[OSList] WOSonOS

[Blundell, Keith]

Thanks Jonathan.

Nice summary - thanks for documenting.

Keith.

From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Coe
Sent: 17 October 2012 9:44 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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