Glenn Thode
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Thank you Elizabeth, for reminding me about the difference in caring for someone and taking care of someone and how this may impact the interaction between student and teacher. Also, to make a conscious choice and having the will or willingness to practice or enter the path of meditation as one of the markers for the tool of choosing.
Many thanks Lauren,
Your reflections on what was offered in class and how it impacts your view of discovery really resonates with my experience. I will gladly explore your suggestions to what tools are needed, particularly fresh for me is returning to containment. Listening and really hearing as a gateway to practice is also a very welcome reminder as one of the available tools.What does it mean to support discovery and what are the primary tools?
Discovery to me suggests a process. It may point to an action, an occurrence, where something which is covered and thus unknown, concealed or veiled in some way is uncovered and becomes known, is revealed or unveiled by an explorer. To me this means that I must be capable to share or inhabit the same space as the one I’m supporting in discovery. An open attitude may be helpful to observe and explore the same covered object the explorer I’m offering support will endeavor to discover. To offer this support could be compared to being a guide, supporting an explorer through a landscape which I have traveled well but which is completely new or somewhat known but still not all familiar to the explorer. Having the experience of an explorer new to the unknow landscape, the experience of discovery of the landscape and the experience of familiarity once the landscape has been traveled habitually, I may confidently recognize and contextualize the experiences of discovery the other person is going through. This confidence is well established and trustworthy when rooted in my own experiences if these were investigated, verified and validated through an interaction and under guidance of teachers who themselves have traveled this landscape (the human mindscape for instance) countless times and have established familiarity with the processes and the objects which can be discovered there. Open communication, a light touch and space for playful exploration may be helpful. The support offered may improve when I travel and experiences the landscape at the same moment as the discoverer. In this sense it can be helpful to engage with a beginner’s mind. This can be significant, as something may have shifted since I was involved in discovery and the discoverer may influence the landscape and the object of discovery in a particular way. There may be a difference compared to just offering exploring instructions without traveling along.
An analogy with Google Maps can help here. The accuracy and momentary applicability of the map and traffic information is based on both traveling the road thousands of times and the fresh experience of the moment. As an analogy, his may point to the quality of primary tools. It seems to me that I could offer better support if I my own discovery is guided by a member of a lineage of practice, discovery, investigation, verification and validation established over a period of thousands of years. In this sense, I have a sense that this course will be tremendously helpful. Supporting discovery with this quality of connectedness may seem as magical as the guidance offered by Google Maps.
