At 1 pm, we had four of us gathering in the little tea house in Rieul. We talked about the first step in the 9-seconds awareness exploration. Just to remind yourself to drop what you’re doing and spend the 9 seconds outside the habitual frame of mind is what is most difficult, at first. Trying to do this throughout the day is especially hard. Starting with just one or two hours is probably much better. That will already give you four to eight chances to relax and open up a bit.
We also talked about what to do in those 9 second intervals, besides taking a good breath. My main advice was to just write down a few words, no matter what, whatever pops up. It may not seem like a very interesting thing to do, but when you look back, after a day or a few days, you may be surprised by patterns and associations you may discover.
There were some questions in the group as to what the purpose of the writing was, and what we could do with it. Mostly I see the writing as a nod to the idea of “life as a lab”. Treating your own life as a laboratory means not only that you try out this and that, but also that you make lab notes about what happens when you try out this and that. Conducting lab experiments without writing in a lab journal doesn’t make sense.
Exactly what we will do with those notes is something we will discuss during the coming days and weeks. I have all kinds of ideas, but as I mentioned in the group, I prefer not to be a teacher, but at most a type of mentor or facilitator. The quicker we get going as a group of peers, the better. I hope that this blog gives us a communal outlet, a mode of communciation in which others, whether present at any given session or not, can add their ideas and insights. Also, if others want to start their own blog and crosslink it with this one, that would be fine too.
To give a feeling of the type of dialogue we had, here is a snippet, below. After our conversations, Storm was so kind as to give us a tour of some of the buildings and other objects he had built nearby, including a giant Kuan Yin statue.
Storm Nordwind: One thing i must have missed on the website Pema
Storm Nordwind: What do we do with the journals we create?
Pema Pera: journals?
Pema Pera: you mean the text chat transcripts?
Storm Nordwind: No. I mean the fruits of our 9 seconds put together
Riddle Sideways: the 9 sec. thoughts?
Pema Pera: ah!!
Pema Pera: I have not talked about that at all yet ;>)
Pema Pera: I have considered giving a lengthy description
Pema Pera: but I decided it would be more fun to work things out together in a dialogue
Pema Pera: I have plenty of suggestions
Pema Pera: but there is also a lot of freedom and open possibilities
Pema Pera: so for now I would suggest that we all get used to :
Pema Pera: 1) reminding ourselves to do “something” at all every 15 minutes — hard enough
Pema Pera: then 2) to also “write something” as a next step, so to speak, just a few words
Pema Pera: I suggest that when we look back after a day or a few days
Pema Pera: we will see patterns
Pema Pera: and we can talk about those here
Riddle Sideways: I am just starting that note step
Storm Nordwind: OK. You may need to deal with the people of the pragmatist learning style though. That sort of person will need to see and end to the process, or else your whole exercise will be self-selective to exclude that kind of person
Pema Pera: you mean a person who wants to see a type of manual?
Pema Pera: a complete concise description?
Storm Nordwind: Not so much, though that would help them. That type of person needs to see a “point” to what they are doing before they do it. Being able to review the entire process - with a manula or even a flowchart is you like - will help engage them
Pema Pera: Yes, I see your point
Pema Pera: One way to engage them is to summarize what we have gotten to in, say, one week from now
Pema Pera: and distill a “point” from that on a separate page on my blog
Storm Nordwind: Yes that would work
Pema Pera: Do you think that will help?
Pema Pera: That way it would be a community project
Pema Pera: not me playing a teacher or guru role
Pema Pera: something I abhor (^_^)
Storm Nordwind: Yes - it would become more inclusive
Pema Pera: I like your remark on my blog site — thank you, that was very helpful!
Storm Nordwind bows slightly
Storm Nordwind: I’m glad. I’m also conscious of the different motivating factors as I train commercially
Pema Pera: ah, that’s great training
Storm Nordwind laughs gently
Pema Pera: what do you think, Riddle?
Riddle Sideways: there are so many different learners
Riddle Sideways: explaining all for one type might put off another
Pema Pera: yes, that is what I like about the blog format of PaB
Pema Pera: play as being
Pema Pera: anyone can add and perhaps others will start their own blog
Pema Pera: and we can mutually link
Pema Pera: I don’t have to remain the center of this
Pema Pera: though I’m happy to kickstart it
Riddle Sideways: yes and some will just read and others will comment
Pema Pera: yes
