<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>I watched him. He’d been playing with his gong for over ten minutes, building up to the moment of power when he’d give it a little whack.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>A little whack of almost-forever.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>The bell would sound and keep sounding, resound and sound on, and reach all four corners of his virtuous circle.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">A call back to the circle. A call to stop talking, to stop doing, and to come back.</span></font></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>The room would fall into silence and an obedient circle would form and wait expectantly.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><font><span style="line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">He watched it work. It always worked. This was powerful magic. And he was more than a facilitator at this moment – he was a wizard or, better, a shaman.</span></font></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>He knew the effect of this incredible piece of kit. You see…</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>.. he’d gonged it many times before.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>Then the moment came. And he gonged, a twinkle of benevolent godliness in his eyes.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>The circle reformed. So easily!</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>The room fell to silence, even as the sounding still sounded and sounded and sounded some more, never falling to complete silence, but simply travelling on its way to further corners of the ever-expanding universe.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>It was beautiful (he thought) –  almost as beautiful as his soul in that moment.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>But it was <strong style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">his</strong> moment. And in stealing that moment, and combining it with such an age-old bell from Tibet; he stole the power of the group.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>He felt stronger. They were silent and powerless. They waited, not on potential. They waited for <strong style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">him</strong>.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>They waited for him to speak.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>Self-organisation had expressed itself, not in the community, but in the organisation of his self.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>And I sat there, imagining, following that healing tone on its journey out through the double doors.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>I imagined that bell, just for a moment, resting on a chair, at the side of the room; a gift to us all.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>I imagined that quiet person over there, who hadn’t yet spoken, three hours into the event.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>I imagined her walking across the room, in golden silence, picking up that bell, finding the right moment floating above the circle, and simply giving it a ting.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>I imagined her letting it sound not to the group, but out of it.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>And then I imagined the silence of self-organisation, and the expectation of a powerful community.</font></em></p>
<p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 1em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:normal;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font>A community ready…</font></em></p>
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