<div dir="ltr">you're describing what i believe is the most important thing that happens and gets learned in open space, skye. this is what it's really all about, what we're really teaching in the world anywhere we introduce this approach, this balancing of two apparently opposing truths or senses or realities. <div><br></div><div>the law of two feet invites in directly. it says pay attention to learning and contributing, taking in and giving back. to do this requires self-awareness, am i bored? am i learning? am i contributing? and also an awareness of what's happening in the room, on the wall, in this group and that. over time, it's natural to notice that what i'm thinking i should do isn't always what body has energy or desire to do. </div><div><br></div><div>as a facilitator, i find the whole experience is amped up again. i find that my own felt body sensations mirror what is happening in front of me in the room and what i can't see in the group. i manage by pulsing attention between inside and outside, myself and the groupSelf. sometimes it's clear that the groupSelf is some slice of the communitySelf or some larger worldSelf. </div><div><br></div><div>a somatics teacher (who was early trained as an actor, i think very similarly to your story) introduced this to me once as "mutuality," the practice of letting the (an) other be as real to me as i am to myself. the practice is find the sensations that tell me that i am. notice that others are having similar streams of sensations. and then to pulse back and forth between those realities until they can be held together, both as true, simultaneously without collapsing, subordinating or negating either of them. together and distinct. this is how i hold my experience and a group's experience while facilitating open space. </div><div><br></div><div>the result of the somatics exercise, which can be done as simply as sitting back to back or face to face, noticing self and then noticeing other, then pulsing awareness back and forth until the pulse resolves to hum, like you say, and then, the hum dissolves into a space, out of which arises naturally and automatically, the wish for both of us to be happy, the wish for both of us to be free of suffering, to be what this teacher called "free from yank" sometimes translated as equanimity, and to experience joy. these are what some buddhist folks call the four immeasurables. through these very simple practices, these things can be discovered easily and immediately. any two poles of experience, sensation, realities will work. any two beings, myself and the group, myself and a tree, myself and a cock roach, myself and my partner, or client. it works even if the group or the cock roach don't know what's happening. i still get the experience, the space, the immeasurables. </div><div><br></div><div>i think this pulsation between alternative sensastions, flows, realities is what the law of two feet invites in the sneakiest of ways. you can also see this at work in harrison's writings, where he frequently sets out two opposing views with equal clarity and importance. see it two when we talk about space invaders and choosing our actions so as to maintain choice for participants. maintaining participant choice means they can or must address two or more possible realities, balancing and holding them in their own minds/hearts, sensing into different futures, which keeps the space open in themselves rather than allowing the space invader to close the space by forcing an action or reaction. <br><div><br></div><div><div>some years ago we asked here what was the very most important bit of ost, and i think i remember that the law of two feet was the general consensus. i think the pulsation and mutuality practice it invites is a big part of that shared sense. then all the other (outer) pulsations built into the standard ost process, like between plenary and breakouts, just serve to reinforce the inner practice. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div> <br>--<br><br>Michael Herman<br>Michael Herman Associates<br><a href="http://MichaelHerman.com" target="_blank">http://MichaelHerman.com</a><br><a href="http://OpenSpaceWorld.org" target="_blank">http://OpenSpaceWorld.org</a><br><br></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 28, 2015 at 8:45 AM, Skye Hirst via OSList <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paul Levy's and others conversation about Self and self-organizing and improvisation helped me recall something from an acting method I studied years ago.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">The method tried to teach us to work “off the moment” to be present to the moment and not
want to control it, predict it, name it, or repeat it . It was the challenge of this acting method.<span>
</span>I feel this may have relevance to SELF-organizing and
self-organizing.<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">Oscillation, between poles of contrasting “felt senses”
creates a vibration, and if allowed, a hum.<span> </span>To know solitude, is to know also know connection.<span> </span>To know light we need darkness.<span> </span>To know ourselves, we learn of others
and to know ourselves we can know others.<span>
</span>And in that regard, to know ourselves small “s,” we can know the larger
more inclusive “S” and whenever possible, to feel the larger “Self” we feel our
“self” included.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">The ole song comes to mine; “To know him/her is to love
him/her/us.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In this acting discipline, we practiced paying attention to
the now, to the “felt sense” within, to sense what wants attention, what
impulses are obvious as they arise within.<span> </span>Sometimes the impulse came from the other, something obvious
that stood out, grabbed our attention as a beginning for our interaction, for
an action, or reaction.<span> </span>To sustain
such focus for any length of time was exceptionally challenging.<span> </span>It meant working off each moment.<span> </span>From such a process was the foundation
of “improvisation.” But it was more than creating novelty. It was the awakening
process of authentic behaviors within an actor or actors.<span> </span>When these authentic moments occurred,
the audience was stirred, compelled to enter into the dynamic.<span> </span>As an audience, we recognized a moment
that would never be again, a once in a lifetime event was occurring.<span> </span>And we were included; we belonged as
humans in that process. The audience/humans recognized the connection, the
belonging to a universal connection of being alive. Such moments lifted us all,
including the actors. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I believe Open Space(ing) offers this opportunity for
authenticity, for oscillation between contrasting poles, an inclusion, an
allowing that often opens us to what is always available, but doesn’t always
occur and yet when it does, we are drawn into it, we feel included beyond “your
opinion and my opinion. And yet our different opinions are included for
consideration as a source of improvisation/organization, for greater/deeper Self/self
knowing.<span> </span>In this dance of life,
new possibilities arise that may never have occurred without it, and may never
occur again just so.<span> <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To work “off the moment” to be present to the moment and not
want to control it, predict it, name it, or repeat it was the challenge of this
acting method.<span> </span>I feel this may
have relevance to SELF-organizing and self-organizing.<span> </span>Maybe the word “(S) (s) elfing” applies
and allows for the oscillations of living process and the <i>hum.</i><span> </span>Thanks all.
</p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><b>Skye Hirst, PhD</b><br></div>President - The Autognomics Institute<br></div><div><i>Conversations in Radical Self-Knowing</i><br></div><div><a href="http://www.autognomics.org" target="_blank">www.autognomics.org</a><br></div><div>@autognomics <br><br></div><div>New Phone Number:<br><a href="tel:207-593-8074" value="+12075938074" target="_blank">207-593-8074</a><br></div><div><br></div></div></div>
</font></span></div>
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