This is a comment to Louise’s post, called “overall comment.” (Louise, I moved it into the “TSK Online Fall 2008” category, which may be an answer to one of the questions you raise. Also, I signed your name for you: the software does not do that automatically, unfortunately.
So . . . You have had some difficulty making sense of the first three weeks. I’m really glad you present this reaction directly, because no doubt others are feeling the same way.
I thought the reading for weeks 1 and 2 (especially week 2) tracked what we were doing pretty well, but I did wonder whether I was straining too hard to make a connection this past week. Perhaps it would have been better to assign no reading at all for the first three weeks, and just focus on the exercises.
What I was trying to do in this last week’s reading was link the focus on space with the focus on inquiry. And I may have tried to hard.
Anyway, we are out of the woods now, because we are going to be working more explicitly with space starting with the next week’s reading. We will also start working directly with the practice of expanding and condensing, which seems to be where you have found yourself anyway.
If I make references to readings during the phone calls, I’ll add that to any ‘guidance’. And perhaps I can also make links to the appropriate places in When it Rains, though that’s a bit harder.
Please do continue to weigh in on how things are going for you. It’s really helpful to get feedback.
Jack
Many thanks for this Jack, and would very much appreciate the crosslinks to When It Rains where possible.
Louise
Linking the focus on space with the focus on inquiry is one of those things I could sort of understand intellectually, but it seemed forced for me to try to carry it over into practice. I may not have a firm enough grounding in either to be able to link the two. At this stage, practice itself works best for me.
In expanding the space that a molecule occupies and in stretching the molecule, at first I remained stationary as though viewing the expansion from one vantage point. As the expanding continued, my sense of position dissipated and my awareness took on a more ephemeral or floating quality, as though I was joining the experiencing, inhabiting the space within which the expansion was occurring. That was cool! Tracy