[OSList] WOSonOS

Wed Oct 17 15:02:41 PDT 2012

Jonathan - Great to hear from you! And - please don't feel like the Lone
Ranger (old Americanism for "unique and strange") Really, it was "just
another day in Open Space." Which is not just the way it "ought to be," it
is the way it is, anytime we care to be open to the moment. Which I think is
what you said!

ho

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)

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Coe
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2012 4:44 PM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: [OSList] WOSonOS

Hello new OS friends! 

I wanted to share with you my experience of my first ever OS event in sunny
Stoke Newington. Three weeks ago I had never heard of OS and suddenly there
I was at the World conference!

I had a blast! It was really such an enlivening space that opened up. I felt
very connected to people and found an amazing sense of presence and
awareness that made the whole thing really special. And so many amazing
people! Conferences usually involve a lot of talking, accompanied by a lot
of inner dialogue critiquing the talkers... At WOSonOS there was talking
also, and there was a lot more listening, palpable listening. I recall one
person saying that he usually talked a lot and that there he listened more,
and felt heard more. My guess is that his experience was not unique.  

I want to pay tribute to Phelim and his team for such a great production,
really great, and I loved the opening night sketch and performances. I am so
grateful to you for who you are and what you bring. 

And to everyone I had the real pleasure of being in conversation with: I
felt very connected to you and felt like this was something really special
for the world. I am working on using OS for some global conversations, so,
watch this space...

My session, on 'being in the moment'  - we were able to have an experience
of being in the moment, and that resulted in no-one taking notes... So below
are my own retrospective notes. If anyone who was there cares to add
anything, please do.

I was so moved and touched and inspired by everyone. I was very moved at the
closing session and had tears in my eyes as we said our farewells. 

I never met any of you before, but I feel like I love you. 

Jonathan

The question in my mind for this session was 'I wonder if the group that
comes together for this session can have a collective experience of being in
the moment?'. 

Interestingly the session was always full with between 6 and 10 people
present, and the end group was entirely different from the beginning group.
I wondered how much leaving a session might be connected with a belief that
we know about what is going to happen in that session.

People shared their experiences of being in the moment, and more often, not
being in the moment.  One person shared that for her an experience of being
out of the moment happened when some people left the group and her thoughts
became tied up with ideas that their departure had something to do with her.
A common reaction. 

I shared an experience of being absolutely present to everything around me
on a bus journey I had had recently. The people, the traffic, the buildings,
the noise. I had experienced them all as incredibly vibrant and alive. I was
present to their vitality and noticed the way the light fell on it all, the
way that everything is so 3D. My way of being was that I accepted whatever
happened, noise, delays and so on, I resisted nothing. I had become aware
that I had beliefs about bus journeys, like 'I know bus journeys, I've done
them before. I know this area, I've seen it before'. I gave up all my
beliefs, which were essentially about an idea that I somehow knew what was
in the future. A space opened up and I realised that I had no idea what was
in the future. That no-one ever has any completely reliable idea what is in
the future. And the space that opened up was one of total  openness, where
actual experience could happen. Not an idea about experience or an
interpretation of it, but experience itself. I wondered 'Could this bus
journey occur to me in a new way?'. And it did. Some places we went through
occurred as though they were film sets - the light appeared as though
carefully organised and controlled to give the best possible vision of the
scene in front of me.  I have very good recall of this journey, and this
makes me wonder how much poor memory is associated with an avoidance of
living fully.  So this has become a way of being which I access every day
now. And one which is available to anyone. 

There was a sharing of an experience of arriving at work and having no
memory of driving to get there.  The person had been thinking for the whole
journey about the working day ahead. Was there any way that this person
could have been really present during the journey? The question arose from
this 'How many moments do we miss each day?'

One person shared that he felt he missed 80%, and that he was continually
thinking about the future.  The question arose 'How would things be for you
if all that thinking wasn't there any more?'.

A few moments of silence. 

I had a split second of feeling 'Oh no, they're supposed to talk!' and
quickly came back to the moment and felt very present and aware of each
person who was with me.

Someone said "That was a really nice silence". And it was; because we,
enough of us, were able just to be with each other, in the moment.

When the formal end point arrived, I noted it. People asked how it had been
for me and we then carried on talking for another half an hour. 

No-one took notes, so this is written up after the fact.

The next day participants approached me and shared that they had their own
experiences of being in the moment, since the session, one person on a bus
journey, the other in a restaurant. 

  _____  

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