Piet's Summary

This week I found a new sensitivity for Openness. While growing up, we have learned to protect ourselves, by closing ourselves off, to whatever degree is appropriate in any given situation. Even the human body is a huge aggregate of cells, each one closed off by a cell wall. Within the story that we play out, playing the role of a limited needy creature, we have no choice but to protect ourselves in a large variety of ways. But at the same time, we also have the choice to drop those story identifications, and to recognize ourselves for what we really are, according to the working hypothesis: something that is not a thing, is timeless, is complete -- in other words, has no boundaries and is fully open. 

When I started working with these ideas, sometimes my thoughts died down, like waves on a lake when the wind stops blowing. I then suddenly realized that the best protection is a fully open stance, and when I allowed that to happen, more and more, it came with an appreciation of the invulnerability that is inherent to such an open stance. To borrow from the terminology of Zen Buddhism: no matter what can happen to our body or mind, our true nature cannot be affected. I had of course heard and read such a statement many times, and had felt its impact in various ways, but this time it became yet more alive and clear.

I then started to experiment with it, with the switch between identifying myself with a limited person with a specific role in this world, a personal history, gender, nationality, profession, etc., and with dropping that whole identity and context, and letting myself be unnamed, unborn, not subject to time and separations. Sometimes that shift was not much more than wishful thinking, though even then it brought a sense of piece and clarity. But at other times, it was clear that a real shift had taken place, in which my whole physiology was affected, a new kind of silence had set in, an uncanny form of confidence had taken over. At first, it was easiest to invite the shift to happen when I was walking outside, but then I found ways to let it happen while engaged in activities. In some conversations, I managed to really open myself, without expectations or judgments, stepping aside to let the conversation flow freely. Each time that happened, I was amazed at the magical outcome, in terms of unexpected turns, increased depth, smoother flow, greater trust. Openness is an amazing tool, or more like an anti-tool: it comes when we drop our habitual tools of protection.

Reponses

In reading the monthly summaries, I was struck by how everybody has reported such a clear return to the relatively small investment of the 7 minutes per day that we've agreed to spend on this work. While the whole notion of working with a working hypothesis was a big gamble at first, there seems to be real mileage in it.

Yes, Frank, holding the wh in mind all the time means being totally devoted -- like to a loved one, like to a scientific problem, like to a hobby you are engrossed in. Strictly speaking, you can't make this happen, which is way we speak about `falling' in love, not stepping in love. However, you can remove the safety barriers that we habitually raise to prevent us from `falling', making it far easier to lose ourselves, to drop and stop our usual chatter. Both hope and fear are safety devices of the ego, to make sure it stays in the center of things, and doesn't venture out `over the cliff'. Drop those, and you're likely to `fall in wh' pretty fast ;>).

I had to laugh out loud when I read Jake's declaration of war on Mr.

Ego, a radical version of Don Quixote tilting at wind mills!

Thanks, Maria, for expressing so clearly how xxxing draws us out of the presence, out of the wh (in your examples: complaining, wishing, fearing, worrying, anticipating).

Thanks, Miles, for expressing so well the amazement with what we're doing!

Nicole, I look forward to see how your focus on simplicity and on going beyond analytic constructs will work out for you. The whole notion of the wh is intrinsically paradoxical: initially using the mind to find a way to drop the mind -- or to recognize that the mind has never been the mind we thought it was. And yes, the greater the paradox, the simpler the answer has to be!

Rod, as always, I like the systematic way in which you have sketched out your adventures in the lab of your life. And thanks for sharing your excitement with this whole wh enterprise!