always open space
Christy has got me thinking...(Thanks, Christy, i love that!) with her question, "If it's entirely open, then how could it, why would it, ever end?"
I would like to propose that it never does. To take a line from one of my spiritual paths, whenever we 'close' a circle we say, "the circle is open, but unbroken..." I have a hard time thinking of the ending of an OS day as the closing. More and more often now i think of it as a grounding. We ground Spirit, and embody the space, what was unborn gets born...the space made manifest--embodied in the participants as they use their legs and disperse into the larger world. It seems to me that this partially explains why Spirit seems to re-enter organizations and groups after an Open Space. It literally gets carried back there in each person. If we really 'closed' the space at the end of the day, we would close off the channel to Spirit too, and what would be the point in that? We release the containment field...we don't close the space.
Hmmmm....more thinking....the space is always open and infinite...we create the container, cupping some of that space inside, so that self-organization can happen. Because uncontainerized (oooo, new word...) space is a vacuum, emptiness...self-organization requires a nutrient-rich environment, the cupping of space allows the nutrient field to operate and support self-organization. And a big part of that nutrient field is Spirit. As your teacher says, Christy, separation is the very act of creation. By separating out a container of space, we create the conditions that foster self-organization and in-spiriting. Just like the container of the cell wall allowed for the arising of the ten thousand things...
And isn't paradox wonderful? I not only embrace it, i may be addicted to it. Opening space is about containing...holding space is about being open, unattached, and unfolding...groovy
I notice your teacher is a Kabbalist, Christy. I have gone back to studying it quite often of late. It is full of the wonderful paradoxes that transmit mystery so beautifully. paradox--mystery--the gate to wisdom...As somebody said (and i wish i could remember who) When it's no longer mysterious, it's no longer true.
Three cheers for the mysteries of open space!
I would like to propose that it never does. To take a line from one of my spiritual paths, whenever we 'close' a circle we say, "the circle is open, but unbroken..." I have a hard time thinking of the ending of an OS day as the closing. More and more often now i think of it as a grounding. We ground Spirit, and embody the space, what was unborn gets born...the space made manifest--embodied in the participants as they use their legs and disperse into the larger world. It seems to me that this partially explains why Spirit seems to re-enter organizations and groups after an Open Space. It literally gets carried back there in each person. If we really 'closed' the space at the end of the day, we would close off the channel to Spirit too, and what would be the point in that? We release the containment field...we don't close the space.
Hmmmm....more thinking....the space is always open and infinite...we create the container, cupping some of that space inside, so that self-organization can happen. Because uncontainerized (oooo, new word...) space is a vacuum, emptiness...self-organization requires a nutrient-rich environment, the cupping of space allows the nutrient field to operate and support self-organization. And a big part of that nutrient field is Spirit. As your teacher says, Christy, separation is the very act of creation. By separating out a container of space, we create the conditions that foster self-organization and in-spiriting. Just like the container of the cell wall allowed for the arising of the ten thousand things...
And isn't paradox wonderful? I not only embrace it, i may be addicted to it. Opening space is about containing...holding space is about being open, unattached, and unfolding...groovy
I notice your teacher is a Kabbalist, Christy. I have gone back to studying it quite often of late. It is full of the wonderful paradoxes that transmit mystery so beautifully. paradox--mystery--the gate to wisdom...As somebody said (and i wish i could remember who) When it's no longer mysterious, it's no longer true.
Three cheers for the mysteries of open space!
posted by iyeshka farmer at 3:37 p.m.
