How to Communicate for Enlightenment & Evolution (Part 2)
Read the Introduction & Part I on En*Theos
Watch a 6 min clip here:
Follow a Thread
Allow the discussion to have its own course, discern where it is going and build, slowly, in small incremental leaps. Like any journey, you want to keep heading forward into the distance. When you’re climbing a mountain you want to be heading upwards, not taking the switchbacks that wind their way back to base camp. Sometimes we have to let go and go blind, and let the intelligence of the discussion take us. Ignore the voice within that always second guesses and changes direction before anything can unfold.
7
Say Something Only When It Moves the Conversation Forward
As we saw, participation, attention, and listening are verbal and non-verbal.
Contribute only when you have something to add that will move the conversation forward. Trust that what is being built is being built by all of us together. In communication that fosters emergence, it’s the quality of our attention that makes us a full participant. It’s not who says any particular point. The goal is to build something together. To become aware of the living collective space we are always creating. And to make that collective field of consciousness the most rich, fertile, and vibrant field as we can.
8
Be More Interested in the Space Between Than in Your Own Point
Imagine that everyone is sitting in a circle, and the space in the middle is a tapestry being stitched. The needle is magic, with an energy of its own. It can stitch from one side of the circle to the other, changing color, changing texture. This is the thread of a collective spiritual inquiry practice. Be more interested in what is happening in the space between us than in your own turn. Put your focus on the tapestry we are weaving together. Stay in touch with the qualities of the field of consciousness. Allow your own point to be thrown into the center, to be stitched into the tapestry and merged into the collective process. Being more interested in where the inquiry is going and the quality of the field we are generating together takes us beyond the known. This is what allows us to access a wisdom and intelligence we had no idea we were capable of. It’s what allows something truly new to emerge.
Keep One Eye Inner and One Eye Outer
Keep part of your attention on yourself, and part of your attention on what is happening unselfconsciously and without division. We always want to keep our egos in check, always want to keep our impulses, projections, frustrations, greed, ambition, competition, insecurity, self-doubt, self-consciousness visible to us. We don’t need to do anything with any of that and we don’t need to focus on it. But if it’s operating in us and we don’t realize it, it is going to control our participation, rather than us being able to participate consciously and constructively in a developmental process with others. One eye outer means we’re also aware of what’s happening in the collective process, and the dynamics of the group. If things get bogged down, sluggish, confrontational, dismissive, we are ready and able to drop deeper, refocus, and bring out something positive, forward moving that will re-unify the field.
Let Go of the Results
As with any practice, the collective practice of communication that is illuminating and generative enriches us personally but ultimately is for the benefit of all. As we transform from the inside out, more able to participate in a constructive way with others, we discover trust. We refresh our curiosity. We open at new dimensions of our inner being. We model a generosity of relatedness. We give people confidence in themselves and in life. We discover that wish-fulfilling gem in action, the more we give away, our hearts mysteriously replenish, so we can continue to give for the benefit of all.
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