It’s nice to see a very active week of posts. I especially encourage everyone to respond to posts by others. And also to post something about yourself in the “Meet the Participants” section, as Erin did this past week.
I’m going to comment selectively on what’s been happening since my last post, about 10 days ago.
First, Bruce has some very nice examples of how one might try to take multiple perspectives at the same time. I encourage others to give them a try, if you would like to explore this alternative more.
Tracy comments on the election (It was especially close in North Carolina, and also in Ohio, where one of our participants, Erna–who hasn’t posted yet–was actively involved with it as well.) You’re right that when we’re very fixed in a wishing-hoping-worrying mode it narrows down the field. It’s always a challenging practice to explore how to stay focused and involved and also open and allowing. That’s why we have retreats.
Karin gives a wonderful example of what it means to be more open, more spacious. The teaching on space as a field has two levels. In the first, we become aware of the field as a whole, and that gives us a kind of freedom. As Karin points out, we can arrive at that freedom through a focus on the non-content dimension of what is communicated. The second level comes from seeing that the field is a construct. The two levels are related; it’s just good to be aware that both are possible.
Louise, I’m glad this is working well for you. I do think that the ‘intensifying’ you describe is one of condensing. I like your use of the word “saturate;” that seems appropriate. Rinpoche suggests at one point that the ‘space-equivalent’ of intensification is ‘indensification’, a word he makes up. That may give some of the flavor also.
Both Karin and Louise write about situations in which what closes space down is emotions and stress. And this is in fact likely to be an arena where you are able to try many of these insights and practices out, since that is the arena that concerns us most of the time.
I’ll continue later.
Jack