[OSList] How much Silence at beginning?

Mon Jun 29 06:33:21 PDT 2015

Dear Therese I will cherish your post. And especially these words:
"romantic glow of my memory".
Hope you visit more often on the OS list and perhaps the Virtual OSonOS
coming up soon.

Suzanne from Florida enroute to Canada on this sunny balmy day
On Jun 28, 2015 10:48 PM, "Therese Fitzpatrick via OSList" <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> I offer an example of opening space for one day of the Practice of Peace
> conference on Whidbey in Nov 2003. I was one of the planning team and one
> of the convenors of the event. We had lots of OS pracitioners on our
> planning team and we had 'invited guests' from around the world. We decided
> to pair off, one planning team member with one of our invited guests to
> open space -- all our invited guests were OS practitioners. It was, after
> all, an event held because Harrison had just published his book, Practice
> of Peace.
>
> So my big day came. I asked two Israelis, one a Jew, one a Palestinian
> Christian, both of them colleagues in Jerusalem, to co-convene with me. I
> asked two to co-open with me because of work these do had done at the
> conference the day before, work that had galvanized most participants. We
> agreed, we THREE people designated to open the space, that I would do
> logistics, announcements, ask for some silence (I generally use Anne's
> approach and give as much silence as feels right to me in the moment).
>
> For some reason, perhaps because the day before this particular event had
> been particularly intense for many participants, including my two, invited
> co-convenors, I thought there should be a longish silence. I have never
> timed the silence when I open space. It never occurred to me to measure
> 'how much time to be silent'. I prepare meditatively, as Anne described she
> does, and when I step into the role of opening space, I am in open space,
> trusting trusting trusting every moment.
>
> So, picture a room packed with about 120 people from 26 countries, I make
> my announcements but left out one detail and then asked for silence. I knew
> that the fire department was scheduled to come around for a routine
> inspection of the fire alarms. As the convenor that day, and the local
> on-the-ground convenor, staff consulted me and told me a fire alarm might
> go off. They said I could ignore it because it was just a test. So I did
> ignore it but I neglected to tell the circle that a fire alarm test might
> be heard.
>
> So the fire alarm went off, of course, in the middle of my silence. I held
> on, sensing we had not been silent long enough. Until finally, a wonderful
> woman (Nancy White) softly asked me if I thought we should check into the
> alarm. Silence over. I explained that I knew.
>
> I had been so careful to prepare for that circle. It was full of prominent
> os practitioners from around the globe, including, of course, Harrison. I
> was very proud to have the honor of opening one day.
>
> I felt some chagrin in the moments when my silence was cut short,
> regretful that I had forgot to mention it. I had calculated that the fire
> department would be late, for some reason.
>
> Now, in hindsight, that alarm is one of my favorite moments of those four
> intense days. Intense and wonderful days. Listen to the alarm, people. Be
> on the alert. now is the time for all good persons to work for peace,
> emapthy, compassion, love, nature, trust.
>
> More and more, in the romantic glow of my memory, I have come to love that
> loud, cursed alarm.
>
> On Sat, Jun 20, 2015 at 7:24 PM, Harold Shinsato via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>>  Dear Harrison,
>>
>> I love your response in many ways. It's very confrontational towards this
>> need in me to have a formula of a specific amount of clock time, and
>> laughing it off.
>>
>> In many ways, Anne's invocation of the trans-finite seems to invite this
>> kind of meditation. Thank you Anne for such an invocation of going beyond
>> the finite. How much time do you need for a deep silence? It reminds me of
>> the opening stanza to the William Blake poem, Auguries of Innocence:
>>
>>
>> To see a world in a grain of sand,
>> And a heaven in a wild flower,
>> Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
>> And eternity in an hour.
>>
>>
>> A deep satisfying silence of 10 seconds could be much more impactful in
>> certain circles than forcing an 8 minute meditation on them. For myself, I
>> have noticed many times my own butt beginning to wiggle considerably even
>> just thinking about having to sit still from a command from the facilitator
>> to sit in silence. During the retrospective meeting yesterday with most of
>> the organizing team and some of the participants (everyone was invited), it
>> was quite interesting to contemplate this question of silence. Some balked
>> at the idea of an elongated silence. In fact one of the organizers
>> hypothesized the opening was already too "woo woo" for some of her
>> University friends, and they walked out after the opening circle.
>>
>> And then again - I suspect for many circles - perhaps 8 minutes of
>> silence would have only whet their palette for what they needed for a deep
>> comtemplative journey together. Maybe they might need 15 minutes before the
>> session genereation. Or 30 minutes. Imagine an hour of sitting in a circle
>> together for an hour?!? Speak about eternity. I wonder if such a circle
>> might be empowered to solve the most difficult of planetary questions.
>>
>> Alas - I suspect there is no need for agreement here - or a final answer.
>> Just a question and a wondering.
>>
>> How long a silence in the opening? How many breaths is a deep silence?
>> How does one sense when there's been enough?
>>
>> Thanks to all who have engaged with this question!
>>
>>     Harold
>>
>>
>> On 6/19/15 3:02 PM, Harrison wrote:
>>
>>  Harold said... “Would 8 minutes of grounding silence after the welcome
>> and logistics opened enough space for participants so they didn't need
>> silent reflection time with their papers and markers to gather their
>> thoughts? Do you offer anything before letting the participants make their
>> offerings to help invite in the "transfinite"?
>>
>>
>>
>> I love your intensity. But I do have to ask. “8 Minutes?” .... On which
>> planet, what galaxy? And who cares? Deep silence makes its own time. My
>> experience.
>>
>>
>>
>> ho
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Harold Shinsato
>> harold at shinsato.com
>> http://shinsato.com
>> twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Love rays,
> Tree Fitzpatrick
>
> © Please note I retain the copyright to all my emails. You need my prior
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>
> . . . the great and incalculable grace of love, which says, with
> Augustine, "I want you to be," without being able to give any particular
> reason for such supreme and unsurpassable affirmation.  -- Hannah Arendt
>
>
>
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