I’ve come to realize that, important as it is to integrate all the scattered pieces of oneself, it’s every bit as important to integrate that self into the larger reality of which we are all a part. I am currently in an online dialogue group, working to start such a dialogue group locally (as a face-to-face group), and I am helping to get a Buddhist meditation group going in my Unitarian Universalist church.
A man who came to my Bohmian dialogue class said he was there to learn to be a more complete, more open person. I would have to say the same thing. I am not doing any of this in order to enhance my standing in my community or to further my life-coaching business. I just feel a pull to do this in order to learn what I need/want to learn at this point in my path.
Learning about oneself in a group is so much different from learning in isolation, no matter how many books one reads. A book is never more than history – what someone did or thought. A group is living, acting, thinking in the present. As a member of a group, I not only get to learn about other people, I also get to experience myself being there, with others. Wholeness can become an experience, not just an abstraction.
These words you are reading are abstractions. I can make a statement. I might use metaphor or evoke a mood, or manage to express passion through eloquence. (Only I don’t have time for such craft, here.) But I can only communicate my thoughts, which are already history as I write them. And I miss your response. (Comments are always welcome, even with a time lag!)
The point being, go find a group and be curious together if you are serious about learning more of what this grand and glorious life is all about.
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