LOK Exercise 48–putting Space, Time, Knowledge at the center

Thanks, Jack.  I didn’t suceed in developing much engagement with the other participants but I did all the reading and some of the exercises and I have appreciated your guidance–both through the Does Space Get Wet and your postings.  LOK exercise 48 has been a good ending exercise for me, because I have found that it relates strongly to my present daily life–to which I now return without the continuing benefit of the on-line TSK course.  Putting Space at the center (and the provocative suggestion that this can reveal how the mental and physical aspects of our experience are indistinguishable) gives a wonderful shove towards a sense of wholeness.  Putting Time at the center (and the suggestion that this can allow the dynamic flow of life to take precedence over self-centered concerns) has provided me with both encouragement and a question.  My wife and I spent a very stressful month during which a private school, which we want our 16-year old to attend this fall, only gradually divulged their concern that he is too withdrawn for their program.  My wife’s stress level was agonizing for her (since this school really seems like it can be a deliverance for our son), while I was much more able to wait for their application process to take its natural course.  For this greater comfort with the “dynamic flow” of life, I thank my contact with the TSK vision.  However, a question arises: my wife’s anxiety drove us to write some impassioned e-mail to the school and to offer to make the four hour drive to visit again.  I think this was an essential step in getting them to eventually accept our son for next year.  I think that it was vital to talk with them again in person, before they had made a final decision and that otherwise it may not have been possible to change their mind.  I do not for an instant wish for the kind of anxiety my wife has to live with, but with our different dynamics I sometimes feel that she draws more directly on Time’s energy.  My equanimity sometimes has an oblivious quality.  The third part of the exercise, putting knowledge at the center (and the suggestion that this can help make the positions of others as important as our own) is the part that describes what I most need to do in my daily life right now.  Again it is my 16 year-old son who provides the greatest challenge.  It is my hope that I can learn to quietly listen to him and remain present to him as a fellow being whose positions are as important as my own. I can already feel that this hope is helping our relationship.

I hope that the retreat is nourishing for all of you who attend.–Michael