[OSList] living open space - gratitude

[Gijs van Wezel]

Thank you Tenneson,

Your phrasing: "...I feel challenged to open my heart, show up, let go (like
> watching my kids grow and watching our relationship evolve from nesting
> parenting to co-journeying humans".

Very inspiring and I am greatful for the similar realization/experience I had
during the year-end visit to china of our 2 daughters who study in NL.

Gijs





Quoting Tenneson Woolf <tenneson at berkana.org>:

> Thank you for the many stirrings here. I mostly listen on this listserve. And
> learn.
>
> I am coming to learn so much more about living open space. It has become a
> bit of a mantra for me. Way beyond method of course, which I've always known
> in my head. And so much more into life itself, self-organizing, and the
> niggly places where I feel challenged to open my heart, show up, let go (like
> watching my kids grow and watching our relationship evolve from nesting
> parenting to co-journeying humans -- something like that).
>
> With gratitude.
>
> Tenneson
>
>
> Tenneson Woolf
> tenneson at berkana.org
> 801 376 2213 (mobile)
>
> www.tennesonwoolf.com
> www.berkanacollaborative.org
> www.berkana.org
> www.artofhosting.org
>
> Twitter, Facebook: TennesonWoolf
> Skype: tenneson_woolf
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 1, 2012, at 6:00 PM, Peggy Holman wrote:
>
> > This wonderful discussion evokes a practical example for me.
> >
> > It comes from the years of Spirited Work, a community of practice that met
> 4 times a year in Open Space, using one of Angeles Arrien's archetypes as the
> theme each quarter.  (Winter - season of the warrior, Spring - the healer,
> Summer -- the visionary, Fall -- the teacher).
> >
> > Two examples seem relevant to this conversation.
> >
> > The first is the remarkable maturing that happened to people who came
> season after season, year after year.  My favorite example was a 30-something
> geeky guy who showed up one season.  His focus was on getting a girl friend
> and his lousy track record with intimate relationships.  While he is still
> single, I watched his interests and his way of relating to others
> dramatically change over the years.  He grew up.  So did the rest of us, with
> increasing non-attachment, equanimity, compassion, faith in mystery, and so
> many other qualities I associate with a buddha nature.
> >
> > Secondly, during the last couple years of Spirited Work, Mark Jones
> introduced the notion of Spirited Work as bodhi-sanga -- enlightened
> community.  I would say Open Space was pivotal to our growing in that
> direction.
> >
> > best of the new year to everyone,
> > Peggy
> >
> >
> > _________________________________
> > Peggy Holman
> > peggy at peggyholman.com
> >
> > 15347 SE 49th Place
> > Bellevue, WA  98006
> > 425-746-6274
> > www.peggyholman.com
> > www.journalismthatmatters.org
> >
> > Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into
> Opportunity
> >
> > "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get
> burnt, is to become
> > the fire".
> >   -- Drew Dellinger
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Dec 18, 2011, at 8:19 PM, Arno Baltin wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Every One,
> >>
> >> I like this discussion on connections and would comment on the
> co-incidence topic in particular
> >>
> >>  It seems to me that the connection between Buddhist Practice and Open
> Space is probably co-incidental.
> >>
> >> As following the discussion on OSLIST on connections of OST with other
> (spiritual) practices I am reading a book on a thinker and a poet of ours -
> Uku Masing. It is a collection of memories from his students, friends and
> admirers. There is a poem of his, quoted, in which he says he would rather be
> the "friend of the whole space" than exploiter of its resources.
> >> The friend of the space sounds very OS-like for me. And it reminds me of
> another co-incident of my getting closer to OST. It happened during my visit
> to US in 1992. My guide to the country was a Friend, Kersey Bradley. At the
> time he was an engineer on a cargo ship (Liberty) which took me over the
> ocean. He invited me to his home, introduced to his lovely family and helped
> to get further north from Pennsylvania. When in Worcester (MA) I met the
> local Friends and attended their meetings regularly. As looking back to these
> meetings from my experience of OST, this was and introduction into OS - the
> circle, space for expressing, listening, no particular leader of the meeting,
> the Spirit.
> >> Ten years later I was sitting in opening circle of OST led by Harrison in
> Tartu.
> >> I am grateful to these people and those co-incideces.
> >> Be well,
> >> Arno
> >>
> >>
> >>       Arno Baltin
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 2011/12/17 Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
> >> 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
> >>
> >> 7808 River Falls Dr.
> >>
> >> Potomac, MD 20854
> >>
> >> USA
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
> >>
> >> Camden, Maine 20854
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Phone 301-365-2093
> >>
> >> (summer)  207-763-3261
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> www.openspaceworld.com
> >>
> >> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
> >>
> >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
> OSLIST Go
> to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 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,
> www.change-management-toolbook.com bernd.weber at change-facilitation.org;
> Regional Phone  numbers:
> >>
> >> -Austria: +43 664 135 4828, landline + 431 5968657)
> >>
> >> -Sri Lanka: landline +94 11 2785859, iPhone +94 777740757
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> NEW: Intensive Learning Workshop
> >>
> >> "Playing with the Waves of Change"
> >>
> >> www.change-facilitation.com/
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> You want to have the design  for a "Playing with the Waves (of Change) WS
> 2 completely taylor-made according to your individual learning interests &
> needs & limitations? Then have a look to the questionnaire at
> >>
> >> www.surveymonkey.com/s/5ZDS6JQ
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> If you get Email from my account <bernd.weber at change-facilitation.org>
> please do not use the reply button but answer to <weberb at gmx.at>, because my
> change-facilitation.org INBOX is not working for the time being.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Am 13.12.2011 um 22:11 schrieb Harrison Owen:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> discover your own natural state
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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