Lauren Lesser
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Vy, I found myself so moved by your sending Colin “friendly and supportive energy and good wishes for his well-being” this is surely grounding in an encouraging space in the synergy of your one on one teaching as you artfully provide an example of what I think it means to offer the teaching (or transmit the teaching, in the words we’re leaning from Susan) by one’s presence
Hi Colin,
I so relate to the kind of wobbling in in the newness of the role, your reflection on the interaction with Vy was also resonant; I felt calmed and affirmed by the positive feedback from my partner, Jo and has me reflecting further on the impact of all of us doing this together and how profoundly important this is and how I am understanding that more and more deeply as we go on in this process. I felt more comfortable than I expected, wobbling in, because I trusted the frame AND the community we’re developing and it remined me of your share in class when you talked about finding your place in lineage and your insights on transmission which brought me more deeply into reflection. Thank you.Please share any insights about what it felt like to offer instruction. What were you happy about? What were you uncertain about?
I echo what was said in class, I was very glad to go 1st because I realized I would be likely to be influenced by my partner’s style. I realized, as it was, I would be repeating much of what, or some hybrid of how, I have heard instruction given in sangha, however, I felt comfortable enough to relax into that, appreciating that the # of times I would be 1:1 with my fellow students would give me a chance to feel into what words and what style were more mine… although I felt much more comfortable after I fessed this up to my partner. We took a little time to get to know each other, on her suggestion, bless her. While it feels great to get to know each other better and I loved the opportunity, it also gave us a bit of a running pad as we headed toward take off.
I found I loved offering instruction; I was so happy at how much I was able to lean into the practice technique vs leaning into worry or self-consciousness. I’m so glad we’ll have more opportunity to do this. I intend to work to stretch into expanded spaciousness and ability/capacity to be more and more present.Please Share Personal Reflections on Lineage
I’ve been thinking about lineage since my first serious introduction to it in last year’s OHP course, Buddhism Beyond Belief. Before then, I thought of my ancestral line and I thought of learned Buddhist teachers and figures, and then thought, well, I’ve struggled with my ancestral line and don’t have that much intimate knowledge of learned Buddhist teachers. When we met in small groups in the BBB class and one of the members said they had Julia Child on their altar, I learned I could broaden my list and my attitude.
I have a working list. I don’t think I will ever live in a space that could house all their pictures, books or relicy items, and they certainly earn me a hand-me-down scolding from Susan’s teacher Sam, but it is a list in progress, as I feel my way into more clearly discerning lineage…. and editing. Who inspires me, who do I admire, who do I want to stand with, who makes me feel awe, compassion, humanity, belonging? I remember “finding” them beginning by reading biographies by nightlight, as a child, pretending to be afraid of the dark, seeking answers; how does one live? how does one make their way in this world?
Some on my list I’ve met in person, some I’ve met in books, some in song, they have taught me to speak and to sing and to dance and to listen and to act, and to love, helped me learn, been with me in my doubt, confusion, fear, smallness, grumpiness, joy and expansion and they have helped me be present when I need to open my heart and behave with courage, kindness and humor.
I have deep gratitude that they have been/are an important part of my life and my memories of them are filled with love and admiration.
Bernie Lesser, Sam Lesser, Sylvia Lesser, CJ and Mabel Broadhead, Goldie Lipson, Henry Haskell, Ernst and Ilse Bulova, Susun Weed, Robin Rose Bennett, Renee Solomon, Mrs. Grobe, Frank Agresta, Dorothy Johnson, Sumner Rosen, Hyman Grossbard, Bertha Capen Reynolds, Sandor Ferenzi, Zusanna Budapest, Marion Tolpin, Karen Horney, Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Caro, Woody Guthrie, Saul Alinsky, I F Stone, George Orwell, Paul Robeson, Pema Chodron, Sylvia Boorstein, Susan Piver, Juliette de Barclai Levy, John Lewis, Deb Dana, Bernie Saunders, Brooke Maxwell, Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Pete Seeger, Laura Nyro, James Baldwin, Annie Sprinke, Rumi, Phil Ochs, Nick Drake, Aunt Alice and the League of Women Shopper’s, Bill Moyers, Joanna Macy, Mr. Rogers, Dorothy Parker, Jane Goodall, Linda ThaiO, Liana,
How wonderful! The beauty of your heart’s connection and how your lineage just seemed to reach back and enfold you.Hi Colin,
I’m really moved by the evolution of your connection to lineage, in the beauty of it’s jewel-like development.Hi Stina,
I really resonate with your questioning kid. When I was a tween and teen my favorite bumper sticker read “Question Authority” and I also find a lot of room in Susan’s “don’t take my word for it”Please reflect on your experiences with both eternalism and nilihism. When have you noticed each within yourself? (there are no right or wrong answers here)
I grew up in a household that had roots in eternalist religious traditions although it was a not very Jewish household. I was encouraged to try Hebrew school but when I announced I was done when the rabbi told us “if you have faith you don’t question” there was no pushback. It was the 1960’s and my sense of place was formed in context of the ferment of protests begun (or rather, continued, but begun as in entered my awareness) in the 50’s with the civil rights movement. Tweening and teening, I followed the slightly older kids on protest marches and burned to find my way to join the action. With all the righteousness of that time of life, I firmly and disdainfully rejected the eternalistic Judeo-Christian panoply of patriarchal beliefs and edicts, and was as close as I got to a nihilistic sensibility in my focus on the socio-political here and now, and in my confidence of my ideas of right and wrong.
My involvement with political activism introduced me to my work as a community organizer, which at first, I looked into as a means to an activist end. It became an end in itself, or rather, an enduring process that both supported and helped me evolve, or uncover, my guiding principles in a role as facilitator of discovery, loosening my grip on expectation that allowed me to be present in and inspired by both my work with people as an organizer and later as I evolved to work with people as a psychotherapist that “saved” me from reliance on/adherence to the both the ultimate authorities of eternalistic rules as well as nihilistic beliefs and opened me up to expanded questioning.
When I look back on my life, many experiences tend to lean into an eternal quality as in enduring but not fixed, with perhaps an aid of a cleaner sweep of the nihilistic brush yet with more mystery than I might see; from my sense of awe and of the eternally sacred in my earliest experiences in relationship with art, music, nature, and love and in subsequent roles with work, in shamanic herbal apprenticeships and in moving from Buddhish to Buddhist.Hi Caitlin,
I just absolutely have to savor “supporting discovery allows the wisdom and magic to live in the practice” beautifully, meaningfully said!Hi Rosie,
I confess, I’m drawn to other therapists looking at similarities in these practices and I really liked your leaning into listening and eschewing the advicing 🙂Hi Niki,
I love that you started with the example of the death doula’s practice, it’s so experience-near and it drew me right in to your essay“Reflect on what it means to support discovery. What are the primary tools?”
Meditation, in Susan’s words, in this year’s 21 Day Meditation Challenge, “introduces you to yourself.” In teaching meditation, it means finding space where students journey to discover their introduction to themselves.
This is so meaningful to me because it is so resonant and affirming to the principles that have guided me in all of my work, as it has evolved.
In community organizing, it meant finding space where people move into inhabiting their power to craft their agendas and make their way towards making a difference in this world.
In psychotherapy, it means finding space where people can find ways to safely unfold and soften so they can work with the places that kept them from their fullest lives.
In teaching and supervision, it means finding space where psychotherapists can freely examine, explore and grow into their roles.
At root, and in not dissimilar ways, these are all introductions to oneself.
And what are the primary tools?
After Saturday’s class and a review of the notes, I found, with greater familiarity with Julia Cameron’s exhortation that “the 1st rule of magic is containment,” deeper understanding of how important a container is for discovery.
In meditation, our practice technique provides the container for magic to form. It protects and directs the boundaries that help us know what we can do in supporting the student experience by offering instruction and support to create a sustainable practice combined with further study of the practice and the dharma teachings that help us to know what we cannot do.
We also spoke of listening in class as an essential tool of discovery. Practicing how not to think about what we think about when we hear what someone is saying and further not to take refuge in what we think we know, but to let go and enter a kind of magical energy wave that allows us to open to a deeper connection and understanding of what we hear as well as what we sense, and in communication, often connecting with presence rather than words.
Here too, there are deep similarities in tools; containers, listening and presence, with what I learned and how I worked in other roles, yet I can’t help feeling that this journey we are on will take me deeper, and in directions I can’t anticipate and I suspect, that magic is afoot.
