that filling the space of OSLIST with this sort of stuff
could have any useful application. Fair question.

 

I think there are at least two reasons. The first I might summarize under
the heading of “Beer in the Fridge.”

 

If you are thirsty for a beer in my house, all you really have to know is
how to open the refrigerator door and open a can.  The fact that major
scientific advances, over multiple years,  possessing mind bending
complexity – lie behind the coldness of the beer just waiting your parched
throat doesn’t really affect a thing. If you want the beer, get it. On the
other hand if you are a real aficionado for whom all the little things
count, you really do need to know something about Refrigeration Mechanics,
the flow of gasses, the way pressure can raise and lower temperatures. Same
thing with Open Space. If all you want to do is have a good meeting, no
problem. Sit in a circle, create a bulletin board, open a market place, and
go to work. Ain’t Rocket Science. However, should you want to enhance the
quality of the space, raise the level of impact, extend the positive effects
for yourself and the participants, looking under the hood, thinking about
the details, asking impossible questions
 is probably a good place to start.

 

My second reason may be a little more abstract. And it is all about the 5th
Principle: Wherever it happens is the right place.”  For me the cutting edge
in what we do is not so much about doing an event but rather coming  to an
understanding that Open Space is a 24X7 reality and that we may learn how to
enhance the power of the experience wherever that might be taking place

Tahrir Square, OWS, or the kitchen table. Learning to do that well involves,
at the least, looking for linkages and connections – potential allies in a
common undertaking. 

 

So I am done for the moment. As I said at the start, being at a loss for
words in not my common state. Maybe I should work on that?

 

Harrison    

 

 

 

 

Harrison Owen

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(summer)  207-763-3261

 

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Bernhard Weber
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 12:13 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: [OSList] Individual and collective master (was: OST - Open Systems
Thinking)

 

Harrison and all

 

I like the recently upcoming discussion about the history of Systems
Thinking, but I would also like to make a big jump from this. 

 

I am not shure, but to me it seems to not be by pure "accident". 

1. Recently Stanley park wrote "Now is the territory of Peace- Nirvana" 

2. And some days later you Harrison wrote "Open the space of your life and
the lives of those around you, and you will discover your own natural
state". 

 

"Your own natural state", that is exactly how Buddhist masters (like e.g.
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, the contemporary Tibetan Dzogchen-teacher)
refer to what is often called enlightenment, liberation, Rigpa, ... 

 

Although it is not really possible to "feel" something behind the words of a
written posting, I always felt some kind of reluctance by side of you, when
somebody in the group related the effects of OST or the OS spirit to central
Buddhist concepts. Would you prefer to not discuss it (treat it as a tabu)
or am I completely wrong here? (And my feeling demasked as pseudo-feeling;-)

 

I am here in Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 7th year of residence, the
place/space where Gautamas words have been put into Pali language and
written down some hundreds of years after his passing away/paranirvana. So
all this is resonating in me as a kind of effect of the Spirit of the
space/genius loci. 

 

Anyhow I would like to invite you and all to explore, if the following idea
makes sense: 

 

What the two citations above seem to hint at in my eyes , is a quite
specific function/effect of Open Space: being a trigger for processes during
which not only things get done, as it has been pointed out again and again,
but a trigger for processes that may also lead to enlightenment. If there is
some value in that idea, then OS might be a collective equivalent of a
master

 

A master also can only be a trigger, because as already the historical
Gautama (called the Buddha) stated, that he can, on basis of his own
experience only show the way, point to the right direction, but the
practitioner has to do the work. There is no way that the master can do it
(the full liberation, the reaching of the natural state) for the student.

 

So I am wondering if the efficiency and effectiveness of OST in getting
things done, is not intrinsicly knitted together with (alias dialectically
connected to) this "collective master function". Two sides of one medal?

 

Of course I am not interested to tie OS to Buddhism as a belief system. 

But of course my understanding of the ways to enlightenment is also not tied
to a specific belief system. I have luckily been exposed to "passion,
responsability and love " in- and outside of OST in various cultures like my
own Christian culture in Austria, Candomblé in Brazil, animistic cults (as
the christians call them) in Africa, Buddhism of the Theravada, Mahayana,
and Tibetan tradition (Buddhism fused with Bön), Yoga in India...  And it
always works and in all kinds of places.

 

So once again: might it be legitimate, make sense and be useful to look at
OST as a kind of set up for a collective master without a present individual
guru?

Or not?

 

Bernd/Colombo

 

 

 

 

 

. 


Bernd Weber

Change Facilitation s.r.o., A Global Partner Who Makes Change Happen in
Complex Environments; www.change-facilitation.com,
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Am 13.12.2011 um 22:11 schrieb Harrison Owen:





discover your own natural state

 

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